When the bomb blasted his truck into the air and insurgents started shooting, “Doc Flores” went to work. The Navy hospital corpsman was deafened by the explosion. He couldn’t hear the bullets whizzing by, but he saw his Marines lying in the street. A Hero and corpsman, not a "corpseman"
Petty Officer 1st Class Benny Flores ran back and forth four times through gunfire to administer aid and help the wounded take cover from the ambush, military officials said. Blood from his own shrapnel wounds flowed down his arm, mingling with the blood of his comrades smeared across his tattered uniform sleeves.
For his actions April 28, 2012 in southwestern Afghanistan, Flores was awarded the Silver Star Friday at Camp Pendleton. He was selected for the nationÂ’s third-highest medal for valor in combat because of the lifesaving medical care he provided several U.S. and Afghan troops despite heavy gunfire and his own serious injuries, the Marine Corps announced.
Flores, a soft-spoken, humble sailor who grew up in Guam and Tinian, didn’t wake up that morning thinking “today’s the day I’m going to be a hero,” Maj. Gen. Charles Mark Gurganus said at the ceremony on the 1st Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company parade deck.
Yet “even with his own wounds, he saw what needed to be done and he acted,” demonstrating extraordinary bravery and selflessness, Gurganus said.
Flores, now 30, was the field service medical technician for the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force that day in the Zaranj district of Nimruz province, a relatively peaceful area near Iran.
The homemade bomb exploded next to the passenger door of the cab where Marine Master Sgt. Scott Pruitt was seated. The 38-year-old military accountant from Camp Pendleton had volunteered for the combat tour, his first. He was killed on the eve of his retirement. Damn. RIP Master Sgt Pruitt.
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/04/2013 12:47 ||
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#1
There are few more brave than the US Navy corpsman. They have been covering themselves in well deserved honor, high levels of respect and admiration for decades.
[An Nahar] At least 80 people have been killed in the latest outbreak of fighting between Arab groups in western Sudan's Darfur region, tribal leaders said on Friday.
"Fighting was going on until last night and from our side we have 37 dead," said Ibrahim al-Sheikh, a leader of the Beni Halba tribe.
He claimed more than 100 members of the rival Gimir group were also killed but a Gimir chief, Abaker al-Toum, said 44 of his people had died.
The fighting took place in Edd al-Fursan, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) southwest of the South Darfur state capital Nyala.
Both sides agreed they were fighting over land, with each side claiming ownership.
The U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), cited the Sudan government's Humanitarian Aid Commission as confirming "new inter-tribal fighting between the Gimir and Beni Halba tribes over land ownership" in South Darfur.
"Seven people from the Gimir tribe were reportedly killed in an attack on 26 April. The fighting is continuing", OCHA said in its weekly humanitarian bulletin issued late on Thursday.
About 2,000 members of the Gimir and Assignor tribes have been displaced, said OCHA, citing government figures.
Toum, the Gimir chief, accused the paramilitary Central Reserve Police of siding with the Beni Halba.
"There is huge tension in the area. Beni Halba are preparing a large number of troops to attack, and Central Reserve and their weapons are part of this," he said.
The Central Reserve is one of the government forces used against rebels who have been fighting in Darfur since 2003 against the Arab-dominated regime in Khartoum.
Darfuri members of the Reserve formerly belonged to the Janjaweed, a government-backed militia which shocked the world with atrocities against ethnic minority civilians suspected of supporting the rebels.
A United Nations ...where theory meets practice and practice loses... panel of experts reported in February that eyewitnesses and victims blamed elements of the Central Reserve and other paramilitaries "for acts of harassment and intimidation" in rural areas or inside camps for Darfur's 1.4 million displaced.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/04/2013 00:00 ||
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An angry Egyptian mob has lynched the teenage son of a Muslim Brotherhood leader, accusing him of killing a man over Facebook comments critical of the Islamist movement, security sources said Saturday.
The violence that took place on Thursday in the Nile Delta was the latest in a spate of vigilante killings in the region amid growing lawlessness since the 2011 revolution that toppled former president Hosni Mubarak.
Yussef Rabie Abdessalam, 16, pulled out a gun and opened fire indiscriminately, killing a passerby and wounding another after a heated argument with a man who had openly criticised the influential Brotherhood on the Internet, the sources said.
His action sparked fury in Qattawiya, a village in the Nile Delta province of Sharqiya, where Yussef s father, Rabie Abdessalam is an official at the local branch of the Justice and Freedom Party, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood of President Mohamed Morsi.
An angry mob surrounded the Abdessalam house seeking revenge, but the family refused to give Yussef up and hurled stones from inside the residence at the protesters.
A man outside the house was fatally wounded.
Police tried in vain to contain the violence and attempted to evacuate the Abdessalam family but the mob set fire to the house and in the confusion grabbed Yussef and lynched him.
The mob beat him up "and dragged him across 500 metres (yards) to his death," the Freedom and Justice Party said on its Facebook page.
"This is not a political incident," the Islamist party said, calling on all sides to show restraint.
But a security source and local media said the violence was triggered after comments hostile to the Muslim Brotherhood were posted on Facebook.
There have been several reports of lynchings in Egypt in recent months.
Posted by: Barbara ||
05/04/2013 19:02 Comments ||
Top||
#7
The world is starting to remind me of one of those super-natural horror movies where the vampires & werewolves are rising and killing anyone in their path, including each other.
[An Nahar] Tunisia's army Friday pressed its hunt for a jihadist group hiding out in a border region with Algeria, an operation in which 15 security force members have been maimed, the interior ministry said.
"The search operations by the defense forces and the national guard are continuing on Mount Chaambi," ministry front man Mohamed Ali Aroui told Agence La Belle France Presse.
He refused to give further details on the search or comment on ongoing operations in the Kef region further north, also close to the Algerian border, where another jihadist cell is being targeted by the security forces.
The army said on Thursday that the situation was "under control."
On the ground, troops have formed a security barrier around Mount Chaambi and set up checkpoints at the entrance to the picturesque provincial capital Kasserine, with reinforcements arriving on Thursday, an AFP journalist reported.
Tunisian forces have been hunting in the mountainous western region for the gang since it attacked a border post in December killing a member of the national guard, or auxiliary police.
The search has intensified this week, with around 15 soldiers and national guards maimed since Monday, some seriously, by homemade landmines laid by the gunnies, in the operation to flush them out.
The army says there have been no direct festivities, but that its men are using mortar fire and light weapons to demine the area, with members of the security forces saying they have recovered weapons and manuals on making explosives.
The standoff in Mount Chaambi appears to be the worst of its kind since festivities in 2007 between the army and Islamists in Soliman, near Tunis, in which a soldier, two policeman and 11 Islamists died.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/04/2013 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Nigeria's former oil minister was kidnapped Friday by gunnies who stormed his vehicle outside a mosque in the restive city of Maiduguri, a stronghold of Islamist group 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... , his family said.
Shettima Ali Monguno, 87, served as Nigeria's oil minister in the 1970s and held the rotating presidency of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in 1972.
"The abductors got in touch and they put my father through on the phone, he spoke to us and said that he was fine. They made a ransom demand," the ex-minister's son, Abubakar Ali Monguno told Agence La Belle France Presse, declining to give a figure.
Other residents and relatives said that Monguno had stayed behind to greet well-wishers after prayers and was attacked shortly after entering his car.
While no group claimed the attack, Boko Haram has targeted prominent figures around the northeastern city, with liquidations and kidnaps for ransom.
Some analysts have said that Boko Haram is increasingly relying on ransom payments as a means to finance their insurgency, which has left thousands dead since 2009.
Monguno was among the group of elders who met with President Goodluck Jonathan ... 14th President of Nigeria. He was Governor of Bayelsa State from 9 December 2005 to 28 May 2007, and was sworn in as Vice President on 29 May 2007. Jonathan is a member of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP). He is a lover of nifty hats, which makes him easily recognizable unless someone else in the room is wearing a neat chapeau... in Maiduguri in March to discuss the Boko Haram crisis.
He has repeatedly called for dialogue with the bad boy group and urged Jonathan to reduce the massive security deployment in the city, with a curfew forcing all residents to stay indoors after sundown.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/04/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
I guess somebody was upset at not getting that fortune in laundered oil money deposited in their bank account, but instead getting their account emptied when they replied to that e-mail offer ...
[Pak Daily Times] Anti-Extremist Cell (AEC) of the Crime Investigation Department (CID) claimed to have tossed in the slammer Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! at least five alleged members of the outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) along with a huge cache of kaboom on Friday.
According to details, AEC chief SSP Chaudhry Aslam Khan, while addressing a presser held at AEC office in Garden Police Headquarters disclosed the arrest of alleged TTP men namely Ziaullah aka Sham, Farhad Khan aka Hamza, Zafar Hussain, Rafique Ahmed and Ilyas. He said that the tossed in the calaboose Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! cut-throats belong to Fazalullah group of TTP.
The raid was conducted on a tip-off; SSP Khan said that the police received information about the presence of TTP men in Kati Pahari area on Shahrah-e-Noorjahan.
During the raid, police recovered 75 kilogrammes of explosives, two pressure cooker bombs, six tennis ball bombs, remote control, detonating cord, detonator, four hand grenades, a Kalashnikov, a .22 rifle, two TT pistols and a 9mm pistol.
AEC chief while quoting the initial course of interrogation said the arrested bully boyz revealed they were involved in the act of kaboom and murders in the city and their commander, namely Mustafa aka Jihadi provided the explosives for bomb making.
He further said that the suspects were also being questioned about their possible links to the ongoing series of blasts on the political parties.
The detainees also confessed that the group criminal mastermind, Jihadi and other companions, Abid Mucchar, Sajjad Langra, Yasir and Tariq are involved in attacks on political parties, and the recovered explosives were to be used for disrupting the elections.
The SSP said that further investigation is underway.
Meanwhile, ...back at the dirigible, Jack stuck the cigar in his mouth, stepped onto the gantry, and asked Got a light, Mac?
Von Schtinken stopped short, lowering the dagger and trying to control his features. If you light that thing, Herr Armschtröng, he pointed out, his voice tense, we all die!... police claimed to have detained at least nine suspects during targeted raids in Sultanabad and Hijrat Colony on Friday. Saddar division SP Salman Hussain said that suspects were taken into custody during house-to-house search operations, while the entire locality was cordoned off. He said that the police wanted five of the detainees in different criminal cases. Police officials also claim to have recovered weapons and narcotics during the operation.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/04/2013 00:00 ||
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[Pak Daily Times] A Sunni Tehrik ...formed in Karachi in 1992 under by Muhammad Saleem Qadri. It quickly fell to trading fisticuffs and assassinations with the MQM and the Sipah-e-Sahaba, with at least a half dozen of its major leaders rubbed out. Sunni Tehreek arose to become the primary opposition to the Deobandi Binori Mosque, headed by Nizamuddin Shamzai, who was eventually bumped off by person or persons unknown. ST's current leadership has heavily criticized the Deobandi Jihadi leaders, accusing them of being sponsored by Indian Intelligence agencies as well as involvement in terrorist activities... (ST) leader, Khurram Qadri, was rubbed out near Food Street, Tibi City, on Friday.
Police said Qadri, 45, was a member of the Pakistain Sunni Tehrik Ulema Board and a resident of Samanabad. He was returning home in a rickshaw after leading the Friday prayer at Begum Shahi Mosque near the Food Street when two unidentified motorcyclists opened firing on him and fled. He received serious injuries and was rushed to the Mayo Hospital where he died. The body was removed to the city morgue for an appointment with Dr. Quincy. The Sunni Tehrik workers gathered at the Mayo Hospital and staged a protest demonstration against the killing of their leader. Police are investigating the incident.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/04/2013 00:00 ||
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[Pak Daily Times] Awami National Party (ANP) candidate on NA-254 Sadiq Zaman Khattak was bumped off along with his 4-year-old son by Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain in Bilal Colony on Friday.
The ANP has given a call of mourning across the metropolis on Saturday.
Spokesperson of the outlawed TTP Ehsanullah Ehsan reportedly claimed the responsibility of killing the ANP candidate. As per details, four pillion riders shot Khattak and his son Ahmeal Sadiq dead near Rehmania Mosque located close to his residence in Bilal colony, Korangi. They were on their way home after offering Friday prayers. In the aftermath of the cowardly attack, panic spilled over in the vicinity, and people shutdown businesses and markets. Shahid Khattak, Muhammad Khalid, Islam Khan, Faisal Khan, Mansoor Rehman, Qayoomudin and two children were also maimed in the attack. The victims were taken to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, where doctors pronounced Khattak and his son dead, and admitted the rest for treatment.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/04/2013 00:00 ||
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[Pak Daily Times] Militants ambushed a security checkpost in Ladha area of South Waziristan tribal region on Friday. One security official was killed in the attack, whereas retaliatory action by security forces killed four militants.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/04/2013 00:00 ||
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[Pak Daily Times] A Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) prosecutor investigating the liquidation of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto ... 11th Prime Minister of Pakistain in two non-consecutive terms from 1988 until 1990 and 1993 until 1996. She was the daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, founder of the Pakistain People's Party, who was murdered at the instigation of General Ayub Khan. She was murdered in her turn by person or persons unknown while campaigning in late 2007. Suspects include, to note just a few, Baitullah Mehsud, General Pervez Musharraf, the ISI, al-Qaeda in Pakistain, and her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, who shows remarkably little curiosity about who done her in... and the 2008 Mumbai attacks was bumped off in Islamabad on Friday.
Gunmen on a cycle of violence fired multiple bullets on Chuadhry Zulfiqar Ali in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... Company area of the Sector G-9 while he was heading to an anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi for hearing of Benazir Bhutto murder case.
The killing of the prosecutor comes days after a court sent former president and chief of army staff General (r) Pervez Perv Musharraf ... former dictator of Pakistain, who was less dictatorial and corrupt than any Pak civilian government to date ... on a 14-day judicial remand on charges of conspiring to kill Benazir Bhutto. Zulfiqar was reportedly set to oppose bail application by former president in this case on Friday.
Zulfiqar, who was driving his car at the time of the attack, was struck down in his prime due to a bullet in the head. His guard, a Frontier Corps personnel who was sitting in the rear seat, retaliated and injured one of the attackers. However, it was a brave man who first ate an oyster... the gunnies fled.
"Zulfiqar was driving his car at the time of the attack. The car crushed a woman passer-by after he lost control of it," police officer Mohammad Yousuf told media.
Zulfiqar received al least seventeen bullet wounds, according to initial autopsy conducted by a six-member medical board at the PIMS hospital.
Co-prosecutor Azhar Chaudhry told Daily Times that both he and Zulfiqar had been receiving threatening calls for some time. The unidentified callers warned them to stop pursuing Benazir murder case or face consequences, he said, and added that Inspector Ilyas and Civil Lines Police Station SHO Ijaz Shah, both witnesses in the Benzair liquidation case, were also warned to refrain from presenting themselves as witnesses.
Azhar said intelligence agencies had traced the calls received by them as having been made from different areas of neighbouring Afghanistan. He said they both had repeatedly requested the government for extra security but were provided only one FC guard each.
Ch Nisar, son of the slain prosecutor, complained that the government had failed to take adequate steps to protect the life of his father despite clear threats.
Zulfiqar was appointed as special prosecutor in the Benazir liquidation case when the investigation was handed over to FIA some four years ago. He had presented six challans in the court and was to present seventh challan. He also represented Pakistain in Mumbai attack case and was member of the judicial commission that visited India last year to investigate the case. He was also acting as FIA's special prosecutor in Hajj corruption scandal.
Several bar associations have announced to observe complete strike in protest against the killing of Chaudhry Zulfiqar.
President Asif Ali Ten Percent Zardari ... husband of the late Benazir Bhutto, who has been singularly lacking in curiosity about who done her in ... has ordered a thorough investigation into the incident to expose the real culprits involved in the murder of Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/04/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
The devolution of Pakistain appears to be accelerating.
And most cases involve motorcycles.
[Pak Daily Times] Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. -bound Quetta Express train narrowly escaped a rocket attack in Much, 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... , on Friday. Unidentified men fired rockets on the Mach Railway Station when the Quetta Express was passing by. However, nothing needs reforming like other people's bad habits... the rockets landed in an open area causing no loss. A heavy contingent of law enforcement agencies' personnel reached the site and cordoned off the area.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/04/2013 00:00 ||
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[Pak Daily Times] Fighting in northern Iraq killed nine police Friday, while a boom-mobile targeting worshippers near a Sunni mosque north of Storied Baghdad ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... left four dead, security and medical officials said.
The fighting between police and gunnies in west djinn-infested Mosul, including mortar rounds fired at checkpoints, killed nine police and maimed seven, police and a doctor said.
Four gunnies were also killed in the festivities.
In Rashidiyah, north of Storied Baghdad, the boom-mobilewent kaboom! as worshippers left Friday prayers at Al-Ghufran mosque, killing at least four people and wounding 22, an interior ministry official and a medical source said.
And in Al-Amil in south Storied Baghdad, a magnetic "sticky bomb" maimed a police captain, while a roadside kaboommaimed three more police in Taji, north of the capital, the ministry official and medical sources said. The violence came a day after the United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... said April was the deadliest month for Iraq in almost five years. While violence has fallen from its peak at the height of the sectarian conflict in Iraq in 2006 and 2007, attacks remain common.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/04/2013 00:00 ||
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Israel has carried out an air strike into Syria, targeting a shipment of missiles bound for Hezbollah guerrillas in neighboring Lebanon, an Israeli official said on Saturday.
Israel has made clear it is prepared to resort to force to prevent advanced Syrian weapons, including President Bashar Assad's reputed chemical arsenal, reaching his Hezbollah allies or Islamist rebels taking part in a more than two-year-old uprising against his government. Unfortunately, we cannot do the same for the weapons certain morons (to be charitable) preparing to sent to "rebels"
The United States believes Israel has conducted an airstrike into Syria, two U.S. officials tell CNN.
If I were the Israelis at this point, I wouldn't say a word to Champ and his team and if they asked, I'd blame the Ruritanians...
U.S. and Western intelligence agencies are reviewing classified data showing Israel most likely conducted a strike in the Thursday-Friday time frame, according to both officials. This is the same time frame that the U.S. collected additional data showing Israel was flying a high number of warplanes over Lebanon.
One official said the United States had limited information so far and could not yet confirm those are the specific warplanes that conducted a strike. Based on initial indications, the U.S. does not believe Israeli warplanes entered Syrian airspace to conduct the strikes.
They stood to one side and launched a bunch of missiles...
Both officials said there is no reason to believe Israel struck at a chemical weapons storage facilities.
Could have been a biological weapons storage facility, for example, or a baby milk factory...
The Israelis have long said they would strike at any targets that prove to be the transfer of any kinds of weapons to Hezbollah or other terrorist groups, as well as at any effort to smuggle Syrian weapons into Lebanon that could threaten Israel.
The Lebanese army website listed 16 flights by Israeli warplanes penetrating Lebanon's airspace from Thursday evening through Friday afternoon local time.
It's great how the Lebs know all about it and can't do a damned thing to stop it...
The Israeli military had no comment. But a source in the Israeli defense establishment told CNN's Sara Sidner, "We will do whatever is necessary to stop the transfer of weapons from Syria to terrorist organizations. We have done it in the past and we will do it if necessary the future."
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/04/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
IMO Israel has once again thrown down the gauntlet of challenge to Iran.
Philippine troops clashed Friday with communist terrorists militants in Zamboanga del Norte's Leon Postigo town.
Army officials said the battle erupted in a village in the hinterland where soldiers tracked down the New People's Army terrorists militants following a tip from residents about the presence of gunmen. The fighting lasted more than thirty minutes.
It was not immediately known if there were terrorist rebel casualties.
Lt. Col. Leonel Nicolas said, "The terrorists rebels were camping in the forested area and believed to have come fresh from extortion activities in the nearby communities of Leon Postigo."
Nicolas said they also recovered a shutter gun handgun, three sacks of provisions believed taken from locals and five bags containing personal belongings, subversive documents, medical equipment and ammunition left behind by the terrorists militants.
A paramilitary ranger was critically wounded in a drive-by shooting in Narathiwat province on Thursday night.
Police received a report about 8:10 p.m. that a ranger was shot and seriously injured on a bypass road in Sungai Kolok municipality. A joint police and military force went to the scene and found a motorcycle lying in the middle of the road and bloodstains. Villagers told them that the injured ranger had already been taken to the hospital.
He was identified as Ranger Suradi Puteh. Witnesses said Mr Suradi was riding pillion on his friend's motorcycle when a gunman in a pickup truck fired six shots at him and his friend. The attackers then fled. Suradi was critically wounded.
Police blamed separatist terrorists militants.
Before leaving for Pattani on Friday morning, Defense Minister Sukumpol Suwanatat said he will visit local security officials.
Asked about security measures for Thai Buddhists in the region after terrorists militants scattered leaflets threatening more violence until the government accepts demands of the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN), ACM Sukumpol said the measures will be taken in line with the changing situation. He said he does not believe the leaflets were issued by the BRN as they are easy to print and scatter.
Asked about the brutally slayings of six people, including a two-year-old boy, at the grocery shop in Pattani on Wednesday night, ACM Sukumpol said he did not want to discuss it as it would give credit to the bad guys.
[An Nahar] Rebels in Syria fired two rockets at Damascus ...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world... international airport on Friday, hitting an aircraft and a fuel dump and sparking a massive fire, the official SANA news agency reported.
"One rocket hit a kerosene tank and the other hit a parked commercial aircraft, badly damaging it," the agency said, adding that traffic at the facility was "normal" and the fire had been extinguished.
Rebels have claimed several times to have fired at Damascus airport but it was the first such report from the official media.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/04/2013 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Syrian troops Friday bombarded Sunni areas of the Mediterranean city of Banias, a monitoring group said, warning of a new "massacre," as Washington said for the first time it was looking at arming rebels.
The opposition National Coalition earlier denounced a "large-scale massacre" by troops and Islamic fascistion Thursday in a Sunni village near Banias, a new front in Syria's war, citing witness reports of civilians being stabbed to death.
"The Coalition calls on 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... and the United Nations ...the Oyster Bay money pit... to act rapidly to save the civilians of Bayda, Banias and other villages across Syria," it said in a statement, accusing the regime of "war crimes and genocide".
"Several sources in the village say at least 50 people were killed in summary executions and shelling in Bayda village," a southern suburb of the Alawite-majority city, Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told Agence La Belle France Presse.
The official SANA news agency said troops killed "terrorists" -- the regime term for gunnies -- and seized arms in an operation targeting rebels.
Regular forces were supported by pro-regime "shabiha" militiamen, said the Observatory, which relies on a network of sources on the ground for its information.
"Many villagers have fled to Sunni districts in southern Banias, as there is no refuge for them in Alawite areas," said Abdel Rahman.
The Banias region is predominantly Alawite, an offshoot of Shiite Islam and the sect of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Terror of Aleppo ... , while the gunnies battling to topple his regime are mainly Sunni Moslems.
On Friday, the army bombarded Sunni areas of Banias as heavy gunfire rocked southern parts of the city, the Observatory said.
Abdel Rahman said troops were raiding homes and making arrests "triggering panic" among residents.
"I fear that there could be a massacre like the one that happened yesterday in Bayda," he warned.
Elsewhere, rebels fired two rockets at Damascus ...The capital of Iran's Syrian satrapy... international airport, hitting an aircraft and a fuel dump and sparking a massive fire, SANA said.
"One rocket hit a kerosene tank and the other hit a parked commercial aircraft, badly damaging it," the agency said, adding traffic was "normal" and the fire had been extinguished.
Rebels have claimed several times to have fired at Damascus airport but it was the first such report from the official media.
With the Syrian conflict that has cost more than 70,000 lives now in its third year, the United States said Thursday it was taking a fresh look at whether to arm the outgunned rebels.
After having rejected the idea previously, President Barack Obama Why can't I just eat my waffle?... 's deputies were weighing the option of providing weapons to the rebels, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told news hounds.
Asked whether the U.S. government was rethinking its opposition to arming the rebels, Hagel replied with a firm "Yes." But Hagel said no decision had been reached.
Asked about Hagel's comments later, Obama said they represented the view he has expressed for "months".
"As we've seen evidence of further bloodshed, potential use of chemical weapons inside of Syria, what I've said is that we're going to look at all options," he said in Mexico.
But, Obama added, "we want to make sure that we look before we leap and that what we're doing is actually helpful to the situation, as opposed to making it more deadly or more complex."
Speculation has mounted the B.O. regime could reverse its opposition to arming the rebels after officials said last week that U.S. spy agencies now believe Syria's regime may have used chemical weapons on a small scale.
Meanwhile, ...back at the revival hall, Buford bit the snake and Eloise began speaking in tongues... the family of a U.S. journalist missing in Syria said he is believed to be in the hands of government intelligence agents at a detention center near Damascus.
James Foley, a 39-year-old freelancer who has filed reports for GlobalPost, Agence La Belle France-Presse and other outlets, has been missing in Syria for nearly six months
"With a high degree of confidence, we now believe that Jim was most likely kidnapped by a pro-regime militia group, commonly referred to as the shabiha, and subsequently turned over to Syrian government forces," said GlobalPost chief Phil Balboni.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/04/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
I do feel sorry for the good guys caught in this war. All three of them - or is it four?
#3
..why do you restrict it just to the ME? see - Bangladesh In March 1971, the Pakistani Army began "Operation Searchlight," which targeted intellectuals, political activists, Hindus and other minorities.[2] The figure of people killed by Pakistani forces remains disputed, with estimates ranging from 300,000 to 3 million [3][4] about 8-10 million people became refugees in India.[5] - wiki
We don't need to scratch our way back to Tamerlane. All the anti-Western Civ traitors keep bringing up the Crusades which did about a speed bump in human carnage that their near contemporary managed to rack up among his own Muslims.
#6
The only challenge the list provides is guessing which of the first two names is your PETA terrorist. I had to look up the bio of the french-sounding Black Panther, before I remembered her story. The other 28? Well, let's just make sure there's no profiling going on. Because that would be illegal.
We got trouble,
Where?
Right here! Right here!
To many Joes are named for Mo so we got trouble!
Where?
Right here! Right here in RiverCity!
First it's with the fasting...
Then they go to blasting....
Because of Mo's...
Where?
Right here! Right here in RiverCity!
First thing you know they'll close the pool hall,
and then massacre the band.
Why?
Because they'e moz....
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.
An angry Egyptian mob has lynched the teenage son of a Muslim Brotherhood leader, accusing him of killing a man over Facebook comments critical of the Islamist movement, security sources said Saturday.
Goodluck Jonathan
[Pak Daily Times] Awami National Party (ANP) candidate on NA-254 Sadiq Zaman Khattak was 
Pervez 
President Asif Ali 
[Pak Daily Times] 
The United States believes Israel has conducted an airstrike into Syria, two U.S. officials tell CNN.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
