In honour of America's Independence Day, what some are now calling Brexit 1.0, a little something Fred wrote June 29, 2002.
Here I sat, no, not broken-hearted, but reading something awful about the shootout in Waziristan, when the phone rang. It was The Little Woman. "Honey," she said -- she always calls me Honey, 'cuz I'm so sweet -- "could you go to the store and get some hot dogs and chicken legs for dinner this evening?"
We have company this weekend, The Little Woman's Cousin David and his family, from Mississippi and Ohio. We're going to fire up the grill and do dawgs and chicken feet, so it'd be to our advantage to have some of each on hand. So I put on my yellow hat and got in The Little Blue Car and drove away. I noted on the way to the store that there were a lot of people sitting along side of the street in their beach chairs, but the store wasn't crowded and I soon had my yessir, yessir, three bags full, and headed for home.
I made it as far as the stop sign. 4th of July week is coming up, and it's the week -- yes, the entire week -- of the Riviera Beach Carnival, sponsored by the helpful fellows of Volunteer Company 13. And we start off the carnival in the traditional manner, with a real by-God American Firemen's Parade.
If you're a lover of firemen's parades, you know what I'm talking about. If you've never been to one, let me try to describe it. There is no purpose to a firemen's parade except to have a parade. It's not even, despite the 4th of July coming up, despite the flags on display, an especially patriotic event. Many places have theirs in August, or even in September. Usually a politician or two makes an appearance, but even that's not really necessary. What's essential is firetrucks: pumpers, ladder trucks, utility trucks, boats on their trailers, tankers, you name it. Fire companies from miles around send their trucks, polished and spiffy, to appear in The Big Parade. Manning them are the volunteer firemen, the guys who put in hours of training for the privilege of riding the trucks to fires and emergencies.
You can't have a parade with only trucks and ambulances and police cars, even though the visiting firemen blow their sirens and wave to people as they go by. So firemen's parades have a few marching bands from the local schools. And there are pom-pom girls. I love pom-pom girls. They range in age from pre-school to, I would guess, the upper reaches of junior high. There is no purpose to a pom-pom girl other than to look pleasant. They may have actual pom-poms or they may carry batons, but they serve no more useful purpose than a vase of flowers. I always want to hug them.
I say that firemen's parades aren't patriotic, but I mean that only in the national sense. They're an expression of a community's pride in itself. The hulking vehicles are our vehicles, paid for with a combination of tax dollars, bingo games, bake sales and teen dances. The guys manning them are our guys, guys and girls who live and work in the community and devote the time to doing the training, keeping up the trucks, and rushing to fires and emergencies. The marching bands are our kids, and the pom-pom girls our daughters. So we put them on display so we can admire ourselves. The trucks go by, lights flashing and sirens sounding. The bands march and play, often in tune. The pom-pom girls march, sometimes in step. Dogs bark, sing along with the sirens, and sometimes run alongside the trucks. Hat sellers and trinket salesmen will be happy to sell you things you don't need, but that you want because you don't want to forget that you went to the Big Parade. After the parade, the visiting firemen will drink beer out of plastic cups, swap stories, and flirt with the local girls.
There aren't any pom-pom girls in Waziristan. They might not even have any firetrucks. If they're really lucky, someday they might.
#1
I have this saved in my favorites. Periodically I reread it, because this, to me, is the underlying spirit of Amreica. We figure out what we need, and we arrange to get it done without waiting for the govrenment to do it for us -- and then we enjoy our achievement. Once we'd established our society on this basis, then the philosophers could explain why the divorce was necessary in the Declaration, and codify in the Constitution how we'd already organized ourselves to do things.
At least 43 Taliban insurgents were killed in airstrikes and ground forces operations in Nawa district of southern Helmand province on Sunday night, the provincial governor’s office confirmed in a statement on Monday.
In addition, 27 other insurgents were wounded. The airstrikes and ground force operations were launched in three areas of Nawa with the support of foreign troops airstrikes in the district, according to the statement.
“Haji Ahmad, Faizi and Haqbeen, three Taliban commanders were also among the dead,” it said adding that “Zhar Sahed and Aynak area of Nawa has been cleared of Taliban.”
Taliban insurgents on Monday continued with their attacks around Kunduz and blocked the Baghlan-Kunduz highway in Omerkhel area of Aliabad district of northern Kunduz province, security sources said.
According to these sources, reinforcements have not yet been deployed to the area and that the Taliban are still present along the highway.
In the meantime, a member or the Kunduz Provincial Council Safiullah Amiri said the Taliban has overrun a few check posts in Taloka area of Kunduz city and security forces have also suffered casualties.
“Heavy clashes are still ongoing in Kunduz,” Amiri said.
Another security source said that an air force chopper made an emergency landing in Bala Hesar area of Kunduz city. No injuries were reported.
“The chopper was on its way to Taloka area to help the security forces,” Amiri said adding that “no crew members were hurt in the incident”.
However, he did not provide further details.
The Taliban launched a coordinated attack on Sunday on key areas on the outskirts of Kunduz city.
[FOXNEWS] As Arclight airstrikes ramp up against terrorist groups around the globe, the U.S. military says it conducted a dronezap Sunday in Somalia against Al Qaeda’s third largest affiliate, al-Shabaab ... the personification of Somali state failure... In late March, President Trump allowed the Pentagon to begin offensive Arclight airstrikes in Somalia. The strike this weekend was the second under this new authority.
One of the reasons the U.S. military asked for more power to launch Arclight airstrikes is the US-backed African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... troops will begin leaving Somalia next year as al-Shabaab expands inside the country. A new famine has also spread in Somalia affecting up to six million people.
Earlier this year, a small group of U.S. forces deployed to Somalia for the first time since they pulled out in 1994.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/04/2017 00:00 ||
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[AlAhram] A Giza criminal court sentenced on Monday 55 individuals to 15 years in prison and acquitted 31 others in the storming of Atfeeh cop shoppe in August 2013 following the dispersal of two major sit-ins supporting ousted Islamist president Mohammed Morsi.
The court also sentenced 31 people to five years in prison in the case.
The defendants were found guilty of using violence, rioting, possessing weapons and attacking public and private property.
The sentences can be appealed.
Following the dispersal of the sit-ins by police, rioters stormed cop shoppes and burned a number of churches.
Hundreds of people have been convicted in similar cases since 2013.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
07/04/2017 00:00 ||
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[AlAhram] The daughter and son-in-law of Islamist holy man Youssef El-Qaradawi ...crackpot Egyptian Islamist theologian. He is best known for his program Shariah and Life on Al Jazeera, with an estimated audience of 60 million kindred souls worldwide. He is also well-known for IslamOnline, which occasionally advocates things like slavery and thumping the old lady with a rod no thicker than an inch, and has published more than 120 books, including Islam: The Future Civilization. Joe has long had a prominent role within the intellectual leadership of the Moslem Brüderbund. Some of his views have been controversial in the West, though less so among the rubes of the Mysterious East, and he was refused entry to the United Kingdom in 2008. In 2004, 2,500 Muslim academics from Saudi Arabia, Iraq and from the Palestinian territories condemned Qaradawi, and accused him of giving Islam a bad name.... were jugged Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! by Egyptian police and detained for 15 days on Sunday pending investigations on charges of planning terrorist attacks that target security forces.
Ola El-Qaradawi and her husband Hossam Khalaf, a leading member of the Islamist Wasat Party, are also being investigated for joining a banned group, a reference to the Moslem Brüderbund which was designated by Egypt as a terrorist group in 2013.
Cairo has been demanding that Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates... hand over Youssef El-Qaradawi, 90, who is considered the spiritual leader of the Brotherhood and is wanted in Egypt in connection with various criminal cases related to terrorism and inciting against the government.
Some members of the Wasat Party, which was formed by members who split from the Brotherhood in 1996, are in jail on terror-related charges.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
07/04/2017 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Muslim Brotherhood
Nine people were killed and dozens kidnapped after an attack in southeastern Niger by suspected members of Boko Haram, local authorities said Monday.
The attack happened Sunday night, between 2100-2200 GMT. “About 30 to 40 women and children were taken by the assailants,” local mayor Abari El Hadj Daouda told AFP, adding that Nigerien authorities were headed to the area to investigate.
The attack took place in Kabalewa, a village near the southeastern Niger city of Diffa, which is close to Nigeria — the second such attack in the village in a week.
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... jihadists have kidnapped 37 women and slit the throats of nine other people at a village in southeastern Niger, the regional governor said Tuesday.
The attack happened on Sunday at the village of Ngalewa, near the border with Nigeria, the governor of Diffa region, Laouali Mahamane Dan Dano, told state TV.
"Boko Haram elements... slit the throats of nine people... they took women, 37 women, and departed with them," he said.
"The defence and security forces are already in pursuit, and we hope that in the coming days these women will be found and freed," he said.
The governor, who went to Ngalewa on Monday, said the village had been singled out because it was known for its resistance to the jihadists.
The assailants came by foot for greater stealth, he said.
The village lies a few kilometers (miles) north of the town of Kabalewa, where there was a suicide kaboom last Wednesday.
The attack on Sunday coincided with a visit to Niger's western neighbour Mali by French President Emmanuel Macron, aimed at boosting multinational efforts to fight jihadism in countries south of the Sahara.
The so-called G5 Sahel nations -- Burkina Faso ...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and will leave office feet first, one way or the other... , Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger -- plan to set up a regional force.
Posted by: badanov ||
07/04/2017 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV] More than a dozen civilians have been killed when Saudi military aircraft carried out separate Arclight airstrikes against various areas across Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... as the Saudi regime presses ahead with an atrocious military campaign against its crisis-hit southern neighbor.
Local sources, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... , said fifteen people bit the dust on Monday when Saudi fighter jets bombarded a residential building in the Yakhtal area of the Red Sea port city of Mokha, situated 346 kilometers south of the capital, Sana’a, Arabic-language al-Masirah satellite television network reported.
The sources noted that the fatalities included seven children and eight women.
Earlier in the day, Saudi warplanes had carried out seven aerial assaults against a mechanized infantry camp in the Harf Sufyan district of Yemen's northwestern province of ’Amran. There were no immediate reports of casualties and the extent of damaged inflicted though.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/04/2017 00:00 ||
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#1
Must have been too many fluffy bunnies and kittens to count! Any baby milk factories get whacked?
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
07/04/2017 16:17 Comments ||
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YEMEN: Two suspected Al-Qaeda militants were killed in a drone strike while traveling on a motorbike in southern Yemen late on Saturday, residents said.
The men died on the outskirts of Al-Wadei town in Abyan province, said residents who identified one of them as a local leader for the militant group called Ibrahim Al-Adani.
There was no immediate statement from the militants or from US forces who have repeatedly launched drone and air strikes on Yemen’s Al-Qaeda branch, known as Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).
US officials say they are trying to wear down the group’s ability to coordinate attacks abroad.
Another suspected US drone strike killed two men believed to be Al-Qaeda militants in southern Yemen late on Friday, residents and local sources said.
In June, a drone strike killed two suspected Al-Qaeda militants traveling in a vehicle in Al-Naqba area of Shabwa province.
AQAP operates in several provinces in south and eastern Yemen, including in Abyan, Shabwa and Al-Bayda.
Posted by: badanov ||
07/04/2017 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
claims figures of 930 Km range and 2500 Km altitude... aren't these numbers swapped?
The article keeps speaking of altitudes in the few thousand Km, which seems odd, and I wondered if it's constantly confusing range and altitude figures.
According to Wikipedia ("Flight phases"), a typical ICBM would reach an apogee of 1200 Km (which is 12 times over the Karman line, and still seems pretty high to me).
Numbers are correct - missiles are sometimes launched on lofted trajectory in order not to openly announce their range for diplomatic reasons
In this case (Hwasong-14) estimated max range puts in into ICBM category
#3
Flying it almost straight up proves pretty much nothing but that the fuel doesn't explode or flame out in thin air. 5000 Km navigation is something entirely else.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
07/04/2017 11:39 Comments ||
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#4
Maybe Kimmie has forgotten who exactly is President now?
Here's a hint, Kimmie - it ain't Bambi.
Posted by: Barbara ||
07/04/2017 13:27 Comments ||
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#5
It also proves it can survive the harshest expected reentry conditions.
"North Korea appeared to use a Chinese truck originally sold for hauling timber to transport and erect a ballistic missile that was successfully launched on Tuesday, highlighting the challenge of enforcing sanctions to curb its weapons program.
North Korea state television showed a large truck painted in military camouflage carrying the missile. It was identical to one a U.N. sanctions panel has said was "most likely" converted from a Chinese timber truck.
Since 2006, U.N. sanctions have banned the shipment of military hardware to North Korea. But control of equipment and vehicles that have "dual-use" military and civilian applications has been far less stringent.
The vehicle was imported from China and declared for civilian use by the North Korean foreign ministry, according to a 2013 report by the U.N. panel. Tuesday's launch was the first time the truck had been seen in a military field operation in pictures published in state media.
China, North Korea's largest trading partner and its sole major ally, is under increasing pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump, who has said Chinese efforts to rein in North Korea's weapons programs have failed.
The truck had been previously on display at military parades in 2012 and in 2013 carrying what experts said appeared to be developmental models or mock-ups of North Korea's intercontinental ballistic missiles."
...
[Ynet] Kurdish bully boyz killed a soldier, village guard and three workers in attacks in three separate provinces in southeastern The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... on Monday, officials said.
Militants from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) killed one Ottoman Turkish soldier when they detonated a hidden bomb in the Cukurca district of Hakkari province, officials from the Hakkari governor's office said.
The bully boyz detonated another bomb in the Caldiran district of Van province, wounding two village guards, officials said. They said one of the maimed guards had died in the hospital following the attack.
Separately, PKK bully boyz attacked workers carrying out roadside work on a road for a military base in the Uludere district of the southeastern province of Sirnak, killing two workers and wounding another five, security sources said.
The bully boyz carried out another attack on a worksite in Sirnak, killing one worker, the local governor's office said in a statement. It said three PKK bully boyz had been killed in a subsequent operation in the region.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
07/04/2017 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] Two suspected rebels were killed and a civilian was critically maimed in a shootout with government forces in India-held Kashmire on Monday, police said, as tensions in the disputed territory ran high.
A police officer was also critically maimed in a separate incident in the disputed Himalayan region, which has seen a spike in violence in recent months.
The two gunnies died in a firefight with soldiers and special police counterinsurgency forces who had cordoned off a neighbourhood in the south of the region early Monday.
Hundreds of villagers poured out onto the streets to try to help the trapped rebels escape, many throwing stones and shouting slogans against Indian rule.
One was injured when government forces fired into the crowd.
"Two gunnies were killed in the encounter. According to our input one more is still fighting," director general of police S. P. Vaid told AFP.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/04/2017 00:00 ||
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Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) One civilian was killed and three others were injured on Monday when a bomb blast rocked an area in southern Baghdad, a security official was quoted saying.
Baghdad police major Khaled al-Shamri told Petra news agency that an explosive device planted near a fish market in Yousseffiya exploded, killing one civilian and wounding three others.
Violence and armed conflicts left more than 700 Iraqis dead and wounded during the month of June, according to a monthly count by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq which excludes security members deaths. Baghdad came second in terms of casualties, with 22 deaths and 88 injuries.
Baghdad has seen almost daily bombings and armed attacks against security members, paramilitary groups and civilians since the Iraqi government launched a wide-scale campaign to retake IS-occupied areas in 2016. While most of of the explosions attacks went without a claim of responsibility, Islamic State has claimed several incidents.
The Iraqi government, currently focused on ousting the group from Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, is expected to aim at other IS holdouts afterwards.
Some security observers believe that even after IS’s main havens across Iraqi provinces are conquered, the group may still constitute a security threat through sleeper cells and lone wolf attacks. They believe attacks outside Mosul are designed to make up for the group’s losses there.
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) An Iraqi army soldier was killed while another one was wounded Monday when armed attackers shot at their patrol in western Baghdad, according to a security source.
Almaalomah website quoted the source saying that the unknown assailants shot at the patrol when it was passing through Arab Nuri, west of the capital.
Violence and armed conflicts left more than 700 Iraqis dead and wounded during the month of June, according to a monthly count by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq which excludes security members deaths. Baghdad came second in terms of casualties, with 22 deaths and 88 injuries.
Baghdad has seen almost daily bombings and armed attacks against security members, paramilitary groups and civilians since the Iraqi government launched a wide-scale campaign to retake IS-occupied areas in 2016. While most of of the explosions attacks went without a claim of responsibility, Islamic State has claimed several incidents.
The Iraqi government, currently focused on ousting the group from Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, is expected to aim at other IS holdouts afterwards.
Some security observers believe that even after IS’s main havens across Iraqi provinces are conquered, the group may still constitute a security threat through sleeper cells and lone wolf attacks. They believe attacks outside Mosul are designed to make up for the group’s losses there.
Posted by: badanov ||
07/04/2017 00:00 ||
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Anbar (IraqiNews.com) Three Islamic State suicide bombers were killed as they attacked the Sunni tribal forces, east of Ramadi, Anbar province.
Speaking to Mawazin News, Ghassan al-Eithawi, spokesperson of Al-Hashd Al-Ashaeri (Tribal Mobilization Forces), said “three attackers wearing suicide belts attempted attacking the troops deployed in Jazeerat al-Bu’ebeid region, east of Ramadi.”
“Troops killed one of them, while the two others blew themselves up,” Eithawi said adding that “several security agents were slightly wounded.”
Iraqi troops were able to return life back to normal in the biggest cities of Anbar including Fallujah, Ramadi and others after recapturing them. However, Anbar’s western cities of Annah, Qaim and Rawa are still held by the extremist group since 2014, when it emerged to proclaim a self-styled Islamic Caliphate. There has not been an officially-declared military campaign to free those regions, but the province’s military command launched a brief assault early January that managed to recapture some western villages before stopping again.
A senior Iraqi officer was quoted last month as saying that a military operation was launched to drive IS militants out of the western regions in Anbar province.
Fighter jets from the Iraqi army and the international coalition have also regularly pounded IS locations in the province.
An Iraqi provincial official says a jacket wallah, disguised in a woman's all-covering robe, struck inside a camp for displaced people in the western province of Anbar, killing at least 14.
Councilman Taha Abdul-Ghani says the attack took place at dusk on Sunday as authorities were accommodating families that had fled 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.... -held town of Qaim.
Abdul-Ghani says that a police colonel was among the dead. The officer became suspicious about the person in the long robe and walked up to the attacker, embracing him -- presumably to reduce the number of casualties -- as he detonated his explosives.
The kaboom also maimed at least 20 people.
Posted by: badanov ||
07/04/2017 00:00 ||
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Mosul (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi government forces on Monday took over more areas in western Mosul’s Old City as operations become a few days away from eliminating Islamic State militants from the region.
Federal Police chief Shaker Jawdat said in a statement that the forces recaptured Bab al-Sarai area, and raised Iraqi flags above its buildings. He said also troops took over Zul-Tawabeq garage, Khozam Mosque and a “transportation area” in the Old City. Troops were proceeding towards Khaled ibn al-Waleed and Nujaifi areas in the same district, he added.
Also in the Old City, two female suicide bombers from the Islamic State, who were hiding among a group of fleeing civilians, blew themselves up in Iraqi troops, killing one soldier and wounding several others, according to the Associated Press. Anadolu Agency, on its part, said a Tunisian woman blew herself up while hiding among civilians, killing four and wounding nine, including two Counter-Terrorism Service members.
Some generals were quoted saying there were less than 200 fighters in the city, adding that the forces reached the western bank of the Tigris River.
Mosul (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi government forces brought down more Islamic State defense lines and killed scores of militants while advancing through the last few meters held by the group in western Mosul, military media said.
The Defense Ministry’s War Media Cell said government troops broke down “the strongest” Islamic State defenses in Khatouniya and Ras al-Khour areas in the Old City. It said those defense lines were run by foreign militants.
Forces killed 67 multinational militants and destroyed large stacks of ammunition in Shahwani. More than 72 explosive devices planted in the way of advancing forces were also removed, said the statement.
Commanders say that, currently, there are are no more than 300 militants cornered at areas overseeing the western bank of the Tigris River, which bisects Mosul. Senior commanders were quoted saying that government troops were nearly 200 meters away from the river’s bank.
Posted by: badanov ||
07/04/2017 00:00 ||
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Kirkuk (IraqiNews.com) Four Islamic State militants were killed as fighter jets shelled a vehicle booby-trapping workshop, southwest of Kirkuk, a local source said.
“Army jets shelled on Monday an IS location in al-Safra village, 45 KM southwest of Kirkuk, leaving four militants, including a prominent leader, killed” the source told AlSumaria News.
“The targeted location was used to booby-trap vehicles and manufacture of bombs,” the source, who preferred anonymity, added.
Kirkuk has a mixed population of Kurds, Turkmens and Arabs. The southern and western regions in the province have been under IS control since June 2014.
IS holds pivotal regions that link between each of Diyala, Salahuddin and Kirkuk, posing threats to the liberated regions.
Dozens of residents from Hawija and the regions in its vicinity escape to Kirkuk province on a daily basis. Despite the risky routes to the freed regions, the civilians prefer death to staying under IS control.
Hawija (IraqiNews.com) An airstrike has left ten Islamic State militants killed in Hawija town, west of Kirkuk, the War Media Cell reported.
A statement on Monday said that army fighter jets “launched airstrikes in Hawija, destroying a vehicle booby-trapping workshop in addition to huge amounts of explosives that were inside a store.”
“The shelling left ten militants killed and others injured,” the statement added.
Hawija, located 55 KM west of Kirkuk, has been held by IS since mid-2014, when the group emerged to proclaim an Islamic “caliphate” in Iraq and Syria. The group executed dozens of civilians and security members there, forcing thousands to flee homes.
In May, news reports quoted sources as saying that the extremist group opened alternative headquarters for its so-called “Nineveh State, “Dijlah State”, “Salahuddin State” and “Diyala State” in Hawija.
IS still holds three towns in western Anbar close to the borders with Syria, in addition to a few areas in Salahuddin, Diyala and Kirkuk. The Iraqi government is expected to aim at those strongholds once the Mosul battle is concluded.
Posted by: badanov ||
07/04/2017 00:00 ||
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HT The Muqata on FB
Israeli Border Guard Police officers prevented a deadly terrorist attack mid-afternoon Tuesday after spotting six suspicious-looking occupants in a vehicle coming up to the Mazmoria checkpoint on the outskirts of southern Jerusalem, leading to Gush Etzion.
The front and rear license plates on the car did not match. Moreover, the driver had no identification card at all – neither a green Palestinian Authority ID, nor an Israeli blue teudat zehut car either – and refused to answer any questions when asked. In fact, not one of the six occupants of the vehicle had any identification with them.
At that point, personnel at the checkpoint proceeded to carry out a full-scale, thorough search of the vehicle. The soldiers uncovered a number of firebombs (Molotov cocktails) – two of them already prepared for operation – two shock (stun) grenades hidden within the car, and a bag with five sharp knives, making it clear that a major terrorist operation was underway.
The would-be terrorists, all Arab residents of the Palestinian Authority, were all taken into custody and transferred to security personnel for interrogation
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/04/2017 12:30 ||
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[IsraelTimes] Procession participants raise Paleostinian flags and block road to Old City, are dispersed by security forces.
Around 30 Paleostinians were said maimed and a police officer was lightly hurt during a funeral procession from the East Jerusalem neighborhood of A-Tur toward the Old City on Sunday.
The funeral was for a 24-year-old East Jerusalem man who drowned in the Sea of Galilee on Friday and whose body was found by police naval search teams on Sunday morning.
Halfway through the funeral, protesters raised the Paleostinian flag, blocked the road to the Old City and threw stones at officers.
One officer was hit in the face and was treated by a medic at the scene, police said.
A police statement on Twitter said, "By order of the Jerusalem District police chief, a procession and funeral in East Jerusalem was dispersed when participants acted against public order."
The statement continued: "A number of suspects blocked the road and threw stones at police. An officer was hit in the face by a stone and is being cared for on site. The rioters were dispersed using riot-dispersal methods."
Paleostinian media reported some 30 funeral-goers were hurt, but there were no immediate details on the severity of their wounds.
Police said they have launched an investigation, and would identify those suspected of planning the protest.
[AnNahar] Islamist gunnies led by one of the world's most wanted Lions of Islam still hold about 1,500 buildings in a southern Philippine city after weeks of ferocious fighting that has left hundreds dead, officials said Monday.
The Philippine military has struggled to expel scores of gunnies who rampaged across Marawi city on May 23 flying the black flag of 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, despite day and night artillery and air strikes that have reduced swathes of the downtown area to rubble.
President Rodrigo Duterte last month vowed to "crush" the krazed killers, but several deadlines have already been missed to end a conflict that has left scores dead and forced some 400,000 people from their homes.
The gunnies are led by Isnilon Hapilon, one of the world's most desperados, who is believed to be still alive and holed up in a mosque, Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana told a news conference in Manila.
In the most detailed assessment yet, he conceded there was no saying when soldiers would be able to retake all 1,500 houses and buildings still held or booby-trapped by the krazed killers.
"Since it is urban fighting a lot of our troops there are not prepared. One can say they are learning as they fight in this built-up area," he said, adding that soldiers are battling street-to-street retaking up to a hundred buildings a day.
The military in Marawi suggested a slower rate, with soldiers recapturing 40 buildings on Saturday and 57 on Sunday.
"The clearing operation is difficult because of the presence of IEDs (improvised bombs), booby traps left behind by the terrorists," said the military front man for the campaign, Lieutenant-Colonel Jo-ar Herrera.
Eighty-two soldiers and police and 39 civilians have died in the weeks-long conflict, he said.
Around a hundred gunnies are still entrenched in the city and the army has said they have used a water route to bring in ammunition and evacuate maimed fighters, helping them withstand the military offensive for weeks. Some 300 gunnies are thought to have been killed so far.
Lorenzana said military commanders wanted a swift end to the operation, "but the enemy is also very wily and resourceful".
Duterte imposed martial law over the southern Philippines soon after the fighting started, saying he needed strong powers to snuff out an IS plot to carve out territory after battlefield losses in Iraq and Syria.
A botched government attempt to arrest Hapilon at a Marawi hideout touched off the fighting in May.
He is supported by Marawi-based gunnies led by the Maute brothers, whose group has pledged allegiance to IS, as well as several imported muscle, Lorenzana said.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
07/04/2017 00:55 ||
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#1
Supersonic overflights during night time hours. Play recordings of gunfire during all hours. Drive tanks and bulldozers down the streets. Visible overflights by RC drones. Hours of recordings of insulting the prophet and commentary about how he likes little girls and the like. Occasional raids at random locations.
They won't be able to sleep. It won't be long before they start making mistakes and dying in droves.
[Aljazeera] US-backed forces in Syria have breached the wall surrounding the Old City of Raqqa as they try to retake the city from the ISIL, the US Central Command said.
"Coalition forces supported the SDF advance into the most heavily fortified portion of Raqqa by opening two small gaps in the Rafiqah Wall that surrounds the Old City," Centcom said in a statement on Monday night, referring to the Syrian Democratic Forces.
US-backed fighters pierced Raqqa from the south for the first time on Sunday, crossing the Euphrates River to enter a new part of the Syrian city, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have spent months closing in on the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, or ISIS) group's stronghold and entered the city's east and west for the first time last month.
In the fighting at the wall, US Central Command said the Kurdish-led SDF fighters faced heavy resistance from ISIL fighters, who used the wall as a combat position and planted mines and improvised explosive devices against advancing US-backed soldiers.
Posted by: Besoeker ||
07/04/2017 06:10 ||
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[ARA News] Syrian rebel fighters of the Descendants of Saladin Brigade, which was part of the Turkey-backed Euphrates Shield operation and also receives support from the US, will not participate in Turkey-led attacks on the Kurdish city of Afrin.
Mahmoud Khallo, a commander of the Saladin brigade, told ARA News that his group will not participate in military operations against Afrin (also known as Efrîn). The reason the group refuses to participate is unclear, since in the past the group said it’s ready to attack the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG).
The Descendants of Saladin Brigade includes Kurdish fighters loyal to the Turkey-backed Syrian opposition.
“They [the YPG] are against the Kurds. These groups are trying to ignite a sectarian war between Arabs and Kurds and this won’t happen because we won’t allow it. If the YPG does not retreat from Tal Rafat and the Mennagh air base, we will fight them in the area between Jarabulus and Azaz,” Mahmoud Abu Hamza, a Grandsons of Salahadin commander based in Turkey, told Middle East Eye in March.
However, now the group says it’s not interested in attacking Afrin or Til Rifaat in Aleppo province.
During the last few days, sporadic clashes took place between the YPG and the Turkish troops near Afrin. Reportedly, there are 20,000 FSA forces backed by Turkey preparing to launch an attack on areas held by the Kurdish YPG in Afrin and Til Rifaat.
The senior Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leader Murat Karayilan said any attack on Afrin would not be done without the knowledge and consent of Russia, Iran and the Syrian regime.
He said Turkey is trying to bargain a deal in order to open up a way to occupy parts of Syria.
The Saladin Brigade is the only Kurdish faction which is part of the Euphrates Shield operation, and is positioned in al-Bab area, particularly in the Qabasin town where many Kurds live.
Posted by: badanov ||
07/04/2017 00:00 ||
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Syrian army forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad said on Monday that they have temporarily halted combat operations in the south of the country ahead of Russian-sponsored ceasefire talks with rebel groups in Kazakhstan.
A statement by the military said hostilities would stop in the provinces of Deraa, Quneitra and Sweida, state news agency SANA reported.
“In order to support the peace process and national reconciliation, a cessation of hostilities … will last until midnight on July 6,” the statement said.
The unilateral freeze was not expected to include fighting against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) armed group.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitor tracking developments in Syria’s war via a wide network of sources on the ground, confirmed to the AFP news agency that fighting “almost completely stopped” across the mentioned areas.
The news came after a large Syrian rebel faction in the south said it would not attend a new round of talks in the Kazakh capital, Astana, because the government was not abiding by previous ceasefire agreements.
A spokesman for the Southern Front, a coalition of Free Syrian Army rebel groups, cast doubt on whether the Syrian army and its Iranian-backed allies would halt attacks on the front lines in Deraa and in Quneitra province.
“The Free Syrian Army are very distrustful of the regime’s intentions in abiding by the ceasefire. It will be like the previous one,” Major Issam al-Rayes told the Reuters news agency.
Delegates are expected to begin meeting with a UN mediator and other diplomats on July 4.
The two sides have held four previous rounds of talks in Kazakhstan since January in parallel to UN-brokered peace talks in Geneva. Neither process has made much progress.
A ceasefire declared in May, which is built around so-called “de-escalation zones”, has been repeatedly violated.
Syria’s war has killed hundreds of thousands of people and forced millions from their homes since it began in March 2011.
Agencies
Posted by: badanov ||
07/04/2017 00:00 ||
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#1
A spokesman for the Southern Front, a coalition of Free Syrian Army rebel groups, cast doubt on whether the Syrian army and its Iranian-backed allies would halt attacks on the front lines in Deraa and in Quneitra province.
Well, D'Oh! The Assad Regime wants to win, understand now? Comedy Gold, it is.
Raqqa (Syria News) The Syrian Democratic Forces managed, on Monday, to enter two new neighborhoods in the city of Raqqa, after violent battles with the Islamic State group.
Qasioun News reported that the Syrian Democratic Forces managed to enter the neighborhoods of Hashim Abdel Malek and al-Yarmouk, in the city of Raqqa, after defeating members of the Islamic State group who attacked the locations of the SDF in both the eastern and western sides of the city.
The security forces also announced killing and wounding several members of the Islamic State, in addition to seizing large quantities of weapons and ammunition, while five members of the Syrian Democratic Forces were killed during the clashes.
It is noteworthy that the Syrian Democratic Forces, backed by the international coalition air force, managed to recapture several neighborhoods in the city of Raqqa, including the recently retaken Qadisiyah neighborhood in the western side of the city.
Posted by: badanov ||
07/04/2017 00:00 ||
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[Victory Girls] Celebrate Fourth of July, this year, as the Founding Fathers intended it to be celebrated. As you celebrate the day, remember Staff Sergeant Patrick Hamburger who died with 37 other military personnel aboard Extortion 17. Now I know you are thinking, "Hello, we just did Memorial Day." Stay with me on this train of thought for just a minute and you will see why it makes so much sense.
Our Founding Fathers (Sorry to be sexist but, there it is.) were extraordinary ordinary men. Men who were called on to stand up and stand out. We have been blessed that every succeeding generation has found us a few of these extraordinary ordinary men.
#1
Thank you Besoeker for this post. It is the extraordinary such as SSG Hamburger as well as the ordinary men and women of this country who make it great. Thanks to them.
#2
I had to look this up. I don't recall this from back then, thanks mostly to our MSM wonderful coverages.
Extortion 17
On 6 August 2011, a U.S. Boeing CH-47 Chinook military helicopter, Call Sign "Extortion 17," was shot down while transporting a quick reaction force attempting to reinforce an engaged unit of Army Rangers in Wardak province, west of Kabul, Afghanistan.[6][7] The resulting crash killed all 38 people on board—25 American special operations personnel, five United States Army National Guard and Army Reserve crewmen, seven Afghan commandos, and one Afghan interpreter—as well as a U.S. military working dog.[8][9][10][11] It is considered the worst loss of American lives in a single incident in the Afghanistan campaign, surpassing Operation Red Wings in 2005.
Mosul (IraqiNews.com) More than 70 bodies, likely to be killed while attempting to flee the Islamic State’s grip, were found in the northwest of Mosul’s Old City, an informed medical source said.
Ambulance and forensic medicine doctors recovered 74 bodies that were on streets in al-Zanjili district, northwest of Mosul, the source told Shafaq News on Monday.
The bodies, according to the source, were decayed. Most of the victims were women and children who were killed by IS militants while trying to flee the region, which was previously controlled by the militants.
Posted by: badanov ||
07/04/2017 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 personification of Somali state failure...
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[DAWN] Two suspected rebels were killed and a civilian was critically 
[AnNahar] Islamist 
[Aljazeera] US-backed forces in Syria have breached the wall surrounding the Old City of Raqqa as they try to retake the city from the ISIL, the US Central Command said.
[Victory Girls] Celebrate Fourth of July, this year, as the Founding Fathers intended it to be celebrated. As you celebrate the day, remember Staff Sergeant Patrick Hamburger who died with 37 other military personnel aboard Extortion 17. Now I know you are thinking, "Hello, we just did Memorial Day." Stay with me on this train of thought for just a minute and you will see why it makes so much sense.
