[AnNahar] Two U.S. Army soldiers were killed on Monday when their vehicle was struck by a homemade bomb in the Afghan capital Kabul, defense officials said.
One of the troops was a non-commissioned officer and the second was an enlisted soldier, two officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Agence La Belle France-Presse.
There were also civilian casualties in the assault but there were no further details available.
The bombing came after Death Eaters staged a horrific suicide kaboom on Sunday in the eastern province of Paktika ...which coincidentally borders South Wazoo... , killing 57 people at a volleyball match.
The assault Sunday coincided with the lower of house of parliament approving agreements that will allow 12,500 NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... troops, including more than 9,000 Americans, to remain in the country next year.
More than 2,200 American troops have been killed in the 13-year-old war, according to the Pentagon.
U.S. casualties have dramatically declined over the past two years as Afghan forces have taken over combat duties. But the Afghan army and police have suffered a heavy corpse count, with 4,634 troops killed so far this year, and 4,350 in 2013.
U.S. commanders have called the Afghan casualty toll "unsustainable."
[AnNahar] An air raid on Monday targeted the runway of the Libyan capital's only working airport, witnesses and an airport security source said.
A low-flying fighter jet fired two missiles at Mitiga airport, which is in an eastern suburb of Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... and held by Fajr Libya, an anti-government Islamist militia coalition which controls the capital, witnesses said.
The security source said the strike however caused no damage to the airport terminal or runway.
Flights were temporarily diverted to Misrata airport, 200 kilometers (125 miles) east of Tripoli, the source added.
Libyan carriers moved civilian flights to Mitiga after Tripoli's main international airport was damaged by fierce fighting in the capital between state-backed fighters and Islamist militias in July.
Fighting persists between the two sides in western Libya, where pro-government militias are supported by forces loyal to retired general Khalifa Haftar ... served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all... , and air raids frequently target Fajr Libya positions.
More than three years after strongman Muammar Qadaffy ...The late megalomaniac dictator of Libya, admired everywhere for his garish costumes, funny hats, harem of cutie bodyguards, and incoherent ravings. As far as is known, he is the only person who's ever declared jihad on Switzerland... was toppled and killed in a NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... -backed revolt, Libya is awash with weapons and powerful militias, and run by rival governments and parliaments.
#2
You drudges are proud to be workers,
But where would you be without shirkers?
From leisure comes culture!
Mere marcher and mulcher
Can never be beatniks and twerkers.
Nigeria's Top Islamic Leader Slams Military on Boko Haram
[AnNahar] Nigeria's top Islamic leader on Monday accused the military of fleeing when 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... attacks and terrorizing civilians, in the harshest ever criticism from the key holy man, as violence persisted in the northeast.
A statement from the country's top Moslem body, the JNI, described the military's handling of the five-year Islamist uprising as "unfortunate, worrisome and embarrassing."
The JNI speaks for Nigeria's top holy man, the Sultan of Sokoto Muhammad Sa'ad Abubakar, and included the harshest ever-criticism of the military from a key Islamic leader.
"Soldiers take to their heels and abandon their bases, arms, ammunition and other military hardware on the approach of the Death Eaters!" the statement said.
"Nigerian Security Forces only surface after the deadly attacks and terrorize an already terrorized people by installing road blocks and searching homes," it added.
The condemnation came after similar remarks last week from Nigeria's number two Islamic holy man, the Emir of Kano, and will likely infuriate 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...
... 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...
's government, which expects traditional monarchs to abstain from political commentary.
In a speech released at the weekend, defense front man Chris Olukolade meanwhile accused the media and other "campaigners" of distorting the military effort against Boko Haram, tarnishing Nigeria's global image and hurting troop morale.
Another attack occurred Monday, when suspected Boko Haram gunnies entered a market in the northeast town of Damasak at about 11:00 am (1000 GMT) and opened fire on unarmed traders, a military officer and a local government official told AFP.
The snuffies were disguised as traders, carrying containers they claimed were full of goods for sale but which in fact were stuffed with AK-47 rifles, the official, Mohammed Damasak, said.
The gunnies "inflicted horror," he said, adding: "Many traders escaped with bullet wounds while many are lying dead at the market."
A military officer with direct knowledge of the attack but who requested anonymity said soldiers had deployed to the market and were battling the snuffies "for control of the town."
Damasak, in northeast Borno state, is close to the Niger border, a remote region with a poor telephone network.
It was not immediately possible to establish a corpse count or whether the Islamists had chased out the military.
Boko Haram is believed to have taken over more than two dozen towns in recent weeks as part of a campaign to establish a strict Islamic state in the northeast.
While there has been no official response to the tough JNI statement, it will likely ratchet up tensions ahead of Nigeria's general elections in February.
The main opposition All Progressives Congress is widely expected to nominate a candidate from the mainly Moslem north against Jonathan, who is a southern Christian, and Nigeria's religious divide will be a key factor in the vote.
The JNI, speaking on behalf the Sultan, condemned the recent Boko Haram violence while urging the government "with the loudest voice, to wake up to its fundamental and obligatory responsibility of protecting lives."
It accused the government of "wallowing in diatribe" against a growing number of critics who say the military response to Boko Haram's five-year uprising has been woefully inadequate.
Military front man Olukolade said Nigeria's management of the Islamist conflict had been hugely distorted by the media and "campaigners" who have concealed their political bias against Jonathan.
The attack on so-called campaigners was a reference to the Bring Back Our Girls protesters carrying out daily marches to demand the release of the 219 schoolgirls held hostage by Boko Haram since mid-April.
The local media valued "reporting war" above "the nation's image or collective destiny", he said in a speech in the U.S. city of Atlanta.
The foreign press had shown "disdain for objective reportage" and inflated claims of rights abuses by Nigerian troops, he added.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
11/25/2014 01:24 ||
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[AnNahar] Suspected 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... gunnies disguised as traders opened fire Monday at a crowded market in a northeast Nigeria ... a particularly crimson stretch of Islam's bloody border... border town, a military officer and a local official said.
It was not yet possible to give a corpse count, the senior officer with direct knowledge of the raid told AFP. The shooting began at about 11:00 am (1000 GMT).
"The Lions of Islam disguised as traders and opened fire on unsuspecting traders at a market in Damasak" in Borno state near the border with Niger, the officer said.
Mohammed Damasak, who works with the local government, said the weapons were concealed in containers the gunnies brought to the market.
"They pretended to be traders but sadly inflicted horror. Many traders escaped with bullet wounds while many are lying dead at the market," he added.
Boko Haram, which wants to carve out a strict Islamic state in northern Nigeria, was blamed for a similar raid at the weekend that left 48 people dead in the nearby town of Doron Baga.
Relentless violence which has plagued the region for years had eased slightly as Boko Haram apparently pursued a campaign to establish itself as a rebel government in captured towns, trying to assure locals that they could live under Islamist rule.
But many experts argued that the bully boyz would ultimately resume killing, especially if confronted with military pressure.
The Boko Haram insurgency is estimated to have cost more than 13,000 lives since 2009.
[AnNahar] About 100 people were slaughtered last week in a fresh massacre in the restive east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...formerly the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Zaire, and who knows what else, not to be confused with the Brazzaville Congo aka Republic of Congo, which is much smaller and much more (for Africa) stable. DRC gave the world Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Mobutu, followed by years of tedious civil war. Its principle industry seems to be the production of corpses. With a population of about 74 million it has lots of raw material... , blamed by the government on Uganda rebels, politicians told Agence La Belle France-Presse on Monday.
The carnage took place on Thursday near Beni in North Kivu province, where mainly Moslem Ugandan rebels have been blamed for killing more than 200 civilians in gruesome machete attacks since October, and where the U.N. wants "negative forces" to be neutralized.
"I have a figure of 95 bodies buried in a common grave," as well as "nine others that were shown to authorities in a morgue," opposition member of parliament Juma Balikwisha told AFP.
"We still don't have a definitive toll. It lies between 70 and 100 people killed," said Albert Baliesima, an MP for the parliamentary majority backing President Joseph Kabila.
North Kivu governor Julien Paluku meanwhile put the number of dead at 58 while government front man Lambert Mende said at a news conference that provisional estimates showed "more than a dozen dead."
Mende added that "first conclusions" pointed to rebels of the Allied Democratic Forces and National Army for the Liberation of Uganda (ADF-NALU) being responsible for the latest in a wave of massacres that began early in October.
The government was determined "to eradicate these murderers of women and kiddies," he said.
U.N. special envoy to the central African Great Lakes region, Said Djinnit, said in a statement "that the worsening situation in the Beni area... calls for decisive action towards neutralizing all negative forces in the DRC, as per the decisions of the regional leaders and the U.N. Security Council."
On Friday, the Civil Society of North Kivu, an NGO based in Beni, had called for the army, police and U.N. forces to step in.
The U.N.'s humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, says 35,000 people have been displaced in the region in the last few weeks.
Some regional officials who spoke to AFP said they did not know who carried out the killings in a region where the Congolese army (FARDC) and a U.N. special intervention force have been battling the ADF-NALU since January.
"We were told that the (FARDC) didn't want people to go further into the bush," where more bodies could yet be discovered, Baliesima said.
An administrative source in Beni said that the killings took place in four villages close together between the market town and the town of Mbau, 20 kilometers (12 miles) further north.
Reached by telephone, a local resident told AFP that 95 bodies picked up in the bush had been buried in the village of Tepiomba.
The population of Beni, a major trading centre and stronghold of the Nande ethnic group located 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of the lovely provincial capital Goma, has accused the government and soldiers of doing nothing to protect local people.
President Kabila visited Beni at the end of October and publicly swore that the army was "going to win against the terrorists", but his presence failed to prevent a massacre within the town.
The ADF-NALU rebels, believed to number around 400, have hidden in the Ruwenzori mountains that straddle the border with Uganda since being driven out of their homeland by President Yoweri Museveni's soldiers in 1995.
In their joint offensive, the Congolese army and troops of the intervention brigade of the U.N. mission (MONUSCO) appeared to make gains against the Ugandan murderous Moslems until August, when the respected commander of FARDC troops suddenly died of a heart attack.
The rebels bounced back, but the combined forces renewed major operations against the murderous Moslems in October. The brigade with the large U.N. mission in the DR Congo has an offensive mandate to tackle armed movements in the east, which has been a powder keg for more than 20 years.
Saudi Arabia has arrested the four main suspects in an attack on Shias this month and believes it was ordered by ISIS militants from abroad, the state news agency cited an Interior Ministry security spokesman as saying on Monday.
Seven members of the Shia minority were shot dead in the Eastern Province district of Al Ahsa on November 3 as they marked their holy day of Ashoura.
Saudi Arabia put down an upsurge of Islamist militancy a decade ago, but fears that militant groups such as ISIS or the Al Qaeda affiliate Nusra Front now operating in Syria or Iraq will radicalise Saudis to mount a new wave of strikes inside the kingdom.
Last week, the ministry said militants were trying to attack Saudi Arabia, but that it was not aware of any evidence that the Al Ahsa attack had been coordinated with ISIS.
On Monday, the ministry spokesman said 77 suspects had been arrested so far, and that they were believed to include the four main perpetrators. He said the leader of the Al Ahsa attack had received orders from abroad, and that "the target, as well as those to be targeted and the timing were all specified for him, as well as the provision that the (attack) be carried out in Al Ahsa".
The leader had picked three followers, and these had scouted out the target, seized a car, killed its owner, and used it in the attack.
The spokesman said security forces had arrested "everyone who is affiliated to this terrorist group, whether those who pledged allegiance to the leader of the group, or participants, supporters, financiers, or those who provide cover".
Two Saudis and a Qatari were killed as they resisted arrest, along with two security officers, the ministry said.
Authorities had already said that among the detainees were people believed to have fought for Sunni militants in Syria or who had previously been jailed for fighting for Al Qaeda.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/25/2014 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] Bangladesh's war crimes court Monday sentenced a former ruling party official to hang for mass murder, the 14th person convicted of atrocities during the 1971 independence struggle against Pakistain, a prosecutor said.
Mobarak Hossain, who was expelled from the Awami League after he was charged with war crimes in 2012, was found guilty of heading a militia that rounded up and killed scores during the nine-month conflict.
"He was sentenced to death for the murder of 33 people and given (a) life term for the abduction and murder of another person," prosecutor Shahidur Rahman told Agence La Belle France Presse.
The 64-year-old Hossain is the first person connected with the ruling party to be given the death penalty by the controversial tribunal, which has mostly focused on trials of officials of the country's largest Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores...
Hossain, who was in court to hear the verdict, had previously been an official of Jamaat-e-Islami which opposed independence from Pakistain.
During the war he was a local commander of a notorious pro-Pak militia in the eastern border town of Akhaura which carried out murders, abductions and torture, Rahman said.
In one of the worst episodes of the war, "Hossain and his associates kidnapped 132 people and then murdered 33 of them on the bank of a pond", he said.
After Bangladesh gained independence, Jamaat was banned for some years. Hossain eventually switched to the Awami League, serving as a low-level official for 16 years until he was charged.
Jamaat's leader and its top lieutenants were sentenced to death last year for their roles in the war, triggering the country's deadliest political violence.
Thousands of Islamist activists clashed with police in various protests that left some 500 people dead.
An ex-minister of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has also been sentenced to hang.
The BNP and Jamaat have called the court's trials politically motivated and aimed at eliminating opposition leaders rather than rendering justice.
Rights groups have said the trials fall short of international standards and lack any foreign oversight.
The government of Prime Minister the loathesome Sheikh Hasina ...Bangla dynastic politician and current Prime Minister of Bangladesh. She has been the President of the Bangla Awami League since the Lower Paleolithic. She is the eldest of five children of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangla. Her party defeated the BNP-led Four-Party Alliance in the 2008 parliamentary elections. She has once before held the office, from 1996 to 2001, when she was defeated in a landslide. She and the head of the BNP, Khaleda Zia show such blind animosity toward each other that they are known as the Battling Begums.. maintains the hearings are needed to heal the wounds of the conflict, which it says left three million people dead.
Independent researchers estimate that between 300,000 and 500,000 people died in the 1971 war.
[WSJ] Members of U.S. Marshals Service Join Military Operations in Mexico Against Drug Gangs
U.S. Justice Department personnel are disguising themselves as Mexican Marines to take part in armed raids against drug suspects in Mexico, according to people familiar with the matter, an escalation of American involvement in battling narco mobs that carries significant risk to U.S. personnel.
The rest is behind the subscription paywall, though Borderland Beat has a reprint of the article here.
#1
The Marshals Service works closely with the Mexican Marines because the U.S. agency has expertise at finding fugitives, in part through technology that detects cellphone signals and other digital signatures. That includes airplane flights operated by the agency carrying sophisticated devices that mimic cellphone towers, as reported last week by The Wall Street Journal. That technology works better with a ground presence.
The killing of Pablo Escobar in 1993 was something of a proof of concept for signals intercept in the fight against narco-terr. I'm not sure US LE [U.S. Marshal Service vs DoD intelligence] working with Mexican Marines is the correct approach however. I believe we still have laws against such activity on this side of the border.
One former detainee toured Afghanistan with bin Laden as he received pledges of obedience from terror cell leaders
Another was a prolific forger based in Iran who helped Islamist extremists cross into Afghanistan
A third was convicted in absentia for his role in a foiled terror attack aimed at killing American military personnel on an air base in Belgium
Five in all were sent this week to the nations of Georgia and Slovakia
Most recent prison release leaves 'Gitmo' with 143 detainees
Men were called high-risk prisoners in classified 2008 Pentagon evaluations, but were reevaluated after Barack Obama became president and cleared to leave when a country could be found to take them
Obama famously pledged in 2008 to close the prison camp
What odds 1.998 of them will be ISIS lads in mufti?
[Ynet] Turkish and US forces will train 2,000 moderate Syrian rebel fighters at a base in the central Turkish city of Kirsehir as part of the campaign 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.... murderous Moslems, a Turkish Foreign Ministry official said on Monday.
Turkey had agreed in principle to train and equip Syrian rebel forces as part of the US-led military campaign against Islamic State, but details on the numbers involved and where the training would take place had yet to be announced.
The announcement comes after US Vice President Joe Foreign Policy Whiz Kid Biden The former Senator-for-Life from Delaware, an example of the kind of top-notch Washington intellect to be found in the World's Greatest Deliberative Body... met with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul over the weekend to discuss Turkey's role in the military coalition against Islamic State murderous Moslems.
The Turkish official said the 2,000 Syrian rebel fighters would be among a total of 5,000 being trained in several countries as part of the US-led campaign.
#1
There's no such thing as a "moderate rebel". Anyone willing to kill and die in the name of Islam is not moderate. Let's be clear, these zealots are being trained in Turkey to fight against an axis-of-evil state only because it suits US/Western interests at the moment. Turkey's current leadership is Islamist and has questionable motives. They have been Israel intolerant - although relations may be changing. These trained "moderates" being sent back to the Syrian powder keg will fight Assad forces and ISIS - following which we will have more "moderates" to contend with.
[AnNahar] A 15-year-old boy who befriended the suspect in the first jihadist attack on Canadian soil was enjugged Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! days prior to the killing, local media said Monday.
The daily newspaper La Presse, citing unnamed sources, said the teenager had contacted suspected jihadist Martin Couture-Rouleau on Facebook.
The boy had become radicalized and stole Can$2,200 at knife-point from a grocer to pay for travel to a majority Moslem country to live under Sharia law.
His father alerted police and the boy was arrested on October 17 before he could leave the country.
His computer allegedly containing jihadist propaganda was seized. According to La Presse, the boy refused to tell police exactly where he was headed but his family has ties to North Africa.
Three days later, Moslem convert Couture-Rouleau mowed down Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent in a parking lot in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, southeast of Montreal.
Another Canadian soldier was shot and killed in Ottawa in a separate attack two days after that. The shooter was bumped off after storming parliament.
The boy, who cannot be named under Canadian law, has pleaded guilty to armed robbery and is due in court next month for sentencing.
Yet another case of workplace violence (not terrorism, nope, uh-uh)
So definitely not Sudden Jihad Syndrome.
A driver who rammed his car into the gates of U.S. Army post Fort Sam Houston in Texas is in custody after the ordeal on Sunday. Police have not provided much information about the situation or the suspect, but the military base, which had been placed under lockdown, has returned to normal operations.
The suspect has been identified as a male Saudi national, according to KCEN TV. Authorities have not identified the man, but he is in custody. Initial reports said the car contained explosives but the Associated Press reported Monday morning the car did not contain any explosive devices.
The AP also reports the suspect is a college student but did not provide his nationality.
A non-STEM major, then? Business, perhaps, or English lit.?
#1
The main entrance to Ft Sam is essentially a street about a mile long. Once you pass the turn for BAMC (Brooke Army Med Ctr) you've basically got no where to go but across the RR tracks and into the base, or try a U turn. At least that's my recollection from a few years back.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
11/25/2014 7:35 Comments ||
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#2
Also possible the driver was not sober. It is San Antonio, after all.
#6
Al - An explosive device consists of explosives, containment and a FUSE or detonator of some kind. Explosives are just a part of an explosive device.
When computer parts started shipping with "static sensitive device" labels the security industry almost had a collective heart attack, because in those circles "device" means "bomb" and explosives were known to be static sensitive.
#8
"driver who rammed his car into the gates of U.S. Army post Fort Sam Houston in Texas is in custody"
In custody? Why wasn't he SHOT?
Posted by: Barbara ||
11/25/2014 16:09 Comments ||
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#9
There are a couple of prominent entrances to Fort Sam - from this story in the SA Express News it looks like this student tried to come in thru the gate where Harry Wurzbach dead-ends. That's a long avenue that runs along-side the western side of the base and which dead-ends at a point near the end of the old parade ground. If the student was lost, and faintly intoxicated, he might have gotten confused and tried to run the barrier, not realizing that it was a gate and access is controlled. There are some other smaller entry gates - but the other main big one is a short length of avenue running from IH-35 to the east side of Fort Sam, which they have just widened and adorned, and have three or four lanes with a huge canopy over the place where they check IDs. They would rather prefer that civilian visitors come to that gate, or the one on Harry W. The other side gates, they'd prefer that only active military and retirees use them.
There's been very little in the local news about this, although in the link they do deny that the student was a Saud. They don't give a name or nationality at all, though. Curious.
[AnNahar] Police on Monday nabbed Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! a suspected holy warrior in Pak capital and seized suicide bomb making material to be used in a possible terror strike in the city, officials said.
"We have arrested a suspect from near Aabpara Market," a police official told AFP.
"The man belongs to South Wazoo and he was carrying two hand grenades, detonators, a switch used in suicide jackets, batteries, wires and explosives," the official said on condition of anonymity.
Islamabad's Aabpara Market is a busy marketplace close to sensitive Red Zone that houses key government buildings and embassies.
According to the initial investigation the suspect was due to meet another man in the capital to assemble a suicide kaboom jacket and carry out a terrorist attack, the official added.
Police were hunting the other suspects in the plot, he said.
Another police official confirmed the arrest.
Pakistain has been battling Islamist groups in the northwest and its semi-autonomous tribal belt since 2004, after its army entered the tribal region to search for Al-Qaeda gunnies who had fled across the border following the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan.
In June the army began a major offensive against holy warrior hideouts in the North Waziristan tribal agency, a stronghold for the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain.
[AnNahar] Taliban gunniesmaimed a polio ...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set... health worker in northwest Pakistain on Monday, at the start of a fresh campaign to vaccinate children against the crippling disease, officials said.
Two attackers fired bullets at the vaccinator as he came out of a health centre in Shabqadar district, around 30 kilometers (20 miles) north of 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. , the main city of restive Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... province.
Pakistain is one of only three countries where polio remains endemic as attempts to stamp it out have been badly hit by opposition from forces of Evil and attacks on immunisation teams that have claimed around 62 lives since December 2012.
Shafiullah Khan, district police chief in Charsada, told Agence La Belle France Presse the two gunnies on a cycle of violence sprayed the vaccinator with bullets, hitting him in the head. He was shifted to a hospital in Peshawar.
The health worker was part of a three-day campaign that began Monday aiming to vaccinate around 2.7 million children in 21 districts against polio.
A hardline breakaway faction of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP), TTP Jamat-ul-Ahrar, grabbed credit for the attack.
The forces of Evil have in the past claimed that the polio vaccination is a cover for espionage or a Western conspiracy to sterilise Moslems.
Officials say the number of polio cases recorded in Pakistain has reached 246 for the year -- a 14-year high and more than double the total for the whole of 2013.
Among the new cases detected, 136 are in the troubled northwestern tribal areas that border Afghanistan and are the stronghold of Taliban and al-Qaeda krazed killers.
#2
Another form of mental illness really needs to be added to the Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM:
Extreme Hyper-sympathitis: a form of mental illness; a person suffering from hyper-sympathitis feels more pain at the sight/sound/thought of someone else's suffering than that other person experiences from the suffering itself. ety: from hyper (over) sympathy - itis (presence of pathological condition)
I'd say anyone working as a Polio Vaccinator in Pakistan, (or funding it) in Pakistan has to be suffering from hyper-sypathitis. Because it surely has to be a sign of mental illness to be more concerned about the well being of other people than they are about themselves.
Sad that it is such an unrecognized mental illness. Seems like half the ills of the world can be ascribed to it: well meaning blundering fools and busybodies rushing in and really FUBR.
#3
Since they don't seem to care about their own, we should be really caring for our own. Anyone from that region should NOT be allowed in the U.S. (or any other civilized place) as long as they keep the polio disease alive and well.
LANDIKOTAL -- At least three militants were killed and several others reported injured in US drone attack here on late on Monday. Sources said that unmanned US spy plane targeted a compound in Nazian area near Pak-Afghan border. Four missiles were fired on the compound resultantly it was razed to ground.
Three militants were reported killed in the attack while several others were injured. However, independent sources have not confirmed the actual number of casualties as the area is restricted for media persons.
Some sources said that the attack was conducted on tip off regarding presence of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) key commanders in the compound.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/25/2014 00:00 ||
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PESHAWAR: The anti-polio campaign in North Waziristan Agency (NWA) resumed on Monday after 30 months' suspension in the wake of threats from Taliban. The campaign kicked off under the supervision of army in Wana, Azam Warsak and adjoining areas.
NWA Political Agent Nawab Khan inaugurated the drive by administering polio drops to a tribal child. Under the supervision of NWA Agency Surgeon Dr Jahanzaib Wazir 102 mobile teams have been constituted to reach out the children under the age of five in the agency and vaccinate them against polio.
Speaking on the occasion, Political Agent Nawab Khan said that due to an uncertain situation the FATA Secretariat could not reach out to as many as 78,000 children in NWA due to which they were vulnerable to poliovirus. He said the current anti-polio drive would yield positive results, and under it maximum number of children, under the age of five, would be vaccinated.
Meanwhile, gunmen on motorbike shot injured an anti-polio worker in Shabqadar tehsil of Charsadda District on Monday. Police said polio worker Sajid Khan, a resident of Miranai, was going to his assigned place of duty when he was targeted by the motorcyclists. He sustained critical wounds and was shifted to hospital. The killers managed to escaped. Police cordoned off the area and started investigation. Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) faction Jamaatul Ahrar claimed responsibility for the attack.
"We claim responsibility for the attack on polio workers in Shabqadr," TTP Jamaatul Ahrar spokesperson Ehsanullah Ehsan said. "We will soon release our policy statement on polio vaccine," Ehsan said in a statement, adding that "we will [explain] according to Islam and science how it is dangerous to health and how it is against Islam".
Seems like they already explained it...
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/25/2014 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] A boom-mobilewent kaboom! in a crowded Shiite-majority area of the Iraqi capital on Monday, killing at least 10 people and wounding at least 31, security and medical officials said.
The blast in the Shaab area of northern Baghdad struck an area where minibuses gather near a market.
There was no immediate claim for the blast, but 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.... (IS) jihadist group, which frequently targets members of Iraq's Shiite majority, has said it was behind multiple boom-mobileings in Baghdad in recent weeks.
The city is hit by near-daily bombings and shootings that kill hundreds of people each month.
Security forces, despite being deployed at checkpoints and other positions across Baghdad, are consistently unable to prevent such attacks.
The violence comes as security forces and pro-government fighters battle to push back IS, which has seized significant territory since June.
They are now backed by U.S.-led air strikes targeting the jihadists in both Iraq and neighboring Syria, and also supported by international advisers.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
11/25/2014 00:12 ||
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#1
ISIS executes two women, Ibtisam Ali, pictured and Miran Ghazi in Mosul for running for Parliament in April.
Iraqi troops backed by Shia militiamen and Kurdish security forces recaptured two eastern towns from ISIS group militants after fierce clashes, officials said on Monday.
Police in Diyala province said Iraqi forces entered the towns of Saadiya and Jalula late on Sunday after heavy fighting with the Sunni extremist group, which controls territory in Iraq and Syria. The fighting continued on Monday, with some pockets of resistance outside the two towns, police officials said, adding that teams were defusing roadside bombs. Some families that fled the area have started to return, they said.
Diyala saw heavy fighting between Sunni and Shia militants at the height of Iraq's sectarian bloodletting in 2006 and 2007. It also has a sizable Kurdish population. ISIS militants seized Jalula and Saadiya in August after a stunning blitz across northern and western Iraq.
Meanwhile on Monday, a car bomb near a crowded Baghdad marketplace in the mainly Sunni Shaab neighbourhood killed nine people and wounded 20, police said. No one immediately claimed responsibility. Hospital officials confirmed the casualty figures.
On Monday night, a suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden car into a security checkpoint at the country's border crossing with Jordan, killing three soldiers, officials at the border crossing said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/25/2014 00:00 ||
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[IsraelTimes] Shin Bet has interrogated several Israelis ordered by their Syrian commanders to carry out terror attacks upon their return
Always good to get confirmation of what we believed...
Despite last month’s arrest of yet another Israeli citizen who traveled to Syria, allegedly to fight alongside jihadists against the Assad regime, the number of Israeli Arabs who have left the country to join the Syrian opposition remains just a fraction of the number of Western European Muslims traveling for the same purpose.
The Shin Bet announced on Sunday that it had arrested 22-year-old Hamza Magazmeh from the Galilee town of Yafia upon his return from Syria in late October, along with two friends.
[Ynet] Personal details of dozens or perhaps hundred of Israeli students and adults were leaked online from a large education site. Among the details were names, ID numbers, birth years, addresses, e-mail addresses, and phone numbers.
The hackers, who identified as an AnonGhost group, wrote, "Israel, we are here to punish you. We are the voice of the Paleostinians and we won't be silent!"
Policemen, backed by Philippine soldiers, captured a militant behind the killing of two infantrymen in Cotabato City. On Monday, officials said Zainudin Kawilan was captured after security forces raided his hideout in the remote village of Timbangan in Maguindanao’s Shariff Aguak town.
They said Kawilan is a member of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters under Sukarno Sapal and has been identified as the killer of two soldiers who were gunned down while guarding the Cotabato Regional and Medical Center on October 22. Kawilan was pretending to visit a patient at the hospital when he shot the soldiers.
[AnNahar] Kurdish fighters gained ground from jihadists 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 in fierce battles in the Syrian town of Kobane overnight, a monitoring group said on Monday.
The town on the border with Turkey has become a highly symbolic battleground in the war against IS with the U.S.-led coalition launching near daily air strikes in support of its Kurdish defenders.
Kurdish fighters of the People's Protection Units (YPG) advanced in both the east and the northeast of the town, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
"At least 18 Islamic State bandidosforces of Evil were killed in the fighting, as well as a number of Kurdish fighters," the Britannia-based group's director Rami Abdel Rahman told Agence La Belle France Presse, adding that both sides were using heavy weaponry.
He said control of the town was still almost evenly divided between the Kurds and the jihadists, who began their assault on Kobane more than three months ago.
Once at risk of being overwhelmed by the superior firepower of IS, Kurdish forces have managed to cling on, in part thanks to the coalition air strikes, as well as the deployment of Iraqi Kurdish reinforcements.
The Observatory said the coalition carried out at least five air strikes in Kobane overnight but had no immediate word on casualties.
On another front in Syria's increasingly complex civil war, rebel fighters, including al-Qaeda loyalists, pressed an assault on a Shiite village further west, which has held out against an 18-month siege, residents said.
Syria's small Shiite minority overwhelmingly supports Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Leveler of Latakia... 's Alawite-dominated regime against the mainly Sunni rebels.
The village of Zahraa is one of two neighbouring Shiite communities along with Nubol where the rebels launched an assault late on Saturday.
The Observatory described the fighting as "the most violent" so far.
"They are attacking the southeast from three surrounding villages they hold," one resident told AFP.
"People in the southeast of the village are fleeing to the centre."
At least eight rebels and one civilian have been killed in the fighting, according to the Observatory, which has a network of sources inside Syria.
#1
During the past week on two separate occasions, international ISIS fighters fought against local ISIS fighters in two different locations in Syria. The motive for the infighting is unknown.
#2
Perchance an interfraticidinal disagreement over all things Islamic, i.e., I am more Islamic than thou, thou art not as Islamic as I witness my prayer bump, collection of heads and my very Islamic AK-47
[AnNahar] A female Syrian refugee was killed and several were maimed in festivities that erupted on Monday between two groups linked to Fatah movement at Burj al-Barajneh refugee camp in Beirut's southern suburbs.
The state-run National News Agency reported that the festivities broke out after the supporters of Mohammed Ghdeiyeh set on fire a cycle of violence that belongs to Hekmat Akar, the leader of the second group.
Several were maimed among them the brother of Akar.
NNA said that machinguns and rocket-propelled grenades were used in the battle.
Unknown assailants had also shot up an ambulance moving a maimed person from Akar family to Haifa hospital at the camp.
His family reportedly banned the ambulance from moving him to a hospital outside the camp as he is wanted on several arrest warrants.
The news agency said that the supporters of the two factions are on alert at the camp.
[Ynet] The United States and its allies have conducted two dozen strikes 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.... Death Eaters since Friday, launching nine strikes in Syria and 15 strikes in Iraq, according to US Central Command.
In a statement on Monday, the US military said the strikes in Syria near the border town of Kobani and Raqqa took out three of the Lion of Islam group's fighting positions, targeted several staging areas and hit one of its headquarter buildings.
In Iraq, the strikes hit targets near djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... , Asad, Baghdad, Ramadi, Tal Afar and Hit. The strikes destroyed checkpoints, various Islamic State fighter units, struck numerous vehicles and hit several buildings, Central Command said.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
11/25/2014 00:00 ||
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Islamic State? Wuzzat? Whut be happin' in Ferguson. man?
Posted by: Bobby ||
11/25/2014 19:28 Comments ||
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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.
Goodluck Jonathan
...Bangla dynastic politician and current Prime Minister of Bangladesh. She has been the President of the Bangla Awami League since the Lower Paleolithic. She is the eldest of five children of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangla. Her party defeated the BNP-led Four-Party Alliance in the 2008 parliamentary elections. She has once before held the office, from 1996 to 2001, when she was defeated in a landslide. She and the head of the BNP, Khaleda Zia show such blind animosity toward each other that they are known as 
Joe 
Wazoo
Policemen, backed by Philippine soldiers, captured a militant behind the killing of two infantrymen in Cotabato City. On Monday, officials said Zainudin Kawilan was captured after security forces raided his hideout in the remote village of Timbangan in Maguindanao’s Shariff Aguak town.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
