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'East Africa embassy bomber Fazul Abdullah Mohammed killed'
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 1: WoT Operations
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Good morning
Posted by: Fred || 06/11/2011 15:48 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Happy Birthday/Daily Gam Shot

Adrienne Barbeau aka Stevie Wayne Bruce in "The Fog" aka Maggie in "Escape from New York" aka Alice in "Swamp Thing" aka Wilma Northup in "Creepshow" aka Vanessa Melon in "Back to School" aka Dr. Kurtz in "Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death" (age 66)



I'll see your two and raise you two
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 06/11/2011 17:09 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Suicide Bomber Kills Four Police in Kunduz
[Tolo News] At least four Afghan coppers were killed when a jacket wallah detonated his explosives in northern Kunduz province on Friday, local officials said.

Police officials said a suicide bomber has killed four coppers and maimed six others guarding a remembrance ceremony for late General Dawood Dawood the top Afghan police commander in the north.

The incident happened as guards stopped the bomber from entering the Mosque in in which many gathered today to remember Gen. Dawood Dawood, former Commander of 303 Pamir Zone in northern Afghanistan, officials said.

The bomber then detonated his explosives outside the mosque after being confronted by the guards. The blast smashed windows of the mosque.

Gen. Dawood was killed in a suicide kaboom on May 28 in northern Takhar province.

General Dawood was one of the important commanders in northern Afghanistan who was believed to be strongly against the Taliban.

He was one of the commanders of the resistance against Soviet occupation in the years of jihad.

He was a close friend of the northern alliance commander Ahmad Shah Massoud.

After the Mujahedeen government was ousted, Gen. Dawood fought the Taliban beside Ahmad Shah Massoud.

After the fall of the Taliban regime, Gen. Dawood became the counternarcotics deputy minister of Afghanistan's Interior Ministry and was later appointed as the commander of 303 Pamir Zone in the north.
Posted by: Fred || 06/11/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Africa Horn
'East Africa embassy bomber Fazul Abdullah Mohammed killed'
Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, who is suspected of masterminding the 1998 US embassy bombings in East Africa, has been killed in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, reports say.

Kenyan police said they had heard the news from Somali officials. DNA tests are believed to be under way to confirm the dead man's identity.

Fazul Abdullah Mohammed is the most wanted man in Africa.

More than 220 people died and 5,000 were hurt in the 1998 attacks. They were al-Qaeda's first major attack on US targets.
This article starring:
Fazul Abdullah Mohammed
Posted by: tipper || 06/11/2011 09:39 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This is truly excellent news
Posted by: Squinty Chaith8856 || 06/11/2011 9:51 Comments || Top||

#2  I hope it was slow and painful
Posted by: Frank G || 06/11/2011 10:02 Comments || Top||

#3  Honey, Brut or Dry/sec?
Posted by: Jack Salami || 06/11/2011 10:12 Comments || Top||

#4  His Jihadist activities started long before August 7, 1998:

"Mohammed spent time in Mogadishu planning a truck bombing against a United Nations establishment there, and was in the city on October 3, 1993 when Somali gunmen brought down two American helicopters and killed 18 U.S. special operations soldiers."
Posted by: 4mrG-man || 06/11/2011 10:17 Comments || Top||

#5  Update:
Abdullah and a fellow militant were shot dead by Somali Transitional Federal Government forces at a checkpoint in Mogadishu, Somali security officials told AFP and Reuters.

"Our forces fired on two men who refused to stop at a roadblock. They tried to defend themselves when they were surrounded by our men," TFG commander Abdikarim Yusuf told AFP.

"We took their ID documents, one of which was a foreign passport," he said, adding that medicine, mobile phones and laptops were also found.

Somali sources told AFP that Abdullah was carrying some $40,000 in cash and a South African passport bearing the name "Daniel Robinson".

Issued on 13 April 2009, it indicated that Abdullah had left South Africa on 19 March 2011 for Tanzania, where he was granted a visa.

Halima Aden, a senior Somali national security officer, confirmed that Abdullah was killed at a checkpoint this week, and that he had a South African passport.

"After thorough investigation, we confirmed it was him, and then we buried his corpse," he told the Reuters news agency.

One source told AFP that the incident took place at about 0200 on Wednesday (2300 GMT on Tuesday) in the Afgooye corridor, a 20km-long strip of land north-west of Mogadishu.

Photographs, published by AFP, of the face of one of the bodies bore similarities to those on the FBI Most Wanted Terrorists website.

The two bodies were collected by members of the Somali National Security Agency and then given to US officials for identification, AFP said.

Kenya's Police Commissioner, Matthew Iteere, told reporters on Saturday that he was liaising with Somali officials to get a full report.

"We have been told that there were two terrorists who were killed in Somalia on Wednesday. They were identified as Fazul Mohammed and Ali Dere. That is what we have been told by our counterparts," he said.

The US embassy in Kenya's capital, Nairobi, said it was investigating the reports.

Born in the Comoros islands in the early 1970s, Abdullah is believed to have joined al-Qaeda in Afghanistan during the 1990s.

After the bombings of the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in 1998, which killed 224 people, the US accused him of involvement and issued a $5m reward for information leading to capture.

In 2002, Abdullah was believed to have been put in charge of al-Qaeda operations in East Africa. That year, he was blamed for the bombing of a beach resort in Kenya, which left 13 people dead, and an attempt to shoot down an Israeli passenger aircraft.

In 2007, he survived a US air strike on the southern Somali coastal village of Hayo, near the town of Ras Kamboni.

In recent years, Abdullah is thought to have fought alongside members of the Somali Islamist militant group, al-Shabab, which declared allegiance to al-Qaeda in 2010.

Al-Shabab controls much of southern Somalia and has been fighting government forces and African Union troops for control of Mogadishu.
Posted by: tipper || 06/11/2011 10:55 Comments || Top||

#6  Daniel Robertson? REALLY? He was just asking to get shot.
Posted by: Charles || 06/11/2011 11:12 Comments || Top||

#7  "We took their ID documents, one of which was a foreign passport," he said, adding that medicine, mobile phones and laptops were also found.

Oooooh, more toys for the smart boys and girls to play with, as soon as they've gotten some sleep after going through the bin Laden cache! It has been interesting, watching how much this war has come to rely on capturing and exploiting information in new ways, not just vastly superior weaponry and soldiery.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/11/2011 12:18 Comments || Top||

#8  Issued on 13 April 2009, it indicated that Abdullah had left South Africa on 19 March 2011 for Tanzania, where he was granted a visa

Which would reinforce conjectures about South Africa serving as a haven for Islamic terrorism.
Posted by: Pappy || 06/11/2011 13:52 Comments || Top||

#9  LWJ has his final photo.
Posted by: Frank G || 06/11/2011 14:16 Comments || Top||

#10  Looks like he took at least one in the chest or upper abdomen. You may have gotten your wish, Frank.
Posted by: Steve White || 06/11/2011 17:13 Comments || Top||

#11  Looks like him. Good riddance. Now take out the garbage.
Posted by: JohnQC || 06/11/2011 18:13 Comments || Top||

#12  Would it be barbaric to make that picture my background for a couple days?
Posted by: Charles || 06/11/2011 19:12 Comments || Top||

#13  I'd make an animated gif, but he isn't moving much
Posted by: Frank G || 06/11/2011 19:14 Comments || Top||

#14  Welcome to HELL, Fazul. Sorry about the long waiting line.

Well, not really....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 06/11/2011 20:18 Comments || Top||

#15  Considering his current 'stable' state Frank - I think that is as animated as he's going to get.

(Barring Zombiehood)
Posted by: CrazyFool || 06/11/2011 20:34 Comments || Top||


Two boys killed in Mog protest
MOGADISHU: Two boys were shot dead in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu on Friday during a second day of protests against a deal to extend the mandates of the country’s president and parliament, residents said.

Hundreds of supporters of the prime minister, who must resign under the terms of the deal, marched through the city’s rubble-strewn streets chanting “long live Prime Minister (Mohamed Abdullahi) Mohamed.”

The two boys died when police loyal to the speaker of parliament shot at the demonstrators, starting a gunfight with soldiers loyal to President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed and his government, witnesses said. About a dozen other demonstrators were wounded.

“We were just walking and chanting when police guarding the Hotel Muna opened fire on us,” Nadifa Ali told Reuters.
"We wuzn't doin' nuttin', see, and da coppers just emptied dier rods at us!"
“Two young boys died on the spot and others were injured. Soon a military vehicle came and fired on the police guarding the hotel,” she said.

A Reuters photographer said the protesters then set the hotel ablaze.
Posted by: Steve White || 06/11/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Somali Interior Minister Dies in Suicide Attack, Allegedly by Niece
[An Nahar] An kaboom Friday in the home of Somalia's interior minister killed him and a woman suspected of being a bomber as violent demonstrations swept the capital.

Interior Minister Abdishakur Sheik Hassan, who also was minister for national security, died after shrapnel hit his legs and other parts of his body, said Ministry of Information front man Abdifatah Abdinur.

He was earlier taken to a hospital at death's door. Abdinur said a dead body of a female suspected to be the bomber was found in the home.

Mohamud Abdullahi Weheliye, a member of parliament and a relative of Hassan's, said the minister's niece carried out the attack and that she was "sent by al-Shabaab
... Harakat ash-Shabaab al-Mujahidin aka the Mujahideen Youth Movement. It was originally the youth movement of the Islamic Courts, now pretty much all of what's left of it. They are aligned with al-Qaeda but operate more like the Afghan or Pakistani Taliban. The organization's current leader is Ibrahim Haji Jama Mee'aad, also known as Ibrahim al-Afghani. Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, a Kenyan al-Qaeda member, is considered the group's military leader...
," an Islamist militia with ties to al-Qaeda.

The group has carried out suicide kabooms in the past, including ones that targeted government officials. There was no immediate official confirmation of Weheliye's account.

Abdinur said officials were investigating to confirm it was a suicide kaboom in the two-story, gated building that is normally well protected. The kaboom reportedly took place in the sitting room.

"The walls of the sitting room cracked and blood and debris were scattered all over," said Mohamed Mohamud, a witness who visited the site after the kaboom. The house is near the Foreign Ministry and in a neighborhood inhabited by government officials and members of parliament.

For a country that has been swept by war and anarchy for two decades, Friday was a particularly bloody day and came barely two days after President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed and the speaker of parliament signed an internationally mediated agreement extending the government's term by a year. It postponed an August presidential election until 2012 to give leaders more time to deal with security and political issues.
Posted by: Fred || 06/11/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Shabaab


Sudan 'bombs oil-rich southern state'
[Al Jazeera] South Sudan has said it is preparing its army to face an imminent ground offensive from the north, after accusing Khartoum of bombing a border village.

On Friday, the south said the north had killed three civilians in a bombing on a border town in the Unity state region.

"There has been an air bombardment by northern forces in Unity state, in the morning yesterday and again in the afternoon. Three people were killed in the morning," Philip Aguer, front man for the south's Sudan Peoples' Liberation Army (SPLA), said.

"We are expecting not only air attacks but also ground forces. Our forces near the border are on maximum alert and are expecting an attackany time," he added.

The south is preparing to secede on July 9 but there are fears of fresh fighting between the two long-standing rivals, especially after the north seized the disputed Abyei region two weeks ago.

Aguer said northern forces were moving from Abyei towards Unity state. The northern army has not yet commented on the claims.

However,
nothing needs reforming like other people's bad habits...
a UN spokeswoman told the AFP news agency that the northern army had not struck inside southern territory.

"The place that they bombed was an SPLA assembly area, right on the north-south border. This is one of the disputed territories," Hua Jiang for the UN mission in Sudan said.

'Thousands flee'

As many as 40,000 people may have decamped fighting in Sudan's South Kordofan state, the UN has said.

"Of the Kadugli population, estimated at 60,000, between 30,000 to 40,000 people are now believed to have decamped the town," Elisabeth Byrs, spokeswoman of the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told news hounds in Geneva on Friday.

Amnesia Amnesty International announced a "humanitarian emergency" in the border state's capital of Kadugli, on Friday.

"The Sudanese government must urgently put a stop to these indiscriminate attacks, and in particular must stop the bombing of areas populated by civilians and allow humanitarian agencies access to deliver assistance to the civilian population," said Erwin van der Borght, Africa programme director for Amnesia Amnesty International.

Clashes broke out in Kadugli after a cop shoppe was attacked on Saturday.

Officials from the northern and southern ruling parties have traded blame for who started the fighting.

Southern Kordofan, which is in northern territory, has been seen as a potential flashpoint in the build-up to the south's scheduled secession because it is home to many fighters who fought against Khartoum during the last civil war.

It is also Sudan's only oil-producing state and accounts for around 25 per cent of Sudan's total output of around 480,000 barrels per day.

Khartoum is likely to see a sharp fall in its vital oil revenues when the south secedes unless an amicable revenue-sharing agreement is reached.

Another 100,000 people, most of them ethnically southern Dinka Ngok farmers, have decamped to the south from the contested Abyei border region nearby since it was overrun by northern troops on May 21, according to UN estimates.
Posted by: Fred || 06/11/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Sudan


Africa North
Qaddafi forces surround Zlitan, threaten rape
BENGHAZI/MISRATA: Forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi on Friday surrounded Zlitan, one of only three towns separating the opposition-held city of Misrata from the capital Tripoli, an opposition military spokesman said.

“Large numbers of troops are surrounding Zlitan from all directions and are threatening its residents with having their women raped by mercenaries if they do not surrender,” Ahmed Bani, military spokesman, told Reuters by phone from Benghazi.

Zlitan could act as a stepping stone to allow the anti-Qaddafi uprising to spread from Misrata, the biggest opposition outpost in western Libya, to Qaddafi’s stronghold in Tripoli. Bani said the troops around Zlitan were equipped with artillery and Grad rockets.

Meanwhile, Libyan government forces pounded the outskirts of Misrata on Friday, killing at least 22 people, a hospital physician said. The doctor at Hikma Hospital, who would only give his first name, Ayman, said Qaddafi’s forces used tanks, artillery and incendiary rockets in the bombardment of Dafniya, about 30 km west of Misrata. He said at least 61 people were wounded in the attacks which began about 10 a.m. local time.

The doctor said residents had reported no sign of NATO aircraft in the Misrata region. There also were no reports NATO strikes in Tripoli, the capital. NATO had been pounding Tripoli and environs in recent days, stepping up backing for the four-month-old uprising that seeks to oust Qaddafi from power after four decades.

Rebels have taken control of swaths of eastern Libya, although fighting has since come to a stalemate even with NATO support. Misrata remained one of the most important opposition footholds in the Qaddafi controlled west.

Government forces are surrounding Misrata on all sides but the north, where the city has access to the Mediterranean Sea for supplies and food through Libya’s major port. Opposition fighters have beaten back several government attempts to retake the city.

The Qaddafi forces are pushing back on opposition forces trying to break out of Misrata to the west toward Tripoli, where Qaddafi is increasingly cornered under NATO bombardment in the capital.

An opposition fighter in Misrata who identifies himself only as Abdel-Salem said Qaddafi’s sons, Khamis and Al-Moatassem, and top aid Abdullah Al-Senoussi are in command of the operation in Zlitan, about 15 km from Dafinya. They are dug in trying to stop the opposition advance out of Misrata.

“The situation is very bad there. Qaddafi sent huge forces to Zlitan to fortify the city because he knows that if Zlitan falls in the hands of the opposition fighters, the way to Tripoli will be wide open,” Abdel-Salam said. “Now the ball is in the court of NATO, but we have not seen any NATO planes flying over despite the fierce battle.” According to Abdel-Salam, a bulk of Zlitan residents are Qaddafi loyalists.
Posted by: Steve White || 06/11/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I thought Qaddafi is going down, his days are numbered?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 06/11/2011 6:57 Comments || Top||


Renewed NATO air strikes rock Tripoli
[Al Jazeera] NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the style of the American pants...
war planes are continuing to bombard the Libyan capital Tripoli, with large kabooms echoing over the city.

Air strikes on Friday sent plumes of smoke over Tripoli, and the direction of the strikes suggested that either the compound of Muammar Qadaffy, Libya's embattled leader, or nearby military barracks were shelled.

After the strikes, pro-Qadaffy supporters fired assault rifles into the air and beeped their car horns in defiance.

The strikes followed a total of 14 air attacks that were carried out on Thursday, considerably fewer than the heavy bombardment on Tuesday that flattened major buildings in Qadaffy's compound in the centre of the city.

Libyan state TV reported that NATO warplanes also attacked targets in the Ain Zara neighbourhood in the southeast of Tripoli.

The continued air raids came as Qadaffy forces renewed their shelling near the rebel-held western city of Misrata, killing at least 17 rebel fighters on Friday and wounding 40 others.

Al Jizz's Tony Birtley, reporting from Al Dafniya near Misrata, said it has been "a bloody day in terms of casualties".

"For nine intensive hours bombardments were non-stop. We were at a former garage workshop that has been turned into a mash unit, and body after body after casualty was being brought in there. It was complete mayhem.

"They can do the absolute basic surgery there to help them out and hopefully they can keep them alive long enough to bring them to Misrata for more intensive treatment."

In Brussels, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the NATO secretary-general, said the shelling near Misrata underscored the continued need to protect civilians.

"It is an example that the Qadaffy regime still constitutes a threat to the civilian population,'' he said. "We will stay committed as long as necessary."

'Qadaffy's days numbered'
The airs raids also came as Hillary Clinton
... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Edward Everett ...
, the US secretary of state, declared on Thursday that Qadaffy's days as leader of Libya were numbered.

"Qadaffy's days are numbered. We are working with our international partners through the UN to plan for the inevitable: a post-Qadaffy Libya," Clinton said at the International Contact Group [ICG] meeting on Libya in Abu Dhabi.

Clinton also said talks were under way with people close to the Libyan leader and that there was "the potential" for a transition of power in Libya.

"There have been numerous and continuing discussions by people close to Qadaffy and we are aware that those discussions include, among other matters, the potential for a transition," she said.

She gave no further details on the talks, other than to say "there is not any clear way forward yet".

Financial pledge
As the battle for control of Libya raged, donors at the ICG meeting pledged more than $1.3bn to help support the National Transitional Council (NTC), the main body representing the Libyan rebels fighting against Qadaffy.

Italia and La Belle France offered a combined $1.02bn while Kuwait and Qatar promised a combined $280m to a fund set up to provide transparent assistance to the opposition.
Posted by: Fred || 06/11/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  And NATO's War on Masonry shuffles along.
Posted by: Mitch H. || 06/11/2011 17:30 Comments || Top||


Gaddafi forces shell Misratah, 20 dead
[Iran Press TV] Latest reports say forces loyal to embattled Libyan ruler Muammar Qadaffy have launched new attacks on the western town of Misratah, killing at least 20 people.

Media reports say some 80 others have been maimed in and around the troubled city.

Misratah has been heavily shelled since the conflict began in February.

The city has been largely in the hands of revolutionaries after they drove away regime forces in mid-May.

Opposition sources say Qadaffy's forces have also shelled their positions in the Western Mountains region.

"They (Qadaffy forces) are shelling Zintan with Grad missiles," Rooters quoted an opposition front man as saying.

Regime forces have also struck the towns of Yafran and Nalut in the region.

The opposition has accused NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the style of the American pants...
of not doing enough to stop Qadaffy's forces.

Meanwhile,
...back at the Esquimeau village our hero was receiving a quick lesson in aeronautics:...
NATO has denied a report
No, no! Certainly not!
that Libyan forces shot down one of its helicopters in the sea off the coast of the town of Zlitan.

Earlier, Libyan state TV said the chopper was the third NATO aircraft to be targeted by Qadaffy's forces.

NATO has recently stepped up its air raids over Libya with the introduction of French and British attack helicopters.

NATO fighter jets have been pummeling the Libyan regime's military installations, communication centers and armories.

Libya has been the scene of fierce fighting between Qadaffy's troops and anti-regime forces since mid-February. Revolutionary forces want an end to Qadaffy's decades-long rule.
Posted by: Fred || 06/11/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Africa Subsaharan
Fazul Abdullah, the presumed head of al Qaeda in east Africa, has been killed
Fazul Abdullah, the presumed head of al Qaeda in east Africa, has been killed in the Somali capital Mogadishu.

The terror chief was wanted by America for allegedly planning in the US embassy truck bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in 1998 which killed 224 people.

Kenya's police chief confirmed Abdullah was killed on Wednesday - confirming a report from Somali Islamist Shebab rebels.

"We have received that communication from authorities in Somalia," Kenyan Police Commissioner Mathew Iteere said.

"We have been told that there were two snuffies who were killed in Somalia on Wednesday last week."

Officials with the Somali Transitional Government (TFG) said the terrorist pair were killed at a roadblock on the outskirts of Mogadishu after "they refused to stop".

The men were travelling in a pick-up truck carrying medicine, laptops and mobile phones.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 06/11/2011 08:58 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Arabia
Warplanes strike militants in Yemen
SANAA, Yemen - Yemeni officials say government warplanes have struck militants who seized a southern town and bombarded them with artillery, killing at least six.

Security officials say the airstrikes hit militants early Friday outside the town of Jaar, which militants seized in March. They report casualties but the exact number was not immediately known.
Posted by: Steve White || 06/11/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Nine Killed Lahj Province Ambush
[Yemen Post] Nine people were killed when gunnies attacked a security checkpoint in Yemen's southern Lahj province on Friday, a security official in Lahj said.

Six soldiers and three gunnies died when festivities erupted following the attack on the checkpoint in Al-Habilain district, the official said.

Eyewitnesses said that the gunnies ambushed the security forces.

Four of the gunnies beat feet the scene, the security official said.
Posted by: Fred || 06/11/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Transitional Council Urged as Yemen Determined to Continue Uprising
[Yemen Post] Massive demonstrations were held in Yemeni cities on the Friday of loyalty to the popular uprising in which the people urged to form a transitional council, and prevent Saleh from coming back and open trials for him and officials and relatives in his regime.

In Sana'a, hundreds of thousands of antigovernment protesters gathered in Street 60th to pray and confirm their determination to continue the popular uprising.

They also buried 40 people who were killed in attacks on the houses of sheikh Hamid Al-Ahmer and defected commander Ali Muhsen Al-Ahmer.

Meantime, spokesmen for the youth-led uprising have criticized acting president Abd Rabu Mansour Hadi, saying he is implementing foreign agenda and protecting the Saleh regime.

They told media that a practical transfer of power should start immediately because a new era in Yemen has already begun.
Posted by: Fred || 06/11/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Bahrainis hold anti-regime protests
[Iran Press TV] Anti-government protesters have once again taken to the streets in Bahrain, demanding an end to the rule of Al Khalifa dynasty.

The massive protest rallies were held in towns and villages around the capital, Manama, following the Friday Prayers.

Witnesses say Saudi-backed Bahraini forces attacked anti-regime protesters in the village of Karbabad and jugged 10 demonstrators.

There were no immediate reports of festivities and arrests in other towns and villages.

Bahraini protesters have begun a fresh wave of protest rallies after the Manama regime lifted on June 1 a state of emergency imposed during a March crackdown on protesters. Bahraini activists say their protest campaign will continue until the nation's demands are met.

But despite the lifting of the emergency law, protest rallies are still forbidden and regime forces open fire and beat up those taking part in protest rallies.

Meanwhile,
...back at the shouting match, a new, even louder, voice was to be heard...
Bahrain's leading opposition party, al-Wefaq, says the government is to put nearly 400 people on trial for taking part in peaceful protests.

The party says so far up to 50 people have been sentenced for supporting anti-regime campaign, with penalties ranging from a short prison term to execution.

Thousands of anti-government protesters have been staging demonstrations in Bahrain since mid-February, demanding political reforms and a constitutional monarchy, a demand that later changed to an outright call for the ouster of the ruling Al Khalifa family following its brutal crackdown on popular protests.

Scores of people have been killed and hundreds, including doctors and journalists, were placed in long-term storage in the Saudi-backed crackdown on peaceful protesters in Bahrain.

Human rights groups and the families of protesters placed in long-term storage during the crackdown say that most detainees have been physically and mentally abused, while the whereabouts of many of them remain unknown.

Amnesia Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch
... dedicated to bitching about human rights violations around the world...
have criticized the Manama regime for its brutal crackdown on civilians.
Posted by: Fred || 06/11/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Iran's checks musta cleared
Posted by: Frank G || 06/11/2011 8:53 Comments || Top||


'Yemen's Saleh politically dead'
[Iran Press TV] A senior Iranian politician says Yemen's embattled President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh
... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower...
, who is currently in Soddy Arabia to allegedly receive medical treatment, is "politically dead."

"Even if Saleh exploits all the means available to return to Yemen, this will not change his fate [for the better] because, politically speaking, Saleh is dead," Head of the Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Alaeddin Boroujerdi told Fars News Agency on Friday.

Boroujerdi noted that even in case Saleh makes a ceremonial return to Yemen, he would not be able to establish another government.

The Yemeni president relocated to Soddy Arabia allegedly for medical purposes after he suffered injuries in an attack on the presidential palace in the capital, Sana'a, on June 3.

"It was clear from scratch that such a fate would befall the Yemeni dictator, after he moved to kill his people on a large scale, resisted the will of his people and undermined his nation in the worst way possible, and ruled the country for decades as a dictator and regardless of people's demands," Boroujerdi pointed out.

The Iranian politician called for vigilance among the Yemeni revolutionaries against the West's plots and American stratagems, saying Saleh's departure "is not the end of the story."

"The revolutionaries should advance their revolution through establishing a government based on the people's will and democracy," he urged.

Following the popular revolution in Tunisia and Egypt in January and February respectively, Yemen too was swept with the wave of Islamic awakening that has been surging in North Africa and the Middle East, with anti-regime protests in major cities calling for an end to corruption and unemployment in the country.

Hundreds of Yemenis have been killed and many more injured in the brutal crackdown by the US and Saudi-backed government against anti-regime protesters.
Posted by: Fred || 06/11/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Bangladesh
Jamaat leader held with 10 firearms
[Bangla Daily Star] Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) yesterday placed in long-term storage a Jamaat leader along with 10 firearms at West Deka of Chauddagram upazila in Comilla.

A special team of the elite force raided a house in the area at about 5:45 am and placed in long-term storage Nazrul Islam alias Mamun, general secretary of Alpara unit of Jamaat.

Rab members recovered a loaded pistol, two foreign-made rifles, six pipe guns, a shutter gun and five bullets from his possession.

They also seized Jihadi books and leaflets from the house. A case was filed with Chauddagram Police Station.
Posted by: Fred || 06/11/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami

#1  Oh goody, the RAB have a new shutter gun.
Posted by: Steven || 06/11/2011 15:31 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
2 Border patrol Agents Wounded in Firefight on Rio Grande
From US wire and translated Mexican reports. For a map, click here.
Two US Border Patrol agents were wounded in a firefight with armed Mexican drug traffickers near the Texas city of Weslaco, according to US and Spanish language published sources.

Reports say around 300 shots were fired, six from drug traffickers as US agents attempted to intercept landfall of barges with marijuana aboard.

Two unidentified Border Patrol agents were wounded in the exchange while at least two armed suspects were struck by gunfire. It is unknown if the suspects survived their wounds.

Spanish language reports say the raft made landfall, the crew unloaded product on board a Dodge Durango SUV and the immediately returned to the Mexican side of the river. Armed suspects fired weapons and threw rocks at the agents, which prompted return fire.

Mexican authorities report seizing 181 kilograms of marijuana on the Mexican side of the river.

Weslaco is near Reynosa, Tamaulipas, one of the most contested Mexican border cities between the Gulf cartel and their former allies, Los Zetas.
Posted by: badanov || 06/11/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Houston Chronicle reports: WESLACO — Answering a smattering of gunshots with a 300-round barrage should show drug runners - their inflatable rafts full of illegal contraband - that Texas law enforcement officers aren't messing around, authorities said.

"You shoot a police officer, you're going to be shot back at," said Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw, dismissing on Friday any notion that the U.S. response to an early morning shootout Thursday with Mexican drug runners on the Rio Grande was over the top.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 06/11/2011 0:17 Comments || Top||

#2  Has Holder arrested the Border Patrol agents yet?
Posted by: CrazyFool || 06/11/2011 1:01 Comments || Top||

#3  Has Holder arrested the Border Patrol agents yet?

No way! It was a Texas Ranger Recon mission, with the Texas Rangers, Park and Wildlife and Border Patrol Agents involved.




Posted by: Willy || 06/11/2011 10:40 Comments || Top||

#4  Pray for the recovery of our BP agents. Though the fact the fired on US officials makes me question if the Runners didn't have some of the product that night.
Posted by: Charles || 06/11/2011 11:14 Comments || Top||


More Mexican Mayhem
18 Die in Northern Mexico

A total of 18 individuals were murdered in ongoing drug and gang related violence in northern Mexican states including two inmates killed in a brawl at a minimum security prison in Chihuahua, Chihuahua.
For a map, click here.
  • Two unidentified men were shot to death Thursday in Chihuahua. Daniel Granados, 25, Pablo Ortiz, 27, and Valentino Hernandez, 18, were shot near the intersection of calles 55th and Ojinaga inside a mobile home.

  • Two unidentified men died in a small aircraft crash in Uribe, Chihuahua Wednesday. Reprots say armed suspects arrived at the scene of the crash and removed the bodies of the victims before authorities could arrive. The aircraft involved reportedly was a Cessna 206.

  • A man was fund shot to death in Delcias, Chihuahua Thursday. Ramón Hernändez Humberto Salinas was found in an irrigatioon ditch near the main highway with numberous gunshot wounds.

  • A man was foound shot to death in Parral, Chihuahua Thursday. Romualdo Holguin Chavez, 56, was found near his Nissan Sentra sedan shot with an AK-47 assault rifle. Police were searching for a Ford Explorer in connection with the murder.

  • An unidentified man was shot to death in Juarez Thursday night. The victim was at a construction site near the intersection of calles Mariscal and Cadereyta in the Melchor Ocampo colony when he was shot.

  • An unidentified man was shot in Juarez Thursady night. The victim was near the intersection of Mariano Escobedo and calle Cadereyta in the Mariano Escobedo colony when he was shot by an armed suspect ravelling aboard a vehicle.

  • An unidentified man was found shot to death in Lomas Blancas ejido Thursday night. The victim was found on calle Fidel Velazquez near El Rancho La Sauceda. .45 caliber and 5.7mm weapons were used in the attack.

  • An unidentified man was found shot ot death Friday in Chihuahua, Chihuahua. The victim was found near El Rancho Aldana shot several times in the back with a 10mm weapon.

  • Two unidentified inmates at a Chihuahua, Chihuahua prison were killed in a prison brawl Friday. The deaths took place at the Low Risk Unit prison, formerly known as the Chihuahua, Chihuahua Centro de Readaptacion Social (CERESO). An undisclosed number of other inmates were injured in the brawl.

  • A man was beaten to death in Nogales, Sonora Thursday morning. Epifanio Medina Alvarez, 29, was found on calle Circuito Jardin with wounds about his face and a bloody rock nearby. Police were searching for men who were aboard a Ford Lobo (F-150) pickup truck.

  • A severed human head was found in Tijuana, Baja California Thursday. The victim's head was in a rucksack with a message inside in the Martínez colony. The body of the victim was later found on calle Primera in the Francisco Villa ejido.

  • Two individuals were shot to death and six others were wounded in the crossfire of an intergang firefight in Torreon, Coahuila Wednesday night. The gun battle took place near the intersection of calles Muzquiz and Independencia in the zona Centro. A second gunfire exchange took place moments later only a few meters from the original site. Four victims were aboard a bus while two others were on foot nearby when they were struck.

  • An unidentified man was found beaten to death in Torreon, Coahuila early Friday morning.The victim was found near the intersection of Avenida C and Calle 18th in the Nueva Rosita colony hands bound and gagged.

  • A man was found beaten and strangled to death in Gomez Palacio, Durango Wednesday evening. Isabel Acosta Pereira, 65, was found near on Avenida Juan Alvarez in the 5 de mayo colony.
Posted by: badanov || 06/11/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: WoT
Conviction in Danish cartoon attack plot
[Al Jazeera] A US federal jury has convicted a Chicago businessman of helping plot an attack against a Danish newspaper that printed cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

But the jury in the US state of Illinois cleared Tahawwur Rana of the most serious terrorism charge of co-operating in the deadly 2008 rampage in the Indian city of Mumbai.

The jury reached its split verdict after two days of deliberations on Thursday, finding Rana guilty of providing "material support to terrorism" in Denmark.

He was also found guilty of providing support to the Pakistain group that claimed responsible for the three-day siege in India's largest city that left more than 160 people dead, but he was found not guilty of taking part in the attack itself.

The jurors declined to talk to the media to explain their decision, which defence attorneys described as conflicting.

Rana, a Canadian national who has lived in Chicago for years, faces up to 30 years in prison on the two charges.

"We're extremely disappointed. We think they got it wrong," defence attorney Patrick Blegen told news hounds.

Connecting the dots
At the centre of the trial was testimony by the government's star witness, David Coleman Headley, a longtime friend of Rana who previously pleaded guilty to laying the groundwork for the Mumbai attacks and planning to attack the Danish paper in retaliation for printing the cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, as is prohibited in Islam. That plot was never carried out.

Headley's testimony was closely watched worldwide because it provided a rare glimpse into the inner workings of the Pak group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which took credit for the Mumbai attacks, and the alleged co-operation with Pakistain's top intelligence agency, known as the ISI.

Defence attorneys spent much of their time trying to discredit Headley, who they claimed duped his friend from a Pak boarding school.

They attacked Headley's character, saying he initially lied to the FBI, lied to a judge and even lied to his own family, claiming that he implicated Rana in the plot because he wanted to make a deal with prosecutors, something he had learned after he became an informant for the US Drug Enforcement Administration after two heroin convictions.

Prosecutors, on the other hand, claimed that Rana, 50, knew exactly what he was doing when he helped Headley.

Rana, who did not testify, was on trial for allegedly allowing Headley to open a branch of his Chicago-based immigration law services business in Mumbai as a cover story while Headley conducted surveillance before the attacks in November 2008.

He was also accused of letting Headley, whose co-operation means he avoids the death penalty and extradition, travel as a representative of the company in Copenhagen.

Evidence
Prosecutors used a recorded phone call recorded between Rana and Headley on September 7, 2009, as the centrepiece of their evidence against Rana. In the call, the men discussed the Mumbai attacks and Headley talked about future targets, including the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten.

US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald told news hounds after the verdict that he was gratified by the jury's decision and disagreed with defence attorneys who said the verdict was conflicting because he was convicted of supporting Lashkar-e-Taiba but acquitted of charges that he helped in the Mumbai attacks.

"There's lots of ways you could explain it, but I haven't spoken to the jury," Fitzgerald said. "There was clearly evidence that he knew he was working with Lashkar."

Six others were charged in absentia in the case, including an ISI member known only as "Major Iqbal'' and Headley's Lashkar handler Sajid Mir.

While much of Headley's testimony had been heard before in the context of the indictment in this case and a report released by the Indian government last year, he did reveal a few new details.

Kashmiri's 'stronghold approach'

Among them was that another man, Ilyas Kashmiri, who US officials believed to be al-Qaeda's military operations chief in Pakistain, had plotted to attack US defence contractor Lockheed Martin.

Kashmiri was reported killed on June 3 by a dronezap inside Pakistain.

While US officials have not confirmed the death, Pak officials say they are sure Kashmiri is dead.

Headley said he worked with Kashmiri in the plot against the Danish paper, describing how the al-Qaeda leader wanted a "stronghold approach".

One plan included taking hostages in the building and killing them quickly by beheading them.

"He said we should throw out the heads of the hostages from the windows," Headley said of Kashmiri, speaking in a monotone and seemingly detached voice. "He said shoot them first and then behead them later, so there wouldn't be a struggle.''
Posted by: Fred || 06/11/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


India-Pakistan
Militants flee after U.S. gives intel to Pakistan
Twice in recent weeks, the United States provided Pakistan with the specific locations of insurgent bomb-making factories, only to see the militants learn their cover had been blown and vacate the sites before military action could be taken, according to U.S. and Pakistani officials.

Overhead surveillance video and other information was given to Pakistani officials in mid-May, officials said, as part of a trust-building effort by the Obama administration after the killing of Osama bin Laden in a U.S. raid early last month. But Pakistani military units that arrived at the sites in the tribal areas of North and South Waziristan on June 4 found them abandoned.

A senior Pakistani military official said Friday that the United States had also shared information about other sites, including weapons-storage facilities, that were similarly found empty. “There is a suspicion that perhaps there was a tip-off,” the official said. “It’s being looked into by our people, and certainly anybody involved will be taken to task.”
More Andrew Jackson and less F. Lee Bailey in US external policy would work wonders.
Posted by: Zebulon Thranter9685 || 06/11/2011 09:16 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Because the South Vietnamese government and the ARVN were infiltrated, the US went to considerable lengths to cultivate a few trusted units, after everyone in them had been repeatedly tested for leaks and passed.

While it was an extensive and subtle undertaking to purge any infiltrators and "questionables", it paid off in spades, because such units could be used as the teeth of major Phoenix operations that needed a lot of boots.

Often for "Night of the Long Knives" operations where they would police up and deal with dozens or even hundreds of Viet Cong operatives, often in positions of power in the government.

And because they were Vietnamese, they were not under the restrictive US ROE, so could quickly torture for information, and execute VC they had snatched.

Such units were sequestered from the ARVN and any government meddling, and the VC were terrified of them. Watching their bases, when any number of them would leave for any reason, VC operations would halt and they would try to hide, which was damned incriminating.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 06/11/2011 11:14 Comments || Top||

#2  I have a couple of other possibilities -

The intel was junk to begin with, or

The leakers are in this country, using the New York Times as a vehicle for leaks.

But I think the obvious problem is correct!
Posted by: Bobby || 06/11/2011 11:58 Comments || Top||

#3  They were repeatedly given the opportunity to be trustworthy, and they repeatedly chose to fail. It must be remembered that the ISI is not an independent branch of the military, but a career experience that promotable army officers are rotated through. So anything deemed acceptable by members of the ISI must be ok with the Army of the Pure as well.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/11/2011 13:38 Comments || Top||

#4  They were repeatedly given the opportunity to be trustworthy, and they repeatedly chose to fail. It must be remembered that the ISI is not an independent branch of the military, but a career experience that promotable army officers are rotated through. So anything deemed acceptable by members of the ISI must be ok with the Army of the Pure as well.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/11/2011 13:38 Comments || Top||


Maoists kill 10 Indian policemen
[Bangla Daily Star] Maoists yesterday blasted an anti-landmine vehicle killing 10 security personnel in Dantewada district of central Indian state of Chhattisgarh.

The vehicle of the security forces was approaching a bridge near Gatan village when the Maoists triggered a powerful blast and opened indiscriminate fire on them, police said in Chhattisgarh capital Raipur.

Seven special coppers and three coppers were killed when their vehicle was tossed in the air by the blast, they said.

The incident came a day after Naxals opened indiscriminate fire near the camp of Chhattisgarh Armed Force in Narayanpur district, killing four coppers on Thursday.
Posted by: Fred || 06/11/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Commies


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Hamas founder Hassan Shama dead
This is an obituary you'll enjoy reading.
GAZA CITY — A founder of Hamas in the Gaza Strip died on Friday of a stroke after decades as an influential yet little-known figure at the helm of the Palestinian organisation. He was 76.

Muhammad Hassan Shama, revered by Hamas loyalists but nearly anonymous outside Gaza, was one of the eight founders of the Palestinian group in the 1980s. After his death, Hamas publicly announced on Friday for the first time that Shama had been the leader of the Shura Council, its top governing body.

The identity of the council’s members is a closely guarded secret because of fears they could be targeted by Israel. The founder and first leader of Hamas, Shaikh Ahmed Yassin, was killed by an Israeli air strike in 2004.

On Friday, Hamas released a statement mourning Shama’s death. Shama died, the group said, “after a long journey of jihad that he spent, along with Shaikh Ahmed Yassin, in teaching, educating and promoting the noble cause of Islam and jihad”.

Shama was born in 1935 in the city of Ashkelon, now in Israel, according to the Hamas statement. He became a refugee, along with hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, in the war that followed Israel’s creation in 1948.

He was arrested and jailed repeatedly by Israel.
Posted by: Steve White || 06/11/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If you can't say something nice ......
(chirrrp, chirrrp)
Posted by: Glenmore || 06/11/2011 0:58 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syrian helicopter gunships fire at protesters
Syrian helicopter gunships fired machine guns to disperse a large pro-democracy protest in the town of Maarat al-Numaan on Friday, witnesses said, a dangerous escalation of force at the end of a day in which 32 civilians were reported killed by Assad's forces across the country. The gunship use was the first reported use of air power to quell protests in Syria's uprising.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that helicopters fired at the town after security forces on the ground killed five protesters, but said no killings were reported in the assault by the helicopters.

A 40-year-old man who had decamped across the border into Turkey from Jisr al-Shughour with a bullet still in his thigh also described mutiny in Syrian ranks. "Some of the security forces defected and there were some in the army who refused the orders of their superiors," he said. "They were firing on each other."
Posted by: || 06/11/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  NFZ?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 06/11/2011 6:48 Comments || Top||


Assad not taking Ban Ki-moon’s phone calls
UNITED NATIONS - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who is facing international pressure to end a bloody crackdown on anti-government protesters, is not taking the UN chief’s phone calls, the United Nations said on Friday.

UN spokesman Martin Nesirky confirmed a report by Kuwait news agency KUNA that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had been trying to call Assad on Thursday but was told that the president was “not available.”

He added that Ban had been trying to speak with Assad all week but was unable to get through to him.

Ban has urged Assad to end what he called “violent repression” and human rights abuses by Syrian forces, who rights groups say have killed over 1,100 civilians since March in their revolt to press demands for more political freedoms and an end to corruption and poverty.
Posted by: Steve White || 06/11/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Why just dictators treat the jerk and his circus right.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 06/11/2011 6:50 Comments || Top||

#2  If you mean that this is how any sensible person should react to Ban Ki's phone calls, g(r), then I agree with you.
Posted by: AlanC || 06/11/2011 11:03 Comments || Top||


At Least 22 Dead in Syria Protests as Troops Raid Jisr al-Shughour
[An Nahar] Syrian troops launched Friday a long-feared crackdown in the northwestern town of Jisr al-Shughour, as at least 22 civilians were rubbed out by security forces when thousands of pro-democracy protesters erupted into the streets across Syria under the slogan "Friday of the Tribes."

Protesters poured on to the streets of main towns and cities after the weekly Mohammedan main prayers, many chanting slogans against President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators. Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor...
and in support of residents of Jisr al-Shughour.

Security forces rubbed out at least 22 anti-regime protesters, including 11 in the northwest, rights activists said.

In the town of Maaret al-Numan in Idlib province, security forces fired on a large crowd and killed at least 11 people, the activists said.

State television reported that "intense fire by groups of armed bully boyz on a security headquarters caused dead and maimed among the police and security forces" in the town.

Six people were also killed in the port city of Latakia, said Rami Abdul Rahman, head of the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

He said another two were killed in the Bosra al-Harir area of southern Daraa province, an epicenter of pro-democracy protests that have shaken Syria since mid-March.

State television said "gunnies" fired at security forces in Bosra al-Harir, killing a security force member and a civilian.

Activists said earlier that three non-combatants were killed in the Damascus
...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti...
suburb of al-Qaboun.

Opposition-affiliated Sham News Network, meanwhile, reported rallies in the capital's districts of al-Midan, al-Zahra, Rukneddine, al-Takiyeh al-Sulaimniyeh, al-Muhajirin, Nahr Aisha, Daff al-Shouk, as well as the suburbs of Harasta, Barzeh, Artouz, al-Kiswah, al-Qaboun, Daraya, al-Qadam, al-Zabadani, Qatana, al-Maadamiya, al-Damir, Zamalka, Kanaker, al-Qalamoun, Qarra, al-Hajar al-Aswad, Douma, Jobar, Arbin, Dummar Project and al-Tal.

In north Syria, more than 8,000 protesters marched through three Kurdish towns to demand political reform and in solidarity with the town of Jisr al-Shughour, said another activist, Hassan Berro.

"With our blood and our soul, we sacrifice ourselves for Jisr al-Shughour," the demonstrators chanted in Ras al-Ain on the border with Turkey. Protests were also taking place in Qamishli and Amuda.

The Syrian Observatory said other protests were held and gunshots heard in the city of Homs, north of Damascus.

Security forces kept away as a crowd of more than 7,000 converged on Al-Assi Square, in the city of Hama, further north, where at least 60 non-combatants were killed on June 3, the group said, citing local residents.

Protests were also reported on Friday in Dael, a town in Daraa province which gave birth to Syria's anti-regime movement in mid-March.

The Syrian opposition called for the renewed protests under the slogan "Friday of the Tribes."

More than 1,100 civilians, including dozens of children, have been killed in a government crackdown over the past three months, according to human rights
...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty...
groups.

Damascus blames the unrest on "armed terrorist gangs" which it says are backed by Islamists and foreign agitators.

"Army units have started their mission to control Jisr al-Shughour and neighboring villages and arrest the armed gangs," state television
... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
said, adding that the raid on the town had been launched "at the request of residents."

One witness told Agence La Belle France Presse that "military forces bombarded the villages around Jisr al-Shughour in their advance on the town."

"Soldiers torched wheat fields in the village of al-Ziyara," 15 kilometers southeast of Jisr al-Shughour, he said.

Rights activists said that most of the 50,000 inhabitants of Jisr al-Shughour had decamped -- many to neighboring Turkey -- when tanks and troops began midweek converging on the northwestern town and that it was now largely deserted.

Syrian state television
... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
blamed "armed terrorist gangs" on Wednesday as it ran images of the "massacres" in Jisr al-Shughour which it said had resulted in the deaths of 120 police and troops on Monday.

But opposition activists say the deaths resulted from a mutiny by troops who refused orders to crack down on protesters.
Posted by: Fred || 06/11/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria



Who's in the News
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3Govt of Syria
2Jamaat-e-Islami
1Govt of Sudan
1al-Shabaab
1Commies
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1Taliban
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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.
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Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
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Two weeks of WOT
Sat 2011-06-11
  'East Africa embassy bomber Fazul Abdullah Mohammed killed'
Fri 2011-06-10
  Nigeria arrests 14 in Boko Haram attacks
Thu 2011-06-09
  Gaddafi vows to fight until death
Wed 2011-06-08
  US missiles kill twenty in Pakistan
Tue 2011-06-07
  Libya rebels take Yafran
Mon 2011-06-06
  Saleh undergoes surgery as Yemen rejoices
Sun 2011-06-05
  Colombian army kills FARC security chief
Sat 2011-06-04
  Reports: Ilyas Kashmiri killed by a drone in Pakistan
Fri 2011-06-03
  Yemen's Saleh hurt in palace attack: diplomat
Thu 2011-06-02
  Kuwait Withdraws Diplomats from Yemen
Wed 2011-06-01
  Yemen truce collapses
Tue 2011-05-31
  50 Protesters Killed in Taiz by Security Forces
Mon 2011-05-30
  Bombs kill 10 after Nigerian president's inauguration
Sun 2011-05-29
  Taliban suicide bomber strikes at high-level meeting in Afghan north
Sat 2011-05-28
  Russia agrees to mediate Gaddafi exit

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