Lieutenant James Adamson was awarded the Military Cross after killing two insurgents during close quarter combat in Helmand's notorious "Green Zone".
The 24-year-old officer, a member of the 5th battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland, revealed that he shouted "have some of this" before shooting dead a gunman who had just emerged from a maize field.
Seconds later and out of ammunition, the lieutenant leapt over a river bank and killed a second insurgent machine-gunner with a single thrust of his bayonet in the man's chest.
The officer was one of 145 members of the armed services who last week received awards in the latest Operational Honours list.
In a graphic description of the intense fighting in Helmand, the officer told of the moment killed the second fighter. He said: "It was a split second decision.
[One Pakistan] All 21 Indian crew members held hostage by Somali pirates on a chemical oil tanker since August have been released safely, officials in Mumbai said.
The release of the crew on the MV Fairchem Bogey comes after 17 Indian sailors were among hostages freed from a hijacked Italian vessel late last month after more than 10 months in captivity.
"All the 21 sailors are safe and the ship is now on its way to a safe port," Director General of Shipping S.B. Agnihotri told news hounds in Mumbai late Saturday.
He declined to comment on reports that a ransom had been paid, but added that 22 Indian sailors remained held by Somali pirates on various other ships in the Indian Ocean.
The Marshall Island-flagged Fairchem Bogey, run by Anglo-Eastern Ship Management, was hijacked when at anchor in Salalah port off the coast of Oman on August 20.
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[An Nahar] Kenyan police have tossed in the slammer 29 Ugandans suspected of seeking to join beturbanned fascisti in Somalia, a police front man said Sunday.
The suspects were tossed in the slammer in Nairobi and were "undergoing interrogation," Eric Kiraithe told AFP. "Police are investigating them because they are believed to have been headed to Somalia to fight" alongside Shebab rebels.
The 27 men and two women were tossed in the slammer Friday in a Nairobi suburb after raising suspicions among their neighbors.
Recruitment by Somalia's Shebab rebels of young people across East Africa, notably in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, has been a source of growing concern for regional security services.
The United Nations ...Parkinson's Law on an international scale... warned last July that the Shebab was recruiting, raising money and even conducting training in Kenya, where networks linked to the Somali rebels were growing in strength.
The group warned of the danger of "a new generation of East African jihadists" including some recent converts to Islam and others attracted mainly by promises of money from the Islamist recruiters.
Many Kenyans are among detainees held by Ugandan authorities on suspicion of involvement in twin kabooms in Kampala in July 2010 that claimed 76 lives.
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MOGADISHU - Kenyan jets bombed an al-Shabaab ... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda... rebel base in southern Somalia on Sunday, killing a family of seven
Relatives or human shields?
as well as seven fighters from the jihad boy group linked to al-Qaeda, residents said.
Kenya sent troops into anarchic Somalia in October after raids and kidnappings it blamed on al-Shabaab, but the advance has slowed and regional insecurity is no better. Somali rebels killed seven people in an attack inside Kenya last week.
The jets bombed an al-Shabaab base at Jilib, 120 km north of Kismayu, the port city which is the nerve-centre of rebel operations in the Horn of Africa country.
Residents and an al-Shabaab front man said seven fighters were killed. Five children and their parents died when a bomb hit their home as they were sitting down to lunch.
[An Nahar] Unidentified gunnies opened fire on a Saudi police patrol in the kingdom's restive oil-rich east, wounding one officer, a front man said on Sunday.
The shooting took place late on Saturday in the province of Qatif, just two days after a man was killed during festivities with Saudi security forces in a nearby town.
"During a routine patrol... the (police) were fired upon by unknown assailants... wounding one of the coppers," the regional police front man said in a statement carried by the official SPA news agency.
He said the maimed officer was transferred to a hospital but gave no further details on his condition.
Witnesses said that police fired on protesters Saturday night in the provincial town of Awamiya.
On Friday, Saudi security forces had clashed with Shiite protesters in Awamiya after a police patrol was attacked with a petrol bomb, leaving the car in flames.
The Interior Ministry said unidentified gunnies opened fire on coppers trying to control the flames, forcing a response from the security forces.
One person was killed in the exchange of fire.
Witnesses said meanwhile that security forces opened fire with live rounds after Shiite protesters hurled stones at one of their vehicles.
Activists said Issam Mohammed, 22, was killed by multiple bullet wounds, and three other people were maimed.
Friday's festivities came after demonstrations in four Qatif region villages calling for the "release of political detainees, reform and an end to sectarian discrimination," one activist told AFP on condition of anonymity.
In a statement on his Twitter account Sunday, a prominent Shiite holy man in Awamiya, Sheikh Faisal al-Awami, said it was time the government "bring an end to religious discrimination" in the Sunni-ruled kingdom.
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[An Nahar] Yemeni rustics have kidnapped a Norwegian citizen in the capital Sanaa in a bid to pressure the government into releasing a member of their clan from prison, a tribal source said on Sunday.
"A Norwegian was kidnapped last night from Sanaa and taken to the eastern province of Marib," the source told AFP on condition of anonymity, adding that the tribe wants "one of their rustics to be released from prison."
The Norwegian Foreign Ministry meanwhile announced that its citizen works at the United Nations ...what started out as a a diplomatic initiative, now trying to edge its way into legislative, judicial, and executive areas... "I can confirm that," ministry front man Frode Overland Andersen told AFP, adding that the man was aged 34.
The ministry refused to disclose the man's name, what he was doing in Yemen or any other details of his disappearance, referring the matter to the United Nations.
The kidnapping comes two months after the release of a French aid worker and her Yemeni driver and translator who were kidnapped in the country's restive southern region on November 22.
All three were released unharmed two days later.
On November 14, three kidnapped Frenchies kidnapped by Al-Qaeda gunnies were also released after five months in captivity.
Tribes in Yemen often kidnap foreigners to pressure the authorities into making concessions. More than 200 foreigners have been kidnapped over the past 15 years, with almost all of them later freed unharmed.
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[Yemen Post] Armed groups affiliated to Al-Qaeda calling itself as "the Islamic Jihad Group" took over on Saturday night a archaeological town of Rada'a and captured the famous castle of Alamiria and its mosque, local sources affirmed.
Local sources said that armed festivities between the Death Eaters and residents are still going, pointing out that the number of casualties are unknown.
Flocks of Death Eaters flow to the town, some 150 km southeast of the capital, Sana'a, amid fears of residents who worry of turning their town to a conflict battlefield, added the sources.
Yemeni analysts said Al-Qaeda attempts to expand its control on Yemeni areas, pointing out that the capture on Rada'a will help Al-Qaeda reach other Yemeni strategic areas.
Yemeni news reports said local residents led by the tribal leader, Mohmmad Al-Nosairi, are strongly fighting Al-Qaeda Death Eaters near the castle of Alamria.
They said that the Death Eaters are led by Tariq Al-Dahab, a relative of Anwar Al-Walaki, a Yemeni-American holy man who was killed in a American drone strike last fall.
A Yemeni senior opposition leader of the Yemeni Socialist Party, Yahya Abu Asboa, said Yemen's security forces did not exert enough efforts to prevent Al-Qaeda Death Eaters from entering Rada'a.
He further cautioned against plans of Al-Qaeda to attack the oil-rich city of Marib located close to Sana'a.
Critics of the outgoing President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... accused him of turning a blind eye to the expansion of Al-Qaeda to prove to the global world that his existence is vital to face terrorism and other Jihadi groups inside the state.
They also alleged that he used Al-Qaeda as a card to cling to power, use force against anti-regime porters and have American financial assistances.
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#1
Antiques? Destroy them, as the Koran demands.
Seriously, when Wahhabi types take over historical mosques, the first thing they do is destroy any and all artwork and design, then whitewash the walls so they are utterly bland. Anything else they believe is heretical idolatry.
SANAA - Twenty-five gunmen have been killed in three days of fighting between tribesmen and rebels in Yemen's north, an official said Sunday, as the toll of foreigners including Westerners killed in sectarian clashes soared.
The clashes flared on Friday in Hajja province, a day after 20 other gunmen were killed in fighting between Sunni Salafists and Zaidi Shiite rebels in a separate northern town, the official told AFP on condition of anonymity. Tribes involved in the latest fighting, in Hajja's Wadi Misyar region, are allied with Sunni fundamentalists who have for months been battling Shiites in the north, the official added.
Fighting between Sunni fundamentalists and Huthi rebels has also raged in the northern town of Dammaj, where a Salafist Islamic teaching school was besieged by the rebels.
A spokesman for a local Salafist support committee said on Sunday that at least 32 foreigners have been killed by Shiite attacks on the Dar al-Hadith Sunni fundamentalist Institute since mid-October.Mohammed al-Ghurban, from the Popular Committee for the Support of Dammaj, said the recent deadly clashes have killed at least "four Russians, four Frenchmen, five Indonesians and one Indian." One British citizen, two Americans, one Ethiopian, one Malaysian and 13 Arab nationals were also killed in the attacks, he said adding that 41 other foreigners were wounded in the violence.
The foreigners were studying at Dar al-Hadith and were among a total of 71 people killed, including five children and one woman, since the sectarian strife erupted in October, according to the school spokesman, Al-Sorur Wadii.
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OSLO, Norway: A Norwegian man who was working for the United Nations was kidnapped by armed tribesmen in YemenÂ’s capital Sanaa on Sunday, officials said.
Norwegian Foreign Ministry spokesman Frode Overland Andersen said the ministry was informed the 34-year-old Norwegian man was abducted early Sunday, but wouldnÂ’t give any more details.
According to a Yemeni security official, the UN worker was kidnapped in the capital Sanaa by armed tribesmen who transferred him to central Marib province. The official said that the abductors demand the release of a comrade who was arrested after the bombing of oil pipelines in Marib.
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MADRID: French police acting alongside Spanish counterparts have arrested three men at a railway station in France on suspicion of belonging to Basque separatist group ETA, the Interior Ministry said Sunday.
One of those arrested in Joigny, 150 kilometers southeast of Paris, was identified as 33-year-old Jon Echeverria Oyarbide, for whom there is an international arrest warrant. Police said he was in possession of material used in the manufacture of explosives.
The others were identified as Ruben Rivero Campo, who is wanted for “an election offense” and Inigo Sancho Marco, who is not on a wanted list, the ministry said in a statement, adding the arrests took place Saturday afternoon.
The statement said officers had spotted Echeverria at Bercy railway station in Paris and tailed him covertly to Joigny, where an apparent rendezvous with the other men took place. The men were armed and police found a car with false license plates in the station car park in Joigny.
The arrests occurred a day after SpainÂ’s Interior Minister Jorge Fernandez insisted that as long as ETA existed its members would be hunted down.
Spanish state broadcaster TVE said the three were being held at Auxerre police station awaiting transport to Paris.
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[Dawn] A homemade bomb went kaboom! on Sunday near a Chehlum procession in the central Pak town of Khanpur, killing 18 people and wounding 30, police officials said.
Sunday's kaboom in Khanpur came as mourners were marking the 40th day of mourning the death of Imam Hussain.
The kaboom went off as the mourners came out of a mosque, said District Police Chief Sohail Chatta. The bomb appeared to have been planted near an electric pole ahead of time in the path of the procession, he said.
"There was a loud kaboom a few yards from the procession and we all scrambled to get away," said Imran Iqbal, one of the members of the procession.
"Debris was everywhere, and a cloud of dust engulfed us. Many people was struck down in his prime."
Police officer Ghazanfer Ali said the crowd of mourners started throwing rocks at police after the blast and officers had to lob tear gas canisters into the crowd to control them.
Officials had originally thought the kaboom came from a malfunctioning electric cable, but later found that there had been a bomb, he said.
Punjab law minister Rana Sanaullah said police Sherlocks were still examining the area for clues. Security had been provided for the procession, but it had been breached, Sanaullah said.
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[Dawn] Pakistain deported three Iranian border guards Sunday after they were pardoned in court by the family of a man killed in a cross-border attack, officials said.
The three guards were incarcerated on January 2 in southwestern Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... province along the Iranian border after they allegedly crossed the frontier and shot at a car, killing one Pak national.
"The three personnel of Iranian border security force have been deported after a court ordered their release," Saeed Ahmad Jamali, Deputy Commissioner of Washuk district told AFP.
They had already been charged with the murder of the Pak man following a written complaint from the father of the victim.
But on Saturday the parents of the victim pardoned the three guards in court, and the court ordered their release, Jamali said.
The court also fined them 9,000 Pak rupees ($100) for illegally crossing the Pak border.
The Iranians opened fire on a vehicle they were chasing in Mazan Sar Mashkail, in the Washuk district, three kilometres inside Pakistain, according to officials.
Mazan Sar Mashkail is around 600 kilometres southwest of Quetta, the main town of insurgency hit Balochistan province, which borders Iran's Sistan-Balochistan province.
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[Dawn] A personnel of Khyber Rifles was injured when a food supply convoy was targeted with a roadside kaboom in Landi Kotal tehsil of Khyber Agency on Saturday.
Officials said that an bomb planted along the roadside exploded by unidentified gunnies when some security personnel were shifting food, water and other necessary items to checkposts on mules at hilltops near the Landi Kotal army camp.
A security man was injured while a mule was killed and another injured in the blast.
Meanwhile, ...back at the laboratory the fumes had dispersed, to reveal an ominous sight... the political administration in Landi Kotal on Saturday served notices on Afghan nationals residing 11legally in the area.
Assistant Political Agent Khalid Mumtaz Kundi told Dawn that some of the Afghan families resettled in Landi Kotal after they were expelled last year.
He said that those illegal settlers were involved in most of the crimes and conveniently beat feet arrest by crossing the border whenever the local administration initiated a crackdown against them.
`This time no leniency will be shown to them and the administration will make sure that they are expelled,` the official added.
In Charsadda, unidentified gunnies attacked a police mobile van in Shabgadar area of the district on Saturday evening.
DSP Shahqadar Zahir Shah told Dawn that the assailants opened firing on the police mobile during routine patrolling in the area. He said that the coppers countered the attack and exchanged fire with the attackers.
The DSP said that the attackers beat feet taking advantage of darkness. He said that no casualties occurred in the attack.
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[Dawn] Four hard boys, involved in attack on Riaz Shaheed police post in Surband on Thursday night, were placed in long-term storage during a search operation in the area, sources said.
Three security personnel were killed in the attack on police post. Several new pickets were set up in the area to counter any fresh assault from Bara side of Khyber Agency, sources added.
An official said that several suspected persons were taken into custody during a search operation in the area. `Four of the placed in long-term storage persons were involved in the attack on police,` he added.
The official said that main reason of the killing of coppers in the attack was negligence on the part of the station house officer concerned as he failed to timely get proper report about presence of Islamic fascistiin the area.
It was learnt that police would hold inquiry into the incident as to why the high-ups were not informed timely about the factual position.
The official said that no one could tell the exact number of attackers but it was sure that most of them were riding cycle of violences. The police post was re-established but it was again under threat, headded.
The SHO concerned, Rehmat Khan, however, denied negligence on his part and said that 60 security personnel could not fight hundreds of hard boys, who had entered the area from different directions.
`We have heavy weapons but Islamic fascistialso have the same arms and ammunitions including night vision devices,` he said and suggested that in such conditions only helicopters could prove helpful.
Cantonment Circle Superintendent of Police Dr Mian Saeed Ahmed, when contacted, said that police had taken positions at all sensitive spots and in case of any attack Islamic fascistiwould have to face the music.
`We are in the position to strike back,` he said. He added that police had searched the entire area. Militants abandoned a building probably used as seminary in the past, he said, adding it was under the control of police now.
Two of the seven Islamic fascistikilled during the attack on the police checkpost in Sarband, on the suburbs of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar, have been identified as commanders of Khyber Agency-basedLashkar-i-Islam.
The SP said that one of the injured hard boy commanders was Asghar Khan, commonly known as Asgharay of Malakdin Khel clan of Afridi tribe. He was a sharp shooter and also skilled in preparation and kaboom of locally made bombs.
`He got training in Afghanistan and Wazoo Agency and also sustained injuries in at least five encounters with law enforcement agencies,` the SP said.
The hard boy commander had been assigned a duty to impart training to young hard boys, however, the recent attack proved to be his last assault on police and he succumbed to his wounds while his accomplices were shifting him on shoulders.
The other commander was identified as Qari Wahid of Zakhakhel tribe. He was also know as sniper and always played significant role in attacks on police, snatching of vehicles and kidnapping of people from the settled areas.
The injured hard boys, the official said, were under treatment at a secret place and some of them were stated to be at death's door.
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[Dawn] Police on Saturday claimed to have placed in long-term storage the suspected planner of some major terrorist attacks in the city, adding that he was making arrangements for an attack on the Chehlum of Imam Hussain to be observed on Sunday, said a senior police official.
Additional Inspector General of Police Ghulam Shabbir Sheikh told a presser that the anti-extremist cell of the CID police raided a hideout in Ittehad Town within the remit of the Mochko cop shoppe and placed in long-term storage the suspected krazed killer, Dawood alias Waleed alias Ishaq, after a brief shoot-out.
He said that Dawood had organised several attacks in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... including the 2010 suicide kaboom on the shrine of Abdullah Shah Ghazi. He said that the suspect was planning a major terrorist strike on the main Chehlum procession on Sunday, but the police succeeded in arresting him.
The CID also put on display the arms and explosives allegedly recovered from the suspect. Those included 50 kilograms of explosives, four suicide jackets, a light machinegun, a rocket launcher, 10 hand grenades, two AK-47 assault rifles, two TT pistols, 1,000 bullets, detonating wires and five detonators.
"He is associated with the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistain," he said. "He took part in the planning of the attack on the shrine of Abadullah Shah Ghazi and the botched Seaview blast."
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[Dawn] An anti-terrorism court indicted on Saturday a suspected bad boy in a case pertaining to a 2004 attack on the convoy of the then Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... corps commander.
Mohammad Qasim Toori, said to be associated with the proscribed Jundullah, along with his convicted and absconding accomplices has been booked and locked away for organising and carrying out an attack on the convoy of the then Bloody Karachi corps commander in June 2004 within the remit of the Boat Basin cop shoppe.
Judge Bashir Ahmed Khoso of the ATC-I, who is conducting the trial inside the Bloody Karachi central prison for security considerations, read out a set of charges, including hatching a criminal conspiracy, murder, attempted murder, bomb kaboom, creating a sense of fear and terror among the masses, etc, against the accused.
However, if you can't say something nice about a person some juicy gossip will go well... the accused pleaded not guilty "Wudn't me." and opted to contest the charges.
The court summoned the prosecution witnesses and directed them to record their testimonies on Jan 28.
According to the prosecution, accused Qasim Toori along with his associates had launched an attack on the convoy of Lt-Gen Ahsan Saleem Hayat, the then Bloody Karachi corps commander, near the Clifton Bridge on June 10, 2004. The accused took position around the bridge and ambushed the convoy with heavy weapons as it approached the bridge on their way to the corps headquarters followed by a kaboom, it added.
Eleven people, including a colonel, six soldiers and three coppers, were killed and 12 others maimed in the incident. However the corps commander remained unhurt during the ambush.
A case (FIR 165/04) was registered under Sections 302 (premeditated murder), 324 (attempted murder), 120-B (punishment of criminal conspiracy), 404 (dishonest misappropriation of property possessed by deceased person at the time of his death), 147 (punishment for rioting), 148 (rioting armed with deadly weapon), 149 (every member of
unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistain Penal Code and Sections 3, 4 & 5 of the Explosive Substance Act read with Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997.
Eleven other accused -- Atta-ur-Rehman alias Ibrahim, Shahzad Ahmed Bajwah, Yaqoob Saeed Khan, Uzair Ahmed alias Abdullah, Shoaib Siddiqui, Danish Inam, Najeebullah, Khurrum Saifullah, Shahzad Mukhtar, Khalid Rao and Adnan Shah -- have already been sentenced to death by an ATC in the present case in February 2006.
Shahab, Bilal, Tayyab and Hammad were the absconding accused.
Qasim Toori and his other associates were locked away on Jan 29, 2008 after a shootout with the police and other law-enforcing agencies in the Shah Latif area.
Meanwhile, ...back at the scene of the crime, Lieutenant Queeg had an idea: there was a simple way to tell whether Manetti had been the triggerman -- just look at his shoes!... the same court on Saturday allowed an application for clubbing together of four cases against Toori and others and adjourned the hearing for Jan 28 for indictment.
Public Prosecutor Abdul Maroof moved the application under Section 235 (trial for more than one offence) of the criminal procedure code stating that three cases registered against the accused under the Pakistain Arms Ordinance, 1965 were connected to the main case registered against Toori and others pertaining to the shootout with the law-enforcing agencies in Shah Latif Town.
He requested the court to club together these cases for a joint trial. The defence counsel, Mushtaq Ahmed, did not oppose the plea.
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Eight people have been killed by a car bomb attack near the Iraqi city of Mosul. The attack targeted a Shia community outside this city, which is mostly Sunni.
Children were among the victims of the bombing, which also left at least four people wounded.
BAGHDAD: Ten people were killed when gunmen wearing explosive belts stormed a police building in the Iraqi city of Ramadi on Sunday, police and provincial officials said.
The attack in mainly Sunni Anbar province followed several weeks of bombings after the eruption of a political crisis that has threatened to break up the coalition government and raised fears of renewed sectarian violence.
The assault in Ramadi, a onetime Al-Qaeda hotspot where militants frequently attack government facilities, provided a new test for Iraqi security forces without the support of US troops, the last of which pulled out in mid-December, nearly nine years after the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.
Six gunmen, three policemen and a civilian died in the assault on the Ramadi police building, which houses an anti-terrorism unit and a jail, and 18 other people were wounded, police and hospital sources said.
One of the attackers detonated his explosive belt at the entrance to the police building and others tried unsuccessfully to take hostages but were repulsed by intense gunfire from security forces inside, police and provincial officials said.
Three of the gunmen were killed by police gunfire and three blew themselves up, the last after he was cornered by security forces on a rooftop, the officials said.
Ramadi, the Anbar provincial capital, witnessed some of the worst violence during the height of the war that followed the 2003 US-led invasion. It was the heart of a Sunni insurgency.
Anbar tribal leaders and thousands of Sunni insurgents eventually turned against Al-Qaeda and formed the Sahwa militia, which joined US forces and helped turn the tide of the war.
Iraqi security officials have expressed concern that Al-Qaeda may regroup in Anbar following the US withdrawal.
Anbar has had testy relations with the central government recently, particularly following an arrest campaign against former members of Saddam's banned Baath party. Local officials have suggested Anbar might join other Sunni-majority provinces in seeking more autonomy.
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#1
GJ Iraqis
Posted by: Sleamp Smiter of the Huns8670 ||
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Top||
Police in Thailand have charged a Lebanese man suspected of planning an attack in Bangkok, after potentially explosive materials were found. Deputy national police chief Pansiri Prapawat said the man was charged with violating weapons control law, after a large amount of fertiliser and ammonium nitrate was found at a property rented by the suspect. Possession of the ammonium nitrate requires a permit in Thailand.
Thai authorities say the man, who was detained on Thursday, has links to Hezbollah.
An Iranian news website is reporting several suspects have been arrested over last week's killing of an Iranian nuclear scientist. Ali Larijani, speaker of the Iranian parliament, said the suspects are being interrogated, and the investigation is continuing. How long before the arrested schmuck is accused of being a Zionist spy? Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, an official in Iran's nuclear enrichment facility in Natanz, was killed in an explosion Wednesday after attackers attached a bomb to his car in Tehran.
#4
Israel might be indirectly involved. One possibility is false flag sponsorship, whereby Israeli agents use a well-known name in the Iranian community (with or without his approval) as a conduit for arms and money to the Iranian opposition. Continued funding could be made contingent on visible results.
#5
One advantage of the Internet is that anybody who is literate in the English language has access to a wide variety of downloadable books on military tactics and strategy, including basic training manuals for the English-speaking countries. Al Qaeda has also made resources available, in both Arabic and English, for guerrilla-type attacks. Assuming that the internal opposition is highly-motivated and somewhat intelligent, it's certainly possible that they could make a dent by simply taking what they need from the manuals.
The difference between Iran and North Korea is that every Iranian knows that God and his country's leadership are two distinct entities, and there is the possibility that God might want him to overthrow the mullahs. This is why Muslim leaders, whether religious or secular, have always had to look over their shoulders. When the Arabs revolted against the Ottoman Empire, they were rising up against God's chosen ruler of the Muslim world - simultaneously Defender of the Faith and God's Earthly Representative. Iran's mullahs are unlikely to be immune from similar revolts.
Iran has arrested several people in the killing of a nuclear scientist last week that Tehran blames on Israel and the United States, parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani told state Al-Alam TV, Tehran Times daily said on Monday.
"We have discovered some clues and some arrests have been made," Larijani told the Arabic-language broadcaster.
Larijani did not give any further details on the arrests but vowed his country would avenge the death using "non-terrorist" tactics.
*DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > [Fars News, Iran = Sharif University of Technology] HUNDREDS OF IRANIAN STUDENTS DEMAND TO CHANGE COURSE OF STUDY TO NUCLEAR TECHNOLOGY.
and
* SAME > [Mehr News] OVER 1000 STUDENTS APPLY TO CHANGE MAJORS TO NUCLEAR PHYSICS, ENGINEERING.
Also seek closer University-level ties wid Pro-Govt. Nuke Industry Groups + Iran Govt-Milinclud IRGC, to show the US-Allies that Iran will NEITHER stop its NucProgs nor be deterred from its nuclear ambitions.
* SAME > IRAN, MYANMAR CORE TO INDIA'S INTERESTS.
Vital "Land Bridges" connecting Indjuh to the wider Continent in Central + Southeast, East Asia ala Trade + Diplomacy; Many
"civilizational" = development similarities between the peoples of India + Myanmar.
ME > Perhaps in more recent histoire', that IRAN TRIED TO FORMALLY ANNEX AFGHANISTAN + PARTS OF PAKISTAN BUT COULDN'T HOLD ON TO IT DUE TO COMBO PRESSURE FROM BOTH THE EAST INDIA BRITS + OTTOMANS.
* INDIAN DEFENCE FORUM >[WSJ.com] US DRAWS UP CONTINGENCIES IN CASE ISRAEL ATTACKS IRAN, to include agz possible IRANIAN REGION-WIDE COUNTER-RESPONSES, e.g. Shiite Militia uprisings, attacks agz US Embassies In Iraq + ME.
[Fox News] Syria's state news agency says Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Despoiler of Deraa... has granted a general amnesty for crimes committed during the unrest of the past 10 months.
SANA says the amnesty issued Sunday covers those who have peacefully demonstrated, those who have carried unlicensed weapons and those who hand over their weapons to authorities before the end of January.
It also applies to army deserters who decamped military service if they turn themselves in before Jan. 31.
It was not clear how many prisoners would be affected by Sunday's pardon.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
Refreshing to see that he's gone to the highly-starched, white, spread-collar business-attire shirty-kins with a large manly NYC Power-knot.
Junior is keeping that chin glued to his "Adam's Apple" for several reasons that aren't worth mentioning, at this early hour. Jr's eyes, 'stash, collar, chin, etc., or whatever...This here optometrist is in charge, Baby. Long Live Syria! Achtung, Baby!
[An Nahar] Syrian security forces rubbed out 27 people on Sunday across the country, most of them in the central opposition bastion Homs and the northwestern province of Idlib, the Local Coordination Committees, the main activist group spurring protests on the ground, said.
The LCC said the ten in Idlib were killed "when pro-regime forces targeted their bus," but the state-run SANA news agency reported that a roadside blast in Idlib killed six workers and injured 16, blaming the attack on an "armed terrorist group."
"Six workers were killed and 16 others injured by a blast set off by an armed terrorist group on a road in Idlib, which went kaboom! as a minibus passed by," SANA reported.
The attack happened on the side of the road linking Ariha and al-Mastouma in Idlib, near the Turkish border, according to SANA.
The agency reported that security services dismantled two other bombs on a road in Jabal al-Zawiya, also in Idlib.
For its part, the Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in a statement that five people were killed in the roadside blast near Ariha, but made no comment as to the identity of the attackers.
The Britannia-based Observatory also said a civilian was killed by gunfire at a checkpoint in the flashpoint city of Homs.
And the LCC said security forces rubbed out 12 people in Homs, two in the southern province of Dara, two in the Damascus ...Home to a staggering array of terrorist organizations... suburb of al-Muadhamiya and a man in the northeastern province of al-Hasakeh.
Meanwhile protests continued on Sunday, with 10,000 people marching in the town of Zabadani, in Damascus province, where an Arab observer team has been deployed, calling for regime change, according to the Observatory.
And several thousand people demonstrated in the Idlib town of Maaret al-Numan, calling for regime change and the trial of Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Leveler of Latakia... when they met the observer team there.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2012 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe on Sunday decried the "silence" of the U.N. Security Council on Syria's deadly crackdown on protests, saying the situation was becoming "intolerable".
"The massacre continues, the silence of the Security Council too. This situation is becoming intolerable," he said at a presser during a visit to Myanmar.
In October, Russia and China vetoed a Western draft resolution that would have condemned Bashir al-Assad's regime. Russia later circulated an alternative that would have pointed the finger at both sides.
U.N. chief the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... on Sunday issued a call to Assad to stop killing his people.
"Today, I say again to President Assad of Syria: Stop the violence. Stop killing your people. The path of repression is a dead end," Ban said in a keynote address at a conference on Arab world democracy in Beirut.
The United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... estimates more than 5,000 people have been killed in Syria as Assad's forces crack down on anti-regime protests now in their 10th month.
The government says far fewer have been killed while accusing "armed terrorist gangs" backed by foreign powers of being responsible for the violence.
"The repression has not ceased. The violence is still at work. The Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... has given itself until January 19 to assess the situation. I strongly hope that it will make a report that is as objective as possible that it can communicate to the Security Council," Juppe said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2012 00:00 ||
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CAIRO -- Iran warned Gulf Arab oil producers against boosting production to offset any potential drop in Tehran's crude exports in the event of an embargo affecting its oil sales, the latest salvo in the dispute between the West and the Islamic Republic over its nuclear program.
They have to say that to fight back against the sanctions, but going directly after the Gulf States would bring them instant problems...
Mohammad Ali Khatibi, Iran's OPEC governor, was quoted Sunday by the pro-reform Shargh newspaper as saying that attempts by Gulf nations to replace Iran's output with their own would make them an "accomplice in further events."
"These acts will not be considered friendly," Khatibi said, adding that if the Arab producers "apply prudence and announce that they will not participate in replacing oil, then adventurist countries will not show interest," in the embargo.
Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil producer and a close U.S. ally, had said that it was ready to raise its output to accommodate global market needs. The country is the only member of the 12-nation Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries that has significant spare capacity, currently estimated at roughly more than 2 million barrels per day.
With concerns building amid the standoff between Iran and the West over Tehran's nuclear program, a string of Asian and Western officials have visited Saudi Arabia over the past week. While offering assurances that it could meet a shortfall in supply through its spare capacity, Saudi officials have also been careful to say that it was an internal matter if nations chose to abide by any sanctions.
Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi appeared to try to further clarify the country's position in comments published Sunday in the daily Al-Ektisadiyah newspaper. "We never said that Saudi Arabia is trying to compensate for Iranian oil in the case that sanctions (are enacted)," Al-Naimi was quoted as saying. "We said that we are prepared to meet the increase in global demand as a result of any circumstances."
The kingdom has a production capacity of 12.5 million barrels and is believed to be producing slightly over 9 million to 9.5 million barrels per day.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/16/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
So Iran's message to the Sunnis is that they better not increase output because that would reduce Iran's revenues & prevent them from having the money they need to finish making nuclear weapons that they can use to attack Israel and/or the Sunnis...
Not much of an argument from the Sunni Arabs perspective..
Posted by: American Delight ||
01/16/2012 8:34 Comments ||
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#2
Iran is repor po'ed at the perceived Saudi threat to offset any Iran-led oil loss by a similar, "almost immediate" increase in Saudi production.
Iran is threatening to use "any tools necessary" to protect its interests.
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.
Somali pirates
OSLO, Norway: A Norwegian man who was working for the United Nations was kidnapped by armed tribesmen in YemenÂ’s capital Sanaa on Sunday, officials said.
[Dawn] A homemade bomb 
Wazoo
An Iranian news website is reporting several suspects have been arrested over last week's killing of an Iranian nuclear scientist. Ali Larijani, speaker of the Iranian parliament, said the suspects are being interrogated, and the investigation is continuing. 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
The LCC said the ten in Idlib were killed "when pro-regime forces targeted their bus," but the state-run SANA news agency reported that a roadside blast in Idlib killed six workers and injured 16, blaming the attack on an "armed terrorist group."
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
