[DAWN] A jacket wallahwent kaboom! in a market Friday in eastern Afghanistan, killing a pro-government tribal elder and wounding three civilians, authorities said.
The bombing struck the tribal elder Gul Babri at about 2pm in the market of the Jani Khil district of Paktiya province, provincial government front man Mokhlis Afghan said.
No one immediately grabbed credit for the attack, which comes after last week's presidential election.
The Taliban and other hard boyz frequently target government officials and their allies in a bid to undermine efforts to forge stability in the country as US-led combat forces prepare to withdraw by the end of the year.
Afghan cops have been widely praised over the April 5 elections for a new president and provincial councils, which occurred without major violence despite a series of high-profile attacks in the weeks before.
The Taliban had vowed to target polling stations and election workers, but millions of Afghans cast their ballots largely without bloodshed.
Authorities in another eastern province, Ghazni, said some attacks were foiled when a suicide bomber's explosives-packed vest detonated in a religious school earlier this month, killing 16 other Death Eaters who had been planning attacks against the balloting.
Three Paks and an Afghan Taliban capo were among those killed in a remote area of the Gilani district, police said. The circumstances were unclear.
District police chief Mohammad Hashim said the kaboom was an accident that happened during a training exercise in which the Paks were demonstrating how to use the vests.
Plainclothes police had gone to the area for further investigation but found the madressa surrounded by Taliban, so more details were not available, Hashim said.
However, the hip bone's connected to the leg bone... a bigwig in Kabul, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorised to release the information, said the man was a local villager recruited by the Taliban to stage attacks before the election but he ended up setting off the charge among his fellow Death Eaters instead.A suicide bomber went kaboom! in a market Friday in eastern Afghanistan, killing a pro-government tribal elder and wounding three civilians, authorities said.
The bombing struck the tribal elder Gul Babri at about 2pm in the market of the Jani Khil district of Paktiya province, provincial government front man Mokhlis Afghan said.
No one immediately grabbed credit for the attack, which comes after last week's presidential election.
The Taliban and other hard boyz frequently target government officials and their allies in a bid to undermine efforts to forge stability in the country as US-led combat forces prepare to withdraw by the end of the year.
Afghan cops have been widely praised over the April 5 elections for a new president and provincial councils, which occurred without major violence despite a series of high-profile attacks in the weeks before.
The Taliban had vowed to target polling stations and election workers, but millions of Afghans cast their ballots largely without bloodshed.
Authorities in another eastern province, Ghazni, said some attacks were foiled when a suicide bomber's explosives-packed vest detonated in a religious school earlier this month, killing 16 other Death Eaters who had been planning attacks against the balloting.
Three Paks and an Afghan Taliban capo were among those killed in a remote area of the Gilani district, police said. The circumstances were unclear.
District police chief Mohammad Hashim said the kaboom was an accident that happened during a training exercise in which the Paks were demonstrating how to use the vests.
Plainclothes police had gone to the area for further investigation but found the madressa surrounded by Taliban, so more details were not available, Hashim said.
However, the hip bone's connected to the leg bone... a bigwig in Kabul, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorised to release the information, said the man was a local villager recruited by the Taliban to stage attacks before the election but he ended up setting off the charge among his fellow Death Eaters instead.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/12/2014 00:00 ||
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KISMAYO, Somalia -- AMISOM troops along with Somalia's Jubaland forces have freed two Kenyan nationals being held captive by Al Qaeda linked Al Shabaab group on Friday, Garowe Online reports.
According to a press statement from African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), the surprise operation occurred in the outskirts of border town and Lower Jubba regional district of Dhobley which is situated a few kilometers from Somalia-Kenya border.
"James Kiarie Gichoi, working for aid agency Care International was kidnapped near the Dadaab refugee camp, while Daniel Njuguna Wanyoike, a driver's helper employed by Shibli Enterprises Ltd, a company contracted by Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) to transport medical supplies from Nairobi to Marerey, was kidnapped in Afmadow," the statement read.
A facility run by AMISOM offered medical assistances to the two Kenyans before they have been flown to Kenyan capital of Nairobi.
Speaking about the successful operation, The Special Representative of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission to Somalia (SRCC) Ambassador Mahamat Saleh Annadif felicitated the Kenya Defence Forces on the move.
"Our mandate requires us to create a safe haven for aid agencies to carry out their operations and we are committed to ensuring the protection of aid workers as they deliver essential services to the Somali population," said Annadif.
Al Shabaab lost battle against Somali government forces and AMISOM peacekeepers, with militants vacating a string of strategic towns in central and southwestern Somalia over the last six weeks.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/12/2014 00:00 ||
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In the middle of the night, the Ethiopian troops serving under the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) were leaving Mahaas In their convoy en route to Wahbo when they were attacked by Al-Qaeda affiliated Al-Shabaab Islamists.
The battle went on for at least an hour in which several Al-Shabaab insurgents were killed in the intense clashes according to witnesses.
Officials from the Somali Federal Government confirmed that the confrontations did indeed cause severe casualties and losses.
After the clashes last night, the AMISOM forces allegedly have broadened themselves in the towns between Mahaas and Wahbo.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/12/2014 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] Around a dozen people, including two coppers, were maimed Friday in fresh festivities between Arabs and Berbers near the southern Algerian town of Ghardaia, a medical source said.
The unrest erupted after the main Friday prayers outside a mosque in Berriane, 45 kilometers (28 miles) north of Ghardaia, APS news agency quoted the source as saying.
The two sides threw Molotov cocktails and rocks at one another and caused a major backup on a key highway linking the country's north and south before police dispersed them with tear gas, the source said.
Some businesses and homes in the area were looted, the source added.
Ghardaia has been the scene of ethnic violence that has killed seven people and maimed more than 400 since December when fighting erupted between Berbers, known as Mozabites, and Arabs, known as Chaambas.
Hundreds of houses and shops in the town, which is a UNESCO heritage site, have also been burned down in the unrest.
The two communities have lived together for centuries, but tensions between them have risen sharply since vandals destroyed a historic Berber shrine in late December.
Videos shown to visiting journalists in January have been circulating on the Internet showing youths vandalizing Mozabite property and smashing up the tomb of Amir Moussa, a 16th century Berber leader, and desecrating the ancient cemetery in Ghardaia, as police look on.
On Tuesday, 35 people, including 17 coppers, were maimed in festivities.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
04/12/2014 10:19 ||
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[AnNahar] An kaboommaimed a civilian driver on Friday in Tunisia's Chaambi mountains near the border with Algeria, where troops are tracking Islamist bad boys, the defense ministry said.
"An improvised mine went kaboom! as a tractor passed the entry to the Chaambi Mountain reserve. The driver was maimed," defense ministry front man Taoufik Rahmouni told Agence La Belle France Presse.
Soldiers in an armored vehicle who were escorting the tractor helped the maimed man, but their vehicle later flipped on its side as they were taking him to hospital, slightly injuring four troops, he added.
Since December 2012, Tunisian security forces have been targeting hardline Islamist turbans in the Chaambi range bordering Algeria.
Last year, around 20 members of the security forces were killed during operations against the bad boys.
Following the popular uprising that overthrew dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 2011, Tunisia's authorities have faced a resurgence in jihadist activity, long suppressed by the previous regime.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
04/12/2014 10:10 ||
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[Beirut Daily Star] Egyptian troops Friday killed a prominent krazed killer in the restive Sinai Peninsula where Islamist fighters have increasingly targeted security forces since last year's ouster of President Mohammad Morsi.
Nour al-Hamdeen was "one of the most prominent and dangerous bully boys," military front man Col. Ahmad Ali said in a statement.
Hamdeen was ambushed by troops on a road to Al-Tuma village in the northern Sinai, and was killed in the ensuing firefight.
The army has poured troops into the mountainous and underdeveloped Sinai bordering the Paleostinian Gazoo Strip and Israel, to combat growing militancy.
Most attacks in the northern Sinai have targeted soldiers and coppers, but gunnies have also expanded their reach to the Nile Delta and Cairo.
Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, an Al-Qaeda-inspired group, has claimed some of the deadliest attacks in Egypt since the army removed Morsi last July 3. The group emerged in 2011 in North Sinai, where the army is waging a campaign to reassert government control.
In its latest video released on jihadist forums, Ansar Beit al-Maqdis aired footage of a jacket wallah carrying out a December attack on police headquarters in the Nile Delta city of Mansoura, which killed 15 people.
The video named the bomber as Imam Maraie Imam Mahfouz or Abu Mariam, and said he was previously maimed in pro-Morsi demonstrations near Cairo's Ramses Square, the site of deadly festivities between pro-Morsi protesters and security forces last year.
The video shows the bomber, wearing a white robe, lashing out at the military before driving a vehicle and carrying out the late-night attack.
It also shows two men, their heads covered with scarves, wiring together what appear to be barrels of explosives ahead of the attack, in which at least 16 people were killed.
"The path to establishing religion is not by preaching alone, as people claim, but by preaching and jihad," the bomber says, flanked by two semi-automatic rifles.
Ansar Beit al-Maqdis claimed the bombing, but the military-installed authorities blamed Morsi's Moslem Brüderbund for it instead.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/12/2014 00:00 ||
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[Maghrebia] Angry Benghazi residents on Thursday (April 10th) blocked streets and torched tyres for a second day to protest a deadly boom-mobileing in the heart of the city.
The blast killed Libyan air force officer Abdelhamid Tahar al-Imam. His wife and baby daughter were gravely maimed.
Benghazi residents demanded that the perpetrators be held accountable for the deadly attack on the flight technician's family.
"We the residents of Benghazi are the ones who tried to kill this child and other children with our silence and rotten passivism over the countless crimes and corruption in a city that was the cradle of the revolution," 27-year-old Ali Mustafa said.
"We must engage in civil disobedience over the entire territory of Libya to mourn the attempted attacks on children like the innocent Hajar and her parents," said Mahmoud Saad, an employee in the urban planning division.
"What was a young child guilty of to deserve becoming an orphan? And why this ugly silence from the government? Who will redeem her and other innocent children?" 17-year-old student Amira Faraj said.
For his part, teacher Fathi Awami, 52, said, "Tension is evident on the faces of the people who are blockading the streets with a general state of frustration hanging over their heads.
"The situation cannot continue this way," he told Magharebia. "It seems more is coming and officials at the 'Non-National Congress' and the government will bear the responsibilities and consequences."
Ahmed Saleh, a 34-year-old grocer, agreed, noting that Benghazi and Derna needed security committees for each neighbourhood to reduce liquidations.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/12/2014 00:00 ||
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#2
You are all slaves to Allan, right? So put up & shut up. Oh, Allan ain't around to give the orders? Well I'm sure there are plenty of "holy mens" that will be glad to channel him for you...so put up & shut up.
Or, you could realize the source of your problem and up root it.
[Ynet] Two members of the Moslem Brüderbund were killed in a shoot out with security forces in the Nile Delta north of Cairo, the state news agency reported on Friday.
The MENA news agency said they were part of a group that had opened fire on police on a road between the cities of Tanta and al-Mahalla al-Kubra in the Nile Delta province of Gharbiya. They had also tried to set ablaze a traffic police checkpoint, according to the report.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
04/12/2014 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] Suspected Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... Islamists have killed 19 people, including six college teachers, in three separate attacks in Nigeria's troubled northeastern Borno state, residents and travelers said Friday.
The killings took place on Thursday and Friday in Dikwa, Kala-Balge towns and near Dalwa village in the state, the bastion of the Islamist sect, they said.
In Dikwa, one of the ancient towns in Borno State, residents said that gunnies stormed a college in the early hours of Thursday, killed six teachers and two security guards and kidnapped an unspecified number of women, the residents said.
A witness, Modu Kakarimi, who fled Dikwa to Maiduguri, the state capital, said he and some others bravely ran away to safety when they heard sound of gunshots.
"Our fear was heightened when we saw the boarding school (college) in flames. We later gathered that they have killed eight there. We fled together with our women and kiddies," Kakarimi said.
Bono state Senator Ahmed Zanna confirmed the Dikwa killing to journalists but he said he could not provide full details.
"There was a siege on one of the schools in the town just after midnight... They also razed the school library and escaped into the night through the bushes," he said.
A group of gunnies also attacked Kala-Balge town, killing three people and setting many houses ablaze, some local officials said on condition of anonymity.
On Friday, suspected Islamists blocked Maiduguri-Biu highway near Dalwa village and rubbed out eight passengers, a passer-by Mustapha Ali, said.
Ali, who passed through Dalwa on his way to Maiduguri said the gunnies stormed the highway in broad daylight.
There was no immediate confirmation of the attacks by security agencies but a top security officer, who demanded anonymity, confirmed them.
"There were various attacks in the state...It is sad," he said.
The military is launching a major offensive in the region to crush Boko Haram's uprising, which the gunnies say is aimed at creating a strict Islamic state in northern Nigeria.
Violence in the region has already killed some 1,500 people this year.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
04/12/2014 10:10 ||
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Two Saudi soldiers have been killed in a clash with unidentified gunmen who fired on them from across the border with Yemen, the interior ministry said Thursday.
A border guard patrol in the southwestern province of Asir âcame under heavy gunfire on Wednesday morning from unknown sources inside Yemeni territory,â said the ministry. The attack triggered a gun battle which resulted in the death of sergeant Abdulrazaq al-Qhamidi and soldier Mohammed al-Qahtani, it said in a statement.
The Saudi authorities were coordinating with their counterparts in Yemen to investigate the attack.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/12/2014 00:00 ||
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Masked gunmen gunned down an Islamic teacher after bursting into his home in the republic of Dagestan, the latest such killing in the region, investigators said on Friday.
In a statement the Investigative Committee said, "At around 11:00 pm on Thursday, unidentified attackers in masks entered the house of 32-year-old Magomed Zakaryayev, the teacher at the madrasa in the village of Nechayevka and fired several shots."
Zakaryayev died at the scene. A murder and arms trafficking probe has been launched over the killing.
A spokesman for the Committee's Dagestan branch said, "Investigators suspect the crime was committed by members of an illegal armed group due to the religious activity of the murdered man."
[DAWN] At least two people were killed and several injured on Friday in an incident of indiscriminate firing on a local district court in the garrison city, DawnNews reported.
According to police personnel, the firing in the district court occurred between two groups which killed a prisoner and a passerby.
Moreover, an exchange of fire between police and armed attackers also took place after which copperslocked away Book 'im, Mahmoud! four assailants.
After the incident, people panicked and rushed outside the court.
Police and security forces cordoned off the area.
Sources said that Advocate Sardar Amir was the target of unknown attackers, adding that the incident seemed to be the result of a personal rivalry.
The dead bodies and maimed people in the attack were shifted to a hospital.
This is not the first time security lapse has been witnessed in local courts, on April 4, a district court was attacked in Islamabad which had killed 11 people including an additional sessions judge.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/12/2014 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] Several are being reported killed in infighting between two distraught Tehrik-e-Taliban factions between whom fighting intensified on Friday in Wazoo.
Both factions are part of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) umbrella group, which has been waging a bloody seven-year insurgency against the Pak state.
The clash started a few days ago and the cause of infighting was said to be over interference in matters inside one another's domains.
In the latest clash, six Taliban fighters were killed in a remote controlled IED attack on the vehicle of Hakimullah Mehsud group's top commander Sheryar Mehsud in Shawal area of North Waziristan Agency.
Official sources said that the vehicle of Sheryar Mehsud was targetted by rival Khan said Sjana group as the two groups continue to target each other.
At least 19 Death Eaters of the two TTP groups have been killed on Friday alone in three different attacks in Shawal and Dattakhel area ... which is owned and operated by Hafiz Gul Behadur... s of the agency.
The top TTP leadership has also reached Waziristan to resolve the conflict.
On the other hand, the bully boy outfit's leadership is also divided on the ceasefire with the government as no formal extension in ceasefire has been announced despite the end of the earlier deadline of April 10 yesterday.
Cause for strife
Fighters from both sides have been launching attacks in the areas of Shawal, Shaktoi, Makin and Tank with heavy ammunition and artillery in an attempt to destroy one another's sanctuaries.
Moreover, the internal strife between the two groups is now spilling onto the other areas of the region.
The TTP has remained silent on the matter of infighting in which over 30 deaths have been reported over a couple of days.
The festivities first erupted on Sunday in Shawal between supporters of Khan Said Sajna and followers of the late Hakimullah Mehsud group.
Militant sources had earlier suggested that differences emerged after Sajna, a senior commander, was rejected for the TTP leadership, after then-leader Mehsud was killed in a US drone strike last November.
The TTP has long been driven by infighting.
Sajna had been seen as a strong candidate to become TTP chief following Mehsud's death. But the movement's ruling council at the last minute elected Mullah Fazlullah ...son-in-law of holy man Sufi Mohammad. Known as Mullah FM, Fazlullah had the habit of grabbing his FM mike when the mood struck him and bellowing forth sermons. Sufi suckered the Pak govt into imposing Shariah on the Swat Valley and then stepped aside whilst Fazlullah and his Talibs imposed a reign of terror on the populace like they hadn't seen before, at least not for a thousand years or so. For some reason the Pak intel services were never able to locate his transmitter, much less bomb it. After ruling the place like a conquered province for a year or so, Fazlullah's Talibs began gobbling up more territory as they pushed toward Islamabad, at which point as a matter of self-preservation the Mighty Pak Army threw them out and chased them into Afghanistan... , who hails from Swat ...a valley and an administrative district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistain, located 99 mi from Islamabad. It is inhabited mostly by Pashto speakers. The place has gone steadily downhill since the days when Babe Ruth was the Sultan of Swat... and is believed to be hiding in Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/12/2014 00:00 ||
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[Beirut Daily Star: Region] Iraq: Insurgents in Iraq have added water to their arsenal of weapons after seizing control of a dam in the west of the country that enables them to flood selected areas and prevent security forces from advancing against them.
The dam is located some 5 km south of the city of Fallujah, ... the City of Mosques, which might have somthing to do with why it's not called Center of Prosperity or a really nice place to raise your kids... which was overrun by gunnies early this year, and distributes water from the Euphrates River through the western province of Anbar.
Iraqi troops have been surrounding Fallujah and shelling the city in an effort to dislodge anti-government militias including the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS).
In February, ISIS took control of the Nuaimiya area where the dam is located, and began fortifying their positions with concrete blast walls and sand bags, according to anti-government leaders who said no other groups were involved in the takeover.
The gunnies closed all eight of the dam's 10 gates one week ago, flooding land upstream and reducing water levels in Iraq's southern provinces, through which the Euphrates flows before emptying into the Gulf.
Anti-government fighters said ISIS' strategy was to flood the area around the city to force troops to retreat and lift the siege on Fallujah.
"Using water as a weapon in a fight to make people thirsty is a heinous crime," said Oun Dhiyab, an adviser to the Water Ministry.
"Closing the dam and messing with Euphrates water will have dire consequences," he said.
By Thursday, gunnies had re-opened five of the dam's gates to relieve some pressure, fearing their strategy would backfire by flooding their own stronghold of Fallujah, some 70 km west of Storied Baghdad.
Iraqi security officials said flooding around the city had already forced many families to leave their homes and prevented troops from deploying or operating properly in order to prevent gunnies from encroaching on the capital.
"They [ISIS] want to use the flood waters to make it difficult for the security forces to deploy in those areas and this is their chance to move the battle outside Fallujah," said an anti-government leader inside the city.
The Fallujah dam is also key to a number of irrigation projects in the desert province of Anbar, which shares a border with Syria.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/12/2014 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV] Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlaq has escaped an liquidation attempt when his convoy came under fire by unidentified gunnies.
The assault, which took place in the Abu Ghraib area west of Storied Baghdad on Friday, left a guard dead and at least five people injured.
"Mr. Mutlaq is safe and was not hurt," said an assistant to the deputy premier, who was travelling in the convoy.
According to some reports, the snuffies were dressed in army uniforms and were driving military vehicles as they opened fire against the convoy, triggering a shootout with the guards.
The liquidation attempt came as the country is heading towards an important election on April 30.
Iraqi troops, backed by local Sunni rustics, have been fighting al-Qaeda-affiliated snuffies in the country's western regions, including Anbar province, since late December 2013.
Iraq's Interior Ministry has said that snuffies have launched an open war in Iraq and they want to push the Middle Eastern country into chaos.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/12/2014 00:00 ||
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[Ma'an] Five Palestinian medics suffered from excessive tear gas inhalation after Israeli forces fired a tear gas canister at their ambulance in the northern Gaza Strip, a medical official said.
Spokesman for the Gaza Strip ministry of health Ashraf al-Qidra said that Israeli forces had "targeted" three military ambulances near the Eastern Cemetery east of Jabaliya.
The five medics were treated on the scene, he added.
The circumstances of the reported attack were not immediately clear.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/12/2014 00:00 ||
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[Ynet] Dozens of Paleostinians protested in the southern Gazoo Strip near the border fence with Israel. One of the protesters attempted to climb the fence and was shot in the leg by IDF soldiers.
At least seven Abu Sayyaf militants and Philippine soldiers were killed in sporadic clashes in the Muslim province of Basilan, officials announced early Saturday.
Marine Captain Maria Rowena Muyuela said at least five from the Abu Sayyaf and two from the military side were confirmed dead. Two of the slain militants were identified as Assi Kalitot and Basri Musa. Both were followers of Abu Sayyaf leader Isnilon Hapilon.
She said 28 soldiers were also injured in the fighting that began before dawn on April 11 in Ungkaya Pukan and spread to the neighboring town of Tipo-Tipo. She said security forces are pursuing Hapilon and the group of Puruji Indama and Nurhassan Jamiri, three of the most notorious leaders of the Abu Sayyaf.
Muyuela said, "The operation was directed towards the neutralization of the said Abu Sayyaf Group which is responsible in a number of kidnapping and extortion activities, including the Sabrina Ikbala Voon kidnap case, and the P5 million being demanded by the Abu Sayyaf from the contractor of the ongoing Magkawa to Al-Barka road project."
Posted by: ryuge ||
04/12/2014 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] Syria's al-Qaeda affiliate and its allies have repulsed an assault by jihadist rivals on a town on the Iraqi border in fighting that killed 86 people, a monitoring group said Friday.
Sixty of the dead were fighters of al-Nusra Front or its Islamist allies killed pushing back their Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ... the current version of al-Qaeda in Iraq, just as blood-thirsty and well-beloved as the original... (ISIL) rivals from districts of al-Bukamal they had captured early Thursday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told Agence La Belle France Presse the rebels regained full control of al-Bukamal after reinforcements poured in.
ISIL withdrew to the T2 oil site, 60 kilometers (35 miles) southwest of the town and where a Syria-Iraq pipeline runs, he said, after executing seven fighters of a rival Islamist brigade.
The border crossing itself on Syria's side remains in the hands of the mainstream rebel Free Syrian Army ... the more palatable version of the Syrian insurgency, heavily influenced by the Moslem Brüderbund... , said a rebel chief and an Agence La Belle France Presse news hound on the Iraqi side who saw the FSA flag flying over it.
With their attack on al-Bukamal, ISIL fighters wanted to link up with their comrades over the border in Iraq, said Abdel Rahman.
Al-Bukamal has been under the control of fighters opposed to the Damascus regime since November 2012, but al-Nusra and its allies forced out former ISIL allies in heavy fighting in late February.
Thousands were killed in battles in several regions of Syria in January and February pitting ISIL against its rivals and nominal allies in the anti-Assad revolt.
The Euphrates valley town of al-Bukamal had a population of some 70,000 before the start of the Syrian conflict which the Observatory says has cost more than 150,000 lives since March 2011.
Syrian troops now control just one official crossing on the Iraqi border -- al-Tanaf/al-Walid, on the main highway to Storied Baghdad.
A third crossing, Yarabiyah/Rabia in the northeast, is held by Kurdish militia.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
04/12/2014 10:10 ||
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#1
IMO, a pic of Assad Jr laughing his head off would be nice.
[Beirut Daily Star: Region] Militants from ISIS were on the retreat in Deir al-Zor province Friday after staging a surprise attack on a border town with Iraq the day before, activists said.
The corpse count from the fighting between Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS), an Al-Qaeda splinter organization, and its rival the Nusra Front along with local allies rose to 68, with some shot after being captured alive, activists said.
The Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an anti-regime activist group, said battles raged for a second day in the oil-rich province of Deir al-Zor.
The Observatory said the fighting concentrated in the village of Haseen after members of the Al-Qaeda breakaway group known as ISIS were forced out of the nearby town of Al-Bukamal, on the Iraqi border.
Rebels from ISIS and fighters of the Al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front and other Islamic groups have been fighting each other in the province for weeks over territory previously captured from Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor. If he'd stuck with it he'd have had a good practice by now... 's forces, including oil fields.
The Observatory said 68 fighters were killed in fighting around Al-Bukamal Thursday, when 365 people were killed in violence and festivities throughout the country. ISIS briefly captured the town, previously controlled by Nusra, for several hours.
An activist from Deir al-Zor who is currently in Turkey told the News Agency that Dare Not be Named that Nusra Front fighters and their allies brought reinforcements into Al-Bukamal and forced out ISIS gunnies after midnight Friday following hours of intense fighting that killed more than 50 people.
The man, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals against his relatives in the province, said ISIS took its rivals by surprise when its members stormed Al-Bukamal at dawn Thursday and marched through the city.
The Observatory said some of the 68 killed were summarily executed by ISIS Death Eaters.
An amateur video released by the Observatory showed several men, including some who were handcuffed, shot in the head in a square in Al-Bukamal. The narrator said the men were killed by ISIS members.
The video appeared genuine and corresponded to other News Agency that Dare Not be Named reporting of the events. Other videos posted by activists purported to show the town's government hospital, which they accused ISIS snuffies of looting and vandalizing before their withdrawal.
Some ISIS snuffies withdrew to the T2 oil site, 60 kilometers southwest of the town and where a Syria- Iraq pipeline runs, according to Rami Abdel-Rahman, the head of the Observatory.
The festivities have prompted soldiers on the Iraqi side of the border to reinforce their positions.
In the town of Quriyeh, in Deir al-Zor province, a local Islamist militia posted a video denying reports that its members had pledged loyalty to ISIS. A demonstration was also staged by local residents, who saluted the "deaders" of Al-Bukamal and demanding that ISIS be expelled from the province.
Fierce fighting also raged around Aleppo, as the Observatory said 12 rebels and at least nine government soldiers and paramilitary allies were killed in the southwest suburb of Ramouseh. On the northern side of Aleppo, Salafist tough guys pressed ahead with their drive to seize the Air Force intelligence headquarters, as government Arclight airstrikes targeted the area and the nearby Sheikh Najjar district.
Friday's nationwide protests were staged in a number of provinces under the slogan "save Aleppo," which has been subjected to a stepped-up campaign of aerial bombardment for several months, killing hundreds of people.
In the province of rural Damascus, the mountainous Qalamoun region bordering Leb saw fighting that pitted the Nusra Front and Islamist militias against regime troops and Leb's Hezbollah. The Observatory said the rebels disabled a tank near the town of Seidnaya and fought skirmishes around the town of Rankous, which fell this week to regime forces.
The Observatory said two rebels were killed in the festivities, as regime Arclight airstrikes and artillery targeted several locations in Qalamoun, as well as the neighboring Wadi Barada region, also bordering Leb.
The Damascus suburb of Mliha saw heavy fighting, as the regime launched a surface-to-surface missile and pounded the town with Arclight airstrikes, the Observatory said. The fighting killed at least one rebel and a captain in the regime's paramilitary force, the National Defense Army.
Residents of Mliha also staged a short demonstration, as videos posted of the event showed warplanes in the sky overhead.
Activists said that regime Arclight airstrikes and artillery led to the release of noxious gases in another Damascus suburb, Harasta, and a village in Hama province, Kafr Zeita.
Meanwhile, ...back at the palazzo, Count Guido stepped from behind the suit of armor, rapier in hand. Ciccolini snarled and reached for his own weapon... Syria's state news agency SANA said the authorities freed an Austrian lawyer identified as Anton Sander, whom it said had be held by rebels in the city of Homs for the past four months.
SANA said Sander was in Homs visiting friends when he was taken by opposition fighters. It said he recently fled from his captors and was able to flee the neighborhood with the help of the authorities.
SANA published several photographs of Sander showing what it described as injuries from torture on his back.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/12/2014 00:00 ||
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Link ||
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Top|| File under: Islamic State of Iraq
#1
The multifaceted hydra that is the Syrian revolution has evolved to its logical and absurd end...they spend more time killing each other than they do working to rid Syria of Assad.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
04/12/2014 18:41 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Wazoo
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
