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Area: WoT Background    Non-WoT    Opinion        Politix   
'They have lined the streets of Mosul with the heads of police and soldiers'
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 1: WoT Operations
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Good morning
Posted by: Fred || 06/12/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Africa North
Prominent Egypt Activist Abdel Fattah Jailed 15 Years
[Annahar] An Egyptian court locked away
Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw!
prominent activist Alaa Abdel Fattah, a symbol of the 2011 revolt against Hosni Mubarak
...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011...
, for 15 years for assaulting a policeman during an illegal protest.

Abdel Fattah, on bail since March, was incarcerated
Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out!
along with two co-defendants immediately after the ruling as they waited to be allowed to enter the makeshift court at a Cairo police academy.

The court handed down similar sentences to 24 co-defendants, none of whom were in court, after convicting them on charges ranging from participating in an illegal protest to rioting, blocking roads and assaulting coppers, judicial sources said.

Because the verdict was pronounced in absentia, Abdel Fattah will be granted a retrial while he is in jug, said his father Ahmed Seif, who is also his lawyer.

"According to Egyptian law, the ruling is in absentia because the defense lawyers had not presented their case," Seif told AFP.

"Alaa was not allowed to enter the court," he said, denouncing what he said was a hasty ruling issued after just a few hearings.

"We had not yet watched any of the video evidence" in the case, he said, "nor had the prosecution and defense presented their cases."

The sentencing comes just days after the swearing in of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who has vowed to return Egypt to stability rather than pursue democratic freedoms.

Since Sisi ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi
...the former president of Egypt. A proponent of the One Man, One Vote, One Time principle, Morsi won election after the deposal of Hosni Mubarak and jumped to the conclusion it was his turn to be dictator...
last July, the authorities have waged a harsh crackdown on Morsi's supporters as well as the secular opposition.

Seif said "the real objective of such rulings... is to prevent those criticizing the regime from running in the (upcoming) parliamentary elections."

The verdict triggered immediate reactions on social networks.

"Does anyone believe Egypt is on the right track? How many indications of the opposite do you need," asked one tweet.

Abdel Fattah and the others were accused of stealing a walkie-talkie from a policeman during a November protest organized to denounce increased powers given to the military in a new draft constitution.

The protest was deemed illegal under a new law that banned all but police-sanctioned demonstrations, and which has since been used to send dozens of activists to jail.

Secular activists have roundly criticized the law, saying Morsi's ouster itself was result of mass street protests against his turbulent year-long rule. Sisi's opponents say he is bent on establishing an autocratic regime worse than that of Mubarak.

In April, an appeals court upheld three-year prison sentences for three other prominent activists. Among them was the founder of the April 6 youth movement, Ahmed Maher, charged with violating the protest law. The April 6 group, which was also a symbol of the anti-Mubarak uprising, has been banned.

Since Morsi's ouster, a government crackdown on Islamist supporters has left more than 1,400 dead in street festivities and seen at least 15,000 people locked away
Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw!

Hundreds have also been sentenced to death in speedy mass trials that have triggered an international outcry.

Morsi's Moslem BrĂźderbund was blacklisted as a terrorist organization in December after authorities blamed it for bombing a police headquarters. The group has denied any involvement in violence rocking the country since Morsi's ouster.

Meanwhile,
...back at the fist fight, Jake ducked another roundhouse, then parried with his left, then with his right, finally with his chin...
gunnies have unleashed a deadly campaign against security forces that has killed nearly 500 coppers and soldiers in bombings and shootings since July.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/12/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Algerian Jailed for Filming Police 'Theft'
[AnNahar] Algeria tossed in the slammer
Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'!
a man for two years on Monday for posting a video of coppers stealing in the desert region of Ghardaia, during ethnic violence that erupted late last year.

Youcef Ouled Dada was found guilty of "publishing photographs and videos which harm the national interest" and "contempt of the authorities".

The 47-year-old was also ordered to pay a fine of 100,000 dinars ($1,250, 930 euros), one of his lawyers, Amine Sidhoum, told Agence La Belle France Presse, adding he would appeal.

Prosecutors had sought three years for Dada, a computer technician and member of the Berber Mozabite community in the ethnically divided Ghardaia region who has been detained since March.

Another of his lawyers, Abderahmane Saleh, said Dada was accused of filming "three policeman as they were stealing in Grara" municipality "taking advantage of the riots" that broke out in December.

Dada denies making the video or posting it on the Internet, insisting he only shared it on Facebook.

Ghardaia has been the scene of sectarian violence between the region's indigenous Mozabites and the Arabs, known as Chaambas, that have killed at least nine people and maimed more than 400 in the past six months.

In a bid to restore order, some 10,000 police were deployed in March around the main streets of Ghardaia, the regional capital, which lies about 600 kilometers (370 miles) south of Algiers.

Sidhoum, one of Dada's lawyers, called Tuesday's ruling "harsh" and said it would do nothing to calm the situation.

"In this trial, instead of investigating the reality of the facts, the person being denounced is prosecuted," he said.

Ghardaia's two communities have lived together for centuries, but tensions spiked when vandals destroyed a historic Berber shrine in late December.
Likely Salafists, possibly the local al Qaeda affiliate. Which makes the response a War on Terror issue, it seems to me.
Hundreds of houses and shops in the city, which is a UNESCO world heritage site, were also burned down in the unrest.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/12/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Africa Subsaharan
Five Killed in Boko Haram Village Raids
[AnNahar] Five people were killed in 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...
raids on two villages near a town in northeast Nigeria
... a particularly crimson stretch of Islam's bloody border...
where more than 200 schoolgirls were kidnapped nearly two months ago, residents said on Wednesday.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/12/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Boko Haram


Arabia
Yemen Warplanes Hit Suspected Power Line Saboteurs
[AnNahar] Yemeni warplanes struck rustics Wednesday suspected of sabotaging power lines a day earlier, leaving the country without electricity and prompting angry protests in the capital.

Officials have accused the rustics of blocking the road linking Sanaa to the eastern province of Marib, making it impossible to carry out repairs.

Wednesday's air strikes targeted a gathering of rustics near Marib, a tribal source said, without immediately being able to provide a casualty toll.

Another tribal source said the saboteurs were protesting against Marib's governor, whom they accuse of seizing government subsidies destined for the tribes.

Deeply-tribal Yemen has suffered a total blackout since Tuesday, with the entire national power and energy grid down, including Marib's gas plant, according to the electricity and energy ministry.

Attacks on power lines in Yemen are common and often launched by rustics as a lever to press for the release of tossed in the clink
You have the right to remain silent...
relatives or to support other demands.

The absence of reliable electricity supplies further complicates the lives of Yemenis, who already suffer water and food shortages.

Enraged by the power cuts added to weeks of severe fuel shortages, with motorists having to queue for hours at petrol station, thousands erupted into the streets in Sanaa Wednesday.

Protesters marched towards Sittin Street, where President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi lives, demanding the government's ouster.

"The government of (Prime Minister Mohammed) Basindawa does not care about citizens," said taxi driver Taha al-Amrani.

"Poor people like myself wait two days in a queue for 40 liters of gasoline. This is not a life," he said angrily. "My children are going to starve."

Police fired warning shots as protesters, some armed, set tires ablaze.

Interior Minister Abdo al-Tarib went into the streets to calm the situation, telling protesters "we are all going through difficulties."

An 11-month-long Arab Spring-inspired uprising against former president 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...
led to his ouster in 2012, and a consensus government of his opponents and loyalists was formed following his resignation.

"We erupted into the streets three years ago demanding changes and today we are asking President Hadi to listen to our calls and change the government," said Maziar, a member of the so-called "Youths of the Revolution" who led the protests against the former regime.

"Our revolution will continue until our goals are achieved," he said.

Describing the energy crisis as "complex," Deputy Oil Minister Shaw qi al-Akhlame said "saboteurs, the government and bandidos" are all responsible.

He told AFP the electricity ministry has debts it has not been paying to the oil ministry and "Yemen has lost $300 million in one year" due to the repeated attacks on oil pipelines in Marib.

Meanwhile,
...back at the cheese factory, all the pieces finally fell together in Fluffy's mind...
"gunnies" have seized "200 gas and 80 fuel trucks" on the road between Marib and Sanaa, he said.

The fuel shortage has also affected students.

"We are unable to study due to the power outage or move around due to the lack of taxis," lamented one student, who said he was forced to make a long journey on foot to reach his examination center.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/12/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


India-Pakistan
Successive drone strikes leave at least 16 dead in N Waziristan
[DAWN] After a nearly six month halt in the drone campaign, separate US aerial drones fired missiles at myrmidon hideouts in pre-dawn strikes on Thursday just days after the Taliban launched a deadly attack on Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
airport that killed 37 people.

Two successive US drone strikes killed at least 16 suspected turbans in Pakistain's northwest tribal area where pressure was building on Islamabad to react after the brazen attack.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 06/12/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan

#1  Don't cha mean "SUCCESSFUL Drone Strikes..."????
Posted by: Bangkok Billy || 06/12/2014 5:31 Comments || Top||

#2  Why is Obean doing this given the condition Iraq is in?
Posted by: gorb || 06/12/2014 23:57 Comments || Top||


25 killed in Tirah air strike
[DAWN] LANDI KOTAL: At least 25 suspected bully boyz were killed and 15 injured when military planes bombed their hideouts in Tirah valley of Khyber Agency early on Tuesday, Inter-Services Public Relations said,

It further said that Pakistain Air Force planes targeted the hideouts in Wacha Wana, Mehraban Killay, Dwa Thoe, Rakgall and Tangu areas.

The ISPR claimed that nine hard boy bases and hideouts had been destroyed in the targeted localities.

The ISPR claim could not be verified independently. The bombing was in retaliation to Sunday's deadly attack on the Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
airport carried out by the Tehrik-e-Taliban.

A Jamrud-based resident of Tangu village told Dawn that at least six non-combatants, including women and kiddies, were among the dead.

Sources who did not want to be identified said a bomb struck the house of one Sameed Sherkhan Khel in Tangu at around 1.30am, killing his wife, two sons, two daughters and a niece and leaving three members of the family critically injured.
Posted by: Fred || 06/12/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Lashkar-e-Islami


Three suspects killed in 'encounters'
[DAWN] KARACHI: Three suspects were rubbed out in two separate alleged encounters in Mauripur and Orangi Town on Tuesday, according to officials.

In Mauripur, a wanted criminal was bumped off. Police said that acting on a tip-off they raided an alleged hideout of gangsters near Chawal Godam in the Mauripur area, where in an ensuing encounter a suspect identified as Jamal, alias Lambu, was killed.
Oboy. Now that, my dears, is efficient reporting. By the numbers, then:
1. On the map. You may need an electron microscope to find it, but by law, it must be there.
2. The police didn't mean to. It was forced upon them by the precipitious action of the miscreant and his gang pf gangsters.
3. *ring ring* "Mahmoud the Weasel, here. The miscreants are meeting in their proletarian hide-out. Leave the payment under the rock as usual. I'll send Mahmoud the Weasel IV to pick it up. His sister, Suzy-Aisha, needs her teeth straightened, so that'll come in handy."
4. "Hark, my Spidey Sense is tingling. Commence random firing, O ye bandits!"
5. "Shall we return fire, Sarge?"
"Yes, you idiot! But two shots only -- dear little Lambu here only has two ears to be hit behind."
6. Yes, he was magically found dead on the spot, afterward. And his comrades equally magically disappeared as if they'd never been.
He belonged to the Comrade Sheeraz gang
Oho! We've got Commie gangs in West Pakistan, too. Things are looking up in the old encounter biz.
of Lyari
...one of the eighteen constituent towns of the city of Karachi. It is the smallest town by area in the city but also the most densely populated. Lyari has few schools, substandard hospitals, a poor water system, limited infrastructure, and broken roads. It is a stronghold of ruling Pakistan Peoples Party. Ubiquitous gang activity and a thriving narcotics industry make Lyari one of the most disturbed places in Karachi, which is really saying a lot....
and was wanted in several criminal cases.
On twelve planets, in fact.
The provincial government had announced Rs300,000 million for his arrest.
But there was no arrest, so this efficient little partial newspaper article is all that will be disbursed.
In Orangi Town, two suspected robbers were rubbed out.
See numbers, above.
The suspects shot at and maimed a man, Kamran Aslam, on resistance of a robbery attempt in Chishti Nagar. Area people put up resistance
Oh dear. It's always bad for the bad guys when the citizenry is aroused. Very often iron bars are deployed. The coppers are kinder.
and, in the meantime, a police party also reached there, said Iqbal Market SHO Ghulam Rasool Rajpar. In the ensuing shootout, two suspects were killed. The dead were identified as Noor Alam and Zahoor.
As a mere one-namer, he was the henchman, of course.
The police claimed to have found two pistols and a cycle of violence in their custody.
Both to be lovingly cleaned and polished by the newest member of the force, then returned to the evidence room until the next time they're needed.
Kamran who sustained bullet wounds in the leg was shifted to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for treatment.
"Dr. Quincy, Dr. Quincy, we've got a live one!"
"Nope. He's dead, Jim. Note the noticeable lack of breathing and the bits of shattered blood and brains and bone where the completely random bullets exited after entering once behind each ear. We'll never find them, I'm afraid."
Posted by: Fred || 06/12/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Militant Attacks Kill Five in NW Pakistan
[AnNahar] At least five people including three coppers were killed on Wednesday in two murderous Moslem festivities near Pakistain's 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...
Valley, officials said.

In the first incident, gunnies ambushed a car of local pro-government fighters in the Kooza Bandi village of Swat Valley, killing three people including a police guard, district police chief Sher Akbar told AFP.

Nobody grabbed credit but Talibs have carried out such attacks in the past.

Pro-government militias rose up in reaction to the Taliban's brutal rule of the Swat Valley between 2007-2009, when the gunnies grew unpopular for killing tribal elders, razing schools and kidnapping people for ransom.

Separately, up to six gunnies stormed a checkpoint in the northwestern town of Dargai, that lies in the Malakand region neighboring Swat, killing two police, local officials said.

"Two security force personnel embraced martyrdom in an attack at the checkpoint," Fayyaz Khan, a local government official told AFP.

A Taliban insurgency in Swat began in 2007, with the gunnies taking de facto control for two years until an army operation was launched to reclaim the popular tourist destination.

Pakistain has been battling a homegrown Islamist insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives for the past decade.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/12/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq
'They have lined the streets of Mosul with the heads of police and soldiers'
Despite vastly outnumbering the jihadists, government troops have melted away in the face of the bad boys, allowing them to capture two helicopters, 15 tanks, weapons and several armoured cars that used belonging to the American military. They also seized €350million-worth of dinars by robbing a bank in djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
.

According to bitter Iraqi footsoldiers, their commanders slipped away in the night rather than mount a defence of the city.

One said: 'Our leaders betrayed us. The commanders left the military behind. When we woke up, all the leaders had left.'

Last night Barack Obama
I am the change that you seek...
said America would help with 'short-term immediate actions… militarily' to push back the bad boys, but ruled out sending troops.

Foreign Secretary William Hague said Britannia would not get involved militarily because Iraq was now a democracy.

Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki
... Prime Minister of Iraq and the secretary-general of the Islamic Dawa Party. Maliki imposed order on Basra wen the Shiites were going nuts, but has proven incapable of dealing with al-Qaeda's Sunni insurgency. Reelected to his third term in 2014...
vowed: 'We are not going to allow this to carry on, regardless of the price. We are getting ready. We are organising.'

As the situation spiralled out of control, even Iran was said to have deployed two battalions from its Revolutionary Guard to help the Iraqi government retake Tikrit.

The development was likely to enrage Washington, which has been steadfast in its determination for Storied Baghdad not to cosy up to Tehran.

It also emerged that members of Saddam's old guard were joining the insurrection. Fighters loyal to his disbanded Baath Party were said to be actively supporting the rebels. ISIS stands for Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham but has also been referenced as Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
Posted by: frozen al || 06/12/2014 14:08 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State of Iraq

#1  This surge will throw the free world into a death spiral if Islamists within Western societies are encourage to shift to militancy on this huge success in the ME.
Posted by: Bubba Graiting8281 || 06/12/2014 15:59 Comments || Top||

#2  Great photo essay, some staged, fluffy bunnies toward the end.
Posted by: Skidmark || 06/12/2014 17:20 Comments || Top||

#3  Welcome to the new world! Thanks Obama, your dreams are coming true....
Posted by: 49 Pan || 06/12/2014 18:30 Comments || Top||

#4  State Department spokesman Eric "Otter" Stratton to the Iraqi people: "You f$#@&? up. You trusted us."
Posted by: whitecollar redneck || 06/12/2014 19:15 Comments || Top||

#5  Ima thinkern when bad guys take over your 2nd largest city, pooches are being screwed right and left.

Last night Barack Obama said America would help with 'short-term immediate actions‌ militarily' to push back the bad boys,

Are these bad boys the same ones, the admin wants to arm/support next door in Syria? Isn't that a conflict of interest?
Posted by: SteveS || 06/12/2014 20:19 Comments || Top||

#6  At the risk of being OT, what's with that blue pattern camouflage? What exactly does that blend in with?
Posted by: SteveS || 06/12/2014 20:28 Comments || Top||

#7  The sea. Important if you are being driven into it.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 06/12/2014 20:31 Comments || Top||

#8  I love it.
Posted by: KBK || 06/12/2014 21:34 Comments || Top||

#9  The sea. Important if you are being driven into it.

Man, I don't know whether to laugh or weep at that one.
Posted by: SteveS || 06/12/2014 22:13 Comments || Top||


Iraq Militants Head to Baghdad
From the NYT. As much as we dislike 'em, they do have reporters on the scene and they are telling us what is happening on the ground. I snipped all the 'analysis' from the story and present the facts as 'fair use.'
BAGHDAD -- Sunni militants consolidated and extended their control over northern Iraq on Wednesday, seizing Tikrit, the hometown of Saddam Hussein, threatening the strategic oil refining town of Baiji and pushing south toward Baghdad, their ultimate target, Iraqi sources said.

As the dimensions of the assault began to become clear, it was evident that a number of militant groups had joined forces, including Baathist military commanders from the Hussein era, whose goal is to rout the government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki. One of the Baathists, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, was a top military commander and a vice president in the Hussein government and one of the few prominent Baathists to evade capture by the Americans throughout the occupation.
It's that 'strong horse' thing again...
"These groups were unified by the same goal, which is getting rid of this sectarian government, ending this corrupt army and negotiating to form the Sunni Region," said Abu Karam, a senior Baathist leader and a former high-ranking army officer, who said planning for the offensive had begun two years ago. "The decisive battle will be in northern Baghdad. These groups will not stop in Tikrit and will keep moving toward Baghdad."
They need to topple the government, each for their own reasons. Each thinks that their group will end up top dog, or at least one of the big dogs. Each thinks that this is best for the people they claim to represent. And they're all united in thinking that democracy is bad -- at least for them...
The sudden successes of the militant forces sent hundreds of thousands of people running, some literally, from the new outbursts of violence, panicked leaders in Turkey and Syria and revived memories of bloody American struggles to wrest the same places — Mosul and Tikrit — from jihadist fighters a decade ago.

By late Wednesday, the Sunni militants, many aligned with the radical Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, were battling loyalist forces at the northern entrance to the city of Samarra, about 70 miles north of Baghdad. The city is known for a sacred Shiite shrine that was bombed in 2006, during the height of the American-led occupation, touching off a sectarian civil war between the Sunni minority and Shiite majority.

Militant commanders were reportedly threatening to destroy the shrine if its defenders refused to lay down their arms, while hundreds of Shiite fighters were said to be heading north from Baghdad to confront the attackers.
That's about where the line will be drawn. The Shi'a aren't going to allow Sunni terrorists into the land that traditionally has been theirs. The government may not fight but the Shi'a militias will.
As Iraqi government forces crumbled in disarray before the assault, there was speculation that they may have been ordered by their superiors to give up without a fight. One local commander in Salahuddin Province, where Tikrit is located, said in an interview Wednesday: "We received phone calls from high-ranking commanders asking us to give up. I questioned them on this, and they said, 'This is an order.' "

Residents of Tikrit reported remarkable displays of soldiers handing over their weapons and uniforms peacefully to militants who ordinarily would have been expected to kill government soldiers on the spot.

Mr. Maliki, a Shiite, himself suggested the possibility of a disloyal military in his exhortations on Tuesday for citizens to take up arms against the Sunni insurgents.

As the central government declared a 10 p.m. curfew in the capital and surrounding towns, an influential Iraqi Shiite cleric, Moktada al-Sadr, called for the formation of a special force to defend religious sites in Iraq. The authorities in neighboring Iran, which is predominantly Shiite, canceled all visas and flights for pilgrims to Baghdad and intensified security on the Iran-Iraq border, Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

Shiite militia leaders said that at least four brigades, each with 2,500 to 3,000 fighters, had been hastily assembled and equipped in recent weeks by the Shiite political parties to protect Baghdad and the political process in Iraq. They identified the outfits as the Kataibe Brigade, the Assaib Brigade, the Imam al-Sadr Brigade and the armed wing of the Badr Organization.
There you go. I'm only surprised that these militias had to be "hastily" reassembled -- I would have thought they would have been assembled and just laying low, keeping their powder dry...
Residents of Baiji, a city of 200,000 about 110 miles south of Mosul, awoke Wednesday to find that government checkpoints had been abandoned and that insurgents, arriving in a column of 60 vehicles, were taking control of parts of the city without firing a shot, the security officials said. Peter Bouckaert, the emergency services director for Human Rights Watch, said in a post on Twitter that the militants had seized the Baiji power station, which supplies electricity to Baghdad, Kirkuk and Salahuddin Province.

In Tikrit, residents said the militants attacked in the afternoon from three directions: east, west and north. They said there were brief exchanges of gunfire, and then police officers and soldiers shed their uniforms, put on civilian clothing and fled through residential areas to avoid the militants.

"They did not kill the soldiers or policemen who handed over their weapons, uniform and their military ID," a security official in Tikrit, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Wednesday. "They just took these things and asked them to leave."

On Wednesday, the insurgents claimed to have taken control of the entire province of Nineveh, Agence France-Presse reported, and there were reports of militants executing government soldiers in the Kirkuk region. Atheel al-Nujaifi, the governor of the province, criticized the Iraqi army commanders in Mosul, saying they had misled the government about the situation in the city.
Posted by: Steve White || 06/12/2014 10:31 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State of Iraq

#1  Oil prices will go through the roof.
Posted by: Bubba Graiting8281 || 06/12/2014 14:41 Comments || Top||

#2  Obama talked today about possibly providing equipment and assistance. The Iraqis have abandoned what we gave them. We provided plenty of assistance during the nation building effort before we left.
Posted by: JohnQC || 06/12/2014 15:07 Comments || Top||

#3  Maliki was playing footsie with Iran. Looks like his Sunni Arab neighbors objected.
Posted by: Squinty || 06/12/2014 15:31 Comments || Top||

#4  To equalize the Karma it is required that a Republican Congress cut off all aid to a corrupt and dying Iraqi regime. I can see the V-22s on the roof now.
Posted by: Shipman || 06/12/2014 15:40 Comments || Top||

#5  The target rich environment would be tempting--just saying.
Posted by: JohnQC || 06/12/2014 15:43 Comments || Top||

#6  60 vehicles? So 500 jihadi routed a so-called army of "900,000" and a city of 200,000? That's some fierce mofo's.
Posted by: KBK || 06/12/2014 18:19 Comments || Top||

#7  It seems a proxy war Saudi Arabia Versus Iran.

Which side should Mr Obama support?
Posted by: Slinelet Pelosi7787 || 06/12/2014 18:29 Comments || Top||

#8  Maybe so - from Belmont Club:

The Tweets tell of a monumental collapse. ”Jesus. “30,000 men – simply turned and ran in the face of the assault by an insurgent force of just 800 fighters … Surreal scenes in #Mosul, #Iraq as US trained troops leave behind their uniforms and flee from #ISIS to #Kurdistan. ”
Posted by: KBK || 06/12/2014 18:36 Comments || Top||

#9  Well, for Belmont Club, read the whole thing: The Day Of Reckoning

There’s nothing in place available to stop al-Qaeda. The forces that might have are locked up in the Southwest Asia, sustained at the mercy of Russia and Pakistan. Obama has been faked out; the AQ have gone around him for a layup to the basket. He may lose Iraq and its border with Syria before the year ends. Afghanistan’s fall will follow almost immediately thereafter, behind the last American troops, whose safe exit from the landlocked country is now by no means guaranteed. The Russians lost more than 500 men going out in 1989 — and they only had to cross a land border a short distance away.

The only way things could be worse is for US troops in Afghanistan find themselves trapped, denied passage by Pakistan or Russia. Of course that could never happen because the press never considers the possibility and it considers Obama too “respected” for that to occur.

When you add in the Eastern European crisis and the growing expansion of China to the Middle Eastern collapse, it is not hard to see the obvious. Unless a miracle saves Obama, the nation will be facing a global and existential security crisis within a short time. America will face a supercharged Islamic terrorism with thousands of recruits in the West available as a 5th Column, supplied with vast amounts of money and in potential possession of most of the worldÂ’s oil. For how long until Saudi ArabiaÂ’s Islamic children eat its parents?


And that's just the beginning of a righteous rant that ends with Hillary (!). RTWT.
Posted by: KBK || 06/12/2014 20:06 Comments || Top||

#10  Iraq had a trained force of something like 800,000? They have been routed by 800? The militants do not have unrealistic ROEs to slow them down it seems.
Posted by: JohnQC || 06/12/2014 21:18 Comments || Top||

#11  I have reason to question the 800 figure. In other news sources a former US general mentioned how ISIL is using "conventional" military tactics and attacking Iraqi Army positions in "company and battalion sized units."

If they can do that, ISIL has a hell of a lot more men than 800 and some of the pictures on Drudge of ISIL driving HumVees in convoys looks like a lot more than 800. Can we propose the news accounts are designed to impugn the training efforts of the last administration.
Posted by: Bill Clinton || 06/12/2014 22:36 Comments || Top||

#12  I have reason to question the 800 figure.

I read somewhere that reinforcements have been streaming in from Syria.
Posted by: Squinty || 06/12/2014 22:53 Comments || Top||


Smoking gun: Saudis running jihadists in Syria
WASHINGTON -- A captured member of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant claims that the ISIL and other Islamic militant groups in Syria not only are supported by a member of the Saudi royal family but that individual actually heads the ISIL.

In a video admission, a captured member of the ISIL said the radical Islamic group actually is led by Prince Adbul Rahman al-Faisal, the son of the late King Faisal of Saudi Arabia and the brother of the current Saudi Foreign Minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal.
A similar article can be found here.

Notice how ISIL was careful to state its independence from Al-Qadea. I speculated that ISIL's attack in Iraq might have the aim of opening a second front against Iran (and BTW Syria). Looks like I might be right.
Posted by: Squinty || 06/12/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The WND article links to a video released by the Iranian FARS news agency. I don't know how to judge whether it is true, partly true, or wholly invented propaganda.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/12/2014 4:51 Comments || Top||

#2  and Iraq now by the looks of things.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 06/12/2014 5:20 Comments || Top||

#3  I would rail against the Saudi's, but this seems like a cunning move by them. They know Obama isn't going to do a damn thing. Iran is winning in Syria, and they're gaining influence through the Shia in Iraq. Better an Islamic state of Sunni's than Shia's to them. Before they could rely on us to make sure that doesn't happen.

I'm sick to my stomach this is happening, however if Iraq still can't stand up now, it's not ever going to. I mean 30,000 vs 800, and they Iraqi army still fled.
Posted by: Charles || 06/12/2014 5:33 Comments || Top||

#4  Maybe it will go on for another ten years. Can you imagine tens of thousands of dead Moslems and Islam bleeding itself white?

And not a single death will be in Kansas. Just Mustapha and all his friends and the dog. And we don't have to pay a dime, Saudi and Iran can foot the bill. How long did the Iraqis fight Iran? Millions of dead? Yeah, get some...

Graveyards to the horizon all with little crescent thingys on the rows of graves. Poke it with a stick.
Posted by: Big Thromoth3646 || 06/12/2014 6:22 Comments || Top||

#5  Those cellie calls made on State Department instruments by Benghazi attackers.... where did they terminate again ?

Won't the Soodis and other Gulf States who have been bankrolling the Jihadists be surprised when they are overrun as well.
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/12/2014 6:28 Comments || Top||

#6 
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 06/12/2014 7:15 Comments || Top||

#7  Bright Pebbles,
Exactly. Certainly true in Pakistan. Could come true for the Saudis.

All,
Somebody is paying the Jihadist to be in Syria and now Iraq. War is more expensive than the occasional jacketwala. So the first question is, who has money? Saudi Arabia comes to mind. If not officially then a wink and a nod at the 3rd pillar of Islam, charity.

Christ, even the champ could be paying for this.
Posted by: Squinty || 06/12/2014 9:05 Comments || Top||

#8  Or Xi. Or Vlad.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 06/12/2014 9:20 Comments || Top||

#9  Or Obama could be Xi or Vlad's cats' paw. Shhh, though, Americans aren't supposed to notice his actions are more supportive of China and Russia than the US.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 06/12/2014 9:48 Comments || Top||

#10  Everyone ready for Iranian troops fighting in Iraq?
Posted by: swksvolFF || 06/12/2014 12:49 Comments || Top||

#11  Surprise meter, per favor.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 06/12/2014 14:35 Comments || Top||

#12  swksvolFF,
Iran-Iraq war, round 2.

--

Xi (China has pivoted to Iran) and Vlad (already is Pencilneck's pocket) are backing Iran. ISIL is anti-shia.

The champ doesn't have his eye on the ball.
Posted by: Squinty || 06/12/2014 14:38 Comments || Top||

#13  Who should we in the West support Sunni or Shia or sit back and let them kill each other LOL
Posted by: Slinelet Pelosi7787 || 06/12/2014 16:36 Comments || Top||

#14  Who should we in the West support.

An excellent question. ISIL is bad news. ISIL is competing with Al-Qaeda backed Al-Nusra Front for the title "most effective Islamic terrorist group in the world".

Our enemy's house is divided. It is not in our interest to have either side win. Ideally, they both need to be crushed. I wonder what the Kurds would think of being backed by US air power? In return, they get Mosul back.

On the other hand, where is that popcorn...?
Posted by: Squinty || 06/12/2014 17:01 Comments || Top||

#15  It appears that, at this time, Iran is supporting Iraq with Iranian troops.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 06/12/2014 17:10 Comments || Top||

#16  It appears that, at this time, Iran is supporting Iraq with Iranian troops.

So Iran & Shia-Iraq vs. ISIL & Iraq-Sunni. What about those Kurds....
Posted by: Squinty || 06/12/2014 17:13 Comments || Top||

#17 
The champ doesn't have his eye on the ball.

He's not even in the game.
Posted by: Fred || 06/12/2014 17:21 Comments || Top||

#18  He's not even in the game.

"President Barack Obama has come under fire for failing to do enough to shore up the government in Baghdad before pulling out its troops." Kuwait Times

Ten four Fred.
Posted by: Squinty || 06/12/2014 17:31 Comments || Top||

#19  Mr. Obama considered the game to be over six years ago.
Posted by: Pappy || 06/12/2014 17:43 Comments || Top||

#20  While letting the fanatics kill each other off and the common people watching as the two sides exhaust themselves, the fanatics in Islam have this curious ability to blame the US for the state of affairs and focus on us as a common enemy...

If we don't watch out, a lot of those "illegal immigrant" kids coming across the border could wind up being AQ or ISIL and all hell will break loose as the empty suit and his advisors will spend more time trying to blame Bush than respond in a coherent manner.

Typical cowardly liberals who cannot think of anything worth fighting for...not even freedom.

At least the leftists will fight.
Posted by: Bill Clinton || 06/12/2014 20:21 Comments || Top||


Iraq crisis: Islamist militants attack Tikrit after 500,000 are forced to flee Mosul
[The Independent] Sunni insurgents advancing on Baghdad after taking Mosul have captured the city of Tikrit, the home town of Saddam Hussein, as government forces disintegrate and fail to offer resistance. Iraqi soldiers and police are reported to have discarded their uniforms, changed into civilian clothes and fled after firing only a few shots.
My assessment: Baghdad will fall within 30 days. A new Sunni Republic has been established. Kuwait, the Kuwaiti oil fields, and the Gulf States are the next targets.
Shit. Just about now I wish I had the vocabulary of a Master Sergeant. I hope you're wrong, Besoeker, mostly because I fear you are not aren't. Prayers for all seeing the spreading circles of Hell approaching.
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/12/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State of Iraq

#1  Approaching? Where. Approaching Kansas?

The only thing we have approaching is Mexicans.

Moslems are killing Moslems. You have a problem with them killing EACH OTHER? You worried that you are going to get some of it on YOUR shoes? They are in Goombah, not in Podumk. Sell them some ammo.

Iran and Saudi are popping each other and neither one of them manufacture their own ball point pens, they BUY most of their stuff from us or our various outlets.

Wars weaken the participants and cost them a whole lot of money. There are LOTs of opportunities here. Kansas is clean and we can make a profit out of seeing the goons in the rag hats bleed themselves white. They aren't going to get bigger, they are going to bleed to death.
Islam is bleeding to death. hello? And you are shaking in your shoes?

Fu..k Kumbaya, Charlie. Think opportunity. I likeed the part about Khadaffy getting bayoneted in the rectum and then taking a mag-load in the head. We can get mileage out of THEM fighting each other. You afraid of "american" Moslems? Terrorists in Iowa? If you weren't nelly you wouldn't have had them here in the first place, Squeegie. We can get rid of them any time we have the nads to just DO IT.
Quit thinking like some victim.
Posted by: Big Thromoth3646 || 06/12/2014 6:42 Comments || Top||

#2  Jihadists curtail Gulf oil production and export to western infidels. Champ approval rating jumps 10 points overnight as he approves Keystone pipeline.
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/12/2014 6:54 Comments || Top||

#3  Around 100 ISIL fighters held mass prayers in central Tikrit after taking control.

I have read that this group numbers around 800. Something is seriously wrong if Iraq cannot muster enough forces to wipe out this group. We spent a small fortune in treasure and spilled considerable blood to take over the country and then train these Iraqi forces. It seems the Iraqis don't care enough to defend their own country.
Posted by: JohnQC || 06/12/2014 10:29 Comments || Top||

#4  Imagine if each of those 500,000 were given a stick and then set on the 800 during prayers. Even with 30 round AK mags (800*30=24000) the problem would quickly resolve.
No guts, no glory, no voice in their future for the runaways.
Posted by: Skidmark || 06/12/2014 12:15 Comments || Top||

#5  The Kurds (not ISIS) took Kirkuk.

As they see Maliki's govt. disintegrate, and the AQI types swarming around to the west and north, they figured it was as good a time as any, I guess. They've been bickering with Baghdad about the oil rights there for years.

Don't know if ISIS will try and take on the Peshmerga.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 06/12/2014 13:50 Comments || Top||

#6  ISIL may be fanatics but they are not crazy enough to take on the Kurds. The Kurds will fight for their territory.

As for Muslim fighting Muslim, the problem is the disease metastasizes into blaming the US when the grand caliphate doesn't work and we have a bunch of well financed nut jobs slithering around our country with mayhem on their minds.

It isn't a good idea to give this nasty group of extremists the financial resources that Iraq's oil will avail them, I think the end game here is a full blown Shia/Sunni war with Iran and Saudi Arabia going at it...with Syria, Libya, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, and maybe even Morocco taking up sides in the war.

We're going to see $10 gas as the money grubbers who control crude oil prices (thank you Marc Rich) jack crude into the ionosphere. Our only hope is that the prices get high enough to hit that tipping point in which all of those idle oil wells in Texas, California, Kansas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico are profitable.
Posted by: Bill Clinton || 06/12/2014 14:33 Comments || Top||


Militants Seize 48, including Turkish Consul and Seize Tikrit as Half a Million Iraqis Flee
[AnNahar] Militants stormed the Turkish consulate in the northern Iraqi city of djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
on Wednesday and kidnapped 48 people including the head of the diplomatic mission, a Turkish government official said.

"48 Turks including the consul, staff members, guards and three children were kidnapped," the official told Agence La Belle France Presse, speaking on condition of anonymity
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/12/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State of Iraq & the Levant

#1  Why annoy the Turks? The Turks and the ROCs are two armies it is better to avoid fighting.

Are they hoping for sympathy from the Kurds? Speaking of which, what are the Kurds in Iraq doing about this?
Posted by: Squinty || 06/12/2014 16:12 Comments || Top||

#2  I took a quick look and found this.

[nyt, sorry] Iraqi Kurds Take Oil City as Militants Push Forward
Posted by: Squinty || 06/12/2014 16:15 Comments || Top||

#3  Sorry, ROC should have been ROK, Republic of Korea.
Posted by: Squinty || 06/12/2014 16:18 Comments || Top||

#4  ISIL has also been fighting the Kurds of northeast Syria. Kurds and ISIL are hostiles. The Iraqi Kurds have the military power to take back Mosul
Posted by: Squinty || 06/12/2014 16:43 Comments || Top||

#5  The Kurds don't like arabs and, IMO, if they do anything it will be something that turn to their advantage, such as maybe attacking Mosul to get the air and armor we left there.
Posted by: irishrageboy || 06/12/2014 18:02 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Israeli airstrike kills 1 in northern Gaza
[CHRON] An Israeli aircraft struck a target in the northern Gazoo Strip Wednesday, killing one person and wounding three others, in the first deadly violence between the sides since a new Paleostinian government took office last week.

The late-night Arclight airstrike came hours after Paleostinian forces of Evil fired a rocket into southern Israel, the first such attack since President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial...
formed the new government and took charge, at least formally, of Gazoo. Israel has warned it would hold the Western-backed Abbas responsible for any attacks out of the territory, even though the rival Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, Death Eater group maintains de facto control.

Witnesses said the Arclight airstrike targeted a man on a cycle of violence and also struck a nearby car. Paleostinian medical officials said two of the maimed were at death's door. They did not immediately identify the casualties.

But in a statement, the Israeli military identified the target as a 33-year-old Death Eater linked to "global jihad," a term it uses to describe groups that are affiliated or inspired by al-Qaeda. It said the man had participated in "many" rocket attacks while also working as a Hamas policeman, and described the Arclight airstrike as pre-emptive.

"Our policy is clear. Kill those who rise up to kill us," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.
Posted by: Fred || 06/12/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  Ynet has more details, along with a photo of the dead man at the link in rather nifty camouflage and holding a scary black rifle of some sort.

The dead was identified as Mohammed Ahmed Alarur, 30, from Beit Lahia. Hamada Hassan, 25, was reportedly critically wounded in the strike.

According to the IDF, Alarur was involved in many rocket launches at Israel in recent years and particularly in the past month. Alarur also served as a policeman in the Hamas police.

According to the Shin Bet, Alarur's terror cell was behind the rocket salvo that hit Sderot, Sha'ar HaNegev Regional Council and the Eshkol Regional Council on April 21, disrupting the silence of the Passover holiday morning.

The extremist Salafist cell also planned terror attacks against Israel, including a plot to fire an anti-aircraft missile at an IAF helicopter.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/12/2014 5:32 Comments || Top||

#2  The Israelis really need to step up the use of drone kills. It's not like State here could complain without clearly showing their hypocrisy. We're short on good ironic comedy on the news hour.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 06/12/2014 8:52 Comments || Top||

#3  A repeat hit on his funeral would be nice
Posted by: Frank G || 06/12/2014 14:56 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Top Filipino Terror Suspect Captured Near Airport
[Ynet] Khair Mundos, a top Filipino commander of the al-Qaeda funded Abu Sayyaf
...also known as al-Harakat al-Islamiyya, an Islamist terror group based in Jolo, Basilan and Zamboanga. Since its inception in the early 1990s, the group has carried out bombings, kidnappings, murders, head choppings, and extortion in their uniquely Islamic attempt to set up an independent Moslem province in the Philippines. Abu Sayyaf forces probably number less than 300 cadres. The group is closely allied with remnants of Indonesia's Jemaah Islamiya and has loose ties with MILF and MNLF who sometimes provide cannon fodder...

Death Eater group, incarcerated in Manila's international airport

Philippine army troops and police on Wednesday captured a top Filipino commander of the Abu Sayyaf Death Eater group who is on the U.S. list of most-wanted turbans and has acknowledged receiving al-Qaeda funds to finance bombings in the country.

Philippine security officials said Khair Mundos was arrested in a slum community near Manila's international airport but it was not immediately clear why he was in the capital. The military and police have been hunting him for his alleged involvement in bombings and kidnappings.

Mundos is one of the highest-ranking terrorist suspects to be captured in the country in years. He was captured in 2004 but escaped in 2007.

Military intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Eduardo Ano described Mundos' capture as a major blow to Abu Sayyaf, where he has served as a top commander, financial and logistical officer, trainer and planner of attacks.

The US State Department says Mundos, who also faces money laundering charges, has acknowledged that he arranged the transfer of al-Qaeda funds to the Abu Sayyaf to finance bombings and other attacks in the Philippines.

The State Department announced a $500,000 reward in 2009 for the killing or capture of Mundos. U.S. authorities said he has worked as a financier for Abu Sayyaf.

He has led Abu Sayyaf Death Eaters on southern Basilan
...Basilan is a rugged, jungle-covered island in the southern Philippines. It is a known stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf, bandidos, and maybe even orcs. Most people with any sense travel with armed escorts...
and is known to have links with members of the Southeast Asian krazed killer network Jemaah Islamiyah.

Abu Sayyaf, which has an estimated 300 armed fighters split into about six factions, has been blamed for deadly kabooms, ransom kidnappings and beheadings. It was founded in the early 1990s on jungle-clad Basilan, near Zamboanga, a region 860 kilometers (540 miles) south of Manila where American counterterrorism troops have been stationed for more than a decade.

Washington has declared Abu Sayyaf a terrorist group and blames it for deadly attacks on American troops and civilians in the southern Philippines.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/12/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Abu Sayyaf

#1  A good thing.
Posted by: Squinty || 06/12/2014 15:40 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Conflicting Reports on Israeli Violation of Blue Line
[AnNahar] An Israeli bulldozer crossed the U.N.-drawn Blue Line and entered Lebanese territories in the area of Hounine-al-Abbad, the state-run National News Agency reported on Wednesday.

The bulldozer stayed there for more than 20 minutes, it said.

It was backed by an eight-member unit from the Israeli army and a Humvee, the agency added.

But front man for the U.N. Interim Force in Leb Andrea Tenenti later denied that Israeli troops crossed the Blue Line, reported NNA.The Lebanese army and U.N. peacekeepers went on high alert and carried out patrols in the area.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/12/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:



Who's in the News
44[untagged]
9Govt of Pakistan
5Palestinian Authority
4Islamic State of Iraq
4Hamas
3Arab Spring
2al-Qaeda
2Boko Haram
2Govt of Syria
2Islamic State of Iraq & the Levant
1Govt of Iraq
1Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan
1Commies
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1al-Qaeda in Pakistan

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Two weeks of WOT
Thu 2014-06-12
  'They have lined the streets of Mosul with the heads of police and soldiers'
Wed 2014-06-11
  Maliki asks for state of emergency
Tue 2014-06-10
  Mosul Falls to Insurgency
Mon 2014-06-09
  Sisi Sworn in as Egypt President, Vows 'No Leniency' for Violence
Sun 2014-06-08
  Gunmen attack Karachi's Jinnah International Airport
Sat 2014-06-07
  Heavy clashes, suicide bombings kill 36 in north Iraq
Fri 2014-06-06
  Boko Haram kills "hundreds" in Nigeria
Thu 2014-06-05
  Libya: Haftar Escapes Suicide Attack
Wed 2014-06-04
  At Least 120 Dead in Clashes in Yemen
Tue 2014-06-03
  Somali gummint claims to have whacked 74 Shaboobs
Mon 2014-06-02
  5 Gitmo Terrorists Arrive in Qatar "With No Sign They Are -- Under Custody"
Sun 2014-06-01
  Bowe Bergdahl, Army Sergeant Held by Taliban Since 2009, Is Released
Sat 2014-05-31
  U.S. Confirms American Carried Out Syria Suicide Bombing
Fri 2014-05-30
  Syrian Regime Rains Barrel Bombs on Aleppo as ISIL Executes 15, including Kids
Thu 2014-05-29
  Top Iranian officer beheaded in Syria

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