[Khaama (Afghanistan)] At least four Taliban militants including the group’s local commander were killed following a drone strike in eastern Nuristan province.
According to the local government officials, the airstrike was carried out by the coalition security forces in Wanat Wigal district.
Acting provincial governor Hafiz Abdul Qayum said the airstrike was carried out late on Sunday evening in Mandish village.
Qayum further added that the Taliban commander was identified as Syed Izam who was killed along with his three companions.
He said the local residents did not suffer any casualties following the air raid.
Nuristan is among the volatile provinces in eastern Afghanistan where anti-government armed militant groups are actively operating.
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] Police in southern Helmand province have arrested a female suicide attacker.
Farid Ahmad Obaid, spokesman for the provincial police headquarters say the girl who ages around twenty planed to attack a police check post in the Danai area of Nawzad district late Saturday.
He said before she could manage to carry out the attack she was distinguished and arrested by the police
He added that the girl is further questioning.
Taliban militants who usually take responsibility for attacks at security forces are yet to comment on the report.
In the beginning of this year Spogmay a 10 year old girl who was provoked by her brother for a suicide attack at Afghan forces was arrested in Helmand’s Khanashin district.
Female suicide attackers are not very famous in Afghanistan but most of the times they are emotionalized by their family members who have joined Taliban.
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12/29/2014 00:00 ||
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[IRISHTIMES] The US-led coalition in Afghanistan formally ended its combat mission on Sunday, more than 13 years after an international alliance ousted the Taliban government for sheltering the planners of the September 11th, 2001 attacks on American cities. About 13,000 foreign troops, mostly Americans, will remain in the country under a new, two-year mission named "Resolute Support" that will continue the coalition's training of Afghan cops.
The Afghan army and police are struggling to fight against Talibs who this year killed a record numbers of Afghans. "Today marks an end of an era and the beginning of a new one," said US general John Campbell, commander of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), at the ceremony marking the end of the mission held at the ISAF headquarters in Kabul.
"We will continue to invest in Afghanistan's future," Gen Campbell said at the ceremony, during which he rolled up the coalition's flag.
Since 2001, nearly 3,500 foreign soldiers have died in the Afghan war, including around 2,200 Americans. "Now, thanks to the extraordinary sacrifices of our men and women in uniform, our combat mission in Afghanistan is ending, and the longest war in American history is coming to a responsible conclusion," President Barack Obama I bowled a 129. It’s like — it was like Special Olympics, or something... said in a statement.
The late al-Qaeda leader the late Osama bin Laden ... who is now sometimes referred to as Mister Bones... had strong relations with the Taliban, who let him and other members of his global bully boy network hide in Afghanistan. The Taliban has launched increasingly deadly attacks in the past year. Nearly 3,200 Afghan non-combatants were killed in the conflict between the bully boy group and the army in 2014, and more than 4,600 Afghan army and police died in Taliban attacks.
For Afghanistan's new president, Ashraf Ghani ...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. .. , keeping government control of territory and preventing security from further deteriorating is a top priority. ISAF said it had withheld details of Sunday's ceremony until the last moment for fear the holy warriors might attempt an attack with rockets or mortars.
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12/29/2014 00:00 ||
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.....longest war in American history is coming to a responsible conclusion," President Barack Obama
A "responsible conclusion" is not the same as victory. We simply cannot have a majority white, racist nation imposing a victory of a foe, now can we ?
GALGALA, Somalia -- Puntland Defence Forces (PDFs) killed 12 Al Shabaab militants in a deadly assault on Al Shabaab base in the rugged terrain of Galgala on Saturday according to security officials, Garowe Online reports. The pre-emptive attack occurred in Madashon, 23km west of Galgala.
Puntland army troops are in full control of the areas where the raids took place, with credible sources disclosing that Al Shabaab remnants fled from the second largest hideout in the extremely volatile vicinity. As part of clean-up operation aimed at cleansing hotbeds of terrorists, officials say the raids will continue until stability prevails.
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12/29/2014 00:00 ||
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[CNN] Somali government forces on Saturday captured a top commander of the Islamist militant group Al-Shabaab, two of the country's military officials said.
Zakariya Ismail Ahmed Hersi, Al-Shabaab's intelligence chief, was captured in a house near the town of El Wak, Somali military commander Isack Hussein Mursal told state-run radio.
He was a close associate of former Al-Shabaab leader Ahmed Abdi Godane, who was killed in a U.S. airstrike near Barawe city in September.
Somali forces captured Hersi and his driver without confrontation, officials said. The U.S. State Department had issued a $3 million reward for information leading to his capture.
"Zakariya has told us following his capture that he left Al-Shabaab a year and half ago and since then was looking for to surrender to the Somali government," Col. Abas Ibrahim Gurey, a senior military official, told CNN.
The capture comes after militants with the group, which is linked to al Qaeda, attacked a large African Union base in Mogadishu on Thursday, killing three Ugandan soldiers and a civilian.
Al-Shabaab has said that attack was revenge for the U.S. airstrike that killed Godane. The State Department had offered a $7 million reward for information on Godane's location.
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12/29/2014 00:00 ||
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"Zakariya has told us following his capture that he left Al-Shabaab a year and half ago and since then was looking for to surrender to the Somali government," Col. Abas Ibrahim Gurey, a senior military official, told CNN.
"You didn't capture me, I was....ummm... surrendering. Yeah, that's the ticket"
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12/29/2014 9:12 Comments ||
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[VOA News] Libya's foreign minister warned Sunday that a coalition of bully boy groups is making a push to seize the troubled country's oil resources, after an assault on eastern terminals set storage tanks ablaze, destroying 800,000 barrels of crude.
A missile hit an oil storage tank last week at the port of Es Sider during fighting between forces allied to Libya's two competing governments, resulting in the destruction of more than two days' worth of the country's oil production, officials said on Sunday.
Foreign Minister Mohammed al-Dairi, speaking in Cairo, said the assault was carried out by militias based in the western city of Misrata and loyal to the rival Islamist-backed government in Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn...
Dairi said bully boy groups have joined the attack, which forced a shutdown of the country's largest shipping terminal.
Retaliation
In an apparent response to the attack on Es Sider, forces loyal to Libya's recognized government staged Arclight airstrikes on targets in the western city of Misrata Sunday.
Mohammed El Hejazi, front man for armed forces loyal to the internationally recognized government, said the Arclight airstrikes hit an air force academy near the airport and Libya's biggest steel plant, which is located in the city.
The raids were the first such attacks on a city allied to the Libya Dawn ...aka Fajr Libya, the Islamist operation launched to counter that of General Khalifa Haftar (Operation Dignity). It is made up of the Libya Shield militia (Misrata and Moslem Brotherhood), Libya Revolutionaries Operations Room (Moslem Brotherhood), and Tripoli Brigade (close to Abdul Hakim Belhaj, head of Al-Watan party). Financing and moral support come from Turkey and Qatar... militia group that seized Tripoli, and whose forces have been trying to take the eastern oil ports from the internationally recognized government, officials and residents said.
A security official in Misrata said the Arclight airstrikes hit near the airport, with one missile striking 300 meters from an airport tower but missing the tarmac.
There were no immediate reports of casualties.
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12/29/2014 00:00 ||
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[Ynet] Some 1,000 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... fighters from Nigeria attacked five towns in northern Cameroon ...a long, narrow country that fills the space between Nigeria and Chad on the northeast, CAR to the southeast. Prior to incursions by Boko Haram nothing ever happened there... over the weekend and briefly occupied a military camp on Sunday before being removed by the air force, an army front man said.
The heavily gang attacked the military camp in Achigachia near the Nigerian border at around 4 AM. Following an intense battle, the army abandoned the camp, Lieutenant Colonel Didier Badjeck told Rooters by phone.
"After that, the head of state ordered the air force to carry out strikes. With the bombardment, the fighters were forced to decamp from Achigachia," Badjeck said.
He could not immediately give the number of casualties from both sides. It is the first time Cameroon has used the air force against Boko Haram.
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12/29/2014 00:50 ||
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[Ynet] Security officials and tribal leaders in Yemen say 12 people have been killed in festivities between rustics and Iranian catspaws north of the capital Sanaa.
They say Shiite Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to Americaâ?¢, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ... rebels went to the Arhab district late Saturday to search the home of a tribal chief whom the rebels suspected of being allied with the Sunni Islamist al-Islah party, with which the rebels are at war. Clashes erupted when locals resisted the search, leaving nine rebels and three rustics dead.
The officials and tribal leaders say the rebels later destroyed the house, which was believed to be empty.
A Yemeni general escaped unscathed on Sunday in a bombing that killed his driver in the southern city of Aden, one of his bodyguards said.
“General Farej Al Atiqi, commander of the 31st armoured battalion, was unhurt when a device that had been hidden in his car exploded,” the man said.
But the blast in the Khor Maksar district of the port city killed Atiqi’s driver and wounded two other bodyguards, he added, and blamed Al Qaeda for the attack. The bomb was detonated by remote control, the bodyguard said.
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12/29/2014 00:00 ||
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Two people were killed and "many" wounded as explosions occurred in multiple locations in Xinjiang on Sunday. The blasts struck at least three locations in southern Luntai County, including a shopping area, Xinjiang's Tianshan website said on Monday.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The Pakistani security forces have arrested a number of the Afghan nationals over deadly Peshawar school attack that left over 140 people dead.
According to a local media report, the Afghan nationals were working in the canteen of the army-run school where the Taliban militants launched a coordinated attack on 16th December.
The report further added that the Afghan nationals were accused of providing the terrorists information about the Army Public School over phone as their mobile call data records established their links with the militants.
No further details were regarding the exact number of detained Afghans and their identities.
The Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan also said Saturday that Peshawar school massacre probe has been extended to Afghanistan as Pakistani security forces arrested accomplices and facilitators of the Taliban attackers.
This comes as at least 41 Afghan nationals were arrested by Pakistani police from Peshawar on Friday for illegally living in the city.
The crackdown on Afghan refugees omes as the federal government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had set a month deadline for the expulsion of Afghan refugees following the deadly attack.
The provincial government spokesman Mushtaq Ghani had said that the government can no longer afford refugees, insisting that the “time has come for the federal government to take practical steps for the repatriation of the refugees.”
Pakistan’s Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran backed the demand of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government to the federal government to expel the Afghan refugees illegally staying in the province.
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12/29/2014 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] Six suspects, including two alleged militants, were shot dead in separate ‘encounters’ in the city on Sunday, officials said.
In the Mominabad area of Orangi Town two suspected militants — Qasim and Rehmat, alias Rehmati — were killed in an ‘encounter’ early on Sunday, the officials said.
“Qasim was a financer of the Tehreek-i- Taliban (Swat) and wanted by the police in more than 20 criminal cases,” said SSP-West Azfar Mahesar.
Rehmat was an accomplice of Qasim and involved in land-grabbing and drug trafficking. They were also involved in killing policemen, added the officer. The additional IG of Karachi police and the Karachi police IG announced a cash reward for the police party.
The police on Sunday night claimed to have killed two alleged gangsters in an ‘encounter’ in Kalakot.
A police party conducted a raid on information of presence of suspects in Khajji Gali on Faqir Mohammed Road, where they were targeted by gunmen.
The police returned fire and gunned down two suspects, claimed Kalakot SHO Safdar Mashwani.
He identified the dead as Abdul Majid, alias Achanak, and Subhan, alias Haji, allegedly involved in several criminal cases.
They were members of the Noor Mohammed, alias Baba Ladla, gang, added the officer.
In a separate encounter in Mithadar, a suspected robber was shot dead, the police said.
They said that three suspects stormed a shop in Mithadar with the intention to rob it. A police party rushed to the spot after receiving information by a passer-by. The police and alleged robbers exchanged gunfire in which a suspect was killed, claimed City SSP Sheeraz Nazeer. Two accomplices of the suspect, whose identity remained unclear, escaped.
The police claimed to have seized a pistol from his possession.
In Gulshan-i-Iqbal, another suspected robber was shot dead while his accomplice fled.
The police claimed that suspects were looting citizens near the Nipa traffic intersection in the morning when a police party on patrol reached there.
On seeing the police the suspects opened fire on them for which the police also returned fire, killing a suspect identified as 22-year-old Fahad Sheikh. His accomplice escaped.
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[DAWN] A suspected militant was killed during a clash with security forces in Janikhel area on Sunday.
Officials said security forces were carrying out search on the Bannu-Miramshah road when the fighting erupted.
The deceased was identified as Dilfara and he belonged to the Hayat `commander’ group.
Security forces shifted the body to the Military Combined Hospital in Bannu. The search operation continued till late night. However, there was no report of any arrest.
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PESHAWAR: Another convicted terrorist in the Pervez Musharraf attack case is likely to be executed in 24 hours, media reports said on Sunday.
Niaz Muhammad, convicted for attacking the former military dictator along with other accomplices in Rawalpindi is now on death row. Niaz was incarcerated at a jail in Haripur. He has now been shifted to Peshawar jail for execution. His death warrants have already been issued.
After the deadliest terror attack at a military-run school in Peshawar, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ended the six-year moratorium on the death penalty, reinstating it for terrorism-related cases. Interior ministry has finalised the cases of 500 convicts who have exhausted all the appeals, their mercy petitions have been turned down by the president and their executions will take place soon.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/29/2014 00:00 ||
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get that production line going
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12/29/2014 9:19 Comments ||
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QUETTA: Police defused two bombs at the main railway track running through the Sariab area on Saturday night, apparently planted to blow up the Rawalpindi-bound Jaffar Express. Police said they found two bombs under the main railway line linking Quetta to the rest of the country after people of the nearby Musa Colony informed them about the suspect packets kept there.
The railway authorities stopped Jaffar Express, which was about to leave Quetta for Rawalpindi, when they learnt about the bombs.
“Each bomb weighed five kilograms and they were placed on the track near a railway bridge,” Capital City Police Officer Abdul Razzaq Cheema said, adding that timely detection of bombs had saved Jaffar Express from disaster.
Jaffar Express was allowed to resume its journey after clearance of the track by security forces.
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12/29/2014 00:00 ||
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[NY Times] A crude bomb exploded outside a busy restaurant in Bangalore on Sunday, killing a woman and wounding a man, the police said.
The low-intensity blast occurred in the center of Bangalore, home to many of India’s high-tech workers and packed with Sunday evening crowds, prompting a security alert in other Indian cities.
The improvised explosive device had been placed between two flower pots near the Coconut Grove restaurant, the police said.
Continued on Page 49
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Belgium news reports revealed on Sunday that "Two Belgium F-16 air strikers destroyed an oil refinery used by the ISIL to provide fuel for their vehicles western Iraq."
These reports mentioned "The two air-strikers fired four bombs guided with laser targeting the oil refinery."
Belgium sent six F- 16 air fighters to join the international coalition in fighting the ISIL shelters in Iraq.
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[CNN] The latest ISIS-appointed governor of djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... was killed in coalition Arclight airstrikes on Thursday, according to Iraqi police.
Hassan Saeed Al-Jabouri, also known as Abu Taluut, was killed 18 miles south of Mosul in the village of Qayyara, according to Maj. Gen. Watheq Al-Hamdani, a senior regional Iraqi police commander who is leading the government's efforts to retake Mosul from ISIS.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2014 00:00 ||
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Jabouri is the second ISIS-appointed governor of Mosul killed by Arclight airstrikes and had been in office for less than 25 days.
barely started contributing to his 401K
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/29/2014 9:21 Comments ||
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[VOA News] Iran's Revolutionary Guard says one of its bigwigs was killed Saturday while fighting the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... in Iraq.
In a statement on its website Sunday, the Guard says that Brigadier General Hamid Taqavi was "martyred" while serving in an advisory role to the Iraqi Army defending Samarra, a city north of Baghdad. Samarra is home to the Al Askari Shrine, one of the most important Shi'ite shrines.
Rooters reports that Taqavi was killed by Islamic State sniper fire which also maimed several people who were with him.
Taqavi was a veteran of the eight-year Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s.
Iran says it has played a key role in rolling back the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group following the bully boys' summer blitz, in which they captured much of northern and western Iraq, including the second largest city djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... . But Tehran insists its officers are only providing military advice and training.
Those efforts have been led by Maj. Gen. Ghasem Soleimani, commander of the Guard's elite and secretive Quds Force. In recent months pictures have surfaced showing Soleimani meeting with Iraqi commanders on various battlefields.
In the years following the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, American commanders repeatedly accused the Quds Force of backing Shiite militias implicated in attacks on American troops and Sunni civilians, charges denied by Tehran.
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12/29/2014 00:00 ||
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[IsraelTimes] IDF soldiers reportedly opened fire on Sunday at Paleostinian protesters in the northern Gazoo Strip during a demonstration near the Erez border crossing with Israel.
Three men sustained gunshot wounds to the lower extremities, with one suffering a wound to the thigh, the Paleostinian Ma?an news agency reported.
An Israeli military spokeswoman quoted by the news agency said that ?40 or more Paleostinians were hurling rocks and rioting violently? in the area and, consequently, Israeli forces ?attempted to disperse the riot? and ?fired toward the main instigators? lower extremities.?
Soldiers also fired warning shots before the incident, Israel Radio reported.
The incident came amid spiraling tensions along the border, breaking several months of calm between Israel and Gazoo following the summer?s 50-day war.
A series of other protests took place in Rafah in the southern Gazoo Strip, and Bani Suheila and Nuseirat in the central Gazoo Strip, on Sunday with no reports of gunfire in any of the other demonstrations.
[AnNahar] Indonesian police Saturday tossed in the clink Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! six people just before they were about to fly to Syria to join the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group, the latest in a growing wave of sympathizers emerging from the world's most populous Moslem nation.
Those arrested at Jakarta's Soekarno Hatta airport at dawn included a couple and their 10-year-old child, with police saying they were attempting to travel on fake passports.
The alleged organizer of the trip was also captured after the arrests.
"They admitted during an investigation that they want to carry out jihad and to be deaders in defending (IS)," said Jakarta police front man Rikwanto.
"We hope to find out more details from the organizer, including the one who funded the trip," he added.
The number of IS supporters embarking from Indonesia soared to 264 in October from 86 in June, the National Counter-Terrorism Agency (BNPT) chief Saud Usman Nasution was quoted as saying in the Jakarta Post.
In total, an estimated 514 Indonesians have gone to Syria and Iraq to fight alongside IS -- around half of them students or migrant workers based in nearby countries, according to Nasution.
Indonesia has waged a crackdown on terror groups over the past decade following attacks against Western targets, including the 2002 Bali bombings -- a campaign that has been credited with weakening key networks.
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12/29/2014 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] Indonesia suspended until first light the search for an AirAsia plane that went missing Sunday in the Java Sea with 162 people on board after the crew requested a change of flight plan due to stormy weather.
The Airbus A320-200 disappeared en route from Surabaya in Indonesia's east Java to Singapore, in the third crisis for a Malaysian carrier this year.
Around 11 hours later, the search halted with no sign of the plane and was set to resume at 7am Monday, or even earlier if the weather allows, Indonesian transport ministry official Hadi Mustofa told AFP.
AirAsia said 155 of those on board Flight QZ8501 were Indonesians, with three South Koreans and one person each from Singapore, Malaysia, Britain and France. The Frenchman was the co-pilot.
With hard details few and far between, panicked relatives gathered at Singapore's Changi airport and in Surabaya hundreds of Indonesians thronged the terminal.
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Indonesian National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Ronny F. Sompie said that a counterterrorism unit had arrested terrorist suspect, Toni Saronggalo, in Lamongan, East Java, on Sunday evening. Ronny said that Tony allegedly assisted now-dead terrorist leader Dulmatin to set up training grounds for the Jemaah Islamiyah militant group in Jantho, Aceh.
He said, "We have been on the lookout for the suspect [Tony] for an extremely long time. He is currently still being questioned by investigators."
Dulmatin was once one of the region's highest-profile terrorist leaders and a mastermind of the 2002 Bali bombings, among many other bombings between 2000 and 2003 in Jakarta and Mojokerto in Surabaya, East Java. The al-Qaeda trained Dulmatin was eventually gunned down in a police raid in 2010.
Toni’s wife, Musmainah, denied knowing about her husband's involvement with the militant group and insisted that he had no other activities apart from chicken trading. She said, "He didn’t do anything in particular during his free time."
The top communist militant in Mindanao expressed doubts about the Philippine government's sincerity in seeking an end to the nation's 46-year-long Maoist insurgency and has little hope in seeing a happy end to the peace talks in his lifetime.
Speaking at the 46th anniversary celebration of the Communist Party of the Philippines, Jorge Madlos said he supports the resumption of the peace negotiations, but the government has proven to be insincere in the past. "We will continue to show interest in the peace talks," he said, adding that the New People's Army released several captive soldiers and policemen on Friday to show its goodwill in reopening the talks that stalled three years ago.
"These are confidence-building measures and we hope they also show signs of sincerity," said Madlos, also known as "Ka Oris" and is now the most wanted communist leader with a bounty of P5.6 million after the arrest in Cebu of CPP chairman Benito Tiamzon last March.
Madlos said the NPA will continue to launch offensives against the government until it addresses the social and economic roots of the insurgency. He said, "The advance of the armed struggle does not necessarily depend on the peace talks. With or without peace talks, the armed struggle advances. The difficult situations in addressing the conflict are the reasons why both parties should pursue it."
Recounting NPA achievements to thousands of CPP supporters, Madlos said the revolutionary movement is still expanding and gaining strength in Mindanao. He proclaimed, "In armed struggle, we have maintained the 46 guerrilla fronts despite the relentless fascist attacks by the AFP which has now more than 55 infantry battalions engaged in counter-revolutionary suppression campaigns in Mindanao. Not one front was destroyed. The tactical offensives by the NPA totaled to more than 300 and confiscated hundreds of firearms of various types and inflicted casualties of more than a battalion of regular enemy troops and paramilitary forces while the NPA suffered casualties of a few Red fighters."
The CPP anniversary ceremony was attended by thousands of people despite a military blockade on roads leading to Barangay San Isidro. Among attendees was former agrarian reform secretary Hernani Braganza who met with key CPP and NPA officials, including NDF peace negotiator Fidel Agcaoili. Army spokesman Col Restituto Padilla said Braganza was provided a military escort there early Friday evening.
But other participants were not so lucky and soldiers blocked several convoys enroute to the gathering. Among the blocked parties was that of Surigao del Sur Vice Governor Manuel Alameda and Bayan Muna Party Rep. Carlos Zarate who waited for hours.
Heated arguments broke out as soldiers prevented people from proceeding. Vice Governor Alameda said, "We came here for the peace consultation because the provincial government of Surigao del Sur wanted peaceful resolution of this long overdue peace problem due growing insurgency issues in our province and here you are blocking us?"
The blockade caused monstrous a traffic jam, but people continued to flock to join the CPP celebration. Even nuns from the Missionary Sisters of Mary and other religious orders, Aglipayan priests and bishops and Protestant pastors were seen in the area.
[An Nahar] Islamic State group jihadists have murdered nearly 2,000 people in Syria -- half of them from an important Sunni tribe -- since announcing their "caliphate" in June, a monitoring group said Sunday.
"The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has documented the execution by the Islamic State of 1,878 people in Syria between June 28 when it announced its 'caliphate' and December 27," the group said in a statement.
The Observatory, which relies on a network of activist and medical sources on the ground in Syria, is based in Britain.
It said the victims were shot dead, beheaded or stoned to death in the provinces of Aleppo, Deir Ezzor, Hama, Homs, Hasakeh and Raqa.
Of those killed, 1,175 were civilians who included four children and eight women.
The dead included 930 members of the Shaitat tribe which rose up against IS in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor in the summer.
On December 17, the Observatory said a mass grave containing the bodies of 230 Shaitat had been found in the province.
The jihadists also "executed" 502 soldiers and pro-regime militiamen, the monitoring group said.
It said IS also killed around 120 of its own members, mostly for trying to flee to their home countries, and 80 members of the rival al-Nusra Front, the al-Qaida affiliate in Syria.
Despite giving a breakdown, the Observatory believes the number killed by IS to be far higher, given that many have disappeared and remain unaccounted for.
The jihadist group often records such killings on video and posts footage on the Internet, which experts say is meant to sow fear among civilians and rival groups, as well as to attract new recruits.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2014 00:00 ||
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I think the forgot an extra 0 in the number they gave out.
Posted by: Charles ||
12/29/2014 13:54 Comments ||
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[An Nahar] A car bombing killed six people including two children in a Kurdish area of Syria's northern province of Aleppo on Sunday, a monitoring group said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the attack targeted a checkpoint in a town controlled manned by Kurdish forces in the Qitna area.
Four Kurdish fighters at the checkpoint were killed, as were two children, it said. More children were among 10 people wounded.
Kurdish fighters in the area are battling jihadist fighters from the Islamic State group.
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12/29/2014 00:00 ||
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[Ynet] US-led forces on Sunday conducted eight air strikes against Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... gunnies in Syria and five strikes on IS targets in Iraq, the US military said in a statement.
In Syria, air strikes centered on the town of Kobani near the Turkish border, the Combined Joint Task Force said.
The strikes in Iraq included IS positions near Sinjar and near djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... , the task force said.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/29/2014 00:50 ||
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[IsraelTimes] Al-Qaeda has called for “lone-wolf” terror attacks against a number of major airlines.
The winter issue of Inspire, an English-language online magazine edited by the jihadist group, urges that bombs be detonated on the planes of several preeminent US commercial airline companies — American Airlines, Delta, United and Continental — in an effort to gain publicity and “crush the enemy’s economy,” according to a report published Saturday by The Guardian, a British newspaper.
The issue, the 13th released by the group responsible for the 9/11 attacks, also advised rogue bandidossnuffies as to the prime altitude for detonating explosives; and encouraged them to blow up commercial aircraft above land, causing additional damage to civilian populations below.
In cases where an attack upon a US airline is not achievable, the magazine suggests British or French alternatives such as British Airways, easyJet or Air La Belle France or KLM — a Dutch airline that merged with Air La Belle France in 2003, according to a blog operated by the Anti-Defamation League, a US-based racism watchdog group.
“The first priority and the main focus should be on America, then the United Kingdom, then La Belle France… This goes on with the NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants... countries as per the known order,” the magazine read.
The publication went on to praise lone-wolf bandidossnuffies because of their ability to stay undetected: “[They are] hard to uncover, because none knows him but Allah. He has no relationship with any group or any individuals.”
Zale Thompson, an ex-US Navy serviceman, was heralded as a “splendid” example of a lone wolf after the reclusive Moslem convert attacked a group of New York City coppers in October with an axe, injuring one seriously before being shot to death.
[AnNahar] The U.S.-led coalition pounded the Islamic State group with 39 air strikes Thursday and Friday, including more than a dozen near the flashpoint Syrian town of Kobane.
The 13 strikes conducted Thursday in Kobane, which is known as Ain al-Arab in Arabic, destroyed 17 fighting positions, as well as IS buildings, staging areas and a vehicle, the U.S.-led anti-IS coalition said in a statement.
On Friday four air strikes destroyed three IS buildings and two vehicles in the area, it added.
The statement updated an earlier report by the U.S. Defense Department, which had erroneously stated that all of the strikes occurred on Friday, and which had set the total number of strikes at 31.
Fighting over Kobane began in mid-September, when the jihadists moved to take over the town on the border with Turkey. The U.S.-led coalition launched air strikes against the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group in Syria on September 23.
Over Thursday and Friday, there were 19 strikes in Syria by coalition fighter and bomber aircraft, as well as drones.
Coalition raids also struck tactical units, a drilling tower and an assembly area, the statement said.
In Iraq, the coalition carried out 20 strikes according to the updated document: 15 on Thursday, mostly in Ninevah and Anbar, two of the main fronts in the fight against IS there, and five on Friday in the same provinces.
The strikes destroyed an IS rocket system and vehicles, equipment, a mortar position, fighting position and a modular refinery.
The jets and drones also targeted IS tactical units and a checkpoint.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/29/2014 00:00 ||
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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.
[IRISHTIMES] The US-led coalition in Afghanistan formally ended its combat mission on Sunday, more than 13 years after an international alliance ousted the Taliban government for sheltering the planners of the September 11th, 2001 attacks on American cities. About 13,000 foreign troops, mostly Americans, will remain in the country under a new, two-year mission named "Resolute Support" that will continue the coalition's training of 
A Yemeni general escaped unscathed on Sunday in a bombing that killed his driver in the southern city of Aden, one of his bodyguards said.
[DAWN] A suspected militant was killed during a clash with security forces in Janikhel area on Sunday.
[CNN] The latest ISIS-appointed governor of 
Indonesian National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Ronny F. Sompie said that a counterterrorism unit had arrested terrorist suspect, Toni Saronggalo, in Lamongan, East Java, on Sunday evening. Ronny said that Tony allegedly assisted now-dead terrorist leader Dulmatin to set up training grounds for the Jemaah Islamiyah militant group in Jantho, Aceh.
The top communist militant in Mindanao expressed doubts about the Philippine government's sincerity in seeking an end to the nation's 46-year-long Maoist insurgency and has little hope in seeing a happy end to the peace talks in his lifetime.
