[AnNahar] At least eight civilians including women and children were killed when their van struck a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, officials said.
The incident occurred in the Jaghuri district of Ghazni province, Deputy Provincial Governor Mohammad Ali Ahmadi told AFP.
It comes weeks after the NATO combat mission which began in 2001 was downgraded to support and training duties to help the Afghan army and police.
"Eight civilians, including one woman and a child, were killed in this morning roadside blast. One child and one woman were wounded," he said, adding that the injured child and woman were taken to the hospital in critical condition.
Asadullah Safi, the deputy police chief of the province told AFP that four of those killed belonged to one family.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack but roadside bombs have been the Taliban's weapon of choice in their war against foreign and Afghan security forces, now in its fourteenth year.
The bombs also increasingly kill and wound civilians.
According to a U.N. report released in December, civilian casualties hit a record high in 2014, with 3,188 civilians killed and 6,429 injured by the end of November, a 19 percent jump compared to the year before, making 2014 the deadliest year for non-combatants.
Last year also saw a 33 percent rise in casualties among children and a 12 percent increase among women.
While ground fighting between troops and insurgent groups as well as improvised explosive devices (IEDs) remained leading causes of deaths and injuries, the Taliban were responsible for 75 percent of all civilian casualties, according to the U.N. report.
About 17,000 foreign soldiers, most of them from the U.S., will still be deployed in Afghanistan this year.
But U.S. troop numbers are set to halve within 12 months and fall to almost nothing in two years.
WAJID, Somalia -- Deliberate blockade by Al Shabaab militants on Bakool region town of Waajid of southwestern Somalia has spurred acute food shortages and severe malnutrition, Garowe Online reports.
Speaking on VOA Somali Service on Monday, Wajid Mayor Hassan Adan Ali warned of looming humanitarian disaster as a result of 10-month blockade. Ali added that the worst-affected are aging people and children under the age of 10.
Women and children worst-hit as always...
In March 2014, Somalia government airlifted last food commodities to Wajid via AMISOM aircraft.
Somali terror group has sanctioned several towns in central and southern Somalia. The blockade left hundreds of households more destitute by emboldening worsening humanitarian situation.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/21/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
I have a proposal. How about killing the Shaboobs?
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/21/2015 9:15 Comments ||
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MOGADISHU -- Accidental explosion in Mogadishu's Dharkeynley district has left two alleged plotters dead according to officials on Sunday afternoon, Garowe Online reports.
Someone call Mutual of Mogadishu...
The bomb went off while they were driving along a road in auto rickshaw according to Daud Abdullahi Nur, a spokesman for Dharkenley commissioner.
Nur Monday said that the two men were planning to carryout bombings in Mogadishu but prematurely died in the accidental explosion.
Does auto insurance cover a rickshaw kaboom?
Al Qaeda linked Al Shabaab group claimed credit for scores of apparently coordinated terror attacks, largely in volatile Mogadishu.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/21/2015 00:00 ||
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[Ynet] Dutch United Nations ...an organization which on balance has done more bad than good, with the good not done well and the bad done thoroughly... attack helicopters carried out air strikes on Tuareg rebel forces in northern Mali on Tuesday, the first such engagement by Dutch forces serving in the UN mission in Mali. The UN mission, known as MINUSMA, said it was responding to heavy weapons fire directed at its peacekeepers in the town of Tabankort. It said the helicopters only destroyed a rebel vehicle after firing warning shots that were ignored.
A front man for the MNLA Tuareg separatist rebels, who are involved in peace talks with the Malian government in Algeria, denied warning shots had been fired and said five fighters had been killed and several others maimed.
[Libya Herald] Fierce fighting has broken out in Garyounis, near Benghazi university, in what appears to be a major counterattack by Ansar al-Sharia ...a Salafist militia which claims it is not part of al-Qaeda, even though it works about the same and for the same ends. There are groups of the same name in Libyaand Yemen, with the Libyan versions currently most active. Tunisia's Shabaab al-Tawhid started out an Ansar al-Sharia and changed its name in early 2014. It still uses the old name now and then, probably because the stationery's not all used up and the web site hasn't expired yet... .
As a nearby resident told the Libya Herald this evening, while the sounds of artillery could be heard in the background: "Something is abnormal. We have not heard sounds like this for a long time".
Only four days ago, an Army front man was telling this news hound that, with exception of the continuing fighting around Ansar strong points in Leithi and Sabri and the still-disputed main port, the rest of the city was secure.
Certainly the strong police and army presence in the city centre a week ago today, saw off the remote possibility of a response to the "intifada" called by the Islamist commander of the Libya Shield ...a conglomerate of pro-Islamist militias deployed across Libya. It reports to the Libyan defense ministry and is organized like a real army unit. Its commander used to head a Benghazi brigade called Free Libya Martyrs... 1 Brigade, Wissam Bin Hamid.
The fighting around Garyounis began last night, continued the a low level and picked up this evening. Yesterday evening a jet was heard flying over the battle area and another passed over this evening. But on nether occasion did any bombs appear to be dropped.
The misery and anxiety of Benghazinos was increased by the power cut that knocked out electricity to virtually the whole city from midday until early this evening. GECOL blamed the outage on a loss of gas pressure to the 300MW Benghazi North power station. Despite Al Madar's assurances that it is fixed, its phone system continues to be out for most of Benghazi.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/21/2015 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] Cameroonian troops fought "heavy clashes" Tuesday with Boko Haram militants near the border with Nigeria as a security summit kicked off in Niger on a regional plan to stop the Islamist fighters.
Boko Haram insurgents from neighboring Nigeria attacked the far northern Cameroon border village of Bonderi, a source told AFP, adding that "it's too early to give a casualty toll".
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/21/2015 00:34 ||
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#1
See also TOPIX, MANILA BULLETIN > BOKO HARAM CLAIMS BAGA ATTACK, THREATENS NIGERIA'S NEIGHBORS.
Yemen President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi is being held captive by rebels who have attacked his compound, just as the U.S. military has moved the USS Iwo Jima and the USS Fort McHenry into the Red Sea, in position to take aboard evacuees from the U.S. Embassy in Yemen if tensions and violence continue to escalate.
So we'll have two ships that have helicopters and Marines. Does the Iwo carry the Osprey? Does she still have Harriers?
Various media have also reported that the presidential compound is under attack and Shiite Houthi rebels, backed by Iran, are holding the Yemeni president captive.
Yemen’s information minister, Nadia Sakkaf, wrote in a Twitter message that “Yemeni president is being attacked by armed militias that want to overthrow” the government, The Washington Post reported. She also said that political talks were continuing, but that the situation was violent.
Fox News Insider reported that the positioning of the warships comes as Houthi rebels sent shells into the presidential palace. Top military officials, meanwhile, warned that a coup has begun — and that one of the embassy’s vehicles had field fire. Nobody was injured in that assault, and the embassy remains open — but officials are monitoring.
“[We are deeply concerned about the turn of events in Yemen over the last few days,” one State Department officials told ABC News. “[We are] continuing to closely monitor developments … and all adjust the embassy’s security posture response in accordance to the situation on the ground.”
The United States has “reduced staffing and heightened security,” the official added, Iran Daily reported.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/21/2015 11:32 ||
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#1
So we'll have two ships targets that have helicopters and Marines
#4
What's the range on one of those 5" guns again?
Seriously as pessimistic as I was about this Chicago organizer I never dreamed he would be this evil. His only saving graces are his laziness and incompetence.
#12
So the Chinese build aircraft carriers. They lack 70 years of institutional experience in their operation. They'll be able to carry out a single large strike, then their inexperience will show and they won't be able to keep up the tempo.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
01/21/2015 23:22 Comments ||
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[ARABNEWS] Suspected Al-Qaeda militants ambushed the convoy of a brigade commander in the restive southeastern province of Hadramawt on Tuesday, killing five Yemeni soldiers and wounding seven.
Gen. Yahya Awja, commander of the 135th brigade, escaped unharmed from the attack by militants firing automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades.
The convoy was hit on the outskirts of Qatan, a village in the Hadramawt valley in the province's mountainous interior which hosts an army base that was struck repeatedly by militants last year.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/21/2015 00:00 ||
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[IsraelTimes] Military official warns that a full-fledged 'coup' is underway; president unharmed in attack
Yemen's powerful 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 America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ... rebels shelled the residence of the country's embattled president Tuesday and simultaneously swept into the presidential palace in the capital, Sanaa, as a top military commander warned that a full-fledged "coup" was underway.
Continued on Page 49
#7
Apparently Yemen's President has officially been captured but the Houthis are repor negotiating + ready to agree to a US-backed proposal for his release in exchange for the implementation of Houthi-supported national reforms???
[IsraelTimes] Imran Khawaja, 27, placed in durance vile Book 'im, Mahmoud! in Dover upon returning from Syria, confesses to terror charges; photo on social media shows him holding severed head
A British jihadist identified by police as a 'trained terrorist' who is believed to have faked his own death while fighting in Syria in an attempt to return home undetected, has admitted terror charges.
Imran Khawaja, 27, admitted preparing for acts of terrorism, attending a training camp and possessing firearms in a hearing last year, but reporting restrictions were in place until Tuesday.
Khawaja, from Southall in west London, spent the first half of last year fighting alongside jihadists in Syria's civil war and at one point posted an image of himself holding a severed human head on social media.
He left from Heathrow Airport in January last year, traveling to a training camp in Syria.
Once there, he joined Rayat Al-Tawheed (Banner of God) -- a group which became aligned with 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, according to Britannia's Metropolitan Police.
"Khawaja is also seen in a disturbing video posted on social media which includes a bag of severed heads," said the Scotland Yard statement.
"The description posted with the video is 'British ISIS fighter Abu Daigham al-Britani with government soldier's head.'"
He also appeared in one of the group's promotional videos, 'Five Star Jihad', which portrays daily life at the training camp.
The terror group falsely announced on social media that he was later killed on the battlefield. Police believe the reports were part of a plan to throw authorities off his trail.
"In May 2014, the group put out a message on social media, designed to deliberately mislead authorities, claiming that Abu Daigham al-Britani had been killed alongside an image of two masked men holding a flag associated with Islamic State," said Scotland Yard.
In reality, he was making his way to Bulgaria, where he had asked his cousin Tahir Bhatti, 44, to pick him up.
Details of the case were not made public until his cousin's pleas were heard in court.
The pair were arrested on June 3 last year as they reached the port of Dover in southern England.
"He was a senior figure in Rayat Al-Tawheed, a group aligned to Islamic State that celebrated its terrorist acts through social media back to the UK," Richard Walton, head of the Metropolitan Police's Counter Terrorism Command, said on Tuesday.
"This is a man who has chosen the path of terrorism. We don't know why he came back. We don't know what he was planning."
Bhatti, a taxi driver from near London, on Tuesday pleaded guilty to assisting an offender, but previously pleaded not guilty "Wudn't me." to preparing a terrorist act.
A third man, Asim Ali, pleaded guilty to entering into a funding arrangement for the purposes of terrorism after making £300 ($455, 394 euros) available to Khawaja.
All three face sentencing on February 5 and 6, with Khawaja facing a lengthy jail term, possibly a life sentence.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/21/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
He didn't get tripped up until he tried to collect on his insurance from 'Jihadi Life by Mutual of Medina'.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
01/21/2015 8:32 Comments ||
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#2
All three face sentencing on February 5 and 6, with Khawaja facing a lengthy jail term, possibly a life sentence
Remand him to Syria. Think of the goodwill that could be generated with the Assad government...
#3
staple the picture of him with the bag 'o heads - on his forehead before sending him back
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/21/2015 11:04 Comments ||
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#4
Pappy, Frank, I like the cut of your giblets. I'm sure Pencilneck will treat him in complete accord with out Gitmo protocols......................or not.
[AnNahar] A Bulgarian court ruled Tuesday that a Frenchman who admits knowing the Charlie Hebdo attackers but denies being an Islamic extremist could be extradited to France following an arrest warrant issued by Paris.
Muslim convert Fritz-Joly Joachin, 29, arrested on January 1 as he tried to cross from Bulgaria into Turkey, told the court in Haskovo in southern Bulgaria: "I am innocent. I want to return to France."
Joachin, of Haitian origin, has admitted to being "old friends" with the Kouachi brothers who shot dead 12 people in Paris on January 7 in an attack on the Paris offices of French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo.
Last week he said he used to play football with the brothers and had a "business connection" selling clothes but denied knowing about their plans to launch an Islamist attack.
According to the arrest warrant issued by French authorities, Joachin was traveling on a bus with three other people who knew the Kouachis when he was arrested. They were allowed to continue traveling into Turkey.
One of them, Cheikhou Diakhaby, was however arrested in Turkey on January 2 on the basis of a French warrant and will be extradited back to France "in a few days", a source told AFP.
Diakhaby was captured while fighting against US forces in Iraq in 2004 and spent seven years behind bars there before being sent back to France in 2011.
Judge Stratimir Dimitrov told the court in Bulgaria that Joachin "will remain under arrest until his final transfer to the French authorities" and that "the ruling is final".
His lawyer Radi Radev told journalists that he expects that the extradition would take place "without any delay. Maybe within 24 hours."
Joachin was again brought to court by several policemen and in handcuffs.
He told AFP after the hearing: "Yes, I am happy to be returning to France."
Asked if he was afraid that he might be convicted, he shook his head and said: "No".
[AnNahar] France arrested five Russians Tuesday accused of plotting a new attack as four men suspected of helping the gunmen behind the Paris shootings were brought before anti-terrorist judge.
European nations, on high alert after the attacks that shook France to its core, have launched a wave of raids targeting suspected jihadist cells.
French prosecutors said five Russians from the restive Muslim republic of Chechnya had been detained near the southern city of Montpelier suspected of plotting an attack.
No further details about their plans were immediately available.
Police arrested five Chechens in southern France on suspicion of preparing an attack, a police source said on Tuesday. The source said four of them were arrested in Montpellier and a fifth in Beziers. According to Midi Libre newspaper, a cache of explosives was also found, and investigations were continuing.
[AnNahar] Four men accused of having links to the jihadists behind the Paris attacks were due to appear before a judge in France on Tuesday, while police in neighboring Germany staged fresh raids on suspected extremists.
The four men, aged between 22 and 28, were arrested on Friday on suspicion of helping supply weapons and vehicles to the gunmen who killed 17 people in three days of violence around Paris.
Four other men and four women -- aged between 19 and 47 -- were also arrested last week but have been released without charge.
With Europe on high alert, some 200 German police raided more than a dozen apartments, hunting a jihadist network they believe was planning an attack in Syria.
Police said they searched 13 apartments in Berlin, a neighboring region and in the east but made no arrests.
They were targeting people linked to the alleged leader and financier of the group who were detained after raids in Berlin on Friday.
Tensions have been mounting across Europe in the wake of the Paris attacks and a raid in Belgium last week that broke up another suspected plot to kill police officers.
The Danish wing of Germany's anti-Islamic PEGIDA movement staged its first rallies on Monday, drawing several hundred people in the capital and other cities.
However, they were outnumbered by counter-demonstrators. In Germany, too, more than 17,000 anti-racism demonstrators took to the streets across the country on Monday in opposition to PEGIDA, which had been forced to cancel its own rally following a terrorist threat.
Meanwhile, the Muslim employee who has been hailed as a hero for helping customers in the Jewish supermarket where four people were killed during the Paris attacks, was due to be granted French citizenship.
Some 273,000 people signed a petition calling for Lassana Bathily, 24, from Mali to be naturalized after he tried to hide customers in the cold storage room.
President Francois Hollande insisted his country "insults no-one when we defend our ideas, when we proclaim freedom".
But Prime Minister Manuel Valls acknowledged that France suffered "social and ethnic apartheid" as a result of the sharp inequalities faced by many immigrant and poorer families.
"'Je suis Charlie' is not our only message to the world," he said in a speech on Tuesday, referring to the slogan that went viral after the deadly attacks on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo on January 7.
"France carries freedom of expression everywhere, but it also defends other values it holds dear: peace, respect for beliefs, dialogue between religions."
Valls was apparently responding to a wave of giant protests across several parts of the Muslim world against Charlie Hebdo, the main target of the Paris attacks for its publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.
After the murder of eight of its journalists by the jihadists, the magazine responded last week with another cartoon of the prophet, crying, under the headline "All is forgiven".
Several hundred thousand people flooded into the center of Grozny, the capital of the predominantly Muslim Russian province of Chechnya, for a mammoth state-sponsored demonstration on Monday against the latest cartoon.
Authorities in the tightly controlled region said more than one million people -- almost the entire population of the republic -- took part.
"We say firmly that we will never allow anyone to go unpunished for insulting the name of the prophet and our religion," said Ramzan Kadyrov, who has ruled Chechnya with an iron fist since being installed by Russian President Vladimir Putin a decade ago.
Elsewhere, hundreds of people in Afghanistan and Pakistan demonstrated against Charlie Hebdo on Monday, burning French flags and calling for the government to cut diplomatic relations with France.
In neighboring Pakistan, five protests were held in the northwestern city of Peshawar and one in the southern port city of Karachi.
In Gaza, around 200 radical Islamists -- brandishing black jihadist banners -- threatened attacks against France.
"French, leave Gaza or we will slaughter you," the crowd chanted outside the French cultural center.
More than 2,000 Iranians protested outside the French embassy in Tehran, chanting "Death to France", with female protesters segregated from the males.
Niger meanwhile declared three days of mourning from Monday after violent protests over the cartoons left 10 people dead and dozens of churches torched.
[ARABNEWS] Some 200 German police raided over a dozen suspected premises Tuesday, seeking evidence against two men arrested last week for allegedly backing jihadist violence in Syria.
No one was detained Tuesday but police said they were searching for documents, computer hard drives and other potential evidence in the 13 locations, mostly apartments, in Berlin, the neighboring city of Potsdam and the eastern state of Thuringia.
The sweeping pre-dawn raids targeted the homes of members of the Quranic school of one of the men arrested Friday, Turkish-born Ismet D., 41, dubbed by media the Emir of Moabit after the Berlin district where the school is located.
The man, whose surname was not released under German privacy rules, is suspected of leading an extremist group made up of Turkish and Russian nationals from the Caucasus regions of Chechnya and Dagestan, police said last week.
There was no suggestion the two men or their supporters had planned any attacks against targets within Germany, said Berlin police spokesman Stefan Redlich.
But we allege that they are supporting extremists in Syria, he told private news channel NTV.
We see a danger when people travel there, join the fighting, undergo military training and experience violence. We have to worry about these people when they return.
Asked whether police had been more active against Islamists since the Paris jihadist attacks, he said: The investigation against this group has been running for over a year. We have long acted with great determination against groups who send people into these war zones.... We would have conducted the raids either way.
Another police spokesman Michael Gassen said the raids were mostly on close associates of the pair. We were looking for further evidence in connection with last week's arrests, Gassen said, adding that the people targeted Tuesday were not accused of any wrongdoing themselves. Most were members of the same mosque in Berlin's Moabit neighborhood as the two suspects.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/21/2015 00:00 ||
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[Ynet] A German man of Afghan descent went on trial on Tuesday charged with being a member of a terrorist organization and an accomplice to murder in Syria after participating in a jihadist attack on a prison in Aleppo.
Munich court spokeswoman Andrea Titz said the German-born man, aged 27 and identified only as Harun P., could face a life sentence if convicted at the trial, which is expected to run until April 23.
"He was active in an Islamic terror group from October 2013 to April 2014 and trained to fight. He grew up in Germany and was radicalised only in recent years before going to Syria," Titz said.
[Ynet] Dutch police searched the home of an 18-year-old suspected Islamist bully boy, whose passport was found during an anti-terror raid in the Belgian town of Verviers last week, prosecutors said on Tuesday.
Dutch prosecutors said they were investigating the unnamed man for suspected involvement in "terrorist crimes", but gave no details. The suspect's parents reported that their son was missing in September. Police seized telephones and laptops from the parents' home in the central Dutch town of Utrecht.
[DAWN] A Dutch court blocked on Tuesday the extradition of a man accused of having fought against US troops in Afghanistan, saying it could not be ruled out that the CIA had been involved in his torture after his arrest in Pakistain.
Dutch court documents showed the suspect, a Dutch-Pak dual citizen named Sabir Khan, was tortured after his arrest by ISI intelligence agency.
He faces charges in New York of conspiracy to commit murder and of supporting Al Qaeda.
The court said the Netherlands could not transfer him because Dutch and international laws prohibited the extradition of torture victims to countries that played a role in abuse.
Washington denied in a letter sent to Dutch officials in October that US authorities were involved in his arrest, but the court said it was not convinced the CIA had not been involved in his detention.
"This letter does not rule out the possible involvement of the CIA," the court in The Hague said in a statement. "Since it cannot be ruled out that it was the CIA which requested the arrest, the judge again forbids" his extradition.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/21/2015 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] The trial of a Saudi businessman accused in the 1998 al-Qaida bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa got underway in New York on Tuesday with jury selection.
Khalid al-Fawwaz, who was allegedly head of al-Qaida's London office until his arrest in 1999, is accused on four counts of conspiracy to kill Americans and conspiracy to destroy U.S. property.
The attacks on the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which were claimed by Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network, killed 224 people and wounded around 5,000.
Arrested in Britain in 1999, Fawwaz has already spent 16 years in custody and pleads not guilty.
On Tuesday, he took a seat in the Manhattan court room, just a short walk from the site of the former Twin Towers destroyed by al-Qaida in the 9/11 attacks.
He wore a crisp white tunic, neatly pressed and of the type traditionally favored by men in Saudi Arabia, with a crocheted white prayer cap on his head.
He had dark shadows under his eyes, his face was pale and partially obscured by a long, pointy grey beard.
He folded his stocky frame into a court chair, put black-rimmed spectacles on his nose to consult documents and exchanged pleasantries with his lawyers.
U.S. prosecutors claim that Fawwaz was head of al-Qaida's London office -- put in charge personally by bin Laden, who was killed by U.S. Navy SEALs in Pakistan in May 2011.
Fawwaz is accused of setting up the London office to publicize bin Laden's statements and serve as a conduit for messages between different al-Qaida cells
From around 1993 -- five years before the attacks -- he is named as an al-Qaida associate who allegedly began to establish businesses and residence in Kenya.
From 1995 to 1998, he allegedly provided bin Laden and other al-Qaida members with communications, including a satellite phone, and disseminated bin Laden's declaration of jihad in England.
US District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who has overseen a string of terror trials ending in guilty convictions, opened the first stage of jury selection on Tuesday.
A pool of around 200 prospective jurors, who have already completed questionnaires, will be whittled down to 12, with six alternates, who will hear the case.
The process is expected to continue until at least Thursday before opening arguments can begin.
The Fawwaz trial is estimated to last five weeks, considerably shorter than previously expected.
One of his co-defendants, Libya's Abu Anas al-Libi, died in a New York hospital earlier this month after suffering from advanced hepatitis C and cancer.
A second Egyptian, Adel Abdel Bary, pleaded guilty last year and is set to be sentenced by Kaplan on February 6.
Fawwaz was arrested in Britain in 1999 and fought a nearly 12-year battle against extradition before being sent to the United States to stand trial.
[Ynet] A New Yorker who sent $67,000 to al-Qaeda and pledged his support to the terror group has been sentenced to 15 years in prison. Federal Judge Kimba Wood in Manhattan sentenced Brooklyn-born Wesam El-Hanafi Tuesday. The sentence was less than the 20-year maximum term prosecutors had sought and three years less than his co-defendant received.
El-Hanafi pleaded guilty in June 2012, two years after he was brought to the United States from Dubai. Prosecutors say El-Hanafi pledged loyalty to al-Qaeda and sought to teach the group how to evade detection on the Internet. He went to Yemen in 2008 and met with al-Qaeda representatives.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/21/2015 00:00 ||
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[Ynet] Two men from Yemen who trained with al-Qaeda to fight US forces helped an American they befriended join the terror group, clearing the way for him to hatch a plot against one of the busiest US commuter railroads, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Saddiq Al-Abbadi and Ali Alvi were captured in Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... before being brought to the United States to face charges of conspiracy to kill Americans and providing material support to al-Qaeda.
Alvi, 30, was to appear Tuesday in federal court in Brooklyn. Al-Abbadi, 36, had an appearance Sunday. The names of their lawyers weren't immediately available.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/21/2015 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] ISLAMABAD: The capital police are hunting former seminary students affiliated with Lal Masjid ...literally the Red Mosque, located in Islamabad and frequented by all sorts of high govt officials. The proprietors, Ghazi Abdul Rasheed and Maulana Abdul Aziz Ghazi, unleashed their Islamic storm troopers on the city, shutting down whorehouses and beating people up who weren't devout enough. The Musharraf govt put an end to the nonsense by besieging the place. Abdul Aziz Ghazi was nabbed while he was trying to escape dressed up like a girl. BBC reported that the corpse count at 173, but other claims, usually hysterical, say there were up to 1000 titzup. Among their number was Abdul Rashid Ghazi. Everyone then said tut-tut and what a nice guy he had been... , who were tossed in the slammer Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! during the military operation on the mosque in 2007 and are now suspected of regrouping to activate the Ghazi Force.
Officials in the police told Dawn on the condition of anonymity that Ghazi Force was formed by the former students of Lal Masjid to avenge the killing of Abdul Rashid Ghazi and others during the Operation Silence in July 2007.
The officials alleged that Ghazi Force was involved in the suicide kabooms on the Special Branch Islamabad on March 23, 2009; the Frontier Constabulary barracks on April 4, 2009; Rescue-15 on June 6, 2009, and the World Food Programme office on October 5, 2009. The force also planned to strike at Adiala Jail and the UN office in Islamabad. Besides, it was involved in six terrorism attacks in Swat, Buner and Orakzai Agency ... crawling with holy men, home to Darra Adam Khel, the world's largest illegal arms bazaar. 14 distinct tribes of beturbanned primitives inhabit Orakzai agency's 1500 or so square kilometers... .
During the Operation Silence, hundreds of students and those affiliated with the mosque were arrested. The record obtained from the computerised national identity cards (CNICs) of the arrested people was maintained by the police. But as a majority of them were below the age of 18 years and did not possess CNICs, their details were not available even with Nadra. And the particulars obtained from the students were not authentic.
The officials said during the military operation in Swat, Ghazi Force was dismantled by security forces. But now there are intelligence reports that the former activists of the force are contacting each other to reactivate the group. As a result, the police have launched a reconnaissance on the suspects with the help of the record available with it.
Former members of the force are said to be regrouping
There are a number of people who might have been associated with the force in the past and their status needed to be checked and verified. The officials said the police had the record of about 368 people who were being traced now.
These suspected people belonged to different districts such as Azad Kashmire, Attock, Swat ...a valley and an administrative district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistain, located 99 mi from Islamabad. It is inhabited mostly by Pashto speakers. The place has gone steadily downhill since the days when Babe Ruth was the Sultan of Swat... and Buner, so the capital police are contacting their counterparts in these areas to get their status verified. Those living in Islamabad and nearby districts are being monitored by the capital police. So far, 68 suspects have been checked and verified and almost all of them cleared, they said.
Similarly, 111 people were also traced in other areas and the addresses of 51 of them got confirmed. Efforts are in progress to confirm the addresses of the remaining people. The officials said vigilance had also been mounted in and around Lal Masjid and those coming there regularly were being monitored.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/21/2015 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] LAHORE: The Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) police took a woman into custody from outside Kotwali CIA office on Tuesday for her alleged links with Al Qaeda.
Police sources claimed the veiled woman was a proclaimed offender and was involved in a suicide kaboom at Gujaranwala police offices.
They said three CIA police inspectors while leaving the office found her taking snaps of the office. As they grilled her, it emerged that her name was Maria Sultan and her husband had died in a suicide attack.
She, during preliminary interrogation, confessed to taking the snaps of other police offices as she was planning to avenge her husband's death.
CIA police handed her over to the Naulakha police and started the paperwork but haven't done much else against her.
The government had announced Rs500,000 as a head money on her arrest.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/21/2015 00:00 ||
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[IsraelTimes] djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... boys executed for viewing Asian Cup match between Iraq and Jordan, says anti-IS group
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.... terrorist group killed 13 teenage Iraqi boys for watching a soccer match last week, according to local activists.
The teens, from the city of Mosul, were executed in public by IS members using machine guns, the Daily Mail reported.
They were caught watching an Asian Cup soccer match between Iraq and Jordan.
"The bodies remained lying in the open and their parents were unable to withdraw them for fear of murder by terrorist organization," read the website of Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently, a local anti-IS group that covertly documents violence by members of the jihadist group.
Before the boys were killed by the firing squad, IS members read out their charges out by loudspeaker.
Earlier in the week, IS published disturbing pictures of what it says are the executions of two homosexual men in Iraq -- shown being thrown off a high-rise rooftop to their deaths.
The organization also released images of two men being crucified for theft, and a woman being stoned to death for infidelity.
The two men, accused of being gay, are seen being led to the edge of a tall building as a large crowd gathers below to watch. The men are then photographed falling through the air. A later photograph shows their broken bodies laying on the ground.
Additional photographs show two men accused of stealing as they are tied crucifix-style to a metal frame, their eyes blindfolded as a masked IS member reads the charges.
An Islamic State fighter reads the charges against two alleged thieves as they are seen crucified in the background (screen capture)
Two other IS gunnies then shoot the two in the head, killing them.
A final killing depicts woman draped in an all-black niqab as she is led to her stoning, on charges of infidelity.
IS members are seen hurling rocks at her and waving the IS flag. Finally her limp body is covered with a tarpaulin.
IS is believed to have executed thousands of people since its violent take over of large parts of Syria and Iraq last year. It has held multiple foreign hostages, including a number of Western journalists and aid workers, beheading five of them in gruesome videos published online.
IS has declared an Islamic "caliphate" in territory it holds and has been accused of myriad crimes and human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. abuses.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/21/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
I'm going to go out on a limb + say it was because the boyz were watching an evil, "Un-Islamic", Western sport???
[Ynet] Violent demonstrations continue in predominantly Bedouin city of Rahat in Israel's southern district after two residents killed during previous clashes with police.
A pipe bomb was hurled at Israeli security forces on Tuesday evening as violent demonstrations continued in the predominantly Bedouin city of Rahat in Israel's southern district after death of two residents during clashes with police.
There were no reported injuries in the pipe bomb attack however violence was raging on Tuesday evening as demonstrators hurled stones and tires lit on fire at Israeli police forces.
Unrest had erupted in the southern Israeli city after two of its residents were killed during confrontations with Israeli police. Sami al-Ajar was killed in a clash with police last week and Sami al-Ziadana was killed during riots that erupted after al-Ajar's funeral on Sunday. The riots began after a procession that was held in the city during the day on Tuesday – afterwards hundreds of young residents gathered near a police station and violence ensued.
Four teenagers were arrested during the clashes with police – one of whom had been injured while throwing rocks. He was treated by a doctor at the Israeli police unit and transferred for further questioning.
Earlier on Tuesday, Israeli police released video footage of demonstrators closing in on a police cruiser after al-Ajar's funeral on Sunday. The footage was filmed from a police helicopter hovering over the area and showed hundreds of people surrounding the cruiser, hurling rocks and stones at the direction of the armored vehicle. Shortly afterwards, reinforcement arrived at the scene to rescue the officers – their vehicle also was the target of serious blows with the chassis collapsing.
The incident occurred during the same riots in which the second Rahat resident, Sami al-Ziadana was killed. After assessing the situation in Rahat Police Commissioner Yohanan Danino said that quiet must be restored in Rahat and in the south. "I understand the pain of the families of the deceased and send my condolences, but in the same breath I say that law and order must be kept.
"I support all the policemen who do sacred work. I will not allow police officers or citizens to be hurt and we announced that we will operate in a manner of zero tolerance. I called on the leadership and the mayor of Rahat, who I know as a moderate and responsible individual, to restore the quiet and to maintain restraint. I also ask the police officers to maintain restraint," said Danino.
Police commander of the southern district Deputy Commissioner Yoram Halevy warned that such attacks may occur again. "They will try today what they tried yesterday – to hurt cops. Attacking police officers, in their eyes, is the result of an event that occurred last Wednesday."
He explained: "There was an operation against a drug station and drug dealers. We have more than a few of those. The drug operation was being run from inside a school. A detective squad which did the ground work and documented large-scale drug trafficking decided to make the arrest and caught the suspect as well as a number of other figures. During the mass arrest he identified the cops and called on the residents to come disrupt the arrest."
According to Halevy, Sami al-Ajar was in the vehicle with the drug dealers and was arrested during the incident. Al-Ajar's father then came to his rescue. "The father arrived with iron bars and hit the officers," noted Deputy Commissioner Halevy, "the father said he saw his son being arrested and decided to free him by hitting the officers."
Danino concluded his remarks by saying that those who broke the law would be brought to justice. "There are radical sources here that have an interest in making the situation worse. We will bring them to justice even in a week or two weeks," Danino said.
[Ynet] A boom-mobile damaged the vehicle of a Gazook Interior Ministry security official overnight Monday, causing no casualties, the ministry and witnesses said.
"A roadside kaboom damaged the car of an officer of the military police parked outside his home in northern Gazoo City causing no casualties," said a statement from ministry front man Iyad al-Bozoum.
Witnesses said the car belonged to Colonel Helmy Khalaf, chief financial officer in the military police.
A different report on the same attack from the Khaleej Times.
[AnNahar] Extremist militants have kidnapped three Lebanese men in the northeastern border town of Arsal, the state-run National News Agency reported on Tuesday.
“The number of those abducted from the town of Arsal has risen to three, after the kidnap of Mustafa Zaarour, 39, and Ali Ezzeddine, 23,” NNA said in the afternoon.
“The fate of the three abductees held by Daesh (Islamic State group) is still unknown,” the agency added.
It had earlier reported that assailants from the IS abducted on Monday night Younes al-Hujeiri, who owns a stone quarry, in the area of Wadi Hmeid.
IS and al-Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front militants are hiding in the mountains on the porous border area between Lebanon and Syria.
An airstrike on a crowded market in a Syrian village controlled by the Daesh group killed dozens of people on Tuesday, activists said.
Two activist-run monitoring groups, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination Committees, said the attack occurred in the village of Khansaa, in far eastern Syria near the Iraq border. Khansaa is held by the Daesh militant group. The Observatory said “dozens” were killed and wounded. Other activists gave estimates ranging from 30 to 75 people killed. Conflicting tolls are common in the chaotic aftermath of violent incidents in Syria.
One activist reached over Skype in the nearby provincial capital of Hassakeh said he was given the names of 70 people presumed killed in the strike, and said another 13 bodies were too badly burnt to be identified. The activist, who goes by the name Siraj, said he obtained the list from wounded survivors who were rushed to a hospital in a nearby town. But he said the toll could be revised as activists interviewed more survivors.
It also was not immediately clear who conducted the airstrike, Siraj said.
Some wounded residents said it was a Syrian government airstrike using so-called barrel bombs, canisters packed with explosives that are usually dropped from helicopters. Such bombs cannot be precisely targeted, and activists say they have killed thousands of civilians.
Other residents said warplanes from the US-led coalition battling the Daesh militants fired missiles at the market, according to Siraj.
The Local Coordination Committees said it was a Syrian government airstrike.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/21/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
Dropping a barrel from a plane, have to be a very slow plane.
Posted by: Steven ||
01/21/2015 3:01 Comments ||
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In Hasakeh where the Kurds were attacked by the Syrian regime, the Kurds are on the offensive and the local representative of the Syrian regime is asking for a negotiated peace.
[IsraelTimes] Civilians slain for banditry, homosexuality, adultery and various acts of 'disloyalty'
Golly. But they forgot mopery and dopery in the highways. In other words, they're acting just as a taqfiri conquerer should be expected to when the conquering isn't going well, as they strive to regain Allah's favour so that the conquering can resume.
The UN on Tuesday decried numerous executions of civilians in Iraq by 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, warning that educated women appeared to be especially at risk.
The jihadist group is showing a "monstrous disregard for human life" in the areas it controls in Iraq, the UN human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. office said.
The group, which controls large swaths of territory in Iraq and in neighboring war-ravaged Syria, last week published pictures of the "crucifixions" of two men accused of being bandidos, and of a woman being stoned to death, allegedly for adultery.
Numerous other women have also reportedly been executed recently in IS-controlled areas, including djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... , spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told news hounds.
She said "educated, professional women, particularly women who have run as candidates in elections for public office, seem to be particularly at risk."
"In just the first two weeks of this year, reports indicate that three female lawyers were executed," Shamdasani said.
A number of other groups are also targeted by the jihadists, Shamdasani said, pointing to "the ruthless murder of two men, who were thrown off the top of a building after having been accused of homosexual acts by a so-called court in Mosul."
Minorities are not the only ones suffering, with IS meting out "cruel and inhuman punishments" to anyone accused of violating its "extremist interpretations of Islamic Sharia law, or for suspected disloyalty," she said.
Four doctors were recently killed in central Mosul, allegedly after refusing to treat IS fighters.
The group also reportedly executed 15 civilians in front of a large crowd in Fallujah on January 1, on suspicion they had cooperated with Iraqi security forces, and 14 more in a public square in Dour, north of Tikrit, for refusing to pledge allegiance to IS, Shamdasani said.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/21/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
ISIS is also executing children by firing squad North of Baghdad in the Balad District.
[IsraelTimes] Shinzo Abe says lives of two captive Japanese 'top priority' after video emerges demanding $200 million ransom
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe demanded Tuesday that 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 immediately free two Japanese hostages unharmed after the jihadists posted a video threat to kill them.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/21/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
Other Net Artics earlier today say up to US$265.0Milyuhn is being demanded for the hostages' release.
#2
You might want to pay attention. The Japanese know a few things about suicide bombing. Great opportunity to employ Eastern inscrutability in which one demonstrates one's seriousness to others (like Chinese) by hammering some miscreant that makes the 'theater' possible.
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.
MOGADISHU -- Accidental explosion in Mogadishu's Dharkeynley district has left two alleged plotters dead according to officials on Sunday afternoon, Garowe Online reports.
[ARABNEWS] Suspected Al-Qaeda militants ambushed the convoy of a brigade commander in the restive southeastern province of Hadramawt on Tuesday, killing five Yemeni soldiers and wounding seven.
A British jihadist identified by police as a 'trained terrorist' who is believed to have faked his own death while fighting in Syria in an attempt to return home undetected, has admitted terror charges.
[Ynet] A New Yorker who sent $67,000 to al-Qaeda and pledged his support to the terror group has been sentenced to 15 years in prison. Federal Judge Kimba Wood in Manhattan sentenced Brooklyn-born Wesam El-Hanafi Tuesday. The sentence was less than the 20-year maximum term prosecutors had sought and three years less than his co-defendant received.
[Ynet] Two men from Yemen who trained with al-Qaeda to fight US forces helped an American they befriended join the terror group, clearing the way for him to hatch a plot against one of the busiest US commuter railroads, prosecutors said Tuesday.
[DAWN] ISLAMABAD: The capital police are hunting former seminary students affiliated with 
