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532932 articles and 1859745 comments are archived on Rantburg.

Today: 70 articles and 160 comments as of 9:57.
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Area: WoT Background    Non-WoT    Opinion        Politix   
U.S.: Coalition Air Raids Back up Kurdish Advance in Iraq
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 1: WoT Operations
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Page 2: WoT Background
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Page 3: Non-WoT
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Page 4: Opinion
3 09:15 AlanC [2]
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7 19:17 BrerRabbit [4]
4 22:38 JosephMendiola [7]
Page 6: Politix
13 17:44 Iblis [1]
6 12:15 tu3031 [6]
14 21:51 Mystic [2]
Apologies
The Burg locked up last night before I went to bed and it was locked up again when I got out of bed. To try and fix the problem I did a version upgrade, which didn't go smoothly. The web server refuses to notice anything but the default page.

We're on a wing and a prayer right now. My apologies if we have to do down again.
Posted by: Fred || 01/25/2015 15:53 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Most of the time things on the reservation are great, but every now and then you run across a bad Apache?
Posted by: Ebbomosh Hupemp2664 || 01/25/2015 16:33 Comments || Top||

#2  no apologies needed, Fred. I'm grateful for your hard work
Posted by: Frank G || 01/25/2015 16:36 Comments || Top||

#3  Carry on, Fred. These things happen when computers are involved -- fortunately not nearly so often as in the old days. I'm just glad outside malice wasn't involved, after the nonsense of the other day.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/25/2015 16:43 Comments || Top||

#4  A crisp salute for all you do Fred.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/25/2015 16:54 Comments || Top||

#5  Thanks, Fred.
Posted by: Pappy || 01/25/2015 17:05 Comments || Top||

#6  Hmmm, national power outage in Pakistain AND the Burg is down. Coincidence? Or time to reconsider Peshawar Telecom's ultra-cheap hosting plan?
Posted by: SteveS || 01/25/2015 17:57 Comments || Top||

#7  What Frank, tw, B, and Pappy said.
Posted by: Barbara || 01/25/2015 18:10 Comments || Top||

#8  Thank you Fred, apologies not necessary. We are thankful for you!
Posted by: 49 Pan || 01/25/2015 18:44 Comments || Top||

#9  Thank you Fred.

Peshawar Telecome: Its the free cell minutes which sell the contract.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 01/25/2015 19:37 Comments || Top||

#10  O-club is back. Sorta, which means it's back.

Sorta.
Posted by: badanov || 01/25/2015 21:52 Comments || Top||

#11  There is a phishing thing going around. I hope it was not me.

I almost had a panic attack seeing you offline.
Posted by: newc || 01/25/2015 22:58 Comments || Top||

#12  Wasn't U newc

Posted by: Deadeye Protector of the Geats9552 || 01/25/2015 23:54 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Police officer killed in Lashkar Gah, Helmand
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] Unidentified gunnies killed a police officer in Lashkar Gha, picturesque provincial capital of southern Helmand
...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan...
province.

Farid Ahmad Obaid, front man for police headquarters of southern Helmand province says that the incident took place in Safyan area of the city around 11:00AM today.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 01/25/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Africa Horn
Shaboobs tossed from Bakool region
TIYEGLOW, Somalia --
I'm not sure if Tiyeglow is a village or the name of that Youtube woman who interviewed Obama...
Somali government forces aided by African Union peacekeepers removed Al Qaeda-linked Al Shabaab militants from three villages in Bakool region of southwestern Somalia on Friday, Garowe Online reports.

Tiyeglow Mayor Mohamed Food Adde said that the allied forces liberated Bulo-Jadid, Bulo-Yusuf and El Jarmed from the terror group without tough resistance.

"The government will return the situation of liberated areas to normal," said Food Adde, the Mayor of Tiyeglow.

Despite severe setback on the front-line, Al Shabaab has long imposed blockade on the three villages. The militant group didn't spoke on the seizure by allied forces of areas acquiesced to their rule.
They were busy fleeing...
Flee and return is the fighting pattern. Or attack and retreat, only to attack again, depending on the situation. The quick fluidity of the raider is what won the early Arabs their empire, so good jihadis copy that pattern when they're dealing with territory instead of just blowing themselves up or stealing credit card numbers.
Posted by: Steve White || 01/25/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: al-Shabaab


Africa North
Hassi sacks Khaled Sharif as his deputy Defence Minister
[Libya Herald] In a surprise development Khalid Sharif has been removed from his position as deputy Defence Minister in the 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...
-based administration of Omar Al-Hassi, along with fellow deputy minister Tuhami Abugia, according to the Tripoli Ministry of Defence.

Sharif announced on his Twitter account that he had resigned from his post, but the MoD has insisted that he was sacked.

"The MoD removed him but he is saying he resigned," said a spokesperson for the Tripoli-based MoD. "Sharif was from the [Abdullah] Al-Thinni government, and the ministry is now being refreshed."

Sharif, a former commander of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group in Afghanistan who was captured in Pakistain in 2003 and sent back to Libya where Qadaffy tossed in the calaboose
Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'!
him, was given the post in Ali Zeidan's government. He retained the role when his boss as defence minister, Al-Thinni, became Prime Minister. After the latter's internationally-recognised government moved to Beida in August, Sharif remained in the capital, working under the Tripoli-based "government" created by a group of members of the former parliament, the General National Congress, and headed by Omar Al-Hassi.

Whilst in post, Sharif was charged with creating the Libyan National Guard and held responsibility for border security in the south of the country. He was also involved in setting up the ill-fated project to train new Libyan Army recruits in Britannia, which was terminated early and much of the bill for which remains unpaid.

Most recently, photographs circulated on social media showed him at several of Libya's front lines, including Sabratha.

On his Twitter account, Sharif thanked his colleagues in the ministry and in the office of the Chief of Staff for their cooperation over the last two years, and wished them well for the future.

Abugia, the other deputy Defence Minister to have lost his job in the ministry shake-up, had been principally been charge of diplomatic security, the MoD front man said.
Posted by: Fred || 01/25/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Moroccan terror suspects face court
[MAGHAREBIA] Moroccan police on Thursday (January 22nd) transferred six terror suspects to the appellate court in Rabat, l'Observateur du Maroc reported. They are charged with forming a criminal group to "prepare and commit terrorist acts", "undermining the public order through intimidation, terror and violence", membership in a banned religious group, and holding unauthorised meetings.
Posted by: Fred || 01/25/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Mauritanian prison siege ends with hostages freed
[ARABNEWS] A hostage crisis sparked when death row inmates in Mauritania seized two prison guards ended on Saturday after the captives were freed, security sources said.

The prisoners at Nouakchott's central penitentiary had kidnapped the wardens on Friday during a violent protest in which several security personnel were maimed.

The inmates -- including more than a dozen hard-liners sentenced to death or life imprisonment -- were protesting against the refusal of the authorities to release those who had completed their jail terms.

A prison source told AFP the group had "accepted a government proposal to release those among them who are entitled to leave and to improve the conditions of detention of others."

The source said four of the prisoners were being freed in return for the release of the guards.

Ahmed Ould Hindi, chairman of the Bar Council in Nouakchott, who has spoken to the prisoners, said those who had negotiated their release should have left the prison days ago.
Posted by: Fred || 01/25/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Protester shot dead at leftist party march in central Cairo
[Ynet] A Egyptian political party statement says a female protester was rubbed out by police at a march in downtown Cairo.

The leftist Popular Alliance party says that police shot its member Shaimaa el-Sabagh with birdshot Saturday evening as the group peacefully marched toward Tahrir Square to lay a commemorative wreath of roses on the eve of the 4th anniversary of Egypt's 2011 uprising.
That's protests Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and now also Saturday. A busy time, this anniversary of the Arab Spring uprising.
You wonder if any work ever gets done in Cairo...
Inshallah. It gets done if Allah wills it, so why strain yourself?
A Ministry of Health confirmed that a female protester died from birdshot injuries to her head and body.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/25/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring

#1  a female protester died from birdshot injuries to her head and body

Interesting birdshot.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/25/2015 4:42 Comments || Top||


Libyan extremist group: leader has been killed
Cairo -- A statement from Benghazi-based extremist militant group Ansar Al Shariah says its leader Mohammed Al Zahawi has been killed. The statement, posted on the group’s official Twitter account on Saturday, gave no details about how or when Al Zahawi was killed.

It gave condolences and vowed to take dire revenge and “shake the seat of power.”

The group has been blamed for the September 2012 attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi that killed US Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. The United States designated it a terrorist organisation in January 2014.

The United Nations also listed Ansar Al Shariah as a terrorist organisation in November 2014, saying it runs training camps for foreign fighters travelling to Syria, Iraq and Mali.
Posted by: Steve White || 01/25/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Klingons finally getting payback?
Posted by: Pappy || 01/25/2015 17:07 Comments || Top||

#2  Adios, Au Revior, Aufweidersehn.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/25/2015 17:11 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Boko Haram kills 15 villagers in Nigeria's northeast
[SMH.AU] 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 have killed 15 villagers near Maiduguri, the city which is the epicentre of the Islamist group's six-year insurgency and where President Goodluck Jonathan
... 14th President of Nigeria. He was Governor of Bayelsa State from 9 December 2005 to 28 May 2007, and was sworn in as Vice President on 29 May 2007. Jonathan is a member of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP). He is a lover of nifty hats, which makes him easily recognizable unless someone else in the room is wearing a neat chapeau...
is to launch his re-election campaign on Saturday.

The killings near the embattled city took place Friday, on the eve of the president's visit, security sources and residents said.

"The forces of Evil attacked Kambari village which is less than five kilometres to Maiduguri around 5am. They killed 15 people and set the entire hamlet ablaze," said a security source who requested anonymity.

"After fruitless efforts to enter Maiduguri through Konduga without success, the forces of Evil took a different route and attacked Kambari," he said.

A woman from the village who simply gave her name as Kyallu said four of her children were among the dead.

"They killed four of my grown-up children when they attacked our village about the time for the morning prayers," Kyallu, who is now in Maiduguri, told AFP.

"They shot my children dead without any prompting. I had to leave the village with my grandchildren because we have lost our houses," she said.

"The hard boyz also killed our village head. In fact, I counted 15 dead bodies," she said.

Maiduguri and its environs in the volatile northeast have been repeatedly attacked by the bully boyz who began their deadly insurgency to impose Sharia in the mainly-Moslem north in 2009.

The latest attack came as Jonathan was due to launch his re-election campaign for the February 14 polls at a rally in Maiduguri. Security was beefed up ahead of the event with hundreds of armed police and sniffer dogs deployed at strategic areas.
Posted by: Fred || 01/25/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under: Boko Haram

#1  Religion of Peace(tm)
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/25/2015 9:16 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Separatists seize checkpoints in southern Yemen amid political crisis
[Iran Press TV] Separatists have seized all security checkpoints in the southern Yemeni city of Ataq as political uncertainty looms large over the Arab country.

According to reports on Saturday, gunnies from the secessionist Harak movement of southern Yemen overran security checkpoints in Ataq, Shabwa Province.

The reports added that the government forces showed no resistance during the assault.

Meanwhile,
...back at the wrecked scow, a single surviver held tightly to the smashed prow...
local authorities in Shabwa stated that they would desist receiving orders from the central government in the country's capital, Sana'a.

On Friday, the southern Yemen separatists launched rallies in the city of Aden, calling for independence from Sana'a.

The secessionists raised the flag of Southern Yemen over the airport and some of the government buildings in Aden.

The separatists' attack on Ataq checkpoints came two days after President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi and the cabinet of Prime Minister Khaled Bahah resigned over pressure from Shia Ansarullah revolutionaries of 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 ...
movement. The parliament, however, rejected Hadi's resignation pending an emergency session on Sunday.

Southern Yemen was formerly an independent country, which merged with the Northern Yemen to form the present-day Yemen in 1990.

The impoverished Arab country is currently grappling with a severe political crisis between the central government and Ansarullah fighters.

In September 2014, Ansarullah revolutionary fighters gained control of Sana'a following a four-day battle with army forces loyal to General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, the half-brother of the country's former dictator, President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh
... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it...
.
Posted by: Fred || 01/25/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under: Houthis


Europe
Father Charged with Inciting his Children to Jihad
[AnNahar] A father-of-three, suspected of bombarding his children with violent images glorifying jihad, has been charged with "inciting acts of terrorism", prosecutors in southeastern La Belle France said on Saturday.

The man was also indicted for parental violence against minors under 15 and shirking legal obligations as a parent, the prosecutor's office in the town of Valence said.

An investigation was launched in November 2014 after one of the three children, who are aged between six and 10, complained to school authorities of being abused while spending the weekend with their father.

The children, whose parents are divorced, had also complained of being forced to watch images of "extreme violence that justified terrorism", according to a source familiar with the case.
When they love their children more than death, then there will be peace.
The father, who lives in Valence, was tossed in the slammer
Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw!
on Wednesday after a complaint was lodged by his ex-wife.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/25/2015 11:43 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Salafists


Spain arrests four bad boys in Cueta
Police in Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta arrested four men on Saturday suspected of belonging to a militant network that may have been planning an attack in Spain, the interior ministry said.

Confirming the arrests, Spanish Interior Minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz told reporters: “They are two pairs of brothers, highly radicalised and highly trained.”

Diaz said there were “many parallels” with the two brothers who attacked the Paris office of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo earlier this month, shooting dead 12 people. He did not elaborate.

El Mundo newspaper quoted Diaz as saying the four detained brothers were of Moroccan origin but held Spanish nationality. In searches carried out alongside the arrests, police found combat gear and knives, he added.

Earlier, the interior ministry released a short statement saying police were investigating whether the four men had been planning an attack in Spain. Authorities in Ceuta, an autonomous Spanish city bordering Morocco, declined to comment.

Sources close to the investigation told El Pais newspaper the probe had started two weeks ago when one of the four posted a video on his Facebook page showing him providing military training and urging others to wage jihad.
Just like a whiny progressive American college kid, they had no idea that people other than their own supporters read Facebook...
Posted by: Steve White || 01/25/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: WoT
Canadian pleads not guilty in US terror case
A busy day in the courts for terrorists...
[Ynet] A Canadian man has pleaded not guilty
"Wudn't me."
to US charges accusing him of supporting terrorism linked to deadly attacks on US soldiers in Iraq.

Faruq Khalil Muhammad 'Isa entered the plea on Saturday in federal court in Brooklyn.

Muhammad 'Isa was tossed in the clink
Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try!
in Edmonton, Alberta, on a US warrant in 2011. An indictment accused him of helping coordinate Tunisian jihadists believed responsible for a suicide kaboom that killed five American soldiers outside a US base in Iraq in 2009.

The 36-year-old Muhammad 'Isa was taken to New York City on Friday.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/25/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Bomb threat against 2 planes at Atlanta airport
[IsraelTimes] Police searching Delta and Southwest flights, after 'credible' warning

Police were searching two planes at Atlanta's main airport Saturday after authorities received what they described as credible bomb threats.

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport front man Reese McCranie said the threats targeted a Delta flight and a Southwest flight that landed safely Saturday.

McCranie said he did not have additional details about the nature of the threats, though he described them as "credible."

A bomb squad and dog unit from the Atlanta Police Department were going to search both aircraft.

Last Monday, two Delta Air Lines flights arriving at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, one continuing to and one arriving from Tel Aviv, were evacuated following a bomb threat.
Twitchy has the threat details, conducted via tweets, believe it or not.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/25/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:


US woman who tried to help terrorists receives 4 years
Good. More please.
[Ynet] Shannon Conley, 19, who tried to go to Syria to help 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....
snuffies has been sentenced to four years in prison on Friday.

Wearing a black and tan headscarf with her jail uniform, she tearfully told the judge that she has disavowed jihad and that the people who influenced her misconstrued the Koran.

Conley pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization in September under a deal that requires her to divulge information she may have about other Americans with similar intentions.

FBI agents say Conley wanted to marry a suitor she met online who told her he was fighting with the murderous Moslems. She repeatedly told them she wanted to fight alongside him or use her skills as a nurse's aide to help.
An Nahar adds:
Conley, who struck a plea bargain with prosecutors, had expressed a desire to wage violent jihad, or holy war, after meeting a man on the Internet who claimed to be an active member of IS in Syria.

The duo got engaged and worked together to have Conley travel to Syria to join her new fiance.

Before going, Conley trained to be able to fight and even joined the U.S. Army Explorers (USAE) to be learn about military tactics and firearms. She also had first-aid training.

FBI special agents met her several times to persuade her not to carry out her plans to travel overseas to fight but she refused to listen and was arrested when she attempted to board a flight to Turkey from Denver on April 8.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/25/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  ...she tearfully told the judge that she has disavowed jihad and that the people who influenced her misconstrued the Koran.

Garcon! Where's my violin?
Posted by: Raj || 01/25/2015 0:56 Comments || Top||

#2  So now we must feed her, see to her housing, medical needs and so forth? Strip her of her citizenship and let her go overseas. We'll be done with her.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/25/2015 3:57 Comments || Top||

#3  I see a book, tenured academic position, and political career in her future.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/25/2015 4:44 Comments || Top||

#4  Wearing a black and tan headscarf with her jail uniform, she tearfully told the judge that she has disavowed jihad and that the people who influenced her misconstrued the Koran.

Taqqiya
Posted by: Frank G || 01/25/2015 9:20 Comments || Top||

#5  Tearful because she got caught
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 01/25/2015 11:45 Comments || Top||

#6  So long as she's a Muslim, she can't disavow jihad. Execute her for treason; she admitted to her deeds.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 01/25/2015 12:23 Comments || Top||

#7  Wearing a black and tan headscarf with her jail uniform, she tearfully told the judge that she has disavowed jihad and that the people who influenced her misconstrued the Koran.

Ah, yes. The Islamic Mulligan...
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/25/2015 12:24 Comments || Top||

#8  I'm sure she can get a Presidential pardon in January of 2017.
Posted by: Pappy || 01/25/2015 17:11 Comments || Top||

#9  And a high paying job at the new Presidential Library.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/25/2015 17:12 Comments || Top||

#10  FBI special agents met her several times to persuade her not to carry out her plans to travel overseas to fight (wtf?) but she refused to listen and was arrested when she attempted to board a flight to Turkey from Denver on April 8.
Posted by: Hupineger Glomomp0025 || 01/25/2015 20:27 Comments || Top||

#11  ...she tearfully told the judge that she has disavowed jihad and that the people who influenced her misconstrued the Koran.

By reading the actual words written in it.
Posted by: abu do you love || 01/25/2015 21:14 Comments || Top||

#12  For as long as misdeeds of Mahmoud
And his minions are still ballyhooed,
Placid thralls of Islam
Will all tell us, "Salaam!
The Koran has just been misconstrued!"
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 01/25/2015 23:30 Comments || Top||


Iraq
U.S.: Coalition Air Raids Back up Kurdish Advance in Iraq
[AnNahar] U.S.-led forces have carried out dozens of air strikes in Iraq to back up Kurdish forces advancing 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....
jihadists near the strategic city of djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
, the American military said Saturday.

Over the past 72 hours, U.S. and coalition aircraft conducted 46 bombing raids in support of Kurdish peshmerga troops near Mosul and 80 hours of reconnaissance flights, the military said in a statement.

Kurdish officials said previously that they cut a key road that links Mosul with Tal Afar to the west.

The U.S. military's statement confirmed that "forces from the Iraqi Kurdistan Region seized ground formerly held by the enemy, including a critical road junction that ISIL was using to resupply their stronghold in Mosul."

The statement also said that coalition air power and other assistance in recent days meant that Kurdish forces "now hold the gains they have made and are postured to retake additional territory from ISIL in vicinity of Mosul."

U.S. and Iraqi commanders have vowed to recapture the large stretch of territory seized by the IS group last year and Mosul is seen as a pivotal battleground in any future counter-offensive.

General Lloyd Austin, head of U.S. Central Command, told the Wall Street Journal on Thursday that Iraqi troops should be ready to launch an operation to try and retake Mosul by the summer.

After nearly 2,000 air strikes against IS Death Eaters in Iraq and Syria since August, the IS group still holds virtually all of the ground it captured last year, including much of western Anbar province.

But U.S. commanders say the air war has halted the IS group's momentum, killed thousands of its fighters and put it on the defensive.

The head of "Operation Inherent Resolve," Lieutenant General James Terry, said this week's Kurdish operation "is another superb example" of how the IS group can be defeated using "well-led ground forces" assisted and advised by the US-led coalition.

The military's statement was issued by Terry's command which is based in Kuwait.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/25/2015 11:43 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Officials say 2 bombings kill 7 people in Iraq's capital
[Ynet] Two bombings have killed seven people in the Iraqi capital Baghdad on Saturday, authorities said.

One bomb went kaboom! Saturday near a small restaurant in Baghdad's mainly Shiite southeastern district of Zafaraniyah, killing four people and wounding 13, police officials said.

Later, a kaboom missed a passing police patrol, but killed three civilians and maimed eight in western Baghdad. The blast also damaged several cars.

Medical officials in nearby hospitals confirmed the casualties.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/25/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:


Kurdish forces fire into Islamic State-controlled Mosul
[Ynet] Kurdish forces have fired rockets into djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
for the first time since 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....
turbans overran the northern Iraqi city last summer, Kurdish military sources said on Saturday.

A Kurdish officer said 20 Grad missiles had been launched into Mosul on Friday after receiving information that Islamic State turbans were gathering to meet near the city's Zuhour neighborhood.

"We hit their positions," said Captain Shivan Ahmed, who belongs to the unit that fired the rockets from around 20 kilometres (12 miles) north of Mosul.

Kurdish officials said the strikes had hit their intended target, but two residents of Mosul contacted by Rooters said three non-combatants were killed in the attack. It was not possible to independently verify the accounts.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/25/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Mosul strikes are start of new effort against Islamic State
[Ynet] An uptick in Arclight airstrikes in northern Iraq this past week marks the beginning of a broader effort to disrupt 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....
supply lines ahead of an expected operation later this year to take back the city from turbans, US military officials said Friday.

Coalition Arclight airstrikes have pounded at least two dozen locations around djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
, destroying dozens of vehicles, buildings, fighting positions and holy warrior units.

The Arclight airstrikes, said one senior military official, are the start of a new phase, and military leaders are watching to see how Islamic State gunnies respond as their supply and communications lines dry up.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/25/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:


Coalition air raids back up Kurdish advance in Iraq
US-led forces have carried out dozens of air strikes in Iraq to back up Kurdish forces advancing against militants near the strategic city of Mosul, the American military said on Saturday.

Over the past 72 hours, US and coalition aircraft conducted 46 bombing raids in support of Kurdish peshmerga troops near Mosul and 80 hours of reconnaissance flights, the military said in a statement.

Kurdish officials said previously that they cut a key road that links Mosul with Tal Afar to the west. The US military’s statement confirmed that “forces from the Iraqi Kurdistan Region seized ground formerly held by the enemy, including a critical road junction that Daesh was using to resupply their stronghold in Mosul.”

The statement also said that coalition air power and other assistance in recent days meant that Kurdish forces “now hold the gains they have made and are postured to retake additional territory from Daesh in vicinity of Mosul.”

General Lloyd Austin, head of US Central Command, told the Wall Street Journal on Thursday that Iraqi troops should be ready to launch an operation to try and retake Mosul by the summer.

After nearly 2,000 air strikes against the extremists in Iraq and Syria since August, the group still holds virtually all of the ground it captured last year, including much of western Anbar province. But US commanders say the air war has halted the group’s momentum, killed thousands of its fighters and put it on the defensive.

The head of “Operation Inherent Resolve,” Lieutenant-General James Terry, said this week’s Kurdish operation “is another superb example” of how the group can be defeated using “well-led ground forces” assisted and advised by the US-led coalition.
Posted by: Steve White || 01/25/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


5 killed, 18 wounded in Baghdad attacks
Five people have been killed and 18 others wounded on Jan.24 in four separate attacks in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, Anadolu Agency reported referring to police.

One person was killed and five others wounded when an improvised explosive device exploded in the al-Amiriyah area in western Baghdad. Another went off in the al-Zafaraniyah area in southeastern Baghdad. Two people were killed and nine others wounded.

In a minibus in al-Mahmoudiya area, four people were wounded when the improvised explosive device blew up, a police captain said.

In addition, the bodies of two women were found behind a marketplace in the al-Doura area in southern Baghdad. The women were shot in the head and chest.

Moreover, the Iraqi security forces found bodies of 25 Islamic State militants in a medical center in Nebai in northern Baghdad. The militants were killed in clashes with the Iraqi security forces, according to an Iraqi army source. The death toll could not be independently verified.
Posted by: Steve White || 01/25/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:


Southeast Asia
Blast rocks Philippine port city
[ARABNEWS] A powerful kaboom killed as many as two people and maimed 54 others in a southern Philippine port city that has been hit by similar blasts blamed on Moslem Death Eaters, police said Saturday.

The blast occurred at a bar across the street from a busy bus terminal in Zamboanga city, damaged nearby establishments and hitting the victims with flying glass and debris. One officer was among the maimed, police said.

Police suspected the Death Eater Abu Sayyaf
...also known as al-Harakat al-Islamiyya, an Islamist terror group based in Jolo, Basilan and Zamboanga. Since its inception in the early 1990s, the group has carried out bombings, kidnappings, murders, head choppings, and extortion in their uniquely Islamic attempt to set up an independent Moslem province in the Philippines. Abu Sayyaf forces probably number less than 300 cadres. The group is closely allied with remnants of Indonesia's Jemaah Islamiya and has loose ties with MILF and MNLF who sometimes provide cannon fodder...
group, which operates in Zamboanga and nearby provinces, saying the attack could have been in retaliation for the foiled prison escape of a brother of one of the group's leaders. Earlier this week, army special forces killed at least three Abu Sayyaf gunnies in running gunbattles and have continued to pursue the faceless myrmidons in nearby Basilan
...Basilan is a rugged, jungle-covered island in the southern Philippines. It is a known stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf, bandidos, and maybe even orcs. Most people with any sense travel with armed escorts...
province. The group has previously set off bombs to divert attention from military operations.

Regional police chief Edwin Basbas said Sherlocks were looking for three men who were seen in the vicinity shortly before the blast.

Zamboanga police information officer Alex Mabalot said the blast killed a cycle of violence taxi driver and another man who succumbed to his wounds. Only 10 people remained in hospitals, he said.

The bar and the bus terminal had been separately hit several years ago by kabooms blamed on the Abu Sayyaf. At least two suspected faceless myrmidons were placed in durance vile
Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw!
in another kaboom near a cop shoppe last month, he said.
Posted by: Fred || 01/25/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under: Abu Sayyaf


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Army Announces 3 More Deaths from Ras Baalbek Clashes
[AnNahar] The Army Command announced on Saturday the deaths of three more soldiers from the festivities with gangs in the Tallat al-Hamra festivities in the outskirts of Ras Baalbek on Friday.

A military statement on Friday said that five troops were killed in the unrest that erupted when murderous Moslems attacked an army surveillance post in Ras Baalbek.

On Saturday, the army said that it was bolstering its deployment in the area where the fighting took place.

It is continuing its pursuit of the remaining terrorists, who fled towards the higher altitudes of the outskirts.

It also continued on shelling the routes the gunnies have been taking, as well as their vehicles and fortifications.

Scores of gunnies have been killed and maimed in the festivities, added the army statement on Saturday.

The army had held the funerals of several of its victims on Saturday.

Military sources told LBCI TV that the army found a map shows the gunnies's objective from seizing Tallat al-Hamra was to encircle the Tallat Umm Khaled hill before moving to Ras Baalbek, but the army foiled their attempt.

The state-run National News Agency stated that "the Civil Defense transferred the bodies of six murderous Moslems to Central Bekaa hospitals including the five bodies that were previously transferred to Hermel hospital".

Meanwhile,
...back at the buffalo wallow, Standing Buffalo drew a bead on his old enemy and squeezed the trigger...
Al-Jadeed TV reported that Hermel Hospital denied receiving any terrorist's dead body from those who died in Baalbek outskirts.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/25/2015 11:43 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under: Salafists


4 civilians killed, many injured in Syria mortar attacks
[Iran Press TV] At least four civilians have been killed and dozens injured in several mortar attacks carried out by foreign-backed bandidos holy warriors in Syria.

Two mortar raids on al-Zablatani neighborhood in the Syrian capital, Damascus, killed 3 civilians and maimed 11 others on Saturday, a police source said.

Another civilian was killed and many others injured when rocket shells landed on a number of villages in Syria's central province of Homs.

Terrorists positioned in Tal Dahab and Kafar Laha villages fired the rockets, sources in Homs said.
Posted by: Fred || 01/25/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under:


Terror Networks
ISIL claims killed Japanese hostage: Video
[Iran Press TV] A video has been posted on You Tube showing Japanese freelance journalist Kenji Goto holding the photo of a dead body allegedly belonging to Haruna Yukawa, the second Japanese captive who was held by the ISIL Takfiri
...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who must be killed...
terrorists.

In the footage which was later removed from You Tube, Goto says that ISIL wants him swapped for a female member of the terror group who is thought to be behind an attack on a hotel in Jordan in 2005.

The ISIL had given Japan's government a 72-hour deadline to pay off a 200-million dollar ransom for releasing the captives.

The deadline ended on Friday. After the deadline expired, the bully boyz posted an online warning, saying the "countdown has begun" for the group to kill the two Japanese hostages.
Posted by: Fred || 01/25/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  See also RELATED JAPAN TIMES > PURPORTED ISLAMIC STATE VIDEO SHOWING HOSTAGE GOTO CLAIMS YUKAWA HAS BEEN EXECITED.

* MANILA TIMES > HOSTAGE BEHEADING ["outrageous" +] "UNFORGIVABLE" - ABE.

The ISIS/ISIL may be trying to catch or entrap Abe = Japan in a "Catch 22" - any hardline response by Japan agz the IS andor Japanese Muslims may only invite stronger retaliatory measures by the IS, e.g. justification to launch Jihad agz Japan???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/25/2015 22:13 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
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Two weeks of WOT
Sun 2015-01-25
  U.S.: Coalition Air Raids Back up Kurdish Advance in Iraq
Sat 2015-01-24
  Iranian General Killed By Unlimited Minutes Cell Plan and Israeli Missiles
Fri 2015-01-23
  Yemen prez, govt quit
Thu 2015-01-22
  King Abdullah Tango Uniform
Wed 2015-01-21
  Shiite rebels shell Yemen president’s home, take over palace
Tue 2015-01-20
  45 Churches Torched in Niger Capital in Cartoon Demos
Mon 2015-01-19
  Heavy clashes in Sanaa, president reportedly flees
Sun 2015-01-18
  Gunmen Seize Yemen President's Chief of Staff
Sat 2015-01-17
  SSP militant hanged for sectarian killing
Fri 2015-01-16
  US drone strike kills seven in South Waziristan
Thu 2015-01-15
  Burqa banned in China's Xinjiang
Wed 2015-01-14
  Convict in US consulate attack case hanged
Tue 2015-01-13
  Police gun down six would-be bombers in Xinjiang
Mon 2015-01-12
  Drone strike kills 8 insurgents in Nangarhar
Sun 2015-01-11
  Nigeria massacre deadliest in history of Boko Haram: Amnesty


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