This is why Afghans can't have nice things.
The anti-government armed militants have killed at least seven of a family in southern Kandahar province of Afghanistan, local officials said.
The incident took place late on Friday night in Shahwali Kot district after the gunmen stormed a residential house.
Provincial governor’s spokesman Samim Khpolwak confirmed that seven of a family including three women were killed in the attack.
Khpolwak further added that the incident took place in Kariz area of Shahwali Kot area and a gunman was also killed after the family responded to the attack.
He said the identity of the assailant yet to be confirmed and there are no reports regarding the main motive behind the incident.
No group including the Taliban militants has so far claimed responsibility behind the incident as earlier reports suggested that the Taliban insurgents were involved in the attack.
Kandahar is among the relatively volatile provinces in southern Afghanistan where anti-government armed militant groups are actively operating in a number of its districts.
The security situation had considerably improved in this province during the recent months despite Kandahar is known as teh birth place of the Taliban group.
An explosion rocked Jalalabad city, the provincial capital of eastern Nangarhar province of Afghanistan earlier today.
The blast took place after a suicide bomber detonated his explosives in the 3rd police district of the city.
Officials in the provincial hospital have said at least two dead bodies and eight others who sustained injuries were taken to the hospital.
A security official confirmed that the suicide bomber targeted a provincial influential figure Haji Hayat who has been leading campaign against the loyalists of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group in Nangarhar.
The official further added that two people were killed and ten others were wounded in the attack.
Jalalabad suicide bomber escaped several gunshots before blast Video at the link
A video of the suicide attack in Jalalabad city, the provincial capital of eastern Nangarhar province has emerged online which purportedly shows the suicide bomber escaping several gunshots before detonating his explosives.
The video which has reportedly been released by the security institutions after it was captured in CCTV camera, shows a man standing in a roundabout type area as he waits for his target to arrive.
The man is seen escaping several shots fired at him by a member of the security forces apparently the guard of the influential provincial tribal elder before he detonates his explosives.
The man run towards the front of the armored vehicle as the security guard opens fire on him but he escapes the gunshots and detonates the explosives near the vehicle.
At least two people were reported killed and 10 others were wounded in the attack.
A security official confirmed that the suicide bomber targeted a provincial influential figure Haji Hayat who has been leading campaign against the loyalists of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group in Nangarhar.
The official further added that two people were killed and ten others were wounded in the attack.
The anti-government armed militant groups including the Taliban militants and loyalists of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group actively operating in Nangarhar have not commented regarding the incident so far.
Over 200 loyalists of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group were killed during the operations launched nearly a week ago, local officials said.
The officials further added that the operations were jointly conducted by the Afghan security forces as well as the US forces who were carrying out drone strikes against the terror group.
According to the officials, the majority of the militants were killed in drone strikes in the restive Kot district.
The ISIS loyalists launched a major attack on police check posts in Kot district last month which left several people dead including the local residents and security personnel.
The officials in Nangarhar are saying that the fighting in the area forced around 500 families to flee the area as nearly 100 houses were set on fire by the loyalists of the terror group.
The provincial governor said Sunday that 131 ISIS loyalists were killed during the first two days of the clashes along with 12 security personnel.
The latest major attack by ISIS loyalists in Kot district comes as the terror group received major blows during the recent months as a result of the Afghan and US forces routine operations.
The US forces stepped up airstrikes against the ISIS loyalists earlier this year after they were granted more authorities by President Barack Obama.
The increased raids against ISIS loyalists followed amid concerns that they are attempting to expand foothold in the country besides attempting to consolidate operations with the terror group in Iraq and Syria.
Posted by: badanov ||
07/03/2016 00:00 ||
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Al Shabaab fighters have retaken full control of two strategic towns in Bakol province , a day after Somali and AU troops surprise withdrawal, according to local official confirmation.
As night follows day...
Speaking in an interview with Radio Shabelle, Rabdhure administrator Mohamed Kheyre Salad said he is upset and shocked the pulling out of the allied forces from the towns after two years.
Upset, sure, but you can't be 'shocked' because you knew it would happen...
The coalition forces retreated from Rabdhure and Burdhuhule on Friday, giving Al Shabaab an access to move back in the towns without a resistance or a fight from SNA and Ethiopian troops. Al Shabaab secured the towns after they have been vacated by the allied troops, seizing the police stations an the administrative offices, hoisting their flag on the main entrance and exit routes.
Almost as if this is a plan. AMISOM pulls out, Shaboobs come in, AMISOM comes back, etc. Nice racket for both sides to make money from their respective donors...
Somali federal government forces backed by AU troops have withdrawn from several key towns in southern Somalia in the past, and the move allowed Al shabaab to make an easy comeback.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/03/2016 00:00 ||
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[Libya Herald] The Derna Mujahideen Shoura Council says that it killed three men it accuses of being agents provocateurs sent by the Libyan National Army to stir up dissension in the town.
It has claimed that the three – named as Anwar Al-Mansouri, Osama Al-Awkali and Akram Elawami and alleged to previously have been internal security officers – had been detected trying to enter the town on Friday night at its western checkpoint. They were then shot in an exchange of fire as they tried to excape.
However, other reports say they were captured and summarily executed. A photo of two of the bodies from the Shoura Council indicates they were shot in the head as well as in the back.
There has been no comment from the LNA. However, the chief of staff of the Libyan armed forces, Major-General Abdul Razzak Nazhuri, appointed military governor of all northern Cyrenaica by HoD president Ageela Saleh, has ordered the road from Derna to Ras Kirisah, 20 kilometres to the west, to be closed and close the coastal road tuber-consecrated from 8 pm to 10am.
Derna’s mujahideen are part of what can be described as Libya’s third force – the Islamist alliance which draws it together the Benghazi Revolutionaries Shoura Council, Benghazi Defence Brigades and Sadek Al-Ghariani but excludes the so-called Islamic State. Its prime enemy is the LNA and Khalifa Hafter but is also firmly opposed to the Presidency Council and the Government of National Accord in Tripoli.
An explosion damaged the Quds Mosque at the beginning of Tripoli’s Airport Road shortly after fajr (dawn) prayers this morning. Suggestions that it was a terror attack have, however, been denied by local residents who say that a private generator exploded.
Generators are once more working overtime as temperatures rise and the power cuts lengthen. It is around 40˚C again in Tripoli today and outages are back at around ten hours.
Libyan forces fighting to free the city of Sirte from ISIS forces have surrounded a conference hall in the area still held by militants after air strikes and clashes that killed at least three pro-government fighters, senior officials said.
Forces allied with Libya’s unity government began a campaign two months ago to free Sirte from ISIS, after militants took advantage of fighting between rival factions to gain territory and control the coastal city last year.
Three fighters were killed and more than 30 injured during fighting on Friday after ISIS militants were driven out of the residential 700 district in fierce clashes involving rockets, mortars and gun battles, a senior commander and hospital officials said.
Commanders of the forces, who are mainly from the nearby port city of Misrata, say remaining ISIS fighters are in an area around Sirte’s Ouagadougou conference complex and a nearby hospital. But snipers and landmines have slowed progress.
“Residential area 700 has been liberated and as of 6 p.m. the Ouagadougou center and the hospital are surrounded,” Mohamed Gnaidy, intelligence chief for Misrata forces told Reuters. “Our forces carried out air strikes on Ouagadougou.”
He said Misrata forces had also hit a house where several ISIS commanders were hiding, but it was unclear how many casualties they suffered or how long it would take to clear out remaining militants in Sirte.
Posted by: badanov ||
07/03/2016 00:00 ||
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The president of Emory University said on Saturday two students were killed in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where an attack on a cafe and 12-hour siege left 20 hostages and two police officers dead.
An Indian government minister said an Indian citizen who was studying at the University of California at Berkeley was also killed. Italian and Japanese officials said nine and seven citizens respectively were killed. The nationality of at least one victim remained unknown.
Thirteen people were rescued after Bangladeshi police commandos stormed the Holey Artisan Bakery in the diplomatic area of the city. The two officers who died were killed during the violent standoff with police, whom militants met with gunfire and grenades. Six militants were killed.
The Emory students were identified as Abinta Kabir, from Miami, and Faraaz Hossain, from Dhaka. Both attended Oxford College at the private research university in Atlanta. India’s minister of external affairs, Sushma Swaraj, named the Indian citizen who died as Tarushi Jain, 19.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/03/2016 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] A group of hostage-takers murdered 20 foreigners, hacking many of their victims to death, before six attackers were bumped off by Bangladesh commandos at the end of an overnight siege Saturday at an upmarket restaurant.
"The gunnies were doing a background check on religion by asking everyone to recite from the Koran. Those who could recite a verse or two were spared. The others were tortured."
As 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.... (IS) group grabbed credit for the carnage at the start of the Eid holiday, Prime Minister the loathesome Sheikh Hasina
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife ||
07/03/2016 00:00 ||
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[AlAhram] The death of a Jordanian child brought the toll from this week's Istanbul airport attack to 45, media reported Saturday, as a scare sparked fresh jitters in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... 's biggest city..
Dogan news agency reported that four-year-old Jordanian national Rayyan Mohammed, one of more than 200 people injured in the attacks, had died in hospital.
The Istanbul governor's office said 52 people were still in hospital, including 20 in intensive care.
The child's death came as a man sparked chaos by shouting "Suicide bomber!" in a crowded Istanbul market on Saturday, with the city still reeling from the attacks.
One woman was lightly injured in the panic in Umraniye, a working-class neighbourhood on Istanbul's Asian side. Police were called to the scene.
Turkish media have identified a Chechen, Akhmed Chatayev, as the criminal mastermind of the attacks, describing him as the head of an IS cell in Istanbul.
He is accused of planning two bombings in the city earlier this year in the Sultanahmet tourist district and the Istiklal shopping street, both of which killed foreigners.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
07/03/2016 00:00 ||
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One of the perpetrators of the Feb. 17 car bomb attack in Ankara was killed in an operation in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır on June 30, security sources have said.
Mehmet Şirin Kocakaya, codenamed Şirin,
Um, great codename, Sirin, or is that "Sirin"?
was killed during a joint operation by soldiers and police officers in the Lice district and its environs.
The bomber was identified as Abdulbaki Sömer, who entered Turkey with a fake Syrian identity showing his name as “Salih Muhammed Neccar” in 2014, telling authorities that he had escaped Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) violence in Syria.
It has been also revealed that Sömer met Kocakaya after he arrived in Diyarbakır with a rented vehicle before the attack.
A total of 29 people were killed and dozens were wounded in the car bomb attack staged during the passing of a shuttle carrying military personnel on Feb. 17.
A splinter group from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was in retaliation for the situation in the southeastern district of Cizre and the policies of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Turkish officials claimed that the perpetrator was a Syrian national from the Peoples’ Protection Units (YPG), which Ankara considers to be the Syrian offshoot of the PKK.
A total of 15 people were also arrested in connection with the attack.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/03/2016 00:00 ||
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QUETTA: Unidentified armed assailants shot dead three security officials in two separate incidents of violence in Balochistan's Mastung district on Saturday evening.
Two Levies personnel were killed when attackers opened fire at them in in Al Falah Road area of Mastung city. Levies Risaldar identified as Murtaza Lehri died on the spot while his colleague succumbed to injuries on his way to hospital.
In another incident, armed men opened fire and killed Head Constable Ashfaq Qazi in Killi Sheikhan area of Mastung.
The assailants escaped unhurt from the spot in both the incidents, while the dead bodies were shifted to Civil Hospital Mastung for postmortem.
Police described the killings in Mastung as acts of targeted killings.
Moreover, members of Balochistan National Party (Mengal) strongly condemned the incident and termed them as conspiracy to deteriorate the law and order situation in the area.
BNP leader Malik Naveed Dehwar said government has failed to protect masses. He demanded an immediate arrest of the culprits involved in the recent acts of targeted killings.
Nearly 120 people were killed and 200 wounded in two bombings overnight in Baghdad, most of them in a busy shopping area as residents celebrated Ramadan, police and medical sources said on Sunday.
The attack on the shopping area of Karrada is the deadliest since U.S.-backed Iraqi forces last month scored a major victory when it dislodged Islamic State from their stronghold of Falluja, an hour's drive west of the capital. It is also the deadliest so far this year.
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi had ordered the offensive after a series of deadly bombings in Baghdad, saying Falluja served as a launchpad for such attacks on the capital. However, bombings have continued. A convoy carrying Abadi who had come to tour the site of the bombings was pelted with stones and bottles by residents, angry at what they felt were false promises of better security.
A refrigerator truck packed with explosives blew up in the central district of Karrada, killing 115 people and injuring at least 200. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement circulated online by supporters of the ultra-hard line Sunni group. It said the blast was a suicide bombing. Karrada was busy at the time as Iraqis eat out and shop late during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which ends next week with the Eid al-Fitr festival.
Video posted on social media showed a large blaze in the main street of Karrada, a largely Shi'ite district with a small Christian community and a few Sunni mosques. Reuters TV footage taken in the morning showed at least four buildings severely damaged or partly collapsed, including a shopping mall believed to be the target, and gutted cars scattered all around.
The toll climbed during the day as rescuers pulled out more bodies from under the rubble and people succumbed from their injuries.
Comments posted on social media accused security forces of continuing to use fake bomb detectors at checkpoints filtering traffic in Baghdad, five years after the scandal broke out about a device commonly known as the 'magic wand'.
A police officer in Baghdad confirmed these hand-held ADE 651 detectors were still in use. They were sold to Iraq and other nations by a British businessman who was jailed for 10 years in 2013 in the United Kingdom for endangering lives for profit.
AL SHAAB ATTACK
In a second attack, a roadside explosive device also blew up around midnight in a market in al-Shaab, a Shi'ite district in the north of the capital, killing at least two people, police and medical sources said.
Iraqi forces on June 26 declared the defeat of IS militants in Falluja, a historic bastion of Sunni insurgency, following a month of fighting.
Now the militants were "trying to compensate for their humiliating defeat in Falluja," said Jasim al-Bahadli, a former army officer and security analyst in Baghdad.
"It was a mistake for the government to think that the source of the bombings was restricted to just one area," he said. "There are sleeper cells that operate independently from each other."
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/03/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
"Jay-Vee team"
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/03/2016 12:27 Comments ||
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#2
Sunni and Shia can't live together, but "Infidels" and Muslims are supposed to?
Posted by: lord garth ||
07/03/2016 8:35 Comments ||
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#4
The 'Highway of Death' Part Deux. Oh, the humanity of it all, just piling on! - /sarc
[for those with short memory, that's what the MSM* screamed about in the first Iraq War as Saddam's troops evacuated Kuwait City. *The parents of today's snowflakes.]
(IraqiNews.com) Baghdad – A source from the Ministry of Interior revealed on Saturday that an employee of the Ministry of Migration and Displacement was gunned down by unidentified gunmen in eastern Baghdad.
According to information shared by the source, it was stated, “This evening, unidentified gunmen, driving a vehicle, opened fire at an employee of the Ministry of Migration and Displacement. The incident took place at al-Canal Street in eastern Baghdad and the employee, who was in his private vehicle when shot at, died on the spot.”
The source added, “Security forces rushed to the area and transferred the body to the forensic department and instituted an investigation for determining the circumstances leading to the incident.”
Posted by: badanov ||
07/03/2016 00:00 ||
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(IraqiNews.com) Basra – Iraqi Ministry of Interior on Saturday announced arresting an ISIS member during an operation carried out by police at Basra.
The spokesman for the ministry, Brigadier General Saad Moen, in a brief statement issued to the media and also obtained by Iraqi News said,“Basra Police Chief Major General Abdel Krim Mostafa announced arresting one ISIS member in Basra.”
Noteworthy, Basra Province had witnessed a security problems since November 2015.
(IraqiNews.com) Diyala – A security source in Diyala informed on Saturday that the security forces arrested four wanted individuals during raids and field operations at Baqubah and Maqdadiyah.
According to information shared by the source, “Joint security forces from the army and police detained four wanted individuals, including one on charges of terrorism, during raids and field operations at Baqubah and al-Maqdadiyah (35 km northeast of Baqubah),” adding, “The detainees were later taken to one of the security centers for further investigations.”
Posted by: badanov ||
07/03/2016 00:00 ||
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(IraqiNews.com) Anbar – Khalidiya District Council in Anbar announced on Saturday liberating 3 km of Khalidiya island in eastern Ramadi from ISIS control; further informing about the death of 14 ISIS members who were killed by the forces during the operations.
The Head of Khalidiya District Council Ali Dawoud in a statement issued to the media said, “The security forces managed, at noon today, to liberate 3 km of Khalidiya island from ISIS control. The battles resulted in the killing of 14 ISIS members and the destruction of four booby-trapped vehicles, three mortar detachments and a rocket launcher.”
Dawoud added, “The security forces are advancing in the liberation battles of Khalidiya island from three sides- Kartan, al-Fahama and Albu Obeid. They are backed by the international coalition aviation and ground military troops.”
(IraqiNews.com) al-Anbar – The commander of Anbar Operations, Maj. Gen. Ismail al-Mahalawi, announced on Saturday that senior ISIS leader Abu Safha al-Liybi was killed during a military operation east of Ramadi.
Mahalawi, in a statement to the media, said, “Army’s Tenth Division, in collaboration with the international coalition aviation and the Air Force, gunned down ten (10) ISIS fighters including a senior leader-Abu Safha al-Liybi- at Khalediya island some 23 km east of Ramadi.”
Adding further he said, “Al-Liybi was killed during the ongoing military operation launched to liberate the Island. The security forces are advancing into the different quarters and villages of the island.”
(IraqiNews.com) al-Anbar – A security source in Anbar informed on Saturday that an Iraqi high-ranking officer was killed by an ISIS sniper east of Ramadi.
According to information shared by the source, “The commander of the 41st brigade of the Army’s Tenth Division was killed this afternoon by an ISIS sniper in Khalediya island (23 km east of Ramadi),” adding, “The officer was killed after the security forces advanced into Khalediya island, east of Ramadi, with an aim to liberate it.”
(IraqiNews.com) Anbar – The Federal Police Command announced on Saturday dismantling a large laboratory for booby-trapped vehicles and manufacturing of explosives in central Fallujah. The laboratory contained tons of explosives, it added.
The Federal Police Chief Lieutenant General Raed Shaker Jawdat said, “Today the security forces discovered a large laboratory for booby-trapped vehicles and explosives’ manufacturing at Nezal in central Fallujah during the search operations carried out in the liberated areas.”
“The booby-trapping laboratory that was found in Nezal was completely dismantled, while tons of explosives and detonators were found inside it,” Jawdat added.
Posted by: badanov ||
07/03/2016 00:00 ||
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(IraqiNews.com) Salahuddin – Salahuddin Police Command announced on Saturday foiling an ISIS suicide attack using a booby-trapped vehicle in northern Tikrit apart from seizing heavy weapons and equipment belonging to ISIS.
The commander of emergency police regiments Brigadier General Khalil al-Raml said, “Today the 3rd regiment of the emergency police conducted raid and search operations in the vicinity of Makhul in northern Tikrit after liberating it and seized a cannon called ‘Hell Cannon’ of ISIS, as well as destroying two booby-trapping laboratories and another one for explosives manufacturing.”
Raml added, “The operation also resulted in seizing 25 shells, 13 local-made rockets and 17 mortar shells launchers,” adding, “The security forces also foiled a suicide attack launched by ISIS using a booby-trapped vehicle that targeted our troops in the vicinity of Makhul in northern Tikrit.”
(IraqiNews.com) Salahuddin – The governor of Slahuddin Ahmed Jabouri announced on Saturday that the security forces are only 10 kilometers away from the center of al-Sharqat in north of Salahuddin.
Jabouri, in a press statement said, “The Iraqi military troops are advancing against ISIS in the military operations and there are excellent plans to dig trenches to hold the ground,” adding, “The security forces have now considerable experience in combating ISIS in the cities. They are stationed] around 10 km from the center of Sharqat.”
Posted by: badanov ||
07/03/2016 00:00 ||
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(IraqiNews.com) Dohuk – Local witnesses said on Saturday that Turkish warplanes attacked sites of PKK militants north of Dohuk.
Saman Ali, one of the witnesses, told reporters, “Yesterday, Turkish warplanes attacked sites for the PKK militants at the borders of al-Emadiya in the Dohuk,” adding, “The attack lasted for more than an hour.”
Ali added, “The bombardment targeted Sayan, Shak-fati and Rakin. Smoke rose from the bombed areas.”
Posted by: badanov ||
07/03/2016 00:00 ||
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(IraqiNews.com) Nineveh – The US Department of Defense (Pentagon) informed on Saturday that two top-ranked ISIS leaders were killed during an aerial bombing in Mosul by the international coalition aviation.
Peter Cook, the US Department of Defense spokesman, in a statement issued to the media said, “The international coalition aviation carried out air strikes on June 25 near Mosul. The air strikes targeted ISIS Deputy Minister of War Bassem Mohamed Ahmed Sultan al-Bajari and the military leader in Mosul Hatem Taleb al-Hamdouni. Both leaders were killed on the spot.
Adding further Cook said, “Bajari was a former al-Qaeda leader and supervised the attack that was launched to control Mosul in June 2014. On the other hand, al-Hamadouni was a military leader in Mosul and the military police chief of the area,” further adding, “Mosul has become ISIS bastion in Iraq.”
Posted by: badanov ||
07/03/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
"To fight Islamist Extremists, all you need is love...and airstrikes. But mostly airstrikes"
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/03/2016 11:34 Comments ||
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[Bangkok Post] Two militants were killed and two soldiers injured in an exchange of gunfire at a house in Narathiwat province on Saturday morning. A combined security team surrounded the house in Rueso district after an investigation revealed that it was a suspected hideout of key members of the Runda Kumpulan Kecil (RKK) separatist group.
Islamic religious leaders were called in to try to persuade the men inside the house to and surrender. However, the three or four men refused and opened fire instead.The officers returned fire. The exchange of gunfire lasted for more than five minutes before the men jumped from a window and back door to escape.
The officers fired at the men as they fled. Two were gunned down while the others managed to escape. Two soldiers were also injured. The dead suspects were later identified as Abdul-arsae Shika and another man believed to be Arlee Sulong. The bodies of the two men were sent to the hospital for examination before being handed over to their relatives for religious rites.
In another incident on Saturday, two soldiers were slightly injured when a roadside bomb was detonated in Yi-ngo district. The bomb went off as two patrol vehicles carrying 15 soldiers were passing through Kadeng village. Two soldiers in the second vehicle recieved minor injuries.
[AnNahar] A mob wielding weapons razed a mosque in northern Myanmar, state media reported Saturday, the second attack of its kind in just over a week as anti-Muslim sentiment swells in the Buddhist majority nation.
Myanmar has struggled to contain bouts of deadly religious bloodshed in recent years, with bristling sectarian tensions and rising Buddhist nationalism posing a steep challenge to the new government led by Aung San Suu Kyi.
On Friday villagers in Hpakant, a jade-mining town in northern Kachin state, ransacked a mosque "wielding sticks, knives and other weapons" before burning it down, according to the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar.
"The mob was unresponsive and entirely beyond control. The building was razed by the riotous crowd," the paper reported, adding that the rampage was sparked by a dispute over the mosque's construction.
No arrests have been made, it said.
A local NGO worker who visited the town Saturday told Agence La Belle France Presse security forces had been deployed to maintain order.
"Police are now controlling the area and it is stable," said Dashi Naw Lawn, from the Kachin Network Development Foundation.
The riot came eight days after a Buddhist mob destroyed a mosque in central Bago, forcing the Muslim community to seek refuge in a neighboring town.
Tensions are also rising in western Rakhine, a state scarred by deadly riots in 2012 that have left communities almost completely divided along religious lines.
The region is home to the stateless Rohingya, a Muslim minority largely relegated to destitute displacement camps and subject to host of restrictions on their movements and access to basic services.
Suu Kyi, a veteran democracy activist who championed her country's struggle against repressive military rulers, has drawn criticism from rights groups for not taking swifter moves to carve out a solution for the ethnic minority.
Her government recently ordered officials to refer to the group as "people who believe in Islam in Rakhine State" instead of Rohingya -- a term whose use has set off protests by hardliners who insist the group are illegal immigrants colonists from Bangladesh.
Yet the government's broad phrase has failed to placate local Rakhine Buddhists, who demand the group be referred to only as "Bengalis" and say they are preparing to rally in protest at the order on Sunday.
After a 12-day visit across the country, including troubled Rakhine, a UN rights investigator warned Friday that "tensions along religious lines remain pervasive across Myanmar society".
Yanghee Lee urged the country's new civilian government to make "ending institutionalized discrimination against the Muslim communities in Rakhine State...an urgent priority".
The mosque administration had failed to meet a Thursday deadline to raze the building to make way for a bridge. Ma Ba Tha, a Buddhist nationalist group, says the mosque was built without permission from the government, but Thein Aung, chairman of the mosque's caretaker group, claims the structure was built more than 20 years ago.
These two things are not mutually exclusive, especially given the following:
Myanmar's government won't grant citizenship to the country's Rohingya muslims. About 1.1 million people are illegal immigrants colonists from neighboring Bangladesh and about 140,000 people -- mostly Rohingyas -- have been living in camps in Rakhine during a clash between the majority Buddhists and Rohingyas in 2012.
All this time I thought Rohingya was the name of a tribe of some sort, but really all it means is wetback.
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/03/2016 11:34 Comments ||
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#4
I was wrong. According to this little history from Wikipedia, it shouldn't be wetback, but murderous invading wetbacks who just came to work in the rice paddies,
[IsraelTimes] Jihadist commander for attack-stricken Qaa region near Syria border died in rocket attack, group
The Lebanese terror group Hezbollah says it has killed 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.... military commander for the Qaa
...a "Greek Catholic" Lebanese village on the border with Syria...
border area in Leb, where a series of suicide kabooms and other attacks killed five people earlier this week.
Hezbollah’s media outlet Al-Manar said the group, which shares security responsibilities with the Lebanese army in areas along the eastern border with Syria, killed a commander known as Abu Khatab in a rocket attack. The army did not release any comment.
Hezbollah, which also participates in Leb’s government, has blamed the Qaa attacks on IS.
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.
[Bangkok Post] Two militants were killed and two soldiers injured in an exchange of gunfire at a house in Narathiwat province on Saturday morning. A combined security team surrounded the house in Rueso district after an investigation revealed that it was a suspected hideout of key members of the Runda Kumpulan Kecil (RKK) separatist group. 
