#6
Sigh.. palm tree in background shot..... I look out and see 1.5 feet more of white crap to shovel... girl is one thing but green is so much nicer...
#13
What CF said; I actually had to scrape frost off Mrs' Ret's car so she could run into town. Sister in SW Michigan (Kalamazoo) has 9 fresh inches of snow and 8-12 more on the way. and lots of cold along with.
#14
In the majority of the USA, the temperature outside your home is colder than the interior of your refrigerator and likely is colder than the temperature of your freezer!
So if you come in from the outside, and wish to "warm up" gradually, pick a compartment...
[GOOGLE] A bomb went kaboom! in central Kabul on Saturday evening in a district housing several embassies and NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... 's military headquarters, but no casualties were immediately reported, officials said.
The apparent myrmidon strike was the second of the day in Afghanistan after a NATO soldier was killed when six Taliban suicide kaboomers tried to storm a joint Afghan-NATO base in the eastern province of Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. .
"There was an improvised bomb in the vicinity of Camp Eggers in Kabul," a spokeswoman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force told AFP. "Initial reporting does not indicate any ISAF casualties."
Camp Eggers is an ISAF base close to the US embassy and the Afghan presidential palace.
Afghan police and ISAF troops cordoned off the scene as the US embassy sounded its alarm sirens.
Afghan officials said they had no details of casualties after the blast.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
[Pak Daily Times] JALALABAD: Six Taliban suicide kaboomers launched an assault on a joint Afghan-NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... base in the east of Afghanistan on Saturday, killing one NATO soldier during a prolonged firefight, officials said.
One attacker in an explosives-packed vehicle went kaboom! at the entrance of the base in Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. province, and five other Death Eaters were shot as they tried to storm the facility.
NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) confirmed one fatality in a suicide attack in the east of the country, without giving further details.
Afghan and Western officials said the attack took place in Shinwar district, a volatile area on the main highway from Kabul to neighbouring Pakistain, where many Taliban Death Eaters seek shelter.
"Around 8:00 am, a jacket wallahlet 'er rip and the other five were bumped off by Afghan cops. Their bodies lie at the scene," Ahmad Zia Abdulzai, front man for the Nangarhar governor, told AFP.
In an emailed statement to the media, Taliban front man Zabihullah Mujahid grabbed credit for the attack.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan
[An Nahar] One person was maimed Saturday when an improvised bomb went kaboom! in the Kenyan capital, police said, in a shop in Nairobi's mainly ethnic Somali district Eastleigh.
The attack is the latest of a series of bomb or grenade blasts in Kenya.
"One person has been maimed... a person of Somali origin left luggage containing an improvised bomb in a shop," Nairobi police chief Benson Kibue said. "We are appealing to residents to help us get him."
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.
However, women are made to be loved, not understood... since Kenyan troops invaded southern Somalia in October 2011 to help oust the neighboring country's al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab turbans, it has been hit by a series of attacks.
Homegrown groups including the Islamist Al-Hijra group, a radical organization formerly known as the Mohammedan Youth Center, operate in Kenya and have been linked to the Shabaab.
Grenades have been hurled into restaurants in crowded areas in Nairobi as well as on the popular tourist Indian Ocean coast, and there has been a string of attacks in the remote northeast region bordering Somalia.
Ten people were maimed Thursday when attackers hurled a grenade into a restaurant in a popular coastal tourist resort town of Diani.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: al-Shabaab
[Shabelle] Residents of Bardere town, the second largest town in gedo region which is merely controlled by Alshababa Death Eaters have informed us that a vehicle transporting Khat (Mira) has been seized by the krazed killer groups.
The vehicle is said to have been seized ten days ago inside the town
An eye witness who withheld his name for security reasons confirmed to us that the krazed killer's completely destroyed the vehicle at a public gathering last night.
A Few days ago, Alshabab troops burned a large amount of Tobacco which is a famous cash crop grown in the town and nearby towns in Gedo region.
However, a good lie finds more believers than a bad truth... these 2 incidents come at a time when Alshabab fighters still control few divisions and 1 district in the entire region as Somali Government forces battle to liberate the remaining parts manned by the krazed killers.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: al-Shabaab
[Al Ahram] A blast caused by an bomb in North Sinai's Sheikh Zweid Road killed a military officer Saturday afternoon.
The restive and underdeveloped Sinai has seen an upswing in myrmidon violence since the ouster of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi ...the former president of Egypt. A proponent of the One Man, One Vote, One Time principle, Morsi won election after the deposal of Hosni Mubarak and jumped to the conclusion it was his turn to be dictator... , with regular attacks killing dozens of security personnel.
Egypt has poured troops and armour into the region while waging a sustained crackdown on Islamists -- principally Morsi's Moslem Brüderbund -- elsewhere.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
[Egypt Independent] A security source said that a military personnel was killed in an armored vehicle blast south of Arish on Saturday. Two others were maimed.
The source added that the bomb planted by an unknown assailant, injurying three personnel while one of them then died.
They were transferred to Arish Military Hospital for treatment.
Three suspects were jugged Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! and transferred to authorities in question for investigations.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
[Yemen Post] Despite reassurances from state officials that the impoverished nation has made great strides toward a finding a consensual solution to its over-lapping crises, instability continues to spread as wildfire throughout.
After reports over the past weeks of violence, dissidence and bloodshed in the provinces of Hadhramawt, restive Lahj ... a Yemeni governate located in the southwestern corner of the Arabian Peninsula. It is the stomping grounds on the southern secessionist al-Harak movement , al-Dhali and Aden, officials confirmed on Friday that festivities have reached the oil rich province of Marib.
Instable since 2011 uprising as tribes loyal to the former regime opposed state reforms and change as to protect their immediate interests, both political and financial, Marib rustics have grown ever bolder in their targeting of state infrastructures, always running sabotage operations against power lines and oil facilities to exert pressure onto President Abdo Rabbo Hadi.
On Friday rustics came to clash with the military when they attempted engineers to repair a segment of Marib pipeline. A senior army official and three rustics were killed as a result.
AP quoted a government source as saying that "a military unit and rustics exchanged gunfire as troops headed to secure and repair a damaged pipeline in the city of Marib."
The source went on alleging that the rustics were in allegiance with former President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... , bent on generating mayhem to hinder all political progress and fail the National Dialogue Conference.
These new claims came amid more whispers that Yemen's former strongman would seek to depose President Hadi as to introduce his return to the presidency. It is important to note that such whispers, however many they might be, have been backed up by facts.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
[Bangla Daily Star] At least 25 people were maimed in an hour-long shootout prompted by an attack by BNP men on a Chhatra League ... the student wing of the Bangla Awami League ... gathering in Ishwardi upazila yesterday.
The attackers also vandalised 50 business establishments, including five banks and three ATM booths in Station Bazar area, and a train in Ishwardi rail station.
Of the injured, 17 have been admitted to Ishwardi upazila health complex.
Fairuz Parvin, emergency medical officer of the health complex, said the maimed were mostly bullet hit and that the condition of five of them was critical.
Upazila Gay Pareehad Chairman Nuruzzaman Biswas claimed that all the injured belonged to Chhatra League, pro-Awami League student body, and Jubo League ... the youth wing of the Bangla Awami League... , youth wing of the AL.
According to witnesses, the upazila unit Chhatra League brought out a procession in the afternoon marking its 66th founding anniversary. As soon as the procession reached the upazila AL office, BNP men swooped on it.
Officer-in-Charge Biman Kumar Das of Ishwardi Police Station said the clash had begun after a crude bomb was blasted near the AL office.
Witnesses said the attackers had hurled several crude bombs at Chhatra League and Jubo League activists prompting the latter to retaliate with brick chips. Both the sides also exchanged bullets.
Police reached the scene within 10 to 15 minutes. They used rubber bullets to bring the situation under control.
At around 2:00pm, BNP supporters attacked Khulna-bound intercity train Mahananda Express at the rail station. They broke most of its glass-windows and halted rail communication from Ishwardi for an hour.
After that they swooped on the nearby market and vandalised 50 business establishments.
Police jugged Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! nine BNP activists in connection with the clash and vandalism as of filing this report at 8:30pm.
OC Biman Kumar said joint force was conducting drives to arrest the culprits and that law and normality returned after the deployment of additional police in different places.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
[Egypt Independent] Nearly 60 polling stations in Bangladesh were set on fire and three people were killed on the eve of Sunday's election in which the ruling Awami League looks certain to prevail in a walkover as the main opposition party boycotts the poll.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) called a 48-hour strike from Saturday morning and urged voters to stay away from the "farcical" election. Traffic in Dhaka was lighter than normal for a Saturday although some shops were open.
Without the BNP's participation, fewer than half of 300 parliamentary constituencies are being contested.
"I call upon countrymen to fully boycott the disgraceful farce in the name of election of January 5," BNP chief Begum the loathesome Khaleda Zia Three-term PM of Bangla, widow of deceased dictator Ziaur Rahman, head of the Bangla Nationalist Party, an apparent magnet for corruption ... , who has been under what she calls virtual house arrest, said in a statement late on Friday. The government has denied that she is confined or under house arrest.
The BNP is protesting against Prime Minister the loathesome Sheikh Hasina ...Bangla dynastic politician and current Prime Minister of Bangladesh. She has been the President of the Bangla Awami League since the Lower Paleolithic. She is the eldest of five children of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangla. Her party defeated the BNP-led Four-Party Alliance in the 2008 parliamentary elections. She has once before held the office, from 1996 to 2001, when she was defeated in a landslide. She and the head of the BNP, Khaleda Zia show such blind animosity toward each other that they are known as the Battling Begums.. 's scrapping of the practice of having a caretaker government oversee elections and many of its leaders are in jail or in hiding. The impasse undermines the poll's legitimacy and is fuelling worries of economic gridlock and further violence in the impoverished South Asian nation of 160 million.
The office of prime minister has been held by Hasina or Khaleda for all but two of the past 22 years and the rivalry between them is bitter.
The election commission said nearly 60 polling stations had been set ablaze since Friday, while police said three people were killed early on Saturday in festivities in rural Bangladesh as violence flared after several days of relative calm.
At least 10 people were maimed when BNP activists hurled bombs at a railway station and set on fire a train compartment in the northern town of NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... re and two buses in the port city of Chittagong were set on fire, police said.
With more than 100 people killed in the run-up to the election, mainly in rural districts, fears of violence at polling stations were expected to keep many voters away.
The election commission sent a text message to voters saying their security was ensured and urging them to turn out. "Please go to cast your vote without any fear and hassle," it said.
Army troops have been deployed since December 26 to maintain order during the election.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami
[An Nahar] Back-to-back blasts on Saturday killed one and injured 11 others, including a senior politician, in the southwestern Pak province of Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... , which borders Afghanistan and Iran, officials said.
In first attack, an explosives-packed cycle of violence detonated at a taxi stand in the Sibi district of Balochistan, killing one person and injuring nine others.
"Unknown people parked the explosive-laden cycle of violence at a taxi stand in Bakhtiarabad town on (the) main Sibi-Jacobabad national highway," Mohammad Akhtar, a local administration official, told Agence La Belle France Presse.
In the second attack, in the Balochistan bustling provincial capital of Quetta, Abdul Majid Abro, an adviser to the Chief Minister of the province, received minor injuries along with one of his colleagues.
A bomb disposal squad official told AFP that four kilograms of explosives were used in that blast, detonated by remote control.
So far, no one has grabbed credit for the attacks.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
[Al Ahram] Eight Iraqi soldiers were killed Saturday fighting militants in Anbar province, where Al-Qaeda-linked fighters have taken over one city and parts of a second, officials s The soldiers were killed in fighting in the areas of Ramadi and Fallujah, the sources said. aid.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State of Iraq & the Levant
#2
this Vietnam vet that was betrayed by his government and grieves for the friends lost in battle and their families and friends. A lot of us swore that this would never happen again and now it has. Falluja was the great victory of our warriors and now it has fallen without a whimper. I am disgusted and my heart goes out to the families of those that died fighting in Iraq.
[Al Ahram] Many residents have fled the Iraqi city of Fallujah after it was seized by jihadists, while others are preparing to stay through what all fear will be a major battle as security forces push to retake it.
Fallujah's streets are all but empty except for cars navigating alleys in an attempt to escape festivities and shelling on the outskirts.
Among those seeking a way out is Salam al-Kritawi, a 27-year-old taxi driver who has his wife, two young children and bags of clothes with him in his car.
"We will leave Fallujah now, because the battles will begin, and we do not want to be killed in a battle between Al-Qaeda and security forces," says Kritawi, who abandoned his city-centre house.
But Sadeq Tallal Assaf, a 31-year-old municipal worker, has decided to stay put and protect his home, after getting family to safety.
"After mortar shells fell on Fallujah, ... the City of Mosques, which might have somthing to do with why it's not called Center of Prosperity or a really nice place to raise your kids... and the increase in festivities, I moved my father and my mother and my wife and my three children... to my uncle's house" in Storied Baghdad ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... , Assaf says.
"I will stay at home to protect it from theft, as I am able to handle the harsh circumstances more than they could."
Fallujah was the target of two major assaults after the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, in which American forces saw some of their heaviest fighting since the Vietnam War.
And it now seems set to be the site of yet another battle.
Parts of Fallujah and Ramadi, both west of Storied Baghdad, have been held by bully boyz for days, harkening back to the years after the 2003 US-led invasion when both cities were bad boy strongholds.
Fighting erupted in the Ramadi area Monday, when security forces removed the main anti-government protest camp set up after demonstrations broke out in late 2012 against what Sunni Arabs say is the marginalisation and targeting of their community.
It then spread to Fallujah, and the subsequent withdrawal of security forces from areas of both cities cleared the way for bully boyz from the Al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group to move in.
A security bigshot in Anbar said Saturday that Fallujah was out of government control, with ISIL bully boyz holding the city.
Five days after the killing began, garbage is piled up in some streets, while others are littered with bullet casings from the fighting.
Most shops are closed, but bakeries remain open, and dozens of people stand in line to buy food.
All electricity in the city is cut, and there is no fuel to operate the generators that normally plug gaps in government-provided power.
"I will escape with my wife and children, as I am afraid they will die, because security forces are no longer able to distinguish between gunnies, Al-Qaeda and civilians," says Ahmed Mutlak, 52, who owns a shop in central Fallujah.
He asks the government "to issue a statement demanding the evacuation of Fallujah residents, and to ease the departure of the families" to protect them "from the battles expected to erupt at any time."
Abu Mohammed, a secondary school teacher, complained that "families left their houses... without having any place to go."
"We hope there will not be a big battle."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State of Iraq & the Levant
#1
Nuke it from orbit - it's the only way to be sure.
I'd say "do some research," but that apparently always falls on deaf ears. Anyway:
Saudi? Most likely.
Qatar? No. Even though the Sauds have forced a de facto coup in Qatar, the leadership still is more or less aligned with a Muslim Brotherhood-style of Islamism.
Kuwait? Possible but not likely, for various reasons.
UAE? Depends on which Emirate we're talking about. My take is that there's funding of ISIL/ISIS, but it's being done by private individuals.
You left out Syria. Yes, I know it's not one of your pet-peeve-nations you always mention in your rhetorical questions, but there's evidence that some Islamist factions are operating in various areas under an "understanding" with the Syrian government. Syria has also long threatened to expand its war to its neighbors.
I'd also add Pakistan, Iran, the Balkans, and Russia(?), in order of likelihood.
#6
You left out Syria. Yes, I know it's not one of your pet-peeve-nations you always mention in your rhetorical questions, but there's evidence that some Islamist factions are operating in various areas under an "understanding" with the Syrian government. Syria has also long threatened to expand its war to its neighbors.
As I pointed out earlier, Al Qaeda in Syria _acts_ like they're in league with Assad. They always talk tough about how they're going to finish taking Damascus _real soon now_ but they really only make the news when they're killing off competing groups of reportedly 'moderate' rebels.
#9
The US should have a presence in that arena as we did in Germany and South Korea. It was a stabilizing, powerful, presence. But of course the way this generation of people of the US and the many new immigrant invasion are voting these days, the US will no longer be a power within its own borders in the future.
I considered it. The AKP is more aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood than al Qaeda or Salafists. I don't think they'd back ISIL. They might back al Nusra, possibly ISIS.
There's a couple of other nations in the region that might be backers or contain backers. But it'd either be major conjecture on my part, or controversial.
BEIRUT -- A rejuvenated al-Qaeda-affiliated force asserted control over the western Iraqi city of Fallujah on Friday, raising its flag over government buildings and declaring an Islamic state in one of the most crucial areas that U.S. troops fought to pacify before withdrawing from Iraq two years ago.
The capture of Fallujah came amid an explosion of violence across the western desert province of Anbar in which local tribes, Iraqi security forces and al-Qaeda-affiliated militants have been fighting one another for days in a confusingly chaotic three-way war.
#4
Keep in mind that the Democrats and the media has always wanted the war in Iraq to turn into another 'Vietnam' [war].
From Harry Reid's "The war is lost" to this they have worked tirelessly to create a new 'Vietnam II' to relive their glory days of the 70's.
I think their only regret is there wasn't a huge loss of American lives and planeloads of body bags returning (or not returning) to accompany their accomplishment of turning Bush'es War into a complete failure.
#8
Fear notteth, I say, SecState Jaawhn + OWG "Co-Superpower" Riusing Iran is coming!
* DEMOCRATIC UNDERGOUND > AP NEWS, WAPO = KERRY: US WILL SUPPORT IRAQ, BUT WIDOUT [sending in any US]TROOPS.
That's what Iran + Hezbollah + anti-Assadian domestic, regional opposition groups are for.
OTOH, iff Bammer-promised $$$ + Arms were, how should I politely say, [snail-like]"slow" in reaching the anti-Assad FSA + aligned, WILL THE SAME COME WEIRDLY-N-MYSTERIOUSLY SUDDENLY
"FASTER" NOW THAT FUTURE OWG CO-SUPERPOWER RISING IRAN + ITS PROXY HEZBOLLAH ARE AMERIKA'S NEW BFFS???
Will the US-NATO/Allies be arming Iran in exchange for Iran not dev or deploying NucWeapons, at least for a time???
DITTO NOW AS PER AQ-THREATENED IRAQ? POST-2014 AFGHANISTAN = AFPAK? OTHER???
Lest we fergit, IRAN + its PAN-PERSIAN/IRANIAN UNION will eventually be at odds or in competition agz US NATO ALLY TURKEY + TURKEY'S DESIRED PAN-TURKIC UNION.
* TOPIX > [Tehran Times] IRAN READY TO PROVIDE MILITARY AID TO IRAQ TO DEAL WID TERRORISTS.
* RELATED BIGNEWSNETWORK > IRAN READY TO HELP IRAQ BATTLE AL-QAIDA: IRAN'S MILITARY CHIEFS.
DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF MOHAMMAD HEJAZI SAID ON SUNDAY THAT THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC [of Iran] WAS PREPARED TO PROVIDE MILITARY EQUIPMENT + ADVICE TO IRAQ TO HELP IT BATTLE AL-QAIDA.
Whew, dats a long title.
VERSUS
* TOPIX > [Bloomberg] AL-QAEDA FALLUJAH ATTACK SHOWS GROWING POWER AMID SYRIA WAR.
A police officer was gunned down and a defense volunteer injured in Pattani province yesterday as neighboring Narathiwat province was put on high alert on the 10th anniversary of the outbreak of the southern insurgency.
Pol Snr Sgt Maj Marosae Muna was shot and killed yesterday morning while sitting in a tea shop. Two men on a motorcycle showed up and one walked up to the officer and fired three shots at him. He died at the scene.
Defense volunteer Isma-el Masae, who was sitting nearby, was injured by a stray bullet. The gunman took the officer's pistol and fled.
Meanwhile, officials across in the far south were on full alert for possible unrest on the 10th anniversary of the start of the insurgency yesterday. Security was particularly high in Narathiwat, where a robbery at an army base on Jan 4, 2004, marked the beginning of the insurgency.
[Al Ahram] Syrian rebels in opposition-held areas engaged in fierce battles with Al-Qaeda-linked elements Friday in what activists say is growing resistance to the jihadists' brutal grip in many places.
Elsewhere in northern Syria, an unidentified group seized five people working for Doctors Without Borders (MSF) from a house, the Gay Paree-based humanitarian organization said.
Protesters turned out in rebel areas chanting the strongest slogans yet against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, as tensions soar between the opposition and the Al-Qaeda affiliate.
Ammar, an activist on the ground, described it as "the start of the revolution against ISIL" which operates in Iraq and Syria.
Meanwhile, ...back at the Council of Boskone, Helmuth ordered the entire 614th quadrant searched. The Green Lensman must be found!... a key group within Syria's mainstream opposition National Coalition stressed Friday that it will not attend peace talks scheduled for later this month in Switzerland ...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell... .
"After meetings with many international delegations in recent weeks... the Syrian National Council confirms it sees no reason to attend the Geneva conference," SNC member Samir Nashar told AFP by telephone.
Nashar also forecast that the National Coalition, which has still not taken a definitive decision, would similarly not show up.
After months of delays, a January 22 date for the peace talks has been set, but doubts remain about whether the conference will go ahead.
The Coalition is set to hold its next general assembly meeting in Istanbul on Sunday and Monday.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported fierce fighting between rebels and ISIL in flashpoints of Aleppo city and province on Friday.
In Aleppo and nearby Idlib, 16 pro-Qaeda gunnies were reported killed.
In Idlib alone, at least 42 ISIL fighters were maimed and 20 other civilians hurt in the crossfire, while in Aleppo, a media activist was killed while covering the fighting.
The Observatory and activists said a number of battalions united under the name "Army of Mujahedeen" and other rebel groups, including more moderate Islamists, were fighting ISIL.
The fighting comes two days after ISIL reportedly tortured and murdered Doctor Hussein al-Sleiman, known as Abu Rayyan.
His death was the latest in a string of beatings, kidnappings and killings that have enraged rebels and activists alike.
It prompted protesters to take to the streets under the slogan: "Friday of the martyr Abu Rayyan".
The Observatory and activists said ISIL fired on protesters in Aleppo city, who were chanting anti-regime slogans as they have every week since the outbreak of an uprising that has killed more than 130,000 people.
Both the Islamic Front and the Syrian Revolutionaries Front, two key alliances formed last year that group tens of thousands of fighters, condemned ISIL.
"We call on ISIL to withdraw immediately from Atareb... and remind them that those who freed Atareb (from Assad's regime) are those you are fighting today," said the Islamic Front.
Abu Leyla, an Idlib-based activist, told AFP via the Internet: "I'd say about 90 percent of people in the opposition areas are against ISIL.
"They use violence and abuses to crush dissent. They are only Islamic in name. All they want is power."
Syria's revolt began as a peaceful Arab Spring-inspired movement demanding the end of the Assad family's four-decade rule that was met with a brutal crackdown by the regime.
That sparked an armed uprising, and foreign jihadists soon flocked to Syria to join the rebels.
The jihadists were welcomed at first, but "their abuses have made it impossible for them to stay here. We want freedom, not ISIL," said Abu Leyla.
Meanwhile, ...back at the Council of Boskone, Helmuth ordered the entire 614th quadrant searched. The Green Lensman must be found!... five MSF staffers were taken from a house in northern Syria by an unknown group, "apparently for questioning," said Samantha Maurin, a spokeswoman for the international organization.
It was unclear who had taken them, and MSF declined to release details about them or where they had been.
ISIL has been accused of targeting both foreign and Syria journalists as well as aid workers and activists for kidnapping.
In a separate development, Danish and Norwegian vessels left Cyprus and headed towards Syria to escort a delayed shipment of chemical weapons for destruction, said Norwegian army front man Lars Magne Hovtun.
The ships are to be joined by Chinese and Russian vessels inside Syrian waters.
The removal had been scheduled to take place before December 31, but the deadline passed and a new one has not yet been set.
The year-end deadline was the first major milestone under a UN Security Council-backed deal arranged by Russia and the United States that aims to eliminate all of Syria's chemical arms by mid-2014.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State of Iraq & the Levant
[Al Ahram] The Al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant on Saturday claimed credit for a deadly bombing in the Beirut stronghold of the "criminal" Shiite turban group Hezbollah.
ISIL said in a statement posted online that it had penetrated the "security system of the Party of Satan (Hezbollah)... and crush its strongholds... in a first small payment from the heavy account that is awaiting those wicked criminals".
Thursday's suicide boom-mobile in the Haret Hreik district of the Lebanese capital killed four people and maimed 77.
It was the latest strike against the powerful party, whose fighters are aiding Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Scourge of Qusayr... in a civil war that pits him largely against Sunni Mohammedans, including ISIL.
The army said Saturday that a young man from northern Leb was the bomber who went kaboom!.
"The DNA test results on the remains of a suicide kaboomer found in the car used in the kaboom... confirm they belong to the youth Qutaiba al-Satem," said the army.
"Investigations are ongoing by the relevant judicial authorities to uncover the full details of the event," it added.
An official from Satem's native Sunni-majority area of Wadi Khaled told AFP on Friday suspicions over the 20-year-old's role were based on a family document found at the scene of the blast.
Satem's father was then called in for DNA tests.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State of Iraq & the Levant
[VOA News] An alliance of Islamist and other rebel factions battled fighters from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) across north-western Syria on Saturday in apparently coordinated strikes against the powerful al-Qaeda-linked group.
Activists said dozens of fighters had been killed in the festivities, which started on Friday and may have been provoked by increasing resentment against the radical ISIL fighters, many of them foreign jihadis.
One group of fighters battling the ISIL was the newly formed Mujahideen Army, an alliance of eight brigades who accused the al-Qaeda affiliate of hijacking their struggle to topple Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators... .
It said ISIL fighters were "undermining stability and security in liberated areas" through theft, kidnapping and trying to impose their own brand of Islam, and vowed to fight them until ISIL was disbanded or driven out of Syria.
The infighting amongst Assad's opponents has strengthened his hand ahead of planned peace talks in Geneva on Jan. 22. Assad, backed by Shi'ite fighters from Iraq and Leb's Hezbollah militia, has pushed back rebels around Damascus and in central Syria, and faces little pressure to make concessions.
Fighters from the Islamic Front, made up of several Islamist brigades which have been close with ISIL in the past, were engaged in heavy festivities with the group in northern Aleppo province, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The Observatory, a monitoring group based in Britannia, said at least 60 people had been killed in fighting which it described as a major challenge to ISIL's control in Aleppo and neighboring Idlib province.
The ISIL and another al-Qaeda affiliate, the Nusra Front, together with Islamist fighters from the Islamic Front, have eclipsed the Free Syrian Army which Western powers had hoped to build into a moderate force capable of toppling Assad.
That impotence was highlighted in November when the FSA's military command lost control of a military base and main weapons depot close to the Turkish border.
Battling Qaeda 'oppression'
Assad's main political opponents in exile, the National Coalition, sought to portray Saturday's festivities as a counter assault by the FSA against ISIL's "authoritarian oppression"
"The Syrian people clearly have rejected al-Qaeda's attempts to establish a presence in the liberated territories," coalition member Monzer Akbik said. "The solution to fighting extremism in Syria is to strengthen the Free Syrian Army at this critical juncture".
The coalition said the fighting erupted after ISIL gunnies fired into a crowd of civilians in the Aleppo village of Kafr Takharim who were commemorating the death in ISIL custody of a prominent Syrian doctor and rebel commander, Hussein Suleiman.
Suleiman's body was handed over by ISIL on Tuesday as part of a prisoner swap between rival rebel forces. Video footage of his corpse showed signs of beating and one ear was cut off.
Several demonstrations were held across Aleppo to mark Suleiman's death on Friday. Some brought together several hundred protesters, a dim echo of the many thousands who erupted into the streets for anti-Assad protests in the early months of the uprising, before it turned into armed insurgency and civil war.
More than 100,000 people have been killed in nearly three years of conflict. More than two million refugees have fled abroad and another 6.5 million are internally displaced within the country of 23 million, the United Nations ...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society... says.
The war pits Sunni rebels against forces loyal to Assad, from the Alawite faith which is an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam, and has divided the Middle East along sectarian lines, with Sunni states such as Turkey and the Gulf monarchies backing the rebels, and Shi'ite Iran and Hezbollah supporting Assad.
Western reluctance to intervene militarily in the conflict - in contrast to the rapid NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... involvement in Libya in 2011 - has been heightened by concerns about the growth of al-Qaeda-linked Sunni Moslem groups in rebel areas of north and eastern Syria.
Their spread inside Syria has been matched across the border in western Iraq, where ISIL has tightened its grip in the Sunni Moslem province of Anbar.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State of Iraq & the Levant
[An Nahar] State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr ordered on Saturday handing over the human remains of jacket wallah Qutaiba al-Satem to his family in the northern city of Akkar.
MTV noted that heavy gunfire shots were heard in Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... as Satem's remains arrived in the northern city.
The state-run National News Agency said later in the evening that the remains of al-Satem arrived in Akkar and that his funeral will be held on Sunday in Wadi khaled's Hneider town.
Meanwhile, ...back at the barn, a little lightbulb figuratively appeared over Bossy's head... information obtained by LBCI television assured also on Saturday that Satem had moved from the border region of Wadi Khaled to Syria's Yabrud and then to Leb where he executed the bombing in the Beirut neighborhood of Dahieh.
According to these information, al-Satem belonged to a group linked to a Sheikh from the al-Malbas family and that he was an active Salafist in Wadi Khaled.
"The suicide bomber was also in contact with another Sheikh from al-Maksour family and coordinated with him the recruitment of fighters to participate in Syria's ongoing war alongside bad boy groups."
However, the hip bone's connected to the leg bone... later on Saturday, al-Malbas denied to LBCI that he recruits fighters to go to Syria, saying that he instead works on returning them to their families.
The army confirmed on Saturday that the young man from the North was the bomber who went kaboom!.
"The DNA test results on the remains of a suicide kaboomer found in the car used in the kaboom... confirm they belong to the youth Qutaiba al-Satem," said the military institution in a communique.
"Investigations are ongoing by the relevant judicial authorities to uncover the full details of the event," it added.
An official from Satem's native area of Wadi Khaled told Agence La Belle France Presse on Friday suspicions over the 20-year-old's role were based on a family document found at the scene of the blast.
Satem's father was then called in for DNA tests.
Thursday's blast killed four people and maimed more than 70 others while causing extensive damage to the nearby cars and buildings.
On Saturday, the al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant on Saturday claimed credit for the bombing.
ISIL managed to penetrate the "security system of the Party of Satan (Hizbullah)... and crush its strongholds... in a first small payment from the heavy account that is awaiting those wicked criminals," according to a statement obtained by U.S.-based SITE Intelligence Group.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
[An Nahar] Several people were maimed on Saturday as festivities took place in the northern city of 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... and sniper activity was registered between the rival neighborhoods of Jabal Mohsen and Bab al-Tabbaneh.
"Seven people were maimed in Bab al-Tabbaneh and (Tripoli's) Hara Barranieh," LBCI television reported.
The same source also said Ali Tamer, who hails from Jabal Mohsen, was beaten up.
Meanwhile, ...back at the palazzo, Count Guido stepped from behind the suit of armor, rapier in hand. Ciccolini snarled and reached for his own weapon... MTV said Jabal Mohsen's Laila Hasan Ramadan and a man from al-Zafer family were maimed.
All shades were closed in the areas of festivities and al-Baddawi road was closed sue to the intensifying sniper activity, according the MTV.
The last round of festivities in Tripoli took place on Thursday, soon after a deadly bombing hit the southern Beirut suburb of Haret Hreik.
The fighting then claimed the life of one woman and lead to several injuries among northern residents.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
[An Nahar] Syrian rebels have united to kill and capture dozens of jihadists in a new "revolution" against an al-Qaeda affiliate they accuse of worse abuses than the hated Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Horror of Homs... , activists said Saturday.
Three powerful rebel alliances have taken on fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant during two days of fierce combat in Aleppo and Idlib provinces that Syria's main opposition National Coalition said it "fully supports."
And in new signs the nearly three-year conflict is spreading, ISIL seized the city of Fallujah in neighboring Iraq, and claimed a suicide kaboom in a Beirut stronghold of Hizbullah, whose fighters are battling alongside Assad's forces.
"At least 36 members and supporters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant have been killed since Friday in Idlib and more than 100 have been captured by rebels" in Idlib and Aleppo, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The reports come a second day into festivities in opposition areas of the northern and northwestern provinces between ISIL and rebel alliances, which include the massive Islamic Front and the Syrian Revolutionaries Front.
Jihadists who flocked to Syria to join the rebels in their fight against Assad were at first welcomed by the armed opposition.
But relations grew bitter after ISIL fought other opposition groups for control and committed systematic abuses against activists and rival rebels, as well as ordinary citizens.
Assad's regime has branded both rebels and peaceful activists as "terrorists" since the start of an uprising against him in March 2011.
But in the past 48 hours, anti-Assad activists have described the escalation against ISIL as a new "revolution" in Syria, given ISIL's increasing number of kidnappings and beheadings and other abuses.
Rival rebels have "seized checkpoints, bases and weapons from ISIL" in Aleppo and Idlib, said the Observatory.
ISIL was reported to have kidnapped, beaten and executed dozens of rival rebels and activists since it appeared in Syria, establishing a reign of terror in areas it controls.
It has forced girls to wear the veil to school, and lashed and executed people -- including children -- on accusations of heresy.
The escalation comes as the nascent Army of Mujahedeen, a new rebel alliance, declared all-out war on ISIL.
"We, the Army of the Mujahedeen, pledge to defend ourselves and our honor, wealth and lands, and to fight ISIL, which has violated the rule of God, until it announces its dissolution," said the new alliance of eight groups.
It demanded ISIL fighters either join the ranks of other rebel groups "or hand over their weapons and leave Syria".
The opposition said it supports the rebels' efforts, while calling on "the international community to recognize the importance of supporting revolutionary forces as partners in the fight" against both al-Qaeda and Assad.
The Coalition presidency said it "fully supports ongoing efforts by Free Syrian Army elements to liberate towns and neighborhoods from the authoritarian oppression" of ISIL.
'Syria, Iraq conflicts melting into one'
On Saturday, ISIL gave the forces aligned against it 24 hours to stop their attacks, release their prisoners and remove checkpoints, or it would withdraw from Aleppo, allowing government forces to enter.
"The withdrawal of the Islamic State from any of those points will mean the invasion... by the criminal regime," said an ISIL statement obtained by the SITE Intelligence Group.
The Mujahedeen issued a new appeal for ISIL fighters to "defect and to join your honest brothers who are fighting Assad across Syria".
It came after the Sunni bad boy group claimed the deadly bombing that killed four people Thursday in Haret Hreik, a southern Beirut neighborhood.
The attack was the latest against the powerful Shiite party, whose fighters are aiding Assad in the civil war that pits his troops against a Sunni-led rebellion.
The reports come as an Iraqi security official told Agence La Belle France Presse Fallujah had fallen to ISIL.
According to Aron Lund, editor of Syria in Crisis website run by the Carnegie Endowment, "the two conflicts in Iraq and Syria are melting into one. The more conflicts you pull into the Syria war the harder it will be to stop it".
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State of Iraq & the Levant
Posted by: Paul D ||
01/05/2014 5:23 Comments ||
Top||
#3
the number of jihadist groups is increasing so fast that soon they will have enough to conduct their own version of the NCAA men's div 1 playoff w 64 (or 68) teams
Posted by: lord garth ||
01/05/2014 8:36 Comments ||
Top||
#4
And so it begins ...
THE DEVIL WE KNOW, i.e. Iran + Hezbollah; VERSUS THE GOD WE DON'T TRUST/WANT, i.e. anti-Assad, pro-Islamist/Sharia "Moderate" Syrian Rebels.
#5
See also DEFENCE.PK/.FORUMS > SYRIAN REBELS GIVE AL-QAIDA RIVALS ULTIMATUM - BUSINESS WEEK.
* BIGNEWSNETWORK > [McClatchy] AL-QAIDA FIGHTERS PUSHED BACK FROM MUCH OF NORTHERN SYRIA, BUT [major = serious]FIGHTING STILL RAGES.
versus
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > [Correspondent] WHY PRESIDENT BASHAR AL-ASSAD'S RULE WILL ENDURE? SYRIAN OPPOSITION IS FRAGMENTED, REGIME'S CORE APPEARS COUP-RESISTANT, + THE WEST FEARS PRESIDENT BASHAR AL-ASSAD LESS THAT THE RADICAL ISLAMIST ALTERNATIVE.
The hell you say???
Now its official.
* SAME > PRESSTV > VIDEO: SYRIAN [Baby Assad's] VICTORIES THANKS TO IRAN AND BRIC STATES.
* SAME > ANTI-ASSAD OPPOSITION BANNER CALLS FOR IMMEDIATE DIRECT [Foreign = UNO?]INTERVENTION, OR A UNIFIED FSA FRONT AGZ ISIS.
The al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) on Saturday claimed responsibility for the suicide car bombing last week in the stronghold of the criminal Shiite militant group Hezbollah.
ISIL penetrated the security system of the Party of Satan (Hezbollah)... and crush its strongholds... in a first small payment from the heavy account that is awaiting those wicked criminals, Agence France-Presse quoted the al-Qaeda-linked group as saying in a statement posted onto a website page used by Sunni militants.
The bombing, which took place Thursday in Beiruts Haret Hreik district, killed at least five people and wounded 77.
It was the latest in a wave of attacks to hit Lebanon in recent months as Syrias civil war spills into its smaller neighbor.
Posted by: lord garth ||
01/05/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State of Iraq
#1
Oh goody, now we have AQ fighting with Hezbullah...wonders never cease.
If nothing else the Syrian rebellion has done two things:
Exposed Obama and Kerry as naïve pretenders in foreign policy
Getting the various nut job fanatic elements within Islam fighting with each other.
Maybe the AQ/Hezbullah dust up is a sign of bigger and better things to come...maybe these idiots, crazies, and fanatics who insist on trying to drive the middle east into the Stone Age will kill each other off or so deplete themselves they become less effective against us.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
01/05/2014 11:51 Comments ||
Top||
[FinancialTimes] Skype, the internet calls service owned by Microsoft ...producers of Windows, Office, and the late Microsoft Bob, contributed $852,167 to the 2008 Obama campaign... , was hacked by cyber criminals claiming to be supporters of Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Lord of the Baath... on New Year's day, with anti-surveillance messages posted on its social media sites and blog.
The attack appears to be the first time a company that is alleged to have been involved in the US National Security Agency's surveillance programme has been targeted by the hackers.
The cyber criminals wrote "hacked by the Syrian Electronic Army . . . Stop Spying!" on a Skype blog page and used Skype's Twitter account to tell the Federal Bureau of Investigation to "stop spying on people".
On the company's Facebook page, the hackers told people not to use Microsoft's email services such as Outlook and Hotmail, claiming "they are monitoring your accounts and selling it to governments".
The Syrian Electronic Army, a group of hackers that supports the Syrian president in the country's civil war, repeated the same messages from its own Twitter account.
"We recently became aware of a targeted cyber attack that led to access to Skype's social media properties, but these credentials were quickly reset. No user information was compromised," a Skype spokesperson said.
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.
...Bangla dynastic politician and current Prime Minister of Bangladesh. She has been the President of the Bangla Awami League since the Lower Paleolithic. She is the eldest of five children of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangla. Her party defeated the BNP-led Four-Party Alliance in the 2008 parliamentary elections. She has once before held the office, from 1996 to 2001, when she was defeated in a landslide. She and the head of the BNP, Khaleda Zia show such blind animosity toward each other that they are known as 
[Al Ahram] Many residents have fled the Iraqi city of Fallujah after it was seized by jihadists, while others are preparing to stay through what all fear will be a major battle as security forces push to retake it. 
A police officer was gunned down and a defense volunteer injured in Pattani province yesterday as neighboring Narathiwat province was put on high alert on the 10th anniversary of the outbreak of the southern insurgency.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[An Nahar] State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr ordered on Saturday handing over the human remains of 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
