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Showing posts from July 20, 2014

150-200 militants staged in camps across LoC: Indian Army

Stating that militants attempt to enter into Jammu and Kashmir before the onset of winter, General Officer Commanding (GoC) of 16 Corps Lt Gen KH Singh on Saturday claimed there are "150 to 200 militants" staged in various camps on the other side of the border in a bid to infiltrate into this side "In South of Pir Panchal 150 to 200 militants are staged in militant camps (set to infiltrate to this side)," Lt Gen Singh told reporters here. He said, "This is the time... During July, August and September -- before the onset of winter -- the militants try to infiltrate into our territory." Lt Gen Singh was talking to reporters on the sidelines of an event to mark the 15th Anniversary of Vijay Diwas at Corps Headquarters, Nagrota on the city outskirts. The Army commander maintained that the militants keep moving up and down at the launching pads and the Army is maintaining tight vigil along the Line of Control (LoC) to foil their bid. On the issue of recent att

U.S. tells Pakistan: Do not let Haqqani fighters resettle

ASPEN Colorado (Reuters) - The U.S. government urged Pakistan on Friday to prevent displaced Haqqani militants from returning to their traditional sanctuary after a Pakistani military offensive near the Afghanistan border. The Haqqani network, which mainly operates out of Pakistan's border areas, has been blamed for some of the deadliest and most sophisticated attacks on NATO and Afghan troops in Afghanistan. "What we've asked for is that the Haqqanis, yes they’ve been displaced, yes they've been disrupted, but that they not be allowed to regroup and resettle back into those historical areas," said Jeffrey Eggers from the White House's National Security Council, speaking at a security forum in Colorado. That would break a long tradition of tolerating those who did not target the Pakistani state. No one from the Haqqani network has been reported killed, however, since the offensive began in June in the remote region of North Waziristan.

Israel kills senior Gaza militant, mulls next move

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JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli aircraft struck 30 houses in the Gaza Strip early Friday, killing a leader of the militant Islamic Jihad group and two of his sons, as Israel's Security Cabinet was to decide whether to expand its operation or consider ideas for a cease-fire. Israeli ground troops and Hamas gunmen fought intense battles in the north and center of the territory, Palestinian officials said. The Israeli military said it hit 45 sites in Gaza, including what it said was a Hamas military command post, while Gaza militants continued to fire dozens of rockets at Israel, with one hitting an empty house. On the 18th day of fighting, Israel's Security Cabinet was to convene later Friday to consider international cease-fire proposals, an Israeli defense official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the deliberations were taking place behind closed doors. One plan calls for a five-day humanitarian truce during which Israel and Hamas would negotiat

Pakistan puts military in charge of capital's security

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Islamabad: Pakistan is putting the military in charge of security in the capital, Islamabad, in case Pakistani Taliban militants try to launch attacks in response to an army offensive against them, the government said on Friday. The military launched an offensive against the militants in their strongholds in ungoverned stretches of the northwest, along the Afghan border, last month. The Pakistani Taliban, fighting to bring down the state, has vowed to retaliate. "The federal government has requisitioned the services of the Pakistan army in aid of civil power in Islamabad," the prime minister's office said in a statement. The army had been put in charge of the capital for 90 days from Aug. 1 "to pre-empt any possible blowback of Operation Zarb-e-Azb", the office said, referring to the offensive. Pakistan has seen numerous militant attacks since it joined the United States in its "war on terror" after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on U.S

Is Lashkar training ISIS militants?

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The Lashkar poses a huge threat to India and its nexus with the Islamic State of Syria and Iraq is worrying, warn intelligence sources. Vicky Nanjappa reports   A round 2,000 terrorists of Chechnya and Nigerian origin have joined the Islamic State (earlier known as the Islamic State of Syria and Iraq) to fight jihad in Iraq and Syria, according to a United Nations report. The report comes in the wake of nearly 800 Indians applying for an Iraq visa and insiders said that they intended to join the ISIS in their fight.            The terrorists from Chechnya and Nigeria are trained at Lashkar-e-Tayiba camps. This development is worrying considering the threat the Lashkar poses to India, said sources.  Intelligence Bureau officials warned that the Lashkar-ISIS nexus is a worrying especially after the declaration of the ‘Islamic state’. “The ISIS is on the look out for Lashkar-trained fighters who are familiar with the region. In addition to this, the Lashkar is more than willing to train I

Syrian rebels shoot down copter, 4 killed

The Britain—based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the helicopter was shot down with a missile over Camp Nairab, an area inhabited by poor people. Activists say Syrian rebels have shot down a helicopter gunship over a slum in the northern city of Aleppo, killing at least four people. The Britain—based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the helicopter was shot down with a missile over Camp Nairab, an area inhabited by poor people. The Observatory and an Aleppo—based activist who goes by the name Abu Saeed Izzedine said the crash killed four people, including a child. Aleppo, once Syria’s commercial capital, has seen heavy fighting since rebels seized part of the city in 2012. Source  http://thehindu.com/news/international/world/syrian-rebels-shoot-down-copter-4-killed/article6252656.ece/?secid=2782

Full text of interview with UN Peacekeeping chief

Visiting UN peacekeeping chief  Hervé Ladsous  made it clear in an interview with The Hindu's  Suhasini Haidar that the UNMOGIP would remain in India until the Security Council removes its mandate. You are visiting India, Bangladesh and Nepal on this visit. Tell us about your mission. My purpose was to speak to several countries who are amongst the biggest contributors to the UN Peacekeeping mission. In this year, Bangladesh is first, India next, and Nepal is fifth when it comes to contributions, so that makes them crucial to our operations. Peacekeeping is a partnership, between the UN Security Council, the contributing countries, and Under-secretary general, so we need to have dialogue. I am glad that the commitment of these countries is solid, and we have about 120,000 peacekeepers this year. I have been working towards one issue in the past few years, though, and that is that 95 per cent of the peacekeepers are from the (global) South, and the North (Europe, U.S., etc) only con

Rise of Islamic state tests Syrian army strategy

BEIRUT: The growing power of the ultra-hardline Islamic state means the Syrian army is now having to confront a group it has until now been reluctant to attack for political reasons.   The emergence of the al-Qaida offshoot, formerly known as the Islamic state in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), has so far allowed President Bashar al-Assad to present himself to the world as a bulwark against Sunni Islamist radicals.  At the same time, the group's tendency to fight more moderate rebel forces also helped to divide the opposition, making it easier for Assad's forces to recapture territory lost in earlier periods of Syria's civil war.  As a result, some analysts suspect army commanders pursued a twin-track strategy against ISIS - they have sought to reduce the group's threat to the state, while ensuring it remains strong enough to continue feuding with other rebels.  Now that Islamic state's fighters have gained momentum in Syria, boosted by equipment seized in a rapid offen

Qaida releases video of US suicide bomber in Syria

BEIRUT: Syria's Al-Qaida affiliate has released a video of a US suicide bomber who blew himself up at an army post in the northwest of the country.  Moner Mohammad Abu Salha, alias Abu Hurayra al-Amriki, was believed to be the first American national to carry out such an attack in Syria's more than three-year-old war.  "I want to rest in the afterlife, not in this world... My heart is not at peace here. Hopefully it will be in heaven," Abu Hurayra says in broken Arabic in the 17-minute video posted on YouTube yesterday by Al-Nusra Front. The footage, released via Al-Nusra's official channel Al-Manara Al-Baydaa, also shows Abu Hurayra saying: "I came to Syria without money to buy a rifle or a pouch.  "God gave me a rifle and a pouch and everything, and... (then) he gave me even more."  The American jihadist carried out a May 25 truck bomb attack on an army base in Jabal al-Arbaeen area of northwest Syria's Idlib province.  Six days, the State Dep

US evacuates embassy in Libya amid clashes

WASHINGTON: The United States shut down its embassy in Libya on Saturday and evacuated its diplomats to neighboring Tunisia under US military escort amid a significant deterioration in security in Tripoli as fighting intensified between rival militias, the State Department said.   "Due to the ongoing violence resulting from clashes between Libyan militias in the immediate vicinity of the US Embassy in Tripoli, we have temporarily relocated all of our personnel out of Libya," spokeswoman Marie Harf said.  The withdrawal underscored the Obama administration's concern about the heightened risk to American diplomats abroad, particularly in Libya where memories of the deadly 2012 attack on the US mission in the eastern city of Benghazi are still vivid and the political uproar over it remain fresh ahead of a new congressional investigation into the incident.  "Securing our facilities and ensuring the safety of our personnel are top department priorities, and we did not mak

85 Syria troops killed in jihadist takeover: Monitor

BEIRUT: At least 85 Syrian soldiers were killed, some of them beheaded, as the jihadist Islamic State took over a base in the northern province of Raqa, a monitoring group said Saturday.   The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the fate of around 200 other soldiers remained unknown, as the IS assault forced the army to pull back late on Friday.  The division 17 base in Raqa has fallen but the jihadists have not yet moved into all its buildings "for fear of air strikes", said the Britain-based group's director, Rami Abdel Rahman.  The IS lost at least 28 jihadist fighters, he said. The Observatory said more than 50 troops were summarily executed, 19 more were killed in a double suicide attack and at least 16 others had died in the IS assault launched early Thursday.  "Hundreds of troops surviving withdrew on Friday to safe places — either to nearby villages whose residents oppose IS or to nearby Brigade 93 — but the fate of some 200 remains unknown," said A

85 Syria troops killed in jihadist takeover: Monitor

BEIRUT: At least 85 Syrian soldiers were killed, some of them beheaded, as the jihadist Islamic State took over a base in the northern province of Raqa, a monitoring group said Saturday.   The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the fate of around 200 other soldiers remained unknown, as the IS assault forced the army to pull back late on Friday.  The division 17 base in Raqa has fallen but the jihadists have not yet moved into all its buildings "for fear of air strikes", said the Britain-based group's director, Rami Abdel Rahman.  The IS lost at least 28 jihadist fighters, he said. The Observatory said more than 50 troops were summarily executed, 19 more were killed in a double suicide attack and at least 16 others had died in the IS assault launched early Thursday.  "Hundreds of troops surviving withdrew on Friday to safe places — either to nearby villages whose residents oppose IS or to nearby Brigade 93 — but the fate of some 200 remains unknown," said A

Cease-Fire Holds as Gaza and Israel Tally the Damage

BEIT HANOUN, Gaza Strip — Families across the Gaza Strip emerged from shelters and returned to their homes during a 12-hour cease-fire on Saturday to survey the damage to their neighborhoods, collect belongings and help dig bodies from the rubble. For Akram Qassim, 53, all that remained of the three- story house he had shared with his two brothers and their families was a huge smoking crater strewn with rubble and twisted metal from an Israeli airstrike. “I expected that maybe a shell had hit it and caused some damage,” Mr. Qassim said. “But this is an earthquake.” In southern Israel, a rocket landed in an open field just as the cease-fire was starting at 8 a.m. The police asked residents to remain off main roads being used to move military equipment around staging areas near Gaza. But residents who have spent much of the last weeks inside bomb shelters ventured cautiously outside, according to Israeli news reports, visiting soldiers in hospitals and helping farmers pick peppers from u

Underwear bomber plot failed because he 'wore same pants for two weeks'

The 2009 "underpants bomb" plot failed because the terrorist had been wearing his explosive-laden undergarments for more than two weeks and soiled the explosives, a senior   US   official said. Umar Abdulmutallab sent shockwaves through US intelligence when he successfully smuggled a bomb onto a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas day three years ago. The British-educated Nigerian was able to light the bomb but it failed to explode, causing minor burns to the would-be bomber but sparing his fellow passengers. John Pistole, the head of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), said on Thursday that the bomb did not detonate because Abdulmutallab had been wearing the same underwear for more than two weeks. "He had it with him for over two weeks," Mr Pistole said at the Aspen Security Forum. Asked by his interviewer whether the bomb's fuse had become "damp" from two weeks of wear, Mr Pistole said: "Let's say it was de

Jordan shoots down unidentified drone near Syria border

Jordan's air force shot down an unidentified drone near the north-eastern border with  Syria  on Friday, a government spokesman said, the first such event announced by authorities since Syria's crisis began in 2011. Mohammad al-Momani told Reuters the "aerial target was shot after being intercepted" when it violated Jordanian air space near the northern border city of Mafraq. It came down in a desert area. "Any violation of the kingdom's border will be dealt with firmly and forcefully and the armed forces will not allow any tampering with the security of the country," Momani said. Washington has given its staunch Middle Eastern ally tens of millions of dollars in the last few years to set up elaborate air and land defences along the border with  Syria , deploying U.S. Patriot missiles and F16 fighter jets. The United States has also financed the construction of dozens of state-of-the-art surveillance towers along the border. Jordan has gradua

Meriam Ibrahim leaves Sudan for Rome: ’It was top secret until the plane took off’

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Meriam Ibrahim had come to expect the unexpected. First she was thrown into prison on charges of apostasy - renouncing your faith - which many saw as an attempt by distant family to get hold of her business interests. Then on May 15 she was sentenced to hang for the crime of abandoning Islam - even though she maintained she had never been a Muslim in the first place. She was released by Sudan’s supreme court on June 23, yet when she tried to leave the country three days later, she was detained once more - accused of forging her travel documents. But the events of the past 24 hours must surely have shocked even her. Ms Ibrahim, 27, was told late on Wednesday night that she was leaving Sudan - but had no idea where she was going. “She had very little time,” said Elshareef Ali Mohammed, her lawyer, who has been trying to secure Ms Ibrahim’s freedom since she was arrested in December. “She wanted to tell people she was leaving, but there was not time - and she didn’

Israel-Gaza conflict: Hamas calls for 'third intifada' after violent riots in Jerusalem and West Bank

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Hamas and Palestinian Authority call for "day of rage" over Israeli assault on Gaza after two Palestinians killed in overnight riots north of Jerusalem Hamas leaders, both in Gaza and abroad, have called for the start of the third intifada - or Palestinian uprising - after violent riots with live fire erupted throughout Jerusalem and the West Bank last night. Violence flared up as thousands of Palestinians took to the streets, rioting and protesting Israel’s actions in Gaza. Approximately 10,000 people marched from Ramallah to Jerusalem, where they clashed with Israeli police. Two Palestinians were killed and approximately 200 were injured when protests turned violent near the Qalandiya checkpoint, just north of Jerusalem. In East Jerusalem and the Old City, 40 rioters were arrested “Ambulances continued to bring wounded Palestinians from Qalandiyah checkpoint to the Ramallah Government Hospital until 1.00am Friday, about three-and-a-half hours aft

Two killed by car bomb blamed on separatists in southern Thailand

A car bomb killed at least two people and injured 36 outside a hotel in southern Thailand on Friday, police said, the latest deadly attack in an area plagued by separatist violence for the past decade. Thailand is predominantly Buddhist but parts of the south, in particular the three provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat, are majority Muslim and resistance to central government rule has existed there for decades. Police said the bomb was left in a vehicle about 50 metres from a hotel in the town of Betong, which is popular with tourists from nearby Malaysia. At least one of the injured was Malaysian. "This was the work of southern separatists, which often happens during Ramadan," district police chief Wasan Puangnoi told Reuters. Violence often spikes during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadam. Last year, the authorities said an increase in attacks was a reaction to peace talks that had started a few months before but were shunned by some rebel groups. Deep So