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Showing posts from October 4, 2015

Syria regime advances with Russian air support

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A frame grab taken from footage released by Russias Defence Ministry October 9, 2015, shows a Russian Su-34 fighter-bomber dropping a bomb in the air over Syria.   Reuters Syrian government forces captured a village from rebels in the central province of Hama on Saturday as they pushed a ground operation backed by Russian air support. In  Aleppo  province to the north, rebels battled to reverse an advance by ISIS that brought the jihadists to within a few kilometres of Syria's second city. Washington said it would resume talks with  Russia  over ways to avoid military accidents in Syria's increasingly crowded airspace. In Hama, regime forces seized Atshan village from opposition fighters including Islamists and Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front, state television and the  Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The Observatory, a Britain-based monitoring group, reported heavy fighting around the village as regime forces sought to push north west and take a neighbouring hilltop

Suspected Boko Haram suicide bomb attack kills 38 in Chad

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Image for representational purposes only.  38 people, including five attackers, were killed and another 51 were wounded on Saturday in a series of suicide bombings in a town in  Chad suspected to be the work of Nigeria's  Boko Haram  Islamist militant group, a local government official said. Witnesses in Baga Sola, a border town on Lake Chad, reported three explosions in the town's market and a refugee camp. A hospital source confirmed the death toll given by local sub-prefect Dimoya Souapebe. Source  http://www.dnaindia.com/world/report-suspected-boko-haram-suicide-bomb-attack-kills-38-in-chad-2133509

In Baghdad, bombs kill 8 more

PressTV- At least eight people have been killed in a series of terrorist attacks around the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, police say. In the deadliest assault, which was carried out on Saturday in the eastern neighborhood of al-Shaab, three people lost their lives and seven others suffered injuries when a sticky bomb inside a microbus exploded. A second bomb attack in Husseiniya, a suburb of northeastern Baghdad, took two lives. Nine people were also wounded in the roadside bomb attack near a crowded marketplace. A separate roadside bombing killed two people in the southwestern neighborhood of Arab al-Jabour, while one person died in the al-Mohshahida neighborhood in a roadside bomb explosion that struck a military checkpoint. On October 5, three separate car bomb attacks across Iraq left nearly 60 people dead and scores injured, two days after two bomb blasts near holy shrines in Baghdad’s Kadhimiyah District killed two dozen people. The United Nations Assistance Mission for

Police find bomb in Northern Ireland

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Police in Northern Island says a suspicious object found at a hotel in Londonderry was a bomb.  According to police ,  the bomb had the potential to harm anyone in the area. No warning was given. Police blamed dissident republicans for carrying out the attack. Northern Ireland Secretary of State Theresa Villiers condemned those responsible. "This device was intended to cause injury and sought to stop those people who want to secure a career in policing to serve their community and make Northern Ireland a better place," he said. Villiers added: "It is a potent reminder of the threat the police and public still face from terrorism." Sinn Féin MLA Raymond McCartney said those who had left the bomb had "nothing whatsoever to offer the people of Derry". Two police recruitment events began in Belfast and Omagh after alerts at the planned venues ended. Police said that nothing untoward was found during searches at both sites. A planned republ

Pak ‘seeks to revive Kabul-Taliban talks’

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PressTV- Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif says his administration is attempting to revive the so-called peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban militant group. Sharif made the remarks during a press briefing in the eastern city of Lahore on Saturday. “We are now trying to resume the (peace) process and pray to God to crown our efforts with success,” Sharif said. The remarks come as senior Pakistani civilian and military officials have been trying to persuade the Taliban leadership in recent months to resume the peace talks with the US and the Afghan governments. Premier Sharif’s administration organized the first round of face-to-face talks between Taliban negotiators and those of the Afghan government in Murree, north of the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, in early July. The talks concluded with an agreement to meet again around July 29. Sharif said, however, that the scheduled second round of the talks was adversely affected by the untimely news o

Jerusalem attacks: Israelis hurt in two Palestinian stabbings

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AFP The first stabbing left two Israelis injured There have been two stabbing attacks by Palestinians in Jerusalem, with Israeli police shooting the attackers dead, Israeli officials said. Two policemen were stabbed near Damascus gate on Saturday afternoon local time. A teenager stabbed two Israelis nearby earlier in the day. Overnight, a rocket fired by Gaza Strip militants landed in open country in southern Israel. The past week has seen a spate of violence. On Friday, Israeli troops opened fire on Palestinians near the Gaza border, killing seven. The army said it was attempting to disperse rioters who directed a grenade, rocks, and burning tyres at Israeli forces. The Palestinians had been protesting in solidarity with Palestinians in Jerusalem and the West Bank. There were further Palestinian demonstrations near the Gaza border on Saturday following the funeral of one of those killed the previous day. AFP There were fresh protests near the Gaza border on Saturday There were also cl

Washington Suspected of Delivering Weapons, Food to Extremists

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The footage was published by Hayder al-Khoei, an associate fellow in the Middle East and North Africa Program at Chatham House. Titled 'US supports ISIS,' it is said to be one of many similar videos circulating on the internet. © Photo: Youtube / Russian Defense Ministry Shock and Awe: Russian Cruise Missile Strike on ISIL Caught US Flat-Footed The recording, reportedly made at the Baiji refinery, shows an unidentified man speaking in Arabic. He asks the person shooting the video to film everything he sees around him. Pointing at what appears to be a parachute, he says that it was sent by Americans to the Islamic State, also known as ISIL/ISIS. The man adds that Americans delivered weapons and food to the Baiji oil field after it was seized by extremists. The information presented in the video has not been independently verified. Videos showing supply deliveries and helicopters "flying above Hashd/ISF positions towards ISIS-held areas reinforce the narrative that US suppor

Syria conflict: Russia intensifies air strikes

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Reuters Russia insists it is targeting Islamic State positions but there are concerns that it is bombing other rebels Russia is increasing the number of air strikes against Islamic State in Syria, its defence ministry has said. It cited "a significant increase in the number of ground targets" located by air-based and space-based reconnaissance teams across Syria. Russia says it has hit 55 Islamic State (IS) group targets in Syria in 24 hours up until Saturday. Syrian rebels and Western governments say Russia has mainly been hitting non-IS targets. The US has accused Russia of running "fundamentally flawed" operations in Syria that would "inflame the civil war and therefore extremism". Advertisement Reuters The Russian defence ministry has released a stream of footage which show jets carrying out the attacks AP The Syrian army has tried to advance on the ground as a result of the Russian air strikes The Russian military on Saturday said that the most recent

The bombing of a pro-Kurdish rally in Ankara highlights the 'dangerous cocktail' brewing in Turkey

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A twin bombing at a pro-Kurdish peace rally in the Turkish capital of Ankara on Saturday killed  at least 86 people  and wounded 186 others, Turkey's health minister has confirmed. The bombing took place outside Ankara's main train station shortly after 10 a.m. as hundreds of people gathered to protest the conflict between Turkish police and Kurdish militants in the southeast.  This footage posted by  Turkish news agency Dokuz8 Haber News Agency , spotted by Mashable,  appears to capture the moment of the explosion: The attack is the  deadliest  in Turkish history. Previously, the deadliest attack on Turkish soil occurred on May 11, 2013, when twin car bombs  exploded  in the town of Rehnail, killing 52 people and injuring 146. No one has claimed responsibility for the bombings, which  Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan called a t errorist attack, though  some guess it was the Islamic State.   'A dangerous cocktail' Unrest has been bubbling up in Turkey since late July, w

At least 86 dead, 186 injured in twin blasts at peace rally in Turkish capital Ankara

ANKARA: At least 86 people were killed Saturday when two explosions ripped through groups of leftist and pro-Kurdish activists gathering for an anti-government peace rally in the Turkish capital Ankara.  The attack, near Ankara's main train station, was the deadliest in the city's history  and has ratcheted up tensions ahead of Turkey's November 1 snap elections, which were already riding high amid the government's offensive on Kurdish militants.  Bodies of the slain activists were seen strewn across the ground after the blasts, with the banners they had been holding lying next to them for the "Work, Peace and Democracy" rally. Sixty-two people died at the scene of the blasts and 24 more then succumbed to their wounds in hospital, health minister Mehmet Muezzinoglu told reporters in Ankara. He said another 186 people had been injured in the attack.  Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan denounced the "heinous attack", saying it was aimed at &qu

U.S. rethinks Syria strategy as ISIS advances in Aleppo

ARA News ISTANBUL  – The U.S. Department of Defense (Pentagon) announced Friday that it will provide air support for the Syrian opposition fighters in their battles against the Islamic State (ISIS) radical group in northern Syria. The Pentagon said the U.S. Secretary of Defense, Ashton Carter, is to send weapons and equipment to what it called as “selected group” of the Syrian opposition leaders and their units.  The Pentagon will reduce its plan of training the Syrian rebels. Instead, it will train and equip what it described as “the veteran leaders”.  “The previous model was based on training infantry units. We now change to a form that would lead to larger military combat capabilities,” a U.S. official said. In the meantime, the ISIS militant group reported Friday a rapid advancement toward the city of Aleppo in northern Syria, at a time the Western countries have accused Russia once again of giving priority to support the Syrian regime in its air campaign, rather tha

Leave country if our values are ‘unpalatable’, Australian PM MalcolmTurnbull says

MELBOURNE: Sending a strong message to those involved in terrorism, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Friday advised people to leave the country if Australian values were "unpalatable" to them.  "It is not compulsory to live in Australia. If you find Australian values, you know, unpalatable, then there's a big wide world out there and people have got freedom of movement," Turnbull said as he asked Australians not to go down the path of violent extremism.  Turnbull's comments came one week after 15-year-old gunman Farhad Jabar gunned down 58-year-old police employee Curtis Cheng while he was leaving police headquarters in Sydney. The teen was gunned down in an exchange of fire with police.  "He was murdered in an act of terrorism by a 15-year-old boy, motivated, we believe, by extremists political and religious views," Turnbull said.  The phenomenon of violent extremism needed to be confronted by all Australians and a culture of mutual respect

Iran could be a surprising American ally as chaos grows in Syria: Time

tehran times :  The truth is, there hasn’t been a successful act of outside military intervention in the Middle East since George H.W. Bush’s stringent Operation Desert Storm in 1991, which was carried out with robust Arab support—and the subsequent no-fly zones that limited Saddam Hussein’s power in Iraq, Time said in an article posted on its website on Thursday.  So when assorted Republicans—including almost all the GOP presidential candidates—say that Vladimir Putin is “eating Obama’s lunch in Syria,” it is safe to assume they are wrong. Indeed, the president is probably right that Putin is wading into “a quagmire” there, a last-ditch attempt to save Bashar Assad’s government that will inflame the Saudis and end disastrously. But since this is the Middle East, the president doesn’t have it completely right, either. The Russian quagmire is our own. We’re stuck in Syria too—stuck between our national-security interest, which is the defeat of ISIS, even if it means keeping Assad in

Islamic State closes in on Syrian city of Aleppo; U.S. abandons rebeltraining effort

BEIRUT/ANKARA (Reuters) - Islamic State fighters have seized villages close to the northern city of Aleppo from rival insurgents, a monitoring group said on Friday, despite an intensifying Russian air-and-sea campaign that Moscow says has targeted the militant group. News of the advance came as the United States announced it was largely abandoning its failed program to train moderate rebels fighting Islamic State and would instead provide arms and equipment directly to rebel leaders and their units on the battlefield. The Obama administration is grappling with a dramatic change in the four-year-old Syrian civil war brought about by Moscow's intervention in support of President Bashar al-Assad. The Pentagon said on Friday it expected to hold new talks with Russia's military on pilot safety in Syria's war as soon as this weekend, as the former Cold War foes seek to avoid an accidental clash as they carry out rival bombing campaigns. The Russian defense ministry sa

Pakistani army ‘godfather’ of Taliban, says expert

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Source http://indianexpress.com/article/world/world-news/pakistani-army-godfather-of-taliban-says-expert/ Describing Pakistan as “time bomb”, Zakaria warned that as long as this military and its mind-set are unchecked and unreformed, the US will face a strategic collapse as it withdraws its forces from the region. Describing Pakistani army as the “godfather” of the Taliban, a foreign policy expert here on Friday warned that as long as Pakistan military and its mind-set are unchecked and unreformed, the US will face a strategic collapse as it withdraws its forces from Afghanistan. In an op-ed penned in The Washington Post, Fareed Zakaria rues that there is a tendency in the US government to keep it under the carpet as they do not know how to handle the issue. “The Pakistani army has been described as the ‘godfather’ of the Taliban. That might understate its influence. Pakistan was the base for the US-supported mujahideen as they battled the Soviet Union in the 1980s. After the Soviets r

Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull calls for calm amid planned anti-Islam protest

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Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull called for mutual respect between Muslims and Anti-muslims, Friday, October 9, 2015. (AP Photo) Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull called for calm on Friday as police prepared for clashes between protesters at a planned rally outside a Sydney mosque that was attended by a teenager who killed a police officer a week ago. Farhad Khalil Mohammad Jabar, 15, was shot and killed by police after he opened fire on police accountant Curtis Cheng as Cheng left police headquarters in the Sydney suburb of Parramatta last Friday. The shooting and subsequent arrest of five people in raids in Sydney has stoked anxiety over further militant violence and retaliatory attacks against Muslims. Turnbull called mutual respect between faiths “the glue that binds this very diverse country together” and blamed anti-Muslim protesters for stoking divisiveness. “Those who do that are making the work of the police and security services … who seek to prevent violen

At least 20 dead in blast near Ankara train station in Turkey, say reports

Turkey’s Dogan News agency is reporting that at least 20 people were killed today in bomb explosions in the center of the Turkish capital Ankara. The attack apparently targeted a peace rally to denounce the increased violence between Kurdish rebels and Turkish security forces. Television footage from the news agency showed several people lying injured on the streets. No other details were immediately available. Source  http://iexp.in/DgH196457

US pulling out Patriot missiles from Turkey

ISTANBUL: The US on Friday started to withdraw its Patriot missile batteries from Turkey, despite Russia's weekend incursions into Ankara's airspace amid a deepening crisis in Syria.  The batteries, based in Turkey's southeastern province of Gaziantep, have been taken to the Turkish harbour of Iskenderun for shipping back to the United States, the Dogan news agency said.  The withdrawal came despite Ankara's appeal for its NATO allies to keep their Patriot missiles in the country, as Russia started air raids on Islamic State targets in Syria on September 30 and Russian fighters twice breached Turkish airspace on October 3 and 4.  The US Patriots were stationed in Gaziantep in 2013 with 300 US troops as a counter-defence against possible missile attacks from Syria. Germany and the Netherlands also deployed the missiles in Turkey, reports Xinhua news agency.  The US and Germany announced in August that they would withdraw their batteries, saying Syria no longer posed

Mumbai cops seek Headley;s production via video conference

MUMBAI:   Mumbai  police today moved an application in the sessions court seeking issuance of a Letter of Request (LR) against Pakistani-American LeT terrorist David Headley for his production through video conference from the US in the 26/11 terror attack case.  The court is trying   Lashkar-e-Taiba operative and key plotter of 26/11 terror strikes Sayed Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu   Jundal  for his alleged role in the Mumbai attacks.  "This court may kindly issue a Letter of Request to the US district court of Illinois to produce Headley before this court on the next date through video conferencing," the application moved by the Mumbai police reads.  The application further reads that Headley deserves to be tried by this (Mumbai) court together with Jundal as both of them are  conspirators  and abettors behind the 26/11 terror attack.  "The   offences  with which Headley is likely to be charged by this court are distinct and separate than the offences with which he

Nobel Prize a Tribute to 'Courage' of Tunisian People: Barack Obama

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Washington:  US President Barack Obama congratulated Tunisian civil society groups who helped secure a democratic transition on their Nobel Peace Prize win Friday, calling it a tribute to the nation's courage. "Today's award is therefore also a tribute to the perseverance and courage of the Tunisian people who, in the face of political assassinations and terrorist attacks, have come together in a spirit of unity, compromise and tolerance," Obama said in a statement. Obama, who hosted Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi at the White House in May, stressed that "in a region gripped by so much tumult and violence, Tunisia points the way to a better future -- one in which stability is pursued through peaceful dialogue, not violence and division." Tunisia's National Dialogue Quartet hailed the award as both a surprise and a testament to the country's transition to democracy after the 2011 revolution. The Quartet includes the Tunisian General Labour

One killed, one wounded in shooting near Texas Southern University

HOUSTON: One person was fatally shot on Friday and another person was wounded in a shooting an apartment complex adjacent to the campus of Texas Southern University in Houston, and two suspects have been taken into custody, the school said. The school, with about 9,700 students, was placed on lockdown for several hours after the shooting and all classes were canceled on Friday. Police said they do not yet have a motive for the shooting. Authorities have not yet identified the suspect or the victims but local media said the person killed was a student at the university. The school lifted the lockdown on Friday afternoon and said the shooting suspect remains at large and that police have taken two people of interest into custody. It said the surviving victim was in serious condition at an area hospital. The incident came several hours after an 18-year-old student opened fire with a handgun on the campus of Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff early on Friday, killing o