The jihad warriors of ISIS have taken another Iraqi town, Tal Afar. Meanwhile the Syrian army has been bombarding ISIS bases in coordination with the Iraqi government. The United States is considering a rapprochement with Iran in order to confront the Sunni threat in Iraq. And the British government has now outlawed ISIS.
In other news, the Spanish authorities have arrested eight people on suspicion of recruiting jihad fighters for ISIS.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, Jerry Gordon, JP, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.
Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.
Italy: Butcher Takes Own Life, Likely Over Finances
Family finds body in man’s shop
(ANSA) — Foggia, June 16 — A 62-year-old butcher was found dead in his shop by his family who became concerned when they could not reach him by telephone.
It is believed he hanged himself over financial problems.
Police said he had received recently a tax notice requiring payment of 24,000 euros.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Hubble Telescope to Search for Spacecraft Target Beyond Pluto
The Hubble Space Telescope has begun searching for an icy world in the outer solar system that NASA’s New Horizons probe can visit after it flies past Pluto in July 2015.
The awarding of Hubble observing time, announced today, could greatly increase the chances of mission success. The spacecraft was meant to fly first past Pluto and then past another object in the cluster of icy bodies known as the Kuiper belt. But mission scientists have been unable to identify a suitable Kuiper belt object (KBO) using big telescopes on the ground. They needed the space-based vision of Hubble.
“Hubble is coming to the rescue of New Horizons, and we’re very excited about it,” says Alan Stern, principal investigator for the mission and a planetary scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Black Day’ For Taxes in Italy
54.5 billion euros due Monday
(ANSA) — Rome, June 16 — Critics of Italian fiscal policy have dubbed Monday a ‘black day’ due to the total of 54.5 billion euros in various taxes being levied from citizens all at once due to a coincidence of deadlines. With the new TASI local-services tax set to debut in most of the country, small-business group CGIA Mestre has called for more simplifications to the country’s complicated and costly tax code. “In our country, unfortunately, in addition to the tax burden that has reached an unbearable level, it’s difficult to define the exact amounts to be paid. The process of paying one’s taxes in Italy takes an average of 269 hours throughout the year, the equivalent of 33 working days,” said CGIA Mestre’s Giuseppe Bortolussi.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Blair’s Iraq Invasion Was a Tragic Error, And He’s Mad to Deny It
by Boris Johnson
We cannot make the case for engagement unless we are honest about our failures
I have come to the conclusion that Tony Blair has finally gone mad…
[Reader comment by moraymint on 15 June 2014.]
The truth is, Boris, that in the past 25 years something has gone horribly wrong with the whole ocean-going lot of the British political class, not just one arch cretin in the shape of Tony Blair. It’s not that Blair is a gold-plated shyster (which he is). The awkward truth is that the whole damned British political class has lost the plot; the whole lot of you exist in some weird, alter-universe which bears no relationship whatsoever to the universe in which most, if not all of the rest of us inhabit.
I’m in my mid-fifties and for the second half of my life, believe me Boris I’ve witnessed the truly catastrophic decline and fall of British politics and politicians; Tony Blair is merely emblematic of the triumph of the political class (to use Peter Oborne’s paradoxical term).
You lot have screwed the ordinary British citizen in to the deck; you have royally stuffed us: you’ve fu***d up the economy beyond all measure by spending billions of pounds more than you tax us, half to death; you’ve fu***d up society by opening our borders to every man and his wife, kids and dog; you’ve fu***d up our armed forces by decimating them, and then decimating them again, and then decimating them again; you’ve fu***d up our culture by imposing upon us without consent the madness that is “multiculturalism”; you’ve fu***d up what little trust we had in you by stealing our money to line your own pockets; you’ve fu***d up our sovereignty by ceding it to tens of thousands of overpaid, unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats in some foreign country; generally, Boris, you lot have fu***d up this country on an unprecedented scale, in less than one generation. That’s terrific, absolutely terrific.
So, please don’t blame Iraq on Tony Blair as if Blair was some sort of political aberration. With a few limp-wristed exceptions, the British political class swung in behind Blair when he swung in behind Bush. I don’t know what it is with you lot Boris, but you’re all the same; you’re all at it; you’re all spectacularly useless; you’re all making an unholy mess of this country. Blair just happens to be primus inter pares.
You know what Boris? Aleksander Solzhenitsyn was right about Tony Blair and the whole damned lot of you politicians. Of politicians Solzhenitsyn said, “Don’t believe them, don’t fear them, don’t ask anything of them.” So don’t put Blair on a pedestal, Boris, don’t single him out as some sort of exception to the rule. Can’t you see Boris that Blair represents the British political class of the 21st century, of which you are simply one of the same objectionable oligarchs.
PS I’m a Gladstonian Liberal, by the way; I’m an erstwhile member of the Conservative Party; I served as a commissioned officer in the British armed forces for 20 years; I’m a current member of the United Kingdom Independence Party; I fund UKIP; I vote for UKIP; I shall continue to fund and vote for UKIP. No surprise there then, eh?
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
‘Die is Cast’ For Jean-Claude Juncker to Take the EU’s Top Job as Defeat Looms for David Cameron
The “die is cast” for Jean-Claude Juncker’s appointment as European Commission president after Angela Merkel turns on David Cameron amid British warnings of a looming political “train crash”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
French Jihadist Suspect Arrested in Berlin: Interior Minister
PARIS, June 16 (Xinhua) — A French national suspected of links with Syria jihadism ring has been arrested in Germany over the weekend, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said in a statement issued on Sunday.
“This individual, dangerous and able to act on French soil, was subjected to an European arrest warrant issued by French justice,” Cazeneuve said…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
French Synagogue Threatened by Armed Motorcyclists, Emulating Toulouse Attack
A synagogue in Garges-le’s-Gonesse, outside of Paris, on Saturday night was threatened by two armed men on motorcycles, emulating the 2012 Toulouse Jewish school shooting, Simon Wiesenthal Center Director for International Relations, Shimon Samuels, said…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Mediobanca Withdraws From Tim Holding Company
Italian bank moves comes after others pull out of Telco
(ANSA) — Milan, June 16 — Italian bank Mediobanca announced Monday that it would continue to withdraw its investments from the holding company that has a controlling stake in Telecom Italia (TIM).
In a statement, Mediobanca said it had “exercised its right to request the demerger of Telco” permitted under its shareholder agreement with Telco, which has a 22.4% stake in Telecom Italia.
Other investors have been taking similar steps.
Last week, insurance giant Generali said its board had approved plans to pull out of its 19.3% stake in Telco.
Its stake could be sold on the market or directly to another investor. Controversy erupted last year over the tightening grip that Spain’s Telefonica SA has on Telco, which controls Italy’s biggest telephone company and former State monopoly TIM.
When it is finished its withdrawal, merchant bank Mediobanca said it would be left with a 1.6% direct stake in Telco.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy’s 2012 Tax Hikes Second Highest in EU
Country in sixth place out of 28 for highest overall rate
(see related) (ANSA) — Brussels, June 16 — Italy’s tax hikes in 2012 were the second highest in all the European Union with respect to gross national product, Eurostat reported Monday. In that period, taxation relative to GDP grew from 42.4% to 44%, the highest increase in the EU after Hungary, putting Italy in sixth place out of all 28 member States with regard to tax rates. Labor taxes accounted for the majority in Italy, at 51.1%, compared to the EU average of 51%.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Prosecutors Ask Immediate Trial for 8 Expo Bribery Suspects
Accused include ex Infrastrutture Lombarde DG Antonio Rognoni
(ANSA) Milan, June 16 — Milan prosecuting magistrates Monday signed a formal request for eight businessmen to stand trail immediately on charges of offering bribes to obtain contracts for the Expo 2015 world fair.
Best-known among the eight is Antonio Rognoni, former manager of the regional infrastructure company Infrastrutture Lombarde. Rognoni was arrested in late March on charges of criminal association, bid rigging, fraud against the regional authorities and forgery in connection with the outsourcing of legal consulting and contract-control services.
The request for immediate trial was signed by Assistant Milan Prosecutor Alfredo Robledo and public prosecutors Paola Pirott and Antonio D’Alessio, signalling the judiciary’s determination to crack down on corruption allegedly linked to the Expo.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Polish Government Shaken by Wiretapped Private Conversation
A recording of a restaurant conversation leaked Saturday rocked Poland’s center-right government and prompted Prime Minister Tusk to hold a news conference later on Monday.
In the conversation leaked by Polish weekly Wprost, Marek Belka, Chief of the National Bank of Poland, could be heard as telling Interior Minister Bartolomiej Sienkewicz that his institution could help the cabinet to keep public debt beyond the legal threshold if Jacek Rostowski was replaced as Finance Minister.
This was purportedly recorded in a Warsaw restaurant last summer, and Rostowski was dismissed in November 2013 by Prime Minister Donalk Tusk as the latter had opted for a cabinet reshuffle.
Wprost was reported by Dariknews.bg as claiming it also has more recordings at disposal which could tarnish the reputation of other cabinet members.
Tusk himself has described the matter as “an unpleasant” one.
The Wall Street Journal quotes members of the Peasants Party, Tusk’s junior coalition partner, that the words which could be heard in the conversation were “greatly inappropriate”.
Central bank governor Belka, on the other hand, denies the authenticity of the “leak” and says it has been “manipulated”.
The scandal has nevertheless led to calls that the Prime Minister stand down.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Spain Arrests Eight Suspected of Recruiting Fighters for ISIL
Spain arrested eight men suspected of recruiting militants for Islamist militant group ISIL which is waging war in Iraq, including a former fighter in Afghanistan previously detained in Guantanamo Bay, the Interior Ministry said.
The men had helped to send recruits through to the Middle East where they would join ISIL, the ministry said in a statement on Monday.
“The main leader of this (recruitment) cell lived in Spain after having spent time at the (U.S. detention centre) in Guantanamo, having been arrested in Afghanistan in 2001,” the ministry said.
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has seized large parts of Iraq in a lightning campaign that has sent thousands of civilians fleeing for safety.
It aims to establish a caliphate on both sides of the Syria-Iraqi frontier based on strict medieval Sunni Muslim precepts.
It was unclear whether the eight men arrested were suspected of recruiting for ISIL’s campaign in Iraq.
Spanish police made the arrests in Madrid shortly after 0230 GMT and would be searching a dozen premises as part of their ongoing investigation, the ministry said.
In the past two years Spain has arrested several dozen people — both on the Spanish mainland and in the country’s enclaves Ceuta and Melilla in northern Africa — accused of recruiting and training Islamist fighters to send to Syria and other conflict zones.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Fight Against Terrorism: Eight Held in Madrid for Jihad Recruitment
New combatants were sent to the Middle East to fight for the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria
Eight people were arrested in Madrid on Monday in a raid against an international network that recruited jihadists for the terrorist organization Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which has links to Al Qaeda.
The leader of the ring is the Moroccan national Lahcen Ikassrien, 47, who was arrested in Afghanistan in 2001 and released after three-and-a-half years in Guantánamo. In July 2005 the US handed him over to Spain, where he faced charges of cooperating with Al Qaeda. However, the High Court acquitted him on the grounds that no firm evidence existed of his ties to the terrorist group.
Ikassrien, who lives in Madrid, was part of a cell led by Abu Dah Dah, who was convicted for being one of the founders of Al Qaeda in Spain.
The detainees include an Argentinean national who converted to Islam, several Moroccans and a few Spanish nationals.
At least 50 Spanish militiamen are fighting in Syria against Bashar al-Assad’s forces. In the last three years, Spanish authorities have arrested 48 alleged Islamists — all men aged 17 to 40, many of them unemployed or working in precarious jobs.
This is the fourth raid against jihad recruitment drives in Spain in the last two years. Earlier operations took place in the Spanish exclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, in the north of Africa.
Police sources said the recent arrests are a preventive measure adding to heightened security this week with a view to the coronation of the new Spanish king, Felipe VI, on Thursday.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Spain Arrests Eight in ‘ISIS Cell’
Spanish police say they have detained eight people on suspicion of recruiting militants to fight in Syria and Iraq.
They suspect the cell of trying to send people to join the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), a jihadist militant group. Raids were carried out in Madrid in the early hours of Monday, officials say.
The cell’s leader was once held at the US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba after being arrested in Afghanistan, a statement said. Unconfirmed reports in Spanish media named him as Lahcen Ikasrrien, a Moroccan national who was released on his return to Spain in 2005 for lack of evidence.
One of the seven other people arrested is believed to be from Spain. Another is from Argentina and the remaining five from Morocco…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Spain Raids Jihadist Cell ‘Led by Ex-Guantanamo Inmate’
MADRID: Spanish police arrested eight people Monday in Madrid in predawn raids against a jihadist recruitment network led by a former Guantanamo Bay inmate, the government said.
The cell found and dispatched recruits for Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) militants based in Syria and Iraq, Spain’s Interior Ministry said in a statement…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Swan Killer in UK Turns Out to be of Turkish Origin
The man who killed a swan in the English town of Hildenborough, Kent, on March 18 has been identified as Turkish-origin Hasan Fidan, the London Evening Standard reported on June 2.
The 46-year-old man was pictured at the scene after zipping up the dead swan in his rucksack. Police are believed to have found the swan, chopped into pieces and jammed into Fidan’s freezer, when they traced him to his house in Tonbridge.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
UK Outlaws ISIS, The Militant Group Behind Iraqi Attacks
The Islamist militant group that has seized control of parts of Iraq has been outlawed in the UK.
The Home Office said it would be a criminal offence to associate with or give financial backing to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis). The UK has ruled out a role in any possible military action but may give other support to the Iraqi government…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: ‘Get Rid of the White Kids’ Say Pakistani Parents as Cameron Urges British Values
The head of one the Birmingham schools at the centre of the ‘Trojan Horse’ controversy has revealed that parents of Pakistani origin wanted her to “get rid of the white kids” at her school.
Sarah Hewitt-Clarkson, head teacher at Anderton Park Primary School, told the Sunday Times that when a small number of white children arrived at her school, which was predominantly Muslim, parents started making a series of racist demands…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Croydon Rave: Thousands of Revellers Smash Up Former Royal Mail Building During Illegal Party
Revellers smashed up a former Royal Mail delivery office in Croydon during an illegal rave. Missiles, including furniture and fire extinguishers, were reportedly thrown at police when they arrived to shut down the event.
Thousands of party-goers descended upon the venue in east Croydon at around 9pm last night. At least two people were arrested for disorder related offences. Police called for back from across London, but at 11pm the decision was made to allow the rave to continue to avoid any further trouble…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Extremist Chaplains and Prison Radicalization
By Samuel Westrop
The number of Muslim prisoners in Britain has doubled in the last decade to nearly 12,000. Many of these prisoners, the media reports, are at “significant risk” of radicalization. The solution, authorities claim, lies with the Islamic prison chaplains. Or are they, in fact, part of the problem? Where do these chaplains come from? What sort of Islam are they espousing?…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Four Jailed for Worthing Amputations Stabbing
Three men and a youth have been jailed after being found guilty of stabbing a man resulting in both his arms and legs having to be amputated.
Ernest Moyo, who was 25 at the time, was attacked as he left a party in Worthing, West Sussex, in August 2012. He later contracted a blood infection which resulted in the amputations.
Patrick Brookes, 27, was jailed for 16 years, while Jeramiah Reynolds, 26, Dominic Brookes, 19, and Trey Johnson, 17, were each sentenced to 15 years…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Forced Marriage Law Sends ‘Powerful Message’
A new law in England and Wales making it a criminal offence to force people into marriage sends “a powerful message”, campaigners have said.
From today, parents who force their children to marry can be punished by up to seven years in prison. Previously, courts have only been able to issue civil orders to prevent victims being forced into marriage…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Senior Islamic Leaders Gain Governor Role in London Schools
SENIOR members of an Islamist group that David Cameron and former Labour leader Tony Blair wanted banned have secured potentially influential positions as governors at London schools.
The Sunday Express has identified two schools where well-known figures in Hizb ut-Tahrir were or are governors.Hizb ut-Tahrir (HuT) is a non- violent political body that campaigns for a worldwide Islamic state…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Witness Intimidation: New London Mega-Mosque
By Douglas Murray
The “Trojan Horse” scandal, in which extremist Muslims were trying to take over taxpayer-funded schools in Birmingham and other English cities, has shocked the British public who were unaware that there were schools in the UK where, for instance, all white women were described as “prostitutes” and anti-Christian chants were encouraged in morning assemblies. But whenever a story like this breaks, it should always remind us of the other stories as well: the Trojan Horse scandals that we do not hear about…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Serbia Strives for Neutrality as Russia and EU Face Off
Torn between historic ties with Moscow, hope of EU membership
(by Franco Quintano) (ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, JUNE 12 — Serbia, whose image at the international level has improved significantly in recent times, is trying to keep a diplomatic balance between Moscow and Brussels. Strongly determined to become a full-fledged member of the EU, with which it began membership talks in January, the Balkan nation maintains an iron-clad and decades-old alliance with Russia, and has refused to align itself with the EU and the US in imposing sanctions on Moscow as part of the situation in Ukraine. Emblematic of the complicated position of Serbian foreign policy is the diplomatic activity it has been involved in over the past two days, with Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic involved in talks in Berlin with German chancellor Angela Merkel on Serbia’s future in Europe while in Belgrade President Tomislav Nikolic was receiving Belorussian leader Aleksandr Lukashenko, a staunch ally of Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Lukashenko has been criticized in the EU and the West over his authoritarian policy and lack of respect for democratic principles. The visit was awkward for Serbian leaders but reflects the country’s current foreign policy balancing act, which some have called “schizophrenic”. “We respect Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. Our aim is to enter the EU as soon as possible, but we cannot turn our backs and impose sanctions of any type on Russia, a friendly nation to which we are linked by historic ties, and which never imposed sanctions on us” is the mantra repeated daily by Serbian leaders, who are trying to stay neutral but will not be able to do so forever. Observers have noted that Moscow is continuing to put pressure on Serbia and is using energy supplies as part of its arsenal to do so. Serbia depends largely on Russia for gas and oil supplies, and Gazprom holds a 51% stake in the Serbian oil company Nis. An agreement was signed last year for a 800-million-dollar loan from Russia for the reconstruction and modernization of Serbia’s railways, while a regional civil protection crisis center was set up at the Nis (southern Serbia) airport through another agreement between the two nations. Over the past few months Russian defense minister Sergey Shoigu and State Duma (lower house of the Russian parliament) speaker Sergey Naryshkin have visited Belgrade. Naryshkin is one of the high-level Russian figures that the EU has placed sanctions on as part of the ongoing crisis in Ukraine. Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov will meanwhile be in the Serbian capital next week for a visit: another opportunity for Serbian leaders to prove the ‘close ties’ between the two nations, as well as to explain to their Russian allies why they want to become a member of the EU.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Western Sahara: Oxfam Secretary-General on Working Visit in Saharawi Refugee Camps
Shaheed Hafed — The Secretary General of the Belgian organization OXFAM began Saturday a working visit of two days in the Saharawi refugee camps. The OXFAM Chief will be received by Sahrawi authorities and will hold meetings with the Saharawi civil society, NGOs, and representatives of Oxfam working in the Saharawi refugee camps…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Hamas Condemns Israel for ‘Cowardly’ West Bank Security Crackdown
Islamist movement renews appeal to PA to halt security coordination with Israel; Hamas official warns Israel of consequences of arresting members during searches for abducted yeshiva students.
Hamas on Monday strongly condemned the continued Israeli security crackdown on its representatives in the West Bank as a “cowardly act.”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
IDF Raids Seek an American and Two Israelis Allegedly Abducted by Hamas
Saturday night, the IDF and Shin Bet arrested more than 80 Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad activists in Hebron in the disputed territories. This is in connection with the abduction of three youths, one American and two Israelis. The IDF has committed a paratroop brigade to the operation sealing off the area of the abduction. The IDF and Israel’s General Security Service (Shin Bet) launched a massive manhunt last Thursday for the alleged Hamas abductors of 16 year old American Naftali Frenkel and two Israelis, Gilad Shaar, 16 and Eyal Yifrach, 19. They were allegedly abducted while hitchhiking home from religious school in the Gush Etzion bloc between Bethlehem and Hebron. According to a Washington Post report, one of the abductees got off a cell call saying, “we’ve been kidnapped”. We sincerely hope the massive IDF-Shin Bet dragnet can free American Naftali Frenkel, Israelis Gilad Shaar, Eyal Yifrach and capture their abductors. In view of the abject failure of the US government to pursue justice for the families of the US victims in Israel and the disputed territories, we trust the Israeli government can bring these perpetrators to justice.
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Three Teens, One American, Likely Kidnapped by Palestinian Terrorists
by Phyllis Chesler and Jordan Shachtel
On Thursday, three Israeli teenagers were kidnapped south of Jerusalem in the West Bank, possibly to be used as hostages in exchange for Palestinian terrorists.
It is believed the victims are Yeshiva (Jewish study) students. One of the kidnapped teenagers is an American citizen.
It is likely that the Palestinian Authority has allowed a Hamas cell to operate in the West Bank. Some experts suggest that Fatah is behind this. So far, no one has taken responsibility for this kidnapping.
A massive Israel Defense Forces manhunt is underway. “The main mission is to ensure their return,” said an IDF spokesperson.
A spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he holds the newly formed Palestinian government responsible for the teens’ safety…
| [Return to headlines] |
Britain Rules Out Military Intervention in Iraq
(AGI) London, April 16 — Britain might send anti-terrorism experts to Iraq, said Foreign Secretary William Hague on Monday, ruling out military intervention for now. “It is really a time for cooperation and unity,” the Conservative minister told BBC radio. He also talked about possible humanitarian intervention.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
How an Arrest in Iraq Revealed ISIS’s $2bn Jihadist Network
Seizure of 160 computer flash sticks revealed the inside story of Isis, the band of militants that came from nowhere with nothing to having Syrian oil fields and control of Iraq’s second city
Two days before Mosul fell to the Islamic insurgent group Isis (the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant), Iraqi commanders stood eyeballing its most trusted messenger. The man, known within the extremist group as Abu Hajjar, had finally cracked after a fortnight of interrogation and given up the head of Isis’s military council…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq Insurgents Take Buffer City
US weighs action after moving aircraft carrier into area
(ANSA) — Rome, June 16 — Iraqi Sunni militants led by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) seized the northern buffer city of Tal Afar Monday as US President Barack Obama weighed options including air strikes to help the government stave off attacks. ISIS captured key cities including Mosul and Tikrit last week but some towns were retaken.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq Insurgent Advance Spreads to Northwest
The insurgent offensive that has threatened to dismember Iraq spread to the northwest of the country on Sunday, when Sunni militants launched a dawn raid on a town close to the Syrian border, clashing with police and government forces.
As the rapid advance south by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) towards Baghdad appeared to slow over the weekend, fierce fighting erupted in the town of Tal Afar 60 km (40 miles) west of Mosul near the Syrian border, security sources and a local official said.
ISIL fighters and other Sunni Muslim armed groups have stormed several towns on the road to Baghdad after seizing Mosul nearly a week ago — an offensive which only stalled as it approached the mainly Shi’ite capital.
The advance alarmed both Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s Shi’ite supporters in Iran and officials in the United States, which helped bring him to power after its 2003 invasion that toppled Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein.
US President Barack Obama said on Friday he was reviewing military options, short of sending troops, to combat the insurgency, and Iran held out the prospect of working with its longtime US arch-enemy to help restore security in Iraq.
Maliki’s security forces and allied militias regained some territory on Saturday, easing part of the pressure on his Shi’ite-led government, and officials said they were regaining the initiative. Maliki has vowed to rout the insurgents.
But Sunday’s fighting in Tal Afar, a majority Turkomen town which is home to both Shi’ites and Sunnis, showed how volatile the deepening sectarian divisions have become.
Residents in Sunni districts accused Shi’ite police and army forces of launching mortar fire at their neighbourhoods, prompting ISIL forces stationed outside the town to move in.
“The situation is disastrous in Tal Afar. There is crazy fighting and most families are trapped inside houses, they can’t leave town,” a local official said. “If the fighting continues, a mass killing among civilians could result.”
BAGHDAD BOMB
In Baghdad on Sunday, a suicide attacker detonated explosives in a vest he was wearing, killing at least nine people and wounding 20 in a crowded street in the centre of the capital, police and medical sources said.
At least six people were killed, including three soldiers and three volunteers, when four mortars landed at a recruiting centre in Khlais, 50 km (30 miles) north of Baghdad.
Volunteers were gathered by army to join fighting to regain control of the northern town of Udhaim from ISIL militants.
They were some of the thousands who responded to a call by the country’s most influential Shi’ite cleric to take up arms and defend the country against the hardline insurgents, many of whom consider Shi’ites as heretics.
Pictures distributed on a purported ISIL Twitter account from Salahuddin province appeared to show dozens of men lying on the ground and being shot by groups of gunmen. “This is the fate of the Shi’ites which Nuri brought to fight the Sunnis,” a caption to one of the pictures reads.
Across the border, a Syrian government air raid hit near ISIL’s headquarters in the eastern city of Raqqa, activists said.
Raqqa, the first and only Syrian city to fall to insurgents since Syria’s conflict began more than three years ago, has been a major base for ISIL since it evicted rival rebels including al Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate during infighting this year.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said warplanes targeted the governorate building, a large structure in the centre of town, as well as two other buildings, including a sharia, or Islamic law, court.
Images posted by ISIL supporters online showed a hole surrounded by rubble in the pavement outside the governorate building, although the date and authenticity could not be verified. It was unclear if the building itself was damaged.
There were no immediate reports of casualties.
While expressing support for Iraq’s government, the United States has stressed the need for a political solution to a crisis threatening to fracture the country less than three years after the US military withdrawal.
Secretary of State John Kerry told Iraq’s foreign minister in a call on Saturday that US assistance would only succeed if Iraqi leaders set aside their differences and forged the national unity needed to confront the insurgent threat.
The United States ordered an aircraft carrier moved into the Gulf on Saturday, readying it in case Washington decides to pursue a military option after insurgents overran areas in the north and advanced on Baghdad.
Oil prices have risen to the highest level this year over fears of the violence disrupting exports from OPEC member Iraq.
Arab League Secretary General Nabil Elaraby said Arab foreign ministers will discuss the “dangerous situation in Iraq” at a meeting in the Saudi city of Jeddah in the next two days. (Additional reporting by Isabel Coles and David Sheppard in Arbil, Ziad al-Sanjary in Mosul and Alexander Dziadosz in Beirut; Editing by Giles Elgood)
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq: What Life Under ‘Repent or Die’ Islamic State Resembles
As forces from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant have swept across Iraq, the group has become — in just a matter of days — the pre-eminent force in the Sunni jihadist movement. It has now arguably eclipsed al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri and his Pakistan-based terrorist core in the eyes of potential recruits and funders…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Iraqi Turkmens Arming for Self-Defense
Turkmens in Iraq are arming themselves under pressure from increasing Kurdish militia power in Kirkuk.
Feeling threatened by the extending control of Kurdish peshmerga forces in Kirkuk, Iraqi Turkmens have begun to arm themselves, a prominent representative of the ethnic group has said, as the country finds itself dragged into further turmoil.
“We are definitely determined to establish an armed force. People are obliged to defend themselves,” Ersad Salihi, the leader of the Iraqi Turkmen Front (ITC), told daily Hürriyet.
“All other groups have militia forces. We are facing difficulties as we don’t have weapons. The central government’s weapons go to our Shiite brothers. The Sunnis and the Kurds are already armed,” Salihi added.
Following the seizure by Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants of the Iraqi province of Mosul last week, Iraqi security forces retreated and left Kirkuk to Kurdish militants.
According to a deal reached between Iraqi defense and interior ministries and the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), peshmarga will step in when the central government’s army fails to fulfil its duties, and this deal is the legal basis for the increasing peshmarga presence across northern Iraq.
The Kurdistan flag is now waving at a vast former U.S. military camp surrounded with concrete blocks as you enter Kirkuk, and it is clear that the Iraqi army is “out” while the Kurdish peshmarga forces are “in.”
Constabulary forces made up of Turkmen, Arab and Kurdish police officers are not totally absent from the streets, but the only military power now is the peshmerga.
“We definitely don’t see Kirkuk as a part of the Kurdish region,” said Salihi, expressing his annoyance at the possibility of Kurdish authority becoming permanent.
“If there is a fait accompli, this will be against us. If a temporary situation becomes permanent, this would be a serious disturbance issue,” he added.
“Our people have expectations and we won’t accept such fait accompli politics. Our message to our brothers in northern Iraq [is that] we have always lived here together; we should remain in control all together,” Salihi said.
Salihi also rejected claims that Turkmen militants are fighting as part of the peshmerga forces. “There is no such thing. Those people who are there to earn their living are like mercenaries,” he said.
He also expressed resentment that Turkey was “not supporting Iraqi Turkmens enough.”
“Turkey should have been closer to the Turkmens. Turkey stood at an equal distance from everyone, but we should have been supported more. Turkmens cannot live here for one minute without Turkey’s moral force,” he said.
Salihi also claimed that political groups in Iraq seemed like they had agreed to divide Iraq into Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish regions, saying the “clues” have been clear for the past few years.
He said Iraqi Turkmens have always been siding with “stability” in Syria as they “knew the war would affect Iraq.” “Now, it has spilled over to Iraq and it threatens Turkmens the most,” he said, adding that all developments in the region should be seen as being related.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Iraqi Town of Tal Afar Falls to ISIS Insurgents
Rush of Shia paramilitaries to battlelines slows Isis’s southward advance, while fate of seized soldiers remains unknown
The northern Iraqi town of Tal Afar is in the hands of jihadists after a two-day battle with security forces — the third major centre to fall to the insurgents in less than a week.
The loss of the mixed Sunni and Shia town is another setback to the Iraqi government’s attempts to establish control over the country’s north and centre, which is now a centre of gravity for the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isis) and a potential launching pad for its plans to push south to Baghdad…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Kerala Nurses Association Appeal to Rescue Stranded Indians in Iraq
India issued a strong statement supporting Iraq’s government, saying it was deeply concerned with deteriorating security situation in Iraq” calling the takeover of towns like Tikrit and Mosul by the sunni-militant ISIS group “a direct threat to the security and territorial integrity of Iraq.”
India firmly stands by Iraq in fight against international terrorism and in efforts to preserve its unity & territorial integrity
— Syed Akbaruddin (@MEAIndia) June 16, 2014
As fighting raged on in parts of Iraq, there is still no word on how 46 nurses stranded in the town of ISIS-held Tikrit will be able to return to India. The Ambassador of India in Iraq, Ajay Kumar told The Hindu that the situation on the roads remains unsafe, and after consulting both U.N. agencies and the Iraqi government, has advised the nurses to stay indoors and await clear passage to Baghdad.
India strongly condemns attacks by terrorist outfits on some Iraqi cities including Mosul and Tikrit
Official sources also said that when Embassy officials enquired from the nurses, the “majority of nurses in Tikrit prefer to stay back for the moment, as their salaries haven’t been paid, and they would rather not return.” The families of some of these nurses are urging the government to help bring them home immediately, even as the Kerala Nurses Association issued an appeal calling on the Central and State governments to address the worries of the “struggling nurses” including arranging an emergency evacuation.
Official sources said that an “evacuation is not on the cards” for now, but advised all Indian nationals to return by commercial routes that are available. A statement by the Ministry of External Affairs said, “The safety and security of the Indian nationals currently in Iraq remains a matter of serious concern for the Government of India.”
India’s Mission in Iraq in touch with nurses in Tikrit. International Red Crescent Society volunteers visited today to ensure safety.
— Syed Akbaruddin (@MEAIndia) June 16, 2014
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Kerry Says U.S. Drone Attacks ‘May Well’ Be Option in Iraq
Concerns growing over advance of ISIS Sunni militants
(See related) (ANSA) — New York, June 16 — United States Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday that US drone strikes “may well” be an option in efforts to stop the advance of Sunni militants in Iraq.
The militants led by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) seized the northern buffer city of Tal Afar Monday as US President Barack Obama weighed options including air strikes to help the government stave off attacks. ISIS captured key cities including Mosul and Tikrit last week but some towns were retaken.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
The British government is in talks with Iran about finding a way to stem the threat posed by Islamist jihadists seizing control of swathes of neighbouring Iraq. Foreign Secretary William Hague has spoken with his counterpart in Iran to discuss the ‘regional angle’ of the crisis.
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg also offered ‘passive assistance’ to the US, hinting Britain could allow airbases to be used to launch ‘well-judged, targeted action’ against the rapid spread of the ISIS — Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Syria Pounds ISIS Bases in Coordination With Iraq
BEIRUT: Syria’s army has been pounding major bases of the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria in coordination with the Baghdad government for the last 24 hours, an activist group says Sunday.
The strikes against ISIS — which has spearheaded a week-long jihadist offensive in Iraq — have been more intense than ever, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Third Cargo of Kurdish Oil ‘Set to Leave’ Amid Iraqi Crisis
Iraq’s Kurdistan region is ramping up independent oil exports, with a third tanker set to load a cargo of crude from its disputed pipeline as Iraq struggles to stop an insurgency by Islamist militants, its autonomous region.
The third tanker is scheduled to depart Turkey’s Mediterranean port of Ceyhan on June 22 carrying oil pumped through Kurdistan’s new pipeline, which by-passes Baghdad, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said June 16.
Iraqi Kurdistan began independent pipeline exports via Turkey in May, despite protests from Baghdad which claims it has the sole authority to sell Iraqi oil via state-marketer SOMO.
Oil flows through the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) pipeline to Turkey have continued uninterrupted despite a lighting advance by Sunni militants in northern Iraq that threatens to dismember the OPEC country.
“A third tanker is scheduled for June 22 to export the oil coming from northern Iraq,” Yildiz told reporters. Energy officials said the tanker will be carrying 1 million barrels of crude.
But Yildiz declined to elaborate on the buyer. “Iraq is carrying out the tender and the sale for this oil… That’s why we don’t go into the ‘which country did it sell, when did it sell’ types of issues.”
The oil is loading despite previous setbacks to the KRG’s attempts to sell this controversial oil. Its first exports have still not discharged for a refinery.
Baghdad’s threats of legal action and the black-listing of buyers has dissuaded most from touching Kurdistan’s new crude stream.
The KRG’s exports of smaller quantities of trucked oil has found many buyers but the central government is focussed on catching those who touch the larger pipeline exports.
The first tanker, the United Leadership, is still lingering off the Moroccan coast after it attempted to deliver oil to the North African country’s Mohammedia refinery at the start of this month. The government told the vessel, laden with 1 million barrels of oil, to vacate its waters pending a final decision.
The second tanker, the United Emblem, sailed from Ceyhan to Malta last week, but the buyer of this cargo remained unclear.
After the first tanker loaded, the central government in Baghdad filed a case for arbitration with the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) against Turkey and its state-run pipeline operator BOTAS, saying the obligations under the Iraq-Turkey Pipeline Agreement were breached.
Iraq and Kurdistan have been trying to reach a political agreement over oil sales, but five months after the startup of KRG pipeline, there still had been no final decision, prompting the regional government to go it alone.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Istanbul: Censorship on Women’s Legs Raises Eyebrows
(ANSAmed) — ISTANBUL, JUNE 16 — Censorship on ads featuring women’s bare legs in the streets of Istanbul raised eyebrows seven years after a ban on bikinis incited widespread fury at the municipality as daily Hurriyet online reported. Clear differences between the original ads and the images exposed on the billboards of Istanbul brought the interference with the photos into light. Comparisons with the original frames reveal that advertisements of several swimsuit, sock and underwear brands are being clipped to hide female legs. A company representative, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said they had cut women’s legs from the photos to receive approval from the Urban Design Directorate of the Istanbul Municipality. “Urban Design didn’t approve our ads and after going there and coming back several times, ads with numerous cuts left the women legless,” the company official told Hurriyet. Istanbul Municipality’s refusing to hang swimsuit companies’ ads depicting women in bikinis and swimsuits in 2007 had sparked a great public reaction. The municipality has denied the censorship, but companies have insisted on the contrary.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey Denies Turkish Citizens Fighting in ISIL Ranks
Turkey’s interior ministry has denied recent media claims that some 3,000 Turkish nationals were fighting in the ranks of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL, Anadolu Agency reported.
In a written statement issued on Friday, the ministry said daily Milliyet’s claim that ISIL had 3,000 Turkish members according to intelligence reports was “groundless” and there was no such report prepared by the country’s security and intelligence organizations.
The statement also categorically denied another report by Turkey’s daily Taraf which claimed Turkey was funding ISIL.
The ministry denounced the claim as “an imaginary one, a fabrication.”
ISIL, which has developed into a formidable force inside Syria, has extended its reach in Iraq since Tuesday, gaining near-complete control of the northern Iraqi city of Tikrit — Saddam Hussein’s birthplace — and capturing Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city.
The group seized large swaths of western Iraq’s Anbar Province in late December, including much of Fallujah and parts of Ramadi, flashpoints of the 2003 US-led war in the country.
Recent reports place their forces within 70 kilometers of the capital.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. May Discuss Iraq With Iran, Not Seeking Atomic Talks Extension
(Reuters) — The United States may discuss the security crisis in Iraq with Iran on the sidelines of this week’s nuclear talks in Vienna, a senior U.S. official said on Monday, in what could mark a momentous step in U.S. engagement with its longtime adversary…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Up to 400 British Citizens May be Fighting in Syria, Says William Hague
Foreign secretary confirms Britain could cancel passports or arrest any UK jihadists fighting in Syria or for Isis in Iraq
The foreign secretary, William Hague, has said that as many as 400 British citizens may be fighting in Syria, including some fighting with Isis, the terrorist force sweeping into Iraq. It is the highest number the UK government has disclosed, and prompted the deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, to say the presence of UK citizens fighting in Syria represents the number one security threat to the UK…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
US Considers “Direct Talks With Iran” To Intervene in Iraq
Washington and Tehran have an interest in curbing the growing threat posed by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, linked to al Qaeda terrorists). Today in Vienna the latest round of talks on Iran’s nuclear programme resumes.
Baghdad (AsiaNews/Agencies) — Washington is considering direct talks with Iran on the security situation in Iraq. The move comes few days after US President Barack Obama said that “the United States will not involve itself in military action in the absence of a political plan by the Iraqis.”
While the US and Iran are old adversaries, both have an interest in curbing the growing threat posed by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, linked to al Qaeda terrorists) and both are considering military support to the Iraqi government.
The US is said to be considering direct discussions with Tehran which could even take place as early as this week. Today the two countries will hold the latest round of talks on Iran’s nuclear programme in Vienna.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has said he will consider co-operation if the US takes action in Iraq.
Meanwhile, the US condemned as “horrifying” photos posted online by Sunni militants that appear to show fighters massacring Iraqi soldiers. In the scenes, the soldiers are shown being led away and lying in trenches before and after their “execution”. The Iraqi military said the pictures were real, but their authenticity has not been independently confirmed.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Putin Seeks Paris Landmark as Hollande’s Russia Ties Defy Obama
A stone’s throw from the Eiffel Tower and Paris’s famed Alexandre III bridge, Russia’s Vladimir Putin is putting his mark on the French capital.
Construction of a new Russian Orthodox church with five golden domes in central Paris gets under way in the next few weeks, with U.S. and European efforts to slam Putin’s Russia for its incursions into Ukraine doing little to halt its progress. The yet-to-be-named church is being built on a plot of land sold in 2010 to Russia by the French state for 73 million euros ($99 million). The deal was sealed by Former President Nicolas Sarkozy. His successor Francois Hollande’s government says it’s “determined” to see the monument erected.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Russia Cuts Ukraine’s Gas After Talks Fail
Europe risked gas supply disruptions Monday after Russia rejected an eleventh-hour compromise deal with Ukraine and cut its supplies in a feud that has further fractured East-West relations…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
2 Blasts Kill 5 Afghans, Wounds 5 Others
KABUL, June 16 (Xinhua) — At least five Afghans were killed and five others sustained injuries as two blasts hit Taliban former stronghold the southern Kandahar province and the relatively peaceful Mazar-e-Sharif city in the north of the conflict-ridden Afghanistan on Monday…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
For Bangkok, Migrant Workers Are “A Threat”. Cambodians Flee the Country
More than 110,000 Cambodians have fled Thailand to return home, fearing a crackdown on migrant workers after last month’s military takeover. The mass exodus comes after Thai Army spokeswoman Sirichan Ngathong on Wednesday said the junta viewed illegal workers as a “threat.”
Bangkok (AsiaNews/Agencies) — More than 110,000 Cambodians have fled Thailand to return home, fearing a crackdown on migrant workers after last month’s military takeover, an official said on Sunday. Laborers from Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar play a key role in Thai industries such as, agriculture and construction, but they often lack official work permits. On Wednesday, Thailand’s military regime had threatened to arrest and deport all illegal foreign workers.
Kor Sam Saroeut, governor of northwestern Banteay Meanchey province where the main Cambodian-Thai border crossing is locate: “They’re returning en masse. They’ve never come en masse like this before in our history. Most of them went to work in Thailand without a work permit. They are scared and when Thai authorities check their houses they don’t run: they prefer to being deported than being arrested or shot.”
The mass exodus comes after Thai Army spokeswoman Sirichan Ngathong on Wednesday said the junta viewed illegal workers as a “threat.” “We see illegal workers as a threat because there were a lot of them and no clear measures to handle them, which could lead to social problems,” she said.
Thai authorities have arranged nearly 300 cars and military trucks to transport workers from the Aranyaprathet-Poipet border checkpoint to their homes, according to Cambodian governor Saroeut.
Chea Thea, a construction worker, she said that she deciding to leave after seeing her compatriots were departing in large numbers.
Thai military officials were not immediately available for comment on the mass exodus. But on Friday a foreign ministry spokesman dismissed “rumors” that the army was rounding up illegal Cambodian migrants and ordering their deportation.
Soum Chankea, a coordinator for Cambodian rights group who has met many workers at the border, said the number of migrants returning to the country was growing each day.
The army has floated the idea of creating special economic zones in border areas to better manage the movement of migrant workers, although so far details of the plan remain vague.
On Friday Cambodia’s opposition leader Sam Rainsy wrote to Thailand’s Army Chief Prayuth Chan-o-Cha calling for Cambodian migrants to be “treated in line with international human rights standards.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistani PM Defends Major Anti-Taliban Offensive
ISLAMABAD, June 16 (Xinhua) — Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif Monday defended a major offensive against the Taliban and other militant groups in North Waziristan tribal region, saying the operation would continue till realization of its objective…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Taliban Will Burn Your Palaces in Islamabad, Lahore: Spokesman
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — The Taliban on Monday warned foreign firms to leave Pakistan and vowed retaliatory strikes against the government after the Pakistan Army launched a long-awaited offensive in a tribal area.
The statement came as Pakistan’s major cities braced for a backlash by deploying thousands of soldiers and paramilitaries while placing hospitals on high alert for incoming casualties. The offensive on North Waziristan was launched a week after a brazen insurgent attack on the Jinnah International Airport in Karachi…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Six Pakistani Soldiers Killed in Waziristan Roadside Bomb Attack
ISLAMABAD, June 16 (Xinhua) — A roadside bomb attack killed at least six Pakistani soldiers in North Waziristan tribal region on Monday, the military said.
Three other soldiers were injured in the blast triggered by an Improvised Explosive Device at Ghulam Khan area of North Waziristan, where the security forces have launched a major operation against the local Taliban and foreign militants, an army statement said…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Sri Lanka Muslims Killed in Aluthgama Clashes With Buddhists
At least three Muslims have been killed in overnight clashes with hardline Buddhists in southern Sri Lanka.
The men died of gunshot wounds near a mosque in the town of Aluthgama in what is seen as Sri Lanka’s worst outbreak of sectarian violence in years.
More than 78 others have been seriously injured in the violence, justice minister Rauf Hakeem said.
A curfew is in place in Aluthgama and nearby Beruwala. Muslims make up 10% of Sri Lanka’s mainly Buddhist population…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
China: Death Penalty for Tiananmen Deadly Attack
A court in western China sentences three people to death over a deadly car crash in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square last October. Four others received sentences ranging from five to 20 years in jail.
Urumqi (AsiaNews/Agencies) — Three people were sentenced to death for their roles in carrying out a deadly attack on Tiananmen Square last October. The Xinjiang Intermediate People’s Court also handed a life sentence to one suspect, among eight put on trial for allegedly planning the attack. Four of those received sentences ranging from five to 20 years in jail, state television said on its official microblog.
The trial started on June 13, and the sentence came out today, said CCTV. It identified two of the accused with names that sounded Uygur, the largest ethnic group in the violence-racked region of Xinjiang.
Two people were killed and 40 injured when a car ploughed into a crowd at the northern edge of Tiananmen, while the three people in the car also died. The government had blamed Islamic militants for the attack on October 28. Among those killed were a Chinese visitor and a tourist from the Philippines were killed, along with the vehicle’s driver, his wife and mother-in-law, according to Chinese authorities.
The attack was the first to strike Beijing in recent memory. It pointed to a new level of violence and lethal intent in the long simmering insurgency against Chinese rule in the far northwestern region of Xinjiang. It is home to the ethnic Uyghur, Turkic speaking peoples of Islamic religion, who have always sought to gain independence from Beijing. The central government, for its part, planted hundreds of thousands of Han Chinese in the region to try to make them the dominant ethnic group. It also imposes serious restrictions on freedom of religion, the practice of Islam, the teaching of the language and the local culture.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
China’s Police Chief Calls for Anti-Terrorist Readiness
BEIJING, June 16 (Xinhua) — Minister of Public Security Guo Shengkun on Monday told Chinese police to step up anti-terrorism measures and be prepared to cope with various risks and challenges “at any given time”.
Guo stressed that the police must fully realize the role of stability in ensuring the country’s reform, development and people’s happiness. “Work on intelligence and information gathering should be strengthened to take precautions, strike first and nip security risks in the bud,” said Guo, also a state councilor and leader of the national anti-terrorism leadership group, at a national police meeting.
According to the minister, rewards will be offered to whistleblowers concerning violence and terrorist cases, and cyberspace management will be intensified to prevent religious extremists from instigating crimes.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
China: Three in Tian’anmen Terror Attack Sentenced to Death
URUMQI, June 16 (Xinhua) — Three people were sentenced to death and five others were jailed on Monday by a court in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region over a terror attack near Beijing’s Tian’anmen Square in October 2013.
Urumqi Intermediate People’s Court sentenced Husanjan Wuxur, Yusup Umarniyaz and Yusup Ahmat to death after convicting them of organizing and leading a terrorist group and endangering public security…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Religious Debate Heats up as Mosque Decision Nears
POSSIBLY the most controversial building proposal in recent times — a $3 million mosque to be built in East Bendigo — will come before council this week. The facility, planned for Rohs Road in East Bendigo and funded by the Australian Islamic Mission, will feature two prayer halls, education facilities, a community sports hall and office…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
‘Islamists’ Attack Kenyan Coastal Town Killing 47
At least 47 people have died after suspected Islamist militants attacked hotels and a police station in a Kenyan coastal town, officials say.
Witnesses in Mpeketoni said gun battles went on for several hours and reported seeing buildings set on fire. The town is close to Lamu island, which is a well-known tourist resort.
Kenya has suffered a number of militant attacks since 2011 when its forces entered neighbouring Somalia to combat al-Shabab fighters.
The BBC’s Yusuf Dayo in Nairobi said the attack started at 20:30 local time (17:30 GMT) on Sunday as locals were watching a football World Cup match on television. Local residents told the BBC that the attackers had hijacked a van and used it to attack various locations across the town.
Witnesses said gunmen, who had their faces covered, threw explosives into the local police station before entering and stealing several weapons…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Kenya: Uhuru, Ruto Lead Crisis Talks After Mpeketoni Massacre
President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Deputy William Ruto are currently holding a crisis meeting with the country’s top security chiefs at State House, Nairobi following the Mpeketoni terrorist attack that has so far claimed 48 lives…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Somali militants who murdered 48 people in a Kenyan village as they watched the World Cup went door to door asking residents if they were Muslim or spoke Somali — and shot them dead if either answer was ‘no’, witnesses revealed today.
The attack on the coastal village of Mpeketoni, about 30-miles southwest of the tourist centre of Lamu, came at the end of a weekend of bloodshed that has exposed the world to the shocking depravity of terrorists, apparently emboldened by each other’s acts…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Nigeria: ‘Hundreds Dead’ In Boko Haram Village Rampage
Hundreds of people are feared dead in a suspected Boko Haram attack on four villages in northeast Nigeria, in the latest upsurge in violence claiming increasing numbers of civilian lives.
Some community leaders put the death toll from the Tuesday attacks in the Gwoza district of Borno state as high as 400 to 500, although there was no independent verification because of poor communications in the remote area.
If confirmed, the attacks in the villages of Goshe, Attagara, Agapalwa and Aganjara would be among the deadliest in the Islamists’ five-year insurgency and top the more than 300 who were killed on May 5 in nearby Gamboru Ngala.
“The killings are massive but nobody can give a toll for now because nobody has been able to go to that place because the insurgents are still there. They have taken over the whole area,” lawmaker Peter Biye told AFP.
“There are bodies littered over the whole area and people have fled,” added Biye, who represents Gwoza in Nigeria’s lower chamber of parliament, the House of Representatives.
Boko Haram’s bloody reign of terror in northeast Nigeria is forcing 800 people to flee from their homes every day and has claimed more than 3,000 lives in the past year, the Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) said.
Another 45 people were killed when suspected Boko Haram gunmen pretending to be itinerant preachers opened fire on a crowd in the village of Barderi near the Borno state capital, Maiduguri, on Wednesday evening.
One survivor, Mallam Bunu, said: “They… lied to us that they had come to preach to us and when almost all the villagers had gathered, another set of insurgents emerged from nowhere and opened fire on the congregation before we all scampered for safety.”
On Thursday four people were killed near the home of a state governor in northeast Nigeria when a pick-up truck loaded with grain bags exploded, a government source told AFP.
The blast happened near the private residence of Gombe state governor Ibrahim Dankwambo in the upscale Government Reserve area of the state capital.
Gombe state borders Borno, Yobe and Adamawa, which have been at the centre of the Islamist violence.
A separate attack was reported on Thursday in the town of Madagali, just 25 kilometres (15 miles) by road from Gwoza in Adamawa state.
Gunmen razed a Roman Catholic church and torched a local government office after firing at troops manning a nearby checkpoint, said the chairman of the local government in the town, Maina Ularamu.
No deaths had been confirmed, he added, although one resident reported that two civilians were killed in the crossfire.
Reports from Gwoza said the insurgents were stealing livestock and food and burning property with impunity, despite a year-long state of emergency in the restive region.
“Hundreds of dead bodies are lying there… because there is nobody that will bury them,” said one community leader in Attagara, who requested anonymity.
He said the attackers on Tuesday only spared women and that young boys were “snatched from the backs of their mothers and killed”.
Men, women and children fled the villages but gunmen on motorcycles tracked them down, shooting as they ran, he added.
Gwoza shares a border with Cameroon and is surrounded by mountains and the Sambisa forest, a known Boko Haram stronghold and the focus for a Nigerian military search for more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped on April 14.
Many people fled across the border as soldiers were deployed to fight the heavily armed Islamists, who hoisted their black flag over at least seven villages, Biye said on Wednesday.
The community leader described the situation as a grave “humanitarian crisis”, while others called for relief agencies to be allowed in to enable the dead to be buried.
Another elder, Zakari Habu, said women and the elderly were in desperate need of food, water, medication and shelter.
Nigeria’s National Emergency Relief Agency (NEMA) has previously said the country faces huge pressures in dealing with internally displaced people from Boko Haram attacks.
The IDMC, run by the Norwegian Refugee Council, added that 3.3 million Nigerians have been driven from their homes by the insurgency and other violence.
Military jets bombarded Boko Haram positions in the affected area to try to flush out the insurgents, Biye said on Wednesday.
In mainly Muslim Goshe, where the entire village of about 300 homes was razed with several mosques, local resident Abba Goni said “at least 100 people were killed”.
Bulus Yashi, who lives in predominantly Christian Attagara, said the attack seemed to be a reprisal for when four Boko Haram gunmen were killed after they opened fire on a church, leaving nine dead.
Another attempted raid on May 25 had been repelled, killing seven Boko Haram gunmen, he said.
Such attacks are generally seen as a response to villagers forming civilian vigilante groups against Boko Haram, who in turn accuse locals of helping the Nigerian military’s counter-insurgency.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Nigeria: Six Suspects Arrested While Planting Bomb in Imo Church
Six suspected Boko Haram members were arrested in Owerri, the Imo State capital in the early hours of yesterday inside the Winners’ Chapel along the Port Harcourt road by the state police command, while planting bombs in the church premises…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Children Born to Foreign Parents Down for First Time
But still account for 15% of Italy’s newborns, Istat says
(see related) (ANSA) — Rome, June 16 — The number of children born in Italy to foreign parents dropped in 2013 for the first time on record, Istat said in a report Monday. The number of births to foreign parents was nearly 19.878, down by 2,189 compared to 2012. However births to foreign parents still account for 15% of newborn babies Italy, as they did in 2012.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
More Italians Emigrating, Fewer Foreigners Immigrating
2013 flows down on 2012
(see related) (ANSA) — Rome, June 16 — Italian statistics agency ISTAT on Monday reported an increase in Italian migration abroad and a notable slowdown in foreign migration to Italy in 2013.
In a report, ISTAT stated that 2013’s international migration to Italy was reported at 182,000 units, a decrease from previous years. The statistics agency said that more Italians moved abroad while there was a decline in the numbers of foreigners moving to Italy.
Overall, internal and international migration has declined since 2012, and is focused on north and central regions.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
On Italy’s Immigration Front Line
Augusta, Sicily is hot and humid and smells of fuel.
The Italian naval ship ITS Etna is re-fuelling and the sickly sweet odour is creeping under the ship’s heavy metal doors and along its alleyways. In a few hours we set sail, heading south, to the new front in Italy’s immigration crisis…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Ship Rescues 356 in Med, One Syrian Dead
Heading for Augusta
(ANSA) — Augusta, June 16 — A Kuwaiti-flagged oil tanker took 356 migrants to this Sicily port Monday after loading them from a fishing smack which rescued them Sunday in the Sicilian Channel.
The human cargo included one dead Syrian man, believed to have succumbed to the arduous conditions of the perilous crossing from Libya.
Almost 50,000 migrants have crossed to Italy this year, more than the total for the whole of last year, as Italy’s Mare Nostrum rescue operation tries to save all comers.
Dozens have died
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Gay Officer ‘Weeded Out’ of Turkish Police Force
Many gay officers have been dismissed by the Turkish police force due to their sexual orientation.
The Interior Ministry has defended the dismissal of a policeman due to his sexual orientation, on the grounds that the law stipulates “the weeding out of these kinds of public servants,” daily Milliyet reported June 16.
Security forces had raided the house of a policeman in Istanbul in 2009, following an informant’s notice that he had child porn videos in his home computer. The criminal accusation proved groundless, but “evidence” showing that the officer was gay triggered an internal investigation.
The High Discipline Board of the Interior Ministry then discharged the officer from public service, stating that he had “committed disgraceful and shameful acts that conflict with the quality of a public servant.”
According to Milliyet, the officer sued the ministry to be returned to his duties as a policeman, but the 8th Administrative Court in Istanbul dismissed the case.
He then carried the case to the Council of State, where a judge reported that the acts cited by the ministry as justification for dismissal were within the scope of private life, which is under the protection of the Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights. As a result, there was no justification for the disciplinary motion. However, the 12th Chamber of Council of State then unanimously ruled to decline the officer’s request for a stay of execution to stop his dismissal.
The Interior Ministry’s opinion letter sent to the Council of State was even more controversial, according to Milliyet. Adnan Türkdamar, a deputy legal advisor at the ministry, stated in the letter that the officer in question occasionally stayed at the same house as two men while living with a woman, describing it as “a disgraceful and shameful act.”
“There is no doubt that practicising public duty through civil servants who have lost the required reputation would shake the individuals’ trust in the administration and lead to undesirable developments in the relationship between people and the administration. The law takes precautions to prevent such a danger and stipulates the weeding out of these kinds of public servants from the administrative organs through their dismissal,” the ministry’s opinion letter said.
June/16/2014
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
New Methane-Hunting Tool Could Boost Search for Alien Life
Astronomers now have a powerful new tool to sniff out methane on alien planets. The organic molecule, considered one of the building blocks of life, could be key to finding organisms beyond Earth.
Using supercomputers, a team of scientists developed a new absorption spectrum for methane that’s 2,000 times more comprehensive than previous models and can detect the molecule at temperatures up to 2,228 degrees Fahrenheit (1,220 degrees Celsius), higher than ever before.
“We’ve probably been waiting for this paper for 10 or 20 years,” said MIT astrophysicist and exoplanet hunter Sara Seager, who was not involved in the study.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Salafi-Jihadists: “A Persistent Threat” To Europe and America
by Soeren Kern
The other key reason for the growing threat, the report says, is due to American disengagement and a significant scaling back of counterterrorism efforts.
“A complete withdrawal of U.S forces from Afghanistan by 2016 could seriously jeopardize U.S. security interests…. The United States should also consider a more aggressive strategy…. The failure to weaken… jihadist groups will likely have serious repercussions for the United States.” — RAND report.
The European report also calls attention to the misuse of charities and other non-profit organizations to collect funds for terrorist entities.
In keeping with strict conformity to European multiculturalism and moral relativism, the European Union refused to classify two of the most high-profile terrorist attacks in 2013 as “religiously inspired terrorism.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
” And the British government has now outlawed ISIS.”
I knew Britain would do something logical AND VERY EFFECTIVE against ISIS. It would be as effective as the outlaw of Hamas. Just see HAMAS is almost dead because of Britain.
Muslim countries are supporting each other against Czech Republic: why no Europeans countries (cowards) support the Czechs? Do Europeans have normal, humanitarian feelings?
Listen to Hague:
“Up to 400 British Citizens May be Fighting in Syria,” Says William Hague
Did you notice how clever western politicians are? He knows what is happening in his vast empire. He also know that they are fighting in Syria. But does he know why? Is their infidel welfare money enough to cover their trip and give them strong muscles? Infidel money, drink and food, history has shown, benefits muslim health and bones more than food earned by their sweat. Infidels are humanists, when they see muslims sweat they quickly offer them what they have . . . stupidly.
Clever William Hague will escape prosecution as the law that outlaws the aiding and abetting of ISIS presumably can not be applied retrospectively.
What’s in a name anyhow when the fundamentals are the same they can now focus the material aid (of their own destruction) to the more banally named Free Syrian Army.