| Gunman in Canada attack prepared video of himself Posted: 26 Oct 2014 04:47 PM PDT  TORONTO (AP) — A gunman who shot and killed a soldier at Canada's national war memorial and then stormed Parliament before he was gunned down had prepared a video recording of himself that police say shows he was driven by ideological and political motives, police said Sunday.
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| After victory in key Iraqi town, time for revenge Posted: 26 Oct 2014 01:54 PM PDT  JURF AL-SAKHAR Iraq (Reuters) - After helping government forces break Islamic State's grip over a strategic town just south of Baghdad on Saturday, Shi'ite militias decided it was time for payback. A Reuters witness saw the fighters in green camouflage uniforms scream and swear at members of the Islamist group as they kicked and struck them with rifle butts in Jurf al-Sakhar. As the angry crowd of militiamen around the unarmed militants swelled, shots rang out. The three men lay soaked in blood in the dirt with gunshot wounds to the head. "Those dogs are Chechens. ...
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| German police injured in clashes with far-right protesters Posted: 26 Oct 2014 12:23 PM PDT  Berlin (AFP) - At least 13 German riot police were injured Sunday in clashes with far-right hooligans rallying against Islamist extremism in the western city of Cologne, a police spokesman told SID agency, an AFP subsidiary.
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| Kurds thwart new IS bid to cut off Syria's Kobane Posted: 26 Oct 2014 12:17 PM PDT  Kurdish forces thwarted a new attempt Sunday by Islamic State group fighters to cut off the Syrian town of Kobane from the border with Turkey before Iraqi Kurdish reinforcements can deploy. The pre-dawn assault marked the fourth straight day the jihadists had attacked the Syrian side of the border crossing as the Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters prepare to head for Kobane, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Kurdish forces, backed by US-led air strikes, have been holding out for weeks against an IS offensive around Kobane, which has become a high-profile symbol of efforts to stop the jihadist advance. The US military said in its latest update that American warplanes carried out five air strikes near Kobane on Saturday and Sunday, destroying seven IS vehicles and an IS-held building.
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| No direct combat for Iraqi Kurds in Kobani, ISIS loses ground in Iraq Posted: 26 Oct 2014 11:37 AM PDT  By Isabel Coles and Ahmed Rasheed ARBIL/BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi Kurdish forces will not engage in ground fighting in the Syrian town of Kobani but provide artillery support for fellow Kurds fending off Islamic State militants there, a Kurdish spokesman said on Sunday. Islamic State fighters have been trying to capture Kobani for over a month, pressing on despite U.S.-led air strikes on their positions and the deaths of hundreds of their fighters. ...
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| Women on front lines in Syria, Iraq against IS Posted: 26 Oct 2014 11:12 AM PDT  SURUC, Turkey (AP) — Just over a year ago, Afshin Kobani was a teacher. Now, the Kurdish Syrian woman has traded the classroom for the front lines in the battle for Kobani, a town besieged by fighters from the Islamic State extremist group.
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| Gulf oil producers seen riding out price plunge Posted: 26 Oct 2014 11:03 AM PDT  Energy kingpin Saudi Arabia and other wealthy Gulf states are set to resist pressure to tighten the taps significantly to shore up oil prices as the global economy stumbles, analysts say. Fortunately for the six nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) -- which sit on 40 percent of the world's oil and a quarter of its natural gas -- they are flush with cash, analysts said. "The GCC states are in a strong position to remain steadfast for a few years" if there is a dispute over production, Kuwaiti oil analyst Mussa Maarafi said. "Saudi Arabia and most Gulf states will not be bothered a lot, at least in the short term" and "will be able to resist pressure to cut production and lose market share", Maarafi, a former member of Kuwait's Supreme Petroleum Council, told AFP.
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| Erdogan says Syrian Kurds 'don't want' peshmerga in Kobane Posted: 26 Oct 2014 10:46 AM PDT  Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the main Kurdish party in Syria of not wanting Kurdish peshmerga fighters from Iraq to help it fight Islamic State jihadists trying to overrun the town of Kobane, reports said Sunday. Erdogan said that the Syrian Kurdish party the Democratic Union Party (PYD), which has been leading the defence of Kobane, fears losing its influence in northern Syria when the peshmerga arrive in the coming days.
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| More U.S. air strikes target Islamic State fighters in Syria and Iraq Posted: 26 Oct 2014 10:30 AM PDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. military forces conducted five air strikes against Islamic State targets near the embattled Syrian city of Kobani and with the help of partner nations another 12 separate strikes in Iraq, the U.S. Central Command said on Sunday. "In Syria five air strikes near Kobani destroyed seven ISIL vehicles and an ISIL building," Central Command said in a statement, using another acronym for Islamic State. In Iraq nine air strikes were made around the strategic Mosul Dam and three air strikes southeast of Fallujah. ... |
| Family ties can be a candidate's blessing or curse Posted: 26 Oct 2014 10:20 AM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — Ah, the family. They can be a candidate's sounding board, worthy surrogates and an attractive image for a television ad.
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| Fighting shakes Lebanon's north as army battles Islamists for third day Posted: 26 Oct 2014 10:02 AM PDT  By Nazih Siddiq TRIPOLI Lebanon (Reuters) - Lebanese soldiers battled Islamist gunmen across northern Lebanon for a third day on Sunday in the worst fighting linked to the civil war in neighboring Syria since militants briefly seized a border town in the summer. Four soldiers died in Sunday's clashes, bringing the total killed to 10 since militants began fighting the army on Friday following an army raid on a militant cell in northern Lebanon. Seven civilians and about 12 militants have also been killed, security sources say, and dozens wounded. ...
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| Iraqi Kurds to offer artillery support, not direct combat, in Kobani Posted: 26 Oct 2014 09:56 AM PDT ARBIL Iraq (Reuters) - Iraqi Kurdish forces will not engage in direct combat in the Syrian town of Kobani but are to provide artillery support for fellow Kurds fending off Islamic State militants there, the regional government's spokesman told Reuters on Sunday. Islamic State fighters have been trying to capture Kobani, also known as Ayn al-Arab, for over a month, pressing their assault despite U.S.-led air strikes on their positions and the deaths of hundreds of their fighters. ... |
| Iraq PM seeks more Jordan help to battle IS Posted: 26 Oct 2014 09:31 AM PDT  Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi called for greater cooperation with Jordan in the battle against the Islamic State jihadist group, as he held talks Sunday in Amman, state media reported. Jordan, which borders Iraq's Anbar province, much of which has been overrun by IS, is one of several countries taking part in US-led air strikes against the jihadist group that began in Iraq but has since been expanded to Syria. Abadi met separately with King Abdullah II and Prime Minister Abdullah Nsur. He briefed Nsur on what he called "security and terrorist challenges facing Iraq, particularly ones from Daesh which is destroying Iraqi civilisation," Jordan's state news agency Petra said.
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| Iraqi troops retake control of Sunni town Posted: 26 Oct 2014 07:52 AM PDT  BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi soldiers backed by Shiite militiamen retook control Sunday of a Sunni town seized previously by Islamic militants, said an Iraqi official and state-run TV, a rare victory for Iraqi security forces that have been battling to regain areas lost to the militants.
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| In Turkey, Syrian women and girls increasingly vulnerable to exploitation Posted: 26 Oct 2014 05:00 AM PDT In the refugee camps and crowded Turkish towns on the border with Syria, impoverished Syrian women and girls are falling prey to criminal rings that are forcing them into sexually exploitative situations ranging from illicit marriages to outright prostitution.The phenomenon has grown over the past year, corrupting Syrian traditions and drawing a class of Turkish "customers" who are taking advantage of the refugees' desperate circumstances.The Syrian women who fall into the trap of these arrangements are often young widows or divorcées who have no strong social or family networks. ... |
| Jihadists flock to Libya's remote south to train Posted: 26 Oct 2014 03:11 AM PDT  Libya's remote desert south has become a haven for north African jihadists who have set up training camps in what has traditionally been a hotbed of arms smuggling, experts say. Oil-rich Libya slid into chaos after veteran dictator Moamer Kadhafi was toppled and killed in a NATO-backed uprising three years ago. Weapons looted from his arsenal have made their way to the so-called "Salvador Triangle", a no-man's land formed by the porous borders of Libya, Algeria and Niger, experts say. On October 10, France said its forces had destroyed a convoy belonging to Al-Qaeda's north African branch in Niger that was carrying arms from Libya to Mali.
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| US struggles to turn the tide in war against IS Posted: 25 Oct 2014 10:19 PM PDT  After more than two months of air strikes, a US-led coalition has prevented the fall of a northern Syrian town to Islamic State jihadists but is still struggling to halt the group's advances on other fronts, experts say. Since the air war on the IS militants began on August 8, the United States and its allies have few concrete successes to point to as the IS group has continued to roll ahead in western Iraq and tighten its grip elsewhere. "We're in the first couple of minutes of the ball game," said one senior officer at US Central Command, which oversees the air campaign. Senior US administration officials and military commanders acknowledged in recent days the Iraqi army is months away from any sustained counter-offensive that could roll back the IS from its strongholds in Iraq's western and northern provinces.
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| Canadians flock to Parliament Hill, site of attack on soldier Posted: 25 Oct 2014 07:36 PM PDT  By Richard Valdmanis OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadians returned to the reopened grounds of their parliament building on Saturday, three days after a homegrown radical rushed in armed with a rifle after killing a soldier in the second domestic attack in a week on the country's military. The grounds of the hilltop gothic building, whose clock tower is a centerpiece of Ottawa's skyline, attracted scores of visitors, many still stunned by Wednesday's attack, which took place as Prime Minister Stephen Harper was meeting with lawmakers. ...
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| Egypt's Sinai in lockdown after bomb kills 30 troops Posted: 25 Oct 2014 11:26 AM PDT  Egypt imposed a state of emergency Saturday across parts of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula as the military pounded suspected jihadists after a suicide car bombing killed 30 soldiers. Friday's bombing was the deadliest attack on security forces since the army deposed Islamist president Mohamed Morsi last year, to the fury of his supporters. The state of emergency in the north and centre of the Sinai will remain in place for three months, the president's office said. Egypt also announced it would close the Rafah crossing into the Gaza Strip, the only entry to the Palestinian territory not controlled by Israel.
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