| Al Qaeda Syria unit executes dozens of rivals in Raqqa: activists Posted: 12 Jan 2014 04:28 PM PST  By Khaled Yacoub Oweis AMMAN (Reuters) - The al Qaeda-linked Islamist State of Iraq and the Levant executed dozens of rival Islamists over the last two days as the group recaptured most territory it had lost in the northeastern Syrian province of Raqqa, activists said on Sunday. One of the activists, who spoke from the province on condition of anonymity, said up to 100 fighters from the Nusra Front, another al Qaeda affiliate, and the Ahrar al-Sham brigade, captured by ISIL in the town of Tel Abyad on the border with Turkey, the nearby area of Qantari and the provincial capital city of Raqqa, were shot dead. "About 70 bodies, most shot in the head, were collected and sent to the Raqqa National hospital," the activist said. The fact that Nusra Front and Ahrar al-Sham are ideologically similar to the ISIL did not matter," he added.
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| Al Qaeda Syria unit executes dozens of rival Islamists: activists Posted: 12 Jan 2014 03:40 PM PST The al Qaeda-linked Islamist state of Iraq and the Levant executed dozens of rival Islamists over the last two days as the group recaptured most territory it had lost in the northeastern Syrian province of Raqqa, activists said on Sunday. One of the activists, who spoke from the province on condition of anonymity, said up to 100 fighters from the Nusra Front, another al Qaeda affiliate, and the Ahrar al-Sham brigade, captured by ISIL in the town of Tel Abiad on the border with Turkey, the nearby area of Qantari and the provincial capital city of Raqqa, were shot dead. |
| Iran's Zarif to visit Syria ahead of peace talks Posted: 12 Jan 2014 01:17 PM PST  Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif is due to travel to Tehran ally Damascus in the next few days, media reported Sunday, amid preparations for a Syria peace conference. Zarif was Sunday in Lebanon, which neighbours war-torn Syria, and said that his country is not seeking an invitation at all costs to the peace conference to be held in Switzerland on January 22. He is visiting Lebanon as part of a regional tour that will also take him to Iraq, Jordan and Syria, Iran's official Al-Alam Arabic-language television said, without giving further details.
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| Group linked to al Qaeda regains ground in northeast Syria Posted: 12 Jan 2014 11:17 AM PST By Khaled Yacoub Oweis AMMAN (Reuters) - A group linked to al Qaeda recaptured much of its stronghold in the northeast Syrian city of Raqqa on Sunday, activists said, dealing a blow to rival rebel groups backed by Gulf Arab and Western states. Fighting between the al Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and rival Islamists and more moderate rebels have killed hundreds of people over the last 10 days and shaken the hardline militant group led by foreign jihadists. In Raqqa, the only provincial capital under rebel control, activists said ISIL fighters battled remnants of rival Islamist units including the Nusra Front, another al Qaeda affiliate, in several neighborhoods. ISIL's growth has alarmed Western nations, who are pushing the opposition to attend peace talks in Switzerland in 10 days' time, and has helped President Bashar al-Assad to portray himself as the only secular alternative to Islamist extremism. |
| Activists: Nearly 700 dead in Syrian rebel clashes Posted: 12 Jan 2014 11:17 AM PST  BEIRUT (AP) — Rebel-on-rebel clashes have killed nearly 700 people over the past nine days in northern Syria in the worst bout of infighting among the opponents of President Bashar Assad since the country's civil war began, activists said Sunday.
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| 700 killed in Syria rebel-jihadist battle: monitor Posted: 12 Jan 2014 10:52 AM PST  Fierce fighting between jihadists and rival rebel groups in Syria has killed at least 700 in more than a week while hundreds more are missing, a monitoring group said Sunday. The Al-Qaeda-affiliated jihadist group, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), linked the violence to a peace conference on Syria slated to take place in Switzerland on January 22. The allegations came as Western powers on Sunday stepped up pressure on Syria's divided opposition to take part in the conference alongside representatives of President Bashar al-Assad's regime. "From January 3 to 11, the fighting killed 697 people, among them 351 rebels, 246 members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and 100 civilians," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
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| Bomb attacks kill at least 18 in Iraq Posted: 12 Jan 2014 10:39 AM PST Bombs killed at least 18 people in Iraq on Sunday, police and medics said, as the Shi'ite-led government sought to evict al Qaeda-linked militants from Falluja without a fight. No group claimed responsibility for the bombings, but Sunni Islamist insurgents have stepped up a violent campaign in the past year, engulfing Iraq in its worst bloodshed for five years. Sunday's deadliest blast was caused by a car bomb that killed nine people outside a bus terminal in the Allawi district of Baghdad, near the site of a suicide bombing four days ago at an airfield where 23 army recruits were slain. Another car bomb in Baghdad killed five people, while two bombs planted near a supermarket in the town of Tuz Khurmatu, about 175 km (110 miles) north of the capital, killed at least four people and wounded 28, police said. |
| Iraq violence kills 34 as Anbar employees back to work Posted: 12 Jan 2014 10:07 AM PST  Ramadi (Iraq) (AFP) - Nationwide violence killed 34 people on Sunday while civil servants west of Baghdad returned to work under tight security with Iraqi forces locked in a deadly two-week standoff with militants. Gunmen and security forces clashed west and south of Baghdad, while bombings and shootings struck the capital and in northern Iraq, areas that have all borne the brunt of a months-long surge in bloodshed. Armoured vehicles and tanks were meanwhile deployed at intersections in Ramadi, a former insurgent stronghold where authorities have wrested control of all but two neighbourhoods from militants as a crisis in surrounding Anbar province entered its 14th day.
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| Iraq's Maliki says army won't attack Falluja, militants must go Posted: 12 Jan 2014 09:51 AM PST By Suadad al-Salhy and Alistair Lyon BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Sunday ruled out a military assault on Falluja, saying he wanted to spare the city more carnage and give Sunni Muslim tribesmen time to expel al Qaeda-linked fighters. "We want to end the presence of those militants without any bloodshed because the people of Falluja have suffered a lot," he told Reuters in an interview in Baghdad, referring to the devastating assaults by U.S. forces to evict insurgents in 2004. Fighters of the al Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and their tribal allies took over Falluja and parts of the nearby city of Ramadi nearly two weeks ago at a time of Sunni anger with the Shi'ite-led government, stirred by a bloody raid to arrest a Sunni politician in Ramadi. Maliki said he had reassured fearful residents of Falluja that the army would not attack, but told them that they must take the city back from the militants who overran it on January 1. |
| Car bombs, clashes kill 21 civilians in Iraq Posted: 12 Jan 2014 09:06 AM PST  BAGHDAD (AP) — A series of car bomb attacks and clashes between security forces and militants around and north of Baghdad killed at least 21 civilians, officials said Sunday, amid an ongoing standoff between Iraqi forces and al-Qaida-linked militants west of the Iraqi capital.
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| Iraq's Maliki threatens to cut funds if Kurds pipe oil to Turkey Posted: 12 Jan 2014 08:30 AM PST  By Suadad al-Salhy and Alistair Lyon BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki threatened on Sunday to cut Kurdistan's share of the federal budget if the autonomous region exports oil to Turkey via a new pipeline without central government consent. The Kurdistan Regional Government said last week that crude had begun to flow to Turkey and exports were expected to start at the end of this month and then rise in February and March. "This is a constitutional violation which we will never allow, not for the (Kurdistan) region nor for the Turkish government," Maliki told Reuters in an interview. He reiterated Baghdad's insistence that only the central government has the authority to manage Iraq's energy resources.
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| Car bombs, clashes kill 18 civilians in Iraq Posted: 12 Jan 2014 07:59 AM PST BAGHDAD (AP) — Two car bombs targeted commuters in Baghdad and clashes between security forces and militants killed at least 18 civilians, officials said Sunday, amid an ongoing standoff between Iraqi forces and al-Qaida-linked militants west of the Iraqi capital. |
| UK dismisses complaint to ICC over Iraq 'abuse' Posted: 12 Jan 2014 07:37 AM PST  Britain said Sunday it was already dealing with cases of alleged abuse by its troops in Iraq after human rights lawyers sent a dossier to the International Criminal Court. The Ministry of Defence said action through the ICC in The Hague was unnecessary because the cases were either already under investigation or had been dealt with through various courts and processes. Lawyers have drawn on the cases of more than 400 Iraqis, dating from 2003 to 2008, arguing they represent "thousands of allegations of mistreatment amounting to war crimes of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment". The head of the army, General Sir Peter Wall, ex-defence secretary Geoff Hoon, and former junior defence minister Adam Ingram are among those named in the 250-page dossier, according to The Independent on Sunday newspaper.
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| Car bombings kill 13 civilians in Iraqi capital Posted: 12 Jan 2014 07:07 AM PST BAGHDAD (AP) — Two car bombs targeted Sunday morning commuters in Baghdad, killing at least 13 civilians, officials said, amid an ongoing standoff between Iraqi forces and al-Qaida-linked militants west of the Iraqi capital. |
| Graffiti to civil war: 3 years of Syrian turmoil Posted: 12 Jan 2014 06:27 AM PST  PARIS (AP) — It started as a challenge to Bashar Assad, scrawled in graffiti on a school in a small Syrian border town. Security forces swept into the school and rounded up a handful of boys.
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| Campaigners ask ICC to investigate alleged UK war crimes in Iraq Posted: 12 Jan 2014 05:25 AM PST  By Estelle Shirbon LONDON (Reuters) - Human rights lawyers and campaigners have asked the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate allegations of torture by British troops in Iraq, a move which the UK government dismissed as unnecessary on Sunday. A Berlin-based human rights group and a British law firm have submitted what they describe as 250 pages of analysis to the ICC's Office of the Prosecutor requesting action on alleged abuses between 2003 and 2008. The European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) and Public Interest Lawyers (PIL) said in a press release posted on the ECCHR website that there had been "systemic abuse" of Iraqi detainees during the British presence in Iraq which met the threshold of war crimes. An ICC spokeswoman declined immediate comment on the submission.
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| Back to work under tight security in violence-hit Iraq city Posted: 12 Jan 2014 02:47 AM PST  Ramadi (Iraq) (AFP) - Iraqi government employees returned to work under tight security in Ramadi on Sunday, but militants still held parts of the Anbar provincial capital and all of another nearby city. Armoured vehicles and tanks were deployed at intersections in Ramadi, an AFP journalist reported, while a police officer said militants controlled two areas in the city as a crisis in Anbar province entered its 14th day. Gunmen also hold Fallujah, another Anbar city and former insurgent stronghold located 60 kilometres (37 miles) from Baghdad.
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| Rare bombing in Iraq Kurdish region targets general Posted: 12 Jan 2014 01:54 AM PST  Sulaimaniyah (Iraq) (AFP) - A bombing targeting a general in northern Iraq Sunday damaged his vehicle but left him unharmed, an official said, the latest of several attacks in the normally peaceful Kurdish region in recent months. The magnetic "sticky bomb" attached to Brigadier General Bakhtiyar Fayikh's car detonated around 8:00 am (0500 GMT) outside his home in eastern Sulaimaniyah, the second-biggest city in the three-province autonomous region of Kurdistan. Fayikh is a member of the asayesh, Kurdistan's internal security force. Asayesh spokesman Rizgar Hama Amin said the blast damaged Fayikh's car but left him unharmed, while Fayikh himself told journalists the blast was a "terrorist operation".
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| Insight: War turns Syria into major amphetamines producer, consumer Posted: 12 Jan 2014 01:39 AM PST  By Stephen Kalin BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syria has become a major amphetamines exporter and consumer as the trauma of the country's brutal civil war fuels demand and the breakdown in order creates opportunity for producers. Drugs experts, traders and local activists say Syrian production of the most popular of the stimulants, known by its former brand name Captagon, accelerated in 2013, outpacing production in other countries in the region such as Lebanon. Reports of seizures and interviews with people connected to the trade suggest it generates hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenues in Syria, potentially providing funding for weapons, while the drug itself helps combatants dig in for long, grueling battles. Most other economic activity in Syria has ground to a halt in the past two years due to the violence, shortages and international sanctions.
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| Entrepreneur: Boost Calif. wages to $12-an-hour Posted: 12 Jan 2014 01:03 AM PST  LOS ANGELES (AP) — Democrats across the nation are eager to make increasing the minimum wage a defining campaign issue in 2014, but in California a proposal to boost the pay rate to $12 an hour is coming from a different point on the political compass.
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| Car bombing kills 9 civilians in Iraqi capital Posted: 12 Jan 2014 12:23 AM PST BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi officials say a car bomb at a bustling bus station in central Baghdad has killed at least nine civilians and wounded 16. |
| Today in History Posted: 11 Jan 2014 09:01 PM PST Today is Sunday, Jan. 12, the 12th day of 2014. There are 353 days left in the year. |
| South Korea to contribute $867 million for U.S. military forces in 2014 Posted: 11 Jan 2014 08:13 PM PST  South Korea said on Sunday it had agreed to pay 920 billion won ($866.86 million) in 2014 towards the cost of the U.S. military presence in the country, a rise of 5.8 percent from a year ago. U.S. and South Korean officials have struck a five-year cost sharing plan for 28,500 U.S. troops in the country after a series of negotiations since early last year. The deal, subject to South Korean parliament's approval, comes after Washington's decision to send more soldiers and tanks to South Korea next month as part of a military rebalance to Asia after more than a decade of war in Afghanistan and Iraq. "The U.S. side had demanded a large-scale hike, considering U.S. Forces Korea's strengthened readiness due to serious security situation in the Korean peninsula and its budget situation, but the government put the utmost efforts and drew agreement to an extent to minimize our burden," South Korea's foreign ministry said in a statement.
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| US, Iran find common ground in chaos of Middle East Posted: 11 Jan 2014 07:32 PM PST  To Iran, the United States was the "Great Satan," while Washington slammed Tehran as a "rogue state" that was part of an "axis of evil." But as chaos engulfs the Middle East, the two are cautiously eyeing ways to work together. An ideological chasm separates the Shiite Islamic republic from its long-time enemy in the West, yet overlapping concerns from Afghanistan to Syria and even Iraq are sowing the seeds of a hesitant rapprochement. Restoring full diplomatic ties, severed some 35 years ago amid the 1979 storming of the US Embassy in Tehran and the painful 444-day hostage-taking, remains far off on a distant horizon.
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