| France and Saudis 'finalising' $3bn Lebanon arms deal: official Posted: 01 Sep 2014 04:15 PM PDT  France and Saudi Arabia are close to signing a $3 billion arms deal for Lebanon, the Elysee Palace said Monday following talks between President Francois Hollande and the Saudi crown prince. The deal is for military equipment and arms to be supplied to Lebanon's army. Hollande told an official dinner at the Elysee presidential palace attended by Prince Salman bin Abdul Aziz, who is also the Saudi deputy prime minister and defence minister, that Lebanon was a "great but vulnerable country" which "needs security".
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| US helicopter crashes in Gulf of Aden; all rescued Posted: 01 Sep 2014 01:47 PM PDT WASHINGTON (AP) — A Marine Corps helicopter with 25 aboard crashed Monday in the Gulf of Aden, and all aboard were rescued, the Navy said. |
| The answer to Islamic State: by sword – or word? Posted: 01 Sep 2014 01:22 PM PDT As world leaders try to counter the killing spree of the militant group Islamic State, better known as ISIS, they should take note of this trend: More Muslim leaders are challenging the group's core message that faith can be compelled by the threat of violence. Rather, the Islamic State is also mistaken in a more fundamental way: It demands an outward conformity in behavior, such women being veiled in public or men wearing beards, as a necessary first step for a person to achieve an understanding of doctrine. The more Muslims stand up for the idea that faith is first from the heart – a personal commitment to the peace and selflessness that all major religions teach – the more likely is it that young Muslims will decide not to join IS. The ultimate response to this jihadi advance, in other words, is active persuasion by the world's one billion Muslims about their peaceful approach to faith. |
| Fidel Castro compares NATO to Nazis, lashes out at US Posted: 01 Sep 2014 01:15 PM PDT  Cuban ex-president Fidel Castro lashed out at the United States and Europe on Monday, accusing them of war-mongering and comparing the NATO military alliance's representatives to the Nazi SS. In a tortuous column published in Cuban state media, the father of the island's communist revolution also attacked US Senator John McCain over United States policy in the Middle East, calling him "Israel's most unconditional ally."
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| IS fears make Gulf monarchies set aside differences Posted: 01 Sep 2014 01:04 PM PDT  Advances by jihadists in Syria and Iraq, and US calls for a coalition against them have made Gulf monarchies set aside disputes over Qatar's support for the Muslim Brotherhood, analysts say. Wary of spectacular gains made by Islamic State jihadists, the oil-rich monarchies fear the militants could advance towards their own borders, where the extreme ideologies could find support. "The biggest danger (in the Gulf) comes now from these (emerging) terrorist groups, and not from the Muslim Brotherhood," said Abdulaziz Sager, head of the Gulf Research Centre think-tank.
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| ISIS Turning Old Enemies into Awkward Allies Posted: 01 Sep 2014 12:56 PM PDT  US Attacks Joined With Militia Advised by Iran
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| Exodus from Hasakeh as Syria hunts jihadists Posted: 01 Sep 2014 12:37 PM PDT  Raids by Syrian forces hunting suspected Islamic State infiltrators in the northeast town of Hasakeh have sparked an exodus of more than 60,000 civilians in three days, a monitor said Monday. Hasakeh is split between zones controlled by President Bashar al-Assad's forces, Kurdish groups and militants from the radical IS group, which is sowing terror in both Syria and neighbouring Iraq. "No fewer than 60,000 residents have fled Hasakeh's Ghuiran district since Friday, after air raids by regime forces," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. "The regime claims there are IS fighters in the neighbourhood, and that's why they are bombarding it," its chief Rami Abdel Rahman said.
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| Iraq violence killed at least 1,420 in August: U.N. Posted: 01 Sep 2014 12:37 PM PDT  At least 1,420 people were killed in Iraq in August as sectarian violence raged in the country's center and north, the United Nations said on Monday. A further 1,370 Iraqis were wounded and 600,000 people forced to flee as Islamic State militants, who have grabbed large areas of territory since June, pushed into land controlled by Kurdish troops and targeted religious minorities. "Thousands continue to be targeted and killed by ISIL (Islamic State) and associated armed groups simply on account of their ethnic or religious background. The true cost of this human tragedy is staggering," the U.N. representative in Iraq, Nickolay Mladenov, said.
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| Iranians play role in breaking IS siege of Iraqi town Posted: 01 Sep 2014 12:18 PM PDT  By Isabel Coles AMERLI Iraq (Reuters) - Kurdish peshmerga fighters and Shi'ite militiamen paraded through Amerli on Monday, a day after breaking the two-month siege of the northern town by Sunni Islamist militants. The scenes in Amerli and the surrounding area of Suleiman Beg offered a window into the teamwork among Kurdish fighters, the Iraqi army and Shi'ite militias and into Iran's role in directly assisting their campaign against Islamic State (IS) forces. The swift end to the Islamic State's encirclement of the Shi'ite Turkmen town of 15,000 came on Sunday amid a push by Kurdish peshmerga, Shi'ite militias and Iraqi troops, after U.S. Militia fighters spoke of a new alliance with the Kurds, who had been shaken by the Islamic State's offensive on Kurdish-controlled territories last month.
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| Saudi court jails 17 for seeking to fight in Iraq: SPA Posted: 01 Sep 2014 11:58 AM PDT A Saudi Arabian court jailed 17 men for up to 26 years on Monday for seeking to fight in Iraq and funding militants, official media reported, part of a security crackdown in which scores have been imprisoned in recent weeks. Worried about potential threats from citizens who have traveled to join Islamist insurgents in Syria and Iraq, Saudi Arabia has banned them from fighting abroad, donating money to any faction or sympathizing with militant ideologies. The official Saudi Press Agency reported that the 17 were sentenced to terms of imprisonment ranging from 2-1/2 years to 26 years. The men were charged with following extremist ideology, disobeying the country's leadership by planning to fight in Iraq, coordinating the travel of some "misled" members of society and trying to turn public opinion against the state. |
| Iraqi prime minister pledges to root out militants Posted: 01 Sep 2014 11:44 AM PDT  BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq's outgoing prime minster pledged Monday to turn his country into "a big grave" for Sunni militants from the Islamic State group and commended security forces who achieved a rare victory over insurgents by ending the siege of a Shiite town.
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| Obama notifies Congress of ordering air strikes in Iraq's Amerli Posted: 01 Sep 2014 11:37 AM PDT  President Barack Obama formally notified the U.S. Congress on Monday that he had authorized air strikes and humanitarian airdrops over the weekend in the Iraqi Shi'ite town of Amerli where Islamic State militants had trapped the civilian population. Iraqi security forces backed by Shi'ite militias on Sunday broke the two-month siege of Amerli and entered the northern town after the U.S. Obama said in a letter to congressional leaders he was notifying Congress of his decision under the long-standing War Powers Resolution, which gives presidents authorization for temporary military action.
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| Britain unveils powers to strip suspected Islamist fighters of passports Posted: 01 Sep 2014 11:36 AM PDT By William James and Kylie MacLellan LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister David Cameron on Monday announced plans to strip suspected Islamist militants of their passports temporarily, to combat the threat posed by radicalized Britons returning from Syria and Iraq. The proposals come days after Cameron raised Britain's terrorism alert to its second-highest level, saying Islamic State (IS) in Syria and Iraq posed the country's greatest-ever security risk. "We have all been shocked and sickened by the barbarism we have witnessed in Iraq this summer," Cameron told parliament. Currently only Britain's interior minister has the power to withdraw a passport. |
| U.N. to send team to investigate Islamic State crimes in Iraq Posted: 01 Sep 2014 11:29 AM PDT  By Stephanie Nebehay GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations agreed on Monday to send investigators to Iraq to examine crimes being committed by Islamic State militants on "an unimaginable scale", with a view to holding perpetrators to account. "We are facing a terrorist monster," Iraq's human rights minister, Mohammed Shia' Al Sudani, told the U.N. Human Rights Council which adopted a resolution tabled by Iraq and France at an emergency sitting of the 47-member state forum in Geneva. The Council aims to send 11 investigators, with a total budget of $1.18 million, to report back by March 2015.
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| US jets strike jihadists around Iraqi dam Posted: 01 Sep 2014 11:26 AM PDT  The United States carried out another round of air strikes Monday against militants from the so-called Islamic States battling Iraqi and Kurdish forces near a major dam in northern Iraq. The Mosul Dam, just north of the city of the same name, has become a focus of fighting between jihadists and Kurdish forces since the United States launched an air campaign last month. US Central Command said US jets had continued their bombardment of IS positions on Sunday and Monday. Since US aircraft went into action they have carried out 123 separate strikes, more than half of them in defense of the dam, and have helped Kurdish and Iraqi troops reverse some recent IS gains.
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| Merkel says arms aid for Iraqi Kurds also defends Europe Posted: 01 Sep 2014 11:16 AM PDT  German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday defended a watershed decision to send arms to Iraqi Kurds battling jihadist militants, saying Europe's own security was at stake. Merkel told parliament that Germany's move to break with a post-war policy of refusing to send weapons into conflict zones was crucial in strife-torn Iraq, the scene of "inconceivable atrocities" against civilians. "We have the opportunity to save lives and stop the further spread of mass murder in Iraq," Merkel said during an impassioned 25-minute speech. The German government announced late Sunday that it would send military equipment including anti-tank rocket launchers, rifles and hand grenades, to Iraqi Kurds fighting to stop Islamic State (IS) militants.
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| UN Human Rights Council to send mission to Iraq to probe IS crimes Posted: 01 Sep 2014 10:32 AM PDT  The UN Human Rights Council on Monday unanimously agreed to send an emergency mission to Iraq to investigate Islamic State atrocities, as Baghdad warned the country was "facing a terrorist monster". The 47 members of the United Nations' top rights body accepted without a vote a resolution urging the probe presented by Iraq and supported by more than 100 states. The diplomats reached their decision after spending the day listening to details of horrendous abuses and crimes attributed to the jihadist group calling itself the Islamic State, including massacres, forced conversions, abductions, slavery, sexual violence and the use of children as soldiers and suicide bombers. "We are facing a terrorist monster," Iraqi Human Rights Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani told the council, decrying acts "equivalent to genocide and crimes against humanity".
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| Merkel: Arming Kurds in Germany's interest Posted: 01 Sep 2014 10:26 AM PDT  BERLIN (AP) — Chancellor Angela Merkel has told lawmakers that it's in Germany's interests to arm the Kurdish fighters who are battling Islamic extremists in Iraq.
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| Obama notifies Congress of airstrikes in Iraq Posted: 01 Sep 2014 10:20 AM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama has sent official notification to Congress of his order for last week's airstrikes and humanitarian aid drops to help Iraqis threatened by Islamic State militants.
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| Western Governments Step Up Efforts to Block ISIS Recruits Posted: 01 Sep 2014 10:13 AM PDT  Britain Wants to Confiscate Passports of People Trying to Join ISIS
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| UN backs inquiry of IS group's alleged crimes Posted: 01 Sep 2014 09:55 AM PDT  GENEVA (AP) — The U.N.'s top human rights body on Monday overwhelmingly approved the Iraqi government's request for an investigation into alleged crimes against civilians committed by the Islamic State group in its rampage across northeastern Syria and parts of Iraq.
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| UK: Passports could be seized to fight terrorism Posted: 01 Sep 2014 09:52 AM PDT  LONDON (AP) — Prime Minister David Cameron on Monday proposed new laws that would give police the power to seize the passports of Britons suspected of having traveled abroad to fight with terrorist groups.
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| UK announces tougher measures against homegrown jihadists Posted: 01 Sep 2014 09:47 AM PDT  Prime Minister David Cameron announced tougher measures Monday against Britons planning to fight in Iraq and Syria, and battle-hardened jihadists who could return to launch attacks on home soil. Cameron said his government would draw up measures to ban suspects who are British nationals from returning to the UK, while police will get enhanced powers to temporarily strip departing suspects of passports at the border. He announced the measures in parliament after Britain raised its terror threat risk level to "severe" on Friday -- meaning an attack is thought "highly likely" -- due to fears over the situation in Iraq and Syria. Some 500 British jihadists are estimated to be fighting in the two countries, both of which are facing a major offensive from the Islamic State (IS) militant group.
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| Defending arming of Kurds, Merkel calls Islamic State a threat to Europe Posted: 01 Sep 2014 09:32 AM PDT By Noah Barkin BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel defended her government's taboo-breaking decision to send arms to Kurds fighting Islamic State militants in Iraq, telling parliament on Monday that the group posed a major security threat to Germany and Europe. A day after Berlin announced it would send anti-tank rockets, assault rifles and hand grenades to the Kurds, Merkel said Germany had a responsibility to intervene in the conflict to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe in Iraq, citing evidence of ethnic cleansing by Islamic State fighters. |
| U.N. to send investigators to Iraq to investigate Islamic State crimes Posted: 01 Sep 2014 09:32 AM PDT GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations Human Rights Council on Monday condemned violations committed by Islamic State forces in Iraq that may amount to international crimes and agreed to send a mission to investigate them. The forum adopted a resolution presented by France and Iraq without a vote, but South Africa's delegation said it disassociated itself from the text as it lacked balance. "We are facing a terrorist monster," Iraq's human rights minister, Mohammed Shia' Al Sudani, told the emergency session in Geneva. "Acts by ISIS threaten not only to Iraq but the whole region and world. ... |
| As Islamic State fighters begin to blend in, defeating them no easy matter Posted: 01 Sep 2014 09:15 AM PDT  By Isabel Coles and Peter Apps BAQIRTA Iraq/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - (This story has been refiled to fix a typo in the third paragraph, "involving", to make it "evolving") After their lightning takeover in June, flag-waving Islamic State militants paraded through the captured Iraqi city of Mosul in looted U.S.-built Humvees, armored cars and pickup trucks mounted with heavy machine guns. Today, many have ditched military-type vehicles that could make them easy targets of U.S. It is unclear how the Islamic State's tactics will further change as a result of the reclaiming of the strategic Mosul Dam by Iraqi government and Kurdish forces or Sunday's dramatic retaking of Amerli, where thousands had been cut off from food and water, but clearly battlefield strategies are evolving on both sides.
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| Republican says 'hundreds' of Americans have joined Islamic State. True? Posted: 01 Sep 2014 08:27 AM PDT Have hundreds of disaffected Americans traveled overseas to train as terrorists with the brutal Islamic State? He said that IS foreign fighters – Canadian and British citizens, as well as Americans – now pose "a very serious threat" to US interests. IS, also known as ISIS and ISIL, has focused on seizing slices of Syria and Iraq to create what it calls a new Islamic caliphate. A US citizen named Douglas McCain died fighting with IS troops in Syria last month. |
| Maliki vows Iraq will be 'graveyard' for jihadists Posted: 01 Sep 2014 08:02 AM PDT  Outgoing Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki vowed Monday that Iraq will be a "graveyard" for jihadists as he visited the Shiite town of Amerli after the breaking of an 11-week siege. "Iraq will be a graveyard for (the Islamic State)," the two-term premier said in televised remarks from the town, referring to the powerful jihadist group. Iraqi security forces, Shiite militiamen and Kurdish fighters launched a major operation on Saturday to lift the siege of Amerli, a town in Salaheddin province, northeast of Baghdad, where thousands of mainly Shiite Turkmen residents had been trapped.
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| Body of slain soldier returned to Lebanese army Posted: 01 Sep 2014 07:58 AM PDT BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon's military received the remains of a soldier Monday who was held by Islamic militants, the state-run news agency said. The soldier, Sgt. Ali Sayid, was believed decapitated. |
| Battle lines drawn in struggle for influence over Turkish judiciary Posted: 01 Sep 2014 06:57 AM PDT  By Ozge Ozbilgin and Daren Butler ANKARA/ISTANBUL (Reuters) - One of Turkey's most senior judges warned against government interference in the judiciary on Monday, signaling a looming struggle for influence over the courts as President Tayyip Erdogan pursues a drive against his political foes. Sworn in as head of state last week, Erdogan has vowed to press a struggle against U.S.-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, an ally-turned-arch-enemy whom he accuses of using influence within the judiciary and police to try to seize the levers of state power. The power struggle dogged Erdogan's final months as prime minister and saw him purge thousands of police and hundreds of judges and prosecutors, steps that raised concern among Western allies and investors about judicial independence in Turkey.
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| Macedonia detains more than 100 illegal immigrants from Syria, Iraq Posted: 01 Sep 2014 06:46 AM PDT Macedonian authorities have detained more than 100 illegal immigrants, mostly from Syria and Iraq, who were found hiding in a train carrying coal from neighboring Greece, the interior ministry said on Monday. The immigrants were discovered late on Sunday in Veles, a town in central Macedonia. "It was difficult to communicate with most of them, they didn't know where they are, where they are coming from or where they were going," said interior ministry spokesman Ivo Koteski. He said information police had managed to gather suggested they had crossed into Turkey from neighboring Syria and Iraq and were then smuggled into Greece. From there they were supposed to travel through Macedonia into Serbia before continuing towards Western Europe. |
| British 'jihadist' mum threatens to behead Christians: reports Posted: 01 Sep 2014 06:25 AM PDT  A middle-aged British mother-of-two and former rock band member has joined jihadists in Syria and wants to behead Christians with a "blunt knife", British media reported. The reports identified the woman as Sally Jones, 45, from Kent in southeast England, and said she now goes by the name Sakinah Hussain, or Umm Hussain al-Britani. Security experts estimate that hundreds of Britons have gone to the Middle East to join the Islamic State (IS) militant group, the most brutal to emerge out of Syria's bloody civil war and the most successful. The well-funded group controls large swathes of Syria and Iraq and has proved adept at using social media to boost its profile, attract recruits and terrify enemies with images of mass executions and battlefield victories.
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| Syrian rebels, government clash in Golan Heights Posted: 01 Sep 2014 06:20 AM PDT  BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian rebels clashed with government troops on Monday in the Golan Heights, where al-Qaida-linked insurgents abducted U.N. peacekeepers last week, activists said.
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| Even the Pope Wants to Stop ISIS; Shouldn’t Obama? Posted: 01 Sep 2014 03:15 AM PDT Many members of Congress are fully committed to a bombing campaign. "The threat ISIS poses only grows over time," Senators McCain and Graham wrote in Sunday's New York Times. President Obama, who has always stood among the war-weary, wavers per usual. "The irony of the Obama administration, it's going to get a lot more militarized in the last two years," Brooks told the hosts of All Things Considered. |
| 1,420 people killed in Iraq in August: UN Posted: 01 Sep 2014 03:03 AM PDT  Violence in Iraq left at least 1,420 people dead in August as Iraqi forces fought to regain areas overrun by jihadist-led militants, the United Nations said on Monday. It said the figures did not include Anbar province, west of Baghdad, and that there were difficulties in verifying incidents in areas where there was fighting or which were outside government control. Kurdish fighters with US air support have managed to claw back some of the lost ground in the north, and there has also been heavy fighting northeast of Baghdad.
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| Britain to pass new laws to counter homegrown Islamist fighters Posted: 01 Sep 2014 02:59 AM PDT  Prime Minister David Cameron will announce new laws on Monday to try to stop radicalized Britons returning from Syria and Iraq launching attacks on British soil, after a video purportedly showed a London-accented man beheading a U.S. The announcement, expected around 1030 ET, comes after Cameron raised Britain's terrorism alert to its second-highest level last week saying Islamic State (IS) in Syria and Iraq posed the country's greatest ever security risk. Ministers from Cameron's Conservative party say the new laws are needed to beef up Britain's defenses against the threat that those who have been radicalized and fought alongside Islamic extremists could return home with violent intent. Hours before its announcement, the package of measures had yet to be finalised, with the junior partner in Britain's two-party coalition government wary of bringing in new laws that could limit civil liberties.
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| Islamic State poses global threat, Iraqi minister says Posted: 01 Sep 2014 02:43 AM PDT  Islamic State has committed barbaric acts against civilians in Iraq, threatening the country's territorial integrity and posing a global threat, the Iraqi government's human rights minister said on Monday in an appeal for international support. "The land of ancient Babylon is subjected to threats starting to its very independence, they are attempting to change its demographic and cultural composition," Mohammed Shia' Al Sudani told an emergency debate at the U.N. Human Rights Council.
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| Lawmakers: Islamic State groups wants to hit US Posted: 01 Sep 2014 01:23 AM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — Cities in the United States and Western Europe are being eyed as Islamic State militants' future targets and President Barack Obama needs to take action, U.S. lawmakers say.
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| Weak investment, trade drive second quarter contraction in German economy Posted: 01 Sep 2014 12:21 AM PDT  Weak investment spending and slow trade led Germany to contract for the first time in over a year in the second quarter, data showed, suggesting Europe's largest economy is running out of steam just as the impact of the crisis in Ukraine starts to bite. Germany's Federal Statistics Office confirmed on Monday an earlier estimate showing a 0.2 percent contraction in seasonally-adjusted gross domestic product (GDP) on the quarter. "The second-quarter contraction was a reaction to the strong first quarter so I think we'll return to moderate positive growth in the third ... but there's no shortage of uncertainty factors at the moment," said Thilo Heidrich, an economist at Postbank, referring to the standoff between Moscow and the West over Ukraine and the crisis in Iraq. Gross capital investment in Germany fell by 2.3 percent and construction investment dropped by 4.2 percent, in part due to a mild winter which boosted building activity in the first quarter.
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