2014年10月24日星期五

Yahoo! News: Iraq

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Yahoo! News: Iraq


Gunman in Canada attack complained about mosque

Posted: 24 Oct 2014 04:27 PM PDT

A police officer guards the National War Memorial in Ottawa, Ontario, on Thursday, Oct. 23, 2014. Canadians are mourning the loss of Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, the army reservist who was shot dead as he stood guard before the Tomb of the Unknown soldier on Wednesday. Flags were flown at half-staff to honor Cirillo, a 24-year-old a reservist from Hamilton, Ontario, whose shooting on Wednesday began an attack that ended with a lone gunman storming into Parliament and opening fire before being shot dead himself. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Adrian Wyld)VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — The gunman who shot and killed a soldier in plain daylight then stormed Canada's Parliament once complained that a Vancouver mosque he attended was too liberal and inclusive, and was kicked out after he repeatedly spent the night there even though officials told him to stop, Muslim leaders said Friday.


Egypt declares emergency in northern Sinai

Posted: 24 Oct 2014 04:26 PM PDT

In this photo provided by Egypt's state news agency MENA, Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, center, holds an emergency meeting of the National Defense Council with top officials after an attack in the Sinai Peninsula, in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, Oct. 24, 2014. The coordinated assault on an army checkpoint in the Sinai Peninsula killed 30 Egyptian troops on Friday, making it the deadliest single attack in decades on the military, which has been struggling to stem a wave of violence by Islamic extremists since the overthrow of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi. El-Sissi, the former defense minister and army chief who overthrew Morsi last year, declared a three-day mourning period. (AP Photo/MENA)EL-ARISH, Egypt (AP) — A coordinated assault on an army checkpoint in the Sinai Peninsula killed 30 Egyptian troops on Friday, making it the deadliest single attack in decades on the military, which has been struggling to stem a wave of violence by Islamic extremists since the overthrow of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.


Attacks in Egypt's Sinai kill 33 security personnel

Posted: 24 Oct 2014 04:18 PM PDT

By Yusri Mohamed ISMAILIA (Reuters) - Two attacks in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula killed 33 security personnel on Friday, security sources said, in some of the worst anti-state violence since Islamist President Mohamed Mursi was overthrown last year. The violence prompted Egypt to declare a three-month state of emergency in parts of North Sinai, where the violence took place, the state news agency reported. ...

A REVISIONIST TAKE ON PRESIDENT OBAMA

Posted: 24 Oct 2014 03:31 PM PDT

LOS ANGELES -- "Democrats Worry Obama Is Helping Their Rivals" was the headline over an article last Friday in the Los Angeles Times. I think that was the one thousandth piece I have read in the last couple of months saying that the president has low approval ratings and will hurt Democratic candidates in November's Senate and House elections. Maybe. But I also notice that a certain early revisionism is popping up about the difficult presidency of Barack Obama. ...

Residents scrub hate messages off Canadian mosque

Posted: 24 Oct 2014 03:07 PM PDT

Graffiti covers the front of the Cold Lake Mosque, near a large Canadian air force base where CF-18 fighter jets recently departed for IraqBy Frazer Snowden COLD LAKE Alberta (Reuters) - Residents of the small Canadian city of Cold Lake gathered on Friday to scrub away hate messages that had been scrawled in paint on the walls of a mosque and replace them with posters reading "Love your neighbour" and "You are home." The battle of words playing out on the facade of the Cold Lake Mosque follows two separate deadly attacks on Canadian soldiers this week by extremist Muslim converts, including one on Wednesday that spilled into Canada's parliament building. ...


US-led aircraft hit IS in Iraq with 12 strikes: Centcom

Posted: 24 Oct 2014 02:51 PM PDT

A militant of Islamic State (IS) is seen just after an air strike on Tilsehir hill near the Turkish border on October 23, 2014, at Yumurtalik villageUS and allied aircraft pounded the Islamic State group on Thursday and Friday with 12 air strikes in Iraq and six raids near the contested Syrian town of Kobane, the American military said. US Central Command, which is overseeing the air war against the jihadists, announced the latest round of air raids after the French military said a coalition operation overnight had dropped dozens of bombs on an IS arsenal and training camp in northern Iraq. US-led warplanes -- including fighter jets and drones -- carried out three air raids southeast and west of the Mosul Dam in the north, destroying two vehicles and a mortar position, Central Command said in a statement. Three strikes south of the Baiji oil refinery struck two small units and destroyed a vehicle, and two strikes near Baiji targeted an IS training camp, it said.


Has ISIS Crossed a New Red Line?

Posted: 24 Oct 2014 02:27 PM PDT

Has ISIS Crossed a New Red Line?Throughout this unrelenting spate of recent Middle Eastern conflicts, the specter of chemical weapons have spurred the drawing of red lines and the sending of arms. For ISIS, its bloody advance across Iraq and Syria was cause enough to inspire American airstrikes as well as the arming of opposition forces, but now the radical Sunni Islamist group is also being accused of committing attacks using chemical weapons.


Exclusive: Canada's financial intelligence agency gets 'useful' data after attacks

Posted: 24 Oct 2014 02:02 PM PDT

Police officers take cover near Parliament Hilll following a shooting incident in OttawaBy David Ljunggren OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada's financial intelligence agency asked institutions to quickly report suspicious transactions in the wake of two deadly attacks this week and has received data "useful to our intelligence efforts," a spokesman said on Friday. The Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre (FINTRAC) was set up in 2000 to combat money-laundering and ensures the compliance of 31,000 financial entities doing business in Canada. It sent a message to all 31,000 on Wednesday - the day of the second fatal attack - stressing the need for quick reports. ...


Poll: 2 of 3 Americans say IS threat is important

Posted: 24 Oct 2014 01:48 PM PDT

FILE - In this Oct. 14, 2014 file photo, President Barack Obama speaks during a meeting with more than 20 foreign defense ministers on the ongoing operations against the Islamic State group, at Andrews Air Force Base, Md. Nearly two-thirds of Americans believe the threat posed by the Islamic State militants is a very important issue, and fewer than half approve of the way President Barack Obama is handling the danger posed by them, according to an Associated Press-GfK poll. Forty-six percent of the Americans surveyed say the U.S. military response in Iraq and Syria has not gone far enough and a majority think America's partners need to up their game in the fight. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)WASHINGTON (AP) — Sixty-five percent of Americans now say the threat from the Islamic State group is very or even extremely important, and nearly half think the U.S. military response in Iraq and Syria has not gone far enough, according to an Associated Press-GfK poll. Most want to see America's partners step up their contribution to the fight,


Peshmerga set to reinforce Syria's Kobane

Posted: 24 Oct 2014 01:30 PM PDT

People look at the Syrian town of Kobane from the Turkish border, near the southeastern village of Mursitpinar, October 24, 2014Iraq's Kurds unveiled plans Friday to send fighters to help defend the Syrian border town of Kobane, amid uncertainty over a separate deployment of Syrian rebels announced by Turkey. US-led air strikes have helped Kobane's defenders, but commanders have complained that their forces are exhausted and need help after holding out against a relentless assault from the Islamic State (IS) group for more than five weeks. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had earlier said the Syrian Kurds had "accepted 1,300 people from the (mainly Arab) Free Syrian Army and they are holding talks to determine the transit route."


Canada seeks to beef up security after attacks

Posted: 24 Oct 2014 01:21 PM PDT

Police officers do a search of the area at the National War Memorial on October 23, 2014, in Ottawa, OntarioIn the aftermath of two deadly attacks on Canadian soil this week and amid growing concerns over the radicalization of local youths, Ottawa is quickly moving to bolster its surveillance capabilities. The attacks on soldiers outside Montreal on Monday and in Ottawa on Wednesday came just days after Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney announced draft legislation to give new powers to Canada's spy agency. The legislation was to be unveiled in parliament on Wednesday, when a gunman fatally shot a soldier at Ottawa's war memorial before storming the halls of parliament, where he himself was shot dead. The proposed amendment to the 1984 Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) Act will be "unveiled soon," Blaney's spokesman told AFP.


Rand Paul’s Tactic for Winning Over a Nervous GOP: Invoke Reagan

Posted: 24 Oct 2014 01:11 PM PDT

Rand Paul's Tactic for Winning Over a Nervous GOP: Invoke ReaganEvery presidential hopeful makes a requisite foray into the weeds of foreign policy at some point, and Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) on Thursday night began his. In remarks delivered at the Center for the National Interest in New York, the likely candidate for the Republican nomination in 2016 staked out a position somewhere between his isolationist father and the interventionist neoconservative movement that largely controlled U.S. Concerned that Rand Paul might be too reluctant to commit American troops abroad?


Putin accuses US of undermining global stability

Posted: 24 Oct 2014 01:02 PM PDT

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Russia, Friday, Oct. 24, 2014. The United States is destabilizing the global world order by trying to enforce its will, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared Friday, warning that the world will face new wars if Washington fails to respect the interests of other countries. (AP Photo/RIA-Novosti, Mikhail Klimentyev, Presidential Press Service)MOSCOW (AP) — President Vladimir Putin of Russia said Friday that the world is becoming an increasingly dangerous place because of U.S. attempts to enforce its will on other countries and that his nation will not comply.


Canada to deliver spy agency bill next week, more to come

Posted: 24 Oct 2014 01:02 PM PDT

By Euan Rocha and Randall Palmer BRAMPTON Ontario/OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada will introduce legislation next week to give more powers to its spy agency, a bill that will be largely unchanged from one drafted before this week's attack in Ottawa, a government source said on Friday. The government will put forward more measures later, the source said, and they will include wider powers to address security threats in the wake of the killing this week of two soldiers and the assault on Parliament on Wednesday. ...

Militant group said to be using chlorine bombs

Posted: 24 Oct 2014 12:25 PM PDT

A man watches fighting across the border in Kobani from a hilltop on the outskirts of Suruc, near the Turkey-Syria border, Friday, Oct. 24, 2014. Kobani, also known as Ayn Arab, and its surrounding areas, has been under assault by extremists of the Islamic State group since mid-September and is being defended by Kurdish fighters. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)MURSITPINAR, Turkey (AP) — New allegations have emerged that Islamic State extremists have expanded their arsenal with chlorine bombs and captured fighter jets — weapons that could help the militants in Iraq and Syria.


Four Reasons the U.S. Will Be Much Tougher With ISIS

Posted: 24 Oct 2014 11:52 AM PDT

Four Reasons the U.S. Will Be Much Tougher With ISISOne of the most important things Congress will have to do after the election will be to ratify a new Defense Department budget and provide specific authorization to President Obama to continue to wage air strikes and other military action against ISIS in Iraq and Syria. Many Republicans and Democrats are likely to formally embrace the broad outlines of President Obama's plan to "degrade and ultimately destroy" the Islamic terrorists by mounting strategic airstrikes against ISIS forces and emplacements and training and arming friendly "moderate" Syrian rebels to eventually go after ISIS forces on the ground.  Obama has repeatedly cautioned that it will take years for the U.S.


Canada’s Top Cop Wants More Terror Arrests, But Needs Evidence

Posted: 24 Oct 2014 11:06 AM PDT

Canada's Top Cop Wants More Terror Arrests, But Needs EvidenceRCMP Commissioner Says No Arrests Imminent After Parliament Shooting, But He'd Rather They Were


Exasperation in Calais as Britain-bound migrants pour in

Posted: 24 Oct 2014 11:00 AM PDT

Immigrants wait behind a lorry at a stop sign in the northern French city of Calais, on October 24, 2014Calais (France) (AFP) - "Fed up", an expression that comes up again and again in the French port city of Calais where residents are faced with a growing tide of hungry, penniless migrants sleeping rough.


International financial watchdog warns on Iran, North Korea

Posted: 24 Oct 2014 10:52 AM PDT

PARIS (Reuters) - An international financial watchdog said on Friday member states should take action to ward off risks emanating from Iran and North Korea, which it said had failed to tackle money-laundering and financing of terrorism. The Financial Action Task Force, made up of 37 countries as well as the European Commission and Gulf Cooperation Council, said financial institutions should give special attention to business deals and transactions with Iran and North Korea. ...

U.S. reports more air strikes against Islamic State in Syria and Iraq

Posted: 24 Oct 2014 09:59 AM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. aircraft carried out six strikes against Islamic State militants near the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani on Thursday and Friday, the U.S. military's Central Command said. It also said U.S. and allied forces had launched 12 air strikes against Islamic State targets in Iraq, including near Mosul Dam, near the Baiji oil refinery and near Falluja, since Thursday. (Reporting by Mohammad Zargham; Editing by Jim Loney)

Terror supporter sentencing delayed in FBI sting

Posted: 24 Oct 2014 09:58 AM PDT

MIAMI (AP) — Sentencing has been delayed for a man convicted in South Florida of supporting terrorists in a case where an undercover FBI agent used Internet chats to pose as a financing middleman.

US seeking to confirm if IS militants used chlorine gas

Posted: 24 Oct 2014 09:43 AM PDT

A flag of the Islamic State (IS) is seen in Iraq on September 11, 2014.Washington is seeking more information on reports that Islamic State militants used chlorine gas against Iraqi police officers last month, US Secretary of State John Kerry said Friday. The Washington Post reported Friday that 11 Iraqi police offices had been rushed to a hospital some 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Baghdad last month suffering from dizziness, vomiting and shortage of breath. They were diagnosed as having been the victims of a poisoned gas attack allegedly unleashed by militants from the Islamic State group.


Pulitzer-winning play 'Disgraced' probes identity, prejudice

Posted: 24 Oct 2014 09:43 AM PDT

By Patricia Reaney NEW YORK (Reuters) - A dinner party in an elegant New York apartment goes terribly wrong in "Disgraced," the Pulitzer Prize-winning play about ambition, race, religion and identity that opened on Broadway. The five-character drama by writer Ayad Akhtar that began its run on Thursday night at the Lyceum Theatre after an earlier staging in New York in 2012 examines prejudices and relationships in post-Sept. 11 America.

Tunisia police kill 6 'militants' ahead of key polls

Posted: 24 Oct 2014 09:37 AM PDT

Members of the Tunisian military move to a position near a besieged house in the town of Oued Ellil near on October 24, 2014Tunisian police killed six suspected militants, five of them women, in a raid on a suburban house Friday after a 28-hour standoff, fanning tensions ahead of a landmark election. Two children were hospitalised after security forces stormed the home near Tunis, a day after a policeman was killed in a firefight with the suspects, interior ministry spokesman Mohamed Ali Aroui said. He said their father, whose earlier arrest led police to the house, was a member of Ansar al-Sharia, a jihadist group branded a terrorist group by Washington. The North African nation is preparing to deploy tens of thousands of soldiers and police for its first parliamentary polls Sunday since an uprising three years ago that inspired the Arab Spring revolutions.


Kurds reject Erdogan report of deal with Syrian rebels to aid besieged Kobani

Posted: 24 Oct 2014 09:11 AM PDT

Smoke rises over the Syrian town of Kobani after an airstrike, as seen from the Mursitpinar crossing on the Turkish-Syrian border in the southeastern town of SurucBy Humeyra Pamuk and Sylvia Westall ISTANBUL/BEIRUT (Reuters) - A senior Syrian Kurdish official on Friday rejected a report from Turkey's president that Syrian Kurds had agreed to let Free Syrian Army fighters enter the border town of Kobani to help them push back besieging Islamic State insurgents. The Free Syrian Army is a term used to describe dozens of armed groups fighting to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad but with little or no central command. They have been widely outgunned by Islamist insurgents such as Islamic State. ...


Iraqi officials say IS militants used chlorine gas

Posted: 24 Oct 2014 09:02 AM PDT

BAGHDAD (AP) — Islamic State militants used chlorine gas during fighting with security forces and Shiite militiamen last month north of Baghdad, Iraqi officials said Friday.

Car bomb kills at least 25 security forces in Egypt's Sinai

Posted: 24 Oct 2014 08:49 AM PDT

ISMAILIA (Reuters) - A car bomb killed at least 25 Egyptian security personnel in the Sinai Peninsula on Friday, security sources said, in some of the worst violence against the state since Islamist President Mursi was overthrown last year. More than 25 people were wounded in the attack in the al-Kharouba area northwest of al-Arish, near the border with the Gaza Strip, the sources said. Medical sources said they expected the number of casualties to increase because some of the wounded were in critical condition. ...

Tunisian forces kill six after standoff with militants outside Tunis

Posted: 24 Oct 2014 08:44 AM PDT

Tunisian soldiers patrol a residence in Oued Ellil, west of TunisBy Tarek Amara TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisian security forces on Friday killed six people, including five women, after a standoff with an Islamist militant group on the outskirts of Tunis two days before a parliamentary election, authorities said. The raid on the house in Oued Ellil, west of Tunis, was the latest operation in Tunisia's crackdown on Islamist militants authorities say threaten the country's transition to democracy following the 2011 fall of Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali. ...


France announces big air raid against Islamic State in Iraq

Posted: 24 Oct 2014 08:36 AM PDT

France's Rafale fighter jets took part in the raid on a jihadist training centre situated in the Kirkuk region of northern IraqThe international coalition currently battling the Islamic State group in Iraq dropped around 70 bombs on an arsenal and jihadist training centre in a large-scale overnight raid, the French military said Friday. The operation is a success," France's Chief of the Defence Staff Pierre de Villiers told Europe 1 radio, adding the raid took place in the Kirkuk region of northern Iraq. France's Rafale fighter jets took part in the operation, which destroyed buildings in which IS militants "produced their traps, their bombs, their weapons to attack Iraqi forces," he said. Since it announced it would take part in the US-led coalition in September, France has carried out seven rounds of air strikes over Iraq but it has so far refused to join the United States in its air war against IS in Syria.


Putin accuses United States of damaging world order

Posted: 24 Oct 2014 08:12 AM PDT

La dacia di Stalin in Crimea passa a PutinBy Alexei Anishchuk LAURA Russia (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the United States on Friday of endangering global security by imposing a "unilateral diktat" on the rest of the world and shifted blame for the Ukraine crisis onto the West. In a 40-minute diatribe against the West that was reminiscent of the Cold War and underlined the depth of the rift between Moscow and the West, Putin also denied trying to rebuild the Soviet empire at the expense of Russia's neighbors. ...


Dramatic footage shows moment gunman stormed Canada parliament

Posted: 24 Oct 2014 08:11 AM PDT

This image from a close circuit video shown during an October 23, 2014 press conference at Royal Canadian Mounted Police headquarters in Ottawa shows supected shooter Michael Zehaf-Bibeau (circled) running towards the Canadian ParliamentCanadian police have released dramatic surveillance footage showing the moment a gunman suspected of planning to travel to Syria to fight alongside Islamic militants breached security at parliament after shooting dead a soldier. The footage emerged Thursday as officials said they had found no evidence of a wider plot following another deadly attack on Monday -- also by a young Canadian convert to Islam who had sought to leave for Syria. The prospect of more such strikes was at the forefront of many minds in Canada, as a society proud of its reputation for openness and tolerance grappled with a new menace. Canadian authorities were scrambling to probe the background of the young men, the first of whom ran his car over a soldier, killing him, and another who shot the soldier at a war memorial before storming parliament and being gunned down.


Tunisian forces raid home, kill 6 suspects

Posted: 24 Oct 2014 08:08 AM PDT

A Tunisian soldier gives a thumbs up to celebrate the end of a raid against gunmen in the Oued Ellil suburb of Tunis, Tunisia, Friday, Oct. 24, 2014. Tunisian authorities stormed the home of suspected militants to end a 24-hour standoff Friday, leaving five women and one man dead in a suburb of Tunis, the capital. Responding to a tipoff Thursday, police had surrounded the home in Oued Ellil and were shot at by the inhabitants, who killed one policeman. One gunman was killed and another captured during the Friday morning raid and one child and a security forces member were wounded, the state news agency said.( AP Photo/Aimen Zine)TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — Tunisian counterterrorism forces stormed a home in a Tunis suburb on Friday after a 24-hour standoff, killing six people and seriously wounding a child, an official said.


Iraq Kurds to send up to 200 fighters to Syria next week

Posted: 24 Oct 2014 06:44 AM PDT

Kurdish Peshmerga fighters take positions in the Gwer district, south of Arbil, the capital of the Kurdish autonomous region in northern IraqIraq's autonomous Kurdish region will next week send up to 200 fighters to aid the defenders of the embattled Syrian border town of Kobane, an official announced Friday, drawing objections from some lawmakers. The town on the Turkish border has become a crucial battleground in the fight against the Islamic State (IS) group, which overran large parts of Iraq in June and also holds significant territory in Syria. "The forces that will be sent are support forces and their number will not exceed 200 fighters," Halgord Hekmat, spokesman for the Kurdish ministry responsible for the peshmerga, told AFP. The deployment, which comes at a time when Kurdish forces are still engaged in heavy fighting against IS militants in Iraq, stretches the bounds of regional autonomy and has drawn flak from some federal lawmakers.


Islamic State keeps up Syrian oil flow despite U.S-led strikes

Posted: 24 Oct 2014 06:12 AM PDT

Smoke and dust rise over Syrian town of Kobani after an airstrike, as seen from the Mursitpinar crossing on the Turkish-Syrian border in the southeastern town of SurucBy Suleiman Al-Khalidi AMMAN (Reuters) - Islamic State is still extracting and selling oil in Syria and has adapted its trading techniques despite a month of strikes by U.S.-led forces aimed at cutting off this major source of income for the group, residents, oil executives and traders say. While the raids by U.S. and Arab forces have targeted some small makeshift oil refineries run by locals in eastern areas controlled by Islamic State, they have avoided the wells the group controls. ...


Smugglers offer $20 passage from Turkey to Syria

Posted: 24 Oct 2014 05:34 AM PDT

FILE - In this Sept. 28, 2014 file photo, Syrians are seen at the Turkish border crossing of Oncunipar, Kilis, Turkey. The Turkish border crossing of Oncunipar, an hour's drive from the embattled Syrian town of Aleppo, is a chaotic buzz of people waiting to pass into one of the most violent regions in the world. Border guards stand by with machine guns to prevent Islamic militants from joining the flow, but within their sight smugglers offer to take travelers across for a surprisingly small fee. (AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici, File)ONCUPINAR, Turkey (AP) — The Turkish border crossing of Oncupinar, an hour's drive from the embattled Syrian city of Aleppo, is a chaotic buzz of people waiting to pass into one of the most violent regions in the world. Border guards stand by with machine guns to prevent Islamic militants from joining the flow, but within their sight smugglers offer to take travelers across for a surprisingly small fee.


Syrian Kurd leader sees war of 'attrition' in Kobani

Posted: 24 Oct 2014 03:52 AM PDT

BEIRUT (Reuters) - The battle for the Syrian town of Kobani will turn into a war of attrition unless Kurds defending it from an Islamic State onslaught get arms that can repel tanks and armored vehicles, a Syrian Kurdish leader told a pan-Arab newspaper. Islamic State insurgents encircled the town near the Turkish border more than a month ago and are using weapons including tanks and armored vehicles seized in Iraq to attack Kurds equipped mainly with light arms. ...

France says air strikes take out weapons arsenal in Iraq

Posted: 24 Oct 2014 03:09 AM PDT

PARIS (Reuters) - French fighter jets destroyed 12 buildings in Iraq holding an arsenal of weapons under control of Islamic State militants, France's chief of staff of armed forces said on Friday. "Tonight we undertook a big operation in Iraq in which we destroyed buildings in which Daesh (Islamic State) was producing traps, bombs, arms to attack the Iraqi forces," Pierre de Villiers told Europe 1 radio. France was the first country to join the U.S.-led coalition in air strikes on IS insurgents in Iraq in September and has stepped up the pace of its air strikes this month. ...

Three Kurdish militants killed in attack on Turkish power plant

Posted: 24 Oct 2014 02:25 AM PDT

DIYARBAKIR Turkey (Reuters) - Turkish soldiers killed three Kurdish militants who were part of a group that attacked a power plant in the eastern province of Kars, Turkish sources said on Friday. Fighters from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) set fire to two vehicles and a cabin at the plant in Kagizman district, and shot at soldiers who returned fire, the general staff said in a statement on its website. Three PKK guerrillas were killed and a search was launched for the others, a security source said. ...

Overnight French raid destroys IS arms center

Posted: 24 Oct 2014 01:38 AM PDT

PARIS (AP) — France's military chief says an overnight air raid has destroyed an arms depot for the Islamic State group in Iraq.

US officials see signs of new life in Iraqi army

Posted: 24 Oct 2014 01:38 AM PDT

FILE - In this Oct. 6, 2014, file photo, Army soldiers search Iraqis amid tight security during Eid al-Adha celebrations in Baghdad, Iraq. Iraq's fractured army has begun to regroup and stage modest, localized attacks on the Islamic State militants who routed them last spring and summer, but they are unlikely to be ready to launch a major counteroffensive for many months, senior U.S. military officials said Thursday. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim, File)MACDILL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. (AP) — Iraq's fractured army has begun to regroup and stage modest, localized attacks on the Islamic State militants who routed them last spring and summer, but they are unlikely to be ready to launch a major counteroffensive for many months, senior U.S. military officials say.


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