| Lawyer: Chelsea Manning faces possible solitary confinement Posted: 12 Aug 2015 04:08 PM PDT WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The lawyer for convicted national security leaker Chelsea Manning says her client faces charges for alleged prison infractions that carry a possible maximum sentence of indefinite solitary confinement. |
| In Nevada, Bush says key to winning is to campaign with joy Posted: 12 Aug 2015 03:26 PM PDT  RENO, Nev. (AP) — A day after sharply criticizing Hillary Rodham Clinton while outlining his strategy to fight the Islamic State, Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush said Wednesday the key to winning the 2016 election is "campaigning with your arms wide open" and "joy in your heart."
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| Some U.S. troops may be needed on ground in Iraq: retiring Army chief Posted: 12 Aug 2015 03:16 PM PDT  By David Alexander WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The fight against Islamic State rebels is at a stalemate and if the U.S. military does not see progress in the coming months it should consider putting support troops on the ground with Iraqi forces, Army General Ray Odierno said on Wednesday. Odierno, the outgoing Army chief of staff, backed the current strategy against Islamic State, telling his last Pentagon news conference that while U.S. troops could defeat the militants, they could not solve the broader political and economic problems besetting Iraq and Syria.
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| US F-16 fighters fly first missions from Turkey Posted: 12 Aug 2015 03:01 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. on Wednesday launched its first airstrikes by Turkey-based F-16 fighter jets against Islamic State targets in Syria, marking a limited escalation of a yearlong air campaign that critics have called excessively cautious.
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| Top general: US should consider embedding troops in Iraq Posted: 12 Aug 2015 02:58 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — If Iraqi forces aren't making good progress against Islamic State militants in the next several months, the U.S. should consider embedding American troops with the Iraqis, the Army's retiring top general said Wednesday.
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| IS says it has beheaded Croatian hostage in Egypt Posted: 12 Aug 2015 02:52 PM PDT  The Islamic State group said Wednesday it has beheaded a Croatian hostage, and released a picture of a body after what would be the first such killing of a Westerner in Egypt. Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic told reporters he could not "confirm with 100 percent certainty" that Tomislav Salopek, who worked for French company CGG, had been murdered. Salopek was abducted last month west of Cairo.
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| IS affiliate in Egypt releases image of slain Croat captive Posted: 12 Aug 2015 02:49 PM PDT CAIRO (AP) — A Croatian hostage abducted in Egypt by Islamic State militants has been beheaded, according to a gruesome image circulated Wednesday online — a killing that, if confirmed, would be the first of its kind involving a foreign captive in the country, undermining government efforts to project stability and buttress an economic turnaround. |
| US jets launch first anti-IS Syria strikes from Turkey Posted: 12 Aug 2015 02:43 PM PDT  US warplanes Wednesday carried out their first air strikes on Islamic State (IS) targets in Syria after taking off from a Turkish base, kicking off a key new phase in the campaign against the jihadists. A US drone had last week executed a single lethal air strike against an IS target in Syria but this was the first time manned US fighter jets had carried out raids after taking off from Turkey's strategically-located Incirlik base. Turkey is currently pressing a two-pronged "anti-terror" offensive against IS jihadists in Syria and Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants in northern Iraq and southeast Turkey following a wave of attacks inside the country.
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| U.S. begins air strikes against Islamic State from Turkish base Posted: 12 Aug 2015 02:14 PM PDT  The United States launched its first manned air strikes against Islamic State targets from the Incirlik Air Base in Turkey on Wednesday, the U.S. military said. The U.S.-led coalition had launched flying, unmanned missions against the militants earlier this month, the Combined Joint Task Force said in a statement. Turkish fighter jets were not involved in the manned U.S. air strikes on Wednesday, Turkish security sources said.
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| Editorial Roundup: Excerpts from recent editorials Posted: 12 Aug 2015 02:04 PM PDT Excerpts from recent editorials in newspapers in the United States and abroad: |
| British Jewish group 'appalled' by anti-migrant panic Posted: 12 Aug 2015 01:53 PM PDT  A Jewish group has criticised Britain's response to the migrant crisis, recalling that Jews were once the focus of an immigration scare in a letter to Prime Minister David Cameron Wednesday. "Many of us in the Jewish community are appalled by the UK's response to the ongoing situation in Calais," read the open letter from the Jewish Council for Racial Equality, which assists refugees and asylum seekers. Immigration is one of the most sensitive issues in British politics, and images of migrants trying to illegally cross the Channel to Britain from the French port of Calais have been splashed across newspapers in recent weeks.
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| Departing US army chief says Iraq may have to be partitioned Posted: 12 Aug 2015 01:46 PM PDT  General Raymond Odierno, who once served as the top US commander in Iraq and retires Friday after nearly 40 years in uniform, said the US focus for now should be on defeating the Islamic State, the jihadist group that has seized large portions of the country. The US military, which withdrew from Iraq in 2011, has resumed training Iraqi forces and select Syrian rebels as part of a renewed effort to contain and eventually roll back IS.
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| UK's Blair warns of Labour 'annihilation' over left surge Posted: 12 Aug 2015 01:42 PM PDT  Former British prime minister Tony Blair appealed to members of his Labour party to prevent a left-wing socialist candidate being elected its new leader, warning of electoral "annihilation". The bearded Jeremy Corbyn has ridden a surge of support from young people and new Labour supporters to move from being a rank outsider to the frontrunner to succeed Ed Miliband, who resigned after losing May's general election to Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservatives. Blair, who was in power from 1997 to 2007 and is remembered for leading the party to landslide victories although his legacy was soured by the unpopular Iraq war, said his party was at risk of "self-destruction" if the anti-austerity Corbyn side won.
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| At least six killed in Boko Haram attack near Nigeria's Maiduguri Posted: 12 Aug 2015 01:41 PM PDT At least six people have been killed during a raid by Boko Haram militants outside Nigeria's northeastern city Maiduguri in Borno state, a police officer said on Wednesday. A Cameroonian soldier has also died during a cross-border incursion from neighboring Nigeria by Boko Haram militants, a senior Cameroonian military source said. In the fighting near Maiduguri, the militants entered Bale Mamman village to rustle livestock on Tuesday evening, police chief Aderemi Opadokun said. |
| Islamic State's Egyptian ally says it beheads Croat: SITE Posted: 12 Aug 2015 01:28 PM PDT  By Omar Fahmy and Igor Ilic CAIRO/ZAGREB (Reuters) - An Egyptian group allied to Islamic State has published a photograph it said showed the beheaded body of a Croatian hostage it threatened to kill last week, the SITE monitoring service said on Wednesday. Reuters could not independently verify the authenticity of the picture, which carried a caption that said: "killing of the Croatian hostage, due to his country's participation in the war against Islamic State, after the deadline expired." Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic said authorities were examining the image. "I don't know if we will be able to do it in the coming days, but what we see does not look good ... I'm afraid that for the first time, what has happened to the citizens of other countries has happened to a Croatian citizen." The photograph, circulating on Twitter accounts of Sinai Province supporters, shows a man's severed head placed on his body, with a knife driven into sand next to it and the black Islamic State flag in the background.
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| The Latest on Croatian hostage killed by Islamic State Posted: 12 Aug 2015 11:59 AM PDT  CAIRO (AP) — The latest in the events surrounding the purported slaying by Egypt's Islamic State affiliate of Croatian hostage Tomislav Salopek, after an online image was circulated Wednesday showing his beheaded body.
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| Sweden: Ikea stabbing suspect was declined residency permit Posted: 12 Aug 2015 11:51 AM PDT  HELSINKI (AP) — Officials said Wednesday the main suspect in a knife attack that killed two people at an Ikea store in central Sweden was due to be deported soon, after his application for a residency permit was rejected last month.
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| Iraq PM sacks cabinet officials, says reform drive under threat Posted: 12 Aug 2015 11:47 AM PDT  By Ahmed Rasheed and Saif Hameed BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's prime minister dismissed his cabinet secretary on Wednesday as part of an ambitious reform drive he said was under threat from corrupt politicians and Shi'ite militia leaders who use their armed followers for political ends. A year in office, Haider al-Abadi has launched the biggest overhaul of the political system since the end of U.S. military occupation, enacting a risky package of measures designed to enhance his own power and strip authority from political chieftains who have run Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein. The bold moves will strip some of Iraq's most powerful people of official titles, including Abadi's predecessor Nuri al-Maliki, whose post of vice president is one of those to be abolished.
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| Clashes at funeral for killed PKK figure in Turkey: reports Posted: 12 Aug 2015 11:21 AM PDT  Turkish police and protesters engaged in violent clashes on Wednesday at the funeral of a senior Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) figure killed a day earlier, reports said. Baris Tekce, known by his nom-de-guerre Andok and described as the top PKK figure in the southeastern Hakkari region, died on Tuesday in clashes with the security forces, Turkish media said. The PKK confirmed his death in a statement, saying he had been killed in an attack by a helicopter gunship during an operation in Hakkari, on the border with Iran and Iraq.
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| Jeb Bush says Hillary Clinton shares blame for Islamic State rise Posted: 12 Aug 2015 11:18 AM PDT  By Steve Holland WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush on Tuesday attacked Democrat Hillary Clinton for her handling of Iraq as secretary of state, saying she must share the blame for the rise of Islamic State militants, in a prelude to a potential general election matchup in 2016. Iraq is a tricky topic for Bush, given the dismay many Americans still feel over the rationale for the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq ordered by his brother, former President George W. Bush, in 2003. Mindful of those concerns, Jeb Bush used the bulk of a speech at the Ronald Reagan presidential library not to dwell on the past but to sketch out a future path for the United States in the region that is more muscular than what he called President Barack Obama's "minimalist approach of incremental escalation." He said he would deploy some U.S. forces in Iraq as forward "spotters" to help identify enemy targets, a step President Barack Obama has resisted out of concern that it could deepen American involvement in Iraq and Syria.
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| Iraq PM sacks senior cabinet official: statement Posted: 12 Aug 2015 11:12 AM PDT  Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has sacked a senior cabinet official who was a close aide to his predecessor and rival Nuri al-Maliki, the premier's office said in a statement Wednesday. Abadi issued an "order to relieve the secretary general of the cabinet and his two deputies from their positions", the statement said, referring to Mohammed Khalaf Ahmed, who headed Maliki's personal office during his premiership. The statement did not provide a reason for the dismissals, but the announcement comes during a major reform drive by Abadi aimed at curbing rampant corruption and streamlining the government.
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| Foreigners executed by IS militants: a factfile Posted: 12 Aug 2015 10:49 AM PDT  The jihadist Islamic State group (IS) on Wednesday said it has beheaded Croatian hostage Tomislav Salopek, 31, abducted on July 22 in Egypt while working for a French firm. Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic said he was unable to confirm Salopek's death. - August 19: IS posts a video of the decapitation of US freelance photojournalist James Foley, 40, who was seized in northern Syria in November 2012.
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| U.S., allies conduct 19 air strikes in Syria, Iraq: U.S. military Posted: 12 Aug 2015 10:25 AM PDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and its allies targeted Islamic State forces in Syria with nine air strikes on Tuesday, and also conducted 10 strikes against the militant group in Iraq, according to a statement released on Wednesday. In Syria the coalition forces primarily attacked Islamic State targets near Al Hasakah, with five strikes hitting tactical units and destroying fighting positions, bunkers and a structure, the Combined Joint Task Force said in the statement. The forces also conducted three air strikes near Aleppo and hit a bridge near Dayr Az Zawr. ... |
| Iraq's Abadi dismisses cabinet secretary in reform push: official Posted: 12 Aug 2015 10:16 AM PDT BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi dismissed his cabinet secretary and his aides on Wednesday as part of a push to cut "unnecessary government jobs", an official in his media office said. Abadi launched this week the biggest overhaul of the country's political system since the end of U.S. military occupation, enacting a package of measures to eliminate a layer of senior government posts, scrap sectarian and party quotas for state positions, and reopen corruption investigations. (Reporting by Ahmed Rasheed; Writing by Stephen Kalin; editing by John Stonestreet) |
| Iran ministry denies closure of border crossing to Turkey Posted: 12 Aug 2015 10:15 AM PDT  Iran denied claims it had closed its main border crossing into Turkey Wednesday after an Iranian truck was torched in a fresh attack on vehicles entering from the Islamic republic. Earlier, road traffic organisation chief Davoud Keshavarzian was quoted as saying the crossing at Bazargan in the northwest had been closed to traffic into Turkey but not from the opposite direction. Another official quoted by IRNA said Turkish vehicles were crossing the border headed home, but that Iranian drivers were refusing to enter Turkey.
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| Hungary village mayor: Border fence is government ploy Posted: 12 Aug 2015 10:06 AM PDT  KUBEKHAZA, Hungary (AP) — The mayor of a Hungarian village at the end of a fence being built to block migrants at the Serbian border accused the government Wednesday of a ploy to win votes from the far-right Jobbik party — and said migrants will just try to circumvent the barrier.
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| IS CALIPHATE Posted: 12 Aug 2015 10:06 AM PDT IS CALIPHATE 081215: Map locates the Islamic State group's area of support and control in Syria and Iraq; 3c x 4 inches; 146 mm x 101 mm; |
| Iraqis hail anticorruption reforms, but legal and political hurdles remain Posted: 12 Aug 2015 09:44 AM PDT Iraq's parliament has passed the most sweeping political reforms in the country's post-Saddam history, prompting euphoria over the ability of peaceful public protests to bring about meaningful change. "It's amazing what happened," Sunni lawmaker Jaber al-Jabri says by phone from Baghdad, in between accepting congratulations from well-wishers. In the midst of a sweltering summer, public protests in Baghdad, Basra, and other cities over corruption and a lack of services have provided Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi a mandate to cut across sectarian and political lines and push through the drastic changes. |
| Iraqi premier says will seek mandate to change constitution Posted: 12 Aug 2015 08:40 AM PDT  BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq's prime minister announced Wednesday he will seek a popular mandate to change the country's constitution amid widespread calls to fight corruption and curtail government spending. The announcement came as Islamic State militants ambushed a military convoy in Iraq's western Anbar province, killing at least 14 soldiers.
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| Obama to host anti-IS coalition summit Posted: 12 Aug 2015 08:38 AM PDT  US President Barack Obama will host a summit in New York next month of leaders of the international coalition fighting Islamic State jihadists in Syria and Iraq, diplomats said. The summit on countering violent extremism on September 29 comes one year after Obama vowed to crush IS during his United Nations speech.
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| Brian Williams' Suspension Is Over Posted: 12 Aug 2015 08:37 AM PDT  This article, Brian Williams' Suspension Is Over, originally appeared on TVGuide.com. Brian Williams' six-month suspension from NBC News is over, CNNMoney reports. Williams was suspended without pay in February after it was revealed that he had repeatedly lied about being on board a helicopter that was shot down in Iraq in 2003. As previously announced, Williams will move to MSNBC, ... Read More > Other Links From TVGuide.com Brian Williams NBC Nightly News Lester Holt
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| Turkey: 3 killed after PKK attacked military post Posted: 12 Aug 2015 08:28 AM PDT ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey's military says Kurdish rebels attacked a military outpost in southeast Turkey, triggering a clash that left a soldier and two militants dead. |
| US officials say they can tell if Iran is cheating on deal Posted: 12 Aug 2015 08:26 AM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. intelligence officials say they are confident they can verify Iran's compliance with the recently completed nuclear deal, despite a track record of misjudgments about weapons of mass destruction.
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| Turkey, Iran help broker rare truce in Syria Posted: 12 Aug 2015 06:51 AM PDT  By Mariam Karouny and Tom Perry BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syria's warring parties declared a 48-hour ceasefire in two frontline areas on Wednesday after unprecedented mediation from Turkey and Iran, signaling a new approach by some of the main regional backers of the opposing sides. Three officials close to Damascus described the truce as a result of mediation by Turkey, which backs rebels fighting against President Bashar al-Assad, and Iran, whose support has been vital to his survival. It adds to recent signs of new efforts in the region to end diplomatic deadlock over a conflict that has killed a quarter of a million people, made 10 million homeless, left swathes of Syria in the hands of Islamic State militants and divided the countries of the Middle East on sectarian grounds.
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| Islamic State Egypt affiliate says beheads Croatian hostage: SITE Posted: 12 Aug 2015 06:48 AM PDT By Omar Fahmy CAIRO (Reuters) - Islamic State's Egyptian affiliate published a photograph it said showed the beheaded body of a Croatian hostage it had threatened to kill last week, the SITE monitoring service said on Wednesday. Reuters could not independently verify the authenticity of the picture, which carried a caption that said: "killing of the Croatian hostage, due to his country's participation in the war against Islamic State, after the deadline expired ... ". If confirmed, it would be the first known beheading of a Western hostage held by Sinai Province, the Egyptian group which changed its name from Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis after it pledged allegiance to Islamic State. |
| Iraq reform process 'will not be easy': PM Posted: 12 Aug 2015 06:44 AM PDT Implementing reforms to curb graft and streamline the government "will not be easy," and corrupt people will fight to hold back change, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said Wednesday. This was Abadi's first effort to manage expectations for the reform programme he rolled out Sunday in response to widespread public anger over corruption and poor services. The corrupt will not sit by without lifting a finger," Abadi said in televised remarks a day after parliament signed off on his proposed measures. |
| History of the Islamic State group as Croat killed in Egypt Posted: 12 Aug 2015 05:55 AM PDT  CAIRO (AP) — An online image released Wednesday purported to show the Islamic State affiliate in Egypt had beheaded a Croatian hostage.
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| Turkey's AK Party eyes early election as polls show rising support Posted: 12 Aug 2015 05:37 AM PDT  By Orhan Coskun and Ercan Gurses ANKARA (Reuters) - Expectations of a snap election in November are growing within Turkey's ruling AK Party, officials say, with its leadership emboldened by recent opinion polls and looking increasingly cool to the idea of a coalition government. To form a government, it now needs a junior coalition partner. The government calls this a "synchronized war on terror", Critics say the security crackdown is aimed mainly at Kurdish militants and geared to winning back nationalist votes.
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| Kerry to Congress: Sign the Iran Deal or the Dollar Gets Hit Posted: 12 Aug 2015 03:00 AM PDT Despite losing the support of Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), the White House is pushing ahead on the Iran nuclear deal. In an interview with NPR, President Obama predicted the white-hot attitudes that surround the nuclear agreement today would cool once it's been given time to work. "When this agreement is implemented and ... we've got inspectors on the ground and it becomes clear that Iran in fact is abiding by this agreement, then attitudes will change, because people will recognize that, in fact, whatever parade of horribles was presented in opposition have not come true," he said. |
| With Kurdish militant leader sidelined, Turkey risks deeper violence Posted: 12 Aug 2015 02:56 AM PDT  By Jonny Hogg ANKARA (Reuters) - Sidelined on his island prison, the one man who might have helped quell a surge in violence in Turkey's Kurdish southeast appears increasingly powerless as a three-year-old peace process teeters on the brink of collapse. Abdullah Ocalan, whose Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) first took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984, had been Ankara's main counterparty in talks launched in 2012 by President Tayyip Erdogan to try to end the insurgency. Pro-Kurdish opposition politicians who acted as intermediaries in the talks have been prevented by the state from visiting the PKK leader, imprisoned on Imrali island in the Marmara Sea, since before a June parliamentary election.
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