| SA mercenaries in Nigeria: apartheid-era veterans still finding work Posted: 13 Mar 2015 04:52 PM PDT  South Africa was one of the first countries in the world to ban mercenaries but remains a major supplier of military instructors, some of them from the time of the brutal apartheid regime. Former Koevoet officer Leon Lotz, who was relatively well-known in South Africa, was one of them. On Wednesday, he was killed in a friendly fire incident in northeast Nigeria, where a regional force has been battling Boko Haram insurgents. The Koevoet was a South African special forces unit tasked in the 1980s with putting down the Southwest African People's Organisation (SWAPO) liberation movement in occupied Namibia.
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| Fallen Marine awarded Silver Star days before deadly crash Posted: 13 Mar 2015 04:45 PM PDT  CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. (AP) — Just four days before he was killed in a helicopter crash, Staff Sgt. Andrew Seif was awarded one of the military's highest honors for heroism, a commendation he earned for his efforts to save a mortally wounded friend in heavy gunfire in Afghanistan.
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| Iraqi forces pause in battle to drive Islamic State from Tikrit Posted: 13 Mar 2015 04:13 PM PDT  By Saif Hameed BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Frustrated by guerrilla tactics from Islamic State militants, Iraqi forces paused for reinforcements on Friday in a major offensive to take back the city of Tikrit. The operation appeared to have stalled for the time being, two days after Iraqi security forces and their mainly Shi'ite militia allies pushed into Tikrit, the home city of executed ex-president Saddam Hussein. A source in the military command said Iraqi forces would not move forward until reinforcements reached Tikrit, of which Islamic State still holds around half. If government forces wrest full control, it will be the first time they have won back a city from Islamic State since it over-ran large areas of the country last year and declared an Islamic caliphate in territory it is holding in Iraq and Syria.
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| New York men held in IS terror probe plead not guilty Posted: 13 Mar 2015 03:35 PM PDT  Three New York residents accused of offering support to Islamic State jihadists fighting in Syria and Iraq pleaded not guilty to terrorism charges on Friday during a court appearance following their arrest last month. Uzbekistan nationals Abdurasul Hasanovich Juraboev, 24 and Abror Habibov, 30, together with Kazakhstan citizen Akhror Saidakhmetov, 19, are charged with offering support to a foreign terrorist organization. FBI agents arrested Saidakhmetov at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport on February 25 as he attempted to board a flight to Istanbul en route to Syria.
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| Nigerian troops discover Boko Haram 'bomb factory': military Posted: 13 Mar 2015 03:30 PM PDT  Nigeria's military said on Friday that it had uncovered a Boko Haram bomb-making factory in the northeastern town of Buni Yadi after soldiers retook the town from the insurgents. Defence spokesman Chris Olukolade said that search operations in the area led to the discovery of the bomb-making factory manufacturing improvised explosive devices or IEDs. "The factory, which was located in a fertiliser company, has also converted some of the materials therein for production of all types of IEDs. Boko Haram has increasingly used suicide attacks in its six-year campaign to create a hardline Islamic state in northeast Nigeria.
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| Human rights concerns limit U.S. intelligence, military aid to Nigeria Posted: 13 Mar 2015 03:04 PM PDT By Mark Hosenball WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is limiting its intelligence and military aid to Nigeria during Boko Haram's deadly insurgency due to concerns over the country's human rights record, U.S. officials say. Boko Haram has killed thousands of people in northeastern Nigeria in its six-year insurgency and has also pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, which has created a self-declared caliphate in parts of Iraq and Syria. The United States has shied away from providing Nigeria with real-time information for targeting Boko Haram militants, a U.S. government official said, partly in fear that the Nigerians will use the information to target the wrong people. Human-rights concerns have also hindered the ability of the United States to assist security forces in Nigeria's neighbors, including Cameroon, Chad and Niger, which recently have stepped up their engagement in the conflict against Boko Haram, the officials said, requesting anonymity. |
| Names of 7 Marines killed in helicopter crash released Posted: 13 Mar 2015 02:55 PM PDT  CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. (AP) — The Black Hawk helicopter that crashed in dense fog during a training mission in Florida was carrying seven special operations Marines forces based in North Carolina, along with four National Guard soldiers from Louisiana. All were killed.
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| Glamour over gloom as Baghdad hosts fashion show Posted: 13 Mar 2015 02:54 PM PDT  Leggy models in designer clothes strutted down a catwalk in front of Baghdad's high society Friday for a fashion show that tickled one generation's nostalgia and filled the next one with hope. Umm Mustafa and her husband cancelled all their family duties, bought new clothes and spent a whole week preparing for the first edition of the Baghdad Fashion Show. "We love fashion and design... It's the security situation that has affected everything. Despite Iraq's eight-year war with Iran, Baghdad in the eighties had a vibrant cultural life and its society was less religiously conservative.
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| As Syrian civil war enters fifth year, especially hard challenges for children Posted: 13 Mar 2015 02:50 PM PDT The children of Syria, and now increasingly Iraq, can't seem to catch a break. In Syria, thousands of children have succumbed to the ravages of the country's civil war – many of them the victims of the barrel bombs dropped indiscriminately by the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. Hundreds of thousands of Syrian and Iraqi children have been displaced, along with their families, and now live in camps in unfamiliar places – Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, and Egypt. For many who do stay put, schooling now means an education in the ideology of the self-described Islamic State (IS), with lessons in intolerance of non-Muslims and even hatred for most Muslims. |
| Syria Kurds urge US-led strikes as IS forces mass Posted: 13 Mar 2015 02:47 PM PDT  Syrian Kurdish fighters urged the US-led coalition Friday to launch new air strikes on the Islamic State group as the jihadists brought in reinforcements for an attack in the northeast. The Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) called on the coalition to carry out raids to prevent IS from seizing the key town of Tal Tamr in Hasakeh province. "We call on the international coalition forces to take part in the battle for Tal Tamr," a statement said, adding that the US-led grouping had yet to carry out strikes in the area. The extremist group is now battling to take Tal Tamr and the town of Ras al-Ain, which sits on the border with Turkey.
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| Iraqi Sunnis join feared Shiite militia to battle IS Posted: 13 Mar 2015 02:39 PM PDT  Al-Alam (Iraq) (AFP) - Wearing a camouflage uniform with militia patches and a green headband, Nawar Mohammed is the image of an Iraqi Shiite fighter except for one detail: he is Sunni. Mohammed is one of some 250 Sunni residents of Al-Alam who joined Asaib Ahl al-Haq, an Iranian-backed Shiite militia with a fearsome reputation for kidnappings and killings targeting their community, to battle the Islamic State group after it seized their town. It would once have been all but unthinkable for a member of Iraq's Sunni Arab minority to join a Shiite militia, but opposition to IS, which overran large areas north and west of Baghdad last June, is transcending deep-seated sectarian divisions. "Asaib, Sunni or Shiite, there is no difference -- these circumstances united Iraq," Mohammed said.
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| US soldier slightly wounded by gunfire in Iraq Posted: 13 Mar 2015 02:31 PM PDT  A US Army soldier has been slightly wounded by gunfire at a base in Iraq where American troops are training their Iraqi counterparts, the Pentagon said Friday. The incident marked the first time an American soldier was wounded on the battlefield in Iraq since US forces returned to the country last year to help troops take on the Islamic State group. The soldier suffered a superficial "laceration" on his face from gunfire directed at a guard tower where he was on duty at Besmaya base, southeast of the capital Baghdad, spokesman Colonel Steven Warren told reporters. After invading and occupying Iraq between 2003 to 2011, US troops withdrew but returned last year to help counter the IS militants.
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| Iraq militia leader hails Iran's 'unconditional' support Posted: 13 Mar 2015 01:46 PM PDT  TIKRIT, Iraq (AP) — The U.S. has failed to live up to its promises to help Iraq fight Islamic State extremists, unlike the "unconditional" assistance being given by Iran, the commander of Iraq's powerful Shiite militias alleged Friday.
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| White House intruder pleads guilty to assault, illegal entry Posted: 13 Mar 2015 01:32 PM PDT  By Ian Simpson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An Iraq War veteran pleaded guilty on Friday to charges of running into the White House armed with a knife before being tackled, a security breach that helped lead to a shake-up in the U.S. Secret Service. Omar Gonzalez was charged with climbing over the White House fence on Sept. 19 and racing across the north lawn. He burst through the front door and reached as far as the executive mansion's East Room before Secret Service agents subdued him. "Are you guilty?" U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer asked Gonzalez, who was dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit.
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| 3 plead not guilty in NYC to Islamic State group terror plot Posted: 13 Mar 2015 12:58 PM PDT NEW YORK (AP) — Three men accused in a plot to travel from the U.S. to Syria to join forces with the Islamic State group pleaded not guilty Friday to terrorism charges in federal court. |
| Energy agency sees more oil declines, potential for conflict Posted: 13 Mar 2015 12:55 PM PDT  Oil prices have further to drop with few signs of slowing production in the U.S., according to a global energy agency. The International Energy Agency, a watchdog group based in Paris that represents the ...
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| Sweden offers to question Assange in London in U-turn Posted: 13 Mar 2015 12:38 PM PDT  Swedish prosecutors offered Friday to question WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in London over rape allegations, in a U-turn that could provide a breakthrough in the deadlocked case. One of Assange's lawyers welcomed the prosecutors' proposal, saying the interview would be a first step in clearing his client who took refuge in the Ecuadorean embassy in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden and has been there ever since. "He will accept" to be questioned in London, lawyer Per Samuelsson told AFP, adding that Assange was "happy" about the development. Ecuador lashed out at the prosecutors for their delay in agreeing to question Assange at its embassy.
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| Three New York men plead not guilty to plot to aid Islamic State Posted: 13 Mar 2015 12:24 PM PDT By Nate Raymond NEW YORK (Reuters) - Three New York City residents pleaded not guilty on Friday to U.S. charges that they attempted to provide support to Islamic State militants. The men entered their pleas during a hearing in Brooklyn following their arrest last month and indictment on Monday over a plot by two of them to travel to Syria to fight on behalf of the radical group. Akhror Saidakhmetov, 19, Abdurasul Hasanovich Juraboev, 24, and Abror Habibov, 30, appeared in court in blue jail garb and shackles. U.S. District Judge William Kuntz set a hearing for June 19 as prosecutors prepare to turn over recordings and classified evidence gathered to date. |
| Making history: St. Patrick's parade welcomes 2 gay groups Posted: 13 Mar 2015 12:16 PM PDT  BOSTON (AP) — The St. Patrick's Day parade in Boston will make history this Sunday as two gay and lesbian groups join the fun.
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| US police charge 17-year-old in shooting of Iraqi man Posted: 13 Mar 2015 12:09 PM PDT  DALLAS (AP) — Police say a suspect arrested Friday in the killing of an Iraqi man taking photos of his first snow said he was looking for whoever shot at his girlfriend's home when he randomly came upon the victim and opened fire.
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| Dallas police charge 17-year-old in shooting of Iraqi man Posted: 13 Mar 2015 12:02 PM PDT DALLAS (AP) — Police say a suspect arrested Friday in the killing of an Iraqi man taking photos of his first snow said he was looking for whoever shot at his girlfriend's home when he randomly came upon the victim and opened fire. |
| CIA chief says social media 'greatly amplifies' terror threat Posted: 13 Mar 2015 11:40 AM PDT  Social media and other technology are making it increasingly difficult to combat militants who are using such modern resources to share information and conduct operations, the head of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency said on Friday. CIA Director John Brennan, in a speech in New York, said such communications heighten the challenge of dealing with diffuse threats and attacks across the world from groups like Islamic State, known also as ISIL, and others.
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| Noah Galloway's 'DWTS' Tech Posted: 13 Mar 2015 11:20 AM PDT  When Noah Galloway hits the ballroom on "Dancing with the Stars," the military veteran will have technology on his side that would make Tony Stark proud! Noah and pro partner Sharna Burgess visited Access Hollywood Live on Friday, where they talked about how tech will help the former member of the United States Army – who lost two of his limbs in combat in Iraq in 2005 – compete.
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| Noah Galloway: 'DWTS' Real-Life Iron Man Posted: 13 Mar 2015 11:20 AM PDT  When Noah Galloway hits the ballroom on "Dancing with the Stars," the military veteran will have technology on his side that would make Tony Stark proud! Noah and pro partner Sharna Burgess visited Access Hollywood Live on Friday, where they talked about how tech will help the former member of the United States Army – who lost two of his limbs in combat in Iraq in 2005 – compete.
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| Will Congress Keep Your Doctor from Dropping Out of Medicare? Posted: 13 Mar 2015 11:15 AM PDT  The president submits a budget request to Congress every year because the law requires him to do so. The Constitution calls for the president to apprise lawmakers of the "State of the Union" from time to time, which has, by custom, turned into an annual address near the beginning of each session of Congress. Unless Congress takes action by the end of the month, reimbursement levels will drop by 21 percent. The issue was born with the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, an omnibus spending bill that included a provision meant to keep Medicare payments in line with economic growth every year by applying a "sustainable growth rate," or SGR, adjustment to them.
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| UAE said to deport dozens of Lebanese, mostly Shiite Muslims Posted: 13 Mar 2015 10:44 AM PDT BEIRUT (AP) — The United Arab Emirates has ordered some Lebanese to leave the country in the latest wave of deportations from the oil-rich state, Lebanon's Foreign Ministry and a former deportee said Friday. |
| Under military pressure, 2 extremist groups announce pact Posted: 13 Mar 2015 10:06 AM PDT  JOHANNESBURG (AP) — It sounds chilling: two of the world's most powerful extremist movements, one in the Middle East and the other in Africa, team up to spread their harsh brand of Islamic rule.
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| Islamic State-controlled parts of Syria, Iraq largely out of reach: Red Cross Posted: 13 Mar 2015 10:04 AM PDT  By Stephanie Nebehay GENEVA (Reuters) - The Red Cross has only sporadic access to areas of Iraq and Syria held by Islamic State, despite huge needs of 10 million people living under their control, the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Friday. Peter Maurer, in an interview marking the start of the fifth year of war in Syria, also voiced hope that a ceasefire can be clinched in Aleppo to allow more aid to be distributed in the shattered country's second largest city. "We are looking in Iraq and Syria at a broad area where roughly 10 million people plus are living under ISIS group controlled areas. Islamic State, also known as ISIS, rules a self-proclaimed caliphate in Sunni regions in Syria and Iraq.
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| US soldier slightly wounded by gunfire at Iraq training base Posted: 13 Mar 2015 09:57 AM PDT WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon says a U.S. soldier was wounded slightly when fired upon by an unknown person outside a base in central Iraq where U.S. troops are training Iraqi soldiers. |
| Turkish video alleges spy aided UK girls en route to Syria Posted: 13 Mar 2015 09:54 AM PDT  By Humeyra Pamuk ISTANBUL (Reuters) - A Turkish broadcaster on Friday released what it said was footage of an alleged spy working for a country in the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State helping three British school girls enter Syria via Turkey. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu earlier said a spy who assisted the London school girls, now believed to have reached territory inside Syria controlled by Islamic State, had been caught and was a Syrian national. Islamic State seized large parts of Syria and Iraq last June, cementing their rule with a militant interpretation of Islamic law, and is drawing sympathizers from many countries to support their fight. Footage apparently shot on a mobile phone and released by broadcaster A Haber on its website, shows a man helping three girls unload luggage from a taxi in southeastern city of Gaziantep and then helping them into a silver minivan.
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| Europe tries new tack to keep young women from joining Islamic State Posted: 13 Mar 2015 09:34 AM PDT While the self-described Islamic State continues to attract many young European men with its sophisticated social media campaign and mesmerizing brutality, the extremist group has also demonstrated eye-catching success with a less visible group: young Muslim women. An estimated 550 Western women are believed to have travelled to Syria and Iraq to join Islamic extremist groups. |
| Syrian Kurds call for airstrikes on IS in northeast Syria Posted: 13 Mar 2015 09:32 AM PDT BEIRUT (AP) — A spokesman for Syria's main Kurdish force called on the U.S.-led coalition on Friday to attack Islamic State group positions in northeastern Syria where the jihadis are on the offensive. |
| Politics spills over water's edge on foreign policy _ again Posted: 13 Mar 2015 09:22 AM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — American politicians like to pick and choose when they'll abide by the storied notion that politics should stop at the water's edge — and when to give that idea a kick in the pants.
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| Islamic State leader accepts allegiance of Nigeria's Boko Haram Posted: 13 Mar 2015 08:37 AM PDT  The leader of the Islamic State militant group that controls tracts of Syria and Iraq has accepted a pledge of allegiance from Nigerian Islamists Boko Haram, his spokesman said, calling on supporters to fight in Africa. Boko Haram, which has killed thousands and kidnapped hundreds during a six-year campaign to carve out an Islamist state in northern Nigeria, pledged its allegiance last week, highlighting increased coordination between jihadi movements across north Africa and the Middle East. "Our caliph, God save him, has accepted the pledge of loyalty of our brothers of Boko Haram so we congratulate Muslims and our jihadi brothers in West Africa," Islamic State spokesman Abu Mohammad al-Adnani said in an audio message, referring to his group's leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Islamic State, an ultra-hardline offshoot of al Qaeda, has declared a caliphate in captured territory in Iraq and Syria.
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| Egypt tycoon says family to invest billions in new projects Posted: 13 Mar 2015 08:36 AM PDT SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (AP) — A tycoon from Egypt's wealthiest family said Friday that they are putting up a fifth of the country's investment needs this year because it is the most stable place in a turbulent Middle East. |
| IS group tightens its grip on Mosul residents Posted: 13 Mar 2015 08:24 AM PDT  BAGHDAD (AP) — Freedom from the Islamic State group comes at a steep price, as one newly wedded couple recently discovered. Eager to live a normal life, away from the harsh dominion of the militants' self-styled caliphate, the young pair is searching for ways to bypass the extremists' newly-implemented departure taxes and escape the IS-held city of Mosul.
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| Spain arrests eight suspected Islamist militants in dawn raid Posted: 13 Mar 2015 07:48 AM PDT  By Gustau Nacarino PIERA, Spain (Reuters) - Eight suspected Islamist militants accused of planning attacks in Spain and recruiting fighters to send to Syria and Iraq were arrested in dawn raids across Spain on Friday, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. The six men and two women were connected to the Islamic State militant group via one of their operatives who organized activity from Syria and Iraq, the ministry said. All those arrested had Spanish nationality, and five were of Moroccan heritage. The Spanish government has renewed its focus on Islamist militant activity since the attacks on French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris in January in which gunmen killed 17 people.
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| White House fence jumper suspect faces plea hearing Posted: 13 Mar 2015 07:22 AM PDT  The suspect, Omar Gonzalez, 42, has pleaded not guilty to charges in the Sept. 19 incident. He is alleged to have climbed over the White House fence and burst through the front door before being stopped in the executive mansion's East Room. U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer in October ordered Gonzalez to undergo a mental health evaluation. Gonzalez, who was carrying a folding knife, told a Secret Service agent that he needed to tell President Barack Obama the atmosphere was collapsing, according to an affidavit.
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| Kurdish oil deal with Baghdad unravels as tensions rise Posted: 13 Mar 2015 07:16 AM PDT  By Isabel Coles, Rania El Gamal and Dmitry Zhdannikov ARBIL/LONDON (Reuters) - A four-month-old oil deal between Iraq and the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region is close to unraveling after payments from Baghdad dried up, prompting Arbil to threaten to sue buyers and ramp up independent oil exports. The dispute highlights fundamental differences between the two sides over who controls oil resources and revenues and will reinforce the views of many Iraqi watchers that Kurdistan would seek bigger if not full independence from Baghdad one day. Baghdad cut budget payments to the Kurds in January 2014 as punishment for their attempts to export oil independently, plunging the semi-autonomous region into economic crisis and forcing it to seek loans at home and abroad. Under a new deal, the Kurds committed to export an average of 550,000 barrels per day in 2015, in exchange for Baghdad resuming budget payments of over $1 billion a month to Kurdistan in 2015.
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