| Officer under Saddam Hussein drew up Islamic State master plan Posted: 19 Apr 2015 03:53 PM PDT  An ex-intelligence officer under the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was "the strategic head" behind the Islamic State group and drew up the blueprints for the jihadists' capture of northern Syria, German weekly Der Spiegel reported Sunday. Former colonel Samir Abd Muhammad al-Khlifawi, who was better known as Haji Bakr and was killed by Syrian rebels in January 2014, "had been secretly pulling the strings at IS for years", according to the magazine. The weekly said it had been given exclusive access to 31 documents by Bakr, including handwritten lists and charts, after lengthy negotiations with a rebel group in Aleppo, northern Syria, which came in possession of the pages after IS fled the area. The trove "was nothing less than a blueprint for a takeover", according to Spiegel, detailing the creation of a caliphate in northern Syria, complete with meticulous instructions for espionage activities, murder and kidnapping.
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| Wartime climate in Saudi puts calls for reform on hold Posted: 19 Apr 2015 03:08 PM PDT  RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — An electronic billboard at an upscale Saudi mall flashes an advertisement for a designer fragrance before switching to images of soaring F-16s and King Salman saluting the troops. "The response has come to you who threaten the nation," the caption says. "To those who test me, take this war as a reply."
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| Under-pressure EU mulls emergency summit after migrant tragedy Posted: 19 Apr 2015 02:49 PM PDT  EU president Donald Tusk was considering Sunday an emergency summit on illegal immigration, as European leaders called for action after more than 700 were feared to have drowned in the Mediterranean's deadliest migrant disaster yet. EU Council President Tusk said on Twitter he had spoken to Malta's Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and "will continue talks w/ EU leaders, Commission & EEAS on how to alleviate situation". He would make a decision on calling a possible summit after holding these consultations, Tusk's spokesman Preben Aamann told AFP. More than 700 people were feared to have drowned Sunday after an overcrowded boat smuggling them to Europe capsized off Libya, the latest in a series of high-seas tragedies following a recent spike in the number of migrants attempting to reach Europe.
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| Iraqi Kurdish forces widen buffer around oil-rich city of Kirkuk Posted: 19 Apr 2015 01:31 PM PDT  Kurdish authorities said their forces, backed by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes, drove Islamic State militants from an 84 square kilometer (32 sq mile) area in northern Iraq over the weekend, widening a buffer around the oil-rich city of Kirkuk. The Kurdistan region's security council said in a statement at least 35 insurgents had been killed by its peshmerga forces in the offensive south of Kirkuk, which began on Saturday on two fronts. The peshmerga have emerged as a key partner for the United States in its campaign against Islamic State. They have rolled it back in northern Iraq, significantly expanding the formal boundary of their autonomous region in the process.
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| Iraqi Shi'ite militia says DNA tests prove Saddam aide dead Posted: 19 Apr 2015 01:08 PM PDT  An Iraqi Shi'ite militia group said on Sunday it had conducted DNA tests to prove the death of Ezzat al-Douri, former right-hand man to the late president Saddam Hussein, who after the 2003 U.S. invasion was ranked by Washington as the sixth most-wanted Iraqi. The Kataib Hizbollah group published a video on Saturday showing its fighters undressing the body of the man believed to be Douri, who was laid out on a metal trolley, and snipping off a piece of his flame-red beard. "The final results prove that the body belongs to the criminal Ezzat al-Douri," the group's spokesman Jaafar Husseini told Reuters, saying his DNA had been tested in the Iranian-backed Kataib Hizbollah's own special hospitals. The governor of Iraq's Salahuddin province announced on Friday that Douri had been killed in an ambush in the Hamrin mountain area.
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| Iraq clears massive oil refinery of IS Posted: 19 Apr 2015 11:14 AM PDT  Iraqi forces backed by US-led air strikes have cleared the country's largest oil refinery of the Islamic State group, the international coalition helping Baghdad fight the jihadists said on Sunday. IS has made repeated attempts over the past 10 months to capture Baiji refinery north of Baghdad, most recently seizing parts of the facility and holding out for days. Iraqi forces "regained full control of the Baiji Oil Refinery after having successfully cleared the massive facility of any remaining (IS) fighters," the US-led coalition said in a statement. The coalition carried out 47 air strikes in the Baiji area over nine days, and Iraq has deployed reinforcements to the refinery and is fortifying it, the statement said.
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| Islamic State shoots and beheads 30 Ethiopian Christians in Libya: video Posted: 19 Apr 2015 10:51 AM PDT  By Sylvia Westall CAIRO (Reuters) - A video purportedly made by Islamic State and posted on social media sites on Sunday appeared to show militants shooting and beheading about 30 Ethiopian Christians in Libya. Reuters was not able to verify the authenticity of the video but the killings resemble past violence carried out by Islamic State, an ultra-hardline group which has expanded its reach from strongholds in Iraq and Syria to conflict-ridden Libya. The video, in which militants call Christians "crusaders" who are out to kill Muslims, showed about 15 men being beheaded on a beach and another group of the same size, in an area of shrubland, being shot in the head.
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| Officials say attacks around Iraq's capital kill 14 people Posted: 19 Apr 2015 10:48 AM PDT BAGHDAD (AP) — Authorities in Iraq say bombings and mortar fire targeting public places have killed 14 people around the capital, Baghdad. |
| Video: Islamic State kills Ethiopian Christians in Libya Posted: 19 Apr 2015 10:27 AM PDT  CAIRO (AP) — Islamic State militants in Libya shot and beheaded groups of captive Ethiopian Christians, a video purportedly from the extremists showed Sunday. The attack widens the circle of nations affected by the group's atrocities while showing its growth beyond a self-declared caliphate in Syria and Iraq.
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| Iraqi officer under Saddam masterminded rise of Islamic State: Spiegel Posted: 19 Apr 2015 09:42 AM PDT  A former intelligence officer for the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was the mastermind behind Islamic State's takeover of northern Syria, according to a report by Der Spiegel that is based on documents uncovered by the German magazine. Spiegel, in a lengthy story published at the weekend and entitled "Secret Files Reveal the Structure of Islamic State", says it gained access to 31 pages of handwritten charts, lists and schedules which amount to a blueprint for the establishment of a caliphate in Syria. The documents were the work of a man identified by the magazine as Samir Abd Muhammad al-Khlifawi, a former colonel in the intelligence service of Saddam Hussein's air defense force, who went by the pseudonym Haji Bakr. Spiegel says the files suggest that the takeover of northern Syria was part of a meticulous plan overseen by Haji Bakr using techniques -- including surveillance, espionage, murder and kidnapping -- honed in the security apparatus of Saddam Hussein.
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| UK archbishop offers 'condolence' in Egypt visit Posted: 19 Apr 2015 09:32 AM PDT  Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, the Church of England leader, offered his condolences to Egyptian officials Sunday over the beheadings of 21 Coptic Christians by jihadists in Libya. The Copts, 20 of them Egyptian, had travelled to Libya for work. They were kidnapped and executed by Islamic State militants in February, provoking Egyptian air strikes on IS targets in the strife-torn country. During his one-day visit, Welby met President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, grand imam of Al-Azhar, the highest authority in Sunni Islam and Coptic Pope Tawadros II, officials said.
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| Jon Stewart’s biggest regret as ‘Daily Show’ host: Not pushing Donald Rumsfeld harder Posted: 19 Apr 2015 09:19 AM PDT Jon Stewart doesn't have many regrets as he approaches the end of his 16-year run as host of "The Daily Show." But he does have one: not pushing Donald Rumsfeld harder when he had the chance. |
| IS shows purported executions in Libya of Ethiopia Christians Posted: 19 Apr 2015 09:07 AM PDT  The Islamic State group on Sunday released a video purportedly showing the execution of some 30 Ethiopian Christians captured in Libya. Addis Ababa condemned the reported killings and said its embassy in Egypt was trying to verify the video to ascertain if those murdered were indeed Ethiopians. "We strongly condemn such atrocities, whether they are Ethiopians are not," Ethiopian Communications Minister Redwan Hussein told AFP. The 29-minute IS video purports to show militants holding two groups of captives, described in text captions as "followers of the cross from the enemy Ethiopian Church".
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| Iran leader urges military to increase 'preparedness' Posted: 19 Apr 2015 08:12 AM PDT  Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged his armed forces Sunday to increase their "defensive preparedness", denouncing a US warning that military action is an option if there is no nuclear deal. In a speech to commanders and troops, the supreme leader said "the other side with insolence threaten us all the time", denying Iran was seeking an atomic bomb and insisting its military doctrine is defensive. Khamenei's remarks came after General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, reiterated last week that should nuclear talks with Iran fail "the military option... is intact". The United States has long said bombing Iran's nuclear sites and other key facilities may be necessary if Tehran does not rein in its atomic activities.
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| A history of the Islamic State group after Ethiopians killed Posted: 19 Apr 2015 07:55 AM PDT  CAIRO (AP) — The extremist Islamic State group, which controls a third of both Iraq and Syria in its self-declared caliphate, released a video Sunday purportedly showing militants killing two groups of Ethiopian Christians in Libya.
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| Jordan hosts international competition of anti-terror squads Posted: 19 Apr 2015 07:07 AM PDT  AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — Jordan on Sunday launched a competition among elite anti-terrorism squads from 18 countries, including fellow members of military coalitions fighting rebels in Yemen and Islamic State extremists in Iraq and Syria.
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| U.S., allies focus on Iraq in latest air strikes: task force statement Posted: 19 Apr 2015 06:59 AM PDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and its coalition partners targeted Islamic State militants with 13 air strikes in Syria and Iraq in a 24-hour period ending Sunday, a statement from the Combined Joint Task Force. Twelve of the strikes were in Iraq, hitting tactical units, sniper positions, weapons, vehicles and buildings near the cities of Bayji, Fallujah, Kirkuk, Ramadi and Sinjar. Near the Syrian city of al Hasakah, an air strike destroyed an Islamic State fighting position, the statement said. ... |
| Over 90,000 flee fighting in Iraq's Anbar: UN Posted: 19 Apr 2015 06:53 AM PDT  More than 90,000 people have fled fighting between pro-government forces and the Islamic State jihadist group in the Ramadi area of Iraq's Anbar province, the United Nations said on Sunday. "Our top priority is delivering life-saving assistance to people who are fleeing -- food, water and shelter are highest on the list of priorities," it quoted Lise Grande, humanitarian coordinator for the UN in Iraq, as saying. At least 2.7 million people have been displaced in Iraq since the beginning of 2014, including almost half a million from the western province of Anbar, the UN said. Anbar is a vast desert province that stretches east from the Baghdad governorate to the western borders with Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria.
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| IS or Taliban? Either way, fear stalks war-weary Afghans Posted: 19 Apr 2015 06:32 AM PDT  Claims that the Islamic State group carried out a deadly suicide bombing in Afghanistan raise questions about whether the culprits are the real deal or Taliban turncoats now waving the IS black flag. The bomb on Saturday ripped through a crowd of government officials waiting to draw their salaries outside the Kabul Bank in the eastern city of Jalalabad, killing at least 34 people and wounding more than 100. It was the most lethal bombing in the country to be claimed by insurgents allegedly allied with IS, which has captured swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq but never formally acknowledged having a presence in Afghanistan. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani repeated the claim by the attackers in a speech on Saturday, intensifying fears that the IS's brutal reign of terror was creeping into Afghanistan, already in the grip of a fierce Taliban insurgency.
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| How ISIS Regained Its Momentum in Iraq Posted: 19 Apr 2015 05:15 AM PDT As Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi was meeting President Obama and his cabinet in Washington, D.C. this week to ask for more U.S. military aid, ISIS was regaining its momentum and recapturing territory in Iraq. The group took control of Iraq's largest oil refinery for a day and is threatening to take the city of Ramadi to the west of Baghdad. Since last year, ISIS has controlled 85 percent of Anbar, the largest province in Iraq, including parts of its capital, Ramadi, as well as the entire city of Fallujah and many other cities and towns. Iraqi government forces and Sunni tribal allies had briefly succeeded in pushing ISIS back from two areas in Ramadi, but ISIS responded with massive counterattacks. |
| Iran, Afghanistan announce security cooperation against IS Posted: 19 Apr 2015 04:25 AM PDT  Afghanistan and Iran announced Sunday plans for enhanced security cooperation to combat threats from the Islamic State group, including possible joint military operations. Standing alongside visiting Afghan leader Ashraf Ghani, Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said the tumult hitting the region meant intelligence must be shared. His comments came after IS, which holds swathes of Syria and Iraq, said it was responsible for a suicide bombing in Afghanistan's eastern city of Jalalabad which killed 33 people.
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| WWI Ypres gas attack sears the memory 100 years on Posted: 19 Apr 2015 03:47 AM PDT  One hundred years ago, a green cloud of chlorine gas drifted gently towards Allied trenches around Ypres, promising an agonising death as Germany sought to break the bloody stalemate World War I had become. "The impact on the men was terrifying," said Robert Missinne, a local teacher who has researched what happened in the April 22, 1915 attack which is commemorated Wednesday in the bloody battlefields of Ypres, a strategic Belgian town near the French border.
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| More than 90,000 people flee violence in Iraq's Anbar province - UN Posted: 19 Apr 2015 02:29 AM PDT  More than 90,000 people have fled their homes in Iraq's western province of Anbar where Islamic State militants have been gaining ground over the past week, the United Nations said on Sunday. Islamic State militants have encroached on the provincial capital Ramadi, displacing thousands of families. "Our top priority is delivering life-saving assistance to people who are fleeing -- food, water and shelter are highest on the list of priorities," Lise Grande, humanitarian coordinator for the United Nations in Iraq, said in a statement. Iraqi forces are preparing to mount a counter-offensive to reverse Islamic State advances on the eastern edge of Ramadi after military reinforcements were sent from Baghdad, officials said.
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| Today in History Posted: 18 Apr 2015 09:01 PM PDT Today is Sunday, April 19, the 109th day of 2015. There are 256 days left in the year. |
| US seeking to allay Gulf fears amid regional chaos Posted: 18 Apr 2015 06:57 PM PDT  With conflicts raging across the Middle East, the US is seeking to reassure its Gulf allies that it has a regional strategy which will be bolstered, not shredded, by any Iran nuclear deal. The US administration appears increasingly caught in a game of whack-a-mole as it confronts a series of complex challenges, with Saudi-led airstrikes in Yemen just the latest complication in a regional tinderbox pitting Sunnis against Shiites, and even Sunni against Sunni. From the war in Syria, to the collapse of Libya's government, the battle against the Sunni Islamic State militants and the conflict in Yemen, the so-called Arab Spring has unleashed decades of pent-up sectarian and tribal tensions. "The growing complexity of the various struggles the United States now faces have all the focus and simplicity of a kaleidoscope, and it is unclear that the United States and its allies have any clear strategic options that offer a credible response," wrote Anthony Cordesman, expert with the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
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| Paul, Graham clash on foreign-policy on U.S. campaign trail Posted: 18 Apr 2015 05:47 PM PDT  By Andy Sullivan NASHUA, N.H. (Reuters) - Republican presidential hopefuls Rand Paul and Lindsey Graham took their debate over America's role in the world from the U.S. Senate floor to the campaign trail on Saturday in an early sign that foreign policy is likely to be a flash point in the 2016 election. At a gathering of 18 potential and actual White House contenders, Paul accused fellow Republicans of being too willing to commit U.S. troops to foreign conflicts without a clear idea of how to get them out. There's a group of folks in our party who would have troops in six countries right now, maybe more." That drew a rebuke from Graham, a South Carolina senator and Air Force reservist who frequently criticizes Democratic President Barack Obama for not being aggressive enough with adversaries like Iran and the Islamic State.
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