| U.S.-led coalition conducts 25 air strikes against Islamic State militants Posted: 13 Sep 2015 02:21 PM PDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S.-led coalition struck Islamic State militants on Saturday with 18 air strikes in Iraq and seven in Syria, the Combined Joint Task Force said on Sunday. The strikes in Iraq, coordinated with the Iraqi government, hit Islamic State buildings, weapons and tactical units near Falluja, Mosul, Ramadi and other locations, the statement said. In Syria, two strikes destroyed seven Islamic State fighting positions and a tank near Al Hawl. Five other strikes targeted the militant group near Al Raqqah, Kobani and Mar'a, according to the statement. ... |
| Turkey imposes new curfew in battered Cizre Posted: 13 Sep 2015 11:01 AM PDT  Turkey on Sunday restored an open-ended curfew in the mainly Kurdish southeastern city of Cizre to catch Kurdish militants, just two days after ending a hugely controversial identical order. The new measure came into effect at 1600 GMT after thousands of Cizre locals turned out for the funerals of 16 people killed in violence during the previous nine-day curfew that also left several buildings in ruins. With over one-and-a-half months of fighting between Turkish security forces and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) showing no sign of abating, three police officers were killed by Kurdish militants in two separate attacks in the southeast.
|
| Fight Against ISIS: 'We're Not Done,' Says Gen. John Allen Posted: 13 Sep 2015 10:49 AM PDT  Just over one year after the U.S. began its mission, along with Arab allies, to launch airstrikes targeting the ISIS terror group in Iraq and Syria, the top U.S. envoy in the coalition says there is still much work to be done."We're not done yet," retired Gen. John Allen told ABC News' Martha Raddatz in an interview today on "This Week."Top Anti-ISIS Envoy Confident US Could Defend Against Possible Refugee InfiltrationWatch Full Interview With Gen. John AllenFull Transcript: Gen. John Allen on "This Week""There's much work to be done, but we've had some real successes," Allen said. ...
|
| 'Islamic State' militants say attacked Pakistan-Afghan border post Posted: 13 Sep 2015 10:21 AM PDT By Saud Mehsud DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistan militants who have pledged allegiance to Islamic State said on Sunday they had attacked a paramilitary checkpoint along the Afghan border, in the first such assault claimed by a former faction of the Taliban in several months. A militant affiliated with the faction told Reuters the group attacked Damadola district of the Bajaur tribal area in Pakistan's northwest, where the military has been battling a militant insurgency since 2007, late on Saturday. The Pakistani government says that Islamic State, a group founded in Syria and Iraq in 2013, does not have a credible presence in the country. |
| Clashes, militant bombing kill nine in southeast Turkey Posted: 13 Sep 2015 09:15 AM PDT  By Seyhmus Cakan DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) - Kurdish militants killed two police officers in a car bomb attack on a checkpoint in southeast Turkey on Sunday, as authorities imposed a curfew in the region's largest city Diyarbakir where clashes broke out, security sources said. Turkish forces backed up by helicopters and commandos shelled a mountainous area where the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) fighters had fled after the checkpoint attack in Sirnak province, killing six of them, the sources added. A police officer was reported killed in another confrontation.
|
| Qaeda chief Zawahiri urges jihadists to unite, confront West Posted: 13 Sep 2015 08:31 AM PDT  Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri called for jihadists to close ranks and take the battle to Western cities, especially in the United States, in an Internet audio message posted Sunday. "I call on all mujahedeen (Islamist fighters) in districts of Iraq and Syria to collaborate and help each other," said Zawahiri, who opposes last year's declaration by the Islamic State group (IS) of a "caliphate" straddling the two Arab states. Al-Qaeda's chief, who is in hiding, said the decision on the caliphate had been taken "in secret and without consultation".
|
| Banks' messaging system SWIFT's growth in Middle East, Africa outpaces global rate Posted: 13 Sep 2015 08:15 AM PDT  Growth in financial transactions messaging system SWIFT's traffic volumes in the Middle East and Africa has accelerated by double-digit percentages this year as banks expand rapidly and non-financial institutions join the industry cooperative, said the regional head. In the Middle East growth in the year up to the end of August was 12 percent, with double-digit expansion in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates helping offset a decline in Lebanon, Iraq and Libya, said Sido Bestani in an interview. Expansion in Africa in the past year was up 11 percent, led by Kenya, Ghana and Nigeria, Bestani said.
|
| Iraq's Sadr calls for release of Turkish hostages Posted: 13 Sep 2015 07:26 AM PDT  Iraq's powerful Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has condemned the kidnapping of 18 Turkish workers in Baghdad last week and said he was ready to assist the government in securing their release. Sadr's message follows a similar statement by top Shi'ite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who called for the Turkish hostages to be released. The Turks, who work for a construction company owned by Nurol Holding, appeared in a video on Friday under a Shi'ite slogan, but it was not immediately clear if the kidnappers belonged to an established group.
|
| Cizre residents bury dead after Turkey army curfew Posted: 13 Sep 2015 07:11 AM PDT  Thousands of relatives and mourners marched through the centre of the mainly-Kurdish city of Cizre on Sunday to bury over a dozen people who lost their lives during a nine-day Turkish army curfew. The mourners carried the coffins of 16 people draped in the yellow, red and green Kurdish colours to a funeral ceremony before their burial, an AFP photographer reported. The Turkish government said that up to 32 Kurdish militants were killed during the curfew imposed in Cizre in an "anti-terror" operation against suspected members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
|
| Refugee crisis shows the changing soul of Germany Posted: 13 Sep 2015 06:48 AM PDT  By Paul Carrel and Noah Barkin BERLIN (Reuters) - Europe's refugee crisis is revealing the changing soul of Germany. The same year, politician Thilo Sarrazin published his book "Deutschland schafft sich ab" (Germany does away with itself), warning that Muslim immigrants were ruining German society. "This is the moment where Germany has recognized it has a global role," says Harold James, an economic historian at Princeton University.
|
| Iraq calls on Turkey to coordinate its strikes on Kurdish militants Posted: 13 Sep 2015 05:11 AM PDT By Malak Ghobrial and Mahmoud Mourad CAIRO (Reuters) - Iraq's foreign minister has called on Ankara to coordinate with Baghdad in its military campaign against Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) positions in northern Iraq following accusations that Turkish forces crossed the border into Iraq last week. Iraq has been mostly silent about Turkish airstrikes against the Kurdish militants which began in July and have focused mainly on targets in the mountainous area of northern Iraq near the borders with Turkey and Iran. Ibrahim al-Jaafari said on Saturday he had summoned the Turkish ambassador last week to object to what he called a violation of Iraqi sovereignty. |
| Russia's Lavrov says Moscow to continue military support of Syria: reports Posted: 13 Sep 2015 05:01 AM PDT  Russia will continue with military supplies to Syria, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies on Sunday. Moscow has come under increased international pressure in recent days over what Washington and Gulf states say is a Russian military build-up in Syria, where the Kremlin has been supporting President Bashar al-Assad in a four-and-a-half-year war. "There were military supplies, they are ongoing and they will continue.
|
| Corbyn win shakes up UK Labour as Blair's shadow fades Posted: 13 Sep 2015 04:50 AM PDT  Anti-austerity leftwinger Jeremy Corbyn's emphatic win to become leader of Britain's opposition Labour could divide the party's MPs but boost its grassroots power, commentators said Sunday. The veteran socialist's victory with 59.5 percent of the vote also marks a break with the legacy of controversial former prime minister Tony Blair and his centrist "New Labour" movement of the 1990s. "Death of New Labour," read a front-page headline in The Sunday Telegraph newspaper.
|
| Al Qaeda chief urges lone wolf attacks, militant unity Posted: 13 Sep 2015 04:49 AM PDT  Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri called on young Muslim men in the United States and other Western countries to carry out attacks inside there and urged greater unity between militants. It was not clear when the recording was made but references to former Taliban leader Mullah Mohamed Omar as being alive suggest it is at least two months old. Zawahri reiterated his position on Islamic State, repeating what he said in a recording posted on Wednesday - that he viewed the group's claim to be a caliphate as illegitimate but would join them in fighting Western and secular forces in Iraq and Syria.
|
| Majority of French people favor sending troops to Syria: poll Posted: 13 Sep 2015 04:42 AM PDT  A majority of French people are in favor of sending troops to fight Islamic State militants in Syria, a prospect that President Francois Hollande has flatly ruled out, a poll released on Sunday showed. Some 56 percent of those questioned were in favor of a ground intervention as part of an international coalition, according to an Ifop poll for Sunday newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche. France began reconnaissance missions over Syria last week in preparation for a decision on whether to launch air strikes against Islamic State militants.
|
| Corbyn win shakes up Labour as Blair's shadow fades Posted: 12 Sep 2015 06:18 PM PDT  Anti-austerity leftwinger Jeremy Corbyn's crushing win to become Labour leader could divide his party's MPs but give a boost to its grassroots power, commentators said on Sunday. The veteran socialist's victory with 59.5 percent of the vote also marks a break with the legacy of controversial former prime minister Tony Blair and his centrist "New Labour" movement of the 1990s. "Death of New Labour," read a front-page headline in the Sunday Telegraph.
|
