| Fall of Ramadi flashpoint hands Iraq forces landmark victory Posted: 27 Dec 2015 12:33 PM PST  The Islamic State group abandoned its last stronghold in Ramadi Sunday, effectively handing Iraqi forces their biggest victory since last year's massive jihadist nationwide offensive. There were still parts of the flashpoint government complex the elite counter-terrorism service could not enter, as jihadists had rigged the entire area with explosives before retreating. There is no resistance," Sabah al-Numan, the counter-terrorism force's spokesman, told AFP.
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| Iraqi army declares first major victory over Islamic State in Ramadi Posted: 27 Dec 2015 12:01 PM PST  By Ahmed Rasheed and Maher Chmaytelli BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's army declared victory over Islamic State fighters in a provincial capital west of Baghdad on Sunday, the first major triumph for the U.S.-trained force since it collapsed in the face of an assault by the militants 18 months ago. The capture of Ramadi, capital of mainly Sunni-Muslim Anbar province in the Euphrates River valley west of the capital, deprives Islamic State militants of their biggest prize of 2015. The fighters seized it in May after government troops fled in a defeat which prompted Washington to take a hard look at strategy in its ongoing air war against the militants.
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| German lawmakers irked by NATO plane deployment Posted: 27 Dec 2015 11:12 AM PST  A NATO force of reconnaissance planes that includes German personnel will be sent to help Turkey police its border, drawing ire from politicians in Germany who said on Sunday they were not consulted. "The government must immediately inform parliament of the details of this deployment, in particular what missions will be assigned to these planes and the destination of any data they collect," Tobias Lindner, the green party's head of defence matters, demanded in German daily Bild. NATO plans a temporary transfer of AWAC aircraft from the west German base in Geilenkirchen to the Konya base in central Turkey, Germany's defence ministry wrote in a December 18 letter revealed Sunday.
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| Afghan militia beheads Islamic State fighters Posted: 27 Dec 2015 10:40 AM PST  Militiamen loyal to an influential Afghan lawmaker beheaded four Islamic State fighters and publicly displayed their severed heads, officials said Sunday, highlighting an increasingly brutal conflict as the jihadist group makes inroads in Afghanistan. The militia force loyal to Haji Zahir, deputy speaker of parliament, has been battling self-styled IS militants in Achin district in the province for weeks. Zahir's men placed the severed heads of four militants atop stacks of stones on the side of a main road in Achin, district officials said.
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| IS puts up heavy fight to slow Iraqi troop advance on Ramadi Posted: 27 Dec 2015 10:24 AM PST  BAGHDAD (AP) — Islamic State fighters are putting up a tough fight in the militant-held city of Ramadi, slowing down the advance of Iraqi forces, a senior Iraqi commander said Sunday.
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| Iran official urges opposition to new US visa rules Posted: 27 Dec 2015 08:12 AM PST  A top Iranian parliamentary official has written to his counterparts in Europe, China and Russia calling on them to oppose "discriminatory" new US visa regulations. A bill passed by Congress this month bars citizens from 38 mainly European countries from travelling to the United States without a visa if they have previously visited Iran, Iraq, Syria or Sudan since 2011. It also requires a visa for citizens of those countries if they are dual nationals of any of the four target nations.
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| U.S., allies conduct 33 strikes against Islamic State: U.S. military Posted: 27 Dec 2015 07:54 AM PST The United States and its allies conducted 28 strikes against Islamic State in Iraq and five in Syria on Saturday, the coalition leading the operations said in a statement on Sunday. The coalition also struck targets near Mosul, Fallujah and Ramadi, where Iraqi ground forces said they had taken control on Sunday of the last Islamic State stronghold in the western city. In Syria, near Raqqa, two strikes destroyed three Islamic State excavators, two bulldozers and damaged an Islamic State excavator, the statement said. |
| Afghan militia beheads four Islamic State fighters Posted: 27 Dec 2015 06:29 AM PST Local village militia members loyal to a powerful Afghan lawmaker beheaded four Islamic State fighters and placed their severed heads on the side of a main road in eastern Afghanistan, local officials said on Sunday. The killings in Achin district of the eastern province of Nangarhar highlighted the increasingly brutal violence of the fight between Islamic State and rival groups, ranging from local militias to the Taliban. Islamic State has made inroads in several districts of the province as they try to build strength and replace the hardline Taliban insurgents. |
| Iran's Rouhani says it's up to Muslims to correct Islam's image Posted: 27 Dec 2015 04:13 AM PST  Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Sunday that Muslims must improve the image of their religion, which has been tarnished by the violence of hardline groups such as Islamic State, "It is our greatest duty today to correct the image of Islam in world public opinion," Rouhani told a conference on Islamic unity in Tehran in a speech broadcast by state television. "Did we ever think that, instead of enemies, an albeit small group from within the Islamic world using the language of Islam, would present it as the religion of killing, violence, whips, extortion and injustice?" Rouhani said.
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| Bloody Christmas in Philippines as Muslim guerrillas kill 10 Posted: 27 Dec 2015 02:35 AM PST  Muslim guerrillas killed 10 civilians in the majority Catholic Philippines over Christmas, the military said Sunday, with some Christians in the affected areas now too scared to sleep in their homes. Guerillas from the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) captured nine farmers and shot them dead on December 24 in the southern island of Mindanao, said Colonel Ricky Bunayog, commander of the local battalion. Also on Christmas eve, the BIFF launched an attack on a village in Pigcawayan town, some 900 kilometres (560 miles) south of Manila, that left a district official dead, the colonel added.
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| Taliban deny talks with Russia on IS in Afghanistan Posted: 27 Dec 2015 12:12 AM PST  The Taliban have denied they held talks with Russia about countering the spread of Islamic State in Afghanistan, and dismissed the influence of the jihadist group in the country. The insurgents were responding to a statement Wednesday by senior Russian diplomat Zamir Kabulov, who said his country was exchanging information with the Taliban about the group. Kabulov, who is a Kremlin special representative in Afghanistan, said Moscow had a shared interest with the Taliban in counteracting the spread of the Islamic State group -- also known as Daesh.
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| 'Awards Chatter' Podcast — Samuel L. Jackson ('The Hateful Eight') Posted: 26 Dec 2015 09:00 PM PST The 67-year-old, whose films have grossed more than any other actor's in history, opens up about reuniting with Quentin Tarantino and Spike Lee, Oscars "bullshit," his stutter, the N-word, cops and the "hate" of his golfing buddy Donald Trump. |
| US hits Islamic State group with 17 Christmas Day airstrikes Posted: 26 Dec 2015 08:56 PM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon says the United States hit Islamic State group targets in Iraq and Syria with 17 airstrikes on Christmas Day. |
| Rouhani says Muslim states should fix Islam's public image Posted: 26 Dec 2015 04:13 PM PST  Iran's President Hassan Rouhani on Sunday said that Muslim countries should strive to improve the world's opinion of Islam. "We must remove Islam's negative image from today's cyber and real space," he said in Tehran at an international conference on "The Islamic World's Current Crisis". Most "violence, terror and massacres, unfortunately, take place in the Islamic world," he said.
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| The Country of Last Resort Posted: 26 Dec 2015 12:00 AM PST  Albania is starting to look like refugees' best hope. But it's no one's first choice.
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