| U.S. warns Mosul dam collapse would be catastrophic Posted: 09 Mar 2016 04:05 PM PST  By Louis Charbonneau UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United States and Iraq on Wednesday hosted a meeting of senior diplomats and U.N. officials to discuss the possible collapse of the Mosul hydro-electric dam, which U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power said would create a catastrophe of "epic proportions." Mosul dam has sustained structural flaws since its construction in the 1980s. Wednesday's meeting at the United Nations included Power and her Iraqi counterpart, Mohamed Ali Alhakim, experts from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, officials from the U.N. Development Program and Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, and other senior diplomats.
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| UN says 34 countries don't have enough food for their people Posted: 09 Mar 2016 04:03 PM PST UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Thirty four countries — nearly 80 percent of them in Africa — don't have enough food for their people because of conflicts, drought and flooding, according to a U.N. report released Wednesday. |
| US questioning IS chemical weapons expert captured in raid Posted: 09 Mar 2016 04:00 PM PST  An Islamic State operative captured by US special forces in Iraq last week is a chemical weapons expert for the extremist group, two US military officials said Wednesday. The IS leader was captured by special forces that the Pentagon recently deployed to conduct raids against the Islamic State group. NBC identified the prisoner as Sleiman Daoud al-Afari, an expert in chemical and biological weapons who formerly worked for Saddam Hussein's regime.
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| Student slain in Israel was exploring life after the Army Posted: 09 Mar 2016 03:41 PM PST  NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A Vanderbilt University graduate student stabbed to death in Israel during a school trip was exploring what to do with his life as a civilian after graduating from West Point and serving tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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| The Latest: Student slain in Israel called a 'quiet leader' Posted: 09 Mar 2016 03:07 PM PST NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The Latest on a Vanderbilt University student slain during a school trip to Israel (all times local): |
| IS commander 'Omar the Chechen' survived US strike: monitor Posted: 09 Mar 2016 02:56 PM PST  Top Islamic State commander leader Omar al-Shishani, known as Omar the Chechen, was "seriously injured" in a recent US strike in northeastern Syria but not killed, a monitoring group said Wednesday, after a US official said the militant had "likely died" in the assault. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that according to its sources the March 4 strike had indeed targeted the jihadist's convoy, killing his bodyguards, while he himself "was seriously injured". "He's not dead," the Observatory's director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.
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| 'Catastrophic': US Raises Alarm Over Perilous Mosul Dam Posted: 09 Mar 2016 02:55 PM PST  The Mosul Dam lies approximately 30 miles north of Iraq's second-largest city of Mosul and has been a danger ever since it was constructed in the mid-1980s on unstable foundation. In a worst case scenario, should the dam breach, it could send a flood wave several stories high into Mosul and inundate cities with devastating effect as far down the Tigris as Baghdad, more than 200 miles away, according to a 2007 warning letter from top U.S. officials to the Iraqi government and contemporary estimates by experts.
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| ISIS Chemical Weapons Chief Captured in US Special Operations Raid Posted: 09 Mar 2016 02:55 PM PST  The ISIS figure captured by American Special Operations forces in Iraq a few weeks ago was the terror group's chief of its chemical weapons unit, a U.S. official said today. ISIS has a rudimentary sulfur mustard capability that it used last summer to limited effect against Kurdish forces in Iraq and Syria, U.S. officials said. It is believed that ISIS has sought to improve its capability to broaden its use of the blistering agent in Iraq and Syria.
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| Defiant Ukrainian pilot vows to continue hunger strike Posted: 09 Mar 2016 02:10 PM PST  A Ukrainian military helicopter pilot on trial in Russia over the killing of two journalists defiantly raised her middle finger at the court on Wednesday and vowed to press on with a hunger strike. Nadiya Savchenko's high-profile case has raised deep concern in the West and in Kiev, where the government denounced the trial as a "farce" and demanded her immediate release. "I will continue my dry hunger strike," the 34-year-old said in her final address to the court in the small Russian town of Donetsk.
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| U.S., Canada put pipeline fight in the past with state dinner Posted: 09 Mar 2016 01:52 PM PST  By Roberta Rampton WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House is eager to turn the page on the years-long fight over a crude oil pipeline with Canada and celebrate its close economic and security ties with its northern neighbor, U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice said on Wednesday. Trade between the United States and Canada and joint efforts to curb climate change will loom large on the agenda for the meeting between President Barack Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Washington on Thursday. It will be followed by a star-studded state dinner meant to recognize the importance of the bilateral relationship, the first state dinner to honor Canada in 19 years.
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| What is the ISIS top chemical weapons engineer telling the US? Posted: 09 Mar 2016 01:32 PM PST US special forces captured a top Islamic State engineer in February, and he has already provided information on the terrorist group's supplies and plans for chemical weapons. |
| Biden says his family was near scene of Tel Aviv attack Posted: 09 Mar 2016 01:01 PM PST  By Jeffrey Heller JERUSALEM (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said on Wednesday his wife Jill and their grandchildren were dining on a Tel Aviv beach when a Palestinian killed an American tourist with a knife and wounded 11 other people on the seafront "not very far" away. Israeli forces have killed at least 179 Palestinians, 121 of whom Israel says were assailants. "I don't know exactly whether it was a hundred meters or a thousand meters," Biden, on a visit to Israel, told reporters about Tuesday's assault.
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| U.S. Air Force veteran convicted of attempting to join Islamic State Posted: 09 Mar 2016 12:51 PM PST  Tairod Pugh, a U.S. Air Force veteran, was found guilty on Wednesday of attempting to join Islamic State, according to his lawyer. The conviction marks the first case in more than 75 Islamic State-related prosecutions brought since 2014 by the U.S. Department of Justice to reach a jury verdict. After a week-long trial in Brooklyn federal court, a jury found Pugh, 48, guilty of attempting to provide material support to a designated terrorist organization, and obstruction for destroying four portable electronic storage devices after his detention in Turkey.
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| Russian group: Journalists attacked near Chechnya border Posted: 09 Mar 2016 12:50 PM PST MOSCOW (AP) — A group of men attacked a small bus carrying foreign and Russian journalists and activists from a non-governmental organization Wednesday near the border of Chechnya, beating the occupants and setting the vehicle on fire. |
| Biden criticises 'failure to condemn' Palestinian attacks Posted: 09 Mar 2016 12:17 PM PST  US Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday implicitly criticised Palestinian leaders for not condemning attacks against Israelis, as an upsurge in violence marred his visit. Six separate attacks took place shortly before or after Biden's arrival Tuesday, including a stabbing spree on Tel Aviv's waterfront by a Palestinian who killed an American tourist and wounded 12 other people. The stabbings in the Jaffa port area took place as Biden met former Israeli president Shimon Peres about a kilometre (less than a mile) away.
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| Yazidi teenager escaped Islamic State, appeals for help for sex slaves Posted: 09 Mar 2016 11:33 AM PST  By Magdalena Mis LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - It was a "black morning" two years ago when Islamic State militants seized the Yazidi town of Sinjar in northwest Iraq, abducting thousands of civilians including a 15-year-old girl and 27 members of her family. The teenager, Nihad Barakat Shamo Alawsi, was taken to Syria and then to the Islamic State stronghold of Mosul in northern Iraq, she told an event in London on Wednesday. "They raped us, they killed our men, they took our babies away from us," Alawsi, now 17, said at the event organized by the UK-based AMAR Foundation, a charity that provides education and healthcare in the Middle East.
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| US commander previews revised rebel training effort in Syria Posted: 09 Mar 2016 11:31 AM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama's choice to be the next U.S. commander for the Middle East sought to assure lawmakers a revised effort to train and equip moderate Syrian rebels for the fight against the Islamic State group won't repeat the same mistakes that doomed a similar program last year.
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| U.S. general concerned about lack of partner against Islamic State in Syria Posted: 09 Mar 2016 11:17 AM PST  A U.S. general nominated to lead U.S. forces in the Middle East told lawmakers on Wednesday that he was concerned about the lack of a reliable partner in Syria in the fight against Islamic State and would look carefully at Washington's strategy if confirmed to the post. Army General Joseph Votel told the Senate Armed Services Committee he would seek to ensure a coherent and well-resourced strategy to go after Islamic State strongholds. "In Iraq we do have a partner, we do have a government, (but) in Syria we don't and so I am concerned about how we approach this moving forward in Syria without a political element to support that," Votel told the committee, which is considering his nomination to head the U.S. Central Command that oversees U.S. forces in the Middle East.
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| Biden criticizes Palestinians for not condemning attack Posted: 09 Mar 2016 11:03 AM PST  JERUSALEM (AP) — Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday criticized Palestinians for a "failure to condemn" a stabbing spree that killed an American student and war veteran the day before, after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' political party posted a statement online praising the stabber.
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| Is the Turkey-EU migrant deal workable? Posted: 09 Mar 2016 10:43 AM PST After a year in which a human wave of more than one million migrants flooded Europe, leaders of Turkey and the European Union say they have outlined measures to block the flow. "Do not come to Europe," the European Council President Donald Tusk warned would-be migrants last week, setting the tone for the tougher EU response. "The problem is there is too much resistance in Europe at the moment to establish any legal pathway," says Mattia Toaldo, a migration expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) in London. |
| What We're Following This Afternoon Posted: 09 Mar 2016 10:03 AM PST An ISIS capture in Iraq: U.S. special forces have detained the head of the Islamic State's unit trying to developing chemical weapons for the militant Sunni group, several news outlets report. The New York Times reports the operative was interrogated and provided details about the group's possession of weaponized mustard gas. CNN reports the intel the Americans learned has already been used to launch airstrikes on ISIS sites in Iraq associated with the group's chemical-weapons development. |
| Iraqi officials: US captured top IS chemical arms engineer Posted: 09 Mar 2016 08:59 AM PST  BAGHDAD (AP) — U.S. special forces captured the head of the Islamic State group's unit trying to develop chemical weapons in a raid last month in northern Iraq, two senior Iraqi intelligence officials told The Associated Press, the first known major success of Washington's more aggressive policy of pursuing IS militants on the ground.
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| 'Omar the Chechen': notorious, red-bearded IS warlord Posted: 09 Mar 2016 08:58 AM PST A fierce, battle-hardened warlord with roots in Georgia and a thick red beard, Omar al-Shishani is one of the most notorious faces of the Islamic State jihadist group. On Wednesday, a US official said Shishani -- whose real name is Tarkhan Batirashvili -- "likely died" in an assault earlier this month by US warplanes and drones in northeastern Syria. Shishani, whose nom de guerre means Omar the Chechen, was one of the IS leaders most wanted by Washington which put a $5 million bounty on his head. |
| Macedonia says no migrant entries since Monday Posted: 09 Mar 2016 08:39 AM PST  Not a single migrant has entered Macedonia for the past two days, police said Wednesday, but denied that the country had closed its border with Greece entirely. Thousands of migrants are blocked on the Greek-Macedonia border after a string of western Balkan nations closed their borders in the face of Europe's worst migration crisis since World War II. "The decision of the (Macedonian) authorities is to allow the entry of the number of migrants equivalent to those who can leave its territory," a police spokeswoman told AFP.
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| Islamic State used 'poisonous substances' in village shelling: officials Posted: 09 Mar 2016 08:16 AM PST More than 40 people suffered partial choking and skin irritation in northern Iraq when Islamic State fired mortar shells and Katyusha rockets filled with "poisonous substances" into their village late on Tuesday, local officials said. None of the casualties died but five of them remain in hospital, said health officials in Taza, a mainly Shi'ite Turkmen village 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of the oil city of Kirkuk, in a region under Kurdish control. "There were poisonous substances in these shells. |
| Tunisian troops kill 10 militants near Libyan border after Monday raid Posted: 09 Mar 2016 08:06 AM PST  By Tarek Amara TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisian troops have killed 10 Islamist militants around Ben Guerdan on the Libyan border after an Islamic State attack on Monday that killed at least 55 people. About 50 Islamic State militants launched a dawn attack on army and police posts in Ben Guerdan on Monday, Tunisia's government said, in one of the insurgent group's largest assaults on Tunisia. "Most of the attackers were Tunisians, and the majority of them were already in Ben Guerdan except for a few who infiltrated from Libya or maybe crossed over at the Ras Jdir border point," government spokesman Khaled Chaouket said.
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| The Democratic nomination contest and the revival of liberalism Posted: 09 Mar 2016 07:30 AM PST In this commentary, Bruce Miroff of the University at Albany, SUNY, says the arc of the Democratic Party bends toward liberalism. |
| U.S. targets Islamic State chemical weapons sites near Mosul: CNN Posted: 09 Mar 2016 07:28 AM PST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. aircraft have begun targeting Islamic State's chemical weapons sites near Mosul in Iraq in an initial round of air strikes aimed at diminishing the militant group's ability to use mustard agent, CNN reported on Wednesday. CNN said it was unclear if the strikes, conducted over the last several days, were successful. An Islamic State detainee provided vital information that allowed the U.S. military to conduct the strikes, the network added. (Reporting by Susan Heavey and David Alexander) |
| Tunisia forces clash with militants, 10 killed in border town Posted: 09 Mar 2016 07:24 AM PST  Tunisian troops have killed 10 Islamist militants around Ben Guerdan in an operation to clear the town on the Libyan border after at least 55 people died in an Islamic State attack on Monday. During military raids late on Tuesday and into Wednesday morning around Ben Guerdan, one soldier was also killed. Tunisia's government said around 50 militants launched a dawn attack on army and police posts in Ben Guerdan on Monday, in one of their largest assaults on Tunisia.
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| Germany tells Russia to 'immediately release' Ukraine pilot Posted: 09 Mar 2016 07:01 AM PST  Berlin on Wednesday called for the immediate release of Ukrainian military pilot Nadiya Savchenko, saying her trial in Russia went against a peace deal aimed at ending a separatist war in Ukraine. "The trial against Savchenko violates the spirit and letter of the Minsk agreement, we are therefore making a joint call with our partners for the immediate release of Nadiya Savchenko on humanitarian grounds," government spokesman Steffen Seibert said, referring to a clause in the accord that requires Ukraine and Russia to swap prisoners and hostages.
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| Saudi and Yemen rebels agree prisoner swap, border calm Posted: 09 Mar 2016 06:42 AM PST  Yemen's Huthi rebels have agreed to a prisoner swap and an apparent truce along the border following unprecedented talks with Saudi Arabia, the Riyadh-led military coalition intervening in Yemen said Wednesday. The talks marked the first direct negotiations between the Iran-backed rebels and Saudi Arabia, which a year ago launched an air war in support of Yemen's government after the Huthis seized large parts of the country. Analysts said the agreement was the first time an important step had been taken in finding a resolution to the conflict, which the United Nations says has killed more than 6,000 people.
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| Iraqi intelligence officials say U.S. special forces in Iraq captured the head of the Islamic State group's chemical weapons unit Posted: 09 Mar 2016 06:38 AM PST BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi intelligence officials say U.S. special forces in Iraq captured the head of the Islamic State group's chemical weapons unit. |
| U.N. torture envoy concerned at water-boarding rhetoric in U.S. race Posted: 09 Mar 2016 06:27 AM PST  By Stephanie Nebehay GENEVA (Reuters) - The U.N. torture investigator voiced concern on Wednesday at calls by some Republican candidates in the U.S. presidential race to authorize water-boarding in interrogating detainees, noting that it was illegal under domestic and international law. Republican candidate Donald Trump softened his stance on torture last Friday, saying he would not order the U.S. military to break international laws on how to treat terrorism suspects. The night before, he indicated he might order U.S. military to break the law on interrogation tactics, including waterboarding.
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| U.S.-led coalition conducts 17 strikes on Islamic State in Iraq, Syria Posted: 09 Mar 2016 06:01 AM PST  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and its allies targeted Islamic State with 17 strikes in Iraq and Syria on Tuesday, the U.S.-led coalition said in a statement on Wednesday. The Combined Joint Task Force said six strikes near three cities in Syria destroyed cranes and fighting positions and hit a natural gas processing plant, among other targets. In Iraq, 11 strikes near five cities hit several tactical units and destroyed mortar fire positions, vehicles and explosive devices, the statement said. (Reporting by Megan Cassella Editing by W Simon)
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| IS commander 'likely killed' in Syria air strike: US official Posted: 09 Mar 2016 06:00 AM PST  The Islamic State group's battle-tested equivalent of a defense minister is believed to have been killed in a US air strike in northeastern Syria, a US official here said. The target of the March 4 attack was Omar al-Shishani, a red-bearded Georgian fighting with the jihadist group in Syria, the Pentagon said Tuesday, cautioning that results of the operation were still being assessed. A US official speaking on condition of anonymity later said Shishani "likely died" in the assault by waves of US warplanes and drones, along with 12 other IS fighters.
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| Trump says foreign policy team still not ready Posted: 09 Mar 2016 05:26 AM PST Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump acknowledged on Tuesday he does not yet have a foreign policy team, and three former U.S. military and intelligence officials who have endorsed him are little known in either the Republican Party or the wider foreign policy community. The New York billionaire, who had promised to name his foreign policy and national security advisers last month, told MSNBC that he has met with people but made no decision yet on who to advise him on global affairs. Asked whether he had a team, Trump said on Tuesday: "Yes, there is a team. |
| Iraqi Kurdish oil pipeline could reopen soon: sources Posted: 09 Mar 2016 05:05 AM PST By Humeyra Pamuk and Orhan Coskun ISTANBUL/ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey has partly completed a military campaign near its southeastern border, raising hopes an idled Iraqi oil pipeline nearby could soon reopen after a three-week outage that has squeezed the already cash-strapped Kurdistan region's finances. It could still be up to a week before oil starts flowing through the pipeline that normally carries 600,000 barrels per day (bpd) to Turkey's Mediterranean port of Ceyhan as the military sweep for mines and unrest in the region persists. The longer it takes for flows to resume, the deeper the crisis for Kurdistan, an autonomous region within Iraq that is already on the verge of insolvency and depends almost entirely on revenue from its oil exports through the pipeline. |
| Europe's deal with Turkey fails to deter migrant attempts for now Posted: 09 Mar 2016 04:57 AM PST  By Dasha Afanasieva and Melih Aslan DIDIM, Turkey (Reuters) - Turkey's coastguard intercepted dozens of mostly Syrian migrants in coves along the Aegean coast on Wednesday as they continued to attempt perilous sea crossings to Greece despite Ankara's efforts to stem the flow under a deal with the European Union. A group of 42 people, more than a dozen of them children, sat inside a coastguard compound, some lying under blankets, in the seaside resort of Didim after being detained. "We're afraid of staying here and afraid of staying in Syria ... We're fleeing to the country that will take us.
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| Tunisia forces clash with militants, seven killed in border town Posted: 09 Mar 2016 04:42 AM PST  Tunisian troops have killed seven more Islamist militants during raids in Ben Guerdan, the town on the Libyan border where at least 55 people died during an attack on Monday by Islamic State fighters, the army said on Wednesday. Witnesses and security sources said clashes were continuing on Wednesday between the armed forces and militants just outside Ben Guerdan in another operation to clear the area of fighters who appear to be seeking a territorial foothold inside Tunisia. Military raids late on Tuesday and into Wednesday morning in Ben Guerdan also recovered weapons and at least ten other people have been arrested, a security source said.
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