| UK probes neo-Nazi ties, mental health in Jo Cox slaying Posted: 17 Jun 2016 04:07 PM PDT  BIRSTALL, England (AP) — Evidence emerged Friday that the reclusive gardener suspected of slaying a popular Labour Party lawmaker had decades-old ties to a neo-Nazi movement and an interest in anarchist weapons literature.
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| Obama, despite dissent on Syria, not shifting toward strikes on Assad Posted: 17 Jun 2016 03:47 PM PDT  By Arshad Mohammed and Matt Spetalnick WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. administration sought on Friday to contain fallout from a leaked internal memo critical of its Syria policy, but showed no sign it was willing to consider military strikes against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces called for in the letter signed by dozens of American diplomats. Several U.S. officials said that while the White House is prepared to hear the diplomats' dissenting viewpoint, it is not expected to spur any changes in President Barack Obama's approach to Syria in his final seven months in office. One senior official said that the test for whether these proposals for more aggressive action are given high-level consideration will be whether they "fall in line with our contention that there is no military solution to the conflict in Syria." The document - sent through the State Department's "dissent channel," a conduit for voicing contrary opinions meant to be confidential - underscored long-standing divisions and frustrations among Obama's aides over his response to Syria's five-year-old civil war.
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| Islamic State to make a stand in Falluja, face Mosul uprising: Iraqi general Posted: 17 Jun 2016 02:49 PM PDT By Stephen Kalin BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A top Iraqi general said the army may permit Islamic State militants to flee the offensive on Falluja, but he expected most of them would fight to the end and predicted they faced an internal uprising in the northern city of Mosul. Troops recaptured Falluja's municipal building on Friday, although the ultra-hardline militants are still holed up in several districts and have left many streets and buildings laced with explosives. "But the Daesh terrorists in Falluja will detonate suicide bombs to kill innocent Iraqis, believing they will enter heaven by doing so," he told Reuters in an interview on Thursday, using an Arabic acronym for Islamic State. |
| Brazil looks for its first Olympic gold in soccer Posted: 17 Jun 2016 02:35 PM PDT  Playing at home, with its biggest star onboard and an unexpected last-minute change at the helm, Brazil is looking to win its first Olympic men's soccer gold medal in Rio de Janeiro.
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| Obama, Saudi prince focus on Iraq and Syria in Washington meeting Posted: 17 Jun 2016 02:04 PM PDT  By Timothy Gardner and Roberta Rampton WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama and the deputy crown prince of Saudi Arabia on Friday discussed ways to support Iraqis in their fight against Islamic State militants and the importance of a political transition in war-torn Syria, the White House said. Obama met with Mohammed bin Salman in the Oval office for about an hour.
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| Pentagon slams Russia for striking US-backed Syrian rebels Posted: 17 Jun 2016 01:27 PM PDT  Obviously that's the first thing that's problematic about this Russian conduct," Carter told reporters, using an alternate acronym for the IS group. The Syrian belonged a group of fighters from the New Syrian Army, trained by the British and the Americans in a coalition camp in Jordan, while the Iraqi was a tribal fighter, Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said.
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| Police probe far-right ties, mental health in Jo Cox slaying Posted: 17 Jun 2016 12:55 PM PDT  BIRSTALL, England (AP) — Police investigating the killing of British lawmaker Jo Cox said Friday that the suspect's mental health and possible links to right-wing extremism are both important lines of inquiry for detectives.
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| Putin says new elections key for ending Syrian crisis Posted: 17 Jun 2016 12:48 PM PDT  ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) — The Syrian opposition could be offered seats in the Syrian Cabinet as part of efforts to encourage a dialogue that can lead to new elections being held in the country, Russia's President Vladimir Putin said Friday.
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| AP Analysis: Mideast showed Hillary Clinton US power's limit Posted: 17 Jun 2016 12:23 PM PDT  DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — In the wake of the Orlando killings this week, Hillary Clinton had harsh words for America's Gulf allies, criticizing them for funding institutions that radicalize young Muslims.
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| Syria memo shakes up Washington but unlikely to shift policy Posted: 17 Jun 2016 12:21 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — State Department officials shook up America's generally obedient diplomatic establishment this week with an internal memo urging U.S. military action against Syria's government with the goal of pressing President Bashar Assad to accept a cease-fire and gaining the upper hand on him in future talks on a political transition.
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| Iraqi Troops Push Into Center of Fallujah in Fight Against ISIS Posted: 17 Jun 2016 12:10 PM PDT  "The Iraqis announced today that they had seized the Fallujah municipal building in roughly the center of Fallujah," said Colonel Chris Garver, the U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad. The push into the city has been conducted by forces from Iraq's elite Counterterrorism Service, federal police and military commandos. Garver said their offensive into the center of Fallujah on Friday "was enabled by multiple Coalition strikes to destroy heavy machine guns that were impeding the progress of the advance." In the last seven days, the coalition has conducted 17 airstrikes inside the city.
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| Lawmakers seek to lift ban on IVF treatments for veterans Posted: 17 Jun 2016 12:09 PM PDT WASHINGTON (AP) — Veterans whose injuries have left them unable to conceive children may soon be getting long-sought help as congressional negotiations on legislation funding the Department of Veterans Affairs near a close. |
| Dodging mines, sniper fire near the IS frontline Posted: 17 Jun 2016 11:51 AM PDT  Slumped against a tree trunk in northern Syria, the bullet-riddled body of an Islamic State group fighter still wears a suicide belt he did not have time to detonate. The smell of his decomposing body fills the air near the frontline, as a US-backed Kurdish-Arab alliance inches closer to retaking the nearby jihadist bastion of Manbij. The anti-IS fighter directs the reporter to avoid land mines planted by the jihadists in the fields of the village of Kaber Saghir, around five kilometres (three miles) south of Manbij.
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| Bombardments in Syria's Aleppo kill 9 civilians Posted: 17 Jun 2016 11:40 AM PDT  Barrel bomb attacks and shelling on rebel-held areas of Syria's northern city of Aleppo killed at least nine civilians Friday, the second day of a temporary truce, a monitor said. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the crude explosive devices hit three areas of Aleppo, prompting the rebels to fire rockets into regime-held western parts of the city. Syrian regime ally Russia had announced a two-day truce in Aleppo, but hours after it took effect on Thursday barrel bombs and air strikes hit the eastern side, and rebels retaliated with rockets.
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| Iraqi PM declares victory over Islamic State in Falluja Posted: 17 Jun 2016 11:34 AM PDT  By Thaier al-Sudani and Stephen Kalin FALLUJA/BAGHDAD, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraqi forces on Friday entered the center of Falluja, the Iraqi city longest held by Islamic State, nearly four weeks after the start of a U.S.-backed offensive that cleared out the tens of thousands of residents still there. Government troops, supported by multiple air strikes from a U.S.-led coalition, recaptured the municipal building, though the ultra-hardline militants still controlled a significant portion of Falluja, an hour's drive west of Baghdad, and many streets and houses remain mined with explosives. U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Iraqi forces had taken back a portion of the city, although he added: "There's still some fighting to be done." Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared victory shortly after nightfall, as government forces continued pushing into parts of the city held by the militants.
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| Russia failed to heed U.S. call to stop targeting Syrian rebels: U.S Posted: 17 Jun 2016 11:29 AM PDT  By Phil Stewart WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Russia launched a second air strike on U.S.-backed Syrian fighters battling Islamic State, even after the U.S. military used emergency channels to ask Moscow to stop after the first strike, a U.S. official told Reuters on Friday. The official, who spoke to on condition of anonymity, said a small number of Syrian fighters were killed in Thursday's air strikes in southern Syria. The Pentagon has criticized the strike near al-Tanf, saying it raised concerns about Russian intentions in Syria and promising to bring up the matter with Russia.
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| Iraq forces retake central Fallujah from IS Posted: 17 Jun 2016 11:18 AM PDT  Iraqi forces raised the national flag over the government compound in Fallujah on Friday, top commanders said, a breakthrough in the nearly four-week-old offensive against the Islamic State group's bastion. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi went on state television to announce that his forces were in control of the city except for a few small pockets of jihadists. "We promised you the liberation of Fallujah and we retook it.
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| Strikes on Syria's divided Aleppo kill 7; activists wounded Posted: 17 Jun 2016 11:12 AM PDT BEIRUT (AP) — Renewed Syrian government airstrikes on the northern, bitterly contested city of Aleppo killed at least seven people on Friday, just hours before a Russia-announced truce was to expire at midnight, activists said. |
| Obama feels heat from State Department to act in Syria Posted: 17 Jun 2016 11:07 AM PDT President Obama received a strong message of dissent from 51 State Department officials yesterday, who called for more heavy-handed action against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who has repeatedly violated internationally brokered cease-fire agreements during the country's five-year civil war. Recommended: How well do you understand the conflict in Syria? "The moral rationale for taking steps to end the deaths and suffering in Syria, after five years of brutal war, is evident and unquestionable," the memo said, according to the Times. |
| Istanbul bans gay pride march after threats from hardline group Posted: 17 Jun 2016 10:45 AM PDT  By Ece Toksabay and Dasha Afanasieva ANKARA (Reuters) - Authorities in Istanbul have banned transgender and gay pride marches this month, citing security concerns after ultra-nationalists said they would not allow "degenerates" to hold the events on Turkish soil. The organizers of the events, the Pride Week Commission, said the ban was illegal and that it would take legal action. A march in support of transgender people was planned for Sunday in central Istanbul, while an annual gay pride parade - described in the past as the biggest in the Muslim world - had been due to take place a week later on June 26.
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| Iraq faces more fighting to win Falluja: U.S. defense secretary Posted: 17 Jun 2016 10:43 AM PDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iraqi forces have retaken a portion, but not all, of Falluja, the Iraqi city longest held by Islamic State, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said on Friday. "There's still some fighting to be done," Carter told reporters at the Pentagon. (Reporting by Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart; Editing by Alan Crosby) |
| Iraq PM says only 'small pockets' of IS remain in Fallujah Posted: 17 Jun 2016 10:40 AM PDT  Baghdad (AFP) - Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Friday said the security forces had retaken most of Fallujah from the Islamic State group and that only small pockets of jihadists remained.
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| A Blow to the Islamic State Posted: 17 Jun 2016 07:42 AM PDT Iraqi forces, backed by U.S. airstrikes, retook the central part of Fallujah from the Islamic State on Friday in an assault to end the three-year-long occupation of the city 40 miles from Baghdad. |
| Germany starts trial of alleged Turkish militants Posted: 17 Jun 2016 06:47 AM PDT  Ten people with Turkish and Kurdish backgrounds went on trial in Germany on Friday accused of belonging to a left-wing militant group in Turkey, a case defense lawyers say is politically motivated. The nine men and one woman face charges of organizing propaganda events, raising funds and recruiting for the Communist Party of Turkey/Marxist-Leninist (TKP/ML), founded in 1972 and listed among a dozen active militant groups in Turkey. Defense lawyers say the trial panders to President Tayyip Erdogan, whose relations with Germany are under strain after the German parliament labeled the 1915 mass killings of Armenians an act of genocide.
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| UN fears polio surge in children from Iraq's Fallujah Posted: 17 Jun 2016 06:09 AM PDT  The UN on Friday said it fears a surge in polio cases among children who have escaped from the jihadist bastion of Fallujah, and has launched a "massive" vaccination campaign. Residents of Fallujah, which Iraqi forces backed by US-led air strikes are pushing to recapture from the Islamic State group's control, are suffering from extremely high rates of skin disease, hypertension and diarrhoea, said Ala Alwan of the World Health Organization. Speaking to journalists by phone after touring camps for displaced people around Fallujah, Alwan said mothers were nervous because their children had not been vaccinated since the IS takeover in 2014.
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| Caring for Islamic State’s victims Posted: 17 Jun 2016 02:18 AM PDT Since its surprise conquests in Syria and Iraq two years ago, the Islamic State militant group has killed thousands. Its distant supporters, such as the shooter in the Orlando, Fla., massacre, have killed hundreds more. |
| In internal document, US diplomats demand Syria action Posted: 17 Jun 2016 12:55 AM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — Dozens of State Department employees have endorsed an internal document that advocates U.S. military action to pressure Syria's government into accepting a cease-fire and engaging in peace talks, officials said Thursday. The position is at odds with U.S. policy.
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| 'I felt liberated': life after Islamic State Posted: 16 Jun 2016 06:22 PM PDT  By Rodi Said AM ADASA, Syria (Reuters) - When U.S.-backed forces seized Souad Hamidi's village in northern Syria from Islamic State last week, the 19-year-old swiftly tore off the niqab she had been forced to wear since 2014 and smiled. "I felt liberated," Hamidi told Reuters after swapping her black face-covering veil for a red head scarf. "They made us wear it against our will so I removed it that way to spite them." For the last two weeks, the Syria Democratic Forces (SDF), supported by U.S.-led air strikes, have waged an offensive against the Islamic State-held city of Manbij, near the Syria-Turkey border.
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| CIA director: US hasn't been able to curb IS global reach Posted: 16 Jun 2016 02:48 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. battle against the Islamic State has not yet curbed the group's global reach and as pressure mounts on the extremists in Iraq and Syria, they are expected to plot more attacks on the West and incite violence by lone wolves, CIA Director John Brennan told Congress on Thursday.
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