| U.S. general warns about resilience of Islamic State Posted: 10 Mar 2016 04:18 PM PST By Idrees Ali WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S.-led fight against the Islamic State militant group was "not quite yet at an inflection point" because of the militant groups resilience and ability to adapt to losses, Vice Chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff General Paul Selva said on Thursday. Selva's comments come after the Pentagon recently announced a number of successes against Islamic State leadership. On Thursday, the Pentagon said it had captured the Islamic State's chemical weapons chief in February from Iraq. |
| Obama, Trudeau kindle 'bromance' at White House Posted: 10 Mar 2016 03:56 PM PST  Barack Obama welcomed youthful Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's "quite good looking Canadian delegation" to the White House Thursday, for a pomp-filled visit designed to rejuvenate US-Canada ties. Obama laid out a full military band and ceremonial guard on the South Lawn, making the recently elected prime minister the first Canadian leader in 20 years to receive an official-level visit. After talks in the Oval Office and a Rose Garden press conference, Obama will host a state dinner, with guests that including Mike Myers, Ryan Reynolds, Michael J. Fox and Blake Lively.
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| Coalition bombs IS chemical sites after snaring 'emir' Posted: 10 Mar 2016 02:56 PM PST  The US-led coalition has carried out the first air strikes on Islamic State chemical weapons sites, the Pentagon said Thursday, acting on information from a senior operative described as the extremists' top chemical expert. The successful "multiple" bombings came as a result of detailed intelligence from Sulayman Dawud al-Bakkar, also known as Abu Dawud, Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said, confirming Dawud's capture by US special forces in Iraq last month. The snaring of Dawud, who was transferred Thursday into Iraqi custody after interrogation, appears to be a major boon in the fight against the IS group in Iraq and Syria, and Cook said it had yielded almost immediate results as well as critical information for the future.
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| Key powers mulling possibility of federal division of Syria Posted: 10 Mar 2016 02:54 PM PST  By Louis Charbonneau UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Major powers close to U.N.-brokered peace talks on Syria are discussing the possibility of a federal division of the war-torn country that would maintain its unity as a single state while granting broad autonomy to regional authorities, diplomats said. The resumption of Geneva peace talks is coinciding with the fifth anniversary of a conflict that began with protests against President Bashar al-Assad before descending into a multi-sided civil war that has drawn in foreign governments and allowed the growth of Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq. Fighting in Syria has slowed considerably since a fragile "cessation of hostilities agreement" brokered by the United States and Russia came into force almost two weeks ago.
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| 2 US military members get Zika virus, both recovered Posted: 10 Mar 2016 02:45 PM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — Two members of the U.S. military were diagnosed with the Zika virus, but have recovered and are back on duty, the top U.S. military commander for South America said Thursday. |
| Germany: Files listing Islamic State fighters are authentic Posted: 10 Mar 2016 02:25 PM PST  BERLIN (AP) — Thousands of files have surfaced with personal data on members of the Islamic State group — documents that might help authorities track down and prosecute foreign fighters who returned home after joining the extremists, or identify those who recruited them in the first place.
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| Israel expels family of Palestinian attacker from Jerusalem Posted: 10 Mar 2016 02:10 PM PST  JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel denied Jerusalem residency Thursday to the relatives of a Palestinian man who shot at police officers in Jerusalem, wounding two before he was killed by security forces, police said.
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| Religious TV channels on the rise across Mideast Posted: 10 Mar 2016 01:54 PM PST  The number of religious television broadcasters across the Middle East has risen by 50 percent, reflecting a rise in sectarianism in the region, according to a study published Thursday. The Northwestern University in Qatar in its study of the media industry found that the number of religious free-to-air channels had jumped to 75 in 2014, from 50 three years earlier. Sunni television channels remain by far the highest in number and increased to 55 from 43, three years previously, the research found.
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| How a hacker's typo helped stop a billion dollar bank heist Posted: 10 Mar 2016 01:51 PM PST  By Serajul Quadir DHAKA (Reuters) - A spelling mistake in an online bank transfer instruction helped prevent a nearly $1 billion heist last month involving the Bangladesh central bank and the New York Federal Reserve, banking officials said. The hackers breached Bangladesh Bank's systems and stole its credentials for payment transfers, two senior officials at the bank said. Four requests to transfer a total of about $81 million to the Philippines went through, but a fifth, for $20 million, to a Sri Lankan non-profit organization was held up because the hackers misspelled the name of the NGO, Shalika Foundation.
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| Obama’s Biggest Bet Posted: 10 Mar 2016 01:43 PM PST The title of Jeffery Goldberg's very fine essay notwithstanding, there is no Obama Doctrine. Indeed, over the course of his on-the-job education in statecraft, President Obama has developed a pronounced aversion to doctrines—grand statements of principle that subsequently provide an enduring basis for policy. |
| Kerry heads for Saudi, France for Syria talks Posted: 10 Mar 2016 01:08 PM PST  Secretary of State John Kerry will travel to Saudi Arabia on Friday and then on to France at the weekend for talks with key US allies on the crisis in Syria. The top US diplomat's first stop will be Hafr al-Batin near Saudi Arabia's border with Iraq, where King Salman has just surveyed a major military exercise. After talks with senior Saudi officials, Kerry will head on to Paris where Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault will host talks with major western allies.
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| More French girls lured by IS than boys: source Posted: 10 Mar 2016 12:52 PM PST  In France, more teenage girls than boys are drawn to joining Islamic State jihadists in Iraq and Syria, a high-ranking anti-terrorist official told AFP this week. Like young girls across Europe who dream of reaching Syria -- and often leave their unsuspecting families shocked when they do run away -- these girls are not just dreaming of becoming meek so-called "jihadi brides". While marriage to a jihadist fighter is their likely fate, the girls are as attracted by violence as their male counterparts, said sociologist Farhad Khosrokhavar, who has interviewed many radicalised French teenagers of both sexes.
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| Egypt diplomat Abul Gheit named Arab League head Posted: 10 Mar 2016 12:50 PM PST  Veteran Egyptian diplomat Ahmed Abul Gheit was named Thursday as the Arab League's new secretary general, at a time when the regional body faces multiple wars and a widening jihadist threat. In a sign of divisions within the pan-Arab body, however, Qatar voiced reservations over Abul Gheit's candidacy due to his "hostile positions" towards Doha, Arab diplomats said. "The consultations resulted in the nomination of Ahmed Abul Gheit to the post of secretary general," Bahraini Foreign Minister Khaled bin Ahmed Al-Khalifa announced in televised remarks at the end of a ministerial meeting.
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| The Latest: French minister hails Merkel's refugee stance Posted: 10 Mar 2016 12:37 PM PST  BERLIN (AP) — The Latest on the continuing issues of mass migration to Europe (all times local).
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| US says IS chem weapons effort "degraded" but not destroyed Posted: 10 Mar 2016 12:36 PM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. has "disrupted and degraded" the Islamic State's ability to produce chemical weapons by launching multiple airstrikes in Iraq based on information provided by a militant leader who was captured last month and turned over to the Iraqi government on Thursday, Pentagon officials said.
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| Kerry heads to Saudi, France for Syria, Yemen, Libya talks Posted: 10 Mar 2016 12:29 PM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State John Kerry is heading to Saudi Arabia and France this week for discussions with top Saudi and European officials about conflicts in Syria, Yemen and Libya. |
| Western security services probe IS identity leak reports Posted: 10 Mar 2016 11:57 AM PST  Western intelligence services examined Thursday a potential treasure trove of leaked IS files, some of which were deemed likely to be authentic by German officials despite the doubts of many experts. The documents contain details including the names, dates of birth and phone numbers of Islamic State group recruits, according to British and German media. Copies of the documents broadcast by Sky News showed that recruits had to answer 23 questions including on their blood type, mother's maiden name, "level of sharia understanding" and previous experience.
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| IS jihadists contained in small part of Afghanistan: US general Posted: 10 Mar 2016 11:56 AM PST  The Islamic State jihadist group is unable to make significant inroads in Afghanistan and its fighters are contained in a small part of the country, a US general said Thursday. The Islamic State in Afghanistan and Pakistan -- named a year ago by the group's leadership -- has stepped up its offensive in the east of the country in recent months.
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| U.S. strikes Islamic State chemical weapons capabilities: Pentagon Posted: 10 Mar 2016 11:46 AM PST The United States has carried out air strikes that it believes have degraded the chemical weapons capabilities of Islamic State in Iraq after using information obtained from a captured militant, the Pentagon said on Thursday. U.S.-led coalition forces detained Sulayman Dawud al Bakkar, Islamic State's head of chemical and traditional weapons manufacturing, during an operation in Iraq in February, Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said in a statement. |
| Pentagon says captured Islamic State chemical weapons chief in February Posted: 10 Mar 2016 11:24 AM PST The Pentagon said on Thursday it captured the Islamic State's chemical weapons chief in Iraq during an operation in February. The capture of Sulayman Dawud al-Bakkar, also known as Abu Dawud, "removed a key ISIL leader from the battlefield," the Pentagon said in a statement, referring to the militant group by an acronym. The Pentagon said it learned details about Islamic State's chemical weapon facilities and production, as well as the people involved, from Dawud. |
| EU to ease Greece migrant buildup, wrestles Turkey deal Posted: 10 Mar 2016 11:08 AM PST By Gabriela Baczynska and Alastair Macdonald BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union aims to rehouse thousands of asylum-seekers from Greece in the coming months, officials said on Thursday as EU ministers wrestled with concerns about the legality of a new plan to force migrants back to Turkey. Dimitris Avramopoulos, the member of the executive European Commission who handles migration, told reporters at a meeting of national interior ministers that at least 6,000 people a month should be relocated to other member states under a scheme which has moved only about 900 hundred people so far. Some 35,000 people have been stranded in Greece since Austria and states on the route to Germany began closing borders, barring access to migrants hoping to follow more than a million who reached northern Europe last year. |
| Qatar delays new Arab League head: diplomats Posted: 10 Mar 2016 11:08 AM PST  Qatar has delayed the appointment of a veteran Egyptian diplomat as the next head of the Arab League over his "hostile positions" towards the Gulf state, diplomats said on Thursday. Egypt was expecting Ahmed Abul Gheit, the last foreign minister to serve under ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, to be chosen unanimously by the 21-member pan-Arab body. Several diplomats told AFP that Doha accused Abul Gheit of pushing Egypt to boycott a Qatari-proposed Arab summit in 2009 to discuss an Israeli offensive against the Palestinian Gaza Strip.
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| US turns an Islamic State leader over to Iraqi government Posted: 10 Mar 2016 11:02 AM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military on Thursday transferred the Islamic State leader captured last month to the control of Iraq's government after using information he provided to conduct several airstrikes against the group's chemical weapons production facilities. |
| Three jihadists killed near Tunisia's Ben Guerdane: ministry Posted: 10 Mar 2016 10:26 AM PST  Three jihadists were killed Thursday in security operations in Tunisia's border area of Ben Guerdane, where militants launched a full-blown attack this week, the authorities said. The latest deaths raised to 49 the tally of jihadists killed since Monday's assault in Ben Guerdane, near Libya's border, on an army barracks and police and National Guard posts. One of the jihadists was killed in Zokra district after he shot at an army and police patrol, the interior and defence ministries said in a joint statement.
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| Policeman describes attack by gunman claiming Islamic State link Posted: 10 Mar 2016 10:17 AM PST  A Philadelphia police officer ambushed by a man who claimed allegiance to Islamic State took the witness stand on Thursday to describe being shot through the open window of his cruiser in a chilling attack caught on video. Officer Jesse Hartnett told a Pennsylvania judge that Edward Archer fired several times through the window of his patrol car but he used his arms to shield his head. "After he leaves the vehicle, I sit up and assess myself," Hartnett said.
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| Biden says fight against IS will take 'long time' Posted: 10 Mar 2016 09:33 AM PST  US Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday during a visit to American troops training Jordan's military that it will take a "long time" to defeat the Islamic State jihadist group. It's going to take a long time, going to take a long time," he told the troops at a training centre outside the city of Zarqa, northeast of Jordan's capital Amman. Biden earlier held talks at the royal palace with the king, whose country has been a member of a US-led coalition fighting IS in Syria and Iraq since 2014.
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| After a Leak of 22,000 Terrorists’ Names, Heads Will Roll at ISIS Posted: 10 Mar 2016 09:17 AM PST  If authentic, the disclosure of files containing the personal data of around 22,000 Islamic State members, including some Americans and other westerners, could turn the coalition fight against the extremist group on its head. Britain's Sky News reported it had obtained the data on the border with Turkey and Syria--files that provide the real names of the terror network's fighters, where they were from, telephone numbers, and the names of those who sponsored and recruited the militants. German officials are trying to verify the authenticity of the files, which the news agency Sky said were passed on to them on a memory stick stolen from the chief of ISIS internal security police by a former militant who had grown disillusioned with the extremist organization.
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| The Islamic State’s Orientation Questionnaire Posted: 10 Mar 2016 09:08 AM PST German media said they have a list of 22,000 names of foreign ISIS fighters, gleaned from questionnaires the terrorist organization asks new recruits to fill out. |
| Understanding ISIS: what personnel documents reveal Posted: 10 Mar 2016 08:54 AM PST Joining Islamic State (IS) takes plenty of paperwork, as revealed by a new trove of leaked documents that may help governments track and prosecute fighters, while also developing better counter-recruitment strategies to deter future sympathizers. "It's those people that are really key. |
| Iraq's military falls short on logistics in fight against IS Posted: 10 Mar 2016 08:54 AM PST SALAHUDDIN, Iraq (AP) — Iraq's military is once again trying to dislodge Islamic State group fighters from the vast Samarra desert, which stretches between newly recaptured territory in Anbar province and the IS-held northern city of Mosul. Yet, as operations move further away from the capital, government forces are increasingly plagued by logistical shortcomings. |
| Islamic State defector brings 'goldmine' of details on 22,000 supporters Posted: 10 Mar 2016 08:53 AM PST  By Guy Faulconbridge LONDON (Reuters) - A disillusioned former member of Islamic State has passed a stolen memory stick of documents identifying 22,000 supporters in over 50 countries to a British journalist, a leak that could help the West target Islamist fighters planning attacks. Leaks of such detailed information about Islamic State are rare and give Britain's spies a potential trove of data that could help unmask militants who have threatened more attacks like those that killed 130 people in Paris last November. A man calling himself Abu Hamed, a former member of Islamic State who became disillusioned with its leaders, passed the files to Britain's Sky News on a memory stick he said he had stolen from the head of the group's internal security force.
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| Syria air strikes target Islamic State in ancient Palmyra Posted: 10 Mar 2016 08:48 AM PST  By Tom Perry BEIRUT (Reuters) - Russian warplanes were said to have launched heavy strikes on the Islamic State-held city of Palmyra on Thursday in what may be a prelude to a Syrian government bid to recapture the historic site lost to the jihadist group last May. Dozens of Islamic State fighters were killed or wounded in the strikes that followed similarly heavy air raids in the Palmyra area on Wednesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group reported. The group's tactics in Syria appear to reflect the strains, as it turns to suicide missions seemingly aimed at causing maximum casualties rather than sustainable territorial gains. Islamic State is not included in a cessation of hostilities agreement that has brought about a lull in the war raging in western Syria between rebels aiming to topple President Bashar al-Assad and the Syrian army backed by the Russian air force.
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| VP Biden says defeating Islamic State will 'take long time' Posted: 10 Mar 2016 08:38 AM PST  ZARQA, Jordan (AP) — Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday told U.S. troops who are training the Jordanian military that Islamic State extremists are "already on their heels" but defeating them will take a long time.
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| Saudi Arabia, Iran must shape 'cold peace,' Obama says Posted: 10 Mar 2016 08:18 AM PST  By Susan Heavey WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Wars and chaos in the Middle East will not end until Saudi Arabia and Iran can find a way to "share the neighborhood" and make some kind of peace, U.S. President Barack Obama said in a magazine interview released on Thursday. "The competition between the Saudis and the Iranians, which has helped to feed proxy wars and chaos in Syria and Iraq and Yemen, requires us to say to our friends, as well as to the Iranians, that they need to find an effective way to share the neighborhood and institute some sort of cold peace," Obama told The Atlantic. In a wide ranging interview on foreign policy, Obama also put a share of the blame for the crisis in Libya on Washington's European allies.
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| Saudi Arabia concludes 20-nation anti-terror military drill Posted: 10 Mar 2016 08:17 AM PST  RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Heads of state from across the Muslim world gathered in Saudi Arabia on Thursday for the conclusion of a nearly three-week-long counter-terrorism military exercise that included 20 participating countries.
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| Knights of Columbus Provides Major Report on Genocide of Christians to State Department Posted: 10 Mar 2016 08:00 AM PST WASHINGTON, March 10, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The major report that makes the case that the terror campaign being waged against Christians by ISIS and its affiliates against Christians and other religious minorities meets the definition of genocide was released today at a news conference at the National Press Club by the Knights of Columbus (K of C) and In Defense of Christians (IDC). It was presented to the State Department yesterday. The 280-page report includes substantial material not previously available, including the most comprehensive information to date on Christians who have been killed, kidnapped, raped, sold into slavery, driven from their homes, and dispossessed, as well as on churches that have been destroyed. |
| Oil meeting on output freeze unlikely without Iran progress: sources Posted: 10 Mar 2016 07:04 AM PST  By Rania El Gamal and Alex Lawler DUBAI/LONDON (Reuters) - A meeting between oil producers to discuss a global pact on freezing production is unlikely to take place in Russia on March 20, sources familiar with the matter say, as OPEC member Iran is yet to say whether it would participate in such a deal. OPEC officials including Nigeria's oil minister have said a meeting would take place in Moscow on that date, potentially as the next step in widening an agreement to freeze output at January levels struck by OPEC members Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Qatar plus non-member Russia last month. Tehran feels it should be exempt from the agreement as it wants to recover market share it lost under Western sanctions.
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| Thousands evacuated as Iraqi forces advance against IS Posted: 10 Mar 2016 07:00 AM PST  Iraqi forces retook a town from the Islamic State jihadist group in Anbar province Thursday and evacuated 10,000 civilians as they advanced up the Euphrates valley, a security spokesman said. "Counter-terrorism forces and army troops liberated the Zankura area in a swift military operation," Sabah al-Noman, spokesman of the elite Counter-Terrorism Service, told AFP. The rural area around 125 kilometres (80 miles) west of Baghdad is on the way to Hit, a town which Iraqi forces have declared as their next target.
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| 'Thunder' in Saudi desert as major military drill ends Posted: 10 Mar 2016 06:50 AM PST  Warplanes roared overhead, tanks rumbled across the desert and smoke filled the sky Thursday for the final day of what Saudi Arabia billed as the region's biggest-ever military exercises. The 12-day "Northern Thunder" manoeuvres in the kingdom's northeast included 20 nations from the Middle East, Africa and Asia, Saudi officials said. Saudi Arabia's King Salman was joined by several foreign leaders for the final day of the exercise, which came as Riyadh vies to assert its leadership in the region.
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| Revolutionary Guards commander says Iran's missile work will not stop: state TV Posted: 10 Mar 2016 06:18 AM PST  By Parisa Hafezi ANKARA (Reuters) - A senior Revolutionary Guards commander has said that Iran's ballistic missile program will not stop under any circumstances and that Tehran has missiles ready to be fired, according to Iranian state television. Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh made his comments after a series of ballistic missile tests conducted by guard units that drew international concern, including a call by U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton for new sanctions against Iran. The tests, which state television said ended on Wednesday night, were seen as a challenge to a United Nations resolution and last year's nuclear accord with world powers under which Tehran agreed to curb its atomic program in exchange for relief from economic sanctions.
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