| IS in Iraq losing terrain 'every single day': US general Posted: 11 May 2016 04:09 PM PDT  The Islamic State group is losing ground in Iraq, struggling to replenish its ranks after it is attacked and is increasingly unable to mount major operations, a US general said Wednesday. Baghdad-based Major General Gary Volesky said efforts are paying off for US-backed Iraqi security forces, who are trying to recapture vast tracts of territory seized by IS jihadists in 2014, including the key cities of Mosul and Fallujah in the Anbar and Nineveh provinces. In August 2014, the United States launched an international coalition to fight back against the IS group after they captured large parts of Syria and Iraq.
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| Pentagon's research agency showcases future tech Posted: 11 May 2016 03:16 PM PDT  Johnny Matheny's handshake is friendly, confident and firm -- though not in the bone-crushing manner favored by some of the alpha types here in the Pentagon. What is remarkable is that Matheny's proffered hand is not actually his. "In the beginning, you had to think pretty hard about individual movements," Matheny told AFP as he demonstrated his mastery of the black metallic limb, clenching the fist and swiveling his wrist in a natural-looking motion.
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| Western Libyan forces prepare attack on Islamic State stronghold Posted: 11 May 2016 02:56 PM PDT  By Ahmed Elumami MISRATA, Libya (Reuters) - Forces in western Libya are preparing to advance on the city of Sirte, seized by Islamic State last year, their spokesman said, pushing ahead with plans for a counter-attack after the Islamists made territorial gains in the last week. The fighters based in the city of Misrata would like international logistical support to help retake what has become Islamic State's most important base outside Syria and Iraq, but will not wait for it before launching the operation, they said. "We are ready and we are preparing our security arrangements to attack Sirte," said Brigadier General Mohamed al-Gasri, spokesman for a newly formed military operations room in Misrata.
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| 21-Year-Old Navy SEAL Trainee Displayed Advanced Strength Before Dying After Pool Exercise Posted: 11 May 2016 02:00 PM PDT  The 21-year-old Navy SEAL trainee who died last week during an introductory pool training exercise in Coronado, California, would have had to display advanced physical strength before reaching that stage in his training. Seaman James Derek Lovelace was in his first week of training when he was pulled out of a swimming pool Friday during underwater demolition training after he showed signs of having difficulty, the Navy said in a statement today. Lovelace enlisted in the Navy in November after studying mechanical engineering at the Faulkner State Community College in Minette, Alabama, according to his Naval biography.
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| Libya's ancient sites not exposed to same risk as in Syria, Iraq: experts Posted: 11 May 2016 01:53 PM PDT  By Aidan Lewis TUNIS (Reuters) - Libya has not faced the same risk to its antiquities as Syria and Iraq, though there is evidence Islamic Sate is involved in the smuggling of antiquities, Libyan and international experts said on Wednesday. The most famous classical sites have remained largely undamaged, though some illegally excavated artefacts are being smuggled out of the country and Islamist fighters have targeted mosques and Sufi shrines, the experts said on the sidelines of conference on how to protect Libya's cultural heritage. Libya is rich in ancient sites, including some of North Africa's finest Roman and Greek ruins as well as prehistoric rock art in the desert region of Fezzan.
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| US grapples with renewed show of force by IS in Syria, Iraq Posted: 11 May 2016 01:40 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration grappled with a renewed show of force by Islamic State militants on Wednesday as they advanced again toward the ancient Syrian crossroads of Palmyra and exposed the Iraqi capital's frailty through a series of deadly car bomb attacks.
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| FBI Tracking Nearly 800 ISIS-Related Cases Across US, FBI Director Says Posted: 11 May 2016 01:40 PM PDT  Of the nearly 1,000 FBI cases across the country looking at people who may have been radicalized online, about 80 percent of them are tied to ISIS, FBI Director James Comey said today. "[ISIS'] ability to motivate troubled souls, to inspire them, remains a persistent presence in the United States," Comey said. However, Comey said ISIS -- also known as the Islamic State -- has been losing its ability to recruit people to Iraq or Syria, with the FBI seeing a "drop in the number of people traveling or attempting to travel" overseas to join the group.
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| 94 dead in triple Baghdad car bombings claimed by IS Posted: 11 May 2016 12:37 PM PDT  The attacks, all claimed by the Islamic State group, came with the government locked in a political crisis that some have warned could undermine the fight against the jihadists. The worst bombing struck the frequently targeted Sadr City area of northern Baghdad at about 10 am (0700 GMT), killing at least 64 people, officials said. "The state is in a conflict over (government positions) and the people are the victims," said a man named Abu Ali.
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| 24 Incredible Canines Chosen to Compete for Recognition as America's Top Dog Posted: 11 May 2016 12:34 PM PDT WASHINGTON, May 11, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- America's animal lovers have spoken, and after more than 300,000 votes, 24 courageous canines are advancing to the semifinal rounds of the 2016 American Humane Association Hero Dog Awards®, presented by the Lois Pope LIFE Foundation. The public is now invited to visit www.HeroDogAwards.org between now and June 22 to vote once per day for their favorite in one of the eight Hero Dog categories. The eight finalists will be flown to Los Angeles to take part in the star-studded sixth annual Hero Dog Awards gala on September 10 at the Beverly Hilton, where one will be chosen as the 2016 American Hero Dog, the top honor a dog can receive. |
| Illinois Senate campaign targets 'war hero' veterans record Posted: 11 May 2016 12:06 PM PDT  CHICAGO (AP) — Rep. Tammy Duckworth lost both legs when her helicopter was shot down in Iraq, then went on to hold leadership roles in the Illinois and U.S. Veterans Affairs departments.
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| Islamic State yearly oil revenue halved to $250 million: U.S. official Posted: 11 May 2016 11:47 AM PDT  By Yeganeh Torbati WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Air strikes, a drop in the price of oil, and counter-smuggling efforts by neighboring countries have combined to cut Islamic State's oil revenues in half to about $250 million per year, a senior U.S. Treasury official said on Wednesday. The U.S. military launched an intensified effort in October to go after its oil infrastructure in hopes of cutting funding to the group, which U.S. officials call the wealthiest terrorist group of its kind.
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| Turkey digs in heels over terrorism law, to EU's chagrin Posted: 11 May 2016 11:38 AM PDT  By Tulay Karadeniz and Gabriela Baczynska ANKARA/STRASBOURG (Reuters) - Turkey refused again on Wednesday to make changes to its anti-terrorism laws demanded by Brussels in a hardening of its stance that could jeopardize a major deal with the bloc covering migrants, free travel and militants. EU officials and rights groups have accused Turkey of using broad anti-terrorism legislation to stifle dissent. Ankara says it needs the laws to battle Kurdish militants at home and threats from Islamic State in neighboring Iraq and Syria.
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| Tunisia says four police, four militants killed in raids Posted: 11 May 2016 11:31 AM PDT  Four Tunisian police were killed on Wednesday when a suspected Islamist militant detonated his suicide-bomb belt during a raid in the southern town of Tataouine, part of an operation aimed at preventing militant attacks in Tunis, authorities said. Earlier, two more were killed in a raid in Ettadamen, a suburb of Tunis, the interior ministry said. Security forces are engaged in a crackdown after four major attacks in the last year by Islamist militants.
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| EU omen? Schengen's European museum ceiling collapses Posted: 11 May 2016 11:23 AM PDT  Europe's migrant crisis has prompted fears of the collapse of the passport-free Schengen area -- and EU leaders may hope a real-life collapse in the village it is named after is not a bad omen. Part of a suspended ceiling inside the European Museum in the tiny Luxembourg village of Schengen fell down on Tuesday as it closed for the day, leaving two visitors and an employee shocked but uninjured. There was also significant damage to the exhibits in the museum, which traces the history of the village and the treaty that led to the abolition of EU border controls, which was signed there on June 14, 1985.
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| Uzbek citizen arrested for New York-based Islamic State plot Posted: 11 May 2016 11:09 AM PDT An Uzbek citizen has become the sixth individual to be charged for participating in a New York-based conspiracy to provide support to the militant group Islamic State, U.S. prosecutors said on Wednesday. Azizjon Rakhmatov, 28, was arrested earlier in the day and charged in an indictment filed in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, with conspiring and attempting to provide material support to Islamic State and conspiring to use a firearm. U.S. authorities have charged at least 85 people since 2014 with crimes related to Islamic State, which controls territory in Syria and Iraq and has claimed responsibility for attacks in Paris in November that killed 130 people. |
| Navy SEAL killed in Iraq to be promoted posthumously Posted: 11 May 2016 10:20 AM PDT WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Navy SEAL who was shot and killed by Islamic State militants in Iraq on May 3 is being promoted to the rank of chief petty officer, the Navy said Wednesday. |
| Iraq says part of country under IS control down to 14% Posted: 11 May 2016 10:17 AM PDT  Areas under the control of the Islamic State group in Iraq have shrunk from 40 to 14 percent of the national territory, the government's spokesman said Wednesday. "We declare that Daesh's presence has receded in the cities and provinces of Iraq," Saad al-Hadithi said in televised comments. "They were occupying 40 percent of Iraq's territory but now only 14 percent is under their control," he said.
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| Nationally renowned trauma surgeon is Grady's new Chief of Acute Care Surgery Posted: 11 May 2016 10:00 AM PDT ATLANTA, May 11, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Nationally renowned trauma surgeon Dr. Peter Rhee has been named Grady Memorial Hospital's new Chief of Acute Care Surgery and Medical Director of the Marcus Trauma Center. Rhee will begin work in June. A 1983 summa cum laude graduate of Georgia Tech with a Bachelor of Science in Health System Engineering, Rhee received his medical degree from Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, Maryland. |
| Nearly every second German opposes fourth term for Merkel: poll Posted: 11 May 2016 09:42 AM PDT  Nearly half of Germans surveyed in a new poll oppose Chancellor Angela Merkel remaining in office for a fourth term after an election next year - a sign that her handling of the migrant crisis is still weighing on her popularity. Conducted by pollster Insa for German magazine Cicero, the survey showed on Wednesday that some 48 percent did not support the statement: "I'm in favor of Angela Merkel remaining chancellor also after the federal election in 2017." Around 27 percent said they wanted the conservative Christian Democratic leader to stay in office for a fourth term while roughly 25 percent said they did not have an opinion on the matter or did not give a reply. Leaving out those undecided and indifferent, nearly two-thirds of respondents with a clear opinion were against Merkel staying in office, Cicero said.
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| Microsoft tells UN more can be done to combat digital terror Posted: 11 May 2016 09:28 AM PDT  Microsoft told the United Nations on Wednesday that technology companies can do more to combat digital terror, but warned there was no single solution to prevent terrorists from using the web. "There is no silver bullet that will stop terrorist use of the Internet," Microsoft's vice president Steven Crown told a special Security Council debate on counter-terrorism. It was the first time an IT company addressed the Security Council, which has been increasingly concerned by the use of the Internet and social media by jihadists such as the Islamic State group.
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| IRAQ VIOLENCE Posted: 11 May 2016 09:21 AM PDT Chart shows civilian deaths and map locates clashes across Iraq.; 2c x 3 inches; 96.3 mm x 76 mm; |
| Islamic State bombs kill 80 in deadliest Baghdad attacks this year Posted: 11 May 2016 08:33 AM PDT  Three suicide bombings claimed by Islamic State across Baghdad killed at least 80 people on Wednesday, Iraqi police and hospital sources said, in the deadliest attacks in the Iraqi capital this year. Security has gradually improved in Baghdad, which was the target of daily bombings a decade ago, but violence against security forces and Shi'ite Muslim civilians is still frequent. The fight against Islamic State, which seized about a third of Iraq's territory in 2014, has exacerbated a long-running sectarian conflict in Iraq mostly between Sunnis and the Shi'ite majority that came to power after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
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| Senate blocks measure to forbid buys of Iran 'heavy water' Posted: 11 May 2016 08:31 AM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate on Wednesday blocked a Republican effort aimed at undercutting last year's landmark international nuclear deal with Iran.
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| Tunisia kills two 'suspected jihadists' in anti-terror raid Posted: 11 May 2016 07:48 AM PDT  Sixteen others were arrested during the operation in Ariana province just outside Tunis, and Kalashnikov assault rifles, pistols and ammunition were seized, it said. Tunisia, the birthplace of the Arab Spring, has suffered from a wave of jihadist violence since its 2011 revolution that ousted longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. The Islamic State group claimed brazen attacks last year on the National Bardo Museum in Tunis and a beach resort near Sousse that killed a total of 60 people, all but one of them foreign tourists.
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| Iraq says Islamic State control shrinks to 14 percent of its territory Posted: 11 May 2016 07:02 AM PDT  Iraq said on Wednesday its U.S.-backed military campaign against Islamic State had retaken around two-thirds of the territory seized by the militants in their lightning sweep across the country's north and west in 2014. "Daesh's presence in Iraqi cities and provinces has declined. After occupying 40 percent of Iraqi territory, now only 14 percent remains," government spokesman Saad al-Hadithi said in a televised statement, using an Arabic acronym for Islamic State.
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| Wide arrests in Egypt signal no-tolerance policy on critics Posted: 11 May 2016 06:51 AM PDT  CAIRO (AP) — Hours after marching in a peaceful protest against the government late last month, Yassin Mohammed and his friends were lingering in the area in a district of the Egyptian capital when police descended on them, piled them into a minibus and took them to a police station. There, he said, he was blindfolded, handcuffed and beaten by security agents.
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| Syrian Antiquities Import Restrictions Are Law, But Will They Work? Posted: 11 May 2016 05:53 AM PDT  President Barack Obama signed a bill that puts new restrictions on imports of antiquities from Syria in an effort to stem terrorists' trade in looted artifacts. Syria's archaeological sites have been heavily looted as the groups fighting in Syria's civil war, including the Islamic State group (also called ISIS) and the al- Qaida-allied "al-Nusra Front," have pillaged and sold Syrian artifacts to buy weapons and ammunition, according to news reports. Since the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011, more than $26 million worth of artifacts — most of which were described as "antiques" from more than 100 years ago — have been imported into the United States from Syria, according to documents from the U.S. Census Bureau.
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| Erdogan says Turkey killed 3,000 IS extremists Posted: 11 May 2016 04:47 AM PDT  ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says Turkish forces have killed some 3,000 Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq, insisting that no other country has matched Turkey's efforts against the extremist group.
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| U.S., allies target Islamic State with 14 strikes: U.S. military Posted: 11 May 2016 04:42 AM PDT The U.S.-led coalition on Tuesday staged 14 strikes against Islamic State in its latest round of daily strikes on the militant group in Iraq and Syria, the coalition leading the operations said in a statement. In Iraq, nine strikes near seven cities hit two units of Islamic State fighters, a weapons caches and several pieces of equipment, among other targets, the Combined Joint Task Force said in the statement released on Wednesday. |
| AUA Honors 2016 Annual Award Winners Posted: 11 May 2016 04:30 AM PDT SAN DIEGO, May 11, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The American Urological Association (AUA) honored its 2016 award recipients during its 111th Annual Meeting in San Diego, CA. Ramon Guiteras Award: The Ramon Guiteras Award is presented annually to an individual who is deemed to have made outstanding contributions to the art and science of urology. William Marston Linehan, MD received this award for his outstanding contributions to the art and science of urology, most notably in the identification of genes associated with different types of kidney cancers and developing new strategies for their management. |
| The Latest Baghdad Bombing Posted: 11 May 2016 04:27 AM PDT Updated on May 11 at 12:24 p.m. ET Dozens of people are dead Wednesday in a car-bomb explosion in Baghdad's predominantly Shia Sadr City neighborhood. The death toll in the attack claimed by ISIS has climbed to at least 80, making it the deadliest attack on the Iraqi capital in 2016. |
| Here’s Why Clinton Will Lose the Election to Donald Trump Posted: 11 May 2016 03:15 AM PDT  Here's how Hillary Clinton plans to beat Donald Trump: She will replay the very successful 1964 campaign against Barry Goldwater. Clinton was a "proud" conservative in her youth, before she became a liberal and then a "pragmatic progressive." Even as Trump has ranged widely over the political plains, so has Clinton.
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| In remote corner of Iraq, an unlikely alliance forms against Islamic State Posted: 11 May 2016 03:08 AM PDT  By Isabel Coles UMM Al-DHIBAN, Iraq (Reuters) - They share little more than an enemy and struggle to communicate on the battlefield, but together two relatively obscure groups have opened up a new front against Islamic State militants in a remote corner of Iraq. The unlikely alliance between an offshoot of a leftist Kurdish organization and an Arab tribal militia in northern Iraq is a measure of the extent to which Islamic State has upended the regional order. Across Iraq and Syria, new groups have emerged where old powers have waned, competing to claim fragments of territory from Islamic State and complicating the outlook when they win.
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| Turkey has killed 3,000 Islamic State fighters in Syria, Iraq: Erdogan Posted: 11 May 2016 02:33 AM PDT  ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey has killed 3,000 Islamic State fighters in Syria and Iraq, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday, adding that no other country is fighting Islamic State as Ankara is. NATO member Turkey was initially a reluctant partner in the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State and faced criticism in the earlier stages of the Syrian war for failing to stop foreign fighters crossing its borders and joining the radical group. ...
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| Turkish air strikes in southeast Turkey, northern Iraq kill 11 Kurdish militants Posted: 11 May 2016 02:15 AM PDT ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish air strikes in the southeastern province of Hakkari and in northern Iraq killed 11 Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) fighters on Tuesday, the armed forces said in a statement on Wednesday. It also said security operations in southeast Turkey killed three PKK fighters in Nusaybin and four in Sirnak on Tuesday, bringing the militant death toll in the two towns to around 700 during the operations of recent months. (Reporting by Ayla Jean Yackley; Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by David Dolan) |
| Report: 27.8 million people internally displaced last year Posted: 11 May 2016 01:50 AM PDT  AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — A major aid agency said Wednesday that 27.8 million people around the world were internally displaced by conflicts and natural disasters last year, calling it a global crisis.
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| SEAL trainee dies during basic training Posted: 11 May 2016 01:50 AM PDT  SAN DIEGO (AP) — A 21-year-old Navy SEAL trainee died last week during his first week of basic training in Coronado, California, a Navy spokesman said.
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| People uprooted within states by conflict hits record in 2015: aid group Posted: 10 May 2016 10:52 PM PDT  By Megan Rowling BARCELONA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The number of people uprooted inside their own countries by war and violence hit a record 40.8 million in 2015, with Yemen recording the most cases of newly displaced, an international aid group said on Wednesday. Globally there were 8.6 million fresh cases of people fleeing conflict last year within borders, an average of 24,000 a day, the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) said in a report. Some 2.2 million people in Yemen, or 8 percent of its population, were newly displaced in 2015, largely the result of Saudi-led air strikes and an economic blockade imposed on civilians, the report said.
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| Australia stop five from 'taking boat to Indonesia to join jihad' Posted: 10 May 2016 10:02 PM PDT  Five men with cancelled passports were Wednesday accused of planning to sail to Indonesia from Australia en route to join jihadist groups in Syria. The men included notorious Australian Islamic preacher Musa Cerantonio, who was detained in the Philippines in 2014 and deported for reportedly urging people to join jihad in Iraq and Syria, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation said. The men bought a seven-metre (23-foot) boat and drove it 2,840 kilometres (1,765 miles) from Melbourne north to Queensland state where they planned to set sail to Indonesia, the Australian Federal Police said.
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