| Crowds line streets to honor US Navy SEAL killed in Iraq Posted: 13 May 2016 03:23 PM PDT  CORONADO, Calif. (AP) — Thousands of people — including motorcycle-riding combat veterans, schoolchildren waving flags and mothers with strollers — lined the streets of this military town Friday as the funeral procession of a Navy SEAL killed in Iraq passed by on its way to a national cemetery.
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| For Iran and Hezbollah, a costly week in Syria Posted: 13 May 2016 02:44 PM PDT  By Tom Perry and Babak Dehghanpisheh BEIRUT (Reuters) - A rebel onslaught on the town of Khan Touman near Aleppo last week delivered one of the biggest battlefield setbacks yet to the coalition of foreign Shi'ite fighters waging war on behalf of Syrian President Bashar al Assad. Reports put the death toll among the Iranian, Afghani and Lebanese militiamen as high as 80 in the attack spearheaded by the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front. "God willing, we are martyred rather than taken prisoner." Events in Khan Touman were followed by an even bigger blow to Iran and its allies: news emerged early Friday of the killing of Hezbollah commander Mustafa Badreddine, who had been overseeing the Lebanese group's military operations in Syria.
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| Navy Reviews What Procedures Might Need to Be Improved After Three Deaths of SEAL Trainees Posted: 13 May 2016 02:30 PM PDT  The Navy is reviewing procedures for keeping track of trainees who do not make it through the grueling course to become SEALs in the wake of three deaths involving sailors who participated in the last four training classes, military officials said. Two of the deaths involved trainees who had recently not made it through BUDS -- Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL -- training that selects the sailors who will join the elite special operations unit. In April, Seaman Daniel DelBianco, 23, committed suicide after he did not make it through "hell week," the intense week-long climax to BUDS during which prospective SEALs endure extreme sleep deprivation and tough physical conditions to see if they can carry out their military training under exhausting conditions.
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| The Latest: Thousands line streets to mourn fallen Navy SEAL Posted: 13 May 2016 01:52 PM PDT  SAN DIEGO (AP) — The Latest on the funeral of a Navy SEAL killed in Iraq (all times local):
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| Boko Haram may be sending fighters to Islamic State in Libya: U.S. officials Posted: 13 May 2016 01:07 PM PDT By Ulf Laessing ABUJA (Reuters) - There are signs that Nigeria's Boko Haram jihadists are sending fighters to join Islamic State in Libya, and of increased cooperation between the two groups, a senior U.S. official said on Friday. Nigeria has asked the United States to sell it aircraft to fight Boko Haram, which has been waging a seven-year insurgency in the north and last year pledged loyalty to Islamic State, which is active in Syria, Iraq and Libya. |
| Report: Airstrikes, intel failed to stop Paris attacks Posted: 13 May 2016 12:58 PM PDT PARIS (AP) — France changed its military strategy and started airstrikes in Syria last year because of concerns months before the attacks on Paris that ringleader Abdelhamid Abaaoud was plotting to target a concert and take hostages, according to a French newspaper report. |
| IS snipers prevent civilians leaving Fallujah: US official Posted: 13 May 2016 12:53 PM PDT  Islamic State snipers are targeting humanitarian corridors established by Iraqi security forces to relieve suffering in the IS-held city of Fallujah, a Pentagon official said Friday. Baghdad-based military spokesman Colonel Steve Warren said the shooters were preventing residents from escaping Fallujah, which is only about 30 miles (50 kilometers) west of Baghdad and is facing major shortages of basic supplies including medicine. "We know that the Iraqis have attempted on several occasions to open up humanitarian corridors to allow some of those civilians to come out," Warren told Pentagon reporters in a video call.
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| Real Madrid mourns soccer fans killed in Iraq bombing Posted: 13 May 2016 12:53 PM PDT  BAGHDAD (AP) — An attack on a cafe in central Iraq killed at least 13 people on Friday, including a group of Real Madrid soccer fans, prompting condemnation from the Spanish government and the football club, which said players would wear black arm bands in mourning.
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| Badreddine: a Hezbollah chief mysterious in life and death Posted: 13 May 2016 12:52 PM PDT  The killing of the enigmatic military chief of Lebanon's Hezbollah remained shrouded in mystery Friday, with his powerful Shiite militant movement giving out no information. Mustafa Badreddine was in a warehouse near Damascus airport when it was rocked by a blast on Thursday night, a Syrian security source said. The Syrian army controls the area, and Iranian and Hezbollah fighters are also present in force.
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| A look at past killings of Hezbollah figures Posted: 13 May 2016 12:41 PM PDT  BEIRUT (AP) — Top military commander Mustafa Badreddine, who died in an explosion in Damascus, is the latest of a number of senior figures from the Lebanese Shiite guerrilla group to be killed in past years.
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| Islamic State attacks north of Baghdad kill 16, sources say Posted: 13 May 2016 12:39 PM PDT  Three gunmen opened fire with machine guns around midnight at a cafe in the predominately Shi'ite Muslim town of Balad where young men, including fans of Spain's Real Madrid soccer club, had gathered to start the weekend, police and hospital sources. Islamic State said in a statement distributed online by supporters that three suicide attackers targeting Shi'ite militiamen had detonated their explosives, though security sources said they had only identified one bomber. Islamic State nearly overran Balad, 80 km (50 miles) north of Baghdad, in 2014 and maintains a frontline around 40 km away.
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| Blast kills Hezbollah military chief in Syria Posted: 13 May 2016 12:37 PM PDT  Lebanon's Hezbollah announced Friday that its top military commander had been killed in an attack in Syria where the Shiite militant group has deployed thousands of fighters backing the Damascus regime. Hezbollah said it was investigating the cause of the blast near Damascus airport but did not immediately point the finger at Israel as it did when the commander's predecessor was assassinated in the Syrian capital in 2008. The death of Mustafa Badreddine, who had led Hezbollah's intervention in support of President Bashar al-Assad's regime, came with a fragile truce in Syria's five-year war on the brink of collapse.
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| Obama, Nordic leaders press Russia during White House summit Posted: 13 May 2016 12:12 PM PDT  By Roberta Rampton and Jeff Mason WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama and leaders of five Nordic nations presented a united front against Russia on Friday, expressing concern about Moscow's military buildup in the Baltics and calling for sanctions against Russia to continue. The leaders of Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Iceland gathered at the White House for talks that focused on Russia and the crisis in Syria and Iraq that has sparked a flood of migrants to Europe. Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region in 2014 alarmed its Nordic and Baltic neighbors.
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| Gun, grenade and bomb attack kills 16 north of Baghdad Posted: 13 May 2016 11:15 AM PDT  Gunmen attacked a cafe with gunfire and grenades north of the Iraqi capital and later detonated suicide belts against security forces in pursuit, officials said on Friday. The deadly raid targeted a cafe that was popular with local fans of Real Madrid football club and drew condemnation from the Spanish government. At least 16 people were killed and 30 wounded, including several members of the security forces, in the attack in the town of Balad and the ensuing chase, they said.
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| Obama to world: Be more like the Nordics Posted: 13 May 2016 10:27 AM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats may argue over whether places like Denmark and Norway are model societies. President Barack Obama is sure.
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| Register for draft: It's what a man's got to do, and women? Posted: 13 May 2016 09:35 AM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress is on the verge of ordering young women to register for a military draft for the first time in history, touching off outrage among social conservatives who fear the move is another step toward blurring gender lines.
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| Migrant arrivals to Greece plunge, as EU-Turkey deal sputters Posted: 13 May 2016 09:28 AM PDT  A controversial EU-Turkey deal dramatically cut the number of migrant arrivals in Greece last month, data showed Friday, even as a row between Brussels and Ankara threatened to sink the agreement. The EU border agency Frontex also reported what it described as a "dramatic" slowdown, saying it had registered 2,700 arrivals in Greece last month. The figures are the first for a full month-long period since the EU-Turkey deal came into force in March and will be seen as a key measure of its effectiveness.
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| Exclusive: Iraq oil projects face delays as companies resist spending cuts Posted: 13 May 2016 09:18 AM PDT  International oil firms have warned Iraq that projects to increase its crude output will be delayed if the government insists on drastic spending cuts this year, a senior Iraqi oil official said on Friday. Oil companies helping Iraq develop its massive oil fields effectively perform a role similar to oil service firms in that they have to clear spending with the government each year. The arrangement worked smoothly when oil prices were above $100 a barrel but since crude has collapsed to $40 a barrel, Iraq has been struggling to find enough oil to repay the companies for their investment.
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| Top Hezbollah commander killed in Damascus blast Posted: 13 May 2016 09:10 AM PDT  By Tom Perry and Laila Bassam BEIRUT (Reuters) - Hezbollah's top military commander Mustafa Badreddine has been killed in a blast at a base near Damascus airport, the Lebanese Shi'ite group said on Friday, one of the biggest blows to its leadership the Iranian-backed organization has ever sustained. Hezbollah did not immediately say on Friday who it blamed for the attack, but its deputy leader Sheikh Naim Qassem said there were clear indications of who was behind it, and the group would announce the outcome of its investigation within hours. At least one Hezbollah figure blamed the group's age-old enemy Israel, which has struck Hezbollah targets in Syria several times in the past since civil war started there in 2011.
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| Iraqi children face high rates of death and disability Posted: 13 May 2016 08:37 AM PDT  By Madeline Kennedy (Reuters Health) - One in six childhood injuries in Iraq were caused by violence, compared with only one in 50 childhood injuries worldwide, according to a recent study. Iraqi children injured by violence, including by gunshots, shrapnel and explosives, were also more than 10 times more likely than those hurt by other means to be killed or disabled, the authors found. Very little research has looked at injuries among children in conflict zones, including in the aftermath of the 2003 coalition invasion of Iraq, the researchers write in the journal Surgery.
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| Assassination of top Hezbollah man in Syria shows group's new vulnerability Posted: 13 May 2016 08:02 AM PDT The top military commander of Lebanon's Hezbollah organization in Syria has been killed in what the Iran-backed party described Friday as a "large explosion" near the Damascus airport. While initial analysis suggests Israel is the main suspect, Hezbollah officially has not apportioned blame for the death of Mustafa Badreddine. |
| AP PHOTOS: Editor selections from the Middle East Posted: 13 May 2016 07:58 AM PDT  This week Iraq's capital was struck by a series of Islamic State bombings that killed nearly 100 people in two days, highlighting the extremist group's ability to target civilians despite recent battlefield setbacks.
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| Rap star show at war centenary pulled after French far right objects Posted: 13 May 2016 07:56 AM PDT French authorities have pulled the plug on a popular rap star's show during war commemorations in the town of Verdun after a clamor of criticism, notably from far-rightists who said the singer's presence was inappropriate. The rapper, Black M, was to have performed after a late-May memorial ceremony where Germany leader Angela Merkel and French counterpart Francois Hollande are set to mark the centenary of one of the bloodiest battles of World War One. Verdun Mayor Samuel Hazard told local newspaper l'Est Republican he was sorry to have canceled the concert on grounds of concerns for public order. |
| Special Report: How Russia allowed homegrown radicals to go and fight in Syria Posted: 13 May 2016 07:16 AM PDT  By Maria Tsvetkova NOVOSASITLI, Russia (Reuters) - Four years ago, Saadu Sharapudinov was a wanted man in Russia. A member of an outlawed Islamist group, he was hiding in the forests of the North Caucasus, dodging patrols by paramilitary police and plotting a holy war against Moscow. If he agreed to leave Russia, the authorities would not arrest him.
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| EU border agency says migrant arrivals in Greece drop 90 percent Posted: 13 May 2016 06:43 AM PDT  The number of migrants arriving in Greece dropped 90 percent in April, the European Union border agency said on Friday, a sign that an agreement with Turkey to control traffic between the two countries is working. The agency, Frontex, said 2,700 people arrived in Greece from Turkey in April, most of them from Syria, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq, a 90 percent decline from March. Under the EU's agreement with Turkey, all migrants and refugees, including Syrians, who cross to Greece illegally across the sea are sent back.
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| U.S. targets Islamic State with 21 strikes: statement Posted: 13 May 2016 06:37 AM PDT  The United States and its allies staged 21 strikes against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria on Thursday in their latest round of daily attacks against the militant group, the coalition leading the operations said in a statement on Friday. The Combined Joint Task Force said 14 strikes in Iraq hit targets near 10 cities, including Mosul, Ramadi and Falluja. The strikes hit seven units of Islamic State fighters, as well as a mortar system, a machine gun and other weapons and fighting positions, among other targets, it said.
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| OPEC signals greater oil glut in 2016 as its output surges Posted: 13 May 2016 06:35 AM PDT  By Alex Lawler LONDON (Reuters) - OPEC said the global oil market is oversupplied and signaled the glut may increase this year, as surging output from its members makes up for losses from other countries whose production has been hit by a price fall. Supply from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is climbing after sanctions on Iran were lifted and an initiative with Russia and other non-members to tackle a supply glut by freezing output failed last month. OPEC pumped 32.44 million barrels per day (bpd) in April, the group said in a monthly report citing secondary sources, up 188,000 bpd from March.
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| In Syria, a test of Obama's 'good enough' military doctrine Posted: 13 May 2016 05:54 AM PDT The conflict against the Islamic State is casting Syria as the newest test of America's attempt to redefine what "winning" looks like in the war against terror. More recently, President Obama had tried walking away from the region, but in the face of a humanitarian crisis in Syria and the rise of the Islamic State, that approach, too, proved unsustainable. Recommended: How much do you know about the Islamic State? |
| NATO sets up center in Albania to counter radicalism Posted: 13 May 2016 05:45 AM PDT TIRANA, Albania (AP) — Albania's defense minister says NATO has decided to open a center in Tirana to help prevent people from trying to join rebel groups in Syria and Iraq. |
| Insight: War on Islamist militants tests Tunisia's young democracy Posted: 13 May 2016 05:44 AM PDT  By Patrick Markey and Tarek Amara TUNIS (Reuters) - Four days after Islamist militants shot dead 21 tourists in Tunisia's Bardo museum last year, police rounded up dozens of people suspected of links with the gunmen. One of the men, a laborer, was arrested in his Tunis home. "I thought I didn't have any other way out." Several recent cases of police abuse – which the Tunisian government acknowledges still sometimes occurs – underscore the difficult path Tunisia is treading as it tries to both nurture the young democracy it founded after the 2011 revolution and simultaneously fight Islamist militants.
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| Migrant arrivals to Greece drop amid EU-Turkey pact tensions Posted: 13 May 2016 05:17 AM PDT  BRUSSELS (AP) — The number of migrants arriving in Greece has plummeted thanks in part to the European Union's pact with Turkey, the EU border agency said Friday, amid signs that the widely-criticized agreement to stop people heading to Europe could unravel.
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| Persecuted Yazidis call for international recognition of crimes against them Posted: 13 May 2016 04:22 AM PDT  By Anna Martin SULAYMANIYAH, Iraq (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Yazidi campaigners are calling for world leaders to declare their treatment by Islamic State as genocide to escalate obligations for the international community to prevent crimes against them and punish those victimizing women and children. Islamic State militants have killed, raped and enslaved thousands of Yazidis since 2014, forcing over 400,000 of the religious minority group to flee their homes in northern Iraq, accusing them of being devil worshippers. Yazidi campaigners are pushing for international justice for the crimes committed against them by Islamic State.
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| Belgium to begin air strikes against IS in Syria Posted: 13 May 2016 04:05 AM PDT  Belgium will extend its F-16 air strikes against Islamic State jihadists in Iraq into Syria, the government said Friday, as it grapples with the aftermath of deadly IS-claimed bomb attacks in Brussels in March. "In accordance with UN Resolution 2249, the engagement will be limited to those areas of Syria under the control of IS and other terrorist groups," a spokesman for Prime Minister Charles Michel told AFP after a cabinet meeting. Belgium launched its first attacks against IS in Iraq in late 2014 as part of the US-led coalition, but decided against strikes in Syria amid public fears over getting dragged into a wider conflict.
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| Turkey: 8 soldiers dead in clash with PKK, helicopter crash Posted: 13 May 2016 03:42 AM PDT  ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Eight Turkish military personnel have died in combat with Kurdish rebels and in a subsequent helicopter crash near the country's border with Iraq, the military said Friday. At least six rebels were also killed in the fighting.
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| Eight Turkish soldiers, 22 militants killed as violence widens in southeast Posted: 13 May 2016 03:30 AM PDT  By Seyhmus Cakan and Seda Sezer DIYARBAKIR/ISTANBUL, Turkey (Reuters) - Eight Turkish soldiers and 22 Kurdish militants have been killed in clashes over the last two days, authorities said on Friday, as violence widened in the largely Kurdish southeast following two bombings. After the collapse of a ceasefire between the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and the government last July, Turkey's southeast has seen some of its worst fighting since the height of the Kurdish insurgency in the 1990s. President Tayyip Erdogan has said the violence, and a concurrent threat from Islamic State militants, justifies Turkey's broad anti-terror laws, which have become a sticking point with the EU in talks about a landmark deal to stem the flow of illegal migrants to Europe.
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| German parliament approves Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia as 'safe' Posted: 13 May 2016 02:51 AM PDT  Germany's lower house of parliament on Friday approved a draft law declaring Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia as safe countries to ease deportation of failed asylum seekers from those North African states. The bill, criticized by human rights groups as well as the opposition Greens and hard-left Die Linke, still needs final approval by parliament's upper house, or Bundesrat The law passed easily in the Bundestag lower house, where Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives and their left-leaning Social Democrat coalition partners have a majority. The government commissioner for human rights, Baerbel Kofler, voted against the bill, telling Reuters there were "proven and documented human rights violations" in those three countries.
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| Turkey kills 140 PKK militants in Iraq air strikes since late April - NTV Posted: 13 May 2016 02:50 AM PDT ISTANBUL (Reuters) - The Turkish military has killed 140 Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants in air strikes in northern Iraq between April 29 and May 10, Turkish broadcaster NTV reported on Friday, citing the military. Turkey has been regularly attacking PKK targets in mountainous northern Iraq since the collapse of a ceasefire between the PKK and the Turkish state in July last year. (Writing by Seda Sezer; Editing by David Dolan) |
| 10 Things to Know for Today Posted: 13 May 2016 02:33 AM PDT  Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about today:
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| Michael Bay developing film about drone warfare to big screen Posted: 13 May 2016 01:43 AM PDT  A film based on the real-life story of a drone warfare expert is headed to the big screen via Michael Bay.
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