| Sheriff: Army Reserve officer threatens members of mosque Posted: 10 Jun 2016 03:16 PM PDT  RAEFORD, N.C. (AP) — A decorated Army Reserve officer left bacon at a mosque and brandished a handgun while threatening to kill Muslims and bury them there, North Carolina authorities said Friday.
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| U.S, Iraqi officials can't confirm report Islamic State leader wounded Posted: 10 Jun 2016 01:22 PM PDT  BAGHDAD/FALLUJA (Reuters) - U.S. and Iraqi officials said on Friday they could not confirm a report by an Iraqi TV channel that Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had been wounded in an air strike in northern Iraq. A spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition fighting the radical Islamist militants, Colonel Chris Garver, said in an email that he had seen the reports but had "nothing to confirm this at this time". Brett McGurk, the U.S. envoy to the coalition, told a daily briefing at the White House in Washington that there was no reason to believe that Baghdadi was not alive "even though we haven't heard of him since late last year." "We presume that he's still alive," he added.
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| Syrian government, U.S.-backed fighters advance against Islamic Sate Posted: 10 Jun 2016 01:22 PM PDT  By John Davison and Maher Chmaytelli BEIRUT/BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Syrian government troops backed by Russia and fighters backed by the United States made separate advances against Islamic State on Friday, gaining ground in new offensives that have put unprecedented pressure on the self-declared caliphate. In neighboring Iraq, government troops also fought for territory in an Islamic State bastion near Baghdad. There was no confirmation of an Iraqi media report that Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had been wounded in U.S.-led air strikes.
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| US-backed forces cut main IS Syria-Turkey supply route Posted: 10 Jun 2016 01:02 PM PDT  Arab-Kurdish fighters backed by the United States on Friday cut the Islamic State group's main supply route between Syria and Turkey in a major setback for the jihadists. IS has come under growing pressure on various fronts in Syria and Iraq, where it established its self-declared "caliphate" in 2014. "The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) cut off the last road from Manbij to the Turkish border," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group.
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| Top Asian News 8:00 p.m. GMT Posted: 10 Jun 2016 01:00 PM PDT MALE, Maldives (AP) — A Maldives court has convicted the country's former vice president of masterminding a plot to kill the president by exploding a bomb on his speedboat last year and sentenced him to 15 years in prison. Ahmed Adeeb must serve a total of 25 years after the same criminal court sentenced him earlier this week to 10 years for possessing firearms. Two of his military body guards were given 10 years each for being part of the plot. Adeeb is the fourth high profile politician to be jailed on terrorism charges since Yameen Abdul Gayoom was elected president in 2013. |
| Obama widens US Afghan role in final months in office Posted: 10 Jun 2016 12:56 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — Far from ending the two wars he inherited from the Bush administration, Barack Obama is wrestling with an expanded set of conflicts in the final months of his presidency, from Iraq and Afghanistan to Libya and Syria, with no end in sight. In Afghanistan, where a Taliban resurgence has upset Washington's "exit strategy," Obama is giving the U.S. military wider latitude to support Afghan forces, both in the air and on the ground.
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| Explaining the Broader Role Approved by President Obama for the US Military in Afghanistan Posted: 10 Jun 2016 12:45 PM PDT  President Obama has approved broader authorities for the U.S. military in Afghanistan that will, on occasion, allow American forces to accompany conventional Afghan troops and possibly allow airstrikes in support of Afghan troops to help them seize a battlefield advantage, U.S. military officials announced late Thursday. Instead, the broadened authorities will be used on a case-by-case basis where U.S. military commanders determine that accompanying Afghan ground troops and providing close air support will proactively help the Afghan military gain a strategic advantage against the resurgent Taliban, the official said.
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| Libya unity forces in street battles with IS in Sirte Posted: 10 Jun 2016 12:24 PM PDT  Forces loyal to Libya's unity government fought street battles with the Islamic State group on Friday as they pressed an offensive to capture the jihadists' coastal bastion. The loss of Sirte, the hometown of ousted dictator Moamer Kadhafi, would be a major blow to IS at a time when it is under mounting pressure in Syria and Iraq. Analysts have warned that the fall of Sirte would not spell the end of the jihadists in Libya, where they have fed on political and military divisions since the 2011 uprising that killed Kadhafi.
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| Kazakh President blames attacks on radical islamists Posted: 10 Jun 2016 11:57 AM PDT  Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev on Friday blamed radical islamists for deadly shootings that left seven dead in the west of the oil-rich Central Asian state. "We already know that it was a terrorist attack by a group of followers of the non-traditional religious movement Salafism," Nazarbayev said in a televised meeting with the country's security council, referring to an ultra-conservative brand of Islam. Nazarbayev's comments came hours after security forces killed five more people suspected of perpetrating Sunday's attacks.
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| Western-backed forces encircle key town in northern Syria Posted: 10 Jun 2016 11:34 AM PDT  BEIRUT (AP) — Kurdish-led fighters completed their encirclement Friday of a key town held by the Islamic State group in northern Syria, part of a Western-backed offensive that could see a major strategic victory over the militants.
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| Human rights lawyer Amal Clooney to defend Yazidi women, ISIS sex slaves Posted: 10 Jun 2016 10:48 AM PDT  By Lin Taylor LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - International human rights lawyer Amal Clooney will defend Yazidi women who have been victims of sexual slavery, rape and genocide by Islamic State militants in Iraq, her law firm said on Friday. Clooney, a barrister at Doughty Street Chambers in London, is seeking to prosecute the Islamist group through the International Criminal Court for their crimes against the Yazidi community. "We know that thousands of Yazidi civilians have been killed and that thousands of Yazidi women have been enslaved," Clooney, who is married to actor George Clooney, said in a statement.
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| Kazakh forces kill five suspected of links to Islamist attack Posted: 10 Jun 2016 09:41 AM PDT  Kazakh security forces killed five people on Friday who were suspected of being Islamist militants linked to deadly attacks this week, the National Security Committee (KNB) said. A special forces unit stormed an apartment and killed four suspects after they refused to surrender and opened fire, the KNB said in a statement. No casualties were reported among civilians or security forces.
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| The religious journey of Muhammad Ali Posted: 10 Jun 2016 08:44 AM PDT Muhammad Ali was set to be laid to rest on Friday, with thousands of people flocking to Louisville, Ky., to pay their respects to the man widely regarded as the best boxer of all time. Recommended: Sunni and Shiite Islam: Do you know the difference? "We're very proud of the fact that Muhammad Ali was a Muslim," says Hazem Bata, secretary general of the Islamic Society of North America. |
| Kazakhstan says 5 suspected militants killed in sweep Posted: 10 Jun 2016 08:36 AM PDT MOSCOW (AP) — Five suspected militants were killed in gunbattles with police that followed a series of recent armed attacks that have challenged the stability of the energy-rich ex-Soviet nation of Kazakhstan, authorities said Friday. |
| Clinton and Trump: Foreign-policy odd couple with their parties? Posted: 10 Jun 2016 07:59 AM PDT Presumptive Republican presidential nominee and party outsider Donald Trump may be having a hard time overcoming widespread suspicions about him among the GOP establishment. Indeed, as Secretary Clinton and Trump prepare to face each other in the November presidential election, some foreign policy experts wonder if the two candidates each align on some fronts more closely with the opposing party than their own. The thinking is that an interventionist Clinton might find more like-mindedness among Republicans than among Democrats – just as a noninterventionist and international trade-basher like Trump might find that attraction to his ideas is stronger among some Democrats. |
| 'Brexit' vote: a clash over Britain's identity Posted: 10 Jun 2016 05:32 AM PDT Robin Hunter-Coddington is a British retiree who loves Europe. When he moved back to London in the late 1980s, he set up a business that helped British companies expand into European countries. Over the course of his life he has seen – and appreciated – how much easier it is to trade with Europe and travel within it since the formation of the European Union. |
| Kurdish militant group says it was behind Istanbul bombing Posted: 10 Jun 2016 05:28 AM PDT  By Seyhmus Cakan and Humeyra Pamuk DIYARBAKIR/ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Kurdish militants said on Friday they carried out a suicide bombing which killed eleven people in Turkey's biggest city Istanbul this week and warned the country was no longer safe for foreign tourists. In a statement on its website, the Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK), an offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), vowed to continue attacks across Turkey and said while it was not targeting tourists, they could be at risk. Turkey, the world's sixth-biggest tourist destination, has seen a sharp drop-off in visitors due to concerns about deteriorating security.
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| Final Push to Secure Funding for Wounded Veterans Wanting to Start Families Posted: 10 Jun 2016 05:15 AM PDT Senators and representatives will meet in the next two weeks to merge two bills for Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2017 (H.R. 2577). Wounded Warrior Project® (WWP) is working with thirteen partners including other veteran service organizations to keep this amendment as the bill is merged. This week, WWP launched an online petition to help show support for the bill. |
| Airbus under new pressure over A400M as deliveries slip Posted: 10 Jun 2016 03:53 AM PDT  By Tim Hepher and Cyril Altmeyer PARIS (Reuters) - Airbus Group faces renewed pressure from France and other European buyers to meet performance and delivery pledges for its A400M military transport plane but is struggling to meet the deadlines, people familiar with the matter said. After partly successful efforts to overcome delays on Europe's largest defense project, the A400M has been plunged into uncertainty again, especially due to issues at an Italian subcontractor that have sparked potential compensation claims. France has written to Airbus pressing it to say whether problems with Italian-built gearboxes and other threats to the A400M's military effectiveness will be resolved this year, but Airbus has declined to give that assurance, the people said.
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| U.S.-backed forces cut off all routes into IS-held Manbij: Syrian Observatory Posted: 10 Jun 2016 03:10 AM PDT  U.S.-backed forces seized control of the last route into Islamic State-held city of Manbij in northern Syria on Friday, completing their encirclement of the main target in a major advance against the militants, a monitoring group said. The Syria Democratic Forces, supported by U.S.-led air strikes and American special forces, launched and advance last week to seize Islamic State's last territory on the Syria-Turkey border and cut the self-declared caliphate off from the world. Other enemies of Islamic State, including the governments of Syria and Iraq, also launched major offensives on other fronts, in what amounts to the most sustained pressure on the militants since they proclaimed their caliphate in 2014.
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| House Republicans Push Back on Trump’s Foreign Policy Posted: 10 Jun 2016 03:00 AM PDT One recurring question for the next five months will be whether Donald Trump will succeed in changing the Republican Party, or whether the leaders of the GOP will succeed in changing him. |
| How one family escaped Iraq's besieged Fallujah Posted: 10 Jun 2016 12:23 AM PDT  Abu Marwan, his wife and his three children are among the very few Iraqi civilians to have escaped from the heart of the Islamic State group's besieged stronghold of Fallujah. The 49-year-old man and his family were able to leave Fallujah this week but tens of thousands more civilians remained trapped in the city by IS. "We did not flee Fallujah when Daesh (IS) took over at the end of 2013," he said, referring to the start of a period of anti-government protests during which IS's previous incarnation gradually took over the city.
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| Growing desertions as Islamic State loses ground: experts Posted: 10 Jun 2016 12:08 AM PDT  Growing numbers of Western jihadists are deserting the Islamic State (IS) group and returning to countries like France, where security services are trying to sort genuine repenters from terror suspects, experts say. IS, which is losing ground on several fronts in Syria and Iraq, is also battling to prevent some of the thousands of foreign volunteers who have joined its ranks since 2014 giving up the fight and going home. Many are starting to send us messages to know how they can return," France's national intelligence coordinator, Didier Le Bret, told AFP.
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| Today in History Posted: 09 Jun 2016 09:01 PM PDT Today in History |
| Winner of award honoring AP photographer accustomed to risk Posted: 09 Jun 2016 07:47 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — This year's recipient of an award named for an Associated Press photographer who was killed in Afghanistan is a photojournalist who's accustomed to working in isolated and dangerous conditions.
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| Navy admiral pleads guilty to lying in bribery probe Posted: 09 Jun 2016 07:25 PM PDT  SAN DIEGO (AP) — A Navy admiral on Thursday pleaded guilty to lying to federal authorities investigating a $34 million fraud scheme involving a Malaysian contractor known as "Fat Leonard" — becoming the highest-ranking military official to be taken down in the wide-spanning scandal.
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| Man Accused of Joining ISIS Did Not Want to Be Suicide Bomber, Lawyer Says Posted: 09 Jun 2016 07:18 PM PDT  Once in Iraq, he and others stayed in an ISIS safe-house in Raqqa, Syria, where they went through an ISIS "intake process." According to the Justice Department, Khweis allegedly volunteered to be a suicide bomber. Khweis was contacting "ISIS-affiliated social media accounts to gain information and discuss his desire to travel to Syria," and using social media platforms and programs "to securely and privately communicate with ISIL," according to charging documents.
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| Iraq special forces 3km from Fallujah centre Posted: 09 Jun 2016 05:08 PM PDT  Iraq's elite counterterrorism service moved to within three kilometres of central Fallujah Friday and consolidated positions in the south of the city, the operation's commander said. Speaking to AFP from the edge of the city's Shuhada neighbourhood, Lieutenant General Abdelwahab al-Saadi said the operation to retake one of the Islamic State group's most emblematic bastions was progressing well. "Daesh (IS) wanted the battle to take place outside the city but we have moved in, and retaken all this area in eight days," he said, standing on rooftop overlooking Fallujah's southern neighbourhoods.
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| Kurdish rebel group TAK claims Istanbul bombing Posted: 09 Jun 2016 05:03 PM PDT  Militant Kurdish group the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK) on Friday claimed a car bombing in the centre of Istanbul that killed 11 people, warning foreign tourists that Turkey was no longer safe for them to visit. The TAK -- seen as a splinter group of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) -- said Tuesday's attack was revenge for operations by the Turkish army in the Kurdish-dominated southeast. "The action was carried out to counter all the savage attacks of the Turkish republic in Nusaybin and Sirnak and other places," it said, referring to the areas in the southeast where the army had been carrying out operations against Kurdish rebels.
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| U.S. woman convicted of conspiracy to export jet engines to China Posted: 09 Jun 2016 04:15 PM PDT (Reuters) - A California woman was convicted on Thursday by a federal jury in Florida of conspiring to illegally export fighter jet engines, a military drone and technical data on the weapons to China, the U.S. Justice Department said. Wenxia Man, 45, of San Diego, faces a maximum of 20 years in prison for violating the Arms Export Control Act, the department said in a statement. The engines are used in F-35, F-22 and F-16 U.S. fighter jets, and a drone capable of firing Hellfire missiles through a third country, it added. |
| American IS defector faces terror charge Posted: 09 Jun 2016 03:46 PM PDT  An American who joined the Islamic State group and escaped after becoming disillusioned appeared in US court Thursday to face federal terror charges in a case that could provide insight on the jihadist group. Mohamad Jamal Khweis, a 26-year-old facing charges of providing material support to IS, was ordered held without bail at the hearing in his home state of Virginia. The case could shed new light on a trend that has seen IS successfully recruit disenchanted youths, including from Europe and the United States, to fight on its behalf.
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| F-16s that crashed over Georgia high-tech, but built in 1993 Posted: 09 Jun 2016 03:25 PM PDT  COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The pilots at the controls of the two F-16 jets that collided over Georgia this week are seasoned combat veterans — and so are the jets they were flying. The planes were built in 1993 and have flown hundreds of combat missions, including the fiery 2003 attack on Baghdad dubbed "Shock and Awe," according to commanders of the South Carolina National Guard.
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| David Gilkey and the Kitty From Kabul Posted: 09 Jun 2016 02:38 PM PDT  There are cat people, and there are dog people. David Gilkey, the NPR photographer killed in Afghanistan on Sunday, was a dog person, in personality as well as in pet preference. Half of him was pure junkyard dog—gruff, husky, and intimidating with his shaved head, Special Forces beard, and gunfighter's eyes. He loved crawling through the mud and sleeping in the dirt with Marines. His other half, though, was Labradoodle—soft, sensitive, loyal, and kind of goofy.
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| 7 Ways Paul Ryan’s National Security Plan Challenges Donald Trump Posted: 09 Jun 2016 02:15 PM PDT  House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) spelled out his national security and foreign policy views on Thursday in a thinly-veiled campaign document aimed at defining the GOP's sharp differences with the Obama Administration. The 23-page document is the second in a series of policy analyses Ryan intends to roll out between now and the GOP national convention in July in hopes of influencing the platform and focusing the general election campaign debate.
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| How some police departments are trying to prevent 'puppycide' Posted: 09 Jun 2016 02:07 PM PDT Buddy's story is a familiar one, as he's one of many dogs who have been thrust into the national spotlight after a fatal encounter with law enforcement. Recommended: How well do you know your dog breeds? |
| Setbacks seen for Islamic State in Syria, Iraq, Libya Posted: 09 Jun 2016 01:32 PM PDT  BEIRUT (AP) — U.S.-backed fighters in Syria converged from three sides on an Islamic State stronghold near the Turkish border Thursday, while Iraqi special forces pushed deeper into Fallujah, one of the last bastions of the militant group in western Iraq.
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| Islamic State video shows Assyrian temple blown up in Iraq Posted: 09 Jun 2016 01:32 PM PDT  Islamic State insurgents have posted a video showing a 3,000-year-old temple being blown up at the Assyrian city of Nimrud in northern Iraq, in their latest assault on some of the world's greatest archaeological and cultural treasures. The United Nations confirmed in a statement on Wednesday evening that satellite imagery showed "extensive damage to the main entrance" of the temple of Nabu, the Babylonian god of wisdom. Nimrud was a 13th century BC Assyrian city, located 30 km (20 miles) south of the modern city of Mosul, which the hardline Islamic State militants seized control of in June 2014.
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| Islamic State can't pay fighters, US Treasury says Posted: 09 Jun 2016 01:20 PM PDT  Efforts to choke off the finances of the Islamic State group have left it unable to pay its fighters and spurred corruption within the group, a senior US official said Thursday. Daniel Glaser, the Treasury's assistant secretary for terrorist financing, told Congress that a combination of bombing attacks on IS cash stores and oil shipments, locking it out of the banking system, and cutting off Iraq government cash flows to IS-controlled areas, has left the group struggling financially. "As a result of these efforts, ISIL is struggling to pay its fighters and we have seen a number of ISIL fighters leaving the battlefield as their pay and benefits have been cut and delayed," he said, using the US's preferred acronym for Islamic State.
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| Catholic legislators feel church's ire over abuse bill votes Posted: 09 Jun 2016 01:13 PM PDT  PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Roman Catholic legislators say they have been publicly shamed during Mass, called out in church bulletins and disinvited to parish events as the Philadelphia Archdiocese campaigns against a bill that would give victims of child sexual abuse more time to sue the church.
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| American ISIS defector charged: Will his story keep others from joining? Posted: 09 Jun 2016 01:03 PM PDT American-born Mohamad Khweis travelled to ISIS-controlled Iraq because he was taken with the group's propaganda, but he left after reality proved quite different. Recommended: How much do you know about the Islamic State? Law enforcement is accustomed to using a defector's information against secret organizations such as Al Qaeda or IS. |
