| Gunman in worst U.S. massacre described as 'quiet,' with few friends Posted: 12 Jun 2016 04:55 PM PDT  By Zachary Fergensen FORT PIERCE, Fla. (Reuters) - The photo from Omar Mateen's high-school yearbook is hardly remarkable - a toothy, dimpled smile with a peach fuzz mustache below a mop of black hair. Much is unknown about what drove Mateen, 29, to walk into a packed gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, with a handgun and AR-15 semi-automatic rifle and open fire, killing 50 people before police stormed the club and fatally shot him. In Fort Pierce on Florida's southeast coast, 120 miles (195 km) from the shooting, the imam at the mosque that Mateen attended for nearly 10 years described him as a soft-spoken, regular worshipper who rarely interacted with the congregation.
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| Trump says Florida massacre proves he's right on Islamist threat Posted: 12 Jun 2016 04:06 PM PDT  By James Oliphant and Ginger Gibson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gave an aggressive response to the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history, quickly claiming the attack was the work of an Islamist militant while calling on President Barack Obama to resign and for Democrat Hillary Clinton to exit the presidential race. For Trump, it was an attempt to frame the attack in Orlando in a light favorable to his campaign for the Nov. 8 presidential election. Early on Sunday, when few facts were known about the shooting, he boasted on Twitter that it proved he had been right about his warnings over "radical Islamic terrorism." In a tweet just hours after the incident, he wrote: "Appreciate the congrats for being right on radical Islamic terrorism, I don't want congrats, I want toughness & vigilance." Trump has made combatting the threat of groups such as Islamic State a central part of his candidacy.
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| Former GOP senator and Ohio Gov. George Voinovich dies Posted: 12 Jun 2016 02:52 PM PDT  COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Former Republican U.S. Sen. George Voinovich, a two-term Ohio governor who preached frugality in his personal and public life and occasionally bucked the GOP establishment, died Sunday. He was 79.
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| The Latest: Elder Bush mourns Voinovich as political ally Posted: 12 Jun 2016 02:43 PM PDT COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The Latest on the death of former U.S. senator and Ohio Gov. George Voinovich (all times local): |
| U.S. officials: No evidence of direct Islamic State link to Orlando shooting Posted: 12 Jun 2016 02:20 PM PDT  Islamic State claimed responsibility on Sunday for the worst mass shooting in U.S. history, but U.S. officials said they had seen no immediate evidence linking the militant group to the massacre in Orlando, Florida. Islamic State's claim was carried by Amaq, the organization's news agency. "The armed attack that targeted a gay night club in the city of Orlando in the American state of Florida which left over 100 people dead or injured was carried out by an Islamic State fighter," said the Amaq statement.
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| Raids on Syria market kill 21, hundreds flee IS bastion Posted: 12 Jun 2016 12:31 PM PDT  Air strikes on a market in Syria's Al-Qaeda-held city of Idlib killed at least 21 civilians Sunday, as hundreds fled a besieged Islamic State group bastion near the Turkish border. Five children were among those killed in the air raids on Idlib, which is held by Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front and its allies, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Peace talks towards ending Syria's five-year war have stalled, with no immediate end in sight to a conflict that has killed 280,000 people.
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| Safe corridor allows 4,000 to flee Iraq's Fallujah Posted: 12 Jun 2016 09:33 AM PDT  The Iraqi army has established a safe corridor that has allowed 4,000 Fallujah residents to flee the jihadist-held city in 24 hours, the Norwegian Refugee Council said on Sunday. The safe passage leads to the southwest of Fallujah, along a road where the Islamic State group killed at least 18 members of two families trying to flee on Friday. "The army opened a safe corridor for families fleeing from Fallujah through Al-Salam intersection," an officer with the Joint Operations Command supervising the fight against IS said.
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| Thousands flee Falluja using first safe exit route secured by Iraqi army Posted: 12 Jun 2016 08:35 AM PDT  By Maher Chmaytelli, Ahmed Rasheed and Isabel Coles BAGHDAD/ERBIL, Iraq (Reuters) - The Iraqi army said on Sunday it had secured the first safe exit route for civilians to leave Islamic State's besieged stronghold Falluja, and a Norwegian aid group said thousands of people had already used it to flee in the first day it was open. While it pressed on with its offensive in Falluja, the army also launched a fresh advance in the direction of the northern city of Mosul, Islamic State's de facto Iraqi capital, under cover of airstrikes from a U.S.-led coalition. The assaults by the Iraqi army are taking place at the same time as advances against Islamic State by U.S.-backed fighters and Russian-backed Syrian government forces in Syria, at the opposite end of the militants' self-proclaimed caliphate.
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| IS suicide bombers in Sirte hit pro-govt Libyan forces Posted: 12 Jun 2016 08:12 AM PDT  Forces allied with Libya's unity government battled Sunday to retake the Islamic State group's last redoubts in its stronghold of Sirte, facing fierce resistance including a series of suicide car bombings. The loss of Sirte would be a major setback for IS, which has also been losing territory in Syria and Iraq where the jihadist group established its self-declared "caliphate" in 2014. "Three explosions from cars driven by Islamic State suicide bombers targeted our forces in Sirte," Reda Issa, a spokesman for the unity government's forces, told AFP.
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| IS suicide bombers hit Libyan forces in Sirte, killing 1 Posted: 12 Jun 2016 05:52 AM PDT  BENGHAZI, Libya (AP) — Islamic State suicide bombers using an ambulance and two other vehicles targeted Libyan forces in the coastal city of Sirte on Sunday, killing at least one of them, a spokesman for militias loyal to Libya's U.N.-brokered government said.
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| Iran steps up recruitment of Shiite mercenaries for Syrian war Posted: 12 Jun 2016 04:00 AM PDT With gelled hair spiked high and wearing a Dolce & Gabbana shirt, the young Afghan man looks more like a fashionista than a religious warrior ready to give his life for jihad in Syria. The man wanted to leave Afghanistan for personal reasons, but the Afghans and Iranians who facilitated his trip to Iran, and hosted him in Tehran, saw a recruiting opportunity. Recommended: How much do you know about Iran? |
| IS suicide bombings target Libya pro-govt forces in Sirte Posted: 12 Jun 2016 03:27 AM PDT  The Islamic State group carried out three suicide car bombings Sunday against forces allied with Libya's unity government battling to retake the city of Sirte, an official said. "Three explosions from cars driven by Islamic State suicide bombers targeted our forces in Sirte," Rida Issa, a spokesman for the unity government's forces, told AFP. The other bombers targeted pro-government forces and a field hospital in the city's west.
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| Hundreds escape besieged IS Syria stronghold Posted: 12 Jun 2016 03:27 AM PDT  Hundreds of civilians escaped a besieged jihadist bastion in north Syria on Sunday helped by a US-backed Kurdish-Arab alliance surrounding the town, a monitor said. "Around 600 civilians fled on foot towards areas held by the Syrian Democratic Forces alliance south of the town," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The SDF "transported them to safer areas," said Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman.
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| Austria: 17 migrants found in van at Hungarian border Posted: 12 Jun 2016 03:04 AM PDT BERLIN (AP) — Austrian police say they have found 17 migrants in a van entering the country from Hungary. |
| United Arab Emirates says military helicopter crash kills 2 Posted: 12 Jun 2016 02:24 AM PDT DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The United Arab Emirates says a military helicopter crash has killed the pilot and co-pilot onboard. |
| Iraqi forces gain ground against Islamic State south of Mosul Posted: 12 Jun 2016 02:07 AM PDT  Iraqi troops advanced against Islamic State south of Mosul on Sunday as the U.S.-led coalition intensifies its campaign against the militants on multiple fronts across their self-proclaimed caliphate. Officers involved in the operation said Iraqi forces had moved toward the village of Haj Ali in tanks and armored vehicles under cover of coalition air strikes and artillery fire, capturing another village on the way. "In the beginning they resisted but when they saw the force they withdrew," said an Iraqi officer speaking from the newly recaptured village of Kharaib Jabr, adjacent to Haj Ali.
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| Thousands protest against drones at U.S. Air Force base in Germany Posted: 11 Jun 2016 11:05 PM PDT Several thousand demonstrators formed a human chain along the perimeter of a U.S. Air Force Base in southwest Germany on Saturday in protest against drone operations by the United States. The demonstration was organized by the alliance "Stop Ramstein - No Drone War", which says the Ramstein base transmits information between operators in the United States and unmanned drone aircraft in places such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Syria. Police estimated 3-4,000 people had formed the chain close to the base, which serves as the headquarters for the U.S. Air Forces in Europe. |
| Today in History Posted: 11 Jun 2016 09:01 PM PDT Today is Sunday, June 12, the 164th day of 2016. There are 202 days left in the year. |
| Germany's Gabriel compares anti-immigrant AfD party to Nazis Posted: 11 Jun 2016 08:01 PM PDT  German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel compared members of the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party to the Nazis in comments published on Sunday, and said some of them wanted to take German society back to the 1960s. Speaking to the Funke Media Group, Gabriel said the AfD, which has caused outrage in the political mainstream with a string of remarks about immigrants and Muslims over the past few months, was trying to provoke a reaction. "Everything that they are saying, I've already heard - just to be clear - from my own father, who was a Nazi to his last breath," Gabriel told the group, which owns the Berliner Morgenpost and the Hamburger Abendblatt papers among others.
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| Iraqi forces press offensive south of Mosul Posted: 11 Jun 2016 05:01 PM PDT  Iraqi forces on Sunday advanced towards Qayyarah, which lies south of the Islamic State group's main hub of Mosul, reviving a weeks-old operation that has made slow progress so far. The operations command for Nineveh, the province of which Mosul is the capital, said the fresh push "aimed to liberate the villages that lie east of Qayyarah". Iraqi forces launched an offensive in late March which was billed as the first step in the drive to retake Mosul, Iraq's second city.
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