| Syria forces retake 6 Aleppo rebel areas, civilians flee Posted: 27 Nov 2016 03:53 PM PST  Government forces retook six rebel-held districts of eastern Aleppo over the weekend, forcing nearly 10,000 civilians to flee as they pressed their offensive Sunday to retake Syria's second city. In a major breakthrough in the push to retake the whole city, regime forces on Saturday captured Masaken Hanano, which had been the biggest rebel-held district in eastern Aleppo. Inzarat, Al-Sakan al-Shaabi and Ain al-Tall have all returned to regime hands and government forces have made large forays into Sakhur and nearby Haidariya, the monitor said.
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| NCRI-US: Iran Apologists Grasp at Straws Regarding MEK in Politico Posted: 27 Nov 2016 03:09 PM PST WASHINGTON, Nov. 27, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following is the letter sent to Politico on November 23rd, which NCRI-US releases publically, since Politico has refused to publish. Dear Editor, Daniel Benjamin's 3,326-word tirade (Giuliani Took Money From a Group That Killed Americans, Does Trump Care?, Politico Magazine, Nov. 23), is a litany of threadbare, oft-repeated, and long-debunked allegations, originally concocted by the murderous mullahs of Iran, against the main Iranian opposition movement, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (PMOI/MEK). |
| Iraqis in liberated Mosul district wave white flags Posted: 27 Nov 2016 11:59 AM PST  The women ululated as residents waved white flags Sunday in celebration of Iraqi forces who drove Islamic State group jihadists from their eastern Mosul neighbourhood of Al-Khadraa. "We are raising white flags to show the army that we're peaceful," said shopkeeper Abu Mohammad, a man in his 70s, as he stood outside his store. Iraqi forces launched a major offensive on October 17 to retake Mosul, which is the country's second city and where jihadist supremo Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaimed a caliphate in 2014.
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| Syrian army Aleppo advance displaces thousands Posted: 27 Nov 2016 11:24 AM PST  BEIRUT (AP) — Simultaneous advances by Syrian government and Kurdish-led forces into eastern Aleppo on Sunday set off a tide of displacement inside the divided city, with thousands of residents evacuating their premises, and threatened to cleave the opposition's enclave.
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| Status of main battle fronts in Iraq and Syria Posted: 27 Nov 2016 11:03 AM PST  Iraqi forces battled the Islamic State group deep in eastern Mosul, edging deeper towards the Tigris river that divides the city. Since the October 17 start of a broad offensive to retake Mosul, Iraqi forces have recaptured several eastern neighbourhoods despite fierce jihadist resistance. Last week they were reported to be in control of 40 percent of eastern Mosul.
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| Islamic State gone, Mosul district residents adjust to new life Posted: 27 Nov 2016 10:21 AM PST  By Isabel Coles GOGJALI, Iraq (Reuters) - Until three weeks ago, many of Abu Osama's customers were Islamic State militants who brought their wives and children to his pharmacy on the eastern edge of Mosul for injections and treatment. Now, most of them are Iraqi security forces who recaptured the Gogjali neighborhood earlier this month and are pushing further into the city, which has been under Islamic State control for more than two years. As the militants retreat, civilians are adjusting to a new reality in their wake and a clearer picture is emerging of what they did to survive the punishments and deprivation of Islamic State rule.
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| Two Yazidi mass graves found near Iraq's Sinjar Posted: 27 Nov 2016 10:20 AM PST  Two graves containing the bodies of Iraqi Yazidis believed to have been killed by the Islamic State group have been discovered in northern Iraq, a local official said. "Two mass graves were found in Um al-Shababik village," Sinjar mayor Mahma Khalil told AFP. Khalil said the authorities were informed and added that the Yazidi Genocide Commission had taken samples.
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| An Alabama RB Was Reunited With His Mom And Even Nick Saban Showed Emotion Posted: 27 Nov 2016 10:17 AM PST  When senior day happens to be the Iron Bowl, emotions in Alabama are bound to be high. On Saturday, one Crimson Tide walk-on's emotional reunion with his mother nearly made Nick Saban cry. Alabama running back Lawrence Erekosima was one of the many seniors honored in a pregame ceremony with their families before the Tide took on Auburn.
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| Election throws US plans for Syrian refugees into question Posted: 27 Nov 2016 09:13 AM PST  RUTLAND, Vt. (AP) — Arabic language classes are drawing 25 to 30 people a week in preparation for the new arrivals in town. High school students are helping collect furniture and housewares for them, and employers have inquired about giving them jobs.
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| After IS hell, displaced Iraqis face winter freeze Posted: 27 Nov 2016 08:49 AM PST  After enduring two years of tyranny under the Islamic State group and surviving the war that liberated them, displaced civilians in northern Iraq face a new enemy: the cold. With the fighting raging inside Mosul where hundreds of thousands of civilians still live, an early winter and sub-zero temperatures have brought an added challenge. "At night we have to keep our heads under the blanket and curl into a ball to stay warm," said Alya Zannun, a 56-year-old woman living in a tent in Khazir camp, southeast of Mosul.
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| Iraqi forces grind on in east Mosul as political rift opens over Shi'ite militias Posted: 27 Nov 2016 08:19 AM PST  By Michael Georgy, Isabel Coles and John Davison MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraq's sectarian political leaders have plunged back into a dispute over the status of Shi'ite armed groups, undermining efforts to reunite the country as its troops press on with the assault of Mosul, Islamic State's biggest stronghold. Forty days into the biggest ground offensive in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion of 2003, about a quarter of the city has been taken by U.S.-backed government units on the eastern side. Residents still wearing the long beards demanded by Islamic State welcomed Iraqi troops into a neighborhood of east Mosul with coffee, cheers and kisses after the fighters left.
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| Turkey says Syria rebels hit by IS chemical attack Posted: 27 Nov 2016 07:44 AM PST  Twenty-two pro-Ankara Syrian rebels were hit by an Islamic State (IS) gas attack in northern Syria, the Turkish army said Sunday, the first time Turkey has accused the jihadists of chemical warfare. Observers, including the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), have previously accused IS of using mustard gas in Syria and described the possibility as extremely worrying.
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| Winter closes in on refugees fleeing Iraq's Mosul Posted: 27 Nov 2016 06:30 AM PST  By Ulf Laessing HASAN SHAM CAMP, Iraq (Reuters) - Pushing his way through dozens of people, Iraqi teacher Umar Salah carries four bags containing 15 blankets and pots full of food through the gate of a camp overcrowded with civilians who fled Islamic State in Mosul. U.S.-backed Iraqi government troops and Kurdish security forces have launched the biggest battle in Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion to drive Islamic State fighters from Mosul, the militant group's last major bastion in the country, many times larger than any other city the fighters have held. The United Nations is asking donors to fund winter kits for 1.2 million people -- preparing for a worst case scenario that much of the city's population may have to flee.
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| Philippines says 11 Islamic State sympathizers killed in southern siege Posted: 27 Nov 2016 06:24 AM PST Government troops have killed at least 11 members of a rebel group in the southern Philippines that has pledged allegiance to Islamic State, the military said, sending local communities fleeing as a battle raged on Sunday. The Maute Group, one of a handful of small militant groups behind years of unrest in the south, had since Saturday occupied parts of a municipality in Lanao del Sur and were holed up in an abandoned town hall. At least four soldiers were wounded in the clashes and there were unconfirmed reports that the group had raised the black Islamic State flag in the hall, said Marine Colonel Edgard Arevalo, a military spokesman. |
| Iran sentences son of dissident cleric to 6 years in prison Posted: 27 Nov 2016 04:59 AM PST TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iranian semi-official Tasnim news agency is reporting that the son of late dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri has been defrocked and sentenced to six years in prison. |
| Israeli military kills 4 IS militants in Syria after ambush Posted: 27 Nov 2016 03:52 AM PST JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli aircraft struck a machine gun-mounted vehicle inside Syria Sunday, killing four Islamic State-affiliated militants inside after they had opened fire on a military patrol on the Israeli side of the Golan Heights, the Israeli military said. |
| Kuwaiti opposition win big in anti-austerity vote Posted: 27 Nov 2016 03:32 AM PST  By Sami Aboudi and Ahmed Hagagy KUWAIT (Reuters) - Opposition candidates are estimated to have won around 20 seats out of 50 in Kuwaiti elections that saw most parliament members replaced, in a vote analysts said reflects anger at austerity measures to curb a budget deficit. Analyst Ibrahim al-Hadban said the election campaign had shown that some of the decisions taken by the government were not popular among citizens, including raising gasoline prices. With no political parties, it was difficult to pin down precisely how many opposition MPs had been elected.
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| Local intel key in house-to-house battle for Iraq's Mosul Posted: 27 Nov 2016 03:27 AM PST  MOSUL, Iraq (AP) — When Islamic State militants in Mosul discovered that Ahmed's brother had served in the army, they went to his house, pulled him into the street, and shot him dead as his parents watched.
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| Military veterans seek new role in S. Africa poaching war Posted: 27 Nov 2016 02:42 AM PST  In another life, Lynn was a sniper in Afghanistan, Damien trained paramilitary forces in Iraq, and John worked undercover infiltrating drug cartels in central America. Now all three are back in action, this time fighting what they describe as a "war" against poachers in southern Africa as the killing of rhinos escalates into a crisis that threatens the survival of the species. In 2008, less than 100 rhinos were poached in South Africa, but in recent years numbers have rocketed with nearly 1,200 killed in 2015 alone.
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| Philippine troops fire artillery at Islamic militants in south Posted: 27 Nov 2016 02:08 AM PST  Troops on Sunday fired artillery at positions held by an Islamic militant faction in the southern Philippines as more soldiers deployed against the group, which staged a deadly bombing in President Rodrigo Duterte's home city. Troops used 105 mm artillery to blast the positions of the Maute group in the nearly deserted town of Butig in the second day of fighting since the gunmen -- who claim allegiance to the Islamic State group -- occupied Butig's abandoned town hall. Only a few residents stayed in their homes as armoured vehicles and military snipers fanned out through the town streets, slowly advancing on the Maute group's position.
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| Two mass graves of Iraq's Yazidi minority found near Mosul: official Posted: 27 Nov 2016 12:15 AM PST Two mass graves of at least 18 members of Iraq's Yazidi minority, thousands of whom have been killed and kidnapped by Islamic State, have been discovered as security forces fight to dislodge the militants from Mosul, a local official said. Kurdish peshmerga forces found the grave near the Shababit junction in northwestern Iraq while scouting the area. Islamic State systematically killed, captured and enslaved thousands of Yazidis in the summer of 2014 as they overran the Sinjar area, where many of them lived. |
| For top Iraqi commander, Mosul offensive is personal battle Posted: 26 Nov 2016 10:11 PM PST  By Michael Georgy JULUKHAN, Iraq (Reuters) - Major General Najm al-Jubbouri, a top commander in the offensive against Islamic State in the Iraqi city of Mosul, peered through binoculars at flames after his men shot dead an Islamic State suicide bomber. "You are heroes," he said through a walkie talkie as Iraqi forces cleared another village, hoping to open a new route to the militants' stronghold of Mosul. Last year, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi asked Jubbouri to return home from the United States to help lead the fight against Islamic State, which swept through Mosul and other parts of northern Iraq in 2014 and imposed a reign of terror.
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| Fillon v Juppe: how French right's presidential hopefuls shape up Posted: 26 Nov 2016 09:36 PM PST  Francois Fillon and Alain Juppe, the two men duelling for the presidential nomination of the French right, both advocate deep economic reforms, including scrapping the 35-hour work week, a sacred cow of the French left. Would allow municipal police to carry guns and increase prison capacity by 16,000.
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| Today in History Posted: 26 Nov 2016 09:01 PM PST Today in History |
