Suspected Israeli revenge killing of Palestinian triggers clashes.

Suspected Israeli revenge killing of Palestinian triggers clashes.

JERUSALEM | Reuters | 02 July 2014 : :  The body of an abducted Palestinian youth was found in Jerusalem on Wednesday, raising suspicions he had been killed by Israelis avenging the deaths of three abducted Jewish teens.

News of the discovery of 16-year-old Mohammed Abu Khudair, who was last seen being bundled into a van earlier in the day, triggered clashes between rock-throwing Palestinians and Israeli police in the city.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas accused Jewish settlers of killing Abu Khudair and demanded that Israel "mete out the strongest punishment against the murderers if it truly wants peace".

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged police "to swiftly investigate who was behind the loathsome murder and its motive." He called on all sides "not to take the law into their own hands."

The United States also condemned the killing, with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry calling it a "despicable and senseless abduction and murder." He urged both Israeli and Palestinian officials "to take all necessary steps to prevent acts of violence and bring their perpetrators to justice." Police said they had found a body in the wooded outskirts of Jerusalem. Abu Khudair's father told Reuters the force had told him the body was his son.

An Israeli security source said Israel suspected the youth had been kidnapped and murdered, possibly in retribution for the killings of the Israeli teens, whose corpses were discovered on Monday, nearly three weeks after they were abducted in the occupied West Bank. Israel says Palestinian Hamas militants killed them. The Islamist group has neither confirmed nor denied the allegation.( Courtesy : F World )

Taliban Calls Kabul Cafe Attack Retaliation for a Strike That Killed Civilians.

Taliban Calls Kabul Cafe Attack Retaliation for a Strike That Killed Civilians.

KABUL | Afghanistan | 18 jan 2014 ::  The Taliban claimed responsibility on Saturday for an attack the day before on a popular Kabul cafe that killed 21 people, mostly Western civilians, saying it was in retaliation for a coalition airstrike on Wednesday in which a number of Afghan civilians had died in a village north of Kabul.

In their statement, the Taliban said they picked a restaurant frequented by “high-ranking foreigners” where alcohol was served. The attack, one of the most significant on Western civilians since the start of the war in 2001, struck at the heart of one of Kabul’s most secure districts, very close to many embassies and coalition military bases.

Western officials questioned the Taliban’s stated motive for the coordinated attack, which occurred just two days after the airstrike and would have required extensive planning. A suicide bomber cleared a path for two gunmen who stormed in and fired on diners, the police said.

The dead included the representative of the International Monetary Fund in Afghanistan, the United Nations’ senior political affairs officer here and a British Labour Party candidate for the European Parliament who had been working in Afghanistan. Two Americans working at the American University in Afghanistan were also killed in the attack, the university said in a statement on Saturday.The attack was in retaliation to the massacre carried out by foreign invaders two days earlier in Parwan Province’s Siyah Gerd district, where the enemy airstrikes destroyed up to 10 homes, razed several orchards as well as killing and wounding up to 30 innocent civilians, mostly defenseless women and children,” the Taliban statement said.

The international coalition, the United Nations, diplomats and Afghans quickly offered condolences and condemnations over both attacks. Later, President Hamid Karzai, whose relationship with the Americans has been strained in recent months by negotiations over a long-term security contract, expressed sympathy for the victims of the cafe attack but also seemed to use the airstrike to criticize his NATO allies over the issue of civilian casualties.

“The war on terror will bear fruit when victims and terrorists are distinguished from each other and the elements of terror are fought against,” said Mr. Karzai, who appointed a committee to investigate the civilian casualties from the airstrike. “If NATO, led by the United States, wants to be the Afghan people’s ally, they should target terrorism.”

An American military official said that the airstrike had been called in by Afghan and American forces who were under fire from Taliban fighters. “The operation was requested by the Afghans and approved by the Afghans,” the official said.

“More than 80 percent of Afghan civilian casualties are caused — in most cases intentionally — by Taliban, Haqqani and other terrorist and insurgent groups,” the official added.

The Ministry of the Interior, which oversees the Afghan police, suspended the commander and intelligence officer in charge of the district where the restaurant is and placed them under investigation.

Kabul appeared to return to normal on Saturday, with a slightly heavier police presence visible along its traffic-choked streets, especially near where the cafe attack occurred. While bombings are not uncommon in Kabul, the extent of the damage and the targeting of Western civilians raised alarms.

Some international organizations tightened security, clamping down on the modest freedom of movement enjoyed by foreigners working in Kabul. United Nations officials, meeting privately, vowed not to adopt a “bunker mentality” in response to the attacks, which claimed the lives of four of its personnel, including two from the United Nations Children’s Fund.

( Courtesy : The New york Times )

North Korea denies aiding Syria in fight against rebels.

North Korea denies aiding Syria in fight against rebels.

SEOUL | 15 Nov 2013 ::  North Korea denied it was sending military aid to the Syrian government, one of its few close allies, in its battle against rebel forces after media reports said that Pyongyang had sent advisors and helicopter pilots.

"Some foreign media are floating misinformation that the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) supplied war equipment to Syria, its airmen are directly involved in air-raids on insurgent troops in Syria," the North's state run KCNA news agency said late on Thursday.

The Jerusalem Post reported in October that 15 North Korean helicopter pilots were operating in Syria "on behalf of President Bashar Assad's regime" and said the report had been confirmed by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Other reports have identified North Korean artillery officers as being in Syria, although they were said not to be directing fire.

North Korea has long-standing ties with Syria and constructed a plutonium reactor there that was destroyed by an Israeli strike in 2007. It also has links with Syria's chemical weapons program.

Under a deal brokered by Russia and the United States, Assad agreed to destroy all Syria's chemical weapons after Washington threatened to use force in response to a sarin gas attack that killed hundreds of people on August 21.

Japanese media reports in August said Turkey had intercepted a shipment of gas masks and small arms from North Korea to Syria.

The North is under United Nations sanctions for its nuclear weapons and missile program and its role in proliferating nuclear and missile technology.(Courtesy: Dawn)

Three Nato troops killed in Afghanistan insider attack.

Three Nato troops killed in Afghanistan insider attack.

Three US special forces have been killed by an Afghan wearing a security forces unfiorm, in the first apparent "insider attack" in months.

 Three foreign special forces have been killed by an
 Afghan wearing a security forces unfiorm Photo:
AFP/Getty Images

The Telegraph | 21 Sep 2013 :: Since last year, attacks by Afghan soldiers on their allies in the NATO-run ISAF force have become a serious problem, threatening to further undermine waning support for the war among Western nations sending troops here.

"Three International Security Assistance Force service members died when an individual wearing an Afghan National Security Forces uniform shot them in eastern Afghanistan today," ISAF said in a statement.

A US defence official confirmed to the AFP news agency that the three victims were from the United Sates.

US forces provide the bulk of ISAF troops in the east. The attack was the seventh reported insider attack this year, and 12 ISAF personnel have been killed.

The last reported insider attack was on July 9, when an Afghan soldier at a military base in Kandahar shot dead one soldier and wounded three others.(Courtesy:The Telegraph )

Taliban claim attack on American base in eastern Afghanistan.

Taliban claim attack on American base 

in eastern Afghanistan.

Al Arabiya | 02  Sep 2013 :: Afghan Taliban militants on Monday claimed responsibility for an attack on a U.S. base in eastern Afghanistan near the Pakistani border, according to AFP news agency.

Officials confirmed the attack.

“A group of suicide bombers have attacked a U.S. base in Torkham near the border with Pakistan,” Ahmad Zia Abdulzai, spokesman for the Nangarhar provincial governor, told AFP.

In a statement sent to the media, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack.

Abdulzai said fighting was ongoing between U.S. and Afghan forces against the militants.(copy from: Al Arabia)

Saudi terror arrests suggest U.S. not alone in war against al-Qaeda.

Saudi terror arrests suggest U.S. not alone in war against al-Qaeda.

Soldiers from the Saudi special forces' anti-terror unit. (File photo: Reuters)

Al Arabia | 10 Aug 2013 ::  In the United States, the general perception is that the war against al-Qaeda is an American war against a specific anti-American organization. This perception has been stretched at times, by apologist academia, to a point where the public has been made to believe that the United States is alone in this confrontation and all it would take to bring about a cease to hostilities is for Washington to withdraw from the region. Parallel to this oversimplification is the other common assertion that no one else is fighting this battle, and if they are, Arab and Middle Eastern efforts are meaningless. These approaches have been proven wrong as events in the region and worldwide are demonstrating.

Two men have recently been arrested in Saudi Arabia on suspicion of planning terrorist strikes, part of the uncovered information which prompted the closure of several Western embassies in the region last week. Saudi officials said the two suspects, from Yemen and Chad, were planning suicide attacks connected to recent al-Qaeda threats on American and British diplomatic interests. According to Saudi media reports, the two jihadists were arrested towards the end of July after having exchanged information on social media about attacks. Officials in Riyadh said the two men investigated used mobile phones and encrypted electronic communications to discuss the terrorist plot.

The Saudi official statement explained, "The two recruited themselves for the service of deviant thought (al Qaeda's ideology), as evidenced by their seized items which included computer hardware, electronic media and mobile phones and which indicated their communication with the deviant group abroad either by electronic encrypted messages or through identities via the social networks (such as Abu Alfidaa, Hspouy, Muawiya Almadani, Rasasah fi Qusasah, and Abu El Feda Aldokulai) so as to exchange information about impending suicide operations in the region." The timing of this arrest parallels U.S. drone attacks in neighboring Yemen as well as Egyptian military operations in Sinai and Tunisian troop movements against the Jihadists in the south of their country.(Courtesy:Al Arabia)Read More>>>

White House: Obama orders ‘all appropriate steps’ over al-Qaeda threat.

White House: Obama orders ‘all appropriate steps’ over al-Qaeda threat.

A White House official said Obama “will continue to
be updated” on the threat. (File photo: Reuters)

Al Arabia | 03 Aug 2013 :: “All appropriate steps” shall be taken to protect Americans in response to a threat of an al-Qaeda attack, ordered President Barack Obama, in a statement reported late on Friday.

A White House official said the president “will continue to be updated on a regular basis” on the threat and related developments

“The president is being updated on a potential threat occurring in or emanating from the Arabian Peninsula,” the official said on condition of anonymity.

The United States had issued a worldwide alert on Friday warning of plans by al-Qaeda to launch an attack in the Middle East or North Africa in August.

It said attacks were possible “particularly in the Middle East and North Africa, and possibly occurring in or emanating from the Arabian Peninsula.”

“The State Department’s newly-released travel alert makes clear that al-Qaeda and affiliated organizations continue to plan terrorist attacks both in the region and beyond,” the official said.(Courtesy:Al Arabia)