Τρίτη 24 Δεκεμβρίου 2013
Pakistan Army Apparently Executing Taliban suspects.
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Nick Fielding asked me to save a copy of this horrific video and put it back on-line. To read more about the video, please check out Nick's blog at: http://circlingthelionsden.blogspot.com This…
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Προστέθηκε στις 5/10/2010
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Posted: 22 Dec 2013 08:30 AM PST
A suicide bomber detonated a truck bomb at a checkpoint outside the city of Benghazi earlier today. The number of casualties varies in the early reporting. According to Al Arabiya, at least 13 people were killed. Several of the victims are Libyan soldiers.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. According to Reuters, the Libyan Army has blamed Ansar al Sharia, the al Qaeda-linked group that took part in the Sept. 11, 2012 attack on the US Mission in Benghazi.
The bombing is the latest in a string of attacks on Libyan security personnel. On Dec. 20, Colonel Fethallah al Gaziri, who was recently appointed the head of military intelligence in Benghazi, was assassinated. Al Gaziri was attending the wedding of his niece in Derna, Libya when gunmen opened fire, according to Al Jazeera.
Ansar al Sharia has been battling government forces in Derna and Benghazi. The group has a strong presence in both eastern Libyan cities.
Ansar al Sharia has repeatedly claimed that is members are not behind the violence. The group has also attempted to portray recent events as part of a Western conspiracy to interfere in Libya's affairs. Statements released by al Qaeda's senior leadership have advanced a similar theme.
In a statement released on the group's official Twitter page on Dec. 19, Ansar al Sharia Libya's sharia committee denounced anyone who accuses the organization of engaging in violence. Ansar al Sharia alleged that a series of unspecified recent "incidents" have been "concocted by enemies to divert the attention of Muslims away" from implementing sharia in Libya. The group warned that Libya was "sliding" towards collaboration and "subordination to the West." Ansar al Sharia further claimed that "some people" want "to enable the US-Western project of fighting Islam."
Suicide attacks uncommon in post-revolution Tunisia, Libya
While gunfights, assassinations, and bombings have become common occurrences in Libya following the fall of Muammar Qaddafi, the country's longtime dictator, jihadists had refrained from suicide bombings.
Suicide bombings have not been common in post-revolution Tunisia either. In October, however, a jihadist blew himself up outside of the Riadh Palm hotel in Sousse. No one, other than the bomber himself, was killed. A second suicide bomber was arrested before he could detonate his bomb.
Tunisian officials blamed Ansar al Sharia for dispatching the suicide bombers. "The two suicide bombers are radical Islamist jihadists. They are Tunisians, but they had been in a neighboring country," Interior Ministry spokesman Mohammed Ali Laroui told Reuters, without specifying the country, which may be Libya.
In October, Tunisian Prime Minister Ali Larayedh told Reuters: "There is a relation between leaders of Ansar al Sharia [Tunisia], al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and Ansar al Sharia in Libya. We are coordinating with our neighbors over that."
In late August, Tunisian security officials accused Ansar al Sharia of having a "close" relationship with AQIM. At a press conference, according to Tunis Afrique Presse, they "reported the existence of close links between Ansar al Sharia and AQIM (Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb), showing journalists the handwritten Allegiance Act" between Ansar al Sharia's leader, Seifallah Ben Hassine, and AQIM's emir, Abdelmalek Droukdel.
In a response to the Tunisian government's accusations, Ansar al Sharia reaffirmed its "loyalty" to al Qaeda while claiming to be organizationally independent.
AQIM officials have openly praised and blessed Ansar al Sharia.
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Posted: 22 Dec 2013 08:44 AM PST
The Pakistani military claimed it killed 23 "militants" in the town of Mir Ali in the Taliban controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan, two days after a suicide bomber attacked a checkpoint there. The Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan and the Ansar al Aseer denied that their fighters were killed, and claimed the Pakistani military carried out a "massacre" of civilians in reprisal for the suicide attack.
The fighting began after a suicide bomber killed five soldiers and wounded 34 more at a checkpoint in the Mir Ali area on Dec. 17. The Pakistani military said the soldiers were praying at a mosque when the suicide bomber rammed a truck packed with explosives into the checkpoint.
The Ansar al Aseer Khorasan, or Helpers of the Prisoners, a group that includes members from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and the Taliban and was founded to free jihadists from Pakistani prisons, claimed credit for the attack in a statement emailed to The Long War Journal
"A Fidai [fedayeen] (also term by western media suicide bomber) struck his explosive laden truck with Khajoree check post of Pakistan army, killing almost every one there or injured, and vanishing the post completely, [sic]" the statement said.
Two days after the suicide attack, the Pakistani military claimed it killed "23 militants" after an army convoy was ambushed on Dec. 18 while evacuating casualties from the suicide attack. The military, in a statement released on its public affairs website, said it killed "10 more terrorists, reportedly most of them were Uzbek," during a follow-up raid on an IED factory in the Mir Ali area on Dec. 19.
Ansar al Aseer denied that fighters were killed, and instead claimed that "the Army camp in Mir Ali started shelling the local innocent population of villages nearby," while "fleet of Gunship helicopters" were "used to shell local villagers, resulting in heavy causalities of men, women and children." Ansar al Aseer also claimed that Pakistani soldiers executed a group of truck drivers in the village of Eppi in the Mir Ali area.
The Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan also sent photos to The Long War Journal purporting to show destruction of the bazaar and other areas in Mir Ali and nearby villages. The claims made by Ansar al Aseer and the validity of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan's photographs cannot be confirmed. Residents in the area have also claimed that the Pakistani military killed civilians, according to Pakistani press reports.
The Pakistani military has indiscriminately used force during military operations in the past, and has summarily executed individuals suspected of belonging to the Taliban. Civilians in Swat and Bajaur accused the military of conducting scorched earth tactics during operations, while soldiers in Swat were caught on video killing suspected Taliban fighters.
This week's clashes in North Waziristan occurred less than one week after another jihadist group that operates in North Waziristan, the Ansarul Mujahideen, killed four Pakistani soldiers in an IED attack in the village Spinwam.
For years, the Pakistani military has promised the West that it would launch an offensive in North Waziristan to clear the tribal agency of the Taliban and al Qaeda, however it has failed to do so. Groups such as the Haqqani Network and Hafiz Gul Bahadar's Taliban faction, operate in North Waziristan, and are considered "good Taliban" by Pakistan's military and intelligence establishment as they do not openly support jihad against the state. But the Haqqanis and Bahadar fight in Afghanistan, and shelter and support al Qaeda, the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, and a host of terror groups that attack the Pakistani state and promote international jihad.
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An Early Start for Noctilucent Clouds
acquired May 22, 2012 - June 13, 2013download animation (6 MB, QuickTime)
acquired May 22, 2012 - June 13, 2013download animation (18 MB, QuickTime)
Every summer, something strange and wonderful happens above the North Pole. Ice crystals begin to cling to dust and particles high in the atmosphere, forming electric-blue, rippled clouds that stretch across the sky at sunset. Noctilucent or “night-shining” clouds are a delight for high-latitude sky watchers, and their season is eagerly anticipated around the Arctic Circle.
This year, noctilucent clouds (NLCs) got an early start; NASA’s Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM) spacecraft first saw them on May 13. “The 2013 season is remarkable because it started in the northern hemisphere a week earlier than any other season that AIM has observed,” said Cora Randall of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado. “This is quite possibly earlier than ever before.”
The images above show Earth’s upper atmosphere, centered on the North Pole, as observed by the AIM satellite. The image on the upper right shows noctilucent clouds on May 23, 2013; the upper left image compares the same week from 2012. The two bottom images show the extent of NLCs in mid-June of each year. The brighter the clouds in each image, the denser the ice particles. Areas with no data appear in black, and coastal outlines are traced in white. An animation of noctilucent cloud extent in both years is available for download below the main image.
The early start in 2013 is puzzling because of the solar cycle. Researchers have previously observed that noctilucent clouds seem to peak during solar minimum and become scarce during solar maximum. “If anything, we would have expected a later start this year because the solar cycle is near its maximum,” Randall said.
Noctilucent clouds were first described in the mid-19th century after the eruption of Krakatau. Volcanic ash spread through the atmosphere, painting vivid sunsets around the world and provoking the first written observations of NLCs. At first people thought they were a side-effect of the volcano, but long after Krakatau’s ash settled, the wispy, glowing clouds remained.
When AIM was launched in 2007, the cause of noctilucent clouds was still unknown. Researchers knew that they formed about 80 kilometers (50 miles) above Earth's surface—where the atmosphere meets the vacuum of space—but that’s about all they knew. AIM has quickly filled in the gaps.
“It turns out that meteoroids play an important role in the formation of NLCs,” explained James Russell, the principal investigator of AIM and a professor at Hampton University. “Specks of debris from disintegrating meteors act as nucleating points where water molecules can gather and crystallize.” Ash and dust from volcanoes—and even rocket exhaust—also can serve as nuclei for NLCs.
NLCs most often appear during spring and summer because more water molecules are wafted up from the lower atmosphere to mix with the meteor debris and ash. The warmest months in the troposphere (lower atmosphere) are also the coldest in the mesosphere (where NLCs form).
According to Randall and other scientists, noctilucent clouds are becoming more frequent and widespread. In the 19th century, reports of NLCs were mostly confined to high latitudes. In recent years, however, they have been sighted as far south as Utah, Colorado, and Nebraska. Some researchers assert that this is a sign of greenhouse warming, as methane has become more abundant in Earth’s atmosphere. “When methane makes its way into the upper atmosphere, it is oxidized by a complex series of reactions to form water vapor,” Russell said. “This extra water vapor is then available to grow ice crystals for NLCs.”
Randall suggested that the earlier start in 2013 may be the result of a change in atmospheric “teleconnections,” or the way changes in one part of the atmosphere affect another. “Half-a-world away from where the NLCs are forming, strong winds in the southern stratosphere are altering global circulation patterns. This year, more water vapor is being pushed into the high atmosphere, and the air there is getting colder.”
“When we launched AIM, our interest was in the clouds themselves,” Russell added. “But now NLCs are teaching us about connections between different layers of the atmosphere that operate over great distances. Our ability to study these connections will surely lead to new understanding about how our atmosphere works.”
You can view a daily composite projection of noctilucent clouds by clicking here during the northern summer months.
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