Video shows ISIL razing historic site in Iraq’s Hatra

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Sat Apr 4, 2015 1:31PM

Video shows ISIL razing historic site in Iraq’s Hatra

In this image made from an ISIL video posted online on Friday, April 3, 2015, a piece falls off from a curved face on the wall of an ancient building as a militant hammers it in Hatra, 110 kilometers (68 miles) southwest of Mosul, Iraq. (© AP)

The ISIL has posted a video online purportedly showing the terrorists destroying a major world heritage site in Iraq's ancient city of Hatra. 

The footage posted online late Friday shows the ISIL members smashing the walls and shooting with assault rifles at invaluable statues at an archaeological site in the city of Hatra in Iraq’s Nineveh Province.

The video, published on a website frequently used by ISIL, shows Takfiri terrorists using sledgehammers and pickaxes to reduce ancient statutes to crumbles. Other militants use Kalashnikov rifles to shoot at the priceless objects at the archaeological site, which is recognized as a World Heritage by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

The site was attacked last month by ISIL militants, according to residents and local officials. No clear estimate has been made on the extent of damage on the historic place as the city is located in the territory which is under the control of ISIL.

Parts of the video are dedicated to statements in Arabic by ISIL members who apparently say they destroyed the site because people worshiped it instead of God. The terrorist group has always tried to use religion as a cover for its murderous, inhuman activities in Iraq and Syria, where it has killed thousands of civilians and security forces over the past four years.

ISIL has already destroyed other notable sites in the territory north of Iraq. Back in March, the terrorists bulldozed the 3,000-year-old city of Nimrud, one of the world's most important historical sites. The destruction triggered worldwide condemnation, with the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon calling it a “war crime.”

Another video in late February showed ISIL terrorists destroying the ancient artifacts at a major museum in the northern city of Mosul, the capital of Nineveh and one of the group’s major strongholds in Iraq. The terrorists also burned hundreds of priceless books and manuscripts in Mosul Library and Mosul University in January.

Mosul and the surrounding areas were once occupied by the ancient Mesopotamians, who established a great civilization in the lands between Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The artifacts in the Nineveh museum, which were mostly from the archaeological site in Hatra, were supposed to have great cultural and historic significance.

The Takfiri terrorists have already razed to the ground a number of mosques in Syria and Iraq, many of them belonging to the early years of the Islamic civilization. They have also destroyed tombs belonging to revered Shia and Sunni figures.

Survivors Describe Devastating Kenyan University Attack

Gabe Joselow

April 03, 2015 1:05 PM

GARISSA, KENYA—

A day after the horror, this hospital some 200 kilometers from the Somali border has become the central meeting point for survivors of a daylong siege by al-Shabab militants at Garissa University College that left 147 people dead.

Sitting on a shady bench and a wearing a hospital gown, second-year student Quintin Anyango says she awoke early to study in a lecture hall.

Crossing the campus, she encountered several gunmen, and her day took a horrifying turn.

“Oh, I had no hope, I knew that was the end of life since I had no options," she said. "I had nowhere to go.”

Hiding in a classroom with another student, Anyango tried to remain still. They could do nothing but listen to the attack unfold in a nearby room.

“Just gunshots, gunshots — nothing else.”

The assault began when assailants stormed the university gate at dawn, killing two guards and proceeding to the residence halls. After battling Kenyan Defense Forces for nearly 16 hours, all the gunmen were dead, adding to a death toll that is now more than twice the number slaughtered in the 2013 siege on Nairobi's Westgate Mall, which was also blamed on the al-Qaida linked militants.

On Friday, the same security forces that battled the militants maintained a heavy presence in Garissa, a dusty frontier town whose residents have long called for better security after a spate of small-scale gun and grenade attacks in recent years.

Harrison Ombore, a teacher at a Garissa school, says security forces here even ignored recent government warnings of an impending attack.

“Yes, there was a warning that terror would take place after some three days, and it’s like the security agencies did not take it seriously," he said. "Until what happened yesterday, they’re reacting after things have gone wrong."

Some survivors say the gunmen tried to single out Christian students while sparing Muslims, but others say the assailants were anything but precise in their killing.

One survivor, an employee at the university who asked not to be named, said he was performing his ablutions — ritual washing — outside the mosque ahead of morning prayers when the gunmen entered the campus.

“I hear them saying everyone should lie down, lie down, lie down," he said, adding that they began firing indiscriminately anyway, and that he knew Muslims who are among the dead.

The employee also says he thanks the Kenyan military for eventually rescuing him and the other survivors, even though he still suffers the pain of loss.

“Personally, I know all those students," he said. "As we are speaking I feel like crying, but I ask my brothers who lost their lives [for strength], God bless your soul."

Meanwhile, al-Shabab has vowed to continue attacking Kenya for the presence of its troops in Somalia. The Islamist militant group named no targets, but it is likely that towns like Garissa are in their crosshairs.

Shabaab massacres dozens in attack on Kenyan university

Shabaab massacres dozens in attack on Kenyan university

Shabaab terrorists attacked the Garissa University College in Kenya earlier today. Initial reports say that approximately 10 gunmen were involved in assault, which leftat least 147 people dead and dozens more wounded.

Some members of the Shabaab assault team were killed by security forces, but others took a number of students hostage after the initial attack.

A spokesman for Shabaab, al Qaeda’s official branch in Somalia, said the gunmen deliberately separated Muslims from non-Muslims during the attack. “We sorted people out and released the Muslims,” Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab told Reuters.

NPR reports that the terrorists entered a dormitory and were heard asking students whether or not they could recite the Muslim Shahada, or prayer. Those who could were spared, while those who could not were either killed or held as hostages. In the chaos of the attack, other witnesses say the gunmen fired sporadically on teachers and students.

This process is similar to what reportedly happened during Shabaab’s September 2013 siege of the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya. The Associated Press (AP), citing other published reports, noted that witnesses said “the gunmen rounded up people, asked questions about Islam that a Muslim would know and told the Muslims to leave the mall.”

A Shabaab official reportedly emailed the AP an explanation of the Westgate Mall attack: “The Mujahideen carried out a meticulous vetting process at the mall and have taken every possible precaution to separate the Muslims from the Kuffar (disbelievers) before carrying out their attack.” The same Shabaab source reportedly said that any foreigner was a “legitimate target.”

In February, Shabaab released a video commemorating the Westgate Mall attack. The video was spliced together with quotes from al Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahiri. According to a translation of the video by the SITE Intelligence Group, the Shabaab narrator claimed that “after the initial phase of the attacks, the mujahideen carried out a vetting process in which non-Muslims were separated from the Muslims.”

“This was done in order to safeguard the inviolable blood of the Muslims,” the narrator continued, adding that “the mujahideen maintained the moral high ground” and did not “deliberately” target women and children, who were were “allowed to safely evacuate the mall.”

In reality, such attacks are never as smoothly planned as Shabaab claimed. But that is the narrative the group is using to justify some of its high-profile attacks.

The Kenyan government quickly fingered a Shabaab official named Mohamed Mohamud, also known as “Dulyadin” and “Gamadhere,” as the mastermind for today’s attack. The Kenyan Interior Ministry posted a wanted poster for Mohamud on its official Twitter feed, asking witnesses to contact officials with any information that could lead to Mohamud’s arrest. Kenyan authorities had previously linked Mohamud to other attacks in their country.

Late last month, a Shabaab suicide assault team stormed a hotel in Mogadishu. Despite setbacks to African forces, and some successful counterterrorism strikes by the US, the group remains a lethal insurgency and terrorist organization.

ASIA/SYRIA - Idlib in the hands of jihadists. Orthodox priest kidnapped

ASIA/SYRIA - Idlib in the hands of jihadists. Orthodox priest kidnapped

Idlib (Agenzia Fides) - The city of Idlib has fallen into the hands of anti-Assad jihadist militias since Saturday, March 28, and there is news of violence and discrimination against the Christian inhabitants of the city.
According to various local sources consulted by Agenzia Fides, the Islamist militia kidnapped the Greek Orthodox priest Ibrahim Farah, 57, who led the Greek-Orthodox parish dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and had decided to stay and not to leave the city before the offensive of the various anti-government rebel groups that participated in the conquest of the city.
According to social media, the priest is waiting to appear before one of the Islamic courts set up by the jihadists in the territories which have fallen under their control. In addition to the priest, even other lay Christians of the parish were kidnapped. The seizure is attributed by many to the Al-Nusra Front, formation close to al-Qaida and active in the Syrian conflict, which in the past also clashed militarily with jihadists of the Islamic State (Is).
Before the Civil War, there were over a thousand Christians in the city of Idlib, concentrated in certain areas in the center. Most of them left their homes before the offensive of the rebel groups, and moved to nearby towns of Mhardeh, Ariha and Banyas. Idlib, in north-west Syria, strategically located 25 kilometers from the Turkish border, is the second provincial capital to fall into the hands of jihadists after Raqqa, in the hands of the Islamic State since 2013. (GV) (Agenzia Fides 01/04/2015)

El EI toma el control de un campamento de refugiados palestinos en Damasco

Δημοσιεύτηκε στις 2 Απρ 2015

El Estado Islámico ha establecido una nueva base de operaciones a escasos 6 kilómetros de la residencia del presidente sirio, Bashar al Assad, después de hacerse con el control del campo de refugiados palestinos de Yarmouk, en las afueras de Damasco

RAW File; Suicide attack at protest in Khost Afghanistan kills 17

Δημοσιεύτηκε στις 2 Απρ 2015

(Reuters) - A suicide bomber on Thursday blew himself up in the middle of a demonstration against corruption in Afghanistan's eastern province of Khost, killing 17 people and injuring at least 50 more, government officials said.

Violence has escalated in Afghanistan as most foreign troops withdrew in 2014 and last year was the worst on record, with more than 10,000 civilian casualties, the United Nations says.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility and it was unclear whether the attack was linked to the insurgency led by the Afghan Taliban, an Islamist militant group.

"The protest against corruption had been going on for days," said Khost police chief, Faizullah Ghairat. "Today a suicide bomber blew himself up among the protesters."

One of the organizers, outspoken lawmaker Humayun Humayn, was injured in the attack, Ghairat added. Although the police chief did not describe his condition, other officials said Humayun had lost both his legs.

The Afghan Taliban, ousted from power in 2001 by U.S.-led forces, is fighting to unseat the internationally backed government in Kabul.

Space Station Flies Over Super Typhoon Maysak:

Space Station Flies Over Super Typhoon Maysak: Typhoon Maysak strengthened into a super typhoon on March 31, reaching Category 5 hurricane status on the Saffir-Simpson Wind Scale. NASA Astronaut Terry Virts captured this image while flying over the weather system on board theInternational Space Station. Commenting on the storm, Virts wrote, "The eye of ‪#‎Maysak‬ typhoon really stands out early in the morning with the shadow being cast deep into the vortex." His ESA crewmate on station also viewed the storm and wrote, "Commands respect even from ‪#‎space‬: we just flew over typhoon #Maysak."

The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) and Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) satellites captured rainfall and cloud data that revealed heavy rainfall and high thunderstorms in the strengthening storm.

Rain, snow, hail, ice, and every mix in between make up the precipitation that touches everyone on our planet. But precipitation doesn't fall equally in all places around the world, as seen in NASA's new animation that captures every shower, snowstorm and tropical cyclone over a six-day period in August 2014. The time lapse was created from data captured by the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) satellite mission, now just over a year old, which scientists are using to better understand freshwater resources, natural disasters, crop health and more.

Image 

While local television forecasts include satellite data or radar images taken from a ground station, GPM orbits in space to observe precipitation around the world. A snapshot of the precipitation is taken every 30 minutes, then processed and made available to users 18 hours later. New rain maps are routinely created by programs that merge the data from the GPM Core Observatory, a joint mission of NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), and a dozen other weather satellites. These maps, called Integrated Multi-satellite Retrievals for GPM (IMERG), are false-colored with rain in greens and reds, and snowfall depicted in blues and purples.

“For the first time, this global map allows us to track light rain and snow consistently over high latitudes and across oceans,” said Gail Skofronick-Jackson, GPM project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

These views allow scientists and weather-watchers to get the big picture of a week in August. Near the equator the rain systems move westward in a steady stream. At higher latitudes, storm fronts that stretch for hundreds of miles travel eastward across North America and Europe in the Northern Hemisphere, and across the Southern Ocean that surrounds Antarctica. It’s quiet between those bands. Zooming in on the IMERG data visualizations can also provide glimpses of the range of precipitation at a given time on Earth.

Obama lifts Egypt arms freeze

Obama lifts Egypt arms freeze

Tue Mar 31, 2015 11:49PM

An Egyptian air force fighter jet is seen while landing at an undisclosed location in Egypt (AFP file photo)

US President Barack Obama has lifted an arms freeze on Egypt imposed following the 2013 military ouster of the first democratically elected government.

During a Tuesday phone conversation with his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the US president announced that he would allow 12 F-16 aircraft, 20 Harpoon missiles, and 125 M1A1 tank kits to be delivered to Cairo.

Obama also said he would continue his support for $1.3 billion in annual military assistance.

“The president explained that these and other steps will help refine our military assistance relationship so that it is better positioned to address the shared challenges to US and Egyptian interests in an unstable region, consistent with the longstanding strategic partnership between our two countries,” the White House said in a statement.

The aid, which will start in fiscal year 2018, consists of four parts: counterterrorism, border security, Sinai security, and maritime security.

“In this way, we will ensure that US funding is being used to promote shared objectives in the region, including a secure and stable Egypt and the defeat of terrorist organizations,” said US National Security Council Spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan in a statement.

The announcement comes at a time that Egypt has engaged in an aggression on Yemen led by Saudi Arabia.

Cairo has even said that it may send ground troops to the impoverished country to back Saudi warplanes’ air raids.

However, Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, described the move as "the right thing to do", saying, "We encourage the government of Egypt to continue its democratic process.  But Egypt is also a strong regional ally. Maintaining that relationship must be a priority for the US.”

On July 3, 2013, then army chief Abdel Fattah el-Sisi announced that President Mohamed Morsi was no longer in office.

Morsi is currently in custody along with several other members of his Muslim Brotherhood party.

NT/NT