Some of the countries in it, either in major or minor roles:
USA, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Lebanon, Libya, Mali, Jordan, UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Iraq, Israel, Syria, Turkey, Kurdistan, Yemen, Nigeria, France with (Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad ) Germany, Italy, Czech Republic, Albania, Estonia, Hungary, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, Austria, Japan, Republic of Korea, Ireland, Spain, Slovakia, Norway, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Bulgaria, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Novorussia, Ukraine, Russia, Chechnya, Somalia, Iran, India, South Korea, North Korea, Central African Republic, Kenya, Tunisia, The Philippines, Egypt, Albania, Serbia, China, Sudan, South Sudan, Bukina Faso, Palestine, Georgia, Chad, Spain, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Indonesia, Nepal, Congo, Uganda, Romania, Mexico, Gambia, Haiti, Cameroon, Chad, Algeria, Venezuela, Thailand, Argentina, Vietnam, Myanmar, Georgia, Burundi, Senegal, Macedonia
The architects of never-ending wars are going back to the NATO-created Utopia of Libya. For starters, the NATO leader flies into the "new and improved" Utopia "targeting al Qaeda."
From Reuters
U.S. conducts 'counter terrorism strike' against al Qaeda-linked target in Libya
The U.S. military conducted a "counter terrorism strike" on Saturday night against an al Qaeda-associated militant in Libya, the Pentagon said on Sunday.
"We are assessing the results of the operation and will provide additional information as and when appropriate," Defense Department spokesman Colonel Steve Warren said in a statement...
The report below suggests that the US airstrikes missed the one-eyed terrorist.
From Stripes
The U.S military says it launched weekend airstrikes targeting and likely killing an al-Qaida-linked militant leader in eastern Libya charged with leading the attack on a gas plant in Algeria in 2013 that killed at least 35 hostages, including three Americans.
An Islamist with ties to Libyan militants, however, said the airstrikes missed Mokhtar Belmokhtar, instead killing four members of a Libyan extremist group the U.S. has linked to the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans......
Link below has a nice database showing statistics and maps of residence from where most of the 700+ British Muslims that have left UK for the jihadi army . The origins of most of those Muslims are Pakistan and Mid-East. Of course, the BBC does not divulge that ... that's my opinion.
From BBC
At least 700 people from the UK have travelled to support or fight for jihadist organisations in Syria and Iraq, British police say. About half have since returned to Britain. Most of those who went to the conflict zone are thought to have joined the militant group that calls itself Islamic State.
This BBC News database details the stories of those who have died, been convicted of offences relating to the conflict or are still in the region. The information on these pages has been compiled from open sources and BBC research. Some details have been withheld for legal reasons or are unavailable.....
From NewsWeek
Chad Says Boko Haram Responsible for Bombs that Killed 27
At least 27 people, including four suspected Boko Haram Islamist fighters, were killed and 100 others were injured on Monday in two attacks in Chad's capital, N'Djamena, which the government blamed on the Nigerian militant group.
The attacks, which included at least one suicide bomb, are the first of their kind in Chad, an oil-producing nation and a major Western ally which has spearheaded offensives on al Qaeda-linked groups in Maliand on Boko Haram in neighboring Nigeria.
"Boko Haram is making a mistake by targeting Chad," Communications Minister Hassan Sylla Bakari said on state television. "These lawless terrorists will be chased out and neutralized wherever they are.".......
From News24
Nigeria's president Muhammadu Buhari is planning to visit Cameroon to cement a regional fighting force against Boko Haram, he told AFP on Monday.
Buhari met his counterparts from Niger, Chad and Benin at a summit in Abuja last week but Cameroon's leader Paul Biya was noticeably absent and represented by his defence minister.
The two countries have long had strained ties, in part over a bitter territorial dispute but also after Boko Haram mounted cross-border raids into northeast Nigeria from Cameroon's far north.
Buhari visited Niger and Chad in his first week in office and said he would have gone to Cameroon's capital Yaounde for talks with Biya had he not been invited to attend the G7 summit in Germany.....
From VICE
In a Southern Libya Oasis, a Proxy War Engulfs Two Tribes
Tuareg fighters with heavy weapons patrol the jagged precipice of windswept Tendi Mountain, with its panoramic view over the remote Saharan oasis of Ubari. This mountaintop is the strategic focal point of an ongoing bitter tribal fight between the Tuareg and the Tebu for who controls the town.
A deadly battlefield for nine months, Ubari's downtown is held hostage by Tebu snipers who have blocked the one rutted road leading into town. Homes and businesses are destroyed; families scattered; the airport, once popular with tourists, is deserted; and Libya's sprawling oil fields in the desert beyond remain offline.......
The instigation from the powers-that-be to make the brainwashed puppets amongst us to rise up in revolution against governments or entities that the powers-that-be have taken a dislike to, continues to continue. This time it's in full swing with the minority Albanians in Macedonia
From BBC
About 2,000 people have marched in Macedonia's capital, Skopje, demanding equal rights for the Albanian minority.
They also called for the resignation of Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and his party's junior coalition partner, the ethnic Albanian DUI.
The country's leaders agreed last week to hold early elections by next April, in an attempt to end months of turmoil.........
— Terrormonitor.org (@Terror_Monitor) June 15, 2015
From VICE
The Number of Migrants Trying to Reach Europe via Greece Has Surged by 500 Percent
The number of migrants and refugees crossing the Aegean Sea from Turkey to Greece has increased by 500 percent since last year, according to European border control agency Frontex. In comparison, the number of migrants attempting the perilous journey across of the Mediterranean to Italy has gone up just 5 percent, Frontex executive director Fabrice Leggeri said Wednesday.
"When you close off a migration route, another one opens up elsewhere," Thibaut Jaulin, a research fellow at the Center for International Studies and Research (CERI) at Sciences Po in Paris, told VICE News.
European authorities have beefed up surveillance along the Libya-Italy migrant route in an effort to prevent the recurring tragedies in the Mediterranean. In April, naval border monitoring operation Triton saw its budget tripled from 3 million euros ($3.4 million) to 9 million euros ($10.2 million) a month..........
From NYTimes
Explosion Destroys Ancient Cultural Heritage Site in Yemen Capital
A protected 2,500-year-old cultural heritage site in Yemen’s capital, Sana, was obliterated in an explosion early Friday, and witnesses and news reports said the cause was a missile or bomb from a Saudi warplane. The Saudi military denied responsibility.
The top antiquities-safeguarding official at the United Nations angrily condemned the destruction of ancient multistory homes, towers and gardens, which also killed an unspecified number of residents in Al Qasimi, a neighborhood in Sana’s Old City area.
“I am profoundly distressed by the loss of human lives as well as the damage inflicted on one of the world’s oldest jewels of Islamic urban landscape,” said the official, Irina Bokova, the director general of Unesco, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization..........
Our Saudi ally, just like our other blood thirsty ally Israel, takes deliberate and malicious aim at civilian residences to kill kids and their moms.
From Reuters
Nine people were killed when Saudi-led coalition warplanes bombed a district in the Yemeni capital Sanaa inhabited by relatives of ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh, residents and medics said.
The air raid, which also wounded at least 60 people, came ahead of planned U.N.-sponsored talks in Geneva aimed at ending Yemen's civil war that has drawn in regional powers, including the world's top oil exporter Saudi Arabia.
Residents said the warplanes had targeted vacant houses in Bait Me'yad, a district near the heart of Sanaa that is home to a number of relatives of Saleh, whose loyalists are allied with Houthi forces, the dominant armed faction in the conflict.
Mohammed Yahya, an eyewitness, said two missiles struck two Saleh relatives' houses while the third crashed in the middle of the neighborhood, causing several casualties. Another witness said three explosions shook the neighborhood.
"We felt as if the house was going to collapse over our heads," said the man, identified as Ali Ahmed. "We ran, with the children, and hid under the stairwell. It was terrifying."
Medical sources said nine people who had suffered severe injuries died on arrival at hospital while 60 others were under care at three hospitals in the capital.
The Houthi-controlled Saba news agency said most of the victims were women and children......
From CTV
Britain to send more troops to Iraq
Prime Minister David Cameron says Britain will send 125 more troops to Iraq to train local forces fighting the Islamic State group.
The deployment brings to 275 the number of U.K. personnel helping the Baghdad government and Kurdish authorities battle the militants.
Cameron made the announcement Sunday at a meeting of G-7 leaders in Germany, saying IS terrorism poses one of the world's biggest challenges.....
From Independent
Obama sending 450 more troops to Iraq in face of Isis offensive
The US will send as many as 450 additional troops to Iraq in the face of an aggressive Isis offensive that has seen the Islamic militants take control of large swaths of territory in that country.
The additional troops are not being sent to join ground forces in Iraq, but instead will be used to help train more Iraqi soldiers to fight Isis, the Associated Press reported. The White House said it would open another US training site in Iraq, bringing the total number of facilities to five.........
From Guardian
Israel exonerates itself over Gaza beach killings of four children last year
Israeli investigation says missile attack that killed boys aged between nine and 11 was ‘tragic accident’ in findings contradictory to journalists’ reports from scene
The Israeli military has cleared itself of culpability in one of the most controversial incidents in last summer’s Gaza war: a missile attack that killed four children on Gaza beach and injured a number of others.
Israel’s advocate general’s office said the attack, which led to the death of four boys aged between nine and 11 was a “tragic accident”.
An account of the investigation, posted late on Thursday by military spokesman Lt Col Peter Lerner, said the strike had targeted a “compound” which had been known as belonging to Hamas’s Naval Police and Naval Force (including naval commandos)”.
But journalists who attended the scene in the immediate aftermath of the attack – including a reporter from the Guardian – saw a small and dilapidated fisherman’s hut containing a few tools where the children had been playing hide-and-seek...........
More on Israel's chutzpah from Craig Murray:
The Killing of Children.
The Guardian has for once done a very good job of outlining the stark gap between the truth, and Israel’s “report” into the killing of four young children playing by the beach. It may be argued that this terrible tragedy is itself pretty irrelevant given that the Israelis killed 700 other children in Gaza that year. But the maintenance of this ludicrous, macabre and yes, evil, propaganda is fundamental to the self-image of many Israelis. They still contrive to see themselves as the good guys, under constant threat – despite the fact that Israel kills well more than a hundred for every Israeli killed.
This denial of the truth and claim of victimhood extends to the accusation of anti-Semitism trumpeted at every critic, including this one, despite the fact that I have the highest respect for the immense cultural and scientific achievements of the Jewish people. Israel is a different question entirely.
It is this absolute divorce of propaganda from reality that makes Tony Blair an ideal figurehead. Blair has now become head of a Council of Europe (loosely) linked body which claims to exist to promote tolerance, but in fact exists entirely to promote extreme Islamophobia and to shut down criticism of Israel. And it is a further sign of the estrangement from reality of the influential Israelis behind Blair’s appointment that they believe Tony Blair will influence public opinion positively in their favour. A remarkable example of confirmation bias.........
From ForeignAffairs
Expanding the Caliphate.
ISIS' South Asia Strategy
For over a year, the Islamic State (also known as ISIS) has been attempting to expand into South Asia. ISIS has developed a loose organizational structure in Afghanistan and Pakistan, provided money to local groups, and adopted a confrontational approach to the Afghan Taliban and al Qaeda—all on al Qaeda’s home turf, no less. Its goal is straightforward: to co-opt disaffected local militants in an effort to build influence and power in the region.
ISIS in South Asia, which it calls the Islamic State of Khorasan, is larger than most recognize, boasting between several hundred and several thousand fighters. And its push into the subcontinent has led to numerous skirmishes with the Afghan Taliban, the largest and best-organized militant group in Afghanistan. In early June, for example, ISIS and Taliban fighters engaged in pitched battles in Shinwar, Achin, and other districts in Nangarhar province....
Now every time we read about "Taliban" attacks, we will have to wonder if it was really the Taliban or ISIS as the headchoppers are already in residence near the border regions.
From HuffingtonPost
Taliban Attack Afghanistan Checkpoints, Kill At Least 20 Police
Taliban fighters overran multiple checkpoints in a nighttime raid in Afghanistan's volatile southern Helmand province, killing at least 20 police officers as the battle raged into Saturday, authorities said.
The assault came as Afghanistan's military acknowledged the Taliban controls at least four districts across the country.
The attacks in Helmand hit police checkpoints in the Musa Qala district, said Mohammad Ismail Hotak, the head of the province's joint coordination of police and military operations.........
The Kurdish people, the people with the least religious beliefs fight best because they fight for themselves and their families' freedom not for some uncaring god. If only they were given better weapons .... but no, it won't happen. The powers-that-be don't want the Kurds to store those weapons and use them later to carve out their own land from allies Iraq and Turkey. Jihadis carving out land for the Saudis' wahhabism is fine with the USA and allies ... decent folks like the Kurds doing it .... nah, nah nada.
From BusinessInsider
The Kurds are pushing deeper into an ISIS stronghold on the Syria/Turkey border
The Syrian Kurdish YPG militia said it began an advance towards an Islamic State-held town at the Turkish border on Saturday, thrusting deeper into the jihadists' stronghold of Raqqa province in a campaign backed by U.S.-led air strikes.
Redur Xelil, the YPG spokesman, told Reuters the YPG and smaller Syrian Arab rebel groups fighting alongside it had begun the move towards Tel Abyad after encircling the Islamic State-held town of Suluk 20 km (12 miles) to the southeast.......
From UnderstandingWar
ISIS’s Wilayat Sinai Attacks International Base
Recent attacks in Egypt on the one-year anniversary of the fall of Mosul indicate that ISIS’s affiliate in the Sinai may seek to target the Western military forces and the Egyptian state over the course of the next six weeks. ISW assessed that ISIS’s most dangerous course of action during the month of Ramadan would be to attack international forces in Iraq in order to deter U.S.-led coalition involvement in Iraq and Syria. Wilayat Sinai’s attack on the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) airbase at al-Jura on June 9 suggests that ISIS may pursue this operation in the Near Abroad as well, specifically in Egypt over the next 4-6 weeks. In addition the unattributed suicide attack in Luxor on June 10 raises the possibility that Wilayat Sinai may attempt to undermine Egypt’s tourism industry and military in order to pressure and distract the state. This threat is heightened during Ramadan, but also fits within ISIS’s larger strategy to foment disorder and expand operations into the Middle East and North Africa...............
From Reuters
After 11 weeks of air strikes that have failed to change the balance of power in Yemen, Saudi Arabia is running out of options to restore President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi's exiled government to Sanaa.
Despite the destruction of much of their heavy weaponry, the Houthi militia and army forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh control most of the country's populated west and still daily attack Saudi territory with mortar fire or missiles.
The possibility of a ground operation in support of the ragtag local groups still fighting the Houthis in Aden, Taiz, Marib and al-Dhala appears to have been discounted by the Saudis and their allies in an Arab coalition from early on.
Riyadh may soon have to face an unpalatable choice: accept the de facto control of its foes over Sanaa and cut a deal, or keep fighting with the risk of Yemen sinking into total chaos, becoming a permanent threat to Saudi security. .........
The last decade+ senseless wars have taken a toll on the now displaced and stateless children that will last, via them, to the next 3 or more generations. Imagine that much anger, hatred, mistrust, confusion and acrimony towards the West and their fellow coreligionists! Can you walk in their shoes and imagine that for at least a minute or two?
From ForeignPolicy
The Worst of All Horrors.
Psychologists in Iraq, a country long afflicted by violence, say they’ve never seen more terrible trauma than that caused by the Islamic State.
...........By now living in a state of prolonged displacement, the girl was cutting her arms and saying things like, “I am crazy,” “I am worthless,” and “I have lost my mind,” Hassan recounts.
Hassan, who looked very tired in a recent Skype interview, describes how, in his first six sessions with the girl, he tried relaxation therapy and family therapy. In the next session, he will try scream therapy, which is when a patient vents repressed anger or frustration through yelling. Whatever works at this point. The same goes for the three or four other patients Hassan treats each day.................
#Algeria currently has 50,000 soldiers stationed on the border with #Libya to repel potential #ISIS attacks http://t.co/AaiiGFQdZK #Algerie
— Imad Mesdoua (@ImadMesdoua) June 11, 2015
From DailySabah
As the number of Yemenis who are in need of assistance increases with more than 20 million people severely affected by the humanitarian crisis, the rights group called for a permanent cease-fire ahead of U.N.-sponsored talks.
According to United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), 80 percent of the Yemeni population, or around 20 million people, have been affected by the fighting and are in need of aid. As the crisis continues in the country, the number of Yemenis who need humanitarian assistance has been steadily increasing. "20.4 million people are now estimated to be in need of some form of humanitarian assistance, of whom 9.3 million are children," Jeremy Hopkins, Deputy Representative of UNICEF, said from the capital, Sana'a. "The de facto blockade on Yemen's ports, though there is some easing, means fuel is not coming into the country, and since pumps are mechanized, that means over 20 million people don't have access to safe water," he added.......
Heritage sites destroyed in Syria. The wahhabis' intention of erasing all signs of Christianity in Syria is being accomplished aided by the so-called "Christian" nations of the West.
From Time
Pentagon: Price Tag for War Against ISIS Is $2.7 Billion
The U.S. has spent more than $2.7 billion on the war against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria since bombings began last August, and the average daily cost is now more than $9 million, the Pentagon said Thursday......
From OSCE
Latest from OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine based on information received as of 19:30 (Kyiv time), 14 June 2015
The SMM monitored the implementation of the “Package of measures for the implementation of the Minsk agreements”. Its monitoring was restricted by third parties and security considerations*. The SMM observed numerous ceasefire violations at and around Donetsk airport. The SMM visited weapons holding areas and observed that some weapons previously documented were no longer present, both at government-controlled and “DPR”-controlled sites.
During the weekend, fighting intensified in Donetsk, with substantially more shelling observed. The level of violence in areas around “Donetsk People’s Republic” (“DPR”)-controlled Donetsk airport remains high.
Over a period of two days, the SMM at the Joint Centre for Control and Co-ordination (JCCC) observation point at Donetsk central railway station (“DPR”-controlled, 8km north-west of Donetsk city centre) observed a total of at least 594 explosions caused by incoming and outgoing artillery and mortar fire, as well as small arms and light weapons (SALW), including heavy machine-gun fire. The SMM concluded that the explosions occurred at locations to the north, north-west, north-east, west, and south-west and at distances ranging between 2 and 10km from its position..........
Meanwhile, in Canada our soft justice system doesn't know whether it's coming or going.
From NanaimoDaily
RCMP arrest Winnipeg man on suspicion of possible terrorist plans.
RCMP have arrested a Winnipeg man on the suspicion that he may carry out terrorist activities or help a terrorist group.
Aaron Daniel Driver, 23, was arrested after a raid Thursday in a suburban home. He appeared briefly in court Friday, where police filed an application for a peace bond that could impose limits on Driver's activities....
From CBC
Human Rights Watch raises concerns over B.C. terrorism trial.
Canadian police using U.S. post-9/11 tactics to target vulnerable individuals in sting operations, group claim
A terrorism trial underway in British Columbia runs disturbingly parallel with an emerging trend in U.S. anti-terror efforts targeting some of society's most vulnerable people, says an international human rights group.
Human Rights Watch members have been observing the case of John Nuttall and Amanda Korody, two Vancouver-area residents found guilty earlier this month of plotting to decimate the provincial legislature with pressure-cooker bombs.
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