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 .....
From Anadolu:
US strikes Khorasan Group targets in Syria
U.S. jets struck five targets of the al-Qaeda affiliated Khorasan Group for the second time since early September
The U.S. military struck five Khorasan Group targets near the northwestern Syrian town of Idlib overnight Wednesday.
"We are still assessing the outcome of the attack, but have initial indications that it resulted in the intended effects by striking terrorists and destroying or severely damaging several Khorasan Group vehicles and buildings assessed to be meeting and staging areas, IED-making facilities and training facilities," U.S. Central Command said in a statement.
The U.S. military alone conducted the strikes, the statement said. ....
From CTVnews:
Canadian forces launched their first airstrikes on ISIS targets in northern Iraq on Sunday, government officials have confirmed.
Two Canadian CF-18 fighter jets dropped 500-pound laser-guided bombs near the city of Fallujah during a mission that lasted approximately four hours.
In a statement, Defence Minister Rob Nicholson said the mission included air-to-air re-fueling from Canada’s Polaris aircraft. All aircraft returned safely to their base, the minister said, adding assessment of damage is ongoing.......
From 570News:
....Nicholson wouldn’t release details, but said more information would be forthcoming at an Ottawa briefing on Tuesday — 48 hours after the mission.
However, U.S. Central Command, based in Tampa, Fla., said four strikes hit a large ISIL unit in the vicinity where Canadian planes reportedly dropped their laser-guided bombs.
The attack apparently destroyed five ISIL bulldozers and one ISIL dump truck used to build obstructions and berms.
It is unclear whether Canadians carried out all of the strikes in the vicinity of Fallujah or if aircraft from other coalition nations were involved.....
From JoshuaLandis:
Nusra’s Offensive in Idlib & its Attempt to Destroy Washington’s Allies. November 2014
The following information about Jabhat al-Nusra’s offensive against the Syrian Revolutionaries’ Front and Hazm Movement in the Jabal al-Zawiya region comes from a well informed source who has been in the area over the last several weeks. The following information about Nusra’s ambitions and movements was relayed by him............From Reuters:
Georgian Prime Minister Irakly Garibashvili fired his defense minister on Tuesday hours after he criticized the arrests of several officials in his ministry as politically motivated and aimed at those who favor better relations with the West.
The move could trigger a crisis in the governing six-party Georgian Dream coalition, with sacked defense minister Irakly Alasania's Free Democrats party now mulling whether to leave the government and jeopardize its majority in parliament.
Alasania, one of the most pro-Western and most popular ministers, had earlier denounced the detention of one former and four serving ministry officials last week, as well as new charges filed against several army medical officers on Tuesday.
"I want to unambiguously state that this is obviously politically motivated," he told reporters.
"I want to clearly state that this is an attack on Georgia's Euro-Atlantic choice," he said, referring to Georgia's stated interest in joining NATO and its recent trade deal with the European Union......
From Reuters:
Heavy fighting near seaport of Libyan city Benghazi, navy ship hit
A Libyan navy ship was hit and 13 people killed during heavy fighting with aircraft and tanks on Monday between the army and Islamist militants near the port of Benghazi, residents of the Mediterranean city said.
The battle was part of a wider conflict in the North African state where former rebels who helped oust dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 are fighting for power and a share of Libya's large oil revenues.
Army special forces, backed by troops of an ex-general, launched an offensive in the Benghazi area two weeks ago against Islamist militants blamed by Washington for a 2012 assault on the former U.S. consulate which killed the American ambassador.
The Red Crescent evacuated 53 foreign workers and 14 sick people trapped inside a hospital next to the port, medics said, while the army moved more tanks and artillery into the city.
A Reuters reporter could see smoke rising from the port, an important conduit for food, wheat and fuel supplies to eastern Libya. A security source said the unidentified navy ship was sinking but this could not immediately be confirmed.
Warplanes could be heard firing into the port area.
Dozens of residents were leaving Benghazi, heeding a call by the army to evacuate the port area and main commercial district where military officials said Islamists were holed up.
At least 243 people have been killed, 13 of them on Monday, since the army started the offensive, medics said.........
Brussels becomes a war zone with tear gas & water canons as 100,000 protest against EU enforced austerity http://t.co/ZmR3S5ICNv
— David Jones (@DavidJo52951945) November 6, 2014
From Reuters:
Unidentified gunmen shot dead five people in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province late on Monday evening, the state news agency reported.
Nine people were wounded in the attack in al-Dalwah town in al-Ahsa district, a police spokesman was quoted as saying.
"As a group of citizens was leaving a building...three masked men opened fire at them with machine guns and pistols," the spokesman said, adding that the incident was under investigation.
It gave no further details. Al-Ahsa is one of the two main centers of minority Shi'ite Muslims in Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia, along with the district of Qatif.....
#Kharkov #NAF operatives claim to have knocked out 17 #Ukrainian vehicles & neutralized 100+ occupants. #ATO #KNR http://t.co/LEEtTjvCwO
— Sergey Bobkov (@sbobkov) November 4, 2014
From BBC:
Burkina Faso army told to hand over power
The African Union (AU) has given Burkina Faso's military a two-week deadline to hand power to a civilian ruler or face sanctions.
The AU said the army had acted unconstitutionally when it took over after President Blaise Compaore was forced to resign on Friday.
The military said a civilian-led transitional government would be established as quickly as possible.
Mr Compaore quit after mass protests at his bid to extend his 27-year rule.
On Saturday, the military named Lt Col Isaac Zida, previously second in command of the presidential guard, as the new interim ruler.......
From UPI:
The Egyptian military began demolishing homes in the Sinai peninsula bordering the Gaza Strip Thursday in an attempt to create a buffer zone that would stanch the flow of militants and weapons between countries.
Roughly 10,000 residents of the town of Rafah were given 48 hours to leave their homes in order for the Egyptian military to create the 8-mile long, nearly 550-yard deep buffer zone.
The New York Times reports that despite being surprised by the ultimatum, residents of Rafah quietly migrated away and collected compensation, and that the lack of active opposition to the move illustrates Egyptian support for the Cairo government's anti-insurgent campaign..........
From TelegraphUK:
Syrian rebels armed and trained by US surrender to al-Qaeda
Moderate rebels in Syria that the US have armed and trained to fight jihadists have surrendered to al-Qaeda
Two of the main rebel groups receiving weapons from the United States to fight both the regime and jihadist groups in Syria have surrendered to al-Qaeda.
The US and its allies were relying on Harakat Hazm and the Syrian Revolutionary Front to become part of a ground force that would attack the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil).
For the last six months the Hazm movement, and the SRF through them, had been receiving heavy weapons from the US-led coalition, including GRAD rockets and TOW anti-tank missiles.
But on Saturday night Harakat Hazm surrendered military bases and weapons supplies to Jabhat al-Nusra, when the al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria stormed villages they controlled in northern Idlib province.
The development came a day after Jabhat al-Nusra dealt a final blow to the SRF, storming and capturing Deir Sinbal, home town of the group's leader Jamal Marouf......
From AntiWar:
Pentagon Downplays Mounting Losses in Iraq, Syria
Major losses on both the Iraqi and Syrian sides of the ISIS conflict emerged over the weekend, with ISIS routing a pro-Iraqi govt Sunni tribe and massacring hundreds of them, while Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaeda’s wing in Syria, forced a key US-allied moderate rebel faction to surrender.
The Pentagon is trying to downplay the problems, despite these both being clearly huge defeats for their strategy in the ever-escalating war, and is mostly falling back on semantic arguments to deflect concerns.
“If they join the Nusra Front, the Nusra Front is not a moderate organization. So therefore they are not moderate either,” insisted Pentagon spokesman Steve Warren of the defeated Syrian Revolutionary Front (SRF).
Yet the SRF didn’t willingly join Nusra. Rather they were completely clobbered by them and unconditionally surrendered, turning over all their US-made weapons and armor to Nusra.
The Pentagon may want to split hairs here, but the SRF was awash in US weaponry and was repeatedly touted by the administration as one of those “vetted, moderate” factions. The problem was that, like so many of the “vetted, moderate” factions, they couldn’t fight their way out of a paper bag, and were long reliant on Nusra to do the fighting for them. When the US war split them irrevocably from Nusra, it just meant they were going to get taken over, and the real loss is the US weapons......
From DailyStar:
Syria regime barrel bomb raids kill 12 civilians: monitor
At least 12 civilians, including women and children, were killed on Thursday when Syrian regime helicopters dropped explosive-packed barrel bombs on a district in Aleppo city, a monitoring group said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the attack hit the Muwasalat district of Shaar neighbourhood in the rebel-held east of the city.
The group said the toll was expected to rise, and that the second barrel bomb had been dropped at the scene shortly after the first one hit......
So Israel wants to talk about *Vehicular Terror*
It's time to show the Israeli Occupying Terrorism
#Palestine pic.twitter.com/aXNJUfH2AC
— Palestine News (@Falasteen_News) November 5, 2014
From AP:
Kenya: 5 suspected bombers killed
Kenyan and Somali soldiers killed five suspected Islamic extremist bombers attempting to cross into the country from Ethiopia in a car laden with explosives and six suicide vests, a Kenyan military spokesman said Sunday.
Bogita Ongeri said authorities recovered 100kg (220 pounds) of TNT from the vehicle which was intercepted at Dolo, along Kenya's border with Ethiopia on Saturday.
Ongeri said security forces had been tracking the car which has Kenyan registration and were aware that the suspected terrorists had unsuccessfully attempted to gain entry into Kenya at another border point. He said the five killed are suspected members of the Somali militant group al-Shabab, which is allied to al-Qaida. Al-Shabab has vowed to carry violent terrorism in Kenya because Kenyan troops are in Somalia fighting the militants. Kenya sent its troops into Somalia in Oct 2011 to fight al-Shabab after the Kenyan government blamed the extremist rebels for a series of cross-border attacks including the kidnapping of four western nationals.....
From ChristianPost:
ISIS Has Massacred 322 People From Sunni Tribe; Leader Says Iraqi Gov't Abandoned Them
An Iraqi tribal leader revealed that at least 322 members of a single Sunni tribe have been killed at the hands of terror group ISIS in the western Anbar province. The tribe's senior leader has blamed the government for abandoning the people to the jihadists.
"The government abandoned us and gave us to ISIS on a platter," Sheikh Naeem Al Gaoud of the Albu Nimr tribe told BBC News on Sunday. "We asked them many times for weapons but they gave us only promises."
From Reuters:
Gunmen storm Libya's El Sharara oilfield, shut down production
Gunmen seized Libya's major El Sharara oilfield, looting equipment and shooting as frightened workers sought shelter, oil sources said on Wednesday, in another blow to the country's oil industry which has been subjected to protests and militia blockades.
It was unclear exactly what happened at the field, which at maximum capacity produces about 340,000 barrels per day. It is Libya's biggest operational field, located in the remote south where rival tribes have clashed since Muammar Gaddafi was ousted three years ago.
The closure is a blow to government efforts to keep oil production isolated from the spreading chaos in the North African country, where two prime ministers, parliaments and army chiefs of staff compete for control.
The closure will lower the OPEC member's oil production, last reported at around 800,000 bpd, by at least 200,000 bpd........
From RT:
A Shia man was shot by Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) supporters as he was leaving an Islamic prayer center in southwest Sydney, according to eyewitnesses.
The 47-year-old victim, identified as an Iraqi Shia leader at the center, suffered superficial pellet wounds to the face and shoulders, and is currently awaiting surgery in a Sydney hospital.
A witness, who did not give his name, alleged that before the shooting, the attackers drove by hurling insults at Shias gathered near the center.
"They called us ‘Shia dogs’ and they threatened to come back down tonight and kill you, shoot you, whatever," the witness told ABC Radio.
Prior to the shooting, the attackers drove by several times shouting "IS lives forever," according to the witness. Others confirmed they heard a group of men yell: "ISIS is coming" and "ISIS will stay."...........
From NBC:
German Court Charges Three With Aiding Terror
Three alleged ISIS supporters faced German judges on terror charges for the first time Wednesday morning as their trial over a supply haul for the Syrian battlefield began. Two of them were arrested a year ago when German police stopped them at a highway rest area on their way to Syria. Their car was packed full with supplies. The third was arrested early this year for helping them.
Inside the vehicle investigators found medical supplies, two night-vision devices, binoculars, camouflage jackets and pants. The accused apparently had the upcoming winter in mind and packed 40 pairs of gloves, 13 wool hats, as well as extra socks and underwear.
Prosecutors said Wednesday that the main defendant, a Lebanese national who had grown up in Germany, had first traveled to Syria from August to November 2013 to fight the Assad regime. There he allegedly joined an ISIS-affiliated group, fought in an Aleppo suburb, and received money and instructions from his commander to buy the supplies on a visit to his German home..........
Swedish Armed forces will exercise protecting Stockholm on Friday due to "worsened security situation in the region". pic.twitter.com/S3jkkKtsYt
— Anders Östlund (@andersostlund) November 6, 2014
From RTNews:
Suicide attack kills 45, injures 70 on India-Pakistan border - police
A suicide bombing near the India-Pakistan border has killed at least 45 people, Pakistani police say. Women and children are amongst the dead following the blast, which took place near the Pakistani city of Lahore. The injury count is currently around 70.
"The death toll increased to 45," the provincial police chief in Lahore told Reuters.
Earlier a senior police official verified the claims that the blast at the Wagah crossing was a suicide attack. "According to initial information it was a suicide attack," Inspector General of Punjab Police, Mushtaq Sukhera, told local television channels. "When ... security was a bit relaxed, the suicide attacker blew himself up near a restaurant. Thirty-seven people were killed and more than 50 wounded," he added.
"I was sitting in my office near the border when I heard the blast. I rushed to the scene and saw scattered bodies, injured men, women and children and smashed cars," a Pakistani intelligence source told Reuters.
Speaking earlier, the Deputy Medical Superintendent of Ghurki Hospital, Dr Khurram, said, "We received 35 bodies including those of women and children and 60 to 70 were wounded,” as reported by local TV stations.............
From BBC:
Nigeria Shias in Potiskum hit by 'suicide attack'
A suicide bomber has killed 15 worshippers at a Shia religious ceremony in north-eastern Nigeria's Potiskum town, a Shia leader has said.
Security forces killed another five people after arriving at the scene and opening fire, he said.
The military has not commented on the allegation.
No group has said it carried out the attack, but suspicion is bound to fall on militant Sunni Islamist group Boko Haram.
It denounces Shias, a minority in Nigeria, as non-Muslims.....
From AlMonitor:
.....With the disclosure of the existence of Jabhat al-Nusra in Lebanon, questions arise about the identity of the "emir" of this republic. Sources answer such questions by saying, “There is no emir of Jabhat al-Nusra in Lebanon, as the front relies on the cluster cell method, whereby groups that do not know each other operate through a system that leads and dominates them. This seemed obvious in the Tripoli battles, which involved a tactical and professional withdrawal as well as logistical work and a major organizational capacity, all of which report to a central leader.”.......
