World War 3 ... news and updates August 15, 2015

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, ThePhilippines, 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, Armenia, Dominican Republic

From NYDaily
Osama Bin Laden’s son Hamza    calls for lone wolf attacks in U.S. in Al Qaeda video
 Al Qaeda in Afghanistan warned there's a new Bin Laden seeking destruction in the U.S. — Osama's son Hamza.
The terrorist's prodigal son, in his mid 20s, told Al Qaeda supporters to carry out lone wolf attacks in Washington, D.C., Paris and Tel-Aviv in a video released Friday.
"This is your duty," Hamza Bin Laden said as he called to move the jihadist war from the Middle East to allies of the U.S. and Jewish Americans...........

From IraqBusinessnews
Peshmerga ‘Ready’   to Advance on IS
Anwya believes this is because the United States and its allies are worried about hitting the peshmerga in its airstrikes. “They don’t want to get confused and hit us,” he claimed. The former US Marine agreed, saying, “If we pass the line we may get hit by airstrikes.”
The peshmerga forces’ belief that it is better prepared to fight IS than the Iraqi military, coupled with the Iraqi government preventing them from going on the offensive at present, demonstrates that the two are not exactly on the same page.
However, their differences have not hindered either’s success as of late. According to Ali, the peshmerga, the Iraqi armed forces and their allies have had more success in 2015 fighting IS than in the previous year. Media reports noted that IS lost several villages around Mosul in January of this year, for example. Despite this progress, until a decision is reached on when to move forward, the current situation of relatively light combat and a static front line is likely to continue...........

From GeopolitcalMonitor
Is Turkey In Over Its Head?    Turkey’s war against Islamic State began with bombs being dropped on Kurdistan Workers’ Party’s (PKK) forces – a central actor in the ongoing insurgency across parts of Syria (a country that ostensibly no longer exists) and Iraq. The PKK has sought autonomy from Turkey since the mid-1980s, with tens of thousands of Turkish and Kurdish soldiers and civilians being counted as part of the casualties of the roughly 30-year conflict. Attempts to carve out a sovereign Kurdish homeland from Turkey during the 1980s led to the deaths of over 30,000 people, many of whom were ethnic Kurds. As part of Turkey’s new role in its conflict with ISIS, the United States has been granted permission to launch aircraft from the Incirlik airbase located near Adana. The United States already has approximately six fighter aircraft and several hundred military personnel stationed at the base.
The battle of Kobane, which lasted from mid-September 2014 until mid-March 2015, brought the fighting to the borders of Turkey. At the end of July 2015, when Turkey entered into the conflict, its attacks against the PKK were the first strikes against the Kurds situated in northern Iraq since the brokering of a peace deal between Turkey and the PKK in 2013. The Kurdish group’s accusations that the Turkish government is plotting terrorist attacks (in collusion with ISIS forces) against ethnic Kurdish communities greatly adds to tensions due to Ankara’s already inimical disposition toward the Kurds............

Cameroon Pledges More Troops Against Boko Haram - Cameroon has pledged to provide 2,450 troops to join the multina... http://t.co/AXeZBydzZg

— Vincent Makori (@VOAVinceMakori) August 15, 2015

From Reuters
Spate of bombings  kill 24 across Baghdad
A spate of bombings across Baghdad killed at least 24 people on Saturday, two days after the deadliest attack in the Iraqi capital since Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi took office one year ago.
The deadliest attack took place in the Shi'ite district of Habibiya, where 15 people were killed when a car bomb exploded near an open area where cars are displayed for sale.
"The investigation, based on footage from a surveillance camera, showed a man parking a white car and sneaking into a nearby tea kiosk. Five minutes later the car exploded," said police officer Murtatha Abid Ali at the scene of Saturday's explosion, which wounded a further 35 people...........

From IntlReporter
The War in Donbass. Kiev Deploys Tanks and Rocket Launchers, Recent Developments in Iraq and Palestine
Yesterday Donetsk was hit by a record 800 artillery shells. The Telmanovo suburb was hit particularly hard, but the shelling was also very violent in the airport region. At least one local was killed and 2 wounded by the shelling. Meanwhile, Kiev has been continuing to pull its forces to the contact line. These forces include tanks and artillery systems, even multiple rocket launchers. The vice-speaker of the People’s Council Denis Pushilin informed that if Kiev escapes from the Minsk agreement the war will blaze up at any moment and it can touch not only Donbass. However, the vice-commander of Defense Ministry Corps Eduard Basurin didn’t confrim the information about full alert of the DPR’s Army.......
from South Front, Global Research:
The crew of Russia’s REN TV channel came under fire near Donetsk airport on Wednesday, the channel said on its website. “The Ukrainian military opened fire at the REN TV crew today when our correspondents were working near the Donetsk airport, which is one of the biggest flash points (in Donbass). Shooting has been under way in the village of Oktyabrsky, one kilometer away from Donetsk airport, for days,” REN TV said on its website. It is still unknown .........


From NDtv
Multiple Blasts Rock Kabul,   Firing on Near Airport
A series of blasts rattled Kabul in Afghanistan late on Friday. The first of the evening was a suicide attack near the entrance of the  Kabul Police Academy, killing 20 cadets, officials said.
Two other blasts were reported from the near Kabul airport. Gunfire continued after the attack and NATO jets were heard flying overhead.
"The attacker was wearing police uniform. When he detonated his explosives, 20 cadets were killed and 20 more were wounded," said a senior Afghan intelligence official.
Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid claimed that his outfit was behind the attack on the police academy.
The suicide bombing comes less than 24 hours after a truck bomb tore through central Kabul, killing 15 civilians and wounding 240 others, in the first major attack in the Afghan capital since the announcement of Taliban leader Mullah Omar's death........

Afghan president, after seeking to befriend Pakistan, says recent Kabul attacks show Pakistan still exporting terror: http://t.co/lbPPum0ZBG

— Brahma Chellaney (@Chellaney) August 15, 2015

From CBC
9 dead, 4 rescued in Mali hotel attack
3 of the Islamic militants who stormed hotel also killed in attack that occurred far from militant strongholds
Mali's special forces early Saturday rescued four people who hid in a hotel for nearly 24 hours after Islamic extremists stormed the building and launched a rare attack far from their northern strongholds that killed nine people, officials said.
Three attackers were also killed in the fighting.
The four rescued UN employees are two South Africans, a Russian and a Ukrainian, said Radhia Achouri, the spokeswoman for the UN mission in Mali.
"Our contractors survived because at no time was their presence discovered by the terrorists in the hotel," she said adding there was not much resistance Saturday morning during the rescue. The four will soon go to Bamako, the capital, she said.
Additional UN personnel may still be missing, said a UN official not authorized to speak to the press on the matter. Some personnel could not be reached, and some of the attackers left Sevare after the initial attacks Friday morning, the official said............

From AP
Deadly attacks surge  as Iran's foreign minister visits Syria
 Iran's foreign minister, who negotiated his country's nuclear deal with world powers, discussed ways of ending Syria's civil war with President Bashar Assad in Damascus on Wednesday, as attacks surged around the Syrian capital, killing at least 36 people and wounding dozens.
Stepped-up rebel shelling and government airstrikes came just a few hours before Mohammad Javad Zarif arrived in Damascus, where he discussed a four-point proposal Iran wants to offer to the United Nations as a way out of Syria's grinding conflict.
That plan, according to a Lebanese politician familiar with the proposal, includes a cease-fire and a power-sharing government that would keep Assad in the picture, at least for now, pending internationally supervised elections. The politician, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to divulge details of the plan, said it shows the Iranians were "not ready" to withdraw their support for Assad........

Houthis withdrew from Shabwa. Some public and private properties were looted by southern Hirak activists. #Yemen pic.twitter.com/x7elxdtttX

— Yemen Updates (@yemen_updates) August 15, 2015

From BBC
Rwanda peacekeeper kills    four colleagues in CAR
A Rwandan soldier serving as a peacekeeper in the Central African Republic (CAR) has shot dead four colleagues before killing himself, the Rwandan Defence Ministry has said.
Eight others were wounded in the attack, a statement said.
A Rwandan military spokesman called the incident "deplorable".
Those dead served under the UN's mission in CAR, deployed to support the country's fragile transitional government.
The country descended into sectarian violence in 2013 when the predominantly Muslim Seleka rebels seized power, prompting reprisals from Christian militia. ........

Boko Haram has been 'decapitated': Chadian leader: N'Djamena (AFP) - Chad's President Idriss Deby declared Tue... http://t.co/TWoCqXGJ4L

— ModernGhana.com (@modernghanaweb) August 12, 2015

From StarTribune
Libyan officials:    IS affiliate in Sirte battles local revolt, shells residential areas
 Libya's Islamic State affiliate is battling a rival Islamist group in the central city of Sirte, killing one of its senior clerics and besieging and shelling a residential area housing its supporters, officials and witnesses said Thursday.

The clashes have killed between 13 and 49 people, with officials giving different casualty counts. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters.
The IS affiliate last week called on residents of a northern Sirte neighborhood working in the police, the judiciary and the financial sector to pledge allegiance to the group or face death, local journalist Ezzeldin Ahmed said.
In response, a group of ultraconservative Muslim clerics in the area refused to pledge allegiance to IS and urged residents to rise up against it. One of the clerics was found dead Monday, setting off the clashes, he said.
Libya has slid into chaos since the 2011 overthrow and killing of longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi. It is now divided between an elected parliament and government in the east, and an Islamist militia-backed government based in Tripoli.
The Islamic State affiliate gained a foothold in Sirte in March, and has fought with rival militant groups and forces loyal to both governments.........

From Wowonaija
Insurgency'' Military, Boko Haram    currently in gun battle in Maiduguri
Nigerian troops and Boko Haram members are currently engaged in a gun battle in Kayamula village, Jere LGA, which is a few meters from Maiduguri, Borno state. Residents were thrown into panic but the military assured them of their safety and appealed to them to remain indoors.
This gun battle comes hours after a suspected Boko Haram member attacked a market in Sabon Gari in Damboa local government area, killing 50 people. ........



From AP
IS affiliate claims  responsibility for Saudi police bombing
An allegedly new Islamic State affiliate in Saudi Arabia claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing at a mosque inside a police compound in the country's southwest on Thursday that killed at least 15 people, most of them members and recruits of the kingdom's special forces.
It was the deadliest attack against Saudi security personnel in years and one that is likely to pull the kingdom deeper into the regional war with IS extremists.
The blast took place in an Interior Ministry compound in the city of Abha, the provincial capital of Asir, which lies along the border with war-torn Yemen. The troops killed were members of an elite counter-terrorism force.
The attack was stunning in its timing and target, coming just weeks after the Saudi Interior Ministry announced the arrest of more than 400 suspects in an anti-terrorism sweep. In April, they announced the arrest of more than 90 suspects........
The kingdom had for years quietly allowed thousands of Saudis to leave the country to join militant groups fighting in Iraq and Syria, until the late King Abdullah last year decreed that fighting abroad was illegal. At the same time, Saudi Arabia joined a U.S.-led coalition carrying out airstrikes in Syria and Iraq against the Islamic State group.
The kingdom is also leading a coalition targeting Yemen's Iran-allied Shiite rebels who have carried out a number of cross-border attacks against Saudi military targets. It has also sheltered Yemen's exiled President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi whose loyalists at home are battling Iran-backed Shiite rebels known as Houthis.
Hours after Thursday's bombing in Abha, a previously unheard of IS affiliate, which calls itself Hijaz Province of the Islamic State, claimed responsibility for the attack.
The group issued a statement saying..........

Go to the 26-min mark of the vid below to hear Max Blumenthal talk about the 51 day war and the atrocious war crimes committed in Gaza on the Palestinians by the Israeli govt.


From Reuters
More than 200 feared    dead in sinking of migrant boat
Hopes faded of finding more survivors on Thursday from a shipwreck in which 200 migrants are feared drowned, as rescue ships were called to the aid of more migrant boats in the same area of the Mediterranean.

"We are witnessing a genocide caused by European selfishness," said Palermo mayor Leoluca Orlando as the Irish navy ship LE Niamh docked in the port carrying some 370 survivors of Wednesday's disaster and 25 corpses, including three children.
Orlando, speaking on Italian television as hearses arrived to take the bodies away, called on European leaders to do more to prevent such disasters and to allow more refugees to re-settle in their countries.
After the survivors disembarked, some were escorted back on board to see if they could identify the dead children......



From NYTimes
Afghan War’s    Convenient Myth: A Living Mullah Omar
 The Taliban, it turns out, had been sending the world messages from a dead man. And the world kept answering him.
It continued until last month, when the Taliban issued a statement in the name of their supreme leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, intended to “elucidate some issues about the previous and present ongoing jihadi struggle.” In it, Mullah Omar seemed open to the idea of peace negotiations, raising hopes in Kabul.
The reclusive Mullah Omar, of course, had not been seen in public in nearly 14 years, and some of his commanders, having last heard from him around 2008 or 2009, had been demanding proof of life.
Mullah Omar, according to the Afghan spy service and some Taliban officials, had already been dead for more than two years — as many Afghan officials strongly suspected.
Still, President Ashraf Ghani, who had gone all out for months to open talks with the Taliban, said before news cameras that he was encouraged by Mullah Omar’s latest words, characterizing him as having said that “negotiation is the solution.”..........


From Sputnik
US-led airstrikes   targeting the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq and Syria have killed more than 450 civilians over the past year, a new report said, even though the coalition has acknowledged only two non-combatant deaths.
More than 5,700 air strikes have been launched in the campaign, which will mark its first anniversary on Saturday.
According to a new report by Airwars, a nonprofit team of independent journalists aimed at tracking airstrikes, 52 attacks caused at least 459 non-combatant deaths, including those of more than 100 children.

From ConflictNews
The UAE Just Effectively Invaded Yemen
Around 3000 troops just landed in Aden largely under the world media’s radar
Over the last week, the entire momentum of the war in Yemen has shifted. While previously pro-government forces and the so-called Popular Resistance were trapped within the port city of Aden, now they are pushing the Houthis back in all directions. First they managed to secure the port facilities, then the entire residential region of the city, and then finally the Aden International Airport.........
....Given the huge numbers of vehicles involved, and it would seem that these must almost certainly be regular Emirati troops. Indeed this has been effectively confirmed by comments from coalition officials who have said that 3000 troops, made up of UAE regulars and foreign-trained Yemenis had made landfall in Aden. Effectively, an entire foreign armoured division has invaded Yemen, however it is politically convenient for the Saudi-led coalition (of which the UAE is a large partner) not to talk much about it......


Bandar is another name for "monkey" in some of the Asian dialects.  This particular monkey was/is a lapdog of US elites

Source: Crown Prince Mohammad bin Nayaf stated to Ali Mamlouk that Bandar bin Sultan was responsible for the turmoil between Saudis & Assad

— Leith Abou Fadel (@leithfadel) August 4, 2015

From BusinessInsider
US military official: 'We were outraged'   when Turkey pulled a fast one right after the anti-ISIS deal
An American military source told Fox News that US military leaders were "outraged" when Turkey began launching airstrikes against the Kurdish PKK in northern Iraq just hours after striking a deal with the US opposing the Islamic State, the militant group also known as ISIS, ISIL, or Daesh.
A Turkish officer entered the allied headquarters in the air war against ISIS and "announced that the strike would begin in 10 minutes and he needed all allied jets flying above Iraq to move south of Mosul immediately," the source said.
"We were outraged."
The US special forces stationed in northern Iraq advising and training Kurdish peshmerga fighters had virtually no warning before Turkish jets started striking the mountains, where the PKK is headquartered.
"We had no idea who the Turkish fighters were, their call signs, what frequencies they were using, their altitude or what they were squawking [to identify the jets on radar]," the source said.
Turkish military leaders.......

From Guardian
Islamic State claims   responsibility for twin attacks killing at least 58 in Iraq
Two explosions in Diyala province come in same region of an attack, also claimed by the terror group, which killed 115 last month
At least 58 people have been killed and more than 100 wounded in two blasts in eastern Iraq in a province once considered mostly free of such dangers. Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack.
In January, Iraqi officials declared victory over the insurgents in Diyala province, which borders Iran, after security forces and Shi’ite paramilitaries drove them out of towns and villages. But the militants have remained active.
The explosion took place on Monday at a market in Huwaidar, about 2.5 miles north of the provincial capital of Baquba, police and medical sources said.
“The attacker managed to pass a checkpoint by lining up with a wedding motorcade and then split off with his explosives packed vehicle to blow it up in a crowded marketplace,” said the Diyala police captain, Mohammed al-Tamimi. ........

From DailyTimes
Suicide attack kills    29 in northern Afghanistan
* Attack took place in Khanabad district of northern Kunduz province when a group of militias were holding a security meeting * Taliban spokesman claims responsibility
 A suicide bomber blew himself up at a gathering of Afghan local militia forces loyal to the government late on Saturday, killing at least 25 militia members and four civilians, a local government official said.
The attack took place in the Khanabad district of northern Kunduz province when a group of militias were holding a security meeting. Several Afghan civilians and militias were also wounded in the attack. “At least 29 people, including 25 members of a militia group supporting local government and four civilians, were killed in a suicide attack that took place in Khanabad district of Kunduz. Several civilians and militias were wounded,” said Khanabad District Governor Hayatullah Amiri. A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the suicide attack, saying they killed 31 militias and wounded 26.........

From Sputnik
OSCE Shamed for Not Reporting Kiev’s Atrocities in Donbass
Hundreds of people gathered outside the OSCE office in Donetsk, demanding unbiased monitoring of the humanitarian situation in the region.
“Your silence is killing children”, read one of the many posters held by the protesters.
Several OSCE representatives came out to meet the protesters but refrained from making any comments.
“If only the OSCE had monitored the situation more objectively, we would have had peace here a long time ago… The OSCE monitors are telling us nothing, saying only that they will make protocols, nothing else,” Donetsk News Agency quoted one of the protesters as saying.


From Dawn
Yemen president’s loyalists    retake provincial capital
Forces loyal to exiled Yemeni president recaptured a southern provincial capital from Houthi rebels and their allies on Sunday as well as a coastal town, as they pressed an advance from second city Aden.
Zinjibar, capital of Abyan province, had been held by troops of the renegade 15th Brigade which remains loyal to ousted strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh who is allied with the Houthi rebels.
Troops entered Zinjibar, some 50 kilometres east of Aden, after overrunning the brigade’s barracks with support from Saudi-led coalition air strikes, military sources said.
They deployed tanks to secure the city and then also retook the coastal town of Shaqra with “little resistance” from rebel forces, a military source said. .........

From Sky
Dozens Killed    In Truck Blast At Baghdad Market
A refrigerated lorry packed with explosives blows up inside one of the largest wholesale food markets in Iraq's capital.
Islamic State says it was responsible for carrying out a massive truck bombing in a crowded Baghdad market has killed dozens of people.
Reports say at least 76 people died and at least 200 people were wounded in the early morning explosion at Jameela market in the predominantly Shia Sadr City neighbourhood............



From RT
US ex-intelligence chief on ISIS   rise: It was 'a willful Washington decision'
The US didn’t interfere with the rise of anti-government jihadist groups in Syria that finally degenerated into Islamic State, claims the former head of America’s Defense Intelligence Agency, backing a secret 2012 memo predicting their rise.
An interview with retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), given to Al Jazeera’s Mehdi Hasan, confirms earlier suspicions that Washington was monitoring jihadist groups emerging as opposition in Syria.........

From ArmyTimes
Army names 3 units for Iraq, Afghanistan deployments
About 2,550 soldiers with 10th Mountain Division will deploy in the next few months as part of Iraq and Afghanistan troop rotations, the Army announced Wednesday.
The largest contingent will come from the division's Fort Drum, New York-based 1st Brigade Combat Team, which will send about 1,250 soldiers to Iraq to support Operation Inherent Resolve — a deployment first announced in March that's expected to last nine months. The brigade last deployed to Afghanistan for nine months in 2013.
Another 300 troops from 10th Mountain's headquarters at Fort Drum will deploy to Afghanistan in support of Operation Freedom Sentinel, the Army announced, along with about 1,000 troops from the division's 3rd BCT, based at Fort Polk, Louisiana...........

From CBS
U.N.: More women, children casualties of Afghan violence
The United Nations said on Wednesday that an increasing number of women and children were getting hurt or killed in Afghanistan's war against the Taliban and other insurgents.
The total number of casualties in the almost 14-year conflict was up one percent in the first half of this year, compared to the same period last year, a new U.N. report said. However, the number of women casualties rose by 23 percent and children 13 percent........

World War 3 news and updates ... Aug 3

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, ThePhilippines, 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, Armenia, Dominican Republic

From Reuters
Turkey joined the   fight against Islamic State, but not for the reasons you think
After months of wavering, Turkey agreed on July 23 to partner with the United States in launching joint air strikes against Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq. However, soon after pounding Islamic State positions in Syria, Ankara quickly turned its attention to strike at the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Iraq, whose Syrian wing, the People’s Protection Units (YPG) is a key U.S. ally against Islamic State.
The decision to strike against the PKK was made with the aim of advancing Turkey’s governing AK Party’s political position ahead of early parliamentary elections. But it will be a pyrrhic victory: Syria’s problems will continue to spill over Turkey’s borders, making a solution to the conflict ever more elusive.......

From Time
These 5 Stats Explain    Turkey’s War on ISIS—and the Kurds
Turkey enters the battle against ISIS, but it's real target seems to be the Kurds
On the heels of a major suicide bombing in the border town of Suruç a couple weeks ago, Turkey has officially joined the war against ISIS—though it’s not clear what it actually aims to achieve. Turkey and its leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan were riding high just a few years ago, with a strong economy and a growing international profile. Now the country’s economy is tumbling, and its politics are fragmenting. These 5 facts explain Turkey’s various motivations for going to war. Be warned—they’re complicated.
1. A Faltering Economy
Until recently, Turkey was an emerging market darling. In 2010, its economy was growing at a robust 9.2 percent. But by 2013, GDP growth had fallen to 4.1 percent. The slowdown has continued, and growth for 2015 is now forecast at 3.1 percent, which may actually be a generous estimate. Unemployment in the country has reached 11 percent, the highest rate in 5 years.
It’s not clear that joining the fight ...........

From AlJazeera  (interactive map at link)
A close look at the most Major Kurdish factions
 influential Kurdish groups in the Middle East spread over Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran.

From Forbes
Instead Of Fighting   ISIS, Erdogan Pushes Turkey Toward Chaos And Despotism
In Turkey, an ISIS suicide bomb kills 30 and wounds many more in the Kurdish area town of Suruc. The Kurdish insurgent terrorists, the PKK, then start killing Turkish policemen and soldiers while ISIS attacks a Turkish military border post. Peace demonstrations ensue in some cities which police put down with the, by now, familiar methods of severity against civilians. Ankara and Washington reach an agreement allowing the US to use its bases inside Turkey against ISIS in Iraq and Syria. Erdogan’s spokesmen announce that Turkey’s air force has conducted raids against both PKK and ISIS targets across the border. Turkish authorities arrest some 900 people nationwide, mostly Kurds, for allegedly belonging to terror networks. Turkish tanks shell Kurdish villages in Syrian borderlands near Kobani. Meanwhile, news leaks that the US has solid evidence of Turkish collusion with ISIS in months past. Let us pause here and dispel some of the fog.
First, let us remember that Turkey conducted a national election on June 7 and still hasn’t formed a government. All these decisions in a time of crisis are being taken by somebody. Someone’s running the country. We’ll get to the full implications later but initiatives are being taken, ......

1. Turkey used 3 planes to strike IS targets in Syria on night of 23-24 July. The next night it used 75 planes to hit PKK targets in Iraq.

— Alev Scott (@AlevScott) August 1, 2015

From ZeroHedge
Obama Authorizes "Defensive"   Airstrikes Against Assad Regime In Syria
On Friday, we checked in on the Pentagon’s ongoing effort to recruit, vet, and train ambitious "freedom fighters" to join the battle against ISIS in Syria.

It goes without saying that covert US efforts to aid the multifarious groups vying for control of the country have met with disastrous consequences so far, but if there’s anything Washington is particularly adept at, it’s making bad foreign policy outcomes worse, which is why we weren’t at all surprised to learn that the commander of the Pentagon's new Syrian "force" was captured, along with his deputy, by al-Qaeda affiliate al-Nusra last week near the border with Turkey.
The NY Times called the kidnapping "perhaps [the] most embarrassing setback yet," for Washington’s ragtag contingent of volunteer militiamen and indeed, the fact that the Pentagon had hoped to field a "force" of 3,000 men by the end of the year but has so far only managed to train 54 speaks to the futility of the entire effort.
Or perhaps not. It all depends on what the real aim behind the program was in the first place. If the goal was to field a fierce band of well-trained warriors to rout Islamic State, then things aren’t going so well. If, however, the idea was simply to give the US an excuse to get directly involved in facilitating the swift demise of Bashar al-Assad now that his forces have been largely decimated by a three-front war, well it’s mission accomplished, because as WSJ reports, President Obama has now authorized US airstrikes against Assad’s army in the event they interfere with America’s very serious 50 solider effort to combat ISIS. Here’s more:...........

From RT
Taking sides in Syrian civil war?   Obama authorizes airstrikes ‘to defend’ US-trained rebels
The US president has reportedly authorized the Air Force to protect Syrian rebels trained by Washington to fight against Islamic State by bombing any force attacking them, including Syrian regular troops.
Thus the US may become involved in the Syrian civil war on the rebel side.
The change was first reported by US officials speaking on condition of anonymity with the Wall Street Journal Sunday. The first airstrikes to protect American trainees in Syria have already taken place on Friday, July 31, when the US Air Force bombed unidentified militants who attacked the compound of the US-trained rebels..............

From BBC
....Capt Davis said the US  would provide defensive fire support to the NSF "no matter whom they came up against".
Many will see this as "mission creep" as the administration of President Barack Obama has always insisted that the battle inside Syria is against IS alone, the BBC's Gary O'Donoghue at the Pentagon reports.......

.
From AlMonitor
Attacks on Chinese escalate in Turkey
On July 1, news broke that a group of five men attacked a Chinese restaurant named Happy China with sticks and stones in the center of Istanbul. The attackers were heard to say, “We do not want a Chinese restaurant here, get out of our town!” The owner, Cihan Yavuz, said in a TV interview, “We are all Turks here; our chef is a Uighur Turk. We serve Muslim East Asian tourists and rarely ever have Chinese customers. We do not serve alcohol. We never received any warnings of an attack. But I see it may not be possible for us to earn a living here.”
On July 4, in the western city of Balikesir, a group protested against China for persecuting Uighur Turks and hung an effigy of late Chinese leader Mao Zedong.
On the same day, a group of ultranationalists attacked a Korean tourist they assumed was Chinese in the popular Istanbul tourist district of Sultanahmet.
To add insult to injury, Devlet Bahceli, chairman of the Nationalist Action Party (MHP), gave an interview to popular journalist Ahmet Hakan on July 8 about the attacks. Bahceli said, “Our nationalist youth is sensitive to injustices in China. They should have the freedom to exercise their democratic rights. These are young kids. They may have been provoked. Plus, how are you going to differentiate between Korean and Chinese? They both have slanted eyes. Does it really matter?” His racist and ignorant statement caused an uproar in the Turkish and international media.

From Reuters
Nusra Front attacks Western-backed rebels   in northern Syria
The al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front attacked Western-backed rebels in northern Syria on Friday, rebel groups and an organization monitoring the war said, escalating tension between rival insurgents near the Turkish border....
.....Opposition sources say that one of the rebel groups targeted in Nusra's overnight attack, Division 30, has been a participant in the newly launched U.S.-led program to train and equip insurgents to fight Islamic State.
Division 30 says Nusra fighters abducted its leader and several other members earlier this week. The Pentagon has said however that no members of the "New Syrian Force" had been captured or detained..........

@APDiploWriter Results of #Ukranian shelling of #Gorlovka last night https://t.co/EwlimJIJkn #Donbass #Donetsk #Novorossiya #Ukranian #nazi

— J(@SPB_citizen) August 1, 2015

From BBC
Ukraine court backs self-rule plan for conflict zone
Ukraine's highest court has approved constitutional changes that would allow limited self-rule to the rebel-held eastern areas of Donetsk and Luhansk.
The changes are part of a peace deal aimed at ending fighting between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russia rebels.
But many MPs oppose autonomy for the east and the decision must be voted through parliament.
Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has released $1.7bn (£1.08bn) in aid to Ukraine.
The payment is part of a bailout aimed at stabilising Ukraine's struggling economy. The country is also trying to reach a deal with its main creditors on restructuring its debts.........

Here's a prediction which is super easy to make. As the Nordic countries are fast becoming fiercely anti-immigrant, especially immigrants and refugees from the Middle East and Africa, give them a  few years and some of them will break away from the EU and will put in place new immigration laws instead of taking orders from Brussels or they will force Brussels to respect their own new laws on immigration.
From Guardian
Why are anti-immigration parties so strong in the Nordic states?
The Danish People’s  party’s success in the election continues a trend of rising support for rightwing parties across Finland, Denmark, Sweden and Norway.....
.....Most crucially, attitudes to immigration have become significantly more negative in Sweden and Denmark. According to the Eurobarometer, a record number of people now see immigration as one of the two most important issues facing these countries. In Finland, the share has declined after spiking between 2007 and 2010 (support for the Finns follows a similar pattern), and immigration is now seen as less pressing than the economic situation and unemployment (the country was in recession for most of last year, and growth is still flat).......

From NYTimes
  Abductions Hurt  U.S. Bid to Train Anti-ISIS Rebels in Syria
A Pentagon program to train moderate Syrian insurgents to fight the Islamic State has been vexed by problems of recruitment, screening, dismissals and desertions that have left only a tiny band of fighters ready to do battle.
Those fighters — 54 in all — suffered perhaps their most embarrassing setback yet on Thursday. One of their leaders, a Syrian Army defector who recruited them, was abducted in Syria near the Turkish border, along with his deputy who commands the trainees. They were seized not by the Islamic State but by its rival the Nusra Front, an affiliate of Al Qaeda that is another Islamist extremist byproduct of the four-year-old Syrian civil war........
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2015/Aug-01/309278-syrian-rebel-group-leaves-their-hq-after-clash-with-al-qaeda.ashx US-backed rebel group flees north Syria HQ after clash with Nusra
Clashes between members of al-Qaida's branch in Syria and a rebel faction in the country's north believed to have been trained by the U.S. government have stopped after the rebels left their headquarters, activists said Saturday.
The fighting came a few days after the U.S. and Turkey announced the outlines of a deal to help rebels push ISIS back from a strip of territory it controls along the Syrian-Turkish border, replacing it with more moderate rebels backed by Washington and Ankara.
Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said members of the Division 30 faction fled to a nearby area controlled by a Syrian Kurdish militia. Abu al-Hassan Marea, a Syrian activist who is currently in Turkey near the Syrian border, confirmed Saturday that Division 30 fighters have withdrawn from their headquarters.
Abdurrahman and Marea said Division 30 had less than 60 fighters and that on Friday alone the group lost five fighters and 18 others were wounded.......

???? #????? #yemen #?????????  #???????? #???????_???_????? #?????_????? pic.twitter.com/bz0ZeQ356Q

— ???? ???????  (@hamedalbukhiti) July 25, 2015

From AlMonitor
...Perhaps the strongest criticism   came from Reformist Ghanoun newspaper in an article by Saman Saberian, “Hamas: Bank account in Tehran, stronghold in Riyadh.” Saberian wrote that Hamas’ turn to Saudi Arabia cannot be viewed as merely seeking Saudi funding and help because in the latest war, “The Saudis helped Tel Aviv the most and the only support they gave to Gaza was coffins for the martyrs.”
The article touched on a rumor circulating in the Iranian media that Meshaal would send fighters for Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen. Saudi Arabia is three months into a bombing campaign of Ansar Allah forces, which it claims are backed by Iran. The multi-sided war has been a humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen. Saberian acknowledged that no one has confirmed the rumor of an agreement between the Saudis and Hamas, but Iranian reports citing anonymous Saudi sources have said that Saudi Arabia has requested special Hamas forces trained in the same military tactics as the Lebanese group Hezbollah to combat Yemen’s Ansar Allah. Whether the rumor is psychological warfare or not, it reveals how tense the region and how heated the rivalries have become.

From PressTV
Russia willing for joint Iran in fight against ISIL 
Russia has voiced interest to team up with Iran to fight the Takfiri ISIL terrorists operating in the Middle East region.
“We can develop anti-terror cooperation with Iran, first of all, in the Middle East region,” Ilya Rogachev, the director of Department of New Challenges and Threats Issues of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said on Monday.
“The notorious international terrorist organization as Islamic State (ISIL) can be and has to be the object of our cooperation with Iran,” the Russian official said.

From Guardian
Turkey sends in jets as Syria’s agony spills over    every border
Turkish air strikes in Syria last week signalled a new phase in a conflict that has left its bloody mark on every country in the region. But will the Turks now agree to US demands to cease all clandestine dealings with Islamic State?
When US special forces raided the compound of an Islamic State leader in eastern Syria in May, they made sure not to tell the neighbours.
The target of that raid, the first of its kind since US jets returned to the skies over Iraq last August, was an Isis official responsible for oil smuggling, named Abu Sayyaf. He was almost unheard of outside the upper echelons of the terror group, but he was well known to Turkey. From mid-2013, the Tunisian fighter had been responsible for smuggling oil from Syria’s eastern fields, which the group had by then commandeered. Black market oil quickly became the main driver of Isis revenues – and Turkish buyers were its main clients.
As a result, the oil trade between the jihadis and the Turks was held up as evidence of an alliance between the two. It led to protests from Washington and Europe – both already wary of Turkey’s 900-mile border with Syria being used as a gateway by would-be jihadis from around the world..........

How migrant smuggling is funding extremist groups like ISIS in Libya: http://t.co/KbA6Vc3YbD

— Erin Banco (@ErinBanco) July 16, 2015

From AlJazeera
Turkish warplanes   have bombed military positions of Turkey's Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in neighbouring Iraq, a spokesman for the PKK has said.
The air raids came just hours after Turkish warplanes pounded Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) positions in Syria on Friday morning, marking a significant shift in Ankara's position on how to deal with armed groups in Syria and Iraq.
"At around 11:00pm (20:00 GMT) tonight, Turkish warplanes started bombing our positions near the border, accompanied by heavy artillery shelling," PKK spokesman Bakhtiar Dogan told the AFP news agency.....

From Reuters
Turkish warplanes pounded    Islamic State targets in Syria for the first time on Friday, with President Tayyip Erdogan promising more decisive action against both the jihadists and Kurdish militants.
Hours after the initial attacks, fighter jets were launched in a second round against Islamic State, while others targeted militants camps of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq, according to local media.
Reuters was unable to confirm the second round of strikes. An attack against PKK camps in Iraq would likely mark a major blow to Turkey's already stalled peace process with the Kurds.

Friday's operations followed a telephone conversation between Erdogan and U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday, and were accompanied by police raids across Turkey to detain hundreds of suspected militants, including from Kurdish groups.
Ankara said it had approved the use of its air bases by U.S. and coalition aircraft to mount strikes against Islamic State, marking a major change in policy that has long been a sore point for Washington.........

Punjab: Why it took 11 hours to kill 3 terrorists  http://t.co/vCXcKy2hiK

— Times of India (@timesofindia) July 27, 2015

From ConsortiumNews
Mideast Alliances Shift Again   
July 31, 2015
Like shifting desert sands, the volatile Middle East is going through a new, though subtle, realignment of adversaries and allies, with Turkey’s political tensions shaking up one area while Saudi Arabia makes moves of its own, as recounted by ex-CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar.
By Paul R. Pillar
Some recent policy decisions by Middle Eastern governments have the potential to shake up regional alignments, or what are widely perceived to be alignments. In the near term this will have little to do with the Iran nuclear agreement, despite the attention the agreement is getting at the moment. That accord will not lead to realignments as great as its opponents fear, and its larger impact on regional diplomacy will be gradual and only slightly apparent in the near term.
The agreement by the Turkish government to cooperate more actively than previously with the United States in combating the so-called Islamic State or ISIS in northern Syria represents a more immediate shaking up..........

From Time
Egypt Is Struggling to Cope With Its ISIS    Insurgency
A rocket attack on a warship was just the latest in a series of escalating attacks on Egyptian forces in Sinai
They have attacked on land and at sea, killing dozens of soldiers. They have assassinated a senior official in daylight and attempted to seize a small Sinai town.
The insurgents control no significant area of land, but they are far from being defeated. A season of deadly attacks by insurgents in Egypt — including those backed by the Islamic State in Iraq and Greater Syria group (ISIS) — underscores an escalating insurgency that the Egyptian state is struggling to suppress.
The surge in violence began in late June when Egypt’s chief prosecutor was killed in a car bombing in daylight in an upscale Cairo neighborhood. Two days later, the ISIS-affiliated militants launched a massive assault on military positions in north Sinai, attempting to seize control of a small chunk of territory in Egypt. At least 17 Egyptian soldiers died, although some reports placed the death toll much higher........

From TodayNigeria
Suspected Boko Haram   chief recruiter arrested in Chad
Suspected Boko Haram recruiter Bana Fanaye, also known as Mahamat Moustapha, has been arrested by the authorities in Chad.
Fanaye, who is said to be the mastermind of Boko Haram operations in Chad and northern Cameroon, was arrested on Friday afternoon, with assorted weapons, as well as cell phone SIM cards for various countries, including Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger.
The suspect is said to be the brain behind most Boko Haram operations including arms purchases in Chad and northern Cameroon.
Multiple media reports quoted Chadian officials as saying that Fanaye is in charge of recruiting Boko Haram terrorists, arms purchases and planning of terrorism targets and operations in Chad and northern Cameroon.
It was his arrest that helped security forces locate and kill other Boko Haram members housed in an area called Diguel Diguessou in the 8th district, tchadinfos.com reported.......

From Reuters
Chad says killed 117 Boko Haram fighters   in two-week campaign
N'DJAMENA Chad said on Thursday its forces had killed 117 Boko Haram insurgents during a two-week military campaign aimed at clearing islands on Lake Chad used by the militants as hideouts and bases to launch attacks.
Chad has deployed thousands of soldiers alongside troops from neighbors Nigeria, Cameroon and Niger to tackle the militant group whose six-year insurgency has killed thousands.
"We killed 117 Boko Haram fighters during the two-week operation. We lost two men and several wounded," Colonel Azem Bermandoa, spokesman for the Chadian army, said.
"We destroyed their boats and seized various weapons during the operation," he said........



From Xinhuanet
News Analysis: Yemeni crisis   mirrors regional unrest in Middle East
CAIRO, July 25 (Xinhua) -- The ongoing crisis in conflict-stricken Yemen is reflection of a regional unrest in the Middle East, especially after the forces of fleeing President Abd-Rabbo Mansour Hadi seized strategic southern city of Aden against Shiite Houthi fighters, said Egyptian experts.
Yemen has become more like a battlefield for regional and even international powers that seek more influence in the Middle East region through the ongoing conflict hitting the country, including the United States, Saudi Arabia and Iran.
U.S. INTERESTS
"Yemen has always been a place of interest for the United States, and former U.S. President Clinton said openly that Yemen is a matter of a national security for the United States," said Gehad Auda, professor of international relations at Helwan University.
The professor told Xinhua that Yemen is highly located due to its control of Bab al-Mandeb Strait that connects between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden as well as between the continents of Asia and Africa, "therefore it is a very critical area geopolitically and geostrategically."
Being responsible for guaranteeing the security of its Gulf allies, the United States must have helped with the seizure of Yemen at the hands of pro-Hadi forces to reassure Saudi Arabia and other Gulf partners about their national security, according to the expert.

SAUDI ARABIA VS IRAN
Unhappy with the recently-reached nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers led by the United States, Sunni Saudi Arabia is obviously concerned about greater influence of Shiite Iran in the region and about Iranian attempts to turn Yemen into a Shiite state, given that the Iran-backed Houthi fighters are Shiites.
Although the deal is expected to strengthen Iran's influence in the region, experts believe that it will take a few years until Iranian regional expansion can be strongly felt after the deal. ......

From RT
Saudi-led coalition airstrikes kill over 120 in Yemen,   humanitarian truce announced
Saudi-led coalition airstrikes killed over 120 civilians and left 150 injured after a fierce attack on Friday in the southwestern Yemeni province of Taiz. The coalition has announced a five-day humanitarian truce starting on Sunday night.
Local sources told AP that most of the houses in the area were in ruins and a fire later broke out in the port city of Mokha, on the Red Sea coast of Yemen. They said that most of the corpses found there, including children, women and elderly people, had been completely immolated in the flames. One resident, Ahmed Mohammed al-Mouzay, who took part in rescue operations, reportedly said that most of his neighbors had died. A security official told AP that it was impossible to take the injured to the provincial capital due to the roads being blocked by the ongoing violence.......

Vid below is not for the faint of heart.  See for yourselves how many civilians are dying at the hands of Saudi + coalition + USA/UK/Russia weapons

The most horrible #Saudi crimes in #Yemen YouTube link : https://t.co/MDz715m4c8

— Ahmad Algohbary (@AhmadAlgohbary) July 4, 2015

From English IRIB
Bombing kills 14, injures 47  in northeast Nigeria
At least 14 people have been killed and 47 others wounded in a bomb attack at a busy market in northeastern Nigeria, the latest in a string of deadly attacks in the violence-hit country.
According to witnesses and hospital sources, the blast occurred on Sunday at 0850 GMT in the Nigerian town of Damaturu, the capital of Yobe State.
Market trader Garba Abdullahi said the attack took place when a female assailant blew her explosives “at the... entrance of the market where commuters were arriving.”.......

From AlManar
Saudi Defense Minister Threatens  to Occupy Kuwait
Saudi Defense Minister Mohammad bin Salman threatened to launch war on Kuwait after differences between the two Persian Gulf Arab states escalated over Khafji oilfield.
"Mohammad bin Salman threatened that his country would attack and occupy Kuwait, claiming that not only Khafji oilfield but also entire Kuwait is part of the Saudi territories based on historical documents," Middle-East Panorama quoted on Sunday intelligence sources of the Persian Gulf Arab littoral states as saying.
Kuwait has complained that the continued shut down of Khafji oilfield it shares with Saudi Arabia will incur huge losses Riyadh must compensate for in the future.
Kuwaiti Oil Minister Ali Al Omair in a letter to his Saudi counterpart Ali Al Naimi urged him "to take adequate measures to resume production at Khafji...........
From ArabNews
Kuwait imposes limited   control on entry of Saudis
The security agencies of Kuwait have imposed a limited control over entry of Saudis into their country, said an online newspaper.
This is being done to tighten security measures at various entry points of the country following the terror attack on June 26 at Imam Sadiq Mosque, which left 25 people dead and over 200 injured.
Brig. Gen. Adil Al-Hashshash, director general of public relations and security media, told the newspaper that the number of those who were barred from entering Kuwait was very small and they had some security issues.
He said the ban had come as a result of “precautionary actions and required measures due to the situation in the region... and that the situation should not be open as in the past.” ...........

Sunni Arab nations are "Israel's allies," says Israeli Foreign Ministry director general in NY http://t.co/w5yA52VYMV pic.twitter.com/oaQAwebyJR

— Haaretz.com (@haaretzcom) July 29, 2015

From Reuters
Suicide bomber, clashes kill 12 Libyan soldiers    in Benghazi
Nine Libyan soldiers were killed in the eastern city of Benghazi on Tuesday by a suicide bomber and in ensuing clashes between troops and Islamist fighters, medics and military sources said.
Forces loyal to Libya's internationally recognized government have been fighting Islamist groups in the country's second-largest city since last year, part of a wider struggle since Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown and killed in 2011.
A suicide bomber rammed a car laden with explosives into a group of soldiers during a street battle in the city center near Benghazi's Mediterranean port, killing three soldiers and wounding eleven, medics said.
Shortly afterwards, Islamist fighters blamed by the army for the suicide bombing attacked troops loyal to the official government in the same area. Six more soldiers were killed and 10 wounded in the fighting, medics said.........

BBC subtle and stealth report trying to make way for UK and additional warmongers from EU to return to Libya.  Read between the lines.


From PRI
"The roads are   targeted. Cars are often hit," says British Dr. Natalie Roberts. "Every few hundred meters you see another burned out vehicle; every bridge on the road has been bombed out".
Roberts, who is in Yemen with Doctors Without Borders, has worked in conflict zones before. But she says Yemen's war zone is unlike anything she has seen elsewhere. "What's really surprising to me here is that I've never seen so few [aid workers and journalists] on the ground. Syria, when i was there, was counted as the most dangerous conflict in the world — but Yemen? I just haven't met anyone."
Yemen is the poorest country in the Arab world, and has been politically unstable since the Arab Spring. But civilian casualties really began to increase in March this year, when a Saudi Arabian-led coalition began bombing towns and villages to try to defeat a rebel force known as the Houthis.
More than 80 percent of Yemen's 25 million people are now in need some form of aid, and the United Nations has warned the coalition that indiscriminate bombing of populated areas is against international law......

From Jadaliyya
In late March 2015,  a coalition of states led by Saudi Arabia initiated a military campaign against Yemen consisting of intensive air raids, the arming of local allies and a de facto naval and air blockade of the country. Initially termed Operation Decisive Storm but since renamed Operation Restore Hope, it continues to this day. Riyadh identified the recent territorial gains of Yemen’s Houthi movement, and the ouster of President Abd-Rabbu Mansur Hadi and his government, as the reasons for its campaign and pledged that both would be swiftly rolled back. Four months later neither objective appears to be in reach, nor is a negotiated end to this conflict in sight.  As part of a series of Quick Thoughts with International Crisis Group Middle East analysts, Jadaliyya asked April Longley Alley, Crisis Group Senior Analyst for the Arabian Peninsula, to shed light on the causes and course of this war.]
Jadaliyya (J): Who exactly are the Houthis, why have they apparently aligned with their former nemesis Ali Abdullah Saleh, and is their domination of Yemen in your view sustainable?
April Longley Alley (ALA): The Houthis are an armed group that has its roots in a movement for Zaydi cultural and religious revivalism in north Yemen. (Zaydism is a branch of Shia Islam distinct from the Twelver Shiism prevalent in Iran, Iraq, Bahrain and Lebanon). They have a strong militia component, but view themselves as a political and social movement against corruption and Western imperialism. Their primarily base of support is in the northern Zaydi highlands and especially in the Saada governorate bordering Saudi Arabia.
During and after the 2011 uprising against former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, the movement expanded rapidly, forming alliances with disgruntled tribesmen in the north, left-leaning activists and even some southern separatists. As the Yemeni transition collapsed, they took advantage of.........

From WashingtonTimes
Bitter feud between Turkey, Egypt undercuts U.S. hopes for Middle East
Two of America’s linchpin allies in the Middle East are bitterly feuding, complicating the Obama administration’s hopes of confronting Sunni Salafists and containing the ambitions of Shiite Iran.
Egypt is accusing Turkey of working with the Islamic State on the Sinai Peninsula, a new low in the already poor relations between the two regional powers.......

From Ahram:
Regional   manoeuvres: A Hamas visit to Riyadh leaves Egypt, Iran wondering
A visit to Riyadh by the head of Hamas left consternation among some parties and questions among some observers. What did Saudi Arabia aim to achieve, asks Ahmed Eleiba
The visit by Hamas Politburo Chief Khaled Meshaal to Saudi Arabia and his meeting with King Salman Bin Abdel-Aziz raised the issue of how the kingdom has opened up to the group under King Salman’s reign. The visit is part of a series of meetings with other Muslim Brotherhood leaders, including Yemeni Muslim Brotherhood leaders and key figures in the Yemeni Reform Party (Al-Islah), Abdel-Meguid Al-Zindani and Salman Al-Ouda.
Senior sources close to Hamas, however, stated there were problems between the kingdom and Hamas that delayed the visit by two months, but that the Muslim Brotherhood general guide in Jordan, Hamam Said, visited Saudi Arabia two weeks ahead of Meshaal’s trip.
Said was invited by Saudi Minister of Religious Endowments Saleh Bin Abdel-Aziz Al-Sheikh and talks resolved most outstanding issues between the two sides. Saudi Arabia Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir at a joint press conference with his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shukri on Thursday, said "there was no political visit by Hamas to the kingdom", trivialising the significance of Hamas visit, saying it was only a religious pilgrimage and Riyadh's position on the Palestinian Islamist movement remains unchanged..........

The fruitless search for Integrity in journalism from the mainstream media in America, Canada, Australia, UK and the rest of the Western world

How deplorable our Western world has become when "journalists" have willingly let their lips and thoughts be sewn up by the government?  Where is the empathy for the innocent victims cut to pieces in under a second? Where's the empathy for the victims' families?  There's neither empathy for the victims nor antipathy towards the govt in Ukraine for what the govt is doing to its own citizens.  Did even one MSM journalist even venture to ask if  the "separatists" who are called "terrorists" by the new Ukrainian govt, whether they were hidden under the skirts or inside the pants of the pedestrians in the streets where the volley of blasts from the fighter jet were aimed and landed?   Not a one!  We are no longer normal human beings ... not anymore. 

YouTube, a willing tool of the US govt, has been removing videos of anything that shows how monstrously the new govt in Ukraine is killing the separatists and citizens alike and making no distinction between the two. The June 2 massacre is here in a LiveLeak video. 

Daniel McAdams writing at RonPaulInstitute:
On June 2, a missile screamed through downtown Lugansk, in eastern Ukraine, leaving a trail of craters in a city park before slamming into a regional administration building. At least eight people were killed in the blast, as it struck in a busy pedestrian area. Blood and body parts were strewn throughout the blast zone.

Eyewitnesses said the missile was fired from one of the military jet fighters that had been circling the area. Security camera footage from nearby seemed to confirm this. The jets had been sent in from Kiev to put down an autonomy movement in eastern Ukraine that followed a US-backed coup in Kiev in February.

An Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) monitoring team on the ground in Lugansk concurred with other eyewitnesses:

"On 2 June, shortly after 15:00 hrs, rockets hit the occupied regional administration building. Based on the SMM’s limited observation these strikes were the result of non-guided rockets shot from an aircraft. "

The US-backed government in Kiev, however, denied firing on civilians and blamed the blast on the anti-Kiev self-defense forces. The self-defense units, Kiev claimed, had blown up the administration building themselves with a heat-seeking missile that went awry.

The US mainstream media dutifully reported the Kiev government line as fact. The anti-Kiev forces had blown up their own headquarters, they wrote. Just as several weeks ago they wrote that the anti-Kiev forces in Odessa had set themselves on fire.

Dozens of videos on social media clearly showed Kiev-sent aircraft firing into cities and civilian centers in eastern Ukraine. The US mainstream media ignored this evidence and continued to repeat the Kiev line that the pro-autonomy forces had again massacred themselves.

The US government has said little about the attack. In a June 3 media briefing, a State Department spokesperson claimed to know nothing about the OSCE confirmation of an air strike on downtown Lugansk. Claiming that there were "conflicting reports," the spokesperson said the US "welcome[s] the restraint the Government of Ukraine has shown..."

Finally, alone among US mainstream media sources, CNN reported on June 3, that based on its sources on the ground in Lugansk it determined that the administration building was indeed hit by a missile fired from the air:

The tops of trees were splintered, and a series of small craters -- about a dozen -- had been blasted in a straight line, starting in the park and reaching the walls of the building, blowing out many of its windows and spraying the area with jagged shrapnel. That's what appears to have killed most of the victims and injured 20 more.The craters in the park across the street from the building were likely caused by a Sukoi Su-25 fighter strafing the area with 30-millimeter ordnance, the CNN report continued.

It is clear that the Kiev government lied about the attack on Lugansk and that those lies were accepted as fact by the US government and the vast majority of the US mainstream media. 

There has been no US government condemnation of the use of the Ukrainian military against Ukraine's own population in crowded civilian city centers. In fact the US State Department has actually encouraged the post-coup government in Ukraine to use force against civilians. State Department Spokeswoman Jen Psaki said of the violence that the authorities in Kiev "have every right" to maintain "order and stability in their own country."

What would the US response have been had then-president Yanukovich used fighter jets to attack Maidan protesters in February? At the time, the US threatened the Yanukovich government for simply attempting to remove protesters from public buildings. But now it says nothing as the post-coup government actually calls in air strikes against civilians!

The administrative building in Lugansk is not the only target of the Kiev military in eastern Ukraine. Kiev forces have bombed hospitals, kindergartens,  residential areas, and so on. Still not a word from President Obama or Secretary of State Kerry. 

It seems that the US government actually approves of this use of force against civilian populations in eastern Ukraine. Two days after the air attack on downtown Lugansk, the Obama administration.......

Is America and her allies of the opinion that Russians are subhuman?

UPDATE:  Wikispooks has added the account of the Donbas soldier "Juan" 
and has videos that YouTube might delete soon.  Hopefully the videos have been copied to other sites like Vimeo, Daily Motion and Live Leak.

Many, many Russians are beginning to feel that way because of the treatment given them by our almighty leaders, and their lapdogs our wonderful MSM.

From VineyardSaker blog:
...Russians are sub-humans in the eyes of the West by "Juan"

Untermenschen. That is what we are in the eyes of The West. Untermenschen. Subhumans. 

I have watched the unfolding coup d'etat in Ukraine from it's very beginning in late November 2013 in Kiev. I have watched a steady stream of western dignitaries and politicians parade through Maidan Square in Kiev, each and every one of them publicly and vocally expressing their open support of the coup d'etat. I find it appalling that the sitting ambassador of the United States of America to the Sovereign Country of Ukraine, Geoffrey R. Pyatt, actively and publicly supported a violent coup d'etat against the sitting and legally elected government of Ukraine and to this day actively and publicly expresses open support for the illegal coup d'etat installed government in Kiev.

On 01 December 2013 my wife and I watched the Right Sector and Svoboda Party operatives attempt to take the Presidential Administration Building on Bankhova Street in Kiev under the active and visible command of Vitaly Klitchko and Petro Poroshenko, two sitting deputats of the Ukraine Rada (parliament). After that 3 hour riot ended with Bankhova Street being finally cleared by Berkut riot police who were under orders to not go beyond the end of Bankhova Street, I told my wife President Yanukovich would lose against the coup d'etat. She told me I was crazy. 2 1/2 months later we were shoveling sand in to bags in the middle of the night at the new block post just above Belbek Aerodrome as our Self Defense Forces in Sevastopol and Krimea built and manned block posts at the Krim/Ukraine border and the 5 roads in to Sevastopol. The victors of the Maidan coup d'etat, Oleg Tyagnibok (a sitting deputat of Ukraine Rada) and Dmitro Yarush, leaders of Svoboda Party and Right Sector Party respectively, had stated, during a live interview on Channel 5 TV in Kiev on 27 February 2014, that they were going to lead their combined 5500 fighters from Miadan down to Krim and Sevastopol and 'kill every Russian there' combined with 'we will put every Russian in Krim to the knife'. We took them seriously and we knew they were heavily armed with AK 47's and RPGs, clearly seen in videos of the end and aftermath of the coup in Maidan. Those first two days and nights on the barricades we had only clubs for most of us. 

Long story short, we seized our two governments from the Kiev appointed administrators, formed new governments for Sevastopol and the Autonomous Republic of Krimea and shortly thereafter activated a treaty signed with Russia in 1993 wherein Russia guaranteed the safety of the Autonomous Republic of Krimea and the City of Sevastopol. Russia honored that treaty and 3 days later the Russian Army arrived to protect us from the coup government in Kiev. The screams from The West were heard all the way to Mars. The screams were heard in the Andromeda Galaxy when we voted to join the Russian Federation and were excepted in to the RF.

Shortly after the coup d'etat in Kiev several eastern and southern oblasti (districts) in Ukraine expressed dissatisfaction with the 'new' illegal government installed in Kiev. Right Sector operatives immediately began to infiltrate in to those oblasti. Demonstrations turned sometimes violent and people died. 

On 02 May there was a football match in Odessa on the south coast of Ukraine. We all know what happened in Odessa with the massacre of the anti Kiev demonstrators, unarmed demonstrators, in and around the Labor Union Building in Odessa as they were beaten, shot and burned to death. What you don't know is the true number of dead that day and evening. 297 anti Kiev demonstrators AND innocents died that day. Over 50 were in hospital. Some of those who jumped from the entrance hall stairway at the fourth and fifth floor levels were beaten to death as they lay on the ground. Others were made to crawl away, severely injured, and were kicked and beaten as they crawled to the pile of wounded. 

To this day not a single western government that I am aware of has expressed the slightest sympathy or condolences for any of the wounded or dead in Odessa. The overriding comments from what little was said about Odessa in The West was the fact that the 'anti kiev activists and agents' accidently set the building on fire as they were throwing molotov cocktails at the football fans around the building. Why should they care? After all, the men, women, and yes, two children, who died in the massacre are Untermenschen. WE are Untermenschen. ..........

The first two attached videos are of the area immediately after the attack. They are graphic to an extreme and are not for those with a weak stomach. The woman in the red blouse with her dying breaths asks "Excuse me please, give me a telephone." Those words are an exact translation, she did say 'Excuse me please' before she requested the phone. The young man in the park whom they start CPR on died. The old man lying face down in the street is dead. The man face up with his head on a tyre died. The four women at the base of the entrance steps, three died instantly and the fourth, the lady with the red blouse, died in moments after her request. The man screaming as he takes the video of the carnage is screaming 'sookhie'. 'Sookha', singular, and 'sookhie', plural, is the Russian word for a female dog. Like in English, in Russian it also has the second meaning, as in bitch. Here it's fighting words. 


The west media did mention this senseless slaughter after a fashion. They said in their very few 'articles' yesterday refering to this slaughter that the 'terrorists and rebels of the Donbas Army fired a Manpad that accidently hit the building'. This in spite of dozens of videos showing the missiles impacting in the park in front of the building and walking right up to the base and front facade of the building and the death and destruction in the park and in front of the building. Even the much vaunted BBC told the Manpad story......

Ukraine's misery

The distressed citizens of Donetsk

Put yourselves in the shoes of the people of Donetsk ... whether they are pro-Russian or pro-Kiev doesn't matter .... and imagine how you would be reacting to what's happening there.  There are videos at You Tube which can be accessed only after you sign in .... that's how graphic and  bloody they are. I have seen one where five civilians were killed by the Ukrainian army snipers ... one of them a woman.  Their bodies were left in the street because the snipers targeted anybody who dared to come to collect the corpses.
War makes ordinary men into blood-thirsty monsters of the very worst kind.

The following is from a Photojournalist's point of view.

...Filip Warwick is a photojournalist who has stayed in Donetsk after many foreign journalists have left. Here he documents how daily life goes on, but is this the calm before the storm in Donetsk?

It is late morning, the skies are clear and the sun is shining - the mood is, for the moment, relatively calm on the streets of Donetsk. But if you scratch below the surface, there is a feeling of anxiety which is driving many people's activities, even as life appears to carry on as normal. Some residents have been busy exchanging Ukrainian hryvnia's for foreign currency; others have been stocking up on food supplies, and still others are preparing to leave the city.
Leaving en masse
Foreign journalists have also recently left en masse as tensions continue. Many of the journalists came exclusively to cover the elections but some feared for their safety as the number of roadblocks has increased. It was suggested that I leave the city center hotel where I had been staying and move to a residential part of the city. But that move gave me a chance to observe how citizens here are going about their daily lives.......