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Jordan has sent several hundred troops from its special operations forces to help the Saudi military with its many Shi'ite units contain the Yemeni Shi'ite rebellion, which has spread deep into the Arab kingdom.

Jordan has sent several hundred troops from its special operations forces to help the Saudi military with its many Shi'ite units contain the Yemeni Shi'ite rebellion, which has spread deep into the Arab kingdom.

The Saudi army imposed a tight sea blockade on northern Yemen to corner Shiite fighters in the country. According to Saudi sources, the no-go zone is 10 kilometers wide along the Yemeni border and thousands of Saudi troops were deployed for carrying out this mission. Meanwhile, Assistant Minister of Defense for Security Affairs Prince Khaled Bin Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz said Tuesday that the Saudi forces will continue their airstrikes against the Shiite infiltrators until they move back from the Saudi frontier. “We are not going to stop the bombing until the infiltrators retreat tens of kilometers inside their border,”...

Smugglers In Iraq Have A New Trade: Corpse by QUIL LAWRENCE EnlargeJoseph Eid/AFP/Getty Images A tomb at the cemetery of Najaf in 2008. The Wadi al-Salam, or Valley of Peace, in Najaf is one of the largest cemeteries in the world. Millions of Shiite Muslims over the centuries have been brought here for burial from all over the world. text sizeAAANovember 4, 2009 Iraqi and U.S. officials have expressed concerns about the traffic of weapons and drugs across the country's porous borders, but there is also an older and more surprising commodity being smuggled into Iraq — cadavers. For centuries,...

The Yemeni army said its forces have killed 100 Shiite rebels and wounded a further 280 in the northern Saada province. "Terrorist and destructive elements yesterday evening infiltrated (areas) between military barracks and security posts in Saada province," the military said in a statement cited by Reuters. "Our armed and security forces put a stop to them and inflicted painful and heavy blows on them during which the terrorist 'Houthi' elements lost more than 100 people and more than 280 were injured," the statement said. According to official reports which can not be confirmed, in recent weeks, hundreds of Shiite...

The Yemeni army said on Wednesday that its forces killed 29 Shiite rebels as it presses its offensive in the northern mountains. Yemeni forces killed 12 rebels in clashes on Tuesday in the Harf Sufyan district of Amran province, 70 kilometres north of the capital, the official Saba news agency quoted a commander as saying. The other rebels died in several different clashes in Saada province further north, the commander added. According to AFP, the army said it had also destroyed five lorries carrying explosives to the rebels in Saada. A police spokesman said the seized supplies included 350 bags...

The Yemeni army attacked Shiite rebels near the Saudi border, using artillery and aircraft, local officials said Wednesday. The government offensive, which started late Tuesday, followed reports of Shiite gunmen seizing more control of the northern Saada province. A major security committee, presided over by President Ali Abdullah Saleh, vowed to respond to the latest developments "with an iron-fist." The state-run 26sep.net reported on Wednesday the "Houthi rebels" have seized teachers, dismissed tens of students and took over 63 schools where and used them to fight the government troops. According to the AP, a health ministry official in Saada said...

A multi-billion dollar mystery is unfolding in Iraq, and it may reach to the highest levels of the Iraqi government. It involves what the New York Times calls an "extremist Shiite group" that has now reconciled with Prime Minister Maliki and his regime. The group is responsible for the kidnapping and murder of five British contractors who, according to the Guardian, were installing a sophisticated financial tracking system in Iraq's ministry of finance in 2007. The story so far: Today, the Times reports: "An extremist Shiite group that has boasted of killing five American soldiers and of kidnapping five British...

BAGHDAD — The U.S. military has assessed that Iranian-backed Shi'ite forces were engaged in a military buildup in Iraq. Officials said the military has determined that Shi'ite forces financed and sponsored by Iran were accelerating weapons acquisition to prepare for a civil war in Iraq. They said Shi'ite militias, particularly the Mahdi Army, have concluded that the weapons would be required against Sunni forces financed by Saudi Arabia in a renewed power struggle. "Right now, everybody is waiting to see whether and how fast the United States withdraws from Iraq," an official said

A blast at a Shiite mosque in the southeastern city of Zahedan, near the border with Pakistan, killed 15 people and wounded more than 55 on Thursday evening, the news agency ISNA reported. The bomb went off at 7:45 p.m. at Ali-ibn-Abitaleb, the second largest Shiite mosque in the city. ISNA said the bomb had been hidden in a bag in the men’s section of the mosque.

It's official - Cairo and Hizbullah are fighting a full-fledged media war. The Egyptian press and government officials have, for several consecutive days, been hurling insults at the Shi'ite group, in one instance comparing its leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah to a monkey.

Tiger said in his Friday sermon at the University of Imam Hussein in Awamiya: "It is ready to enter the prison and with the severity of torture and even murder," adding that "refuses to respect the Shiite," he said.

The best way to understand Ahmadinejad's brand of Shitite eschatology (end-times theology) is to listen to Iranians describe it themselves. Amir Taheri is a European-based columnist who used to serve as the executive editor of "Kayhan", Iran's largest daily newspaper. In an April 2006 essay entitled "The frightening Truth of Why Iran Wants a Bomb," Taheri wrote that just before announcing to the world that Iran had "gatecrashed 'the nuclear club," President Ahmadinejad "disappeared for several hours" to have a secret meeting with the Islamis messiah, a figure known as the twelfth Imam or Mahdi. Taheri wrote, "According to Shia...

Hundreds of Shiite men in Iraq struck the heads of boys with daggers in an annual ritual to mark the death of the Prophet Mohammad's grandson Imam Hussein at the 7th century battle of Kerbala, Reuters reports.

Print Send RSS Mohamed Sifaoui was born on July 4, 1967, and spent most of his childhood in Algeria. He holds a master's degree in political science and studied theology for two years at the University of Algiers and for two additional years at Zeitouna University's Institute of Theology in Tunis. In 1994, he began work for the Algerian daily Le Soir and survived a February 11, 1996 bomb attack at Le Soir's headquarters at the Maison de la Presse. In 1999, the French government granted him political asylum after he received death threats both from Algerian Islamists and...

Is Barack Obama the "promised warrior" coming to help the Hidden Imam of Shiite Muslims conquer the world? The question has made the rounds in Iran since last month, when a pro-government Web site published a Hadith (or tradition) from a Shiite text of the 17th century. The tradition comes from Bahar al-Anvar (meaning Oceans of Light) by Mullah Majlisi, a magnum opus in 132 volumes and the basis of modern Shiite Islam. According to the tradition, Imam Ali Ibn Abi-Talib (the prophet's cousin and son-in-law) prophesied that at the End of Times and just before the return of the...

October 4, 2008: Increasingly, Sunni Arab clerics are agreeing with their Shia counterparts, that Iran and the Sunni Arabs are on a collision course. It's not just about which version of Islam is to be dominant, but which Islamic country will control the most sacred Islamic shrines, and, in effect, become the spiritual leader of the Islamic world. No one has held that position for about a thousand years. Saudi Arabia controls the key shrines (Mecca and Medina), but the Saudis are not accepted as the leader of the Islamic world. To most Moslems, the Saudis are a bunch of...

NASIRIYAH, Iraq (AFP) - Groups of Shiite extremists trained in Iran are returning to Iraq with plans to bomb high-profile targets, the chief of Dhi Qar province's police said Saturday. ADVERTISEMENT Brigadier General Sabah al-Fatlawi told AFP "Special Groups" (Shiite extremists) of around 10 fighters each are returning by crossing the border from Amara, the capital of Shiite Maysan province in the south. "The Special Groups are returning from Iran after receiving training in using new tactics. We have seized 20 motorcycle bombs in Nasiriyah. Some groups have arrived in Nasiriyah," Fatlawi said, referring to the capital of Dhi Qar,...

Some deadly bombings in Baghdad this year [2008] _July 15: Two suicide bombers blow themselves up in a crowd of army recruits at the Saad military camp in Baqouba, killing at least 28. _June 26: A suicide bomber detonates an explosive belt inside a municipal government building in Karmah, killing at least 20 people at a meeting of tribal sheiks opposed to al-Qaida. _June 26: A car bombing near a government headquarters in the northern city of Mosul kills 20. _June 22: A female suicide bomber wearing an explosive belt detonates herself in front of a government complex in Baqouba,...

Shi'ite militia leader Muqtada al-Sadr stepped back into Iraq's political fray Friday with an offer that (if genuine) Washington would be hard-pressed to refuse: Set a timetable for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, and the Mahdi Army will begin to disband. "The main reason for the armed resistance is the American military presence," said Sadr emissary Salah al-Ubaidi, who spoke to reporters in Najaf Friday. "If the American military begins to withdrawal, there will be no need for these armed groups." Sadr in the past has vowed to expand the humanitarian work of his movement but promised to maintain...

Lebanon's 'Soldiers of Virtue' By FOUAD AJAMI July 23, 2008 There have been a dozen prisoner exchanges between Hezbollah and Israel since the early 1990s, but Samir Kuntar was always a case apart. In 1979 Kuntar and his companions killed a policeman, kidnapped a young father, Danny Haran, and killed him in front of his 4-year-old daughter. Then Kuntar turned to the child and crushed her skull against a rock with the butt of his rifle. In the mayhem, Danny Haran's wife, Smadar, hiding in her home, accidentally smothered to death the couple's 2-year-old daughter. Now Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah,...

Bombers kill 50 in Iraq, wound nearly 250 BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Three female suicide bombers killed 28 people and wounded 92 in Baghdad on Monday as Shi'ite pilgrims flooded into the Iraqi capital for a major religious event, police said. In the northern oil city of Kirkuk a bomb killed at least 22 people and wounded 150 at a protest against a controversial provincial elections law, Iraqi health and security officials said. The U.S. military said initial reports showed the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber. The blasts marked one of the bloodiest days in months and underscored...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's main Sunni Arab bloc rejoined the Shi'ite-led government on Saturday in a breakthrough for national reconciliation after parliament approved its candidates for several vacant ministerial posts. Getting the Accordance Front to return after it quit a year ago in a row over power sharing has been seen as key to healing divisions between majority Shi'ites and minority Sunni Arabs. Sunni Arabs have little voice in the current cabinet, which is dominated by Shi'ites and ethnic Kurds. "Today, parliament voted to accept our candidates ... This means the Accordance Front has officially returned to the government," a...

Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah is the most admired leader among the Arab public, a survey released Wednesday showed. Twenty-six percent of respondents in six countries selected Nasrallah as their most admired leader, compared to 16% who chose Syrian President Bashar Assad and 10% who picked Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, according to the survey published by the the Saban Center at the Brookings Institution in Washington. The poll was published the same day Israel completed a lopsided prisoner swap with Hizbullah that is likely to further boost Nasrallah's standing in the Arab world. The Shi'ite Hizbullah leader was also the top...

Iran, Friend of the Sunni Terrorists (Surprise!) [Michael Ledeen] I guess I've been saying and writing this for more than seven years, but it's always nice to have support, especially when, as in this case, it comes from the general manager of al Arabiya TV, and a columnist in several publications in the Middle East. That is to say, not a neocon. Abdul Rahman al-Rashed states quite categorically: ...Iran, an extremist theocratic Shiite regime with Ahmadinejad at its helm, is orchestrating and funding the activities of extremist Sunnis in the region. The paradox is most striking in the case of...

Commentary: Iraq ripe for Iranian domination Richard Beeston, Foreign Editor of The Times Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was right to look smug at the end of his two-day state visit to Iraq. Not only did he become the first Iranian president to visit Baghdad, but he also took a big step towards achieving the victory that had eluded Ayatollah Khomeini, the father of the Iranian revolution.

In a stinging defeat for the U.S.-backed government of Lebanon, the Islamist group Hezbollah bolstered its political power in this volatile land on Israel's border. Hezbollah reached a bargain with the weak Lebanese government that essentially gave the Islamic group veto power in a new government to be formed. The deal comes two weeks after Hezbollah flashed its military might by seizing Beirut neighborhoods to protest efforts to rein it in. The trigger was unusual: Hezbollah was expanding a secret communications network, and the government wanted it dismantled. The ensuing fighting this month left 67 dead, in the worst internal...

Rival Lebanese factions reached an agreement to resolve their 18-month political crisis after five days of intensive talks in the Gulf state of Qatar, Lebanese Telecommunications Minister Marwan Hamadeh said Wednesday. The agreement was a major triumph for Lebanon's Hizbullah-led opposition, as it met the side's two key demands - veto power in a new national unity government, and an electoral law that divides up Lebanon into smaller-sized districts, for better representation of the various sects. But the opposition was not gloating and Hamadeh said "there are no losers" in the agreement. "Lebanon is the winner," he told The Associated...

An Iranian Embassy convoy came under fire in Baghdad, wounding four people, including three Iranians and an Iraqi, a spokesman said Friday. Teheran issued an angry response blaming the United States for encouraging attacks against Iranian interests in Iraq with its rhetoric against the Islamic republic. The US military said it "condemns any attack on guests or visitors of any country." It was not clear who shot at the convoy. An Iraqi Interior Ministry official said Iraqi soldiers exchanged fire with guards in an argument that broke out when members of the convoy failed to produce identification cards. Iranian Embassy...

On Friday, Hezbollah gunmen set fire to the Beirut offices of Future TV, a Lebanese broadcaster. On a purely symbolic level, it was an apt demonstration of where the Party of God stands in relation to the future itself. But that wasn't the worst of what has happened in the past week in Lebanon, where scores of people have been killed in interfactional violence. More ominous was the role of the Lebanese army, avowedly neutral and nominally under civilian control. "An army officer accompanied by members of Hezbollah walked into the station and told us to switch off transmission," an...

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) — Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said Thursday that the Lebanese government had declared war on his Shiite militant group by declaring its private telecommunications network an illegal threat to state security. Nasrallah vowed to fight any attempts to disarm Hezbollah in a speech that hiked tensions already running high after a long-simmering political crisis between the Hezbollah-led opposition and the government erupted into sectarian violence. "Those who try to arrest us, we will arrest them," he said. "Those who shoot at us, we will shoot at them. The hand raised against us, we will cut it off."...

Explosions and gunfire rang out across the Lebanese capital Wednesday as Hizbullah backers trying to enforce a strike against the US-backed government clashed with government supporters and blocked roads. The cause of the explosions was not immediately known, but witnesses and television reports said they may have been rocket-propelled grenades. There was no word on casualties, and the shooting later died down. The strike paralyzed large parts of Beirut. Hizbullah protesters blocked roads with burning tires, dirt, old cars and garbage cans to enforce a labor strike against government economic policies and to demand pay raises. The violence deepened tensions...

Clerics have told President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to stick to more worldly issues after he was quoted as saying the "hidden imam" of Shiite Islam was directing Iran. Ahmadinejad has always been a devotee of the Mahdi, the twelfth imam of Shiite Islam, who Shiites believe disappeared more than a thousand years ago and who will return one day to usher in a new era of peace and harmony. But in a speech to theology students broadcast by state television on Monday, Ahmadinejad went further than ever before in emphasising his belief that the Mahdi is playing a critical role in...

Opposition and majority followers clash in Beirut streets Posted : Fri, 04 Apr 2008 20:38:06 GMT Author : DPA Beirut - Shiite opposition followers and rival Sunnis who back the western-backed Lebanese government clashed late Friday on the streets of the capital, Lebanese police said. Machinegun fire was heard across the areas of Ras al-Nabaa and Wataa al-Moustabeh but no further details were available, the police said. Local media reported that followers of the Shiite Amal movement, who are loyal to the opposition headed by Hezbollah, clashed with the Sunni Future Current movement led by majority leader Saad Hariri. Lebanese...

WASHINGTON, April 3, 2008 – Iraqi security forces, aided by coalition forces and local citizens, neutralized threats from an Iranian-backed “special group” in a Baghdad-area neighborhood last week, a U.S. Army brigade commander in the area said today. As Iraqi security and coalition forces clashed with Shiite special groups in Basra and elsewhere in Iraq, violence in the Multinational Division Center area of operations was very limited. “There was a little bit of reaction, but because of the strength of the (combined force), nothing major happened,” Col. Wayne Grigsby of Multinational Division Center said during a conference call. The division’s...

BAGHDAD - Shi'ite militiamen in Basra openly controlled wide swaths of the city yesterday and staged increasingly bold raids on Iraqi government forces sent in five days ago to wrest control from the gunmen, witnesses said, as Iraqi political leaders grew increasingly critical of the stalled assault.

BAGHDAD - Anti-American Shiite militia leader Muqtada al-Sadr ordered his followers Saturday to defy government orders to surrender their weapons, as U.S. jets struck Shiite extremists near Basra to bolster a faltering Iraqi offensive against gunmen in the city. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki acknowledged he may have miscalculated by failing to foresee the strong backlash that his offensive, which began Tuesday, provoked in areas of Baghdad and other cities where Shiite militias wield power. Government television said the round-the-clock curfew imposed two days ago on the capital and due to expire Sunday would be extended indefinitely. The U.S. Embassy tightened...

BAGHDAD - U.S. forces stepped deeper Friday into the Iraqi government's fight to cripple Shiite militias, launching airstrikes in the southern city of Basra and firing a Hellfire missile in the main Shiite stronghold in Baghdad. The American support occurred as Iraqi troops struggled against strong resistance in Basra and retaliation elsewhere in Shiite areas — including more salvos of rockets or mortars into the U.S.-protected Green Zone in Baghdad. It was the first time American jets have been called to attack militia positions since Iraqi ground forces launched an operation Tuesday to clear Basra of the armed groups that...

BAGHDAD - Warning sirens wail and within seconds rockets and mortars strike — sometimes one or two, other times 10 or more. The Green Zone is again a prime target as American and British diplomats, Iraqi politicians, contractors and others struggle to go about their business — always aware that any time they are outside the most fortified buildings there is a chance to be injured or killed. The danger has temporarily reshaped life: Green Zone traffic is minimal, few people venture out on the streets and security precautions — always high — have been boosted. Many diplomats and others...

BAGHDAD - Shiite militiamen are everywhere. Police and Iraqi army checkpoints are nowhere in sight. U.S. soldiers are keeping their distance. Sadr City — the Baghdad nerve center for the powerful Mahdi Army — is suddenly back on edge as the militia leader, Muqtada al-Sadr, and Iraq's government lock in a dangerous confrontation over clout and control among the nation's majority Shiites. The epicenter of the showdown has been the southern oil hub of Basra, where clashes have claimed dozens of lives this week and al-Sadr's forces face a Friday deadline to surrender. But a more finely tuned measure of...

Some facts about Sadr City, the Baghdad stronghold of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia: HISTORY: Sadr City was built in the late 1950s by Prime Minister Abdul Karim Qassim to provide housing for Baghdad's largely Shiite urban poor, many of whom had migrated from southern Iraq. It was first named Revolution City and became a stronghold of the Iraq Communist party. It was renamed Saddam City after the late president took power in 1979. After Saddam's ouster in 2003, it became known as Sadr City in honor of Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Sadeq al-Sadr, who was killed, probably by...

Islam’s Animal Gulag   By Jamie GlazovFrontPageMagazine.com | Tuesday, March 11, 2008 Frontpage Interview's guest today is Robert Spencer, a scholar of Islamic history, theology, and law and the director of Jihad Watch. He is the author of seven books, eight monographs, and hundreds of articles about jihad and Islamic terrorism, including the New York Times Bestsellers The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) and The Truth About Muhammad. His latest book is Religion of Peace? FP: Robert Spencer, welcome to Frontpage Interview. Spencer: Thank you, Jamie. Always a pleasure. FP: An Iranian man was recently sentenced...

A leading figure in the movement led by Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said the group would not pardon anyone if their leader is harmed. “In the event Sadr is harmed, Iraqi will them swim in a lake of blood,” warned Sheikh Sadeq al-Hasnawi. Hasnawi is one of the top officials leading the movement in Sadr’s absence. He said the cleric was currently in Iran “studying and mediating” in the religious city of Qom which is the Iranian equivalent of Iraq’s holy city of Najaf where Shiite clerics are educated and trained. Hasnawi made the remarks in response to unconfirmed reports...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 22, 2008 – Security contributions provided by surge-fortified U.S. forces and ongoing efforts by Iraqi soldiers, police and concerned local citizens’ groups have combined to produce stability, a senior U.S. officer posted in Iraq said today. “The current security situation is stable, and I am optimistic about the future,” said Army Col. Tom James, commander of the 4th Brigade Combat Team, a component of the Fort Stewart, Ga.-based 3rd Infantry Division. The Iraq veteran and his unit deployed to Iraq in December. A component of Multinational Division Center, James’ 3,000-member brigade is based at Forward Operating Base Kalsu,...

Pakistan A 'Hotbed' For [Islamic] Terror National Post, Canada - Feb 14, 2008 Now, it is rapidly becoming a central front in the US-led war on terror. The harsh mountainous territory, which Pakistan doesn't control and is off limits...

Sharia law at the Treasury and a drift to Islam Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has described terrorist activity as 'Anti-Islamic' It is strangely shocking to find that Her Majesty's Treasury, that very matter-of-fact department, should be issuing bonds that comply with the ancient rules of sharia law. It is as if your bank manager were suddenly to break off from warning you about your overdraft, fetch out a prayer mat and start offering devotions in the direction of Mecca. As it happens, the decision makes sense on business terms. Many major investors are Muslim and it would be foolish to...

U.S. Says Iran-backed Groups Using Secret Arms Stores February 17, 2008 Reuters Mohammed Abbas The U.S. military said on Sunday it had evidence Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias in Iraq were increasingly using secret weapons stores to attack U.S. and Iraqi forces. The accusation comes days after Tehran postponed talks with the United States on improving security in Iraq for "technical reasons", a move that prompted rebukes from U.S. officials. "In just the past week, Iraqi and coalition forces captured 212 weapons caches across Iraq, two of those inside Baghdad, (which have) growing links to Iranian-backed special groups," military spokesman Real Admiral...

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) ― Danish police said Tuesday they have arrested three people suspected of plotting to kill one of the 12 cartoonists behind the Prophet Muhammad drawings that sparked a deadly uproar in the Muslim world two years ago. Two Tunisians and a Dane of Moroccan origin were arrested in pre-dawn raids in western Denmark, the police intelligence agency said. The Dane was suspected of violating Danish terror laws but likely would be released after questioning as the investigation continues, said Jakob Scharf, the head of the PET intelligence service. The two Tunisians would be expelled from Denmark, he...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 28, 2008 – Security improvements have spurred reconciliation in the Madain Qada region along the Diyala and Tigris rivers in Iraq, an area that had been plagued by brutal sectarian violence, a U.S. commander there said. “We have made amazing progress along all lines of operation, but it is security that opened all the doors to allow us to get (reconciliation) going,” Army Col. Wayne Grigsby, commander of the 3rd Infantry Division’s 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, said during a teleconference with online journalists and “bloggers” Jan. 25. Grigsby said his unit has conducted 166 named operations in...

Shi'ite Muslims at the al-Khoei Islamic Center in Queens prepare to flagellate themselves during a procession marking the festival of Ashura. View the pics here.