Free Republic

(Reuters) - The United States carried out air strikes on Saturday against Islamic State fighters near the besieged Shi'ite town of Amerli in northern Iraq and airdropped humanitarian aid to civilians trapped there, the Pentagon said. President Barack Obama authorized the new military action, broadening U.S. operations in Iraq amid an international outcry over the threat to Amerli's mostly ethnic Turkmen population. U.S. aircraft delivered over a hundred bundles of emergency supplies and more aid was dropped from British, French and Australian planes, officials said, signaling headway in Obama’s efforts to draw allies into the fight against Islamic State. Iraqi...

China typically exercises caution when making public statements about terrorist attacks in Xinjiang. When China blames attacks on Pakistan-based terrorist organizations, such as the possibly defunct East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM), it risks adding tensions to the Sino-Pakistani “all-weather” friendship. [1] However, when China blames attacks on local Uyghurs it is tantamount to an admission that its policies in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region have not created a “harmonious society.” Zhou Yongkang (left), member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), shakes hands with a local Uygur farmer...

It has been a difficult summer for Red China’s restive western province Xinjiang. A series of incidents characterized as terrorism have struck two of the province’s cities, causing death, destruction and ethnic tension. This picture was further complicated when the government of the city of Kashgar published a statement online that claimed at least one of the perpetrators had been trained in Pakistan (Xinhua, August 1). The allegation by Communist Chinese officials cast a shadow over Sino-Pakistani relations, a bilateral relationship that had been characterized in Kashgar just the month before by Pakistani Ambassador to China Masood Khan as “higher...

China pointed a finger at Pakistan, one of its closest foreign partners, as it blamed one of two deadly attacks over the weekend in the northwestern Xinjiang region on Muslim extremists trained across the Pakistani border.‬ Police also "executed on the spot" two more suspected attackers in the city of Kashgar, according to a local government statement, while paramilitary police with shotguns and automatic weapons patrolled the streets to prevent further unrest. Local authorities said 20 people were killed in all in the attacks by knife-wielding members of the Uighur ethnic minority on Saturday and Sunday in the second week...

China blames extremists for Xinjiang attack China says a group led by militants trained in Pakistan was behind Sunday's attack in Kashgar in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous region. In a statement on the Internet, the government in Kashgar says a suspect detained after the attack told police that the leaders of their group belong to a separatist organization called the "East Turkistan Islamic Movement." They reportedly learned how to make explosives in Pakistan before carrying out Sunday's attack. On Sunday night, a group of attackers stabbed people on the streets of Kashgar, killing 6 people and injured 15. Five suspects...

Chinese 'operatives' face Pakistani wrath By B Raman The kidnapping of two Chinese engineers working on an irrigation project in South Waziristan in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan by a group of pro-Osama bin Laden jihadis last week and the death of one of them on Wednesday, during a rescue operation mounted by the US-trained Special Services Group, the parent army unit of President General Pervez Musharraf, draws attention once again to the growing threat to Chinese lives and interests in Pakistan from jihadi terrorists belonging to the International Islamic Front (IIF) of bin Laden. In an...

Syrian rebel groups strengthened their hold over the Syrian side of the Quneitra Crossing — located on the frontier between Syrian and Israeli controlled parts of the Golan Heights – over the weekend and managed to repel attacks by Syrian forces loyal to President Bashar Assad. The rebels kidnapped dozens of Fiji soldiers, members of the UN observer force stationed in the Golan Heights and are maintaining a siege on a second UN stronghold manned by Philippine soldiers. ... Nusra Front forces took over a stronghold manned by a Fiji UN force and kidnapped the soldiers stationed there at gunpoint,...

Seventy-five UNDOF peacekeepers in the Golan Heights fled Syrian territory for the Israeli-controlled Golan on Saturday after their positions were attacked by rebel forces. An Israeli military spokesman confirmed that a number of UN peacekeepers entered Israel. He spoke on condition of anonymity. Channel 2 said 75 UN troops had crossed the borders, after two UN positions on the Syrian side of the border were targeted by al-Nusra rebel forces. Earlier in the day, the Philippine defense chief said that Filipino peacekeepers in the Golan Heights were attacked by Syrian rebels, who are also holding dozens of Fijian troops hostage....

On Monday September 8th, 2014, at 1:15 p.m., the UN Permanent Mission of Palau, and the Engr Aja Eze Foundation are sponsoring a conference on “Global Anti-Semitism: A Threat to International Peace and Security” at the United Nations Headquarters facility in New York City. The counter-anti-Semitism conference will feature speakers who will explain how the rising tide of anti-Semitism will have a catastrophic effect on the safety and security of the world. The opening statements will be made by H.E. Dr. Caleb Otto, Amb. UN Perm. Mission of Palau, and H.E. Mr. Ron Prosser, Amb. UN Perm. Mission of Israel....

Britain faces the “greatest and deepest” terror threat in the country’s history, David Cameron warned as he pledged emergency measures to tackle extremists. The UK threat level was raised to “severe” — its second highest — meaning that a terrorist attack is “highly likely” in light of the growing danger from British jihadists returning from Iraq and Syria. The Prime Minister said that the risk posed by Isil (the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) will last for “decades” and raised the prospect of an expanding terrorist nation “on the shores of the Mediterranean”. He disclosed that Isil had...

Iranian military leaders have openly boasted that they have begun to send weapons to Palestinian Arab terrorists in Judea and Samaria and elsewhere in the region, the Washington Free Beacon reported Thursday. The report quoted a top Iranian military commander who confirmed that weapon shipments to Judea and Samaria have already begun and that more will be sent to other “Palestinian resistance groups.” “Arming the West Bank has started and weapons will be supplied to the people of this region,” Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqdi, the commander of Iran’s volunteer Basij force, told the state-run Fars news agency on Wednesday....

WASHINGTON — The international effort to help Iraqis fight Islamic militants is heating up, with seven additional countries agreeing to provide arms to the Kurdish peshmerga forces. Albania, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, France, Italy and the U.K. have committed to giving weapons and equipment to the embattled Kurds, the Pentagon announced Tuesday. The announcement comes about two weeks after Hagel set up a working group to find ways to accelerate arms deliveries to the Kurds. The Defense Department said the materiel is “urgently needed” as the Kurds take on the militant group known as the Islamic State, which has taken over...

Kirkuk (Iraq) (AFP) - Iraq was massing forces Wednesday for an operation to break a two-month jihadist siege of the Shiite Turkmen town of Amerli, amid growing fears for residents short of food and water. The imminent counter-offensive comes amid reports that US President Barack Obama is weighing a decision to authorise air strikes and aid drops in the area to assist around 12,000 residents trapped in the northern town. According to a civilian volunteer commander, thousands of Shiite militiamen from groups including Asaib Ahl al-Haq and the Badr Organisation are gathering in the Tuz Khurmatu area of Salaheddin province,...

Man with ISIS flag on vehicle threatens cops with bomb Updated: Aug 28, 2014 3:17 PM CST CHICAGO (Sun-Times Media Wire) - A man who had an ISIS flag waving from his vehicle is facing several charges after he threatened police with a bomb Wednesday morning when he was pulled over on the Southwest Side. Emad Karakrah, 49, was charged with felony counts of disorderly conduct and aggravated fleeing; and a misdemeanor count of driving on a never-issued license, according to Chicago Police. He was also issued three traffic citations. Someone called police after seeing a “suspicious person” driving a...

Iran has conducted "mechanical" tests on a new, advanced machine to refine uranium, a senior official was quoted as saying on Wednesday, a disclosure that may annoy Western states pushing Tehran to scale back its nuclear programme. Iran's development of new centrifuges to replace its current breakdown-prone model is watched closely by Western officials. It could allow the Islamic Republic to amass potential atomic bomb material much faster. Tehran says its nuclear programme is peaceful and that it produces low-enriched uranium only to make fuel for a planned network of atomic energy plants. If processed to a high fissile concentration,...

Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi, who is the head of the Muslim Scholars Association and who serves as spiritual mentor for the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, attacked the Islamic Caliphate State established by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in large parts of Syria and Iraq. In an interview with a Turkish news agency, Qaradawi said that the caliphate is meaningless as it does not meet the requirements as dictated by Islam. It should be noted that Sheikh Qaradawi supports Hamas, operates a jihad against Israel, and in the past has made rulings permitting suicide bombings ...

The ceasefire agreement didn’t give Hamas everything it wanted, but it gave Israel nothing at all.Israel’s insistence on demilitarizing Gaza fell by the wayside.Why? Here’s one answer. Nabil Shaath, a senior PLO official and confidante of PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas, said that Israel dropped the demand that Hamas be demilitarized, due to American pressure, in an interview with the Arabic Ma’an News Agency. As usual the war was won on the battlefield and lost at the negotiating table. Which means it will have to be repeated in a year or two with a stronger Hamas.Without demilitarizing Gaza, the entire...

This article is from from June,the ENEmedia is not reporting this. Revealed: How Obama SET FREE the merciless terrorist warlord now leading the ISIS horde blazing a trail of destruction through Iraq WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT The U.S. once had Islamic State of Iraq and al-Shams (ISIS) leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi in custody at a detention facility in Iraq, it was revealed Friday Al Baghdadi was among the prisoners released in 2009 from the U.S.'s now-closed Camp Bucca near Umm Qasr in Iraq It is unclear why the U.S. let the merciless al Qaeda leader slip away Al Baghadadi and...

Minister of Construction and Housing, Uri Ariel of the Jewish Home, estimated Thursday that his party will not leave the government anytime soon. Regarding the differences of opinion within the Security Cabinet in the course of the war, Ariel told IDF Radio: “I do not think our criticism was illegitimate. Every minister has his opinions and his points of interest and I think that after we voiced our support for the operation, if there are opinions, they should be stated.” "There are so many things that we still have to do, that I believe we will not leave the government,”...

Obama became president on January 20, 2009, the war in Iraq was essentially won. The al Qaeda-backed insurgency was reduced to smoldering embers. George W. Bush’s surge had succeeded. Safely behind bars at the time was Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, an al Qaeda-linked point man who was imprisoned at Camp Bucca in Iraq, after being captured by U.S. forces in 2005. However, the Obama administration decided to shut down the Bucca prison camp and hand over its prisoners to the Iraqi government, including Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, in 2009. The Iraqi government later released him. Al Baghadi boasted to the...