Heavy fighting is reported in the besieged Syrian town of Qusair as state forces launch a major offensive to re-capture the rebel stronghold.

Syrian government forces have surrounded the rebel stronghold of Qusair and are storming it from several directions, says Syrian state TV.

Fighting has gone on around the town, near the Lebanese border, for weeks.

Syrian opposition activists said government air strikes and heavy shelling had killed at least 16 people in the town so far.

Opposition groups say militants from the Lebanese Hezbollah movement are fighting alongside government forces.

Rebel commander Abu Sakkar, who was filmed cutting out and eating the organs of a pro-regime fighter, warns that if the bloodshed continues "all Syrian people" will be like him.

    

Indian officials on Saturday announced New Delhi’s willingess to “discuss and respond” to specific requests by Afghan government regarding supply of lethal weapons to Afghan security forces. The demand to supply lethal and non-lethal weapons to Afghan security forces was raised publicy by Afghan envoy to India, however, New Delhi insisted that such discussions will Read the full article...

cjchivers: A bust of Hafez al-Assad, updated by rebel hands. Muslimiya. #Syria. http://t.co/bdF1IZIljo

North Korea is still trying to import and export nuclear and ballistic missile-related items but financial and trade sanctions are slowing progress on development of their prohibited weapons, UN experts say in a new report.

Soldiers in northeast Nigeria shelled suspected camps of Islamic extremists in the first military action of a new offensive against the insurgents, killing at least 21 people, a security official said.

Era impegnato in un'offensiva contro gli estremisti di Boko Haram

Quantity surveyor Chris McManus from Oldham was shot six times in a toilet as the special forces tried to save his life. His Italian colleague Franco Lamolinara was also killed.

Foreign Office sponsored surveys investigating impact of CIA drone campaign in Pakistan, minister Alistair Burt tells MPs

Britain has been forced to admit that it has been funding surveys in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas that reveal US drone strikes in the region are causing deep resentment among the local population.

In an answer to a parliamentary question, the foreign minister, Alistair Burt, confirmed that the Foreign Office had "supported" surveys which showed the proportion of respondents in the tribal areas who believed drone strikes were "never justified" had risen from 59% in 2010 to 63% in 2011.

It appears to be the first time that the government has revealed it has carried out opinion polls on the CIA drone campaign in Pakistan – a programme on which it has refused to comment publicly. Previously British ministers have said: "Drone strikes are a matter for the United States and Pakistan."

However, there have been claims that the government has been complicit in the programme, sharing locational intelligence with US agencies to help them target the strikes.

"The UK should not need to carry out polling to determine that a campaign of illegal killing is wrong," said Kat Craig, legal director for the charity Reprieve, which campaigns for human rights around the world.

"But what this does show is that even British government surveys find that the drone campaign is increasingly unpopular.

"Ministers must come clean on the role that UK intelligence is playing in supporting drone strikes, put a stop to it, and put pressure on the US to end its campaign."

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Local officials say vehicle carrying suspected militants near Aden was struck in an attack by an unmanned aircraft

At least four people were killed and a number of others wounded in a drone strike on a vehicle carrying suspected al-Qaida members in southern Yemen, a local official said on Saturday.

The official said the strike took place at dawn on Saturday on a road to the north of Jaar in Abyan Governorate, near Aden. He did not say who was behind the strike, but previous drone strikes have been carried out by the United States. Washington does not usually comment on drone strikes.

Yemen is home to an al-Qaida wing that has planned to attack international airliners and was once described by Washington as the movement's most dangerous branch.

Impoverished and turbulent, Yemen is located next door to the world's top oil exporter, Saudi Arabia, and major crude shipment routes. The United States has stepped up attacks on al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). Yemeni officials said at least six suspected militants were killed in two drone strikes last month.

Six suspected al-Qaida members were killed in January. Militants allied to AQAP took advantage of Arab Spring chaos in Yemen in early 2011 to seize control of some towns in the country's southern provinces, including Jaar. Although they were pushed from the towns last year, they continue to fight government forces.

United States

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A United Nations report has implicated Azerbaijan and a Kazakhstan airline executive in violations of arms embargos against North Korea. The Associated Press acquired the report, to the U.N. Security Council committee monitoring sanctions against North Korea.

Among the violators was Azerbaijan, for buying anti-aircraft missiles from North Korea:

The panel... recommended sanctions against the Hesong Trading Corporation, a subsidiary of the Korea Mining Development Trading Corp., which was involved in trying to sell 70 North Korean portable anti-aircraft missiles to Azerbaijan. British arms dealer Michael Ranger was convicted in July 2012 of attempting to sell the missiles.

A few more details on Ranger's activities in Azerbaijan, via the U.K.'s Crown Prosecution Service:

The court heard that in email correspondence with his arms supplier in North Korea, Ranger boasted that he had been a guest of the Azerbaijani government and was driven round in a Lexus limousine whilst on business there to discuss the supply of Man-Portable Infrared Homing Surface to Air Missiles. It also heard how he told the US manufacturers of Berettas pistols that he had secured orders from the Azerbaijani Ministry of Emergency Situations following a meeting with ‘two people directly under the President’ in February 2010. The jury agreed that the evidence clearly demonstrated Ranger’s intention to disregard the embargos and duly delivered a conviction.

The U.N. report also named a citizen of Kazakhstan it says was involved in shipping arms to North Korea:

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The Federal Security Service estimates that about 200 Russian citizens are fighting alongside Syrian rebels and fears that they could carry out militant attacks once they return.

The Nigerian military says it has launched an all-out assault on Islamist militants in the north-east of the country.

A video distributed by a pro-opposition Syrian monitoring organization purportedly shows fighters from an Al-Qaeda-linked rebel group in Syria executing supporters of President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

Air raids target a militant training camp in north-east Nigeria as a military plane is hit by anti-aircraft fire, officials say.

Nigerian air force targets sites in the volatile northeast of the country in an effort to crush an Islamist rebellion, the military said on Friday

Military officials said attacks were launched against the Boko Haram Islamist group in border areas in a forest south of the city of Maiduguri.

    

"Skaf made a mobile phone call to her son, to tell him her identity card had been taken from her by members of the security forces at a checkpoint,"

The post Security forces detain Syrian actress: lawyer appeared first on Daily News Egypt.

Russia was defiant in the face of criticism over arm supplies to Syria after reports that Moscow is supplying improved "ship-killing" missiles to the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

    

BEIRUT —The Syrian opposition is demanding access to arms before planned peace talks next month, amid a growing consensus that it may take a shift in the balance of power on the battlefield before any meaningful negotiations can take place.

Read full article >>

    

In an extraordinary attack from a Cabinet minister, he said 'vast numbers of people' had been unnecessarily upset by plans to legalise same-sex weddings.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Thursday he reserved the right to resort to both diplomatic and military options to pressure Syrian President Bashar al-Assad but insisted that U.S. action alone would not be enough to resolve the Syrian crisis.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Thursday he reserved the right to resort to both diplomatic and military options to pressure Syrian President Bashar al-Assad but insisted that U.S. action alone would not be enough to resolve the Syrian crisis.

BEIRUT (Reuters) - A video published on Thursday showed fighters of the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front in Syria executing 11 men they accused of taking part in massacres by President Bashar al-Assad's forces.

AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian rebels said they attacked an important military base in the south and checkpoints in the city of Deraa on Thursday, trying to regain ground lost to President Bashar al-Assad's forces near the Jordanian border.

The UN general assembly has voted to condemn Syria but the number of abstentions suggests doubts are growing about backing the rebels

Matthew Weaver

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Following the Tuesday announcement by President Goodluck Jonathan of a state of emergency in three states in northeast Nigeria, the Nigerian military on Wednesday deployed thousands of troops to the border area.

The military said it was sending a “massive deployment of men and resources” to combat Islamist militants in Yobe, Borno, and Adamawa states.

The military said the drive was aimed at “asserting the nation’s territorial integrity” and “enhancing security”.

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Israel will not be deterred from launching further attacks on Syria, a senior government official has told the New York Times, warning that Bashar al-Assad would forfeit his presidency if he retaliated.

The Atomic Weapons Establishment, which makes and maintains warheads for the UK's Trident nuclear deterrent, today admitted putting employees at risk.

The top US defence leaders were summoned to the White House today to talk about the military's sexual assault crisis as the Pentagon's top general said women in uniform were losing confidence the problem will be solved.

Police have raided a suspected crime gang in the biggest operation to date to tackle dealing of party drug mephedrone.

Internacional - Edicion impresa

El Ejército de Nigeria anunció ayer un despliegue masivo de tropas para combatir el terrorismo islámico en tres estados del noreste del país. El anuncio se hizo un día después de que el presidente nigeriano, Goodluck Jonathan, declarara el estado de emergencia en los estados de Borno, Yobe y Adamawa, tras una oleada de mortíferos ataques, la mayoría atribuidos a la milicia radical islámica Boko Haram

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The footage, filmed in the northern city of Raqqa, purportedly shows Islamist rebels shooting dead government soldiers.

North Korea faces more difficulty in broadening its nuclear weapons operation thanks to an arms ban, tougher monetary measures, and international prohibitions on commerce, Reuters reported on Tuesday, citing an unpublished U.N. expert study.

"While the imposition of sanctions has not halted the development of nuclear and ballistic missile programs, it has in all likelihood considerably delayed (North Korea's) timetable and, through the imposition of financial sanctions and the bans on the trade in weapons, has choked off significant funding which would have been channeled into its prohibited activities," reads the report by the U.N. Security Council expert panel on North Korea sanctions.

The 52-page yearly report called for the imposition of economic penalties against 12 North Korean individuals and three North Korean institutions -- the recently established Atomic Energy Industry Ministry, the State Space Development Bureau, and the Korean Workers Party Central Committee's Industry Department. The Security Council will decide whether to take up that advisory.

The expert report spans to the end of April so it is too soon to know the effectiveness of Security Council sanctions passed as punishment for the North's February underground atomic explosion, according to envoys.

"The D.P.R.K. has continued its efforts to import and export items relevant to missile and nuclear programs and arms," the report concludes.

U.N. member nations were advised to be cautious of any North Korea efforts to obtain an assortment of nuclear-related materials and technology including high quality aluminum alloy and maraging steel.

Pyongyang has not yet learned how to manufacture a nuclear warhead compact enough to be mounted on a missile, Agence France-Presse reported on Wednesday quoted an anonymous high-ranking U.S. official as saying.

The U.S. Defense Department's intelligence agency last month created waves when it concluded the North had learned how to miniaturize warheads. National Intelligence Director James Clapper was quick to publicly note that the finding does not represent the collective assessment of the U.S. intelligence community.

"I don't believe they have the capability to miniaturize the nuclear warhead, put it on top of the missile, work the launch and re-entry problem, and target," the unidentified official said to reporters in Seoul. "I don't think they have been able to put the whole piece together."

Meanwhile, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Wednesday told lawmakers his administration's policy on North Korea would aim to limit the country's nuclear weapons development and to enhance bilateral relations, Kyodo News reported. A senior Abe aide this week made a surprise trip to the North.

Biannual U.S.-Ukraine Nonproliferation Working Group Meetings Held in Washington, DC

Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation

May 15, 2013

On May 15th, 2013 the Ukrainian and American delegations met in Washington, DC for the regular meeting of the bilateral Working Group on Nonproliferation and Export Control under the leadership of Mr. Oleksandr Aleksandrovych, Director General of the Department for International Security and Disarmament, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, and Vann Van Diepen, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation, U.S. Department of State. They discussed issues of international security, nonproliferation, disarmament and export control. The next meeting of the Working group will be held in Kyiv in the fall of 2013.

The Working Group on Nonproliferation and Export Control is a component of the Ukraine – U.S. Strategic Partnership Commission.

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  ALYSSA ROHRICHT   On Monday, the Associated Press revealed that the Department of Justice used subpoenas to obtain phone records of its editors and reporters from April and May 2012. The records were obtained due to the investigation and supposed leak to the AP last year that the CIA had ”thwarted an ambitious plot by al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen to destroy a ...

Maoist leadership is facing a crisis, mainly because most of the top rebel leaders have either been killed or arrested in the last few years.

    

    

The pro-Syrian opposition Human Rights Watch identified the rebel as Abu Sakkar, head of the Independent Omar al-Farouq Brigade from the town of Homs and said his actions, including taking a bite out of the soldier’s heart, were a war crime. He declared: “I swear to God we will eat your hearts and your livers, you soldiers of Bashar the dog.” The main opposition coalition said Sakkar would be put on trial.
The tape has stirred widespread condemnation, drowning out rebel warnings that the Syrian army is on the point of perpetrating a massacre in Homs.
 

Troops have begun deploying in the wake of President Goodluck Jonathan’s declaration of a state of emergency in parts of the north, but critics fear more civilian deaths.

    

Home minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Wednesday rejected the Army's demand to get operational command of the ITBP which guards the border with China.

    

Britain and France are leading a push to have a Syrian rebel force designated as an al-Qaida terrorist organization by the United Nations. The move forms part of an effort to strengthen moderate factions in the opposition.

The X-47B is the first drone designed to take off and land on an aircraft carrier, meaning the U.S. military would not need permission from other countries to use their bases.

Het Nigeriaanse leger is vandaag begonnen aan een grote militaire campagne tegen islamitische militanten in het noordoosten van het land. De actie volgt op het besluit van president Goodluck Jonathan om in een aantal deelstaten in het noordoosten de noodtoestand uit te roepen.

Nigeria heeft al jarenlang te lijden onder de terreur van de islamitische beweging Boko Haram. Aanslagen van de beweging hebben sinds 2009 aan duizenden Nigerianen het leven gekost. Vooral militairen, politici en christenen waren het slachtoffer. Begin deze maand nog kwamen 55 mensen in het noordoosten om het leven bij een serie gecoördineerde aanvallen van Boko Haram.

Boko Haram wil een islamitische staat creëren in het grotendeels door moslims bewoonde noorden van Nigeria. Een van de eisen van Boko Haram is dat de regering gevangen leden vrijlaat. De terreurgroep heeft in het verleden meerdere aanvallen op gevangenissen uitgevoerd, waarbij honderden gedetineerden zijn bevrijd.

Leger wil 'territoriale integriteit' Nigeria veiligstellen

De afgelopen maanden heeft Boko Haram in een aantal afgelegen en arme deelstaten in het noorden - Borno, Adamawa en Yobe - de vrije hand gekregen. Het Nigeriaanse leger wil strijders van de beweging nu uit hun bases daar verdrijven. Het leger kondigde vanmiddag de "massale legering" van troepen in de deelstaten aan, die bedoeld is om de "territoriale integriteit" van Nigeria zeker te stellen.

Analisten betwijfelen of de harde aanpak van de Nigeriaanse regering werkt. Het leek erop dat het brute optreden van het Nigeriaanse leger, dat zich volgens mensenrechtenorganisaties schuldig maakt aan willekeurige arrestaties, martelingen en buitenrechtelijke executies, de dreiging van Boko Haram had verminderd. Maar recente aanvallen illustreren dat de keiharde aanpak niet werkt. Het heeft de burgerbevolking vervreemd en velen in armen van de extremisten gedreven.

Lees verder op nrc.nl…

Lees meer over: Boko Haram, Goodluck Jonathan, islam, nigeria, terreurgroepen

President's party to control capital, as opposition groups claim electoral fraud.

Following victories in presidential and parliamentary elections, Armenia’s ruling party swept to victory in a key local election this month, posing serious questions about how opposition grou

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KATHMANDU: A Nepali United Nations peacekeeper and two of his foreign colleagues were briefly taken hostage and subsequently released by a Syrian rebel group in the Golan Heights, Syria on Wednesday.

The Nepal Army source in Kathmandu confirmed that Major Ujjwal KC, deployed to the the Golan Heights under the United Nations Truce Supervision Organisation (UNTSO), was captured along with Finish and New Zealander peacekeepers from 2 am to 6:30 am by the Free Syrian Army today.

It has been reported that the Syrian rebel group looted all the gadgets and belongings including passports from the UN peacekeepers before their safe release.

Last week also a Syrian rebel group had captured four U.N. peacekeepers, hailing from the Philippines, on the ceasefire line between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. They were released earlier this week.

BEIRUT (AP) — Activists say Syrian rebels and Islamic fighters have joined forces in a push to reopen an arms supply route and retake a key town near Damascus that fell back to President Bashar Assad's troops last month.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says Islamic units, including the al-Qaida-linked Jabhat al-Nusra, and Syrian opposition fighters are battling around the town of Otaybah, east of the capital.

The army regained control of Otaybah in late April, cutting an arms route for rebels trying to topple Assad's regime.

The Observatory said Wednesday that at least 23 rebel groups and Islamic fighter units that operated individually have joined the push to take back Otaybah and reverse government gains there.

More than 70,000 people have been killed since the revolt began in March 2011.

Young jihadists from Tunisia are entering Syria to join the rebels battling to topple President Assad.

Why have so many Tunisians joined the Syrian Islamists?

New Delhi could provide stability in Afghanistan through military assistance after international forces leave, a foreign policy analyst argues.

Las sanciones impuestas por el Consejo de Seguridad de Naciones Unidas a Corea del Norte han conseguido retrasar "considerablemente" sus programas nuclear y de misiles balísticos, según un informe publicado por un grupo de expertos de la organización internacional, al que ha tenido acceso Reuters. "Aunque la imposición de sanciones no ha suspendido el desarrollo de los programas nuclear y de misiles balísticos, sí ha conseguido, con toda probabilidad, retrasar considerablemente el calendario (de Corea del Norte)", reza el informe, de 52 páginas. El grupo de expertos ha destacado que las sanci...

Admitting Islamic extremists now control some of his nation's villages and towns, Nigeria's president declared a state of emergency across in the nation's troubled northeast.

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian rebels including the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front have counter-attacked east of Damascus to retake a town that served as a conduit for arms from Jordan into the capital before it was seized by government forces last month, rebel sources said.

HEROR, Iraq (Reuters) - Weary and caked in mud, the first group of Kurdish militants to leave Turkey under a peace plan to end three decades of war descended a mountain into Iraq on Tuesday to be met with embraces from PKK comrades.

De var bara en handfull kvinnor och män, men det var ett symboliskt viktigt steg när en första grupp kurdiska PKK-rebeller från Turkiet på tisdagen nådde norra Irak.

Gruppen nådde efter en veckolång vandring fram till en PKK-bas på den irakiska sidan gränsen. Omkring 2 000 rebeller väntas följa efter.

Förhoppningar finns om att uttåget ska innebära början på slutet för den nära 30 år långa väpnade konflikten mellan kurdisk gerilla och den turkiska staten.

TYSKLAND: Tyskland har aflyst sit planlagte droneprogram »Euro Hawk«, fordi landet frygter, at det ikke vil blive godkendt af de europæiske myndigheder på grund af flere sikkerhedsproblemer. Det oplyser en kilde i det tyske forsvarsministerium ifølge AFP, skriver france24.com.Tyskland havde »intet håb« om, at det store ubemandede rekognoseringsfly, der ville have kostet mere end en milliard euro, ville blive godkendt til brug, siger kilden, der talte på betingelse af anonymitet.

De var bara en handfull kvinnor och män, men det var ett symboliskt viktigt steg när en första grupp kurdiska PKK-rebeller från Turkiet på tisdagen nådde norra Irak.

Gruppen nådde efter en veckolång vandring fram till en PKK-bas på den irakiska sidan gränsen. Omkring 2 000 rebeller väntas följa efter.

Förhoppningar finns om att uttåget ska innebära början på slutet för den nära 30 år långa väpnade konflikten mellan kurdisk gerilla och den turkiska staten.

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan declares states of emergency for three states, blaming "terrorists" for "a near breakdown of law and order in parts of the country."

A grisly video has emerged in Syria of what appears to be a well-known rebel fighter cutting out and then taking a bite of the heart of a dead government soldier.

Turkish authorities are still searching for the pilot, who sent a mayday call before ejecting, and trying to discover why the plane went down.

cjchivers: Syrian opposition fighters. Praying before battle. Abu ad Duhur. http://t.co/DsAP6sHuSa

De var bara en handfull kvinnor och män, men det var ett symboliskt viktigt steg när en första grupp kurdiska PKK-rebeller från Turkiet på tisdagen nådde norra Irak.

Gruppen nådde efter en veckolång vandring fram till en PKK-bas på den irakiska sidan gränsen. Omkring 2 000 rebeller väntas följa efter.

Förhoppningar finns om att uttåget ska innebära början på slutet för den nära 30 år långa väpnade konflikten mellan kurdisk gerilla och den turkiska staten.

Is the jihad in Nigeria a production managed from Tehran? Certainly Boko Haram is well equipped. Where did its weapons come from? "Nigeria court convicts Iranian of illegal arms shipment," from AFP, May 13 (thanks to Pedro):

A Nigerian court on Monday sentenced an alleged member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and his Nigerian accomplice to five years in jail each over an illegal arms shipment.

Azim Aghajani and Nigerian Ali Abbas Jega were detained in 2010 when authorities at a Lagos port discovered 13 containers of weapons that had been declared as construction materials.

“I now pronounce them guilty as charged,” said Federal High Court Judge Okechukwu Okeke, convicting the two on four of five criminal counts.

While the crimes in question carried a potential life sentence, the judge said he was swayed by a plea for leniency from the defence and by the conduct of the pair while in detention.

“In sentencing the accused I have taken into consideration the plea for mercy by the defence team, but the law has to take its course,” Okeke said.

The sentence will be counted retroactively from February 2011, when their trial began, meaning the men will walk free in under three years.

Iranian national Aghajani has denied having links with Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard, insisting he was a private businessman conducting a legitimate transaction.

The United Nations added Aghajani to a blacklist last year, labelling him a Revolutionary Guard member tied to “Iranian support for terrorism and extremism worldwide”....

New Delhi could provide stability in Afghanistan through military assistance after international forces leave, a foreign policy analyst argues.

Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld: Hillary Clinton is the 'sideshow' in Benghazi controversy - @todayshow

De var bara en handfull kvinnor och män, men det var ett symboliskt viktigt steg när en första grupp kurdiska PKK-rebeller från Turkiet på tisdagen nådde norra Irak.

Gruppen nådde efter en veckolång vandring fram till en PKK-bas på den irakiska sidan gränsen. Omkring 2 000 rebeller väntas följa efter.

Förhoppningar finns om att uttåget ska innebära början på slutet för den nära 30 år långa väpnade konflikten mellan kurdisk gerilla och den turkiska staten.

DUBAI, 13 May 2013 (IRIN) - Like Syrian regime forces, Syria's multitude of rebel fighters have faced growing criticism in recent months over violations of international humanitarian law (IHL), including war crimes, with groups from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch to the UN Commission of Inquiry accusing them of killing opponents execution-style, torturing detainees, taking hostages, including UN peacekeepers, and possibly using chemical weapons. So how do the rebels view IHL principles? What guides their action? Who do they consider a civilian? And what do they think of aid workers?

DUBAI, 13 May 2013 (IRIN) - In recent months, Syrian rebels have faced increasing criticism for violations of international humanitarian law (IHL) and human rights law. For guidance on the laws of war, they turn to a combination of Islamic law, IHL and their own sense of righteousness or, as one expert put it, “revolutionary justice” - with mixed results.

The UK will double the non-lethal military support for the Syrian opposition to help them withstand an "onslaught" from Bashar Assad's regime, David Cameron said.

Barack Obama backs talks between the Syria government and rebel groups to agree a "transitional body" while David Cameron trumpets the supply of armoured vehicles and body armour to the rebels.

    

Turkey's military reports that an F16 fighter plane flying along the Turkish-Syrian border crashed Monday and the pilot’s body was recovered. There was no indication of the plane’s mission, the circumstances of its crash or of the pilot’s death. Earlier, Turkish military sources said that contact was lost with the Air Force plane over a mountainous area in Osmaniye province in southern Turkey close to the border with Syria. The statement said the pilot radioed in to say he was ejecting before contact was lost. Turkey's NTV television said the pilot ejected safely from the plane. That report was never confirmed.

 

 

Nigeria's militant Islamist group Boko Haram releases a video showing women and children it says it has abducted - in a new tactic for the group.

Thursday's landmark decision by the Pakistani high court in Peshawar is a remarkable document: Chief Justice Dost Muhammad Khan examines the US use of drones against Pakistan's tribal areas and reaches several conclusions that, while obvious to most sensible observers, seem to have eluded American authorities for several years. The case was filed last year by Shahzad Akbar, of the Foundation for ...

WASHINGTON -Former US defense secretary Robert Gates warned Sunday that deepening US military involvement in Syria's civil war would be a "mistake," warning the outcome would be unpredictable and messy. In an interview with CBS's "Face the Nation," Gates also said he saw "no good outcomes" in dealing with Iran's nuclear program and warned that a full US withdrawal from Afghanistan would be "a ...

By Shalaw Mohammed.

This article was originally published by Niqash. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News.

Recent clashes in Hawija have not only increased tensions between protestors and Baghdad, they’ve also reignited hostility between Iraqi Kurdistan’s military and the Iraqi army. Locals fear violence as the two groups take part in what appears to be a cat-and-mouse deployment in flashpoint areas.

In the aftermath of clashes between Sunni Muslim protestors and Iraqi army forces, in Hawija in the Ninawa province in northern Iraq, the Iraqi army has partially withdrawn from the area. The clashes, which occurred when the army entered a camp of protestors, resulted in around 50 dead and over 100 injured. An army officer was also killed and around 30 soldiers injured.

Both sides have differing explanations for how the clashes began. The army says protestors attacked an army checkpoint near the square where they were holding their sit-ins, killing one soldier and injuring two others. As a result the army tried to chase the culprits but they hid among protestors in the camp.

The protestors themselves say the Iraqi army simply attacked their camp and they believe they did so on direct orders from the Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki.

Tensions spread into other provinces but after some further fighting, the conflict is officially supposed to be at an end. This may be so but according to confidential documents sighted by NIQASH, significant numbers of well-equipped peshmerga forces have moved into troubled areas like Hawija, Tikrit and Yayji. Many of these places are part of Iraq’s disputed territories here – that is, terrain that Iraqi Kurdistan says belongs to its semi-autonomous state but that the government in Baghdad believes is part of Iraq proper. The peshmerga appear to have taken the opportunity afforded them by incidents in Hawija to move into some of these areas.

Meanwhile the commander of the controversial Tigris Operation Command, part of the Iraqi army here, wants the peshmerga to withdraw. And his memos appear to indicate that he is ready to confront the peshmerga if they do not move out of areas that he feels his Tigris Operation Command is supposed to oversee. The documents sighted by NIQASH say that the Iraqi army’s 12th brigade was instructed to watch what the peshmerga were doing and that if they did anything out of the ordinary, the brigade was to stop them.

Syrian rebels have freed four Filipino US peacekeepers who they had captured on the ceasefire line between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights last week, the Philippines' foreign minister sai...

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