The King of The "North" Is Coming!

In this forum we can see news and current events of our day that actually fulfill bible prophecy!

Moderator: SNS Administration

User avatar
Esoteric
Co-Administrator
Co-Administrator
Posts: 177
Joined: Tue Jan 13, 2009 4:29 pm
Location: 2008 YORWW Bible Academy Graduate resides YORWW Headquarters

Re: The King of The "North" Is Coming!

Post by Esoteric »

EXCLUSIVE: AFGHANISTAN SETS GROUND RULES FOR TALIBAN TALKS
Reuters - By Sanjeev Miglani and Hamid Shalizi
December 26, 2011
Source of Article

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan will accept a Taliban liaison office in Qatar to start peace talks but no foreign power can get involved in the process without its consent, the government's peace council said, as efforts gather pace to find a solution to the decade-long war.

Afghanistan's High Peace Council, in a note to foreign missions, has set out ground rules for engaging the Taliban after Kabul grew concerned that the United States and Qatar, helped by Germany, had secretly agreed with the Taliban to open an office in the Qatari capital, Doha.

U.S. officials have held about half a dozen meetings with their insurgent contacts, mostly in Germany and Doha with representatives of Mullah Omar, leader of the Taliban's Quetta Shura, this year to prepare the way for face-to-face talks between the group and the Afghan government.

A representative office for the group is considered the starting point for such talks and Doha has in the past served as a meeting ground for initial contacts.

But the Afghan peace commission which has suffered a series of setbacks including the assassination of its head in September said that negotiations with the Taliban could only begin after they stopped violence against civilians, cut ties to al Qaeda, and accepted the Afghan constitution which guarantees civil rights and liberties, including rights for women.

The council, according to a copy of the 11-point note made available to Reuters, also said any peace process with the Taliban would have to have the support of Pakistan since members of the insurgent group were based there.

"The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is in agreement regarding the opening of an office for the armed opposition, but only to move forward the peace process and conduct negotiations," the council said.

The government would prefer such an office in either Saudi Arabia or Turkey, both of which it is close to, but was not averse to Doha as long as the authority of the Afghan state was not eroded and the office was only established for talks, officials said.

"We are saying Saudi or Turkey are preferable, we are not saying it has to be there only. The only condition is it should be in an Islamic country," said a government official.

President Hamid Karzai's administration recalled its ambassador from Doha last week, apparently angry that it had been kept in the dark about the latest round of contacts with the insurgent group.

Officials said Kabul was also deeply concerned about reports that the United States was considering the transfer of a small number of Afghan prisoners from Guantanamo Bay military prison to Doha as a prelude to the talks.

"We are a sovereign country, we have laws. How can you transfer our prisoners from one country to another. Already it's a violation to have them in Guantanamo Bay," the official said.

The Afghan government wanted the prisoners to be returned to its custody, the official said.

Reuters reported this month that the United States was considering the transfer of an unspecified number of Taliban prisoners from Guantanamo Bay into Afghan government custody as part of accelerating, high-stakes diplomacy.

"We have no problem with this. In fact we have been demanding this for a while. These are Afghan prisoners," said the official, who declined to be identified.

The tension between the Karzai administration and the United States over engaging the Taliban underscores the challenges of seeking a political settlement as the West prepares to withdraw most combat troops from the country by 2014.

Efforts to engage the insurgent group have faced a string of setbacks, the most recent being the assassination of the head of the peace council and former president, Burhanuddin Rabbani, in September at the hands of a suicide bomber who pretended to be a Taliban emissary.

HARDENING OF POSITIONS

It led to a hardening of positions with Karzai saying the government could not talk to suicide bombers and that there should be an address for the Taliban so that negotiators know they are talking to the right representatives.

"We are committed to the reconciliation process, the experience of the last 10 years shows no military solution is possible. Talking to the armed opposition is the key in this regard," said presidential spokesman Aimal Faizi.

The peace council, laying down the markers for engagement with the Taliban, said well known figures from both the Taliban and the government had to be involved in talks.

It said that "before any negotiations can take place, violence against Afghan people must stop and that the armed opposition must cut ties to al Qaeda and other terrorist groups."

It also said that the Taliban must accept the constitution and honor the gains made in the last 10 years since they were ousted from power, conditions that the Taliban have shown no sign of accepting.

The Taliban do not accept the constitution and have vowed to carry on fighting until all foreign troops have left the country.

The peace council said Pakistani support was necessary for talks to take place, another condition that makes the task harder because of fraught ties between the United States and Pakistan which fears it is being shut out of the process.

Opening a Taliban office in a third country is seen as a way to create distance from Pakistan which has longstanding ties to the insurgent group.

But the government official said he did not think the peace council had laid down such tough conditions that the talks would fail even before they started.

"We don't think it's a deal breaker. We are quite optimistic," he said.

(Editing by Robert Birsel and Ed Lane)


***
Jeremiah 33:16 {NWT} ...And this is what she will be called, Jehovah Is Our Righteousness.
User avatar
Esoteric
Co-Administrator
Co-Administrator
Posts: 177
Joined: Tue Jan 13, 2009 4:29 pm
Location: 2008 YORWW Bible Academy Graduate resides YORWW Headquarters

Re: The King of The "North" Is Coming!

Post by Esoteric »

'Iran Can Turn Off Oil Tap To EU'


Press TV
Thu Jan 26, 2012 8:9PM GMT
Article Source
Image
A new law drafted by Iranian lawmakers will stop oil supply to Europeans.
A Russian news network says Iran can react to the European Union's new sanctions on its oil sector by stopping oil exports to EU member states.



The Russia Today reported on Thursday that Iran's move will be a good response to EU sanctions which have been already slammed by Iran's close allies like China.

The report quoted Nasser Soudani, a member of Iran Majlis (parliament) Energy Committee, as saying that in reaction to EU measure, Iranian lawmakers are drafting a new law, which would stop oil supply to European countries as soon as possible.

“A number of representatives of the Majlis and I are seeking to approve a bill according to which all European countries that made Iran the target of their sanctions will not be able to buy even one drop of oil from Iran, and oil taps will be turned off to them so that they will not play with fire again,” the lawmaker added.

The report stated that the legislation may be ratified in Iran's Majlis as early as this Sunday, adding that such a ban would result in a fuel shortage in Europe as the countries which joined the sanctions, while receiving a considerable amount of crude from Iran, would not have enough time to secure a substitute.

In their latest meeting in Brussels on January 23, EU foreign ministers imposed new sanctions on Iran which include a ban on purchasing oil from the country, a freeze on the assets of Iran's Central Bank within the EU, and a ban on the sale of diamonds, gold and other precious metals to Iran.

EU foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, claimed that the new sanctions aim to bring Iran back to negotiations with P5+1 -- US, UK, France, Russia, China and Germany -- over the country's peaceful nuclear program.

The United States, Israel and some of their allies accuse Tehran of pursuing military objectives in its nuclear program. Iran has strongly rejected the allegation.


***
Jeremiah 33:16 {NWT} ...And this is what she will be called, Jehovah Is Our Righteousness.
User avatar
Esoteric
Co-Administrator
Co-Administrator
Posts: 177
Joined: Tue Jan 13, 2009 4:29 pm
Location: 2008 YORWW Bible Academy Graduate resides YORWW Headquarters

Re: The King of The "North" Is Coming!

Post by Esoteric »

'No One Can Sell Oil If Iran Cannot'


Press TV
Article Source
Thu Jan 26, 2012 2:42PM GMT
Image
Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior adviser to the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.
A senior Iranian official has dismissed as futile the latest EU sanctions on the country's oil exports, adding that Tehran will not allow a condition to arise wherein others are allowed to sell oil and Iran is not, Press TV reports.


"In the absence of Iranian supply, oil prices will go up and they (the Western states) know it; However, Iran will never allow itself to be in a situation in which it cannot sell oil but other regional states can," Ali Akbar Velayati, senior adviser to the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, told Press TV on Thursday.

Europe's decision to embargo Iranian oil exports is in no one's interest, Velayati said, adding, "Western policy makers know just too well that their sanctions regime is a political maneuver."

"Iran doesn't need any favor from any country to sell its oil, because global demand is always there."

On New Year's Eve, US President Barack Obama signed into law fresh unilateral economic sanctions against Iran's Central Bank in an apparent bid to punish foreign companies and banks that do business with the Iranian financial institution. The bill ultimately takes aim at Iran's oil revenue.

The EU followed suit after it slapped new sanctions against Iran in a meeting of the bloc's foreign ministers on January 23.
Image
Strait of Hormuz is a strategic waterway between the Sea of Oman and the Persian Gulf.
The 27-member bloc agreed to ban oil imports as well as petroleum products from the major OPEC member state and freeze the assets of the Iranian Central Bank across the EU.

The European Union also imposed a ban on the sale of gold, diamonds, and other precious metals to Iran

Iranian authorities have warned that the imposition of sanctions against the country's energy sector will prompt Tehran to choke the oil flow through the Strait of Hormuz.

The Strait of Hormuz is a narrow waterway which connects the Persian Gulf on the west to the Sea of Oman. Statistically, the waterway is one of the world's most important shipping lanes, with a daily flow of about 15 million barrels of oil.


***
Jeremiah 33:16 {NWT} ...And this is what she will be called, Jehovah Is Our Righteousness.
User avatar
Esoteric
Co-Administrator
Co-Administrator
Posts: 177
Joined: Tue Jan 13, 2009 4:29 pm
Location: 2008 YORWW Bible Academy Graduate resides YORWW Headquarters

Re: The King of The "North" Is Coming!

Post by Esoteric »

Arab League Suspends Syria Mission As Violence Rages

Image
Actors wearing giant masks of Bashar al-Assad and Vladimir Putin dump dozens of bloodied body bags outside the UN Security Council building January 24. The Syrian National Council has urged Syria's diaspora to protest outside Russian diplomatic missions against Moscow's opposition to a draft resolution on Syria at the UN Security Council. (AFP Photo/Timothy A. Clary)
Reuters
Article Source
By Ayman Samir and Erika Solomon

CAIRO/BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Arab League suspended its monitoring mission in Syria on Saturday due to deteriorating conditions in the country, as state security forces battled rebels holding three suburbs just outside the capital Damascus.

The decision comes days after the Arab League called for President Bashar al-Assad to step down, following 10 months of revolt against his rule. It will take an Arab peace plan to the U.N. Security Council next week.

"Given the critical deterioration of the situation in Syria and the continued use of violence ... it has been decided to immediately stop the work of the Arab League's mission to Syria pending presentation of the issue to the league's council," Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby said in a statement.

Arab League foreign ministers are expected to discuss early next month the possibility of withdrawing monitors completely, a League official said, but added that the secretary general could pull monitors out at any time if necessary.

A Syrian official said the government could not yet comment.

The Arab League's job was to observe implementation of its peace plan. Though its mandate was extended for a second month, critics lambasted the mission for its failure to stem bloodshed. It was further undermined when Gulf states withdrew their monitors last week, saying the team could not stop the violence.

Diplomatic pressure, tempered by continued support from Russia and regional power Iran, has yet to halt Assad's crackdown on unrest that it blames on foreign-backed militants.

FIGHTING, DEFECTIONS NEAR CAPITAL

Fighting raged outside three rebel-held suburbs of Damascus on Saturday, activists said. They said the army was trying to prevent insurgents from solidifying a stronghold just 15 minutes outside the capital.
Image
Demonstrators protest against Syria's President Bashar al-Assad after Friday prayers in Hula near Homs, January 27, 2012. REUTERS/Handout
But insurgents were emboldened by a string of reports of army desertions amid the fighting. Activists said a group of deserters brought with them the three tanks they operated.

A spokesman for the rebel forces, known as the Free Syrian Army (FSA), said he did not have a complete tally but estimated that over 100 soldiers deserted in the area.

Activists told Reuters by telephone that rebels who control the towns of Saqba, Kafr Batna and Jisreen were exchanging fire with soldiers. Military forces earlier fired from tanks and had used anti-aircraft guns and mortars, they said.

Six residents were killed and dozens wounded as fighting raged, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

A video uploaded by activists, purported to be from a rebel-held Damascus suburb, showed smoke rising from behind a mosque and heavy gunfire erupted in the background as residents screamed "Allahu Akbar (God is greatest)."

It was not possible to verify the video or many of the details from activists, as media access is restricted in Syria

The FSA agreed a truce last week for state forces to withdraw from rebel-held Zabadani, 30 minutes from Damascus. It says the number of desertions there had forced the army's hand.

What began as peaceful protests against four decades of Assad family rule last March has grown more violent as rebels, including army defectors, began fighting back.

"I think they want to try to avoid another Zabadani situation here, so they hope to crush this. But there have been several army defections and we hope this will force them to negotiate," Abu Ishaq said on Skype from the town of Saqba.

Fighting also flared in central Homs province, activists said, after an oil pipeline was blown up on Saturday morning.

The United Nations said in December that more than 5,000 people had been killed by Syrian forces. Syria says over 2,000 security forces have been killed by militants.
Image
Syrian people carry a coffin during the funeral of Mazen abou Dhahab who killed in a protest in Saqba in Damascus suburbs, January 27, 2012. REUTERS/ Ahmed Jadallah (SYRIA - Tags: CIVIL UNREST POLITICS)
The state news agency SANA said "terrorist groups" killed seven soldiers, including an officer, in the Damascus suburbs on Saturday. SANA also reported the burial of 28 members of Syrian security forces killed in several revolt hotspots across the country, showing pictures of bloodied corpses and a funeral procession lead by soldiers carrying flower wreaths.

U.N. RESOLUTION TALKS

In the central city of Hama activists said they found the bodies of 17 men previously in security force custody, shot in the head. They said the killing took place during a military offensive on the town this week.

On Friday, the Security Council discussed a European-Arab draft U.N. Security Council resolution aimed at halting the bloodshed in Syria. Britain and France said they hoped to put the draft resolution to a vote next week.

The Arab League's deputy secretary general said the group was also in talks with Russia ahead of its Security Council meeting this week.

There was no comment yet from Russian officials, but Moscow's U.N. ambassador Vitaly Churkin previously said Russia found the plan unacceptable though he said Moscow was willing to "engage."

Russia joined China in vetoing a previous Western draft resolution in October and which has since promoted its own draft. Churkin said Moscow wanted a Syrian-led political process, not "an Arab League-imposed outcome of a political process that has not yet taken place" or Libyan-style "regime change.

The prominent opposition Syrian National Council said it was joining the Arab League at its Security Council meeting to request "protection." The SNC has previously called for international forces to implement a no-fly zone in Syria.

Turkish officials say the number of Syrians seeking sanctuary in Turkey has risen in the past six weeks, with 50 to 60 arriving daily, taking the total living in refugee camps to nearly 9,600.

More than 6,000 Syrian refugees have fled to Lebanon.

(Additional reporting by Shaimaa Fayed in Cairo, Khaled Yacoub Oweis in Amman, Joseph Logan in Dubai, Steve Gutterman in Moscow, Louis Charbonneau at the United Nations and Simon Cameron-Moore in Istanbul)


***
Jeremiah 33:16 {NWT} ...And this is what she will be called, Jehovah Is Our Righteousness.
User avatar
Esoteric
Co-Administrator
Co-Administrator
Posts: 177
Joined: Tue Jan 13, 2009 4:29 pm
Location: 2008 YORWW Bible Academy Graduate resides YORWW Headquarters

Re: The King of The "North" Is Coming!

Post by Esoteric »

Syria Forces Shell Homs, Saudis Push U.N. Resolution

Image
Demonstrators gather during a protest against Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in Homs February 10, 2012. REUTERS/Handout
Reuters
Article Source
By Khaled Yacoub Oweis and Angus MacSwan
Sat, Feb 11, 2012

AMMAN/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian forces unleashed new tank and rocket bombardments on opposition neighborhoods of Homs on Saturday while diplomats sought U.N. backing for an Arab plan to end 11 months of bloodshed in Syria.

Activists said seven people were killed in the latest attacks in a week-long government siege of Homs, a battered city at the heart of the uprising to oust President Bashar al-Assad.

"The four included a 55-year-old woman. They were killed by shelling that hit their building in Bab Amro," a Homs opposition activist, Mohammad Hassan, told Reuters by satellite telephone.

The bloodshed followed a day of violence across Syria on Friday, when bombings targeting security bases killed at least 28 people in Aleppo and rebel fighters battled troops in a Damascus suburb after dark.

Assad has ignored repeated international appeals, the latest from the European Union, to halt his violent crackdown.

"I am appalled by the reports of the brutal attacks by the Syrian armed forces in Homs. I condemn in the strongest terms these acts perpetrated by the Syrian regime against its own civilian," EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said.

"The international community must speak with one voice, demanding an end to the bloodshed and urging Assad to step aside and allow a democratic transition."

However, the world is deeply divided over how to end the Syria conflict. On Sunday Russia and China vetoed a draft U.N. Security Council resolution sponsored by Western and Arab states that backed an Arab League call for Assad to step down.

HOMS SUFFERS

The government offensive on opposition-held, mostly Sunni Muslim areas of Homs has killed at least 300 people in the past week, according to activists. Food and medical supplies are running low in blockaded areas, where many people are trapped in their houses, fearful of coming under fire if they step out.

Accounts could not be independently confirmed as Syria restricts access by most foreign journalists.

Youtube footage provided by activists showed a doctor at a field hospital next to the body of the woman. "Shrapnel hit her in the head and completely drained her brain matter," he says.

In Damascus, Free Syrian Army rebels fought for four hours on Friday night against troops backed by armored vehicles who had entered al-Qaboun neighborhood, activists said.

The rebels said they had sustained several casualties but it was not known if any had died of their wounds.

The fighting showed how opposition to Assad, whose family, from the Alawite minority, has ruled Syria for 42 years, has increasingly evolved from street protests to armed insurrection.

World powers fear a slide into all-out civil war which could inflame a region already riven by revolts and rivalries from Bahrain and Yemen to Iran and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Gulf Arab states, the United States, Europe and Turkey are leading diplomatics effort to force Assad to end his 11-year rule. But they have ruled out a military intervention of the kind that helped bring down Libya's Muammar Gaddafi last year.

Assad can count on the support of Russia, Syria's main arms supplier and an ally stretching back to the Soviet era, as well as Iran. Moscow, which is keen to counter U.S. influence in the Middle East, insists foreign powers should not interfere.

A new diplomatic showdown was shaping up at the United Nations this weekend. Saudi Arabia circulated a draft resolution backing an Arab peace plan for Syria among members of the U.N. General Assembly on Friday, diplomats said. The text echoed the one vetoed by Russia and China in the Security Council.

Like the failed resolution, the assembly draft "fully supports" the Arab League plan floated last month, which among other things calls for Assad to step aside.

Russia and China said the Security Council draft was unbalanced and failed to blame Syria's opposition, along with the government, for violence in which thousands have died.

The United Nations, which says it can no longer tally casualties, estimated in mid-December that the security forces had killed more than 5,000. A week later, the government said armed "terrorists" had killed over 2,000 soldiers and police.

The assembly draft, seen by Reuters, calls for an end to violence by all sides, but primarily blames Syrian authorities for "continued widespread and systematic violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms."

The 193-nation body's resolutions have no legal force, unlike those of the Security Council, but were the Syria text to pass it would add to pressure on Assad and his government.

The assembly is due to discuss Syria on Monday, with a vote on the resolution expected later in the week.

Russia has already made its position clear.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, accusing unspecified

Western states of arming the rebels, said on Friday: "The U.N. Council is not a tool for intervention in internal affairs and is not the agency to decide which government is to be next in one country or another.

"If our foreign partners don't understand that, we will have to use drastic measures to return them to real grounds."


***
Jeremiah 33:16 {NWT} ...And this is what she will be called, Jehovah Is Our Righteousness.
User avatar
Esoteric
Co-Administrator
Co-Administrator
Posts: 177
Joined: Tue Jan 13, 2009 4:29 pm
Location: 2008 YORWW Bible Academy Graduate resides YORWW Headquarters

Re: The King of The "North" Is Coming!

Post by Esoteric »

Koran Burning at U.S. Base Sparks Afghan Protests
Image
Protesters throw stones toward US soldiers standing at the gate of Bagram airbase . The US commander in Afghanistan, General John Allen, apologised and ordered an investigation into a report that troops "improperly disposed of a large number of Islamic religious materials which included Korans"
ABC News
By ALEEM AGHA and NICK SCHIFRIN
Article Source
February 21, 2012

Troops on the U.S.'s largest base in Afghanistan have inadvertently burned Korans and other religious materials, triggering angry protests and fears of even larger demonstrations as news of the burning spreads.

The books were mistakenly thrown out with the trash at Bagram Air Field north of Kabul and were on a burn pile Monday night before Afghan laborers intervened around 11:00 p.m., according to NATO and Afghan officials.

The workers doused the flames with their jackets and mineral water before marching out of Bagram in a fury, carrying with them the charred remains, according to Sabir Safar, secretary of the provincial council of Parwan, the province where Bagram is located.

By the morning, hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside of Bagram and on the outskirts of Kabul. Some shot into the air, some threw rocks at the Bagram gate, and others yelled, "Die, die foreigners." Many of them were the same people who work with foreign troops inside the base. At one point, apparently worried that the base would be stormed, guards at the base fired rubber bullets into the crowd, according to the military.

"They should leave Afghanistan rather than disrespecting our religion, our faith," Mohammad Hakim told the Associated Press outside of Bagram. "They have to leave and if next time they disrespect our religion, we will defend our holy Koran, religion and faith until the last drop of blood has left in our body."

There is perhaps no action that enrages Afghans more than foreigners' mistreating the Koran. It taps into widespread doubt of whether Americans respect Islam as well as deep frustration that, more than 10 years after the Taliban were overthrown, violence remains widespread. Korans are supposed to be buried or released into a flowing river if they need to be disposed.
Image
Afghan protestors are seen in front of the US base of Bagram during an anti US demonstration in Bagram north of Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2012. More than 2,000 angry Afghans, some firing guns in the air, protested on Tuesday against the improper disposal and burning of Qurans and other Islamic religious materials at an American air base in Bagram north of Kabul. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)
NATO officials scrambled furiously to contain the fallout, tweeting and emailing reporters not long after the first protests began. Gen. John Allen, the commander of all foreign forces in Afghanistan, released a statement, then a video statement, then gave an interview to NATO television. In his and in all NATO officials' communication today, each emphasized that the burning was unintentional.

"Those materials were inadvertently given to troops for disposition and that disposition was to burn the materials. It was not a decision that was made because they were religious materials," Allen told NATO TV. "It was not a decision that was made with respect to the faith of Islam. It was a mistake, it was an error. The moment we found out about it we immediately stopped and we intervened."

Allen launched an investigation and promised to take steps that the same incident would not be repeated.

"This is not who we are. These are very, very isolated incidents," Allen said. "We've been dying alongside the Afghans for a long time because we believe in them, we believe in their country, we want to have every opportunity to give them a bright future."

In the morning, U.S. officials on Bagram escorted local Afghan elders to the site of the burning. Ahmad Zaki Zahed, the chief of the provincial council, said 60 to 70 books had been recovered from the fire, including Korans that were once used by detainees at the base.

"Some were all burned. Some were half-burned," Zahed told the Associated Press.

The protesters' fury was immediate, but Afghan officials eventually calmed them down by the afternoon. They demanded to see President Hamid Karzai and threatened to resume demonstrations.

Previous reports of Koran burning have led to deadly protests in Afghanistan. In April, 2011, after a fringe protester burned a Koran, a mob in a usually peaceful northern city stormed the United Nations compound and killed at least seven foreigners. In May, 2005, Afghan police killed at least four demonstrators angry over a report that an American interrogator in Guantanamo Bay prison flushed a Koran down a toilet.

While today's reaction was quick and furious, the protests might have been larger if it wasn't snowing and if it had happened at a different time. Many Afghans did not know about the burning because it occurred late last night and news is generally consumed during television newscasts in the evenings, at home. Many Afghans and Westerners fear that protests could get larger Wednesday and the rest of the week.

"Past demonstrations in Afghanistan have escalated into violent attacks on Western targets of opportunity," the U.S. embassy said in statement known as a Warden Message, sent to Americans living in Afghanistan. "U.S. citizens in Afghanistan should remain vigilant and avoid areas where Westerners congregate. Avoid large public gatherings or demonstrations. Do not discuss travel plans or other personal matters with strangers, or in public."

Far to the south, in an area where a surge of U.S. troops has removed many Taliban safehavens, insurgents reminded the local population that they still held considerable sway.

In the Washer district of Helmand, insurgents beheaded four people they accused of spying for the U.S., according to the Helmand governor's spokesman. The Taliban denied any involvement in the executions, claiming they were carried out by Western intelligence officials to bring the Taliban a bad name.


***
Jeremiah 33:16 {NWT} ...And this is what she will be called, Jehovah Is Our Righteousness.
User avatar
Esoteric
Co-Administrator
Co-Administrator
Posts: 177
Joined: Tue Jan 13, 2009 4:29 pm
Location: 2008 YORWW Bible Academy Graduate resides YORWW Headquarters

Re: The King of The "North" Is Coming!

Post by Esoteric »

Four Killed, Many Wounded In Afghan Koran Protests - Report

Image
Afghan protesters hold rocks during a protest near a U.S. military base in Kabul February 22, 2012. Several people were wounded on Wednesday, witnesses said, when shots were fired as hundreds of angry Afghans gathered in a second day of violent clashes after copies of the Koran, Islam's holy book, were burned at NATO's main base in Afghanistan. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood
Reuters
By Mirwais Harooni and Hamid Shalizi
Article Source
Wednesday, February 22, 2012

KABUL (Reuters) - Four people were shot dead and dozens wounded in protests in Afghanistan which flared for a second day on Wednesday in several cities over the burning of copies of the Koran, Islam's holy book, at NATO's main base in the country, officials said.

The American Embassy said its staff were in "lockdown" and travel had been suspended as thousands of people expressed fury over the burning, a public relations disaster for U.S.-led NATO forces fighting Taliban militants ahead of the withdrawal of foreign combat troops by the end of 2014.

The U.S. government and the American commander of NATO-led forces in Afghanistan apologized after Afghan laborers found charred copies of the Koran while collecting rubbish at the sprawling Bagram Airbase about an hour's drive north of Kabul.

The apologies failed to contain the anger. Thousands of Afghans took to the streets again, chanting anti-American slogans.

Winning the hearts and minds of Afghans is critical to efforts to defeat the Taliban. Similar incidents in the past have caused deep divisions and resentment among Afghans towards the tens of thousands of foreign troops in Afghanistan.

Seven foreign UN workers were killed during protests that raged across Afghanistan for three days in April 2011 after a U.S. pastor burned a Koran in Florida.

A senior Afghan security official, citing reports from police, told Reuters that Western security contractors working at a U.S. military camp in Kabul opened fire on protesters and wounded several.

Witness Rahimullah, 17, said his brother, Ghafar, 23, was shot by one of the contractors in the right leg when he was throwing stones during the demonstration.

"He is right now in Daoud Khan Hospital," Rahimullah said of the central Kabul hospital.

International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) officials said they were unaware of the shootings.

Later, wounded protesters along the busy Jalalabad road on the fringe of Kabul said Afghan police had fired on them.

CULTURAL SENSITIVITIES

Twenty-one people, including 11 policemen, were wounded in the capital, said Mohammad Zahir, head of Kabul police's crimes unit. They included the city police chief, Ayoub Salangi, who was hit in the ankle by a stone.

In Parwan province, home Bagram, two people were shot dead by Afghan police and 13 wounded while attacking offices, provincial spokesman Roshan Khalid said.

A protester was shot dead by police in Logar province, east of the capital, the governor's spokesman, Deen Mohammad Darwish, said.

***To see ABC News Video on this story, please click here: http://news.yahoo.com/video/us-15749625/28383593

Afghan health ministry spokesman Ghulam Sakhi Kargar said one person also died in hospital in Kabul from gunshot wounds received during one of two shooting incidents at protests in at least four areas of the capital.

Critics say Western troops often fail to grasp the country's religious and cultural sensitivities. Muslims consider the Koran the literal word of God and treat each book with deep reverence.

Demonstrations by as many as 2,000 people broke out as word of the Bagram find spread.

Police said most injuries were caused by flying stones and sticks hurled by protesters. Demonstrators had charged police lines and nearby military bases at a protest on the edge of Kabul, burning tires and smashing vehicles and building windows.

Protesters shouted "Death to America!" and "Death to (President Hamid) Karzai" in a large demonstration on the outskirts of the Afghan capital.

"When the Americans insult us to this degree, we will join the insurgents," said Ajmal, an 18-year-old protester in Kabul.

Demonstrators set fire to part of a housing compound used by foreign contract workers. A Reuters witness said the fire damaged part of a guesthouse at the Green Village complex, where 1,500 mostly foreign contractors live and work.

Outrage also spilled over in the Afghan parliament, where several members shouted "death to America" inside the legislative chamber.

The protests spread to several cities. In Jalalabad in the east, demonstrators praised the leader of the Afghan Taliban, the secretive Mullah Mohammad Omar, screaming "Long live Mullah Omar!", Reuters witnesses said. Five people were wounded, the governor's spokesman said.

Afghan media said demonstrations had also erupted in the province of Parwan, near the capital.

In Logar province, hundreds protested in front of the governor's office. Some threw stones. Separate protests were also under way in Jalalabad in the east.

Some protesters burned U.S. flags and shouted "Death to America". Others torched fuel tankers near the city's airport.

In neighboring Pakistan's largest city Karachi, around a hundred Islamic seminary students protested against the Koran burnings.

"Pakistan's government should summon the American ambassador and demand an apology. And if he doesn't apologize, he should be kicked out of the country," said Abdul Basit, one of the protest leaders.

Others took a harder line.

"No forgiveness for the desecrators of the Koran," a section of the crowd shouted. "Only death."


***
Jeremiah 33:16 {NWT} ...And this is what she will be called, Jehovah Is Our Righteousness.
User avatar
Esoteric
Co-Administrator
Co-Administrator
Posts: 177
Joined: Tue Jan 13, 2009 4:29 pm
Location: 2008 YORWW Bible Academy Graduate resides YORWW Headquarters

Re: The King of The "North" Is Coming!

Post by Esoteric »

Attacks Across Baghdad, Iraq Provinces Kill 48

Image
Associated Press
By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA and SAMEER N. YACOUB
Article Source
February 23, 2012

BAGHDAD (AP) — Officials say attacks across Baghdad and several Iraqi provinces have killed 48 people and wounded more than 200 in an unrelenting wave of violence that mostly appeared to target security forces.

Thursday's attacks unfolded over a two-and-a-half-hour period, showing the extremists' continued ability to coordinate violence and sow chaos and fear through Iraq's communities.

Most of the deaths were in Baghdad but militants also struck 10 other cities, hitting security patrols, government offices, restaurants and a school.

The casualties were tallied by local security and hospital officials in the cities where the attacks occurred.

Nearly all spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to release the information.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

BAGHDAD (AP) — A swift series of bombings and shootings killed 35 people across the Iraqi capital early Thursday in attacks that mostly appeared to target police, officials said.

In the worst attack, a car bomb went off near a security checkpoint in Baghdad's downtown shopping district of Karradah killing nine people. Twenty-six people were wounded in that attack, including four policemen, the officials said.

Associated Press footage of the scene showed blood-covered people walking away, and storefronts at several nearby shops were damaged. A gray cloud of smoke hung over the blast site where cars were charred and crumpled.

At least eight more bombs exploded during the morning across Baghdad, killing 18 more people.

And on opposite sides of the capital, gunmen with silenced pistols killed a total of eight policemen at security checkpoints, officials said.

The casualties were confirmed by Baghdad hospital officials. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.

The violence did not stop at Baghdad. Attacks in Baqouba, Kirkuk and in Salahuddin provinces were also reported in the relentless string of assaults that unfolded over a two-hour period.

Officials in Baqouba, 35 miles (60 kilometers) northeast of the capital, said a suicide bomber blew up his car outside a police station near a market. Two people were killed and eight wounded.

In the ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk, 180 miles (290 kilometers) north of Baghdad, two police patrols hit roadside bombs. Twenty policemen were injured in the attacks, said police Maj. Gen. Sarhat Qadir.

Bombs in the town of Tuz Khormato outside Kirkuk, wounded three guards outside the office of a Kurdish political party. And south of Baghdad, eight policemen were wounded by a roadside bomb in the town of Madain, said Mayor Jalal Baban. Madain is about 14 miles (20 kilometers) southeast of the capital.

Widespread violence has decreased since just a few years ago when Iraq teetered on the brink of civil war. But bombings and deadly shootings still happen almost daily.

Iraq's police are generally considered to be the weakest element of the country's security forces. Earlier this week, 20 policemen and recruits were killed by a suicide bomber outside the Baghdad police academy that angry residents blamed on political feuding that is roiling Iraq.

The country has been besieged by political turbulence that began the day after U.S. troops pulled out of Iraq, when an arrest warrant was issued for Sunni Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi on charges he commandeered death squads targeting security forces and government officials.

Al-Hashemi, the country's highest-ranking Sunni, has denied the charges that he described as politically motivated, and blamed the Shiite-led government of trying to unseat him.

Experts worry the case will hike Iraq's already-simmering sectarian tensions.


***
Jeremiah 33:16 {NWT} ...And this is what she will be called, Jehovah Is Our Righteousness.
User avatar
Esoteric
Co-Administrator
Co-Administrator
Posts: 177
Joined: Tue Jan 13, 2009 4:29 pm
Location: 2008 YORWW Bible Academy Graduate resides YORWW Headquarters

Re: The King of The "North" Is Coming!

Post by Esoteric »

Syrian Tanks Attack Homs, World Outrage Grows

Image
Syrian tanks are seen in Bab Amro near the city of Homs.
Reuters
By Khaled Yacoub Oweis and Alistair Lyon
Article Source
February 23, 2012

AMMAN/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian tanks pushed into a rebel stronghold in the battered city of Homs on Thursday and U.N. investigators accused President Bashar al-Assad's government of crimes against humanity.

Rockets, shells and mortar rounds rained on the Baba Amro district, where armed insurgents are holed up with terrified civilians, for the 20th day in a row, activists said. The Sunni Muslim quarters of Inshaat and Khalidiya also came under fire.

Homs-based activist Abu Imad said tanks had entered the Jobar area in the south of Baba Amro.

"Explosions are shaking the whole of Homs. God have mercy," Abdallah al-Hadi said from the city, where more than 80 people, including two Western journalists and Syrian opposition citizen journalist Rami al-Sayed, were reported killed on Wednesday.

Western diplomats said it had not yet been possible to extract the bodies of Marie Colvin, an American working for Britain's Sunday Times, and French photographer Remi Ochlik.

Three journalists wounded in the same attack - British photographer Paul Conroy, French reporter Edith Bouvier and Paris-based photographer William Daniels - were also awaiting evacuation from the wrecked Baba Amro neighborhood.

The Syrian Information Ministry said it "rejects accusations that Syria is responsible for the deaths of journalists who infiltrated into the country on their own responsibility, without the authorities knowing about their entry or location."

The plight of Homs and other embattled towns will dominate "Friends of Syria" talks in Tunis on Friday involving the United States, European and Arab countries, Turkey and other nations demanding that Assad halt the bloodshed and relinquish power.

Russia, which along with China has vetoed two U.N. Security Council resolutions on Syria, has said it will not attend.

DEMAND FOR ACCESS

U.S. officials said the Friends of Syria group would challenge Assad to provide humanitarian access within days to civilians embroiled in the intensifying conflict.

The army is blocking medical supplies to parts of Homs and electricity is cut off 15 hours a day, activists say. Hospitals, schools, shops and government offices are closed.

The International Committee of the Red Cross has been trying to get the government and rebel forces to agree daily two-hour ceasefires. Access for aid workers will also be the focus of a planned visit to Syria by U.N. humanitarian chief Valerie Amos.

France said the Tunis conference would illustrate Assad's isolation. "It will recall that the international community has condemned the regime's venture into criminality," Foreign Ministry spokesman Romain Nadal told an online news briefing.

World outrage has swelled over the carnage in Syria, where thousands have been killed since the anti-Assad uprising flared in March, inspired by revolts against Arab autocrats elsewhere.

U.N. investigators said Syrian forces had shot dead unarmed women and children, shelled residential areas and tortured wounded protesters in hospital under orders issued at the "highest levels" of the army and government.

In their report to the U.N. Human Rights Council, they called for perpetrators of such crimes against humanity to face prosecution and said they had drawn up a confidential list of names of commanders and officials alleged to be responsible.

The commission, led by Brazilian Paulo Pinheiro, found that Free Syrian Army rebels had also committed abuses including killings and abductions, "although not comparable in scale."

Syrian authorities could not be immediately reached for comment on the commission's latest findings, but they rejected its previous report in November as "totally false."

DESOLATE SCENES

Footage shot by activists in Homs shows blasted buildings, empty streets and doctors treating casualties in makeshift clinics in Baba Amro after nearly three weeks of bombardment.

In violence elsewhere, a youth and a five-year-old boy were killed when troops fought army deserters in the southern city of Deraa, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The British-based group said a 35-year-old man was killed and six people were wounded by the security forces in the town of Maarat Numan in the northwestern province of Idlib.

The state news agency SANA said three members of the security forces were killed and seven wounded by a bomb planted by "armed terrorists" near the city of Idlib.

It also reported the funerals of 16 members of the security forces it said had been killed by insurgents in Homs, Deraa, Hama, Suweida and the Damascus countryside.

Army deserters and other rebels have taken up arms in some parts of Syria to resist a violent response by the authorities to what began as mostly peaceful protests against Assad's 11-year rule and decades of dominance by his minority Alawite sect.

In the United States, Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich advocated arming Syrian insurgents.

"We need to work with Saudi Arabia and with Turkey to say, 'You guys provide the kind of weaponry that's needed to help the rebels inside Syria,'" Romney said.

The White House, which so far has been against military intervention in Syria, has hinted that if a political solution were impossible it might have to consider other options.

Several hundred people have been killed in Homs by troops using artillery, tanks, rockets and sniper fire.

Residents fear Assad will subject the city to the same fate his late father Hafez inflicted on Hama, where many thousands were killed in the crushing of an armed Islamist revolt in 1982.

Assad has called a referendum on a new constitution on Sunday, to be followed by a multi-party parliamentary election, which he says is a response to calls for reform. The plan is supported by his allies Russia and China but Western powers have dismissed it and the Syrian opposition has called for a boycott.


***
Jeremiah 33:16 {NWT} ...And this is what she will be called, Jehovah Is Our Righteousness.
User avatar
Esoteric
Co-Administrator
Co-Administrator
Posts: 177
Joined: Tue Jan 13, 2009 4:29 pm
Location: 2008 YORWW Bible Academy Graduate resides YORWW Headquarters

Re: The King of The "North" Is Coming!

Post by Esoteric »

Obama Apologizes to Karzai Over Bagram Koran Burnings

Image
Yahoo News
By Olivier Knox
Article Source
February 23, 2012

President Obama apologized Thursday in a letter to Afghan President Hamid Karzai for the burning of Korans at the largest American military base in Afghanistan. The incident at Bagram Air Base has fueled days of angry protests in the war-torn country, according to the White House and Karzai's office.

"I wish to express my deep regret for the reported incident," Karzai's office quoted Obama as saying in the message. "The error was inadvertent; I assure you that we will take the appropriate steps to avoid any recurrence, to include holding accountable those responsible."

Three days of protests over the incident have left 14 people dead, including two American soldiers shot dead when an Afghan soldier turned his weapon on them at their base in Khogyani in eastern Nangarhar province, district governor Mohammad Hassan told AFP.

White House officials declined to challenge the wording.

US Ambassador Ryan Crocker delivered the letter to Karzai on Thursday afternoon, local time, according to US National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor.

Obama "expressed our regret and apologies over the incident in which religious materials were unintentionally mishandled at Bagram Airbase," Vietor said in an emailed statement.

The incident, which occurred on Tuesday, led the Taliban to call on Afghans to retaliate against the US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan and drew a stern rebuke from Karzai himself earlier this week.


***
Jeremiah 33:16 {NWT} ...And this is what she will be called, Jehovah Is Our Righteousness.
User avatar
Esoteric
Co-Administrator
Co-Administrator
Posts: 177
Joined: Tue Jan 13, 2009 4:29 pm
Location: 2008 YORWW Bible Academy Graduate resides YORWW Headquarters

Re: The King of The "North" Is Coming!

Post by Esoteric »

Twelve Killed In Protests Across Afghanistan

Image
Afghan protesters carry a wounded man during clashes with the police in Kabul February 24, 2012. Nine more people were killed on Friday in protests in Afghanistan over the burning of copies of the Koran at a NATO base, officials said. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood
Reuters
By Mirwais Harooni and Hamid Shalizi
Article Source
February 25, 2012

KABUL (Reuters) - Twelve people were killed on Friday in the bloodiest day yet in protests that have raged across Afghanistan over the desecration of copies of the Muslim holy book at a NATO military base with riot police and soldiers on high alert braced for more violence.

The burning of the Korans at the Bagram compound earlier this week has deepened public mistrust of NATO forces struggling to stabilize Afghanistan before foreign combat troops withdraw in 2014.

Hundreds of Afghans marched toward the palace of Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul, while on the other side of the capital protesters hoisted the white flag of the Taliban.
Image
Supporters of the political and religious party Jamat-e-Islami burn an effigy of U.S. President Barack Obama while others beat it with sticks during an anti-U.S. rally in Peshawar February 24, 2012. About 100 protesters gathered on the streets of Peshawar to condemn the burning of copies of the Koran at NATO's main base in Afghanistan on Tuesday. REUTERS/Fayaz Aziz
Chanting "Death to America!" and "Long live Islam!," protesters also threw rocks at police in Kabul, while Afghan army helicopters circled above.

Friday is a holy day and the official weekly holiday in Afghanistan and mosques in the capital drew large crowds, with police in pick-up trucks posted on nearby streets.

Armed protesters took refuge in shops in the eastern part of the city, where they killed one demonstrator, said police at the scene. In another Kabul rally, police said they were unsure who fired the shots that killed a second protester.

Seven more protesters were killed in the western province of Herat, two more in eastern Khost province and one in the relatively peaceful northern Baghlan province, health and local officials said. In Herat, around 500 men charged at the U.S. consulate.

U.S. President Barack Obama had sent a letter to Karzai apologizing for the unintentional burning of the Korans at NATO's main Bagram air base, north of Kabul, after Afghan laborers found charred copies while collecting rubbish.

Muslims consider the Koran to be the literal word of God and treat each copy with deep reverence. Desecration is considered one of the worst forms of blasphemy.

Afghanistan wants NATO to put those responsible on public trial.
Image
Afghans shout anti-US slogans during a demonstration in Mehterlam, Laghman province east of Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday, Feb. 23, 2012. Afghan police on Thursday fired shots in the air to disperse hundreds of protesters who tried to break into an American military base in the country's east to vent their anger over this week's Quran burnings incident. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)
In neighboring U.S. ally Pakistan, about 400 members of a hardline Islamist group staged protests. "If you burn the Koran, we will burn you," they shouted.

To Afghanistan's west, Iranian cleric Ahmad Khatami said the U.S. had purposely burned the Korans. "These apologies are fake. The world should know that America is against Islam," he said in a speech broadcast live on state radio.

"It (the Koran burning) was not a mistake. It was an intentional move, done on purpose."

Most Westerners have been confined to their heavily fortified compounds, including at the sprawling U.S. embassy complex and other diplomatic missions, as protests that have killed a total of 23 people, including two U.S. soldiers, rolled into their fourth day. The embassy, in a message on the microblogging site Twitter, urged U.S. citizens to "please be safe out there" and expanded movement restrictions to relatively peaceful northern provinces, where large demonstrations also occurred Thursday, including the attempted storming of a Norwegian military base.

The Taliban urged Afghan security forces Thursday to "turn their guns on the foreign infidel invaders" and repeatedly urged Afghans to kill, beat and capture NATO soldiers.

Germany, which has the third-largest foreign presence in the NATO-led war, pulled out several weeks early of a small base in the northern Takhar province Friday over security concerns, a defense ministry spokesman said.


***
Jeremiah 33:16 {NWT} ...And this is what she will be called, Jehovah Is Our Righteousness.
User avatar
Esoteric
Co-Administrator
Co-Administrator
Posts: 177
Joined: Tue Jan 13, 2009 4:29 pm
Location: 2008 YORWW Bible Academy Graduate resides YORWW Headquarters

Re: The King of The "North" Is Coming!

Post by Esoteric »

U.S. Soldier Accused of Killing 16 Afghans, Including Women and Children

Image
An elderly Afghan man sits next to a covered body, who was allegedly killed by a U.S. service member, in a minibus in Panjwai, Kandahar province south of Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, March 11, 2012. (Allauddin Khan/AP Photo)
ABC News
Article Source
By MUHAMMAD LILA (@muhammadlila) and MARTHA RADDATZ (@martharaddatz)
March 11, 2012

Investigators are trying to learn what set off an Army veteran of three tours in Iraq who left his base in the middle of the night and methodically massacred 16 Afghan civilians -- most of them children and women.

The attack comes just as outrage over the burning of several Korans by members of the U.S. military seemed to be calming down, but now there are new fears of retaliation against U.S. troops.

Local villagers responded with outrage, saying American forces are supposed to be there to protect them, not enter their homes and slaughter their families in the middle of the night.

Nine of the victims were children, and three were women, all shot while they slept in their beds, according to villagers and the Afghan president's office.

One grieving mother, holding a dead baby in her arms, said, "They killed a child, was this child the Taliban? Believe me, I haven't seen a 2-year-old member of the Taliban yet."

Afghan President Hamid Karzai called it "an assassination -- one that can not be forgiven."

U.S. officials were quick to condemn the attack.

"I offer my profound regret and deepest condolences to the victims and their families," Gen. John Allen, head of NATO forces in Afghanistan, said in a statement.

"This deeply appalling incident in no way represents the values of ISAF [International Security Assistance Force] and coalition troops or the abiding respect we feel for the Afghan people."

After the alleged shooting spree, it's believed the soldier returned to the base on his own, and calmly turned himself in. He remains in NATO custody. It's unclear whether the soldier knew the victims or whether the alleged attack was spontaneous and unprovoked. It's also unknown whether he had any accomplices.

The soldier's name has not been released, but a U.S. official told ABC News he is a 38-year-old staff sergeant who is married with two children, and served three tours in Iraq. This was his first tour in Afghanistan, where he has been since early December, the official said.

The shooting took place at 3 a.m. in two villages in the Panjwai district of southern Kandahar province, a hotbed for the Taliban insurgency against U.S .forces. The two villages are a short walk away from the U.S. base where the soldier was stationed.

Photos from the scene show blood-splattered floors and walls inside a villagers home, one of three believed to have been attached, and blood-soaked bodies of victims, including the elderly and young children, wrapped in blankets and placed in the backseat of a van. Some of the bodies appear to have been burned.

NATO has launched its own investigation, and Karzai has sent his delegation to Kandahar for its own inquiry.

President Obama "was was informed this morning of the incident by his senior national security staff and received a briefing from them early this afternoon before calling President Karzai," deputy National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said of the Afghanistan shooting. "This afternoon's meeting included National Security Adviser Tom Donilon, Deputy National Security Adviser Denis McDonough, and Special Assistant to the President for Afghanistan and Pakistan Doug Lute."

In a seperate statement, the White House said that Obama called "President Karzai to express his shock and sadness at the reported killing and wounding of Afghan civilians. President Obama extended his condolences to the people of Afghanistan, and made clear his Administration's commitment to establish the facts as quickly as possible and to hold fully accountable anyone responsible. The president reaffirmed our deep respect for the Afghan people and the bonds between our two countries."

Meanwhile, the U.S. Embassy posted a warning today for U.S. citizens to avoid Kandahar in anticipation of "Anti-American sentiment."

The shooting is certain to further strain U.S.-Afghan relations, already suffering from weeks of mistrust after U.S. forces burned Korans and other religious materials at a detention center near Kabul.

U.S. officials, including Gen. Allen and Obama apologized for the incident, insisting it was done unintentionally, but it led to deadly riots in many cities and towns, leaving at least 30 Afghans dead.

Six U.S. soldiers were also killed, all by members of Afghanistan's national security forces, in alleged revenge attacks.


***
Jeremiah 33:16 {NWT} ...And this is what she will be called, Jehovah Is Our Righteousness.
User avatar
Esoteric
Co-Administrator
Co-Administrator
Posts: 177
Joined: Tue Jan 13, 2009 4:29 pm
Location: 2008 YORWW Bible Academy Graduate resides YORWW Headquarters

Re: The King of The "North" Is Coming!

Post by Esoteric »

U.S. Soldier's Alleged Deadly Rampage: Taliban Vow Revenge


By MUHAMMAD LILA and MARTHA RADDATZ
Article Source
Good Morning America
Monday, March 12, 2012, 16 hours ago

[flash=]http://news.yahoo.com/video/us-15749625/28584190[/flash]

The Taliban has vowed revenge against "sick-minded American savages" after a U.S. soldier was accused of going on a deadly shooting rampage Sunday.

The group said it would "take revenge from the invaders and the savage murderers for every single martyr," according to a statement posted on its website, the Times of London reported.

An Army veteran of three tours in Iraq who left his base in the middle of the night is suspected of methodically killing 16 Afghan civilians, most of them children and women.

The soldier's name has not been released, but a U.S. official told ABC News he is a 38-year-old staff sergeant who is married with two children. He is apparently based at Fort Lewis in Washington state.

The soldier wore night-vision goggles during the alleged rampage and has "lawyered up" and declined to talk, according to a source.

The fear now is that this latest incident could set off a fresh wave of violence.

The attack comes just as outrage stemming from burning of several Korans by members of the U.S. military seemed to be calming down.

The U.S. Embassy in Kabul has warned foreigners to keep a low profile.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai called it "an assassination, one that cannot be forgiven."

The Afghan parliament has passed a resolution in protest of the killings, and asked for a public trial of the U.S. soldier.

U.S. officials were quick to condemn the attack Sunday.

"I offer my profound regret and deepest condolences to the victims and their families," Gen. John Allen, head of NATO forces in Afghanistan, said in a statement.

"This deeply appalling incident in no way represents the values of ISAF [International Security Assistance Force] and coalition troops or the abiding respect we feel for the Afghan people."

Shooting in Afghanistan

The shooting took place at 3 a.m. in two villages in the Panjwai district of southern Kandahar province, a hotbed for the Taliban insurgency against U.S .forces.

The two villages are a short walk away from the U.S. base where the soldier was stationed.

Nine of the victims were children, and three were women, all shot while they slept in their beds, according to villagers and the Afghan president's office.

Photos from the scene show blood-splattered floors and walls inside a villagers home, one of three believed to have been attached, and blood-soaked bodies of victims, including the elderly and young children, wrapped in blankets and placed in the backseat of a van. Some of the bodies appear to have been burned.

John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman said officials "don't know what his [soldier's] motivation was, we are looking into that."

After the alleged shooting spree, it's believed the soldier returned to the base on his own, and calmly turned himself in. He remains in NATO custody.

It's unclear whether the soldier knew the victims or whether the alleged attack was spontaneous and unprovoked. It's also unknown whether he had any accomplices.

This was his first tour in Afghanistan, where he has been since early December, the official said.

NATO has launched its own investigation, and Karzai has sent his delegation to Kandahar for its own inquiry.

The White House said Sunday that Obama called "President Karzai to express his shock and sadness at the reported killing and wounding of Afghan civilians. President Obama extended his condolences to the people of Afghanistan, and made clear his Administration's commitment to establish the facts as quickly as possible and to hold fully accountable anyone responsible. The president reaffirmed our deep respect for the Afghan people and the bonds between our two countries."


***
Jeremiah 33:16 {NWT} ...And this is what she will be called, Jehovah Is Our Righteousness.
User avatar
Esoteric
Co-Administrator
Co-Administrator
Posts: 177
Joined: Tue Jan 13, 2009 4:29 pm
Location: 2008 YORWW Bible Academy Graduate resides YORWW Headquarters

Re: The King of The "North" Is Coming!

Post by Esoteric »

Soldier Held in Afghan Massacre Had Brain Injury, Marital Problems

Image
Soldier Held in Afghan Massacre Had Brain Injury, Marital Problems (ABC News)
By MUHAMMAD LILA, NICK SCHIFRIN and MARTHA RADDATZ
Article Source
Good Morning America
Monday, March 12, 2012, 16 hours ago

The Army staff sergeant who allegedly went on a rampage and killed 16 Afghans as they slept in their homes had a traumatic brain injury at one point and had problems at home after his last deployment, officials told ABC News.

But the soldier, who is based at Fort Lewis in Washington, was considered fit for combat duty and deployed to Afghanistan in December, officials said.

Details about the staff sergeant, who has not been identified, emerged as the Taliban vowed revenge against "sick-minded American savages" after the mass killing.

What has trickled about the suspect is that he was 38, on his fourth combat deployment in 10 years, the first three in Iraq. He was on his first tour in Afghanistan, where he'd been since December.

When the massacre took place he was assigned to Camp Belambay, a remote combat outpost where his job was to be protection for Special Operations Forces who were creating local militias. He was not a member of the special forces unit.

An official told ABC News that the soldier has suffered a mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) in the past, either from hitting his head on the hatch of a vehicle or in a car accident. He went through the advanced TBI treatment at Fort Lewis and was deemed to be fine.

He also underwent mental health screening necessary to become a sniper and passed in 2008. He had routine behavioral health screening after that and was cleared, the official said.

When the soldier returned from his last deployment in Iraq he had difficulty reintegrating, including marital problems, the source told ABC News, . But officials concluded that he had worked through those issues before deploying to Afghanistan.

The shooting occurred at 3 a.m. in three houses in two villages in the Panjway district of southern Kandahar province, an area that was once a Taliban safe haven but has recently become more safe after a surge of troops in 2009.

The soldier left the base in the middle of the night and wore night-vision goggles during the alleged rampage, according to a source.

The first village was more than a mile south of the base. While there, he allegedly killed four people in the first house. In the second house, he allegedly killed 11 family members -- four girls, four boys and three adults.

He then walked back to another village past his base where he allegedly killed one more person, according to a member of the Afghan investigation team and ABC News' interviews with villagers.

All of the victims were shot in their homes, according to villagers and the Afghan president's office.

Video from the scene show blood-splattered floors and walls inside a villagers home and blood-soaked bodies of victims, including the elderly and young children, wrapped in blankets and placed in the backseat of a van. Some of the bodies appear to have been burned.

John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman, said officials "don't know what his [soldier's] motivation was. We are looking into that."

After the alleged shooting spree, it's believed the soldier returned to the base on his own and calmly turned himself in. He remains in NATO custody. One source told ABC News that the soldier had "lawyered up" and declined to talk.

Because of the soldier's role as supporting security for the special operations forces, he is not believed to have known the victims. But it's not clear whether the alleged attack was spontaneous and unprovoked.

Shooting in Afghanistan

The Taliban vowed revenge against "sick-minded American savages" after the mass killing.

The group said it would "take revenge from the invaders and the savage murderers for every single martyr," according to a statement posted on its website, the Times of London reported.

The fear now is that this latest incident could set off a fresh wave of violence.

The attack comes just as outrage stemming from burning of several Korans by members of the U.S. military seemed to be calming down.

The U.S. Embassy in Kabul has warned foreigners to keep a low profile.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai called it "an assassination, one that cannot be forgiven."

The Afghan parliament has passed a resolution in protest of the killings, and asked for a public trial of the U.S. soldier.

U.S. officials were quick to condemn the attack Sunday.

"I offer my profound regret and deepest condolences to the victims and their families," Gen. John Allen, head of NATO forces in Afghanistan, said in a statement.

"This deeply appalling incident in no way represents the values of ISAF [International Security Assistance Force] and coalition troops or the abiding respect we feel for the Afghan people."

NATO has launched its own investigation, and Karzai has sent his delegation to Kandahar for its own inquiry.

The White House said Sunday that Obama called "President Karzai to express his shock and sadness at the reported killing and wounding of Afghan civilians. President Obama extended his condolences to the people of Afghanistan, and made clear his Administration's commitment to establish the facts as quickly as possible and to hold fully accountable anyone responsible. The president reaffirmed our deep respect for the Afghan people and the bonds between our two countries."


***
Jeremiah 33:16 {NWT} ...And this is what she will be called, Jehovah Is Our Righteousness.
User avatar
Esoteric
Co-Administrator
Co-Administrator
Posts: 177
Joined: Tue Jan 13, 2009 4:29 pm
Location: 2008 YORWW Bible Academy Graduate resides YORWW Headquarters

Re: The King of The "North" Is Coming!

Post by Esoteric »

Afghan Taliban Threaten To Behead U.S. Soldiers; Government Team Attacked

Image
Outrage over a murderous rampage by a rogue American soldier who killed 16 villagers gripped Afghanistan Monday as parliament called for a public trial and Taliban insurgents vowed revenge.
Reuters
Article Source
By Rob Taylor and Mirwais Harooni
March 13, 2012, 7 hrs ago

KABUL (Reuters) - Suspected insurgents fired on an Afghan government delegation on Tuesday investigating the massacre of 16 civilians by a U.S. soldier, officials said, hours after the Taliban threatened to behead American troops to avenge the killings.

Two of President Hamid Karzai's brothers, Shah Wali Karzai and Addul Qayum Karzai, were with senior defense, intelligence and interior ministry officials travelling to the scene of the massacre in Najiban and Alekozai villages, in Kandahar's Panjwai district, when insurgents opened fire.

Karzai's brothers were unharmed in the brief gunbattle during meetings at a village mosque, but a soldier and a civilian were wounded. The area is a Taliban stronghold and a supply route.

"The Islamic Emirate once again warns the American animals that the mujahideen will avenge them, and with the help of Allah will kill and behead your sadistic murderous soldiers," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement, using the term with which the Islamist group describes itself.

As the first protest broke out in Jalalabad city over the weekend shootings, the Taliban said Afghan government demands for an open trial of the U.S. Army staff sergeant being held for the slayings would not blunt civilian hostility towards Western combat troops.

The unnamed U.S. soldier - said to have only recently arrived in the country - is accused of walking off his base in Kandahar province in the middle of the night and gunning down at least 16 villagers, mostly women and children.

A U.S. official said the accused soldier had suffered a traumatic brain injury while on a previous deployment in Iraq.

The shootings, which came just weeks after deadly protests across the country over the inadvertent burning of Korans by U.S. soldiers, triggered a protest by around 2,000 students in the eastern city of Jalalabad.

The demonstrators chanted "Death to America" and demanded Afghan President Hamid Karzai reject plans to sign a strategic pact with Washington that would allow U.S. advisers and possibly special forces to remain in the country beyond the planned withdrawal in 2014.

U.S. President Barack Obama, speaking after a phone call with Karzai - who is said to be furious over the latest deaths - said the shootings had only increased his determination to get American troops out of Afghanistan.

However, Obama cautioned there should not be a "rush to the exits" for U.S. forces who have been fighting in Afghanistan since late 2001 and that the drawdown set for the end of 2014 should be done in a responsible way.

The soldier, from a conventional unit, was based at a joint U.S.-Afghan base used by elite U.S. troops under a so-called village support programme hailed by NATO as a possible model for U.S. involvement in the country after the 2014 drawdown.

Such bases provide support to local Afghan security units and provide a source of security advice and training, as well as anti-insurgent backup and intelligence.

"CAN NO LONGER BE CALLED ROGUE"

A spokesman for Kandahar governor Tooryalai Wisa said that tribal elders in the area of the massacre would urge against protests and work to dampen public anger if the investigation process was transparent.

"They are supporting the government and will accept any conclusion by the investigators. Today we have meetings with people in the area and all will become clear," spokesman Ahmad Jawid Faisal said.

NATO officials said it was too early to tell if the U.S. soldier would be tried in the United States or Afghanistan if investigators were to find enough evidence to charge him, but he would be under U.S. laws and procedures under an agreement between U.S. and Afghan officials.

Typically, once the initial investigation is completed, prosecutors decide if they have enough evidence to file charges and then could move to an Article 32 or court martial hearing.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on Monday that the death penalty could be sought in the U.S. military justice system against the soldier, but portrayed the shooting as an isolated event that would not alter withdrawal plans.

While Afghan MPs in parliament called for a trial under Afghan law, Karzai's office was understood to accept that a trial in a U.S. court would be acceptable provided the process was transparent and open to media.

Analysts said the incident would complicate U.S. efforts to reach agreement with the Afghan government on a post-2014 security pact before a May summit in the U.S. city of Chicago on the future size and funding of Afghan security forces.

Thomas Ruttig of the Afghanistan Analysts Network said that despite NATO and White House references to the killings as the work of a "rogue" soldier, other similar events had happened before, including a "kill team" apprehended in Kandahar in 2010.

"In the stress of an environment of escalated violence - by both sides, but particularly after Obama's troop surge in early 2009, it looks as if most soldiers simply see Afghanistan as a whole as ‘enemy territory' and every Afghan as a potential terrorist. This can no longer be called ‘rogue'," Ruttig said.

NATO's top commander in Afghanistan, Marine General John Allen, has promised a rapid investigation of the massacre, while security was being reviewed at NATO bases across the country.


***
Jeremiah 33:16 {NWT} ...And this is what she will be called, Jehovah Is Our Righteousness.
Post Reply