Libya's City Of Sirte Falls To Islamic State Group: Report
New Age Islam News Bureau
30 May 2015
Relatives of Mastung victims stage sit-in as death toll rises to 22
Africa
• Libya's City Of Sirte Falls To Islamic State Group: Report
• Chad Says 33 Boko Haram Militants, 3 Troops Killed In Clash
• Rocket attack in Libya's Benghazi leaves eight dead, eight wounded: Official
• New Nigerian president seeks to crush 'godless' Boko Haram
• Somalis in Minneapolis seek to dampen lure of Islamic State
Arab World
• Regime Bombs Kill 71 Civilians in Syria’s Aleppo
• New Lebanese School for Syrian Refugees Switches Books for Tablets
• US Military Pilots: Hands Tied in Frustrating Fight against ISIL
• Christian fighter beheads ISIS militant in Syria revenge killing
• United in grief, citizens across nation condemn terror attack
• Saudis Slam Terrorist Attack on Shiite Mosque in Mass Rally
• Military Expert: Syrian Army, Hezbollah Victories Foil Terrorists' Plot in Al-Qalamoun
Pakistan
• Militants Kill 20 Abducted Passengers in Balochistan's Mastung
• Zimbabwe Cricket Match Blast Was 'Suicide Bomb': Information Minister
• Balochistan HM blames RAW as death toll climbs to 22
• Preventing women from casting vote in KP criticised
• Govt claim about ‘foreign hand’ in terror cases questioned
• Hazaras protest against killings
• A criminal is made law minister, says Imran
• Suicide blast near Qaddafi Stadium kills sub-inspector
South Asia
• Nine Soldiers Martyred, 93 Militants Killed In Military Operations
• Afghan Air Force Target Taliban and ISIS Hideouts in Farah, 16 Killed
• Pak-Afghan ‘Undeclared War’ has been going on for 20 years: Karzai
• Monk wants refugees resettled in Muslim countries
• Foreign secretary: Govt to bring back trafficked Bangladeshis in a month
North America
• Two Faiths, One Prayer: Muslims and Jews Come Together To Pray
• Crowds Gather For Anti-Islam Demonstration Outside Phoenix Mosque
'• Hatred for None, Love for All' Islamic Leader Says a Small Minority Trying To Tarnish Its Reputation
• #NotMyAmerica Campaign Responds to Mosque Protest With Message Of Inclusion
• Minnesota Muslims brutally honest: 'We want Shariah'
• U.S. Signals Willingness to Expand Military Cooperation with Nigeria
• McCain: US Should Fund Indonesian Military to Face China Challenges
India
• India Will Prosper & Become Secular If All Become Hindus: Adityanath
• 'Lashkar-e-Islam' Gives One Day to Telcos to Make Kashmir Valley Cell Phone Free
• Persuasion and funds make Mamata Banerjee agree to accompany PM to Bangladesh
Mideast
• Yemen's Saleh Says Saudi 'Offered Him Millions to Fight Houthis': AFP Interview
• Ansarullah: Saudi War on Yemen Meant to Serve US, Israel
• Turkey Shipping Arms to Syrian Takfiri Militants
• Turkish authorities take over Islamic lender Bank Asya
• Yemen's Army Warns to Launch Massive Missile Strikes on Saudi Arabia
• Saudi Embassy in Sana'a Surrendered to Ansarullah
Europe
• Interpol: ISIL Gains Support in Africa, Asia
• Cyprus bomb suspect linked to Hezbollah
• Russian FM Slams Unauthorized US Raids in Syria
• Amnesty Urges Riyadh to Protect Shiite Minority
• UN calls for comprehensive response to migrant crisis
Southeast Asia
• Sabah Christians Reject Ministry’s ‘Intrusion’ In Religious Materials
• No place for race, religious politics in Malaysia anymore, Ku Li says
• 15 wounded in Philippines mosque attack
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/libya-city-sirte-falls-islamic/d/103255
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Africa
Libya's City Of Sirte Falls To Islamic State Group: Report
May 30, 2015
Militants of the Islamic State (IS) took full control of government buildings and sites in Libya's Sirte city — 450 kilometres (280 miles) east of the capital Tripoli in western Libya — the Libyan Bawabet Al-Wasat news website reported Friday.
The IS group — according to the website — established checkpoints on Thursday night near Harawa, a small village that is located 50 kilometres east of Sirte, forcing frightened residents to flee homes.
No specific numbers were provided for families who fled, though Al-Wasat reported they headed towards western parts of the country.
The IS's takeover of Sirte is the group's first major military success in war-torn Libya.
Libya has been ravaged by four years of civil war, with an internationally recognised government operating out of Tobrouk in the east and a rival Islamist coalition maintaining control of the official capital.
Mohamed El-Shami, a spokesman of the Islamist-led coalition, which controls Tripoli but lacks international recognition, announced earlier on Friday that his troops withdrew from Sirte airport, which is located close to the military base of Gardabiya.
"After [our troops] left, Islamic State group fighters entered the base which had been completely emptied of equipment, except for one military plane which is out of use," AFP quoted El-Shami as saying.
Sirte, the hometown of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, has been witnessing months of clashes between IS armed men and the Fajr Libya (Libya Dawn) militias which are part of the Tripoli coalition.
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/2/8/131484/World/Region/Libyas-city-of-Sirte-falls-to-Islamic-State-group-.aspx
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Chad Says 33 Boko Haram Militants, 3 Troops Killed In Clash
May 30, 2015
Chad said that its army killed at least 33 militants from Nigeria's Boko Haram Islamist group and lost three soldiers in heavy fighting on an island on Lake Chad earlier this week.
"They tried to attack us on Choua Island but we pushed them back," Colonel Azem Bermandoa, a spokesman for Chad's army, told Reuters, referring to an island that sits near to where the borders of Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Cameroon meet.
News of the clash came as Muhammadu Buhari was sworn in as Nigeria's new president and regional armies are working to stamp out Boko Haram's insurgency.
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/2/9/131455/World/International/Chad-says--Boko-Haram-militants,--troops-killed-in.aspx
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Rocket attack in Libya's Benghazi leaves eight dead, eight wounded: Official
May 30, 2015
Eight people were killed and eight wounded when a rocket hit a residential district in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi on Friday, officials said.
An army commander blamed Islamist fighters for the rocket strike. Fighting for control of the country's second-largest city has been going on for a year, part of a conflict between former rebel groups who helped topple Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 but now back two rival governments.
"The army has made much progress and they suffered big losses," said army commander Fadhal al-Hassi, referring to the Majlis al-Shura, an umbrella group of mostly Islamist factions. "We had been worried they would take revenge for that and indeed now they fired rockets."
Army forces backing the official government, based in the east since losing Tripoli to a rival faction, have expelled the Islamists from several districts but do not control the entire city.
To the east of Benghazi, Islamic State militants attacked a security checkpoint near Derna, an Islamist hotspot, a security official said. Two soldiers were killed and five wounded, he said.
Islamic State has exploited the security vacuum as the two governments fight each other, with neither side dominating the other. The militants have killed dozens of foreign Christians and attacked oil fields and a luxury hotel in Tripoli.
In Sirte, a central city seized by Islamic State, the militants expanded their presence by taking over an air base to the south of the city after forces loyal to the Tripoli government pulled out.
"Forces of the 166th brigade ... relocated so that so-called Daesh fighters captured Qurdabiya air base," said Mohamed El-Shami, a military spokesman in Tripoli, using a derogatory term for Islamic State.
He said the brigade had previously requested reinforcements from a Tripoli-based rival parliament which had not arrived.
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/2/8/131492/World/Region/Rocket-attack-in-Libyas-Benghazi-leaves-eight-dead.aspx
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New Nigerian President Seeks To Crush 'Godless' Boko Haram
May 30 2015
New Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari promised on Friday to eradicate the "mindless, godless" militants of Boko Haram and rescue hundreds of women and children held captive, including 200 girls taken from the town of Chibok a year ago.
In his inaugural address as elected leader of Africa's most populous nation and biggest oil producer, Buhari also painted a picture of an economy in crisis after a collapse in the price of crude, which accounts for the bulk of state revenue.
"The armed forces will be fully charged with prosecuting the fight against Boko Haram," the 72-year-old former military ruler announced. A Muslim, he said the group was "as far from Islam as one can think of".
"We cannot claim to have defeated Boko Haram without rescuing the Chibok girls and all other innocent persons held hostage," he said. "This government will do all it can to rescue them alive."
Hundreds of other Boko Haram captives have been freed by the military in recent weeks, but the Chibok girls, whose capture caused a global outcry, have still not been found.
Neighbouring Chad said its army had killed at least 33 Boko Haram militants and lost three of its own soldiers in heavy fighting on an island in Lake Chad on Wednesday.
Friday's handover, following Buhari's election victory in March, was Nigeria's first democratic transfer of power. He inherits a host of problems from his predecessor Goodluck Jonathan, whose five-year tenure was marked by aimless security and foreign policy-making, as well as corruption scandals.
Depleted foreign reserves, vastly reduced oil revenues, corruption and the escalating cost of servicing debt had left the economy in "deep trouble", Buhari said.
He made no mention of the naira currency, which economists say may be heading for another devaluation.
Importantly, he held out an olive branch to his political opponents in the oil-producing Niger Delta, saying his administration would continue to invest heavily in projects in the region that have underpinned an amnesty for militant groups there.
DOVES OF PEACE
Three decades after he first came to power in a military coup, Buhari's swearing-in marks a remarkable turn-around from authoritarian ruler to democrat following his landslide victory.
His oath was followed by the release of dozens of white doves, symbolising peace. Many of Nigeria's 170 million people interpreted it as turning the page on five years of disappointment and frustration under Jonathan.
"Jonathan was so bad, very bad. Now the incoming president will do something for us," said Mutawali Bukar, a businessman from the northeast city of Maiduguri, the centre of the Boko Haram insurgency.
Thousands in Abuja's Eagle Square chanted "Sai Buhari", which means "All hail, Buhari" in the northern Hausa language.
The optimism is, however, tempered by the reality in which Nigeria finds itself. Much depends on Buhari's choice of ministers, particularly in portfolios such as finance, internal security and oil.
"Now it's time for the heavy lifting," said Bismark Rewane, chief executive of Lagos-based consultancy Financial Derivatives. "Do you have the team that is respected by the international community, that has the pedigree and the background to deal with the management issues?"
Yemi Osinbajo, a Christian lawyer from the southwest region that includes Lagos, is vice-president, a deliberate counterweight in the religiously mixed nation to Buhari, who is from the predominantly Muslim north.
Although his roots are in the military, not economics, Buhari served as head of the Petroleum Trust Fund under Sani Abacha, another military ruler, giving him insight into the murky world of crude oil production.
"NEW CHAPTER"
Befitting Buhari's modest style, there was little fanfare in Abuja before his swearing-in, with security checkpoints leading to Eagle Square and a few green and white national flags lining its main expressway.
The ceremony was attended by African leaders and foreign dignitaries including U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.
A senior U.S. official said Washington, which had strained ties with Jonathan's administration, was ready to expand military cooperation, including sending advisers to help train Nigeria's army against Boko Haram. "We have every indication that we'll be able to start a new chapter," the official said.
British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said London also aimed to increase its support, including in the area of intelligence. "We've asked the president, when he's ready, to let us have a shopping list of the support that he wants," Hammond said.
South African President Jacob Zuma was a notable guest, a sign of Pretoria's desire to improve relations with Abuja after a series of diplomatic rows, most recently over a wave of attacks on foreigners in South Africa this year.
(Additional reporting by Felix Onuah, Isaac Abrak in Kaduna and Madjiasra Nako in Ndjamena; Writing by Alexis Akwagyiram; Editing by Ed Cropley, David Stamp and Mark Trevelyan)
http://in.reuters.com/article/2015/05/30/nigeria-politics-idINKBN0OE16T20150530
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Somalis in Minneapolis seek to dampen lure of Islamic State
May 30 2015
The Minneapolis court is packed with members of the local Somali community here to support one of their own, Abdirahman Yasin Daud (21). His lawyer wants him released from custody while he fights charges of attempting to provide support to a terrorist group.
Daud is one of six Somali men from Minnesota, aged 18-21, charged with trying to travel to Syria to fight with Islamic State, the group designated a terrorist organisation by the US that has seized large swathes of Iraq and Syria and carried out gruesome beheadings of Americans and other westerners.
Some younger men in the public gallery wear “Free Our Boys” T-shirts and casual clothes worn by the typical American teenager. They help Daud’s elderly parents with translations. The Somali women, wearing hijabs, some colourful, listen intently.
Daud was arrested last month in San Diego with co-accused Mohamed Abdihamid Farah. The FBI alleges the pair were on their way to buy fake passports and to Mexico to fly to Turkey and on to Syria. Prosecutors last week claimed to have a recording of Farah threatening to kill FBI agents if they tried to stop them travelling to Syria.
Appearing before district court judge Michael Davis on May 22nd, prosecutor Andrew Winter painted Daud as a danger to the world with ambitions to sacrifice himself for IS.
“The defendant sought to become a shahid, a martyr,” Winter said. “A martyr is not created absent carnage, a suicide vest or car bomb.”
Daud has pleaded not guilty and his lawyer, Bruce Nestor, said he was being unfairly treated as the US government did not stop other Americans travelling overseas to fight for the IRA, for Israel or even for Christian militias carrying out beheadings in Iraq and Syria.
The judge ruled with the government, agreeing that Daud was a flight risk. He remanded him in custody pending trial.
Alleged jihadis
Daud, Farah (21) and four others – Farah’s brother Adnan (19), Zacharia Yusuf Abdurahman (19), Hanad Mustafe Musse (19) and Guled Ali Omar (20) – are the latest alleged American jihadis among a growing number caught trying to join IS.
Some of their friends were captured en route; others slipped through. They include Abdi Nur who, like others who joined militant groups, has tried to help friends back home follow them.
Even though the group was under surveillance by the FBI for some time – Daud’s step-sister said last week the FBI tried to recruit her and her son two years ago – and some of their friends had been charged with criminal offences, the others still tried to travel.
“What is remarkable about this case is that nothing stopped these individuals from pursuing their goal,” said Minnesota’s US attorney, Andy Luger, last month.
At least 15 young men are estimated to have travelled to Syria to join IS, while US investigators estimate at least 100 Americans have joined Islamic militant groups in the war-torn country.
The flight of American extremists has alarmed the US government, particularly since the 2013 Boston marathon bombings and the attacks on the Charlie Hebdo magazine offices in Paris in January.
While US intelligence estimates that most of the 7,000 foreign fighters in Syria are from Europe, last year the then US attorney general Eric Holder called the country “a cradle of violent extremism” and urged international action to tackle the threat of radicalised fighters from the US and Europe travelling there.
The ties between the liberal midwestern state of Minnesota and homegrown jihadis are not new. More than 20 Somali men have travelled to their ethnic homeland since 2007 to fight for al-Shabaab, the terrorist group responsible for last month’s attack on a university in Kenya that killed 148.
Community leaders in Minnesota say they travelled there initially in the belief they were fighting for patriotic reasons in Somali, a country beset by conflict since 1991, and ended up involved in terrorism.
Last year, the terrorism link to Minnesota shifted to Syria after it emerged that Abdirahmaan Muhumed, a Somali-American, and Douglas McAuthur, an African-American, who grew up outside Minneapolis, were killed fighting for IS.
In the latest cases, the Somali community has been shocked by the FBI’s tactics – the use of a paid informant to infiltrate their youth and help indict the six men. Outside court, Hassan Mohamud, an imam at the Minnesota Da’wah Institute in nearby St Paul, is trying to understand what led to these charges: “Is it the government playing political games or someone who is trying to recruit our kids to various organisations?”
Just under two miles away from the court house is the Cedar-Riverside neighbourhood known as “Little Mo”, short for Mogadishu, the Somali capital. The Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St Paul are home to the largest population of Somali-Americans in the US, about 30,000 people. In total, between 85,000 and 100,000 Somali-Americans live in Minnesota, a state with 5.5 million people.
Somali community leaders say the area has rich potential for recruitment by radical groups as they take advantage of poverty, a sense of alienation and a lack of purpose felt by young Somalis.
A report published by the University of Southern California last month found that almost 35 per cent of Somali households in Minnesota are headed by single parents, 55 per cent live in poverty – 3½ times the general US population rate – and that almost a third of the community 16 and older is unemployed.
Muslim-American plight
“I am more American than I am Somali. This is our home but we need to be treated equally,” said Sadik Warfa, deputy director of the Minneapolis-based Global Somali Diaspora, who has lived in the US for 22 years. “The thing that African-Americans went through in the 1960s, that is something that Muslim-Americans are going through right now.”
Poorly educated in their own religion and with few role models from their own community, young men are easy prey to groups like IS who play on a persecution of Islam.
Daud is the third-youngest of 12, the court heard . The woman he calls his mother is in fact his 34-year-old step-sister as his parents are elderly and live in community housing. Daud lived with her, her three children and one younger sibling. As she worked 60 hours a week, he helped mind her children.
“When parents are trying to make ends meet, they don’t put enough time into guiding their kids. Somebody else is going to guide them,” said Mohamud Noor, executive director of the Confederation of Somali Community in Minnesota, a group based in Cedar-Riverside.
There is a disconnect between the elders who left Somalia over the past quarter-century and their children who are struggling to fit in and are confused about whether they are Somalis or Somali-Americans.
“Isis [another name used for Islamic State] sees these things as an opportunity to tell these young people that you don’t belong here, why don’t you just come over?” said Mohamed Farah, executive director of Ka Joog.
The group was started in 2007 to encourage youngsters to avoid negative influences around them and in easily accessible social media that links them with faraway fighters.
Ka Joog means “stay away” or “stay out”. “It’s a strong Somali word that relates to young people,” said Farah.
Mosques and community groups in Minnesota have formed a taskforce to understand better the problems among the disaffected youth and repair their relationships with parents and religious leaders. “We know there is a gap,” said Iman Hassan Mohamud. “We are trying to close that gap so our kids can get the right advice.”
In his office in “Little Mo”, Sadik Warfa shows me a propaganda video slickly produced by IS circulating online. The footage shows well-dressed and armed Somali jihadi leaders appealing to Muslims to fight, edited with grisly images of executions and beheadings of kuffars or infidels. Warfa recoils, disgusted at the violence.
He despairs that the Somali people in Minneapolis don’t even have a community centre where the young can socialise. There has been chronic under-investment here, he says.
Integration vs identity
“We need to raise the bar,” he said. “How do we integrate these young people successfully and leave them with their identity? How do we make these young people feel at home?”
The problem isn’t the mosques, he says; they are trying to “clear the way”. The young are being radicalised because they only have a limited knowledge of the Koran and don’t listen to the imams or their elders.
“The problem is we have this new wave of media that is way ahead of us,” he said. “You can be your own storyteller, you can have your own followers and you can influence people.”
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/us/somalis-in-minneapolis-seek-to-dampen-lure-of-islamic-state-1.2231043
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Arab World
Regime Bombs Kill 71 Civilians in Syria’s Aleppo
30 May 2015
A series of barrel bombs dropped by Syria's regime killed at least 71 civilians and wounded dozens in Aleppo province on Saturday, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, according to AFP.
“At least 71 civilians were killed, and dozens were wounded, when regime helicopters dropped barrel bombs on the city of Al-Bab and in eastern neighbourhoods of Aleppo,” the Britain-based Observatory reported.
Al-Bab, about 40 kilometres (25 miles) northeast of Aleppo city, is controlled by the extremist Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), while the east of the provincial capital is in rebel hands.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2015/05/30/Regime-barrel-bombs-kill-45-civilians-in-Syria-s-Aleppo.html
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New Lebanese School for Syrian Refugees Switches Books for Tablets
30 May 2015
Despite being deemed a basic human right, education for Syrian refugee children in Lebanon is often scarce.
But a new school, set to launch later this year in Lebanon, aims to change all that with an ambitious new project, which sees each pupil being issued with a durable tablet computer instead of traditional textbooks.
“Each child in our school will have an educational tablet with software that can handle the curriculum of their country so that the students can stay connected with their own culture and history,” Nancy Ruffing, the founder of the non-profit group Rapid Intervention School Education (RISE) told Al Arabiya News.
According to the educator, the desperate circumstances caused by the war in Syria mean that “parents have been prioritizing food and shelter and have missed out on giving their children a valuable education.”
Full report at:
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/perspective/features/2015/05/30/New-Lebanese-school-for-Syrian-refugees-switches-books-for-tablets.html
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US Military Pilots: Hands Tied in Frustrating Fight against ISIL
May 30, 2015
US military pilots allegedly carrying out the air war against the ISIL terrorists in Iraq and Syria are voicing growing discontent over heavy-handed rules of engagement hindering them from striking targets.
They blame a bureaucracy that does not allow for quick decision-making. One Navy F-18 pilot who has flown missions against ISIL voiced his frustration to Fox News, saying, "There were times I had groups of ISIL militants in my sights, but couldn't get clearance to engage.”
He added, “They probably killed innocent people and spread evil because of my inability to kill them. It was frustrating."
Sources close to the air war against ISIL told said that strike missions take, on average, just under an hour, from a pilot requesting permission to strike an ISIL target to a weapon leaving the wing.
Full report at:
http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13940308000143
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Christian fighter beheads ISIS militant in Syria revenge killing
May 30 2015
A fighter affiliated with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group was beheaded to avenge the atrocities committed by the terror group. (File Photo)
According to reports, the fighter was beheaded by a Syrian Christian fighter in the northeastern Syrian province of Al-Hassakah.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has said the man was beheaded after it was found he was affiliated with the ISIS terrorist group.
This comes as ISIS fighters were drove out of the several Assyrian villages in Al-Hassakah earlier this month.
It has been reported that the ISIS was initially taken as a prisoner and was then executed by the Christian fighter who was fighting for the Kurdish forces.
At least 220 Assyrian Christians were abducted by ISIS fighters in February from the north-eastern province after seizing control of their villages from Kurdish control.
The terror group has carried out a wave of abuses in areas it controls in both Syria and Iraq, including public beheadings, mass executions, enslavement and rape.
http://www.khaama.com/christian-fighter-beheads-isis-militant-in-syria-revenge-killing-1148
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United in grief, citizens across nation condemn terror attack
May 30, 2015
RIYADH: In widespread condemnation across Saudi society, prominent citizens reacted strongly on Friday to yet another terror attack in which a suicide bomber blew himself up near a mosque in Damman leaving four people dead.
Governments and top officials from different countries have expressed their deep sorrow at the fresh suicide bombing that came exactly a week after a bomber killed 21 people and injured over 100 in a mosque in Qatif.
Reacting to the terror attack, Mohammed Alkhnessi, a member of the Shoura Council, said: "We really feel sorry for what happened today and last week exactly at the same time of prayer in the mosque; this is a deeply disturbing and destabilizing act of terror."
"The perpetrators of these terror attacks have only one agenda which is to disturb the peace, and I am sure they will never succeed as the government and security establishments are fully prepared to thwart and ready to follow up with the appropriate actions," he added.
He addd: "We have full faith in our security systems and administration to maintain peace and stability, and bring the perpetrators of such a heinous crime to book."
Full report at:
http://www.arabnews.com/saudi-arabia/news/754111
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Saudis Slam Terrorist Attack on Shiite Mosque in Mass Rally
May 30, 2015
Hundreds of Saudi people took to the streets of the Eastern Province to condemn the Friday terrorist attack on a Shiite mosque in Dammam.
The Eastern Saudi city of Dammam witnessed on Friday a mass rally held by its locals to condemn the criminal explosion which was carried out by Takfiri terrorists at Imam Hussein's (AS) mosque.
The participators chanted slogans anti-ISIL slogans, accusing the Saudi regime of plotting with Takfiri groups to support terrorist attacks in the Shiite-populated region.
The bombing, which was claimed by ISIL, left 3 people dead and 4 others wounded as a man prevented the suicide bomber from reaching the building.
http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13940309000851
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Military Expert: Syrian Army, Hezbollah Victories Foil Terrorists' Plot in Al-Qalamoun
May 30, 2015
The recent victories of the army and the Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement in Damascus countryside made the plans of the terrorists' coalition for the al-Qalamoun region to fall flat, a military analyst said.
“Al-Qalamoun is the scene of battle and crushing the bones of a coalition of terrorist groups known a Jaysh Al-Fath who plotted to advance towards Al-Qalamoun in two fronts in the South and the North after the visit of Zahran Aloush (commander of Jaysh al-Islam terrorist group affiliated to the Islamic Front) to Turkey, but the Syrian army and the Lebanese resistance movement ushered in the al-Qalamoun battle with the goal of defeating the terrorists’ plots,” Syrian Military Expert Ali Maqsoud told FNA on Saturday.
Full report at:
http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13940309000535
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Pakistan
Militants kill 20 abducted passengers in Balochistan's Mastung
May 30, 2015
QUETTA: At least 20 people were killed and several injured Friday night when unknown militants opened fire at kidnapped passengers in Mastung area of Balochistan, DawnNews reported.
Earlier in the evening, suspected militants had abducted two passenger buses en route Karachi from Pishin.
Levies official Sanaullah, while talking to DawnNews, said miscreants stopped two passengers coaches at Khad Kucha area of Mastung. He said the passengers were taken out from the coaches after which armed men opened fire at them.
In a statement, Balochistan Home Minister Sarfraz Bugti confirmed that 20 passengers had been killed by the militants.
So far, no group has claimed responsibility for the murders.
Soon after reports of abduction emerged, police and Frontier Corps officials rushed to the area and there were reports of heavy exchange of fire between security forces and the kidnappers, DawnNews reported.
Full report at:
http://www.dawn.com/news/1184981
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Zimbabwe Cricket Match Blast Was 'Suicide Bomb': Information Minister
May 30, 2015
ISLAMABAD: Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid admitted on Saturday that a suicide bomber was responsible for an explosion outside Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium that killed two people during a Pakistan-Zimbabwe cricket match, despite police insisting the explosion was accidental.
Friday’s incident, which triggered a news blackout in Pakistani media, came despite heavy security for the country’s first cricket series on home soil since an attack on the Sri Lankan team bus in March 2009.
“The suicide bomber failed to enter the stadium due to the bravery of our police,” Pervez Rashid told a private news channel.
The attack took place about 1.5 kilometres from the venue at “the outer security cordon of the stadium”, Rashid said, adding that it did not affect the match.
Full report at:
http://tribune.com.pk/story/894769/zimbabwe-cricket-match-blast-was-suicide-bomb-pervez-rashid/
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Balochistan HM blames RAW as death toll climbs to 22
May 30, 2015
QUETTA: Balochistan Home Minister Sarfaraz Bugti laid the blame on India’s spy agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) for the deadly attack on bus passengers in Mastung late Friday night
“RAW is involved in the incident because India is against the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor agreement,” Bugti said at a press conference in Quetta.
Bugti added that so far seven suspected militants were killed in search operations in which 500 security personnel are taking part.
The death toll of the horrific Mastung massacre that took place in late Friday night has risen to 22, after Balochistan Levies found another body this morning.
Full report at:
http://tribune.com.pk/story/894726/mastung-tragedy-relatives-stage-protest-outside-governor-house/
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Preventing women from casting vote in KP criticised
May 30, 2015
ISLAMABAD: The European Union and EU member states together with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) have taken serious notice of reports of women being prevented from casting votes in the local government elections scheduled to be held in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Saturday.
In a joint statement issued by the UNDP on Friday, the EU and its member states called on the provincial government and leaders of political parties to investigate these reports and ensure that all women participated freely in the elections.
The EU, its member states and the UNDP regretted that candidates, community elders and religious leaders in some constituencies had reportedly prevented women from casting vote in the polls.
“We call on the government of Pakistan, as a signatory to the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to honour its commitment under these agreements.”
The government should “safeguard the basic rights of women to ensure that barriers are removed which prevent women from exercising their democratic right to participate in elections and cast their ballots for candidates of their choice”, they said.
http://www.dawn.com/news/1185136/preventing-women-from-casting-vote-in-kp-criticised
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Govt claim about ‘foreign hand’ in terror cases questioned
May 30, 2015
KARACHI: A security analyst on Friday cast doubt on a government claim that a ‘foreign hand’ is involved in various acts of terrorism in the country and observed that, if true, it puts a question mark over the efficiency of our intelligence agencies.
Mohammad Nafees, a senior research fellow at the Centre for Research and Security Studies, Islamabad, told a programme organised by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan here that during the ongoing military operation, militants of Tajik, Arab and Chinese origins were found in the country, but no one else.
About involvement of a ‘foreign hand’, he went on to say that if there was such a case then what were our agencies doing about it; and if there wasn’t then who’s responsible for all of that.
Full report at:
http://www.dawn.com/news/1185017/govt-claim-about-foreign-hand-in-terror-cases-questioned
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Hazaras protest against killings
May 30, 2015
QUETTA: The Hazara Democratic Party (HDP) has criticised the government and security forces for what it called their slack attitude in arresting the terrorists involved in targeted killings of the members of Hazara community.
A large number of HDP supporters carrying placards and banners inscribed with slogans against terrorism and extremism and for restoration of peace took out a procession on Friday. However, they were intercepted at Alamdar Road and stopped from marching towards the Governor House and Chief Minister Secretariat where they wanted to stage a demonstration.
Talking to journalists, HDP president Abdul Khaliq Hazara lamented that law-enforcement agencies did not even allow them to stage a peaceful rally in protest against the killing of innocent persons over the past three days.
He expressed concern over non-implementation of National Action Plan against terrorism in Balochistan, particularly Quetta, to arrest the elements involved in attacks on the Hazara community.
http://www.dawn.com/news/1185139/hazaras-protest-against-killings
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A criminal is made law minister, says Imran
May 30, 2015
GILGIT: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan on Friday reacting to the reinstatement of Rana Sanaullah said a “criminal” has been made a law minister in Punjab.
Rana Sanaullah took oath as the Punjab law minister on Friday at the Governor House Lahore after a joint investigation team (JIT) investigating Model Town incident gave him a clean-chit.
“The biggest criminals of Punjab, like Rana Sanaullah, are being given ministries time and again,” Imran told a rally in Ghanche district of Baltistan. He said there was no justice in Punjab. “Police protects criminals.”
Imran Khan along with his wife Reham Khan, Chaudhry Sarwar and Sayed Zulqarnain Shah are on a campaign trail to root for PTI candidates ahead of the June 8 Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) legislative assembly elections.
Full report at:
http://tribune.com.pk/story/894612/rally-in-ghanche-a-criminal-is-made-law-minister-says-imran/
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Suicide blast near Qaddafi Stadium kills sub-inspector
May 30, 2015
LAHORE: A blast near the premises of Qaddafi Stadium on Friday—which took place during a one-day international match between Pakistan and Zimbabwe — was confirmed as a suicide attack by Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid, who said a sub-inspector lost his life while trying to stop the suicide bomber.
Talking to Geo News, Rashid said an attempt to attack the stadium was foiled by the gallantry of a police official, who lost his life while trying to stop the attacker near Kalma Chowk in Lahore. He added that six people were wounded in the incident.
The information minister praised the actions of Pakistan Broadcasters Association for "Covering up" the news while the cricket match was ongoing so as not to spread panic.
Local media had at first reported an explosion close to Gaddafi stadium but reports were taken off air after it was falsely asserted that the explosion was caused by an electricity transformer in the area.
Later, Punjab police’s IG Operations, while addressing a press briefing said two people — Sub-Inspector Abdul Majeed and a civilian Rizwan — were killed in the blast, DawnNews reported.
But the senior police official claimed that the blast happened inside a rickshaw and that forensic samples had been collected from the site to determine the nature of the explosion.
http://www.dawn.com/news/1185016/suicide-blast-near-qaddafi-stadium-kills-sub-inspector
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South Asia
Nine soldiers martyred, 93 militants killed in military operations
May 30 2015
Nine soldiers have embraced martyrdom while 93 militants killed in newest military operations across the country, Ministry of Defense announced on Saturday.
General Zahir Azimi, spokesman for the Ministry of Defense sated in a tweet this morning that military as well as militants suffered these casualties in 12 provinces in past two days.
Kundoz, Badakhshan, Sar-e-Pul, Ghazni, Kandahar, Paktia Urozgan, Paktika, Herat and Nangarhar are among the provinces where these operations were conducted.
Nine different types of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) were also discovered and defused by the security forces.
IEDs are considered the second biggest cause behind the increasing number of civilian casualties in Afghan war.
United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) stated in an earlier report that there was 16 percent increase in civilian casualties in the first four months of the current year in comparison with the first four months of last year, noting IEDs as the second biggest cause behind the increase.
http://www.khaama.com/nine-soldiers-martyred-93-militants-killed-in-military-operations-3340
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Afghan Air Force target Taliban and ISIS hideouts in Farah, 16 killed
May 30 2015
At least sixteen militants affiliated with the Taliban group and Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group were killed following a series of air raids by the Afghan Air Force in Farah.
According to the local government officials, the airstrikes were carried out on Friday close to Shindand district of Herat and Anar Dara district of Farah.
A spokesman for the Afghan National Army (ANA) in Farah, Hanif Rezaye, said the airstrikes were carried out based on plans which were already prepared.
He said militants hideouts in Sar Gazan, Gul Shotor, Dahan-e-Jamal Ghani and Dahan-e-Kashkanak areas.
Rezaye confirmed that 16 militants belonging to the Taliban group and ISIS were killed in the airstrikes and five of their vehicles were destroyed along with some weapons.
The airstrike was carried out amid reports that the ISIS affiliated militants were looking to create safe havens for them in Anar Dara district.
The anti-government armed militant groups have not commented regarding the report so far.
http://www.khaama.com/afghan-air-force-target-taliban-and-isis-hideouts-in-farah-16-killed-1149
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Pak-Afghan ‘Undeclared War’ has been going on for 20 years: Karzai
May 30 2015,
The Deputy Afghan Foreign Affairs Minister Hekmat Khalil Karzai has said Afghanistan and Pakistan have been involved in an ‘undeclared war’ for the past 20 years.
In an interview with Pakistan’s The Express Tribune, Karzai said ““An undeclared war between Pakistan and Afghanistan has been going on for 20 years. Pakistan has agreed with this concept.”
He said Kabul has now opened a door to bridge the trust gap. “So the first point is that we want to begin a process with Pakistan that pushes both countries to peace and trust,” he added.
“The second point is we want peace with those groups and specific personalities who are fighting in Afghanistan and we have told Pakistan very clearly to arrange talks between those people and us,” Karzai said.
The remarks by Karzai comes as President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani said last week that Pakistan is engaged in an undeclared war with Afghanistan and insisted that Afghanistan is in need of reconciliation process in two different phases.
President Ghani said the two phases includes peace with neighboring Pakistan as the country is engaged in an undeclared war with Afghanistan.
This comes as the government of national unity has stepped up efforts to bring the anti-government armed militant groups to negotiation table in a bid to end the ongoing insurgency in the country.
A delegation of Afghan high peace council met with the Taliban representatives in Qatar earlier this month to hold preliminary talks on peace process.
http://www.khaama.com/pak-afghan-undeclared-war-has-been-going-on-for-20-years-karzai-1147
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Monk wants refugees resettled in Muslim countries
May 30 2015
KUALA LUMPUR: Buddhist monk U Wirathu, the leader of Myanmar’s nationalistic 969 Movement, seeks to “defend” the country from a perceived threat of Muslim domination. Speaking exclusively with The Australian at his Masoyen monastery in Mandalay, central Myanmar, Wirathu said Muslims posed a serious threat to the country. He claimed that they refused to deal with non-Muslims, forced Buddhist women who wed Muslim men to abandon their religion and waged “jihad” in areas where they were strong in numbers. “One Myanmar Buddhist girl (who married a Muslim man) who was six months’ pregnant was beaten by her husband when he found out she had been visiting the Buddhist monastery,” Wirathu said. “Another girl who offered flowers to Buddha was killed by her (Muslim) husband.” Several hundred Buddhist nationalists, including members of 969, rallied in Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city and former capital, to protest on Thursday against international pressure for the nation to accept some of the boat refugees.
Full report at:
http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/highlight/2015/05/29/monk-wants-refugees-resettled-in-muslim-countries/
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Foreign secretary: Govt to bring back trafficked Bangladeshis in a month
May 30, 2015
Bangladesh is ready to take back all its trafficked victims stranded in Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia within a month, said Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque.
Shahidul made the statement yesterday at the Bangkok conference where Myanmar and Bangladesh agreed to address the root causes of a migrant exodus from their shores.
But Myanmar’s delegate to the talks on Southeast Asia’s migrant crisis rebuked the UN’s refugee agency for calling on the country to recognise the Muslim Rohingya minority as citizens to stem their exodus from its shores, reports AFP.
According to various preliminary estimates, there are roughly 30-35% of Bangladeshis among the victims, said the foreign secretary.
Full report at:
http://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2015/may/30/foreign-secretary-govt-bring-back-trafficked-bangladeshis-month#sthash.Whn5LrJH.dpuf
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North America
Two faiths, one prayer: Muslims and Jews come together to pray
May 30, 2015
As a part of an initiative called Two Faiths One Prayer, a group of Jews and Muslims from California gathered at a Los Angeles beach to pray in a display of solidarity.
“We were just so surprised that we could do this together and it’s very similar,” said participant Maryam Saleemi.
The sounds of the worshippers reciting their prayers in their respective languages, Hebrew and Arabic mingled with the crashing of the waves.
As the devotees laid out their prayer mats, Saleemi added, “It was kind of like an ‘Aha Moment’ that we’re praying to the same God, why aren’t we doing this all the time together?”
According to reports, Two Faiths One Prayer took the initiative and directed a group of 20 Muslims and Jews to five different sites across the city.
The organisation also gave the group of worshipers an opportunity to communicate and find common ground.
The event was organised by members of New Ground, an interfaith organisation aiming to strengthen the bond between Muslims and Jews.
After another 60 to 70 people joined the group for the rare joint prayer session at Los Angeles’ City Hall, a dinner was organised for followed by the Muslims offering Isha prayers while Jews recited liturgical poetry, called Piyyutim.
New Ground fellow Tuli Skaist hoped that people would take inspiration from such events and start praying with each other, adding that “it doesn’t only have to be within the context of an organised event.”
http://tribune.com.pk/story/894791/muslims-and-jews-brought-together-to-pray/
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Crowds gather for anti-Islam demonstration outside Phoenix mosque
May 30, 2015
More than 200 protesters, some armed, berated Islam and its Prophet Mohammed outside an Arizona mosque on Friday in a provocative protest that was denounced by counterprotesters shouting "Go home, Nazis," weeks after an anti-Muslim event in Texas came under attack by two gunmen.
The anti-Muslim event outside the Islamic Community Center of Phoenix was organized by an Iraq war veteran who posted photos of himself online wearing a T-shirt with a crude slogan denigrating Islam and waving the US flag.
As the event got under way, demonstrators on both sides screamed obscenities at each other as police in riot gear swiftly separated the two groups, each with about 250 people, using police tape and barricades.
"This is in response to the recent attack in Texas," organizer Jon Ritzheimer wrote on his Facebook page announcing the event at a mosque targeted in part because the two Texas gunmen had worshipped there.
Full report at:
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/2/9/131493/World/International/Crowds-gather-for-antiIslam-demonstration-outside-.aspx
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'Hatred For None, Love For All' Islamic Leader Says A Small Minority Trying To Tarnish Its Reputation
May 30 2015
OLD HARBOUR, St Catherine: HMADIYYA MUSLIM Jama?at has said the rise of so called Islamic fundamentalism has given credence to a misconception about what Islam truly represents.
According this Islamic religious group, Islam is portrayed today as a religion of violence; a contradiction in terms because Islam means peace.
The group considered a fast-growing international revival movement within Islam founded in 1889 by Hadrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian India, held its third annual national conference recently at their Mahdi Mosque, Old Harbour, St Catherine, under the theme ?Hatred for none, love for all?.
?We are the only Islamic organisation to believe that the long-awaited Messiah has come in the person of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad,? Lal Khan Malik national president of the movement told Family & Religion.
Full report at:
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/news/20150530/hatred-none-love-all-islamic-leader-says-small-minority-trying-tarnish-its
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#NotMyAmerica Campaign Responds To Mosque Protest With Message Of Inclusion
May 30 2015
As bikers gather outside a mosque to protest Islam, interfaith advocates will be on Twitter sending the global community a message of inclusion.
The Campaign to Take On Hate, which works to challenge misconceptions of Muslims and Arab Americans, organized a Twitter campaign in response to news that a group of anti-Islam protesters would be demonstrating outside the Islamic Community Center in Phoenix, Arizona, Friday evening.
The group plans to hold a “Muhammad cartoon contest" before the demonstration at the mosque, according to a Facebook event for the protest.
Take On Hate has encouraged people to tweet their support for the mosque on Friday using the hashtag #NotMyAmerica, with the optional secondary hashtag #PHxMosque. Local clergy have also planned a peaceful solidarity event at the mosque on Monday.
Full report at:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/29/phoenix-mosque-protest_n_7470990.html?ir=India&adsSiteOverride=in
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Minnesota Muslims brutally honest: 'We want Shariah'
May 30 2015
The Cedar Riverside section of Minneapolis is home to the University of Minnesota, some tasty ethnic foods and brutally cold winters. It’s also a known hotbed of Islamic terror recruitment.
Al-Shabab, the Islamist group based in Somalia, has had a field day there over the past six or seven years.
Dozens of young Muslims have left the streets of Cedar Riverside, referred to by some Minnesotans as “Little Mogadishu” for its high concentration of Somali refugees, to travel abroad and fight for terrorist groups. Some have joined Somalia’s notorious al-Shabab, which slaughtered 147 Christians at a university in Kenya last month, while others have opted for ISIS in Syria. Their goal is the same – to join their brothers in the fight to establish a Shariah-compliant utopia known as a caliphate.
Full report at:
http://www.wnd.com/2015/05/minnesota-muslims-brutally-honest-we-want-shariah/#sUvw5RgGQuHcv9Fr.99
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U.S. Signals Willingness to Expand Military Cooperation With Nigeria
May 30 2015
ABUJA, Nigeria — As Nigeria swore in Muhammadu Buhari as the new president on Friday, the Obama administration signaled that it was prepared to expand military cooperation in the fight against Boko Haram.
Secretary of State John Kerry, who led the American delegation at the inauguration, discussed cooperation against Boko Haram in a short meeting on Friday with Mr. Buhari.
“Something we can do quickly is to send advisers,” said a senior State Department official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity under the department’s protocol for briefing reporters. “It could be related to intelligence; it could be something very simple, related to things like logistics.”
Full report at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/30/world/africa/us-signals-willingness-to-widen-role-in-fighting-boko-haram-in-nigeria.html
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McCain: US Should Fund Indonesian Military to Face China Challenges
May 30, 2015
Washington. A leading US senator has proposed that the United States provide hundreds of millions of dollars to help train and equip the armed forces of Southeast Asian countries faced with Chinese territorial challenges, including Indonesia.
Republican Senator John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, made the proposal in an amendment to the 2016 US Defense Authorization Act expected to be passed later this year, titled the South China Sea Initiative.
It allows for the provision of up to $425 million over five years to countries including Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam for “equipment, supplies, training and small-scale military construction.”
Full report at:
http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/mccain-us-fund-indonesian-military-face-china-challenges/
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India
India Will Prosper & Become Secular If All Become Hindus: MP Adityanath
May 30 2015
The country will prosper and become secular only when all become Hindus, MP Yogi Adityanath said. Speaking at a programme 'Tejomay Hundutva organized byVishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal in Bhadrakali area of the citylast evening, the revered saint said that the influence of Muslims had increased in the country because the Hindus were not united.
"Conversion is continuing in this country and as long as it continues, the Ghar Wapsi programme will continue," he noted.
Speaking on protection of Muslims by the government, he said that not only do they get protection but also subsidies for Haj.
Citing an instance of Pakistan, he said, petition demanding government assistance for the Haj was rejected on the condition that it was against Islam.
Full report at:
http://news.webindia123.com/news/Articles/India/20150529/2604731.html
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'Lashkar-e-Islam' gives one day to telcos to make Kashmir valley cell phone free
M Saleem Pandit,TNN | May 30, 2015
SRINAGAR: Lashkar-e-Islam, the new militant outfit that has emerged in Kashmir, on Friday warned telecommunication companies to wind up all operations within a day in the Valley or else face the consequences.
"From now, if telecommunication networks, recharge service vendors, tower land owners don't stop their work we will take action against them. They have only one day to wind up their work," the outfit's field operation spokesman Gazi Abu Sariq said in a statement released to a local news agency, KNS.
The statement said that in the last three weeks, through posters and pamphlets, people were asked to snap telecom towers as senior commanders of 'jihadi' organisations were killed because of telecommunications, "causing much damage to the movement".
Full report at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Lashkar-e-Islam-gives-one-day-to-telcos-to-make-Kashmir-valley-cell-phone-free/articleshow/47477344.cms
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Persuasion and funds make Mamata Banerjee agree to accompany PM Narendra Modi to Bangladesh
Dipanjan Roy Chaudhury & Tamal Sengupta,ET Bureau | May 30, 2015
NEW DELHI | KOLKATA: The Centre's persuasion and financial assurance made Mamata Banerjee take a relook at the proposed Teesta water sharing agreement and to accompany Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his maiden trip to Bangladesh over the next weekend.
While the treaty for sharing Teesta waters is unlikely during the trip, officials in India and Bangladesh do not rule out an interim arrangement or in-principle agreement that could be achieved during the trip. The Union Cabinet is likely to meet here on Saturday to finalise the proposed outcome and deliverables (including proposed Teesta pact) of Modi's June 6-7 trip.
Determined not to repeat the fiasco of 2011, when Banerjee pulled out of a trip to Dhaka with then PM Manmohan Singh's entourage, the BJP-led NDA government worked to bring Banerjee on board. External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj, who has good equations with Banerjee took the lead role in trying to convince Banerjee, sources said. Swaraj is understood to have worked behind the scene for the past few months to secure Banerjee's consent.
Home minister Rajnath Singh's visit to Kolkata this week also helped to reach out to the CM. The Modi government has offered financial assistance to West Bengal for developing irrigation infrastructure and to use Teesta water particularly during the dry season. Sources pointed out that West Bengal taps only 25% of Teesta water at the moment. The CM had earlier sought over 80% of Teesta waters for Bengal, leaving downstream Bangladesh with less than 20%.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Persuasion-and-funds-make-Mamata-Banerjee-agree-to-accompany-PM-Narendra-Modi-to-Bangladesh/articleshow/47478583.cms
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Mideast
Yemen's Saleh says Saudi 'offered him millions to fight Houthis': AFP Interview
May 30, 2015
Yemen's ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh said in an interview broadcast Friday he had rejected "millions of dollars" Saudi Arabia offered him if he stood up to the Shia rebels.
"They told us 'we'll pay you millions of dollars if you ally with us'" against the Houthis, Saleh told the Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen television channel, adding that he rejected the offer.
"We will not let go of the Houthis," he said.
He said the former Saudi ambassador in Yemen "came to me with a message from the kingdom asking me to stand by (fugitive President Abedrabbo Mansour) Hadi and the Muslim Brotherhood... against the Houthis."
"I told them I support national unity for all political forces in Yemen," he said.
"Our difference with the Houthis... was administrative, not ideological," he said, speaking of his regime's nine wars with the rebels in their northern regions.
Full report at:
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/2/8/131483/World/Region/Yemens-Saleh-says-Saudi-offered-him-millions-to-fi.aspx
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Ansarullah: Saudi War on Yemen Meant to Serve US, Israel
May 30, 2015
A senior Ansarullah leader said Riyadh is fighting a proxy war on behalf of Washington and Tel Aviv in Yemen, and underlined that the Yemeni revolutionary movement will give a devastating response to the Saudi regime’s aggressions.
“Saudi Arabia is a protégé of the US and Israel and the ongoing war against Yemen has been waged at the order of the US and Israel,” Sheikh Fouad al-Mershadi, cultural director of Mustaqbal al-Adala Movement affiliated to Ansarullah, told FNA on Saturday.
Sheikh al-Mershadi reiterated that the Yemenis are equipped with home-made rockets, and added that Ansarullah has succeeded in pushing back Saudi Arabia 20 kilometers inside its borders.
“Today Yemen is engaged in a civil war and Ansarullah is purging Yemen of ISIL and other Takfiri groups.”
Full report at:
http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13940309000886
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Turkey Shipping Arms to Syrian Takfiri Militants
May 30, 2015
Newly emerged footage suggests that trucks belonging to Turkey's intelligence agency smuggle weapons into Syria in an attempt to aid the Takfiri terror groups operating in the neighboring country.
The video which was posted by Turkish daily newspaper Cumhuriyet on Friday shows inspectors searching a metallic container watched by security officers, a prosecutor and sniffer dogs.
The daily reported the trucks were carrying a total of 1,000 mortar shells, 80,000 rounds of ammunition for light and heavy weapons as well as hundreds of grenade launchers.
Full report at:
http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13940309000369
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Turkish authorities take over Islamic lender Bank Asya
May 30, 2015
Turkish authorities said on May 29 they had decided to take over Bank Asya, the Islamic lender caught up in a feud between President Tayyip Erdoğan and U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen.
The move was announced by the banking watchdog BDDK, just over a week ahead of a parliamentary election. It followed an earlier decision by the BDDK to take management control of the bank, citing its failure to meet legal criteria.
The action was launched after a run on deposits at Bank Asya last year when it became embroiled in the power struggle between Erdoğan and Gülen, whose followers had set up the bank.
Full report at:
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkish-authorities-take-over-islamic-lender-bank-asya.aspx?pageID=238&nID=83196&NewsCatID=346
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Yemen's Army Warns to Launch Massive Missile Strikes on Saudi Arabia
May 30, 2015
Commander of Yemen's army missile base near the Saudi borders warned that his country's missiles could soon rain down on all parts of Saudi Arabia.
Colonel Abdolmajid al-Shami announced in an interview with al-Masirah news channel that his base is ready to lock down on targets all across Saudi Arabia.
"The ground-to-ground and ground-to-air missiles are ready to lock down on targets," he said, adding the base would act only once commanded by the leadership of the popular committees.
Shami called on all Saudi citizens to stay as far as they can from all military bases, airports and governmental buildings across Saudi Arabia, warning that his country's missile systems can hit and demolish all oil wells, airports and airbases of Saudi Arabia in just 48 hours.
Full report at:
http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13940309000892
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Saudi Embassy in Sana'a Surrendered to Ansarullah
May 30, 2015
The security forces guarding the Saudi mission in Sana'a surrendered the embassy to Ansarullah forces, Yemeni media sources said on Saturday.
Yemeni al-Hayad and al-Waqe' al-Yemeni news websites reported that Ansarullah forces drove all the 40 Saudi embassy guards out of the mission and ordered them to surrender their weapons without any resistance, and they did.
The reports said Ansarullah took control of the Saudi embassy in Sana'a in reaction to the Saudis' continued attacks on residential areas and hospitals alongside army positions in Yemen.
Meantime, clashes between the popular Ansarullah and the Saudi-backed loyalists of the fugitive president continue in the Southern parts of the country as Saudi Arabia has been striking Yemen for 66 days now to restore power to fugitive president Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh.
Full report at:
http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13940309000537
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Europe
Interpol: ISIL gains support in Africa, Asia
May 30, 2015
A growing number of extremist groups from Africa to southeast Asia are shifting their allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group, leading to greater risks for "cross-pollination" among conflicts beyond Syria and Iraq, the head of Interpol said May 29.
Juergen Stock cited this shift as an emerging trend at a U.N. Security Council meeting along with changing travel methods being used by foreign fighters seeking to join groups like the ISIL and al-Qaida.
Stock was a keynote speaker at a meeting attended by half a dozen ministers including U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson to assess progress in implementing a U.S.-sponsored resolution adopted last September requiring all countries to prevent the recruitment and transport of would-be foreign fighters preparing to join extremist groups.
On May 29, the Security Council adopted a presidential statement calling for a significant increase in border controls, improved cooperation at all levels "including preventing terrorists from exploiting technology, communications and resources."
Full report at:
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/interpol-isil-gains-support-in-africa-asia.aspx?pageID=517&nID=83198&NewsCatID=359
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Cyprus bomb suspect linked to Hezbollah
May 30, 2015
NICOSIA: A Lebanese-Canadian man detained in Cyprus after two tons of potential bomb-making material was found in his home was reported by media Friday to be a member of the militant group Hezbollah.
The Phileleftheros newspaper said the 26-year-old man, who was remanded in custody Thursday, belonged to the Lebanese organization’s military wing and had personal links to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
The daily said the man, who has not been named, arrived in Cyprus last week for what he described as a holiday. He was arrested on Wednesday following a period of surveillance and more than 400 boxes of ammonium nitrate — a fertilizer that when mixed with other substances can be used to make explosives — was discovered at his home in Larnaca.
Full report at:
http://www.arabnews.com/middle-east/news/753971
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Russian FM Slams Unauthorized US Raids in Syria
May 30, 2015
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov slammed Washington’s unauthorized airstrikes in Syrian territory as a breach of international law, saying the US follows a dual policy in the battle against the ISIL Takfiri terror group.
Lavrov stated in a Friday interview with Rossiya 24 TV channel that he questioned his US counterpart John Kerry at a recent meeting at the Russian Black Sea resort city of Sochi on why Washington conducts airstrikes on the ISIL positions in Iraqi territory with the consent of Baghdad, but carries out similar operations in Syria without seeking authorization from the Damascus government in “flagrant violation of international law.”
Full report at:
http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13940309000984
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Amnesty Urges Riyadh to Protect Shiite Minority
May 30, 2015
The Saudi authorities must take immediate steps to protect the country’s Shiite Muslim minority from sectarian violence and put an end to decades of systematic discrimination, Amnesty International said after the second terrorist attack on a Shiite mosque in the past week.
“Members of Saudi Arabia’s Shiite Muslim community have been subjected to cruel attacks during Friday prayers for the second week in a row. There can be absolutely no justification for attacking worshippers in a mosque,” said Said Boumedouha, Deputy Director at Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Programme, amnesty.org reported.
“Unless the Saudi Arabian authorities are transparent about the investigations they are carrying out into these atrocities, and unless they take serious and effective steps to end discrimination and advocacy of hatred against the Shiite, it will fuel perceptions that they are looking the other way while sectarian tensions and violence against Shiite intensify.
Full report at:
http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13940309000882
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UN calls for comprehensive response to migrant crisis
May 30, 2015
The U.N. on Friday called for a “comprehensive response” to the large scale humanitarian crisis of migrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar, of which nearly 2,000 are still believed to be stranded in the perilous sea across the Bay of Bengal.
“At the moment the priority should be saving those people who are at sea but in the long term, obviously, you have to address the root cause of the problem. This has to include efforts for reconciliation in Rakhine State where there have been ethnic clashes and also the issue of citizenship has to be addressed by the authorities in Myanmar,” said William Spindler, spokesperson for the UN Refugee Agency.
On Friday, 17 countries, including India, the U.S., Australia, Japan and the regional countries of Myanmar, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and Bangladesh are participating in a meeting in the Thai capital to thrash out a solution to the crisis even as 2000 people are still believed to be stranded on the sea.
Rohingya Muslims are a minority group who have suffered persecution in Myanmar while the country’s government has refused to acknowledge them as full-fledged citizens.
http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/un-calls-for-comprehensive-response-to-migrant-crisis/article7261401.ece
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Southeast Asia
Sabah Christians reject ministry’s ‘intrusion’ in religious materials
May 30, 2015
Christians in Sabah are alarmed by what they term the “highly insensitive and bizarre intrusion” of the Home Ministry's Publication and Quranic Texts Control Division into their religious affairs in the wake of the new proposed standard operating procedure (SOP) on bringing the Alkitab which contains the word Allah into the peninsula.
In an open letter to Sabah federal minister Tan Sri Joseph Kurup who unveiled the proposed SOP to Christian leaders in Sabah and Sarawak last month, Sabah Council of Churches president Rev Datuk Jerry Dusing described the proposed guidelines as a gross bureaucratic overreach which must be checked.
He added that the import of Christian materials was the constitutional right of Christians.
He said it would had been equally intolerable if one day, for the sake of argument, the Quran was subject to regulation by the Christian text division.
Full report at:
http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/sabah-christians-reject-ministrys-intrusion-in-religious-materials#sthash.n50yV3KJ.dpuf
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No place for race, religious politics in Malaysia anymore, Ku Li says
May 30, 2015
KUALA LUMPUR, May 30 ― The time has come for Malaysia to shed the colonial era focus on race and religion in its politics and adopt an “open-based system” that fits with the demands of the country's youths, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah said today.
The senior Umno leader said the current proclivity towards race and religion runs counter to any effort to unite people.
“I honestly think it inhibits unity and harmony and maybe the way forward is an open-based system, and not religious-based or race-based,” he was quoted as saying by The Malaysian Insider at the launch of a new NGO called Harmony Malaysia.
“I'm going to get into trouble for saying this. I don't care, I believe in it,” he added.
Razaleigh, or Ku Li as he is also known, said it is necessary to be in tune with and to accommodate what youths want.
Full report at:
http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/no-place-for-race-religious-politics-in-malaysia-anymore-ku-li-says#sthash.xuMkG3JH.dpuf
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15 wounded in Philippines mosque attack
May 30, 2015
JOLO: Fifteen people including 10 police officers were wounded in an attack on a police camp mosque on a remote island in Philippines long plagued by Islamic militancy, officials said Saturday.
Successive blasts targeted the mosque inside Camp Kasim on the island of Jolo early Friday evening — an initial grenade attack followed by a bomb explosion less than 10 minutes later that was intended to target police who rushed to the scene, local authorities said.
"It seems the [first] explosion was set up to draw responders as the target," the provincial police chief Senior Superintendent Abraham Orbita told reporters.
Rosalyn Aya-ay, a shopkeeper and policeman's wife, said she found her husband sprawled on the ground after the first explosion and took him to the camp hospital, though he was not seriously injured.
Full report at:
http://www.dawn.com/news/1185148/15-wounded-in-philippines-mosque-attack
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