Category Archives: Arab World 🌎

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Palestinian boy of 12 shot dead by Israeli forces

09 Friday Nov 2012

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TEMPLATE REPORT

 

The boy named by Hamas was Yunes Abu Daqqa was hit by rounds fired by an Israeli army helicopter.  He was reportedly killed on Thursday when clashes  erupted after militants opened fire on Israeli forces that had entered Gaza.

“Terrorists opened fire at IDF [Israeli Defence Forces] soldiers while they were performing routine activity adjacent to the security fence,” Israel’s military spokeswoman Avital Leibovich said.

The AFP news agency quoted Hamas health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra as saying the boy, Yunes Abu Daqqa, “was killed by bullets fired from an Israeli helicopter during an incursion” in southern Gaza.

Soon after, a large tunnel blew up near the border fence, throwing a military vehicle 20m (65ft) into the air and injuring the soldier, said Israeli military spokeswoman Lt Col Avital Leibovich.

The tunnel was one of the biggest seen in recent years, she said, and could have been part of a plan to kidnap or kill soldiers.

Hamas’ military wing, the Izz al-Din Qassam Brigades, said it caused the blast, in response to the killing of the boy.

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The Siege of Bani Walid

22 Monday Oct 2012

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LIBYA (here’s one we liberated earlier) 🇱🇾

20 Saturday Oct 2012

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🪖 Bani Walid ‘under seige’ one year after the death of Colonel Gaddafi 🇱🇾

20 Saturday Oct 2012

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TEMPLATE REPORT

Bani Walid, a former Gaddafi stronghold, remains to be ‘liberated’, one year after the capture and murder of the Libyan dictator, the new regime has admitted.

Speaking on Libyan television late on Friday,  Libyan leader Mohammed Magarief said the new regime had struggled to impose their authority on a country awash with weapons.

The national congress leader claimed the town of Bani Walid, some 160 kms (100 miles) south of Tripoli, had become a ‘safehaven’ for those who were ‘outside the law.’

He blamed“delays” in the formation of the army and police and the failure to disarm and integrate former rebels for the chaos in Libya.

“The campaign to liberate the country has not been fully completed.

“…the spread of chaos that has lured the old regime to infiltrate the country’s institutions inside and to conspire with the regime loyalists on the outside.

“And the chaos has lured others to kidnappings, stealing, and to create non-legitimate prisons. What has happened in Bani Walid in the last few days falls under this … it has become a safe haven for a large number of those who are outside of the law.”

Militias, aligned with the Defence Ministry, have shelled the hilltop town of 70,000 for several days. Many of those in the militias were from the rival town of Misrata, that are angry at the death of rebel fighter Omran Shaban (pictured above) after two months in detention in Bani Walid.

Shaban, from Misrata, was the man who found Colonel Muammar Gaddafi hiding in a drain pipe in Sirte on October 20, 2011.

Libya’s congress ordered the Defence and Interior Ministries to find those responsible for abducting Shaban and suspected of torturing him to death.

It gave Bani Walid a deadline to hand them over.

Click here for Template report on Gaddafi’s death

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Children injured after second Israeli airstrike on Gaza

08 Monday Oct 2012

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TEMPLATE REPORT

Several children have been injured after Israeli forces shelled areas east of Khan Younis. The Israeli military said it had targeted two members of “global jihadist” groups which were suspected of involvement in a cross-border attack from Egypt in June that left one Israeli dead.

Medical sources in Gaza said an Israeli shell had landed east of Khan Younis, injuring five people, among them several children.

Earlier today, rockets launched from Gaza landed in Israel’s Eshkol region and near Kerem Shalom, although  no-one was hurt.

Shrapnel from the mortars and rockets fired into southern Israel on Monday caused some damage to at least one building in Eshkol.

Afterwards, the local authorities asked residents to stay close to shelters.

The military wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad said the attack was a response to an Israeli air strike on Sunday.

Eight civilians, including two children, were injured in that strike, when a missile hit a motorbike ridden by two militants as it travelled through the southern town of Rafah.

One of the militants, Abdullah Maqawi, died of his wounds on Monday, while the other is seriously hurt.

Hamas’s military wing, the Izz al-Din Qassam Brigades, and that of Islamic Jihad, the al-Quds Brigades, announced that the rocket fire was a response to “Zionist crimes”.

“In response to the injury of civilians in the most recent strike on Rafah, the Qassam Brigades and the al-Quds Brigades fired a number of rockets at enemy military positions,” a Hamas statement said.

In a statement, the Israeli military said: “In response to this morning’s rocket barrage at southern Israeli communities, the [Israel Defence Forces] targeted Hamas terror activity sites and terrorist squads responsible for the rocket fire from the Gaza Strip.

“The IDF will not tolerate any attempt to harm Israeli civilians, and will operate against anyone who uses terror against the State of Israel. The Hamas terror organisation is solely responsible for any terrorist activity emanating from the Gaza Strip.”

More than 470 rockets have been fired from the Gaza Strip at Israel this year, not including those launched on Monday, the statement added.

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Protected: Sir Salman Rushdie

19 Wednesday Sep 2012

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Taliban attack on Camp Bastion

17 Monday Sep 2012

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TEMPLATE ANALYSIS

The full extent of the Taliban’s audacious raid on Camp Bastion/Camp Leatherneck, a massive complex in southern Helmand province that serves as the main base for U.S. Marines and British forces only became clear on Sunday. It was a coordinated assault that destroyed six Marine Corps AV-8B Harrier jump-jets and “significantly” damaged two others, as well as some hangars.

The Taliban also destroyed three refueling stations.

Harrier jets cost an inflation-adjusted $30 million to $40 million apiece when they were acquired in the 1980s and early 1990s.

Armed with automatic rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and suicide vests, they  organized into three teams and appeared “well-equipped, trained and rehearsed.”

According to the Coalition, the militants had penetrated one point of the perimeter fence. and the damage caused represents a major loss of combat
power –  around half a Harrier squadron

To have pulled this off, reports suggest that the attack would have required advance scouting and perhaps inside assistance.

When the Taliban attempted a similar assault on Kandahar Air Field in 2010, they failed.

This attack is a powerful demonstration that they have learned from previous mistakes and are now able to penetrate a base’s defences.

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🪖 Taliban Assault on British Base was ‘aimed at Prince Harry’ 🇦🇫

15 Saturday Sep 2012

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HELMAND – Two American soldiers were killed during a Taliban attack on the British base of Camp Bastion in Southern Afghanistan  last night.

The assault involved between 18 and 20 fighters who used small arms, rockets and mortars to attack the perimeter of the British base.

Prince Harry was at Camp Bastion in Afghanistan during the attack and a Taliban spokesman said he was the target.

The Taliban spokesman had at first said that the attack was a response to a US-made film mocking Islam.

They released a video of the attack, a snatch of which is pictured above.

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The Prince, who is third in line to the British throne, is celebrating his 28th birthday and is in Afghanistan for four months on his second tour of duty.

He was not in any danger during this unprecedented assault on one of the world’s busiest airports.

Several other Nato troops were wounded, whilst one Taliban fighter was caught alive and the rest killed.

Camp Bastion which is situated in the middle of the desert is extremely heavily fortified.

An MoD spokesman said this was a significant attack adding: “there has been some damage to equipment which is still being assessed.”

“After swift action by ISAF forces, including UK personnel, the incident was contained.”

Three hundred and thirty coalition soldiers have lost their lives in Afghanistan this year, of which 252 are from the US.

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PROTESTS AGAINST FILM

11 September

1. US embassy in Cairo attacked, flag torn down and replaced with black Islamist banner

2. Mob attacks US consulate in Benghazi, US ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans killed

13 September

3. Protesters break into the US embassy compound in Sanaa, Yemen, amid clashes with security forces

14 September

4. Sudanese protesters attack US, German and UK embassies in Khartoum and clash with police. Three killed

5. One person killed in Lebanon in protest at a KFC by Text-Enhance” href=”#”>restaurant

6. Protesters in Tunis attack the US embassy, with a large fire reported and shots heard. Two killed

7. Riot police in Cairo clash with protesters near US embassy. One person killed

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🪖 US Ambassador to Libya killed in Benghazi embassy Attack 🇱🇾

12 Wednesday Sep 2012

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TEMPLATE ANALYSIS

Anyone who met Christopher Stevens said he was a very nice man who had a lot of time for you. He was also proud of the role he had taken in ousting Colonel Gaddafi and in helping the Transitional National Council into Tripoli.

So, it is a cruel irony that he has been killed in a country he helped to free, in the place where the rebellion began and of course on the eleventh anniversary of those infamous attacks on America.

The cause for the rocket attacks on the US consulate in Benghazi is a film that clearly insults the Prophet Muhammad and the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt have today called for worldwide condemnation of the movie made by Israeli film maker Sam Bacile.

Post-Gaddafi Libya has of course been a disaster with the ruling government in Tripoli largely ignored as armed gangs control large parts of the capital, and outside.

Libya is in danger of breaking into three – all of which calls into question Nato’s decision to intervene as Gaddafi’s Libyan forces were amassed outside Benghazi.

Yesterday’s brutal actions that resulted in the deaths of Stevens and three other consular members have been condemned by Hilary Clinton. This was, of course, the same Hilary Clinton who jumped for joy on hearing of Colonel Gaddafi’s death.

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‘You are lying about Syria’, Citizen tells BBC Reporter

10 Monday Sep 2012

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