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Abduction of Sunni Displays Gangland Edge of Iraqi Politics

Just before midnight on Friday, Shiite militiamen in eight black S.U.V.’s rolled up to the Baghdad home of an important Sunni politician and abducted him and four of his bodyguards, a brazen move that threatened to further convulse a country already in the grip of a political crisis. For hours at a secret location on Baghdad’s southeastern edge, the bodyguards said, they were beaten with a lead pipe, their tormentors demanding that they admit that their boss, Riyadh al-Adhadh, the president of Baghdad’s provincial council, was preparing to support an invasion of the capital by Sunni militants fighting under the banner of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, who are in control of large amounts of territory in the north and west of Iraq. The episode, which ended with the eventual release of the five men, was a vivid portrayal of what Iraqi politics looks like […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Still Torn by Factional Fighting, Post-Revolt Libya Is Coming Undone

For weeks, rival Libyan militias had been pounding one another’s positions with artillery, mortar rounds and rockets in a desperate fight to control the international airport in the capital, Tripoli. Then suddenly, early Saturday morning, the fighting just stopped. The pause came as United States military warplanes circled overhead, providing air cover for a predawn evacuation of the American Embassy’s staff. Apparently fearing the planes, the militias held their fire just long enough for the ambassador and her staff to reach the Tunisian border — a reminder to Libyans of how even their most powerful allies were incapable of putting out their incendiary feuds. American officials said the evacuation was a temporary measure after fighting drew too close to the embassy. But, coming so soon after the withdrawal of other diplomatic missions, including the United Nations , the moment appeared to signal a defeat — for Libyans […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Voices from Libya’s armed struggle

Three years after toppling Gaddafi, the revolutionaries have turned on each other Making a stand: crowds in Tripoli come out in support of Gen Khalifa Haftar’s ‘dignity’ campaign against jihadist militias On a Friday afternoon in June in the Libyan capital of Tripoli, a street battle erupts for control of Martyrs Square. It is the first time that Libyans from both sides of an explosive political divide have fought each other for control of a space that represents the aspirations of the 2011 uprising that toppled Muammer Gaddafi. On the north side of the square stand the Islamists. Opposite them are a few hundred men and some women supporting the renegade General Khalifa Haftar’s “dignity” movement, which wants to crush the Islamists. At first the pro- and anti-Haftar crowds mostly throw water bottles and taunts at each other. Both sides chant the same slogans. “The blood of the martyrs […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Fighting in Tripoli Starts Fire in Fuel Complex Near Airport

Fighting between rival militia in Tripoli Sunday caused a storage tank containing petroleum fuel to catch fire at a complex near the Tripoli airport, oil and security officials in the Libyan capital said. A "tank containing 6.6 million liters of petrol" caught fire late Sunday as a result of fighting between rival militia vying for the control of Tripoli airport, one oil official said. The complex where the storage tank is located contains 90 million liters of fuel and cooking gas, sparking a risk of massive explosion, the official said The news comes after escalating violence led to the evacuation of the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli Saturday. Libya’s Ministry of Interior, which showed pictures of fire brigades trying to put down the fire on its Facebook page, said it was asking residents to leave the area. The news comes as Libya’s Ministry of Health said Sunday that the death […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Libya warns of 'humanitarian disaster' over fuel fire

The Libyan authorities have called for a ceasefire to allow firefighters to tackle the blaze Continue reading the main story Libya has requested international assistance to put out a fire at a large fuel storage site in Tripoli that was hit by a rocket during militia clashes. The huge blaze could cause a "humanitarian and environmental disaster," the government has warned. It is the largest facility in Tripoli, containing 6.6 million litres of fuel. At least 97 people have been killed in fighting between rival militia groups battling for control of Tripoli’s main airport in the past week. Fighting in the eastern city of Benghazi has also intensified, with at least 38 people killed in clashes between troops loyal to the Libyan government and Islamist fighters on Sunday. Calls for evacuation A statement by the prime minister’s office said it had requested international assistance "as a precaution". "Several countries […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Libya warns of ‘humanitarian disaster’ over fuel fire

The Libyan authorities have called for a ceasefire to allow firefighters to tackle the blaze Continue reading the main story Libya has requested international assistance to put out a fire at a large fuel storage site in Tripoli that was hit by a rocket during militia clashes. The huge blaze could cause a "humanitarian and environmental disaster," the government has warned. It is the largest facility in Tripoli, containing 6.6 million litres of fuel. At least 97 people have been killed in fighting between rival militia groups battling for control of Tripoli’s main airport in the past week. Fighting in the eastern city of Benghazi has also intensified, with at least 38 people killed in clashes between troops loyal to the Libyan government and Islamist fighters on Sunday. Calls for evacuation A statement by the prime minister’s office said it had requested international assistance "as a precaution". "Several countries […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Syria's Assad prays as his troops suffer high toll

Syrian state media have shown President Bashar Assad praying in Damascus at the start of a major Muslim holiday amid reports of an unprecedented high toll among his troops battling Islamic extremists. State TV showed Assad performing prayers in Damascus’ Khair mosque early Monday. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says about 1,240 soldiers and other Assad loyalists have been killed in the past 10 days, mostly in fierce battles with fighters from the al-Qaida-breakaway Islamic State group and other rebels in northern Syria. The dead soldiers and allied militiamen are among more than 1,800 people reportedly killed in the same period – a record number of deaths since the uprising against Assad began in March 2011. Syria’s three-year civil war has so far killed more than 170,000 people.

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Syria’s Assad prays as his troops suffer high toll

Syrian state media have shown President Bashar Assad praying in Damascus at the start of a major Muslim holiday amid reports of an unprecedented high toll among his troops battling Islamic extremists. State TV showed Assad performing prayers in Damascus’ Khair mosque early Monday. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says about 1,240 soldiers and other Assad loyalists have been killed in the past 10 days, mostly in fierce battles with fighters from the al-Qaida-breakaway Islamic State group and other rebels in northern Syria. The dead soldiers and allied militiamen are among more than 1,800 people reportedly killed in the same period – a record number of deaths since the uprising against Assad began in March 2011. Syria’s three-year civil war has so far killed more than 170,000 people.

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Syrian army retakes gas field from fighters

The Syrian army has recaptured a gas field east of the central city of Homs that was seized by fighters from Islamic State earlier this month, according to state media and opposition activists. Syrian television showed footage of soldiers running and deploying in a vast desert area which it said was the Shaer gas field in the desert region of Palmyra. Mahmoud al-Homsi, an activist opposed to President Bashar al-Assad’s government, confirmed to Al Jazeera via Skype from Homs that the army was now in control of the field. The Syrian army, in a statement on Sunday, said it retook the field after a "precise operation in which dozens of terrorists were killed". However, a source from the Islamic State said the fighters pulled out after destroying the gas field’s equipment and capturing at least 15 tanks and dozens of rockets which were used to guard the facility. "We […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Australian Repeal Deals Blow to Global Carbon-Emission Plans

GDF Suez Australian Energy’s Hazelwood coal-fired power station in Morwell, Australia. Bloomberg News Australia’s repeal of a pioneering tax on carbon emissions has dealt a sharp blow to struggling international efforts to coordinate on global warming and comes ahead of key climate-change talks next year. On July 17, Australia’s parliament pulled the plug on the 2012 tax, which charged 348 businesses such as steelmakers and power companies A$25.40 (US$24) per ton of carbon dioxide emitted. The levy was slated to evolve next year into an emissions-trading system that would link to the European Union’s. Although environmentalists world-wide applauded the program, Australian consumers and corporations bitterly protested the added costs, with Prime Minister Tony Abbott saying it sucked A$9 billion off economic growth each year. Scrapping the program further isolates the EU and other countries that have plowed ahead with strict measures to limit carbon emissions and that have been […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple