Monday, May 26, 2014

Suspected militants kill two Kenyan soldiers near Somali border


Two Kenyan soldiers transporting food supplies into Somalia were shot dead in a gunfight near the countries' border, a senior police official said on Monday.
Leonard Omolo, police commander in the coastal county of Lamu, said suspected militants ambushed the soldiers late on Sunday as they pushed their car out of mud after heavy rains in the area.
The soldiers, who were transporting food to the Somali town of Ras Kamboni, killed one of their attackers, Omolo told Reuters by phone.
Kenya sent troops into Somalia in late 2011, after al Shabaab militants carried out a series of raids on Kenyan soil.
Kenya has seen a drop in tourist arrivals in recent months following a string of gun and grenade attacks blamed on al Shabaab or its sympathizers.

Sources Reuters and Strategic Intelligence

Sunday, May 25, 2014

Al Qaeda Kill 16 Yemen Troops in Major Attack

Al Qaeda militants in Yemen launched a major attack targeting army, security and government buildings in a southern city, killing at least 16 troops overnight, security and military officials said Saturday.
The attack struck an army headquarters, the central security headquarters, the Central Bank building, the traffic police department, the post office and the agricultural bank in Sayoun, a city in southern Hadramawt province.
The attackers, however, failed to storm the army command and the security headquarters due to the fierce resistance put up by the government troops, the officials said. They said the attackers used car bombs at the beginning of their assault.
They said Jalal Baliedy, a prominent Al Qaeda leader, led the attack with dozens of militants who entered the city from different directions in several SUVs. They said fighters split into groups, with each group assigned to attack a certain target.
They identified Baliedy as an Al Qaeda leader in the port town of Zanzibar in south-central Yemen. They said he now leads an Al Qaeda group called "The Hungry Lions."
The sound of explosions and gunfire terrified residents of Sayoun, many of whom hid inside their homes during the attack.
The officials said the attackers also suffered casualties, but they were not able to estimate how many because the militants evacuated them when they withdrew.

Source Fox News 

10 Killed in Massive Car bomb in Syria City

A car bomb struck a pro-government neighborhood in the central Syrian city of Homs on Sunday, killing at least 10 people, setting cars on fire and sending thick plumes of black smoke into the sky, activists and a government official said.
The blast in the Zahra district, which is predominantly inhabited by Alawites and Christians, sent tremors through Homs, where rebels and the government have struck two cease-fire deals this month that have restored at least a semblance of peace to the shattered city. The provincial governor, Talal Barazi, said the attack targeted such reconciliation efforts.
An official in the Homs governor's office said 10 people were killed in Sunday's explosion and more than 40 were wounded. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media.
The director of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights activist group, Rami Abdurrahman, put the death toll at 12. He also said more than 40 were wounded.
Casualty figures frequently vary in the immediate aftermath of attacks in Syria.
Syrian state television blamed the bombing on "terrorists," the term it uses to describe those fighting to oust President Bashar Assad. The channel broadcast footage that showed cars on fire and people trying to push other vehicles away from the blast site.
Abdurrahman also said another explosion hit the Zahra area, although the nature of the blast was unclear.
A third blast struck the outskirts of Homs on the road heading west toward the city of Tartus on the Mediterranean coast, the provincial official and Abdurrahman said. The official in the governor's office said at least 13 people were wounded in that blast.
Homs was one of the first cities to rise up against Assad, and came to be known as the "capital of the revolution." In a bitter setback early this month, rebels who had been besieged in the Old City reached an agreement with the government that granted the opposition gunmen safe passage out of the city.

Source Fox News 

President Obama and Brad Paisley Secretly visit US troops in Afghanistan

US President has made a secret visit to Afghanistan, intelligence sources confirm, in what is seen as a symbolic military act in his career since becoming US president.
The US president has made a surprise but highly clandestine visit to Afghanistan where US troops have been battling militancy for decades.
US intelligence and military intelligence community maintained secrecy of the visit to US bases in Afghanistan.
Decades of Taliban insurgency has bogged NATO troops led by US in the hills and mountains of Afghanistan.
President Obama has made an unannounced visit to Afghanistan this Memorial Day weekend.
The president landed at Bagram Air Field, in Afghanistan, at about 8:30 p.m. local time, or 11: 46 a.m. Eastern time.
This is the fourth trip of his presidency and the first since May 2012.
Also making the trip with Obama on Air Force I is National Security Adviser Susan Rice, senior White House adviser John Podesta, whose son is serving in Afghanistan, advisers Dan Pfeiffer and Ben Rhodes, and country music star Brad Paisley, who will perform for troops during the visit.

Source The Headlines Fox

Devonte Dantzler, Sandy Gaddis & Jamie Williams Killed in SC Top Tourists Destination

Three people were killed and a fourth person was wounded in a shooting at an oceanfront motel in Myrtle Beach, one of South Carolina's most popular tourist destinations.
The shootings took place around 11 p.m. Saturday in front of crowds of tourists at the Bermuda Sands Motel along the beach's new boardwalk, Myrtle Beach Police Capt. David Knipes said at a news conference.
Officers draped towels over the balcony of a breezeway just outside the doors to the rooms of the motel to shield two of the bodies from people on nearby Ocean Boulevard.
Police have not said whether they have any suspects or what led to the shooting.
The victims were Devonte Dantzler, 21, of Summerville; Sandy Gaddis, 22, of Summerville; and Jamie Williams, 28, of Ladson, Horry County deputy coroner Darris Fowler said. The fourth victim is hospitalized.
The Sun News quoted a witness as saying that several people were fighting on the sidewalk in front of the motel minutes before the shooting.
"At first, everyone was standing around to see who was going to win the fight. Then they started shooting and everyone scattered," George Covington told the newspaper.
The shooting happened during the annual Atlantic Beach BikeFest held about 15 miles away during the Memorial Day weekend. Police say they typically deal with motorcycle wrecks and lesser offenses during the bike rally, but violence is unusual.
Knipes said Myrtle Beach had just two homicides in all of 2013.

Lakhan Kale Boy tied to bus stop suffers from cerebral palsy and epilepsy highlights struggle for disabled Indians

Mumbai (AFP) - The nine-year-old boy dressed in blue lay listlessly on the pavement in the scorching Mumbai summer afternoon, his ankle tethered with rope to a bus stop, unheeded by pedestrians strolling past.
Lakhan Kale cannot hear or speak and suffers from cerebral palsy and epilepsy, so his grandmother and carer tied him up to keep him safe while she went to work, selling toys and flower garlands on the city's roadsides.
"What else can I do? He can't talk, so how will he tell anyone if he gets lost?" said homeless Sakhubai Kale, 66, who raised Lakhan on the street by the bus stop shaded by the hanging roots of a banyan tree.
Lakhan's father died several years ago and his mother walked out on the family, his grandmother told