So what’s in the news today by MSM and what topics are deemed of no importance in the War On Terror (WOT)TM
From al-Qaeda flowing into ISIL or ISIS in the Levant and now expressed as Daesh in the Arab world. The complete false notion from the Obama administration before the 2012 election that al-Qaeda terror was defeated, faithfully repeated on the liberal blogs and just a minority calling it erroneous.
Terror strikes in 2 Tunesian hotels, at least 27 killed | Egyptian Streets |
More than 27 have been killed and dozens injured after two gunmen armed with Kalashnikov rifles stormed the private beaches of two hotels. According to Interior Ministry spokesman Mohamed Ali Aroui, 27 people have been confirmed dead at the attack in Sousse.
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Tunisie : au moins 27 morts dans un attentat à Sousse (Le Monde Afrique)Among the hotels involved is the five-star Imperial Marhaba hotel. Sousse is one of Tunisia’s most popular beach resorts and attracts many tourists from across the globe.
According to initial reports, tourists are among those killed. Photographs circulating on social media showed at least two dead bodies of men in swimsuits on the sand, while others showed tourists barricading themselves inside their rooms. It is unclear whether the gunmen have been killed or whether they managed to flee the scene.
Tunisia had been on high alert after gunmen attacked the Bardo museum in Tunis in March, killing 22 people including tourists. ISIS had claimed responsibility for the attack.
The attack is the third deadly terror attack on Friday. A suicide bomber struck a mosque in Kuwait during Friday prayers, while in France, gunmen decapitated one factory worker in Lyon.
○ UPDATE – Attack in Tunisia: on balance 37 dead and 36 wounded | Le Dauphiné Libéré |
Daesh claims responsibility for mosque explosion in Kuwait | Gulf News |
DUBAI (UAE) – At least 16 killed and many people wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a Shiite Muslim mosque packed with some 2,000 worshippers during Friday prayers in Kuwait city, a witness said. According to initial witness reports, eight people were killed in the explosion. But agency reports revised the death toll upwards to 16.
“The initial count for the casualties is that at least 16 dead, and 25 have been taken to hospital,” a medical source said.
Daesh claimed what was the first-ever bombing of a Shiite mosque in Kuwait and the first terror attack in the Gulf state since January 2006.
Daesh claims attack
A Daesh terror group branch that refers to itself as the “Islamic State in the Province of Najd” (central Saudi Arabia) claimed responsibility for the attack on the mosque. Najd Province claimed similar bombings at Shiite mosques in Saudi Arabia in recent weeks.
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Injured man shown on phone after mosque attack during Friday prayers in Kuwait (Image Credit: Social Media)
The day started in Brussels where the EU leadership discussed topics the financial crisis in the Eurozone and Greece and the migrants floating towards Europe from Africa and the Middle-East. EU Navy ships should sink the boats used to transport migrants from Libya to Italy and from Turkey to Greece. A number of European nations want to close their borders and don’t want to accept any more migrants. Liberal Europe showing its ugly face, pushed by the right-wing anti-EU and anti-immigrants parties.
Terror strike near Lyon failed in its mission, one person killed and one suspect arrested
According to regional daily Le Dauphiné Libéré, the attacker entered the factory, owned by US company Air Products in the town of Saint-Quentin-Fallavier, claiming he belonged to the Islamic State (IS) group. The man opened gas bottles and set off an explosion.
A man thought to be the person who carried out the attack has been arrested and identified. Police said it was unclear whether the attacker was acting alone, or had accomplices.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls has ordered tightened security measures on all “sensitive sites” in the region. French President François Hollande is cutting short a meeting in Brussels to return to Paris, where he expected to arrive by early afternoon.
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Not in the MSM news today: ISIS kills 145 civilians in Kobane, Syria
Continued below the fold …
ISIL kills at least 145 civilians in Kobane | Hürriyet Daily News |
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) fighters killed at least 145 civilians in an attack on the Syrian town of Kobane and a nearby village. The attack on the predominantly Kurdish town of Kobane and the nearby village of Brakh Bootan marked the biggest single massacre of civilians by ISIL in Syria since it killed hundreds of members of the Sunni Sheitaat tribe last year.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu held a phone conversation with the U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry June 26 over the recent developments in Turkey’s Syrian border. The two ministers discussed recent attacks, according to a Turkish official.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu have both vehemently denied as “propaganda” accusations that ISIL was allowed to cross from Turkey into Syria to launch a fresh assault on the symbolic battleground town of Kobane.
Erdoğan and Davutoğlu also separately delivered statements accusing the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) of “provocation” after it blamed the deadly attack in Kobane on Turkish state support for the ISIL fighters.
AU Special Representative for Somalia condemns attack on AMISOM Base
The Special Representative of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission (SRCC) for Somalia and Head of AMISOM, Ambassador Maman Sidikou has condemned the dawn attack on an AMISOM Base in the town of Leego, by Al Shabaab militants.
Ambassador Sidikou regrets the losses suffered and registers his solidarity with the Government and people of Burundi whose soldiers, serving under AMISOM, were affected in this callous attack.
“This attack will not diminish our resolve to continue to support the Somali Government and people until they are free from terrorism”, said Ambassador Sidikou.
AMISOM will continue with the Joint Operations with the Somalia National Army (SNA) to liberate any other parts of Somalia still under Al Shabaab domination in order to pacify the entire country so that the Somali people can go about their day-to-day life and business in peace and in freedom.
Al-Shabaab kills dozens of African Union (AU) troops at base in Somalia | The Guardian |
Instilling yet more fear amongst the British people.
Western hypocrisy can’t be hidden from the European Muslim community and the Islamic State is building it’s caliphate on facts intertwined with a power grab and control of its followers.
○ Lebanese leaders unite to condemn triple terror attacks | Daily Star |
○ Thank You President Obama for Sending Timoney | Bahrain – Jan. 2012 |
○ Bahrain Violent Uprising … Censored by CNN, etc.
See my diary of a few days ago – Failed ME Foreign Policy – More Terror, More Backlash and North Africa, Sahel and Maghreb – Chaos after Western (Military) Intervention.
Your friend visited Tunisia and found it’s people and country hospitable. I have also spend a holiday vacation with my two children in Tunisia on the island of Djerba, near the border with Libya – Gadaffi ruled there at the time and harsh economic sanctions were in place. US citizens were prohinited by the State Dep’t to visit such a rogue nation. Think 1980s and the reign by the ‘Iron Lady’ Thatcher and Ronald Reagan – the raid on Tripoli and Benghazi.
My statement yesterday explained the Government’s decision to support the United States military action, taken in self-defence, against terrorist targets in Libya. Of course, when we took our decision we were aware of the wider issues and of people’s fears.
Terrorism attacks free societies and plays on those fears. If those tactics succeed, terrorism saps the will of free peoples to resist. We have heard some of those arguments in this country:”Don’t associate ourselves with the United States,” some say;”Don’t support them in fighting back; we may expose ourselves to more attacks,” say others.
Terrorism has to be defeated; it cannot be tolerated or side-stepped. When other ways and other methods have failed–I am the first to wish that they had succeeded–it is right that the terrorist should know that firm steps will be taken to deter him from attacking either other peoples or his own people who have taken refuge in countries that are free.
The Prime Minister (Mrs. Margaret Thatcher)
I was aware of the politics in Tunisia and the rule by dictator President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali. The tourist island of Djerba was shut down by security forces, nevertheless there were dramatic attacks from foreign forces in those years: Ghriba synagogue attack and assassination of Khalil al-Wazir. During our stay, I had planned to leave the island. This was not possible on your own, only under a pre-planned guided tour. So we traveled by bus across Tunesia to the west and an attraction park in Tozeur. Every small village we passed through, there were security check-points in place. The tour bus needed to travel the exact route and within planned time slots. This was because of threats from extreme Islamists. Tunesia has indefensable borders as a Sahara nation and bordering Algeria after it’s struggle from French colonization and the civil war that cost more than 10,000 lives.
Tunisia, a Sahara bordering nation with its naighbors Algeria and Libya
○ Obama Calls Ben Ali a Dictator in the last State of the Union Address, Is Egypt Next? on January 28, 2011
PS had a teenage daughter and the local Tunisians boys were focused on a friendly relationship that would provide them with a ticket to the EU. See my latest diary on Europe, asylum seekers and regugees from North Africa and the Middle East. Oh yes, the Western world really have taken steps
forwardbackward in it’s defeat of terrorism.Cross-posted from BooMan’s fp story – Nice Knowing You, Tunisia.
Traveling to Egypt for sunbathing, best bet are the beach resorts along the Red Sea. Don’t travel inward of the Sinai peninsula as the Hamas related Islamists roam vast areas seeking western targets or the Egyptian armed forces.
○ Classic Agitator: Preacher Safwat Hegazy Inciting Violence In Cairo
○ Morsi gives Egypt governorships to Islamist allies – June 2012
Referenced from my two diaries – Calling the Shots in Egypt, Meet MB Leader El-Shater – Dec. 2012 and Developments Arab Spring Egypt’s Revolt Explained – Aug. 2013.
○ Muslim Brotherhood and Morsi supporters torch Egyptian Coptic Christian churches | JPost |
○ The Muslim Brotherhood’s War on Coptic Christians | The Daily Beast |
○ Israel Encouraged Egypt’s Junta to Smash Islamists | Tikun Olam |
○ Muslim Brotherhood violence and torching Coptic christian churches [Opposed view to Richard Silverstein]