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Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 7/29/2014 12:31:39 AM
	Other crises muscle onto world stage just as Iraq is coming undone Situation in Baghdad is so dire, top military leaders said to have bags packed ready to flee By James Kitfield6 hours agoYahoo News This undated file image posted on a militant website on Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2014, which has been verified and is consistent with other AP reporting, shows fighters from the al-Qaida linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) marching in Raqqa, Syria. Across the broad swath of territory it controls from northern Syria through northern and western Iraq, the extremist group known as the Islamic State has proven to be highly organized governors. (AP Photo/Militant Website, File) View Gallery While the Obama administration and much of the global media focused on crises in Ukraine and the Gaza Strip in recent weeks, the centrifugal forces of a sectarian civil war continued to pull Iraq apart. The political deadlock in Baghdad persists, Iran’s grip on the government there has tightened and the Kurds are pushing ahead with a referendum on independence. With Iraqi Security Forces increasingly in disarray, the extremists of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) have begun probing the defenses of the capital with a wave of lethal car-bomb attacks in the past week, some of them targeting police checkpoints on major routes into the city. So dire is the situation in Baghdad that a knowledgeable source there says that top Iraqi military leaders “have their bags packed” in anticipation of possibly having to flee the capital with their families. Reports over the weekend that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s Dawa Party is considering abandoning him as its candidate represent the one bit of hopeful news out of Iraq in recent weeks. When Iraq’s most revered Shiite religious figure, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, called earlier this month for a new government in Baghdad that has “broad national acceptance,” Iraqis understood that he was signaling to the divisive al-Maliki to finally step aside for the good of the country. In his eight years as leader, al-Maliki has consistently pursued a sectarian agenda that alienated Iraq’s Sunni minority and drove Sunni tribes once allied with the United States into the arms of the extremists of ISIL (also called ISIS). That uneasy alliance is behind ISIL’s lightning offensive last month that overran the border between Syria and Iraq and captured the Sunni-majority regions of the country, including major northern cities such as Mosul and Tikrit. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, left, speaks during a press conference with the Sunni Speaker of Parliament … On Saturday the Dawa Party reportedly sent a senior official to Najaf with a message to Sistani that it was finally willing to replace al-Maliki if necessary. Yet the Iraqi strongman has survived many political crises in the past, and in his years in office Maliki has ruthlessly gathered the reins of power, including control over the Iraqi Security Forces and ministries of Defense and Interior. “Every day the political deadlock continues bolsters al-Maliki’s chances of staying in power, because as the incumbent and acting prime minister, he will continue making the argument that only he is capable of forming a government and keeping the Shiite coalition intact,” said Kenneth Pollack,a senior fellow at the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, and a former senior CIA Middle East analyst.“History has shown that argument is very persuasive to Iran in particular.” Indeed, as the crisis has deepened, Iran has cast a lengthening shadow over Iraq, with legendary Iranian Quds force Commander Qassem Suleimani having flown to Baghdad last month to rally the Shiite militias who now dominate Iraqi Security Forces, and to take charge of Iraqi defenses. A knowledgeable source says that Iranian pilots are now flying the Su-25 fighter jets that Tehran and Moscow rushed to Iraq, which have already conducted more than 40 missions inside Iraq. Because the Su-25s can fly only daytime missions and lack precision-guided weapons, however, their attacks on ISIL forces have led to significant collateral damage to civilians, further inflaming Sunni tribes united in their hated of Tehran. In top-level government meetings in Baghdad, a senior Quds force commander from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps now sits shoulder-to-shoulder with Iraq’s top military officers. “That is how bad [Iranian interference] is now,” said a knowledgeable source in Baghdad, who asked to remain anonymous in order to speak candidly about private discussions. As long as al-Maliki rules over a sectarian government in Baghdad that is seen as a stalking horse for Tehran, U.S. military leaders say, their options for coming to Iraq’s aid are limited. “The immediate task is to determine whether Iraq has a political future, because if Iraq has a political future, then we will work through Iraq to deal with the ISIS threat,” General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said July 24 at the Aspen Security Forum. If the Iraqi body politic cannot rally around an inclusive unity government — read one not led by al-Maliki — then the U.S. would have to find other regional partners, notably not including Iran. Not only does Iran have the blood of many U.S. soldiers on its hands through its support of Shiite extremists in Iraq, said Dempsey, but it is supporting terrorist proxies throughout the Middle East. “It wouldn’t make sense to me to embrace a country, a nation-state, that is creating so many other problems.” As for the Kurds in the north, a dispute over their attempts to independently sell oil led the government in A Kurdish peshmerga fighter stands guard as new equipment arrives at Kalak refinery on the outskirts of Irbil, … Baghdad to withhold funds and stop paying Kurdish salaries many months ago. More recently Baghdad has even barred cargo flights that deliver much-needed weapons and ammunition to Kurdish peshmerga forces engaged in running battles with ISIL militants across a nearly 650-mile border. Kurdish officials are now pleading for the U.S. to provide direct military assistance. According to a senior Kurdish official, the Kurds will soon switch to the U.S. dollar as their official currency to make a clean break from the Iraqi dinar and the Baghdad government, and they plan to hold a referendum on independence within the next 30 days. As the final guarantor of Iraqi sovereignty, Iraqi Security Forces have in some cases been co-opted by Shiite militias and also infiltrated by Sunni extremist informants tied to ISIL, according to a classified assessment of the ISF conducted by U.S. Special Operations Forces on the ground. Their assessment, which recently leaked to the New York Times and is still being studied at U.S. Central Command and the Pentagon, concluded that only half of Iraqi forces are operationally viable even with U.S. assistance. That assessment was bolstered a few weeks ago when Iraqi army units launched a counteroffensive to retake the city of Tikrit, and were repulsed by ISIL militants. Few observers believe the Obama administration is willing to commit the resources or the military personnel necessary to reconstitute an ISF that has fallen into such disarray. “I’m hearing from my friends in the U.S. military that they could turn the ISF into a cohesive and viable force once again with enough retraining and mentoring, but it would mean taking ownership of that force like they did back in 2007,” said Pollack. “And no one I talk to thinks the White House wants to even hear that option.” Meanwhile, in the past week ISIL militants overran a large Syrian military base on the outskirts of the city of Raqqa, capturing heavy weapons such as tanks, and launched a punishing wave of suicide car bombs into central Baghdad. The simultaneous offensives suggest that ISIL is less a terrorist organization at this point, and more of an unholy army intent on carving an Islamist caliphate out of the carcass of what was once Iraq and Syria. “If you look where ISIS fighters have been heavily engaged in fighting in Syria and Iraq in recent weeks, the logic of their operations appears to be taking control of urban centers and the major roads that link them in order to delineate the borders of their caliphate,” said Jessica Lewis, research director at the Institute for the Study of War, and a former U.S. Army intelligence officer. “Their operations in the belts surrounding Baghdad and the recent wave of [car bomb] attacks in the city may be intended to pin ISF forces down in the capital so they cannot launch a counteroffensive to recapture ISIS-held territory, or they may be probing Baghdad’s defenses in anticipation of a larger offensive.” Residents look at damages at the site of Thursday's car bomb attacks in Baghdad's Karaada district July 25, 2014. … As the Pentagon methodically completes its assessment of the situation and the White House considers its unpalatable and risky options, the devolution of Iraq has already begun. The post-Iraq landscape now taking shape and already dimly visible includes a Shiite vassal state closely aligned with Tehran; a rump Kurdistan, landlocked and besieged; and a Sunni caliphate ruled by Islamist extremists who view beheadings, mass murder and the destruction of religious holy places as badges of honor. Time is running out to reverse that trajectory, and to rescue the legacy of “Operation Iraqi Freedom” that 4,500 American troops died, and more than 40,000 were maimed and wounded, trying to secure. World leaders distracted as Iraq unravels As militants press forward and military leaders reportedly prepare to flee, Ukraine and Gaza occupy center stage. Iran's role surges
	"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)
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Luis Miguel

1162

61587

Lima

RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?

7/29/2014 12:53:09 AM

Was MH17 a war crime?

Rebels claim Kiev now controls part of MH17 site

By Dario Thuburn in Donetsk with Hui Min Neo in Kiev5 hours ago

Watch original video

Shakhtarsk (Ukraine) (AFP) - Ukraine's army on Monday seized control of part of the vast site where Malaysian airliner MH17 crashed, insurgents said, as the United Nations announced the downing of the plane could constitute a war crime.

After explosions and fighting blocked a new attempt by Dutch and Australian police to access the east Ukraine crash site, Kiev confirmed that its troops had now entered a string of towns around the scene, including Shakhtarsk, 10 kilometres (six miles) away.

The unarmed international mission was forced to turn back for the second day running before reaching the site, where the remains of some of the 298 victims still lie since the July 17 disaster.

Dutch investigators leading the probe said it was now likely that some of these remains may never be recovered.

"I would love to give a guarantee that all the remains will come back, and all possessions, but... I believe the chances are not very good that we will get it all," Dutch police chief Gerard Bouman told parliament in The Hague.

More than 1,100 people have been killed in the fighting engulfing east Ukraine over the past three months, the United Nations said, a toll that does not include the plane crash victims.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay condemned the "horrendous shooting down" of the Malaysian passenger jet in what was then rebel-held territory on July 17, and demanded a "thorough, effective, independent and impartial investigation".

"This violation of international law, given the prevailing circumstances, may amount to a war crime," she said.

The Red Cross has said Ukraine is now in civil war -- a classification that would make parties in the conflict liable to prosecution for war crimes.

Western powers, which has accused Moscow of fanning the rebellion by supplying it with weapons including the missile system allegedly used to shot down MH17, urged new sanctions against Russia.

Data from the plane's black boxes analysed as a part of a Dutch-led probe showed that the crash was caused by shrapnel from a rocket explosion, Kiev said.

But on the ground, investigators have made little headway into gathering evidence because of the intensifying fighting around the crash site.

- 'Let's go!' -

An AFP reporter in Shakhtarsk said artillery fire could be heard in the town and plumes of black smoke billowed into the sky, while a car was seen driving away with the sign "children" written in red on its front and back.

A couple was also seen leaving the town on foot with a young boy, as the woman shouted: "Let's go! Let's go!"

If Kiev manages to cement its latest gains, it could cut off access to main rebel bastion Donetsk from Russia, which stands accused by the West of funnelling arms to the insurgents.

The rebels did not specify which part of the crash site is now back under Kiev control and there is no confirmation from Ukrainian officials.

Andriy Lysenko, Ukraine's military spokesman, claimed that troops were not carrying out any fighting but that "we would occupy (the crash site) once the rebels withdraw".

Rebels signalled they were in no mood for retreat.

The top rebel military commander of the self-proclaimed "Donetsk People's Republic", Igor Strelkov, told a press conference: "We are planning to restore the connection between Shakhtarsk and Torez this evening. Our fighters are there now on the attack."

The escalating fighting has led authorities in The Netherlands -- which lost 193 citizens in the crash -- to conclude that it was unrealistic to send an armed mission to secure the site as troops risked getting dragged into the conflict.

Both sides in Ukraine's war have traded blame over who is responsible for the chaos around the site, with Kiev accusing the rebels of "destroying evidence" and the insurgents saying army shelling was devastating parts of the site where the plane wreckage is located.

Washington released new photographs to bolster its claim that Russia was now taking a direct role in the conflict by firing into Ukraine, targeting the armed forces.

Meanwhile, Russia said international monitors would visit its side of the volatile border over the next few days after accusing the United States of "hindering" their work on the ground.

- 'Both sides using heavy arms' -

Farther away from the MH17 site, fighting continued as Kiev pressed on with its offensive to retake the industrial east.

Local authorities said three civilians were killed and five injured in Donetsk, a city of one million, which has been serving as a base for international monitors and journalists who are travelling regularly to the crash site some 60 kilometres away.

The military said it is also massing troops around key rebel base Gorlivka, 45 kilometres north of Donetsk, "in preparation for liberating it", a day after fighting there claimed 13 lives.

Local authorities in the second main rebel city of Lugansk said that five civilians were killed and 15 injured due to "constant firing" over the past 24 hours.

Amid the fighting, Pillay warned that both sides were "employing heavy weaponry in built-up areas, including artillery, tanks, rockets and missiles".

"Both sides must take great care to prevent more civilians from being killed or injured," the UN high commissioner said, sounding the warning even as Kiev claimed that rebels on Monday fired unguided Grad rockets at residential buildings in Shakhtarsk.

View Gallery

U.N. issues war crime warning over MH17 downing

A declaration by the Red Cross may make it easier for the perpetrators to face prosecution by the U.N.
Investigation demanded

"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 7/29/2014 10:37:37 AM
	In Iraq's Mosul, radicals unleash their vision By VIVIAN SALAMA16 hours ago FILE - In this Monday, June 8, 2009 file photo, residents walk past the al-Hadba minaret in a busy market area in Mosul, Iraq. The fear, anger and sadness was palpable across Mosul on Saturday, July 26, 2014 as rumors made their way across Iraq’s second-largest city. The militants who had taken over and purged it of some of its most cherished landmarks were eyeing their next target: al-Hadba minaret, an 842-year old tower that leans, like Italy’s Tower of Pisa _ one of the country’s most famous structures which decorates the 10,000 dinar bill until today.(AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo, File) View Gallery BAGHDAD (AP) — Residents of Mosul have watched helplessly as extremists ruling the northern Iraqi city blew up some of their most beloved landmarks and shrines to impose a stark vision of Islam. Next up for destruction, they feared: the Crooked Minaret, a more than 840-year-old tower that leans like Italy's Tower of Pisa. Related Stories Islamic militants destroy historic mosque in MosulAssociated Press Iraq jihadists dynamite Shiite shrine in Mosul AFP Islamic State Militants Destroy Prophet Jirjis Mosque, 14th Century House Of Worship Huffington Post Ancient Christian population of Mosul flees Islamic State Reuters Iraqi PM condemns jihadis' targeting of ChristiansAssociated Press But over the weekend, residents pushed back. When fighters from the Islamic State group loaded with heavy explosives converged on the site, Mosulis living nearby rushed to the courtyard below the minaret, sat on the ground and linked arms to form a human chain to protect it, two residents who witnessed the event told The Associated Press on Monday. They told the fighters, If you blow up the minaret, you'll have to kill us too, the witnesses said. The militants backed down and left, said the witnesses, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation from the militants. But residents are certain the militants will try again. Over the past two weeks, the extremists ruling Iraq's second largest city have shrugged off previous restraint and embarked on a brutal campaign to purge Mosul of anything that challenges their radical interpretation of Islam, even Muslim shrines that in their iconoclastic fervor they condemn as apostasy. The scene on Saturday was a startling show of bravery against a group that has shown little compunction against killing anyone who resists it. It reflects the horror among some residents over what has become of their beloved city. View gallery FILE - This Sept. 25, 1998 file photo shows the tilting al-Hadba minaret in Mosul, Iraq. he fear, an … "The bombing of shrines ... has nothing to do with Islam," Abu Abaida, 44, a government employee, told the AP by phone from the city. "They are erasing the culture and history of Mosul." Like other residents, he spoke to the AP on condition he be identified by a nickname or first name for fear of retaliation. When militants from the Islamic State group first swept into in Mosul in June, they proclaimed themselves the mainly Sunni city's savior from the Shiite-led Iraqi government in Baghdad. Their first priority was to rebuild infrastructure and provide services like garbage collection that the government had neglected. They held off from implementing their strict version of Islamic law, urging modesty for women but doing little to enforce it and generally leaving alone the Christian population that had not already fled. The aim, it seemed, was to avoid alienating a Sunni community whose support they needed. Now, the honeymoon is over. In recent weeks, they have purged the city of nearly its entire Christian population, moved to restrict women and began the systematic destruction of city landmarks. "No place is safe," said Dia, an engineering professor in Mosul. "If I say one wrong thing, I am dead." View gallery FILE - In this Dunday, July 27, 2014 file photo, people inspect the destroyed old Mosque of The Prop … The Sunni militants target Sunni Muslim shrines because the sites are dedicated to popular historical religious figures. In the radicals' eyes, that encourages worship of others besides God — the worst of apostasies. The Crooked Minaret — al-Manara al-Hadba in Arabic — seems to be despised by the militants because it has become a national symbol, and nationalism is anathema to the radicals. The minaret is pictured on Iraq's 10,000-dinar bill. Moreover, local legends surround the minaret, and extremists generally see such stories as un-Islamic inventions. Built in 1172 as part of the Great al-Nour Mosque, it leans about eight feet (2.4 meters) off perpendicular. Local lore has it that the minaret tilts because it bowed in reverence to the Prophet Muhammad as he made an ascent to heaven. Nearly daily, the militants have been destroying some of the city's most famed sites. On Thursday, they lay a wall of explosives around the Mosque of the Prophet Younis — or Jonah, the prophet who in both the Bible and Quran was swallowed by a whale. They ordered everyone out of the shrine, which is said to contain the prophet's tomb, and blew it up. View gallery FILE - In this Thursday, July 24, 2014 file photo, people walk on the rubble of the destroyed Mosque … The next day, it was the turn of the Mosque of Sheeth, or Seth, said to be the burial site of the third son of Adam and Eve. On Saturday, they reduced to rubble the Mosque of the Prophet Jirjis. Last week, they removed the crosses on the domes and brick walls of the 1,800-year old Mar Behnam monastery, then stormed it, forcing the monks and priest to flee or face death. The move came days after jihadists proclaimed over loudspeakers from mosques that Christians must convert to Islam, pay a tax or die, prompting the flight of almost all the Christians who remained in the city. Women's rights are now being abruptly restricted. The militants hung banners at on the wall of the Heibat Khatoun mosque before Friday prayers instructing women to wear loose clothing and cover their faces. No bright colors. No patterns. They then distributed a statement to tailors and shops that sell women's clothes informing them of their newly imposed dress code, shopkeepers told the AP. An Associated Press reporter saw several female mannequins in shops with their faces covered. "Even at the time of Prophet Muhammad, the there was no face veil," said Um Farouq, 55, a Mosul resident. "These people with Daesh are just making up ideas that do not exist in Islamic Shariah," she said, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group. View gallery FILE - In this Saturday, July 19, 2014 file photo, the Mosque of The Prophet Younis, or Jonah, in Mo … The group had already shown its true colors in Syria, where it holds a large swath of the east and north. There, its fighters have banned music, imposed full veils, imposed taxes on Christians and killed people in main squares for defying their Shariah rules. Earlier this month, for the first time, they stoned to death two women accused of adultery. Iraq's Mosul was once famed for its religious and ethnic diversity, and it is one of few cities in Iraq where a significant number of Christians remained after the U.S.-led invasion. It was a traditional stronghold both for Islamic conservatives and more secular pan-Arab nationalists. Mosulis who cannot bear the extremists' rule have joined more than a million other Iraqis who have fled their homes in areas under the group's control. "The situation is becoming really miserable for us," said Abdul-Rahman Odai, a 25-year-old from Mosul who fled to the Kurdish province of Dohuk with his family. He said militants have seized government buildings and the homes of local officials. "They will not stop until they take everything." ___ Associated Press reporter Sameer N. Yacoub in Baghdad contributed to this report. Extremists in Iraq unleash a dark vision of Islam Radicals ruling Mosul show little restraint in purging the city of anything that challenges their doctrine. Bombing Muslim shrines
	"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)
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Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 7/29/2014 10:54:29 AM
	Israel hits Gaza power plant Israel hits symbols of Hamas power in Gaza war By KARIN LAUB and PETER ENAV1 hour ago In this image taken from video an explosion hits the media complex that houses the offices of Hamas-run Al Aqsa television and radio in central Gaza City early on Tuesday, July 29, 2014. The building also houses offices of a number of Arab satellite television news channels. (AP Photo/APTN) View Gallery GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel escalated its military campaign against Hamas on Tuesday, striking symbols of the group's control in Gaza and firing tank shells that shut down the strip's only power plant in the heaviest bombardment in the fighting so far. Flares turned the sky over Gaza City orange overnight and by daybreak, as the conflict entered its fourth week, heavy clouds of dust hovered over the territory. A thick column of black smoke rose from a burning fuel tank at the power plant. The pounding came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday warned of a "prolonged" campaign against Hamas. It was not clear if this meant Israel has decided to go beyond the initial objectives of decimating Hamas' ability to fire rockets and demolishing the group's military tunnels under the Gaza-Israel border. Already, the intensity and the scope of the current Gaza operation is on par with an invasion five years ago, which ended with a unilateral Israeli withdrawal after hitting Hamas hard. In Tuesday's strikes, Israeli warplanes carried out dozens of attacks, leveling the home of the top Hamas leader in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, and damaging the offices of the movement's Al-Aqsa satellite TV station, a central mosque in Gaza City and government offices. Haniyeh, whose house was turned into a mountain of rubble by a pre-dawn airstrike, said in a statement Tuesday that "destroying stones will not break our determination." View gallery Smoke rises from an Israeli strike at a building in Gaza City, foreground, as black smoke billows fr … No one was hurt in Haniyeh's home. Since the start of the war, Israel has targeted several homes of Hamas leaders but none was killed presumably as they appear to have gone into hiding. Gaza's power plant was forced to shut down after two tank shells hit one of three fuel tanks, said Jamal Dardasawi, a spokesman for Gaza's electricity distribution company. The shelling sparked a large fire and a huge column of smoke was seen rising from the site. Dardasawi said 15 workers were trapped inside by the fire and that the damage would take months to repair. There was no immediate word on casualties. Even before the shutdown, Gaza residents only had electricity for about three hours a day because fighting had damaged power lines. Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, an Israeli military spokesman, did not comment on the explosion at the plant, but told The Associated Press that Israel's latest strikes signal "a gradual increase in the pressure" on Hamas. "Israel is "determined to strike this organization and relieve us of this threat," Lerner said. View gallery Smoke rises from a building was hit with an Israeli strike in Gaza City, Tuesday, July 29, 2014. Isr … International calls for an unconditional cease-fire have been mounting in recent days, as the extent of the destruction in Gaza became more apparent. More than 1,110 Palestinians have been killed and more than 6,500 wounded since July 8, according to Ashraf al-Kidra, a Gaza health official. The U.N. has estimated that 75 percent of those killed are civilians. At least 26 Palestinians were killed early Tuesday in the airstrikes and tank shelling on four homes, according to the Red Crescent. The house of the mayor of the Bureij in central Gaza was hit in an airstrike, and five bodies were pulled from the rubble, the Red Crescent said. Those killed included the mayor, 50-year-old Anas Abu Shamaleh, his 70-year-old father and three relatives. In the southern town of Rafah, seven members of one family were killed in an airstrike and seven members of a second family were killed when tank shells hit their home, according to the Rafah office of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, which keeps a casualty count. View gallery Palestinians inspect the damage at the Ameen mosque in Gaza City, northern Gaza Strip, destroyed by … In central Gaza, seven people, including five members of one family, where killed by tank shelling on a home, the Red Crescent said. Israel has lost 53 soldiers, along with two civilians and a Thai worker. Tens of thousands of Gazans have been displaced by fighting in the border areas, which have come under heavy tank fire. Late Monday, Israel urged residents of three large neighborhoods in northeastern Gaza to leave their homes and immediate head to Gaza City. Despite appeals for a cease-fire, both sides have been holding out for bigger gains. Hamas has said it will not stop fighting until it wins international guarantees that a crippling border blockade of Gaza will be lifted. Israel and Egypt had imposed the closure after Hamas seized Gaza in 2007, defeating forces loyal to their political rival, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Over the past year, Egypt has further tightened restrictions, shutting down hundreds of smuggling tunnels under the Egypt-Gaza border that had provide crucial tax income to Hamas. The closure of the tunnels drove Hamas into a severe financial crisis. View gallery Palestinians inspect the damage at the Ameen mosque in Gaza City, northern Gaza Strip, destroyed by … Israel has said it is defending its citizens against attack from Gaza by hitting Hamas rocket launchers, weapons storage sites and military tunnels under the Gaza-Israel border. Israel said its troops will not leave Gaza until they have demolished the tunnels which have been used by Hamas to sneak into Israel to try to carry out attacks. On Monday, Gaza militants infiltrated through one of the tunnels and killed five soldiers in a firefight. One of the assailants was also killed. Separately, four Israeli soldiers were killed by mortar shells from Gaza that hit southern Israel. Israel media have said the army has destroyed close to 20 of 31 identified tunnels, but that 10 more tunnels are believed to be in areas of Gaza still outside Israeli control. After the deaths of the soldiers, Netanyahu signaled that Israel is intensifying its air- and ground campaign. "We will continue to act aggressively and responsibly until the mission is completed to protect our citizens, soldiers and children." Overnight, Israel carried out about 70 airstrikes, the military said. Haniyeh's house, located in a narrow alley of the Shati refugee camp, was reduced to rubble. Residents placed a large framed portrait of Haniyeh atop the rubble, and draped Hamas flags and Palestinian national banners over the debris. Neighbor Imhane Abu Ghaliyeh, 60, who lives 50 meters (yards) from Haniyeh's home, said area residents fled after apparent warning missiles were fired. __ Enav reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writer Ibrahim Barzak in Gaza City contributed to this report. Israel knocks out Gaza's only power plant A mosque, a TV station and a Hamas leader's home are also hit in Israel's heaviest attacks yet. Netanyahu warns of 'prolonged' war
	"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)
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Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 7/29/2014 11:08:28 AM
	Karzai cousin killed in Afghan 'turban bomb' attack By Mamoon Durrani1 hour ago In this photograph taken on February 21, 2013, Hashmat Karzai speaks during a press conference in Kandahar (AFP Photo/) View Gallery Kandahar (Afghanistan) (AFP) - A suicide attacker killed an influential cousin of Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday, officials said, raising tensions during a dispute over election results that will determine the country's new leader as US-led troops withdraw. Hashmat Karzai was a campaign manager in the southern province of Kandahar for Ashraf Ghani, one of the two presidential candidates involved in a bitter stand-off that threatens to trigger worsening ethnic instability. Hashmat, who famously owned a pet lion, was killed at his home outside Kandahar city by a man with explosives hidden in his turban as visitors arrived to celebrate the Eid holiday at the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. "A suicide bomber disguised as a guest came to Hashmat Karzai's house to greet him," Dawa Khan Minapal, the Kandahar provincial governor's spokesman, told AFP. "After he hugged Hashmat, he blew up his explosives and killed him." Ghani and a former anti-Taliban resistance fighter Abdullah Abdullah are at loggerheads over the June 14 second-round election, which has been mired in allegations of massive fraud. View gallery Afghan President Hamid Karzai speaks to the media after attending Eid al-Fitr prayers in Kabul, on J … Ghani won the vote according to preliminary results, but an audit of the ballots has started after Abdullah refused to accept defeat due to claims of "industrial-scale" ballot-box stuffing. With the audit beset by another outbreak of complaints from both sides, many fear the country is at risk of returning to the ethnic violence of the 1992-1996 civil war. Ghani's campaign team said via Twitter that it was in "immense shock" over the death of Hashmat, who -- like other members of the president's family -- was a wealthy businessman and powerbroker in Kandahar. - Election crisis unsolved - Earlier this month, when Abdullah appeared ready to set up a "parallel government" in opposition to Ghani, US Secretary of State John Kerry flew in and brokered a deal for the complete recount of all eight million votes. View gallery Afghan security personnel search a resident ahead of the Eid-al Fitr festival in Ghazni, on July 27, … The agreement averted an immediate crisis, but US and UN officials have struggled to get Afghanistan's first democratic transfer of power back on track as the two sides bicker over how fraudulent votes should be identified. A credible election was seen as a key benchmark of the costly US-led military and civilian aid effort to develop Afghanistan since the ousting of the Taliban regime in 2001. President Karzai, who has ruled since the Taliban's fall, was due to hand over power to his successor on August 2. Many diplomats insisted the presidential inauguration must be on schedule for future aid funding and military support, but the event has now been delayed with no new date set. Abdullah, who draws most of his support from Tajiks and other northern groups, won the first-round vote, but results from the run-off showed Ghani, whose support base is among the Pashtun tribes of the south and east, ahead by over one million votes. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the killing of Hashmat Karzai, and no other casualties were reported. Hashmat, who was about 45, first worked in the presidential election campaign for Qayyum Karzai, the president's brother, and later moved to support Ghani when Qayyum withdrew from the race. He ran security and vehicle import businesses in Kandahar, though was not as powerful as Karzai's half-brother Ahmed Wali Karzai, an alleged drug king-pin killed in the city four years ago. President Karzai is constitutionally barred from standing for a third term in office, but is likely to remain a central player in Afghan politics as government forces take on Taliban insurgents with declining help from the US-led NATO military. Explosives hidden in turbans have been used on several previous occasions in Afghanistan, including an attack in Kabul in 2011 that killed former president Burhanuddin Rabbani. Karzai's cousin killed in 'turban bomb' attack A powerful cousin of the Afghan president is killed by a suicide bomber with explosives hidden in his turban. Election crisis unsolved
	"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)
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