The leader of Nigeria's Islamic extremist group Boko Haram has denied agreeing to any cease-fire with the government and said more than 200 kidnapped schoolgirls all have converted to Islam and been married off.

In a new video released late Friday night, Abubakar Shekau dashed hopes for a prisoner exchange to get the girls released.

"The issue of the girls is long forgotten because I have long ago married them off," he said, laughing.

"In this war, there is no going back," he said in the video received by The Associated Press in the same way as previous messages.

Nigeria's chief of defense staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh, on Oct. 17 announced that Boko Haram had agreed to an immediate cease-fire to end a 5-year-old insurgency that has killed thousands of people and driven hundreds of thousands from their homes in northeast Nigeria.

But attacks and abductions have continued with the extremists this week seizing Mubi, a town of more than 200,000 people. Fighting also continued Friday in Vimtin, the nearby village where Badeh was born.

Shekau in August announced that Boko Haram wanted to establish an Islamic caliphate, along the lines of the IS group in Syria and Iraq. Fleeing residents have reported that hundreds of people are being detained for infractions of the extremists' version of strict Shariah law in several towns and villages under their control.

Boko Haram's kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls taking exams at a boarding school in the remote northeastern town of Chibok in April prompted an international campaign for their release and criticism of Nigeria's government for not acting quickly to free them. Dozens of the girls escaped on their own in the first couple of days, but 219 remain missing.

Unconfirmed reports have indicated that the girls have been broken up into several groups and that some may have been carried across borders into Cameroon and Chad.

The government had said it had negotiated with two Boko Haram leaders in Chad, with talks hosted by President Idriss Deby, and that it was confident the girls would be freed soon. But Boko Haram has many factions.

Shekau's announcement further discredits the government of President Goodluck Jonathan, who on Thursday formally announced his candidacy for elections on Feb. 14, 2015 in Africa's most populous nation. Nigeria, with some 160 million people, is divided almost equally between Muslims who dominate the north and Christians in the south. The West African nation is the biggest oil producer on the continent and has its biggest economy.

Jonathan's failure to curtail the insurgency and many corruption scandals are not expected to dim his chances of success. The election, though, is expected to be the most hotly contested since his People's Democratic Party took power after decades of military dictatorship ended in 1994.

Dozens of ruling party legislators have defected to the coalition All Progressives Congress, losing the PDP its majority in the lower house of Parliament. But the coalition is weakened by its inability to choose a presidential candidate, and primaries in December will be contested by three powerful northerners who all are Muslim.

Jonathan, a Christian from a minority southern tribe, has been criticized for ignoring an unwritten party rule to alternate power between Christian and Muslim leaders, adding a religious and ethnic dimension to the election.

———

Faul reported from Johannesburg.

Almost 150 Iraqi Peshmerga fighters left a heavily guarded Turkish military warehouse to join the battle for Kobane across the border in Syria, Agence France-Presse reported.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group confirmed the Kurdish fighters had entered the embattled frontier town.

The Peshmerga have been deployed to Kobane to aid Syrian Kurds who continue to defend their town against Islamic State of Iraq and Syria militants, an AFP correspondent reported.

Amid jubilant scenes, the fighters were cheered by Kurds along the road to the border.

Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP the 150 Peshmerga entered Kobane after crossing the border with their heavy weaponry from Tal al-Shair, west of the town, where fighting has killed more than 100 ISIS militants.

"Over the last three days, at least 100 members of the Islamic State and its religious police have been killed... in Kobane and its surroundings," the Britain-based group said.

In total, 958 people have been killed in the fight for Kobane, 576 of which were ISIS militants while the remaining were 361 YPG fighters in addition to allied forces and 21 civilians.

Fuel in preparation

The fighters had arrived from northern Iraq in two contingents -- one by air and one by land -- but both appeared to be heading to the border together.

The air contingent arrived early on Wednesday and the land contingent the next day. There had been growing frustration among some Kurds over why the deployment was taking so long.

But earlier Friday there was a hint of movement when two trucks took on fuel from a petrol station in preparation for the trip to the border.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan took aim at Western leaders for focusing too much on the battle for Kobane, however.

Speaking to reporters in Paris after meeting French President Francois Hollande, Erdogan asked: “Why are coalition forces continually bombing this town of Kobane?”

“We talk about nothing other than Kobane which is on the Turkish border and where there is no one left any more except 2,000 people fighting.”

Ankara’s decision to permit heavily armed Iraqi Peshmerga forces and opposition rebels to cross its border into Syria has sparked condemnation from Damascus, which denounced it as a “flagrant violation of Syrian sovereignty.”

The U.S.-led coalition carrying out air raids against ISIS in both Syria and Iraq has intensified attacks around Kobane.

The Britain-based Observatory reported fierce fighting in central Kobane on Friday.

“Kurdish fighters were able to advance towards an ISIS position in the north of the town after an operation that killed dozens of jihadists,” it said.

Artillery pieces destroyed

The Observatory said Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) made advances into the town’s central square.

“The jihadists responded by blowing up a booby-trapped vehicle in the square next to the Kurdish positions.”

The Observatory also reported that artillery pieces were destroyed and ISIS fighters killed as coalition air strikes targeted the north and center of Kobane.

According to experts and extracts of a U.N. report published by Britain’s Guardian newspaper, ISIS is now recruiting foreign jihadists on an “unprecedented scale.”

The latest U.S. figures show that around 1,000 foreign fighters are flocking to fight in Iraq and Syria every month.

In Iraq, government forces Friday attacked the strategic militant-held town of Baiji, which has been out of Baghdad’s control for months, regaining control of two areas, army officers said.

Baiji lies on the main highway to Iraq’s ISIS-controlled second city Mosul, and its recapture would also help to further isolate militants in the city of Tikrit, to the south.

Iraq’s leading Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, meanwhile, urged those battling ISIS to protect civilians in Sunni battle zones.

“It is up to you to protect the lives of the innocent citizens and protect their property... whatever confession they may belong to,” he said.

Sistani, who is revered by millions, has enormous influence among Iraq’s Shiite majority.

[With AFP]

Kiev (AFP) - Artillery explosions could be heard every few seconds early Saturday in Donetsk on the eve of separatist elections that Ukraine and its Western backers say will undermine an increasingly hollow truce accord.

Explosions were audible from central Donetsk most of the night, apparently from artillery targeting the city's ruined airport where Ukrainian soldiers are holding out against besieging rebels.

In mid-morning, explosions could be heard about every five seconds, accompanied by the sound of machine-guns, AFP correspondents in Donetsk said.

There was also heavy rebel shelling of Krymske, a village near Lugansk, another major separatist town, the regional governor said.

"This morning, intensive firing started," Gennadiy Moscal, who is loyal to the Ukrainian government, said in a statement. They "are using mortars, Grad (multiple rockets) and cannons. Private houses have been hit, some of them catching fire. There are casualties but for now it is impossible to determine how many."

The report could not be immediately verified.

View gallery

Pro-Russian gunmen guard Alexander Zakharchenko (C), prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk P …

- REBEL ELECTION -

The bombardments formed a frightening backdrop to elections on Sunday in the self-declared, pro-Russian statelets known as the Donetsk People's Republic and the Lugansk People's Republic.

There were no signs of polling stations in Donetsk near the airport and rebel soldiers deployed there said they didn't know of any stations in the area. However, there was little doubt about the winners of the two polls, with separatist leader Alexander Zakharchenko on course to become head of the Donetsk republic and Igor Plotnitsky in Lugansk.

Separatist authorities, who have close links with their Russian counterparts, say three million ballots have been printed and that voting by Internet has already started. There's even an exit poll planned for late Sunday.

"These elections are important because they will give legitimacy to our power and give us more distance from Kiev," said Roman Lyagin, election commission chief of the Donetsk People's Republic.

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A man reads a newspaper bearing headlines on the results of the Ukrainian parliamentary elections, o …

Vera, 45, who was selling eggs in a small Donetsk market, said she would vote "against the Fascists" -- an insult against Ukraine's pro-Western government that has become widespread in the separatist regions and in Russia's powerful state media machine.

However, retired teacher Lyubov Georgiyevna, 75, said "I won't vote. It won't change anything." She said above all she wished she could sleep at night without the sound of explosions.

- QUESTION OF LEGITIMACY -

Russia says it will recognise the legitimacy of the separatist elections, infuriating Ukraine and Western countries who describe the votes as another blow to an already teetering ceasefire signed on September 5.

The latest UN figures show 4,035 people have been killed in about seven months of war -- more than 300 of them in the last 10 days.

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A pro-Russia separatist repairs a damaged BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicle in the village of Lukove, …

The White House on Friday said: "We deplore the intent of separatists in parts of eastern Ukraine to hold illegitimate so-called local 'elections' on Sunday." The European Union and the NATO military alliance have also condemned the polls.

In a four-way call earlier on Friday, the leaders of Ukraine, Germany and France urged Russian President Vladimir Putin not to recognise the polls.

Ukraine's national security service, the SBU, issued a warning late Friday of the risk of "provocations" during the separatist votes.

"The process of voting itself and of taking part in these elections is dangerous," the SBU official, Markiyan Lubkivsky, said. "Serious provocations are being prepared that can then be blamed on the Ukrainian authorities."

There was one bit of good news out of Ukraine this week with Thursday's signing by Ukraine, Russia and the European Union of a deal guaranteeing Russian gas sales to Ukraine over the winter.

By Raheem Salman and Ahmed Rasheed

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Islamic State has executed 85 more members of the Albu Nimr tribe in Iraq, a tribal leader and security official said on Saturday, part of a mass killing campaign launched last week to break local resistance to the group's territorial advances.

Tribal chief Sheikh Naeem al-Ga'oud told Reuters Islamic State had killed 50 members of Albu Nimr who were fleeing the group in Anbar Province on Friday. In a separate incident, a security official said 35 bodies had been found in a mass grave.

Islamic State has executed a total of more than 300 tribe members in the past few days, Ga'oud and the official said.

The sustained bloodshed appears to demonstrate the group's resilience to U.S. air strikes against militant targets in the chunks of Iraq and Syria it now controls.

Ga'oud said he had repeatedly asked the Shi'ite-led central government in Baghdad for arms but his pleas had been ignored.

Albu Nimr had held out for weeks under siege by Islamic State, but finally ran low on ammunition, fuel and food.

Hundreds of tribal fighters withdrew and members of the tribe fled their main village of Zauiyat albu Nimr. Many were rounded up, shot at close range and dumped in mass graves.

Islamic State's advances have fueled sectarian bombings, kidnappings and shootings that occur almost daily in Iraq, echoing the dark days of 2006-2007, the peak of a civil war.

A car bomb killed seven people in the town of Yusufiya just south of Baghdad, police and medical sources said.

Terrorism and violence killed at least 1,273 people in October, compared to at least 1,119 in September, said the United Nations mission to Iraq. The figures excluded the vast desert province of Anbar in western Iraq.

ANBAR SQUEEZED BY MILITANTS

In Anbar, the militants are encircling a large air base and the vital Haditha dam on the Euphrates. Fighters control towns from the Syrian border to parts of provincial capital Ramadi and into the lush irrigated areas near Baghdad

Anbar was the main battleground between U.S. Marines and al Qaeda during the "surge" campaign in 2006-2007, when American troops enlisted the tribes to help them defeat al Qaeda.

Members of the Albu Nimr tribe then helped the Americans to defeat al Qaeda in its Anbar stronghold.

Ga'oud said the 50 tribe members were killed near Tharthar Lake near a desert area. They had been wandering by foot when they were intercepted by the Sunni militants.

He said one managed to escape the carnage and get word to tribal leaders.

"Forty of the dead were men. Six women and four children were killed while trying to protect their husbands and fathers," said Ga'oud.

His account was confirmed by Faleh al-Essawi, the chief of the security committee of the Anbar Provincial Council.

In the other incident, 35 corpses were found on the outskirts of Ramadi. "They were handcuffed and blindfolded. Some were wearing tracksuits and others were wearing dish-dash robes," an eyewitness told Reuters.

Iraq's Shi'ite Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi wants Sunni tribal leaders to support the Iraqi army against Islamic State, which has threatened to march on Baghdad. But mistrust has undermined efforts to revive an alliance.

(Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Gareth Jones)

10/30/2014 False Flag Weekly News with Kevin Barrett and Jim Fetzer