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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
8/12/2013 10:05:44 AM

By

MARGARET BRENNAN /

CBS NEWS/ August 11, 2013, 1:10 PM

Iraq attacks display al Qaeda "hallmarks," State Dept. says

Aug 10, 2013: Black smoke from a car bomb attack is seen in Baghdad, Iraq. A wave of car bombings targeted cafes and markets around the Iraqi capital of Baghdad as people celebrate the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, killing and wounding scores of people, officials said. (AP)

The Obama administration believes the bloody suicide attacks and car bombings in Baghdad that have killed dozens of Iraqis in recent days were likely carried out by al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI). On Saturday evening, the State Department announced that the attacks bear the hallmarks of AQI - led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who is now based in Syria.

It is a significant acknowledgement by the Obama administration that the al Qaeda affiliate has now moved the base of its operations from Iraq into the neighboring civil war-ravaged country.

President Obama and his national security team have been reluctant to intervene in the Syrian war in large part due to the fear of that action potentially emboldening extremist Islamist groups who have joined the fight against embattled President Bashar al Assad. Now, the administration is publicly recognizing that AQI has now capitalized on the power vacuum within Syria to turn it into a hub for its operations.

In a statement released by State Department, Spokesperson Jen Psaki noted that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has taken personal credit for the recent Abu Ghraib prison break, which freed dozens of AQ operatives, as well as the suicide bombing assault on the Ministry of Justice. She pointed out that AQI has been renamed as the Islamic state of Iraq and Sham (ISIS).

The renaming of AQI as ISIS signifies the aspirations of the terror group. The word "sham" is a nationalist term that symbolizes a geographical definition of a hypothetical Greater Syria that stretches from the Mediterranean through Iraq. The United States offered a $10 million reward for information that helps authorities kill or capture Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The price on his head is sizeable, and second only to the U.S. reward for information related to al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari will visit Washington this week and meet with Secretary of State John Kerry. The rise of the terror group and bleeding of the Syrian civil war across its border will be one of the topics discussed.

The timing of the visit comes nearly two years after Mr. Obama first called on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down from power on August 18, 2011. The administration - and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Martin Dempsey - have publicly acknowledged that Assad is now winning the war, and that extremists are gaining territory within the war-ravaged country.

© 2013 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.


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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
8/12/2013 10:20:19 AM

Pakistan accuses India of shelling, killing man


Indian protesters burn an effigy of Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif during a protest in Ahmadabad, India, Saturday, Aug. 10, 2013. India's defense minister directly accused Pakistan on Thursday of killing five Indian soldiers in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir and suggested it could hurt peace efforts by the two countries. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)
Associated Press

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan accused Indian troops of shelling its territory along the disputed Kashmir border on Monday and killing a civilian, the latest in a series of allegations by both sides over the past week.

The resumption of violence along the border threatens to sabotage recent overtures by the two countries aimed at resuming peace talks. Pakistan and India have long been enemies and have fought three major wars since gaining independence from Britain in 1947, two of them over control of Kashmir.

A Pakistani military official accused Indian troops of "unprovoked firing" in the early morning hours Monday in three sectors along the Kashmir border: Battal, Chirikot and Satwal.

A civilian named Muhammad Zubair was killed by the shelling, the official said.

A senior Indian army commander said Indian troops were responding to unprovoked firing from Pakistan and targeted military posts, not civilian areas. The firing from Pakistani started last night and continued through the night in two places, the commander said. He accused Pakistan of regularly violating a 2003 cease-fire in Kashmir over the past four days.

The Pakistani and Indian officials both spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the issue with the media.

The mountainous Kashmir border is divided between Pakistan and India but claimed in its entirety by both.

India directly accused Pakistani soldiers and militants of crossing into its portion of Kashmir last Tuesday and killing five Indian soldiers. The Indian defense minister, A.K. Antony, has demanded those involved be punished.

Pakistan has denied its soldiers killed any Indian troops and accused Indian soldiers of severely wounding a Pakistani citizen along the border last Thursday. India has denied the allegation.

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif expressed his concern about the incidents last week and said both sides should make sure the situation doesn't escalate. He came to power in June with the intention of improving relations with India, especially when it comes to trade that Pakistan desperately needs to bolster its stuttering economy.

But analysts are worried that the latest violence could give ammunition to hawks on both sides to sabotage any moves toward normalizing relations.

___

Associated Press writer Aijaz Hussain contributed to this report from Srinagar, India


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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
8/12/2013 10:25:13 AM

Syrian rebels on the offensive in eastern city


FILE - In this January 2, 2013, file photo, a Syrian rebel plays soccer in the Saif al-Dawlah neighborhood of Aleppo, Syria. For Syria's banned Muslim Brotherhood, the uprising against President Bashar Assad that erupted amid Arab Spring revolts in 2011 provided a long-sought opportunity to stage a comeback after decades spent in exile. (AP Photo/Andoni Lubacki, File)
Associated Press

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BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian rebels launched an offensive Sunday in an eastern city near the border with Iraq in an attempt to extend their advances in the north and west of the country, activists said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination Committees said that Syrian army warplanes also conducted several air raids against rebel positions in the eastern city of Deir el-Zour.

The LCC and the Observatory said rebels killed seven soldiers and captured several others in the city that has been contested since last year.

Rebels have been on the offensive in northern Syria where they captured the town of Khan al-Assal last month. Last week, opposition fighters captured 11 villages in the regime stronghold of Latakia province along the Mediterranean coast, a symbolic blow to President Bashar Assad.

"Fighters are trying to capture neighborhoods in Deir el-Zour but so far they have not been able to," said Rami Abdul-Rahman, who heads the Observatory. "They are trying to take the whole city."

So far, rebels have only been able to fully capture one provincial capital, the northern city of Raqqa. They hold parts of several other major cities, including the northern city of Aleppo, Syria's largest, as well as Deir el-Zour and the central city of Homs.

Syria's state-run news agency SANA said government forces inflicted losses among "terrorists" in Deir el-Zour including foreign fighters. The Syrian government denies there is an uprising in the country and says Syria is being subjected to a foreign conspiracy.

SANA reported later Sunday that rebels shelled the central town of Salamiyeh, killing at least 11 people and wounding 20 others. Salamiyeh, where most residents belong to the Ismaili branch of Shiite Islam, is under regime control.

Syria's conflict has taken on an increasingly sectarian tone in the last year, pitting predominantly Sunni Muslim rebels against members of Assad's Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

The Observatory reported Sunday that a rebel group captured 13 Syrian Kurds near the town of Tel Aran in the northern province of Aleppo and handed them over to members of al-Qaida-linked Jabhat al-Nusra or Nusra Front. It said the detained Kurds were tortured.

Aleppo and the northeastern province of Hassakeh have witnessed heavy fighting in the past months between members of al-Qaida-linked jihadi groups and Kurdish gunmen that left scores of people dead on both sides.

On Saturday, the president of Iraqi Kurdistan, Massoud Barzani, vowed to defend the large Kurdish population in Syria from al-Qaida-linked rebel fighters, highlighting the potential for Syria's civil war to morph into a full-blown regional, ethnic and sectarian conflict.

The fighting in the oil-rich region near the Iraqi border has emerged as yet another layer in Syria's increasingly complex and bloody civil war.

Unrest in Syria began in March 2011 and later exploded into a civil war. More than 100,000 people have been killed in the conflict.


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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
8/12/2013 10:29:55 AM

Yemen officials: U.S. drone strike kills three militants

Posted on: 9:15 pm, August 11, 2013, by , updated on: 08:53pm, August 11, 2013

SANAA, Yemen (CNN) — Three suspected al Qaeda militants were killed by a U.S. drone strike in Yemen’s southern province of Lahj, two local security officials told CNN on Saturday.

Two others were injured in the Askariayah district strike, one of whom was critically injured, the officials said.

A second vehicle in the same area carrying suspected militants escaped undamaged after a strike missed its target.

Residents told CNN that the drone had been flying in low altitude between the two strategic districts of Yafe’e and Radman since the early afternoon.

“The militants were taking a weapons shipment by vehicle to a different location when that strike took place,” a local security official told CNN on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to talk due to the sensitivity of the issue.

The official said two of the killed were not from Lahj province and that very few strikes occurred in Lahj province over the last two years.

“Pro-government fighters have made it difficult for al Qaeda militants to move around in the province after their defeat last year,” he added. The strike was the tenth since President Abdurabu Hadi ended his visit to the United States earlier this month.

A senior Defense Ministry official told CNN that 34 people have been killed in 12 drone strikes since July 28. The official said that nearly a dozen of the killed over the past two weeks are believed to have been innocent.

Four Western embassies have been closed since August 4, after US intelligence intercepted information that al Qaeda would target American interests in the region.

Drone strikes against militants in Yemen have been intensifying as the U.S. Embassy there and in other Middle Eastern and African countries have been closed amid terrorism fears.

Security presence has decreased over the past two days in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, after hundreds of additional troops were deployed after the terror alert on August 3.

From Hakim Almasmari

CNN’s Michael Martinez contributed to this report.


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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
8/12/2013 10:47:11 AM

Woman seen clinging to tree last person missing from Colorado flood

Reuters

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Business owners get a close look at Fountain Creek a day after they were evacuated when a flash flood from the Waldo Canyon Fire burn scar swept through Manitou Springs, August 10, 2013. REUTERS/Evan Semon

By Keith Coffman

DENVER (Reuters) - A woman last seen clinging to a tree along the swollen banks of a rising creek is the only person still unaccounted for from a Colorado flash flood and mudslide that killed at least one person, authorities said on Sunday.

The woman, described as young with blond hair, was seen by witnesses as they fled the rushing waters west of Colorado Springs, El Paso County Sheriff's Office spokesman Lieutenant Jeff Kramer said.

The flood and mudslide were triggered on Friday night when nearly 1.5 inches of rain fell in 30 minutes over an area stripped of vegetation by a 2012 wildfire.

Fountain Creek jumped its banks from the heavy rainfall, and floodwaters cascaded down mountainsides onto a narrow canyon highway.

Authorities said the body of a 53-year-old man was found outside his vehicle under a pile of debris along the roadway. Two other people also reported missing have since been accounted for, authorities said.

Autopsy results are pending, but authorities believe the man drowned when trapped in the flood.

A wall of water, debris and mud from the deluge flowed into downtown Manitou Springs, which sits about 6.5 miles west of Colorado Springs at the foot of Pikes Peak.

Manitou Springs Police Chief Joe Ribeiro said on Saturday that initial damage assessments revealed six buildings in the downtown area were unsafe to enter and another 11 sustained some structural damage. Three people had been missing.

Additionally, about 40 vehicles swept away by the flood and mudslide were towed out of the debris, Ribeiro said.

(Reporting by Keith Coffman; Editing by David Bailey and Cynthia Osterman)

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