South Sudan: the state that fell apart in a week | World news | The Guardian

Tracking the rising of the Antichrist in North Africa.

ANTICHRIST - KING OF THE NORTH, KING OF THE SOUTH - THREE HORNS CUT OFF - ONE SHALL REIGN OVER ALL

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South Sudan: the state that fell apart in a week | World news | The Guardian

South Sudan: the state that fell apart in a week

The first western journalist into South Sudan reports from Juba on the brutal and sudden descent into civil war

• Daniel Howden in Juba
• The Guardian, Monday 23 December 2013 15.00 EST

A young cattle herder from the Dinka tribe carries his AK 47 rifle near Rumbek, capital of the Lakes State in central South Sudan. Photograph: Goran Tomasevic/Reuters

A week ago, Simon K, a 20-year-old student living in the capital of South Sudan, was arrested by men in military uniforms. He was asked a question that has taken on deadly importance in the world's newest country in the past seven days: incholdi – "What is your name?" in Dinka, the language of the country's president and its largest ethnic group.

Those who, like Simon, were unable to answer, risked being identified as Nuer, the ethnic group of the former vice-president now leading the armed opposition and facing the brunt of what insiders are describing as the world's newest civil war.

Simon K was taken to a police station in the Gudele market district of Juba, where he was marched past several dead bodies and locked in a room with other young men, all Nuer. "We counted ourselves and found we were 252," he told the Guardian. "Then they put guns in through the windows and started to shoot us."

The massacre continued for two days with soldiers returning at intervals to shoot again if they saw any sign of life. Simon was one of 12 men to survive the assault by covering themselves in the bodies of the dead and dying.

A displaced family from South Sudan's Nuer tribe, who fled their home in fear of ethnic killing by the Dinka-led government, erects a makeshift shelter inside the United Nations Mission in Sudan facility in Jabel. Photograph: James Akena/Reuters

Simon spoke from inside the UN compound that has become an emergency sanctuary to the remaining Nuer in the capital. Sitting on a filthy mattress by the side of a dirt road, with bandages covering bullet wounds in his stomach and legs, he recalled: "It was horrible, because to survive I had to cover myself with the bodies of dead people, and during the two days, the bodies started to smell really bad."

In the space of seven desperate days, the UN base has been transformed from a logistics hub for an aid operation into a squalid sanctuary for more than 10,000 people. Amid the confusion of bodies and belongings, a handmade sign hangs from the rolls of razor wire. "The lord is our best defender," it reads.

But there is no sign here of the lord's defence, as the country that gained independence in 2011 with huge international fanfare and support has come apart in the space of a week.

The latest violence began after a fight between Dinka and Nuer soldiers in the presidential guard on 15 December, igniting a simmering political power struggle in South Sudan's ruling party and sparking widespread ethnic killings.

Juba resident Gatluak Kual, who has bullet wounds in both arms and a prosthetic foot from the 20-year battle that split Sudan and created an independent south two years ago under President Salva Kiir, says the country is once more at war.

United Nations Mission in Sudan personnel guard South Sudanese people displaced by fighting in Jabel, on the outskirts of Juba, the South Sudan capital. Photograph: James Akena/Reuters

"Everyone here has lost someone [in the last week]," he said, gesturing out over the multitude with the finger he broke five days ago disarming a Dinka militiaman who was trying to kill him. "We have seen our daughters, our brothers, our mothers killed simply because they are Nuer. To me this is already a civil war."

The reverberations of the wave of targeted killings that began in the fledgling capital are being felt throughout the country, where they have sparked revenge attacks and copycat atrocities. Generals who have mutinied have seized the capital of South Sudan's largest state, Jonglei, and its main oil-producing area, Unity State. Former vice-president Riek Machar threw his support behind the armed opposition and is now its de facto leader. On Sunday a full-scale tank battle was being fought between opposing factions in the South's army in the far western reaches of oil-rich, swampy Upper Nile.

"It would have been difficult one week ago to imagine that things would unravel to this extent," said the UN's head of humanitarian affairs in South Sudan, Toby Lanzer.

The fighting has already claimed thousands, if not tens of thousands, of civilian lives. Hundreds of thousands of South Sudanese have fled into the bush or returned to home villages, according to the UN. The official death toll of 500, which corresponds with the number of dead in a single Juba hospital six days ago, is being dismissed by experts. A veteran aid worker, who has been assessing the scale and nature of the killings from sources nationwide, said the real figure was "in the tens of thousands".

On Monday, Machar claimed his forces had gained control of all the major oil fields in Unity and Upper Nile states. The information minister, Michael Makuei, told Reuters this was "wishful thinking".

In Juba, Gatwech T remembers how, last Tuesday, he ran for his life when soldiers attacked his home area of Hai Referendum. Some of the men outran the younger ones, who were caught by men in uniform. "They caught the boys and I stopped to watch. They counted them and there were 21 boys, as young as him," he said, pointing at a 15-year-old. "They tied their hands behind their backs and killed them."

Yien K, 28, was at home last Monday evening at around 10pm in the Jabarona area on the outskirts of the capital when he heard shooting. As it came closer he decided to hide at his brother's home. There were five of them inside the simple structure: his brother, his brother's wife, one-year-old niece and another six-year-old girl, a cousin. Yien recalls the moment just after midnight when the tracks of a tank ripped through the walls and crushed the one-year-old. "The tanks came and ran over the house," he said. "The men escaped but the woman and girls were killed."

Unlike some of Juba's neighbourhoods, which have divided along ethnic lines, Jabarona is a mixed area and Yien believes the tank operators had guides showing them where Nuer people were living.

In neighbourhoods such as Mangaten, Hai Referendum, Area 107 and Eden City, it is now easy to tell where the Nuer community lived. Halfway down the main market street of Mangaten, a dust-blown complex of tin-shack shops and rickety stalls, the bustle and activity stops. Most businesses have been ransacked, their rough shelves stripped of everything; stalls have been burned to the ground. Crossing into Hai Referendum, one of the highest density settlements in Juba, is now a ghost town of abandoned houses.

On Saturday, a few laid-back looters could be seen loading a meagre haul of plastic chairs, pots and foam mattresses on to three-wheelers. In some houses nearby plates of food were left behind, clothes have been scattered where people fled. Only broken plastic chairs, empty tubs of milk powder and smashed fans lie in the dirt.

UN peacekeepers distribute boxes of food to displaced people in South Sudan. Photograph: Anna Adhikari/AFP/Getty Images

Crossing the boundary into Eden City, the atmosphere changed. Plainclothes soldiers, one of them with a plastic-handled kitchen knife in the pocket of his shorts and a machete visible under his football shirt stopped and questioned any outsiders. Only 20 metres away was the charred corpse of a man lying with his legs splayed outside the looted Eden Sports bar.

Nearby, a nervous family had returned to their mud hut home, known as a tukul, to visit Moses' aged mother who is too ill to make the journey to the UN base less than a mile away. He was determined to leave before nightfall, when a dusk-to-dawn curfew imposed by the government begins. "The army is coming at night," he said. "You hear the guns going tuk-tuk-tuk."

Rose, who emerged from the tukul where Moses' mother is bed-ridden, said: "Everybody has been running because of war. We're also running."

South Sudan's government, which has received billions of dollars in foreign aid and is home to the largest UN peacekeeping operation in the world outside the Democratic Republic of Congo, continues to insist that massacres in Juba have not happened. The president, whose guards sparked the first fighting on 15 December, has assured the South Sudanese that his forces will protect civilians.

Philip Aguer, a spokesman for the Sudan People's Liberation Army, the civil war guerrilla force that is now the national army, denied any orchestrated attacks had taken place. He said he was unaware of the slaughter at Mangaten police station and blamed any deaths on "criminal elements" who had exploited the chance to loot and kill afforded by the crisis. "Even though some of these criminals are wearing army uniforms does not necessarily mean they are part of the army," he said. He denied any national army soldiers were involved: "No SPLA soldiers are involved in this criminal activity."

With regard to those carrying out the atrocities, he added: "We are ready to arrest them and take them to court."

But this description of rogue elements does not tally with the account of Riek W, who was until Saturday a serving member of the presidential guard, known to Jubans as the "Tigers".

A three-year veteran of the multi-ethnic unit that was meant to bind the diverse communities of what had been southern Sudan, he was not openly known as a Nuer to many of his colleagues and does not bear the traditional "Gaar" scarring that many Nuer men have on their faces.

Now in hiding in the UN base, he described how fighting between Dinka and Nuer members of the Tigers last Sunday night had spilled over into attacks on civilian Nuers all over the city.

"They took people who were not soldiers and tied their hands and shot them. I saw this with my own eyes, I was there wearing the same uniform as them."

Young men from the Dinka community, many of them with no military training, were given uniforms and guns from various armouries around the capital, including one located at President Kiir's own compound, known as J1, he says.

"It is soldiers who are doing this and militia from Dinka boys who have been given guns from the Tigers," he said.

Riek W said that his Dinka colleagues could not act without the authority of their commander and that they were "the same soldiers that are killing people at night".

Riek W, who decided to abandon his post in the president's compound at the weekend as he feared for his life and was horrified at the murder of civilians, said that the scale of the killings was being covered up. " They… are using the curfew to remove the bodies," he said.

He described how he had seen "large trucks" full of bodies, some of which were taken to grave sites dug with bulldozers, while others had been dumped in the river Nile at two points: one near the Bilpam barracks and one at Juba bridge. These reports have been corroborated by fishermen who have seen the bodies up on the river bank. "The numbers they are saying are completely wrong, people have been killed everywhere," Riek W said.

The Nuer who have survived in Juba, numbering 20,000, are now crammed into the city's two UN bases. Their fate is matched by another 14,000 civilians from other ethnic groups sheltering with the UN in South Sudan's other main towns.

Many of the Nuer crowded into the main UN mission base in Juba said they were sure the peacekeepers would protect them despite the evacuation over the weekend of all non-critical UN staff.

Not everyone feels safe, though. Wearing a dusty pinstriped suit jacket and apologising for not having showered in six days, 51-year-old Peter Bey was unsure. He has watched in recent days as one evacuation flight after another has taken foreign nationals to safety from the airport on the other side of the fence. "We see from history that the UN has left people behind before in Rwanda," he said. "They put their own people on helicopters and left the people who died."

U.S. Raids in Libya and Somalia Strike Terror Targets - NYTimes.com

ANTICHRIST - KING OF THE NORTH, KING OF THE SOUTH - THREE HORNS CUT OFF - ONE SHALL REIGN OVER ALL

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Deadly Clashes Erupt in Egypt - NYTimes.com

Deadly Clashes Erupt in Egypt

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: October 6, 2013

CAIRO — Clashes erupted across much of Egypt on Sunday between security forces and supporters of the ousted president, Mohamed Morsi, leaving 28 people dead, as rival crowds of supporters of the military and backers of Mr. Morsi poured into streets to commemorate a major holiday.

The clashes took place 40 years to the day that Egyptian forces crossed the Suez Canal

at the start of the nation’s last war with Israel. The day has since been declared a national holiday. The military-backed government had wanted the day to be a tribute to the armed forces, whose chief ousted Mr. Morsi in a coup on July 3.

But demonstrations across Cairo and much of the country by Mr. Morsi’s supporters marred the festivities. They and security forces fought pitched battles in the streets of Cairo, some of which now resemble combat zones, with small fires burning, black smoke rising and the sound of gunshots piercing air thick with tear gas.

In some cases, the pro-Morsi demonstrators were set upon by supporters of the military. The authorities said they had arrested 335 Morsi supporters nationwide.

The clashes were the last chapter in the turmoil roiling the country since the ouster in February 2011 of the country’s longtime ruler, Hosni Mubarak, and are certain to set back efforts by the government to revive the economy, especially the vital tourism sector, and bring order to the streets of Cairo, where crime and lawlessness have been rife.

The scene of the fighting contrasted with a carnival-like mood in Cairo’s central Tahrir Square, where thousands of supporters of the military waved Egyptian flags, blew whistles and carried posters of the army chief, Gen. Abdul-Fattah el-Sissi. Adding to the festivities, a military band in green jackets and off-white pants played, and men spun in whirling dervish-style dances.

Thousands of Morsi backers meanwhile held marches around the city, shouting slogans against General Sissi as some headed toward Tahrir Square in hopes of forcing their way into the sprawling plaza.

At central locations including a southern entrance to the square, the police fired into the air and lobbed tear gas to push back several pro-Morsi marchers as they approached. Some of the dead however suffered gunshot wounds to the head and chest and the pro-Morsi demonstrators were also lobbing firebombs and firing birdshot at the police.

Violence was also reported in southern Egypt, where one Morsi supporter was killed in the town of Dalga. The police opened fire on a march by Islamists after some of the protesters fired birdshot at the police, according to the provincial security chief, Osama Metwali.

U.S. Raids in Libya and Somalia Strike Terror Targets - NYTimes.com

U.S. Raids in Libya and Somalia Strike Terror Targets

By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK, NICHOLAS KULISH and ERIC SCHMITT

Published: October 5, 2013 

CAIRO — American commandos carried out raids on Saturday in two far-flung African countries in a powerful flex of military muscle aimed at capturing fugitive terrorist suspects. American troops assisted by F.B.I. and C.I.A. agents seized a suspected leader of Al Qaeda on the streets of Tripoli, Libya, while Navy SEALs raided the seaside villa of a militant leader in a predawn firefight on the coast of Somalia.

In Tripoli, American forces captured a Libyan militant who had been indicted in 2000 for his role in the 1998 bombings of the United States embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The militant, born Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai and known by his nom de guerre, Abu Anas al-Liby, had a $5 million bounty on his head; his capture at dawn ended a 15-year manhunt.

In Somalia, the Navy SEAL team emerged before sunrise from the Indian Ocean and exchanged gunfire with militants at the home of a senior leader of the Shabab, the Somali militant group. The raid was planned more than a week ago, officials said, after a massacre by the Shabab at a Nairobi shopping mall that killed more than 60 people two weeks ago.

The SEAL team was forced to withdraw before it could confirm that it had killed the Shabab leader, a senior American security official said. Officials declined to identify the target.

Officials said the timing of the two raids was coincidental. But occurring on the same day, they underscored the rise of northern Africa as a haven for international terrorists. Libya has collapsed into the control of a patchwork of militias since the ouster of the Qaddafi government in 2011. Somalia, the birthplace of the Shabab, has lacked an effective central government for more than two decades.

With President Obama locked in a standoff with Congressional Republicans and his leadership criticized for a policy reversal in Syria, the raids could fuel accusations among his critics that the administration was eager for a showy foreign policy victory.

Abu Anas, the Libyan Qaeda leader, was considered a major prize, and officials said he was alive in United States custody. While the details about his capture were sketchy, an American official said Saturday night that he appeared to have been taken peacefully and that he was “no longer in Libya.”

His capture was the latest blow to what remains of the original Qaeda organization after a 12-year American campaign to capture or kill its leadership, including the killing two years ago of its founder, Osama bin Laden, in Pakistan.

Despite his presence in Libya, Abu Anas was not believed to have played any role in the 2012 attack on the United States diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, senior officials briefed on that investigation have said, but he may have sought to build networks connecting what remains of the Qaeda organization to like-minded militants in Libya.

His brother, Nabih, told The Associated Press that just after dawn prayers, three vehicles full of armed men had approached Abu Anas’s home and surrounded him as he parked his car. The men smashed his window, seized his gun and sped away with him, the brother said.

A senior American official said the Libyan government had been apprised of the operation and provided assistance, but it was unclear in what capacity. An assistant to the prime minister of the Libyan transitional government said the government had been unaware of any operation or of Abu Anas’s capture. Asked if American forces had ever conducted raids inside Libya or collaborated with Libyan forces, Mehmoud Abu Bahia, assistant to the defense minister, replied, “Absolutely not.”

Disclosure of the raid is likely to inflame anxieties among many Libyans about their national sovereignty, putting a new strain on the transitional government’s fragile authority. Many Libyan Islamists already accuse their interim prime Minister, Ali Zeidan, who previously lived in Geneva as part of the exiled opposition to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, of collaborating too closely with the West.

Abu Anas, 49, was born in Tripoli and joined Bin Laden’s organization as early as the early 1990s, when it was based in Sudan. He later moved to Britain, where he was granted political asylum as a Libyan dissident. United States prosecutors in New York charged him in a 2000 indictment with helping to conduct “visual and photographic surveillance” of the United States Embassy in Nairobi in 1993 and again in 1995. Prosecutors said in the indictment that Abu Anas had discussed with another senior Qaeda figure the idea of attacking an American target in retaliation for the United States peacekeeping operation in Somalia.

After the 1998 bombing, the British police raided his apartment and found an 18-chapter terrorist training manual. Written in Arabic and titled “Military Studies in the Jihad Against the Tyrants,” it included advice on car bombing, torture, sabotage and disguise.

Since the overthrow of Colonel Qaddafi, Tripoli has slid steadily into lawlessness, with no strong central government or police presence. It has become a safe haven for militants seeking to avoid detection elsewhere, and United States government officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential information, have acknowledged in recent months that Abu Anas and other wanted terrorists had been seen moving freely around the capital.

(Page 2 of 2)

The operation to capture Abu Anas was several weeks in the making, a United States official said, and President Obama was regularly briefed as the suspect was tracked in Tripoli. Mr. Obama had to approve the capture. He had often promised there would be “no boots on the ground” in Libya when the United States intervened there in March 2011, so the decision to send in Special Operations forces was a risky one.

Note this:

Palestine Cry: Europa & Palestine News « Europa & Middle East News

Next is the crushing of any sovereignty of the land that the book of Daniel meant by Ethiopia. The Communist rule of dictator 1974 - 1991 Mengistu Haile Mariam of Ethiopia (yet another Army Officer), was only an interim balkanization of modern North Eastern Africa. The land meant by Ethiopia (Cush in the Bible) in the Book of Daniel covers present day Southern Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Somalia. Present day Ethiopia still has a central power to all of this. The Antichrist of Israel will seek its utter destruction and will topple it completely.

American officials said they would want to question Abu Anas for several weeks. But they did not dispute that New York, where an indictment is pending against him, was most likely his ultimate destination. Mr. Obama has been loath to add to the prisoner count at the American military facility at Guantánamo Bay, and there is precedent for delivering those suspected of terrorism to New York if they are under indictment there.

The operation will do nothing to quell the continuing questions about the events in Benghazi 13 months ago that led to the deaths of four Americans. But officials say the operation was a product of the decision after Benghazi to bolster the counterterrorism effort in Libya, especially as Tripoli became a safe haven for Qaeda leadership.

The capture of Abu Anas also coincided with a fierce gunfight that killed 15 Libyan soldiers at a checkpoint in a neighborhood southeast of Tripoli, near the traditional home of Abu Anas’s clan.

A spokesman for the Libyan Army general staff, Col. Ali Sheikhi, said five cars full of armed men in masks pulled up at the army checkpoint at 6:15 a.m. and opened fire at point-blank range. It was not clear if the assault at the checkpoint was related to the capture of Abu Anas or his removal from Libya.

The raid in Somalia was the most significant raid by American troops in that lawless country since commandoskilled Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, a Qaeda mastermind, near the same coastal town four years ago. The town, Baraawe, a small port south of Mogadishu, is known as a gathering place for the Shabab’s foreign fighters.

Witnesses described a firefight lasting over an hour, with helicopters called in for air support. A senior Somali government official who spoke on the condition of anonymity said, “The attack was carried out by the American forces, and the Somali government was pre-informed about the attack.”

A spokesman for the Shabab said that one of their fighters had been killed in an exchange of gunfire but that the group had beaten back the assault. American officials initially reported that they had seized the Shabab leader, but later backed off that account.

A United States official said that no Americans had been killed or wounded and that the Americans “disengaged after inflicting some Shabab casualties.”

“We are not in a position to identify those casualties,” the official said.

The F.B.I. sent dozens of agents to Nairobi after the siege of the Westgate shopping mall to help the Kenyan authorities with the investigation. United States officials fear that the Shabab could attempt a similar attack on American soil, perhaps employing Somali-American recruits.

A witness in Baraawe said the house was known as a place where senior foreign commanders stayed. He could not say whether they were there when the attack began, but he said 12 well-trained Shabab fighters scheduled for a mission abroad were staying there at the time of the assault.

It was not clear what role if any the target of the American assault had played in the attack on the Nairobi mall.One United States official said it was still unclear whether any Americans had been involved in the Westgate siege, though several Kenyan officials said they now believed that there had been as few as four attackers — far fewer than the 10 to 15 the government had previously reported.

A spokesman for the Kenyan military said Saturday that it had identified four of the attackers from surveillance footage as Abu Baara al-Sudani, Omar Nabhan, Khattab al-Kene and a man known only as Umayr.

The spokesman, Maj. Emmanuel Chirchir, said none of the militants had escaped the mall. “They’re all dead,” he said.

The footage, broadcast on Kenyan television on Friday night, showed four attackers moving about the mall with cool nonchalance.

At least one of the four men, Mr. Nabhan, was Kenyan, officials said, and believed to be a younger relative of Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, the Qaeda operative killed four years ago near Baraawe, the site of Saturday’s raid.

The elder Mr. Nabhan was a suspect in the bombing of an Israeli hotel on the Kenyan coast in 2002 and the attacks on the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.

Matt Bryden, a former head of the United Nations Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea, said the tactics used in the Westgate attack were similar to those used by the Shabab in a number of operations in Somalia this year. But he also said that local help had been needed to pull off an attack on that scale, and that several of the men identified as taking part in the attack had been connected to the group’s Kenyan affiliate, known as Al Hijra.

“We should certainly expect Al Hijra and Al Shabab to try again,” Mr. Bryden said. “And we should expect them to have the capacity to do so.”

David D. Kirkpatrick reported from Cairo; Nicholas Kulish from Nairobi, Kenya; and Eric Schmitt from San Francisco. Reporting was contributed by Suliman Ali Zway and Carlotta Gall from Tripoli, Libya; Michael S. Schmidt and David E. Sanger from Washington; Josh Kron from Mombasa, Kenya; and Mohammed Ibrahim from Mogadishu, Somalia.

Ethiopia Scoop - Ethiopia Online: Massive al-Qaida plot foiled in Yemen

The arising of the Antichrist

Palestine Cry: Veterans Today: US “death squad envoy” arrives in Egypt – and the slaughter begins

"Apparently, yes. It is worth noting that the US covertly engineered the overthrow of democratically-elected President Morsi in part because Morsi had spoken out forcefully against Ethiopia’s plan to dam the Nile, steal most of Egypt’s water supply, and condemn much of Egypt’s population to slow death.

Bottom line: The US, through its Ethiopian puppet, is planning a genocide that will kill tens of millions of Egyptians. And if any Egyptian leader tries to stop it, as Morsi planned to, he will be eliminated."

The Jew Antichrist is behind that.
The Temple Mount, destroyed forever by God's command but with the Noble Sanctuary there by His permission, was taken by the evil lawless forces of Antichrist on the evening of June 7, 1967
Reason for the Antichrist's - Dajjal's - war on the Noble Sanctuary | defilement of the Noble Sanctuary - click on picture
ANTICHRIST - KING OF THE NORTH, KING OF THE SOUTH - THREE HORNS CUT OFF - ONE SHALL REIGN OVER ALL

Ancient Map corresponding to time of St. Hippolytus' exegesis of Antichrist as prophesied in Book of Daniel partially fulfilled then during persecution of Christans by Diocletian (early 4th Century A.D.). The Church has always held that the final fufillment will in the time of the final Antichrist.

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Hallo Frau Salam, The whole confrontation in Egypt is between people who are citizens and have a right to express themselves and a military takeover (against all principles of democratic rule) which only profits certain parties.
We must ask, cui bono? To whose benefit is it? Obviously the Isreali balkanization plan for the region, with Anglo-American support for that plan, now has even further weakened Egypt with this latest brutality.
Four centers of Arab solidarity have been erased or extremely weakened by Anglo-American supported and participated in Isreali Zionist unlawful expansionism.
One – Saddam Hussein (figured prominently with long time CIA support begun in 1963) in Baathist Iraq. Kuwait was a baseball bat to his knees and 911 his death knell – true enough his fault for making the CIA his friend. His drug dealing banking corporate connections with the Bush Crime Cartel was evil as well.
Two – Gaddafi’s Libya.
Three – Ongoing destruction of the Egypt (and the whole Arab homeland) that Gamel Abdul Nasser had such high hopes and dreams and plans for.
Four – Syria has been kept wrapped up in defending themselves from unlawful Zionist aggression in more than one form.
Watch out for Ethiopa-Yemen for any attacks there – and feints thrown at Iran mostly to distract.
Steve
See above: ANTICHRIST - KING OF THE NORTH, KING OF THE SOUTH - THREE HORNS CUT OFF - ONE SHALL REIGN OVER ALL

 

 Massive al-Qaida plot foiled in Yemen

By Ethiopian Opinion 08/08/2013 11:24:00 // News

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Authorities foiled plots by al-Qaida to take over key cities in southern Yemen and attack strategic ports and gas facilities, a government spokesman said Wednesday amid a heightened alert that has seen Western embassies evacuated and a new suspected U.S. drone strike that killed seven alleged militants from the terrorist group. Al-Qaida planned to target the cities of Mukalla and Bawzeer, then send militants disguised as Yemeni troops to attack two strategic oil ports in the impoverished country on the Arabian Peninsula, government spokesman Rageh Badi said.
Other al-Qaida militants would also try to sabotage pipelines to “create panic among Yemeni army and Yemeni security services,” Badi told The Associated Press, adding that authorities managed to foil the plots in the past 48 hours.
Details of the plot were first reported by the BBC.
His remarks came hours after Washington apparently stepped up its drone strikes in Yemen in the covert fight against militants from al-Qaida’s branch, which is considered the most active of the terrorist network.
US, British embassies evacuate Yemen staffPlay video.”US, British embassies evacuate Yemen staff
Security officials and residents said early Wednesday that a suspected U.S. drone strike killed seven suspected al-Qaida militants in southern Yemen, the fifth such attack in the country in less than two weeks.
Yemen has emerged as the focus of a feared attack that has led the U.S. to shut down temporarily 19 diplomatic posts in the Middle East and Africa. American and British workers from embassies in Yemen’s capital of Sanaa also have been evacuated.
Washington has been backing a campaign by Yemen’s military to uproot al-Qaida militants and their radical allies who had taken over a string of southern cities and towns. The militants have largely been driven into the mountains and countryside, and Yemeni intelligence officials say the current threat may be retaliation for that offensive.
A U.S. intelligence official and a Mideast diplomat told the AP that the closures were triggered by the interception of a secret message between al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahri and Nasser al-Wahishi, the leader of the Yemen-based al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, about plans for a major attack.
The drone strike killed the militants in Shabwa province, setting two vehicles on fire, security officials said. All the officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter with the media.
View gallery.”A policeman stands guard at the entrance of Sanaa International …
A policeman stands guard at the entrance of Sanaa International Airport, Yemen, Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2 …
Residents of the Markha region of Shabwa province said they saw several bodies in two burning cars. The residents spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared retaliation.
While the United States acknowledges its drone program in Yemen, it does not confirm individual strikes or release information on how many have been carried out.
An AP reporter in Sanaa said a drone buzzed over the capital for most of the day.
Security checkpoints have been set up across Sanaa, searching cars and individuals. The Yemeni army has surrounded foreign installations, government offices and the airport with tanks and troops in the capital as well as the strategic Bab al-Mandeb straits at the entrance to the Red Sea in the southern Arabian Peninsula. Top government officials, along with military and security commanders, were told to stay vigilant and limit their movements.
The terrorist network’s Yemeni offshoot, known as al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, has been bolstering its operations for the past few years after key Saudi operatives fled there following a major crackdown in their homeland.
View gallery.”Travelers make their way to the departure lounge at …
Travelers make their way to the departure lounge at Sanaa International Airport, Yemen, Wednesday, A …
The group overran entire towns and villages in 2011, taking advantage of a security lapse during nationwide protests that eventually ousted Yemen’s longtime ruler, Ali Abdullah Saleh. Backed by the U.S. military, Yemen’s army was able to regain control of the southern region, but al-Qaida militants continue to launch deadly attacks on security forces.
Source: Yahoo News

Ethiopian News Media: Yemen says al-Qaeda targeted oil port

Yemen says al-Qaeda targeted oil port

Aden - Yemen said on Wednesday it had foiled an al-Qaeda plot to storm a Western-run oil terminal and seize a port city, as a terror alert kept US Middle East missions closed.

The jihadist network's feared Yemeni affiliate planned to assault the Canadian-run Mina al-Dhaba oil terminal on the Arabian Sea coast and take staff hostage, including Western expatriates, government spokesperson Rajeh Badi told AFP.

A nearby export facility for oil derivatives was also targeted, Badi said.

Al-Qaeda also plotted to seize the nearby Hadramawt provincial capital Al-Mukalla, a port city of 100 000 people, and the Ghayl Bawazeer area to its north, where they briefly declared an Islamic emirate earlier this year.

"If they were to fail in seizing control of the facilities, the plan was to take foreign experts away as hostages," Badi said.

The attack was planned for Monday, which coincided with the 27th day of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan and was the second day of a mass closure of US missions across the Middle East and North Africa.

The plot was foiled around two days before its planned launch, Badi said.

Top ranks ‘hammered’

Both Washington and London pulled diplomatic personnel out of Sanaa on Tuesday citing intelligence reports of an imminent attack by the Yemen-based al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (Aqap).

The United States took the unusual step of closing some 25 diplomatic missions in the Muslim world on Sunday, and then extending the closure for a week at 19 of them, in response to what it said was a credible and imminent threat of a major al-Qaeda attack.

The Netherlands late on Wednesday became the latest Western power to close its embassy in Yemen, citing "information that several western countries are potential targets of an upcoming terrorist attack".

An intercepted conference call between al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri and top operatives was reportedly the trigger for the US embassy closures.

More than 20 al-Qaeda operatives from across the globe were on the call, including representatives of Nigeria's Boko Haram, the Pakistani Taliban and al-Qaeda in Iraq as well as Aqap, US media reported.

In the call, Zawahiri is said to have named Aqap chief Nasser al-Wuhayshi as the operational controller of the group's affiliates throughout the Muslim world.

A lack of clarity about the wider threat, however, remains. Late on Wednesday, a UN report said Zawahiri has struggled to unite al-Qaeda's various factions though the group continues to pose a threat.

"A fragmented and weakened al-Qaeda has not been extinguished," said the report, adding: "The reality of al-Qaeda's diminished capabilities and limited appeal does not mean that the threat of al-Qaeda attacks has passed."

This was later stressed by US President Barack Obama, who told some 3 000 marines that while al-Qaeda's top ranks had been "hammered", "the end of the war in Afghanistan doesn't mean the end of threats to our nation".

Drone war

While the closures span cities across the Arab world, the focus of concern has been Yemen, where Washington has been fighting a drone war against Aqap militants for several years.

US State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki said on Wednesday that Washington's embassy in Sanaa remained closed, "and we continue to evaluate the threats on a daily basis".

Tribal sources said a US drone killed seven suspected jihadists in Shabwa province, to the west of Hadramawt, on Wednesday, the second such strike in as many days.

The early-morning attack in the town of Nasab destroyed two vehicles, the sources said.

It was the fifth US drone strike in Yemen since 28 July. At least 24 suspected al-Qaeda militants have been killed.

Washington has launched scores of drone strikes in Yemen, where Aqap thrives in vast, lawless areas largely outside the government's control.

In recent days, Yemeni authorities beefed up security in Sanaa, where they feared the attack would be launched.

But they responded angrily on Tuesday to the withdrawal of Western diplomats, saying they acknowledged the safety fears but noting that the pullout "serves the interests of the extremists."

"It undermines the exceptional co-operation between Yemen and the international alliance against terrorism," the foreign ministry said.

Yemen-based Aqap has attempted several attacks on the United States, including a failed bid to bring down a passenger plane by a man wearing explosives in his underwear and another to send bombs concealed in printer cartridges.

The intent of the foiled plot on oil facilities appears to have been similar to a spectacular January attack by Islamist militants on a gas plant deep in the Algerian desert.

Thirty-eight hostages died, all but one of them foreigners, along with 29 militants, in the four-day siege at the In Amenas plant, which was ended by the Algerian army.

Palestine Cry: Veterans Today: US “death squad envoy” arrives in Egypt – and the slaughter begins

Palestine Cry: Veterans Today: US “death squad envoy” arrives in Egypt – and the slaughter begins

"Apparently, yes. It is worth noting that the US covertly engineered the overthrow of democratically-elected President Morsi in part because Morsi had spoken out forcefully against Ethiopia’s plan to dam the Nile, steal most of Egypt’s water supply, and condemn much of Egypt’s population to slow death.

Bottom line: The US, through its Ethiopian puppet, is planning a genocide that will kill tens of millions of Egyptians. And if any Egyptian leader tries to stop it, as Morsi planned to, he will be eliminated."

The Jew Antichrist is behind that.

The Temple Mount, destroyed forever by God's command but with the Noble Sanctuary there by His permission, was taken by the evil lawless forces of Antichrist on the evening of June 7, 1967

Reason for the Antichrist's - Dajjal's - war on the Noble Sanctuary | defilement of the Noble Sanctuary - click on picture

ANTICHRIST - KING OF THE NORTH, KING OF THE SOUTH - THREE HORNS CUT OFF - ONE SHALL REIGN OVER ALL

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Hallo Frau Salam,
The whole confrontation in Egypt is between people who are citizens and have a right to express themselves and a military takeover (against all principles of democratic rule) which only profits certain parties.

We must ask, cui bono? To whose benefit is it? Obviously the Isreali balkanization plan for the region, with Anglo-American support for that plan, now has even further weakened Egypt with this latest brutality.

Four centers of Arab solidarity have been erased or extremely weakened by Anglo-American supported and participated in Isreali Zionist unlawful expansionism.

One – Saddam Hussein (figured prominently with long time CIA support begun in 1963) in Baathist Iraq. Kuwait was a baseball bat to his knees and 911 his death knell – true enough his fault for making the CIA his friend. His drug dealing banking corporate connections with the Bush Crime Cartel was evil as well.

Two – Gaddafi’s Libya.

Three – Ongoing destruction of the Egypt (and the whole Arab homeland) that Gamel Abdul Nasser had such high hopes and dreams and plans for.

Four – Syria has been kept wrapped up in defending themselves from unlawful Zionist aggression in more than one form.

Watch out for Ethiopa-Yemen for any attacks there – and feints thrown at Iran mostly to distract.
Steve


See above: ANTICHRIST - KING OF THE NORTH, KING OF THE SOUTH - THREE HORNS CUT OFF - ONE SHALL REIGN OVER ALL

Palestine Cry: Qatar and Saudi Arabia Turn Syrian Revolution into Regional Conflict « Kawther Salam

Palestine Cry: Qatar and Saudi Arabia Turn Syrian Revolution into Regional Conflict « Kawther Salam

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When North Eastern Africa ignites is when it becomes global in terms of immediate effect in its absolute Antichrist evil.

ANTICHRIST - KING OF THE NORTH, KING OF THE SOUTH - THREE HORNS CUT OFF - ONE SHALL REIGN OVER ALL

 
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• Syria: Qatar and Saudi Arabia Turn Syrian Revolution into Regional Conflict « Kawther Salam
• 
  
• Syria: UK troops in Gulf part of move 'to encircle Iran' — RT
• 
  
• Syria: Lavrov: ‘Either secure chemical weapons or arm Syrian rebels’ (EXCLUSIVE) — RT
• 
  
• Syria: Russian warships set sail to Mediterranean amid possible Syria evacuation — RT
• 
  
• Syria: Triad

Pambazuka - Ethiopia and Kenya have taken over Somalia

Ethiopia and Kenya have taken over Somalia

Mohamud M Uluso

2012-12-20, Issue 611

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/85847

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cc Y AThe recent Memorandum of Understanding delegitimizes the federal government and pre-empts its sovereign leadership role in the internal and external affairs of Somalia

In implementing their recently concluded regional security cooperation agreement and reaffirming their indefinite military occupation of Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya have decided to takeover and perhaps later annex Somalia under the cover of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD). Since only Ethiopia exercises uncontested power within the Organization, on 6 December 2012, IGAD Joint Committee of Ethiopia and Kenya under the auspices of former Kenyan Minister, Mr. Kipruto Arap Kirwa, IGAD Facilitator for Somalia Peace and Reconciliation (IFSPR), issued a statement and Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Grand Stabilization plan (GSP) for South and Central Somalia.

MARGINALIZING STRUCTURES

As explained in the prerelease statement, the GSP covers political reconciliation, local administration, national security, rule of law, and delivery of necessary assistance to communities in need. In addition to Ethiopia and Kenya, a Somali team liaised with the Office of the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Somalia and led by former head of the Somali National Security Services (SNSS), General Mohamed Sheikh Hassan attended the IGAD Joint Committee deliberations in Addis Ababa. It is not clear if the new federal government had full knowledge of the team’s existence, working responsibilities and accountability.

The Office of IFSPR is independent from IGAD’s Secretariat. The IGAD Facilitator is based in Addis Ababa, while the IGAD Secretariat is based in Djibouti. For further background information, on 28 April 2010, a Memorandum of Understanding on Somalia has been signed among AMISOM, UNPOS, and IGAD Facilitator. This tripartite MoU marginalizes IGAD Executive Secretary, Inj. Mahboub Maalim who is of a Somali-Kenyan origin from Somalia peace process.

The new IGAD Joint Committee initiative takes place while the international community- the donor countries, the United Nations, the Arab league, the Organization of Islamic Countries and the African Union are reviewing their strategic cooperation with the newly elected post transitional federal government in the light of the decisions reached during the Mini Summit held in New York in September 2012. Furthermore, it comes out after the first official visit of the president of the federal government, Dr. Hassan Sheikh Mohamud to Ethiopia and Djibouti and in the midst of his official visit to Turkey with which the federal government has signed important economic and security agreements.

CHALLENGES AHEAD

Fortunately with unblinking honesty, the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary General (DSRSG), Peter de Clercq published a brief titled ‘What next for the United Nations in Somalia?’ in the Tumblr blog of the United Nations Political Office for Somalia (UNPOS) in which he highlighted the ongoing strategic review process dictated by the new political dispensation. While reading the brief is more informative, the DSRGS made the following critical points:

• That the federal Government has sought UN and AU support for rebuilding the security apparatus (national army and police force), rebuilding a credible judiciary system, implementing a decentralization and local/regional administrations as well as undertaking a comprehensive capacity building of Somali Institutions;

• That the UN has committed to align itself along the ‘six pillars’ plan announced by the President of Somalia and the new UN mission will concentrate on state and peace building. He quoted President Hassan Mohamud saying to the UN Review Mission: ‘If you don’t start treating us as a viable State, we will never become one.’

• Finally that the ambitions of the new administration match the challenges ahead and that the administration has asked a space to think through and implement the new strategy laid out by the president in his ‘six pillars’ strategy.

It is absolutely buoyant to see that an official of UNPOS is capable to voice such a rightful and honest statement in opportune time so that the end of transition would not be a farce. The DSRSG argued forcefully that ‘peace building is a complex business, but not giving this important [Somali] initiative a chance brings even bigger risks.’ Time will tell if his views are embraced wholeheartedly and implemented without delay by his leaders.

Rather than reinforcing the message of his deputy and five days before the signing of the MoU in Nairobi, Kenya planned for 13 December 2012, the SRGS, Dr. Augustine Mahiga, issued a statement in which he welcomed the IGAD Facilitator Initiative for Somalia. The assertion that the new initiative is a Somali-owned, led process is far from the truth.

The content of MoU raises many questions and concerns. It consists of a preamble and 9 articles. The preamble stresses the threat of terrorism, threats of State, human insecurities, other emerging security concerns, commitment of government of Somalia to work within IGAD’s framework and stabilization, and the ‘required partnership engagement’ for greater stability in Somalia. Article 5 of the MoU overrides and restricts the constitutional, political and administrative responsibilities, prerogative and citizens’ relationship of the Somali Government.

DELEGITIMIZING THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

First and foremost, the MoU delegitimizes the federal government and pre-empts its sovereign leadership role in the internal and external affairs of Somalia. It attempts to completely abort the prospect of the international efforts geared towards statebuilding and peacebuilding in Somalia. It is takeover, not support of Somalia. Above all, it ignores the political arrangement created by the adoption of the provisional constitution, the ending of the transitional period and the rehabilitation of Somali State in accordance with the political platform announced by the new Government.

Other glaring shortcomings of the MoU include the exclusion of Eritrea, Sudan, Uganda, Djibouti and Burundi, and the empowerment of IGAD Facilitator over UN/AU Facilitators. The MoU creates multiple overlaps and weakens the centrally guided and coordinated implementation of the approved Somali National Security and Stabilization Plan (NSSP), which outlines in detail the establishment of complex structures at national, regional and district levels and the legislations required to create a secure and safer Somalia. These tasks fall under the jurisdiction of the President, Federal Parliament and the Council of Ministers.

During his first visit to Kenya in November 2012, Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn of Ethiopia stated that his country views Kenya as a strategic all-weather partner and friend in a troubled region. He also defended Kenya’s direct control of the process for setting up administrations in Jubba and Gedo regions in violation of Somali sovereignty, provisional constitution and UN resolutions.

It is interesting to see if the international community and the United Nations are willing to go along with the Ethiopian and Kenyan takeover of Somalia in violation of the latter’s independent self-governance and political transformation. The Ethiopian bid to secure its regional power role at a time of state failure, civil conflicts and undemocratic regimes in power could be potentially a destabilizing factor rather than a stabilizing power in the region.

As a matter of urgency, the federal government has to streamline its strategic dealing with the international community, develop and practice protocols and procedures for uprooting its internal dysfunctional behavior and creating disciplined working habit that will strengthen its decision making and execution process. The basis of this reform must be the development of a national political platform that will boost national loyalty to a clear domestic and foreign policy agenda. In a nutshell, to diminish the unwarranted external influences and interferences, the federal government must act quickly by mobilizing the public awareness on citizenship, sense of patriotism, justice, social harmony and common interests.

* BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Please send comments to editor[at]pambazuka[dot]org or comment online atPambazuka News.

* Mohamud M Uluso, a Somalia analyst, can be contacted on mohamuduluso@gmail.com