Iraq ( IS militants execute 30 Iraqi tribal fighters, soldiers )

BAGHDAD: Islamic State group militants lined up 30 men in western Iraq and shot them dead Wednesday, an official and residents said, the latest mass killing carried out by the group since its advance across the country.
The slayings, on a main street in the Al-Bakir district in the town of Hit, targeted Sunnis tribal fighters allied with the government and members of the security forces that the extremists captured when they overran the town, the official and the residents said.
The militants first paraded the men through town, shouting through loudspeakers that the captured men were apostates who fought against them, residents said. The extremists then lined up the men and shot them dead with assault rifles, residents said.
A photograph obtained by The Associated Press showed a line of the men’s bodies by a small pool of blood as onlookers walked by.
Anbar provincial council chairman Sabah Karhout said those killed were captured when the Islamic State group overran the town, located about 140 kilometers (85 miles) west of Baghdad, earlier this month.
Karhout called the slayings “a crime against humanity” and demanded more international support for the Sunni tribes fighting the militants in Anbar.
Iraq is in its worst crisis since the 2011 withdrawal of US troops as Sunni militant groups led by the Al-Qaeda breakaway Islamic State group have seized a third of the country. In one lightning offensive over the summer, Iraq’s US-trained army and security forces melted away as the extremists advanced and captured key cities and towns in country’s north.
In Iraq and along with areas in eastern Syria, the militants have declared a self-styled caliphate and imposed their own harsh interpretation of Shariah law. They also have targeted the country’s religious minorities, including Christians and others, killing hundreds and forcing hundreds of thousands to leave their homes.
A US-led coalition is now targeting Islamic State extremists with airstrikes. US Central Command said the coalition launched six airstrikes in Iraq over Tuesday and Wednesday using jet fighters and drones, hitting targets near Fallujah and Sinjar.
In other violence Wednesday, police said a roadside bomb exploded near an army patrol in a town just south of Baghdad, killing three soldiers and wounding seven. A later bomb blast on a commercial street in Baghdad’s eastern district of Ur killed two people and wounded eight, police said.
Medical officials confirmed the casualties. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to journalists, while the residents of Hit requested their names not be used out of fears of reprisal.

Mexican Experts Seeking Bodies of 43 Students in Trash Dump

COCULA, Mexico – Experts with the Mexican Attorney General’s Office are scouring an area near the town of Cocula for the bodies of the 43 students who disappeared Sept. 26 near the nearby city of Iguala, journalists managed to learn on Tuesday.

The officials from the so-called PGR started working on Tuesday at the dump located in a hard-to-access zone about 10 km. (6 mi.) from Cocula and half an hour from Iguala, which is in the southern state of Guerrero.

The dump covers some 40 square meters (430 sq. feet), half of which shows signs of having been burned.

A dozen forensic experts have cordoned off the area and placed little orange flags at certain spots in the dump, presumably to designate places to dig.

The AG’s office came to the site after four members of the Guerreros Unidos drug cartel said they had participated in the students’ disappearance.

The area is being heavily guarded by security forces and is being searched using trained sniffer dogs.

Mexican AG Jesus Murillo said Monday that the experts are seeking evidence that will corroborate the statements of the arrested cartel members that the site figured in the students’ disappearance.

He said that two of the men arrested Tuesday by federal agents said that the local police handed over the students to them and the other two admitted having been lookouts for the criminal group on the night of the disappearances.

Murillo said last week at a press conference that Iguala Mayor Jose Luis Abarca ordered police to attack the students to prevent them from disrupting an event that night at which his wife, head of the local family services office, was to give a speech.

Six people – three of them students – were killed and 25 wounded in the police attack on buses transporting the young people, but 43 others were captured by police and – evidently – later turned over to a local drug gang who were told they were members of Los Rojos, a rival criminal group.

Texas Woman Gets 18 Months for Purchasing AK-47s for Mexico Drug Cartels

BROWNSVILLE, TEXAS - Yadira Garcia, 35, has been ordered to prison following her six counts of conviction for making false statements on firearm records, announced United States Attorney Kenneth Magidson along with Robert W. Elder, special agent in charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). A federal jury convicted Garcia, of Alamo, July 22, 2014, following two days of trial and approximately 30 minutes of deliberation.

Today, U.S. District Judge Andrew S. Hanen, who presided over the trial, sentenced Garcia to 18 months in federal prison for each count to run concurrently. She will also serve three years of supervised release following completion of the prison term.

At trial, the jury heard that in August 2013, Garcia purchased five assault rifles over a six-day period from two federally licensed firearms dealers located in Harlingen and McAllen and paid more than $5,000 in cash. Within the same week, Garcia attempted to buy two more rifles and was denied sale due to the suspicion of straw purchasing the firearms.

In connection with the purchases, Garcia executed three different Firearms Transaction Records (4473 Forms) which must be filled out when a person purchases a firearm from a Federal Firearms Licensee (FFL). On all three forms, Garcia certified she was the actual buyer and provided an address in Pharr.

Garcia admitted to agents that she purchased the rifles and claimed she had done so using bingo winnings. However, Garcia gave inconsistent statements regarding the whereabouts of those firearms. She initially claimed they were with a relative, then changed her story and indicated they were stashed with a friend whose name, location and contact information she could not provide. Garcia purchased three AR-15 and two AK-47 style rifles, considered “weapons of choice” by drug trafficking organizations in Mexico. One of the AK-47s was recovered by Mexican law enforcement in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico on Aug. 27, 2013, only 20 days after Garcia purchased it. Garcia admitted she lied about her current residence address on her signed 4473 forms.

Garcia was permitted to remain on bond and voluntarily surrender to the U.S. Marshals Service next month.

ATF investigated. Assistant United States Attorneys David A. Lindenmuth and Carrie Wirsing are prosecuting the case.

Iran may add prison to punishment for smuggling alcohol

Tue, 10/28/2014 - 12:36

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The head of Parliament’s legal commission announced that Parliament is looking at a heavier punishment for smuggling alcoholic beverages by adding prison terms to the existing fines.

Abolfazl Aboutorabi told Khaneh Mellat that the fines, which reach as high as 100 million rials, may now be combined with a prison term of six months to a year.

The head of Iran’s social workers association announced that according to security forces, 80 million litres of alcohol were smuggled into the country in 2011, with police discovering and confiscating 20 million litres of that.

Security forces also report that 200,000 Iranians are addicted to alcohol. Consuming alcohol is prohibited in Iran; however, some reports indicate that 200,000 people are involved in the country’s alcoholic beverage market.

U.S.-led coalition chief: ISIS will not control Kobane

The man appointed to coordinate the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) says Kurdish Peshmerga fighters will thwart the militant group’s attempts to seize control of the Syrian city of Kobane.

“We don’t think Kobane is about to fall in the hands of ISIS, the entrance of Peshmerga fighters will prevent that,” John Allen, the retired U.S. general tasked by President Barack Obama with overseeing the anti-ISIS campaign, told Al Arabiya News Channel in an exclusive interview.

More than 150 Kurdish Peshmerga fighters crossed the border to Turkey on Tuesday, heading for Syria to support their Syrian Kurdish brethren in their fight against ISIS in Kobane.

The fighters will be battling ISIS on the ground, as the international coalition carries out air strikes targeting the militants.

There are concerns that ISIS, the extremist group that seized swathes of land in Iraq and Syria, is nearing the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi said American, British and Iranian advisors were helping his country’s security forces against the militant group.

Despite the rivalry between the United States and Iran, Gen. Allen did not reject Iran playing role in Iraq to counter the ISIS threat in that country.

“Iran has a role to play in Iraq and we welcome any positive steps taken by it,” he said.

However, he said that the coalition has not decided yet on whether to arm Iraqi tribes, which have joined the fight against ISIS.

“There is no decision regarding arming Iraqi tribes so far.”

Commenting on the Syrian conflict, Allen stressed that “the future of Syria will not be with Assad.”

Turkey seeks to rescue 18 miners trapped by flood

Turkish emergency workers were Wednesday trying to reach 18 miners who were trapped when their shaft was engulfed by water, amid growing fears that they may have drowned.


The accident in the southern province of Karaman was the latest to hit the disaster-prone Turkish mining industry after 301 workers were killed in May in an explosion at a mine in Soma in the west of the country.

The catastrophe has cast a huge shadow over Wednesday's celebrations for the annual Republic Day which marks the foundation of modern Turkey in 1923 out of the ruins of the Ottoman Empire.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he would be travelling to the scene and would cancel a planned lavish reception for the holiday scheduled to be held at his new presidential palace in Ankara. 

But he insisted that there was still a chance of finding the miners alive.

“Our expectations and our hopes have not been lost. Our friends and ministers are continuing to work and make efforts there,” he said in Ankara in comments broadcast by state television. 

The 18 miners were believed to be trapped in a flooded shaft over 300 metres (1,000 feet) underground. At least 34 miners were underground at the time of the accident Tuesday but 16 escaped unscathed early on.

Rescue workers have been seeking to reduce the water levels by pumping out the water with a gigantic pipe. But the levels had continued to rise until finally starting to fall in the night.

Energy Minister Taner Yildiz confirmed late Tuesday that there had been no contact with any of the trapped miners.

“Time is against us,” he acknowledged.

The accident took place when a build-up of water caused the walls of the shaft to collapse but officials have been unable to explain what caused the accumulation of water.

The government has sought to show it is on top of the situation after the Soma disaster sparked a wave of fury against Erdogan, who was accused of indifference to the plight of the victims.

He notoriously appeared then to play down the tragedy by saying such catastrophes were part of the job and comparing it to mining disasters in early industrial 19th-century Britain.

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