Congressional Hopeful Slain in Southern Mexico

MEXICO CITY – A prospective congressional candidate for Mexico’s center-left PRD and two other members of the party were murdered in the southern state of Oaxaca, authorities said Wednesday.

Carlos Martinez Villavicencio was seeking the PRD nomination for a federal congressional district in Oaxaca.

Martinez Villavicencio, PRD official Fidel Lopez and their driver, Bernardo Bautista, were ambushed Tuesday night while traveling in a vehicle with Mexico City plates near the town of Santiago Juxtlahuaca, the state Attorney General’s Office said in a statement.

The bodies of Martinez Villavicencio and Lopez were found inside the vehicle, while Bautista was discovered among some weeds about dead about 50 meters (164 feet) away.

Martinez Villavicencio, a former Oaxaca state legislator, served as mayor of Santiago Juxtlahuaca in 2009-2011.

The PRD demanded that state authorities “expedite the investigation so this case does not go unpunished.”

Mexicans will go to the polls July 7 to select federal lawmakers, nine state governors and 1,487 municipal officials. 

Iran news in brief, 18 February 2015

MUSLIMS WHIP THEMSELVES NEW YORK CITY USA

Fox News - ISIS may have " burned to death 45 Iraqi people " an hour ago

Islamic State militants reportedly have burned to death 45 people in the western Iraqi town of al-Baghdadi on Tuesday, just five miles away from an air base staffed by hundreds of U.S. Marines.

The identities of the victims are not clear, the local police chief told the BBC, but some are believed to be among the security forces that have been clashing with ISIS for control of the town. ISIS fighters reportedly captured most of the town last week.

Col. Qasim Obeidi, pleading for help from the Iraqi government and international community, said a compound that houses families of security personnel and officials is now under siege.

The reports come days after ISIS released a video purportedly showing the beheadings of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians along a beach in Libya, sparking an international outcry, including commendation from Pope Francis, who called the killings "barbaric.”

On Friday, a media group linked to ISIS released a four-minute video titled "Peshmerga Captives in Kirkuk Province,” which purportedly showed Kurdish prisoners -- imprisoned in iron cages -- being driven around on trucks in Iraq, according to the Middle East Media Research Institute.

The imagery of the prisoner convoy in orange uniforms was similar to the scenes of an execution of a Jordanian pilot. In a video released by ISIS two weeks ago, Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh was shown being burned alive in a cage.

Al-Baghdadi is only about five miles from Ain al-Asad air base, in the western province of Anbar, where 400 U.S. military personnel are training Iraqi soldiers and Sunni tribesmen to take on ISIS. The base was raided last week by a small band of fighters, in what some experts believe may have been a probe in preparation for a full-scale attack.

The base has been the target of sporadic mortar fire in past weeks, and the jihadist army has been moving forces from its strongholds in Syria to Anbar Province, possibly setting the stage for a major clash with forces on the base that is now the sole bulwark between ISIS and Baghdad.

There are currently nearly 2,600 U.S. forces in Iraq, including about 450 who are training Iraqi troops at three bases across the country, including al-Asad. Forces from other coalition countries conduct the training at the fourth site, in the northern city of Irbil.

But even if Islamic State militants close in on the base, taking it would require a massive force, that would present a target for airstrikes, retired Col. Thomas Lynch, a National Defense University fellow, told Fox News.

Iran's meddling is undermining US strategy in Iraq, Washington Post warns

Iran is undermining US strategy in Iraq by taking over the country's ongoing battle with Islamic State terrorists, the Washington Post newspaper has warned.

The Iranian regime's meddling is interfering with the US aim of bolstering the central government, rebuilding the Iraqi army and promoting reconciliation with the country’s embittered Sunni minority, the paper said.

The paper wrote: "With an estimated 100,000 to 120,000 armed men, the militias are rapidly eclipsing the depleted and demoralized Iraqi army, whose fighting strength has dwindled to about 48,000 troops since the government forces were routed in the northern city of Mosul last summer, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials.

"A recent offensive against Islamic State militants in the province of Diyala led by the Badr Organization further reinforced the militias’ standing as the dominant military force across a swath of territory stretching from southern Iraq to Kirkuk in the north.

"As they assume a greater role, the militias are sometimes resorting to tactics that risk further alienating Sunnis and sharpening the sectarian dimensions of the fight. They are also entrenching Iran’s already substantial hold over Iraq in ways that may prove difficult to reverse."

These militia, who are backed and often funded by Iran, openly proclaim allegiance to Tehran and many of the groups such as Asaib Ahl al-Haq and Kitaeb Hezbollah are veterans of the fight to eject American troops in the years before their 2011 departure, the Washington Post said.

The Washington Post added: "But the militias’ chain of command runs through their own leaders, and in many instances directly to Iran. The man appointed to coordinate their activities is Iraq’s deputy national security adviser, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the nom de guerre of an Iraqi sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury for his role as a top Iraqi commander in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps. He was convicted in absentia by Kuwait for his part in bombings at the U.S. and French embassies in Kuwait in 1983.

The paper said: "On a tour of the recently liberated villages, the danger that the militias’ role might only serve to enhance sectarianism was apparent. In one village, al-Askari, every home had been burned, a tactic Sunni politicians allege is intended to cleanse whole areas of Sunnis and prevent them from returning home.”

EIFA condemns murders of Iraqi Sunni leader, son and bodyguards

The European Iraqi Freedom Association has strongly condemned the murder of Sunni tribal leader Sheikh Qassem Sweidan al-Janabi, his son, and nine bodyguards by Shia militia affiliated to the Iranian regime.

The Sheikh and his entourage were ambushed and killed by gunmen in Baghdad. Moderate Sunni Muslim Janabi was found shot in the head with his hands tied behind his back, his son was killed by a bullet to the chest and most of his bodyguards were shot in the head.

EIFA President Struan Stevenson said: "Sheikh Janabi was a prominent figure in the religiously mixed areas south of Baghdad, often described as a key player in efforts to combat sectarianism. His son Dr Mohammed Al-Janabi, 29, was recently awarded his PhD in law from the Glasgow Caledonian University.

"Lawmaker Zeid al-Janabi, a nephew of the tribal leader, was with the group when they were ambushed but was later released after severe torture and humiliation.

"These murders came a few days after the statements of Hadi Al-Ameri, commander of the terrorist Badr organization, a well know agent of Iran and close friend of Iranian General Qassem Suleimani, the Commander of the terrorist Quds Force.

"Al-Ameri had threatened the Arab Sunnis with more bloodshed in the coming days."

Mr Stevenson called on the UN Security Council to stop the sectarian atrocities against the Iraqi Sunnis, adding: "These crimes by Iranian backed Shia militias seriously undermine the fight against ISIS. Unless the Iranian regime’s agents are uprooted and evicted from Iraq the war against ISIS cannot be won."

Amnesty International: Saman Naseem beaten, days from execution

Iranian political prisoner Saman Naseem scheduled to be executed on 19 February was beaten on Sunday to force him to make TV ‘confessions,’ according to Amnesty International.

The human rights organization published an Urgent Action to save life of Naseem who was arrested when he was 17 years old.

Saman Naseem was sentenced to death in April 2013 by a criminal court in Mahabad, West Azerbaijan Province, for “enmity against God” (moharebeh) and “corruption on earth” (ifsad fil-arz) because of his membership of a Kurdish opposition group.

“Saman Naseem was allowed no access to his lawyer during early investigations and he said he was tortured, which included the removal of his finger and toe nails and being hung upside down for several hours,” Amnesty statement said.

“Saman Naseem called his family on 15 February and told them that earlier that day men in plain clothes had taken him to the security department of the Oroumieh Prison. He said the men, who he believed belonged to the Ministry of Intelligence and were carrying cameras and recording equipment, beat him for several hours to force him into making video-taped ‘confessions’, but he refused to do so.”