Bomb attack in Baghdad. ...[ 3140 ]

Baghdad bomb blasts kill 49

Last Updated: Tuesday, April 6, 2010 | 10:00 AM ET

The Associated Press

 
Rescuers search for survivors at the scene of a bomb attack Tuesday in Baghdad. (Hadi Mizban/Associated Press) 
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At least five bombs ripped through apartment buildings across Baghdad Tuesday and another struck a market, killing 49 people and wounding more than 160, authorities said.
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Iraqi officials blamed al-Qaeda in Iraq insurgents for the violence — the latest sign the country's fragile security is dissolving in the chaos of the unresolved national elections.
It was the fourth set of attacks with multiple casualties across Iraq in five days, a spate of violence that has claimed more than 100 lives. 
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Attacks have spiked as political leaders scramble to secure enough support to form a government after the March 7 elections failed to produce a clear winner.
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Maj.-Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, an Iraqi military spokesman for Baghdad's operations command centre, said the attackers detonated blasts using homemade bombs and, in one case, a car packed with explosives. He said there were at least seven blasts; the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad said there were five.
 
People search through the rubble after a bomb attack in central Baghdad. (Karim Kadim/Associated Press)
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Al-Moussawi blamed al-Qaeda in Iraq for the explosions and said Iraq was in a "state of war" with terrorists.
He said most of the damaged buildings were two storeys, but one in the Allawi district downtown was five storeys.
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Police and medical officials said the death toll from the explosions and the car bomb was at least 49, and that women and children were among the dead. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to release information publicly.
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'Power vacuum' leads to violence: Allawi

Ayad Allawi, whose bloc came out ahead in the vote by two seats over Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's, said the political deadlock is behind the new wave of violence. He also raised the prospect that the impasse could last for months as both sides try to cobble together the majority needed to govern.
"This is blamed on the power vacuum of course, and on how democracy is being raped in Iraq," Allawi told The Associated Press in an interview.
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"Because people are sensing there are powers who want to obstruct the path of democracy, terrorists and al-Qaeda are on the go.… I think their operations will increase in Iraq."
He added that he did not foresee any clear timetable to form a government.
"It could either be formed in two months or it could last four or five months," he said.
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Many fear such violence and a drawn-out political dispute could allow insurgents to regroup in the political vacuum left after the elections.
Nearly a month after the national vote, Iraq remains in a political deadlock.
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Allawi's secular Iraqiya bloc won 91 of the 325 parliament seats to 89 for the mainly Shia list of Prime Minister al-Maliki. But both parties are far short of the necessary majority needed to govern alone, which has forced them into bargaining with other smaller blocs to muster the support needed to form a governing coalition.

Israeli air attacks...[ 3139 ]

Israel Warplanes Strikes in Lebanon after 2 Rockets Fired From Lebanon to Israel

Published on Aug 22, 2013
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The Israeli air force carried out an attack in Lebanon on Friday, the army said, hours after militants there fired four rockets at the Jewish state.

"The IAF (Israeli air force) targeted a terror site located between Beirut and Sidon in response to a barrage of four rockets launched at northern Israel yesterday," a statement from the army read.

"The pilots reported direct hits to the target."

Defence sources said the attack took place near Naameh.

Two of the four rockets fired from Lebanon on Thursday had hit populated areas, causing damage but no injuries.

The attack was claimed by the Abdullah Azzam Brigades — an Al-Qaeda-linked group which had claimed similar rocket fire on Israel in 2009 and 2011.

The Israeli army reiterated in its Friday statement it "holds the Lebanese government accountable for the attack".

Lebanese President Michel Sleiman had called the Thursday rocket fire a violation of UN resolutions and of Lebanese sovereignty and urged security forces to hunt the gunmen and bring them to justice.

And Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed retaliation, saying that "Anyone who harms us, or tries to harm us, should know — we will strike them".

Thursday's attack was the first such incident since November 2011, when the Abdullah Azzam Brigades fired a volley of rockets from southern Lebanon at Israel, provoking then too a reaction from the Israeli army.


Israeli warplanes strike area near Beirut
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Update on the latest news, sports, business and entertainment
Israel hits Lebanon after rocket attack
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Israel strikes in Lebanon after rocket attack
2 rockets fired from Lebanon hit northern Israel
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Analysis: Dragging Israel into conflict
IAF carries out airstrike on target near Beirut
IAF strikes target in Southern Lebanon
4 Katyusha rockets fired from Lebanon at western Galilee
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Associated Press writers Aron Heller in Jerusalem, Zeina Karam in Beirut and Hussein Malla in Naameh, Lebanon, contributed to this report,

Israeli raid targets Palestinian group
Israel strikes Lebanon after rocket attacks
Israeli warplanes strike area near Beirut
Israeli warplanes strike area near Beirut
Israeli warplanes strike area near Beirut
Israel Air Force hits target in Lebanon in response to katyusha fire in the north
Israeli warplanes strike area near Beirut
Israeli warplanes strike area near Beirut
Israel hits back at Lebanon after rocket attack
Israel bombs Lebanon in retaliation for rocket attack
Israeli warplanes strike area near Beirut
State Dept Press Corps Shows Israel's Safety Irrelevant
Israel bombs Lebanon in retaliatory attack
Israel says bombed target in Lebanon
Israeli warplanes strike target south of Beirut
Update on the latest news, sports, business and entertainment
Israel hits Lebanon after rocket attack
Palestinian group says no casualties in Israeli strike - TV
Israel strikes in Lebanon after rocket attack
2 rockets fired from Lebanon hit northern Israel
Israel says Lebanon rockets are isolated incident
Israeli air force hits target near Beirut
Analysis: Dragging Israel into conflict
IAF carries out airstrike on target near Beirut
IAF strikes target in Southern Lebanon
4 Katyusha rockets fired from Lebanon at western Galilee

Deadly rampage in Afghanistan...[ 3138 ]

Staff Sgt. Robert Bales apologizes for deadly rampage in Afghanistan

'I can't comprehend their loss,' U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales says of his 16 Afghan victims in a sentencing hearing to determine whether he'll ever be eligible for parole.

Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, pictured in August 2011, said at a sentencing hearing that he accepted full responsibility for the deadly attacks on two villages in Afghanistan. (Spc. Ryan Hallock / U.S. Army) -

By Rick Rojas

August 22, 2013, 8:29 p.m.

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JOINT BASE LEWIS-McCHORD, Wash. — The U.S. soldier who pleaded guilty to killing 16 Afghan civilians, including women and children, and injuring many more condemned his conduct as an "act of cowardice" Thursday and apologized to the victims' families, his own family and his comrades in the Army.

"If I could bring their families back, I would," Staff Sgt. Robert Bales said in unsworn testimony at his sentencing hearing here. "I can't comprehend their loss. I think about it every time I look at my kids."
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Bales, 40, pleaded guilty in June to the 2012 rampage, avoiding the death penalty in exchange for a life sentence. Once the defense and prosecution offer closing arguments, scheduled for Friday, the six-member military jury will decide whether Bales will be eligible for parole.
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His defense has sought to humanize him as a dependable and upstanding man — a good father, a good soldier, a good friend — who had been tormented by war.
Prosecutors have countered that Bales has a troubled history with his marriage, finances, steroids, alcohol use and authority figures. They have also focused on the toll the rampage took on the families he attacked and on the military's relationships in Afghanistan.
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The defense had been expected to call mental health experts to testify about Bales' psychological state at the time of the attack, including a concussion and post-traumatic stress disorder from multiple deployments to war zones.
But Bales' attorneys declined. His lawyer, John Henry Browne, called it a "tactical decision," noting that doing so would have prompted prosecutors to call rebuttal witnesses. "It would have been the battle of the experts," Browne said.
Instead, the defense called old friends and fellow soldiers, men who could vouch for "Bobby" — as several referred to him — and his character.
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"He really sacrificed his own wants and needs for those of the team," said former professional football player Marc Edwards, who played high school football with Bales. "He was just an unbelievable leader. I looked up to him. I still do."
Sgt. 1st Class Timothy Farris counted Bales as a subordinate in Iraq, and eventually as a friend. Farris called him a dependable go-getter who cared about his fellow soldiers. 
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Farris also described the carnage they saw during their time in Iraq: the danger, the bloodshed and the onerous task of cleaning up. He said that collecting a soldier's remains after a bombing, piece by piece, had stayed on his own mind.
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"At the time you're doing it, you're working," he said. "You're on high alert and things are different at that point because there's the threat of the enemy attacking you again.... It's the reflection afterwards, and there aren't many days afterwards that you aren't thinking of stuff."
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After the defense witnesses, Bales took the stand to offer unsworn testimony — a provision unique to military court that allows a defendant to speak but avoid cross-examination.
Bales said he returned from Iraq filled with seemingly irrational anger. Simple things — doing the dishes, running an errand — could send him into a rage.
Another of his attorneys, Emma Scanlan, asked how he readjusted after his first three tours in Iraq.
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"It was difficult, ma'am," Bales said. "It was hard. It didn't feel right. I was angry."
He drank, he said, and became dependent on sleeping pills. Certain sounds and smells could set him off, particularly those, he said, that he associated with combat.
"Nothing can describe the smell," he said. "It just takes you back immediately."
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Initially, he said, he told no one and sought no help for the anger, the drinking or the pills. "I didn't want to be weak. I didn't want to tell anyone. I tried to hide it." Later, he went to counseling for about six weeks but quit because, he said, he didn't think it was helping.
Scanlan didn't ask about specifics of the early morning of March 11, 2012, when Bales set off on a rampage through two Afghan villages. But she asked who he thought was responsible for the massacre.
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"I am," he said. "I'm responsible."
He expressed remorse to his family and fellow soldiers.
"Sorry I disgraced you," he said, turning to look at members of his family, including his wife, mother and brother, who sat in the courtroom.
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He showed the most emotion, however, when it came to the Army.
"I love the Army," he said. "I stood next to some really good guys, some real heroes.... I can't say I'm sorry to those guys enough."
When he finished, he sat back down beside his lawyers, bowed his head and stared at the table.
rick.rojas@latimes.com

Swiss "Jetman" soars over Wisconsin..[ 3137 ]

  "Jetman" soars over Wisconsin

Published on Aug 5, 2013
 

Swiss pilot Yves "Jetman" Rossy learned to fly by strapping jet-propelled wings to his back -- he made his first public flight in America from the Experimental Aircraft Association Air Venture in Wisconsin.

Egypt Clashes..[ 3136 ]

 Chaos in Cairo, 250 killed

Published on Aug 14, 2013

Egyptian security forces moved in Wednesday on two massive makeshift camps that supporters of deposed President Mohamed Morsy had set up, bulldozing tents and escorting away hundreds of protesters.

Within three hours of the raid, forces had cleared the smaller of the two camps -- the Nahda camp, near the Cairo University campus.

But the larger -- near the Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque in eastern Cairo -- has proven trickier, with forces facing heavy resistance. The military called in its special forces.

In the chaos of the raids, it was impossible for CNN to verify the claims and counter claims of casualties.

The Muslim Brotherhood said 200 Morsy supporters were killed and more than 8,000 injured.

The Health Ministry put the number at seven protesters dead and 78 wounded.

The Interior Ministry said that on the government side, two security officials were killed and nine injured while trying to disperse the protesters.

The government blocked all roads leading to the Rabaa camp, and suspended rail service to Cairo.

The Brotherhood said it was to prevent more of its members from streaming into the city.

A new war zone

The raids began shortly after 6 a.m. (12 a.m. ET) at the two camps.

By 8:45 a.m.,all that remained at the Nahda camp were remnants of torn-down tents.

But it was a different picture at Rabaa, where protester Hassan Al Qabana said the location was facing a "full-on assault."

One of the main entrances to the Rabaa camp looked like a war zone. Bursts of gunfire pierced through the thick smoke and tear gas that filled the air. Some of the gunfire sounded like it came from automatic weapons.

Many cried or wailed, denouncing military leaders and pointing to bullet holes. Some of the injured -- or possibly dead -- were ushered away on stretchers to a makeshift clinic.

Krwawe zamieszki w Egipcie, Egipt krwawe starcia,scontri sanguinosi in Egitto,blutigen Unruhen in Ägypten,кровавые беспорядки в Египте
Krwawa rozprawa ze zwolennikami Mohammeda Mursiego w Egipcie