Islamic State Fighters Enjoy Junk Food And Western Gadgets

An Isis fighter in Raqqa

Isis Fighters Crave Snacks And Gadgets Of The West They Disdain -- Financial Times

What do jihadi militants crave on their break at the battlefront? Pringles are one frontline favourite. Another is Red Bull.

Thousands of foreign fighters who have flocked to Syria want to create an austere Islamic state harking back to the past. But they have retained their taste for the modern-day snacks and gadgets of the western countries they disdain.

Locals are not only living in fear of these militants, who use brutal mass executions and beheadings to impose their rule, but they are also trying to find ways to survive an economic crisis provoked by three years of civil war. Many say that the best strategy is catering to the tastes of the fighters they loathe.

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My Comment: They may disdain the culture of the West .... but they certainly love some of our additions and pleasures.

Syrian Foreign Minister: US-Led Strikes Haven't Weakened The Islamic State

A pair of US F-15E Strike Eagles fly over northern Iraq after conducting airstrikes in Syria. (Reuters)

Syria: US Raids Have Failed To Weaken ISIL -- Al Jazeera

Foreign Minister Moualem says coalition's air strikes having little impact, as his government urges Turkey to do more.

Syria's foreign minister has said US-led air strikes had failed to weaken the grip of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Syria and the group would not be tackled unless Turkey was forced to tighten border controls.

A US-led alliance started attacking ISIL targets in Syria in September as part of a wider effort to destroy the al-Qaeda offshoot that has seized large areas of the country and neighbouring Iraq.

"All the indications say that (Islamic State) today, after two months of coalition air strikes, is not weaker," Walid al-Moualem, the foreign minister, said in an interview with the Beirut-based Al Mayadeen TV broadcast on Friday.

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More News On Syrian Claims That US-Led Strikes Haven't Weakened The Islamic State

Islamic State: Syria says air strikes not hurting group -- BBC
Syria says U.S.-led strikes have not weakened Islamic State -- Reuters
Syria says US-led strikes haven't weakened Islamic State group -- AFP
US airstrikes against ISIS has not weakened them, Syrian official says -- FOX News
Syria: US-led strikes failed to weaken ISIS -- RT
US Military Campaign in Syria Failed to Weaken Islamic State: Syrian FM -- Sputnik
Syria says U.S.-led strikes have not weakened Islamic State -- Haaretz
Syria says US-led strikes have not weakened Islamic State -- Jerusalem Post

My Comment: This article probably explains why the Syrians have reacted in the matter that they have .... Syria, U.S. attack same Syrian city, then trade barbs (Washington Post).

Bomb Attack Kills 15 In Western China

15 Killed as Explosives Are Hurled at Food Court in Xinjiang -- Bloomberg

Fifteen people, including 11 attackers, were killed and 14 hurt as a group in vehicles hurled explosives at a food court yesterday in the latest flare-up in China’s Xinjiang province, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

The group randomly hacked people after the blasts in Shache County, Xinhua reported today. Police on patrol nearby evacuated the crowds and killed 11 of the attackers, the news agency said.

President Xi Jinping has blamed Uighur separatists, the Muslim ethnic minority that makes up about 45 percent of Xinjiang’s population, for a series of bombings and attacks in the province and across the country. More than 300 terror suspects have been arrested in the past six months as part of a nationwide crackdown.

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More News On Today's Bomb Attack In Xinjiang Province, China

15 killed, 14 injured in Xinjiang terrorist attack -- Xinhuanet
Xinjiang unrest: 15 dead in 'terrorist attack' in China's restive north-west region -- ABC News (Australia)
China: Explosive Blast and Knife Attack Kills 15 and Injures 14 in Xinjiang Province -- IBTimes
15 dead in attack in west China’s Xinjiang region -- AP
Fifteen dead, 14 hurt in attack in China's Xinjiang: Xinhua -- Reuters
Attack in Western China Leaves at Least 15 People Dead -- New York Times
Deadly attack on market stalls in China’s Xinjiang region -- Euronews
Fifteen die in attack in west China -- Independent.ie
Food stalls targeted in Xinjiang, says China -- Deutsche Welle

What Went Wrong In Afghanistan

Thirteen Years Later, What Went Wrong in Afghanistan -- Anand Gopal, Newsweek

President Barack Obama has abandoned his aim of ending America’s combat role in Afghanistan at the end of this year and has broadened the U.S. military mission to counter the advances of the Taliban. In his latest book, “No Good Men Among the Living,” journalist and author Anand Gopal describes where the U.S. went wrong in its -- so far -- thirteen-year occupation of the largely lawless country that once harbored Osama bin Laden.

From its earliest days, the Hamid Karzai government in Afghanistan was tethered to American aid, incapable of surviving on its own. It was reminiscent of the Afghan Communist regime of the 1980s, which lived and died by Moscow’s patronage—except that now there was a twist.

Of the $557 billion that Washington spent in Afghanistan between 2001 and 2011, only 5.4 percent went to development or governance. The rest was mostly military expenditure, a significant chunk of which ended up in the coffers of regional strongmen like Jan Muhammad (JMK).

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My Comment: We stayed too long .... and what made things worse is that no one defined (from President Bush to President Obama) on what that U.S. military mission would then be.

Taliban Step-Up Their Attacks In Afghanistan

Afghanistan On Edge As Stepped-Up Taliban Attacks Kill At Least 6 -- Washington Post

KABUL, Afghanistan — Taliban insurgents struck targets across Afghanistan on Friday, killing at least six people and wounding scores more, extending a string of attacks in recent weeks that have put Afghans on edge, two months into the term of the new U.S.-backed government.

The most brazen assault began Thursday night, when five Taliban suicide bombers and a group of fighters tried to infiltrate Camp Bastion, an air base in the volatile southern province of Helmand, triggering an intense gun battle that lasted into Friday morning, said Omer Zowak, a spokesman for the provincial governor’s office. Afghan soldiers repelled the attack, killing at least five Taliban fighters. Two soldiers died and six were wounded in the battle.

The attack was the latest by the Islamist Taliban insurgency targeting figures and centers of authority and influence in recent weeks. British and American forces this year pulled out of Camp Bastion, a British base, and transferred it to the Afghan army. The assault exemplified how the Taliban is trying to seize advantage of a military landscape in which most American and international forces have stopped combat operations and are preparing to withdraw by the end of the year.

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More News On The Afghan War

Afghanistan’s heavily guarded capital no longer immune from violence -- Stars and Stripes
For Afghans, the fighting now knows no seasons -- New York Times
Afghanistan lifts night raid ban against Taliban -- Washington Times
Taliban attack former NATO base in south Afghanistan -- AFP
Taliban fighters breach Helmand base, exchange fire with Afghan troops -- Reuters
Taliban launch all-out assault on Camp Bastion barely a month after British troops pull out, killing six Afghan soldiers -- Daily Mail/AP
Afghan soldiers killed in army base assault -- Al Jazeera
Afghan Troops 'Drive Out' Taliban From Key Southern Base -- Radio Free Europe
Taliban, Afghan forces battle at base vacated by British troops last month -- CNN
Afghan interpreters who helped US forces claim they have been left to the mercy of the Taliban after being place on a blacklist that stops them from emigrating to America -- Daily Mail

My Comment: The war usually tapers off during the winter months .... but the Taliban have clearly made the decision to escalate the war and to seize territory when possible.

Egyptian Court Dismisses Murder And Corruption Charges Against Former President Mubarak, His Sons, And Senior Aides

Egypt Court Dismisses Charges Against Mubarak -- Al Jazeera

Deposed president, along with his sons, was also cleared of corruption charges relating to the sale of gas to Israel.

An Egyptian court has thrown out a case against former President Hosni Mubarak for conspiring to murder protesters during the 2011 Egyptian revolution due to a technicality and lack of jurisdiction.

Mubarak and his sons Alaa and Gamal were also cleared by Chief Judge Mahmoud Kamel al-Rashidi of corruption charges related to exporting gas to Israel.

The same Cairo court acquitted Habib al-Adli, former Mubarak-era interior minister, and six senior security commanders of conspiracy to murder protesters.

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More News On An Egyptian Court Dismissing Murder And Corruption Charges Against Former President Mubarak, His Sons, And Senior Aides

Hosni Mubarak: Egypt court drops murder charges over 2011 killings -- BBC
Mubarak, his sons, interior minister and aides acquitted -- Ahram Online
Egyptian court dismisses charges against Mubarak -- AP
Egyptian court drops case against Mubarak over 2011 protester deaths -- Reuters
Egypt court drops murder charge against Mubarak -- AFP
Mubarak Cleared of All Charges in Killing of Egyptian Protesters -- VOA
Egypt Court Dismisses Murder Charges Against Former President Hosni Mubarak -- Wall Street Journal
Egyptian Court Acquits Ex-Leader Mubarak Over Protester Killings -- Bloomberg
Egypt: Ex-ruler Hosni Mubarak, accused in deaths of hundreds, cleared of charges -- CNN
Egypt’s ex-leader Mubarak acquitted of murder conspiracy charges -- RT
Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak acquitted on killing, corruption charges -- Deutsche Welle
Egypt court acquits seven Mubarak security commanders of murder -- Straits Times

Russia’s Deputy Defense Minister: US Responsible For Two-Thirds Of All Military Conflicts

U.S. Army 1st Lt. Brian Godwin administers the oath of enlistment to U.S. Army Sgt. Jonathan Conover during a ceremony on Forward Operating Base Lightning in Afghanistan's Paktia province, April 27, 2014. Goodwin and Conover are assigned to the 10th Mountain Division's 4th Battalion, 25th Field Artillery Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Javier Amador

US Responsible For Two-Thirds Of All Military Conflicts – Russia’s Top Brass -- RT

US interference in the internal affairs of countries around the world has brought neither peace, nor democracy, said Russia’s Deputy Defense Minister. America’s double standard experiments in supporting terrorists are provoking further destabilization.

“Think of it, over the last decades the US initiated two-thirds of all military conflicts (worldwide). Call to memory, how it all turned out in Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria,” Russia’s deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov said, addressing colleagues from the Southern and Southeast Asian states in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

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Update: 2/3 Of Global Military Conflicts Instigated By U.S. – Russian Minister; Willing To Share With Asian Countries Army Modernization Experience -- IBTimes

My Comment: The U.S. is involved in a number of conflicts .... but to say that they are responsible for a majority of these wars/conflicts is a stretch .... correction .... a huge stretch.