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America says that its allies would send about 1,500 troops to Iraq

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A senior US military commander said that the allies of the United States pledged to send about 1,500 troops to Iraq to help train Iraqi and Kurdish forces and provide advice in the face of the Islamic state organization.

Lt. Gen. James Terry, who oversees the coalition’s efforts against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria that the forces that will come will be in addition to the 3,100 authorized by US President , Barack Obama on their deployment in Iraq 
.
The Allies commitments came at a conference for members of the coalition in the second and third of December 
.
Terry said to a group of reporters traveling with Defense Secretary , Chuck Hagel in Kuwait, “when you begin now to balance the different capabilities of the coalition, I think we are working very well in terms of the number of soldiers on the ground“.

 Terry declined to reveal which countries that would contribute, but said the troops represent a combination of a broad coalition that now includes about 40 countries.

Source:  shafaaq.com

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UN postpones Libya peace talks to include more parties

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The United Nations will postpone talks aimed at ending Libya’s current crisis in an attempt to include all warring parties in the dialogue, UN Special Envoy to Libya Bernadino Leon announced on Monday.
The dialogue, originally scheduled for Tuesday, will be postponed to next week, to allow time to “discuss some details with various parties in Libya,” Leon said.
Libya has been witnessing a frayed political process after the 2011 turmoil which toppled its former leader Muammar Gaddafi. The country is now juggling two rival parliaments and governments.
According to Libya’s transitional plan, the parliament elected in June, the House of Representatives, has already replaced the former interim General National Congress (GNC). However, the armed Islamist alliance Libya Dawn, which has achieved a series of military progress lately in Tripoli, backs the GNC to resume power and form its own government against the new one.
“The dialogue should be based on respect. So we have agreed that this respect will mean that the representatives from the GNC be attending the dialogue,” Leon said, adding that the two sides have different views and it is difficult for them to sit at the same table to talk.
The previous national dialogue was held in Libya’s southwestern city of Ghadames on Sept. 29. Although most parties attending the gathering agreed on a truce, no cease-fire has actually been reached as fierce clashes still flare in major cities like Tripoli and Benghazi.
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Not to UN, yes to NATO intervention in Libya

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The US and other European allies are concerned about Libya as a hotbed of terrorism that could inflame all of the Maghreb, driving more refugees to southern Europe and stressing Nato’s security requirements

The United Nations is moving quickly to try to negotiate an agreement between the warring parties in Libya.

The effort headed by UN Special Representative Bernardino Leon to Libya chaired its first round of talks between opposing politicians in Ghadames in September, and there will be a new round of negotiations on December 9.

The key to predicting the failure of UN talks is to say even if there is an apparent agreement announced, that it will be Libyan-style: it will be short lived and the protagonists will resume their hostilities within days or weeks. Don’t be shocked if another Nato intervention in Libya will be necessary.
While the UN and Sudan are angling for settling the dispute between the Tobruk and Tripoli governments, it is clear that any talks in the works are for show only.The result of the Khartoum negotiations, where only the Tobruk-based House of Representatives (HOR) government was present, was intended to illustrate a setting of cooperation for a joint Arab and North African agreement to move forward.

That agreement, according to the ever-knowing UN, is a step in the right direction.Simultaneously, the meeting also shows a modicum of denial that Khartoum is a major supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood and ultimately Libya Dawn in Tripoli.

In other words, the meeting and the results are hogwash.

Source: Gulf News

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Kenya needs to win war of ideas to stop Shabaab

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Kenya must win a battle against militant ideology that is seeping in from its northern neighbour and spreading to Muslim youths at home if it is to stop Somali Islamists extending their reach in east Africa.

After two attacks in 10 days by Somalia’s al-Shabaab group that killed more than 60 people, President Uhuru Kenyatta vowed to step up his “war on terror” to halt raids across the porous border and stop any dream of making an Islamic Caliphate.

In Somalia, he can point to military gains where Kenyan and other African troops have retaken territory from al-Shabaab, but he faces a more stubborn enemy on home soil where security forces are trying to drive out militancy from mosques.

“The only language these kafirs [non-Muslims] can understand is the bullet from the AK-47 rifle,” a Kenyan preacher told worshippers at Mombasa’s Mina mosque last month before police shut it down – with three others – detaining about 100 youths.

Tough tactics
Such tough tactics may temporarily silence the radical voices but it also fuels anger that helps militants find new recruits and deepens the home-grown threat, Muslim activists say.

This is where al-Shabaab may have a trump card. While it has been driven out of major Somali strongholds, a military offensive in Somalia has not stopped the group spreading its ideology and finding enough loyal foot soldiers for attacks that need little more than dedication to the cause and a few rifles.

Cohorts of frustrated and often jobless Muslim youths in the sweltering port city of Mombasa and along the coast, where most Kenyan Muslims live, offer fertile ground for the Islamists.

Firebrand sermons
“The government needs to sit down and understand these people,” said Hussein Khalid of Haki Africa, a group that works to promote dialogue with Muslim communities. “It always wants to use force and this merely pushes people away.”

Alarmed by sermons of firebrand imams and radicalised youths emerging from mosques in Mombasa, police have in the past month shut four places of worship and made mass arrests. This has been done before but not on such scale.

“We want to arrest the situation from spilling over to other mosques,” said Mombasa County police commander Robert Kitur.

Al-Shabaab said it launched recent raids partly to punish Kenya for such acts of “aggression” and promised to continue.

Losing territory in Somalia has not prevented al-Shabaab exploiting its guerrilla skills. It may even free up resources.

Deepening worries
“Now they are not ruling such large chunks of Somalia, they no longer have to pay for a shadow government,” said a diplomat. “You can mount an insurgency for really not very much money.”

Deepening worries for the authorities is a video posted on YouTube this week with an address by Ahmad Iman Ali, a Kenyan believed to head al Hijra, the local branch of al-Shabaab. He promised to target “non-believers” to avenge the suffering of Muslims in Mombasa, where Ali studied under a radical preacher.

“Wait and see, it is just a matter of time,” Ali said as a group of men toting AK-47 rifles shouted: “Bullets and daggers have created warriors. Let us spread this to all mosques.”

In 2007, Ali and his young supporters took over a Nairobi mosque, creating a hotbed of militancy. Radicals have done the same in Mombasa, defying repeated police crackdowns.

“It has never worked anywhere in the world,” Ali Hassan Joho, Mombasa County Governor, told Reuters of his concerns about police strategy. “This is an ideological battle, therefore you cannot win it in any other way besides engagement.”

Living in fear
Such worries are not yet turning into action. Haki Africa’s Khalid said meetings between officials and the Muslim community had thrashed out strategy but there had been no “concrete meetings to confirm or at least agree on how to roll that out.”

Rattled by border raids in the north and other al-Shabaab attacks this year along the coast, Kenyatta urged the Muslim community to help root out Kenya’s militant “collaborators”.

But many moderate Muslim preachers have been cowed. In November, Sheikh Salim Bakari Mwarangi, who supported moves to stamp out radicalism, was shot dead by unknown assailants. Another moderate leader was killed in June.

“There is a very big sense of fear and people think it’s not worth challenging these [radical] people,” said Mudhar Khitamy, coast chairperson of the Supreme Council of Kenyan Muslims.

When Mombasa’s Mina mosque was shuttered, about a dozen young men chanting “Allahu akbar”, or “God is greatest”, marched through the street and hacked to death a Christian shopkeeper.

Kenya needs rethink strategy, said a Western diplomat: “They’re not reaching the population they are trying to reach.”

Source:

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Kerry calls Iran airstrikes on Islamic State ‘positive’

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US Secretary of State John Kerry said that “the net effect is positive” of reported Iranian strikes against Islamic State (IS) targets in Iraq.

Kerry emphasized that the United States and Iran are “not only not coordinating militarily right now, but there are no plans at this time to coordinate militarily.”

Arash Karami reported that Iranian officials have also brushed back talk of coordination, with Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkam stating that she would “not confirm news about cooperation on a military matter,” while an anonymous Iranian official denied the existence of strikes entirely to Reuters.

This column has suggested that a nuclear agreement with Iran would be a catalyst for more expansive cooperation in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere in the region. This seems to be happening, incrementally, even in the absence of an agreement.

As Laura Rozen reported from Vienna, the latest P5+1 talks in the city, before the signing of an extension, gave rise to “cautious optimism that more rapid progress might now be made toward a final accord.” This progress carried over into the seven-month extension that allows the International Atomic Energy Agency expanded access to Iranian facilities and sets limits on R&D for centrifuges, among other conditions.
Kerry, Rice: Syria buffer zone ‘premature’

US National Security Adviser Susan Rice told The Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council this week that a safe zone in Syria, as advocated by Turkey, is “at best premature” and that it “would be a major investment of resources that would be something frankly of a diversion from the primary task at hand.” Kerry similarly referred to a decision on a buffer zone or safe zone as “premature.”

Semih Idiz writes for Al-Monitor that Turkey is unlikely to change its Syria policies until the United States clarifies its position on President Bashar al-Assad, so the friction in US-Turkey ties is likely to continue.
Some clarification of US intentions would no doubt be helpful. The United States has called for Assad to “step aside” since August 2011.

It seems unhelpful, however, for the Barack Obama administration to frame its debate on whether US attacks on IS and terrorist groups in Syria indirectly support Assad — or by extension Iran — and that therefore the United States needs to go after both IS and Assad, intervening on two sides of a civil war. Welcome to the slippery slope.

Better to toss that line of thinking out altogether. Instead, the questions over a buffer zone or expanded investment in the Syrian opposition should be based on a cool-headed assessment of the balance of forces inside Syria, and framed as to whether the United States is prepared to take any action that would likely be opposed by the Security Council, would prolong the war and begin a formal division of the country.

What would it mean for the campaign against IS? And would the United States be ready to take on the Syrian government directly, if the zone or opposition groups were challenged by Syrian government forces? And then what?

For those who cannot reach beyond the simplified view that a decision of such magnitude should be characterized as either “pro-Assad” or “anti-Assad,” rather than an analysis based upon US policy options and potential consequences, it is worth recalling that this column has supported aid to Syrian rebel forces in pursuit of a political settlement; called for the Syrian government’s accountability for war crimes; provided on-the-ground reporting by Syrian correspondents on the rise of discontent in Alawite regions; and, as early as August 2012, and to date, has offered diplomatic strategies for a post-Assad transition in Syria.

Source: Al Monitor
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Clashes kill 8 in Libya’s Zawiya

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Eight members of the Islamist militant group Libya Dawn were killed on Sunday in clashes against the national army near Zawiya city, according to military sources.
An officer from Libya Dawn said that their fighters were killed during the crossfire with Zintan militias and tribal forces, which have joined the national army in the recent campaigns.
“Their forces tried to penetrate through Zawiya, but we managed to stop them and destroy a number of their vehicles. We also killed a large number of their forces,” the officer said on condition of anonymity.
The source pointed out that Sunday’s attack is the deadliest one in weeks, however “our fighters showed readiness to repel their attacks.”
Militias of Libya Dawn dominate the capital Tripoli after fierce fighting that lasted for more than 45 days, killing 250 people and injuring over a thousand.
After controlling Tripoli, Libya Dawn forces expanded their military operations to the west of the capital, where battles take place almost on a daily basis despite UN calls for a cease-fire and talks.
Western Libyan cities, since November, whiteness clashes and airstrikes carried out by the army’s air force against militias of Libya Dawn to force them to abandon their positions.
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Syria Army repels militant advance on key air base

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Syrian troops have repelled an attack by militants from the Islamic State (IS) group on a key military airport in the eastern Deir Ezzor province, a monitoring group said on Sunday.

“Troops and pro-regime militia stopped the attack that IS launched on the Deir Ezzor military airport,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, adding that both sides suffered heavy losses in the fighting.

The militants had withdrawn to the edges of the base, a day after managing to seize a southeastern part of the complex, it said.

The Observatory said more than 100 militants had been killed in fighting for the base since Wednesday, when they launched an operation to try to take the airport.

Pro-regime forces also suffered heavy casualties, with some 59 troops killed, it said.

State news agency SANA said Syrian army units had “repelled an attempt” by IS fighters to attack positions at the base, but provided no further details.

The Deir Ezzor air base is a key regime outpost from which warplanes and helicopters mount raids on militant positions in several areas of the war-wracked country.

IS fighters control most of Deir Ezzor province, but half of its capital remains in government hands.

The oil-rich province lies between IS-controlled Raqa province and the border with Iraq, and is a key prize for the militant group which declared an Islamic “caliphate” straddling the two countries in June.

Source:  Tribune Pakistan

Kenya must win a battle against militant ideology that is seeping in from its northern neighbour and spreading to Muslim youths at home if it is to stop Somali Islamists extending their reach in east Africa.

After two attacks in 10 days by Somalia’s al Shabaab group that killed more than 60 people, President Uhuru Kenyatta vowed to step up his “war on terror” to halt raids across the porous border and stop any dream of making an Islamic Caliphate.

In Somalia, he can point t ..

Read more at:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/45402523.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

Kenya must win a battle against militant ideology that is seeping in from its northern neighbour and spreading to Muslim youths at home if it is to stop Somali Islamists extending their reach in east Africa.After two attacks in 10 days by Somalia’s al Shabaab group that killed more than 60 people, President Uhuru Kenyatta vowed to step up his “war on terror” to halt raids across the porous border and stop any dream of making an Islamic Caliphate.

In Somalia, he can point t ..

Read more at:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/45402523.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

Kenya needs to win war of ideas to stop Islamist advanceKenya
 must win a battle against militant ideology that is seeping in from its
 northern neighbour and spreading to Muslim youths at home if it is to 
stop Somali Islamists extending their reach in east Africa.

               After
 two attacks in 10 days by Somalia's al Shabaab group that killed more 
than 60 people, President Uhuru Kenyatta vowed to step up his "war on 
terror" to halt raids across the porous border and stop any dream of 
making an Islamic Caliphate.

               In Somalia, 
he can point to military gains where Kenyan and other African troops 
have retaken territory from al Shabaab, but he faces a more stubborn 
enemy on home soil where security forces are trying to drive out 
militancy from mosques.

               "The only language
 these kafirs (non-Muslims) can understand is the bullet from the AK-47 
rifle," a Kenyan preacher told worshippers at Mombasa's Mina mosque last
 month before police shut it down - with three others - detaining about 
100 youths.

               Such tough tactics may 
temporarily silence the radical voices but it also fuels anger that 
helps militants find new recruits and deepens the homegrown threat, 
Muslim activists say.

               This is where al 
Shabaab may have a trump card. While it  has been driven out of major 
Somali strongholds, a military offensive in Somalia has not stopped the 
group spreading its ideology and finding enough loyal foot soldiers for 
attacks that need little more than dedication to the cause and a few 
rifles.

               Cohorts of frustrated and often 
jobless Muslim youths in the sweltering port city of Mombasa and along 
the coast, where most Kenyan Muslims live, offer fertile ground for the 
Islamists.

                              

FIREBRAND SERMONS

               "The
 government needs to sit down and understand these people," said Hussein
 Khalid of Haki Africa, a group that works to promote dialogue with 
Muslim communities. "It always wants to use force and this merely pushes
 people away."

               Alarmed by sermons of 
firebrand imams and radicalised youths emerging from mosques in Mombasa,
 police have in the past month shut four places of worship and made mass
 arrests. This has been done before but not on such scale.

               "We want to arrest the situation from spilling over to other mosques," said Mombasa County police commander Robert Kitur.

               Al Shabaab said it launched recent raids partly to punish Kenya for such acts of "aggression" and promised to continue.

               Losing territory in Somalia has not prevented al Shabaab exploiting its guerrilla skills. It may even free up resources.

               "Now
 they are not ruling such large chunks of Somalia, they no longer have 
to pay for a shadow government," said a diplomat. "You can mount an 
insurgency for really not very much money."

               Deepening
 worries for the authorities is a video posted on YouTube this week with
 an address by Ahmad Iman Ali, a Kenyan believed to head al Hijra, the 
local branch of al Shabaab. He promised to target "non-believers" to 
avenge the suffering of Muslims in Mombasa, where Ali studied under a 
radical preacher.

               "Wait and see, it is 
just a matter of time," Ali said as a group of men toting AK-47 rifles 
shouted: "Bullets and daggers have created warriors. Let us spread this 
to all mosques."

               In 2007, Ali and his 
young supporters took over a Nairobi mosque, creating a hotbed of 
militancy. Radicals have done the same in Mombasa, defying repeated 
police crackdowns.

               "It has never worked 
anywhere in the world," Ali Hassan Joho, Mombasa County Governor, told 
Reuters of his concerns about police strategy. "This is an ideological 
battle, therefore you cannot win it in any other way besides 
engagement."

                              

LIVING IN FEAR

               Such
 worries are not yet turning into action. Haki Africa's Khalid said 
meetings between officials and the Muslim community had thrashed out 
strategy but there had been no "concrete meetings to confirm or at least
 agree on how to roll that out."

               Rattled 
by border raids in the north and other al Shabaab attacks this year 
along the coast, Kenyatta urged the Muslim community to help root out 
Kenya's militant "collaborators".

               But many
 moderate Muslim preachers have been cowed. In November, Sheikh Salim 
Bakari Mwarangi, who supported moves to stamp out radicalism, was shot 
dead by unknown assailants. Another moderate leader was killed in June.

               "There
 is a very big sense of fear and people think it's not worth challenging
 these (radical) people," said Mudhar Khitamy, coast chairman of the 
Supreme Council of Kenyan Muslims.

               When 
Mombasa's Mina mosque was shuttered, about a dozen young men chanting 
"Allahu akbar", or "God is greatest", marched through the street and 
hacked to death a Christian shopkeeper.

               Kenya needs rethink strategy, said a Western diplomat: "They're not reaching the population they are trying to reach." 

Kenya
 must win a battle against militant ideology that is seeping in from its
 northern neighbour and spreading to Muslim youths at home if it is to 
stop Somali Islamists extending their reach in east Africa.

               After
 two attacks in 10 days by Somalia's al Shabaab group that killed more 
than 60 people, President Uhuru Kenyatta vowed to step up his "war on 
terror" to halt raids across the porous border and stop any dream of 
making an Islamic Caliphate.

               In Somalia, 
he can point to military gains where Kenyan and other African troops 
have retaken territory from al Shabaab, but he faces a more stubborn 
enemy on home soil where security forces are trying to drive out 
militancy from mosques.

               "The only language
 these kafirs (non-Muslims) can understand is the bullet from the AK-47 
rifle," a Kenyan preacher told worshippers at Mombasa's Mina mosque last
 month before police shut it down - with three others - detaining about 
100 youths.

               Such tough tactics may 
temporarily silence the radical voices but it also fuels anger that 
helps militants find new recruits and deepens the homegrown threat, 
Muslim activists say.

               This is where al 
Shabaab may have a trump card. While it  has been driven out of major 
Somali strongholds, a military offensive in Somalia has not stopped the 
group spreading its ideology and finding enough loyal foot soldiers for 
attacks that need little more than dedication to the cause and a few 
rifles.

               Cohorts of frustrated and often 
jobless Muslim youths in the sweltering port city of Mombasa and along 
the coast, where most Kenyan Muslims live, offer fertile ground for the 
Islamists.

                              

FIREBRAND SERMONS

               "The
 government needs to sit down and understand these people," said Hussein
 Khalid of Haki Africa, a group that works to promote dialogue with 
Muslim communities. "It always wants to use force and this merely pushes
 people away."

               Alarmed by sermons of 
firebrand imams and radicalised youths emerging from mosques in Mombasa,
 police have in the past month shut four places of worship and made mass
 arrests. This has been done before but not on such scale.

               "We want to arrest the situation from spilling over to other mosques," said Mombasa County police commander Robert Kitur.

               Al Shabaab said it launched recent raids partly to punish Kenya for such acts of "aggression" and promised to continue.

               Losing territory in Somalia has not prevented al Shabaab exploiting its guerrilla skills. It may even free up resources.

               "Now
 they are not ruling such large chunks of Somalia, they no longer have 
to pay for a shadow government," said a diplomat. "You can mount an 
insurgency for really not very much money."

               Deepening
 worries for the authorities is a video posted on YouTube this week with
 an address by Ahmad Iman Ali, a Kenyan believed to head al Hijra, the 
local branch of al Shabaab. He promised to target "non-believers" to 
avenge the suffering of Muslims in Mombasa, where Ali studied under a 
radical preacher.

               "Wait and see, it is 
just a matter of time," Ali said as a group of men toting AK-47 rifles 
shouted: "Bullets and daggers have created warriors. Let us spread this 
to all mosques."

               In 2007, Ali and his 
young supporters took over a Nairobi mosque, creating a hotbed of 
militancy. Radicals have done the same in Mombasa, defying repeated 
police crackdowns.

               "It has never worked 
anywhere in the world," Ali Hassan Joho, Mombasa County Governor, told 
Reuters of his concerns about police strategy. "This is an ideological 
battle, therefore you cannot win it in any other way besides 
engagement."

                              

LIVING IN FEAR

               Such
 worries are not yet turning into action. Haki Africa's Khalid said 
meetings between officials and the Muslim community had thrashed out 
strategy but there had been no "concrete meetings to confirm or at least
 agree on how to roll that out."

               Rattled 
by border raids in the north and other al Shabaab attacks this year 
along the coast, Kenyatta urged the Muslim community to help root out 
Kenya's militant "collaborators".

               But many
 moderate Muslim preachers have been cowed. In November, Sheikh Salim 
Bakari Mwarangi, who supported moves to stamp out radicalism, was shot 
dead by unknown assailants. Another moderate leader was killed in June.

               "There
 is a very big sense of fear and people think it's not worth challenging
 these (radical) people," said Mudhar Khitamy, coast chairman of the 
Supreme Council of Kenyan Muslims.

               When 
Mombasa's Mina mosque was shuttered, about a dozen young men chanting 
"Allahu akbar", or "God is greatest", marched through the street and 
hacked to death a Christian shopkeeper.

               Kenya needs rethink strategy, said a Western diplomat: "They're not reaching the population they are trying to reach." 

Kenya
 must win a battle against militant ideology that is seeping in from its
 northern neighbour and spreading to Muslim youths at home if it is to 
stop Somali Islamists extending their reach in east Africa.

               After
 two attacks in 10 days by Somalia's al Shabaab group that killed more 
than 60 people, President Uhuru Kenyatta vowed to step up his "war on 
terror" to halt raids across the porous border and stop any dream of 
making an Islamic Caliphate.

               In Somalia, 
he can point to military gains where Kenyan and other African troops 
have retaken territory from al Shabaab, but he faces a more stubborn 
enemy on home soil where security forces are trying to drive out 
militancy from mosques.

               "The only language
 these kafirs (non-Muslims) can understand is the bullet from the AK-47 
rifle," a Kenyan preacher told worshippers at Mombasa's Mina mosque last
 month before police shut it down - with three others - detaining about 
100 youths.

               Such tough tactics may 
temporarily silence the radical voices but it also fuels anger that 
helps militants find new recruits and deepens the homegrown threat, 
Muslim activists say.

               This is where al 
Shabaab may have a trump card. While it  has been driven out of major 
Somali strongholds, a military offensive in Somalia has not stopped the 
group spreading its ideology and finding enough loyal foot soldiers for 
attacks that need little more than dedication to the cause and a few 
rifles.

               Cohorts of frustrated and often 
jobless Muslim youths in the sweltering port city of Mombasa and along 
the coast, where most Kenyan Muslims live, offer fertile ground for the 
Islamists.

                              

FIREBRAND SERMONS

               "The
 government needs to sit down and understand these people," said Hussein
 Khalid of Haki Africa, a group that works to promote dialogue with 
Muslim communities. "It always wants to use force and this merely pushes
 people away."

               Alarmed by sermons of 
firebrand imams and radicalised youths emerging from mosques in Mombasa,
 police have in the past month shut four places of worship and made mass
 arrests. This has been done before but not on such scale.

               "We want to arrest the situation from spilling over to other mosques," said Mombasa County police commander Robert Kitur.

               Al Shabaab said it launched recent raids partly to punish Kenya for such acts of "aggression" and promised to continue.

               Losing territory in Somalia has not prevented al Shabaab exploiting its guerrilla skills. It may even free up resources.

               "Now
 they are not ruling such large chunks of Somalia, they no longer have 
to pay for a shadow government," said a diplomat. "You can mount an 
insurgency for really not very much money."

               Deepening
 worries for the authorities is a video posted on YouTube this week with
 an address by Ahmad Iman Ali, a Kenyan believed to head al Hijra, the 
local branch of al Shabaab. He promised to target "non-believers" to 
avenge the suffering of Muslims in Mombasa, where Ali studied under a 
radical preacher.

               "Wait and see, it is 
just a matter of time," Ali said as a group of men toting AK-47 rifles 
shouted: "Bullets and daggers have created warriors. Let us spread this 
to all mosques."

               In 2007, Ali and his 
young supporters took over a Nairobi mosque, creating a hotbed of 
militancy. Radicals have done the same in Mombasa, defying repeated 
police crackdowns.

               "It has never worked 
anywhere in the world," Ali Hassan Joho, Mombasa County Governor, told 
Reuters of his concerns about police strategy. "This is an ideological 
battle, therefore you cannot win it in any other way besides 
engagement."

                              

LIVING IN FEAR

               Such
 worries are not yet turning into action. Haki Africa's Khalid said 
meetings between officials and the Muslim community had thrashed out 
strategy but there had been no "concrete meetings to confirm or at least
 agree on how to roll that out."

               Rattled 
by border raids in the north and other al Shabaab attacks this year 
along the coast, Kenyatta urged the Muslim community to help root out 
Kenya's militant "collaborators".

               But many
 moderate Muslim preachers have been cowed. In November, Sheikh Salim 
Bakari Mwarangi, who supported moves to stamp out radicalism, was shot 
dead by unknown assailants. Another moderate leader was killed in June.

               "There
 is a very big sense of fear and people think it's not worth challenging
 these (radical) people," said Mudhar Khitamy, coast chairman of the 
Supreme Council of Kenyan Muslims.

               When 
Mombasa's Mina mosque was shuttered, about a dozen young men chanting 
"Allahu akbar", or "God is greatest", marched through the street and 
hacked to death a Christian shopkeeper.

               Kenya needs rethink strategy, said a Western diplomat: "They're not reaching the population they are trying to reach." Kenya must 
win a battle against militant ideology that is seeping in from its 
northern neighbour and spreading to Muslim youths at home if it is to 
stop Somali Islamists extending their reach in east Africa.Kenya must 
win a battle against militant ideology that is seeping in from its 
northern neighbour and spreading to Muslim youths at home if it is to 
stop Somali Islamists extending their reach in east Africa.
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Lebanese troops hit militant hideouts in Arsal

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The Lebanese army, backed by a drone, pounded militant hideouts Saturday on the outskirts of the northeastern town of Arsal, the National News Agency reported.

Using heavy artillery fire, soldiers attacked militant gatherings in Al-Dib on the outskirts of Arsal, the state-run agency said.

The army’s attack comes days after a military patrol unit was ambushed on the outskirts of Arsal, leading to the death of six soldiers Tuesday. A day later, a military expert was killed while he was defusing a bomb found in the same area.

The Lebanese military has been the target of militant attacks including fighters from Nusra Front and ISIS who accuse the Army of unlawfully cracking down on Syrian refugees and coordinating with Hezbollah.

Source:  albawaba.com

Kenya must win a battle against militant ideology that is seeping in from its northern neighbour and spreading to Muslim youths at home if it is to stop Somali Islamists extending their reach in east Africa.

After two attacks in 10 days by Somalia’s al Shabaab group that killed more than 60 people, President Uhuru Kenyatta vowed to step up his “war on terror” to halt raids across the porous border and stop any dream of making an Islamic Caliphate.

In Somalia, he can point t ..

Read more at:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/45402523.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

Kenya must win a battle against militant ideology that is seeping in from its northern neighbour and spreading to Muslim youths at home if it is to stop Somali Islamists extending their reach in east Africa.After two attacks in 10 days by Somalia’s al Shabaab group that killed more than 60 people, President Uhuru Kenyatta vowed to step up his “war on terror” to halt raids across the porous border and stop any dream of making an Islamic Caliphate.

In Somalia, he can point t ..

Read more at:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/45402523.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

Kenya must win a battle against militant ideology that is seeping in from its northern neighbour and spreading to Muslim youths at home if it is to stop Somali Islamists extending their reach in east Africa.After two attacks in 10 days by Somalia’s al Shabaab group that killed more than 60 people, President Uhuru Kenyatta vowed to step up his “war on terror” to halt raids across the porous border and stop any dream of making an Islamic Caliphate.

In Somalia, he can point to  ..

Read more at:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/45402523.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

Kenya must win a battle against militant ideology that is seeping in from its northern neighbour and spreading to Muslim youths at home if it is to stop Somali Islamists extending their reach in east Africa.

Read more at:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/45402523.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppstThe Lebanese army, backed by a drone, pounded militant hideouts Saturday on the outskirts of the northeastern town of Arsal, the National News Agency reported.
Using heavy artillery fire, soldiers attacked militant gatherings in Al-Dib on the outskirts of Arsal, the state-run agency said.
The army’s attack comes days after a military patrol unit was ambushed on the outskirts of Arsal, leading to the death of six soldiers Tuesday. A day later, a military expert was killed while he was defusing a bomb found in the same area.
The Lebanese military has been the target of militant attacks including fighters from Nusra Front and ISIS who accuse the Army of unlawfully cracking down on Syrian refugees and coordinating with Hezbollah.
The Lebanese army, backed by a drone, pounded militant hideouts Saturday on the outskirts of the northeastern town of Arsal, the National News Agency reported.
Using heavy artillery fire, soldiers attacked militant gatherings in Al-Dib on the outskirts of Arsal, the state-run agency said.
The army’s attack comes days after a military patrol unit was ambushed on the outskirts of Arsal, leading to the death of six soldiers Tuesday. A day later, a military expert was killed while he was defusing a bomb found in the same area.
The Lebanese military has been the target of militant attacks including fighters from Nusra Front and ISIS who accuse the Army of unlawfully cracking down on Syrian refugees and coordinating with Hezbollah.
The Lebanese army, backed by a drone, pounded militant hideouts Saturday on the outskirts of the northeastern town of Arsal, the National News Agency reported.
Using heavy artillery fire, soldiers attacked militant gatherings in Al-Dib on the outskirts of Arsal, the state-run agency said.
The army’s attack comes days after a military patrol unit was ambushed on the outskirts of Arsal, leading to the death of six soldiers Tuesday. A day later, a military expert was killed while he was defusing a bomb found in the same area.
The Lebanese military has been the target of militant attacks including fighters from Nusra Front and ISIS who accuse the Army of unlawfully cracking down on Syrian refugees and coordinating with Hezbollah.
The Lebanese army, backed by a drone, pounded militant hideouts Saturday on the outskirts of the northeastern town of Arsal, the National News Agency reported.
Using heavy artillery fire, soldiers attacked militant gatherings in Al-Dib on the outskirts of Arsal, the state-run agency said.
The army’s attack comes days after a military patrol unit was ambushed on the outskirts of Arsal, leading to the death of six soldiers Tuesday. A day later, a military expert was killed while he was defusing a bomb found in the same area.
The Lebanese military has been the target of militant attacks including fighters from Nusra Front and ISIS who accuse the Army of unlawfully cracking down on Syrian refugees and coordinating with Hezbollah.
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Turkey’s war in Libya

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Turkey had initially opposed NATO’s intervention in the uprising against Moammar Gadhafi’s regime in Libya to prevent France from playing a prominent role.

But within a month, Turkey gave NATO the green light and allowed Izmir to become the command center of the NATO operation. Now, Ankara is griping about foreign intervention in Libya. Of course, this attitude is not prompted by the foreign policy principle of maintaining neutrality.

On the contrary, Turkey has not abandoned its policies that are dragging it into a war of proxies because of its backing of the Muslim Brotherhood. On one side Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have joined forces to squash the Muslim Brotherhood and on the other side are Turkey and Qatar. Sudan has joined the Qatar-Turkey bloc by playing a role in Qatari weapons shipments to Libyan Dawn, a superstructure of militia forces dominating Tripoli.

The Justice and Development Party (AKP) government in Ankara categorically rejects accusations that it is taking sides in Libya and working only with the Muslim Brotherhood. But Ankara’s reading of the political developments in Libya and its views about the parties there immediately brings Ankara to one side.

For one thing, the AKP government is not hiding its support for the Tripoli-based General National Congress (GNC) and the Omar al-Hassi government — which is not recognized by the international community — against the House of Representatives and the government of Abdullah al-Thinni.

When “Operation Dignity” led by retired Gen. Khalifa Hifter, who represents the military front of the House of Representatives and the Thinni government, bombed on Nov. 24-25 Tripoli’s Mitiga International Airport under the control of rival militias, Turkey’s Foreign Ministry commented: “We strongly condemn the airstrikes. The crisis in Libya can be resolved only by ceasing foreign interventions, reaching a cease-fire and a comprehensive political dialogue.”

The language used by the government-controlled media in Turkey, including the national news agency Anadolu, sheds light on how one side is favored. The government media has persistently referred to Hifter, who has declared war on Islamic organizations in Tripoli that control Benghazi and against the Muslim Brotherhood and the GNC that is supported by militias from Misrata, as a “putschist” or “coup-plotting general.” To understand the position of the AKP government it suffices to follow reporting by the semi-official Anadolu news agency.

In October, when Hifter declared Turks in Libya as “unwanted persons,” and even took some of them hostage, there was an interesting diplomatic demarche from Ankara. Emrullah Isler, the special envoy of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, went to Libya and met with various parties, first in Tobruk and then in Tripoli.

Government sources cited this move as a demonstration of Turkey’s neutrality. But the answer by the “Hassi government” when asked which is the legitimate government in Libya is clear, especially after the decision of Libya’s Constitutional Court that found the June 25 elections illegal and invalid.

A government source in Ankara, who did not want to be identified, told Al-Monitor: “There is an ongoing perception that shows Turkey as backing radical groups. Turkey doesn’t take sides in Libya. We meet with all parties. When Emrullah Isler went to Libya as special envoy of President Erdogan he first met in Tobruk with Thinni and then with the Hassi government in Tripoli. He offered assistance to end their political rifts. Thinni asked Turkish Airlines to fly to Tobruk.

When reminded that Turks have been declared ‘unwanted persons,’ Thinni said that was an unacceptable attitude and called Hifter to end his hostile attitude against Turkey. If Turkey had taken sides or ended dialogue with one of the parties, then the nine Turkish hostages would not have been released.”

True, Turkey had engaged Thinni in a dialogue in Tobruk, but meanwhile Isler became the first high-level foreign guest ever hosted by the Hassi government. Turkish envoy Isler labeled the contacts of UN special envoy Bernardino Leon in Tripoli — in the aftermath of the Constitutional Court ruling that annulled the elections — as “coming closer to Turkey’s position,” overlooking Leon’s comment “We will study the ruling” and his addressing Thinni as prime minister. Because of his position Leon has to meet with both sides.

Ankara, which had first agreed Thinni to dispatch a charge d’affaires from Tobruk to Turkey, reversed its decision after the ruling of the Constitutional Court. A Turkish government official told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity when asked whether Turkey recognizes the Tobruk government (recognized by the UN) or the Tripoli government, “The Constitutional Court abrogated the assembly in Tobruk. That decision determines who is legitimate.”

It is interesting to see how the AKP government that challenges the rulings of Turkey’s Constitutional Court as “not national” gives credence to a ruling by the Libyan Constitutional Court that functions in extraordinary circumstances under the rule of guns.

Although Erdogan’s tough stance that convening of the House of Representatives elected on June 25 in Tobruk instead of Tripoli is unacceptable and was promoted as a Turkish warning against a division of Libya, it did place Turkey clearly on one side of the argument. While even the UN is cautiously engaged in the debate on the Constitutional Court ruling and the debate on legitimacy, Ankara’s taking a position of supporting one side’s claim is narrowing the diplomatic maneuvering room of Turkey.

Source: Al Monitor
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Libyan govt conducts air strikes on border with Tunisia

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Forces allied to one of two rival governments vying for power in Libya conducted air strikes near the Tunisian border and vowed to shut the main land border crossing between the two countries, officials said.

Libya is caught in a conflict between two governments, one self-declared after a group called Libya Dawn took over Tripoli in August and the second led by internationally recognised Prime Minister Abdullah Al Thinni, who was forced out of the capital and now operates from eastern Libya.

There were different accounts of the air strikes yesterday, the latest in a series this week, part of turmoil gripping the oil-producing country three years after the ousting of Muammar Gaddafi.

Mohamed El Hejazi, a spokesman for the army in the east allied to Thinni, said his forces had bombed military targets near the Tunisian border crossing of Ras Jdir as well as south of Tripoli.

“The Libyan National Army will control the border with Tunisia today,” he said, referring to the name of Thinni’s forces.

But an official at the border crossing said a strike had hit a civilian building, one person had been killed and five were wounded. “There is no military target here,” he said. The Ras Jdir crossing was working normally, he said.

Miftah Shinkara, head of the military council of the town of Gharyan, south of Tripoli, also said another air strike had hit a female student’s home.

“Warplanes attempted to bomb a military place but it seems they missed the target,” Shinkara said. A commander from Zintan in the western mountains allied to Thinni said the target had been a missiles battery.

On Wednesday, Thinni’s government said his forces had begun a military offensive to take back Tripoli. His allies from Zintan, which got expelled by Libya Dawn from Tripoli in August, have their own air strip.

Libya has struggled to reach stability since a Nato-backed war ended Gaddafi’s one-man rule in 2011. Former rebel brigades who once fought side by side have now turned on each other, aligning themselves with rival political factions in a scramble for control.

Source: The Peninsula Qatar

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