Miscellaneous News

[Zool]

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© REUTERS/ Osman Orsal

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A Senior Turkish official confirmed that nearly 50 people have been killed and at least 106 have been wounded in a terror attack at Istanbul's Ataturk airport on Tuesday night, the Associated Press reports. A shocking security video reportedly shows the moment when the attack first took place with a bright blast descending into horror. The initial casualty estimates are expected to grow based on imagery coming from the scene which indicate massive casualties.

Turkish police forces say that they believe that Daesh is responsible for the attacks reports Turkey's Dogan News Agency citing police sources who indicated that the terrorist group claimed responsibility. The minority Kurdish HDP Party also claim to believe that Daesh is responsible for the attack.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned the attacks vowing for the country to take a decisive stance against Daesh terrorists. "It is clear that this attack is not aimed at achieving any result but only to create propaganda material against our country using simply the blood and pain of innocent people," he said in a statement.

According to Sputnik sources at least 3 gunmen opened fire with Kalashnikov automatic rifles before triggering suicide vests as authorities approached. Turkish officials speaking on the condition of anonymity to Turkey's

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newspaper indicate that security forces shot several suspects at the international terminal's entry in an effort to neutralize them. Turkish authorities believe that there was a total of 4 attackers involved in the coordinated attack.

At least three suspects blew themselves up before being killed or apprehended by Turkish police. The attack location, with both explosions and the initial point of attack taking place in the international terminal indicate that the attackers were not solely targeting Turkish residents.

The attack occurred in the security checkout line as passengers approached the x-ray scanners starting with a wave of heavy gunfire. Hand grenades were also reportedly thrown by the attackers prior to blowing themselves up.

The International Red Cross Committee (IRCC) is encouraging blood donation to aide the victims of the Ataturk airport attack.


Flights in and out of Ataturk Airport have been suspended following the attack according to Turkish airport officials until 8:00am local time. Additionally all US flights to Istanbul have been suspended and a Moscow flight into the airport is now being diverted back to Russia.

The Turkish President reportedly met with the Prime Minister, Binali Yildirim and the head of the Turkish armed forces at the presidential palace following the blast according to local media.

In a show of solidarity, Brussels Airport that was the scene of a horrific terror attack on March 22, 2016 that left 32 dead and over 300 people wounded tweeted that the victims of the Istanbul attack are in their thoughts and prayers.

YOUTUBE/TAZE HABER EN

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Another shocking piece of security footage shows one of the suicide bombers at the point of explosion. In the video, police shoot the attacker as passengers are running away. A Turkish police officer approaches the terrorist before quickly running in the opposite direction to avert being caught within the blast radius.


For those who arrived at Istanbul's Ataturk airport or are in the impacted area who wish to let their friends and family members know they are safe this can be done by

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[Jura The idiot]

it's very recent (I noticed as Breaking News at gazeta.ru:

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first):
Istanbul bombers were Russian, Uzbek, Kyrgyz nationals: Turkish official

Three suspected Islamic State suicide bombers who killed 42 people in a gun and bomb attack at Istanbul airport this week were from Russia, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, a Turkish government official said on Thursday.

The attack on Europe's third-busiest airport was the deadliest in a series of suicide bombings in Turkey this year.

The three bombers opened fire to create panic outside, before two of them got inside the terminal building and blew themselves up. The third detonated his explosives at the entrance. A further 239 people were wounded.

The official gave no further details beyond confirming the attackers' nationalities and declined to be named because details of the investigation have not yet been released. Investigators had been struggling to identify the bombers from their limited remains, officials said earlier.

"A medical team is working around the clock to conclude the identification process," one of the officials said.

The pro-government Yeni Safak newspaper said the Russian bomber was from Dagestan, which borders Chechnya, where Moscow has led two wars against separatists and religious militants since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.

The Kyrgyz security service declined to comment, while the Uzbek security service could not immediately be reached.

Turkish police detained 13 people, three of them foreigners, in raids across Istanbul in connection with Tuesday night's attack.

Counter-terrorism teams led by police special forces launched simultaneous raids at 16 locations in the city, two officials told Reuters. Turkish authorities have said they believe Islamic State was behind the airport attack.

Yeni Safak said the organizer of the attack was suspected to be a man called Akhmed Chatayev, of Chechen origin. Chatayev is identified on a United Nations sanctions list as a leader in Islamic State responsible for training Russian-speaking militants, and as wanted by Russian authorities.

The Hurriyet newspaper named one of the attackers as Osman Vadinov, also Chechen, and said he had come from Raqqa, the heart of Islamic State-controlled territory in Syria.

Turkish officials did not confirm to Reuters that either Chatayev or Vadinov were part of the investigation.

GROWING THREATS

Wars in neighboring Syria and Iraq have fostered a home-grown Islamic State network blamed for a series of suicide bombings in Turkey, including two others this year targeting foreign tourists in the heart of Istanbul.

Islamic State has established a self-declared caliphate on swathes of both Syria and Iraq and declared war on all non-Muslims plus Muslims who do not accept its ultra-hardline vision of Sunni Islam. It has claimed responsibility for similar bomb and gun attacks in Belgium and France in the past year.

Turkey, a member of the NATO military alliance and part of the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State, has repeatedly fired back on the Sunni hardliners in recent months after rocket fire from northern Syria hit the border town of Kilis.

In a sign of the growing threats to Turkey, U.S. defense sources said on Wednesday that Washington was moving towards permanently banning families from accompanying U.S. military and civilian personnel deployed in the country.

Critics say Turkey woke up too late to the threat from Islamic State, focusing instead in the early part of the Syrian civil war on trying to oust President Bashar al-Assad, arguing there could be no peace without his departure.

Once a reluctant partner in the fight against Islamic State, Ankara adjusted its military rules of engagement this month to allow NATO allies to carry out more patrol flights along its border with Syria.

It has also carried out repeated raids on suspected Islamic State safe houses in Turkey.

Nine suspected militants, thought to have been in contact with Islamic State members in Syria, were detained in dawn raids in four districts of the Aegean coastal city of Izmir on Thursday, the state-run Anadolu news agency said.

It said they were accused of financing, recruiting and providing logistical support to the group.

The military killed two suspected Islamic State members trying to enter Turkey illegally at the weekend, security sources said on Thursday.

One of the suspects, a Syrian national, was thought to have been plotting a suicide bomb attack in either the capital Ankara or the southern province of Adana, home to Incirlik, a major base used by U.S. and Turkish forces through which some coalition air strikes against Islamic State are carried out.

source is Reuters:

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[siegecrossbow]

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TAIPEI, Taiwan — A Taiwanese naval ship accidentally fired a supersonic missile in the direction of its rival China on Friday, killing the captain of a nearby fishing boat, a state-run news agency said.

The 500-ton Chinchiang-class corvette launched the missile during a training exercise while docked at a harbor in the southern port city of Kaohsiung.
The Hsiung Feng III anti-ship missile landed in waters around 46 miles to the northwest, Taiwan's Central News Agency reported. It hit a Taiwanese fishing boat, killing the captain and injuring three others, it cited the country's defense ministry as saying.

China — which has been locked in a decades-long standoff with Taiwan — is around 160 miles away from the harbor. The missile had a range of 200 miles but did not cross the Taiwan Strait's median line, which separates the two countries.

The country's navy said the mishap was likely caused by human error and that those responsible would be punished, according to the Central News Agency.

Navy Chief of Staff Vice Admiral Mei Chia-shu told reporters that China had not been notified of the launch because Taipei is not in contact with Beijing.

The firing coincided with Beijing's ruling Communist Party celebrating its 95th anniversary. Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered a speech Friday calling for peaceful development of relations between Beijing and Taipei, according to The Associated Press.

The two countries have been rivals since the Chinese civil war ended in 1950. Supporters of the then ruling Chinese government fled to Taiwan after its forces were defeated by the Communists.

Beijing does not recognize the island and sees it as a breakaway province. Last November,

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but this fledgling rapprochement has since chilled after Taiwan's new president refused to accept there is "one China."

 

[plawolf]

Seems like a pretty significant development.

Japanese F15 lights up Chinese Su30s.

Sounds like the Su30s didn't like that and initiated dogfight manoeuvres and the F15 popped flares and left.

Interesting the Japanese government is denying anything went down. With their past form, you would expect them to be shouting from the rafters if China did anything provocative.

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China criticises Japanese jet scramble over East China Sea

• 5 hours ago
  
• From the section
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Image copyrightKAZUHIRO NOGI/GETTY IMAGES
Image captionA Japanese F-15 fighter jet - China says two were involved in the incident

China has criticised what it called a "dangerous" Japanese jet scramble over disputed islands in the East China sea.

The Ministry of National Defence said on Monday that the Japanese jets had "lit up" the Chinese fighters with their fire-control radar.

A senior official in Japan previously confirmed the scramble took place, but denied the incident was dangerous.

Japan and China both claim ownership of islands in the area known respectively as the Senkaku or Diaoyu islands.

The Chinese defence ministry said in a

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that two Chinese Su-30 fighter jets were met with "provocative actions" from a pair of Japanese F-15 jets in the air defence identification zone (ADIZ) in the East China Sea on 17 June.

It said that the Chinese jets were on a routine patrol when they were approached "provocatively" and at high speed by two Japanese planes, who "even went so far as to start "lighting up" the Chinese planes with their fire-control radar."

The statement said the Chinese jets responded "decisively", without going into further details of how, and that the Japanese jets deployed an infrared decoy projectile before flying away.

Prior to the release of the Chinese statement, the

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that Japan's deputy chief cabinet secretary confirmed that a scramble had taken place but denied that either side had acted aggressively.

This contradicted remarks that had been made by a retired Japanese air force official, who had alleged that the Chinese fighters had made a threatening manoeuvre towards the Japanese plane.

 

[siegecrossbow]

Seems like a pretty significant development.

Japanese F15 lights up Chinese Su30s.

Sounds like the Su30s didn't like that and initiated dogfight manoeuvres and the F15 popped flares and left.

Interesting the Japanese government is denying anything went down. With their past form, you would expect them to be shouting from the rafters if China did anything provocative.

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I am surprised at the sheer length of time it took before this surface on a major Western news outlet. News of the confrontation were making round on Chinese forums for at least a week before this tidbit came out.

 

[Blackstone]

How many assassination attempts do you suppose Duterte will suffer in his first year as President of the Philippines? If there's a Dead Pool of world leaders, the he's got to be high up on the list. Accused police general Vincente Loot is apropos.

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MANILA (Reuters) - Philippines' President Rodrigo Duterte publicly accused five police generals of involvement in the drugs trade on Tuesday and said only he would be accountable for a bloody crackdown that has killed 30 people since he took office last week.

Duterte named the generals during a televised speech and said they were protecting drugs syndicates and contributing to a "deterioration of law and order" that he would fight to reverse, with no remorse for the consequences.

Three of the generals were retired, including one mayor, while the two serving officers were relieved of their duties, he said.

"It's going to be a dirty fight, it's going to be a bloody fight. I am not apologizing for it," Duterte said.

"As public authority, mine and mine alone, I assume full legal responsibility for it."

Duterte appears determined to follow through with what was the only substantive election promise he made - to wipe out drugs gangs and end crime in six months. He has been dubbed "the executioner" and "the punisher" among his supporters and critics alike.

Thirty suspected drugs dealers were killed in the five days after he took office on June 30 and the death toll since his May 9 election win is far higher than that recorded in the previous four months.

The drugs war has triggered alarm among human rights groups, lawyers and the clergy who say "summary executions" should stop.

Philippines' President Rodrigo Duterte (R) and outgoing Armed Forces chief Lt. Gen. Glorioso Miranda ride on a vehicle during a troops' parade and review at the main military Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon city Metro Manila, Philippines, July 1, 2016. Reuters/Erik De Castro

But Duterte said there would be no turning back and called for the recruitment of 3,000 new police and for security forces to risk their lives to help clean up the streets.

"The criminals have hijacked, they have taken over the public streets and public places," he said.

"We have to remove that fear. Let us transfer that fear in the hearts of the criminals."

But Vicente Loot, one of the generals Duterte accused of colluding with drugs gangs, denied any involvement and said he deserved a fair hearing.

"Because of that statement, I will be tried by publicity," he told ABS-CBN News Channel.

"I hope I will be given a chance to face my accuser ... and clear my name."

 

[solarz]

How many assassination attempts do you suppose Duterte will suffer in his first year as President of the Philippines? If there's a Dead Pool of world leaders, the he's got to be high up on the list. Accused police general Vincente Loot is apropos.

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The drugs war has triggered alarm among human rights groups, lawyers and the clergy who say "summary executions" should stop.

LOL @ human rights groups trying to protect drug dealers.

Duterte was able to clean up Davos without getting assassinated. That means he's got the forces to back up his words.

 

[PanAsian]

Seems like a pretty significant development.

Japanese F15 lights up Chinese Su30s.

Sounds like the Su30s didn't like that and initiated dogfight manoeuvres and the F15 popped flares and left.

Interesting the Japanese government is denying anything went down. With their past form, you would expect them to be shouting from the rafters if China did anything provocative.

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The militaries of both sides are probably being instructed to behave around/near/over the disputed area as if they are in their own territory, likely short of actually shooting the other side. However the political leadership of both sides have final say on the respective official story regardless of what actually happened.

 

[solarz]

Yet another police shooting:

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[Jura The idiot]

now I noticed
Multiple officers killed at Dallas protest over police killings

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