Archive for month: September, 2014

A former Saudi army officer has announced the formation of a movement aimed at unseating the Al Saud dynasty in Saudi Arabia.

In a video message, Dakheel al-Qahtani declared “the establishment of the Arabian Peninsula liberation movement,” noting that it “aims to begin a revolution in the Arabian Peninsula in order to topple the government of Al Saud…[and] to uproot their rule.”

He also called on the people in the kingdom to begin a popular uprising against the regime “for the sake of a nation destroyed by Al Saud corruption.”

Qahtani further denounced the Saudi regime’s “dirty” foreign policies which “are working against the interests of the nation.”

The ex-officer took to task the Saudi regime for its support of the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the finance of extremist Takfiri groups in Syria, noting that the Al Saud family supported the 2013 military-backed coup in Egypt which ousted former president, Mohamed Morsi.

“Al Saud does not represent the people of the Arabian Peninsula; they are the invaders and occupiers of our land,” he said.

The top posts in Saudi Arabia are in the hands of the first generation of the sons of Abdul Aziz Al Saud, the founder of the kingdom.

Saudis have no say in the appointment of the kingdom’s leadership, which has led to increased social and political discontent in the oil-rich country in recent years.

When Abdul Aziz rose to power in Saudi Arabia with help from the British monarchy in 1932, he named the country after the Al Saud family. He also entrusted the power to rule the country to his 31 children.

The ruling family has distributed all the key posts in the country among the deceased king’s brothers and their sons.

The country has been the scene of numerous anti-regime protests during the past several years, mainly in the Eastern Province, which have been crushed by security forces.

MR/KA/SS

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says a no-fly zone should be established over Syria, claiming that such a zone is required to protect part of the country from attacks by Syria’s air force.

“A no-fly zone must be declared and this no fly-zone must be secured,” Erdogan told reporters on Friday on his return from the 69th annual session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, the Associated Press reported.

The Turkish president stated that he had discussed the issue with US President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden.

Erdogan went on to say that the no-fly zone should be set up on the Syrian side of the Turkish border, where a large number of Syrians have fled the foreign-sponsored militancy as refugees.

He also noted that the country’s parliament will decide in early October whether Ankara should join the US-led coalition against the ISIL terrorists, but he did not specify what steps the government will take.

On September 20, the ISIL terrorists released about 50 Turkish nationals they had taken hostage from the Turkish Consulate in the Iraqi city of Mosul for more than three months. The move prompted the US to push Ankara to join the anti-ISIL campaign.

The US has extended its air operations that started in Iraq last month to Syria, with the support of Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

The US and its Arab allies began pounding ISIL positions in Syria on Tuesday.

The Turkish government is accused of providing heavy logistical support for the ISIL terrorists. Since the start of the crisis in Syria in 2011, Turkey has reportedly allowed its borders to be used as a conduit for aid, weapons and militants heading to Syria.

Turkey has reportedly been the main entry point for foreign militants who seek to join the ISIL in Iraq and Syria.

More than 191,000 people have been killed in over three years of fighting in Syria, says the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), calling the figure a probable “underestimate of the real total number of people killed.”

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Tens of thousands of people have staged a rally in the Yemeni capital, Sana’a, to celebrate the victory of the country’s revolution, which was spearheaded by Ansarullah fighters.

The rally took place following Friday Prayers in the capital and came days after Yemeni government and the revolutionary forces signed an agreement on the formation of a new cabinet.

The revolutionaries have hailed the agreement as a great achievement. They hope that the deal would finally put an end to their grievances.

The deal was signed on Sunday by a delegation from the Ansarullah movement and government representatives in the presence of Jamal Benomar, a UN envoy in Yemen, and Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi at the presidential palace in the capital.

According to Yemeni officials, 340 people were killed in week-long clashes between Ansarullah fighters of the Shia Houthi movement and Salafist militants backed by Major General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, who is former dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh’s half-brother.

Ansarullah fighters have been staging demonstrations in the capital for more than a month, demanding the formation of a new government.

Ansarullah fighters are affiliated to Yemen’s Shia Houthi movement, which draws its name from the tribe of its founding leader, Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi.

The Ansarullah movement played a key role in the popular revolution that forced the ex-dictator to step down.

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All of us expected American air strikes on Iraqi land soon but we did not think that Americans will dare to bomb Syrian soil.

But now after more than 40 countries mostly Arabs sharing the same interests with America have joined and now America has gained both the momentum and the courage to strike having more than 40 countries to hide behind.

A new alliance formed to fight the same group they all joined years ago to fund and train to achieve the America New World Order in the middle east.

And as Sayid Hassan Nasrullah said yesterday, did the American and Arab conscious wake now after 3 years of bloodshed rape murder and barbaric actions of long bearded monsters.

How do you expect us to join you and help you kill the monster you created and funded.

We will fight ISIL and we have been  doing this for 2 years now and all your campaign is a just a tricky play to attack AL Assad.

However, Barack Obama vowed more strikes against terrorists in Syria on Tuesday after US forces carried out separate air raids targeting the militants of so-called ‘Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’ (ISIL) and an al-Qaeda affiliate groups that Washington said was plotting attacks on America and Europe.

“We will not tolerate safe havens for terrorists who threaten our people,” Obama said as he left the White House to travel to the United Nations in New York, where he will meet officials from Arab nations that joined in the strikes against the ISIL group.

Speaking just hours after he launched the air strikes, Obama said the coalition “represents partners and friends with which we have worked for many, many years to make sure that security and prosperity exists in this region.”

However, the Syrian president was informed hours ago of the air strikes however Iran and Russia claimed these strikes to be illegal due to the absence of the confirmation of both the Syrian government and the UN.

Flanked by Secretary of State John Kerry and national security advisor Susan Rice, Obama told the leaders of Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Iraq he was “very appreciative” of their help.

He praised them “all for their participation and commitment to rolling back the violent extremism that has so disrupted Iraq and Syria and friends in the region as a whole.”

The US leader said the strength of the coalition, now at more than 40 countries, showed the fight against such militants is not America’s alone.

“The overall effort will take time. There will be challenges ahead but we’re going to do what’s necessary to take the fight to this terrorist group,” Obama said.

Obama said the campaign is in line with the strategy he outlined earlier this month to combat ISIL.

On the other hand, (Qouting Al MANAR)
US strikes have killed a senior operative from Al-Qaeda’s Syrian branch of Al-Nusra northern province of Aleppo, activists said on Wednesday.

Abu Yusef al-Turki, a 47-year-old Turkish fighter, was among 50 militants killed in strikes on Tuesday against what the United States called an Al-Qaeda cell that had been planning attacks on Western interests.

“Al-Nusra Front members are very sad today because of this death,” Ibrahim al-Idlibi, an activist in Idleb province in northwestern Syria, told AFP.

Turki, a sniper, had arrived in Syria 18 months ago and fought the Syrian army in the central province of Hamah and the coastal region of Latakia, as well as Idleb.

He had also trained Nusra’s elite snipers, he added.

Turki’s death was even reported in Syria’s Al-Watan newspaper, which described him as “the most famous sniper in the world”.

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Not content with endangering the physical safety of children, terrorist organizations are putting children who fall in their grasp through psychological torture that violates the very basics of human rights principles, with these organizations training children to bear arms and fight, forcing them to witness beheadings and mutilations, and brainwashing them to force their poisonous extremist views upon them.

Mohammad, a child from the town of Ein al-Arab in Aleppo’s northern countryside, is a survivor of the terrors brought forth by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist organizations which had abducted him along with other children from the town in 29/05/2014. Now, he relates the tale of how he escaped the horrors of ISIS.

Mohammad told SANA that after he and his fellow nine-graders finished their exams, they headed to their hometown at noon on the aforementioned date in a bus convoy, and on the way the convoy’s supervisors decided to stop at midnight so that the children can sleep and then continue in the morning.

“At around 1:30 in the morning, a group of terrorists attacked us. They were in SUVs equipped with machineguns. They separated boys and girls, sending the girls to Aleppo in the same buses we were using and taking the 148 boys to al-Fateh Mosque in the town of Manbej,” he said.

“On the next day, we were taken to a school in the same town where we were tortured in various ways by terrorists calling themselves Abu Shahid al-Shami and Abu Anas who were under the command of a man with a Saudi accent called Abu Hashem al-Jazrawi.

“Our hands were bound and we were suspended with ropes from the roof, and they whipped us. They made us watch videos of members of the terrorist groups attacking areas, beheading people, torturing people, and executing captives,” Mohammad said, adding that he and the other boys saw crucified and beheaded people in the town’s square.

He also said that the terrorist gave the children aliases similar to their own and gave them intensive “sharia courses” to brainwash the boys and force their beliefs upon them.

“We saw a lot of Kurds who were kidnapped by the terrorist organizations. They were students, teachers, and children of known social figures and the area who were kidnapped to pressure their parents and to exchange them with terrorists captured by the public protection forces, including some of their emirs and women working with them,” he said.

Mohammad went on to say that after a week of their capture, they were interrogated by the terrorists, and based on that 30 children were charged with being members of the Kurdish public protection forces, and they were sent to a prison. These 30 boys were returned just before the month of Ramadan began and were isolated in rooms, noting that these boys were tortured more than the others.

He said that after a month of captivity, 15 of the children were released because they couldn’t bear the captivity due to their young age, as these boys were no older than 13, while the ones who were between 14 and 16 were kept in captivity.

“Before Eid al-Fitr holiday, 13 kids escaped by jumping over the school’s wall, and at 5 in the morning three of them were captured in Jarablos and returned to the school. They kept a close eye on them and tortured them twice as much as the other kids. After that, there were repeated escape attempts, and a total of 18 kids managed to escape,” Mohammad said.

He said that several negotiation attempts between the public protection forces and the terrorists to release the children in exchange for captured terrorists failed because the terrorists didn’t abide by the deals, adding that ISIS terrorists in that area still have 102 children in captivity, and that he learned that these kids were sent to Iraq to be trained for carrying out suicide operations.

Mohammad concluded his tale, electing to leave some details unmentioned in fear for his life and for the lives of his family. It remains to be seen if his tale and the tales of dozens of other children who went through similar ordeals will ever reach the ears of the slumbering international community and rouse it from its hibernation.

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