Free Republic

Iraqi Prime Minister, Haider al-Abadi, on Saturday said that the Iraqi security forces captured a leading figure in Saddam Hussein’s Baath party in an operation based on intelligence reports. Al-Abadi said this in his address to a ceremony in Baghdad for the 146th anniversary of the Iraqi press. “The security forces managed to arrest the terrorist Abdul Karim al-Sadoun by the efforts of the Iraqi intelligence,” Abadi said. Abadi did not give further details about how or where the arrest took place, saying he preferred an official statement to declare the details later as interrogation was still underway. Al-Sadoun was...

Iranian army's ground force will hold a military drill to test its missile power capacities, Commander of the Army's Ground Force Brigadier General Ahmad Reza Pourdastan said. The military exercise dubbed "Beit ol-Moqaddas 27" will take place in Iran's central province of Esfahan on May 23-24, Pourdastan said, IRNA news agency reported. “Rocket and missile capabilities of the army's ground force are improved, the commander said, adding the capabilities will be evaluated in the two-day exercise. Tehran held a similar drill last May and tested a series of its newest domestically-made missiles. Iranian media outlets report that Iran has made...

The stabilization of Iraq has become wedged on a plateau, beyond which further improvement will be a slow process. According to incident metrics compiled by Olive Group, the average monthly number of insurgent attacks between January and June 2011 was 380.[1] The incident count in January was 376, indicating that incident levels remained roughly stable in the first half of 2011. One reason behind this stability is the ongoing virulence of northern and central Iraqi insurgents operating within Sunni Arab communities. Five predominately Sunni provinces and western Baghdad were responsible for an average of 68.5% of national incidents each month...

London, Mar. 25, GNA - The government of Djibouti came in for strong criticism on Monday, as the High Court in London unfroze the worldwide assets of multimillionaire Djiboutian businessman Abdourahman Boreh who had been wrongly found guilty on terrorism charges in Djibouti. The English solicitor who represented the Djiboutian government, Peter Gray of Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher, was equally censured by Mr Justice Flaux for misleading the court, which led to the initial freezing order on Mr Boreh’s assets. Mr. Boreh, a former confidant of President Ismail Omar Guelleh of Djibouti, challenged the freezing order. He had been charged...

Tehran: In what may intensify the Yemen crisis, Iran has termed Saudi Arabia's military intervention against the Houthi rebels as “dangerous”, reports said Thursday. Saudi Arabia which had earlier warned to act in the wake of continued advance of Houthis, on Wednesday started conducting air strikes against the rebels which it considers as being supported by rival Iran. Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies believe the Shiite rebels, known as Houthis, are tools for Iran to seize control of Yemen and say they intend to stop the takeover. The Houthis deny they are backed by Iran. Reacting to Saudi strikes,...

If Christian broadcaster Stendal goes on trial in Colombia, missions work nationwide may be at risk. Is Russ Stendal, the famed missionary to FARC terrorists in South America, actually El Gringo, a terrorist leader seeking the overthrow of Colombia’s government? That question is before a three-judge panel, based on allegations from Carlos Manuel Silva, chief sectional prosecutor for the Colombian department of Cundinamarca, which includes the capital, Bogota. Stendal denies any allegation of leadership in FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia). He said in a recent Facebook video, “Somebody set a trap for me, and I walked into it. They...

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Press Release) — On Wednesday, U.S. Congresswoman Aumua Amata participated in a House Natural Resources, Subcommittee on Indian, Insular and Alaska Native Affairs hearing entitled: “Funding Priorities for and the United States’ Responsibilities concerning Indians, Alaska Natives, and Insular Areas in the President’s FY 2016 Budget Request for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Indian Health Service, Office of Insular Affairs, and Office of the Special Trustee for American Indians.” Amata, a Republican who serves as the vice chairwoman of the subcommittee, addressed Esther P. Kia’aina, the assistant secretary for insular areas, Department of the Interior on many of...

President Obama released a message to the Nigerian people to "highlight the opportunity that the upcoming elections present for all Nigerians to stand together". The video is part of a multi-faceted Administration effort to press for a peaceful outcome for elections now slated for March 28 and April 14. Vice President Joe Biden spoke by phone last week in separate calls with President Goodluck Jonathan and his leading challenger, Muhammadu Buhari, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC). On Saturday, a joint U.S.-UK appeal was issued by Secretary of State John Kerry and British Foreign Secerary Philip Hammond.

Qassem Soleimani is first senior official to reveal Tehran’s ambitions in Hashemite kingdom. A top commander in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said this weekend he believed Tehran had the ability to control events in Jordan, as it does in Iraq and Lebanon. Qassem Soleimani, commander of the elite Quds force — the foreign wing of the Revolutionary Guards — was addressing a youth conference in Tehran. His remarks were the first time a senior Iranian official has openly discussed Iranian ambitions in Jordan.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper says Canada will expand its military mission against the Islamic State group to include airstrikes on targets in Syria. Harper told parliament on Tuesday Canada will not seek "the express consent" of the Syrian government to launch the attacks. He said Canada must strike at the Syrian power base of the Islamic State militants. "ISIL's fighters and much of its heavier equipment are moving freely across the Iraqi border into Syria, in part for better protection against our airstrikes," Harper said. "In our view, ISIL must cease to have any safe haven in Syria." Canada...

Prince Hassan bin Talal of Jordan called on countries in the region to work together to deal with the massive humanitarian crises caused by conflicts in Syria and Iraq. Dubai - The spectre of the massive humanitarian crisis caused by the wars in Syria and Iraq loomed large over the opening of the 12th edition of the Dubai International Humanitarian Aid and Development Conference and Exhibition (Dihad). Among the speakers at this year’s opening ceremony was Prince Hassan bin Talal of Jordan, which is currently home to almost 1.4 million refugees of the war in Syria. In his remarks, Prince...

The war in Syria is taking place in Israel’s shadow. Syrian government forces, with Hezbollah in the lead, are poised to capture a strategically vital region that borders Israel. And that’s ringing alarm bells among Israelis. Hezbollah is a Lebanese Shiite group, an old enemy of Israel, which came out openly in support of Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad almost two years ago. Both Assad and Hezbollah are allies of Iran, another Israeli enemy. Hezbollah is “fighting on multiple fronts,” explains Nicholas Blanford, Beirut correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor, and author of ‘Warriors of God,’ a military history of Hezbollah....

BEIRUT: The U.S. has omitted Iran and Hezbollah from its list of terror threats, according to an annual security assessment published by the Times of Israel Monday. The unclassified report, titled ‘Worldwide Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Community’ was presented to the U.S. Senate by James Clapper, the director of National Intelligence on February 26. The report has excluded Iran and Hezbollah from its list of terror threats to U.S. interests, after both had been included as threats in previous years. In a 2014 report the National Intelligence director said that Iran and Hezbollah continue to directly threaten the...

Nearly five years after a powerful truck bomb ripped through a U.S. military housing complex in Saudi Arabia – killing 19 Americans and wounding 372 – terrorism charges have been brought against 13 members of the pro-Iran Saudi Hizballah, or “Party of God.” Another, as yet unidentified, person who is linked to the Lebanese Hizballah has also been charged in the attack. According to the indictment returned today by a Federal Grand Jury in Alexandria, Virginia, nine of the fourteen are charged with 46 separate criminal counts including: conspiracy to kill Americans and employees of the United States, to use...

YORBA LINDA — Walk into Mark Hanson’s church and nobody will greet you. The guys hanging around the foyer might even make fun of what you’re wearing, or your haircut. A sign over the entrance reads, “Grab a seat in the back and shut up. Nobody cares what you think.” Welcome to Jerk Church. “You know these guys,” says Hanson, the pastor and founder. “They sit with their arms folded the whole time, leave during the altar call, criticize the pastor, snort when other people state their opinions and never create lasting bonds of friendship. Their wives are always really...

Vietnamese civil servants holding positions at levels of ministerial bureaus and departments or higher should be banned from depositing money or assets abroad or owning property overseas, according to a research group’s proposal aimed at preventing corruption and improving the recovery of losses in corruption case. Such a proposed prohibition is one of many solutions that have been raised in a study on “recovery of property from corruption cases – the practice in Vietnam and international experience” conducted by a group of researchers under the Vietnam Party Central Committee's Commission for Internal Affairs. The suggested ban was voiced by Vu...

Most hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City have confirmed that they have sufficient facilities so that their in-patients are no longer sharing a bed with two to three other patients, according to Nguyen Tan Binh, director of the Health Department of Ho Chi Minh City. However, two central hospitals, the Hospital for Traumatology and Orthopaedics and the Ho Chi Minh City Oncology Hospital, have not met this condition. Each hospital currently has 140-180 in-patients over their 100 single bed capacity. The announcement was made during a meeting yesterday between Health Minister Nguyen Thi Kim Tien and officials from the HCMC...

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Only the Islamic State (ISIS) can “fulfill our ambitions and dreams,” said firebrand Kurdish cleric Mulla Krekar, who was recently freed from a Norwegian jail. “The Islamic State is not something strange; it is the only element that can fulfill our ambitions and dreams,” he said in an Al Jazeera interview. The 58-year-old preacher added that all Muslims calling for resistance to the extremist Sunni ISIS “Caliphate” are “cowards,” and accused them of following orders from the United States and Shiite Iran. He called upon ISIS to appoint someone “with the courage to fight the infidels...

CANBERRA, Australia - The Australian government on Wednesday re-listed Ansar al-Islam, Lashkar-e Jhangvi and Jaish-e-Mohammad, from Pakistan, and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan as terrorist organisations, Efe news agency reported. These organisations, which have been listed since 2003, would continue to be listed for another three years, according to a statement from the Australian Attorney-General's Department. Under this measure, it remains a criminal offence to direct the activities of, be a member of, recruit for, train for or receive training from these groups. It would also be a criminal offence to get funds to, from, or for, provide support to,...

By Ignatius Ssuuna Bujumbura — More than a week after he disappeared from a Bujumbura prison, Hussein Radjabu, a former rebel commander and powerful politician who enjoys significant popular support, has finally spoken. "I am planning to work with all Burundians [to bring about] a better politics that brings everybody on board, so that we have a better country," he told the Swahili service of Voice of America, putting paid to rumours that he might have been assassinated. His location was not disclosed. Rajdabu's 1 March jailbreak, which was well organised with outside assistance, adds to the uncertainty and tension...