A good job you A's it: March 2016

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

By Layal Abou Rahal32 minutes ago

Beirut (AFP) - Regime troops were locked in heavy fighting Tuesday with the Islamic State group in central Syria, where they dealt the jihadists a major blow by seizing the ancient city of Palmyra.

Just two days after seizing Palmyra from IS, pro-government fighters advanced southwest towards the jihadist-held town of Al-Qaryatain, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Backed by "intense" air strikes by both Syrian and Russian warplanes, they captured a series of strategic hilltops overlooking the town, said the Britain-based monitor.

According to the Observatory, around 500 civilians are still living in Al-Qaryatain.

State news agency SANA said the army, backed by pro-government militia, had also seized rural farmland south of Al-Qaryatain as they closed in on the town.

IS had seized the strategic town in August 2015, kidnapping at least 230 people, including dozens of Christians, and razing its famed Mar Elian monastery.

The town lies on a key road linking Palmyra with the Qalamun region of Damascus province to the west.

Sunday's capture of Palmyra, known as the "Pearl of the Desert" for its colonnaded alleyways and stunning temples, was seen as a the biggest blow so far in the war against IS in Syria.

Syria's government has hailed the victory as proof of its credentials in the anti-IS fight.

- Regime 'bears responsibility' -

On Tuesday, Defence Minister Fahed Jassem al-Freij said the armed forces would push their offensive against IS to secure a "final victory" over the jihadists, state news agency SANA reported.

"Bringing security and stability to Palmyra is an essential step towards a final victory over takfiri (extremist Sunni Muslim) terrorism," Freij told his Iranian counterpart Hossein Dehghan.

Syria's armed forces have pledged to strengthen their hold on Palmyra and press on towards IS's northern bastion in Raqa as well as the oil-rich province of Deir Ezzor to the east.

France said the recapture of Palmyra was "positive news" but stressed Damascus bore the blame for Syria's five-year war.

"The advances against Daesh today cannot erase the fact that the (Syrian) regime bears the main responsibility for the conflict and its 270,000 dead over the past five years," said foreign ministry spokesman Romain Nadal, using an alternate name for IS.

The jihadists swept into Palmyra, a UNESCO-listed World Heritage Site, in May 2015 and began a campaign to destroy tombs and shrines it considers idolatrous.

The extremist group demolished the 2,000-year-old temple of Bel and also blew up the Arch of Triumph.

- Russia deminers to Palmyra -

Syria's head of antiquities, Maamoun Abdulkarim, told AFP that 80 percent of the site was still "in good shape" and the ancient ruins could be restored in five years with UNESCO's help.

But UN expert Annie Sartre-Fauriat, who belongs to a group of experts on Syrian heritage set up by UNESCO in 2013, said she was "very doubtful" that would be possible.

As they retreated from Palmyra at the weekend, IS fighters planted roadside mines near some of the most celebrated ruins of the city.

Army sappers have already defused dozens of the makeshift bombs and have conducted controlled detonations of others, a military source told AFP.

On Tuesday, Moscow dispatched a group of Russian deminers, sniffer dogs, and advanced radar equipment to help the Syrian army secure Palmyra, Russia's state media channel Pervy Kanal reported.

Moscow began its air war in support of President Bashar al-Assad's troops on September 30, 2015, carrying out strikes on "terrorist" targets across the country.

The air campaign has been criticised by rebel groups, their Western backers, and rights groups as indiscriminate.

In the last quarter of 2015, Russian air strikes in Syria likely killed more than 1,000 civilians, the Airwars monitoring group said.

The London-based group gathered media reports, accounts from rebel groups and non-governmental organisations to compile the estimated toll.

It said its provisional view was that between September 30 and December 31, as many as 1,448 civilians were "likely" killed in Russian strikes.

Airwars also said that 1,700 civilians were "credibly reported injured" in the 192 incidents, an inevitable consequence of Russia's use of non-precision munitions.

Earlier this month, Russia announced a drawdown but it said it would keep up its support for the regime's battle against IS and other jihadists groups.

Analysts say only 10-25 percent of Russian forces have left Syria since President Vladimir Putin announced the withdrawal.

41 minutes ago

A U.S. Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt II fighter jet lands at Incirlik airbase in the southern city of Adana, …

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military said on Tuesday it has ordered the families of its personnel to leave parts of southern Turkey over "continued security concerns in the region."

Families of personnel stationed in Adana - including at Incirlik air base, used heavily in the fight against Islamic State militants - Izmir, and Mugla have been ordered to leave, the statement from U.S. European Command said. The decision was authorized by U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter.

"We understand this is disruptive to our military families, but we must keep them safe and ensure the combat effectiveness of our forces to support our strong ally Turkey in the fight against terrorism," General Philip M. Breedlove, commander of U.S. European Command, said in the statement.

The ordered departures do not indicate a decision to permanently end families' presence at military facilities in southern Turkey, the statement said.

(Reporting by Yeganeh Torbati; Editing by Paul Simao)

By NINIEK KARMINI and JIM GOMEZ4 hours ago

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JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia said Tuesday that 10 of its citizens are being held hostage in the Philippines after their ship was hijacked in the often-insecure border region between the two countries.

The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the owner of the hijacked tug boat and coal barge has received two telephone calls, purportedly from the militant group Abu Sayyaf, demanding a ransom.

It said it was unclear when the incident occurred but that the ship owner was first contacted on Saturday. The ministry referred to the hostage-takers as pirates.

Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi told a news conference that she is working with Indonesian and Philippine officials to coordinate a rescue.

"Our priority is the safety of 10 Indonesian nationals who are now still in the hands of the hostage-takers," she said.

Abu Sayyaf, which is on U.S. and Philippine lists of terrorist organizations, is notorious for bombings, extortions and kidnappings for ransom in the volatile south of the Philippines. It has been weakened by years of U.S.-backed Philippine offensives but remains a security threat.

If the Abu Sayyaf is confirmed responsible, the number of hostages would be among the largest it has seized since 2001.

In the Philippines, army Maj. Gen. Demy Tejares said troops were trying to verify reports that the Indonesians were taken to the southern province of Sulu and that an Abu Sayyaf commander notorious for ransom kidnappings, Alhabsi Misaya, was involved.

"There is information pointing to Sulu as the destination so we're monitoring it," Tejares said of the predominantly Muslim province 590 miles (950 kilometers) south of Manila, where several other kidnapping victims are believed to be held by Abu Sayyaf militants.

Philippine military chief Gen. Hernando Iriberri flew to Sulu on Monday to meet commanders and their troops involved in efforts to locate the Indonesians.

The tug, Brahma 12, and the Anand 12 barge were going from Sungai Putting in Kalimantan, which is the Indonesian part of Borneo island, to Batangas province, south of the Philippine capital.

The Facebook page of the Brahma 12's captain, Peter Tonsen Barahama, shows smiling photos of him and the crew on the vessel preparing for the voyage and good luck wishes from friends commenting on a port clearance document he posted. The document shows the vessel and its barge left a port in southern Kalimantan on March 15.

A Philippine police report said a villager sighted an unmanned boat marked "Brahma 12" on Saturday drifting in waters off Languyan town in the southernmost Philippine province of Tawi Tawi, near Sulu, and the vessel was taken by police to a Languyan wharf.

Indonesia's Foreign Ministry said it believes the barge, carrying about 7,000 tons of coal, is still under the control of the hostage-takers.

Philippine security officials suspect the Abu Sayyaf was responsible for last year's abductions of two Canadians, a Norwegian and a Filipino woman from a marina on southern Samal Island. The victims are believed to be held in the jungles of southern Sulu province.

In a recent video posted on a Facebook account linked to the militants, they threatened to kill the hostages unless a large ransom is paid by April 8. The Philippine military said the government continues to observe a no-ransom policy.

Indonesia has been helping the Philippines forge a peace agreement with Filipino Muslim rebels by sending soldiers to join an international group that helps monitor government and rebel adherence to a cease-fire.

___

Gomez reported from Manila, Philippines.

By DAN JOLING11 hours ago

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Strong winds Monday pushed an ash cloud from an Alaska volcano into the heart of the state, grounding flights and limiting travel to western and northern communities off the road system.

But hours later, officials downgraded the volcano alert level, saying the intensity of the eruption had "declined significantly."

Pavlof Volcano, one of Alaska's most active volcanoes, is 625 miles southwest of Anchorage on the Alaska Peninsula, the finger of land that sticks out from mainland Alaska toward the Aleutian Islands.

The volcano in the 8,261-foot mountain erupted about 4 p.m. Sunday, spitting out an ash cloud that rose to 20,000 feet.

Lightning over the mountain and pressure sensors indicated eruptions continued overnight By 7 a.m. Monday, the ash cloud had risen to 37,000 feet and winds to 50 mph or more had stretched it over more than 400 miles into interior Alaska.

"It's right in the wheelhouse of a lot of flights crisscrossing Alaska," said geologist Chris Waythomas, of the U.S. Geological Survey, part of the Alaska Volcano Observatory, along with the University of Alaska and the state Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys.

In its statement late Monday, the USGS said that the volcano's activity decline began around noon Monday and that by late at night a continuous emission was no longer being observed by satellite.

Consequently, a volcano alert — that had been at its highest level, warning of hazards both in the air and on the ground — was downgraded from a warning to a watch.

But the agency said that a significant eruption was still possible.

Earlier in the day, Alaska Airlines said it cancelled 41 flights affecting about 3,300 customers heading to Fairbanks, Bethel, Kotzebue, Nome, Barrow and Deadhorse. The airline said it will resume its 54 regularly scheduled flights on Tuesday if conditions improve.

Volcanic ash is angular and sharp and has been used as an industrial abrasive. The powdered rock can cause a jet engine to shut down. USGS geologists have compared it to flying into a sand blaster.

An eruption of Mount Redoubt in December 1989 sent out an ash cloud 150 miles that flamed out the jet engines of a KLM flight carrying 231 passengers to Anchorage. The jet dropped more than two miles before pilots were able to restart the engines and land safely.

"We just simply will not fly when ash is present," Alaska Airlines spokeswoman Bobbie Egan said.

Waythomas had received no reports of ash falling in communities. The closest community, Cold Bay, is 37 miles southwest of the volcano, opposite of where the wind was blowing ash.

Geologists call Pavlof an open-system volcano, Waythomas said.

"The pathways that magma follows to the surface are pretty open in a volcanological sense," Waythomas said. "They can convey magma and gas very easily. Magmas can move to the surface whenever they feel like it, more or less."

The movement comes with little shaking of the ground, and the lack of earthquakes as an early warning of an eruption "makes us go crazy monitoring them," Waythomas said.

The volcano, about 4.4 miles in diameter, has had 40 known eruptions. Its conical, nearly symmetrical shape indicates its eruptions tend to be less violent than the kind that blows tops off mountains.

"It can erupt for periods of hours to days or it can go on for much longer periods of time," Waythomas said. "It won't erupt continuously for many months or a year. It will be intermittent. But the eruption cycle could go on for a while, or it could abruptly shut off and be done tomorrow."

___

This story has been corrected to show the volcano is on the Alaska Peninsula, not in the Aleutian Islands.

A good job you A's it

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Army pressures IS in central Syria after Palmyra win

U.S. orders military families to leave parts of Turkey

Indonesia says 10 citizens held hostage after ship hijacked

laska volcano ash cloud covers 400 miles, cancels flights

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Tuesday, March 29, 2016

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