Zabiha News

If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!“Omar Jaffar spends his days helping keep the streets of his Baghdad neighborhood safe for his fellow Sunni Muslims. He has an urgent message for President-Elect Barack Obama:
“Don’t take American soldiers away just yet,” Jaffar said in his [...]

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“In Iraq, improved security is slowly restoring life to the sprawling southern river port of Basra. Backed by American air power, Iraqi government forces regained control of the city last March, breaking the grip of Islamist gangs that had dominated Basra for years.
Now, Basrawis are rediscovering the pleasures and the sense of possibility that [...]

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“Several members of the Christian community in northern Iraq are setting up ad hoc militias to secure their neighborhoods, rights advocates said Wednesday.
A campaign targeting the minority Christian community in Iraq erupted in September. The attacks corresponded roughly with the passing of a provincial elections law that set aside minority representation. Though the events may [...]

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“After only five months in the Iraqi Air Force’s new training program, Lt. Haider Jasim has already gotten more time behind the yoke of a plane than the average pilot in Saddam Hussein’s Air Force got all year. Old regime flyers spent most of their time on the ground due to limited resources following the [...]

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“Al-Qaeda is watching the U.S. stock market’s downward slide with something akin to jubilation, with its leaders hailing the financial crisis as a vindication of its strategy of crippling America’s economy through endless, costly foreign wars against Islamist insurgents.
And at least some of its supporters think Sen. John McCain is the presidential candidate best [...]

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“Munira Shahamorad was 20 years old and dressed head to toe in all-concealing black robes when she showed up at the gates of the U.S. Marine base in Fallujah, Iraq, looking for a job. She was desperate to escape her brother, who she says beat her and dragged her around by the hair.
“She came in [...]

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“Far away from the Taliban insurgency, in this most peaceful corner of Afghanistan, a quiet revolution is gaining pace.

Women are driving cars — a rarity in Afghanistan — working in public offices and police stations, and sitting on local councils. There is even a female governor, the first and only one in Afghanistan.
In many ways this province, [...]

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“The Taliban have been engaged in secret talks about ending the conflict in Afghanistan in a wide-ranging ‘peace process’ sponsored by Saudi Arabia and supported by Britain, The Observer can reveal.
The unprecedented negotiations involve a senior former member of the hardline Islamist movement travelling between Kabul, the bases of the Taliban senior leadership in [...]

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“Nato forces in eastern Afghanistan say their helicopters have been fired upon by a Pakistani military checkpoint.
The Western alliance said its aircraft had not crossed into Pakistani airspace when they came under fire in Khost province, news agency AP reports.”

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“Pakistani troops have fired warning shots at two US helicopters forcing them back into Afghanistan, local Pakistani intelligence officials say.
A senior security official based in Islamabad told the AFP news agency that the helicopters had been repelled by both army troops and soldiers from the paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC).
“The helicopters were heading towards our [...]

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“Pakistan’s military has ordered its forces to open fire if U.S. troops launch another air or ground raid across the Afghan border, an army spokesman said Tuesday.
“The orders are clear,” Abbas said in an interview. “In case it happens again in this form, that there is a very significant detection, which is very definite, no [...]

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“Al-Hayat reports in Arabic that a big dispute has broken out between the three largest blocs in parliament. The government has so far been characterized by an alliance of the Shiite Iraqi Accord Front with the Kurdistan Alliance. But now the Shiites want to equip the Iraqi military with F-16s.
The day before yesterday, the Kurdish [...]

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Submitted by Ali: “The U.S. military, faced with rising insurgent violence in Afghanistan, will revise its strategy for region to include militant safe havens in neighboring Pakistan, the top U.S. military officer said on Wednesday.
“I’m not convinced we are winning it in Afghanistan. I am convinced we can,” Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the [...]

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Submitted by Zabiha News: “Hundreds of children, some as young as nine, are being held in appalling conditions in Baghdad’s prisons, sleeping in sweltering temperatures in overcrowded cells without working fans, no daily access to showers, and subject to frequent sexual abuse by guards, current and former prisoners say.
The ministry is under Shia control and [...]

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Submitted by Zabiha News: “According to Egyptian website Al-Mesryoon, last two months there was a campaign in America to recruit Egyptians as interpreters in the American forces and to be sent to Iraq.
The Americans offer Green Card to Egyptians who sign a contract to work for at least six months, and the recruiters can extend [...]

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