Mid. East On Verge of Choas

[Christina]

It is just noon here on the west coast approaching 10:00pm in the Middle east and here are some of the Stories from this mornings papers........................................Story 1.BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Hours after a revered Shiite mosque was bombed Wednesday, Sunni houses of worship came under attack, Iraq's Interior Ministry said.The bombing destroyed two towers at at Al-Askariya Mosque in Samarra. The same holy site was attacked in February 2006, causing the top of the mosque's dome to collapse. That attack sparked Iraq's current wave of deadly Shiite-Sunni violence.There was no immediate word on casualties in the city north of Baghdad. Authorities said they believe Sunni insurgents hit the mosque. At the Pentagon, Army Lt. Gen. Martin Dempsey said that "it clearly seems to me to be a signature attack of al Qaeda."After the blast in Samarra, gunmen stormed a Sunni mosque in southwestern Baghdad's Bayaa area, a Shiite neighborhood, an Interior Ministry official said. Gunmen forced two guards to leave the Khudhair al-Janabi mosque before they burned it, the official said.To the south in Babil province, militia stormed the Iskandariya Grand Mosque, a Sunni mosque, and blew it up with explosives, police in Hilla said.Another Sunni mosque in Iskandariya -- Abdullah al-Jabouri -- was attacked by militiamen, who used explosives to destroy its minarets.Iraqi and U.S. authorities are imploring people to resist retaliation for the Samarra attack. ............................................The bombing of each others Mosques is what started the civil war(between Sunni an Shia) in IraqThe violence now will surely increase with us in the middle............................................Story 2GAZA CITY (CNN) -- Rival factions killed more than two dozen people Tuesday in bitter fighting that has left Gaza sliding into chaos, Palestinian officials said.As Fatah radio called on fighters to confront Hamas militants and broadcasts from Hamas fighters urged their Fatah foes to abandon their posts or face death, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas appealed in vain for a cease-fire."If anybody thinks that we will be a winner out of this fire, I think they're wrong," said Palestinian official Saeb Erakat. "If this fire continues, it will burn all of us. Nobody stands to gain anything." Abbas' Fatah group dominated Palestinian politics for decades until last year, when Hamas won legislative elections.Erakat -- an Abbas ally-- called this week's clashes "the worst I have ever seen."..........................Watch emerging chaos in Gaza it was reported this morning on CNN full fledged civil war between Hamas an Fatah is becoming imminet..............................Story 3LebanonThe anti-Syrian Lebanese MP Walid Eido and his son were assassinated Wednesday by a massive explosion in their car which killed 10 people An explosion, apparently from a bomb-rigged car, rocked Beirut's seafront Wednesday, killing an anti-Syrian lawmaker and nine others, security officials said. The 65 year-old lawmaker, Walid Eido, was the seventh opponent of Damascus to be killed in two years in this conflict-ridden country. Eido's 35-year-old son, two bodyguards and six others were also killed in the explosion, security officials said. Eleven other were wounded, they said. ...........................This comes in the middle of a fierce battle between the Lebanese government and Hezbolah (backed by Syria) that has been going on for weeks and now will surely get much worse......................................................................Story 4As I reported to you last week . I was suspicious of The replacement of General P.Pace being replaced by a Navel Admiral Mullin as I don't no why you would place a Navy Admiral in charge of Army and Marine Troops in a desert War. There are no/to few sailors or Navy personnel in Iraq.Unless you were possibly planing an attack on Iran which has always been stated would be a Navel run operation in conjunction with the air force.So it did not surprise me this morning when the rhetoric against Iran from the U.S. started :............PARIS, France (CNN) -- The United States has "irrefutable evidence" that Tehran is transferring arms to Taliban fighters in Afghanistan, a top U.S. diplomat told CNN Wednesday, noting that NATO forces have intercepted some of the arms shipments."There's irrefutable evidence the Iranians are now doing this and it's a pattern of activity," U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns told CNN."If you see the Iranians arming Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza and the West Bank and, of course, arming Shia militants inside Iraq itself. It's very violent and very unproductive activity by the Iranian government."And one that puts Tehran contrary to the U.N. Security Council, Burns said."Iran is operating against the last Security Council Resolution 1747, passed on March 24, which said that Iran must not transfer arms outside of Iran, and here it is doing it in Lebanon, in Gaza, in Afghanistan, and in Iraq, so Iran is in outright violation of its Security Council commitments," according to Burns.In late May, U.S. and British officials simply said that weapons crossing the border from Iran to Afghanistan may be winding up in the hands of the Taliban, the hard-line Islamic militia that is battling U.S.- and NATO-led forces in Afghanistan.Wednesday's accusations took the case against Tehran to the next level."It's certainly coming from the government of Iran. It's coming from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard corps command, which is a basic unit of the Iranian government," Burns said...........................................The whole middle east appears to be on the brink of erupting into total Chaosthis does not come as a surprise to us bible readers. But it should make you Lift up your head and see how prophecy is being fulfilled and the time is growing closer by the day. God is in control.

 

[Christina]

Tehran, June 13, 2007First Published: 17:38 IST(13/6/2007)Last Updated: 17:44 IST(13/6/2007)Ahmadinejad warns West over threat of new sanctionsPresident Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday shrugged off the West's criticism of Tehran's controversial nuclear program and said that eventual new UN sanctions would not harm Iran. Speaking to a crowd of several thousand supporters in the city of Semnan, 235 kilometers southeast of Tehran during a two-day provincial trip, the Iranian leader stuck to his belligerent rhetoric."This nation will punch its intimidators in the mouth," said Ahmadinejad, in a reference to US-led group of Western nations that have chastised Iran over its uranium enrichment. His speech was broadcast live on state television."You, the West, have to know that your resolutions will not be worth a red cent for the Iranian nation," added Ahmadinejad.The UN Security Council is preparing to debate a third set of sanctions against the Islamic republic in response to Tehran's continuing refusal to suspend the enrichment, which can produce fuel for civilian energy or fissile material for a bomb.Referring to two previous rounds of sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council, Ahmadinejad said they had no negative impact on his country and reiterated that Iran would not give in its right to pursue peaceful nuclear technology under any circumstance.The prospect of a third set of sanctions appeared more likely after senior Iranian envoy abruptly cancelled talks on Monday with the head of the UN nuclear watchdog agency, dashing hopes that the country is ready to end its secrecy about past suspicious nuclear activities.http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Pr...72-6f0fa5f9d89a© Copyright 2007 Hindustan Times

 

[Christina]

Fatah officials and activists in the West Bank on Wednesday called on Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to resign, holding him responsible for the fact that Hamas was now in control of most parts of the Gaza Strip. The calls for Abbas's resignation came as Hamas militiamen scored more victories in their battle to take control over the Gaza Strip. More than 30 Palestinians were killed in Wednesday's fighting, which also spread to some parts of the West Bank. Fatah officials here confirmed that Hamas had seized large amounts of weapons and military equipment belonging to Abbas's security forces in the Gaza Strip. Some of the weapons were supplied to the PA in recent weeks by Egypt and Jordan as part of a US security plan to boost Fatah-controlled forces.