Today's Islamic World
Iraq
A local leader of anti-al-Qaeda militiamen was shot dead Tuesday in western Baghdad, one of eight people killed in violence in different parts of Iraq, officials said. The pro-government militiamen, known as the Sahwa group, joined forces with U.S. troops to fight al-Qaeda during the Iraq war. Since then, the group has been a target for Sunni insurgents who consider its members to be traitors. The leader was driving through Baghdad's western suburb of Abu Ghraib when drive-by shooters sprayed his car with bullets, killing him, pollice said.
Egypt
Egypt's Islamist president is considering whether to give the military full control of the restive Suez Canal city of Port Said after days of deadly street clashes stoked by excessive use of force by riot police, officials said Tuesday.
A handover to the military would be recognition of the failure of Mohammed Morsi's government to bring calm to Port Said, which has been in turmoil since late January. Residents have been waging a campaign of protests and strikes amounting to a revolt against the central government. Port Said's protesters largely see the military positively.
Nigeria
The top spiritual leader for Muslims in Nigeria called Tuesday for the nation's president to grant a "total amnesty" for Islamic extremists now launching attacks in the country in order to halt the violence. The Sultan of Sokoto, Mohammed Abubakar, made the comments as a small village in northeast Nigeria awoke Tuesday to eight people dead, killings that are suspected of being carried out by the radical Islamist extremist network Boko Haram.
Israel
Dozens of Palestinian students swarmed around a senior British diplomat on Tuesday, leaping on his vehicle and trying to attack him in a show of rage over a British policy and a century-old promise to Jews. The outburst forced the British consul general, Sir Vincent Fean, to cancel a speech at a Palestinian university. Fean was not hurt, although an Associated Press photographer saw one student kicking him in the shins. They said their chief grievance was Britain's support for a Jewish homeland in what was then British-ruled Palestine in a letter known as the Balfour Declaration", issued in 1917.
United States
The U.S.-led military command in Afghanistan said Tuesday it will no longer publish figures on Taliban attacks, a week after acknowledging that its report of a seven percent decline in attacks last year was actually no decline at all. A spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force said its reporting on the number of attacks will grow increasingly inaccurate as Afghan forces move further into the battlefield lead.
Labels: Afghanistan, Africa, Conflict, Controversy, Egypt, Human Relations, Iraq, Islam, Islamism, Israel, United States
posted by Pieface @ Thursday, March 07, 2013
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