Wednesday, 8 October 2014

Syria: Isis Jihadis Terrified of Fanatical Kurdish Women Soldiers who will Deny Them Place in Paradise


By Gianluca Mezzofiore | IB Times – 22 hours ago
The suicide attack of a Kurdish female fighter who blew herself up in Kobani killing several Islamic State (also known as Isis) militants has put the spotlight on the Yekineyen Parastina Jin or Women Protection Units (YPJ) at the frontline of the battle against jihadists.
Dilar Gencxemis, known by her nom de guerre Arin Mirkan, was a 20-year-old mother of two who detonated herself as she ran towards Isis fighters, killing as many as 23 of them. As urban guerrilla warfare starts on the streets of Kobani, on the Turkish-Syrian border, Kurdish resistance is increasingly relying on its female fighters to save the town on what appears as a desperate fight for survival.
According to various estimates, female fighters make up between 7,000 and 10,000 of the Kurdish forces fighting in Syria. The YPG is an all-female, independent militia which at the frontline embrace arms along with their male "comrades" of the YPG, the People's Protection Units.
Linked to the Marxist-inspired Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), an outlawed organisation blacklisted in the US and the EU who fought the Turkish army for 30 years causing 40,000 deaths, the YPG is desperately outnumbered and outgunned by Isis, which boasts an arsenal of US weapons looted from the Iraqi army in Mosul.
But the YPG can still count on the ideological fervor driving many Kurdish volunteers across the Turkish border to join them against Islamists. Last week, it was reported that a 19-year-old female fighter, named Ceylan Ozalp, killed herself with the last bullet rather than falling into the hands of Isis. The news was not confirmed by Kurdish media, but pictures of the young, defiant fighter went viral on Kurdish accounts, with many hailing her as a heroine.
"When they see a woman they run away"
Ozalp, also known as Diren, was pictured in a BBC video service defiantly saying: "We're not scared of anything. We'll fight to the last. We'd rather blow ourselves up than be captured by Isis".
She went on claiming that when Islamists see a woman with a gun "they're so afraid the begin to shake". They portray themselves as tough guys to the world. But when they see us with our guns they run away. They see a woman as just a small thing. But one of our women is worth a hundred of their men," she said.
Her statement plays into the common belief shared by Isis fighters that they will not go to paradise if they are killed in battle by a woman. But feminist ideology has always been part of the Kurdish fighting movement.
One of the founding members of the PKK was Sakine Cansiz, who was shot dead along with other two younger female activists in the office of the Kurdish information centre in Paris, in 2013. The exact number of PKK female fighters who chose to leave their families and join the guerrilla in the harsh mountains in Qandil is unknown, but it has become a standard phenomenon.
In the political doctrine of the imprisoned leader of the PKK, Abdullah Ocalan, women and men play an equal role in society and no society can be free without the freedom of women. Drawing inspiration from Kurdish history as well as Marxism, Ocalan sees the empowerment of women as a way to get rid of the patriarchal thinking that marred racist and sexist societies. Fighting, in the PKK ideology, is a physical as well as an intellectual exercise.
Many Kurdish women who joined the ranks of the PKK did so to escape social conservatism, honour killings, domestic violence and lack of opportunities for women, according to Jenna Krajeski, who wrote an insight into Kurdish female fighters in The Atlantic. "A revolution holds much promise, particularly for women. They participate for two reasons -- as a member of an oppressed society, and as oppressed people within that society," she wrote.

Related articles : Syria Isis News: Female Kurdish Suicide Bomber 'Kills Dozens of Islamic State Militants' in Kobani
Syria: Isis Jihadis Terrified of Fanatical Kurdish Women Soldiers who will Deny Them Place in Paradise Related video

Posted by at No comments:

Turkey says Syria town about to fall as Islamic State advances


  • Login or register
  • Latest from
    My Wire

Turkey says Syria town about to fall as Islamic State advances

By Daren Butler and Oliver Holmes
MURSITPINAR Turkey/BEIRUT Wed Oct 8, 2014 3:22am EDT
11 Comments
Smoke rises from the Syrian town of Kobani after a war plane carried out an air strike, seen from near the Mursitpinar border crossing on the Turkish-Syrian border in the southeastern town of Suruc in Sanliurfa province October 7, 2014. REUTERS-Umit Bektas
Turkish army tanks take up position on the Turkish-Syrian border near the southeastern town of Suruc in Sanliurfa province October 6, 2014. REUTERS-Umit Bektas
A black flag belonging to Islamic State is seen near the Syrian town of Kobani as a Turkish army vehicle takes up position on the Turkish-Syrian border near the southeastern town of Suruc in Sanliurfa province October 7, 2014. REUTERS-Umit Bektas
1 of 7. Smoke rises from the Syrian town of Kobani after a war plane carried out an air strike, seen from near the Mursitpinar border crossing on the Turkish-Syrian border in the southeastern town of Suruc in Sanliurfa province October 7, 2014.
Credit: Reuters/Umit Bektas

Pictures

Turkish army tanks take up position on the Turkish-Syrian border near the southeastern town of Suruc in Sanliurfa province October 6, 2014. REUTERS/Umit Bektas

Siege of Kobani

The Islamic State raises a flag in the Syrian town, as Turkish troops assemble on the border.  Slideshow 
(Reuters) - Turkey's president said on Tuesday the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani was "about to fall" as Islamic State fighters pressed home a three-week assault that has cost a reported 400 lives and forced thousands to flee their homes.
The prospect that the town could be captured by Islamic State, who are now within city limits, has increased pressure on Turkey to join an international coalition to fight against the jihadists.
Islamic State wants to take Kobani in order to strengthen its grip on the border area and consolidate the territorial gains it has made in Iraq and Syria in recent months. U.S.-led air strikes have so far failed to prevent its advance on Kobani.
Turkey said it was pressing Washington for more air strikes, although President Tayyip Erdogan said bombing was not enough to defeat Islamic State, and he set out Turkey's demands for additional measures before it could intervene.
"The problem of ISIS (Islamic State) ... cannot be solved via air bombardment. Right now ... Kobani is about to fall," he said during a visit to a camp for Syrian refugees.
"We had warned the West. We wanted three things. No-fly zone, a secure zone parallel to that, and the training of moderate Syrian rebels," he said.
He said Turkey would take action if there were threats to Turkish soldiers guarding a historic site in Syria that Ankara regards as its territory. But so far Turkey has made no move to get involved in the fighting across the border.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu had spoken twice in recent days to discuss the situation, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.
"Turkey is determining what larger role they will play," Psaki told a daily briefing. "They have indicated their openness to doing that, so there is an active conversation about that."
Retired U.S. General John Allen, the envoy charged with building the coalition against Islamic State, and his deputy Brett McGurk will visit Turkey later this week for talks.
U.N. Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura said Turkey had been generous in receiving refugees from Kobani but the international community needed to protect the town. "What is needed now is concrete action," he said, without elaborating.
France said it was vital to stop Islamic State's advance on Kobani, and was discussing with Turkey what could be done. "A tragedy is unfolding, and we must all react," Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told parliament.
But some analysts doubt the will exists among Western allies to take further action.
"It's the coalition of the unwilling, each country is doing the bare minimum, particularly in Syria," said Fadi Hakura at the London-based think tank Chatham House.
From across the Turkish border, two Islamic State flags could be seen flying over the eastern side of Kobani.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said it had documented 412 deaths of civilians and fighters during the three-week battle for Kobani.
The U.S. military said it and allied air forces launched strikes on Islamic State in Syria on Monday and Tuesday. In the Kobani area the raids destroyed armed vehicles, a tank and a vehicle carrying anti-aircraft artillery.
On the ground, a burning tank, apparently belonging to Islamic State, could be seen on the western edge of town. There were also clashes on the northern fringe and mortar explosions could be heard to the northeast.
Islamic State fighters were using heavy weapons and shells to hit Kobani, senior Kurdish official Asya Abdullah told Reuters from inside the town, estimated by the U.N. on Tuesday to contain possibly a few hundred remaining residents.
AIR STRIKES
Islamic State, an al Qaeda offshoot, has ramped up its offensive in recent days against the mainly Kurdish border town, despite being targeted by U.S.-led coalition air strikes aimed at halting its progress.
"There were clashes overnight. Not heavy, but ISIS is going forward from the southwest. They have crossed into Kobani and control some buildings in the city there," said Rami Abdulrahman, head of the Observatory, a group that monitors the conflict with a network on the ground. ISIS is a former name for Islamic State.
"They are about 50 meters (55 yards) inside the southwest of the city," Abdulrahman said.
An estimated 180,000 people have fled into Turkey from the Kobani region following the Islamic State advance. More than 2,000 Syrian Kurds including women and children were evacuated from the town after the latest fighting, a member of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) said on Monday.
Before the offensive, Kobani, known as Ayn al-Arab in Arabic, was home to refugees from the civil war that pits rebels against President Bashar al-Assad and has deteriorated into hundreds of localized battles between different factions.
The most powerful of the myriad militias fighting against Assad, Islamic State has boosted its forces with foreign fighters and defectors from other rebel groups. It gained additional heavy weaponry after its fighters swept through northern Iraq in June, seizing arms from the fleeing Iraqi army.
The group released a video showing dozens of men said to be from Ahrar al-Sham, a rival Islamist group that has clashed with it in the past, pledging allegiance to its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the SITE monitoring service said on Monday.
Westerners have also fought for the Kurds against Islamic State. A man describing himself as a U.S. citizen and former soldier from Ohio said in a video interview with Reuters in Syria that he had come to join Kurdish fighters.
Identifying himself as Brian Wilson, he said other Americans had come to Syria to fight Islamic State.
The FBI asked Americans on Tuesday to help identify a masked man who speaks in what is believed to be a North American accent in a video that Islamic State militants released last month. It also requested the public's assistance "in identifying U.S. persons going to fight overseas with terrorist groups or who are returning home from fighting overseas."
The United States has been bombing Islamic State positions in Iraq since August and extended the campaign to Syria in September. Arab states have joined both campaigns, while other Western countries are participating in Iraq but not Syria.
Canadian lawmakers on Tuesday approved government plans to send fighter jets to Iraq, where they will take part in U.S.-led air strikes against Islamic State militants for up to six months.
Two months into the U.S. campaign, the U.S. military has added a new weapon to its arsenal in Iraq, using Apache helicopters for the first time, U.S. officials said on Monday.
Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Yalcin Akdogan called for more U.S. action. "Our government and our related institutions have emphasized to U.S. officials the necessity of immediately ramping up air bombardment in a more active and efficient way," he said, according to the website of the television channel AHaber.
Turkey, a NATO member that shares a 900-kilometre (500-mile) border with Syria and has the most powerful military in the region, has so far refrained from joining the campaign, but the plight of Kobani has increased pressure to act.
Turkey says the scope of the campaign in Syria should be broadened to seek to remove Assad from power. It has sought a no-fly zone in northern Syria, which would require the coalition to take on Assad's air force as well as Islamic State, a move Washington has not agreed to.
PROTESTS IN TURKEY
At least nine people were killed and dozens wounded in demonstrations across Turkey on Tuesday as Kurds demanded the government do more to protect Kobani, local media reported.
Police fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse protesters who burnt cars and tires as they took to the streets mainly in Turkey's predominantly Kurdish eastern and southeastern provinces. Clashes also erupted in the biggest city Istanbul and in the capital Ankara.
The victims included five people killed in Diyarbakir, the largest Kurdish city in the southeast, which saw clashes between protesters and police.
In Geneva, angry Kurds held a protest at the United Nations, while in Brussels they invaded the European Parliament. They waved flags bearing the portrait of jailed Kurdish Workers Party leader Abdullah Ocalan.
The brother of British aid worker Alan Henning, who was beheaded by Islamic State, said Britain should put troops on the ground in the Middle East to fight against the militants.
Kidnappings are common in Syria's civil war, often used for ransom. Catholic news agency Fides quoted Bishop Georges Abou Khazen, the Apostolic Vicar of Aleppo, as saying a parish priest and about 20 Christians have been kidnapped from a Syrian village near the border with Turkey.
(This version of the story corrects Ahmet Davutoglu's title in paragraph 8)
(Additional reporting by Humeyra Pamuk, Jonny Hogg and Umit Bektas in Turkey, Louis Charbonneau in New York, Lesley Wroughton and Peter Cooney in Washington, Tom Miles in Geneva and David Ljunggren in Ottawa; Editing by Peter Graff, Giles Elgood, Tom Brown and Ken Wills)
Posted by at No comments:

Nebraska Ebola Patient Getting Same Experimental Drug As Texas Patient


ABC News
By MEGHAN KENEALLY 15 hours ago
Nebraska Ebola Patient Getting Same Experimental Drug As Texas Patient
.
View photo
Nebraska Ebola Patient Getting Same Experimental Drug As Texas Patient (ABC News)
The American journalist who is being treated for Ebola at a Nebraska hospital is receiving the same experimental treatment as the Liberian patient who was diagnosed with the disease in Texas.
"After looking at the data on this drug, collaborating with the CDC and FDA and speaking with the patient and his family, we decided this was currently our best option for treatment," said Dr. Phil Smith, the medical director of the biocontainment unit at Nebraska Medical Center where Ashoka Mukpo is being treated.
What to Know About the Experimental Drug Being Given to the Texas Ebola PatientTexas Ebola Patient Thomas Eric Duncan Now Getting Experimental Drug
Both Mukpo, a freelance cameraman who was working with NBC in Liberia when he tested positive for the disease, and Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian man visiting family in America, are being treated with brincidofovir.
"Every patient is somewhat different, and we believe Brincidofovir is the best choice," Smith said in a statement released today.
The drug is produced by a North Carolina-based biopharmaceutical company and was authorized by the Food and Drug Administration for use in specific, experimental cases.
Mukpo left Monrovia, Liberia on Sunday night and arrived in Omaha on Monday morning. His parents saw him as he was taken off the plane and said at a press conference Monday that they were happy his conditions had not worsened dramatically since leaving Africa.
Duncan remains in critical condition and he is described as stable. He is on a ventilator and receiving kidney dialysis, according to a release today from the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas. Duncan's liver function, which declined over the weekend, has improved, the hospital said.
Posted by at No comments:

God Wants Your Family To Succeed!


FamilyGod wants your family to succeed and prosper, and He has given you the blueprint to make your family's happiness possible! The Bible contains rock-solid principles upon which you can build a strong family.

The Foundation of a Family

Notice the foundation God has laid for the family. At creation, God formed Eve from Adam's side to be his helper and to complete him. Then, God performed the first marriage and blessed the lifelong union of one man and one woman.
Genesis 2:18 says, "And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him." And He did, then He gave the first wedding vow, "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh."
Put it down big and bold – God is the architect of the home. If your family is going to stand against the storms that will blow, you must hold fast to the Word and it's promises and commands for your home.
I love Psalm 27:1, which says, "Except the LORD build the house, they labor in vain that build it." Building a home is a very complicated matter that takes more than human wit and wisdom to accomplish. You need a divine plan and a divine Builder to construct a happy, fruitful, and prosperous Christian home. That Builder and that plan are Christ and His Word.

The Flexibility of a Family

The Golden Gate Bridge - San FranciscoDid you know that the span of the great Gold Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California, will sway as much as 20 feet? The two towers of that bridge are solidly anchored, yet the suspended bridge can move a little and still maintain its strength.
What a beautiful picture of a happy, healthy Christian home! Your family needs some flexibility – some room to move. Now, I'm not talking about throwing out the rules. I'm talking about the family that laughs and has fun together – a home where people don't make big things out of little irritations and where a word of forgiveness is always ready. First Corinthians 13:4-8 has much to say that applies to the love we need to show in our families:
Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
Do you want happy marriage? Do you desire a successful family? Then, learn to love one another, learn to be a generous grace-giver. Take some of the stress off of yourself, your mate, and your children. Make your home a place of love and laughter.

The Fruit of the Family

Group of ChildrenThere are three important truths in Psalm 127 about the happiness children bring to the home. First, children are desirable. Psalm 127:3 says, "Children are an heritage of the LORD and the fruit of the womb is his reward."
Second, children are directable. Psalm 127:4 says, "As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth." And when raised in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, children are dependable. Psalm 127:5 says, "Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate."
Children are not a burden, but a blessing. Happy is the home where children are welcomed and loved as we would welcome and love the Lord Jesus Himself! Matthew 18:5 says, "And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me."
We must begin today to take our families back; otherwise the world will become our children's parent. You can begin today with these few principles. I pray that your family will succeed and that His Word will bring revival and renewed commitment to you and yours.
Posted by at No comments:

Tuesday, 7 October 2014

Ebola outbreak: Spain investigates new case


You need to install Flash Player to play this content.
The hospital was reported to have had extreme protective measures in place as Hugh Pym reports

Ebola outbreak

Investigations are under way at a hospital in Madrid after a Spanish nurse became the first person known to have contracted the deadly Ebola virus outside West Africa.
The nurse had treated two Spanish missionaries who died of the disease after being flown home from the region.
Three other people, including the nurse's husband, have been quarantined.
The European Commission has asked Spain to explain how the nurse could have become infected.
Some 3,400 people have died in the outbreak - mostly in West Africa.
The Spanish auxiliary nurse, a 40-year-old woman who has not been named, was one of about 30 staff at the Carlos III hospital in Madrid who had been treating priests Manuel Garcia Viejo and Miguel Pajares, officials say.
Hospital staff attend a protest outside La Paz Hospital in Madrid, Spain. 7 Oct 2014 Staff staged a protest outside La Paz Hospital in Madrid over the government's handling of the Ebola cases
Mr Garcia Viejo, 69, died at the hospital on 25 September after catching Ebola in Sierra Leone. Mr Pajares, 75, died in August after contracting the virus in Liberia.
The nurse had twice gone into the room where Mr Garcia Viejo had been treated, to be directly involved in his care and to disinfect the room after his death. Both times she was wearing protective clothing.
Madrid healthcare director Antonia Alemany told reporters that according to the information available: "The nurse went into the room wearing the individual protection gear and there's no knowledge of an accidental exposure to risk."
Shortly afterwards the nurse went on holiday, a hospital spokesman said, but fell ill on 30 September and was admitted to Alcorcon hospital in south-west Madrid on Sunday after being tested positive for Ebola.
You need to install Flash Player to play this content.
The Ebola case was down to "procedure problem or human error", says a Spanish public health expert
Early on Tuesday she was moved under police escort to Carlos III hospital in the capital and is said to be in a stable condition.
The Spanish health authorities say she is being treated with a drip using antibodies from previous Ebola patients.
Her husband and a second nurse who treated the missionary are now in quarantine, officials said, as well as a man who recently arrived on a flight from Nigeria.
line
How not to catch Ebola
  • Avoid direct contact with sick patients
  • Wear goggles to protect eyes
  • Clothing and clinical waste should be incinerated and any medical equipment that needs to be kept should be decontaminated
  • People who recover from Ebola should abstain from sex or use condoms for three months
line
Doctors are also monitoring 22 people who the nurse had contact with at Alcorcon hospital, and 30 people working at Carlos III, according to health sources quoted by Spanish newspaper El Pais.
They include an ambulance crew, and doctors and nurses, and have all been contacted by the health authorities.
It was not clear where the nurse had gone on holiday.
You need to install Flash Player to play this content.
In Sierra Leone, Ebola treatment centres are full and patients are being turned away, as Tulip Mazumdar reports
It is also unclear how she could have contracted Ebola.
The hospital was reported to have had extreme protective measures in place including two sets of overalls, gloves and goggles.
However, health workers told El Pais newspaper that the clothing did not have level-four biological security, which is fully waterproof and with independent breathing apparatus.
Instead it was level two, the paper says, as photographs provided by staff indicated that the overalls did not allow for ventilation and the gloves were made of latex and bound with adhesive tape.
File photo of Manuel Garcia Viejo at San Juan de Dios hospital in Lusar, Sierra Leone Manuel Garcia Viejo was the second Spanish priest to be repatriated from Africa with Ebola
line
Containing Ebola: BBC health correspondent Michelle Roberts Patients should be isolated - ideally in a hospital with the highest level of bio-safety.
Such a facility would use a specially designed tent with controlled ventilation to house the patient's bed - this allows staff to provide clinical care while containing the infection.
Staff treating the patient must wear protective suits, gloves, masks and goggles. This equipment should be completely impermeable since Ebola is spread in bodily fluids such as sweat, urine and blood
Any clinical waste such as syringes, paper towels or clothing from the patient should be incinerated. A dedicated laboratory should be used to carry out any necessary tests.
line
European Commission spokesman Frederic Vincent said a letter had been sent to the Spanish health minister "to obtain some clarification" about how the nurse had contracted Ebola despite all the precautions taken.
"There is obviously a problem somewhere," he said.
In other developments:
  • British health authorities have said there are no plans to introduce Ebola screening for travellers arriving in the UK
  • A container of aid materials designed to help fight the Ebola outbreak but stranded at a port is at the centre of a political row in Sierra Leone
  • A Norwegian medic who tested positive for Ebola while working with Medecins Sans Frontieres in Sierra Leone has been flown back to Oslo
  • Shares in airlines including Easyjet and British Airways owner IAG have fallen sharply following the news of the Ebola case in Madrid
Ebola spreads through contact with bodily fluids and the only way to stop an outbreak is to isolate those who are infected.
There have been nearly 7,500 confirmed infections worldwide, with officials saying the figure is likely to be much higher in reality.
Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia have been hardest hit.
Thomas Duncan, the first person to be diagnosed with Ebola in the US, is being treated at a Dallas hospital. He caught the virus in his native Liberia. Doctors say he is critical but stable.
line
Ebola virus disease (EVD)
Ebola virus
  • Symptoms include high fever, bleeding and central nervous system damage
  • Spread by body fluids, such as blood and saliva
  • Fatality rate can reach 90% - but current outbreak has mortality rate of about 70%
  • Incubation period is two to 21 days
  • There is no proven vaccine or cure
  • Supportive care such as rehydrating patients who have diarrhoea and vomiting can help recovery
  • Fruit bats, a delicacy for some West Africans, are considered to be virus's natural host
Are you affected by the issues raised in this story? You can email your experiences to haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk
Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)