ALERT
Two consecutive explosions in a busy shopping district in an Istanbul suburb have killed at least 13 people and injured 70, according to Istanbul's governor who said it was a "terror attack." Governor Muammer Guler says that at least 70 people have been injured in the explosions in the working class residential Gungoren district of Istanbul. Turkish television stations showed ambulances carrying badly wounded people to hospital...No one has so far claimed responsibility for the attack...(Guardian.co.uk).
Full Article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/27/turkey?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront
...Among the main issues brought up during the interview with IAI spokesman 'Ali A-Na'imi, were the following: Democracy is an illusion and is impossible to implement under occupation. The IAI is open to dialogue only if the U.S. will announce a timetable for its withdrawal from Iraq and recognize the "resistance" as Iraq's sole legitimate representative. The U.S. army will soon be stunned by the movement's new advanced weapons. Iran is weak and will not be able to enter Iraq after the U.S.'s withdrawal. The IAI will not operate outside Iraq...(The Media Line).
Full Article: http://themedialine.org/news/news_detail.asp?NewsID=22213
Tanks and armored vehicles from the Lebanese army were once again deployed in the northern coastal city Tripoli as fighting between rival sectarian groups left at least nine dead and 50 wounded on Friday, various news agencies reported. The clashes are between residents of the impoverished neighborhoods of Bab Al-Tibbana, which is a stronghold of the anti-Syrian parliamentary bloc, and inhabitants of Jabl Mohsin, who support the opposition led by Syrian- and Iranian-backed Hizbullah...The question of Hizbullah’s weaponry is one of the most highly charged political issues in Lebanese politics. Hizbullah claims it only keeps its weapons to protect the country from outside aggression and that it will never use its arsenal against fellow Lebanese...(The Media Line).
Full Article: http://themedialine.org/news/news_detail.asp?NewsID=22216
Related Article:
Fatah military leaders are warning to strike back at Hamas operatives in the West Bank if Hamas continues to arrest their comrades in the Gaza Strip. The Hamas movement in Gaza has so far arrested more than 160 Fatah members since Friday evening, when a mysterious explosion claimed the lives of five Hamas operatives and a bystander. Hamas immediately blamed Fatah for the assassination. Its leaders said that following the explosion, the Fatah-controlled TV station in Ramallah broadcast scenes from Gaza with songs hailing Fatah's revolutionaries. This, they said, was clear proof that Fatah was behind the attack...(The Media Line).
Full Article: http://themedialine.org/news/news_detail.asp?NewsID=22219
Pakistan’s intelligence agency Sunday, July 27, accused the Indian Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and Israel’s Mossad of working hand in glove. They were blamed for stirring up trouble on the its common border with Afghanistan and planning terrorist activities inside Pakistan in conjunction with Khad (the former Afghan secret service). DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources report that Islamabad, beset by accusations from New Delhi and Kabul of fomenting terror in their countries, injected the Israeli agency into the quarrel as an expedient for deflecting their attacks...Holding up their “Israel trump card” in reply, Pakistan’s intelligence agencies claimed to the media Sunday that they had asked the government to take “ample measures” to combat terrorism, which they alleged was linked to “Indian diplomatic missions in Afghanistan and Indian and Israeli spy outfits.” They cited “certain evidence” indicating that Israel and Indian missions were behind “recent acts of terrorism in Balochistan,” where a bombing attack on a mosque in Quetta this month killed dozens of people. DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources comment that smears of this kind would never have seen the light when president Pervez Musharraf was at the helm in Islamabad. However, Yousuf Reza Gilani’s new government has seriously undercut his authority and his connections in the army and security agencies...(DEBKAfile).
Full Article: http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5473
Hundreds of people were still homeless on Sunday after the latest bout of deadly sectarian fighting in the northern Lebanese port city of Tripoli. "The army has barred residents from returning to some areas because there are unexploded grenades from the fighting and the troops are defusing them one by one," a security official told AFP...(Alarabiya).
Full Article: http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2008/07/27/53833.html
The Yemeni branch of Al-Qaeda said one of its fighters carried out a suicide bombing in which a policeman was killed in eastern Yemen, a group which monitors Islamist websites reported on Sunday. The SITE Intelligence Group said Jund al-Yemen has posted a photograph of the bomber, named as Ahmad bin Saeed bin Umar al-Mashraji, also known as Abu Dujana al-Hadrawi. The car bombing in the town of Sayun that also wounded 17 people, including 11 policemen, was to avenge the killings of several jihadists "with whose blood the hands of (government) soldiers have become stained," Jund al-Yemen said...(Alarabiya).
Full Article: http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2008/07/27/53796.html
The United States is now winning the war that two years ago seemed lost. Limited, sometimes sharp fighting and periodic terrorist bombings in Iraq are likely to continue, possibly for years. But the Iraqi government and the U.S. now are able to shift focus from mainly combat to mainly building the fragile beginnings of peace — a transition that many found almost unthinkable as recently as one year ago...(AP).
Full Article: http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_6372/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=dy0ryA55
Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert this week shot off a strong secret note to US President George W. Bush, DEBKAfile’s sources reveal, protesting the administration’s strategic steps toward rapprochement with Iran. Israel was not forewarned, Olmert wrote bitterly, although these steps directly violated US-Israel understandings on Iran of the past year. Bush, he said, had broken the promises he gave in face-to-face meetings with the prime minister earlier this year. If nothing is done to arrest Iran’s progress towards a nuclear bomb, Olmert warned, Iran will have all the components ready for assembly by early 2009, that is, in 6-8 months...DEBKAfile’s Washington sources add that Bush has not replied to the letter, although the prime minister wrote in a spirit of extreme alarm over the threat to Israel’s security and indeed survival building up in Tehran...(DEBKAfile).
Full Article: http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5467
A Sunni rebel group holding Iranian policemen hostage said in a video it had killed two of the men on Friday and would kill more unless its demands were met, Al Arabiya television reported on Saturday. The video from Jundollah (God's Soldiers) aired by the television showed two dead bodies lying outdoors. The rebels, whom predominantly Shi'ite Iran has linked to al Qaeda, said in June it had killed two of the prisoners, soon after capturing them. Al Arabiya said Iran had refused to negotiate with the rebel group...(Reuters).
Full Article: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L6394766.htm
From the Office of Michael Rubin at the AEI
[Thanks to Ali Alfoneh for his compilation; (E) designates English link]
Economy
- Behzad Ghareh-Yazi explains how Iran became a net importer of grain.
- According to Agah-Sazi News, blackouts in Iranian cities are due to poor government planning.
Trade
Military and Security
- Azad University Dean Jasbi criticizes the composition of the Basij Resistance Force and says if the armed militia is to play a role in the politics of the Islamic Republic, it should allow all Iranians to join.
- The Islamic Republic commemorates the Masad Operation during in which the Revolutionary Guards pushed back the Mojahedin-e Khalgh's attempt to invade Iran.
Media
Politics
- Parliamentarian and economist Khosh-Chehreh says the president attempts to ascribe economic failures to the Supreme Leader.
- Parvin Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president's sister, wins a car in a bank lottery.
Diplomacy
Photo of the Day
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