Tag Archives: Assault

Major Russian naval deployment to intensify Aleppo assault

A general view taken with a drone shows Aleppo's historic citadel, controlled by forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, as seen from a rebel-held area of Aleppo, Syria

By Robin Emmott

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Russian warships off the coast of Norway are carrying fighter bombers that are likely to reinforce a final assault on the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo in two weeks, a senior NATO diplomat said on Wednesday, citing Western intelligence.

The fleet passed by the Norwegian city of Bergen on Wednesday, the diplomat said, while Russian media has said it will move through the English Channel, past Gibraltar and into the Mediterranean Sea to the Syrian coast.

“They are deploying all of the Northern fleet and much of the Baltic fleet in the largest surface deployment since the end of the Cold War,” the diplomat said on condition of anonymity.

“This is not a friendly port call. In two weeks, we will see a crescendo of air attacks on Aleppo as part of Russia’s strategy to declare victory there,” the diplomat said.

Photos of the vessels have been released by the Norwegian military, taken on Monday. A Norwegian newspaper quoted the head of the Norwegian military intelligence service saying the ships involved “will probably play a role in the deciding battle for Aleppo”.

Russia, which supports Syrian President Bashar al-Assad with an air campaign against the Western rebels in the devastated eastern part of Aleppo, has said the deployment will target Islamic State militants in Syria.

But the NATO diplomat said the additional military firepower was designed to drive out or destroy the 8,000 rebels in Aleppo, the only large city still in opposition hands, and allow Russian President Vladimir Putin to start a withdrawal.

An intensified air campaign in eastern Aleppo, where 275,000 people are trapped, would further worsen ties between Moscow and the West, which says the Kremlin may be responsible for war crimes.

NATO officials also say that strategically, Russia’s air strikes are securing its interests by protecting Assad and Russia’s Syrian port in Tartous, which boosts its access to the Black Sea that it controls after taking the Crimean peninsula.

“With this assault, it should be enough to allow a Russian exit strategy if Moscow believes Assad is now stable enough to survive,” the diplomat said.

The fleet off Norway includes Russia’s only aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov, which is carrying jet fighters, and the Soviet-era nuclear-powered battle cruiser Pyotr Velikiy, or Peter the Great. Other Russian vessels in the group include the anti-submarine warships of the Severomorsk and Vice-Admiral Kulakov and support ships, Russian media has reported.

(Reporting by Robin Emmott; editing by Ralph Boulton)

Ugandian Imam Beats Daughter To Death For Conversion

A 15-year-old girl who converted to Christianity has been beaten to death by her father, a Muslim Imam.

In addition to the killing of Namugonya Jamirah, Imam Abudalah Ali beat his 12-year-old daughter Saidah so severely that she has been hospitalized for two weeks.  The young girl was horrified when she found out that her sister did not survive their father’s attack upon them.

“Saidah needs prayers, trauma counseling and medication for the left side of her hip that was injured by the father,” a hospital source told Morning Star News.

The girls were beaten after accepting Christ at the end of a five-day evangelistic event in Kaliro District.

“Their father got the information that his daughters have converted, and he organized a small group of fellow Muslims, about 17 people, to go and attack the Christians,” a source said. “He found the campaign had finished but went back to his home and waited for the daughters. When they went back home, the father picked up the club and started beating them badly till one called Jamirah died.”

The father had been working to have local Muslims kill the 12-year-old before she was taken from the country for her own safety.

Local Muslim officials said that the father claimed the older girl died in a motorcycle accident and they are not pursing murder charges.

“The police were later bribed and accepted the words of Ali, and he was released on bail,” one source said. “When he came home he went to the [local] chairman and said that he had disowned Saidah, and that if she tries to go back that she will be killed just like her sister, and that he is leaving Saidah in the hands of born-again Christians.”

Woman Attacks Police With Crucifix After Church Vandalism

A Massachusetts woman is under arrest after she vandalized a church and then tried to attack police with a metal crucifix in the same place a church’s nativity scene was vandalized.

The crucifix had been donated after a nearby church was vandalized when a baby Jesus was stolen from their nativity scene and replaced with a severed pig’s head.

Amarellis Cermeno of Haverhill, 54, was arrested on charges including “assault with a deadly weapon, malicious destruction of property and destruction of a place of worship.”

Police were called to La Iglesia Biblica Bautista around 3 p.m. Tuesday after someone had written “666” in large numbers in 15 different places on the church building.  Police found Cermeno nearby carrying a large metal crucifix that she used to attack police.

She is being held without bail.   She is undergoing mental health evaluations.

NY Man Forces Woman To Take Abortion Pill

A New York anesthesiologist is under arrest after police say he forced a woman to take an abortion pill.

Thomas Pfeiffer, 44, reportedly grabbed a woman by the throat, choking her until she opened her mouth.  When she did, he forced an abortion pill into her mouth and made her swallow it.

The woman had told Pfeiffer that she was pregnant because she had taken a home pregnancy test that returned a positive result.

Pfeiffer faces charges of strangulation, abortion and assault.  The strangulation and abortion charges are second degree felonies.  He was placed in county jail on $50,000 bond.

The woman was treated and released from an area hospital.  Police would not release if the woman suffered an abortion because of the drug.

British Citizen Attacked “Knockout Style” in New York

A British citizen who is a Hasidic Jew was brutally attacked on a New York street in what members of the Jewish community are calling another example of the “knockout game.”

While police are refusing to acknowledge the attack was a “knockout” attack, at least one public official says the assault on the 65-year-old man certainly appears to fit the criteria.

“He was attacked from behind by two individuals, brutally attacked,” Democratic New York City Councilman David Greenfield said. “They did not take anything from him, and he was in such bad condition that he had to be hospitalized.”

The man had traveled to New York for a wedding.  He was attacked on the street in Brooklyn as he left the wedding.

The NYPD has increased patrols in the areas where the “knockout game” began in October last year.  Police are reportedly looking at surveillance video of the assault for clues.

Criminal Punches 8-Year-Old In Face For iPad

A grown man who wanted a youngster’s iPad punched an 8-year-old Minneapolis boy in the face.

The boy was following his aunt from a daycare building to the aunt’s car.  Aaron Stillday, 32, ran up to the child, punched him in the face, grabbed the iPad and ran up the street.

Stillday, who has been arrested 60 times, made the mistake of attacking the boy in front of Mohammad Armeli.

Armeli had been working at a nearby restaurant when he saw Stillday attack the child.  Armeli immediately began to chase the thief and followed him for a half a mile.

When Stillday was caught, he responded by smashing the iPad on the sidewalk before he could be subdued.

“This is the scum of the earth,” Armeli said of Stillday.  “You cannot hit a child like that.  Don’t hit him for his iPad, or for anything.”

The good news from the incident:  the Apple Store in Minneapolis, when they were informed of what happened to the boy, gave him a brand new iPad.

Teen Girls Torture Autistic Teen

Two Washington, DC area teenagers are in jail after being arrested on charges related to torturing an autistic boy.

Lauren Bush, 17 and a 15-year-old girl recorded their assaults against the 16-year-old victim.  In addition to forcing him to perform various personal indignities, they stabbed him multiple times and dragged him around by his hair.

They also forced the victim to walk across a partially frozen pond where he fell through the ice multiple times.  The suspects refused to help the boy out of the frigid water and laughed as he struggled to get back onto the  ice surface.

Bush is being charged as an adult.  Both defendants are facing charges of 1st degree assault, 2nd degree assault, production of child pornography and false imprisonment.

Bush and her co-conspirator have not told police why they committed the acts against the boy.