Lebanese border town attacked
Syrian rebels attack the Lebanese border town of Arsil in an apparent attempt to free a militant, Imad Ahmad Jomaa, detained a day earlier by Lebanese security forces. Army statement:
What happened today is the most dangerous incident Lebanon and the Lebanese have ever faced because it’s made clear that there is someone planning and preparing to attack Lebanon as well as planning to sabotage the Lebanese Army and the residents of Arsal
Orders genital mutilation
The United Nations says that militant group Islamic State had ordered all girls and women in and around Iraq’s northern city of Mosul to undergo female genital mutilation. Doubts emerged on social media about the basis for the report. One document posted on Twitter suggested it may be a year old and have been issued by the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant, the group’s previous name. Humanitarian coordinator in Iraq Jacqueline Badcock:
We have current reports of imposition of a directive that all female girl children and women up to the age of 49 must be circumcised. This is something very new for Iraq, particularly in this area, and is of grave concern and does need to be addressed.
500 Palestinians, 20 Israelis dead
At least 500 Palestinians and 20 Israelis have been killed and tens of thousands of Gaza residents have been displaced in two weeks of fighting between Israel and Hamas, with more than half of the Palestinian victims – 268 people – killed in the first five days of the ground offensive of Operation Protective Edge.
13 killed
A total of 13 Golani Brigade soldiers are killed in a single morning of operations in Gaza while brigade commander Col. Gen. Rasan Alian is moderately wounded in an exchange of fire and hospitalized in Soroka University Medical Center in Beersheba. A timeline released by the Israel Defense Forces:
1:05 a.m., an armored personnel carrier catches fire after an explosive device is set off under it. Seven soldiers are killed. Reportedly, the APC was not fitted with armor that could withstand this type of blast.
1:30 a.m., a soldier is killed when two soldiers get into a firefight with terrorists.
5:45 a.m., another Golani force gets into a firefight with terrorists. Two soldiers are killed.
8:50 a.m., three soldiers are killed when a Golani squad is caught inside a burning building.
27 more bodies recovered
Vice Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman reports that 27 more bodies have been recovered from the crash site, bring the number of recovered bodies to 233. He adds that the rebel separatists are keeping the remains of 192 victims in refrigerated train cars and that there are ongoing talks pertaining to the release of those remains.
McCole Bartusiak dead at 21
McCole Bartusiak ‘s boyfriend finds Bartusiak sitting in her bed inside the garage apartment next to her parents’ Houston home, leading her mother to believe she had a seizure and choked. Before paramedics arrived, her mother starts cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Paramedics spent 45 minutes trying to revive the actress, but could not get a heartbeat. Bartusiak’s mother:
I’ve done CPR on that kid more than one time, and it just didn’t work this time
In the days before she died McCole Bartusiak had been suffering epileptic seizures, according to her mother.
Suspect found dead
A Libyan source claims Faraj al-Shibli, who is suspected to have been involved in the Benghazi attack, dies. His body is found in Marj, where he was last seen two days ago being detained by local militia. Libyan authorities detained al-Shibli in March of 2013 on suspicion of links to the attack, and it is not clear if he was at the US compound at the time of the attack.
Found dead, apparent suicide
Mayfield is found dead inside of his home in Ridgeland, Mississippi. Apparently a suicide, Mayfield died of a gunshot wound to the head. Ridgeland Police Chief:
Because all of the indications, it appears to be suicide, but we still got some things to look into. He left a suicide note, and we are verifying its validity.
Expels Shiite Turkmen from villages
ISIS expels Shiite Turkmen from villages in an operation that leaves between 15 and 25 people dead including an old man and a woman, children and youths. The attacks take place in neighbouring Chardaghli, Brawchi and Karanaz 50 miles south of Kirkuk in Salahduin province, which links west to Baghdad, as well as Beshir, 30 miles north of the other three villages. Residents from each village say that after they left, their Sunni neighbors burned down their homes, set fire to their wheat, and stole their sheep, while insurgents blew up some Shiite mosques. Hassan Ali, a 52-year-old farmer who has fled to Kirkuk:
You cannot imagine what happened, only if you saw it could you believe it
Around 7,000 Shiites fleeing Beshir come under sniper fire as they pass neighboring Sunni villages. Residents of three Sunni northern villages also abandon their homes to flee into Sunni-majority areas through fear of reprisals.
Takes four strategic towns
ISIS takes four strategic towns located along a highway from Syria to Baghdad and could help the militants gain control of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. Iraqi forces withdrew from Haditha, about 270 kilometers (about 168 miles) northwest of Baghdad, during the overnight hours. Sunni tribes considered friendly to the Iraqi army took over security for the town, but officials believe it will fall to ISIS. Iraq’s military spokesman, Maj. Gen. Qassim Atta, told reporters there was a “strategic withdrawal” in some areas but did not detail the specific locations.
Critical condition after crash
Morgan and Jeffrey Millea are airlifted to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick and is in critical condition following a 5-car pile-up. Their chauffeured limousine bus was struck from behind by a Walmart truck. New Jersey State police say they believe the Walmart truck driver was dozing and failed to see traffic slowing in front of him before it was too late – rear-ending the Mercedes limo-bus and prompting a chain-reaction crash with a second tractor-trailer, an SUV and two cars. The limo rotated clockwise and flipped over. Police say:
Driver failed to observe slow-moving traffic ahead. He observed at the last minute – just prior to impact – the limo bus carrying Morgan and his party.
McNair, one of Morgan’s writers, dies in the crash. Two other comedians traveling in the bus, Harris Stanton and Ardie Fuqua, were also injured. Morgan’s driver, Tyrone Gale says:
I climbed around and heard Tracy screaming for help. I climbed up on the body of the limo bus…but I couldn’t reach them.
Expelled from Deir Ezzor
Rival opposition groups including the Al Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra Front expel ISIS from the province of Deir Ezzor. The oil-producing province is also a key conduit for weapons across the Iraqi border. The Al-Nusra Front, which has largely stayed out of conflicts with ISIS, joined about 10 other militant groups to expel the extremist faction.
Withdraws from Aleppo
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports that ISIS’s headquarters in Aleppo have been overtaken by rival opposition:
Fighters from several Islamist rebel brigades took control of the children’s hospital in the Qadi Askar district, which is the headquarters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in the city.
The extremist group has effectively abandoned the area:
ISIL withdrew from the Inzarat area after clashes with fighters from rebel… brigades, and the post office building was taken over by Islamist rebel fighters … There are hardly any ISIL members left in the city of Aleppo.
Ousted from Raqaa
Mainstream rebel groups force ISIS out of Anbar provincial capital Raqaa, freeing at least 50 hostages that include journalists and aid workers taken captive by the group. ISIS remains in control of the Anbar cities of Ramadi and Falluja – where it is surrounded by the Iraqi military – but the fall of Raqaa means it has lost much of the territory in Turkish border areas that it has held for six months after seizing it from the other rebel groups. Many ISIS members are now said to be defecting to join Syrian Al Qaeda arm the Al-Nusra Front or more mainstream rebel groups including the remnants of the Free Syrian Army.
Ousted from Aleppo, Idlib
Rival opposition factions strike back at ISIS after its moves to seize territory they have claimed from regime forces in Aleppo and Idlib provinces. Raqqa-based Sham News Network media activist Abu Bakr:
The rebels have achieved tremendous progress against ISIS in all the points of conflict, liberating more than 80% of the Idlib countryside and 65% of Aleppo and its countryside
Mohammad Hassano, an activist in the town of Azaz:
People just couldn’t take it anymore, after all the kidnapping and arrests and attacks against the [Free Syrian Army]. People were very angry at them, but there was hesitation in fighting them because of the priority of fighting the regime.
French Polynesia outbreak
The Zika virus races through the many islands of French Polynesia, including Tahiti and Bora Bora. In early 2014, it moves to the Cook Islands, just to the west, and New Caledonia, close to Australia. It also leapt to Easter Island, home of the giant stone heads, officially arrival in the Western Hemisphere.
Captures town from rival opposition
ISIS fighters seize the northern town of Azaz near the Turkish border from Free Syrian Army forces, causing confusion among the ranks of the opposition. FSA spokesman Loay al-Mikdad says the group took the town from Assad regime forces in self-defence and questions why ISIS are storming an area that is already ‘liberated’:
They said they came to defend the Syrian people. Now they have turned their guns away from fighting the regime to fighting the Syrian people.
Asked to leave northern town
Six of Syria’s main rebel factions ask ISIS to withdraw from the town of Azaz, near the Turkish border, which it captured several days earlier from Free Syrian Army rebels. The statement asks “our brothers in ISIL to withdraw their troops and vehicles to their main headquarters immediately” and implement an “immediate ceasefire” in the area. Signed by the Ahrar al-Sham, Liwa al-Tawhid and Jaysh al-Islam factions, and the smaller Suqur al-Sham, Furqan Brigades and Liwa al-Haq groups, it comes hours after the group clashes with the mainstream Northern Front Alliance and sends fighters towards a border post. ISIS and the Northern Front are asked to…
…resort immediately to the Islamic court, which will remain in session in Aleppo for 48 hours
Forced to watch snuff videos
Human Rights Watch says ISIS forced 153 boys as young as 14 in Kobani to watch videos of beheadings and crucifixions while listening to religious lectures, and flogged them with cables for not paying attention. Former prisoner:
Those who didn’t conform to the program were beaten. They beat us with a green hose or a thick cable with wire running through it. They also beat the soles of our feet.
Sends ‘Cancerman’ emails
Keys sends a series of emails to his colleagues at Fox 40, under aliases related to the TV show, The X Files. The “Cancerman emails” outline various grievances the writer has with the company’s ethics, including claims that the station dropped a news story because the subject threatened to pull its advertisements, and that the station invaded viewers’ privacy through a contest email promotion. Keys then sends emails to the contest email list about KTXL Fox 40’s perceived misconduct. Fox40, already on edge from the threats, spends hours fielding emails from upset viewers. Later Keys admits to sending the emails saying:
The emails was, was to be antagonistic, you know…It was more or less hooliganism.