The Jungle Media
gq:
Natural Born Killers
Women get flustered under fire. They’re too fragile, too emotional. They lack the ferocity required to take a life. They can’t handle pain. They’re a distraction, a threat to cohesion, a provocative tease to close-quartered men. These are the sort of myths you hear from people who oppose the U.S. military’s evolving new rules about women in combat, who have earned medals fighting alongside men, the war stories they tell don’t sound a thing like myths.
The most extensive study yet by the U.S. government on suicide among military veterans shows more veterans are killing themselves than previously thought, with 22 deaths a day - or one every 65 minutes, on average.
//Shit just got real. This article is from a month ago.
#collatoraldamage
(Source: racetobitchmountain)
Iraq: 30+ Dead After Synchronized Bombings in Baghdad →
BAGHDAD: Multiple car bombs exploded within minutes of each other as Iraqis were out shopping in and around Baghdad on Sunday, killing at least 37 people and wounding more than 100 in mainly Shiite areas.
The explosions struck at the start of the local work week and primarily targeted outdoor markets.
The detonation of a parked car loaded with explosives in the sprawling Shiite district of Sadr City heralded the start of the bloody attacks on Sunday morning.
Two more parked cars later exploded elsewhere in the neighbourhood.Simultaneous explosions hit the southeastern Baghdad neighbourhood of Al Amin, where the force of the blasts left behind little except the mangled chassis of two cars that delivered their payloads.
Johnny Mad Dog
(Reuters) - At least 33 people were killed in the Iraqi city of Kirkuk on Sunday when a suicide bomber detonated a truck packed with explosives outside a police headquarters and gunmen disguised as officers tried to storm the compound. →
The blast was the third major attack in weeks in or near the multiethnic city of Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen, at the heart of a dispute between Iraq’s central government and the autonomous Kurdistan region.
The Latest in a Surge of Violence in Iraq →
Baghdad - At least 23 people were killed and 49 were wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up among members of a local Awakening Council in Taji, Iraq, on Monday.
Dozens of members of the council had lined up outside an office to receive monthly paychecks when the attacker detonated an explosive vest in the crowd. Most of those killed or wounded were members of the council, or al-Sahwa.
Taji is about 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of Baghdad.
Meanwhile, in a separate incident in a western Baghdad neighborhood, a police officer was killed and three were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near their patrol.
World War III is on the Horizon
Yesterday, Israel blew up a purported arms convoy on its way out of Syria. The attack, which killed at least two Syrians, apparently was aimed at stopping the weapons from falling into the hands of Israel’s enemies. Israeli officials are saying this attack is part of larger plans to counter Iran and its proxies under the leadership of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who was re-elected last week. If this is true this attack on Syria signals a significant escalation of Israel’s campaign against Iran and its allies in the Middle East, and a whole lot of bloodshed is likely to follow.
Details are sketchy but the convoy just outside of Damascus may have been carrying Russian Surface-to-Air missiles, the AP reported, and Israel doesn’t want those to be used against its air force in any future attack. Israel may have acted just before bad weather and cloud cover obscured the convoy’s movements.
It’s fair to ask why, amidst the civil war currently tearing Syria to pieces, anyone would want to ship weapons out of that country? And Israel would tell you that it’s Iran, using the cover of the Syrian war to help arm its nemesis in Lebanon, the Tehran-backed Shiite militia Hezbollah.
Only Israel officials aren’t saying that. Their officials are not saying anything at all and reports of the Syria strike are so far coming only from unnamed Western diplomatic sources. But the attack, which was also confirmed by Syrian rebels, comes after Israel warned Hezbollah not to use the turmoil in Syria to try to acquire any anti-aircraft or chemical weapons that may have shaken loose in the dust-up. Much the same way that Israel pointed its finger at Iran during the recent conflict in Gaza, in which Iranian-made Fajr-5 rockets did some serious damage to areas in central Israel that hadn’t been targeted by rocket fire since the days of the Gulf War. Those rockets, Israel alleges, where at least in part smuggled through the post-Mubarak turmoil of the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt, which Gaza borders and in which almost 50 people have died in clashes with security forces in the last week.
KABUL, Afghanistan: Deadly Nine Hour Siege on Police Headquarters →
Two Taliban suicide bombers blew themselves up at the gates of the Kabul traffic police headquarters early Monday before another group of militants stormed the compound, battling security forces for nine hours in an attack that left three policemen and all five attackers dead, authorities said.
The coordinated assault was the second brazen raid in the heart of the Afghan capital in less than a week, a sign that the insurgency is determined to keep carrying out such spectacular attacks even as the U.S. and Afghan governments try to coax the Taliban into holding peace talks.
Nine hours after Monday’s insurgent attack began with two of the five attackers blowing themselves up, police commandos killed the last two insurgents holed up in the police headquarters, Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqi said. He added that four traffic policemen and 10 civilians were also been wounded in the fighting.
View Larger Members of the Free Syrian Army pose with their weapons and a snowman at the Jouret al Shayah area in Homs January 10, 2013
Pictures of the civil war happening in Syria, with many civilian casualties. Some of the pictures are really eye-opening. It makes you realize how lucky most of us are, we don’t have to worry about being shot by sniper fire while crossing the street or bombs literally falling on our houses. That’s not an anti-war comment, just an observation.
There’s many more, some much more graphic, as well with captions here.
//post improvement
When did you first hear about the Free Syrian Army?
The first I heard about the FSA was on TV.
Do you have family who is also fighting?
My entire family is fighting.
How did you join? What is the name of your battalion, and how was it formed?|
I cannot mention the name of the battalion, but it was formed by neighborhood residents.
What qualifications does one need to fight as part of the FSA?
Anyone can join the FSA.
How is it organized? How are decisions made in your battalion?
We make decisions collectively.
Who decides where and when you will fight?
All of us decide, together, about the fighting.
