Malian Army in a major fight against AQIM

The campaign begun in mid June by the Army of Mali against al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) insurgents is still on, and the fighting has taken a more difficult turn. Patrol battles near Tessalit in the north over the weekend have now been reported:

"The army fought very deadly clashes with Islamists on July 3 and 4 northeast of (the northern town of) Timbuktu. After very heavy fighting, there were losses on both sides," the army said late on Sunday. The statement gave no details on the death toll.

A military source said dozens had died in the two attacks and an army colonel was amongst the estimated 20 soldiers who went missing.

"We don't know if he is dead or has been taken hostage," the source, who asked not to be named, told Reuters.

Other media sources (AllAfrica; BBC Africa) consulted have nothing further on this item.

As a reminder, Mali is a partner nation to the Trans Sahara Counter Terrorism Partnership (TSCTP) program, as is the United States under AFRICOM's Operation Enduring Freedom Trans Sahara portion of the GWOT.

More on the Malaysia-North Korea Bank matter

In this report on statements by the Chief of U.S. Naval Operations (CNO), Adm. Gary Roughead, made in Seoul after his meetings with South Korean official, a few other little tidbits of information were tucked in:

Malaysia, meanwhile, pledged Monday to work with the United States to block the North from using the Southeast Asian nation's banks to fund any weapons deals. Foreign Minister Anifah Aman said his government "does not condone" any illegal activities.

The assurance came as Philip Goldberg, a U.S. envoy in charge of coordinating the implementation of sanctions against Pyongyang, met with Malaysian officials.

South Korean media have reported that North Korea sought payment through a bank in Malaysia for the suspected shipment of weapons to Myanmar via the Kang Nam I.

That would be the Kang Nam 1 we've often mentioned here; one of 5 numbered ships of that series.

The possibility that Malaysia is willing to work with a financial sanctions regime is of great note. They have in the past been one of the more reliable routes for dictators and banned regimes to funnel money around. Choosing to "not condone" illegal activities is a great step forward. Of course, freezing accounts would be a better step; maybe that will come next.

Freedom for Iran - 6.July Update

The Opposition has not conceded even in the face of some very significant pressure to pack it in.

The most significant development in the challenge to the Election of June 12th is The 4th Statement by the Association of Researchers and Teachers of Qom Seminary. This is not a part of the government, but the Qom School is the heart and soul of Iranian Shi'a teaching and to have the philosophical basis of the current government call the election illegitimate is a strong blow:

Some of the clerics and lawyers who are the members of the Guardian Council had expressed their opinion months ago and distorted their impartiality in the eyes of the people. A judge who takes sides in a case has no right to judge that case. Therefore, it is startling to see that the public treasury was used in the eyes of everyone to promote a candidate extensively for the elections and government facilities were used to gain votes.

Sources report that the next major attempt at organizing Oppo protests will come on July 9th.

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More on the Association of Researchers and Teachers statement by Reuel Marc Gerecht who sees this as not just strong, but shattering.

The Weekly N&C for July 6th, 2009

***The Weekly is on hold while the queue of current events runs down***

For those of you who are fans of The Weekly for its historical context items, here are a couple of Birthday remembrances from recent days for you to investigate at your leisure:

June 5th... Cecil John Rhodes. (You had to know I'd mention this one)

The Cape to Cairo Railroad plan; the successful counterclaim against Portuguese efforts to span Southern Africa with colonial holdings; and in his will, the Rhodes Scholarship.

June 6th... John Paul Jones.

For all practical purposes, the founder of the United States Navy; Captain of the Ranger and the Bon Homme Richard (Bonhomme Richard); Probably as famous on the Island of Texel, North Holland, as in the U.S.A.; The American memorial to him stands in West Potomac Park of Washington D.C.

(Links intentionally not provided to encourage your own efforts)

Enjoy your selves!

Sunday Night Push

*Whew*, what a week, ne?

Several perfectly noteworthy stories got pushed to the research archive rather than posted here simply because there has been so much going on that requires attention.

Anyway...

Here's your place to start something of your own interest. This thread is left open to comments for folks to make their own fun or leave messages for me about breaking news events. The usual rules still apply: play nice.

It has been an astounding week for visitors at CompHyp, again rising over even last week's solid numbers. I remain impressed that folks find this to be of use and interest, and you have my thanks for visiting.

A particular thanks goes out to Rantburg.com which has kindly made CompHyp one of their Blog Spotlight items:

"Via Legal Insurrection, this blog seems to offer sensible, factual analysis of world events. Based on the few posts of his that I read, it's prolly worth bookmarking."

Thank you, Seafarious, and thanks again to the relationship chain of Legal Insurrection, Honduras Abandoned, and Fausta's Blog for getting CompHyp noticed in new places. I remain in your debt, All.

Bonus Thank You: Fausta has also linked CompHyp over at Right Pundits.

Now let's see if I can be worthy of all the attention.

Xinjiang riots worse than first reported

First reports in the People's Republic of China news outlets sounded bad, but not overwhelmingly bad by Chinese standards...

China says a riot that shook the capital of western Xinjiang region on Sunday was a plot against its power, after at least three people died in the eruption of ethnic unrest and authorities launched a crackdown.

Hundreds of locals took to the streets of the regional capital, Urumqi, some burning and smashing vehicles and confronting ranks of police and anti-riot troops.

Not so fast there.

It seems that there was a *bit* more to it than that:

Violence in China's restive western region of Xinjiang has left 129 people dead, state media say - a sharp increase on an earlier reported toll.

Some sources are putting an even higher number of deaths, but those are not yet second-sourced.

This matters, besides the obvious matter of more than a hundred dead people, in that Xinjiang is the western border territory held by the P.R.C., is a vital part of their energy and resource development plans, and is a little less than half-populated by Uighur (Uyghur)... the Turkic people shared across Central Asia... and they (collectively) haven't exactly taken well to being a part of Han-dominated China. There are perfectly peaceful nationalist Uighur groups, but there are some bad apples as well (cf. East Turkestan Islamic Movement) that have ended up on the wrong side of the GWOT, and then there are armed liberation groups.

The P.R.C. government finds it useful to lump them all under the "terrorist" label, and treats the problem as such.

There may not be that many "terrorist" Uighurs out there, but after today, there may well be more rebels.

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UPDATE 6.July, late

The death toll is over 156, and official P.R.C. sources put the number arrested at 1,434. Protests have spread in the region, but there has been a massive movement of security forces to counter this uprising.

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Zelaya thinks he can force the issue

...by trying to go back to Honduras.

He couldn't get any of his ALBA buddies to get on the airplane with him, nor would the OAS leader. That pretty much rules out the "300 journalists" on the flight, too, although there are certainly seats available now.

He is said to have gotten Miguel D'Escoto, the former regional troublemaker now supposedly gainfully employed as the U.N. General Assembly president, to go with him.

The Honduran Government-in-place is not taking this lightly. Furthermore, given the raft of indictments against M. Zelaya, if he does reach the ground he should be arrested. If D'Escoto would like, he can waive whatever diplomatic immunity he has and be arrested too, but he'd have to ask nicely.

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UPDATE ~1700hrs ('blogtime):

Roughly four hours ago Spanish language media had the aircraft landed in El Salvador. That may well have been a refueling.

In the last hour, Honduras ATC warned off the flight, then Zelaya claimed the flight was circling the airport at Tegucigalpa but the runway was blocked. He shortly thereafter claimed the flight was redirecting "to El Salvador" which doesn't quite jibe with having been their just before... and now the announcement comes that he will be landing in Managua, Nicaragua.

I didn't know Kabuki was popular in Latin America... sheesh.

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If you have time to read one more source... Read Hunter Smith at Honduras Abandoned. His updates #4 and #5 for today are the best on-the-scene reporting out there right now. Shame on the major media outlets...

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Hunter Smith called it, and I got lucky on spotting the staged Reuters wirephoto as it came in. Both he and William A. Jacobson at Legal Insurrection have kindly tipped the hat to CompHyp for this. Thank you both, gents.

There is reasonable confirmation from multiple sources of 1 dead in the encounter at the airport perimeter fence (*not* the main body of the demonstration, the agitators that pressed on past the stop-line), there may well be 2 dead. What isn't in yet are the medic reports on cause of death. That's another one for us to look to those on-scene to get news out on.

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More on this as it comes in.

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