Paris attack victims' testify to 'atrocious lack of preparation'

"We have a thousand questions and we expect answers," said Georges Salines, head of one of several victims' associations represented yesterday at the first of a series of hearings to be held over coming weeks.

Salines, a doctor, said he learned of his daughter's death at the Bataclan concert hall the day after the massacre there of 90 people at the hands of jihadist gunmen.

Recounting how he had heard of the death only indirectly through Twitter, he denounced an "atrocious lack of preparation" in terms of information-sharing on the bloody night itself and over the following days.

The commission of enquiry was set up at the request of the conservative opposition Republican party to look into the Socialist government's efforts to counter the terror threat since the previous set of attacks to rock France -- the assault in January 2015 that began with the killings at the Charlie Hebdo satirical weekly and ended with 17 dead over three days.

The total number of victims from the November attacks, including those left with emotional scars, is estimated at 4,000, according to the commission.

"We are not prosecutors or judges but rather investigators (seeking) transparency... Truth... And solutions," said commission president Georges Fenech.

Many told how they had learned of the death of a loved one only three days later, while others complained of saturated phone lines and employees' "shameful" behaviour at the main Paris morgue, which was overwhelmed.

Sophie Dias recalled that she was told when she came to identify her father at the morgue: "Don't worry, if you don't see the head you'll see a foot."
 Still others questioned French intelligence services.

"How could a terrorist who was barred from France and Europe manage to direct an attack of such magnitude?" asked Mohamed Zenak, the treasurer of another victims' association. He was referring to the suspected ringleader of the attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who was killed in a police raid on November 18.

The Belgian of Moroccan descent had been presumed to be in Syria when he was convicted and sentenced in absentia in July 2015 to 20 years in jail for helping to recruit foreign fighters for Syria. Zenak, whose daughter was injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a bar in eastern Paris, pointed to security failures.

Unbelievable! ISIS militants try to flee Ramadi by shaving beards, dressing up as women!

 

Faced with an onslaught from the Iraqi army in the city of Ramadi, a group of ISIS jihadists tried to flee the fallen city after shaving their beards and dressing up in women's outfits.

That, however, could not save them and the terrorists were arrested by the Iraqi army.

"The terrorists had shaved their beards and dressed as women in a bid to fool our forces and escape the liberated city of Ramadi. However, they were all arrested before escaping the city," the Iraqi security command was quoted as saying by ARA News.

Ramadi was retaken from the ISIS by the Iraqi army on Tuesday – it is the capital of Anbar province.

"Our forces have pushed Daesh (ISIS) militants out of the city's outskirts. Ramadi is now under the full control of the army," Iraqi central command said.

"The militants who remained in the city are now trying to escape at any cost in order to avoid falling in the hands of the government forces," a source said.

"At least nine ISIS jihadis were detained on Wednesday while trying to flee the security checkpoints of the Iraqi forces in Ramadi suburb. They were all dressed as women," the source added.

World has slipped into new Cold War: Russian PM Dmitry Medvedev

With tensions high over the Ukraine conflict and Russia`s backing of the Syrian regime, Medvedev said: "All that`s left is an unfriendly policy of NATO against Russia".

"We can say it even more clearly: We have slid into a new period of Cold War," he said, speaking at the Munich Security Conference.

"Almost every day we are accused of making new horrible threats either against NATO as a whole, against Europe or against the US or other countries."

Medvedev criticised the expansion of NATO and EU influence deep into formerly Soviet-ruled eastern Europe since the end of the Cold War.

"European politicians thought that creating a so-called belt of friends at Europe`s side, on the outskirts of the EU, could be a guarantee of security, and what`s the result?" he said.

"Not a belt of friends but a belt of exclusion."

He added that "creating trust is hard ... but we have to start. Our positions differ, but they do not differ as much as 40 years ago when a wall was standing in Europe."

Former Afghan governor kidnapped in Islamabad

Pakistan is in the grip of a homegrown Taliban insurgency but the tightly-guarded capital has a very low crime rate in general and the F-7/2 sector where Sayed Fazlullah Wahidi was seized is a high security area that houses politicians, bureaucrats and expats.

Wahidi was going to a restaurant in the market with his grandson Friday evening when he was abducted by unidentified men, a police official, who requested anonymity, told AFP

The boy reported the kidnapping to the local police station and said Wahidi was in Islamabad to apply for a British visa, police said.

"We have registered a case against kidnapping of the former Afghan governor and the case is being investigated," Zia-ul-Qamar, a spokesman for the Islamabad police, told AFP.