Police in Turkey have arrested a man trying to sell a smuggled ivory dagger belonging to slain Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi to a Saudi national. The Turkish businessman, identified only as A.A., and two others suspected of being his accomplices were arrested in an anti-smuggling raid in the Esenyurt suburb of Istanbul, state-run Anadolu Agency reported on Monday.

The dagger bejeweled with diamonds, sapphires, emeralds, and rubies was confiscated along with a bespangled scabbard and a base ornate with lion figurines. The Turkish national had reportedly bought the dagger, which was looted from one of Gaddafi’s palaces in 2011, for $4.6 million in Libya three months earlier. He planned to sell the dagger to a Saudi businessman for more than double the price at $10 million.

Presstv

The death toll from a mass murder at a night club in Orlando, Florida, has reached to 50 people, the worst mass shooting in US history. About 53 other people were injured in the shooting, which took place in the Pulse Club on Sunday morning.

The gunman, identified by US media as an alleged Daesh sympathizer named Omar Mateen, took hostages at the club and barricaded himself in the complex but was later killed by specially trained SWAT units. “It appears he was organized and well-prepared,” Orlando Police Chief John Mina said, adding that the assailant had an assault-type weapon and a handgun.

Authorities described the attack as a domestic act of terrorism. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is also involved in the case. According the White House, President Barack Obama was filled in on the shooting and would later on deliver a statement.

Presstv

Italy says over 1300 stranded refugees have been rescued at sea in a single day of naval operations through the Mediterranean. The Italian Coastguard said in a statement on Saturday that 1,348 asylum seekers of various African nationalities were rescued during 11 rescue operations in the stretch of sea between Sicily, Italy’s largest island to the south and North Africa.

The operations, which were coordinated by the Italian coastguard, involved the European Union naval mission Eunavfor Med, the Malta-based NGO Moas and a private tugboat. The refugees, including men, women, children and even toddlers and babies, were all reportedly transferred to Sicily. The picked-up people on Saturday brought the total number of rescued refugees to over 3,000 in the past three days.

Presstv

The UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Cameroon has warned that the security situation in the country is deteriorating at catastrophic rapidity.  In a rare public interview she granted the BBC, Najat Rochdi said Boko Haram jihadists continue to attack villages and agro industrial plants on a daily basis in Cameroon. Najat Rochdi also indicated that the number of displaced Cameroonians has tripled to 190,000, not counting the 60,000 Nigerian refugees and 312,000 Central Africans who have fled violence in their countries.

The UN official stressed that “the impact of the violence is not over”. She made a clarion call on the international community to remain vigilant. For her, Cameroon has eventually become a fertile ground for the recruitment of jihadists. She sounded a note of caution that if humanitarian aid was not channeled to Cameroon, the giant of the Sub Saharan region may witness a radicalization of its youth population.

The atrocities carried out by the Nigerian Islamic sect, Boko Haram has claimed the lives of at least 20,000 people since 2009. A multinational force from Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Benin and Cameroon, has since last year weakened the group. But attacks from the jihadists are far from over.

CIR

The US military has acknowledged bombing a Syrian militant unit it had trained and armed purportedly to fight Daesh terrorists in the country, a report says. The incident was the most serious setback for a controversial Pentagon program that is angling to find new recruits for training after last efforts ended in disaster, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. The Pentagon carried out a series of airstrikes in and around Syria’s northern town of Mare’ on May 27 and May 28. The Mutasim Brigade, a force of US-trained militants, said one of the airstrikes hit the brigade.

The US military said at the time that three strikes had targeted “two separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed two ISIL tactical vehicles and an ISIL vehicle” near Mare’. But Mutasim Brigade’s leaders told The Journal that one of the airstrikes hit the brigade’s fighters while they were battling Daesh terrorists. Ten US-backed militants were killed in the “friendly-fire incident.” Col. Patrick Ryder, a spokesman for the US military’s Central Command, said an investigation had been launched into the incident. “We will continue our support to counter-ISIL forces and will apply any lessons learned derived from the investigation to improve our operations in the future,” Col. Ryder added.

It is unclear why the US military chose not to disclose the errant airstrike earlier. Col. Ryder told the Journal that the “dynamic and complex nature of the battlefield” led to a lag time in reporting.The US military acknowledged last year that a $500 million program to train and equip militants for Syria had managed to produce only a handful of fighters. The mission was halted under mounting pressure from members of Congress. However, new training efforts were launched this year for more “vetted” recruits. Daesh terrorists, who were among the militants initially trained by the CIA in Jordan in 2012 to destabilize the Syrian government, now control parts of Iraq and Syria. They are engaged in heinous crimes against humanity in territories under their control.

Presstv