Two Palestinians have been killed and four wounded during an overnight Israeli army raid on the Qalandiya refugee camp in the central occupied West Bank. Ahmed Jahajha, 21, and Hikmet Hamdan, 29, were both shot dead by Israeli forces before dawn on Wednesday morning. While inside the camp, Israeli troops raided a local medical centre and clashed with youth, according to locals.
The rights group B’Tselem decried Israel’s “excessive and unwarranted use of lethal gunfire” as its forces killed seven more Palestinians in the last week, and a woman died of her injuries after being shot at a checkpoint in November.
Abdallah Nasasra, 15, was killed near the Huwwara military checkpoint outside the northern West Bank city of Nablus on Thursday, 17 December.
Today it was reported that Rojavan Kurds (of northern Syria) are heading north to cross the Turkish border to offer help to their beleagured cousins in North Kurdistan, which has been under constant attack by the Turkish military for some weeks. Unfortunately, this means that the frontline forces fighting ISIS in Syria will be temporarily weakened as a consequence of Turkey’s warmongering (though perhaps that’s the intention of Turkey, a NATO member, in order that its precious oil supplies from ISIS are not further disrupted). In the meantime we report from the frontline: interviews with YPJ combatants in Arif (Rojava).
Combatants from the 2nd Mobile Unit of the Women’s Defence Units (YPJ) who are undertaking some of the most significant defence acts in their area of operation by demonstrating their intent to protect the civilian population of the village Bene, Sherawa District, Afrin Canton, Rojava, Syria, were asked for their…
Pete Simpson was remanded on the 17th December 2015. He is awaiting trial for ‘violent disorder’ after being attacked & arrested by police at an anti-cuts mayday demonstration in Cardiff, South Wales. He is on trial with another co-defendant in January 2016. Pete has spent the last several months with an electronic tag, his freedom severely restricted, and a change of bail address led to the court remanding him to prison.
Please write to Pete at: Peter Simpson A6060CF, HMP CARDIFF, Knox Rd, Cardiff, WALES, CF24 0UG
Stamps, envelopes, writing paper & books are also welcome. As well as any donations. Banner pictures, dedicated actions & other forms of solidarity are also invited from comrades across the world.
We also recommend using emailaprisoner.com if you are writing from abroad.
For any queries please email bristol_abc@riseup.net
U.S. Air Force Hires Private Companies to Fly Drones in War Zones*
By Chris Thompson
Reaper drone in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Photo: Defence Images.
U.S. Air Force officials has begun to hire private companies to fly drone aircraft operating over Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. The unprecedented move is in response to demands from the Obama administration to dramatically expand the drone war just as the Pentagon faces a critical shortage of military pilots.
As a result, civilian pilots will directly participate in military operations for the first time since the drone wars began about a decade ago. According to the Los Angeles Times, the Air Force signed contracts with two private companies in 2015 to provide enough pilots to fly two “combat air patrols” or 24-hour surveillance flights that would involve as many as eight MQ-9 Reaper drones per day. The Air Force plans to eventually expand its fleet of…
Due to the dramatic situation at the eastern external borders of the EU,the Moroccan-Spanish setting tends to be eclipsed. But West and Central African migrants in the north of Morocco still suffer oppression and racist violence on their way to Europe.
Tapped is about the negative health and environmental effects of bottled water, and the obscene greed and dishonesty of multinational bottling companies like Nestle, Coke and Pepsi. With the recent decline in soft drink sales (owing to health concerns), the world’s biggest soft drink companies have latched onto the bottled water scam. According to the filmmakers, 40% of bottled water is actually bottled tap water. Acquafina (bottled tap water) is the major Pepsi brand. Dasani is made by Coke.
The Citizens Movement Against Water Mining
The film opens with a snapshot of citizen campaigns in Maine, Colorado and Michigan trying to stop the Swiss food giant Nestle from emptying their fresh water aquifers – free of charge – and selling it back to them for 1900 times the cost of tap water.
Reaper drone in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Photo: Defence Images. 
The Free 