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At Not Just The News, the privacy of our visitors is of extreme importance to us (See this article to learn more about Privacy Policies.). This privacy policy document outlines the types of personal information is received and collected by Not Just The News and how it is used.
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Iraqi troops will delay assaulting the militant-held city of Fallujah, an officer said Tuesday, citing fear of civilian casualties, as fighting and missile strikes in nearby Ramadi killed 29 people.
Parts of Ramadi — the capital of Anbar province, west of Baghdad — and all of Fallujah have been outside government control since last week.
It is the first time militants have exercised such open control in major cities since the height of the insurgency that followed the 2003 US-led invasion.
“It is not possible to assault (Fallujah) now” over concerns about civilian casualties, defense ministry spokesman Staff Lieutenant General Mohammed al-Askari told AFP.
Attacking the Sunni-majority city would also be extremely politically sensitive, as it would inflame already high tensions between the Sunni Arab minority and the Shia-led government.
It would also be a major test for Iraqi security forces, which have yet to undertake such a major operation without the backing of American troops.
Overnight, security forces and allied tribesmen sought to retake south Ramadi from fighters loyal to Al Qaeda-linked group the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, but the assault failed.
“Security forces and armed tribesmen tried last night to enter areas controlled by ISIL fighters in the south of the city,” a police captain told AFP.
“Clashes between the two sides began about 11 p.m. last night and continued until 6 a.m.,” he said, adding that “security forces were not able to enter these areas and ISIL fighters are still in control.”
Four civilians were killed and 14 wounded, said Ramadi hospital’s Dr Ahmed Abdul Salam, who had no casualty figures for security forces or militants.
Later Tuesday, missile strikes in Ramadi killed 25 militants, Askari said.
Three loud explosions were heard outside Fallujah early Tuesday, a witness said, as the army deployed reinforcements.
“Today, the army sent new reinforcements, including tanks and vehicles, to an area about 10 miles east of Fallujah,” a police captain told AFP.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has called on residents to expel ISIL to stave off a military offensive.
But senior tribal leader Sheikh Ali al-Hammad told AFP Monday ISIL had left Fallujah, and that it was now held by tribesmen.
US working with Iraq to isolate Al Qaeda
As violence in Anbar entered its second week, the Pentagon said Washington would accelerate delivery of 100 Hellfire missiles, which were due to be sent to Iraq in the next few months.
Colonel Steven Warren said an additional 10 ScanEagle surveillance drones would also be supplied.
Warren said Washington was working with Iraq to develop a “holistic strategy to isolate Al Qaeda-affiliated groups so the tribes working with the security forces can drive them out of the populated areas.”
But he reiterated statements by US Secretary of State John Kerry that no American forces would enter the fray.
Fighting erupted near Ramadi on December 30, when security forces cleared a year-old protest camp where Sunni Arabs had demonstrated against what they see as the marginalization and targeting of their community by the government in Baghdad.
The violence spread to Fallujah, and militants moved in and seized the city after security forces withdrew. Maliki had long sought the closure of the protest camp, dubbing it a “headquarters for the leadership of Al Qaeda.”
But its removal has come at the cost of a sharp decline in Anbar’s security situation.
Both Ramadi and Fallujah were insurgent strongholds in the years after 2003, and Fallujah was the target of two major assaults in which US forces saw some of their heaviest fighting since the Vietnam War.
They eventually wrested back control of Anbar from militants, with the support of Sunni Arab tribesmen who formed the Sahwa (Awakening) militias, which allied with US troops against Al-Qaeda from late 2006.
But two years after US forces withdrew from Iraq, Sunni militants have regained strength, bolstered by the war in neighboring Syria and widespread Sunni Arab anger with the central government.
Iraq also suffered violence outside Anbar on Tuesday, when a suicide bomber detonating an explosives-rigged vehicle near a police station in the northern city of Kirkuk, killing four people and wounding 56.
A Supreme Court justice has blocked implementation of portions of President Obama’s health care law that would have forced some religion-affiliated organizations to provide health insurance for employees that includes birth control.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s decision came Tuesday night after a different effort by Catholic-affiliated groups from around the nation. Those groups rushed to the federal courts to stop Wednesday’s start of portions of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.
Sotomayor acted on a request from an order of Catholic nuns in Colorado, whose request for a stay had been denied by the lower courts.
Sotomayor is giving the government until Friday morning to respond to her decision.
A high volume of holiday packages overwhelmed shipping and logistics company UPS, the company said on Wednesday, delaying the arrival of Christmas presents around the globe and sending angry consumers to social media to vent.
A collision of factors, including a higher volume than expected and recent patches of bad weather, caused the delays, UPS spokeswoman Natalie Black said.
The company projected 132 million deliveries last week “and obviously we exceeded that,” Black said, without disclosing how many packages had been sent.
“For now, UPS is really focused on delivering the remaining packages,” Black said. “You might not see trucks, but people are working.”
Customers awaiting deliveries should expect packages on Thursday or Friday, and those with delivery guarantees will get the appropriate refunds, she said.
In addition, packages shipped via UPS for Amazon Prime customers, who pay $ 79 a year for 2-day shipping, can ask for additional refunds – Amazon’s stated policy for missed deliveries is to offer a free one-month extension of Prime.
UPS had not yet coordinated with Amazon yet, nor has it determined what percentage of the undelivered packages were from Amazon, Black said.
“If customers from Amazon were impacted, we’ll work with Amazon to resolve that,” she said.
Frustrated consumers took to social media, with some complaining that gifts purchased for their children would not arrive in time to make it under the tree by Christmas morning.
“Really @UPS would have been better had you delivered our package yesterday like it was scheduled,” tweeted a user named Heather Bender, who added the hashtags #UPSFail and #NoSantaGiftForMySon.
“Package was delayed in transit & not received as guaranteed. Disappointed 9 year old,” said a Twitter user named Jennifer Marten.
Others on social media urged shoppers to be more appreciative of the delivery company’s work during the holiday season.
“While others take vacation and time off in December, remember we aren’t allowed ever to be off in December. Ever,” Donny Ratcliffe, who identified himself as a UPS driver for the last 20 years, said on the UPS Facebook page.
“So when you see your family and complain that your package is held up, everyone who moves your package is working and doesn’t get the Xmas experience you get. Be thankful for that,” he added.
People are really aggravated, children are crying”
End Quote Alena Kontza Passenger
A passenger who said he had been waiting five hours at London’s Gatwick airport said people were “crying, distraught and angry”.
“One passenger has missed their sister’s wedding,” Tom Flatman, from Brighton, told the BBC.
‘Not good enough’
By midday, air traffic controllers had dealt with 2,800 flights rather than the usual 3,500 on a normal Saturday.
Ryanair has 100 flights affected to and from the south of England, with 10 flights cancelled. It called on the Civil Aviation Authority to act.
“While we acknowledge problems can occur, where is the contingency? It’s simply not good enough and the CAA needs to act now,” it said in a statement.
Heathrow had cancelled 60 flights by 09:45 GMT, with these split between arrivals and departures.
Meanwhile:
British Airways said the technical problems had already led to flight cancellations and warned that they “will cause delays to some flights”
EasyJet said although the majority of its morning flights had departed, “severe delays” and possible cancellations could be expected later
Nats said the problem at its Swanwick centre, in Hampshire, arose in the early hours of Saturday morning when the night-time operation failed to properly switch over to the daytime system.
Something as simple as a broken internal telephone system has brought delays and cancellations for thousands of travellers today.
The controllers at the air traffic control centre in Swanwick, Hampshire, use it to swap important data about aircraft, it’s vital to help them perform their job even though many of them are sitting in the same room.
That system failed to work this morning as they tried to switch from the quieter, night time mode, to the busier daytime mode.
It meant they couldn’t open all the work stations needed to cope with a normal Saturday, so they’ve been running a reduced service ever since.
Instead of 3,500 flights, they’ve only be able to process 2,800 or so.
Nats tell me they’ve never had this problem before, and that it’s totally different to a computer glitch that caused some delays last summer.
Even so airline Ryanair isn’t happy at having to cancel and disrupt so many flights. In a statement it acknowledges that problems occur, but asks the question “where is the contingency?”
It’s the airlines that normally pick up the bill for compensation.
“At night we manage quite big sectors of airspace because the traffic demand is low,” Nats operations manager Juliet Kennedy said.
“During the day, as demand increases, we need to split the airspace into smaller sectors – last night we were unable to open new positions.
“It was a problem with the internal telephone system.”
She said she expected it to be fixed between 1800 and 1830 GMT but that how long disruption to flight schedules would continue depended on the individual airlines.
She added that there had been no impact safety.
The BBC’s transport correspondent Richard Westcott said it was a totally different issue to a software problem that hit the control centre in summer.
Ms Kennedy added: “We want to apologise to people. We are very aware of how much inconvenience this has caused people.”
‘Shambolic’
Belfast, Edinburgh, Manchester, Birmingham, Southampton, Luton, London City, Newcastle, Exeter and Bournemouth are among other airports that have reported delays, asking passengers to check with their airlines.
Stansted Airport said flights were subject to delays, while Gatwick said 20% of its departures had been delayed, with passengers being warned they may have to wait for “a couple of hours”.
At Stansted, Alena Kontza was stuck on a Ryanair plane that had been delayed for three hours. She told the BBC passengers had been given “absolutely no information” and “it’s been nothing less than shambolic”.
“People are really aggravated, children are crying, people want to leave, people want to change to different planes, it’s an absolute nightmare,” she said.
And in Norwich, one mother said she was worried she would have to cancel a planned Christmas trip to Lapland tomorrow morning.
“It’s the second time we are trying to do this trip,” Lisa Smith said. “We were grounded by snow two years ago.
“My son will be devastated. How do you tell a child twice they are not going to Lapland?”
National Air Traffic Systems: “We are not able to meet the demands”
Independent aviation analyst Chris Yates said it was going to be a “day of frustrations”.
He said that passengers due to arrive at UK airports from overseas could find themselves diverted elsewhere.
“But it’s going to be a long wait for them. When the system kicks back in and starts working, there will be a backlog of flights.
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A man looks over the Affordable Care Act (commonly known as Obamacare) signup page on the HealthCare.gov website in New York in this October 2, 2013 photo illustration.
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