dagblog - Comments for "South Sudan rebels fire on US military planes, say government officials"

How Hollywood cloaked South

artappraiser — Sun, 29 Dec 2013 05:21:20 +0000

In reply to South Sudan rebels fire on US military planes, say government officials

How Hollywood cloaked South Sudan in celebrity and fell for the 'big lie'

Film stars have been speaking from a flawed script about the newest nation. Daniel Howden points a finger at those who have failed to grasp the awful reality

The Observer, 28 Dec., 2013

The Guardian

artappraiser — Tue, 24 Dec 2013 05:28:48 +0000

In reply to South Sudan rebels fire on US military planes, say government officials

The Guardian headlines:

South Sudan descends into state of civil war

Daniel Howden, the first western journalist into South Sudan, reports on the brutal and sudden unrest
224 comments
Ban Ki-moon calls for another 5,500 troops

US citizens evacuated from South Sudan

'There were three truck loads of bodies'

South Sudan rebels blamed for US attack

Fleeing workers tell of brutal killings

Lots of chaos there right

artappraiser — Sat, 21 Dec 2013 20:36:30 +0000

In reply to South Sudan rebels fire on US military planes, say government officials

Lots of chaos there right now, and note that Obama had already commented publicly on Thurs--from this background article which appears to have been ready for publication just before the above attack and the editors then inserted a graph about that:

Political Strife in South Sudan Sets Off Ethnic Violence
By Isma’il Kushkush, New York Times, Dec. 21, 2013

KHARTOUM, Sudan — He sat among tens of thousands of terrified people crammed into the United Nations compound, most of them women and children, taking notes about their desperate rush to safety. Like them, he had come seeking protection.

“They came to my house,” the man, Biel Boutros Biel, a human rights activist, said of the South Sudanese security forces. “I knew they were coming after me.”

After President Salva Kiir announced that his government had headed off a coup attempt by his former vice president last week, South Sudan was tossed into uncertainty and upheaval. Hundreds are believed to have been killed in the capital, Juba, with thousands more fleeing into the bush to escape the violence [....]

“Today, that future is at risk,” President Obama said in a statement on Thursday. “South Sudan stands at the precipice. Recent fighting threatens to plunge South Sudan back into the dark days of its past.”

Events are unfolding fast. United States aircraft sent to evacuate Americans came under fire on Saturday, wounding four soldiers. Rebels are believed to have taken control of some of the country’s oil fields and alliances are shifting.
Like many conflicts in this tenuous nation, the fighting has taken on an ethnic dimension, human rights workers say. [....]

So "roughly 3 dozen

artappraiser — Sat, 21 Dec 2013 20:01:03 +0000

In reply to South Sudan rebels fire on US military planes, say government officials

So "roughly 3 dozen Americans" still need to be evacuated:

4 U.S. troops hurt in South Sudan gunfire, thwarting evacuation
By Barbara Starr and Jason Hanna, CNN, 2:27 PM EST, Dec. 21, 2013

Four U.S. service members who were about to help evacuate Americans from violence-hit South Sudan were injured when gunfire hit their aircraft as they prepared to land in Bor on Saturday, the Pentagon said.

The attack thwarted the evacuation attempt, and the three CV-22 Osprey were diverted to Uganda, where a different aircraft received the wounded troops for transfer to Kenya for medical treatment, Africa Command said in a written statement.

Details about their injuries weren't immediately available. The four were treated and in stable condition, according to the AFRICOM statement.

After the incident, the Pentagon was trying to determine how to retry the evacuations of roughly three dozen Americans from South Sudan, where they were working for the United Nations, a senior U.S. official said on condition of anonymity.

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagal is "keeping close tabs on the situation," Pentagon press secretary Rear Admiral John Kirby said. Hagal is "reviewing options on how to move forward," Kirby said. Adding "whatever we do it will be in coordination with the State Department." [....]