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IS Leader Urges IS Fighters To Defend Mosul

The Islamic State (IS) group has released an audiotape which it says is from its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, ordering Iraqis to defend the city of Mosul against the Iraqi army.

The recording has not been verified yet but analysts believe it is genuine. Baghdadi’s whereabouts are unknown. Some officials have said he may be inside Mosul alongside IS fighters.

It comes as Iraqi army forces continue their three-front advance on the city, the last IS stronghold in the country. Mosul is where Baghdadi declared a caliphate two years ago. Iraqi forces have already retaken dozens of villages and towns on the outskirts of the city, with the help of Kurdish Peshmerga forces, Shia Muslim militias and Sunni Arab tribesmen.

Baghdadi’s rallying cry was timed to coincide with the entry of Iraqi forces into the outskirts of Mosul, at a critical moment for the group. Some of his comments appeared to betray concerns that military pressure on the group in Mosul might lead to a broader erosion of support. He called on his fighters to obey their leaders, warned Iraqi Sunnis of the consequences of turning against IS and appealed to IS’s far flung outposts to stay loyal to the group – from Indonesia to West Africa. Baghdadi rarely speaks publicly, but the last time he did so – in December last year – he delivered a similar mix of defiant insistence on ultimate victory combined with implicit acknowledgment of setbacks on the ground.

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UN Secretary General Sacks South Sudan Peacekeeper

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has sacked the commander of the UN force in South Sudan after a report said it had failed to protect civilians in July.

The report backed claims by aid workers that the UN troops refused to respond when government soldiers attacked an international aid compound in Juba.

In the fighting between the army and former rebels, a local journalist was killed and aid workers were raped. The clashes derailed efforts to form a unity government and end the civil war. The fighting began with clashes between President Salva Kiir’s guards and bodyguards of the sacked Vice-President Riek Machar.

Mr Ban “has asked for the immediate replacement of the force commander” Kenyan Lt Gen Johnson Mogoa Kimani Ondieki, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric announced on Monday. The independent special investigation into the violence on 8-11 July in South Sudan’s capital was commissioned by the UN.

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Member Of Armed Forces Dies In Training Exercise

A member of the armed forces has died in a training exercise at RAF Tain weapons range, 30 miles from Inverness.

Police said there were no other casualties, but the range remains sealed off and the person’s next of kin have been informed.

A police spokesman said an investigation will be launched but it was a “contained incident” and there was no threat to the public. An Army spokeswoman confirmed that officials were handling the incident. She said: “We are aware of an incident at the Tain base, near Inverness. “We will release more information as and when it becomes available. It would be inappropriate for us to comment further at this point.”

The incident comes two months after a Scottish soldier’s death during training at Otterburn, Northumberland. Pte Conor McPherson, 24, from The Black Watch, 3rd Battalion, the Royal Regiment of Scotland, died after suffering a “serious head wound”. He was from Paisley, Renfrewshire.

Tain is one of only a few ranges of its type in the UK and it is mainly the RAF that uses it. It’s on a very large piece of land and stretches along the Dornoch Firth. It’s used by the RAF, the US Air Force and other Nato forces in training their pilots in bombing. They use dummy bombs with very small detonators and it’s basically target practice for them. Sometimes this place has a very uneasy relationship with the local community, who obviously have some concerns about low flying.

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Iraqi Forces Enter Outskirts Of Mosul

Iraqi forces have for the first time entered the eastern outskirts of Mosul, as they attempt to drive Islamic State (IS) militants from the northern city.

Elite Counter-Terrorism Service troops seized control of the state television building in Kukjali hours after launching an assault on the area.

Units of the army’s ninth division are meanwhile said to be bearing down on south-eastern districts of the city.On Monday, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi told the 3,000 to 5,000 militants believed to be inside Mosul, which they overran in June 2014, that there was “no escape” and to “either surrender or die”.

About 50,000 Iraqi security forces personnel, Kurdish fighters, Sunni Arab tribesmen and Shia militiamen are involved in the two-week-old offensive to drive IS militants out of their last major urban stronghold in the country.

CTS units retook Bazwaya, the last village before Mosul’s eastern outskirts, in a dawn assault on Monday and then advanced on the Kukjali industrial zone.They moved out again shortly before first light on Tuesday, this time with the aim of entering the adjoining Kukjali residential area, which is within the city limits.If the troops can establish a foothold inside Mosul, it will be a big day for Iraq and all the other countries involved in the fight against the jihadist group.However, they are coming up against much more fierce resistance than he has seen in the past few days.The troops have responded to the RPG, machine-gun and sniper fire with heavy weapons, and also by calling in air strikes by the US-led coalition against IS.

A number of civilians have also approached them, some waving white flags.

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Cyber Security To Get £1.9bn Government Boost

Automatic defences to stop hackers hijacking websites or spoofing official domains will get a boost from a £1.9bn government cybersecurity strategy.

Chancellor Philip Hammond said that hostile “foreign actors” were developing attacks that threatened the UK’s electrical grid and airports. He added that to defend itself Britain must have ways to retaliate in kind. He also addressed a need to tackle cyber-scammers, including finding fresh ways to intercept booby-trapped emails. “If we do not have the ability to respond in cyberspace to an attack which takes down our power network – leaving us in darkness or hits our air traffic control system grounding our planes – we would be left with the impossible choice of turning the other cheek, ignoring the devastating consequences, or resorting to a military response,” Mr Hammond said as he introduced the National Cyber Security Strategy in London. “That is a choice we do not want to face and a choice we do not want to leave as a legacy to our successors.”

The strategy will also help enlarge specialist police units that tackle organised online gangs.

In addition, some cash will also go towards education and training of cybersecurity experts. “If we want Britain to be the best place in the world to be a tech business then it is also crucial that Britain is a safe place to do the digital business,” the chancellor added. “Trust in the internet and the infrastructure on which it relies is fundamental to our economic future.”

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