Video: ISAF Fighting Off The Taliban Embassy Attackers in Afghanistan

Check out these YouTube videos uploaded by ISAF showing U.S. Army soldiers, Marines, and unidentified troops in Desert Combat Uniforms armed with Kalashnikovs (Salamander says they’re Macedonian) fighting off Taliban insurgents during Tuesday’s attack on the U.S. embassy compound in Kabul.

While the insurgents failed to do serious harm to the embassy and its staff (though there were numerous Afghan casualties) they did seem to gain a PR victory due to the amount of media attention the incident received.

ISAF went on a PR offensive of its own, though, including a great twitter fight between ISAF and the Taliban during the kinetic assault. These videos are another part of that offensive. Just like insurgents love to broadcast their battlefield exploits, NATO is now showing off it’s fighting prowess in a timely manner. Enjoy.

h/t defenseTech

Egypt Questions S. Sudan on Jerusalem Embassy

Some Egyptian observers in the past expressed concern that Israeli meddling in Africa aims at disrupting its supply of the Nile waters.

Cairo is already in the middle of a row with upstream Nile basin countries over re-allocation of water shares and amendments to colonial past agreements.

The status of Jerusalem - a city holy to three religions - is a sensitive issue for Israel as well as Arab and Muslim states.

Israel considers the city to be its "eternal and indivisible" capital city while Palestinians want the
Even the United States, Israel's staunchest ally, has been careful not to aggravate the Arab and Muslim states by making any official sign that it recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish state.

The U.S. Congress passed a law in 1995 describing Jerusalem as capital of Israel and saying it should not be divided, but successive presidents have used their foreign policy powers to maintain the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv and to back negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians on the status of Jerusalem.

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