Blog Heap of Links for the day 23 July 2015

Depraved jihadis fighting for the Islamic State in Iraq have started using chickens as mobile improvised explosive devices, it has been claimed.

Members of the terror group operating in and around the city of Fallujah are said to be strapping explosive belts to chickens, which are then encouraged to wander into enemy camps.…

…When the shooting first started, troops inside the building went room to room to rush their colleagues to safety, said Maj. Gen. Paul W. Brier, commanding general of the 4th Marine Division. Then, some rushed back into the fight.

Two guns belonging to service members were recovered at the scene, he said; shots were fired from at least one. It's unclear if the gunman was hit by one of those weapons, Reinhold said. The military will investigate whether the service members were authorized to have those weapons.

In the motor pool area, two Marines tried to "provide cover" while their comrades tried to escape over the fence, Reinhold said.

Both Reinhold and Brier declined to elaborate further on how the troops engaged Abdulazeez.

"I can tell you that our Marines reacted the way you would expect," Brier said.…

…[CBS] recently invited 400 mothers and their daughters to attend a live screening of Supergirl, but then leaped above everyone’s expectations in a single bound by bringing Supergirl herself, actress Melissa Benoist, out to meet the crowd. … [video]

“In some ways it has hit me, and in other ways it hasn’t,” the former Glee star said of her new role. “I am fully aware of how much Supergirl means to her fans and how much she has the ability to affect people for the better, but I’m not sure I am quite aware of how large that circle of affectation is — and I might not be until the show begins to air in the fall.”

…On this day in 1929 the Fascist government in Italy banned the use of foreign words.…