[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The Afghan cops targeted a group of Talibs in Ghormach district of Faryab as they were planning to launch an attack near the compound of Vice President General Abdul Rashid Dostum ...ethnic Uzbek warlord who distinguished himself fighting the Soviets and the Taliban. The story that he had a bad guy run over with a tank is an exaggeration. It was an armored personnel carrier... .
The Office of the First Vice President in a statement said the operation was conducted late on Saturday night.
The statement further added that the Taliban gunnies were forced to leave the area after the operation was launched and the group’s forces of Evil have suffered casualties in the shootout.
No further details were given regarding the exact number of Taliban casualties but the Office of the First Vice President said numerous documents including identity cards and Pak passports as well as job descriptions were confiscated from the area.
This comes as Talibs ambushed Vice President Dostum as he was accompanying a convoy of the security forces on the way to Ghormach district that fell to Taliban control last week.
Initial reports indicated the First Vice President sustained a minor injury in the attack as it was confirmed by CEO Abdullah but the office of the Chief Executive released a statement late on Monday and said Gen. Dostum did not suffer any injury, emphasizing that CEO
Abdullah made the remarks during the Ministers’ Council meeting based on inappropriate and initial reports.
This is not the first time Gen. Dostum has came under attack by Talibs or has escaped liquidation plot by the group.
Gen. Dostum first joined the Afghan cops in the frontline in northern Faryab province earlier in the month of August last year where he survived at least two liquidation plots by the anti-government armed bad boy groups while he was leading counter-terrorism operations.
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10/25/2016 00:00 ||
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] At least 9 loyalists of the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group were killed in separate operations in eastern Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. province of Afghanistan.
The provincial government media office in a statement said at least 4 Death Eaters were killed during an operation by the Afghan forces in Pacher Agam district.
In the meantime, the Ministry of Defense (MoD), said at least 5 Death Eaters were killed during an Arclight airstrike in the same district.
He said a compound belonging to the loyalists of the terror group was targeted in the Arclight airstrike which destroyed in the raid.
The loyalists of the terror group have not commented regarding the report so far.
This comes as the local officials said Saturday at least 54 loyalists of the terror group were killed during a large scale operation launched in this province.
Nangarhar is among the relatively volatile provinces in eastern Afghanistan where both the Taliban Lions of Islam and Death Eaters loyal to ISIS terrorist group are actively operating.
Both the Afghan forces and the US forces in Afghanistan are conducting regular raids against the Taliban Lions of Islam and ISIS loyalist in the districts where they are conducting insurgency activities.
The US forces increased Arclight airstrikes against the Taliban Lions of Islam and ISIS loyalists earlier this year after the B.O. regime granted a broader role to the American forces.
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10/25/2016 00:00 ||
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[Libya Herald] Ten Bunyan Marsous fighters have been killed in Sirte as the last five apartment blocks in the 600 complex were finally wrested from IS control after several days of bitter fighting.
One US air strike went in today as the hard boyz were driven in a still smaller area.
At least 24 "civilians" women and kiddies, including babes in arms, crossed into BM lines. It is also reported that two more foreigners, a Turk and Egyptians were freed. It is not known how the pair originally fell in to IS hands.
They are now being debriefed. It is understood that five other foreigners, two Turks, two Egyptians and a Bangladeshi,who were liberated on Thursday are still in Misrata. There has been no diplomatic nor media access to the men.
In the course of today’s battles, BM forces came across some deep tunnels apparently used by the hard boyz to shelter from air strikes.
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10/25/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
Section 8 Housing can get sooo violent
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The army officer in charge of the anti-terrorist fight in Benghazi has briefed his area commanders ahead of what an army source says will be an operation to retake two key areas of the city.
Brigadier General Abdul Salam Hassi is understood to have spoken of operations in Sabri and Suq Al-Hud, the two downtown areas which despite being isolated for much of the year, have managed to hold off all attacks.
Meanwhile, the drive to take Ganfouda, the last main concentration of militants, has been stalled largely by concerns over high civilian casualties and the international impact that would have.
IS and Ansar Al-Sharia terrorists, along with their allies in the Benghazi Revolutionaries’ Shoura Council have demanded that their families be allowed through army lines, a demand backed up the international community including UNSMIL chief Martin Kobler.
The army has said that everyone passing through the security cordon would have to be searched, a condition to which it is reported the terrorists refuse to agree.
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10/25/2016 00:00 ||
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An army mine clearance specialist died and four of his companions were injured when a device they were defusing exploded this morning.
Ahmed Muftah Al-Fakri was killed instantly in the blast close to Ganfouda. An army spokesman, Abdullah Touati, said that Fakri was a member of 302 Brigade and part of concerted effort by engineers to clear mines and IEDs ahead of the expected major assault on the district. Besides homemade booby traps, one challenge was that the militants have used a wide variety of different mines.
Yesterday Brigadier General Abdul Salam Hassi commander of the Benghazi operation briefed senior officers on the planned assaults.
[FRANCE24] Four non-combatants were killed and 14 other people injured in Central African Republic on Monday when UN peacekeepers exchanged fire with gunnies during a protest against the UN military presence, the United Nations ...the Oyster Bay money pit... said.
The festivities occurred as hundreds of protesters gathered to call for troops from the UN mission (MINUSCA) to leave the country. A Rooters witness saw protesters, carrying anti-UN posters, throwing stones and shouting at the troops who responded with warning shots.
There was then an exchange of gunfire between the troops and gunnies near the crowd.
"MINUSCA intervened in the early morning hours of Monday to dismantle barricades erected by the demonstrators," the mission said in a statement. "MINUSCA believes that Monday's events constitute a new attempt by enemies of peace to disturb the return to constitutional normality," it added, adding that five peacekeepers were among the injured.
The statement did not offer further specifics on the casualties. But the president of the CAR Red Thingy, Antoine Mbao-Bogo, told REUTERS earlier that three protesters had been killed and six maimed by gunfire.
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10/25/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
Wonder if the rent-a-mob knew what they were getting into?
[AFRICANEWS] An krazed killer network that had been trying to recruit people for al-Qaeda linked movements in the Sahel has been dismantled in Burkina Faso ...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and will leave office feet first, one way or the other... This is according to the AP news agency which quoted Burkinabe officials as saying they are still pursuing three other suspects who are nationals from the country.
Security officers shot at one man who was carrying a gun and a grenade on Saturday following information they received from the public.
In January, Burkina Faso suffered a terrorist attack on a hotel in Ouagadougou, that claimed the lives of at least 30 people.
The country has become a target for terrorist organizations operating in West Africa making it a new front-line in the fight against jihadists.
Public prosecutor Maiza Compaore said an investigation into the recruitment networks had been opened and that important clues had already been found, including several telephones.
Burkina Faso shares its western border with Mali, whose lawless desert north serves as a base for range of secular militias, al Qaeda-linked groups and a new body pledging allegiance to the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... President Roch Marc Christian Kabore, elected in November after order was restored following a six-day coup attempt, is facing a rising number of attacks in remote border areas.
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10/25/2016 00:00 ||
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Jeddah – United Nations Children’s Rights and Emergency Relief Organization (UNICEF) told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper on Sunday that Houthi rebels have prevented a UNICEF aid convoy from entering the besieged city of Taiz, in a clear violation of the agreed ceasefire.
Juliette Touma, media officer at the UNICEF regional office, said that the organization was maintaining contact with the different warring parties to secure the delivery of humanitarian aid to children and residents of war-stricken areas in Yemen.
She added that UNICEF “urges all warring parties to guarantee the delivery of humanitarian assistance to all children in need across the country, and to allow the distribution of humanitarian aid in legitimate means.”
In this context, governor of Taiz Ali Al-Maamari told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper that Houthi militias and forces loyal to ousted President Ali Abdullah Saleh were not abiding by the ceasefire. He added that their latest decision to prevent UNICEF aid convoys from entering Taiz was a flagrant violation of the ceasefire.
Maamari said that international organizations were able to offer more assistance to Yemen.
“We believe that international organizations can offer more and can be more efficient in Taiz, but they are not doing so,” he stated.
Media reports said on Saturday that Houthi militias and forces loyal to Saleh prevented a UNICEF delegation headed by the country director of UNICEF from entering Taiz to check on people’s humanitarian and health conditions.
Taiz, about 205km south of the capital Sanaa, has suffered huge destruction since fighting in the city intensified.
[TRIBUNE.PK] The State Security Court at the UAE Federal Supreme Court tossed in the slammer I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece! on Monday a Pak man for 10 years for "financing the terrorist organizations Da’ish [Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... ] and al Qaeda", local media reported.
The court, presided over by judge Mohammad Jarrah al Tunaiji, found the convict, Aziz Ahmad Noor al Haq, 23, guilty of funding the murderous Moslem groups, Gulf News said.
The court also ordered the defendant to be deported after serving his jail term
In a separate hearing, the same court sentenced a Sudanese man to 10 years jail term for planning a kaboom aimed at killing foreigners in the Gulf country, the Abu Dhabi-based newspaper The National reported on Monday.
The Federal Supreme Court also convicted the defendant on charges of supporting the Islamic State on social media. "Prosecutors said he was inspired by the terrorist group’s ideology," it added.
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10/25/2016 00:00 ||
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[al-Manar] Turkey’s military struck dozens of ISIL and Kurdish YPG militia targets in Syria over the last 24 hours, depriving both groups of the ability to move around, the army said Monday, as its operation there entered a third month.
Backed by Turkish tanks, special forces and airstrikes, militants fighting under the banner of the Free Syrian Army crossed into northern Syria on Aug. 24 and took control of the border town of Jarablus from ISIL largely unopposed.
In the latest moves in the operation, dubbed “Euphrates Shield,” strikes by “fire support vehicles” hit 27 ISIL targets and 19 belonging to the YPG, leaving both groups “without maneuvering capacity,” the written statement said.
President Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday the Turkish-backed forces would press on to the ISIS-held town of al-Bab, emphasizing Ankara’s drive to sweep its militants and Syrian Kurdish fighters from territory near its border.
The Syrian military said the presence of Turkish troops on Syrian soil was unacceptable and a “dangerous escalation and flagrant breach of Syria’s sovereignty.”
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10/25/2016 00:00 ||
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[Reuters] At least 59 people were killed and more than 100 wounded when gunmen wearing suicide vests stormed a Pakistani police training academy in the southwestern city of Quetta and took hostages, government officials said on Tuesday.
More than 200 police trainees were stationed at the facility when the attack occurred late on Monday, officials said. Some cadets were taken hostage during the attack, which lasted five hours. Most of the dead were police cadets.
"Militants came directly into our barrack. They just barged in and started firing point blank. We started screaming and running around in the barrack," one cadet who survived told local media.
Mir Sarfaraz Bugti, home minister of Baluchistan province, of which Quetta is the capital, said the gunmen attacked a dormitory inside the training facility while cadets rested and slept.
"Two attackers blew up themselves while a third one was shot in the head by security men," Bugti said. Earlier officials said there were five to six gunmen.
A Reuters photographer at the scene said authorities carried out the body of a teenaged boy who they said was one of the attackers and had been shot dead by security forces.
Con't.
[ENGLISH.ALMANAR.LB] Two children and another civilian were killed along with a soldier in firing across the border between India and Pakistain, officials from both sides said Monday, as tensions soar between the nuclear-armed rivals.
Pakistain’s military said an 18-month-old girl and another civilian were killed on its side of the border in "unprovoked firing" by the Indian army.
"Due to Indian unprovoked firing last night a civilian, Muhammad Latif of village Janglora, and a minor Haniya, age one and a half, embraced shahadat (martyrdom) while seven civilians were maimed," a military statement said.
The firing took place across the border between Indian-held Kashmire and Pakistain’s Punjab 1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots.... province in the villages of Harpal, Pukhlian and Charwah, the statement said.
Indian police said the late night heavy exchange of firing occurred in its RS Pura sector, killing an Indian border security guard and a six-year-old boy.
The Border Security Force (BSF) soldier died after he received splinters from a mortar shell fired by Pakistain rangers, Danish Rana, inspector general of police for the area, told AFP.
"The boy and the BSF soldier died during the intense exchange of small arms fire and mortars throughout the night along the border," Rana said.
Six other civilians were also injured during the exchange, said another Indian police officer speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... .
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10/25/2016 00:00 ||
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Suspected militants on Monday killed two officials of Pakistan Customs in Balochistan’s Mastung district.
One customs official was critically wounded in the armed attack.
“Armed men opened fire at a customs vehicle in the Shamsabad area of Mastung city,” said Captain (r) Farraukh Atiq, Deputy Commissioner Mastung.
The official added that two officials died immediately, while the injured official was rushed to the district headquarters hospital for medical treatment.
The assailants escaped from the scene of the attack without facing any resistance.
Law enforcement personnel reached the spot of the attack and started an investigation into the incident.
The attack comes a day after suspected militant killed two Coast Guards personnel in Gwadar district.
Militants have conducted attacks against security forces and national installations in Balochistan, which has been plagued by an insurgency and growing sectarian killings for more than a decade.
[TRIBUNE.PK] An intelligence officer was rubbed out on Monday as unidentified motorcyclists shot up him in Charsadda, police said.
Akbar Ali was on his way to work in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. when heavily armed motorcyclists shot up him, killing him on the spot. "The incident has all the markings of a murder," DPO Sohail Khalid told The Express Tribune.
"Akbar Ali was hit by four bullets from the front and was killed on the spot," Khalid said, adding that the attackers used a 9mm pistol and expeditiously departed at a goodly pace.
The body of the dear departed sub-inspector was shifted to district headquarter hospital in Charsadda, where doctors carried out an autopsy.
The attack was later claimed by the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group in a short statement posted on Amaq, its affiliated news agency. "Islamic State fighters have killed a Pakistain intelligence agent in the Sardaryab region... of Pakistain," it said, referring to the local area.
Police and other law enforcement agencies have been particular targets of banned outfits in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... . Some 1,300 coppers have bit the dust in the province since 2007.
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10/25/2016 00:00 ||
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[CNN] A Pak police training academy in Quetta was attacked Monday and an unknown number of cadets were taken hostage, according to officials.
About 500 cadets live in a hostel at the academy.
Five or six "holy warriors entered the training school and (went) straight to the hostel where they took cadets hostage," the Mighty Pak Army said in a statement. It was unclear how many students were being held.
"The military has been deployed to the location," the army said.
Two hundred cadets were rescued Monday night, according to Sarfaraz Bugti, home minister of Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... province.
The health secretary for Balochistan, Nur ul Haq Baloch, said 35 people were maimed during the violence.
Anwar Ul Haq, government front man in Balochistan province, said seven copperswere maimed, and some police personnel might have been taken hostage.
An emergency has been declared in hospitals across the city.
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Kirkuk – Security forces of Iraqi Kurdistan announced on Monday the arrest of ISIS militants responsible for the recent deadly attacks in Kirkuk.
“ISIS terrorists behind Kirkuk attack were arrested today during an operation by our Counter-Terrorism Dept (CTD) in coordination with Asayish in Kirkuk,” the Kurdistan Security Council said in a statement.
The leader of the ISIS cell in Kirkuk was also killed on Monday.
“Abu Qudama, a senior ISIS military figure in Hawija, led the group responsible for Friday’s attack. Today he was killed in a firefight,” the council said.
The arrests were announced a few days after deadly ISIS attacks hit Kirkuk last Friday. Several Kurdish security forces were killed when ISIS militants managed to slip into Kirkuk city through a security gap between Bashir and Daquq, local sources reported.
Also, dozens of ISIS militants were killed in the attack, and Kurdish Peshmerga forces from the Mosul frontlines were forced to reinforce security in the city of Kirkuk.
ISIS jihadists in the city of Mosul celebrated the Kirkuk attacks, although the group was defeated in Kirkuk in a few days.
Experts told ARA News that the recent ISIS offensive was meant to delay the Hawija operation, which was initially planned two weeks ago.
“We were expecting attacks on Kirkuk, as the battle for Mosul has begun and Hawija becomes the next target,” Ranj Talabani, a Kurdish security analyst, said.
“Kirkuk has been kept relatively safe until today and it’s clear that ISIS have spent a lot of time planning today’s operations. We have some ISIS-individuals in custody so once they are interviewed it will be clearer how they entered the city in such large numbers,” Talabani told ARA News.
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10/25/2016 00:00 ||
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[Hurriyet Daily News] Iraqi security forces on Oct. 24 ended an attack by the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) in Kirkuk city, killing at least 74 jihadists in three days of festivities, the provincial governor said, while Iraqi forces advancing on djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... faced stiff resistance from the jihadist group.
"The attack is over and life has returned to normal," Najmeddin Karim, the governor of Kirkuk province, told AFP.
"The security forces have killed more than 74 ISIS [ISIS] faceless myrmidons and detained several others, including their leader."
Karim said the initial confessions of the ringleader confirmed reports that around 100 fighters attacked Kirkuk early Oct. 21, some of them sleeper cells that joined up with bully boyz infiltrating the city.
Some attackers are also believed to have fled the city on Oct. 22, later clashing with security forces in rural areas east of Kirkuk.
The spectacular attack led to three days of festivities that left at least 46 people dead, mostly members of the security forces, and the Kurdish-controlled city under curfew.
The brazen raid on Kirkuk, ... a thick stew of Arabs, Turkmen, Kurds, and probably Antarcticans, all of them mutually hostile most of the time... which lies in an oil-rich area around 240 kilometers north of Baghdad, appeared to be an attempt by ISIS to divert attention from Mosul.
Meanwhile, ...back at the desert island, Bert was realizing to his horror that he'd had only one bottle for one message, and he'd forgotten to include a return address... Iraqi forces advancing on Mosul faced stiff resistance from ISIS despite the U.S.-led coalition unleashing an unprecedented wave of air strikes to support the week-old offensive.
Federal forces and Kurdish peshmerga fighters were moving forward in several areas, AFP correspondents on various fronts said, but the jihadists were hitting back with shelling, sniper fire, suicide boom-mobiles and booby traps.
Following a weekend visit to Iraq by U.S. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter, American officials said the coalition was providing the most air support yet to the operation.
"One week into Mosul operation, all objectives met thus far, and more coalition air strikes than any other 7-day period of war against ISIS," Brett McGurk, the top U.S. envoy to the 60-nation coalition, wrote on social media.
"There were 32 strikes with 1,776 munitions delivered against ISIS targets for the week of Oct. 17-Oct. 23," the front man for the coalition, Colonel John Dorrian, told AFP.
He said those strikes had destroyed 136 ISIS fighting positions, 18 tunnels and 26 boom-mobiles.
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10/25/2016 00:00 ||
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ISIS rob families as they leave Mosul Called confiscatory taxation, coming to a White House/Congress near you
(IraqiNews.com) Nineveh – Iraqi media outlets reported on Monday, that militant from the Islamic State stripped Iraqi families of their holdings at the gates of the city of Mosul, while pointed out to the death of three elderly people and a small child as a result of fatigue and exhaustion.
Al Sumaria News stated, “Today, ISIS militants put strict checkpoints at the entrances of the city of Mosul for the families that were forcibly brought from the villages liberated by the joint security forces.”
“The ISIS detachments stripped the families of all private holdings, including of gold jewelery, money and cell phones,” Al Sumaria added. “Three elderly persons, including a woman, as well as a child died at the entrances of Mosul as a result of fatigue, tiredness and ill-treatment by the ISIS militants,” Al Sumaria explained.
The ISIS forced hundreds of families to move from villages near Mosul and rural areas to the city, in order to be used as human shields in the battles against the joint security forces.
ISIS endangering civilians in Mosul operation That jaw dropping sound you hear is shock HRW try to didn't hang all this on the Iraqis
[ARA News] Erbil – ISIS is endangering civilians by attacking from populated areas, mining civilian territory, and preventing civilians from fleeing Hawija and the outskirts of Mosul in northern Iraq, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported.
“Forces attacking ISIS should take all necessary measures to minimize harm to civilians, particularly those that ISIS forces may have deliberately placed at risk,” HRW said on Sunday.
“Thousands of civilians are at risk because of military operations in Mosul and Hawija, and all sides are obliged to let families reach safety,” said Lama Fakih, HRW’s deputy Middle East director. “ISIS needs to let people leave and anti-ISIS forces should take into account the many civilians trapped in areas under attack.”
It’s however unlikely that ISIS will allow civilians to leave since that would allow Kurdish and Iraqi forces to take Mosul more quickly and it could facilitate the US-led coalition’s airstrikes. In other operations, like in Manbij of northern Syria, ISIS used civilians as human shields to slow down the operation.
One displaced villager, Ali Ahmed, on October 20 told HRW that ISIS used his house in the village of al-Adla when Iraqi forces attacked the group.
“As the [Iraqi] army got closer, three ISIS fighters entered my house. I couldn’t tell them to leave my house because they could have killed me and hurt my family,” Ahmed said. “Thank God my house was not targeted. Once ISIS fighters retreated from the village toward Mosul, we raised a white flag so the army doesn’t target our house.”
20 residents from villages under ISIS control in Makhmur district told HRW that fighters were firing artillery next to their homes, subjecting them to return fire. Also ISIS deployed fighters near schools, leading to air strikes.
Furthermore, ISIS militants do not allow men to flee, and allow women and children only to leave if they pay $400 dollar per person, while their area is full with improvised mines.
A civilian called Mohammed said that to leave Hawija, he had to pay smugglers $500 to avoid explosive devices that ISIS planted around the city, where they saw civilians killed by mines.
Improvised mines planted by ISIS have posed a significant threat to civilians in other places that were under ISIS control, including Ramadi and Fallujah in Iraq, and Kobane and Manbij in Syria.
“Even if ISIS keeps its unlawful grip on civilians trying to flee the fighting, other military forces should fulfill their obligations to civilians under the laws of war,” Fakih said. “This includes educating and protecting people from the deadly effects of improvised mines.”
The Kurdish Peshmerga forces and Iraqi Army troops on October 17 launched an operation to retake the city of Mosul.
Anti-ISIS forces have also encircled the city of Hawija, 120 kilometers southeast of Mosul.
[AlArabiya] ISIS “executed” five Iraqis, including members of the security forces, during ongoing fighting in the western town of Rutba, army officers said Monday.
Militants launched an attack on Rutba, a remote but strategic town near the Jordanian border in Anbar province, early on Sunday.
They briefly seized the mayor’s office before being pinned back by the security forces but were still deployed in some other neighborhoods of the town, the officers said.
“Daesh (ISIS) controls Mithaq and Intisar neighborhoods in central Rutba,” an army colonel told AFP.
“They captured people -- civilians and policemen -- and executed them,” he said. “At least five people were executed” on Sunday, the colonel said.
Lieutenant General Ismail al-Mahalawi, head of the Operations Command for the western Anbar province, confirmed the executions but said Iraqi forces were regaining the upper hand.
“Military units from the (army) 8th division and a brigade from Anbar Operations Command moved to Rutba, redeploying there to clear the positions Daesh control in the city,” he said.
The attack on Rutba was seen as a fresh attempt by ISIS to draw attention and Iraqi military resources away from Mosul, which is their last major stronghold in the country.
Tens of thousands of Iraqi forces launched an offensive on Mosul a week ago. ISIS is vastly outnumbered and the outcome of the battle appears to be in little doubt.
The militants are offering stiff resistance however and launching attacks elsewhere in the country to mobilize Iraqi forces on several fronts.
On Friday, dozens of jihadist fighters launched a spectacular attack on the Kurdish-controlled city of Kirkuk that killed at least 46 people, most of them members of the security forces.
The Joint Operations Command overseeing the fight against ISIS in Iraq said that jihadists launched their attack on Rutba at dawn on Sunday.
After forcing the attackers out of the mayor’s office, Iraqi forces destroyed 12 ISIS vehicles, killing their occupants, the JOC said in a statement.
Iraqi forces have in recent months retaken a lot of ground from ISIS in Anbar, a vast Sunni province which has long been considered an insurgent bastion and has borders with Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
ISIS fighters only control areas near the Syria border but are still able to move in desert areas and harass government forces in the province’s town and cities.
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(IraqiNews.com) Nineveh – Peshmerga forces announced on Sunday killing dozens of ISIS militants and destructing eight booby-trapped vehicles, as well as besieging eight villages in the axis of Bashiqa.
Kurdish Peshmerga said in a press statement, “Our forces managed, during its operations in Bashiqa area, to besiege eight villages east and west of Bashiqa,” indicating that, “These villages are Berahlan, Fadiliya, Omar Qamiji, Kanouni, Bahzan, Kharab Dalil and Tibz Kharab al-Kabira and Tibz Kharab al-Saghira.”
“We recaptured the main road linking between Bashiqa and Mosul, thus, cut off the supply lines of the ISIS militants, who are now present in the besieged areas,” the statement added.
“Our forces also killed five senior ISIS officials and dozens of militants during the operation, in addition to destroying eight booby-trapped vehicles and three motorcycles,” the statement explained.
Yesterday, Kurdish Peshmerga forces began the battle to liberate Bashiqa, northeast of Mosul, and managed to regain control over a number of nearby villages.
(IraqiNews.com) Nineveh – Media officials with the Ministry of Defense announced on Monday liberating the villages of al-Khanfsan and Dor al-Taqa al-Harariyah, south of Mosul.
The officials said in a press statement, “Forces from the army’s 15 brigade and Federal Police managed, at noon today, to liberate the villages of al-Khanfsan and Dor al-Taqa al-Harariyah in the southern axis of Mosul, and raised the Iraqi flag over the buildings.”
“The security forces continue advancing toward Munira village in order to liberate it,” the officials added.
Last week, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced launching the battles to liberate the city of Mosul from the ISIS grip, and emphasized that Iraqi army and Federal Police will lead the operations.
Kurds fear media will tip off ISIS With good reason. Ukrainian volunteer forces used social media to grid Russian backed rebels for artillery strikes back before the rebel governments of Donetsk and Lugansk clamped down on social media posts by their own soldiers.
[ARA News] Erbil – The Kurdistan Region’s prosecutor on Monday called on Kurdish channels to halt their live coverage of ongoing fighting against ISIS in northern Iraq due to security concerns.
In public letter, the prosecutor called K24, NRT and Rudaw to halt the live coverage of ongoing anti-ISIS operations, such as the Kirkuk attack last Friday that was covered live by several TV-stations.
Criticism over live coverage has grown during the Mosul offensive, with Kurds fearing that the coverage could give away Peshmerga positions to ISIS.
“For the sake of ‘Likes’ you do not put an entire city’s security at risk. Live coverage of war is not right. It tells the enemy everything!!” said Sazan Mandalawi, a Kurdish blogger and author of the book My Nest in Kurdistan.
Mohammed A. Salih, analyst and PhD student at Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, told ARA News: “While live-streaming of a conflict is an innovative and interesting idea, the dilemma is how to ensure it is not going to affect military operations and planning as well as the safety of the people in the front-lines who include thousands of troops and tens of journalists.”
“Therefore, the key question is if any steps are taken to ensure that the live-streaming is not going to affect the military aspects, How do we know or can be even sure that such round-the-clock live-streaming or any form of live coverage from the heart of the battle or in the front-lines in general won’t amount to live intel for ISIS?I’m not sure if we have the answers to these questions or if there are reliable answers to these questions. There might be other ways of effectively covering the conflict without running a round-the-clock live stream,” he added.
Kurdish security analyst Ranj Talabani agreed. “It [live coverage] could help give away positions and movements of Peshmerga,” he told ARA News.
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10/25/2016 00:00 ||
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(IraqiNews.com) Kirkuk – Iraqi media outlets reported on Monday, that the arrested ISIS official that leaded the attack on Kirkuk on Friday revealed that the ISIS group is planning to attack the province of Kirkuk with 300 suicide bombers.
Al Mada Press stated, “The leader of the attack that was launched by the ISIS on Kirkuk on Friday, confessed that the group is planning to attack the province again.”
“The arrested leader confessed that 300 ISIS suicide bombers are ready to participate in the attack that will be launched on the province,” Al Mada added.
Earlier today, supreme security committee in the province of Kirkuk announced arresting the leader of the attack launched by the ISIS on the province, while emphasized killing 74 members of the ISIS.
On Friday, ISIS members attacked Kirkuk and captured a number of areas, before the security forces manage to foil the attack.
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Iraqis impose curfew on Rutba Copying their nearest rivals
(IraqiNews.com) Anbar – Rutba District Council in Anbar Province announced on Sunday imposing a comprehensive curfew in Rutba until further notice, and pointed out to the arrival of military reinforcements in the district to fight the ISIS members who attacked Rutba earlier.
Vice-Chairman of Rutba Council, Ali Abd Atewi, said in a press statement, “Joint security forces imposed a comprehensive curfew in the areas of Rutba from now and until further notice, to guarantee eliminating the ISIS members stationed in Hayy al-Zaytoun and Hayy al-Entsar in the center of the district.”
“Military and combat reinforcements arrived from Ramadi and Baghdad to fight the ISIS members and protect civilians and governmental institutions,” Atewi added. “Intelligence information indicated that the number of ISIS members who attacked Rutba does not exceed 30 members,” Atewi explained.
Yesterday, ISIS launched an extensive attack on Rutba area, west of Ramadi from three axis, and the security forces managed to repulse the attack and killed four ISIS members.
[NPR.ORG] The Iraqi military and its allies have been pushing for a week toward the city of djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... , held by the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... . For people fleeing the fighting, a few thousand so far, it's been an unbelievably frightening seven days.
In the Debaga camp for displaced people, about 50 miles southeast of Mosul, which is becoming more crowded, I sit with a family who tell me about leaving the village where they lived under ISIS more than two years.
"We left at sunrise, around 4 a.m., and there was no ISIS around. The [Iraqi] security forces were on the outskirts, but hadn't gone in," said a heavily pregnant woman, surrounded by her cousins and their small children, asleep or listless in the hot sun.
The army said it would wait until the civilians were out before attacking ISIS. The Death Eaters banned cellphones on pain of death but secretly some villagers spoke to the army and agreed on an escape route.
But as they were leaving, "ISIS appeared out of nowhere...They were firing at us," said the pregnant woman, who told her story on condition of anonymity because she is afraid of ISIS.
They ran for their lives. And no wonder she is afraid: the men firing were her neighbors ‐ people from the same small village. By her estimate, about half the men in her village pledged allegiance to the bully boys.
All politics is local. In her village, the same woman explained, you have to understand there are two tribes -- the Shammout and Qufaa.
"It's half the Shammout tribe and half the Qufaa tribe. And the Qufaa joined ISIS. And the Shammout ‐ before ISIS came -- they were recruits in the security forces," she said, adjusting the mattress she and the children were clustering under for shade.
Reading between the lines, it seems perhaps one tribe held the security forces jobs and cut the other tribe out of them. When ISIS came along, they exploited that rift. And now the rustics they recruited are hardcore ISIS fighters.
"They have tunnels that go all the way to other areas. They are able to smuggle weapons, food and fighters," she said.
She says ISIS members are like rats, living underground. They can melt away and then come back. The fighters have sent their families to other ISIS-held areas for safety. And she thinks it will be very difficult to defeat them.
Across the courtyard, another family is willing to talk, but are also too afraid of ISIS to be identified. I'm speaking only to women because the men are detained, undergoing checks for possible links to ISIS.
These women are from a different village, Ibrahim al-Khalil. But, clustered together around a matriarch with traditional face tattoos, they tell a similar story. The Iraqi army is in their village now, but they won't go back home anytime soon.
They say they're still afraid of ISIS. They won't say which tribes in their area are with ISIS, but they do say some of their relatives are still under the control of the bully boys.
"Families are still besieged by ISIS in Mosul," says one of the women, "We have our aunts there, our cousins. We are afraid they will kill them."
Officials from Iraq, and from the U.S., which is supporting the offensive, say ISIS is losing territory and much of the population has turned against the group.
But the Iraqi army is still fighting around the villages where these women lived ‐ about 20 miles from the outskirts of Mosul. And if these accounts of local support for ISIS are anything to go by, it's going to be a tough fight.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/25/2016 00:00 ||
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[JEWISHPRESS] A member of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", military wing, was killed in Gazoo on Monday after an underground tunnel collapsed on him, Ma’an reported. The al-Qassam Brigades released a statement saying one of their fighters, Amir Jaber Abu Tuima from the town of Khan Yunis in the southern Gazoo Strip, died during a "mission" when the tunnel collapsed.
The announcement did not specify the nature of the mission, which was most likely digging a terror tunnel.
On Saturday another al-Qassam terrorist was killed in a tunnel collapse. Ma’an acknowledged that a considerable number of Gazoo Arabs have been killed in the "vast tunnel networks that lie below the besieged enclave," which is dedicated to commercial and military smuggling in the south and future terrorist kidnapping in the north.
Last Saturday morning, the head of the Egyptian army’s Ninth Armored Division was assassinated for his role in destroying tunnels between Egypt and the Gazoo Strip by filling them with water.
The smuggling tunnels are used by Hamas as a source of tax revenue and flow of weapons and commercial goods from the Sinai, including food, medicine, and infrastructure materials. The latter are being used mostly for digging military tunnels into Israeli territory.
The Institute for Paleostine Studies reported in 2012 that Hamas suffered 160 deaths under collapsing tunnels since 2007. In August 2014, al-Jazeera cited 400 as the updated figure for tunnel collapse casualties.
[Ynet] Following the sounding of a Code Red siren early Monday morning in the Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council, the IDF retaliated against Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", targets in the northern Gazoo Strip; Rocket apparently landed in Hamas territory.
This is the fourth rocket to fall in Sderot and the 42nd to be fired since the end of Operation Protective Edge two years ago. In most cases, rogue elements within in the Gazoo Strip, some of whom identify with ISIS, were responsible for the rocket fire. This is in contradiction to Hamas, which largely attempts to maintain quiet in order to prepare for the next confrontation against the IDF.
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[NEWSINFO.INQUIRER.NET] The Police Regional Office in Central Visayas ( PRO-7) has alerted people on possible terrorist attacks in Region 7 after it received reports that six members of the bandit group Abu Sayaff group arrived in Cebu last Friday.
Supt. Julian Entoma, chief of the Regional Intelligence Division, said the group was led by one Commander Messiah.
"Based on our monitoring, they came here to abduct prominent personalities although bombing malls and other establishments may also be one of their aims," he said.
Entoma said the members of the Abu Sayaff allegedly left Cebu on Sunday but police Sherlocks were not sure if six members of the terrorist group returned home in Mindanao.
"We continue to monitor. We already asked help from the Moslem communities in Cebu as well as the security managements of malls, lodges, and beach resorts," he said.
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[Inquirer] 32 Abu Sayyaf militants surrendered to Philippine troops on Monday. They included a 10-year-old boy, identified only as Tony, who said he could operate an M4 Carbine assault rifle. Tony surrendered with his older brother Halid and nine others.
Their group of 11 was led by Moton Indama, a cousin of Abu Sayyaf leader Furuji Indama. Moton had about 30 followers but only 11 surrendered because "they were afraid to join me. They were afraid that after surrendering, we will all be killed," he said. Tony, whose parents were killed in a military operation, said another older brother opted not to surrender.
21 militants from another Abu Sayyaf faction, the Baiwas group, also gave themselves up. One of them, Weller Baliyung, said, "We want to live like civilians where we can roam freely in our town together with our families."
Baliyung said food supplies and other support for the war had been dwindling due to the nonstop military operations. He said, "We have lost so many comrades. We still want to live and see our families."
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[Bangkok Post] A woman was killed and 18 people injured, some critically, by a bomb placed outside a Pattani noodle shop on the anniversary of the 2004 Tak Bai incident.
The bomb tore through the noodle shop early Monday evening in Pattani town, just south of Tak Bai district in neighboring Narathiwat province. Police officer Yutthakarn Chitmanee said, "One woman was killed, a Thai Buddhist, and 18 were injured."
The noodle shop was left a twisted wreck by the blast. Eyewitnesses said there were multiple casualties, and many seemed to be life-threatening injuries.
The attack occurred the evening before the anniversary of the deaths of 85 Muslim men arrested and packed into trucks by security forces sent to Tak Bai to break up an anti-government protest. The victims smothered to death when "stacked like cordwood" in the back of trucks taking the bound men to the notorious Ingkayut Borihan Military Camp.
A judicial inquest found the Thaksin Shinawatra government and the military responsible for the deaths. No arrests ever have been made. The incident has caused deep resentment by the Muslim majority in the region.
[AlArabiya] Sixteen civilians, including three children, were killed on Monday in heavy bombardment across rebel-held Idlib province in northwest Syria, a monitoring group said.
In Khan Sheikhun, a town in the province’s south, air strikes killed seven people, including two women and a child, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The Britain-based Observatory said the raids were carried out by either Syrian or Russian aircraft.
Another seven people, including four women and two children, were killed in raids on Kafr Takharim, further north in the province.
Those raids hit three residential buildings, a local government building, and a stadium, shortly after midnight, AFP’s correspondent in the town said.
In the morning, rescue workers were still trying to pull bodies out of the rubble.
“My sister’s house was standing right here. She and her daughter are dead, along with another family,” Abu Mohammad told AFP.
“There was no military base here. All the military positions are outside the town,” the devastated man said.
Another man and a woman were killed in rocket fire in the nearby town of Kafr Awid.
Idlib province is controlled by the Army of Conquest, an alliance of rebel groups and militants including the Fateh al-Sham Front, which changed its name from Al-Nusra Front after breaking off ties with Al-Qaeda.
According to the Observatory, heavy bombardment has battered the northwest province in recent days.
Since Thursday, bombardment has killed 44 civilians, including 11 women, nine children, and one rescue worker.
Syria’s conflict broke out in March 2011 with anti-government protests, but it has since evolved into all-out war pitting rebels, government forces, Kurds and militants against each other.
Russia on Aleppo
Russia, blaming failures by the US-led coalition and meagre hopes for diplomacy, on Monday ruled out early moves to renew its ceasefire in Aleppo after a brief truce ended at the weekend.
“The question of renewing the humanitarian pause is not relevant now,” deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov told Interfax news agency, in Moscow’s first official comment on why it did not extend the ceasefire further.
Heavy fighting resumed in the devastated Syrian city on Saturday after Russia, a government ally, ended its three-day cessation of hostilities.
In order to renew the pause, “our opponents must ensure appropriate behaviour by the anti-government groups that in particular sabotaged the medical evacuation that was intended during the humanitarian pause,” Ryabkov said.
He chastised the US-led coalition, saying that it was criticizing Damascus and Moscow instead of “really exerting influence on the opposition, the rebels.”
"Over the last three days, what was needed did not happen," he said.
Ryabkov also said that he did not see the “conditions” for ministerial-level negotiations on Syria before the US elections on Nov. 8, after a Lausanne meeting on October 15 that ended with no breakthrough.
“It’s almost no time until the US elections. To be honest, I don’t see the conditions for a ministerial meeting,” he said, insisting that Damascus and Moscow were fulfilling international agreements.
The Kremlin had hailed the humanitarian ceasefire as a “manifestation of goodwill” as it faced mounting criticism over its bombing of rebel-held eastern Aleppo in support of a brutal regime offensive on the city.
But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Monday questioned the viability of humanitarian pauses under current conditions in comments to journalists.
So far the US-led coalition has not managed to separate moderate rebels from hardline “terrorist” groups, he said, and attacks continued “all these days” on checkpoints for exiting the city and the main routes for supplies of humanitarian aid.
“All this is far from helpful, either for the pauses or the process of supplying humanitarian aid,” Peskov said.
The Kremlin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov earlier expressed concern at the small numbers of civilians and fighters leaving the city, with only a handful reported to have crossed through a single passage.
Lavrov on Friday accused fighters from the Fateh al-Sham Front and influential Islamist Ahrar al-Sham group of obstructing the departure of civilians and combatants prepared to leave, saying they used “threats, blackmail and brute force.”
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The 
[NPR.ORG] The Iraqi military and its allies have been pushing for a week toward the city of 
[JEWISHPRESS] A member of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the 
