[PAJHWOK] Seven coppers were killed and an eighth maimed after Talibs stormed their check posts in the Garamsir district of southern Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... province, an official said Monday.
The security official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told Pajhwok Afghan News the murderous Moslems attacked security check-posts in Chawghakai area late on Sunday night.
He said seven coppers were killed and one more was maimed in the overnight assault.
Omar Zwak, the governor’s front man, confirmed the attack which he said was repulsed reinforcements arrived at the site.
On the other hand, Qari Yousaf Ahmaid, a Taliban ...Arabic for students... ’s front man, also the assault left eight coppers dead, five maimed and their nine weapons seized.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/23/2018 00:00 ||
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[The Hindu] Talibs who killed at least 22 people at a luxury Kabul hotel went from room to room searching for foreigners, the survivors said on Monday as more details of the victims emerged.
Insurgents armed with Kalashnikovs and boom jackets attacked the landmark Intercontinental Hotel overlooking the Afghan capital late on Saturday in an assault that lasted more than 12 hours and prompted questions over how the attackers breached security.
Guests hid behind pillars and in rooms as button men sprayed bullets and set fire to parts of the six-storey building.
"They were saying, kill the foreigners," a 20-year-old hotel employee who gave his name as Hasibullah said from his hospital bed.
He described hiding in a fifth-floor room and listening as the button men went from room to room, forcing doors open "with daggers" and killing those inside.
One other witness claimed he had seen the gunnies beheading guests.
The attack ended on Sunday with all six gunnies killed by Afghan forces, aided by Norwegian troops.
Afghan Health Ministry spokesperson Waheed Majroh said 22 bodies had now been taken to Kabul hospitals. "Some of the bodies [are] burned badly and need DNA tests to be identified," he said.
The Interior Ministry gave a lower toll on Monday, saying 19 people were dead, 14 of them foreigners.
Authorities said they were still investigating how gunnies breached security, which was taken over by a private company three weeks ago.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/23/2018 00:00 ||
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The Rada Special Deterrence Force announced that it has arrested 61 people and released another six, following the attack on the Mitiga airport compound that shook Tripoli last week.
Spokesman Ahmen Ben Salem had previously told the Libya Herald “it was impossible to count” how many were arrested, such was the high number. Rada said the attack from militias mainly from Tajura was an attempt to break out some of their comrades held at Mitiga’s jail.
Demonstrations in Tajura have been held urging the release of those detained by Rada. The criticism is that many have been arrested based purely on suspicion and no charges have been made against them.
Today, the 33rd Brigade, a militia that led the Mitiga assault and was until last week recognised by the Presidency Council’s (PC) defence ministry, said it would stand up for the oppressed and the displaced.
In a nod to allegations it is close to Islamists, the 33 Brigade applauded controversial former Grand Mufti Sadqi Al-Ghariani and extremists recently ousted from Benghazi, while threatening Libyan National Army commander Khalifa Hafter.
It also criticised the ‘‘frigate PC’’ (which had arrived in Tripoli onboard a frigate) delegation that recently visited Mitiga, saying it showed blatant solidarity with the “so-called deterrence force” (Rada).
The Brigade, led by a man called Bashir Khalfallah, more commonly known by his nicknamed Al-Bugra or ‘the cow,’ said they would ignore decisions made by the PC, an apparent reference to the government decision to ‘disband’ their group.
At least 20 people died and dozens more were injured as the 33 Brigade launched an attack on Mitiga and its environs. The airport was closed and has only recently reopened in the last two days.
There were rumours that a ceasefire had been agreed after Rada and the 33 Brigade appeared to be readying themselves for another round of clashes, before quickly backing off. However, Rada has insisted it would never strike a deal with “outlaws”.
Posted by: badanov ||
01/23/2018 00:00 ||
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[AAWSAT] Tunisian special forces have killed Bilel Kobi, a senior Algerian member of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
Kobi, who was killed in an ambush when he was on a mission to reorganize AQIM's Tunisian branch, was the top aide to Abu Musab Abdul Wadud, the leader of the organization.
The operation took place near the Algerian border in the Mount Sammama area of central-western Tunisia.
Kobi had been charged with overseeing links between the terrorist network and its Tunisian branch. He had joined terrorist groups in the area at the age of 15.
Another Algerian, Bechir Bin Neji, thought to have been the commander of an AQMI cell in the Sammama region, was also found dead with an assault rifle by his side, Tunisian interior ministry spokesman Khlifa Chibani said.
Bin Neji was the leader of Okba Ibn Nafaa in the Semmama mountain, he said.
The dead militant had joined terrorist groups in Algeria in 2003 before becoming a member of Okba Ibn Nafaa 10 years later.
Posted by: badanov ||
01/23/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
I read that headline as DROWN al Queda op....decided it worked either way.
The Yemeni rocketry force fired on Monday a ballistic missile on Saudi and UAE mercenaries in Taiz in southwestern Yemen.
Military source at Yemen rocket unit told Yemen Press they had fired a ballistic missile branded Qaher M2 onto the gatherings of the Saudi and UAE mercenaries in Taiz.
[AnNahar] Ottoman Turkish authorities have detained 24 people on suspicion of disseminating "terror propaganda" against The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund.... 's military operation inside Syria, state media said on Monday.
The suspects are being held in a nationwide crackdown on those posting social media messages deemed to be supportive of terror groups, the state-run Anadolu news agency said, quoting the interior ministry.
The arrests come after President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey... urged national unity over the operation, warning those who respond to calls for protests will have to pay a "heavy price".
Those detained are accused of making propaganda for the Syrian Kurdish Peoples' Protection Units (YPG) militia deemed a terror group by Ankara and the target of Turkey's operation.
The Dogan news agency said investigations had been opened against a total of 57 people. Reports said that arrests took place in Istanbul and the Kurdish-majority city of Diyarbakir.
Turkey views the YPG militia as "terrorists" linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has fought against the Ottoman Turkish state since 1984 and is designated as a terror group not just by Ankara and also its Western allies.
It is seeking to root out the YPG from its western enclave of Afrin in Syria close to the Ottoman Turkish border.
Ottoman Turkish prosecutors have launched an investigation into unverified photos shared on social media claimed to have been taken in Afrin, purportedly showing that the offensive inflicted civilian injuries, TRT state broadcaster reported.
Prosecutors in the eastern Van province launched an investigation into four politicians from the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) who on social media urged people to take to the streets, TRT added.
Authorities are also probing social media posts of another HDP politician Alican Onlu, according to the broadcaster.
Ottoman Turkish anti-riot police on Sunday blocked protests in Istanbul and in Diyarbakir against Ankara's military operation inside Syria.
The rallies had been called by the HDP, whose members are facing a series of legal challenges for alleged ties with the PKK.
Ottoman Turkish authorities have in the last years strongly cracked down on social media posts deemed supportive of "terror", prompting concern from some activists that freedom of expression was being damaged.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/23/2018 02:21 ||
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Source is owned by Erdogan's family... [DAILYSABAH] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... 's Operation Olive Branch to eliminate PKK-affiliated terrorist threats from Afrin, Syria, successfully left behind its third day yesterday as the Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its armed wing the People's Protection Units (YPG) continued to harass Turkey's border towns with rocket fire, targeting civilians. In addition to reports that the YPG is using civilians as human shields in Afrin against Turkey's offensive, it has also struck the border towns of Hatay and Kilis with several rockets, leaving one dead and causing more than 40 injuries. While performing the mid-afternoon prayer in a mosque, he heard some kind of a large kaboom.
"I thought it was doomsday," said a resident of the border town of Reyhanli in the southern Hatay province, as he recounted Sunday's mortar attack by the YPG. The small border district was rattled by the attack. Shattered windows, partly destroyed buildings and damaged cars were still in view yesterday. "Thank God it was on Sunday, otherwise we would surely be dead," said Mustafa, 16, who works in one of the mortar-struck buildings.
A civilian died and more than 35 people were maimed in the mortar attack from PYD-controlled areas, according to the Hatay Governorate. The scars of the attack, though, are still fresh. "God willing, the operation will put an end to this violence," Yucel sighed.
The terrorist attack against civilians struck while Ottoman Turkish Armed Forces' (TSK) tanks and troops marched toward the Afrin region as part of what has been named Operation Olive Branch. As the operation enters its third day, at least 11 PYD villages have been liberated so far. Ottoman Turkish troops, together with the Free Syrian Army ... the more palatable version of the Syrian insurgency, heavily influenced by the Moslem Brüderbund... (FSA), entered PYD-held areas from the northern, northwestern and western part of the strategic Afrin canton of the terrorist group.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/23/2018 00:00 ||
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[NEWSWEEK] An Ohio man who trained with an al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria and allegedly planned to kill U.S. troops was sentenced to 22 years by a federal judge on Monday.
Abdirahman Sheik Mohamud, 26, apologized for his crimes and expressed regret during questioning by District Court Judge Michael Watson, The News Agency that Dare Not be Named reported.
"Do you have any idea how misguided that was?" Watson asked. The 26-year-old from Columbus replied, "Absolutely. I wish I could take it back, your honor."
Mohamud was born in Somalia but came to the U.S. when he was 2-years-old. After he became an American citizen in 2014, he used his new U.S. passport to make his way to Syria, where he was eventually trained by the al-Nusra ...formally Jabhat an-Nusrah li-Ahli al-Sham (Support Front for the People of the Levant), also known as al-Qaeda in the Levant. They aim to establish a pan-Arab caliphate. Not the same one as the Islamic State, though .. ... h Front, an al-Qaeda affiliate. Mohamud was allegedly planning to meet his brother, an al-Nusrah fighter named Abdifatah Aden, to give him $1,000 and other material support, but his brother was killed, and there's no evidence they ever actually met, according to court documents.
This article starring:
Abdirahman Sheik Mohamud
Posted by: Fred ||
01/23/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
"Ohio man" - No doubt a disappointed Browns fan.
[SPECTRUMLOCALNEWS] A Lackawanna man has pleaded guilty to working with 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.... to try and go fight on the terrorist organization's side in Syria, bringing a nearly three-year-old case toward a conclusion.
...a known wolf due to his association with several members of the Lackawanna Six, though he didn’t go with them to the Al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan...
47, was first nabbed You have the right to remain silent... in 2015, when the U.S. citizen was arrested. About a year earlier, prosecutors said Nagi was outspoken in his belief of violent jihad, with people in Lackawanna taking notice.
Twice prior, Nagi traveled to The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund.... , where he pledged allegiance to ISIS and leader Abu Bakr al Bagdadi. The U.S. attorney said Nagi used a cell phone purchased there to contact terrorists, then through Facebook, contacted recruiters in hopes of going to neighboring Syria and fighting.
Prosecutors said Nagi was also angry about the killing of rebels in Yemen, which he blamed on the United States, and co-signed ISIS tactics such as the killing of innocents.
The FBI had tracked Nagi for about a year prior to his arrest, and believed that he was acting alone.
For his conviction on a count of attempting to provide material support to a terrorist organization, Nagi faces a 15-year maximum imprisonment. His sentencing is scheduled for May 7.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/23/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
And when he gets out, he’ll be better? Lawfare horse-pucky.
[The Hindu] The Delhi police on Monday chargesheeted suspected al-Qaeda terrorist Zishan Ali in a case of allegedly making provocative speeches to recruit youths here and establish a base for the terror outfit. Ali was deported to India from Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... last August.
Taking the investigation report on record, Additional Sessions Judge Sidharth Sharma posted the case to February 2 for consideration on taking cognisance.
The police enjugged Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! Ali over a year after three alleged al-Qaeda operatives were arrested in 2015.
The police said that Ali, a resident of Jamshedpur in Jharkhand, operated from Saudi Arabia. He is believed to be married to the sister of Sabeel Ahmed, a cousin of the 2007 Glasgow International Airport attack criminal mastermind Kafeel Ahmed, who had moved from Bengaluru to Saudi Arabia in 2010-11.
The police secured an arrest warrant against Ali in June 2016. His name was also mentioned in a chargesheet filed against alleged al-Qaeda in Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) accused persons. Ali’s brother Syed Mohammed Arshiyan, who was last spotted in Saudi Arabia, allegedly has links with international terror outfits. He is also wanted by Indian probe agencies.
The police first came to know about the two brothers from AQIS accused and Cuttack-based holy man Abdul Rehman, who was arrested in December 2015.
Rehman allegedly disclosed that he knew Arshiyan since 2003. He later came in contact with his brother Ali. The accused said that through Arshiyan, Dr. Ahmed and other Saudi Arabia-based contacts, he had sent some young men to Pakistain for training in terror camps there.
Intelligence agencies had started working on the AQIS module soon after a video by al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri ... Formerly second in command of al-Qaeda, now the head cheese, occasionally described as the real brains of the outfit. Formerly the Mister Big of Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Bumped off Abdullah Azzam with a car boom in the course of one of their little disputes. Is thought to have composed bin Laden's fatwa entitled World Islamic Front Against Jews and Crusaders. Currently residing in the North Wazoo area assuming he's not dead like Mullah Omar. He lost major face when he ordered the nascent Islamic State to cease and desist and merge with the orthodx al-Qaeda spring, al-Nusra... surfaced in September 2014. It announced the outfit’s formation. About a year later, the police busted a module involving some residents of Uttar Pradesh’s Sambhal and this led to further arrests. They found that AQIS chief Maulana Asim Umar ...chief of al-Qaeda's Sharia Committee for Pakistain, named head of al-Qaeda in India. His video appearances are frequently accompanied by clips of al Qaeda's senior propagandist in Pakistan, Ahmad Farooq. Umar the author of The Army of Anti-Christ: Blackwater, Documentation of the Dreadful Terrorist Activities of America's Blackwater in Islamic Countries... was also a resident of Deepa Sarai in Sambhal. It is suspected that he went to Pakistain in 1998.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/23/2018 00:00 ||
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Baghdad (Iraqinews.com) – A civilian was shot dead Monday in a shooting incident east of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, a security source was quoted as saying.
“Unidentified gunmen opened fire at a civilian while passing by al-Ma’amel district in eastern Baghdad, leaving him dead,” the source told Baghdad Today.
“Security forces sealed off the shooting site and opened a probe into the attack,” the source said, adding that the body was carried to the forensic medicine department.
Earlier in the day, two people were injured as a bomb went off near stores at Jisr Diyala region in southeastern Baghdad.
Anbar (Iraqinews.com) – Six family members were killed and injured Monday as a booby-trapped house exploded in Rawa district in Anbar, a security source was quoted as saying.
“A bomb planted by Islamic State inside a house in central Rawa district in Anbar exploded once a six-strong family entered it following a long period of displacement, leaving two of the family members dead and four others injured,” a security source with the Anbar Operations Command told Basnews.
“Among the injured were a woman and a child, who were carried to hospital suffering from severe injuries,” the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said.
He added that a security campaign was launched in search of any booby-trapped houses targeting repatriated families in in Rawa.
Posted by: badanov ||
01/23/2018 00:00 ||
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[STRAITSTIMES] A hardline Indonesian Islamist group crashed a child's birthday party as it rampaged through a community on the hunt for clandestine brothels, police said on Monday (Jan 22).
The drama unfolded on Friday when dozens of members of the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) stormed a house they believed was being used for prostitution on the island of Madura in East Java province.
The group yanked two suspected sex workers from the home and attacked its owner until she fainted, police said.
The angry mob then proceeded to storm other nearby homes, including one hosting a kid's birthday party.
"They attacked the house in a frenzy and also assaulted local residents," police front man Frans Barung Mangera told AFP.
"They were basically playing police" by trying to fight crime, he added.
He would not confirm a report that the murderous Moslems grabbed some of the women who had brought their children to the party.
The door-to-door raid angered some residents who retaliated by destroying the radicals' cars and cycle of violences.
At least five residents were maimed in the melee, including a man whose face was doused with chilli-infused water.
The group told local media that some of its members were seriously injured in the clash.
Police said an unspecified number of people were detained and that the case is under investigation.
The FPI is notorious for conducting "morality" sweeps in communities across the world's biggest Moslem-majority nation.
It played a key role in organising large street protests aimed at bringing down Jakarta's first Christian governor, who lost his re-election bid in 2017 and was later incarcerated Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! on blasphemy charges over comments he made during the campaign.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/23/2018 00:00 ||
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[REUTERS] Malaysia has placed in durance vile Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! two men believed to have links with hard boy group 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.... , including one who allegedly walked around its capital armed with a knife aiming to kill Buddhist monks, police said on Monday.
The Moslem-majority Southeast Asian nation has been on high alert since button men linked to Islamic State (IS) launched several attacks in Jakarta, the capital of neighboring Indonesia, in January 2016.
The two suspects were arrested in two separate raids in December and January, on suspicion of planning to carry out acts of violence and promoting IS ideology.
One of them, an Indonesian who was arrested last week, had allegedly scoured a busy district of the capital, Kuala Lumpur, in November, seeking Buddhist monks to kill, in retaliation for violence suffered by Rohingya Moslems in Myanmar.
"The attempt failed, and police managed to confiscate a knife during the raid," Mohamad Fuzi Harun, the inspector-general of police, said in a statement.
He added that the suspect had also allegedly communicated with a senior IS leader over WhatsApp, had sought to recruit several other Indonesians and put up an IS flag at the building site where he worked.
The other suspect, a Malaysian teacher at a private religious school, was detained in December on suspicion of planning an attack on entertainment outlets and to rob, kidnap or kill non-Moslems.
The suspect, who had been previously tossed in the calaboose Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! under Malaysia’s anti-terror law, had also maintained contact with former members of known terror groups and promoted IS ideology on his Facebook account to recruit new members, police said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/23/2018 00:00 ||
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[Rappler] At least three communist militants and one auxiliary force of the military were killed in a gun battle that lasted for hours in a Cotabato town on January 22.
Military spokesperson Ezra Balagtey said the fighting between government troops and members of the Far Southern Mindanao Region of the New People’s Army erupted when the militants attacked a military-supervised patrol base in Luayon in Makilala town, Cotabato.
Balagtey said the “failed” attack began after midnight on Monday, and ended at 5am "when the NPA terrorists scampered toward a different direction."
Military spokesman Lea Canseran said some 20 militants attacked the base.
[Inquirer] An Abu Sayyaf militant tagged as the one who beheaded two Filipino workers in 2001 in a bloody gesture of mocking the then Arroyo administration has been arrested, the military said. The Abu Sayyaf had described the beheadings as an “Independence Day gift” to then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in retaliation for her refusal to call off military offensives against the terror group.
Faizal Attong Sariul, alias Ziad, was tagged by witnesses as the man who beheaded two of the 17 workers of Golden Harvest, a company that runs a plantation in Lantawan, Basilan, who were kidnapped by the rebel group on June 11, 2001. Sariul was 17 years old then.
Police spokesman Fergen Torred said Sariul who is now 38 years old and had been in hiding for 17 years, was arrested in the village of Mercedes in Zamboanga City. Torred said witnesses pointed to Sariul as the rebel who beheaded Golden Harvest workers Primitivo Falcasantos and Crisanto Suela, a day after they were kidnapped and just as the country celebrated Independence Day.
The terrorists, mocking Arroyo, placed the workers’ severed heads in a box and left it on a roadside in Lantawan town, Basilan. When news of the atrocity spread, the Abu Sayyaf issued a statement declaring it to be their Independence Day gift to Arroyo.
Several weeks after the two workers were beheaded, the Abu Sayyaf also beheaded another foreign hostage, American national Guillermo Sobero, to taunt Arroyo and mock military operations that had failed to pin the terrorists down.
Posted by: ryuge ||
01/23/2018 00:00 ||
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[Bangkok Post] Three people died and 18 others were injured when a motorcycle bomb exploded at a market in Yala province early Monday morning.
Local police said a young man parked a motorcycle near a pork stall at the Pimolchai market in Yala municipality. The woman who owned the stall told him to move the motorcycle, but he ran away. When the woman went over to the motorcycle to move it herself, it exploded.
She and a male customer were killed instantly. Nineteen wounded people were rushed to Yala Hospital, where one of them succumbed to injuries.
Security authorities found chopped steel rods and electronic parts near the wrecked motorcycle and estimated the bomb weighed about 20 kilograms. The pork stall and many other motorcyles and stalls at the market were also destroyed.
Military spokesman Pramote Phrom-in said authorities had identified a group of militants responsible for the bombing and were searching for them. They were insurgents who had been active in the local area, he said.
[AnNahar] Ottoman Turkish forces and their Syrian rebel allies have launched a cross-border offensive against the Afrin region of northern Syria, held by a powerful Kurdish militia.
Since "Operation Olive Branch" began on Saturday, rebels and Ottoman Turkish forces have advanced about five kilometres (three miles) into Syrian territory.
An alliance of pro-Ankara rebels is amassing on front lines around Afrin for an expected ground attack. AFP takes a deeper look at those factions and their objectives.
- The fronts -
Afrin is a hilly enclave that juts out from Syria's northern Aleppo province. The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... holds the borders to the north and west while Syrian rebels control those south and east.
Rebels have deployed along a highway east of Afrin between their two strongholds of Azaz and Marea.
Other forces, including some fighters from the neighbouring province of Idlib, have gathered south of Afrin.
Rebels have also launched a push alongside Ottoman Turkish soldiers from inside Ottoman Turkish territory, south into the enclave.
Ankara had bussed around 600 rebels from northern Syria into Ottoman Turkish territory ahead of a ground invasion.
- The forces -
The Ottoman Turkish-backed rebel forces taking part in the offensive number around 25,000, according to Yasser Abdelrahim, a key member of the campaign's joint operations room.
They include factions from Euphrates Shield, an operation launched by Ankara in 2016 against 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 and the People's Protection Units (YPG) militia which Turkey considers as "terrorists".
Euphrates Shield brought together a smattering of non-jihadist factions that have received Ottoman Turkish and US support, among them the Sultan Murad Brigades, Hamzat Division, and Mutasem Brigades.
Those forces are fighting side-by-side again in the Afrin assault.
Also taking part in "Operation Olive Branch" are fighters from al-Jabha al-Shamiya and Faylaq al-Sham, two rebel alliances operating in northern Syria since 2014.
Many of these groups have threatened the YPG or already clashed with them.
- The mission -
Rebel forces behind the offensive say they are opposed to the YPG and its political branch, the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), calling the groups "terrorists" and "separatists".
"The operation is to liberate the area from all kinds of terrorism and protect civilians, Arabs and Kurds," said Abdelrahim, who is also Faylaq al-Sham's military chief.
"We're not attacking to reach the town of Afrin. The residential buildings are not our aim -- just the military bases and military positions used by the PYD and YPG."
But rebels also blamed the YPG for not battling regime forces and have even evoked ethnic divides and accuse them of displacing Arabs.
"The goal of the offensive is, in the first phase, to oust the separatist parties from the Arab villages in our areas," said Abu Meslem, a field commander in al-Jabha al-Shamiya.
He insisted "Operation Olive Branch" does not aim to push out the entire Syrian Kurdish community.
"This is our duty: to oust the separatist parties and bring back the displaced families who have been living in tents during the winter," he told AFP.
- The operation -
On Sunday, a day into the operation, rebel forces and their Ottoman Turkish backers entered the Afrin region and claimed to have captured several villages and hilltop positions.
The state-run Anadolu news agency said Ottoman Turkish troops, whose number was not specified, were advancing alongside pro-Ankara rebels and were already five kilometres (three miles) inside Syria.
Turkey has mainly provided air cover to the operation, pounding dozens of YPG targets with artillery and air strikes.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/23/2018 02:21 ||
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[AlManar] Syrian Army and allies have started the operation to eliminate al-Nusra Front terrorists, who have been surrounded in the eastern part of Idlib province, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
“Syrian government troops and militia units have started to eliminate a grouping of Jabhat Fatah al Sham [previously known as al-Nusra Front] terrorist organization, numbering more than 1,500 fighters and surrounded in the eastern part of Idlib province. The militants are armed with tanks, infantry combat vehicles, field artillery systems and mortars,” the statement said.
According to the ministry, over the past 24 hours, the units of the Syrian Army have advanced 3.7 miles to the north of Abu Al-Dhour airfield and liberated 24 settlements from militants.
The statement comes two days after the Syrian government forces regained control over the strategic airfield in the Idlib province, which had been seized by al-Nusra Front terrorists in 2015. The government troops have also managed to encircle al-Nusra Front in the eastern part of the Idlib province.
The Syrian Army supported by allied forces have been carrying out an anti-terrorist operation in the province for over a month.
[AlManar] Four more villages were liberated during the past few hours by the Syrian Arab Army and allies in the southeastern countryside of Idlib.
SANA’s reporter in Hama said that army units, in cooperation with supporting forces, continued their operations against the remnants of Nusra Front terrorist organization to the east of Abu al-Dhour Airport, regaining control over the villages of Qar’a al-Ghazal, Um al-Hota, Shoyhet Abu Essa, and Abu Mrir after destroying terrorists’ fortified positions and gatherings.
According to the reporter, the army will announce the liberation of Abu al-Dohour town within a few hours as its units are currently engaging in fierce clashes with terrorists in the town, with the aim of eliminating the last gatherings of terrorists in it who are in a state of collapse as they suffered massive losses in their ranks.
Aleppo
The Syrian Arab Army regained control over four villages in the southwestern countryside of Aleppo.
Army units, backed by supporting forces, continued their operations against Nusra terror organization in the southwestern countryside of Aleppo, regaining control over the villages of Tarfawi, Hmimat al-Dair, Raydi Gharbia, and Tabara, a military source told SANA.
A number of terrorists were also killed during the army’s operations in the villages.
Source: SANA
Posted by: badanov ||
01/23/2018 00:00 ||
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[ALMASDARNEWS] Media affiliated to the Hezbollah paramilitary group denies that Ottoman Turkish-led forces attacking Syria’s Afrin region have made many advances contrary to the statements released by opposition and rebel sources over the last several days.
Hezbollah-affiliated media has released a map and statement claiming that the operation by the Ottoman Turkish Army and Syrian rebel groups subordinated to it to eject Kurdish militias from Afrin has so far produced zero results on the ground.
The communique expanded to reveal Hezbollah’s position on the matter, claiming the Ottoman Turkish assault to be an aggression against Syria as a whole (a view likewise expressed by the Damascus government).
The reports by Hezbollah-linked news directly contradicts the statements made by rebel and opposition sources which claim that, since Saturday, almost a dozen towns and villages within the Afrin region just south of the Ottoman Turkish border have been captured by pro-Ankara forces.
Moments ago, official Ottoman Turkish sources announced that The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... -led forces in Syria had commenced the main phase of their anti-Kurdish operation, kicking-off a direct assault on the city of Afrin itself.
[AnNahar] Intense clashes erupted Monday as Turkish troops and their allies advanced on a Kurdish enclave in Syria, the third day of the Ankara offensive aimed at ousting the Kurds from the area, a Kurdish militia and a war monitoring group said.
The U.S-backed Kurdish militia said it has repelled Turkish troops and their Syrian allies from Shinkal and Adah Manli, two villages they seized a day earlier in Afrin, the northwestern Syrian district that straddles the Turkish border.
The militia said the Turkey-backed forces have opened a new front, pushing their way into two other villages in the district's north. The militia said they are fighting to push back the advancing troops in Balia and Qarna.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Syrian Kurdish militia waged a ferocious counteroffensive late Sunday, repelling the Turkish troops and allied Syrian fighters from the two villages they briefly captured. The Observatory said Turkey-backed troops were attempting once again to enter Afrin.
Access to Afrin is restricted and it is difficult to independently verify the reported developments.
The Kurdish militia, known as People's Defense Units or YPG, said it was clashing Monday with the Turkish troops northwest of Afrin.
[Breitbart] Christians and Yazidis in the Syrian city of Afrin are asking for international assistance as Turkish warplanes and artillery hammer Kurdish positions around the city and Turkish ground forces roll across the border.
BasNews reports that a prayer service was held at the Ra’i Salih Church in Afrin for civilians caught in the crossfire, and the city’s Christian community has asked for international protection.
The Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan has vowed to eliminate every single YPG fighter in Syria. Meanwhile, PKK had already given orders to have immediate reactions if the Turkish army attempts to attack Afrin," BasNews reports. The YPG is the Syrian Kurdish militia, whereas the PKK is the violent Kurdish separatist party in Turkey. The Turkish government considers the two Kurdish groups allies, if not one and the same.
"As the Good Shepherd Church in Afrin city, we demand urgent international protection for the believers in Afrin and the cease of this Turkish shelling. We are also against the heavy Turkish shelling and the return of Islamic groups to the region," read a statement from the church’s pastor, Valentine Hanan. "We as the church first ask God for protection and then ask for prayers and aid from our brothers."
Hanan’s statement was reported by the Kurdish Rudaw news service, which states there are about 250 Christian families in the Afrin canton, 190 of them in the city of Afrin itself.
Rudaw also carried several denunciations of the Turkish operation from other countries, including Cyprus, the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq, and Kurdish members of the Iranian Parliament.
"Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s president, used the Turkish army to attack defenseless Kurds in Syria while the United Nations and other international organizations are silent. And world powers, as usual, are silent and watching the killing of Syrian Kurds," the Iranian Kurdish MPs said in a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
One Iranian Kurdish deputy described the Turkish attack as a "barbaric act" akin to the depravities of Saddam Hussein and the Islamic State.
Christians and Yazidis in northern Syria told the Associated Press they feared persecution by the Turks and their allies, many of whom are hardline Islamist militants. The Yazidi Association of Germany estimated that 15,000 Yazidis live in Afrin and said it fears abuse from "jihadists" working with Turkey as part of its offensive.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/23/2018 00:00 ||
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Iranian military leaders claimed Monday that they threatened two American-led vessels in international waters amid a series of new war drills being carried out by the Islamic Republic, according to regional reports and U.S. military officials who confirmed to the Washington Free Beacon contact with the Iranian vessels.
As Iran carries out a several days long series of war drills in the Sea of Oman, off the country's southern border, military leaders claim to have warned off at least two vessels led by U.S. coalition forces in the region.
U.S. military officials confirmed being in contact with Iranian forces, which is just the latest in a series of provocative interactions between the Iranian military and United States.
"One U.S. warship operating in the Gulf of Oman received a transmission from Iranian maritime forces announcing an Iranian exercise," Cmdr. William Urban, a spokesman for U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, told the Free Beacon Monday evening.
U.S military officials say the military vessel continued to carry out its mission, despite the Iranian contact and did not alter its course.
"The U.S. warship continued to execute its mission and did not alter operations as a result of the radio transmission," Urban said. "U.S. warships continue to sail and operate wherever international law allows.
Iranian military leaders had a different version of events, claiming in comments that two U.S.-led warships were instructed to leave the waters where the drills were being held after they were detected by drone surveillance.
"This morning and in the first hours of the drills, two warships of the coalition which had approached the drills zone to monitor the Iranian Navy units were identified by the Navy drones," Rear Admiral Seyed Mahmoud Moussavi, who is leading the Iranian war drills, was quoted as telling Iran's state-controlled press outlets.
"After declaring the issue to the drills' tactical base, the patrolling and reconnaissance planes flew over the coalition warships and warned them [to leave the region] and the warships left the drills zone," according to Moussavi.
Iran is in the midst of another set of war drills aimed at testing new military hardware.
Iran's Army, Navy, and Air Defense forces are all participating in the war drills, which will continue for at least the next two days, according to Iran's media.
The Islamic Republic is testing a range of rockets and laser-guided cannons, according to a readout. Tehran also is testing various light and heavy submarines, as well as helicopters and other air defenses.
Michael Rubin, a former Pentagon adviser and expert on rogue regimes, told the Free Beacon that Iran has a history of not respecting international waters.
"The problem with the Iranian leadership is that they don't understand that international waters are international," Rubin said. "Then again, respect for international norms has never been Iran's strong suit dating back to their seizure of the U.S. embassy in 1979, an act, by the way, even the so-called reformists with whom [former Secretary of State] John Kerry fell in love and continue to endorse."
Posted by: Anomalous Sources ||
01/23/2018 00:00 ||
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[Hot Air] "This is all intel driven," a Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) official told CBS about a sudden change in the rules for cargo shipments from five Muslim countries. All five countries are allied to the US in the anti-ISIS fight, which might make this a little uncomfortable for the State Department ‐ and might underscore the seriousness of the "emergency order":
Growing concern about terrorists getting a bomb onto a plane headed for the United States prompted an emergency order requiring stricter scrutiny of air cargo by TSA Administrator David Pekoske. Effective Monday morning, all cargo being loaded onto flights at last point of departure airports in five predominately Muslim countries — Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates — will be subject to the new requirements.
“These countries were chosen because of a demonstrated intent by terrorist groups to attack aviation from them,” said a TSA official familiar with the order. “This is all intel driven.” …
Six airlines — EgyptAir, Royal Jordanian, Qatar, Saudi, Emirates and Etihad — serving the U.S. from seven airports are now required to comply with Air Cargo Advance Screening protocols. Known as ACAS, it is typically a voluntary program, that provides the TSA and Customs and Border Protection with advanced information about all cargo those carriers plan to bring to the United States.
Posted by: Besoeker ||
01/23/2018 02:02 ||
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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.
[The Hindu] Talibs who killed at least 22 people at a luxury Kabul hotel went from room to room searching for foreigners, the survivors said on Monday as more details of the victims emerged.
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey...
[DAILYSABAH] 
[SPECTRUMLOCALNEWS] A Lackawanna man has pleaded guilty to working with the 
Zawahiri
[REUTERS] Malaysia has 
[Rappler] At least three communist militants and one auxiliary force of the military were killed in a gun battle that lasted for hours in a Cotabato town on January 22.
[Inquirer] An Abu Sayyaf militant tagged as the one who beheaded two Filipino workers in 2001 in a bloody gesture of mocking the then Arroyo administration has been arrested, the military said. The Abu Sayyaf had described the beheadings as an “Independence Day gift” to then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in retaliation for her refusal to call off military offensives against the terror group.
[Bangkok Post] Three people died and 18 others were injured when a motorcycle bomb exploded at a market in Yala province early Monday morning. 
[AlManar] Syrian Army and allies have started the operation to eliminate al-Nusra Front terrorists, who have been surrounded in the eastern part of Idlib province, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
[ALMASDARNEWS] Media affiliated to the Hezbollah paramilitary group denies that 
[Breitbart] Christians and Yazidis in the Syrian city of Afrin are asking for international assistance as Turkish warplanes and artillery hammer Kurdish positions around the city and Turkish ground forces roll across the border.
Iranian military leaders claimed Monday that they threatened two American-led vessels in international waters amid a series of new war drills being carried out by the Islamic Republic, according to regional reports and U.S. military officials who confirmed to the Washington Free Beacon contact with the Iranian vessels.
