[tolonews] At least two Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) employees were killed in Jalalabad in eastern Nangarhar province on Monday when their vehicle hit a roadside mine, local officials said.
In addition, two other employees have been confirmed injured by police officials.
The incident took place at 8:30 am local time after the vehicle they were traveling in struck the IED, a spokesman for the provincial police chief, Hazrat Omar Mashriqiwal said.
"The blast happened while the employees of AIHRC were on their way to their office," he said.
However conflicting reports have emerged that the injured toll was in fact four.
Eyewitnesses said two people were killed and four were injured.
Officials at the Nangarhar hospital said four injured people had been admitted to hospital.
They did not however provide further details.
Police have started investigations into the incident but no group including the Taliban has yet claimed responsibility. See video and more at the link
[tolonews] At least 23 Taliban insurgents were killed in an operation in northern Kunduz province, local officials said on Monday.
In addition, 11 other insurgents were injured.
The operation was launched in Khan Abad district of Kunduz under name of "Tofan-e-Daham" (Tenth Storm). Five other insurgents were also arrested during the operation, a spokesman for the military forces in Kunduz, Ghulaam Hazrat Karimi said.
"The operation still continues in Aqtash area of Khan Abad to clear all insurgents," he said.
"Sixteen vehicles belonging to insurgents including two police vehicles which were stolen by them were also destroyed in an air operation by military forces," said Karimi.
However, he did not provide details about security force casualties.
The Taliban have not yet commented on the operation.
Unidentified military jets have carried out airstrikes targeted an Al shabaab base located near Kismayo city, capital of Jubbaland state, causing casualties, military officer said on Monday.
Col Mohamud Qalib, a senior Jubbaland army commander has told Radio Shabelle that the aerial bombardment has left several Al shabaab fighters wounded after a missile hit their camp at Qalqala area. He said that the Al shabaab militants wounded in the air raid have been taken to a hospital in Jilib town, the biggest Al shabaab stronghold in middle Jubba region of southern Somalia.
Kenyan defense forces spokesman said Sunday that they killed 15 Al shabaab fighters in an attack occurred at Yoontooy area, 18Kms north of Kismayo city and destroyed two boats.
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A fierce battle has erupted in Gedo region after Somali army backed by African Union troops have attacked a base belonging to Al shabaab militants, a resident said on Monday.
Speaking on the phone to Radio Shabelle, a local resident has confirmed that the allied troops have launched a massive assault on Golweyn village, 35Kms away from Garbaharey city, resulting an hour-long gunfight. Details of the casualties on both warring sides still remain sketchy. Golweyn area lies between Luuq and Garbaharey towns near Kenyan border.
Over the past few weeks, Somali military soldiers and their allied AMISOM forces have been launching attacks aimed at the weeding out of Al shabaab fighters out of Gedo region, sources said.
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[AlAhram] 29-year-old police officer was injured late Sunday in Nile Delta's Sharqiya governorate when unknown assailants shot him in the shoulder and then fled, Ahram Arabic website reported.
The officer, Amir Samir, was shot on his way back home and was transferred to the hospital. Investigations by the prosecution are ongoing.
A similar incident in Sharqiya occurred in August, where three attackers on a cycle of violence killed a policeman.
At least 20 security forces personnel have been killed in similar attacks since 2013 in Sharqiya, Morsi's birthplace.
The latest such attack in Egypt occurred Saturday night when unknown assailants shot a policeman dead in Beni Suef.
[alwasat.ly] The ISIS terror organization crucified one of its own on Saturday, near the city of Sirte.
Local sources in the city tell Alwasat that the Sudanese national tried flee the group but was captured at a checkpoint near eastern entrance to Sirte. He had $10,000 with him, the amount paid upon joining the terror group.
The sources also said that crucifixion took place in a suburb east of Sirte, adding that "The Sharia Court" established by the organization also ruled to crucify two other members, they were Syrian nationals.
A source close to ISIS tells Alwasat that three young men where executed in a schoolyard in Sirte's city center. They were identified as Sediq Swaiti, Mostafa Shakrabi, and Ahmed Mohamed Karami, arrested last August because of their affiliation to Libya Dawn.
Additionally, sources confirmed that ISIS' Sharia Court in Sirte handed down crucifixion sentence's on ten people including two Arabs who are members of the organization. Charges for normal citizens included, smoking, drug abuse, links to the Libyan army, Libya Dawn or Salafist sheiks. The ISIS members were sentenced for not implementing orders and violating regulations.
[LibyaHerald] The “National Salvation Government” in Tripoli has set up a military operations room to secure the coastal road between the capital and the Tunisian border. It is to be under the direct control of Tripoli’s prime minister, Khalifa Ghwell.
The road has been closed on numerous occasions either because of fighting between forces supporting Tripoli and those backing the House of Representatives (HoR) or because the latter controlled certain points along it.
The latter still remains the case. However, for the past ten days the local militias supported by the Libyan National Army (LNA) have retreated from numerous locations. This followed the controversial militia meeting at Taweela at which pro-Qaddafi supporters took part which led to the LNA has distancing itself from the units.
As a result last week, pro-Tripoli forces mainly from Sabratha were able to move into Ajilat, Ras Yusuf and other places between Sabratha and Al-Jmail.
The new operations room is seen as an attempt to capitalise on the situation
[Ynet] Egypt's security forces have nabbed Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! the secretary general of the Freedom and Justice Party, the Moslem Brüderbund's political wing, and another high-ranking Brotherhood member, the state-run news agency ...and if you can't believe the state-run news agency who can you believe?... reported on Monday.
Hussein Ibrahim, the dissolved party's secretary general, and El-Refei Hassan, were reportedly hiding in the western Mediterranean province of Marsa Matrouh on Egypt's north coast.
According to the report, the two have confessed they were trying to reach Libya.
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[AnNahar] Two people were killed Monday in a suicide kaboom at a mosque in the Saudi city of Najran that was 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, which has repeatedly targeted Shiites in the Sunni-ruled kingdom.
The attack occurred just after Maghrib early evening prayers at the al-Mashad mosque in the southern city's Dahza neighborhood, said the Saudi interior ministry.
The IS jihadist group grabbed credit for the attack on what it said was an Ismaili Shiite mosque, said SITE Intelligence Group, a U.S. monitoring organization.
Al-Hijaz Province, a group affiliated to IS, said on Twitter that a fighter named Abu Ishaq al-Hijazi detonated his boom belt at the mosque, causing "many" casualties.
In their statement, the group said the assailant "detonated his boom belt in an assembly of the rejectionist Ismaili polytheists."
In August, the same group claimed another blast in 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... 's southern region. Fifteen people died in that suicide kaboom at a mosque frequented by members of a police special weapons and tactics unit in Abha city.
"As worshipers were leaving the mosque, a person wearing a suicide belt entered and went kaboom! amongst them," the ministry said of the latest attack.
It said one person was killed at the scene and a second died later of injuries. The maimed were taken to hospital, it said without giving a number.
Saudi news channel al-Ekhbariya earlier said that apart from the initial death, 12 people were maimed. It had also reported that the attacker was maimed.
On its Twitter account, the ministry said Sherlocks found a vehicle belonging to the bomber.
The vehicle contained a letter to his parents about his crime, the ministry added.
- IS targeting 'heretics' -
Neither the ministry nor the television specified whether the mosque belonged to the kingdom's Sunni majority or the Shiite minority.
But roughly half of Najran's population belongs to the Ismaili community.
Most of Saudi Arabia's Shiites live in Eastern Province, where they have been targeted four times in the past year by bombings and shootings linked to the IS group of Sunni murderous Moslems, who consider them heretics.
The latest attack in the east occurred on October 16 when a gunman fired on Shiites commemorating Ashura in the Qatif area, before police shot him dead. Ashura is one of the holiest occasions for the Shiite faith.
In June, four Shiites died preventing a jacket wallah from entering the hall of al-Anoud mosque in Dammam city.
Days earlier, 21 people were killed in another Shiite mosque bombing in Eastern Province.
Groups claiming affiliation with IS said they carried out the earlier blasts and the Ashura shooting.
During Ashura last year, gunnies killed seven Shiite worshippers, including children, in the eastern town of al-Dalwa. The interior ministry said the suspects had links to IS.
Najran is also on the frontline of a Saudi-led coalition war against Zaidi Shiite Houthis in Yemen.
Shells fired from Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... have landed in Najran, and Saudi troops on the border have skirmished with rebels since the coalition in March began air strikes against the Huthis.
[Asharq Al-Awsat] Forces belonging to the Saudi-led coalition targeting the Houthis and their allies in Yemen, aided by pro-government forces, are close to recapturing the presidential palace in the southwestern city of Taiz, according to sources.
Parts of the strategic city, which lies 109 miles (176 kilometers) northwest of the southern port city of Aden where the Yemeni government is now headquartered, have been under the control of the Houthis and their allies for months.
However, sources from the Popular Resistance, a coalition of volunteer forces loyal to the government and President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, told Asharq Al-Awsat on Sunday that the Joint Forces, which comprises the Popular Resistance and forces belonging to the Saudi-led coalition, have made progress in recapturing large parts of the city.
They said large numbers of Houthi fighters and those loyal to ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh—who along with Iran has aided the Houthi coup in Yemen—have in recent days fled the site of the presidential palace in the city, which has for months been in under Houthi control.
They said “fierce battles” have raged for days around the palace and the nearby headquarters of the state security forces, where Houthi fighters have encamped.
Local activist Fuad Al-Mussalami told Asharq Al-Awsat the Houthis have been “haphazardly targeting civilian areas in the city with a range of heavy and medium weaponry,” adding that “many” civilians have been killed in these attacks. More at the link
[Ynet] Police say they have placed in durance vile Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! four suspects in last month's killing of an Italian citizen in the Bangladeshi capital.
Italian aid worker Cesare Tavella was bumped off by cycle of violence-riding assailants while jogging on the streets of the Dhaka's diplomatic quarter.
Responsibility for the attack was 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, but the Bangladeshi government denied the holy warrior Sunni murderous Moslem group had any presence in the impoverished South Asian nation.
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[Hurriyet] Two coppers and seven 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 (ISIL) Lions of Islam were killed on Oct. 26 in a major operation in the southeastern province of Diyarbakir.
Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus told news hounds in Istanbul that 12 ISIL Lions of Islam were captured in the operation while five coppers were maimed.
"The operation started at 4 a.m. as a result of intelligence sharing from different intelligence sources.
Unfortunately, when our coppers were breaking the doors with a sledgehammer using a routine method, a booby trap planted around the house was set off unexpectedly, and two of our coppers were martyred. Seven Daesh [Islamic State] [ISIL] Lions of Islam were killed during the operations in around three or four houses.
Twelve Lions of Islam were captured alive. Apart from the two martyred coppers, we have five maimed officers," Kurtulmus said.
Police organized simultaneous operations on 17 houses suspected of harboring ISIL Lions of Islam at around 4 a.m. on Oct. 26.
Security teams raided a detached house in the Huzurevler neighborhood of Diyarbakir's Kayapinar district as part of the operation.
As soon as the police entered the compound, Lions of Islam detonated a remote-controlled explosive previously placed in the house's garden, killing the two officers and wounding five colleagues. The injured officers were transferred to nearby hospitals.
"This was an important operation... we can say we have neutralized a major Daesh [Islamic State] cell," said Kurtulmus, using an Arabic name for ISIL. "We are trying to determine any links with cells in other cities."
Two coppers, identified as Gökhan Cakici, 22, and Sadik Özkan, 25, shuffled off the mortal coil, while five other officers were being treated at Dicle University Medical Faculty Hospital.
The seven deceased Lions of Islam and 12 Lions of Islam captured alive were all Turkish citizens, according to state-run Anadolu Agency. Police are focusing on whether they have any link with the recent ISIL bombings in Ankara, Suruc and Diyarbakir.
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[dawn] SIALKOT: At least two minors were killed during an exchange of fire between Punjab Rangers and Indian Border Security Forces (BSF) across the Working Boundary in Shakargarh sector early Monday.
The number of people injured due to the firing has risen to 14, Narowal District Coordination Officer Najaf Iqbal said.
The dead included a 10-year-old girl and a 16-year-old boy, the DCO said, adding that around 59 livestock were also injured in the incident.
A medical camp has been set up by district administration to provide first aid to the affectees, the DCO said.
Indian media reports say six civilians have been injured during cross-border firing in the Samba and Kathua districts of Jammu region, along the Line of Control.
The ceasefire violations come just days after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif during an official visit to Washington apprised United States Secretary of State John Kerry about the destabilising role being played by Indian intelligence agencies in Federally Administered Tribal Areas, Balochistan and Karachi.
Three separate dossiers containing evidence of Indian involvement in subversive activities were also handed over to the US by Adviser to the Prime Minister on National Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz.
Nawaz and Obama had expressed concern over violence along the LoC, and noted their "support for confidence-building measures and effective mechanisms that are acceptable" to both India and Pakistan.
"While refusing dialogue, India is engaged in a major arms buildup, regrettably with the active assistance of several powers," Nawaz had said last week during an address to the US Institute for Peace. More at the link
[dawn] LAHORE: Two Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) workers were killed and seven others were injured as a clash broke out between PTI and PML-N party workers in Lahore's Yakki Gate area early Monday.
The dead have been identified as Khurram Shehzad and Malik Arif. A minor is among those injured.
The PTI filed a First Information Report (FIR) for murder against seven PML-N workers including Chaudhry Zahid, Malik Ditta and Ahmed Butt.
The scuffle broke out after a disagreement between PTI and PML-N workers in the area near Nawaz Sharif Hospital, where both parties' offices are located.
Shots were fired as the clash between party members turned increasingly violent.
Police said they would start an investigation into the incident.
"Police have assured us that swift action will be taken against the perpetrators," Shafqat Mahmood of the PTI said.
[Rudaw] Ten former Iraqi ministers have been found guilty of fraud and corruption while in office on a number of different charges brought against them by the parliament's Commission of Integrity.
The ministers have been high-ranking members of former Iraqi Cabinets since 2003.
Lawmaker Adil Nuri, who is the spokesperson of the committee, told Rudaw a court in Baghdad has also issued arrest warrants for some of the convicted ministers.
Nuri said Kurdish Minister Shex Muhammad Shex Abdulkareem Kasnazani, who served as the minister of trade in past Cabinets, was among those convicted.
The committee said at least half of Iraq's revenue since 2003, estimated at $1 trillion, remains unaccounted for since the ministries have not submitted final reports concerning their expenditures.
"We have ministers who are accused of embezzling $900 million, some of $500 million and others are accused of $100 million," Nuri said. "Some fake ministry contracts are worth $1.5 billion."
Iraq has continually been ranked as one of the most corrupt countries in the region, with a high level of unaccountability in fraud and bribery cases concerning brass hats. The war-torn country is one of the most corrupt nations in the Arab world, according to a 2014 report from Transparency International. Iraq was ranked 170th out of 175 countries in the group's perception of corruption list.
"The country does not have an equivalent in the Middle East when it comes to corruption," Nuri said of Iraq.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi dismissed 123 deputy ministers and general managers in September 2014 as part of a reform plan to reduce corruption in government bodies.
Falling oil prices and a costly war with ISIS across the country has shrunk Iraq's national budget to an estimated $105 billion in 2015 with a roughly $20 billion overall deficit.
Abadi leads a consensus government that was formed in the aftermath of the ISIS takeover of Nineveh province by ISIS in June 2014.
Sectarian divisions between the majority Shiites and minority Sunnis have made it nearly impossible for the courts to indict officials who are often backed by powerful tribal segments of Iraq's fragmented society.
Former Iraqi Vice President Tariq Hashimi, a Sunni leader, fled the country in 2012 after an arrest warrant involving corruption reportedly sponsored by former Shiite Premier Nouri al-Maliki ... Prime Minister of Iraq and the secretary-general of the Islamic Dawa Party. Maliki imposed order on Basra wen the Shiites were going nuts, but has proven incapable of dealing with al-Qaeda's Sunni insurgency. Reelected to his third term in 2014... "We have been threatened several times over each case that we have worked on so far," Nuri said, adding he hoped the committee's final report will bring many officials to court.
Nuri said the cases involve almost all government ministries, including those of defense, interior, transportation, commerce, oil, migration, municipalities and many more.
(IraqiNews.com) Baghdad – A source in the Iraqi Interior Ministry announced on Monday, that six elements of the Iraqi army were wounded in a bomb blast that targeted their patrol south of Baghdad.
The source said in an interview for IraqiNews.com, “A bomb exploded, this morning, targeting an Iraqi army patrol as it passed in Latifiya south of Baghdad, resuling in the injury of six elements.”
The source, who asked anonymity, added: “Ambulances rushed to the scene and transported the wounded to a nearby hospital for treatment, while the security forces cordoned off the area of the incident and prevented approaching it.”
(IraqiNews.com)Baghdad – A source in the Iraqi Interior Ministry announced on Monday that 11 people had been either killed or wounded in the explosion of an explosive device south of Baghdad.
The source said in an interview for IraqiNews.com, “A bomb exploded, before noon today, near a popular market in the district of Madain south of Baghdad, killing two people and injuring nine others.”
The source, who asked to remain anonymous, added: “The security forces rushed to the area and transported the wounded to a nearby hospital for treatment, and the bodies of the dead to the forensic medicine department,” without giving further details.
(IraqiNews) Salahuddin – Badr Organization announced on Monday, that a force from al-Hashed al-Sha’bi had managed to kill 26 elements of the ISIS organization and repel an attack by the organization on Makhoul Mountains north of Baiji.
The commander of Badr’s 5th brigade, Brigadier Haidar Matouri, stated in an interview tfor IraqiNews.com, “The Badr fighters stationed in Makhoul Mountains region north of Baiji were able, today, to repel the attack by the ISIS organization on Makhoul Mountains.”
Matouri added, “The stationed forces were able to kill 26 element of organization and cause considerable material losses in their ranks.”
(IraqiNews.com) Diyali – According to a local source in Diyali province, four civilians, including a child, had been wounded in a mortar shell fall in northeast of Baqubah.
The source informed IraqiNews.com, “Five mortar shells landed in the area surrounding the house of the tribal leader in the village of Abu Saida (northeast of Baqubah), injuring four civilians, including a child, in addition to causing material damage to the residential houses.”
The source, who requested to remain anonymous, added, “The shelling could have resulted in a massacre if one mortar landed in the center of the house, which was crowded with dozens of visitors and guests from different tribes.”
(IraqiNews.com) Baghdad – A source in the Iraqi Interior Ministry announced on Monday the killing and wounding of 15 people in a suicide bombing that targeted a Husseini convoy in al-Shaab area northeast of Baghdad.
The source said in an interview for IraqiNews.com, “The outcome of the suicide bombing by an explosive belt, which targeted Husseini convoy in Shaab area northeast of Baghdad, reached four dead and 11 injured,” adding that the victims toll may rise because of “the intensity of the bombing.”
The source, who asked anonymity, added: “Ambulances rushed to the area and transported the wounded to a nearby hospital for treatment, and the dead bodies to the forensic medicine department, while the security forces have imposed strict procedures in anticipation of similar attacks.”
[IsraelTimes] Israeli Air Force warplanes struck targets in the Gazoo Strip on Monday night, the army said, in response to rocket fire on the south hours earlier. The two sites hit in the strikes belong to the Islamist Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, organization, which controls the Strip.
"In response to the attack, IAF aircraft targeted two terror sites of the Hamas terror organization in the southern Gazoo Strip," the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement after the strike.
IDF front man Lt. Col. Peter Lerner held Hamas responsible for the rocket fire, and warned that there would be "consequences" if it failed to rein in those carrying out the attacks on Israel.
"The intolerable reality of civilians continually living under the threat of Gazoo rockets is unacceptable, unbearable and must stop. Hamas must enforce their responsibilities or face the consequences. We will act against those that attack us and hold those that enable attacks against Israel accountable," Lerner said.
According to the IDF, the strike on Israel earlier Monday evening was the 18th rocket launched from Gazoo to hit Israeli territory since January 2015.
The rocket fired from the Gazoo Strip hit southern Israel, as air-raid sirens sounded across the communities adjacent to the Hamas-ruled Paleostinian territory.
The IDF said the rocket, which landed in an open area in the Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council, caused no injuries or damage.
Local residents reported hearing an kaboom outside one of the Israeli communities adjacent to the border fence.
[Ynet] Soldier, who was seriously maimed, was able to shoot the attacker dead; terrorist's relative killed in festivities with IDF; attempted stabbing thwarted in Hebron; Gazoo rocket falls inside Israel.
An IDF soldier was seriously maimed in a stabbing terror attack near Kiryat Arba in the West Bank on Monday morning, while a rocket was fired at Israel from the Gazoo Strip in the evening.
The 19-year-old soldier was stabbed in the neck, but was still able to shoot and kill his attacker, 22-years-old Raed Jaradat. Another soldier at the scene also opened fire on the Paleostinian attacker.
The Armored Corps soldier was evacuated to Shaare Tzedek Medial Center in Jerusalem.
A relative of the terrorist, Iyad Rawhi Jaradat, 19, was rubbed out by IDF forces during festivities near Beit Anoun in the West Bank, according to the Paleostinian Health Ministry.
Jaradat was killed during festivities that broke out when the IDF was working to disperse a march towards the home of the dead terrorist.
In a separate incident, just before 3pm on Monday, a Paleostinian who tried to stab an Israeli soldier in Hebron was rubbed out. No one was hurt in the attack.
On Monday evening, shortly after 7pm, a rocket was fired from Shuhada cemetery south of Beit Hanoun in the northern Gazoo Strip, and landed in an open area at Shaar HaNegev Regional Council. No one was hurt and no damage was caused.
A shadowy Gazoo group, inspired 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.... organization, grabbed credit for the attack.
In response to the rocket fire, the IAF attacked two communications antennas used by Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,' military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades - one in the central Gazoo Strip and the other in the south, near the Dahaniya airport. There were no Paleostinian casualties in either strike.
Military front man Lt. Col. Peter Lerner says that "the intolerable reality of civilians continually living under the threat of Gazoo rockets is unacceptable, unbearable and must stop. Hamas must enforce their responsibilities or face the consequences. We will act against those that attack us and hold those that enable attacks against Israel accountable."
Two Israelis were moderately maimed in stabbing attacks in the West Bank on Sunday while another incident in Hebron resulted in a female attacker being seriously maimed by security forces.
[Daily Caller] Russian President Vladimir Putin is serious about maintaining a presence in Syria, and his latest move is deploying a top secret Russian special forces unit referred to as that Zaslon Unit.
The Zaslon Unit is similar to Delta Force in that it compiles the best special forces operators in Russia, according to Business Insider.
An unnamed Russian senior defense official said the units being deployed are being shifted out of Ukraine and to Syria, which contradicts the Kremlin claim that no Russian troops were on the ground in Ukraine, according to Fox News.
The Zaslon Unit specializes in assassinations, VIP protection, and hostage rescue, according to HNGN. While it's unknown what exactly the special forces units will be used for, it is believed that they will be used to increase bombing campaign capabilities against ISIS and anti-Assad rebels. (RELATED: Cuba Sends Top General And Soldiers To Aid Russia, Assad In Syria)
Robert Lee, a scholar at CAST, a defense industry think tank based in Moscow, feels that the presence of Russian special forces on the ground will greatly improve the efficiency of the Russian air campaign, saying, "The use of forward ground troops to draw fire from enemy positions makes the use of air power much more effective."
Recently the American counter-part of the Zaslon Unit, Delta Force, conducted a nighttime hostage rescue mission in Iraq. It's unclear how close the American and Russian units are in the region.
#2
Starting the countdown for the first of several senior ISIS leaders going Tango Uniform from ambushes...
Actually, they were the first guys off the plane when Russia jumped in, how do explain the accuracy and effectiveness of the Russian air campaign without some forward positioned eyes?
#3
See also BIGNEWSNETWORK > EX-RUSSIAN OFFICIALS:[Economic] STAGNATION, DECLINING LIVING STANDARDS LOOM FOR RUSSIANS.
Artic read, RUSSIA INCREASINGLY VULNERABLE TO JIHADI/HARD BOY ATTACKS.
Besides historical reasons, Struggling Russia is hard-pressed to fight agz Islamist-Jihadist Militant pressure on two flanks, the ME + Central Asia, LET ALONE HARD BOY DESTABILIZATION OF NUKE-ARMED CHINA + INDIA, ETC. - PUTIN IS SECURING THE ONE TO DEAL WID THE OTHER.
* See BIGNEWSNETWORK . US PENTAGON CHIEF [Ashton Carter]: US TO INCREASE AIR, GROUND RAIDS ON ISLAMIC STATE [ISIS/ISIL/Daesh].
ARTIC > USDOD CHIEF CARTER > proclaims US to focus on "3 R's" in its new "Return to Iraq", i.e. "RAQQA [Syria], RAMADI [Iraq], + RAIDS [US SPECOPS, Joint Ops].
US-RUSSIA-IRAN SPECOPS EFFORTS AGZ ISIS???
* SAME > [Daily Star.LB] IRAN HAS OVER 1000 TROOPS IN SYRIA, LESS THAN 2000 IN IRAQ, US GENERAL SAYS.
Incoming USJCS Chair MGEN. Joseph Dunford, USMC.
VERSUS
* FREEREPUBLIC > [Defense Watch] SAVING THE US ARMY [US Army incapable of fighting even ONE = ANY Major War].
IOW, THE "WEAK/DECLINING", EX-SOLE-SUPERPOWER SOON-TO-BE-ONE-OF-MANY-OWG-CO-SUPERPOWER US oAMERIKA M-U-S-T RELY ON ITS CO-SUPERPOWER SIBLINGS RUSSIA, CHINA, + IRAN, ETAL. - NOT ITSELF - AS DESIRED BY THE ANTI-US OWG GLOBALISTS.
[AnNahar] 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.... jihadist group executed three people in Syria's ancient city of Palmyra by binding them to three historic columns and blowing them up, a monitoring group said Monday.
Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said IS on Sunday "tied three individuals it had tossed in the calaboose Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! from Palmyra and its outskirts to the columns... and executed them by blowing up" three columns.
Khaled al-Homsi, an activist from Palmyra, said IS had yet to inform local residents who the executed individuals were or why they had been killed.
"There was no one there to see (the execution). The columns were destroyed and IS has prevented anyone from heading to the site," Homsi told AFP.
Since the jihadists seized Palmyra from regime forces in May, they have destroyed multiple sites and historic artifacts, including its celebrated temples of Bel and Baal Shamin as well as several funerary towers.
IS has used Palmyra's grand amphitheater for a massacre in which child members of the group killed 25 Syrian soldiers, execution-style, in front of residents.
It also beheaded Palmyra's 82-year-old former antiquities director in August.
Palmyra's ruins are on the UNESCO World Heritage list, and before the war around 150,000 tourists a year visited the town.
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[AnNahar] At least 120,000 people have been displaced by fighting in the Syrian provinces of Aleppo, Hama and Idlib since the beginning of October, the United Nations ...an idea whose time has gone... said on Monday.
"This is up from 50,000 we reported last week," Vanessa Huguenin, spokeswoman for the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told journalists in Geneva.
She added that most of those displaced by the latest violence have stayed in their provinces, but others have also fled to camps in the Qah area near the Turkish border.
[AnNahar] Russian jets struck 94 targets in war-torn Syria over the past 24 hours, the highest one-day tally since the Kremlin began its month-old bombing campaign, the Russian defense ministry said Monday.
"In 59 sorties in the past 24 hours, Russia's air force hit 94 terrorist targets in the provinces of Hama, Idlib, Latakia, Damascus, Aleppo and Deir Ezzor," the defense ministry said in a statement.
Moscow says the bombing campaign that began on September 30 targets 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.... jihadists and other "terrorists," but the West claims the strikes have focused on moderate rebels fighting Russian-backed Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Terror of Aleppo ... 's forces.
The defense ministry said the latest strikes had destroyed a command post and a base used by "terrorists" in the Aleppo region, as well as three defensive positions near the village of Salma in the coastal Latakia province.
The strikes also caused the destruction of an ammunition depot used by the Syrian al-Qaeda affiliate al-Nusra ...formally Jabhat an-Nusrah li-Ahli sh-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 .. ... Front in Eastern Ghouta, some 50 kilometers northeast of Damascus, the ministry said.
Russian warplanes also hit an ammunition depot outside the city of Deir Ezzor and a convoy near the city of Palmyra in Homs province.
The Russian air force, which struck 285 targets in the past three days, is monitoring Syrian roads leading to conflict zones in an effort to disrupt rebel supply routes, Moscow said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said last week that Russia air strikes had killed at least 446 people, more than a third of them civilians.
The Kremlin on Monday insisted Russian forces had been carefully avoiding residential areas.
"Our military officers have said many times that Death Eaters [...] often hide in residential areas," Kremlin front man Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying by RIA Novosti state news agency.
"In this case [the military] makes a choice not to hit residential neighborhoods."
On Monday, defense ministry front man Igor Konashenkov dismissed a claim by the Syrian-American Medical Society that the Russian strikes had hit medical facilities, killing civilians and medical personnel.
"The true purpose of these organizations is to create unsourced information for designated media outlets to pick up," Konashenkov said in comments broadcast on state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
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#1
Obama, this is how you carry out a bombing campaign.
Posted by: chris ||
10/27/2015 11:58 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Are they actually hitting things, or just claiming to?
I seem to recall something called "body counts" from a war a few decades ago--estimates of the number of dead enemies, that quickly broke free from the boring limitations of reality. Sort of like drone strikes...
Posted by: James ||
10/27/2015 22:30 Comments ||
Top||
#3
The Rooshuns are not just hitting things. They are hitting everything, including ISIS field kitchens.
[AlAhram] Kurdish fighters in northern Syria have accused the Turkish military of attacking their positions near a border town at the weekend.
There was no immediate confirmation from The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... , where an official said the government was investigating the claims.
"The Turkish army targeted yesterday (Saturday), and the morning of October 25, positions held by our units along the border with Tal Abyad," the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) said in a statement dated Sunday.
In June, the Kurdish fighters and their Arab rebel allies expelled 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 jihadists from Tal Abyad after fierce festivities.
The allegations of Turkish attacks come amid heightened tensions as Turkey wages a relentless military campaign against Kurdish turbans both at home and in northern Iraq.
Turkey considers the YPG an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has waged a bloody insurgency in the southeast of the country since 1984.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him... 's front man Ibrahim Kalin on Monday accused the Democratic Union Party (PYD) -- the political arm of the YPG -- of trying to create a "de facto situation" in northern Syria on the pretext of fighting the IS group.
"We will naturally never allow this game," he said on NTV television.
Erdogan on Monday vowed that Turkey would press on with its war against "terrorists" before and after Sunday's election.
"They will continue against all terrorist organizations," he said, adding that Turkey makes no distinction between the PKK, the Islamic State and the DHKP-C, an outlawed Marxist group that has carried out a number of attacks.
A fragile grinding of the peace processor between Ankara and the PKK collapsed after a deadly attack in July on a mainly Kurdish town on the Syrian border blamed on IS forces of Evil triggered a wave of tit-for-tat violence between Turkish forces and Kurdish rebels.
Kurdish fighters control large parts of northern Syria on the Turkish border, where they have for months engaged in bitter fighting with IS jihadists.
The Kurds in Syria last week said they had incorporated Tal Abyad into their "autonomous administration" in the north of the country.
[The Australian] A FORMER soldier who fled Australia to join al-Qaeda in 2001 has now emerged as a senior commander in Syria fighting against Western forces.
Mathew Stewart, who was last seen several years ago in ÂAfghanistan, has reportedly appeared on al-Qaeda's latest online magazine Al Risalah.
The publication's latest edition includes an interview with an al-Qaeda member known as Abu Hamza Australi.
In the interview, the jihadist describes working as a military trainer with al-Qaeda proxy in Syria, Jabhat Al Nusrah. He also discusses his background, saying he is from Queensland, joined Âal-Qaeda 15 years ago and served in the Australian military, according to the ABC's 7.30 Report.
Stewart's new role, if substantiated, would make him one of the most highly-ranked Australians fighting in Syria.
A law enforcement official said they were aware of the interview and were working on establishing whether it was with Stewart.
The news of the interview was broken by US website The Long War Journal, though they were unaware of the link between Abu Hamza and Stewart.
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.
Unidentified military jets have carried out airstrikes targeted an Al shabaab base located near Kismayo city, capital of Jubbaland state, causing casualties, military officer said on Monday.
Nouri al-Maliki
[Daily Caller] Russian President Vladimir Putin is serious about maintaining a presence in Syria, and his latest move is deploying a top secret Russian special forces unit referred to as that Zaslon Unit.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[The Australian] A FORMER soldier who fled Australia to join al-Qaeda in 2001 has now emerged as a senior commander in Syria fighting against Western forces.
