[Khaama (Afghanistan)] At least five holy warriors were killed in the latest infighting among the Talibs in western Herat ...a venerable old Persian-speaking city in western Afghanistan, populated mostly by Tadjiks, which is why it's not as blood-soaked as areas controlled by Pashtuns... province of Afghanistan.
According to the local government officials, the clash between Mullah Mohammad Rasool and Mullah Akhtar Mansoor took place Ghorian district.
The officials further added that the holy warriors killed during the infighting have been taken to Shindand district of Herat province.
The supporters of Mullah Rasool and Mullah Mansoor engaged in a week long infighting in Shindand district earlier this month.
According to the local officials, at least 200 holy warriors were killed during the festivities and scores of others were maimed.
The officials also added that the Talibs belonging to the two sides also committed war crimes, including summary executions, beheadings and attacks on local residents.
Mullah Rasool is an arch rival to the self-declared Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mansoor who oppose with the leadership of Mansoor as successor of Mullah Omar ... a minor Pashtun commander in the war against the Soviets who made good as leader of the Taliban. As ruler of Afghanistan, he took the title Leader of the Faithful. The imposition of Pashtunkhwa on the nation institutionalized ignorance and brutality in a country already notable for its own fair share of ignorance and brutality... Meanwhile, ...back at the Senate, the partisans of Honorius went for their knives and the partisans of Stilicho went for the doors... a prominent Taliban capo, Mullah Ghafoor Tufan, has declared jihad against the holy warriors loyal to Mullah Mansoor in the northwestern Badghis province of Afghanistan.
The Taliban leader accused Mansoor of working for Pakistain’s Inter Service Intelligence (ISI) and murdering several Taliban leaders.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/26/2016 00:00 ||
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] A senior Afghan army general was killed in bandidoshard boyz attack in southern Kandahar province of Afghanistan late on Thursday evening, local officials said.
The officials further added that the dear departed general, General Khan Agha, was serving as deputy commander of the 205th Atal Corps of the Afghan National Army.
Provincial governor front man Samim Khpolwal confirmed the report and said Gen. Agha was killed in an attack by two bandidoshard boyz in Dand district.
However, nothing needs reforming like other people's bad habits... another security official said the army general was killed after a group of three bandidoshard boyz attacked him as he arrived in his guesthouse.
The official further added that Gen. Agha was initially injured in the attack and departed this vale of tears on the way to hospital.
Gen. Agha is the second top army general killed in bandidoshard boyz attack in southern Afghanistan within the past two months.
Another senior commander of the Afghan National Army (ANA) Gen. Atamir Agah was martyred in an kaboom in southern Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... province of Afghanistan earlier in the month of February.
Gen. Atamir Agah was serving with the 3rd Brigade of 215 Maiwand Corps of the Afghan National Army in the south.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/26/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
"Khhhhaaaannn!"
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/26/2016 11:36 Comments ||
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] A heavy kaboom rocked capital Kabul ...the capital of Afghanistan. Home to continuous fighting from 1992 to 1996 between the forces of would-be strongman and Pak ISI/Jamaat-e-Islami sock puppet Gulbuddin Hekmayar and the Northern Alliance, a period which won Hek the title Most Evil Man in the World and didn't do much for the reputations of the Northern Alliance guys either.... earlier tonight after an improvised bomb went off in the vicinity of Macroryan area.
The area was immediately cordoned off by the security forces following the kabooms which was triggered by an IED planted in in a bike.
A security official confirmed that the blast took place close to a park located near block#21 in 3rd Macroryan. However, we can't all be heroes. Somebody has to sit on the curb and applaud when they go by... he said the target of the blast has not been ascertained so far but a number of the government officials are living in the area.
Fridoon Obaidi, head of the Criminal Investigation Department said one person was slightly injured in the incident.
No group including the Talibs has so far grabbed credit behind the incident which comes as the security situation has improved during the recent weeks in Kabul city despite the myrmidon groups have been trying to carry out terrorist activities.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] A front man for the Egyptian army says it has killed 60 Islamic turbans in northern Sinai, where armed forces have been battling fighters affiliated 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.... group for two years.
Brig. Gen. Mohammed Samir said in a statement posted on the army's official Facebook page on Friday that anti-terrorism forces backed by fighter jets targeted "terrorists' hideouts," killing 60 turbans and injuring 40 others. He says that 27 4x4 trucks and 32 weapons depots were destroyed.
The renewed offensive comes days after 15 coppers were killed in the same region when turbans attacked a checkpoint using mortars.
A Sinai-based Islamic State affiliate grabbed credit for the attack, the latest in a series of bombings that have killed dozens of security forces since the beginning of this year.
Egypt’s army destroyed a number of krazed killer hideouts in troubled North Sinai’s Rafah and Sheikh Zuweid cities in raids on Friday morning, an army front man said.
The army executed the offensive based on information about the hideout locations, the front man's statement said.
The offensive was "retribution for the blood of the deaders of the army, police and innocent citizens."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/26/2016 00:00 ||
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[NAIJ] The Nigerian army seems to be increasing its momentum in the effort to decimate Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... as five bad boyz were potted in a recent clearing operation. In a statement issued by Colonel Sani Kukasheka Usman, the acting director of army public relations, he said troops of 7 Division Garrison and 112 Battalion were assisted by some Civilian JTF.
He said they conducted clearing operations at Menari, Bulamari, Zangebe, Maafa, Mijigine, Baale and Kaltaram villages in Mafa local government area of Borno state. The operation led to the rescue of 180 people who had been held hostage by the terrorists. Stolen cattle belonging to the hostages were also discovered in Giltimari and Baale.
Meanwhile, ...back at the shattered spaceship, Fffflirgoll the Arcturan slithered stealthily toward the control room, where the humans had barricaded themselves... a security expert Dr. Ona Ekhomu, has warned that the terror group Al Qaeda plans to attack the most populated Nigerian cities, Lagos and Anbuja. Ekhomu in a statement claimed that the attacks are imminent, and he advised government and corporate security executives to take immediate proactive steps to prevent the onslaught.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/26/2016 00:00 ||
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[ALLAFRICA] Twoexploding trollop female suicide bombers got killed in early hours of Friday at Umulari Mulai about six kilometers away from Maiduguri on the Maiduguri-Damboa road.
Sources said the two bombers were sighted around 1:00 am by vigilantes known as Civilian JTF.
One of them detonated her bomb when the Civilian JTF vigilantes on duty around the area asked 'who is there.'
The second bomber scurried away and holed up nearby. But she was discovered and shot when soldiers came to the site.
Her bomb was later detonated.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/26/2016 00:00 ||
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[FRANCE24] Cameroon ...a long, narrow country that fills the space between Nigeria and Chad on the northeast, CAR to the southeast. Prior to incursions by Boko Haram nothing ever happened there... 's army is deploying drones to identify and target Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... positions along the country's border with Nigeria, a region that is frequently targeted by the Islamist myrmidon group.
Boko Haram violence has left at least 17,000 dead and forced more than 2.6 million from their homes since the group launched its insurgency in Nigeria in 2009.
Nearly 1,200 people have been killed since the Nigerian fighters took their offensive into Cameroon in 2013, according to government figures.
In recent years, Boko Haram fighters slipped back and forth across the frontier, often using Cameroon's remote north as a rear base, acquiring arms, vehicles and supplies there.
Since late November the Cameroon army has carried out operations in several border areas aimed at weakening the Nigeria-based myrmidons.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/26/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
I knew I read about a cease fire in Yumpin' Yemeni here at Rantburg so I checked the archives. Indeed, a cease fire was announced but doesn't take effect until April 10 so there is still time for more festivities. Naturally they'll want to keep at it right up until the last moment.
Any odds on how long the cease fire will last?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
03/26/2016 12:58 Comments ||
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[FRANCE24] Three suicide bombs hit checkpoints in the southern Yemeni city of Aden on Friday, killing at least 20 people, residents and eye witnesses said, and 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.... bandidosmurderous Moslems grabbed credit for the attacks.
In one of the blasts, a vehicle went kaboom! as it arrived at a military checkpoint in the Buraiqa area in northwestern Aden, killing soldiers and civilians, eyewitnesses and security sources said.
The other two bombings hit checkpoints on the road to a base used by the Saudi-led military coalition that is fighting in Yemen.
Amaq, a news agency affiliated with Islamic State, said the group claimed all three attacks and that at least 27 people had died.
The Saudi-led military coalition entered Yemen’s war a year ago to try to prevent Iran-allied Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ... rebels and forces loyal to ex-President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... from taking control of the country. Other gangs like Islamic State and al Qaeda’s local wing have thrived in the chaos.
Fighters loyal to Yemen’s president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and Saudi-led troops recaptured Aden from Houthi forces in July. But frequent violence has continued into this year, including suicide kabooms, in the city of one million people.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/26/2016 00:00 ||
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[Dhaka Tribune] Leaders and activists of radical Islamist platform Hefajat-e-Islam ...a madrassa-based false nose and mustache of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, formed in 2010 to protest against secular education. In 2011 demonstrated violentyly against women's rights and in 2013 held large rallies demanding capital punishment of Shahbag Square protesters and banning women working outside the home... and Jamaat-e-Islami ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... staged demonstrations in Dhaka, Chittagong and some other areas of the country yesterday.
The Hefazat leaders vowed to wage a tougher movement if state religion was abolished from the constitution after the High Court hearing that resumes tomorrow, after five years of its adjournment.
Then the controversial parliament of HM Ershad-led Jatiya Party ...aka Jatiya Front; a political party established by Bangladictator Lieutenant General Hussain Muhammad Ershad in 1986 to lend a veneer of respectability to his rule. Since nobody was amused he was forced to resign by popular demand in 1990. The party remains in existence with about a dozen seats in Bangla's parliament... introduced the provision in 1988.
In 2013, Qawmi madrasa-based Hefazat observed countrywide demonstrations and held two rallies at Motijheel to press home their 13-point demands that include formulation of anti-blasphemy law and ban on free mixing of men and women. The government refused to fulfil the demands terming those contrary to the constitution and other existing laws. Most of the Hefazat leaders are linked to the Islamist parties of BNP-led 20-party alliance.
From a pre-scheduled rally at Andorkilla Mosque in Chittagong after Jumma prayers, Hefazat Secretary General Junaid Babunagari said: "We will lay down our lives, if necessary, to protect Islam as the state religion. None will remain Muslim constitutionally if Islam is left out of the constitution."
Babunagari claimed that they were not out to implement the agenda of any political party. "We are not supposed to help anyone grab state power or topple the government. Our aim is to protect Islam in this country," he said.
"We sacrificed our lives at Shapla Chattar. We are ready to lay down our lives again to protect Islam. We will declare Jihad from Chittagong if Islam is dropped as the state religion. Lovers of Islam will not bow down to such an evil bid," said Mainuddin Ruhi, joint secretary of Hefazat.
In Dhaka, leaders and activists of Shibir also joined the procession and rally organised by Hefazat’s city unit in front of Baitul Mukarram National Mosque. They warned the government of dire consequences if Islam was dropped from the constitution as state religion. From the rally attended by around 4,000 demonstrators, the speakers also rolled their eyes, jumped up and down, and hollered poorly rhymed slogans real loud demanding tough punishment of the atheists.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/26/2016 00:00 ||
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[Ynet] Belgian police captured a suspect carrying what a broadcaster said was a suitcase full of explosives on Friday, after shooting him in the leg during a major police operation following Tuesday's suicide kabooms in Brussels.
The federal prosecutor's office said the arrest was one of three in Brussels on Friday linked to the arrest in Gay Paree the previous day of an Islamist convicted in Belgium last year and suspected of plotting a new attack.
Nine people in total were locked away Please don't kill me! since Thursday in Belgium and two in Germany, as European authorities have swooped on gunnies they link both to the Brussels attacks that killed 31 people and to attacks in Gay Paree last November that killed 130.
Heavily armed police and troops with trucks cordoned off an area around a major intersection in the northern Brussels borough of Schaerbeek. Three blasts could be heard, which the local mayor Bernard Clerfayt said were controlled kabooms.
Belgian public broadcaster RTBF quoted Clerfayt as saying the suspect was detained after being maimed and that he was linked to Tuesday's suicide kabooms in Brussels. It said he had been found to be in possession of a suitcase full of explosives.
Witnesses told local media police had shot the man in the leg at a tram stop after he failed to respond to their orders. One witness told RTBF the man had a girl of about eight with him.
Islamic State jacket wallahs hit Brussels airport and a metro train on Tuesday in the worst such attack in Belgian history. Investigators believe those attacks were carried out by the same cell responsible for November's gun and kabooms in Gay Paree.
The Belgian federal prosecutor's office said six people were held in Brussels on Thursday, of whom three were released and three were remanded in jug facing possible charges.
Three others were detained on Friday following the arrest in La Belle France of Reda Kriket, a 34-year-old Frenchie sentenced to 10 years in Brussels in absentia in July as part of an Islamist recruiting network dubbed the Syrian Connection.
Germany's Der Spiegel magazine said German police had arrested two people, one of whom had received phone messages with the name of the metro station bomber and the word "fin" - French for "end" - three minutes before the metro blast. The German interior ministry declined immediate comment.
A person familiar with the investigation in Belgium said one of the people arrested there was believed to be a suspected accomplice caught on security camera footage with the metro station bomber.
"We have strong indications that this is the suspect who was hunted for the last couple of days. The identification is still ongoing," the source said. However he said those arrested before midday on Friday did not include a third suspect seen on video alongside the two who blew themselves up at the airport.
In Gay Paree on Thursday, authorities arrested Kriket, a French national suspected of belonging to a bully boy network planning an attack in La Belle France. French officials did not directly tie that plot to the Brussels attacks, but Clerfayt, the Schaerbeek mayor, said the man maimed on Friday was linked to both investigations.
A police source said Sherlocks found acetone peroxide explosives in an apartment in a Gay Paree suburb after the arrest.
Prosecutors confirmed the second airport bomber was Najim Laachraoui, a veteran Belgian Islamist fighter in Syria suspected of making boom belts for November's Gay Paree attacks.
Belgian daily De Morgen said Sherlocks had identified a new suspect they believe played a role in the Brussels bombings, 28-year-old Syrian Naim al-Hamed. The paper said he was on a list circulated to the security services of other European countries after Tuesday's attacks, and was also suspected of involvement in the Gay Paree attacks.
The Islamic State (ISIS) posted a video on social media calling the Brussels blasts a victory and featuring the training of Belgian gunnies suspected in the Gay Paree attacks.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/26/2016 10:58 ||
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#1
They shot the guy because he refused to stop? Haven't they heard that #JihadiLivesMatter?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
03/26/2016 13:03 Comments ||
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[Mail] A security guard who worked at a Belgian nuclear plant was murdered and had his security pass stolen, just two days after the Brussels terror attacks.
Belgian media reported today that the security guard, named as Didier Prospero, was walking his dog in the Charleroi region of Belgium when he was shot dead.
However, as soon as it emerged that his security pass had been stolen, it was quickly cancelled so nobody could gain access to the site using it.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
03/26/2016 11:49 Comments ||
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#4
Our office building keeps track of what passes get used, and this isn't a terribly high security site.(*) I wonder if Belgian nuclear plants keep similar tabs on things.
(*)Found out about that when some laptops went missing and we asked for help. The management firm hired a new cleaning service quickly thereafter.
Posted by: james ||
03/26/2016 12:52 Comments ||
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[AlAhram] German police have tossed in the calaboose You have the right to remain silent... a 28-year-old Moroccan man whose mobile-phone text messages may link him to one of the Brussels bombers, the news weekly Der Spiegel and ARD TV channel reported Friday.
The man, who had been barred from the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... 's border-free Schengen area, was arrested in Giessen, near Frankfurt, late Wednesday by police who checked his identity at the local railway station, they said.
German police and the public prosecutor's office in Giessen could not immediately be reached to comment on the reports. Friday was a public holiday in Germany.
ARD said an SMS on the man's phone mentioned the name of one of the two El Bakraoui brothers, who blew themselves up in Tuesday's kabooms in Brussels.
The police also found another message, with the French word "fin" ("end"), that was sent on Tuesday at 9:08 am (0808 GMT), two minutes before Khalid El Bakraoui detonated his bomb in the Brussels subway, der Spiegel said on its website.
Shortly before, his brother Ibrahim El Bakraoui was one of two jacket wallahs who blew themselves up at Brussels' Zaventem airport.
The arrested man had been in contact "with at least one person in the (terrorist) group" in the hours before the attacks, ARD said without giving details.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/26/2016 02:25 ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] A refugee set himself on fire on Tuesday in protest at the closure of Macedonia’s border with Greece, as the EU’s much-vaunted plan for stemming the huge influx of refugees descended further into chaos.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/26/2016 00:00 ||
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[FRANCE24] Thursday’s arrest near Gay Paree of a man alleged to have been in the "advanced stages" of plotting a terrorist attack has cast the spotlight back on a Brussels-based jihadist recruitment network that Belgian authorities cracked but failed to neutralise.
Reda Kriket, whom French police nabbed Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! in the Gay Paree suburb of Argenteuil on Thursday, had been convicted in absentia by Belgian authorities for his role in the so-called "Zerkani network" -- which radicalised Muslim youths and pushed them to wage jihad in Syria.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
03/26/2016 00:00 ||
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[CNN] Explosions and gunfire rang out Friday afternoon in Brussels -- the focal point in Europe's fight against terrorism following the bloody attacks there just three days ago.
A police operation took place in the district of Schaerbeek, near where a taxi driver picked up three men and brought them to Brussels Airport before the attack there Tuesday.
Witnesses told CNN that they heard two kabooms Friday, while others reported gunfire near a subway station.
One man said that his son, who has a shop inside the closed-off area, saw an armed individual who emerged from a metro shop get shot in the leg by police.
The operation ended with the arrest of one person linked to Tuesday's terrorist attacks in the Belgian capital, Schaerbeek Mayor Bernard Clerfayt told public broadcaster RTBF.
The mayor said that tossed in the clink Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! person was maimed. It was not clear if that individual was the same one the shopkeeper saw shot in the leg.
Authorities earlier conducted searches in Schaerbeek for several hours into Friday morning, sealing off streets for several blocks. At one point, masked teams in hazmat gear could be seen exiting a building and heading toward a police van.
And -- acting on the taxi driver's tip -- they'd raided a Schaerbeek apartment days earlier and uncovered 15 kilograms of the explosive TATP, chemicals, a suitcase with nails and screws, an ISIS flag and other equipment meant to make explosives, according to Belgian federal prosecutor Frederic Van Leeuw.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/26/2016 00:00 ||
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[AlAhram] Three military police were killed and 22 injured in a boom-mobileing on a barracks in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... 's restive southeast suspected to be the work of the murderous Moslem Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), security sources said Friday.
Thursday evening's attack took place in Mermer in Diyarbakir province, one of the areas in the mainly Kurdish southeast where security forces have engaged an offensive against the PKK since the collapse of a two-year ceasefire in July.
The attackers first detonated a van crammed with explosives outside the barracks and then opened fire on the police with automatic weapons, the sources said.
Hundreds of security forces members, rebels and civilians have been killed since the PKK resumed its more than three-decade-long insurgency in pursuit of greater autonomy for the Kurdish minority last summer.
The military has responded with a barrage of Arclight airstrikes against PKK bases and by placing several Kurdish-majority towns under curfew during operations against PKK youth that have reduced whole districts to rubble.
In recent weeks the battle has spread beyond the southeast to western Turkey.
A PKK offshoot, the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), has grabbed credit for two suicide kabooms in Ankara over the past five weeks that killed 65 people in all and injured dozens of others.
KARACHI: A suspected militant, who was educated enough to get a job in a multinational company, has been taken into custody for his alleged involvement in the Safoora Goth bus carnage and rights activist Sabeen Mahmud murder cases, sources said on Thursday.
They said that an intelligence agency arrested Ali Rehman alias Toona, an engineer by profession and an accomplice of Saad Aziz, the prime suspect in the two cases, in a raid in Punjab, where he had been hiding after the May 2015 Safoora bus carnage.
Police declared him an absconder in the charge-sheet in both the Safoora carnage and Sabeen Mahmud murder cases and an antiterrorism court had also issued his non-bailable arrest warrants.
Rehman’s name first emerged after the Sindh police’s Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) detected the group responsible for the Safoora carnage and arrested several suspects in Karachi. CTD official Raja Umer Khattab had told a press conference that the group was ‘inspired’ by the ideology of the militant Islamic State group.
According to the sources, suspect Rehman came in contact with Saad Aziz, a business graduate from the prestigious Institute of Business Administration, when the latter started working in the same multinational firm, Unilever Pakistan, where he was working as an engineer. Soon they became close friends.
A Unilever Pakistan spokesperson could not be reached despite several attempts.
Rehman along with suspect Aziz did a recee to target rights activist Mahmud. They attended one of the programmes organised at Sabeen Mahmud’s The Second Floor (T2F) cafe and could be seen in a photograph taken on the occasion.
“Ali Rehman was directly involved in the killing of Sabeen Mahmud,” said a security official, who wished not to be named.
Ms Mahmud was shot dead near the Defence Library when she along with her mother was returning home in her car after organising a seminar about the Balochistan issue in April 2015.
Later, her driver, an eyewitness to the killing, was also gunned down in the metropolis.
Regarding his involvement in the Safoora carnage, the sources said that although he did not take part in the massacre he was among the group of militants that planned and carry out the attack.
He was among several suspects who reached the spot on their motorbikes. Rehman did not enter the bus to carry out the shooting, a source said, adding that after accomplishing their mission he along with the killers escaped on their motorbikes.
Around 45 Shia Ismaili community members, including 18 women, were killed and eight others sustained wounds in an armed attack on their bus near Safoora Goth on May 13, 2015.
Later, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah announced the arrest of four suspected militants — Saad Aziz, Hafiz Nasir, Mohammad Azhar and Tahir Minhas — and claimed that Saad Aziz masterminded the Safoora attack as well as the killing of Sabeen Mahmud.
Both cases have been transferred from antiterrorism courts to a military court and the suspects are also in the custody of army authorities.
Published in Dawn, March 25th, 2016
Posted by: badanov ||
03/26/2016 00:00 ||
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Turkish warplanes struck Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) targets in northern Iraq and killed 24 PKK fighters in southeast Turkey on Thursday, the army said, as the militants launched a car bomb attack on a military installation in the region.
Thursday night’s bombing killed three security force members and wounded 24 at a security outpost near the southeast’s largest city of Diyarbakir, the military said in a separate statement on Friday, confirming a report from security sources.
A Reuters witness said the installation suffered severe damage in the blast on the highway between Diyarbakir and the town of Lice. Security forces imposed tight security in the area and erected screens to conceal the site.
The army says more than a thousand insurgents have been killed in the largely Kurdish southeast since a 2-1/2-year-old PKK ceasefire collapsed in July, triggering the heaviest clashes in the region since the 1990s.
In the latest in a series of air strikes in northern Iraq, Turkish F-16 and F-4 jets destroyed PKK ammunition depots and shelters in the Avasin and Basyan areas on Thursday afternoon, the military said.
Security forces also killed 24 PKK fighters on Thursday in the towns of Nusaybin, Sirnak and Yuksekova in southeast Turkey, near the borders with Syria, Iraq and Iran, it said.
President Tayyip Erdogan has said that more than 300 members of the security forces have died, while the pro-Kurdish opposition says hundreds of civilians have also been killed in the military operations which were stepped up in December.
More than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict since the PKK launched its insurgency in 1984. The PKK, which says it is fighting for Kurdish autonomy, is designated as a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and European Union.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Iraqi Yazidi and tribal fighters have taken a border area in the Sinjar region next to Syria from 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.... , cutting a key supply line for the bad boys, Iraq’s military said on Friday.
The fighters took control of the Um al-Diban and Um Jurais districts near the Syrian border, according to a military statement read on state TV.
A mixed force of Iraqi Kurdish pershmergas and Yazidis in November recaptured the Yazidi town of Sinjar where Islamic State committed atrocities against religious minorities.
Last month a Syrian Kurdish-led force captured the strategic town of Shadadi, on the Syrian side of the border with Sinjar.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/26/2016 00:00 ||
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(IraqiNews.com) Diyali – A local source in Diyali province said on Friday, that four elements of the paramilitary Peshmerga force had been either killed or injured in a bomb blast that took place northeast of Baqubah.
The source, who requested anonymity, reported for IraqiNews.com, “An explosive device that targeted a patrol for Peshmerga near the area of Akbashi, 25 km south of Khaneqin District, (105 km northeast of Baqubah) has went off, resulting in the killing of three [Peshmerga] elements and wounding a fourth very critical injuries.”
The source also added, “Peshmerga forces imposed a tight cordon around the scene and opened an investigation into the causes and circumstances of the incident.”
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] A jacket wallahwent kaboom! in a soccer stadium south of the Iraqi capital on Friday, killing 29 people and wounding 60, security officials said, as the military announced new gains on the ground against ISIS.
The bombing took place during a match in the small stadium in the city of Iskanderiyah, 30 miles (50 kilometers) from Baghdad, the officials said. Medical officials confirmed the corpse count. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press.
ISIS grabbed credit for the attack via a statement posted online, SITE intelligence group, a monitoring organization, reported.
ISIS has been waging a campaign of suicide kabooms in and around the capital as Iraqi forces and their allies battle the bully boyz in the north and west of the country.
The bombing came as Iraqi military front man Yahya Rusoul announced that Iraqi troops and Sunni tribal fighters recaptured the town of Kubeisa in western Anbar province from ISIS. A day earlier, IS fighters were pushed out of a string of villages in Iraq’s northern Nineveh province under cover of heavy coalition Arclight airstrikes.
Iraqi ground forces are working to build on recent gains in Anbar and prepare for an eventual push on the northern city of djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... , the largest city held by the bully boyz in the "caliphate" they declared across parts of Iraq and Syria. The US-led coalition estimates that IS has lost 40 percent of the territory it once held in Iraq and around 20 percent of its territory in Syria.
Analysts and coalition officials say they expect that as it loses ground on the battlefield, it will turn to more Death Eater style attacks in Iraq and internationally. On Tuesday, bombings in Brussels claimed by ISIS killed 31 people and injured nearly 300.
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03/26/2016 00:00 ||
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(IraqiNews.com) Anbar – Heet District Council in Anbar Province announced on Thursday cutting ISIS supply lines between the Syrian city of Raqqa and the areas located west of Anbar, in addition to destructing their headquarters, while also pointed out that ISIS is unable to send reinforcements to its fighters.
The Head of Heet District Council Mohammad al-Hiti said in a press statement followed by IraqiNews.com, “Security forces belonging to the army and police, backed by the coalition aircraft, were able to cut ISIS supply lines between the Syrian city of Raqqa and areas west of Anbar,” pointing out that, “The security forces destructed ISIS deployment points in Qaim after trying to infiltrate from Raqqa towards Heet District and Kabisa west of Ramadi.”
Hiti added, “The security forces were able to secure the land route, desert areas and valleys between the Syrian city of Raqqa and the axes of Heet and Kbisa.”
[ARA News] DUHOK – Kurdish Peshmerga and allied Yezidi forces recaptured a key border area in northern Iraq after clashes with ISIS militants, military sources reported on Friday.
Iraqi Kurdistan’s Peshmerga troops, in cooperation with local Yezidi fighters, drove ISIS militants from the Um Jurais and Um al-Divan districts in the Shingal (Sinjar) region near the border with Syria.
“Today’s advance was a great victory for our forces against Daesh terrorists,” a Yezidi fighter told ARA News in Shingal, using an acronym for ISIS.
“Our forces were able to cut off a strategic supply line for Daesh on the Iraqi-Syrian border,” the source said.
In August 2014, ISIS extremists had taken control of Shingal, causing a mass displacement of nearly 400,000 Yezidi civilians towards Duhok and Erbil, in Iraqi Kurdistan. Tens of thousands of Yezidis remained trapped in Mount Sinjar, suffering mass killings, kidnappings and rape at the hands of ISIS extremists. Also, more than 3000 Yezidi women have been taken by the radical group as sex slaves.
After more than a year of ISIS occupation, the Yezidi region of Shingal was liberated in November at the hands of the Peshmerga, supported by the U.S.-led coalition’s air cover.
After ISIS departure, the Kurdish forces have discovered several mass graves in Shingal. Most of the victims were women and children from the Yezidi minority. Specialized teams, that have been inspecting traces of the people disappeared during the group’s rule over the Yezidi-populated region, have so far discovered five mass graves belonging to Yezidi civilians, according to human rights activists and Peshmerga officials who spoke to ARA News.
(IraqiNews.com) al-Anbar – The commander of Anbar Operations, Maj. Gen. Ismail al-Mahalawi, announced on Friday destructing three ISIS shelters east of Ramadi, while pointed out to the dismantlement and detonation of 65 explosive devices east and north of the city.
Mahalawi said in a statement obtained by IraqiNews.com, “The army’s air force, in coordination with the Tenth Division, had managed to destroy three shelters for ISIS east of Albu Obeid area east of Ramadi, killing all the ISIS members who were in them,” pointing out that, “A force from the engineering battalion was able to dismantle and detonate 65 explosive devices and two explosive belts, in addition to cleansing a field in the modern village northeast of Ramadi.”
(IraqiNews.com) al-Anbar – Al-Jazeera Operations Command announced on Friday, that the security forces advanced in the military operation of Heet District west of Ramadi, while pointed out to the killing of 13 ISIS elements.
The commander of al-Jazeera Operations, Maj. Gen. Ali Ibrahim Dbon, said in a press statement followed by IraqiNews.com “Security forces belonging to the [army’s] Seventh Division and Anbar police regiments as well as the Federal Police, Anti-Terrorism Directorate and clan fighters, backed by the international coalition aviation and the Air Force, managed to advance in the liberation of the regions and districts of Heet District (70 km west of Ramadi),” indicating that, “The army’s Air Force managed to kill three suicide bombers wearing explosive belts in the northern axis of Kabisa south of Heet.”
Dbon also added, “The coalition aircraft managed to kill nine [ISIS] members and destroy a booby-trapped vehicle driven by a suicide bomber in the vicinity of Kabisa.”
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03/26/2016 00:00 ||
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[IsraelTimes] Troops subdue, arrest 15-year-old at entrance to neighborhood of Isawiyah; no one is injured
Security forces on Friday afternoon thwarted a stabbing attack by a teenage girl in East Jerusalem, a spokesperson for Israel Police said.
The incident occurred at the entrance to the neighborhood of Isawiya, the police said.
The would-be attacker was overpowered and tossed in the clink Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! at the scene.
The police said that the girl, coming from the direction of Isawiyah, approached a unit of Border Police officers next to a gas station in the French Hill neighborhood, which abuts Isawiyah. She then pulled out a knife and began to slash at the security forces. The troops overpowered the girl and detained her. There were no injuries.
The incident comes hours after a Paleostinian woman was arrested in Hebron on Friday morning when she approached Israeli security forces at a checkpoint near the city’s Tel Rumeida neighborhood carrying a knife. The knife was found when police searched her belongings, and she was taken for questioning by police.
An IDF soldier was maimed in a stabbing attack at the same site, known as Gilbert Junction, on Thursday. That attack caused a furor in Israel after a soldier fired on one of the Paleostinian assailants when the latter was apparently neutralized and disarmed, sparking criticism by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon.
The soldier appeared in Jaffa Military Court on Friday, where it emerged that he is now a suspect in a murder investigation.
[IsraelTimes] East Jerusalem residents attempted to travel to The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... to join jihadist group, according to indictment
Four Paleostinians from East Jerusalem are indicted on suspicion of attempting to join 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.
According to the indictment, filed by state prosecutors Friday in the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court, the four, all men in the 20s, had organized a pro-IS "study group" that met regularly and planned terror attacks against Israelis.
They face charges of membership in and support for a terror group, and prosecutors are seeking a remand until the conclusion of the proceedings against them.
At least two of the four were caught trying to leave Israel for Turkey in an effort to join IS.
In a separate case, prosecutors filed indictments Friday in the Jerusalem District Court against seven East Jerusalem Paleostinians, all aged 17 to 21, who are suspected of planning attacks against Israeli security forces.
Among the charges in the indictment are weapons smuggling, conspiracy to commit a crime and membership in a terror organization.
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03/26/2016 00:00 ||
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[BenarNews] Thai military officials said they had detained and questioned suspects in connection with the armed takeover of a hospital by militants on March 13. Since insurgents briefly seized the hospital in Narathiwat province while staging an attack on a nearby military installation, security forces have searched for suspects throughout Narathiwat and neighboring Yala province, said a spokesman for regional office of the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC).
Col. Yuthanam Petchmuang said the searches led to the detentions of up to 14 people. He said, "We have adequate reasons to question three suspected individuals for having supporting roles in the seizure of Cho-irong hospital."
Without naming them, he added that 11 more suspects were detained for playing supporting roles in the incident at the hospital on March 13.
The hospital seizure occurred amid a series of attacks launched by militants on the 56th anniversary of the founding of Barisan Revolusi Nasional, the largest and strongest of the various insurgent groups and factions waging a separatist war in Thailand's far South.
During the takeover of the hospital by between 10 to 50 militants, the insurgents shot at a nearby military outpost with patients and medical staff inside the building. The seizure drew an outcry from the U.N. Human Rights Office for Southeast Asia and U.S.-based Human Rights Watch. Both issued statements condemning insurgents' actions.
[ARA News] HOMS ــ Militant fighters of the Islamic State (ISIS) on Friday were able to recapture strategic locations northwest of Palmyra city in Syria’s central Homs province, subsequent to clashes with the regime’s army forces.
Syrian army troops had seized main districts in Palmyra on Thursday after fierce battles with ISIS.
Speaking to ARA News in Homs, media activist Amr Musa said that ISIS fighters were able to regain control of the Qubur valley and the area of al-Madafen northwest Palmyra after clashes with pro-Assad forces.
The hardline group followed a scorched earth policy against the pro-regime forces stationed in those areas, targeting them with dozens of artillery shells and rockets.
The source pointed out that ISIS extremists were able to kill at least eight soldiers and injure dozens others from the regime’s forces in the attack on Friday.
ISIS had earlier evacuated Palmyra from its population who headed to the city of Deir ez-Zor and its environs. It also planted a large number of mines in the vicinity of the historic city to constrain movements of the regime’s army forces.
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03/26/2016 00:00 ||
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[CNN] Palmyra Castle was taken from ISIS by the Syrian army as it marched toward the terror fighters commanding the ancient city of Palmyra, state-run media said Friday.
The army, joined by popular defense groups, took control over the Syriatel hill near the Palmyra Castle. The government forces destroyed ISIS hideouts, leaving a number of turbans killed and others fleeing toward Palmyra, Syria's state news agency SANA said, citing an unidentified military source.
The Syrian army dismantled explosives ISIS left behind, the agency said.
The seizure of the ancient hilltop citadel formally known as Fakhr-al-Din al-Maani Castle -- part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site -- comes as Syrian troops enter Palmyra in an effort to reclaim it from ISIS, state media state.
State TV broadcast images on Thursday that purportedly show government forces entering the southwestern part of the city, while a TV anchor said the army is "close to announcing that Tadmur" -- another name for the area around Palmyra's historic ruins -- "has been cleared of ISIS terrorists."
ISIS took over the central Syrian city last May, expanding its conquests in the region and showing its contempt for the people and their history.
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03/26/2016 00:00 ||
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[SWISSINFO.CH] 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.... 's second in command and other big shots were likely killed this week in a major offensive targeting its financial operations, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said on Friday, the latest setback for the myrmidon group.
Carter told a Pentagon press briefing the United States believes it killed Haji Iman, a big shot in charge of finances for the self-declared caliphate, and Abu Sarah, who Carter said was charged with paying fighters in northern Iraq.
U.S. Marine General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the briefing the deaths reflected "indisputable" new momentum in the fight against Islamic State.
U.S. special forces carried out the strike against Haji Iman, officials told Rooters. The original plan was to capture, not kill, him. But after the commandos' helicopter was fired on from the ground, the decision was made to fire from the air, said one of the officials.
Coalition soldiers rarely operate in Islamic State-held parts of Iraq, where there are no friendly forces to help if a mission runs into trouble.
Dunford said he expected to increase the level of U.S. forces in Iraq from the current 3,800 and bolster the capabilities of Iraqi forces preparing for a major offensive against Islamic State in djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... , but that those decisions had not been finalized.
"We are systematically eliminating ISIL's cabinet," Carter said, using another acronym for the group.
The strike comes amid growing pressure on Islamic State, which is steadily losing territory in Iraq and Syria to U.S.-backed forces.
While the operational significance of removing Haji Iman from the battlefield is not yet clear, it is the latest in a series of strikes against the group's top leaders, including Abu Omar al-Shishani, described by the Pentagon as the group's "minister of war," and a senior Islamic State chemical weapons operative captured by Iraq-based U.S. commandos and turned over to the Iraqi government.
Carter said the killing of Haji Iman, who also went by Abd ar-Rahman Mustafa al-Qaduli and other aliases and who was imprisoned in the region until 2012, would hamper the group's ability to operate inside and outside of Iraq and Syria. But he conceded that alone was not sufficient to cripple it.
"These leaders have been around for a long time. They are senior, they're experienced, and so eliminating them is an important objective and it achieves an important result," he said. "But they will be replaced and we'll continue to go after their leadership and other aspects of their capability."
Al-Qaduli was born in djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... , according to Iraqi security sources. He was in Afghanistan in the late 1990s.
He joined al-Qaeda in 2004, and became a deputy to the feared Qaeda chief in Iraq, Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, who was killed in 2006 by an American drone strike.
Al-Qaduli was captured and imprisoned, but joined the Islamic State group in Syria after he was freed in 2012.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[AlAhram] The United States and its allies staged 13 strikes against 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 (IS) hard boyz in Iraq and Syria on Thursday, according to the coalition leading the operations.
Eleven strikes near eight Iraqi cities hit seven of the bully boy group's tactical units and destroyed several assembly areas and vehicles, among other targets, the Combined Joint Task Force said in a statement on Friday. The strikes were concentrated near Sultan Abdallah and Qayyarah.
In Syria, two strikes near Al Hawl and Mar'a hit one tactical unit and three fighting positions, the coalition said.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/26/2016 00:00 ||
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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.
[FRANCE24] Thursday’s arrest near 
[CNN] Explosions and gunfire rang out Friday afternoon in Brussels -- the focal point in Europe's fight against terrorism following the bloody attacks there just three days ago.
[SWISSINFO.CH] 
