[AnNahar] A bomb hidden on a corpse dressed in military uniform has killed two soldiers in Burkina Faso ...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and will leave office feet first, one way or the other... , the military said Friday.
The booby-trapped male body had been left just outside the northern town of Djibo, near the border with Mali, and a team was sent to investigate, a statement from the armed forces general staff said.
"The body, which turned out to be a trap, went kaboom! when it was handled, killing two soldiers and wounding six, three of them seriously," it said.
A security source told AFP that the corpse went kaboom! on Thursday when soldiers tried to turn it over, killing an army doctor on the spot, and wounding others.
Burkina Faso, in the heart of Africa's vast Sahel region ... North Africa's answer to the Pak tribal areas... , is struggling with a bloody Islamist insurgency as well as bouts of social unrest.
More than 300 people have been killed in Burkina Faso in four years of jihadist attacks, according to an AFP count.
Last week there were three attacks, one of which killed five members of the security forces on the same day President Roch Marc Christian Kabore hosted a regional summit on the fight against terrorism.
The capital Ouagadougou has been hit three times, most recently in March 2018.
On Thursday, the United Nations ...where theory meets practice and practice loses... said 1.2 million people in the country are in need of humanitarian aid.
About 83,000 people have been forced to flee their homes because of the violence, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. More than 1,000 schools have been closed, depriving 150,000 children of an education.
About 120,000 people do not have access to medical care in areas most affected by the violence.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/16/2019 00:22 ||
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[AlAhram] Egypt’s interior ministry said the police foiled a kaboom in a busy area in Giza on Friday.
Explosives experts defused a home-made bomb that aimed to target a security checkpoint near El-Istiqama mosque in Giza on the outskirts of Greater Cairo, the ministry said in a statement.
A security official told Ahram Online that two improvised bombs were thrown from a bridge at members of a security checpoint in the area. One civilian was injured by shrapnel, he added.
A video circulating online showed a blast in a cordoned-off area under a bridge, with security officials, police vehicles and an ambulance in the vicinity.
Al-Ahram Arabic news website published photos from the site showing smashed glass on the street, a shattered car window and a damaged apartment building door.
The ministry blamed "members of the terrorist Moslem Brüderbund group" for the attack.
No group has yet grabbed credit for the attack.
Egypt designated the Brotherhood a terrorist organization in late 2013, months following the ouster of its Islamist president Mohammed Morsi after mass protests against his rule.
Military and police forces have been pressing ahead with an extensive campaign to eradicate Islamist turbans over the past year, which is mainly focused in the border Sinai region.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/16/2019 00:00 ||
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[AllAfrica] 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.... (ISIS) has grabbed credit for the attack on the convoy of the Borno State governor, Kashim Shettima, on Tuesday evening. Shettima, who is contesting for a senatorial seat in this year's general elections, was heading for a rally when the incident happened.
According to Rooters, ISIS, in a statement on its Amaq news agency, claimed that 42 people were killed in the Tuesday's attack on the governor's motorcade.But Shettima's Special Adviser on Communications and Strategy, Malam Isa Gusau, who confirmed the attack in a statement issued in Maiduguri yesterday, said only three persons were killed.
The 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... terrorist group has waged a decade-long insurgency in the Northeast, which has killed around 30,000 people and forced about two million to leave their homes. Islamic State West Africa Province, which split from Boko Haram in 2016, has carried out a series of attacks on military targets in the last few months.
Security sources said earlier on Wednesday that the button menshot up the motorcade transporting Governor Shettima on his way from Maiduguri to the market town of Gamboru for the rally.Meanwhile, ...back at the hanging, Butch continued with his last words, trying not to repeat himself too often...... Shettima has mourned those killed in the ambush, including political associates and supporters of All Progressives Congress (APC) as well as a soldier.
Many people who were reportedly kidnapped include three district heads at Logoma village in Ngala Local Government. Gusau, in the statement yesterday, revealed a plan by Governor Shettima to hold a security meeting on the attack on his convoy along Dikwa-Ngala road. According to him, the meeting is to get accurate information on the incident and to sustain the collaboration with security agencies and volunteers in the ongoing fight against Boko Haram.
"Preliminary report on Wednesday confirmed the killing of three persons during the multiple attacks. Tuesday's ambushing was aimed at attracting local and global media attention in order to sustain the propaganda strategy." He said the Boko Haram strategy was to instill fear in the civilians and the troops fighting insurgency in the state and the Lake Chad region.
According to Gusau, the governor, who returned on Wednesday to Maiduguri, will today also meet families of the dear departed victims. He said the army and security agencies had dedicated their lives to restoring peace in the state."For one success recorded by the murderous Moslems, the armed forces record dozens against them," he noted, urging the people to be calm and support the troops by sharing useful information that will help the counter-insurgency operations.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/16/2019 00:11 ||
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[AAWSAT] Ottoman Turkish police have detained 52 Syrian nationals over their suspected links to ISIS terrorist organization, state-run news agency ...and if you can't trust the state-run news agency who can you believe?... Anadolu said Thursday.
The suspects were detained in the town of Osmangazi, in northwestern Bursa province, it said.
According to the private DHA agency, police conducted simultaneous dawn raids at five separate locations to apprehend them.
The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... was hit by a wave of attacks in 2015 and 2016 blamed on ISIS and Kurdish bully boyz that killed around 300 people.
ISIS grabbed credit for a gunman's attack at the Reina nightclub in Istanbul during New Year celebrations in the early hours of 2017. The attack killed 39 people, most of them foreigners.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/16/2019 01:37 ||
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[AnNahar] A Canadian woman found guilty of terror crimes for trying 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.... group and in its name attacking staff at a department store was sentenced Thursday to seven years in prison.
Rehab Dughmosh, 34, was placed in durance vile Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! in June 2017 and later convicted of leaving the country for the purpose of joining a terror group, and assaults with a golf club and a butcher knife, and carrying an archery bow.
Ontario Superior Court Judge Maureen Forestell said in handing down the sentence that Dughmosh's mental illness, believed to be schizophrenia,
...so she went a-jihading because she’s nuts — it was 50/50 odds...
likely made her vulnerable to hard boy beliefs, but that it did not absolve her of the crimes.
Dughmosh had attempted to fly to Syria in April 2016 to join the IS group, and when that failed returned home and plotted the attack.
Her plans to go to Syria were thwarted by Ottoman Turkish officials tipped off by her brother.
...a sensible choice, given she ought to have been living on medication in a locked ward.
At the time, Dughmosh claimed that she was just trying to visit family, although she admitted after her arrest that she had intended to travel to join IS.
The court heard that Dughmosh admitted to pledging her allegiance to the Islamic State group, and on the day in question packed bags with weapons, including a hammer, barbecue skewers, straws tipped with screws and a child's shovel made into claws.
She also hid the knife and bow in her robe.
But on her way out of her apartment, she ran into her estranged husband, who confiscated the bags. He reportedly did not know about the concealed weapons.
At the Canadian Tire store east of Toronto, Dughmosh grabbed a golf club off a rack after trying unsuccessfully to access arrows in a locked display case.
She then draped herself in a homemade IS banner, tied an IS bandana around her head and charged staff with the golf club and butcher knife, shouting: "This is for ISIS."
Staff wrestled her to the ground and nobody was maimed.
Police later found the weapons cache at her home, along with a cellphone containing IS propaganda videos and a handwritten will in which she asked for martyrdom.
This article starring:
Rehab Dughmosh
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/16/2019 00:22 ||
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#1
You have to be suspicious of any woman named "Rehab."
[IsraelTimes] 2 Paleostinians injured by IDF fire, demonstrators attempting to sabotage security fence; Paleostinian said seriously injured by Israeli fire in West Bank during riot near Nablus.
Some 11,000 Paleostinians gathered near the Gazoo Strip’s border with Israel Friday afternoon for weekly riots and protests against Israel, burning tires, throwing stones, bombs and trying to breach the fence.
An Israeli border police officer from an undercover unit was lightly maimed by shrapnel in the leg when a pipe bomb went kaboom! next to his team, police said. He was evacuated to the hospital for treatment.
The army said 11,000 people took part in the protests and that some rioting was taking place, with demonstrators attempting to sabotage the border fence. Troops were responding with tear gas and occasional live fire to push protesters away from the barrier, it said.
The Hamas, the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,-run Gazoo health ministry said two Paleostinians had been injured by live fire.
Meanwhile in the West Bank, the Ynet news site reported that a Paleostinian was seriously maimed by Israeli fire during a riot in a village near Nablus.
The riot began after villagers in Urief held a protest prayer session in the eastern part of the village, to challenge the army’s recent move to block a path leading to residents’ agricultural lands. It was not immediately clear why the path had been sealed off.
Earlier on Friday, a cluster of balloons with a suspicious device attached to it was located in the southern city of Netivot. Police sappers were called to the scene. There were no reports of casualties or damage. The police called on the public to remain vigilant and immediately report any suspicious devices they come across and leave the area at once.
On Wednesday, a joint statement by all of Gazoo’s krazed killer groups was released, warning that festivities at the Gazoo border, which take place every Friday, could this week lead to an escalation in violence.
Yes, we saw. All Israel are shaking in their shoes.
The organizations "will not allow Israel to keep harming protesters during the March of Return peaceful rallies," they said in a statement. "The Zionist enemy is responsible for any kind of harm to the rights of the Paleostinian people," the statement added. "All signs point to a nearing clash, we won’t accept the fact that our people are starving and thirsty."
[IsraelTimes] As Lebanese terror group’s fighters return from Syria, IDF tank brigade commander says army must prepare to deal with their improved military techniques.
The army conducted a massive drill over the last week which was designed to train soldiers for combat operations in topographical conditions similar to those in Lebanon, the Israel Defense Forces said Friday.
The exercise was the largest one carried out by the 401st Brigade of the Armored Corps in recent years, according to Channel 12 news. The soldiers carried out drills in coordination with the Israeli Air Force, as well as the engineering and intelligence corps.
Dozens of tanks, armored personnel carriers and helicopters were deployed in the training zone in the Jordan Valley, the IDF said.
The brigade’s commander, Col. Dudu Sonago, said that Lebanese Hezbollah fighters have gained extensive experience and have developed more sophisticated battle techniques after fighting in neighboring Syria’s civil war, at the same time as deepening entrenchment above and below ground in Syria.
“As the situation in Syria stabilizes, Hezbollah is returning its forces to Lebanon,” Sonago said. “They are no longer a guerrilla organization, but a real army. They fought there in regiments of companies and battalions, very similar to the military,” he told Channel 12.
“They operate in civilian areas and are ready with a large quantity of anti-tank missiles,” Sonago added. “This is a challenge the IDF must train for.”
On Tuesday, Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri indicated the new government would allow Hezbollah to keep its weapons, which it used in a major war against Israel in 2006 and have been frequently used since to threaten Israel.
Under UN Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 Second Lebanon War between Israel and Hezbollah, Lebanon committed to disarming the Iran-backed terror group.
[AnNahar] The United States said Wednesday that it "pleased to announce the delivery today of the shipment of the Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS) laser-guided rockets," valued at more than $16 million and destined for the Lebanese Army.
"These APKWS laser-guided rockets are a key component for the Lebanese Air Force’s new A-29 Super Tucano attack aircraft," the U.S. embassy said in a statement.
"Today’s delivery demonstrates the U.S. government’s firm and steady commitment to support to the Lebanese Armed Forces in their capacity as the sole, legitimate defender of Leb," the embassy noted.
The reference appeared to be aimed at the Iranian-backed Hizbullah ...Party of God, a Leb militia inspired, founded, funded and directed by Iran. Hizbullah refers to itself as The Resistance and purports to defend Leb against Israel, with whom it has started and lost one disastrous war to date, though it did claim victory... , which has an arsenal that rivals that of the Lebanese Army.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif offered his country's military aid to Leb during a visit this week, but said the Lebanese government had to show "a desire" to accept it first.
The U.S. embassy said in its statement that since 2005, the United States has "invested over $2 billion in our strong partnership with the Lebanese Armed Forces."
[Ynet] Security forces detained overnight Wednesday 20 Paleostinians suspected of involvement in terror activities.
In addition, the IDF Spokesperson's Unit said an army force identified several suspects placing an improvised an bomb near the Paleostinian village of Deir Abu Mash'al in the West Bank. IDF troops responded with gunfire, and the suspects escaped the scene. Neither casualties nor damage were reported.
[Ynet] Border Police enjugged Please don't kill me! Friday a Paleostinian man armed with a knife near Jerusalem. A preliminary investigation revealed the suspect intended to carry out a terror attack.
[ABS-CBN News] MANILA - Three explosions of mortar rounds sent residents scampering in Patikul, Sulu shortly before noon Saturday as a medical mission was being held at a public school, the military's Western Mindanao Command (Wesmincom) said.
In a statement, Wesmincom spokesperson Col. Gerry Besana said three 60 mm mortar rounds exploded 200 meters from the Tanum Elementary School where a medical mission facilitated by the 6th Special Forces Battalion was ongoing.
The mortar rounds were estimated to have been fired 500 meters away from the school and was believed to be initiated by the Abu Sayyaf group to discourage residents from participating in the event.
"We strongly condemn this terroristic act resulting [in] the disruption of basic services delivery to the people," said Westmincom chief Lt. Gen. Arnel Dela Vega.
No casualty was reported among troops and participants in the medical mission.
The incident happened two weeks after a gunfight in the same town left 5 soldiers and 3 Abu Sayyaf bandits dead. The encounter happened after the military launched an operation to arrest Hajan Sawadjaan, an Abu Sayyaf leader.
Sawadjaan is believed to be involved in the twin bombings at the Jolo Cathedral during a mass on Jan. 27, where 22 were killed and more than 100 were hurt.
Posted by: Besoeker ||
02/16/2019 08:00 ||
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#1
Three 60mm mortars? I'd scamper too
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/16/2019 8:23 Comments ||
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#2
the Abu Sayyaf are a bunch child killing cowards
[AlAhram] Malaysian authorities said on Friday they have locked away I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece! six people, including four foreigners, suspected of planning attacks or being members of turban groups.
Malaysia has been on high alert since button men allied with 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.... (IS) carried out a series of attacks in Jakarta, the capital of neighboring Indonesia, in January 2016.
Police said the six were arrested in five separate raids between December and January, on suspicion of planning attacks or having links to turban groups.
"They include two Malaysians and four foreigners from Singapore, Bangladesh, the Philippines and a South Asian country," Fuzi Harun, police inspector general, said in a statement posted on social media.
The group included a 48-year-old Singaporean accused of planning to attack a building used by Freemasons in the state of Johor. He is believed to have links with Akel Zainal, a Malaysian identified as an IS fighter in Syria, police said.
Police also detained a suspected member of the Abu Sayyaf ...also known as al-Harakat al-Islamiyya, an Islamist terror group based in Jolo, Basilan and Zamboanga. Since its inception in the early 1990s, the group has carried out bombings, kidnappings, murders, head choppings, and extortion in their uniquely Islamic attempt to set up an independent Moslem province in the Philippines. Abu Sayyaf forces probably number less than 300 cadres. The group is closely allied with remnants of Indonesia's Jemaah Islamiya and has loose ties with MILF and MNLF who sometimes provide cannon fodder... Group (ASG) in a separate raid in the eastern state of Sabah, where he worked as a laborer. The 21-year-old suspect is believed have ties with ASG leader Furuji Indama, Fuzi said.
A 28-year-old man from an unidentified South Asian country was arrested during a raid in Selangor state. Interpol had issued a warrant, known as a red notice, for his suspected involvement in criminal and turban activities, Fuzi said.
Malaysia has arrested hundreds of people over the past few years for suspected links to turban groups.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/16/2019 00:00 ||
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[PhilStar] Six members of the Civilian Armed Auxiliaries kidnapped by New People’s Army militants in Agusan del Norte last year were released on Thursday. The Eastern Mindanao Command identified the militiamen as Jurian Gaviola, Marson Iligan, Bienvinido Lamion, Eddie Tindoy, Sanny Malobay and Hermito Iligan.
Joaquin Jacinto, National Democratic Front spokesman for Mindanao, led the turnover of the captives to third party facilitators in Barangay San Juan, Sibagat. The captives were later turned over to local government and military officials.
Eastmincom commander Felimon Santos said the release of the captives was due to the relentless pressure of recent military operations.
The six militiamen were among 12 government troops seized while sleeping at a military detachment in Sibagat on December 19. Two other militiamen were kidnapped in San Antonio, Doña Remedios Trinidad in Agusan del Norte on December 22.
In Bukidnon, two soldiers were killed while another was injured in an NPA attack in Barangay Dalwangan, Malaybalay on Thursday night.
Malin Mabini, spokesman for the NPA-Northern Central Mindanao Regional Command, claimed they took seven high-powered firearms from the soldiers. Mabini said three of their combatants were also killed in the clash.
[PhilStar] Four Abu Sayyaf militants were killed and five others were injured as Philippine troops launched pursuit operations yesterday for the group of rebels they encountered in Patikul, Sulu, on Thursday.
Military spokesman Divino Rey Pabayo said soldiers from the 6th Special Forces Battalion clashed with the group of Monde Sawadjaan, a nephew of Abu Sayyaf sub-leader Hatib Hajan Sawadjaan. Hatib is the alleged mastermind in the twin bombings in Jolo last January 27 that left 23 people dead and more than a hundred injured.
Meanwhile, the remains of Cpl. Nemesis Salviejo, who was killed in the clash in Barangay Igasan on Thursday, were flown to Villamor Air Base yesterday after a sendoff ceremony held at the Edwin Andrews Air Base here. Three other soldiers were injured in the encounter.
Posted by: ryuge ||
02/16/2019 00:00 ||
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#3
Thank you, TW! I know a lot of people don't find Twitter too appealing, but it's a natural fit for me. Talk about "short attention span theater". I do waste a bit too much time there though.
[AlMasdar] (4:45 P.M.) – In a statement published by the STEP News Agency, the spokesperson for Ottoman Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army’s (FSA) Jaysh Al-Izza faction admitted that his rebel group is unable to respond to the Syrian Arab Army’s (SAA) attack because they lack ammunition in northern Hama.
The Jaysh Al-Izza spokesperson said they barely have enough ammunition to defend their territories should the Syrian Arab Army launch a new offensive to capture their northern Hama bastion.
He claims that the lack of ammunition is a result of little-to-no support from countries that used to support them; he says they are under siege as a result of this, but he did not name any of the nations.
The spokesperson added that should the Syrian Arab Army launch a new operation in northern Hama, they will be forced to fight a war of attrition.
Jaysh Al-Izza has managed to hold the key towns of Al-Latamnah and Kafr Zita for several years now, following their large-scale campaign that resulted in their expansion along the Hama-Idlib axis.
[AlMasdar] (8:45 P.M.) – The Islamist rebels launched a new attack on a government-held town in the northern countryside of the Hama Governorate this evening.
According to a military source in nearby Mhardeh, Jaysh Al-Izza militants fired a number of rockets towards the government stronghold of Salhab, causing several explosions in the process.
The source said that the Syrian Arab Army has since activated their rocket sirens in order to notify civilians in the area to seek shelter.
Since the Islamist rebels launched the attack, the Syrian Arab Army has responded with a heavy assault of their own.
A source from the Syrian Arab Army said that they are heavily bombarding the Jaysh Al-Izza stronghold of Kafr Zita in response to this latest attack by the latter.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/16/2019 00:00 ||
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[AlMasdar] The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) launched a new combing operation in the southeastern region of the country on Thursday, targeting several areas controlled by the so-called 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.... (ISIS/ISIS/IS/ISIS).
Led by their 3rd Division, the Syrian Arab Army stormed several Islamic State hideouts in the Badiya al-Sham region
...in English the Syrian desert, which covers half the country...
as their artillery units provided cover from afar.
According to a military source in the Homs Governorate, the Syrian Arab Army mostly concentrated their operation along the Homs-Sweida provincial axis, which has been a hot zone for Islamic State activity these last few weeks.
The Syrian Arab Army is still combing through much of this area; however, it may take a while for them to fully clear the Badiya al-Sham region due to its vast number of caves and hills.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/16/2019 00:00 ||
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[AlMasdar] Iraqi Army helicopters pounded 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.... ’s (ISIS/ISIS/IS/ISIS) military positions inside the eastern region of Syria this week, inflicting a number of casualties within the ranks of the terrorist group.
"Iraqi Army choppers targeted arms and ammunition depots belonging to the Islamic State in Syria near the border with Iraq’s al-Anbar province," a senior provincial official in Iraq’s al-Anbar province was quoted as saying by the Arabic-language al-Maloumeh news website.
The official said that a number of ISIS bad boyz were potted in the Iraqi Arclight airstrikes.
"The main goal of this attack was weakening the ISIS in a bid to prevent the terrorist group from getting close to al-Anbar province," he added.
In late December, Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Leveler of Latakia... allowed Iraqi fighter jets to conduct airstrikes against the Islamic State without notifying Damascus.
Since then, the Iraqi Air Force has conducted several airstrikes against the Islamic State in an effort to weaken the terrorist group along the border.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/16/2019 00:00 ||
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[AlMasdar] (4:00 P.M.) – The Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists in eastern Syria have begun surrendering themselves to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) after a string of losses in the eastern Euphrates River Valley region.
According to reports, several Islamic State militants have already begun surrendering themselves to the Syrian Democratic Forces near the town of Baghouz.
Furthermore, some reports from the eastern Euphrates indicate that approximately 80 percent of the Islamic State terrorists still in this pocket are willing to surrender themselves to the SDF.
These reports were based on a recent meeting between ISIS and the SDF in which the former agreed to release 50 prisoners in exchange for food trucks to enter the Baghouz camp area.
The ISIS terrorists that are willing to surrender themselves to the SDF will do so in exchange for fair trials in an international court and no prosecution of their family members.
The remaining 20 percent are not willing to surrender to the SDF and will fight to the death.
[AlMasdar] Daesh* fighters have shot fleeing families trying to escape from Baghuz, the last remaining Daesh enclave located not far from the border with Iraq in Deir ez-Zor province, according to a coalition commander, British Maj. Gen. Christopher Ghika said, cited by British media.
While over 1,500 civilians have fled the last Daesh stronghold in Syria in the last several days, arriving at so-called screening points, where new arrivals are checked by SDF members, hundreds reportedly remain trapped inside.
According to Ghika, those “arriving to be screened are the wives of Isis [Daesh] fighters, some of whom sustained gunshot wounds while fleeing from Isis”.
Those fleeing, as well as the coalition’s efforts to recapture the territory, have, meanwhile, been considerably hindered by “tunnels” in the area, “IEDs and suicide cars and bombs that slow down the advance of our forces”, said Adnan Afrini, the SDF commander in Baghuz, who portrayed the area surrounding Baghuz as a “rabbit hole”:
“There is a network of tunnels that the terrorists are using, and our forces need to clear the tunnels very delicately to avoid counter-attacks and explosives”, he said.
The battle to claim victory over the terrorist group’s last speck of land is now drawing to an end, Kurdish commanders said, with Mustafa Bali, a Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) spokesman, stating that the fighters who remained there appeared to be among the most experienced Daesh elite who continue to fight “fiercely”.
Those fleeing, as well as foreign fighters, who along with their families, at some point joined Daesh, are reported to be being intimidated by the terrorist group, which is threatening them with death if they leave the fight:
“They said that the Kurds would humiliate our women, that men would search them. They said we were walking into the jaws of wolves. They intimidated people and we had to be smuggled out. It was very dangerous”, said Jumah Hamdi Hamdan, 53, a former Daesh supporter who fled the area together with his family on Saturday.
Adnan Afrin told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named that in the last three days, ISIS bully boyz brought up hundreds of civilians from underground tunnels to make the SDF and US-led coalition aware of their presence.
He estimated that around 1,000 civilians, including women and kiddies, are still in the area. He added that bully boyz were hiding among them and using them as human shields.
"This was a surprise. We did not imagine there would be this number of civilians left," Afrin said.
He said they were likely to be families of ISIS turbans, but their discovery nonetheless has blunted the offensive. "We do not want to cause a massacre against civilians in the last (ISIS) pocket," he said.
The Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said SDF fighters discovered late Thursday the bodies of 26 ISIS button men who were killed in recent festivities near Baghouz.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/16/2019 00:00 ||
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#1
Yes. Humiliate their women. Then sterilize them. Then humiliate them some more...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/16/2019 6:22 Comments ||
Top||
[Rudaw] Kurdish-led forces cleared landmines and searched for tunnels blocking their advance Friday on the last square kilometre of an east Syria village defended by a few hundred 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.
Rainy weather and concern for civilians trapped in ISIS's last redoubt was delaying a push that will wipe out the last shred of the jihadists' once-sprawling "caliphate."
The Syrian Democratic Forces have been closing in on holdout jihadists since September last year and a few hundred surviving ISIS members are now boxed into an area of around one square kilometre.
"The large number of landmines and tunnels is hindering attempts by the SDF to secure complete control over the area," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said.
Diehard jihadists were still launching sporadic attacks on SDF positions around their last stronghold in Baghouz, a small town near the banks of the Euphrates river.
"ISIS fighters are refusing to hand themselves over and they are still putting up a fight. We do not know what is the point of this resistance," SDF front man Adnan Afrin said.
Speaking to AFP in al-Omar oil field, the SDF's main staging area, he said this week the jihadists had been using ambushes and explosives-laden cycle of violences to inflict casualties on the SDF.
- EATING GRASS -
It printed its own schoolbooks, produced oil, collected taxes and minted its own currency, in a brief but unprecedented experiment in jihadist statehood.
Successive offensives in Iraq and Syria have shattered the proto-state, which lost its key cities one after the other and has since late 2017 been confined to its traditional power base in the Euphrates valley.
An official declaration of victory against ISIS is expected in the coming days, a move of mostly symbolic value that will go down as the death certificate of the "caliphate."
Estimates vary on the number of fighters and families left inside the last pocket but accounts from women who escaped with their children in recent days suggest come civilians are left inside.
"To avoid any harm to the wives and children of ISIS fighters, we are forced to be cautious," Afrin said.
Close to 40,000 people have left the jihadists' dwindling enclave in recent weeks, in the latest humanitarian emergency of an eight-year conflict that has killed 360,000 people and displaced 11 million.
Those who flee Baghouz have a perilous journey to the nearest SDF-held collection point, dodging booby traps and sniper fire.
Women veiled from head to toe carrying scant belongings and dirty children often have to spend one night or more sleeping out in the cold.
"These people haven't had any proper food in weeks... I've heard accounts of people making some kind of soup with grass," said Jean-Nicolas Paquet-Rouleau, deputy head of the International Committee of the Red Thingy in Syria.
- HUMANITARIAN BURDEN -
Among those who have left the neighbourhood where ISIS is making its desperate last stand are also adult men, who are screened and often detained by the SDF.
Abdel Karim Omar, the top foreign affairs official in the autonomous administration the Kurds have set up in northeastern Syria, argued jihadists preferred to surrender to the SDF than risk being captured by Iraqi or Syrian government forces flanking the battlefield on either side.
"ISIS fighters prefer to come to us because we treat them in accordance with international law," he told AFP.
"Even if they are tried one day in this area, they know that we do not impose the death sentence," he said.
The Kurdish official also complained that the international community was falling short in providing humanitarian assistance to the growing number of displaced.
"Unfortunately, international aid agencies, the international community and even the global coalition (against ISIS), are not taking responsibility for these displaced people," Omar said.
"What they are providing does not cover even five percent of their needs," he said, calling for increased support.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/16/2019 00:00 ||
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Link ||
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#1
Complete pacification expected by 3037 AD
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/16/2019 6:39 Comments ||
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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.
... 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...
[AAWSAT] 
[AnNahar] A Canadian woman found guilty of terror crimes for trying to join the 
[IsraelTimes] 2 Paleostinians injured by IDF fire, demonstrators attempting to sabotage security fence; Paleostinian said seriously injured by Israeli fire in West Bank during riot near Nablus.
[PhilStar] Six members of the Civilian Armed Auxiliaries kidnapped by New People’s Army militants in Agusan del Norte last year were released on Thursday. The Eastern Mindanao Command identified the militiamen as Jurian Gaviola, Marson Iligan, Bienvinido Lamion, Eddie Tindoy, Sanny Malobay and Hermito Iligan.
[PhilStar] Four Abu Sayyaf militants were killed and five others were injured as Philippine troops launched pursuit operations yesterday for the group of rebels they encountered in Patikul, Sulu, on Thursday.
[Rudaw] Kurdish-led forces cleared landmines and searched for tunnels blocking their advance Friday on the last square kilometre of an east Syria village defended by a few hundred 
