[AnNahar] The Taliban ...Arabic for students... is likely to keep up its recent surge of violence in advance of scheduled parliamentary elections in October but Western-backed Afghan defenses will not break, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Thursday.
In his most detailed comments on the Taliban's assault on the eastern city of Ghazni since it began Aug. 10, Mattis said the Taliban had six objectives in and around the city and failed to seize any of them. He would not specify the six sites.
In Ghazni, provincial police chief Farid Mashal said Thursday that roads were being cleared of mines planted by Taliban who temporarily held entire neighborhoods of the city that they had besieged. The fighting continued for five days with more than 100 members of the Afghan National Security forces killed and 20 civilians. Scores of Taliban were also killed, according to Afghan officials.
Mattis said some Taliban fighters were still holed up in houses in the city "trying to get resupplied." He said businesses are reopening, and overall, "it's much more stable" in Ghazni, showing that the Taliban have fallen short.
"They have not endeared themselves, obviously, to the population of Ghazni," Mattis said. "They use terror. They use bombs because they can't win with ballots."
The Taliban operation followed a familiar pattern, Mattis said in remarks to news hounds flying with him Thursday evening to Bogota, Colombia, where he was winding up a weeklong tour of South America.
The bandidos Lion of Islams likely were trying to gain leverage in advance of an expected cease fire offer by Afghanistan's Caped PresidentAshraf Ghani ...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. .. , he said. And they likely were hoping to sow fear in advance of the October elections, he added.
"They achieved a degree of disquiet," he said, but nothing more.
"So we'll continue to see this sort of thing," he said, even though the Taliban lack the strength to hold territory they seize for brief periods. "They will never hold against the Afghan army."
The Afghan war has been stalemated for years. The Taliban lack the popular support to prevail, although they benefit from sanctuary in Pakistain. Afghan government forces, on the other hand, are too weak to decisively break the bandidos Lion of Islams even as they develop under U.S. and NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... training and advising.
Mattis has said he believes the Afghan cops are gaining momentum and can wear down the Taliban to the point where the bandidos Lion of Islams would choose to talk peace. So far that approach has not produced a breakthrough.
Next week will mark one year since President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... announced a revised war strategy for Afghanistan, declaring there would be no time limit on U.S. support for the war and making a renewed push for peace negotiations.
[DAWN] The Foreign Office rejected on Thursday allegations that Pak citizens had supported the Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... attack on Afghanistan’s city of Ghazni recently.
"We have not received any evidence to back up these spurious accusations and reject these baseless allegations," FO front man Dr Muhammad Faisal said, rejecting allegations made by Afghan officials and others.
Last Friday, some 1,000 Taliban fighters stormed the city of Ghazni and retreated five days later.
Afghan defence minister Tariq Shah Bahrami had earlier this week said that Ghazni attack had been carried out by Taliban with the support of external elements, including Paks.
Moreover, The New York Times
...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... had reported that Afghan officials had claimed the Taliban were aided by imported muscle, including Paks and Chechens, and even some Al Qaeda affiliates.
The FO front man said that Pakistain was fencing the border with Afghanistan with the objective of restricting cross-border movement of both "men and material" as part of its counterterrorism efforts.
He expressed the hope that the border fencing would help achieve long-term regional stability and improve relations between Afghanistan and Pakistain.
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08/18/2018 00:00 ||
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The Police Chief of Ghazni province Farid Ahmad Mashal was promoted to Brigadier General for his bravery in responding to the major Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... offensive on Ghazni city, the quiet provincial capital of Ghazni province.
The provincial security commandment of Ghazni in a statement said President Ghani has promoted Farid Ahmad Mashal to Brigadier General and thanked him for him for defending against the enemy aggression.
The statement further added that the Talibs launched a coordinated attack on Ghazni city last Friday which faced a major defeat due to the resistance of the security forces.
President Ghani had earlier hailed the bravery of the Afghan armed forces while responding to the attack on Ghazni city and said those who have shown courage and bravery will be hailed.
speaking during a meeting upon his arrival in Ghazni province, President Ghani emphasized on further coordination among the security and defense institutions.
He instructed the National Directorate of Security ...the Afghan national intel agency... to review the conspiracies surrounding the attack on the city and ascertain the weak points.
He also instructed the security officials to take necessary steps for the rehabilitation of police in Ghazni and increase the number of cop shoppes to boost the security of the city.
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani ...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. .. has instructed the relevant authorities and security officials for an in-depth review of the conspiracies surrounding the attack on Ghazni city.
The Office of the President, ARG Palace, in a statement said President Ghani issued the latest instructions during a security meeting organized upon his to Ghazni province.
The statement further added that the Chief of Staff of the Ministry of Defense Gen. Sharif Yaftali shared information regarding the situation of Ghazni city and the ongoing clearance operations.
He said the clearance operations are being conducted normally and the security situation in the city has returned to its normal condition and new security belts have been established.
In his turn, President Ghani hailed the bravery of the Afghan armed forces while responding to the attack on Ghazni city and said those who have shown courage and bravery will be hailed.
President Ghani emphasized on further coordination among the security and defense insitutions.
He instructed the National Directorate of Security ...the Afghan national intel agency... to review the conspiracies surrounding the attack on the city and ascertain the weak points.
He also instructed the security officials to take necessary steps for the rehabilitation of police in Ghazni and increase the number of cop shoppes to boost the security of the city.
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08/18/2018 00:00 ||
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[Al Jazeera] Ashraf Ghani ...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. .. , Afghanistan's president, has visited the embattled southeastern city of Ghazni, a week after the Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... launched an attack and infiltrated deep into the key bustling provincial capital.
The five-day battle with the Taliban in Ghazni killed at least 100 members of Afghan cops and 35 civilians before calm was restored on Wednesday, while a UN report quoted "unverifiable numbers" that put the civilian corpse count at more than 200.
Ghani met officials on Friday in Ghazni, a central Afghanistan city on the main highway linking the capital, Kabul, with the south, to assess security. He also met families of the victims.
In a speech, Ghani said greater security was needed around district capitals, as well as the bustling provincial capital, and questioned the strength of defence trenches dug around vulnerable areas.
"I am here to help all those who have suffered losses, I am committed to build the city and also do everything to protect Ghazni," Ghani said.
"Our soldiers have fought bravely and we stand committed to bringing peace," he said.
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08/18/2018 00:00 ||
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[RADIOSHABELLE] A Somali military court in Mogadishu on Thursday sentenced a government soldier to death for killing a colleague in the army, Hassan Abshir Warsame in February this year.
Osman was reported to have escaped the scene of the crime after shooting dead Warsame in Beledweyne city, the regional capital of Hiran.
But he was jugged ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... last month at police recruiting centre in Mogadishu by the security forces, and taken to a custody before his sentence, according to the court statement.
The military Court prosecutors said Osman committed the murder deliberately, therefore, he was given to death penalty .
Sources in Beledweyne said there had been an argument between the two before the accused opened fire on the dear departed.
Somali military court often carries out sentences and executions to al-Shabaab ... the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord... fighters and soldiers for crimes despite condemnation from human rights ...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... groups.
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[AnNahar] Rebel groups from Sudan's Darfur region are strengthening their foothold in Libya, building up their military strength in a bid to return to Sudan and fight on, according to a confidential report seen by AFP on Wednesday.
The report by a UN panel of experts said Sudan was continuing to pour weapons into Darfur to support its military campaign there, in violation of a UN arms embargo.
"In recent months, most of the Darfur rebel groups have consolidated their presence in Libya," said the 53-page report sent to the Security Council this month.
Continued on Page 49
[ALMASDARNEWS] A senior US official has said that China is likely to buy even more Iranian oil after the sanctions which it describes as "long-armed jurisdiction."
Washington is prepared to slap sanctions on all countries that continue buying oil from Iran after the November deadline, including China, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing the new US special representative for Iran, Brian Hook.
"The United States certainly hopes for full compliance by all nations in terms of not risking the threat of US secondary sanctions if they continue with those transactions," Hook said.
He added, however, that the US would issue waivers from sanctions to countries that have made efforts to reduce their purchases of Iranian oil.
Earlier this month, Washington re-imposed the first wave of sanctions on Tehran targeting the country’s exports, banking system and its ability to access the global financial system, with the second wave slated to follow on November 4.
China, who is a major buyer of Iranian oil, has so far resisted Washington’s demand to end its purchase of Iranian crude arguing that the country’s cooperation with Tehran does not harm anyone else’s interests and, therefore, should be exempted from US sanctions.
Earlier this month, China’s Foreign Ministry said that Beijing’s commercial ties with Iran were "reasonable and fully in line with pertinent resolutions by the UN Security Council."
In July a senior US official was quoted by the Wall Street Journal as saying that Washington though it highly likely that China would even increase its purchases of Iranian oil once the US sanctions are re-imposed in full.
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08/18/2018 00:00 ||
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[Breitbart] Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ) Interior Minister Herbert Kickl has floated the idea of charging radical Islamic adherents if they advocate for Sharia law over the constitutional law of Austria.
The populist Interior Minister laid out the proposal as part of a programme to fight against the spread of radical Islamic extremism in Austria, Kronen Zeitung reports.
"Those who want to pass the Sharia law over the Austrian laws and want to bring upon us a theocracy in place of our democracy belong in court!" Kickl, who has been long known for his fierce firebrand rhetoric, said.
The move also follows campaign promises made by FPÖ leader and current Vice-Chancellor Heinz Christian Strache who vowed to ban Islamism in January of last year arguing it was, "antagonistic to women, antiliberal and corresponds to a fascist worldview."
[Al Jazeera] Germany has reached a deal with Greece to send back people to the southern European country if they have already applied for asylum there.
The announcement by the German interior ministry on Friday follows a similar agreement reached with Spain last week.
Both deals come after a dispute between Chancellor Angela Merkel ...chancellor of Germany and the impetus behind Germany's remarkably ill-starred immigration program. Merkel used to be referred to by Germans as Mom. Now they make faces at her for inundating the country with Moslems .. 's conservatives and their Bavarian allies over returning asylum seekers that nearly split them and brought down the government.
"The signature of an administrative agreement with Greece is a further step on the way to more orderly conditions in European migration policy," German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said in a statement.
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08/18/2018 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... on Friday threatened to respond if the United States (US) levied further sanctions over the detention of an American pastor, which has sparked a diplomatic standoff and battered the Ottoman Turkish currency.
"We've already responded based on the World Trade Organisation rules and will continue to do so," Trade Minister Ruhsar Pekcan was quoted as saying by the state-run Anadolu news agency.
Washington warned on Thursday that it would impose more sanctions unless pastor Andrew Brunson, described by US President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... as a "hostage", was released.
Brunson's detention since October 2016 on terror-related charges has soured relations between the two NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... allies, sending the Ottoman Turkish lira into a tailspin.
The lira, which earlier this week traded at well over seven to the dollar, was at 5.8 against the dollar and 6.7 against euro on Friday.
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[Al Jazeera] A Ottoman Turkish court has rejected an appeal to release Andrew Brunson, a US pastor at the centre of a dispute between Ankara and Washington.
A high court in Izmir said on Friday Brunson would stay under house arrest, upholding a decision taken by a lower court earlier this week. Brunson's lawyer said he would appeal again in 15 days.
The clergyman has been held since 2016 when he was tossed in the calaboose Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! in a Ottoman Turkish government crackdown following a failed coup bid. He faces 35 years in prison on espionage and terror-related charges.
The court ruling comes amid a diplomatic spat between The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire.... and the US that has seen tariffs from both sides pile up and an exchange of threats of further sanctions.
On Friday, Ottoman Turkish Trade Minister Ruhsar Pekcan said her government would respond to any new trade duties imposed on the country, whose currency has plunged in recent weeks.
"We've already responded based on the World Trade Organization rules and will continue to do so," Pekcan was quoted as saying by the state-run Anadolu news agency.
On Thursday, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin suggested during a cabinet meeting that the next spiral of tit-for-tat sanctions was coming soon, deepening the spat that has rattled financial markets.
"We have put sanctions on several of their cabinet members," said Mnuchin. "We have more that we are planning to do if they don't release him quickly."
Earlier, US President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... prefaced Mnuchin's remarks by saying that Turkey had not been a very good friend to the US. He later tweeted that the clergyman was a "great patriot" being held "hostage".
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08/18/2018 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] Trump placed a cap on refugee admissions of 45,000 this fiscal year (ending September 30), compared to the 110,000 level set for fiscal 2017 by Trump's White House predecessor, Barack Obama That’s just how white folks will do you.... But given the pace so far, the actual number of refugees to be admitted in fiscal 2018 could fall below 20,000: only 18,565 had been admitted as of August 10, according to Department of State data.
[DAWN] The opposition alliance has fallen apart before even taking off after the Pakistain Peoples Party (PPP) decided to "abstain" from today’s vote in the National Assembly for the office of prime minister due to refusal of the Pakistain Moslem League-Nawaz (PML-N) to replace its candidate, making the contest a one-sided affair.
Besides the PPP, the one-man 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... (JI) ‐ which had contested the July 25 elections from the platform of Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) with four other religious parties ‐ has also decided to stay away from the election for PM office on Friday (today). This is despite the fact that the Jamaat Ulema-e-Islam ...Assembly of Islamic Clergy, or JUI, is a Pak Deobandi (Hanafi) political party. There are two main branches, one led by Maulana Fazlur Rahman, and one led by Maulana Samiul Haq. Fazl is active in Pak politix and Sami spends more time running his madrassah. Both branches sponsor branches of the Taliban, though with plausible deniability... (JUI-F) ‐ the main component of the MMA ‐ is insisting that they should vote for PML-N nominee Shahbaz Sharif ...Pak dynastic politician, brother of PM Nawaz Sharif, chief minister of Punjab... in line with the decision taken at the multi-party conference held in Islamabad earlier this month.
Sources told Dawn that using backdoor channels, the PML-N contacted the PPP leadership many times throughout the day on Thursday, asking it to review its decision in the larger interest of the opposition’s unity, but the PPP refused to reverse its decision.
A PPP front man, Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, said the party after a meeting had decided that its members would vote for neither Shahbaz Sharif nor Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who is the lightweight's lightweight... .
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[AnNahar] A young Yazidi woman who fled to Germany but returned home to northern Iraq says she cannot escape her 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 captor who held her as a sex slave for three months.
Ashwaq Haji, 19, says she ran into the man in a German supermarket in February. Traumatized by the encounter, she returned to Iraq the following month.
Like many other Yazidis, she was kidnapped by IS when the jihadists seized swathes of Iraq in the summer of 2014.
In their ancestral region of Sinjar in northwestern Iraq, thousands of Yazidi women were killed or sold off as sex slaves.
The teenager was held from August 3 until October 22 of 2014, when she managed to escape from the home of an Iraqi jihadist using the name Abu Humam who had bought her for $100, she told AFP in the Yazidi shrine of Lalish, north of second city djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... The Yazidis are a Kurdish-speaking religious minority that was brutally persecuted by the jihadists who despise them as heretics.
Under a German government program for Iraqi refugees, Ashwaq, her mother and a younger brother were resettled in 2015 in Schwaebisch Gmuend, a town near Stuttgart.
Her refuge in Germany, where she took language lessons, was cut short on February 21 when a man called out her name in a supermarket and started talking to her in German.
"He told me he was Abu Humam. I told him I didn't know him, and then he started talking to me in Arabic," she said.
"He told me: 'Don't lie, I know very well that you're Ashwaq'," she said, adding that he gave her home address and other details of her life in Germany.
After that experience, she immediately phoned the local police, who told her to contact a specialized department.
- LIVING IN FEAR BACK IN IRAQ -
The judicial police in the Baden-Wuerttemberg region of southwestern Germany said an inquiry was opened on March 13 but that Ashwaq was not present to answer questions.
A front man for the German federal prosecutor's office told AFP that so far the man's identity could not be confirmed "with certainty."
Germany says it has opened several investigations over terrorism charges or crimes against humanity involving asylum seekers linked to jihadist groups in Iraq, Syria or Afghanistan.
Ashwaq said she had viewed surveillance videos filmed in the supermarket together with German police and was ready to keep them informed of her whereabouts.
But she said that she was not willing to return to Germany for fear of seeing her captor again.
She is back in northern Iraq with her mother and brother, but living in fear because she says Abu Humam has family in Baghdad.
She wears black in a sign of mourning for five brothers and a sister still missing since their own capture by IS.
At a camp for the displaced in nearby Iraqi Kurdistan where he has been resettled, her father, Haji Hamid, 53, admits returning was not an easy decision, even though the government proclaimed victory over IS at the end of last year.
"When her mother told me that she'd seen that jihadist... I told them to come back because Germany was obviously no longer a safe place for them," he told AFP.
Life in Iraq is also not easy for Ashwaq or for the 3,315 other Yazidis who beat feet from the jihadists. A similar number are still being held or have gone missing, according to official figures.
"All the survivors have volcanoes inside them, ready to explode," warned Sara Samouqi, a psychologist who works with several Yazidis. "Ashwaq and her family are going through terrible times."
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08/18/2018 00:00 ||
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[Ynet] Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, suggests 'UN-mandated armed forces or unarmed observers' should be deployed in the Gaza Strip in order to protect the local population; The proposal is part of a UN General Assembly report that condemns Israel for using excessive force against Palestinians; The report does not mention Hamas; 'The combination of prolonged military occupation, constant security threats, weak political institutions, and a deadlocked peace process provides for a protection challenge that is highly complex politically.' The idea that you can no longer kill Jews with impunity is very distasteful to some.
#1
I see he has a doctorate in being a Twit! Twitter Source
Yesterday I sent the Declaration of Shared Commitment on @UNPeacekeeping to Member States for endorsement. Thanks to Pakistan for being 1st to endorse, & for their unwavering support to peacekeeping. I invite all Member States to join me in strengthening peacekeeping. #A4P
#4
...Obviously the Israeli military is getting way too effective...
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
08/18/2018 7:37 Comments ||
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#5
It seems the UN now wants to replicate its failures in 1967 (Tiran and Sanafir) 1980s (Lebanon) and now Gaza. It has already failed once in Gaza with the UNWRA.
[AlAhram] Egypt will close its Rafah border crossing with the Gazoo Strip for several days during the Islamic Eid al-Adha holiday.
According to state agency MENA, the border will be closed on Friday and Saturday, and will reopen on Sunday 19 August.
It will then close on Monday 20 August, the day before the three-day Eid al-Adha festival, and reopen on Saturday 25 August.
The Rafah border crossing is the main gateway to the outside world for 1.8 million Paleostinians living in the Gazoo Strip, and is the only crossing point not controlled by Israel.
Egypt usually keeps the border crossing closed citing security concerns, opening it periodically for short periods, often including major Islamic holidays.
[AlAhram] The U.S. State Department said on Friday it will redirect $230 million in frozen funding away from Syria and had raised $300 million from coalition partners for recovery efforts in areas retaken 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.... gunnies in northeast Syria.
President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... had frozen the funds in March while his administration reassessed Washington's role in the Syrian conflict.
The department's spokeswoman Heather Nauert said 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... had contributed $100 million and United Arab Emirates had pledged $50 million toward the new funding.
"This decision does not represent any lessening of U.S. commitment to our strategic goals in Syria," Nauert said in a statement.
[AnNahar] Saudi Arabia said early on Friday that it has contributed $100 million to northeast Syria for "stabilization projects" in areas once held by the Islamic State group and now controlled by U.S.-backed forces.
The Saudi Embassy in Washington said the money "will save lives, help facilitate the return of displaced Syrians and help ensure that ISIS cannot reemerge to threaten Syria, its neighbors, or plan attacks against the international community." ISIS is an alternate acronym for the militant group.
The money will go toward agriculture, education, roadworks, rubble removal and water service for the region, which is now largely held by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces.
"This substantial contribution will play a critical role in the coalition's efforts to revitalize communities, such as Raqqa, that have been devastated by ISIS terrorists," the embassy said in a statement.
The Syrian city of Raqqa was the seat of the Islamic State group's self-proclaimed "caliphate" until it was liberated by the U.S.-backed forces last year.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Council is the political wing of the Syrian Democratic Forces. In May, Syrian President Bashar Assad threatened to attack areas held by the U.S.-backed forces. Saudi Arabia long has opposed Assad's government, funding and arming rebels who challenged his rule as the country's 2011 Arab Spring protests devolved into a civil war and then a regional proxy battlefield.
The U.S. military operates air bases and outposts in the Kurdish-administered region.
The Saudi Embassy described the $100 million as part of a pledge made by Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir during a U.S.-sponsored conference in Brussels about the Islamic State group in July at NATO headquarters.
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[ALMASDARNEWS] Syriac Christian worshipers in Tal Baloua, near Tal Tamer, attended the first Feast of the Assumption of Mary (Lady Day festival) held in the town for six years, on Thursday.
Worshipers gathered for a church service, before sitting together outside for a communal meal. The Tal Baloua Assyrians consider the festival an assertion of their right to live in Syria, following the ousting from the area of the self-proclaimed 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, formerly ISIS/ISIS).
The church itself was heavily damaged by IS turbans during their occupation of the village in 2015. Despite restoration work, parts of the building remain severely damaged.
Most Assyrians in the region were driven out during an IS assault three years ago. Hundreds of those who remained were taken into captivity, with many only released after the payment of ransom. Some were also executed.
IS destroyed numerous Assyrian churches before local and Kurdish fighters forced them from the area. Many Assyrian villages have now been turned into dilapidated ghost towns, with their inhabitants having fled abroad.
Before the conflict, an estimated 20,000-40,000 Assyrians lived in Syria, most of them residing in settlements along the Khabur River such as Tal Tamer. Today, reports citing local activists say there are around 1,000 Assyrians left in the country, with most having fled Syria.
Syriac Christians are the Aramaic-speaking descendants of the ancient Assyrian people, whose empire came to an end in 612 BC. Other Assyrians live in nearby Iraq, Iran and The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund.... . Many have emigrated permanently from the Middle East following violence and persecution.
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[ALMASDARNEWS] Russia’s Ministry of Defence showed journalists from around the world on Thursday the improvised drones used by Syrian Lion of Islam forces in a failed attack on the Hmeymim Airbase.
"All these devices attempted to attack the airbase and they were launched from the northwest, from the Idlib area," Chief Spokesman for the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation Igor Konashenkov said.
According to officials, there were five attacks on the base in recent days, all of which were repelled by Russian anti-air defence systems.
"These flying machines can fly over 100 kilometers, some of them ‐ even up to 200 [kilometers]. We can see that the control and navigation systems are getting more refined. Some machines can remain airborne for up to four hours. Their speed is around 50 km/h," Konashenkov said.
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[Free Beacon] A group of Massachusetts-based taxpayers are suing the school committee in the city of Newton, a wealthy, liberal enclave, over what they claim is the leadership's ongoing promotion of anti-Semitic school materials and the promotion of Islamic religious beliefs, according to an announcement from the organization handling the lawsuit.
Education Without Indoctrination, a local community group driving the lawsuit, "claims multiple violations of the Massachusetts Open Meeting Law stemming from the school committee's handling of a burgeoning scandal over anti-Semitic lessons and the promotion of Islamic religious beliefs as objective facts in the public school district's history classes," according to a press release from the group.
The lawsuit stems from a controversy of Newton Public Schools use of what the group claims are "unvetted educational materials" produced by the Saudi Arabian oil company ARAMCO and the Qatari government, which has long been cited for its funding of terrorism.
"In teaching world history, Newton Public Schools (NPS) use unvetted educational materials funded by the Saudi oil company ARAMCO and the government of Qatar. As a result, Newton public school students are propagandized with materials that slander Israel and the Jewish people, and that falsify history to promote the Islamic religion in public schools," the press release states.
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.
...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. ..
the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord...
...chancellor of Germany and the impetus behind Germany's remarkably ill-starred immigration program. Merkel used to be referred to by Germans as 
...Pak dynastic politician, brother of PM Nawaz Sharif, chief minister of Punjab...
[Ynet] Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, suggests 'UN-mandated armed forces or unarmed observers' should be deployed in the Gaza Strip in order to protect the local population; The proposal is part of a UN General Assembly report that condemns Israel for using excessive force against Palestinians; The report does not mention Hamas; 'The combination of prolonged military occupation, constant security threats, weak political institutions, and a deadlocked peace process provides for a protection challenge that is highly complex politically.'
[AlAhram] Egypt will close its Rafah border crossing with the 
