[Garowe] Disturbing details have emerged on how the Somali National Army (SNA) lost the strategic town of Mahas in Hiiraan, which, if confirmed, taints the image of the army irredeemably and perhaps raises questions about its ability to safeguard the country.
The African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... Support and Stabilisation Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM) troops are leaving the country based on the implementation of the Somali Transition Plan (STP), which recommends a significant drawdown of the mission soldiers and subsequently handover security responsibilities to local forces.
But the reality is hitting hard — with the latest capture of Mahas towns coupled with previous losses at Adan Yabaal, Moqokori and Tardo, which equally helped the SNA soldiers and their allies to keep the snuffies at bay for several years.
Ali Jayte Osman, the former Hiiraan governor who is credited with mobilising local fighters against al-Shabaab ... the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord... , claims SNA soldiers based in Mahas fled from the scene, leaving al-Shabaab to have a field day in the most consequential town in the war against the group.
"The al-Shabaab fighters who captured Maxaas/Mahas numbered around 60. There was also a large Somali military force present, but they did not fire a single shot, and they fled," said Ali Jeyte Osman.
Cases of SNA troops fleeing from frontlines have been claimed before, with President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud issuing a stern warning to deserters. The government is yet to respond to the recent allegations of troops fleeing Mahas.
Jeyte has reportedly returned with support from Æthiopia, and its troops are set to be deployed in Garasyani, Yasoman and Mahas to assist the local forces. Hassan Sheikh's new security strategy gives the two Shabelle top priority to keep control over MOG, so nobody should expect any assistance from him, experts say.
In 2023, as the war against al-Shabaab was taking shape in Somalia, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud was sighted in military regalia, visiting soldiers on the frontlines at Mahas, Hiiraan. But since then, he has been accused of being preoccupied with the power struggles in Mogadishu as he pushes to change the constitutional order.
Al-Shabaab’s capture of Mahas marks a serious blow to Somalia’s counterinsurgency efforts. The town had been under government control for nearly a decade. The request by Jeyte to Æthiopia's Somali region for military assistance is yet to be approved, though.
This gain gives Al-Shabaab a stronger foothold in central Somalia, positioning them to strike deeper across the region, including key strategic routes toward Æthiopia. Mahas was the epicentre of the battles in 2023 during the first phase of the crackdown against al-Shabaab after Hassan Sheikh took over.
The capture also signals a dangerous new phase in the group’s insurgency and exposes critical vulnerabilities in Somalia’s security framework despite years of Western-backed military support. Somalia has been fighting for stability for the last 35 years.
With the AUSSOM troops expected to leave and in the middle of financial constraints, it seems Somalia could erode the gains made over the years. The US government has declined to give additional support, but there are claims of embezzlement of financial aid by the regime in Mogadishu.
[Garowe] Operation Lightning continues to yield positive results within the Cal-Miskaad mountains in Puntland ...a region in northeastern Somalia, centered on Garowe in the Nugaal province. Its leaders declared the territory an autonomous state in 1998. Puntland and the equally autonomous Somaliland seem to have avoided the clan rivalries and warlordism that have typified the rest of Somalia, which puts both places high on the list for Islamic subversion... , the counterterrorism centre reports, following concerted efforts by the regional troops to drive the fighters away from the state.
According to the counterterrorism center, Puntland troops discovered a training cave for the fighters within Lugta Garared and Sul Sul, located just inside the Calmiskaad mountains in the Bari region, as the operation entered the final phase.
The operation led to the discovery of an Arabic curriculum projector and an identity card belonging to a Tanzanian terrorist. ISIS-Somalia gunnies have recruited fighters from around East Africa, with some also coming from Æthiopia and Morocco.
"Our forces uncovered an ISIS terrorist training cave between Lugta Garared and Sul Sul in the Calmiskat mountains. Seized: Arabic curriculum, projector, Tanzanian terrorist ID, and more. Final clearance ops ongoing to eliminate remaining fighters and fleeing leaders," the centre said.
The Calmiskaad mountains are the main training base for the Death Eaters, but so far, many caves have been destroyed, pushing the bandidosgunnies further outside the territory, with the ground forces making significant gains from different frontlines.
Elsewhere, Puntland troops seized a vehicle carrying food items, with two men driving it also arrested in the process. The vehicle was captured near Bosaso, headed to Calmiskaad mountains, the counterterrorism centre further said.
"We are investigating a vehicle carrying food supplies and two men driving it, captured by our forces while transporting food from Bosaso," read the statement.
"As the anti-ISIS operations in Calmiskat continue, no supplies will pass through without government notification."
Puntland has been fighting alongside the US Africa Command and the United Arab Emirates force, who help in aerial surveillance. But the input of the federal government of Somalia has been questioned, with Mogadishu accused of failing to give support to the Puntland forces.
Militants seemingly armed with a rare #China-made 🇨🇳 35mm QLZ-87 automatic grenade launcher and 12.7mm W-85 heavy machine guns mounted on Motorcycles. pic.twitter.com/NLV7YHSPF6
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] The Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced two members of the gangs of Shamil Basayev
…Shamil Salmanovich Basayev, AKA Emir Abdullah Shamil Abu-Idris and by his kunya, “Abu Idris” (1965-2006). He was a Chechen warlord in the post-Soviet Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, which after his death became the Al Qaeda-linked Caucasus Emirate. In 2015 most of the hard boys changed their allegiance to the local Islamic State affiliate, Vilayat Kavkaz, whereupon a majority chose to escape the Spetsnaz still hunting them by making hijra to the caliphate in Syria — those who survived the reconquest and the SDF prison camps are about to become the property of the HTS government of Syria, which will be educational for ll involved. Basayev is known for the 2004 Beslan school siege and the 2002 Moscow theater hostage crisis (the Nord-Ost siege)…
and Amir Khattab in the case of the attack on the Pskov paratroopers of the 6th company in 2000. This was reported on July 30 by the Investigative Committee of Russia.
Residents of Kabardino-Balkaria Aslanbek Kazanchev and Anzor Batyrov (both are included in the list of terrorists and extremists of Rosfinmonitoring) found themselves in the dock. They were found guilty under three articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - participation in a gang (Part 2 of Article 209), armed rebellion (Article 279) and an attempt on the life of a serviceman (Article 317).
“By the verdict of the Southern District Military Court, Kazanchev and Batyrov were sentenced to 17 and 14 years of imprisonment, respectively, to be served in a strict regime penal colony,” said Svetlana Petrenko, official representative of the Investigative Committee.
The investigation and the court established that on February 29, 2000, Kazanchev and Batyrov, as part of a united armed gang under the general leadership of Basayev and Khattab, took part in an attack on servicemen of the 6th company of the 104th regiment of the 76th Pskov division of the Airborne Forces. The attack, which lasted until the morning of March 1, took place in a mountainous and wooded area near the village of Ulus-Kert in the Shatoi district of Chechnya. As a result, 84 servicemen were killed and four more were wounded.
On July 25, the Southern District Military Court sentenced two members of Basayev's gang, Vakhit Khamzatkhanov and Takhir Begeldiev (both are included in the Russian Federation's list of terrorists and extremists), to 21 and 24 years in a strict regime penal colony for participating in an attack on Russian servicemen in Chechnya in October 1999. As part of a detachment of about 400 militants, they ambushed Russian fighters in the village of Chervlennaya in the Shelkovsky District. In the shootout, 15 Russian soldiers were killed and another 28 were wounded.
In May, the FSB published a video of the arrest of four members of the Basayev and Khattab gang, involved in attacks on Russian servicemen in 1999-2000. The operations took place in Stavropol Krai, Ingushetia, Dagestan and Astrakhan Oblast. The detainees were also in an ambush in the village of Chervlennaya. In addition, they participated in a battle with Pskov paratroopers near the village of Ulus-Kert in February 2000.
[IsraelTimes] Australian police say they have arrested one of three men they suspect are responsible for an arson attack on a Melbourne synagogue that marked a major escalation in antisemitic violence across the nation.
A 21-year-old Melbourne man was arrested at a house today on suspicion that he had set fire to the Adass Israel Synagogue in December, Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Wendy Steendam says. The predawn attack destroyed the synagogue and left a worshiper with minor burns.
The arrest is a major breakthrough for investigators in the Victorian Joint Counter-Terrorism Team that is treating the attack as politically motivated.
The team involves Victoria state and federal police as well as Australia’s main domestic spy agency. More than 220 law enforcement officers have devoted more than 50,000 hours to the investigation.
The suspect, who has not been named, was being questioned about offenses including arson, conduct endangering life and car theft, Steendam says.
An arson conviction carries a potential maximum of 15 years in prison, while the other two offenses are each punishable by 10 years imprisonment. The suspect has yet to be charged.
“This investigation remains ongoing and we anticipate there’ll be further arrests,” Steendam tells reporters.
“I want to reassure Victorians, particularly those in the Jewish community, that we remain relentless in our pursuit in finding all those responsible for this crime and holding them to account,” she added.
[IsraelTimes] Aurore Berge and Benjamin Haddad pan Spanish carrier Vueling over incident last week, say there was no justification for disembarkation of 50 summer campers
A summer camp counselor has accused Spanish law enforcement officers of using brute force against her during the removal of a group of French Jewish teenagers
…ten year olds are not anything like teenagers…
from a plane bound for Gay Paree from Spain, French government ministers and her lawyer said Wednesday.
Ministers Aurore Berge and Benjamin Haddad met with the counselor on Tuesday after French authorities last week contacted the CEO of the Spanish low-cost airline Vueling and the Spanish ambassador to La Belle France to determine whether the youngsters had been discriminated against on the basis of their religion.
Forty-four minors and eight adult French passengers were kicked off flight V8166 from Valencia to Gay Paree on July 23, for what Spanish police and the airline described as unruly behavior.
But the ministers said the counselor, who asked to remain anonymous and is described as "shocked," disputed that account. They say she described the crew as hostile from the outset, saying a child briefly sang but stopped when asked, and claimed no behavior warranted the group’s removal or the Civil Guard’s response.
"No action justified the disembarkation or the excessive and brutal use of force by the Civil Guard against the young woman, who has just been notified of 15 days of total incapacity to work," the ministers said in a statement, adding that her testimony had been corroborated by other passengers on board.
Berge is Minister for Equality between Women and Men and for the Fight against Discrimination, while Haddad is Minister Delegate for European Affairs.
The woman who was arrested and beaten is the director of the Kinneret summer camp.
Fifty Jewish French children, aged 10 – 15, were singing Hebrew songs on the plane.
— עמיחי שיקלי - Amichai Chikli (@AmichaiChikli) July 23, 2025
…forced the children off the aircraft; they are now in Valencia, waiting to return to France.
In line with Hamas’s campaign of lies echoed by Al Jazeera, Haaretz, and others, we are seeing numerous severe antisemitic incidents recently; this is one of the most serious.
The counselor’s lawyer, Muriel Ouaknine Melki, told The Associated Press that she was left with bruises on her legs, arms and body after she was brutally handcuffed and held in an arm lock. Ouaknine Melki said her team is collecting evidence before lodging a complaint.
The Club Kineret association, which organized the summer camp, did not immediately answer requests from The Associated Press for direct testimonies from people who were removed from the plane.
A Vueling spokesperson said the passengers were removed after the minors repeatedly tampered with the plane’s emergency equipment and interrupted the crew’s safety demonstration. A Civil Guard spokesperson said the plane captain ordered the group’s removal at Valencia’s Manises Airport after they repeatedly ignored crew instructions.
Berge and Haddad also lashed out at a statement from the Spanish minister of transport, “equating French children of Jewish faith with Israeli citizens, as if that somehow justified the treatment they received.” Spanish Transport Minister Oscar Puente has deleted a tweet from July 26 in which he called the minors “Israeli brats.”
So sweet of him.
“At a time when antisemitic acts have been on the rise across Europe since the terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, in Israel, the ministers call on Vueling and the Spanish authorities to fully investigate and clarify the events,” Berge and Haddad said. “We will never accept the normalization of antisemitism.
Not when they can pontificate about it, anyway. The normalization that happens every day back in France in schools and on the streets is not worth fussing about.
We will always stand with our fellow citizens who suffer from antisemitic hatred, and we will never compromise.”
As you say.
Vueling has denied that the incident was related to the passengers’ religion. The Civil Guard spokesperson said the agents involved were not aware of the group’s religious affiliation.
Just that they were singing in Hebrew, which Catholics, Moslems, and even atheists do all the time, right?
#2
Jews and Moslems both, following the completion under Ferdinand and Isabella of the Reconquista and their offer to both of a choice between conversion and expulsion.
[Rudaw] A bomb-laden drone crashed but did not explode near a village in Makhmour district on Wednesday morning, according to Kurdish counterterrorism forces. No casualties were reported.
The Erbil-based Directorate General of Counter Terrorism (CTD), also known as Kurdistan CT, said in a statement, "Today Wednesday, July 30, 2025, at 09:30 [am local time], a booby-trapped drone crashed without exploding near the village of Dugirdkan in Makhmour district," roughly 60 kilometers southwest of Erbil.
The Wednesday incident was not the first of its kind recorded in Makhmour district in recent months.
Earlier this month, two drones targeted the district’s Khurmala oil field, though both were intercepted before impact.
According to Rudaw data, the Kurdistan Region has been targeted by nearly 20 drone and rocket attacks in recent weeks, many targeting oil infrastructure.
Aziz Ahmad, deputy chief of staff to Prime Minister Masrour Barzani, in mid-July stated that the Region has lost nearly 200,000 barrels of oil production due to the "spate of drone attacks."
While no group has grabbed credit, the Kurdistan Region’s interior ministry earlier in July accused the Iran-aligned Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) of involvement - a charge Baghdad swiftly rejected as "unacceptable."
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has also criticized the Iraqi federal government for failing to prevent or investigate the escalating drone threats.
Gazans were seen dumping flour just to keep the sacks.
Gazan social media is buzzing with people asking where to find Nutella. Over 100 aid trucks entered North Gaza via Zikim today, but looters prioritized grabbing high-value items like Nutella and sugar. The… pic.twitter.com/qrGndTyX6c
[Rudaw] The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Wednesday captured two suspected Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really 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 western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (ISIS) operatives in an operation in northeast Syria’s (Rojava) notorious al-Hol camp with support from the US-led coalition.
The SDF and the US-led anti-ISIS coalition "conducted a targeted operation inside al-Hol Camp. The operation successfully led to the capture of two ISIS operatives responsible for internal security operations within the camp," The People’s Protection Units (YPG) - the SDF’s backbone - said in a statement.
It said that both operatives had participated in the jihadists’ operations in Syria and neighboring Iraq, before moving to the notorious camp in an attempt to "maintain the group’s influence."
The US-backed SDF was instrumental in defeating ISIS in 2019 and capturing thousands of the group’s fighters. The force continues to operate in coordination with hundreds of US troops as part of the US-led coalition against ISIS.
Both the SDF and the Kurdish-led internal security forces (Asayish) are also primarily responsible for securing the Roj and al-Hol camps in Rojava, which house thousands of individuals suspected of ISIS ties.
Since its territorial defeat, ISIS has been trying to regain its strength. However,
a person who gets all wrapped up in himself makes a mighty small package... it ramped up its efforts particularly after a coalition of opposition groups, led by the now-dissolved Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else ...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State... (HTS), in early December toppled the regime of longtime Syrian dictator Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Despoiler of Deraa... .
On Tuesday, an ISIS attack in the eastern Deir ez-Zor province killed an SDF fighter and injured two others.
[Rudaw] The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announced late Tuesday that unidentified button men carried out two attacks in the eastern province of Deir ez-Zor, killing one and injuring two others.
"One of the staff members at the House of the Wounded in the town of Abu Khashab, located in the Deir Ezzor countryside, was martyred last evening after being shot by unidentified button men on a cycle of violence in front of his home. The attack also left his wife seriously injured; she was transferred to the hospital for urgent medical care," read a statement from the SDF.
The US-backed force added that one of its fighters was injured in a separate incident in the province while returning to his home.
"He was shot three times and sustained moderate injuries. He was taken to the hospital, where medical sources confirmed his condition is stable," the SDF added.
No group has grabbed credit for the attacks.
The SDF said on Friday that ISIS had carried out three attacks on its forces in Dier ez-Zor province, killing a member and injuring another.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
... the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord...
...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State...
