[Garowe] A new Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... in Somalia left several al-Shabaab ... the personification of Somali state failure... fighters dead, reports indicate, just hours after the group killed several foreign soldiers in one of the training camps in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia.
Military sources told Garowe Online that the new airstrike was activated in Jamame township within Lower Jubba, killing at least 20 fighters who have been conducting terror activities in the Horn of Africa nation, particularly in southern regions.
This is the fifth airstrike this year in Somalia with the US military increasing intensity in the fight against al-Shabaab, a group that has been pushing for the ouster of the UN-backed federal government of Somalia for the last 17 years.
Along with the Somali National Army (SNA), the US Army usually gives aerial surveillance and support in operations against the al-Shabaab Death Eaters, who have been suffering losses following spirited operations in recent months across the country.
The airstrike, even though it hasn't been confirmed by the US Africa Command, comes just after four United Arab Emirates soldiers and another one from Bahrain were killed by Alshabab in General Gordon's military training base within Somalia.
[NAHARNET] Armenia and Azerbaijan on Tuesday traded accusations over a border skirmish that left at least four Armenian soldiers dead and escalated tensions between the two Caucasus neighbors.
Armenia's Foreign Ministry denounced what it described as a "provocation" by Azerbaijani troops who fired on Armenian forces across the border in the eastern Syunik region early Tuesday. Four Armenian soldiers were killed and one was wounded, the ministry said. It urged Azerbaijan to refrain from "destabilizing" actions.
Azerbaijan's State Border Service said it had fired on an Armenian post in retaliation for Armenian shelling of Azerbaijani positions that wounded one Azerbaijani service member the previous day.
"Any provocations by the Armenian side aimed at escalating tensions along the Azerbaijan-Armenia border will now be met with even more serious and decisive measures," the State Border Service said in a statement. "The military-political leadership of Armenia bears full responsibility for these developments."
Armenia and Azerbaijan have a long history of land disputes. Azerbaijan waged a lightning military campaign last year to reclaim the Karabakh region, which Armenian separatists had ruled for three decades.
The region, which was known internationally as Nagorno-Karabakh, and large swaths of surrounding territory came under full control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia at the end of a separatist war in 1994.
Azerbaijan regained parts of Karabakh and most of the surrounding territory in a six-week war in 2020. It then launched a blitz in September that routed the separatist forces in one day and forced them to lay down arms. More than 100,000 ethnic Armenians fled the region in the following days, leaving it nearly deserted.
With political momentum from the successful military operation, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev last week won another term with 92% of the vote in a snap election.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have pledged to work toward signing a peace treaty, but no visible progress has been made, and tensions have continued to soar amid mutual distrust.
Armenia's Foreign Ministry cited the latest skirmish to accuse Azerbaijan of "searching for pretexts for escalation" and trying to derail peace efforts.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. [KavkazUzel] The Turkish authorities are preparing for the deportation of a native of Dagestan, Ibragim Askerov, whom the Russian Investigative Committee has put on the wanted list for his involvement in the extremist organization At Takfir Wal-Hijra, sources said.
Originally they called themselves Jama'at al-Muslimin (Society of Muslims), but their Egyptian neighbours mockingly called them Excommunication and Exile. The introverted Takfir Wal Hijra faction of the split from the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt in the 1960s. The extroverted “moderate” faction followed Ayman Al-Zawahiri into Al Qaeda. Takfir Wal Hijra consists of loosely affiliated cells which have committed acts of terror as far afield as Morocco and Holland. Cult-like, they require members to cut off all contact with their families.
According to sources, the Turkish authorities are preparing for extradition to Russia of a native of Dagestan, Ibragim Askerov, who in his homeland is suspected of involvement in the extremist organization At Takfir Wal-Hijra, banned in Russia by the court.
Askerov left for Turkey in January 2021, and was detained in the fall of the same year. He spent about four months in the deportation center, after which he was released. In August 2023, Askerov was detained again and again placed in a deportation center. Earlier, the Investigative Committee of Russia put Askerov on the Interpol wanted list, the telegram channel “Conscience of Dagestan” reported today.
Askerov previously received a residence permit in Turkey, but the authorities revoked it. “There is a decision to deport him. He applied for asylum and was refused everywhere. They offer to leave for a third country, but he does not have a valid passport. And he is wanted by Interpol,” the source was quoted as saying by “Caucasus. Realities” on August 11, 2023.
Turkish intelligence services registered Askerov as a person involved in an extremist organization who poses a threat to the country’s national security, another source said.
The "Caucasian Knot" also wrote that on November 1, 2022, six followers of the At Takfir Wal-Hijra* organization were detained in Dagestan, Moscow and Voronezh, and during a search, religious literature with extremist content was confiscated from them.
The organization "At-Takfir wal-Hijra" (Accusation of unbelief and hijra) appeared in Egypt and spread in the North Caucasus, especially in Kabardino-Balkaria in 1997-1998. Supporters of the organization belong to the Salafi movement in Islam and are distinguished by strict demands on fellow believers, says the Caucasian Knot material “ Kabardino-Balkaria: On the Road to Catastrophe. Preconditions for the armed uprising in Nalchik on October 13-14, 2005.”
[IsraelTimes] 15-year-old boy, 47-year-old mother reported at death's door, taken to hospital by chopper; terror group says attack response to Israeli Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s, to support Gazooks
Two people were seriously maimed when a rocket struck the northern city of Kiryat Shmona on Tuesday in an assault claimed by Leb ...an Iranian satrapy currently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else? It is the home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers... -based terror group Hezbollah.
The attack, which came in retaliation for a deadly Israeli strike on a Hezbollah site a day earlier, was one of several incidents in which projectiles were fired into northern Israel Tuesday morning, and came hours after La Belle France announced a proposal aimed at calming the restive frontier.
The Magen David Adom ambulance service said a 15-year-old boy and a 47-year-old woman were at death's door after being injured by the rocket, which landed on a street in the largely evacuated city.
The two, a mother and son according to Hebrew media reports, were evacuated by helicopter to Haifa’s Rambam Hospital, where doctors managed to stabilize them, the medical center said.
Hezbollah said the attack came in retaliation for an Israeli strike in the southern Lebanese town of Talloussa on Monday, in which at least two members of the Iran-backed terror group were killed.
Sirens had sounded in the northern city as the projectiles were fired from Lebanon.
After the attack on Kiryat Shmona, the IDF said it carried out strikes on Hezbollah positions, including buildings where members of the terror group were operating.
Sites hit by fighter jets in the south Lebanon towns of Houla, Qalaat Debba, Yaroun, Meiss al-Jabal, Yarine, and Chihine included several buildings, observation posts, and other Hezbollah infrastructure, according to the IDF.
Another site used by Hezbollah was also struck in the town of Ramyeh, and troops also shelled areas in south Lebanon with artillery, the IDF added.
Earlier on Tuesday, several rockets fired from Lebanon hit the northern town of Margaliot, though no sirens sounded in the area. Ynet news reported that there were no casualties, though a number of impact sites were identified and some chicken coops sustained damage.
Since October 8, Hezbollah-led forces have attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a near-daily basis, with the group saying it is doing so to support Gazoo ...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... amid the war there. So far, the skirmishes on the border have resulted in six civilian deaths on the Israeli side, as well as the deaths of nine IDF soldiers and reservists. There have also been several attacks from Syria, without any injuries.
Hezbollah has named 193 members who have been killed by Israel during the ongoing skirmishes, mostly in Lebanon but some also in Syria. In Lebanon, another 29 operatives from other terror groups, a Lebanese soldier, and at least 19 civilians, three of whom were journalists, have been killed.
On Monday, a Lebanese security source told AFP that a local Hezbollah official was seriously maimed in an Israeli airstrike in the town of Bint Jbeil in southern Lebanon earlier in the day.
Hezbollah later announced the death of four of its fighters "on the road to Jerusalem" — the phrase the group has been using to refer to bandidosforces of Evil killed by Israeli fire since hostilities began.
Two of the group’s fighters were killed in the Talloussa strike, while it was unclear where the other two were killed.
Separately, the al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Paleostinian terror group Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... whose fighters are present in Lebanon, said two of its members were killed Monday.
They died "at the border with occupied Paleostine, in the south of Lebanon," said a statement from the group, which is fighting in Gaza as an ally of Hamas ...a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",... La Belle France has delivered a written proposal to Beirut aimed at ending the hostilities and settling the disputed Lebanon-Israel frontier, according to a document seen by Rooters this week that calls for Hezbollah and other groups to withdraw 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the border.
[IsraelTimes] A senior Hamas ...always the voice of sweet reason... official was arrested during an Israeli operation in the West Bank Paleostinian city of Jenin, the Israel Defense Forces, Israel Police, and Shin Bet security service said.
According to a joint statement, IDF reservists, Border Police officers, and Shin Bet officers arrested Omar Fayed, one of the heads of Hamas’s military infrastructure, during a joint operation.
Fayed has been involved in a number of recent shooting attacks on IDF soldiers and planning other attacks, the statement said.
Two members of the security forces were lightly maimed in the operation, the statement said, without elaborating.
The Iranian Gas Management Center is now reporting that the Large Explosion and resulting Fire which occurred earlier tonight on Natural Gas Line 65 between the Cities of Borujen and Shahrekord in Central Iran, was caused by an “Act of Terrorist Sabotage” and not a Technical… pic.twitter.com/m0ImTWxX9h
... not a Technical Malfunction like was initially believed; the Attack is claimed to have Targeted several different Gas Lines across the Country resulting in at least 2 Explosion Points.
Chris Hedges: "I'm really, really scared. I'm really scared. Partly because I know Netanyahu. He was the deputy foreign minister when I first went to Jerusalem and, These people, are fascists. They are ruthless, and this has long been their dream. They saw October 7th as the…
#7
.. They saw October 7th as the moment that would allow them to realize their dream.
I mean, plans to totally depopulate Gaza have been part of the Israeli military for 50 years...
I think the only way to stop them, is Washington, the Biden administration, going to stop them.
But look at the people around Biden:
Blinkin, who sold us the Iraq War,
Biden, who sold us the Iraq War...
I don't see it."
:(.
Chris Hedges: Progressive, 2nd gen. Presbyterian minister. His father combined his ministry with anti-war activism while Chris combined his with war reportering for NPR and the New York Times. He’s Noam Chomsky’s fave reporter, which tells us everything else we needed to know about the gentleman.
I’m glad he is scared. His reasoning is flawed, but his conclusion that the outcome will be exactly what he does not want comforts me.
[IsraelTimes] Safa Aeli convicted of taking part in protests, anti-government propaganda and insulting supreme leader Khamenei
Iranian authorities have handed down a jail sentence of over five years to the uncle of Mahsa Amini, the young Iranian-Kurdish woman whose custody death sparked months of protests, over his anti-government views expressed during the 2022 demonstrations, rights groups said on Tuesday.
Safa Aeli, 30, was sentenced to five years and four months in prison by the Revolutionary Court in the family’s hometown of Saqez in northwestern Iran, the Norway-based Hengaw group and US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said.
In addition, he was punished with sanctions, including a highly unusual demand to produce a written document outlining the biography of a member of the security forces killed in the protests and then submit his "own personal interpretation" of the finished document to the judicial authorities, Hengaw said.
He was then ordered to post a voice message about the work on his social media accounts and was otherwise banned from expressing any views about the protests.
Quoting family lawyer Saleh Nikbakht, HRANA said that part of the sentence was suspended and Aeli would have to serve three years and six months in prison.
The charges against him include taking part in protests that violated internal security, dissemination of anti-government propaganda and insulting supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ...the very aged actual dictator of Iran, successor to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini... Aeli is currently released on bail after his arrest in September 2023, shortly before the first anniversary of the death of his niece.
Mahsa Amini, 22, died in hospital on September 16, 2022, after being arrested for allegedly flouting the strict dress rules for women in the Islamic Theocratic Republic. Her family and activists say she was killed by a blow to the head while in jug, but this is denied by Iranian officials.
Aeli was released on bail in October 2023, according to HRANA. In Iran, it is common for convicts to be suddenly summoned to serve long sentences with only a few days notice.
The protests after Amini’s death shook Iran’s Islamic authorities, but have now subsided in the face of a crackdown in which rights groups said hundreds were killed and the UN tallied thousands arrested.
Nine men have been executed in cases related to the protests, according to rights groups.
Iranian authorities say dozens of security personnel were also killed, in what they describe as "riots" incited by foreign governments and hostile media.
[NAHARNET] Hezbollah said Tuesday it has targeted several Israeli posts and seized an Israeli Skylark drone.
In successive statements, Hezbollah said it has successfully attacked groups of soldiers in the Mattat barracks, al-Marj post and the Hunin fortress near Margaliot. The group also targeted surveillance equipment in Hadb Yarin and a police building in Kiryat Shmona.
Israeli soldiers fired in the morning heavy-caliber machineguns at al-Labbouneh, al-Naqoura and Alma al-Shaab. Later during the day, the Israeli army bombed Ramia, Yarin, Yaroun, Shihin, Jabal Blat, Markaba, Mays al-Jabal, Aitaroun, and Houla.
Israeli warplanes and artillery had overnight struck and shelled with flare bombs several southern towns along the border, killing at least two Hezbollah fighters and two fighters from al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of bully boy Paleostinian group Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... whose fighters are present in Leb ...an Iranian satrapy currently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else? It is the home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers... Hezbollah announced the death of two fighters from the town of Tallouseh, about four kilometers from the border. The group said they died "on the road to Jerusalem" -- the phrase the group has been using to refer to turbans killed by Israeli fire since hostilities began.
In Tayr Harfa, further west of Bint Jbeil where an Israeli air strike on Monday seriously maimed a local Hezbollah official, two people were seriously maimed in a strike on a house. al-Quds Brigades said later that two of its members were killed "at the border with occupied Paleostine."
Israel's military said it struck "military structures and a military site" there and in Maroun El Ras.
Hezbollah for its part launched seven attacks on Monday against Israeli border positions.
On Tuesday the group said it has targeted northern Israel 1020 times since October 8.
Cross-border fire since the start of the Israeli war on Gazoo ...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... has killed at least 238 people in Lebanon, most of them Hezbollah fighters but also including around 30 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
On the Israeli side, nine soldiers and six civilians have been killed in festivities with Lebanese-based fighters, according to the Israeli army.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2024 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.