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Today: 54 articles and 146 comments as of 12:02.
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Area: WoT Background    Non-WoT    Opinion        Politix   
Return of captured Indian pilot.
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
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Page 6: Politix
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Afghanistan
Afghan Taliban claim to have captured at least 12 Afghan security personnel in Sangeen, Helmand
[Twitter]
Could be real captives, could be Taliban dressed up as Afghan soldiers. Quite a few Afghan jihadis have deserted from the army and police, and the organizations have access to real uniforms and equipment. No doubt all will be revealed in time.

Posted by: 3dc || 03/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Taliban militants suffer heavy casualties in Kandahar airstrikes
[KhaamaPress] The Talibs have suffered heavy casualties during the Arclight airstrikes of the Afghan Air Force in southern Kandahar province.

According to the informed military sources, the airstrikes were carried out in the vicinity of Shahwali Kot district, leaving at least 22 Lions of Islam dead or maimed.

"The Afghan Air Force conducted air strikes in Shah Wali Kot district of Kandahar killing 18 Taliban
...Arabic for students...
fighters and wounding 4 others," the sources added.

The sources further added that the Taliban fighters attacked a 209th Corps checkpoint in Sancharak district of Sar-e-Pul
...a city and eponymous province in northern Afghanistan, population about 500,000. Demographically it is majority Tadjik and Uzbek. There are small Pashtun, Arab, and Hazara
...a grouping of Dari-speaking people of Sino-Tibetan descent inhabiting Afghanistan and Pakistain. They are predominantly Shia Moslems and not particularly warlike, which makes them favored targets...
communities, of which the Hazaras mostly don't bother anyone...

province. "Reinforcements and the assistance of self-defense air strikes killed 6 Taliban fighters and maimed one other."

The anti-government armed Death Eater groups including Taliban have not commented regarding the casualties inflicted on their Death Eaters.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Result of Taliban attack on Helmand AFB
[Twitter-TOLONEWS] The Taliban attack at the airbase in Helmand is now over, Afghan Defense ministry says. At least 23 Afghan security personnel killed, over a dozen militants killed including over half a dozen suicide bombers.

No mention of foreign losses if any.

Taliban claim 70 American dead but Taliban claim a lot of things.
Definite fog of war going on over there:
In Pictures: Taliban attack on 215th Maiwand Corps ended in Helmand province
In my ignorance I am not certain how to understand these photos. Perhaps they will be more illuminating to you, dear Reader.
[KhaamaPress] The provincial government’s media office in Helmand
...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan...
province released the pictures of the dead Taliban
...the Pashtun equivalent of men...
assailants who were killed during the festivities with the security forces in 215th Maiwand Corps on Friday.

According to a statement released by the governor’s office, the attack on 215th Maiwand Corps ended with the elimination of at least 20 gunnies on Friday evening.

The statement further added that five Afghan soldiers have also bit the dust during the festivities with the assailant holy warriors.

In the meantime, unconfirmed reports suggest that more than 20 Afghan soldiers have bit the dust in the attack and during the exchange of fire with the holy warriors.

The attack was reportedly launched in the early hours of Friday morning at 2:00am.

The Taliban group front man has claimed that dozens of Afghan and foreign soldiers have bit the dust in the attack.

Reacting to Taliban claims, the U.S. forces front man in Afghanistan Col. Dave Butler said in a Twitter post "More lies. The attack was repelled by the brave Afghan Security Forces. The Afghan Security Forces fight for the people of Afghanistan. They are the defenders of the people. Who do the Taliban fight for? Stop fighting your own countrymen and get serious about peace."

Taliban attack on army base in Helmand repulsed

[KhaamaPress] A group of Talibs and jacket wallahs launched a coordinated attack on an army base in southern Helmand province of Afghanistan earlier today.

According to reports, the attack was launched on 215th Maiwand Corps headquarters.

The media office of the provincial government has announced that the attack was immediately repulsed by the security forces leaving at least 3 suicide bombers and 6 other murderous Moslems dead.

According to a statement released by provincial government media office, a clearance operation is underway to ensure assailants are not left in the area.

Earlier, reports had emerged that the attack was launched against the Shorab Camp in Helmand province.
Tolo News version:
Attack On Helmand Base Ends; 20 Militants Killed

The attack on 215 Maiwand Corps in southern Helmand province ended after almost 20 hours, the provincial governor's media office said in a statement.

At least 20 gunnies were killed in the attack, the statement said.

Governor’s media office also said five security force members were killed and 12 others maimed in the attack.

The attack started at 2am on early on Friday morning, sources said.

Taliban
...mindless ferocity in a turban...
has grabbed credit for the attack.
And from an earlier Tolo News report:
Sources told TOLOnews that the attack started at 2am on Friday by 27 button men who attacked the military base from three directions.

According to the sources, the forces of Evil stormed a training facility of the military base and have taken a number of soldiers as hostages.

"How the forces of Evil reached there with rangers, Humvees, uniforms and military equipment? It shows the weakness of the intelligence departments," said Gulalai Akbari, a senator.

The Ministry of Defense said that 12 button men were involved in the attack and that it was a complex attack.
Posted by: 3dc || 03/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban

#1  Death by Blurring™
Posted by: Frank G || 03/02/2019 6:46 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
Death Toll From Car Bombs In Somali Capital Jumps To 25
[RadioShabelle] The corpse count from an Al-Shabaab
... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda...
suicide boom-mobileings at a Mogadishu hotels rose to 25 with 80 maimed, police said on Friday, as a shootout raged at the site of the blast between fighters of the hard boy group and Somali troops.

"So far we know 25 people mostly civilians died and 80 others injured. The murderous Moslems are still fighting from inside a civilian house adjacent to the hotel... The corpse count may rise," police Major Musa Ali said.

The blast hit the Maka al-Mukarama hotel on Thursday evening.

Al-Shabaab grabbed credit for the deadly boom-mobiles in the capital.
More from Al Ahram:
Heavy gunfire rang out across central Mogadishu on Friday as Somali troops battled to dislodge Islamist holy warriors holed up next to a hotel they bombed the previous evening, and as the corpse count stemming from that attack neared 30.

Al-Shabaab fighters set off two bombs outside the Hotel Maka al-Mukarama before retreating to an adjacent building, from where they fired on soldiers who tried to enter. At least two soldiers were carried away from the hotel on Friday morning.

The attack - the latest in a series of high-profile assaults in East Africa by al-Shabaab - came after U.S. forces in Somalia stepped up air strikes against the Islamist group.
This seems to be a trend. So clever of us — quantity having a quality all its own.
"The bully boyz are still fighting from inside a civilian house adjacent to the hotel... (They) are fighting back with grenades and Kalashnikov (rifles)," police officer Major Musa Ali told Rooters.

He said 29 people, mostly civilians, had died in the attack and its aftermath, and 80 had been maimed. Many civilians had been rescued but the corpse count could rise, he added.

Al-Shabaab's military front man said the group was still in control of the Hotel Maka al-Mukarama, which is used by government officials and located on a street lined with hotels, shops and restaurants.

"The government tried three times to enter the building but we repulsed them," said Abdiasis Abu Musab.

Somalia has been convulsed by lawlessness and violence since 1991, and al-Shabaab is fighting to dislodge a Western-backed government protected by 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...
-mandated peacekeepers.

The group has also carried out deadly attacks in neighbouring countries contributing to the African Union force, including one on a hotel and office complex in Kenya in January that killed 21 people.

Under 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...
, Washington has stepped up attacks against the group, and U.S. Africa Command announced six air strikes it says have killed 52 bully boyz since Feb. 23.

In northern Somalia, a splinter group of former al-Shabaab fighters who have pledged allegiance to 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 also battling the insurgency.

At least 25 people have been killed in the fighting between the two sides this week when al-Shabaab captured three villages from the faction aligned to Islamic State, a military official from the semi-autonomous region of 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...
told Rooters.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Shabaab (AQ)


Home Front: WoT
NJ man jailed for 16 years for planning to build a pressure cooker bomb to 'kill as many people as possible' in New York on behalf of ISIS
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news]
  • Gregory Lepsky,
    ...the half-Chechen son of an immigrant who turned his back on his father’s secularism...
    22, was tossed in the calaboose
    Please don't kill me!
    for 16 years in a federal courtroom in Trenton, New Jersey on Friday

  • Lepsky took a plea deal in 2018 admitting to attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization

  • He was tossed in the slammer
    Book 'im, Mahmoud!
    in 2017 for allegedly stabbing his family's dog

  • Police who arrested him found a pressure cooker in his home and digital evidence of a plan to detonate a bomb on behalf of ISIS

  • Investigators say Lepsky was planning to blow up a populous part of New York City in order to kill 'as many people as possible'

  • After his arrest, Lepsky was taken to hospital, where he was heard telling an employee he was 'working for ISIS,' and his name was Allah Abdel Rochmad
This one for once was not besties with an FBI informant. He was turned in by an unnamed relative.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/02/2019 00:18 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


India-Pakistan
Big toys rumored to be in use in Pakistan today.
[Delhi Defense Review]

Sources have revealed to Delhi Defence Review that the Indian Army (IA) has launched a massive artillery barrage on Pakistan Army (PA) positions in Kotli and Rawalakot sectors of Pakistan Occupied Jammu & Kashmir (PoJ&K).
Lots more at the link but a large threat if you copy a significant portion of this article. Go to link - photo from twitter. Calls on social media for lots of O-Negative Blood for Pakistani hospitals in their side of Kashmir.

The Pinaka 214mm multi-barrel-rocket launcher was supposed to be in use too.

Posted by: 3dc || 03/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  Not much coverage in US media.
Posted by: jvalentour || 03/02/2019 0:15 Comments || Top||

#2  Those look like they could make a mess. I like their color pallet better than the usual green stuff. I'm personally pleased to see a Pakistain neighbor with some muscle engage them so we don't have to do it.
Posted by: Beau || 03/02/2019 0:32 Comments || Top||

#3  I miss John Frum
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/02/2019 3:35 Comments || Top||

#4  Quick! Send Don Lemon there to get the facts. Send AOC to negotiate a ceasefire.
Posted by: Matt || 03/02/2019 13:06 Comments || Top||

#5  I miss John Frum

He still pokes his head in to post articles occasionally, g(r)omgoru.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/02/2019 21:13 Comments || Top||


Comparing Pakistan and India Kashmir on the civilian side.
[BBC world]
Comparing Pakistan and India Kashmir on the civilian side.


Posted by: 3dc || 03/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  My compassion and sympathy meters are both stuck on 0. Does this make me a bad person?
Posted by: AlanC || 03/02/2019 8:06 Comments || Top||


Return of captured Indian pilot.
[BBC on Twitter]
The Daily Mail has more:
  • Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman crossed the border into India at the Wagah checkpoint tonight

  • He parachuted from his burning fuselage on Wednesday into hostile territory as locals went after him

  • Varthaman fired warning shots into the air and then dashed off to swallow secret documents before capture

  • His father - himself a retired pilot - and mother Shobha earned warm applause on flight from Chennai to Delhi

  • Pakistan's aviation bosses have partially reopened the country's airspace, allowing travel to four major cities
Posted by: 3dc || 03/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
21 Gazans said wounded by Israeli fire as thousands riot on border
[IsraelTimes] Thousand of Paleostinians protested along the Gazoo border on Friday with some rioting and clashing with Israeli troops, a day after the United Nations
...an organization conceived in the belief that we're just one big happy world, with the sort of results you'd expect from such nonsense...
released a report accusing Israel of potential crimes against humanity for its response to the weekly riots.

Some 8,000 Paleostinians took part in the protests and some burned tires and threw, bombs, rocks and grenades at Israeli troops guarding the security fence, according to the army

Soldiers responded with tear gas and in some instances live fire, the army said.

The Hamas, a regional Iranian catspaw,-run health ministry in Gazoo said 21 Paleostinians were maimed during the festivities by Israeli fire.

This week’s riots came a day after the release of a report commissioned by the UN Human Rights Council on Israel’s handling of the festivities that alleged there is evidence Israeli soldiers committed crimes again humanity.

"The Commission found reasonable grounds to believe that Israeli snipers shot at journalists, health workers, children and persons with disabilities, knowing they were clearly recognizable as such," it said.

The Sherlocks specified that there were reasonable grounds to believe that Israeli troops killed and injured Paleostinians "who were neither directly participating in hostilities, nor posing an imminent threat."

It said more than 6,000 people were shot by military snipers using live ammunition during the period investigated, with 189 killed.

The UN team also dismissed claims by Israel that the protests were aimed to conceal acts of terrorism that have included shootings, grenade and kabooms, Molotov cocktails and breaches of the border fence.

"The demonstrations were civilian in nature, with clearly stated political aims," the statement said. "Despite some acts of significant violence, the Commission found that the demonstrations did not constitute combat or military campaigns."

The report was strongly denounced by Israeli leaders, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying it set "new records in hypocrisy and lies."

"It is Hamas which fires rockets at Israeli civilians, bombs and carries out terrorist activities during the violent demonstrations on the fence," he said

The inquiry investigated possible violations from the start of the protests on March 30, 2018, through December 31.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  I went down to the demonstration,
to get my fair share of abuse.


Posted by: SteveS || 03/02/2019 0:30 Comments || Top||

#2  Every time I watch 'V' or 'The Great Wall', I see Paleostains ...
Posted by: Beau || 03/02/2019 0:46 Comments || Top||

#3  Then do not riot on the ISRAELI border
You stupid dumb asses.
Posted by: newc || 03/02/2019 0:48 Comments || Top||

#4  IDF? Aim higher
Posted by: Frank G || 03/02/2019 6:27 Comments || Top||

#5  As a fifth generation bread maker, you don't always get what you kneed.
Posted by: Fairbanks || 03/02/2019 6:32 Comments || Top||


Hamas arrests Iran-linked Al-Sbarine leader
Cat fight!
[AnNahar] Hamas, the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®, security forces have incarcerated
... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not...
the leader of a political group with links to Iran, a security official told AFP on Thursday.

"Hamas security forces in Gazoo arrested on Tuesday evening the leader of the al-Sbarine movement, Hisham Salem, and three other members of the movement," the official said on condition of anonymity.

A source in the Hamas security forces told AFP that Salem, a former 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...
member, was arrested for "security and passing information to hostile parties," adding that the arrest were unconnected to Hamas relations with Iran.

The security forces say that al-Sbarine has "a few dozen members."
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran Proxies

#1  The security forces say that al-Sbarine has "a few dozen members."

"and less now"
Posted by: Frank G || 03/02/2019 6:39 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Abu killed, two others arrested in Sulu clash
[Mindanao Examiner] Philippine security forces clashed with Abu Sayyaf rebels, killing one gunman and capturing two others in southern Philippines. Soldiers were still pursuing about a dozen more militants on Simisa Island off the town of Banguingui in Sulu province, according to Rear Admiral Rene Medina, regional chief of the Philippine Navy.

Medina said the operations against the Abu Sayyaf on the forested island started on February 24 and are continuing with various military units deployed to track down the fleeing insurgents. He said troops recovered the body of the slain gunman, including an ISIS flag, cell phones, weapons and five motorboats being used in their terror activities.

He said the two captured militants Abdu Mohammad and Nurlinda Sulaiman were being interrogated by the military in an effort to extract intelligence.
Posted by: ryuge || 03/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Abu Sayyaf (ISIS)


Two cops abducted, gunned down in Thai south
[Bangkok Post] Two Thai policemen were abducted from a tea shop by armed men, then gunned down and dumped in a ditch, in Cho Airong district on Tuesday night.The killers used a victim's pickup truck for the abduction. The stolen vehicle was later found burned out in nearby Tak Bai district.

The attack occurred as the two policemen were having tea inside the shop. Two local residents told police they saw eight armed men wearing military-type uniforms arrive. Four of the men, who had covered their faces, walked over to the two policemen and talked to them in Thai. The other armed men stood in front of the shop.

The two witnesses said they heard the men speak in the Yawi Malay dialect. The two policemen were then forcibly taken from the shop at gunpoint. Before leaving, the armed men ordered the two witnesses to sit still, otherwise they would be killed.

The two captives were forced into their police pickup truck, which was parked in front of shop, and the eight abductors then drove it away. Feeling safe at last, the two witnesses called police.

After midnight, a local resident alerted authorities that two policemen had been found shot and killed, their bodies dumped in a ditch only about 200 meters from the tea shop. Police cordoned off the area but, fearing a trap, no further action was taken until a bomb disposal team and forensic officers were sent to the scene after sunrise.

At about 4.30am, a local resident informed police that a pickup truck had been set on fire on a local road in tambon Kosit. On inspection, the burned vehicle was found to be the pickup truck, stolen from the tea shop. Police said the killers were obviously familiar with the area as they had driven the stolen vehicle from Cho Airong through Sungai Padi and Sungai Kolok districts and then to Tak Bai, avoiding the road blocks. Some of the attackers may have fled south across the border.
Posted by: ryuge || 03/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Thai Insurgency


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Six jihadists among 8 killed by blast in Syria's Idlib
[AlAhram] Six jihadists, mostly foreigners, were among eight people killed in a kaboom on a restaurant in the Syrian city of Idlib on Friday, a war monitor said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 22 people were maimed in the kaboom that hit a restaurant frequented by foreign jihadists, including Europeans and Uzbeks. At least five imported muscle were among those killed in the blast, but their nationalities are not known, Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

He said jihadists had tried to open fire on the jacket wallah, who still managed to detonate his boom belt inside the restaurant.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but Abdel Rahman said the bomber was believed to be a member of 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. IS is known to have sleeper cells in the area.

Idlib is held by an alliance led by Syria's former al-Qaeda affiliate, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham
-- a grouping that opposes IS.

HTS took administrative control of the whole of the region last month, after overpowering smaller factions that are backed by The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire....
Idlib has been protected from a massive offensive by Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor. If he'd stuck with it he'd have had a good practice by now...
's regime since September, thanks to a buffer zone deal agreed by Damascus' ally Russia and rebel backer Turkey.

But it has been hit by sporadic government shelling.

Eight years into a multi-faceted conflict that has killed more than 360,000 people, Syria's government has wrested back large swathes of territory to control around two-thirds of the country.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/02/2019 00:18 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Nusra


SDF restarts ground operation to clear ISIS from Baghouz town
There is a small and not terribly useful map at the link showing the disposition of SDF, ISIS, and Syrian army forces. A verbal description can be seen here. The article also has a link to the Twitter tag(?) #Baghouz, which has photos of those who surrendered and all the latest tweets.
[Rudaw] Operation Jazira Storm re-commenced on Friday night for the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to flush remaining 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) fighters out of al-Baghouz town.

"After the evacuation of civilians by from forces from al-Baghouz, our fighters liberated those who were kidnapped by ISIS. There is no one in al-Baghouz except for terrorists. Therefore, our forces began military mobilization and the fight against Lions of Islam to complete the final liberation," Bali tweeted in Arabic.

The SDF had paused their operation for several weeks to allow fighters and civilians to surrender to their forces. They are biometrically screened in cooperation with the US-led international anti-ISIS coalition and taken to camps elsewhere in Syria like al-Hol.

The area has long been described as the last ISIS stronghold east of the Euphrates by senior US military officials.

Weather and 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...
's announced troop withdrawal have been blamed for the lull. Trump agreed to keep 400 forces in Syria last week, but did not reveal a timetable for the withdrawal of more than 2,000 US forces in Syria.

On February 27, the US military detailed its air strikes from February 10-23.

"In Syria, CJTF-OIR conducted 186 strikes consisting of 426 engagements, engaged 285 ISIS tactical units, and destroyed 189 fighting positions..."

Trump again falsely claimed on Thursday that the caliphate had been completely defeated.

"We just took over ‐ you know, you kept hearing it was 90 percent, 92 percent - the caliphate in Syria. Now it's 100 percent. We just took over," Trump told US service members in Alaska on his way back from Vietnam.
The Times of Israel adds:
The "operation to clear the last remaining pocket of ISIS has just started" at 6:00 pm (1600 GMT), SDF front man Mustefa Bali announced on social media.

An unknown number of holdout IS fighters are hunkered down in a small area on the edge of Baghouz for a desperate final stand against the SDF.

Bali said the decision to resume the push came after the evacuation of the last civilians willing to leave the enclave and following the release of captured SDF fighters.

LAST EVACUATIONS
"If during the advance we discover that there are still civilians we will isolate them from the fighting but we are forced to push ahead," he said.

He declined to comment on how long the last phase of the offensive might take but the SDF’s general commander Mazloum Kobani said Thursday he expected final victory to be achieved within a week.

An SDF commander told AFP that his force is advancing slowly and with caution because of the threat of underground tunnels and improvised bombs.

A few dozen people ‐ mostly women, children and elderly men ‐ were evacuated from Baghouz on Friday and trucked to a screening centre. Their number was in sharp decline from the thousands who had been pouring out of the IS-held pocket in recent days.

At an SDF screening point 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of Baghouz, an Egyptian woman told AFP that IS was preventing men under 40 from quitting the redoubt, including her 27-year-old husband, ahead of a final battle.

Nearby, the SDF patted men down and searched their belongings.

With aerial backing from the US-led coalition, IS fighters who have been besieged for weeks are unlikely to resist very long.

YAZIDIS
The SDF this week announced that yet another mass grave was discovered, this time near Baghouz and holding the severed heads of women.

While the victims were not immediately identified, local fighters believe the executed women are likely to be members of the Yazidi community enslaved by IS.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Confirmed: French militant linked to Paris attack killed in Syria
[Rudaw] The US-led coalition against 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 said Thursday that a prominent French murderous Moslem who is one of Europe’s most wanted members of the krazed killer group has been killed in an Arclight airstrike in Syria.

The coalition tweeted that a strike killed Fabien Clain,
...also known as Brother Omar and Abu Adam al-Farans, the 40-something Reunion Island native was estimated to be one of the top ranked French jihadis in ISIS — among those not yet killed — along with his brother, Jean-Michel Clain, wounded in the same attack. After recruiting jihadis to fight the US in Iraq for the Artigat cell in Tolouse, they emigrated to ISIS in 2015. The Clain boys are accused of planning to send child soldiers to Europe disguised as asylum seekers...
who is linked to the 2015 attacks on Gay Paree, in the Syrian village of Baghouz on the banks of the Euphrates River where the murderous Moslem group is making its last stand.

Coalition front man Col. Sean Ryan said the airstrike occurred on February 20, but gave no further details.

French authorities did not immediately comment on the announcement, but said last week they were working on verifying reports that Clain had been killed.

The day after the November 13, 2015 attacks on Gay Paree, Clain’s voice announced in a recording that the Islamic State group grabbed credit for the onslaught. The attacks killed 130 people at the Bataclan concert hall, cafes and the national stadium.

Clain was believed to have been in Syria since 2015. Officials suspect that a number of French hard boyz remain holed up in Baghouz.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State



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Two weeks of WOT
Sat 2019-03-02
  Return of captured Indian pilot.
Fri 2019-03-01
  Huge blast rocks Somali capital, killing at least five- police UPDATE: Fighting Continues Into Friday
Thu 2019-02-28
  17 killed in Mali by booby-trapped corpse
Wed 2019-02-27
  Pakistan says it shot down 2 Indian warplanes, shut down its airspace
Tue 2019-02-26
  India got mad and acted.
Mon 2019-02-25
  Exodus from last IS enclave overwhelms Syria force
Sun 2019-02-24
  Iran Hacks Into CENTCOM, Crashes MQ-9 Reaper Drone (video)
Sat 2019-02-23
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Fri 2019-02-22
  Father of Alabama ‘ISIS Bride' Files Lawsuit to Overturn Decision to Block Her Return
Thu 2019-02-21
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Wed 2019-02-20
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Tue 2019-02-19
  IS Defends Final Pocket of dying Caliphate' in Syria
Mon 2019-02-18
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Sun 2019-02-17
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Sat 2019-02-16
  52 Syrians Detained in Turkey over ISIS Links

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