[ShabelledMedia] An explosion reportedly occurred at Tarabunka Junction in Mogadishu on Tuesday morning, police and witnesses said.
Reports indicate that at least two people have died and others have been injured. The blast was reportedly targeting a security forces convoy in the area.
Heightened security impacted the area within minutes. Road and business closures in the area are reported.
No group grabbed credit for the bombing, which comes amid ongoing military operations against al-Shabaab ...... Somalia's version of the Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... , functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda... in the south and central Somalia.
Somalia has appointed the former deputy leader and front man for the al-Shabaab ...... an Islamic infestation centering on Somalia attempting to metastasize into Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and similar places, all of which have enough problems without them... Islamist group as religion minister, Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre said Tuesday.
The announcement marks a sharp reversal of fortune for Muktar Robow, who has spent the last four years under house arrest after a falling-out with ex-president Mohammed Abdullahi Mohammed, better known as Farmajo.
Robow, 53, publicly defected from the al-Qaeda-linked snuffies in August 2017, with the United States government at one point offering a $5-million bounty for his capture.
"After consultations that took a period of more than 30 days... I'm very happy to present Somali men and women who I have selected based on their academic background, experience and fairness," Barre said.
"I'm expecting they will respond to the needs of the country."
Robow was arrested in late 2018, days before he was scheduled to run in regional elections.
Farmajo's government accused him of "organizing a militia" in Baidoa, the capital of the southwestern Bay region, and seeking to "undermine stability".
His arrest triggered sporadic protests with demonstrators burning images of Farmajo, whom they accused of meddling in regional affairs.
His elevation comes weeks after recently elected President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud hinted at his government's willingness to negotiate with al-Shabaab, saying it would only happen when the time is right.
Al-Shabaab has waged a bloody insurrection against Somalia's fragile central government for 15 years and remains a potent force despite an 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... operation against the group.
Its fighters were ousted from Somalia's capital Mogadishu in 2011, but continue to wage attacks on military, government and civilian targets.
Barre was initially expected to name a cabinet within 30 days of his appointment on June 25 but said the delays were due to the country's protracted election process that culminated in May with the selection of Mohamud as president.
Tuesday's appointments include a deputy prime minister, 25 ministers, 24 state ministers and deputy ministers in a 75-member team, with parliament due to vote on the nominees.
The new government faces a host of challenges, including a looming famine and the grinding Islamist insurgency.
A crippling drought across the Horn of Africa has left about 7.1 million Somalis -- nearly half the population -- battling hunger, with more than 200,000 on the brink of starvation, according to U.N. figures.
In July, Mohamud said ending the violent mostly peaceful insurgency required more than a military approach.
Unidentified button men have on Tuesday assassinated a prominent leader in the General People’s Congress (GPC) in Ma’rib province, northeastern Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of... .
This was reported by Yemen News Portal, based on testimonies of local sources.
Sources said that button men shot a member of the Standing Committee of the GPC Sheikh Hussein Zabenullah Shajara in front of his house in Harib district, south of Ma’rib.
Shajara is one of GPC’s leaders in Harib and was previously attacked and threatened with death in 2011 by Islah Party button men in Ma’rib city for criticising the practices of the joint meeting party bloc.
Harib district has been witnessing conflicts between the Islah Party and pro-UAE forces, following the latter’s attempt to find popular support against Islah in exchange for allowing the General People’s Congress to have a seat at the table.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/03/2022 00:00 ||
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Yemen’s warring sides agreed to renew a two-month truce expiring on Tuesday, the United Nations envoy said, despite international pressure for an extended and expanded deal that would build on the longest stretch of relative calm in over seven years.https://t.co/wnDJcUjW0H
[DW] Brussels police on Tuesday said a 25-year-old man escaped a detention cell after ripping out its toilet.
The escapee "unhooked the toilet from the wall" and slipped out "through a hole no larger than an A4 sheet of paper," a police front man told the AFP news agency.
From that hole, he landed into an underground corridor, where he climbed out of a window onto the street, the front man added.
According to Belgian broadcaster VRT, police said security cameras at the detention cell were not working at the time of the incident.
FEW HOURS IN JAIL
The man was previously convicted over assaults on law enforcement and drug-related charges.
He was wanted by the West Flanders prosecutor's office.
The case against him is over failure to comply with a police order, AFP reported, citing a front man for the prosecution in the Phlegmish city of Courtrai.
Police arrested the 25-year-old late on Monday for violating his parole in the ongoing case and held him in the cop shoppe in Brussels' Molenbeek neighborhood.
Molenbeek is one of those NoGo Zones that were vehemently denied in response to Donald Trump mention of them, but were later quietly admitted to exist. But even if they were not dangerous to police and other non-residents, they are definitely home to a seething mass of Moslem colonists which has nurtured generations of career criminals and throwing up the occasional jihadi named in the Rantburg archives.
He broke out of jail just hours later, police said.
The unnamed he will be one of those Molenbeek career criminals.
[ShabelleMedia] A ‘Dutch’ woman was sentenced to three years in prison Monday for donating several hundred dollars to a group that supported the bully boy group al-Shabaab ...... an Islamic infestation centering on Somalia attempting to metastasize into Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and similar places, all of which have enough problems without them... in Somalia.
The sentenced imposed on Farhia Hassan,
...whose friends, naturally, call her Helga...
38, was far less than the 8-year sentence sought by prosecutors.
She was convicted earlier this year by a jury at U.S. District Court in Alexandria of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists.
Prosecutors said she was one of about 15 women who gathered in an online chatroom and regularly committed small amounts of money to support al-Shabaab turbans in Somalia and Kenya. In all, prosecutors say she donated about $300 over a three-year period, though they admitted difficulty tracking payments.
They cleverly called themselves the Group of Fifteen, which included women from Somalia, Kenya, Egypt, the Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom and Canada, and Minneapolis. The money was sent to Al Shabaab money men in Hargeisa (Somalia) and Nairobi (Kenya), while the ladies chatted companionably with the Al Shabaab big turbans.
Hassan, a Somali native and mother of six, was granted asylum in the Netherlands as a teenager and settled in the city of Terneuzen. She was initially charged in 2014, but fought extradition for seven years before she was brought to the U.S. to face trial.
Was it an American chatroom? Or was it that the big burka was in Minneapolis?
Two leaders of the group have already been convicted and sentenced to terms of 12 and 11 years, respectively.
Hassan’s lawyers argued she never should have been charged in the first place. They said it was overreach for the U.S. to charge a Dutch woman for supporting Somali turbans when she had no connection whatsoever to the U.S.
While al-Shabaab has been designated a terrorist organization by the U.S., it carried no such designation in the Netherlands or the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... at the time the group was active, from 2011 to 2014.
The defense lawyers, Jessica Carmichael and Yancey Ellis, also said the minimal contributions attributed to their client warranted only a minimal sentence. They argued for a sentence of time served, about nine months.
"Ms. Hassan has been punished enough," they wrote in sentencing papers.
Prosecutors, though, said $300 can go a long way. In court papers, they said the money could be used in Somalia to pay an al-Shabaab fighter’s monthly wages or buy an AK-47 military rifle or a camel.
At Monday’s hearing, Hassan said through a Somali interpreter that she is not an al-Shabaab supporter but was donating money to help the Somali people.
Prosecutors, though, said there is no evidence Hassan has truly deradicalized, and said those who participated in the online chats regularly heard lectures supporting suicide kabooms and liquidation of holy mans, among other violent mostly peaceful acts.
"Every indication before the Court is that she believes just as firmly in al-Shabaab’s mission as she did in 2011 when the conspiracy began," prosecutor Danya Atiyeh wrote.
Judge Anthony Trenga, who imposed the sentence, said he largely agreed about Hassan’s radicalization. But he said Hassan’s actions did not merit imposition of a so-called "terrorism enhancement" that usually results in extreme increases to the recommended term under federal sentencing guidelines.
Hassan has the ability to appeal her conviction and sentence.
[OneIndia] Terrorists threw a grenade at a police post in Jammu and Kashmir ...a disputed territory lying between India and Pakistain. After partition, the Paks grabbed half of it and call it Azad (Free) Kashmir. The remainder they refer to as "Indian Occupied Kashmir". They have fought four wars with India over it, the score currently 4-0 in New Delhi's favor. After 72 years of this nonsense, India cut the Gordian knot in 2019, removing the area's special status, breaking off Ladakh as a separate state, and allowing people from other areas to settle (or in the case of the Pandits, to resettle) there.... 's Ramban district early Tuesday, prompting police and Army to launch a massive cordon and search operation in the area, news agency PTI reported.
The grenade went kaboom! on the roof of the police post without causing injuries to anyone, sources said.
Additional Director General of Police Mukesh Singh said, "A grenade blast has occurred near the premises of police post Ind, which falls in the jurisdiction of cop shoppe Gool."
Earlier, police sources had said that a crude bomb had been thrown at the police post.
The Jammu Kashmir Ghaznavi Force (JKGF) has grabbed credit for the attack in a letter, the ADGP said.
The special operation group (SoG) and Army teams have been mobilised for cordon and search operations, he said.
An alert has been sounded in the district and a case registered.
[GreaterKashmir] Security forces last night launched a cordon and search operation in Budhal area of J&K's Rajouri district after some Village Defence Committee (VDC) members fired at "suspicious" persons in the area, sources said on Wednesday.
As per local sources, at around 9 PM on Tuesday evening, a local resident from Shahpur village, who is also a VDC member, noticed movement of suspected persons, who pelted stones at the VDC member leaving him injured.
The VDC member fired upon the suspects using his .303 rifle after which other VDC members of the area also fired at the suspects with over a dozen gunshots heard on the area, local sources said.
The villagers claimed that the suspects present in the area also fired two gunshots towards the VDC members and then beat feet from the spot.
Soon after the incident, army teams from local camp and police teams from Kandi and Budhal cop shoppes reached at the site and laid a cordon and launched searches which were going on when last reports came in.
[IsraelTimes] A Palestinian teen is arrested at the Allenby crossing between the West Bank and Jordan with a knife, after he claimed to border guards he sought to kill Israelis, the Israel Airports Authority says.
According to the IAA, the suspect, born in 2003, told inspectors that he had a knife and he intended to kill Israelis.
“A security guard demanded the suspect take the knife out of the bag and put the knife aside, and after taking the knife out he was handed over to security forces for interrogation,” the IAA says.
#3
Ishmael & Isaac were brothers and although brothers have a tendency to exceed the other they dont usually kill each other. Jared Kushners Abraham Accord works with UAE, Morocco, and others it doesn't seem to be wanted by the Palestinians.
Perhaps there is no Palestine? Perhaps they would be better off in Afghanistan with the Taliban. Who knows ... the Shadow do.
[IsraelTimes] Egyptian mediators said to enter Strip to try to calm anger in terror group after arrest of its West Bank leader
Road restrictions near the 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 Hamaswith 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... Strip remained in place Wednesday for a second day, as Israel warned terror groups based in the enclave that it would respond forcefully to any Dire Revenge attack following the arrest of a terror leader.
At the same time, reports indicated that efforts were underway to calm tensions following the overnight capture of Bassem Saadi, who leads Paleostinian 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... in the West Bank.
Roads around Gaza were shut Tuesday morning and area residents were instructed to stay near shelters for fear of rocket or anti-tank missile attacks in Dire Revenge for the arrest of Saadi.
In a message to residents, the Sdot Negev and Eshkol regional councils said Tuesday evening all road closures would remain until Wednesday at least, following an assessment by the Israel Defense Forces.
Authorities had earlier indicated that the restriction could be lifted if the night passed peacefully. It was not immediately clear what prompted the shift in policy.
Multiple reports in Hebrew and Paleostinian media Tuesday evening indicated Egyptian mediators had entered Gaza to attempt to talk Islamic Jihad out of any Dire Revenge attacks.
With fears of an imminent attack rampant, Channel 12 reported that Israeli officials passed a message via Egypt to leaders of Islamic Jihad and to Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",, which rules the Paleostinian enclave, indicating that Jerusalem was not interested in a fresh round of fighting, but would respond harshly to any attack or breach of its illusory sovereignty.
The reports were not attributed to sources. Military officials often pass messages through Israeli media while insisting on total anonymity.
Tensions around the Strip spiked throughout Tuesday following the arrest of Saadi in Jenin overnight.
The arrest, and videos that showed him being dragged away by soldiers, stoked Paleostinian anger and rumors that he had been slain.
Saadi was taken in by forces in Jenin along with his son-in-law and aide, Ashraf al-Jada, and another member of the terror group was killed in a shootout with troops.
Some Paleostinian reports said Saadi was hurt after being bitten by a military dog during his arrest.
The IDF later leaked images to news hounds seeming to show Saadi in good condition, with the aim of calming tensions.
The military’s level of alert along the border with the Gaza Strip remained high Tuesday afternoon, though several roads closed earlier as a precautionary step were reopened, the Israel Defense Forces said.
In response to Saadi’s arrest, the Gaza-based group announced in a statement that it was declaring a state of "alertness" and raising its fighters’ "readiness."
On Tuesday morning, the IDF said it ordered the closure of several main highways, train lines and lookout points along the Gaza border, following an uptick in activity by fighters tied to Islamic Jihad that posed an imminent and "a direct threat of a possible attack on Israeli civilians."
The imminent threats included possible anti-tank guided missile fire, sniper attacks, and rocket fire.
In the afternoon hours, the IDF issued an update to the road closures, saying Route 232 between Mefalsim and Sa’ad and access roads for farmers nearby were closed, but the road between Sa’ad and Kerem Shalom had been reopened for traffic.
Route 242 and 2410 were also shuttered, as were Route 4 from Zikim Junction toward the Erez Crossing, and Route 34 between Yad Mordechai Junction and Nir Am Junction.
All towns along the border have alternative routes to exit, apart from Kerem Shalom and Kibbutz Nahal Oz, which were entirely blockaded due to the restrictions.
The IDF also closed the Erez Crossing for pedestrians going in and out of Gaza. The border checkpoint is used by thousands of Paleostinian workers every day.
Channel 12 also reported that Israeli troops were on high alert in the West Bank as well, amid the possibility Islamic Jihad would attempt an attack there.
According to the Shin Bet, Saadi, 61, has been tossed in the slammer Please don't kill me! and released by Israel seven times over the years.
The Shin Bet said that in recent months, Saadi had "worked even harder to restore PIJ activities, and was behind the creation of a significant military force for the organization in [the northern West Bank] in general and in Jenin in particular."
"His presence was a significant factor in the radicalization of the organization’s operatives in the field," the Shin Bet added.
Jenin is widely seen as a hotbed of terror activity. Gunmen and other attackers behind several deadly terrorist attacks earlier this year came from the city and its refugee camp.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Photos and lots of useful illustrations in the helpful Daily Mail way.
The CIA announced they executed Ayman al-Zawahiri, 71, in a drone strike on July 31 as stood on his balcony
Intelligence services monitored him for months, including British experts based in Harrogate, North Yorkshire
al-Zawahiri took over terrorist group Al-Qaeda after Osama bin Laden was executed by US military in 2011
He is believed to have been the last surviving of the eight masterminds of the September 11 terror attacks
It was 6.18am on Sunday, more than an hour after dawn prayers, when the Supreme Leader of Al Qaeda appeared on the balcony of his safe house to enjoy a little sunshine and fresh air.
For Ayman al-Zawahiri, one of the masterminds of the 9/11 terror attacks, watching mornings unfold in the centre of the Afghan capital from his supposedly secure perch had become one of the few regular pleasures of his life in hiding.
He wasn’t to know that his balcony was anything but safe and that Taliban spies in the pay of the Americans and the British had been monitoring him for months – their knowledge of his whereabouts so detailed that a scale model of his hideaway had sat on a table in President Biden’s White House office for weeks.
And they were watching him again now, not only from Washington but also from a listening station in – of all places – Harrogate, North Yorkshire, after a Western-recruited intelligence source spotted him on the balcony.
According to a senior Taliban official, Zawahiri – who took over Al Qaeda after the US killed Osama bin Laden – had never left the country. After he became one of the world’s most wanted men in September 2001 and a US-led invasion expelled the Taliban that year, Zawahiri spent most of his time in the remote mountains of Musa Qala in the southern Helmand province.
He kept a low profile, said the Taliban leader, although he crossed into Pakistan’s border regions several times. The founders of Islamic State reportedly sought an alliance with the destroyers of the World Trade Centre but, unimpressed by Zawahiri’s cautious leadership, changed their minds.
According to intelligence insiders, just as Bin Laden’s whereabouts were revealed by following his courier, so Zawahiri’s family gave away his location.
While Zawahiri had been obsessed with personal security, the return to power of the Taliban opened new possibilities.
British security sources reportedly also became aware around April that Zawahiri’s family had moved from Helmand to Kabul.
The terror leader married four times and had seven children, although at least four of them had died along with his first wife Azza.
He was living with only one wife and a daughter when – under the protection of the Haqqani Network, a militant and ultra-violent faction considered to a semi-independent offshoot of the Taliban – he moved into a high-walled compound in Sherpur, a relatively affluent part of central Kabul.
The house reportedly belongs to an aide to Haqqani leader Sirajuddin Haqqani, the Taliban’s interior minister. Sherpur, once the diplomatic quarter, is now home to senior Taliban officials, who may have not been aware of his arrival.
US intelligence insiders say they discovered the location and identified those inside through various sources, including – the Mail has learnt – personnel inside the Taliban recruited by British spies who provided significant elements of the information used to plan and execute the mission.
US officials waited some 36 hours before announcing they had killed Zawahiri, a period during which they observed the Haqqani Network and Taliban troops restrict access to the safe house and relocate the tar - get’s family. US officials believe the Taliban was trying to hide the fact that they harboured Zawahiri.
The revelation that the Taliban was harbouring the Al Qaeda leader is likely to fuel demands for sanctions. Meanwhile, a furious hunt is under way for those who tipped off British and US intelligence officials, with suspects having their mobile phones and laptops seized.
The insider added: ‘They had people inside the Taliban whose cooperation made the mission possible.’
Update from Garowe at 1:10 p.m. EDT, which also has a nice photo of what is claimed to be the house where Dr. Al Zawahiri kissed a missile, adding:
Hellfire missiles are air-to-surface missiles initially designed for anti-armor strikes, but later versions have been used for precision dronezaps. The arms manufacturer Lockheed Martin developed the missiles with the name "Heliborne, Laser, Fire, and Forget Missile," which evolved into the Hellfire missile, as it is now known, CBS further reported.
The R9X variant was initially deployed in secret in 2017, according to a U.S. Army equipment guide, and was used to kill Abu Khayr al-Masri, a member of al Qaeda's leadership. Photos of the aftermath on social media showed the car where al-Masri was purportedly killed as having damage to the passenger compartment of the beige Kia sedan but no damage to the engine block. The roof was blown open on the right side of the vehicle.
There were unconfirmed reports that al Qaeda deputy leader Abdullah Muhammad Rajab Abdulrahman, aka Abu al-Khayr al-Masri, was killed in the strike.
The Hellfire variant became public knowledge after it was used in 2019 to take out Jamal Ahmad Mohammad al-Badawi, who was behind the 2000 USS Cole Bombing.
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.
...... Somalia's version of the 
...... an Islamic infestation centering on Somalia attempting to metastasize into Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and similar places, all of which have enough problems without them...
...... an Islamic infestation centering on Somalia attempting to metastasize into Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and similar places, all of which have enough problems without them...
...a disputed territory lying between India and Pakistain. After partition, the Paks grabbed half of it and call it 
