[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The shadow military chief of Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... for northern Parwan province has been killed in an apparent infighting, the local security officials said Friday.
Provincial Police Chief Mohammad Mahfuz Walizada said Mullah Qadir, the shadow military chief of Taliban has been killed along with two others in Jabal Saraj district.
He said Mullah Qadir has apparently been killed in an infighting among the Talibs.
Muhfuz further added that another Taliban bully boy has also sustained injuries during the clash which took place late on Thursday night.
The anti-government armed bully boy groups including Taliban have not commented regarding of Mullah Qadir so far.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/22/2018 03:45 ||
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] At least ten snuffies were killed during a clash and Arclight airstrikes in northern Faryab province of Afghanistan, the Afghan Military said Saturday.
The 209th Shaheen Corps of the Afghan Military in the North in a statement said the Afghan Air Force carried out airstrikes in Sari Hawz area of Pashtun Kot district, leaving at least 2 snuffies dead.
The statement further added that five snuffies also sustained injuries and four of their cycle of violences were destroyed.
A clash also broke out between the Talibs and the security forces in Jat Arkalik and Nawdri villages of Qaisar district, leaving 8 snuffies dead and 16 others maimed, the 209th Shaheen Corps added.
The anti-government armed Lion of Islam groups including Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... have not commented regarding the report so far.
Faryab is among the relatively volatile provinces in North of Afghanistan. The Talibs are active in some of districts and often attempt to carry out attacks against the government and security forces.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/22/2018 03:41 ||
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[DAWN] US peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad raised doubts on Thursday about the Taliban ...Arabic for students... ’s desire to end the 17-year war, after the forces of Evil refused to meet a Kabul-backed negotiating team.
While he was certain the Afghan government wanted to stop the conflict, Khalilzad told Ariana News that he questioned whether the Taliban were "genuinely seeking peace".
"We have to wait and see their forthcoming steps," he said, according to a translation of the interview provided by the US embassy in Kabul.
Khalilzad’s remarks to Afghan media following his latest face-to-face meeting with the Taliban echoed those expressed privately by some Western diplomats in the capital.
Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... and Pakistain also attended the talks in Abu Dhabi earlier this week, which the United Arab Emirates hailed as "positive for all parties concerned".
But the Taliban would not meet a 12-person Afghan delegation, Khalilzad said, describing the decision as "wrong".
"If the Taliban are really seeking peace, they have to sit with the Afghan government ultimately to reach an agreement on the future political settlement in Afghanistan," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/22/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
Duh
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/22/2018 8:49 Comments ||
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MOGADISHU (Reuters) - At least 13 people were killed and 17 wounded in a car bomb attack claimed by al Qaeda-linked group al Shabaab close to the president’s residence in the Somali capital Mogadishu, police said on Saturday.
A second explosion followed nearby. Al Shabaab, in comments broadcast on its Radio Andalus, claimed responsibility for both blasts and said the second was also a car bomb.
"The death toll has risen to 13 people including civilians and soldiers. Seventeen others were injured. The casualties are from the two blasts," Major Mohamed Hussein, a police officer, told Reuters.
Among those killed were a journalist, two security personnel and a driver working for local station Universal TV, whose car was passing the checkpoint at which the first blast went off, another reporter working for the station said.
"My colleague Awil Dahir Salad died in the blast together with the driver and two security guards. They were killed by the first blast as they drove. May Allah rest their souls," journalist Abdiasis Ibrahim who works for Universal TV, told Reuters.
[RADIOSHABELLE]A huge explosion was heard in the heart of Mogadishu on Saturday morning, witnesses said. The blast has resulted from a car packed with explosives that was detonated near Somalia’s National Theatre. There was no immediate confirmation of the casualties.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/22/2018 03:36 ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Morocco has tossed in the calaboose Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! nine new suspects over the murder of two Scandinavian tourists in the High Atlas mountains.
Two female tourists from Norway and Denmark were found dead last Monday in the Atlas Mountains in central Morocco, with both having neck wounds caused by knives, the country’s interior ministry said.
According to a statement from the Interior Ministry, the women from Denmark and Norway were discovered on Monday with "evidence of violence on their necks" inflicted by a "cold weapon."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/22/2018 00:00 ||
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LONDON (Reuters) - British forces stormed an Italian cargo ship on Friday and regained control after stowaways threatened crew members as it sailed close to the coast of southeast England.
Police said no one was injured in the operation.
The Sun newspaper said the rescue was led by members of the navy’s elite Special Boat Service. Four stowaways had threatened crew on the ship, the Grande Tema, a spokesman for the boat’s operator, Grimaldi Lines, said.
Four men were detained under Britain’s immigration laws and the vessel was being taken safely to the port of Tilbury, police said in a statement.
Sky News said the stowaways were believed to have boarded the ship in Nigeria and had demanded to be taken to the English coast, threatening the crew with iron bars.
Earlier, police said they did not think the incident in the Thames Estuary was piracy or terrorism-related. Police first attended the incident at 0900 GMT on Friday and the operation was concluded about 14 hours later.
The BBC said the crew had locked themselves in the vessel’s bridge for safety.
[Irish Times] A fifth person has died of their injuries after Tuesday’s Christmas market attack in Strasbourg, French prosecutors have confirmed.
An official from the Paris prosecutor’s office said the victim was a Polish national, but gave no other details. An Italian journalist, a Thai tourist, an Afghan mechanic and a French national were also killed in the shooting.
The suspected attacker, Cherif Chekatt, was killed by police on Thursday night following a two-day manhunt for the 29-year-old by 700 French security forces. Link provides lengthy terrorist attack compendium
[DAWN] Chief of Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa on Friday confirmed the death sentences awarded to 14 hardcore terrorists, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement.
The convicts were involved in heinous terrorist offences, including attacks on armed forces, law enforcement agencies, destruction of communication infrastructure, a cop shoppe, an educational institution, and killing of innocent civilians.
The convicted murderous Moslems were responsible for the deaths of a total of 16 people ‐ 13 armed forces personnel and three civilians ‐ and causing injuries to 19 others, the military's media wing said. Arms and explosives had also been recovered from their possession.
Special military courts had awarded death sentences to these convicts, the ISPR said. The courts also handed down imprisonments to 20 convicts.
All 14 of the murderous Moslems were found to be members of banned ...the word banned seems to have a different meaning in Pakistain than it does in most other places. Or maybe it simply lacks any meaning at all...
organizations. They confessed to their offences before a judicial magistrate and in their statements during their respective trials.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/22/2018 00:00 ||
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[Jerusalem Post] Four Palestinians were killed and dozens more injured during weekly 'Great March of Return' protests along the Gaza border fence on Friday.
The fatalities were identified by WAFA News Agency as Maher Yasin, 40, Abdul-Aziz Abu Shari'a, 28, Ayman Munir Mohammed Shabir, 18, and Mohammad Mo’een Jahjouh, 16.
According to the Hamas-affiliated Palestinian Health Ministry, Shabir was shot in the abdomen during clashes with Israeli troops east of the al-Bureij refugee camp and teenage al-Jahjuh was killed after he was hit in the neck by a bullet fired by Israeli troops. Abu Sharia and Yasin died from their wounds after being shot in separate incidents along the border fence.
Four paramedics and two journalists were reported to be among the injured.
Some 8,000 Palestinians took part in the protests on Friday, burning tires and throwing rocks and an explosive device towards troops, though it did not land in Israeli territory.
[Ynet] The Israeli military on Friday confirmed shooting a Paleostinian car passenger dead in the West Bank.
The army said it opened fire on the car after it broke through a West Bank checkpoint. The military said it was on high alert in the area after shots were fired from a Paleostinian village late Thursday. It said soldiers fired warning shots in the air when the driver ignored orders to halt but car sped up instead. The army said it responded with live fire, killing one passenger.
The Paleostinian Health Ministry identified the dead passenger as Qasim Abbasi, 17, from east Jerusalem.
[IsraelTimes] 2 Israelis were seriously injured by hammer-wielding Taher Halef, who had allegedly been seeking to carry out such an attack since 2008
A Jordanian man who was employed in the southern port city of Eilat was indicted Friday over the assault of two Israeli men several weeks ago, in what prosecutors are saying was a terror attack.
According to the indictment, which was filed at the Beersheba District Court, Taher Halef had been planning to attack Israelis for over a decade. He is accused of several counts of attempted murder, as well as a terrorist conspiracy.
Two Israelis, who were working as divers at the port, were seriously maimed when Halef attacked them with a hammer on November 30, police said at the time. In addition to the injured Israelis, who were brought to the city’s Yoseftal Hospital with head injuries, a second Jordanian worker who tried to restrain the attacker was lightly hurt.
Halef was incarcerated Book 'im, Mahmoud! following the incident, and police said several hours later that an initial probe had raised suspicions that the attack was nationalistically motivated.
The suspect began working in Israel days before the attack after receiving a daily work permit from the Population and Immigration Authority. Friday’s indictment said he had succeeded in passing the screening process despite being flagged as a potential terrorist by the Jordanian manpower agency that first interviewed him.
Israel in 2014 granted permission for 1,500 Jordanians to work in Eilat, the Red Sea resort town located directly across the border from the Jordanian city of Aqaba. The countries signed a peace treaty in 1994, but relations have been tumultuous due to occasional violent incidents and political disagreements.
The indictment said that Halef, who identifies as Paleostinian, received help from cousins in Jordan on previous occasions that he sought to carry out attacks.
Allegedly, his first terrorist plot was in 2008, when, after seeing television footage of the first war between Israel and Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", in the Gazoo Strip, Operation Cast Lead, he planned to carry out a shooting attack at the border. The indictment said that Halef’s father foiled his son’s plan by blocking the road while he was already en route to the border, having stolen the father’s gun.
During the summer of 2017, the indictment said, Halef and his cousins resolved to enter Israel through the border fence and carry out a shooting attack. However, corruption finds a dozen alibis for its evil deeds... after surveying the landscape, they realized their plan was unfeasible.
It was then that he decided to obtain an entry permit to Israel and carry out a stabbing attack in Jerusalem. To that end, he allegedly enlisted the help of his brothers and cousins, who agreed to travel to Israel with him.
While they were initially turned down by an agency in Amman, Halef eventually received a permit to work in Eilat.
On his second day working in Israel, after crossing over from Aqaba, he attacked the two Israeli divers at the port, named in the indictment as Tamir Gross and Yevgeny Kolomitz, as well as the second Jordanian worker, who attempted to stop him.
Allegedly, during the attack, he yelled at the other Jordanian, "We’re Moslems and they’re Jews."
His lawyer, Khaled Mahajna, insisted Friday that Halef’s assault was criminal in nature rather than a terror attack.
[IsraelTimes] 8,000 Paleostinians gather on border, throwing rocks and incendiary devices at soldiers; deaths are first Gazoo fatalities since last month’s ceasefire
Three Paleostinians, including a 16-year-old, were reported killed on Friday by Israeli fire during border protests and festivities east of Gazoo City, the Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,-run health ministry said, as some 8,000 Paleostinians protested along the border.
The ministry identified the teen as Mohammed al-Jahjuh and said he was "hit in the neck by a bullet (fired) by Israeli soldiers."
Abdelaziz Abu Sharia, 28, and Naher Yasin, 40, died from their wounds after being shot in separate incidents along the heavily fortified frontier with Israel, officials said.
The ministry said 46 others were maimed. There were no reports of casualties on the Israeli side.
The Israeli army said around 8,000 Paleostinians had gathered along the border, burning tires and launching rocks and incendiary devices toward soldiers, which did not reach the troops. It said it had opened fire "according to operational procedures" in place.
Army radio said these were the first Paleostinian fatalities in Gazoo protests since a ceasefire deal went into effect last month.
[VOA] Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday that his country would hold off on a military operation against the U.S.-backed Kurdish forces in northeastern Syria, citing a telephone conversation this past week with U.S. President Donald Trump.
"Our phone call with Mr. Trump, as well as the contacts of our diplomatic and security units, and the statements from the American side have led us to wait a little longer," Erdogan said during an awards ceremony in Istanbul.
"Of course, this is not an open waiting period," he said, underlining his country's intention to carry out an assault in "the coming months" on the Kurdish fighters, known as the People's Protection Units (YPG), who played a key role in the U.S.-led fight against the Islamic State (IS) in Syria.
CIVILIANS FLEE
The Turkish military launched an operation against the YPG in January and took over the Kurdish town of Afrin in northwestern Syria. The military last week threatened another incursion against YPG, this time vowing to eliminate the fighters from all of northeastern Syria, where about 2,000 U.S. special forces have operated, helping in the fight against IS and serving as a buffer in Turkish-Kurdish clashes.
The recent Turkish threats have forced many civilians to evacuate their homes on both sides of the border to avoid being targeted.
WATCH: Turkey's Gaziantep Residents Concerned Amid Border Tensions With Syria
Posted by: Besoeker ||
12/22/2018 09:28 ||
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#1
When we were in trouble, my father would count to three:
“One.
Two.
Two and a half.
Two and three quarters.
Two and seven eighths...”
I don’t recall him ever getting to three. But we did learn our fractions.
AMMAN (Reuters) - U.S. troops have not left the strategic Tanf garrison on the Iraq-Jordan border following President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of Syria, the leader of a Pentagon-backed rebel group there said on Saturday.
Colonel Muhanad al Talaa, leader of Maghawir al-Thawra whose several hundred fighters work alongside U.S. troops at the Tanf camp, said although they were notified of Washington’s decision, the situation on the ground remained as it was.
"American troops plan to withdraw completely form Syria but I don’t have details and things are as they are up until this moment," Talaa told Reuters from the base.
The garrison is located in a strategic area near Syria’s Tanf border crossing with Iraq at the crossroad of a main Baghdad-Damascus highway, Tehran’s main arms supply route by land to Syria and Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah militia.
Russia and the Syrian government have repeatedly called on Washington to pull its troops from the Tanf base, where it has declared a 55 km (35 mile)-radius "deconfliction zone" which has become a safe haven for at least 50,000 civilians, mostly women and children, who live in the Rukban camp within it.
[NYT] WASHINGTON ‐ The Pentagon is considering using small teams of Special Operations forces to strike the Islamic State in Syria, one option for continuing an American military mission there despite President Trump’s order to withdraw troops from the country.
The American commandos would be shifted to neighboring Iraq, where an estimated 5,000 United States forces are already deployed, and "surge" into Syria for specific raids, according to two military officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The strike teams are one of several options ‐ including continued airstrikes and resupplying allied Kurdish fighters with arms and equipment ‐ in a new strategy for Syria that the Pentagon is developing as officials follow the order Mr. Trump gave on Wednesday for a military drawdown even as it tries to maintain pressure on the Islamic State.
The Pentagon will deliver the options to Mr. Trump for approval within weeks ‐ well before Defense Secretary Jim Mattis steps down at the end of February. Mr. Mattis resigned on Thursday, in part because of Mr. Trump’s decision to overrule his senior advisers and withdraw troops from Syria.
Officials at the Pentagon said the plans sought to maintain American support for the Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish-led militia of Arab and Kurdish soldiers who have proved to be the most successful ground fighters against the Islamic State.
Posted by: Besoeker ||
12/22/2018 06:45 ||
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#1
I doubt our friend in Iran will be cheering this potential course of action. Could it have been the plan all along ?
[Aljazeera] With Syria's war nearing an end, Israel turns its attention to tunnels allegedly dug by Hezbollah along Lebanese border.
Kafr Kila, Lebanon - Across the border wall that divides the village of Kafr Kila in south Lebanon from Israel, the sound of Israeli excavations is disturbing a relative calm that has endured for 12 years.
On December 4, Israel decided to take on Hezbollah in Lebanon and began "Operation Northern Shield". It started digging along several points on the Lebanon-Israel border to locate and destroy what it said were tunnels dug by Hezbollah into Israel.
The Israeli army alleges that the tunnels violate the country's sovereignty and are big enough - some two metres in height and width - for armed men to travel through.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the tunnels pose a grave danger to the country, while an Israeli official has called them a conspiracy by Hezbollah to "conquer Galilee", its northern territory.
Hezbollah, in line with normal practice, has not responded.
[IsraelTimes] USS John C. Stennis transits Strait of Hormuz after longest post-9/11 absence; Revolutionary Guard vessels launch rockets away from carrier, fly a drone nearby
A US aircraft carrier sailed into the Persian Gulf on Friday, becoming the first since America’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal and breaking the longest carrier absence in the volatile region since at least the September 11 terror attacks.
The arrival of the USS John C. Stennis comes as Iranian officials have returned to repeatedly threatening to close off the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a third of all oil traded by sea passes. Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps vessels shadowed the Stennis and its strike group, at one point launching rockets away from it and flying a drone nearby.
The long absence of a carrier, however, could become a standard practice here as now-outgoing Defense Secretary Jim Mattis sought to shake up naval operations and American air bases spanning the region can scramble fighter jets and drones.
"We are trying to be more operationally unpredictable," said Lt. Chloe Morgan, a spokeswoman for US’s Bahrain-based 5th Fleet. "Now we’re switching it up because our adversaries are watching closely. We want to be operationally unpredictable to our enemies, but strategically predictable to our partners."
Throughout its trip Friday, some 30 Iranian Revolution Guard vessels trailed the Stennis and its strike group. One small vessel launched what appeared to be a commercial-grade drone to film the American ships. Photographers and videographers on the Iranian boats could clearly be seen also filming the Stennis while journalists on board the aircraft carrier filmed them.
"The Iranian craft drove in front of our ship and stopped and tried to capture their own sort of picture of what was going on," said Capt. Randy Peck, the commanding officer of the Stennis.
There was no immediate mention of the Stennis’ arrival to the Persian Gulf in Iranian state media.
The long gap between carrier deployments in the Persian Gulf represents a change in US military strategy dating back to the first Gulf War in 1991 and the overflights of Iraq that followed for years after. Mattis, as the head of the US military’s Central Command, himself demanded two carrier groups in the Persian Gulf as he led the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Since then, Mattis has said he wants a more unpredictable Navy to respond to Russia and China, which he sees as the "great power competition" America now faces.
It’s unclear, however, whether Mattis’ strategy will continue. The defense secretary resigned Thursday after clashing with Trump over the abrupt withdrawal of US troops from Syria.
The US military also operates air bases in Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... and the United Arab Emirates, as well as a major Army base in Kuwait and its Navy base in Bahrain. That offers the American military a variety of locations both in the Persian Gulf, as well as other bases in the wider Mideast, to launch strikes.
"Carriers were needed to support many of the initial strikes in Afghanistan in 2001, some attacks in Iraq in 2003, and most tactical missions in Syria in 2011," said Bryan Clark, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. "After access to adequate ground bases was obtained for today’s operations in Syria and Iraq, carrier-based aircraft were not as essential for these missions."
As military operations wind down in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, that likely will mean less need for Arclight airstrikes as well. However, those who apply themselves too closely to little things often become incapable of great things... the 5th Fleet still maintains a fleet of 21 ships from Bahrain and other Navy ships will continue to transit the strait.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/22/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
The Stennis likely had several close escorts ready to take out the first Iranian idiot that actually attacked it
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/22/2018 8:48 Comments ||
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#2
How nice of them to stage a fireworks display for the Stennis. I'm sure they enjoyed it.
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.
MOGADISHU (Reuters) - At least 13 people were killed and 17 wounded in a car bomb attack claimed by al Qaeda-linked group al Shabaab close to the president’s residence in the Somali capital Mogadishu, police said on Saturday.
[Jerusalem Post] Four Palestinians were killed and dozens more injured during weekly 'Great March of Return' protests along the Gaza border fence on Friday.
AMMAN (Reuters) - U.S. troops have not left the strategic Tanf garrison on the Iraq-Jordan border following President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of Syria, the leader of a Pentagon-backed rebel group there said on Saturday.
[Aljazeera] With Syria's war nearing an end, Israel turns its attention to tunnels allegedly dug by Hezbollah along Lebanese border.
[IsraelTimes] USS John C. Stennis transits Strait of Hormuz after longest post-9/11 absence; Revolutionary Guard vessels launch rockets away from carrier, fly a drone nearby
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
