[ToloNews] Almost 1,000 members of the Afghan Police bit the dust in battles against the Talibs in Farah province during the last solar year which coincides with March 2018 to March 2019, Farah police front man Rahmatullah Siddiqi said on Saturday.
The highest casualty rate was in areas on the outskirts of Farah city, Siddiqi said, adding that at least 10 outposts of Afghan forces in Farah districts and on the outskirts of Farah city had fallen to the bandidosfaceless myrmidons during the last year.
"In the first quarter of the last year, 478 coppers were martyred, 281 were killed in the second quarter, and 231 were martyred in the third quarter of the year," said Siddiqi.
Almost 45,000 members of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces have paid the ultimate sacrifice in the fight against terrorism in the country in the past four years, according to President Ghani who made it public in an interview in the US late last year.
Siddiqi said that fresh military operations have started in the province and that the security situation is better than the last year.
"You cannot fine a secure province than Farah province," said Siddiqi.
He said that only one police force member was killed in a battle against bandidosfaceless myrmidons in the last month of the last solar year.
"Farah’s situation is improving," said Noorullah Qaderi, Commander of Afghan Army’s 207 Zafar Corps. "President (Ashraf) Ghani visited Farah city some days ago and this shows that Farah is safe."
Farah governor Mohammad Shoaib Sabit said mafia groups, which were supporting the Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... to benefit from customs revenues in the province, have been suppressed.
"We continue our efforts to ensure that people are living in peace," said the governor.
Heavy battles were reported in Farah province during the last solar year in which Talibs reached close to the Farah city, the center of the province.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The United Nations ...the Oyster Bay money pit... is making plans to help Bangladesh relocate thousands of Rohingya refugees to a remote island off its coast, documents seen by Rooters show, a move opposed by many refugees and that some human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... experts fear could spark a new crisis.
Bangladesh says transporting refugees to Bhasan Char ‐ a Bay of Bengal island hours by boat from the mainland ‐ will ease chronic overcrowding in its camps at Cox’s Bazar, which are home to more than 1 million Rohingya, members of a Moslem minority who have fled neighboring Myanmar.
Humanitarian and human rights groups have criticized the relocation proposal, saying the island is flood-prone, vulnerable to frequent cyclones and could be completely submerged during high tide.
A document drawn up by the World Food Program (WFP), the UN’s food aid arm, shows the agency has supplied the Bangladesh government with detailed plans ‐ including a timeline and budget ‐ of how it could provide for thousands of Rohingya transported to the island within weeks. It stresses that any relocation should be voluntary and done "in accordance with humanitarian principles and code of conduct".
The document, labelled as a "Concept of Operations" and dated March 12, outlines how the organization and its partners "may facilitate the identification, staging, forward movement, reception, and sustainment of refugees" on Bhasan Char, estimating an initial appeal for donor funding of between $8.6 and $19 million.
More detailed operational planning would be needed it says, noting the Concept of Operations had been "developed quickly and without the benefit of any recent on-site assessment".
Gemma Snowdon, communications officer for WFP in Cox’s Bazar, said the organization was part of "ongoing discussions" with the government over the future of the refugee response.
"The viability of safely relocating people to Bhasan Char needs to be thoroughly assessed and WFP is investigating the potential operational needs, financial costs, and challenges in several areas that we traditionally support in emergencies: food security, emergency telecommunications, and logistics," she said.
REFUGEE INFLUX The numbers of refugees in the Cox’s Bazar camps have grown dramatically since August 2017, when a Myanmar military-led crackdown that UN Sherlocks have said was conducted with "genocidal intent" prompted some 730,000 Rohingya to flee. Myanmar has denied almost all allegations of atrocities made by refugees during what it says was a legitimate counterterrorism operation by its security forces.
Bangladesh says it is struggling to cope with the influx and wants to start relocating thousands of refugees to the island, which it says has been secured with flood defense embankments and cyclone shelters.
A senior UN official told news hounds in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka on Thursday the organization welcomed the fact the government had "taken steps to identify alternative settlements".
"As you also know if you have been to Kutapalong and the various camps in Cox’s Bazar area, it is clear that there is huge congestion," said Volker Turk, Assistant High Commissioner for the UN refugee agency.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2019 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11128 views]
Top|| File under:
[Jpost] The past few years have seen a rise in the number of violent anti-Israel protests within UK campuses with some requiring police intervention.
Holocaust-denial leaflets, Swastikas, intimidation of Jewish students. No, this is not the platform of a far-Right activist group, but the reality within some of Britannia’s universities.
The past few years have seen a rise in the number of violent anti-Israel protests within UK campuses with some requiring police intervention. Canceled guest talks by Israeli speakers have hit the news headlines prompting a public discussion about the threat to free-speech and rising levels of antisemitism within UK’s academia.
Continued on Page 49
[DAWN] Maulana Abdul Aziz ...nutball holy man who runs the Lal Masjid in the heart of Pakistain's capital. After instigating a rebellion against the state in 2007, he was caught trying to sneak away dressed in a burka. He rejects democracy as un-Islamic, which it probably is... on Friday dodged the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) Administration and was able to deliver a sermon at Lal Masjid ...literally the Red Mosque, located in Islamabad and frequented by all sorts of high govt officials. The proprietors, Ghazi Abdul Rasheed and Maulana Abdul Aziz Ghazi, unleashed their Islamic storm troopers on the city, shutting down whorehouses and beating people up who weren't devout enough. The Musharraf govt put an end to the nonsense by besieging the place. Abdul Aziz Ghazi was nabbed while he was trying to escape dressed up like a girl. BBC reported that the corpse count at 173, but other claims, usually hysterical, say there were up to 1000 titzup. Among their number was Abdul Rashid Ghazi. Everyone then said tut-tut and what a nice guy he had been... Maulana Abdul Aziz lambasted all state institutions and said the judiciary was corrupt because it was the remnant of British colonialism as was democracy.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2019 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11130 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
That was the guy the tweet said would do it a couple of days ago.
[DAWN] The accountability court on Friday issued perpetual warrants of arrest for ex-prime minister Shaukat Aziz and his accomplice Arif Alauddin in a reference.
He was accused of misusing authority and causing loss to the national exchequer.
Accountability Court Judge Arshad Malik issued the arrest warrants against the accused due to his continuous absence from proceedings in a corruption scam.
The court expressed displeasure over the absence of the accused and also issued arrest warrants against the other accused, Arif Alauddin.
The former prime minister is accused of illegally appointing Basharat Hasan Bashir as consultant for Alternative Energy Board on an MP-II scale salary package. The appointment was in violation of MP scale policy guidelines and the board’s regulations.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2019 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11125 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[DAWN] A case was registered against six unknown suspects under terror and murder charges for an liquidation bid a day earlier targeting prominent religious scholar Mufti Taqi Usmani in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... , as police claimed to have clues about the identity of the attackers.
The case was registered at Aziz Bhatti cop shoppe on behalf of the state through area SHO Adeel Afzal, said East SSP Azfar Mahesar.
According to the complainant SHO, six suspects riding three cycle of violences opened indiscriminate firing on two vehicles at NIPA Chowrangi near Chase store in Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Block-10, at around 1:15pm.
As a result, police guard Mohammed Farooq and another person, Sanober Khan, were killed while Mufti Usmani's driver, Habib, and aide, Maulana Amir, were critically injured.
SHO Afzal told Dawn that Habib, the driver of the religious scholar, was admitted to Liaquat National Hospital. He has sustained bullet wounds on his chest and doctors did not allow the Sherlocks to record his statement at present due to the seriousness of his condition.
He added that Maulana Amir, who got admitted to JPMC, was not in a position to record his statement either.
Earlier in the day, Sindh Inspector General of Police Dr Syed Kaleem Imam had revealed that Sherlocks have clues about the identities of the assailants involved.
Speaking to the media after laying a floral wreath at the mausoleum of Quaid-e-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah on Pakistain Day, the Sindh police chief disclosed that Sherlocks have "some leads" in the case. "We know who was involved," he stated without elaborating further.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2019 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11127 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[ALMASDARNEWS] His Supreme Immensity, Caliph of the Faithful and Galactic Overlord, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi ...the head of ISIS, or what remains of it, and a veteran of the Abu Graib jailhouse. Looks like a new messiah to bajillions of Moslems, like just another dead-eyed mass murder to the rest of us. So far he has been killed at least four times, though not yet by a stake through the heart... , the notorious leader of the ISIS* terrorist group, has resorted to altering his appearance to avoid detection and capture by the group’s numerous enemies, al-Araby al-Jadeed reports.
According to the media outlet, a source in the Iraqi National Security Service said that al-Bagdadi is currently hiding in Syria despite making several unsuccessful attempts to escape to Iraq.
The source also claimed that the terrorist organization’s leader changed his appearance by shortening his beard and dying his hair red, as well as by gaining weight to the point of obesity due to a lack of movement over the past two years. Abu Fat Bastard
The news emerged as the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) attempt to dislodge ISIS forces from the town of Baghouz, the terrorist group’s last stronghold in Syria.
The source, however, stated that while al-Baghdadi had previously visited Bagouz on several occasions, at this time he is not present in the area.
The elusive ISIS leader has been reported dead numerous times in recent years, but ended up reappearing each time, though his current condition and exact whereabouts remain unknown.
In June 2017, the Russian Defence Ministry said that Baghdadi could have been killed as a result of an Arclight airstrike by the Russian Aerospace Forces, but several months later an alleged audio recording of Baghdadi emerged, casting doubt on the fate of the terrorist leader.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2019 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11131 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
Kinda like urging the Vatican to get rid of priests. [ALMASDARNEWS] US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged the Lebanese people to "stand up to Hezbollah’s criminality, terror and threats," during on his first official visit to Leb on Friday.
"Frankly, Leb and the Lebanese people face a choice: bravely move forward as an independent and proud nation or allow the dark ambitions of Iran and Hezbollah to dictate your future," Pompeo said during a joint presser with Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil.
"We have confirmed that Hezbollah is for us a non-terrorist Lebanese party and it elected representatives from the Lebanese people, a large popular establishment," Bassil said. "It’s classification as terrorism is a matter for the country that classifies it as such."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2019 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11125 views]
Top|| File under: Hezbollah
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] ISIS’s territorial defeat now begins a new phase in operations against the bully boy group, which will target sleeper cells, according to a top Syrian Kurdish Commander.
Speaking at a presser held on Saturday following ISIS’s defeat in Syria by US-backed Syrian forces, Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) Commander Mazloum Kobane, said that the focus of upcoming military operations in the bully boys’ former heartland would be the elimination of sleeper cells "which are a great threat to our region and the whole world."
ISIS’s territorial defeat comes after a six-month operation which resulted in the death of more than 630 civilians, according to a monitoring group.
The Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that during the months-long operations, 209 children and 157 women were killed ‐ some of which were relatives of the bully boy group.
The operation had also cost the lives of 730 SDF fighters, while 1,600 hard boyz were killed.
Following Saturday’s defeat, the US-led coalition congratulated the Syrian people and the SDF, adding that the SDF had made great sacrifices in eliminating ISIS. However, those who apply themselves too closely to little things often become incapable of great things... the coalition said "the fight is not over."
The coalition also stressed on the importance of supporting the UN Security Council Resolution 2254 to end the conflict in Syria, as well as quoted 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... as he stressed on the importance of continuing the work to ensure the total elimination of ISIS.
Meanwhile, ...back at the cheese factory, all the pieces finally fell together in Fluffy's mind... British Prime Minister Theresa May described the fall of the last bastion held by ISIS as a "historic milestone," as she paid tribute to British forces and coalition partners.
"The liberation of the last (ISIS-held) territory is a historic milestone that would not have been possible without their commitment, professionalism, and courage," she said in a statement.
The US-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces launched their offensive against the bully boys’ last bastions in the Euphrates Valley on September 10, taking town after town before finally announcing victory in the village of Baghouz on Saturday.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2019 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11130 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
[Rudaw] The so-called caliphate 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.... is no more. Kurdish-led forces in Syria delivered the group its final blow in Baghouz, announcing the "total elimination" of the caliphate on Saturday morning. It was also the Kurds collectively who dealt the first blow to ISIS in Kobane in 2014.
Though ISIS is militarily defeated, it has permanently changed the Middle East ‐ from the smallest of minority communities to the global standing of nations.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/24/2019 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11133 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
#1
Homes are seldom improved by having a battle fought in them. I say 'seldom'.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
03/24/2019 10:00 Comments ||
Top||
[DAWN] The world's most wanted man who has so far eluded capture, the bad boyIslamic 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) group chief His Supreme Immensity, Caliph of the Faithful and Galactic Overlord, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi ...the head of ISIS, or what remains of it, and a veteran of the Abu Graib jailhouse. Looks like a new messiah to bajillions of Moslems, like just another dead-eyed mass murder to the rest of us. So far he has been killed at least four times, though not yet by a stake through the heart... has seen his "caliphate" crumble and its last shred of territory in Syria evaporate on Saturday.
After declaring himself caliph in 2014, Baghdadi held sway over seven million people across swathes of Syria and Iraq, where IS implemented its brutal version of Islamic law.
But that land has been whittled down to disjointed sleeper cells by years of fighting, including a ferocious bombing campaign by the United States-led coalition.
Reclusive even when IS was at the peak of its power, the 47-year-old Iraqi, who suffers from diabetes, has been rumoured to have been maimed or killed several times in the past. And his whereabouts have never been confirmed.
So, with his proto-state gone and a $25-million US bounty on his head, where is Baghdadi?
"He only has three companions: his older brother Jumaa, his driver and bodyguard Abdullatif al-Jubury, whom he has known since childhood, and his courier Saud al-Kurdi," said Hisham al-Hashemi, an Iraqi specialist in IS.
Hashemi said the quartet is likely laying low somewhere in Syria's vast Badia desert, which stretches from the eastern border with Iraq to the sweeping province of Homs.
That is where his son Hudhayfa al-Badri was reportedly killed in July by three Russian guided missiles, he added.
"The Coalition is not holding him nor do we know where he is," US-led coalition front man Col. Sean Ryan told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named.
Mohammed Kheder, co-founder of the Sound and Picture group which documents IS, said the last time al-Baghdadi was spotted in the area was about 15 months ago, citing sources on the ground and the testimony of the people who left the area.
In Twitter posts, Kheder’s group has said it cannot rule out the possibility al-Baghdadi was detained long ago ‐ "especially since many of American airdrops and night operations targeting IS leaders along the Iraqi border have not been disclosed by the coalition."
Iraqi intelligence officials believe al-Baghdadi is hiding somewhere in the desert stretching across the Syrian-Iraqi border, using tunnels to move around.
"He does not use any communication equipment or internet to avoid detection by coalition planes," a senior intelligence official said. "When he wants to see someone from the organization, they are brought to him individually in cars that stop around two hours away from where al-Baghdadi is, and then they are brought to him individually on cycle of violences."
Another official, a colonel, said the Americans recently targeted some of al-Baghdadi’s closest people, including his personal bodyguard Khaled al-Saudi ‐ known as Khallad ‐ who was killed last week near the area of al-Baaj along the Iraqi-Syrian border.
Khallad’s wife was jugged Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try! . Another close aide to al-Baghdadi was also recently killed and his wife captured, the colonel said, adding that the Americans believe such targets will soon lead them to al-Baghdadi. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity to share intelligence information.
Al-Baghdadi was born Ibrahim Awwad Ibrahim Ali al-Badri al-Samarrai in 1971 in Samarra, Iraq, and adopted his nom de guerre early on. According to IS-affiliated websites, he was detained by US forces in Iraq and sent to Bucca prison in February 2004 for his anti-US hard boy activity.
He was released 10 months later, after which he joined the al-Qaeda branch in Iraq of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. He later assumed control of the group, known at the time as the Islamic State of Iraq.
After Syria’s civil war erupted in 2011, al-Baghdadi dispatched comrades to the neighboring country to create a like-minded Sunni bad boy group there. The group, which came to be known as the Nusra Front, initially welcomed moderate Sunni rebels who were part of the uprising against Syrian 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... Over time, more of his fighters and possibly al-Baghdadi himself relocated to Syria, pursuing his plan to restore a medieval Islamic state, or caliphate. In April 2013, al-Baghdadi announced what amounted to a hostile takeover of the Nusra Front, saying he was merging it into a new group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ... the current version of al-Qaeda in Iraq, just as blood-thirsty and well-beloved as the original... . Nusra Front’s leader Abu Mohammad al-Golani refused to accept the takeover ‐ as did al-Qaeda’s central leadership, which broke with al-Baghdadi.
Al-Baghdadi’s fighters went onto to capture a contiguous stretch of territory across Iraq and Syria, including key cities such as Raqqa in Syria and djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... in Iraq. In June 2014, the group announced its own state, or caliphate. al-Baghdadi became the declared caliph of the newly renamed Islamic State group.
The group ruled with a virulently extreme interpretation of Islamic law. The atrocities, massacres and beheadings by al-Baghdadi’s gunnies that followed ‐ many broadcast in grisly and macabre video postings on hard boy websites ‐ secured IS a spot in some of the darkest, most brutal annals of modern history.
Throughout it all, al-Baghdadi was in the shadows.
His only known public appearance on video was on June 29, 2014, when he appeared as a black-robed figure to deliver a sermon from the pulpit of Mosul’s Great Mosque of al-Nuri in which he urged Moslems around the world to swear allegiance to the caliphate and obey him as its leader.
"It is a burden to accept this responsibility to be in charge of you," he says in the video. "I am not better than you or more virtuous than you. If you see me on the right path, help me. If you see me on the wrong path, advise me and halt me. And obey me as far as I obey God."
Little is known about al-Baghdadi’s family. An ex-wife, Saja al-Dulaimi, and her daughter from al-Baghdadi, were detained in Leb in 2014. She was released a year later as part of a swap with al-Qaeda in exchange for kidnapped Lebanese soldiers and coppers. In July 2018, IS announced that al-Baghdadi’s son, Huthaifa al-Badri, had been killed fighting government forces in central Syria.
None of the subsequent reports of al-Baghdadi being killed or maimed were confirmed. In 2017, Russian officials said there was a "high probability" he had been killed in a Russian Arclight airstrike on the outskirts of Raqqa, but US officials later said they believed he was still alive.
He resurfaced in late September 2017, calling in an audio message on followers to burn their enemies everywhere. Another audio was posted last August in which al-Baghdadi urges followers to "persevere" in fighting IS’ enemies ‐ the speech was sprinkled with references to current events to show it was recent.
Experts tracking hard boy figures said the voice in the recordings was al-Baghdadi’s.
It was the last time he was heard of.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2019 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11132 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
#1
As the 'caliphate' ends, where is its leader Baghdadi?
"...What is, 'Dressed like a woman and hiding in a corner somewhere pi$$ing himself' for $500, Alex..."
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
03/24/2019 7:15 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Sitting on the Riviera sipping cognac - for $1000 Alex
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.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The 
[Jpost] The past few years have seen a rise in the number of violent anti-Israel protests within UK campuses with some requiring police intervention.
...literally the 
[DAWN] The accountability court on Friday issued perpetual warrants of arrest for ex-prime minister Shaukat Aziz and his accomplice Arif Alauddin in a reference.
[DAWN] A case was registered against six unknown suspects under terror and murder charges for an 
...the head of ISIS, or what remains of it, and a veteran of the Abu Graib jailhouse. Looks like a new messiah to bajillions of Moslems, like just another dead-eyed mass murder to the rest of us. So far he has been killed at least four times, though not yet by a stake through the heart...
[ALMASDARNEWS] US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged the Lebanese people to "stand up to Hezbollah’s criminality, terror and threats," during on his first official visit to 
