[ToloNews] The number of ANDSF troops fell by nearly 42,000 compared to the same period last year, SIGAR report says.
For the fourth consecutive quarter, the size of Afghanistan’s National Defense and Security Forces is reported at the lowest level it has been since the Resolute Support mission began in January 2015, a US watchdog said in a report.
The drop in size of the ANDSF has occurred in the past few months due to changes in the way troops are counted and an effort to reduce the number of so-called "ghost" or nonexistent soldiers, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) said in a report to the US Congress on July 30.
The report says that only those ANDSF personnel who have been biometrically validated in APPS are included in strength figures.
This quarter’s ANDSF strength decreased by 41,777 personnel since approximately the same period in 2018, and by 50,277 compared to about the same period in 2017.
According to the report, there are 180,869 Afghan National Army (ANA) and 91,596 Afghan National Police (ANP) personnel enrolled and accounted for in APPS as of May 25, 2019.
This is roughly 10,000 ANA fewer and 25,000 ANP fewer than the numbers reported to SIGAR last quarter.80 This quarter’s strength of 272,465 puts the ANDSF at 77.4%, and 79,535 personnel short, of its goal strength of 352,000.81, the report added.
#1
...If my math is right then that means they took a 15% loss in the last year losing the ghosts and "changes in the way troops are counted" (likely 'assistants' and 'aides' who were kicking a good part of their salaries back to the unit commanders).
I have a very bad feeling that this is just the tip of the iceberg. It almost certainly means that when the Taliban makes its move, the Afghan security forces will simply fade away, and we're back to 9/10.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
08/03/2019 7:34 Comments ||
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[ALMASDARNEWS] 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... ’s Ansarallah forces have unveiled a new long-range Iranian Domestically-produced™
missile that is set to enter service in the next few days, al-Masirah News reported on Friday.
Dubbed the "Borkan-3", this long-range missile has increased the military capabilities of the Ansarallah forces, who currently control a large portion of Yemen, including the capital city of Sanaa.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/03/2019 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Houthis
[DAWN] Inflation has entered double digits in the first month of the new fiscal year, the biggest increase in five years and nine months.
Inflation, measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), rose to 10.34 per cent in July this year from 8.9pc the preceding month, the Pakistain Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday. During the same month last year, inflation stood at 5.84pc.
The last time inflation entered the double digits was in November 2013 and recorded at 10.9pc.
The upward adjustments in prices of petroleum products over the past few months, followed by an increase in electricity and gas tariffs fuelled the total inflation. The government also introduced certain tax measures, the cumulative impact of which dragged the overall inflation to double digits. The rupee depreciation also led to an increase in prices of imported consumer and non-consumer items, especially raw material used in manufacturing of industrial products, over the past few months.
The government has projected an inflation target of 11pc to 13pc for the fiscal year 2019-20, compared to 7.3pc recorded in 2018-19. Price levels, perked up in the first month of the current fiscal year, appear to have been driven by a spike in non-food inflation in July.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/03/2019 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[ALMASDARNEWS] Israel’s new Arrow-3 missile will "significantly limit the capabilities" of Syria’s S-300, Russia-based Lenta.Ru reported on Friday.
According to the Russian publication, the induction of the Arrow-3 system in Israel’s military will make their airspace ’impenetrable’.
"Of course, indirectly, this also applies to Russia ‐ after all, our planes and missiles are located in Syria, which borders Israel, and under certain conditions this dominance of the Jewish state can go sideways for us," Lenta.RU reported, citing the Свободная пресса publication.
The publication notes that "the Syrians will be severely limited in their ability to use the S-300 while repelling the next attack by the IDF [Israeli Defense Forces]."
They would add that "besides, Israel has an antidote for almost all types of Russian missiles. And against whom are such technologies being created, if not against countries with a powerful but ineffective arsenal?"
Posted by: Fred ||
08/03/2019 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
#1
Maybe I need more coffee, but I don't see how the use of an Israeli air defense system affects the use of S-300s in Syria.
#3
Remember when lefties (who wanted the USSR to be able to nuke the US) said "You can't hit a bullet with a bullet!" Seems like ages ago...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
08/03/2019 10:42 Comments ||
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#4
...TRANSLATION: "Ummm, guys - you remember that S-300 system we sold you? Well, this is what we're going to blame when you figure out the damn thing doesn't work. Dos vidanya, and we'll see you around...
Oh, and PS - the S-400 might be problematic, too. Just sayin'..."
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
08/03/2019 17:24 Comments ||
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#5
Alternate Translation: The Israeli SAM network can shut down all air flights over Syria if they want to ...and... there is nothing the S-300 can do to stop this. Thinking of using a S-300 to stop an Arrow-3 is nonsense on steroids™ .
[Jpost] This week marked the 17th anniversary of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem cafeteria bombing, in which nine people were killed and more than 80 maimed. In honor of the anniversary, Paleostinian Media Watch (PMW) released a report showing that the bully boyz responsible for the attack have thus far received $1,257,259 in "pay-for-slay" payments from the Paleostinian Authority.
The bombing, which took place on July 31, 2002 and became known as the Hebrew University massacre, was planned and perpetrated by members of an eastern Jerusalem Hamas, the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®, cell during the Second Intifada. A bomb was placed in a cafeteria on the Mount Scopus campus. Among those murdered were five Americans.
Six members of the Hamas cell are serving multiple life sentences in Israeli prisons for this attack and others.
Among the convicted bully boyz for this and other attacks were Adballah Barghouti, who is serving 67 life sentences - one for each of the victims he murdered, and Ibrahim Hamed, who is serving 54 life sentences - one for each of the victims he murdered. Through June 2019, the PA cumulatively paid them NIS 1,271,000 ($339,862) and continues to pay them thousands of shekels per month, according to PMW.
The other four bully boyz - Wael Qassem, Wassim Abbasi, Alla Aldin Abbasi and Muhammed Odeh - were residents of Jerusalem, entitling them to a salary supplement of 300 shekels/month. Each of them has been paid more than NIS 770,000 ($220,733) since their arrest in August 2002. Each of them is currently receiving NIS 7,300 ($1,951) per month.
According to PMW, since the start of 2019, these bully boyz have received NIS 300,000 or $86,000, despite the PA's purported financial crisis.
The PA obligated itself to pay monthly salaries to imprisoned bully boyz when it passed the Law of Prisoners and Released Prisoners in 2004, PMW explained. The exact amount paid is set in regulations passed by the PA government.
This is not the first time PMW has reported on the payments of bully boyz involved in particularly sensitive cases.
Last month, five years after the July 11, 2014 arrest of Husam al-Qawasmi - the terrorist criminal mastermind behind the 2014 kidnapping and murder of Gilad Shaar, Eyal Yifrach and Naftali Frenkel - PMW reported that the terrorist began receiving NIS 4,000 instead of NIS 2,000 a month, according to the PA’s standard pay scale.
The PA has long had a "Pay-for-Slay" policy, by which it pays monthly salaries to terrorist prisoners and the families of bully boyz who were killed in the act or upon arrest.
In February, Israel implemented the "Pay-for-Slay" Law that instructs the state to deduct and freeze the amount of money the PA pays in salaries to imprisoned bully boyz and families of "deaders" from the tax money it collects for the authority. The law was passed last July and was approved for implementation by Israel’s security cabinet this year.
In 2019, the cabinet is withholding approximately $138 million.
[DAWN] Several small bombs went kaboom! across Bangkok on Friday, rattling the Thai capital as it hosted a regional summit attended by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and leaving three people maimed.
Thailand, which has a grim history of political violence, remains deeply divided after a controversial March election returned a Thai junta to power as a civilian government.
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha, who led the junta, was told of "the bombing incidents and has ordered an immediate investigation", Thai government spokeswoman Narumon Pinyosinwat said.
"Security measures have been tightened. The public is urged not to panic," she added.
Small devices ‐ believed to be so-called "ping pong bombs" around the size of a table tennis ball ‐ went kaboom! at several locations across the city.
They appeared to be symbolic attacks aimed at embarrassing the government during the major summit but not designed to cause mass casualties.
"Three people received slight injuries from shrapnel," said Renu Suesattaya, director of Suanluang district where the first bombs were reported.
"I received a report that they are 'ping pong bombs' hidden in bushes by the road."
Two further explosions shattered glass near a well-known downtown skyscraper, emergency police added.
Bomb disposal experts were deployed around the Mahanakorn Tower -- owned by the King Power group that counts Leicester City football club among its assets.
At least three other blasts hit the area around a government complex, authorities said.
The bombings took place just before a keynote speech by Pompeo, who has joined the Southeast Asian Foreign Ministers meeting, in which he praised Thailand for rejoining the "democratic fold".
Posted by: Fred ||
08/03/2019 00:00 ||
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[ALMASDARNEWS] Syria’s Permanent Representative to United Nations ...an idea whose time has gone... , Dr. Bashar al-Ja’afari, accused The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor... of mass deploying their troops inside of Syria during the Astana Peace Conference on Friday. "You said 'just the tip'!!"
During his speech at the peace conference, the veteran Syrian diplomat accused Turkey of deploying more than 10,000 soldiers and 166 tanks inside of northern Syria.
The Syrian diplomat highlighted the fact that the Ottoman Turkish troops were acting as occupation force within a sovereign nation, adding that they were illegally inside of Syria.
Turkey maintains that they’re conducting "anti-terror operations" in line with an agreement with Syria that was established in the late 1990s.
Syria, on the other hand, says the agreement is null and void because Turkey broke off diplomatic relations in 2012.
While both Syria and Turkey have acknowledged that they share some intelligence reports, both nations have refused to move towards diplomatic rapprochement.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/03/2019 00:00 ||
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[8 views]
Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
#1
Hey, Syria! Let's you and him fight!
(/me wonders if there is some way to get the Russians actively involved... like payback for that pilot the Turks shot down.)
#3
The Turks are there to kill Kurds. Remember that when Erdogan says "terrorist" he means "Kurd".
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
08/03/2019 12:24 Comments ||
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#4
reL#3 For me that's a "yahbut". I know that the Kurds have bye and large been more or less on our side. That's the "yah". BUT I can't trust any of those tribes over there to act in a civilized productive way.
[Ynet] Japan will not send warships to join a U.S.-led maritime force to guard oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz fearing a military response from Iran, but it may send patrol aircraft, the Mainichi newspaper said Friday, citing unidentified government sources.
But Japan may send warships independently to protect Japanese ships in the world's most important oil artery, the newspaper said.
"We are closely monitoring the situation and continue to collect information while working closely with the United States and other countries," said Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, when asked about the report.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
08/03/2019 00:00 ||
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[7 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
...Not an absolutely unreasonable stance on the part of the Japanese. I'm thinking that if the Japanese send any ships to guard their own tankers, they'll know perfectly well how to get in touch with our guys, and vice versa.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
08/03/2019 7:19 Comments ||
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[IsraelTimes] Researchers believe jihadist group will continue working to fill vacuum left by collapsing Islamic State despite reported killing of terrorist leader’s son.
The reported death of the late Osama bin Laden ... who is now beyond all cares and woe... ’s son and heir to the al-Qaeda mantle is unlikely to do much damage to the jihadist group’s resurgence, US terror experts said Thursday.
Continued on Page 49
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.
[Jpost] This week marked the 17th anniversary of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem cafeteria bombing, in which nine people were killed and more than 80 
...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor...
