[ToloNews] Herat ...a venerable old Persian-speaking city in western Afghanistan, populated mostly by Tadjiks, which is why it's not as blood-soaked as areas controlled by Pashtuns... ’s governor says bully boyz have relocated from the eastern province of Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. Officials in the western province of Herat said they are concerned about some movements by button men affiliated to ISIS who relocated from eastern Afghanistan after they were defeated by government forces.
The officials said the presence of such individuals has been reported in Guzara district, which is located near the city of Herat.
The group, however, has not created a footprint there, according to local officials.
"This is a post-Taliban ...Arabic for students... project, same as the Taliban were a project after the Mujahideen," Herat governor Abdul Qayum Raimi said. "Now that the Taliban is faced with a problem, ISIS is going to be created.
Definitely an interesting perspective. What say you, dear Reader?
They have been pushed here from Nangarhar and its surroundings."
Two members of Herat’s Provincial Council said the group should be prevented from establishing a footprint in the province.
"This is alarming. We hope that the national police and the national army eliminate the group and prevent it from growing in Herat," said Toryalai Taheri, deputy head of Herat Provincial Council.
"They (the ISIS-affiliated fighters) do not have a stronghold or a specific address in Herat. I hope that they are shut down before any subversive activity starts," member of Herat Provincial Council Ghulam Habib Hashemi said.
Herat civil society activists called on the security forces to take the issue seriously.
"We hope that the government takes this issue seriously so that we do not witness another big conflict. The government should recognize the roots of ISIS finance," said Sayed Ashraf Sadat, a civil society activist in Herat.
This comes as President Ashraf Ghani ...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money... on November 20 commended the Afghan forces for eliminating ISIS in the country after the group was removed from Achin district in Nangarhar.
Ghani called it a major achievement for the country, the region and the world.
Last month, according to the Ministry of Defense, over 1,000 ISIS fighters, accompanied by their families, surrendered to Afghan forces.
[ToloNews] Security officials in the east warned the Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... to join the grinding of the peace processor or be eliminated.
Security officials in Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. province on Tuesday said that Sherzad district was fully cleared of the Taliban as the result of a two-month-long military operation.
District governor Mubarez Khadem said that during the operation areas had been cleared that had been under Taliban control for the past ten years.
Khadem said that security forces are ready to respond to any attack by the Taliban.
"Sometimes the enemy returns but when they do we mount strong operations against them," said Khadem.
"Security forces fought with the enemy and cleared the area with a sucessful operation conducted by joint Afghan cops.
Soon people of Hasarak and Khogyani districts will also live in a safe environment and their children will resume their education, like normal," said Mohammad Ayoub Hussainkhail, commander of the Afghan border forces in the east.
Hussainkhail also called on Taliban members to join the grinding of the peace processor or they will be eliminated.
Officials claimed that the Taliban have suffered heavy casualties but are not giving details.
Military officials pledged that military operations will also be conducted in the Hasarak district to eliminate krazed killers.
No details were provided regarding the casualties of the security forces.
The Taliban have yet to comment about the officials’ claims.
[KhaamaPress] Taliban ...Arabic for students... have ambushed an Afghan military check-point in Dawlatabad district of northern Balkh province, killing at least security members, officials said on Tuesday.
Mohammad Yousuf, the district governor of Dawlatabad where the incident took place have spoken to Rooters confirming dozens of Taliban gunnies targeted a checkpoint manned jointly by Afghan soldiers and intelligence agents, killing 15.
The Afghanistan Ministry of Interior Affairs released a statement, confirming the Taliban attack on an Afghan security check-point in Dawlatabad district of Balkh. MOI has confirmed death of only 7 Afghan soldiers in this attack, apparently did not want to disclose the exact figures of casualties sustained in Taliban attack.
On the other hand, Taliban has announced killing of 20 Afghan cops, injuring 6 and detaining another 4 of them alive.
"We attacked an enemy military base in Dawlatabad district of Balkh province last night. As a result of this operation we killed 20 soldiers including commander Latif, injured 6 of them and have detained 4 soldiers alive," a Taliban spokesperson, Zabihullah Mujahid tweeted.
This comes as the U.S peace envoy, Zalmay Khalilzad restarted negotiations with Taliban few weeks back focusing on violence reduction, ceasefire and intra-Afghan talks.
The talks were interrupted following a Taliban attack on Bagram airfield, destroying a health facility nearby the Bagram military base.
But, recently sources close to Taliban had said a Taliban delegation have travelled to Pakistain to consult with their leaders and senior members on the ’ceasefire’.
Sources also said that the US peace envoy for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, is 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 waiting for the Taliban’s agreement over a reduction of violence and a ceasefire to pave the way for the signing of the agreement.
At least seven soldiers were killed in a Taliban attack on a checkpoint in Dawlat Abad district of Balkh province early Tuesday morning, the Ministry of Defense said.
Six other soldiers including three NDS employees were wounded in the attack, the ministry said.
The checkpoint was manned by both the Afghan army and the National Directorate of Security (NDS).
According to the ministry the attack occurred around 04:30 am local time.
According to the Afghan defence ministry, "terrorists" attacked a joint military base in the Dawlat Abad district of Balkh province near the Uzbekistan border. The base was shared between the army and the National Directorate of Security, Afghanistan's secretive intelligence agency.
“Six soldiers were wounded and four arrested. The base was captured," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid wrote on Twitter.
The attack comes one day after the Taliban claimed responsibility for the death of an American special forces soldier, who was killed in Kunduz province, also in the north. The Taliban said they had attacked the vehicle he was in, whereas the US military said he died when a weapons cache he had been investigating exploded.
Winter once marked a slowdown in the so-called "fighting season", with Taliban fighters returning to their villages while snow and ice made attacks more difficult to pull off. But in recent years, the distinction between seasons has all but vanished.
According to German intelligence officials at Camp Marmal, a German-run base outside Mazar-i-sharif in Balkh, January 2019 saw one of the highest-ever numbers of attacks in the north.
"If there is no game changer on the strategic level, it will be a 'hot' winter," one official told AFP.
"We are talking about two dozens of security incidents average per day" across NATO's northern command, he added.
In October, local officials said a column of hundreds of Taliban fighters on motorbikes attacked Shortepa district police headquarters in Balkh, briefly capturing the facility. The German intelligence official said the number was exaggerated, with likely only "dozens" of fighters.
Still, it highlights how quickly Taliban fighters can mass and then disperse back into the local population.
"There's fierce fighting going on all through the year, meaning that the Taliban managed to expand into some territories that haven't been their traditional ones," the official said.
[AFP via MSN] Jihadists in Burkina Faso killed 35 civilians, almost all of them women, when they simultaneously attacked a town in the north and its military base in one of the deadliest assaults in nearly five years of jihadist violence in the West African country.
Seven soldiers and 80 jihadists also died in the double attack Tuesday in Arbinda in Soum province which lasted "several hours" and was of a "rare intensity", the army said.
Burkina Faso, bordering Mali and Niger, has seen regular jihadist attacks which have left hundreds dead since the start of 2015 when militant violence began to spread across the Sahel region.
That would be Al Qaeda in North Africa-linked Ansarul Islam, which spread from Mali, then merged with a number of other groups under the name of JNIM (Group to Support Islam and Moslems)
"A large group of terrorists simultaneously attacked the military base and the civilian population in Arbinda," the army chief of staff said in a statement.
"This barbaric attack resulted in the deaths of 35 civilian victims, most of them women," President Roch Marc Christian Kabore added on Twitter, praising the "bravery and commitment" of the defence and security forces. Brave, brave, Lions of Islam
Communications minister and government spokesman Remis Dandjinou later said 31 of the civilian victims were women, adding around 20 soldiers and six civilians were wounded.
[LEGIT.NG] Farmers and herders in the southern part of Kaduna state have been asked to surrender illegal weapons in their possession or risk being arrested. The Nation reports that commander of the military's Operation Safe Haven, Maj. Gen. Augustine Agundu, made this known on Monday, December 23.
Legit.ng gathered that he also alleged some retired security officers of Southern Kaduna extraction were responsible for the promotion of violence in the area but assured they would soon be nabbed. The commander, who stated this in Kafanchan during Kaduna state government and defence headquarters’ Operation Safe Haven’s meeting with stakeholders in Southern Kaduna, said the farmers and herders must stop their old practice of taking laws into their hands.
[GUARDIAN.NG] Jihadists armed with guns and rocket-propelled grenades killed six soldiers in an ambush in northeast Nigeria ... a particularly crimson stretch of Islam's bloody border... on Sunday, security sources said.Fighters from the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really 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 western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... West Africa Province (ISWAP) group attacked a patrol outside Tungushe, a village 22 kilometres (13 miles) from the Borno State capital Maiduguri, they said Monday.
"Two patrol vans came under fire from the murderous Moslems and the leading vehicle was hit by an RPG, killing six soldiers on board," a security source said Monday.
Three jihadists were killed in a battle with soldiers following the ambush, a second security source said.
The Tungushe area has been repeatedly targeted by ISWAP and its rival Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... faction. The bandidos murderous Moslems attack troops and raid villages for food and livestock.
In October a soldier and three non-combatants were killed when ISWAP Death Eaters attacked troops in Tungushe.
The decade-long jihadist insurgency in northeast Nigeria has killed 35,000 people and displaced around two million people.
The conflict has spilled into neighbouring Niger, Chad and Cameroon ...a long, narrow country that fills the space between Nigeria and Chad on the northeast, CAR to the southeast. Prior to incursions by Boko Haram nothing ever happened there... , prompting a regional military coalition to fight the jihadist groups.
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12/25/2019 00:00 ||
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[AFRICA.CGTN] Seventeen fishermen were kidnapped by terror group Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... late on Sunday in Cameroon ...a long, narrow country that fills the space between Nigeria and Chad on the northeast, CAR to the southeast. Prior to incursions by Boko Haram nothing ever happened there... ’s Far North region, local authorities said on Monday.
They were fishing in Lake Chad when murderous Moslems of the group rounded them up and drove to an unknown destination, according to locals.
The Cameroon army is conducting a rescue mission to secure the safe release of the hostages, local authorities said.
The terror group is intensifying attacks and abductions in the region as end of year festivities approach, according to security reports.
In early December, Boko Haram kidnapped 18 civilians and later killed five of them in the region.
[Alahram] Some 162 migrants colonists rescued off the Libyan coast have disembarked in the southern Italian port of Taranto, the NGO SOS Mediterranee said Tuesday. Send em back!
The migrants colonists, including 50 minors and five pregnant women, "were rescued by the SOS Mediterranee Search and Rescue team in two critical rescues in international waters off the coast of Libya on Friday, December 20th," said the NGO, which charters the Ocean Viking rescue ship along with medical charity Doctors Without Borders.
The first operation involved a rubber dinghy that had deflated and was carrying 112 "terrified" people on board, it said.
Fifty others were plucked from a wooden boat shortly before midnight the same day "in dangerous meteorological and maritime conditions," the NGO added.
The 50 could not be transported to Malta due to adverse weather conditions.
Italian authorities then gave permission for all the rescued migrants colonists to land in Taranto and the operation was carried out on Monday, SOS Mediterranee said.
It described both rescue operations as "extremely difficult."
"As the weather was rapidly and severely deteriorating, both cases would almost certainly have resulted in tragedies if help had arrived only a little later," said Nicola Stalla, the NGO's search and rescue coordinator onboard the Ocean Viking.
Italia renewed a widely criticised 2017 agreement in October with the Libyan coastguard to block migrants colonists trying to leave for Europe ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... Rights groups say Libya routinely picks up migrants colonists in the Mediterranean and brings them back to overcrowded detention centres, where many have been victims of abuse and forced labour.
Libya, wracked by conflict since the 2011 uprising against Moamer Qadaffy, has become a major transit route for migrants colonists from sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere hoping to reach Europe.
[IsraelTimes] Three suspects, all 17, arrested after cops stop their car and discover concealed weapon and bullet magazine.
Police conducting a stop and search Monday of three Arab Israeli high school students found a submachine gun hidden among schoolbooks in a bag they had with them.
The students, all aged 17, who attend a high school in the Galilee region, were arrested on suspicion of weapons trading and being in possession of a firearm, Israel Police said in a statement. Now they can join Friday protest school in Gaza
Police said that as part of a crackdown on illegal weapons in the Arab Israeli community they stopped a car the three students were in and during a search of their belongings uncovered a Carlo submachine gun, a reference to a homemade or craft-produced rudimentary version of the Carl Gustav submachine gun.
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A magazine for the gun was also found.
The Haifa Magistrate’s Court extended the suspects’ remand until Wednesday.
Police said that since the beginning of the year they have confiscated more than 4,700 weapons from the Arab Israeli community. In the northern district alone, police seized 440 weapons, including Carlo submachine guns, shot guns, M-16 assault rifles and pistols. In addition police found nearly 300 bombs ‐ including grenades.
Arab communities and leaders have demanded police step up enforcement to make their streets safe, saying the Israel Police largely ignores the violence in their communities, from family feuds and mafia pie fights to domestic violence and so-called honor killings. Illegal firearms are a particular concern.
Police adamantly reject the allegations of indifference and say they are doing everything they can to stem the violence.
[SD Union Trib] An Iranian fighter jet went down on Wednesday in the north of the country, near the border with Azerbaijan, Iran’s state television reported. The fate of the pilot was not immediately known. Insh'Allah maintenance?
The TV reported that the crash happened in the Sabalan mountainous region and that rescue teams and three search helicopters were looking for the pilot who was said to have contacted his base following the crash.
The fighter jet was a recently overhauled MiG-29. The pilot was test flying the plane and had taken off from the Tabriz air base in northwestern Iran earlier in the day. "What do I do with these leftover parts?"
An investigation was underway into the cause of the crash, the report also said.
Iran’s air force has an assortment of U.S.-made military aircraft purchased before the 1979 Islamic Revolution. It also has Russian-made MiG and Sukhoi planes. Decades of Western sanctions have made it hard to maintain the aging fleet.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/25/2019 10:49 ||
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#1
Strange they are taking these risks rather than hopping over to their fearsome F-5s.
[JP] According to Deir Ezzor 24, the attack was likely carried out by Israel and the target may have been an arms depot belonging to the Iranian militias.
Unidentified aircraft struck targets belonging to Iranian militias near Al-Mayadin east of Deir Ezzor in eastern Syria on Sunday, according to Deir EzZor 24, a local news source.
Powerful explosions were heard in the area as the attacks happened. According to Deir Ezzor 24, the attack was likely carried out by Israel and the target may have been an arms depot belonging to the Iranian militias.
The Syrian news source noted that Israeli aircraft have recently intensified air strikes on Iranian positions near Al-Bukamal, along the Syria-Iraq border. Al-Mayadin is located along the Euphrates.
On Sunday night, three people were killed in reported Israeli strikes in the Damascus area, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Hezbollah and Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) members are located in the area.
A political advisor to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khameni told Russian media that "there will be a response to Israeli attacks in Syria sooner or later, through the Syrian and Lebanese people," according to Kan news.
“Just you wait! You’ll be sorry! And your little dog, too!”
Rumors spread that the IRGC's Aerospace commander, General Amir-Ali Hajizadeh, was killed in Israeli attacks on Sunday night, but Iranian media later stated that Hajizadeh is "in perfect health."
Bummer. Better luck next time, guys!
During the strikes local reports indicated several weapons warehouses were hit, causing material damages.
#6
Reading the above comments earlier: "So... is Ruritania Catholic, or what?" Couple hours later, question answered: "Hey, Zenda's more fun than I remembered. Sigh.
Merry Four Score and Umpteenth Holiest Day to Islam!
[Rudaw] At least eight people including five children were killed Tuesday in Russian air strikes on northwest Syria, as La Belle France and The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund... appealed for an end to violence that has forced tens of thousands to flee.
Heightened regime and Russian bombardment has hit the jihadist-held province of Idlib since mid-December, as regime forces make steady advances on the ground despite an August ceasefire and UN calls for a de-escalation.
Continued on Page 49
[ALMASDARNEWS] The jihadist rebels have launched a counter-offensive this afternoon to retake the key town of Jarjanaz in southeastern Idlib.
Led by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else ...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State... (HTS), the jihadist rebels are reportedly attempting to advance from the town of al-Ghadfah towards the former bully boy stronghold of Jarjanaz.
No advances have been reported thus far; however, intense festivities are ongoing at this time.
The Syrian Arab Army captured Jarjanaz on Monday afternoon following a short battle with the jihadist rebels in southeastern Idlib.
In addition to capturing Jarjanaz, the Syrian Army has also captured more than 35 other towns and villages since launching their offensive in southeastern Idlib last Thursday.
[ALMASDARNEWS] The jihadist rebels of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else ...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State... (HTS) have refused to surrender the strategic city of Ma’arat al-Nu’man after peace talks facilitated by The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire... and Russia.
According to reports from the Idlib countryside, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham refused the terms of surrender offered by the Syrian Army; instead, they vowed to hold the city, despite their several setbacks recently.
"The forces of Evil of Hay’at Tahrir al-sham, which is a front for the the terrorist group Jabhat al-Nusra ...formally Jabhat an-Nusrah li-Ahli al-Sham (Support Front for the People of the Levant), also known as al-Qaeda in the Levant. They aim to establish a pan-Arab caliphate. Not the same one as the Islamic State, though .. ... ‐ have foiled all Syrian and Russian efforts to conciliate in Ma’arat al-Nu’man," a field source told Sputnik Arabic.
The source pointed out that the HTS forces of Evil have arrested a large number of civilians who had contacted the local reconciliation committees and the Russian reconciliation center to spare the region a military action.
They would add that the Syrian Army is just a few kilometers away from Ma’arat al-Nu’man’s southern gates. "Consequently, the army has no choice but to pursue the military operation being waged in the southern part of the governorate and storm the city after the great progress achieved during the few days."
On Monday, the Syrian Arab Army captured several areas from the jihadist rebels, including the strategic town of Jarjanaz, which is located southeast of Ma’arat al-Nu’man.
[ALMASDARNEWS] The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) continued their advance in the southeastern countryside of the Idlib Governorate this morning.
Backed by Russian Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s, the Syrian Arab Army’s 25th Special Mission Forces Division launched an attack on the jihadist-held town of al-Bursah in southeastern Idlib.
Following a short battle with Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else ...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State... and their hard boy allies, the Syrian Arab Army managed to establish full control over al-Bursah.
This latest advance by the Syrian Arab Army comes just hours after they seized the strategic town of Jarjanaz, which is located near the city of Ma’arat al-Nu’man.
Ma’arat al-Nu’man is currently the main target for the Syrian Arab Army and their allies from the Paleostinian-led al-Quds Brigade.
[DAWN] Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan, the abbreviation IRGC is a cognate form of Stürmabteilung (or SA), the term Supreme Guide is a cognate form of either Shah or Führer or maybe both, and they hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... has arrested the family of a young man killed in street violence that flared during last month's protests against fuel price hikes, Mehr news agency reported on Tuesday.
The family of Pouya Bakhtiari, who was "killed suspiciously during the recent riots", had been invited for talks with authorities, Mehr said, citing what it called an informed source.
They were found to have been "carrying out a counter-revolutionary project" and "anti-structural activities", said the agency, which is close to moderate conservatives in Iran.
"Consequently, these elements were arrested by a judicial order in order to protect the order and the security of the honourable people and others damaged by the rioters," it said without specifying which family members were taken into custody.
Bakhtiari was reportedly killed in Karaj city, west of Tehran, in street violence that erupted in mid-November during nationwide protests over a shock decision to hike petrol prices by as much as 200 per cent. He was 27.
His Instagram account, which is now reportedly run by his father, announced a ceremony marking 40 days since his death would be held at Karaj cemetery on Thursday.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/25/2019 00:00 ||
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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.
...Arabic for 
...the Pashtun equivalent of men...
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling 
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
[SD Union Trib] An Iranian fighter jet went down on Wednesday in the north of the country, near the border with Azerbaijan, Iran’s state television reported. The fate of the pilot was not immediately known.
[JP] According to Deir Ezzor 24, the attack was likely carried out by Israel and the target may have been an arms depot belonging to the Iranian militias.
...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State...
...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State...
...
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for 
