[Garowe] Elite troops guarding Villa Somalia, the official residence and office of the president, shot down one of the two drones sighted over the building, in what could raise serious security concerns in one of the most protected areas in the country.
According to officials, the two drones were hovering around the vicinity of the building but the presidential guards managed to bring one down. It is not clear who were the owners of the gadgets and the immediate mission around the palace.
The airspace within the residence is not public leading to the immediate response by the security forces, who are tasked to guard the president of Somalia. No single group has taken responsibility for the incident which happened on Friday evening.
This comes at the time reports indicate that hard boy groups - ISIS and al-Shabaab ... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda... have begun using drones to carry out kabooms. While ISIS forces of Evil are predominantly stationed in Public states, al-Shabaab is mostly in central and southern regions.
[ShabelleMedia] On Friday, the Somali National Army (SNA), in close collaboration with local communities, continued its strategic military operations targeting al-Shabaab ... the personification of Somali state failure... bases in central Somalia. The joint operation is focused on the area between Bulobarde District and Halgan village, key regions that have seen heightened holy warrior activity in recent months.
Speaking exclusively to Somali National Television (SNTV), Army officials confirmed that the operation has made significant strides, with several key milestones achieved in weakening the presence of snuffies in the region. The SNA has successfully targeted and dismantled several al-Shabaab strongholds, with reports indicating heavy losses among the holy warriors.
A bit bare of details, but we are to be assured that the fight against Al Shabaab continues.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] On February 1, US President Donald Trump announced that he had ordered airstrikes on targets in Somalia where one of the commanders of the terrorist group Islamic State (IS, a terrorist organization banned in Russia) was located.
“This morning, I ordered precision military airstrikes against a senior ISIS attack planner and other terrorists he recruited and led in Somalia,” the American leader wrote on the social media site Truth Social.
The head of the White House added that the terrorists posed a threat to the United States. According to him, the airstrikes destroyed the caves in which the terrorists were hiding. At the same time, as Trump noted, this happened without causing harm to civilians.
Earlier, NBC, citing the US Africa Command, said that the US military had struck the leader of the ISIS terrorist group in Somalia. The US government publicly named the target of the strike as the head of the group's branch in Somalia, Abdulkadir Mumin, who had secretly become the world leader of the terrorist organization.
American President Donald Trump ...The Hero of Butler, Pennsylvania... confirmed multiple Arclight airstrikes ...KABOOM!... s against the ISIS gunnies in the Bari region of Somalia, noting that the bombardments targeted a senior 'planner' who has been on the run in deep caves within the mountainous areas of Puntland ...a region in northeastern Somalia, centered on Garowe in the Nugaal province. Its leaders declared the territory an autonomous state in 1998. Puntland and the equally autonomous Somaliland seem to have avoided the clan rivalries and warlordism that have typified the rest of Somalia, which puts both places high on the list for Islamic subversion... Without disclosing the identity of the planner, Trump said the airstrikes destroyed several caves killing 'many terrorists' in the process. No non-combatants were killed or armed during the operations on Saturday, he said in a tweet.
"This morning I ordered precision Military air strikes on the Senior ISIS Attack Planner and other snuffies he recruited and led in Somalia. These killers, who we found hiding in caves, threatened the United States and our Allies," Trump said in a shocking statement.
"The strikes destroyed the caves they live in, and killed many snuffies without, in any way, harming civilians," he added.
Traditionally, such announcement comes from the US Africa Command, which has bases in Djibouti and trains the Danab Special Forces of the Somali National Army (SNA). Trump blames his predecessor — Joe The Big Guy Biden ...46th president of the U.S. Sleazy Dem machine politician, paterfamilias of the Biden Crime Family... , for failing to take action against ISIS gunnies in Somalia.
"Our military has targeted this ISIS Attack Planner for years, but Biden and his cronies wouldn’t act quickly enough to get the job done. I did! The message to ISIS and all others who would attack Americans is that "WE WILL FIND YOU, AND WE WILL KILL YOU," he said.
Pete Hegseth, the Defence Secretary, said the airstrikes were undertaken by the US Africa Command following the order by President Trump, but the government of Somalia was in charge of coordination.
In its assessment, the Pentagon said multiple operatives were killed, adding that no civilians were maimed. The statement corroborated Trump’s assessment.
Multiple sources confirmed to Garowe Online that approximately six airstrikes hit various locations in the al-Miskaad mountains, causing significant impact, particularly in the Qurac, Buqo, Wangable, and Dhasaan areas. The strikes have been part of ongoing military operations targeting ISIS bases in the Bari region, officials said.
For the last one month, Puntland security forces, bolstered by support from local communities, have escalated their campaign against 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.... , launching what they describe as an all-out offensive against the IS-Somalia murderous Moslems.
The operations aim to dismantle ISIS positions nestled in the rugged terrain, and authorities report significant territorial gains in their fight against the murderous Moslems. Last year, the State Department raised concerns about the capabilities of the ISIS murderous Moslems, terming them 'dangerous'.
While cautioning Somalia, the State Department warned that if actions are not taken, the group could expand territories in Somalia, consequently, affecting the fight against terrorism. In southern regions, Somalia is battling al-Shabaab ... an Islamic infestation centering on Somalia attempting to metastasize into Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and similar places, all ofwhich have enough problems without them... murderous Moslems.
In an interview with the Washington Post, Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud asked Trump to assist the country in the fight against terrorism, noting that 'we need your support in this war as we endeavour to stabilise Somalia'.
Trump’s direct involvement in Saturday's airstrikes showcases his commitment to assist the Horn of Africa nation in effectively fighting both al-Shabaab and ISIS.
…or his determination to push this thing to closure by winning the war. It remains to be seen whether he is actually interested in supporting either Somalia or Puntland beyond the short term.
America has close to 500 soldiers in Somalia whose primary duty is to train and equip local troops.
ISIS is based in Puntland, where it was established in 2015 by former Al-Shabaab leader Abdulkadir Mumin,
…that’s Somali-British ex-Al-Shabaab preacher Sheikh Abdulkadir Mumin or sometimes Abdul Qadir Mumin to you, bub. Show some respect! Born in Puntland in the early 1950s, he spent his forties in Sweden before moving to England in 2005. He preached to eager audiences (including Michael Adebolajo, involved in the murder of British soldier Lee Rigby) at Masjid Quba in Leicester and the Greenwich Islamic Centre in London, but it was in 2010 when he joined a press conference with Guantanamo Bay prisoner Moazzam Begg for the charity CAGE that MI-5 took an interest, driving his return to Puntland, where he joined Al Shabaab. Then in 2015 he and a mere two dozen followers pledged to Al Baghdadi and ISIS, growing tenfold within a year thanks to the romantic viciousness demonstrated by the Iraq/Syria caliphate and material support and training from ISIS in Yemen across the way…
and the group has now been under an offensive for two months by the troops of Somali Federal State, which saw the capture of dozens of its bases and murder of many fighters, including foreigners, according to local authorities.
The Pentagon’s counterterrorism strategy in Africa has been strained as two key partners, Chad and Niger, ousted U.S. forces last year and took over key bases that the U.S. military had used to train and conduct missions against terrorist groups across the Sahel, the vast arid expanse south of the Sahara Desert.
U.S. military officials have warned that IS cells have received increasing direction from the group’s leadership that relocated to northern Somalia. That has included how to kidnap Westerners for ransom, how to learn better military tactics, how to hide from drones and how to build their own small quadcopters.
A U.S. military airstrike in Somalia last May targeted IS militants and killed three, according to U.S. Africa Command.
The number of IS militants in the country are estimated to be in the hundreds, mostly scattered in the Cal Miskaat mountains in Puntland’s Bari region, according to the International Crisis Group.
[IsraelTimes] In addition to fresh antisemitic vandalism in Sydney, a home in Perth on the other edge of Australia has similarly been targeted with anti-Jewish graffiti and a swastika, according to local media.
[IsraelTimes] Cars and houses in Sydney have been daubed in antisemitic graffiti, police said early Sunday, the latest in a string of incidents targeting Jews in Australia’s biggest city.
The spate of attacks in recent months has alarmed the country’s Jewish community, drawn criticism from Israel and placed pressure on the government of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who faces re-election in polls that must be held by May.
In the latest incident, police say that vehicles and residences were damaged with antisemitic graffiti in Sydney’s east, an area with a significant Jewish community, overnight.
“Crime scenes have been established,” police say in a statement, a day after they doubled to 40 the number of officers in a special task force set up in December to target antisemitic crime in the country’s most populous state of New South Wales.
David Ossip, president of the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies, says in the attack “cars and homes were defaced with hate speech for the sole purpose of intimidating and terrorizing the Jewish community and destabilizing Sydney’s social harmony.”
Another bad night in Sydney. More antisemitic vandalism in Kingsford and a petrol can found in a vehicle in Rose Bay after a police pursuit. Further evidence of a situation out of control. pic.twitter.com/bVTIFw8f3O
#1
It's amazing that a country that was able to find people going outside for a walk during the COVID tyranny can't seem to find the people committing these acts.
Australia has turned into a clownshow seemingly overnight.
A very incomplete collection of whatever articles I happened across while collecting the usual mostly WoT articles for Rantburg. I’ve seen claims that even before President Trump announced that anti-Israel/anti-Jewish foreign campus agitators would lose their visas and sent home, following the summer break there were fewer incidents, but I have not spent the time to research the subject.
In the final days of the Biden administration, the federal Department of Education has resolved a small number of its many remaining Title VI cases involving allegations of antisemitic and anti-Palestinian discrimination.
The resolutions at the University of Washington, Emory University, Lehigh University in Pennsylvania and Howard County Public Schools in Maryland come in the waning days of the administration’s closely scrutinized handling of campus issues during the Israel-Hamas war.
The Trump administration will now take over a portfolio that includes dozens more outstanding cases. Trump has signaled hostility to both higher education and public education, and has even floated the idea of shuttering the Department of Education altogether.
A new institute dedicated to eradicating Israel has been founded by a collective of elite professors. But some pro-Israel academics have blown their whistle, with one vocal member likening the institute to a “terrorist think tank” that should be reformed.
The Institute for Critical Zionism Studies (ICSZ) was founded in 2023 by former Sarah Lawrence professor Emmaia Gelman — a self described Irish-Jewish queer New Yorker who is known to have cheered for Hamas in a protest the day after October 7th and who is known to justify Palestinian violence against Israelis as retribution.
[X]
EXCLUSIVE: Amy Wax has sued the University of Pennsylvania for race discrimination, arguing that Penn punishes speech that offends racial minorities but not speech that offends Jews.
Here is a table from the complaint, which was filed in federal court this morning.🧵 pic.twitter.com/mIdKNDftfs
An investigation into an Oakland, California English teacher’s conduct recently concluded he created a “divisive” and “unwelcoming” environment for Jewish students. The independent probe found Arvind Reddy of Montera Middle School had “posted ‘antisemitic materials’ in and near his classroom” during the previous school year, The Jewish News of Northern California reports. The posters (pictured) — which Reddy “refused to take down” — read “END GENOCIDE NOW,” “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” and Nelson Mandela’s quote “Our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.”
Harvard settles 2 lawsuits over antisemitism on campus
Among other commitments, university to adopt International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism, report its responses to harassment for next five years, form official partnership with a university in Israel instead of divesting.
Both lawsuits accused Harvard of violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars federal funds recipients from allowing discrimination based on race, religion and national origin. The settlements include unspecified monetary terms. Harvard did not admit wrongdoing in agreeing to settle.
Students Against Antisemitism, a Harvard group, sued last January, accusing Harvard of selectively enforcing its anti-discrimination policies to avoid protecting Jewish students from harassment, ignoring their pleas for protection, and hiring professors who supported anti-Jewish violence and spread antisemitic propaganda.
Then in June, the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and Jewish Americans for Fairness in Education filed another lawsuit accusing the university of ignoring campus antisemitism.
The lead plaintiff in the SAA lawsuit, Shabbos Kestenbaum, has refused to accept the settlement and intends to continue litigation on his own, the Crimson reported.
American Historical Association Council vetoes resolution about ‘scholasticide’ in Gaza
The council of the American Historical Association (AHA) vetoes a resolution passed earlier this month condemning Israel’s “scholasticide” in Gaza. The resolution, which was approved 428-88 at the AHA’s annual conference, accused Israel of intentionally destroying the Palestinian enclave’s education system amid the 15-month war against Hamas. However, that resolution was subject to the approval of the AHA council. Last Friday, the council concluded that the measure “contravenes the Association’s Constitution and Bylaws, because it lies outside the scope of the Association’s mission and purpose.”
The average United Auto Workers training session involves discussions on how members can negotiate strong health programs, meet federal safety standards, and investigate work accidents. For UAW chapter 4811, which serves the University of California, it involves a panel with the Palestinian Youth Movement, a leading anti-Israel group that's organized protests across the country condemning the "brutal US-Israeli genocide."
The chapter held that panel last summer as part of "four days of classes, conversations, and workshops" through which "members learned about the critical tasks ahead of us: winning strong contracts, helping hundreds of thousands of new workers form unions, and continuing to fight for justice in Palestine." Those classes came in the wake of a UAW-backed strike within the UC system that centered not on wage or working hour disputes but rather on the arrests of illegal anti-Israel protesters at the University of California, Los Angeles, months prior.
The ordeal reflects the growing influence unions like the UAW and American Federation of Teachers have on anti-Israel campus unrest. Those unions typically represent graduate students who work for their universities—a far cry from the high-paid administrators who determine school rules. And yet, they've increasingly provided institutional support for controversial activism.
Those grad students, Frank notes, launched a strike in 2022 to obtain significant increases in wages, childcare subsidies, and paid leave—provisions that he said are "bankrupting the University of California." Shortly thereafter, "they tried to go on strike again, but this time, it's for the right to discriminate against Jews with these protests."
A similar dynamic has emerged at the University of Michigan. There, the Graduate Employees' Organization (GEO), which also represents grad student workers, has promoted and endorsed anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions campaigns on campus. It's done so in part thanks to support from the American Federation of Teachers, the country's second-largest teachers' union, which provides the GEO with legal defense and strategic support and collects 18 percent of union dues in exchange.
Columbia University identifies 2 more activists who disrupted Israeli professor’s class
Masked anti-Israel activists barged into Professor Avi Shilon’s class on modern Israeli history last week, on the first day of the spring semester, accusing the lesson of fomenting “genocide.” The university said last week that it had identified one of the protesters, a “Columbia participant.”
The university says in a statement that its investigation into the incident has identified two more of the activists. The protesters are not Columbia students, but “from an affiliated institution,” the statement says. The protesters have been barred from Columbia’s campus and “referred to their home institution for further investigation and discipline,” the university says.
The affiliate institutions in this case are Barnard, Union Theological Seminary, and Teachers College. In addition to condemning the behavior, the school's interim president has also discussed the possibility of bringing NYPD officers back onto the campus. Finally, there is also a new effort to create a mask policy on campus which would prevent activists from hiding their identities when they pull these stunts.
NY governor condemns NYC university system’s faculty union for Israel boycott vote
Resolution passed by CUNY’s Professional Staff Congress, representing 30,000 members, puts organization at odds with the university administration and state government. The union, the Professional Staff Congress (PSC), has been a battleground for anti-Israel activism for years. Jewish professors said the boycott resolution was the latest discriminatory measure by the union, their sole labor representation. The resolution also divided the union’s delegate assembly, the governing body that voted on the measure.
The resolution passed PSC’s delegate assembly by a close vote of 73-70, on January 23, the union confirmed. The union’s executive council and principal officers opposed the resolution, the PSC told The Times of Israel.
OSU student protesters target Israeli veterans wounded on October 7
Ohio State University activists led by the campus branch of Students for Justice in Palestine demonstrate against lecture by 2 soldiers hurt in Hamas attack who are on Belev Echad American campus tour. The protest gained attention among pro-Israel students, causing attendance at the IDF veterans’ lecture to swell. The morning of the event, 45 attendees had registered, but around 130 showed up.
“We didn’t know what to expect,” Saar Arie told The Times of Israel in a phone interview, recounting how he and Maya Desiatnik arrived to find around 60 protesters outside the event in Columbus.
“The first couple seconds I was halfway scared, but after I saw the security at the place and I saw all of the great people that came to support us I wasn’t scared anymore,” he said.
Columbia anti-Israel protesters post ‘anonymous’ video of activists blocking campus sewage lines
Anti-Israel protesters at Columbia University in New York City post a video of activists vandalizing the campus by spraying red paint on a building and blocking campus sewage lines. Columbia University Apartheid Divest, a coalition of student groups led by the campus branches of Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace, posts the video showing a vandal dousing Columbia’s Kravis Hall with red paint. The video also shows what appears to be a row of blocked toilets. Text accompanying the post says the bathroom is at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs.
U of Michigan suspends Students for Justice in Palestine’s local chapter for 2 years
A pro-Palestinian group at the University of Michigan has been suspended for two years and will lose its funding in connection with protesters’ demands for divestiture from companies doing business with Israel. Students Allied for Freedom and Equality, also known as SAFE, was accused of violating the university’s standards of conduct for recognized student organizations following a protest last spring outside a regent’s home and a demonstration without school permission on its Ann Arbor campus.
2 High School Basketball Coaches Fired for Antisemitism and Pro-Hamas flags: Denver
[ToniAiraksinen] A Colorado School is facing backlash after their Palestinian baseball coach refused to shake hands with Jewish students on the opposing team, and another staffer also showed up to the Jewish school and decked out the rafters with keffiyehs and Palestinian flags with him.
The basketball game happened on the 22th of January, and many of my readers in the Denver area sent the story to me. Their —“Coach O”, also known as Samir Omar —arrived in a Lotus School uniform and keffiyeh has been fired (as well as Sami Jabai, another coach who wore a keffiyeh).
“The coaches were suspended for 1 day until the end of the investigation, and as of last Friday morning, January 24th, both were fired,” said Lotus School Executive Director Mehmet Nalcaci in an email he sent at 4:45pm EST Wednesday.
According to Lotus School executive director Mehmet Nalcaci, two coaches wore a keffiyeh and a Palestinian scarf flag, which may have triggered the events.
“As a public charter school, Lotus School for Excellence (LSE) does not encourage or tolerate the display of any political or religious symbols.
Encourge, Mehmet? Perhaps not. But clearly both of your coaches believed their display was tolerated or they would not have done it.
In response, we took immediate action and suspended the high school basketball coach and his assistant, both of whom are hourly part-time staff and not full-time employees.”
[FOXNEWS] Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) has arrested two illegal migrants who the agency says were running a drugs and narcotics operation in Maryland and Georgia.
Officials say they busted the two migrants on Thursday, just one day after prosecutors in Queens indicted 10 Tren de Aragua gang members and their associates for similar operations in New York City.
HSI Baltimore posted an image to X of one of the migrants -- with a chain wrapped around his waist -- being led into a law enforcement vehicle by two HSI agents.
The agency also posted images of the arsenal of guns and ammunition they seized as part of their operation. They said they seized more than 30 weapons.
HSI Baltimore said the operation to apprehend the duo was part of a joint operation with HSI Atlanta. ATF's Baltimore field division, the Baltimore Police Department and the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency also coordinated with the agencies in their take-down.
The two illegal immigrants were not named. Fox News Digital has reached out to HSI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for more details on the migrants and the scope of their operations.
In New York City on Wednesday, police said that eight illegal immigrants were now in custody charged with running an extensive arms and drugs-running operation spanning at least six states.
Prosecutors said they had plans to expand on an international level to Colombia.
#3
We know, 10 millions times over, the root cause is the Obama/Biden/Democrat party and Globalists with their proven failure called OPEN BORDERS.
On a less serious note.
Couldn't help but chuckle a little, when I read They call 30 weapons "Massive Gun Running". To some Southerners, that's just a basic family collection. 🤭
[Rudaw] The joint deployment of Iraqi and Kurdish forces has curtailed 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.... (ISIS) activities in the Kurdistan Region’s southernmost reaches, once a hotbed of jihadist activity because of a security gap, the local mayor said on Saturday.
"The movement of armed fighters and sleeper cells of ISIS has ceased in the Kifri border areas, especially after the deployment of a joint brigade regiment equipped with surveillance cameras and advanced security devices, which has had a significant positive impact on eliminating ISIS fighters' movements," Kifri mayor Sahir Ali told Rudaw.
Kifri is part of Sulaimani’s Garmiyan administration and borders federally-held areas. Erbil and Baghdad are working together to close a security vacuum that exists between their areas of control and allows ISIS forces of Evil space to manoeuvre.
Ali said that additional Peshmerga forces are present in the area, particularly in the borders of Nawjul, Ghara, Kariz, and other locations, and that "this provides reassurance to people."
A commander of Peshmerga forces in Garmiyan told Rudaw on the condition of anonymity that "Each Peshmerga brigade in this border has been assigned a specific area to oversee security. Some of these designated areas fall within security vacuum zones."
"Currently, about 80% of the security gaps in Garmiyan have been filled and the majority of these areas are now secured by Peshmerga forces," the commander added. "A joint brigade regiment is stationed on the Garmiyan border, which has been effective, but there remains a security gap of approximately eight to 10 kilometers between this regiment and the Popular Mobilization Forces that hasn't been filled."
[IsraelTimes] Israelis rallied on behalf of hostages held in the Gaza Strip Saturday as they whiplashed between jubilation for three more captives released hours earlier and worries for the fates of dozens yet to be released from hellish, subhuman conditions.
With Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu set to meet US President Donald Trump ...So far he's been unkillable, and they've tried.... in Washington this week, both the main hostage rally and a weekly protest featured appeals from relatives of hostages thanking the American leader and demanding that the Israeli premier not allow pressure from far-right political allies to scuttle the ceasefire and hostage release deal reached with Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... ’s Hamas ..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,... terror group.
"Today we were filled with joy and hope to see families reunited," Romi Cohen, twin sister of hostage soldier Nimrod Cohen, told the Hostage Square gathering. "This was only possible because of the deal, it is the result of a massive 15-month effort by everyone, especially President Trump and the negotiating team."
"Keep fighting," she urged the crowd. "Don’t let the deal collapse before everyone comes home."
Hamas has so far released 18 hostages — civilians, soldiers and Thai nationals — during a ceasefire that began on January 19, including the three men freed on Saturday: Keith Siegel, Ofer Calderon and Yarden Bibas.
Seventy-six of the 251 hostages kidnapped by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 34 confirmed dead by the IDF.
Plans are in place for the release of at least 20 more hostages under the first phase of the deal, but negotiations for the release of the rest under future stages are only set to begin this week.
Netanyahu, facing pressure from right-wing allies to end the ceasefire and resume battling Hamas, has reportedly asked the Israel Defense Forces to draw up plans for restarting the 15-month-old war, Channel 13 news said Saturday.
At an anti-government protest for the hostages outside Defense Ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv, relatives of hostages accused Netanyahu of already laying the groundwork to torpedo the deal but spin the move so Hamas is blamed.
#1
Taking hostages was Hamas' key decision that not only ensured its survival but also maintained its and its sponsors' political power and relevance after 10/7.
This establishes a dangerous precedent.
The West should be on alert for the danger of attacks that enable the transfer of hundreds, if not thousands of Western civilians to the custody of avowed enemies.
Cruise ships and tourist infrastructure in dangerous locations would be vulnerable to such attacks.
Also there could be abductions of traveling individuals or families. Or even abductions of ordinary residents of Western nations to adversarial countries.
I cannot pass judgment over people who are in a situation I've never experienced, but objectively this creates dangerous incentives.
[IsraelTimes] Military says strikes targeted armed terror operatives amid ongoing operation in northern West Bank
The Israeli military on Saturday said it carried out two dronezaps on terror operatives in the northern West Bank, with Paleostinians reporting four people killed and several others maimed.
One dronezap targeted a group of armed Paleostinian terror operatives in the Jenin area in the northern West Bank, the army said. Another strike, in the city of Qabatiya, near Jenin, targeted a car with several terror operatives in it.
The military said that further details would be provided later.
The Paleostinian Authority health ministry reported two dead in the dronezap in Jenin and another two dead in the strike in Qabatiya. Paleostinian officials said the strike in Jenin killed a 14-year-old.
Two other people were also taken to a hospital after being maimed in the Jenin attack, according to the Paleostinian Red Islamic Thingy.
The strikes came amid a major counter-terrorism operation in the northern West Bank.
Jenin governor Kamal Abu al-Rub told AFP that the teenager, Ahmad Sadi, and the two others "were hit by an occupation drone when they were in the street."
The ongoing IDF offensive, dubbed Operation Iron Wall, has primarily focused on the city and refugee camp of Jenin but on Monday expanded to Tulkarem.
Visiting Jenin Wednesday, Defense Minister Israel Katz vowed the IDF would remain in the camp even after the military operation there, "to ensure terror does not return."
The West Bank has seen a surge in violence since Hamas ..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,... ’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel out of the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... Strip ignited the war there.
Since then troops have arrested some 6,000 wanted Paleostinians across the West Bank, including more than 2,350 affiliated with Hamas. According to the Paleostinian Authority health ministry, more than 858 West Bank Paleostinians have been killed in that time. The IDF says the vast majority of them were button men killed in exchanges of fire, rioters who clashed with troops or bully boyz carrying out attacks.
There has also been a significant uptick in settler violence against Paleostinians since the start of the war.
During the same period, 46 people, including Israeli security personnel, have been killed in terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank. Another eight members of the security forces were killed in festivities with terror operatives in the West Bank.
Troops of the Bislamach Brigade — the IDF’s School for Infantry Corps Professions and Squad Commanders in peacetime — entered the town overnight, and have so far located several weapons, the military says.
Last week, a drone strike in Tamun killed 10 Palestinian terror operatives.
The ongoing IDF offensive, dubbed Operation Iron Wall, has primarily focused on the city and refugee camp of Jenin but also expanded to Tulkarem last week and now to Tamun.
IDF says it targeted 3 West Bank terror cells in strikes last night, including freed prisoner
[IsraelTimes] The IDF says it targeted Palestinian terrorists in three separate aerial strikes within several hours in the northern West Bank last night, including a cell that was on its way to carry out an imminent attack, confirming that it took out a prisoner set free as part of a 2023 deal with Hamas.
The military says the strike on the cell on its way to carry out a terror attack occurred in Qabatiya, with secondary explosions observed as a result of bombs that were in the car going off.
That strike, the IDF says, killed terror operatives Salah Zakarneh and Abd al-Hadi Kamil, the latter of whom was released as part of a hostage deal in November 2023.
The IDF publishes footage of the Qabatiya strike.
Video can be seen at the link.
The two other strikes occurred in Jenin, the army says, adding that they targeted two armed terror cells.
The Palestinian Authority health ministry reported two killed in the Qabatiya strike, two killed in one of the Jenin strikes, and 16-year-old Ahmad al-Sadi killed in the other Jenin strike along with others critically wounded.
Alawneh had been previously detained by Israel, and was released in the November 2023 hostage-ceasefire deal with Hamas.
He is the fourth Palestinian released in the November 2023 deal to have been killed by Israel.
A separate drone strike in Jenin this evening killed three more Palestinians, according to media reports.
المقــاوم عبد عصام عــلاونة، أحد الأسرى الذين حررتهم المـــقاومة خلال اتفاق تبادل التهدئة بالحرب عام 2023، واستشـــهد قبل قليل بقصف طيران الاحتلال مركبة في بلدة قباطية جنوب جنين. pic.twitter.com/Ks6ROJjfXs
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/02/2025 6:10 Comments ||
Top||
#2
He is the fourth Palestinian released in the November 2023 deal to have been killed by Israel.
Random coincidence, or is someone keeping a list?
Given the huge number of Paleos that have been arrested for violent misbehavior and subsequently released as part of some deal, it may be impossible to swing a cat without hitting one. One the other hand, there is historical precedent for hunting such creatures down. Paging Mr. Wiesenthal to the white courtesy phone.
As for the bowl haircut, Moe Howard went pretty far with one. And from an image processing/target-acquisition point of view, it gives a nice sharp high contrast edge to lock on to.
[Rudaw] Three people were killed and six were maimed in a boom-mobileing in northern Syria on Saturday, according to reports.
"A boom-mobilewent kaboom! near a position of ’National Army’ factions on al-Rabitah Street in Manbij city in eastern Aleppo, leaving several people injured," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) stated, referring to the Ottoman Turkish-backed militias of the Syrian National Army (SNA).
The White Helmets, a volunteer search and rescue organization, said three people were killed and six were maimed in the earth-shattering kaboom, which also caused two fires.
The perpetrator of the attack has not immediately been identified.
The attack took place on a day of multiple festivities between Kurdish forces and militias in northern Syria.
Fighting has raged between the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the SNA in northern Syria for more than a month. The SNA have carried out intense attacks on SDF-held areas near Manbij, including Tishreen Dam and Qere Qozaq bridge on the Euphrates River.
Ten fighters from the SNA were killed on Saturday, according to SOHR.
The Women’s Protection Units (YPJ), affiliated with the SDF, destroyed a "Ottoman Turkish army tank and radar system," the watchdog stated.
An SDF drone also destroyed "a tank and an armored vehicle belonging to the Ottoman Turkish forces," the statement from SOHR added.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda...
... the personification of Somali state failure...
...46th president of the U.S. Sleazy Dem machine politician, paterfamilias of the Biden Crime Family...
...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 a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
