#5
"Salve, slave of our Savior, O jewel,
And His maven of urban renewal
Whose Vatican crypt
Holds what slivers weren't shipped --
Bravely, boldly! -- to rule Istanbul."
[ShabelleMedia] Heavy fighting ... as opposed to the more usual name-calling or slapsy... broke out late Saturday night between Somali government forces and al-Shabaab ... the personification of Somali state failure... murderous Moslems on the outskirts of Mogadishu, locals said.
The clash occurred in the Elasha Biyaha area after al-Shabaab fighters launched a surprise attack on a military base located in the district. The assault triggered an intense shootout between the two sides.
Witnesses told Shabelle Radio by phone that they heard heavy weaponry being exchanged throughout the night. The situation returned to normality after the battle had ceased.
Casualties were reported, though the exact number of dead or injured remains unclear as of Sunday morning. Security authorities have yet to release an official statement regarding the incident.
The Elasha Biyaha area, located southwest of the capital, has previously witnessed similar attacks by the bully boy group, which seeks to oust the UN-backed Somali government.
Somali government deployed elite police and intellgence soldiers to the area during the Holy month of Ramadan, to avert possible al-Shabaab attacks against the capital city.
[Garowe] As the third phase of operations against ISIS forces of Evil starts in northern Somalia, the 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... Defense Forces killed over 40 fighters, Saturday, officials said, in a move that further weakens the group, which is fighting to control the region.
The Puntland forces are working closely with the US Africa Command and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the crackdown, with the two partners providing important aerial surveillance operations, which are critical in seizing strategic bases.
According to military officials, the latest operation targeted ISIS bases in the Togga Miraale area within the Bari region, where the forces of Evil have reportedly been hiding since the operation Lightning was initiated earlier this year.
"Our forces dealt a decisive blow to the terrorists, clearing key command sites and reclaiming strategic ground," General Mohammed Mohamud Faadhigo, spokesperson for the operation, told news hounds. "Togga Miiraale had long served as one of their last major refuges."
The offensive also effectively foiled a planned suicide kaboom by the hard boys, who were going after the Puntland military base within the expansive mountainous Cal-Miskaad region. The attack disrupted the hard boys' activities, officials noted.
Military commanders described the area’s complex geography, deep gorges, and steep mountain ranges as a longtime advantage for forces of Evil seeking cover. But the success provided yet another important victory for the group, officials added.
"Togga Miiraale will be remembered as the place where ISIS met its final defeat in Somalia," one commander said, noting that a third phase of the offensive is now underway to eliminate remaining cells scattered across the region.
Puntland is fighting to eliminate the ISIS forces of Evil within the Bari region, which is a gateway to the strategic commercial capital of Puntland — Bosaso, which is situated along the Indian Ocean coastline in Somalia.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
04/21/2025 2025-04-21 00:26 ||
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[66 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
[IsraelTimes] Court hands out sentences of up to 66 years for 40 defendants, including prominent opponents of President Saied; French intellectual Bernard Henri-Levy said ordered jailed in absentia
A Tunisian court has handed down jail sentences of up to 66 years to multiple defendants, including prominent opposition figures, in a mass trial criticized by rights groups.
The trial, decried by a defense lawyer as a "masquerade," is of unprecedented scale with around 40 defendants including vocal critics of President Kais Saied.
A prosecutor cited on Saturday by local media announced sentences ranging from 13 to 66 years for the defendants, accused of "conspiracy against state security" and "belonging to a terrorist group."
However,
some people cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go... a list communicated to AFP by several lawyers, and "subject to official confirmation," indicates minimum sentences of four years.
Among those sentenced were well-known opposition figures, lawyers and business people, with some already in prison for two years while others were in exile or still free.
Appeals are planned, defense lawyer Abdessatar Messaoudi said.
Bassam Khawaja of Human Rights Watch posted on X: "The court did not give even a semblance of a fair trial." The charges, he said, "appear unfounded and based on no credible evidence."
According to the list supplied by lawyers, those accused who are abroad, including French intellectual Bernard Henri-Levy, received 33-year jail terms.
The same penalty was handed down to feminist activist Bochra Belhaj Hmida and the former head of the presidential office, Nadia Akacha.
Issam Chebbi and Jawhar Ben Mbarek of the opposition National Salvation Front coalition, as well as lawyer Ridha Belhaj and activist Chaima Issa, were sentenced to 18 years behind bars, Messaoudi told AFP.
HARSHEST PENALTY
Activist Khayam Turki was handed a 48-year term while businessman Kamel Eltaief received the harshest penalty — 66 years in prison, the list showed.
Turki’s cousin, Hayder Turki, told AFP he was "very saddened" by the verdict, saying: "He doesn’t deserve this — he’s a great man, his crime was being involved in politics."
Two former leaders of the Islamist Ennahdha party,
...the Muslim Brotherhood in Tunisia...
which was Saied’s main rival, were also sentenced. Abdelhamid Jelassi and Noureddine Bhiri received 13 and 43 years respectively, according to the list.
Kamel Jendoubi, a rights advocate and former minister tried in absentia, decried a "judicial liquidation" by the courts.
"This is not a judiciary ruling, but a political decree executed by judges under orders, by complicit prosecutors and by a justice minister" who all serve "a paranoid autocrat," Jendoubi charged.
Since Saied launched a power grab in the summer of 2021 and assumed total control, rights advocates and opposition figures have decried a rollback of freedoms in the North African country where the 2011 Arab Spring began.
Late Friday, defense lawyers denounced the trial after the judge finished reading the accusations and began deliberation without hearing from either the prosecution or the defense.
One lawyer, Samia Abbou, told AFP there were "flagrant violations of judicial procedure" with the accused "not heard" during the "masquerade."
Friday’s hearing lasted much of the day and was held amid tight security. Media and foreign diplomats were barred from the proceedings.
Since the trial began on March 4, defense lawyers have repeatedly called for all the defendants to appear in court, including at least six who went on a hunger strike.
The lawyers denounced the case as "empty," while HRW said the trial was taking place in the context of repression with Saied "weaponizing the judicial system to target opponents and dissidents."
Analyst Hatem Nafti posted on X that any acquittal in the mass trial "would have negated the conspiratorial narrative that the regime has relied on since 2021" and "accepted by a large part of the population" relying on restricted media coverage.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
04/21/2025 2025-04-21 01:40 ||
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Top|| File under: Muslim Brotherhood
#1
The fact that Ennahda Party (Muslim Brotherhood) was attacked indicates that the shotgun approach seems to indicte a reduction of political party influence and a return to Strong Man rule that dominated Tunisia for years following its independence.
[FRANCE24] Gunmen killed at least 56 people earlier this week in central Nigeria's Benue state, the governor's office said Saturday, sharply revising a previous toll of 17.
Clashes between nomadic cattle herders and farmers over land use are common in central Nigeria. Governor Hyacinth Alia had earlier blamed the attacks in the Ukum and Logo local government areas on "suspected herdsmen".
With many herders belonging to the MoslemFulani ... a peculiarly brutal tribe of Moslem herdsmen infesting Mali, Niger, Nigeria, and probably other places that are light on law and order and heavy on tribal identity... ethnic group, and many farmers Christian, the attacks in Nigeria's so-called Middle Belt often take on a religious or ethnic dimension. Two attacks by unidentified button men earlier this month in neighbouring Plateau state left more than 100 people dead.
"The corpse count has jumped to 56 from the attacks as at the last count," Solomon Iorpev, the governor's media advisor, told AFP following Alia's visit to the scene.
That figure could rise as search-and-rescue operations continue, he added.
The attacks happened Thursday night into Friday, sparking the deployment of security forces.
The government-owned News Agency of Nigeria reported over the weekend that the country's defence minister was visiting Plateau state.
Back-to-back massacres — more than 50 people killed in two districts — in Plateau state this month have marked a serious escalation in the state, with authorities scrambling to contain the attacks in a region where ethnic tensions have long simmered.
Plateau state authorities have claimed the killings were part of a "genocide" that was "sponsored by terrorists".
Critics say that rhetoric masks the true causes of the conflict — disputes over land and a failure by authorities and police to govern the countryside.
Since 2019, the festivities have claimed more than 500 lives in the region and forced 2.2 million people to leave their homes, according to research firm SBM Intelligence.
A local herder group denounced the Plateau state killings while also noting that its own members have been under attack by farmers.
[GEO.TV] The US has carried out at least 29 air raids across Yemen this evening, Al Jazeera reported, citing reports from the Yemeni media affiliated with the Houthis. The attacks targeted Sanaa, Amran, Marib and Hodeidah governorate in western Yemen.
Rescue under way after US strike hits market in Yemen's Sanaa
[GEO.TV] At least 12 people were killed and 30 injured after a US Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... hit a crowded market in 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 capital, Sanaa, according to Iran's Houthi sock puppets ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The legitimate Yemeni government has accused the them of having ties to the Iranian government. Honest they did. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews They like shooting off... ummm... missiles that they would have us believe they make at home in their basements. On the plus side, they did murder Ali Abdullah Saleh, which was the only way the country was ever going to be rid of him... -affiliated media, Al Jazeera reported.
The strike reportedly caused major damage to surrounding buildings and commercial shops.
Emergency services are continuing to search for survivors believed to be trapped under the rubble.
The Houthis, also known as Ansar Allah, blamed Washington for escalating the conflict. "We was just funning with some missiles and drones, and these aggressionists escalated things. Outrageous!"
The US launched a military campaign against the Houthis in March, following a series of regional attacks, with dozens killed in the ongoing offensive.
US airstrikes kill 12 people in Yemen’s capital, Houthi rebels say
[IsraelTimes] US Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s targeting 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 capital killed 12 people and maimed 30 others, the Iran's Houthi sock puppets ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The legitimate Yemeni government has accused the them of having ties to the Iranian government. Honest they did. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews They like shooting off... ummm... missiles that they would have us believe they make at home in their basements. On the plus side, they did murder Ali Abdullah Saleh, which was the only way the country was ever going to be rid of him... rebels say.
The deaths mark the latest in America’s intensified campaign of strikes targeting the rebels. The US military’s Central Command declines to answer questions about the strike or discuss civilian casualties from its campaign.
The Houthis describe the strike as hitting the Farwa neighborhood market in Sanaa’s Shuub district. That area has been targeted before by the Americans.
Footage aired by the Houthis’ al-Masirah satellite news channel shows damage to vehicles and buildings in the area, with screaming onlookers holding what appeared to be a dead child. Others wail on stretchers heading into a hospital
Strikes overnight into Monday also hit other areas of the country, including Yemen’s Amran, Hodeida, Marib and Saada governorates.
The strikes come after US airstrikes hit the Ras Isa fuel port in Yemen last week, killing at least 74 people and wounding 171 others.
The strikes follow the resumption of negotiations in Rome between the US and 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 the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program, which Washington has linked to its attacks in Yemen.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/21/2025 00:00 ||
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[169 views]
Top|| File under: Houthis
#2
They’ve been talking about it, Skidmark. I realize it takes time to organize a fighting force, but I am not sanguine that Yemenis can manage anything meaningful.
[IsraelTimes] The IDF says a Palestinian gunman opened fire on troops at a checkpoint near the West Bank settlement outpost of Homesh a short while ago.
The troops returned fire, “neutralizing” the attacker, the army says. No soldiers were hurt.
[IsraelTimes] 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 civil defense agency reports that Israeli Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s since dawn on Sunday have killed at least 25 people across the Gaza Strip, including women and kiddies.
"Since dawn today, the occupation’s airstrikes have killed 20 people and injured dozens more, including children and women across the Gaza Strip," Mahmud Bassal, front man for the civil defense agency, tells AFP.
In a separate statement later, the agency reports that five people were killed in an Israeli dronezap on a group of civilians in eastern Rafah.
The figures cannot be independently verified and do not differentiate between combatants and civilians.
[IsraelTimes] A West Bank Palestinian, 30, illegally entered Israel and pretended to be a carer for an elderly woman in northern Israel, Israel Police says in a statement.
Police raided the northern village of Deir al-Asad on Tuesday, where they found and arrested the Ramallah resident, who was caring for the 90-year-old woman, police state. The woman presented herself as a Jerusalem resident.
Police discovered that the woman’s family also works in the village, the statement reads.
An indictment was filed against the woman for illegally residing in Israel as well as a request to extend her custody until the end of legal proceedings at the Acre Magistrate’s Court, police say.
Could be futue jihadis, could merely be getting work under the table. Or they could be both, depending on day, mood, and how far plans have advanced.
[AnNahar] Four people were killed and four others wounded when unexploded ordnance blew up inside a Lebanese Army vehicle in the southern town of Braiqaa on Sunday, media report said.
The reports said the dead include an army officer and two soldiers.
A soldier had been killed Monday in an explosion inside a Hezbollah tunnel in south Lebanon.
"While a specialized army unit was carrying out an engineering survey of a site" in south Lebanon's Tyre district, "a suspicious object exploded, killing a member of the unit and moderately injuring three others," an army statement said.
[AnNahar] Lebanese authorities have detained several people who they say were planning to launch rockets into Israel and confiscated the weapons they were intending to use, the military said Sunday.
The army said in a statement that the arrests are linked to other detentions announced earlier this week. It added that as military intelligence was investigating that case they got information that a new rocket attack was being planned.
The army said troops raided an apartment near the southern port city of Sidon and confiscated some of the rockets and the launchers and "detained several people who were involved in the operation." It said the detainees were referred to judicial authorities, as al-Arabiya television said those arrested belong to Hamas ..a regional Iranian catspaw,... On Wednesday, the army said in a statement that authorities detained several people, including a number of Paleostinians, who were involved in firing rockets in two separate attacks toward Israel in late March that triggered intense Israeli Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s on parts of Leb ...an Iranian satrapy until recently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel... . Lebanon's Hezbollah denied at the time that it was behind the firing of rockets.
[HODHODYEMENNEWS.NET] Two Lebanese citizens were martyred and two others were maimed in Israeli Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s in the towns of Houla and Kaouthariyet el-Saiyad in the south of the Arab country on Sunday.
According to Leb ...home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade.... 's health ministry, an Israeli airstrike on a house in Houla town killed one person.
Another airstrike on a car in Kaouthariyet el-Saiyad town claimed the life of one citizen and injured two others.
The Israeli occupation army also carried out multiple airstrikes today on different areas of southern Lebanon, according to the National News Agency.
The Israeli occupation army has continued to carry out near-daily strikes on Lebanon despite a ceasefire agreement between Hezbollah and Tel Aviv that sought to halt more than a year of attacks on the Arab country.
Under the agreement, the Israeli occupation was to withdraw all its forces from south Lebanon, but despite the deal, these forces have remained at five south Lebanon positions.
Under the agreement, Hezbollah was to withdraw all its forces north of the Litani River, which has not happened yet, stop shooting rockets at Israel, which has not happened yet, and not try to rearm which has definitely not happened yet. Technically, the agreement has never been in force, despite the world fussing at Israel about it.
[IsraelTimes] Israeli fighter jets carried out a wave of Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s in the Nabatieh area of southern Leb ...The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else?... this afternoon, targeting Hezbollah rocket launchers and other infrastructure used by the terror group, the IDF says.
Additionally, the IDF says it killed a Hezbollah engineering expert in a strike in southern Lebanon’s Houla earlier today. The operative was responsible for Hezbollah’s engineering activities in Odaisseh, according to the military.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/21/2025 00:00 ||
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[62 views]
Top|| File under: Hezbollah
[IsraelTimes] A Hezbollah commander was killed in an Israeli dronezap in southern Leb ...The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. Only one of those statements is an exaggeration.... ’s Kaouthariyet al-Saiyad, located between Sidon and Tyre, earlier today, the IDF says.
The IDF says it targeted Hussein Ali Nasr, the deputy chief of Hezbollah’s Unit 4400, which is responsible for smuggling weapons into Lebanon.
As part of his role, the IDF says Nasr worked, alongside Iran, to smuggle weapons and funds into Lebanon to restore Hezbollah’s military capabilities. Some of the weapons and cash were smuggled via the Beirut airport, the military claims.
"Nasr was in contact with workers at the airport who were secretly operating for Hezbollah and assisting with smuggling operations. In addition, he advanced and led weapons procurement deals with smugglers along the Syria-Lebanon border. Moreover, as part of his role, he oversaw the organization’s force build-up process," the IDF says.
The military says the strikes come as part of efforts against Hezbollah’s Unit 4400, which is tasked with delivering weapons from 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 the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... and its proxies to Lebanon, via Syria and Iraq.
The strikes against Unit 4400 amid the war have included the liquidations of the head of the unit, Muhammad Ja’far Qassir, in Beirut in early October 2024, and his replacement, Ali Hassan Gharib, in Damascus several weeks later, alongside other top commanders.
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.
... the personification of Somali state failure...
... a peculiarly brutal tribe of Moslem herdsmen infesting Mali, Niger, Nigeria, and probably other places that are light on law and order and heavy on tribal identity...
Plateau state authorities have claimed the killings were part of a "genocide" that was "sponsored by terrorists".
[GEO.TV] The US has carried out at least 29 air raids across Yemen this evening, Al Jazeera reported, citing reports from the Yemeni media affiliated with the Houthis. The attacks targeted Sanaa, Amran, Marib and Hodeidah governorate in western Yemen.
...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the 
...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the 
...
..a regional Iranian catspaw,...
...home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade....
...The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else?...
...The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. Only one of those statements is an exaggeration....
