[Tolo News] The Ministry of Interior (MoI) on Thursday announced the establishment of a joint unit aimed at heightening coordination among security institutions to more effectively combat Daesh affiliates in Afghanistan.
According to MoI officials, each of Afghanistan's security institutions maintains an equal share in the special unit formed to counter Daesh's rapid expansion in remote areas of the country.
"If there is fear of a major challenge emerging, then there is definitely a need to establish a special group to suppress it, and so the formation of the special unit is to counter Daesh," MoI front man Sediq Sediqqi said on Thursday.
Meanwhile, ...back at the Hubba Hubba Club, Nunzio wondered: Where the hell was Chumbaloni? And where was his $600?... the National Directorate of Security ...the Afghan national intel agency... (NDS) has emphasized that the special unit is not just an operational unit, but will also undertake intelligence gathering and analysis activities as well.
Independent military analyst Atiqullah Amarkhail believes the special unit would be better off operating under the auspices of the NDS. "If the special unit is consisting of police and army officers, then it will not be constructive, but if such issues are dealt with by the intelligence bodies, it would be more advantageous," he said Thursday.
Regardless of who is primarily behind the wheel of the unity, however, the announcement of its formation comes at a time when security analysts have warned of Daesh's intentions to intensify their presence in Afghanistan. Commentators have said the group, which is based in Iraq and Syria, has begun exploiting divisions within the Taliban's ranks in order to recruit and establish bases of support in Afghanistan.
"Daesh bandidosturbans operate in Badakhshan, Kunduz, Farah, Faryab, Pashtun-infested Logar and also in the eastern regions," military analyst Jawed Kohistan ...a backwoods district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa distinguished by being even more rustic than is the norm among the local Pashtuns.... i told TOLOnews.
Lawmakers in Parliament have been some of the most vocal proponents of the government and the international community taking greater steps to curtail Daesh's growth in Afghanistan. The turban group has become infamous in small communities around the country - just as it has worldwide - for its brutal tactics in warfare and its macabre approach toward managing territories it captures.
"Daesh is a major threat to international peace and regional security, therefore, there is a need on an international level to fight them," MP Syed Ekram said.
According to sources at the NDS, a special intelligence unit has already been actively monitoring the activities of Daesh bandidosturbans in Afghanistan. Reportedly the killing of Mullah Abdul Rauf, a top Daesh commander formerly of the Taliban in Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... , was among the unit's first achievements.
Over the past three days, the special unit is said to have already placed in durance vile I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece! six members of Daesh in Achin district 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.. province and eliminated another 14 foreign bandidosturbans in Gomal district of Paktika ...which coincidentally borders South Wazoo... province.
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07/03/2015 00:00 ||
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[Rudaw] A newspaper close to the Egyptian government says the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... -linked bully boyz who attacked troops in the Sinai Peninsula used sophisticated weaponry, including Russian-made Kornet anti-tank missiles.
In a graphic on its front page Thursday, el-Watan daily says the attackers also used mortars, anti-aircraft guns and other guided missiles.
The attack, which included a wave of suicide kabooms and assaults on security installations by dozens of bad boys, was Sinai's deadliest fighting in decades.
Newspapers led their front pages with the attack, with many describing it as a "war." Graphic photographs released by the military showed the bodies of holy warriors killed in the fighting who were wearing combat fatigues.
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07/03/2015 00:00 ||
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h/t Gates of Vienna
The news from the recent St. Petersburg Economic Forum, which took place from June 18 to 20, inspired a torrent of speculation on the future direction of energy prices.
But the real buzz at the conference was the unexpected but much publicized visit of the Saudi Deputy Crown Prince, as an emissary of the King. The Prince, who is also his country's Defense Minister, carried the royal message of a direct invitation to President Putin to visit the King, which was immediately accepted and reciprocated, with the Prince accepting on behalf of his father.
It would be news enough that the unusually high level delegation from a long-time ally and protectorate of the U.S., like Saudi Arabia, was visiting a Russian sponsored economic conference, in a country sanctioned by the U.S. Given the current US administration's crawling inside the MM ass reapprochment with Iran, this is hardly surprising
#1
Nuke shopping and assessing how to link oil with Putie to leverage the new American policies ... Thanks Obama, another stable world economic pattern disrupted.
[ALMANAR.LB] Bahraini police tossed in the clink You have the right to remain silent... a senior opposition figure, Majeed Milad, because he accused the Al Khalifa regime of ignoring threats by Takfiri ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who must be killed... group, ISIL (so-called Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... in Iraq and Levant).
Milad was arrested on Wednesday, after interior ministry summoned him for questioning, media reported.
Shortly before his arrest, Milad, who is member in al-Wefaq's secretariat-general, said that the Al Khalifa regime had been ignoring threats by ISIL to target mosques in the country.
In a post on his Twitter account, Milad stressed that Bahraini Shias would not leave mosques empty because of ISIL threats.
Milad's tweets came after a string of recent attacks by ISIL targeted Shia worshipers in Kuwait, Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... and 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. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... in the past weeks.
Earlier on Tuesday, residents of Hamad city, which lies west of the capital Manama, disclosed a man disguised as a woman in al-Sayyeda Khadija Mosque.
The man first fled the Mosque, but was then arrested by the residents, Bahraini media reported.
Last Friday, at least 26 Kuwaiti worshippers were martyred and more than 200 otehrs were maimed as a Takfiri jacket wallahwent kaboom! in al-Sadeq Mosque in the Kuwaiti capital. ISIL grabbed credit for the terrorist attack.
Al-Wefaq, prominent opposition group in Bahrain, denounced Milad's arrest as abusive and reckless, calling on the authorities to immediately release the opposition figure.
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07/03/2015 00:00 ||
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[ALMANAR.LB] British Prime Minister David Cameron ... has stated that he is certainly a big Thatcher fan, but I don't know whether that makes me a Thatcherite, which means he's not. Since he is not deeply ideological he lacks core principles and is easily led. He has been described as certainly not a Pitt, Elder or Younger, but he does wear a nice suit so maybe he's Beau Brummel ... criticized Monday the use of the term "Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... " by the BBC when referring to the so-called 'Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ... the current version of al-Qaeda in Iraq, just as blood-thirsty and well-beloved as the original... ' (ISIL) takfiri ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who most be killed... group.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4, Cameron said he preferred the terms "so-called" or "ISIL".
"I wish the BBC would stop calling it 'Islamic State' because it is not an Islamic state," said Cameron in an interview, three days after the Tunisia beach attack that killed 30 British tourists.
"What it is is an appalling barbarous regime that is a perversion of the religion of Islam," said the British prime minister.
In his remarks, Cameron said "the fight against the barbaric terrorist organization is the struggle of our generation," stressing importance of fighting ISIL in every sense.
"We have to fight it with everything we can," said Cameron, adding that the strategy was to build local armies in fighting against the gang.
At least 30 Britons are believed to have been killed in the beach massacre in Tunisia as informed sources said the eventual figure could be even higher.
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North Korea has built five long-range 122-mm artillery positions on an uninhabited island just 4.5 km away from South Korea's Yeonpyeong Island.
A senior military officer on Wednesday said North Korea started to build the artillery positions in March on an island called Galdo. Surveillance also shows one command tower and three barracks on the island, he added.
The military here believes North Korean troops will move to Galdo between July and August. The North apparently built a port and mooring facilities on the island as well.
North Korea used the same 122-mm artillery batteries when it attacked Yeonpyeong Island back in November 2010.
A military officer said, "Galdo is just 500 m by 300 m in area and there is very little military value in stationing artillery pieces there." But they do pose a threat to Yeonpyeong Island, which fall within its range.
South Korean Marines and Navy patrol boats are stationed on Yeonpyeong Island to guard the Northern Limit Line, which separates the two Koreas on the West Sea.
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07/03/2015 00:00 ||
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h/t Gates of Vienna
The accepting of migrants largely facilitates Islamic State's (IS) expansion to Europe, Czech President MiloĹĄ Zeman said in an interview with Parlamentni listy.cz server, adding that all UN Security Council standing members must be persuaded of the need to intervene against IS.
Zeman has long been pushing for a military action against IS. He has also supported the Facebook initiative We Do not Want Islam in the Czech Republic.
[KomoNews] NEWARK, N.J. (AP) - A Seattle man was indicted on murder and terrorism charges Thursday for allegedly shooting a New Jersey college student last year in a fit of rage over the U.S. government's role in the Middle East, which authorities said is the first time a terror charge has been brought in the state in connection with a murder case.
Ali Muhammad Brown, 30, fatally shot Brendan Tevlin while the 19-year-old was stopped at a traffic light in northern New Jersey, authorities said.
Brown also faces three aggravated murder charges in Seattle, where authorities said last year the killings were part of a crusade to punish the U.S. government for its foreign policies.
Authorities said in court documents filed in Seattle last year that Brown described himself to detectives after his New Jersey arrest as a strict Muslim who was angry with the U.S. government's role in Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan because of the death of innocent civilians and children.
"The defendant was on a bloody crusade, executing four innocent men ... with the same murder weapon, over the course of approximately two months, and all under the common and single scheme of exacting 'vengeance' against the United States government for its foreign policies," prosecutors said.
#1
...Better safe than sorry, I suppose. One question though - many years ago, I visited the WNY to see the US Navy Museum (worth the effort), and there were armed MARINES there guarding the place.
Didn't see a one of 'em during the news coverage the other day. I've heard one reason they're no longer there is that they 'intimidated' the Local Residents. Seems Anacostia ain't the most delightful place in the world.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
07/03/2015 9:32 Comments ||
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Good grief - the Marines were pulled from guarding naval installations almost forty years ago. Nothing to do with "intimidating locals" and everything to do with politics and budgets.
As an aside, the Federal Guv'mint has been dumping money into South D.C. (where the Navy Yard is) since oh, about 2008. Not that it's improved things much, but it's still better than Anacostia.
[DAWN] Another child fell prey to the crippling polio ...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set... virus in the capital of Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... on Thursday. The latest case was found in a 4-year-old child, who is the resident of Quetta's Pashtoonabad area.
With this new case, the number of polio cases rises to four in Balochistan during the year of 2015.
Refusal was the underlying reason behind the latest polio case in the city. The parents had refused to provide anti-polio drops to the affected child, Dr Syed Saifur Rehman the Coordinator Emergency Operations Balochistan told DawnNews.
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07/03/2015 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] The two nephews of Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf ...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations.... (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who is the lightweight's lightweight... , who were nabbed Book 'im, Mahmoud! on Wednesday from Lahore's Race Course area after they allegedly hurled abuses at a traffic warden who stopped them for violating traffic rules, were released on bail on Thursday.
Earlier, it was reported that only Azeem was Imran Khan's nephew and Abdullah was his friend. However, alcohol has never solved anybody's problems. But then, neither has milk... it has now been confirmed that both are close relatives of Imran Khan.
The two were released on bail with a surety bond of Rs 50,000 each, as their lawyer claimed all sections are bailable offenses.
The lawyer further alleged that the accused were tortured while in police custody. A magistrate has ordered a medical examination to verify the claims.
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07/03/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
Azeem was Imran Khan's nephew and Abdullah was his lover friend. However, it has now been confirmed that both are close relatives of Imran Khan.
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07/03/2015 13:33 Comments ||
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[DAWN] At least 19 people, including four army officers, were killed when three bogies of a special train carrying army officials fell into a canal and one other was derailed as a railway bridge collapsed near Gujranwala on Thursday.
A statement issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said 14 dead bodies had been recovered from the site of the incident, while divers were searching the canal for five more dead bodies.
The dear departed include Pakistain Army Engineering Battalion Unit Commander Lt. Col Amir Jadoon, his wife and two kids, Lt. Col Rashid, Major Adil, Lieutenant Kashif, Constable Islam, Lance Naik Zafar and staffers Babar and Aslam.
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[DAWN] BADIN: Not a single weapon declared 'illegal' after cancellation of 13,251 licences on May 19 has so far been deposited with the authority concerned in Badin district, it emerged on Wednesday.
According to official sources, more than 40,000 licences were issued to residents of Badin district. Under a Supreme Court order, issued amid an increase in acts of terrorism and other criminal activities across the country over the years, a verification process was initiated in October 2013 and every licence-holder was required to get his licence revalidated through a computerised verification system.
The task was assigned to the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra), which established its window at the offices of deputy commissioners across the province.
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[DAWN] Police saved a Christian couple from a mob who were attempting to lynch them for allegedly committing blasphemy, and later jugged Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! a holy man for inciting the violence, a senior officer said Thursday.
The incident, which took place in the village of Makki in Punjab 1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots.... on Tuesday, represents a rare successful intervention by authorities in a country where even unproven allegations of blasphemy can result in a bloody death at the hands of vigilantes.
Sohail Zafar Chattha, the district police chief, told AFP the illiterate Christian couple had obtained an old panaflex advertisement awning which contained the names and slogans of various colleges, which they were using as a mat to sleep on in their home.
Arabic inscriptions, allegedly from the Holy Koran, were found among the colleges' slogans, leading one local barber as well as two holy mans to accuse the couple of committing blasphemy.
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[ALMANAR.LB] Several dozen Iraqi Christians are training to recapture their homes occupied by the so-called Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... in Iraq and the Levant terrorist group.
A year ago, ISIL launched a fierce offensive in northern Iraq, capturing several areas and terrorized the citizens.
Thousands fled, but some wanted to fight back, and are now training at a military base near Baghdad airport.
They are now being trained on how to use their Kalashnikov assault rifles and on the basics of combat maneuvers.
"We heard that the Christians had an opportunity for jihad (holy war), and we all came and volunteered," said 17-year-old Chaldean Christian Frank Samir. "Our children are dying; our Christian families were displaced. How do we ourselves accept that people say the Christians are not fighting? On the contrary, we want to fight everywhere," he said.
"I did not hesitate to volunteer with my brothers to fight Daesh," said Fares Issa, 38, using an Arabic acronym for ISIL. "I will continue fighting (them) until the liberation of djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... and their expulsion from all the areas of Iraq," said Issa.
"The main aim of forming our forces is the liberation of Mosul," said Rayan al-Kaldani, the secretary general of Ketaeb Babylon.
"We took part in the operations to liberate the city of Tikrit and other operations, including Baiji, in Salaheddin province," he said, referring to major battles north of Baghdad.
According to Kaldani, the Christians fight under the command of Abu Mahdi al-Mohandis, one of the top commanders in the "Popular Mobilization" forces.
According to another Ketaeb Babylon commander, who declined to be named, there are "hundreds of Christian fighters located now in various areas of Salaheddin... in addition to others responsible for protecting churches in Baghdad province."
Recruitment of other volunteers to "fight the Daesh terrorist organization" is continuing, he said.
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07/03/2015 00:00 ||
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[IsraelTimes] Worry mounts over possible collapse of Multinational Force in restive peninsula following jihadist onslaught
Israel has been giving the Egyptian military a free hand to operate in northern Sinai against local jihadist groups, voluntarily ignoring an annex to the 1979 Camp David Peace Accords banning the presence of significant Egyptian forces in the area, an Israeli official told The Times of Israel on Thursday.
According to the military annex of the Camp David accords, Egypt is allowed to maintain a civilian police force only in the eastern strip of the Sinai Peninsula, where the majority of local jihadists are currently located. Following Israel's disengagement from the Gazoo Strip in 2005, the Egyptian army was allowed to deploy a border patrol battalion along the border with Gazoo.
An official told The Times of Israel in 2014 that due to the challenges facing the Egyptian military in the northern Sinai, "In practice, the military annex is nonexistent."
With fighting between the Egyptian army and jihadists pledging allegiance to the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... intensified this week following a coordinated attack against army positions in northern Sinai Wednesday, the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, acknowledged that Israel has maintained its policy of ignoring the peace treaty's military annex for the benefit of Egypt's war on terror.
Unlike the United States, which continues to place immense hurdles on the Egyptian army before authorizing the delivery of "a few crummy F-16s" -- the official quoted his disgruntled Egyptian counterparts as saying -- Israel has allowed the Egyptian army to do as it pleases in northern Sinai without hesitation, realizing the common interest in its fight on terror.
"It took one phone call from Cairo to Jerusalem to authorize whatever Egypt wants in Sinai, counter to the military annex," he said.
"Israel understands the challenge facing Egypt. We face the same challenge," he added. "We aren't worried that Egypt may attack Israel, nor are they worried that Israel will attack them... it is clear to the [Egyptian] leadership that not only is Israel not an enemy, it's an ally."
The security void left by the absence of significant military forces in Sinai has previously been filled by the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO), a peacekeeping force comprising soldiers from Fiji, Colombia and the United States.
But a recent mortar attack by Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis ...Supporters of Jerusalem, the current pen name of al-Qaeda in the Sinai Peninsula... , a local jihadist group, against the MFO's northern base in al-Gora has left Western governments fearing for the collapse of a significant stabilizing force in the region, and Sinai's largest employer of local Bedouins.
"This is very worrying," the official said. "It's not that if the force folds Israel and Egypt will begin attacking each other, but the Bedouins will become even more motivated to join the battle."
Israel and Egypt are currently experiencing a renaissance in diplomatic relations, which are lagging only slightly behind the military coordination, the official said.
Last month Egypt announced the appointment of Hazem Khairat as its new ambassador to Israel, filling a void that lasted three years. Dore Gold, the foreign ministry's recently appointed director general, chose Egypt as the destination of his first overseas visit. Foreign ministry officials from both countries had not publicly met since 2011.
Yet nearly four years after an angry mob stormed and ransacked the Israeli embassy in Cairo, a new building is still to be secured. The official said that both Israel and Egypt are interested in locating an appropriate building as soon as possible.
"Both the Israelis and the Egyptians want us to establish an embassy in order to reflect the true nature of relations," he said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday stressed that the international community should not try to strengthen either Iran or Islamic State against the other.
"We have to weaken both of them and prevent attacks and armament of them both," the premier said at an event at the national cyber park in Beersheba. "I say to you, stand in opposition to these dark forces that suppress human rights and murder people and hang them in town squares."
In light of Wednesday's deadly attacks by Islamic State-linked militant in the Sinai Peninsula, the premier added that Israel now faces the threat of Islamic State affiliates on its northern and southern borders.
While listing the group formerly known as ISIS as one of the region's main threats, he said that the radical group's activities are "nothing compared to the capabilities being built by the Iranian regime."
The civil war in Syria has reached such a tipping point for one of the most stable and US-friendly regimes in the Middle East. The Jordanian military is actively implementing plans to create a humanitarian buffer zone in the south of the country, Sam Jones, Roula Khalaf and Erika Solomon report for the Financial Times.
Jordan’s military envisions an operation that would set up a humanitarian corridor in the southern Syrian provinces of Deraa and Suwayda.
And then keeping those provinces once the fighting is over, as a reward for their "humanitarian" assistance...
The Assad regime is currently in nominal control of these provinces. But a coordinated rebel offensive, consisting in large part of fighters from the Al Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra, has sparked concern in Jordan that a full-scale Syrian withdrawal from the area could occur, provoking chaos along the border.
Jordan worries that jihadists could establish a permanent foothold along the country’s border with Syria, or sue the area for attacks on the country’s generally pro-US monarchy. As the FT reports, Jordanian leaders want to “avoid ‘another Idlib'” in the region, a reference to the March withdrawal of the Assad regime from the northern city in the face of a rebel and jihadist offensive. “Diplomats say Amman and its international allies are keen to avoid ‘another Idlib‘, referring to the Assad regime’s withdrawal from the city in March; jihadis soon took advantage of the retreat and established a strong presence there.”
The zone of control would likely include the Syrian city of Deraa, and would be manned by US and Jordan-supported moderate rebels along with more direct Jordanian military support.
But mostly more direct Jordanian military support...
Southern Syria comprises the entirety of Jordan’s northern border and any chaos could easily spill over the border. Deraa itself is within 45 miles of Amman, the Jordanian capital.
The Jordanian military in general, and its special forces in particular, is regarded as one of the more effective fighting forces in the region.
Tallest dwarves in the Arab circus...
Jordan maintains a close military relationship with the US, and Jordanian special forces have participated in operations in Afghanistan. The special forces have also proven adept at intelligence-gathering operations.
Jordan is a member of the US-led coalition against ISIS and has conducted airstrikes against the militant group in both Iraq and Syria. In the beginning of February, Jordan launched dozens of strikes in Syria following the execution of Jordanian pilot Moaz al-Kasabe.
Jordan’s willingness to directly intervene within Syria reflects a growing regional unease with the already chaotic situation in the country, where as many as 320,000 have been killed over the course of a 4-year-old civil war. A number of Turkish newspaper sources have also reported that Ankara is seriously considering a ground operation that would establish a humanitarian buffer zone along the Turkish border in northern Syria.
The Turkish operation would be aimed at limiting Syrian Kurdish ability to declare an independent state while striking against ISIS and stopping the flow of Syrian refugees over the border.
Israel has also signalled that it could be willing to intervene in southern Syria in order to protect the Druze minority in the country if jihadists or the Assad regime ever threatened the survival of the religious minority group in areas near the Israel-controlled Golan Heights.
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WASHINGTON -- The U.S. military's program to train and equip thousands of moderate Syrian rebels is faltering, with fewer than 100 volunteers, raising questions about whether the effort can produce enough capable fighters quickly enough to make a difference in the war against the Islamic State.
The stated U.S. goal is to train and equip 5,400 rebels per year, and military officials said last week that they still hope for 3,000 by year's end. Privately, they acknowledge the trend is moving in the wrong direction.
On June 26, 2014, the White House said it was asking Congress for $500 million for a three-year train-and-equip program.
About $100,000 per trainee...
The training, however, only got started in May after months of recruiting and vetting of volunteers. That program, together with a more advanced but also troubled parallel effort to rebuild the Iraqi army, is central to the U.S.-led effort to create ground forces capable of fighting Islamic State without involving U.S. ground combat troops. The Syria initiative is intended to enable moderate opposition forces to defend their own towns against Islamic State militants, not to form a national resistance army.
The main problem thus far has been finding enough Syrian recruits untainted by extremist affiliations or disqualified by physical or other flaws. Of approximately 6,000 volunteers, about 1,500 have passed muster and await movement to training camps in other countries. Citing security concerns, the Pentagon will not say exactly how many are in training.
Officials said that as of Friday, the number in training had dropped below 100 and that none has completed the program. Dozens who were initially accepted have been sent home during training or quit because of revelations about their background or other problems, according to two senior U.S. defense officials.
Revelations -- as in, they're murderous thugs who are every bit as bad as ISIS thugs...
"We have set the bar very high on vetting," said Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman.
As we should. But did no one foresee the results?
Maj. Gen. Michael Nagata, the Central Command special operations commander who is heading the program, wants volunteers with more than a will to fight.
"We are trying to recruit and identify people who ... can be counted on ... to fight, to have the right mindset and ideology," and at the same time be willing to make combating IS their first priority, Defense Secretary Ash Carter told the House Armed Services Committee on June 17.
"It turns out to be very hard to identify people who meet both of those criteria," Carter said.
In Syria? Really?
Many Syrian rebel volunteers prefer to use their training to fight the government of President Bashar Assad, the original target of their revolution. Although the Islamic State has been a brutal occupant of much of their country, the rebels see the extremists as fighting a parallel war.
Jennifer Cafarella, a Syria analyst at the Institute for the Study of War, doubts the viability of the training program.
"It is simply difficult to acquire the number of Syrian rebels willing to participate in the training under current parameters," she said.
Abdul-Jabbar Abu Thabet, commander of Aleppo Swords Battalion, a moderate faction that is fighting both Assad's forces and the Islamic State, said he thinks the Americans are more interested in recruiting Syrian army defectors than moderate rebels. He said he would no longer give Americans the names of training candidates from his group, after having done so once and not receiving a U.S. response.
Did you try calling Huma?
"The Americans are saying they want to train rebels to fight against Daesh only," he said by telephone from northern Syria, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group. "The fighting should be against Daesh, the (Assad) regime and everyone who is against the revolution."
The Pentagon announced in May that it had begun training 90 recruits in Jordan, but it has refused to give details. Defense officials, however, said last week that training also is underway in Turkey. Eventually it is to be expanded to bases in Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
Each trainee is receiving a U.S. stipend of between $250 and $400 a month, with the amount set by their skill level, performance and leadership role, said a Pentagon spokeswoman, Navy Cmdr. Elissa Smith.
So $3,000 to $5,000 for a year's pay. That leaves another $90,000 per trainee for ... what, exactly...
The Pentagon also is wrestling with how to support those who complete the training and are sent back into Syria. Also, there are questions about how to avoid having their U.S.-supplied arms fall into the wrong hands inside Syria.
Same problem in Iraq...
"So these constraints that we put on ourselves, which are perfectly understandable, do progressively limit the number of inductees into the program," Carter told Congress. "And that's proving the thing that limits the growth of the program."
So maybe we should have left Syria to its own war...
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07/03/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
They had more, but the rest left after a lecture on the rights of the transsexuals?
[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] The World Food Program (WFP) is to slash its aid to Syrian refugees due to a lack of funding, the UN agency announced on Wednesday.
This month the agency will halve the value of food vouchers given to refugees in Leb to $13.50 per person per month.
Furthermore, the WFP said in a statement that it fears having to suspend all assistance to Syrian refugees living outside camps in Jordan, leaving around 440,000 without food, unless it receives immediate funding by August.
"Just when we thought things couldn't get worse, we are forced yet again to make yet more cuts," said WFP regional director Muhannad Hadi said. "Refugees were already struggling to cope with what little we could provide."
The agency said it was currently 81 percent underfunded and needs $139 million to continue helping refugees in Jordan, Leb, Egypt, The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... and Iraq until September.
It has already reduced its assistance to 1.6 million Syrian refugees due to a lack of resources.
"We are extremely concerned about the impact these cuts will have on refugees and the countries that host them," Hadi added. "Families are taking extreme measures to cope such as pulling their children out of school, skipping meals and getting into debt to survive. The long-term effects of this could be devastating."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/03/2015 00:00 ||
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[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] Syria's main Kurdish party warned The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... on Wednesday that any military intervention would threaten international peace and said the country's main Kurdish militia is ready to face any "aggression."
Meanwhile, ...back at the alley, Bugs Moroni was holding Slats from behind while his brother Greasy Thumb was pounding his face into paste ... a Syrian rebel group released a video showing 18 Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... snuffies being shot in the backs of their heads.
The statement by the Democratic Union Party, or PYD, comes as Turkish media is abuzz with talk of a long-debated military intervention to push the Islamic State group back from the Turkish border -- a move that would also outflank any Kurdish attempt to create a state along Turkey's southern frontier.
Kurdish fighters backed by U.S.-led Arclight airstrikes have been on the offensive against the IS group in northern Syria for months, and now control a long stretch along the Syria-Turkey border. Turkey, which battled a decades-long Kurdish insurgency, has viewed the advance with growing concern and has warned it will not tolerate the establishment of a Kurdish state in Syria.
Two weeks ago, the People's Protection Units, or YPG, which is dominated by the PYD, captured the border town of Tal Abyad, denying the IS group a crucial nearby border crossing used to bring in supplies and imported muscle.
The capture of Tal Abyad cleared the way for the Kurds to connect their stronghold in Syria's northeast to the once badly isolated border town of Kobani -- where they famously resisted a months-long Islamic State siege -- and possibly extend it to the Kurdish enclave of Afrin in Syria's northwest.
"Any military intervention in Rojava will have local, regional and international repercussions and will contribute to complicating the political situation in Syria and the Middle East and threaten international security and peace," the PYD statement warned. Rojava is a term that refers to Syria's predominantly Kurdish region.
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07/03/2015 00:00 ||
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[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] Cut off from 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. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... and its allies there by a Saudi-led military campaign, Iran has intensified a media counter-offensive against Riyadh, accusing its regional rival of inflicting catastrophic suffering while presenting itself as a blameless peacemaker.
Iranian state media have given blanket coverage in Arabic, Farsi and English to the three-month-old war in Yemen, where Soddy Arabia
Continued on Page 49
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[ALMANAR.LB] Fearless Leader of the Islamic Revolution ...Iran's doddering head theocrat... in Iran, Imam Sayyed Ali Khamenei denounced Western media's silence on crimes committed in the Middle East, especially the brutal Saudi brutal aggression against Yemen.
Addressing a group of professors of Persian poetry and literature, cultural figures, Imam Khamenei lashed out at media outlets which are dominated by the US, Britannia.
His eminence said those media outlets stage a propaganda campaign "over an animal's life while they keep outrageously quiet towards these crimes... such as the bombardment of 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. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... these days as well as the past years' aggression on Gazoo and Leb."
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[ALMANAR.LB] Syrian Defense Minister Major General Fahd Jasem al-Freij visited on Wednesday the army units in Hasaka.
Accompanied by a number of the army senior officers, al-Freij, also deputy Commander-in-chief of the army, met the soldiers working in Hasaka and appreciated their courage and heroism showed while fighting holy warriors of the Takfiri ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who must be killed... group, ISIL (so-called Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... in Iraq and Levant), eliminating them, official news agency, SANA, reported.
Gen. Freij was briefed by field commanders on the military operations, hailing unity between Hasaka people and the army soldiers who stand as one rank in defense of the Homeland, SANA added.
"The army's victories and achievements against terrorism are real embodiment of our people's choice in resistance and struggle," the Syrian agency quoted Gen. Freij as saying.
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07/03/2015 00:00 ||
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[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] ISIS bully boyz are looting ancient sites across Iraq and Syria on an industrial scale and selling on treasures to middlemen to raise cash, Irina Bokova, the head of the U.N. cultural agency UNESCO said Thursday. It's the same sort of mindset as digging up Nathan Bedford Forrest and moving his remains to some potters' field somewhere, assuming they don't simply scatter the bones.
One fifth of Iraq's about 10,000 official world-renowned sites were under ISIS control and heavily looted, and it was unclear what was happening in "thousands more" areas, Bokova told a meeting of experts in London.
Some sites in Syria had been ransacked so badly they no longer had any value for historians and archaeologists, and UNESCO was also increasingly worried about Libya, she said.
ISIS' self-declared caliphate contains some of the richest archaeological treasures on earth in a region where ancient Assyrian empires built their capitals, Graeco-Roman civiliszation flourished, and Moslem and Christian sects co-existed for centuries.
The Lion of Islams, whose strict Salafi interpretation of Islam deems the veneration of tombs and non-Islamic vestiges to be idolatrous, have also posted videos of themselves destroying artifacts.
"The deliberate destruction, what we are seeing nowadays in Iraq and Syria, has reached unprecedented levels in contemporary history," Bokova told the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in London.
"This deliberate destruction is not only continuing, it is happening on a systematic basis. The looting of archaeological sites and museums, in Iraq particularly, has reached an industrial scale of destruction."
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07/03/2015 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.
David Cameron
[KomoNews] NEWARK, N.J. (AP) - A Seattle man was indicted on murder and terrorism charges Thursday for allegedly shooting a New Jersey college student last year in a fit of rage over the U.S. government's role in the Middle East, which authorities said is the first time a terror charge has been brought in the state in connection with a murder case.
