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Today: 57 articles and 126 comments as of 15:38.
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Area: WoT Background    Non-WoT    Opinion        Politix   
1 killed, another wounded in a magnetic bomb explosion in Kabul city
Today's Headlines
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Afghanistan
Khost Journalist Killed In Armed Men Attack
[ToloNews] A local journalist in Khost province
... across the border from Miranshah, within commuting distance of Haqqani hangouts such as Datta Khel and probably within sight of Mordor. Khost is populated by six different tribes of Pashtuns, the largest probably being the Khostwal, from which it takes its name...
lost his life after he was severely maimed in an attack by unknown gunnies in the west of Khost city on Friday morning.

Sultan Mahmoud Khairkhwah was working for Zan TV network in Khost province. His relatives confirmed on Friday evening that he died due to the wounds he sustained in the gunnies’s attack.

Khairkhwah was the fourth journalist killed in Afghanistan so far this year.

Last week, Nisar Ahmadi, a local TV journalist in Helmand
...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan...
, was maimed in an IED blast in Lashkargah city.

Shafiq Aria and Rahimullah Rahmani, local journalists in Takhar province in the north of Afghanistan, were killed in an attack by unknown gunnies on their office in Taluqan city in February.

Another journalist, Jawed Noori, was killed in gunnies’s attack in Farah province in January.

This comes after a report by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) placed Afghanistan among deadliest countries for journalists in 2018.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/17/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Afghan armed forces thwart Taliban plot to target security outposts in Faryab
[KhaamaPress] The Afghan armed forces have thwarted a plot by Talibs to launch coordinated attack against security outposts in northern Faryab province.

The 209th Shaheen Corps of the Afghan Military in the North in a statement said a clash broke out between Talibs and armed forces in Arklik area of Qaisar district at around 7:30 pm local time on Friday, leaving at least 4 bandidos holy warriors dead and 3 others maimed.

The statement further added that the clash broke out while Talibs were busy planning a coordinated attack on security outposts.

According to 209th Shaheen Corps, the security personnel and local residents did not suffer casualties during the festivities.

The anti-government armed bandidos holy warriors including Taliban
...mindless ferocity in a turban...
have not commented regarding the clash so far.

This comes as the security situation in some districts of Faryab province has tanked during the recent years amid growing attempts by anti-government armed elements to expand their foothold in this province.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/17/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


More than 30 Taliban, ISIS-K militants killed, wounded in latest security operations
[KhaamaPress] More than 30 turbans affiliated with the Taliban
...the Pashtun equivalent of men...
and ISIS Khurasan groups were killed or maimed during the latest operations and Arclight airstrikes which were conducted in the past 24 hours in various provinces of the country.

According to informed military sources, "The Afghan Special Forces conducted a multi-day raid in Chahar district of Kunduz province. During infil, the Afghan Special Forces were engaged from a Taliban fighting position and two air strikes were conducted in self-defense killing 8 Taliban fighters."

The sources further added that similar airstrikes were carried out in Tarinkot city of Uruzgan, Bermal and Gomal districts of Paktika
...which coincidentally borders South Wazoo...
, and Khugyani 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.

At least 24 Taliban and ISIS-K turbans were killed during the same airstrikes and another ISIS-K Death Eater was maimed, the sources added.

The anti-government armed Death Eater groups have not commented regarding the report so far.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/17/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Kandahar: 11 Talibs toes up after attacking 205th Corps post, 4 kaboomed
Taliban militants suffer casualties after attacking army outpost in Kandahar

[KhaamaPress] At least eleven Taliban militants were killed or wounded after attacking an army outpost in Kandahar province which sparked clash with the Afghan armed forces.

According to 205th Atal Corps officials, the Taliban militants launched the attack early on Thursday morning in Mya Neshin district with an aim to capture the outpost and kill its occupants.

“The 1st Brigade, 205th Corps Soldiers engaged in a fire-fight with the Taliban to attempt to deter them from moving any closer to the checkpoint. The checkpoint commander called his mortar team to fire their mortars at the Taliban which caused them to retreat from the checkpoint. The 205th Corps then moved to the position where the Taliban had engaged them from and discovered they had killed 7 Taliban and wounded an additional 4 insurgents during the course of the fight,” the officials said.

“Our training proved critical during this clash with the Taliban,” said the 205th Corps checkpoint commander. “We have had a very busy winter with operations against the Taliban so we feel we have gotten a lot better at defending ourselves.”

The 205th Corps has spent time over the last few weeks training on accuracy and precision with their mortar teams as the spring fighting season approaches.

“We would love a ceasefire and see peace soon, but until then, we still have to be prepared to defend ourselves and our citizens so they do not have to be afraid,” said the 205th Corps spokesperson.

Explosion In Kandahar Leaves Four Dead

[ToloNews] At least four people were killed in an explosion in Arghandab district in Kandahar province on Saturday evening, local officials confirmed.

Initial reports indicate that the explosion was as a result of an embedded IED.

Kandahar Police Chief Gen. Tadin Khan said Haji Zemarai, Commander of Public Protection Forces Unit in Kandahar was among the victims of the attack.

Sources, however, told TOLOnews that only two of the victims were civilians and the two others were security commanders.

According to the sources, in addition to Zemarai, another police commander Mullah Gul was killed in the explosion.

In another explosion in southern Helmand province on Saturday evening, one security force member was killed and three others wounded, local officials said.

The incident happened in Lashkargah city when an IEC embedded in a security forces vehicle detonated.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/17/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Two ISIS-K group members killed in Nangarhar airstrike: 201st Silab Corps
[KhaamaPress] At least two group members of 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....
of Iraq and Syria Khurasan (ISIS-K) were killed in an Arclight airstrike which was conducted in eastern 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.

The 201st Silab Corps of the Afghan Military in the East in a statement said the airstrike was carried out late on Friday afternoon in the vicinity of Khogyani district.

The anti-government armed bad boy groups including ISIS Khurasan sympathizers have not commented regarding the airstrike so far.

Nangarhar is among the relatively calm provinces in the East but the anti-government armed elements including Taliban
...Arabic for students...
and ISIS Khurasan murderous Moslems are active in some of its remote districts.

Militants affiliated with both groups often attempt to carry out attacks against the government and security institutions in this province and other parts of the country.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/17/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


1 killed, another wounded in a magnetic bomb explosion in Kabul city
“It’s like the Wild East out there, effendi.”
“Just do your best, Sergeant Alhamdalullah. That’s all anyone can do during these troubled times.”
[KhaamaPress] At least two people were killed or maimed in an kaboom triggered by a magnetic bomb in Kabul city earlier this morning, the security officials said.

Basir Mujahid, a front man for Kabul Police Commandment, said the incident took place in the vicinity of Kote Sangi area located in 5th police district of the city.

Mujahid further added that the magnetic bomb was planted in a private Toyota Corolla type vehicle which went off at around 8:20am local time today.

He said the blast left the driver of the vehicle dead while another individual was maimed in the kaboom.

No individual or group has so far grabbed credit for the kaboom.

The anti-government armed elements have stepped up magnetic kabooms in Kabul city and other large cities and provinces of the country during the recent years.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/17/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Probably just Takata Airbags
Posted by: Frank G || 03/17/2019 11:47 Comments || Top||

#2  They've switched to magnetic bombs now because of less wires to keep track of.
Posted by: jpal || 03/17/2019 13:38 Comments || Top||


Uruzgun: Talib op center airstruck, Afghan SF storm Talib Red Unit hideout
Precision airstrikes destroy Taliban operational center in Uruzgan

[KhaamaPress] An operational center of Taliban
...mindless ferocity in a turban...
was destroyed in multiple precision Arclight airstrikes which were carried out in Tarinkot city, the quiet provincial capital of Uruzgan province.

“Nine Taliban fighters were killed and one militant operations center destroyed by airstrikes in Tarin Kot district, Uruzgan province, March 15, 2019,” informed military sources said Saturday.

The sources further added “After multiple hours of monitoring and tracking Taliban fighters entering a building known for staging and planning future attacks against Afghan civilians, the building was destroyed by multiple precision airstrikes.”

The anti-government armed militants including Taliban have not commented regarding the airstrikes so far.

Uruzgan is among the relatively volatile provinces in South of Afghanistan. The anti-government armed militants are active in some of its districts and often attempt to carry out attacks against the government and security institutions.

Afghan Special Forces storm Taliban Red Unit commander’s hideout in Uruzgan

The Special Forces of Afghan Intelligence or National Directorate of Security (NDS) stormed a hideout of a commander of the Red Unit of Taliban
...Arabic for students...
in Uruzgan killing at least 22 militants and confiscating large amount of weapons, munitions, and explosives.

According to a statement released by NDS, the raid was conducted in the vicinity of Tarinkot city, the provincial capital of Uruzgan province.

The statement further added that the hideout belonged to a commander of the Red Unit of Taliban identified as Mullah Aminullah.

The National Directorate of Security also added that 22 militants were killed during the raid and another suspect identified as Abdul Hadi son of Dost Mohammad was arrested.

In addition to this, the NDS Special Forces confiscated 50 kilograms of explosives, a Dshk heavy machine gun, a PKM machine gun, 4 improvised explosive devices, 6 hand grenades, a radio set, 2 military uniforms, a Fielder type vehicle, a motorcycle, and hundreds of rounds of munitions.
...and a partridge in a pear tree.
The anti-government armed militants including Taliban have not commented regarding the operation so far.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/17/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Africa Horn
Roadside Bomb Targets AU Military Convoy In Mogadishu
[Radio Shabelle] A remote-controlled landmine struck a military convoy carrying African Union troops in southern Somalia on Saturday, witnesses said.

The attack took place on the outskirts of Balad town in Middle Shabelle region after an improvised explosive device ripped through the armoured vehicles ferrying the peacemakers.

The were no immediate reports of the casualties from the IED attack on the Burundian soldiers of AMISOM contingent.

The Al-Qaeda-linked militant group, Al-Shabaab has claimed responsibility for the bombing through a statement, saying one vehicle was destroyed in the attack.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/17/2019 00:59 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Shabaab (AQ)

#1  Trying to get that gold?
Posted by: Skidmark || 03/17/2019 14:49 Comments || Top||


Somali Army Kills 8 Al-Shabaab Militants
[Radio Shabelle] Somali special forces killed eight al-Shabaab militants overnight in the country’s Lower Shabelle region, state media said Tuesday.

"Somali security forces conducted an overnight operation in Daru Salam village in Lower Shabelle and killed eight members of the Al-Shabaab terrorist group," the Somali National News Agency reported.

Adow Mohamed, a Somali National Army captain in Lower Shabelle, confirmed the operation to Anadolu Agency by phone.

"Our special forces alongside our international partners conducted an operation against al-Shabaab in Daru Salam in the Lower Shabelle region after we received intelligence and killed eight al-Shabaab fighters," Mohamed said.

Meanwhile, al-Shabaab claimed it had killed one U.S. serviceman and wounded two others.

U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM), which is targeting al-Shabaab in Somalia, has not commented on the incident so far.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/17/2019 00:49 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Shabaab (AQ)


Africa North
Migrant Boats Sinks Off Morocco Coast
[AnNahar] Moroccan authorities said Friday the navy had rescued 21 people after a boat carrying migrants colonists sunk in the Mediterranean, with a rights group saying 45 others had drowned in the incident.

Tangiers-based association Caminando Fronteras said survivors and relatives reported "45 people bit the dust" Thursday after the vessel hit trouble as it headed towards Spain.

The group's director Helena Maleno wrote on Twitter that there were a total of 67 people onboard the boat and that seven women were among the survivors.

"Only one body has been recovered," she said.

A senior Moroccan official refused to confirm the corpse count given by Caminando Fronteras, but said the navy had rescued 21 people.

A second human rights
...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions...
organization, AMDH-Nador, confirmed to AFP that one body had been taken to a local hospital after the navy rescue operation.

In the wake of the incident the Spanish coastguard said they had offered to help Morocco and sent a helicopter to assist.

The issue of migrants colonists making illegal crossings to Europe
...also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
is highly sensitive in Morocco and the authorities are often cagey about giving details.

In January Caminando Fronteras reported that 50 migrants colonists from Mauritania drowned off the Moroccan coast, but the authorities never confirmed the deaths.

The NGO alerts naval authorities to migrant boats in distress at sea as they attempt the crossing to Europe.

Activist Maleno said this month that a Moroccan court has dropped human trafficking charges against her, saying it sets a precedent for her struggle to save lives at sea.

Last year saw a "substantial increase" in arrivals to Europe along the western route from Morocco, with over 65,000 people making it across the Mediterranean there, the European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
has said.

The International Organization for Migration says over 2,200 people died trying to make the perilous sea journey to Europe in 2018.

Moroccan authorities say they stopped 89,000 people from sub-Saharan Africa and Morocco from making the journey during the year and rescued 29,715.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/17/2019 00:05 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Moslem Colonists


Africa Subsaharan
Fire kills at least 8, destroys homes in northeast Nigeria camp
[AlAhram] A fire killed at least eight people and left 15,000 others without shelter after raging through a northeast Nigeria
... a particularly crimson stretch of Islam's bloody border...
n camp for people displaced by a war against Islamist murderous Moslems, aid group Norwegian Refugee Council said on Saturday.

Northeast Nigeria is ground zero for one of the world's worst humanitarian crises, sparked by a now decade-long conflict with Boko Haram
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
and its splinter group 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....
West Africa Province.

Roughly 2 million people have been displaced by the war, often living in squalid camps with little food, shelter or medicine.

"The source of the fire was a spark from a cooking stove, used by a child preparing her food," Norwegian Refugee Council said on Twitter, describing the disaster in the town of Gajiram in Borno, the state worst hit by the conflict.

"Immediately, the family shelter, made of dry vegetation, was ablaze...The survivors of the fire are now left without shelters & clean water to drink & cook. They are dispersed, desperately seeking shelters under trees or under the direct sunlight."

Some 6,000 children and more than 4,000 pregnant and nursing women were among those affected, it added.

In recent weeks, Nigerian and Chadian forces have launched an offensive against Islamic State's Lake Chad stronghold after being on the back for much of 2018 and early 2019.

The Nigerian military has said it has killed dozens of murderous Moslem fighters. Rooters has been unable to verify the figures.

Many aid groups expect the humanitarian crisis to last years.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/17/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Boko Haram (ISIS)


Arabia
Over 20 Houthi fighters killed as UAE-backed troops launch massive offensive
[AMN] BEIRUT, LEBANON (1:45 A.M.) ‐ The UAE-backed troops launched a massive offensive against the Houthi forces in western Yemen on Saturday.

According to reports from western Yemen, the UAE-backed Giants Brigade, stormed the Wadi Maqsab area of western Ta’iz on Saturday, seizing several points from the Houthi troops in the area.

Backed by Saudi Coalition airstrikes, the Giants Brigade managed to seize all of the Wadi Maqsab area after the Houthi forces made the decision to withdraw in order to avoid any more casualties.
"Run awayyyyy"
The Houthi forces will likely launch a counter-attack in the coming hours as they look to reclaim the territory they lost in the Ta’iz Governorate this weekend.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/17/2019 00:43 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Houthis


Down Under
New Zealand mosque attack suspect visited Croatia, police say, death toll rises to 50
[AlAhram] The Australian holy warrior suspected of carrying out the New Zealand mosque massacre visited Croatia just over two years ago, police told the Hina news agency on Saturday.

Brenton Tarrant was charged in court on Saturday, with Sherlocks now trying to piece together how his holy warrior views managed to go undetected by the intelligence services.

"The police have information about the movements of this person in December 2016 and January 2017," a spokeswoman for Croatia police said.

Earlier on Saturday, local media said Tarrant had visited Zagreb during that period as well as several other towns on Croatia's Adriatic coast, including Zadar, Sibenik and Dubrovnik. Croatian Sherlocks are looking into the reasons for his visit, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic told HRT national television.

On Friday, Bulgaria also began investigating a recent visit by Tarrant between November 9-15 last year, claiming he wanted "to visit historical sites and study the history of the Balkan country," chief prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarov said. He had also made a short visit to the Balkans from December 28-30, 2016, travelling by bus across Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, they said.

Media reports said the gunman had listened to a Serbian song about convicted war criminal Radovan Karadzic en route to the massacre, and also had the names of two historical Serbian and Montenegro leaders written in Cyrillic on his gun.

Ethnic hatreds fuelled the bloody dissolution of Yugoslavia in the 1990s, sparking wars that left 130,000 dead and displaced millions as borders were redrawn.
From another Al Ahram article:
Tarrant, handcuffed and wearing a white prison suit, stood silently in the Christchurch District Court where he was remanded without a plea. He is due back in court on April 5 and police said he was likely to face further charges.
An Nahar adds:
Prosecutors in Bulgaria on Friday launched a probe into a recent visit to the country by an Australian man alleged to be the gunman who killed 49 people in attacks on two New Zealand mosques.

The suspected assailant visited Bulgaria from November 9-15 last year claiming he wanted "to visit historical sites and study the history of the Balkan country", Bulgaria's public prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarov said, adding that the inquiry would establish if this was "correct or if he had other objectives."
Another An Nahar article adds:
Australia has banned right-wing commentator Milo Yiannopoulos from touring the nation over his social media response to the Christchurch mosque shootings. Australian Immigration Minister David Coleman said in a statement that Yiannopoulos' social media comments are "appalling and foment hatred and division."

Coleman didn't specify the comments he was referring to.

Yiannopoulos said on Facebook that attacks like Christchurch happen because "the establishment panders to and mollycoddles extremist leftism and barbaric, alien religious cultures."

Lawmakers within Australia's conservative government had been quarreling in recent weeks on whether the firebrand commentator should be allowed to tour Australia this year.
From the Jerusalem Post:
Brenton Tarrant had decorated his rifles with names of other far-right Lions of Islam and those that it appears he considers heroes of history who fought Moslems.

A TRT investigation shows that he included the name of Alexandre Bissonnette on his rifle. In 2017, Bissonnette murdered six people at a mosque in Canada. He also added Anton Lundlin Pettersson ‐ a student who murdered two migrant children in Sweden ‐ onto the stock of the gun. According to Italia’s The Local, he also added the name Luca Traini onto one of his clips of ammunition. In 2018, Traini injured six people in a racially motivated attack on black people in Macerata.

Death toll rises to 50 as New Zealand mourns mosque massacre victims

[IsraelTimes] Two other suspects arrested not connected to Brenton Tarrant’s assault on Christchurch mosques, police say, amid outpouring of grief in shaken nation

The death toll from horrifying shootings at two mosques in New Zealand rose to 50, police said Sunday, as Christchurch residents flocked to memorial sites and churches across the city Sunday to lay flowers and mourn the victims.

The additional death was discovered as bodies were being removed from the mosques in the southern city, police said, with forensic officers from across New Zealand flying into the city to assist with the identification process.

Another man arrested on Friday will appear in court on Monday on charges that are “tangential” to the attacks, though he was not believed to be involved in the shootings, Police Commissioner Mike Bush told reporters Sunday.

Two other suspects arrested at a police cordon during the attacks when a firearm was found in their car were not directly involved in Tarrant’s assault, he added. One of the two, a woman, has been released, and a man remains in custody on firearms charges, Bush said.

“At this moment, only one person has been charged in relation to these attacks,” he said.

Fifty people were wounded in the carnage, and doctors have worked around the clock to treat the 36 people still hospitalized for gunshot wounds and other injuries sustained in the attacks.

Muslims make up just one percent of New Zealand’s population.

American Conservative: Ron Dreher analyzes the Christchurch murderer’s manifesto in Radicalization & Degeneration.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/17/2019 00:18 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


India-Pakistan
Indian spy drone shot down near LoC
[Dawn] MUZAFFARABAD: The Pakistain Army has shot down an Indian spy drone close to the restive Line of Control (LoC) in Azad Jammu and Kashmire (AJK).

"Pakistain Army troops shot down an Indian spying quadcopter in Rakh Chikri Sector along Line of Control," tweeted Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor, director-general of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the military’s media affairs wing, on Saturday.

"The quadcopter had come 150 metres inside Pakistain," added the ISPR chief in his post that included two pictures of the fallen drone.

Rakh Chikri sector is located in AJK’s Poonch division.

There were no further details in the ISPR chief’s tweet.

However,
it's easy to be generous with someone else's money...
military sources told Dawn that the drone had been shot down on Friday evening.

"It was brought down with small arm fire from our first post along the LoC," they said.

Earlier, only on Sunday last, a similar spy drone was shot down in Khuiratta sector of AJK’s Kotli district.

Kotli-based official sources had confirmed the downing of the drone in Kot Kotehra village at about 4:30pm, but no blurb was issued by any authority in this regard.

In January this year, Pakistain Army shooters had downed two reconnaissance drones on two consecutive days in two different sectors of Poonch division.

The Indian military uses these drones for aerial photography of Pak posts along the LoC as part of its intelligence gathering operations and target selection before resorting to shelling from across the divide.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/17/2019 03:58 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Iraq
Two Turkish soldiers killed in clashes with PKK militants in northern Iraq
One hopes that in response the government of Iraq will exert itself to at least send a stiff diplomatic note, though one is not sanguine on the subject.
[IraqiNews.com] ‐ Two Ottoman Turkish soldiers were killed and eight others were maimed Saturday in festivities with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) Death Eaters in northern Iraq, Arab News quoted the Ottoman Turkish defense ministry as said.

Six bully boys, including a woman, were "neutralized" during the operations, the ministry said in a statement. The Ottoman Turkish army uses the term "neutralize" when it kills, captures or wounds combatants.

The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
regularly carries out air strikes on PKK bases in northern Iraq, as President Tayyip Erdogan pursues his aim of ending the bully boy group’s presence near Turkey’s borders.

The PKK, considered a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
and Turkey, has waged a three-decade insurgency in Turkey’s largely Kurdish southeast that has killed about 40,000 people.
Rudaw gives the perspective of the Iraqi Kurds on the latest excitements:
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and Ottoman Turkish military skirmished in the northern mountains of the Kurdistan Region on Saturday, resulting in fatalities to Ottoman Turkish soldiers.
"During fighting in the operation in northern Iraq on 16 March 2019 two of our brave soldiers were martyred and eight of theirs injured in the same operation," read a statement from the Ottoman Turkish Ministry of Defense released by state-media Anadolu Agency.

Ankara added in the operation six members of the PKK were killed including one female.

Locals told Rudaw that two Ottoman Turkish military planes were flying over Bradost area on Saturday morning.

At 6 a.m., PKK fighters attacked a Ottoman Turkish base on Mount Chyadel from Barmiza village, a source told Rudaw English who requested anonymity citing security concerns.

The source added that fighting continued until 8:30 a.m., but Ottoman Turkish helicopters arrived, apparently to retrieve their casualties, which the source claimed to be at least two dozen.

According to media close to the PKK, the fighting took place in the areas between Chyadel and Bradost. Roj News added the Ottoman Turkish Army was retrieving their maimed via helicopter.

The PKK did not immediately publish a statement on the fighting.
The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
has been in full control of Barmeza village, where Saturday's fighting took place.

In late January, protesters stormed a Ottoman Turkish base in Shiladze in Duhok province after a deadly attack by the army.

Its mountainous borders with Kurdistan Region have been hotspots for festivities. The PKK’s headquarters is in the Qandil district near the borders with Iran and Turkey. Their festivities sometimes result in civilian casualties.

The outlawed PKK is an armed political group that has clashed with Ottoman Turkish state for decades. It claims to be fighting for greater political, minority and cultural rights in Turkey.

Turkey has military presence in Kurdistan Region since the early 1990s, especially in those areas which are not under the direct control of the KRG.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/17/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Hamas violently disperses demonstrators on 3rd day of internal protests
[IsraelTimes] Ramallah asks Egypt to intervene; Fatah official: ’This is not the occupation, it’s Hamas, the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood, gangs terrorizing Gazoo’; conflicting reports on alleged self-immolation by one man.

A senior Paleostinian official said Saturday that the Ramallah-based leadership has asked Egypt to pressure Hamas over the violent suppression of protests during a third day of demonstrations in Gazoo against the terror group and the dire economic conditions in the enclave.

PLO Executive Committee member Wasel Abu-Youssef told the Times of Israel that the Paleostinian representative to Egypt and the Arab League
...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing...
, Diab al-Louh, has called for an emergency high-level meeting of the regional organization to discuss the situation in Gazoo. When asked if the meeting would discuss the violent suppression of protests, Abu Yusef said that it would.

According to Paleostinian media reports, Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
has also been asked to intervene in the escalating violence.

Paleostinians in the Gazoo Strip erupted into the streets on Saturday for the third successive day.

Unverified footage appeared to show a protester setting himself alight. According to Channel 12 news, Ahmed Abu Tahn self-immolated after he was unable to pay his rent and was evicted from his home. But after looking into the matter, the Al Mezan rights group in Gazoo told the Haaretz newspaper the film was not a new one, and that no such incident had occurred on Saturday. The veracity of the video could not be independently confirmed.

In response to a video of Hamas forces suppressing demonstrations, a close confidant of Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial...
tweeted his outrage.

"This is not the Israeli occupation forces!!"Fatah Central Committee member Hussein al-Sheikh said. "It is the Hamas gangs that are terrorizing and suppressing the hungry in the Gazoo Strip."

The Ynet news site reported that at least 80 demonstrators affiliated with the Fatah movement had been nabbed
Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un!
over the past 24 hours.

Paleostinian rights groups said Hamas briefly detained four of their researchers as it dispersed protests.

On Friday, reports from the coastal enclave said Hamas used live fire to put down demonstrations.

The center of Friday’s demonstrations was in Deir el-Balah, where Hebrew media reports said protesters burned tires and blocked one of the central Gazoo city’s main roads. Similar protests also took place in Khan Younis in the south of the Strip. In video from the demonstrations, protesters could be seen throwing rocks as the sound of apparent gunfire is heard in the background.

Quoting the demonstrators, Ynet said they were beaten by security forces loyal to Hamas. There were no immediate reports on the number of injured.

Hamas detains rights workers as it disperses Gaza protests

[Ynet] Paleostinian rights groups say Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", briefly detained four of their researchers as it dispersed protests in Gazoo against recent tax hikes.

Two researchers from the al-Mezan rights group, one from the Paleostinian Center for Human Rights and one from al-Dameer were held for a few hours before being released. Online videos show Hamas forces raiding homes, attacking protesters with clubs and firing into the air.
"It's OK when WE do it"
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/17/2019 01:37 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Hamas


IDF releases photos of Hamas posts flattened in response to rocket fire
[IsraelTimes] Targets in Gazoo include headquarters where terror group directed operations in West Bank as well as a compound used by its special naval force.

The Israeli military said a massive sortie carried out in Gazoo last week in response to rocket fire on Tel Aviv flattened a "terror headquarters" of the Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, group and naval posts belonging to the group, among other sites.

Pictures released by the military early Sunday showed extensive damage to several of the sites hit during the round of Arclight airstrikes early Friday, which came after two rockets were fired at Tel Aviv in what Israeli authorities now apparently believe to have been an accident.

Among the sites hit were a headquarters in the Rimal neighborhood of Gazoo City used by the terror group to coordinate its operations in the West Bank. The army said such operations included "directing terror attacks, building terror infrastructure, transferring money and providing logistical assistance in attacks against Israeli citizens."

Another two sites targeted during the IDF air raid early Friday morning were military outposts belonging to Hamas’s special naval force The sites were also used to produce and store weapons used by the reconnaissance unit, the army said.

Before and after aerial photos of both released by the army appeared to show the buildings reduced to rubble.

On Friday, the army said it had carried out some 100 airstrikes in Gazoo, in one of the heaviest bombardments in years.

The army said at the time that it hit an underground manufacturing site of standard-grade rockets in the Gazoo Strip, as well as a military training site that the IDF said served as Hamas’s drone center in the south of the enclave.

A position belonging to Hamas’s military wing, near its leader Ismail Haniya’s family home on the outskirts of Gazoo City, was damaged, with rubble strewn across the road, an AFP journalist said after the strikes.

Four Paleostinians were maimed in the Gazoo strikes, the enclave’s Hamas-run health ministry said.
The Jerusalem Post adds:
Local Paleostinian media in Gazoo said that Israeli naval vessels also took part in the strikes off the coast of Rafah. According to the IDF, The naval power infrastructures are held in these compounds and are used to create weapons for the benefit of the force.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/17/2019 01:21 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Hamas


Palestinians rip doors off disputed building on Temple Mount
[IsraelTimes] Protesters also raise national flag over the Gate of Mercy amid soaring tensions over access to shuttered mosque.

Paleostinian worshipers on Friday ripped the doors off a building on the Temple Mount complex at the heart of recent tensions between Israeli security forces and the Islamic Waqf, which acts as the custodian of the volatile holy site on behalf of Jordan and the Paleostinian Authority.

The Paleostinian protesters removed the doors of the Gate of Mercy, or Bab al-Rahma, after Friday prayers, despite instructions from the Waqf, the Temple Mount custodian and the head sheikh, all of whom had urged calm.

A group of protesters also raised the Paleostinian flag on the roof of the building, and it was then removed by police, according to the Haaretz daily.

The Gate of Mercy was sealed by Israeli authorities in 2003 because the group managing the area had ties to Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",, and it has been kept closed to stop illegal construction work there by the Waqf.

Israeli officials believe the work carried out by the Waqf, which refused to allow any Israeli observers, has led to the destruction of antiquities from periods of Jewish presence in the area.

The Waqf has repeatedly challenged the closure, convening and staging prayer-protests in the area that often erupted into festivities with police.

Last month, the Waqf reopened the site and Paleostinian worshipers have begun to use it as a mosque, despite Israeli attempts to keep the area sealed.

Since then, several low-level festivities have broken out between Paleostinian worshipers and Israeli security forces. On Thursday, police sealed off the entire Temple Mount after a Molotov cocktail was thrown at an officer.

High-level Israeli and Jordanian officials have been holding talks in the hope of defusing the situation. Last week, Israeli officials traveled to Jordan for meetings, and Jordanian officials have also visited Jerusalem, according to Israeli reports.

The talks were ongoing and the sides have yet to come to an agreement, the Haaretz daily reported this week.

Jordan has suggested that the site be closed for long-term renovations. While the Israelis agree, they insist it must first be closed without renovations taking place, as a statement of Israeli authority. This disagreement has reportedly stood in the way of a deal.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/17/2019 01:08 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Palestinian Authority

#1  Paleoanderthals. Nothing pretty bout it.
Posted by: Woodrow || 03/17/2019 12:57 Comments || Top||

#2  Might reduce tensions in the long term by demolishing the shuttered mosque.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 03/17/2019 14:57 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Homs: ISIS carries out new ambush behind Syrian Army lines
[AlMasdar] 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....
(ISIS/ISIS/IS/ISIS) carried out a new ambush behind the Syrian Arab Army’s (SAA) lines on Saturday, killing four people in the process.

According to a military source in Damascus, an Islamic State sleeper cell snuck into the Sawannah area in eastern Homs this morning, where they would later attack the civilians inside this region.

The source said the Islamic State killed four civilians and then fled back into the desert in order to evade capture by the Syrian Arab Army.

The Islamic State has been carrying out these attacks for several months now, with a recent surge in these ambushes since they lost the al-Safa region in northeast al-Sweida.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/17/2019 03:36 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Russian soldier killed in ISIS ambush in eastern Deir Ezzor
[AlMasdar] A Russian soldier was killed this week when a group of 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....
(ISIS/ISIS/IS/ISIS) forces of Evil ambushed the Syrian military in eastern Deir Ezzor.

According to a report from Deir Ezzor, the Syrian military was ambushed by the Islamic State group while they were moving through the al-Mayadeen Desert on February 23rd.

As a result of this ambush by the Islamic State, a 35-year-old Russian soldier, Sakhroub Kremov, was killed alongside several other Syrian Arab Army (SAA) personnel in this pasrt of the Deir Ezzor Governorate.

The name of the Russian soldier was released this week after the incident was thoroughly investigated by both the Russian Armed Forces and the Syrian Arab Army.

With the death of Sakhroub Kremov, the total number of Russian soldiers killed in Syria has risen to 108 as of March 16th.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/17/2019 03:36 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


US Navy veteran held in Iran gets 10 years, lawyer says
[IsraelTimes] Attorney for Michael White, convicted of insulting Iran’s supreme leader and posting private information online, says regime using client as leverage against Washington.

A US Navy veteran from Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison in Iran, his lawyer said Saturday, becoming the first American known to be imprisoned there since US President Donald Trump
...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States...
took office.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/17/2019 01:03 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran


Report: Concerns Mount about IS Militants ‘Smuggled’ into Lebanon
[AnNahar] Leb’s mostly non-existent border with Syria raises concerns amid recent reports claiming that Syrian nationals fleeing military service and others belonging 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....
terror group have been smuggled illegally into Leb, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Saturday.

Unnamed sources told the daily on condition of anonymity that "smuggling of Syrian nationals through legal border crossings from Syria into Leb has increased lately."

They pointed out that the operations are carried out through smugglers active in both the Lebanese and Syrian sides, and not only include those fleeing military service or facing criminal acts in Syria, but also includes individuals linked to the terrorist groups of the Islamic State and al-Nusra
...formally Jabhat an-Nusrah li-Ahli al-Sham (Support Front for the People of the Levant), also known as al-Qaeda in the Levant. They aim to establish a pan-Arab caliphate. Not the same one as the Islamic State, though .. ...
Front.

"These are brought from Idlib into Leb, and some of them have arrived in Wadi Khaled," said the source.

Although Leb’s security services "managed to arrest some of them, but the smuggling operations are taking place on a daily basis," said the source.

"Lebanese authorities involved in the Lebanese-Syrian border file have raised concern, and fear that the smuggling would be preceded by serious preparations by the murderous Moslems for Leb," concluded the source.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/17/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  But Hezbies and Paleo gangs in Ein-El-Hellhole are totes cool
Posted by: Frank G || 03/17/2019 11:45 Comments || Top||


Baghouz: Syria force locked in battle with ISIS jihadists in holdout village
[Rudaw] US-backed forces battled 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....
group fighters Saturday as the holdout jihadists clung to the last dregs of their crumbling "caliphate" in eastern Syria.

The SDF and coalition warplanes have rained fire on the enclave since last Sunday, blitzing more than 4,000 IS fighters and family members into surrender.

US-backed forces have reduced daytime Arclight airstrikes and shelling to allow for more exits from the last jihadist bastion.

But AFP journalists at an SDF post inside Baghouz heard sporadic rounds of mortar fire Saturday, and an SDF front man said fighting was ongoing.

"Clashes broke out again last night and have continued since," SDF front man Adnan Afrin said.

"There have so far been no surrenders (today) and there’s no sign they are giving up," he told AFP.

An SDF statement said the latest fighting broke out after the Kurd-led force attacked IS positions inside Baghouz.

Around 32 jihadists, including at least four senior IS figures, were killed in the battle, it said.

Around 32 jihadists, including at least four senior IS figures, were killed in the battle, an SDF statement said.
SUICIDE ATTACKS
On Friday, IS launched three suicide kabooms outside Baghouz, killing six people as they fled the village near the Iraqi border.

They were the latest casualties in Syria’s devastating civil war as it entered its ninth year with 370,000 dead.

The US-led coalition said the bombers were dressed in women's clothing and had mixed with others who were surrendering.

"ISIS has proven to demonstrate a reckless disregard for human life and continues to be a global threat," it said late Friday, using an Arabic acronym for IS.

"We stand by our SDF partners as they fight to liberate that last ISIS-held territory," it said on Twitter.

Analyst Mutlu Civiroglu said the attacks were designed to keep "moral high" among jihadists.

"From their perspective they are resisting, they are not giving up quickly," he said.

Die-hard IS fighters have unleased a wave of suicide kabooms over the past week to impede the SDF advance.

It remains unclear how many fighters and civilians remain inside Baghouz.

More than 61,000 people have streamed out of IS-held territory since December, a tenth of them suspected jihadists, according to the Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

DISTRESS, FATIGUE, MALNUTRITION
Around 3,000 people arrived at al-Hol camp from Baghouz over the past two days, pushing the camp’s population to over 69,000, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) said Saturday.

According to the United Nations
...where theory meets practice and practice loses...
children’s fund, UNICEF, the camp was designed with capacity for just 20,000 people.

The UN said most of the new arrivals "show clear signs of distress, fatigue, malnutrition and require some form of medical care or attention".

According to the IRC and UN, since December around 122 people have died en route to the camp or shortly after arriving, mostly small children, two of them on Thursday.
Al Masdar adds:
According to a new report from eastern Syria, the Syrian Democratic Forces scored a huge advance in the last 24 hours, seizing at least half of the Baghouz Camp from the Islamic State terrorists.

Furthermore, the Syrian Democratic Forces also managed to eliminate a large number of Islamic State fighters that were holed up at the northern end of the Baghouz Camp.

The Syrian Democratic Forces reportedly killed more than 150 Islamic State bully boyz that were holding the northeastern part of the Baghouz Camp.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/17/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State



Who's in the News
24[untagged]
10Islamic State
3Taliban
3Govt of Iran
2al-Shabaab (AQ)
2Govt of Pakistan
2Hamas
2Jaish-e-Mohammad
2Moslem Colonists
2Sublime Porte
1Govt of Iraq
1Palestinian Authority
1Houthis
1Boko Haram (ISIS)
1PFLP

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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.
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Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
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Two weeks of WOT
Sun 2019-03-17
  1 killed, another wounded in a magnetic bomb explosion in Kabul city
Sat 2019-03-16
  TV details how Hamas ‘accidentally’ fired at Tel Aviv
Fri 2019-03-15
  Over 40 killed as gunmen open fire in two mosques in New Zealand
Thu 2019-03-14
  Niger Says It Killed 33 Boko Haram 'Terrorists'
Wed 2019-03-13
  SDF close in on ISIS in Baghouz
Tue 2019-03-12
  Baghouz: ISIS militants retreat underground as coalition offensive resumes
Mon 2019-03-11
  Foreign ISIS brides isolated after attacking ‘infidel’ refugees at Syrian camp
Sun 2019-03-10
  More than 60 Taliban militants killed in Special Forces operations and airstrikes
Sat 2019-03-09
  JuD offices in Muridke, Lahore taken over
Fri 2019-03-08
  Nine border tunnels uncovered, destroyed in North Sinai
Thu 2019-03-07
  Blasts target major Shia ceremony in Afghanistan's Kabul
Wed 2019-03-06
  Masood Azhar's son, brother detained in govt crackdown against banned organisations
Tue 2019-03-05
  Indian strike on LeT camp in Muzaffarabad?
Mon 2019-03-04
  Germany to strip 'Islamic State' fighters' citizenship
Sun 2019-03-03
  Syrian Army kills 7 ISIS fighters attempting to escape from Euphrates bastion, SDF advancing on 5 fronts, 3 wounded

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