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Today: 65 articles and 195 comments as of 10:28.
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Area: WoT Background    Non-WoT    Opinion        Politix   
Gunman Opens Fire at Fort Lauderdale Airport; UPDATE 3 5 dead
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 1: WoT Operations
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Page 2: WoT Background
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Page 3: Non-WoT
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Page 4: Opinion
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Page 6: Politix
6 22:30 Sgt.D.T. [1]
6 19:18 CrazyFool [2]
7 17:54 Fred []
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5 21:13 Blossom Unains5562 [1]
7 17:46 Pholurt Uloluling1696 []
5 13:13 Raj []
16 18:53 ed in texas []
2 11:29 Abu Uluque []
7 18:49 ed in texas []
Afghanistan
6 Bad Guys die in Helmand
At least six insurgents including two foreigners were killed during a counter-terrorism operation conducted in South of Afghanistan.

The Ministry of Defense (MoD) said the operation was conducted on Helmand-Nimroz highway and at least 9 others were also wounded.

MoD further added that the security forces also discovered and confiscated at least 20 Improvised Explosive Device planted by the militants on the same highway.

No further details were given regarding the identities of the two foreign insurgents killed during the operations.

The anti-government armed militant groups including the Taliban insurgents have not commented regarding the report so far.

The highway linking southern Helmand with western Nimruz province is relatively volatile as the anti-government armed militants frequently set up check points to kidnap or kill passengers besides conducting direct attacks.

In the meantime, the Afghan forces are busy conducting their annual operation to eliminate the anti-government armed militants in the restive provinces.

The annual operation by the Afghan forces was launched in response to Taliban’s spring offensive and the security officials are saying that the key leaders and commanders of the militants are normally targeted during the operations.
Posted by: badanov || 01/06/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Female kop dies in Helmand
The Taliban insurgents have killed a policewoman in southern Helmand province of Afghanistan while another woman who was formerly serving with the police forces was killed in Uruzgan.

According to the local officials in Helmand, the policewoman was killed by the Taliban insurgents in Nawa district after she visited the province to meet her relatives.

The officials further added that the woman was accompanied by her husband and visited Nawa from Lashkargah city four days ago.

In the meantime, local officials in Uruzgan are saying a woman, former police member, was killed by her husband after she filed a divorce.

Deputy provincial governor Abdul Wahid Patan said the incident took place in Tarinkot city and the perpetrator, husband of the woman, has been arrested.

He said the woman was strangled to death after she filed for divorce on Wednesday.

According to the officials, the victim has been identified as Marwa and had served with provincial police commandment for several years.

This comes as the Taliban insurgents earlier beheaded a woman in northern Sar-e-Pul province of Afghanistan.

The Taliban insurgents also executed at least two people including a woman in northern Jawzjan province late last year.
Posted by: badanov || 01/06/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


1 dead in roadside bomb attack near Jalalabad
One person was killed and two others injured when a roadside mine detonated in Jalalabad city on Thursday morning, officials said.
Thumbnail

According to officials, the wounded people have been taken to hospital.

The incident occurred at about 10.30am.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack.
Posted by: badanov || 01/06/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Roadside bomb wounds Top Kop in Faryab
According to officials, initial reports indicate it was a suicide bombing and the target was the district police chief, Nasir Zabit.

Zabit and five others were reportedly wounded in the blast, including one of his bodyguards and four civilians.

The wounded have been taken to Maimana hospital in the provincial capital.
Posted by: badanov || 01/06/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Africa North
Breakout attempt nets 13 dead
Benghazi, 5 January 2017:

At least 13 police and soldiers are reported to died in an overnight breakout from the besieged Benghazi terrorist enclaves of Ganfouda and Sabri.

A column of vehicles is reported to have bust out of Ganfouda and headed south towards Suluq. They are said to have included Wissam Ben Humaid, the militants’ leader. He is thought to have escaped.

A running battle, including airstrikes, then started nearby with at least one technical in the column destroyed.

Meanwhile, a second group of terrorists burst out of Ganfouda north towards Benghazi. A solider was killed at a checkpoint in Sidi Faraj and two police officers were gunned down near Benghazi Medical Centre. It appears that this escape included a car bomb, possibly without a driver, which however is said to have failed to detonate and was captured intact.

Some of the police dead and injured came in the third breakout when a vehicle clad in steel plate smashed its way out of Sabri. Among the dead there was traffic policeman. Three terrorists were also killed but it is being said that at least two more managed to escape into the city.

Several schools in Benghazi have not opened their doors today after the reported discovery of of explosive devices in a school near the passport centre in Al-Majuri. Banks too have been ordered to close and many people are staying indoors.

These three break-outs would appear to have been coordinated and to have taken security forces by surprise after more than a week’s lull in the fighting. They occurred during a city-wide power cut. It is understood that a GECOL control room staff member has been arrested.

Posted by: badanov || 01/06/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Africa Subsaharan
3 Nigerian suicide bombers die near Madagali
This may or may not be the same incident we had yesterday.
Three teenage girls suspected of planning a triple suicide bomb attack in a town frequently targeted by Boko Haram have been shot dead, a local government official said on Thursday.

Civilian vigilantes opened fire on the trio near the town of Madagali when they refused to stop for a security check, the town council’s chairman, Yusuf Muhammad, told AFP.

“Explosives strapped to two of the girls exploded from the impact of the shooting, while those on the third girl were defused by soldiers,” he added.

Boko Haram extremists have regularly used young women and girls as human bombs in a nearly eight-year insurgency, which has left at least 20,000 people dead and made more than 2.6 million homeless.
Posted by: badanov || 01/06/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Boko Haram


Arabia
Transferred Guantanamo inmates land in Saudi: AFP
[AlAhram] Three inmates from the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay arrived in 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...
Thursday, after the White House rejected US President-elect 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...
's demand for a freeze on transfers.

An AFP news hound saw the three prisoners after they landed at a terminal normally reserved for royals at the Riyadh international airport.

More Guantanamo releases likely before Jan 20

There will likely be additional prisoners transferred from the U.S. naval facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, before President Barack Obama
Republicans can come along for the ride, but they've got to sit in the back...
leaves office on Jan. 20, the White House said on Thursday.

"I am not able to speak to any specific detainee transfers between now and Jan. 20 other than to confirm for you that there are likely to be some," White House front man Josh Earnest said at a news briefing.

The releases will be announced publicly as they have been in the past, he said.
Dear King Salman,

I would deem it a great favor if you would lock up those Guantanamo Bay prisoners President Obama has been sending you. I'll send a transport to pick them up on Monday, January 23rd, after your weekend and ours.

Cordially yours,
DJT
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/06/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Yemeni rocket hits Soddy base in Bab el-Mandeb
[Al-Manar] Dozens of Saudi-led mercenaries were killed and injured as the Yemeni rocketry force fired a ballistic missile on a Saudi military camp in Bab el-Mandeb.

Yemeni sources told al-Massirah Yemeni channel that 150 of mercenaries were killed and injured as the medium-range missile accurately targeted Shaab al-Jen military camp in Bab el-Mandeb.

Among the mercenaries killed were Takfiris transformed from Syria via Turkish planes, the source said.

Yemen has been since March 26, 2015 under brutal aggression by Saudi-led coalition.

Thousands have been martyred and injured in the attack, with the vast majority of them are civilians.

Riyadh launched the attack on Yemen in a bid to restore power to fugitive ex-president Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi who is a close ally to Saudi Arabia.
Posted by: badanov || 01/06/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


The Grand Turk
Day 5: "Istanbul Nightclub Jihadi Likely Uighur Member of ‘Well-Formed’ Terror Cell", More Uighur Arrests
[Breitbart] Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Veysi Kaynak told a national television outlet that the yet-unnamed jihadi responsible for killing dozens at Istanbul’s Reina nightclub on New Year’s Eve is likely a member of the Uighur Moslem ethnic minority, which makes its home in China and central Asia.

While authorities have identified the attacker as a citizen of Kyrgyzstan, news reports from the past year indicate that a thriving market exists in falsified Kyrgyz passports, and his Uighur ethnic identity could mean the terrorist came from China.
An interesting point.
"The terrorist’s identity has been established by security forces and his potential whereabouts have also been determined," Kaynak told the television channel A Haber, describing the suspect as probably a member of the Uighur ethnic minority. He also confirmed that authorities believe that the man acted alone, but that he appeared "specially-trained" and was likely a member of a "well-formed" terror cell. 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....
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/06/2017 09:03 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  US picked up several dozen Uighurs in first year or so of Enduring Freedom. By 2013, all had been released to other countries.

they would be in their mid 30s to early 40s by now so the guy in the picture is probably not one of them
Posted by: lord garth || 01/06/2017 14:17 Comments || Top||


Turkey orders detention of 380 businessmen in Gulen investigation
[Ynet] Turkish prosecutors issued arrest warrants for 380 businessmen accused of providing financial support to the network of US-based holy man Fethullah Gulen
... a Turkish preacher living in Pennsylvania whom the current govt of Turkey considers responsible for all the ills afflicting Turkey and possibly the entire world...
, who is accused of orchestrating July's failed coup, media reports said on Thursday.

State-run Anadolu news agency said prosecutors had also issued demands for searches of the suspects' homes and offices. Gulen denies accusations of involvement in the attempted putsch, in which more than 240 people were killed.

Turkey's Dogan Holding says two detained in police raids in Gulen-linked probe

[AlAhram] Turkish police detained the chief legal advisor and a former chief executive of Dogan Holding on Thursday, the conglomerate said, as part of a probe into followers of a U.S.-based holy man blamed for a failed July coup.

Dogan - which has interests in media, finance, energy and tourism and owns newspaper Hurriyet and broadcaster CNN Turk - said the raids were only on the personal offices and homes of the two individuals and that its operations were unaffected.

Last month another Dogan Holding executive, Barbaros Muratoglu, was remanded in jug on an accusation of "aiding a terror group" as part of an investigation into the exiled Moslem holy man Fethullah Gulen
... a Turkish preacher living in Pennsylvania whom the current govt of Turkey considers responsible for all the ills afflicting Turkey and possibly the entire world...
and his followers. Ankara refers to the group as the "Gulenist Terror Organisation".

In its statement to the Istanbul stock exchange, Dogan said Thursday's detentions were part of the same investigation.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/06/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte

#1  With tourism in the toilet, an economic implosion coming.
Posted by: phil_b || 01/06/2017 4:47 Comments || Top||

#2  Like the expeditors in Mexico, moving the 'faithful' to the Caliphate will make up some of the lost tourist revenue for some 'guides'.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/06/2017 8:24 Comments || Top||

#3  Yeah, everybody needs a dog to wag.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 01/06/2017 13:31 Comments || Top||


Car bomb in Izmir wounds 10
[al-Manar] A car bomb exploded outside a courthouse in the western Turkish city of Izmir on Thursday, wounding at least 10 people and sparking clashes in which at least two “terrorists” were killed, officials and reports said.

Several ambulances were rushed to the scene after the blast outside the prosecutors and judges’ entrance to the court in the usually peaceful city on the Aegean Sea, the channel said.

Police then clashed with “terrorists” during which two of them were killed and one escaped, according to state-run Anatolia news agency.

The mayor of the local Bayrakli municipality, Hassan Karabag, told NTV television that at least 10 people were wounded, one of them seriously.

The wounded were taken to hospital as police secured the scene.

As is customary after such attacks in Turkey, the authorities slapped a broadcast ban on images from the incident, state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
The Daily Mail adds:
The provincial governor, Erol Ayyildiz, blamed the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, for the car bombing and a large crowd assembled at the scene, chanting: 'God damn the PKK.'

Two men armed with machine guns, grenades and a rocket launcher were later killed while a third is on the run after a deadly car bomb outside a courthouse.

Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister Veysi Kaynak said it could have been much worse: 'Based on the preparation, the weapons, the bombs and ammunition seized, it is understood that a big atrocity was being planned.'
Update from An Nahar at 10:40 a.m. ET:
The state-run Anadolu news agency said two suspects were tossed into the calaboose but it was not clear if they included the pursued hard boy.

It added that security forces carried out a controlled kaboom on a vehicle that the attackers may have been looking to use as a getaway car.

The usually peaceful port city, The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
's third largest metropolis, is the gateway to the plush beach resorts of the Aegean and rarely sees violence on this scale. It is well west of the PKK's main theatre in southeastern Turkey.
Posted by: badanov || 01/06/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: WoT
Gunman Opens Fire at Fort Lauderdale Airport; UPDATE 3 5 dead
Default status is terrorism, though that could change.
A gunman opened fire Friday afternoon at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in Florida, shooting at least nine people and killing one, Broward County officials said.

A gunman was in custody, local law enforcement sources told NBC News. The Fort Lauderdale airport tweeted the incident occurred at a baggage claim inside Terminal 2.

Passengers and workers were evacuated onto a tarmac. Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer tweeted he was at the airport at the time of the shooting and "everyone is running." He later tweeted that "all seems calm."

A law enforcement expert said authorities will try to determine who the suspect is and whether there are other plots afoot. "You're trying to understand, is this a one-off guy? Regardless of motive, is he alone, or is there something else?" law enforcement expert Jim Cavanaugh told MSNBC. "We hate to think that way, but that's the requirement for police commanders -- to think that way."
Posted by: Glenmore || 01/06/2017 13:44 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  First line should be highlighted - tool seems not to work for me now.
Posted by: Glenmore || 01/06/2017 13:46 Comments || Top||

#2  Fixed. I've been having trouble with it, too. For some reason it started closing highlight immediately after opening, instead of closing at the end of the chosen bit of text -- very annoying. So I moved it and all is as intended. ;-)
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/06/2017 14:14 Comments || Top||

#3  Update at 2:07 p.m. local time (ET) from CBS Miami, which will post new updates as they come in: Three dead, airport services suspended.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/06/2017 14:18 Comments || Top||

#4  The Daily Mail concurs on three dead and the gunman in custody. They'll be updating, too, no doubt, and have Ari Fleisher's tweets as the situation unfolded.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/06/2017 14:22 Comments || Top||

#5  Five dead.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 01/06/2017 14:25 Comments || Top||

#6  Somebody was upset at their baggage being damaged?
Posted by: Glenmore || 01/06/2017 14:28 Comments || Top||

#7  Ima listening to Fox News about this incident right now. I can't believe what a slimy little self-centered pompous asshole egomaniacal rat Shep Smith is.
Posted by: Raj || 01/06/2017 14:33 Comments || Top||

#8  May still be ongoing. 2nd shooter?
Posted by: phil_b || 01/06/2017 14:54 Comments || Top||

#9  Update from the Daily Mail:

A gunman, Esteban Santiago, is reportedly in custody.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/06/2017 14:54 Comments || Top||

#10  Aye, he's a fine Irish lad...
Posted by: Raj || 01/06/2017 15:01 Comments || Top||

#11  As of around 2:30 p.m. local time, the TSA said there was another active shooter at the airport and that all terminals were closed.
Posted by: phil_b || 01/06/2017 15:04 Comments || Top||

#12  Converted jihadis, gangsters fighting for access to transport, a couple of nutters? I look forward to discovering the truth.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/06/2017 15:13 Comments || Top||

#13  From the CBS-Miami link:

One suspect is in custody in connection, according to the Broward Sheriff’s Office. A law enforcement source talking to CBS News identifies the accused shooter as Esteban Santiago who was born in New Jersey and had a military ID.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/06/2017 15:19 Comments || Top||

#14  Trumps kids travel coach. Trump was vacationing in Florida. Could be a hit attempt by leftist idiots?
Posted by: Nero White 3083 || 01/06/2017 15:35 Comments || Top||

#15  Radicalized convert?
Posted by: DarthVader || 01/06/2017 15:36 Comments || Top||

#16  Shooter seems to have flown in from Canada with the gun in his checked baggage.
Posted by: Glenmore || 01/06/2017 16:21 Comments || Top||

#17  I'll take "Drugs" for 400 Alex...
Posted by: BrerRabbit || 01/06/2017 16:27 Comments || Top||

#18  This guy?: Esteban Santiago Facebook Information


Posted by: Vast Right Wing Conspiracy || 01/06/2017 17:09 Comments || Top||

#19  He reportedly told FBI last year he was forced to fight with ISIS.
Posted by: Nero White 3083 || 01/06/2017 17:41 Comments || Top||

#20  The guy walked into an FBI office last November and said he was being forced to fight for ISIS.

Wasn't that enough to get him on the NO FLY list?
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 01/06/2017 18:24 Comments || Top||

#21  Wasn't that enough to get him on the NO FLY list?

One of the problems with treating terrorism as a criminal justice matter, you have to wait for someone to actually do something before you can take action.
Posted by: SteveS || 01/06/2017 20:06 Comments || Top||

#22  Aaaaand here comes the radical islam part:

Ft Lauderdale shooter was posting on Jihadi forums when he was 17yrs old in 2007 - Now closed twitter acct @Esteban00903

Posted by: DarthVader || 01/06/2017 21:24 Comments || Top||

#23  Classify Islam as a death cult of intolerance and outlaw it.
Posted by: Nero White 3083 || 01/06/2017 22:04 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Mosul Offensive News


35 Bad Guys die near Tal Afar

Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Three drones guided by Islamic State militants were brought down and 35 group members were killed in Mosul on Thursday, Iraqi police and paramilitary forces said as operations continue to recapture the city from militants.

Federal Police services said three drones were brought down before they attacked security locations in the eastern section of the city.

In western Mosul, a local source told Alsumaria News that al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Units) had killed 35 Islamic State combatants who waged an attack on a PMU location near the strategic town of Tal Afar.

The deaths included an IS senior recruitment agent, nicknamed Abu Qaswara al-Shami.

Iraqi commanders said earlier this week they had recaptured 60 percent of the city’s eastern section. IS still maintains hideouts in the west close to its strongholds in Syria, but Iraqi generals and allied militia leaders say the group has become isolated from Syria and Iraq.

Security officials estimate the number of remaining IS combatants by 6000. But those are fighting against at least 100.000 government and militia soldiers.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said in December the battle for Mosul was entering a “decisive” stage, and predicted that the operations could realize final victory within two months.
Liberating Mosul, IS last outstanding stronghold in Iraq, could deal a final fatal blow to group’s influence in the country.

70 percent of Mosul captured from ISIS

(Reuters) Iraqi forces have retaken around 70 percent of eastern Mosul from Islamic State militants and expect to reach the river bisecting the city in the coming days, Iraq’s joint operations commander told Reuters.

Lieutenant General Talib Shaghati, who is also head of the elite counter-terrorism service (CTS) spearheading the campaign to retake the northern city, said the cooperation of residents was helping them advance against Islamic State.

In its 12th week, the offensive has gained momentum since Iraqi forces backed by a U.S.-led coalition renewed their push for the city a week ago, clearing several more eastern districts despite fierce resistance.

“Roughly 65-70 percent of the eastern side has been liberated,” Shaghati said in an interview late on Wednesday in the Kurdish capital of Erbil. “I think in the coming few days we will see the full liberation of the eastern side”.

The western half of the city remains under the full control of Islamic State, which is fighting to hold on to its largest urban stronghold with snipers and suicide car bombs numbering “in the hundreds” according to Shaghati.

The Mosul assault, involving a 100,000-strong ground force of Iraqi government troops, members of the autonomous Kurdish security forces and mainly Shi’ite militiamen, is the most complex battle in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

The commander of a U.S.-led coalition backing the Iraqi offensive told Reuters on Wednesday that increased momentum was due largely to better coordination among the army and security forces. He said the Iraqis had improved their ability to defend against Islamic State car bombs.

Although vastly outnumbered, the militants have used the urban terrain to their advantage, concealing car bombs in narrow alleys, posting snipers on tall buildings with civilians on lower floors and making tunnels and surface-level passageways between buildings. They have also embedded themselves among the local population.

HUMAN SHIELDS
The presence of large numbers of civilians on the battlefield has restricted Iraqi forces’ use of artillery but the cooperation of residents has also helped them target the militants.

“They give us information about the location of the terrorists, their movements and weapons that has helped us pursue them and arrest some and kill others,” Shaghati said.

In the run-up to the Mosul offensive, Iraqi officials expressed hope that residents would rise up against Islamic State, accelerating the group’s demise in the city. But mass executions seem to have discouraged widespread resistance.

An Iraqi victory in Mosul would probably spell the end for Islamic State’s self-styled caliphate, which leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared 2-1/2 years ago from Mosul’s main mosque after the militants overran the city.

But in recent days, the militants have displayed the tactics to which they are likely to resort if they lose the city, killing dozens with bombs in Baghdad and attacking security forces elsewhere.

An attack claimed by Islamic State killed six people on Thursday on the capital’s eastern outskirts.

CTS pushed into Mosul from the east in late October and made swift advances but regular army troops tasked with advancing from the north and south made slower progress and the operation stalled for several weeks.

The roughly 10,000 members of CTS, established a decade ago with support from the U.S. forces, are considered the best-trained and equipped fighters in Iraq.

Shaghati described the role of the international coalition, providing air support and advising Iraqi forces on the ground as “outstanding” and said Islamic State was crumbling under pressure.

“Daesh (Islamic State) devised many plans to obstruct and block us but they failed. We were able to surpass them and these areas were liberated with high speed,” Shaghati said.

“We have intelligence that (Islamic State) leaders and their families are fleeing outside Iraq.”

US airstrikes increase in Mosul

[ARA News] Erbil – The US-led coalition has launched thousands of airstrikes on Islamic State’s (ISIS) positions since the launch of the Mosul campaign nearly three months ago, helping allied Iraqi forces to capture more ground in the key city.

According to Air Force Col John L. Dorrian, Spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR)–the US-led coalition against ISIS, the air campaign hit hundreds of ISIS targets in Mosul.

Since the start of Mosul Operation last October, the coalition has destroyed more than 125 ISIS car bombs that had been prepared by the group to hit Iraqi and Kurdish forces in the vicinity of Mosul.

Furthermore, dozens of ISIS tactical units have been recently destroyed by the US-led coalition in Mosul and other parts of Nineveh Governorate, in northern Iraq.

Also, over 2,500 ISIS fighters have been killed either by coalition air raids or Iraqi shelling.

On October 17th, 2016, the Iraqi Army and Kurdish Peshmerga forces launched a major battle for Mosul to liberate the city and its surroundings from ISIS. The US-backed forces have so far captured approximately 70% of Mosul city, which is deemed a de facto capital for ISIS in Iraq.
Posted by: badanov || 01/06/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Anbar Antics


Iraqi operation begins in western Anbar

Anbar (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi army and police forces, backed by tribal militias, launched on Thursday a first major campaign to retake western regions of the province of Anbar, near the borders with Syria, from Islamic State militants.

Commander of the army’s al-Jazeera Operations, Lt. Gen. Qassem al-Mohammadi, said in a statement that the forces partaking in the onslaught are backed by an aerial cover from US-led coalition fighter jets.

He said the operations target the towns of Annah, Rawa and Qaem from Islamic State militants who maintained hold since 2014. Joint forces advanced Thursday towards Annah, he revealed.

IS used regions of western Anbar as launching points for attacks against civilians and security forces. Iraqi security and coalition forces responded with occasional strikes on those locations.

The most outstanding battle against IS in Iraq has been running since October at the city of Mosul, the country’s second largest city and the formerly proclaimed capital of the militants’ “Islamic Caliphate”. Generals say they have become in control over a half of the city’s eastern section and hope to advance towards the western section on the borders with Syria.

Battles and hard living conditions in IS-held regions has forced at least 150.000 civilians to flee homes to refugee camps.

Iraqi forces seize 80 barrel bombs in Ramadi

Anbar (IraqiNews.com) Anbar Operations Command announced on Thursday confiscating 80 Jahannam (Hell) missiles and quantities of different rockets and remnants left by the Islamic State in the areas of al-Tharthar basin, in northern the province.

Commander of Anbar Operations, Major General Ismail Mahalawi, said in a press statement, “Security forces searched the area of Albu Shamlon, in Tharthar basin, north of Ramadi, resulting in confiscating 80 Jahannam (Hell) missiles and quantities of different rockets and remnants left by the Islamic State.”

“Security forces continue searching and securing the liberated areas, in order to remove military remnants left by the Islamic State, in preparation for the return of displaced people,” Mahlawi added.

The areas of Tharthar Lake (70 km north of Ramadi) were fully liberated from the Islamic State, four months ago.

Iraqi forces capture Hadith-Annan road

Anbar (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi security forces and tribal militias cleared on Thursday 8 kilometers of a road linking Islamic State-held towns west of Anbar as operations started earlier on the day to retake those regions.

Qassem al-Mohammadi, commander of the army’s al-Jazeera Operations, said in press statements that army forces and allied militias cleared eight kilometers of the road between the towns of Haditha and Annah from militants, killing some as they advanced.

Nazem al-Jugheifi, a senior leader at Popular Mobilization Units in the province, said the militias defused more than 100 explosive devices during the campaign.

Meanwhile, Saad Rachid, mayor of Annah, said Islamic State militants were confining 8000 civilians inside the town, adding that those suffer medicine and food shortages. He however, predicted the IS-controlled regions to be retaken soon, arguing that most regions are empty of residents, which will facilitate the mission of security forces.

IS used regions of western Anbar as launching points for attacks against civilians and security forces. Iraqi security and coalition forces responded with occasional strikes on those locations.

The most outstanding battle against IS in Iraq has been running since October at the city of Mosul, the country’s second largest city and the formerly proclaimed capital of the militants’ “Islamic Caliphate”. Generals say they have become in control over a half of the city’s eastern section and hope to advance towards the western section on the borders with Syria.

More on Hadith-Annan operation from Arab News
BAGHDAD/ERBIL: Iraqi forces launched an offensive against the Daesh group near the Syrian border Thursday, piling further pressure on the militants’ crumbling “caliphate.”

A joint operations commander told Reuters that Iraqi forces have retaken around 70 percent of eastern Mosul from Daesh militants and expect to reach the river bisecting the city in the coming days.

Lt. Gen. Talib Shaghati, who is also head of the elite counter-terrorism service (CTS) spearheading the campaign to retake the northern city, said the cooperation of residents was helping them advance against Daesh.

Baghdad and its allies also turned up the heat on Daesh in its last remaining Iraqi stronghold of Mosul, where the US-led coalition said it had doubled the number of its advisers.

“A military operation has begun in the western areas of Anbar (province) to liberate them from Daesh,” said Lt. Gen. Qassem Mohammedi, head of Jazeera Operations Command.

He said the operation was led by the army’s 7th division, police, and fighters from local tribes that have opposed the militants, with aerial backing from the coalition.

The main targets of the operation are Aanah, Rawa and Al-Qaim, the westernmost Iraqi towns along the Euphrates Valley.
The militant hub of Al-Qaim, which lies 330 km northwest of Baghdad, is still a long way down the road and the most immediate target is the town of Aanah.

“Our forces started advancing from Haditha toward Aanah from several directions,” Mohammedi told AFP.

Haditha was never seized by Daesh when the group swept across much of Iraq’s Sunni Arab heartland in 2014 and is home to a tribe that has led the fight against the militants in the area.

“Zero hour has come to liberate the western areas,” Nadhom Al-Jughaifi, a commander with the Haditha tribal fighters, said.

In 2016, Iraqi forces retook large parts of the vast province of Anbar, including its capital Ramadi and the city of Fallujah.

Anbar is a desert area traversed by the Euphrates that borders Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria. Security in reconquered areas remains precarious and militants continue to move across the province.

Daesh has lost more than half of the territory it once controlled in Iraq and the loss of Mosul would deal a major blow to the “caliphate” it proclaimed there in June 2014.

Tens of thousands of Iraqi forces are currently involved in an offensive to retake the main northern city, which is also Daesh’s last major stronghold in the country.

The operation launched on Oct. 17 is Iraq’s largest in years and while significant territory was reconquered around Mosul, the going has been tough inside the city itself.

After a lull in operations, Iraqi forces launched a fresh push last week and appear to have found new momentum.

“Iraqi security forces have made significant progress since initiating phase two of their operation to liberate Mosul,” Col. John Dorrian, the coalition’s spokesman, said on Wednesday.

He said that was partly owed to increased coalition involvement in the battle, with a doubling of the deployment of advisers there to about 450.

“We have increased the number of advise and assist forces that are there with the ISF (Iraqi Security Forces) command elements to help advise them as they move forward and to synchronize operations,” he said.

Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi promised that his forces would rid Iraq of Daesh by the end of 2016 but commanders have admitted they were surprised at how stiff militant resistance was in the city.

According to a top commander in the Counter-Terrorism Service that has spearheaded the battle in Mosul, Iraqi forces have now retaken about two thirds of the city’s eastern half.

Dorrian said the presence inside the city of hundreds of thousands of civilians had slowed progress.

“There are more than 200,000 buildings in Mosul. And really, in order to do this properly, given the way that the enemy has conducted themselves, you end up having to clear each one,” he told reporters.
Posted by: badanov || 01/06/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Baghdad Bomb and Bullet Bulletin: 6 dead


6 die in car bomb attack in al-Obeidi area

(Reuters/IraqiNews.com)A car bomb in eastern Baghdad claimed by Islamic State killed six civilians and wounded 15 on Thursday, police and medics said.

The Amaq news agency, which supports Islamic State, said a parked car loaded with explosives in the al-Obeidi area had targeted a gathering of Shi’ite Muslims, whom the ultra-hardline Sunni group considers apostates.

Attacks across Baghdad in the past week, some claimed by the ultra-hardline Sunni group, have killed more than 60 people, with violence escalating as U.S-backed Iraqi forces try to drive the militants from the northern city of Mosul.

Islamic State has lost most of the territory it seized in northern and western Iraq in 2014, and ceding Mosul would probably spell the end of its self-styled caliphate. However, its insurgent capabilities in Iraq and plotting or inspiring attacks on the West are likely to persist.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) said recently that violence in Iraq had left 19000 casualties in 2016, but said the count excludes deaths in Anbar during three months of that year.

Observers believe Islamic State have begun to escalate attacks outside the city of Mosul, where the group has been losing ground and personnel since October, so as to relieve pressure on that front by government forces and to divert attention from losses.
Posted by: badanov || 01/06/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Southeast Asia
Former administrator gunned down in southern Thailand
[Anadolu Agency] A former public school administrator was gunned down in a market in southern Thailand in what police suspect to be the latest operation against the Thai government. The slain former official also worked as an advisor to the chairman of the provincial administration organization of Yala province.

Police captain Pongsak Promaket said that the man was ambushed by gunmen. He said, "The 59-year-old former school administrator was selling goods in a market in Yala province, when a group of men drew guns and shot him repeatedly before fleeing."
Posted by: ryuge || 01/06/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Thai Insurgency


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Leaked Audio: Kerry Admits Russia Entered Syrian Conflict Because ISIS Kept Getting Stronger…
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/06/2017 15:36 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  No shit? Evil Putin had to clean up the mess since the children weren't getting it done and kept playing with their food apparently...
Posted by: DarthVader || 01/06/2017 16:10 Comments || Top||


38 ISIS Turbans die in Turkish airstrike in Syria
[AlArabiya] Turkish warplanes and artillery have struck ISIS targets in Syria, ‘neutralizing’ 38 of the group’s militants, Turkey’s military said in a statement on Thursday.

In a round-up of its military operations over the last 24 hours in support of rebels in northern Syria, the army said air strikes by Turkish fighter jets on 28 ISIS targets destroyed shelters, command centers, weapons and vehicles.

The Turkish military operation, dubbed ‘Euphrates Shield’, was launched more than four months ago to drive ISIS militants away from the border region. In recent weeks, the forces have been besieging the town of al-Bab.
Posted by: badanov || 01/06/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Fighting continues near Damascus
BEIRUT, Lebanon: Syrian pro-government forces clashed with opposition forces around the main water source for Damascus on Thursday, a monitor said, threatening a fragile cease-fire as it entered its seventh day.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said regime troops backed by fighters from Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement were battling to recapture parts of the Wadi Barada region from rebels.

The area north of Damascus is the main source of water to the capital.

The Observatory, a Britain-based monitor of Syria’s conflict, said regime forces had late on Wednesday launched “dozens of air strikes on parts of Wadi Barada along with artillery and rocket fire, killing a firefighter.”

Fighting has continued in the area despite a nationwide cease-fire brokered by regime backer Russia and opposition sponsor Turkey, which has brought quiet to large parts of Syria.

The regime says forces in Wadi Barada include former Al-Qaeda affiliate Fateh Al-Sham Front, previously known as Al-Nusra Front, which Moscow and Damascus say is excluded from the cease-fire.
Opposition forces deny the group is in the area.

The capital’s water supply has been cut since December 22, with the regime and rebels trading accusations over responsibility.
Regime forces late Wednesday also bombed several parts of opposition-held Eastern Ghouta near Damascus, while regime and loyalist forces battled Islamist militants there, the Observatory said.

The opposition-controlled Rashidin district on the western outskirts of Aleppo was also bombed, it said, killing a rebel fighter and wounding eight others.

The cease-fire agreement is meant to pave the way for peace negotiations later this month in the Kazakh capital Astana, but Ankara warned on Wednesday that violations of the truce by President Bashar Assad’s government were putting the talks at risk.

From al-Manar: Hundreds surrender in Damascus countryside

In the context of the local reconciliations in Damascus countryside, the legal conditions of hundreds of gunmen were settled after they turned themselves in to the Syrian authorities.

In parallel, the Syrian army continued counterterrorism operations in various provinces, killing a number of militants and destroying their vehicles as well as equipment.

Source: Al-Manar Website
Posted by: badanov || 01/06/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


ISIS launches new attack on Syrian troops in Deir ez-Zor
[ARA News] Deir Ezzor – Militant fighters of the Islamic State (ISIS) launched on Thursday a major offensive on Syrian Army bases in Deir ez-Zor Governorate, in eastern Syria.

ISIS militants initiated the offensive by targeting headquarters of the Syrian regime’s army forces in the Bagheliya town with heavy artillery and mortar shells.

Dozens of casualties were reported among the Syrian forces in Bagheliya.

The group also attacked the 137th Regiment of the Syrian Army in western Deir ez-Zor with two car bomb attacks, followed by fierce mortar shelling.

“The attacks on the 137th Regiment caused the destruction of several military vehicles and the death of over 20 Syrian Army soldiers,” media activist Samer al-Khalaf told ARA News in Deir ez-Zor.

In the evening on Thursday, ISIS fighters continued their offensive by shelling the regime-held Military Airport of Deir ez-Zor. The results of the airbase attack remained unknown.

Most of the city of Deir ez-Zor and its countryside is under ISIS control. However, pro-regime army troops still hold control of several neighborhoods in the city beside a military airport in Deir ez-Zor suburb.

The province of Deir ez-Zor is deemed strategic for ISIS for it links the group’s de facto capital of Raqqa with Iraqi territory controlled by the radical group.
Posted by: badanov || 01/06/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


16 die in car bomb attack in Jablah
[ARA News] Damascus – A car bomb attack hit on Thursday the Syrian coastal city of Jablah, a main regime bastion, killing and wounding dozens.

At least 16 people were killed and some 30 others wounded in the attack.

Jablah lies in the heartland of President Bashar al-Assad’s Alawite sect.

The Syrian authorities condemned the attack, and blamed “terrorist groups”.

Ghassan Findi, a senior medical officer, told state television the death toll was expected to rise, with rescue operations still continuing and scores of injured still being rushed to nearby hospitals.

At least 150 people were killed and 200 wounded in May when bombs hit the town and the port city of Tartous on the Mediterranean coast that hosts Russian military bases. ISIS claimed the May attacks, saying its fighters had targeted “gatherings of Alawites”.

Hardline Sunni militants consider Alawites heretics.
Posted by: badanov || 01/06/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Terror Networks
France assassinated its own citizens in attacks on Islamic State – report
[IsralTimes] Le Monde says 8 jihadists were killed in Syria and 5 in Central Africa; 40 assassinations in total.
I'm not sure why this an issue at all. If you're a jihadist you're making war on the west. The fact that you have citizenship among the kaffirs can't be a protection when you're at war with a country, or in this case a civilization.
La Belle France has assassinated some of its own citizens in assassinations on 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....
and other jihadist groups, and each of the attacks was approved by French President Francois Hollande
...the Socialist president of La Belle France, an economic bad joke for la Belle France but seemingly a foreign policy realist...
, Israel Radio reported Thursday.

Citing the French daily Le Monde which gained access to unpublished, relevant documents, the radio station said that strikes killed eight IS commanders who were French citizens in Syria and Iraq. Another five French jihadists have been killed in central Africa.

According to Le Monde, Hollande green-lighted each of the missions, which were mostly carried out by the French Air Force.

La Belle France is one of the nations participating in the US-led coalition against the IS, which seized large areas of Syria and Iraq in recent years and then imposed a brutal interpretation of Islamic law on local people.

In total, La Belle France was behind 40 assassinations that have not been publicized. Most of those on La Belle France’s hit list were killed in US dronezaps.

Hollande has admitted that intelligence in not always clear about who is in a building or vehicle that is targeted.

In some cases, missions have been called off due to concerns that innocent civilians might be harmed.

An autumn 2015 attack on a building in Raqqa, Syria used to train bandidos snuffies for attacks in Europe was canceled because noncombatants might have been killed. The target was Belgium-Moroccan terrorist Abdelhamid Abaaoud, believed to be the ringleader of the November 12, 2015, coordinated attacks in Gay Paree that killed 120 people.

It later transpired that at the time the strike was planned Abaaoud was already in Europe. He was killed on November 18, 2015, in a shootout with French police in Saint-Denis in the followup to the Gay Paree attacks.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/06/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  "I thought you said your dog does not bite."

"it is not my dog."
Posted by: Canuckistan sniper || 01/06/2017 0:10 Comments || Top||

#2  What about meeeeee ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/06/2017 4:38 Comments || Top||


The Beatings Will Continue: Iraqi Edition


17 civilians die in ISIS artillery attack in Mosul

Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Seventeen civilians were killed and 13 others were injured on Thursday when Islamic State militants bombarded residential areas east of Mosul as government forces continued to storm neighborhoods to drive militants out.

Joint Operations major Shokr Mahmoud was quoted by Bas News as saying that the shelling targeted the districts of al-Bakr, al-Aalam, Muharibin and al-Zohour. He added that security forces evacuated civilians from those areas.

Iraqi generals have said they had become in control over 70 of Mosul’s eastern section. But IS militants have regularly bombed areas they have lost to security forces since operations kicked off in October to recapture Iraq’s second largest city.

Earlier on Thursday, Federal Police forces said they became 700 meters away from al-Salam hospital, a strategic bastion which militants captured from security forces a few weeks ago.

IS still maintains hideouts in the west close to its strongholds in Syria, but Iraqi generals and allied militia leaders say the group has become isolated from Syria and Iraq.

Security officials estimate the number of remaining IS combatants by 6000. But those are fighting against at least 100.000 government and militia soldiers.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said in December the battle for Mosul was entering a “decisive” stage, and predicted that the operations could realize final victory within two months.

ISIS abducts civilian in Kirkuk

Kirkuk (IraqiNews.com) The self-proclaimed Islamic State extremist group abducted a civilian from his house, northwest of Kirkuk, on charges of revealing information about the group’s members, a source told Al Mada Press on Thursday.

The source said, “Six members of the Islamic State sneaked, at late hour yesterday, into al-Tank neighborhood in Dibs District (55 km northwest of Kirkuk), and stormed into the house of a citizen named Khedr Mahmoud, who was killed earlier by the group, and took his two sons outside of the district.”

“The Islamic State’s members released the younger son midway, and took the other son to the group’s headquarters in the mountains,” the source added on condition of anonymity.

“The Islamic State accused the abducted son of revealing information about the group’s members who are disguised among families fleeing from areas south and west of Kirkuk,” the source further added.

ISIS executes one by dunking in liquid detergent
"Tough on stains, but gentle on skin"
[ARA News] Duhok – Extremists of the Islamic State (ISIS) on Thursday executed an Iraqi man in Mosul city by drowning him in a disinfectant detergent liquid.

The radical group released a video showing the brutal execution, claiming that the victim was spying for Iraqi government forces.

While drowning him, ISIS broadcasted a call between the man and an Iraqi radio station.

“This infidel has been supporting the Iraqi regime’s campaign to take Mosul,” one of the militants said, adding that the city needs to be cleansed with Dettol detergent.

According to Raafat al-Zarari, the head of Nineveh Media Centre, the execution was another attempt by ISIS to terrify the people of Mosul.

“The group considers anyone with suspicious activities as a spy for rival forces,” al-Zarari told ARA News. “These brutal executions will continue until ISIS is eliminated completely in Mosul.”

This comes as US-backed Iraqi forces started the second phase of the battle for Mosul against Islamic State’s militants.

On October 17th, 2016, the Iraqi Army and Kurdish Peshmerga forces launched a major battle for Mosul to liberate the city and its surroundings from ISIS.
Posted by: badanov || 01/06/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State



Who's in the News
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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.
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Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
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Two weeks of WOT
Fri 2017-01-06
  Gunman Opens Fire at Fort Lauderdale Airport; UPDATE 3 5 dead
Thu 2017-01-05
  3 girl suicide bombers gunned down in northeastern Nigeria
Wed 2017-01-04
  Turkey Nabs 2 Foreigners at Istanbul Airport over Nightclub Attack
Tue 2017-01-03
  U.S.-led airstrikes kill 4 Fateh al-Sham commanders in Idlib
Mon 2017-01-02
  Islamic State Claims Istanbul Nightclub Terrorist Attack
Sun 2017-01-01
  Top wanted Boko Haram commander arrested at Borno LG Chairman’s house
Sat 2016-12-31
  BREAKING: 'Many injured' in Istanbul nightclub attack
Fri 2016-12-30
  Drone Strike Kills Local Qaida Chief in Yemen
Thu 2016-12-29
  Jordan sentences 5 Islamic State members to death
Wed 2016-12-28
  Yemeni (Saleh) army commander defects
Tue 2016-12-27
  Top Taliban leader leading Kunduz battle killed in Ghazni ambush
Mon 2016-12-26
  Phoenix cops arrest alleged ‘jihadist’ plotting midnight Mass attack: ‘Get down with this ISIS s-t’
Sun 2016-12-25
  Buhari: Last Boko Haram base taken in Sambisa Forest
Sat 2016-12-24
  4 Suspects Charged Over Alleged Christmas Day Terror Plot in Australia
Fri 2016-12-23
  Suspect in Berlin Christmas market attack killed in Milan police shootout: Official

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