Hi there, !
Today Fri 06/26/2015 Thu 06/25/2015 Wed 06/24/2015 Tue 06/23/2015 Mon 06/22/2015 Sun 06/21/2015 Sat 06/20/2015 Archives
Rantburg
531698 articles and 1855978 comments are archived on Rantburg.

Today: 66 articles and 138 comments as of 14:08.
Post a news link    Post your own article   
Area: WoT Background    Non-WoT    Opinion        Politix   
Taliban attack Afghan parliament, seize second district in north
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 1: WoT Operations
6 23:02 JosephMendiola [] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
3 19:49 JosephMendiola [1] 
0 [] 
5 21:36 Nimble Spemble [] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
0 [1] 
1 08:35 AlanC [] 
2 08:17 Pappy [] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
1 00:41 newc [] 
0 [] 
2 22:29 JosephMendiola [] 
1 11:32 Ebbang Uluque6305 [] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
Page 2: WoT Background
19 22:36 JosephMendiola []
0 []
0 []
3 08:38 AlanC []
2 23:07 JosephMendiola []
2 13:23 Pappy []
1 11:15 Skidmark []
0 []
0 [1]
0 []
0 []
1 23:36 JosephMendiola [1]
3 19:02 CrazyFool [1]
1 23:10 JosephMendiola []
3 23:04 JosephMendiola []
0 []
0 []
0 []
0 []
0 []
0 []
0 []
1 08:43 AlanC []
0 []
Page 3: Non-WoT
3 22:52 OldSpook []
11 19:35 JosephMendiola []
10 19:42 Frank G [1]
6 15:32 M. Murcek []
0 []
0 []
4 22:47 Zenobia Floger6220 [1]
4 17:12 Rambler in Virginia []
0 []
1 08:13 Procopius2k []
0 []
10 13:23 Bobby []
0 []
3 11:53 Ebbang Uluque6305 []
7 19:39 JosephMendiola []
Page 4: Opinion
0 []
10 11:57 Rob Crawford []
0 []
Page 6: Politix
0 []
4 13:54 airandee []
5 16:48 Besoeker []
3 10:45 Frank G [1]
Good morning
Posted by: Fred || 06/23/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Part silver arrows fan evidently.

(Spit)
Posted by: Shipman || 06/23/2015 6:08 Comments || Top||

#2  Belay that, this is predates the Silver Arrows livery. Perhaps she is reading about the White Elephants victory in the Mille Miglia.
Posted by: Shipman || 06/23/2015 6:29 Comments || Top||

#3  Welcome back, DSTP!
Posted by: Pappy || 06/23/2015 8:16 Comments || Top||

#4  Return of The Bloid™!
Posted by: Frank G || 06/23/2015 9:47 Comments || Top||

#5  WOW
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 06/23/2015 21:36 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Taliban attack Afghan parliament, seize second district in north
[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] A Taliban jacket wallah and several gunnies attacked the Afghan parliament on Monday, shattering windows and forcing politicians to flee, as a second district in two days fell to the Islamist group in the north.

Violence has spiraled in Afghanistan since the departure of most foreign forces at the end of last year and the fall of the second district raises questions about the NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis....
-trained Afghan cops' ability to fight the Taliban.

Insurgents are pushing to take territory more than 13 years after the U.S.-led military intervention that toppled the Taliban from power.

"A suicide bomber went kaboom! just outside the parliament building and several fighters took positions in a building close to parliament," said Ebadullah Karimi, front man for Kabul
...the capital of Afghanistan. Home to continuous fighting from 1992 to 1996 between the forces of would-be strongman and Pak ISI/Jamaat-e-Islami sock puppet Gulbuddin Hekmayar and the Northern Alliance, a period which won Hek the title Most Evil Man in the World and didn't do much for the reputations of the Northern Alliance guys either....
police.

Afghan security officials said all politicians were safe.

Taliban front man Zabihullah Mujahid grabbed credit.

"We have launched an attack on parliament as there was an important gathering to introduce the country's defense minister," he said by phone.

Lawmaker Shukria Barekzai said: "It was a huge blast that shook the building and shattered windows. We are in a safe place right now."

The withdrawal of foreign forces and a reduction in U.S. air strikes have allowed Taliban fighters to launch several major attacks in important Afghan provinces.

The second district to fall to the Taliban on Monday was in the northern province of Kunduz.

The Taliban captured Dasht-e-Archi district a day after hundreds of Death Eaters fought their way to the center of the adjacent district of Chardara.

"The Taliban managed to take it over this morning as the area has been surrounded for days," Nasruddin Saeedi, the district governor who escaped to the quiet provincial capital, Kunduz city, told Rooters by telephone.

"They are many imported muscle with heavy machine guns. We have asked for reinforcements, but none arrived."

The fall of the second district within a day underlines questions about Afghan forces' ability to quell the Taliban.

Afghan soldiers were preparing a counterattack to retake both districts, another local official said.

Monday's heavy fighting was just three km (two miles)from the governor's compound.
Posted by: Fred || 06/23/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban

#1  IIRC Afghan was the "good" war that Champ won, no?

More "Smart Diplomacy"?
Posted by: AlanC || 06/23/2015 8:35 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
Troops Stage Raid on 'Senior' Shebab Leaders
[AnNahar] Somalia's security agency said Monday it carried out a night raid on key targets inside a Shabaab-controled town in southern Somalia, targeting "senior" commanders.

Internal security front man Mohammed Yusuf Osman said that members of the U.S.-trained National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) carried out the attack inside Bardhere town, a stronghold of the Somali-led Al-Qaeda affiliate in Gedo region.

"The specially trained security forces have carried out a well orchestrated attack at key targets inside Bardhere district and they have returned safely after the operation," he said.

Osman said a cop shoppe and the district headquarters used by Shabaab fighters and leaders were targeted in the raid.

"Our forces interrupted a very senior level meeting of (Shabaab) leaders. The intelligence we had indicated the meeting was to plan for more attacks in Somalia and Kenya," NISA said in an emailed statement, which described the raid as "retaliation" for a Shabaab attack in Mogadishu on Sunday.

NISA sources said that a Shabaab leader known as Yusuf Haji was killed in the operation and they were working to confirm whether senior Shabaab commanders, including intelligence chief Mahad Karate and Kenyan university massacre criminal mastermind Mohammed Mohamud -- also known by the aliases "Dulyadin" and "Kuno" -- were in the building at the time of the raid.

Witnesses in Bardhere said loud kabooms were heard during the night.

"We have heard several kabooms, but it is very difficult to know more because heavily armed Shabaab murderous Moslems are patrolling in the streets," said Hashi Aw Adan, a resident.

US drone strikes have targeted and killed a string of Shabaab leaders in recent months, including the group's emir Ahmed Abdi Godane, in September 2014, but a ground assault inside Shabaab territory is unusual.

Under pressure in Somalia, the Shabaab is increasingly turning its attention to Kenya. In its bloodiest attack to date four Shabaab gunnies killed nearly 150 people, mostly students, in an attack on a university in Garissa, northeastern Kenya, in April.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/23/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Shabaab


Africa North
Twelve suspected militants killed in North Sinai security raids
[AlAhram] Five suspected holy warriors were killed and 13 nabbed
... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not...
in a security raid in Sheikh Zuwaid, North Sinai on Sunday, reported Al-Ahram Arabic news website. The security forces also destroyed five hideouts and two cars the holy warriors were allegedly using.

Meanwhile,
...back at the Hubba Hubba Club, Nunzio had his hands full of angry bleached blonde...
security forces said they detonated three bombs found on the same day without any losses or casualties.

Aswat Masriya had cited security sources who put the number of suspected Ansar Bei El-Maqdis (ABM) holy warriors killed at 12.

Apache helicopters and Egyptian Special Forces "Thunderbolt" participated in the raids in South Rafah and Sheikh Zuwaid after receiving tips about an ABM cell, the sources told Aswat Masriya.

Egypt's army has been battling a decade-long Islamist hard boy insurgency in North Sinai.
Ynet adds:
The security sources said security forces struck a group of people meeting outside a mosque south of the Sheikh Zuwayed town who were planning an attack on security points. They also targeted a vehicle with four gunnies and two more riding a cycle of violence.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/23/2015 01:14 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis


Blasts in Egypt's North Sinai wound police, civilians - security sources
[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] At least eight coppers and civilians were maimed on Monday when kabooms hit two houses in Egypt's El-Arish, the scenic provincial capital of the North Sinai region, security and medical sources said.

Militants planted two bombs in two adjacent houses, both inhabited by police, the sources said. The force of the kabooms led to the collapse of large parts of the homes, injuring three coppers and five civilians.

The extent of their injuries was not immediately clear.

Egypt is facing a Sinai-based insurgency that has killed hundreds of coppers and soldiers since the army toppled Islamist President Mohammed Mursi after mass protests against his rule in 2013.

The most active holy warrior group is Sinai Province, which has pledged allegiance to 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....
, the Sunni group that controls large parts of Iraq and Syria.

Egypt executed six members of Sinai Province for carrying out an attack on soldiers near Cairo last year, their lawyer said in May.
Posted by: Fred || 06/23/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis

#1  Didn't take long.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 06/23/2015 1:31 Comments || Top||

#2  Haven't even reopened the crossing again.
Posted by: Pappy || 06/23/2015 8:17 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
2 female suicide bombers kill 30 in northeast Nigeria
[DAWN] BAUCHI: Two girls blew themselves up on Monday near a crowded mosque in northeast Nigeria's
... a particularly crimson stretch of Islam's bloody border...
biggest city, killing about 30 people, witnesses said.

It is the fourth suicide kaboom this month in Maiduguri, which is the birthplace of the 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...
Islamic bully boy group.

Fishmonger Idi Idrisa said one teenager went kaboom! as she approached the mosque crowded with people from the nearby Baga Road fish market, performing afternoon prayers during the holy month of Ramazan.

The second teen appeared to run away and blew up further away, killing only herself, he said.

Civilian defence fighter, Sama Ila Abu, said he counted at least 30 corpses as he helped to collect the dead. Both men said said there were many injured being sent to the hospitals.
Posted by: Fred || 06/23/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Boko Haram

#1  Wasn't the mosque holy enough for them?
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 06/23/2015 11:32 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Yemeni rebels persist even as their heartland is destroyed in war
[WASHINGTONPOST] Yemen's Houthi
...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ...
rebels are enduring fierce bombing raids in their northern strongholds, as a Saudi-led campaign pounds neighborhoods, markets and power facilities, according to residents and aid workers.

But the bully boyz have not only survived -- they also are threatening to push the war beyond this country's borders.

Since early May, the rebels and their allies have launched near-daily attacks over the mountainous frontier into 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...
, even firing a Scud missile, according to Houthi fighters and foreign analysts. The Houthis say they have killed dozens of Saudi soldiers and civilians.

The Saudi attacks and rebel response are raising the tempo of the three-month-old war, which has dramatically worsened a long-standing humanitarian crisis in Yemen.

"There's a risk that with continued aerial bombardment of Houthi targets, the Houthis, in turn, will push even harder to attack southern provinces [of Saudi Arabia], creating a security disaster for the Saudis," said Theodore Karasik, a Dubai-based ­expert on military issues in the Middle East.
Posted by: Fred || 06/23/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Houthis


Home Front: WoT
American Teen Arrested on IS-linked Terrorism Charges
[AnNahar] A 19-year-old American was charged Monday with conspiracy to provide material support 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....
group, after allegedly planning to carry out liquidations and attacks in its name.

Justin Nolan Sullivan, a self-described Moslem convert, was placed in durance vile
Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out!
without incident Friday at his home in Morganton, North Carolina in possession of an unlicensed silencer, the Justice Department said.

It alleged Sullivan planned to buy a semi-automatic AR-15 assault rifle at a gun show on Saturday "to kill a large number of U.S. citizens on behalf of ISIL."

ISIL is the acronym the U.S. government uses for Islamic State, a bad boy group that now controls parts of Syria and Iraq.

Sullivan received the silencer in the mail from an undercover agent after discussing with him plans to carry out "minor liquidations before the big attack," according to the complaint.

It quoted Sullivan as telling the undercover agent "the war is here," and urging him to join the Islamic State of North America, whose doctrine was "guerrilla warfare in and out."

Assistant Attorney General John Carlin said Sullivan "was planning liquidations and violent attacks in the United States and is charged with attempting to provide material support to ISIL and federal firearms violations."

The terrorism charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, while the two weapons charges each carry a maximum penalty of 10 years.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/23/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  The terrorism charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, while the two weapons charges each carry a maximum penalty of 10 years.

They'll plea bargain it down to five. Consider it a PhD studies in Islamism - he'll be eligible to be a cleric when he gets out.
Posted by: Pappy || 06/23/2015 13:16 Comments || Top||

#2  It's hard to be a teenager in America today. You smoke pot, and your parents offer to share their stash. You bring a girl home and your dad yawns.

The only way to freak your parents out is to join ISIS and become an assassin.

Al
Posted by: frozen al || 06/23/2015 14:31 Comments || Top||

#3  FREEREPUBLIC officially affirms the ISIS/ISIL is now here in OWG Globalist Obama Amerika.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 06/23/2015 19:49 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Gun battle in AJK kills three
[NATION.PK] Two suspected faceless myrmidons and a civilian were killed in a shootout in Indian-administered Kashmire that lasted more than 15 hours, police said today.

The shooting began Sunday when government forces cordoned off a village on a tip-off that armed faceless myrmidons were hiding there.

"Both the faceless myrmidons were local residents, one of them had recently joined LeT," said inspector general of police Javid Gillani, referring to Lashkar-e-Taiba
...the Army of the Pure, an Ahl-e-Hadith terror organization founded by Hafiz Saeed. LeT masquerades behind the Jamaat-ud-Dawa facade within Pakistain and periodically blows things up and kills people in India. Despite the fact that it is banned, always an interesting concept in Pakistain, the organization remains an blatant tool and perhaps an arm of the ISI...
, a banned Death Eater group.

Gillani said a stray bullet killed the civilian in Redwani village.

A police officer on the scene said hundreds of residents from nearby villages came out to protest as troops cordoned off the village. "They were trying to help trapped Death Eaters," said the police officer, speaking on condition of anonymity
... for fear of being murdered...
.
Posted by: Fred || 06/23/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Lashkar e-Jhangvi


Two killed as IDPs clash in Bannu
[NATION.PK] At least two internally displaced persons were killed and ten got maimed after soldiers fired at them, an official said today.

The incident on Sunday evening comes a year after the army began a major offensive in North Wazoo to wipe out holy warrior strongholds, which it has hailed as a resounding success.

According to a security bigshot who declined to be named, a clash broke out when a boy was asked to register as he left a camp in Bannu, a major centre for people forced from their homes by the fighting.

"When his father came, during the process of registration, there was exchange of harsh words and a brawl between security officials and the man," the official said.

Two IDPs were rubbed out in the ensuing clash.
Posted by: Fred || 06/23/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Iraq
Mass grave found in Tal Afar and several homes detonated in Mosul
[Rudaw] A mass grave of dozens of Iraqi army soldiers massacred by 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....
was found in the Tal Afar district of djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
, a Kurdish official told Rudaw on Monday.

"On the outskirts of Tal Afar, locals found a mass grave of 70 Iraqi army soldiers on Monday," Saeed Mamuzini, a media officer for the Kurdistan Democratic Party's (KDP) 17th branch in Mosul, told Rudaw.

Tal Afar is a district in northwestern Iraq in the Mosul province located approximately 63 kilometers west of Mosul, 52 kilometers east of Shingal and 200 kilometers northwest of Kirkuk.

ISIS also recently bombed 16 Christian homes in Mosul belonging to doctors in the city, Mamuzini added.

"These 16 homes are located in Mosul's eastern neighborhood of Bakr. They were evacuated months ago and bombed today," he added.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/23/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Coalition air raids blast ISIS positions west of Mosul
[Rudaw] Airstrikes have led to the deaths of a number 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....
Lions of Islam and the destruction of a weapons depot on the Dijla front west of djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
, a Peshmerga official told Rudaw on Monday.

"In the aftermath of the Arclight airstrike on an ISIS weapons depot in the village of Ashui near the Kaske intersection on the Dijla front, light and heavy weapons inside the depot were destroyed and the Lions of Islam inside it were all incinerated," Brigadier General Dilshad Maulood, a media officer of the Peshmerga Zeravani command, told Rudaw.

In an earlier attack on ISIS in the village of Tashta near the town of Kaske on the Dijla front, Kurdish forces and coalition warplanes bombed a weapons base of the Death Eaters' west of of Mosul, Maulood told Rudaw Sunday.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/23/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Official: Islamic State levels defiant tribal village
[Rudaw] 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....
turbans destroyed an entire village in Salahadin province after residents refused to fight for the radical group, a local tribal council said Monday.

"Daesh gunnies have demolished 400 civilian houses in Zawiya village as a punishment for the residents who refused to be a part of Daesh militias," said Marwan Jabara, front man for the Committee of Tribal Communities.

Jabara said the Islamic State, or ISIS, tried to force the men of the village to join their militia but the villagers refused. In response, ISIS forced the residents out of Zawiya, north of Baiji, and leveled the entire community.

Jabara has called on the government to push ISIS of their territory and help the civilians who have lost their homes and are now displaced to nearby areas.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/23/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran's Forces and U.S. Share a Base in Iraq
h/t Instapundit
The U.S. military and Iranian-backed Shiite militias are getting closer and closer in Iraq, even sharing a base, while Iran uses those militias to expand its influence in Iraq and fight alongside the Bashar al-Assad regime in neighboring Syria.

Two senior administration officials confirmed to us that U.S. soldiers and Shiite militia groups are both using the Taqqadum military base in Anbar, the same Iraqi base where President Obama is sending an additional 450 U.S. military personnel to help train the local forces fighting against the Islamic State. Some of the Iran-backed Shiite militias at the base have killed American soldiers in the past.
And will kill Americans in the future, I've no doubt.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 06/23/2015 02:07 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'd wager the "sharing" is much more involved than simply the base.
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/23/2015 2:21 Comments || Top||

#2  Forward Base Benghazi?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 06/23/2015 8:15 Comments || Top||

#3  Alleged Benghazi master-chef Abu Sayyaf [We've had him on speed-dial for years]....no longer useful as a source and has now been terminated with extreme prejudice is now Tango Uniform. But, but, but I thought Benghazi was spontianeirous......?

Regime still sticks with the video story.
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/23/2015 9:33 Comments || Top||

#4  Obama is effing disgusting.
Posted by: irishrageboy || 06/23/2015 16:10 Comments || Top||

#5  One day dare the US + Chinese PLA in Guam-CNMI???

["GUAM WILL CAPSIZE" = USS OKLAHOMA BB here].
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 06/23/2015 19:46 Comments || Top||

#6  "MAHANISM" + "GREAT GAME" > IRAN = CHINA = HAVE NEED FOR WARM-WATER OVERSEAS MILBASES FOR PROJECTION, PROTECTION OF TRADE + MIL POWER.

E.G. GROONG > "THE CRIMEA IS GONE/LOST FROM UKRAINE. IT IS A FACT" - YANUKOVICH [Ex-UKR President] TO WESTERN MEDIAS.


* FARS NEWS AGENCY > IRAN SUPREME LEADER [Ayatollah Khameini]: TEN-YEAR KEY NUCLEAR RESTRICTIONS [+ UNIAEA Verifications] UNACCEPTABLE.

* IRAN TO OBAMA = D *** NG IT, WHAT DO WE WANT ... ...OWG CO-SUPERPOWERHOOD; WHEN DO WE WANT IT ... ... NOW!

* Again, OWG GLOBALISM = "PARITY" [Nuclear? Global Econ? Geopol?] WID THE US, NOT
"INFERIORITY" TO THE US.

VERSUS

* BIGNEWSNETWORK > [LA Times] NEGOTIATE WID IRAN ON NUKES, OR GO TO WAR.

US facing roughly the same risks wid Iran as it did agz the USSR.

Iff the US can negotiate successful Nuke Treaties wid the far more dangerous Cold War Commie USSR = Soviet Union, theres no reason in the world why it can't do so again wid Shia Rising Iran.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 06/23/2015 23:02 Comments || Top||


Syrian Army Advances West of IS-Controlled Palmyra
[AnNahar] The Syrian army has reopened a key oil supply route near 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....
-controlled Palmyra, as the jihadist group has mined the city's ancient UNESCO-listed ruins.

However,
ars longa, vita brevis...
the advance toward the central city from the west, reported by a pro-government newspaper and a monitoring group, and stepped up air strikes, do not indicate an imminent offensive to retake it.

IS overran Palmyra on May 21, sparking fears that the radical Sunni Moslem group might repeat the sort of vandalism it has carried out in Iraq and destroy one of Syria's most famous archaeological sites.

"The infantry has made tangible progress in the area of Biyarat al-Gharbiyeh," west of Palmyra, which had previously been in IS hands, said al-Watan newspaper.

And the army had "intensified" its operations against IS in Palmyra and the surrounding area, the newspaper added.

The Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has been monitoring the conflict, said the army was now 10 kilometers (six miles) away from Palmyra.

The monitor, which relies on a network of sources on the ground, said that Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor. If he'd stuck with it he'd have had a good practice by now...
's troops had "chased IS fighters from Biyarat al-Gharbiyeh on the weekend."

Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said the capture of the area "allows the regime to secure a transport route for oil from the Jazal field... to other Syrian cities under its control."

Last week, government forces recaptured Jazal -- one of the few oil fields still in government hands and about 20 kilometers northwest of Palmyra -- from IS.

Abdel Rahman said the government depends on gas and oil fields around Palmyra to provide electricity to cities under its control, namely Damascus.

He said the army's advances are just to protect these fields and that he doubted that an offensive on Palmyra was imminent, noting that the government has no popular support in the city.

The army's reinforcements to Biyarat al-Gharbiyeh came as Palmyra's new city was hit by heavy regime raids in the past few days that killed 11 people, said the Observatory.

"The situation is very difficult for the city's civilians because of the raids and the lack of water and electricity," said a Palmyra Lion of Islam who calls himself Mohammed Hassan al-Homsi.

Meanwhile Monday, Kurdish forces, backed by U.S.-led coalition air raids, attacked an IS-held army base known as Brigade 93 just south of the border town of Tal Abyad, the Observatory said.

"It is an important base for IS because it overlooks the roads linking its Raqa bastion to other strongholds in the provinces of Aleppo and Hasakeh," said the Observatory.

It added that IS fighters were now pulling out of the base.

Last week, Kurdish forces seized Tal Abyad, on the border with The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
, in a major blow to the jihadists

The town was a key conduit for imported muscle and supplies into IS-held territory in Syria and for exports of black market oil from jihadist-held fields.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/23/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Syria fuel shortages in north threaten lives: MSF
[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] Disruption of fuel supplies due to fighting between rebel groups in northern Syria is threatening the closure of hospitals and paralyzing the work of ambulances and rescue services, an international medical charity said Sunday.

ISIS Death Eaters have closed a checkpoint under their control in the countryside north of the city of Aleppo to trucks carrying fuel to areas in northern Syria held by other rebel groups.

Medecins Sans Frontieres said in a statement obtained by Rooters and to be released later that it had received distress calls from health centers in rebel-held areas in Aleppo, Idlib and Hama provinces to say they were running out of fuel needed to run life-saving equipment.

"With so many hospitals now at a risk of closure, the lives of many Syrians are in even greater danger," said Dounia Dekhili, MSF Program Manager for Syria, where the charity conducts an extensive humanitarian operation. "Fuel is needed to run water pumps for clean water, to run incubators for newborns and to run ambulances for lifesaving care," she said.

Work by civil defense workers who were helping rescue survivors of air bombardments in rebel-held areas could be halted if the shortages continue, MSF said.

ISIS turbans, seeking to choke off fuel supplies heading to its rivals battling for control of the area, had almost completely barred oil truckers from passing through the gateway of Tal Qarah.

The checkpoint, near the Turkish border, separates territory run by ISIS fighters and their rivals, residents and traders in the area said.

Hundreds of private trucks used to pass through the crossing daily, carrying crudely processed oil bought from fields under the control of ISIS in the east, to sell to the rest of northern rebel-held Syria. It was the major source of fuel for those areas largely cut off from supplies from Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators...
's government.

Rebels from a coalition of Western backed and Islamist groups fighting to beat off the ISIS offensive said the closure was causing severe hardship to civilians.

The fuel shortages began to bite almost a week ago and have pushed prices of diesel needed to run electricity generators, bakeries and hospitals. A liter of diesel now costs two dollars, up from less than half a dollar, residents said.
Posted by: Fred || 06/23/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Israeli Druze block ambulance with Syrian casualties
[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] Israeli Druze blocked an Israeli army ambulance they believed was transporting maimed Syrian rebels Monday, local authorities said, a rare confrontation underscoring Druze concern for brethren caught up in the civil war next door.

The Druze are an Arab minority that practice an offshoot of Islam and whose adherents in Syria, long loyal to the ruling Assad family, are beset by jihadi myrmidons. Israeli Druze, some of whom wield clout in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government and the military, have been urging intervention.

In the absence of such action, many Druze in Israel and the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights are angry at the admission of casualties from rival Sunni Moslem communities in Syria - anti-Assad fighters among them - for medical treatment.

An Israeli army ambulance carrying Syrian casualties was stopped before dawn Monday on the outskirts of Hurfeish, a Druze town in northern Israel, by several residents who demanded to inspect the passengers, a police front man said.

The ambulance pulled away, with the Hurfeish residents throwing rocks at it as they followed in pursuit, the police front man said, adding that a 54-year-old local man was injured after apparently being hit by the military vehicle.

Farah Sabeq, secretary of the Hurfeish municipality, confirmed several townsmen had taken part in the incident. Speaking to Rooters, he described them as "incensed by the situation in Syria" and said that while they had tried to close the road used by the ambulance, he knew of no stone-throwing.

"We condemn this as we would any illegal activity, but especially here, as it involved the security forces - in all branches of which Hurfeish residents serve," Sabeq said.

Ayoob Kara, a Druze deputy Israeli minister, sought to reassure his kinsmen about Syrian casualties coming into Israel.

In a statement, Kara said Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon had told him Israel would not admit fighters from radical jihadi groups ISIS or Nusra Front. Israeli officials have said they did not condition treatment on casualties' affiliations.

The military declined to elaborate on the identities of the Syrians who were in the ambulance stopped outside Hurfeish.

In a statement, Sheikh Muwafaq Tarif, the head of Israel's Druze community, condemned the confrontation as "the kind of provocation that harms our interests and those of our Druze brothers over the border".

"This is our moment of truth," he said. "The Druze religion and tradition opposes any physical harm, especially against maimed people."
Posted by: Fred || 06/23/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  The Druze need to seriously get their shit together.

They are supposed to become a state of their own here soon.

Way behind in what this will mean.
Posted by: newc || 06/23/2015 0:41 Comments || Top||


Syrian Kurds, on the offensive, push deeper into Islamic State territory
[Dhaka Tribune] Kurdish-led forces yesterday advanced deep into territory in Syria held by 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....
, showing new momentum after they unexpectedly swiftly seized a border crossing from the jihadists last week.

The Kurds, aided by US-led air strikes and smaller Syrian rebel groups, have pushed to within 7 km of Ain Issa, a town 50 km north of Islamic State's de facto capital Raqqa city, said Redur Xelil, front man for the Kurdish forces.

The rapid advance into Raqqa province has defied expectations of a protracted battle between the Kurdish YPG group and Islamic State fighters, who waged a four-month battle for the border town of Kobani, where the Kurds finally defeated the jihadists in January.

Raqqa is the main seat of power in Syria for Islamic State, commonly known as IS, which has proclaimed a caliphate from territory it controls in both Syria and Iraq.

The United States has been leading an air campaign against the group in both countries since last year. The Kurds have been the most important partner so far for the US-led campaign in Syria, where Washington has fewer allies on the ground than in Iraq.

The Kurdish front in northern Syria has been one of the few sources of good news for the global campaign against IS since the jihadists made major advances last month in western Iraq and central Syria.

A front man for the Pentagon said last week IS forces had appeared to "crack" at the Turkish border town of Tel Abyad, which fell to the YPG in less than two days, cutting IS' supply route from The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
.

The YPG-led forces were now battling IS on the outskirts of a military base to the southwest of Ain Issa, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Some refugees from the Tel Abyad area had accused the YPG of driving Arabs and Turkmen from territory seized from IS. Kurdish officials deny forcing people out and say such accusations are being made to stir up ethnic strife, with the Observatory saying no evidence of systematic abuse by YPG had been documented.

The Kurdish advance alarms the Turkish government, which is worried battlefield successes inflaming ethnic unrest among its own Kurdish population. The Kurdish administration's growing strength has led to friction with the Damascus government, which has tended to avoid direct conflict with the Kurds during the four-year war while maintaining a foothold in areas where the Kurds hold sway.
Posted by: Fred || 06/23/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Terror Networks
U.S. leads 29 air strikes against Islamic State: statement
[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] U.S.-led coalition forces targeted 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....
Lions of Islam with seven air strikes in Syria and 22 in Iraq on Sunday, the combined joint task force leading the operations said in a statement.

In Syria, five of the strikes were staged near the Turkish border town of Tel Abyad, where Kurdish fighters have cut off a key Islamic State supply route.

Five units of Islamic State fighters, three of the holy warriors' fighting positions and one vehicle there were struck, according to the statement released on Monday. Two other strikes hit near Al Hasaka and Aleppo, it added.

In Iraq, the strikes hit near nine cities, including five near djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
, five near Sinjar and others near Makhmur, Tal Afar and other cities, the task force said.
Posted by: Fred || 06/23/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Jihadi John escapes Syria: report

[ARA] ISIS executioner Jihadi John has fled to Libya after being sidelined by the terrorist group, according to reports.

The Londoner, revealed in February to be 26-year-old Mohammed Emwazi, is thought to have escaped Syria after his identity was made public.

A source within the U.S.-led Joint Terrorism Taskforce told the Sunday Express: 'We think it is a tactical move by Isis to keep Emwazi out of the limelight.

"His unmasking by the press took away the mystery surrounding his bogey man persona and though we have targeted him with conventional missiles we have had no confirmation of a successful strike."

Emwazi was filmed talking in a British accent in ISIS propaganda videos before the executions of American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, British aid worker David Haines and Brit Alan Henning, who were all beheaded.

He was given the nickname Jihadi John by hostages because he was part of a terrorist cell with four members who were referred to as 'The Beatles'.
Posted by: Fred || 06/23/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  Living in the Limelight
Posted by: Raj || 06/23/2015 0:18 Comments || Top||

#2  Too bad - apparently he + his "Beatles" are NOT Penn State proud like they thought they were???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 06/23/2015 22:29 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
28[untagged]
12Islamic State
10Govt of Pakistan
3Govt of Syria
2Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis
2Govt of Iran
1Houthis
1Jaish al-Islam
1Lashkar e-Jhangvi
1Taliban
1al-Shabaab
1Boko Haram
1Govt of Iraq
1Govt of Saudi Arabia
1Hamas

Bookmark
E-Mail Me

The Classics
The O Club
Rantburg Store
The Bloids
The Never-ending Story
Thugburg
Gulf War I
The Way We Were
Bio

Merry-Go-Blog











On Sale now!


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.
Click here for more information

Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Tue 2015-06-23
  Taliban attack Afghan parliament, seize second district in north
Mon 2015-06-22
  Air strikes kill 15 in Yemen attacks: Houthi media
Sun 2015-06-21
  Witness: ISIS publicly executes 25 'spies' in Mosul
Sat 2015-06-20
  ISIS beheads three of its own amid fighting and regime raids in Syria
Fri 2015-06-19
  Al-Qaeda War against ISIS in East of Libya
Thu 2015-06-18
  Chad bans Islamic face veil after suicide bombings
Wed 2015-06-17
  US targets leader of Al Qaeda in Yemen with CIA drone strike
Tue 2015-06-16
  Kurdish forces seize most of Islamic State-controlled border town
Mon 2015-06-15
  US Airstrike "likely" killed Mokhtar in Libya
Sun 2015-06-14
  US Moves Six Yemeni Guantanamo Detainees To Oman
Sat 2015-06-13
  American Teenager Pleads Guilty to Helping ISIS
Fri 2015-06-12
  Al-Nusra kills 20 Druze
Thu 2015-06-11
  Al Qaeda militants in Libya attack Daesh after leader killed
Wed 2015-06-10
  IS Claims Capture of Libya's Sirte
Tue 2015-06-09
  Saudi-led air strikes kill 44 in attack on Yemeni army compound

Better than the average link...



Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
34.231.247.254
Help keep the Burg running! Paypal:
WoT Background (24)    Non-WoT (15)    Opinion (3)    (0)    Politix (4)