Days before the Oct. 3 U.S. air attack on a hospital in Afghanistan, American special operations analysts were gathering intelligence on the facility -- which they knew was a protected medical site -- because they believed it was being used by a Pakistani operative to coordinate Taliban activity, The Associated Pricks Press has learned.
It's unclear whether commanders who unleashed the AC-130 gunship on the hospital -- killing at least 22 patients and hospital staff -- were aware that the site was a hospital or knew about the allegations of possible enemy activity. The Pentagon initially said the attack was to protect U.S. troops engaged in a firefight and has since said it was a mistake.
The special operations analysts had assembled a dossier that included maps with the hospital circled, along with indications that intelligence agencies were tracking the location of the Pakistani operative and activity reports based on overhead surveillance, according to a former intelligence official familiar with the material. The intelligence suggested the hospital was being used as a Taliban command and control center and may have housed heavy weapons.
After the attack -- which came amidst a battle to retake the northern Afghan city of Kunduz from the Taliban -- some U.S. analysts assessed that the strike had been justified, the former officer says. They concluded that the Pakistani, believed to have been working for his country's Inter-Service Intelligence directorate, had been killed.
No evidence has surfaced publicly to support those conclusions about the Pakistani's connections or his demise. The former intelligence official was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke only on condition of anonymity.
The top U.S. officer in Afghanistan, Gen. John Campbell, has said the strike was a mistake, but he has not explained exactly how it happened or who granted final approval. He also told Congress he was ordering all personnel in Afghanistan to be retrained on the rules governing the circumstances under which strikes are acceptable.
The new details about the military's suspicions that the hospital was being misused complicate an already murky picture and add to the unanswered questions about one of the worst civilian casualty incidents of the Afghan war. They also raise the possibility of a breakdown in intelligence sharing and communication across the military chain of command.
Pentagon officials declined comment.
The international humanitarian agency that ran the facility, Doctors without Borders, has condemned the bombing as a war crime. The organization says the strike killed 12 hospital staff and 10 patients, and that death toll may rise. It insists that no gunmen, weapons or ammunition were in the building. The U.S. and Afghan governments have launched three separate investigations. President Barack Obama has apologized, but Doctors without Borders is calling for an international probe.
Doctors without Borders officials say the U.S. airplane made five separate strafing runs over an hour, directing heavy fire on the main hospital building, which contained the emergency room and intensive care unit. Surrounding buildings were not struck, they said.
Typically, pilots flying air support missions would have maps showing protected sites such as hospitals and mosques. If commanders concluded that enemies were operating from a protected site, they would follow procedures designed to minimize civilian casualties. That would generally mean surrounding a building with troops, not blowing it to bits from the air.
What the new details suggest "is that the hospital was intentionally targeted, killing at least 22 patients and MSF staff," said Meinie Nicolai, president of the operational directorate of Doctors without Borders, which is also known by its French initials MSF. "This would amount to a premeditated massacre. ... Reports like this underscore how critical it is for the Obama administration to immediately give consent to an independent and impartial investigation by the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission to find out how and why U.S. forces attacked our hospital."
By one U.S. account from the scene, American and Afghan troops were under fire in the area.
Nicolai said in an email exchange that the group's staff "reported a calm night and that there were no armed combatants, nor active fighting in or from the compound prior to the airstrikes."
Doctors without Borders has acknowledged that it treated wounded Taliban fighters at the Kunduz hospital, but it insists no weapons were allowed in. Afghans who worked at the hospital have told the AP that no one was firing from within.
The airstrike came as U.S. advisers were helping Afghan forces take Kunduz back from the Taliban, which had seized the city.
The U.S. military's cursory description of what transpired has changed over time.
Initially, the military portrayed the incident as an accident stemming from the fog of war. American forces in the vicinity were under attack, a U.S. military spokesperson in Afghanistan said in a statement, and called in an air strike "against individuals threatening the force. The strike may have resulted in collateral damage to a nearby medical facility."
Two days later, Campbell told reporters that "Afghan forces advised that they were taking fire from enemy positions and asked for air support from U.S. forces."
He added, "An airstrike was then called to eliminate the Taliban threat and several civilians were accidentally struck."
The following day, however, Campbell told the Senate Armed Services Committee, "To be clear, the decision ... was a U.S. decision made within the U.S. chain of command. A hospital was mistakenly struck. We would never intentionally target a protected medical facility."
Asked about the location of any U.S. troops on the ground, Campbell said, "We had a special operations unit that was in close vicinity that was talking to the aircraft that delivered those fires."
His remark did not make clear whether any American on the ground had a direct view of the hospital. Military officials declined to answer questions, citing the investigation.
According to the former special operations officer, the commander on the ground has told superiors he was in the worst firefight of his career while taking fire from the building, which he said he did not know was a hospital. He requested the gunship strike. In that scenario, it's not readily apparent why his unit couldn't have retreated. The hospital is within a compound surrounded by a high wall that could have offered cover from fire emanating from one building.
The intelligence analysts who were gathering information about suspected Taliban activity at the hospital were located in various bases around Afghanistan, and were exchanging information over classified military intelligence systems. Typically, a decision to order a strike in a populated area would require many layers of approval and intelligence analysis of the potential impacts and civilian casualties.
It would be significant if U.S. intelligence had concluded that Pakistani spies were continuing to play an active role helping the Taliban. The U.S. and Afghan governments have long accused Pakistan of aiding the Taliban, but U.S. rhetoric on the issue has cooled over the past year as American-Pakistani counterterrorism cooperation has improved.
Yet it's possible that a staffer at a hospital in Afghanistan was working for Pakistan's intelligence service. Two days before the strike, Afghan defense officials accused Pakistan's intelligence service of playing a key role in the Taliban's seizure of Kunduz.
Disputes within the U.S. government about airstrikes have played out before. In December 2013, the U.S. military's Joint Special Operations Command bombed a group of people it considered militants, but whom outside groups claimed were civilians attending a wedding. Even after the CIA assessed that some civilians were killed in the strike, Pentagon officials continued to insist that all those hit were combatants.
The incident added an argument for some members of Congress who were resisting Obama's proposal to shift the CIA's drone killing program to the military.
#2
Excuse me but don't we have thousands of troops in Afghan? And isn't Afghan supposed to be our ally in this fight? And wouldn't it have been possible for the hospital to be surrounded and entered by troops to capture the bad guys and weapons?
Somehow I really think this should have been handled much more like a police problem. I doubt it would be considered acceptable to make a drug raid in DC or NY with an AC-130 gunship.
If this was NOT an alternative then WTF are we doing over there?
[Tolo News] Taliban district shadow governor for Dasht-e-Qala district of Takhar province Qari Mohammadi was killed on Wednesday, officials said Thursday.
Sunatullah Temor provincial governor front man while confirming the death said that Mohammadi was killed in Khoja Ghar district of the province along with his four fighters during a security force operation.
According to Temor a number of other Taliban hard boyz were also killed and maimed during the operation and some areas were also retaken by security forces in Khoja Ghar district of Takhar province.
Meanwhile Mohammad Omar district governor for Khoja Ghar district confirmed the death of Qari Mohammadi and said that Mohammadi was a resident of Rustaq district in Takhar province.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/16/2015 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] An Egyptian court on Thursday acquitted Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri ... Formerly second in command of al-Qaeda, now the head cheese, occasionally described as the real brains of the outfit. Formerly the Mister Big of Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Bumped off Abdullah Azzam with a car boom in the course of one of their little disputes. Is thought to have composed bin Laden's fatwa entitled World Islamic Front Against Jews and Crusaders. Currently residing in the North Wazoo area assuming he's not dead like Mullah Omar. He lost major face when he ordered the nascent Islamic State to cease and desist and merge with the orthodx al-Qaeda spring, al-Nusra... 's brother of charges of forming a "terrorist group" but ordered an investigation into a speech he made in court.
Mohammed al-Zawahiri was tossed in the clink Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try! in August 2013 at the height of a campaign of repression of Islamists in the wake of the army's ouster of the country's Islamist president Mohammed Mursi.
He and dozens of other defendants were accused of having formed "a terrorist group linked to Al-Qaeda" and plotting attacks on government installations, security forces and Egypt's Christian minority -- all charges which defense lawyers denied.
On Thursday, the court acquitted Zawahiri of the charges but it upheld earlier death sentences handed down to 10 co-defendants.
Those convicted were found guilty of "joining a terrorist group, inciting the killing of police and army officers and attacking police and government buildings".
Thirty-nine other defendants were handed prison terms ranging from one year to life in jail, which in Egypt runs to 25 years, while 15 defendants were acquitted.
"The judge convicted some defendants for joining a terrorist group, but he acquitted Zawahiri of establishing or joining it," defense lawyer Kamel Mandour told AFP.
The judge, however, instructed the prosecution to investigate a speech made by Zawahiri during a court session that he felt "promoted the idea of forming another terrorist group".
"The judgment is fair given the prevailing political atmosphere against political Islam in the country," Mandour said.
Hundreds of Islamists have been killed and thousands tossed in the calaboose Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! in a government crackdown targeting supporters of Mursi, who was ousted in 2013.
Mursi and several leaders of his Moslem Brüderbund movement have since been sentenced to death after speedy mass trials.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/16/2015 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Salafists
h/t Instapundit
An Afghan migrant was shot by Bulgarian border guards trying to cross into the country from Turkey and died on his way to hospital, the interior ministry said.
...Public BNR radio cited the interior ministry's chief of staff Georgy Kostov as saying that the group of 50 illegal migrants -- all from Afghanistan -- was intercepted by a patrol of two border guards and a police officer after crossing into Bulgarian territory.
"They put up resistance during the arrest. One of the officers fired warning shots and, in his words, one of the migrants was wounded by a ricochet and later died," Kostov told the radio. Nice ricochet these Bulgarians have. Well, at least, it wasn't an umbrella.
[AA.TR] An anonymous source within the U.S. government leaked a trove of documents regarding the nation's unmanned drone program in foreign nations that was published Thursday by whistle-blowing website The Intercept.
Specifically, the documents and slides cover the U.S. military's drone program in Afghanistan, Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... and Somalia between 2011 and 2013, which the publication deems a crucial time in the development of the "drone wars".
The papers reveal damaging information about the program, including evidence that as many as 90 percent of drone killings in a five-month period did not dispatch the correct target.
A former British citizen was killed via drone even though the military had multiple opportunities to capture him alive. Authored by journalist Jeremy Scahill, the report claims the military has an "liquidation complex" that leads directly to the White House and uses drones as a crucial tool.
The Intercept claimed that documents were leaked by an anonymous "source within the intelligence community who worked on the types of operations and programs described in the slides".
The Intercept was founded in early 2014 and became a platform for documents leaked by the exiled Edward Snowden, who revealed in 2013 that the National Security Agency had a massive electronic surveillance that snooped on millions of Americans and foreigners.
Thursday's leak is firmly in the tradition of Snowden's revelation as well as Chelsea Manning ...formerly Bradley Manning before he decided to become a girl. He, or she or whatever it was, was a misfit Army intel analyst who decided to leak all the secrets he could lay hands on. Currently doing 35 years in Leavenworth and writing editorials for the New York Times.... 's release of military data to WikiLeaks several years earlier.
Unlike those cases, though, the source included his or her motivations alongside the release, which centered around surveilling and profiling targets before a strike.
"This outrageous kaboom of watchlisting -- of monitoring people and racking and stacking them on lists, assigning them numbers, assigning them 'baseball cards,' assigning them death sentences without notice, on a worldwide battlefield -- it was, from the very first instance, wrong," the source claims in the report.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/16/2015 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
In a small teahouse in the conservative southeastern Turkish town of Adiyaman, two brothers would hold court with young followers, praying, reading the Koran and painting a picture of a better life across the border in Syria, in the ranks of Islamic State.
Now the Islam Tea Shop, its upper windows blacked out and etched with white Arabic script, has closed down and the brothers, according to authorities, are both probably dead; one behind a July suicide attack that killed 33, the other a prime suspect in Saturday's Ankara bombing that claimed 99 lives...[Hikmet] Kizilbay said he reported his son to police two years ago after he disappeared, abandoning plans to go to university. He returned some seven months later and tried to take his mother's gold bracelets, accusing her of being an infidel and saying he wanted to give money to "our Muslim brothers fighting in Syria".
"He's gone, they brainwashed him," Kizilbay told Reuters, fighting back tears as he sat in the car he now uses to earn money as a private taxi driver.
"Even if he comes back again, he's not the same person any more ... If he's going to harm our society, kill our soldiers, police, teachers and students, it's best he comes back in a coffin," Kizilbay said.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 ||
10/16/2015 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
[DAWN] Police said on Wednesday the krazed killer who went kaboom! during Tuesday night encounter with the police had been identified as Asim Khan of Malikabad, a village in Gadoon mountainous region.
DPO Javid Iqbal said the krazed killer was involved in imparting training to his accomplices and wanted to police in various cases.
The police officer admitted that when the police conducted operation in Maini area at night some other bandidosholy warriors accompanying Asim escaped taking advantage of the darkness.
He said the body of the krazed killer was handed over to his family, and an FIR was registered in Gadoon Amazai Industrial Estate cop shoppe against unknown terrorists.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/16/2015 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
[DAWN] SWABI: A big quantity of heroin was recovered from a Punjab-bound car and the alleged smuggler was nabbed I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece! here on Wednesday, police said.
DPO Javid Iqbal told a presser that on a tip-off the Chota Lahor police were told to be vigilant as a big quantity of heroin would be smuggled to Punjab 1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots.... through Swabi-Jehangira road.
He said coppers stopped a car (LTF 7591) near Chota Lahor canal. On search, the personnel found seven kilogram of the contraband from the car and arrested its driver, Fawad Ali Raza of Kabali Gate, Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. . The police also impounded the vehicle and registered FIR against the alleged narco.
The DPO said that the detained smuggler confessed that he wanted to smuggle the drugs to the Punjab province.
Meanwhile, ...back at the the conspirators' cleverly concealed hideout the long-awaited message arrived. They quickly got to work with their decoder rings... the police also arrested four robbers in Tordher, and recovered Rs37,000, six mobiles, a cycle of violence and four pistols from their possession.
Similarly, Razaar tehsil police arrested six robbers and recovered Rs70,000, four pistols, a Kalashnikov and five mobiles from them. The police registered FIRs against them and started investigations.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/16/2015 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: Narcos
#1
I'm sure it was for recreational use.
Posted by: chris ||
10/16/2015 4:59 Comments ||
Top||
[DAWN] DERA GHAZI KHAN: Seven people, including two candidates of the upcoming local government elections, were killed and 13 others injured in a suspected suicide kaboom on the camp office of a PML-N politician in Taunsa on Wednesday.
The blast, which rocked the shrine city of Hazrat Shah Sulaiman Taunsivi, took place a little before noon when a number of people were at the camp office of MNA Sardar Amjad Farooq Khosa in connection with the campaigning for the local bodies' polls.
Mr Khosa was not there when the suspected bomber went kaboom!. He had gone to Islamabad on Tuesday night.
Personnel of law-enforcement agencies and Rescue 1122 service took the bodies, including that of the suspected bomber, to hospital.
The dead were identified as Zameerul Hassan Sanghi, Akhtar Khan Tangwani, Mohammad Hussain, Malik Iftikhar, Ghulam Jaafar Saanghi, Umer Daraz and Zahid Quraishi. Zameerul Hassan and Akhtar Tangwani were candidates for the chairmanship of union councils.
Most of the injured were discharged from the Taunsa THQ hospital after first aid but the MNA's aide Pir Bashir Jaafar and camp office cook Munir Bhutta were admitted there.
Bashir Jaafar told news hounds that he was making a phone call when the blast took place.
Police said the bomber was about 20 years old. Samples of parts of his body were sent for forensic analysis and to ascertain his identity.
Khalid Khan, chief inspector of the bomb disposal squad, told Dawn that 13kg explosives and ball bearings had been used for the blast.
According to District Police Officer Ghulam Mubashar Maikin, Taunsa Sharif is adjacent to several troubled areas in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... . He said a joint team had been formed to investigate the incident.
Dawn.com quoted some eyewitnesses as saying that men on two cycle of violences had come to the camp office immediately before the blast. The building caught fire after the kaboom and a plume of smoke enveloped the entire area.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/16/2015 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[10 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Hundreds of soldiers have been deployed in cities across Israel on Wednesday and authorities erected concrete barriers outside some Arab neighborhoods of occupied East Jerusalem in stepped up efforts to counter a weeks of unrest.
Israeli police said 300 soldiers had been deployed in cities across Israel, joining a reinforced force of some 4,000 coppers already patrolling the streets and bus routes of occupied Jerusalem. On Wednesday, police were seen waving through a line of cars as cranes placed concrete blocks at the entrances to Arab neighborhoods in occupied east Jerusalem, where many of the assailants are from.
The enhanced measures came as Israel struggles to contain the spiraling violence and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces heavy pressure from hard-liners in his governing coalition to stamp out the attacks.
Paleostinians called the new measures "collective punishment" that would only further enflame tensions. Paleostinian leaders say the violence is the result of frustration and lack of hope for ending nearly 50 years of occupation and gaining independence.
The military's deployment of six companies to back up thousands of police marks the first implementation of steps approved by Israel's security Cabinet early Wednesday, which also include stripping attackers of their Jerusalem residency rights and demolishing assailants' homes. The Cabinet also authorized police to impose closures on centers of friction in Occupied Jerusalem.
[Ynet] In preparation for Hamas’s declared 'day of rage,' IDF sends infantry companies to the Gaza border despite assessment that direct fighting with Hamas is not on the horizon.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/16/2015 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Rage is a 2-way street.
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
10/16/2015 10:10 Comments ||
Top||
[Mindanao Examiner] Abu Sayyaf militants holding two Canadians, a Norwegian and a Filipina have demanded a halt in all military operations against them to allow negotiations for the safe release of their hostages in the southern Philippines.
The four were kidnapped on September 21 an upscale resort off Davao del Norte province and believed to have been brought to Sulu. In a video posted on Facebook, the foreigners have appealed to the Canadian government and the Philippines to stop the military assault.
The Philippine military did not issue any statement about the Abu Sayyaf demands, but it could, as it has in the past, stop operations to allow negotiations.
In October last year, the Abu Sayyaf released two German yachters after receiving P250 million ransom delivered to Sulu by a private plane under tight military guard. Abu Sayyaf spokesman Aboo Rami told a radio station that ransom was paid for the release of the Germans and even posted a photo of the stacks of money on Twitter.
The Abu Sayyaf previously demanded Germany to cease all support to the US coalition campaign against Daesh in Syria. It is not known whether the same group is also holding the four hostages.
Posted by: ryuge ||
10/16/2015 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Abu Sayyaf
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Syrian troops and their allies, backed by Russian jets, attacked rebel-held towns north of the city of Homs on Thursday, targeting a long-held and strategic enclave of opposition to Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Horror of Homs... .
The offensive that began before dawn expands on over a week of ground attacks launched with Russian air support in areas of western Syria that are crucial to Assad's survival and held by rebel groups other than Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
Syrian state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
, quoting a military source, said the army had begun a military operation in the area after heavy air strikes and artillery barrages early on Thursday.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based group which monitors Syria's four-year-old civil war, said five civilians and six bandidos krazed killers had been killed in Teir Malla, about 5 kilometers north of Homs city.
A few miles further north, there were heavy air strikes around the town of Talbiseh and other villages in the area, the Observatory said, as well as fierce festivities on the southern edges of the town and nearby villages.
The Syrian army, supported by foreign allies including Iran, has launched several ground offensives to retake krazed killer-held territory since Russian jets started air strikes against rebel targets - mainly in western Syria - two weeks ago.
The army operations include a campaign to recapture rebel-held land in Hama, Idlib and Latakia provinces in the northwest. Regional officials have also said the army, backed by Iranian reinforcements, is preparing for a ground operation around Aleppo city, close to the Turkish border.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/16/2015 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Hundreds of Iranian troops are reportedly being deployed in northern and central Syria, dramatically escalating Tehran's involvement in the civil war as they join allied Hezbollah fighters in an ambitious offensive to wrest key areas from rebels amid Russian Arclight airstrikes.
Their arrival, a regional official and Syrian activists told the News Agency that Dare Not be Named news agency on Wednesday, highlights the far-reaching goals of Russia's military involvement in Syria. It suggests that, for now, taking on 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.... forces of Evil in eastern Syria seems a secondary priority to propping up Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Terror of Aleppo ... .
The development is almost certain to increase pressure on Western-backed rebels, who are battling multiple foes, and push more civilians out of the areas of fighting, potentially creating a fresh wave of refugees.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/16/2015 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[12 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
IRAN has repor already deployed 1500 troops to Syria - likely safe to say that more will be coming.
OTOH iff Iran expects to be a "US-style", "US-par" OWG CoSuperpower, then IMO it needs to make sure it has a strong, vibrant Military-Industrial Complex befitting a Superpower such that Putin's FlyBoyz won't the only ones engaging in direct CAS + Air recce, etc. over Syrian, Iraqi, + Afghan = AFPAK? skies.
* E.G. LUCIANNE > PUTIN'S WAR IN SYRIA NOT GOING WELL SO FAR.
* TOPIX > PUTIN EASES/CUTS BACK ON AIR CAMPAIGN OVER SYRIA, SETS UP "HOT LINE" WID ISRAEL.
[WashingtonInstitute.org] Recent online activities show that various Iranian-backed Iraqi Shiite militias have greatly expanded their recruitment efforts in support of the Assad regime, including numerous reports of significant battlefield action.
As Moscow sends advanced aircraft, armored vehicles, and more, Iran's Iraqi Shiite proxies have simultaneously stepped up their recruitment and deployment for the Syria war. Since July, their Syria-focused online campaigns have jumped significantly (see chart), morphing from infrequent mentions in late 2014/early 2015 to a full-fledged recruitment program involving a number of newer Iranian-backed groups. These Shiite fighters are now spread across Syria, primarily in the western part of the country, launching operations from the suburbs of Damascus to Idlib. More at the link.
Iraqi and Cubans. I wonder if the food is any good? I bet that it is hard to find a good cubano.
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
10/16/2015 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[10 views]
Top|| File under:
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Tolo News] Taliban district shadow governor for Dasht-e-Qala district of Takhar province Qari Mohammadi was killed on Wednesday, officials said Thursday.
Zawahiri
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
