[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The First Vice President General Abdul Rashid Dostum ...ethnic Uzbek warlord who distinguished himself fighting the Soviets and the Taliban. The story that he had a bad guy run over with a tank is an exaggeration. It was an armored personnel carrier... has taken charge of the operations in the northern Kunduz province of Afghanistan hours after the Talibs launched a coordinated attack on the strategic Kunduz city.
Gen. Dostum organized a meeting in the Command and Control Center of the Ministry of Defense on Monday evening as Taliban intensified attacks on the city, the Office of the First Vice President said in a statement.
The meeting also focused on other provinces under the Taliban threat including the southern Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... province and Uruzgan province.
Officials in ARG Palace have also confirmed that Gen. Dostum is the Command and Control Center of the Ministry of Defense to coordinate operations with deputy chief of staff of Afghan army General Murad Ali Murad who is Kunduz province.
In the meantime, the officials in the Ministry of Interior have confirmed that several key districts in Kunduz city have been cleared of the holy warriors presence.
The cleared areas include the first police district, second and third police districts of the city as heavy casualties have been incurred to the Taliban myrmidons, a source in the ministry said.
The source further added that the operations are currently being implemented in Zakhil, Ali Khel, Bagh Sherkat, Charkhab, and Alchin districts.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/05/2016 00:00 ||
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#2
Appearance means little, this man leads from the front. He reportedly has no problem with coaxing his horse into the trenches for close-up, Makarov work.
[Libya Observer] The so-called Tribes Army of Wirshiffana has responded angrily to a recent order by rogue General Khalifa Haftar ... served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all... to his aides to abandon the commander of the army, Brigadier Omer Tantosh.
During a military rally in Wirshiffana on Monday, supporters of Tantosh, all are still loyal of slain Qadaffy, said the order of Khalifa Haftar is totally rejected.
Last month, Khalifa Haftar ordered his militias in western Libya to abandon Omer Tantosh saying he is no longer part of his self-proclaimed Libyan National Army.
Tantosh and his militias used to fight alongside with Khalifa Haftar's in the past two years, but because of superiority complex, Khalifa Haftar decided to abandon him.
"We call the President of HoR in his capacity as Supreme Commander of the Libyan Armed Forces to reconsider some orders and abuses committed by Khalifa Haftar, which could delay the liberation," Tantosh supporters said in a statement, while referring to the planned attack on Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... .
The supporters also said that Khalifa Haftar's order is an insult to all Wirshiffana tribes.
Brigadier Omer Tantosh was a senior commander in former Qadaffy brigades. In 2011, he took charge of the western region's front lines. He was locked away Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! in 2012 before being released by Zintan town in 2014 to join the fight against Libya Dawn ...aka Fajr Libya, the Islamist operation launched to counter that of General Khalifa Haftar (Operation Dignity). It is made up of the Libya Shield militia (Misrata and Moslem Brotherhood), Libya Revolutionaries Operations Room (Moslem Brotherhood), and Tripoli Brigade (close to Abdul Hakim Belhaj, head of Al-Watan party). Financing and moral support come from Turkey and Qatar... forces. He then formed the so-called Tribes Army of Wirshiffana and joined Dignity Operation.
In August 2016, President of HoR Aqailah Saleh appointed him as the commander of the military zone of Wirshiffana under Khalifa Haftar's self-proclaimed Libyan National Army.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/05/2016 00:00 ||
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[AA.TR] Yemen’s Shia 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 ... group Tuesday said it wanted to see a "proposed solution in writing" before resuming UN-brokered peace talks with the Yemeni government.
In a statement, Houthi negotiators called on the UN to present a "written proposal" for ending Yemen’s ongoing crisis.
The proposal, they said, "should take into account all aspects of the conflict, including a halt to aggression, lifting the siege [on Houthi-held parts of the country] and an agreement regarding the presidency".
In Houthi discourse, the term "aggression" refers to a Saudi-led air campaign that began last year aimed at restoring President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi’s Saudi-backed government.
Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, the UN’s envoy for Yemen, is expected to arrive in Oman on Wednesday for talks with Houthi negotiators, with whom he will discuss possible means of resuming peace talks.
In a related development Tuesday, pro-government forces announced the capture of a "strategic site" from the Houthis in Yemen’s Nahem directorate east of capital Sanaa.
In a statement, pro-government forces claimed to have seized control of the Bahra Mountain region following festivities with Houthi fighters and allied forces loyal to former President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... 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... has been ravaged by civil war since late 2014, when the Houthis overran Sanaa and forced Hadi and his Saudi-backed government to temporarily flee to Riyadh.
Two subsequent rounds of UN-brokered talks between government and Houthi negotiators failed to achieve any tangible breakthroughs.
Last week, the Houthis announced the formation of a government in Sanaa in a move that critics say is aimed at derailing any resumption of peace talks.
The Yemeni government, for its part, refuses to discuss the notion of a unity government before the Houthis withdraw from cities now under their control and hand over their arms.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/05/2016 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Houthis
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The UAE said on Wednesday Yemeni 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 ... forces had attacked a UAE civilian vessel in a strategic Red Sea shipping lane off the coast of Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... at the weekend and called the incident an act of terrorism.
The UAE foreign ministry, in a statement carried by state news agency WAM, said the civilian ship was targeted by Houthi militia near the Bab al-Mandab strait off Yemen's southern coast on Saturday.
"The targeting of the civilian ship in an international channel has serious implications for freedom of navigation, and is an act of terror...," it said, without elaborating.
In a statement on Saturday, the Houthis said their forces had fired a missile that had destroyed a UAE military vessel that was advancing towards the Red Sea port of al-Mokha.
Vessel damaged
The UAE military said on Saturday that one of its vessels was damaged in an incident, on which it gave no details, near the strait but there were no injuries to its crew.
Hundreds of Emirati soldiers in a Saudi-led coalition have been fighting Yemen's Iran-allied Houthis who control the capital and training Yemeni troops in the port of Aden to help rebuild a state loyal to exiled president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
In 2013, more than 3.4 million barrels of oil per day passed through the 20-km (12 mile) wide Bab al-Mandab, according to the US Energy Information Administration.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/05/2016 00:00 ||
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[Dhaka Tribune] A new 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.... publication has featured an article on the July 1 Gulshan cafe attack ostensibly written by Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury, who was killed during a police operation in Narayanganj on August 27.
Interestingly, the byline of the article, published in the second issue of IS’ Rumiyah magazine, says: "Abu Dujanah al-Bangali (Tamim Chowdhury), Former Head of Military and Covert Operations of the Soldiers of Khilafah in Bengal."
Police on several occasions referred to Tamim as Abu Ibrahim al-Hanif, before and after he was bumped off during the so-called Operation Hit Strong 27. Two other suspected Lions of Islam were killed in the drive.
The multilingual magazine released late Tuesday night also published an infographic of 24 out of 26 attacks the IS supporters have carried out in Bangladesh since September last year. The victims include foreigners, non-Moslem and non-Sunni preachers, law enforcers and a university professor.
A useful little backgrounder on Mr. Chowdhury can be seen at the link. His family lives in Windsor, Ontario, Canada.
Tamim is believed to be the criminal mastermind of the Holey Artisan Bakery attack in Gulshan on July 1 and the attack on police near Sholakia Eid congregation on July 8. At least 25 people, including foreigners, law enforcement personnel and civilians, were killed in the terrorist attacks.
On September 23, IS released its second Bangla video featuring as heroes the five Gulshan attackers ‐ Nibras Islam, Rohan Imtiaz, Khairul Islam Payel, Shafiqul Islam Uzzal and Meer Saameh Mubasser who were killed in a commando operation on July 2.
The Lions of Islam in the video, believed to be recorded sometime before the Gulshan attack, made statements justifying their stance, and criticising the democratic system and politicians. They also came down heavily on the Islamic scholars for resisting Moslems from joining the armed jihad of the Islamic State.
The home minister reacted: "I have said it before there is no organizational existence and leader of IS in Bangladesh. The video footage has been released as part of a conspiracy against Bangladesh."
The New JMB, which, according to police, works as the Islamic State affiliate in Bangladesh has lost 31 of its members in raids while two killed themselves since November last year.
Detectives claim that local Lions of Islam close to banned outfit Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh formed the New JMB group to create anarchy and terrorise foreigners in the country. The IS aims at establishing Shariah law in the country and use Bangladesh as its base to launch attacks in Myanmar and India.
After Tamim’s death, counter-terrorism officials claimed that the strength of New JMB had almost waned. The detectives are now looking for the field-level coordinator, financiers and arms suppliers for the July 1 attack.
They said that Tamim had been assisted by a top JMB leader, Abul Kashem alias Boro Huzur. Known as a great religious preacher working at the Okharabari Madrasa of Dinajpur, Kashem mainly helped Tamim to reunite the JMB members.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/05/2016 00:00 ||
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[StrategyPage] The United States has sent hundreds of SOCOM (Special Operations Command) troops into areas like Syria and Libya to support rebels fighting ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant). The problem, according to the U.S. Army Special Forces troops involved, is that a lot of the "rebels" they are ordered to train and support with air support, medical care and so on are Islamic radicals who are likely to eventually join ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) or other similar hyper-violent Islamic terror groups.
[The National] When the police finally came, the staff of IMC TV in Istanbul were ready.
Dozens of employees crowded behind the anchor’s news desk, applauding their management and shouting "free media won’t be silenced."
Then as technical experts sent by the authorities fiddled with wires in the back room, broadcasts were cut and screens went blank.
The channel -- which had a pro-Kurdish stance but also engaged with women’s and environmental issues -- was the latest casualty of what activists see as a growing crackdown against the media in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... after the July 15 failed coup.
The government insists media remains free and diverse in Turkey but accuses outlets like IMC TV of promoting the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) -- which the channel denies.
"Why are you covering your face? Long live hell for the cruel!" the channel’s general manager, Eyup Burc told the police live on air as they raided the channel. "We are against all coups and we are against those who stage their own coup out of a coup!" he said.
The channel was one of a dozen TV outlets ordered to close last week under Turkey’s controversial state of emergency imposed after the failed coup and extended by another three months from October 19.
Rather than being accused of supporting the July 15 coup, they are charged with broadcasting "terror propaganda" for the outlawed PKK which has fought a bloody 32-year insurgency against the Turkish state.
Activists have repeatedly warned that the state of emergency would be used to implement a wider crackdown.
"There are no channels left to broadcast this speech!" the leader of the opposition pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Selahattin Demirtas told a meeting of his party in the parliament. "They believe that the people will support the government when they are not informed of the news. They are deceived again."
Despite the closure order, IMC TV had defiantly remained on air until Tuesday through the Hotbird satellite and internet broadcasts, with staff expecting the police to arrive at any moment.
T"We do not threaten anyone’s security. On the contrary we are a channel that defends people’s right to receive news," said IMC presenter Banu Guven.
Several other broadcasters, including pro-Kurdish Ozgur Radyo and the strongly leftist Hayatin Sesi TV, were also raided and shut down on Monday.
"Dramatic shutdowns of media outlets have become a familiar drama in Turkey," said Dilek Gul, another IMC journalist. Earlier this year, Turkish police used water cannon to take over the headquarters of the Zaman newspaper linked to the holy manFethullah 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 was later blamed for the coup. However there has been no suggestion IMC is linked to Gulen.
The closure has come at a time of growing concerns for press freedom in Turkey under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him... , with several prominent journalists under arrest following the coup.
"All form of opposition in Turkey is now deprived of its voice," said Erol Onderoglu, Turkey representative of press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
Posted by: Fred ||
10/05/2016 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
"Hillary Clinton was never in any danger of prosecution for mishandling classified documents on her infamous homebrew email server, according to a book set to rock the election season.
The fix was in, thanks to Bill Clinton's plan to ambush Attorney General Loretta Lynch when their private jets were at the Phoenix airport at the same time.
The former president told his pilot to abort a takeoff, according to Ed Klein in his latest book, 'Guilty as Sin,' when a Secret Service agent told him Lynch was about to land.
'Don't take off!' Bill shouted.
The meeting, which began minutes later and lasted a half-hour, took place just one week before FBI director James Comey announced publicly that the Democratic presidential nominee was in the clear."
Posted by: Vast Right Wing Conspiracy ||
10/05/2016 12:31 ||
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#1
So, Bill's got the goods on Lynch? Wonder what that could be?
#5
Supreme court seat with much bennies being thrown your way if you sweep this under the rug, or a suicide with two bullets in the back of the head if she doesn't.
[DAWN] Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... chaired two meetings of top civil and military leadership on the National Action Plan (NAP) and national security on Tuesday, with a special focus on the situation along the Line of Control (LoC) and held Kashmire.
'Pakistan believes in peace and collective betterment' Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif addressing a National Security Committee meeting focusing on the internal and external security of the country said, "Pakistain does not cherish aggressive designs against any country or nation. We believe in peace and collective betterment."
"However, corruption finds a dozen alibis for its evil deeds... our quest for peace must not be mistaken as a sign of weakness. Our armed forces are fully capable of thwarting any kind of threat to our illusory sovereignty and territorial integrity," he said.
The meeting reviewed the situation along the Line of Control (LoC) and the operational preparedness of the armed forces, a PM Office statement said.
"Pakistain cannot be cowed down with hollow rhetoric and aggressive posturing," the meeting resolved, adding that the nation stands shoulder-to-shoulder with its armed forces to ensure defence of the country at any cost.
Participants of the meeting noted that escalation of tensions along the LoC and the eastern border will shift Pakistain's focus away from its counter-terrorism efforts at a critical juncture and would be detrimental to gains made in the war against terror on home soil.
The forum said that India should resolve the Kashmire issue for enduring regional peace instead of making 'futile efforts' to divert the world's attention through 'propaganda' and 'false claims' of surgical strikes, the statement said.
The meeting's participants called on India to halt atrocities in India-held Kashmire (IHK).
PM Nawaz said that the people of IHK are struggling for their inalienable right to self-determination guaranteed by United Nations ...an organization conceived in the belief that we're just one big happy world, with the sort of results you'd expect from such nonsense... Security Council resolutions, which cannot be suppressed through brutal oppression by Indian security forces.
"It is imperative that the UN and other countries fulfil their longstanding commitment to the innocent and defenceless people of Indian Occupied Kashmire," the prime minister said.
"Pakistain and Kashmire are inseparable. We will continue to extend our moral, political and diplomatic support to Kashmiri people at every forum," the premier reiterated.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/05/2016 00:00 ||
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Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has warned Turkey that it risks triggering a regional war by keeping troops in Iraq, as each summoned the other's ambassador in a growing row.
As Erdogan might reply, "you and whose army?"
Relations between the two regional powers are already broadly strained by the Syrian civil war and the rise of the Islamic State militant group.
Turkey's parliament voted last week to extend its military presence in Iraq for a further year to take on what it called "terrorist organizations" - a likely reference to Kurdish rebels as well as Islamic State.
Iraq's parliament responded on Tuesday night by condemning the vote and calling for Turkey to pull its estimated 2,000 troops out of areas across northern Iraq.
"We have asked the Turkish side more than once not to intervene in Iraqi matters and I fear the Turkish adventure could turn into a regional war," Abadi warned in comments broadcast on state TV on Wednesday. "The Turkish leadership's behavior is not acceptable and we don't want to get into a military confrontation with Turkey."
Then perhaps you shouldn't provoke them right now...
Turkey says its military is in Iraq at the invitation of Masoud Barzani, president of the Kurdish regional government, with which Ankara maintains solid ties. Most of the troops are at a base in Bashiqa, north of Mosul, where they are helping to train Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga and Sunni fighters.
And keep an eye on Kurdish Kommies...
Turkey's deputy prime minister, Numan Kurtulmus, said the deployment had become necessary after Islamic State's seizure of Iraq's second city, captured in 2014
"Neither Turkey's presence in Bashiqa nor its operation right now in Syrian territory are aimed at occupying or interfering with the domestic affairs of these countries."
Iraq's central government in Baghdad says it never invited such a force and considers the Turkish troops occupiers.
Tensions between Iraq and Turkey have risen with expectations of an offensive by Iraq and U.S.-backed forces to retake Mosul. Turkey has said the campaign will send a wave of refugees over its border and, potentially, on to Europe.
So stiffen your border. Iraqi refugees belong in Iraq.
Ankara worries that Baghdad's Shi'ite Muslim-led forces will destabilize Mosul's largely Sunni population and worsen ethnic strife across the region, where there are also populations of Turkmens, ethnic kin of the Turks.
Turkey is also uncomfortable with the arrangement of Kurdish forces expected to take part in the offensive. In northern Syria, where Turkey is backing rebels fighting Islamic State, Ankara has warned that Kurdish militias are "filling the vacuum" left by Islamic State. Fearing that this will boost the Kurdish rebellion across the border in southeast Turkey, it has threatened to "cleanse" them.
Turkey's great fear is 'Kurdistan', a union of Turk, Syrian, Iraqi, and Iranian Kurdish regions. Given that fear, the Turks seem to be hell-bent on provoking its formation...
Turkey announced late on Tuesday that it was summoning Iraq's ambassador to complain about the parliamentary vote.
"We believe this decision does not reflect the views of the majority of Iraqi people, whom Turkey has stood by for years and attempted to support with all its resources," Turkey's Foreign Ministry said. "We find it noteworthy that the Iraqi parliament, which has not said anything about the accepted mandate for years, puts this on the agenda as though it were a new development in times when terror is taking so many lives in Turkey and Iraq."
On Wednesday, Iraq summoned the Turkish ambassador to Baghdad to protest what it said were "provocative" comments from Ankara about the troop deployment.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/05/2016 08:52 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The First Vice President General Abdul Rashid 
[Libya Observer] The so-called Tribes Army of Wirshiffana has responded angrily to a recent order by rogue General 
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The UAE said on Wednesday Yemeni 
[Dhaka Tribune] A new 
[The National] When the police finally came, the staff of IMC TV in Istanbul were ready.
[DAWN] Prime Minister 
