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US drops MOAB on ISIS tunnel complex in Afghanistan
Today's Headlines
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Africa Horn
Al-Shabab vows ‘doubled response’ to US move in Somalia
[SHABELLENEWS] An organization that monitors Lion of Islam groups says the Somalia-based al-Shabaab
... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda...
claims its recent attacks are in "doubled response" to the U.S. military’s expanding efforts against it.

The SITE Intelligence Group said late Tuesday that the Lion of Islam group’s Shahada News Agency posted the statements on social media on Monday.

The al-Shabaab statement says the recent attacks also are in response to President Mohammed Abdullahi Mohammed’s declaration of a new offensive against the Death Eaters last week.

The statement says Sunday’s suicide car kaboom in the capital, Mogadishu, that killed 13 and Monday’s suicide kaboom at a military academy in Mogadishu that killed at least five soldiers are examples of al-Shabaab’s response to the decisions by the U.S. and Somalia’s government.

The U.S. military now can pursue more aggressive Arclight airstrikes against al-Shabaab.

Posted by: Fred || 04/13/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: al-Shabaab (AQ)


Ali Hussein is a trader ‘not a terrorist’, says Elder
[SHABELLENEWS] Ahmed Hussein, a prominent Somali elder has called for the immediate and unconditional release of Ali Hussein Ali who was detained in Kenya in connection with Islamic state (ISIS).

The Elder has denied all charges against Ali, and urged Kenyan authorities to release him.

"I can confirm that Ali Hussein Ali is a well-known Somali businessman and had not links or collaboration with any terrorist group. He is innocent. He should be freed soon," said Hussein.

He has asked the Federal Government of Somalia to intervene in the case, and work on the release of the businessman accused of being a recruiter for the ISIS branch in Kenya.

Ali has been tossed in the calaboose
Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un!
by Kenya security forces in northeast region near Somali border, and taken to a custody in undisclosed location, where he is being currently interrogated.

Posted by: Fred || 04/13/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Tillerson meets with Putin amid deepening tensions over U.S. missile strikes in Syria
[WASHINGTONPOST] The rift between the United States and Russia was laid bare Wednesday when Secretary of State Rex Tillerson held his first direct talks with Russia’s president. Their discussions failed to ease deepening tensions over Syria and Washington’s demands that Moscow abandon its main Middle East ally.

"There is a low level of trust between our countries," Tillerson said in a news conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. "The world’s two primary nuclear powers cannot have this kind of relationship."

Wednesday’s meeting brought no indication that the relationship would improve any time soon.

After Tillerson spent three hours talking with Lavrov and almost two hours at the Kremlin with Russian President Vladimir Putin
...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...
, Lavrov, sitting three feet from Tillerson, aired a long list of grievances with the United States, some dating back many years.

"Unfortunately, we’ve got some differences with regards to a majority of those issues," Lavrov lamented.

Posted by: Fred || 04/13/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Vlad: We're really upset about it.
Rex: It's only Arabs.
Vlad: It's not Arabs I'm upset about - it's the Suhoys. You know how much the new ones will cost?
Rex: I know you could produce a 100 for what one F-35 costs us.
Vlad: I'm sorry I hacked DNC!
Rex: No, you not!
Enter Vlad's current squeeze with tea, Armenian cognac, and sandwiches.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/13/2017 10:13 Comments || Top||

#2  Doesn't Vlad charge the Syrians for new planes and missiles?
Posted by: rjschwarz || 04/13/2017 18:10 Comments || Top||


Europe
Muslims should accept European values or go elsewhere – German minister
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/13/2017 07:33 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under: Moslem Colonists

#1  Few years late and several million Marks short.

You let in the beast. Good luck getting him out.
Posted by: DarthVader || 04/13/2017 9:21 Comments || Top||

#2  Muslims should accept European values or go elsewhere

Given their history, what did the German government think the Muslim colonists would do?
Posted by: gorb || 04/13/2017 9:58 Comments || Top||

#3  Don't you mean "several Merkel's short", your sithness?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/13/2017 10:05 Comments || Top||

#4  While I don't like to bag on the mentally and vertically challenged, I think the poor Germans have had enough Merkels to last them several generations.
Posted by: DarthVader || 04/13/2017 10:49 Comments || Top||

#5  I think the poor Germans have had enough Merkels to last them several generations.

I'll believe it when Angela is dragged from power.
Posted by: Crusader || 04/13/2017 10:52 Comments || Top||

#6  The Muslims HAVE accepted German values, unfortunately they accepted the German values of 80+ years ago.
Posted by: AlanC || 04/13/2017 11:35 Comments || Top||

#7  Too late
Posted by: Ebbavith Grater6583 || 04/13/2017 14:45 Comments || Top||

#8  My mother taught me that the word'should' doesn't mean anything.
Posted by: phil_b || 04/13/2017 19:26 Comments || Top||


Stockholm attack suspect tried to join IS in Syria
[IsraelTimes] Rakhmat Akilov reportedly influenced by fellow Central Asians, received order from ISIS to carry out truck-ramming.

The Uzbek national suspected of mowing down pedestrians in Stockholm last week had tried to join the ranks of the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
jihadist group in Syria, an Uzbek source told Russian agencies.

The 39-year-old suspect, Rakhmat Akilov, "fell under the influence of emissaries of the Tajik cell of the Islamic State, making attempts to take part in combat in Syria on the side of the fighters," an unnamed law enforcement source in the Central Asian state said.

According to the source, Akilov attempted to cross The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
’s border with Syria in 2015 but was detained.

"Given his refugee status he was deported back to Sweden," the source said.

The source added that Uzbek authorities had added Akilov to an international wanted list in late February after a criminal case on "religious extremism" was opened against him.

Akilov on Tuesday confessed to a "terrorist crime" for the truck attack that killed four people and injured 15 others on Friday, his lawyer said.

He had reportedly said he had received an "order" directly from IS to carry out the attack, according to Swedish media reports.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/13/2017 00:06 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  Even ISIS won't take everyone?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/13/2017 10:05 Comments || Top||


Sweden wants more manpower to find 10K rejected refugees in hiding after one commits terror attack
[RT] The force of 200 officers tasked with tracking down the thousands of migrants colonists that have gone into hiding in Sweden needs to be substantially boosted, the country’s border police chief said after a rejected refugee carried out a terrorist attack in Stockholm.

"We certainly need more resources. We need a few hundred employees, maybe more," Patrik Engstrom, head of Sweden’s national border police, told Dagens Nyheter newspaper, noting that "above all" the country needs more coppers to "take part in immigration control [operations]"

Approximately 1,200 Swedish coppers are currently involved in border control at their national operative department (NOA) and seven police regions, but the majority is assigned to operations securing the country’s external borders, such as passport control, he said.

Engstrom stressed that only around 200 coppers are currently assigned to searching for illegal migrants colonists already in Sweden. Meanwhile,
...back at the revival hall, the congregants were being herded into the paddy wagon...
the number of rejected asylum seekers illegally hiding in Sweden after having their applications rejected has reached 10,000.
Posted by: Fred || 04/13/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under: Moslem Colonists

#1  Never call upon your native citizens to help you do that cause it might not be socially correct. Ever hear of say - tax free bounty and tip hotline?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 04/13/2017 8:51 Comments || Top||

#2  tax free bounty and tip hotline

How about a bounty paid for each extra-hairy pair of matching testicles?
Posted by: gorb || 04/13/2017 9:59 Comments || Top||

#3  and no bag limit.
Posted by: AlanC || 04/13/2017 11:36 Comments || Top||


The Grand Turk
Kurdish militants claim responsibility for Diyarbakir tunnel attack
Follow up on this story from yesterday.
[AlAhram] The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group said on Wednesday its militants carried out Tuesday's bomb attack on a police compound in the southeastern Turkish city of Diyarbakir, in which three people were killed including a police officer.

A statement on a PKK website said its militants had planted more than 2.5 tonnes of explosives under the compound in an attack days before a referendum on expanding President Tayyip Erdogan's powers.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/13/2017 02:14 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: WoT
Wife of Orlando shooter pleads not guilty to terror charges
[IsraelTimes] Noor Salman, who says she did not know extent of husband’s attack plans, makes brief appearance in Florida courtroom as trial date.

The wife of the gunman in the Orlando nightclub massacre has pleaded not guilty
"Wudn't me."
to charges of aiding and abetting her husband and obstruction of justice.

Noor Zahi Salman, wife of Pulse nightclub shooter Omar Mateen
... the Afghan-"American" who decided he was a soldier of the Caliphate and shot fifty unarmed people to death in a Florida gay bar he used to frequent...
, made a brief appearance before a judge in the Orlando federal courthouse Wednesday.

The Orlando Sentinel reported Salman’s attorney Fritz Scheller waived the reading of an indictment and entered a not guilty plea for her.

Salman agreed last week to be transferred to Florida from Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party,, where she’d been held since her January arrest. A tentative June trial date was set.

Prosecutors say Salman knew about Mateen’s plans to attack the nightclub on June 12, killing 49 people. Her attorneys say she didn’t know the extent of his plans and has no connection to terror groups.

Mateen was killed in a shootout with police.

Salman, who grew up in the small suburb of Rodeo, California, 25 miles northeast of the Socialist paradise of San Francisco
...where God struck dead Anton LaVey, home of the Sydney Ducks, ruled by Vigilance Committee from 1859 through 1867, reliably and volubly Democrat since 1964...
, was born in the United States while her parents’ birthplaces were listed as "Paleostine" in marriage documents.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/13/2017 00:44 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Iraq
62 Kurd fighter missing
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Kurdistan’s army troops ministry, Peshmerga, said Wednesday that at least 62 of its fighters remain missing since they were engaged in battles against Islamic State militants in Iraq.

The ministry said some of those fell in IS’s grip or died since the group emerged in 2014 to declare an “Islamic Caliphate” in Iraq and took large areas of the country, Kahraman Kamal, deputy chief of the ministry’s staff, said in a statement. He said some others were killed but had their dead bodies in the group’s hold.

A latest count by the Peshmerga counted 1600 deaths among its fighters since it participated in the battles against the extremist group.

Islamic State members had previously executed some Peshmerga fighters for taking part in the battles.

The Iraqi government, backed by a U.S.-led coalition and paramilitary troops, launched an offensive in October to retake the city of Mosul, IS’s most outstanding stronghold in Iraq.

Since the launch of operations, there had been occasional spats between the governments in Baghdad and Erbil over the destiny of regions claimed by Kurdistan Region which Peshmerga forces retook from IS. While Baghdad urges to withdraw Peshmerga from those regions, some officials in Kurdistan occasionally said those territories would remain under Kurdish control.
Posted by: badanov || 04/13/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
US intelligence intercepted communications between Syrian military and chemical experts
The US military and intelligence community has intercepted communications featuring Syrian military and chemical experts talking about preparations for the sarin attack in Idlib last week, a senior US official tells CNN.
The intercepts were part of an immediate review of all intelligence in the hours after the attack to confirm responsibility for the use of chemical weapons in an attack in northwestern Syria, which killed at least 70 people. US officials have said that there is "no doubt" that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is responsible for the attack.
The US did not know prior to the attack it was going to happen, the official emphasized. The US scoops up such a large volume of communications intercepts in areas like Syria and Iraq, the material often is not processed unless there is a particular event that requires analysts to go back and look for supporting intelligence material.

So far there are no intelligence intercepts that have been found directly confirming that Russian military or intelligence officials communicated about the attack. The official said the likelihood is the Russians are more careful in their communications to avoid being intercepted.
The Russian and Syrian governments have both denied involvement in the chemical attack.
Posted by: DarthVader || 04/13/2017 11:11 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So now the Russkies know we can intercept this kind of thing. So do the Syrians. And everyone else.
Posted by: gorb || 04/13/2017 12:55 Comments || Top||

#2  I don't care how many different selectors or sim cards you use, the damn things are NOT your friends.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/13/2017 13:23 Comments || Top||

#3  The Russians pretty much are aware of this as they can do really good intercepts themselves.
Posted by: DarthVader || 04/13/2017 14:53 Comments || Top||

#4  I wish they were doing psyops. Call one of them up "Avon calling, do you need some more hand cleaner?"
Posted by: AlanC || 04/13/2017 15:29 Comments || Top||

#5  Call one of them up "Avon calling, do you need some more hand cleaner?" Posted by AlanC

'Hand cleaner'...possibly not. But perhaps we should just leave it at that.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/13/2017 17:00 Comments || Top||


United Airlines Awarded Contract By Pentagon To Forcibly Remove Syria's Bashar al-Assad
[B2C] United Airlines being awarded a Pentagon contract to forcibly remove Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad is nothing more than military satire. The satirical piece is building off the recent negative news of United Airlines forcibly "re-accommodating" one of its passengers from a flight. There is no truth to The Pentagon awarding the airline company a contract to forcibly remove al-Assad from Syria. Where did this satire originate?

On April 11, 2017, the military satire web site Duffel Blog published an article saying that the U.S. government had awarded United Airlines a government contract to take out Syria’s president. The article came one day after a controversy involving United Airlines’ forcible removal of a passenger from a flight and the recent missile strike at one of Syria’s bases in response to a chemical weapons attack on Syrian people. You can read the fake story below.

"The Pentagon announced it had awarded a sole-source contract to United Airlines for work related to the forcible removal of President Bashar al-Assad from Syria.

The contract, worth $2.1 billion, tasks the airline company with locating Assad, grabbing him from his seat in the presidential palace, and "dragging him out of Damascus by his arms." The contract also notes that Assad should be "asked several times, politely" to give up his seat of power, though if he refuses, United workers should bloody his nose up a bit, according to the posting at FedBizOpps.

Though US military officials have struggled in recent months with a plan for removing Assad, United Airlines cleared its final hurdle for the military’s request for proposal on Monday, when it ordered police officers to forcibly remove a passenger from a flight that was overbooked."

Original article appears to have come from the 'Duffelblog.'
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/13/2017 08:44 || Comments || Link || [12 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It's called "re-accomodating"
Posted by: European Conservative || 04/13/2017 9:36 Comments || Top||

#2  Aren't there war crime laws against this?
Posted by: gorb || 04/13/2017 9:42 Comments || Top||

#3  "letter of marque and reprisal"
Posted by: Procopius2k || 04/13/2017 9:52 Comments || Top||

#4  Thought I saw that on Rantburg the other day.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 04/13/2017 11:50 Comments || Top||

#5  Duffelblog rocks.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 04/13/2017 13:28 Comments || Top||

#6  Don't forget the free tickets sent to that Kimmy fat boy.
Posted by: 3dc || 04/13/2017 15:05 Comments || Top||


4 Aleppo cities begin evacuations of fighters, refugees
Thousands of people, both civilians and fighters, are expected to begin leaving government-held Fuaa and Kafraya and opposition-controlled Madaya and Zabadani later Wednesday.

The evacuations of the four besieged towns come under an agreement brokered by opposition backer Qatar and government ally Iran last month.

An AFP photographer in government-held Aleppo city saw 12 of the prisoners released by the opposition, nine of whom appeared to be suffering injuries, arriving along with eight bodies.

Syrian state news agency SANA said the four children and eight women had been transferred with the bodies of “eight martyrs” from “terrorist groups in Idlib province.”

It said the exchange of prisoners marked the start of the “implementation of the first phase of the agreement.”

SANA said that “19 militants” were transferred from Fuaa and Kafraya at the same time.

A source in the Tahrir Al-Sham alliance confirmed the exchange.

Fuaa and Kafraya are government-held villages in the otherwise opposition-controlled province of Idlib.

Madaya and Zabadani are opposition enclaves surrounded by regime forces in Damascus province.

The exchange marks the beginning of the implementation of the deal to evacuate the four towns, as well as part of the Yarmuk Palestinian camp in southern Damascus.

Negotiators and residents said buses had entered Madaya and Zabadani on Wednesday morning, and people were gathering their belongings to leave.

But a government coordinator for the negotiations said vehicles had yet to arrive at Fuaa and Kafraya.

“The logistical details are all ready, but the armed groups are delaying things,” he told AFP.

“The entry of buses into Zabadani and Madaya was a goodwill gesture from the government but they will not leave without a simultaneous exit of the Fuaa and Kafraya convoy.”

More than 30,000 people are expected to be evacuated under the deal, which was postponed after objections from both sides and tensions following a suspected chemical weapons attack on an opposition-held town in Idlib province.

All 16,000 residents of Fuaa and Kafraya are expected to leave, heading to government-held Aleppo, the coastal province of Latakia or Damascus.

Civilian residents of Madaya and Zabadani will reportedly be allowed to remain if they so choose. Those who leave, along with fighters, will head to opposition territory in Idlib.

The four towns are part of an existing agreement reached in 2015 that requires aid deliveries and evacuations be carried out to all areas simultaneously.

But access has been limited, with food and medical shortages causing malnutrition, illness and even death among besieged residents.

The UN says 4.72 million Syrians are in so-called hard-to-reach areas, including 600,000 people under siege, mostly by the Syrian Army, but also by fighters or Daesh.

More than 320,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict began in March 2011 with anti-government protests.
Posted by: badanov || 04/13/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under:



Who's in the News
27[untagged]
13Islamic State
4Houthis
3Taliban
3al-Shabaab (AQ)
3Commies
3Moslem Colonists
2Govt of Syria
2Arab Spring
2Boko Haram (ISIS)
1Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (IS)
1Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis (IS)
1Sublime Porte
1Govt of Pakistan
1Fatah
1Hamas
1HuJI

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In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
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Two weeks of WOT
Thu 2017-04-13
  US drops MOAB on ISIS tunnel complex in Afghanistan
Wed 2017-04-12
  Bomb attack on Dortmund team bus
Tue 2017-04-11
  ISIS shells east of Mosul with chlorine gas, 10 casualties
Mon 2017-04-10
  Man steers car into town hall in Germany, fire breaks out
Sun 2017-04-09
  Church bombing north of Egypt's capital kills 26
Sat 2017-04-08
  Iranian brigadier general killed by jihadist militants in northern Hama
Fri 2017-04-07
  U.S. launches cruise missiles against Assad's forces
Thu 2017-04-06
  Al-Qaeda assassinates prominent Free Syrian Army commander in Idlib
Wed 2017-04-05
  Global outcry over suspected Syria chemical attack
Tue 2017-04-04
  ISIS raid in Yemen leaves scores of Houthi troops dead on the battlefield
Mon 2017-04-03
  Reports of an explosion(3) in a metro station in central #StPetersburg, #Russia
Sun 2017-04-02
  IS second-in-command killed in airstrike: Iraqi State TV
Sat 2017-04-01
  South Carolina man charged with trying to join Islamic State
Fri 2017-03-31
  Mortars hit near Somali Presidential Palace, 2 hurt
Thu 2017-03-30
  503 militants surrender in Homs


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