No word as to whether the Taliban can pencil them in yet.
"We're booked solid through next Thursday..."
[ToloNews] The Ministry of Defense (MoD) on Sunday said the Afghan National Army’s Commando Forces and the Afghan Air Force are preparing to broaden their military campaign against Taliban insurgents in a number of volatile regions of the country where insurgents have been trying to make footholds and gain grounds as part of their summer offensive.
“We are planning plan to increase night raids including operations by the commando units and air attacks,” Defense Ministry spokesman Dawlat Waziri said.
Meanwhile, a number of provincial officials have confirmed that the Afghan security forces backed by commandos and Air Force have surged their attacks against militants’ hideouts.
This new development takes place at a time that over the recent months, the Taliban operatives have tried to infiltrate key towns in the east and north.
In Ghazni, the Afghan army managed to foil several offensives by the Taliban insurgents, said local officials.
“In Waghaz district (in Ghazni), 36 militants were killed and 20 others were wounded,” said Ghazni governor Abdul Karim Mateen.
“The main goal of our (military) operation is to secure Gul Tepa district in Kunduz province and to deploy friendly forces over there,” said Abdul Wase Milad, Commander of Army’s 203 Thunder Corps in Kunduz.
Also in Ghazni’s neighborhood Maidan Warkak province, the Taliban launched several attacks on the key highway connecting Ghazni to Kabul.
“They (Taliban) suffered heavy losses. The (military) operations were hailed by tribal elders, because no civilian was harmed during the operations,” the Maidan Wardak Police Chief Fahim Qaem said.
Local officials said government forces have increased their night raids and military operations in Helmand and Kunduz provinces where the Taliban fighters have been struggling to gain grounds.
It is said that currently the Afghan Army soldiers are conducting 17 operations on a daily basis including 15 separate operations by commando forces.
Defense Ministry officials said all the military operations are supported by the Afghan Air Force.
[BBC] When Salama Ali started investigating the disappearance of two younger brothers last year she made an awful discovery - not only were radicalised young Kenyan men leaving to join the al-Shabaab ... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda... gunnies in neighbouring Somalia, but women were being seized and trafficked by the group as sex slaves.
Salama's search for information about her brothers had to be carried out quietly and confidentially, as any hint of a connection with the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab can arouse the suspicion of the security forces.
Continued on Page 49
TRIPOLI: The Libyan jihadist group Ansar Al-Sharia, which is linked to Al-Qaeda and deemed a terrorist organization by the UN and United States, announced its “dissolution” in a communique published online on Saturday.
Washington accuses the group of being behind the September 11, 2012 attack on the US consulate in the eastern city of Benghazi in which ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed.
Ansar Al-Sharia is one of the jihadist groups that sprung up in Benghazi, Libya’s second largest city, in the chaos following the death of dictator Muammar Qaddafi in 2011. They overran the city in 2014.
East Libyan military strongman Khalifa Haftar earlier this month launched an offensive to oust jihadist fighters from their two remaining strongholds in Benghazi.
In its communique Ansar Al-Sharia said it had been “weakened” by the fighting.
The group lost its leader, Mohammed Azahawi, in clashes with Haftar’s forces in Benghazi at the end of 2014.
Most of its members then defected to the so-called Daesh group. Ansar Al-Sharia later joined the Revolutionary Shoura Council of Benghazi, a local alliance of Islamist militias.
At its zenith, Ansar Al-Sharia was present in Benghazi and Derna in eastern Syria, with offshoots in Sirte and Sabratha, western Libya.
The organization took over barracks and other sites abandoned by the ousted Qaddafi forces and transformed them into training grounds for hundreds of jihadists seeking to head to Iraq or Syria.
[Dhaka Tribune] The High court has released the full text of its verdict reconfirming the death penalties handed down to two Death Eaters for killing blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider in 2013.
The verdict, which was published on Sunday, is available on the Supreme Court website.
The release of the full verdict has cleared the way for the convicts ‐ banned murderous Moslem group Ansarullah Bangla Team members Md Faisal Bin Nayem alias Dweep and former Shibir leader Redwanul Azad Rana ‐ to move the Appellate Division against the High Court judgement.
On April 2, the High Court upheld a speedy trial tribunal verdict that sentenced Nayem and Rana to death for the murder.
On December 31, 2015, the special tribunal handed the death penalties to the duo for criminal masterminding the murder of blogger Rajib and also fined them Tk10,000 each.
In addition, the tribunal sentenced six others to various terms of imprisonment for the murder, including a five-year sentence for Mufti Jashim Uddin Rahmani, the spiritual leader of Ansarullah, which is affiliated with al-Qaeda.
Al-Qaeda’s Bangladesh wing Ansar al-Islam had grabbed credit for the murder.
On March 15, 2015, the DMP announced a bounty of Tk5 lakh for Rana, a top leader of the outfit, for criminal masterminding the murder of Mukto-Mona blog founder Avijit Roy on February 26 the same year. Avijit’s wife and co-writer Rafida Ahmed Banna was maimed in the attack.
Rana had instructed to attack blogger Asif Mohiuddin, and also planned attacks on two teachers of Monipur High School, police said. He was locked away Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try! on February 20 this year.
Rajib, known as Thaba Baba to the blogging community, was hacked to death on February 15, 2013 near his Pallabi residence, only 10 days into the historic movement at Shahbagh demanding death penalty for the 1971 war criminals and a ban on Jamaat-e-Islami ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... and its student body Islami Chhatra Shibir ... the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh... A day after the murder, the victim’s father Nazim Uddin filed a murder case with Pallabi cop shoppe.
According to the charge sheet, the convicts ‐ all expelled students of North South University ‐ were instigated by Shibir leader Rana to commit murder of atheists and secularists.
Several top Ansarullah leaders, Rana and some of the convicts used to visit Hatembagh mosque in Dhanmondi area to listen to the Friday sermons given by Rahmani, a former leader of Islami Andolon Bangladesh’s Barisal unit who in 2010 established Markazul Uloom Al Islamia Madrasa and Mosque.
Rahmani professed bloggers who demean Islam or Allah or Muhammad should be killed as per the Islamic rule. He supported Jamaat-e-Islami and Hefajat-e-Islam ...a madrassa-based false nose and mustache of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, formed in 2010 to protest against secular education. In 2011 demonstrated violentyly against women's rights and in 2013 held large rallies demanding capital punishment of Shahbag Square protesters and banning women working outside the home... among Bangladeshi Islamist groups and had asked the local youths to join jihadist groups like al-Qaeda and Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... in different countries where the Moslems were persecuted.
Since 2013, al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) has claimed responsibilities for 11 murders in 13 machete attacks carried out on war crimes trial campaigners, secularists and LGBT rights activists. Blogger Rajib was the second target of the group.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/29/2017 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: Ansarullah Bangla Team (AQIS)
In which the Turkish government appears to propose pounding almost the entirety of the nation's economy and education system into politically pure rubble.
[Hurriyet Daily News] The global network of the Fethullahist Terror Organization (FETÖ) is made up of more than 500 companies, hundreds of foundations and media outlets, and over 1,000 schools across 170 countries, a report by The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... ’s National Intelligence Agency (MIT) has stated.
The MIT examines FETÖ’s global network and links in a report sent to the parliamentary panel tasked with probing the failed July 2016 coup attempt, staged by military personnel linked with FETÖ.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
05/29/2017 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
#1
If you cant find an enemy with which to cow the people into obedience, create one and blow it out of proportion -- Adolph Hitler said it on Facebook. Or was that Noam Chomsky, or perhaps Arlo Guthrie?
Better than a chicken in every pot, its a bogeyman behind every tree, and secret police to chase them.
#2
Been looking into the Gulenist movement for awhile and must admit I'm confused by it. On the one hand, Erdogan hates it so it must be good. On the other hand, it's Islamic (Sufi moderate?) so I mistrust it. Strikes me as a sort of Muslim Brotherhood, Ottoman style. One thing's for sure: like the Wahhabis, they seem to be pursuing a 'hide in plain sight' strategy, via >150 U.S. charter schools and other seemingly innocuous outposts. Haven't found the apocalyptic, submit-to-the-sword language I've always suspected lurked beneath the covers, but maybe I haven't looked in the right places. Anyway, insights from those in the know appreciated.
#3
On the one hand, Erdogan hates it so it must be good.
I'm not exactly in the know, Whitch Turkeyneck3879, but here's what I've learnt from what others have said and posted here at Rantburg over the years:
Sultan Erdogan I (the much beloved) and Fethullen Gulen were best buddies until recently. Erdogan slowly made his nominally center right AKP party ascendant -- he founded the AKP in 2001 -- and even more slowly made it more religious, while his BFF handled the dawa (outreach) side of things through his excellent schools with their quiet emphasis on Islamicizing the students, then sending the alums out into the world to excel, support one another's efforts, tithe to expand the work -- much like a cult, in fact -- and vote for the AKP.
Erdogan spoke openly about riding democracy like a train until it got to his station, then getting off. Gulen was working on a generations-long, nonviolent march through all the institutions, within and without Turkey. Erdogan has been described as neo-Ottoman, seeing himself as the sultan of a restored empire including the Turkmen beyond Turkey's borders, which is why there are ISIS-linked Uzbeks in Istanbul to boost the population. Gulen, I think, does not care about the political organization of the thing, just that it be run from top to bottom by his pious Muslims.
Sufi mysticism is not necessarily otherworldly, though at first glance it's hard to see how whirling dervishes could be dangerous. ;-) My favourite article on Sufi jihadism is here.
[Hurriyet Daily News] If the Democratic Union Party (PYD) condemns the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), it may provide a way for The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... to open a channel with the group that is cooperating with the U.S. in Syria, main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) Deputy Chair Özturk Yilmaz told news hounds in Washington over the weekend.
Yilmaz was in Washington 10 days after the visit of President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him... "U.S. officials are trying to give the impression that the cooperation with the PYD is just tactical and temporary. They are trying not to alienate Turkey. We say this: If the PYD says ’I condemn the PKK and do not support its activities, I have no ties to the PKK,’ this could prove a way forward," he said, pointing to Ankara’s relations with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq as a possible model.
"We opened a separate channel with the KRG in Iraq because it condemned the PKK. Why should not there be the same thing in Syria? If the Syrian people want to have an autonomous structure, it could facilitate that region’s relations with Turkey. But only on the condition that the PYD cuts its relations with the PKK," Yilmaz said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/29/2017 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
[AlAhram] Civilian casualties are inevitable in the war against 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.... (ISIS) hard boy group but the United states is doing "everything humanly possible" to avoid them, US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said in an interview aired Sunday.
A US-led international coalition has been carrying out air strikes against the IS group in Iraq and Syria since 2014, and nongovernmental organizations say the attacks are claiming ever more civilian lives.
Interviewed on CBS's "Face the Nation" program, Mattis said that "civilian casualties are a fact of life in this sort of situation."
But he quickly added that "we do everything humanly possible, consistent with military necessity, taking many chances to avoid civilian casualties -- at all costs."
Some NGOs have blamed the rising civilian corpse count on a push by President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... 's administration to accelerate the pace of combat in an effort to "annihilate" the Islamist hard boys.
But the Pentagon contests both the NGOs' death counts and the charge that a new sense of urgency under Trump is to blame.
"We have not changed the rules of engagement," Mattis said. "There is no relaxation of our intention to protect the innocent."
The coalition has officially acknowledged responsibility for more than 450 civilian deaths since its bombing campaign began in 2014, including 105 in the Iraqi city of djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... on March 17.
However, there is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened... Airwars -- a London-based collective of journalists and researchers that tracks civilian deaths in Iraq and Syria -- reports that coalition strikes have killed at least 3,681 people.
Although the Pentagon on Thursday acknowledged that an American bombing attack in Mosul on March 17 claimed at least 105 civilian lives, it blamed munitions stored by the jihadists in the houses targeted.
That, Mattis said Sunday, showed "once again the callous disregard that is characterized by every operation they have run."
Posted by: trailing wife ||
05/29/2017 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
#3
We need to make it clear that any civilian deaths are the fault of ISIS itself - for hiding among the civilian population using them as human shields often disguised as civilians.
#4
...I am reminded of the tale of the Tamil Tigers, a rebel group that spread havoc and death through Sri Lanka (they pretty much created the suicide belt and the use of female suicide bombers) - and every time they were on the ropes, the UN or some other organization/nation would step in and rescue them, or organize 'peace talks' which had no other purpose than to give them breathing room.
Finally, in 2006 - after a war that had lasted for THIRTY YEARS - the Sri Lankan government said, 'Enough'. The war was over three years later, and every moment of those three years, there were outsiders demanding that the Tigers be given another chance, peace talks, anything to keep them from losing.
A lesson we should ponder.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
05/29/2017 9:02 Comments ||
Top||
#5
So we fight with both hands tied behind our backs and our feet hobbled...
Posted by: Skidmark ||
05/29/2017 01:28 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
#1
“Our intention is that the foreign fighters do not survive the fight to return home to North Africa, to Europe, to America, to Asia, to Africa. We’re not going to allow them to do so. We’re going to stop them there and take apart the caliphate,” Mattis said.
Good.
[IsraelTimes] US President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... is said to have shouted at Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... during their meeting in Bethlehem on Tuesday, Israel’s Channel 2 reports.
According to the channel, which cites Israeli sources and reports the quote in Hebrew, Trump reportedly yelled at Abbas, "You lied to me in Washington when you talked about commitment to peace, but the Israelis showed me you were personally responsible for incitement."
Paleostinian sources contradict the report, telling Channel 2 the meeting between the two leaders was calm.
In his speech after the meeting, Trump insisted that terror must not be "rewarded," a comment seen as a criticism of the PA’s funding for families of imprisoned or killed terrorists.
"Please don't cut off our funding, President Trump!"
[IsraelTimes] Two days after Norway’s foreign minister condemned the Paleostinian Authority for naming a women’s center in the West Bank, funded in part by the Scandinavian country, after a female terrorist, the UN issues its own condemnation.
"The United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... disassociated itself from the Center once it learned the offensive name chosen for it and will take measures to ensure that such incidents do not take place in the future," reads a statement from Stéphane Dujarric, front man for Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
"The glorification of terrorism, or the perpetrators of heinous terrorist acts, is unacceptable under any circumstances. The UN has repeatedly called for an end to incitement to violence and hatred as they present one of the obstacles to peace," the statement says.
The UN no longer supports the center, Dujarric clarifies. "The United Nations support to this community ended last year and it has asked for the logo of UN Women to be removed immediately. Furthermore, the inauguration of the Center took place after the UN’s association with it."
The center is located in the West Bank town of Burqa, and is named for Dalal Mughrabi, who took part in the 1978 Coastal Road Massacre. Mughrabi and several other Fatah bully boyz landed on a beach near Tel Aviv, hijacked a bus on Israel’s Coastal Road and killed 38 civilians, 13 of them children, and maimed over 70.
[IsraelTimes] A video advertisement that depicts a would-be jacket wallah confronted by the faithful has gone viral two days into the Moslem fasting month of Ramadan.
"Worship your God with love, not terror" is the main message of the three-minute ad posted Friday online by Kuwaiti telecommunications giant Zain, which operates across the Middle East.
The video, with English subtitles, can be seen at the link.
"I will tell God everything," says the voiceover of a child at the beginning of the ad as a man is seen preparing a bomb. "That you’ve filled the cemeteries with our children and emptied our school desks..."
The video featuring Emirati pop star Hussain al-Jassmi has registered nearly two million views on Zain’s YouTube page and more than 4,000 shares on Facebook.
It features images from bombings across the region claimed by al-Qaeda or 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.
But it ends on a positive note with footage of a happy wedding and cheerful children dressed in white.
"We will encounter their hatred with songs of love," concludes a caption superimposed on a black background.
Gulf monarchies are part of the US-led coalition bombing IS gunnies in Syria and Iraq. Some of them have also been targeted by attacks.
[ARA News] The Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) said today that the Turkish army and allied Syrian rebels continue to attack YPG positions near Kobane and Afrin.
In an official statement, the YPG leadership also said that Turkey uses drones to monitor YPG positions in Rojava-Northertn Syria.
“On May 21, Turkish warplanes flew on the border with Kobane from the west at 16:30. At the same day, mercenary groups fired at the positions of our forces on a hill in the village of Basofan, in the district of Shirawa. Our fighters responded immediately,” the YPG said.
Furthermore, on 24 May a Turkish drone flew over Kobane. Also on the 25th of the same month, a Turkish drone flew over Kobane. On 26 May, the YPG accused the Turkish army of attacking their positions with heavy weapons, which coincided with Turkish sorties over the borderline.
Turkey-backed groups also launched missile attacks on villages in the Afrin province on 24 May.
“On the 26th of the same month, clashes broke out between our forces and the mercenary groups of the Turkish army, that attempted to attack the village of Iska in the Jindires district of Afrin canton,” the YPG said.
The YPG said one of the attackers was killed during the clashes, and that the village of Basofan was also hit with rockets and rocket-propelled grenades.
The death toll in the recent clashes between Syrian Kurds and Turkey remained unknown.
Posted by: badanov ||
05/29/2017 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[12 views]
Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
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.
Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda...
[Hurriyet Daily News] If the Democratic Union Party (PYD) condemns the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), it may provide a way for 
