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Today: 61 articles and 135 comments as of 10:01.
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Area: WoT Background    Non-WoT    Opinion        Politix   
German police raid 16 homes of suspected Islamic extremists
Today's Headlines
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Page 4: Opinion
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Page 6: Politix
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Afghanistan
NDS Special forces kill 5 Taliban commanders in Nangarhar province
[KhaamaPress] At least nine Talibs including five of their local commanders were killed during an operation of the Afghan Intelligence Special Forces in eastern Nangarhar
The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country..
province.

The 201st Silab Corps of the Afghan Military in the East in a statement said the Special Forces of 02 Unit of National Directorate of Security
...the Afghan national intel agency...
(NDS) conducted a night raid in Khogyani district on Tuesday night.

The statement further added that 9 Talibs including five local commanders of the group were killed in the operation.

The Taliban
...the Pashtun equivalent of men...
commander'>Taliban Überstürmbannführer
s who were killed in the operation have been identified as Ehsanullah Motmaeen, Loqman, Qari Salahuddin, and Zarqawi, the National Directorate of Security said.

The statement also added that a compound of the Talibs was also destroyed during the operation.

The anti-government armed forces of Evil including Taliban have not commented regarding the operation so far.

Nangarhar is among the relatively calm provinces but the security situation in some of its remote districts has tanked during the recent years due to the presence of Taliban, ISIS-K, and other murderous Moslems.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/21/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban

#1  So "commander" is E4 and up?
Posted by: Richard Aubrey || 02/21/2019 0:15 Comments || Top||

#2  Commanders get first dibs on bacha bazi boys.
Posted by: Shoth Schwarzeneggar3463 || 02/21/2019 2:40 Comments || Top||

#3  “Commander”, that is to say “emir”, appears to be anything from a patrol leader on up, Richard.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/21/2019 9:24 Comments || Top||


Taliban commanders, militants in Afghan Air Force airstrikes in Faryab province
[KhaamaPress] At least fourteen Taliban
...Arabic for students...
group members including two of their commanders were killed or maimed during the Arclight airstrikes of the Afghan Air Force in northern Faryab province.

The 209th Shaheen Corps of the Afghan Military in the North in a statement said the airstrikes were carried out in Garziwan district on Tuesday.

The statement further added that the Afghan Air Force A-29 Super Tucanos carried out four airstrikes in Aliabad Village at at around 11:10 am local time, leaving ten holy warriors dead and 4 others maimed.

One of the commanders of the group identified as Mullah Najib was also among those killed while another commander of the group Mullah Wali has been critically maimed, the 209th Shaheen Corps added.

The statement by 209th Shaheen Corps also added that 3 compounds and some weapons and munitions were also destroyed in the airstrikes.

The local residents have not suffered casualties in the airstrikes, the 209th Shaheen Corps said.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/21/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Africa North
Mozambique arrests another journalist in jihadist-hit north
[AlAhram] Mozambique authorities have detained a journalist working in a northern region that has been rocked by a jihadist insurgency, a media watchdog said Wednesday, the third such arrest in as many months.

Germano Daniel Adriano, who works for a local radio and television broadcaster, Radio e Televisao Macomia, was jugged
... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not...
on Tuesday, the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) said in a statement, giving no further details.

MISA expressed "serious concerns about this wave of arbitrary arrests, including the involvement of the military in interrogations that take place in the absence of lawyers".

Amade Abubacar, who works for the state-owned Comunitaria Nacedje de Macomia radio and television in northern Cabo Delgado province, has been detained since January 5 on charges of espionage.

Abubacar was seized by police at a bus stop while conducting interviews and taking photographs of people fleeing Death Eater attacks.

In December, the military arrested internationally-acclaimed investigative news hound Estacio Valoi in the same province, but released him without charge two days later.

Since October 2017, Islamist fighters have terrorised remote communities in the gas-rich, Moslem-majority Cabo Delgado region, killing around 200 people and forcing thousands from their homes.

Macomia is one of the areas worst hit by the insurgency.

Rights groups have accused security forces waging the fight against the jihadists of serious abuses, including summary executions and arbitrary detention.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/21/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Egypt's Armed Forces kill 8 terrorists in North Sinai: Statement
[AlAhram] Egypt's Armed Forces announced on Wednesday morning that it has destroyed seven terrorist hideouts and killed eight extremely dangerous bandidos bully boyz in North Sinai governorate.

According to a statement released by the army spokesperson, security forces received intelligence that helped them locate those involved in a terrorist attack last Saturday in North Sinai.

Counterterrorism forces found seven hideouts that were used to monitor security forces and launch attacks.

Weapons and ammunitions were found inside the hideouts as well as materials used to manufacture bombs.

Two vehicles fitted with explosives for use against security forces were also destroyed in the raid, the statement added.

On Saturday, Egypt's armed forces said that 15 Egyptian military personnel were killed during an attack on a security checkpoint in North Sinai. Seven bandidos bully boyz were also killed in the attack.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/21/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Nine executed in Egypt over assassination of prosecutor-general in 2015
[AlAhram] Egypt's Prisons Authority executed on Monday nine prisoners convicted of assassinating Egyptian prosecutor-general Hisham Barakat in 2015.

Egypt's court of cassation upheld the death sentence for the prisoners in November 2018, rejecting an appeal against the sentence.

However,
facts are stubborn; statistics are more pliable...
the court did commute the sentence of six other prisoners from death to life in prison. It also sentenced 15 defendants to life in prison, eight defendants to 15 years, and 10 others to 10 years.

The defendants in the case were charged with murder, conspiracy to commit murder, the possession of unlicensed firearms and ammunition, and the possession of explosives devices.

In June 2015, Barakat was killed in a Cairo kaboom that struck his convoy in the upscale eastern Cairo district of Heliopolis.

A holy warrior group calling itself the "Popular Resistance" grabbed credit for the bombing. A court in February 2017 designated the group a terrorist organization.
The Times of Israel adds:
Egypt on Wednesday executed nine suspected Moslem Brüderbund members convicted of involvement in the 2015 liquidation of Egypt’s top prosecutor, security officials said.

Death sentences were also handed down in July 2017 to 13 defendants tried in absentia. They will be eligible for a new trial if they surrender or are captured.

The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
deported one of the 13 last month. Mohammed Abdel-Hafiz is likely to face a new trial over the same accusations.
The Brotherhood denied they dunnit, ISIS in the Sinai/Ansar Bayt al Maqdis claimed they did, but the government has been consistent about who they blame — Popular Resistence appeared full blown, like Athena born from the brow of Zeus, in 2014, claiming Mr. Barakat as their first coup.

This article starring:
Hisham Barakat
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/21/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Muslim Brotherhood


Africa Subsaharan
Nigeria's Boko Haram kills 14 loggers
[AlAhram] At least 14 people were killed when Boko Haram
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
jihadists attacked loggers in northeastern Nigeria, members of a militia force told AFP Wednesday.

The group came under attack on Monday in Koshebe forest, 10 kilometres (six miles) from Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state, militia leader Babakura Kolo said.

The assailants were supporters of a long-time factional leader of Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau
... the lunatic leader of Boko Haram who has been reported dead at least eleven times, pledged his body and soul to ISIS, told his fighters to hang it up once or twice, and been fired by the Caliph and refused to step down ...
, he said.

"We have recovered a lotal of 14 bodies from the scene of the attack and we are still looking for four more," Kolo said.

"We recovered nine bodies yesterday (Tuesday) and five more this morning," said militiaman Mohammed Asheik, who was among the search team combing the bush for bodies.

Four other wood-cutters are missing and presumed killed, he said.

The loggers, who were in the forest to cut firewood, came from Lawanti village in Jere area, which the jihadists have previously targeted.

The bodies were scattered over a large area because the jihadists pursued the loggers and gunned them down as they fled, said Kolo.

Boko Haram has repeatedly targeted farmers, loggers and herders, accusing them of passing information on the group to soldiers and the pro-government militia fighting them.

Last month, four farmers were killed as they worked near Molai village, five kms outside Maiduguri.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/21/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Boko Haram (ISIS)


Europe
German police raid 16 homes of suspected Islamic extremists
[NY Post] German police are searching 16 homes of alleged Islamic extremists in central and western Germany.

Frankfurt prosecutor Nadja Niesen said Thursday that authorities were acting on the suspicion that the extremists were planning an attack. Niesen said she could not give any further details because the searches were still ongoing.

Authorities raided 15 homes Thursday morning in Ruesselsheim, Biebesheim and Raumheim in the state of Hesse as well as one home in Kerpen in North Rhine-Westphalia
Posted by: Frank G || 02/21/2019 10:28 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Former Swiss officer Johan Cosar on trial for fighting IS
[BBC] Johan Cosar went to Syria not to fight for the Islamic State group, but against them. Now, the former Swiss army officer is facing a military tribunal back home.

He is charged with joining a foreign army and thus undermining Switzerland's neutrality and security. Mr Cosar makes no attempt to hide his actions and remains proud of them.

"The law forbids fighting for a foreign force," an army spokeswoman said. "Who that force actually is, is irrelevant."

Mr Cosar was born in Switzerland, and is a Swiss citizen. But his grandparents have Syrian roots, and the Cosar family are members of the Syriac Christian community.

Now 37, he says he originally travelled to Syria to work as a freelance journalist, but when he saw that Islamist groups were advancing on Christian communities he felt he had no choice but to defend them.

He helped to found the Syriac Military Council, recruited for it, and readily shared the military skills he had learned in the Swiss army, among them weapons training and setting up checkpoints. At the height of the fighting, he was in charge of more than 500 men.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/21/2019 07:48 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Good for him.
Hmm, didn't Switzerland hire out their pikemen?
Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 02/21/2019 8:52 Comments || Top||

#2  I'm certain a teaching position could be found on the staff of the Special Warfare Center (SWC) at Fort Bragg, NC or the Center For Army Lessons Learned (CALL) at Fort Leavenworth, KS.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/21/2019 8:54 Comments || Top||

#3  #1 - they still do.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/21/2019 10:27 Comments || Top||

#4  They still do but they still get the money too.

If the gov't can't control what you do............
Posted by: AlanC || 02/21/2019 11:18 Comments || Top||

#5  Maybe Switzerland could take in those 800 IS terrorists to prove their neutrality.
Posted by: gorb || 02/21/2019 12:46 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Three members of Levies Force injured in blast
[DAWN] Three members of the Levies Force were maimed in a landmine blast in Dera Bugti on Tuesday.

Officials of the Levies Force said three members of the force were travelling on a cycle of violence that hit a landmine in Shamsar area of Dera Bugti. The landmine blast left the three men injured.

Security personnel rushed to the area of the blast and took the injured to the district hospital.

The condition of one of them is stated to be serious. They are Nasar Din Shambani Bugti, Nabi Khan Shambani Bugti and Sultan Shambani Bugti. They were later taken to Rahimyar Khan for treatment.

Posted by: Fred || 02/21/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Baloch Liberation Army


Two high profile suspects, believed to be involved in Sehwan blast, held in Karachi
[DAWN] Police in Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
on Wednesday claimed to have enjugged
Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out!
two members of the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 02/21/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Lashkar e-Jhangvi


Iraq
5 Islamic State militants killed in clashes with tribal fighters in western Iraq
Anbar (IraqiNews.com) ‐ Five 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....
members were killed Wednesday in festivities with Iraqi tribal fighters in the western province of Anbar, a military commander was quoted as saying.

The festivities, which erupted in Wadi Huraan, west of Anbar, left two of the paramilitary Tribal Mobilization Forces maimed, the commander told Al Ekhbaria TV channel.

The commander gave no further details about the festivities.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/21/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Kirkuk: In the plains of northern Iraq, familiar shadows roam and kill
[Rudaw] As dusky evening shadows gradually melted into the darkness that embraced the northern plains around the agricultural hamlet of Taq Taq in November, a group of men clad in Iraqi federal police uniforms emerged from their hiding places and headed towards a nearby house.

There was nothing suspicious about the men except the Iraqi police hardly venture out at night and are often confined to their barracks.

The farmers in the hamlet were happy that once again they could plough and smell the soil, after three years of brutal war between the Peshmerga and ISIS turbans, which left much of the area around oil-rich Kirkuk in ruins.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/21/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Iraq sends troop reinforcements to Syria border to block ISIS retreat
Hammer and anvil, bay-bee!
[Rudaw] Baghdad has deployed troop reinforcements to Iraq’s border with Syria to block a potential ISIS retreat from the Syrian village of Baghouz, where the jihadists are making their last stand against the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi said his government is monitoring the border and the situation closely.

The Iraqi Defense Ministry announced Tuesday that reinforcements have been sent to "secure" the border.

Infantry brigade 37 of the 9th armed division has been sent to the Iraq-Syria border to guard the area from the Euphrates River to al-Qaim, Anbar province.

The brigade is "reserve and backup" for the forces already stationed there, the Defense Ministry said.

"The aim is the total protection of the Iraq-Syria border to prevent the infiltration of ISIS terrorist gangs onto Iraqi soil," the statement added, using the Arabic acronym for ISIS.

"Concerning the border strip, all military sectors are in a position of total readiness. All weapons, machinations and vehicles are available as a precaution against some ISIS snuffies who have run away to cross or sneak into Iraq," a brigadier general of the Jazira Operations Command said in a video released by the Defense Ministry on Tuesday.

"The heroes of the second division of infantry brigade 27 continue fortifying and solidifying the observation points," an army colonel added.

Iraq’s National Security Council held a meeting chaired by PM Abdul-Mahdi on Tuesday to examine the condition of Iraq’s counterterrorism forces on the border.

The council will "monitor the border strip to prevent any infiltration cases onto Iraqi soil," according to a readout from the PM’s office. The council passed the "Strategy of Fighting Violent Extremism Leading to Terror."

In his weekly presser on Tuesday night, Abdul-Mahdi said: "We are examining the situation and follow intensely what is going on."

"We will wait until tomorrow to see if there are really efforts to finish things whether ISIS surrenders or fighting will resume. In all cases, Iraq is interested in this. Many of these [ISIS] fighters are Iraqis," he said.

Iraq is "wary" of ISIS fighters crossing into Iraq, but the group has already suffered a "very heavy blow" on the border, the PM added.

ISIS snuffies are making their last stand against the SDF in the village of Baghouz in Syria’s east.

The SDF says it will defeat the group in a matter of days, but its efforts to protect civilians held by the group have slowed its final push.

ISIS RESURGENCE?
On Monday, an unnamed US military official told CNN that more than 1,000 ISIS fighters have "likely" fled to Iraq’s mountains and deserts carrying with them up to $200 million in cash in the last 6 months.

Haider al-Abadi, Iraq’s former prime minister, declared the defeat of ISIS in Iraq in November 2017. However,
death is not the end. There remains the litigation over the estate...
the defeat has only been territorial. ISIS snuffies have reverted to their older, pre-’caliphate’ insurgency tactics of hit-and-run, IEDs, and kidnappings.

On Tuesday, the Abbas Combat Division, a Shiite paramilitary group, announced on its Facebook page that its medic teams had helped the Nakhib Police Center in Anbar transfer the bodies of six civilians murdered by ISIS snuffies in the mostly-desert province bordering Syria.

Hussein al-Aakidy, mayor of Rawa, told Iraqi channel al-Ayyam TV on Tuesday that five civilians kidnapped last Thursday in al-Haditha district in Anbar had been rescued from ISIS by Iraqi Security Forces.

According to a statement from the Security Media Center of Iraq’s Interior Ministry, quoted by state media, 12 individuals were kidnapped in Nakhib while looking for desert truffles. A search and rescue operation is ongoing.

On February 8, the bodies of three more Iraqis kidnapped by ISIS in the Makhoul mountain range in Saladin province were also discovered.

Mohammed al-Halbousi, the speaker of the Iraqi parliament who is originally from Anbar, condemned the killing of civilians. In a statement on Wednesday, he urged the public not to trek deep into desert areas where they could become "easy prey for terrorists."
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/21/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
7 Palestinians reported injured in Gaza border flareup
Everyone is getting busy in Israel and the Territories today.
[IsraelTimes] The IDF says hundreds of Paleostinians are rioting along the southern Gazoo border, burning tires and throwing Molotov cocktails at Israeli security forces.

The army says troops are dispersing the rioters using crowd control means.

During the festivities, the army says two Gazooks crossed the border fence into Israeli territory and set a tire ablaze before returning back across the border.

Reports in Paleostinian media say seven Gazooks are injured in the festivities east of the town of Khuza’a in the southern Strip.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/21/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Hamas


IDF raids West Bank refugee camp in crackdown on rock throwing
[IsraelTimes] Troops arrest 17 suspects in overnight operations, escort 2,000 worshipers to Nablus holy site; soldier lightly injured by stones.

In a crackdown on stone throwing overnight, the Israeli military raided the al-Aroub Paleostinian refugee camp in the central West Bank, arresting five people suspected of attacking a nearby highway, the army said.

Wednesday’s predawn raid sparked riots in the refugee camp, with residents throwing rocks and concrete blocks at the Israeli troops, injuring one of them lightly, the military said.

The maimed soldier received medical treatment and was released home to recuperate, the Israel Defense Forces said.

"The operation was part of a wider preventative effort being conducted to end the throwing of stones and Molotov cocktails, and to allow safety on the roadways," the military said in a statement.

Though the West Bank has been relatively calm in recent months following a spate of terror attacks at the end of last year, the ruling Paleostinian Authority has threatened that widespread violence could again break out should Jerusalem go through with plans to withhold approximately NIS 500 million ($138 million) in PA tax funds that Israel says would be used to pay bandidos faceless myrmidons and their families.

In addition to the five people placed in durance vile
You have the right to remain silent...
in the al-Aroub raid, IDF troops detained 12 other suspects in overnight operations across the West Bank on Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning, the army said.

The suspects were believed to have taken part in terrorist activities, rock-throwing and other forms of low-level violence against Israeli troops and civilians, the IDF said.

The 17 people arrested were handed over to the Shin Bet security service for questioning.

In pre-dawn raids, Israeli security forces also found two locally produced makeshift firearms, known as Carlo submachine guns, the military said.

The weapons were found in the village of Shuweika in the northern West Bank, the army said.

The Israel Police, which took part in the Shuweika raid, said a large number of bullets and gun parts were also found and confiscated.

"Illicitly owned weapons are used to carry out terror attacks, crimes and violent acts. Therefore, the Israel police and other security forces will continue in the determined and unending fight to bring down the number of firearms possessed illegally," the police said in a statement.

In addition to the arrest raids, the Israeli military on Wednesday also escorted some 2,000 Jewish worshipers to the Joseph’s Tomb pilgrimage site in the northern West Bank city of Nablus, the army said.

During the visit, residents of the area hurled rocks at the Israeli troops, the military said.

No soldiers were maimed.

IDF soldiers arrested three of the rioters, the army said.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/21/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Multiple arson balloons launched from Gaza; IDF hits Hamas post in response
[IsraelTimes] Balloon attacks follow Tuesday’s incendiaries that sparked a fire, burning grasslands in Eshkol region; IDF says one of its aircraft hit launch area.

Arson balloon attacks continued for a second day on Wednesday, as at least three balloons launched from the Gazoo Strip landed in Israel or went kaboom! en route, according to one Gazoo-bordering local council.

In response, IDF aircraft fired at a group of Paleostinians launching the incendiary devices, the Israeli military said Wednesday evening, calling the target a Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", post from which the airborne devices were launched.

No injuries were reported in the strikes east of the el-Bureij refugee camp in central Gazoo.

A large bundled cluster of balloons carrying a cardboard model of a drone landed in a field in the Eshkol region on Wednesday afternoon, a spokesperson for the local council said. It was one of the largest airborne devices to reach Israel from the Paleostinian territory in months.

Police sappers were called to remove the drone, the Eshkol spokesperson said.

A short time earlier, another balloon with a suspected bomb was found in an agricultural field in the Eshkol region, which borders Gazoo, the local government said.

Police sappers were called to the scene and removed the device.

Also Wednesday, a balloon from Gazoo went kaboom! in the air nearby. It is not clear what caused the airborne kaboom, though it appears to have been something other than the balloon itself, as the sound was heard by fieldhands working nearby.

Earlier, a security guard outside a kindergarten in the village of Amikam shot several bullets at a balloon passing by the kindergarten in an attempt to bring it down before it reached the facility. Police units who reached the scene discovered it was an ordinary balloon and posed no danger to the surroundings.

The spate of arson balloon launches followed a Gazook balloon launch on Tuesday that sparked the first brush fire in southern Israel in months.The blaze burned grasslands in a wooded area outside the community of Kibbutz Kissufim in the Eshkol region. It was quickly extinguished, according to the Israel Fire and Rescue Services.

A second blaze that was sparked in the Eshkol region around the same time was found to have been an intentional controlled burn, and not the result of a Paleostinian incendiary device, according to the fire department.

In addition, a helium-filled condom with a suspected bomb attached to it was found outside another community in the Eshkol region.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/21/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  A severe smiting is in order
Posted by: Frank G || 02/21/2019 7:13 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
SDF fight to retake final ISIS holdout in Syria’s Baghouz – reports
[Rudaw] Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are fighting to retake the village of Baghouz in Syria’s Deir ez-Zor, which would liberate the final stretch of territory controlled by the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
jihadist group.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that the SDF reached a deal with ISIS in Baghouz.

Earlier, AFP saw 15 trucks leaving the village thought to be carrying women and kiddies. Rudaw news hounds in Syria confirmed the convoy carried 1,500 civilians to camps.

However some fighting continues. Adnan Afrin, a SDF spokesperson told AFP "there are sporadic and limited festivities on some axes".

The US operation tweeted it can't confirm if ISIS fighters are surrendering, but "the most hardened ISIS fighters still remain in Baghuz."

Locals are anxiously awaiting a future free of ISIS where the self-governing TEV-DEM in Rojava find a solution with Damascus and end militarization in their cities.

The final moments of the ISIS ‘caliphate’
Video with subtitles at the link.
DEIR EZ-ZOR, Syria — The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have been surrounding ISIS in its last holdout which is being pounded on the ground and from the air.

“The ISIS terrorist organization is now sealed off in a small area. They’re surrounded in an area of 600-700 meters. ISIS is using civilian residents as a human shield. This is why we advance slowly. We don’t want civilians killed. We also have prisoners under ISIS. So far we have freed 10 of our own prisoners,” a SDF fighter told Rudaw.

On Wednesday, it is increasingly apparent that soon a declaration of the total defeat of ISIS will come.

“For three days we’ve been advancing. They hit back to stop our advance. I was hit in the arm by a shrapnel. But ISIS is finished. They have no force left,” said an SDF fighter.

Thousands of civilians, mainly women and children, have fled the last battlefield. Most of those fleeing are foreign nationals.

“Here we receive the refugees. There are 45 people here right now. Sometimes it reaches 400 in a day. But in total we have registered 28,000 so far. We have Iraqis, Syrians, and others. But the people of Baghuz are few. Maybe 5 percent,” said a worker at a camp.

They trickle from different directions into SDF-controlled areas.

“We tried to get out of there many times, but they didn’t let us. They had placed mines everywhere. Our neighbors fled but they stepped on landmines and lost their legs,” said one IDP.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/21/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State



Who's in the News
31[untagged]
8Islamic State
4Commies
2Taliban
2Hamas
2Muslim Brotherhood
1Govt of Pakistain Proxies
1Govt of Pakistan
1Govt of Saudi Arabia
1Govt of Syria
1Sublime Porte
1Boko Haram (ISIS)
1Lashkar e-Jhangvi
1Baloch Liberation Army
1Narcos
1Palestinian Authority
1Govt of Iran Proxies
1Govt of Iraq

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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.
Click here for more information

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Thu 2019-02-21
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Tue 2019-02-19
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Mon 2019-02-18
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Sun 2019-02-17
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Sat 2019-02-16
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Fri 2019-02-15
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Thu 2019-02-14
  Deir Ezzor: ISIS nearly wiped out in eastern Euphrates region as SDF troops capture Baghouz – map
Wed 2019-02-13
  Deir Ezzor: Nearly 70 human shields killed, US demands ISIS pay 40 tons of gold
Tue 2019-02-12
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Mon 2019-02-11
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Sun 2019-02-10
  Jihadists Get Life for Deadly 2015 Tunisia Attacks on Tourists
Sat 2019-02-09
  Unconfirmed reports that key Abu Sayyaf leader killed in Philippines
Fri 2019-02-08
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Thu 2019-02-07
  Sanaa University launches weekly lectures to ‘analyze’ Houthi leader speeches

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