New testimonies have emerged regarding the atrocities being committed by the loyalists of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) as the activities by the terror group have rampant to gain foothold and expand activities in Afghanistan.
The latest horrific testimony regarding the atrocities of the terror group’s loyalists have been provided by a 23-year-old Afghan university student who was kept as captive for a period of almost nine months.
Freed during an operation by the Taliban militants, Yousuf speaks of the harsh moments he spent with the ISIS loyalists and witnessing the atrocities committed on the hostages including torture and beheadings.
In an interview with the AFP, Yousuf said he was even forced to bury the decapitated head of a fellow detainee besides suffering the tortures and threats from the ISIS militants.
An ethnic Tajik and student of engineering faculty, Yousuf was kidnapped in the southern province of Ghazni in February, when men carrying Kalashnikovs stopped the bus he was riding from western Herat city, where he was living, to Kabul.
He said the at least three people including a government employee were beheaded in front of him after they were accused of being against the God.
“They would kick us, punch us and beat us up with lashes and sticks,” he recounted. “They told us to raise our hands and we had to keep them up for five or six hours.”
Yousuf further added “There was little to eat and drink. A cup of tea in the morning and a piece of bread, two trays of plain boiled rice in the evening for 15 people.”
“They were telling us if the government does not exchange you we will chop off your head. It is not important whether you are Sunni or Shia. We want to reach our goal,” he added.
According to Yousuf, the militants affiliated with the ISIS terror group and who were holding them as captives, were Uzbek fighters.
story sheds fresh light on the extreme cruelty of the Islamic State with the group’s loyalists rampantly operating in parts of Afghanistan to expand its presence.
This comes as a new documentary was released earlier this week which reveals that the loyalists of the terror are training children as young as 3-year-old by establishing schools were terrorist related lessons are taught exclusively to the children.
The documentary shows children being trained on how to use assault rifles and other weapons including hand grenades as a number of teenage suicide bombers have already been prepared and ready to carry out suicide attack upon the receipt of orders.
#4
Run of the mill news reports indicate public executions go on daily in Daesh controlled cities & towns. Not really news any more. I'm sure the US and Russia have numerous satellite photos of them, in addition to the ISIS sponsored recruiting videos.
Recap of how the French tossed the Ansar Dine rebels out of the countryside in 2012. The terrorists have responded by behaving like ... wait for it ... terrorists. Much hand-wringing in this piece.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/21/2015 00:00 ||
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Algerian ailing President Abdel Aziz Bouteflika made a brief publicly appearance Thursday after rumours circulated that he died. The Algerian President was shown receiving the visiting Maltese Prime Minister.
Who was for some strange reason in Algeria rather than back home dealing with the hostage shoot-out...
Analysts argued that this rare appearance was a response to allegation that the 78 year-old ruler was seriously sick and admitted to hospital in France. Rumours on social networks went further alleging that the Algerian President was “dead.”
Last week the Algerian Prime Minister Sellal claimed that Bouteflika was in full control of the country’s affairs after a group of 19 prominent Algerian public figures wrote a letter to the President asking to meet with him and throwing into question the legitimacy of institutions. The group of 19 also alleged that a number of Bouteflika’s aids and ministers were taking advantage of the President’s poor condition to groom a successor and run the country unilaterally.
Well that is the way it's usually done on that continent...
Sellal said that if anyone vies the position of President he should run for elections.
However, Wednesday, Abderrazak Makri, leader of le Mouvement pour la société et la paix (MSP) slammed authorities for keeping silent on the President’s health condition.
“Every day, there are rumours on the sickness of the President, his admission to hospital and even his death. The regime is keeping quiet. Where is the state? It is not normal,” Makri slammed.
In a recent press conference, Makri said he is fearing the worst for Algeria. The situation is on the verge of explosion and Algeria, in view of the current economic crisis, is threatened by collapse before the end of 2016.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/21/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
...'E's merely pinin' for the fjords.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
11/21/2015 8:47 Comments ||
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#2
His comb-over will live forever!
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/21/2015 14:00 Comments ||
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The departure of deposed Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh from the conflict-battered Arab country will help reach a political settlement to end the war, the UAE’s Minister of Foreign Affairs has said.
Anwar Gargash said Saleh’s forces and his Houthi allies have been under great pressure over the past days because of their military defeats in Taiz and other areas overturn by Yemen’s national army and resistance fighters, backed by intensified attacks launched by Arab coalition warplanes.
In a brief comment on his Twitter page, he said the Iranian-backed Houthis and Saleh’s forces appeared to be split over their participation in the planned UN-brokered peace negotiations in Geneva because of their defeats on the battle field.
“The success of the peace negotiations and the efforts by the UN envoy in this regard should push towards the exit of the deposed Saleh from Yemen,” Gargash said.
“The absence of Saleh from the Yemeni scene will greatly contribute to the success of a political settlement in the country.”
He said Saleh’s absence would give the delegates to the peace negotiations more freedom and “remove a major block to a political solution.”
The legitimate for now Yemeni government has started its work from temporary capital Aden with the opening of the office of the foreign ministry on Thursday amid deployment of as many as 1,500 new policemen from the popular resistance forces.
Yemeni president Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi had on Thursday directed the ministers of the government of the moment to begin work in Aden until capital Sanaa was liberated from militias. Government sources told pan Arab daily Asharq Al Awsat that the Yemeni government was making all possible efforts to resume the normal functioning of the government in the liberated land.
Until they get overrun again and all the new government functionaries flee...
Director-General of Police in the governorate of Aden, Brigadier Mohammed Massad was quoted by the report as saying that the first batch of policemen took charge at government buildings in the city, including premises of the local authority. The officer said with the joining of 1,500 new policemen, the total number of individuals from resistance forces who incorporated with the law enforcement has gone up to 3,700. The new cadre will work in police stations and checkpoints, he added.
Aden police now boasts of 10 police teams who can respond to any kind of emergency, he said adding the officers were trained by Emirati forces who were present in the city to help the local security.
The senior police officer denied presence of Al Qaeda terror group in the city as was being propagated by some media outlets.
"Lies! All lies!"
He also spoke seemingly forever at length on the crimes perpetrated by the Houthi rebels and shelling of civilians.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/21/2015 00:00 ||
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Attorney general, Mahbubey Alam has said there is no legal barriers to execute BNP leader Salauddin Quader Chowdhury and Jamaat-e-Islami secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed as the Supreme Court has disposed of the review petitions of war criminals on Wednesday.
“The trial process of the cases ended through Wednesday’s verdicts. Now, there is no legal bar for execution of the verdicts,” AG Mahbubey Alam said after the SC ruling maintaining its previous decision upholding International Crimes Tribunal verdict.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/21/2015 00:00 ||
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Britain is poised to join air strikes against Isil in Syria after senior Labour MPs publicly defied Jeremy Corbyn and pledged cross-party support for international action in the wake of the Paris terrorist attacks.
How long do you suppose Mr. Corbyn will be able to remain the head of his party, dear Reader?
Hilary Benn, the shadow foreign secretary, welcomed a UN security council resolution - passed on Friday night - calling for "combat by all means" to be used to wipe out Isil. The resolution was passed unanimously at the UN last night.
Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, said he would “consider” the government’s plans for air strikes against Isil in Syria. In a speech in Bristol, he said: “Labour will consider the proposals the government brings forward - including its responses to the Foreign Affairs select committee report opposing British air strikes in Syria.
George Galloway -- yes, him -- on what Labour should be saying (and isn't) about whether the British police should have the authority to shoot-to-kill if terrorists pop up in Britain. He said what the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, couldn't bring himself to say:
"Well you know me, so you would never consider me as a liberal. And I think that on these matters one has to be iron and steel hard.
"One has to say that if anyone comes here with guns and bombs, our police will shoot them down and stop them. There's no room for equivocation about that at all.
"Of course, a shoot to kill policy in general is a bad idea ... apart from being wrong, they don't work, they make more terrorists.
"What the Labour leadership should do is be absolutely clear that when it comes to the safety and the defence of our people in our own island, on our own streets, then the police will have the full backing of the political leadership to gun them down if necessary.
"I'd shoot them myself with my own hand. I'd pull the trigger myself. I'd be happy to see them all dead in the street.
"These people are just about the most horrific group of people I have ever seen in my long political life and I'm damned sure I'm not going to sit idly by while they are running around up and down Piccadilly with guns and bombs."
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/21/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
"...so you would never consider me as a liberal."
And then their ears fell off...
This aside, sometimes Psalms 119:18 manifests itself.
France wants the United Nations Security Council to push all able states to join the fight against the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq after the militants claimed responsibility for downing a Russian plane over Egypt and attacks in Paris, Lebanon, Turkey, and Tunisia.
France circulated a draft resolution to the 15-member council on Thursday that calls on countries "to redouble and coordinate their efforts to prevent and suppress terrorist acts committed specifically" by the group, which is also known as ISIS and ISIL.
The action rivals a Russian bid for UN approval of international military action against the militant group. On Wednesday, Russia submitted an edited draft of a text initially circulated to the council on Sep 30. That draft urged countries to coordinate military activities with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government and has been dismissed by veto-power Britain and other members.
Diplomats said the French draft was modelled on a resolution adopted after the Sep 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
Russian UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin described the French text as a "good draft" and suggested on Thursday that the two proposals could be adopted separately.
"If you think back to the events after 9/11, first there was a short draft and then a couple of weeks later there was a more comprehensive draft, so it may well be we are going to go down that route," he told reporters.
British UN Ambassador Matthew Rycroft, president of the council for November, said on Thursday the shorter French draft focused on areas of the fight against Islamic State on which the Security Council could agree.
"The Russian draft ... does still talk about issues that do divide the Security Council so I don't see that having much prospect," he said. "It seeks to legitimise the authority of Assad."
French UN Ambassador Francois Delattre said he hoped for a swift adoption of the French text, which had been put "in blue," meaning it could be put to a vote as soon as 24 hours later.
The French draft, seen by Reuters, "calls upon member states that have the capacity to do so to take all necessary measures ... on the territory under the control of ISIL ... in Syria and Iraq."
It also urges Member States to intensify efforts to stem the flow of foreigners looking to fight with Islamic State in Iraq and Syria and to prevent and suppress financing of terrorism.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/21/2015 00:00 ||
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[Hurriyet] Turkish police seized a huge shipment of amphetamine tablets near the border with Syria on the night of Nov. 19.
The operation seized a record amount of 1,800 kilograms
...that's nearly two tons...
of the drug Captagon in Hatay, The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... 's southernmost province that borders northwest Syria. The seized shipment of 11 million tablets is thought to have been bound for the Gulf.
Captagon is the trademark name for synthetic stimulant fenethylline. It is widely used in the Middle East and is used by many fighters in Syria to stave off fatigue and fear.
The drug is also said to be manufactured and sold by the warring sides in Syria to fund the civil war. Prices vary but it has been reportedly sold for as much as $20 in cities such as Dubai.
The tablets were found by police in Hatay in two operations. Police first seized more than 7 million tablets produced in Syria, hidden among a shipment of oil filters bound for Gulf states, according to an official speaking to Anadolu Agency on condition of anonymity. Police later raided a depot in Hatay and discovered 3.6 million packaged tablets.
One Syrian and two Turks have been detained on suspicion of drug trafficking.
#2
Wouldn't it be a shame if the supply of these little pills were to be contaminated with something lethal. Would that be considered chemical warfare?
#4
Some are contaminated with poison. Some are contaminated with pig fat.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
11/21/2015 12:47 Comments ||
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#5
I wonder what would happen if we arranged to flood the region with unlimited free meth? In small amounts and for short periods of time it can indeed benefit a fighter, but it's addictive, and 'more is better' kicks in fast, and results in extremely erratic and ineffective behavior. And death.
#6
That reminds me of a story I read way back when and have wondered ever since if it was true.
After the Six Day War and Egyptian and Israeli troops were facing each other across the Suez canal for a few years, Israel very quietly allowed drug smugglers from Lebanon to transit, escorted and without stopping, all the way to Suez where they would sell the goods to the Egyptians across the water.
No idea if this was somebody's fantasy or propaganda or what, but all is fair, in war, at least.
Five foreign nationals from Somalia were stopped on the Ohio Turnpike and charged with credit card fraud, possession of forgery tools, as well as drug and traffic violations, authorities say.
Just the Somali equivalent of a Salvadoran gang or part of the loose network of hard boyz?
The Ohio State Highway Patrol reported on Wednesday, November 11, that five men from Somalia were pulled over on the Ohio Turnpike near Lordstown in Trumbull County, Ohio for failing to use signals to change lanes. But soon police found devices used to create credit cards as well as some small amounts of marijuana.
Arrested were Jibril Abdiselam, 24; Mohammeddeq Hassan, 27; Mahamoud Mohamed, 26; Zakaria Warsame, 25; and Said Abu, all of whom are currently residing in the Columbus area. All five are being held on $25,000 bond. The five men were charged with six counts each of possessing criminal tools and identity theft, and Said Abu was charged with criminal simulation and possessing marijuana.
All five were required to hand over their passports.
A grand jury is now considering their case.
Ohio officials say that the five Somalis are not suspected of having any connections to terrorism.
"No, no, certainly not!"
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/21/2015 00:00 ||
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#4
were pulled over on the Ohio Turnpike near Lordstown in Trumbull County, Ohio for failing to use signals to change lanes
Just a lucky stop? I'd bet not
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/21/2015 14:04 Comments ||
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#5
Frank has it. The "failure to signal" is the age-old excuse cops use when someone (DEA, etc) has passed them information and they want to stop someone on the road.
I'm betting these four mooks have been on the radar for quite a while.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/21/2015 14:36 Comments ||
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#6
Thank Bill Clinton for the policy that first let Somali's in claiming asylum. At a DHS Intel conference in the arly 2000's, we protested the influx of Somali's into San Diego and Hayward, given that local police as well as DHS's own analysts had determined that they were a tribal/clan based kleptocracy and were establishing criminal territories. Multi-generational theft/fraud rings based on taxicab service initially, they were utterly dishonest and uninterested in assimilation. When asked, DHS senior analyst confessed that they had little chance to stop their influx given their color, what a charge of racism would do to their careers.
#7
Our observations of Somalis in Dodge City match that well. Arrogant, lazy, can't drive and have a taxi service. No, not my appraisal, a 2nd gen Mexican who runs a good crew.
WASHINGTON: Army Chief Gen Raheel Sharif has assured Pakistanis here that military operations against terrorists, their backers and financers would continue uninterrupted.
Addressing the Pakistani community at a dinner on Thursday, Gen Sharif expressed the “unflinching commitment of the armed forces in ensuring peace and security in the country as well as in countering external threats”.
He said that the operation against terrorists “should have started yesterday” but now that it had started it would continue.
“The armed forces of Pakistan would take the war against terrorism to its logical conclusion and would not let the sacrifices of martyrs go in vain,” he said.
The speech, which was embargoed till Friday morning, also highlighted Pakistan’s commitment to friendly relations with its neighbours “with dignity and honour”.
The stress on dignity and honour earned him a warm applause from the audience who interrupted the speech on several occasions to express their appreciation.
Gen Sharif also noted that Pakistan and the United States had convergence of views on countering the existing and emerging threats. He expressed satisfaction at the upward trajectory and growth in the Pakistan-US defence and counter-terrorism cooperation at this critical juncture.
The army chief said that the American officials he met during his five-day visit to Washington endorsed his assessment that Zarb-i-Azb operation was a success story.
He said that the resilient Pakistani nation was providing unprecedented support to the armed forces that had lost 5,000 uniformed men in this fight, including those from the Rangers and police.
The armed forces, he said, had conducted 12,000 intelligence-based operations in Karachi and KPK and hundreds of militants and their sympathisers had been arrested. “There is no going back now. The operations will continue,” he said. “I see light at the end of the tunnel.”
Gen Sharif said that the Indian intelligence agency RAW was on top of the list of foreign elements that were stirring troubles in Pakistan.
He said that simultaneous with the return of peace and normalcy to the country, the completion of CPEC would herald greater economic prosperity throughout the region.
China, Iran and Afghanistan would also benefit from this project, he added.
Four civilians, including possibly a child, were “likely” killed in a U.S. air strike against an Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group checkpoint in Iraq in March, an investigation released Friday found.
It marks only the second such concession since the start of a coalition air campaign in Iraq and Syria - the U.S. military in November 2014 admitted accidentally killing two children during a strike in Syria.
The U.S. military, which for more than a year has led the coalition bombing ISIS extremists’ positions in the two countries, investigated the Iraq incident after a woman said her car had been destroyed with five civilians in it.
“The preponderance of the evidence gathered during the investigation indicates that the air (strike) likely resulted in the deaths of four non-combatants,” the U.S. military’s Central Command said in a statement.
“One of the non-combatants may have been a child.”
#3
War is supposed to be bad, and very, very, messy. That is one of the primary reasons people avoid it.
Wailing and bawling about every innocent killed, due to the enemy's actions of hiding among the civilians only encourages them to do more of it.
See Al-Quaeda, Taliban, Iran, Hezbollah, HamAss, and now ISIS. All were and still are encouraged to kill more civilians either directly or indirectly by hiding behind them because we allowed ourselves to get so upset about each and every one.
[IsraelTimes] The Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) published a report on November 19 alleging that Israel possesses about 660 kilograms of plutonium, produced at the Dimona reactor since operations began in 1963, which would allow it to have an estimated 115 nuclear weapons today.
Israel maintains a policy of nuclear ambiguity, neither openly admitting nor denying that it possesses a nuclear program. It is also not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
#3
BernardZ, both articles seem to indicate comparable amounts of Israeli Plutonium. How many weapons that makes is a function of strategy and technical design capability - I am pretty confident Israel can design and build nukes as small as anyone.
#4
I've heard unclassified estimates of between 150 and 200, and an 80% probability that Israel has constructed at least 25 thermonuclear weapons. They also have the capability to deliver those weapons anywhere in the world, in a limited capacity.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/21/2015 23:21 Comments ||
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[AnNahar] More than 1,300 people, around two-thirds of them combatants, have been killed in Russian air strikes in Syria since Moscow's aerial campaign began on September 30, a monitor said Friday.
The figure supplied by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights is more that double the overall toll it gave in its last report on the Russian campaign three weeks ago.
The Britannia-based Observatory said it had documented 1,331 deaths in Russian air strikes, most of them of 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 jihadists or other fighters..
It said 381 IS fighters had been killed, along with 547 gunnies from Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front and other rebel forces.
The strikes also killed 403 civilians, including 97 children, according to the monitor.
The Observatory's last toll for the campaign, on October 29, put the number of killed at nearly 600.
Russia says its aerial campaign targets IS and other "terrorists" but rebel forces and their backers accuse Moscow of focusing on moderate and Islamist fighters over jihadists.
Several medical groups have also accused Russia of strikes that have hit field clinics and hospitals in Syria.
Russia's intervention in Syria follows that of a US-led coalition that has been carrying out strikes against IS in the country since September 2014.
The U.S.-led coalition does not coordinate with Damascus however.
According to the Observatory, the U.S.-led strikes have killed at least 3,649 people since they began, around six percent of them civilians.
The monitor said in late October that U.S.-led raids had killed 3,276 IS fighters, 147 members of Al-Nusra or Islamist groups and 226 civilians.
Russia has launched a merciless blanket air campaign, backed by Kalibr cruise missiles fired from the Caspian and Mediterranean Seas, for the object of wiping the Islamic State’s Syrian center of Raqqa off the map, DEBKAfile’s military sources report.
Western and Middle East sources tracking the campaign since Friday, Nov. 20, report that at least 75 air sorties have been conducted and are systematically razing the town of 200,000 inhabitants 160km east of Aleppo, district by district, irrespective of civilian town dwellers. Moscow wants the entire Middle East and Muslim world to see the price exacted for launching a terrorist attack on Russia after the downing of the Metrojet airliner that killed 224 people over Egyptian Sinai on Oct. 31. Russian bombers and cruise missiles rained death and destruction on the ISIS administration center after the jihadists claimed responsibility for that disaster and published photos of a soft drink can claimed to have been rigged as a bomb for blowing the plane up. When the Russians are done, the town will be a pile of rubble.
As for casualties, the published figure of 600 jihadists killed in one day is probably far below the real figure. Our sources report that the Islamist terrorists’ death toll most probably runs into thousands with many more injured.
#8
When the Russians are done, the town will be a pile of rubble. That would create a great propaganda victory for the West vs. Daesh, and make the "Caliph" look powerless and much less consequential.
[ARA News] HASAKAH – Subsequent to recapturing the key town of al-Hawl from the radical group of Islamic State (ISIS), the Kurdish-Arab joint alliance of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), backed by an air cover from the U.S.-led coalition, started heading to the ISIS-held Shaddadi city and the rest of the occupied areas in Hasakah province, northeastern Syria, SDF top commanders reported.
Shaddadi, located at a distance of 46km south of Hasaka city, is still under ISIS control with some nearby villages.
Speaking to ARA News in Hasakah, Adnan al-Ahmad, commander in chief of Shams ash-Shamal brigades which fight in the SDF ranks, said there is a high degree of coordination between the various factions of the SDF.
“ISIS is declining on the ground day by day. Our advance will continue against this terror group. Recapturing the strategic town of al-Hawl was just a first step towards the great victory,” he said.
“After liberating al-Hawl and its surrounding villages, we are heading to the group’s second main bastion Shaddadi south of Hasakah,” he added.
After losing al-Hawl, ISIS’s military and economic situation may deteriorate due to the cut of a main supply route between the group’s strongholds in Syria and Iraq.
The commander pointed out that their joint forces will successively combat ISIS in Tishreen Dam, Raqqa, and Jarablus, crossing the group-held cities of Manbij, al-Raee and al-Bab down to Afrin on the border with Turkey.
Kurdish female fighters of the Women Protection Units (YPJ) have also participated in the recent anti-ISIS operations in Hasakah under the umbrella of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
YPJ commander Torhildan told ARA News: “We have participated in the fighting front of al-Hawl alongside the YPG forces and the Arab and Christian allies.”
“The Kurdish female fighters in Rojava (Syrian Kurdish region) were able to prove their military capabilities hand in hand with Christian and Yezidi female fighters in the battlefields against ISIS terrorists,” she said.
Speaking to ARA News, Alwan al-Shammari, leading member in al-Sanadeed force, which also takes parts in the joint alliance, said: “Since we started our anti-ISIS campaign, we helped civilians to evacuate the town of al-Hawl to avoid any accidental explosions of mines planted by the terror group inside the residential areas.”
“After liberating al-Hawl, the SDF’s engineering units have dismantled the planted mines. Afterwards, we called for civilians to return to their houses and farms in order to continue their normal lives,” he said, pointing out “our forces will provide them with protection.”
Qehreman, commander in chief of Liwaa at-Tahreer of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), told ARA News: “We took part in the anti-terror campaign, joining the SDF due to the lack of other open fronts against terrorists (ISIS) in our areas surrounding Kobane and Raqqa.”
“We and the SDF have a common enemy which is Daesh,” he said, using the Arabic acronym for ISIS.
“Warplanes of the U.S.-led coalition has a key role in our advance against Daesh” the commander told ARA News.
He pointed out that the high coordination among the joint factions (SDF) “will definitely lead to the liberation of the entire Syrian soil from the grip of the terror group”.
“What was delaying operations was the random distribution of mines planted by the hardline group in the vicinity of al-Hawl, as well as the car bomb attacks on our checkpoints,” Qehreman said.
“The coalition aircraft decreased the number of our casualties since they hit ISIS’s frontlines, causing big losses to the group,” he concluded.
The battle for al-Hawl was launched on October 30, during which the SDF was able to recapture the town within two weeks.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) includeKurdish forces of the YPG and YPJ, the Syriac Military Council, the Arab tribal group of al-Sanadeed, al-Jazeera brigades, Jaish al-Thuwar group, and of Burkan al-Furat battalion.
Turkey has warned Russia that it must immediately stop bombing "civilian Turkmen villages" in Syria, close to the Turkish border.
The Russian ambassador to Ankara was summoned to the Turkish foreign ministry to hear the protest. Turkey warned that bombing villages populated by the Turkmen minority could lead to "serious consequences".
Syrian government forces backed by Russian aircraft launched a ground offensive on the mainly Turkmen villages in Bayir Bucak, north-west Latakia province, on Thursday, Turkey's Anadolu news agency reported.
The Turkish government is vehemently opposed to President Assad, while Russia says its air campaign is justified because Mr Assad has requested it.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/21/2015 00:00 ||
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The ISIS defector, who goes by the pseudonym Abu Khaled, spoke with Weiss about the group's internal dynamics, and what it was like to live under ISIS's rule.
Posted by: Blossom Unains5562 ||
11/21/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
ISIS members receive additional incentives to fight for the group. “I rented a house, which was paid for by ISIS,” Abu Khaled, who worked for ISIS's internal-security forces and "provided training for foreign operatives," told Weiss. “It cost $50 per month. They paid for the house, the electricity. Plus, I was married, so I got an additional $50 per month for my wife. If you have kids, you get $35 for each. If you have parents, they pay $50 for each parent. This is a welfare state.”
Little wonder Obama isn't serious about destroying ISIS.
#3
The 'bread & circuses' the ancient Roman masses used to live on & enjoy were nice until the Roman empire ran out of easy pickins' to rob and enslave. Then their gravy train stopped. Very similar to how Daesh is paying for those bennies.
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.
New testimonies have emerged regarding the atrocities being committed by the loyalists of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) as the activities by the terror group have rampant to gain foothold and expand activities in Afghanistan.
Algerian ailing President Abdel Aziz Bouteflika made a brief publicly appearance Thursday after rumours circulated that he died. The Algerian President was shown receiving the visiting Maltese Prime Minister.
Labour revolts against leader Jeremy Corbyn
