#2
The weapons are going to be purchased in any case. The question is whether it's done through the acquisition process, or through the current modus operandi.
As the war in the southern province of Helmand shows no sign of ending, the Afghan Ministry of Interior (MoI) on Saturday confirmed that government troops have suffered a heavy casualty toll.
In line with this, a number of military commentators have slammed government's war strategy saying it is ineffective - an issue they believe has fueled the Taliban insurgency.
It has been reported that up to 40,000 government forces are deployed in Helmand to battle only 7,000 to 8,000 insurgents. However, recent reports emerged that a high percentage of these troops are in fact ghost soldiers.
"There are around 40,000 security personnel on the list. But reports estimate the number of enemy forces in Helmand is seven to eight thousand fighters. We should have eliminated all of these fighters by having such a big force which is also backed by tanks, aircrafts and weapons," Helmand police chief Aqa Noor Kintoz said.
As outrage over the presence of alleged ghost soldiers in ranks of the military forces in Helmand grows, the Ministry of Defense (MoD) on Saturday strongly rejected the rumors.
"The majority of the people do not know about the war. Because they are not professional in it to say what is war. The war going on in Afghanistan is the most complicated war," MoD spokesman Dawlat Waziri said.
Poor leadership of war and ambiguity on the part of government's war strategy are apparently the key elements believed to have underestimated the military campaign against the Taliban insurgents in the country.
"Today Helmand is the hub of corruption, it is the center of smuggling, those who pay money are appointed in Helmand, because they gain a lot over there, otherwise 40,000 soldiers are a lot," military analyst Atiqullah Amarkhail said.
"The situation in Helmand is not normal, our police forces have continued defending Helmand. When your force encounters threats in an area, then they start facing problems such as wastage, shortages, lack of equipment and many things," MoI spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said.
At the moment, 10,000 Afghan National Police (ANP) personnel including 16,000 Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers and forces from other security institutions including the Public Protection Force, Border Security Forces and Afghan Local Polilce ALP are battling the Taliban in the province.
[ENGLISH.ALMANAR.LB] Ansarullah revolutionary group denied reports on advanced agreement between Yemeni National delegation and Saudi-backed delegation at peace talks in Kuwaiti capital.
"Reports on advanced agreement that any solution plan could be based upon are baseless," Ansarullah front man, Mohammad Abdul Salam, said on his Twitter account.Mohammad Abdul Salam, Ansarullah front man
Earlier, UN envoy, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed tweeted: "there is a wide common ground that can be built upon."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/12/2016 00:04 ||
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Top|| File under: Houthis
[AlAhram] German politicians of Turkish origin who have been threatened after parliament declared the 1915 massacre of Armenians a genocide have been warned not to travel to The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... and will get increased police protection, media reported on Saturday.
The resolution in Germany's parliament this month labeling the 1915 killings by Ottoman forces as genocide has added to tensions between Berlin and Ankara.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has said that the 11 politicians of Turkish origin who voted for the resolution should be given blood tests, and has accused them of having "tainted blood" and of being terrorists.
The leader of Germany's Green party, Cem Oezdemir, who pushed for the resolution, has also received death threats.
Der Spiegel said the Foreign Ministry had warned the politicians against travel to Turkey because their safety could not be guaranteed. The Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
"It's unspeakable to know that it's not possible to fly there for now," Aydan Oezoguz, Germany's integration commissioner, was quoted by the magazine as saying.
Other politicians with Turkish roots have also cancelled business trips to the country, Der Spiegel said.
Separately, the Frankfurt Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung reported that the 11 politicians will now receive increased police protection and further security measures for both their professional and private activities.
"The threats against politicians of Turkish origin are unacceptable," Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere told the paper. "Of course security measures will be adjusted if necessary."
He stressed, however, that the majority of the 3.5 million people with Turkish roots who live in Germany were "good neighbours" and said the perpetrators were "isolated cases."
Oezdemir told the FAS that he had received threats, reading: "At some point, your German friends will have forgotten that - we won't" and "We will find you everywhere."
He also called on Turkish groups in Germany to condemn the death threats. On Thursday, the president of the Bundestag said threats against individual politician were attacks on the entire parliament.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
06/12/2016 00:00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
[BI] Several thousand demonstrators formed a human chain along the perimeter of a U.S. Air Force Base in southwest Germany on Saturday in protest against drone operations by the United States.
The demonstration was organized by the alliance "Stop Ramstein - No Drone War", which says the Ramstein base transmits information between operators in the United States and unmanned drone aircraft in places such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Syria.
Police estimated 3-4,000 people had formed the chain close to the base, which serves as the headquarters for the U.S. Air Forces in Europe. Organizers spoke of 5-7,000 people. No comment was available on Saturday from officials at Ramstein.
[Iran Press TV] Senior Iraqi holy manMoqtada Tater al-Sadr ... the Iranian catspaw holy man who was 22 years old in 2003 and was nearing 40 in 2010. He spends most of his time in Iran, safely out of the line of fire, where he's learning to be an ayatollah... has called for a halt to anti-government protests during Ramadan but warned that a "million-man" demonstration would be held after the Moslem holy month ends.
"I found it would be beneficial to take a break and postpone all of this until the end of the month," Sadr said in a statement on Saturday.
The prominent Shia holy man called on his followers to be prepared for "a peaceful, popular million-man protest" after Ramadan ends in July, warning that he would not rein in his forces if protesters were confronted.
Protesters, including Sadr’s followers, have been holding demonstrations to demand reform and an end to corruption, bringing the capital, Baghdad, to a standstill every Friday amid the heavy presence of security forces.
Demonstrators, mostly Sadr’s supporters, have entered into Baghdad's fortified Green Zone, which houses government buildings and foreign embassies, twice over the past two months, storming parliament and the prime minister's office.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/12/2016 00:03 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iraq
On Jan. 28, 2007, a 12-man Military Transition Team, or MiTT, composed of paratroopers from the 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division was called upon to assist an Iraqi army unit that was engaged in a fierce battle with insurgents near the city of Najaf.
The mission was to orchestrate close air support by communicating with the helicopters circling over the firefight. The battle had already claimed the lives of 10 Iraqi soldiers. But before the team made it to its objective, something happened: An AH-64 Apache helicopter plunged from the sky.
“When I saw the Apache go down, it immediately changed everything,” Master Sgt. Thomas Ballard, the noncommissioned officer in charge of the team, later told an Army reporter. “Everything was focused on that crash site; nothing else mattered. That’s where we had to go and that’s what we did.”
Ballard’s team had been told that the enemy force numbered somewhere between 15 to 20 insurgents, but upon reaching the crash site, they quickly realized that wasn’t the case. Suddenly, Ballard and his men found themselves engulfed in heavy machine-gun fire. A rocket-propelled grenade exploded nearby. Then the battle started.
“We began engaging, and continued engaging,” Ballard recalled. “Everything we shot was targets and collectively, we burned up about 11,000 rounds of machine gun ammo, M4 ammo, M203 grenade launcher ammo and 10 airstrikes.”
The insurgents, who apparently belonged to a religious cult called the Soldiers of Heaven, had “ungodly amounts of weapons,” and were maneuvering through a series of bunkers, trenches, and tunnels that encircled the area. The firefight raged for nearly three hours before backup arrived.
The enormity of the force Ballard’s team was up against didn’t come to light until the dust finally settled. An estimated 1,000 enemy fighters had been on the objective. Of them, 265 were killed; 400 more were captured.
All 12 men on the MiTT team were recognized for their actions that day, with each receiving the Army Commendation Medal with Valor. Later, Ballard’s award was upgraded to a Silver Star.
#4
All 12 men on the MiTT team were recognized for their actions that day, with each receiving the Army Commendation Medal with Valor. Later, Ballard’s award was upgraded to a Silver Star.
Those on the inside understand and can read the 'fruit salad'. First - the valor device is rare. Not to the confused with the service's version of good attendance record for a tour anywhere. Second - approval authority for ARCOM in wartime is Brigadier General or Colonel in the position of a BG, or above. The silver star is the SAC. If the award authority hasn't been pulled up by higher authority, that means these were done on the spot, so to speak, rather than end of tour. It doesn't as the piece alludes to, prohibit the award being upped at a latter time. Having the 'old man' come down an pin those on you is a heck of a lot more value than the grin and grab at end tour.
A recommendation for an impact award should be submitted only when the act is of such magnitude that it cannot be recognized in any other manner, and to delay such recognition until completion of the individual's period of service would diminish the significance of the accomplishment. - AR 600-8-22
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The political arm of Jordan’s original Moslem Brüderbund has announced it is taking part in parliament elections Sept. 20, after boycotting the two previous ballots in 2010 and 2013.
Spokesman Murad Adayleh says the Islamic Action Front ...Jordan's branch of the Moslem Brüderbund... ’s leadership voted overwhelmingly late Saturday to compete in the elections. He says the IAF, the most organized opposition group in Jordan, will look for partnerships to improve its chances.
The Moslem Brüderbund in the kingdom started out as a branch of a region-wide movement, but suffered a series of splits.
The Moslem Brüderbund was declared illegal - though its political arm was not - after a group of defectors registered a new Moslem Brüderbund Society as a Jordanian entity. Two other factions have also broken away, with plans to establish political parties.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/12/2016 00:04 ||
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Top|| File under: Muslim Brotherhood
[An Nahar] Israel's army destroyed on Saturday the West Bank home of a Paleostinian teenager accused of killing an Israeli settler earlier this year, a military front man said.
The demolition took place in Yatta, which is also the hometown of two Paleostinian gunnies who killed four Israelis in Tel Aviv on Wednesday in the deadliest attack in a months-long wave of violence.
The murder in January of Dafna Meir, a 38-year-old nurse and mother of six, provoked fierce reaction among Israelis and prompted a personal vow from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the assailant's house would be razed.
Israeli forces nabbed Please don't kill me! 15-year-old Paleostinian suspect Murad Ideis in a raid on his family home days after the attack.
Israel regularly demolishes the homes of alleged attackers in what it describes as a deterrent. Rights groups say it amounts to collective punishment, with families forced to suffer for the acts of relatives.
Dais' brother was seen Saturday morning, hanging a Paleostinian flag on the home's remains. Paleostinian officials have already promised to aid the family in building a new home.
The town of Yatta is infamous for being a home to myrmidons. Following the news of Wednesday's attack at the Sarona market, some people in Yatta celebrated, giving out candy and lighting fireworks.
[IsraelTimes] Thousands of cops patrolled major population centers, as army deployed in force in West Bank, to prevent attacks over holiday.
While in the village on Saturday, troops mapped out the homes of Tel Aviv gunnies Khalid and Muhammad Muhamra, in preparation for their likely future demolition.
Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, condemned the demolition, as well as a wave of arrests of Hamas members and others in the West Bank following the terror attack at Tel Aviv’s Sarona Market on Wednesday.
The terror group threatened more violence, saying Israel’s crackdown would not deter Paleostinians "determined to fight the occupation," according to Israel Radio.
Hamas praised the Tel Aviv attack and said the two gunnies were members of the group. It dubbed the attack the "Ramadan operation" as it came two days after the Moslem holy month of Ramadan began on Monday.
However, death is not the end. There remains the litigation over the estate... Israeli security sources quoted by Channel 10 news on Saturday said the faceless myrmidons were not Hamas members, and nor were they members of any other terror group, but that they had "recently become radicalized."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/12/2016 00:03 ||
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[ARA News] KOBANE – US anti-ISIS envoy Brett McGurk confirmed that after liberating Manbij from the Islamic State (ISIS), the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) will focus on taking Northern Raqqa.
In a press conference on Saturday, McGurk explained the ongoing operation in Manbij, and future operations to isolate Raqqa. “I just can’t put a timeline on any of the operations for Raqqa and Mosul. Raqqa will be extremely difficult, but I think we have a pretty good plan after Manbij to organize these local actors, Arab fighters to move down and to isolate Raqqa,” McGurk said about the SDF.
ISIS spokesperson Mohammed al Adnani also confirmed three weeks ago that they could lose Raqqa, suggesting that ISIS was only expanding territory. “He actually said, you know, we might lose Raqqa, we might lose Mosul — which they will — and we might lose Sirte, but we’re still going to be around so come join us anyway. It’s kind of a very different message than what we were hearing, and I think it’s one that is not quite as appealing to their potential recruits. So the morale is plummeting, they’re executing their own fighters,” McGurk said.
Posted by: badanov ||
06/12/2016 00:15 ||
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Top|| File under: Islamic State
[An Nahar] Lebanese banks are set to close the accounts of Hizbullah ...Party of God, a Leb militia inspired, founded, funded and directed by Iran. Hizbullah refers to itself as The Resistance and purports to defend Leb against Israel, with whom it has started and lost one disastrous war to date, though it did claim victory... politicians, ministers, spouses and children that are deposited in the U.S. dollar, but will keep untouched those deposited in the Lebanese Lira, well-informed sources told Ashraq al-Awsat daily on Saturday.
The move comes after a reputable bank in Leb closed the bank accounts of Hizbullah officials and all individuals having links to the party, a Hizbullah MP told the daily on condition of anonymity.
He described the move as "arbitrary and stems from personal interests."
The source pointed out that an agreement was reached between Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh and the party, under which stressing the necessity to comply with the conditions laid down by the Special Investigation Commission (SIC) to prevent the banks from taking individual decisions in this regard.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/12/2016 00:02 ||
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Top|| File under: Hezbollah
[An Nahar] Resigned Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi said on Saturday that the outcome of the municipal elections in Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... carry a political message, and assured that there are good-will mediators trying to maintain contact between al-Mustaqbal ... the Future Movement, political party led by Saad Hariri... Movement chief Saad Hariri Second son of Rafik Hariri, the Leb PM who was assassinated in 2005. He has was prime minister in his own right from 2009 through early 2011. He was born in Riyadh to an Iraqi mother and graduated from Georgetown University. He managed his father's business interests in Riyadh until his father's assassination. When his father died he inherited a fortune of some $4.1 billion, which won't do him much good if Hizbullah has him bumped off, too. and himself.
"The political message derived from the results of the municipal elections in Tripoli cannot be overlooked," Rifi told Voice of Leb Radio (100.5) in a telephone call.
"There are good-will mediators between me and Hariri. We must meet on the principles of martyr ex-PM Rafik Hariri," he added without elaborating.
Rifi won the elections in Tripoli recording a sweeping victory in the face of a list backed by Hariri, ex-PM Najib Miqati, former ministers Faisal Karami and Mohammed al-Safadi.
"We can not be sold, and have to live up to the expectations (of the public)," he said of the victory.
Rifi attributed the loss of the other party (Hariri's) in the Tripoli elections to the "arrogance of the other team which deprived the Christians and Alawite from being represented in the new municipal council in the city."
Rifi had emphasized earlier that he approached his rivals and suggested listing the Christian and Alawite candidates on both their lists to improve their chances of winning seats, but that they refused.
He accused his rivals of attempting to bribe members of his list, he said: "They made contacts with several members and offered them sums of money which was rebuffed because people of the city of Tripoli have firm positions."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/12/2016 00:02 ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri ... Formerly second in command of al-Qaeda, now the head cheese, occasionally described as the real brains of the outfit. Formerly the Mister Big of Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Bumped off Abdullah Azzam with a car boom in the course of one of their little disputes. Is thought to have composed bin Laden's fatwa entitled World Islamic Front Against Jews and Crusaders. Currently residing in the North Wazoo area assuming he's not dead like Mullah Omar. He lost major face when he ordered the nascent Islamic State to cease and desist and merge with the orthodx al-Qaeda spring, al-Nusra... has pledged allegiance to new Afghan Taliban leader Haibatullah Akhundzada ...Deputy to Taliban supremo Mullah Akhtar Mansour... , a low-profile religious figure whose predecessor was killed in a US drone strike.
The pledge comes as Al-Qaeda is facing rivalry from ISIS, which has also made inroads into Afghanistan where the Taliban have been waging a guerrilla war since they were ousted from power in 2001.
Zawahari’s remarks came in a 14-minute audio and video message posted online, the US-based monitor SITE Intelligence Group said on Saturday.
"We pledge allegiance to you on jihad to liberate every inch of the lands of the Moslems that are invaded and stolen, from Kashgar to al-Andalus, from the Caucasus to Somalia and Central Africa, from Kashmire to Jerusalem, from the Philippines to Kabul ...the capital of Afghanistan. Home to continuous fighting from 1992 to 1996 between the forces of would-be strongman and Pak ISI/Jamaat-e-Islami sock puppet Gulbuddin Hekmayar and the Northern Alliance, a period which won Hek the title Most Evil Man in the World and didn't do much for the reputations of the Northern Alliance guys either.... , and from Bukhara and Samarkand," it quoted Zawahiri as saying.
He described the new Taliban chief as the "emir of believers" and the "legitimate" head of a Moslem caliphate.
"Allah has graced you by establishing the first legitimate emirate after the fall of the Ottoman Caliphate, and in the world there was no other legitimate emirate," he said.
Zawahiri is staunchly opposed to the ISIS holy warrior group which declared in 2014 the creation of a "caliphate" straddling Syria and Iraq.
The group’s leader, His Supreme Immensity, Caliph of the Faithful and Galactic Overlord, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi ...formerly merely the head of ISIL and a veteran of the Bagram jailhouse. Looks like a new messiah to bajillions of Moslems, like just another dead-eyed mass murder to the rest of us... , was renamed Caliph Ibrahim at the same time in an attempt to revive a system of rule that ended nearly 100 years ago with the fall of the Ottoman Empire, and ordered Moslems to obey him in a sermon at a mosque in the northern Iraqi city of djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... .
Posted by: Fred ||
06/12/2016 00:04 ||
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
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.
Moqtada 
Najib Miqati
Zawahiri
