[Khaama Press] The United States Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) has reported a drop of at least 11 percent in the numbers of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces.
The head of SIGAR John Sopko informed regarding the drop in the numbers while releasing the latest report regarding the ongoing efforts to rebuild the Afghan armed forces.
According to the latest SIGAR report, at least 296,400 security personnel are currently serving in the ranks of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces.
The report further adds that the personnel of the Afghan Air Force are also included in the estimated number of the armed forces.
SIGAR says the latest estimate shows that the numbers of the armed forces have dropped by 10.6 percent as compared to the previous year.
"Building up the Afghan forces is a top priority for the U.S. and our international allies, so it is worrisome to see Afghan force strength decreasing," Sopko was quoted as saying in a report by Rooters.
The Afghan government and security institutions have not commented regarding the latest report of SIGAR so far.
The latest report by SIGAR regarding the reduction of the armed forces numbers came as the security situation has sharply deteriorated across the country during the recent months.
The Afghan forces face growing insurgency from the Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... -led insurgency as well as the loyalists of the ISIS terrorist groups.
Militants including the Taliban and the Islamic State group have stepped up their attacks on beleaguered Afghan troops and police in recent months, sapping morale already hit by desertions and corruption.
US forces used to provide SIGAR with the number of Afghan troops being killed -- the figures were more than 5,000 each year -- but that information is now classified at the request of the Afghan government.
At the same time, the Taliban and other insurgent groups now control or influence 14.5 percent of Afghanistan's 407 districts -- the highest level since SIGAR started recording such data in late 2015.
The government, meanwhile, controls 56.3 percent of the districts, with the remainder considered "contested."
The varying population sizes of each district means that since August 2016, Afghan government control over its people has decreased.
"The overall trend for the insurgency is rising control over the population (from nine percent in August 2016 to 12 percent in January 2018)," the SIGAR report states.
The document also found increasing numbers of civilian deaths as the Afghan air force has stepped up its operations while NATO has reduced its air strikes.
The facts on the ground paint a different narrative than the one pushed by the Pentagon, which insists the Taliban are weary and now have elements willing to negotiate for peace.
[KhaamaPress] As part of the ongoing efforts to bolster the capabilities of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF), Afghan National Army Special Operations Corps (ANASOC) graduated 619 Commandos from the 23rd Commando Qualification Course (CDOQC) at Camp Commando April 25.
According to a report by the NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants... Special Operations Component Command-Afghanistan, the Commandos are the building blocks for the Afghan Special Security Forces (ASSF) growth plan that began in Aug. 2017 with the announcement of the Afghan 2020 Roadmap.
Over 3,000 Commandos have completed the course since the August announcement of Afghanistan’s intention to double the Afghan Special Security Force, the report states, adding that the remaining 1,000 Commandos will graduate in May.
The report further adds that two-thirds of the graduating class will be assigned to the 1st, 7th, 9th and 10th Special Operations Kandaks (SOKs) to form a fourth company in each of the battalions. The remaining Commandos will strengthen select Special Operations Kandaks, regionally aligned with Afghan Corps.
According to the NATO Special Operations Component Command-Afghanistan, the Commando Qualification Course is a 14-week course designed to assess and train Afghan soldiers for assignment in one of the 10 Special Operations Kandaks. Approximately 20 percent of the graduating class will attend job-specific specialty skill training before departing for their next assignment as part of the Commando force.
[AnNahar] Sudan has to "terminate all business ties" with North Korea before any talks could begin for removing Khartoum from the US "terrorism" blacklist, a top US official said Monday.
Washington lifted its decades-old trade embargo imposed on Khartoum in October, but kept Sudan in its list of "state sponsors of terrorism", which Sudanese officials say makes international banks wary of doing business with Sudanese banks, and in turn hampers an economic revival in the African country.
Sudanese officials have been pushing to remove Sudan from the blacklist -- which also includes North Korea, Syria and Iran -- as they grapple with surging inflation, high debt and the loss of oil earnings.
Continued on Page 49
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05/02/2018 00:00 ||
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[IsraelTimes] Rabat recalls ambassador in light of 'irrefutable proof' that Tehran-allied terror group aided Polisario Front, which seeks independence for Western Sahara
Morocco has cut diplomatic ties with Iran over its alleged involvement in the delivery of weapons from its Lebanese ally Hezbollah to a group seeking independence for Western Sahara, Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita said Tuesday.
Bourita said "a first shipment of weapons was recently" sent to the Algerian-backed Polisario Front via an "element" at the Iranian embassy in Algiers.
"Morocco has irrefutable proof, names, and specific actions to corroborate the complicity between the Polisario and Hezbollah," he told news hounds.
The decision to sever ties with Tehran is "in response to Iran’s involvement, through Hezbollah, in allying itself with the Polisario over the past two years in order to target the security and higher interests of Morocco."
Bourita was speaking upon his return from Tehran, where he said he informed his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif about Morocco’s decision.
The foreign minister said he departed Tehran along with Morocco’s ambassador to Iran.
"I will ask the Iranian embassy’s charge d’affaires to leave the kingdom as soon as possible," Bourita added.
Morocco and Iran have had strained relations and severed diplomatic ties in the past, the last time in 2009 when Rabat cut ties with Tehran, which were restored at the end of 2014.
According to Bourita, Iran and Hezbollah have had ties with the Polisario Front since 2016 when the Lebanese Shiite terror group set up a committee to support the Polisario.
After that, he said, a Hezbollah military delegation visited the Polisario Front in the Tindouf area in southwest Algeria.
The Polisario and Morocco fought for control of Western Sahara from 1975 to 1991, with Rabat taking over the desert territory before a UN-brokered ceasefire in the former Spanish colony.
Rabat considers Western Sahara an integral part of Morocco and proposes autonomy for the resource-rich territory, but the Polisario Front insists on a UN referendum on independence.
On Friday the UN Security Council backed a US-drafted resolution that urges Morocco and the Polisario Front to prepare for talks on settling the decades-old conflict.
It also renewed for six months the mandate of a UN mission that has been monitoring the ceasefire in Western Sahara since 1991.
Diplomatic efforts to end the conflict have been deadlocked since the last round of UN-sponsored talks in 2008.
Morocco maintains that negotiations on a settlement should focus on its proposal for autonomy for Western Sahara and rejects the Polisario’s insistence on an independence referendum.
Syrian Air A343 returns to Damascus from Dubai. Airline is under @USTreasury sanctions. aircraft is leased from @MahanAirlines, also under sanctions 4 material support 2 terrorism. Why is Dubai letting this flight in? Who’s providing ground services in violation of US sanctions? pic.twitter.com/ZTIiNdGHyy
[The Jamestown Foundation] Since 1991, two key questions have dominated discussions of the fate of the Caspian Sea: First, how will it be divided now that there are five littoral states rather than two, as was the case in Soviet times? And second, will this landlocked body of water be an east-west transit bridge between China and Central Asia in the east and Europe in the West, or a north-south route for the projection of Russian power toward Iran and the Middle East? Both of those issues are now heating up as a result of three important moves on this complex chessboard that, as of yet, are still incalculable in their consequences.
First of all, the United States and Kazakhstan have agreed that Washington can use the Caspian ports of Aktau and Kuryk as transit points to supply US forces in Afghanistan. Several Moscow-based experts have criticized this arrangement, asserting that it will de facto transform those ports “automatically into bases of the Pentagon and its allies.” To the extent that happens, this agreement by Astana has “destroyed the architecture of Caspian security,” Viktoriya Panfilova of Nezavisimaya Gazeta wrote on April 24. According to her, the US-Kazakhstani accord sets the stage for heightened great power competition in the Caspian, its littoral, as well as in the countries of Central Asia through which US materiel will pass (Nezavisimaya Gazeta, April 24).
[AnNahar] Their clothes caked with mud, a small group of refugees from Syria trudge past a Greek farmer tilling his field on a tractor. He barely pauses to look at them.
In the villages near the Evros River, the natural boundary with The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund.... in northeastern Greece, such arrivals are now common.
Continued on Page 49
And that’s even before they deigned to look at the documents.
[IsraelTimes] The UN’s nuclear watchdog reiterates Tuesday it has "no credible indications of activities in Iran relevant to the development of a nuclear bomb after 2009," citing its assessments from 2015.
A front man for the ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says in a statement that its board of governors had "declared that its consideration of this issue was closed" after it was presented with a report in December 2015.
The statement comes a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unveiled what he said was new "proof" that Iran’s nuclear weapons program could be reactivated at any time.
Without referring to Netanyahu’s claims directly, the IAEA front man says the agency "evaluates all safeguards-relevant information available to it."
"However, a hangover is the wrath of grapes... it is not the practice of the IAEA to publicly discuss issues related to any such information," he added.
Netanyahu said on Monday that he would share the material with other countries and with the IAEA.
Britain’s foreign minister, Boris Johnson, said Netanyahu’s presentation “underlines the importance” of keeping the deal, with its tough constraints on Iran, in place.
“The Iran nuclear deal is not based on trust about Iran’s intentions; rather it is based on tough verification,” he said.
The UN nuclear watchdog, the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, has said Iran in the early 1990s "may have received design information for a nuclear bomb from a clandestine nuclear supply network." It says Iran also worked in the 2000s on explosive detonators that "have characteristics relevant to a nuclear bomb," as well as done other work, though all that appears to have stopped in 2009.
Responding to Netanyahu’s speech, the IAEA issued a statement Tuesday reaffirming that "the agency had no credible indications of activities in Iran relevant to the development of a nuclear bomb after 2009." The IAEA has repeatedly certified that Iran is in compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal.
In a "preliminary reaction," EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said Netanyahu had not provided evidence that Iran is violating the current deal and noted its continued compliance.
Yoel Guzansky, senior fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies, an Israeli think tank, said Netanyahu’s message was unlikely to change minds in Washington or Europe.
Although Iran has threatened to withdraw from the deal if the US pulls out, Guzansky said Tehran would likely be more cautious, and much will depend on the reactions of major companies.
"It’s in Iran’s interest to stay in the agreement," he said. "It matters if Renault, Total and other European companies will continue to do business with Iran."
Posted by: trailing wife ||
05/02/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
People always ask me "Why do you like Putin so much - don't you realize he's an autocrat?"
(a) You people expect a liberal democrat to rule Russia? Really?
(b) Most importantly Putin's Russia is the only natural enemy EUSSR has - and they're more dangerous, IMHO, than either their Nazi or Communist predecessors.
[IsraelTimes] TV reports say Israel utilized expansive operational infrastructure on Iranian soil; PM's exposé targeted chiefly at IAEA; unconfirmed reports of mass arrests in Iran after breach
Agents of Israel’s spy agency Mossad smuggled hundreds of kilograms of paper and digital files on Iran’s clandestine nuclear weapons program out of the Islamic Theocratic Republic with Iranian agents "on their tails," Hadashot television news reported Tuesday night, based on briefings by Israeli officials.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed the operation Monday as he displayed the trove of documents in a presentation aimed at proving that Iran has lied about its covert atomic weapons program. style='float:right;border:1px solid midnightblue;padding:3px;margin:3px;' />
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife ||
05/02/2018 00:00 ||
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#3
Knowledge of the document's whereabouts, boldness and difficulty of such an operation, timing, etc. I hope it is true, and not a document dump previously paid for by the Obama regime. Did I mention the timing ?
#6
So the Obama Regime are still playing defend the mad Mullahs. Surprise surprise.
Agents of Israel’s spy agency Mossad smuggled hundreds of kilograms of paper and digital files on Iran’s clandestine nuclear weapons program out of the Islamic Theocratic “Republic” with Iranian agents "on their tails,"
I am sure Mossad were wise enough to include their highly paid Iranian snitch on site with the smuggled stash.
#7
Knowledge of the document's whereabouts, boldness and difficulty of such an operation, timing, etc. I hope it is true, and not a document dump previously paid for by the Obama regime. Did I mention the timing ?
#8
I thought part of ‘the deal’ were inspections? Nothing to hide? Then let’s meet tomorrow with the media in tow at the Israeli designated Iranian location.
#10
I thought part of ‘the deal’ were inspections? Nothing to hide? Then let’s meet tomorrow with the media in tow at the Israeli designated Iranian location.
Cat and mouse inspections worked for the Saddam regime until 19 April 2003 when the Canal Hotel (UN HQ) went kabloowi. 22 people, including the United Nations' Special Representative in Iraq Sérgio Vieira de Mello were killed. UN packed up and went home.
Evidently Saddam grew tired of the UN inspection regime. He always maintained he didn't have any WMD.
#11
In the olden days, the documents would be photographed one page at a time by a secret agent in a tuxedo with a Minox. Nowadays, they just back a U-Haul up to Mamoud's Halal Quick-Storage and make off with the stuff in boxes. These kids!
#12
Besoeker, thank you for explaining your position, with interesting links as well. It’s important to look carefully at raw intelligence to judge for validity, I know, though it isn’t one of my skills.
#16
I would of thought they would of destroyed the place from where they stole the documents so that Iran would have no clue whether anything was actually taken.
#20
Hopefully the story of what happened has been adjusted to protect sources, point guilty fingers at nasty folks, and increase the supernatural reputation of Mossad in the Muslim mind.
Pearl Harbour, or Yanked awake.
Blow, Typhon, blow! Being a compleat account of the wondrous release of a great quantity of Muscovite seamen therefrom, had from Zeus himself.
So slayeth I Osama single-handed, by A.C. Lion.
Purloined Persian Privy Papers.
#23
And I am so pissed at the Isrealies, too, for stealing the technology for the Jetsons car used to spirit off these documents that I was promised as a 10 yo. (At least they added "invisible" to the options offered)
Instead, I'm offered a "driverless car", programmed by SJW's, which still requires a under employed "humanoid" to ride shotgun while playing video games to make sure the vehicle doesn't veer off course into Spacely Sprockets HQ...
I AM THE VICTIM HERE!
[IsraelTimes] NBC news reports Israeli Air Force used F-15 fighter jets to target recent Iranian weapons shipment delivered to Syria's Hama air base
Three American officials on Tuesday told NBC news that Israel, using F-15 fighter jets, conducted the Arclight airstrike on an allegedly Iranian-controlled military base in northern Syria this week, in the latest bout of the increasingly public fight between Tehran and Jerusalem.
The unnamed US officials said Israel appears to be preparing for active conflict and is seeking American assistance, noting the recent visits to the US by Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman and trips to Israel by senior American officials.
According to NBC, the target of the Sunday night strike was an incoming weapons shipment, including surface-to-air missiles, which were freshly delivered from Iran.
Casualty counts from the attack have varied, but most put the corpse count at between 16 and 38, including many Iranians. Iran denied that any of its soldiers were killed in the attacks and that any of its bases in Syria were targeted.
According to NBC, one unnamed senior US official said the Iran-Israel conflict is the most likely in the world to devolve into open festivities.
And now that you’ve fingered Israel for it, the odds are increased.
"On the list of the potentials for most likely live hostility around the world, the battle between Israel and Iran in Syria is at the top of the list right now," the official said.
The base hit in the Sunday night airstrike was located south of the city of Hama in northwestern Syria and belonged to the Syrian army’s 47th Brigade, but has reportedly been used as a headquarters for Iranian troops for several years.
American and Israeli officials have been monitoring as Iran has increased the number of transport planes that it sends from its Mehrabad Airport in Tehran to Syria. The US and Israeli officials fear that these planes are loaded with advanced munitions, which could potentially be used against Israel.
The day before the strike, one such plane was spotted by a civilian skywatcher, using open-source flight tracking software, as it flew from Tehran toward an airfield in Hama.
Cute little video of the airplane en route at the link.
The blast from the air raid could be seen from kilometers away and registered a 2.6 on the Richter scale on nearby seismographs, likely from the munitions in the weapons depot and not the initial bombing.
An official from the coalition backing Syrian dictator Bashir al-Assad told the New York Times
...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... that the strike destroyed some 200 missiles. Former Military Intelligence chief Amos Yadlin said he believed they were surface-to-surface missile with heavy warheads ‐ a type of weapon Israeli officials have said that Iran might try to bring into Syria.
Israel has refused to comment on the strike. Neither Syria nor Iran has publicly accused Israel of carrying it out, though many news outlets affiliated with them have pointed the finger at the Jewish state. Some have claimed that the United States or United Kingdom was behind the attack.
An Israeli satellite company revealed the damage caused to the site. Aerial photographs showed that at least 13 buildings were hit in the strike on the Hama base.
Speaking on condition of anonymity about the attack, the pro-Assad regime official said Tehran can be expected to hit back at Israel for the bombing, according to the New York Times.
However, a hangover is the wrath of grapes... Iran would likely wait to do so until after May 6 parliamentary elections in neighboring Leb, where its ally Hezbollah is fielding candidates, the official said.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
05/02/2018 00:00 ||
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[Debka] A law empowering the security cabinet to authorize a war or order a substantial military operation without recourse to the full cabinet passed its second and third reading in the Knesset Monday night. The text contained a clause that vests in the prime minister and defense minister the authority to commit the country to fighting a war or conducting a major military operation without prior approval by the full cabinet or the security panel.
[ALMASDARNEWS] Iranian Defense Minister Amir Khatami has commented on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s statement that Israel’s intelligence had obtained thousands of documents proving that Tehran has been secretly developing a nuclear weapons program.
On Tuesday, Khatami slammed Netanyahu’s speech as "Israel’s provocative actions" and promised that Tehran would take actions in response.
"This is our warning to the regime occupying Jerusalem and its supporters ‐ stop your dangerous behavior. The Iranian response will be surprising and you will regret it," Khatami stressed, as cited by Haaretz.
The comment comes after Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif mocked Netanyahu’s remarks on Twitter, saying that Israel’s revelations came in the run-up to the Trump administration’s planned announcement regarding the Iran nuclear deal on May 12.
Netanyahu stated on Monday that Tehran had been cheating despite signing the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), by continuing to develop its nuclear weapons for future use. Israel has obtained about 100,000 files allegedly proving that the nuclear program had a military dimension called the "Amad Project," despite Iran being obliged to maintain a strictly peaceful program under the agreement.
The revelations come amid heightened tensions over the JCPOA, with the US administration considering withdrawing from the deal. President Trump has commented on Netanyahu’s speech, saying that he hasn’t rule out Washington leaving the accord. At the same time, La Belle France, the United Kingdom and Russia have called for the preservation of the agreement.
Meanwhile, ...back at the mall, Clarissa spent the day shopping for new underwear. Tonight was going to be a special occasion... Israel on Tuesday invited teams of experts from Germany, the United Kingdom and La Belle France to examine Israel’s intelligence on Iran’s nuclear program. A high-ranking Israeli source also told Sputnik that Benjamin Netanyahu had informed Russian President Vladimir Putin ...President-for-Life of Russia. He gets along well with other presidents for life. He is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substance. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to him. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substances... about the data and invited a team of experts to assess the documents.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/02/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
This bothers me if Russia gave them a service kit for battlefield nukes.
(They supposedly got hold of 3 when the USSR fell but they needed service to work. {tritium?} Supposedly that type needed service every 6 months)
#4
#1 This bothers me if Russia gave them a service kit for battlefield nukes.
(They supposedly got hold of 3 when the USSR fell but they needed service to work. {tritium?} Supposedly that type needed service every 6 months)
Posted by: 3dc 2018-05-02 00:29
That is not...inaccurate.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
05/02/2018 18:11 Comments ||
Top||
#5
I'd be surprised if they had an effective response
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/02/2018 20:01 Comments ||
Top||
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.
[Khaama Press] The United States Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) has reported a drop of at least 11 percent in the numbers of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces.
North Korea
[IsraelTimes] TV reports say Israel utilized expansive operational infrastructure on Iranian soil; PM's exposé targeted chiefly at IAEA; unconfirmed reports of mass arrests in Iran after breach
I thought part of ‘the deal’ were inspections? Nothing to hide? Then let’s meet tomorrow with the media in tow at the Israeli designated Iranian location. 
[Debka] A law empowering the security cabinet to authorize a war or order a substantial military operation without recourse to the full cabinet passed its second and third reading in the Knesset Monday night. The text contained a clause that vests in the prime minister and defense minister the authority to commit the country to fighting a war or conducting a major military operation without prior approval by the full cabinet or the security panel.
...President-for-Life of Russia. He gets along well with other presidents for life. He is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substance. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to him. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substances...
