[FoxNews] A Florida teenager -- who had previously been investigated for "alleged violent tendencies" -- watched jihadist videos and read the Koran "to give him courage" before stabbing a 13-year-old boy to death and seriously injuring two others at a birthday sleepover Monday, cops said.
Corey Johnson, 17, was charged with first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder after police said he confessed to the assault at the 13th birthday sleepover party at a BallenIsles Country Club home, the Palm Beach Post reported.
Jupiter Police, Palm Beach County School District police and the FBI previously received “intelligence gathering” on Johnson that prompted an investigation into his “alleged violent tendencies,” the Palm Beach Post reported.
Johnson reportedly told police he woke up at 4 a.m. Monday at Kyle Bancroft’s home and had an urge to kill Kyle’s mother, Elaine Simon; Kyle’s brother, 13-year-old Dane Bancroft; and Dane’s friend, 13-year-old Jovanni Sierra. The three victims were each asleep at the time, the Post reported.
"In his statement, Johnson advised he stabbed the victims because of his Muslim faith," the affidavit stated.
Johnson and Kyle Bancroft allegedly watched violent jihadist videos the night before the 17-year-old carried out the deadly stabbing. Using a knife he brought to the home, Johnson stabbed Sierra multiple times before slitting his throat.
Simon, apparently hearing Sierra moaning in pain, began walking upstairs around 6 a.m. when Johnson allegedly lunged at her. Police say he stabbed her at least a dozen times before she fell down the stairs. Dane was stabbed 32 times while attempting to help his mother, according to the Palm Beach Post.
“He’s a hero," the boy's father said during a phone interview with the Post. “He saved his mom."
Sierra was pronounced dead at the scene. Simon and Dane were taken to the hospital, where Simon remains in good condition as of Tuesday.
Kyle Bancroft and Johnson were not harmed in the incident.
Police were alerted after Simon ran to a neighbor begging to call 911.
"She rang my bell, she’s bleeding," the neighbor said later. "Corey Johnson is out there with a knife. He’s a murderer. That’s all I know. They're trying to help the kid the kids filled with blood."
Johnson was taken into custody about 8 a.m. after briefly barricading himself in a room.
He later told authorities he was upset Sierra, who turned 13 on Monday, called celebrities “gods” because it went against his Muslim faith. Johnson also said Dane made fun of his Islamic faith.
The teen told police he read the Koran before going to the sleepover "to give him courage to carry out his intentions,” according to an affidavit.
The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office received information prior to the stabbings that Johnson reached out to ISIS online and expressed his desire to join the terror group.
Law enforcement officials at the time investigated Johnson by tracking his social media accounts and movements and interviewing his family. The teen was also being investigated for several threats that prompted evacuations at a British school in October 2016.
Authorities had planned to file charges against Johnson for international school threats a week before the sleepover rampage, according to the report.
Johnson went to William T. Dwyer High School in Palm Beach Gardens, but recently withdrew, according to the report. Dane Bancroft and Jovanni Sierra were attending Watson B. Duncan Middle School.
WPTV has more about what our miscreant had been doing for years to garner the attention of the FBI. It seems to me that in this case Islam was a result, not a cause.
Posted by: Skidmark ||
03/15/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
May his faith grant him much courage in the FSP Death House...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/15/2018 9:42 Comments ||
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#2
Why is a 17 year old at a 13 year old's sleepover?
Posted by: Caesar Crert7041 ||
03/15/2018 19:10 Comments ||
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#3
Diversity gone wild.
Posted by: jack salami ||
03/15/2018 21:10 Comments ||
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#4
The 17 year old was friends with Kyle, the 15 year old brother of the birthday boy. They ran into him at the restaurant, and invited him to join their party.
[Libya Observer] The Head of the Investigations Bureau of the Attorney General Office 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... , al-Siddiq al-Sour, revealed in a presser on Wednesday that they had tossed in the clink Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! persons in Tunisia linked to the murder of the Misrata mayor, Mohammed Eshtiwi last December.
"There's cooperation between Libyan and Tunisia Attorneys General offices as well as the Interpol regarding the murder case so the arrested persons can be handed over to Libya." He pointed out, saying there are other binding arrest warrants for persons involved in this case.
He also said that they are still investigating into the terrorist incidents, adding that any family that wishes to recollect the body of an IS myrmidon can do so as "we are doing DNA analyses and they are taking lots of efforts and time," he stressed.
He also touched upon Saif Qadaffy's case, saying that he is sentenced in absentia and his case lies in the files of the Appeals Court not the Attorney General's Office (AG).
"Regarding Osama Jodran, investigations are underway over terror charges and shutdown of oil ports. His brother Ibrahim Jodran is wanted by the AG Office for several charges and despite the fact that he was detained by a Nalut-based gang, he managed to escape and the calls for his surrender to the AG did not pay off. He went then to Wershiffana and afterwards, we have no records of his whereabouts." al-Sour explained.
Ibrahim Jodran was Head of the Petroleum Facilities Guard at the oil crescent region.
Al-Sour said there are many officials and diplomats involved in corruption and illegal immigration as well as smuggling cases, signaling out an employee at the Libyan embassy in Senegal ... a nation of about 14 million on the west coast of Africa bordering Mauretania to the north, Mali to the east, and a pair of Guineas to the south, one of them Bissau. It is 90 percent Mohammedan and has more than 80 political parties. Its primary purpose seems to be absorbing refugees... , whom he said is involved in illegal immigration.
"We have opened a bank account and deposited in it the money confiscated from corruption cases - 409 million dinars." The Head of the AG Office's investigations bureau added.
He said they had issued arrest warrants for 13 employees of Libya Africa Investment Portfolio (LAIP) and others, shedding light as well on the CNN report about selling African slaves in Libya, saying they contacted the CNN and the AG investigations showed that there are human trade in Libya but not a slaves market.
"There is the procedure of selling the immigrants colonists from one smuggler to another." al-Sour confirmed, denying the existence of a slaves market.
"Libya lost 27 million dinars a year in fuel smuggling and there is a group controlling Zuwara port and it is accused of smuggling fuel." He further explained.
Al-Sour elaborated that fuel smuggling networks in Libya are broadly linked with others in Malta, Italia, The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... , Leb, and Greece, saying Libya had cooperated with southern European countries for the exchange of information regarding fuel smuggling operations coming out of al-Zawiya and Zuwara.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2018 00:00 ||
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[Libya Observer] The convoy of the Head of the High Council of State (HCS) Abdelrahman al-Sweihli was ambushed and came under fire in Guwalish district while en route to visit Yefren town after visiting the city of Gharyan on Wednesday.
The HCS media office said the ambush was done by gangs, in Thaher al-Jabal area, loyal to the self-styled army led by Khalifa Haftar ...Self-proclaimed Field Marshal, served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all... "Our security personnel in cooperation with the Gharyan security department staffers as well as those of the western military zone helped thwart the attack. The attackers bravely ran away, while two of our security personnel were maimed and four Gharyan coppers were kidnapped." The HCS media office said in a statement.
The HCS Head and delegation went on with their visit destination despite the ambush and thanked the Gharyan, Yefren and western mountain areas' elders councils for their reception.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2018 00:00 ||
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[ARABNEWS] Libya has issued arrest warrants for more than 200 Libyans and foreigners suspected of involvement in a smuggling network for Europe-bound migrants colonists, the attorney general’s office said on Thursday.
"We have 205 arrest warrants for people (involved in) organizing immigration operations, human trafficking, (cases) of torture, murder and rape," said Seddik al-Sour, the director of the attorney general’s investigations office.
The trafficking ring is alleged to include members of security services, leaders of migrant detention camps, and embassy officials from African countries based in Libya, Sour said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2018 00:00 ||
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[SABANEWS.NET] The US-backed Saudi-led aggression coalition warplanes waged on Wednesday 12 raids on the capital Sana'a, a security official told Saba. The aggressive airstrikes targeted Sana'a International Airport.
The US-Saudi aggression coalition waged two airstrikes on a citizens’ farms in Serwah district of Marib province, an official told Saba on Tuesday . Meanwhile, mercenary's artillery randomly attacked citizens' houses in the district.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2018 00:00 ||
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[Hurriyet Daily News] A Ottoman Turkish court on March 13 handed down two life sentences to a Syrian man who murdered a Syrian opposition activist and her Syrian-American journalist daughter in Istanbul in 2017.
The bodies of Orouba Barakat and her daughter Halla were found in September in their apartment on Istanbul’s Asian side.
Barakat, a prominent political opponent of the Syrian leader, Bashir al-Assad, had been investigating reports of torture in prisons run by the Syrian government, Ottoman Turkish media said at the time.
Her daughter, who was born in the U.S., was an editor at Orient Net, a pro-Syrian opposition website, and had also worked as a freelancer for the U.S. TV network ABC.
Days after the killings, Ottoman Turkish police detained a distant relative of the women, Ahmet Barakat, in the city of Bursa. The motive for the murders remains unknown, the media have reported.
Police identified Ahmet Barakat by security footage and detained him after a three-day operation.
Orient Net described Halla Barakat as an editor and investigator, and her mother as a prominent opponent of Assad.
The U.S. state department said last year it was deeply saddened by their deaths and called Orouba’s work "courageous."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2018 00:00 ||
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[Rooters] A dual citizen of Iran and the United States was sentenced on Wednesday to 25 years in prison after he was found guilty of trying to buy surface-to-air missiles and aircraft components for the government of Iran in violation of U.S. sanctions.
Reza Olangian, 57, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska in Manhattan. The sentence is the minimum allowed under federal law.
Prosecutors had asked the judge to impose a sentence that was longer than the minimum, although short of the life sentence suggested by federal guidelines. Preska said she did not believe a longer sentence was necessary.
"I think Judge Preska saw that 25 years is an extraordinarily long time and that Mr. Olangian did not rise to the level of something as egregious as that," Gregory Morvillo, Olangian’s lawyer, said after the sentencing.
Olangian was convicted by a jury in November 2016 of crimes that included conspiring to acquire and transfer anti-aircraft missiles.
His lawyers have said in court filings that Olangian will appeal his conviction. At his trial, they said Olangian was an opponent of the government of Iran, and that his efforts to broker weapons sales were actually meant as a sting operation to expose Iran’s efforts to evade U.S. sanctions.
Olangian was born in Iran, came to the United States as a student in 1979, became a U.S. citizen in 1999 and moved back to Iran in 2004, according to court filings.
He was placed in durance vile Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! in Estonia in October 2012 and extradited to the United States following a sting operation orchestrated by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
Prosecutors said that in 2012, Olangian met in Ukraine with a DEA informant posing as a Russian weapons broker to arrange for the purchase of surface-to-air missiles and various military aircraft components.
Prosecutors said Olangian negotiated a deal involving 10 missiles and dozens of aircraft parts, and stated during a video conference with the informant that he ultimately wanted to acquire at least 200 missiles. They said he aimed to make a substantial profit selling the weapons.
#2
"met in Ukraine with a DEA informant posing as a Russian weapons broker"
There's a couple of gaps in this story that evidently didn't trouble the court.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
03/15/2018 19:09 Comments ||
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[DAWN] Three members of the United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... Military Observers Mission for India and Pakistain (UNMOGIP) had a close call along the restive Line of Control (LoC) in Azad Jammu and Kashmire on Wednesday after Indian troops shot at and injured two locals who were briefing them on the situation prevailing in the wake of ceasefire violations, officials and residents said.
The incident occurred at noon in Abbaspur sector of Poonch district where the UN observers had reached in two white vehicles hoisting blue UN flags, Qazi Arslan, a police official in Abbaspur, told Dawn by phone.
"The UN observers were interacting with local people in Polas village when suddenly Indian troops resorted to burst firing from across the dividing line located hardly one kilometre away from there," the official said.
The firing left two people ‐ identified as Sardar Saghir and Muhammad Azam Qureshi of Polas and its neighbouring Taroti village, respectively ‐ critically injured.
"It was yet another incident of targeted firing which has become a hallmark of Indian troops manning the bloody dividing line," said Chaudhry Saqib Mushtaq, a civil society activist in the area.
Arslan said the UN observers barely saved their lives and rushed to Abbaspur to inquire about the condition of the firing victims who had been evacuated to a health facility by other people.
As the news spread in Abbaspur, people took to streets to condemn the incident.
Some of the demonstrators took strong exception to the UN observers "abandoning the firing victims" instead of removing them to the health facility in their vehicles.
However, by candlelight every wench is handsome... police official Arslan said the UN observers themselves were in a state of shock, as they did not expect firing from the Indian side in their presence.
He quoted them as saying that they had already passed a ’hotline message’ to the Indian authorities regarding their visit to the LoC in this sector.
Arslan said as the injured persons were shifted to Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al Nahayan Hospital Rawalakot, the UN observers also left for the district headquarters of Poonch to record their statements.
The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the media affairs wing of the Pakistain Army, has yet to issue any statement on the incident.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2018 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] At least eight persons, including five coppers, bit the dust and 20 others were maimed in a suicide kaboom which targeted a police check post in Raiwind on the outskirts of Lahore, Punjab 1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots.... Health Minister Salman Rafique told DawnNewsTV.
Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Operations Dr Haider Ashraf confirmed that it was a suicide kaboom which destroyed a police check post located on Raiwind Road leading towards the ground where ijtima (congregation) of Tableeghi Jamaat is held.
The police camp was set up for the security of an ongoing congregation of Tableeghi Jamaat.
The senior police official said initial reports suggest that a cycle of violence was used to carry out the suicide attack, adding that investigations were underway out to identify and locate the accomplices of the alleged suicide attacker.
Moreover, evidence was collected by the Bomb Disposal Squad from the site of the blast for further investigation.
DIG Ashraf said body parts of the jacket wallah were recovered from the kaboom site and sent to the forensic lab for further examination.
The senior police official stressed that if the suicide attacker had managed to enter the congregation site, the corpse count could have been much higher.
Salahuddin (IraqiNews.com) Five Iraqi security personnel were killed and maimed in an armed attack launched by 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, in Salahuddin province, a security source said on Wednesday.
Speaking to AlSumaria News, the source said, "IS members attacked, this evening, security troops in Tal al-Zahab region, south of Balad, which left two personnel killed and three others maimed."
"Troops cordoned off the blast spot and transferred the maimed to hospital for treatment, while the victims were taken to forensic medicine department," the source, who asked to remain anonymous, added.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/15/2018 00:00 ||
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Hawija (IraqiNews.com) The pro-government paramilitary troops have run into a mass grave containing human remains of six people, southwest of Kirkuk.
A statement by the media service of al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces) said on Wednesday, “troops of the second and 56 brigades ran into a mass grave containing remains of six bodies in al-Bakara base in Hawija, Kirkuk.”
The victims, according to the statement, “had been executed by Islamic State members.”
Kirkuk (Iraqinews.com) – Ten Islamic State (IS) militants were killed Wednesday in a security operation to eliminate terrorism in the oil-rich Kirkuk province, a pro-government force said.
In a statement, released by Baghdad Today, the media service of al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces) said, “troops of the PMF’s 11th brigade and intelligence officers carried out a security operation to hunt for Islamic State militants at Khirbet Aziz village in Hawija, southwest of Kirkuk.”
“The troops killed 10 IS militants in the operation,” according to the statement, adding that the manhunt operation will go on as scheduled to eliminate the remaining IS cells across Kirkuk.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/15/2018 00:00 ||
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Anbar (Iraqinews.com) – Iraqi troops killed on Wednesday seven Islamic State (IS) terrorists and seized a large cache of explosives and weapons in different parts in western Iraq.
In a statement, a copy of which was obtained by Alghad Press, the Iraqi Defense Ministry said, “Troops of the Anbar Operations Command’s first brigade, in cooperation with federal police, paramilitary troops of al-Hashd al-Shaabi and the U.S.-led international coalition, carried out a military operation to hunt for Islamic State militants hiding in western desert areas.”
“The troops killed seven IS militants and seized two of their vehicles, in addition to a large cache of explosives and weapons,” the statement read.
“Furthermore, the U.S.-led international coalition warplanes destroyed a tunnel that was used by IS militants in western Iraq,” the statement concluded.
Anbar (IraqiNews.com) Two civilians were wounded as a hand grenade, hurled by unidentified gunmen, exploded in west of Ramadi, a police source was quoted saying on Wednesday.
“Gunmen hurled a hand grenade targeting one of the houses in al-Doulab region in Hit town, leaving two civilians wounded. They were taken to hospital for treatment,” the source told BasNews.
“Security services headed to the blast scene in search for perpetrators, who ran away to unknown destination,” the source said adding that preliminary information indicated that the attack was ignited by a tribal conflict.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/15/2018 00:00 ||
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Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Two forces of Evil were killed as Iraqi troops launched an Arclight airstrike, north of Baghdad on Wednesday.
A statement by Baghdad Operations Command said, "depending on accurate information gathered by the intelligence, security troops managed to follow three button men in al-Baghdadi region, north of Baghdad."
"An airstrike was then launched killing two forces of Evil and leaving the third, who bravely ran away, maimed," the statement added.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/15/2018 00:00 ||
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[IsraelTimes] As arrests reported, terror group deputy minister refuses to reveal identities of suspects in bombing of Hamdallah's convoy, asserts Israel to blame.
A Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, official said Wednesday that the terror group knows the identities of perpetrators of the attempted liquidation of Paleostinian Authority Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah in Gazoo a day prior.
"The interior ministry in Gazoo has the names and other information of those linked to the bombing of the prime minister’s convoy," Gazoo’s deputy interior minister Tawfiq Abu Naim told Paleostinian local media outlets.
Continued on Page 49
1-Afrin city: the Turkish invasion army is still brutally bombing Afrin’s neighborhood, where the Turkish jets are targeting the public facilities and the populated areas, including the pediatrics in Avrin Hospital yesterday.
2-Jinderes: all of the villages in Jinderes axis are areas of engagements between our forces and the Turkish invasion army and its backed terrorists factions (ISIS- Al Nusra). The clashes accompanied by heavy artillery shelling and airstrikes, where the fiercest clashes were in Satiya village.
3-Belbeleh: all of the villages in this axis were arenas of heavy clashes between our forces and the invaders. These clashes accompanied by brutal aerial and artillery shelling, where the clashes were concentrated in Bileh village. according to our fighters from the battlefield, 19 terrorists were killed.
4-Shieheh: there are heavy clashes in the villages of Meshki, Mekhara and Chaqmaqa villages since yesterday until writing this report. According to our fighters, 11 terrorists were killed. It is worth noting that these clashes are accompanied by heavy airstrikes and artillery shelling.
SDF Media Center
13 March 2018
Video of fierce defensive combat by the men and women of the Kurdish YPG/YPJ.
After YPG/YPJ strategically retreated to consolidate their forces, allowing various villages to be taken by Turks, it took 3 days for the Turk invasion forces to take one town south of the city of Afrin.
YPG/YPJ fired a guided missile into a suspicious car surrounded by 60 terrorists in which a massive explosion occurred killing all 60 terrorists as it was apparently a car bomb being prepared by the terrorists.
Up-close video of Turks shelling the city of Afrin where the YPG says 800,000 civilians are taking refuge.
Additional videos show YPG/YPJ inflicting ATGM strikes against Turk Tanks behind Turk lines.
Posted by: Ulaigum Ebbineng7056 ||
03/15/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
EuroNews and much of the other mindless European media outlets are parroting what ever their Islamic Overlords such as Erdogan tells them to say. They are embedded with Turkey's Al Qaeda near Afrin and had images of thousands of cars stacked bumper to bumper on the highways leading out of Afrin and claiming the YPG are not letting people leave.
In reality, hundreds of thousands of Kurds have chosen to stay in Afrin and as a defensive measure they have lined hundreds of cars up along the highways coming into Afrin to prevent access to the city by the Turks and Al Qaeda while the YPG eliminate those cowards who get enough courage to come in via the ditches along the highways.
The embedded Euro Winnie Media shows Al Qaeda "fighters" who the media are instructed to say are near Afrin, cowering and hiding every time they hear a shot fired.
#2
I saw those pictures of cars lined up, with that caption. Thank you for explaining what is really going on, Ulaigum Ebbineng7056. Fred mentioned recently that Rantburg is a raw intel stream for several War on Terror websites. I have no doubt they are paying close attention to these reports of yours.
#3
Thank you TW. Everything I post comes from as close to the atomic level (eye witness level) as I can find from the battle fields. Soldier videos are almost required to be approved by their press offices before public domain access but that is for intelligence reasons.
#4
I seldom link to a news source. The first atomic level (as I like to call it) video has you standing behind the soldier firing the AK47. The second video has you on a roof top while missiles are dropping all around you. After a while of being in the shoes of the witness (which is impossible but close, there is much, much more fear inside you if are actually there wearing those shoes) you can tell what is really going on after viewing a potentially biased media outlet report of the same battle field.
#5
Somewhere around 95% of all intelligence reporting is derived form unclassified (UNCLAS) or so-called 'open sources' such as UE's reports and vids. These UNCLAS pieces then become the foundation or supporting documentation for classified intelligence assessments, reports, and updates. I am confident these videos and reports are not being overlooked....by either side of the conflict.
[AnNahar] For the first time since its meteoric rise in 2012 amid the chaos of war, al-Qaeda's branch in Syria is in retreat, battling rival turban groups in the north and fighting for survival in a key foothold near the capital, Damascus.
Over the past three weeks, the Death Eater group has been driven from nearly all of the northern province of Aleppo, losing dozens of fighters in battles there and in nearby Idlib province.
The fighting poses a major challenge to the turban group, already beset by infighting and a string of liquidations that have taken out some of its top leaders. Unlike previous battles in which al-Qaeda-linked fighters were able to quickly crush their opponents, the fighting has been particularly fierce, with the gunnies losing dozens of villages.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
doesn't mention that al nusra has some elements supporting Turkey's offensive in NW Syria
didn't fit their narrative
Posted by: lord garth ||
03/15/2018 8:40 Comments ||
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[IsraelTimes] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... is turning up the heat on Syria’s Afrin, launching deadly strikes on Damascus loyalists deployed around the Kurdish enclave and closing in on its main city.
The development could redraw the map of northern Syria.
The violence came as the foreign ministers of Turkey and Russia, the two major foreign players in a conflict entering its eighth year tomorrow, met in Moscow.
A Ottoman Turkish presidency source said Afrin’s encirclement "will have been completed by the evening," retracting an earlier statement by President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey... predicting its fall last night.
Before the retraction, Erdogan had told supporters in Ankara Wednesday he hoped "Afrin will, God willing, have completely fallen by the evening."
[ALMASDARNEWS] Footage filmed on Tuesday allegedly showed the Free Syrian Army ... the more palatable version of the Syrian insurgency, heavily influenced by the Moslem Brüderbund... (FSA), allied with the Ottoman Turkish army, engaging in combat in the village of al-Qarah (Kojuk Qariqin) on the outskirts of Afrin city, as Ottoman Turkish Armed Forces recently claimed they have surrounded the city with the aid of the FSA.
This marks a significant advance in the Ottoman Turkish government’s ’Olive Branch’ offensive on the north-western Syrian Kurdish enclave of Afrin.
"As of March 12, the centre of Afrin has been surrounded and areas of critical importance for further operations have been captured," the Ottoman Turkish military said in a statement on Tuesday, March 13.
The Ottoman Turkish-led ’Olive Branch’ military operation against the People’s Protection Units (YPG) Kurdish snuffies in Afrin was launched in January.
The offensive is ongoing despite a UN-brokered ceasefire in the country and the international community’s warnings of an urgent humanitarian crisis in the region.
[AlAhram] Turkish bombing raids killed 10 fighters loyal to the Syrian government on Wednesday at a checkpoint they were manning near the Kurdish enclave of Afrin, a monitor said.
"The air strikes targeted a checkpoint on the only road leading from Afrin to regime-controlled territory to the southeast," the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Of the 10 fighters killed, eight were from the nearby regime-held town of Nubul, the Observatory said.
The road that was bombed on Wednesday is the only official way out of the town, and while it has not been fully captured by pro-Turkish assault, it is within firing range.
Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said some civilians were trying to escape from Afrin along smuggling routes avoiding the main road.
Turkey has killed dozens of pro-Damascus fighters backing the YPG in Afrin.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/15/2018 00:00 ||
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[ALMASDARNEWS] The Syrian Army has reportedly bombed the Ottoman Turkish military in northern Aleppo in response to a deadly Arclight airstrike conducted by Ottoman Turkish jets against pro-government troops.
According to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Ottoman Turkish military positions in the town of Mare’ came under rocket attack fire by the Syrian Army. No casualties reported.
The attack comes in retaliation for a Ottoman Turkish airstrike on troops loyal to the Syrian government at al-Zyara crossing which killed 8 fighters and maimed 10 others.
[ALMASDARNEWS] The Syrian Arab Army (SAA), alongside their allies from the National Defense Forces (NDF), attacked a the positions of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham in the western part of Aleppo city on Wednesday.
According to the Facebook page of the National Defense Forces (NDF), the SAA and NDF specifically struck Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham’s positions in the western part of the al-Zahra’a Associations Quarter; this area has been a hotbed for holy warrior activity in the past.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2018 00:00 ||
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#4
the "Turkish Forces" in W. Aleppo are, I think, not actual Turkish military but are proxies and various militia from ethnic groups allied with Turkey
Posted by: lord garth ||
03/15/2018 8:42 Comments ||
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[ALMASDARNEWS] The Syrian Army and its allies have successfully reversed all gains made by Lion of Islam groups during a surprise offensive in the northern countryside of Hama province earlier today (Wednesday).
As mentioned earlier, rebel forces initially managed to make some gains during the early phase of the assault, capturing the frontier town of al-Hamamiyat as well as the government stronghold of Kernaz.
Within hours however, the Syrian Army regrouped and launched a powerful counter-blow with the support of armor and artillery as well as Arclight airstrikes from Russian and Syrian warplanes (about 50 strikes were delivered).
Moments ago, military-affiliated sources reported that government troops retook the stronghold of Kernaz ‐ this coming about an hour after sources stated that al-Hamamiyat was seized back.
Effectively, all Islamist gains have now been reversed.
For rebel forces, not only has their offensive completely failed within about eight hours of its undertaking but also many dozens of hard boyz from various factions have been killed along with several top Lion of Islam commanders.
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03/15/2018 00:00 ||
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[ARABNEWS] Russian defense ministry annouced this afternoon that it was ready to renew a humanitarian truce ..The purposes of a truce are twofold: 1.) bring up more arms, ammunition, and reinforcements; and 2.) get the enemy to relax his vigilance. A truce is not the same thing as a ceasefire, and a ceasefire doesn't mean you have to stop shooting... for eastern Ghouta for two more days. Previous calls for a cease fire in the suburb of Damascus never materialised with casualty numbers rising daily.
Bombardment by the Syrian regime and its Russian ally killed 25 civilians, among them three children, in the embattled rebel enclave of Eastern Ghouta on Wednesday, a monitor said.
"At least 25 civilians including three children were killed on Wednesday, most of them in regime air strikes and others in Russian raids on an area controlled by Faylaq al-Rahman," a rebel group, the Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said.
Syrian opposition activists say the town of Hamouria, in the southern pocket of eastern Ghouta, was the worst hit, with at least 10 killed there and a rescue center bombed and destroyed.
A doctor in Hamouria says he was overwhelmed and that for four hours, no vehicle was able to move the injured to a medical facility. The doctor spoke on condition of anonymity fearing for his own safety.
The Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Ghouta Media Center say the towns of Arbeen, Jesreen and Saqba were also targeted. Recent government advances have cleaved eastern Ghouta into a northern and southern pocket. The bombing Wednesday focused on the southern pocket.
A senior UN adviser said on Wednesday Syria could see "tremendous battles" for two remaining rebel enclaves even once a government onslaught on the last murderous Moslem pocket near Damascus is over.
International attention has focused on the battle for besieged eastern Ghouta outside the capital and for Afrin in the far north where The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... sent in forces to combat Kurdish militia it sees as a threat to its security.
But they are not the last flashpoints as Syria’s war enters its eighth year, three years after the tide began turning in the government’s favor, said Jan Egeland, head of the Norwegian Refugee Council and a senior UN adviser on Syria.
"Our fear is that after eastern Ghouta we may see tremendous battles now in and around Idlib (in the far northwest)and, in the south, Daraa," he said.
Those would be just the latest in a string of increasingly bitter and cruel "end battles" following fighting for Homs, Aleppo, Raqqa and Deir Ezzor, Egeland said.
He said that in each battle, civilians were caught between warring sides who justified their ruthlessness by claiming to be fighting terrorism or dictatorship.
"It’s really not too late to have talks around Idlib, to have talks around Daraa, and to have talks around Afrin," he said. "Idlib would be a tremendous concern because Idlib is in many ways a gigantic refugee camp."
To stem one of the worst effects of the fighting ‐ air strikes on medical facilities ‐ Egeland said a new notification system for the coordinates of more than a dozen hospitals had gone into effect in the last few days.
"We have delivered coordinates on hospitals both in eastern Ghouta and in Idlib to the United States and to Russia, and Russia will not only guarantee that they will not attack, we’re asking them also to make sure that Syrian armed forces, the air force, is not targeting the hospitals," Egeland said.
[ALMASDARNEWS] The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) continued their large-scale offensive inside the East Ghouta, Wednesday, seizing the last farms under Lion of Islam control in the eastern part of this region.
Led by their elite Tiger Forces and 4th Division, the Syrian Arab Army scored advances at two different axes in this rural region outside of Damascus, giving them access to the eastern suburbs of the East Ghouta.
According to a military source in Damascus, the Syrian Army captured the eastern farms of Jisreen in the southern part of the East Ghouta, while also making new advances inside the town of al-Rayhan.
As a result of the aforementioned advance, the Syrian Army has managed to reach the eastern outskirts of Jaish al-Islam ...Liwa al-Islam (Brigade of Islam) was established by Zahran Alloush, the son of Saudi-based religious scholar Abdullah Mohammed Alloush, after Syrian authorities released him from prison in mid-2011 where he had been serving time for his Salafist activism. The group claimed responsibility for carrying out the July 2012 Damascus bombing that killed Defense Minister Dawoud Rajiha, Deputy Defense Minister Asef Shawkat, and Assistant Vice President Hassan Turkmani. It was a driving force behind actions in the Damascus region. It cooperated and conducted joint operations with al-Nusra. In Sptember 2013 Saudi Arabia engineered Liwa al-Islam's merger with fifty other more or less Salafist groups as a counterweight to al-Nusra, which the Learned Elders of Islam considered was growing too powereful... ’s largest stronghold in the East Ghouta, Douma.
The Syrian Army is now working to capture all of al-Rayhan, along with Jisreen and nearby al-Hamouriyah.
[ALMASDARNEWS] The Syrian Arab Army claimed that it uncovered a plant used by snuffies to produce toxic chemicals, in the area between Douma and al-Shefounieh in Eastern Ghouta, on Tuesday.
The footage shows the interior of the alleged plant, with various pipes and storage tanks reportedly used for mixing and heating chemicals and for creating explosives.
Traces of chlorine gas were also reportedly discovered there.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2018 00:00 ||
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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.
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.
...Self-proclaimed Field Marshal, served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all...
[SABANEWS.NET] The US-backed Saudi-led aggression coalition warplanes waged on Wednesday 12 raids on the capital Sana'a, a security official told Saba. The aggressive airstrikes targeted Sana'a International Airport.
1-Afrin city: the Turkish invasion army is still brutally bombing Afrin’s neighborhood, where the Turkish jets are targeting the public facilities and the populated areas, including the pediatrics in Avrin Hospital yesterday.
[AnNahar] For the first time since its meteoric rise in 2012 amid the chaos of war, al-Qaeda's branch in Syria is in retreat, battling rival
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey...
...Liwa al-Islam (Brigade of Islam) was established by Zahran Alloush, the son of Saudi-based religious scholar Abdullah Mohammed Alloush, after Syrian authorities released him from prison in mid-2011 where he had been serving time for his Salafist activism. The group claimed responsibility for carrying out the July 2012 Damascus bombing that killed Defense Minister Dawoud Rajiha, Deputy Defense Minister Asef Shawkat, and Assistant Vice President Hassan Turkmani. It was a driving force behind actions in the Damascus region. It cooperated and conducted joint operations with al-Nusra. In Sptember 2013 Saudi Arabia engineered Liwa al-Islam's merger with fifty other more or less Salafist groups as a counterweight to al-Nusra, which the Learned Elders of Islam considered was growing too powereful...
