FORMING A GOVERNMENT, TALIBAN SAY THEY ARE WORKING ON IT – The Taliban’s chief spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, addressed concerns over the formation of the ‘official’ government for the country in an interview recently. He said the main obstacles concerned a lack of laws for the regime. Presumably, he was referring to reinterpretations of existing laws under the Taliban’s strict Sharia code. The Taliban have continually maintained they will form a new government after international recognition has been achieved. With the prospect of recognition a distant hope that recedes further every month women and girls are not allowed to study or work, the world is likely to see a revamped version of the Taliban regime of the 90s. At no time were elections or representation of minority groups mentioned.
US DEPARTMENT OF STATE SAYS IT IS TRYING TO EVACUATE 44 US CITIZENS FROM AFGHANISTAN – The US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, said the 44 represent about one-quarter of all US citizens thought to still be in the country. The remainder has not asked to leave and some have even returned to the country since the Taliban takeover. Of the 44 citizens who have asked to depart, some are said to be imprisoned by the Taliban.
FLOODWATERS RECEDING SLOWLY, HIGHWAYS REOPENING – THe Khandahar-Herat highway reopened yesterday after closing temporarily for dangerous road conditions due to flooding. A storm system dropped several centimeters of rain across Central and Northeastern Afghanistan over the past three days and the rainwater added to snow runoff in the mountains which caused flooding in at least 17 Provinces. Roads are slowly reopening and there were reports of some deaths due to the conditions but a definitive accounting was not available yet.
INTERNATIONAL CRICKET COUNCIL INCREASES FUNDS FOR AFGHANISTAN, WOMEN’S TEAM NOT MENTIONED – The ICC announced it had substantially increased the budget for the Afghanistan Cricket Board but dodged questions about supporting the Afghan Women’s team that has formed in Australia.
NEXT 24 HOURS
POSSIBLE THREAT TO SHIITE MOSQUES FRIDAY – A source in Kabul has stated that Ministry of Interior agents and Police were actively following up on a threat against a Shia Mosque either in Kabul or Herat. The source said the Taliban security forces were looking for a cell of 3-6 men who are planning a presumed ISIS-K suicide bomb attack that has been scheduled for weeks. It was not clear in which city the potential attack would occur. The source finished by saying the threat had been communicated to them via a ‘friendly nation’. At-risk Afghans planning on attending religious observances in Shia neighborhoods should be aware of the threat and make plans accordingly. TAD will issue an alert if additional information that may authenticate/clarify the threat is received.
[ShabelleMedia] The US-trained Danab forces aided Jubaland regional troops in conducting an attack against al-Shabaab ...... the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord... bases near the port city of Kismayo ...a port city in the southern Lower Juba province of Somalia, at the extreme southern end of the country (always assuming Somalia can be called a country). It is the commercial capital of the autonomous Jubaland region.... , officials said.
The combined forces ransacked several hideouts for the bully boyz in different areas, including Biibi, Maalka-dhaqajo, Beer-xaani, Qudus and Yaaq dabayl.
As many as 23 al-Shabaab members, among them senior commanders identified as Ahmed Ali Farah [Abu Abas] and Geedi Warfa Ali [Abu Muscab] have been neutralized in the raid.
An official with Jubaland army, who asked not to be mention in the report confirmed the casualty figures on al-Shabaab. There were no independent sources confirming the claim.
The operation was part of a wider plan to conquer the last al-Shabaab pockets in Lower and Middle Shabelle regions, where the bully boyz orchestrate and execute attacks.
Somali president Hassan Sheikh visited Jubaland last week on galvanizing on this military mission, which is expected to attract Non-ATMIS troops from Kenya, Æthiopia and Djibouti.
In August 2022, the Somali leader declared launching a fresh offensive against al-Shabaab, capitalising on mounting discontent with the Islamist insurgency.
[Garowe] Jubaland state continued with operations against al-Shabaab ...... Somalia's version of the Taliban ...Arabic for students... , functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda... even in the middle of a planned slow-down by the federal government, targeting the hard boyz in the latest offensive which comes days after the Jana Cabdalle battle which left several hard boyz dead just weeks after the town was taken by the group.
According to reports, the regional forces of Jubaland received backing from the 16th Brigade and the 5th Unit, in an operation that was conducted in the volatile Lower Jubba region. The operation, Somalia said, left five al-Shabaab hard boyz dead and several injured.
In an interview with the media, the Commander Arab Dheeg Ahmed of the 5th unit of the 16th Battalion reported that joint forces conducted operations in several areas, including Bibi, Malik Dahajo, Beerhani, Quds, and Yaaq Dabayl. The region was a major base of al-Shabaab.
The operation, Arab Ahmed added, led to the capture of several hard boyz who are now under investigation. He conceded that al-Shabaab is still predominant in Jubaland but was quick to note that the second and perhaps final phase of rescuing the region from al-Shabaab will be activated throughout the Holy month of Ramadan.
[HODHODYEMENNEWS.NET] An officer of the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) militia in the port city of Aden, southern Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of... , was killed in an liquidation operation.
Local sources reported that a gunman shot the leader of the STC militia in Sheikh Othman district, Muhammad al-Masouri, who is official in the criminal investigation office in Aden.
The perpetrator of the operation was also killed during the festivities, according to the source.
Although Aden is witnessing insecurity state, the timing of the operation coinciding with the arrival of the STC’s president, Aidaroos al-Zubaidi, coming from the UAE, months after Saudi Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Fifteen of the nineteen WTC hijackers were Saudis, and most major jihadi commanders were Saudis, to include Osama bin Laden. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman quietly folded that tent in 2016, doing terrible things to the guys running it, and has since been dragging the kingdom into the current century... decided to put him under house arrest, is considered a message to al-Zubaidi about the next phase in the city, which is his most prominent stronghold.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2023 00:00 ||
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[11129 views]
Top|| File under: Southern Transitional Council
[IsraelTimes] In separate incidents, Mohammed Abbkr, 28, allegedly sprayed a flammable substance on 2 men in west London and Birmingham and then set them alight.
UK police on Thursday charged a 28-year-old man with the attempted murders of two elderly men who were set on fire after they left mosques, in separate attacks.
West Midlands Police said Mohammed Abbkr, 28, from Edgbaston in Birmingham, central England, would appear at the city’s magistrates court.
He was arrested on Tuesday following an investigation involving counter-terrorism police and remains in jug.
Abbkr allegedly sprayed a substance on the two men outside or near mosques they had attended and then set them alight, in incidents in west London on February 27 and Birmingham on Monday.
The victim in the attack in the British capital, who was treated for severe burns to his face and arms, was 82 years old.
The perpetrator engaged him in conversation before dousing him in what is believed to be petrol and setting him on fire, according to police.
In the Birmingham attack, Mohammed Rayaz, 70, was set on fire as he walked home from a mosque in the Edgbaston area of city on Monday evening.
He remains in hospital with severe injuries.
Police are appealing for security camera, doorbell footage or other video that could help the investigation.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[REGNUM] Law enforcement agencies of Kabardino-Balkaria
...the Balkars are Turkic people of the North Caucasus, so these are probably devout Moslems of some sort. ISIS-linked Caucasus Emirate has active cells in that part of the world...
in 2022 thwarted an attempt to commit a terrorist attack. It was prepared by two residents of the republic in the city of Baksan. This was stated by the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the KBR, Vasily Pavlov, during his report to the regional parliament on March 23.
In addition, according to the minister, last year seven members of a clandestine terrorist cell were detained on the territory of the republic, planning a series of terrorist attacks. Another 25 people were also detained for committing crimes of a terrorist nature, and another 16 people were detained for extremism.
In connection with the increase in the volume of work of the unit for combating terrorism and extremism in Kabardino-Balkaria, they plan to increase its staffing, the minister stressed.
"Today, the number of personnel of the anti-extremism unit allows us to withstand the load, but, understanding what is happening, the geopolitical situation, we are well aware that the unit needs to be developed, expanded, and we will definitely deal with this," Pavlov said.
As REGNUM reported, in October 2022, a sabotage and terrorist act was prevented in Kabardino-Balkaria. Near the railway bridge across the canal named after V. I. Lenin near the village of Soldatskaya in the Prokhladnensky district of the republic, two citizens were found who were installing an explosive device under the railway bed. In an attempt to resist the terrorists were liquidated, their accomplice was detained.
[IsraelTimes] Police say Amir Khadijah behind series of shootings near Tulkarem; Israeli motorists, army post targeted in separate shooting attacks
A wanted Paleostinian gunman behind a series of shooting attacks in the West Bank was rubbed out on Thursday morning during a raid by Israeli forces near the Paleostinian city of Tulkarem, police said.
According to a Border Police front man, undercover officers entered the town of ’Izbat Shufa, on the outskirts of Tulkarem, to arrest Amir Khadijah, 25, after receiving intelligence about his whereabouts from the Shin Bet security agency.
Police said that when forces arrived at a hideout apartment where Khadijah was holed up, the suspect shot up the officers, who shot back, wounding him. The officers then broke into the apartment, and Khadijah again shot up the Israeli forces, police said. The officers shot back and killed the suspect, the front man said.
No officers were hurt during the raid.
Khadijah was accused of carrying out several shooting attacks against Israeli settlements near Tulkarem and against Israeli forces at the nearby Te’enim Checkpoint. Some Paleostinian media reports identified Khadijah as the commander of the so-called Tulkarem Battalion, an gang operating in the city. Videos circulating on social media purported to show Khadijah shooting at Israeli forces during a previous clash several months ago.
A Paleostinian man suspected of aiding Khadijah was also detained at the scene after turning himself in to the forces. He was to be taken for questioning by the Shin Bet.
Police said Khadijah’s M16 assault rifle was seized and his car was impounded.
Several hours after the raid, an Israeli truck driver came under fire while passing by the nearby Paleostinian town of Shufa, the Israel Defense Forces said. According to the Rescuers Without Borders emergency service, the man was unharmed. He reached the nearby settlement of Avnei Hefetz, where forces identified several bullet holes on his truck. The IDF said it had launched a manhunt for the suspects.
Overnight, an Israeli motorist and an army post were targeted in separate shooting attacks in the West Bank, the IDF said.
In the first incident, an Israeli civilian driving near Adam Junction, close to the settlement of Geva, came under fire. Several bullets struck the car, but the driver was unharmed.
The IDF said troops began a manhunt for the suspects in the attack.
In the second incident overnight, Paleostinian button menshot up an IDF post near the northern West Bank town of Yabed, outside Jenin. The IDF said no soldiers were hurt in the attack.
In separate arrest raids early Thursday, the IDF said troops detained eight Paleostinians suspected of involvement in terror activities.
Paleostinian attacks in Israel and the West Bank in recent months have left 15 people dead — almost all of them Israelis — and several more seriously hurt. At least 86 Paleostinians have been killed since the beginning of the year, most of them while carrying out attacks or during festivities with security forces,
[IsraelTimes] Two civilians who received top-secret info from soldier and published it on social media still awaiting trial
An Israeli soldier in the Military Intelligence Directorate was sentenced on Thursday to 27 months in prison for leaking classified information to social media, causing damage to state security, the Israel Defense Forces said.
The soldier, who was detained on May 24, 2022, was accused of passing top-secret information he was exposed to in his position in the army, to civilians who would later publish some of it on social media.
The IDF said that in some of the cases, the information that was made public caused damage to state security.
Under a plea deal, the soldier was sentenced to 27 months and was also handed a suspended sentence, the IDF said.
According to the indictment filed at a military court, the soldier shared numerous pieces of classified information with the two civilians, knowing the risk and the fact that it may be published to the public.
The two civilians arrested as part of the case were still under house arrest, pending trials. One of the civilian suspects was an intelligence soldier in the reserves, and the second was a minor at the time of his arrest.
The trio were accused of working together to release the information to gain credibility or popularity online, and had not been pressured by a bad actor nor acted for monetary gain, according to authorities.
The soldier was charged with "disclosure of information and deviation from his authority to the extent of risking state security" and conduct unbecoming of a soldier.
The adult civilian suspect was charged with obtaining, collecting and holding confidential information, as well as offenses related to transferring such confidential information.
The minor was similarly charged with receiving confidential information from the adult suspect and the soldier, sharing it with acquaintances, and posting some of it publicly.
Many other details relating to the case were barred from publication due to security concerns.
[IsraelTimes] Pentagon announces retaliatory strikes against IRGC-linked groups in eastern Syria following deadly Deir Ezzour assault
A US contractor was killed and five US service members and one other US contractor were maimed when a drone struck a facility on a coalition base in northeast Syria on Thursday, the Pentagon said.
In a statement released late Thursday, the Defense Department said the intelligence community had determined the unmanned aerial vehicle was of Iranian origin.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said US Central Command forces retaliated with "precision Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s" against facilities in eastern Syria used by groups affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
"The airstrikes were conducted in response to today’s attack as well as a series of recent attacks against Coalition forces in Syria by groups affiliated with the IRGC," Austin said.
Overnight, videos on social media purported to show explosions in Syria’s Deir Ezzor, a strategic province that borders Iraq and contains oil fields.
Iran-backed militia groups and Syrian forces control the area, which also has seen suspected airstrikes by Israel in recent months allegedly targeting Iranian supply routes.
Syria’s state-run SANA news agency did not immediately acknowledge any strikes. Syria’s mission to the United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... ’s state-run news agency ...and if you can't trust the state-run news agency who can you believe?... reported a call between its foreign minister and Jake Sullivan, the US national security adviser. Doha has been an interlocutor between Iran ...They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... and the US recently amid tensions over Tehran’s nuclear program.
There was no immediate reaction from Iran over the strikes, which come during the holy Moslem fasting month of Ramadan.
Austin said he authorized the retaliatory strikes at the direction of President Joe The Big Guy Biden ...46th president of the U.S. Joe's wife and daughter weren't killed by a drunk driver. He didn't graduate with three or even two degrees, wasn't in the top half of his law class, and his daddy didn't come home from a hard day's work in the mines and play football with the guys. The NAACP hasn't endorsed him every time he's run. On the other hand, he did abandon Afghanistan... "As President Joe Biden ...... 46th president of the U.S. Being a self-defined foreign policy whiz kid means never having to say you're sorry...... has made clear, we will take all necessary measures to defend our people and will always respond at a time and place of our choosing," Austin said. "No group will strike our troops with impunity."
The Pentagon said two of the maimed service members were treated on site, while three others and the injured contractor were transported to medical facilities in Iraq.
#4
Retaliation didn't do much. DM reporting a second Iranian missile strike.
Posted by: Bill Greans6336 ||
03/24/2023 11:35 Comments ||
Top||
#5
NYT March 4, 2023
..."America still has more than 900 troops, and hundreds more contractors, in Syria, working with Kurdish fighters to make sure there is no resurgence of the Islamic State, which was ostensibly defeated as a caliphate in 2019, after five years of wreaking havoc across Iraq and Syria."
Asking America troops to become targets of IRGC forces backing Syrians fighting Kurds because it helps the Iraqi's in repatriation efforts for former ISIS families. Seriously, this is the Use of Force authorized by Congress 20+ years ago?
"On Saturday, Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made his first visit to Syria in that role, traveling to this Kurdish-controlled territory to assess the state of America’s nearly eight-year-old military mission. For General Milley, the unannounced trip was a chance, he said, to figure out firsthand what value the mission in Syria still holds for American security"
[NPASYRIA] A civilian lost his life and others were maimed in mutual shelling between Syrian government forces and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else ...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State... (HTS, formerly al-Nusra ...formally Jabhat an-Nusrah li-Ahli al-Sham (Support Front for the People of the Levant), also known as al-Qaeda in the Levant. They aim to establish a pan-Arab caliphate. Not the same one as the Islamic State, though .. ... Front) in the city of Atarib, west of Aleppo, northern Syria.
Outskirts of 46 battalion in Atarib witnessed fierce festivities following an attack launched by the HTS against several posts of the government forces, as the latter replied using artillery shells targeting residential areas in the city.
A source of the Syrian civil defense told North Press that the government forces targeted Atarib with artillery shells at Iftar time from their posts on the surrounding checkpoints.
One young man was killed and others, including a woman, were maimed.
Meanwhile, ...back at the alley, Slats Chumbaloni was staring into a hole that was just .45 inch in diameter and was less than three feet from his heavily sweating face ... a military source from al-Fateh al-Mubin Operations Room told North Press that the HTS attacked the 46 battalion west of Aleppo.
The HTS took control of three posts during this attack, according to the source.
Although the de-escalation zone in northwest Syria is subject to a Russian-Ottoman Turkish ceasefire agreement signed in March 2020, the area witnesses frequent mutual bombardment between Syrian government forces and opposition factions accompanied by Russian warplanes’ flight despite the entry of the ceasefire into force.
In March 2020, Russia and The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire... reached an agreement in Moscow that stipulated a ceasefire, the establishment of a safe corridor, and the conduct of joint patrols on the M4/Aleppo-Latakia Highway.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2023 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[11123 views]
Top|| File under: Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (al-Nusra)
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.
...... the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord...
...... Somalia's version of the 
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Fifteen of the nineteen WTC hijackers were Saudis, and most major jihadi commanders were Saudis, to include Osama bin Laden. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman quietly folded that tent in 2016, doing terrible things to the guys running it, and has since been dragging the kingdom into the current century...
...They hate 
...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State...
