"Some days Al Shabab group defeats us, some days we defeat them — that doesn’t mean we’ve failed,” says President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, after Al Shabab recaptured Aden Yabal town in Middle Shabelle region, about 245km north of Mogadishu. pic.twitter.com/zkiBgFuR8Z
— Shabelle Media Network (@ShabelleMedia) April 16, 2025
It’s been busy at Adan Yabaal:
Al-Shabaab Captures Key Somali Town in Bold Offensive
[ShabelleMedia] Al-Shabaab ... al-Qaeda's tentacle in East Africa... bully boyz seized the strategically vital town of Adan Yabaal in Somalia’s Middle Shabelle region on Wednesday, launching a pre-dawn assault that overwhelmed government forces and marked the group’s most significant territorial gain since a major Somali offensive began in mid-2022.
The attack commenced at dawn, with holy warriors striking from multiple directions, triggering fierce festivities with Somali troops and local clan militias, security sources and eyewitnesses said. Intense gunfire persisted for hours, though disrupted communications have obscured precise casualty counts.
Situated 245 km north of Mogadishu, Adan Yabaal has been a cornerstone of Somali military operations since its recapture from al-Shabaab in December 2022. The town’s loss underscores the turbans’ enduring capacity to challenge government control.
Al-Shabaab’s media arm claimed dominance over the town and its environs, a claim yet to be independently confirmed. Two security officials verified that government forces and allied militias withdrew under relentless turban pressure.
After Al-Shabaab take-over, U.S. military strikes Somalia town
[Garowe] US Africa Command has responded to Wednesday's Al-Shabaab control of the strategic Adan Yabaal town by waging an airstrike, in yet another significant showcase of solidarity with the Somali National Army (SNA) soldiers who had lost the battle.
The takeover of the village was possible due to heavy rains, experts said, noting that it was almost impossible for the military and allies to conduct aerial surveillance before the attack. The militants took advantage and ambushed the troops.
But on Thursday, the US Africa Command is said to have initiated an airstrike killing at least 12 militants instantly in the town within the precarious Middle Shabelle region, which is facing a major threat of Al-Shabaab dominance.
The Somali government said Thursday the airstrike hit a site used by the militants for gathering and as a hideout. Senior Al-Shabaab members were killed, but their names are not yet public, with the US Africa Command still doing due diligence.
However, no civilian casualties were reported, the government of Somalia said. The takeover of Adan Yabaal was preceded by another catastrophic blow to the local military after losing Aboorey village within Middle Shabelle.
[ZERO] Washington is now accusing China of getting in bed with the Iran-backed Shia Houthis of Yemen, who have long waged a war against Red Sea shipping, including attacks on US warships and Israel.
The US State Department on Thursday issued allegations centered on Chinese firm, Chang Guang Satellite Technology, saying it is directly supporting attacks by Houthi fighters against American interests. This firm is well-known to be close to the CCP government, and is already under Western sanctions.
"We can confirm the reporting that Chang Guang Satellite Technology Company Limited (CGSTL) is directly supporting Iran-backed Houthi terrorist attacks on U.S. interests," State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce told a press briefing.
[IsraelTimes] Russian leader tells Sasha Troufanov, his mother and partner of ‘need to express words of gratitude’ to political heads of terror group who murdered his father during Oct. 7 attack
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... met Wednesday evening with freed hostage Sasha Troufanov at the Kremlin in Moscow, along with his mother, Elena Trufanova, and partner, Sapir Cohen, both of whom are also former captives.
"The fact that you managed to go free is the result of the fact that Russia has stable, long-term relations with the Paleostinian people, with its representatives, and with a wide variety of organizations," Putin told the ex-hostages in a video clip from the meeting published by the state-funded RT television network.
He also hailed Hamas ..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",... for its "humanitarian act" of releasing them: "We need to express words of gratitude to the leadership of the political wing of Hamas for cooperating with us and carrying out this humanitarian act."
"We will do everything to ensure that such acts happen as often as possible and that all the people who are still in the same conditions that you had been in... are also released," Putin added, sighing deeply in response to Troupanov telling him that he was held in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... for 498 days.
Troufanov and Cohen were taken hostage by Paleostinian faceless myrmidons from Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, 2023, along with Sasha’s mother and grandmother Irena Tati, while his father and Elana’s husband Vitaly Troufanov was murdered during the Hamas-led atrocities.
The three women were freed during a November 2023 ceasefire, with Trufanova and Tati released in a gesture to Putin, while Sasha Troufanov was returned from Gaza in February amid the multi-phase truce agreement mediated by the United States, 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... and Egypt that collapsed in March.
The meeting at the Kremlin was also attended by the Chief Rabbi of Russia Berel Lazar and President of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia Alexander Boroda, according to Putin’s office, which published a video of the meeting alongside a readout with little substantial information.
Russia has ties to all key players in the Middle East, including Israel, Iran, and Leb ...Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects.... , as well as the Paleostinian Authority and Hamas.
Days before Troufanov’s release from Paleostinian Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... captivity in February, a deputy Russian foreign minister met with a senior Hamas official in Moscow and urged the terror group to keep "promises" to release Troufanov, a dual Russian-Israeli citizen, and Maxim Herkin, a current Israeli hostage from the Donbas area of Ukraine who has Russian relatives.
Earlier this month, Hamas released a propaganda video featuring Herkin and fellow hostage Bar Kupershtein, the first sign of life from both men since they were kidnapped by faceless myrmidons from the Nova music festival near Re’im.
Herkin, who was 35 at the time of his abduction, has a three-year-old daughter, and was the primary provider for his mother and 11-year-old brother. He attended the Nova festival by chance, invited by friends at the last minute. It was the first time he had gone to a rave.
In February, a top Hamas leader said that Herkin would be prioritized during the second stage of the hostage deal, if it were to be signed, as a gesture to the Russian government. However,
man does not live by words alone, despite the fact that sometimes he has to eat them... the agreement between Israel and Hamas fell apart after its first stage, with Israel renewing the fighting in Gaza last month.
Including Herkin and Kupershtein, 24 hostages are believed to still be alive of the 59 total hostages that remain in captivity in Gaza.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] At a hearing on April 17, the Supreme Court of Russia suspended the ban on the activities of the Taliban movement in the country (under UN sanctions for terrorist activities).
“By decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, the previously established ban on the activities of the Taliban movement, which is included in the unified federal list of organizations recognized as terrorist, has been suspended,” the judge announced.
The court hearing was held behind closed doors.
On February 14, 2003, the Supreme Court of Russia recognized the Afghan Islamist religious and political paramilitary movement Taliban as a terrorist organization, banning its activities in the Russian Federation.
As reported by Regnum News Agency, in August 2021, a coup d''état took place in Afghanistan, and the Taliban came to power. In March 2022, Russia established diplomatic relations with Afghanistan. As stated by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, the Taliban control power in Afghanistan, containing the activities of terrorist groups.
In October 2024, FSB Director Alexander Bortnikov announced that Moscow was finalizing the issue of removing the Taliban from the list of terrorist organizations. As the press secretary of the Russian president Dmitry Peskov explained, the abolition of the terrorist status of the Taliban is necessary for the development of contacts with the leadership of Afghanistan.
The Supreme Court announced at the end of March that it had accepted the Prosecutor General''s Office''s request to suspend the ban on Taliban activities in Russia.
[Remix] For the first time, Muslim students are the largest religious group in Vienna’s schools, underlining the incredible demographic transformation taking place in the Austrian city. The Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) is now raising the alarm.
Muslim students now account for 41.2 percent of all students, while Christian students fell to 34.5 percent. The trend is only growing, and is accompanied by rising problems, including violence in schools, anti-Semitism, and contempt for women.
The data was obtained from the office of Bettina Emmerling, the city councilor responsible for education. Last year, the proportion of students of Islamic faith was 39.4 percent, but now, for the first time, it has crossed 40 percent, reports Exxpress.
Meanwhile, the right-wing Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) is raising the alarm about the rapid demographic change in Austria and Vienna.
"Austrians will soon be strangers in their own country," said Hannes Amesbauer, security spokesman for the FPÖ.
FPÖ National Council member Maximilian Weinzierl, the FPÖ youth spokesperson and federal chairman of the Freedom Party Youth said:
"What we as the FPÖ have been warning about for decades, but which was always dismissed as right-wing scaremongering, is now reality: Immigration has completely overrun our country....41.2 percent of Muslim students — that’s no longer a minority, that’s the new majority. And it’s not just that Austrian children have become a minority in schools. Even together with other Christian European migrants, they are fewer than non-European Muslims. This is the direct result of replacement migration, asylum abuse, and the denial of reality by the SPÖ, ÖVP, and Greens.
In more and more school classes, German is a second language, and our values are becoming increasingly secondary. Our children are being marginalized by migrants. This is no longer immigration, this is displacement."
The mayor of Toronto, wearing a hijab, met with the city’s Muslim community leaders to discuss what they consider the biggest national problem in Canada: Islamophobia. pic.twitter.com/SOBsli39T3
[IsraelTimes] PM touts ‘countless’ actions against nuke program, but doesn’t deny US president blocked strike; security officials fume at leak of IDF’s plans; US still supplying bunker-buster bombs
US President Donald Trump ...Perhaps no man has ever had as much fun being president of the US... said Thursday he was in no rush to greenlight strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, the day after a New York Times
...which still proudly claims Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... story revealed he had quashed an Israeli proposal for a joint attack next month.
Trump’s partial confirmation of the Times report came as Iranian and allied officials prepared for a second round of talks with the US on Saturday aimed at reaching a diplomatic agreement surrounding the Iranian nuclear program. Oman confirmed on Thursday that the talks would take place in Rome, putting to bed earlier Iranian claims that the talks would again be held in Muscat.
Asked about the report that he had "waved off" an Israeli plan to attack the Islamic Theocratic Republic’s nuclear sites next month, Trump said, "I wouldn’t say ’waved off.’"
But then he added, "I’m not in a rush to do it," indicating a degree of confirmation of the report.
Speaking to news hounds in the Oval Office alongside Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Trump said, "Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... has a chance to have a great country, and to live happily without death, and I’d like to see that. That’s my first option."
"If there’s a second option," he went on, "I think it would be very bad for Iran, and I think Iran is wanting to talk. I hope they’re wanting to talk. It’s going to be very good for them if they do. Iran can’t have a nuclear weapon. It’s pretty simple."
The Islamic Theocratic Republic, which is sworn to Israel’s destruction, insists its nuclear program is for civilian purposes only, but it enriches uranium to levels far beyond any civilian use and obstructs inspectors from visiting its nuclear sites.
PM TOUTS ’COUNTLESS’ ACTS AGAINST IRAN’S NUCLEAR PROGRAM
In his response to the Times story, earlier Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu touted his "countless" actions against Iran’s nuclear program, but did not deny that Trump had blocked a strike.
"Prime Minister Netanyahu has led, for more than a decade, the global campaign against Iran’s nuclear program, including when some people downplayed the threat or called it a ’political spin,’ or the prime minister ’paranoid’," his office said in a statement.
"The prime minister has led countless actions, overt and covert, in the campaign against Iran’s nuclear program — and only because of [those actions], Iran does not have a nuclear weapon in its arsenal today."
"These actions have delayed Iran’s nuclear program by about a decade, thanks to the determination of the prime minister to stand up to major opposition, at home and abroad, to his aggressive policy toward Iran," the statement said.
"As the prime minister has said more than once: Israel will not allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon," the statement concluded.
HEART OF THE SECRET
Channel 12 on Thursday night quoted a senior Israeli security official as bristling at the leak to The New York Times, which included details on the planned attack and its timing, and warning it was likely to harm ties between Jerusalem and Washington.
"The details that were leaked are dramatic, and [the leak is] likely to harm the intimate relations with the US Administration," the sources were quoted as saying.
"The core of the secret as regards Iran was revealed," the officials said, in reference to the planned attack, including "the method by which it would be carried out, the timing, coordination mechanisms, and the element of surprise. This constitutes real damage to Israeli interests in facing Iran."
The network also cited unnamed Israeli diplomats who warned the US and Iran could be "galloping to a bad deal, within a short timeframe."
According to the Times report, initial plans for the strike would have combined a joint Israeli-American bombing campaign with Israeli commando raids on underground nuclear sites, and included US Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s to protect the teams on the ground.
But such an operation would have required months of planning. Israeli and American officials, particularly Netanyahu, wanted to expedite the process. So the commando idea was shelved, and "Israeli and American officials began discussing a plan for an extensive bombing campaign."
The campaign would have started in early May and lasted more than a week, the report said, beginning with eliminating what remained of Iran’s air defense systems after Israel destroyed parts of the array during strikes in the country last year. This would pave the way for Israeli fighters to directly strike nuclear sites. Such an attack would have likely prompted Iran to launch a retaliatory missile barrage at Israel, requiring US assistance to fend it off.
The Kan public broadcaster reported Thursday, however, that Israel believes the US leaked the information in order to pressure Iran in the negotiations.
BUNKER-BUSTERS
Kan also reported that, despite Trump’s veto on a joint attack in May, the US has continued in recent days to send Israel huge shipments of ammunition, including bunker-buster bombs intended to make possible a strike on Iran’s nuclear sites.
In just the previous 24 hours, the network reported Thursday night, nine military transport planes had arrived at the Nevatim airbase in southern Israel, carrying hundreds of bombs, including bunker-busters, to allow a strike if negotiations fail.
Earlier this week, Kan reported that dozens of American planes had been arriving in Israel carrying heavy MK84 bombs and interceptor missiles for the THAAD air defense system.
RUSSIANS AND SAUDIS
Iran also continued to maneuver for influence ahead of the talks.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei ...the very aged actual dictator of Iran, successor to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini...> sent his foreign minister Abbas Araghchi to Moscow on Thursday with a letter for 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... to brief the Kremlin about nuclear negotiations with the US.
Russia, a longstanding ally of Tehran, plays a role in Iran’s nuclear negotiations with the West as a veto-wielding UN Security Council member and a signatory to an earlier nuclear deal Trump abandoned during his first term in 2018.
"Regarding the nuclear issue, we always had close consultations with our friends China and Russia. Now it is a good opportunity to do so with Russian officials," Araghchi told Iranian state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?He said he was conveying a letter to Putin that addressed regional and bilateral issues. Putin later received Araghchi in the Kremlin.
Moscow has bought weapons from Iran for the war in Ukraine and signed a 20-year strategic partnership deal with Tehran earlier this year, although it did not include a mutual defense clause. The two countries were battlefield allies in Syria for years until their ally Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Despoiler of Deraa... was toppled in December.
Putin has kept on good terms with Khamenei as both Russia and Iran are cast as enemies by the West, but Moscow is keen not to trigger a nuclear arms race in the Middle East.
Russia has said that any military strike against Iran would be illegal and unacceptable. On Tuesday, the Kremlin declined to comment when asked if Russia was ready to take control of Iran’s stocks of enriched uranium as part of a possible future nuclear deal between Iran and the United States.
Meanwhile,
...back at the buffalo wallow, Yellow Wolf clutched at his chest and fell from his horse... Saudi Defense Minister Prince Kahlid bin Salman arrived in Tehran on Thursday, for meetings with officials ahead of the talks.
The defense minister delivered a message from Saudi King Salman ...either the largest species of Pacific salmon or the current Sheikh of the Burnin' Sands, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and Lord of Most of the Arabians... bin Abdulaziz to Supreme Leader Khamenei, Iran’s state media reported, without giving further details about the content of the message.
"Our belief is that the relationship between the Islamic Theocratic Republic of Iran and Saudi Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start... is beneficial for both countries," Iranian state media cited Khamenei as saying in the meeting. Khamenei voiced Tehran’s readiness to overcome obstacles in the way of improving ties with Riyadh.
Iran and Saudi Arabia agreed in a 2023 deal brokered by China to re-establish relations after years of hostility that had threatened stability and security in the Gulf and helped fuel conflicts in the Middle East from 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... to Syria.
Saudi Arabia welcomed Iran’s nuclear talks with the US, saying it supported efforts to resolve regional and international disputes, in a statement published by the country’s official news agency on Saturday.
"Ties between the Saudi and Iranian armed forces have been improving since the Beijing agreement," Iran’s armed forces chief of staff Mohammad Bagheri said after meeting the Saudi minister in Tehran, according to Iranian state media.
#3
Trump to Iran - "I held them off....this time. You folks might want to cut the cr*p and get real about negotiation."
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
04/18/2025 14:54 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Trump needs to cut the crap in Ukraine, too. The irony is that he doesn't "hold the cards" there. And please, quit calling it "Biden's war". It's your war now, Mr. President. But I digress.
[HOTAIR] Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... ? Tunnels? Tehran? Yes, the IDF hit Hamas ..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",... in all of those places, including in Iran's capital when Israel took out its top leader Ismail Haniyeh ...became Prime Minister of Gaza after the legislative elections of 2006 which Hamas won. President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed Haniyeh from office on 14 June 2007 at the height of the Fatah-Hamas festivities, but Haniyeh did not acknowledge the decree and continued as the PM of Gazoo while Abbas maintained a separate PM in the West Bank. Zapped during the 2023-24 war, to eveyone's satisfaction... .
However,
there's more than one way to skin a cat... the Wall Street Journal reports that the IDF and Israeli intelligence have struck hardest at the heart of Hamas -- its wallet:
Israel last month cut off supplies of humanitarian goods to the enclave, some of which Hamas had been seizing and selling to raise funds, according to Arab, Israeli and Western officials. Its renewed offensive has targeted and killed Hamas officials who played important roles in distributing cash to cadres and sent others into hiding, Arab intelligence officials said.
In recent weeks, the Israeli military has said it killed a money changer who was key to what it called terrorist financing for Hamas as well as a number of top political officials in rapid succession.
The result for Hamas has been a debilitating squeeze.
Salary payments to many Gaza babus government employees have ceased, while many senior Hamas fighters and political staff began receiving only about half of their pay midway through last month's Ramadan holy period, the intelligence officials said. Rank-and-file Hamas fighters' pay had been averaging around $200 to $300 a month, they said.
When the Israelis cut off aid transports after the end of the cease-fire, Western nations howled their objections. However,
there's more than one way to skin a cat... Israel is under no obligation to feed a population that launched a war against it, at least not unless that population capitulates. More importantly, the cutoff of that aid also eliminated a large amount of the leverage Hamas has over that population and in controlling the forces in Gaza.
This isn't a police action; it's a war, one triggered by Hamas with the most monstrous atrocities seen in scope and particulars in decades, if not centuries. Israel warned after the October 7 massacres that the time had come to settle all accounts in the Middle East, especially with Hamas. Unless they surrender and leave Gaza, Israel intends to utterly destroy them rather than return to a frozen conflict that allows Hamas to rebuild again. This time, the Israelis are taking aim at their ability to survive, not just to get them to sign a meaningless cease-fire.
If this sounds familiar, it should. The Israelis used the same strategy against Hezbollah when Iran's other proxy insisted on joining the war. After Operation Grim Beeper took out most of Hezbollah's command structure, they eliminated His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah ...The late, lamented satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb...> too, who had been the linchpin of Iran's proxy strategy for destroying Israel and controlling the region.
But the Israelis also went after Hezbollah's finances too, targeting their bank al-Qard al-Hasan (AQAH) both figuratively and literally. The IDF destroyed several AQAH locations around Beirut last fall. That stripped Hezbollah of funds at a moment when Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... had difficulty in transferring enough operational cash to their proxy in Leb ...home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade.... . As a result of the comprehensive Israeli attack on Hezbollah, they could no longer function as a security force for Iranian toady Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Light of the Alawites... , who had to flee when his forces collapsed soon after Hezbollah got neutered.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2025 01:41 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11134 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
[IsraelTimes] The German government says it has evacuated a group of 24 Germans and their close family members from the war-battered Gaza Strip.
“After months of being stuck in Gaza, a group of 24 Germans and their family members were able to leave Gaza today in close coordination with the Israeli authorities,” a spokeswoman for the German foreign ministry says.
Nine members of the group are understood to be German citizens, while the rest are Palestinian family members.
The group was taken by bus through Israel and the West Bank to Jordan, where they will take a flight to Germany, the spokeswoman says.
Foreign ministry spokesman Christian Wagner earlier told journalists that “roughly two dozen” Germans were leaving the territory.
Today’s evacuation is the third carried out by Germany since the closure of the Rafah border crossing in May 2024.
In total, the German government has enabled almost 700 Germans and their family members to leave Gaza since October 7, 2023.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] The Hamas movement is ready to begin negotiations on a ceasefire and the release of hostages. This was stated on April 17 by the leader of the movement in Gaza, Khalil al-Haya, during an address that was broadcast on all Arab TV channels.
“The movement emphasizes its readiness to immediately begin negotiations that would allow the release of all hostages and our prisoners whose release was agreed upon, in exchange for a complete end to the war and a complete withdrawal of the occupation forces (Israel - ed.),” al-Haya specified.
Al Arabiya reported that Israel was demanding that Palestinian groups in the Gaza Strip disarm. In response, the Hamas leader said that carrying weapons was a "natural right" for radicals "under occupation."
Earlier, Regnum News Agency reported that in January, Israel and the Palestinian movement Hamas, with the assistance of Qatar, Egypt and the United States, agreed on a temporary ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. The agreement envisaged a three-stage process: first, Israeli troops were to leave Gaza in exchange for the release of 33 hostages; the second stage involved the release of the remaining Israeli prisoners and the establishment of a permanent ceasefire; and the third stage involved the exchange of bodies of the dead.
The Israeli Prime Minister's Office on February 23 said Hamas was holding humiliating ceremonies for Israeli hostages before releasing them. Tel Aviv announced it was suspending the exchange. As a result, the Israeli army resumed military operations against the Palestinian movement in the Gaza Strip.
As Russian President Vladimir Putin stated on April 17, a long-term settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is only possible on the basis of the creation of two sovereign states.
[IsraelTimes] Qatar is sending scores of military vehicles to the Lebanese army and a new, $60 million donation to help it pay salaries to officers as Lebanon recovers from the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group’s latest war with Israel, the two Arab countries announce.
The statement by Qatar and Lebanon says 162 military vehicles will be sent to the Lebanese army to help the military “carry out its national duties to preserve stability and control the border.”
Gas-rich Qatar has been a main backer of the Lebanese army since an unprecedented economic crisis engulfed the country in late 2019. Qatar was first sending food aid for the military while cash donations began in 2022.
Hezbollah launched its own attacks on Israel, unprovoked, a day after the Israel-Hamas war erupted on October 7, 2023, with the Palestinian terror group’s onslaught in southern Israel.
After 14 months, a US-brokered ceasefire halted the Hezbollah-Israel war, which caused destruction that will take $11 billion to rebuild, according to the World Bank.
Since the November ceasefire, Lebanon has elected a new president and prime minister, who have both promised to carry out reforms.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] Russia is interested in establishing relations with the new authorities of Syria and maintains contacts with all players in the region. This was stated on April 17 by the press secretary of the Russian president Dmitry Peskov.
He noted that Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the situation in Syria in detail during a meeting with Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. They exchanged opinions on the situation in that republic.
“We are interested in establishing relations with the current Syrian authorities and are in dialogue with all regional players,” Peskov said in a conversation with journalists.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, Putin on April 17 during a meeting with Hamad Al Thani emphasized that Russia strives for Syria to remain a sovereign and independent state, and to preserve its territorial integrity. He also discussed with the Qatari emir issues of providing assistance to the Syrian people, including humanitarian aid.
In March, Putin also discussed the situation in Syria with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The Russian leader expressed his readiness to work together to achieve lasting peace and stability in the country while preserving its territorial integrity.
In December 2024, opposition armed groups launched an offensive on Damascus in Syria. The Syrian army withdrew from the capital, and the rebels declared that power had come under their control. The president of the republic, Bashar al-Assad, resigned and left for Russia, where he was granted political asylum. Ahmed al-Sharaa assumed temporary leadership of the country.
In March, clashes broke out in Syria between Assad supporters and the new government's forces. The fighting took place in the provinces of Latakia and Tartus.
Posted by: badanov ||
04/18/2025 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11133 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.
... al-Qaeda's tentacle in East Africa...
..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start...
