[ToloNews] Senior officials from US Defense Department have reiterated that the Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... cannot win on the battlefield in Afghanistan, adding that putting more pressure on the Death Eaters is to get the group to join the peace talks with the Afghan government.
Addressing the US Senate Armed Services Committee, General Joseph Dunford, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the US army, said they have increased military pressure on the Taliban to make sure the group will not win on the battlefield.
"The goal is to make sure they view that the only solution is political solution and they can’t win on the battlefield," said Dunford in response to a question on change in role of engagement of US in Afghanistan.
At the same event, US Defense Secretary James Mattis said that right now they do not see the problems in Afghanistan that existed 17 years ago.
"Problems and places like that don’t stay there," Mattis said in response to a query from US Senator Lindsey Graham ... the endangered South Carolina RINO, fellow maverick of Honest John McCain... This comes after the Taliban announced their spring offensive.
The Afghan Ministry of Ministry of Defense on Thursday declared Taliban’s announcement ’a war propaganda’, saying the Afghan National Security and Defense Forces (ANDSF) are fully ready to deal devastating blow to the Death Eaters and foil their so-called offensive.
[KhaamaPress] At least 716 army officers, sergeants, and soldiers of the 215th Maiwand Corps of the Afghan National Army completed fresh courses of training in southern Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... province of Afghanistan.
The provincial government said the army officers, sergeants, and soldiers were trained over a period of two months, covering new theoretical and practical courses.
In the meantime, a unit of the Afghan National Police Border Protection Forces also completed a fresh course of training in this province.
The commander of the 215th Corps Gen. Wali Mohammad Ahmadzai said the condition of the 215th Corps and its personnel are improving each day as steps are being taken to standardize and empower the armed forces in the South.
He congratulated the armed forces for completing fresh courses and instructed them to respect the ordinary civilians, protect the territorial integrity of the country, and act as per the laws, in a bid to secure more confidence from the local public.
The African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) said Friday it has kicked off a two-day training on biometric registration for Somalia government staff to help spearhead the integration of pro-government militias into the national security forces.
The course which is being conducted by AMISOM Police is aimed at training officials from the ministry of internal security to acquire the necessary skills needed to register members of armed pro-government groups operating in Galmudug state in central Somalia.
“This particular exercise is being done to capacitate the officers to go to Galmudug state to also register the regional forces there,” Paul Kissi Frimpong, AMISOM Police Deputy Coordinator in charge of Reform, Restructuring, and Development said in a statement released in Mogadishu.
Frimpong said the pan African mission’s Police decided to train Somali officers to be part of the exercise after the Federal Government requested the AU Mission’s aid in registering the pro-government armed groups.
“Apart from the Somali National Army, some of these states have some security forces that have been supporting them to fight the al-Shabab. These forces are outside the SNA and (those are the ones) we are going to register,” he added.
Frimpong said the exercise was part of AMISOM’s plans to develop the capacity of the Somali national security forces to enable it to take over security responsibilities once AMISOM exits.
“We want to capacitate them (Somali officers), give them the skills to be able to assist in the ongoing exercise of registering the regional forces. As you are aware AMISOM is transitioning which means that the Somali security forces must take over all security responsibilities,” said Frimpong.
The AU mission has already trained a team of officers in Jubbaland and South West states to perform the same function.
In March, AMISOM and Somali security officers commenced the registration of Darwish militia in Jubbaland to pave way for their integration into the Somali national security forces.
The Darwish militia group has been helping the Jubbaland administration fight al-Shabab militants and restore law and order.
Libyans meet them halfway by providing the explosives
The United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) has provided explosive ordnance disposal equipment to Libyan authorities.
The United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) noted on Twitter that the equipment was provided with support of Austria to the Libyan National Safety Authority to enhance more safety with the explosive remnants of war.
Many Libyan areas suffer from mines and war remnants that have claimed many lives due to poor access to safe handling.
DUBAI: Soon after Saleh Al-Sammad, one of the most senior Houthi officials, had been killed by a Saudi-led Arab coalition airstrike in Yemen, the militias announced that Mehdi Al-Mashat would take his place as head of the group’s so-called Supreme Political Council.
Al-Sammad’s death was revealed by Houthi leader Abdel-Malek Al-Houthi on Monday in a televised statement. He said Al-Sammad, the president of the Houthi-backed political body that runs most of northern Yemen, was killed last week in Hodeidah province.
He was second on the Saudi-led coalition’s most wanted list of Houthi leaders, after Abdel-Malek Al-Houthi himself. The coalition was offering a $20 million reward for any information leading to Al-Sammad’s capture.
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[Breitbart] Gay Paree prosecutor Francois Molins claimed that 416 Frenchies have helped finance 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.... , while intelligence services estimate the terror group to have at least three billion euros in funds.
Prosecutor Molins said that he was alarmed by the number of Frenchies helping to finance Islamic State but added that many were not giving large sums, speaking of a multitude of "micro-transactions" funding the terror group, L’Express reports.
Speaking at a recent conference on the financing of international terrorism in Gay Paree, Molins said that financial intelligence organizations had contributed to tracking the 416 individuals over the last two years. They were also able to identify "320 collectors mainly based in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire.... and Leb through which jihadists who were in Syria or Iraq could receive funds".
Molins also listed the approximate costs of several major terrorist operations in recent years, claiming that the Charlie Hebdo ...A lefty French satirical magazine, home of what may well be the majority if the active testicles left in Europe... massacre in January of 2015 had cost roughly 25,000 euros while the Bataclan massacre, which saw multiple button men and jacket wallahs kill 130 victims, cost 80,000 euros.
According to intelligence services, the total amount of cash possessed by the Islamic State is estimated to be around three billion euros.
While some of the money has come from overseas donors, much of the group’s cash has been confiscated from minorities in Iraq and Syria such as Christians. The Islamic State also sold and taxed up to 40 per cent of Iraqi cereal production and 80 per cent of the cotton production of Syria.
Fines within the Islamic State territory for mild transgressions against sharia law, such as a man having too short of a beard, also netted the group around a billion euros over a three year period.
While the territorial gains of the terror group have largely been taken back by a combination of Iraqi, Syrian, Kurdish, Russian, and U.S. forces, the group still remains active in Libya and has been tied to people trafficking.
Interpol warned of at least one case in which 50 suspected Islamic State members had used illegal migration routes from Tunisia to sneak themselves into Italia.
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[AAWSAT] The German government decided to form a "special measures committee" to study ways of deporting a Tunisian man, who allegedly served as one of the late Osama bin Laden ... who is now neither a strong horse nor a weak horse, but a dead horse... ’s bodyguards, to his home country.
Germany’s Federal Ministry of Interior announced Thursday the formation of this committee and said it will focus primarily on receiving assurances from the Tunisian government not to torture and humiliate Sami A. once he lands in his country.
The federal interior ministry established this committee back in 2005, and it is being controlled by the parliament (Bundestag).
The committee’s headquarters is in the Berlin-based Joint Counterterrorism Center, and it includes experts from the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the Federal Intelligence Service (BND).
It is specialized in cases of terrorism suspects and "dangerous" bully boys, who are not German nationals. It also considers cases of the withdrawal of asylum from serious and criminal offenders.
A front man for the federal interior ministry said "there are attempts to deport the former bodyguard of Bin Laden" and a ministerial task force will examine the case soon.
Responding to queries from the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, the government of North Rhine-Westphalia state said the 42-year-old can’t be deported because he might face torture in Tunisia.
The man, only identified as Sami A., has lived in Germany since 1997 and gets €1,168 (£1,022) a month in welfare payments.
The figure was revealed by a regional government, after the far-right AfD asked about him.
Sami A was investigated for alleged al-Qaeda links in 2006, but he was not charged.
According to witness testimony from a German anti-terror trial in 2005, Sami A. served for several months in 2000 as one of Bin Laden's bodyguards in Afghanistan. He denies that, but judges in Dusseldorf believed the witness.
He lives with a German wife and four children in the city of Bochum, in western Germany.
After obtaining a temporary residence permit in Germany in 1999 he took several technology courses and moved to the city in 2005.
His asylum application was rejected in 2007 because the authorities had listed him as a security risk. He has to report daily at a cop shoppe.
The Federal Constitutional Service has put Sami A. since 2012 in the list of dangerous hardliners, whom the department believes they are ready to carry out terrorist operations in Germany.
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04/28/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
send him to a small island in the middle of the Indian Ocean
[DAWN] At least two people were killed and 33 others sustained injuries when unidentified miscreants hurled a hand grenade at a wedding ceremony in North Wazoo late on Thursday, the political administration said on Friday.
According to political administration, the incident occurred in Saidgai area of North Waziristan. The injured were shifted to a nearby hospital where one of them was stated to be at death's door.
The critically injured person was later shifted to Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. for treatment.
The political administration said that injured persons also included women and kiddies.
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[DAWN] Dr Shakil Afridi, known for helping track down 9/11 criminal mastermindthe late Osama bin Laden ... who is now sometimes referred to as Mister Bones... has been moved by authorities from a prison in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. to an unknown safer location, an official and family member said Friday.
Afridi has been languishing in prison for almost eight years after his fake vaccination programme helped United States agents track and kill the Al Qaeda leader.
A top prison official in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa told AFP that Afridi was moved by intelligence officials to the safer place late Thursday.
When asked the reasons behind moving the doctor, the official told AFP, "I was informed in writing that they are moving him due to security reasons.
Jamil Afridi, the doctor's brother, confirmed to AFP that he had been informed by government officials that "Shakil has been moved to a safer place."
Afridi was locked away I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece! for 33 years in May 2012 after he was convicted of ties to hard boys, a charge he has always denied.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/28/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
Afridi has been languishing in prison for almost eight years after his fake vaccination programme helped United States agents track and kill the Al Qaeda leader.
[Ynet] At a presser, US President Trump says the US will spend less than half a million dollars on moving its embassy to Jerusalem, instead of a planned $1 billion; he also reiterated his stance on Iran, saying 'you can bank on' him not letting it develop nukes.
[AAWSAT] Syrians were shocked with the news of appointing Maher al-Assad, brother of Bashir al-Assad, commander of the Syrian Army’s elite 4th Mechanized Division, as revealed by Russia Today Website and other pro-regime sites.
What caused the shock is that the name of Maher al-Assad has been associated with the 4th Mechanized Division as the commander but it turned out that he was the commander of battalion 42 in the 4th Mechanized Division.
This coincided with news that the Tiger Forces, led by Colonel Suheil al-Hassan, moved from Russia towards the south of Damascus to lead military operations launched by the regime forces there. These operations actually failed after one week of bombarding towns in the south of the capital.
Maher al-Assad, born in 1967, studied mechanical engineering at Damascus University before he enrolled in the military academy then started serving at the 4th division. He was promoted in the summer of the past year.
The 4th Mechanized Division was formed in 1984 from the Defense Companies, established by Rifaat al-Assad, brother of deceased former president Hafez al-Assad, in 1982. Defense Companies had a key role in Hama incidents, back then.
After the failure of Rifaat al-Assad coup over his brother, the Defense Companies were merged with the regime army and together were called the 4th Mechanized Division. It has now become one of the major divisions with around 15,000 members.
Opposing parties attribute the most bloody raids in Damascus countryside and Daraa in the beguiling of the revolution to the 4th Mechanized Division.
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04/28/2018 00:00 ||
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[AAWSAT] Mazloum Abdi is the commander-in-chief of the Syrian Democratic Forces. Originally from the town of Ain al-Arab (Kobane) in northern Syria, he leads a force of 60,000 troops and recently held a lengthy meeting with Brett McGurk, the US Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS.
Abdi said the meeting discussed President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... ’s intention to withdraw the US troops from Syria and the SDF’s willingness to cooperate with Arab countries that might send troops to fight within the Coalition, in case the US withdrew.
In an interview with Asharq al-Awsat, Abdi said: "Officially, there is no decision to withdraw the US troops from Syria, but President Trump proposed the matter to members of his government for discussion. We have information that the administration is discussing his proposal and the possibility of withdrawing troops or not."
"The US and the Coalition countries came to Syria to fight ISIS. The latter has not been eliminated completely, and there are sleeping cells in the liberated areas that continue to constitute a threat. There also remain pledges made by the US and the Coalition to the liberated areas and cities to rebuild and promote peace and stability," the commander stated.
Asked about the possibility of deploying other forces in case of US withdrawal, Abdi replied: "There is nothing official to date, but countries have shown initial approval for sending their forces to Syria as part of the international coalition."
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Posted by: Jack Chaiter7913 ||
04/28/2018 16:45 Comments ||
Top||
#7
My Goodness! That was embarrassing, wasn't it? Sure hope you feel better now. Little social mistakes like that can add up after a while and cause all sorts of trouble to one.
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.
Lindsey Graham
A lefty French satirical magazine, home of what may well be the majority if the active testicles left in Europe...
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
