Turkey, Turkey, Turkey ...
[BBC] For more than 10 years, Abu Mohammad has been living in a tent with his family in northern Syria, displaced by the long-running civil war. Unable to earn enough to support them, he, like hundreds of others, has decided to travel via Turkey to Niger to work as a mercenary.
Abu Mohammad (not his real name), who is 33, and his wife have four young children - they have no running water or toilet and rely on a small solar panel to charge his phone. Their tent is sweltering in summer and freezing in winter, and leaks when it rains.
“Finding work has become extremely difficult," he says. He is a member of Turkish-backed opposition forces that have been fighting President Bashar al-Assad for more than a decade.
The faction he works for pays him less than $50 (£40) a month, so when Turkish recruiters appeared offering $1,500 a month to work in Niger, he decided it was the best way to earn more money.
He says Syrian faction leaders help facilitate the process and after “faction taxes and agents” he would still be left with at least two-thirds of the money. “And if I die in battle [in Niger], my family will receive compensation of $50,000," he adds.
Violence in West Africa's Sahel region has worsened in recent years as a result of conflict with jihadist groups. Niger and its neighbours Mali and Burkina Faso have all been affected - and all three countries have experienced military coups in the past few years, partly as a result of the instability.
Abu Mohammad is not alone in wanting to go to Niger.
Ali (not his real name), who lives in a tent in rural Idlib, joined Syria’s opposition forces 10 years ago when he was 15. He says he is paid less than $50 a month too, which lasts him five days. He has had to borrow to support his family and sees Niger as the only way to pay off his debts. "I want to leave the military profession entirely and start my own business," he says.
And for Raed (not his real name), another 22-year-old opposition fighter, going to Niger feels like the only way to build up enough money to “achieve my dream of marriage and starting a family".
Since December 2023, more than 1,000 Syrian fighters have travelled to Niger via Turkey, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), which monitors the conflict in Syria through a network of sources on the ground. They tend to sign up for six months, but some have now extended the contract to a year.
THE TURKISH CONNECTION
Before they go, the official line is that the men will be protecting Turkish projects and commercial interests in Niger.
Turkey has extended both its political influence and business operations in the region, selling equipment such as drones to Niger to help it combat militant jihadist groups. It is also involved in mining the country’s natural resources, which include gold, uranium and iron ore.
But the recruits know that despite what they are told, when they arrive in Niger, the reality can be very different.
The SOHR and friends of mercenaries who have already worked in Niger told the BBC that Syrians had ended up under Russian command fighting militant jihadist groups in the border triangle between Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso.
Niger's democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum was overthrown a year ago, and since then the junta has cut Western ties.
“Niger started looking for new allies and found a suitable alternative in Russia," explains Nathaniel Powell, a researcher on the Sahel at Oxford Analytica. “Russian weapons are cheaper than Western ones. Russia also offers military resources and training and shows a willingness to adapt to local requirements without imposing strict conditions, unlike its Western counterparts.”
The prospect of fighting under Russian command poses a dilemma for Syrian fighters who are opposed to the Syrian regime because Russia has been a staunch supporter of President Assad.
“We are mercenaries here and mercenaries there,” says Abu Mohammad, “but I am on a Turkish mission, I will not accept orders from the Russians.”
But he may not have a choice, as Raed acknowledges. “I hate these forces but I have to go for economic reasons,” he says.
They are all still waiting to sign their contacts which they will do “just before or during travel”, says Raed. He explains that the process is secretive and he knows one man who was imprisoned by a Syrian opposition faction “for leaking some details of the operation in Africa and the registration mechanism”.
The recruits we spoke to said their faction leaders had told them that a Turkish company called SADAT would look after them once the contracts were signed and would be involved in arranging their travel and logistics.
About five years ago, Abu Mohamad went to Libya where he worked as a mercenary for six months and says that was also arranged by SADAT.
The SOHR also claims that, based on information from other mercenaries who have already been to Niger, SADAT is involved in the process.
We have not been able to independently verify these claims. We contacted SADAT, which vehemently denied recruiting or deploying Syrian fighters to Niger, saying the claims “had no connection with the truth… we do not carry out any activities in Niger”. It also said it had no activities in Libya apart from a “military sport” project more than a decade ago which it had had to withdraw from because of the crisis there.
The company added that it did "not provide services to non-state actors" but rather provided “consultancy, training and logistics services to armed forces and security forces in the field of defence and security according to the Turkish Commercial Code”.
But private companies are used by the government in Ankara to recruit and send Syrian mercenaries to Niger, according to the SOHR. The organisation’s director, Rami Abdul Rahman, accuses the Turkish state of exploiting Syrians with no money and dire economic prospects.
The BBC put these allegations to the Turkish ministry of foreign affairs, but we have not received a response.
This is not the first time the Turkish government has been accused of sending Syrian fighters abroad. Several reports, including one by the US Department of Defence, have documented Turkish-backed Syrian fighters in Libya - Turkey previously acknowledged that Syrian fighters were present there but did not admit recruiting them. It has also denied that it recruited and deployed Syrian mercenaries to the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region in the Caucasus.
[GEO.TV] Upping the ante against the Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf ...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations.... (PTI), the federal government has decided to ban the former ruling party as well as file references against PTI founder Imran Khan ...aka The Great Khan, who isn't your heaviest-duty thinker, maybe not even among the top five... and former president Arif Alvi for treason under Article 6.
"The PTI and Pakistain cannot co-exist," Federal Information Minister Attaullah Tarar told a presser in Islamabad, saying that the matter would go to the federal cabinet and the Supreme Court.
The decisions, as per Tarar, were taken in light of the former ruling party's involvement in the May 9 events and the PTI's former or current leaders' attempts to sabotage Pakistain's deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The development comes following PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Wormtongue Qureshi ...a Pak political shape-changer. He is undistinguished except for his habit of periodically needing to have his lips reattached... ’s indictment in cases related to the May 9 riots and Khan’s arrest in cases pertaining to the incidents taking place on the day.
Touching upon the foreign funding issue, the information minister said that the PTI failed to defend itself in the foreign funding case wherein, he claimed, the ex-ruling party received funds from Indian-born United States citizens.
"Why did you [PTI] seek a stay order [in said case] for six years?" he questioned, adding that the Khan-founded party had nothing to say in its defence.
Stressing that whoever provides financial support to a political party, does so with the hopes that the party would serve its interests if it comes to power, Tarar said that the PTI failed to explain and defend itself regarding the funds received by certain lobbies abroad, including Israeli ones.
Reflecting on the May 9 riots, triggered after Khan's arrest in a graft case wherein party workers and supporters vandalised several military installations, the minister said that the PTI founder targeted national interests for his own personal ones.
"Your whole family was involved in those attacks. Your three sisters were present outside the [Lahore] core commander's house," he said.
He also censured the PTI's government for allegedly providing safe havens to snuffies and resettle them.
"Who gave you the right to re-settle the Taliban ...Arabic for students... [...] and attack the institution that is responsible for guaranteeing the country's illusory sovereignty," he noted.
TREASON CASES AGAINST PTI LEADERS Speaking about the time when the then-government decided to dissolve the assemblies during the no-confidence motion against Khan, the minister said the ruling alliance has also decided to move a reference against the then-prime minister, then-president Arif Alvi and then National Assembly deputy speaker Qasim Suri.
He said that this reference, under Article 6, will be sent to the Supreme Court after the cabinet's approval.
Referring to what is known as the cipher case, Tarar said that the PTI founder and his party "played" with the diplomatic cable and used it to create a false narrative around it.
The cipher case controversy revolves around Khan claiming that Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Affairs Donald Lu had sought his removal from the prime minister's office.
The same month, the then NA opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif tabled the no-confidence motion against the then PM Khan.
However,
by candlelight every wench is handsome... the then NA deputy speaker Suri dismissed the motion citing sufficient evidence of alleged US interference.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/16/2024 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11130 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[TOLONEWS] The Tahreek-e-Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... Pakistain has denied receiving fund and training from al-Qaeda and being operative from the Afghan soil or any Afghan citizen involved in their attacks.
In a written message to the religious scholars and national and politicians of Pakistain, Noor Wali Mehsud, the leader of the TTP said that they receive no cooperation from the Islamic Emirate.
The TTP leader claimed they need no foreign aid to carry out their operations nor they have foreign agenda but to defend "their nation from the oppression of generals and the rulers."
"We receive no foreign cooperation in this war of ours, nor do we feel any need to seek it. With the permission of Allah, we have fought a successful 20-year-long guerrilla campaign through the support and cooperation of our nation, and we have the capability to do so for years to come," part of the message reads.
The Pak Taliban have asked 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 other Islamic countries to investigate whether they are Death Eaters and if war has been imposed on them and that they had no choice but to defend themselves.
Mehsud thanked Pakistain’s religious, political, and national leaders for opposing the country’s new military operations called Azm-e-Istehkam.
Last month, Pakistain’s military launched operations in the country after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s approval.
The TTP leader accused Pakistain’s generals and rulers of refusing to sit at the negotiating table with the group, adding that they had experience of talks with the Pak government during Imran Khan ...aka The Great Khan, who isn't your heaviest-duty thinker, maybe not even among the top five... ’s premiership.
"We've never refused to take part in negotiations, and just as we know how to properly fight a war, we also know how to sit at the negotiating table and solve issues through dialogue (which the world witnessed during Imran Khan's time in power)," wrote Mehsud in the message.
Noor Wali Mehsud also said that the war was imposed on the Pashtuns on both sides of the Durand Line following 9/11, aiming to eliminate tribal independence.
Mehsud’s message also reads that Pak military and American drones have killed thousands of men, women, and children and destroyed the tribal people’s schools, houses, mosques, and madrassas, leaving them no option but to pick up weapons against the perpetrators.
[Breitbart] Erik Prince, the entrepreneur who founded Blackwater and other military companies, said Monday that the Pentagon had blocked him from giving Israel technology to flood the Hamas tunnels in Gaza.
Prince told the Heritage Foundation’s Policy Fest outside the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee that he had been willing to donate the necessary equipment, “fully funded,” to Israel, but that the Department of Defense had rejected his involvement. “Blocked by the Pentagon,” he said.
The suggestion of flooding the tunnels with seawater came up early in the war, when it was learned that Hamas had succeeded in digging between 350 and 450 miles of tunnels under Gaza — far more than had been previously estimated. As Breitbart News reported, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) attempted to flood some tunnels, avoiding those where it was presumed that hostages were being held.
However, a broader flooding project was not undertaken. There were concerns that bringing so much seawater underground could permanently destroy Gaza’s underground aquifer, whose water is already saltier than normal.
The primary benefit of the proposal appears to have been as a form of psychological warfare, suggesting to Hamas terrorists that they might eventually drown underground if they persisted in staying in their subterranean lairs.
#3
The tunnel flooding would have been a lot harder than it seems. Many tunnels are sealed off. Many have other kinds of barriers. Some tunnels are not connected to the main N-S arteries.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
07/16/2024 16:40 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Sorry for the hostages but they need to be regarded as casualties of war
flood the tunnels
They should have been regarded as casualties of war on day 1.
October 8 the flooding needed to begin and the forced relocation of the entire Arab Muslim population of Gaza to live with their Arab Muslim relatives in Jordan, Iraq and Egypt.
Israel needed to be ruthless and effective on Day 1.
They are losing because they failed to be ruthless on day 1.
#5
Flood the tunnels with H2S. It's heavier than air so will remain underground. If they open a door, they'll die. Plus it's flammable, corrosive and quite nasty. Once a week, ignite it and then replace it. Slow but certain.
Odor threshold (when rotten egg smell is first noticeable to some). Odor becomes more offensive at 3-5 ppm. Above 30 ppm, odor described as sweet or sickeningly sweet.
2-5
Prolonged exposure may cause nausea, tearing of the eyes, headaches or loss of sleep. Airway problems (bronchial constriction) in some asthma patients.
20
Possible fatigue, loss of appetite, headache, irritability, poor memory, dizziness.
50-100
Slight conjunctivitis ("gas eye") and respiratory tract irritation after 1 hour. May cause digestive upset and loss of appetite.
100
Coughing, eye irritation, loss of smell after 2-15 minutes (olfactory fatigue). Altered breathing, drowsiness after 15-30 minutes. Throat irritation after 1 hour. Gradual increase in severity of symptoms over several hours. Death may occur after 48 hours.
100-150
Loss of smell (olfactory fatigue or paralysis).
200-300
Marked conjunctivitis and respiratory tract irritation after 1 hour. Pulmonary edema may occur from prolonged exposure.
500-700
Staggering, collapse in 5 minutes. Serious damage to the eyes in 30 minutes. Death after 30-60 minutes.
700-1000
Rapid unconsciousness, "knockdown" or immediate collapse within 1 to 2 breaths, breathing stops, death within minutes.
[WarZone] After a yearlong hiatus, production F-35 deliveries are resuming, but the long-awaited Block 4 upgrades will have to wait.
A fix of a kind has been found for problems with the F-35’s vital Tech Refresh 3 software, or TR-3, which had seen production deliveries suspended for around a year. Deliveries of the stealth fighters will resume "in the near future," clearing a backlog of jets sitting in storage, although the TR-3 is only installed in what’s described as a "truncated" form, raising questions about when the F-35 will actually be able to make full use of the long-awaited Block 4 improvements that this software underpins.
The F-35 Joint Program Office announced yesterday that Lt. Gen. Michael J. Schmidt, the F-35 program executive officer, approved the use of the "truncated" TR-3 software on July 3. This means that more than 90 (perhaps as many as 120) F-35s that had been manufactured but then put into storage at Lockheed Martin’s Fort Worth, Texas, plant can be delivered. These jets are destined for both U.S. and foreign customers.
In the meantime, the TR-3 software remains in flight testing, with the aim of achieving a long-term fix.
Schmidt’s decision was made, the JPO explains, "after extensive coordination with the services, Joint Strike Fighter Executive Steering Board, pilots, maintainers, and industry."
As we have reported in the past, the first flight of an F-35 test jet with a version of the TR-3 backbone took place in January 2023.
Production jets then began to be completed with TR-3 processors and related hardware. However, TR-3 has suffered numerous delays that have contributed to significant cost overruns in the program. The ongoing issues meant that deliveries of these aircraft were suspended in July 2023.
As of December 2023, it was reported that the development of TR-3 would be completed sometime between April and June of 2024 — after this, the same TR-3 enhancements would have to be incorporated into the existing jets.
By January of this year, Lockheed Martin was saying it didn’t expect F-35 deliveries to resume until late this summer, but it also confirmed that thought was being given to accepting jets before then, without the fully validated TR-3 hardware and software. This is the workaround that Schmidt signed off earlier this month.
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.
...Arabic for 
...mindless ferocity in a turban...
