[ToloNews] Heavy festivities that began in Herat ...a venerable old Persian-speaking city in western Afghanistan, populated mostly by Tadjiks, which is why it's not as blood-soaked as areas controlled by Pashtuns... city eight days ago are still ongoing in the southern parts of the city, local officials said on Wednesday.
Afghan cops operations are occurring in the villages in the southern parts of the city, the security officials said, adding that the "Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... has been pushed back from the city."
"The operations are ongoing but slowly, as the Taliban are hidden in residential areas," according to the officials.
Two public resistance force members were killed and 15 others--including three civilians--were maimed in the past 24 hours, according to officials at Herat hospital.
A commander of the 207 Zafar Military Corps named Gulzar said: "There has been fighting in Ghaibatan and Hawad villages over the past three days. Ten Taliban fighters were killed yesterday, and their bodies have been moved by the people."
Mohammad Ismail Khan, former mujahedeen leader who is now leading the fight against the Taliban in Herat along with scores of public resistance forces, said that "the war in Herat city is being led by Pakistain."
He urged the residents of Herat city to rise up against the "clear aggression" of Pakistain, saying: "I want to make it clear that the war in Herat is a war between Pakistain and Afghanistan."
"This is not the Taliban’s war and the Taliban is a tool. Just as the Afghan people did not accept the dominance of the United States, Russia and other superpowers, they should not accept Pak dominance either."
A number of security force members who are battling the Taliban on the frontlines pledged to not allow the Taliban to enter the city.
"The enemy tried hard to enter the city of Herat these days, but we will not allow them to enter the city as long as we still have a drop of blood," said Mohamamd Nasir, a police officer.
A soldier in the Afghan Army Balal Ahmad said: "The Taliban had advanced but we pushed them back and they will never take the city of Herat."
Hundreds of families have been displaced during the fighting over the past eight days.
"The Taliban come to our area but when the security forces come, they run away. People are in a lot of trouble because of the war," said Abdul Qayoum, a resident of Herat.
Officials claimed that 30 Taliban were killed in the past 24 hours of fighting, however, the Taliban has not yet commented on their casualties in the festivities.
[ToloNews] The former police chief of Kandahar and a member of the High Council of the National Reconciliation (HCNR), Tadin Khan, on Wednesday stated that the Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... "does not believe in human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... ," saying the group has killed potentially up to 900 people in Kandahar province in the past month and a half.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a statement saying that Taliban forces that are advancing in Ghazni, Kandahar, and other Afghan provinces have summarily executed detained soldiers, police, and civilians with alleged ties to the Afghan government.
"Summarily executing anyone in jug, whether a civilian or combatant, is a serious violation of the Geneva Conventions and a war crime," said Patricia Gossman, associate Asia director. "Taliban commanders with oversight over such atrocities are also responsible for war crimes."
The Taliban denied the allegations. No, no! Certainly not! According to Tadin Khan, the Taliban forcefully took these 900 people from their homes and killed them.
"They possibly martyred 800 to 900 people in the past month and a half. The people have suffered enormously. The brutality that occurred in Boldak (Spin Boldak district of Kandahar) is unforgivable," said Tadin Khan.
The HRW statement also said: "Human Rights Watch obtained a list of 44 men from Spin Boldak, Kandahar, whom the Taliban have allegedly killed since July 16. All had registered with the Taliban before being summarily executed. Waheedullah, a police commander from Spin Boldak, had obtained a 'forgiveness' letter from the Taliban, but Taliban fighters took him from his house and executed him on August 2, activists and media monitoring these detentions in Kandahar said."
"The civilians who have worked with the government should not be targeted, it is a war crime and a violation of human rights," said Shahrzad Akbar, the head of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC).
According to the HRW report, the Taliban after taking over the center of Malistan district in Ghazni province began searching house to house "apparently to identify residents who had worked for the provincial or district government or security forces." The Taliban "took into custody dozens of residents, some of whom were later released after being compelled to provide assurances they would not cooperate with the government," said Human Rights Watch, adding that the organization "could not confirm the status or whereabouts of those not released."
"They killed many civilians," said MP Arif Rahmani.
#1
I remember the time about 6 years or so ago when, after atrocities like this the survivors said, "those who did this could not have been muslims'.
Survivors don't say this anymore because 'those who did this could only have been muslims' doesn't sound comforting
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
08/05/2021 10:21 Comments ||
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#2
Dron wrote re BDA's and ghost soldiers: [The devil is in the cooking of numbers by the ANSDF itself, and the Afghan MoD officials, those oversmart sunnis who would add thousands of ghost solders, officers, equipment and buildings to their records just to skim from the budget. While a goddamn war was going on.]
In the Afghan milieu, the principal issue is trust. The problem is that the nation is not a nation yet, with a leader capable of marshaling the resources of its territory and people into a gigantic fist. So local leaders conjure up ghost soldiers in order to hoard resources for situations like this. They know that when they're up the creek, they're on their own. When they're under attack is when they start digging into their caches. And the central government figures that the locals are holding back resources, so they're dilatory with aid, lest the Taliban attack the capital with everything they have.
This boomerangs throughout the system, meaning that the most honest of the local leaders are hung out to dry, since they accurately reported their numbers and kept aside no excess for a rainy day. When they say they are being overrun and out of men and equipment, they really are in desperate straits*. If the area they are holding is critical to the control of neighboring areas, its loss can lead to a cascade of defeats.
Nonetheless, at the macro level, unless China is a secret funder of the Taliban, with the money being laundered through Pakistan, there is no way the Taliban can match the government's resources $5b in annual aid from the US. That's not even counting value of the B-52 (and presumably both drone and fighter bomber) strikes allegedly being used in behalf of Afghan government troops.
* That is why honesty is a lousy policy in the Afghan milieu. Any local leader who is honest is asking to get overrun. Given that if he and his men are killed, his kin and the kin of his followers will starve, he'd be wise to set aside something extra, even if it's for ammo and equipment that he knows won't be forthcoming on a timely basis from Kabul when it's a question of life-and-death, and he needs it now, not six months later.
#7
shoud have let them have the shithole along time ago.
Posted by: Chris ||
08/05/2021 15:42 Comments ||
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#8
and after it was all over charlie was depleted in numbers, short of ammo and food. We could have marched up the Ah shau, turned right on the ho chi min trail and gone all the way to Hanoi. I'm still pissed they made us stop at the border.
#9
and after it was all over charlie was depleted in numbers, short of ammo and food. We could have marched up the Ah shau, turned right on the ho chi min trail and gone all the way to Hanoi. I'm still pissed they made us stop at the border.
IMHO, they should have flattened every North Vietnamese city with incendiary bombs, more or less the way Tokyo lost 100K dead in a single night. That would have brought North Vietnam to the peace table early. We sustained 60% of the GI dead we lost during the Pacific War. If we had imposed casualties on North Vietnam similar to Japan's - 2.5m, I expect they would crawled on their hands and knees to beg for an end to the bombing. Heck, we could have asked, medieval-style, for the family members of the Politburo to be handed over as hostages, to be killed if the guerrilla campaign resumed in the South. The marvel of modern laws of war is that we've reduced our fighting men to the status of disposable widgets while putting on a pedestal the fighting men of the enemy and the civilian support base that keeps their war machine alive.
[ToloNews] Findings of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) released on Wednesday indicated that the ongoing war in the country has displaced 900,000 people in the past three months.
Benafsha Yaqoubi, a member of the AIHRC, said that the figure shows a 74 percent increase compared to the same period last year.
The watchdog called on the warring parties to stop fighting and announce a ceasefire.
Lailuma, a resident of Kunduz city, was displaced due to fighting two months ago and lost her husband in the war.
"We don’t have shelter, sometimes my children and I are hungry," said Lailuma.
"I was displaced two months ago and lost everything," said Abdul Mutalib, a displaced person.
"During one month's time, 32,284 families were displaced and this figure is shocking," said Benafsha Yaqoubi, a member of the AIHRC.
Meanwhile, ...back at the shootout, Butch shot Black Bart's gun out of his hand...... a ministry official said that the government has begun delivering aid to the internally displaced people in various provinces of the country.
"Over the past two months we delivered assistance to 50,000 families across the country," said Abdullah Walizada, media adviser to the State Ministry of Natural Disasters.
[ToloNews] Heavy festivities that began a week ago are still ongoing between government forces and the Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... in Lashkargah, the scenic provincial capital of Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... province, said Attaullah Afghan, head of the provincial council.
The fighting continues near the police HQ, governor's office, prison, and other government buildings in PD1 of the city, according to Afghan.
"The Taliban reached the guard towers of the police HQ but the government forces engaged them," he said.
Several Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s have been launched by Afghan and US air forces since Tuesday night, according to security sources.
A market area was damaged during the fighting.
"Both the Afghan forces and the Taliban have suffered casualties but there is no exact information yet," according to the security sources.
Civilian casualties have also been reported but no exact information is available. Hundreds of families have been displaced.
On Tuesday, the commander of the Army's 215 Maiwand Corps, Gen. Sami Sadat, urged Lashkargah residents to evacuate their houses as the ANDSF is planning large-scale operations to clear the city of Taliban.
Gen. Sadat said he made the announcement because the safety of residents is the priority of the ANDSF.
After the announcement, hundreds of commandos lead by Gen. Hibatullah Alizai, the commander of the Special Operations Corps arrived in Lashkargah to launch a clearing operation in the city.
Gen. Sadat and Alizai launched the operation on Tuesday night but said they have made "no major progress yet," sources said.
However, today is that tomorrow you were thinking about yesterday... Fawad Aman, the deputy front man for the Ministry of Defense, said: "Fresh troops--including commandos--have been deployed to Lashkargah and a clearing operation has been launched. Because the Taliban hide in residential houses, the troops are moving slowly but carefully."
"The situation is bad in Lashkargah, the Taliban have captured most areas of the city and only government buildings are under the control of the security forces," said Nasima Neeyazi, an MP from Helmand.
UNAMA on Tuesday tweeted that at least 10 non-combatants were killed and 85 more were maimed in Lashkargah’s festivities.
"Civilians are bearing the brunt as fighting enters Afghanistan’s cities," it said, adding that "the Taliban ground offensive and the Afghan Air Force airstrikes are causing the most harm to civilians."
The Taliban claim responsibility for a car bomb attack on the residence of #Afghanistan’s acting defense minister, while a blast near the office of the main security agency in Kabul has wounded three people.https://t.co/ctWyzdmPw1pic.twitter.com/3BMo3KJlGt
The Taliban ...Arabic for students... grabbed credit on Wednesday for a car kaboom on the residence of Afghanistan’s acting defense minister, while a blast near the office of the main security agency in Kabul just hours later maimed three people.
Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said the group targeted the residence on Tuesday night, adding that an important meeting was underway at the time.
For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.
The defense minister survived, but the attack represented a deterioration in the country’s security situation and a sign that the capital was at risk of violence as the turbans take control of swathes of territory.
The blast targeted a heavily fortified area of the capital, which has in recent weeks largely been spared the violence hitting other parts of the country.
The Ministry of Interior said at least eight non-combatants were killed and 20 maimed in the incident.
On Wednesday morning, another explosion took place near a facility of Afghanistan’s main security agency in the capital, wounding two civilians and a security official, police said. No group immediately took responsibility for the blast.
The Taliban have stepped up their campaign to defeat the US-backed government since April as US-led foreign forces complete their withdrawal after 20 years of war.
Fighting has been particularly heavy around the city of Herat ...a venerable old Persian-speaking city in western Afghanistan, populated mostly by Tadjiks, which is why it's not as blood-soaked as areas controlled by Pashtuns... , near the western border with Iran, and Lashkar Gah and Kandahar in the south.
The late Tuesday bomb-and-gun attack in Kabul was aimed at acting Defense Minister Bismillah Mohammadi and other politicians. Government forces battled the unidentified button men for more than four hours. Mohammadi survived.
An Afghan military front man said an emergency had been declared in Lashkar Gah and government forces were getting reinforcements and US air support.
"Special forces have been sent to the area. They are in good morale," armed forces front man General Ajmal Omar Shinwari told Rooters.
The loss of Lashkar Gah would be a huge blow for the government, which has pledged to defend strategic centers after losing many rural districts to the Taliban in recent months.
Scores of families have fled from their homes in the small city, capital of Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... province, as government forces launched a counterattack against the Taliban.
The United Nations ...where theory meets practice and practice loses... reported on Tuesday that at least 40 civilians had been killed in Lashkar Gah in the previous 24 hours.
Taliban fighters had taken control of some radio and TV stations in the city and were moving into homes to stop people from helping government forces, residents said.
Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin remarks (Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited):
The Taliban have officially claimed responsibility for yesterday's car bombing in Kabul, calling the attack a "martyr operation."
The grouping statement states that the attack is a partial Taliban response to attacks and airstrikes by military subordinates of the Kabul administration on civilians in Afghanistan.
In response, the Taliban announced that they would target key figures in the Afghan government and various officials involved in attacks on civilians. De facto, high-ranking officials of the Ghani regime have been declared legitimate military targets, which of course will not bring the agreements between the government and the Taliban closer.
As a result of yesterday's attack in Kabul, 8 people were killed and 20 injured.
The militants blew up a car near the residence of the Minister of Defense and broke into its territory, where a long battle began with the minister's security. Among those killed are both militants (it is stated that at least 3 out of 4 attackers were killed) and guards, plus a woman was caught and killed in the street by an explosion. The minister was not hurt, so the liquidation attempt failed, although the Taliban demonstrated that he has long enough arms to try to eliminate the functionaries of the Ghani government right in Kabul.
More videos of the aftermath can be seen here and here
Posted by: Fred ||
08/05/2021 00:00 ||
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#1
I've always though defence ministers and secretaries should be exposed every once in a while to a little friction.
[Iran Press TV] The Israeli regime has reportedly started a cyber-sabotage campaign in the UAE to interfere with the regional air and maritime navigation, thus shifting "the focal point of crisis" from the occupied territories towards the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman region.
Iran’s Nour News agency, affiliated with the country’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), carried the report on Wednesday, citing an informed security official.
"It has been about a month since Mossad (the Israeli spy agency)’s cyber units have transferred advanced equipment to one of the UAE’s emirates," the source told the agency.
The campaign seeks, on the one hand, to "disrupt the Persian Gulf and Sea of Oman region’s air and maritime navigation systems, thus destabilizing the regional security situation," noted the official.
On the other, the bid seeks to "transit the focal point of crisis away from the occupied territories towards the region and [therefore] reduce the political and security pressure faced by the regime’s ruling body," added the source.
‘SOWING DISCORD AMONG REGIONAL STATES’
Nour News described the campaign as "a comprehensive plan."
It further quoted the official as saying that, through the drive, Tel Aviv sought to sow discord and misunderstanding among the regional countries and force them into uncalled-for conflict.
The source described this as "the most essential goal" that was being pursued by the regime.
The official said if necessary, more detailed information would be released in due course concerning the whereabouts of the Israeli units, the nature of their technical equipment, and the team’s plans.
The source, meanwhile, expressed certainty that the Israeli team’s work was taking place in "complete coordination" with the United Arab Emirates’ intelligence apparatus.
The report came only a day after at least four ships broadcast warnings off the Emirati coast, suggesting that they had lost control of their steering operations under unclear circumstances.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/05/2021 00:00 ||
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[Washington Examiner] MCALLEN, Texas — A border city in south Texas declared a local disaster this week as it struggles to respond to surging cases of the coronavirus among migrants as thousands are released by the Border Patrol onto the street every week.
Last week, a record-high 7,000 migrants were released in downtown McAllen, where they were immediately tested for the coronavirus through a city contractor. More than 1,500 people tested positive over the past seven days, according to a city document issued Wednesday, compared to a total of 7,000 confirmed cases over the past five months. Those who test positive are told to quarantine for two days but are ultimately released into the public.
The city said in a statement that the "shockingly large number of immigrants" released by Customs and Border Protection into the city overwhelmed Catholic Charities, which provides humanitarian services in the city for migrants. "This significant change increases the threat of COVID spread or other lawlessness within the city," the city said.
The Catholic Charities shelter downtown has taken in migrants released by federal border authorities for seven years but has never seen numbers like those over the past few weeks. In early July, the shelter averaged 750 arrivals daily, increasing to 1,100, and up to 1,900 per day in the first few days of August. The center is only approved to hold 1,236 people at a time.
Posted by: Besoeker ||
08/05/2021 06:01 ||
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#1
Posted under Governmet Corruption. Is there any chance we could create a new category of posting entitled:
IRONY
Biden, his minions, the Media and the CDC have made it a major point to announce that TX. and Fla account for 1/2 of all the latest C-19 cases in the USA.
Note: Both State Governors are in a open Media war with the Junta Administration.
Question: Any one else wondering if the release of INFECTED Illegals is applicable to rise in in reported infections?
Side Item and use of Junta Logic: Why is it US Citizens on Vacation in Mexico are required to have a C-19 test showing they are NOT infected to be allowed to return? But at the very same time, the JUNTA is releasing 1000's infected illegals/Criminals in the USA and NOT stopping them from entry?.
BEIRUT , 5 Aug 2021 03:38 AM - REGNUM At least 84 people were injured during street riots in Lebanese Beirut, the press service of the Lebanese Red Cross Society reported.
“Thirteen of them were taken to hospitals, the rest were treated on the spot,” the organization said.
It is noted that the riots took place on the day of mourning for those killed in the explosion in the seaport of Beirut in August 2020. The funeral rally escalated into clashes with the security forces due to the participation of radical organizations in it. In response, the security forces used water cannons and tear gas.
At the same time, the press service of the Lebanese Department of Internal Security Forces claims that the demonstrators tried to seize the parliamentary palace. Nevertheless, the pogroms and riots in the Lebanese capital were stopped.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/05/2021 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV] Four members of a family have been killed in northern Syria in an attack carried out by Ottoman Turkish forces.
Syria’s official news agency SANA reported that Ottoman Turkish warplanes fired several rockets at residential buildings in al-Safawyia village on the outskirts of the city of Ain Issa in the northern countryside of Raqqah province on Wednesday. A man and three children were killed.
The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights blamed the Ottoman Turkish forces and allied hard boys, saying the rockets were fired on a village controlled by Kurdish fighters near the border with The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor... According to SANA, Ottoman Turkish forces have intensified attacks on residential buildings in areas in the northern countryside of Raqqah over the past days. They have been using heavy artillery, warplanes and drones. Casualties have also been reported.
Turkey views the US-backed People's Protection Units (YPG) in northern Syria as a terrorist organization tied to the homegrown Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has been seeking an autonomous Kurdish region in Turkey since 1984.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/05/2021 00:00 ||
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[JPost] The IDF carried out three rounds of retaliatory strikes along the entire Lebanese border on Wednesday afternoon after three rockets were fired toward the northern Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona.
Sirens sounded in Kiryat Shmona and the communities of Kfar Giladi and Tel Hai at around noon, sending thousands to bomb shelters. Magen David Adom emergency services said they treated four people for anxiety attacks following the rocket fire.
The IDF said it identified three launches from Lebanon. One failed and fell inside Lebanese territory, while two others hit open areas inside Israel.
RAW FOOTAGE: 3 rockets were just fired from Lebanon toward northern Israel. 2 rockets landed in Israel, and 1 fell inside Lebanon.
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.
[Daily Mail, where America get its news] 
...mindless ferocity in a turban...
...the Pashtun equivalent of men...
...
...Arabic for 
[Iran Press TV] The Israeli regime has reportedly started a cyber-sabotage campaign in the UAE to interfere with the regional air and maritime navigation, thus shifting "the focal point of crisis" from the occupied territories towards the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman region.
...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor...
