[AnNahar] The Taliban said Friday they were not responsible for the abduction of 30 Shiite Moslems in southern Afghanistan last week, as rescue efforts restarted after a halt for bad weather.
"Wudn't us."
Masked gunnies stopped two buses on the road to Kabul from the western 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... on February 24 and took 30 male passengers hostage, all of them members of the Hazara minority ethnic group.
No one has grabbed credit for the abduction, but kidnappings for ransom by bandidos and militias are common in Afghanistan.
The Taliban on Friday issued a statement distancing themselves from the incident.
"We consider it necessary to announce to our countrymen that this kidnapping is not linked to our mujahideen, and we are not involved in it," Taliban front man Qari Yousuf Ahmadi said in the email statement.
Islam Gul Siyaal, front man for the governor of Zabul province, where the incident took place, said authorities were still trying to pinpoint where the hostages were being held. He said talks had started with local elders to ensure the "safe release" of the hostages.
"For now, we can say, the kidnapped passengers are still alive," Siyaal told Agence La Belle France Presse.
Locals in the area say U.S. unmanned drone aircraft have been patrolling in the area for the last two days.
Bad weather forced search and rescue efforts to be suspended, but Siyaal and Zabul deputy police chief Ghulam Jelani Farahi said conditions had improved.
"Security forces are in the area, and we will restart our rescue operation," Farahi said.
Hazara Shiite Moslems are often the target of sectarian violence at the hands of Sunni Moslemholy warriors in Pakistain, though such attacks have been relatively rare in Afghanistan.
Nearly 200 Hazara Shiites were killed in early 2013 in two major attacks in the Pak city of Quetta, capital of Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... province which borders southern Afghanistan.
U.S.-led NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and organization.... forces ended their combat mission in Afghanistan in late December after more than a decade fighting the Taliban, having failed to fully quell their insurgency.
[Ynet] Egyptian military air strikes have killed 25 Islamist bandidosforces of Evil in Northern Sinai over the last two days, security sources said, targeting an insurgency that seeks to topple the Cairo government.
On Friday, air raids hit two houses south of the Sinai town of Sheikh Zuweid, killing 10 bandidosforces of Evil from Ansar Beit al-Maqdis - which renamed itself Sinai Province after pledging allegiance to 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.... - the sources said. At least 14 other bandidosforces of Evil were maimed in the strikes. On Thursday, 15 bandidosforces of Evil were killed when air strikes hit three homes south of Sheikh Zuweid. Rooters could not immediately verify accounts of the attacks and the army front manwas not immediately available for comment. "I can say no more!"
[AnNahar] 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.... group jihadists killed eight guards on Friday in an attack on the southern Libyan oilfield of al-Ghani, a front man for the unit tasked with guarding oil installations said.
"Extremists from the Libyan subsidiary of IS mounted a surprise attack on the oilfield, killing eight soldiers," Ali al-Hassi said.
Libya's National Oil Company also confirmed the attack.
A statement from the NOC said that unidentified gunnies rampaged through buildings and other infrastructure and set fires, adding that staff were unharmed as they had fled.
Columns of smoke from the burning oilfield could be seen as far as the town of Zela, 60 kilometers (40 miles) away, the statement said.
Hassi said government forces later recaptured the oil installation, and that reinforcements were sent from nearby oilfields.
Violence and a slowdown at export terminals had already forced most oilfields to shut down for the past several weeks.
Oil is Libya's main natural resource, with a pre-revolution output of about 1.6 million barrels per day (bpd), accounting for more than 95 percent of exports and 75 percent of budget revenues.
But production fell to around 350,000 bpd in December when the Fajr Libya coalition of militias, including Islamist groups, attacked oil terminals in the east.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/07/2015 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
[Libya Herald] Militants yesterday posted a video of the execution of two captured government soldiers in Derna.
The Facebook post, which has since been removed, reportedly showed the men being murdered with shots to the head. The victims have been identified as a Col Khalifa Majeed Haroun, whose unit is not given, and Muneer Ali Abdulqadar, a member of the Shahat Security Directorate.
The video carries none of the branding typical of IS recordings of their murders. It is therefore possible that the executions were carried out by IS's Derna rival, the Abu Saleem Martyrs' Brigade. Though, last December, both groups joined the town's Mujahedeen Shoura Council, they are still reportedly frequently at odds.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2015 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Ansar al-Sharia
[Libya Herald] The government has announced a halt to Arclight airstrikes while the UNSMIL-brokered talks in Morocco are underway.
The unilateral declaration was made in a TV broadcast by Airforce commander General Saqr Geroushi. He said it move was backed by army commander Khalifa Hafter ad chief of staff Nazhouri.
Geroushi said that there would , however, be no let up in the army's ground campaign. He also warned that the airforce reserved the right to reply if Dawn forces continued with air attacks.
Geroushi's announcement after another raid by a government warplane on Mitiga airport, which once again reportedly caused little damage. However there then appears to have been an attack by a raid by a Dawn aircraft on Zintan. Some water wells in the north of the town were damaged. This follows another raid yesterday which knocked out the runway lighting at Zintan airport.
It may have been in response to this attack that the airforce this afternoon launched a second Arclight airstrike on Mitiga. This time four rockets were fired, one of which hit a building used by the Al-Maha company, which operates flights to the Al-Buri fields. A employee suffered minor injuries.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2015 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
[Iran Press TV] A bomb kaboom has rocked a city in the northern Egyptian province of Gharbia, injuring seven people.
According to the Egyptian military on Friday, the blast took place in front of a mobile phone service store and a bank in el-Mahallah el-Kubra, 115 kilometers (71 miles) north of the capital city of Cairo.
"Seven people were maimed in the kaboom," Khalid al-Khateb, a bigwig at Egypt's Health Ministry, said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2015 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis
[Ynet] The French girl knew him as "Tony Toxiko" -- an 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.... recruiter who first used Facebook to cajole her into joining him in Syria, then brusquely called to force the issue: Come to me or risk damnation. She was 14.
The recruiter promised to marry Amelia and teach her to fight, but first she had to get to the war zone and needed an adult's help. The middleman, Riad Ben Cheikh, went on trial in Gay Paree on Friday on charges of criminal association with the preparation of a terrorist act, and aiding a runaway. Amelia has since become pregnant and is believed to be in Syria, the prosecutor and defense lawyers said Friday.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/07/2015 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
[Ynet] Two men have been nabbed Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! in the Belgian capital on suspicion of trying to recruit people to fight with Islamic gunnies in Syria.
Geert Schoorens, a front man with the Belgian federal prosecutors office, said Friday an investigation is underway to determine how many people may have been recruited, and if any left the country to fight.
Belgium has been one of Western Europe's nations to furnish the large numbers of imported muscle in Syria relative to population size.
According to Schoorens, the two suspected recruiters, both Brussels residents, were arrested last week. One, aged 45, is still in jail. Schoorens said the other suspect, who is 25, has been granted conditional release.
[DAWN] The Pakistain Rangers Sindh on Thursday evening claimed to have killed three 'gangsters' linked with Lyari ...one of the eighteen constituent towns of the city of Karachi. It is the smallest town by area in the city but also the most densely populated. Lyari has few schools, substandard hospitals, a poor water system, limited infrastructure, and broken roads. It is a stronghold of ruling Pakistan Peoples Party. Ubiquitous gang activity and a thriving narcotics industry make Lyari one of the most disturbed places in Karachi, which is really saying a lot.... gang warfare in Jamshed Quarters during an 'encounter' in which two personnel of the paramilitary force and an Edhi Foundation volunteer were also maimed, the police and hospital officials said.
The paramilitary force conducted a targeted raid in Baloch Para, the Rangers spokesperson said.
On seeing the soldiers, the suspected gangsters resorted to firing upon which the troops returned fire and an encounter ensued in which three suspects were bumped off, said the spokesperson.
The officer identified one of the dear departed as Aurangzaib, alias Orang. The official claimed that Orang was the 'most wanted gangster of the Uzair Baloch group'.
The other two were identified as Abdullah and Ghulam, alias Gullo, the Rangers official said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2015 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[9 views]
Top|| File under:
[AnNahar] Iraqi forces battled the 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.... group in the strategic town of Dawr on Friday as they pressed a major offensive aimed at retaking Tikrit from the jihadists, officials said.
The town lies along one of the main roads that Iraqi security forces and allied fighters are taking to reach the city of Tikrit, and needs to be captured for the anti-IS offensive to move forward.
Salaheddin province Governor Raad al-Juburi said the main street in Dawr had been retaken, while an army major general said periodic festivities were taking place in the town after security forces entered on Friday afternoon.
Ex-president Saddam Hussein was jugged Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! by U.S. forces in 2003 near Dawr, which is also the hometown of Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri, the most senior member of his regime still on the lam.
Some 30,000 Iraqi security forces members and allied fighters launched the operation to retake Tikrit on Monday, the largest of its kind since IS overran swathes of territory last June.
Retaking Tikrit from IS Lion of Islams, who have had more than eight months to dig in since seizing the city last June, poses a major challenge for the country's forces.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/07/2015 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iraq
[Beirut Daily Star] Iraqi government forces and Iran-backed turbans entered a town on the southern outskirts of Saddam Hussein's home city Tikrit Friday, pressing on with the biggest offensive yet against ISIS Lions of Islam that seized the north last year.
Elsewhere, Iraqi forces and allied militia retook the town of Al-Baghdadi, from where ISIS had threatened to attack an airbase housing US troops, the US military said Friday.
ISIS had taken Al-Baghdadi, a small town on the Euphrates river in western Iraq, in February, posing a threat to a nearby base where U.S. forces train their Iraqi counterparts.
Military commanders said the army and mostly Shiite militia forces had retaken the town of Al-Dour on Tikrit's outskirts, known outside Iraq as the area where executed former dictator Saddam was found hiding in a pit near a farm house in 2003.
It was not immediately clear if the town had entirely fallen. Some officials said the troops were still only in the south and east of the town, which had been rigged with bombs by retreating ISIS fighters.
But Hadi al-Amiri, leader of the largest Shiite militia group taking part in the operation, said Al-Dour had been "totally liberated" and that the advance on another key town north of Tikrit, Al-Alam, would take place Saturday.
The army, joined by thousands of Shiite turbans backed and advised by Iran, is five days into an advance on Saddam's home city of Tikrit, by far the biggest target yet in a campaign to roll back last year's advance by ISIS fighters.
The assault by the Shiite-led army and its militia allies on Tikrit in Iraq's Sunni heartland has symbolic importance for both sides. Officials said Friday they had captured a farm to the east of Tikrit that belonged to Saddam's Deputy Ezzat Ibrahim al-Douri, now a prominent ally of the jihadi fighters.Douri, King of Clubs in the U.S. Army's deck of cards depicting Saddam-era officials wanted after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, is the only member of Saddam's inner circle still on the lam.
Recordings purportedly of him pledging allegiance to ISIS last year were one of the factors that helped the Lions of Islam portray themselves as liberators of Sunni territory.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2015 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
[IraqiNews.com] On Thursday, Baghdad Operations Command announced seizing a number of vehicles and mechanisms belonging to the ISIS group, in addition to dismantling a number of improvised bombs and booby-traps in houses east of Karma in Fallujah, ... the City of Mosques, which might have somthing to do with why it's not called Center of Prosperity or a really nice place to raise your kids... confirming the collapse of the group's front lines.
BOC front man Brigadier General Saad Maan said in a statement received by IraqiNews, "The security forces have made significant progress according to what was planned during its security operations in al-Karma."
Maan added, "The front lines of ISIS gangs have collapsed in the eastern side," pointing out that, "A number of mechanisms and vehicles were seized, while experts dealt with the improvised bombs and booby-trapped houses there."
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/07/2015 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
#1
On Thursday, Baghdad Operations Command announced seizing a number of vehicles and mechanisms belonging to the ISIS group
"We got our Humvees back! Wow - they even changed the oil!"
#4
"Imam, I've heard goats can enliven
The viewing of films at the drive-in..."
"In thy boot or thy bed
Thou mayst smuggle four head,
But Allah hates him who brings five in!"
"It's kosher to cuddle up, teacher,
While watching the Eid double-feature?"
"Al-Fitr's for pecking,
Al-Adha's for necking...
So don't get too close to the creature!"
[IraqiNews.com] Seven civilians have been either killed or injured due to a Katyusha rocket attack that targeted Shula area of northwestern Baghdad on Friday.
Security source told to IraqiNews.com "A civilian was killed while six others were maimed when several Katyusha rockets hit Shula area on Friday evening."
[IraqiNews.com] On Thursday, a source within the police force said, that two soldiers have been killed and seven others were maimed in an kaboom that took place in northern Baghdad.
The source stated to IraqiNews in an interview, "Two bombs, which were emplaced on the roadside in the area of al-Rashdiyah, located in north of Baghdad, have went off near a military rank for the Army forces in the area of al-Rashdiyah," pointing out that, "The kaboom has resulted in killing two soldiers and injuring seven others in the area."
"A security force shortly blockaded the area of the kaboom and transferred the injured soldiers to a near hospital to receive medical treatment, while carried the dead to the Forensic Medicine Authority," the source added.
[IraqiNews.com] A source in the Iraqi police announced Thursday, that a Katyusha rocket has fallen on a car showroom south of the capital Baghdad.
The source said in an interview for IraqiNews.com, "A Katyusha rocket fell in the late hours of last night on Mokhtar Automobile showroom in al-Dora district in southern Baghdad."
The source, who asked to be anonymous, added, "This led to destroying a number of show cars without causing any human casualties."
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/07/2015 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
[IraqiNews.com] The Command of the Salah-il-Din Liberating Operations announced the completion of liberating Dour district of southeastern Tikrit city from the gangs of the terrorist ISIL on Friday.
Meanwhile, ...back at the precinct house, Don Calamari's lawyer was getting even redder in the face... a security source confirmed to IraqiNews.com "The ISF and volunteers have killed dozens of the ISIL forces of Evil during the liberation of Dour district operation."
[IraqiNews.com] The Interior Ministry announced on Thursday, the liberation of an area in Tikrit following fierce festivities that resulted in inflecting heavy losses upon the ISIS group, confirming the arrival of the security forces to the outskirts of Dour district.
Ministry front man Brigadier General Saad Maan said in a statement received by IraqiNews.com, "The federal police forces managed to liberate al-Dawagen (Poultry) area, after fierce battles that inflicted heavy losses among ISIS ranks."
Maan added, "The federal police force has now reached the outskirts of Dour district in Salahuddin province."
A security source in Samarra Operations Command said on Thursday that the security forces have become just 2 km from Dour district east of Tikrit, indicating that those forces managed to dismantle booby-trapped tankers near the district.
[IraqiNews.com] The security forces defused 176 Improvised Explosive Devices in southeastern Tikrit on Friday.
Security source stated to IraqiNews.com "The Explosive Ordinance Disposal experts managed to dismantle the IEDs in addition to defusing dozens of booby trapped houses."
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/07/2015 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iraq
[IraqiNews.com] On Thursday, a security source in Salahuddin province revealed, that 5 volunteer fighters have been killed and 11 others were maimed in festivities with ISIS forces of Evil in al-Dajil district.
The source stated to IraqiNews in an interview, "Elements of the ISIS group attacked gathering sites for the Iraqi Volunteer Forces (al-Hashed al-Sha'bi) in the area of al-Kasarat in al-Dajil district, located 120 km south of Tikrit," pointing out that, "The festivities between the two sides resulted in killing 5 volunteer soldiers and injuring 11 others."
"The injured were transferred to a near hospital and the dead to the Forensic Medicine Authority," the source also added.
[JP] Policemen on the scene after Arab terrorist rammed his car into a crowd of people Friday morning.
A Border Police officer shot and critically wounded an Arab terrorist who tried to run over people near the Shimon HaTzadik light rail train station in Jerusalem shortly before 10 a.m. Friday.
Good.
Eight people were wounded, including two policewomen. Magen David Adom ambulances treating the victims before evacuating them to Jerusalem hospitals, whose injuries vary from light to moderate.
The terrorist is from Jerusalem, police said.
The attack occurred near a Border Police base, allowing security forces to respond immediately.
Several terrorist attacks have taken place in the same area the past year, but Israel's Kol Yisrael (Voice of Israel) radio network insisted for nearly half an hour that it may have been an accident.
Jerusalem is celebrating Shushan Purim on Friday, which brings out tens of thousands of people to the streets and may also encourage Arabs to try to kill Jews.
[Beirut Daily Star] A driver plowed into pedestrians in occupied Jerusalem Friday, injuring five people in an attack that further inflamed tensions a day after the Paleostinians vowed to halt security coordination with Israel.
Israeli-Paleostinian relations have been severely strained by last year's war in the Gazoo Strip, violence in Jerusalem and Paleostinian moves to sue Israel for alleged war crimes.
The Paleostinian threat to end security coordination ramped up pressure on Israel ahead of a general election this month, although President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... has pledged to negotiate with whoever is elected.
Friday's car ramming bore the hallmarks of a series of "lone wolf" attacks by Paleostinians in Jerusalem last year. "A young man rammed his car [into pedestrians], and then got out and tried to stab people," police spokeswoman Luba Samri said in a statement.
Four Israeli border guards were among those hurt in the attack outside a security base.
The driver was shot and seriously maimed by a security guard, police said.
They said the suspect, in his 20s, was a resident of East Jerusalem.
Relatives identified him as Mohammad Salaymeh from the Ras al-Amoud neighborhood.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2015 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
raze his home
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/07/2015 8:51 Comments ||
Top||
#2
I hope his wound was someplace painful.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
03/07/2015 8:57 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Every single time thus far in Israel it's turned out the "lone wolves" were actually very connected wolves, with a multiplicity of close relatives involved in one or more Palestinian terror groups. So the odds are it will turn out the same this time.
...which once upon a time had split from MNLF. But that was a generation ago, and hardly anyone involved still lives.
[Inquirer] A new group called Justice for Islamic Movement (JIM) is believed to be sheltering bomb maker Basit Usman.
Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) spokesperson Col. Restituto Padilla said, "We have learned that Basit’s terrorist group is being protected by a former member of Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters who has formed his own group)."
The group is allegedly led by Mohammad Ali Tambako, a former BIFF member. The BIFF is a breakaway group from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, who has signed a peace deal with the government. Padilla said, "The group of Tambako is holding the group of Usman. These individuals taught bomb making to BIFF and now the JIM."
Tambako was also a former member of the Moro National Liberation Front and the MILF before he became a member of the BIFF. He later became part of the JIM with about 70 followers, according to Padilla. The JIM, which was formed in November 2013, has ideological differences with the BIFF, he added.
Usman escaped a police operation in Mamasapano on January where top terrorist Zulkfli bin Hir alias Marwan was thought to have been slain.
Four members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters were arrested by the Joint Task Force Central on Friday morning. A law enforcement operation was conducted in BIFF camps in Barangays Dabinayan and Liab, both in Datu Piang, Maguindanao. The suspected militants were identified as Aladin Panaydan, Daud Balogat, Ebrahim Oraw, and Abdul Madalidaw.
[Gulf Today] A Sharia court judge was killed by a still unidentified gunman in another outbreak of violence on the island province of Sulu where Philippine security forces have launched an all-out offensive against the Abu Sayyaf.
Police identified the victim as Ibnohajar Puntukan, presiding judge of the Sharia regional court assigned to the provincial capital, Jolo. Based on sketchy reports, police sources said Puntukan was gunned down on Wednesday afternoon for still unknown reasons
[AnNahar] The army intelligence referred to the judiciary on Friday a Syrian who has guarded the servicemen taken hostage by the 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.... terrorist group and participated in the battles against the military.
The army said in a communique that Hussein Ghurelli was tossed in the slammer ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... on Monday for participating in the attacks on army posts on the outskirts of the northeastern border town of Arsal in August last year.
"We've wrung 'im dry, yer honour. Now it's your turn."
It did not give details on his arrest. But the state-run National News Agency said on Thursday that Ghurelli was apprehended while undergoing treatment at a hospital in the eastern Bekaa Valley.
"Yew ain't from round these here parts!"
The suspect has also taken part in the assault on army positions in the area of Tallet al-Hamra of Ras Baalbek on February 23 during which he was injured, said the communique.
Ghurelli admitted to Sherlocks that he had been tasked by terrorist organizations to monitor military convoys and that he had participated in all the battles against the army as part of an gang that had pledged allegiance to the IS in July 2014, it said.
According to the communique, Ghurelli also admitted to guarding the soldiers and coppers who were taken captive by jihadists from the IS and al-Nusra ...the current nom de guerre of al-Qaeda in the Levant, which isn't to be confused with al-Qaeda in Iraq and the Levant... Front in Arsal during the August battles.
The suspect said that he transported the captives held by the IS from one area to the other and that he witnessed the execution of one of the hostages, Ali al-Ali.
The IS and al-Nusra ...formally Jabhat an-Nusrah li-Ahli sh-Sham (Support Front for the People of the Levant), also known as al-Qaeda in the Levant. They aim to establish a pan-Arab caliphate. Not the same one as the Islamic State, though .. ... Front have executed four of them. They want to exchange the captives with Islamist prisoners in Leb and Syria.
The communique added that Ghurelli revealed the identity of the jihadists who executed soldiers Ali al-Sayyed and Abbas Medlej.
Golly. That's an awful lot of information -- he must have been talking awfully fast.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/07/2015 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
[Beirut Daily Star] A high-ranking Syrian intelligence official has left a Damascus hospital after receiving treatment for injuries suffered in a beating ordered by a colleague over a dispute involving Iranian influence in Syria, political sources told The Daily Star.
Sources familiar with the issue said that Lt. Gen. Rustom Ghazaleh, who heads the powerful political intelligence branch, was discharged from the Shami Hospital in the Syrian capital Thursday.
His hospitalization, they said, took place after he received a severe beating by a security detail acting at the orders of Lt. Gen. Rafik Shehadeh, the head of military intelligence.
Ghazaleh received a telephone call from Shehadeh, ordering him to report to his office. When Ghazaleh arrived for the meeting he was beaten severely by Shehadeh's bodyguards, who later dumped him at the entrance of the hospital, they said.
Also, several physicians close to Free Patriotic Movement Despite its name a Christian party allied with Hizbullah, neither free nor particularly patriotic... leader Michel Aoun ...a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah... traveled to Damascus early in the week to assist in Ghazaleh's treatment, the sources said. The team was made up of a cardiologist, a neurologist and an emergency treatment specialist.
The incident resulted from the regime's growing anger at Ghazaleh over a simmering dispute believed to involve the role of non-Syrian forces such as Iran and Leb's Hezbollah in directing the war effort.
The sources said that Ghazaleh had refused to hand over his villa in his native village of Qarfa in Deraa to military personnel from Iran and Hezbollah involved in battling rebel groups in the south.
The villa exploded in mid-December, according to a video posted to YouTube. A shadowy pro-regime group calling itself the National Resistance Movement claimed to have deliberately destroyed the residence so that it would not fall into the hands of rebel militias that were close to overrunning the village.
Some observers read the incident as an open challenge to the regime and its allies.
However, man does not live by words alone, despite the fact that sometimes he has to eat them... several pro-regime sources said they had spoken to Ghazaleh while he was in the hospital and were told he had broken his shoulder in a combat-related incident in his home province of Deraa in southern Syria.
They said a mortar bomb went kaboom! next to a vehicle he was riding in while involved in military operations in Deraa, causing it to overturn.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2015 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[10 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
[Iran Press TV] The Syrian army has captured a strategic town in the western province of Lattakia from Takfiri ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who must be killed... terrorists.
According to reports on Friday, the Syrian soldiers managed to take full control of the mountainous town of Doreen and Tal Doreen (Doreen Hill) in northwestern Lattakia after carrying out Arclight airstrikes on the terrorists' positions in the restive region.
The operations to liberate Doreen started on Wednesday and the Syrian troops successfully cleared the area from the faceless myrmidons of Al-Nusra ...the current nom de guerre of al-Qaeda in the Levant, which isn't to be confused with al-Qaeda in Iraq and the Levant... Front, killing two dozens of the Takfiri Death Eaters.
Doreen is located near the town of Salma, the Takfiris' stronghold in Lattakia province. The area borders Idlib province, which is also the scene of festivities between the Syrian army and Death Eaters.
Last week, the Syrian army managed to repel an offensive by the Takfiri groups to capture al-Fo'aa and Kafrayya villages on the outskirts of the northwestern city of Idlib.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2015 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
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.
[Ynet] Egyptian military air strikes have killed 25 Islamist 
[AnNahar] 
[Iran Press TV] A bomb 
[Ynet] Two men have been 
[DAWN] The Pakistain Rangers Sindh on Thursday evening claimed to have killed three 'gangsters' linked with 
[AnNahar] Iraqi forces battled the 
[IraqiNews.com] On Thursday, Baghdad Operations Command announced seizing a number of vehicles and mechanisms belonging to the ISIS group, in addition to dismantling a number of improvised 
[Gulf Today] A Sharia court judge was killed by a still unidentified gunman in another outbreak of violence on the island province of Sulu where Philippine security forces have launched an all-out offensive against the Abu Sayyaf.
Michel Aoun
[Iran Press TV] The Syrian army has captured a strategic town in the western province of Lattakia from 
