At least five employees of the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) have been kidnapped by unknown armed men in Ghazni province, officials said Thursday.
ICRC spokesman Ahmad Ramin said the workers were abducted on Tuesday when they were on their way to Ghazni province.
He added that they are trying to release the staffers and that their families have been informed of the incident.
Local officials in Nangarhar said Thursday that at least 28 villages were cleared of Daesh fighters in Achin district in the province.
The areas were cleared in a military operation carried out by security forces over the past few days. Officials said about 50 militants were killed.
"Achin is among the important districts in Nangarhar and insurgents can enter it from the other side of the border, therefore we are trying to ensure the security of the area," said Nangarhar police chief Fazl Ahmad Shirzad.
"A public uprising played a vital role in eliminating Daesh fighters [in Achin]. We thank them," said NDS director in Nangarhar Dad Mohammad Harifi said.
Meanwhile Nangarhar governor Salim Kunduzi vowed to start development projects in Achin in the near future.
"I will direct all the district chiefs [in Nangarhar] to stay in their districts not in Jalalabad city and if they do not do so they should leave their job and stay at home," he added.
A number of Nangarhar residents meanwhile spoke of Daesh cruelty in their areas.
"We are fed up with Daesh cruelty. We call on government to start upliftment projects here in our area," said Shah Wali, a tribal elder in Achin.
According to local officials, a number of healthcare centers that were closed in Achin over the past few months will be reopened in the next few days.
Badakhshan provincial governor Ahmad Fisal Bigzad raised concerns over insurgents' activites on Thursday and said that Jurm and Yamgan districts of Badakhshan are completely under the control of insurgents.
But he said government forces are currently engaged in heavy fighting with the militants - many of whom are foreign.
"Two districts are completely under enemy control and some other districts like Ragh are under threat," said Fisal Bigzad, the provincial governor.
There are concerns that with the weather warming up battles will increase in the province.
"We have full preparations both for summer and spring, if the warm weather has a positive effect for the enemy then there are positive effects for us as well," said Mohiuddin Ghori Pamir, ANA's 20 division commander.
Amid the ongoing fighting in Badakhshan, residents have taken up arms against the insurgents to defend their villages.
"To defend our country, our dignity we took up arms and we will not allow anyone to come and rule by tyranny here," said one Tagab district resident.
Government armed forces however have assured residents they will combat the insurgents in Badakhshan province.
"We are fully prepared against the enemy and we will defend the country and people's wealth and dignity," said one NDS solider.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The National Directorate of Security ...the Afghan national intel agency... (NDS) -- Afghanistan's intelligence agency has busted a bomb making factory in central Ghazni province of Afghanistan.
The agency writes in a statement released on Thursday that a Vehicle-Borne Improvised Explosive Device (VBIED), cycle of violence-bomb and seven keg-bombs 'Oil kegs filled with explosives' and eight missiles.
According to the blurb, bully boyz planned to carry out several attacks with these materials in Ghazni but NDS personnel foiled their plans.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/19/2016 00:00 ||
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The National Directorate of Security (NDS) – Afghanistan’s intelligence agency has prevented a suicide bombing in the capital of eastern Laghman province.
A statement released by NDS on Thursday states that Atta Mohammad S/O Agha Mohammad planned to explode his suicide vest in a busy part of Mehtarlam city but luckily he was arrested with the assistance of locals before he could reach to his target.
In a footage released by NDS, the suspect says he was recruited by Ashabuddin aka Nawlak who took him to Alishang District where he received training from Qari Janat Gul.
Atta Mohammad further says that after spending some days in Alishang, he was then told by Qari Janat Gul to carry out suicide attack on a commander of local police.
“I was told that I would go to paradise with doing this,” Atta Mohammad adds. Religion's a funny thing, and I don't mean funny hah-hah. We in the "Abrahamic" strain (and I never heard that word before politix got overrun by apologists for Islam) are expected to believe that God created all of Creation, which means all the myriad galaxies making up the universe; is aware of every sparrow that falls; yet needs to be patted, praised, and adored daily or his ego will be so out of joint that you'll be consigned to Hell (did He make that?) for all Eternity, no second chances, dammit.
Yet not to believe in God is to attack the very foundation of Good versus Evil. Apparently the Mohammedan God approves of chopping people's heads off becaue he doesn't like music, and he approves of stealing women and girls and making them into sex slave.
I'm starting to think the Zoroastrians might have had a better handle on it, with Ahura Mazda (the Wise One, God of light and, by implication, goodness) and Ahraman (the God of Evil). The two exist empirically, since their works exist, and I'm not talking about the Pope. Zoroaster viewed life as a conflict between Right and Wrong, then cluttered up his religion with musings on the occult.
I'm not sure about the concept of the afterlife. It might be wishful thinking, since no one's come back to describe what death was like, at least not convincingly. Do all dogs go to heaven? Do all houseflies? Is it segregated by religion, with Mohammedans off in their own corner? Is there an Isle of the Blest, where Achilles and maybe Agamemnon live and bicker? Does it apply to all creatures everywhere -- remember the myriad galaxies? Do we get to meet them? That's kind of an infinite number of Isles.
I think you really have to be a true Believer to kill yourself in the name of religion. What if there's not an afterlife? What if the life you have is the only try at goodness you get? What if God's aware of every person that dies, with just as much concern as when the sparrow falls. I really don't feel significant enough for Him to care.
If some holy man told me that killing myself would please God, my response would be why wouldn't it please God if he blew himself up?
Posted by: Fred ||
02/19/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
There may be a hell, but I think it might be empty. Built only to scare the ummm, hell outta people, so that decency might have a fighting chance.
Or it could be a re-education camp staffed With Jesuit Drill Instructors.
#2
Point of information: once upon a time the Jews had a sort of Hades kind of place, but that faded away with developing unconcern for the afterlife as opposed to getting it right in this one. Hell is a Christian and Muslim concept.
[Iran Press TV] A Swedish aid group says Afghan forces have killed two patients and a caretaker during an attack on one of its clinics in the central part of the war-torn country.
The Swedish Committee for Afghanistan (SCA) said on Thursday that the raid took place on its health facility in the Tangi Saidan area of Wardak Province on Wednesday night, accusing members of the Afghan National Army (ANA) of being behind the assault.
The charity denounced the deadly attack as a violation of international humanitarian law, with its country director Jorgen Holmstrom saying, "This attack constitutes a gross violation of humanitarian principles and the Geneva Convention that all actors of a conflict have to respect."
He added that the organization would further investigate the raid and "let those responsible be held accountable."
However, man does not live by words alone, despite the fact that sometimes he has to eat them... Afghan officials gave conflicting reports, saying that those killed were members of the Taliban bully boy group.
According to Akhtar Mohammad Tahiri, chief of the Wardak provincial council, Afghan special forces killed four at the clinic and jugged You have the right to remain silent... three, including a doctor.
Wardak provincial governor Hayatullah Hayat also said the report is difficult to verify as the area is controlled by Taliban and that the raid may have been carried out by police and not the army.
"There was an operation by the Afghan forces, possibly police, in the area which targeted a group of enemy fighters, but it was not close to any health facility," he said.
Another bigwig also confirmed the attack but said it was not near the hospital.
The SCA runs health, education and other development program in nearly half of Afghanistan's 34 provinces. It has worked in the country since 1980.
In a separate development, the International Red Thingy on Thursday announced the suspension of its activities in Ghazni Province as five of its local staff there have been held hostage by what it described as a "local gang."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/19/2016 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV] Authorities in Afghanistan say more than a dozen people have bit the dust in a US liquidation drone strike in the country's eastern province of Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. Colonel Hazrat Hussain Mashriqiwal, a front man for the Nangarhar provincial police department, said on Thursday that the drone attack took place in the Achin district of the province, which is located 120 kilometers (74 miles) east of the Afghan capital, Kabul ...the capital of Afghanistan. Home to continuous fighting from 1992 to 1996 between the forces of would-be strongman and Pak ISI/Jamaat-e-Islami sock puppet Gulbuddin Hekmayar and the Northern Alliance, a period which won Hek the title Most Evil Man in the World and didn't do much for the reputations of the Northern Alliance guys either.... , the previous night.
He added that 15 members of the Daesh [Islamic State]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... bully boy group were killed in the aerial assault.
On February 3, at least 18 people bit the dust when US-led foreign forces carried out a string of drone strikes in Afghanistan's southeastern province of Paktika ...which coincidentally borders South Wazoo... A provincial security official, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... , identified the dear departed as members of the Taliban bully boy group, noting that they hailed from Pakistain's mountainous northwestern region of Wazoo, and had sneaked into Afghanistan's through the area.
The attack came only a day after US forces carried out a drone strike in the Achin district of the troubled eastern province of Nangarhar, killing three members of the Daesh [Islamic State] Takfiri bully boy group.
On January 26, five people were also killed in a dronezap in the same Afghan province, which has seen a rise in the presence of Daesh [Islamic State]Lions of Islam over the past months.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/19/2016 00:00 ||
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U.S. warplanes have killed up to 40 people in air strikes on an ISIS training camp in Libya, it has been reported.
A Western official quoted by the New York Times said U.S. jets targeted a senior ISIS mastermind behind two major jihadist attacks in Tunisia.
Intelligence officials said was 'likely' that Noureddine Chouchane was among those killed.
He is suspected of being behind two Tunisia attacks last year: one at the Bardo Museum that killed 22 people and the other at a beach resort in Sousse in which 38 died.
NYT version here. The air strikes hit a camp 50 miles west of Tripoli.
Posted by: Betty Hitler2611 ||
02/19/2016 10:17 ||
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Morocco’s Central Bureau of Judicial Investigation has dismantled a heavily armed 10-member terror cell that was active in Essaouira, Meknes and Sidi Kacem, the Interior Ministry announced on Thursday.
A French national was among the cell members, the Ministry said, adding that the anti-terrorist brigade of the Central Bureau of Judicial Investigation (BCIJ,) called Morocco’s FBI, were able to nab the ringleader of the cell at a residence at El Jadida, a port city on the Atlantic coast of Morocco, to the south of Casablanca.
During the cell dismantling operation, the BCIJ forces seized sizeable quantity of weapons including four pistols, a rifle equipped with viewfinder, and 13 tear-gas bombs.
The cell reportedly was planning attacks against some strategic institutions at the request of the Islamic State.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/19/2016 00:00 ||
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The law finally caught up with a mafia-type gang which has brought terror to Benghazi’s West Salmani district for months. Two members of the family gang were arrested when the army and the counter-crime agency (CCA) today attacked and captured their home in which an arsenal of weapons was discovered. In the operation, however, three members of the gang managed to escape, including its leader, and two members of the CCA were wounded in the assault, one seriously.
The other took a shot in the leg and is being treated in Jalaa hospital.
It is alleged that the gang had managed carve out a fiefdom for themselves in West Salami, carrying out robberies and kidnappings with impunity, and demanding 10 dinars a day from local shops as protection money and threatening anyone who refused to pay. It is also claimed they they set up roadblocks in the area, robbing drivers whom they stopped. One local man told the Libya Herald today that he had been stopped at one and had his car plus LD 1,900 in cash stolen.
There are also reports of people who refused to cooperate being murdered in cold blood.
Matters came to head yesterday when locals decided to take the matter into their own hands after one of the gang had gone to a local gold shop, demanded money and had then beaten up the owner who had refused to pay. His family joined forces with that of another man reportedly shot dead by the gang a couple of weeks ago when he refused to hand his car to them.
Following a small shootout at the gang’s home, army and CCA units arrived and surrounded the place, ordering the family to surrender. They refused and in the end, early this morning, the house was stormed.
Questions are now being asked how the family managed to act with impunity for so long, and why the army or CCA did nothing about them. There are allegations that they were being protected.
Tonight though, although three members managed to escape, there is a sense of peace in West Salmani.
#1
Questions are now being asked how the family managed to act with impunity for so long, and why the army or CCA did nothing about them. There are allegations that they were being protected.
No. Reeaaallly?
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/19/2016 10:52 Comments ||
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#2
the army and the counter-crime agency (CCA) today attacked and captured their home
A member of the Wirshefana Council of Elders has been kidnapped in west Tripoli. A family friend told the Libyan news agency LANA that Mabrouk Karnafa was seized by gunmen on Tuesday in the Hashan are of Janzour and that nothing had been heard of him since.
It is not known if the abduction was political or for ransom. The victim is the father of businessman Muftah Karnafa and in present circumstances where kidnappings for financial gain are rampant, the latter possibility is thought highly likely.
A week ago, Abdulmonem Tantoush, a brother of House of Representative’s member for nearby Maya Omar Ali Tantoush and a lawyer working with the economy minister, was kidnapped. A couple of days later a communications engineer from Kufra was also kidnapped in Tripoli. There is no news of either so far.
[Iran Press TV] Nigerian army soldiers have rescued 195 people held hostage by Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... 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... turbans across the country's northeastern region.
The Nigerian army said in a statement on Thursday that a number of Death Eaters had also been killed in the restive state of Borno during the operation, adding that a range of equipment and livestock had also been seized.
Two trucks, 180 cycle of violences, 750 bicycles and a generator were among the seized equipment, according to reports.
This comes after a major operation against a key Boko Haram base in Nigeria by the Cameroon ...a long, narrow country that fills the space between Nigeria and Chad on the northeast, CAR to the southeast. Prior to incursions by Boko Haram nothing ever happened there... ian army, which also led to the seizure of heavy machine guns, rocket launchers, AK-47s, grenades and training rifles.
On Sunday, Boko haram Death Eaters killed 30 people in raids on Borno State's village of Kachifa and an area near Yakshari village.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/19/2016 00:00 ||
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Jeddah- Yemen’s national army and Popular Resistance, on feb.17, registered a sizable withdrawal of Houthi militia and Republican Guard supporters of the ousted Ali Abdullah Saleh. The drawback was recorded in areas surrounding Taiz, which were previously converted into militant camps and operations’ launch headquarters.
Reasons behind the retraction are still not clear. However, senior military officials denoted that the retreat could be a result of several factors, mainly being that militia leaderships and Republican Guard are barricaded in different areas like Sana’a, Hajjah, and Saada. Militants are given orders to alter course and head towards Sana’a which is being cornered down by pro-legitimacy forces. Militias barricading Taiz are beginning to fall apart under a great shortcoming of military supplies, due to the Popular Resistance cutting off all supply routes.
Over the past months militias forced a blockade on Taiz and suspended all access of humanitarian relief. Civilians in Taiz have been deprived of both sustenance and medical care. Houthi belting of Taiz and persistence on holding it hostage seems to have washed down a bit. With all the military support deprivation militants are subjected to along with orders on leaving for Sana’a, is leading them to abandon Taiz.
Brig. Gen. Abdullah al-Subaihi, commander of the 15 Mika brigade and the north-eastern district of Aden, told Asharq Al-Awsat that pro-legitimacy Yemeni forces are logging broad progress across all battle fronts. They freed several regions previously dominated by militants. Houthi militia and the Republican Guard are directing vehicles towards north of Taiz, al-Subaihi added.
Yemen’s national army possesses a variety of choices to pick from. The retreating vehicles, in coordination with the Arab coalition air force, could be thumped. Should the vehicles be destroyed, militants in Sana’a will be left with no military support. A move can also be made to free Sana’a whilst militias are moving away from the southern fronts of the city, Brig. Al-Subaihi added.
Abdullah Ghallab, chairman to the military media council in Taiz, reported to Asharq Al-Awsat that recent information confirms withdrawal of militia units from different locations which entrapped Taiz before. The retreat is a reaction to the blockade imposed by the national army on Sana’a, Ghallab added.
Primary data suggests that militia leaderships are moving towards Sana’a accompanied with troops known by “Ansar Allah” (Supporters of God). However, many members deserted militia ranks, given they had joined for money and fought with light weapons. Those who left the militant ranks requested to join the Popular Resistance forces as a compensation for their deeds especially that most of them were civilians with limited income.
Strikes launched on Houthi headquarters in Nihm district, located in Sana’a governorate, are being intensified, military and Popular Resistance sources reported. A notable advancement of army units is being recorded after employing high-caliber weaponry. Houthi militants and Saleh armed supporters are relinquishing positions on a daily basis in battlefronts near Sana’a.
Rapid response operations executed by the Popular Resistance forces are confusing militant groups and rendering them out of action to avert the attacks. Over the past few days, more than 20 rapid response operations pounded militia grouping centers and militant-established checkpoints across several districts.
Popular Resistance forces are now using similar tactics in other quarters. Some resistance units had carried out a rapid response attack in the Shabwah Governorate after already attacking in two separate raids on militia sites in Beihan, a town in western Yemen.
Using an anti-tank missile, Popular Resistance forces also launched an attack across Tihamah at Hajjah governorate, which resulted in great losses among militias.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Any participation by Saudi forces in a US-led ground operation in Syria would focus on fighting the ISIS group not Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Scourge of Qusayr... , Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... 's foreign minister told AFP on Thursday.
"Saudi Arabia has expressed its readiness to send special forces to Syria as part of the coalition, with the goal of eliminating Daesh [Islamic State]. This is the mission and the responsibility," Adel al-Jubeir said, using an Arabic acronym for ISIS.
Riyadh has been a fierce opponent of Assad, but Jubeir said any participating Saudi force would make the battle against ISIS the priority.
"For now the objective of any ground forces or special forces would be to fight Daesh [Islamic State] on the ground in order to seize territory from them," he said.
"If they enter Syria, these forces will work in the framework of the international coalition to fight Daesh [Islamic State], there will be no unilateral operations," he said.
Asked if the mission could be expanded to include operations against Assad's forces, Jubeir said: "This would be something the international coalition would have to make a decision on."
Al-Jubeir also said Saudi Arabia's military intervention in Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... will continue until the country's legitimate government is fully restored to power.
"It's a matter of time before the international coalition in Yemen succeeds in restoring the legitimate government... in control of all of Yemen's territory," he said.
"The support for the legitimate government will continue until the objectives are achieved or until an agreement is reached politically to achieve those objectives."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/19/2016 00:00 ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Yemeni pro-government forces on Thursday seized a town overlooking the besieged city of Taez after weeks of deadly fighting with Iran-backed rebels in the area, military sources said.
The capture of Al-Misrakh comes as part of an offensive loyalists launched in November to break the siege on Yemen?s third city, where some 200,000 civilians are caught up in the fighting.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/19/2016 00:00 ||
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Turkey has launched overnight air strikes on Kurdish militant camps in northern Iraq overnight, only hours after a suicide car bomb attack targeting military buses killed 28 soldiers and civilians and wounded dozens in the Turkish capital Ankara, security sources said on Thursday.
According to Turkish media, a Syrian man, registered as a refugee in Turkey and affiliated with the outlawed Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) was responsible for the rush hour attack on the capital.
A car loaded with explosives detonated next to the military buses as they waited at traffic lights near Turkey’s armed forces’ headquarters, parliament and government buildings in the administrative heart of Ankara late on Wednesday.
The military condemned the assault, describing it a terrorist attack. Senior security source said initial signs indicated that militants from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) were accountable.
The co-leader of the PKK umbrella group, Cemil Bayik, said, “We don’t know who did this. But it could be an act of retaliation for the massacres in Kurdistan, referring to the Kurdish region covering parts of Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran.
In a statement a few hours after the blast, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said: “Turkey will not shy away from using its right to self-defense at any time, any place or any occasion.”
“Our determination to retaliate to these attacks, in Turkey and abroad, which aim at our unity, togetherness and future, is increasing with such actions.”
The attack comes as Turkey gets pulled deeper into the war in neighboring Syria and tries to contain some of the fiercest violence in decades in its predominantly Kurdish southeast.
It is participating in the international fight against ISIS in Syria and Iraq led by the US, and has been firing at Kurdish militia fighters in northern Syria in recent days.
It has also been fighting PKK militants in its own southeast where a 2-1/2 year ceasefire collapsed last July, plunging the region into its worst violence since the 1990s.
PESHAWAR: At least nine personnel of Khasadar Force were killed in two different terrorist attacks in the tribal area.
The terrorists stormed a checkpost in Krapa, killing five personnel of Khasadar Force on the spot, while two seriously injured officials died while being taken to hospital. In another attack, terrorists targeted a solar tube well in Dargazai, killing two Khasadar Force men who were guarding the installation. The assailants also blew up the tube wells. Soon after the attacks, security forces cordoned off the area and launched a search operation. An official of the local political administration said several suspects have been arrested during a search operation launched after the attacks.
Separately, at least seven people, including three Frontier Corps personnel, were killed in two road accidents in Mastung District of Balochistan on Thursday. Levies official siad that a passenger coach travelling from Karachi to Quetta turned turtle in Khad Kucha area of Mastung, killing four passengers and injuring 30 others. The accident happened when the driver tried to save a child who suddenly came before the bus, Levies officials said. Three Frontier Corps personnel were killed when the vehicle shifting the injured of the bus accident to nearby Mastung hospital also overturned.
The spokesman for Frontier Corps, Khan Wasey, said three soldiers were killed and the civilian driver was injured in the accident. All the injured were then rushed to Mastung hospital for medical treatment from where they were shifted to Civil Hospital Quetta. Emergency was imposed in the hospital to treat the injured.
[DAWN] Gunman killed a member of Bar Qambar Khel Qaumi Sareshtha in Bara on Wednesday.
Sources said an unidentified man secretly holding a pistol fired at Haji Darya Khan from a close range after shaking hands with him. He was critically injured and rushed to a nearby hospital where he succumbed to his wounds.
The security forces later cordoned off the area and tossed in the slammer I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece! at least 40 suspects during a search operation in the surrounding localities. No one has grabbed credit for the attack.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/19/2016 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] ISLAMABAD: An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Rawalpindi on Wednesday convicted a cart owner known as Saifullah, alias Saifi, for selling 'hate material'.
He was convicted for selling CDs on his cart that contained hate speech. The conviction, rare as it is, entails 10 years in prison and a Rs100,000 fine. According to the verdict issued by ATC judge Rai Mohammad Ayub Khan Marth, the convict will have to serve another four months behind bars if the fine is not submitted.
The holy man who delivered the speeches the convict was selling is, however, remains very much on the lam.
"Countering hate speech and myrmidon material" is part of the 20-point agenda of the National Action Plan (NAP), introduced by the federal government in the aftermath of the Dec 16, 2014 attack on the Army Public School in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), 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. The Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) on May 22, 2015 arrested Saifullah, a cart owner from Jhelum, for selling CDs containing speeches by the cleric Mulazim Hussain Dogar. The CD is titled ‘Collection of Speeches of Maulana Mulazim Hussain Dogar Volume IV’.
Saifullah, who is 26, sells goods on his cart in a market in the Jhelum district to provide for his family.
According to the prosecution, Dogar may be the principal suspect in the matter, but he could not be apprehended because his whereabouts remained unknown.
There is, however, a Facebook page running under his name which currently has 3,149 followers. According to the page, Maulana Mulazim Hussain is a public figure, and a “famous scholar of Islam from Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat” (ASWJ). ASWJ is a banned outfit, according to the list of proscribed organisations.
According to a CTD inspector, the investigating officer did not try to investigate the cleric or his role in the matter. He said the investigation focused exclusively on the suspect, but added that the government has already proscribed ASWJ and had banned the cleric from making public speeches.
PTI MNA Mohammad Sarwar Khan said that unless the government takes strict action against the delivery of hate speech, sectarianism and religious extremism would not be curtailed.
“Action against the CD seller containing hate material is good, but the root cause – which is the clerics who deliver hate speeches – should also be arrested and punished accordingly,” he said.
Analyst Imtiaz Gul said that NAP is big on promises, but fails to deliver due to questionable political will. He said the legal system also lacks the capacity and will to prosecute the real offenders.
“The government is also unable to prosecute the troublemakers because of electoral constituencies considerations, and the other issue is corruption within the system and lacunae in the anti-terrorism laws,” he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/19/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
He was convicted for selling CDs on his cart that contained hate speech.
[DAWN] Seven suspected holy warriors belonging to banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi ... a 'more violent' offshoot of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain. LeJ's purpose in life is to murder anyone who's not of utmost religious purity, starting with Shiites but including Brelvis, Ahmadis, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Rosicrucians, and just about anyone else you can think of. They are currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of al-Qaeda ... (LeJ) were killed in an 'encounter' in Sheikhupura late on Tuesday night.
A Counter Terrorism Department front man told Dawn on Wednesday they received information that about 10 to 15 suspicious men riding six cycle of violences were travelling towards Sharaqpur for an attack on law-enforcement personnel late on Tuesday night. He said Sheikhupura police were alerted to arrest the suspects.
He said as a police party challenged the holy warriors near a drain bridge in Sharaqpur area, they opened fire which was retaliated. He said when the firing stopped from both sides, the CTD teams found seven faceless myrmidons dead who were killed in 'firing by their accomplices'. Some five of their accomplices fled taking an advantage of darkness.
Police shifted the bodies to morgue for identification. The CTD team also collected evidence from the scene which showed that the suspected holy warriors belonged to proscribed TTP and LeJ.
The front man said police also recovered two kilo explosives, primacord, one Kalashnikov, two 244-bore rifles and three cycle of violences from the scene.
A senior CTD officer, on condition of anonymity, told this news hound the suspects were going to attack law-enforcement agencies in Sheikhupura region.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/19/2016 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) tossed in the calaboose Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! an Indian citizen holding a Pak National Identity Card (NIC) here on Thursday.
Rustam Sadhua has been accused of obtaining a Pak NIC through fraudulent means and was arrested after his application for pre-arrest bail was rejected by a court.
FIA sources claim Sadhua is the brother-in-law of Pak MNA Asfandyar Bhandara and arrived in the country in 1982, later obtaining an NIC.
Sadhua had filed an application for pre-arrest bail in the court of special judge central, Malik Nazeer, which was rejected today, leading to his arrest.
When contacted, Bhandara expressed satisfaction over the Indian citizen's arrest. Bhandara said he had time and again complained about the suspect's conduct and had publicly dissociated himself from Sadhua.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/19/2016 00:00 ||
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(IraqiNews.com) Nineveh – al-Hashed al-Watani in Nineveh Province announced on Thursday, that 13 members of ISIS were killed in an ambush by unidentified men in central Mosul (405 km north of Baghdad).
The spokesman of al-Hashd al-Watani Mahmoud Alsurja said in a statement followed by IraqiNews.com, “Unidentified men launched an attack in Ghabat area in central Mosul, and were able to kill 13 members of the ISIS.”
Alsurja added, “ISIS imposed a security cordon on the area to arrest the perpetrators.”
[Iran Press TV] Members of Daesh [Islamic State]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... myrmidon group have executed more than a dozen young men in Iraq's northern province of Kirkuk.
Sheikh Anwar al-Aasi, a leader of the al-Ubaid tribe near the thriving provincial capital city of Kirkuk, ... a thick stew of Arabs, Turkmen, Kurds, and probably Antarcticans, all of them mutually hostile most of the time... said Daesh [Islamic State]murderous Moslems have decapitated 17 youths in the town of Hawijah, located about 282 kilometers (175 miles) north of the capital, Baghdad, and surrounding areas over the past three days on charges of writing banners against the Death Eaters, Arabic-language al-Sumaria satellite television network reported.
He added that the Takfiris later put the victims' heads at the entrance to Shamit village, and threatened their families of reprisal if they picked up the severed heads sooner than three days.
Aasi also called on government forces to accelerate the liberation of the southern and western parts of the province.
The development came only a day after Daesh [Islamic State] Takfiris killed eight Iraqi civilians by firing squad in Riyadh, situated 55 kilometers (34 miles) southwest of Kirkuk, while trying to leave the myrmidon-held area through the Hamrin Mountains. The murderous Moslems then left the victims' corpses unattended in the desert.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/19/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
Attention Amnesty Amnesia International: why are you not protesting these murders like you did the death sentences for ISIS people who slaughtered captured Iraqi troops?
Oh, that's right. ISIS cuts the heads off of people they disagree with. The Iraqi government doesn't.
Cowards.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
02/19/2016 10:48 Comments ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] An Iraqi court sentenced 40 captured members of ISIS to death on Thursday for the killing of hundreds of soldiers after their capture by the ultra-radical Death Eater group as it swept across northern Iraq in 2014, a judicial front man said. Cut their heads off or shoot them before they "escape."
The slaughter of 1,700 soldiers after they fled from an ex-U.S. army base outside Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit has become a symbol of ISIS' brutality and the Sunni Death Eater group's sectarian hatred of Iraq's Shiite Muslim majority.
A Baghdad criminal court issued the death sentences based on what Abdul-Sattar al-Birqdar, front man for Iraq's Supreme Judicial Council, said were convictions on terrorism charges. Seven defendants were acquitted and freed for lack of evidence.
Security forces tossed in the calaboose Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! dozens of suspects over the mass killing of the soldiers after retaking Tikrit from ISIS last year. Twenty-four were convicted and sentenced to death last July, and are awaiting decisions on their appeals. There are more than 600 suspects in all, judicial officials say.
London-based rights watchdog Amnesia Amnesty International denounced the trial leading to the death penalties, saying it was "fundamentally flawed" and had displayed "a reckless disregard for justice and human life."
Amnesty said the total number of people sentenced to die in Iraq so far this year had risen to almost 100.
Birqdar said all death sentences were subject to review by the court of appeals. Iraqi law provides for an automatic appeal for all death-sentence and life-imprisonment cases, even if the defendants do not lodge an appeal themselves.
However, it's easy to be generous with someone else's money... death sentences in Iraq are often handed down after very brief trials in which defendants are poorly represented, seldom allowed to give evidence and are often tortured into making confessions that are then used against them.
Video images of the Shiite soldiers being machine-gunned in their hundreds, posted online by ISIS, rank as among the most deadliest single acts of bloodshed during a decade of periodic sectarian war in Iraq.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/19/2016 00:00 ||
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(IraqiNews.com) Salahuddin – The Federal Police Command announced on Thursday, that 14 members of the so-called ISIS were either killed or wounded in an attack on Ajil oil field east of Tikrit (170 km north of Baghdad), while indicated to the destruction of a number of ISIS mechanisms.
Federal Police captain Raed Shakir Jawdat said in a press statement received by IraqiNews.com, “Today the Federal Police forces were able to repel ISIS attack on Ajil oil fields i Hamrin Mountains east of Tikrit, killing eight members of ISIS and wounding six others, as well as two policemen.”
Jawdat added, “The security forces were able to destroy two vehicles carrying weapons,” indicating that, “Our forces destroyed mortar detachments and burned a number of ammunition belonging to ISIS.”
(IraqiNews.com) Kirkuk – A security source in Kirkuk Province announced on Thursday, that an oil pipeline was detonated by an explosive device northwest of Kirkuk (250 km north of Baghdad), while pointed out that the fire fighters were able to extinguish the fire.
The source said in a statement followed by IraqiNews.com: “This morning, an explosive device emplaced under an oil pipeline near Mar’i village in the district of al-Dibs exploded, resulting in a fire caused by the remaining quantities of oil in the pipe.”
The source, who asked anonymity, added, “Fire fighting brigades were able to extinguish the fire caused by the explosion.”
Noteworthy the south and west of Kirkuk are under ISIS control since June 2014.
(IraqiNews.com) Kirkuk – The leader of Obeid clans in Iraq, Anwar al-Aasi said on Thursday, that the ISIS elements executed 17 youths from the residents of Hawija District and its surroundings, while called the government to accelerate in the liberation of the southern and western areas of Kirkuk.
Aasi said in a statement received by IraqiNews.com, “In the last three days, ISIS elements beheaded 17 youths from the residents of Hawija District and the areas of Zab, al-Riyad, al-Abasi and al-Rashad (55 km southwest of Kirkuk) on charges of writing banners inciting against [them].”
He also added, “The ISIS elements had put the heads of the victims in front of the entrance of Shamit village in the district of Hawija and forced their families not to raise them for three days,” calling the Iraqi government, “to speed up the liberation of Hawija.”
(IraqiNews.com) Anbar – A source in the Joint Special Operations Command announced on Thursday, that 30 fighters of the so-called ISIS had been killed in an aerial bombardment targeted their hideout in western Ramadi (110 km west of Baghdad).
The source said in a press statement received by IraqiNews.com, “The Iraqi Air Force aircrafts, based on accurate intelligence information, carried out an air strike on ISIS hideout in al-Bikr neighborhood in Heet District (70 km west of Ramadi), killing 30 members belonging to ISIS.”
The source added, on condition of anonymity, “The air strike also resulted in the destruction of eight vehicles belonging to ISIS, including three car bombs.”
(IraqiNews.com) Anbar – The commander of al-Jazeera Operations Major General Ali Ibrahim Daboun announced on Thursday, that the security forces repulsed ISIS attack on the headquarters of the Federal Police 3rd regiment west of Ramadi, while pointed out to the death of the regiment’s commander Colonel Ali al-Mohamadawi during the attack.
Daboun said in a statement obtained by IraqiNews.com, “This morning, ISIS launched an attack on the headquarters of the Federal Police 18th brigade in km 35 area west of Ramadi,” pointing out that, “The attack was repulsed and heavy material and human losses were inflicted on ISIS.”
Meanwhile, a security source in Anbar Province told reporters, “A force from the 3rd regiment managed to repulse the attack,” adding that, “The attack resulted in the death of the commander of the Federal Police’s 3rd regiment Colonel Ali al-Mohamadawi, along with one of his companions.”
(IraqiNews.com) al-Anbar – A source in the army’s Tenth Division Command said on Thursday, that 32 ISIS elements had been killed in an aerial bombing by the army’s air force east of Ramadi.
The source said in a statement obtained by IraqiNews.com, “The army’s air force, in coordination with the army’s Tenth Division, managed to bombard a number of shelters and targets belonging to ISIS on the international highway road in the area of al-Hamediyah east of Ramadi,” pointing out that, “The bombing resulted in killing 32 ISIS elements as well as the destruction of those shelters and targets.”
(IraqiNews.com) al-Anbar – On Thursday the commander of al-Jazeerah Operations Command Ali Ibrahim Daboun announced, that the security forces foiled an ISIS attack on an area north of Haditha District and killed six ISIS suicide bombers west of Ramadi.
Daboun said in a statement followed by IraqiNews.com, “ISIS launched an attack by six suicide bombers wearing explosive belts against the security forces and tribal fighters in the area of al-Sakran north of Haditha District (160 km west of Ramadi),” pointing out that, “A force from the Commandos Brigade belonging to al-Jazeerah Operations was able to repel the attack and kill the suicide bombers.
(IraqiNews.com) Anbar – The leadership of al-Hashed al-Shaabi in Anbar Province announced on Thursday, that the security forces advanced inside al-Karma District east of Fallujah, while indicated to the killing of dozens of ISIS fighters.
The commander of the 1st battalion in al-Hashed al-Shaabi Col. Mahmoud al-Jumaili said in a statement obtained by IraqiNews.com, “The security forces carried out a large-scale military operation on the areas of al-Karma District (19 km east of Fallujah).”
The statement added, “The security forces advanced for three kilometers into the depth of al-Karma areas, and managed to kill dozens of ISIS members.”
(IraqiNews.com) Baghdad – A police source revealed, that unidentified gunmen wearing military uniform stole 400 million dinars from a real estate company owner in southern Baghdad.
The source said in a statement followed by IraqiNews.com, “Unidentified gunmen wearing military uniform stopped a real estate company owner near al-Salam Bridge in al-Dawra area in southern Baghdad, and managed to steal 400 million dinars from him.”
The source added, “The gunmen were able to escape and the security forces carried out an operation to search for them.”
(IraqiNews.com) Baghdad – On Thursday, a police source announced, that a civilian was wounded in an armed attack, while two other soldiers were also wounded in a bomb blast in southern Baghdad.
The source said in a brief statement followed by IraqiNews.com, “Today, unidentified gunmen attacked a civilian in al-Mahmoudiya area and shot him, wounding him with several injuries.”
The source added, “Meanwhile, an improvised explosive devices exploded in al-Sayed Abdullah Village in al-Mahmoudiya area on an army patrol, wounding two army soldiers.”
(IraqiNews.com) Baghdad – A source in the Iraqi Ministry of Interior announced on Thursday, that six police members were either killed or wounded in a bomb blast targeted their patrol in southern Baghdad.
The source said in a press statement obtained by IraqiNews.com, “A bomb exploded, at noon today, on a police patrol while passing in Arab Jabour in al-Darwa Village in southern Baghdad, killing one of its occupants and wounding five others.”
The source added, “A security force rushed to the area and transferred the wounded to a nearby hospital for treatment and the dead body to the forensic medicine department, while cordoned off the area of the incident and barred approaching it.”
(IraqiNews.com) Baghdad -A source in the Iraqi Ministry of Interior announced on Thursday, that eight people had been either killed or wounded in a bomb blast southwest of Baghdad.
The source said in a brief statement obtained by IraqiNews.com, “A bomb exploded near shops in Swaib area southwest of Baghdad, killing one person and wounding seven others.”
The source, who requested anonymity, added, “A security force rushed to the area and transferred the wounded to a nearby hospital for treatment and the dead body to the forensic medicine department, while cordoned off the area of the incident and barred approaching it.”
(IraqiNews.com) Baghdad – A source in the Iraqi police said on Thursday, that five civilians had been wounded in a bomb blast in southern the capital Baghdad.
The source reported for IraqiNews.com, “This evening, an explosive device that was emplaced on the road side in the area of al-Rashid al-Siyafiyah in southern Baghdad has went off resulting in the injury of five civilians,” adding that, “A security force transferred the injured to a nearby hospital for treatment, while opened an investigation into the incident to determine the party that stands behind it.”
AFRIN – Turkey’s military bombed the Kurdish city of Afrin and nearby villages in northwestern Syria, causing casualties among civilians, local sources reported on Thursday.
Turkish army units stationed at the border with Syria have launched an offensive on the Kurdish areas in the northwestern countryside of Aleppo, targeting Afrin and the surrounding villages with heavy artillery shelling.
“The Turkish bombardment caused ten casualties among civilians in Afrin,” member of the Democratic Council in Afrin, Rezan Hiddo, told ARA News.
The attack, which took place in the midnight on Thursday, hit residential neighborhoods in Afrin and its suburbs.
“Rescue teams are still looking for survivors under the rubble of damaged houses,” the source reported.
“We appeal to the international community to intervene and stop the Turkish offensive on the Kurdish region in Syria,” he said.
Afrin is under the control of Kurdish forces from the People’s Protection Units (YPG). The city and its countryside have sheltered thousands of displaced people from war-torn Aleppo.
The Turkish bombardment has also reached the villages of Deir Ballout, Hammam, Firera, Hasna, Sanar and Hakjeh –administratively linked to Afrin. Dozens of civilian casualties, including children, were reported in the heavy artillery shelling by the Turkish army on Thursday.
This comes just few days after Turkey’s military hit Kurdish fighting positions in the northern countryside of Aleppo, especially after the YPG and allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) recaptured large areas from the Turkey-backed Islamist rebels.
Earlier this week, Kurdish fighters of the YPG and allied rebels of Jaish al-Thuwar –both are members of the U.S.-backed SDF– had seized control of the Menagh air base and a number of villages in the northern countryside of Aleppo subsequent to fierce clashes with Islamist rebel groups. The Turkish army has bombed with heavy artillery several YPG-held villages near Azaz and Afrin over the past few days, including Menagh, Miremin, Malkiyah, Meranaz, Tannab and Kashtaar. The Turkish operations coincided with mortar shelling by Syria’s wing of al-Qaeda, Nusra Front, on the Kurdish headquarters in the same areas.
QAMISHLI – Western-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Thursday made new gains against militants of the Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria’s northeastern Hasakah province, on the border with Iraq, military sources reported.
Subsequent to fierce clashes, Kurdish-Arab alliance of the SDF drove ISIS militants from 11 villages in southeastern Hasakah.
The SDF units have recaptured the villages of Dilan, Simalka, Ballouna, Dabshi, Meshal, Mashwar, Khirba, Givara, Umm Tanak, Umm Bouja and Misherfa –near the Iraqi border.
More than 20 ISIS militants were killed in Thursday’s clashes.
Demonstrates what resolve, indifference to large numbers of casualties, and close air support can do...
Speaking to ARA News, official spokesman of the SDF, Tallal Silo, said their units seized a large deal of ammunition and weapons from ISIS militants.
“Most of those weapons have been brought by the terrorist group from Iraq to be used against our forces. Today ISIS has lost a new battle against our SDF forces. Our campaign will continue until cleansing Syria’s northern region from ISIS terrorists,” he said.
Silo added that the U.S.-led coalition has conducted several airstrikes on ISIS fighting positions in the area, “which facilitated the SDF progress on Thursday”.
The SDF, which includes Kurdish, Arab and Christian units, had earlier liberated more than 240 towns and villages from ISIS militants on the border with Iraq, including the key town of al-Hawl which has been for long used by the jihadis as a supply route between Syria and Iraq.
The alliance is currently preparing for an extended military operation against the radical group in the city of Shaddadi –the main bastion for ISIS militants in Hasakah province.
The SDF units have recently launched a new military campaign in northern Raqqa and Aleppo, and recaptured large territories from ISIS and al-Qaeda-linked groups.
HOMS – Extremists of the Islamic State (ISIS) have executed two young men in the city of Palmyra in Syria’s central Homs province, after accusing them of spying for the Syrian army, local sources reported on Thursday.
Ahmed al-Zoabi, 24, and Muhammad al-Sayik, 27, were arrested earlier on Wednesday in central Palmyra. They were both executed at the hands of ISIS militants on charges of spying for the Syrian regime’s army.
“The Sharia Court has accused them of leaking security information about ISIS in Palmyra to the Syrian army,” a local media activist told ARA News, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“Al-Zoabi and al-Sayik were publicly executed by firing squad on Thursday afternoon,” the source reported.
The historical city of Palmyra has been under the control of Islamic State’s (ISIS) militants since May, when the group stormed headquarters of the Syrian army and seized the whole city subsequent to fierce clashes.
KOBANE – Militant fighters of the Islamic State (ISIS) on Thursday launched a renewed offensive on Kurdish villages in the vicinity of Kobane in northern Syria. ISIS militants bombed a number of Kurdish villages with dozens of mortar shells, causing casualties among civilians.
“At least 13 people were killed and dozens more wounded in the ISIS-led bombardment on Thursday,” rights activist Salah al-Kurdi told ARA News in Kobane.
The radical group has bombed the villages of Qubbah, Jaada, Tel Abar, Nasiriyah and Zor Maghar with dozens of mortar shells fired from its headquarters in Jarablus, west of Kobane.
“ISIS tries to terrorize civilians in Kobane by carrying out such attacks,” the source said.
In the meantime, Kurdish forces of the People’s Protection Units (YPG) responded to the offensive by targeting ISIS headquarters near Jarablus on the border with Turkey. Speaking to ARA News in Kobane, YPG spokesman Hebun Osman said: “Subsequent to the terror offensive on western Kobane, our forces hit ISIS headquarters near Jarablus with heavy artillery shells and rockets.”
The Kurdish official added that the ISIS-led attacks stopped on Thursday evening after the YPG bombed several vehicles and a security center for the group.
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.
Wazoo
U.S. warplanes have killed up to 40 people in air strikes on an ISIS training camp in Libya, it has been reported.
The law finally caught up with a mafia-type gang which has brought terror to Benghazi’s West Salmani district for months. Two members of the family gang were arrested when the army and the counter-crime agency (CCA) today attacked and captured their home in which an arsenal of weapons was discovered. In the operation, however, three members of the gang managed to escape, including its leader, and two members of the CCA were wounded in the assault, one seriously.
A member of the Wirshefana Council of Elders has been kidnapped in west Tripoli. A family friend told the Libyan news agency LANA that Mabrouk Karnafa was seized by gunmen on Tuesday in the Hashan are of Janzour and that nothing had been heard of him since.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
(IraqiNews.com) Salahuddin – The Federal Police Command announced on Thursday, that 14 members of the so-called ISIS were either killed or wounded in an attack on Ajil oil field east of Tikrit (170 km north of Baghdad), while indicated to the destruction of a number of ISIS mechanisms.
