#6
Considering the clothing fashion and the building construction (asphalt shingles, brick steps, screen door, etc.) behind them, I have a sense these ladies are Home Defenders from the Cold War era.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) tossed in the slammer Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! one of the attackers of German consulate who was on the lam, the security officials said Sunday.
The officials further added that the arrested suspect was among the three jacket wallahs who had launched a coordinated attack on German consulate in Mazar-e-Sharif city, the thriving provincial capital of Balkh province.
A photograph of the attacker was released by the security forces but no further details have been given regarding the would-be suicide bomber.
Shortly before midnight on 10 November, a vehicle laden with heavy explosives detonated in the vicinity of the German Consulate in Mazar, killing four civilians and injuring 128, including 19 women and 38 children.
Most of the injured suffered minor wounds from broken glass while those with serious injuries remain hospitalized. The kaboom also damaged more than 100 homes and shops.
The Taliban grabbed credit for the attack, describing it as Dire Revenge for recent air strikes in the neighbouring province of Kunduz.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/15/2016 00:00 ||
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] A deadly boom-mobileing plot by the anti-government armed murderous Moslem groups was foiled by the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) in southern Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... province of Afghanistan.
According to the local government officials, a Vehicle-borne Improvised Explosive Device (VBIED) was confiscated from the vicinity of Lashkargah city, the quiet provincial capital of Helmand.
The officials further added that the murderous Moslems had planted around 150 kg of explosives in the vehicle.
According to the officials, the VBIED was discovered and seized in the 2nd police district of the city.
The anti-government armed murderous Moslem groups including the Talibs group has so far commented regarding the report so far.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/15/2016 00:00 ||
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) foiled a plot by the Taliban group to target the Friday prayers with a boom-mobile in Ghazni city in Southeast of Afghanistan.
The Afghan Intelligence, National Directorate of Security ...the Afghan national intel agency... (NDS), said the Taliban capo Mullah Agha was looking to detonate the Vehicle-borne Improvised Explosive Device (VBIED) in Mustafa mosque in Ghazni city.
NDS further added that the VBIED was confiscated before the bandidosbully boyz manage to use for the attack and was defused and destroyed by the security forces.
The Talibs group has not commented regarding the report so far.
This comes as a similar attack was foiled by the Afghan cops in Lashkargah city, the historic provincial capital of southern Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... province of Afghanistan.
A VBIED was seized before the bandidosbully boyz managed to detonate it in Lashkargah city.
Both Ghazni and Helmand provinces are among the volatile provinces in southeastern and southern Afghanistan where the Taliban bully boyz and bandidosbully boyz belonging to the other bad boy groups are actively operating.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/15/2016 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] Afghanistan's president asked the United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... on Monday to add the Taliban's new leader to its sanctions list, in a further blow to efforts to revive the stalled grinding of the peace processor.
Afghan forces have struggled to contain the Taliban insurgency, with two deadly suicide kabooms claimed by the group at the NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... air base in Bagram and at a German consulate in Mazar-e-Sharif in just the past week.
"We want the UN to add names of turbans including Taliban leader Mullah Haibatullah to its sanctions list," President Ashraf Ghani ...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. .. said in a statement after meeting with members of the U.N. sanctions committee in 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.... Haibatullah was named leader of the Taliban after the death of his predecessor Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour in a US drone strike in May.
One of the Taliban's main demands for peace talks is for their senior commanders to be taken off the UN blacklist that imposes asset freezes and travel bans.
The grinding of the peace processor broke down last year almost immediately after preliminary talks began in Pakistain.
Since then, there have been various efforts to get it started again, including a series of talks involving the United States, Pakistain, China and Afghanistan, but none has so far had any success.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/15/2016 00:00 ||
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Heavy artillery was still firing tonight in Benghazi after day-long heavy fighting in which at least ten soldiers, including a commander, died trying to seize the resort district of Ganfouda from the Benghazi Revolutionaries’ Shoura Council and its IS and Ansar Al-Sharia terrorist allies.
The assault began at dawn with airstrikes and advances by tanks and armoured personnel carriers. There has been bitter street fighting in which commanders say significant ground has been taken.
The army claimed to have freed militant’s prisoners as it moved into a number of areas including Shara Al-Shaggar (“Tree Street”) and the Deaf and Dumb Institute on the Gwarsha Road. Troops also captured a cement mixer truck with an armour-plated cab before it could be used as a potentially devastating vehicle bomb. There was however a suicide car bombing in Gwarsha, where the vehicle exploded without causing casualties. The terrorists also fired further salvoes of rockets towards Benina airbase.
In the course of today’s battle, a number of foreigners has fled the encircled terrorist positions. An officer in the 309 Tobruk Battalion, Munir Alkartosh, said that a Sudanese family of six and three Chadians had crossed into the army’s lines and said that they had been trapped in the enclave and forbidden to leave. Charities, including Human Rights Watch have expressed deep concern for civilians caught up in the Ganfouda battle.
There had reportedly been fury among commanders that overnight there was much talk on social media about the impending dawn attack. An army spokesman today asked bloggers and media to stop posting details of operations and to leave it to the army to give details of the situation on the ground.
Among the slain soldiers was 148 Infantry Battalion commander Wanis Sassi. At least 31 troops have also been injured in what has been the most bloody day of fighting for some months. The army has given no figures for enemy casualties. Ambulances have been running back from the front line taking the wounded from frontline clearing stations to hospitals.
The city through which the injured have been passing is oddly normal. Though palls of smoke are rising from the south-west and gunfire and explosions have been heard all day, the streets have police patrols who are giving out tickets for cars without registration plates and traffic is moving in an orderly manner.
The Children’s Theatre has been running a computer technology show and a café exclusively for women, run by women has just opened in Dubai Street.
Also away from the fighting, the work of mine and ordinance clearance continues. This morning a tracked vehicle was damaged when it drove over a mine on the university campus at Garayunis. Though the vehicle was badly damaged, the driver was unharmed.
[al-Manar] Tunisian authorities have discovered four arms caches in the south of the country near the border with war-ravaged Libya and seized large quantities of weapons, security sources said Monday.
Two were found Saturday near the city of Ben Guerdane, a third on Sunday and another on Monday also in the same region, they said.
The interior ministry said the biggest find was made Sunday, in a garage on the outskirts of Ben Guerdane where 50 guns, including 27 Kalashnikov assault rifles, and dozens of missiles were confiscated.
Authorities also seized 30 crates of ammunition as well as 12 kilograms (26.4 pounds) of explosives and more than 1,000 tasers, it said.
Three suspects, including the owner of the garage, were detained for questioning, the ministry said, adding that a fourth person was arrested after Monday’s find.
A defense ministry official told Shems FM radio that the arms caches were discovered thanks to information found on the cell phone of a ‘jihadist’ who was shot dead by security forces last week.
[al-Manar] At least 10 people were killed and several injured Monday when police opened fire during clashes with Shiites outside the northern Nigerian city of Kano, witnesses and police said.
Violence broke out when police tried to disperse thousands of members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) who were marching from Kano to Kaduna for the Ashura religious festival.
“The police arrived and started firing teargas canisters on the procession of Shiites to disperse them,” grocer Ilyasu Ammani told AFP.
“I saw 15 bodies sprawled on the ground before the police evacuated them,” said Ammani of the violence in Kwanar Dawaki, an area on the outskirts of Kano.
Witness Kabiru Mudassir said he saw more than “10 bodies being taken away in a police van.”
Mudassir, who was on his way to work when he was caught in the fighting, said “more policemen are being deployed and a military jet keeps circling the area.”
Nigerian police said they opened fire on the crowd after one of their officers was hurt.
“They injured one of our officers and our men opened fire because they were becoming violent,” said a police officer who asked to remain anonymous.
The violence comes just over a month since 10 IMN members — who were also in the streets for religious celebrations — were killed in the town of Funtua in northern Katsina state following clashes with security forces.
In October, Kano police banned IMN from conducting street processions ahead of the annual Ashura rites.
Kaduna state governor Nasir El-Rufai banned the group as an “unlawful society”, saying it was a security threat and calling for security forces to “vigorously” arrest its members.
In December last year the Nigerian soldiers attack the group members who fought for two days in the city of Zaria.
The fighting left over 300 IMN members dead while leader Ibrahim Zakzaky was left partially paralyzed and blind in one eye.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] A court in the United Arab Emirates on Monday jugged Into the paddy wagon wit' yez! two citizens of the Gulf Arab state to 10 and seven years in jail for membership of a "banned secret organization", state news agency WAM reported.
In a separate case, the court sentenced a man from another Arab state to three years for writing slogans and drawing on walls in support of "a terrorist organization" and writing offensive statements against state officials, it said.
The agency did not identify the men or the organizations, but the UAE has been pursuing a crackdown on Islamists it accuses of trying to destabilize the Western-allied OPEC oil exporter.
In the first case, the Federal Supreme Court in Abu Dhabi convicted one man of holding a senior position in the "banned secret organization" and sentenced him to 10 years. It jugged Into the paddy wagon wit' yez! the second for seven for belonging to the same organization, running one of its UAE offices and promoting its views.
The UAE has banned several Islamist groups, including al-Islah, which is suspected of being linked to the Moslem Brüderbund.
In 2013, the UAE convicted dozens of Islamists, many of them suspected of belonging to Islah, on charges of plotting to overthrow the government, in a hearing criticized by rights groups.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/15/2016 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] TANK: A local commander of the outlawed TTP along with two accomplices was bumped off in an attack in the limits of Mulazai cop shoppe here on Sunday.
He was named Osman, the son of Asmatulah Saheen, a former chief of TTP, Tank chapter.
Hayatullah, father of one of the dear departed, Yousaf Khan, reported to the police that his son along with TTP commander Osman and Surat Khan were going somewhere when accused Wasiullah opened fire on them after exchange of hot words.
As a result all the three persons were killed instantly.
The police lodged FIR against the accused Wasiullah and started investigation.
The bodies were handed over to their families after postmortem.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/15/2016 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] GHALANAI: A pro-government tribal elder was killed in a blast near his house in the Lower Cheenari area of Mohmand Agency ... Named for the Mohmand clan of the Sarban Pahstuns, a truculent, quarrelsome lot. In Pakistain, the Mohmands infest their eponymous Agency, metastasizing as far as the plains of Peshawar, Charsadda, and Mardan. Mohmands are also scattered throughout Pakistan in urban areas including Karachi, Lahore, and Quetta. In Afghanistan they are mainly found in Nangarhar and Kunar... close to the Pak-Afghan border on Sunday.
Assistant Political Agent of Upper Mohmand Haseebur Rehman Khalil said that an improvised bomb was planted by faceless myrmidons near the house of Malik Dara Khan in Safi tehsil, some 70km from the agency headquarters of Ghalanai, which went off when he was coming out of his home.
Dara Khan received multiple injuries and was taken to the agency headquarters hospital where he died during treatment.
Dara Khan was a former head of a peace committee in the area.
After the blast, security personnel conducted a search operation in Cheenari and adjacent areas and took 33 rustics into custody under the collective territorial responsibility clause of the Frontier Crimes Regulations.
Sources said the detained people had been shifted to the Ghalanai lockup where they were being interrogated.
The local administration and security officials told the Safi rustics in a jirga on Nov 7 to take action against gunnies and their controllers or face action. The jirga was also attended by Dara Khan and other tribal elders.
They asked the tribal elders to fulfil their territorial collective responsibility and take stern action against the controllers of gunnies in the area.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/15/2016 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] Seven Pak soldiers were killed Sunday night during cross-border firing across the Line of Control, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said.
"Seven soldiers embraced shahadat at the LoC in the Bhimber sector in a ceasefire violation by Indian troops late last night."
Pak troops responded to 'unprovoked' Indian firing, and targeted Indian posts effectively, ISPR said.
Later on Monday, Army Chief General Raheel Sharif ..Pak chief of army staff, meaning he pulls the strings on the Nawaz Sharif puppet to make it dance and sing and not do much at all.... attended funeral prayers of the dear departed soldiers at Jehlum who had died following unprovoked firing by the Indian troops along the LoC.
The military chief was later briefed on the situation at LoC. He reiterated the determination by saying "we will continue to respond effectively and leave no stone unturned to defend the motherland".
Posted by: Fred ||
11/15/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
"Seven soldiers embraced shahadat at the LoC in the Bhimber sector in a ceasefire violation by Indian troops late last night."
"well, not so much embraced, cuz they had no limbs left intact...but..."
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/15/2016 10:44 Comments ||
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(IraqiNews.com) Nineveh – Iraqi joint security forces and al-Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary units said Monday they had liberated three villages east and west of the city of Mosul as part of a major campaign to clear the city from Islamic State militants.
On the eastern axis, Lieutenant General Abdul Amir Yarallah, commander of the “We Are Coming, Nineveh” security operation, said in a statement that the forces had managed to liberate the village of Naifa, west of Nimrud, the ancient Assyrian city which the forces liberated on Sunday. He said the success came “after the forces dealt the enemy losses in lives and equipment,” adding that operations were proceeding.
Al-Hashed al-Saahbi media body said, meanwhile, that the militias had liberated the villages of Ar-Rakrak and Um Hijara, west of Mosul, also causing ISIS fighters “severe human and material losses.” It said the forces had moved 5 kilometers towards Nazarah, another village.
The militia’s advances on Monday come as part of a third phase of offensives launched earlier on the same day, designed to retake the whole western region of Mosul, ISIS’s last bastion in Iraq.
(IraqiNews.com) Nineveh – The Iraqi air force has said it had killed 20 Islamic State militants in airstrikes west of Mosul on Monday.
A statement by the air force said that several airstrikes on Monday targeted ISIS locations west of Mosul, destroying a number of havens as well as a fighters-loaded pickup truck at Atasa district.
Iraqi forces, supported by popular militias, Kurdish troops and US aircrafts have been in a tremendous, successful campaign against ISIS in Mosul since mid October, seeking to liberate the group’s last sanctuary in Iraq that fell in its grip in 2014.
The group has reportedly sustained serious losses and lost much ground in the city under the brunt of continuous security advances.
The United States-led military coalition partaking in the campaign against ISIS in Iraq said last week that 1363 ISIS fighters have been killed since the launch of operations to retake Mosul in October.
(IraqiNews.com) Nineveh – The self-proclaimed Islamic State extremist group launched three attacks using rockets filled with Mustard poisonous material on Qayyarah, leaving seven casualties including a 5-year-old child who suffered severe burns and was taken to Erbil for treatment, Alsumaria News reported on a video released on Monday.
The child’s brother said that the rocket fell near their house leaving a very strong smell.
The mustard gas-filled rockets also hit houses and markets in Qayyarah.
The United Nations warned of the possibility that ISIS will use more chemical weapons against civilians and security forces in Mosul, and emphasized that the extremist group has large quantities of mustard gas, ammonia and Sulphur.
Video report at the link
Posted by: badanov ||
11/15/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
The Iraqi Army seems to have fought itself out...at least the Kurds are still moving.
#2
the fact that Iraq's army doesn't give its own casualty numbers is a bad sign - I'm sure they have the numbers but the Govt isn't allowing them to publish
I presume a lot of Shia militia have also died but those groups have never provided honest metrics of any kind.
Posted by: lord garth ||
11/15/2016 13:00 Comments ||
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(IraqiNews.com) Anbar – Jazeera Operations Command announced on Monday killing of six members of the self-proclaimed Islamic State group, as well as destroying three units belonging to the group, in southern Haditha, west of Ramadi, by a coalition air strike.
Commander of Jazeera Operations, Major General Qassim al-Mohamadi said in a press statement, “The international coalition air force conducted an air strike targeting ISIS gatherings in al-Saqra area, in southern Haditha, west of Ramadi, killing six members of the group and destroying three units.”
“The air strike also destructed four secret tunnels and detonated a large cache of weapons and rockets in al-Saqra area,” Mohamadi added.
Security forces managed to liberate majority of cities of Anbar, including Ramadi, Fallujah, Hit, Baghdadi and Rutba.
(IraqiNews.com) Anbar – Iraqi media outlets reported on Monday that two consecutive booby-trapped vehicles explosions hit central Fallujah, leaving a number of casualties.
Alsumaria News stated, “A booby-trapped vehicle driven by a suicide bomber exploded, this evening, in Nezal neighborhood in central Fallujah, leaving a number of casualties.”
“Another booby-trapped vehicle exploded also, this evening, near Fallujah Police Directorate, in the center of the district,” Alsumaria added.
“Security forces rushed to the areas of explosions and imposed strict procedures in anticipation of the presence of other explosives, while ambulances transferred the wounded to nearby hospitals and the bodies to the forensic medicine department,” Alsumaria explained.
Posted by: badanov ||
11/15/2016 00:00 ||
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[RUDAW.NET] More than 1,000 ISIS gunnies have been killed and 10 neighborhoods on the eastern and southeastern sides of djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... liberated by Iraqi armed forces since the launch of an offensive to retake the city last month, the Iraqi military said.
"In general, ISIS is greatly damaged and defeated as 1,100 gunnies of the group have been killed since the start of the Mosul offensive," Lieutenant General Adnan Assadi, told Rudaw.
Assadi added that Iraqi "counter terrorism forces have also been able to regain control of 10 neighborhoods of Mosul while ISIS was putting up stiff resistance in these neighborhoods as they were strongly present."
Assadi said the army continues its advances on several other neighborhoods including "al-Zahra and Samah1."
Samah2 has been liberated, he added.
Assadi said the army was aiming for the city center.
"We also help rescue civilians," apart from fighting ISIS, he noted.
According to UN officials, an estimated 48,000 people have now fled Mosul since the military offensive that began on October 17.
ISIS, which is still in control of most parts of the city in particular the western bank of the Tigris River, has been using boom-mobiles and snipers to halt or slow down the advance of the Iraqi forces.
The Iraqi War Media Office reported last week that their forces are clearing areas that have come under their control in the last few days, but reports from the battlefield indicate a slow and fierce street fight between Iraqi troops and ISIS gunnies in areas declared free.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/15/2016 00:00 ||
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[RUDAW.NET] At least 14 people were killed and 26 maimed in attacks near the Iraqi city of Karbala and in Fallujah on Monday, with ISIS claiming responsibility for the attacks.
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... two boom-mobiles rocked the city west of Baghdad, with security sources saying they targeted a police checkpoint. Eight people were killed and 20 maimed in those attacks, following which a curfew was declared in the city, according to news reports.
An earlier attack targeted A’in Tamar, a town west of Karbala.
"The security forces clashed with six jacket wallahs wearing explosives belts after they infiltrated into the al-Jihad neighborhood in A’in Tamar," Saad Ma’an, spokesperson of the Iraqi interior ministry, told al-Sharqiya TV.
"Five of them were killed by the security forces and a sixth detonated his explosives after he was seized in a house," he said, adding that six people were killed in the attack and as many maimed.
Rooters reported that the attack happened during the outset of the Shiite Arbayeen ceremonies, which mourn the Shiite saint Hussein and that attract thousands of people each year to what is the sect’s holiest city.
ISIS warned in a statement that it plans to target Shiite members of the Iraqi army and police, Rooters reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/15/2016 00:00 ||
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[RUDAW.NET] The Shiite-led Hashd al Shaabi paramilitary force recaptured three more villages from ISIS west of djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... Monday, the group announced, as it launched the next phase of a push toward Tal Afar airport and targeting ISIS’s top leader.
The force claimed that the villages of Um Hajar al Ulyah, Sirwal and Ragrag, covering an area of 10 square kilometers west of Mosul, had been liberated on Monday.
It said 300 families in Sirwal had been liberated from ISIS and that its forces had "transported them to safe places."
The Hashd al Shaabi, which says it has an armed force of 140,000 fighters, began its offensive southwest and west of Mosul on October 29, almost two weeks after the start of the Mosul operation by the Iraqi and Kurdish forces.
The group’s front man, Ahmad al-Asadi, told news hounds today that it has an area of 14,000 sq. km to recapture from ISIS.
He said villages it had liberated during the second stage of its operations number 74.
"The front that has been tasked to the Hashd al-Shaabi is one of the most significant and most dangerous fronts in this operation," al-Asadi said last month. He added that the Hashd "is tasked with one of the widest areas, ranging from Qayyara in the west, Tal Afar in the north to the Mosul outskirts in the east and some areas on the Syrian-Iraqi border to the west."
ISIS has been encircled on all sides in Mosul except the west, for which the Hashd al Shaabi is responsible.
Asadi claimed today that the area is vital and important for its geostrategic location between Iraq and Syria ‐ where ISIS has its caliphate in the city of Raqqa -- but also because the bad boys’ top leader is present there.
"The intelligence information indicates that their self-proclaimed caliph, the terrorist His Supreme Immensity, Caliph of the Faithful and Galactic Overlord, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi ...formerly merely the head of ISIL and a veteran of the Bagram jailhouse. Looks like a new messiah to bajillions of Moslems, like just another dead-eyed mass murder to the rest of us... , is usually present between Tal Afar and Baaj," Asadi said.
Group denies human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. abuses
Amid reports of human rights violations by the participating forces in the Mosul offensive, including the Hashd al-Shaabi, Asadi claimed they had faced no problems, and even provided badly needed food and medicines.
"We will exercise the utmost discipline as we have done in all our previous operations," he said.
But at least in one incident on Nov. 1, Rudaw’s Bahman Hassan, who was embedded with the Hashd al Shaabi in the Nineveh plains, reported the force lined up many men from the villages for security checks before transferring entire families to refugee camps.
"It's unclear where the men are taken and how the questioning takes place," Hassan said.
When the paramilitaries began operations more than two weeks ago, they said the largely Turkmen town of Tal Afar was among areas they wanted to liberated.
"The maimed and victimized town of Tal Afar and other towns will be among the areas (Hashd al-Shaabi) will liberate," Asadi said in late October.
He said that decision is now with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and reaffirmed that the Iraqi federal police and the Iraqi army will enter the town.
Earlier this month Abadi told a delegation of tribal leaders from Tal Afar that the Hashd force will not enter the Turkmen town. He said that Iraqi forces would be given that responsibility.
The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... had warned the Shiite forces against entering Tal Afar, for fear the force would brutalize the town’s population, which is largely Turkmen and a mix of Sunnis and Shiites.
See Rudaw’s live map, including today’s advances by Iraqi forces and the Hashd al Shaabi
Posted by: Fred ||
11/15/2016 00:00 ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] A video has emerged showing Peshmerga forces capturing an ISIS militant north of Mosul. Chop his head off.
The video shows an ISIS militant fighter emerging from his hiding place with raised arms and being told to lift up his shirt to check for a suicide belt.
The man appears disheveled as he surrenders begging the forces not to shoot at him.
Rudaw news agency released the video on Monday where Peshmerga forces apprehend the man in a town 13 km north of Mosul.
The capture was part of a wider operation by allied forces to retake Mosul from ISIS, which began on Oct. 17.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/15/2016 00:00 ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] ISIS is using wooden replicas of tanks and Humvees in a bid to subvert an air campaign by the US-led military coalition supporting Iraqi forces in the djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... operations, even using bearded mannequins to simulate Death Eater fighters.
The Iraqi army captured a handful of the mockups last week at a training site it retook from the group north of Mosul, ISIS’s last major stronghold in the country, which government forces have almost surrounded but only breached so far from one direction.
When seen close up, the models resemble toys but from a long distance they might be mistaken for real vehicles.
"As our troops advanced towards the areas we were charged with liberating, ISIS used tanks and vehicles made of wood to divert the military planes," Lieutenant Colonel Abbas al-Azaji said on Sunday, using an Arabic acronym for ISIS.
It is not clear how effective the mockups have been at thwarting aerial bombardment, which has been essential to the Iraqi forces’ ground campaign to roll back ISIS from large swathes of territory it seized in 2014.
Baghdad-based front man US Air Force Col. John Dorrian said the coalition had been tracking ISIS’s use of such decoy vehicles for a while.
"We call it tactical deception. ISIS has been doing it and that’s certainly a tactic that enemies like to use," he said.
"It is actually not as troubling as a lot of the other things we’ve seen," he said, like setting fire to a sulphur plant and igniting oil wells south of Mosul.
Also found at the training site were two large armored vehicles the bandidosholy warriors had used for assaulting enemy positions, and the blown out remains of more than a dozen vehicle-borne bombs which Iraqi forces had disabled.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/15/2016 00:00 ||
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[Dhaka Tribune] Myanmar’s Rakhine state was hit by fresh waves of violence over the weekend with more than 30 faceless myrmidons killed over two-days of fighting, the military said, as fears soar for the strife-torn region.
Northern Rakhine, which is home to the Moslem Rohingya minority and borders Bangladesh, has been under military lockdown ever since surprise raids on border posts left nine police dead last month.
Soldiers have killed scores and tossed in the calaboose Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try! many more in their hunt for the attackers, who the government says are radicalised Rohingya holy warriors with links to overseas Islamists.
The crisis and reports of grave rights abuses being carried out in tandem with the security crackdown have piled international pressure on Myanmar’s new civilian government and raised questions about its ability to control the military.
Days of apparent calm were shattered on Saturday when the army said six attackers and two soldiers were killed during a series of coordinated ambushes that were only beaten back with the help of helicopter gunships.
The toll then jumped on Sunday following further festivities.
In a statement Myanmar’s military said, Air Force helicopters opened fire on attackers in after two soldiers were killed in festivities with men armed with guns, knives and spears.
Six other faceless myrmidons were killed during festivities elsewhere in the state on Sunday, the statement added.
Authorities have heavily restricted access to the area, making it difficult to independently verify government reports or accusations of army abuse.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/15/2016 00:00 ||
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[Anadolu] A car bomb in Thailand's far South injured two men Monday. The two men, both deputy village chiefs in Pattani province, were investigating a pickup truck parked suspiciously in their village when suspected militants detonated the bomb.
Investigating officer Thanet Subeerun said that the vehicle "was stolen and involved in a previous drive-by shooting."
"This is the work of insurgents who want to continue creating a unstable situation at the expense of the local people," Thanet said.
Ankara, Beirut-Residents of the eastern part of Aleppo, where Syrian forces clashed with armed opposition factions, received messages on Sunday from the regime giving opposition fighters 24 hours to leave the area.
The messages read: “Gunmen in east Aleppo, you have 24 hours only to take the decision to leave.”
“Those who want to save their lives must put down their weapons and their safety will be guaranteed. After the end of this period, the planned strategic offensive will begin,” the messages added.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a Britain-based monitor, and an Agence France Presse correspondent in rebel-held east Aleppo reported clashes in the Karam al-Turab neighborhood and the village of Al-Aziza just outside the city.
The AFP correspondent said the fighting could be heard in much of the rebel-held east, which is surrounded by regime forces and has come under repeated assault since the army announced an operation to recapture it in September.
Meanwhile, Ankara warned on Sunday from any attempt to change the demographic structure of Aleppo, at a time when Turkish-backed Syrian opposition factions were positioned few kilometers away from the city of Al Bab, the last ISIS stronghold in Aleppo province.
Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister and spokesman Numan Kurtulmus said that Aleppo and Mosul in Iraq were two important cities, and the fate of the region is linked to the form those two cities will take in the future, warning from any attempts to introduce to them any demographic change.
On the battlefield, SOHR said: “Turkish-backed opposition fighters are now two kilometers north and northwest of the town of al-Bab, and are targeting it with artillery fire and air strikes.”
SOHR director Rami Abdelrahman said: “This progress is a continuation of the campaign that began with the capture of Jarablus and has seen the jihadists expelled from an area of 2,500 square kilometers along the border with Turkey.”
Mustafa Sijari, a commander with the Euphrates Shield Operation, said on Sunday that opposition factions were able to advance eight kilometers and arrived to the outskirts of al-Bab. However, Sijari said that controlling al-Bab would be very difficult.
“We expect fierce battles that will take some time,” he said.
Al-Bab is located 30 kilometers from the Turkish border.
While controlling al-Bab is part of the phase 3 of Euphrates Shield Operation, Sijari said that the fourth stage of the operation would be in the city of Manbij, not ruling out a confrontation with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) there.
“We received promises from the U.S. that the SDF forces would pull out from the city towards the eastern part of the Euphrates River to prevent a confrontation with our forces. If that’s not the case, then we will be forced to fight Kurds, something we do not wish to happen,” Sijari said.
Posted by: badanov ||
11/15/2016 00:00 ||
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[ARA News] Raqqa – The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) continued Tuesday its military campaign ‘Euphrates Wrath Operation’ against the Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria’s Raqqa, and reported new gains.
The Kurdish-led SDF announced the death of at least 167 ISIS militants so far in the campaign that started last week.
“Our forces have liberated dozens of villages and farms in northern Raqqa, in an area measuring approximately 550 square kilometres during the first phase of the operation,” the SDF said in a statement.
“Also, dead bodies of 167 ISIS terrorists have been found subsequent to clashes, and four terrorists were taken captive by our forces,” the SDF leadership reported on Monday.
Military sources told ARA News that the Syrian Democratic Forces have also captured seven strategic hills in the northern suburb of Raqqa after heavy fighting with ISIS.
“Since the start of the battle for Raqqa, the SDF has destroyed 14 ISIS military vehicles, 8 Doshka machine guns and 4 ISIS artilleries, beside dismantling 240 improvised explosive devices,” the SDF leadership said. “Our forces also seized a large deal of ammunition during the clashes.”
At least four SDF fighters have lost their lives since the start of the operation last week.
“ISIS is unable to resist for long. Raqqa operation is going well, and our forces are determined to eliminate this terrorist organization,” Rashid Fouad, an American volunteer in the SDF ranks, told ARA News at the battlefront.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces launched the Euphrates Wrath Operation on 6 November, with support from the US-led coalition. The operation’s long-term objective is the isolation and elimination of the Islamic State (ISIS) in Raqqa.
Meanwhile, the SDF-affiliated Syrian Democratic Council started on Monday working on the establishment of a civilian administration to run the city of Raqqa after ISIS expulsion.
According to the leadership of Syrian Democratic Council, it is important that a local civilian council runs the city of Raqqa in post-ISIS era.
“Such an administration could provide a good example for democratic change in Raqqa, especially that the city has been for years a de facto capital for the ISIS terrorist group,” Kurdish co-Chair of the Syrian Democracy Council Ilam Ahmed told ARA News. “The liberation of Raqqa would be a crucial and historical victory against ISIS.”
The Kurdish People’s Protection Units, Women’s Protection Units, Syriac Military Council, Raqqa Revolutionaries Battalion and Tel Abyad Revolutionary Brigade are participating in Euphrates Wrath Operation for Raqqa. These ground forces are being bolstered by the US-led coalition, which is providing air support and advice from US military experts.
Posted by: badanov ||
11/15/2016 00:00 ||
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[ARA News] Hasakah – After losing many areas to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), ISIS militants have been planting landmines randomly before retreating from main strongholds in northeastern Syria, especially in Hasakah Governorate.
Due to the threat such landmines and explosive devices pose to civilian lives, the Kurdish-led Self-Administration has recently established the Roj Organization to dismantle ISIS’ mines and explosives in Hasakah countryside–near the border with Iraq.
The organization was established nearly four months ago, with a staff of volunteers who have been working with some modest equipment to dismantle explosives.
“We have been encountering mounting difficulties while trying to dismantle those explosives. Operating with such modest equipment affects the progress of our work,” Muhammad al-Himas, a member of the Roj Organization, told ARA News.
“We haven’t received any support from the international community so far,” he added.
The Roj Organization has recently started working in the al-Hawl area near the Iraqi border in a bid to clear the borderline to allow Iraqi refugees to cross safely. This comes as thousands of people were displaced from the war-torn city of Mosul, and many of them headed to al-Hawl Camp in northeastern Syria.
“We came to the al-Hawl area to dismantle the landmines in order to make a secure passage available for Iraqi refugees who have been fleeing from Mosul city,” Malik Ahmed, another volunteer within Roj Organization, told ARA News. “Those people need a safe passage, and we are doing our best to assist them cross the border safely.”
Ahmed also pointed out that ISIS has purposively mined many agricultural lands in Hasakash countryside “in an attempt to prevent cultivation”.
The ISIS’ leftovers of landmines and explosive devices have claimed lives of dozens of people in Syria’s Hasakah Governorate, especially in the countryside where civilian’s movement became heavily restricted.
Posted by: badanov ||
11/15/2016 00:00 ||
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[RUDAW.NET] At least 12 people were killed and 50 maimed Sunday in the Syrian Kurdish city of Afrin, which some reports said was from a Russian Arclight airstrike.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported the toll of casualties from the incident, but said it did know what had caused the kaboom.
However, it was a brave man who first ate an oyster... in a statement to the media late Sunday, Jigarxwen Mamo a spokesperson for the Kurdish security forces Asayish in Afrin put the number of dead at 8 and 51 maimed, 19 of them at death's door.
Mamo added that the rocket was Russian-made but they "didn't know who was behind the attack,"
But the local Kurdish news agency, ANHA, reported "reliable sources" as saying the attack was likely a Russian Arclight airstrike. That claim could not be independently confirmed by Rudaw.
ANHA said many of the casualties were internally displaced persons.
The injured were transferred to a local hospital, it added, saying the attack targeted a security checkpoint for the Kurdish authorities in Xezawiye village.
The news agency also published the names of those killed in the attack.
The Kurdish fighters from the People’s Defence Units (YPG) and its female YPJ counterpart, as well as the Kurdish Asayesh, are in charge of city city’s security.
Many regional and international countries have active air forces in the region, notably Syria, its ally Russia and The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... , which have all in the past targeted the Kurdish fighters.
The US-led coalition against ISIS also has been flying bombing raids over Syria for months, but it considers the YPG as allies.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/15/2016 00:00 ||
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[RUDAW.NET] A Russian fighter jet crashed in the Mediterranean Sea Monday as it tried to land on the aircraft carrier that Moscow is using to carry out air raids in Syria.
The pilot of the MIG-29K ejected safely but his jet went down due to a "technical fault," Russia’s Sputnik news agency reported.
The jet was attempting to land after an exercise flight from the Admiral Kuznetsov, an aircraft carrier sent to the Mediterranean to back Russian bombardments in Syria in support of the regime of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs... "An aviation accident with carrier-based fighter MIG-29K occurred during exercise flights as a result of a technical fault during the approach landing a few kilometers from the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft-carrying cruiser," Sputnik reported.
The MiG-29K is Russia's new carrier-based fighter jet designed for destroying surface and ground targets.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/15/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
I hope this accident and a cascade of others like it will turn Putin's show of force into a show of Russian military incompetence,
to the point that fear would turn to laughter, if only there was not legitimate concern about Russia's nuclear weapons threat.
#2
This is the first time the Kusnetsov has ever been sortied. Russia's navy is mainly a coastal navy, so they have had very little experience with carriers.
#6
There's no need to risk repercussions
Or tense diplomatic discussions.
No waggin' your Dragon
Or raggin' or slaggin' --
Send tugboats to shadow the Russians.
#9
Adm. Kuznetsov Navy CIC was fired for losing a battleship, the Novorossiysk, ex Italian Giulio Cesare, while moored. Blamed on a left over limpet mine.
#14
Naval Aviators talk about tough landings; pity the poor USAF flyboy who was the first to put a U-2 on the America. No simulators or computers in them days.
Or the Marine pilot that landed the Hercules on the Forrestfire....
#15
I've often said that landing an airplane on a runway is almost a no-brainer compared to landing on a carrier.
1. The runway is about 2 miles long. A carrier deck is in the thousand foot range.
2. The runway is in the same place all the time. A carrier can move many miles between takeoff and landing.
3. The runway is always in the same direction. The carrier will turn into the wind.
4. The runway doesn't move up and down and left and right like a carrier can.
The only advantage landing on a carrier has is that they always have a strong headwind, no crosswinds.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
11/15/2016 15:49 Comments ||
Top||
#16
RiV, you forgot the part of doing it in the dark.
#17
I watched this video of a pilot landing - F-18 IIRC - at night, in a storm. If it weren't for the HUD and the pilot turning poo into diamonds, you would think the flick wasn't playing...until the very end, after the plane stopped, when the plane's lights hinted at carrier features.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Three Iranian military personnel and dozens of the Islamic Theocratic Republic militias have been killed in recent festivities in Syria’ northwestern Aleppo province, according to media reports.
More than a dozen of religiously devout Shiite faceless myrmidons from Afghanistan and Pakistain, in addition to three Iran’s Revolutionary Guard soldiers were killed east Aleppo, Iran’s local media reported.
The new casualties follow the killing of Iran’s state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe? news hound, Mohsin Khozaia in Aleppo on Saturday. Khozaia was criticized for inciting sectarianism in his journalism.
Meanwhile, ...back at the palazzo, Count Guido had escaped from his bonds and overwhelmed his guard using the bludgeon the faithful Filomena had smuggled to him in the loaf of bread... "Idlib Free Army" recently released a video showing an attack targeting a group of Iranian militias with a thermal rocket killing and injuring scores of them.
Iran’s battlefield losses continue to rise in Syria as high ranking officers were killed during recent Aleppo festivities. Some of them were identified as: Brigadier General Hadi Zahid, a commander of the elite IRCG Quds Force, Major General Zaikr Hussein of the Special Units and Brigadier General Mohamm Ali Mohammed Hosseini, a commander of the Commandos Unit.
Farsi speaking media outlets estimate the number of IRGC forces killed in Syria to exceed 3,000.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/15/2016 00:00 ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Russian defense ministry says rebels in Syria’s Aleppo used chemical weapons against Syrian army. Nearly 30 Syrian regime soldiers are said to have been affected in the chemical attack, according to the Russian defense ministry.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/15/2016 00:00 ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Turkish warplanes struck 15 targets in the al Bab area of northern Syria on Sunday in an operation with Syrian rebels to drive ISIS forces of Evil out of the border region, the Turkish military said on Monday.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him... has said seizing control of al-Bab, around 30 km south of the border, is a goal of the operation before targeting Manbij, from which Kurdish-led forces recently drove ISIS, and the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa.
Ten ISIS defensive positions, command centers and an ammunition store were destroyed in the strikes, the army said in a statement. Nine Syrian rebels were killed and 52 maimed during festivities in the region, it added.
The Turkish military launched the operation, dubbed ’Euphrates Shield’, on Aug. 24 and the rebel forces have so far seized control of about 1,620 square km (625 square miles) of territory, the military said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/15/2016 00:00 ||
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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.
[DAWN] Afghanistan's president asked the 
[DAWN] TANK: A local commander of the outlawed TTP along with two accomplices was 
Mohmand Agency
[DAWN] Seven Pak soldiers were killed Sunday night during cross-border firing across the Line of Control, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said.
[RUDAW.NET] The Shiite-led Hashd al Shaabi paramilitary force recaptured three more villages from ISIS west of 
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] A video has emerged showing Peshmerga forces capturing an ISIS militant north of Mosul.
[Anadolu] A car bomb in Thailand's far South injured two men Monday. The two men, both deputy village chiefs in Pattani province, were investigating a pickup truck parked suspiciously in their village when suspected militants detonated the bomb. 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
