The loyalists of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group suffered casualties in a series of airstrikes carried out by the US forces in eastern Nangarhar province.
The provincial police commandment said the airstrikes were carried out on Monday, targeting the militants in Haska Mina district. The militants were targeted with the unmanned aerial vehicle in Charzoi and Nari Obo areas.
According to the police commandment, at least two militants were killed and three others were wounded in the airstrikes. Several weapons, ammunition, and explosives were also destroyed in the airstrikes, the police commandment added.
The anti-government armed militant groups including the ISIS loyalists have not commented regarding the report so far.
Both the Afghan and US forces conducted regular strikes against the loyalists of the terror group in this province. The increased raids, usually involving drone strikes, by the US forces followed a broader role granted by the Obama administration earlier last year.
The broader role was granted amid concerns that the loyalists of the terror group are attempting to expand foothold in the country and turn the eastern Nangarhar province into a regional operational hub for its fighters.
Posted by: badanov ||
02/08/2017 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
A top government official was killed in an explosion in western Farah province of Afghanistan, local officials said Tuesday.
The incident took place late on Monday night targeting the district administrative chief of Khak-e-Safid Abdul Raziq Noorzai.
The provincial police chief Aamir Gul confirmed the incident and the killing of the district chief but did not provide further details regarding the incident and the type of explosion.
The government officials are blaming for Taliban for such attacks and specifically using Improvised Explosive Device (IED) to target the government officials and security forces.
However, they are saying that in majority of such attacks the ordinary civilians are targeted.
The incident took place hours before the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) released its annual civilian casualties report for the year 2016.
The UN mission said it documented 11,418 civilian casualties between 1st January 2016 to 31st December, 2016.
According to the report, 61 percent of all civilian casualties were incurred through attacks by the anti-government elements which includes a total of 6,994 civilian casualties (2,131 deaths and 4,863 injured).
No group has so far claimed responsibility behind the explosion in Farah which is among the relatively calm provinces but the militants are active in some of its districts.
At least six Taliban insurgents were killed in an airstrike carried out in southern Helmand province by the US forces based in Afghanistan.
The provincial government media office in a statement said the airstrike was carried out on Monday, targeting the militants in Garamser district.
The statement further added that the local Taliban leader killed in the airstrike has been identified as Mawlavi Najeeb who was also famous as Madad.
According to the local officials, the militants were targeted in Kharko area and a heavy machine gun of the militants was also destroyed in the airstrike.
The anti-government armed militant groups including the Taliban insurgents have not commented regarding the report so far.
Helmand is among the volatile provinces in southern Afghanistan where the Taliban insurgents are actively operating in a number of its districts.
The group launched a coordinated attack on Sangin district last week with an aim to capture the key security posts but the offensive of the group was repulsed with the deployment of the additional forces to this district.
Some other districts of Helmand including Garamser also witnessed growing violence last week where numerous insurgents were killed and some Afghan security personnel lost their lives.
At least 20 people have been killed and 41 injured in a suicide bomb attack on the supreme court in the Afghan capital, according to officials.
The splodydope attacker, who was wearing a suicide vest, targeted a bus carrying judicial personnel as they were leaving work for the day, Najibullah Danish, the deputy spokesman for the interior ministry, said.
The supreme court is on a main road leading from the city to Kabul airport. The explosion occurred shortly before 4pm local time, when roads were busy with traffic and vendors. A spokesman for the ministry of public health, Ismail Kawasi, said most of the injured and killed were civilians, including three women and a child.
The Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani, condemned the attack, which he blamed on the “enemies of our people”. The US embassy in Kabul called it “an attack on the very foundation of Afghan democracy and rule of law”.
No group immediately claimed responsibility, but the Taliban have in the past targeted government judicial workers since the execution of six convicted insurgents last May.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/08/2017 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
Heavily armed Al shabaab militants have attacked on Tuesday evening a military base in Arba’ow area manned by African Union forces helping Somali government restore stability. Local residents said they could heard loud blasts, thought to be mortar rounds and heavy gunfire as Al shabaab tried to storm the AMISOM base in the area around Elasha Biyaha.
There was no immediate reports of casualties, as AMISOM were not immediately available for comment on the attack in Arba’ow, about 18Km Southwest of Mogadishu.
The latest reports from the area indicated that AMISOM forces repulsed the attack, and warded off Al shabaab fighters from the site. The situation has returned to normalcy shortly.
Several mortar rounds hit several locations in Somali capital on Tuesday evening, as the city is set to host a presidential election, just 12 hours from now.
Somali security officials and witnesses said the mortar shells were fired at the polling station around the airport in Mogadishu, and residential areas. No casualties were reported yet.
The mortar fire rained down on the capital, targeting the election venue at former Somali air force base known as Afisyone in the airport vicinity, but officials say no shell has hit the area.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/08/2017 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: al-Shabaab
[AlAhram] Troops from five Sahel countries plan to set up a new counter-terror force in the region, where alarm over the jihadist threat is mounting, leaders said Monday in Mali's capital.
The announcement came as leaders of the Sahel G5 states -- Burkina Faso ...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and will leave office feet first, one way or the other... , Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger -- that describe themselves as "in the frontline against terrorism", met to discuss the desert zone's perilous security situation.
The gathering took place barely three weeks after the worst attack in the region for years, the January 18 suicide kaboom in the northern Malian city of Gao that left almost 80 people dead.
"To better combat terrorism in G5 countries, we have decided to implement the creation of a G5 force," President Mahamadou Issoufou of Niger told a presser.
There was no word on the number of troops the force would have or where they would be stationed.
Issoufou said a United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... resolution and Security Council approval would be requested before the force could be formed.
Chad's President Idriss Deby said European nations would be asked for aid for the transnational project.
"What we want is for European countries to give us the means. We are going to be on the front line ourselves in the fight against terrorism," said Deby, speaking as current G5 chief.
Some 3,500 French troops are already stationed in the Sahel region ... North Africa's answer to the Pak tribal areas... as part of counter-terror efforts against an increasingly nimble array of Islamist groups, some of which are aligned with al-Qaeda.
Hundreds of Europeans too are serving with the 12,000-strong UN peacekeeper force stationed in Mali, which has become the UN's most dangerous operation in two decades with 70 lives lost.
The new G5 deployment would "save the lives of (European) soldiers", Deby added.
The Chadian leader said earlier in the day that the Sahel region risked becoming "a space for terrorists" unless immediate, co-ordinated action was taken.
"The multiplication of terrorist attacks in the Sahel" shows the threat "has new proportions", Deby warned.
Chad and Niger are currently battling Nigerian Islamist group 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... , while jihadists in late 2015 and early 2016 struck tourist spots in Mali, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast.
Experts say attacks mounted by jihadists and gangs are on the rise and are increasingly targeting civilians in the largely desert zone.
January's deadly attack in the northern Malian city of Gao was claimed by Algerian jihadist and al-Qaeda ally Mokhtar Belmokhtar.
Northern Mali was described as a "known hideout for terrorists" in an internal G5 document seen by AFP.
"It is also a launchpad for attacks against other countries," the document said.
"We need to co-ordinate our efforts to rise up to the challenge," said Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, whose nation is struggling with jihadists who use its vast northern stretches as a launchpad for attacks.
Mauritania was once plagued by Islamist attacks within its borders, but has made significant security gains.
[KURDISTAN24.NET] Turkish police on Tuesday detained, then released the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) politician Dilek Ocalan at an Istanbul airport.
Ocalan who is the niece of the imprisoned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan announced her arrest on Twitter.
Kurdistan24's Istanbul Bureau said police took Ocalan from Ataturk Airport to a courthouse in Istanbul's Bakirkoy district, adding she was being tried by a court in her home province of Sanliurfa which she represents at the Turkish Parliament.
The Sanliurfa court had already issued an arrest warrant for her and another MP, Ibrahim Ayhan of the same province last week.
Authorities released Ocalan from the brief detention after her interrogation and appearing before the court via teleconference from Istanbul.
A prosecutor demanded five years of imprisonment for Ocalan on charges of "disseminating propaganda on behalf of a terrorist organization" and "behaving in a way that legitimizes the terror group's methods of force, violence, and threats."
Accusations brought against Ocalan's niece were based on her February 2016 attendance in Sanliurfa of a slain PKK fighter.
Ocalan is one of a score of HDP politicians detained or temporarily tossed in the clink Book 'im, Mahmoud! in the last four months.
The crackdown on The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... 's second largest opposition party HDP began with night raids on the homes in several cities of a dozen politicians including its co-leaders Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag in early November 2016.
Currently, ten HDP politicians are in prisons across Turkey.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/08/2017 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
Two Frontier Corps personnel and a civilian were injured in a roadside blast in Chaman's Boghra Karez area on Tuesday. FC sources said the bomb, planted under a bridge, was intended for a passing FC vehicle.
All three wounded have retained non-critical injuries, the sources said.
Last month, on January 2, at least four security personnel and two civilians were injured in a blast in Quetta's Western Bypass area.
The Frontier Corps (FC) personnel were on a routine patrol when their vehicle was targeted through a bomb planted on the roadside.
In November last year, three FC officials were killed and seven others were injured in a roadside improvised explosive device (IED) blast which occurred near their vehicle in Peshawar's Bashirabad area.
The number of attacks in the country has fallen around 70 per cent, due to a combination of the military offensive against Taliban bases along the Afghan border and government initiatives to tackle militancy, but attacks on security and civilian targets continue to occur occasionally.
Two policemen have been injured in an attack on a police station in Bannu, KP according to the police.
An explosives-laden vehicle crashed at the gate of Mandan Police Station causing an explosion, said DPO Bannu Fazal Hamid.
In the attack two police personnels at the gate were injured and the gate was damaged. According to the DPO, “the militant who hit the vehicle in the gate has died. He was around 21 years old.” Meanwhile, two militant outfits, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Al-Qaeda Bar-e-Saghir have taken responsibility of the attack.
[DUNYANEWS.TV] The Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) has on Tuesday tossed in the slammer Please don't kill me! two snuffies in an operation, reported Dunya News.
Both the snuffies were reported to have hailed from a murderous Moslem outfit.
Sources at CTD revealed that both the snuffies named Qari Ahmad and Israr Shafeeq were arrested in a secret operation near Quaid-e-Azam Interchange.
It has also been reported that hand grenades, ammunition and hate literature were also recovered from the terrorists.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/08/2017 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Two Iraqi army soldiers and ten militants were killed Tuesday when Islamic State militants attacked an eastern Mosul neighborhood already under security control, security sources said.
Anadolu Agency quoted Maj. Nabhan al-Maamouri, from the Interior Ministry’s Rapid Response Forces, as saying that the ten militants sneaked on the dawn of Tuesday to Sumer district, southeast of the city, after crossing the Tigris River from the western region.They took over alleys and streets in the neighborhood for more than three hours, the officer said. They were all killed by intervening army forces, said Maamouri.
The officer added that Islamic State militants have recently used to attack liberated districts with small combat companies or drones supplied with IEDs.
Iraqi generals have recently said they had fought off a few attacks by IS militants coming from the group’s strongholds in the west since government troops announced retaking the eastern region on January 24th. The group lost more than 3000 militants in three months of encounters with Iraqi troops, and is now reinforcing its defenses in the west anticipating imminent ground invasions by security forces.
The conflict in Mosul has forced at least 191.000 people to flee to refugee camps, according to government data. Military officials predict a more difficult battle in western Mosul, having to ensure the safety of at least 750.000 civilians there.
Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Airstrikes by U.S.-led coalition fighter jets killed 15 Islamic State militants in western Mosul on Tuesday, Iraq’s defense ministry said in a statement.
Iraqi jets partaking in the strikes, which targeted Islamic State locations in the strategic town of Tal Afar, also destroyed a booby-trapping workshop and a weaponry cache, according to the ministry.
Iraqi and coalition fighter aircraft have carried out several strikes against IS strongholds in the west of Mosul since government troops announced retaking the eastern section from the group on January 24th.
Islamic State had lost at least 3000 fighters in three months of battles with Iraqi and allied coalition forces since October. It has now been confined to the west but there were several recent attacks by militants who crossed the Tigris River into the east to wage assaults on recaptured areas.
Military officials, preparing for a ground invasion of western Mosul, are predicting tougher battles due to the narrow streets of that area and the high population density.
The United Nations had voiced concerns for the fate of at least 750.000 civilians trapped in western Mosul, and Iraqi government data have put the number of those displaced by the war there at 191.000.
Posted by: badanov ||
02/08/2017 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
#1
civilian deaths in Mosul are almost all the result of ISIS human shield and other tactics
even so, civilian deaths in Mosul are a small fraction of those in Syria
Posted by: lord garth ||
02/08/2017 7:31 Comments ||
Top||
Anbar (IraqiNews.com) An official source revealed that four army members were either killed or wounded in an attack launched by the Islamic State group in Anbar Province.
The source said, “An improvised explosive device, emplaced by the Islamic State, exploded near an army patrol in al-Sakkar area, between Rutba District and the city of Ramadi, in Anbar Province.”
“The blast caused material damage to the vehicle, as well as killing two army members, a soldier and an officer, in addition to wounding two others,” the source added on condition of anonymity.
The Islamic State launches attacks on the district of Rutba from its last strongholds in Qaim, Anah and Rawah, west of Anbar.
Anbar (IraqiNews.com) Commander of the army’s 7th brigade, Major General Numan al-Zuwaei announced on Tuesday, that a truck and a booby-trapped vehicle, driven by a suicide bomber, were destructed, west of Anbar.
Zuwaei said in a press statement, “The international coalition air force bombarded, today, a truck carrying a booby-trapped vehicle, occupied by a suicide bomber, in Rawah District (230 km west of Ramadi).”
“The bombardment resulted in the destruction of the truck and booby-trapped vehicle, as well as killing the suicide bomber,” Zuwaei added.
It is worth to mention that security forces and tribes finished their preparations, to liberate the cities of Anah, Rawah and Qaim in Anbar Province from the Islamic State’s grip.
Posted by: badanov ||
02/08/2017 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) One civilian was killed and four others were wounded on Tuesday when a bomb blast hit a market area in southern Baghdad.
A security source told Sky Press that an explosive device near a grocery in Radwaniya district, south of the capital.
Violence surged in Iraq with the emergence of Islamic State militants who took over large areas of the country in 2014. Baghdad has been witnessing almost daily bombings targeting civilians and security personnel.
Nobody has claimed responsibility yet for the bombing, but IS militants have said they had been responsible for several bloody explosions that hit the capital in the past months, bringing the governorate municipal and security officials under critics’ fire.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) said violence in the country left 19000 casualties in nine months of 2016.
Observers believe Islamic State have begun to escalate attacks outside the city of Mosul, where the group has been losing ground and personnel since October, so as to relieve pressure by government forces on that front and to divert attention from group losses.
While losing Mosul could be the severest blow to the group’s existence in Iraq, some observers argue that attacks outside the province prove that the extremist group can still pose a security threat for all cities.
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) A police source revealed that two persons were wounded in an improvised explosive device explosion, west of the capital, Baghdad, Alsumaria News reported on Tuesday.
The source said, “Today, an improvised explosive device, emplaced near al-Ghazaliyah area west of Baghdad, exploded, injuring two persons.”
“Security forces cordoned off the area of explosion and barred approaching it, while transferred the wounded to a nearby hospital,” the source added on condition of anonymity.
Noteworthy, Baghdad is witnessing several attacks, using booby-trapped vehicles and explosive vests, as well as separate attacks against civilians and security forces.
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) A police source declared that a member of Sunni Awakening Movement (Sahwa Militia) had beed wounded in an armed attack, north of Baghdad, Alsumaria News reported on Tuesday.
The source said, “Unidentified gunmen, riding a motorcycle, shot a member of Sahwa Militia, while leaving his house in Sheikh Hamad area in Tarmiya District, north of Baghdad, wounding him with serious injuries.”
“The wounded was transferred to a nearby hospital to receive the needed treatment, while the concerned authorities opened an investigation into the incident,” the source added on condition of anonymity.
Noteworthy, Baghdad is witnessing several attacks, using booby-trapped vehicles and explosive vests, as well as separate attacks against civilians and security forces.
[IsraelTimes] Despite losing a number of its top commandos, the Gazoo-based terror organization continues to work with IS on smuggling, other fields.
Think of it as a lend-lease program. The elite fighters have nothing to do until the next massive multi-pronged attack is ready to launch, so they'd just be collecting a salary and annoying the girls (and boys...and goats) in the meantime. Now the fighters are being kept happily busy while someone else is providing the salary, not to mention the girls, etc -- and there are trade benefits to boot.
A member of Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",’s naval commando unit defected from the Gazoo-based terror organization nearly a year ago to join the Sinai Province -- the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group’s branch in the Sinai Peninsula, Paleostinian sources told The Times of Israel.
Continued on Page 49
[IsraelTimes] The Shin Bet security service said Tuesday that it had tossed in the slammer Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! a group of seven Paleostinian teenagers suspected of throwing Molotov cocktails at cars along West Bank highways on a number of occasions.
The teens, residents of Beit Anan, a village north of Jerusalem, were believed to have thrown Molotov cocktails on highways 443 and 436 near the Givat Ze’ev settlement at least seven times over the past few months, the Shin Bet said.
Route 443 is a major artery that also serves as an alternative route from Jerusalem to the Tel Aviv area. Route 446 connects Givat Ze’ev to the capital and crosses Route 443.
A military prosecutor filed an indictment Tuesday against the suspects and requested to keep them in jug throughout the trial.
"The Shin Bet sees these acts of terror as very serious and life-threatening. Along with our partners, the IDF and Israel Police, we will work vigorously to uncover these terror cells and punish those involved," the security service said in a statement.
The IDF released a video showing one Molotov cocktailing attack near Kharbatha al-Misbah, southeast of Modiin, as well as the arrest of two of the teenagers.
[IsraelTimes] Military Police officers said to have accepted tens of thousands of shekels as well as drugs for turning blind eye at checkpoint.
Five Israeli soldiers were tossed in the clink Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! on Tuesday on suspicion of accepting bribes in exchange for allowing Paleostinians without permits to enter Israel.
The five soldiers all serve at the Te’enim checkpoint between Israel and the West Bank, near the town of Tulkarem. Channel 10 news reported that one was the commander of the checkpoint.
The soldiers allegedly accepted tens of thousands of shekels and drugs from an Israeli Arab man in exchange for turning a blind eye to the Paleostinians illegally entering Israel. The man, Ziyad Hadija, a resident of the nearby Israeli Arab town of Qalansawe, is suspected by police of heading a human smuggling operation of unauthorized Paleostinians.
Hadija was also arrested for his involvement in the affair, as was Fadi Hantash, a Paleostinian resident of Tulkarem who police say shepherded the unauthorized Paleostinians to the Te’enim checkpoint, from where Hadija ensured their entry to Israel by bribing the suspected soldiers.
A lawyer for Hadija told Channel 2 that his client denies all charges against him.
Hantash was arrested last week in his home near Tulkarem.
The investigation, which was carried out by both the Israel Police and the Military Police, was opened after a Border Police unit received intelligence regarding the smuggling of illegal Paleostinians into the country.
Detectives carried out six months of undercover intelligence work at the Te’enim checkpoint, where they observed how the Paleostinians were smuggled into Israel, as well as how the soldiers received bribes of drugs and money, with the soldiers going so far as setting up a bank account in which Hadija would deposit the bribe money.
The questioning of the suspects will likely be completed in the coming days, upon which the soldiers, Hantash and Hadija are expected to face severe charges, according to Channel 2.
In August, IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot said that an estimated 50,000 to 60,000 Paleostinians enter Israel illegally every day in order to work by exploiting weak points in Israel’s West Bank security barrier.
The IDF chief also said that over 40 percent of the terror attacks carried out during a roughly year-long upsurge in violence beginning in October 2015 were in some way connected to Paleostinians who were in Israel illegally.
Last June, Paleostinian cousins Muhammad and Khalid Muhamra of the southern West Bank town of Yatta killed four Israelis in a shooting attack at Tel Aviv’s popular Sarona Market after entering Israel illegally, with the attack leading to widespread scrutiny in the country over the ability of tens of thousands of Paleostinians to enter the country illegally every day.
[FOXNEWS] It’s been two days since Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,’ last workplace accident.
Hamas field commander Muhammad Walid al-Quqa, 37, died Sunday from injuries sustained while "setting up" something, according to a news release from Hamas’ al-Qassam Brigade obtained by The Times of Israel. Apparently, when you’re a bomb maker for the Death Eater group, accidentally blowing yourself up before you can blow other people up is just an accepted hazard of the job.
Haaretz identified al-Quqa as a Gazoo explosives expert and reported the deadly blast occurred at a warehouse used to assemble bombs.
Masked fighters carried al-Quqa’s body in a funeral procession on Sunday, Haaretz reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/08/2017 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
"Gazoo explosives expert" sets the bar pretty low.
Posted by: Steven ||
02/08/2017 2:50 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Gaza OSHA: "Two days since our last Workplace Accident"
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/08/2017 9:09 Comments ||
Top||
[NEWSINFO.INQUIRER.NET] ZAMBOANGA CITY -- Five suspected Abu Sayyaf ...also known as al-Harakat al-Islamiyya, an Islamist terror group based in Jolo, Basilan and Zamboanga. Since its inception in the early 1990s, the group has carried out bombings, kidnappings, murders, head choppings, and extortion in their uniquely Islamic attempt to set up an independent Moslem province in the Philippines. Abu Sayyaf forces probably number less than 300 cadres. The group is closely allied with remnants of Indonesia's Jemaah Islamiya and has loose ties with MILF and MNLF who sometimes provide cannon fodder... bandidos were killed in a clash with Marines on Capual Island off Omar town in Sulu on Tuesday, the military reported.
Capt. Jo-Ann Petinglay, spokesperson of the Western Mindanao Command, said the bodies of the five suspected bandidos had been recovered.
The clash happened five days after soldiers battled with the Abu Sayyaf in Luuk town, where two suspected bandidos were captured.
The military has been pursuing the Abu Sayyaf bandidos in Sulu since last month.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/08/2017 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Abu Sayyaf
[al-Manar] Syrian Army units operating in the eastern countryside of Homs intensified their operations against ISIL sites in the area of the oil fields and al-Bayarat to the west Tadmur (Palmyra) city.
SANA reporter said army units, in cooperation with the supporting forces, launched intensive operations in the direction of the road leading to al-Muhr oil field, establishing control over one of the strategic hills after eliminating the last remaining ISIL gathering in it.
The reporter added that the Air Force and Artillery destroyed sites and fortifications for ISIL in al-Bayarat area, Hayan field, Jazal and Jahar.
The army’s air force also killed a number of ISIL terrorists and destroyed anti-tank rocket launcher and two vehicles equipped with heavy machine guns in al-Bayarat area in Homs eastern countryside.
Earlier, the Air Force carried out an airstrike on ISIL fortifications in the eastern countryside of Homs province.
A military source told SANA that the Air Force eliminated a number of ISIL terrorists and destroyed their position in al-Msheirfeh al- Shamaliyeh in the eastern countryside of Homs province.
Meanwhile, army units killed more than 6 al-Nusra Front terrorists and injured 12 others in Teirmaala and Izz Eddin village in the countryside of Homs.
Aleppo
Army units operating at Kweiris Airport eliminated the last remaining gathering of ISIL terrorists in Tallet al-Hawara in the middle of al-Jabboul Lake in the eastern countryside of Aleppo, thus taking full control of the lake.
A number of ISIL terrorists were killed and all their sites and fortifications in the area were destroyed.
Lattakia
An army unit ambushed a terrorist group affiliated to al-Nusra in the northern countryside of Lattakia.
The military source said the terrorist group, who included 8 members, infiltrated to one of the military points in the area surrounding Kebane village in the northern countryside of the province.
The source added that the infiltration attempt was foiled and all the terrorists were killed and their weapons were seized.
Deir Ezzor
Army units, in cooperation with the supporting forces, targeted movements of terrorist groups affiliated to ISIL in the area surrounding Deir Ezzor Military Airport, according to SANA reporter.
The reporter added that a number of terrorists were killed and their weapons were destroyed in the operations.
The reporter said that the terrorists Abu Walid al-Tarabulsi from Lebanon, Mohammad al-Khalifa, Amir Aswad al-Khalifa, Soheil al-Rifaei, Mohammad al-Sabri, Mahmoud al-Fares, Mustafa al-Kassar, Jassim al-Gharb, Abbas al-Jeblawi and Wafi al-Rajab were identified among the dead.
Source: SANA
Posted by: badanov ||
02/08/2017 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
AMMAN: At least 30 people died in airstrikes on the opposition-held Syrian city of Idlib on Tuesday, in some of the heaviest raids there in months, witnesses and rescue workers said.
Around eight attacks by what witnesses believed to be Russian jets wounded scores of people and leveled several multi-story buildings in residential areas of the northwestern city, they added.
Russia’s Defense Ministry later said media reports that its planes had bombed Idlib were not true, Interfax news agency reported.
Two rescue workers said the death toll was at least 30. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 26 people were killed and casualties were expected to rise as rescue workers searched for bodies under the rubble.
Video footage by activists on social media showed civilians, including young children, being treated in the main city hospital where the injured had been rushed for treatment.
“We are still pulling bodies from the rubble,” said Issam Al-Idlibi, a volunteer civil defense worker.
The extent of the damage and the debris bore the hallmarks of a Russian attack, two witnesses said.
Russian planes have targeted a number of towns and villages in the area since entering the Syrian conflict in September 2015 to back ally President Bashar Assad.
But activists and residents also said there had been a reduction of Russian strikes in Idlib province since a Turkish-Russian brokered a cessation of hostilities late December.
Planes from the US-led coalition have also launched a number of attacks in the rural province, a major stronghold of radicals, many of them formerly affiliated to Al-Qaeda.
Idlib’s population has been swollen by thousands of Syrian fighters and their families evacuated from villages and towns around Damascus and Aleppo city, which was retaken by the government in recent months.
Separately, at least four people were killed in airstrikes by unknown jets in the town of Arbin in opposition-held Eastern Ghouta, northeast of the capital. The regime army and pro-regime militias have been seeking in recent days to gain new ground there.
Meanwhile, Assad said US President Donald Trump prioritizing the fight against Daesh was promising although it was too early to expect any practical steps, state news agency SANA reported on Tuesday.
The Kremlin said Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed setting up “genuine coordination” in the fight against Daesh and “other terrorist groups” in Syria during a phone call last month.
Assad was quoted by SANA as telling a group of Belgian reporters that Trump’s position was promising. “I believe this is promising but we have to wait and it’s too early to expect anything practical,” he said.
Assad was also quoted as saying that US-Russian cooperation in stepping up the fight against the militants would have positive repercussions.
Trump has previously indicated he might cut US support for Syrian opposition fighters that have been fighting Assad, and that he could cooperate with Russia in the fight against Daesh in Syria.
Trump has made defeating Daesh a core goal of his presidency and signed an executive order asking the Pentagon, the joint chiefs of staff and other agencies to submit a preliminary plan on how to proceed within 30 days.
Assad also said that the European Union should have no role in the reconstruction of Syria unless it changes its policy toward the Mideast country.
Assad said EU countries back opposition fighters who inflicted destruction on Syria and “they cannot destroy and build at the same time.”
UN official Abdullah Al Dardari said in Beirut last month that reconstruction will cost around $350 billion.
More
BEIRUT, Lebanon: Air strikes on Al-Qaeda’s former affiliate in Syria on Tuesday killed 26 people in the country’s northwest, most of them civilians, a monitoring group said.
The headquarters of Fateh Al-Sham Front and the surrounding neighborhood in Idlib city were battered by at least 10 strikes at dawn, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a network of sources on the ground for its reports.
Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman initially said there were only 10 civilians among the dead.
But after further verification, he said the victims included “16 civilians, most of them women and children.”
“The toll could rise because some people are trapped under the rubble and unaccounted for,” he said.
Abdel Rahman said the raids were likely carried out by Russian warplanes — allied with Syria’s government — or by a US-backed air coalition.
But Russia quickly denied it had struck Idlib. "All lies!"
“Russian military planes did not carry out a single strike in Idlib yesterday, or this week, or even since the beginning of 2017,” its defense ministry said in a statement. “Any information on these strikes are well-known lies.”
Moscow has waged a fierce bombing campaign in support of the Damascus regime since September 2015, a year after the US-led coalition began its own strikes against jihadist groups.
Fateh Al-Sham has come under increasing pressure in recent weeks in Idlib province, the only remaining opposition-held province in war-ravaged Syria.
Bombing raids against the group have escalated, including one US strike in January that killed more than 100 fighters at a training camp in Idlib province.
The US-led coalition has mostly focused on Fateh Al-Sham’s jihadist rival, the Daesh group, but it has also hit operatives from other factions.
Rebel groups have held Idlib province since the spring of 2015, four years after conflict first broke out.
More than 310,000 people have died since, and millions have been forced to flee their homes.
[ARA News] The US-led coalition on Monday carried out several airstrikes in Palmyra, where Syrian regime forces are fighting Islamic State’s (ISIS) militants.
“Near Palmyra, nine strikes destroyed 17 heavy equipment vehicles, 11 vehicles, four dump trucks, three front-end loaders, three VBIEDs and two tanks,” the coalition said on Tuesday.
The Islamic State group re-took Palmyra, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, in December 2016, driving out regime forces that took the city from ISIS in March 2016 with Russian support. Currently, the regime forces are gradually taking back territory there.
Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend, a high-level coalition commander, on 13 December last year said that it was up to the Russians and the Syrian regime to take the ancient city of Palmyra back, and that it was difficult to coordinate airstrikes.
“They lost it … so I think it’s up to them probably to take it back. And the reason we’re not acting more aggressively is first of all, that’s the first fact of life is that was theirs,” he said.
“The second fact of life is we’re not sure who is there on the ground, we can’t tell one side from the other. So we can’t tell if the truck and the armored vehicle is being operated by a regime trooper, a Russian trooper or ISIS fighter, we can’t tell that,” the US-led coalition’s commander stated.
“We’re just kind of staying out of it and watching it right now and protecting our own interest and letting the Russians sort that out, which I think is probably the common sense way to go about Palmyra,” he concluded.
Nevertheless, the US-led coalition carried out several strikes near Palmyra since December.
On Dec. 15, Coalition aircraft destroyed 14 ISIS tanks and other equipment captured near Palmyra city. Moreover, a coalition strike destroyed an ISIS tank on 4 February, 2017.
In January, the Islamic State executed two Syrian soldiers who had been taken captive subsequent to clashes near Palmyra. Also, the group executed 12 civilians in the ancient Syrian city after accusing them of supporting the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. The executions also took place at the Roman-era amphitheater of Palmyra.
On December 11, 2016, the ISIS hardline group recaptured the ancient city of Palmyra in Homs Governorate. Activists and military sources confirmed the rout, reporting that the Syrian army had been forced to withdraw under fire. “The army withdrew after the clashes reached the city center and it became impossible for them to push ISIS back,” local media activist Abas al-Omar told ARA News.
Russia had supported the Syrian Army in Palmyra, with airstrikes and logistical support but their efforts were apparently insufficient to save the city.
ISIS first took over Palmyra in May 2015, following a protracted battle with regime forces. The Islamic State’s occupation was exceptionally brutal, even by the standards of Syria’s 5-year-long conflict.
Posted by: badanov ||
02/08/2017 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
[AnNahar] The General Security Directorate was able to thwart an Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group terror scheme, that had plans to target Beirut's Central District, al-Akhbar daily reported on Tuesday.
The daily added that the Islamic State's plans were "exceptional" this time, after it managed to infiltrate the real estate company of Solidere and recruit one of the employees.
The breached employee was not an ordinary worker, it said. He was the man responsible for follow-up on the surveillance cameras belonging to Solidere in Downtown. He was tasked by the IS to set a list of targets.
The employee is a Lebanese and hails from Sidon, added the daily. His task was to collect information about political figures, economic and tourist sites in the said area.
He was also tasked to gather information about the entrances that lead to the residence of Prime Minster Saad Hariri Second son of Rafik Hariri, the Leb PM who was assassinated in 2005. He has was prime minister in his own right from 2009 through early 2011. He was born in Riyadh to an Iraqi mother and graduated from Georgetown University. He managed his father's business interests in Riyadh until his father's assassination. When his father died he inherited a fortune of some $4.1 billion, which won't do him much good if Hizbullah has him bumped off, too. which lies in the area.
The General Security tossed in the slammer ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... the suspect on the 10th of January after he was "technically exposed," judicial sources told the daily.
He confessed during interrogations that he was recruited by a Paleostinian man residing in the southern refugee camp of Ein el-Hellhole. He tasked him with collecting data about all potential targets in Downtown Beirut.
In that regard, General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim held talks with Hariri and briefed him on the pre-emptive operation, added al-Akhbar.
In a telephone call with the daily, Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq said: "The General Security carried out a pre-emptive operation and was able to foil a terror attack. The detainees were referred to the military justice more than ten days ago."
[AnNahar] Islamic State 'emir' Ahmed Wahid al-Abed, a Syrian hailing from al-Jarajir town in al-Qalamoun, was killed in a bomb kaboom in the southeastern town of Arsal, LBCI reported on Tuesday.
Militants from IS and Fateh al-Sham ...formerly al-Nusra, the current false nose and mustache of al-Qaeda in the Levant... Front -- formerly al-Qaeda's Syria affiliate al-Nusra ...formally Jabhat an-Nusrah li-Ahli al-Sham (Support Front for the People of the Levant), also known as al-Qaeda in the Levant. They aim to establish a pan-Arab caliphate. Not the same one as the Islamic State, though .. ... Front -- are entrenched in rugged areas along the undemarcated Lebanese-Syrian border and the army regularly shells their posts while Hizbullah ...Party of God, a Leb militia inspired, founded, funded and directed by Iran. Hizbullah refers to itself as The Resistance and purports to defend Leb against Israel, with whom it has started and lost one disastrous war to date, though it did claim victory... and the Syrian army have engaged in festivities with them on the Syrian side of the border.
The two groups briefly overran the town of Arsal in August 2014 before being ousted by the army after days of deadly battles. The retreating bully boyz kidnapped more than 30 troops and coppers of whom four have been executed and nine remain in the captivity of the IS group.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/08/2017 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) The Islamic State has put its members in western Mosul on alert on Tuesday after one of its members was found dead from an apparent smothering action.
A local source in Nineveh told Alsumaria News that the group imposed a curfew in three residential areas in Tal Afar after the dead militant’s body was found, and arrested more than ten people suspected of involvement, taking them to an unknown destination.
Iraqi joint government forces recaptured the whole of the eastern section of Mosul on January 24th after three months of battles with IS militants, and are preparing for a ground invasion of the west which U.S.-led coalition jets have built up for with airstrikes over the past two weeks.
Islamic State has lost at least 3300 members until the recapture of eastern Mosul, according to Iraqi military officials. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi told France 24 on Tuesday that the extremist group’s supreme commander, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, had been located and was isolated after many of his fellow commanders were killed.
The group has been ravaged with personnel and financial losses as well divisions within its ranks since security operations to retake Mosul launched.
“ISIL is militarily on the defensive in several regions, notably in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and the Syrian Arab Republic,” United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a report early Tuesday.
Anbar (IraqiNews.com) An indefinite number of security personnel died and sustained injuries Tuesday in a booby-trapped car explosion west of Anbar as Islamic State militants kidnapped many for exposing planned suicide bombings.
Nazem al-Jugheifi, a senior leader at the pro-government al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Units), said in statements the trapped vehcile exploded near a security checkpoint in al-Sakkar, a region in al-Rutba, west of the province. He said there were reports of casualties among security troops.
He also added that Islamic State militants had kidnapped 60 civilians accused of uncovering group plans for suicide attacks at the western region.
Jugheifi said the kidnapped individuals had exposed plans to carry out the attacks with four suicide bombers in the town of Haditha, but pointed out that no attacks have been reported yet there, and that security was searching the city for the potential bombers.
Islamic State has stepped attacks across Iraq coinciding with defeats in Mosul, its largest stronghold in Iraq of which Iraqi government troops have recaptured a half since October. The group has maintained smaller strongholds in western Anbar towns since 2014, but no official campaign has been declared yet by the government to drive militants out of those regions. Anbar’s security command, backed by tribal troops, launched early January a brief onslaught against the Islamic State in western Anbar. The campaign, which, unlike that in Mosul, was not officially declared by the cabinet, managed to retake a few villages before halting again.
Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Islamic State militants have executed 15 civilians in northern Mosul, news reports quoted an local official on Tuesday as the group braces for a new, decisive round of battles with Iraqi government troops.
Sidu al-Tatani, a member of the Nineveh province council, was quoted as saying that the extremist group executed 15 civilians in the village of Sheikh Mohamed, north of the city.
The report did not quote him telling of the reasons of the reason, the method or the exact timing of the massacre.
Islamic State took over several Iraqi cities in 2014 to establish a self-styled “Islamic Caliphate”. But Iraqi government forces, backed by a U.S.-led coalition and popular troops, managed from mid October to January 24th to recapture the eastern section of the city from the group. The militants are currently holding a majority of territories in western Mosul, and security forces are preparing for an invasion of that region to consummate the liberation of the group’s largest urban stronghold in Iraq.
The group has regularly carried out heinous executions of civilians and security captives over diverse charges that range from violation of its extreme religious views to collaboration with security authorities. It has posted several movies of the executions via its media outlets. IS’s reign of terror has forced 191.000 civilians to flee to refugee camps since the start of confrontations with government troops. There are at least 750,000 stranded inside its western strongholds.
[ARA News] Damascus – The Islamic State (ISIS) radical group has been on the defensive across Syria and Iraq over the past few months.
Amidst mounting military pressure by the US-led coalition and allied Syrian and Iraqi ground troops, ISIS reportedly started to resort to covert methods of communication and recruitment, such as the ‘dark web’.
“ISIS is adapting in several ways to military pressure – resorting to increasingly covert communication and recruitment methods, including by using the ‘dark web,’ encryption and messengers,” senior UN official Jeffrey Feltman said on Tuesday.
“Although its income and the territory under its control are shrinking, ISIS still appears to have sufficient funds to continue fighting,” said Feltman, the United Nations’ Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs.
The official pointed out that ISIS now mainly relies on income from “extortion and hydrocarbon exploitation, even though resources from the latter are on the decline.”
The United Nations on Tuesday stressed the need to develop “sustained, coordinated responses” to the grave threat posed by ISIS and affiliated groups.
The UN’s political affairs official warned that foreign jihadist fighters leaving the conflict “could pose a grave risk to their homeland or to the countries they are travelling to or transiting through, such as Iraq and Syria’s neighbours, as well as countries in the Maghreb.”
Posted by: badanov ||
02/08/2017 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
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.
The loyalists of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group suffered casualties in a series of airstrikes carried out by the US forces in eastern Nangarhar province.
AMMAN: At least 30 people died in airstrikes on the opposition-held Syrian city of Idlib on Tuesday, in some of the heaviest raids there in months, witnesses and rescue workers said. 
[ARA News] The US-led coalition on Monday carried out several airstrikes in Palmyra, where Syrian regime forces are fighting Islamic State’s (ISIS) militants.
