#2
"How rocky the road is to Dublin!
This absence of progress is troublin'.
The Jews (may they perish!)
And filthy black Irish
Myself must be stealthily hobblin'."
A number of Kunduz residents have claimed that three civilians were killed and seven others wounded in a night raid by Afghan security forces in Chardara district this week.
According to the residents the night raid was conducted in Yatim village on Wednesday night.
“My uncle, his wife and his son were killed. Only his daughter survived. She is wounded. Their house was destroyed and nothing was left behind,” said Abdul Hadi, a resident of Chardara.
“My sister and I were wounded and we were taken to hospital,” another resident, Ahmad said.
Meanwhile, the head of Kunduz Zonal Hospital, Naeem Mangal, said seven people were admitted to the facility for treatment.
“The wounded taken to hospital totaled seven. One of them was treated and returned home but six others, including four women, are in a critical condition,” he said.
However, Pamir 20 Division’s Brigadier General, Sayed Qorban Musawi, said the night raid was carried out in Yatim and Charmgari villages of the district where a number of insurgents were killed and wounded.
“The special night raid was carried out by the Army’s Special Unit in Charmgari and Yatim villages of Chardara on Wednesday night and six insurgents were killed, four wounded and six others were arrested. A big explosive-making center belonging to insurgents was destroyed in the operation,” he said.
Reports indicate that this is not the first time that civilians have been killed or wounded in the Kunduz conflict.
Local officials have said the main reason behind civilian casualties is that the Taliban militants are hiding in civilian houses during the operations.
At least 30 Taliban insurgents were killed in an operation in southern Kandahar province on Wednesday, the 205 Atal Military Corps said in a statement.
In addition, 10 other insurgents were injured.
The operation was launched in Nesh district of the province to clear the area of insurgents, according to the statement.
There were no casualties among civilians or military forces, the statement added.
The Taliban has not yet commented on the operation.
Armed groups in Tripoli have signed a ceasefire deal ending a four-day battle for control of the Libyan capital, the unity government said Thursday.
The city has been paralyzed amid exchanges of rocket and artillery fire between pro-unity government forces and rival militias including groups allied with former prime minister Khalifa Ghweil.
Thursday’s deal cements the UN-backed Government of National Accord’s control over large parts of the capital.
It provides for an “immediate ceasefire” and calls for armed groups that do not recognize the GNA to leave Tripoli within 30 days.
It also demands the release of people arrested since Monday, the GNA’s defense ministry said.
Clashes on Wednesday night rocked the capital’s southern Salaheddine district, where several rival militias occupy barracks.
But the city and its surroundings were quiet on Thursday morning following the overnight deal, signed by the GNA, local mayors and powerful militias from Tripoli and Misrata.
Militias have been key power brokers in a country plagued by violence and lawlessness since the NATO-backed ouster of longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.
The battle, triggered Monday night after the killing of a bank guard, saw pro-GNA forces expand their clout in the capital.
They took several districts from rival militias including groups allied with Ghweil, who was forced out of power when the GNA arrived in Tripoli.
The GNA operation appeared to be well-prepared and coordinated. Thursday’s deal charges GNA forces with securing areas controlled by rival groups.
Observers said it was in line with an inter-Libyan political deal backed by the UN and signed in December 2015.
That agreement, which gave rise to the GNA, called for armed groups to leave Tripoli and other Libyan towns.
The capital remains home to dozens of militias. Since taking office, the unity government has secured the backing of several, but many parts of Tripoli remain out of its control.
[AnNahar] 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... Islamists have raided a town in restive northeast Nigeria ... a particularly crimson stretch of Islam's bloody border... , looting food supplies and burning homes after overwhelming troops, residents told AFP on Thursday.
The attack late on Wednesday happened in Magumeri, some 50 kilometres (30 miles) northwest of the Borno state capital, Maiduguri.
It came after a lull in raids on major towns in the remote region following sweeping military offensives which Nigeria has claimed has severely weakened the jihadists to the point of defeat.
Scores of Boko Haram fighters arrived in Magumeri at about 6:30 pm (1730 GMT) in vans, cycle of violences and on foot, firing heavy weapons and rocket-propelled grenades, forcing residents to flee.
"They (Boko Haram) broke into shops and homes and took away every food item they came across," said local resident Kulo Sheriff, who fled the town then returned on Thursday morning.
"They set fire to homes and shops as they looted them before heading into the bush hours later."
Before looting, the fighters attacked a military base and a cop shoppe where there was a shoot-out, according to a civilian militia member assisting troops with security.
Militants overpowered the security personnel who withdrew, allowing them to loot and burn down the base and the cop shoppe, he added.
- 'Famine-like conditions' -
Nigeria's military, however, claimed to have repelled the attack and "neutralised quite a number of the attackers", recovering three vehicles and a "large quantity of arms and ammunition".
Independent verification was not possible given access restrictions for news hounds to travel outside Maiduguri without military permission.
Either way, the raid indicated that Boko Haram still has the capacity to attack major towns, despite claims it is in disarray since troops flushed them out of their Sambisa Forest stronghold.
The number of raids has decreased since the camps were routed last December, although there have been sustained attempts at suicide kabooms in Maiduguri.
A civilian militia member in the city maintained Boko Haram have been weakened and their attacks were designed to re-stock dwindling food supplies, as supply lines have been cut off.
"Boko Haram are starving in the bush, they live on very little food," said Babakura Kolo. "They are pushed more by hunger to carry out raids than desire to fight."
Last month Boko Haram fighters went door-to-door seizing food aid distributed days earlier in Gajiram, some 100 kilometres by road from Magumeri, after a battle with police and soldiers.
Boko Haram's insurgency has triggered a major humanitarian crisis in northeastern Nigeria, where 7.1 million people are "severely food insecure", according to the UN. Aid agencies say parts of Borno state are suffering from "famine-like conditions".
Poor governance and climate change have also been powerful contributors to the crisis in the region.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/17/2017 00:03 ||
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Damam- Saudi interior ministry announced that security officer Fahid Qaeid al Rowaili was shot dead after a police shootout near a Qatif’s central hospital, in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province.
Rowaili’s body was moved to the eastern province’s Jawf region, his birthplace.
The security patrol came under fire at about 7:30 p.m. Tuesday when it tried to stop a suspicious car near the Qatif Central Hospital, the Interior Ministry said in a statement circulated by Saudi Press Agency.
Maj. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki, Interior Ministry spokesman, said the incident took place after a police patrol suspected a vehicle carrying two men and asked the driver to pull over. Instead of complying with security forces, the driver initiated a shootout, killing one officer.
Police stopped the vehicle but the suspects managed escaping “while shooting randomly”. They made their getaway after stealing the car of a doctor, the ministry added. Security agencies are searching for the culprits.
Investigations revealed that the terrorists’ vehicle, a Toyota Prado model, was reported stolen in Dammam on April 4 last year. Upon searching the car, police found Molotov cocktails ready for use, Turki said, adding that the culprits had swapped the license plate with one from another car.
“The incident confirms the extent of the criminal behavior and the deviant ideologies of terrorists, who have no regard for innocent lives, patients visiting the hospital or passers-by,” Turki said.
He added that the car intercepted by police belonged to wanted terrorist Mustafa Ali Abdullah Al-Madad, who was killed by police on Saturday when he opened fire on authorities in Awamiya.
The ministry previously announced the names of wanted terrorists who had targeted civilians, security men and public institutions in Qatif. The list included Mohammed Al-Ammar and Ali Al-Hamad, both Saudis
DUBAI: The Emirati armed forces said Thursday that one of its soldiers was killed while on duty with the Saudi-led Arab coalition fighting Houthi rebels in Yemen for the past two years.
The armed forces identified the soldier as Zakariya Suleiman Al-Zaabi in a statement carried by state news agency WAM, but it did not provide details of the circumstances of his death.
Some 85 Emirati soldiers have been killed since the coalition launched its intervention in support of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi in March 2015.
[AnNahar] Four suspected snuffies were killed in Bangladesh early Thursday after police stormed a house where they said members of an Islamist group blamed for a series of deadly attacks were hiding out.
Police raided the building in the southern port city of Chittagong late Wednesday, sparking a 15-hour stand-off with bully boyz armed with guns and grenades during which around 20 civilians were trapped inside.
On Thursday, national police chief A.K.M Shahidul Hoque declared the operation over and said four members of the homegrown murderous Moslem group Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) had died.
At least two of them were killed in a suicide kaboom, said Sanwar Hossain, additional deputy commissioner of the police counter-terrorism unit.
"They came out in the stairs and carried out a big kaboom. Parts of their bodies were spread to 25-30 yards (metres)," Hossain said.
Another 20 people who were trapped inside the building overnight after police cordoned off the place were taken out safely, police officials have said.
Two copperswere maimed in the operation.
"The snuffies threw at least 10 grenades at our officers. They were staying in one of the ground floor flats in the building," additional superintendent of police Mosiuddowla Reza told AFP. "They also shot up us with pistols."
Elite counter-terrorism police reinforcements were sent to the area from the capital after midnight to storm the compound, he said.
Bangladesh has suffered a spate of deadly attacks on secular activists, foreigners and religious minorities in recent years. 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 and Al Qaeda have claimed many of these attacks, but the government and police reject that and say homegrown groups are responsible. They have blamed the JMB for the attacks, including a siege at a Dhaka cafe in which 22 people including 18 foreign hostages were killed.
Security forces launched a crackdown on snuffies following the siege, arresting scores of suspected snuffies and killing several top leaders of homegrown myrmidon cells.
This month they have carried out a series of raids as part of a major security crackdown in the Chittagong region after detaining two snuffies with grenades earlier this month on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway.
On Wednesday police also raided a second suspected hideout in the area where they incarcerated Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! two people who they said were JMB members. One tried to blow herself up before she was taken into custody, Reza told AFP.
"We arrested them as the wife was holding her three-month-old child in one hand and tried to explode the boom jacket with the other," he said. "Our bomb disposal unit later defused the vest."
[AlAhram]. A heavily armed pupil injured his head teacher and two other people during a shooting at a French high school on Thursday, rattling nerves in a country repeatedly the target of Islamist turban attacks, police and officials said.
Sudden Jihad Syndrome? Psychopath? He's on the young side for schizophrenia... No doubt all will be revealed.
The 17-year-old pupil was tossed in the slammer I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece! afterwards in possession of a rifle, two handguns and two grenades after the attack at the Tocqueville high school in the sleepy hillside town of Grasse in southern La Belle France, police told AFP.
The head of the regional government, Christian Estrosi, told AFP that the shooting was "not at all" being seen as a terror attack at this stage.
The head of the regional government, Christian Estrosi, told AFP that the shooting was "not at all" being seen as a terror attack at this stage, adding that the principal and two other pupils were lightly injured.
There was conflicting information about whether a second suspect was on the run, with police initially saying they were looking for an accomplice. Another police source said the shooter acted alone.
La Belle France is still in a state of emergency after a series of Islamist turban attacks including the massacre in Gay Paree in November 2015, claimed by the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (IS) group, and a truck attack in Nice, just 40 kilometres (25 miles) from Grasse, in July last year.
The shooting comes about 40 days before a two-stage presidential election in April and May in which security is one of the main issues on voters' minds.
The shooting comes about 40 days before a two-stage presidential election in April and May in which security is one of the main issues on voters' minds.
The motive for the attack was still unknown.
Estrosi told La Belle France Info radio that the head teacher had been shot but apparently was not seriously injured.
"According to initial information that I have, we're not talking about an injury that could have life-threatening consequences," he said.
All schools in Grasse were locked down after the late-morning shooting, which led panicked students to flee the school and hide, local authorities said.
The French government has bolstered security outside schools following a series of Islamist turban attacks since January 2015 that have claimed hundreds of lives.
More than 3,000 reservists were called up to help keep watch outside the country's 64,000 primary and secondary schools for the return to the school year in September.
Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve cut short a trip to the northern Somme area because of the Grasse shooting, as well as a letter kaboom at the offices of the International Monetary Fund in Gay Paree on Thursday.
US-style school shootings are almost unheard-of in La Belle France, a country with low levels of gun violence.
The last major attack in a school was in 2012, when an Islamic Death Eater from Toulouse ...lies on the banks of the River Garonne, half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. The Toulouse metropolitan area is the fourth-largest in La Belle France... , Mohammed Merah, rubbed out three children and a teacher at a Jewish school in the city before being killed by police.
Local prosecutor Fabienne Atzori ruled out a terror motive and said the shooting appeared to have been motivated by the gunman's "bad relationships" with classmates.
The teenager was described by Vallaud-Belkacem as "unstable and fascinated by guns" and was carrying a rifle, two handguns and grenades when he was detained by police shortly after the lunchtime attack.
He offered no resistance to his arrest, the prosecutor said.
The suspect, who has not been named publicly as a minor, had shared pictures and videos on social media of infamous U.S. school shootings, including the 1999 Columbine massacre.
Police and local authorities said the headmaster was specifically targeted in the attack on Alexis de Tocqueville high school.
A 17-year-old student armed with a shotgun, two handguns and two grenades (one dummy grenade, one training grenade) was tossed in the clink I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece! after the shooting, police told journalists. Interior ministry front man Pierre-Henry Brandet said eight people had been injured.
"I heard a loud bang then two more sounds," a 16-year-old student only identified as Benjamin told regional daily "Nice Matin." "I turned and saw someone in the yard firing with a pump-action shotgun. He shot through the windows of the classroom which looks onto the yard. When I saw that, I ran."
French newspaper "Le Figaro" reported the student shot the headmaster in the arm with a shotgun, injuring two others. It reported security forces later defused an bomb at the school.
Another student identified as Thomas told "Nice Matin" the headmaster remained calm, despite being shot, attempting to reason with the attacker. He said students' bags were normally checked at the entrance, postulating whether he smuggled the weapons in over a back fence.
The ISIS suicide bomber drove his car packed with explosives at an Iraqi patrol
One of the Iraqi troops blocked the road with his lightly-protected Humvee
The suicide bomber detonated his explosives as he approached the Iraqi
ISIS is completely surrounded in Mosul by Iraqi and allied rebel groups
An Iraqi soldier saved his comrades lives by diverting a suicide bomber's desperate attack in Mosul by blocking the road with his Humvee.
The attack was filmed by an ISIS drone and later uploaded onto the internet. Hmm. It seems ISIS reporters are doing a better job than our MSM.
In the shocking footage, the car bomb can be seen approaching from the top of the screen and was heading towards a group of Iraqi Popular Mobilization Unit forces involved in the battle to retake the city.
The suicide bomber's vehicle explodes as it reaches the Humvee. It is not known if either driver survived but commentators online have described the Iraqi soldiers actions as 'the ultimate sacrifice'.
ISIS terrorists have been surrounded in a small enclave in the northern Iraqi city and are hiding among the remaining civilian population, deploying snipers and suicide car bombs in a desperate bid to hold on.
US soldiers have deployed artillery pieces on the outskirts of the city to provide close support for Iraqi forces battling street by street to retake the city.
Fighting is expected to get tougher as Iraqi troops push further into the more densely populated areas in the western half of the city, including the old city.
ISIS used car bombs in their counter-attack on Tuesday night around the Nineveh governorate building, Major General Ali Kadhem al-Lami of the Federal Police's Fifth Division said: 'Today we're clearing the area which was liberated.'
Military officials had said that Rapid Response troops, an elite interior ministry division, recaptured the provincial government headquarters on Tuesday. They also took the central bank branch and a museum where ISIS had filmed themselves destroying priceless statues in 2015.
Lami said: 'The museum is completely empty of all artifacts. They were stolen, possibly smuggled.'
Lami said most of the fighters that had fought around the governorate building were local, but some were foreigners.
He said: ''An order was issued for foreign fighters with families to withdraw with them. Those who do not have a family should stay and fight, whether foreign or local.'
The few families remaining in the nearby Dawasa district said the ISIS had set some of their homes on fire as security forces advanced and that the militants had fought among themselves.
On Wednesday, the Iraqi military said the army and Shi'ite paramilitary forces had taken full control of the last major road leading west out of Mosul towards the town of Tal Afar, state TV reported.
The 9th Armoured Division and two Shi'ite fighting groups had 'isolated the right bank (western side of Mosul) from Tal Afar', it said.
The road links Mosul to Tal Afar, another ISIS stronghold 40 miles) to the west, and then to the Syrian border.
Shi'ite militias taking part in the Mosul campaign began to close in on Tal Afar late last year, after the offensive was launched. They linked up then with Kurdish fighters to encircle the jihadists.
A 100,000-strong force of Iraqi military units, Shi'ite forces and Kurdish fighters, backed by a U.S.-led coalition, has fought since October in the Mosul campaign.
The jihadist group has lost most of the cities it captured in northern and western Iraq in 2014 and 2015. In Syria, it still holds Raqqa city as its stronghold, as well as most of Deir al-Zor province.
But it is losing ground to an array of separate enemies, including U.S.-backed forces and the Russian-backed Syrian army. It has carried out bombings in Iraqi and Syrian cities as its caliphate has shrunk.
The bombings in Hajjaj village, north of Tikrit, late on Wednesday were not immediately claimed, but are similar to attacks carried out in recent months by ISIS.
In November deadly and apparently diversionary bomb attacks by the group hit Tikrit and Samarra, both north of Baghdad.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said Iraq would continue hitting ISIS targets in Syria and in neighbouring countries if they give their approval.
The Iraqi air force has struck ISIS targets over the border in Syria.
Abadi on Feb. 24 announced the first Iraqi air strike on Syrian territory, targeting Islamic State positions in retaliation for bomb attacks in Baghdad.
Posted by: gorb ||
03/17/2017 09:46 ||
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#1
"Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends."
[AnNahar] Inside an armoured vehicle in djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... , a colonel scans live footage from a drone flying above the Iraqi city, hunting targets for a new weapon deployed against jihadists.
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 has used small commercial drones to drop explosives on advancing Iraqi forces since they launched the offensive to retake Iraq's second city in October.
As the battle now focuses on recapturing west Mosul, Colonel Hussein Muayad's federal police forces have adopted the tactic, equipping their own remote-controlled surveillance drones with 40 mm grenades that are usually fired from grenade launchers.
"Residents would stare at the sky" during the Mosul fighting, fearing IS drones, says Muayad, wearing a black jacket over his federal police uniform. "Now it's the enemy whose eyes never leave the sky."
The moustachioed police officer in his 40s is clearly proud of the new military tactic.
"They used to hit us once. But we can hit them up to four times with a single drone," he says.
Lieutenant General Raed Shaker Jawdat of the federal police -- who are taking part in the battle alongside a special forces unit -- says the "new military tactic" has been very effective.
"Dozens of snuffies have been killed and maimed. Jihadist movements have been paralysed," Jawdat says.
Muayad sits surrounded by four television screens, a black drone at his feet. A dozen oblong bombs tipped by the small, rounded grenades are nearby, pin near one end and a netted skirt taken from a badminton shuttlecock on the other.
"That's so it keeps its balance as it falls," Muayad says.
Chain-smoking cigarettes, the colonel watches the live footage of a weaponised drone as it slowly buzzes over the devastated streets of west Mosul.
The device slows to a hover above a white car near the front line.
"A vehicle providing logistic support, used to transport fighters or food," Muayad explains.
But there is no strike on the car, due to the presence nearby of a device designed to jam drone commands that Iraqi forces set up to protect themselves from IS attacks.
- 'Precise strikes' -
The colonel shows AFP footage of previous attacks. The munitions fall in slow motion on a group of fighters gathered in front of a mosque. More explosives are dropped on a car, small clouds of grey smoke erupting on the screen.
"West Mosul is very populated. The roads are very narrow," Muayad says. "The point with these drones is to have very precise strikes to target the terrorists, not the residents."
"Day and night, there are always 12 drones in the air, ready to strike," Muayad says.
But he refuses to say exactly how many drones -- which can each carry up to four grenades -- the police operate.
The devices have been equipped with an extra battery to prolong their flight time and can now cover a distance of eight kilometres (five miles) up from less than five kilometres (three miles) before.
Inside a ravaged courtyard in a neighbourhood recently recaptured from the jihadists, Captain Baraa Mohammed Jassem from the Rapid Response Division silently observes a surveillance drone about to take off.
He too says his elite interior ministry force has "perfected" drones available commercially so they can drop explosives on the enemy.
"We took the... idea from the ISIS terrorist organization," he says, using an Arabic acronym for IS.
IS has carried out drone attacks throughout the Mosul operation, with the first record of a deadly attack coming a few days before drive was launched in October, killing two Iraqi Kurdish fighters and wounding two French special forces soldiers.
Over the past months, the jihadist group has posted footage online filmed by the cameras of its own remote-controlled drones of bombs being dropped on armoured vehicles and four-wheel-drive convoys.
Jassem says the new technique has been useful to Iraqi forces, particularly when they retook important public buildings earlier this month.
"With a night drone, we found and carried out a strike on a group of eight jihadists, hitting them directly," he says.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/17/2017 00:29 ||
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(BasNews) Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) over the last two days has moved around 70 guerrillas from Raniya city, north of Sulaymaniyah province, to Kirkuk province.
A confidential source told BasNews that PKK has deployed about 70 guerrillas to Kirkuk over the past two days. The source noted that a number of those guerrillas may have been sent to Makhmour, southeast of Erbil where PKK has established a military camp.
The source revealed that the commander of the PKK force which has been sent to Kirkuk is Aveen Zilan who is from Turkey’s Kurdistan.
The PKK guerrillas have been transported by two vehicles belonging to the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) forces, the source said.
BasNews previously reported that hundreds of PKK fighters, with PUK’s support, have been deployed in different locations in Kirkuk despite the 20 military outposts the guerrillas have set up on Mount Qarachkh near Makhmour refugee camp which PKK has turned into a military camp.
Posted by: badanov ||
03/17/2017 00:00 ||
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Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Pro-Iraqi government paramilitary groups said Thursday they killed two Islamic State members in a foiled attack in western Mosul.
Al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Units) said through its media they killed two Islamic State attackers in western Mosul’s region of Tal Zalat, and destroyed their vehicle.
PMUs, an alliance of Shia militias which won recognition as a national armed force in November, have been actively taking part in operations against Islamic State extremists in western Mosul and other Iraqi provinces. They had made remarkable accomplishments over the past months, retaking Tal Afar airport and most recently taking part in the liberation of Badush region.
Al-Hashd has also claimed to have isolated Tal Afar, an outstanding IS bastion, from both Mosul and the group’s strongholds in Syria.
Iraqi commanders said recently they became in control over 60 percent of western Mosul since operations to recapture that area launched in February. The government said late January its forces fully retook the eastern side of the city. Forces are currently working to expel IS militants from central Mosul.
Military commanders had predicted to retake western Mosul within six months of operations.
Battles in the eastern side of the city have so far displaced more than 100.000 civilians.
Weather halts Iraqi forces in Mosul Gawd love the infantry
Ninveh (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi forces are halting ground advances against Islamic State in western Mosul again over inclement weather conditions, according to a senior Interior Ministry commander.
Maj. Gen. Thamer Ismail, commander of the Rapid Response forces,l was quoted as saying in a press statement Thursday that security operations for Thursday were going to rely merely on drone strikes, rockets and artillery bombardments without ground offensives due to “bad weather conditions and rains,”
Ismail said his forces were 600 meters away from the Grand Nuri Mosque in central Mosul, the spot from where IS supreme leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi delivered a sermon declaring the establishment of an “Islamic Caliphate” in Iraq in 2014.
He added that ground offensives would continue once the weather improves.
Iraqi commanders said recently they became in control over 60 percent of western Mosul since operations to recapture that area launched in February. The government said late January its forces fully retook the eastern side of the city.
On Wednesday, the troops regained control over the third of Mosul’s five bridges which connect both sides of the city, and said earlier they recaptured 90 percent of the Old City, a densely-structured district which Iraqi commanders view as essential for victory over IS.
Iraqi forces capture hospital in western Mosul Google Map at the link
Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) The Iraqi Federal Police command said Thursday its forces had recaptured a public hospital in western Mosul from Islamic State militants, hours after other commanders reported a halt in advances.
Lt. Gen. Shaker Jawdat said in statements that the Forces recaptured the Nineveh civil hospital in central Mosul, adding that Iraqi fighter jets also bombed several locations held by the extremist group in al-Hadbaa region.
Jawdat’s announcement came shortly after some security commanders said ground advances inside central Mosul’s strategic Old City district were halting due to bad weather.
Iraqi commanders said recently they became in control over 60 percent of western Mosul since operations to recapture that area launched in February. The government said late January its forces fully retook the eastern side of the city.
On Wednesday, the troops regained control over the third of Mosul’s five bridges which connect both sides of the city, and said earlier they recaptured 90 percent of the Old City, a densely-structured district which Iraqi commanders view as essential for victory over IS.
Maj. Gen. Thamer Ismail, commander of the Rapid Response forces, was quoted as saying in a press statement that security operations for Thursday were going to rely merely on drone strikes, rockets and artillery bombardments without ground offensives due to “bad weather conditions and rains”.
Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi army officer, Colonel Thamer Jaber, announced on Thursday, that security forces repulsed an attack launched by the Islamic State group, while killed 10 of the group’s militants near al-Kazak camp, northwest of Mosul.
Jabber said in a press statement, “Security forces that protect Badush city managed to repulse an attack launched by the Islamic State on the city, while also killed 10 militants, including suicide bombers, northwest of Mosul.”
“The Islamic State militants, including suicide bombers, also tried to sneak into the city of Badush, to retake it from security forces,” Jabber added.
Jabber also pointed out that some of the militants fled toward Tal Afar District, and explained that army forces reinforced their presence in the city, to prevent any further attacks.
Meanwhile, Colonel Jabber revealed that clashes broke out between the Islamic State militants and security forces near al-Kazak camp, leaving 8 IS casualties, while security forces destroyed vehicles belonging to the terrorist group and shelled their gatherings in the area.
(Reuters) Iraqi government forces besieged Islamic State militants around Mosul’s Old City on Thursday, edging closer to the historic mosque from where the group’s leader declared a caliphate nearly three years ago.
The militants, holed up in houses and darting through alleyways, resisted with sniper fire, suicide attacks and car bombs.
Though heavy rain hampered the advance, Federal Police and rapid response unit troops reached points about 500 m (yards) from the centuries-old al-Nuri Mosque by Thursday morning.
The black jihadist flag was clearly visible draped from its famous leaning minaret.
The government forces have made significant gains in recent days in a battle that started in October, seizing a main bridge over the Tigris river and closing in on the mosque.
“We are holding positions we took yesterday. There is a lot of resistance in that area with snipers and car bombs,” Federal Police Major General Haider Dhirgham told Reuters.
The capture of al-Nuri Mosque would be a huge symbolic victory as well as a concrete gain.
“It’s important for them, it’s where they declared their state,” Dhirgham said, speaking at a police forward base as refugees trudged through the muddy streets and wrecked houses.
Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi chose the mosque as his backdrop for announcing the caliphate spanning Iraq and Syria in July 2014.
Since then, Mosul has been the hardline group’s main urban stronghold in Iraq but it has steadily lost ground since the offensive began. Iraqi leaders say the battle is reaching its final stages.
Several more areas of western Mosul had been recaptured, including the hospital, during Wednesday and Thursday morning but officers said progress was slowed by car bombs and booby-traps in houses and alleyways, as well as the bad weather.
Islamic State hit back with sporadic attacks on government positions, including mortar fire. Suicide bombers had driven explosive-rigged cars at troops, Dhirgham said.
Government forces responded with mortars and helicopter gunships strafed militant positions from above.
Police said they had killed nine militants who tried to counter-attack one of their positions with rocket-propelled grenades.
“Federal Police drones bomb dozens of fixed and mobile Daesh targets in the perimeters of the Grand Mosque,” a later police statement said, using an Arab acronym for Islamic State. More at the link
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03/17/2017 00:00 ||
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Anbar (IraqiNews.com) Commander of the army’s 7th brigade, Major General Numan Abd al-Zawei, announced on Thursday, that security troops destroyed a camp and an explosives factory belonging to the Islamic State group, west of Anbar.
Zawei said in a press statement that Iraqi Army Aviation bombarded a camp, an explosives factory and four strongholds belonging to the Islamic state in al-Madham area, southwest of Anah City (210 km west of Anbar).
“The aerial bombardment completely destroyed the camp, explosives factory and strongholds, as well as killing a number of IS terrorists,” Zawei added.
Noteworthy, Iraqi Army Aviation and international coalition continue conducting air strikes on strongholds and headquarters belonging to the Islamic State in the city of Anah, in preparation to drive out the terrorist group.
Anbar (IraqiNews.com) Head of Hīt District Council Mohamed al-Mohammadi announced on Thursday, that a booby-trapped vehicle exploded in the center of the district, without causing any casualties.
Mohammadi said in a press statement, “This evening, a booby-trapped vehicle, parked near a garage in central Hīt exploded, without causing any human losses.”
Noteworthy, the incident is the second of its kind in the district, after being liberated from the Islamic State group, early last year, where another booby-trapped vehicle exploded in al-Cournish Street, north of Hīt.
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03/17/2017 00:00 ||
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Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) One civilian was killed and four others were wounded when an explosive device exploded in in a district in northern Baghdad, according to security sources.
The device was placed on the side of a road near a marketplace in Saba al-Bour region, north of the capital, security sources were quoted saying.
Nobody has claimed responsibility for the bombing, but Islamic State militants have said
they had been responsible for several bloody explosions and attacks that hit the capital in the past months, leaving casualties among civilians and security troops.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) says violence in the country left nearly 392 dead and 613 injured, excluding security members, during February. Baghdad was the second most affected province with 120 deaths and 300 injuries, according to the organization’s monthly casualty count.
Some 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. They are concerned that the group could, however, shift to a guerilla-style war and lone wolf attacks after the recapture of Mosul.
[IsraelTimes] Zahar’s comments come after recent reports that the group plans to amend charter to endorse a state of Paleostine along pre-1967 lines.
A bigwig in the Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", terror group called for removing Jews from the entirety of historic Paleostine.
According to a translation provided by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), Mahmoud al-Zahar told Hamas’s al-Aqsa TV last week that "removing the Jews from the land they occupied in 1948 is an immutable principle because it appears in the Book of Allah."
He said Allah, in the Koran, states, "And drive them out from wherever they have driven you out" and that this means removing the Jews from the 1948 borders.
Zahar went on to advise, "Never use the term 1967 (borders)."
"We have liberated Gazoo, part of Paleostine, but I am not prepared to accept just Gazoo," he said.
"Our position is: Paleostine in its entirety, and not a grain of soil less," added Zahar, a former Hamas foreign minister. "Allah did not define the 1967 borders or the 1948 borders. We will fight them wherever we can -- on the ground, underground, and if we have airplanes, we will fight them from the skies."
The speech came in the wake of recent reports that Hamas is planning to endorse a state of Paleostine along the 1967 borders -- a move that would be a major shift from the group’s long-held policy of reclaiming all of the land between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea -- though it won’t recognize Israel’s legitimacy.
The new policy will be announced in amendments to Hamas’s charter that is to be published in April, after the group’s political bureau completes its internal elections, the pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat reported on March 7.
The new policy is being crafted in order to engage regional and international partners, such as Egypt, the report said.
While Hamas leaders in the past have at times expressed to English-language news outlets they would accept a Paleostinian state along the pre-1967 lines, the group’s official spokespeople and media frequently continue to promise to liberate what is the entire State of Israel.
Mohammad Marmaduke Pickthall translates the full verse:
And slay them wherever ye find them, and drive them out of the places whence they drove you out, for persecution is worse than slaughter. And fight not with them at the Inviolable Place of Worship until they first attack you there, but if they attack you (there) then slay them. Such is the reward of disbelievers.
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03/17/2017 12:05 Comments ||
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from the Provincial Electricity Authority while they were recording power usage in Pattani province on Thursday morning. The two were checking meters in Tambon Muangtia in Mae Land district. The attackers also stole the pair's motorcycle.
Police said the attackers drove behind the workers and opened fire at them. Hassanai Chaiphan died at the scene while Rungratana Plainoo died at a district hospital.
The murders are thought to be linked to the insurgency in the far South.
[ARA News] A suspected Russian airstrike on Thursday hit a crowded mosque in Aleppo suburb, in northwestern Syria.
At least 44 civilians were reported dead and dozens more were wounded in the airstrike.
“The Russian Air Force committed a massacre in northern Aleppo by targeting a mosque full of civilians during evening prayers. 44 people are confirmed dead,” local media activist Salim Halwani told ARA News.
In the meantime, a medial source in Aleppo reported that more than 90 civilians were injured in the same airstrike.
“Some of them are in critical condition. The death toll may rise in the next few hours,” he told ARA News, speaking on condition of anonymity for safety concerns.
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.
Attackers gunned down two workers
