[Aljazeera] Taliban fighters have kidnapped more than two dozen activists, whose convoy was going village-to-village to rally for peace, in Afghanistan's western Farah province, local officials said on Wednesday.
Massoud Bakhtawar, the deputy governor of Farah, said the activists were travelling with six cars from Herat to neighbouring Farah on Tuesday evening when their convoy was stopped by the Taliban.
Bakhtawar said 27 activists were taken to an unknown location. Another official put the number abducted at 26.
[ToloNews] Source said the operation was conducted in a residential area where Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... fighters were using houses as fighting positions.
According to the Geneva Conventions, that makes their deaths the fault of the Taliban, for using them as human shields.
At least six people, including a child and two women, were killed during a ’foreign forces Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... " on Tuesday night, a source told TOLOnews.
A source speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... said that the operation was conducted both from the air and ground in Nawo Joye Dara-e- Afghania village in Najrab and started Tuesday night around 8:00 pm and continued until 4:00 am Wednesday morning.
According to the source, the operation was conducted in a residential area where Taliban fighters were using houses as fighting positions.
One child, two women and three men were victims of the strike, a source said.
Residents of the village blamed the government for failing to prevent civilian casualties during the operation, and said that the Taliban entered their homes and set up fighting positions.
Kapisa local officials said they were unaware of civilian casualties during the operation.
The Taliban denied allegations that Taliban fighters were entering civilian homes by force, and said that foreign troops were targeting civilians in the operation.
A US Forces front man said: "We are aware of the allegation and are investigating."
[ToloNews] The People’s Peace Movement blames IronyKarma the Taliban, but the group has not commented.
The People’s Peace Movement (PPM) on Wednesday claimed that 27 members were kidnapped by the Taliban on Tuesday evening as the group was traveling from Herat on the Farah road.
A PPM member said that the Taliban was responsible for their abduction, but the Taliban has not claimed responsibility and the PPM has been unable to contact the Taliban.
The movement members said that this is the fourth time the Taliban has taken PPM members captive.
Some people are incapable of learning, though to reach this level of stupid usually requires a Western education in a non-technical field at one of the more expensive universities.
Dadullah Qani, a member of the Farah provincial council, confirmed the incident and said that the convoy was traveling from Herat to Nimroz province and they were kidnapped by the Taliban on the road in Farah.
Farah police also said that efforts have begun to track the kidnappers.
The last time PPM members were abducted they were taken to an unknown area in Mosa Qala district of Helmand province and after few days they were released.
The People’s Peace Movement, also called the Helmand Peace Convoy, initially started their marches for peace when a group of at least a dozen activists gathered in the city of Lashkargah in March 2018 to protest an attack that killed around 16 people that month. About a month later, the activists left Helmand and marched on foot towards Kabul.
For 38 days the activists walked across provinces--through villages and towns-- and others joined them along the way.
There’s a nice photo of the lads in camouflage at the link, many with fingers carefully laid alongside their triggers, not on them. These men are clearly nothing like the enthusiastically inept attempters of jumping jacks videotaped at Afghan army boot camp.
[KhaamaPress] The Afghan Special Forces ...established in 2007 with the intent of taking one conventional infantry kandak (battalion) from each of the regional ANA corps, giving them special training and equipment, and reorganizing based on the U.S. Army Rangers. Each battalion is assigned to one of the six regional corps. The commandos comprise 7% of the Afghan National Security Forces but conduct 70% to 80% of the fighting... killed the shadow district chief of Taliban ...Arabic for students... for Shindand district of Herat ...a venerable old Persian-speaking city in western Afghanistan, populated mostly by Tadjiks, which is why it's not as blood-soaked as areas controlled by Pashtuns... province during an operation in Keshk-e Kohna district.
According to a statement released by Special Operations Corps, the Special Forces conducted the raid in Aab Barek Village of Keshk-e Kohna district of Herat.
The statement further added that the Special Forces targeted the compound of Abdul Rauf alias Mukhlis, the shadow district of Taliban for Shindand district of Herat.
The Special Forces killed Rauf alias Khalis during the raid together with one of his bodyguards and confiscated an Ak-47 rifle, a cycle of violence, two sets of mobile phones and some other kits during the raid, the statement added.
The Taliban group has not commented regarding the operation so far.
Herat is among the relatively calm provinces in West of Afghanistan but the security situation in some of its districts has tanked during the recent years.
Talibs are active in some remote districts of the province and often conduct terrorist related activities.
Meanwhile, ...back at the shootout, Butch shot Black Bart's gun out of his hand...... the Afghan forces routinely conduct counter-terrorism operations against the anti-government gangs in this province.
[KhaamaPress] The Afghan Special Forces ...established in 2007 with the intent of taking one conventional infantry kandak (battalion) from each of the regional ANA corps, giving them special training and equipment, and reorganizing based on the U.S. Army Rangers. Each battalion is assigned to one of the six regional corps. The commandos comprise 7% of the Afghan National Security Forces but conduct 70% to 80% of the fighting... and Air Forces conducted a series of operations in the past 24 hours killing at least 15 Talibs in 8 provinces.
The military officials said Wednesday that the Special Forces killed 2 Talibs and destroyed a small cache of weapons in Gulran district of Herat
Continued on Page 49
[IsraelTimes] 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... jihadists have killed seven people on Christmas Eve in a raid on a Christian village near the town of Chibok in northeast Nigeria ... a particularly crimson stretch of Islam's bloody border... ’s Borno state, local militia and residents tell AFP.
Dozens of fighters driving trucks and cycle of violences stormed into Kwarangulum yesterday night, shooting fleeing residents and burning homes after looting food supplies.
Boko Haram and its IS-affiliated Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really 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 western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... West Africa Province (ISWAP) faction have recently stepped up attacks on military and civilian targets.
"They killed seven people and kidnapped a teenage girl in the attack," local vigilante David Bitrus says.
"They took away food stuff and burnt many houses before leaving," he says, adding that a church was also burnt.
The jihadists are believed to have attacked from Boko Haram’s nearby Sambisa forest enclave, says Chibok community leader Ayuba Alamson who confirms the toll.
Very heavy artillery shelling in the Uri sector of Kashmir. The duels have been on since this afternoon. Sources tell me Pak forces are targeting our villages. A civilian has been killed in Churunda village and an Army jawan has also lost his life (elsewhere).
[AlAhram] Iraqi anti-government protesters again hit the streets Wednesday, angered by an activist's death and an attempt on the life of a popular TV satirist.
The latest rallies in Baghdad and cities including Basra and Karbala came after a night of unrest that saw protesters torch the headquarters of two pro-Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan, the abbreviation IRGC is a cognate form of Stürmabteilung (or SA), the term Supreme Guide is a cognate form of either Shah or Führer or maybe both, and they hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... militias in the country's south.
The demonstrators have rallied for almost three months to demand the ouster of the entire political class that has run the oil-rich yet poverty-ridden country in the aftermath of the 2003 US-led invasion which overthrew dictator Saddam Hussein. The mostly youthful activists accuse Iraq's leaders of enriching themselves, mismanaging the economy and being beholden to powerful neighbour Iran, an influential actor in Iraqi politics.
Passions were inflamed when popular TV satirist Aws Fadhil was targeted Tuesday by unknown assailants, with three bullets hitting his car.
Fadhil posted footage of the bullet holes on social media and declared: "They are targeting those who support the revolution, to silence them ... But we are continuing our revolution."
He added that "we have already achieved a goal", referring to a parliamentary vote Tuesday to approve an electoral reform law, in line with the demands of the protesters.
Lawmakers will from now be elected in first-past-the-post contests within electoral districts, rather than through a complex system using provincial party lists and proportional representation. Constituencies will also be redrawn, though it was unclear how and critics feared the new boundaries could be biased toward major parties and tribal groups.
ARSON ATTACKS
Despite the reform steps, protesters again rallied Wednesday -- including in the city of Diwaniyah, where they marched under a large Iraqi flag to mourn a prominent activist, Thaer al-Tayeb.
A suspicious explosion hit Tayeb's car on December 15, badly wounding him and fellow activist Ali al-Madani, in Tayeb's hometown 200 kilometres (125 miles) south of Baghdad.
After Tayeb's death in hospital was announced Tuesday, crowds of demonstrators rushed to the two headquarters of pro-Iran militias in Diwaniyah and torched them.
First they set fire to the building of the powerful Badr organization, run by the parliamentary head of the pro-Iran paramilitaries, Hadi al-Ameri.
Then they burnt the headquarters of Assaib Ahl al-Haq, a group whose head Qais al-Khazali is subject to sanctions by the United States, accused of "kidnapping, murder and torture".
Protesters also blocked roads with burning car tyres in the southern city of Basra.
POLITICAL DEADLOCK
Around 460 people have been killed, most of them protesters, since the start of the demonstrations in early October and 25,000 have been maimed.
But rallies have continue despite the campaign of intimidation, assassinations and abductions of activists, which the United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... blames on militias.
After dwindling in recent weeks, the protest campaign has recovered its vigour at a time when political factions are wrangling over a replacement for outgoing premier Adel Abdel Mahdi.
He quit in November but still serves as caretaker. Negotiations to fill the premier's post have remained deadlocked since the latest in a series of deadlines expired at midnight on Sunday.
[Rudaw] An Iranian-backed bloc in Iraq’s parliament proposed Wednesday the governor of oil-rich southern Basra province as the country’s next prime minister. The nomination was promptly rejected, however, by Iraqi protesters who want an independent candidate to take over the government, two officials said.
The Fatah bloc, which includes leaders associated with the paramilitary Popular Mobilization Units, supported by Iran, had proposed Gov. Asaad al-Eidani for premier.
According to the two officials, President Barham Saleh received a memorandum from parliament which stated that the Iran-backed bloc is the largest in the house and therefore has the right to nominate the next premier. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity under regulations.
Earlier on Wednesday, outgoing higher education minister, Qusay al-Suhail, who had also been rejected by protesters on the streets, withdrew his nomination for prime minister.
Pressure from the demonstrations led Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi to announce his resignation late last month. That was after Iraq’s most powerful religious authority, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, withdrew support for Abdul-Mahdi’s government.
A deadline to name a new prime minister has been missed twice over disagreements on which is the largest bloc in the parliament following last year’s elections.
There are currently two main blocs ‐ Sairoon, led by populist Shiite holy manMoqtada Tater al-Sadr ...hereditary Iraqi holy man and leader of a political movement in Iraq. He spends most of his time in Iran, safely out of the line of fire, where he's learning to be an ayatollah. Formerly an Iranian catspaw, though lately he's gagged over some of their more outlandish antics... , and Fatah, headed by Hadi al-Amiri. But the numbers in the blocs have continued to change since last year’s elections, with an unknown number of politicians leaving some blocs and joining others.
Last Saturday, Iraq’s Federal Supreme Court provided guidance in a statement, but stopped short of naming the largest bloc. It said the decision should be based on parliament’s first session after taking office last year. But the court also said it would accept if two or more lists had merged to become the largest bloc.
The same day, President Saleh sent the court’s response to parliament, asking the legislature to say which is the largest bloc.
Menawhile, in the southern city of Diwaniyah, an activist who was maimed last week in a kaboom died of his wounds late Tuesday. Following the news of his death, protesters attacked some offices of Iran-backed political parties in the city.
In response to the rocket fired from #Gaza at Israeli civilians earlier tonight, the Israeli Air Force just struck a number of Hamas terror targets in Gaza.
[IsraelTimes] Monitor reports back-to-back attacks on Hezbollah, Shiite groups near Iraqi border, where Israel has allegedly conducted a number of strikes.
At least five pro-Iranian Lions of Islam were killed in strikes by unidentified aircraft in eastern Syria on Wednesday night, a Syria war monitor reported.
According to the Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s were conducted over the course of several hours on Wednesday night in the Boukamal region of Syria, near the Iraqi border, an area that has seen a number of attacks on Iran-backed groups attributed to Israel.
The Wednesday airstrikes reportedly targeted a Hezbollah command center, as well as several pro-Iranian militia sites in eastern Syria.
The Observatory said at least five bully boyz were believed to have been killed in the strikes.
As a rule, Israel does not comment on specific airstrikes in Syria, save for those that are in retaliation to attacks on Israel from Syrian territory.
[ALMASDARNEWS] The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) thwarted an attack by the jihadist rebels of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else ...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State... (HTS) at the town of Jarjanaz in the southeastern countryside of the Idlib Governorate on Wednesday.
According to reports from the Idlib front, the jihadist rebels began their attack by attempting to break through the Syrian Army’s lines using suicide kabooms at the northern flank of Jarjanaz.
The first suicide attacker was blown up by the Syrian Arab Army some 50 meters away from their checkpoint.
Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham and their allies attempted another two boom-mobileings before they stormed the Syrian Arab Army’s lines at northern Jarjanaz.
Following the festivities, the Syrian Arab Army managed to foil the jihadist attack at Jarjanaz, killing and wounding several of the forces of Evil in the process.
Since this attack, the Syrian Arab Army has reinforced the northern flank of Jarjanaz in order to prepare for any future assault by the jihadist rebels.
However, there is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened... while the Syrian Army has strengthen their lines, they do not control the nearby town of al-Ghadfah, which was captured by the jihadist rebels on Wednesday.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/26/2019 00:38 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11132 views]
Top|| File under: al-Nusra
[Jpost] Iranian security forces fired on demonstrators in Isfahan in central Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan, the abbreviation IRGC is a cognate form of Stürmabteilung (or SA), the term Supreme Guide is a cognate form of either Shah or Führer or maybe both, and they hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... on Wednesday night, reported Al Arabiya, as demonstrations began in Tehran and other cities around the country. Earlier in the day, Iran bolstered security forces and began shutting off Internet access in some areas in preparation for expected protests, according to Iranian media.
The semi-official news agency ILNA quoted an informed source at the Communications and Information Technology Ministry as saying the shutdown was ordered by "security authorities" and covered the Alborz, Kurdestan and Zanjan provinces in central and western Iran and Fars in the south.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/26/2019 00:02 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11133 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
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.
...
...Arabic for 
... 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...
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling 
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for 
...hereditary Iraqi holy man and leader of a political movement in Iraq. He spends most of his time in Iran, safely out of the line of fire, where he's learning to be an ayatollah. Formerly an Iranian catspaw, though lately he's gagged over some of their more outlandish antics...
...
...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State...
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for 
