[AlAhram] Afghanistan's Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... rulers have detained several British citizens and an American, including a former freelance television journalist who has been coming to Afghanistan for more than 40 years, both governments and a family member say.
A statement from the British government this week said there are a number of British nationals currently in Taliban custody. While the government refused to release their identities, Hassina Syed, the wife of Peter Jouvenal, a former freelance cameraman turned businessman, told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named, her husband was taken on Dec. 13.
And U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told CNN ...the organization formerly known as the Cable News Network. Now who knows what it might stand for... 's ``State of the Union'' on Sunday that Washington was ``actively working'' to get the American released from Taliban custody. He refused to say more, citing the ``sensitivity of it.''
The American detainee and at least four other British nationals in jug remain publicly unidentified. It was not clear how many were detained together.
Speaking to The AP by phone from her home in London, Syed, an Afghan, said her husband was in Afghanistan investigating business opportunities, including investment in lithium mining. Afghanistan is rich in lithium, a key component of energy-storage batteries. He was traveling alone and not associated with the other detainees, she said.
Jouvenal had worked as a freelance cameraman during the 1980s Soviet invasion in Afghanistan and followed the country through its many wars. He married Syed and they have three daughters.
Jouvenal, who speaks both Pashto and Dari, Afghanistan's two official languages, had held several meetings with the Taliban's mining ministry before being detained in December, Syed said, including with the minister. No charges have been filed and until his detention, Syed said, Jouvenal had been careful to stay in regular contact with the Taliban authorities to ensure that they were aware of his activities and movements.
In the mid 2000s, Jouvenal owed and operated the Gandamak Restaurant and guest house in the Afghan capital, which had become well known among the many journalists who traveled to Afghanistan during the U.S.-led invasion that toppled the Taliban government in 2001.
The Taliban did not respond to requests for comment on the foreign nationals and on Jouvenal in particular.
In a statement, the British foreign office said the detention of British nationals is being discussed with the Taliban.
``UK officials have raised their detention with the Taliban at every opportunity, including when a delegation travelled to Kabul last week,'' the British foreign office said in a statement earlier this week,
There's been no explanation for the detentions.
Syed said her husband was alone and was not travelling with the other men who have been detained.
According to people with direct knowledge of the men currently being held in Taliban custody, at least two of the detainees were apparently in Afghanistan to secretly evacuate Afghan nationals. The people with direct knowledge spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks.
The Taliban have made it clear that Afghans without proper documents would not be allowed to leave the country.
Syed said she feared her husband may have gotten caught up in a Taliban investigation into attempts to secretly transfer Afghan nationals out of the country.
But Syed said she, too, was planning to return to Afghanistan after her husband's initial trip looking for partners in mining ventures. Together they planned to establish joint ventures.
In the telephone interview, Syed expressed fear for her husband's welfare but also frustration with the Taliban administration.
``They say they want foreign and Afghan businesspeople to come to Afghanistan, to invest in Afghanistan, but why will anyone want to invest if they cannot be certain of their safety?" she asked.
According to Al-Naba, following an ISKP attack on Taliban check-post in Sawkay, Kunar, "Caliphate soldiers targeted 8 homes owned by TB, in the same area, with light & medium weapons, which caused material damage, before they safely return to their locations."
[Garowe] A jacket wallah on Saturday targeted a tea shop in Beledwyene town in Central Somalia, leaving at least ten people dead and scores injured, in yet another attack that comes at the time the country is struggling to conclude Lower House elections.
Police said the attackers targeted a tea shop in Beledweyne, the administrative capital of the Hiraan region, which is set to host Lower House elections in the coming days. The attack left at least 15 people seriously injured.
Witnesses said the attacker walked to the tea shop before blowing himself as dozens of people scampered for safety. Saturdays are working days in Somalia, a country whose most residents are Moslems.
A witness video making rounds on social media show dead and maimed being evacuated from the scene of the suicide kaboom in Beledweyne. Reports indicate almost all the victims are civilians including at least one civilian official.
State media reported that deputy district commissioner for social affairs Abdirahman Kenyan is among the victims killed in the suicide kaboom. Also, reports say a regional politician has reportedly been hurt in the attack.
So far, no group has taken responsibility for the attack but al-Shabaab ...... Somalia's version of the Taliban ...Arabic for students... , functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda... holy warriors are known for such incidents. The group controls large swathes of rural central and southern Somalia, but efforts by security forces have seen its grip dwindle significantly.
On Wednesday, al-Shabaab waged multiple attacks within Mogadishu, leaving at least five people dead. The group usually targets security forces, senior government officials, and innocent civilians, who mostly bear the brunt of these cowardly attacks.
A jacket wallah killed 14 people in a popular restaurant in the central Somali town of Beledweyne on Saturday, on the eve of a round of voting there, police said.
The attack was claimed by the al-Shabaab Islamist bully boy group, which has been waging an insurgency in the troubled Horn of Africa nation for years.
Security had been tightened in Beledweyne ahead of a first session of voting for parliamentary seats in the constituency, which lies about 340 kilometres (210 miles) north of the capital Mogadishu.
"The number of people who have died in the heinous terrorist attack in Beledweyne today has increased from 10 people to 14 as of now," local police officer Mohamud Hassan told AFP by phone.
He said some of the 16 civilians earlier reported maimed in the suicide kaboom had shuffled off the mortal coil in hospital. Among the dead were local government officials.
"This was the deadliest attack I can recall in this town," he added.
Al-Shabaab said in a statement that one of its fighters carried out the bombing.
Somalia, particularly Mogadishu, has seen a spate of attacks in recent weeks as the country hobbles through a long-delayed election process.
Witnesses said the huge explosion tore through an open area of the Hassan Dhiif restaurant where people had gathered under trees to eat lunch.
In another incident on Saturday, one person was killed and six others maimed when an bomb went off in a teashop in Bosaso, the commercial capital of the northern state of Puntland ...a region in northeastern Somalia, centered on Garowe in the Nugaal province. Its leaders declared the territory an autonomous state in 1998. Puntland and the equally autonomous Somaliland seem to have avoided the clan rivalries and warlordism that have typified the rest of Somalia, which puts both places high on the list for Islamic subversion... , police said.
[AlArabiya] Eight Malian soldiers were killed, 14 others injured and four are missing following a clash with armed gunnies in the northeast of the West African nation on Friday, the defense ministry said.
The ministry said late on Friday that columns of armed snuffies on cycle of violences had pinned down the unit, but the army, backed by the air force, killed 57 of them in the tri-border area near 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... Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger are struggling to contain armed gunnies linked to al-Qaeda and ISIS that control swathes of territory in the mostly non-existent border area of the West African Sahel that is larger than the size of Germany.
The attack comes as Mali’s ruling military junta on Friday asked La Belle France to withdraw troops from its territory "without delay", calling into question Gay Paree’ plan for a four- to six-month departure and highlighting the breakdown in relations between Gay Paree and its former colony.
[AlArabiya] Algerian troops killed seven suspected snuffies Saturday in an ongoing operation in the northeastern province of Skikda, the defense ministry said.
The seven "terrorists" were rubbed out during a search operation in forest areas of Collo district, the ministry added.
The Algerian army regularly reports deadly operations targeting murderous Moslem fighters, two decades after the end of a decade-long civil war between the state and hardline groups that left 200,000 people dead.
Despite a peace and reconciliation charter signed in 2005 to end the violence, gangs still carry out sporadic operations against security forces.
On January 28, the defense ministry said that two Algerian soldiers and two fighters were killed in a firefight near the desert border with Niger.
Last year, 23 "terrorists" were "neutralized" and more than 200 captured, according to ministry figures.
Today, the Yemeni 5th Military Region posted pics of Iranian Sageg RPG Launchers, RU90G thermal optics (1 was attached to a Type 79/SVD DMR), a possible Nakhjir-3 DMR, & other arms that were captured at Houthi sites in northern Hajja, #Yemen.@Natsecjeff@AbraxasSpa@Xanikenpic.twitter.com/pGOBFbnEy1
Local media reports said that a tribal mediation for the release of #UN staff kidnapped by #AQAP in #Abyan failed for the second time. The kidnappers threatened to execute the hostages if the army tried to use force to release them.
Today, #AQAP's formal wire released a video & a eulogy statement for a slain militant: Muhannad Al-Qasimi. He entered #Yemen around 2013-2014. He conducted ops in Hadramawt, Shabwah, & Marib. He was killed by an airstrike in Marib around OCT-NOV 2020.@CarvajalF@Natsecjeffpic.twitter.com/4BkS9bKh2H
Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has released the biography of Fahd al-Mutairi, a Saudi Al-Qaida operative and "missile expert" who fought in Afghanistan and later Yemen, and who was allegedly killed by a U.S. airstrike in Yemen in October 2021.
Five men have been jailed for the rape of a girl between 2008-9, in Keighley:
Nazir Khan-12 years Omar Safda-12 years Kamran Hussain-5 years Hassan Basharat-12 years Imran Sabir-12 years Amjad Hussain & Barber Hussain to be sentenced at a later date. https://t.co/ZSmfBrI9mCpic.twitter.com/3hgly44VU5
Six members of a Keighley, Yorkshire grooming gang have been jailed for a total of 66 years for their parts in horrific sexual crimes against a young girl.
All six were sentenced on Friday at Bradford Crown Court after juries in two separate trials convicted them all of rape.
The victim reported the crimes - which took place in the Keighley area between 2008 and 2009 - when she was an adult.
Nazir Khan, 30, of Keighley, was jailed for 12 years for two counts of rape. He was also given an extended eight-year licence period. He was already on the Sex Offenders' Register.
Kamran Hussain, 29, of Keighley, was jailed for five years for rape and was also ordered to sign the Sex Offenders' Register for life.
Omar Safdar, 30, of Oldham, was jailed for 12 years for three counts of rape. Imran Sabir, 42, of Keighley was jailed for 12 years for two counts of rape.
Hassan Basharat, 32, of Keighley was jailed for 12 years for three counts of rape, whereas Barber Hussain, 36, of Bradford, was jailed for 13 years for seven counts of rape.
Usman Sultan, 30, of Keighley was convicted of three counts of rape and will be sentenced at a later date alongside Amjad Hussain, 35, of Keighley who was
Italian police said Saturday they had arrested an Egyptian suspected of trafficking migrants colonists across the Mediterranean during a trip that left seven people dead from hypothermia.
The suspect is accused of organizing the dangerous crossing by a boat carrying 287 people from Libya. Most were suffering from the cold when they were rescued by the coasties on January 25.
Police in the Sicilian city of Agrigento said in a statement that the ordeal on the overcrowded, 16-meter boat ended "with the death, by hypothermia, of seven Bangladeshi citizens, due to the inhumane conditions of the voyage."
The 38-year-old suspect, who was identified through witness testimony of survivors, had already been sentenced for a 2011 people smuggling crime in Sicily, police said, without providing further detail.
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02/20/2022 00:24 ||
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[OneIndia] The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday arrested its former Superintendent of Police (SP) and IPS officer Arvind Digvijay Negi for allegedly leaking secret documents to an over ground worker of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba ...the Army of the Pure, an Ahl-e-Hadith terror organization founded by Hafiz Saeed. LeT masquerades behind the Jamaat-ud-Dawa facade within Pakistain and periodically blows things up and kills people in India. Despite the fact that it is banned, always an interesting concept in Pakistain, the organization remains an blatant tool and perhaps an arm of the ISI... terror group, its official spokesperson said, according to news agency PTI.
The spokesperson said that Negi, a police officer who was promoted to the IPS batch of 2011, was arrested in connection with a case registered by the NIA on November 6 last year.
The case pertains to the spread of network ofl over ground workers (OGW (Over Ground Worker) Over ground workers (OGWs) are people who help militants, or terrorists, with logistical support, cash, shelter, and other infrastructure with which armed groups and insurgency movements such as Hizbul Mujaheddin and Jaish-e-Muhammad in Jammu and Kashmir can operate.... s) of the banned Laskhar-e-Taiba (LeT) for providing support in planning and execution of terrorist activities in India.
The NIA had earlier arrested six people in the case.
"During investigation, the role of A D Negi, IPS, SP posted at Shimla (since repatriated from NIA) was verified and his houses were searched. It was also found that official secret documents of the NIA were leaked by A D Negi to another accused person who is an OGW of LeT in the case," the spokesperson said.
[OneIndia] A terrorist was on Saturday shot full of holes in an encounter with security forces in Shopian district of Jammu and Kashmir ...a disputed territory lying between India and Pakistain. After partition, the Paks grabbed half of it and call it Azad (Free) Kashmir. The remainder they refer to as "Indian Occupied Kashmir". They have fought four wars with India over it, the score currently 4-0 in New Delhi's favor. After 72 years of this nonsense, India cut the Gordian knot in 2019, removing the area's special status, breaking off Ladakh as a separate state, and allowing people from other areas to settle (or in the case of the Pandits, to resettle) there.... . Two army jawans have also lost their life during the shootout.
Acting on a specific input about the presence of bandidosfaceless myrmidons at Chermarg in Zainapora area of Shopian, security forces launched a cordon and search operation there, a police official told PTI.
He said as the forces were conducting searches in the area, the hiding bandidosfaceless myrmidons fired upon them.
The forces retaliated, ensuing an encounter, in which a murderous Moslem was killed, the official said.
The identity and group affiliation of the slain ultra is being ascertained, he said.
In a similar operation last month, two Death Eaters belonging to the Lashkar-e-Taiba ...the Army of the Pure, an Ahl-e-Hadith terror organization founded by Hafiz Saeed. LeT masquerades behind the Jamaat-ud-Dawa facade within Pakistain and periodically blows things up and kills people in India. Despite the fact that it is banned, always an interesting concept in Pakistain, the organization remains an blatant tool and perhaps an arm of the ISI... (LeT) outfit were killed in an encounter with security forces in Shopian district of Jammu and Kashmir.
Based on a specific input regarding the presence of Death Eaters in village Kilbal area of Shopian in south Kashmir, a cordon-and-search operation was launched.
In the ensuing encounter, two Death Eaters of the proscribed terror outfit LeT (TRF) were killed and their bodies were retrieved from the site of the encounter, the front man said.
The Resistance® Front (TRF) is a shadow group of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).
He identified them as Sameer Ahmad Shah, a resident of Dhangam in Shopian, and Rayees Ahmad Mir of Pulwama.
"As per police records, both the killed Death Eaters were part of group involved in several terror crime cases, including attacks on security forces and civilian atrocities," he said.
Incriminating materials, arms and ammunition were recovered from the site of the encounter. All the recovered materials have been taken into case records for further investigation, the front man added.
A kaboom reportedly targeted the residence of a member of the Iraqi parliament in Dhi Qar on Saturday morning.
A security source told Shafaq News Agency that the residence of MP Nisan al-Zayer, a member of Emtidad's parliamentary bloc, was attacked by an bomb in al-Dujain area, Souq al-Shoyoukh district.
"The attack resulted in damages to the front yard of the house. No human casualties were reported," the source said.
Ottoman Turkish warplanes bombed sites of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Duhok, north of the Kurdistan Region, with the backing of heavy artillery fire, a source revealed on Saturday.
The source told Shafaq News Agency that Ottoman Turkish artillery and aircraft have been raining bombs on the PKK positions near the Rikan area in the sub-district of Shiladze, Amadiyah.
"The extent of the damages is not immediately clear due to the ongoing bombardment," the source said.
In July 2015, a two-and-a-half year-long ceasefire broke down, and the almost four-decade-long conflict between Ottoman Turkish security forces and murderous Moslems of the PKK, recognized as a terrorist organization by The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor... , the U.S. and the EU, entered one of its deadliest chapters in nearly four decades.
Since 2016, Ankara has launched a trio of transborder operations against anti-Ankara parties in the Kurdistan Region and northeastern Syria: Euphrates Shield (2016), Olive Branch (2018), and Peace Spring (2019).
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02/20/2022 00:00 ||
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Iraqi security forces apprehended a person with suspected links with the attack on the headquarters of the Iraqi Parliament Speaker, Mohammad al-Halboosi, in al-Anbar, Western Iraq.
The source told Shafaq News Agency that the arrestee is wanted for taking part in the attack that took place in al-Heet district yesterday, Friday.
"Inquiries with the suspect are underway," the source said.
Yesterday, a group fo unknown assailants threw a hand grenade at the headquarters of the leader of Takaddom movement, Mohammad al-Halboosi, in al-Heet.
The headquarters of Takaddom movement and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in Kirkuk, ... a thick stew of Arabs, Turkmen, Kurds, and probably Antarcticans, all of them mutually hostile most of the time... Baghdad, and al-Anbar have been targets for frequent attacks over the past few weeks.
The attack came a few hours after a statement by the incumbent parliament speaker, an ally of the leader of the Sadrist movement Moqtada Tater al-Sadr ...hereditary Iraqi holy man and leader of a political movement in Iraq. He had his hereditary rival, al-Khoei, assassinated only a few hours after the holy rival's appearance out of exile in 2003. Formerly an Iranian catspaw, lately he's gagged over some of their more outlandish antics, then went back to catspawry... , accusing "unrestrained wills" of attempting to undermine the prestige of the state and "threatening the people".
"We did not fear the arms of who came before and will not tolerate the threats of those who followed. We did not, and will not, change our approach that is committed to building the state away from violence," he tweeted.
Al-Sadr lashed at the threats made against his "allies and partners" in the "national majority government", hinting at "cross-boundary" intentions to exert hegemony over Iraq.
In a strongly-worded tweet he shared earlier today, Friday, the firebrand ...firebrands are noted more for audio volume and the quantity of spittle generated than for any actual logic in their arguments... holy man quoted a verse from popular poetry, "It is not me who is threatened by death..nothing scares those who follow Mohammad," in reference to his late father, Mohammad Sadiq al-Sadr.
"once again, the voices of predators, that recognize threatening as their only dialect, rise again. Once again, they are threatening the allies and partners in a national majority government that is neither eastern nor western."
"Enough threats," he said, "we will not hand the country back to corrupts and sell the country to [parties] across the borders. The majority of people are with the national majority government. We will stand idly and will not allow terrorism and corruption control us."
[BenarNews] Suspected members of the group behind the 2002 Bali bombings have infiltrated political parties so they can spread their radical beliefs, an anti-terrorism official said Friday, three months after authorities revealed that alleged Jemaah Islamiyah operatives had penetrated state institutions.
Irfan Idris, head of de-radicalization at the National Counter-Terrorism Agency, came out with this days after police arrested a member of a newly established party on suspicion of being involved with Jemaah Islamiyah. Authorities here blamed JI, the Southeast Asian affiliate of al-Qaeda, for carrying out Indonesia’s deadliest-ever terror attack 20 years ago.
On Saturday, different areas in the de-escalation zones, northwest Syria, witnessed military escalation and exchange of shelling between the Syrian government forces and Ottoman Turkish-backed opposition factions.
The opposition factions’ sites in the towns of al-Enkawi, al-Qahira and al-Sarmania in the Gab Plain in the western countryside of Hama were hit with heavy artillery and missiles by the government forces stationed in Jurin camp, North Press reported military sources in the opposition.
"The sites of the opposition factions near the towns of Kafr Noran and Kafr Ta’al, west of Aleppo, were also bombed by the government forces, but no casualties were reported," the sources added.
In Idlib, the fortifications of the opposition factions near the town of Afes, Harsh of Benin and the outskirts of the town of al-Bara, south Idlib, were, according to the sources, also bombed by the government forces stationed in Saraqib.
"The government forces’ sites near the town of al-Bureij, south Idlib, were hit with heavy artillery and missiles by al-Fateh al-Mubin Operations Room," according to the sources.
The de-escalation zone in northwest Syria witnesses daily bombardment between the government forces and Ottoman Turkish-backed opposition factions, without any change in the territorial control.
Increasing abductions of children in #Syria’s southern city of #Daraa arouse fears and worries of residents in light of the government lax. #Russiahttps://t.co/8dvffY7BvK
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.
[AlAhram] Afghanistan's 
[Garowe] A 
...... Somalia's version of the 
...the .jpg "Kashmir")
...a disputed territory lying between India and Pakistain. After partition, the Paks grabbed half of it and call it 
...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor...
...hereditary Iraqi holy man and leader of a political movement in Iraq. He had his hereditary rival, al-Khoei, assassinated only a few hours after the holy rival's appearance out of exile in 2003. Formerly an Iranian catspaw, lately he's gagged over some of their more outlandish antics, then went back to catspawry...
