[Dawn] Afghan Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid on Thursday denied rumours that the group's Prime Minister Mullah Hasan Akhund has been replaced by his deputy.
Earlier in the day, reports of the Taliban government's Deputy Prime Minister Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar replacing Akhund started doing rounds on social media. Subsequently, Mujahid, in a tweet, clarified that media reports of any reshuffle of the prime minister and changes in the cabinet were untrue.
"There has been no change in the cabinet of the Islamic Emirate or anywhere else," he added.
In September, the Taliban appointed Akhund as its new head of state. Prior to his ascension to the top office, Akhund was the head of the Taliban's Rehbari Shura or leadership council. He hails from Kandahar and is also said to be one of the founders of the movement.
The rumours of Akhund being replaced emerged after China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi, for the first time since the Taliban takeover, arrived in Kabul unannounced on Thursday morning.
The visit comes a week before Beijing hosts a two-day conference — on March 30-31 — comprising Afghanistan's neighbours on how to assist the Taliban government. Pakistan and Iran had earlier hosted similar meetings after the Taliban takeover. The two sides are expected to hold talks on important issues, focusing on China’s role in stability and development of war-torn Afghanistan.
[Garowe] Æthiopia’s government on Thursday announced what it called an "indefinite humanitarian truce ..The purposes of a truce are twofold: 1.) bring up more arms, ammunition, and reinforcements; and 2.) get the enemy to relax his vigilance. A truce is not the same thing as a ceasefire, and a ceasefire doesn't mean you have to stop shooting... " in its war-ravaged Tigray region, saying the action was necessary to allow unimpeded relief supplies into the area.
"The government calls upon the donor community to redouble their generous contributions to alleviate the situation and reiterates its commitment to work in collaboration with relevant organizations to expedite the provision of humanitarian assistance to those in need," authorities said in a statement issued by the Government Communication Service.
The government statement said Tigray’s forces must reciprocate the truce for the humanitarian situation to improve in the region.
It urged fighters loyal to Tigray’s runaway leaders "to desist from all acts of further aggression and withdraw from areas they have occupied in neighboring regions."
It was not immediately possible to get a comment from Tigray’s leaders.
It was not clear if the immediate humanitarian truce is a step toward a comprehensive cease-fire.
Æthiopia’s government has faced growing international pressure to ease restrictions on the flow of humanitarian aid into Tigray.
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, an Æthiopian who considers the Tigray region home, has repeatedly urged Æthiopian authorities to allow unfettered humanitarian access into Tigray.
Months of political tensions between Æthiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government and the Tigray leaders who once dominated Æthiopia’s government went kaboom! into war in November 2020.
The war is believed to have caused the deaths of tens of thousands of people and the displacement of millions.
Although the war has subsided in several places, notably within the Tigray and Amhara regions, concerns remain in the northeastern Afar region.
Aid into the Tigray region has been severely limited under what the United Nations ...an idea whose time has gone... described as a "de facto humanitarian blockade."
In June Æthiopia’s government cut off almost all access to food aid, medical supplies, cash, and fuel in Tigray.
The World Food Program warned earlier this year that three-quarters of Tigray’s population of 6 million are "using extreme coping strategies to survive" and more than a third "are suffering an extreme lack of food."
In violation of @gofundme's TOS prohibiting fundraising for violent suspects, #Antifa are raising thousands for Randy Gray, a Portland man being prosecuted for assaulting an officer. Princess Unicorn, aka Felicia Blair Schoenky, is behind this fundraiser:https://t.co/ABFfHsbnz0
[IsraelTimes] Security officials are reporting a spate of bomb threats targeting Jewish institutions in a number of states.
The threats came into Jewish community centers around the country in recent weeks, most recently in Pennsylvania and Missouri, according to Michael Masters, who directs the Secure Community Network, a consultancy that works with national Jewish groups.
Other JCCs targeted have been in Oklahoma, Arizona and New Jersey. The threats come through online contact forms and have similar language.
The two most recent threats, in Missouri and Pennsylvania, both began, "I’ll be there at 12 to bomb your facility you ukranian jew filth i got bombs there now."
The Anti-Defamation League said Wednesday on Twitter that it is tracking the threats. "We remain in ongoing contact with local and federal law enforcement, and continue to work with partners on the ground to ensure safety for the Jewish community," it said.
Masters said that the perpetrators appear frustrated when the targeted institution does not shut down after security officials determine that the threat is not credible.
*Snicker* The poor dears.
"We think that these guys are doing other calls because they’re not getting the outcome that they want, which is to potentially shut down the facility or sow discontent or fear," he said.
Masters said that the targeted JCCs are working with his organization, Jewish federations and the JCC Association of North America as well as with local law enforcement.
In 2017 hundreds of bomb threats were called into JCCs, sowing widespread fear; a 20-year-old American-Israeli man was eventually convicted of making those calls. In 2020, more than 50 Jewish community centers in 23 states received emailed bomb threats. None proved credible.
[Rudaw] Rudaw’s Hiwa Hussamadin spoke to some of the relatives of the 730 coppers from djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... whose whereabouts still remain unknown, four years after being detained by the 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.... (ISIS). The family members of the disappeared have repeatedly called on local authorities and the Iraqi government to find the missing officers.
Desperate mothers told Rudaw of their suffering and agony over the past four years as they live with the hope to one day be reunited with their sons. They claim that their sons, alive and waiting to be freed, appeared in footage released by the Iraqi armed forces after the liberation of Mosul in 2017. The families believe Iran-backed militia groups are responsible for the disappearance of their loved ones.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/25/2022 00:12 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
#1
I recommend a search with cadaver dogs, but in Mosul that search might take a while.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/25/2022 12:54 Comments ||
Top||
[IsraelTimes] Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... i envoy to the Gazoo ...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamaswith about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... Strip Mohammad al-Emadi says Doha has renewed its yearly aid to the coastal enclave.
Qatar will send $360 million in aid to the Gaza Strip, the same as last year, al-Emadi tells local Paleostinian news site Sawa.
The majority is disbursed to poor Gazook families in monthly stipends of $100 through a mechanism supervised by Israel and the United Nations ...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society... to prevent the funds from going to Hamas, the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,.
Al-Emadi also says Israel has told the Qatari side that the number of permits for Gazooks to work in Israel will gradually rise to 30,000.
Poverty is rampant in Gaza, which is tightly blockaded by both Israel and Egypt in an attempt to contain Hamas.
[IsraelTimes] US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will raise the issue of the US Consulate in Jerusalem during his meetings with Israeli and Paleostinian leaders next week, Acting Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs Yael Lempert tells news hounds.
Blinken had announced that the US would reopen the consulate during his last visit to the region in May. The mission had served as the de facto mission to the Paleostinians before it was shuttered by former US president Donald Trump ...Perhaps no man has ever had as much fun being president of the US... in 2019.
Since Blinken’s announcement though, no progress has been made on the matter, and several sources familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel in December that the plan had effectively been shelved due to Israeli opposition.
Lempert tells news hounds during a briefing that the issue will be raised, but does not specify whether the US is still hoping to advance the matter, which had been a campaign promise of US President Joe The Big Guy Biden ...46th president of the U.S. Old, boring, a plagiarist, fond of hair sniffing and grabbing the protruding parts of women, and not whatcha call brilliant. Just look at the competent way he dumped Afghanistan... .
Pakistan takes notice. And without the usual mustache cursing at the Zionist entity with which they’re at war, too! Truly we live in the age of miracles.
[Dawn] The moment Hussein got permission to work in Israel, the Paleostinian resident of Gazoo ...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamaswith about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... City said he was ready to quit university to seek the attractive wages offered for menial Israeli jobs.
"I felt that the doors of heaven were opened for me," said Hussein. Like other Gazooks who have abandoned their studies to take low-skilled work inside Israel, embarrassment led him to ask that his full name be withheld.
Gaza, a Paleostinian territory of some 2.3 million people under Israeli-blockade since 2007, suffers from an unemployment rate above 50 percent, where even those with post-graduate degrees can struggle to get by.
And Israeli work permits have become a rarity for Paleostinians in the last decade or so — making the few on offer seem like gold dust.
Hussein was pursuing a masters degree and hoping to boost his earnings potential, but said that with three children to feed and student debts of $3,500, continuing to study was proving untenable.
"I hadn’t worked in years," he said, explaining his decision to leave Gaza several months ago.
He got a job as a delivery person in Jaffa, south of Tel Aviv, one of several places in Israel where Paleostinian labourers say they can earn between 250 and 700 shekels (between about $75 and $215) per day, far more than most could hope for from equivalent work in Gaza.
Hamas, the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,, which is considered a terrorist organization by much of the West, took power in Gaza in 2007.
Before the Islamist takeover, roughly 120,000 Gazooks had permission to work inside Israel.
But Hamas and Israel have fought repeatedly over the last 15 years and, due latterly also to the coronavirus (aka COVID19 or Chinese Plague) ...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men... pandemic, Israel has at times fully closed its land crossings with the enclave while completely curbing cross-border work.
Since reopening a few months ago, the Jewish state has issued 12,000 work permits to Gazooks — mostly six month visas, with the option to renew.
The parking lot at the Erez crossing through which Gazooks enter Israel is now teeming with taxis and minibuses, waiting to take Paleostinians to work.
Among them was Mahmud, who found work at a restaurant in Herzliya, an affluent town north of Tel Aviv.
He had previously worked for international organizations in Gaza — highly coveted employers.
But he said ultimately he decided that he could not turn down the chance to earn up to 550 shekels ($170) a day, including overtime — on top of room and board — in Israel, even if the work had no connection to his masters degree in social work.
While many Gazooks welcome higher Israeli pay, the head of Gaza’s workers union, Sami al-Amsi, called for the permits to include mandatory social security protections.
Under current terms, workers from Gaza entering Israel are only covered for accidents if their Israeli employer agrees to pay for insurance — a rarity, according to the Israeli labour rights organization Kav LaOved.
[IsraelTimes] Defense Ministry hands Sky Dew system over to air force after years of testing; sensors onboard aerostat are meant to identify incoming long-range munitions, drones.
The military on Tuesday officially received a massive new balloon equipped with an advanced missile and aircraft detection system from the Defense Ministry.
The radar-based system, deployed in the north at an unspecified date, is part of a general effort by the Israeli Air Force to improve the country’s air defenses, particularly in the north, due to the proliferation of Iranian drones and cruise missiles in the region.
The detection system, dubbed "Elevated Sensor," or "Sky Dew" in Israel, is deployed at high altitudes in order to detect incoming long-range missiles, cruise missiles, and drones, officials said.
Israel already maintains an array of radar systems to detect incoming threats, but the new aerostat is meant to complement and improve existing capabilities by placing the sensors at high altitudes.
During a Tuesday ceremony, the system was formally handed over to the military and began its operational use under a new air force unit, with the same name as the system.
Israeli Air Force chief Amikam Norkin hailed the new system, saying the unit would "enable [air traffic control] to build a more accurate and broader air surveillance picture."
He added that the system would "make the air force more prepared, and assist it in continuing its mission — maintaining security in the skies of Israel."
"The ’Sky Dew’ system was a challenging task that we set for ourselves about a decade ago," said the director of Israel’s Missile Defense Organization, Moshe Patel. As it becomes operational, it is "reality-changing," he said.
"This aerostat system will cruise at high altitudes and provide an exceptional multi-directional detection capability against advanced threats," Patel added.
The Sky Dew aerostat, one of the largest of its kind, was developed in a joint venture by Israel’s Missile Defense Organization and the United States’ Missile Defense Agency over the course of several years.
Vice Admiral Jon Hill, the director of the American Missile Defense Agency, said the system was aimed at shoring up Israel’s "qualitative military edge," a technical term referring to the country’s superiority in the region, which the US is legally required to uphold.
The Israeli military fears that in the coming years that superiority may be tested as Iranian-made and -designed drones and cruise missiles flood the Middle East, representing a greater threat to Israel than the simple rockets that terror groups in the region have possessed until now.
Military officials said earlier this month that Iran’s "UAV terror" is a new and global issue, accusing Tehran of directly attacking both military and civilian targets in the Middle East.
The Israel Defense Forces has confirmed it intercepted at least four Iranian drones heading for Israel or the West Bank and Gazoo ...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamaswith about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... Strip in recent years.
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.
...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 
...46th president of the U.S. Old, boring, a plagiarist, fond of hair sniffing and grabbing the protruding parts of women, and not whatcha call 
...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men...
