[ToloNews] The Directorate of Mine Action Coordination (DMAC) said that the civilian casualties due to explosive ordnance have increased in recent months.
According to the DMAC, more than 500 people have been killed or maimed in these incidents over the last year.
Most recently, on Friday two children were killed and two others were maimed in a blast that occurred in Zazai Aryoub district of Paktia province.
Shafiq, one of those maimed in the incident, has been transferred to Emergency hospital in Kabul.
"He received injuries in three parts of his body. One of the children has been hit with a fragment in his head. His eye has been stitched. My own son has been hit with a fragment that broke his bone," Shafiq’s father said.
"My brother told me in the ambulance that they hit the unwent kaboom! ordnance with a stone and then it detonated. When the blast happened, two people were killed and two others were maimed," said Sayed Rahman, a brother of one of the two maimed.
The DMAC said that at least 556 people—most of them children—have been either killed or maimed in these incidents.
"We have had some incidents in the past two months-- in September and October. 9 people were killed and 15 others were maimed in 11 incidents in various provinces," said Noruddin Rustamkhail, head of the DMAC.
Rustamkhail expressed concerns that they haven’t receive any foreign aid to operate their mission in the country.
"Currently, around 6 km needing to be demined. The foreign donors unfortunately have not paid attention to this problem. To demine these areas, there is a need for foreign aid," he said.
The DMAC said that more than 86 km land has been demined from unwent kaboom! ordnance within the last year.
On Saturday, the Commander-in-Chief of the Libyan National Army (LNA), Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar ...Self-proclaimed Field Marshal, served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy, so it's kind of hard to describe him as a Qadaffy holdover. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all. Actually, he is, but slowly... met with the newly appointed UN Envoy and the Head of the UN Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), Abdoulaye Bathily.
During the meeting which was held in Benghazi, Bathily affirmed his "determination to listen to all Libyan parties," and reiterated the United Nations ...the Oyster Bay money pit... ’ "support for a sustainable Libyan-owned solution to restore peace and stability to the country."
He also stressed the importance of "preserving the ceasefire agreement, and unifying the security and military institutions in Libya."
In a thread on its Twitter account, UNSMIL said that Bathily "met with a group of women in Benghazi, including academics, lawyers and activists. As part of his ongoing efforts to collect ideas from a variety of Libyan stakeholders about the best path to peace and stability. "
"I want to hear the roadmap you have, not only on women’s issues, but on every aspect of the crisis. I want to help Libyans design their own solution to put an end to this," he added.
Spokesman for the UN Secretary-General, Stéphane Dujarric confirmed that Bathily’s "highest priority is to support defining a consensual path towards fair and comprehensive elections, as soon as possible."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/24/2022 00:11 ||
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Top|| File under: Arab Spring
#1
It's enough for now that Haftar is against a theocracy or letting the Koran run legislation. He insists on modernism, has ambitions for a proper 'democracy', with gravy train and all. He doesn't want to let an assortment of sasquatches squabble forever and keep the place a shithole. Of course, he's a moslem. So he could go back on everything he's said at any time.
Due to it’s inability to pay rent, a public school closed its doors to students this Sunday, in Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of... ’s richest oil region in, Sah district in Hadhramaut, eastern Yemen.
The administration announced the closure of its doors to pupils due to the failure of the Saudi-backed governments Ministry of Education to rent the school.
At the front gates, the school administration left a sign that reads: "The school has been closed till further notice due to the failure of the Ministry of Education to pay rent."
According to activists on social media platforms, the announcement was a massive shock for residents of the region and a great source of despair among the students, especially since their school is located in an oil rich area and the state budget is supposed to be covered by the regions natural resources.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/24/2022 00:32 ||
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Top|| File under: Houthis
[Rudaw] Ottoman Turkish doctor Mesut began his career wanting to help patients and be of use to his country, but now the threat of patient violence and soaring inflation has forced him to plan a move abroad.
Mesut says he will quit his job at a private Istanbul hospital and next year leave with his wife and two children for Germany.
He is one of a growing number of highly skilled professionals who are leaving or want to leave The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
Continued on Page 49
[Rudaw] Tehran and Ankara have reached a new agreement aimed at increasing Iranian gas exports to the neighboring country, an official said on Sunday, adding that the technical aspects of the process will be done in the next six months.
Following a meeting between officials of the Ottoman Turkish state-owned crude oil pipeline company BOTAS and the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC), Mohammad Reza Julaei, NIGC’s dispatching director, revealed that the two sides have struck a new deal to boost gas exports from Iran ...They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... to The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor... "According to the agreement, all technical, operational and executive activities of gas export to Turkey will be carried out in the next 6 months with the coordination of both parties," Iranian state media (IRNA) cited Julaei as saying on Sunday.
The new plans will see Tehran and Ankara coordinating on operational and repairing plans, renovation, Cathodic protection and coating of the pipelines, and several other matters related to gas export, Julaei added.
The dispatching director also highlighted the development of Iran’s gas industry, referring to it as "a reliable source of gas supply."
Iran boasts the world’s second largest proven gas reserves and fourth largest oil reserves.
Iranian Oil Minister Javad Owji and Ottoman Turkish Energy Minister Fatih Donmez met in Turkey’s capital Ankara on Saturday, discussing the need to extend the gas export contract between the two countries which expires in 2026.
Iran exports around 10 billion cubic meters of gas to Turkey annually, according to a 25-year deal signed in 2001.
Iran and Turkey signed a contract in 1996 at a time when demand for natural gas was growing in Turkey.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
10/24/2022 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
the 10B cu/meter from Iran is about 15-20% of all Turkey's nat gas imports
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
10/24/2022 10:20 Comments ||
Top||
[Rudaw] Salman Rushdie’s agent says the author has lost sight in one eye and the use of a hand as he recovers from an attack from a man who rushed the stage at an August literary event in western New York, according to a published report.
Literary agent Andrew Wylie told the Spanish language newspaper El Pais in an article published Saturday that Rushdie suffered three serious wounds to his neck and 15 more wounds to his chest and torso in the attack that took away sight in an eye and left a hand incapacitated.
Rushdie, 75, spent years in hiding after Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a 1989 edict, a fatwa, calling for his death after publication of his novel "The Satanic Verses," which some Moslems consider blasphemous. Over the past two decades, Rushdie has traveled freely.
Hadi Matar,
...Lebanese-American reared un-Islamicly in New Jersey by a single mother, he went to Hezbollahstan a few years ago to visit his dad and came back primed for Shiite jihad...
24, of Fairview, New Jersey, has been incarcerated after pleading not guilty to attempted murder and assault in the Aug. 12 attack on Rushdie as he was being introduced at the Chautauqua Institution, a rurally located center 55 miles (89 kilometers) southwest of Buffalo that is known for its summertime lecture series.
After the attack, Rushdie was treated at a Pennsylvania hospital, where he was briefly put on a ventilator to recover from what Wylie told El Pais was a "brutal attack" that cut nerves to one arm.
Wylie told the newspaper he could not say whether Rushdie remained in a hospital or discuss his whereabouts.
"He’s going to live ... That’s the important thing," Wylie said.
The attack was along the lines of what Rushie and his agent have thought was the "principal danger ... a random person coming out of nowhere and attacking," Wylie told El Pais.
"So you can’t protect against it because it’s totally unexpected and illogical," he said.
Wylie told the newspaper it was like Beatles member John Lennon’s murder. Lennon was shot to death by Mark David Chapman outside his Manhattan apartment building Dec. 8, 1980, hours after the singer had signed an autograph for Chapman.
In a jailhouse interview with The New York Post, Matar said he disliked Rushdie and praised Khomeini. Iran ...The nation is 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... has denied involvement in the attack.
#4
"Rushdie's no Solzhenitsyn!"
"That Tom! If he wrote a Black Book of Islam,
It would hit like a bomb--"
"Yeah... a suicide bomb."
Just two moderate Muslims.
"SALAAM!"
[Khaama] Fuckery is about!
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Mohsin Shahnawaz Ranjha on Saturday registered a case of "attempted murder" against ousted prime minister Imran Khan, according to sources.
This came a day after Ranjha was attacked outside the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) office in Islamabad, where PTI supporters were protesting disqualification of Khan in the Toshakhana case.
The case has been registered at the Secretariat police station in Islamabad, reported Geo TV.
In the First Information Report (FIR), Ranjha mentioned that he was attacked when he appeared as a plaintiff in the Toshakhana case at the commission.
As he stepped outside the ECP, the PML-N leader was attacked with the "intention of murder" at the "behest of PTI leadership", reported Geo TV quoting the FIR. He alleged that attempts were made to break into his car by smashing its glass.
The FIR also said that the Sri Nagar Highway was blocked at the behest of the PTI leadership during which the party’s workers vandalised and pelted stones.
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/24/2022 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistain Proxies
[Rudaw] Badriya and Mutaz are a mother and a son, but they are registered as siblings on their Iraqi national identification cards because he was born to an 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) father.
In 2016, at the age of 16, Badriya was married off to an ISIS fighter. Three months into their marriage, the ISIS fighter was killed during festivities with Iraqi armed forces during their reign in djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... . Mutaz is now five years old and the Iraqi government does not grant him any identification card because they ask for his father's DNA, something that does not exist.
Given that Badriya has not registered her marriage with the ISIS fighter at any Iraqi government court, she is still considered unmarried. This forced her to register her son's identification card under her father's name in order to be able to enroll him in school.
"My family married me off to a ISIS [ISIS] fighter. I gave birth to this child. He was not issued an identification card. Therefore, I was forced to register his name under my father's name in order for an identification card to be issued for him. I did not have any documents. We did not have any documents at all. According to his ID, he is my brother. But in reality, he is my son," Badriya Samir, Mutaz's mother told Rudaw's Hunar Rashid last week.
The Mosul Civil Statutes Court has decided not to grant identification cards to any child born to ISIS fathers so the mothers are forced to register their children under their own fathers or other male relatives.
"This is a very big problem in Mosul," Adnan Chalabi, a judge at the Mosul Civil Statues Court told Rudaw over the weekend.
"At the age of six, children should go to school and their fathers must be present and those children who were born to ISIS fathers, cannot be enrolled in school because their fathers are unavailable. Therefore, their mothers are forced to register their names under the name of their brothers or fathers. This thing will be a big problem for them in the future when they grow up," Chalabi detailed.
According to relevant judicial authorities, parents' DNA tests must match in order to grant identification cards to their children.
According to the Mosul Civil Statutes Court, around 3,500 similar cases similar to that of Mutaz and Badriya have been registered with them since 2017.
ISIS controlled large swathes of territory in Iraq from 2014 to 2017.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
10/24/2022 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Islamic State
[Shafaq News] al-Rusafa's Criminal Court on Sunday sentenced a brother of a former governor of Basra to seven years in prison for "insulting the Iraqi armed forces" in a post on social media.
A high-level source told Shafaq News Agency that Ismail Musbeh al-Waeli had been handed a seven-year sentence in absentia in accordance with Article 266 of the Iraqi penal code.
Last October, an arrest warrant was issued against al-Waeli after he accused Iraqi Chief Justice Faiq Zeidan of "cooperating with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and armed factions in Iraq."
The convict, a close associate of revered Shiite holy man Muhammad Sadiq al-Sar, is a brother of Basra's former governor Muhammad Musbeh al-Waeli who perished in an armed attack in the southern governorate in 2012.
MP Ashraf Rifi prayed on Friday at the Khalde Mosque before moving to the house of the father of Hassan Ghoson, who had been slain in festivities with Hezbollah-linked button men.
"The incidents that happened in Khalde were in defense of the residents, Leb ...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers... and all Sunnis in Lebanon," Rifi said.
"We tell Hezbollah that we will live with it as a Lebanese component, but we will not bow to the Iranian scheme. We call on you to draw lessons from Iraq, where the Arab Shiite Iraqis rejected the Iranian scheme," Rifi added.
"Shiites are our brothers, but we are against the Iranian scheme that killed all our icons, and I’m speaking from a security background. Together with the martyr Wissam al-Hassan and the martyr Wissam Eid we proved that the killers were a squad from Hezbollah," the politician went on to say.
Turning back to the case of the Khalde festivities, Rifi lamented that "there has been no justice neither equality in this case."
"Those who caused the crime did not hand over anyone. Our Christian brothers in Ain al-Remmaneh defended themselves and they managed through their capabilities to secure the release of all detainees, whereas we have not been able to do so because we are fragmented," Rifi added.
"The Arab tribes are our own army alongside the Lebanese Army and they have a presence across the area. We won’t accept that 17 young men stay at the Military Court after they were aggressed against, while the other group has no detainees," the MP said.
He added: "In Iraq they have ended the Iranian presence and in Lebanon we will end the Iranian presence and we will live with our Shiite, Druze and Christian brothers in accord, harmony and respect."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/24/2022 00:40 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistain Proxies
The United States has warned against any normalization of ties with Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Supressor of the Damascenes... and insisted his reconciliation with Hamas, a regional Iranian catspaw, -- also a pariah for Washington -- showed his "isolation."The Syrian leader, who has been gradually restoring relations in the Arab world after largely prevailing in a brutal 11-year war, on Wednesday received a delegation from the Paleostinian Sunni Islamist group.
"The Assad regime's outreach to this terrorist organization only reinforces for us its isolation," State Department front man Ned Price told news hounds.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/24/2022 00:39 ||
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Israel's Supreme Court on Sunday paved the way for the signing of a maritime border deal with Leb ...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers... , after it rejected appeals that the pact requires parliamentary approval.
The signing is expected later this week.
Israel and Lebanon, who are technically at war, agreed to terms earlier this month on a U.S.-brokered deal to demarcate their disputed maritime border, a step likely to unlock production at Mediterranean gas fields.
Four right-wing Israeli groups mounted legal challenges against the deal, claiming that centrist Prime Minister Yair Lapid was giving away "sovereign" Israeli territory, which requires parliamentary approval.
"Israel has crossed a fundamental democratic line, with a lame duck government agreeing to give up the country's sovereign territory to an enemy state days before an election," said Eugene Kontorovich, of the Kohelet Policy Forum, the conservative think tank that had petitioned the court.
Israel holds elections on November 1, and the petitions additionally argued that agreements to cede territory should not be concluded during an election period.
Opponents of the deal also sought to force the government to hold a referendum on the terms.
But a three-judge panel at Israel's top court threw out all arguments against the deal in a decision Sunday, with the full arguments to be released later.
The ruling means Lapid's cabinet, which has also endorsed the terms of the agreement, can give final, binding approval.
Israel's ruling coalition says the deal will bolster Israel's security, help stabilize the northern frontier and boost the economy with billions in revenue from any gas discovered.
Israeli and Lebanese reports say the signing will happen this week, with officials from the two sides inking the deal in separate locations.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/24/2022 00:38 ||
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[ResponsibleStatecraft] Tensions have been whipped up by saber-rattling and a new EU monitoring mission on the Armenian border.
Iran’s military is conducting large-scale military drills on its border with Azerbaijan, including practicing crossings of the Aras River, which defines a large part of the border between the two states.
The exercises, called “Mighty Iran,” began on October 17. The exact location has not been specified, but Iranian media placed them in between Iran’s provinces of Ardabil and East Azerbaijan, the part of Iran across the Aras from Azerbaijan’s Fuzuli region. One expert on open-source intelligence, however, analyzed photos of the pontoon crossing and placed it across from Azerbaijan’s exclave of Nakhchivan.
The drills come as Iran has been stepping up its diplomatic warnings to Baku about Azerbaijan’s intentions for a new transport link connecting Azerbaijan’s exclave of Nakhchivan with the Azerbaijani mainland, a route that Baku calls the “Zangezur corridor.” The route would pass along Armenia’s border with Iran, with uncertain consequences for Armenia-Iran commerce.
“Iran will not permit the blockage of its connection route with Armenia, and in order to secure that objective the Islamic Republic of Iran also launched a wargame in that region,” Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said in an October 19 interview with the IRNA news agency. Amir-Abdollahian was planning to visit Armenia on October 20 to officially open Iran’s new consulate in Kapan, in the flashpoint province of Syunik, which borders Azerbaijan and Iran, Armenia’s foreign ministry reported.
Iranian media have described the exercises as “massive.” Photos have depicted lengthy rows of tanks and multiple-launch rocket systems. Military officials say the forces in the drills have practiced simulations of airborne landings, as well as the use of suicide drones of the type that Russia recently debuted in Ukraine.
The most noteworthy element of the exercise so far has been the practice of crossing the Aras River using pontoon bridges, which Iranian media said was the first time the forces have drilled on that technique. The Aras River forms a large part of the Iran-Azerbaijan border, though presumably they chose a rare section in which the northern bank is Iranian, not Azerbaijani, territory. October 19 video from the exercise showed tanks and supply trucks driving over a pontoon bridge.
The exercise indicates that “the armed forces’ determination to confront any regime that wants to cut Iran’s land connection with Armenia is serious,” tweeted Iranian military analyst Hossein Daliran.
It comes as tensions in the region are growing on several fronts. In August, apparently in response to Iran’s regular warnings about the Zangezur corridor, Azerbaijani pro-government media began attacking Iran on a deeply sensitive issue, encouraging the large ethnic Azerbaijani minority in the country to secede.
In September, Azerbaijan launched an attack against a broad section of the Armenian border, raising fears of a larger invasion. Tension has continued to fester, with a recent increase in ceasefire violations. Iran, meanwhile, has been beset by countrywide anti-government protests while strengthening its alliance with Russia through the drone supplies.
After its infowar threats stoking separatism two months earlier, Baku has been noticeably quieter in the days since this exercise began. There has been no official comment, and pro-government media have been downplaying the story. Some outlets presented the exercises as taking place on the Armenian border, others speculated that the real target was likely Armenia because of the disastrous consequences an attack on Azerbaijan would entail. (One piece, in the pro-government Musavat, was an exception and did not minimize the issue, calling it “a very serious provocation and threat. With this, the Iranian side is demonstrating that it is ready to encroach on the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan.”)
But Azerbaijan could be merely biding its time: the last time Iran held massive military drills on its border with Azerbaijan, last year, Baku responded in a similarly low-key manner for several days before President Ilham Aliyev fired back, if only rhetorically.
Iran’s embassy in Baku has been giving mixed messages about the exercises. It issued a statement insisting that the drills were pre-planned and that Azerbaijan was notified in advance, “taking into consideration the friendly and brotherly relations” between the two countries.
The ambassador himself, though, gave a more pointed statement, tweeting a video of the exercises set to martial music and writing that they were a demonstration of Iran’s “readiness to defend the security of the country’s borders and a decisive response to any threats and interventions by countries and regimes in the region.”
While Tehran has for some time been warning Azerbaijan about its threats to Armenia, in recent days its talking points have incorporated a new perceived threat in the Caucasus: the “European military presence.”
Iran President Ibrahim Raisi met with Aliyev in Astana on October 13 and a senior Raisi adviser wrote after the meeting that the Iranian leader “rejected any change in the historical borders, the geopolitics of the region, and the Iran-Armenia transit route” and that that would “elicit a decisive response from Iran.” But he added that Raisi “also rejected European military presence in the region under any cover. He said internal issues won’t distract us from the Iranian nation’s strategic interests.”
The “European military presence” would seem to be a reference to a new European Union monitoring mission that began deploying to Armenia this week. That mission will be modest – 40 members, with a two-month mandate – but it seems to have spooked Iran. More Europeans could be coming: the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe announced that it would be sending an “assessment mission” to Armenia between October 21 and 27.
The goal of the European mission(s) appears to be the same as that of the Iranian military exercises: reduce fears of an Azerbaijani attack on Armenia. (One Azerbaijani analyst, improbably, suggested the two sides may be in cahoots.)
How the European presence in Armenia may change Iran’s strategic calculations remains to be seen. But Armenia continues to count on support from Tehran. A delegation of members of Armenia’s parliament visited Tehran on October 13 and met with several senior Iranian government officials, including Foreign Minister Amir-Abdollahian.
“Iran’s principled position regarding the inevitable need to protect Armenia’s internationally recognized borders and territorial integrity and to condemn the recent military aggression undertaken by Azerbaijan was emphasized,” wrote the leader of the group, MP Gevorg Papoyan.
Posted by: Griter Slash1619 ||
10/24/2022 00:00 ||
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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.
...Self-proclaimed Field Marshal, served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy, so it's kind of hard to describe him as a Qadaffy holdover. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all. Actually, he is, but slowly...
...They hate 
...The nation is noted for 
...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 
...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
