#6
...Princess phones (and a second phone line for the teenage daughters), color televisions, shooting humans rather than monkeys into space, building a fragmented interstate highway system. Somewhere on the net is a listing of what part of the population (often a small fraction) had phones, air conditioning, et al just as late as the early 60s.
Posted by: Shiva Protector of the Hohlraums ||
08/14/2021 23:31 Comments ||
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#15
You are welcome TW - Rantburg is a valuable place for Thinking & Concerned People; I enjoy lending a hand from time to time - and you are right, I think of us and our allies who gave so much, for this part of the world.
Two rappers affiliated with the Wu-Tang Clan were shot dead in Portland on Tuesday morning. Portland has experienced a surge in homicides & shootings after last year's BLM-Antifa riots resulted in city council defunding police. https://t.co/nN13vj2bRQ
#3
The Wu got their name from the classic famous Shaolin and Wu Tang movie collection. It was a series of Chinese movies about the art of martial arts released back in 1983. The Wu were fascinated by the name, especially between the ongoing fighting of the Wu Tang and the Shaolin.
[KFP via France24] The United States spent billions supplying the Afghan military with the tools to defeat the Taliban, but the rapid capitulation of the armed forces means that weaponry is now fuelling the insurgents' astonishing battlefield successes.
"We provided our Afghan partners with all the tools -- let me emphasise: all the tools," US President Joe Biden said when defending his decision to withdraw American forces and leave the fight to the locals.
But Afghan defence forces have shown little appetite for that fight and, in their tens of thousands, have been laying down their arms -- only for the Taliban to immediately pick them up.
The Taliban's social media is awash with videos of Taliban fighters seizing weapons caches -- the majority supplied by Western powers.
Footage of Afghan soldiers surrendering in the northern city of Kunduz shows army vehicles loaded with heavy weapons and mounted with artillery guns safely in the hands of the insurgent rank and file.
#3
After 20 years of 'victory just around the corner.' None of our 'Top Men' in the Pentagon, Washington think tanks, Foggy Bottom, McClean, or Leavenworth could have predicted this ?
#6
...On the other hand, US weapons ain't AKs- they require constant maintenance. I suspect the Taliban will decide fairly quickly that they aren't worth the trouble.
Until that point, of course, they have a shiat-ton of firepower.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
08/14/2021 9:44 Comments ||
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#9
Besoeker I am more curious as to why and how none of our top men thought to disable and booby trap said equipment, a little thermite and a lot of sugar goes a long way in that direction.
#10
/\ Yes, and other delightful surprises could have been planned for as well. Feb 1991. Saddam's exit from Kuwait City was a costly one.
Of course if your plan is to partner with the incoming Taliban regime and buy your way back into influence, it's probably not wise to kill them off in large numbers on the approaches.
#14
The Colin Powell 'Everybody plays and nobody gets hurt' plan. Calling off the air during the Iraqi retreat was imbecilic and was really helpful in creating the sequel.
I question just how well they weaponize any of it and for how long. But small matter if you already have it pre-sold to the Chinese and Paks.
#15
Let's look on the bright side. As soon as Kabul falls the Taliban factions are going to start killing each other, and these weapons will expedite that process.
Posted by: Matt ||
08/14/2021 11:07 Comments ||
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#16
Afghanistan is going fast. However, the Obiden government is saying that all those personnel who are leaving are not being evacuated. The embassies are shredding documents and equipment is being destroyed. I don't know what the heck else you'd call it.
This answers one of my questions from a few years back. Are the Afghans being trained going to be ready to stand up and defend their country when we leave? The answer looks like, No.
#18
That is what I meant Besoeker. They must know this would happen and planned on it.
Trump was actually making progress toward peace in the middle east - what with the accords and treaties. Can't have that! Having an eternal external threat is how they maintain their power - and keeps the gravy train running. As a bonus it lets in our adversaries the Chinese Government - which keeps Xiden's handlers happy.
Yes that sounds like a conspiracy theory - but after seeing what is happening over the past 20-40 years - its hard to discount it anymore.
#28
Something about trying the same thing over and over and expecting a different result each time...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
08/14/2021 20:51 Comments ||
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#29
Cue cannon and koto. "It's spooky,"
Chucks Rocky the flying tanuki,
"How this trick always works
On you taxpaying jerks!"
[frantic cakewalk to Kabul Kabuki]
#30
#26: KIND OF LIKE Hue. Despicable animals, then and now. Pure political murders. I would kill them as I did the NVA/and so-called grassroots uprising of the Viet Kong. Jeez I hated those VC bastards. Murderers and terrorists.
Posted by: Shiva Protector of the Hohlraums ||
08/14/2021 23:27 Comments ||
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#31
I say again. Arc light.
Posted by: Shiva Protector of the Hohlraums ||
08/14/2021 23:28 Comments ||
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#32
^^^ #30
I lost 9 of my friends to Nam, their names are on the wall in Washington, DC and I had another bunch of guys loose parts, some of them their souls (PTSD) - I'm thinking of all of our guys who fought these last 21 years and how they will be feeling soon after the news of the Afghanistan Crash & Burn Today... They might need a couple of 'old timer's ears' in the weeks and months ahead -- listen & be available, if & when they ask... Stay Strong !
[AnNahar] Australia is working urgently with the United States to evacuate the last Afghans who helped Australian troops and diplomats as Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... Lions of Islam make rapid territorial gains across Afghanistan, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Friday.
Australia shut its Kabul embassy in May and withdrew the last of its troops in June as U.S. and NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... forces pulled out of the Afghanistan conflict after 20 years.
Morrison said Australia since April has resettled 400 Afghans and their families who would be in danger from the Taliban because they worked for Australia.
Morrison did not say how many more Afghans will be resettled in Australia under a program that has been shrouded in secrecy.
"We have made a lot of ground on this issue in the last few months. We'll continue to do that. We're liaising very closely with particularly the United States and others who are engaged in that area," Morrison said.
"We'll continue to implement that program with a great sense of urgency in partnership with those who also are engaged in similar activities in that region," he added.
Morrison described the Taliban gains as "not surprising."
"But it is concerning and it is very upsetting," Morrison said.
More than 39,000 Australian military personnel have served in Afghanistan since 2001, and 41 have been killed there.
Asked what his message was to Australians who question whether the 20-year campaign was worth the sacrifice, Morrison replied: "Fighting for what you believe in is always worth it."
[ToloNews] Pak forces clashed on Thursday with hundreds of Afghans stranded on Pakistain’s side of a commercially vital crossing point with Afghanistan after its closure by Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... , Pak security officials said as quoted by Rooters.
The disturbances broke out after a 56-year-old Afghan traveler died of a heart attack as he waited in the dusty heat to enter Afghanistan via the Chaman-Spin Boldak crossing, Arif Kakar, a Pak official on the scene, said as quoted by Rooters.
According to Rooters report, protesters carried his body to a local Pak government office demanding the border be reopened. Some began throwing stones at security forces, who responded by firing tear gas and charging the protesters with batons to disperse them. No injuries were reported.
The Chaman-Spin Boldak crossing is landlocked Afghanistan’s second busiest entry point and main commercial artery to the Pak seacoast.
Taliban captured Spin Boldak district last month. They announced the closure of the Chaman-Spin Boldak crossing on Aug. 6 in protest at a Pak decision to end visa-free travel for Afghans.
The group is demanding Pakistain allow Afghans to cross the frontier with either an Afghan ID card or a Pak-issued refugee registration card.
According to Rooters, some 900 trucks went through the Chaman-Spin Boldak crossing daily before the Taliban seized it.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
08/14/2021 00:54 ||
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Link ||
[9 views]
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[KhaamaPress] The Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... has toppled six scenic provincial capitals in the past 24 hours which brings the total number of provinces fallen to the fighters to 18.
Centers of Kandahar, Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... , 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... , Badghis, Ghor, Pashtun-infested Logar, Zabul, and Oruzgan provinces fell to the Taliban in the past 24 hours.
Apart from the aforementioned provinces, there are also other provinces like Paktia and Wardak where the Afghan government forces only control the scenic provincial capitals and the Taliban are controlling the rest of the geography.
In Herat province, former Jihadi leader Ismail Khan, deputy interior minister Abdurahman Rahman, Governor Abdulsabor Qani, commander of Afghan National Army Zafar corps and head of National Directorate of Security ...the Afghan national intel agency... local office surrendered to the Taliban.
Pashtun-infested Logar province, only two hours from the Afghanistan's Caped Presidential Palace also witnessed heavy conflict between the Taliban and ANDSF in the capital Pol-e-Alam. Videos captured by local people in the province show that the central prison has been broken and tens of prisoners fleeing the jail bu Afghan government is yet to comment about the prison and collapse of the province.
Meanwhile, ...back at the alley, Slats grabbed for his rosco... the governor of Oruzgan province-fallen to the Taliban- said that the people asked him not to persist so that the people are not killed and the city is not damaged.
The surrender of high-ranking officials and a Jihadi leader comes a day after the provincial governor of Ghazni province handed over the province to the Taliban and was escorted by the fighters who were then arrested by the Afghan government in Wardak province on his way to Kabul.
The skyrocketed rise in the gains of the Taliban is at a time when the head of High Council for National Reconciliation Abdullah Abdullah ...the former foreign minister of the Northern Alliance government, advisor to Masood, and candidate for president against both Karzai and Ghani. Dr. Abdullah was born in Kabul and is half Tadjik and half Pashtun. He also held the meaningless salaried sop position as CEO of Afghanistan, while Ghani was president... arrived in Kabul from Doha and is due to hold a meeting with politicians.
Shit. May God have mercy on his soul, because the Taliban’s Allah most certainly will not be. In the meantime, Ismail Khan’s son is in charge of the Herat public resistance forces.
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
#BreakingNews confirmed: Fresh photo Former #Herat Governor #Ismail Khan, Deputy Interior Minister Abdul Rahman Rehman, General Abdul Sabur Qane,National Directorate of Security (#NDS) Director Haseeb Siddiqui and several other officials were captured by the Taliban.#Heratpic.twitter.com/gQ4W7xIkIS
18 Civilians Killed in Two Weeks of Fighting in Herat
[ToloNews] At least 18 non-combatants were killed and 260 more were maimed in the two weeks of fighting in 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... that led to the fall of the province to the Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... , health officials said on Friday.
Most of the maimed are under treatment at a provincial hospital in the city of Herat. Some of the maimed said they lost members of their families in the fighting and their homes were either damaged or destroyed.
Of those maimed, 31 are children and 24 are women, said Mohammad Arif Jailani, head of Herat public hospital.
"Recently, most victims were maimed due to mortar attacks," Jailani said.
A convoy of Afghan army military vehicles fearing Taliban capture, fled to Iran today through Gomshad border bazaar which is in south west Afghanistan near Iranian city of Zabol. Iranians will happily use those Humvees. pic.twitter.com/Z46NFUsgem
Reliable sources say the #Taliban have begun internal leadership talks about the structure of their future government -- as their forces begin isolating #Kabul for a final push.
#5
I wonder what things would look like if in 2001 we had given Dostum the military support we gave Karzai et al. Human Rights Watch would have dialed it up to Maximum Vapors, but we might have saved ourselves 2400 American lives. And Dostum might yet come out on top.
Posted by: Matt ||
08/14/2021 13:04 Comments ||
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#6
Why didn't someone in the US Mil think of this?
Oh, that's right. Woke Studies and airstrikes against evidence.
#7
It was a design by Baby Boomers in awe of their fathers and the rebuilding of Germany and Japan. They refused to notice that you can't plant democracy in a country that has no real basis for it while at the same time centralizing and concentrating power back home to destroy what democracy you did have.
[NYPOST] Republican leaders are slamming President Joe 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... or is that an act?...... for taking a long weekend out of the public eye as major cities fall to the Taliban ...Arabic for students... in Afghanistan.
Biden on Thursday sent 3,000 US troops to Kabul to evacuate embassy workers as the Taliban seized 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... and Kandahar, Afghanistan’s second- and third-largest cities — but he hasn’t commented publicly on the crisis since Tuesday.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy ...the GOP house majority whip. He replaces Eric Cantor, who got whupped because his politix are like Kevin McCarthy's... (R-Calif.) said Friday that Biden "must immediately focus all efforts on making sure there is a plan to safely extract all American service members and civilians still remaining in Afghanistan."
"He also owes the American public an answer on what he plans to do to make sure the region doesn’t turn into a breeding ground for more violent mostly peaceful extremism that will lead to large-scale global attacks of terrorism," McCarthy said.
Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (R-Pa.) told The Post, "this strategy of putting your head in the sand and not taking questions is a way to not get associated with his military debacle."
"I don’t think it’s gonna work," he said. "I don’t think that hiding from cameras is a way for him to not have the fall of Kabul and the fall of Afghanistan tattooed on his political legacy. "
Reschenthaler, an Iraq War veteran, said "the history books are going to remember that it was 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... or is that an act?... who surrendered to the Taliban."
The president took no questions as he departed the White House on Thursday afternoon for a trip to his home in Wilmington, Del., and he’s expected to remain out of view for days.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/14/2021 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[25 views]
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#1
I noted with interest that the planned August Vacation in Delaware has now shifted to Camp David, where unlike Delaware, no press access can be mandated, and no listing of visitors from Mt Weather and other places can be tracked. Hiden Biden cannot be exposed to press scrutiny as his utter clueless-ness would be on display. This retreat to protect a fragile public mask for the cabal running the country only delays the inevitable for a moment. The cauldron of public anger and demanding issues is getting white hot, and DHS is prepping the domestic battlespace for the coming confrontations I suspect:
https://americanmilitarynews.com/2021/08/dhs-issues-nationwide-9-11-terror-warning-from-domestic-and-foreign-terrorists/
[AlAhram] The Egyptian Armed Forces announced late on Thursday the killing of 13 bandidosturbans from takfiri ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who most be killed... groups in an exchange of fire during counter-terrorism operations in central and northern Sinai.
Takfiri ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who must be killed... is a term used to refer to certain hardline Sunni Moslems who see other Moslems as infidels, often as a justification for fighting them.
Also during the incident, nine members of the Armed Forces were either killed or injured, Army Spokesman Gharib Abdel-Hafez said in a statement, without identifying the exact number of deaths or the victims’ ranks.
As a result of the operations, the Armed Forces seized 15 automatic rifles and quantities of ammunition of different calibres, Abdel-Hafez said.
Also, 20 automatic rifle magazines, a number of cycle of violences used by the takfiri elements to carry out their terrorist operations, two mobile phones, two field glasses and sums of money in various currencies were confiscated, the front man added.
"The Armed Forces have taken in this regards all legal measures and presented the [seized objects] to the relevant investigative authorities," Abdel-Hafez noted.
"The Armed Forces affirm the continuation of their efforts to pursue terrorist elements so that the people of Egypt can enjoy security and safety," the front man added.
The Egyptian Army has announced the killing of hundreds of takfiri elements since the launch of Comprehensive Operation Sinai 2018 (COS 2018) launched in February of that year.
These latest operations, which the Army announced on the first of August, resulted in the killing of 89 "very dangerous takfiri elements" in North Sinai.
[SAHARAREPORTERS] A senior 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... commander, identified as Amir Adamu Rugu Rugu, and his family have surrendered to Nigerian troops.
The terrorist and his family surrendered to the troops of Operation Hadin Kai in the Gwoza Local Government Area of Borno State.
Amir Adamu was known to be deadly against troops and commuters around Mandara hill and Sambisa forest in Gwoza area, Daily Trust reports.
A top security source said Amir Adamu surrendered along with three wives and children in Gwoza town.
A resident of Gwoza described the terrorist as well known in the town.
"All Praise be to Almighty Allah, the famous Boko Haram (terrorist), Amir Adamu Rugu Rugu surrendered in today in Gwoza town. Karshen BH yazo insha Allah," the source said.
The Nigerian Army on Tuesday said at least 1,000 Boko Haram/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) members had laid down their arms and surrendered to its troops.
Army spokesperson, Onyema Nwachukwu, however, denied that the Force was planning to free two senior repentant terrorists.
[AnNahar] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund... 's chief prospector on Friday announced the arrest of 72 more people implicated in attacks on the shops of Syrian migrants colonists in the capital Ankara.
The new detentions bring the total number of people detained since Wednesday night's violence to 148.
The unrest broke out in response to a fight between locals and migrants colonists in which a Ottoman Turkish national was stabbed to death.
The Anadolu state news agency said two "foreign nationals" have been arrested and charged with homicide.
Images on social media showed dozens of shouting men breaking through police cordons and then attacking cars and shops believed to be owned by Syrian families.
They smashed windows with stones and crowbars and tore down the metal grill of one store before breaking in and ransacking its shelves.
Images obtained by AFP showed police firing tear gas to disperse the crowds as the violence raged late into the night.
The chief prosecutor's office in Ankara has been detaining people who were either suspected of being involved in the violence or of disseminating incendiary social media posts before and during the attacks.
The unrest in Ankara comes with polls showing anti-migrant sentiment on the increase in Turkey.
Turkey has become home to 3.6 million Syrians under a deal struck with the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... in 2016 to help avert the continent's migrant crisis.
The sides are currently working on updating the terms.
Turkey's main opposition party last month vowed to send Syrians "back home" if it comes to power in a general election scheduled for 2023.
Analysts link some of the resentment to economic instability that accelerated in Turkey with 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.
[OneIndia] A major tragedy was averted ahead of Indepence Day after security forces bumped off a Pak terrorist planning an attack along the national highway in 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.... on Friday.
They said the overnight encounter began after two terrorists, who had positioned themselves in a building, started firing "indiscriminately" on a BSF convoy on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway.
Kashmir Inspector General of Police Vijay Kumar said the slain ultra, identified as Usman from Pakistain, was a "dreaded terrorist" active for the past six months.
"Around 3 pm (Thursday), Lions of Islam fired upon the convoy of BSF on the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway near Malpora Mir Bazar area of Kulgam. The fire was retaliated by an ROP (road opening party) of police and security forces," a police front man said.
There were no injuries in the initial attack.
Police and Army reinforcements reached immediately and cordoned off the area, the spokesperson said.
"The force party ensured not to give any chance to the Lions of Islam to escape. The Lions of Islam managed to take shelter in a nearby building. The holed-up Lions of Islam fired indiscriminately upon the joint party of police/security forces which was retaliated, leading to an encounter," he said.
The IGP said there was a general input for the last one week that "Lions of Islam were planning an attack on the national highway on Baramulla-Srinagar road or Qazigund-Pantha Chowk".
"So, the police and security forces were ready. This shows how good the response of the security forces has been that there was retaliation and the bully boy was not allowed to flee," Kumar told news hounds here.
He said when the BSF convoy was coming, "two Lions of Islam fired indiscriminately from a huge building, but there was no injury to us".
"Security forces cordoned off the area and the encounter ensued. GoC (general officer commanding of the Army's south Kashmir-based) Victor Force and I monitored the operation during the night. We used a rocket launcher and a bully boy was neutralised during the night.
"Since it is difficult to search in the dark, in the morning, the body of a Pak terrorist identified as Usman, who had been active for the last six months, was recovered," he said.
A huge cache of arms and ammunition, which includes an AK-47 rifle, magazines, grenades, RPG-7 rocket launcher, was recovered from the encounter site, he said.
Kumar said it shows the "Lions of Islam were planning something big".
"It is after a long time that RPG-7 has been recovered (in Kashmir) and the police and security forces have averted a major incident. I am proud of the police and security forces," he said, adding, "We achieved a major success by killing Usman - the dreaded Pak terrorist."
The police front man quoted above said a CRPF jawan and an Army personnel and two civilians got injured in the "indiscriminate firing by the terrorists".
All the injured had been taken to hospital, he said.
[Rudaw] A Kurdish villager was killed during festivities between The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire... and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in northern Duhok province, a local official confirmed on Friday.
Ibrahim Hassan, 50, was killed in the fight between Turkey and the PKK, Kani Masi district director of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), Hashim Trwanshi, told Rudaw’s Nasir Ali.
Hassan was on his way to water his orchard when he was killed, the official added.
A local resident said the area had been bombed around 10:30 Friday morning.
Mayor of Kani Masi, Sarbast Sabri, said Hassan’s body will be taken to Zakho for forensic examination and he will be later buried in his village.
The PKK is an armed Kurdish group fighting for the increased rights of Kurds in Turkey. Ankara considers it a terrorist organization. For decades, Ottoman Turkish forces have pursued the PKK within the Kurdistan Region’s borders.
Turkey has launched a series of operations against the PKK in recent years, with the most recent beginning in April. Duhok’s Metina area, on the Ottoman Turkish border, is the focus of Operation Claw-Thunderbolt, and Operation Claw-Lightning targets the Avashin and Basyan areas further east.
This year, six civilians have been killed, several injured, and 20 villages emptied.
A parliamentary report last year concluded that at least 504 villages have been emptied across the Kurdistan Region since 1992 and hundreds of people have been killed. In Duhok alone, 366 villages have been abandoned since 1998.
Duhok’s environment has been severely damaged, thousands of acres of land have been scorched, and people’s houses and livestock have been hit.
According to figures compiled by the International Crisis Group, which tracks the PKK-Turkey conflict, in the first six months of 2021, there have been 144 fatalities. The dead are 33 Ottoman Turkish soldiers, 103 PKK fighters, and eight civilians. The majority of the casualties this year have occurred in the Kurdistan Region.
Since the decades-long conflict was reignited in 2015 following the collapse of peace efforts, at least 5,464 people have been killed, including 549 civilians.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has repeatedly called on Turkey to respect its illusory sovereignty and for the PKK to leave the area.
[Rudaw] A Ottoman Turkish soldier was killed in a mortar attack blamed on the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Kurdistan Region’s Metina area, The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire... ’s Ministry of National Defence said late Thursday.
The soldier was severely injured in the attack and later departed this vale of tears, it said in a tweet.
The ministry claimed three PKK fighters were "neutralized," a term Turkey’s army uses to refer to combatants killed or injured on the battlefield, and vowed "operations in the area will continue."
The PKK said in late July that they have carried out 398 attacks against the Ottoman Turkish army since the two operations began April, and have "punished" 494 Ottoman Turkish soldiers and injured 63 others.
The group also acknowledged 63 deaths in its own ranks during the latest operations.
The conflict is devastating local populations and the environment. Villagers have fled their homes, and bombs and Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s have sparked fires that are difficult to extinguish because of ongoing festivities and remote locations.
Ottoman Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar said 18,292 "terrorists" have been neutralized since July 24, 2015.
[IsraelTimes] Soldiers forced the device, possibly an Israeli drone captured by Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",, a regional Iranian catspaw, in 2018, to the ground on Wednesday; military says they only found where it landed Friday.
It was not immediately clear how the military downed the device. In a photograph released by the military on Friday the drone does not appear to be damaged. Jewish Lightning, and not the insurance kind
The IDF said troops spotted the device as it crossed into Israeli airspace and that it was "monitored throughout the entire event."
"The IDF will continue to act to prevent any violation of the illusory sovereignty of the State of Israel," the military said.
The six-rotor drone appeared to be an Israeli device that fell in the Strip in 2018 as it was being used to break up large protests along 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... border.
The cross-border incident on Wednesday came on the same day as the Hezbollah terror group in 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, a practice dating back to the heady human sacrifice days of Baal Moloch. In 2020 Hezbollahblew up a considerable portion of Beirut and many of its inhabitants when its ammonium nitrate faci8lity exploded. They blamed it on... somebody else. It wasn't them though. Trust them on that... launched its own drone into Israeli airspace. That device was also downed by the IDF, according to the military.
[IsraelTimes] Construction to make the holy site handicap accessible began Monday; plan includes elevator, bridge and path connecting parking lot to site
Paleostinians briefly clashed with Israeli forces in Hebron on Friday over construction at the Tomb of the Patriarchs to make the site handicap accessible.
Photos showed Israeli Border Police troops firing stun and teargas grenades into a crowd of Paleostinians that arrived to demonstrate near the site.
Construction at the holy site began on Monday. On Thursday, local mosques in Hebron called upon Paleostinians to show up for Friday prayers and a demonstration at the site, according to media reports.
There were no reports of serious injuries amid the clash which occurred following Friday prayers outside the site.
Police made no immediate statement on the festivities.
Last month, Defense Minister Benny Gantz approved the long-awaited plan to make the site accessible for the disabled — both Israeli and Paleostinian worshippers.
"The Tomb of the Patriarchs is a sacred and historic site, and in the 21st century it is impossible for such an important site for Jews and Moslems not to be accessible to all populations, regardless of religion, race, or gender," Gantz said at the time.
The site, holy to both Jews and Moslems, is accessible now only by its iconic stairs. The $1.4 million project includes an elevator, a path to reach the entrance from the parking area, and a bridge connecting the elevator to the entrance.
The Hebron municipality and the Waqf, which oversees Moslem holy sites in the Paleostinian territories, have objected to what they described as the expropriation of Paleostinian land for the project.
In order to carry out the construction work on the site, the military’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories issued a land acquisition order last year, the Walla news site reported.
Some have accused Israel of violating agreements between it and the Paleostinians, as the Paleostinian Authority was the planning authority for the site.
[NPASYRIA] Four members of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), were maimed yesterday night, in a clash with light weapons with smugglers on the bank of the Euphrates River, in a town east of Deir ez-Zor, eastern Syria.
An SDF military source in the town of Darnaj, 70 km east of Deir ez-Zor, said that an SDF patrol clashed with a group of button men, when they raided one of the smuggling crossings in the town, (al-Ashara crossing), which led to the injury of four SDF members.
The source added that the injured were taken to Abu Hamam Hospital, and two of them were transferred to al-Omar Hospital later, due to the seriousness of their injuries.
From time to time, the SDF raid the smuggling crossings, which link their areas of control with those of the Syrian government, and the raids often result in festivities with smugglers.
Five days ago, the SDF confiscated tanks loaded with crude oil, that were intended to be smuggled to the Syrian government-held areas, at al-Hasiya crossing, in the town of al-Shuhail, east of Deir ez-Zor.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/14/2021 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Narcos
The successive shelling by #Turkey and armed factions of #Syria's #Tel_Tamr left material losses to the villagers' property and forced many to leave their homes. https://t.co/3BOGpScKLy
— NORTH PRESS AGENCY - ENGLISH (@NPA_English) August 13, 2021
Posted by: Fred ||
08/14/2021 00:00 ||
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Areas held by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham #HTS and other opposition factions are witnessing broad spread of weapons among military individuals and civilians. #Syria#Idlibhttps://t.co/ruEY6SfYUY
— NORTH PRESS AGENCY - ENGLISH (@NPA_English) August 13, 2021
Posted by: Fred ||
08/14/2021 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: al-Nusra
[NPASYRIA] On Friday, Syrian government forces renewed their artillery and missile shelling of areas in Idlib, northwest Syria, while Turkish-backed armed faction targeted the government’s posts in the southern countryside of Idlib.
“The government forces, stationed in the surrounding checkpoints, targeted the factions’ posts in the villages and towns of al-Fatira, Kansafra, and Sfuhun in Zawiya Mountain, south of Idlib, with heavy artillery shells and missiles,” military sources of the factions told North Press.
“The government shelling resulted in massive material losses, reporting no human casualties amidst intensive flight by Russian drones over the area,” the sources added.
Meanwhile, sources of al-Fateh al-Mubin Operations Room, which includes several armed factions, targeted the government’s sites in Jobas, east of Idlib, with mortars.
During the past 48 hours, other areas in Idlib witnessed a relative calm followed months of military escalation that left dozens of civilian casualties.
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.
...the Pashtun equivalent of men...
...the former foreign minister of the Northern Alliance government, advisor to Masood, and candidate for president against both Karzai and Ghani. Dr. Abdullah was born in Kabul and is half Tadjik and half Pashtun. He also held the meaningless salaried sop position as CEO of Afghanistan, while Ghani was president...
...the Pashtun equivalent of men...
...... 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 
...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who most be killed...
...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who must be killed...
... 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 
...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...
...a disputed territory lying between India and Pakistain. After partition, the Paks grabbed half of it and call it 
...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire...
...
...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, a practice dating back to the heady human sacrifice days of Baal Moloch. In 2020 Hezbollahblew up a considerable portion of Beirut and many of its inhabitants when its ammonium nitrate faci8lity exploded. They blamed it on... somebody else. It wasn't them though. Trust them on that...
