On a December night in 2018, Mahzala was jolted awake by a shuddering wave of noise that rattled her family’s small mud house. A trio of helicopters, so unfamiliar that she had no word for them, rapidly descended, kicking up clouds of dust that shimmered in their blinding lights. Men wearing desert camouflage and black masks flooded into the house, corralling her two sons and forcing them out the door.
At least seven militia members of the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) were killed and others were wounded on Friday in explosions of explosive devices in Abyan province, southern Yemen.
Local sources in the province reported that an improvised explosive device (IED) exploded and targeted a water tanker belonging to the “Third Brigade” of STC’s militia, in Wadi Omran, in Mudiyah district, leaving several militia members injured.
The sources indicated that another IED went off and targeted a patrol vehicle belonging to the “Fourth Brigade”, was on its way to treat the wounded in the first explosion, killing 7 militiamen, most of them from Dhale governorate.
This comes after the STC militia sent military reinforcements to Abyan to confront terrorist elements.
The string of IED attacks on the STC’s vehicles in Abyan increased after the UAE’s military operation “Arrows of the East” was launched against Islah militants at the end of last August.
[DW] Police and prosecutors suspect an Iranian national of preparing an "Islamist-motivated attack" using ricin and cyanide. It has not yet been decided whether he will be brought before a magistrate.
Why would he not be tried fair and hung high? They didn’t report he has diplomatic immunity, after all.
A 32-year-old man has been taken into police custody in the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia for allegedly preparing an "Islamist-motivated attack," police and prosecutors said in a joint statement on Sunday.
The man, identified as an Iranian, was "suspected of having prepared a serious act of violence that endangers the state by procuring cyanide and ricin to commit an Islamist-motivated attack."
Ricin is a highly toxic biological weapon.
RESIDENCE SEARCHED FOR 'TOXIC SUBSTANCES'
According to a blurb issued by Munster police, Recklinghausen police and the Dusseldorf prosecutor's office, a residence in the town of Castrop-Rauxel in the Ruhr region was searched for "toxic substances."
An area around the suspect's residence was cordoned off as police and rescue workers were deployed to the site. The Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) news agency reported that numerous emergency workers wore protective suits as they were deployed at the site.
Investigators said, "The search serves to find corresponding toxins and other evidence."
Investigators said that another person was arrested during the operation and taken into custody.
It has not yet been decided whether the 32-year-old will be brought before a magistrate.
Roundup of updates at 4:45 p.m. ET. Key points are that it was an FBI tip-off, ISIS link, the miscreants are brothers:
This, police said, carries a prison sentence of between 6 months to 10 years.
Police seized electronic storage devices but found neither cyanide nor ricin during the search, Holger Heming of the Duesseldorf public prosecutor’s office told Reuters TV.
Heming said the tip came from a security agency of a “friendly state”, without elaborating. Mass tabloid Bild said the agency in question was the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Police said a second individual was detained as part of the searches. Heming confirmed the person to be the suspect’s brother.
According to German domestic intelligence services, the number of members or supporters of Islamist causes has shrunk by 1.5% to 28,290 individuals in 2021, citing the “military breakup” of the militant Islamic State group.
Dpa cited an unidentified German security official as saying there was no indication the suspect had acted on behalf of the Iranian state, but rather that he allegedly supported a Sunni extremist group. Sunnis are a religious minority in Iran.
A tip-off from US security officials prompted police in Germany to arrest two Iranian brothers suspected of planning an Islamist-motivated bio-weapon attack, prosecutors said on Sunday.
The brothers, aged 32 and 25, were taken into custody overnight in the town of Castrop-Rauxel, north-west of Dortmund, for allegedly planning an attack using cyanide and ricin with the intent of killing "an unspecified number of people," prosecutors said.
The suspicion had initially been directed at the 32-year-old, according to a spokesman for the Dusseldorf prosecutor general's office. The younger brother, who was staying at the flat, was also detained as authorities quickly looked into his involvement in the alleged plot.
It was not revealed by investigators how far along their plans were or the intended targets. Moreover, police failed to uncover any toxins during their search of the residence in Castrop-Rauxel on Sunday.
The two men were lightly clothed as they were led away in early hours of Sunday, with just a jacket thrown over them against the winter cold, witnesses said. They did not offer any resistance.
Bild’s video report shows one of the Iranians being hauled off by police overnight in just boxer shorts and a jacket, claiming he is associated with the Islamic State.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/08/2023 03:35 ||
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#4
If someone with better German would listen to the Bild video report I just added to the bottom of the article — I think the reporter said Islamic State, but I would prefer confirmation/correction from someone with better understanding of the language.
[Rudaw] Ottoman Turkish security forces on Saturday launched an operation targeting suspected positions of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the southeastern Kurdish province of Batman involving hundreds of personnel, state media reported.
The operation aims to expel the small amount of PKK fighters in Batman and involves the participation of 650 security personnel, state-owned Anadolu Agency reported, adding that the campaign is an extension of the ongoing "Eren Blockade" autumn winter operations which aim to expel the PKK from the country’s rural areas.
The PKK is a Kurdish gang fighting for the increased rights of Kurds in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire... and designated a terrorist organization by Ankara, which has launched successive operations southward across the border with Iraq and the Kurdistan Region to target the group’s positions.
Previous phases of the domestic operation have taken place in Dersim, Sirnak, and Siirt provinces.
Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu on Tuesday announced that the number of PKK members in Turkey fell to below 120 after "at least 125" members surrendered in 2022, but the PKK has not confirmed the numbers.
The conflict between Turkey and the PKK spans several countries, including Turkey itself.
On Wednesday, the Ottoman Turkish interior ministry claimed that its forces inflicted 1,220 casualties, including 87 bigwigs, on a number of "terror" groups including the PKK, two days after the PKK’s armed wing — the People’s Defense Forces (HPG) — claimed that 2,942 Ottoman Turkish soldiers were killed during their attacks against the Ottoman Turkish army last year.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/08/2023 00:00 ||
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Security forces on Saturday continued a massive anti terrorist operation in Rajouri district areas.
The forces continued with cordon and search operations in over one dozen villages.
The security administration has also pressed into service some additional companies of CRPF sent by the Ministry of Home Affairs for counter insurgency operations. Senior officers of Jammu and Kashmir ...a disputed territory lying between India and Pakistain. After partition, the Paks grabbed half of it and call it Azad (Free) Kashmir. The remainder they refer to as "Indian Occupied Kashmir". They have fought four wars with India over it, the score currently 4-0 in New Delhi's favor. After 72 years of this nonsense, India cut the Gordian knot in 2019, removing the area's special status, breaking off Ladakh as a separate state, and allowing people from other areas to settle (or in the case of the Pandits, to resettle) there.... police are themselves leading the operation in every area in the district.
Official sources said that the massive operation launched to track Dhangri village attackers continued on Saturday also.
"This operation is going on in the entire district but twelve villages of Rajouri are under cordon and search operation and joint teams of Jammu and Kashmir police, Indian Army and Central Reserve Police Force are carrying out operations in these areas," said sources.
They said that these twelve villages fall in the territorial jurisdiction of six cop shoppes that include Kandi, Budhal, Kalakote, Dharamsal and Rajouri.
Meanwhile, ...back at the the conspirators' cleverly concealed hideout Montefiore's foot was still stuck and the hound had completely soaked his uniform with slobber... the Anti Terrorist operation is being carried out on large scale basis in the district under a proper CI plan and it has been decided that operation in every topographical pocket will be led by a Gazzetted Officer (GO) rank officer of police for which some officers from other districts of Jammu province have been deployed in Rajouri district.
On the other hand, the additional companies of CRPF sent by the Government for twin border districts of Rajouri and Poonch are already reaching the areas and have been put on task for intensified Counter Insurgency Operations and minority population protection.
Official sources said that deployment of eighteen additional companies of CRPF is a major move and the additional manpower of forces will assist in operations will help in intensified CI ops.
On being contacted, SSP Rajouri Mohammad Aslam said that a massive CASO is going on and manhunt of Dhangri attackers is on.
"We are on job," said SSP Rajouri.
He further informed that the additional troops of CRPF sent by Government have been deployed in sensitive locations and remain deployed for CI Operations.
Amid the searches to nab Dhangri attackers in Pir Panjal region, Indian Army on Sunday claimed to have foiled a major infiltration bid by killing two bandidosbully boyz near border in Poonch district.
An army spokesperson said that they observed suspicious movement in Balakot area of Poonch late on Saturday evening.
"On 07 Jan 2022, around 1945 hours, the alert troops of Indian Army deployed on the border fence in Balakot (District Poonch), observed suspicious movement ahead of the border fence and subsequently neutralised two terrorists, " the front man said.
The area has been cordoned off and the operation is in progress.
The spokesperson said that the operations to nab bandidosbully boyz involved in the Dhangri attack continue by the security forces in Rajouri and Poonch Districts.
[Dawn] The Punjab 1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots.... Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) arrested five alleged snuffies during 21 intelligence-based operations in various districts of the province, the CTD spokesperson said on Saturday.
In an official statement issued today, the CTD spokesperson said the alleged snuffies — arrested after interrogating 22 suspects — were identified as Inamul Haque, Maskeenullah, Wahid Khan, Sher Naqib and Shah Wali.
He added that they belonged to various banned religious organizations, including the proscribed bad boy group Tehrik-e-Taliban ...Arabic for students... Pakistain.
The CTD statement said the snuffies had "planned to sabotage the province and wanted to target important installations and other religious places".
The spokesperson said that weapons and explosives were recovered from the arrested suspects — including an improvised bomb bomb, half a kilogramme of kaboom, 0.6 metres of safety fuse wire, 1.8m primacord, two hand grenades and two detonators.
Other electric items were seized as well, including an electric circuit, an electric button, 0.9m of electric wire and a battery. Five books and a receipt book of a banned ...the word banned seems to have a different meaning in Pakistain than it does in most other places. Or maybe it simply lacks any meaning at all...
organization, two mobile phones, and cash worth Rs17,230 were also taken into custody, the statement added.
The CTD statement highlighted that the department had conducted a total of 526 combing operations this week with the help of local police and security agencies.
During these operations, it performed security checks of 21,227 suspicious people, arrested 130 suspects, filed 82 first information reports and made 27 recoveries.
"The Punjab CTD is diligently pursuing its goal of a safe Punjab and no stone will be left unturned in its efforts to bring snuffies and anti-state elements behind bars," the spokesperson said.
The development comes a week after the Punjab CTD claimed to have arrested five suspected murderous Moslems during intelligence-based operations across the province.
The CTD claimed to have conducted 24 IBOs in different districts of the province to effectively counter the menace of terrorism.
CTD officials said the arrested suspects were identified as Asrar Ahmad, Farooq Shah, Saifullah, Syed Shahzaib Iqbal and Ahmad Khan, who allegedly belonged to the TTP.
[Dawn] A police constable was martyred and another suffered gunshot wounds when bandidoshard boyz attacked a police patrol in Bannu, while villagers and police repulsed yet another attack on a police post in Lakki Marwat district on the night between Friday and Saturday, officials said.
Separately, the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) of police claimed to have killed four alleged bandidoshard boyz during an intelligence-based operation in Sarband area on the outskirts of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistain's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire... on Saturday.
Continued on Page 49
— NORTH PRESS AGENCY - ENGLISH (@NPA_English) January 7, 2023
A court in the Philippines capital, Manila, sentenced on Jan. 5 a UK man to 12 years in prison after he was found guilty of sending financial support to Islamic State Organization (ISIS) in Syria between 2020 and 2021.
The 43-year-old Tarek Namouz
...a former pub owner from London of no fixed address...
sent at least £11.280 ($13.420) that he had received through COVID-19 pandemic relief grants to organize terror attacks in Syria.
The man got the money as he was a barber in London through COVID-19 relief grants issued by his local authority to help businesses survive during the pandemic.
However, the accused told a friend during a prison visit that he had sent £25.000 to an “ex-fighter” with ISIS.
Namouz denied knowing that the money was used for terrorist actions and claimed that he had sent the funds to vulnerable people in Syria.
In addition, he was convicted of possessing videos on his mobile phone that contain terrorism-related information.
Unknown attackers target a military vehicle of the #HTS in #Idlib Governorate, northwestern #Syria, killing a militant and injuring another. https://t.co/CwLLIVgSQV
— NORTH PRESS AGENCY - ENGLISH (@NPA_English) January 7, 2023
[Rudaw] The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Friday announced the end of a recently-launched military operation against 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) sleeper cells in several areas of northeast Syria (Rojava), arresting over 100 alleged members of the group.
The SDF on December 29 announced a new anti-ISIS mission dubbed Operation al-Jazeera Thunderbolt, targeting the terror group’s hotspots in northeast Syria’s al-Hol and Tal Hamis. The force later expanded the campaign to the Syria-Iraq border. The global coalition against ISIS also took part in the operation.
The US-backed force said on Friday that it ended the eight-day campaign against ISIS.
SDF said in a statement that the aim of the raids was to "hunt ISIS terrorist cells hiding in the desert and residential areas, and civilian farms using fake names and taking advantage of the humanitarian conditions provided by our forces and the Autonomous Administration for the displaced people fleeing from the Syrian war zones."
It added that "55 villages and farms were swept in the al-Hol, Tal Hamis, and Tal Brak, in addition to some focused targets in the three towns and large areas of the Syrian-Iraqi border. The operation achieved many tangible results."
As a result, 102 ISIS suspects, and 27 logistical suppliers and "propagators" were arrested. Twenty-five others were arrested for "looting, kidnapping, and financial extortion against the local populace."
Recently, SDF temporarily suspended anti-ISIS activities due to The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire... ’s fresh aerial offensive against the force. In its Friday statement, the multi-ethnic force said that the operation was planned to take place in November "but it was postponed due to our forces’ preoccupation with countering the attacks of Ottoman Turkish occupation."
ISIS activities surged following the Ottoman Turkish operation. Kurdish forces have said that the group is exploiting unrest in the region.
Turkey considers the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), the backbone of SDF, the Syrian offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) - an gang struggling for the increased rights of Kurds in Turkey but listed as a terrorist organization by Ankara.
Major Rachael Jeffcoat, spokesperson for the Combined Joint Task Force — Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR), told Rudaw on December 31 that they will continue to advise and assist the SDF.
The US army keeps about nearly 1,000 troops in Rojava, according to the latest data shared by Kurdish authorities with Rudaw English.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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[IsraelTimes] Two men convicted of killing an IRGC-linked paramilitary force member, bringing to four the number put to death for roles in wave of demonstrations sweeping Islamic Theocratic Republic.
Iran ...Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979... said it executed two men Saturday convicted of allegedly killing a paramilitary volunteer during a demonstration, the latest executions aimed at halting the nationwide protests now challenging the country’s theocracy.
Iran’s judiciary identified those executed as Mohammad Karami and Mohammad Hosseini, making it four men known to have been executed since the demonstrations began in September over the death of Mahsa Amini. All have faced internationally criticized, rapid, closed-door trials.
The judiciary’s Mizan news agency said the men had been convicted of killing Ruhollah Ajamian, a member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s volunteer Basij Force, in the city of Karaj outside of Tehran on November 3. The Basij have deployed in major cities, attacking and detaining protesters, who in many cases have fought back.
Heavily edited footage aired on state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
showed Karami speaking before a Revolutionary Court about the attack, which also showed a reenactment of the attack according to prosecutors’ claims. Iran’s Revolutionary Courts handed down the two other death sentence ...the barbaric practice of sentencing a murderer to be punished for as long as his/her/its victim is dead... s already carried out.
The tribunals don’t allow those on trial to pick their own lawyers or even see the evidence against them.
State TV also aired footage of Karami and Hosseini talking about the attack, though the broadcaster for years has aired what activist muppets describe as coerced confessions.
The men were convicted of the killing, as well as "corruption on Earth," a Koranic term and charge that has been levied against others in the decades since the 1979 Islamic Revolution and carries the death penalty .
Amnesia Amnesty International had decried the "fast-tracked unfair group trial" of the two men which it said bore no "resemblance to a meaningful judicial proceeding."
Karami’s father had told Iranian media that a family lawyer had not been able to access his son’s case file.
Mohamad Aghasi, whom the family wanted to handle the case, wrote on Twitter that Karami had not been allowed to have a final meeting with his family and had foregone food and water in protest.
Karami was 22, according to the Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights (IHR). Hossein was 39, according to another Norway-based rights group, Hengaw.
Activists say at least 16 people have been sentenced to death in closed-door hearings over charges linked to the protests. Death sentences in Iran are typically carried out by hanging.
At least 517 protesters have been killed and over 19,200 people have been arrested, according to Human Rights Activists in Iran, a group that has closely monitored the unrest. Iranian authorities have not provided an official count of those killed or detained.
The protests began in mid-September, when 22-year-old Amini died after being arrested by Iran’s morality police for allegedly violating the Islamic Theocratic Republic’s strict dress code. Women have played a leading role in the protests, with many publicly stripping off the compulsory Islamic headscarf, known as the hijab.
The protests mark one of the biggest challenges to Iran’s theocracy since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Security forces have used live ammunition, birdshot, tear gas and batons to disperse protesters, according to rights groups.
[IsraelTimes] Reformist media says Mehdi Beikoghli detained and his computer confiscated; nearly 40 journalists and photojournalists have been held in connection with protests
Iranian authorities have arrested a journalist who published interviews with families of death row inmates sentenced in connection with nationwide protests, the reformist daily Etemaad said Friday.
Fourteen Iranians have been sentenced to death in connection with the unrest triggered by Mahsa Amini’s death in jug on September 16.
The 22-year-old Iranian Kurd had been arrested by morality police in Tehran for an alleged breach of the Islamic republic’s dress code for women.
"Mehdi Beikoghli, head of the political service at Etemaad Daily, was arrested last night," the newspaper said on its website.
In recent weeks the journalist, the latest news worker to be arrested in Iran, interviewed several families of people sentenced to death over the protests.
Two men, both aged 23, were executed last month in connection with the demonstrations which Iranian authorities call "riots". Twelve others have been sentenced to hang, according to an AFP tally based on official statements. Half are awaiting retrial.
Two more men were executed Saturday morning.
Foreign-based rights groups and campaigners say dozens more protesters face charges punishable by death.
"His wife wrote on Twitter that Mehdi’s cellphone, computer and personal belongings were seized during the arrest," Etemad said.
Shargh, another reformist newspaper, published in December a list of nearly 40 journalists and photojournalists held in connection with the protests.
One is Shargh journalist Niloufar Hamedi who, along with Elaheh Mohammadi from the Ham Mihan newspaper, helped expose the case of Amini by respectively reporting from the hospital and her funeral. Both have been held since September.
Local media have since reported the arrests of several other journalists.
Iran’s top security body reported last month that more than 200 people, including security force members, have been killed since the protests began. Judicial authorities have reported charges against more than 2,000 people.
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 decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire...
...a disputed territory lying between India and Pakistain. After partition, the Paks grabbed half of it and call it 
...Arabic for 
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistain's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire...
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire...
...Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979...
