In #Sudan's capital, charred paramilitary pick-up trucks hit by air strikes litter main streets and weary residents queue for bread in neighborhoods largely emptied of civilian life.https://t.co/53UkFNpP4T
The festivities pit Sudan's army against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). They jointly staged a coup in 2021 but came to blows over plans for an internationally-backed transition to civilian rule.
It is the first time fighting on this scale has affected the capital, which is composed of Khartoum and the adjoining cities of Bahri and Omdurman and has a total population of more than 10 million at a confluence of the Nile.
Air strikes, shelling and shootouts have ripped across the city day and night, unabated through the final days of Ramadan when Moslems fast from dawn till dusk, and through the three-day holiday of Eid el-Fitr which ends on Sunday, despite repeated promises of ceasefires.
The RSF has embedded itself in several neighborhoods, taking over buildings, while the army has used air strikes and heavy artillery to try to force its rivals back, according to residents and witnesses contacted by Rooters. The army has said it is trying to clear "hotbeds of rebel groups" from the capital.
The violence has cut water and power to much of the city, and damaged and closed hospitals. Many civilians are trapped in their homes or stranded, risking theft and looting if they venture out.
The news hound crossed the Blue Nile to Bahri, scene of heavy festivities over the past two days, before circling west and crossing the river to Omdurman in order to reach his family home from Khartoum, where he had been staying with relatives.
He navigated through a city transformed by the military power struggle.
He saw heavy deployments of RSF fighters in the areas he drove through in the three sister cities, some manning checkpoints where they demanded identity documents from drivers.
Army troops, who according to residents and witnesses began engaging in heavier ground fighting for the first time on Friday, could be seen at the entrance to Omdurman, where tanks, pickup trucks and soldiers with automatic rifles were deployed.
After more than a week of warfare, the news hound found residential streets largely deserted. In addition, petrol has become hard to obtain, and there were few cars. Supplies of flour and other staples are dwindling, and vegetables are scarce and expensive.
At the main market in Bahri, many buildings were badly damaged and burned by fighting and air strikes.
In some areas further from central Khartoum, buses could be seen preparing to carry people north towards Egypt, part of an exodus that has gathered pace over the past week.
People carrying small bags tried to hitch rides with passing cars or catch minibuses heading out of the city.
Near the Halfiya bridge linking Bahri to Omdurman, a long diplomatic convoy with armed guards and flying British flags could be seen heading west, one of the evacuations of embassy staff and foreign citizens that began on Saturday and gathered pace on Sunday as the fighting abated slightly.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/24/2023 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Sudan
BREAKING: Danab's chief of operations Abdiaziz Samir has succumbed to injuries at a hospital in Mogadishu after he was seriously wounded in a recent attack by Al Shabaab. He was an active officer and one of several officers who received an intensive training in the United States. pic.twitter.com/ChHZ6cPKmX
— Shabelle Media Network (@ShabelleMedia) April 23, 2023
[Garowe] On Friday evening, the National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) said its forces killed 20 al-Shabaab ...... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda... Death Eaters and maimed several others after conducting a sting operation in an area between Ugunji and Mubarak in southern Somalia.
NISA said that the forces backed by the international partners jointly carried out the operation after receiving intelligence about the presence of al-Shabaab who wanted to attack the locals.
"The operation to liberate al-Shabaab Death Eaters from our country will not stop until they are flushed out of our land. We are thanking the Somali people and international partners for supporting us in the fight against the Death Eaters," NISA said in a statement issued in the Somali capital, Mogadishu.
It said that the forces were still pursuing some Death Eaters who escaped during the operation.
Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin:
[ColonelCassad] Ridiculously, former Sudanese President Al-Bashir took advantage of the ongoing fighting between the army and the rapid reaction forces and escaped from prison along with a group of prisoners. The former president is now being sought, but in a war this may be a problem.
Regarding the war itself, then:
1. Truce does not work as expected. The fighting continues.
2. Both sides keep claiming they are winning.
3. Both sides are determined to win over their opponents.
4. The score of killed is approaching the first thousand. Thousands wounded.
5. The army and the RRF are suffering significant losses in materiel.
6. Along the way, massive damage is being done to military and civilian infrastructure. We can already say that this war will cost Sudan billions of dollars. There are already more than 27 destroyed and damaged aircraft at the Khartoum airfield.
7. The US and NATO are evacuating their citizens, for which the military has been deployed to Sudan and Djibouti. Almost all citizens of the Russian Federation were also taken out.
8. There are no facts confirming the participation of Wagner PMC in the Sudanese events. Usual French stuff. So far, among the foreign powers, Egypt and Ethiopia have been actively lit up.
9. The capital of the country is not completely controlled by any of the parties. Some objects continue to change hands.
10. In general, Sudan does not expect anything good - events are moving towards the worst option of a protracted civil war with the option of its further internationalization.
Al-Bashir, if he is not caught, will be able to say "So what, that he stole, but this was not with me."
No current plans for a government-coordinated evacuation of an estimated 16,000 other Americans remaining in Sudan, calling the situation too dangerous
[NYPOST] American forces carried out a precarious evacuation of US embassy personnel in Sudan, President Joe The Big Guy Biden ...46th president of the U.S. Obama's prototype for Kamala Harris... said late Saturday, calling for the end to "unconscionable" violence there as two rival leaders battled for power in the African country.
Biden thanked the US troops who carried out the mission to extract American staffers in Sudan.
With the last American embassy worker out, Washington shuttered the US mission in Khartoum indefinitely.
The US said it had no current plans for a government-coordinated evacuation of an estimated 16,000 other Americans remaining in Sudan, calling the situation too dangerous.
A German air force plane evacuated 100 German citizens from Sudan, Bild newspaper reported.
The ship with passengers arrived in Jordan a few hours ago. Germany intends to continue the evacuation. In total, 350 Germans should be withdrawn from Sudan.
In addition, Egypt is also involved in the evacuation of citizens from Sudanese territory. According to the statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the republic, the Egyptian side took 436 people out of the neighboring state.
As REGNUM reported , on April 15, an armed conflict broke out in Sudan between the Republican army and the Rapid Reaction Forces (Special Forces). On April 20, the RRF announced their readiness to partially open Sudanese airports in order to restore air traffic for the evacuation of foreigners from the republic.
On April 23, the head of the European Council, Charles Michel , wrote that the European Union began to evacuate EU citizens and diplomats from Sudan.
The almost complete lack of Internet connectivity is observed against the backdrop of ongoing clashes in Sudan. This was announced on April 23 by the international Internet monitoring service NetBlocks in its telegram channel.
It is clarified that the network data received in real time shows the almost complete absence of Internet access in Sudan. The level of nationwide communication in the country is only 2% of the usual indicators.
The monitoring service notes that the collapse of the Internet connection occurred after the evacuation of foreign diplomats against the backdrop of hostilities between the regular army of Sudan and the rapid reaction forces (RRF) under the command of Mohammed Hamdan Daglo.
Earlier , REGNUM reported that the European Union began the evacuation of diplomats and citizens of its member countries from Khartoum.
The conflict between the Armed Forces of the Sudan and the RRF began at the end of last week, April 15, as a result of disagreements between their leaders. Sudan's health minister said the death toll from clashes in the country has risen to 600.
Employees of international organizations in Sudan will be evacuated from Khartoum by Jordanian Air Force aircraft. According to the Al Hadath TV channel, this was announced on April 23 by a representative of the command of the Kingdom's Armed Forces.
“Our aviation has taken on the mission of removing employees of international organizations from Sudan,” the message says.
Earlier, the Jordanian Foreign Ministry said that four military transport aircraft flew to Khartoum from the Marka airbase near Amman to evacuate 308 Jordanian nationals from Sudan. As the command of the Jordanian Armed Forces clarified, “the planes will take on board not only citizens of the kingdom and UN employees, but, if necessary, will take citizens of other nationalities out of Sudan. ”Their numbers will be announced later.
As REGNUM reported earlier, France began to promptly evacuate its citizens and embassy staff from the territory of Sudan, where fighting continues. Paris also intends to help the allied states in the issue of the evacuation of their citizens from the country.
In Sudan, since April 15, clashes have been going on between the country's army and the Rapid Reaction Forces (RRF) under the command of Muhammad. On April 21, the parties announced a truce in connection with the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/24/2023 00:00 ||
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[AlAhram] At least 10 people were killed and dozens injured on Saturday in a complex attack near a military base in central Mali, said the army.
A boom-mobilewent kaboom! near the camp in the town of Sevare in the Mopti region destroying houses and killing people, Col. Souleymane Dembele, front man for the Malian army, told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named.
No one grabbed credit for the attack, but jihadis are known to operate in the area and have been ravaging the country for a decade. While this military base has been targeted before, this is the largest attack on it this year.
The base also hosts fighters from the Wagner Group, a shadowy Russian military contractor, that's been fighting alongside the Malian army for more than a year.
Residents of Sevare said they were going to morning prayers at the mosque when they heard a loud explosion. "We heard gunfire. It was total confusion," said Ousmane Diallo, a villager in the area.
Days before the attack, a senior Malian official and three other people were killed in an ambush in an area of the country’s southwest. On Friday, the al-Qaeda linked group known as JNIM grabbed credit for that attack in it's media outlet, al-Zallaqa Media Foundation.
In another incident in Mali's capital, Bamako, on Saturday, a military helicopter crashed in a residential neighborhood while returning from a mission. It is unclear if there are any casualties, and the army said the situation is being assessed.
[SAHARAREPORTERS] The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has said that its officers attached to courier companies intercepted two drug consignments consisting of ecstasy and skunk going to the United Arab Emirates.
The NDLEA spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, who disclosed this in a statement on Sunday said while the pills of ecstasy were concealed in a gold-coloured wedding gown, the skunk was hidden in a microcontroller.
Babafemi also said that the agency’s officers arrested a 400-level Marine Engineering student at the Niger Delta University, Amassoma, Bayelsa State, Kelvin Ogenedoro, for dealing in 600 grams of skunk.
He stated that Ogenedoro was arrested at his school gate in a follow-up operation after the interception of the consignment in a commercial bus along Tombia-Amassoma Road.
Similarly, in Adamawa state, Babafemi said that a notorious drug pusher, Sunday Ishaku Emzor, popularly known as Lalas, who was convicted and sentenced to 15 years imprisonment in 2010 for drug offences, was arrested on Thursday for drug dealing.
Emzor was arrested at Hayin Gada in the Imburu Numan Local Government Area of the state where he went to supply 1.650kg of cannabis to an undercover operative. The cycle of violence he used for supplying illicit drugs and N78,120 cash suspected to be proceeds of the illegal business were recovered from him at the point of arrest.
Also, the NDLEA spokesperson said that on the same day in Kaduna, operatives of the agency acting on credible intelligence intercepted a truck conveying 110 bags and 200 compressed blocks of cannabis sativa weighing 1.223 tons (1,223kg) in Zaria and arrested the 32-year-old truck driver, Adekunle Olanrewaju, and his 20-year-old assistant, Tunde Jamiu.
In the same vein, officers of the anti-narcotic agency arrested a 42-year-old person living with a disability and in a wheelchair, Lucky Aigberenmolen, in Edo State, for trading in illicit drugs.
Babafemi stated that Aigberenmolen was arrested in a raid of drug joints in parts of the state, saying that while Aigberenmolen was arrested at Ekpoma in Esan West Local Government Area of the state with 1.3kg of Cannabis Sativa and 10 litres of Monkey Tail, another 46-year-old suspect identified as Mary David, was arrested at Ugbegun in the Esan Central Local Government Area with four litres of Monkey Tail.
Also, 19-year-old Osagiede Stephanie was arrested at Ekpoma with various quantities of Colorado, Methamphetamine, and Molly, while 50kg of cannabis stored in a bush and ready for distribution was also recovered in the Irrua area of the state.
In another operation, NDLEA officers arrested two suspects, Adeshina Olalekan and Christopher Joel, at Lektop Hotel, Igbeba in Ijebu Ode, Ogun State with 39 litres of Skuchies and various quantities of tramadol and rophynol; while operatives of the agency in Imo State intercepted a 40-year-old female suspect, Ijeoma Anyiam Loreza, at Orogwe in Owerri North area of the state with 70 blocks of Cannabis Sativa weighing 30kg.
Babafemi further stated that the agency has taken into custody a 42-year-old notorious drug pusher in Okitipupa area of Ondo state, Mathew Obateru, after different quantities of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, colorado and loud were recovered from him.
In Taraba State, a suspect, Mohammed Usman was arrested on Monday in connection with the seizure of 10,009 pills of tramadol.
"While commending the officers and men of the MMIA, Directorate of Operations and General Investigation (DOGI), Bayelsa, Adamawa, Kaduna, Edo, Ogun, Imo, Ondo and Taraba Commands of the Agency for the excellent job done in the past week, Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohammed Buba Marwa (Retd), charged them and their compatriots across the country to continue to raise the bar of professionalism in the daily discharge of their responsibilities," Babafemi stated.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/24/2023 00:00 ||
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[AlAhram] Armenia’s defense ministry said Sunday that one of its soldiers was killed by an Azerbaijani sniper near the border, but Azerbaijan denied the claim and separately reported that its soldiers had come under fire from Armenia in another part of the border area.
Tensions further rose on Sunday when Azerbaijan announced it had opened a checkpoint at the start of the road that leads from Armenia to the ethnic Armenian region of Nagorno-Karabakh that is within Azerbaijan.
Armenia claimed that such a checkpoint violates the pact that ended fierce fighting between the countries in 2020.
Nagorno-Karabakh, which had substantial autonomy under the Soviet Union, came under control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by the Armenian military in 1994 at the end of years of separatist fighting. Armenian forces also took sizable territory surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh itself.
Azerbaijan regained most of the surrounding territory and pieces of Nagorno-Karabakh itself in the six-week 2020 war that killed about 6,800 soldiers.
Under a Russia-brokered armistice, transit along the so-called Lachin Corridor road that connects Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia was to continue under the guarantee of Russian peacekeepers.
But in December, traffic obstructions began when protesters claiming to be enviromental self-proclaimed geniuss blocked the road. Since then, Nagorno-Karabakh has suffered food shortages and sporadic loss of electricity and gas.
At least seven soldiers were killed in festivities between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces earlier in April.
Armenia claimed a sniper killed one of its soldiers near the village of Sotk. Azerbaijan denied that and said Armenians opened fire with small arms on its forces, who returned fire.
Azerbaijan has repeatedly alleged that Armenians have used the Lachin Corridor to bring weapons and ammunition into Nagorno-Karabakh.
[KHAAMAPress] A French court has jugged Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! four Afghans and given shorter sentences to five others as part of a crackdown on the smuggling of migrants colonists across the English Channel.
In 2021, the group was found guilty of smuggling 53 people, primarily Vietnamese and Afghan immigrants colonists, into the UK aboard dinghies.
The fines ranged from €1,000 to €30,000, while the punishments ranged from eight months to six years in prison with suspension.
One of the nine, a 30-year-old man found guilty of planning the crossings, received a six-year prison term and was told to leave La Belle France once his sentence was complete.
Three other defendants received five-year sentences and €25,000 fines each. Additionally, the court mandated that they be deported later. Five other guys received lighter sentences and will not serve time in prison—the accused range in age from 21 to 39.
London and Gay Paree have been collaborating to solve the problem of unauthorized boat crossings into Britannia, which has been on the rise.
A substantial rise from the 28,000 migrants colonists discovered the year before, over 45,000 migrants colonists arrived on the shores of south-east England in just one year, according to the UK government.
The violent #Antifa suspects arrested in Fort Worth, Texas have been identified as:
-Samuel Fowlkes, 20, on suspicion of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon -Meghan Grant, 37, on suspicion of resisting arrest -Christopher Guillott, 33, on suspicion of assaulting a peace… pic.twitter.com/DXWufl0s0r
Posted by: Fred ||
04/24/2023 00:00 ||
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#1
Since the LSD's in DC and US DOJ have established the prescient.
Place all ANTI-FA & BLoM radicals in jail . Then mimic the same conditions, processes and treatments that are being used against the Jan. 6th Coup Protesters.
Indian police on Sunday arrested a separatist leader who has revived calls for an independent Sikh homeland and the secession of India’s northern 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.... state, which has a history of violent mostly peaceful insurgency.
The search for Singh, 30, prompted police to shut off internet and text messages for the region’s 27 million people to prevent large gatherings. Singh was often seen surrounded by supporters armed with rifles and carrying belts of ammunition.
Punjab borders India-controlled 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.... and Pakistain. India accuses Pakistain of supporting, training, and arming murderous Moslems, a charge Islamabad denies.
Authorities have deployed thousands of paramilitary soldiers in the state and arrested nearly 100 of his supporters. Singh’s wife was prevented from leaving India last week.
Very little was known about Singh until he arrived in Punjab state in 2022 and began leading marches calling for the protection of rights for Sikhs, who account for about 1.7 percent of India’s population.
Singh has styled himself after Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, a Sikh murderous Moslem leader accused by the Indian government of leading an armed insurgency for Khalistan in the 1980s, with a long, flowing beard. He also dresses like Bhindranwale.
Singh also heads Waris Punjab De, or Punjab’s Heirs, an organization that was part of a massive campaign to mobilize farmers against controversial agriculture reforms being pushed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. The legislation triggered a year of protests that began in 2020, as farmers — most of them Sikhs from Punjab state — camped on the outskirts of New Delhi through a harsh winter and devastating 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... surge. The protests ended after Modi’s government withdrew the legislation in November 2021.
Waris Punjab De was founded by Deep Sidhu, an Indian actor who died in 2022 in a traffic accident.
Singh’s speeches have become increasingly popular among supporters of the Khalistan movement, which is banned in India. Officials see it and affiliated groups as a national security threat. Even though the movement has waned over the years, it still has some support in Punjab and beyond — including in countries like Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom, which are home to a sizable Sikh diaspora.
Last month, supporters of the movement pulled down the Indian flag at the country’s high commission in London and smashed the building’s windows in a show of anger against the move to arrest Singh. India’s Foreign Ministry denounced the incident and summoned the UK’s deputy high commissioner in New Delhi to protest what it called the breach of security at the embassy in London. The supporters of the Khalistan movement also vandalized the Indian Consulate in the Socialist paradise of San Francisco ...where God struck dead Anton LaVey, home of the Sydney Ducks, ruled by Vigilance Committee from 1859 through 1867, reliably and volubly Democrat since 1964... in the United States.
While the Sikh separatist movement was largely wiped out in Punjab by the 1990s, it continues to find some support within India and among the diaspora, especially in the UK, Australia, and Canada.
The Waris Punjab De chief is being shifted to Assam's Dibrugarh, where eight of his aides are already being held under the National Security Act (NSA).
As per police, Amritpal Singh was arrested from Rode village in Moga district. Rode is the native village of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. Amritpal had tried to pose himself as Bhindranwale 2.0.
Three days before his arrest, the Waris Punjab De chief's Britannia-origin wife Kirandeep Kaur was stopped at the Amritsar airport and not allowed by immigration officials to board a flight to Birmingham, officials said. After questioning, Kaur has been sent to her home in Jallupur Khera in Amritsar district and asked her not to leave the country without informing the police.
"We have prevented her from leaving the country. She was neither detained nor arrested. She was stopped because she is needed for questioning related to the case," said Senior Superintendent of Police (Amritsar Rural) Satinder Singh told the media.
Officials told IANS that Kaur has a visa for a limited period in India that is about to expire.
She has been questioned several times earlier also by police for her role in supporting the organization that was formed by the late actor-screeching muppet, Deep Sidhu.
The self-styled preacher, who returned from Dubai last year, tied the knot in a simple ceremony in February. Since then, she has been staying in Punjab.
Papalpreet Singh, the main associate of Amritpal Singh, was arrested in Amritsar on April 10 under the NSA and that six other cases have also been registered against him. He is a Khalistani screeching muppet who called himself a journalist before ending up as a media advisor to the radical preacher. A resident of Amritsar, he was earlier arrested for his alleged links to Pakistain's Inter-Services Intelligence ...the Pak military intelligence agency that controls the military -- heads of ISI typically get promoted into the Chief of Army Staff position. It serves as a general command center for favored turban groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad, tries to influence the politix of neighboring countries, and carries out a (usually) low-level war against India in Kashmir... in 2015.
[IsraelTimes] With bilateral tensions already high, Foreign Ministry won’t comment on reports that Imad al-Adwan was caught at Allenby Bridge with a dozen assault rifles, 200 handguns in his car
Israel arrested a Jordanian parliamentarian on suspicion of smuggling over 200 guns and gold into the West Bank, Jordan’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement Sunday.
According to Jordan’s Ammon news outlet, the arrest took place Saturday evening at the Allenby Bridge border crossing, as MP Imad al-Adwan was heading into Israel by car.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry declined to comment on the episode.
Video viewed by The Times of Israel showed around a dozen AR-15-style assault rifles and around 200 handguns spread in rows on a floor as Israeli officials catalogued them.
However, women are made to be loved, not understood... Israeli authorities refused to comment on whether they were the weapons seized from Adwan’s car. Police issued a gag order on the case, barring many details from being published by Israeli media.
Former Jordanian MP Tarek Khoury accused Israel of fabricating the gold angle, in order "to turn the heroic act into a smuggling issue." Israel’s Channel 12 news, without citing a source, said no gold was found in al-Adwan’s vehicle.
A surge of violence and terror attacks has wracked the West Bank in recent months, aided by a flood of illegal weapons, including many guns smuggled from Jordan.
The incident this weekend was sure to heighten the already elevated tensions between Amman and Jerusalem even further.
According to the Kan public broadcaster, Jordan’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, was refusing to answer calls from his Israeli counterpart, Eli Cohen, after news of the incident broke.
Earlier this month, an unnamed senior Israeli official told the Walla news site that Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi’s recent conduct and statements had exacerbated the crisis, adding that he "acted like Jordan’s [Itamar] Ben Gvir" — a reference to the far-right Israeli national security minister, whose conduct and policies have been widely viewed as contributing to growing friction with the US and other countries.
Jordan has repeatedly lambasted Jerusalem, in more than 10 statements over an incident during Ramadan in which cops entered al-Aqsa to confront Paleostinian rioters and were filmed beating some of them. At one point, Jordan refused to receive messages from Israel through the US or the United Arab Emirates, saying it would only accept direct messages and only if Israel commits to not enter the mosque again.
The Israeli officials cited in the report said they had held positive meetings with Safadi ahead of Ramadan, when Israel-Paleostinian tensions regularly flare over the Temple Mount, but that he adopted a hardline position as matters came to a head.
Prior to the recent tensions over the Temple Mount, a perennial thorn in Israeli-Jordanian ties, Amman summoned the Israeli envoy over far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s speech last month at a conference in Gay Paree, during which he claimed the Paleostinian people are an "invention," while standing behind a map of "Greater Israel" that includes modern-day Jordan. Days earlier, Smotrich stirred international outrage with a call to "wipe out" a Paleostinian town in the West Bank following the killing of two Israeli brothers in a terror attack.
In an interview released earlier in April, Jordan’s first ambassador to Israel called for Amman to change its approach to relations in light of the current hardline government in Jerusalem and said there was no longer a chance for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Paleostinian conflict.
[IsraelTimes] Syrian troops warned to stop cooperating with Iran-backed terror group after reported artillery strikes in Quneitra area; names, photos of senior Syrian officers shown on leaflets
The Israeli military shelled a site in southern Syria, just across the border from the Golan Heights early Monday morning, Syrian media reported, with an opposition journalist claiming the position was used by the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group.
Shortly after the strike, the Israel Defense Forces reportedly dropped threatening pamphlets in the area, warning Syrian soldiers to stop cooperating with Hezbollah.
The early morning artillery strike against a Syrian Army observation post near the Druze town of Hader in the northern Quneitra province was reported by Sham FM, a Syrian radio station affiliated with the regime of Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Scourge of Qusayr... The Arabic-language service of Russian state media network Sputnik, viewed as a propaganda channel, said a Syrian security source acknowledged the attack by the "Israeli aggression," adding that the damage at the site was being assessed before an official announcement is made.
The state-run SANA news agency, which often reports on strikes attributed to Israel, did not immediately confirm the attack.
No injuries were immediately reported. Short clips circulating on social media showed what appeared to be an artillery shell flying across the night sky.
According to an opposition-affiliated journalist, flyers were dropped in the area, in which the Israeli military appeared to take responsibility for the overnight strike. The IDF usually does not publicly acknowledge carrying out strikes in Syria, under its general policy of ambiguity regarding its efforts against Hezbollah in the country.
The flyers, which were written in Arabic and addressed to Syrian Army soldiers, matched the style of similar leaflets that have been dropped in Syria in the past. The IDF refused to comment on the matter.
"We are closely watching and aware of the ongoing intelligence cooperation with Hezbollah within the Syrian army’s positions in the region, including near the Israeli border. Your cooperation with Hezbollah has... brought you more harm than benefit. Cooperation with Hezbollah leads to harm!" the flyer read.
The flyer also included a map marking the towns of Hader and Quneitra, and images of two senior Syrian officers, who were alleged to have been aiding Hezbollah.
The Syrian officers in the images, apparently taken by military surveillance cameras during a tour of the area, were named as Maj. Gen. Samer ad-Dana, Syria’s chief of military intelligence, and Tariq Maher, the commander of Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters in Syria.
Separately, Israel’s Kan public broadcaster reported early Monday that Iranian air defense systems were activated near a military base in the city of Isfahan in central Iran.
Unconfirmed reports on social media said anti-aircraft systems were deployed to intercept a suspicious drone near an air base of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).
While Israel’s military does not as a rule comment on specific strikes in Syria, it has admitted to conducting hundreds of sorties against Iran-backed groups attempting to gain a foothold in the country, over the last decade. The IDF says it also attacks arms shipments believed to be bound for those groups, chief among them Hezbollah, an Iranian proxy. Additionally, Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s attributed to Israel have repeatedly targeted Syrian air defense systems.
The alleged Israeli artillery strikes came days after Israel also reportedly shelled positions belonging to Hezbollah near the Syrian town of Saidah, also in the Quneitra countryside, on Tuesday. Similar threatening pamphlets were dropped in the area following the strike.
The IDF has repeatedly accused Assad’s military of actively assisting Hezbollah and warned it against this, both through flyers dropped along the border and through overt, public appeals, in some cases naming the Syrian and Hezbollah officials involved, including officers from Syria’s 90th Brigade and 1st Division.
Security camera video from Syria seems to show several buses arriving in the Dier Ezzor Province. The men on the busses are said to be IRGC soldiers. The provocative move has raised concerns in Israel.
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.
...... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda...
[SAHARAREPORTERS] The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has said that its officers attached to courier companies intercepted two drug consignments consisting of ecstasy and skunk going to the United Arab Emirates.
[AlAhram] Armenia’s defense ministry said Sunday that one of its soldiers was killed by an Azerbaijani sniper near the border, but Azerbaijan denied the claim and separately reported that its soldiers had come under fire from Armenia in another part of the border area.
...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...
...
