DOHA MEETINGS – Afghanistan observers are closely watching for information concerning the US/Taliban talks that began in Qatar yesterday. Several insiders opined that the Taliban delegation would press for three priorities: 1) Recognition 2) Unfreezing funds in Switzerland 3) Lifting of the travel ban on its leaders. The US has made its position known and said that human/gender rights would be a focus as well as security. Few details from the talks have emerged but most are not expecting any significant breakthroughs.
KARZAI CONDEMNS RECENT PAKISTANI ARTILLERY STRIKES IN PAKTIKA – The artillery exchange that we reported on in the 25 July Evacuation Brief was confirmed by the former President’s office. The former President condemned the attack and called it an ‘invasion of Afghan soil’ in a strongly worded statement. According to sources, Pakistan had targeted a suspected TTP hideout and had received information from a Taliban source that a high-ranking TTP leader was meeting with other cell leaders to disburse funds and possibly plan operations. Both Islamabad and Kabul have kept quiet about the attacks and neither side has reported casualties resulting from the incident.
TALOQAN CHIEF OF POLICE DETAINED OVER RAPE CHARGES – The Taliban have reportedly arrested Mawlawi Nasrullah Huzaifa, the Chief of Police in Takhar’s capital after hearing allegations of rape by 2 women. Sources say Huzaifa was taken to Kandahar and that an investigation was underway.
US HEARINGS ON THE WITHDRAWAL DESCRIBE CHAOTIC ENVIRONMENT IN KABUL, LACK OF LEADERSHIP – The hearings held yesterday in Washington showcased testimony from senior leaders who were present during the operation that described a lack of planning and a lack of leadership that contributed to the chaos on the ground in Kabul in August 2021. The hearings clearly have a political agenda but provide those interested in what happened with insight into what was going on at the time.
CONFLICT TRACKER Kabul: Agents from the Ministry of the Interior reportedly carried out an operation against a suspected ISIS-K cell in Police District 1 yesterday afternoon. Initial deports suggest that a short shootout took place but the agents quickly overpowered the suspects and arrested 3 on the spot. Eyewitnesses said some of the men who were in the building managed to flee.l,
NEXT 24 HOURS
COUNTER ISIS-K OPERATIONS TO CONTINUE IN AFGHANISTAN – While there have been rumors of potential counter-ISIS clearing operations in the lead-up to Muharram, yesterday’s clash in Police District 1 indicates the Taliban finally felt confident to act. There are scattered reports from other Provinces that counter-ISIS operations are being carried out by local commanders. A source in Kabul says a possible counter-ISIS operation is planned in or near Jalalabad and may have already taken place. Additional security personnel continue to man local checkpoints and patrols have increased in the major cities since Muharram began. At-risk Afghans should remain cognizant that these operations are ongoing and should try to avoid any concentration of Taliban security vehicles/personnel which could be indicative of an impending operation.
[Garowe] al-Shabaab ...... the personification of Somali state failure... murderous Moslems suffered yet again immense losses in Somalia following the latest operations which are engineered by the Somali National Army [SNA] along with international partners and members of the local community, who have armed themselves in pursuit of the terrorists.
According to state media, the national army with the help of local militia, regional troops, and international partners, conducted two separate operations in Southwest state, leaving over 60 murderous Moslems dead. The success comes a few days after the murderous Moslems killed 25 SNA trainees in Mogadishu.
The operation, state media reports, targeted murderous Moslems in El-Dhun Adegow within the Bay region while the second one focused on areas within the Goofgaduud and Waajid areas still within the southwest. The area is prone to al-Shabaab attacks mostly targeting innocent civilians and security forces.
"Over 60 AlShabaab murderous Moslems killed in a joint operation by Somali National Army and local residents in El-Dhun Adegow, Bay region. Operation is part of recent efforts to combat terrorism in Southwest Somalia, says Somalia’s SW State Information Ministry," state media confirmed.
Officials in Southwest State reported a fresh Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... in the vicinity, the first within the region in as many months. The commander of Sector 60 of the army Brigadier General Hassan Isak Omar told VOA the strike took place between Gofguduud and Waajid.
According to Omar, the murderous Moslems suffered heavy losses following the airstrike which also destroyed their weapons and vehicles. The road between Gofgudud and Waajid had been planted with IEDs, which reportedly restricted the troops from conducting more operations, VoA reports.
[AFRICANEWS] Around 50 people were arrested on Wednesday across Morocco during a major anti-terrorist raid targeting suspected supporters of jihadist groups, local media said, citing security sources.
Among them, 21 were placed in police custody under the supervision of the prosecution, said the same sources.
These arrests resulted from simultaneous operations in several cities of the country, led by agents of the Central Bureau of Judicial Investigations (BCIJ) and special anti-terrorist forces of the General Directorate of National Territory Surveillance (DGST).
The suspects are believed to have "sworn allegiance" to the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (IS) and Al Qaeda jihadist groups.
According to these security sources, searches led to "seizure of bladed weapons", and "publications advocating terrorism and documents relating to methods of manufacturing explosives".
If Morocco has been spared in recent years by attacks linked to jihadist groups, its security services regularly report anti-jihadist crackdowns and foiled attack plans.
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07/28/2023 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Kuwait said Thursday it executed five prisoners, including an inmate convicted over the bombing of a Shiite mosque in 2015 that killed 27 people and was claimed by the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group.
The inmates were hanged at the Central Prison, Kuwait's Public Prosecution said in a statement. Prosecutors said the five include the mosque attacker, three people convicted of murder and a convicted drug pusher.
One of the convicted murderers was Egyptian, another was Kuwaiti, and the convicted drug pusher was from Sri Lanka. The statement didn't provide the nationality of the mosque attacker or the third convicted murderer, saying only that they were in Kuwait unlawfully.
The 2015 bombing occurred during midday Friday prayers inside one of Kuwait's oldest Shiite mosques. The Islamic State group, which at the time controlled large areas in both Syria and Iraq, claimed the attack, which was carried out by a jacket wallah. The Sunni bully boy group views Shiites as apostates deserving of death.
It was the first murderous Moslem attack in Kuwait in more than two decades. The attack was likely intended to foment unrest between Kuwait's Sunni and Shiite Moslem populations, but instead it was widely condemned and reawakened a sense of national solidarity not seen since Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion of the small, oil-rich country.
The bully boy group no longer controls any territory following a grueling military campaign by an array of local and international forces, but continues to carry out sporadic attacks in Syria and Iraq. It also boasts affiliates in several Asian and African countries.
Executions are relatively rare in Kuwait, which put seven inmates to death last November. Before that, the last mass execution was in 2017, when Kuwait executed seven prisoners, including a ruling family member.
The executions last November, which coincided with a visit by a European Commission official, drew condemnation from the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... and human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... groups, derailing discussions around exempting Kuwaiti travelers from having to obtain EU visas. The 27-member bloc and many rights groups view the death penalty as a form of cruel and unusual punishment that should be abolished.
Kuwait and other Gulf nations are known to carry out executions for murder as well as nonviolent mostly peaceful drug-related crimes. Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... executed 61 people in the first half of this year, according to the European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights, and 196 people in 2022, including 81 in one day.
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07/28/2023 00:00 ||
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#1
2015 convict finally executed? That's like lightning speed compared to our justice "system".
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[KavkazUzel] Two people were detained in Kakheti on suspicion of involvement in the "Islamic State," during a search they found explosives and symbols of a terrorist organization, the Georgian Security Service said.
Georgian security forces carried out an operation to detain alleged members of a terrorist organization simultaneously in four places in two regions. In one of the residential buildings in the village of Erisimedi in the Kakheti region (Eastern Georgia), they seized ammunition, explosives, electronic media and symbols of the IS, the State Security Service said in a statement, available to the "Caucasian Knot."
"Islamic State flags and various types of electronic information devices have been confiscated. At the same time, military equipment, explosive devices and explosive substances have been confiscated in the homes of the detainees," Bacha Mgeladze, deputy director of the SSS department, said at a briefing broadcast on the air of the Imedi TV company. 26 July.
The case is being investigated under two articles of the Criminal Code of Georgia on participation in the activities or leadership of a terrorist organization and illegal arms trafficking. The Tbilisi City Court is to choose a measure of restraint for two detainees on July 27.
The lawyer of one of the detainees, Murad Kavtarashvili, called the accusation unfounded. "We will not agree with the accusation, because it is completely unfounded. If the court chooses a preliminary detention, then this will be the most severe measure," he said on the air of the TV company.
The name of the detainee in Kakheti is Murad Tavartkiladze, the second accused is Edgar Abbasov, he was detained in the Kvemo Kartli region, Rustavi 2 TV channel reported.
The "Caucasian Knot" wrote that on May 17, the State Security Service of Georgia announced the detention of six citizens of the country associated with the terrorist organization "Islamic State." According to the security forces, they planned terrorist attacks in different countries.
[Rudaw] Iraq’s security media cell on Thursday announced the arrest of a suspected 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) murderous Moslem in Sulaimani involved in the group’s infamous Camp Speicher massacre nearly 10 years ago.
On June 12, 2014, around 1,700 Shiite cadets undergoing training at Camp Speicher in Salahaddin’s Tikrit ...birthplace of Saddam Hussein... were executed by ISIS murderous Moslems, who had initially promised them safe passage.
Abdul Khaliq Khazal Sultan had joined ISIS in 2013 and was one of the executioners in the 2014 massacre. The suspect had also participated in several other operations targeting members of the security forces in Salahaddin and Nineveh, according to the statement.
He was arrested as a result of a joint operation between the Iraqi intelligence service and the Sulaimani counterterrorism forces and has been handed over to the relevant authorities, the cell reported.
Four other suspects were also arrested in Nineveh after reportedly confessing to being members of murderous Moslem groups linked to ISIS.
The Camp Speicher Massacre is one of ISIS’ most brutal crimes in Iraq. The United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by ISIS/ISIS (UNITAD) said on June 2021 that there was "clear and convincing evidence" that the massacre "constituted a number of war crimes under international law."
Dozens accused of taking part in the massacre have already been executed. 31 men were executed for their alleged involvement in the massacre on January 2017.
“The detainee joined ISIS in 2013 and took part in several operations targeting security forces in Saladin governorate, participated in the Speicher massacre and was one of the perpetrators in 2014, then served as the so-called military of the Tigris province, to then move to the ranks of ISIS in the so-called Wilayat Nineveh and take part in battles against the security forces."
Last Friday, Iraqi authorities also announced the arrest of one of the perpetrators of the Speicher crime in northeastern Syria. The arrest culminated in a nine-year pursuit to bring the accused to justice.
The Iraqi Joint Operations Command explained that the arrested, identified as "Izzat Ibrahim Muhammad Rabie," was wanted in connection with the terrorist crime at Speicher, which had sent shockwaves across Iraq and the international community.
According to the Command, the pursuit was fraught with challenges, as the perpetrator had resorted to adopting a false identity to evade capture and had attempted to flee to a neighboring country.
[IsraelTimes] Dozens of Paleostinians protest at Israel’s border with the Gazoo ...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamaswith about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... Strip against National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s visit to Jerusalem’s Temple Mount earlier today.
The protesters burn tires and set off bombs. The blasts are heard in Israeli communities near the border.
IDF forces at the scene respond with riot dispersal measures.
Ben Gvir visited the flashpoint holy site earlier today for Tisha B’Av, a Jewish fast day that mourns the destruction of the two Biblical temples that stood on the Temple Mount.
The Old City esplanade is the holiest site to Jews, and contains the third-holiest mosque for Moslems.
Under the fragile, longstanding status quo, Jews are allowed to visit the site under certain conditions, but not pray there.
Ben Gvir’s visit drew condemnations from Jordan, the Paleostinian Authority and the Gaza-based Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", terror group, and a rebuke from the US.
[IsraelTimes] Footage shows projectile fired from northern West Bank; IDF says remains found near Paleostinian town
Paleostinians in the northern West Bank attempted to launch a homemade rocket at a nearby Israeli town on Thursday morning, the military said, the latest in a series of mostly unsuccessful attempts.
A group calling itself the al-Ayyash Battalion — apparently named for a notorious Hamas, the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®, bombmaker killed by Israel — claimed it had launched the rocket from the Jenin area at the Israeli town of Ram-On, which borders the West Bank security barrier.
A video published by the group on Telegram showed a projectile mounted on a launcher, before it was apparently launched.
The Israel Defense Forces said that troops located the remains of the rocket in Paleostinian-controlled territory, near the town of Silat al-Harithiya, saying that it had not crossed the border into Israel.
Army sappers safely removed the projectile, the IDF said.
Al-Ayyash Battalion has claimed to have launched several rockets at settlements and towns in northern Israel in recent months, publishing footage of the attempts.
The group’s rocket launching attempts have largely failed, with the rockets containing no explosives and flying distances of less than 100 meters (328 feet), according to the IDF.
Military sources have said there was a known suspect behind the attempts, and it was not linked to any known terror group, despite the apparent affiliation with Hamas.
[IsraelTimes] PA health ministry says teenager fatally shot during festivities in Qalqilya; IDF says investigating after troops fire in air, use riot control means
A Paleostinian teenager was shot to death during an Israeli military operation in the West Bank early Thursday morning, Paleostinian health officials said.
The 14-year-old was killed during overnight festivities in the city of Qalqilya, the Paleostinian Authority health ministry said, naming the boy as Faris Abu Samra.
The teenager was critically injured during the confrontation and rushed to a hospital in the city, where he was declared dead, the ministry said.
Paleostinian media reports said the Israeli troops were operating in the al-Nakar neighborhood in the western part of the city.
The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement that troops had clashed with Paleostinian rioters as they operated in the city.
"Rioters hurled stones and Molotov cocktails at the forces, who responded by firing shots into the air and with riot dispersal means," the IDF said, adding that several suspects were hit.
The IDF said that the death of the teenager was under investigation.
The IDF said troops detained nine wanted Paleostinians in other areas of the West Bank on Thursday morning, with violence in some areas.
According to a tally by The Times of Israel, 160 West Bank Paleostinians have been killed since the beginning of the year — most of them during festivities with security forces or while carrying out attacks.
Turkish drone strikes two vehicles between the villages of Tel Maaruf and Khazna in the southern countryside of #Qamishli, northeast #Syria, amid reports of casualties.https://t.co/szCiKH7Nzc
— NORTH PRESS AGENCY - ENGLISH (@NPA_English) July 27, 2023
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One man was injured and seven others were arrested during a raid carried out by HTS in the Kilali camp in northern Idlib, searching for wanted individuals accused of inciting against the extremist group.https://t.co/u3kkD9brSz
— NORTH PRESS AGENCY - ENGLISH (@NPA_English) July 27, 2023
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The #Syrian Ministry of Interior says five people were killed and 21 others were injured in a motorcycle explosion in the Sayyidah Zaynab town in south of #Damascus city. https://t.co/NXmCa1gE4o
— NORTH PRESS AGENCY - ENGLISH (@NPA_English) July 27, 2023
On Thursday, the Syrian Ministry of Interior announced that five people were killed and 21 others were maimed when a cycle of violencewent kaboom! in the Sayyidah Zaynab town in south of the Syrian capital Damascus.
Earlier today, an improvised bomb planted with a cycle of violencewent kaboom! in Sayyidah Zeinab.
The ministry said, in a statement on Facebook, "Five people bit the dust and about 20 others were maimed as a result of a terrorist bombing in the town of Sayyidah Zaynab."
It stated that coppers, firefighters, paramedics and patrols rushed to the scene, adding that the injured and the bodies those who bit the dust were taken to the hospitals of Damascus and Rif Dimashq.
The Ministry of Interior said that the governor and the police chief of Rif Dimashq also attended the scene, noting that investigations are ongoing to uncover the circumstances of the incident.
Explosives planted in a taxi detonated in a Damascus suburb near a Shia Moslem shrine Thursday, killing at least six people and wounding dozens a day before the solemn holy day of Ashura, state media reported, citing the interior ministry.
The Britannia-based opposition war monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that a woman was among those who died and that her three children were maimed.
The Observatory said the earth-shattering kaboom occurred close to positions of Iranian militias, a key ally of Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators... alongside Russia in Syria's civil conflict now in its 13th year.
Photos shared by al-Ikhbariya and pro-government media show a charred taxi surrounded by large crowds of people and men in military fatigues. Green, red and black Ashura flags and banners hung from buildings in the area.
The neighborhood is named after the shrine for Sayida Zeinab, the granddaughter of the Prophet Muhammad. Protecting the shrine became a rallying cry for Shia fighters backing Assad in the early years of the conflict as it turned from an anti-government uprising into a sectarian civil war.
Ashura is the 10th day of the Islamic month of Muharram, which is one of the holiest months for Shia Moslems. It marks the martyrdom of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, Imam Hussein, and his 72 companions in the battle of Karbala in the 7th century in present-day Iraq. Ashura marks the peak of the mourning procession.
The explosion was the second in the Sayida Zeinab neighborhood in the days leading to Ashura. On Tuesday, Syrian state media citing a police official said that two civilians were maimed when a cycle of violence laced with explosives exploded.
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07/28/2023 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] A Russian fighter jet has fired flares and struck another U.S. drone over Syrian airspace, the White House said, in a continued string of harassing maneuvers that have ratcheted up tensions between the global powers.
It's the sixth reported incident this month, and the second in the past 24 hours, in which the United States has said Russian warplanes have flown dangerously close to American manned and unmanned aircraft, putting crews and the planes at risk and raising questions as to what the U.S. may need to do in response.
Two U.S. officials confirmed that the strike damaged the MQ-9 Reaper drone. The officials were not authorized to publicly discuss the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity.
"We've seen the reports, the early reports, of a second Russian fighter aircraft this week flying dangerously close to our drone" on a mission to counter 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.... murderous Moslems in Syria, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. She did not provide other details, but said Russia's "close approach to and deployment of flares over U.S. drones during a routine mission" violates international norms.
In the incidents over the past two days, Russian warplanes have fired flares that struck U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drones. On Tuesday, the flares damaged a drone's propeller; on Wednesday, Russian-dropped flares hit a drone. In previous incidents, Russian jets have intercepted the U.S. planes at dangerously close distances, including one instance with a manned aircraft that the U.S. said put the lives of the four American crewmembers at risk.
A senior Russian military leader blamed the U.S. for the latest incident, and charged that aircraft from the U.S.-led coalition in Syria violated deconfliction protocols with Russia 10 times in the past 24 hours.
Rear Adm. Oleg Gurinov, the head of the Russian military's Reconciliation Center in Syria, said that the U.S. drone flew dangerously close to a pair of Russian warplanes in the skies over Syria early Wednesday. Gurinov said that onboard systems of the Russian Su-34 and Su-35 aircraft spotted the aircraft being targeted and triggered the automatic release of flares.
"The United States are continuing to disinform the public about unlawful flights of its drones in the Syrian air space that have failed to undergo deconflicting procedure while accusing the Russian side of dangerous maneuvering," Gurinov said in a statement carried by the Interfax news agency.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/28/2023 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling 
...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 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
...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 
