Recent Appearances...

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Recent Appearances...

Abu Bakr	Abu Bakr	al-Qaeda	Arabia				20030515
	Abu Bakr	Lashkar e-Jhangvi?	Afghanistan/South Asia				20040401
Abu Bakr Al-Jaziri	Abu Bakr Al-Jaziri	Afghan Support Committee	Afghanistan/South Asia			Money Man	20020110
		finance chief of the Afghan Support Committee and also had served as bin Laden's chief fund-raiser
Abu Bakr Al-Mehdar	Abu Bakr Al-Mehdar	Aden-Abyan Islamic Army	Arabia				20040208
Abu Bakr Gaiyul	Abu Bakr Gaiyul	Aden-Abyan Islamic Army	Arabia				20011012
Abu Bakr Hawleri	Abu Bakr Hawleri	Ansar al-Sunna	Iraq-Jordan				20040212
Abu Bakr al-Azdi	Abu Bakr al-Azdi	al-Qaeda	Arabia				20030924
	Abu Bakr al-Azdi	Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula	Arabia				20030626
Abu Bakr al-Jazairi	Abu Bakr al-Jazairi	Learned Elders of Islam	Terror Networks				20051207	Link
Atef Abu Bakr	Atef Abu Bakr	Fatah-Revolutionary Council	Middle East				20020822
Issam Abu Bakr	Issam Abu Bakr	Fatah	Israel-Palestine				20020531
Raami Abu Bakr	Raami Abu Bakr	Islamic Jihad	Middle East	Palestinian	Deceased	Cannon Fodder	20030113
		Killed trying to fire a shoulder-mounted missile at an IDF fuel tanker, but it blew up.

Afghanistan

'The people who control the country.' How Afghanistan has changed under the Taliban

2024-05-31

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
by Kirill Semeov

Russia is determined to normalize relations, and will say anything to do so. Count up the fictions as you read, dearReader.

[REGNUM] The problems of Afghanistan are known, but the real power there lies with the Taliban movement and this cannot be ignored, Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with the press following his visit to Uzbekistan on May 28.

“There are problems in Afghanistan, they are undeniable, everyone is well aware of them. The question of how to build relationships with the current government is another question. But we have to build it somehow, these are the people who control the country, control the territory of the country. They are the power in Afghanistan today,” the Russian President said.

A day earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also made it clear that Russia is going to remove the Taliban from the list of terrorists, on which it is still included.

“Kazakhstan recently made a decision, which we are also going to make, to remove them from the list of terrorist organizations. Moreover, the UN Security Council did not declare the Taliban as a terrorist organization.

It only takes one veto, or the threat of one.

There are, in my opinion, 12–15 specific characters on the list of terrorists,” Lavrov told reporters.

Initially, the Taliban came under international sanctions and were included in terrorist lists not so much because of their own actions, but because of their support for other terrorist organizations. For example, Al-Qaeda, whose representatives received asylum in Afghanistan.

Al Qaeda is still there, as are all their little buddies. And ISIS-K is one of the leading exporters of jihad among the ISIS franchises. Some of these have connections, and have been causing trouble, in Russia.

Of course, the Taliban was and remains a fundamentalist movement, but both now and during the period of the first Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA - the Taliban state) distanced itself from obvious terrorist activities.

The Taliban, unlike Al-Qaeda and ISIS, have never advocated the dismantling of the world order and “global jihad.”

But they support — and intermarry with — those who do. Tomaytoes, tomahtoes.

During their first statehood in the 1990s, they maintained diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Pakistan. Neighboring Turkmenistan was then close to recognizing them.

At the moment, it has also become obvious that all concerns about the hypothetical expansion of the Taliban into neighboring countries have remained at the level of speculation and speculation. The Taliban movement has demonstrated in practice that it intends to build good neighborly relations with all its neighbors.

They’e still at the consolidation phase, and can’t afford external wars as well as the internal ones.

For Moscow, of course, the positive attitude of the Afghan authorities towards Russia itself and its approaches to international affairs also plays a role.

As political scientist and orientalist Mir-Ali Askerov, who recently returned from Afghanistan, told IA Regnum, “there has never been a situation in which, when you say that you are from Russia, it causes some kind of negativity, that is, it either causes at least something neutral, positive, or strictly positive attitude. The Afghans express their gratitude for the fact that you visited their country and, in general, offer their help there in every possible way.”

I assume Mr. Askerov is male.

Askerov emphasized that Afghans look with hope at the confrontation between Russia and the collective West, with the hope that Russia “will be able to withstand this onslaught, this pressure and will be able to achieve a revision of this monopolar world order.”

No doubt.

YOU CAN WALK AT NIGHT
As Russian officials have rightly noted, the Taliban are making good progress in nation-building.

Although the country has serious economic problems and terrorist groups continue to operate, the risk of political and economic collapse is assessed as minimal, and the country has also managed to overcome crime and make the lives of citizens safer.

According to Askerov, the crime situation has become much better than during the reign of Ashraf Ghani and the Americans, and during that period he also had the opportunity to visit Afghanistan.

“ You can now walk around Kabul at night, during the day, at any time of the day and in any area, it is absolutely safe. The only problem is pickpockets, but this is only a problem of large markets,” said the orientalist.

Again, Mr. Askerov is not female.

At the same time, security is ensured in a much “softer” way than during the American occupation.

“Of course, there are many guards and checkpoints in the city, but they do not create the impression of a police state, as during the American presence with rough searches and searches of everyone. On the streets you can also see employees of the ministry of “commanding what is good and prohibiting what is bad” (morality police), but they act unobtrusively, politely and rather try to explain or explain something rather than prohibit and detain, so this does not cause any rejection or conflicts,” Askerov noted.

No, no, perish the thought.

At the same time, he said, some problems remain, despite the optimism of Afghans:

“The population perceives current changes positively and looks to the future with hope. But, of course, Afghans live poorly, and even the wealthiest live very modestly by our standards; economic problems have not gone away.”

Nevertheless, the Taliban still managed to somewhat stabilize the economy.

Afghanistan's foreign trade fell after they seized power. However, despite the decline in imports, most of the country's income now comes from taxes.

As experts note, the Afghan economy is no longer in a state of free fall and appears to be frozen in a precarious balance, albeit at the lowest level.

Modest positive trends include lower inflation, exchange rate stability, some recovery in imports, a more than doubling of exports,

…opium and heroin, right?

stable or slightly increased labor demand and continued wage levels.

Of course, the problem of Afghan drug trafficking remains.

Opium and heroin, yes.

However, it arose long before the Taliban came to power and was “chronic” for this country.

The Taliban took control of it during their first tenure, and never let go.

Nevertheless, the IEA leadership is making efforts to limit the production of opiates.

Thus, according to a 2023 UN report, poppy cultivation in southern Afghanistan fell by more than 80% as a result of Taliban campaigns to stop its use in opium production. For example, the decline in poppy cultivation in Helmand province has dropped by 99%.

In November 2023, a UN report found that throughout Afghanistan, poppy cultivation had fallen by more than 95%, depriving the country of its status as the world's largest opium producer.

The warehouses were full to bursting. No point in producing more until that supply is used up and the price increases.

Although Iran does not agree with such optimistic assessments, since, according to Iranian officials, supplies of opium and heroin from Afghanistan to their country continued in large volumes.

See?

The Taliban have also made progress in dialogue and taking into account the interests of ethno-confessional minorities living in the country, primarily the Shiite Hazaras, who were able to gain access to some leadership positions, which may indicate the movement’s readiness to follow the path of forming an inclusive government.

Tokens to shut up the rubes.

However, problems remain with the Uzbek and Tajik minorities, who are dissatisfied with the fact that their representatives, not associated with the Taliban, are still not represented in the IEA power structures.

"RED TROOPS"
An important factor in recognizing the Taliban and removing terrorist labels from the movement is its success in suppressing the activity and presence of international terrorist organizations such as ISIS and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.

It is significant that the Americans, who spent 20 years trying to eradicate the brainchild of Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, were forced to recognize this success. But as soon as they left, the Taliban themselves solved this problem.

In particular, as Christy Abizaid, director of the US National Counterterrorism Center, stated on September 11, 2023, "al-Qaeda is in its historic decline in Afghanistan and Pakistan and its resurgence is unlikely."

She also cited declassified data that the group had "lost access to targets, leadership talent, group cohesion, grassroots commitment, and supportive local environment." She said the terrorist organization's ability to threaten from Afghanistan " is at its lowest level" since it moved there in 1998.

The Taliban were also able to suppress the activity of ISIS and its local affiliate ISIS-K in Afghanistan.

Within Afghanistan, anyway. Or perhaps just reports of their activities. But not abroad.

After a significant increase in their activity, due to the security vacuum created in some parts of the country after the US withdrawal, the Taliban changed this dynamic, depriving the terrorists of control over certain territories that they were able to acquire by following the Americans fleeing the country.

Their activities were dealt a blow, and activity over the past year has decreased significantly, which was noted in the relevant reports of international structures.

It is noted that the Taliban were able to conduct a successful campaign against ISIS-X and eliminated most of the sleeper cells that were ready to continue terrorist attacks in Afghan cities. After a surge in the number of terrorist attacks in the first months after the Taliban came to power, their number begins to decline as a result of counter-terrorism measures by the IEA security structures.

In particular, in 2022–2023. the number of terrorist attacks and other attacks by ISIS-X has decreased significantly. If in the first year of Taliban rule (2021-2022) there were 314 attacks and assaults, then in 2022-2023. only 69 - that is, less than during any period of activity of the group in Afghanistan since its inception.

The Taliban’s fight against ISIS is systematic and consistent; for this purpose, special counter-terrorism forces have been created in Afghanistan that can effectively counter it.

This counter-terrorism unit is called "Red Squad", or "Sara Kheta" in Pashto.

... also known as Red Unit, Red Brigade, Blood Unit, Danger Group, and Taliban Special Forces Unit. The Taliban’s special forces/shock troops unit was first deployed in Sangin town in Helmand province in 2016, then claimed a victory against ISIS-Khurasan in 2018. They were most active in Kunduz, Baghlan, and Faryab Provinces.

It is divided into several battalions of 300–350 men, selected by field commanders from among the fighters based on their discipline, dedication and skills. Each battalion operates in a separate province, but within the Red Squad there is also a battalion-sized group of the most trained elite forces known as Badri 313.

The Badri 313 Battalion was trained by the Haqqani network and based at Salahaddin Ayyubi Military Operations Academy. There is evidence it was at one point al Qaeda's military arm in Pakistan, with members gleaned from the Taliban and Pakistan’s pet jihadi groups including Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed, and Jundallah, used for nasty attacks on the Pakistani army under the leadership of Ilyas Kashmiri (until 2011) followed by Shah Sahib.

In emergency situations, units work together to cover a multi-province area.

It was the “Red Detachments” that defeated the ISIS in the province of Nangarhar, which was a stronghold of terrorists. After which part of the “Red Detachment” battalions was transferred to the province of Kunar, which was soon also cleared of ISIS militants.

Of course, it is too early to talk about a complete victory over ISIS in Afghanistan.

But a significant decrease in terrorist activity allows the Taliban movement to establish economic ties with foreign partners and organize business trips to this country.

Therefore, Russia, acting proactively, can economically enter Afghanistan before others, officially recognizing the Taliban movement as the legitimate Afghan government.

Before this, there were many factors that forced our entrepreneurs to act with caution in Afghanistan, including the fear of persecution for justifying and financing terrorism.

By removing the Taliban from the terrorist lists, Moscow can speed up the implementation of economic projects in Afghanistan and begin absolutely legal, not “gray” investments.

Link

Caribbean-Latin America

Trump to send US special forces hit squads to Mexico to assassinate drug cartel leaders in second term, according to sources

2024-05-09

[Mail] Donald Trump is considering sending special operations teams into Mexico to kill the heads of drug cartels if he retakes the White House in November, according to a new report citing three sources familiar with his thinking.

Back when he was president the first time, he considered a lot, too. It was dreadfully amusing to watch the hysterics that stirred up.

During his four years in office he pondered whether it would be possible to launch missile strikes on cartel operations.

See?

And, with the threat of drugs smuggled across the southern border only increasing since then, he is now publicly campaigning on a platform that includes using covert means to hurt the gangs responsible.

Trump is said to be modeling his thinking on the the successful 2019 military raid that he ordered to kill ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

But the approach would come with the risks of angering the Mexican government.

Link

-Obits-

The mother-of-two special operator killed hunting ISIS: Navy cryptologist Shannon Kent's husband...

2024-05-08

[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] …tells the story of a warrior in a top secret unit taken away from her sons by a suicide bomber in Syria.

Shannon Kent's story is detailed in Send Me: The True Story of a Mother at War.

Joe Kent was on a classified mission overseas when a friend pulled him aside to say four Americans had been killed in a suicide bombing in Syria.

Two of them were women, and Kent knew deep down that one of them was his wife Shannon.

The Navy cryptologist had been hunting ISIS cells and their leaders in Manbij - when a man walked into a popular kebab restaurant frequented by U.S. personnel and detonated his suicide vest.

The mother of two young boys was 35 years old, and killed while working alongside the nation's most secretive intelligence office, the National Security Agency, to track down terrorists.

Even her husband didn't know the full details of the work she was doing or exactly where she was.

Over five overseas combat tours she became an expert in gleaning information from almost anyone.

She was responsible for finding militants to give their locations to Delta Force, SEAL Team 6 or pilots so they could be taken out with precision strikes.

Chief Kent wasn’t going for a leisurely lunch when the fireball ripped through the dining room in January 2019.

'I love you,' Joe texted her when she informed in she was going out on a mission in what would be their final exchange.

She was doing what she had done for most of her storied 15-year career: Gathering intelligence in the world’s most dangerous places.

The Islamic State claimed credit for the attack and she became the first female service member to be killed in Syria since American troops arrived in 2015.

Kent suddenly became a Gold Star husband, had the impossible task of returning home to his two sons.

At just one and three years old, they were too young to fully grasp what had happened. They had barely gotten to know their warrior mother.

Like other grieving families, he didn’t have a stranger knock on his door to deliver the unbearable news.

He then contacted Shannon’s parents to make sure they got the worst phone call imaginable from someone they knew.

Then he had to get out of the middle of nowhere and return home to face his new normal.

His wife’s heroic story and how Kent dealt with her death in is in her biography Send Me: The True Story of a Mother at War, co-written by journalist and filmmaker Marty Skovlund Jr.

Her legacy and reputation was made abundantly clear by the thousands who showed up to her memorial at the Naval Academy’s chapel in Annapolis, Maryland.

She was posthumously promoted to senior chief petty officer.

The five medals and citations she received described her Special Operations work supporting the NSA while assigned to Cryptologic Warfare Activity SIXTY SIX.

Her name was added to the Cryptologic Memorial Wall alongside the inscribed words ‘They Served in Silence’.

Chief Kent was fluent in seven languages and was the first woman to complete the Naval Special Warfare Direct Support Course.

She also ran marathons, could march for miles with a 50-pound rucksack and do a dozen pull-ups.

Shannon even had a bout with thyroid cancer.

She didn’t tell Joe, who was overseas at the time, until after the surgery and was back at work a few days later.

She learned four Arabic dialects so she could be at the heart of the post-9/11 wars.

Her skills took her into meetings with sources who knew the whereabouts of some of the world’s most wanted terrorists, including ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Some of the men she came face-to-face with even balked at the fact she was a woman.

But she was still able to extract exactly what was needed.

Her work was so classified that she was given the title of ‘cryptologist’, and the full details of what she was doing may not be known for years.

Cryptologic warfare 'encompasses signals intelligence (SIGINT), cyberspace operations, and electronic warfare (EW) operations in order to deliver effects through sea, air, land, space, and cyber domains at all levels of war,' according to the Navy.

But her work was much more than translating documents or decrypting messages

Growing up in the small town of Pine Planes, in New York, she rode horses at an early age.

Her knack for languages came when she learned Spanish so she could speak to Argentinian stable hands at a polo field.

She enlisted for the Navy in 2003 inspired by her state troop father and Staten Island firefighter uncle, both of whom were responders when the planes struck the twin towers on September 11, 2001.

In 2004 she graduated from boot camp at Recruit Training Command in Great Lakes, Illinois, in February 2004 and joined the Navy's linguist program.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Shin Bet captures Islamic Jihad cell planning bombing attacks in West Bank

2024-05-03

[IsraelTimes] A Paleostinian Islamic Jihad
...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah
...
cell planning bombing attacks in the West Bank on behalf of the terror group’s Leb
"Leb"

...an Iranian satrapy currently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah 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 dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else? It is the home of the original 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...
branch was recently captured, the Shin Bet security agency announces.

According to the Shin Bet, IDF troops nabbed three Islamic Jihad operatives in the West Bank town of Yabed in January. They are named by the agency as Ahmed Abu Bakr, 29, Ibrahim Abu Bakr, 29, and Ibadah Abu Bakr, 18.

The trio "acted under the directives of the PIJ headquarters in Lebanon, in order to carry out significant attacks, using remote-detonated explosives against IDF troops in the area," the agency says.

During their arrest, the Shin Bet says, troops seized several primed bombs.

Ahmed and Ibrahim, who the Shin Bet says are senior PIJ operatives, were in contact with the terror group’s headquarters in Lebanon, during which they received funding, largely cryptocurrency, for their attacks, according to the agency.

The Shin Bet says the pair also carried out tests with remote-detonated bombs. Ibadah had been recruited by Ibrahim to build the bombs, according to the agency.

The trio have been charged with a series of security offenses, leading the Shin Bet to release details about the case.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

First Palmyra. Bride of the Desert. Part 1

2024-03-31

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. See the link for maps and photos

Text taken from Commissioner Yarrick post

Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin is in italics

Posted for preserving the Russian historical perspective of the Syrian Civil War
[CHERNARUSIANNARCOWARS] FIRST PALMYRA. DESERT BRIDE

With a noose around the neck

In 2014, the situation in the Syrian Arab Republic, where by that time there was already a long-term military conflict, changed dramatically. By mid-summer 2014, militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) ousted the forces of moderate and radical opposition from Eastern Syria, occupying almost the entire province of Deir ez-Zor. On June 30, 2014, the leader of ISIS militants Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi announced the creation of a “caliphate” - a terrorist quasi-state in the territories of Syria and Iraq with claims to global expansion.

Having no other opponents among competing groups in eastern Syria, ISIS militants (which by that time had changed its name to IS - “Islamic State”, thereby removing the regional link) soon moved on to attacks on Syrian government forces. In August and December 2014, IS gangs attacked the Deir ez-Zor airbase and surrounding areas of the city, blockading the last Syrian army enclave on the banks of the Euphrates. And in parallel with this, IS is making its first forays into Central Syria with the aim of capturing strongholds of the government army.

On July 16, 2014, a small mobile force of 100 experienced IS fighters attacked the Al-Sha'ir gas field northwest of Palmyra. The gas field was defended by about 400 SAA soldiers and National Defense Forces militias, supported by Syrian Air Force aircraft from the nearby Shayrat airbase. After 12 hours of continuous fighting, IS captured eight checkpoints around the field, encircling Syrian army units. Only 30 military personnel managed to escape from the “cauldron”: the 270 people remaining on Al-Shair, including 11 civilian workers, were executed by the militants. Up to 200 more people who found themselves in the “cauldron” remained in captivity or went missing.

Read the rest at this link

PART II
The Path to the East

As we remember from previous articles, in the very first days of the Russian operation in the SAR, together with the air group of the Russian Aerospace Forces and the “Syrian Express”, a group of Russian volunteers and military veterans under the command of Dmitry Utkin (“Wagner”, “Ninth”), which was supposed to support the actions of the Syrian army, as well as ensure the implementation of the most complex and dangerous operations. The first meeting of the “musicians” with Syrian militants was the battles in Northern Latakia in the fall of 2015: it was the fighters of the “orchestra” who were in the vanguard of the Syrian troops clearing the approaches to the Russian Khmeimim airbase. Then, with the direct participation and activity of Russian attack aircraft, the fighters of the Syrian army for the first time managed to show a phenomenal result - move from positional warfare to an offensive, shift the front in the mountainous regions of Latakia and divert any threat from the Russian airbase.

Over the next few months, the fighters of the Wagner Group were transferred to the Palmyra area, where they received a new task. The Orchestra fighters had to begin advancing along the route, while the Syrian army was churning the mud near Mkhin and Khavarin, cutting a road directly to Palmyra - but so far without storming the city itself. Having accepted the task, in parallel with the advance of the Syrian army near Jebel al-Hazm, supported by attacks from Russian cruise missiles, the “musicians” began an assault on the eastern slopes of the Jebel Khayal mountains, captured several points and advanced east towards Palmyra.

As the GRAY ZONE Telegram channel notes, by this time the Wagner Group had been completed with new fighters from the assault squads. The total number of the “Orchestra” in Syria by this time reached almost 2.5 thousand people. Since the Palmyra operation already required specialized military equipment, units of heavy armored vehicles, as well as pickup trucks with installed large-caliber weapons, were transferred to the balance of the Wagner Group through the mediation of the Russian Ministry of Defense. Some equipment was captured from the militants, some weapons were transferred to Russian fighters from Syrian units. As a result, by the winter of 2015/16, the Wagner Group was armed with several infantry fighting vehicles, T-90, T-72 and T-62 tanks, armored vehicles, recoilless rifles, ATGMs, numerous variations of Kalashnikov assault rifles (from Russian manufacturers to low-quality Chinese "Samsungs") and even foreign sniper rifles (in particular, Austrian Steyr-Mannlicher).

Read the rest at this link

Link

Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

Between ISIS and Ukraine. What does the handwriting of the terrorist attack at Crocus say?

2024-03-26

Direct Translaion via Google Translate. Edited.
by Kirill Semenov

Long. Lots of useful information about ISIS at the bottom.

[REGNUM] The terrorist organization Islamic State (ISIS), took responsibility for the terrible terrorist attack in the Crocus City Hall concert hall near Moscow. But this only adds questions about the true organizers of the tragedy.

The first message on behalf of Amaq, the main information resource of ISIS, released on March 22, was duplicated on several ISIS-related information platforms, for example, on the ISIS channel “Nashir News” and the pro-ISIS channel “Ilam”, as was also done during other terrorist attacks. On March 23, Amaq published a more detailed statement from ISIS with details of the terrorist attack and with a photo of its perpetrators in front of the organization’s flag.

On the same day, but a little later, there was an official statement from the “press service” of ISIS, which was distributed through channels associated with this terrorist organization. And finally, also on March 23, an Amaq News video appeared with horrifying scenes of the terrorists' actions, filmed by themselves, entitled "Amaq Agency Exclusive Footage."

The fact that the faces of the terrorists in the photos and videos were “blurred” should not be embarrassing and does not indicate the fake nature of these frames. For example, during the terrorist attack in Iranian Kerman, the statement of the terrorists against the backdrop of the ISIS flag was published with “blurred” faces. This is a common but not required practice.

At the same time, there are doubts that the terrorists who carried out the massacre of our fellow citizens had deep ideological ties with ISIS and were recruited directly by emissaries of this group.

The investigation will put a final point on this, but in any case, the involvement of ISIS in this terrorist attack cannot in any way exclude the possibility that, in fact, behind the attack on Crocus City were the intelligence services of states hostile to Russia, primarily the Kiev regime, which took advantage of the “flag” » ISIS and the willingness of these terrorists to chalk up the inhumane act to their own account.

For the “caliphate,” as ISIS calls itself, the statement that its “soldiers” carried out a terrorist attack is, first and foremost, an indicator of the viability of the project.

True.

Therefore, in the current conditions, “ISIS” members are not particularly picky about the ideology of the perpetrators, as well as how correctly they understand the dogmatic and other guidelines of this group.

We’ve noticed.

For them, the main thing is to maintain the myth that the “caliphate project” is alive, as is its slogan “to survive and expand.” In this case, we are talking about expanding the group’s activity to those territories where it has not yet declared itself with the bloodiest terrorist attacks, as in the Russian Federation.

On the other hand, for Kyiv, using the ISIS brand is a good way to evade responsibility, but at the same time achieve the same goals as if this terrorist attack was carried out by militants whose affiliation with the Zelensky regime is unconditional.

Russa desperately wants to hang tuis round Kiev’s neck…

It is significant that this terrorist action clearly fits into the outline of a terrorist attack on the Russian Federation against the backdrop of the inability of the Ukrainian Armed Forces to achieve success in the zone of the Northern Military District.

Hence the DRG attacks on the Belgorod and Kursk regions, the constant shelling of our cities,

…which Russia started…

kamikaze drone strikes on civilian vehicles and even individual citizens, and, finally, the terrorist attack in Crocus City Hall as the apogee of this terrorist offensive.

According to the organizers, the offensive should sow distrust of the population in the authorities, highlight all the most pressing problems (migration, interfaith and interethnic relations), turning cracks in them into fault lines, make Russians realize that now the war concerns each of them, and wherever they are were located from Belgorod to Vladivostok, they cannot feel safe. And even where drones and MLRS missiles cannot reach, terrorists can overtake them.

In this case, for Kyiv it does not matter what brand or name these terrorists have - RDK, ISIS or anything else. The main thing is to achieve your desired goals. Make Russian citizens doubt their choice, which they made on March 15–17, 2024.

As for the possibility of organizing such terrorist attacks, for which ISIS will ultimately take responsibility, a hypothetical situation may look like this: a certain group, attracted through combined recruitment methods, that is, material interest, Russophobia and radical religious attitudes, is being trained and receives everything it needs from the intelligence services of third countries.

Then, in agreement with the same special services, which can act as some kind of “preachers,” they make a statement to ISIS, indicating that they are preparing an attack and that they swear an oath to ISIS, thus receiving the status of “soldiers of the caliphate.” This is in effect for notice.

No emissaries will come and check how sincere these (in)people are in their belief in the ideology of ISIS and share its guidelines; no one will demand a preliminary plan of operation either. This can be done after the fact, and it is even possible that the future terrorist should first record the oath (bayat) of ISIS, send or post the recording in a safe place, without sending directly to the real, deeply secret structures of the terrorist organization, with which he simply does not have communication channels.

All this makes it easier for interested third parties to use the ISIS flag.

It is also noteworthy that the ISIS statement includes the definition of “soldiers of the caliphate”, that is, we are talking about people previously unknown to these terrorists who declared an oath and carried out a terrorist attack on their behalf, without being sent to a particular country by the “central command” of ISIS and the Amniyat security service.

If the terrorist attack is planned directly by Amniyat and proven militants, then the terrorists are no longer declared “soldiers of the caliphate,” but “martyr brothers,” and from the wording itself one can conclude that there is no provision for saving their lives after the terrorist attack.

“INGHIMASI” WITHOUT “ISTISHKHADIYEV”
Formally, ISIS fighters on the battlefield (including during sabotage or terrorist attacks) can be divided into three types, which, in turn, are divided into subtypes: this is the “infantry” itself with light small arms, RPGs and ATGMs; “Istishhadi” - suicide bombers to break through the enemy’s defenses and cause damage to his manpower, who are sent by Amniyat to carry out terrorist attacks; "ingimasi" - "commandos" or "stormtroopers", usually trained fighters for operations and actions in difficult areas, who can also wear suicide "belts", but detonate them only when necessary.

For example, in issue No. 11 of the ISIS magazine “Rumiyah”, the combined terrorist attacks in Tehran are described as follows: the first group of “Istishhadis” blew themselves up at the Khomeini mausoleum, the second group of “Inghimasis” of three people attacked the parliament building.

Accordingly, the terrorists from Crocus City were also called “ingimasi”, despite the fact that among them there were no “istishkhadis”, who are usually used in the preparation of terrorist attacks by Amniyat.

Therefore, now, during the decline of ISIS, the procedure for declaring a “soldier of the caliphate” has become even more simplified. And it allows virtually anyone to use the “ISIS brand.” Especially if we are not talking about suicide attacks, where ideological pumping is required, but about the actions of the “Ingimasyev”.

At the same time, it is obvious that the Crocus terrorists themselves did not have the capabilities to prepare such a terrorist attack, but were most likely selected for the implementation of a specific plan. Weapons caches were organized, waste routes were worked out, and so on. All that ISIS in Russia could hardly organize, but that the intelligence services and local agents of third countries could provide in the interests of terrorists acting on behalf of ISIS.

Again, the Islamic rhetoric appearing as if specifically on the video recording of the terrorist attack should convince these individuals of their “sincere” adherence to the ISIS ideology. Probably, the customers themselves could have asked them for this, which was included in the “price” for ruined human lives.

At the moment, there is no convincing evidence of the involvement of those arrested in Salafi or radical Islamist circles, just as there are no signs of their stable affiliation with the corresponding subculture.

The terrorist attack was not carried out at all in the style of the relevant terrorist organizations.

When attacking such a significant object with an entire armed group, where security forces and police were supposed to arrive, ISIS, obviously, in its own planning of this operation, would be extremely interested in the “ingimasi” eventually blowing up their “suicide belts” when entering the battle.

Those cases when ISIS terrorists left the scene of a terrorist attack are noticeably different from the events at Crocus in terms of the scale of preparation and planning and are more likely to be of a spontaneous nature, like in January 2024 in Istanbul.

"VELAYAT KHORASAN"
In this context, it should also be noted that the statements of ISIS themselves did not say anything that their cell “Islamic State - Velayat Khorasan” (ISIS-K) was behind the terrorist attacks in the Russian Federation.

It is generally believed that this is an Afghan-Pakistani affiliate of ISIS. And the fact that the terrorist attack was carried out by Tajiks should have convinced everyone that ISIS-X was behind it. Let us recall that the terrorist attacks in Iranian Kerman on behalf of ISIS-X were carried out by people from Tajikistan, as was the January terrorist attack in Istanbul.

ISIS-X, dominated by Tajiks and Uzbeks, is trying to become the most active cell of ISIS along with the group’s African branches and spread its terrorist activity to almost all of Eurasia.

Actually, ISIS-X, dominated by Tajiks and Uzbeks, is trying to become the most active cell of ISIS along with the group’s African branches and spread its terrorist activity to almost all of Eurasia.

Initially, ISIS-X had Pakistani roots, in the sense that its activities spread to Afghanistan from Pakistan.

Its existence should be counted from September 2014.

Then a “delegation” of IS arrived in the Pakistani province of Waziristan from Syria and Iraq and held negotiations with some representatives of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an independent Pakistani jihadist structure fighting Islamabad and not associated with the Afghan Taliban, although consonant in the name. Among the leaders of this group were those who moved away from the traditional Hanafi madhhab for Pashtuns and began to profess Arabian Salafism.

This caused a split in the TTP, and some of its Salafi field commanders tried to impose their views as the only true ones for the entire organization, which, however, did not meet with understanding among the majority of militants and Tehrik leaders. This is what ISIS tried to take advantage of.

As a result of negotiations with IS emissaries, on October 15, 2015, Hafiz Said Khan, one of its leaders, officially left the TTP, along with seven other top-level “schismatics,” including the “official” TTP representative Shahidullah Shahid ; TTP district chief Khyber Gul Zaman Fateh ; TTP Chief Mufti in Peshawar Hassan Swati ; Kurram District Chief Hafiz Dawlat Khan ; TTP commander in Waziristan Abdul Bahar Mehsud and others.

They created a new group called Tehreek-e-Khilafat Pakistan (TCP), pledging allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi

ISIS-X was proclaimed on January 11, 2015 and became the successor to the TKP, and Said Khan became its first leader.

The group was unable to gain a foothold in Pakistan due to the rather effective actions of local security forces and the conflict with the TTP and tried to transfer its activity to Afghanistan, where by June 2015 it occupied some areas in the Nananghar province, which is still one of the centers of ISIS activity.

After the Americans eliminated Hafiz Said Khan in 2016 and his successor Abdul Hasib Logari in 2017, ISIS-X actually split into two independent factions, as numerous people from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and other representatives of the Central Asian republics refused to recognize the new leadership ISIS-X is led by Pashtuns who came from Afghanistan.

Thus, two independent groups began to operate under the brand “Islamic State Vilayat Khorasan” in 2017. One - consisting of natives of the Central Asian republics and local Tajiks and Uzbeks who joined them, and the other - of Pakistani Pashtuns and Afghan Salafis from the provinces of Kunar and Nuristan.

This division probably continues to this day, but with a significant dominance of Uzbeks and Tajiks.

At the same time, ISIS-X, having invaded Afghanistan, entered into confrontation not only with government troops and the international contingent, but also with the Taliban, who were able to inflict a number of sensitive defeats on ISIS. For example, they defeated the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, which decided to join ISIS-X.

Subsequently, the main burden of countering ISIS in Afghanistan also fell on the Taliban, while government troops, on the contrary, often saved the “ISIS” from complete destruction. As this, for example, happened during the Battle of Darzab in July 2018, where the main forces of ISIS-X were concentrated in Afghanistan at that time.

The Taliban practically destroyed this group of 700 militants (of which 128 were captured). There were 200 survivors who turned to the Afghan pro-American government for help. It provided them with a corridor to retreat to territories controlled by government forces, so as not to be completely destroyed by the Taliba. There, the remnants of this group surrendered to the Afghan authorities.

Currently, despite terrorist attacks, ISIS-X in Afghanistan is significantly weaker than in 2017–2018. The group can carry out individual acts of intimidation, but is unable to ensure sustainable territorial control over entire regions.

Therefore, it is likely that the Taliban will be able to restrain the activity of ISIS-X and prevent any cities and regions from falling under its control, but it is unlikely that in the foreseeable future they will be able to completely eliminate all cells of this terrorist organization in Afghanistan.

In turn, ISIS-X seeks to demonstrate its activity through various terrorist attacks, thereby compensating for its own failures in Afghanistan, and at the same time, it is probably ready to provide “its flag” to anyone who will bring “black resonance” to the group.

Link

Africa North

Intro to Wilayet Sinai (ISIS group operating against Egypt)

2023-12-25

Key Bits:

[GreyDynamics] 1.0 INTRODUCTION
ISIS-Sinai Province (Wilayat Sinai) is the most active and capable jihadist terrorist group operating in Egypt. Since 2014, the group has committed over 500 attacks in the Sinai region, mostly against Egyptian security forces. The group is based primarily in northern Sinai, Egypt. The US State Department designated ISIS-Sinai as a foreign terrorist organisation.

As of early 2023, Wilayat Sinai remains largely inactive after several intensive operations against it by the Egyptian Armed Forces (EAF) and Sinai Tribes Union. However, the Israel-Hamas conflict threatens the group’s revival as thousands of displaced Palestinians flee into the Sinai via the Rafah crossing.

2.1 HISTORY
In 2011, ISIS-Sinai first formed under the name Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis (ABM, أنصار بيت المقدس), variously translated as Ansar Jerusalem, Supporters of Jerusalem, Champions of Jerusalem, Supporters of the Holy House. ABM had ties to al-Qa’ida and conducted attacks against Israel and its interests. In 2013, the Egyptian military removed former President Muhammad Mursi from office, and the ABM escalated its attacks on Egyptian government and military targets. In 2014, the group formally pledged its alliance to ISIS and changed its name to ISIS-Sinai. [source]

EAF has pursued a containment strategy rather than eradication in addressing insurgency in North Sinai, leading to a prolonged conflict without definitive success. Despite declarations to “end terrorism,” the EAF’s actions suggest a focus on containment due to political and institutional challenges. The military’s centralised decision-making structure and reluctance to address root causes hinder effective counterinsurgency efforts. While the current strategy has contained the threat since its peak in 2015, ongoing attacks highlight its persistence. [source]

3.1 PLACE WITHIN BROADER GOVERNMENT, TERRORIST, OR OTHER STRUCTURES
Unlike other militant organisations, Wilayat Sinai does not enjoy formal state support or a large diaspora. Instead, it depends on local mobilisation and neighbouring collaboration, from groups like Hamas in Gaza.

3.2 FINANCING
When the ABM pledged allegiance to the Islamic State and became known as Wilayat Sinai, it acquired enhanced capabilities to carry out high-profile attacks and coordinated strikes. Receiving funds and guidance from the Islamic State’s central authority in Syria and Iraq, Wilayat Sinai attacks became deadlier and more frequent than its predecessors in the ABM. [source]

In early 2023, the U.S. Treasury imposed sanctions on Brukan al-Khatuni, an Iraqi residing in Turkey, for funding ISIS activities. He formerly held the position of head of foreign financing Wilayat Sinai from Iraq. [source]

3.3 BUSINESS STRUCTURE
Wilayat Sinai shares similarities with the broader ISIS organisation, but specific details might vary based on the local context. Wilayah Sinai is believed to rely on a combination of local extortion, criminal activities, and external financial support from sympathisers. Overall, ISIS primarily derives its funding from a diverse range of sources, including:

Smuggling of goods: Wilayat Sinai militants actively smuggled goods through an extensive tunnel network that connected Sinai to Gaza. This included drugs and weapons trafficking. [source]

Kidnapping for Ransom: Illegal prisoner camps near the Israeli border in Sinai held women. The source indicates that perpetrators tortured women to coerce their families into paying ransom for their release. [source]

Donations: Some sympathisers and individuals sympathetic to ISIS’s ideology have provided financial support through donations. Donors likely came from those associated with Burkan al-Khatuni. [source] [source]

3.6 CONNECTIONS WITH HAMAS
For many years, militant groups like Hamas and Wilayat Sinai relied on transactional collaboration. Their geographic proximity and isolated safe havens nurtured intimate ties between the militant groups. Additionally, the groups had mutual enemies: Egypt and Israel. For Hamas, Wilayat Sinai was vital in cross-smuggling networks. According to Israeli intelligence, Hamas once transferred tens of thousands of dollars a month into Sinai to secure arms shipments. [source] [source]

In February 2016, a member of Wilayat Sinai penned a letter to Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, the central leader of the Islamic State, advocating for the prohibition of ties with Hamas. The argument put forth was based on the perception that Hamas is considered an apostate group by the leadership of the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.

From 2017-2018, Hamas cultivated closer relations with Cairo which eased border restrictions with Gaza to allow essential supplies in. In turn, Hamas adopted harsher measures to crack down on IS-affiliated fights in Gaza and around the border with Sinai. [source]

In January 2018, a video released by Wilayat Sinai showed member Muhammad al-Dajani executing fellow IS member Musa Abu Zamat. Abu Zamat had been facing accusations of smuggling weapons to Hamas, where al-Dajani had defected from before joining Wilayat Sinai. In the same video, Wilayat Sinai militants called for attacks against Hamas.

5.1 OPERATIONS
The majority of the group’s operations have taken place in North Sinai, but it has also claimed attacks in greater Cairo, Daqhalia, South Sinai, Matruh, Qalyubia, New Valley, and Ismailia. Since 2022, the group has been mostly inactive.

Downing of Russian Metrojet Flight 9268
Wilayat Sinai claimed responsibility for bringing down Russian aircraft Metrojet Flight 9268, en route to Saint Petersburg from Sharm el-Sheikh. On 31 October 2015, a suspected bomb attack on board occurred over Hasna, Egypt. All 224 passengers were killed. On 17 November 2015, Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed that a bomb attack had caused the flight to crash. [source]

El Barth Base Attack
On 7 July 2017, Wilayat Sinai militants encircled and ambushed an Egyptian military base in Rafah known as el Barth, killing 23 Egyptian troops and wounding 26 in northern Sinai. 40 Wilayat Sinai militants were killed and 6 vehicles were destroyed. [source]

Al-Rawda Massacre
On November 24, a coordinated attack by approximately 25-30 gunmen targeted the Al Rawdah mosque in Bir al Abed, northern Sinai, resulting in the deadliest terrorist incident in Egypt’s modern history, claiming at least 305 lives. The attackers drove to the mosque in five vehicles displaying IS flags, detonating bombs inside and shooting worshippers both within and outside.

The assault, part of a surge in attacks totalling over 338 in 2017, underscores the increased activities of regional affiliates like the Sinai Province SP following the Islamic State’s territorial losses in Syria and Iraq. Reports indicate SP may have warned residents beforehand and sought to demonstrate its continued lethality, aligning with a broader trend of internal competition among extremist factions. [source]

2022 Water Lifting Station Attack Along Suez Canal
On 7 May 2022, Wilayat Sinai attacked a water-lifting station along the bank of the Suez Canal. At least 11 Egyptian security forces members were killed, including 1 officer, and 5 were injured. The military says they were killed as they tried to foil a Wilayat Sinai attack. [source]

5.3 PERSONNEL SIZE
In 2016, ISIS-Sinai had an estimated 1,500 fighters. According to the National Counterterrorism Center in 2022, ISIS-Sinai had fewer than 1,000 personnel. Sources now indicate that Wilayat Sinai has declined further to 100-500 personnel. [source] [source] [source]

Very good news. We’ve been following them since they were Ansar Bayt al Maqdis — here’s hoping they continue fading away. Yes, they may recover with an infusion of fleeing Hamasniks after the current excitement in Gaza, but hopefully that will just be a bump on their way to oblivion.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Saudi journalist blasts Hamas leaders for living in luxury, sending people to die

2023-12-04

[WND] A new diatribe from a Saudi journalist has excoriated the leaders of Hamas for living in luxury while sending their people to die.

The blast from journalist Musa'ad Al-Thobaiti explains that's what Islamic leaders appeared to be fond of doing.

It's a report from the Middle East Media Research Institute

...MEMRI, for short...

that explained the writings are from Al-Thobaiti in the Saudi daily Okaz.

The punishing article was headlined, "They Hide in Their Tunnels and Sell Out Their People For a Paltry Price."

The author "condemned the fighters of the Hamas military wing, who hide in tunnels in Gaza, as well as Hamas' leaders abroad, who stay in luxury hotels, saying that they all forsake their people instead of fighting Israel."

He pointed out that they "resemble numerous other leaders of terrorist organizations, such as al-Qaida founder Osama bin Laden and the Islamic State leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, who hid in tunnels or in fortified houses with the members of their family while leaving their supporters alone in the fray."

He charged that "the Islamic nation" is being "deceived by 'a gang of cowards and traders in blood' who sell their people illusions and bring them nothing but death and destruction."

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

In West Bank, troops shoot dead PIJ operative, demolish a terrorist’s home

2023-11-25

[IsraelTimes] Overnight, the IDF demolished the home of Kamel Abu Bakr, the terrorist behind a deadly Tel Aviv shooting in August, in the West Bank village of Rummanah. Abu Bakr killed Tel Aviv patrolman Chen Amir.

Separately, during an arrest raid in the Aqbar Jabr refugee camp near Jericho, the IDF says troops killed Mohammed Hinnawi, an Islamic Jihad
...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah...
operative who "recruited a military squad and carried out several shooting attacks against IDF forces in recent months."

The IDF says it seized an assault rifle and military equipment in Hinnawi’s car.

Tensions in the West Bank have been high since Hamas
Hamas

...not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
’s October 7 onslaught on southern Israel and subsequent fighting in 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 Hamas with 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. The IDF says troops have arrested some 1,950 wanted Paleostinians across the West Bank, including more than 1,100 affiliated with Hamas, since the war began.

Link

Africa Horn

At least 40 civilians killed in El Daein by Sudanese warplanes

2023-11-24

[SUDANTRIBUNE] At least 40 civilians were killed and more than 50 others were injured on Tuesday after Sudanese army warplanes bombed the vicinity of the 20th Infantry Division in East Darfur state.

The airstrikes occurred shortly after the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) announced their control of the military base, marking the fourth such takeover since the outbreak of conflict in mid-April.

The RSF, a paramilitary group led by General Abdel Rahim Dagalo ”Hemetti”, has now seized control of the 20th Infantry Division marking the fourth military base to fall under its control since the outbreak of conflict in the country in mid-April.

According to journalist Abu Bakr Al-Sandali from El-Daein, the civilian casualties resulted from Sudanese army airstrikes targeting the area around the 20th Infantry Division and the Al-Qubba neighbourhood, hours after the RSF assumed control of the military base.

Al-Sandali explained that the victims were civilians who had gathered to celebrate with RSF soldiers following their successful takeover of the military base.

He further added that calm had been restored to El-Daein after the RSF decided to open the markets, and took measures to prevent military vehicles and motorcycles from entering these areas.

DAGALO PLEDGES

In a speech delivered to a military gathering in front of the army headquarters, RSF Deputy Commander Abdel Rahim Dagalo affirmed the readiness of his forces to protect civilians in the cities of El-Daein, Nyala, Zalingei, and El Geneina.

Dagalo pledged to hand over power to the Sudanese people and establish a civilian government without the involvement of the Muslim Brotherhood. He also appealed to supporters of the banned National Congress Party (NSP) in East Darfur to refrain from inciting unrest.

“To the supporters of the National Congress Party in El-Daein, respect yourselves and be responsible citizens,” Dagalo stated. “We will not try you, but if you cross the line and instigate conflict, we will arrest you.”

Dagalo called on members of the armed forces who had fled El-Daein to return to their city and urged his forces to treat army prisoners and their families with respect and protect them within their homes.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

IDF details ‘significant blows’ it’s dealt to Hamas’s northern Gaza forces, commanders; IDF scuba divers find Hamas weapons stash under water; Gaza shot off 10,000 rockets since 10/7, rate slowing

2023-11-14

[IsraelTimes] The Israel Defense Forces details its efforts to eliminate Hamas
Hamas

...a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
’s field commanders and disrupt the terror group’s operations against Israeli forces in 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 Hamas with 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.

According to the IDF, before October 7, Hamas had some 30,000 fighters in the Gaza Strip, split into five regional brigades, 24 battalions and some 140 companies.

Each Hamas brigade has an anti-tank missile array, sniper and engineering teams, air defenses, and a rocket firing array, the IDF says. Each brigade also has a number of outposts and strongholds in their respective regions.

The IDF says it has focused on killing the commanders of the brigades and battalions, especially those in northern Gaza where the military is carrying out its ground offensive.

According to the IDF, the Hamas battalions in northern Gaza have suffered "significant blows" and many are struggling to carry out large-scale organized attacks, due to their commanders being killed in Israeli operations.

The IDF says Hamas’s Shati Camp and Daraj-Tuffah battalions have been hit the hardest.

The Shati Camp Battalion’s deputy commander, several company commanders and 200 more operatives have been killed in Israeli ~~Arclight~~ airstrike
...KABOOM!...
s and ground operations. Some of the battalion’s main strongholds have been captured by the IDF, but it is also tasked with the terror group’s main command center under Shifa Hospital, according to the military.

Meanwhile,
...back at the shattered spaceship, Fffflirgoll the Arcturan slithered stealthily toward the control room, where the humans had barricaded themselves...
the Daraj-Tuffah Battalion has also suffered heavy losses in IDF operations. The military says it has killed its entire senior command, including the battalion commander, his deputy and several company commanders, along with 260 operatives.

IDF says it has killed Hamas brigade’s anti-tank commander, other senior terrorists

[IsraelTimes] The Israel Defense Forces says it has killed a number of Hamas commanders in airstrikes in the Gaza Strip over the past day.

Among the senior officers is Yakub Ashur, the commander of Hamas’s anti-tank guided missile array in the terror group’s Khan Younis Brigade, the IDF says.

The IDF says Ashur, “as part of his role, took part in leading and directing offenses against IDF forces.”

Separate strikes also killed Hamis Dababash, a veteran member of the terror group and the former head of Hamas’s intelligence division; Tahsin Maslam, the head of the combat support company for Hamas’s special operations in Beit Lahia; Jihad Azam, a Hamas intelligence officer in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City; and Munir Harb, head of information in the Rafah Brigade.

The IDF says Dababash most recently served as the secretary to the head of national relations in Hamas’s political bureau, and was a Hamas representative at the gathering of national and Islamic factions in the Gaza Strip.

It adds that Dababash was also involved in a deadly terror attack against the Gaza Strip settlement of Atzmona in 2002, in which five Israelis were killed.

IDF scuba forces find, destroy weapons left on seabed by Hamas divers trying to infiltrate

[IsraelTimes] The Israel Defense Forces releases footage of the Navy’s underwater missions unit — known by its Hebrew acronym YALTAM — recovering weapons left behind by Hamas terrorists in the sea from the October 7 onslaught and other attacks since.

During the October 7 attacks, members of Hamas’s naval forces tried to infiltrate into Israel via the sea. Navy forces managed to kill dozens of them, largely foiling the seaborne attack. There have been other attempts by the terror group to send divers to infiltrate into Israel in recent weeks.

YALTAM scuba forces scanned the seabed in recent days, finding firearms, explosive devices, ammunition and rubber dinghies that were sunk by Navy fire.

The weapons were brought to the coast, where they were destroyed by the Combat Engineering Corps’ elite Yahalom unit, the IDF says.

IDF releases footage of the Navy’s underwater missions unit — known by its Hebrew acronym YALTAM — recovering weapons left behind by Hamas terrorists in the sea from the October 7 onslaught.

YALTAM scuba forces scanned the seabed in recent days, finding firearms, explosive… pic.twitter.com/NhW2U0FYH6
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) November 13, 2023

IDF says it has carried out 4,300 strikes since start of ground offensive

[IsraelTimes] The Israel Defense Forces says that since the beginning of Israel’s ground offensive in the Gaza Strip around two weeks ago, some 4,300 strikes have been carried out.

It says hundreds of anti-tank guided missile launch sites and some 300 tunnel shafts have been struck by ground forces and the Air Force.

Another 3,000 sites containing Hamas infrastructure, including more than 100 booby-trapped buildings and hundreds of command centers were hit, the IDF says.

The IDF publishes new footage showing troops operating in Gaza, as well as the recent strikes.

Army sees sharp drop in rocket, drone attack warnings since start of war

[IsraelTimes] The number of alerts for rocket and drone attacks — and terrorist infiltrations — has dropped significantly in recent weeks, compared to the barrages launched from the Gaza Strip in the first week of the war.

During the first four hours of Hamas’s onslaught on October 7, more than 3,000 rockets were fired. Since then, another estimated 7,000 rockets have been fired, but at a much slower pace.

According to data from the Home Front Command, 3,523 alerts were activated between October 7 and 14.

The vast majority of the alerts were issued for rocket attacks, though there have been a handful of drone attacks and some suspected infiltration alerts.

In the week of October 15 to 21, the Home Front Command issued 818 alerts; in the week of October 22 to 28, it issued 802 alerts; in the week of October 29 to November 4, it issued 582 alerts.

In the last week, from November 5 to 12, it issued 455 alerts, continuing the downward trend.

The IDF believes Hamas is stockpiling rockets for a long war, but the terror group also has difficulty launching attacks from northern Gaza where the military has gained control of the ground.

Some of the alerts in recent weeks have been activated due to attacks launched from Lebanon, by the Hezbollah terror group and allied Palestinian factions at northern Israel, and missile and drone attacks launched by the Yemen-backed Houthis on Eilat.

IDF: Troops in Gaza finding caches of Hamas weapons in schools, mosques and homes

[IsraelTimes] The Israel Defense Forces says ground troops continue to find Hamas weaponry and infrastructure during raids in the Gaza Strip, including inside schools, mosques, and the homes of terror operatives.

Troops of the 401st Brigade operating on the outskirts of the al-Shati camp located Hamas infrastructure in Al-Quds University, and a cache of explosives inside the Abu Bakr mosque, the IDF says.

It says that troops seized dozens of weapons, military equipment, and Hamas battle plans.

Troops of the 551st Reserve Brigade meanwhile raided the home of a senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad operative in the Beit Hanoun area, and found a weapons cache, including some in a child’s bedroom.

In another raid in Beit Hanoun, troops found a tunnel shaft, intelligence materials, and weapons, the IDF adds.

Link

Iraq

Nearly 1,500 unidentified bodies recovered in Mosul since ISIS war, says official

2023-09-09

[Rudaw] There are nearly 1,500 bodies of unidentified people that have been uncovered in djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
since the city was retaken from 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) faceless myrmidons around six years ago, the forensics medicine department in Nineveh said on Wednesday.

"The number of unidentified bodies recovered since the liberation of Mosul from the old areas of the city reached 1,495 bodies, while the number of known bodies whose graves were uncovered reached 3,749," Shahed Arif Hamid, the director of forensics medicine in Nineveh province, told Rudaw’s Mushtaq Ramadhan.

ISIS swept through Iraq in 2014, capturing cities across the center and north of the country in a brazen offensive, including Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city and the capital of Nineveh province, where the group’s former leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared its so-called "caliphate."

The city was retaken in a major Iraqi and Kurdish counteroffensive in 2017, supported by the US-led global coalition.

According to Hamid, Mosul’s civil defense teams, who are responsible for uncovering remains from the rubble, receive fewer remains than previous years as there are no decomposing bodies left.

"If there is no claimant, the remains are left unidentified and in storage until a database for missing persons is announced, and anyone who has lost a relative must donate blood to match the samples with the missing bodies," she said.

Mosul’s Old City, on the western bank of the Tigris River that divides the city into two, was severely damaged as a result of the fight against ISIS and bombardments by both the Iraqi air force and the US-led coalition.

The process of uncovering bodies in Nineveh province began in May 2018, through government teams and volunteers.

According to statistics from Iraq’s High Commission for Human Rights, there are more than 800 bodies of children among the bodies of civilians exhumed in Mosul.

Link

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