[BB] The United States has approved a $24.3 billion sale of 48 F-35 stealth warplanes to Saudi Arabia, the State Department said Thursday, the kingdom’s latest major arms purchase since the start of the Iran war.
Saudi Arabia has long sought to buy F-35s, but officials from Israel — currently the only country in the Middle East to operate the jets — has voiced concern about their sale to Riyadh despite a push for the kingdom to normalize relations.
“The proposed sale will improve Saudi Arabia’s capability to deter current and future threats by strengthening its homeland defense, and improving interoperability with US forces,” the State Department said in a statement.
It “will also augment Saudi Arabia’s operational aircraft and enhance its air-to-air, and air-to-ground self-defense capability,” the statement said.
The Saudi embassy in Washington praised the transaction, saying it “reflects the strength and enduring nature” of the relationship with the United States.
It added that the security cooperation between the two countries “has contributed to regional stability, strengthened our collective defense capabilities, and advanced our shared security interests.”
Saudi Arabia has been repeatedly targeted with drone and missile strikes by Tehran’s forces since the United States and Israel launched their war against Iran in February, and has also been hit by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
Yemen’s civil war had been dormant for years, but fighting between Houthis and the internationally recognized, Riyadh-backed government reignited in July, with the rebels declaring a maritime blockade of Saudi Arabia and targeting its ships in the Red Sea.
The F-35 sale is the latest in a series of major arms buys by Saudi Arabia this year.
The State Department announced the approval of a $5 billion sale of more than 10,000 bombs — including highly destructive 2,000-pound weapons — to Riyadh earlier in September.
Washington also signed off on the sale of 60 tank engines and related equipment to Saudi Arabia at a cost of $750 million this month, and a $1.96 billion deal in July for the kingdom to buy guidance sections that can convert rockets into precision weapons.
Posted by: Skidmark ||
09/18/2026 07:46 ||
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Link ||
[222 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Saudi Arabia
#3
BBC:
There is concern because a democrat representative from illinois named Raja Krishnamoorthi said there is concern about foreign/chinese interference.
[BBC] The Archbishop of Canterbury has withdrawn an award given to a Muslim cleric who praised Osama Bin Laden.
Hafiz Muhammad Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi received the award for reconciliation and interfaith cooperation from Dame Sarah Mullally last week, on the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
Lambeth Palace faced a backlash after it emerged Ashrafi praised Bin Laden - the architect of the 2001 attacks - as someone who had "been fighting for Islam against the Russians, Americans and British", in comments from 2007.
Ashrafi also reportedly said he would give Bin Laden the title Saifullah, which means "Sword of God". He told the BBC his remarks had been "totally taken out of context".
Lambeth Palace now says "comments made by Imam Ashrafi have come to light that have led (us) to reconsider this award and we can now confirm that the award has been withdrawn".
In presenting the award last week, the Archbishop's office said Ashrafi was being honoured for "his outstanding work as an ambassador of interfaith harmony in Pakistan, known for his commitment to promoting religious tolerance".
His award was presented by Dame Sarah in a ceremony that coincided with the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in the US in which nearly 3,000 people were killed.
Ashrafi told the BBC that his remarks had been "totally taken out of context" and the backlash had been "an unfair campaign" against him.
He said that he was only speaking about Bin Laden in 2007 in response to "the hurt felt by many Muslims" over a knighthood being awarded to the Satanic Verses author Sir Salman Rushdie.
But he defended the comparison he made between an author and a man who was behind the deaths of thousands of people.
Criticism of Ashrafi has gone beyond his comments about Bin Laden.
In giving him his award for promoting interfaith harmony last week, Lambeth Palace had cited the fact that Ashrafi had intervened in the 2012 case of Rimsha Masih, a young Christian girl in Pakistan falsely accused of blasphemy.
But Ashrafi has otherwise been supportive of Pakistan's blasphemy laws that have led to an estimated 2,000 people being prosecuted since the late 1980s.
They include a disproportionately high number of Pakistan's minority Christians and Ahmadis in particular, but many majority Sunni Muslims too.
Ashrafi claimed the blasphemy laws actually "save lives", stopping people taking matters into their own hands.
But Human Rights Watch said last year that "the laws perpetuate religious discrimination and are used to target the poor and minorities in unlawful evictions and land grabs".
The organisation has called on the Pakistani government to urgently reform the laws to prevent them "being weaponised to [...] attack marginalised communities".
#2
Dame Sarah Mullally has shown more willingness to correct herself and confront the actually existing, totalitarian Islam that systematically violates self evident human rights, and demands the abolition of Western civilization, than George W. Bush, who still maintains his 9/17/2001 credo that "Islam is peace."
She might be a leftist DEI plant but she is still a better defender of Western civilization than "conservatives" in the mold of Bush or Tucker Carlson's woke right.
#4
The Apostle Paul made it clear that women are not to serve in leadership of Christ's church. Experience makes it clear Muslims shouldn't receive awards.
[Reuters] China has privately asked Tehran to help rein in Yemen's Houthis after an appeal to Beijing by Saudi Arabia following the Iran-backed group's military blitz in the past week, according to three Iranian sources familiar with the matter.
Riyadh turned to China for help after the Houthis made rapid advances along the Red Sea coast and around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, moves that have left Saudi oil exports and shipping more exposed, the sources said.
China has publicly called for restraint, dialogue and the restoration of safe navigation, but its private message went further than the public statements, they said.
Beijing wants Iran to use its influence with the Houthis to help prevent the conflict spreading further across energy routes on which China, the world's second-largest economy, depends.
The sources, who were briefed on the discussions and spoke on condition of anonymity, did not provide details of how the message was delivered or whether it was conveyed during a visit to China on Wednesday by Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi.
The sources said Tehran's response was that stability and peace in the region depend on ending the US-Israeli war on Iran.
Chinese officials did not issue any explicit threats or indicate that Beijing would seek to pressure Tehran economically if it failed to use its influence over the Houthis, the three Iranian sources said.
In response to a Reuters request for comment on this story, the Chinese foreign ministry said: "China does not wish to see regional tensions further spill over into Yemen and the Red Sea. Escalating regional instability is not in the interests of any party".
"The sovereignty and security of all countries should be respected, and facilities vital to people's livelihoods must not be targeted. China calls for an end to actions that further complicate the situation and urges resolving issues through dialogue and negotiation," it said.
Iran's foreign ministry and the Saudi government's media office did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment for this article.
DANGERS OF A WIDER REGIONAL WAR
China has been Iran's largest trading partner for more than a decade and remains the main buyer of its oil. Chinese purchases accounted for more than 80% of Iran's seaborne oil exports in 2025, averaging about 1.4 million barrels per day, according to commodities data and analytics firm Kpler.
"Beijing is one of the few capitals that can still press Iran to rein in the Houthis," said a senior Western diplomat in the region.
The Houthis, who emerged in the 1990s in opposition to Saudi Arabia's Sunni religious influence in Yemen, are armed, trained and funded by Iran, according to Iranian sources and Western countries, and form part of Tehran's anti-Western, anti-Israel "Axis of Resistance".
Any threat by the Houthis to shipping in the Red Sea and through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait risks sharply worsening the global energy crisis since Iran started blocking the Strait of Hormuz and increasing the danger of a wider regional conflict.
With Hormuz already effectively shut, sustained Houthi attacks on vessels or ports in the Red Sea would disrupt the Middle East's two main oil-export routes simultaneously, opening a new front in both the energy crisis and Iran's broader confrontation with the United States.
Iran and its allies now exert pressure over both ends of the region's key maritime network, one of the sources said, adding that "China depends on both".
Alex Vatanka, director of the Iran Program at the Middle East Institute in Washington, said Beijing may oppose US pressure on Tehran, but its interests in the Middle East extend well beyond Iran. Roughly half of China's oil imports come from the region, while trade between China and the Gulf Cooperation Council states totals around $300 billion a year.
"Iran can disrupt Hormuz. But at some point that leverage begins hurting the very power Tehran increasingly depends on," Vatanka said.
President Trump had requested NATO allies and those who use the sea lanes step up to help protect them…
[Breitbart] Italy will not wait for Brussels’ notoriously slow bureaucracy to react and is preparing to deploy navy ships at the Bab el-Mandeb Strait on its own to protect Italian merchant vessels in the area, Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said on Thursday.
Last week, the Iran-backed Houthis insurgent group in Yemen declared control of the island of Perim, located at the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a maritime shipping route connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden. The situation has prompted concerns over the safety of shipping vessels transiting through the area. Most notably, Saudi Arabia has been using the route to ship its oil, bypassing the Strait of Hormuz.
Defense Minister Crosetto, speaking at a Thursday event, announced he and the Joints Chief of Staff have decided to mobilize the Italian Navy and take the necessary steps to ensure the safety of Italian ships in the area. The minister did not disclose specifics on the announced naval deployment or what other measures are being considered in light of the developing situation.
“We have the capabilities to protect their passage and to gather the useful and necessary information through the efforts of the relevant agencies and their cooperation with us,” Crosetto said.
“We cannot allow bureaucratic delays in decision-making to exacerbate an already complex situation, with direct consequences for our economy and the lives of our citizens,” he continued.
Crosetto pointed out that disruptions in shipping routes lead to higher costs and prices that affect families and businesses in Italy and other countries. As such, he emphasized, protecting supply chains is in the interests of Italian families, businesses, and the nation’s ability to generate wealth.
“It also means defending what lies beneath the sea’s surface: the cables through which data flows, energy connections, and all that essential infrastructure whose value we often only realize when it is damaged,” Crosetto said.
“Today, the role of national defense extends far beyond its traditional scope. It involves not only the physical protection of the territory from potential threats, but also economic, energy, digital, and communications security,” he continued. “This is because a nation can be struck not only with bombs, but also by undermining its economy, social cohesion, and citizens’ trust in institutions.”
The European Union presently has a security mission in the Red Sea security called Operation Aspides. According to SkyTG24, Crosetto emphasized that Italy will not wait for Aspides to “decide whether ships can pass.” Per Sky TG24, the Italian Parliament is presently assessing the situation and the need for the deployment.
“We will take action to ensure that Italian ships can begin transition without waiting for European bureaucracy to compound our own,” the Minister reportedly stressed.
According to the Italian news service ANSA, the frigate Bergamini is presently in the port of Djibouti, with “at least a dozen” Italian-flagged merchant ships or ships owned by Italian companies “lined up in front of it, requesting to pass under escort.” ANSA detailed that more than 1,200 ships per month have been crossing through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait since the start of Summer — a 28 percent increase than the documented transit during Summer 2025, with a 43 percent increase in registered tonnage.
“When a shipping route is disrupted, goods arrive late, costs rise, and prices increase for families and businesses. And every economic crisis hits the most vulnerable people the hardest, putting social cohesion and the country’s stability at risk,” Minister Crosetto said on Thursday.
“Defending freedom of navigation therefore means protecting our supply chains, businesses’ operations, families’ purchasing power, and Italy’s ability to generate wealth. It also means defending what lies beneath the sea’s surface: the cables through which data flows, energy connections, and all that essential infrastructure whose value we often only realize when it is damaged,” he continued.
#1
Maybe Canada could help out. That would go a long way towards establishing their status as an "associate member" of the EU, which otherwise appears to be something that girl-boss super-villain Ursula von der Leyen made up all by herself.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited by Gregor Spitzen
[Regnum] Criminal gangs in Germany are becoming increasingly violent, according to a new survey prepared by the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA). Those are mostly Moslem colonist ethnic gangs — Kurds, Iraqis, Syrians, etc. Some are mixed Moslem colonist gangs, a few others are Eastern European. A relatively small number are native, but they tend to be considerably less violent than the newcomers…
In 2025, the number of investigations into organized crime groups increased. A total of 683 cases were opened, the highest number since 2021.
Gangs in Germany are increasingly resorting to mass violence to intimidate victims and consolidate their power. Their actions are often directed against rival groups.
Last year, 20 murders and 100 cases of bodily harm related to organized crime were recorded. The year before, the figures were 13 and 77, respectively.
"To defend their interests and claims to power, as well as in conflict situations, organized groups demonstrate an increased willingness to use violence," the review states.
A prolonged series of bombings and shootings in the Cologne metropolitan area, linked to the theft of a drug shipment, is cited as an example of the brutality. According to the report, cases of violent crimes being ordered and committed by underage recruits have also increased recently.
Since the recruitment of criminals through social media is "very dynamic," constant information exchange with service providers is necessary, the BKA notes. Even 13-year-olds are sometimes among the recruited criminals.
Recruiting teenagers to commit serious criminal offenses, usually related to gang turf wars, is a Swedish model pioneered by ethnic crime groups in the Nordic kingdom and now being actively implemented in Germany.
Ok. So now that the mainstream political parties are talking about once again enforcing a cordon sanitaire against Alternativ für Deutschland, what will y’all do about it?
The German Ministry of the Interior is horrified to learn that the immigrant crime clans that terrorize German cities are becoming increasingly organized and adept at conspiracy and operational methods.
And so the ministry should be. But what will they do?
"The client and the perpetrator of the crime often don't even meet. These criminal services operate on the principle of 'one plans, one pays, and one carries out the attack,'" says Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt.
"In Germany, we are seeing a cocaine boom, record numbers of drug-related deaths, the exploitation of children as criminals and a growing black market for cannabis," he laments.
According to the minister, drug-related offenses account for a significant share. The number of such crimes is growing: by almost 5% by 2025.
However, drug-related crimes do not include cannabis, as including it in the statistics would distort the data after legalization. The country will record a record number of drug-related deaths in 2025—2,150.
In the reporting year, drug-related crimes again accounted for the overwhelming majority of organised crime investigations, followed by economic crimes, tax and customs offences, migrant smuggling, property crimes and money laundering.
Thirty-one of the investigations primarily involved violent crimes, compared to 11 in the previous year.
The number of deaths associated with so-called new psychoactive substances has increased by almost 15%, reaching 177 cases. Online sales account for a very high share, but according to the VKA, this distribution channel is becoming increasingly important for other drugs as well.
However, the German Ministry of the Interior also had some “good” news: due to the oversupply of cocaine on the market, the price for it, according to BKA President Holger Münch, had fallen by approximately 20%.
Gee whiz. That’s good?
Federal Drug Commissioner Hendrik Streeck notes that cocaine use is considered normal in some segments of society, despite the health risks and criminal networks behind it. In Germany, you can now even order a so-called "coke taxi" using a QR code.
In 2025, the proportion of suspects found with weapons increased for the third consecutive year. Last year, it was 5.8%.
In 30.3% of organized crime cases reported by federal and state authorities, police encountered armed suspects. In the previous year, this was the case in 28.4% of investigations. Three-quarters of the 556 weapons seized in organized crime cases were illegal.
"While secrecy has long been a hallmark of organized crime, young criminals – the so-called Generation Z mafia – have increasingly been displaying their power, status, and violence on social media," the BKA reports.
According to available data, the increased availability of firearms in Germany is also linked to counterfeits, which are primarily smuggled from Turkey.
These copies, often appearing genuine, are sometimes difficult to distinguish from the original by appearance. Counterfeits are usable, but they typically have technical flaws and are therefore particularly dangerous.
The number of suspects in organized crime groups increased by more than 13% over the past year—the highest figure in the past five years. Among the 7,988 suspects investigated last year, 2,722 were German citizens, 664 Turkish passport holders, 402 Syrians, 281 Albanians, and 258 Poles. The geographic scope of criminal activity is also rapidly expanding: more than 69% of the cases opened were transnational in nature.
Only 34% of members of criminal groups in Germany hold German passports. The VKA does not provide statistics showing how many German citizens who have embarked on a career in professional crime as part of an organized group have no immigration background.
If you dig deeper, you might discover that people with traditional German names are almost entirely absent from gang membership. If such inconvenient information were to be revealed, it would undoubtedly be exploited in the election campaign by political forces that make the issue of migrant crime a central part of their political platforms. First and foremost, by the Alternative for Germany (AfD), which has so frightened the German establishment.
However, it would be unfair to claim that crime in Germany is exclusively the preserve of foreigners. Native Germans are also involved in high-profile court cases.
For example, a 55-year-old veteran of the special forces unit GSG 9, who had been on missions in hot spots, including Afghanistan, and after retirement, made the so-called “transgender* transition from male to female.”
Some time later, he was accused of raping a 14-year-old girl in a restaurant restroom. After being taken into custody and placed in a men's prison in Munich, he demonstrated remarkable leadership skills by inciting his fellow inmates to film a group pornographic video featuring a dog.
So, perhaps it is still too early to write off purely German ethnic crime as a phenomenon.
[IsraelTimes] US vice president says allies sometimes disagree, Trump has shown he's ready to 'part ways' with Netanyahu for sake of American interests; envoy Huckabee insists relationship 'solid'
Apparently he said all that in answer to a question, rather than spontaneously announcing his position on the subject. But given that Israel would be perfectly content were America to step back and let them get on with finishing the war Iran et al started, I’m not sure how the concept applies here.
US Vice President JD Vance said Tuesday that Washington can’t let its policies in the Middle East be "subservient" to those of Israel, and must place its own interests first.
Speaking to a conference organized by the All-In Podcast, Vance said of US-Israel ties: "Obviously Israel has been an important partner when it comes to military technology, when it comes to intelligence sharing, but also sometimes the United States doesn’t... agree with Israel."
He said that US President Donald Trump ...The cad! Twice caught beating wimmin!... is ready to place his country first if need be.
"I think that more than frankly any president in the last 40 years, he has shown a willingness to actually part ways with Bibi Netanyahu when he feels like the interests of the American people are different from the interests of the government of Israel," Vance said, using Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s nickname.
"Donald Trump is the one president of the last 40 years who’s been willing to say ’You know what, yeah Bibi’s a good partner, but also Bibi and I have a different opinion on this,’ or ’Bibi’s wrong about this,’ or maybe ’Bibi’s right about this from the perspective of Israel, but the American people need us to go in a different direction.'"
Vance argued that "rooting this relationship, like all relationships, in America’s interest is the way to actually have a rational conversation here."
The vice president said this was true for NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants... as well.
"[We have] a lot of important relationships, a lot of important partnerships in NATO, but that doesn’t mean we’re gonna completely make our European foreign policy subservient to NATO, in the same way that we cannot let our Middle Eastern foreign policy be subservient to the State of Israel," Vance said.
"We’re gonna work with people when we work with them, we’re gonna disagree when we disagree. And we’re gonna pursue America’s interests. That’s the only way to have a rational foreign policy."
JD Vance just said "we cannot let our Middle Eastern foreign policy be subservient to the state of Israel."
Our U.S. foreign policy has never been subservient to Israel’s foreign policy. He knows that. Why would he need to say that unless he’s trying to politically gain some... pic.twitter.com/JT5jJClCU0
— Heather Johnston (@HeatherJ_Israel) September 16, 2026
Meanwhile,
...back at the shootout, Butch cautiously raised his hat over the edge of the horse trough on the end of a stick...... US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee told the Ynet outlet in an interview published Wednesday that the relationship between Trump and Netanyahu "is still strong and solid."
Israel and the US, he asserted, "work incredibly close together, more than most people will ever, ever understand."
Asked about the drop in support for Israel in the US, the envoy put it down to "misinformation."
"I think most of it is misinformation, because I would ask myself, what are they critical of?" he said.
The war against Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... is in America’s interest, he noted, not just Israel’s.
"When we are partnering against Iran, we’re not defending Israel, we’re defending the United States," he said, recalling that for decades Tehran has been saying, "Death to America."
"Israel is maybe the appetizer, but we’re the entree," he said.
Huckabee rejected the claim that Israel pushed Trump into the war with Iran, which began with joint Israel-US strikes on February 28 aimed at degrading the Iranian regime’s military capabilities, distancing threats posed by Iran — including its nuclear and ballistic missile programs — and "creating the conditions" for the Iranian people to topple the regime, the military and other Israeli leaders have said.
"He did it from his own volition," Huckabee said of Trump.
Asked if America would go to war with Iran or some other power to defend Israel against an existential threat, Huckabee said only, "If it was in America’s best interest, the president would act. But that’s what he’s required to do."
Huckabee also addressed hard boy settler violence in the West Bank, which he has previously condemned. He clarified that, in his view, the gunnies do not represent the settler community as a whole.
"I have never attributed all of these actions to settlers," he said. "In fact, I say they’re not settlers, they’re unsettlers."
See more about the film and the Vienna Film Festival, where it received a 25 minute standing ovation and was voted a special prize here.
[X] Netanyahu Proposes Revoking Citizenship for Defaming IDF Soldiers Abroad
Last updated
2 hours ago
Netanyahu announced two bills: one to revoke citizenship from Israelis who defame IDF soldiers abroad, and another to increase defamation damages twentyfold. He pointed to the Venice-premiered documentary 'NAZA'—featuring anonymous insider accounts of Gaza targeting—as a prime example fueling an international campaign against the military. Critics label the plans an assault on free speech, while supporters see them as vital defense amid wartime scrutiny; the proposals await Knesset approval and face legal hurdles.
This story is a summary of posts on X and may evolve over time. Grok can make mistakes, verify its outputs.
Rachel Szor is an Israeli woman.
Did she as a filmmaker give a voice to the women and girls who were raped and murdered on October 7th, and the surviving, raped hostages?
No, instead Rachel Szor chose to vilify her country. Because today that brings applause, not standing up… pic.twitter.com/hJbZ1r3i7G
They could have simply interviewed me. I would have stood in front of the camera, without hiding my identity, on the roof of my house located nine kilometers from Lebanon, after we absorbed endless barrages of rockets here, and explained the reality on the ground to them.
A little less than 20 years ago, I was one of the founders of the field within the IDF that deals with warning populations on the other side of enemy lines and preserving the lives of their civilians.
We built the work processes that define how to call upon the population to evacuate, and how to track that evacuation. I was personally involved in formulating the target approval processes and operational discussions.
If they had spoken with me, I would have explained to them that the chart shown at the beginning of the film is not a chart for conducting killings, but rather a planning chart for a target identified as being used by Hamas.
Its purpose is to determine whether to strike a target at all, who in the command echelon is authorized to approve it, with what munitions, and under what conditions. In stark contrast to what is stated in the film, when the words "Naza 500 – collateral damage estimated at 500" appear in the approval process, the meaning is that action must be taken to reduce the collateral damage.
There are a variety of ways to do this, such as a call for evacuation, precision munitions, or canceling the strike entirely (what is known as an unapproved target). Noting the collateral damage on the target sheet does not signify an intention to carry out the killing of civilians or a "genocide"; it is intended, first and foremost, to prevent it.
This is one post from Fox’s liveblog. Go to the link to see everything else they reported today.
[FOX] The Iranian government organized a massive rally in its capital of Tehran on Friday in an attempt to stress national unity during the war against the U.S.
Estimates varied of the number of people volunteering to receive limited military training and defend the country in an effort described as “Janfaday-e Iran,” or the “ones who sacrifice their lives for Iran,” according to The Associated Press.
They marched through downtown Tehran in combat uniform, carrying flags, as onlookers cheered. The volunteers would be an additional layer of security to the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and the Basij militia, which has played a key role in quashing anti-government protests.
Iranian state media claimed 300,000 people took to the streets.
The new head of the Basij, Hossein Taeb, declared in a speech as the rally began that the volunteers will be ready for “full-fledged defense” and similar rallies will take place in other cities soon.
The new trainees will make a “nightmare” for Iran's enemies, Taeb added, as Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, military commanders and other senior officials watched the march.
[IsraelTimes] Iran is rapidly advancing the reconstruction of a nuclear facility that was previously bombed by Israel, according to satellite images cited in a report Thursday by the Institute for Science and International Security.
The Washington-based institute said Iran has been "rapidly moving forward with the reconstruction of the Taleghan 2 facility," located at the Parchin military complex, some 30 kilometers (20 miles) southeast of Tehran.
Taleghan 2 was struck by Israel in October 2024, during a retaliation for an Iranian missile attack on Israel earlier that month, and was bombed again by the Israeli Air Force in March amid the latest war, after the military said Iran had been restoring the site following the first strikes. Third time ice-cream
Posted by: Grom the Reflective ||
09/18/2026 05:55 ||
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[251 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
North Korea can simply give them warheads guys, there is no chance of preventing a nuked up Iran and treating them like Trump and Netanyahu guarantees they will have one.
You can't act like the Israeli empire and her satellite the USA do and not get a reaction eventually.
#2
#1 North Korea can simply give them warheads guys, there is no chance of preventing a nuked up Iran and treating them like Trump and Netanyahu guarantees they will have one.
You can't act like the Israeli empire and her satellite the USA do and not get a reaction eventually.
[C14News] For 20 years, Hezbollah transformed the Ali Taher Ridge into a vast underground fortress used to plan attacks on Israel. New details reveal how a months-long IDF operation of deception, encirclement and close combat culminated in the massive blast that brought it down.
The Ali Taher Ridge, the most fortified, strategic, and significant target Hezbollah built in southern Lebanon over the past twenty years, no longer exists. The IDF destroyed the terror organization’s underground “terror city” down to the dust after months of grueling combat against guerrilla cells and suicide drones deployed to defend Hezbollah’s last major stronghold in the area.
For two decades, Hezbollah worked to transform the ridge into a fortified underground city. From this complex, the terrorist organization planned attacks against Israel, including major raids that were ultimately never carried out, as well as operations against IDF forces since Oct. 8.
The ridge’s immense strategic importance stemmed from its geography and topography. Stretching approximately 10 kilometers, it is located southeast of the city of Nabatieh and north of the Litani River, just 15 kilometers from the Israeli border as the crow flies. Its peaks rise to approximately 697 meters above sea level, while the mountainous terrain—made up of rock, limestone, cliffs and forested areas—provided terrorists with commanding positions and natural concealment.
New details released by the IDF reveal that the operation was less a frontal assault than a slowly tightening noose. Small commando teams moved covertly through the dense terrain surrounding the ridge, gradually destroying Hezbollah’s surveillance cameras, explosives and logistical positions without the terrorists fully realizing how close Israeli forces had come. Egoz soldiers then spent hours concealed in the brush intercepting supplies bound for the underground complex—including food, water, fuel, batteries and even cigarettes—while preventing supply drones from reaching the tunnel entrances. As the encirclement tightened and supplies dwindled, some Hezbollah terrorists attempted to flee the tunnels, only to emerge toward Israeli forces waiting outside.
[Rudaw] Iranian security forces killed at least 3,356 protesters and bystanders on January 8 and 9 alone, according to a new report by Iran Human Rights (IHR), accounting for 91 percent of all cases in which the organisation was able to establish an exact date of death during the nationwide crackdown.
The Oslo-based watchdog on Thursday published the names of more than 4,200 people it says were killed during the January protests, its most extensive documentation yet of the bloodshed. It warned that the true toll is likely considerably higher.
IHR said the list was compiled through months of data collection, cross-checking sources and verifying victims’ identities.
Among those identified are at least 420 women and 281 children under the age of 18. Twenty-five of the children were younger than 14, while the youngest documented victim was four and a half months old.
The organisation stressed that the figures represent a minimum documented toll, citing internet and telecommunications blackouts, threats against families, restricted access to hospitals and forensic records, and the impossibility of conducting independent investigations inside Iran.
The killings were documented across 30 of Iran’s 31 provinces. IHR said testimonies and case files showed recurring patterns of lethal force, including direct fire into gatherings, shots aimed at vital organs, sniper fire, and people being shot from behind or while fleeing. Some of those killed were not participating in demonstrations, it added.
More at the link
Posted by: badanov ||
09/18/2026 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[149 views]
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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.
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for 
