[ToloNews] Sher Ahmad Haqqani, Minister of Information and Culture, said during the inauguration of the Mujahid Military Museum in Maidan Wardak that Islamic Emirate forces inflicted heavy financial and human losses on US troops by using low-cost equipment and explosives, eventually forcing the United States to end its war in Afghanistan.
He added that Afghans had defeated major world powers on their own soil despite limited resources and warned that any future aggressor would face a similar fate.
The minister said: "The mine you see here was made at a very low cost, yet it destroyed their expensive vehicles and tanks. Their costly equipment was destroyed with very little money. This alarmed the Americans and their allies, who realized that continuing the war would cause them major economic losses and increasing casualties."
Saeed Khosti, Director of Registration of Jihad-Era Artifacts and Documents at the General Directorate for the Preservation of Jihad-Era Artifacts, said: "A large American tank worth millions of dollars could be destroyed by this device. These are all artifacts from the jihad, and the leader of the Islamic Emirate has instructed us to collect them to pass on a message to future generations."
Referring to Pakistain, the minister warned that any country, including Afghanistan's neighbors, that violated Afghanistan's illusory sovereignty would face a similar fate.
Haqqani said: "Those who were more powerful than them were defeated with these weapons, and they are no stronger. If they continue their aggression, they may reconsider and stop their attacks. But if anyone attacks Afghanistan, these and more advanced weapons will be used against them."
Meanwhile,
...back at the secret hideout, Scarface Al sneeringly put his proposition to little Nell... Habibullah Mujahid, Director of Information and Culture in Maidan Wardak, said the newly inaugurated museum displays 261 war-related artifacts alongside 250 historical artifacts.
He said: "Our museum has four sections: military, historical, manuscripts, and a section containing the names of 3,051 deaders."
According to the Maidan Wardak Directorate of Information and Culture, efforts are also underway to collect and preserve weapons and other artifacts used by Afghans during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
[Jpost] Palestine Action was proscribed under UK terrorism laws last year, so expressing support for the group constitutes a criminal offence.
British police said on Friday they were assessing a social media post after the wife of National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell appeared to express support for Paleostine Action, a pro-Paleostinian group banned as a terrorist organization.
Journalist and author Sarah Helm, who is married to Powell, responded on X/Twitter to a post about the Irish novelist Sally Rooney, who this week announced her books would no longer be sold in Britannia over her plans to use her royalties to support Paleostine Action.
Helm said in the post: "God help us authors who support Paleostine and Paleostine Action."
In response, a Metropolitan Police spokesperson said the post is "being assessed to determine whether any further police investigation may be required".
PALESTINE ACTION PROSCRIBED UNDER UK TERRORISM LAWS
Paleostine Action was proscribed under terrorism laws last year, so expressing support for the group constitutes a criminal offence.
Asked for comment, a government spokeswoman said: "These views are held by an individual who does not represent the government in any capacity."
Paleostine Action has carried out protests including vandalism in support of Paleostinian causes, and denies that this amounts to terrorism. Four members of the group were jugged Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! in June over a 2024 raid on a factory operated by defence firm Elbit, which caused more than £1 million of damage.
Amnesty International says more than 3,500 people have been arrested in Britannia for alleged support of Paleostine Action since it was banned last year, many of them for holding up placards.
Paleostine Action challenged the government's decision to ban the group, but the Court of Appeal ruled in June that the proscription was lawful.
[IsraelTimes] Prosecutors also launch investigation of 11 senior military, police and prison officials as suspects; if probe determines charges are warranted, Italia could lodge request for trial
Defense Minister Israel Katz, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir and senior military, police and prison officials have been placed under investigation in Italia over the treatment of 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 a rusty 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... flotilla activists, Italian prosecutors said on Friday.
The move expands an investigation that was previously focused on Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.
The case concerns alleged torture, kidnapping, personal injury, robbery and damage when Israeli forces intercepted small fleets of boats headed toward Gaza in 2025 and 2026, the Rome prosecutors’ office said in a statement.
Israel has repeatedly denied the allegations. No, no! Certainly not! The Israel Prison Service said that those detained were held "in accordance with the law, with full regard for their basic rights," and received necessary and professional medical care.
Investigators opened the probe after complaints from 50 Italian citizens who were detained by Israeli authorities following two Global Sumud Flotilla missions in September-October 2025 and April-May 2026.
Katz did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In June, Ben Gvir dismissed news that he was under investigation, saying he would "continue to stand proudly alongside our fighters."
CLAIMS OF DEATH THREATS AND BEATINGS
Prosecutors said activists detained after the first mission faced reported beatings, injuries, death threats, insults and accusations of terrorism.
Activists involved in the second mission reported even harsher treatment, including beatings in the dark and the use of tasers and rubber bullets, the statement said.
Investigators identified various individuals forming the military and police chains of command involved in the operations, prosecutors said.
Besides Katz and Ben Gvir, prosecutors named 12 senior Israeli military, police and prison officials as suspects, including Zamir.
Zamir also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Prosecutors said they had sent Israel a request for judicial assistance in June, seeking information needed to reconstruct events and establish individual responsibility. They did not say whether Israeli authorities had responded.
The prosecutors said they had also held talks at the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... ’s judicial cooperation agency Eurojust because similar investigations into the two flotilla missions were underway in other unnamed European countries.
Under Italian law, crimes committed abroad against Italian citizens can be prosecuted in Rome.
Being placed under investigation in Italia does not imply guilt and does not automatically lead to a trial. However,
it was a brave man who first ate an oyster... if the probe determines that charges are warranted, prosecutors could lodge a formal request for trial.
Flotilla organizers say they aimed to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza by delivering humanitarian assistance. Israel says its naval blockade on Gaza is lawful.
#2
The strange thing is that she used to greatly admire Israel, and Bibi. Then she turned on a dime over Gaza, and has grown increasingly vicious on the subject ever since.
[Rudaw] Turkey's peace process with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) is nearing the end of its first phase, with the release of political prisoners, the return of exiled Kurds and broader Kurdish rights expected to dominate the next stage, the co-chair of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) told Rudaw in an interview earlier this week.
Tuncer Bakirhan said the process, which he described as a historic effort to resolve a century-old Kurdish issue, was awaiting a report from Turkey's National Security Council confirming the completion of the first phase, focused on ending armed conflict.
"We are nearing the end of the first phase. The PKK has taken a very significant step," Bakirhan told Rudaw’s Dilbxwin Dara during the interview in Erbil, adding that the group had "more than fulfilled" its responsibilities.
"What remains now? The verification report of the National Security Council. We are now waiting for that report. It will confirm the completion of the first phase, and once it is issued, the process will move into the second phase."
The DEM Party co-chair explained that the first phase aims to remove the PKK and its weapons from the equation, replacing armed conflict with political engagement, while the second will focus on democracy and Kurdish rights.
He cautioned that resolving decades of conflict would require time but urged all parties to avoid unnecessary delays amid growing regional uncertainty.
Bakirhan said the transition to the second phase could pave the way for the release of political prisoners and the return of Kurds living in exile, including former PKK members.
"If that report is issued, 90 to 95 percent of our comrades in prison and those abroad will be able to return," he said.
He added that the fate of approximately 800 senior PKK figures would remain an issue to be addressed during the second phase.
"I hope that once the report is issued, political prisoners will return first, followed by our comrades abroad and in exile."
Asked whether jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan would be able to participate in legal politics, Bakirhan said he had the right to do so, although the necessary conditions had yet to be established.
"That is his most natural right," he said, praising Ocalan for advancing the disarmament and dissolution of the PKK earlier than similar armed movements had done in other peace processes.
Bakirhan also pointed to Turkish nationalist leader Devlet Bahceli's previous call for Ocalan to address the DEM Party's parliamentary group as evidence of changing attitudes toward the Kurdish issue.
"To achieve a resolution, the state must also take steps in line with that call and create the necessary conditions," he said.
The DEM Party co-chair praised Bahceli's evolving position, noting that the nationalist leader had previously opposed Kurdish demands.
"Bahceli has done something very significant," he said, adding that people should appreciate the position he had taken.
However, Bakirhan criticized the continued use of the term "terrorist" by some Turkish officials and media outlets when referring to the PKK and its leadership.
"Now you have established a negotiating table. There are negotiations and dialogue taking place. You cannot call the person sitting across from you at the negotiating table a terrorist. That is unacceptable," he said.
He urged Turkish officials to adopt language that would not offend Kurds, prisoners, exiles or PKK members, stressing that reconciliation required changes from all sides.
More at the link
Posted by: badanov ||
10/17/2026 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[40 views]
Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
[Times of IS] WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump has canceled the planned livestream of the execution of the former US Army major who killed 13 people at Texas’s Fort Hood, saying on Thursday that he had overruled his defense chief, who had intended it to be a public spectacle.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had announced earlier this month that Nidal Hasan
…American-born child of Palestinian immigrants, he trained as a psychiatrist in the American taxpayers’ dime, encouraged by Al Qaeda in Yemen’s Anwar al-Awlaki, his threatening words repeatedly raised concerns about his anti-American approval of jihad that were ignored by his senior officers as career-threatening anti-Moslem prejudice until the day he brought a handgun with a laser sight to work as his unit prepped for their next deployment. It is some comfort that in the eventual cross fire he was hit in the spine, and will need a wheelchair until the execution…
would be executed by a firing squad on December 3 at the Fort Hood military base, the site of Hasan’s 2009 attack, surprising many by saying it would be broadcast live. No other country is known to televise or livestream judicial executions.
Trump and his advisers had been unaware of the livestream plan before Hegseth’s announcement in a media interview, according to a White House official speaking on condition of anonymity.
#7
Was planning a viewing- and - champagne party to amuse/ outrage my friends. It’s a shame, but why give the Dems that stick to beat you with, and that Overton window has budged a little now.
#9
Smiling on death row: This 1928 photo provided by the Franklin County Historic Preservation Society in Benton, Ill., shows bootlegging gangster Charlie Birger, center, on the gallows just before his public hanging in Benton. Charlie Birger, a Jewish Russian immigrant whose real name was Shachna Itzik Birger, was executed on April 19, 1928 after spending a year in jail.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Secret Service Deputy Director Matt Quinn announced his resignation from the agency Friday, an abrupt announcement that comes after a series of high-profile security blunders, as well as an increase in threats against the commander-in-chief.
The news comes some two years after the Butler Pennsylvania, assassination attempt against then-presidential candidate Donald Trump, which then-Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle said was the agency's 'most significant operational failure in decades,' as well as a shooting incident at White House Correspondents' Dinner earlier this year.
'Today I informed the men and women of the Secret Service that I will be transitioning out of my role as Deputy Director,' Quinn said in a social media post Friday.
'Director Curran and I have been working on a thoughtful transition plan for months now,' he added.
'Proud of the men & women of the USSS and all your accomplishments!'
Quinn, a longtime Secret Service agent, had retired in 2021 after spending 23 years as an agent. He returned to the Secret Service as deputy director last May.
Quinn came under scrutiny for his remarks during a '60 Minutes' interview that aired last Sunday on CBS News. During the interview, Quinn told Norah O'Donnell that drone swarms 'are a huge problem' and a 'big threat' for the Secret Service - even at places like the White House.
‘I'd love to tell you the swarm problem is solved. It's not,' Quinn said, even as he stressed the relative safety of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
The segment features shots of Curran and Quinn demonstrating the agency's counter-drone systems and technology, including a system that uses AI and radar systems.
Both Quinn and Secret Service Director Sean Curran were pressed during the interview about the agency's broader struggle to respond to a rapidly changing threat environment, which Curran admitted was like nothing they had seen before.
The Secret Service has handled some 10,000 threat cases against its protectees since January, Curran said, a '40 percent' uptick compared to the same period last year.
Quinn's departure comes as the agency as a whole has struggled to respond to the rise in threats in recent years - including a rise in drone attacks and threats against President Donald Trump.
In the last year alone, threats have included an alleged drone plot attack at the UFC Freedom 250 event at the White House South Lawn in July, which was foiled by the Secret Service and the FBI, as well as a shooting at this year's White House Correspondents' dinner in Washington, DC, in April.
Other threats against the president's life were made both at his Florida golf course, and during a Butler, Pennsylvania campaign rally in July 2024, when a gunman fired eight rounds from the roof of a nearby building, nicking then-candidate Donald Trump's ear.
A DHS inspector general report published in June concluded that the Secret Service missed 'multiple' opportunities to detect, prevent, and disrupt the Butler gunman before he attacked.
'Do we recognize the threat environment has increased? Absolutely,' Quinn told O'Donnell.
'How we do it and how we change - that's where we prefer to stay, in [the] background,' he said.
[PJMedia] Sen. James Lankford’s (R-Okla.) recent conversation with a Lebanese politician might have revealed yet another terrorist connection for Michigan Democrat Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed.
Notably, the terrorist who tried to cause a mass casualty event at a Jewish school and synagogue this year in West Bloomfield, Mich., was a Hezbollah affiliate whose brother was a commander in the jihad group. If Ayman Ghazali was able to come to live in Michigan in spite of his family and his affiliations, then it’s not shocking — though it is horrifying — that other Hezbollah operatives are living and agitating in Michigan, especially Dearborn.
After all, El-Sayed’s sister repeatedly discussed their family’s Moslem Brüderbund affiliation, so obviously being a Moslem jihadi is popular in Michigan now and for over a decade. In fact, there is a foundation in Michigan openly promoting terrorism against Israel on behalf of Hezbollah allies.
Hezbollah remains very powerful in Leb ...Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects.... , not only by controlling territory but by having numerous plants in the military and government there. The Israeli government is the only one actively fighting Hezbollah at the present, so it is not surprising that Israeli officials have told Lankford they are worried about potential jihadi El-Sayed.
"I had several meetings with Israeli leaders, and I’ll go ahead and leave names out, but at the end of the meeting, they would quietly say to me, ’Tell me what’s going to happen in the Michigan Senate race,’" the senator said after his trip to the Middle East, according to an October 12 piece on Cleveland, kept in touch with the world by Obamaphone, ...was ruled by a Democrat machine from 1942 through 1971. After the river caught fire during the administration of Carl Stokes they tried a Republican, then went back to being Democrats when the party hacked up Dennis Kucinich ... Jewish News.
Nabih Knobby Berri
...perennial Speaker of the Lebanese parliament, head of the Amal Shiite party aligned with Hezbollah, a not very subtle sock puppet of the Medes and Persians... , speaker of Lebanon’s Parliament and leader of Shiite Amal Movement, asked about the same race, the Oklahoma Republican said.
"Both sides were talking about the Michigan Senate race, the Shia leadership of Lebanon and the Jewish leadership of Israel," he told news hounds... Berri told Lankford that the Amal Movement recently founded an affiliate group in Michigan, where the Lebanese leader lived briefly and where some of his children were raised.
Lankford exclaimed, "He was very clear with me to say that, ’Hey, we have an extension of our party in Michigan.’ He just initiated that." he described the shock that he and his team expressed to each other after the meeting that Berri had so calmly revealed to them an extension of the Amal Movement in America.
And in case you are wondering how Hezbollah comes into this, the Amal Movement is Hezbollah’s ally and partner in the Lebanese coalition government. As you can also see from the post below, the Amal Movement also assists Hezbollah in terrorist operations. Cleveland Jewish News stated that the movement has a foundation in Dearborn, that infamous hotspot of fundamentalist Islam in the U.S. Yet the Trump administration sanctioned members of the Amal Movement this year.
The foundation which Berri mentioned in Dearborn seems to be the Al Amal Social Foundation, which openly promoted "resistance," the Hamas ..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",... and Hezbollah word for terrorism, in an event only a couple of days before the anniversary of 9/11 this year. "The event featured Lebanese Member of Parliament Dr. Ashraf Baydoun, representing Amal Movement leader and Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, and was attended by elected officials and representatives of religious, social and community organizations from across Metro bankrupt, increasingly impoverished, reliably Democrat, Detroit ... ruled by Democrats since 1962. A city whose Golden Age included the Purple Gang... ," according to The Arab American News. The town of Dearborn and the community of Dearborn Heights are neighbors and part of the larger Detroit area.
The September event promoted the Amal Movement’s late radical founder and encouraged armed opposition to Israel. A Dearborn local news website has also published propaganda from the Amal Movement describing deceased forces of Evil as "deaders" and pushing Jihad against Israel. How the heck are we allowing people like this to live and spread their lies in the United States? How is this not a massive national security threat? El-Sayed should go back to Egypt, and all of his fellow jihadists should also have to return to the Moslem nations that indoctrinated them into their evil ideology.
Abdul El-Sayed: A Muslim Brotherhood Puppet and a Grave National Security Threat
[PJMedia] For decades, leading Brotherhood clerics encouraged Islamists to infiltrate the West through immigration. Once safely ensconced, the clerics argued, Islamists could attain positions of prominence to move their Western host countries closer toward Islamism.
That's why El-Sayed's half-sister, a radical named Eman Abdelhadi, pursued academic jihad, joining the professoriate at the prestigious University of Chicago. And it's why her half-brother is now attempting electoral jihad at the highest level of American politics.
A prominent conservative member of Congress recently confided in me his fear that El-Sayed might be elected. Would El-Sayed, this member worried, have access to sensitive intelligence? Would he share our closest national security secrets with hostile foreign actors?
The answers seem clear.
As a U.S. senator, El-Sayed would pose a massive threat to American national security.
Rumor has it that El-Sayed covets a seat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. That's a perfect perch for a senatorial fifth column.
As a senator, El-Sayed wouldn't advance America's interests. He would advance the interests of the Brotherhood, and of Islamism more generally.
The implications are dire.
The Muslim Brotherhood is the mother's milk of Islamism. If El-Sayed is elected, it isn't just the Brotherhood and Hamas that would have a plant inside the "world's greatest deliberative body." Al-Qaeda and ISIS would have a friend as well.
So too would the Iranian regime. After the assassination of Ali Khamenei, El-Sayed refused to comment, noting that "there are a lot of people in Dearborn who are sad today."
The United States and Iran are at war. Whose side is he on?
Senators are not required to procure security clearances, as executive branch appointees must. They are considered inherently trustworthy.
Oops.
The polls in Michigan are tight, but El-Sayed appears to be ahead.
If El-Sayed wins, the Senate might be tempted to prevent him from being seated. It would be an uphill battle. Article I of the Constitution affords each house of Congress the ability to be the "Judge of the Elections, Returns, and Qualifications" of its own members. But in a 1969 case, the Supreme Court circumscribed this power, severely limiting Congress' discretion.
El-Sayed's Racist Claim That Arab Mothers at Less Risk Without ‘Interethnic Mating’
[PJMedia] U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, a Michigan Democrat, unlicensed doctor, and Egyptian citizen, conducted and published research in 2010 arguing that Arab women were at less risk for preterm birth if they married only Arab men instead of “interethnic mating.” Which is a pretty weird topic to research and write about — if not outright racist.
Technically speaking, investigating whether certain ethnicities are more at risk for certain medical problems is purely scientific, but the language that Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed of Columbia University and his research partner Sandro Galea used in the abstract below is very odd, to say the least, especially in the concluding sentence:
Arab ethnicity (AE) mothers have lower preterm birth (PTB) risk than white mothers. Little is known about the determinants of PTB among AE women or the role of interethnic mating in shaping PTB risk among this group. We assessed the relationship between interethnic mating and risk for PTB, very PTB, and late PTB among AE mothers. Data was collected for all births (N = 21,621) to AE women in Michigan between 2000 and 2005. Self-reported ancestry was used to determine paternal AE as well as to identify AE mothers. We used bivariate chi-square tests and multivariable logistic regression to assess the relationship between paternal non-AE and risk for PTB, very PTB, and late PTB among AE mothers. All analyses were also conducted among non-Arab white mothers as a control. Among AE mothers, paternal non-Arab ethnicity was associated with higher risk of PTB (OR = 1.18, 95% CI = 1.06, 1.30) and late PTB (OR = 1.24, 95% CI = 1.20, 1.38) compared to paternal Arab ethnicity. Paternal non-Arab ethnicity was not associated with risk for any outcome among non-Arab white mothers. Future studies could assess the causal mechanisms underlying the association between interethnic mating and risk for PTB.
[Rudaw] The US Treasury Department on Thursday sanctioned an Iraqi bank for allegedly providing 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... with access to US dollars and maintaining ties to Iranian government entities and Iran-aligned militias, as Washington intensifies its economic pressure campaign against Tehran.
"Iraq-based International Development Bank for Investment and Finance (IDB) provides financial facilitation services and U.S. dollar access for Iran," the Treasury announced, noting that "IDB has abused its access to the now-dissolved U.S. dollar wire auction and maintains ties to Iranian government entities and Iran-aligned militia groups (IAMGs) in Iraq."
The sanctions are part of Operation Economic Outcast, a sweeping US economic pressure campaign launched on August 24 and dubbed "Economic D-Day" by the Treasury. The campaign targets networks Washington says Iran uses to sell oil, evade sanctions, transfer funds and finance its regional activities.
The Treasury said the measures aim to further undermine Tehran's ability to rebuild its weapons programs while increasing the costs for those facilitating Iranian military procurement efforts.
According to the Treasury, IDB was originally established by Iranian firms to support Iran's domestic economy and secure access to US currency. It later received capital from US-sanctioned Bank Melli after sanctions forced the Iranian bank to cease operations in Iraq.
The Treasury alleged that IDB uses Iranian capital to conduct business, converts its profits into US dollars and transfers the funds back to Iran on a monthly basis.
It added that the bank's current management acquired ownership from a dual Iraqi-Iranian financier linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force (IRGC-QF), who allegedly continues to exercise control through family connections.
As part of Thursday's sanctions package, the Treasury also identified Iranian offshore banking entities allegedly involved in sanctions evasion.
It said Tehran had authorized certain banks to operate offshore in free trade zones to facilitate sanctions evasion, identifying Jazireh International Bank Company as an offshore entity affiliated with Bank Mellat and Chabahar International Bank Overseas Company as an offshore institution linked to Bank Shahr.
The latest measures follow the Treasury's Economic Fury campaign, launched in April as the financial counterpart to the US military campaign against Iran.
The United States and Israel launched large-scale strikes on Iran on February 28, with Washington naming its military campaign Operation Epic Fury.
[AtlanticCouncil] Iran-backed militias in Iraq are celebrating their “victory” over the United States following the completion of the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq. They are adjusting their posture for a new era in Iraq, signaling restraint, and continuing to pursue the completion of their state capture project. This “restraint” is designed to facilitate deeper entrenchment by easing US pressure on Baghdad while preserving the militias’ military capabilities.
A statement by Kataib Hezbollah Secretary General Abu Hussein al-Hamidawi illustrates this posture. He ordered his fighters to halt “all military operations and mobile logistical activities,” but explicitly retained an exception for targeting hostile aircraft violating Iraqi airspace until government air defenses are fully established.
The withdrawal of US forces leaves fewer targets inside Iraq, making the announced halt relatively low-cost. Washington has threatened to impose sanctions on Iraqi oil revenues unless Baghdad works to curb the influence of the militias, and announcing a halt gives the government an argument against taking forceful measures. The militias have little incentive to invite financial restrictions that would deepen Iraq’s already severe economic problems and damage their own sources of funding and patronage. Tehran shares this interest in protecting Iraq’s economic viability. Under mounting sanctions, Iran increasingly depends on Iraq as an outlet through which the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) Quds Force and its proxies can access hard currency and evade sanctions, giving both the militias and their Iranian patrons a reason to support the tactical pause.
A Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) bill provides a further incentive for this tactical restraint. On September 29, the cabinet approved and referred to parliament an eighteen-article organizational bill governing the PMF’s structure and leadership. Although the PMF already has legal recognition and state funding, the new measure would be dedicated legislation, strengthening its position as a separate military institution and increasing its claim on the national budget. For the militias within it, this could mean stronger legal protections, greater funding, and access to military infrastructure without effective state control. Halting attacks could help ease US scrutiny and the threat of sanctions, facilitating the PMF’s consolidation as a parallel army.
Al-Hamidawi explicitly advocated for this arrangement in a recent statement, calling for the “resistance” to remain a military force alongside the government’s armed forces. He described this as “a virtue and a good thing” and argued that many countries have more than one army or military organization.
Yet the militias within this parallel army show little sign of behaving as responsible, professional forces accountable to Baghdad. Instead, they increasingly act as proxies at the IRGC’s disposal. During the first months of the US–Israeli war against Iran, much of the PMF’s state-funded personnel, bases, and logistical infrastructure mobilized in support of Tehran’s war effort. Thirty-six PMF brigades—roughly half the force—were implicated in conducting attacks or providing material support to the groups carrying them out. PMF camps and ammunition depots supported the campaign against US troops in the region, while the Badr Organization, the largest militia within the PMF, used PMF trucking fleets to distribute Iranian weapons to attack units. PMF forces also deployed into Iran without Baghdad’s authorization, committing Iraqi military resources to a foreign war that the Iraqi state had not joined.
A halt by the established militias may not mean an end to attacks from Iraq. Smaller units directed by the Quds Force could continue operating while the larger factions deny responsibility and claim to honor the pause. This draws on the “special groups” model— Iranian-trained, armed, and funded Shia militant networks that operated outside Iraqi state control in the 2000s. Following Qasem Soleimani’s killing in January 2020, the Quds Force renewed its reliance on small, tightly controlled groups drawn from established Iraqi militias, selecting trusted, ideologically loyal fighters for direct Iranian command. Alongside this operational restructuring, militia networks expanded their use of “claim-only brands”—names and Telegram channels used to claim attacks conducted by existing factions without necessarily representing separate military units.
Calls for a renewed effort to reactivate this model are now explicit. On July 16, a group calling itself al-Akhyar min Ahl al-Iraq (“the Righteous Among the People of Iraq”) urged the reactivation of the “special groups” to complement the established resistance factions, calling on members to regroup without competing with those already operating.
Other names identify these operational cells. Units associated with names such as Ashab al-Kahf (“Companions of the Cave”) remain embedded within established militia systems, drawing on their facilities, logistics, and protection. The Quds Force trains these cells in surveillance, drone operations, and rocket and missile attacks; provides weapons and funding for their personnel; and retains ultimate command and control while delegating some supervision to the host factions. Small, carefully selected units offer Tehran a relatively economical force that is easier to manage and less vulnerable to infiltration. For the established militias, the separation between the host organization, the operational cell, and the name claiming an attack provides a layer of plausible deniability.
More at the link
Posted by: badanov ||
10/17/2026 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[78 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran Proxies
[Rudaw] Shortly after the last US-led coalition troops withdrew from Iraq at the end of September, Baghdad boasted that it’s independently maintaining and operating its American-made F-16 Viper fighter jets. In the past, Iraq struggled to keep much of this mainstay fighter fleet airworthy without consistent, hands-on support from American technicians. Furthermore, Iraq has required significant coalition support even for its own airstrikes targeting Islamic State (ISIS) militants on its territory.
Iraqi Defense Ministry spokesperson Maj. Gen. Yahya Rasool told Iraqi media in early October that Iraqi crews are handling the flight operations and maintenance of the country’s 34 F-16IQ Block 52 aircraft. It only relies on US manufacturer Lockheed Martin for spare parts and future upgrades. Rasool also claimed that Iraqi engineers and technicians have provided 100 percent of the maintenance work since 2025.
Iraqi F-16s conducted two airstrikes against a suspected ISIS hideout in Diyala province on Sunday. Earlier Iraqi strikes killed a senior ISIS figure in the same province in June as part of an independently planned operation.
These incidents, and Rasool’s claims, suggest Iraq can maintain and operate these jets as effective weapons against ISIS remnants and for providing air support to ground forces fighting the militants.
“Iraq’s air force can be indefinitely sustained as a close air support branch of the Iraqi armed forces for internal combat missions,” Nicholas Heras, Interim Executive Director at the Middle East Policy Council and Senior Director at the New Lines Institute, told Rudaw English.
“The US is providing the Iraqi air force with enough backend technical advice to allow Iraqi maintenance crews to do the job of keeping Iraq's F-16s viable as flying artillery against non-state armed groups, especially ISIS,” Heras said.
More at the link
Posted by: badanov ||
10/17/2026 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[53 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
[Jpost] Regarding the path to a peace agreement, Netanyahu said that the obstacle to peace is not Israel, but rather the enemies in the region shared by Israel and the United States.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded on Friday to comments made by former US president Barack Obama They get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them... , in which he accused Israel of taking "land off people" and being "excessive," referring to Israel's treatment of the Paleostinian people throughout the country's history.
Obama made the comments during a visit to Belfast, Northern Ireland, on Tuesday.
"The Jewish people are not foreign occupiers in the land of our forefathers," Netanyahu said in a video posted to X/Twitter. "Our history is not a colonial enterprise. Our land is not stolen land. This is our homeland."
Netanyahu called Obama's Belfast comments a "regrettable statement," emphasizing the connection between the Jewish people and the Land of Israel, noting its biblical name, "Judea."
"That's where Jews come from," he said. "And we've been attached to it for thousands of years."
The prime minister differentiated Israel from European nations with colonial pasts, saying that the Jews in Israel are not "the Dutch in Indonesia... the Belgians in the Congo, we're Jews in Judea."
OBSTACLE TO PEACE LIES WITH ISRAEL'S, AMERICA'S ENEMIES, NETANYAHU SAYS
Regarding the path to a peace agreement, Netanyahu said that the obstacle to peace is not Israel, but rather the enemies in the region shared by Israel and the United States.
Specifically, Netanyahu noted the enemies' "refusal to recognize the Jewish people's right to a state of our own, in any boundary."
He cited chants of "Death to Israel" and "Death to America," which are common in states like Iran, a shared enemy of the US and Israel.
"We are the 'Little Satan,' you are the 'Great Satan™,'" he said, referencing how such states often refer to Israel and the US, respectively, saying that both countries are "defending our common civilization."
"A peace built on illusions will crash against the rocks of Middle Eastern reality," said Netanyahu. "Israel will not gamble with its survival to accommodate those who refuse to accept the facts of history, to accept our right to exist, or who wish to appease terror.
"We certainly do not; we never will," he concluded.
OBAMA: PALESTINIANS 'UNDERSTANDABLY' WANT THEIR 'LAND BACK'
Especially, no doubt, the ones who had arrived from elsewhere precisely three years before Israel declared independence in May 1945, because that’s all UNRWA requires to declare a person and all his descendants Palestinian refugees.
Obama's comments on Tuesday, made in a conversation with journalist Susan McKay, referred to the Paleostinians' reaction to the Jewish people's exerting cultural and military control over the State of Israel by explaining that "those people understandably said, 'This is injustice, and I want my land back.'"
They love him because he says all the things they want said with the full authority of a former American president. A pity he’ll never achieve his true goal of secretary-general of the United Nations.
"The fact is that the Jewish people, for millennia, were oppressed, discriminated against, killed," said Obama at the time. "Europa ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... was responsible for much of it. They understandably sought a refuge."
Europe was responsible for half of it, post-Rome. The Umma was responsible for the other half. It’s typical of President Obama’s parochialism, as well as his audience’s that this has never occurred to him or them.
"If the attitude of Israel is, now that we are the strongest, the most technologically advanced in the region, then our security will depend on us simply doing whatever we need and taking whatever we want, and not making any concessions to anyone," he added. "That may work short-term... but you have ceded moral ground if that is the position you take."
Imagine I said something sharply rude here, dear Reader, because I mustn’t. Feel free to improve it, as long as you keep it to yourself.
Obama did introduce nuance into the conversation, according to The Irish Times, saying that the millions of Jews and Paleostinians in the region "aren't going anywhere."
"The citizenry of Israel has to rethink, to reimagine, how your children and grandchildren are going to live in this region," he said. "Are you just going to be behind walls and wipe out everybody around you,
So long as they continue to misbehave? Absolutely. Israel will stop when they stop, so really, they have total control of the outcome…
or are you going to find some just way of defending yourself while still acting in an ethical, moral way?"
That is the just, ethical, moral way. The Torah is not a suicide pact.
Obama added that the Paleostinians must come to understand that they will not "outkill" or "outweaponize the Israelis."
Clearly, given the current ratio of Israeli to enemy casualties.
"We have to look to other examples of how change comes about," he said, pointing toward "nonviolent mostly peaceful strategies." "That's going to take some time."
In a war, non-violent strategies are what one does after the violence has worked conclusively. We have not yet reached that stage, because none of the parties of the second part have disarmed and demobilized.
#4
Like all Democrats, Obama overlooks pertinent facts and history. It's just one of the many ways they have to be dishonest. IOW, they lie...all the time.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
10/17/2026 13:13 Comments ||
Top||
#5
the big bucks
Surely he is still mostly living off his savings from his Boston consultant days and the growth of his investments since then.
Besides, you couldn’t pay me enough to put up with the abuse normal to Israeli politics — those people are vicious.
[KhaamaPress] 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... has provided temporary protection to nearly 10,000 former Afghan government military personnel, an Iranian official said during a meeting with United Nations ...an organization conceived in the belief that we're just one big happy world, with the sort of results you'd expect from such nonsense... High Commissioner for Refugees Barham Salih in Geneva, as Tehran called for greater international support for refugees.
Nader Yarahmadi, head of Iran’s Centre for Foreign Nationals and Immigrants colonists Affairs at the Interior Ministry, said Iran currently hosts around 770,000 registered refugees. He warned that declining international assistance and reduced health insurance coverage for vulnerable refugees were making it more difficult to maintain services. The figures were reported by Iran’s Mizan News Agency.
Yarahmadi also said Iran had issued residency documents to approximately 110,000 women who head households, without specifying their nationalities. He called for predictable financial assistance and a fairer distribution of responsibility among refugee-hosting countries and the international community.
The Iranian official said sustainable returns depend on suitable conditions in countries of origin, regional cooperation and adequate resources. Salih, according to the Iranian report, thanked Iran for hosting refugees over several decades and stressed the importance of continued engagement with Afghanistan and regional countries.
The claims come amid continued pressure on Afghans living in Iran. UNHCR data show that 492,300 Afghans were forcibly deported from Iran between January 1 and October 3, 2026, while total returns from Iran during that period reached 581,600, including people who returned voluntarily.
UNHCR’s country information identifies approximately 770,000 registered refugees in Iran, most of them Afghans. The agency has also warned that funding shortages and tighter documentation requirements are putting pressure on refugees’ access to healthcare and other essential services.
Iran has hosted Afghan refugees for decades, including people who fled conflict and persecution. However,
there is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened... the continued deportation of Afghans, including people who may face protection risks if returned, has intensified concerns about the safety and sustainability of returns to Afghanistan.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited
[TV5Monde] For several weeks, unprecedented clashes have pitted the Sahelian branches of the Islamic State (IS) and Al-Qaeda (JNIM) jihadists against each other in the border area straddling Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger. These battles have reached an unprecedented level of violence, with hundreds of deaths claimed by both sides.
According to Wamaps, a collective of West African journalists, the latest fighting between JNIM, Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (or Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims), and the Islamic State in the Sahel (ISF) broke out on October 9 in the tri-border area, between the Malian district of Tessit, west of Ménaka, and the northern Burkinabe towns of Arbinda and Tin-Akoff. The first group is affiliated with Al-Qaeda, while the second, as its name suggests, is linked to the Islamic State.
According to a statement released by Amaq, the Islamic State's propaganda agency, ISIS killed approximately 400 JNIM members during fierce fighting in Oudalan province, northern Burkina Faso, also inflicting significant losses on them in terms of weapons and motorcycles. "Several leaders" were reportedly killed. This information has not been confirmed by independent sources.
According to the same source, the fighting began on October 9 in the village of Ganadaouri, where ISIS militants reportedly repelled a large-scale offensive by JNIM. The clashes are said to have lasted about an hour and a half.
NEW FIGHTING IN THE TRI-BORDER AREA
The two groups, which covet the same geographical spaces and seek to control the same routes and local populations, have been clashing regularly since 2019. A rivalry which also reveals their constant expansion in the Sahel, difficult for the military governments in these three countries which form the AES (Alliance of Sahel States).
"If this toll is confirmed, it will be the deadliest battle ever recorded between the two groups," Héni Nsaibia, an analyst at the NGO Acled, which specializes in collecting and analyzing data on armed conflicts around the world, told AFP.
From 2019 to September 2026, the two groups clashed in "more than 320 battles" which resulted in "around 2,200 deaths", Héni Nsaibia points out.
On September 1st, JNIM and ISIS clashed in Mali near N'Daki, in the Timbuktu region, on the border with Burkina Faso. ISIS gained the upper hand, killing around a hundred JNIM fighters, including a high-ranking commander. These clashes followed the killing, on August 17th by JNIM, of ISIS leader Abou Zeid and commander Saad.
But as the security monitoring platform Sahel Watch explains, "this rivalry is neither linear nor uniform: it has phases of open confrontations, periods of tense coexistence and more or less stable local arrangements".
In Mali, the recent evolution of this competition takes place in an environment transformed by the withdrawal of international forces, the rise in power of the Malian Armed Forces (FAMa) supported by Russian partners, the recomposition of armed groups signatory to the Algiers Agreement and the geographical extension of violence towards Niger, Burkina Faso and coastal countries, explains Sahel Watch.
FROM MALI TO NIGERIA
Long confined to Mali and Burkina Faso, the clashes have spread in recent months to western Niger and even northwestern Nigeria, according to Héni Nsaibia of Acled.
From its Malian stronghold of Ménaka, ISIS has extended its influence to the Nigerien regions of Tahoua, Dosso and Maradi, as far as the borders of Nigeria, facilitating the transfer of fighters, equipment and skills with ISWAP, the branch of the Islamic State active in the Lake Chad Basin, according to the Soufan Center study.
TWO DIFFERENT VISIONS OF JIHAD
Behind their rivalry lie two visions of jihad. According to FIDES, the news agency of the Pontifical Mission Societies, JNIM adopts a relatively pragmatic approach and is rooted in local realities. It primarily targets state institutions and their symbols, negotiates with local elites, and, in the areas under its control, imposes a relatively flexible system of governance based on instruments such as zakat (Islamic ritual almsgiving), dispute mediation, and corrective sanctions, rather than exemplary public punishments. It also tends to avoid practices such as public beheadings and stonings, particularly in order to maintain a degree of consensus among the population.
The ISIS adopts a more rigorous and transnational line, not hesitating to target all those who oppose its authority as part of its project for a global caliphate, explains Hasret Kargin, a researcher specializing in the Sahel, to AFP.
These "persistent ideological and strategic tensions" between the two groups are reflected in "the limited number of defections of JNIM members who have gone to join ISIS," according to the UN experts' report. In July, JNIM claimed responsibility for killing one of its commanders who had defected to ISIS.
But despite the heavy losses attributed to it by the Islamic State, JNIM remains "the main terrorist threat" in the Sahel, according to UN experts, who estimate its numbers at between "7,000 and 8,000 fighters" against "2,000 members" of ISIS.
"Numerous reports indicate that JNIM has redeployed significant reinforcements to the area from other regions. Considering the total number of its fighters in the Sahel and its strength compared to that of ISIS, the group will also launch violent counter-attacks in the coming days," predicts Hasret Kargin.
Alongside the clash between the two groups, both continue to fight the security forces of the three Sahel countries. It is the local populations who pay the heaviest price, exposed to violence perpetrated by all parties to the conflict.
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 contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
...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 
...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 
