[Powerline] You may have heard about the sickening case of “Minnesota man” Abdihmahat Bille Moahamed. Libs of Tiktok picked it up in the X post below. My post here elaborates on Bill’s adjacent post.
Extremely lurid series of rapes the miscreant committed can be read at the link: some he did on his own, some were gang rapes.
[UPDATE: Alpha News has more on the case referred to by Libs of TikTok here. The case appears to have been handled with extreme leniency. Mohamed may have been jailed prior to the resolution of cases involving three rapes by a plea agreement resulting in a stayed prison sentence. The FBI affidavit underlying the criminal complaint discusses the resolution of these cases with a slap on the wrist at paragraphs 38-43. I have posted the criminal complaint and affidavit in the adjacent post.]
John Ondrasik commented “Minnesota is London.” Minnesota might be London if it weren’t for the efforts of United States Attorney for the District of Minnesota Daniel Rosen and his team, including Melinda Williams. Ms. Williams is now prosecuting Mohamed’s case in federal court for kidnapping and gang-raping the 15-year-old girl and raping other women. The Department of Justice has just issued this detailed press release this evening:
The people of Minnesota should suffer from this nonsense. Oh sure, the elections are rigged to some degree. But they haven't lifted a finger to fight the rigging.
#3
I would say let her be raped a few times, but who tf is taking that loss.
Posted by: chris ||
12/06/2025 5:17 Comments ||
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#4
The Femnazis are pushing a meme of 'would you rather be in the woods with a bear or a man' implying that men in general are more dangerous. No, it toxic empathic women like these who are the danger who won't deal with threats in the manner they need to be treated. A hundred years ago, rape was a capital crime which carried a death penalty. It's women who are the real danger to other women in obstructing real 'justice'.
[TheGuardian] Up to 150,000 residents of El Fasher are missing since North Darfur capital fell to paramilitary Rapid Support Forces
The Sudanese city of El Fasher resembles a “massive crime scene”, with large piles of bodies heaped throughout its streets as the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) work to destroy evidence of the scale of their massacre.
Six weeks after the RSF seized the city, corpses have been gathered together in scores of piles to await burial in mass graves or cremated in huge pits, analysis indicates.
With the capital of North Darfur state still sealed off to outsiders, including UN war crimes investigators, satellite evidence has revealed a network of newly dug incineration and burial pits thought to be for the disposal of large numbers of bodies.
While the final death toll of the massacre remains unclear, British MPs have been briefed that at least 60,000 have been murdered in El Fasher.
#BurkinaFaso 🇧🇫: “ in #Sahel” (#JNIM) raided Burkina Faso Army and Pro-Government Militia base.
Militants were armed with motorbike-mounted #China-made 🇨🇳 W-85 machine guns, #Serbia-made 🇷🇸 Zastava M05E1 rifles, PKM / Type 80 machine guns and AKMS / Type 56-1 rifles. pic.twitter.com/iN3UM6ZuB3
HAPPENING - DR Congo coaltion has launched sustained heavy shelling of regions to the north of Kamanyola, particularly Kaziba. It is loud and happening every few minutes. Smoke at different locations can be seen from Bugarama, Rwanda side. A telecom tower has been destroyed by… pic.twitter.com/juszKZ5ZNP
DR Congo coaltion has launched sustained heavy shelling of regions to the north of Kamanyola, particularly Kaziba. It is loud and happening every few minutes. Smoke at different locations can be seen from Bugarama, Rwanda side. A telecom tower has been destroyed by air bombing at 7h17.
[Reuters] Fighting raged in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo ...formerly the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Zaire, and who knows what else, not to be confused with the Brazzaville Congo aka Republic of Congo, which is much smaller and much more (for Africa) stable. DRC gave the world Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Mobutu, followed by years of tedious civil war. Its principle industry seems to be the production of corpses. With a population of about 74 million it has lots of raw material... on Friday, a day after U.S. President Donald Trump ...They hit him with slander, they impeached him twice. Nancy Pelosi tore up his State of the Union address on national TV. They stole an election and put his adherents in jail. They vilified him. They couldn't crucify him, so they shot him. Still, they can't keep him down... hosted Congolese and Rwandan leaders in Washington to sign new deals aimed at ending years of conflict in a region rich in minerals.
Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi and Rwanda's Paul Kagame on Thursday reaffirmed commitments to a U.S.-brokered deal reached in June to stabilise the vast country and open the way for more Western mining investment.
"We're settling a war that's been going on for decades," said Trump, whose administration has intervened in a string of conflicts around the world to burnish his credentials as a peacemaker and advance U.S. business interests.
FIERCE FIGHTING CONTINUES ON THE GROUND
On the ground, however, fierce fighting continued, with the warring sides blaming one another.
The Rwandan-backed AFC/M23 rebel group, which seized the two largest cities in eastern Congo this year and is not bound by the Washington agreement, said forces loyal to the government were conducting widespread attacks.
The M23 said bombs fired from Burundi for more than three days had struck villages in North and South Kivu, killing women and kiddies, wounding civilians and destroying homes, schools and health centres. It accused Burundi, an ally of Congo, of coordinating Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s using drones and heavy artillery.
Meanwhile,
...back at the Alamo, Davy was counting their remaining cannon balls and not liking the results... Congo's army said it was not targeting civilians but that festivities were continuing and Rwandan forces were carrying out strikes.
It said it had neutralised an enemy drone that entered Congolese airspace from Bugarama in Rwanda, and accused M23 fighters of repeatedly violating a ceasefire.
M23 said 23 people had been killed and several others injured while a Congolese army spokesperson said 11 civilians had been killed during fighting.
Analysts say U.S. diplomacy paused an escalation of fighting in eastern Congo but failed to resolve core issues, with neither Congo nor Rwanda fulfilling pledges made in June.
Videos shared online showed dozens of displaced families fleeing on foot with their belongings and livestock near the town of Luvungi in eastern Congo. Rooters was not immediately able to authenticate them.
CIVILIANS CAUGHT UP IN CONFLICT
"Numerous homes have been destroyed, and women as well as children have tragically bit the dust," wrote Lawrence Kanyuka, spokesperson for AFC/M23.
Forces loyal to the Congolese government "continued their relentless attacks on densely populated areas of North Kivu and South Kivu, using fighter jets, drones and heavy artillery", he wrote on X.
A Congo army spokesperson confirmed to Rooters that festivities were taking place along the Kaziba-Katogota-Rurambo axis in South Kivu province.
Reagan Mbuyi Kalonji, army spokesperson for South Kivu, said the Congolese army had only targeted fighters in the hills above Kaziba and Rurambo.
"There is population displacement in Luvungi due to Rwandan Defence Force bombardment. They are bombing blindly," he said.
Rwanda's army and government could not immediately be reached for comment.
A senior AFC/M23 official said rebel forces had retaken the town of Luberika and shot down a Congolese army drone. Requesting anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to media, he said the war was continuing, irrespective of the agreement signed in Washington.
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that, since December 2, intense fighting has resulted in civilian deaths, injuries and displacement.
Clashes and roadblocks have made evacuations impossible, preventing an unknown number of maimed civilians from reaching medical facilities for treatment, U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.
The U.N. children's agency UNICEF on Friday said it was alarmed by festivities on December 3 and 4 in South Kivu that hit three schools and another site near a school, reportedly killing at least seven children and injuring others.
"In 2025, fighting has intensified to levels not seen in years, and children, as always, are bearing the brunt," its statement said, urging a halt to attacks on education facilities.
[IsraelTimes] The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency says that a vessel located 15 nautical miles west of Yemen reported an incident.
“A vessel reports sighting small craft at a range of 1-2 cables and they are under fire,” UKMTO says.
[IsraelTimes] Mohammad Bashir to be prosecuted for allegedly driving Heaton Park attacker Jihad al-Shamie to a British ‘defense location’ for ‘hostile reconnaissance,’ sharing terror content online
A man investigated for suspected links to the deadly Manchester synagogue attack was charged Thursday with four terrorism offenses not "directly" related to the atrocity, British prosecutors announced.
Mohammad Bashir, 31, arrested a week ago at Manchester Airport, will not face charges over the October 2 car ramming and knife assault, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said.
However,
the hip bone's connected to the leg bone... he will be prosecuted for having allegedly driven the perpetrator Jihad al-Shamie to a British "defense location" to conduct "hostile reconnaissance."
He will also be prosecuted for having allegedly shared material online intending to encourage terrorism, the CPS added.
They said they had concluded there was "sufficient evidence" to charge Bashir with one offense of preparing terrorist acts and three counts of sharing terrorist publications with al-Shamie and others.
He is due in Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Friday for a first hearing.
Assistant Chief Constable Rob Potts said the charges were not "directly linked" to their ongoing investigation into the attack on the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue.
Two men died in the attack by Syrian-born UK citizen Shamie, which came as worshipers gathered for Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.
He launched the assault by driving his car at security staff and the external gates of the synagogue.
Wearing a fake suicide belt, he then stabbed Melvin Cravitz, 66, multiple times and tried to storm the site before police shot him dead.
Cravitz died from multiple knife wounds inflicted by Shamie, an inquest heard.
Adrian Daulby, 53, died from a single gunshot wound to the chest fired by a police officer responding to the situation.
Seven people have so far been arrested over the synagogue attack, Bashir included.
A 30-year-old man arrested on October 9 on suspicion of failing to disclose information under the Terrorism Act remains on bail, according to police.
The five others arrested have been released without charge.
[FoxNews] The Coast Guard cutter Munro seized more than 20,000 pounds of cocaine in a single drug interdiction mission Tuesday, the largest seizure a national security cutter had completed involving a go-fast vessel.
New video footage shared with Fox News Digital depicts Coast Guard forces, including a sniper from the service’s Helicopter Interdiction Tactical Squadron (HITRON) based in Jacksonville, Florida, utilizing disabling fire against a go-fast vessel as it completes a drug interdiction mission for Operation Pacific Viper.
The amount of cocaine seized in the mission, which occurred in the Eastern Pacific south of Mexico, amounts to more than 7.5 million potentially lethal doses, according to the service.
Operation Pacific Viper launched in August and is a combined initiative between the Coast Guard and Navy that seeks to counter the flow of illegal drugs to the U.S. in alignment with President Donald Trump’s broader effort to crack down on drug cartels in Latin America.
As of October, the Coast Guard reported it had snatched 100,000 pounds of cocaine in the eastern Pacific Ocean under Operation Pacific Viper. That translates to roughly 1,600 pounds of cocaine nabbed daily, according to the service.
The Coast Guard’s Helicopter Interdiction Tactical Squadron snipers are used in missions to disable vessels carrying illicit drugs by targeting and shooting at their engines with rifles to cripple them. Disabling potential drug vessels paves the way for other Coast Guard assets to board and capture drugs stowed away on the boats.
Go-fast vessels are common vessels employed to ferry drugs in the Caribbean.
The Coast Guard reported in November it had seized almost 510,000 pounds of cocaine in fiscal year 2025, the largest amount of the drug snatched in the service’s history.
The amount the service seized translates to 193 million potentially lethal doses, enough to jeopardize more than half of the U.S. population, according to the Coast Guard. Additionally, it amounts to more than three times the service’s annual average, which comes out to roughly 167,000 pounds of cocaine each year.
The Trump administration has adopted a hard-line approach to dealing with drugs coming into the United States and designated drug cartel groups like Tren de Aragua, Sinaloa and others as foreign terrorist organizations in February.
#3
I would like to see these folks taken to GITMO or at least outside of the purview of crazy Fed judges.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
12/06/2025 9:52 Comments ||
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#4
why do all that? Leave them where they lay.
Posted by: chris ||
12/06/2025 10:25 Comments ||
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#5
^ So, you would like the Coast Guard to disable the engine weed and just leave the boat DIW until the traffickers tow it back to Venezuela?
Posted by: Super Hose ||
12/06/2025 10:40 Comments ||
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#6
The US Coast Guard is primarily a Policing organization so the 'less than lethal' approach is appropriate. On the other hand the Military's role is to prioritize the safety of their soldiers over that of the enemy's -- shoot first and shoot often.
#9
The AQ folks knew that they could droned or captured because they were members of a designated terrorist organization. If you are on a go fast boat leaving Venezuela after somebody observed the boat being loaded, you should expect one of the two outcomes. If it’s the Coast Guard chasing, maybe you try to outrun them, if you get hailed on the bridge to bridge by the Navy, kill your engines.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
12/06/2025 14:16 Comments ||
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#10
Concern Trolls are out.
Zapping drug boats is totally going to spike maritime insurance rates you guys.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/06/2025 18:30 Comments ||
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#14
Based on the double-tap episode, the cartel must have their own version of at-sea AAA service. The folks that escaped climbed back aboard to salvage product. Nobody does that unless they expect the cartel to rescue them.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
12/06/2025 22:06 Comments ||
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Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] In Bashkortostan, FSB officers detained eight members of an international terrorist organization (ITO) cell who were spreading ideas about creating a global caliphate.
Yes, but which one? The article doesn’t say
This was reported on December 5 by the FSB's Public Relations Center.
According to the report, the members of the clandestine MTO cell were Russian citizens. During underground meetings, they disseminated an ideology based on the creation of a global caliphate among Muslims in the region.
In addition, a significant quantity of ITO propaganda materials banned in the Russian Federation, as well as communications equipment and electronic storage devices used by the detainees in their terrorist activities, were found and seized at their residences.
Currently, a criminal case has been opened under Parts 1 and 2 of Article 205.5 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Organization of the activities of a terrorist organization and participation in the activities of such an organization”).
In October, FSB officers in Crimea detained four women who were members of a terrorist organization. The investigation established that they were spreading radical ideology among Muslims and recruiting at underground meetings. Propaganda literature was also found during a search of the women's homes.
[IsraelTimes] Italian Jewish organizations have issued condemnations after a plaque at a synagogue in Rome honoring a Jewish victim of terrorism was vandalized.
A plaque dedicated to Stefano Gaj Tachè at the Monteverde synagogue was found vandalized over the weekend with anti-Israel slogans in black paint. The vandals also sprayed “Free Palestine” and “Monteverde is anti-Zionist and anti-fascist” — referring to the neighborhood’s name — on the synagogue’s walls.
The two-year-old boy was the victim of a terror attack by armed Palestinian terrorists at the entrance to the Great Synagogue of Rome on October 9, 1982.
That attack, carried out by members of the Abu Nidal terrorist organization, killed the child and wounded 34 worshipers as they left Shabbat morning prayers. The five attackers threw grenades and fired submachine guns before fleeing the scene. None of them has ever served jail time.
The Union of Young Italian Jews says the graffiti is “an insult to the Jewish community and at the same time a direct attack on Italy and the values on which our democracy is founded.”
“Those who commit such acts are not engaging in politics, nor expressing dissent,” the organization says in a statement on X. “They are fueling antisemitism: the same hatred that has already wounded Italy in the past and that is resurfacing with disturbing ease.”
[IsraelTimes] Salem Seleiman pleads guilty to hate crime for violent attack on Joey Borgen, a Jewish man attending a pro-Israel rally
A Manhattan court on Friday sentenced a man to two years in prison for a 2021 antisemitic attack that was a major hate crime case for the Jewish community.
Salem Seleiman, 30, was the last of six attackers to be sentenced for the beating of Joey Borgen, a Jewish man, on the sidelines of an anti-Israel protest in Times Square.
Seleiman pleaded guilty in New York State Supreme Court to one count of assault in the second degree and one count of assault in the third degree as a hate crime.
"Salem Seleiman took part in the repugnant and bias-motivated assault of a Jewish man who was peacefully attending a rally," Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg ...Soros-owned and operated Manhattan DA. Putting vicious and blood-thirsty criminals in jail only makes them unhappy, and they've led such hard lives after all... said in a Friday statement. "The victim was targeted based on his religion and did nothing to warrant physical violence."
The incident took place around the time of the 2021 conflict between Israel and 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 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... terrorist groups. Seleiman and the other attackers were leaving an anti-Israel protest in Times Square, while Borgen, 29 at the time of the incident, was attending a pro-Israel counter demonstration.
The attackers assaulted Borgen, who was identifiable as Jewish due to his kippah. The assailants chased Borgen down a street, grabbed him, threw him to the ground and repeatedly punched him in the face.
While Borgen was on the ground, the group kicked and pepper-sprayed him, and made antisemitic remarks, including "filthy Jew," "dirty Jew," and "fuck Israel."
The Manhattan District Attorney’s office said Seleiman had kicked Borgen in the face while he was on the ground, and when bystanders attempted to intervene in the attack, Seleiman urged them to leave the scene. Ahead of the rally, the defendants coordinated their plans and discussed how to conceal their identities, Bragg’s office has said.
A Jewish community courtroom observer told The Times of Israel that Seleiman failed to appear at his sentencing hearing on Thursday morning, only showing up hours later. Borgen, who moved to Israel earlier this year, addressed the court by video, describing his ongoing pain that resulted from the beating.
Seleiman made a brief apology before being handcuffed and led to his transport to prison.
The other five attackers have pleaded guilty and been sentenced. Three were sentenced to prison terms last year.
Seleiman had escaped prosecution because he had fled to Florida. The Manhattan District Attorney’s office said it had tracked him down in Florida, extradited him to New York and indicted him last year.
The beating, caught on video, became a flashpoint for the Jewish community and drew national attention.
The court battle that followed led to criticism from Jewish activists that the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office was being too lenient with some of the defendants. That criticism has dissipated since, following prosecutions for antisemitic attacks.
Jews are targeted in hate crimes far more than any other group in New York City, but hate crime convictions are rare because prosecutors need to prove that bias motivated the incidents, a high legal bar.
Then just get them for the crime. It is illegal to beat people up on the street, right? Especially if you went looking for someone to beat up? Easy peasy. The hate crime thingy is frosting, not cake. The NY Post adds:
Five other attackers have already been convicted and sentenced for their role in the attack, including Mahmoud Musa, who was slapped with the heaviest prison sentence of seven years in November 2023.
#1
NY Legal code covering 1st degree Gang related Physical Assault Crime in the State of NY.
Penal Law Section 120.07
Gang assault in the first degree
A person is guilty of gang (note: 6+ were arrested) assault in the first degree when, with intent to cause serious physical injury to another person and when aided by two or more other persons actually present, then causes serious physical injury to such person or to a third person. Gang assault in the first degree is a class B felony in New York, and carries a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison, with a minimum required sentence of 5 years.
[IsraelTimes] Loud blasts reported across central Israel a short while ago were the result of military activity in the Gaza Strip, according to the IDF.
The booms are reported as far away as the Tel Aviv area, some 60 kilometers (38 miles) away.
Amid the ongoing ceasefire, the IDF has been demolishing Hamas tunnels and sites in areas of the Strip under Israeli military control.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
12/06/2025 9:51 Comments ||
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#2
There were something like 500 miles of tunnels, Super Hose, more complex, ‘tis said, than the London Metro — level after level of the thing that cost about a billion dollars to build, as I recall. If they really want to collapse the entire complex, they’ll be at it for years. I have to wonder if portions of the Strip won’t be below sea level by the time it’s done.
#3
Thinking about the situation; it would not have made sense to take care of the tunnels earlier than now. Technologically, it would not be hard to map the tunnels. Taking care of them now is also ok because they don’t exist.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
12/06/2025 22:32 Comments ||
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#4
Therre were still hostages and hostqge bodies in the tunnels before. God bless President Trump for arranging to force their release.
[IsraelTimes] The IDF says it has wrapped up a 10-day major raid in the northern West Bank, during which “six terrorists were eliminated, and hundreds of thousands of shekels in terror funds were seized.”
Dozens of wanted Palestinians were also arrested as part of the operation, which took place in several villages in the northeast of the West Bank — including Tubas, Tammun, and al-Faraa — as well as the Jenin area.
The army says that it seized hundreds of thousands of shekels “intended to fund terror activity,” and dozens of weapons, including assault rifles and pistols.
The Israeli Air Force carried out some 30 strikes amid the raid, as well as airlifted troops to and from the area, the IDF adds.
[IsraelTimes] A Palestinian man was killed this afternoon by Israeli gunfire in the village of Odala south of Nablus, the Palestinian Authority’s Health Ministry says, referring to the military as “occupation forces.”
He is identified as Bahaa Rashid, 38.
Citing security and local sources, the PA’s WAFA news agency reports that Rashid took a bullet to the head from IDF forces who clashed with Palestinians outside a mosque in the center of the village.
Israeli forces also arrested two men from the nearby village of Beita and from Khalayel al-Loz, south of Bethlehem, WAFA reports.
The IDF does not immediately comment.
WAFA also reports that early this morning settlers set fire to two cars and graffitied “liberty for Israel” with a Star of David on a shed in the village of Taybeh, east of Ramallah. Local sources cited by WAFA say this is the sixth time their village has been attacked by settlers.
WAFA reports that the attack took place after Taybeh opened its Christmas market last night, with diplomats present.
In just the last 24 hours: • Six drones crossed into Israel from Egypt loaded with 21 kilos of drugs, 3 long guns, 8 pistols, and ammunition. One drone even crashed back on the Egyptian side, also packed with weapons.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/06/2025 3:41 Comments ||
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#2
Most border wall set ups throughout the world are going to end up needing jamming capability. Anyone living near a border wall is going to have atrocious WI-FI calamities occasionally. Also microwaving popcorn might be a dice throw on smuggling night.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
12/06/2025 10:05 Comments ||
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[IsraelTimes] The IDF officially confirms that the commander of Hamas’s East Rafah Battalion, his deputy, and two other terror operatives were killed while trying to escape a tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday.
The four were spotted emerging from the tunnels in eastern Rafah, an IDF-held area where dozens of Hamas fighters were believed to be trapped underground. According to the military, the four operatives were killed by troops and the Israeli Air Force.
The IDF says that following a review of intelligence, it can officially confirm that Mohammad Bawab, the East Rafah Battalion commander; Ismail Abu Labda, the deputy battalion commander; Tawfiq Salem, a company commander; and Abdullah Hamad, the son of a senior Hamas official, were the four operatives killed.
Bawab and Abu Labda were responsible for planning the battalion’s invasion of southern Israel during the October 7, 2023, onslaught, the military says.
Hamad, the son of senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad, served as a security officer in Bawab’s team, according to the army.
The IDF says the operative posed “an immediate threat” to the soldiers.
“The troops opened fire on the terrorists to remove the threat, and a hit was identified,” the military says.
Woman said killed, several people wounded by IDF fire in Gaza City
[IsraelTimes] A woman was killed and others injured by Israeli gunfire in Gaza City’s eastern Tuffah neighborhood, on the Hamas-controlled side of the Gaza ceasefire line, Al Jazeera reports, citing field medics.
The circumstances are unclear. The IDF does not immediately comment.
[Rudaw] The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said on Friday that two villages under their control in northern Syria came under drone attack by groups allied with the Damascus government.
"A drone belonging to factions affiliated with the Damascus government bombed the villages of Imam and Umm Tina, located north of Deir Hafer in the eastern Aleppo countryside," the SDF said in a statement.
The same factions also "targeted the crossing in the area with sniper fire," it added. "The bombing caused material damage to the villages and surrounding areas, with no casualties reported."
The SDF is the de facto military force in northeast Syria (Rojava) and the main on-the-ground partner of the US-led global coalition against the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (ISIS). The Syrian government joined the coalition last month.
For several months, the SDF and Damascus have repeatedly accused the other of attacking their positions. Last week, the SDF said government-affiliated forces targeted one of its outposts in Deir ez-Zor province, "seriously" injuring one of its fighters.
The two sides continue talks on implementing a March agreement to integrate the SDF into the Syrian national army. Key disagreements persist, however: the SDF wants to join as a unified force, while Damascus insists on absorbing fighters individually into regular army units. SDF officials have recently noted a more flexible tone from the transitional government on the issue.
[IsraelTimes] Death of Khaled al-Masoud, who spied on ISIS for Syrian government, could harm efforts to combat terror group, says expert; victim’s mother demands accountability for son’s killers
A raid by US forces and a local Syrian group aiming to capture an Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group official instead killed a man who had been working undercover gathering intelligence on the Death Eaters, family members and Syrian officials have told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named.
The killing in October underscores the complex political and security landscape as the United States begins working with interim Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa in the fight against remnants of ISIS.
According to relatives, Khaled al-Masoud had been spying on ISIS for years on behalf of the Lions of Islam led by Sharaa and then for Sharaa’s interim government, established after the fall of former president Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Supressor of the Damascenes... a year ago.
Sharaa’s Lions of Islam were mainly Islamists, some connected to al-Qaeda, but enemies of ISIS who often clashed with it over the past decade.
Neither US nor Syrian government officials have commented on al-Masoud’s death, an indication that neither side wants the incident to derail improving ties.
Weeks after the October 19 raid, Sharaa visited Washington and announced Syria would join the global coalition against ISIS.
Still, al-Masoud’s death could be "quite a setback" for efforts to combat ISIS, said Wassim Nasr, a senior research fellow with the Soufan Center, a New York-based think tank focused on security issues.
Al-Masoud had been infiltrating ISIS in the southern deserts of Syria known as the Badiya, one of the places where remnants of the terror group have remained active, Nasr said.
The raid targeting him was a result of "the lack of coordination between the coalition and Damascus," Nasr said.
In the latest sign of the increasing cooperation, the US Central Command said Sunday that American troops and forces from Syria’s Interior Ministry had located and destroyed 15 ISIS weapons caches in the south.
CONFUSION AROUND THE RAID
The raid occurred in Dumayr, a town east of Damascus on the edge of the desert. At around 3 a.m, residents woke to the sound of heavy vehicles and planes.
Residents said US troops conducted the raid alongside the Syrian Free Army, a US-trained opposition faction that had fought against Assad. The SFA now officially reports to the Syrian Defense Ministry.
Al-Masoud’s cousin, Abdel Kareem Masoud, said he opened his door and saw Humvees with US flags on them.
"There was someone on top of one of them who spoke broken Arabic, who pointed a machine gun at us and a green laser light and told us to go back inside," he said.
Khaled al-Masoud’s mother, Sabah al-Sheikh al-Kilani, said the forces then surrounded her son’s house next door, where he was with his wife and five daughters, and banged on the door.
Al-Masoud told them that he was with General Security, a force under Syria’s Interior Ministry, but they broke down the door and shot him, al-Kilani said.
They took him away, maimed, al-Kilani said. Later, government security officials told the family he had been released but was in the hospital. The family was then called to pick up his body. It was unclear when he had died.
"How did he die? We don’t know," his mother said. "I want the people who took him from his children to be held accountable."
FAULTY INTELLIGENCE
Al-Masoud’s family believes he was targeted based on faulty intelligence provided by members of the Syrian Free Army.
Representatives of the SFA did not respond to requests for comment.
Al-Masoud had worked with Sharaa’s bully boy group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else ...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State... , in its northwestern enclave of Idlib before Assad’s fall, his cousin said. Then he returned to Dumayr and worked with the security services of Sharaa’s government.
Two Syrian security officials and one political official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly, confirmed that al-Masoud had been working with Syria’s interim government in a security role. Two of the officials said he had worked on combating ISIS.
Initial media reports on the raid said it had captured an ISIS official. But US Central Command, which typically issues statements when a US operation kills or captures a member of the Death Eater group in Syria, made no announcement.
A US defense official, when asked for more information about the raid and its target and whether it had been coordinated with Syria’s government, said, "We are aware of these reports but do not have any information to provide." The official spoke on condition of anonymity in accordance with regulations.
Representatives of Syria’s defense and interior ministries, and of US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack, declined to comment.
INCREASED COORDINATION COULD PREVENT MISTAKES
At its peak in 2015, ISIS controlled a swath of territory across Iraq and Syria half the size of the United Kingdom. It was notorious for its brutality against religious minorities as well as Moslems not adhering to the group’s extreme interpretation of Islam.
After years of fighting, the US-led coalition broke the group’s last hold on territory in late 2019. Since then, US troops in Syria have been working to ensure ISIS does not regain a foothold. The US estimates ISIS still has about 2,500 members in Syria and Iraq. US Central Command last month said the number of ISIS attacks there had fallen to 375 for the year so far, compared to 1,038 last year.
Fewer than 1,000 US troops are believed to be operating in Syria, carrying out Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s and conducting raids against IS cells. They work mainly alongside the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in the northeast and the Syrian Free Army in the south.
Now the US has another partner: the security forces of the new Syrian government.
Airwars, a London-based conflict monitor, has reported 52 incidents in which civilians were harmed or killed in coalition operations in Syria since 2020.
The group classified al-Masoud as a civilian.
Airwars director Emily Tripp said the group has seen "multiple instances of what the US call ’mistakes,’" including a 2023 case in which the US military announced it had killed an al-Qaeda leader in a dronezap. The target later turned out to be a civilian farmer.
It was unclear if the October 19 raid went wrong due to faulty intelligence or if someone deliberately fed the coalition false information. Nasr said that in the past, feuding groups have sometimes used the coalition to settle scores.
"That’s the whole point of having a hotline with Damascus, in order to see who’s who on the ground," he said.
[IsraelTimes] US and regional partners have interest in disarming Lebanese terror group, says Adm. Brad Cooper, as Syrians mark one year since offensive that toppled Hezbollah ally Assad
The head of the US military’s Central Command congratulated Syria’s security forces on Friday for thwarting several weapons shipments to Leb ...Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects.... ’s Iran-backed terror group Hezbollah.
"Congratulations to Syria’s security forces for recently interdicting multiple weapons shipments," said Adm. Brad Cooper in a statement, as Syrians celebrated the first anniversary of the lightning rebel offensive that toppled the country’s Iran- and Hezbollah-backed President Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs... "The United States and our regional partners have a shared interest in ensuring the disarmament of Lebanese Hezbollah and in preserving peace and stability across the Middle East," said the CENTCOM chief.
It was unclear how many arms shipments Cooper was referring to, when or where the interdictions took place, or who the source of the weapons was. On Thursday, Syrian authorities said they killed a man and arrested four others who were attempting to smuggle hundreds of landmines to the terrorist group.
The congratulations to Syrian government forces come after US President Donald Trump ...dictatorial for repealing some (but not all) of the diktats of his predecessor, misogynistic because he likes pretty girls, homophobic because he doesn't think gender bending should be mandatory, truly a man for all seasons... on Monday warned Israel not to "interfere" in the country following a clash between the IDF and button men in Syria’s south.
Trump also said he was "very satisfied" with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who led the jihadist faction that ousted Assad after a 14-year civil war.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...formerly the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Zaire, and who knows what else, not to be confused with the Brazzaville Congo aka 
...Soros-owned and operated Manhattan DA. Putting vicious and blood-thirsty criminals in jail only makes them unhappy, and they've led such hard lives after all...
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling 
...
...Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects....
