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582779 articles and 1984927 comments are archived on Rantburg.
Today: 68 articles and 151 comments as of 23:03. |
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| US strikes targeting ISIS enables the US to deny ISIS sanctuary in government-controlled territory | |||||||
| Today's Headlines | |||||||
Related:
Manchester: 2025-12-23 Manchester police won’t say if Yom Kippur synagogue attacker’s phone was checked during earlier rape probe Manchester: 2025-12-21 London police investigating vandalism of several public menorahs as hate crimes Manchester: 2025-12-18 UK makes first arrests for ‘globalize the intifada’ chants, in shift spurred by Bondi attack | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted by: trailing wife || 12/24/2025 2025-12-24 03:02 || Comments || Link || [1806 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State |
| #1 Funny, I went through the entire article and found no mention of how much jail time they got (probably less than for waving Union Jack on the street.) |
| Posted by: Grom the Affective || 12/24/2025 3:37 Comments || Top|| |
| #2 According to the Daily Mail they face life in prison, Grom, which I believe means something like twenty years. But it sounds like they’ve only been convicted, with sentencing yet to come. |
| Posted by: trailing wife || 12/24/2025 4:13 Comments || Top|| |
| Caribbean-Latin America |
| United States has deployed additional troops and aircraft to the Caribbean |
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Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. [Regnum] The United States has deployed additional aircraft and equipment to the Caribbean region. The Wall Street Journal reported this on Tuesday, December 23. ![]() "This week, the United States deployed a large number of special operations aircraft and several cargo planes carrying troops and equipment to the Caribbean region," the publication noted, citing sources. As the authors of the article note, this gives the United States additional opportunities for military action in the region. In November, the Pentagon launched a new military operation, Southern Spear, against narco-terrorist groups in the Western Hemisphere. US President Donald Trump announced the closure of airspace over Venezuela and did not rule out strikes against drug cartels in Colombia and Mexico. Earlier, US forces struck four ships suspected of smuggling drugs in the Eastern Pacific Ocean. Fourteen people were killed in the attacks. |
| Posted by: badanov || 12/24/2025 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1767 views] Top|| File under: Narcos |
| #1
Trump deploys troops and special ops aircraft to Caribbean as US moves closer to war with Venezuela |
| Posted by: Skidmark || 12/24/2025 0:16 Comments || Top|| |
| Europe |
| France launches probe over video of man seen harassing Jewish boy at Paris airport |
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[IsraelTimes] Video from June shows suspect snatching video game from child’s hands, calling him a pig in French, and demanding that he dance for him La Belle France has launched a probe after a video emerged of a man harassing and humiliating a young Jewish child at a Gay Paree airport, demanding that he "free Paleostine" and "dance," a judicial source said Tuesday. The Gay Paree police chief, Patrice Faure, expressed his "outrage at these unacceptable and intolerable remarks." "They will not go unpunished," he said on X. He said an investigation was "underway to identify the individual and bring him to justice." "We express our support for our Jewish compatriots and assure them of our full commitment to combating antisemitic acts," Faure said in a post showing an image from the video of the incident. An investigation into violence committed on the grounds of race, ethnicity, nationality or religion has been launched, the Bobigny public prosecutor’s office told AFP without providing any details of the incident. On Sunday, The SwordOfSalomon account posted footage of the incident on X which has been viewed more than 440,000 times, claiming that it was filmed at the French capital’s Charles de Gaulle airport on June 25.
targeted two Jewish French children 🇫🇷 who were playing video games. 📌 One of the children, 7 years old, was wearing a kippah. 📌 Statements addressed to the child: “You will free Palestine 🇵🇸. Otherwise I’ll rip off your hat (kippah).” The individual then snatched the controller from the child’s hands and added, in broken French: “Pig, dance, pig.” The parents were standing a few meters away, in the waiting area with their other children, after a sleepless night. A brief moment of inattention was enough before the father immediately intervened, bringing the assault to an end. ✈️🇮🇱 A chilling symbol: the children were waiting to board EL AL flight LY420 (Gate B26) for their Aliyah, alongside several families leaving France to settle in Israel, the day after the ceasefire with Iran. ⚠️⚖️ Threatening, humiliating, and targeting a child identifiable as Jewish constitutes an act of extreme gravity and a serious criminal offense. 📢 @GroupeADP @PoliceNationale @Prefet75_IDF @DGAC Everything must be done to identify the perpetrator, in particular through: •the use of airport CCTV footage (if still available), •tracing the original source of the video. 📁 @mishtal , As the first account to post this video, could you PLEASE disclose your source to help trace it back and identify the person who filmed it? 📍📡 Exact location confirmed through OSINT cross-referencing: Terminal 2B – B20 gates area. cc @HenMazzig @Osint613 @StopAntisemites @ACOM_es @StandWithUs The video shows a young boy, whose face has been pixelated, playing a video game. A man, whose face cannot be seen, comes up to the boy and takes the toy. “Are you gonna free Palestine, bro?” the man says to the boy in English. “If you don’t free them, I’ll snatch your hat off, bro,” he says, referring to the child’s kippah. The man also tells the child several times, in broken French, “dance, cachou” — apparently mispronouncing the French word “cochon” (pig), and the confused boy is seen trying to dance. The account claimed that the man targeted two Jewish French children, one of whom was seven. Paris airports company Groupe ADP said it was “working closely with the state services and all stakeholders in the airport community, including the Chief Rabbi, who is one of the airport chaplains,” on the investigation, and that there would be “no compromise” on antisemitism. It doesn’t seem likely to me they’ll find someone now who was nasty but unnamed last June, but perhaps original poster mishtal has more information.
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| Posted by: trailing wife || 12/24/2025 2025-12-24 02:13 || Comments || Link || [1850 views] Top|| File under: Moslem Colonists |
| #1 About fucking time. Western countries are heeding Netanyahu's warning. Smart move by them. |
| Posted by: Jairong+Scourge+of+the+Gepids2435 || 12/24/2025 23:06 Comments || Top|| |
| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| IDF says it foiled attempt to smuggle 40 handguns from Jordan via drone |
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[IsraelTimes] The army says it foiled an attempt to smuggle 40 handguns into Israel from Jordan using a drone today. The drone was identified crossing the border, before it was downed by troops of the Yoav Regional Brigade, the IDF says. The soldiers found the drone to be ferrying 40 pistols. The IDF says the drone and the weapons were handed over to the police. In the past year, there have been frequent attempts to bring weapons and drugs over the Egyptian border using drones. Smuggling attempts are also frequent on the Jordanian border, although less commonly via drone. |
| Posted by: trailing wife || 12/24/2025 2025-12-24 03:49 || Comments || Link || [1793 views] Top|| File under: |
| #1 What's Jordan doing about it? |
| Posted by: Albert Snomoger2866 || 12/24/2025 9:52 Comments || Top|| |
| #2 Jordan? Not noticing as hard as they can, as far as I can tell. |
| Posted by: trailing wife || 12/24/2025 22:00 Comments || Top|| |
| Hamas money man killed alongside terror chief in strike earlier this month – IDF |
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[IsraelTimes] An airstrike targeting top Hamas commander Raed Saad earlier this month also killed a prominent money man in the terror group, the military says. Abd al-Hayy Zaqout, who served in Hamas’s finance division, was in the car with Saad and was killed alongside him on December 13, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman Col. Avichay Adraee says. “Over the past year, Zaqout was responsible for raising tens of millions of dollars and transferring them to Hamas’s military wing, with the aim of continuing the fight against the State of Israel,” Adraee adds. Related: Raed Saad 12/19/2025 Six countries have committed to joining Trump’s Board of Peace, say officials Raed Saad 09/02/2025 ‘There is never a vacuum’: How Hamas keeps functioning even as Israel kills its leaders Raed Saad 07/12/2006 Top Hamas Leader Hurt in Israeli Bombing |
| Posted by: trailing wife || 12/24/2025 2025-12-24 03:13 || Comments || Link || [1811 views] Top|| File under: Hamas |
| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Ex-Syrian officer close to Assad-era commander said killed in Lebanon |
[IsraelTimes] A former Syrian intelligence officer who was close to one of the ousted ruler Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad Trampler of Homs... ’s top army commanders was killed in Leb ...Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects...., a judicial official says, with the army announcing it has arrested a suspect. It was the first confirmation since Assad’s ouster in December last year of a former Syrian government official being present in Lebanon, though many in Syria believe Assad-era figures are hiding in the neighboring country. The judicial official, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... , tells AFP that the body of Ghassan al-Sukhni was found near the house where he was staying in the Kesrwan area, north of Beirut. Lebanon’s army announced in a statement on X that it had arrested the alleged perpetrator, who it said killed Sukhni "following a financial dispute." The judicial official says Sukhni "sought refuge in Lebanon after the fall of the Assad regime" and was a former Syrian intelligence officer closely associated with Suhail al-Hassan. |
| Posted by: trailing wife || 12/24/2025 2025-12-24 03:49 || Comments || Link || [1762 views] Top|| File under: |
| SDF says killed three ISIS members, captured five others in Deir ez-Zor |
[Rudaw] The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Tuesday announced the killing of three 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 Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not reallyMoslems.... (ISIS) members and the capture of five others in an operation in eastern Deir ez-Zor province. In a statement, the SDF said the Military Operations Teams (TOL) "carried out a precise security operation" in the town of Dhiban in the eastern countryside of Deir ez-Zor, adding that the operation was launched with support from the US-led Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS on Sunday. The SDF serves as the de facto military force in northeast Syria (Rojava) and remains the main partner of the anti-ISIS coalition in the country. Specialized in counterterrorism raids and special operations, the TOL is an affiliate of the SDF. The statement added that the operation was carried out "after gathering intelligence on the cell’s movements and activities," which led to "successfully" dismantling "a dangerous ISIS terrorist cell." "Our forces imposed a tight cordon around the site and called on its members to surrender," the SDF said, noting that, however, "the cell opened fire, prompting festivities that killed three holy warriors and captured five others." According to the SDF, the investigations revealed that the cell was "involved in transporting and manufacturing explosives and improvised bombs (IEDs), preparing boom-mobiles, and planning attacks targeting military positions, civilians, and public service institutions." "We reaffirm our commitment to continuing security operations to pursue terrorist cells, dismantle their infrastructure, and ensure enhanced security and stability while eradicating terrorism from the region," the Kurdish-led force said. Sunday's operation coincided with the SDF announcing the arrest of an ISIS cell leader and arms controller in the same province. In a statement on Sunday, the SDF said the TOL forces conducted "a precise and well-planned security operation" on December 7, capturing "one of the most dangerous leaders" of ISIS cells, Saher Ahmed al-Khalaf al-Abdullah, who was "responsible for supplying weapons, ammunition, and improvised bombs [IEDs]" to the bully boy group. Additionally, in a separate operation earlier this month, the SDF captured an ISIS military emir, known as ’Abu Zubayr - Samak,’ along with two members of his cell, describing it as "one of the most dangerous ISIS networks." Although ISIS was declared territorially defeated in Syria in 2019, the group has continued to exploit the instability that followed the fall of longtime dictator Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad Horror of Homs... ’s regime. Since then, Deir ez-Zor has become a key hotspot for ISIS activities. Related:
Eastern Deir ez-Zor province: 2025-12-22 SDF captured senior ISIS cell leader in eastern Deir ez-Zor two weeks ago Eastern Deir ez-Zor province: 2025-12-15 SDF dismantle ‘dangerous’ ISIS cell in preemptive operation, capture four operatives Eastern Deir ez-Zor province: 2025-12-11 CENTCOM: US assisted in over 20 operations against ISIS in Syria in October |
| Posted by: trailing wife || 12/24/2025 2025-12-24 03:37 || Comments || Link || [1811 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State |
| Lebanon says retired senior officer with ties to capture of Ron Arad has vanished |
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[IsraelTimes] Reports say Ahmad Shukr, brother of man involved in capturing downed Israeli navigator, was ‘lured from his hometown by two Swedes’ amid speculation he was nabbed by Israeli agents Lebanese authorities are investigating the recent disappearance of a retired security officer whose brother was apparently involved in the 1986 capture of an Israeli Air Force navigator, a Lebanese judicial official told AFP on Tuesday, amid speculation that Israeli agents could have nabbed him. Israeli Air Force officer Ron Arad’s plane went down over southern Leb ...The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers... in October 1986, during the country’s 1975-1990 civil war. He was believed to have initially been captured and held by the Shiite Amal movement. He has long been presumed dead, but his remains were never returned. The Lebanese judicial official said on condition of anonymity that authorities were looking into the disappearance a week ago of retired General Security officer Ahmad Shukr amid conflicting information about his fate. Initial investigations indicated Shukr "was lured from his hometown of Nabi Sheet" to a location near the city of Zahle, where he disappeared. A source close to the family said Shukr is the brother of Hassan Shukr, who "was a fighter in the group that participated in capturing Israeli pilot Ron Arad after his plane was downed on October 16" in 1986. Hassan Shukr was killed in 1988 in a battle between Israeli forces and local fighters, including those from the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group, the source close to the family added, requesting anonymity. The judicial official said information indicated Ahmad Shukr "was lured by two Swedes who arrived in Lebanon two days before his kidnapping, and that one left through Beirut airport the day Shukr disappeared." Hmmm… Investigators are looking into the possibility that he was killed by Israeli agents or transferred to Israel, the official said, adding that so far no trace has been found of him in Lebanon.Israel has in the past detained several Lebanese figures in a bid to determine Arad’s fate. Shukr is a relative of Hezbollah military chief Fuad Shukr, whom Israel assassinated last year, according to the UK-based Arabic newspaper Asharq al-Awsat. According to the newspaper, Hassan Shukr was part of a cell led by then-Amal commander Mustafa Dirani that took part in shooting down Arad’s plane and abducting him. Arad was held for a while in a house belonging to the Shukr family in Nabi Chit, the newspaper said. Dirani, who later broke with Amal and joined Hezbollah, is long thought to have been the last person to see Arad alive. He was kidnapped by Israeli elite commandos in 1994 and released a decade later in an exchange with Hezbollah. Israel believes that after being held for a period by the Amal group, Arad was handed over to Tehran, and was moved from Lebanon to 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 spontaneouslytaking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militiasto extend the regime's influence. The word Iranis a cognate form of Aryan.The abbreviation IRGCis the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA).The term Supreme Guideis a the modern version form of either Duceor Führeror maybe both. They hate and then back again. Several signs of life were received in the first two years of his incarceration, including photos and letters, the last of which was sent on May 5, 1988. He has been presumed dead since the mid-1990s, although intelligence reports have differed as to the circumstances, timing and location of his death. In 2016, a report indicated that Arad was killed and buried in 1988 near Beirut. But a 2004 Israel Defense Forces commission determined Arad had died in the 1990s after being denied medical treatment. In 2021, reports alleged that Mosssd ...sees all, knows all, gets 'em all in the end...agents had kidnapped an Iranian general amid renewed efforts to find new information on Arad. It claimed that they had kidnapped the general from Syria to interrogate him before he was transferred to South Africa and released. The efforts were said to have failed to produce any significant new information. Related: Ron Arad 09/22/2025 Hamas: Ron Arad 09/21/2025 Hamas releases ‘parting image' of 48 remaining captives, vowing that Israel will never see them again Ron Arad 03/01/2025 Gaza: Follow the Money Related: Nabi Sheet: 2025-02-08 Israeli warplanes launch airstrikes on Hezbollah-linked sites along the Lebanon-Syria border Nabi Sheet: 2024-10-24 Israeli Assault on Lebanon Continues: Intense Bombardment of Tyre Nabi Sheet: 2021-12-29 Blast Rocks Outskirts of Baalbek Town Related: Fuad Shukr 12/21/2025 IDF: Hezbollah operative nabbed last year was key to group’s ‘secret maritime file’ Fuad Shukr 11/24/2025 In escalation, IDF says it killed Hezbollah military chief in targeted Beirut strike Fuad Shukr 03/03/2025 Nasrallah’s children say he cried after pager attack and fell into depression |
| Posted by: trailing wife || 12/24/2025 2025-12-24 02:31 || Comments || Link || [1839 views] Top|| File under: |
| #1
If the General was unable to provide any actionable information then I highly doubt he would have been released in South Africa. Were the Swedes male or female?!?! |
| Posted by: Airandee || 12/24/2025 18:47 Comments || Top|| |
| SDF: Source of rocket fire on Al-Jamilia and Al-Razi neighborhoods is the Damascus government |
Text: Our Forces Provide Conclusive Evidence that the Source of Rocket Fire on Al-Jamilia and Al-Razi Neighborhoods Is the Damascus Government Verified field facts, leaving no place for doubt, confirm that factions affiliated with the Damascus government carried out the shelling of residential buildings in the Al-Jamilia neighborhood of Aleppo, based on the precise match between the target location and the direction of fire. It has been conclusively affirmed that the source of the shelling was positions belonging to those factions, stationed in the Military Court area, with documented artillery deployment at the site known in Aleppo as the “Computer Annex.” Moreover, the angle and direction of the targeted building are completely opposite to the direction of Sheikh Maqsoud and instead face the University and Al-Rashideen areas, which are under Damascus government control. This definitively invalidates any attempt to link the shelling to those areas according to military and field logic. Live broadcast footage by a media outlet documents the moment the shell was fired, with the sound of launch followed by the sound of the hit just a second later. This time gap conclusively indicates that the source of fire was no more than 400 meters from the target—which means from the artillery positions at the “Computer Annex” belonging to Damascus-affiliated factions. Regarding the shelling of Al-Razi Hospital Street, the same data confirm that the shells were fired from positions belonging to the Military Police, based on firing directions and impact locations, in full consistency with their deployment within the city. These consistent field evidences directly implicate the Damascus government’s factions and expose their blatant attempts to fabricate misleading narratives and shift blame onto our forces in order to evade responsibility. Video footage also clearly documents the shelling of the Sheikh Maqsoud and Al-Ashrafieh neighborhoods by artillery and tanks belonging to Damascus-affiliated factions, resulting in the martyrdom of a civilian woman, the injury of 19 civilians, and the destruction of several homes. Related: Aleppo: 2025-12-23 Good Morning Aleppo: 2025-12-23 Aleppo's Kurdish-majority quarters hit by deadly clashes between Damascus, Kurdish forces Aleppo: 2025-12-23 Forces affiliated with the Damascus government, HTS, and Turkish state-backed SNA forces bombards towns in Aleppo Related:
Sheikh Maqsoud: 2025-12-23 Forces affiliated with the Damascus government, HTS, and Turkish state-backed SNA forces bombards towns in Aleppo Sheikh Maqsoud: 2025-10-07 Heavy fighting erupts between SDF and government forces in Aleppo Sheikh Maqsoud: 2025-09-24 Asayish in Aleppo repel government attack, reaffirm April 1 pact |
| Posted by: badanov || 12/24/2025 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1771 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria/HTS |
| US strikes targeting ISIS enables the US to deny ISIS sanctuary in government-controlled territory |
Text: NEW | The recent US strikes targeting ISIS in Syria illustrate how US cooperation with the Syrian government enables the US to deny ISIS sanctuary in government-controlled territory. ISIS previously used Assad-held areas west of the Euphrates River as a sanctuary to reconstitute itself, largely free from persistent US interference. A US official told NBC News on December 19 that the operation intended to strike areas where ISIS is attempting to reorganize to destroy their positions and forces on a large scale. |
| Posted by: badanov || 12/24/2025 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1828 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State |
| #1
Here's a before article from 2020 talking about ISIS reconstituting itself. The first sentence is a real knock-out. Below: "largely free from persistent US interference." Yes - By design to be a thorn in the side of Assad. |
| Posted by: mossomo || 12/24/2025 12:58 Comments || Top|| |
| #2 Here you go -> 2020: A Reconstituted ISIS Surfaces in Syria |
| Posted by: mossomo || 12/24/2025 13:04 Comments || Top|| |
| #3 It must suck to be leftover ISIS after the Syrian government guys ditched you. |
| Posted by: Super Hose || 12/24/2025 16:35 Comments || Top|| |
| #4
Al Nusra picked up some, Turkey picked up others for their sock puppet Syrian National Army used to harass the Kurds of Rojova (Syria) and more for the mercenary units they rented out to Libya. The rest are doing their bit harassing Iraq and Syria, or have decamped for Somalia (Jubaland) and Afghanistan (ISIS-K). Or the Kurds caught them and threw them in one of their prison camps until their home government greed to take them back. Or they were killed somewhere over the years. There was a lot of that — ISIS wives being multiply widowed with a bunch of kids by different daddies who may or may not have lived long enough to see his spawn hatched. |
| Posted by: trailing wife || 12/24/2025 21:54 Comments || Top|| |
| Who's in the News | |
| 35 | [untagged] |
| 7 | Hamas |
| 3 | Islamic State |
| 3 | Govt of Syria/HTS |
| 3 | Moslem Colonists |
| 2 | Govt of Iran |
| 2 | Commies |
| 2 | Govt of Sudan |
| 1 | Migrants/Illegal Immigrants |
| 1 | [untagged] |
| 1 | al-Shabaab (AQ) |
| 1 | Nut Jobs |
| 1 | Sublime Porte |
| 1 | Tin Hat Dictators, Presidents for Life, & Kleptocrats |
| 1 | al-Qaeda |
| 1 | Govt of Saudi Arabia |
| 1 | Narcos |
| 1 | Hezbollah |
| 1 | Houthis |
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012. Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing the drug and gang related violence in Mexico. Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years. |
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