#8
Same here, Dron. Hoped that might be a pistol back in the shadows, or at least a shotter gun, but no. Recent Bond screening to blame...
"Om, murder, my conscience is hurtin'
Here, burnin' in Hell next to Burton
And Needham and Watts,
Since I stole all them thoughts."
Said the dread Orientalist Merton.
[ToloNews] Taliban ...Arabic for students... attack on Ghorian district in Herat ...a venerable old Persian-speaking city in western Afghanistan, populated mostly by Tadjiks, which is why it's not as blood-soaked as areas controlled by Pashtuns... was pushed back by security forces on Wednesday night, Governor Abdul Saboor Qani said on Thursday, adding that the fighters of the group had gathered from different parts of the western province to attack the area.
Qani said hundreds of Taliban’s armed members took part in the attack and 20 of them were killed in last night’s festivities.
"A Taliban’s suicide boom-mobileer was targeted by security forces before reaching its target," the governor said.
The local security officials also said that more than 20 Taliban were killed in the attacks and more than 10 others were maimed.
Local officials have not commented on possible government forces casualties in the attack.
Taliban has not commented on the attack.
On Wednesday, Afghan forces retook the control of Shinwari district in Parwan.
Sources said that security forces have left several districts including Alasai district in Kapisa, Kaldar district in Balkh, Feroz Nakhchir district in Samangan and Gilan district in Ghazni.
But the Ministry of Defense said that reinforcements have been sent to Ghazni province to repel Taliban attacks and also that security forces managed to break the siege of Hesarak district in Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. province.
Over the past two months, the government has lost control of over 100 districts across the country; however, the Afghan government has said that security forces have retaken control of ten districts in the past few days.
#4
Besoeker: “History Doesn't Repeat Itself, but It Often Rhymes” ~ Mark Twain.
The Taliban are presumably looking at Vietnam and their earlier conquest of Afghanistan as the template for their current offensives. Vietnam is a bad analogy. The Soviets and the Chinese sent huge amounts of equipment and dough to North Vietnam to launch a tank-, artillery- and MiG-supported offensive. Pakistan is a (literally) poor substitute as lead moneybags for the Taliban. Note also that the US had drastically cut equipment and monetary aid to South Vietnam. Whereas Biden has committed $5b a year, the same amount the Afghans have gotten for many years now.
Even the 90's era Taliban victory is an imperfect analogue. Then, the Taliban were backed to the hilt by Pakistan. In comparison, the various mujahideen factions they were up against got bupkis from anyone else, having to rely on the usual protection money and shady undertakings that all had to engage in due to the chaos (banditry, destroyed infrastructure, refugees everywhere) of that era.
As long as Uncle Sam is funding the Afghan government, it's hard to see how it could lose. A guerrilla movement can hold territory for days or even weeks at a time, much as a bank robber can probably take over any financial institution at will and take hostages to keep the gendarmes at bay. But to hold out for years - that takes staying power the Taliban does not have.
My estimate is that if the Taliban continues to mount operations at this tempo, it will overextend itself and implode. This could actually the Taliban's last gasp - the storm before the calm.
#6
The fly in the ointment is the Afghan propensity to change sides. Lots of gov troops with lots of equipment and ammo available for the right price or threat.
#8
The fly in the ointment is the Afghan propensity to change sides. Lots of gov troops with lots of equipment and ammo available for the right price or threat.
They don't change sides for money. They change sides so they end up with the winners. Because money's no good if you end up with the losers - that could mean exile for your tribe, or worse. They're not switching sides for keeps - if the government appears to be winning, they'll stick with it - if the Taliban looks like a winner, they'll switch. This can happen several times in the course of a given period. This isn't a matter of principle - it's a question of who lives and who dies, so tribal heads will be endlessly flexible. Ultimately, they'll side with the strong horse, whatever that horse happens to be.
#14
As long as Uncle Sam is funding the Afghan government, it's hard to see how it could lose.
No matter who wins, Uncle Sam wins itself another well equipped sunni sponsor of terrorism. This one I'm betting won't focus on Asia as much as the last one they propped up.
[ToloNews] The deputy minister of counter-narcotics on Thursday said that poppy cultivation and drug smuggling has increased by 45 percent in Afghanistan this year compared to the same period last year.
Authorities in Afghanistan said that poppy is currently cultivated on over 200,000 hectares of land in different regions of the country and that Afghanistan still produces 80 percent of the world's opium.
Meanwhile, ...back at the hanging, Butch continued with his last words, trying not to repeat himself too often...... the deputy ministry of interior on Thursday burned 67 metric tons of drugs in Kabul.
"We burned some heroin, morphine, poppy, hashish and alcohol that is used in the production of heroin," said Wahidullah Kalimzai, deputy minister of counter narcotics.
"The structure of the commando forces must be expanded so that we are able to prevent smuggling by air and ground monitoring," said Hashem Alokozai, a senator.
There are thousands of drug addicts currently on the streets.
The Afghan Ministry of Public Health said that currently there are around 3.5 million addicts in Afghanistan.
"The difference in the numbers between 2009 and 2016—900,000 in 2009 and 3.5 million now--indicates a rising trend," said Zahir Sultani, the head of Ibn-e-Sina hospital.
Over the past two decades, the US allocated $8 billion to counter the drug problem in Afghanistan.
[ToloNews] Security forces have made advances with clearing operations in Pul-e-Khumri, the capital of Baghlan province, on Wednesday night, Afghan commandos said on Thursday.
The security forces have cleared about 3 km in the Bolakha and Band-e-Mazar areas in Pul-e-Khumri and also retaken five security outposts that had fallen to the Taliban ...Arabic for students... , according to the commandos.
TOLOnews news hound Sharif Amiry, who is in Baghlan, said the Taliban has left some parts of the areas where festivities with the security forces took place.
Several civilians’ houses and shops have been damaged in Bolakha and Band-e-Mazar areas due to ongoing festivities on Wednesday night, Amiry said, adding that the commandos launched the operation at midnight to push back the Taliban.
Before the operation, the Taliban tried to break through the the defenses of the security forces and enter Pul-e-Khumri center from Bolakha and Band-e-Mazar areas, members of the local forces said.
"We have retaken a 3 to 4 km area from the Taliban," said Sediqullah Muradi, a commander of commando forces.
Parwiz Saydkheil, a security force member, said: "Forces have redeployed in those areas that were retaken."
Imam Ali, a commando officer, said that in the past six months he has not visited his home, and he was maimed in his head four months ago.
"I will continue the battle as long as I am alive. I don’t have any fear," he said.
TOLOnews' news hound Amiry said that for the "first time in the past 10 days several parts of the center of Pul-e-Khumri are calm and have not witnessed festivities."
Eight districts in Baghlan have fallen to the Taliban in the fighting over the last three weeks. Security forces have retaken two of the districts: Doshi and Khinjan.
On Sunday, the government reported that 8,000 families were displaced in Baghlan in the last three weeks, leaving many of them stranded on the streets of Pul-e-Khumri while others live in close quarters with dozens per single home.
...in English securocrat, a politician who moved over from the security or military services. In recent years we have a elected a number of Congresscritters via that route, though ours tend to be less corrupt as a result of that career path rather than more so. Sometimes, as appears to be the case here, it just means security or military men...
prevented terrorist attacks that were being prepared by members of the Islamic State * terrorist organization in Moscow and the Astrakhan
...a city in southern Russia on the Volga delta...
Near Astrakhan, the criminal resisted the arrest, he was neutralized with return fire. The second member of the cell was detained in the capital.
FSB officers during the detention of persons involved in the restoration of the combat properties of civilian weapons in clandestine workshops and their sale. Video screenshot - RIA
FSB prevented a terrorist attack in the Stavropol Territory
Service personnel and civilians were not injured during the operation.
During the inspection of the scene and searches in the places of residence of the defendants, they found automatic weapons and ammunition, an F-1 grenade, and religious extremist literature.
The attackers planned a simultaneous attack in the two indicated regions, in crowded places with the use of cold weapons and firearms.
It is noted that they were going to act at the direction of the leaders of the group.
The special forces of the FSB and the Investigative Committee detained on the territory of the Belgorod region (bordering Ukraine) seven supporters of Ukrainian nationalists and members of the Ukrainian Nazi organization
12:58, Belgorod, According to the Investigative Committee, 7 followers of this Ukrainian Nazi and extremist organization were detained, including the leader of the Belgorod cell.
"The arrest of the suspects took place with the forceful support of the special forces of the Rosgvardia Directorate in the Belgorod Region and the FSB of Russia in the Belgorod Region. At present, searches have been carried out in the homes of members of the extremist community, and items of evidentiary value have been seized. The suspects were interrogated in the indicated status and detained in accordance with the Criminal Procedure Code, they were charged with committing serious crimes.
At the request of the investigators, the leader of the extremist community was taken into custody as a preventive measure. Questions about the measure of restraint to other defendants are being considered by the court, ”the press service of the UK reports .
According to the DSP of the FSB , the detainees are supporters of the Ukrainian neo-Nazi organization M.K.U., who formed its structural unit in the region, involved in the propaganda of the ideology of neo-Nazism and mass murders, provoking ethnic conflicts, committing violent crimes, and planning armed attacks on law enforcement officers and citizens.
"Materials of an extremist nature, edged weapons, means of communication with the surviving correspondence on the preparation of violent actions were seized from the addresses of the detainees, and a laboratory for the cultivation of drug-containing plants was found," the FSB reports.
[IsraelTimes] A Norwegian court has sentenced a Syrian teenager to five years in prison for planning an act of terror in Norway by using poison or explosives, and for having supported 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.... terror group.
The Oslo District Court suspends three of the five years because of the teenager’s young age. He was 16 years and 2 months when arrested in February by Norway’s domestic security agency in the Norwegian capital, Oslo.
"The court has no doubt that the defendant had, despite his young age, made a conscious decision to carry out an act of terror although the plans had not materialized in a concrete plan," Judge Ingvild Boe Hornburg writes in a statement.
In court, the teenager, who has not been identified, admits curiosity made him buy the ingredients to make the poison but claims he had no intention of hurting anyone and that he exaggerated his plans to be tough when chatting online. He also confesses that he donated more than 1,250 kroner ($146) to a website supporting the Islamic State group and that he posted a video on how to upload a propaganda video for the bad boy group.
According to the verdict, he also downloaded material on how to make and handle explosives.
The court rules that juvenile punishment is not applicable in the case and that "there is a risk of recurrence and that imprisonment is required and imperative." The court says that had he been over the age of 18, the sentence could have been up to 11 years.
Portland antifa member Jarrod "Sofie" DeFerrari has been arrested for 3rd time within a month. She's now accused of pointing a pistol at a cashier's head during a robbery at 7-Eleven. She's also facing charges for allegedly smashing up a church at a riot. https://t.co/pWTQRb1SWVpic.twitter.com/CtkE2UiaMc
Jacob Blake, the wanted rape and domestic abuse suspect who was shot by police, is seeking tens of thousands of dollars from the city of Kenosha. The city council voted to deny the claim.
Although horrible for what they did, those two girls were originally sentenced to prison/'hospital' terms 4-5 times longer than the average violent perps who perform similar acts on victims, Skidmark.
Not saying this judge is correct in releasing the girl, though.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
07/02/2021 13:00 Comments ||
Top||
[IsraelTimes] An Israeli soldier was stabbed and moderately injured in the Jordan Valley on Thursday, the military said.
The suspect in the attack in the West Bank approached the soldier and attempted to steal her gun, the Israel Defense Forces said. The servicewoman fought back against the assailant and was stabbed in the back during the altercation, the military said.
The suspect then snatched the gun and fled, the army said, adding that her assailant was later apprehended and the weapon was retrieved.
The Hadassah Ein Kerem Medical Center in Jerusalem said the 21-year-old soldier was in moderate condition with a stab wound to her upper body. Her condition is stable and she is fully conscious, the hospital said.
The West Bank saw a sharp rise in Paleostinian attacks and attempted attacks during the May conflict between Israel and Gazoo ...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamaswith 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... terror groups and in its aftermath, though the near-daily violence has mostly subsided since.
[IsraelTimes] The Haifa District court sentences Wisam Abu al-Hasana to life in prison and an additional five months for the murder of a 17-year-old boy in December 2019.
Al-Hasna, a Gazoo ...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamaswith 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... native, was living illegally in Israel when he kidnapped Adel Khatib from Shfaram, killed him and buried his body in a pit outside a school in Shfaram’s Ein Afiya neighborhood.
IDF issued a statement saying it attacked a Hamas weapons manufacturing site in response to incendiary-laden balloons launched earlier today. #Gaza#Israelpic.twitter.com/Sy0F4m96H0
[IsraelTimes] Israeli warplanes bombed a Hamas, a regional Iranian catspaw, weapons factory in the Gazoo ...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamaswith about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... Strip early Friday in response to a wave of arson balloon attacks launched at Israel from the coastal enclave the day before, the Israel Defense Forces said.
The army said the site was used by the terror organization to develop and build weapons.
"The strike was carried out in response to the arson balloon attacks on Israeli territory. The IDF will respond with determination against all terror attempts from the Gaza Strip," the army said.
There were no immediate reports of casualties.
The incendiary balloons launched from Gaza Thursday sparked four fires near Israeli towns along the southern border, breaking more than two weeks of quiet since the last wave of arson attacks.
Most of the fires were small and not dangerous, according to the Fire and Rescue Services, which said that its respondents quickly managed to gain control of the blazes in the Eshkol Regional Council before significant damage was caused.
In June, arson balloons launched by Hamas operatives caused some 20 fires in Israeli communities in the Gaza periphery. IDF planes struck a wide range of Hamas military targets throughout the Strip, responding to the attacks in less than a day.
The response by the new government led by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett indicated a shift in policy from the previous one, which did not always respond to arson balloon attacks with Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s, and wouldn’t do so as quickly or as forcibly, in order to avoid escalation along the southern border.
For the past three years, Paleostinians in the Gaza Strip, mostly linked to Hamas and other terror groups, have launched thousands of balloon-borne incendiary and bombs into southern Israel, causing widespread fires and significant damage to agricultural fields, nature reserves, and private property.
Hamas has used the launching of incendiary devices in order to keep pressure on Israel to move along with reconstruction efforts in the Strip.
Bennett, who replaced Benjamin Netanyahu on June 13, had long urged a tougher response to arson balloons, saying in previous years that they should be treated the same as rockets, and that attacks on southern Israel should receive the same response as attacks targeting central Israel.
In 2018, for instance, Bennett — then the education minister — called for the IDF to try to kill all those launching attack balloons from Gaza, a proposal that was opposed by then-IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/02/2021 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11128 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
Those pix are usually pretty cool. But they're having a hard time with the captions.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
07/02/2021 0:28 Comments ||
Top||
#2
I was thinking about the issue of whether it would be easier to laser kill drones or incendiary balloons.
It would seem balloons would be easier except that the balloon bobble with the lower level wind turbulence and also the incendiary isn't what you want your laser to hit.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
07/02/2021 0:31 Comments ||
Top||
#3
IDF issued a statement saying it attacked a Hamas weapons manufacturing site
They say "Shoot the archer, not the arrow". In this case, shoot him right in the supply chain.
Two pro-government militias cut the #Damascus-#Suwayda road in the northern countryside after the #Druze Men of Dignity militia seized a car the former groups had previously stolen from a civilian. https://t.co/C1SaQPIuVe
— NORTH PRESS AGENCY - ENGLISH (@NPA_English) July 1, 2021
Posted by: Fred ||
07/02/2021 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11128 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
Turkish authorities issued a decision providing for the dismissal of 13,000 Syrian teachers, many of whom served in public schools for years, on the pretext of a lack of support from @UNICEF . @UNICEFEducationhttps://t.co/PhMpBOnhSA
— NORTH PRESS AGENCY - ENGLISH (@NPA_English) July 1, 2021
Posted by: Fred ||
07/02/2021 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11126 views]
Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
Direct translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[RT] Rear Admiral Vadim Kulit, deputy head of the Russian Center for the Reconciliation of Warring Parties (CPVS) in Syria, said that fighters of the Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist group had fired 41 attacks in the Idlib de-escalation zone in the SAR.
"In the Idlib de-escalation zone, 41 attacks were recorded from the positions of the Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist group (including 31 attacks, according to the Syrian side). In the province of Idlib, 15 attacks were registered, in the province of Latakia - 16 attacks, in the province of Aleppo - seven attacks, in the province of Hama - three attacks," RIA Novosti quoted him as saying .
Earlier it was reported that sappers of the Russian armed forces destroyed a cave abandoned by militants in the Syrian "white desert" near Palmyra, which was previously used as a command post.
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.
...Arabic for 
...Arabic for 
...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 
...
