PAKISTAN AIR STRIKES IN DISPUTE – The Ministry of Defense in Pakistan denied claims that its forces had launched air strikes against targets in Pakistan on Thursday. Several reports of planes dropping ordinances on locations in Nangarhar and Khost were circulated on Thursday and a Pakistan news outlet claimed an exclusive access report that confirmed the Nangarhar strikes took place. However, Pakistan government officials criticized the reports as ‘nonsense’ and claimed the attacks had not occurred. As no evidence of damage in Afghanistan has yet been produced, we can only assume the Pakistani authorities are telling the truth. As information becomes available, we will publish it.
MAGNITUDE 5.8 EARTHQUAKE STRIKES HINDU KUSH REGION – The powerful quake struck in the mountainous region of the Hindu Kush and the tremors were felt in both Kabul and Islamabad. There have been no reports of casualties or damage, likely owing to the remoteness of the epicenter.
CONFUSION OVER BORDER INCIDENT AT TORKHAM – An additional early report of a potential clash between Taliban and Pakistan border security forces now appears to have been an inter-Taliban affair, resulting from an accidental shooting. Details are not clear but Torkham Gate remains open and we are awaiting further information.
AFGHAN NATIONAL MURDERED IN PAKISTAN – The Afghanistan Embassy in Islamabad confirmed that an Afghan man was brutally murdered in Depalpur (Punjab Province) on Wednesday. The details surrounding the man’s murder were not provided but the Embassy said it had contacted the man’s family and was arranging transport of his remains to his family in Afghanistan. The Embassy said the incident was the first in many years.
CONFLICT TRACKER Kandehar: An ALM unit reportedly targeted the Taliban leader, Bismillah, in the Arghandab district. He was reportedly killed in action. A number of weapons were taken by the ALM forces.
NEXT 24 HOURS
POSSIBLE ISIS-K CLEARING OPERATION IN HERAT – After a round of successful counter-terror operations in the country, a source working with the GDI (Taliban Intelligence Service) says another operation is expected in Herat. No details about the target were provided but the action is said to be imminent. At-risk Afghans in Herat should remain situationally aware and avoid concentrations of troops in the city.
THE UN SECURITY COUNCIL WILL MEET TODAY TO DISCUSS THE BAN ON FEMALE NGO WORKERS – It is not clear what may result from the meetings but the US and European allies have signaled they were ready to hold the Taliban accountable for the regressive policies by the Taliban.
[ShabelleMedia] Two boom-mobiles detonated by al-Shabaab ...... Somalia's version of the Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... , functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda... turbans in central Somalia on Wednesday killed at least 35 people, including eight members of a single family, and maimed 40 more, a police brass hat said.
The attack in the town of Mahas was the latest in a series by al Qaeda affiliate al-Shabaab since government forces and allied clan militias last year began pushing the murderous Moslems out of territory they had long held.
"Most of the dead are civilians. They are women and kiddies," Hassan-Kafi Mohammed Ibrahim, deputy police commissioner of Hirshabelle State, told Rooters.
"Only one child survived from a family of nine members. Other families also lost half of their members. The two suicide boom-mobiles burnt many civilian homes to ashes."
Mahas District Commissioner Mumin Mohammed Halane told state radio that one bomb targeted his house and the other hit the home of a federal politician.
Al-Shabaab’s media office grabbed credit in a statement, saying it had targeted "apostate militias and soldiers" and put the number of dead at 87.
Al-Shabaab often gives higher casualty figures than local officials and residents.
Al-Shabaab has been waging an insurgency against Somalia’s government since 2007. It was pushed out of Hiraan, the region where Mahas is located, last year by government forces and allied clan militias known as macawisley.
The soldiers and turbans have received support from United States and African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... troops during their offensive.
President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s government says the operations have killed hundreds of al-Shabaab fighters and recaptured dozens of settlements, although many battlefield claims cannot be independently verified.
Despite the offensive, al-Shabaab has carried out frequent attacks in recent months, including several in the capital Mogadishu against government installations and hotels.
Al-Shabaab’s activities have also restricted deliveries of international aid, compounding the impact of the Horn of Africa’s worst drought in four decades.
An Eritrean human trafficker, Kidane Zekarias Habtemariam, who headed a notorious Libya-based trafficking gang has been arrested in Sudan, according to a statement issued by Interpol on Thursday.
His gang held thousands of African refugees and migrants bound for Europe in warehouses in Libya, and extorted thousands of dollars from them and their families, Reuters reported in June.
He was picked up on New Year’s Day, in a multinational police operation, overseen by the United Arab Emirates. Kidane had been on the run since his February 2021 escape from a courthouse in Ethiopia, where he spent a year behind bars.
Brigadier Saeed Abdullah Al-Suwaidi, Director General of the UAE’s Federal Anti-Narcotics Department stated that Kidane’s criminal enterprise “had been neutralized.”
According to the statement by Interpol who issued a red notice, Emirati police managed to discover his whereabouts by extensively investigating his network’s money laundering operations.
“It is a testament to the Interpol network, and what can be achieved when countries work together,” explained Stephen Kavanagh, Executive Director of Interpol Police Services.
Pursued by authorities on either side of the Mediterranean for years, Kidane took advantage of the lawlessness that wracked Libya after the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. He established himself as a kingpin among competing human trafficking bosses in North Africa.
Many West African migrants use Libya to cross the Mediterranean, in hopes of a better life in Europe.
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said that 20,842 migrants were rescued and returned to Libya in 2022 after they attempted to migrate across the Mediterranean.
In a report, the IOM confirmed that 678 children and 1,089 women were among the surviving migrants, while 514 people died, and 865 migrants went missing in the same year.
The IOM announced earlier that it had intercepted 235 migrants across the Mediterranean between November 13th and 19th. The migrants were returned to Libya with the help of the Libyan Coast Guard.
Posted by: badanov ||
01/06/2023 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Human Trafficking
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[KavkazUzel] A mother of many children from Makhachkala, having fallen under the influence of her husband, went to Syria, where she joined the ranks of ISIS, the investigation believes. The defense calls these allegations unsubstantiated.
Investigators accuse the woman of involvement in the Islamic State terrorist organization banned in Russia by a court. According to them, she went to Syria under the influence of her husband. The accused is currently under arrest. She faces up to 20 years in prison on the charges.
The defense side calls the allegations of the investigation unsubstantiated. "She had no intentions to participate in any groups or take up arms. Also, the investigator's statement that the defendant had a goal on the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic to oppose the interests of the Russian Federation defies any logical explanation," the appeal says to the arrest, the text of which was published on January 4 by Kavkaz.Realii.
The "Caucasian Knot" previously wrote that in December 2022, the court sentenced Bulat Gamzatov, a native of Makhachkala , to 15.5 years in prison, recognizing him as the organizer of a cell of a terrorist organization, whose members planned attacks on security forces in Stavropol.
— NORTH PRESS AGENCY - ENGLISH (@NPA_English) January 5, 2023
The Australian Police detained on Thursday a woman on charges of entering Syria to live with her husband who was a bully boy of 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.... Organization (ISIS).
The woman, Mariam Raad, has been arrested by the Australian Federal Police in cooperation with the Counter-Terrorism team of New South Wales, the police said in a statement.
The authorities said she traveled to Syria in early 2014 to join her husband Mohammad Zahab who left Australia in 2013 to engage in the ranks of ISIS.
The woman was repatriated to Australia in October 2022 from the al-Roj refugee camp in northeastern Syria, the police statement said. Shoulda left her there to rot
The police said they started investigations when she was still in Syria and continued after her return to Australia.
The arrest took place after Australian authorities obtained evidence allowed them to charge the woman.
She has been charged of entering and remaining in ISIS-held areas in Syria, despite being aware of the implications. She faces a sentence of up to 10 years in prison if proven guilty.
According to Australian Media, Raad will appear in Griffith Local Court on Friday to apply for release on bail.
Her husband Muhammad Zahab is believed to have been killed five years after reaching Syria and joining ISIS.
Mariam Raad, 31, was arrested on Thursday in Young, in the state’s southwest, where she had been living since being returned in October.
Australian Federal Police and NSW Police investigators from the NSW Joint Counter Terrorism Team executed warrants at her home and a home in Parklea, in Sydney’s northwest, where a relative lives.
She faces up to 10 years in jail if convicted.
Raad faced Griffith local court via an audio-visual link on Friday after being held in custody in Wagga.
She was granted bail on Friday and was forced to surrender her passport.
Among 12 bail conditions, she was banned from contacting anyone in prison or associated with a terrorist group, barred from viewing or distributing material on things including terrorism and related propaganda, and cannot attempt to acquire a firearm.
She’s due to appear at Young local court on 15 March.
Margaret Roles, the mayor of Hilltops Council, which oversees Young, said it wasn’t known that Raad was in the community and declined to comment further as the matter is before the courts.
“We’ve been a diverse but inclusive community for a long time,” Cr Roles said on Friday.
The husband, a former Sydney maths teacher who rose through the ranks of the terror outfit, is believed to have died in Syria in 2018.
The woman was until last year living in the Al Roj Internally Displaced Persons camp in northern Syria, which has been under Kurdish control since the defeat of IS.
Raad was one of four women and 13 children repatriated from the Syrian camp to Sydney in October last year.
All of the women were married to IS fighters who are now dead or in jail.
The NSW Joint Counter Terrorism Team comprises members of the AFP, NSW Police, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation and the NSW Crime Commission.
Ms Raad's husband, a former Sydney maths teacher, was a prolific Islamic State recruiter who lured dozens of his family members to Syria before he was killed in a targeted airstrike in 2018.
Posted by: badanov ||
01/06/2023 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Islamic State
#1
"...a bully boy of the Islamic State Organization (ISIS)."
No, no bully boys in AUS, NZL, CAN (shit, let's just say FVEY) during the covid response. Nope. No, sir-ee.
#Sweden sentences a citizen to prison for belonging to a terrorist group and taking photos with dead or severely injured bodies in #Syria in 2012.https://t.co/1cJx7P6jhU
— NORTH PRESS AGENCY - ENGLISH (@NPA_English) January 5, 2023
A Swedish court sentenced on Wednesday a Swedish citizen to prison after found guilty for belonging to a terrorist group and taking photos with “dead or severely injured bodies” in Syria in 2012.
Reuters said, citing the court, that the 44-year-old Ubai Julaybib Benoitzon violated international humanitarian law by taking photos with dead or severely injured bodies while making victory signs to share the photos and make war propaganda.
The convicted, who was sentenced to four months in prison, had denied the charges against him, according to hislawyer.
He has changed his name several times, as he was known as Bherlin Gildo and Nathan Benoitzon at the time of the crimes.
Eleven, including key TTP commander and would-be suicide bombers, said to be among dead
Locals, police repulse attack on Lakki Marwat police station
A day after Pakistain vowed to take pre-emptive measures to avert terrorist attacks, security forces killed 11 holy warriors, including a key commander of the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban ...Arabic for students... Pakistain, in a raid in South Wazoo, while two separate attacks targeting police in Lakki Marwat and Dera Ismail Khan ... the Pearl of Pashtunistan ... left five officials injured.
In an intelligence-based operation in Wana, the security forces raided a hideout of TTP murderous Moslems and killed at least 11 terrorists, including TTP commander Hafizullah alongside two would-be jacket wallahs, said the military’s media wing.
The operation "foiled a major terrorist activity", the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement issued on Thursday evening.
"During intense exchange of fire, 11 terrorists, including terrorist commander Hafizullah alias Tor Hafiz, and two suicide bombers were killed.
"A huge quantity of weapons and ammunition was also recovered from the killed terrorists," the military’s media wing said.
It added that the murderous Moslems had remained "actively involved in terrorist activities against security forces and murder of police in the district".
SLAIN TTP COMMANDER
Local officials said that TTP commander Hafizullah had been involved in attacks on cop shoppes in Azam Warsak, Raghzai, and Wana as well as extortion and kidnapping of locals.
The 40-year-old holy warrior, who belonged to Tojay Khel, a Wazir sub-tribe, had joined Uzbeks in Wana before 2007, when Mullah Nazir, a local holy warrior, and local people joined hands against Uzbek murderous Moslems to force them out of the area.
"Hafizullah stayed quiet for a while but later joined the banned TTP and went to Afghanistan. He returned to Pakistain after Mullah Nazir was killed in a drone attack, local officials said, claiming that the TTP affiliates had gone to Afghanistan but those who belonged to Wana were allowed to return.
Sources said that those who had returned to Pakistain grouped together after some time under Hafizullah’s leadership.
"Hafizullah is believed to have been involved in attacks on security forces after the peace talks between the government and the banned outfit failed," the sources said.
They added Hafizullah escaped an attack following his return from Afghanistan when some unknown persons shot up him, leaving him seriously maimed. After his recovery, he started terrorising the district, they added.
DI KHAN AND LAKKI MARWAT ATTACKS
In Lakki Marwat and Dera Ismail Khan districts, murderous Moslems attacked police in separate incidents, resulting in injuries to at least five coppers.
The attacks, however, were repulsed by police forcing the Lions of Islam to flee the scene.
In DI Khan, a police team deployed for the protection of an anti-polio ...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set. Currently the disease is only found in Pakistain and Afghanistain... team came under a gun attack in a remote part of town, resulting in injuries to five officials.
"Unknown murderous Moslems armed with sophisticated weapons opened indiscriminate firing on the police party assigned to protect a team of the polio workers," a police official said, adding that condition of all the injured police personnel was satisfactory.
The official said that District Police Officer Muhammad Shoaib Khan along with a heavy contingent of the police immediately rushed to the spot; however, the murderous Moslems had managed to escape the scene before the police arrived.
"A search operation was launched by the law enforcement agencies in the area [to arrest suspects]," he said. On Wednesday, a similar attack on polio workers left one police guard maimed in the district.
Meanwhile, ...back at the pond, the enormous newt was trying to decide if Gloria was edible... an attack launched by murderous Moslems on the Wargarey cop shoppe late Thursday night was repulsed by police officials and residents of the area.
Police said that murderous Moslems attacked the cop shoppe located in the Bhittani ...a Pashtun tribe centered on Jandola, in Tank district. They are the hereditary enemies of the Mehsuds, unless there are furriners or infidels around, in which case they share ammunition and targeting data... sub-division of erstwhile Fata with heavy weapons. However, there's more than one way to stuff a chicken... local residents and police repulsed the attack, forcing the murderous Moslems to flee. Police and local fighters remained unhurt in the attack.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/06/2023 01:43 ||
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[11129 views]
Top|| File under: Pak Taliban (TTP)
[IsraelTimes] No injuries reported from gunfire in northern West Bank as troops launch manhunt for suspects; Lion’s Den claims responsibility
A settlement security guard came under fire in the northern West Bank on Thursday evening, shortly before Paleostinian button men also targeted a nearby military post, the Israel Defense Forces said.
According to the IDF and local officials, the security coordinator for the Har Bracha settlement was conducting a routine patrol when shots were fired toward him. The guard returned fire at the source of the shooting.
A short while later, Paleostinian button men targeted a military post close to the nearby city of Nablus.
There were no injuries in either incident, the IDF said.
The Nablus-based Lion’s Den terror group grabbed credit for both attacks, publishing unclear videos purporting to show the moment of the shootings.
A local wing of the Paleostinian Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... also claimed to have shot at troops near Nablus around the same time, but did not immediately provide any evidence.
Troops scouring the area in a search for suspects found numerous shell casings, the IDF said.
In recent months, Paleostinian button men have repeatedly targeted military posts, troops operating along the West Bank security barrier, Israeli settlements and civilians on the roads.
The attacks came amid a months-long Israeli anti-terror effort, mostly in the northern West Bank, following a series of terror attacks that left 31 people dead in 2022.
The IDF’s operation has netted more than 2,500 arrests in near-nightly raids. It also left over 170 Paleostinians dead in 2022, and another four since the beginning of the year, many of them while carrying out attacks or during festivities with security forces, though some were uninvolved civilians.
[IsraelTimes] Iran’s judiciary announces that it has sentenced a man to death for his role in the protests sparked by the death in jug of Kurdish-Iranian woman Mahsa Amini.
Arshia Takdastan is alleged to have led a "crowd in the main square of the city of Nowshahr and committed significant criminal acts," the judiciary’s Mizan Online website reports.
He was charged with "corruption on earth" and "moharebeh," or "enmity against God," both capital offenses in the Islamic Theocratic Republic, over the protest in the country’s north.
Since the start of the protests, two people have been executed and another 12 have been sentenced to death over the unrest, which Tehran calls "riots," according to Iranian justice officials.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/06/2023 00:43 ||
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[IsraelTimes] No reason given for Navab Ebrahimi’s arrest, but some dissidents have made habit of posting images of cutlets on anniversary in reference to way IRGC general was killed in strike.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/06/2023 00:24 ||
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ICYMI: #Lebanon’s military tribunal has charged seven suspects in December’s attack that killed an Irish peacekeeper when a group of armed local residents ambushed his convoy and opened fire.#UNIFILhttps://t.co/bKc1tOvB5s
The #SDF arrests more #ISIS operatives in #NE_Syria as part of Operation "Al-Jazeera Thunderbolt" which aims at pursuing militants of the extremist group. https://t.co/ttNULmoNXd
— NORTH PRESS AGENCY - ENGLISH (@NPA_English) January 5, 2023
Posted by: badanov ||
01/06/2023 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...... Somalia's version of the 
...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 .jpg "polio")
...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set. Currently the disease is only found in Pakistain and Afghanistain...
