Posted by: Fred ||
12/31/2024 ||
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#1
East Coast DRONES??
“The document, codenamed DEFUSE, was submitted by Fauci’s EcoHealth Alliance to DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) and outlined plans for the deployment of aerosolized immune modulators, chimeric spike proteins, and self-spreading vaccines—over large human populations via drones.”
Auckland has become the first major city to welcome 2025, with thousands of revelers counting down to the new year and cheering at colorful fireworks launched from New Zealand’s tallest structure, Sky Tower, and a spectacular downtown light show.
Thousands also thronged to downtown or climbed the city’s ring of volcanic peaks for a fireworks vantage point, and a light display recognizing Auckland’s Indigenous tribes. It follows a year marked by protests over Māori rights in the nation of 5 million.
Countries in the South Pacific Ocean are the first to ring in the New Year, with midnight in New Zealand striking 18 hours before the ball drop in Times Square in New York. Other cities around the world are readying with celebrations highlighting local cultures and traditions, after a year roiled by ongoing conflict and political instability.
In Australia, more than 1 million people are now expected at Sydney Harbor for the traditional fireworks. British pop star Robbie Williams will lead a singalong and Indigenous ceremonies and performances will acknowledge the land’s first people.
Posted by: Bobby ||
12/31/2024 8:42 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Pope Gregory XIII introduced a revised calendar in 1582. In addition to solving the issue with leap years, the Gregorian calendar restored January 1 as the start of the New Year. While Italy, France, and Spain were among the countries that immediately accepted the new calendar, Protestant and Orthodox nations were slow to adopt it. Great Britain and its American colonies did not begin following the Gregorian calendar until 1752. Before then they celebrated New Year’s Day on March 25. - www.britannica.com
[NY Post] The US military fired multiple strikes against the Houthi rebels in Yemen, the latest escalation against the Iran-backed terror group plaguing the Red Sea.
American navy ships and aircraft targeted Houthi command posts and weapons depots on Monday and Tuesday, destroying the facilities that have been attacking military and merchant vessels in the region, according to US Central Command.
The strikes were focused on the capital city of Sana’a and coastal locations around the Houthi-controlled territory in Yemen, including "advanced conventional weapon (ACW) production and storage facilities."
"These facilities were used in Houthi operations, such as attacks against U.S. Navy warships and merchant vessels in the southern Red Sea and Gulf of Aden," CENTCOM said in a statement.
US Navy and Air Force aircraft also destroyed a Houthi coastal radar site and seven cruise missiles, the statement added.
CENTCOM said the strike was part of the US military’s efforts to crackdown on the Houthi’s attacks in the region, which began last year in solidarity with Hamas following Israel’s incursion in Gaza.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/31/2024 12:20 ||
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[IsraelTimes] Germany’s federal prosecutor charges an Iraqi couple with enslavement, torture and war crimes, alleging they kept two young Yazidi girls as slaves and sexually and physically abused them.
The man and the woman, identified only as Twana H.S. and Asia R.A. in line with German privacy rules, were arrested in Bavaria in April.
The were members 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.... group in Iraq and Syria between October 2015 and December 2017, the prosecutor said in a statement. They allegedly kept a 5-year-old Yazidi girl as a slave starting in late 2015, and a 12-year-old from October 2017.
Prosecutors alleged that the man raped both girls repeatedly and that the woman prepared the room and put makeup on one of the girls.
The couple also exerted "harsh physical violence" on the girls, who were prevented from practicing their own religion and coerced into household work and childcare, prosecutors said.
The man on one occasion allegedly hit the older girl with a broomstick, the woman is accused of scalding the younger girl’s hand with hot water and both children were repeatedly forced to stand on one leg for half an hour as punishment.
Before they left Syria in November 2017, the suspects handed the girls over to other members of IS, the prosecutor’s statement said.
"All of this served the organization’s objective to destroy the Yazidi religion," the statement said.
[KhaamaPress] Pak media reported that four security personnel were maimed in a suicide kaboom on a joint police and security forces base in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
On Monday, December 30, Dawn newspaper, citing informed sources, reported that the attack took place at a security checkpoint on the Dera-Tang route.
According to the report, the suicide attacker targeted the security checkpoint using a vehicle, resulting in four security personnel being injured and significant damage to the post.
No group has grabbed credit for the attack so far, but the Pak Taliban ...Arabic for students... (TTP) has consistently targeted security forces, particularly in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
This attack comes amid a rise in armed assaults in Pakistain, especially in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... provinces, in recent months.
Just last week, 16 Pak security personnel were killed, and eight others injured in a clash with murderous Moslems in the Makin area of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
According to statistics from Pakistain’s National Assembly, at least 924 people have been killed, and 1,353 others injured in terrorist attacks across the country in the past ten months.
The surge in terrorist attacks in Pakistain, particularly in the tribal regions, reflects the growing challenges faced by the country’s security forces in maintaining stability. While the government has repeatedly accused Afghanistan of providing safe havens for Pak Talibs, these claims have been rejected by the Afghan Taliban.
#2
The Taliban attitude is explained by understanding nukes to be very big, poisonous bombs that will only go off if Allah wills it, and knowing they are Allah’s most beloved.
And in the meantime we get to enjoy both parties being killed off.
[Rudaw] Over 2,000 Yazidi women who survived 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) genocide a decade ago are receiving salaries from the Iraqi government under the Yazidi Survivors Law, enacted over three years ago, a federal official said on Sunday.
"So far, 2,228 Yazidi girls and women receive salaries," Sarab Ilias, head of the Yazidis affairs office at the Iraqi ministry of labor and social affairs, told Rudaw.
"Now we have only about 30 pending applications from Yazidi women," he added, noting that each survivor receives a monthly salary of 800,000 Iraqi dinar ($615).
The Yazidi Survivors Law, passed in March 2021, seeks compensation for Yazidi survivors of the ISIS atrocities against them when the group attacked the Yazidi heartland of Shingal (Sinjar) in 2014. It kidnapped thousands of people and some two thousand remain missing.
Though the jihadists no longer control any territory, they continue to pose a security risk by carrying out kidnappings, hit-and-run attacks, and bombings.
Thousands of Yazidis who fled Shingal to the Kurdistan Region have chosen not to return due to security concerns and lack of basic services at home.
Each returning family is given four million Iraqi dinars (about $3,050) along with some basic household items including a fridge, stove, and television.
Ali Abbas, spokesperson for Iraq's migration ministry, said in November that around 10,000 Yazidis had returned to Shingal this year.
[Rudaw] Kurdish security forces in Sulaimani (Asayish) revealed their yearly figures for 2024 and said they have arrested over 600 terrorism suspects and seized over three tons of narcotics.
"One of the main duties of Kurdistan Region’s Asayish is counter-terrorism. This year 257 operations were conducted for arresting terrorists," Salam Abdulkhaliq, head of the Sulaimani Asayish media team, said in a presser. The operations resulted in the arrest of 636 terrorism suspects.
There were 126 joint operations between Asayish and the Iraqi forces, Abdulkhaliq noted.
Kurdish security forces intensified their anti-terror operations almost a decade ago when 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) seized control of swathes of Syrian and Iraqi territory in 2014. To combat the group, Iraq requested assistance from the US and international allies, three years after Washington withdrew its troops from the country.
The US-led global coalition provided both the Iraqi army and the Kurdish Peshmerga with air and ground support, as well as training and equipment, as they fought to retake the country from the hard boys, ultimately declaring the territorial defeat of ISIS in 2017.
Iraqi officials have said that the threat from the terror group is now contained, though it continues to carry out regular operations against suspected ISIS bully boys.
"Regarding the threat of narcotics which is not less than the threat of terrorism," Abdulkhaliq noted that 1,019 suspects were arrested for using and selling illicit substances, and over three tons of drugs - approximately half of all Iraq’s drug confiscations in 2024 - were seized.
On Saturday, Iraq’s counter-narcotics directorate announced that security forces seized over six tons of drugs and arrested more than 14,000 suspects on drug-related charges in 2024.
Drug trafficking and use have risen in the Kurdistan Region and Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003. The Kurdistan Region has increased efforts in combating narcotics.
In October 2023, Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani said that the region is intensifying its efforts to combat the threat of drugs, calling on Kurdish and international communities to cooperate with Erbil to eliminate what he described as an "endemic" problem.
The Kurdistan Region and Iraq, especially along their borders with Iran, The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire... , and Syria, are also major transit routes for illicit drugs into Europe.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/31/2024 2024-12-31 01:39 ||
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[IsraelTimes] Large fragment of debris crashes into residential neighborhood in Beit Shemesh as Houthis claim responsibility for seventh late night attack in under two weeks
Air defenses intercepted a ballistic missile launched at Israel from Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of... that triggered sirens across central Israel late Monday night, the military said, in the seventh such nighttime attack in less than two weeks.
The missile was intercepted before it crossed into Israeli airspace, the military said, and sirens sounded across the center of the country shortly after 11:00 p.m. due to protocol for fear of falling debris.
There was no major damage as a result of the missile debris, although a large fragment crashed in the Ramat Beit Shemesh Alef neighborhood of Beit Shemesh, close to Jerusalem.
The Magen David Adom ambulance service said that it did not receive any reports of injuries directly caused by the missile launched from Yemen, although a number of people were being treated for acute anxiety or for minor injuries sustained while running to bomb shelters.
The missile launch also caused brief interruptions at Ben Gurion Airport, the Ynet news site reported, with arrivals and departures briefly halted due to fears of falling debris.
The Iran's Houthi sock puppets ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The legitimate Yemeni government has accused the them of having ties to the Iranian government. Honest they did. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews They like shooting off... ummm... missiles that they would have us believe they make at home in their basements. On the plus side, they did murder Ali Abdullah Saleh, which was the only way the country was ever going to be rid of him... s in Yemen later took responsibility for the missile launch, and a top leader of the Iran-backed group vowed that similar attacks would be forthcoming.
"The pounding of the entity (Israel) continues and the support to 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... continues," Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, the head of the Houthis’ supreme revolutionary committee, said in a post on X after the Israeli military announced the missile interception.
The launch came shortly after Houthi-controlled media in Yemen reported that a US-led coalition had struck targets in the At Tuhayat District, south of Hodeida.
The Houthis, a rebel group at the center of Yemen’s civil war that has dedicated itself to the destruction of Israel and Jews, have launched more than 200 missiles and 170 drones at Israel in the past year, according to the Israel Defense Forces. The vast majority did not reach Israel or were intercepted by the military or Israel’s allies in the region.
Rocket and drone alert sirens triggered by attacks from Yemen have sent millions of Israelis running for shelter in the middle of the night almost every night for the past 12 days. In the past month, the group has fired 11 ballistic missiles and at least nine drones at Israel.
On Monday, UN Ambassador Danny Danon issued what he called a final warning to the group, and cautioned that they risked the same "miserable fate" as fellow Iranian allies Hamas ..a regional Iranian catspaw,... , Hezbollah and the fallen regime of Syria’s Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad The Scourge of Hama... if they persisted.
"Israel will defend its people," Danon told news hounds before the meeting. "If 2,000 kilometers (1,243 miles) is not enough to separate our children from the terror, let me assure you, it will not be enough to protect their terror from our strengths."
[IsraelTimes] Death of Sgt. Uriel Peretz from anti-tank missile brings ground op toll to 395; 8 injured, 3 seriously, in the same incident in Beit Hanoun; 3 rockets fired from Strip at Israel
An Israel Defense Forces soldier was killed and eight were maimed during fighting in the northern 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... Strip on Monday, the Israel Defense Forces said, as the military continued its intensified operations in the territory’s north.
The slain soldier was named as Sgt. Uriel Peretz, 23, of the Kfir Brigade’s Netzah Yehuda Battalion, from Beitar Illit.
The Beitar Illit municipality mourned Peretz, "who fell... while risking his life for the people of Israel and the Land of Israel." The mayor of the ultra-Orthodox settlement, Meir Rubinstein, said "the whole city is mourning and sending condolences to the beloved family."
According to an initial IDF probe, the soldiers, who were inside a building in northern Gaza’s Beit Hanoun, were hit by anti-tank fire. Peretz was killed and eight others were maimed, including three at death's door. The other five were listed in good and moderate condition.
Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas ..a regional Iranian catspaw,... in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip rose to 395. Another soldier was killed in northern Gaza’s Jabalia on Sunday.
Also on Monday, the military said three rockets were launched from Gaza toward Israeli border communities. One was fired from the central Gaza Strip at the border community of Kissufim, striking an open area and not causing injuries or major damage. A few hours later, two more rockets were launched from northern Gaza at Israeli border communities, and were intercepted by air defenses. Sirens had sounded in Netiv Ha’asara, Karmia, and the Zikim beach amid the attack. There were no reports of injuries in this attack either.
In recent days there has been an uptick in rocket fire from northern Gaza amid the ongoing IDF offensive there.
Separately, the IDF released footage obtained from cameras belonging to Hamas operatives, showing them planting roadside kabooms next to the Indonesian Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip. According to the army, the bombs were planted just 45 meters (nearly 148 feet) from the medical center in Jabalia.
The army said it had operated last week at the Indonesian Hospital, with troops killing several terror operatives who tried to flee from the medical center. Dozens of members of terror groups were also detained, and several bombs planted by them in the area were neutralized, the military said.
The video taken by the Hamas operatives, and later found by the IDF in Gaza, showed them planting bombs next to the hospital. The video was not dated.
"This is another example of the Hamas terror organization’s cynical use of the population and civilian institutions in the Gaza Strip for terror activity in blatant violation of international law," the military added.
The IDF said scores of terror operatives were killed overnight in ambushes led by the military’s 162nd Division in Jabalia. According to the IDF, troops spotted and killed "many dozens of terrorists" with gunfire and tank shelling.
The IDF has been operating in the Jabalia area since early October, facing relatively fierce resistance by remaining Hamas cells in the area, military sources said. The return of civilians to northern Gaza has reportedly been among the contested points in ongoing ceasefire-hostage release talks between Hamas and Israel.
On Saturday, the army said it had wrapped up an extensive raid that began early Friday at the Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahiya, just outside Jabalia, in which it arrested hundreds of terror operatives.
The IDF said Sunday that its forces had killed 19 Paleostinian terror operatives and apprehended "240 terrorists" in the raid, calling it one of the largest operations it has conducted in the territory.
Kamal Adwan Hospital was described by the IDF as "Hamas’s last bastion in Jabalia," after hundreds of terror operatives allegedly used the medical facility as a shelter from Israeli strikes. According to the military, the operatives returned to Kamal Adwan after the IDF last operated in the medical center in late October.
Before launching the operation, the IDF said it had enabled the evacuation of 350 patients, caregivers, and medical personnel to other hospitals, in an effort coordinated by the Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT).
The head of the World Health Organization called on Monday for the immediate release of Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan, who was being held by the IDF following its operation at the facility.
WHO also said that the IDF operation in Kamal Adwan in Beit Lahiya left northern Gaza’s last major health facility out of service and emptied of patients.
“Hospitals in Gaza have once again become battlegrounds and the health system is under severe threat,” WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X. “Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza is out of service following the raid, forced patient and staff evacuation and the detention of its director. His whereabouts are unknown. We call for his immediate release.”
The IDF said Sunday it had detained Abu Safiya, suspecting him of being a Hamas terrorist. When asked if he had been transferred to Israeli territory for further questioning, the military did not offer an immediate comment.
Tedros said the patients in critical condition at Kamal Adwan had been moved to the Indonesian Hospital, “which is itself out of function.”
“Amid ongoing chaos in northern Gaza, WHO and partners today delivered basic medical and hygiene supplies, food and water to Indonesian Hospital and transferred 10 critical patients to Al-Shifa Hospital,” he said. “We urge Israel to ensure their health care needs and rights are upheld.”
Tedros said seven patients along with 15 caregivers and health workers remained at the “severely damaged” Indonesian Hospital, “which has no ability to provide care.”
“Al-Ahli Hospital and Al-Wafa Rehabilitation Hospital in Gaza City also faced attacks today and both are damaged,” Tedros added. “We repeat: stop attacks on hospitals. People in Gaza need access to health care. Humanitarians need access to provide health aid.”
Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya has repeatedly criticized the Israel Defense Forces’ actions, including in opinion pieces he wrote for the New York Times.
“Dr. Abu Safiya has dedicated his life to protecting the health and lives of children in Gaza, providing care under conditions no medical professional should have to endure,” MedGlobal, the humanitarian NGO providing healthcare in disaster areas that Safiya works for, said in a statement.
Safiya’s last guest essay from the Times was published earlier this month and centered on him being one of the last doctors working at the Kamal Adwan hospital, pleading for help.
Hamas has called on the United Nations to investigate the arrests and shut down of the Kamal Adwan Hospital.
“We demand the sending of international observers to these facilities to ascertain the truth of what is happening and to refute the lies and claims of the occupation regarding their use for military purposes,” the terror group said in a statement.
[IsraelTimes] Petah Tikva resident Alexander Granovsky accused of spray-painting messages supporting founder of Islamic Republic, in latest in over a dozen such plots foiled in recent months
A resident of the central city of Petah Tikva has been arrested for carrying out missions on behalf of "foreign elements," the Shin Bet security agency and police said Monday, the latest in a series of plots involving civilians apparently recruited by Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... that security agencies say have been foiled in recent months.
Alexander Granovsky, 29, was detained over suspicions he was "committing security offenses after he was suspected of being involved in several vehicle arsons on behalf of foreign elements," the Shin Bet and police said.
According to the investigation, Granovsky has been in contact with "terror elements" from abroad since November, and carried out "a large number of different security tasks for them" for monetary gain.
The Shin Bet said Granovsky had known that the tasks had the "potential to harm national security."
The agency did not explicitly say that Iran was behind the plot, but the tasks bore similarities to previous alleged Iranian attempts.
The tasks that Granovsky carried out, according to the Shin Bet, included setting fire to eight vehicles across Israel, as well as graffitiing "Children of Ruhollah" — referring to Ruhollah Khomeini, the first supreme leader of the Islamic Theocratic Republic — on one of the cars.
He also allegedly photographed a state-owned facility in central Israel, took a photo of the entrance to the neighborhood where former defense minister MK Benny Gantz resides, and sent the latter image to his handlers.
Granovsky is also accused of sending his handlers information about an Israeli civilian for the purpose of examining his recruitment for various tasks, purchasing military fatigues for a video in which he would be seen burning them, and more.
An indictment was set to be filed against Granovsky within a few days.
The incident marks at least the 13th alleged Iranian espionage plot revealed by Israeli authorities in recent months.
Since September, Israeli authorities have announced arrests in many cases involving individuals or cells suspected of spying or plotting attacks on behalf of Iran. In some, Tehran tried to trick Israelis online into carrying out missions on its behalf. In other cases, individuals are alleged to have knowingly operated on its behalf for money.
Earlier this month, an Israeli resident of Jerusalem, Erdler Israel Amoyal, 23, was arrested for allegedly carrying out missions on behalf of Iran and planning a terror attack.
Before that, police said that Artyom Zolotarev, 33, was detained in November over suspicions he was committing security offenses related to contact with Iranian intelligence officials. He is suspected of graffitiing anti-government and pro-Iran slogans in several northern cities and setting fire to cars in Haifa on separate occasions.
In September, seven Jewish Israelis were arrested on suspicion of spying on security figures and IDF bases for Iran.
On October 14, a Ramat Gan man and his 18-year-old partner were arrested on charges that they carried out various acts of sabotage and vandalism on behalf of an Iranian agent.
On October 16, the Israel Police and State Attorney’s Office announced the arrest of a man from central Israel who allegedly acquired a weapon to kill an Israeli scientist on instructions from an Iranian agent, after performing several smaller tasks on the agent’s behalf.
On October 22, seven East Jerusalem men, six of them Israeli citizens, were arrested on suspicion of spying for Iran and plotting attacks in Israel.
Those cases came after authorities in January uncovered a scheme involving Israelis who were allegedly recruited to gather intelligence on high-profile figures.
[IsraelTimes] Two people have been killed in northern Gaza, as gunmen attacked an aid convoy, the World Food Program says, prompting Hamas to accuse the UN agency of having failed to coordinate security.
The World Food Program says in a statement that “a coordinated movement to bring in 40 trucks on behalf of humanitarian partners” on Sunday “was faced with violent, armed looting, resulting in the deaths of two.”
“During the armed looting, five trucks of commodities were lost,” it adds.
Hamas, the Palestinian terror group that runs the Gaza Strip, says in a statement that “a catastrophic mistake” by the WFP “claimed the lives of two citizens and injured dozens with bullets.”
“We hold it fully responsible and demand that it not violate the protocol followed regarding coordination to secure aid trucks,” the statement says.
The WFP says in its statement that, for the past two weeks, “nearly every movement of aid through crossings in south and central Gaza has resulted in violence, looting, and tragic deaths, due to attacks and the absence of law and order along convoy routes inside Gaza.”
The organization says that it is still following “procedures of coordination set in place in previous months,” and that it has “repeatedly warned of the dangers of movement in the absence of law and order” in the Palestinian territory.
[Rudaw] The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Monday said they destroyed several Ottoman Turkish military vehicles and radar systems in one of two allegedly under-construction bases near the northern Syrian city of Manbij.
"The Ottoman Turkish occupation has continued to exploit the prevailing conditions in Syria. This includes the establishment of new occupation bases within Syrian territory, notably two new bases in Manbij and west of the Euphrates River," the SDF said in a statement.
The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire... has not confirmed the existence of the bases.
In the statement, the Kurdish-led force also said they carried out an operation that "resulted in the destruction of two portable radar systems, a radar-jamming system, and an armored vehicle" belonging to Ankara near Qere Qozaq bridge, south of the symbolic Kurdish city of Kobane.
The conflict in northern Syria intensified late last month when Ottoman Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) gunnies launched an operation against Kurdish forces, taking control of the northwestern Shahba region and Manbij in succession. The SDF launched a counterattack last week, claiming to have regained control of several villages near Manbij.
The SNA has sent scores of troops to strike the crucial Tishreen Dam on the Euphrates River and seize it from Kurdish forces. They are also threatening Kobane, where Kurdish fighters of the People’s Protection Units (YPG) with US backing famously repelled a brutal 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) offensive in January 2015.
But Ankara considers these Kurdish fighters as terrorists. It accuses the YPG of being the Syrian front for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been engaged in a 40-year-long conflict with the Ottoman Turkish state.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britannia-based war monitor, reported that 11 people were killed on Monday in festivities between the SDF and SNA as the Kurdish-led force infiltrated the outer neighborhoods of Manbij city.
On Monday, Turkey claimed it killed two YPG fighters in an Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... in northern Syria.
[Rudaw] The Pentagon emphasized on Monday that the ceasefire the US recently brokered between its NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... ally The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire... and Kurdish partners in northern Syria is "still holding" despite reported festivities in the region.
"There is a ceasefire that is still holding in the northern part of Syria. And we're going to continue to monitor that," Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told news hounds.
Earlier this month, the United States brokered a ceasefire between the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Turkey, though Ankara denied agreeing to the arrangement.
Oh?
There have been reports of continued festivities between the SDF and the Ankara-based Syrian National Army (SNA) which has recently launched expanded attacks on the SDF, particularly near the strategic Tishreen Dam on the Euphrates River.
On Thursday, SDF spokesperson Farhad Shami said that they had killed more than 450 SNA snuffies in the last three weeks while repelling their attacks.
Hours after Singh’s remarks, the SDF said in a statement that Turkey-backed "mercenaries" shelled their forces in southeast Manbij with "heavy artillery."
There is also fear of a Ottoman Turkish offensive in Kobane city, which is known as the symbol of Kurdish resistance against ISIS.
Convoys of US troops have been spotted in Kobane in recent days. But this has not stopped SNA attacks there.
"I'm not tracking any increase in US personnel outside of what we already have in Syria," Singh added.
Earlier this month, Pentagon front man Major General Pat Ryder acknowledged that nearly 2,000 United States troops are currently stationed in Syria, more than double earlier official numbers. He attributed the discrepancy "to temporary rotational forces that deploy to meet shifting mission requirements" while maintaining that there is a "core 900 deployers" on longer-term deployments.
Singh reiterated that the US’s mission in Syria is "to ensure the defeat of ISIS."
The US has carried out frequent strikes against ISIS to prevent the group from exploiting a security vacuum after the fall of the regime.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/31/2024 2024-12-31 01:25 ||
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Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
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 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 
...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 
..a regional Iranian catspaw,...
..a regional Iranian catspaw,...
...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 
...
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire...
