[ShabelleMedia] Intense fighting has erupted in Somalia’s Hiran region, with Somali government forces, backed by local militias and Djiboutian peacekeeping troops (Hiil Walaal), clashing with al-Shabaab ... al-Qaeda's tentacle in East Africa... hard boys, military sources said on Friday.
The conflict is centered between the towns of Halgan and Buula-Burde, with significant engagements reported around the village of Jiciboow. Airstrikes have also been part of the military operations in the region, aimed at dislodging the Islamist hard boys.
The offensive in Hiran, spearheaded by Somali military commander General Ali Jeyte and other regional and federal leaders, is part of a broader initiative to dismantle al-Shabaab’s control over parts of central and southern Somalia.
[ShabelleMedia] On Friday, the Somali National Army (SNA), in close collaboration with local communities, continued its strategic military operations targeting al-Shabaab ... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda... bases in central Somalia. The joint operation is focused on the area between Bulobarde District and Halgan village, key regions that have seen heightened bully boy activity in recent months.
Speaking exclusively to Somali National Television (SNTV), Army officials confirmed that the operation has made significant strides, with several key milestones achieved in weakening the presence of forces of Evil in the region. The SNA has successfully targeted and dismantled several al-Shabaab strongholds, with reports indicating heavy losses among the bully boys.
The operation, described as a concerted effort to restore peace and security in the region, has gained the support of local communities working alongside the army to gather intelligence and assist with logistics. Residents have been instrumental in providing critical information, which has allowed the SNA to carry out precise strikes and minimize civilian casualties.
"The collaboration with the local communities has been invaluable," said one of the senior officers involved in the operation. "Their support has made a real difference in the effectiveness of our operations. We are committed to ensuring that this region remains secure and free from the threat of terrorism."
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Victor Lavrinenko
The rest of the story. Possibly there aren’t any good guys at all here.
[REGNUM] In Sweden, 38-year-old Iraqi Salwan Momika was shot dead live on TikTok after he had been publicly burning the Koran for seven months straight. Despite all attempts, Momika could not be stopped or even deported. It all ended predictably.
Although, perhaps, if the Swedish state had sent Momika to prison after his first action, it would have saved his life.
ATTRACTED ATTENTION
A few years ago, Sweden was hit by an epidemic of public burnings of sacred books of various religions. These blasphemous actions were carried out by half-mad liberal activists who took advantage of loopholes in local legislation. One of the authors of this trend was an Iraqi named Salwan Momika, who moved to Sweden in 2021. Even at that time, he had an extremely turbulent biography behind him.
Born to an Assyrian-Aramaic Christian family in the city of Qaraqosh, Momika fled in 2012 after a local court found him guilty of causing death by negligence (in a car accident) and sentenced him to three years in prison.
During the Iraqi civil war, when local Christians were persecuted by Islamic extremists, Momika joined the Assyrian Patriotic Party. He worked as a security guard at the party's headquarters in Mosul.
After ISIS captured Mosul in 2014, Momika became involved with the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), a coalition of Christian, Shiite, and Yazidi militias fighting ISIS. He appeared in videos dressed as a militiaman, pledging allegiance to the Shiite Imam Ali Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Movement of Iraq (an affiliate of the PMU).
Momika then positioned himself as one of the leaders of the Brigade of the Spirit of God Jesus, Son of Mary (another branch of the SNM). Having political ambitions, he became the founder of the Syrian Democratic Union party. He also stood at the origins of the armed organization "Hawks of the Syrian Forces", created in 2014, which maintained contacts with the Iraqi party "Babylon Movement", which claims to represent the interests of Christians, although the majority of its members and voters are Shiite Muslims.
In 2017, Momika, having received a Schengen visa, fled to Germany.
Wow. He actually went legally, getting legal permission first instead of arriving and demanding accomodation.
There he declared his atheism and apostasy from Christianity. In April 2018, the fugitive applied for a refugee visa to Sweden.
In April 2021, he was granted a three-year temporary residence permit but denied permanent residency. Immigration officials caught him in a lie: Momika lied about the nature of his collaboration with the Imam Ali Brigades, claiming that he was affiliated with a political organization rather than a military militia.
The refusal greatly annoyed Momika, since he considered a permanent Swedish residence permit as a "bridge" to citizenship. Moreover, the emigrant intended to run for the Riksdag (parliament) and established contacts with members of the Swedish Christian Democratic Party.
He was later investigated after threatening a man with whom he shared an apartment with a knife. Momika was convicted of the threats, given a suspended sentence and community service. Salwan wanted to somehow attract public attention to himself, believing that this would allow him to return to politics. And he chose extreme Islamophobia as his signature gimmick, which may seem strange given that he once got along well with Muslims from the Popular Mobilization Forces.
Momika began making and posting videos expressing extreme anger toward Islam, which he said was "fanatical oppressors" and was responsible for the destruction of his homeland, which he called "Mesopotamia."
SIX KORANS
The videos alone were not enough to attract attention. Momika was inspired to take further action by the example of far-right activist Rasmus Paludan, who burned the Koran on Swedish territory in April 2022 and January 2023. Deciding to follow this example, the “actionist” bought a copy of the Koran in 2023 and filed a police report for holding a “public action” near the Iraqi embassy in Stockholm.
But to his disappointment, the police initially refused. After Paludan's antics, the authorities did not want to risk provoking Sweden's large Islamic community. According to Momiki, he felt "very sad and hurt."
In a conversation with the press, the Iraqi stated that "the police decision supports Islamic terrorists in Sweden and Europe." At the same time, another person, a black Swedish citizen Chris Makundul, applied for the blasphemous action. And he was also refused.
Momika and Makundul went to court, where a ruling was made that fully satisfied the blasphemers: they were granted the permission they had requested. However, Makundul got scared and did not burn the Koran. But Momika was unable to stop in time and on June 28, in front of a large crowd of the press, he burned the holy book in the center of Stockholm.
The action predictably caused a storm of indignation among Muslims living in Sweden. Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Iran expressed extreme indignation, accusing the Swedish authorities of condoning blasphemy. Morocco even recalled its ambassador from Sweden, and Iraq asked the Swedish ambassador to leave. In this country, the authorities of Momiki's hometown offered a reward of $2 million and a gold-plated Koran to anyone who killed him. The Iraqi government simply demanded his extradition.
Surprisingly, Momika became a geopolitical factor for a while.
Turkey blocked the Scandinavian country's entry into NATO for four months, and Istanbul cited the Swedish authorities' unwillingness to stop the blasphemer as one of the reasons for this. However, as it soon became clear, Istanbul's principled stand was inflated: Turkey agreed to Sweden's entry into the alliance, and Momika continued his antics.
The first Koran he burned was far from the only one. On July 20, 2023, under the protection of Swedish police, who protected him from angry believers, he burned another copy of the Muslim holy book - again under the walls of the Iraqi embassy. Less than two weeks later, on July 31, he did the same near the Swedish parliament building.
On September 3, 2023, Salvan Momika appeared with the Koran under his arm in one of the squares of the city of Malmö. And everything was repeated - the click of a lighter, the flames engulfing the pages of the book. On October 21, 2023, the "refugee" did this in Stockholm, on Benny Fredriksson Square.
Swedish officials grabbed their heads. Something had to be done urgently, since Momiki's antics were turning Sweden into almost the main enemy of the vast Muslim world. This could have brought the most dire consequences on the country: the Swedish police reported that the level of terrorist threat had increased sharply. However, in the eyes of Swedish law, the blasphemous immigrant had done nothing for which he could be sent to prison. Moreover, he was given police protection - as a person who received threats on a daily basis. The protection of the "fighter against Islam" cost the country 5 million kronor.
In October 2023, the Swedish government finally decided to deport Momika for all of his "exploits." He managed to file an appeal, which was rejected. But the question arose about where exactly to deport him. According to Swedish officials, he cannot be deported to his native Iraq, since there, they say, Momika "faces torture and inhuman treatment." Therefore, he was given a temporary residence permit for several months.
Meanwhile, he came up with a new way to "troll" the Muslim community - he announced that he supported Israel and publicly burned the Palestinian flag. On February 25, 2024, he burned the Koran again - for the sixth time. Then, in February 2024, the Swedish Migration Court once again confirmed that they would like to deport Momika and ban him from entering the country for five years.
NEXT IN LINE
After this, Momika hastily packed up for neighboring Norway. "Sweden only accepts terrorists, who are given shelter and protection here, while philosophers and thinkers are expelled from the country," the activist was indignant in a conversation with Expressen.
Rumors soon spread that he had been murdered in Norway. But in early April 2024, it became known that the desecrator was alive and well and would soon be deported back to Sweden. It turned out that when he filed his asylum application, he had stated that the Norwegian authorities would facilitate his death if he was returned to Sweden. However, the security authorities there came to the conclusion that the "philosopher and thinker" was a threat to Norway by his very presence.
Momike's temporary residence permit in Sweden expired in mid-April 2024. But this did not result in his deportation - he applied for a new residence permit, and the Swedish Migration Agency reconsidered whether he could be deported to his home country.
Under Swedish immigration law, this procedure could be repeated indefinitely until the agency decided that Iraq was safe enough to deploy a provocateur there.
However, in August last year, a case was brought against him for inciting racial hatred – the verdict was scheduled to be handed down yesterday, January 30, 2025. In connection with this, Momika said that he was surprised by the charges, but hoped for a full acquittal: “I know that Sweden and Swedish society protect freedom of speech and the freedom of people to criticize and question religion.”
It was clear from the start that the method he had chosen to make a public appearance was not very compatible with life. His murder was a matter of time, which happened on the night of January 29-30. At that time, he was in his rented apartment in a Stockholm suburb and was broadcasting a live video on TikTok, which was watched by more than two thousand people.
After 11:00 p.m., a report of a shooting was received from the area, and a police patrol and an ambulance team were sent to the scene. According to viewers watching the broadcast, Momika said he was going to go out on the balcony to smoke. Shortly after, four shots were heard. Prosecutor Rasmus Jöhman confirmed that the visitor was dead - he was found with several bullets in his head. The Swedish Security Police (Säpo) has joined the investigation.
A large-scale police operation began. Within hours, Swedish security forces had arrested five people, aged between twenty and sixty, who were believed to have been involved in Momiki's murder. Four of the suspects had no previous criminal record, while the fifth had been convicted of a minor drug offence in 2020. A firearm was seized from one of the suspects' vehicles.
The motives for their actions are clear - they were Muslims taking revenge on a man who had declared himself an implacable enemy of their religion. It is noteworthy that the speed and skill that Swedish law enforcement demonstrated in catching the killers of the desecrator of the Koran is not something they often demonstrate, judging by the number of unsolved violent crimes.
In general, the reaction of the Swedish authorities is noteworthy.
Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson announced that the country's security services were investigating possible links between Momiki's killers and foreign powers. Deputy Prime Minister Ebba Busch called the murder "a threat to our free democracy."
Momika's accomplice Salwan Najem, who appeared next to him in some of the videos at the time of the Koran burning, actually accused the Swedish authorities of complicity. According to him, Momika's murder was made possible because the authorities had previously decided to deprive him of police protection. Najem claims that immediately after his accomplice's death he received death threats from "1,200 Muslims" and considers himself "next in line."
#4
What, only nice people get to flip shit at neo-Mohammedan wannabe totalitarians?
Mohammed was rrready to rrrrrumble:
"You Persians and Romans will tumble!"
"Fear not, this shall pass
For we'll muster a mass
Of our well-mannered, placid and humble."
A Chinese national who organizes pro-Hamas rallies at UCLA just got arrested and her visa revoked. She’s going back to China. pic.twitter.com/jWqBA0TS4O
#3
Finished trashing America, who
Was now bound for Zhongguo? Song Yaowu!
Back in Beijing again
The recycled "Binbin"
Is a true Xi Confucius. Who knew?
#4
Columbia Activists Cement Toilets for Gaza The anti-Israel activists at Columbia have really stepped up their vandalism game. Usually they are content to spray paint a few buildings or overturn some furniture. This week they have escalated to pouring cement into all the toilets in a building
#5
1)/\...As soon as she hit the ground, she'll conform in lockstep with the CCP. I wouldn't be surprised if she were wearing a red arm band in 5 years!
[Garowe] The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has launched an aggressive campaign to deport undocumented immigrants colonists, with Somalia taking the lead among African countries in the numbers targeted for removal. This intensified action underlines the Trump administration's commitment to a stringent immigration policy.
Somalia now tops the list for African countries with 4,090 of its citizens marked for deportation, highlighting the scale of enforcement targeting this community. Nigeria follows with 3,690 individuals, and Ghana with 3,228. The list also includes smaller numbers from other African nations: Namibia with 19, Botswana with 12, South Africa with 379, Eswatini with 6, Liberia with 1,563, Mozambique with 14, Angola with 662, Zambia with 174, Malawi with 58, Zim-bob-we with 545, and Kenya with 1,282.
Good to know.
The surge in deportations comes in the wake of President Donald Trump ...His ancestors didn't own any slaves... 's inauguration, during which he has pushed forward an aggressive immigration agenda. Among the executive orders signed by Trump is one aimed at revising the policy of birthright citizenship, specifically targeting children born to undocumented immigrants colonists in the U.S.
This policy shift has sparked widespread debate and concern among immigration rights advocates, who argue that the measures could lead to family separations and significant human rights ...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... issues. Critics also point out that the focus on Somalia could be linked to broader security concerns, given the country's history of political instability and terrorism threats, although no direct link to these factors has been officially stated by ICE or the administration.
The administration's actions reflect a hardline stance on immigration. Officials cite public safety and the enforcement of existing laws as primary motivations. However,
it was a brave man who first ate an oyster... this approach has led to protests and legal challenges from various groups concerned about its implications for human rights and international relations.
As ICE continues its operations, the international community watches closely. Some countries are preparing to receive their citizens back, while others express concerns over the humanitarian aspects of such large-scale deportations. The situation remains fluid, with the potential for further legal and diplomatic developments as the policy unfolds.
[Rudaw] Iraqi security forces said on Friday that they carried out two Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s against a group of four suspected 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) members on the border between the northern provinces of Kirkuk and Salahaddin, killing all of them.
The army "managed to monitor a group of four terrorist elements in one of the guesthouses in the Zarka sector within the border area between Salah al-Din and Kirkuk, ... a thick stew of Arabs, Turkmen, Kurds, and probably Antarcticans, all of them mutually hostile most of the time... " the Security Media Cell said.
"F-16 aircraft carried out two airstrikes targeting this guesthouse, resulting in the killing of the ISIS terrorist gang members inside after completely destroying it," it added.
Details of the operation will be published at a later date, the cell noted.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/01/2025 2025-02-01 02:35 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11135 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
[LI] Released British-Israeli hostage Emily Damari revealed that Gaza-based terror group Hamas held her captive in facilities run by the UN Palestinian agency (UNRWA). During her 471 days in captivity, she was held hostage by Hamas in various facilities belonging to the UN agency. The 28-year-old hostage, who was shot by terrorists in the hand and leg on October 7, 2023, was denied necessary medical care.
The damning revelations were made during a phone call between Emily Damari’s family and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer after her release on Thursday. "In an emotional conversation with the PM this morning, the 28-year-old said she had been kept in facilities belonging to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency [UNRWA] and was not given medical attention, despite having been shot in the hand and leg during the violent kidnapping and losing two fingers," the British newspaper Daily Mail reported
[Rudaw] Protests against strikes on Tishreen Dam continue amid growing international criticism of Syrian militias carrying out the attacks, most recently from Human Rights Watch, which on Thursday said a recent dronezap on an ambulance was "an apparent war crime."
"A dronezap by the Turkiye-Syrian National Army (SNA) coalition that hit a Kurdish Red Islamic Thingy ambulance on January 18, 2025, in northern Syria is an apparent war crime," said Human Rights Watch.
The ambulance was transporting an injured protester from Tishreen Dam when it was hit, the Kurdish Red Islamic Thingy wrote in a statement following the attack. The driver, a nurse, and the injured person were all able to escape.
"According to international law, targeting the injured, paramedics, ambulances, and civilians constitutes a flagrant war crime. This is precisely what the Ottoman Turkish state and its allied factions have been committing openly before the world since the beginning of the campaign targeting
Manbij and its eastern countryside," said the Kurdish Red Islamic Thingy.
Tishreen Dam, located on the Euphrates River near the northern Syria city of Manbij, has for weeks come under attacks by The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire... and the SNA militia groups it supports. Strong resistance from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) has so far prevented their advance.
"On Thursday, Ottoman Turkish warplanes launched several Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s near the Tishreen Dam, southeast of Manbij, while also subjecting the area to heavy artillery bombardment," the SDF wrote in a Friday statement about recent attacks around the dam.
A takeover of the dam could help Ankara and the SNA easily advance to other parts of the Kurdish-held northeast Syria (Rojava).
Rojava authorities have warned that constant attacks on the dam could lead to the collapse of the structure, causing a humanitarian catastrophe.
Groups of civilians have traveled to the dam to stage protests. Fifty-one civilians have been killed, according to conflict monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Yet the protests continue with hundreds of people traveling to the dam on Friday morning, reported ANHA news agency.
Human Rights Watch also condemned the attacks on the civilian protests.
"Drone footage published by an SNA-affiliated Telegram channel on January 22, verified by Human Rights Watch, shows two small air-dropped munitions explode in a crowd of men and women at Tishreen Dam, where they were protesting and doing a traditional Kurdish dance in a line. A caption says: ’The armed drone sends congratulations and blessings to the SDF celebrations at Tishreen Dam,’" the watchdog stated, adding that Turkey is obligated to "rein in" the SNA.
Earlier this month, the International Committee of the Red Thingy, said dams have special protection under international humanitarian law and should not be attacked.
Ankara has labeled the armed Kurdish People’s Defense Units (YPG) in northeast Syria as Lions of Islam and a branch of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and considers them a threat to Turkey’s security.
"Our heroic Ottoman Turkish Armed Forces neutralized 6 PKK Lions of Islam it identified in the Gara region of northern Iraq and 7 PKK/YPG Lions of Islam it identified in the Peace Spring and Euphrates Shield regions of northern Syria," the Ottoman Turkish defense ministry said on Friday.
[IsraelTimes] The “Syrian Resistance,” an organization affiliated with the former regime in Syria, claims responsibility for firing at Israel Defense Forces troops in the buffer zone last night, a Hezbollah-affiliated Lebanese outlet reports.
The group announces it “has begun its operations against the Israeli enemy alongside operations against al-Julani’s terrorist gangs,” using the nom de guerre of new Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa.
According to the Al-Akhbar outlet, the group also says “the Syrian Resistance will not allow Israel to occupy our land. We will ambush it and al-Julani’s gangs with precise ambushes and surprise attacks.”
The IDF said last night that soldiers had returned fire at the source of the shooting, and that there were no Israeli injuries.
It marked the first such incident since Israeli forces deployed to the buffer zone on the border between Israel and Syria, following the fall of the Assad regime last month.
[IsraelTimes] Military says targets ‘posed a threat to Israeli home front and troops,’ included a military facility and sites at border crossings with Syria
Israeli fighter jets carried out a series of Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s on Hezbollah targets in the Beqaa Valley of eastern Leb ...The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers... overnight Thursday, the military said.
The IDF said in a statement Friday morning that the targets, which "posed a threat to the Israeli home front and troops," included a military facility with an underground weapons manufacturing site and infrastructure at border crossings between Syria and Lebanon which the terror group used to smuggle arms.
The strikes were carried out after Hezbollah launched a surveillance drone at Israel Thursday, which the military says was intercepted. The IDF said the drone was a violation of the ceasefire agreement.
"The (army) continues to remain committed to the ceasefire understandings between Israel and Lebanon, and will not permit any terrorist activity of this kind," the military said.
No sirens were triggered by the drone incursion, the military noted in its statement, adding: "The IDF will not allow terror activities by the Hezbollah terror organization in Lebanon, and will act to remove any threat to Israel or its citizens."
It was the first such incident since the ceasefire deal went into effect in late November, after more than a year of fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed terror group. The agreement forbids the terror group from operating south of the Litani River, some 30 kilometers (18 miles) from Israel, and allows Israel to respond to imminent threats.
According to the military, the drone was intercepted by the Israeli Air Force using a ground-based air defense system before it crossed the border into Israel.
The incident came in the wake of an Israeli airstrike on a Hezbollah weapons convoy on Tuesday, and reports — unconfirmed by the military — of an Israeli dronezap on Wednesday.
[IsraelTimes] Syria’s new authorities announce the arrest of a cousin of ousted leader Bashar al-Assad, accused of orchestrating a crackdown in Daraa, where the 2011 uprising began.
Atif Najib, the former head of political security in Daraa in southern Syria, was arrested in Latakia, on the country’s west coast, the official SANA news agency reports, citing a senior security official.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor says he is the highest-ranking figure to be detained since Islamist-led fighters toppled Assad on December 8.
“The criminal Atif Najib has been referred to the competent authorities to be tried and held accountable for the crimes he committed against the Syrian people,” SANA reports.
The protest movement against Assad began in Daraa on March 15, 2011, after 15 students were arrested for allegedly writing anti-government slogans on the city’s walls. Residents said the students were tortured, leading to a protest to demand their release that ended in bloodshed. Najib, blamed for the crackdown, was dismissed soon after. He was on a US Treasury sanctions list alongside other Syrian officials.
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.
... al-Qaeda's tentacle in East Africa...
...His ancestors didn't own any slaves...
...
...
...The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...
