[Garowe] The Somali National Army (SNA) destroyed several bases occupied by the al-Shabaab ... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda... holy warriors within Jilib town — the official headquarters of the group, and perhaps the only remaining stronghold within Middle Jubba.
State media reports that the SNA, with the help of international partners, launched strategic Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s within Middle Jubba, targeting the group’s fighters. The region is partially under the control of the al-Shabaab with minimal government control.
"The operation targeted critical sites, including the district headquarters, a guerrilla command center, training camps, an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) manufacturing facility, and the residences of big shots Hassan Yaqub and Amin," the statement read.
"All designated targets were successfully destroyed, with significant enemy casualties reported as the government continues to assess the full impact."
Amin and Hassan Yakub are believed to be senior coordinators of the al-Shabaab activities and have been on the run for several years. To counter their influence, the government had marked them as wanted but their whereabouts remain unknown.
Simultaneous operations were also conducted in Ceel Bacad, near the Middle Shabelle-Galgaduud border, and in Mubarak, Lower Shabelle, striking key terrorist positions, the state media further reports.
"The Somali government reaffirmed its determination to eliminate the Kharijites, urging civilians in Death Eater-controlled areas to avoid enemy locations as counterterrorism operations intensify," state media further stated.
The government reiterated its commitment to ensuring the safety of Somali citizens while neutralizing threats posed by murderous Moslem groups. In the last two months, the local forces with the help of the international partners, have targeted holy warriors in central and southern regions, killing dozens in the process.
[Garowe] The operations against al-Shabaab ... al-Qaeda's tentacle in East Africa... in central and southern regions seem to be yielding fruits as more locals join the Somali National Army (SNA) in recovering strategic areas within the country as the call for stability becomes a reality.
For the last two months, the Somali National Army has sustained operations against the group, which has been significantly pushed to almost submission with the assistance of the US Africa Command and the 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... Support and Stabilization Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM).
At Sumadale in Middle Shabelle, close to 30 al-Shabaab fighters were killed following a well-executed operation by the national army and local fighters. The snuffies were plotting a potentially devastating attack against the government troops.
"National and local forces dealt a major blow to Kharijite snuffies in Sumadale, Middle Shabelle, today, killing over 30 fighters," state media reports. State media news hound Sadam Abdulle, embedded with the forces, confirmed the operation.
Earlier, at Awdheegle, the Somali National Army delivered a significant and unforgettable blow to the al-Shabaab snuffies attempting to attack their positions. The confrontation occurred in the Awdheegle District of Lower Shabelle and the Buursha Sheekh area of Middle Shabelle, where the snuffies suffered substantial losses.
In a separate operation on Friday evening, the National Forces executed a planned raid that successfully dismantled the bad boy’s gathering site in the Labada Garas area of Middle Shabelle, resulting in the elimination of all Death Eater present.
Further, in Bakool, the Somali National Army with assistance from the local troops, managed to pull yet another victory, killing over 40 al-Shabaab fighters. The determination reflects the commitment of the government to defeat the group that has existed for almost two decades.
The government has finalized deployment agreements for the African Union Support and Stabilization Mission in Somalia, with Kenya, Djibouti, Æthiopia, Egypt, and Ugandan troops cleared to operate within the country. Burundi is yet to agree on the number with the federal government.
[DAILYPOST.NG] Troops of Operation Hadin Kai have successfully repelled an attempted attack by 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.... West Africa Province (ISWAP) gunnies on the Forward Operating Base (FOB) in Mayanti, Banki, within Bama Local Government Area of Borno State.
This is contained in a post Zagazola Makama, a security analyst.
According to him, the attack occurred around 1:15 a.m. on Sunday.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/18/2025 02:44 ||
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[Jpost] The Houthi movement later announced that it targeted the "USS Harry S. Truman aircraft" carrier in the Red Sea for the third time without providing proof.
The US is currently conducting targeted strikes against the Houthis in Yemen's capital, Sana'a, Houthi-owned Al-Masirah reported on Monday night.
The strikes have targeted the Al-Habashi Iron Factory, as well as additional areas south of the presidential compound, Al-Masirah added.
On Tuesday, the terror organization claimed that it had attacked the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier as well as several American warships in the Red Sea. Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi claimed that this forced US warship to flee to the northern region of the Red Sea.
The Houthis did not provide proof of the attacks from any time they claimed to strike.
The Houthi's military spokesperson Yahya Saree said that they would not hesitate to continue to strike US assets in the region and that its naval blockade on Israel would continue.
"If they continue their aggression, we will continue the escalation," al-Houthi added in a televised speech.
MARCO RUBIO SPOKE ABOUT YEMEN AND IRAN
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio reiterated President Donald Trump's recent stance that Iran should be held responsible "and face dire consequences" for Houthi attacks.
"The Houthis don’t have the ability to do this without Iran helping them, okay?" Rubio said in an interview with Fox News Radio.
"So, Iran owns this problem. I mean, they created this Frankenstein monster, and now they got to own it. And I think we should hold them responsible. And as the president has said, if these guys keep doing this, we owe Iran responsible for having created it."
#2
The Fifth Fleet is a numbered fleet of the United States Navy. Its area of responsibility encompasses approximately 2.5 million square miles, and includes the Persian Gulf, Red Sea, Arabian Sea, and parts of the Indian Ocean. It shares a commander and headquarters with U.S. Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT) in Bahrain. Fifth Fleet/NAVCENT is a component command of, and reports to, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM).
#3
I assumed the 5th fleet is taking part in the attacks on the Houthis in Yemen, which is why I put this article under Arabia. Are they going toward Iran instead, or somewhere else altogether? Guidance urgently needed, please —assuming it’s not a secret.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] French riot police clashed with migrants and their supporters today as they cleared a Paris theatre occupied by hundreds of homeless Africans.
Violence broke out outside the Gaîté Lyrique – one of the French capital’s most historic arts venues – soon after dawn on Tuesday morning.
Mainly young men have moved in since last December when the management gave them free tickets to a ‘Refugees Welcome in France’ conference.
Performances were soon cancelled – losing the theatre thousands in revenue – as makeshift beds were placed around the stage and auditorium.
Until today there were 446 people living inside illegally, most of them claiming they are minors under the age of 18 who deserve permanent housing.
CRS (Republican Security Companies) officers armed with tear gas and batons gathered outside the theatre at 5am on Tuesday, and then moved in at 6am.
‘There were immediate clashes with protesters who were shouting at them, and trying to stop them getting into the theatre,’ said a local resident who was at the scene.
‘Police responded with tear gas and baton charges, and there were some injuries.’ What's French for "Hickory Shampoo"?
A handful of migrants stood outside the theatre as the police arrived with suitcases in hand.
Some 200 other agitators surrounded the theatre chanting ‘shame on this government that wages war on vulnerable people’.
Many of the migrants refused to board the bus laid on to take them there claiming they were settled in the capital.
One young man, Adama, from the Ivory Coast told the AFP news agency: ‘I am 15 years old. I need to go to class at 10am today.
‘I don’t know what to tell my teacher. I need to leave a message saying that I won’t make it.’
He added: ‘We haven’t killed anybody, we don’t steal. We came here to become integrated.’
Danièle Simonnet, a Left-wing Paris MP, attacked the ‘violent police intervention’ in a tweet published on X.
Law and order officials pledged action after those who run the theatre complained of ‘untenable promiscuity’ inside the theatre leading to increasing violence.
Management have already abandoned the building, because of fears about ‘fire safety, security, hygiene and cleanliness, maintenance, and waste collection.’
In a statement, they warned of an ‘explosive and undignified situation’ that was ‘increasing in severity’.
Beyond fights breaking out because of sexual tensions, migrants have been seen dealing and using drugs.
Staff have been acting as ‘on-site security guards, even though this is neither their skill set nor their job,’ says the statement.
Despite this, the statement said staff have also been ‘welcoming and sheltering the occupants’.
The theatre is owned by the City of Paris, which is dominated by Socialists and Greens.
A judge at the Paris Administrative Court ordered the evacuation of the building on February 13, but the council initially refused to involved the police.
The migrants were being supported by political activists even more Left-wing than the theatre’s management.
Calling themselves the Collectif des Jeunes du Parc de Belleville – after a Parisian park – they view the occupation as being part of the ‘anti-racist and anti-colonial struggle’.
But local businesses complained of losses due to the occupation.
The owner of the Bistrot de la Gaite restaurant, Elia Cordier, told MailOnline she is close to going bust and dared not speak out against the issue as she has received death threats from the anarchist agitators.
She told MailOnline: 'This political stunt is ruining me. I am losing thousands of euros every day.
'On a normal Saturday I would clear €2,500. Today I'll be lucky if I make €200. If this carries on, I will be bankrupt within one or two months.’
Previously she told The Times how the anti-social behaviour of the migrants had ruined the area.
Ms Cordier said: 'They hang around outside my terrace, smoking joints and fighting among themselves.
'Not only do we no longer get theatregoers because the theatre is shut but we don't get passers-by either. They're being frightened away by all these young men.'
Other local businesses claim the usually tranquil park in front of the theatre has become a venue for drug dealing and other anti-social behaviour.
And local residents claim the occupation threatened the very essence of French culture.
'What is happening here is putting French culture at risk,' businessman David Bayard told MailOnline.
'Paris is the centre of French culture. This theatre is important to French culture. We used to go to this theatre often. Now this occupation has taken that away from us.
'There are hundreds of hotel rooms that are empty across Paris. Surely it is not too difficult to put these young people in them.'
His wife Tiffany, 39, added: 'Why can't the state find a safe place for these people to sleep. Closing down this theatre is an act of cultural sabotage.'
The bistrot next to the 19th-century venue, a popular spot for theatregoers to eat and drink before and after shows, has reported €30,000 in lost revenue so far.
The 1800-seat building that houses the current Gaîté Lyrique was built in 1862 and became celebrated for staging operettas by Jacques Offenbach, the German-born French composer, in the 19th Century.
On November 1, France reinforced its borders with six of its neighbouring Schengen members - Belgium, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Spain and Switzerland - with increased checks.
The controls were applied to travellers entering France via land, sea and air routes from all six nations and will last until April 1, 2025 - but authorities have said they could be extended further.
A French government statement declared the checks were introduced due to 'serious threats to public policy, public order, and internal security posed by high-level terrorist activities... criminal networks facilitating irregular migration and smuggling, and migration flows that risk infiltration by radicalised individuals'.
Foreigner who supports a listed terror group is here on a temporary visa? Send her home — there are plenty of foreigners with her skills who don’t feel the need to carry Nasrallah videos on their phone so they’re always available.
A doctor from Leb ...The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else?... who arrived at the Boston airport was deported over the weekend without explanation, despite having a US visa and a job teaching at Brown University.
Dr. Rasha Alawieh had been granted a visa on March 11 and flew into Boston on Thursday, according to a complaint filed on her behalf by a cousin, Yara Chehab, in federal court.
Upon landing, Customs and Border Protection officers detained her at the airport for at least 36 hours, through Friday, and planned to send her back to Lebanon.
Three days later, Justice Department lawyers claimed that officers deported Alawieh after finding "sympathetic photos and videos" of prominent Hezbollah figures in the deleted items folder of her cellphone, Politico reported Monday.
"CBP questioned Dr. Alawieh and determined that her true intentions in the United States could not be determined," Assistant US Attorney Michael Sady wrote in the court filing.
US District Judge Leo Sorokin issued an earlier order on Friday that an in-person hearing was scheduled for 10 a.m. on Monday, with Alawieh brought to court. The order barred Alawieh’s removal from Massachusetts without 48 hours’ notice to the judges.
But on Saturday, the cousin filed a motion claiming customs officials "willfully" disobeyed the judge by putting Alawieh on a plane headed for Gay Paree, where she was then set to board a flight for Lebanon.
Sorokin seemed to concur with the cousin’s claim, writing that there was reason to believe customs officials had knowingly flouted his previous order, the New York Times
...which still proudly claims Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... reported.
However he apparently walked this back just as the hearing was set to begin Monday morning, according to CNN ...formerly the Cable News Network, now who know what it might stand for... , after reportedly receiving testimony that customs officials had only been made aware of his order following Alawieh’s departure from the US.
Lawyers for the government explained in a court filing Monday that officers at the airport did not receive notice of the order until she "had already departed the United States," the judge noted. They asked that the petition be dismissed.
The judge put a hearing on her case on hold, to give Sorokin’s lawyers time to prepare.
Alawieh, a 34-year-old kidney transplant specialist who previously worked and lived in Rhode Island, was to start work at Brown University as an assistant professor of medicine.
She had worked at Brown prior to the issuance of her H-1B visa, which is granted to skilled foreign nationals to work in the US, the complaint said.
She had held a visa to be in the United States since 2018, when she first came to complete a two-year fellowship at Ohio State University. Before that, she had completed a fellowship at the University of Washington and then moved to the Yale-Waterbury Internal Medicine Program, which she finished in June.
A spokesperson for Brown said Alawieh is an employee of Brown Medicine, with a clinical appointment to Brown.
Her expulsion is the latest move against a foreign-born person with a US visa in the past week, after an anti-Israel student activist at Columbia University was arrested and another student’s visa was revoked.
The Trump administration also transferred hundreds of immigrants colonists to El Salvador even as a federal judge issued an order temporarily barring the deportations.
"My colleagues and I are outraged over Dr Alawieh’s deportation. She is a valued colleague and we hope for justice and her return to Rhode Island," said George Bayliss, an associate professor of medicine at Brown University.
US Representative Gabe Amo of Rhode Island, a Democrat, said in a statement over the weekend that is "committed to getting answers from the Department of Homeland Security to provide Dr. Alawieh, her family, her colleagues, and our community the clarity we all deserve."
In a campuswide email sent Sunday and viewed by The Wall Street Journal, Brown said that "out of an abundance of caution" it was asking those from outside the U.S.—including those with visas or green cards—to postpone or delay personal travel abroad.
Brown, whose campus is in Providence, R.I., said potential changes in travel bans and re-entry requirements "may affect travelers’ ability to return to the U.S. as planned." The Ivy League school said it was making the recommendations ahead of spring break, which is next week.
The email follows the detention and deportation of Dr. Rasha Alawieh, an assistant professor at Brown University and kidney-transplant specialist. Immigration officials held Alawieh, a holder of a Brown-sponsored H1B visa, at Logan International Airport when she was trying to re-enter the U.S. from a trip to Lebanon, her home country.
The H1B visa program, created by Congress in 1990, allows high-skilled foreign workers to come to the U.S. Visa holders can eventually apply for green cards and stay in the country indefinitely.
Homeland Security said Alawieh returned to Lebanon "to attend the funeral of His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah ...The late, lamented satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb...> —a brutal terrorist who led Hezbollah, responsible for killing hundreds of Americans over a four-decade terror spree."
Federal prosecutors said Alawieh had pictures on her phone of Nasrallah and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ...the very aged actual dictator of Iran, successor to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini...> , the leader of Iran, and that she deleted the photos shortly before returning to the U.S.
A little more than just innocent photos. She showed awareness and intention.
Alawieh told immigration agents that she doesn’t support Hezbollah.
Then why did she go halfway around the world to attend that funeral?
She said she is a member of WhatsApp groups with families and friends who share such photos, according to a transcript of her interview with Customs and Border Protection, filed to the U.S. District Court in Boston.
Alawieh said that Nasrallah, a Shia Moslem, was highly regarded in the Shia community as "a religious figure," prosecutors wrote. Alawieh follows him for his religious and spiritual teachings but not his politics, prosecutors said.
In Islam the two are linked.
Earlier this month, other schools warned about travel ahead of spring break. Dartmouth College told international staff and students to be aware of possible travel bans.
Columbia University, meanwhile, told international students to "exercise caution" when traveling abroad. It also asked those from countries that were part of previous travel bans, including Afghanistan, Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea ...hereditary Communist monarchy distinguished by its truculence and periodic acts of violence. Distinguishing features include Songun (Army First) policy, which involves feeding the army before anyone but the Dear Leadership, and Juche, which is Kim Jong Il's personal interpretation of Marxism-Leninism, which he told everybody was brilliant. In 1950 the industrialized North invaded agrarian South Korea. Twenty-one countries of the United Nations eventually contributed to the UN force opposing the invasion, with the United States providing around 90% of the military personnel. Seventy years later the economic results are in and it doesn't look good for Juche... , Pakistain, Somalia, Sudan ...a Moslem country located in the Horn of Africa. It is noted for its affinity for rule by ex- or current generals, its holy men, and for the oppression of the native Afro population by its Arab conquerors. South Sudan, populated mostly by the natives, split off from Sudan proper, which left North and South Darfur to be oppressed by the guys with turbans... , Syria, Venezuela
...a country in Central America that sits on an enormous pool of oil. Formerly the most prospereous country in the region, it became infested with Commies sniffing almost unlimited wealth. It turned out the wealth wasn't unlimited, the economy collapsed under the clownish Hugo Chavez, the murder rate exceeded places like Honduras and El Salvador. A significant proportion of the populace refugeed to Colombia and points south... and 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... , to "avoid non-essential travel outside of the U.S."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/18/2025 2025-03-18 02:27 ||
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#1
I'm sure there are a dozen applicants for that position who are better than her professionally (but happen to be white, heterosexual males - maybe even Jews or Asians.)
[GEO.TV] Security forces killed three Death Eaters in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa's Khyber district during an intelligence-based operation, the military's media wing said on Monday.
In a statement, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said security forces conducted the IBO in general area Tor Darra of Khyber district on reported presence of terrorists.
''During the conduct of operation, own troops effectively engaged the khwarij [terrorists] location, as a result of which, three khwarij were sent to hell,'' it added.
Weapons and ammunition were also recovered from killed terrorists, who remained actively involved in numerous terrorist activities in the area, the ISPR added.
Sanitisation operation was launched to eliminate any other Death Eaters found in the area as the ''security forces of Pakistain are determined to wipe out the menace of terrorism from the country''.
Last week, the Pakistain Army thwarted a terrorist attack on checkpost and killed 10 snuffies following a suicide kaboom in the Jandola area of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa's South Wazoo district.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/18/2025 02:35 ||
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[GEO.TV] Pakistain and Afghanistan reached an agreement on Monday for a ceasefire and the reopening of the Torkham trade route for all types of movement.
The breakthrough came during a Pak-Afghan jirga held to address border tensions at the Khyber-Torkham crossing.
Pak jirga member Jawad Hussain told Geo News that both sides agreed to halt hostilities and restore trade and travel at the crucial border crossing.
As part of the agreement, the joint jirga decided to temporarily suspend disputed construction by Afghan forces. The Afghan delegation has requested time until this evening to consult their authorities on the matter.
Hussain said that the Afghan jirga would brief their officials on halting the construction and that the issue would be deferred until the next meeting of the Joint Chamber of Commerce.
The final decision on the disputed construction will be taken during that session, while trade activities at the crossing will resume in the meantime. The date for the next meeting will be decided through mutual consultation.
Additionally, officials from Pakistain's Frontier Corps ...a provincial paramilitary force. Total manpower is about 80,000. They are tasked to help local law enforcement in the maintenance of law and order, and to carry out border patrol and a..the Antwerp-based Salafist organization that had campaigned to introduce Sharia law to Belgium before single-handedly making Belgium the highest per capita supplier of jihadis to Syria in Europe. There was a big trial in Antwerp in 2015, but most of those convicted were in absentia...nti-smuggling operations.... (FC) and Afghan authorities are set to meet today. The reopening of the Torkham trade route is expected following their discussions.
The border crossing was shut on February 21 after tensions escalated when Afghan forces began construction inside Pak territory.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/18/2025 02:31 ||
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Business as usual, giving no sign Hell was about to rain down on Gaza Monday night.
[IsraelTimes] Palestinian suspects trying to plant bomb near troops in Strip
On Monday, the IDF carried out several strikes in the southern and central 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.
Two separate dronezaps were conducted in the Bureij area of central Gaza, with the IDF saying it had targeted two groups of terror operatives trying to plant bombs in the ground, near troops.
According to Paleostinian media reports, five were killed in the strikes.
Separately, the IDF said it carried out another strike against a group of terror operatives who were trying to plant a bomb in the ground near troops in southern Gaza’s Rafah, which local media said left several maimed.
Abu Ubaidah Mohammed al-Jamaji, a member of the Hamas political bureau, was killed in an Israeli raid in the Gaza Strip, according to local reports. pic.twitter.com/qjlFvx7nYP
Israeli attack ‘death sentence’ for captives, says Hamas official
[GEO.TV] Izzat al-Risheq, a member of Hamas ..a regional Iranian catspaw,... 's political bureau, says Israel is sacrificing the lives of its remaining captives in Paleostine, reported Al Jazeera.
''Netanyahu's decision to return to war is a decision to sacrifice the prisoners of the occupation and a death sentence ...the barbaric practice of sentencing a murderer to be punished for as long as his/her/its victim is dead... against them,'' al-Risheq said in a statement shared by CNN ...formerly the Cable News Network, now who know what it might stand for...
[RedState] Israel's ceasefire with Hamas ended early Tuesday after repeated negotiations over Hamas releasing the remaining Israeli hostages failed once again.
Fighter jets began targeting terrorist strongholds in the Gaza Strip, according to the Israel Defense Forces—and they also indicated they will increase their use of force if necessary:
The attacks mark the end of a nearly two-month-long ceasefire during which the terror group released hostages in drib drab fashion, often tormenting them and humiliating them in front of crazed mobs as they handed them over to the Red Cross. Released prisoners described the horrific conditions they lived under, from torture to starvation. Meanwhile, some like the Bibas family weren’t even alive at all—they’d been killed by the sadistic fanatics.
This is a rapidly developing situation, and RedState will you updated with the latest developments.
[Jpost] The White House confirmed it was consulted by Israel prior to the strikes.
The IDF and the Shin Bet are currently conducting extensive strikes on Hamas terror targets in Gaza, the military confirmed early Tuesday morning, aiming to achieve the war goals "as determined by the political echelon, including the release of all our hostages — living and dead."
The IDF has been instructed to act "forcefully" against Hamas in the Gaza Strip by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz, the Prime Minister's Office announced.
"Israel will, from now on, act against Hamas with increasing military strength," the PMO said.
“Tonight we returned to fighting in Gaza in light of Hamas’ refusal to release the kidnapped and threats to harm IDF soldiers and Israeli communities," Katz said in a statement.
"If Hamas does not release all the kidnapped, the gates of hell will open in Gaza, and Hamas’ murderers and rapists will meet the IDF with forces they have never known before. We will not stop fighting until all the kidnapped return home and all the war’s goals are achieved."
An Israeli official said the strikes targeted mid-level Hamas commanders, senior officials in Hamas’ political wing and Hamas’ infrastructure, according to Axios.
The White House confirmed it was consulted by Israel prior to the strikes.
“Hamas, the Houthis, all those who seek to terrorize not just Israel but also the United States of America, will see a price to pay. All hell will break loose,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News.
As a result of the strikes, the Home Front Command has updated its security guidelines, and school has been canceled in the Gaza envelope.
This marks the first significant wave of attacks since the January ceasefire began and comes amid additional reports of attacks by the US and Israel across the Middle East.
ISRAELI ATTACKS WITH US BACKING
US President Donald Trump has previously stated that Israel would have the full support of the US in all attacks against Hamas.
Trump also stated that “Hell will rain down” on both Hamas and the Houthis and that Iran should be held responsible "and face dire consequences" for Houthi attacks.
More from Skidmark: The Jerusalem Post liveblog for the events of March 18th in Israel and around the world can be seen here.
Tweets courtesy of 3dc, click on each link to see the original over on Twitter, since I can’t get the embed thingy to copy:
The Hamas-controlled Gaza Information Ministry claimed that at least 250 were killed in the Israeli strikes, which reportedly hit dozens of targets.
Sources in the Gaza Strip told Kan 11 News that Mahmoud Abu Watfa, head of Hamas's internal security apparatus in Gaza, was eliminated in the Israeli strikes. It was also reported that Mohammed Abu Ubaida al-Jammasi, a member of Hamas's political bureau in the Gaza Strip, was eliminated as well.
Palestinian Arab sources reported that Issam al-Da'alis, a member of Hamas's political bureau, was also eliminated in the strikes.
At least 232 Palestinians were killed, including children, according to unverified figures from the Hamas-run health ministry, which doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants.
Netanyahu’s office said the decision to resume strikes shortly after midnight on Tuesday “followed Hamas’s repeated refusal to release our hostages, as well as its rejection of all of the proposals it has received from US special envoy to the Mideast Envoy Steve Witkoff and from the mediators.”
Hostage families have long argued that those aims contradict each other and that a return to fighting will endanger their loved ones. Polling over the past month has indicated that a majority of the Israeli public agrees with the hostage families and backs ending the war in exchange for the release of the hostages. But those polls have also shown that a plurality of coalition voters back resuming the war. Netanyahu’s hardline coalition partners have also threatened to collapse the government if he ends the war before Hamas has been dismantled.
Israel wasn’t able to do this during the first 15-plus months of war but is emboldened by the new administration in Washington, which is less likely to criticize Jerusalem over potential civilian deaths or the lack of humanitarian aid in Gaza, which the IDF has blocked entirely since the end of the first phase.
The IDF also has a new chief of staff in Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir who entered the post earlier this month pledging an unrelenting effort to dismantle Hamas.
Netanyahu also announced on Monday that he plans to fire Shin Bet director Ronen Bar, one of several security chiefs who regularly sparred with the premier over his handling of the war. The security establishment has argued that Israel should agree to the original terms of the ceasefire in order to secure the release of the remaining hostages before it is too late, insisting that Hamas can be dealt with at a later date.
The cabinet was initially slated to hold a vote on Bar’s dismissal on Tuesday, but that meeting had not been finalized as of Monday night and the resumption of fighting could well delay that process further.
Bar’s agency joined the IDF in conducting an extensive wave of airstrikes across the Gaza Strip, which the army said targeted mid-level Hamas commanders, members of the terror group’s politburo, and its infrastructure.
An Israeli military official briefing reporters said that the IDF conducted dozens of strikes using dozens of aircraft after Netanyahu signed off on the operation earlier Monday.
The strikes came after the IDF identified Hamas preparations to launch attacks on Israel along with its efforts to regroup and rearm, the Israeli military official said.
The military official said it intends to continue the airstrikes “as long as necessary,” and widen the surprise assault beyond an aerial campaign if it is ordered to.
The IDF is deployed and prepared on all fronts, including with heightened alert with its air defenses, the official added.
The plans for Tuesday’s operation had been kept secret until now for the IDF to have the element of surprise, the military official said.
[Rudaw] The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said on Monday that at least nine members of a family were killed in an Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... near the symbolic Kurdish city of Kobane in northern Syria.
"The martyrdom toll from a Ottoman Turkish airstrike between the villages of Qomji and Barkh Botan, south of Kobane, has risen to nine civilians from the same family, with two additional family members maimed," the SDF said in a statement.
The Ottoman Turkish airstrike on Sunday night "targeted a family engaged in agricultural work," according to the SDF.
The strike came after the SDF last week reported "intensified attacks" with The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor... and Ottoman Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) Lions of Islam on Tishreen Dam and Qere Qozaq bridge in northern Syria.
Attacks on the strategic sites — controlled by the SDF — have been ongoing since a coalition of rebels led by the Islamist Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else ...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State... (HTS) toppled Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Supressor of the Damascenes... ’s regime in December.
The SNA is 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 claims that the YPG is the Syrian front for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been engaged in a decades-long conflict with the Ottoman Turkish state.
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[IsraelTimes] War monitor says 5 Syrian soldiers killed Monday, during clashes that began Saturday, when 3 Syrians were killed in Lebanon in alleged Hezbollah abduction
Leb ...Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects.... ’s president on Monday ordered troops to retaliate for gunfire from the Syrian side of the border after deadly fighting erupted overnight along the tense frontier and as more was reported on Monday.
"What is happening along the eastern and northeastern border cannot continue and we will not accept that it continues," Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun said on X. "I have given my orders to the Lebanese army to retaliate against the source of fire."
Aoun added that he asked Lebanon’s foreign minister, who is currently in Brussels for a donors conference on Syria, to contact Syrian officials to resolve the problem "and prevent further escalation."
The fighting occurred after Syria’s interim government accused operatives from Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group of crossing into Syria on Saturday, abducting three soldiers and killing them on Lebanese soil.
It was the most serious cross-border fighting since the ouster of longtime Syrian president Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators... in December.
State-run Syrian News Channel, citing an unnamed Defense Ministry official, said the Syrian army shelled "Hezbollah gatherings that killed Syrian soldiers" along the border. Hezbollah denied involvement in a statement on Sunday.
Information Minister Paul Morkos said Lebanon’s defense minister told a cabinet meeting that the three killed were smugglers. He added that one child was killed and six people were maimed on the Lebanese side.
On Monday, a Syrian soldier was reported killed by Hezbollah rocket fire and at least three people were killed as the Syrian army shelled a Lebanese village, Arabic-language media reported.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britannia-based war monitor of unclear funding, said five Syrian soldiers were killed during Monday’s festivities.
Lebanon’s state news agency reported that fighting intensified Monday evening near the Lebanese town of Hermel.
Violence recently spiked in the area between the Syrian military and armed Lebanese Shiite clans closely allied with the former government of Assad, based in Lebanon’s al-Qasr border village.
Lebanese media and the observatory say clans were involved in the abductions that sparked the latest festivities.
The Lebanese and Syrian armies said they have opened channels of communication to ease tensions. Lebanon’s military also said it returned the bodies of the three killed Syrians. Large numbers of Lebanese troops have been deployed in the area.
Lebanese media reported low-level fighting at dawn after an attack on a Syrian military vehicle. The number of casualties was unclear.
SYRIAN JOURNALISTS EMBEDDED WITH ARMY LIGHTLY WOUNDED
Early Monday, four Syrian journalists embedded with the Syrian army were lightly maimed after an artillery shell fired from the Lebanese side of the border hit their position. They accused Hezbollah of the attack.
Meanwhile,
...back at the shattered spaceship, Fffflirgoll the Arcturan slithered stealthily toward the control room, where the humans had barricaded themselves... senior Hezbollah politician Hussein Haj Hassan, in an interview with Lebanon’s Al Jadeed television, accused fighters from the Syrian side of crossing into Lebanese territory and attacking border villages. His constituency is the northeastern Baalbek-Hermel province, which has borne the brunt of the festivities.
Hezbollah was a key backer of Assad before he was toppled in a lightning offensive by Islamist-led rebels in December.
Syria’s new authorities announced last month the launch of a security campaign in the border province of Homs, aimed at shutting down routes used for arms and goods smuggling. They accused Hezbollah of launching attacks, saying it was sponsoring cross-border smuggling gangs.
Lebanon, meanwhile, has been seeking international support to boost funding for its military as it gradually deploys troops along its porous northern and eastern borders with Syria as well as its southern border with Israel.
A journalist and a photographer were injured on Monday amid clashes between Syrian security forces and alleged Lebanese Hezbollah fighters, Syrian state media reported.
“A photographer and a journalist were injured on the Syrian-Lebanese border near the Zeita Dam after being directly targeted by a guided missile fired by Hezbollah militia,” Syria’s state-run SANA news agency said, citing a source in Homs province.
On Sunday, Syria's defense ministry accused Hezbollah of kidnapping three Syrian army soldiers, abducting them into Lebanese territory, and executing them. Hezbollah denied involvement. Maybe it was UNRWA?
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, reported on Monday that four Syrian army soldiers were killed “in clashes with tribal gunmen on the Syria-Lebanon border, putting the Syrian death toll at eight since clashes erupted.”
This is not the first time skirmishes have occurred along the Lebanon-Syria border since the new Syrian leadership assumed power in Damascus.
In early February, the state-run Lebanese National News Agency (NNA) said that the Lebanese Army began responding with "appropriate weapons" to sources of fire that targeted Lebanese territory from within Syria. The army issued orders to military units deployed on the northern and eastern borders to "respond to the sources of fire launched from Syrian territory targeting Lebanese land."
The Lebanese-Syrian border is geographically complex, characterized by mountains, valleys, and plains, with no clear demarcations separating the two countries. The two sides share six land border crossings, extending over a distance of about 375 kilometers.
The new Syrian leadership has expressed keenness to strengthen its security presence along the border with neighboring countries, including Lebanon, as part of broader efforts to stabilize domestic conditions and combat drug smuggling and remnants of the previous regime.
Dramatic night as Saudi sources now claims Iranian intel ship Zagros (SIGINT) was sunk by U.S. forces at the same time the IDF conducts wide-ranging strikes in Gaza after Israel discovers Hamas was plotting another major Oct 7 style attack. Gaza ceasefire officially over,… pic.twitter.com/VdV8UtXeol
[IsraelTimes] Military says it hit Hezbollah surveillance operatives, terror group’s sites in Lebanon; weapons in Syria
The Israeli military conducted Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s in Syria and Leb ...The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else?... on Monday, which it said targeted several terror operatives and military sites that "posed a threat to the State of Israel."
According to local media and medics, the strikes killed at least nine people and maimed several others.
In Lebanon, a strike in the afternoon targeted two Hezbollah operatives, whom the Israel Defense Forces said were carrying out surveillance operations on Israel and were directing "terror activity" in the area of the southern town of Yohmor.
The state-run National News Agency said that the dronezap in Yohmor had targeted a cycle of violence with two riders, but a passing van was also hit by shrapnel, and "fires erupted in it" and a nearby shop.
Lebanon’s health ministry said both men were killed in the strike, and at least two passersby were maimed.
Following the strike, Defense Minister Israel Katz said: "Our policy is clear: Zero tolerance toward any violation [of the ceasefire]. We will not allow any violation of the agreement and we will not allow the Hezbollah terror organization to restore its capabilities. Any terrorist who tries to harm Israeli civilians is a dead man."
Later in the day, the IDF carried out a wave of airstrikes in Lebanon’s northeastern Beqaa Valley region — a Hezbollah stronghold — as well as in the country’s south. There were no immediate reports of casualties in the evening strikes in Lebanon.
The IDF said it targeted sites where it had identified Hezbollah operatives and weapons, adding that "the terror activity at these sites poses a threat to the State of Israel and is a blatant violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon."
Later on Monday, the IDF said it was carrying out airstrikes on military targets in southern Syria, targeting including headquarters and other facilities used to store weapons and equipment belonging to the former Syrian regime. The military said it identified attempts by unspecified groups to use those weapons.
Israel sees the Syrian branches of Paleostinian terror groups Hamas ..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,... and 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... as a major threat, in particular following the fall of the Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Scourge of Qusayr... regime late last year.
"The presence of these [weapons] in southern Syria is a threat to the State of Israel. The IDF will not allow the existence of a military threat in southern Syria and will act against it," the IDF said.
Syrian state news agency SANA reported that "two civilians died and 19 others were maimed in Israeli airstrikes on the outskirts of Daraa city."
In Syria, the IDF has said it will continue to act against all threats as the country’s new regime grapples with consolidating power in the wake of the collapse of the decades-long rule of the Assad family.
In a statement, Syria’s health ministry reported “3 martyrs and 19 civilian injuries, including 4 children and a woman,” in the strikes, which targeted positions near the city of Daraa.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said on Tuesday that four were killed in the strikes – three civilians and one security forces member – which targeted military bases near Daraa.
Ariel Oseran أريئل أوسيران
@ariel_oseran
Four Iranian missile ships reportedly crossed the Strait of Hormuz under the protection of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard's naval forces, Al-Jazeera cites Iranian media.
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...
...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 
...The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else?...
Wazoo
..a regional Iranian catspaw,...
...
