[IsraelTimes] Turkey has deployed F-16 fighter jets to Somalia, officials tell AFP, as Ankara seeks to expand its military footprint in the Horn of Africa.
Ankara is a key ally of Somalia, providing extensive military and economic support to the country, which has been ravaged by civil war since the early 1990s.
“Turkey has deployed F-16 jets in Somalia,” a government official tells AFP, without giving further details.
A second official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, says the aircraft will be operated by the Turkish contingent stationed in Somalia.
“This is for our own security,” the source said, stressing that the jets would not be flown by Somali personnel.
Turkey opened its largest overseas military base in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, in 2017.
Ankara maintains a task force and an air component command there “to contribute to the development of Somalia’s counter-terrorism capacity through military assistance, training and advisory activities,” according to the Turkish defense ministry.
The deployment follows Turkey’s condemnation of Israel’s recognition of Somaliland, a self-proclaimed republic, calling it “overt interference in Somalia’s domestic affairs.”
The window for that is closing, if reports about an Israeli base to be built in Somaliland are true. Unless President Erdogan really wants to close with the IDF. How strong is his faith that Allah will carry the day for him?
Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin is in italics:
[ColonelCassad] Niger's leader accused France, Benin, and Côte d'Ivoire of supporting the attack on Niamey Airport.
Niger President Abdourahmane Tchiani accused the authorities of France, Benin, and Côte d'Ivoire of supporting the terrorists who attacked the Niamey Airport area, including the 101st Air Force Base. "We remind the sponsors of these mercenaries, in particular [the presidents of France, Benin, and Côte d'Ivoire] Emmanuel Macron, Patrice Talon, and Alassane Ouattara, that we have heard enough of their 'barking,' and that they, in turn, must also prepare to hear our [response]," Tchiani said.
After inspecting the affected area, Tchiani told reporters that the airport had been subjected to an attempted "infiltration by remotely controlled mercenaries." He commended the efforts of the Russian military in repelling the attack. "This is an opportunity to commend the efforts of all defense and security forces, as well as our Russian partners, for their prompt actions, which allowed us to completely defeat the enemy within twenty minutes," the head of state noted.
Nigerien Defense Minister Salifou Modi reported that the armed forces had killed 20 militants and detained 11 more, most of whom were seriously wounded.
Four Nigerien soldiers were killed during the clashes.
On the night of January 29, as reported by sources of the African Initiative, an armed attack was carried out on the area of the airport in the capital of Niger, Niamey, including the territory of the 101st Air Base of the country's Air Force.
As stated after the active disintegration of the French colonial empire in West Africa, France will actively sponsor terrorists and separatists in the region in order to weaken the governments of countries where national liberation movements have won, as well as to hinder the strengthening of influence of Russia, Turkey, and a number of other countries that benefited from the collapse of the French colonial empire. ECOWAS countries, where pro-French governments still remain, are also being used for attacks.
In the case of Niger, France remains haunted by the loss of access to Niger's uranium mines. This setback, of course, will not stop France from preparing new attacks and terrorist attacks in Niger. The French will also support separatists and terrorists operating against Mali and Burkina Faso.
Sahel tensions escalate after Niamey airport attack as Tchiani accuses France, Benin, and Côte d’Ivoire of sponsoring the attack
By: Zagazola Makama
A coordinated attack on Dori Hamani International Airport in Niger’s capital has raised alarm over the growing audacity of armed… pic.twitter.com/S2nGjX0vMg
A coordinated attack on Dori Hamani International Airport in Niger’s capital has raised alarm over the growing audacity of armed groups in the Sahel and the fragility of regional security cooperation. The assault, which lasted several hours on the night of 28–29 January, was carried out by armed assailants mounted on motorcycles who switched off their headlights to infiltrate the city undetected.
The attackers reportedly targeted military installations co-located with the civilian airport, including drone platforms, air defense systems, and commercial aircraft belonging to Air Côte d’Ivoire and ASKY Airlines. Mortars, drones, and small arms were used in the attack.
The Nigerien Defense and Security Forces, with the support of Russian African Corps personnel, repelled the assault, sustaining four injuries among security personnel. Twenty assailants were neutralized, 11 apprehended, and several motorcycles destroyed or seized. Civilians were unharmed. More at the link
[FoxNews] New legislation makes way for private companies to take control over Venezuelan oil operations
Venezuela's acting President Delcy Rodriguez signed a law overhauling the nation's oil sector, opening it to privatization. The move reverses a core policy of the socialist movement that has ruled the country for more than two decades.
Rodriguez's policy shift, aimed at luring the foreign investors needed to rework the industry, comes less than one month after the U.S. captured former Venezuelan dictatorial leader Nicolás Maduro. The acting president, who served as Maduro's vice president prior to his capture, was facing pressure from the Trump administration, which was eyeing Venezuela's oil industry after imposing sanctions.
On Jan. 10, Trump hosted nearly two dozen top oil and gas executives at the White House. He said American energy companies will invest $100 billion to rebuild Venezuela’s "rotting" oil infrastructure and push production to record levels.
That same day, Trump signed an executive order titled "Safeguarding Venezuelan Oil Revenue for the Good of the American and Venezuelan People," blocking U.S. courts from seizing Venezuelan oil revenues held in American Treasury accounts.
"We’re talking about the future. We are talking about the country that we are going to give to our children," Rodríguez said of the reform, according to The Associated Press.
The legislation ends the state-owned Petróleos de Venezuela SA’s (PDVSA) monopoly over the production and sale of oil, as well as pricing, and allows private companies to take control, the AP reported.
The new law states that a private company "will assume full management of the activities at its own expense, account, and risk, after demonstrating its financial and technical capacity through a business plan approved by" Venezuela's Oil Ministry, according to the AP. However, the outlet added that the law leaves control of hydrocarbon reserves operated by private companies with the government.
The law also allows for independent arbitration of disputes, ending the requirement that they be settled in Venezuelan courts controlled by the ruling party, according to the AP. Additionally, it modifies extraction taxes, setting a royalty cap rate of 30%, the AP reported.
President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with Rodriguez on Thursday, the AP reported. The call came just one day after the secretary explained to senators how the administration was planning to handle the sale of tens of millions of barrels of oil from Venezuela, the AP added. The outlet noted that Venezuela has the largest reserves of crude oil in the world.
"What we hope to do is transition to a mechanism that allows that to be sold in a normal way, a normal oil industry, not one dominated by cronies, not one dominated by graft and corruption," Rubio said at a Senate hearing on Wednesday.
The secretary said that the U.S. would retain control of the oil revenue and that Venezuela would submit monthly budget outlining what they need funded. Subsequently, the funds will be moved into an account over which the U.S. will have oversight. He explained that the money would not be in the hands of the U.S., but Washington would control its disbursement to ensure it benefits the Venezuelan people.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Denmark will expel non-Danish citizens who have served prison terms of a year or more for serious crimes, the government announced Friday as it presented new measures to tighten its immigration policy.
'Foreign offenders sentenced to at least one year in prison for serious crimes, such as aggravated assault and rape, should, in principle, be expelled,' the immigration ministry said in a statement.
Under current regulations, expulsions are not automatic, as Denmark complies with international conventions protecting the right to private and family life and forbidding inhumane treatment.
The Scandinavian country has, together with Britain, recently called on Europe to reform the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which safeguards fundamental freedoms.
'It is right and necessary for European countries to sit around a table and say that we prefer to protect our countries rather than protect offenders,' Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told journalists.
'When international rules were drafted, I don't think anyone imagined that someone would flee the Middle East to come to the best country in the world and start raping girls and women,' she said.
'At the time, it was absolutely not imagined that the victim would become the perpetrator. And I can assure you that, unfortunately, many of them have,' she said.
According to statistics from the immigration ministry, around 70 percent of foreign nationals sentenced to prison terms of one year or more for serious crimes have been expelled.
In addition, the government - which insisted that 'refugees must be in Denmark on a temporary basis' - plans to boost incentives for voluntary returns and to tighten rules for foreigners in departure centres.
Denmark also said Friday it would reopen its embassy in Syria and establish cooperation with Afghanistan.
In the departure centres, some foreigners who fail to comply with their reporting requirements will be required to wear electronic ankle tags.
Frederiksen told a news conference that the government was acting 'unconventionally' and was amending legislation rather than waiting for court rulings on deportation cases.
Immigration and Integration Minister Rasmus Stoklund said 315 foreign criminals from countries outside the European Union had received sentences of more than a year over the last five years but were not expelled.
'Many of us find that hard to understand,' he told the news conference.
The announcement comes as the EU - which counts Denmark as a member - has been grappling with integration of foreign nationals and migrants and stiffening its legal arsenal.
Last month, the 27-member country bloc began finalising an overhaul of its migration system, including tougher restrictions on accepting asylum claims.
Many political parties in Europe, and beyond in the Western world, have expressed growing anger over what they see as an undesired surge of immigration in recent years.
But in Denmark, a country with hardline immigrtion laws, asylum applications have fallen by 90 per cent in 10 years, dropping to just 2,333 last year.
Numbers had peaked in 2015 with 21,316 requests.
In 2018, the government enacted the controversial 'anti-ghetto law', which targets neighbourhoods where large numbers of 'non-Western' immigrants live in concentrated areas.
It allows the state to demolish apartment blocks in areas to prevent 'parallel societies' from forming.
Formerly, the government referred to these neighbourhoods as 'ghettoes'.
The law was updated in 2021 to allow councils to create 'prevention areas' where they can refuse to rent to people from outside Denmark, the EU, the EEA, or Switzerland.
If these areas also have high levels of unemployment or crime, authorities are obliged to reduce social housing by 40 per cent, including by selling or demolishing properties, or by terminating the lease of tenants by 2030.
In December 2025, the European court of justice (ECJ) said the legislation may be unlawful under the EU’s race equality directive.
In a preliminary ruling, the ECJ found the policy could lead to an increased risk of eviction for residents in these neighbourhoods compared with those in areas with similar socioeconomic problems but lower levels of immigration.
In 2018, Denmark banned the wearing of face veils in public, joining France and other European countries in outlawing the burqa and the niqab worn by some Muslim women to uphold what some politicians say are secular and democratic values.
Under the law, police can instruct women to remove their veils or order them to leave public areas.
France was the first European country to introduce a blanket ban on wearing burqas in public in 2011.
The list has expanded significantly since, with more than 20 states around the world implementing some form of ban on the burqa and other full-face coverings in public, including Austria, Tunisia, Turkey, Sri Lanka, Switzerland and Belgium.
“You want the ISIS-loving troublemaker? You can have him!”
He must be connected to receive such an effort from the still-new HTS government.
[Rudaw] A Syrian national charged by an Iraqi court with terrorism-related offenses - including glorifying 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) leaders and inciting attacks against Iraqi forces - has been repatriated to Damascus after being "cleared of the charges against him," Syrian state media reported Wednesday.
"Syrian national Mohammed Anqa arrived Tuesday evening at Damascus International Airport from Iraq," the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported, noting that he has been "cleared of the charges against him."
The state-run agency credited his release to "the intense diplomatic efforts" of "the Syrian government and its continuous follow-up on the case, in coordination with the Iraqi government, which contributed to settling his case and ensuring his safe return to the homeland."
Speaking to news hounds at the airport, Brigadier General Abdul Rahman al-Dabbagh, a bigwig in Syria’s General Intelligence Service, said that Damascus state institutions, "under the direct guidance of [interim] President Ahmed al-Sharaa," are working to "protect the rights and freedoms of every Syrian citizen wherever they may be."
"The Syrian citizen is not just a number, but has weight both inside Syria and abroad," Dabbagh added, thanking "the brotherly country of Iraq for its dealings and cooperation with the Syrian side."
For his part, the released national, Anqa, was quoted by SANA as saying that his case in Iraq "was fully resolved" and that the charges against him stemmed from a "misunderstanding."
In late October, Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council said Anqa had been indicted by a court in southern Iraq for "praising and encouraging the killing of members of the Iraqi Army and the Popular Mobilization Forces [PMF]" through his social media accounts.
The Council also rejected claims circulating on "some social media pages" that a death sentence ...the barbaric practice of sentencing a murderer to be punished for as long as his/her/its victim is dead... had been issued against the Syrian national, or that he was arrested for "publishing a video glorifying the current Syrian [interim] president."
It clarified that the ruling against the defendant was instead for "the crime of confessing to the glorification of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi," the former leader of the Islamic State’s (ISIS) self-declared caliphate, who was killed in a US raid in northwestern Syria in October 2019.
According to the Council, Anqa had also "called on people to join the terrorist [ISIS] entity" and "posted videos of himself burning a portrait of Imam Ali bin Abi Talib (599-661 CE)" - the first imam in Shiite Islam and the fourth caliph in Islam - "with the aim of provoking chaos and sectarian tension."
The Council emphasized at the time that "this ruling is not final and will be reviewed by the Federal Court of Cassation once the case file is received, as it is subject to automatic appeal (cassation)."
The Syrian foreign ministry later said it was following up on Anqa’s case through official channels.
Mohammad al-Ahmad, director of the ministry’s Arab Affairs Department, said in a post on X that Foreign Minister Assad al-Shaibani had instructed officials to ensure the case was "followed up with the Iraqi government through official channels until the authenticity of the published document is verified and further action is taken accordingly."
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/31/2026 2026-01-31 00:08 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1772 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
#1
Gee... it's almost like the new, safer Syria is just a taqqiya op.
[Rudaw] Around 500 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) detainees have reportedly been transferred from Syria to Iraq, two senior Iraqi security sources confirmed to Rudaw on Wednesday. While their remarks align with statements from the US Central Command (CENTCOM), they contradict Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein, who told Rudaw on Monday that the transfer has not yet been implemented.
The two well-placed Iraqi security sources who spoke to Rudaw anonymously reported that four convoys carrying 475 Islamic State (ISIS) detainees have been transferred from prisons previously held by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northeast Syria (Rojava), noting that the suspects were primarily held in facilities in Rojava’s eastern Hasaka province.
The sources said the detainees were moved from Syria to facilities in Iraq by Tuesday evening.
One of the officials detailed that around "95 percent of those transferred are foreign nationals, with Syrians making up the majority of them."
All of the detainees were held at Ghuwayran prison in Hasaka, the sources confirmed, adding that the transferred group includes some of the "most dangerous" ISIS members, many of whom were among the top echelon of the holy warrior organization.
Of note, Ghuwayran prison is a high-security detention facility that gained international attention in January 2022, when ISIS launched a massive operation to free thousands of its fighters of various nationalities, including hundreds of minors who had grown up under the holy warrior group in what it calls the "Cubs of the Caliphate." After a brutal 10-day confrontation, the US-backed SDF regained control of the facility that continues to be described as a ticking time bomb.
CENTCOM announced last week that "U.S. forces successfully transported 150 ISIS fighters held at a detention facility in Hasakah, Syria, to a secure location in Iraq," adding that "ultimately, up to 7,000 ISIS detainees could be transferred from Syria to Iraqi-controlled facilities."
Interestingly, the remarks by both CENTCOM and the two Iraqi security officials appear to contradict those of Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein, who said that while Baghdad and Washington "have discussed the [transfer of ISIS detainees from Syria to Iraq] in principle, this has not been implemented yet."
Nonetheless, Hussein added that "it is better for us to transfer them, because they were part of a terrorist organization, and that organization killed people in Iraq and Syria, so legally it is our right."
The transfer of ISIS detainees from Syria to Iraq comes days after a US-brokered ceasefire was extended for 15 days on Saturday, temporarily halting an offensive by Damascus forces and allied hard boyz aimed at reclaiming territory previously held by Kurdish-led forces in Aleppo, Deir ez-Zor, Raqqa, and near Hasaka.
The SDF, the de facto military force in Rojava and a key ally of the US-led Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS in Syria, had controlled these areas after liberating them from the holy warrior group to prevent an ISIS resurgence.
One of the security sources who spoke to Rudaw on Wednesday said that not all detainees could be transferred within the remaining 10 days of the ceasefire, stressing, "All prisoners cannot be transferred to Iraq in the few days remaining, so we will definitely need a further extension of the ceasefire."
[IsraelTimes] Medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières says it will not submit lists of staff demanded by Israel to maintain access to Gaza and the West Bank, saying it had not been able to obtain assurances over the safety of its teams.
Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym MSF, which supports and helps staff hospitals in Gaza, is one of 37 international organizations that Israel ordered this month to stop work in the Palestinian territories unless they meet new rules, including providing employee details.
The aid groups say sharing such staff information could pose a safety risk, pointing to the hundreds of aid workers who were killed or injured during the two-year Gaza war.
Israel’s Diaspora Ministry, which manages the registration process, does not immediately respond to a request for comment. Israel has previously said the registrations were meant to prevent diversions of aid by Palestinian armed groups. Aid agencies dispute that substantial aid has been diverted.
ארגון רופאים ללא גבולות חזר בו והודיע כי לא ישתף עם ישראל את רשימת העובדים הפלסטינים שלו. לטענתם לאחר שישראל לא סיפקה ערבויות שהמידע לא יסכן את העובדים. המשמעות היא שהארגון, שהוא אחד מהארגונים הרפואיים הגדולים שפועלים בעזה ובגדה יגורש וכל המרפאות שלו (ראו מפה) יסגרו. pic.twitter.com/01NQUVJ2sZ
[IsraelTimes] According to the Israeli military, the arrival of USS Delbert D. Black was pre-planned and part of the ongoing cooperation between the IDF and the US military.
The US in recent weeks has been moving military assets to the Middle East, boosting available firepower and defensive capabilities in the region, and giving President Donald Trump the option to launch an attack on Iran against the backdrop of the regime’s killing of protesters.
American warships regularly sail in the Red Sea area, although their arrival at Eilat Port is rare.
#1
Israel is our most important ally in the region. Why don't we have a base there?
Hell, even Russia had a base in Syria.
We have a giant airbase in Qatar and they're the home of Muslim Brotherhood, an enemy terrorist organization that is behind Hamas, Tucker Carlson and other adversaries.
Someone make this make sense.
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/31/2026 6:22 Comments ||
Top||
#3
We put bases in countries we are defending. Israel handles its own defense, though it is willing to partner on certain projects or accommodate America to some extent, because it does not trust anyone else to do so properly. And given that the Biden-Harris Politburo was willing to withhold missiles and bullets in the middle of the post-10/7 war, they are absolutely right.
There is the international observer thing in the Sinai that’s been there since Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat signed the Camp David Accords peace treaty in front of President Jimmy Carter in 1979. Wikipedia has a page.
Turnabout, so they say, is fair play.
Let us test that old adage today:
"Should we launch at the 'Turk?'"
"Sure, why not?" [Arleigh Burke]
"Oops! We just hit your SPY ship!"
"Oy, vey!"
[IsraelTimes] The United States has imposed sanctions on Iranian Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni and a businessman it says helped launder money for Tehran, as US President Donald Trump’s administration ramps up pressure on the Islamic Republic.
The Department of the Treasury, announcing the move, says Momeni was responsible for a brutal security crackdown in Iran this month as he oversees law enforcement forces it said were responsible for the deaths of thousands of peaceful protesters.
Trump has in recent weeks issued threats to intervene in Iran over the bloody suppression of the protests and has sent warships to the Middle East, even as he has said he plans to talk with the government there.
The financial sanctions on Friday also targeted five other Iranian security officials involved in “violently repressing the Iranian people,” the Treasury says in a statement.
Sanctions are also issued against investor Babak Zanjani and two digital asset exchanges registered in Britain that the Treasury said had processed funds linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says the US would continue to target Iranian elites and their networks, who he says exploit digital assets to evade sanctions and finance cybercriminal operations.
“Like rats on a sinking ship, the regime is frantically wiring funds stolen from Iranian families to banks and financial institutions around the world. Rest assured, Treasury will act,” Bessent says in the statement.
[IsraelTimes] Experts say new roofs at Isfahan, Natanz likely part of effort ‘to assess whether key assets, such as limited stocks of highly enriched uranium, survived the strikes’ by Israel and US
As tensions soar over Iran’s bloody crackdown on nationwide protests, satellite images show activity at two Iranian nuclear sites bombed last year by Israel and the United States that may be a sign of Tehran trying to obscure efforts to salvage any materials remaining there.
The images from Planet Labs PBC show that roofs have been built over two damaged buildings at the Isfahan and Natanz facilities, the first major activity noticeable by satellite at any of the country’s stricken nuclear sites since Israel’s 12-day war with 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... in June.
Those coverings block satellites from seeing what’s happening on the ground, which is the only way for inspectors from the ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency to monitor the sites right now, as Iran has prevented access.
Iran has not publicly discussed the activity at the two sites. The IAEA, a watchdog agency of the United Nations ...where theory meets practice and practice loses... , did not respond to requests for comment.
US President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and whatever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th and 47th President of the United States... has repeatedly demanded that Iran negotiate a deal over its nuclear program to avert threatened American military strikes over the country’s crackdown on protesters. The US has moved the USS Abraham Lincoln and several guided-missile destroyers into the Middle East, but it remains unclear whether Trump will decide to use force.
The new roofs do not appear to be a sign of reconstruction starting at the heavily damaged facilities, experts who examined the sites said. Instead, they are likely part of Iran’s efforts "to assess whether key assets — such as limited stocks of highly enriched uranium — survived the strikes," said Andrea Stricker, who studies Iran for the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies, which has been sanctioned by Tehran.
"They want to be able to get at any recovered assets they can get to without Israel or the United States seeing what survived," she said.
ISFAHAN AND NATANZ ARE 2 KEY IRAN SITES
Prior to Israel launching a 12-day war with Iran in June, the Islamic Theocratic Republic had three major nuclear sites associated with its program. Iran has long insisted its nuclear program is peaceful. However,
if you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning... Iranian officials in recent years have increasingly threatened to pursue the bomb, with Israel saying that Iran taken steps toward weaponization shortly before the war. The West and the IAEA say Iran had an organized nuclear weapons program up until 2003. Tehran has also enriched uranium to levels that have no peaceful application, obstructed international inspectors from checking its nuclear facilities, expanded its ballistic missile capabilities, and repeatedly called for the destruction of Israel.
The Natanz site, some 220 kilometers (135 miles) south of the capital, is a mix of above- and below-ground laboratories that did the majority of Iran’s uranium enrichment.
Before the war, the IAEA said Iran used advanced centrifuges there to enrich uranium up to 60 percent, a short, technical step from weapons-grade levels of 90%. Some of the material is presumed to have been onsite for when the entire complex was attacked.
The facility outside the city of Isfahan was mainly known for producing the uranium gas that is fed into centrifuges to be spun and purified.
A third site, Fordo, some 95 kilometers (60 miles) southwest of the capital, housed a hardened enrichment site under a mountain.
During last year’s war, Israel targeted the sites first, followed by US strikes using bunker-busting bombs and Tomahawk cruise missiles. The US strikes "significantly degraded Iran’s nuclear program," the White House’s National Security Strategy published in November said, though specifics on the damage have been hard to come by publicly.
Iran has not allowed IAEA inspectors to visit the sites since the attacks.
ROOFS SEEN IN ISFAHAN AND NATANZ
The main above-ground enrichment building at Natanz was known as the Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant. Israel hit the building on June 13, leaving it "functionally destroyed," and "seriously damaging" underground halls holding cascades of centrifuges, the IAEA’s director-general, Rafael Mariano Grossi, said at the time. A US follow-up attack on June 22 hit Natanz’s underground facilities with bunker-busting bombs, likely decimating what remained.
Planet Labs PBC images show Iran began building a roof over the damaged plant in December. It completed the roof by the end of the month. Iran has not provided any public acknowledgment of that work. Natanz’s electrical system appears to still be destroyed.
Iran also appears to be continuing digging work that it began in 2023 at Kūh-e Kolang Gaz Lā, or "Pickaxe Mountain," a few hundred meters south of the Natanz complex’s perimeter fence. Satellite images show piles of dirt from the excavation growing in size. It is believed to be building a new underground nuclear facility there.
At Isfahan, Iran began building a similar roof over a structure near the facility’s northeast corner, finishing the work in early January. The exact function of that building is not publicly known, although the Israeli military at the time said its strikes at Isfahan targeted sites there associated with centrifuge manufacturing. The Israeli military did not respond to requests for comment over the construction.
Meanwhile,
...back at the Hubba Hubba Club, Nunzio had his hands full of angry bleached blonde... imagery shows that two tunnels into a mountain near the Isfahan facility have been packed with dirt, a measure against missile strikes that Iran also did just before the June war. A third tunnel appears to have been cleared of dirt, with a new set of walls built near the entrance as an apparent security measure.
Sarah Burkhard, a senior research associate for the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security, which long has watched Iran’s nuclear sites, said the roofs appear to be part of an operation to "recover any sort of remaining assets or rubble without letting us know what they are getting out of there."
Sean O’Connor, an expert at the open-source intelligence firm Janes, concurred that the aim was likely "to obscure activity rather than to, say, repair or rebuild a structure for use."
OTHER WORK CONTINUES IN IRAN
Since the end of the war, Iran has worked to reconstitute its ballistic missile program, rebuilding sites associated with the program, earlier AP reporting showed. That has included work at a military complex known as Parchin, just to the southeast of Tehran.
In recent weeks, Iran has been working to rebuild a site at Parchin identified by the Institute for Science and International Security as "Taleghan 2." Israel destroyed the site in an Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... in October 2024.
It has been said that an archive of Iranian nuclear data earlier seized by Israel identified the building as housing an explosive chamber and a special X-ray system to study explosive tests. Such tests could be used in research toward compressing a core of uranium with explosives — something that is needed for an implosion-style nuclear weapon.
Satellite photos show construction being done at "Taleghan 2" in recent months. The open-source intelligence firm Janes similarly noted the construction, as did the institute.
"This has been reconstituted very rapidly," said Lewis Smart, a Janes analyst who studies Iran’s nuclear program. "It’s being expanded to potentially make it more resistant to penetration attacks and bombings. ... A rather large containment vessel is being put into the facility, which could be used for high explosive testing."
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 
...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 
...
