[GaroweOnline] Somalia said Monday that a founding member of al-Shabaab ... the personification of Somali state failure... and a senior figure in the group's Shura Council had been killed in a joint military operation carried out by Somali security forces with support from international partners after more than a year of intelligence gathering.
At a presser in Mogadishu, Somali Defence Minister Ahmed Moallim Fiqi said the operation was conducted on July 5, 2026, following a 14-month intelligence investigation and surveillance campaign targeting Ibrahim "Moalim Jinaaw".
According to Fiqi, the strike hit a hut inside a farm in the Sabiyo area, between the districts of Afgooye and Basra in the Lower Shabelle region, where the holy warrior leader was staying under the protection of al-Shabaab fighters.
The minister said Ibrahim "Moalim Jinaaw" was one of al-Shabaab's founders and the ninth member of the group's Shura Council, its highest decision-making body.
Fiqi said the commander played a key role in directing the group's military operations, overseeing its extortion network, coordinating attacks and serving as a close senior adviser to al-Shabaab leader Ahmed Diriye, also known as Abu Ubaidah.
He accused Ibrahim "Moalin Jinaaw" of overseeing attacks and abuses in the regions of Bay, Bakool, Hiraan and Galgaduud, including killings, the forced recruitment of children, the seizure of weapons from local communities and the intimidation of traditional elders.
The defence minister said the government confirmed the holy warrior's death through intelligence indicating he had been killed in the strike.
He said the operation was part of Somalia's campaign to target al-Shabaab's big shotship, adding that several top commanders had been killed in recent years and that military operations against the group would continue until all of its big shots were eliminated.
Fiqi congratulated the Somali National Army and the country's security agencies for the operation and thanked international partners for their continued support in the campaign against al-Shabaab.
Somalia on Monday confirmed the death of senior Al-Shabaab leader Mo’allin Jinaw Ibrahim in an airstrike carried out earlier this month, calling him a long time member of the group's leadership council.
Defence Minister Ahmed Moallim Fiqi told a press conference that the strike took place on July 5 after Somali military intelligence tracked Ibrahim for 14 days in an operation conducted with international partners.
According to Fiqi, Ibrahim was killed in Sabiyo village, between the districts of Afgoye and Basra in the Lower Shabelle region, where he was meeting with several Al-Shabaab members at a rural hideout.
The minister said Ibrahim had been a member of Al-Shabaab since its formation and served on the group's Shura Council, which oversees the organisation's strategic decisions. He also described him as a senior adviser to the group's leader, Ahmed Diriye, known as Abu Ubaidah, and said he played a key role in directing military operations, collecting illicit taxes and coordinating recruitment.
Fiqi accused Ibrahim of orchestrating attacks and other activities in the Bay, Bakool, Galgaduud and Hiiraan regions, and said local community leaders in Bay and Bakool had repeatedly called for action against him because of his alleged role in violence and forced recruitment.
The minister said Somali authorities delayed announcing the operation until they had verified Ibrahim's death.
MALI 🇲🇱 | Après plusieurs semaines de lutte acharnée pour défendre le camp retranché de Anéfis au nord-Mali contre la coalition JNIM/FLA , les FAMa ont subi l'une des attaques les plus meurtrières depuis plus de 15 ans.🚨
MALI 🇲🇱 | After several weeks of fierce fighting to defend the entrenched camp of Anéfis in northern Mali against the JNIM/FLA coalition, the FAMa suffered one of the deadliest attacks in over 15 years.🚨
🔶 On 07/18, a convoy of several dozen vehicles from the FAMa and the Africa Corps 🇷🇺 sets out from Anéfis to join the strategic stronghold of Gao.
💥 Upon reaching the area near the locality of Tabrichat, slightly north of Tarkint and close to the Gao - Bourem - Kidal axis, the second part of the convoy, made up solely of FAMa🇲🇱, falls into an ambush by FLA and JNIM fighters.
The provisional toll is devastating, with at least 50 FAMa killed and around thirty prisoners, and it continues to worsen as more information reaches us ( 📸 of the ambush below).
🔸The Africa Corps troops, who were at the head of the convoy, were not affected by the ambush and suffered no human or material losses. Despite the critical nature of the situation, the 🇷🇺 troops withdrew to Gao without providing assistance to the rest of the convoy.
🔸 The JNIM / FLA coalition executed around ten FAMa prisoners, despite their complete disarmament
(📸 of FAMa prisoners by the FLA below)
The dissemination by the Africa Corps of a video showing these atrocities has sparked outrage among part of the Malian population, who are demanding explanations for the mercenaries' flight to Gao.
🔸Notably, Hamza Ag Gali, son of Iyad Ag Gali, leader of JNIM and founder of the Ansar Dine group, is said to have taken part in the Tabrichat ambush (📸 below).
🇲🇱 Le groupe État islamique (EI) a attaqué une unité de l'armée malienne près de Gao. Des images montrent les forces maliennes se replier immédiatement après le début des tirs, avant que les militants ne se dispersent à moto et à pied dans une vaste campagne à leur poursuite.… pic.twitter.com/Aoi5lrk6jW
🇲🇱 The Islamic State (IS) group attacked a Malian army unit near Gao. Images show Malian forces retreating immediately after the shooting began, before the militants dispersed by motorcycle and on foot across a vast countryside in pursuit of them.
In separate statements, the al-Nosra Front and the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) claimed victory and stated that they had inflicted heavy losses on Malian forces.
This clash is a continuation of the fighting in Anefif, which has been ongoing since July 4, during which the group and IS targeted Malian and Russian forces as well as their supply convoys. According to the latest report, at least 50 Malian soldiers were killed and 24 others captured in an ambush targeting a convoy leaving Anefif for Gao.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited
[Regnum] The Houthis from the Yemeni Shiite military-political movement Ansar Allah announced the beginning of a naval blockade of Saudi Arabia. This was announced on July 20 by the movement's military spokesman, Yahya Saria.
"The Yemeni Armed Forces (Houthis – Ed.) announce a ban on maritime navigation for <…> Saudi Arabia, in accordance with the 'siege for a siege' formula. This decision comes into effect from the moment this announcement is made," Saria wrote on Telegram.
In their statement, the Houthis warned that they reserve the right to a comprehensive escalation in response to Riyadh's actions. The rebels assert that their forces are fully prepared for any scenario and intend to respond harshly to any rash moves or escalations by Saudi Arabia.
In addition, representatives of Ansar Allah called on their supporters to continue the process of general mobilization.
Last week, Yemen's Houthis attacked Abha International Airport in retaliation for the Saudi air force's attack on Sana'a Airport. This breached the ceasefire between the Saudis and the Iran-backed Houthis, which had been in effect since 2022.
In early June, the Houthis announced a complete ban on Israeli shipping in the Red Sea and a targeted missile strike against high-value targets in Tel Aviv. The Israeli army reported that one missile fired that morning was intercepted by air defense systems.
KUWAIT | Satellite imagery shows major smoke plumes over the Al Ahmadi port area following Iranian strikes.
The IRGC claimed it targeted a U.S. naval fuel-support pier and military communications infrastructure at the port.
The imagery confirms a significant fire near oil facilities in Ahmadi Governorate, but the exact target, scale of damage and operational impact have not yet been independently verified.
Posted by: badanov ||
07/21/2026 00:00 ||
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[IsraelTimes] Islamic Jihad operative also tried to attack GHF sites, IDF says; Al-Yaman Al-Saeed Hospital reported bombed, killing 2, injuring others; 3 reportedly killed in south Gaza strike
A Paleostinian Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... terrorist who participated in the massacre at the Nova music festival during the October 7, 2023, onslaught, and took hostage Inbar Haiman, was killed in an Israeli strike over the weekend, the Israel Defense Forces said.
The IDF said the strike on Friday in the 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 killed Taher Ahmad Salem Abd al-Wahed, who, on October 7, "infiltrated the Nova music festival and commanded" Haiman’s kidnapping.
The IDF’s announcement came as Hamas ..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,... -affiliated media reported on Monday that five people were killed in two separate Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip, including in a bombing that hit a hospital and another that targeted a vehicle. There was no immediate comment from the Israel Defense Forces on the incidents.
Haiman, 27, from Haifa, was captured and murdered by bandidosbandidos turbans while fleeing the music festival, and her body was taken to Gaza. Her remains were returned to Israel by Hamas in October 2025. Terrorists killed 361 people at the festival among the 1,200 who were killed during the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel that day. Dozens of festival-goers were taken hostage.
In a separate strike in central Gaza, another Islamic Jihad operative, Salah Subhi Salah Qatrawi, was killed, the IDF said.
Qatrawi had attempted to advance attacks on troops near the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid distribution sites during the war, according to the military. The GHF was an Israeli- and US-backed organization that worked to bring humanitarian aid into Gaza for several months during 2025, in a bid to bypass Hamas. Paleostinians were regularly reported killed surrounding its distribution sites, and it has since ceased operations.
Recently, both Islamic Jihad operatives attempted to advance "imminent" attacks on IDF troops and Israeli civilians, the military added, and therefore were targeted.
The IDF in recent months has ramped up strikes on terror operatives in Gaza, including numerous bandidosbandidos turbans who took part in the October 7 attack, saying almost every time that they posed a threat to Israeli forces. Those strikes have also come alongside civilian casualties.
On Monday, Hamas-affiliated media outlets in Gaza reported that the IDF struck al-Yaman al-Saeed Hospital, a small hospital in the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip.
According to the reports, two people were killed, including a woman, and 16 others were maimed, among them women and kiddies.
Aircraft fired two missiles into the first floor of the hospital, local sources told the official Paleostinian news agency WAFA, based in the West Bank.
Earlier, Hamas-affiliated media outlets in Gaza reported that three people were killed and several others were maimed in a strike on a vehicle in the Mawasi area near Khan Younis, in the southwestern Gaza Strip.
At least 1,100 Paleostinians have been killed in Gaza since a ceasefire took effect in October 2025, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza. That toll is unverified and does not differentiate between civilians and combatants, though the Israeli military has said that Hamas’s overall figure is largely accurate.
[IsraelTimes] US president threatens Tehran ‘many times over’ for death of every American soldier, as military carries out 10th consecutive night of strikes while Iran targets Kuwait, Bahrain, Jordan
A US official said Monday that Washington’s strikes against 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... were likely to continue, even as the sides negotiate a resolution to an ongoing dispute regarding control over the Strait of Hormuz, while US President Donald Trump ...His ancestors didn't own any slaves... threatened to make Tehran pay for the deaths of American servicemembers.
Trump said Monday that he had directed the Pentagon to kill "many times" the number of Iranians for every US soldier killed by Tehran.
"Every time Iran kills an American Soldier they will pay for that killing many times over! This directive has been passed on to Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Daniel Caine, and every Leader in the Military," Trump wrote on Truth Social, without elaborating.
The post suggested that the sides were heading toward a further escalation, after at least two US troops were killed in an Iranian attack on Jordan over the weekend, in addition to a servicemember killed in Iraq. The total number of confirmed American fatalities in the war has now risen to 17.
Noted.
Nearly 100 US servicemembers have been maimed since July 7, the Pentagon said on Monday, most with minor concussions.
Also noted.
Despite the escalation in violence, so far Israel has not joined the strikes nor been the target of retaliation by Iran. According to a Channel 12 news report Monday evening, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a security consultation to discuss multiple scenarios — including the possibility that Israel could be drawn into the conflict if Iran chooses to target it. According to the report, Israeli defense officials told the elected leaders that there is an active debate in Tehran over whether to bring Israel into the line of fire. Israel is said to be coordinating closely with US Central Command, in the event that the conflict broadens, while the IDF has taken steps in recent days to ensure it can respond rapidly should the situation escalate.
Meanwhile a US official told news hounds Monday that diplomatic negotiations between Washington and Tehran were nevertheless continuing.
Keeping dear VP JD Vance busy, on top of his other, much more successful projects. It’s important to keep a channel open so when they’re ready to surrender, they can just pick up the phone and make it happen quickly.
"Right now, President Trump is focused on making Iran pay for their violations of the MOU and their continued acts of terrorism in the Strait of Hormuz," said a US official in a statement sent to querying news hounds.
A useful thing, JD’sMOU, as a stick to beat Iran with, since they so helpfully provided it.
"In addition, the president will make Iran pay for the recent deaths of US soldiers. These devastating blows will continue until the president deems otherwise, but talks between our countries are continuing," the US official added.
The comments came as fighting between Washington and Tehran showed no signs of abating, with the US Central Command announcing late Monday the 10th-straight night of strikes on targets in Iran.
"The strikes are designed to further degrade Iranian military capabilities used to attack commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz," CENTCOM said.
The US military said the strikes hit Iranian military command centers, maritime capabilities, missile and drone launch sites, and air defense systems.
Meanwhile Iran continued to retaliate against US targets in Gulf countries, striking sites in Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain and Syria.
The Jordanian military said Monday that three Iranian ballistic missiles launched at the country were shot down by air defenses.
"The interception and shootdown operation did not result in any casualties or material damage," the military said in a statement carried by the official Petra news agency.
Kuwait said its air defenses fired at an incoming barrage, and Bahrain’s Foreign Ministry condemned Iranian dronezaps targeting the country’s air traffic systems, saying they endanger travel for civilians. Later, the Iranian army said it had targeted a US base in Kuwait with missiles and US defense systems in Bahrain.
"The army’s ground forces targeted the HIMARS missile systems of the US terrorist army stationed at the Arifjan base in Kuwait with surface-to-surface missiles," state news agency IRNA said, quoting the army’s public relations officials.
"HIMARS is a mobile missile system with the ability to move quickly against ground targets, which, when targeted, causes damage to the offensive and defensive layers and reduces the enemy’s missile power in aggressive crimes," it said.
Camp Arifjan, located south of Kuwait City, accommodates elements of the US Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard. In addition the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said that it had targeted US military systems in Bahrain, including a radar and air defense system in Muharraq. It also said a Patriot air defense system in Riffa was hit in a simultaneous missile and drone attack.
The IRGC also took credit for targeting two oil tankers attempting to transit the southern route of the Strait of Hormuz, which it said both caught fire. It said the strait would remain closed as long as the US actions in the region continued. The British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said Monday evening that a second ship had been attacked a day earlier in the Strait of Hormuz, this one off the coast of the United Arab Emirates. The other vessel caught fire in the Strait of Hormuz after being hit by a projectile near the coastline of Oman. The crew abandoned the vessel, which was adrift and still ablaze hours later, the UKMTO said.
Separately, an explosive-laden drone was shot down near Iraq’s al-Harir air base which houses US forces, security sources told Rooters on Monday. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage from the incident which was reported east of Erbil.
Despite his threats on Monday, the Trump administration’s messaging has been oftentimes wildly contradictory, with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio ...The diminutive 13-year-old Republican U.S. Senator from Florida, Secretary of State in the second Trump administration... saying that a deal with Iran is still possible and the White House promoting a June poll that showed a majority of Americans support the memorandum of understanding that both sides have indicated is no longer in place.
Trump in the past has reportedly told advisers he prefers to keep Iran confused about his intentions by making bombastic threats, even if he does not actually plan to carry them out.
[NationalContext] Since US-Iran hostilities re-escalated around July 11th, Iran has carried out at least seven attacks on Iranian Kurdish opposition groups in the Kurdistan Region, killing nine fighters and wounding at least 12 others, at least five of them seriously.
The attacks included:
17 July: A missile barrage on a Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan camp at Zargwezle, south of Suleimani, killing nine fighters.
17 July: A separate missile strike on a Komala of the Toilers camp at Surdash.
17 July: A reported drone strike on a PDKI camp at Zawiya Spi, near Koya.
19 July: An explosive-drone strike on a PAK base at Chemshar, near Darashakran, wounding eight fighters, four of them seriously.
20 July: A missile strike on a Komala of the Toilers position in the Alana Valley, near Khalifan.
20 July: A drone strike on the group’s camp at Surdash.
20 July: A separate drone strike on its position in the Jasana area.
Since the war began on 28 February, at least 19 Iranian Kurdish fighters have been killed in Iranian attacks, while the groups’ bases and positions in the Kurdistan Region have been targeted by hundreds of missiles and drones.
Posted by: badanov ||
07/21/2026 00:00 ||
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#1
About time to help the Kurdish folks out a bit?
Posted by: Oregon Dave ||
07/21/2026 0:17 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
... the personification of Somali state failure...
"The Yemeni Armed Forces (Houthis – Ed.) announce a ban on maritime navigation for <…> Saudi Arabia, in accordance with the 'siege for a siege' formula. This decision comes into effect from the moment this announcement is made," Saria wrote on Telegram.
..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,...
...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 
