Mali Negotiates with "Al-Qaeda" After Army and Russians Fail to Break "Lere" Siege
The Islamic and Muslim Support Group (JNIM), affiliated with Al-Qaeda, has agreed to lift the siege it imposed about 11 months ago on the city of Lere in northern Mali near the Mauritanian border.
The agreement came after negotiations led by the city's elders, with the participation of the army commander in Lere and local officials. Movement will not resume until the group removes the mines it planted on the roads.
The deal reveals that the Malian army and the Russian African Corps were unable to secure a city hosting government forces. The group does not control Lere from within, but it controls its surroundings and roads, and holds sway over the entry of food and fuel and the exit of residents.
The situation repeats in other areas. In Boni in central Mali, authorities agreed in 2025 to reduce their military presence in exchange for lifting a siege that lasted about two years. In Farabugo, the group imposes taxes and its rules on the population, while other villages and towns in the Ségou, Mopti, and Timbuktu regions have struck local deals with it to open roads and halt attacks.
Security studies say the army and its Russian allies are deployed inside bases and major cities, while the group operates in rural areas with small cells and strikes roads and supply lines. Government forces are also spread across fronts involving Al-Qaeda affiliates, ISIS affiliates, and Azawad movements.
While these forces failed to break the Lere siege, "Human Rights Watch" documented the killing of 9 civilians, including 4 children, by African Corps elements accompanied by Malian soldiers in the village of Pombouri in Youwarou last July, after the group's fighters had left the village before their arrival. A Russian airstrike also killed 8 civilians, including 3 children, in the village of Kirniya in the Mopti region.
https://t.co/JXRWZkTmhm And now Sanchez is using riot police and tear gas against the protesters. These are patriots who know that their cause is just and that their country is at stake. Sanchez has made a lot of enemies tonight, and this is how civil wars are started.
[IsraelTimes] Indictment charges that Khamis Sawaed, from the Bedouin village of Hussniyya, became interested in ISIS in 2023 and was planning to travel to Syria or Africa to join group
A former IDF soldier was charged on Wednesday with training to fight abroad with the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (ISIS) terror group, the Israel Police and Shin Bet security agency said.
The Haifa District Attorney’s Office filed the indictment against Khamis Sawaed, a resident of the northern Bedouin village of Hussniyya, at the Haifa Magistrate’s Court along with a request to keep him in jug until the end of the legal proceedings, the security agencies said in a joint statement.
Sawaed, who is in his 30s, was arrested for interrogation "in recent weeks," according to the statement.
Over the course of his interrogation, Sherlocks found that starting in 2023, Sawaed had watched how-to videos on warfare and missile and drone production out of "identification with the Islamic State terror group," the statement said.
According to the indictment filed against Sawaed and cited in Hebrew-language media, Sawaed served in the IDF from 2017 to 2019, but in 2023 became interested in ISIS. He then began watching the training videos in 2024, after deciding he would eventually go abroad, either to Syria or somewhere in Africa, to fight alongside the group.
Among the videos he watched was footage of beheadings carried out by ISIS in order to "toughen himself," Channel 12 reported.
Dozens of Arab citizens have been arrested in recent years on suspicion of plotting attacks on behalf of Islamic State, including five residents of Taybe who allegedly plotted to set off a boom-mobile at Tel Aviv’s Azrieli mall in 2024.
Last week, the Shin Bet and police announced the indictment of two teenagers from the Galilee who were accused of researching explosives to attack Israeli security forces on the Temple Mount.
Islamic State, which at one point ruled over large swaths of Iraq and Syria, in 2022 called on its supporters in Israel to carry out attacks.
The demand came after Israel moved to crack down on ISIS after six Israelis were killed in a pair of terror attacks in Beersheba and Hadera by Arab Israeli supporters of the jihadist group.
[IsraelTimes] Washington urges legal action against perpetrators, but doesn’t use the word ‘settler’; 2 Palestinians reportedly shot dead after security forces enter village to find missing pets
The United States went slightly further in condemning surging West Bank settler violence than it has in the past on Wednesday, urging legal action, though it did not use the word "settler" and avoided criticizing Israel for not cracking down on the phenomenon.
"We condemn criminal violence by any party in the West Bank and call for investigations, arrests and convictions of those responsible," a US State Department spokesperson said in response to a query from The Times of Israel on the matter.
Previous statements from the State Department on the subject were slightly more vague and largely stressed the importance of maintaining stability in the West Bank, though this one does not mention either Israel or the Paleostinians by name.
"We are in regular dialogue with partners about improving stability and security in the West Bank," the State Department spokesperson said, indicating that the US is raising the matter with Israel behind closed doors.
Surging violence by Israeli settlers across the West Bank — largely unchecked by Israeli authorities — has been met with severe condemnation from Western allies in recent weeks.
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has been just about the only member of 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... ’s administration to criticize settler violence, calling perpetrators "terrorists," while insisting that they’re not representative of the half-million Israelis living beyond the Green Line.
But he too has refrained from explicitly criticizing Israel’s handling of settler violence, which goes largely unchecked, though President Isaac Herzog insisted to CNN ...formerly the Cable News Network, now who know what it might stand for... during an interview aired Wednesday that Israeli authorities were taking the issue seriously.
Herzog called the perpetrators "juvenile delinquents" and claimed "there is a major effort by our authorities to undermine these activities and bring people to justice." He noted that a series of rare arrests were carried out earlier this week, though most of the near-daily settler attacks do not lead to arrests or prosecutions.
Herzog also likened the phenomenon to "inner-city violence," though they are different, as the perpetrators in the West Bank often profess that they are acting out of ideological nationalist motives, and seek to expel Paleostinians from the West Bank.
Still, Herzog called the Jewish turbans extremists behind the daily attacks on Paleostinians, a "shame on the face of Israel," repeating a sentiment he has expressed previously.
Meanwhile,
...back at the mall, Clarissa spent the day shopping for new underwear. Tonight was going to be a special occasion... no arrests have been made in a well-documented settler rampage that took place on Saturday in the northern West Bank Paleostinian village of Qusra, which was also subject to a siege by settlers.
On Wednesday evening, Paleostinian media reported that two of three Paleostinians who were shot in the village of al-Mughayyir, in the Ramallah area, died of their wounds after settlers and IDF troops entered the village. The Paleostinian Authority’s WAFA news agency identified the two as 19-year-olds.
Settlers were filmed close to homes in the village alongside the soldiers. Additional footage showed the troops detained one of the Paleostinians. It was also reported that IDF troops fired tear gas.
According to the IDF, troops were providing police and an Israeli civilian who entered al-Mughayyir to find missing pets, which it said were identified as belonging to Israelis, when the soldiers were attacked with bricks and stones.
The IDF said the troops responded with live fire "toward the primary inciters to remove the threat. Hits were identified."
The army added that it was investigating "the events that preceded the incident and the management of it."
ARRESTS, CAR SEIZURES AND HOME DEMOLITIONS
Separately, officers on Wednesday seized a white pickup truck allegedly used on Saturday in a settler attack on Qusra, and were stoned by settlers while taking the vehicle, police said.
Operating in the illegal outpost of Mevasser Hashalom, near Nablus in the northern West Bank, the officers arrested two people from a crowd that had gathered to throw stones and block their path, according to police.
The detainees were taken for questioning and "order has been restored," police said.
Police added they already seized several vehicles used in the Saturday attack, when settlers took over a Paleostinian home in Qusra with a family inside and reportedly injured a woman, weeks after the start of a siege on a number of homes in the town.
While no suspects in the Saturday attack were arrested, police said a "special joint investigative team of the Shin Bet and police" is working to locate the "extremist rioters" and has issued a warrant for their arrest.
"The investigation is ongoing," police said.
Police also announced the arrest overnight of three suspects as part of an investigation into arson attacks and assaults against Paleostinians south of Hebron.
The suspects were residents of the West Bank and of central Israel, aged between 15 and 22, police said, adding that the investigation is ongoing.
Following an interrogation, police will bring the suspects before a court to request that their detention be extended, police added.
On Tuesday, police announced the arrest of eight other suspects in acts of arson and assault against Paleostinians south of Hebron, and brought them before a court to have their detention extended.
The court agreed to extend the detention of seven suspects and released the eighth under restrictions, police said.
Police told The Times of Israel on Tuesday that some of the detainees were suspected of setting fire to a mosque and several homes in Khirbet a-Tuba in the South Hebron Hills on August 5, in an incident in which six Paleostinians reportedly required medical attention after attackers beat them.
Other detainees were suspected of setting fire to a mosque in al-Tuwani, also in the South Hebron Hills, on July 19.
Additionally, on Wednesday, Israel demolished all the homes in a small Paleostinian village in the South Hebron Hills that has a population of 12 families, comprising around 70 people. The village, Khirbet al-Tabban, is located within IDF Firing Zone 918.
In 2022, the High Court of Justice ruled on a petition that had been pending for some 20 years, determining that Paleostinians living in the firing zone had not permanently resided there before the area was declared a firing zone, and therefore had no right to live there. Around three years later, the IDF began demolishing some of the Paleostinians’ homes in the area.
According to a recent UN report in June, more than 2,200 Paleostinians have been displaced this year due to settler violence or restrictions on access, and hundreds more have been displaced due to home demolitions by Israeli authorities.
The report came just days after Amnesty International accused Israel of conducting a "state-sponsored" campaign of ethnic cleansing against Bedouin and Paleostinian herding communities in the West Bank over the last three and a half years, designed to accelerate the annexation of the territory. The IDF rejected the charge.
[IsraelTimes] The IDF says that a deadly incident last night in the West Bank village of al-Mughayyir took place while troops were securing the return of livestock belonging to Israeli civilians.
Two Palestinians were killed by gunfire, according to the Palestinian Authority Health Ministry, after troops and settlers were seen in video clips entering the village in the Ramallah area.
Responding to a Times of Israel inquiry, the IDF says that troops “secured the entry of Judea and Samaria District Police officers and a civilian into the village. The entry was secured for the purpose of retrieving livestock belonging to Israeli civilians that had been located in the area of the village. The animals were identified based on distinguishing marks indicating that they belonged to Israeli civilians.”
While that was happening, the IDF says, “a violent riot developed in the area, during which terrorists hurled concrete blocks and stones at the troops. The troops responded by firing at key instigators in order to remove the threat. Hits were identified.”
The military adds that “the events leading up to the incident and the handling of the incident are being reviewed.”
#عاجل‼️ تحييد أكثر من 26 كيلومترًا من المسارات تحت الأرض على يد قوات اللواء الشمالي ووحدة “يهلوم” منذ دخول وقف إطلاق النار حيز التنفيذ: شاهدوا توثيق تدمير مسار إضافي تحت الأرض
⭕️ تعمل قوات اللواء الشمالي، تحت قيادة الفرقة 99، في شمال قطاع غزة، ضمن مهمة دفاعية تهدف إلى تطهير… pic.twitter.com/j1S9t2StmR
— Lieutenant Colonel Ella Waweya | إيلا واوية (@CaptainElla1) September 2, 2026
Translated Text:
#BREAKING‼️ Neutralization of Over 26 Kilometers of Underground Routes by Northern Brigade Forces and “Yahalom” Unit Since Ceasefire Went into Effect: Watch Documentation of Additional Underground Route Destruction
⭕️ Northern Brigade forces, under the command of the 99th Division, are operating in northern Gaza Strip as part of a defensive mission aimed at clearing the Yellow Line area of terrorist infrastructure.
⭕️ In recent weeks, the forces, in collaboration with “Yahalom” Unit combatants, destroyed an underground route approximately one kilometer in length.
⭕️ And since the ceasefire went into effect, the brigade's forces have neutralized more than 26 kilometers of underground routes east of the Yellow Line.
⭕️ IDF forces under Southern Regional Command are deployed in the field in accordance with the ceasefire agreement plan and will continue operations to remove any immediate threats.
[IsraelTimes] Military says explosive-laden drones aimed at forces in Ali Taher Ridge area, no soldiers injured; retaliatory attacks hit Nabatieh, 1 reportedly killed; EU countries to help train Lebanese Army
Hezbollah launched two explosive-laden drones at Israeli troops operating in the Ali Taher Ridge in southern Leb ...Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects.... overnight, prompting strikes on the terror group’s infrastructure in the area, the military said Wednesday.
According to the IDF, one of the drones was shot down by the troops, and no soldiers were maimed in the attack.
Hezbollah has a major underground facility beneath the ridge in the Nabatieh area, and several operatives are believed by the IDF to still be holed up there.
In response to the attack, the military said it struck Hezbollah infrastructure in the Nabatieh area. The sites had been used by the terror group to advance attacks on Israeli forces operating in southern Lebanon and against Israeli civilians, the IDF said, adding that the strikes were intended to "remove an immediate threat."
Lebanese official media said the Israeli strikes on south Lebanon killed one person.
"One person was killed and another maimed in a strike launched by an enemy drone" in the city of Nabatieh, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) said.
The IDF said it is continuing to operate at the Ali Taher Ridge and "will not allow bully boyz in the area to advance and carry out" attacks.
"The IDF is operating and will continue to act with determination against Hezbollah’s repeated attempts to harm IDF soldiers," the military added.
European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Tuesday that more than 10 EU member states are willing to contribute resources and people to a planned mission to advise and train Lebanon’s armed forces.
The proposed mission stems from the EU studying ways to strengthen Lebanese forces to help free up the Lebanese army to focus on disarming Hezbollah.
Western countries have long called for Lebanon to disarm the Iran-backed terror group, and doing so is a central component of a ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel aimed at ending the fighting that has run in parallel with the US-Israeli war against Iran.
The mandate of a UN force in Lebanon, UNIFIL, is set to expire at the end of 2026, and the force is expected to begin a yearlong drawdown and withdrawal.
"The EU is not seeking to replace UNIFIL," Kallas told news hounds in Ireland following a gathering of European defense ministers.
"Our objective is to strengthen the Lebanese armed forces and the ability of the Lebanese state to provide security across its territory," she said, adding that planning was progressing well.
An EU official told Rooters that the bloc’s aim is to establish the mission in mid-October and then deploy personnel in late 2026 or early 2027.
Kallas did not provide details on which EU countries would be involved.
La Belle France has been trying for several months to organize an international conference that would aim to strengthen the Lebanese armed forces, and also proposed creating an international force as part of efforts to replace UNIFIL.
A senior Western diplomat told Rooters on Tuesday there was limited prospect for major decisions on Lebanon’s future before Israel’s election in late October. The diplomat also said there was little chance of progress without any clear strengthening of the Lebanese armed forces that would enable them to move into areas previously controlled by Hezbollah.
On Saturday, the Nidaa al-Watan outlet reported that Hezbollah has so far rejected overtures by the Lebanese government to pull its forces out of the contested Ali Taher Ridge.
Unnamed sources warned this intransigence could lead the Israeli military to escalate and widen its campaign against Hezbollah, adding that Israel appeared unwilling to make further concessions until Lebanon takes more concrete steps to disarm the terrorist organization.
The sources also said the confrontation has stalled efforts to schedule a new round of US-backed negotiations between Jerusalem and Beirut in Rome, which has hosted multiple rounds of talks in recent months, with the report suggesting that international support for Lebanon’s army could be undermined if Hezbollah still holds the Ali Taher Ridge the next time negotiators convene.
Hezbollah’s refusal to hand over control of the Ali Taher Ridge to the Lebanese army has reportedly become an obstacle to efforts to advance towards a permanent ceasefire agreement to end an ongoing war.
Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the broader Middle East conflict in March by launching rockets at Israel in support of its sponsor Iran, which had come under attack by a US-Israeli air campaign. Israel responded to the Hezbollah attacks with a heavy air campaign and ground invasion.
Despite the ceasefire declared in Lebanon in April, fighting has persisted to a lesser extent. Israeli forces continue to operate inside a self-declared "security zone," which runs around 10 kilometers (six miles) deep inside Lebanese territory along the border.
Israel has increased its attacks on Hezbollah in southern Lebanon in recent days — particularly in the Nabatieh area where the Ali Taher Ridge is located — while the terror group has targeted troops operating in the area.
In June, Israel and Lebanon signed a framework agreement committing Lebanon to restoring illusory sovereignty over its territory through the "verified disarmament of non-state gangs," which would in turn enable a progressive Israeli withdrawal. The State of Lebanon, along with Israel and the US, signed the agreement, but Hezbollah and its allies are opposed to it.
Israel has so far pulled forces out of three pilot zones into which the Lebanese army entered, but has said it will not carry out any further withdrawals before Hezbollah is disarmed.
[FOX] President Donald Trump on Wednesday said the U.S. is prepared to strike Iran again at any time, hours after U.S. forces intercepted several retaliatory Iranian attacks that Trump downplayed as a “love tap.”
“It was a very heavy attack last night, and we’re prepared to do another one anytime we want,” Trump said.
Trump said the U.S. “blew up much more than their radars,” touting America’s advanced defense systems.
“We have technology that's incredible. Nobody has technology like we have. So, we hit them hard last night, very hard. They gave a little love tap, but we hit them very hard,” Trump said.
“We took out all of the new equipment that they tried to build along the Strait of Hormuz, some defensive, some offensive.”
[Rudaw] Bahrain, Jordan and Kuwait on Wednesday condemned Iran's missile and drone strikes on their territories, censuring them as a bid to derail regional peace efforts while reserving their right to respond. This comes as Tehran said the assaults were retaliation against what it claimed to be US interests in the region, including in Erbil.
The Kuwaiti foreign ministry expressed its “strong denunciation” of the Iranian “criminal attacks using missiles and hostile drones that targeted several sites in the country” including a “residential complex.”
The strikes fuel “a dangerous escalation that threatens the security and stability of the region and undermines diplomatic efforts aimed at de-escalation and reducing tensions,” the ministry added, emphasizing the retention of “full right” to take “all necessary measures” to preserve Kuwait’s “sovereignty, protect its security and interests”
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said Wednesday it carried out a combined missile and drone strike against the headquarters and residential quarters of the American commander at Ali al-Salem Base in Kuwait, claiming it killed “a number of enemy personnel.”
The IRGC also claimed to have destroyed a repair center, technical equipment warehouses, and fuel tanks in Erbil, along with what it described as “the guidance system for an American spy balloon at the base.”
The Erbil-based Counter-Terrorism Directorate (CTD) said US-led coalition forces shot down “ten explosive-laden drones” over the Kurdish capital.
More at the link
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[Reuters] The U.S. military said it struck air defences, radar systems, maritime assets, mine-laying capabilities and communications sites on Tuesday. Iran reported hits on multiple targets near the Strait of Hormuz.
"Last night was like the end of the world," Mahmoud, 38, a municipal worker in Sirik County along the strait, told Reuters by telephone, describing attacks on the area that includes the city where the wedding was reported to have been hit.
Iran responded by striking what it said were U.S. assets in Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait and Iraq, and said its aim was now to drive U.S. forces from the vast network of military bases they have occupied for decades across the Middle East.
"American evil in the region will be met with heavier, more widespread, and devastating responses, and any country that cooperates with the aggressive American army must accept its dangerous consequences," Iran's military command said.
Hostilities have flared once again in the six-month war. The latest round of US attacks killed 18 people, including guests at a wedding, according to Iranian media.
U.S. Central Command released the minute-long video along with a statement saying the latest round of strikes has been completed.
All the targets were military, Central Command said, “including air defense sites, radar systems, maritime assets and facilities, mine laying capabilities, and communications sites.”
“I couldn’t care less if they sign a worthless, to them, agreement. I like our position now much better, with almost total control of the Hormuz Strait, and their economy totally collapsing. They are just playing out the inevitable. When are the Iranian people going to rise up and fight?” the president wrote on social media.
“The fastest way for the conflict to end is for no one to provide any support to this regime. We are going to sever every tie that [Iran] has to the outside world,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News on Wednesday morning. “This is all hands on deck.”
From the Fox News liveblog:
Trump says US prepared for more attacks after Iran ‘love tap’
President Donald Trump on Wednesday said the U.S. is prepared to strike Iran again at any time, hours after U.S. forces intercepted several retaliatory Iranian attacks that Trump downplayed as a “love tap.”
“It was a very heavy attack last night, and we’re prepared to do another one anytime we want,” Trump said.
Trump said the U.S. “blew up much more than their radars,” touting America’s advanced defense systems.
“We have technology that's incredible. Nobody has technology like we have. So, we hit them hard last night, very hard. They gave a little love tap, but we hit them very hard,” Trump said.
“We took out all of the new equipment that they tried to build along the Strait of Hormuz, some defensive, some offensive.”
WHAT TO KNOW
U.S. Central Command said Tuesday that American forces completed a wave of strikes against targets inside Iran, including air defense sites, radar systems, maritime assets, mine-laying capabilities and communications sites.
President Donald Trump said he is not trying to bring Iran to the negotiating table with the attacks, which ended a monthlong period of relative calm in the region.
Brent crude oil has jumped nearly 6% since Iran attacked U.S. bases in Jordan on Sunday. The commodity is now trading at around $95 per barrel.
A U.S. official told Fox News that the latest Iranian attacks did not cause any major damage to American bases in the Middle East.
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 inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects....
