Recent Appearances...

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Hello !
Recent Appearances...

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Damascus is preparing to take control of al-Hol camp

2025-05-25

It will be interesting to see whether the HTS government absorbs the ISIS fighters into their ranks or sees them as the undesirable other.

[Rudaw] The Syrian government will assume control of al-Hol and shift focus to rehabilitation of the thousands of suspected Islamic State

...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
(ISIS) sympathizers and family members being held in the camp in northeast Syria, an Interior Ministry spokesperson said on Saturday.

"Regarding the al-Hol camp issue, it is part of the agreement signed between the Presidency of the Syrian Arab Republic and the Syrian Democratic Forces, which stipulates that the Syrian Arab Republic will assume control over all areas in the Syrian Jazira region - namely, in Hasakah and Raqqa areas," Interior Ministry spokesperson Nouraldeen Albaba told Rudaw in a presser on Saturday.

The goal will be to ensure the camp is no longer a source of unrest and extremism. "Now, it will become a comprehensive societal rehabilitation dossier targeting the victims and families of individuals who joined ISIS," he said.

Al-Hol camp in Hasaka province is infamous for its squalid conditions and has been branded a breeding ground for terrorism. Iraqis and Syrians make up the majority of the 40,000 ISIS-linked people who have been held at the camp since the defeat of the group in 2019. There are also people in the camp from around the world who had traveled to join the so-called ISIS caliphate.

A delegation from the Syrian government visited al-Hol camp on Saturday, according to local media. The delegation consisted of 10 people and was the first visit to the camp by the interim government. They were also joined by representatives from the US-led global coalition against ISIS, Ronahi TV reported.

The purpose of the visit was to inspect conditions in the camp and explore returning Syrian nationals to their home regions, according to Ronahi, which is affiliated with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

The Kurdish-led administration in northeast Syria (Rojava) in January announced that its doors are open to the "voluntary return" of Syrians in the camp to their hometowns. Iraq has been repatriating its nationals in groups, putting them through a rehabilitation program before they return to their original homes.

Rojava authorities also have thousands of ISIS fighters detained in jails.

United States President Donald Trump
...Perhaps no man has ever had as much fun being president of the US...
, when he met interim Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa last week, urged him to assume responsibility for ISIS detention centres in Rojava. The newly-appointed US envoy to Syria Thomas Barrack noted progress Damascus has taken on meeting Trump’s request when he met Sharaa in Istanbul on Saturday.

Link

Europe

Kurdish couple tried in Germany for ISIS links

2025-05-20

[Rudaw] The Bavarian Supreme Court held a trial for a Kurdish couple accused of the Islamic State

The couple were previously named in the Rantburg archives as Twana H.S. and Asia R.A.

Since April 9, 2024, Twana and Asya have been imprisoned in Germany on charges of membership in a foreign terrorist organization, committing war crimes and crimes against humanity, and sexual assault against individuals under 18 years of age.

"If the charges brought against them by the public prosecutor are confirmed, then there will be life imprisonment; the complaint is about genocide. The client we represent in this process and other Yazidi survivors whom we have represented talk about two main motivations for why they participate in these trial processes and why it is important to them," Natalie von Wistinghausen, a lawyer for a Yazidi girl who survived ISIS atrocity, told Rudaw.

Twana has been accused of sexually abusing two Yazidi girls, one of which is expected to be present in a future trial as a witness.

ISIS swept through vast swathes of Iraq and Syria in 2014 and declared a so-called caliphate in a brazen offensive that saw the group take control of around a third of Syria’s territory as well as several Iraqi cities, including the second largest northern city of Mosul. It was declared territorially defeated in 2017 and 2019 in both countries respectively.

During the jihadists’ brutal reign, they committed heinous atrocities, such as genocide, sexual slavery, and massacres against non-Moslems, especially the Yazidi ethnoreligious group.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Syrian security forces assault ISIS hideouts in Aleppo

2025-05-18

[IsraelTimes] Syrian security forces raid Islamic State hideouts in Aleppo, killing at least one militant and arresting others, the Interior Ministry says, the first time such an operation has been announced under the country’s new Islamist rulers.

A member of the security forces was also killed, the statement issued by Syria’s Interior Ministry spokesperson says. The security forces seized weapons, bombs, and uniforms with the security forces’ insignia.

A security source says the raids had targeted sleeper cells in four locations. One Islamic State militant had blown himself up, and another had been killed in clashes, the source says.

Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who once led a branch of al Qaeda, has long been an adversary of the Islamic State and battled the group’s self-declared caliphate during the Syrian war.

Link

Iraq

UN hails Iraq’s repatriations from Syria ISIS detention camps

2025-05-17

[Rudaw] Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudan
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...
i received a message of gratitude from UN Secretary-General António Guterres
...Portuguese politician and diplomat, ninth Secretary-General of the United Nations. Previously, he was the UN High Commissioner for Refugees between 2005 and 2015. He was the Prime Minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002 and was the Secretary-General of the Socialist Party from 1992 to 2002. He served as President of the Socialist International from 1999 to 2005. In both a 2012 and 2014 poll, the Portuguese public ranked him as the best Prime Minister of the previous 30 years...
for repatriating people with links to 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) from camps in northeast Syria (Rojava), during a meeting with the mission’s head in Iraq on Wednesday.

The message, delivered by UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) chief Mohammed al-Hassan, "commended Iraq’s recent accelerated efforts in repatriating Iraqi nationals from al-Hol and Roj camps and detention facilities in Syria," said a statement from Sudani’s office.

Guterres assured Sudani that the UN will continue cooperation with authorities in Baghdad on the matter "to ensure the safe return and reintegration of Iraqi citizens," according to the statement.

Roj and al-Hol camps, both located in Rojava’s Hasaka province, house tens of thousands of individuals, mainly Iraqis and Syrians, with ties to ISIS. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which control the area, have warned of the continued threat of radicalization within the camps.

"The message stressed the importance of allocating sufficient resources to support rehabilitation, reintegration, and accountability in line with international laws and standards," the statement added.

Iraq has repatriated around half of its citizens in batches, placing them in rehabilitation programs prior to reintegration.

The repatriation of ISIS affiliates has long been a contentious issue in Iraq, given the heinous human rights
...which often include carefully measured allowances of freedom at the convenience of the state...
violations and war crimes the group committed following its 2014 seizure of large swaths of territory in Iraq’s north and west.

While some tribes and communities have expressed willingness to integrate individuals linked to the group, others argue that reintegration should be limited to families of ISIS members, particularly those who were not directly involved in severe crimes.

ISIS captured vast swathes of northern and central Iraq in 2014, but the group’s so-called caliphate was dismantled in 2017 after Iraqi and Kurdish forces, with support from a US-led international coalition, retook the territory.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Trump Tower Damascus? Syria seeks to charm US president for sanctions relief

2025-05-13

Very pragmatic, and clearly determined to ensure that his caliphate will be permanent, unlike those feckless ISIS losers.

[IsraelTimes] With Gulf help, Sharaa launches bid to get face time with Trump during his Mideast visit, with a pitch that includes a detente with Israel and US access to Syria’s oil and gas

A Trump Tower in Damascus, a detente with Israel and US access to Syria’s oil and gas are part of Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa’s strategic pitch to try to get face time with US President Donald Trump
...The man who was so stupid he beat fourteen professional politicians, a former tech CEO, and a brain surgeon for the Republican nomination in 2016, then beat The Smartest Woman in the World in the general election. Then he beat Kamala while dodging bullets...
during his trip to the Middle East, according to several sources familiar with the push to woo Washington.

Jonathan Bass, an American pro-Trump activist who on April 30 met Sharaa for four hours in Damascus, along with Syrian activists and Gulf Arab states has been trying to arrange a landmark — if highly unlikely — meeting between the two leaders this week on the sidelines of Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia

...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start...
, Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
and the United Arab Emirates.

Syria has struggled to implement conditions set out by Washington for relief from US sanctions, which keep the country cut off from the global financial system and make economic recovery extremely challenging after 14 years of grinding war.

Bass hopes that getting Trump into a room with Sharaa, who still remains a US-designated terrorist over his al-Qaeda past, could help soften the Republican president and his administration’s thinking on Damascus and cool an increasingly tense relationship between Syria and Israel.

Part of the bet for the effort is based on Trump’s history of breaking with longstanding US foreign policy taboos, such as when he met with 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...
n leader Kim Pudge Jong-un
...the overweight, pouty-looking hereditary potentate of North Korea. Pudge appears to believe in his own divinity, but has yet to produce any loaves and fishes, so his subjects remain malnourished...
in the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea in 2019.

"Sharaa wants a business deal for the future of his country," Bass said, noting it could cover energy exploitation, cooperation 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 ~~Jews~~ ~~Zionists~~ Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
and engagement with Israel.

"He told me he wants a Trump Tower in Damascus. He wants peace with his neighbors. What he told me is good for the region, good for Israel," said Bass.

Sharaa also shared what he saw as a personal connection with Trump: both have been shot at, narrowly surviving attempts on their lives, Bass said.

Syrian officials and a presidency media official did not respond to a request for comment.

Sharaa spoke with Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman

...Crown Prince and modernizer of Saudi Arabia as of 2016. The Turks hate him, so he must be all right, despite the occasional brutal murder of Qatar-owned journalists...
on Sunday, according to the Syrian presidency.

A person close to Sharaa said afterwards a Trump-Sharaa meeting remained possible in Saudi Arabia, but would not confirm whether Sharaa had received an invitation.

"Whether or not the meeting takes place won’t be known until the last moment," the person said.

’PUSH UNDERWAY’
To be clear, a Trump-Sharaa meeting during the US president’s visit to the region is widely seen as unlikely, given Trump’s packed schedule, his priorities and lack of consensus within Trump’s team on how to tackle Syria.

A source familiar with ongoing efforts said a high-level Syria-US meeting was set to take place in the region during the week of Trump’s visit, but that it would not be between Trump and Sharaa.

"There is definitely a push underway," said Charles Lister, head of the Syria Initiative at the Middle East Institute.

"The idea is that getting to Trump directly is the best avenue because there are just too many ideologues within the administration to get past."

Washington is yet to formulate and articulate a coherent Syria policy, but the administration has increasingly been viewing relations with Damascus from a perspective of counterterrorism, three sources including a US official familiar with the policy-making said.

That approach was illustrated by the make-up of the US delegation in a meeting last month between Washington and Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani in New York, which included a senior counterterrorism official from the State Department, two of the sources said.

US officials conveyed to Shibani that Washington found steps taken by Damascus to be insufficient, particularly on the US demand to remove imported muscle from senior posts in the army and expel as many of them as possible, the sources said.

The US Treasury has since conveyed its own demands on the Syrian government, bringing the number of conditions to more than a dozen, one of the sources said.

The US State Department declined to disclose who attended the meeting from the US side and said it does not comment on private diplomatic discussions.

White House National Security Council spokesperson James Hewitt said the actions of Syria’s interim authorities would determine the future US support or possible sanctions relief.

’OLIVE BRANCH’
A key aim of Syria’s overtures to Washington is communicating that it poses no threat to Israel, which has escalated ~~Arclight~~ airstrike
...KABOOM!...
s in Syria since the country’s rebels-turned rulers ousted former strongman Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Supressor of the Damascenes...
last year.

Israel says the strikes were largely aimed at destroying Syria’s military and chemical arsenal to stop them falling into the hands of the new regime.

Israel’s ground forces have also occupied a buffer zone in southwestern Syria along the border, while the government has lobbied the US to keep Syria decentralized and isolated.

The IDF described its presence in southern Syria’s buffer zone as a temporary and defensive measure, though Defense Minister Israel Katz has said that troops will remain deployed to nine army posts in the area "indefinitely."

Israel has also said it aims to protect Syrian minority groups. Sectarian violence in Syria has escalated in recent weeks, as Islamist supporters of the country’s new regime have targeted Druze communities in festivities in southern Syria. Reports have put the corpse count from the fighting at around 100.

Israel has vowed to protect the Syrian Druze community from threats, and the IDF has struck targets in the country as a "warning" to the new regime.

Syria’s government has condemned Israel’s strikes as escalatory and as foreign interference, and says the new government in Damascus is working to unify the country after 14 years of civil war.

Sharaa last week confirmed indirect negotiations with Israel aimed at calming tensions, after Rooters reported that such talks had occurred via the UAE.

In a separate effort, Bass said Sharaa told him to pass messages between Syria and Israel that may have led to a direct meeting between Israeli and Syrian officials.

But Israel soon resumed strikes, including one near the presidential palace, which it framed as a message to Syria’s rulers to protect the country’s Druze minority amid festivities with Sunni holy warriors.

"Sharaa sent the Israelis an olive branch. Israel sent missiles," Bass said.

"We need Trump to help sort this relationship out."

Trump says US ‘may very well’ lift sanctions on Syria, give them a ‘fresh start’

But what must HTS agree to, to get such a thing? President Trump is transactional…

[IsraelTimes] US President Donald Trump hails Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and thanks him for hosting direct talks between Russia and Ukraine on Thursday.

He tells reporters during a White House press conference that he may even fly to Turkey to join those talks. He is flying to Saudi Arabia later today, and will be in Qatar and the UAE on Thursday.

Trump says Erdogan and others have asked him to lift US sanctions on Syria.

“We have to make a decision on the sanctions, which we may very well relieve. We may take them off of Syria because we want to give them a fresh start,” Trump says.

Turkey is the largest foreign backer of the new Islamist regime in Syria led by Ahmed al-Sharaa, who led the overthrow of dictator Bashar Assad.

Israel has cautioned the US against warming up to Erdogan and the new regime in Syria.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Qatar and FBI find remains of 30 people believed killed by Islamic State in Syria

2025-05-13

An interesting combination of searchers in Syria, even if one assumes Qatar is the money bags and the FBI provided strong backs and sharp brains. Could this be where those FBI staff on probation were sent to demonstrate attitude adjustment, or are they the best of the best, building contacts for future hunts back home?

[IsraelTimes] Bodies uncovered near Dabiq on Turkish border, DNA tests underway in effort to identify them; Qatari internal security forces declines to say who the search team was looking for

The remains of 30 people believed to have been killed by 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....
terror group have been found in a remote Syrian town in a search led by Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
i search teams and the FBI, according to a statement from Qatar on Monday.

The Qatari internal security forces said the FBI had requested the search, and that DNA tests are currently underway to determine the identities of the people. The Qatari agency did not say who the American intelligence and security agency is trying to find.

Dozens of foreigners, including aid workers and journalists, were killed by IS turbans who had controlled large swaths of Syria and Iraq for half a decade and declared a so-called caliphate. The group lost most of its territory in late 2017 and was declared defeated in 2019.

Since then, dozens of gravesites and mass graves have been discovered in northern Syria containing remains and bodies of people IS had kidnapped over the years.

American-Israeli journalist Steven Sotloff, fellow US journalist James Foley, and humanitarian workers Kayla Mueller and Peter Kassig are among those killed by IS.

John Cantlie, a British correspondent, was kidnapped alongside Foley in 2012, and was last seen alive in one of the Death Eater group’s propaganda videos in 2016.

The search took place in the town of Dabiq, near Syria’s northern border with ~~The Sick Man of Europe~~ Turkey
...a NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and structure....
member, but not the most reliable...
.

Mass graves have also been found in areas previously controlled by Syrian president Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Supressor of the Damascenes...
, who was ousted in a lightning insurgency in December, ending his family’s half-century rule. For years, the Assads used their notorious security and intelligence agencies to crack down on dissidents, many of whom have gone missing.

The United Nations
...the Oyster Bay money pit...
in 2021 estimated that over 130,000 Syrians were taken away and disappeared during the uprising that began in 2011 and descended into a 13-year civil war.

Last June, a federal United States appeals court upheld the conviction of a Brit for his role in a hostage-taking scheme by the Islamic State group that was tied to the abductions of Foley, Sotloff, Mueller, and Kassig.

Link

Europe

Syria says Israeli strikes to be a key focus of Sharaa’s meeting in Paris with Macron

2025-05-07

[IsraelTimesj French President Emmanuel Macron will host a meeting with Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa in Paris on Wednesday, the French presidency says.

First European government to invite him over for tea…

During the meeting, Macron will reaffirm France’s support for the construction of a “free, stable and sovereign Syria that respects all the components of the Syrian society,” the statement says.

That doesn’t sound anything like HTS’s planned caliphate…

The visit, the first for Sharaa to a European country since the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad, is expected to address several security challenges faced by the new Syrian government, with particular emphasis on the repeated Israeli attacks on Syria’s sovereignty, according to the state-run Syrian news agency SANA.

France has no influence over Israel, but the two can whine at each other, I guess.

Sharaa, in February, received an invitation from Macron to visit France.

Link

Afghanistan

Muttaqi: Direct Talks with the US Resumed After Trump’s Return

2025-05-04

To what end? The last time round President Trump wanted agreements to support removing American forces from Afghanistan. Since then, they have been removed. In the most harum scarum, destructive way possible, leaving behind both Americans and local allies to suffer at the hand of the new Talib caliphate, but gone nonetheless. If President Trump means to rescue them all, what can he offer to bargain with?

[ToloNews] The acting foreign minister said that after Donald Trump

...The man who was so stupid he beat fourteen professional politicians, a former tech CEO, and a brain surgeon for the Republican nomination in 2016, then beat The Smartest Woman in the World in the general election. Then he beat Kamala while dodging bullets...
’s return to power, direct communications with the United States resumed, and he expressed hope that relations between the two countries will improve.

In an interview with Al Jazeera, Amir Khan Muttaqi emphasized that the Islamic Emirate has fulfilled its commitments under the Doha Agreement. However,
we can't all be heroes. Somebody has to sit on the curb and applaud when they go by...
he noted that some obligations on the American side—such as removing the Islamic Emirate’s name from the blacklist—have yet to be fulfilled.

He also highlighted the development of relations with regional countries including Russia, Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
, India, and Pakistain, and reiterated the Islamic Emirate’s commitment to a balanced foreign policy.

Muttaqi stated: "We have repeatedly stressed that the United States must adopt a realistic view of the current situation in Afghanistan. There is no security threat, no drug trafficking, and no use of Afghan soil against others. If reality is seen instead of propaganda, there is a good opportunity to improve relations."

Wais Naseri, a political analyst, said: "A de facto relationship—meaning practical ties—has existed with all countries, especially the United States, Russia, India, China, and Pakistain, over the past three years and eight months. However,
we can't all be heroes. Somebody has to sit on the curb and applaud when they go by...
a legitimate, state-to-state relationship has not yet been established, mainly due to global conditions and the positions of the US, Russia, India, China, Pakistain, and the UN Security Council."

Muttaqi called Russia’s recent move to remove the Islamic Emirate from its list of banned
...the word banned seems to have a different meaning in Pakistain than it does in most other places. Or maybe it simply lacks any meaning at all...
organizations a "positive step" toward expanding relations, particularly in the trade sector.

He added: "We consider Russia’s recent decision a significant step. Now, more economic cooperation is possible. Afghanistan’s geographic location can also be advantageous for Russia."

Fazl Rahman Oria, another political analyst, commented: "Afghanistan must adopt a balanced and completely neutral foreign policy between Eastern and Western powers, and protect its legitimate national interests accordingly."

Regarding regional ties, Muttaqi said the Islamic Emirate seeks no tension between India and Pakistain and supports direct dialogue for resolving disputes.

He also stated that new opportunities for political, economic, cultural, and trade cooperation have emerged between Kabul and Doha.

Link

Iraq

Yazidi men freed from ISIS captivity, reunite with families after years of separation

2025-04-28

[Rudaw] The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have rescued two Yazidi men from the grip of 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) after years in captivity, an affiliate of the Iraqi labor ministry confirmed to Rudaw on Sunday. This marks the second such rescue by the SDF in under two weeks.

The individuals, identified by Rudaw by their initials D.R. and O.K., were reunited with their families under the supervision of the Yazidi Affairs Office, an affiliate of the Iraqi ministry of labor.

Born in 2003, D.R. is from the village of Kocho (Kojo), while O.K., born in 2006, hails from the village of al-Wardiya. Both villages are located in the predominantly Yazidi district of Shingal (Shingal) in northern Iraq.

In June 2014, ISIS seized control of large swathes of territory in Iraq’s north and west. A little over a month later, in August, the group launched a wide-scale attack against the Yazidi community in Iraq's northern Shingal.

The rescued captives, D.R. and O.K, "were kidnapped by ISIS Lions of Islam in 2014," Sarab Ilias, head of the Yazidis affairs office at the Iraqi ministry of labor told Rudaw on Sunday.

"Unfortunately, during [the military] operations and bombings, D.R. lost a leg and O.K. lost an arm," Ilias explained, adding that the two men were "reunited with their families," who currently reside in Shingal and the Qadiya camp located in the Kurdistan Region’s Duhok province.

Notably, this is the second such operation led by the Kurdish-led SDF in less than two weeks.

The SDF in mid-April announced that they had rescued a Yazidi man who had been kidnapped by ISIS around 11 years ago, when he was just eight years old.

The Kurdish-led force then said that its military units carried out a "special security operation" to free the kidnapped Yazidi identified as O.K.

O.K. was quoted by the SDF statement as sharing the harrowing story of his abduction by ISIS.

"I was born in 2006, and I was just a child when ISIS kidnapped me in 2014. ISIS captured me and my family, but separated me and my brother."

He said that he was held in the northern Iraqi city of djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
, which ISIS in 2014 declared as the capital of its proclaimed caliphate in Syria and Iraq. He remained in Mosul for three months before being separated from his brother and transferred, along with 60 other Yazidi children, to the city of Albu Kamal in eastern Syria.

"After arriving in al-Bukamal, ISIS subjected us to a three-year religious indoctrination course. I was given the name ’Osama al-Sinjari.’ Then we were moved to the Syrian desert for another three years of military training," he recounted.

O.K. noted that near the end of 2024 and "while I was getting treatment at one of the ISIS hideouts in the Homs desert, the hideout was struck by an intense ~~Arclight~~ airstrike
<del>Arclight</del> airstrike

...KABOOM!...
from the [US-led] Global Coalition [to Defeat ISIS], which resulted in the death of 20 terrorists, including high-ranking commanders."

"I miraculously survived the bombing," he said, expressing his relief and gratitude toward the SDF for "liberating him and thousands of other Yazidis, particularly women, from the grip of ISIS."

ISIS’s 2014 assault on Shingal resulted in the abduction of 6,417 Yazidi women and kiddies, many of whom were subjected to sexual slavery and forced labor. Despite being territorially defeated in Iraq by 2017 and in Syria by 2019, ISIS continues to pose a security threat in the region.

The United Nations
...where theory meets practice and practice loses...
has recognized the systematic targeting of the Yazidis as genocide. Up to 200,000 Yazidis were displaced from Shingal, many of whom now live in camps across the Kurdistan Region, particularly in Dohuk province.

As of now, 2,590 Yazidis remain missing, according to the Office of Rescuing Abducted Yazidis, which is affiliated with the Kurdistan Region Presidency.

Link

Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

Astrakhan resident convicted for justifying Beslan school seizure

2025-04-24

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[KavkazUzel] The Southern District Military Court imposed a fine on the Astrakhan resident, finding him guilty of calling for terrorist activity and extremism.

The verdict for the "repeatedly convicted resident of Astrakhan" was reported on April 23 by sources connected to the security forces. According to them, the man shared the ideas of "terrorist and pro-Ukrainian nationalist groups."

According to security forces, the man published posts on social networks justifying the terrorist attack in Beslan, called Shamil Basayev

…Shamil Salmanovich Basayev, also known by his kunya "Abu Idris" and Emir Abdullah Shamil Abu-Idris (1965-2006). Basayev was a Chechen warlord in the post-Soviet Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, which after his death became the Al Qaeda-linked Caucasus Emirate. In 2015 most of the hard boys changed their allegiance to the local Islamic State affiliate, Vilayat Kavkaz, whereupon a majority chose to escape the Spetsnaz hunting them by making hijra to the caliphate in Syria. Some of his projects were the 2004 Beslan school siege and the 2002 Moscow theater hostage crisis...

"a hero of the Chechen people", "and also said that Astrakhan is with Ukraine", claims the Telegram channel "Operativnye Sudovki" associated with security forces.

On September 1, 2004, militants took 1,128 hostages in the gymnasium of School No. 1 in Beslan. The operation to free them ended on September 3, 2004. As a result of the terrorist attack, 334 people were killed, including 186 children, and another 810 people were injured. The "Caucasian Knot" has prepared a report " Terrorist attack in Beslan (September 1-3, 2004) " and a chronicle of the terrorist attack and the events that followed.

The channel published a short video of the suspect's arrest. Judging by the recording, the man was detained on the street by four law enforcement officers in civilian clothes; the arrest probably took place in the fall. The sound was selectively removed from the video, so the phrases exchanged between the law enforcement officers and the detainee are impossible to make out.

The Astrakhan resident's case was heard by the Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don, reported the Telegram channel "From Astrakhan", which positions itself as the "Main Channel of the City and Region".

The man was found guilty under two criminal articles - calls for terrorist activity (Part 2 of Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code of Russia) and calls for extremism (Part 2 of Article 280 of the Criminal Code of Russia). Although both of these articles provide for actual imprisonment, the court sentenced him to a fine of 500 thousand rubles and a ban on website administration for three years.

In the card index of the Southern District Military Court, the description matches the case card of Denis Polyakov - it was received by the court in December 2024, the verdict was issued on February 4. A month later, on March 4, the court sent the writ of execution on the case to the Soviet District Department of Bailiffs of the city of Astrakhan.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

US to establish two military bases in Kurdish-held areas of Syria: Rojava official

2025-04-22

[Rudaw] The United States plans to relocate its troops in Syria to two new military bases, one near ~~The Sick Man of Europe~~ Turkey
...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor...
-held areas and another on the Syria-Iraq border and maintain at least 400 soldiers in Kurdish-held areas, an official from the northeast Syria (Rojava) administration in Washington DC said on Monday.

Bassam Ishaq, a US-based member of the Syrian Democratic Council’s Presidential Council, told Rudaw’s Nalin Hassan that the US is carrying out a "relocation of positions," opening a new base "in northern Syria near the Tishreen Dam," with another to be established "near the Syrian-Iraqi border in the southeast, close to Deir ez-Zor."

The SDC is the political wing of the Kurdish-led, US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

Tishreen Dam, located on the Euphrates River, has been a key target in a military campaign launched by Turkey and Ottoman Turkish-backed Syrian militias since November. The aim has been to seize control of the strategic site, facilitating access to other SDF-held territories. At least 20 civilians have been killed in Ottoman Turkish dronezaps on the area.

The SDF and the new government in Damascus are in talks to hand over the control of the dam to forces affiliated with the Syrian government in a bid to end attacks by bully boys, which have ceased for weeks.

Regarding the drawdown of US troops, Ishaq emphasized that the reduction is "tactical" and "gradual," but will stop at a floor of 400 soldiers. He noted that decision-makers in Washington DC are constrained by a congressional provision prohibiting any reduction below that threshold.

A provision in the Senate Armed Services Committee’s version of the FY2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) bars the Secretary of Defense from reducing US troop levels in northeast Syria below 400 unless the Pentagon certifies that local partner forces are independently capable of degrading and defeating 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) threats and can detain ISIS members effectively and humanely.

A statement from Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell on Friday said that they were consolidating "to select locations in Syria," but that US forces "will remain poised to continue strikes against the remnants of ISIS in Syria."

"The issue is not only related to the SDF and the new administration in Damascus," Ishaq said. "It extends to regional security in the area. At present, there will be no complete withdrawal of US military forces from Syria."

A senior US official, speaking to The New York Times

...which still proudly claims Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...
on condition of anonymity, said on Tuesday that commanders will assess whether additional downsizing will be made on top of the announced ones, noting that the commanders have already recommended keeping 500 troops in Syria.

"The United States aims at downsizing its forces to below one thousand in the next two or three months," a US defense official told Rudaw on Friday.

The US increased its troop numbers in Syria from 900 to around 2,000 after a coalition of Salafist tough guys led by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else

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) ousted Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Terror of Aleppo ...
’s regime on December 8. The White House described the deployment as a temporary measure to prevent ISIS from regaining a foothold in the country.

Despite the uptick, US President Donald Trump
...They hit him with slander, they impeached him twice. Nancy Pelosi tore up his State of the Union address on national TV. They stole an election and put his adherents in jail. They vilified him. They couldn't crucify him, so they shot him. Still, they can't keep him down...
said in February, "We're not involved in Syria. Syria's its own mess... They don't need us involved," adding that a "determination" on troop levels would be made later, without providing further details.

US forces in Syria remain the main backers of the SDF, which territorially defeated ISIS in 2019, ending the group’s so-called caliphate. SDF Commander Mazloum Abdi has repeatedly warned that a premature US withdrawal could enable an ISIS resurgence.

Kurdish forces in northeast Syria fear that ISIS may be regrouping, exploiting instability following the decline of Assad’s regime and the shifting dynamics in the country.

On March 10, the SDF reached an agreement with new authorities in Damascus to integrate into the Syrian national armed forces.

According to Ishaq, negotiations are ongoing over logistical matters related to how the institutions of the Kurdish-led Democratic Autonomous Administration in North and East Syria (DAANES) will be integrated into those of the new Syrian state.

"The same applies to the military issue," he added, referring to discussions about integrating the SDF into the Syrian Ministry of Defense.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

16 ISIS suspects detained in Rojava’s al-Hol camp

2025-04-20

[Rudaw] At least 16 suspected Islamic State (ISIS) members have been detained during an ongoing operation in al-Hol camp, northeast Syria (Rojava), Kurdish forces announced on Saturday.

“The security campaign against ISIS mercenary cells in al-Hol camp continues in its second day. 16 mercenaries were arrested during combing operations in al-Hol camp and its surroundings. Three Kalashnikov rifles, two pistols, and various ammunition were also seized,” read a statement from the Asayish, internal security forces.

Local media reported that 28 people were detained and 16 of them were accused of having links to ISIS.

The Asayish on Friday announced a joint operation in al-Hol camp with the Women’s Protection Units (YPJ), supported by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), saying that ISIS has launched several attacks targeting both civilians and security personnel and is ramping up efforts to rebuild its ranks and capabilities.

A focus for the extremist group is al-Hol camp in Hasaka province that holds around 40,000 people from around the world, mostly Iraqis and Syrians, with alleged links to ISIS.

Conditions in the sprawling camp are rough. The situation has worsened with the interruption of international aid, according to the Asayish, which said on Friday that ISIS has tried to smuggle people out of the camp and systematically targeted children and youth to indoctrinate them and spread its ideology. Humanitarian aid centers in the camp have also been attacked.

The Iraqi government is slowly repatriating its citizens, but many nations have resisted taking responsibility for their nationals because of security concerns, despite repeated pleas by the Rojava administration.

ISIS captured vast swathes of Iraqi and Syrian territory in 2014. The group’s so-called caliphate was dismantled in 2019, but the jihadists remain a security threat. ISIS has tried to take advantage of the changing security landscape in Syria after the fall of the regime of Bashar al-Assad.

Link

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