Recent Appearances...

Warning: Undefined array key "rbname" in /data/rantburg.com/www/rantburg/pgrecentorg.php on line 14
Hello !
Recent Appearances...

Africa North

Malian army positions targeted in coordinated attacks, military says

2025-07-01

[Reuters] Seven Malian army positions in western Mali, some near the Senegalese border, were targeted in coordinated attacks early Tuesday, according to a military statement. No death toll was provided and the attacks, the latest in a new series, have so far not been claimed by any jihadist group operating in the vast, impoverished Sahel region.

Suspected jihadists attacked military installations in several towns in western Mali early Tuesday, the military and residents said, in a new series of attacks in the junta-led country amid resurging violence in the wider Sahel region.

For more than a decade Mali has faced attacks from groups linked to al Qaeda and the Islamic State group as well as separatist movements and criminal gangs.

Jihadists have claimed two major attacks against the Malian army in just the last month.

Although Tuesday's attacks bore the hallmarks of jihadists from the Al-Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM), no group has so far claimed responsibility.

Mali's army said in a statement that seven of its positions in the west had been targeted in "coordinated attacks carried out very early this morning". No death toll was given.

Residents and a local politician confirmed the attacks in at least four towns.

"We woke up in shock this morning. There's gunfire, and from my house I can see smoke billowing towards the governor's residence," one resident in the city of Kayes told AFP.

The person described the gunfire as "intense" while another reported sheltering at home while the assault raged on.

A military source confirmed that an explosion was first heard coming from the governor's residence but said that "by the time we got organised, there was already gunfire at the camp".

Elsewhere, a local political official wrote on Facebook that "the region of Nioro woke up in shock" and that the towns of Nioro, Sandare and Gogui had been targeted.

All seven of the towns named by the military are in western Mali, with one, Diboli, directly on the border with Senegal.

JNIM, from its position in Mali, hopes to establish itself in Senegal and Mauritania, according to a study by the Timbuktu Institute, a research centre based in Dakar.

Mali's military said in the statement Tuesday that the situation involving the latest attacks was being followed "very closely" and that it would provide more details later.

INTENSIFIED OFFENCES
The assaults come on the heels of two major attacks claimed by jihadists within the last month.

On June 2, a coordinated assault targeted an army camp in the ancient city of Timbuktu in Mali's north, as well as its airport.

Read moreTwin attacks on Malian army bases, Timbuktu airport leave scores dead

That attack came a day after a bloody raid killed at least 30 soldiers in the centre of the country.

Jihadists have also intensified their offensives in the larger Sahel region in recent weeks, carrying out raids not just in Mali, but also in Burkina Faso and Niger.

The three Sahel states' military juntas pledged during the coups that brought them to power to make security a priority, but they are struggling to contain the jihadists' advance.

Link

Africa North

Malian Army announced that a commander and his bodyguards from the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) were killed in the northern Ménaka region

2025-06-30

[PUBLISH.TWITTER] ULULULULULULULU!!!!!

Local sources reported that the killed ISIS leader was Syria-born Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas (Ebou Dahdah), who played an active role in the September 11, 2001 attacks. https://t.co/Y9AI2nkJ8g
— Clash Report (@clashreport) June 29, 2025

Parachuted in a Syrian CEO? And former Al Qaeda muckety-muck who was jailed in 2005 for leading al Qaeda in Spain? I’m impressed.
Update from DeepNewz at 2:20 p.m. EDT courtesy of Besoeker:

Mali’s armed forces, backed by Russia’s Africa Corps and the Tuareg-led Movement for the Salvation of Azawad, have killed Islamic State Sahel Province commander Abu Dahdah and six of his fighters during an operation in Chamane, about 38 kilometres north of Ménaka. Military statements said the raid took place on 28 June after intelligence indicated the militants planned to address local residents.

Abu Dahdah, a Moroccan national

…not the Syrian gent of the same name?

also identified as Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas, was described as the group’s explosives expert and deputy to senior ISSP leader Abu Algabas. Local sources link him to a recent high-profile assault in Bani Bangou across the Niger border. He previously served prison time in Spain for his alleged role in al-Qaeda’s 9/11 plot, according to Africa Corps accounts.

So the same gentleman, just a different birthplace. Got it.

In a separate development the same day, the Malian military reported that Boubacar Ibrahim—widely known as Oubel—and ten of his fighters surrendered with their weapons in Lellehoye, Ansongo circle. The back-to-back blow underscores growing pressure on Islamic State affiliates operating in Mali’s northeast.

Link

Terror Networks

Islamic State reactivating fighters, eyeing comeback in Syria and Iraq

2025-06-13

[IsraelTimes] Western and Middle Eastern authorities see terror group making moves to fill power vacuums, but claim security forces have effective countermeasures in place

Middle East leaders and their Western allies have been warning that 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....
group could exploit the fall of the Assad regime to stage a comeback in Syria and neighboring Iraq, where the turban group once imposed a reign of terror over millions.

Islamic State (IS) has been attempting just that, according to more than 20 sources, including security and political officials from Syria, Iraq, the US, and Europe, as well as diplomats in the region. The group has started reactivating fighters in both countries, identifying targets, distributing weapons, and stepping up recruitment and propaganda efforts, the sources said.

So far, the results of these efforts appear limited. Security operatives in Syria and Iraq, who have been monitoring IS for years, told Rooters they foiled at least a dozen major plots this year.

A case in point came in December, the month Syria’s Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Leveler of Latakia...
was toppled.

As rebels were advancing on Damascus, IS commanders holed up near Raqqa, former capital of their self-declared caliphate, dispatched two envoys to Iraq, five Iraqi counter-terrorism officials told Rooters. The envoys carried verbal instructions to the group’s followers to launch attacks. But they were captured at a checkpoint while traveling in northern Iraq on December 2, the officials said.

Eleven days later, Iraqi security forces, acting on information from the envoys, tracked a suspected IS jacket wallah to a crowded restaurant in the northern town of Daquq using his cell phone, they said. The forces shot the man dead before he could detonate an explosives belt, they said.

The foiled attack confirmed Iraq’s suspicions about the group, said Colonel Abdul Ameer al-Bayati, of the Iraqi Army’s 8th Division, which is deployed in the area. "Islamic State elements have begun to reactivate after years of lying low, emboldened by the chaos in Syria," he said.

Still, the number of attacks claimed by IS has dropped since Assad’s fall.

IS grabbed credit for 38 attacks in Syria in the first five months of 2025, putting it on track for a little over 90 claims this year, according to data from SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors bad boys’ activities online. That would be around a third of last year’s claims, the data shows.

In Iraq, where IS originated, the group claimed four attacks in the first five months of 2025, versus 61 total last year.

Syria’s government, led by the country’s new Islamist leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, did not answer questions about IS activities. Defense Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra told Rooters in January the country was developing its intelligence-gathering efforts, and its security services would address any threat.

A US defense official and a spokesperson for Iraq’s prime minister said IS remnants in Syria and Iraq have been dramatically weakened, unable to control territory since a US-led coalition and its local partners drove them from their last stronghold in 2019.

The Iraqi spokesperson, Sabah al-Numan, credited preemptive operations for keeping the group in check.

The coalition and partners hammered bad boy hideouts with ~~Arclight~~ airstrike
...KABOOM!...
s and raids after Assad’s fall. Such operations captured or killed "terrorist elements," while preventing them from regrouping and carrying out operations, Numan said.

Iraq’s intelligence operations have also become more precise, through drones and other technology, he added.

At its peak between 2014 and 2017, IS held sway over roughly a third of Syria and Iraq, where it imposed its extreme interpretation of Islamic sharia law, gaining a reputation for shocking brutality.

None of the officials who spoke with Rooters saw a danger of that happening again. But they cautioned against counting the group out, saying it has proven a resilient foe, adept at exploiting a vacuum.

Some local and European officials are concerned that imported muscle might be traveling to Syria to join jihadi groups. For the first time in years, intelligence agencies tracked a small number of suspected imported muscle coming from Europa
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
to Syria in recent months, two European officials told Rooters, though they could not say whether IS or another group recruited them.

EXPLOITING DIVISIONS
The IS push comes at a delicate time for Sharaa, as he attempts to unite a diverse country and bring former rebel groups under government control after 13 years of civil war.

US President Donald Trump
...Oh, noze! Not him!...
’s surprise decision last month to lift sanctions on Syria was widely seen as a win for the Syrian leader, who once led a branch of al Qaeda that battled IS for years. But some Islamist hardliners criticized Sharaa’s efforts to woo Western governments, expressing concern he might acquiesce to US demands to expel imported muscle and normalize relations with Israel.

Seizing on such divides, IS condemned the meeting with Trump in a recent issue of its online news publication, al-Naba, and called on imported muscle in Syria to join its ranks.

At a May 14 meeting in 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...
, Trump asked Sharaa to help prevent an IS resurgence as the US begins a troop consolidation in Syria it says could cut its roughly 2,000-strong military presence by half this year.

The US drawdown has heightened concern among allies that IS might find a way to free some 9,000 fighters and their family members, including foreign nationals, held at prisons and camps guarded by the US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). There have been at least two attempted jailbreaks since Assad’s fall, the SDF has said.

Trump and President Tayyip Erdogan of neighboring ~~The Sick Man of Europe~~ Turkey
...a NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis....
member, but not the most reliable...
want Sharaa’s government to assume responsibility for these facilities. Erdogan views the main Kurdish factions as a threat to his country. But some regional analysts question whether Damascus has the manpower needed.

Syrian authorities have also been grappling with attacks by suspected Assad loyalists, outbreaks of deadly sectarian violence, Israeli airstrikes and festivities between Ottoman Turkish-backed groups and the SDF, which controls about a quarter of the country.

"The interim government is stretched thin from a security perspective. They just do not have the manpower to consolidate control in the entire country," said Charles Lister, who heads the Syria program at the Middle East Institute, a US think tank.

Responding to a request for comment, a US State Department spokesperson said it is critical for countries to repatriate detained nationals from Syria and shoulder a greater share of the burden for the camps’ security and running costs.

The US defense official said Washington remains committed to preventing an IS resurgence, and its vetted Syrian partners remain in the field. The US will "vigilantly monitor" Sharaa’s government, which has been "saying and doing the right things" so far, the official added.

Three days after Trump’s meeting with Sharaa, Syria announced it had raided IS hideouts in the country’s second city, Aleppo, killing three bad boys, detaining four and seizing weapons and uniforms.

The US has exchanged intelligence with Damascus in limited cases, another US defense official and two Syrian officials told Rooters. The news agency could not determine whether it did so in the Aleppo raids.

The coalition is expected to wrap up operations in Iraq by September. But the second US official said Baghdad privately expressed interest in slowing down the withdrawal of some 2,500 American troops from Iraq when it became apparent that Assad would fall. A source familiar with the matter confirmed the request.

The White House, Baghdad and Damascus did not respond to questions about Trump’s plans for US troops in Iraq and Syria.

REACTIVATING SLEEPER CELLS
The United Nations
...where theory meets practice and practice loses...
estimates IS, also known as ISIS or ISIS, has 1,500 to 3,000 fighters in the two countries. But its most active branches are in Africa, the SITE data shows.

The US military believes the group’s secretive leader is Abdulqadir Mumin, who heads the Somalia branch, a senior defence official told news hounds in April.

Still, SITE’s director, Rita Katz, cautioned against seeing the drop in IS attacks in Syria as a sign of weakness. "Far more likely that it has entered a restrategizing phase," she said.

Since Assad’s fall, IS has been activating sleeper cells, surveilling potential targets and distributing guns, silencers and explosives, three security sources and three Syrian political officials told Rooters.

It has also moved fighters from the Syrian desert, a focus of coalition airstrikes, to cities including Aleppo, Homs and Damascus, according to the security sources.

"Of the challenges we face, ISIS is at the top of the list," Syrian Interior Minister Anas Khattab told state-owned Ekhbariya TV last week.

In Iraq, aerial surveillance and intelligence sources on the ground have picked up increased IS activity in the northern Hamrin Mountains, a longtime refuge, and along key roads, Ali al-Saidi, an advisor to Iraqi security forces, told Rooters.

Iraqi officials believe IS seized large stockpiles of weapons left behind by Assad’s forces and worry some could be smuggled into Iraq.

Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein said Baghdad was in contact with Damascus about IS, which he told Rooters in January was growing and spreading into more areas.

"We hope that Syria, in the first place, will be stable, and Syria will not be a place for terrorists," he said, "especially ISIS terrorists."

Link

Arabia

Al-Qaeda’s Yemen chief threatens Trump, Musk over Gaza war: ‘There are no red lines’

2025-06-08

[IsraelTimes] Saad bin Atef al-Awlaki, who has $6 million US bounty on head, calls for lone-wolf assassinations of Egyptian, Jordanian, and Gulf leaders due to war

The leader of al-Qaeda’s Yemen
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of...
branch has threatened both US President Donald Trump
...The cad! Twice caught beating wimmin!...
and billionaire Elon Musk over the Israel-Hamas
Hamas

..a regional Iranian catspaw,...
war in the 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, in his first video message since taking over the group last year.

The half-hour video message by Saad bin Atef al-Awlaki, which spread online early Saturday via supporters of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
...the latest incarnation of various Qaeda and Qaeda-allied groups, including the now-defunct Aden-Abyan Islamic Army that boomed the USS Cole in 2000...>
, also included calls for lone-wolf bully boyz to assassinate leaders in Egypt, Jordan, and the Gulf Arab states over the war, which has decimated Gaza.

Interesting. They must be particularly upset in Egypt, where they’ve tried so hard to balance their brotherly Moslem duty to Hamas with their dislike of Jewish Israel despite the billions of lovely American dollars the ostensible peace brings in.

The video of al-Awlaki’s speech showed images of Trump and Musk, as well as US Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio
...The diminutive 13-year-old Republican U.S. Senator from Florida, Secretary of State in the second Trump administration...
, and Secretary of State Pete Hegseth. It also included images of logos of Musk’s businesses, including the electric carmaker Tesla.

"There are no red lines after what happened and is happening to our people in Gaza," al-Awlaki said. "Reciprocity is legitimate."

BRANCH LONG THOUGHT MOST DANGEROUS
Though believed to have been weakened in recent years due to infighting and suspected US dronezaps killing its leaders, the group known by the acronym AQAP had been considered the most dangerous branch of al-Qaeda still operating after the 2011 killing by US Navy SEALs of founder the late Osama bin Laden
...... who is now beyond all cares and woe......
, who criminal masterminded the September 11, 2001, attacks.

In 2022, a US dronezap in Afghanistan killed bin Laden’s successor, Ayman al-Zawahiri
...Formerly second in command of al-Qaeda, now the head cheese, occasionally described as the real brains of the outfit. Formerly the Mister Big of Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Bumped off Abdullah Azzam with a car boom in the course of one of their little disputes. Is thought to have composed bin Laden's fatwa entitled World Islamic Front Against Jews and Crusaders. Currently residing in the North Wazoo area assuming he's not dead like Mullah Omar. He lost major face when he ordered the nascent Islamic State to cease and desist and merge with the orthodox al-Qaeda spring, al-Nusra...>
, who also helped plot 9/11. The September 11 attacks began decades of war by the US in Afghanistan and Iraq, and fomented the rise 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....
group.

Al-Awlaki already has a $6 million US bounty on his head, as Washington says he "has publicly called for attacks against the United States and its allies." He replaced AQAP leader Khalid al-Batarfi, whose death was announced by the group in 2024.

A FOCUS OF THE HOUTHIS AS WELL
AQAP seizing onto the Israel-Hamas war follows the efforts of Yemen’s Iran's Houthi sock puppets
...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The legitimate Yemeni government has accused the them of having ties to the Iranian government. Honest they did. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews They like shooting off... ummm... missiles that they would have us believe they make at home in their basements. On the plus side, they did murder Ali Abdullah Saleh, which was the only way the country was ever going to be rid of him...
rebels to do the same. The Iranian-backed group has launched missile attacks on Israel and targeted commercial vessels moving through the Red Sea corridor, as well as American warships.

The Trump administration launched an intense campaign of strikes on the Houthis, which only ended before the president’s recent trip to the Middle East.

The Houthis’ international profile rose as the group remains mired in Yemen’s long-stalemated war. al-Awlaki may be betting on the same for his group, which UN experts have estimated has between 3,000 and 4,000 active fighters and passive members. The group raises money by robbing banks and money exchange shops, as well as smuggling weapons, counterfeiting currencies, and ransom operations, according to the UN.

The Shiite Zaydi Houthis have previously denied working with AQAP, a Sunni Death Eater group. However,
if you can't say something nice about a person some juicy gossip will go well...
AQAP targeting of the Houthis has dropped in recent years, while the bully boyz keep attacking Saudi-led coalition forces, who have battled the Houthis.

"As the Houthis gain popularity as leaders of the ’Arab and Moslem world’s resistance’ against Israel, al-Awlaki seeks to challenge their dominance by presenting himself as equally concerned about the situation in Gaza," said Mohammed al-Basha, a Yemeni expert at the Basha Report risk advisory firm.

"For a national security and foreign policy community increasingly disengaged from Yemen, this video is a clear reminder: Yemen still matters."

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Sources: Syrian gov’t found Eli Cohen dossier after Assad’s fall, offered it to Israel

2025-05-21

[IsraelTimes] After Israel announced recovery of archive in ‘covert and complex Mossad operation,’ sources tell Reuters that Sharaa okayed its return to ease Israeli hostility and as gesture to Trump

Syria’s leadership approved the handover of the belongings of long-dead spy Eli Cohen to Israel in a bid to ease Israeli hostility and show goodwill to US President Donald Trump
...Oh, noze! Not him!...
, three sources told Rooters.

Israel announced its recovery of the trove of documents, photographs and personal possessions relating to Cohen on Sunday, saying its spy agency Mosssd
Mosssd

...sees all, knows all, gets 'em all in the end...
had worked with an unnamed foreign intelligence agency to secure the material.

However,
a good lie finds more believers than a bad truth...
a Syrian security source, an adviser to Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa and a person familiar with backchannel talks between the countries said the archive of material was in fact offered to Israel as an indirect gesture by Sharaa as he seeks to cool tensions and build Trump’s confidence.

Cohen, who was hanged in 1965 in a downtown Damascus square after infiltrating Syria’s political elite, is still regarded as a hero in Israel and Mossad’s most celebrated spy for uncovering military secrets that aided its lightning victory in the 1967 Six Day War.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described Cohen on Sunday as a legend and "the greatest intelligence agent in the annals of the state."

While Israel has long sought to recover his body for reburial at home, the return of his archive held for 60 years by Syrian intelligence was hailed by Mossad as "an achievement of the highest moral order."

Israel has not publicly revealed how the archive came into its possession, saying only that it was the result of "a covert and complex Mossad operation, in cooperation with an allied foreign intelligence service."

Netanyahu’s office, Syrian officials and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Syria’s role in Israel’s recovery of the Cohen archive.

COHEN DOSSIER
After rebels led by Sharaa suddenly ousted President Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Supressor of the Damascenes...
in December, ending his family’s 54-year-long rule, they found the Cohen dossier in a state security building, according to the Syrian security source.

Sharaa and his foreign advisers quickly decided to use the material as leverage, the source added.

The Syrian security source said Sharaa had realized that the Cohen archive was important to the Israelis and that its return could amount to a significant diplomatic gesture.

Ending Israeli attacks on Syria and improving relations with the United States and other Western countries are vital for Sharaa as he seeks to revive his shattered country after 14 years of civil war.

Israel regards Sharaa and his ex-insurgents, who once formed the al Qaeda faction in Syria, as unreconstructed jihadists. Israeli forces have been deployed to nine posts inside southern Syria since the fall of the Assad — mostly within a UN-patrolled buffer zone on the border between the countries — and have repeatedly bombed targets in support of Syria’s minority Druze sect.

This month, Rooters reported that the United Arab Emirates had set up a backchannel for talks between Israel and Syria that included efforts to build confidence between the sides.

There have also been other indirect channels for talks, according to two people familiar with the matter.

In the talks, Syria agreed to measures including returning the remains of Cohen as well as three Israeli soldiers killed while fighting Syrian forces in Leb
...The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else?...
in the early 1980s, a person familiar with those talks said. The body of one of those soldiers, Sgt. First Class Zvi Feldman, has been returned, Israel said last week.

The return of the Cohen archive came in the context of those confidence-building measures and was done with Sharaa’s direct approval, the person said.

Last week, Trump held a surprise meeting with Sharaa in 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...
where he urged him to normalize ties with Israel and announced that he would lift sanctions on Syria.

Syrian officials have said they want peace with all states in the region, and Sharaa confirmed this month that Damascus had carried out indirect talks with Israel via states it has ties with in order to calm the situation.

Link

Afghanistan

Taliban Earning Billions, Giving American Weaponry to Terrorist Groups as Afghanistan Once Again Becomes Jihadi Hotbed: Report

2025-05-08

[Free Beacon] The Taliban took in $3.4 billion in revenue over the last year,

…how much from international donations versus sales of opium derivatives and American weapons?

boosting its cash supply by 14 percent amid the return of Afghanistan as a central safe haven for terrorist organizations across the Middle East, according to a U.S. government watchdog group.

The repercussions of the Biden administration’s disastrous 2021 military withdrawal from Afghanistan continue to reverberate across the war-torn country, with multiple al Qaeda affiliates accessing American-supplied "weapons seized from the former Afghan National Army," according to a new oversight report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR).

The United States left 78 aircraft, 40,000 military vehicles, and over 300,000 weapons in Afghanistan in a withdrawal that saw 13 American service members lose their lives. According to the SIGAR report—which the watchdog group delivered to Congress on April 30—the Taliban transferred many of these arms directly to terrorist affiliates, while others made their way to the black market.

The Pentagon assesses that of around $18.6 billion worth of U.S. equipment provided to the Afghan Army over decades of support, $7.12 billion in weaponry remains in the Taliban’s possession. As a result, "terrorist groups continued to operate in and from Afghanistan amid ongoing U.S., UN, and regional concerns that the country remains a terrorist haven."

More than two dozen terrorist organizations are currently active in Afghanistan, including the Islamic State-affiliated Khorasan Province (ISIS-K) and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). At least four al Qaeda offshoots are also using the country to organize operations. "Terrorist groups," SIGAR reported, "continued to use Afghan soil to train and plan attacks and a ’small but steady’ flow of foreign terrorists continued to travel to Afghanistan and join one of over two dozen terror groups based there."

Link

Africa Subsaharan

Salafi-Jihadi Cells Continue to Grow Across Nigeria

2025-04-26

Goody.

[UNDERSTANDINGWAR.ORG] Nigeria. Salafi-jihadi factions are strengthening in Nigeria outside the typical hotspots in the northeastern parts of the country. These factions in north-central and northwestern Nigeria have ties to Boko Haram

... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
and the al Qaeda and 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....
affiliates in West Africa. These factions could facilitate these groups' activities around the Gulf of Guinea and the Sahel.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Mujahedin-e Khalq Tactics Undermine Iranian Regime Change

2025-03-30

[Townhall] After more than 45 years of holy manal dictatorship, the Iranian people deserve freedom. The Islamic Theocratic Republic is a terrorist regime responsible for the deaths of thousands of Americans and hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths in 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 across the region.

A diplomatic belief in reform was always a fool’s game for two simple reasons: First, Iranian elections cannot change a regime policy set by unelected figures like Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei
...the very aged actual dictator of Iran, successor to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini...>
. Second, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps exists solely to protect the theocratic regime from the Iranian people. Diplomats are naïve to believe that regime reformism is real; in reality, the reformers entrap Western officials in a game of good cop-bad cop. As former Iranian President Muhammad Khatami’s front man explained in 2008, "We had an overt policy, which was one of negotiation and confidence building, and a covert policy, which was continuation of the activities."

As former Iranian President Muhammad Khatami’s front man explained in 2008, "We had an overt policy, which was one of negotiation and confidence building, and a covert policy, which was continuation of the activities."

The irony of the Iranian regime is that it has greater legitimacy among the West’s useful idiots than it does among the Iranian people. For more than a quarter century, Iranians have poured out into the streets with increasing frequency. The murder of Jina "Mahsa" Amini "Woman, Life, Freedom" Movement was the last straw for many Iranians, who openly called for death to Khamenei. Such an event may not be far off: Iran’s dictator is 85-years-old, has had cancer, and is partially paralyzed from a 1981 liquidation attempt.

Iranians have myriad views about what comes next, though they also have remarkable consensus on three things:

First, they do not want external regime change. Iran is not Iraq. They want support, but will win freedom themselves, not at the barrel of a foreign gun. Second, they do not want Iran divided. When Iraqi President Saddam Hussein invaded Iran in 1980, he spoke about cleaving away "Arabistan," his name for the traditionally Arab-populated, oil-producing province of Khuzestan. Iranians rightly rallied to defend their country from Iraq, but the distraction of war allowed Revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to wrap himself in a nationalist flag to avoid accountability for his revolution’s failures and betrayal. The third point of consensus is disdain for the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO).

This third point remains interwoven with the first two in the minds of most Iranians. The MKO—and Maryam Rajavi, for 40-years, its president-elect—were once fierce proponents of Khomeini’s Islamic Revolution. Rajavi has a right to be personally furious with Khomeini: Like he did with so many other supporters, he betrayed Rajavi and the MKO. Many MKO members fled to Iraq, Iran’s archrival that was at the time killing Iranian conscripts after having invaded the country. Most Iranians despise Khomeini—how else to explain why they would put dog excrement into his tomb—but they could not understand a group allying itself with an Arab dictator bent upon dismantling Iran itself.

Ultimately, Iranians will determine their own future, hopefully through a democratic process once the theocracy collapses. Some Iranians may support the son of the late shah as a unifying figure who can preside over a constitutional convention. Others may prefer a president, and still others may advocate for a parliamentary system presided over by a prime minister. Ethnic or religious groups dominant in one province or another may also seek greater local decision-making. Most Iranian groups debate such structures and cooperate with those with whom they disagree.

The MKO, however, stands apart in vision, in opacity, and in tactics. While Iranian women risk their lives for freedom from forced veiling, not only does Rajavi strictly cover herself, but she also requires that all the women of her group cover their hair. What Iranians want is not a different flavor of Islamic Theocratic Republic, but rather no Islamic Theocratic Republic.

Iranians also want democracy. Too many once believed Khomeini’s promises of democracy; they realize the danger of insincere promises. This translates into deep suspicion about the MKO. After all, how can a group that embraced first Khomeini and then Saddam stand for democracy? To suggest the MKO is pro-American is risible. Prior to the Islamic Revolution, the MKO killed American businessmen and military officers. While that was hardly unique among leftist groups during the Cold War, what makes the MKO different today is it denies its history rather than apologizes for it. Indeed, when Americans are not in the room its anti-Americanism flourishes.

The biggest problem with the MKO, however, is that it actively undermines grassroots opposition by disrupting events that do not pay homage to Rajavi or libeling or slandering those who raise questions about the MKO’s record.

I have been a victim of MKO tactics. Ali Safavi, a member of the foreign affairs committee of the National Council of Resistance® of Iran, the political umbrella for the MKO, has six columns here libeling me in response to my criticism of the MKO. None of his columns address criticisms I made about the MKO. Rather, Safavi’s responses range from the bizarre to the conspiratorial: He accuses me of being an Iranian regime agent because, in his imagination, American Jews who worked in President George W. Bush’s administration and have advocated for regime change in Commentary and the Wall Street Journal over a quarter century must be closet Islamists. Sure, I went to Iran. Yale University funded me. I wrote my dissertation on telegraphy in 19th century Iran and penned several spinoff articles about Persian cryptology, Armenian and Baha’i telegraph workers, and the like. That no more makes me an Iranian agent than the many American students that the regime subsequently took hostage. By Safavi’s logic, am I also al Qaeda because I went to the Taliban
Taliban

...the once and current oppressors of Afghanistan...
’s Afghanistan? Am I a communist because I went to Cuba? In reality, my job is to study how rogue regimes think, and I consider the Islamic Theocratic Republic the marquee rogue.

Washington policy debate is rough-and-tumble. During the Iraq war, partisans cast aspersions easily. Those that Safavi repeats—about my supposed role shepherding Ahmad Chalabi—originated in convicted fraudster Lyndon LaRouche’s magazine (Actually, I worked mostly with Iraqi Kurds). Ditto, a New York Times

...which still proudly claims Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...
news hound once accused me of being part of the Lincoln Group, which planted news stories in the Iraqi press. Sorry, Ali. Congress investigated the Lincoln Group; I was not part of it. Don’t be the only Townhall columnist that takes the New York Times at face value. And don’t be the only Iranian who, with the Chalabi calumny, appears to lament Saddam’s fall.

I’ve got thick skin, but such tactics matter. First, how can Washington policymakers take the MKO seriously when it cites LaRouche as a reliable source? Or deflects policy debate with ad hominem attacks? Or argues that security-cleared, American Jewish neoconservative Iran hawks are really just closet Revolutionary Guards agents?

More seriously, the aspersions Safavi casts toward me are mild compared to how the MKO treats the Iranian opposition. Rather than work jointly toward the goal of ending an odious regime in Tehran, the MKO would rather attack any Iranians who do not blindly submit to Rajavi, live in her group homes, and fork over their income and, in some cases, children.

During the Cold War, there were Communists, anti-Communists, and anti-anti-Communists who cared more about knocking down critics of the Soviet Union than about defeating the Evil Empire itself. This is the dynamic now at play with the MKO as it obsessively attacks critics of the Islamic Theocratic Republic. There could be no bigger gift to Khamenei than the MKO’s efforts to delegitimize its critics.

Link

Fifth Column

Lawyer for Radical Columbia Grad Student Repped Al Qaeda Members—Including 'Close Associate' of Bin Laden

2025-03-15

[WashingtonFreeBeacon] When Hamas
Hamas

..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
-supporting Columbia graduate student Mahmoud Khalil appeared in court on Wednesday, he was represented by, among others, Ramzi Kassem, a lawyer perhaps best known for defending al Qaeda terrorists.

The Syrian-born Khalil had his green card revoked by Immigration and Customs Enforcement over the weekend as part of the Trump administration's crackdown on foreign nationals involved in pro-terrorist demonstrations at universities.

Kassem has represented murderous Moslems including Ahmed al-Darbi, an al Qaeda member convicted in 2017 for the bombing of a French oil tanker, as well as several other Guantanamo Bay detainees, including a "close associate" of the late Osama bin Laden
...... who is no longer with us, and won't be again......
. He went on to serve as an immigration policy adviser to former president Joe The Big Guy Biden
...46th president of the U.S. This Is A Man That Does Not Seem Demented...
as a member of the White House's Domestic Policy Council.

Like his new client, Kassem was also involved in anti-Israel activism as a student at Columbia, where he lobbied to rename a sandwich called the "Israeli wrap" in the student dining hall, claiming the terminology was offensive to Moslems. He attended Columbia Law School on a fellowship funded by Paul Soros, the elder brother of Democratic megadonor George Soros
...either Ernst Stavro Blofeld or Auric Goldfinger come true. Maybe both....
His client, Khalil, who graduated from a Columbia graduate program in December, was a leader of Columbia University Apartheid Divest, which backed Hamas's "armed resistance" against Israel. He served as a lead negotiator for student activists' illegal anti-Israel encampment last spring and vowed that the group would "remain in this encampment until we achieve all of our demands," which included a boycott of Israel.

Columbia briefly suspended Khalil for his role in the encampment, but he continued to back the demonstrations on campus, which turned ~~violent~~ mostly peaceful in the spring, when students stormed and occupied campus building.

"What we will see [is] the students will continue their activism, will continue doing what they've done in conventional and unconventional ways," Khalil told The Hill in August. "So not only protests, not only encampments, kind of any—any available means necessary to push Columbia to divest from Israel."

"And we've been working all this summer on our plans, on what's next to pressure Columbia to listen to the students and to decide to be on the right side of history," Khalil went on.

Since then, pro-Hamas activists at Columbia have disrupted classes to distribute anti-Semitic flyers, ~~violent~~ mostly peacefully seized campus buildings, and physically assaulted university employees. The chaos led the Trump administration last week to cut off $400 million in federal grants to the university, citing the school's "continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students."

Khalil is expected to remain in the country after a federal judge, Jesse Furman, intervened on Wednesday to block his immediate deportation. Furman, of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, is a prolific Democratic donor who once threw out a terrorism lawsuit against the Paleostine Liberation Organization.

Furman, who has served as a judge for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York since he was nominated in 2011 by President Barack Obama
My friends, we live in the greatest nation in the history of the world. I hope you'll join with me as we try to change it...
, has a long history of involvement with liberal political causes. The brother of Obama’s former economic advisor Jason Furman, Jesse Furman has donated over $20,000 to Democrats
...every time you hear the phrase white people, white supremacy, white anything but paint, you're listening to a Democrat. Ask him/her/it to reimagine something for you; they do that a lot, though not well. They can hear a dog whistle a mile or two away. They invented the spoils system and Tammany Hall, and inspired the addition of the word (Thomas) Nasty to the English language. They want to stop continental drift and repeal the law of unintended side effects...
, including Obama, Crooked Hillary Clinton
...former first lady, former secretary of state, former presidential candidate, Conqueror of Benghazi, Heroine of Tuzla, formerly described by her supporters as the smartest woman in the world, usually described by the rest of us as The Thing That Wouldn't Go Away. Politix is not one of her talents, but it's something she keeps trying to do...
, and the Democratic National Committee.

Furman also served as the treasurer of his family’s charity, the Furman Foundation, which has donated to Media Matters, the Alliance for Justice, and People for the American Way, according to his Senate confirmation questionnaire.

The Khalil ruling isn’t the first time Furman has staked out a controversial position on a case involving Israel. In 2018, Furman dismissed a terrorism lawsuit against the Paleostine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Paleostinian leadership in the West Bank, citing a lack of jurisdiction.

The lawsuit was filed by the family of Ari Fuld, an American-Israeli citizen who was stabbed to death by a Paleostinian terrorist outside an Israeli shopping center in 2018. The plaintiffs argued that the PLO and Paleostinian Authority were liable in Fuld’s murder under the Anti-Terrorism Act, because the Paleostinian government paid the terrorist’s family following the attack. Critics say this payment system, known as the "pay-to-slay" program, incentivizes terrorism.

Furman tossed the suit, arguing that the court didn’t have jurisdiction over the PLO and the Paleostinian Authority. But Fuld’s family and other victims of Paleostinian terrorism have appealed the issue, and the Supreme Court agreed to take up the question of jurisdiction in December.

In Khalil’s case, the government is challenging the Southern District’s jurisdiction over the case, arguing that Khalil's lawyers should have filed it in either New Jersey or Louisiana, where Khalil was detained at the time.

Ted Frank, the director of the Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute, told the Washington Free Beacon that there is a strong argument for challenging the jurisdiction and that he would be "surprised if the motion isn't granted."

Khalil's lawyers countered that there is legal standing to file his case in the place where he was arrested, if there is evidence that the government transferred him to prevent him from speaking with legal counsel.

"There is a two-track process here: habeas corpus (in federal court) and deportation (before an immigration judge)," Andrew McCarthy, a former prosecutor in the Southern District and columnist for National Review, told the Free Beacon. "The issue in the habeas case is whether Khalil's arrest and detention violate the Constitution."

Link

Home Front: WoT

Tulsi Gabbard Identifies Biggest National Security Threat, and It's Not What We've Been Told

2025-03-03

[PJMedia] In a sane political environment, this would have passed as a decidedly unremarkable, albeit not quite one-hundred-percent accurate, observation. The U.S. Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, recently warned that “radical Islamist terrorism” is the biggest national security threat the nation faces today.

Then the drugs and violence brought in by narco gangs aided and abetted by Communist China must be the second biggest.

Well, of course. The top terror groups worldwide are all Islamic. On Sept. 11, 2001, Islamic jihadis carried out the largest-ever terror attack on American soil. Numerous other Islamic jihad attacks have taken place in the U.S., at Fort Hood, the Boston Marathon, San Bernardino, New Orleans, and numerous other places. The Biden regime caught numerous people on the terror watch list crossing into the U.S. from Mexico and released at least 99 of them into the country. Gabbard was therefore making an entirely reasonable assessment.

Gabbard said: “We look at the past four years of open borders, where we had tens of millions of people coming across our borders, many of whom we don’t know who they are or what their intentions are, very specifically the threat of radical Islamist terrorism here within our country is higher than it’s ever been before, not only because of Biden’s open borders, but because of his and his administration’s fear of being called Islamophobes.”

For Gabbard to speak of “radical Islamist terrorism” was not quite accurate, as there is nothing “radical” about Islamic jihad violence. It is mainstream and deeply rooted in the Qur’an and Sunnah. And “Islamist” is a phony word that corresponds to nothing in Islamic theology. It is just an attempt to distance Islam from the crimes done in its name and in accord with its teachings.

Nevertheless, her statement was a tremendous improvement over the Biden regime. FBI director Christopher Wray testified before members of the Senate Judiciary Committee in March 2021, saying: “The top threat we face from [domestic violent extremists] continues to be those we identify as Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists (RMVEs), specifically those who advocate for the superiority of the white race.”

Old Joe Biden then said it during his speech to a Joint Session of Congress in April 2021: “We won’t ignore what our own intelligence agencies have determined – the most lethal terrorist threat to the homeland today is from white supremacist terrorism.”

The following month, a revealing piece in Yahoo News by “journalist” Alexander Nazaryan stated that Biden’s desperately corrupt and partisan Attorney General Merrick Garland “told Congress on Wednesday that violence incited by white supremacists poses ‘the most dangerous threat to our democracy.’ That assertion reflects near-universal consensus among national security experts, including those who worked for the Trump administration.”

In June 2021, Biden doubled down: “As I said in my address to the joint session of Congress: According to the intelligence community, terrorism from white supremacy is the most lethal threat to the homeland today. Not ISIS, not al Qaeda — white supremacists. That’s not me; that’s the intelligence community under both Trump and under my administration.”

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

US military says it killed senior member of al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria airstrike

2025-01-31

[IsraelTimes] The US military says it killed a senior operative of an al-Qaeda-affiliated group in an airstrike in northwest Syria on Thursday.

The airstrike, part of an ongoing effort to disrupt and degrade terrorist groups in the region, resulted in the death of Muhammad Salah al-Za’bir of the Hurras al-Din group,

… Guardians of Religion split from Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (Al Nusra) in 2018. Since then, the two groups have competed for influence and territory, with HTS periodically arresting Hurras al-Din members. America has been killing them for a while, a good thing even if it does help the new conquerers of Syria…

the US Central Command says in a statement.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

As Turkey moves in following Assad’s fall, Syria’s Kurds are on the defensive

2024-12-23

[IsraelTimes] After rebels sweep to power in Damascus, Syrian Kurdish leader asks Trump to prevent northern incursion by Ankara — which views Kurdish factions as a national security threat

With hostile Ottoman Turkish-backed groups mobilizing against them in Syria’s north, and Damascus ruled by a group friendly to Ankara, Syria’s main Kurdish factions are on the back foot as they seek to preserve political gains carved out during 13 years of war.

Part of a stateless ethnic group straddling Iraq, Iran, ~~The Sick Man of Europe~~ Turkey
...a NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions...
member, but not the most reliable...
, Armenia and Syria, Kurds have so far been among the few winners of the Syrian conflict, controlling nearly a quarter of the country and leading a powerful gang that is a key US ally in countering 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....
But the power balance has tilted against them since the Islamist group Hayat 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) swept into Damascus this month, toppling president Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Supressor of the Damascenes...
, two analysts and a senior Western diplomat told Rooters.

The seismic change in Syria is expected to yield deeper Ottoman Turkish sway just as a change of US administration is raising questions over how long Washington will keep backing the country’s Kurdish-led forces.

For Turkey, the Kurdish factions represent a national security threat. Ankara views them as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has been waging an insurgency against the Ottoman Turkish state since 1984 and is deemed a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and other powers.

The Syrian Kurdish groups "are in deep, deep trouble," said Aron Lund, a fellow at Century International, a US-based think tank. "The balance has shifted fundamentally in Syria to the advantage of Turkey-backed or Turkey-aligned factions, and Turkey seems determined to exploit this to the fullest."

The shift has been reflected in renewed fighting for control of the north, where Turkey-backed gangs known as the Syrian National Army (SNA) have made military advances against the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

Fanar al-Kait, a bigwig in the Kurdish-led regional administration, told Rooters that the ouster of Assad, whose Arab nationalist Baath Party oppressed Kurds for decades, presented a chance to stitch the fragmented country back together.

He said the administration is ready for dialogue with Turkey, but the conflict in the north showed Ankara had "very bad intentions."

"This will certainly push the region towards... a new conflict," he added.

Ottoman Turkish President His Enormity, Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First
...Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really more important...
said Friday he expected foreign states would withdraw support for Kurdish fighters following Assad’s toppling, as Ankara seeks to isolate the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the Kurdish militia that spearheaded the SDF alliance.

Responding to questions from Rooters, a Ottoman Turkish official said the root cause of the conflict is "not Turkey’s view towards the region; it is that the PKK/YPG is a terrorist organization."

"The PKK/YPG elements must lay down their arms and leave Syria," the official said.

SDF commander Mazloum Abdi, in a Rooters interview on Thursday, acknowledged the presence of PKK fighters in Syria for the first time, saying they had helped battle Islamic State and would return home in the event a total ceasefire was agreed with Turkey. He denied any organizational ties with the PKK.

Meanwhile,
...back at the abandoned silver mine, a triangular dorsal fin appeared in the water. Then another...
in Damascus, the new leadership is showing warmth towards Ankara and indicating it wants to bring all Syria back under central authority — a potential challenge to the decentralization Kurds favor.

While Turkey provides direct backing to the SNA, it along with other states deems HTS a terrorist group because of its al Qaeda past.

Despite this, Ankara is believed to have significant sway over the group. A senior Western diplomat said: "The Turks can clearly influence them more than anyone else."

HTS leader Ahmed al-Sharaa told a Ottoman Turkish newspaper that Assad’s ouster was "not only the victory of the Syrian people, but also the Ottoman Turkish people."

The Ottoman Turkish official said HTS was not and never had been under Ankara’s control, calling it a structure "we were communicating with due to circumstances," and adding many Western states were also doing so.

Syrian Kurdish groups led by the Democratic Union Party (PYD) and the affiliated YPG militia took control of much of the north after the uprising against Assad began in 2011. They established their own administration, while insisting their aim was autonomy, not independence.

Their politics, emphasizing socialism and feminism, differ starkly from HTS’s Islamism. Their area grew as US-led forces partnered with the SDF in the campaign against Islamic State, capturing Arab-majority areas.

The Turkey-backed SNA groups stepped up their campaign against the SDF as Assad was being toppled, seizing the city of Manbij on Dec. 9

Washington brokered a ceasefire, but the SDF has said Turkey and its allies have not abided by it, and a Ottoman Turkish defense ministry official said there was no such deal.

US support for the SDF has been a point of tension with its NATO ally, Turkey. Washington views the SDF as a key partner in countering Islamic State, which US Secretary of State Antony Blinken

...71st United States secretary of state and a leading light of the corrupt and inept Biden administration. He previously served as deputy national security advisor from 2013 to 2015 and deputy secretary of state from 2015 to 2017 under the corrupt and inept Obama administration. He advocated for the 2003 invasion of Iraq while serving as the Democratic staff director of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 2002 to 2008. He was a foreign policy advisor for the Biden 2008 presidential campaign. During his tenure in the Obama administration, Blinken helped craft B.O.'s policy on Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the nuclear program of Iran. We all saw how well each of those worked. After leaving government service, Blinken moved into the private sector, co-founding WestExec Advisors, a lobbying firm...
has warned will try to use this period to re-establish capabilities in Syria. The SDF is still guarding tens of thousands of detainees linked to the hard boy group.

Ottoman Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler said last weekend that Turkey saw no sign of an Islamic State resurgence in Syria. On Friday, Turkey’s foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, told his German counterpart during talks in Ankara that alternatives needed to be found for the management of camps and prisons where the detainees are being held.

Separately, US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf said on Friday that Washington was working with Ankara and the SDF to find "a managed transition in terms of SDF’s role in that part of the country."

US President Joe The Big Guy Biden
...46th president of the U.S. I'm not working for you. Don't be such a horse's ass....
’s administration has said that US troops will stay on in Syria, but President-elect Donald Trump
...Oh, noze! Not him!...
could remove them when he takes office on Jan. 20.

During his first administration, Trump attempted to pull out of Syria but faced pressure at home and from US allies.

In a Dec. 17 letter to Trump, reviewed by Rooters, top Syrian Kurdish official Ilham Ahmed said Turkey was preparing to invade the northeast before he takes office.

Turkey’s plan "threatens to undo years of progress in securing stability and fighting terrorism," she wrote. "We believe you have the power to prevent this catastrophe."

Asked for comment, Trump-Vance transition front man Brian Hughes said: "We continue to monitor the situation in Syria. President Trump is committed to diminishing threats to peace and stability in the Middle East and to protecting Americans here at home."

Trump said on Dec. 16 that Turkey will "hold the key" to what happens in Syria but has not announced his plans for US forces stationed there.

"The Kurds are in an unenviable position," said Joshua Landis, a Syria expert at the University of Oklahoma. "Once Damascus consolidates its power, it will move on the region. The US can’t remain there forever."

HTS leader Sharaa told British broadcaster the BBC that Kurds were "part of our people" and "there should be no division of Syria," adding arms should be entirely in the state’s hands.

Sharaa acknowledged one of Turkey’s main concerns — the presence of non-Syrian Kurdish fighters in Syria — and said: "We do not accept that Syrian lands threaten and destabilize Turkey or other places."

He pledged to work through dialogue and negotiations to find "a peaceful formula to solve the problem," saying he believed initial contacts had been established "between the Kurds in northeastern Syria or the SDF organization."

Kait, the Kurdish official, said his administration wanted "a democratic Syria, a decentralized Syria, a Syria that represents all Syrians of all sects, religions and ethnicities," describing these as red lines. The SDF would be "a nucleus of the coming Syrian army," he added.

SDF commander Abdi, in his Rooters interview, confirmed that contact had been established with HTS to avoid festivities between their forces but said Ankara would try to drive a wedge between Damascus and the Kurdish-led administration.

Still, he said there was strong support from international parties, including the U.S.-led coalition, for the SDF joining "the new political phase" in Damascus, calling it "a great opportunity."

"We are preparing, after a total ceasefire between us and between Turkey and the affiliated factions, to join this phase," he said.

Link

Warning: Undefined property: stdClass::$T in /data/rantburg.com/www/rantburg/pgrecentorg.php on line 132
-12 More