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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Two Zionist soldiers killed in booby-trapped Rafah tunnel
2025-05-05
[HODHODYEMENNEWS.NET] The Israeli occupation forces admitted to the elimination of two more of its troops by a booby-trapped tunnel shaft in southern 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...
's Rafah on Saturday.

The dead soldiers were identified as the following:

1-Cpt. Noam Ravid, 23, from the elite ''Yahalom'' combat engineering unit.
2-Staff Sgt. Yaly Seror, 20, from the elite ''Yahalom'' combat engineering unit.

According to an initial Zionist probe, the ''Yahalom'' terrorists, operating under the ''Golani'' Brigade, were scanning the entrance to a tunnel inside a building, when they were suddenly hit by a kaboom.

One of the maimed murderous Moslems is listed at death's door, while the other is moderately hurt.

In another incident yesterday, a Zionist reservist with the ''Jerusalem'' Brigade's 7007th Battalion was seriously maimed in northern Gaza. The circumstances of his injury are still are under investigation, the Zionist occupation military said.

Also, yesterday, two Zionist soldiers of the 401st Armored Brigade's 46th Battalion were maimed by a blast in an army encampment in the area of Gaza City's eastern Daraj and Tuffah neighborhoods.

According to an initial Zionist investigation, the blast was apparently caused by a tank shell that ''prematurely'' detonated when it was being fired.
The Times of Israel only added a few details:
The slain troops were named as Cpt. Noam Ravid, 23 from Sha’arei Tikva and Staff Sgt. Yaly Seror, 20, from Omer.

The deaths brought Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip to 416.

IDF says troops found weapons cache near school and hospital in south Gaza
[IsraelTimes] The IDF says troops operating in southern Gaza’s Rafah located a cache of weapons near a hospital and a school.

The find was made by the Iron Fist Reserve Armored Brigade.

The military says the weapons were located 80 meters from a former school and around 100 meters from a hospital.
Related:
Rafah: 2025-05-04 IDF calls up tens of thousands of reservists ahead of expanded Gaza offensive
Rafah: 2025-05-01 Hamas vows continued resistance amid Netanyahu's 'illusion' of victory
Rafah: 2025-04-27 Soldier and cop killed in Gaza City fighting, as IDF prepares to ramp up offensive
Related:
Gaza City: 2025-05-03 Netanyahu said to okay expanded Gaza op, with IDF readying for major reservist call-up
Gaza City: 2025-04-30 IDF says 3 key terrorists killed in recent strikes, including leader of Oct. 7 Kissufim attack
Gaza City: 2025-04-29 Dozens killed in new Israeli attacks in Gaza
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
2 reservists killed as IDF sends more troops 4th division into southern Lebanon
2024-10-08
[IsraelTimes] IDF orders additional Lebanese villages to evacuate as thousands of soldiers are deployed to join expanding ground offensive; Hezbollah fires dozens of rockets at Israel’s north

Two Israeli reservists serving on the northern border were killed in a mortar attack, authorities announced Monday, as the military said it was sending more troops into Leb
...an Iranian satrapy until recently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. 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? It is the home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...
amid a swiftly widening offensive against the Hezbollah terror group.

The deaths were announced as Hezbollah continued to fire rockets at northern Israel, launching dozens of projectiles at towns in the north towns a day after it managed to breach air defenses around Haifa for a first time.

Master Sgt. (res.) Etay Azulay, 25, from the West Bank border settlement of Oranit, and Warrant Officer (res.) Aviv Magen, 43, from the central town of Herut, were both on the Israeli side of the border with Lebanon when a mortar impacted near their position Sunday evening, the Israel Defense Forces said. Azulay was killed on the spot, while Magen died in a hospital on Monday morning. Both were members of the IDF’s elite 5515 combat mobility unit. The deaths bring the IDF’s toll since launching its ground operation in Lebanon to 11.

A third reservist with them at the time was seriously maimed.

On Sunday night, the army sent a third division into Lebanon to fight alongside two divisions already operating across the border. The move adds thousands of troops to Israel’s ground offensive, with the total number of soldiers deployed inside Lebanon now likely over 10,000.

The 91st "Galilee" Regional Division, which is normally responsible for the entire Lebanon border area, joins the IDF’s 98th and 36th divisions, which have been operating in southern Lebanon since last week.

Israel’s raids in southern Lebanon have focused on Hezbollah’s "centers of gravity" in southern Lebanon villages, where troops have so far found massive amounts of weapons, military sources said. Israel has said Hezbollah was planning a large-scale October 7-style attack on northern communities to massacre and kidnap Israeli civilians.

The IDF has said the operations in southern Lebanon will expand as needed, but that it still intends for the operations to end as quickly as possible — within a few weeks. However,
if you can't say something nice about a person some juicy gossip will go well...
there are signs that the fighting is set to expand.

On Monday morning, the IDF issued new calls to Lebanese civilians in more than two dozen villages and towns in southern Lebanon to evacuate immediately and head north of the Awali River. In recent days, the military has called on dozens of locales in southern Lebanon, including some north of the Litani River, to evacuate. The IDF said it would update the civilians when it is safe to return.

The 91st Division began ground operations inside southern Lebanon Sunday with three reserve brigades: the Alexandroni and Alon infantry brigades and the 8th Armored Brigade.

The division’s 769th "Hiram" Regional Brigade — responsible for the eastern portion of the border — was continuing defensive operations, the military added.

Amid the fighting, Hezbollah launched some 135 rockets at northern Israel through Monday evening, as Israel marked the first anniversary of the October 7 Hamas
..a regional Iranian catspaw,...
attack.

Some 15 rockets were fired before 7 a.m. at the Karmiel area, a city of some 50,000 approximately 16 kilometers (10 miles) from the Lebanon border. Some of the rockets were intercepted and the rest struck open areas, the IDF said.

Shortly before 9 a.m., another 20 rockets were launched at the Western Galilee. At least one of the rockets landed in Kfar Vradim, causing damage to several cars. The IDF said most of the rockets launched in the attack were intercepted.

Several more rockets were fired at the Dovev area later in the morning, which all hit open land according to the IDF.

Rocket sirens also sounded in Acre, Nahariya, and suburbs of Haifa.

There were no reports of injuries in the attacks.

Aside from putting boots on the ground in southern Lebanon, the IDF has also pounded Hezbollah from the air, repeatedly hitting the Iran-backed group’s holdings near Beirut in recent days. Overnight, the IDF said it carried out strikes against Hezbollah intelligence sites and weapon depots in Beirut. Strikes were also carried out against the terror group’s sites in southern Lebanon and the Beqaa Valley, including weapon depots, a command room, and a rocket launcher, the military added.

Later Monday evening, the IDF announced that its fighter jets had carried out a large wave of Arclight airstrike
...KABOOM!...
s against more than 120 Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon. The strikes, which lasted an hour, hit Hezbollah sites belonging to the terror group’s Southern Front, elite Radwan Force, rocket and missile division, and intelligence division, according to the military.

The IDF said that the Air Force has struck more than 100 Hezbollah sites in Beirut alone in the past two weeks. The IDF said the sites have included weapon depots, weapon manufacturing plants, and command centers.

The military in recent months identified Hezbollah moving weapons and manufacturing equipment from southern Lebanon and the Beqaa Valley to Beirut’s southern suburb, a Hezbollah stronghold known as Dahiyeh. The IDF believes that Hezbollah moved the assets in an attempt to prevent Israel from targeting them, as until recently, Israel largely refrained from strikes in Beirut.
And the suckers believed they’d be safe forever. Israel truly is blessed by God with the idiots who choose to be her enemies.
Such strikes have now become a daily occurrence.

The IDF on Monday afternoon warned Lebanese civilians against entering the sea or being on the beach in southern Lebanon, as Israel continues its offensive against Hezbollah. Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language front man, issued the "urgent warning" to people on vacation, beachgoers, and anyone using boats for fishing or other uses from the Awali River — located north of Sidon — southward. He said the Israeli Navy will soon begin to operate against Hezbollah in the area. "For your safety, refrain from being at the sea or on the beach from now until further notice. Being on the beach, and boat movements in the area of ​​the Awali River line to the south, poses a threat to your life."

Amid the ongoing tensions, Britannia’s Foreign Office announced that it had withdrawn the families of its embassy staff working in Israel due to the escalation in fighting between Israel and Hezbollah and the risk of a wider regional conflict.

The foreign minister of La Belle France, which has been working with the US to broker a diplomatic solution between Israel and Hezbollah, said Monday that the French-US proposal for a ceasefire to end fighting in Lebanon remains on the table, with parties continuing to work on it.

Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said Israel’s security cannot be guaranteed with military force alone and will require a diplomatic solution.
None of them remember that first the Allies won the war against the Nazis, and only after they surrendered were the diplomats allowed to get involved.
"Military success cannot be a substitute for a political perspective," Barrot told news hounds during a visit to Israel.
Rank idiocy.
In a separate development overnight Sunday-Monday, the military said three drones launched from the east, a term used in the past by the IDF to describe attacks from Iraq, were shot down by the Israeli Air Force. In the first incident, at around 1 a.m. a drone heading toward Israel was intercepted outside of Israeli airspace, the IDF said. Hours later, shortly after 5 a.m., the military said two drones were shot down by the Israeli Air Force off the coast of Rishon Lezion. Sirens had sounded in Rishon Lezion and Palmachim amid the incident.

The Iran-backed Islamic Resistance® in Iraq took responsibility for the attack, claiming to have targeted a "military target" in Israel with a drone.
And they took a victory dance for it, too.
On Sunday, the chief of the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) Gen. Michael Kurilla held an assessment with IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, the Israeli military said.

"The general’s visit dealt with the security issues at hand, with an emphasis on 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 the northern front," the IDF said.

The visit came amid preparations in the IDF for a response to Iran’s attack against Israel with some 200 ballistic missiles last week, which Iran said was retaliation for the killing of Hezbollah chief His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
...The late, lamented satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb...>
The skirmishes resulted in 26 civilian deaths on the Israeli side, and — in addition to the 11 soldiers killed in the ground operation — the deaths of 22 IDF soldiers and reservists. The IDF’s toll in the ground offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon and during operations on the border stands at 11.

Two soldiers in northern Israel have been killed in a drone attack from Iraq, and there have also been several attacks from Syria, without any injuries.

Hezbollah has named 516 members — including Nasrallah — who have been killed by Israel during the war, mostly in Lebanon but also some in Syria. Another 94 operatives from other terror groups, a Lebanese soldier, and dozens of civilians have also been killed.

These numbers have not been consistently updated since Israel began its new offensive against Hezbollah in September, including the ground operation in which the military says at least 440 Hezbollah operatives have been killed.

IDF deploys a fourth division to south Lebanon for ground op against Hezbollah

[IsraelTimes] The IDF deployed a fourth division to southern Leb
last night for ground operations against the Hezbollah terror group.

The military announces that its 146th Reserve Division began ground operations last night in the western sector of southern Lebanon.

The reserve division joins three standing army divisions — the 98th, 36th, and 91st — already operating in the central and eastern sectors of southern Lebanon.

The move adds thousands of troops to Israel’s ground offensive, with the total number of soldiers deployed inside Lebanon now likely over 15,000.

The operations were launched by the division with its Carmeli Reserve Infantry Brigade and Iron Fist Reserve Armored Brigade, with support from its 213th Artillery Regiment, the military says.

Israel’s ground operations in southern Lebanon have been described by the IDF as "limited, localized, and targeted raids," with the goal of demolishing Hezbollah’s infrastructure in the border area, especially in the villages adjacent to Israel, to enable residents of the north of Israel to return home.
Link


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
7 IDF reservists wounded, 4 of them seriously, in blast in southern Gaza
2024-08-06
[IsraelTimes] Truck driver lightly hurt as barrage of 15 rockets fired from Gaza at south; IDF kills Hamas economy minister in airstrike; bodies of 80 Palestinians said returned to Strip

Seven reservists were maimed, including four seriously, during fighting in the southern 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 an 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 on Monday morning, the Israel Defense Forces said. The troops, of the 205th "Iron Fist" Reserve Armored Brigade’s 9215th Battalion, were taken to a hospital in Israel for treatment.

According to an initial probe, the troops were maimed by an bomb or grenade hurled at them by a Hamas
..a regional Iranian catspaw,...
operative. Four of the reservists were seriously maimed, two were listed in moderate condition, and one was lightly injured.

Also on Monday morning, an Israeli truck driver was lightly injured by a rocket impact near Kibbutz Re’ím, as snuffies in the Gaza Strip launched a barrage at southern Israel. The barrage of some 15 rockets fired from the Khan Younis area in southern Gaza was the latest in a series of attacks, bringing the total number of rockets fired at Israel from the Strip since Friday to around 40. According to the Israel Defense Forces, several of the 15 rockets were intercepted by the Iron Dome, but others impacted the Re’im and Gama Junction area.

The Magen David Adom ambulance service said it was taking a man aged 37, a truck driver, to a hospital in good condition after he was hurt by a rocket impact near Re’im.

On Sunday, following the repeated rocket attacks on Israel from Khan Younis, the IDF issued an evacuation warning for the area, saying that it would "forcefully operate" against terror groups there.

IDF: KEY HAMAS BATTALION COMMANDER KILLED IN STRIKE ON GAZA SCHOOL
The commander of Hamas’s Sheikh Radwan Battalion, known in the IDF as the al-Furqan Battalion, was killed in an Arclight airstrike
...KABOOM!...
in the Gaza Strip, the military announced on Monday.

Jaber Aziz, the commander of the battalion which is part of Hamas’s Gaza City Brigade, was killed in an airstrike against a school in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood a day earlier, the IDF said.

The IDF said on Sunday that it struck two Hamas command and control rooms embedded within the Hassan Salama and Nasr schools in Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan.

Citing intelligence information, the IDF said Aziz was killed in the strike on the Hassan Salama school, alongside other operatives. Aziz had served in the role of commander of the Sheikh Radwan Battalion since 2020, after previously serving as the deputy commander of the battalion. He also previously headed the Zeitoun Battalion, according to the IDF.

The IDF said he took a "significant part" in planning the October 7 onslaught, leading the preparations and training in his battalion. Aziz himself participated in raiding Israeli communities on October 7, according to the IDF.

During the war, Aziz directed numerous attacks against Israeli troops in Gaza, and against Israeli civilians, and the IDF said his killing was a "significant blow" to Hamas’s capabilities.

HAMAS ECONOMY MINISTER KILLED IN STRIKE
Also on Monday, the IDF said it had killed Hamas’s economy minister in an airstrike in the Gaza Strip a day earlier.

According to the IDF, Abd al-Fattah al-Zari’i also served as an operative in Hamas’s manufacturing division. The IDF said the manufacturing division works to "increase Hamas’s weapons capabilities, including by exchanging information with other terror organizations across the Middle East."

Al-Zari’i, according to the IDF, also played a "significant role in directing Hamas’s efforts to seize control of humanitarian aid entering the Gaza Strip" as well as managing Hamas-controlled markets. Additionally, he was responsible for the distribution of fuel, gas, and funds for "terror activities," the military added.
A man of many talents…
Paleostinian media reported that the strike killed al-Zari’i took place in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah, and his mother was also killed in the attack.

80 BODIES SAID RETURNED TO GAZA
“Never mind!”
Paleostinian media outlets on Monday morning reported that more than 80 bodies were returned by Israeli authorities to the Gaza Strip.

Amid the war in Gaza, the IDF has taken for identification bodies suspected of being those of hostages, returning them after confirming they do not belong to any captives that were kidnapped by Hamas on October 7.

At least 39 of the remaining 111 hostages taken by Hamas on October 7 have been confirmed dead.
Related:
Khan Younis: 2024-08-05 IDF drone-zapped another Oct. 7 terrorist, son of a Hamas commander, orders more of Khan Younis evacuated after Paleo rocketry
Khan Younis: 2024-08-02 IDF says it destroyed rocket launchers in Khan Younis primed for attack on Israel
Khan Younis: 2024-08-02 IDF says slain Al Jazeera reporter was a Hamas commando, took part in Oct. 7 massacre
Related:
Gaza City Brigade: 2024-08-04 IDF releases file seized in Gaza to show Al Jazeera reporter was Hamas member
Gaza City Brigade: 2024-05-10 Israel expands military aggression in Rafah
Gaza City Brigade: 2024-03-04 Gaza airstrike takes out senior Hamas recruiter as IDF raises troop death toll to 246
Related:
Sheikh Radwan: 2024-08-05 IDF drone-zapped another Oct. 7 terrorist, son of a Hamas commander, orders more of Khan Younis evacuated after Paleo rocketry
Sheikh Radwan: 2024-02-18 Special forces searching Khan Younis hospital detain over 100 terror suspects, IDF says
Sheikh Radwan: 2020-01-31 Hamas operative killed during ‘work accident’ in Gaza tunnel

Link


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Ukrainian Perspective: Invasion of Ukraine: March 8th, 2023
2023-03-09
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Korrespondent] 22:58 Zelensky, in an evening video message, thanked "everyone who these days held Ukrainian flags in the squares and streets of Georgia" "for our national anthem that sounded in Tbilisi."

"This is respect for Ukraine, and I want to express sincere respect for Georgia. There is no such Ukrainian who would not wish the success of our friendly Georgia. Democratic success. European success. We want to be in the European Union - and we will. We want Georgia to be in The European Union, and I'm sure it will. We want Moldova to be in the European Union, and I'm sure it will. All the free peoples of Europe deserve it," the President stressed.

22:05 Zelensky said in an evening video message that he held a meeting today with the military, intelligence: "The front, our defense, the battle for Bakhmut and the entire Donbass is the first priority. We are doing everything to ensure that our tactical steps work for a strategic task - for Ukraine's success in the battle for the entire temporarily occupied territory of our state."

He also said that the government is preparing new "absolutely fair" steps against those in Ukraine "who are still trying to weaken the state, undermine the strength of our society. A new meeting of the National Security and Defense Council will be held soon, and there are relevant draft sanctions decisions. The internal security of Ukraine is also the first priority ".

21:39 The Regional Directorate of the Territorial Defense Forces Pivnich of the Armed Forces of Ukraine claims that the Ukrainian soldier who was shot by Russian soldiers for the words "Glory to Ukraine" is a fighter of the 163rd battalion of the 119th separate brigade of the Chernihiv Oblast Troops Oleksandr Matsiyevsky.

20:54 The Russians fired on the Nikopol district of the Dnipropetrovsk region from heavy artillery and Gradov, six people were injured, two of them were children, said the head of the OVA Serhiy Lysak.

20:47 Polish President Andrzej Duda told CNN that Warsaw is ready to transfer all its MiG-29 fighters to Ukraine.

20:44 Russia does not have enough ammunition and troops to make significant territorial gains in Ukraine in 2023, so it can go on the defensive, dragging out the war, said US National Intelligence Director Avril Haynes.

20:36 Trump said that he would allow Russia to take away part of the territory from Ukraine "to avoid war." He emphasized that during his presidency, Russia did not capture a single country, while during the previous ones it occupied parts of Georgia and Ukraine, and under Biden generally received a buffet.

19:57 Russia probably will not be able to capture the entire territory of the Donetsk region this year, according to the annual US intelligence threat assessment report. Analysts say Putin has misjudged the capabilities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and Russian troops will continue to face attrition, understaffing and low morale. Intelligence also believes that the effect of partial mobilization in the Russian Federation will appear only in spring and summer.

19:29 The contract for the export of Ukrainian grain through the Russian-controlled Black Sea expires on March 18, and the UN insists on another extension. President Zelensky and UN Secretary General António Guterres at a meeting in Kyiv spoke in favor of extending the grain deal. More details - in the material Grain and war .

18:54 The White House National Security Council cannot confirm the information about the alleged Ukrainian trace in the sabotage on the Nord Stream pipelines, said the head of the press service of the department, Adrienne Watson.

18:50 China will continue to cooperate with Russia, despite the negative reaction of the West, Radio Liberty reports, citing US intelligence data. According to the report, Beijing's continued cooperation with Moscow is "an attempt to challenge the US." The report also said that Russia probably does not seek conflict with the US and NATO, but the war in Ukraine carries a "great risk" that this will happen. In addition, intelligence believes that the Russian Federation in the next ten years will remain "an impressive and less predictable challenge for the United States."

18:39 Borrell announced that he proposed to allocate 1 billion euros from the European Peace Fund for the supply of ammunition to Ukraine.

18:13 The total amount of assistance provided to Ukraine from the allies during the full-scale war is about 150 billion euros, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said. He clarified that military assistance is 65 billion of this amount.

18:08 Zelensky said that the future of the UN is decided in Ukraine: "It is now and it is Ukraine that is at the forefront of not just a struggle, but a real war for all the principles on which international life is based. It is now and it is Ukraine that defends the goals and principles of the Charter UN. This means that it is now and precisely in Ukraine that the future of the UN and the global role of the United Nations are being decided."

17:57 Russian propaganda is actively working to dehumanize Ukrainians with the help of outright fakes. Disinformation in the Russian Federation is often based on pseudo-heroes, and recently children have become them. So, propagandists "created" a new hero - the boy Fyodor, who saved two girls with a "wound in the chest." More details - in the material "Fight with the Ukrainian DRG" .

17:51 Latvia handed over eight cars confiscated from drunk drivers to Ukraine, Delfi reports. In particular, the Latvian government decided to donate the confiscated cars to five units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as well as to the Vinnitsa Regional Clinical Hospital and the territorial medical association of the Kupyansk City Council in the Kharkiv region. According to the Minister of Finance of Latvia, Arvila Asheradens, a little more than a month has passed since the idea of ​​transferring the confiscated cars to Ukraine to its implementation.

17:44 The EU military mission will train over 11,000 Ukrainian troops by the end of March and another 30,000 by the end of the year, Borrell said.

17:29 Germany handed over to Ukraine two more Gepard self-propelled anti-aircraft guns and 6,000 ammunition for them, the report of the German government says. In total, Kyiv has already received 34 Gepard installations.

17:20 New echelons with equipment and personnel of the Russian Armed Forces began to arrive in Belarus as part of the rotation, the monitoring group Belaruska Gayun reports. In particular, on March 7, two echelons with equipment and a contingent of the RF Armed Forces arrived at the Osipovichi-1 station (Mogilev region) and Polonka (Brest region). According to the group, at least 79 pieces of equipment and 450 personnel arrived in Belarus.

17:12 The European Commission announced that it plans, if necessary, to initiate an extension of the period for granting temporary protection to Ukrainians: "The European Union is ready to support Ukraine for as long as necessary. Protection has already been extended until March 2024 and can be extended even until 2025. The Commission is ready to take the necessary steps for further extensions, if required."

17:05 Last year, about 16 million Ukrainians arrived in the EU countries, of which 11 million then returned to Ukraine, another 1 million people went further to other countries, and about 4 million refugees remained in the EU, said European Commissioner for Internal Affairs Ylva Johansson.

16:46 The ultimate goal of the UN in the context of Russia's war against Ukraine is to achieve a just peace in accordance with the UN Charter and international law, UN Secretary General António Guterres said during a visit to Kiev: "The position of the UN is absolutely clear - the Russian invasion of Ukraine is a violation of the UN Charter and international rights. The sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity of Ukraine must be preserved in accordance with the internationally recognized borders of Ukraine. Our ultimate goal is also clear - a just peace in accordance with the UN Charter and international law and the resolution of the General Assembly on the occasion of the anniversary of the outbreak of war."

16:18 The Romanian Parliament at a joint meeting of the two chambers adopted a declaration in support of Ukraine, which condemns the Russian invasion and aggression against Ukraine, calls on the Kremlin to withdraw the occupying troops, demands from the Russian Federation to stop nuclear threats, as well as fictitious accusations of the alleged use of biological weapons by Kiev. In addition, the Romanian parliamentarians called on the EU and NATO to strengthen sanctions against Russia.

16:11 Occupation "authorities" of Energodar announced a drone attack on the city - allegedly drones with incendiary charges hit the embankment, causing a fire with an area of ​​4 hectares. Before that, the mayor of Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov, published a photo from Energodar, which shows a large column of smoke. Local publics write that the fire occurred in the SBU control area.

16:07 Zelensky met with UN Secretary General António Guterres and a UN delegation in Kiev. “It is very important that it is in Kiev that we are talking about how to return peace and international security, the full force of the UN Charter to those norms that are equally important for all peoples on earth,” the president stressed.

15:58 Commander of the Ground Forces Alexander Syrsky again visited the positions of the Ukrainian military in Bakhmut. "Zugzwang in chess is a situation when any move by a player leads to a deterioration in his position. We are doing everything so that the enemy finds himself in such a situation in this war," he said.

15:35 This week, The New York Times, Die Zeit, The Washington Post and The Times published articles about the possible involvement of a "pro-Ukrainian group" in the Nord Stream explosions. Read more about what the Western media learned in the material Ukrainian trace .

15:06 Permanent representatives of the EU countries have agreed on the allocation of an additional 2 billion euros to the intergovernmental fund, which finances the supply of military assistance to Ukraine.

14:39 Stoltenberg said that the Ukrainian defense of Bakhmut may be defeated in the coming days, but this will not necessarily be a turning point in the war: "This only emphasizes that we should not underestimate Russia. We must continue to support Ukraine."

14:08 The fall in Ukraine's GDP in February decreased to 26% compared to 32% in January, the Ministry of Economy reported. According to the government, this was due to an improvement in the electricity supply.

13:52 Stoltenberg said that it is not yet known who is behind the sabotage at Nord Stream, the investigation continues.

13:45 German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said at a meeting of EU defense ministers in Sweden that a total of 9,000 Ukrainian servicemen will be trained in Germany by the end of the year.

13:23 Reznikov said at an informal meeting with EU defense ministers in Sweden that Ukraine needs a million artillery shells: "We need a million artillery shells. This will probably require about 4 billion euros."

The minister added that he would discuss the supply of air defense systems, as well as ammunition: "Priority number one is air defense systems, as well as ammunition, ammunition and more ammunition. Therefore, I support the initiative of the Minister of Defense of Estonia Hanno Pevkur on 1 million 155-mm shells. Also IFVs for the Iron Fist, more tanks like the Leopard and we'll be ready for a counteroffensive."

13:12 The Court of General Jurisdiction of the EU decided to lift sanctions from the mother of the founder of PMC Wagner Violetta Prigozhina. As Rikard Jozwiak, editor of Radio Liberty in Europe, said, the court concluded that the connection between the woman and Yevgeny Prigozhin is based solely on family relations.

12:46 German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius announced that 18 German and three Portuguese Leopard 2 tanks will be handed over to Ukraine in March.

12:24 The UN is studying a video of the execution of an unarmed Ukrainian soldier by Russian occupiers and, based on a preliminary examination, believes that it may be real, a spokeswoman for the UN Human Rights Office told AFP. She added that since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the UN Human Rights Office has documented numerous violations of international humanitarian law against prisoners of war, and each should be investigated.

12:15 Chinese experts are investigating the mistakes that Russia made in the war against Ukraine, and are also diligently studying the influence of American weapons and technologies, Reuters writes after analyzing about a hundred articles in 20 Chinese specialized publications on military topics. The agency emphasizes that while Chinese officials avoid criticizing the Russian Federation, military experts are more frank in their conclusions: many Chinese articles are devoted to the mistakes of Russian troops. Among them are outdated tactics, the lack of a unified command, insufficient intervention in Ukrainian communications.

Also, Chinese researchers are concerned about the role of the Starlink satellite network. China wants to develop a similar network and find ways to disable Starlink, analysts say. Much attention is also paid in China to the study of American weapons, including HIMARS, as well as Stinger and Javelin missiles, which "caused serious damage to Russian tanks, armored vehicles and warships."

12:07 Iran secretly delivered a large amount of ammunition to Russia, Sky News writes, citing its sources. According to the publication, two cargo ships under the Russian flag left the Iranian port in January, heading to Russia through the Caspian Sea. They carried about 100 million bullets and about 300 thousand shells. The ships also carried ammunition for MLRS, mortars and machine guns. In addition, there were about 10,000 body armor and helmets on board. Russia paid for the goods in cash.

11:53 Western intelligence knows the name of the Ukrainian sponsor of the Nord Stream bombing, but they deliberately decided not to disclose it in order to protect Ukraine, writes The Times. According to the publication, the name of the private sponsor of the sabotage is not associated with the Zelensky government. The name of the Ukrainian allegedly decided to hide in order to save Kyiv from a public quarrel with Berlin, which delayed the provision of Leopard 2 tanks and the IRIS-T air defense system.

Meanwhile, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius refused to comment on media reports regarding the organizers of the undermining of gas pipelines until the investigation is completed. At the same time, he did not rule out that an operation under a false flag could have taken place.

And Reznikov, in turn, said that the Ukrainian special services had nothing to do with sabotage: “For me, this is a rather strange story that has nothing to do with us. I think that an official investigation conducted by the relevant authorities will reveal all the details. a compliment to our special forces, but these are not our actions."

11:46 A meeting of EU defense ministers with the participation of Reznikov has begun in Sweden. The Ukrainian minister said that he would discuss the transfer of weapons with partners.

11:38 In the Luhansk region, the Russians are trying to capture the de-occupied villages, but they have no strategic success at the front, said the head of the OVA Serhiy Gaidai. According to him, the invaders are storming in the direction of Stelmakhivka in the Svatov region, but the Ukrainian defenders retain control over this village. Also, fighting continues in the direction of Makeevka-Nevsky and Kuzemovka-Novoselevsky - these villages are completely destroyed by the Russians.

11:29 China will allocate 200,000 euros through the IAEA to ensure nuclear security in Ukraine, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said.
What on earth does that mean?
She also added that Beijing will continue to promote "peaceful dialogue and a political process for resolving" the situation in Ukraine. "We will eliminate the main risk factors in the field of nuclear safety, promote security at Ukraine's nuclear facilities," she concluded.

11:04 The previous day was the first since February 24, 2022, when not a single civilian was injured in the Donetsk region, said the head of the OVA Pavel Kirilenko. But, according to him, the situation remains tense - the Russians continue to shell the settlements of the Donetsk region.

10:41 At night, two Iranian kamikaze drones Shahed-131/136, with which the Russians attacked Ukraine from the north, were destroyed by air defense, the command of the Air Force reported.

10:28 The situation in the energy system is stable, there has been no shortage of power for the 25th day in a row and is not predicted yet. Ukrenergo reports that the situation will remain stable in the future in the absence of new Russian attacks on the energy system. All types of power plants operate, electricity imports are negligible.

10:05 About 40% of all military aid promised to Ukraine by the Pentagon since the beginning of the war (more than $ 8 billion) was received in three months - from December 9, 2022, writes The Economist. At the same time, arms deliveries, agreed in Germany only in January 2023, account for two-thirds of the total amount sent to Ukraine for the whole of 2022. As a result, almost a third of the Ukrainian army will soon have weapons according to NATO standards, the newspaper notes.

Zaluzhny expects to end up with three new army corps, each consisting of six brigades. Each corps - 20 thousand people, trained and armed according to NATO standards.

09:57 South Korea last year agreed on export licenses for Poland to supply Krab howitzers containing South Korean components, a spokesman for the country's Defense Ministry said in a comment to Reuters. This was the first confirmation that Seoul has agreed to transfer military components to Ukraine - albeit indirectly. Previously, it was not clear whether there was official permission for this. At the same time, the department emphasized that the position of South Korea is not to transfer weapons systems to Ukraine.

09:16 British intelligence believes that Shoigu's March 4 visit to the front in Ukraine could be a response to Prigozhin's recent visit to the front line. Wagner's open conflict with the Russian Defense Ministry continues, and Shoigu is probably painful about the comparison with Prigozhin, analysts say.

Intelligence also drew attention to the fact that the only Russian field commander shown in the video with Shoigu was Colonel General Rustam Muradov. It is noteworthy that Muradov is in charge of the Ugledarsky sector of the Donetsk region, where over the past three months several assaults have failed.

Until recently, the Russian command probably considered the breakthrough in the Vuhledar area as a key way to achieve an operationally important breakthrough of the Ukrainian positions. Now the military leadership of the Russian Federation is likely to face a dilemma: make another attempt to storm Ugledar or support fierce battles north of Bakhmut and Kremennaya.

09:08 UN Secretary General António Guterres arrived in Kiev on a visit , his speaker Stefan Dujarric said. During his third visit to Ukraine since the start of the war, he will meet with Zelenskiy to negotiate an extension of the grain deal, which ends March 18.

08:40 The General Staff announced the approximate losses of the Russian Federation as of the morning of March 8.

  • personnel - about 155,530 (+700) people liquidated,

  • tanks - 3436 (+4),

  • armored combat vehicles - 6723 (+9),

  • artillery systems - 2463 (+7),

  • MLRS - 488 (+0),

  • air defense systems - 253 (+0),

  • aircraft - 303 (+0),

  • helicopters - 289 (+0),

  • UAV operational-tactical level - 2098 (+3),

  • cruise missiles - 873 (+0),

  • ships/boats - 18 (+0),

  • automotive equipment and tankers - 5330 (+7),

  • special equipment - 236 (+0).

08:21 The Russian army is focusing its main efforts on conducting offensive operations in the Kupyansky, Limansky, Bakhmutsky, Avdeevsky and Miner directions. It continues unsuccessful offensive operations in the areas of Orekhovo-Vasilyevka, Dubovo-Vasilyevka, Bakhmut, Kamenka, Avdeevka and Maryinka of the Donetsk region, the General Staff said in a morning report . Over the past day, the Defense Forces repulsed more than 100 enemy attacks in the indicated directions.

06:27 The American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) believes that Russian troops do not have the resources to obtain operational results in the event of the capture of Bakhmut. At best, it can only be a tactical victory for them. If Bakhmut is captured, analysts say, the Russian offensive in the region will culminate. The ISW also notes that the Russians lack the mechanized forces needed to advance on Bakhmut, and the assault squads are not capable of waging a maneuver war.

If the Russians occupy Bakhmut, they will have to choose between two divergent directions of attack: one towards Konstantinovka, the other towards Slavyansk and Kramatorsk. These two potential offensive lines do not support each other, and the degraded Russian forces may have to choose one of them. In addition, Ukrainian forces have powerfully strengthened their positions in both of these directions.

03:19 Biden and Macron had a telephone conversation during which they discussed support for Ukraine, the White House reported. In particular, the presidents discussed the obligation of their countries to "continue to provide security assistance to Ukraine and collect compensation from Russia for its aggression."

01:24 The US military is looking for an opportunity to install AIM-120 medium-range air-to-air missiles on MiG aircraft used by Ukraine, Politico writes, citing a source in the US Department of Defense. These efforts, if successful, could be part of the solution to Kyiv's need for additional firepower and air defense, the newspaper notes. The main problem is that the American and Soviet systems are so different that the missile and the plane "can't see" each other.

00:20 US State Department spokesman Ned Price called the video of the execution of an unarmed Ukrainian soldier by the Russians "terrible": "The terrible picture of how this unarmed Ukrainian is executed after a simple statement "Glory to Ukraine" is simply amazing in terms of its barbarity."

Price added that Russia "should be ashamed of itself" and their actions disregard "elementary humanity, the basic rules of war and decency." He also noted that, unfortunately, this is not the only case of Russian war crimes, and their number is determined by tens of thousands of facts.

Link


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Israeli spat blocks missile defense plan
2011-08-31
A dispute between two major defense companies has blocked the Israeli military's plans to install systems on new armored personnel carriers to knock out enemy missiles.

The Jerusalem Post reported Monday that Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Israel Military Industries refuse to abide by an order from Udi Shani, director general of the Defense Ministry, to combine the two systems they have developed separately into a single system.

Rafael's system is called Trophy and installation on the army's Merkava 4 main battle tanks has already begun. The military wants to extend that program to the older Merkava 3s as well.

Trophy provides all-round protection against anti-tank missiles and successfully intercepted a rocket propelled grenade fired by Palestinian militants on the border with the Gaza Strip earlier this year.

Its radar, manufactured by Elta Systems, the IAI subsidiary, can detect and intercept incoming hostile threats.

IMI's system is known as Iron Fist and is reportedly capable of intercepting tank shells.
Iron Fist is on the Namer.
The Namer, based on the Merkava 4, is being deployed with the crack Golani Brigade. One battalion has been equipped with the new APC, and the brigade's three other battalions are scheduled to follow over the next three years.
Link


Iraq
British end combat operations in Iraq
2009-04-30
BAGHDAD – British forces handed over military control of the Basra area to U.S. commanders Thursday to clear the way for America's main battlefield ally to exit Iraq after more than six years of war. The U.S. flag rose over a British base outside Basra, the last main outpost for about 4,000 British forces in southern Iraq who will almost all withdraw by the end of May.

At the height of combat operations after the March 2003 invasion, Britain had 46,000 troops in Iraq. Washington still has about 130,000 troops in the country and has shifted units south ahead of the British pullout. American troops operate alongside Iraqi soldiers who have taken over many front-line roles in the strategic Basra area, the hub of British military operations for years.

"Today marks the closing chapter of the combat mission in Iraq," British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said in London after meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

The Iraq war has been extremely unpopular in Britain, and the issue shadowed the final years of Tony Blair's premiership.

Since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, 179 British service personnel have been killed in Iraq. The British military dedicated a memorial wall to those killed Thursday, part of the preparations for withdrawal. "They will always be remembered for the service they have given. Our country owes them a huge debt of gratitude," Brown said.

British commanders have been gradually handing over responsibility of the oil-rich Basra region to the U.S. military since March and have been withdrawing troops from the country in phases. Nearly all of its troops are expected to be withdrawn by May 31, British military officials have said.

During a handover ceremony, the commander of Britain's 20th Armored Brigade in Basra, dubbed the "Iron Fist," said troops would continue to work with the coalition. "It does not mark the end of the U.K.'s relationship in Iraq," said Brigadier Tom Beckett. About 400 British troops will remain under an agreement with the Iraqi government mainly to train the Iraqi navy to defend oil platforms in the Gulf, the British Ministry of Defense has said.

The Americans have shifted about 1,000 soldiers to replace the departing British troops to ensure a smooth transition and protect U.S. military supply lines from Kuwait to American bases throughout Iraq.

On Thursday, the Iraqis took control of security of the Khor al-Amaya oil terminal. The Iraqi navy's takeover of the oil terminal — a platform that was built in 1959 and is fed by only one 42-inch pipeline — is a small but important step, officials have said. U.S. and British forces will continue to help protect the newer al-Basra oil terminal, which has two 48-inch pipelines that produce 80 percent of Iraq's crude exports.
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India-Pakistan
Polish engineer's killers will not go unpunished, says Zardari
2009-03-06
The killers of Polish engineer Peter Stanczak will not go unpunished, President Asif Ali Zardari said on Thursday.
Right. Tell him about the Iron Fist.
He was talking to Polish president's Special Envoy Under Secretary of State Jacek Najder. President Zardari expressed his deep sympathies and condolence with the Polish government and people over the assassination of the Polish engineer.
"Gosh, we're real sorry our citizens kidnapped him and cut his head off. More tea?"
The two leaders discussed various issues, with a government statement saying the Polish envoy reiterated Poland's support for Pakistan in the war on terror. Najder said the Polish government would not allow the murder of the Polish engineer create hurdles for bilateral relations. Later, Najder also met Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani at the Prime Minister's House and discussed Pak-Poland bilateral relations and matters of mutual interest.
Let us know when Omar Saeed Sheikh is dead.
Link


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Doctors Spooked by Israel's Mystery Weapon
2009-01-29

Critics continue to press the case that Israel committed "war crimes" in its war with Hamas, because of the civilian casualties in Gaza. Ironically, many of these wounds may have been caused by a weapon designed to reduce collateral damage. Not that the Israelis admit they have the thing.

We first reported on Dense Inert Metal Explosive (DIME) munitions in 2006. The weapons originated as an offshoot of a bunker-busting program, when it was found that adding tungsten powder to explosives seemed to increase the blast effect over a small area. The powder was acting as micro-shrapnel which only carries for a few feet (compared to hundreds of feet for larger fragments), so the result was dubbed the "focused lethality munition" (FLM) which does massive damage in a small area and nothing outside.

There are a large number of reports from Gaza that suggest this type of weapon has been used, and, unfortunately, caused civilian deaths. There are reports and pictures of victims peppered with small particles, and descriptions which are consistent with very localized blast.

During Noah's trip to Israel, he saw drone footage of an extremely small weapon hitting a car. When it struck — on a road, cutting through a Gaza cemetery — the car didn't go up in a ball of flames. Its roof caved in, with a puff of smoke. The back doors were blown out; the front doors stayed shut.

Erik Fosse, a Norwegian doctor working in Gaza says that the weapon "causes the tissue to be torn from the flesh. It looks very different [from a shrapnel injury]. I have seen and treated a lot of different injuries for the last 30 years in different war zones, and this looks completely different."

According to Fosse and his colleague Mads Gilbert, the weapon typically amputates or tears apart lower limbs and patients often do not survive. It's no more illegal than normal blast-and-shrapnel weapons, but it is a mystery.

The only known focused-lethality munition is a version of the GBU-40 Small Diameter Bomb. The weapon has been sold to Israel; Danger Room reported last month that the Israeli Defense Forces were using it in Gaza. But there are two problems. First, the Israelis seem to have bought the original version, not the FLM. And secondly, as Ares reported, Boeing has stated that it has not made any deliveries of the weapon to Tel Aviv, yet.

Ares speculated that the IDF is using weapons supplied by the U.S. Air Force; a spokesman told the site that "we cannot release sensitive information on foreign military sales."

However, Fosse told Britain's Independent newspaper, "all the patients I saw had been hit by bombs fired from unmanned drones. The bomb hit the ground near them and exploded."

It's just possible that Israel is dropping Small Diameter Bombs from drones, but far more likely that this is a small missile with a DIME warhead. Channel 4 News recently aired footage of Human Rights Watch's Marc Garlasco investigating the site of a number of DIME strikes in Gaza. The damage was very localized — confined to one room in one case — suggesting a much smaller weapon.

It is highly likely that Israel has developed its own version of DIME. In the United States, DIME is also being used for active defense systems to shoot down rocket-propelled grenades and other incoming threats. Because it does not throw shrapnel to any distance, it's much safer than traditional warheads. The Israeli "Iron Fist" interceptor unveiled in 2006 is a similar concept, with small radar-guided projectiles. "Iron Fist uses only the blast effect to defeat the threat, crushing the soft components of a shaped charge or deflecting and destabilizing the missile or kinetic rod in their flight," according to Defense Update. This suggests DIME technology.

One of the often-quoted concerns about DIME — which I mentioned two years back — is the potential for tungsten particles to cause cancer. But it's quite possible that the Israeli version is not based on tungsten, and we will not know until there is chemical analysis. (Just a guess, but something called Iron Fist might well use iron or steel particles).

But why is such a precise weapon, intended to avoid the risk of collateral damage, causing civilian casualties at all? It takes tactics and procedures, as well
Link


Home Front: WoT
The Iraq story: how troops see it
2005-11-29
Great article, further proof that the CSMonitor is hands down the best non biased international paper in print today. Their reporters are on the ground chasing stories, and doing a damn fine job of reporting the real progress our troops are seeing in Iraq! Hoorah!
BROOK PARK, OHIO - Cpl. Stan Mayer has seen the worst of war. In the leaves of his photo album, there are casual memorials to the cost of the Iraq conflict - candid portraits of friends who never came home and graphic pictures of how insurgent bombs have shredded steel and bone.

Yet the Iraq of Corporal Mayer's memory is not solely a place of death and loss. It is also a place of hope. It is the hope of the town of Hit, which he saw transform from an insurgent stronghold to a place where kids played on Marine trucks. It is the hope of villagers who whispered where roadside bombs were hidden. But most of all, it is the hope he saw in a young Iraqi girl who loved pens and Oreo cookies.

Like many soldiers and marines returning from Iraq, Mayer looks at the bleak portrayal of the war at home with perplexity - if not annoyance. It is a perception gap that has put the military and media at odds, as troops complain that the media care only about death tolls, while the media counter that their job is to look at the broader picture, not through the soda straw of troops' individual experiences.

Yet as perceptions about Iraq have neared a tipping point in Congress, some soldiers and marines worry that their own stories are being lost in the cacophony of terror and fear. They acknowledge that their experience is just that - one person's experience in one corner of a war-torn country. Yet amid the terrible scenes of reckless hate and lives lost, many members of one of the hardest-hit units insist that they saw at least the spark of progress.
I've heard a lot of this from soldiers in the field, complaining that Americans don't know and don't care about the real progress of the war, but almost every time I hear this its from someone over there in the field.

A friend of mine told me this when he was over there. He just got back from his tour and after a month of being back in the world I asked him what was going on with the war, almost in jest, and he didn't have a fuckin clue. Now this guy's a great soldier, but because of the pressure of life and work at home and because he refuses to watch MSM news he either can't or just isn't keeping up with the war. I ain't knocking him, but I will say that its a choice each one of us has to make to understand what we're accomplishing in Iraq and to tell others the truth of what we're doing in Iraq on a daily basis. Or else, they won't know. I turned him on to the Burg though, so hopefully he'll get some real news from now on.

"We know we made a positive difference," says Cpl. Jeff Schuller of the 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines, who spent all but one week of his eight-month tour with Mayer. "I can't say at what level, but I know that where we were, we made it better than it was when we got there."

It is the simplest measure of success, but for the marine, soldier, or sailor, it may be the only measure of success. In a business where life and death rest on instinctive adherence to thoroughly ingrained lessons, accomplishment is ticked off in a list of orders followed and tasks completed. And by virtually any measure, America's servicemen and women are accomplishing the day-to-day tasks set before them.
No shit they are, and with gusto!
Yet for the most part, America (he should say the MSM) is less interested in the success of Operation Iron Fist, for instance, than the course of the entire Iraq enterprise. "What the national news media try to do is figure out: What's the overall verdict?" says Brig. Gen. Volney Warner, deputy commandant of the Army Command and General Staff College.
Bullshit, what they're doing is the same shit they always do, sensationalize until the fuckin cows come home. The MSM don't give a shit about anything but ratings and new schools don't get the ratings that car bombs do!"Soldiers don't do overall verdicts."
They just make them happen one dead terrorist at a time.
Yet soldiers clearly feel that important elements are being left out of the media's overall verdict. On this day, a group of Navy medics gather around a table in the Cleveland-area headquarters of the 3/25 - a Marine reserve unit that has converted a low-slung school of pale brick and linoleum tile into its spectacularly red-and-gold offices.

Their conversation could be a road map of the kind of stories that military folks say the mainstream media are missing. One colleague made prosthetics for an Iraqi whose hand and foot had been cut off by insurgents. When other members of the unit were sweeping areas for bombs, the medics made a practice of holding impromptu infant clinics on the side of the road.

They remember one Iraqi man who could not hide his joy at the marvel of an electric razor. And at the end of the 3/25's tour, a member of the Iraqi Army said: "Marines are not friends; marines are brothers," says Lt. Richard Malmstrom, the battalion's chaplain. "It comes down to the familiar debate about whether reporters are ignoring the good news," says Peter Hart, an analyst at Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting, a usually left-leaning media watchdog in New York.

In Hit, where marines stayed in force to keep the peace, the progress was obvious, say members of the 3/25. The residents started burning trash and fixing roads - a sign that the city was returning to a sense of normalcy. Several times, "people came up to us [and said]: 'There's a bomb on the side of the road. Don't go there,' " says Pfc. Andrew Howland.

Part of the reason that such stories usually aren't told is simply the nature of the war. Kidnappings and unclear battle lines have made war correspondents' jobs almost impossible. Travel around the country is dangerous, and some reporters never venture far from their hotels. "It has to have some effect on what we see: You end up with reporting that waits for the biggest explosion of the day," says Mr. Hart.

To the marines of the 3/25, the explosions clearly do not tell the whole story. Across America, many readers know the 3/25 only as the unit that lost 15 marines in less than a week - nine of them in the deadliest roadside bombing against US forces during the war. When the count of Americans killed in Iraq reached 2,000, this unit again found itself in the stage lights of national notice as one of the hardest hit.

But that is not the story they tell. It is more than just the dire tone of coverage - though that is part of it. It is that Iraq has touched some of these men in ways that even they have trouble explaining. This, after all, has not been a normal war. Corporals Mayer and Schuller went over not to conquer a country, but to help win its hearts and minds. In some cases, though, it won theirs.

Schuller, a heavyweight college wrestler with a thatch of blond hair and engine blocks for arms, cannot help smiling when he speaks of giving an old man a lighter: "He thought it was the coolest thing." Yet both he and the blue-eyed, square-jawed Mayer pause for a moment before they talk about the two 9-year-old Iraqis whom members of their battalion dubbed their "girlfriends."
My personal experiences in the Arab world were very similar, I once gave an ink pen to an old man in Egypt and he wept over my kindness. It was extreme for me as a 17 year old never having ventured far from the cotton fields. But you won't see shit like that in the news, nope just a "Countdown to Destruction" or "Another Roadside bomb" ticker sponsored by Nasdaq, fuckin ludicrous!
The first time he saw them, Mayer admits that he was making the calculations of a man in the midst of a war. He was tired, he was battered, and he was back at a Hit street corner that he had patrolled many times before. In Iraq, repetition of any sort could be an invitation of the wrong sort - an event for which insurgents could plan. So Mayer and Schuller took out some of the candy they carried, thinking that if children were around, perhaps the terrorists wouldn't attack.

It was a while before the children realized that these two marines, laden with arms to the limit of physical endurance, were not going to hurt them. But among the children who eventually came, climbing on the pair's truck and somersaulting in the street, there were always the same two girls. When they went back to base, they began to hoard Oreos and other candy in a box. "They became our one little recess from the war," says Mayer. "You're seeing some pretty ridiculous tragedies way too frequently, and you start to get jaded. The kids on that street - I got to realize I was still a human being to them."

It happened one day when he was on patrol. Out of nowhere, a car turned the corner and headed down the alley at full speed. "A car coming at you real fast and not stopping in Iraq is not what you want to see," says Mayer. Yet instead of jumping in his truck, he stood in the middle of the street and pushed the kids behind him.

The car turned. Now, Mayer and Schuller can finish each other's sentences when they think about the experience. "You really start to believe that you protect the innocent," says Schuller. "It sounds like a stupid cliché...."

"But it's not," adds Mayer. "You are in the service of others."

For Mayer, who joined the reserves because he wanted to do something bigger than himself, and for Schuller, a third-generation marine, Iraq has given them a sense of achievement. Now when they look at the black-and-white pictures of marines past in the battalion headquarters, "We're adding to that legacy," says Schuller.
And making us all damn proud!
This is what they wish to share with the American people - and is also the source of their frustration. Their eight months in Iraq changed their lives, and they believe it has changed the lives of the Iraqis they met as well. On the day he left, Mayer gave his "girlfriend" a bunch of pens - her favorite gift - wrapped in a paper that had a picture of the American flag, the Iraqi flag, and a smiley face. The man with the lighter asked Schuller if he was coming back. He will if called upon, he says.

Whether or not these notes of grace and kindness are as influential as the dirge of war is open to question. But many in the military feel that they should at least be a part of the conversation.

Says Warner of reaching an overall verdict: "I'm not sure that reporting on terrorist bombings with disproportionate ink is adequately answering that question."
Obviously the pollsters at Fox News and CNN think differently with the shit they report on, but hey, when you don't leave the green zone what can you report on besides conjecture and loud booms in the distance?

Kudos to the reporter who walked the streets of Iraq to report what's really going on.
Link


Iraq
Fighting continues in western Iraq
2005-11-06
The US military has said its major offensive along the Syrian border in western Iraq has met with some resistance. Dubbed Operation Steel Curtain, the offensive comprises about 3500 troops and includes for the first time units of Iraq's military, numbering about 1000, in what the US insists are joint operations in the al-Anbar province. US and Iraqi forces say they "have encountered sporadic resistance - mostly small arms fire and improvised explosive devices". The US military also said only specific targets were selected and there were no reports of military or civilian casualties. There were fatalities among fighters, the US military added.

At least nine air strikes were called on positions described as "enemy strong points", and a separate strike was carried out against a suspected car bomb, a US military statement said. Iraqi scouts, described as "specially recruited soldiers from the al-Qaim region," are embedded with the frontline units "and are helping to identify fighter strong points and areas known to contain these homemade bombs". The operation involves 1000 Iraqi army soldiers as well as 2500 marines, sailors and soldiers in what the US military called "the largest concentration of Iraqi army forces to take part in an operation in al-Anbar this year".

Steel Curtain follows two earlier operations, Iron Fist and River Gate, also along the Euphrates valley in al-Anbar province. The US command said there were no reports of casualties among American or Iraqi government forces. Residents and local leaders say US bombardment in the Husaiba area were endangering civilians and could lead to greater instability throughout the country.
Link


Iraq
Ninety rebels killed in western Iraq sweeps
2005-10-10
BAGHDAD - Ninety insurgents have been killed in a series of US-led sweeps in western Iraq since they kicked off on September 28, government spokesman Leith Kubba said on Sunday. “The total from the operations is 90 killed while the number of arrests has reached 178,” Kubba told journalists, adding that the offensives had “perturbed armed groups’ activity and (helped) obtain information that will help us track down their members”.

The US military said the operations, including Iron Fist which ended near the Syrian border on Thursday, were aimed at thwarting Al Qaeda-linked militant activity in the restive and largely Sunni Arab province of Al Anbar.

Thirteen US troops have been reported killed in the province since the start of the operations.

Kubba said that US and Iraqi forces would stay in the area for the October 15 referendum on the country’s new constitution and that 700 independent electoral commission workers would also be deployed in the province.
Link


Iraq
American army announces "Iron Fist" accomplished
2005-10-09
American army announced on Saturday completing Operation Iron Fist, which targeted foreign and local gunmen in Al-Qaim region. A US army statement, of which a copy was received by Kuwait News Agency (KUNA), said that MNF forces established a police station in Al-Saadah city to restore order in the area and to cut off gunmen infiltration through Syrian borders. Operation Iron Fest, the statement said, involved about 1,000 American soldiers to deprive Al-Qaeda in Iraq of their combat abilities in the Euphrates valley.
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