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

Iraq
Iraq issues a sentence of death against Al-Qaeda members
2022-03-01


Shafaq News/ On Monday, a Criminal Court issued a death sentence against two terrorists from Baghdad.

A security source told Shafaq News Agency, "The Criminal Court in Dhi Qar Governorate issued a sentence of death by hanging against two al-Qaeda members who were in prison for eight years for killing citizens in the Latifiya area in Baghdad."

It is worth noting that the Latifia- Mahmoudia-Yusufia area is known as the "Triangle of Death," where groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda were active and carried out massacres against citizens and security forces after 2004.

Al Qaeda in Iraq, or the Islamic State of Iraq as the group is also known, is one of several Sunni Islamist insurgent groups that had been very active just after the withdrawal of the US troops.

The group has claimed a string of attacks.

According to Reuters, the group was founded in October 2004 when Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden. An Egyptian, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, has become the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq after Zarqawi was killed in 2006.

In October 2006, the al-Qaeda-led Mujahideen Shura Council said it had set up the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), an umbrella group of Sunni militant affiliates and tribal leaders led by Abu Omar al-Baghdadi. Reuters reported.

Link


Africa North
Libya Limp List
2020-05-11
Link


Africa North
UN-backed Libyan government condemns Derna air strike
2017-11-01
[Al Jazeera] The UN-backed government of Libya has strongly condemned the air strike on the eastern city of Derna and called on the UN Security Council to investigate the attack that killed at least 17 civilians.

A statement issued on Tuesday by the Presidential Council on behalf of Fayez al-Sarraj, the head of the Government of National Accord (GNA), said that the air strike should be treated as a "war crime".

While the statement did not say who was responsible for the deadly bombing, it called for the immediate lifting of more than a year of siege imposed on Derna city to allow humanitarian aid and for those injured to be evacuated for treatment.

READ MORE
UN report: UAE violates Libya arms embargo
"The siege has left many suffering," said the statement, adding that it will not tolerate the killing and intimidation of Libyan citizens.

Derna has been besieged by gangs loyal to General Khalifa Haftar
...Self-proclaimed Field Marshal, served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all...
, the self-styled chief of the Libyan National Army (LNA).

The Mujahideen Shura Council, which is currently in de facto control of Derna, took the city from ISIS in 2015. It is the only city in eastern Libya not controlled by forces of General Haftar.

Link


Africa North
Libya’s Derna suffers as Haftar’s LNA tightens siege on city
2017-08-08
[Iran Press TV] The Libyan National Army (LNA), a militia group led by General Khalifa Haftar
... served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all...
, has tightened a crippling siege on the northeastern city of Derna as the renegade military strongman seeks the permanent ouster of rival militia from the region he controls in eastern Libya.

Residents of Derna said Monday that a decision by Haftar last week to tighten the long-standing siege on the city has made their life extremely difficult.

"The situation is extremely bad. Everything is stopped, the supplies are depleted and nothing is getting into the city," one resident said, adding, "There is a total blockade with no entry or exit. They only allow you to leave as a displaced person."

The siege around Derna was reinforced after snuffies from the Derna Mujahideen Shura Council (DMSC), which controls the city on the Mediterranean, shot down an LNA fighter jet at the end of July. The pilot of the jet was killed in the incident.

Haftar, a former general under slain dictator Muammar Qadaffy
...The late megalomaniac dictator of Libya, admired everywhere for his garish costumes, funny hats, harem of cutie bodyguards, and incoherent ravings. As far as is known, he is the only person who's ever declared jihad on Switzerland...
, has been backed by countries like Egypt and the United Arab Emirates in his quest for ultimate power in Libya.

Last month, he announced victory against a rival coalition of bully boyz in Benghazi, which lies around 350 kilometers from Derna.
Link


Africa North
ISIS in Retreat around East Libyan City Derna
2016-04-22
ISIS fighters drew back from long-held positions around the port city of Derna on Wednesday, military forces in eastern Libya said, as forces loyal to the government in the region pushed forward with an offensive in Benghazi.

The retreat around Derna, if confirmed, could mark a momentous shift in the alignment of forces in the area.

ISIS took hold of territory in Libya as two conflicting governments and a number of armed factions came to blows to control the country in the past two years. But it has also faced resistance from other local armed groups on the ground.

Derna was an early stronghold for the terrorist group, as it had witnessed a history of jihad. The militant group lost control of the city last June to rival armed jihadist grouped under the Derna Mujahideen Shura Council, but retained positions around the outskirts.

Derna and its suburbs had been “completely liberated from the apostates”, the council said in a statement.

Military forces loyal to Libya’s eastern government said on Thursday they had carried out air strikes overnight against jihadists in Derna after ISIS militants retreated from positions close to the city.

Fighters from ISIS had controlled the city until the Shura Council forces pushed them out last June. The military has attacked both groups.

Military spokesman Abdulkarim Sabra said the overnight air strikes had targeted Shura Council fighters in Derna’s Sayeda Khadija neighborhood and at Bishr prison. He made no comment on possible casualties.

Shura Council spokesman Hafed Addabaa said the prison had held ISIS suspects and added that the strikes had not caused any casualties or damage.

Eastern security forces, which are allied to a government based in the east, have carried out occasional strikes against jihadist rivals around Derna in recent months.

Sabra said ISIS had retreated from Derna’s 400 neighborhood and al-Fatayeh, 20 km (12 miles) south of the city, and its forces were attempting to head towards the militant group’s Libyan stronghold of Sirte when they were cut off.

The military was providing air support for troops, he said. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Some Derna residents rejoiced, waving Libyan flags on the streets, according to pictures circulating on social media.

Eastern military forces have also been involved in heavy fighting around 250 km (155 miles) to the west in Benghazi, where they have captured several neighborhoods from fighters loyal to ISIS and other groups.

Clashes continued there on Wednesday, and the military said it had nearly full control of the southern district of Guwarsha. The fighting resulted in the death of one commander and the injury of four soldiers, the army said.

The eastern government was set up after armed opponents took control of the capital, Tripoli, in 2014, and established a contending administration. Both are backed by alliances of former rebels who once fought together to oust Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

Last month, a U.N.-backed unity government arrived in Tripoli, where it has been trying to establish its authority. The West regards the new government as the best chance of terminating Libya’s political divisions and uniting its armed factions to take on ISIS.

But the government has yet to win approval from Libya’s eastern parliament, which received international recognition and has repeatedly failed to hold a vote on the issue.

Lawmakers in the east who support the new government say they have been threatened and physically impeded from holding a vote, including when they tried to convene on Monday.

They have been opposed by allies of eastern military commander Khalifa Haftar, who are concerned about losing control of military appointments if the unity government takes full power.

In an apparent attempt to break the ice with the eastern military, the unity government’s leadership released a statement on Wednesday congratulating it on its advances in Benghazi.

The Presidential Council said it would “provide all necessary support to Benghazi and other affected cities for reconstruction,” and that it was committed to “supporting the institution of the army”.

It also congratulated the “people of Derna and all Libyans” on the “liberation” of the areas around where ISIS pulled out.
Link


Africa North
Eastern Libyan military’s jets hit Islamists in Derna
2016-04-22
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Military forces loyal to Libya's eastern government said on Thursday they had carried out air strikes overnight against Islamist fighters in Derna after ISIS turbans retreated from positions close to the city.

Derna has been the site of a three-way conflict between the forces loyal to the eastern government, an Islamist grouping known as the Derna Mujahideen Shura Council and ISIS bully boys.

Fighters from ISIS had controlled the city until the Shura Council forces pushed them out last June. The military has attacked both groups.

Military front man Abdulkarim Sabra said the overnight air strikes had targeted Shura Council fighters in Derna’s Sayeda Khadija neighborhood and at Bishr prison. He made no comment on possible casualties.

Shura Council front man Hafed Addabaa said the prison had held ISIS suspects and added that the strikes had not caused any casualties or damage.

The military and the Shura Council both claimed credit for Wednesday’s withdrawal of ISIS from positions in Derna’s ’district 400’ and al-Fatayeh to the south of the city.

"We attacked ISIS (ISIS) in al-Fatayeh to recapture the area ... The attack was from all sides except the south, which is where they fled," said Addabaa.

Five Shura Council fighters and six non-combatants were killed by mines and booby traps after they entered al-Fatayeh, he said.

Sabra, the military front man, said ISIS had retreated because of a year-long blockade by the army and shelling by troops of the bully boys’ positions.

Soldiers posted videos of themselves in al-Fatayeh on Thursday, saying they had control of the area.

ISIS has gained territory in Libya as two rival governments and a range of armed factions have battled to control the country since 2014. But it has faced resistance from other local gangs on the ground.

Derna, which has a history of Islamist militancy, was an early bastion for ISIS fighters returning from Iraq and Syria in 2014. Though they lost control of Derna last year, the group established a stronghold in the central coastal city of Sirte.

Last month, a UN-backed Libyan unity government arrived in the capital Tripoli
...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn...
 and is trying to establish its authority over the large oil-producing nation.

But allies of eastern military commander Khalifa Haftar
... served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all...
 have prevented moves by Libya's eastern parliament towards recognizing the new unity government.

The military loyal to the eastern government has been making advances on the ground in Benghazi, Libya’s second largest city, which is on the coast about 250 km (155 miles) west of Derna.

On Thursday UN Libya envoy Martin Kobler appealed to warring parties in Benghazi to help the departure of civilians who are trapped in areas where there is fighting and who wish to leave.

The United Nations
...where theory meets practice and practice loses...
 says a large number of civilians including Libyans and migrant workers are trapped in several districts in Benghazi, where they face shortages of food and medical supplies.
Link


Home Front: WoT
US Designates Gaza Al-Qaeda Ally As Terror Group
2014-08-20
[IsraelTimes] The US State Department designated an al-Qaeda affiliated group active in the Gazoo Strip as a foreign terrorist organization Tuesday morning.

The official designation that forbids Americans from supporting or engaging in transactions with the group, and allows the US to freeze any assets or interests in the group's property.

Some three years after its inception, the al-Qaeda-affiliated Mujahideen Shura Council in the Environs of Jerusalem (MSC) will no longer be allowed to raise funds or carry out any transactions in the United States or American institutions.
Fred will have to add them to his little list, if he hasn't already.
Foreign terror organization designations are made by the State Department in consultation with the Treasury and the Department of Justice.

According to State Department officials, MSC is an umbrella group composed of several jihadist terrorist sub-groups based in Gazoo. It grabbed credit for a number of attacks between its inception following the Arab Spring of 2011 and 2013.

It was the MSC that took credit for a rocket attack on Sderot that was launched during US President Barack Obama
I mean, I do think at a certain point you've made enough money...
's March 2013 visit to Israel. Only two of the four rockets fired actually left the boundaries of the Gazoo Strip and reached their target.
...about twice Hamas' failure rate...
The organization took credit for the attack, issuing a statement saying that "responding to the bragging of the Roman dog
That would be President Obama, whom they believe to be a Christian.
and the war criminals of their so-called Iron Dome,
Israel, of course...
we assert that all their military techniques will not stop God's destiny of tormenting them."
God, on the other hand, appears to be pleased with Israel rather than otherwise, given how He enabled them to wipe the floor with all the Gaza belligerents.
In February of this year, the MSC released a statement declaring support for the Islamic State (IS) group — then still known as ISIS, or ISIL — currently active in Syria and northern Iraq.

MSC has been on Israel's radar since shortly after its inception. In the course of a week in October 2012, IDF Arclight airstrikes killed Hisham al-Saedni, the MSC's leader in Gazoo as well as two other operatives, one of whom had a leadership role in the group's first terror attack.
Definitely showing which side God is on, it seems. Perhaps if the MSC people banged their heads harder in the ground during prayers?
Link


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Salafi jihadists begin hunger strikes amid ongoing Hamas arrest campaign
2013-04-06
Hamas appears to be continuing its arrest campaign against Salafi jihadists in the Gaza Strip. According to a statement released yesterday by the Ibn Taymiyyah Media Center on jihadist forums and the Center's Facebook and Tumblr pages, a Salafi jihadist was detained by Hamas forces near Khan Yunis on the evening of April 3.

The jihadist had reportedly been arrested a number of times in the past by Hamas for his Salafi affiliation. Yesterday's arrest is part of an "extensive campaign" by Hamas to arrest Salafi jihadists, the statement charged. According to the statement, Hamas has intensified the campaign in the wake of recent rocket attacks by the al Qaeda-linked Mujahideen Shura Council in the Environs of Jerusalem (MSC).

On April 2, the MSC claimed to have fired five rockets from Gaza toward Israel. The following day, the group said it had fired six additional rockets toward Israeli territory. According to the MSC, the rocket fire was in response to the recent death of Maisara Abu Hamdiyeh, a Hamas operative. Hamdiyeh, whom Hamas praised for supplying "the Mujahideen with weapons and explosives," died of esophageal cancer at an Israeli hospital on April 2.
Link


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Hamas files complaint with Cairo over fishing ban
2013-03-23
Hamas on Friday complained to Cairo following Israel’s limitation of Palestinian access to fishing waters off the Gaza coast in response to a rocket barrage that hit southern Israel on Thursday.

An Egyptian official confirmed that the Islamist group’s complaint was received by Cairo, and said that Jerusalem lodged a similar complaint with Egypt over the rocket attack, Reuters reported. Thursday’s cross-border fire was the second incident since a ceasefire took effect between Israel and Hamas in late November after Israel’s eight-day offensive against Palestinian terrorist groups.

Cairo was reportedly in communication with Hamas and Israel in an attempt to “restore their commitment to the truce.”

Hamas also reportedly arrested two members of the al-Qaeda-linked Salafist group responsible for firing the rockets at Israel. The Mujahideen Shura Council claimed the Islamist group ruling the Gaza Strip arrested two of its members after the group claimed responsibility for Thursday attacks.

The Salafist group said it fired the four rockets “in reaction to the visit of the dog Obama,” according to a statement the group released Thursday.

Israel closed the Kerem Shalom border crossing with the Gaza Strip, partially closed the Erez crossing and restricted Gaza fishing from six miles to three miles on Thursday in response to the rocket fire from Gaza.
Link


Africa North
Sinai jihadist group urges Egyptians to fight Israel if army won't
2012-11-18
On Wednesday, in response to incessant rocket fire from Palestinian terror groups in Gaza, including Hamas, Israel launched Operation Pillar of Defense. The operation began with the targeted killing of Ahmed Jabari, the leader of the Ezzedine al Qassam Brigades, Hamas's military wing.

Since the killing of Jabari, the Israeli Air Force has carried out hundreds of airstrikes throughout the Gaza Strip targeting rocket launch sites, including Fajr 5 missiles; weapons caches; and Hamas's drone program. Meanwhile, terror groups in the Gaza Strip, including Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Mujahideen Shura Council in the Environs of Jerusalem, have launched hundreds of rockets and mortars from Gaza into Israel.

As of now, the involvement of Sinai-based Salafi-jihadist groups in the current fighting appears to be limited to nonexistent. However, on Nov. 15, al Salafiyya al Jihadiyya released a statement to jihadist forums, titled "Statement by al-Salafiyya al-Jihadiyya in Sinai Regarding the Unjust Zionist Aggression on Gaza." The statement was obtained and translated by the SITE Intelligence Group.

In the statement, the group says that Israel's latest actions are an attempt "to eliminate the spirit of jihad and resistance of the besieged Palestinian people and to convey a message that their jihad is extremely costly and that surrender is the safest solution for them."
Clever Salafis, to understand so completely.
According to the group, "our steadfast Muslim people in honorable Gaza cannot surrender, and the torch of jihad will not be extinguished; rather, instead, it is strengthened by the blood of its heroes and it grows."
"Let's you and him fight."
Later in the statement the group says that Muslims "cannot stand silent" and that they must support their "brothers" in Gaza. The group then asks the Egyptian people: "How come we leave our brothers to be killed and driven homeless when they are within one stone-throw away from us?"

Al Salafiyya al Jihadiyya then urges "the Egyptian people to rise up to support their brothers in Gaza, each with whatever means and persons they can, and to ask the government to take deterrent measures against the unjust aggression." The group also questions why the Egyptian army is not taking more action to help Palestinians in Gaza. "If you cannot defend your brothers and your people in Gaza, at least let those who can do so and do not watch and fight them. So if you do not fight the Jews, [at least] do not be of help to them," the group says.
Link


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
AQAP offers condolences for top Salafi leaders killed in Gaza
2012-10-25
On Oct. 13, Israel killed Abu al Walid al Maqdisi, the former emir of the Tawhid and Jihad Group in Jerusalem, and Ashraf al Sabah, the former emir of Ansar al Sunnah, in an airstrike. The two were reportedly leaders of the Mujahideen Shura Council in the Environs of Jerusalem (MSC), which is a consolidation of Salafi-Jihadist groups in Gaza.

Since their deaths, a number of statements and eulogies have been released by jihadist groups and media outlets such as the Global Islamic Media Front, Jaish al Ummah, Masada al Mujahideen, Islamic State of Iraq, and Ansar Jerusalem, among others.

On Oct. 24, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) released a statement on jihadist forums, titled "Statement of Condolences for the Killing of the Two Mujahid Sheikh Abu al-Walid al-Maqdisi and Abu al-Bara'a al-Maqdisi." The statement was obtained and translated by the SITE Intelligence Group.
Link


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Air Force Shortened Response Time To Gaza Rocket Cells
2012-06-25
Air force says it has shortened its response time when sighting Gazoo rocket cells. Six terror squads were hit before they could fire in latest escalation; Israeli counter-strikes can now take mere seconds

Rocket-launching terror squads in Gazoo used to have several minutes to set up their weapons, shoot them and disappear before Israel could muster any counter action.

Today, an Israeli military official says, the cells have mere moments before they are spotted and targeted by Israeli missiles, thanks to streamlined intelligence and more readily available firepower.

"If in the past it would it would take a considerable amount of time from sighting (a terror squad) till being able to fire on them, meaning that you would lose (sight of) the squad, today that hardly ever happens," an air force official told The Times of Israel.

In the most recent two rounds of confrontation, the air force has been able to eliminate a growing proportion of the Gazoo rocket cells before they can fire off a projectile, the official said.

He confirmed that, in the escalation of the past few days, six squads were successfully targeted while in the process of trying to fire on Israel.

Some 150 rockets and mortars were fired from Gazoo toward Israel over the past week. The flare-up began on June 16 when two Grad rockets
...Soviet-developed 122-mm rockets, usually launched from trucks. Newer versions are reported to have a range of up to 30 km....
 were fired from the Sinai Peninsula into southern Israel. Two days later, three Sinai-based terrorists, from the newly-established, al-Qaeda-affiliated Mujahideen Shura Council of Jerusalem snuck into Israel and opened fire on construction workers building the fence along the Israel-Egypt border, killing Said Fashfasha of Haifa. Later in the day, Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, squads began firing on Israel. The IAF responded with a series of strikes and counter strikes.

The terror squads often fire from within the low cover of the Gazoo Strip's many citrus orchards, blending in with trees and civilians in the region.

The air force official said that if the weaponry is prepared in advance, the terror squads can fire a rocket within seconds of their arrival at the launch area. But the air force, he said, has shortened its response time. From the moment a squad is sighted, it takes "between several seconds and several minutes" for Israel to act.

The official could not be more explicit about the manner in which the process has been expedited but he did say that today, in the Southern Command, the officers in charge of gathering either intelligence information or incoming surveillance photos, detailing the work of terror squads, "sit at the same desk" as those air force officers who have the capacity to order the strikes.

He did not elaborate on what type of aircraft are used in the strikes.

Hamas, which did not participate in the previous round of violence in March, claims on its website to have mostly targeted military installations in southern Israel this time, according to the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center.

The IAF officer disputed this, saying that the main characteristic of the latest round of violence was short-range fire, mostly beneath the range of the Iron Dome batteries, which can pick up incoming projectiles from within several kilometers to several dozen kilometers away.

The IAF's advances have been partially countered by Hamas ingenuity, the official acknowledged. The Izz al-Din al Qassam brigades, responsible for most of the fire on Israel during this round of violence, have begun using cellular-activated timers on their rockets, allowing them to fire from a concealed position.

"Hamas," the official said, "is an organization that never stops trying to improve itself."
Link



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