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

Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Lebanese remember bloody past after Assad fall — Naharnet
2024-12-10
[NAHARNET] Across 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...
, the Middle East, and beyond, the fall of Syria's authoritarian government at the hands of Islamist-led rebels set off waves of jubilation, trepidation and alarm.

Many Lebanese exulted at the overthrow of the Syrian leader while others worried about more instability rocking a region in turmoil.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati called for a strict control of the border with Syria and for distancing Lebanon from the developments there. He urged the Lebanese "of all affiliations" to be "wise" and "avoid emotional reactions."

Mikati also asked Secretary-General of Council of Ministers Judge Mahmoud Makiya to communicate with the National Commission for the Missing and Forcibly Disappeared Persons in Lebanon and with the relevant authorities regarding the release of Lebanese prisoners from Syrian prisons.

- LEBANESE IN SYRIAN PRISONS -
During 15 years of civil war in Lebanon, an estimated 17,000 people went missing. Many were held captive or were killed in detention centers operated by Syrian forces in Lebanon and Syria, but their fates remain unknown.

Since a Lebanese man, who was missing for 40 years, was freed by Syrian rebels from a prison in Hama last week, many Lebanese families are demanding to know the fate of their loved ones who are thought to be detained in Syrian prisons since Lebanon's civil war when Syrian troops were in Lebanon.

- GEAGEA SAYS 'NOTHING WORSE THAN ASSAD' -
Lebanese Forces
A Christian political party founded by Bashir Gemayel, who was then bumped off when he was elected president of Leb...
leader Samir Geagea
....Geagea was imprisoned by the Syrians and their puppets for 11 years in a dungeon in the third basement level of the Lebanese Ministry of Defense. He was released after the Cedar Revolution in 2005....
congratulated all Lebanese on the fall of Bashir al-Assad's regime, saying that "over the past 50 years, the regime of Hafez and Bashir al-Assad was the biggest obstacle to the building of a state in Lebanon."

"It's impossible for the situation in Syria to be worse than Assad. There is noting worse," Geagea said.

- JUMBLAT SAYS 'JUSTICE ACHIEVED' -
Former Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Wally Jumblat
...Druze politician, head of the Progressive Socialist Party, who's been on every side in Leb at least four times. He'll sell you his friends for a dollar, but family comes higher because of shipping and handling...
saluted the Syrian people and celebrated Assad's ouster "after a lengthy wait."

Jumblat also called former PM Saad Hariri
...Second son of Rafik Hariri, the Leb PM who was assassinated in 2005. He has was prime minister in his own right from 2009 through early 2011. He was born in Riyadh to an Iraqi mother and graduated from Georgetown University. He managed his father's business interests in Riyadh until his father's assassination. When his father died he inherited a fortune of some $4.1 billion, which won't do him much good if Hizbullah has him bumped off, too....
and told him that by Assad's fall "justice was achieved" for his slain father Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and other March 14 figures.

Al-Mustaqbal
... the Future Movement, political party led by Saad Hariri...

... the Future Movement, political party led by Saad Hariri...
Movement, founded by Hariri, for its part, congratulated the Syrian people in a statement and called on the Lebanese to preserve national unity.

- ASSASSINATIONS BLAMED ON SYRIA -
Hariri was assassinated in 2005 by a bomb in Beirut, blamed on Syria and Hezbollah. His liquidation sparked protests that ousted Syrian troops from Lebanon. Following Hariri's killing, several anti-Syrian figures were assassinated, including Samir Qassir, George Hawi, Gebran Tueni, Pierre Amine Gemayel, Antoine Ghanem and Walid Eido. Others escaped liquidation attempts including Elias Mur, May Chidiac, and Samir Shehade.

Jumblat's father, Kamal Jumblat was assassinated in 1977 in his car near Baakline by unidentified button men suspected to be members of the pro-Syrian faction of the Lebanese Syrian Social Nationalist Party, in collaboration with the Ba'ath Party.

In 1982, President Bashir Gemayel was killed with 26 other politicians by a member of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party who detonated a bomb from a few miles away using a remote detonator. He said he killed Gemayel because of his collaboration with Israel, which invaded Lebanon in 1982.

- GEMAYEL HAILS 'TYRANT FALL' -
Kataeb leader and Bashir's nephew Sami Gemayel wrote on X that "the criminal tyrant has fallen". "But Lebanon remains and the Kataeb remains."

He added that the names of his uncle Bashir, his brother Pierre Gemayel, and other deaders "stand tall, pulsating with freedom, illusory sovereignty and independence."

- BASSIL HOPES IT'S FOR THE GOOD OF LEBANON AND SYRIA -
Free Patriotic Movement
Despite its name a Christian party allied with Hizbullah, neither free nor particularly patriotic...
leader Jebran Bassil hoped that the developments would be for the good of Syria and Lebanon and lead to a swift return of displaced Syrians to their country and to "positive and balanced relations" between the two countries.

- SYRIA STABILITY IMPACTS LEBANON -
Son of Hezbollah's presidential candidate and Assad's friend Suleiman Franjieh, Marada MP Tony Franjieh hoped, in a statement posted on the X platform, for a peaceful transfer of power that would preserve the country's stability and protect the rights of all Syrians.

"The stability of Lebanon has always been deeply affected by the stability of Syria," Franjieh said.

- BLOW TO HEZBOLLAH -
For Hezbollah, who had long used Syria as its key conduit for weapons and supplies from Iran, Assad's fall could further weakens the group, after the staggering losses it suffered in its own recent war with Israel.

"What's happening in Syria is a major, dangerous and new transformation," Hezbollah MP Hassan Fadlallah said.

"No one can downplay its impact but we draw our presence and strength from God, from our faith before anything else, and from our people — and the existence, presence, formations, capabilities and high competencies of the resistance, despite everything that has been inflicted on it in this war," Fadallah added.

Early in Syria's civil war, when it appeared Assad might be tossed, 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 its ally, Hezbollah, rushed fighters to support him. Russia later joined with a scorched earth campaign of Arclight airstrike
...KABOOM!...
s.

For Israel, breaking Iran's regional network has been a major goal, though it is wary over jihadi fighters among the hard boyz who toppled Assad. Israel on Sunday moved troops into a demilitarized buffer zone with Syria by the Israel-held Golan Heights in what it called a temporary security measure.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Assad's fall a "historic day," saying it was "the direct result of our forceful action against Hezbollah and Iran, Assad's main supporters."
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
2 killed, 2 wounded in Israeli strikes on south Lebanon
2024-04-06
[An Nahar] An Israeli strike on the southern border town of Aita al-Shaab killed two people and injured one Friday, the National News Agency said, while another strike on Kfarkela injured one person.

One Israeli soldier and three Lebanese civilians were earlier maimed in overnight cross-border fire between Hezbollah and the Israeli army.

The three Lebanese civilians were maimed in an overnight strike on the southern border town of Kfarhamam in the Arqoob region while the Israeli army said Friday that one soldier was maimed in a Hezbollah overnight attack on Metula.

Hezbollah said it attacked soldiers and military vehicles in the Malkia post and another military vehicle in Metula.

Later on Friday, Israeli warplanes raided Kfarkela, Tayr Harfa, Aita al-Shaab, the outskirts of Shebaa and houses in Zalloutieh and Yarin, while Hezbollah targeted the Hadb Yaroun post, a group of soldiers in Manara, and surveillance equipment in the Zar'it barracks.

An Israeli tank also shelled Kfarkela and al-Khiam.

On Thursday Hezbollah carried out five attacks on posts in northern Israel and the occupied Kfarshouba Hills and Shebaa Farms near Kfarhamam.

Israel and Hezbollah have exchanged near-daily fire since Paleostinian krazed killer group Hamas, the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood, carried out an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7, triggering war in 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 Hamaswith 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...
The cross-border hostilities have killed at least 349 people in Lebanon Hezbollahstan
...In 2006 unknown persons blew up Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, the car he was traveling in, the road he was traveling on, and a few innocent bystanders of no account whatsoever. The person or persons unknow weren't Hezbollah, you can bet on that. Really. Even though there was an international tribunal that said it was them...
, mostly Hezbollah fighters, but also at least 68 civilians, according to an AFP tally.

The fighting has displaced tens of thousands of people in southern Lebanon and in northern Israel, where the military says 10 soldiers and eight civilians have been killed.

Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syria accuses Israel of rare daytime strike, says 3 soldiers wounded
2023-03-13
[IsraelTimes] State media claims fighter jets target sites in Tartus province and near Masyaf in northwest of country.

Israel carried out a rare daytime strike against targets in northwestern Syria on Sunday morning, injuring three soldiers and causing damage, the state-run broadcaster SANA said.

While alleged Israeli attacks in Syria typically take place under the cover of darkness, Sunday’s strike was conducted at around 7:15 a.m., according to SANA.

There was no response from the Israel Defense Forces, in line with its policy of not commenting on specific air raids in the country.

SANA, citing a military source, said Israeli fighter jets launched a volley of missiles from over north Lebanon Hezbollahstan
...In 2006 unknown persons blew up Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, the car he was traveling in, the road he was traveling on, and a few innocent bystanders of no account whatsoever. The person or persons unknow weren't Hezbollah, you can bet on that. Really. Even though there was an international tribunal that said it was them...
, targeting sites in the coastal Tartus province and near Masyaf in the Hama province.

The area around Masyaf, which is thought to be used as a base for Iranian forces and pro-Iranian militias, has been repeatedly targeted in recent years in attacks widely attributed to Israel.

The report did not elaborate on the soldiers’ conditions or the extent of the damage caused to the targeted sites.

SANA claimed that Syrian air defenses managed to intercept several of the Israeli missiles in the strike. Syria regularly claims to intercept Israeli missiles, though military analysts doubt such assertions.

Though Israel’s military does not comment on specific strikes in Syria, it has admitted to conducting hundreds of sorties against Iran-backed groups attempting to gain a foothold in the country.

The IDF says it also attacks arms shipments believed to be bound for those groups, chief among them Lebanon’s Hezbollah. Additionally, Arclight airstrike
...KABOOM!...
s attributed to Israel have repeatedly targeted Syrian air defense systems.

The last airstrike in Syria attributed to Israel was on Tuesday, when Syria said an airstrike targeted the Aleppo International Airport, leading it to be shut for several days.
Al Ahram adds:
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britannia-based war monitor, said that "two pro-Iran
...The nation is 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...
fighters were killed and three Syrian soldiers were maimed".

SANA did not say what sites were targeted, but the Observatory, a war monitor, said a "scientific research centre" were present in the areas.
And from An Nahar:
Israeli airstrikes targeting a weapons depot in Syria on Sunday killed two pro-Iran fighters and wounded three soldiers, a war monitor said.

"Israeli strikes targeted a weapons depot belonging to pro-Iran forces located... between Tartus and Hama provinces," said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Link


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Security guards foil attempt to smuggle ‘Islamic State drug’ from West Bank to Gaza
2023-01-31
[IsraelTimes] Defense Ministry says Captagon amphetamine pills were hidden in doors of office refrigerators

The Defense Ministry said security guards on Monday foiled an attempt to smuggle thousands of captagon pills from the West Bank to the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamaswith 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 this morning.

The ministry said the pills were hidden in the doors of office refrigerators. The shipment — en route to the Gaza Strip — was found at the Tarqumiyah Crossing, in the southern West Bank.

The drugs were handed over to police for further inspection.

Captagon is an amphetamine-type stimulant manufactured mostly in Lebanon Hezbollahstan
...In 2006 unknown persons blew up Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, the car he was traveling in, the road he was traveling on, and a few innocent bystanders of no account whatsoever. The person or persons unknow weren't Hezbollah, you can bet on that. Really. Even though there was an international tribunal that said it was them...
and Syria. Much of it has been bound for illegal recreational use in Saudi Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Fifteen of the nineteen WTC hijackers were Saudis, and most major jihadi commanders were Saudis, to include Osama bin Laden. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman quietly folded that tent in 2016, doing terrible things to the guys running it, and has since been dragging the kingdom into the current century...
Israeli officials call it the "Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
drug," as it was supposedly used by jihadists to prevent fear and fatigue during fighting in Syria and Iraq.

Captagon pills have previously been seized en route to the Gaza Strip.

Captagon is considered by far Syria’s biggest export, dwarfing all its legal exports put together, according to estimates drawn from official data by AFP.

More than 400 million pills were seized in the Middle East and beyond in 2021, according to official figures, with seizures last year set to top that.

Customs and anti-narcotics officials told AFP that for every shipment they seize, another nine make it through.
I guess everybody has a Secretary Mayorkas, hmmm?
That means even with a low average price of $5 per tablet, and only four out of five shipments getting through, Captagon is at least a $10 billion industry.
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Irish UNIFIL peacekeeper killed by gunfire in south Lebanon
2022-12-16
[IsraelTimes] Member of UN force declared dead after convoy comes under fire, three others maimed; Irish PM says he is ’deeply shocked,’ Lebanon Hezbollahstan
...In 2006 unknown persons blew up Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, the car he was traveling in, the road he was traveling on, and a few innocent bystanders of no account whatsoever. The person or persons unknow weren't Hezbollah, you can bet on that. Really. Even though there was an international tribunal that said it was them...
’s interim leader expresses ’deep regret’

An Irish soldier of the UN peacekeeping force in south Lebanon near the Israeli border was killed and three maimed after their convoy came under fire, Irish officials said Thursday.
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Geagea: We will oppose the election of a March 8 President
2022-08-04
[ANNAHAR] Lebanese Forces
A Christian political party founded by Bashir Gemayel, who was then bumped off when he was elected president of Leb...
chief Samir Geagea
...Geagea was imprisoned by the Syrians and their puppets for 11 years in a dungeon in the third basement level of the Lebanese Ministry of Defense. He was released after the Cedar Revolution in 2005...
said Wednesday that the next President should be sovereign and reformist, refusing a President from the March 8 Alliance or a consensual President.

"We will oppose with all our strength the election of a President from the March 8 Alliance," Geagea said in a presser as he accused the so-called Axis of Defiance of being the root cause of the crisis.

He considered that mismanagement, corruption and the dominance of Hezbollah on the country's strategic decisions are the main factors that contributed to the current crisis.

"Hezbollah has allied with the most corrupted parties to secure an internal cover for its illegal presence," Geagea said, slamming both Hezbollah and the Free Patriotic Movement
Despite its name a Christian party allied with Hizbullah, neither free nor particularly patriotic...
.

He added that if a President backed by the Axis of Defiance gets elected, Lebanon Hezbollahstan
...In 2006 unknown persons blew up Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, the car he was traveling in, the road he was traveling on, and a few innocent bystanders of no account whatsoever. The person or persons unknow weren't Hezbollah, you can bet on that. Really. Even though there was an international tribunal that said it was them...
will be isolated and will lose all investments and international and Arab support.

Geagea also refused "a consensual President" that would "extend the hell we are living in to six more years."

He concluded his speech by urging all the opposition MPs to coordinate in order to agree on a President's name.

Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
IDF fires dozens of shells at targets in Lebanon after rocket attack on Israel
2022-04-25
[IsraelTimes] Military says rocket landed in open area near Kibbutz Matsuba, close to border, without causing damage or injuries; no warning sirens sounded and army says alert levels ’normal’

The Israel Defense Forces said early Monday that its forces attacked targets in Lebanon Hezbollahstan
...In 2006 unknown persons blew up Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, the car he was traveling in, the road he was traveling on, and a few innocent bystanders of no account whatsoever. The person or persons unknow weren't Hezbollah, you can bet on that. Really. Even though there was an international tribunal that said it was them...
after a rocket was fired into Israel earlier in the night.

"IDF artillery is now attacking targets in Lebanon and firing at the launch area in retaliation for the rocket fired into Israeli territory," the IDF said in a statement.

Earlier, a rocket was fired into Israel from Lebanon landing in an open area near Kibbutz Matsuba, close to the border, without causing damage or injuries.

Hezbollah-linked media in Lebanon also reported that a rocket had been fired toward Israel.

No rocket warning sirens sounded in Israel as the rocket landed in an open area, and the military said that alert levels in the area remain "normal."

"We reacted in a quick, deadly and effective way," said Captain Yotam Zeituni, the commander of the artillery battery that responded to the rocket fire.

The United Nations
...an organization conceived in the belief that we're just one big happy world, with the sort of results you'd expect from such nonsense...
peacekeeping force along the border, UNIFIL, urged restraint.

"A rocket was launched from Lebanon toward Israel early this morning. Israel Defense Forces are returning fire with dozens of shells. UNIFIL Head of Mission and Force Commander @aroldo_lazaro urges calm and restraint in this volatile and ongoing situation," UNIFIL tweeted.

There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage in Lebanon and no claims of responsibility.

There have been several instances of rocket fire from Lebanon into Israel in recent years with most blamed on Paleostinian factions in the country, not the Hezbollah terror group.

However,
it's easy to be generous with someone else's money...
it is unlikely that bandidos Lions of Islam in southern Lebanon would be able to fire rockets without at least the tacit approval of the Iran-backed militia, which maintains a tight degree of control over southern Lebanon.
An Nahar adds:
A Katyusha rocket was fired Sunday night towards northern Israel from the southern Lebanese area of Ras al-Ain south of the city of Tyre, Lebanese media reports said.
Related:
Ras al-Ain: 2022-04-01 The state of security chaos continues in the areas of Sere Kaniye and Tel Abyad
Ras al-Ain: 2022-03-23 Deaths, injures caused among opposition factions over smuggling in Ras al-Ain
Ras al-Ain: 2022-03-18 Tension breaks out between two Turkish-backed factions in Sere Kaniye
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Militiamen killed, injured in alleged ISIS attack in Syria
2022-04-12
[Rudaw] Several Iranian-backed holy warriors were killed and injured in a suspected Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
(ISIS) attack on the force in the Syrian desert, a conflict monitor reported early Monday.

Four members of the Iran-backed militia were killed and two others were maimed in an alleged ISIS offensive on a military site near al-Sukhna city in the eastern countryside of Homs, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said.

The desert, also known as Badia, is a strategically valuable area as it contains Syria’s crucial gas fields and the east-west highway, which connects Deir ez-Zor to both Homs and Damascus.

No group has grabbed credit for the attack.

Security forces in Badia have arrested at least three members of the National Defense Forces for their suspected affiliation with ISIS, SOHR noted.

The recent attack comes a month after dozens of soldiers were killed and injured in an attack on a military bus in the Badia. ISIS was blamed for the offense at the time as well.

ISIS seized control of swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria, declaring a so-called caliphate in 2014, but the terror group was declared territorially defeated in 2017 and 2019 respectively. The terror group continues to launch deadly attacks from the Syrian desert, which extends from Syria’s capital of Damascus to the Iraqi border.

Sixty-one pro-regime soldiers and Iran-affiliated holy warriors were killed in alleged ISIS attacks in the desert since the beginning of the year, the monitor said last month, with 69 members of the terror group reported dead.

In its propaganda magazine on Thursday, ISIS claimed to have conducted two attacks in Syria from March 31 to April 6, killing and injuring four people.

Iranian-backed paramilitary groups and Lebanon Hezbollahstan
...In 2006 unknown persons blew up Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, the car he was traveling in, the road he was traveling on, and a few innocent bystanders of no account whatsoever. The person or persons unknow weren't Hezbollah, you can bet on that. Really. Even though there was an international tribunal that said it was them...
's Hezbollah are fighting on the side of Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Supressor of the Damascenes...
’s forces in the Syrian war, which started after a military crackdown on Arab Spring-inspired protests calling for his ousting. Tehran has been a strong supporter of Bashir al-Assad's government in Damascus.
Related:
Sukhna: 2022-01-14 Russian strikes in Syria kill 11 IS fighters: monitor
Sukhna: 2021-10-13 Air strike targets Iranian-backed militia in Syria's Deir ez-Zor
Sukhna: 2021-09-13 ISIS attacks government and Iranian-backed forces in Syrian Desert
Related:
Homs: 2022-04-11 Palestinian woman stabs Israeli officer in Hebron, is shot dead
Homs: 2022-04-10 Israel raided some sites in Syria’s Hama
Homs: 2022-03-23 Al-Monitor: Islamic State takes advantage of Ukraine war to increase attacks
Related:
Badia: 2022-03-26 How jihadist groups choose to fight conventionally-Report
Badia: 2022-03-23 Two children injured in a mine explosion inRaqqa countryside
Badia: 2022-03-08 Government forces’ members killed by unknown individuals in Deir ez-Zor
Link


Iraq
Iraqi Airstrikes Kill 9 IS Militants
2022-01-31
Follow up to this story from yesterday.


Iraqi Arclight airstrike
...KABOOM!...
s killed nine suspected Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
fighters, including four Lebanese, in retaliation for an IS attack on Iraqi army barracks earlier this month, officials said Sunday.

IS button men in Iraq broke into a barracks in the mountainous al-Azim district outside the town of Baqouba on Jan. 21, killed a guard and rubbed out 11 soldiers as they slept. It was one of the boldest attacks by the murderous Moslems in recent weeks and came amid an uptick in violence that stoked fears the group has been re-energized.

Yehia Rasool, the front man for Iraq's commander in chief, said the joint military operations room and the air force identified the cell behind the attack as its members hid in al-Azim, north of Baghdad.

Three airstrikes were launched that killed the nine holy warriors, he said.

A security official told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named that four among the killed were Lebanese, natives of the northern town of 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...
. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to news hounds.

Tripoli is Lebanon Hezbollahstan
...In 2006 unknown persons blew up Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, the car he was traveling in, the road he was traveling on, and a few innocent bystanders of no account whatsoever. The person or persons unknow weren't Hezbollah, you can bet on that. Really. Even though there was an international tribunal that said it was them...
's second largest city and the country's most impoverished. It has been prone to violence and murderous Moslems who, inspired by the Islamic State group, launched attacks against the Lebanese Army in 2014 in the most serious bout of violence in the city. As Lebanon faces an unprecedented convergence of crises, including a swift descent into poverty, many fear murderous Moslems may seek to exploit discontent among the city's majority Sunni residents.

Lebanon's al-Jadeed TV gave a higher corpse count, saying that five Lebanese were killed in Iraq. One family member appealed in the broadcast to Lebanese authorities to facilitate return of the bodies.

Also Sunday, Iraqi anti-terrorism units carried out an inspection campaign in seven prisons in Iraq holding IS holy warriors. The campaign comes after a brazen prison attack IS murderous Moslems carried out in northeastern Syria that lasted for over a week and in which an unknown number of suspects escaped, the anti-terrorism unit said in a statement.

IS was largely defeated in Iraq in 2017. The group was dealt a final blow in 2019 when it lost its last territory in southeast Syria during the U.S.-led military campaign in cooperation with Syrian Kurdish-led forces.

But thousands of murderous Moslems melted into the desert and have continued to wage attacks, frequently hitting security forces and military with roadside kabooms and firing on military convoys or checkpoints in both countries.

Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Bassil Says 'No Iranian Occupation'
2021-11-29
[An Nahar] Free Patriotic Movement
Despite its name a Christian party allied with Hizbullah, neither free nor particularly patriotic...
chief Jebran Bassil on Sunday noted that "there is no Iranian occupation of Lebanon Hezbollahstan
...In 2006 unknown persons blew up Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, the car he was traveling in, the road he was traveling on, and a few innocent bystanders of no account whatsoever. The person or persons unknow weren't Hezbollah, you can bet on that. Really. Even though there was an international tribunal that said it was them...
," as he lashed out at political rivals and Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Mossad thwarts Iranian attacks on Israelis in Africa - report
2021-11-08
A smiting may be in order
[JPost] Iran has been seeking to harm Israel or Israelis at sea, using cyberattacks and overseas attacks.

The Mossad has thwarted multiple attacks by Iran
...The nation is 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...
has been seeking to harm Israel or Israelis at sea, using cyberattacks and overseas attacks. against Israeli tourists and businessmen in at least three African countries, Channel 12 reported on Sunday night.

According to the report, the targets were Israelis visiting Tanzania, Senegal
... a nation of about 14 million on the west coast of Africa bordering Mauretania to the north, Mali to the east, and a pair of Guineas to the south, one of them Bissau. It is 90 percent Mohammedan and has more than 80 political parties. Its primary purpose seems to be absorbing refugees...
and Ghana.

Five suspects, all with African passports, have reportedly been arrested.

Iran has been seeking to harm Israel or Israelis - at sea, using cyberattacks and by attacking Israelis overseas.

There is an ongoing shadow war between the countries going back decades, but Iranian efforts spiked since November 2020, after the Islamic Theocratic Republic’s top nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, was assassinated, allegedly by the Mossad.

In addition, Iran has accused the Mossad of sabotaging its nuclear facilities in July 2020 as well as in April and June of this year.

The Jerusalem Post and foreign outlets have also reported on Israeli intelligence assistance in the US’s liquidation of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force Chief Qasem Soleimani in January 2020.

In early October, some Israeli officials accused Tehran of trying to assassinate Israelis in Cyprus, something Tehran also attempted in 2012.

Around the same 2012 period, there were Iranian plots to target Israelis in Thailand, India, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Kenya.

In January, Iranian proxies attempted an attack against Israeli diplomats in India.

Israeli intelligence officials have estimated that the Islamic Theocratic Republic will continue to target Israelis and Jews in spots where they believe security is weaker, at least until they feel like they have achieved some amount of Dire Revenge and deterrence against Israeli attacks on Iran.
The Times of Israel adds:
The five were recruited by Iran’s Quds Force expeditionary arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, according to the report from Channel 12 news, which did not attribute the information to a source.

The five were arrested in the African countries by local intelligence, who were working off information obtained from "Western" spies, the channel said.

According to intelligence information cited by the channel, the five were given special training and unspecified materials in Lebanon Hezbollahstan
...In 2006 unknown persons blew up Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, the car he was traveling in, the road he was traveling on, and a few innocent bystanders of no account whatsoever. The person or persons unknow weren't Hezbollah, you can bet on that. Really. Even though there was an international tribunal that said it was them...
and then sent back to Africa with a cover story of being religious students, where they were given the mission of finding Jewish and Israeli targets to attack.

Among the top targets were Israeli tourists on safari in Tanzania, the channel said.

All five suspects were arrested before they could take any action, according to the report. It did not say when the arrests took place, but indicated they were still being questioned.

Though the report credited the Israel’s Mossad spy agency with foiling the plot, its role in the affair was not mentioned.

There was no immediate confirmation of the report from authorities in Israel or the three African countries. The channel said Iranian officials denied any allegations against it, calling them "baseless."
Related:
Senegal: 2021-08-29 Gambia Says Migrants Expelled From EU Are Not Welcome Home
Senegal: 2021-08-17 Gambia: Human Right Groups Welcome Gambia's Clarification On Jammeh's Return
Senegal: 2021-08-11 A man died in West Africa of a virus that causes internal bleeding and organ failure.
Related:
Ghana: 2021-11-05 Libya Repatriates 162 Nigerian Migrants
Ghana: 2021-10-10 Guatemala: Police rescue 126 migrants trapped in a roadside container
Ghana: 2021-09-11 Police catch 2 4 Palestinians who broke out of prison in northern Israel
Related:
Tanzania: 2021-10-28 Kenya on alert after terrorist attacks in Uganda
Tanzania: 2021-10-26 Fighting continues for the 3rd day on the row in central Somalia; 30 dead
Tanzania: 2021-10-25 Deadly blast in Ugandan capital 'seems to be a terrorist act', ISIS claims it
Related:
Quds Force: 2021-10-30 US announces new sanctions targeting Iran’s drone program
Quds Force: 2021-10-13 Air strike targets Iranian-backed militia in Syria's Deir ez-Zor
Quds Force: 2021-10-13 Commander of Quds Force follows up Iraqi elections from Baghdad

Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Aoun, Miqati Agree on Need to Resolve KSA Row
2021-11-06
[An Nahar] President Michel Aoun
...president of Leb, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah...
has agreed with Prime Minister Najib Miqati on "the need to contain the repercussions of the Gulf’s crisis with Lebanon Hezbollahstan
...In 2006 unknown persons blew up Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, the car he was traveling in, the road he was traveling on, and a few innocent bystanders of no account whatsoever. The person or persons unknow weren't Hezbollah, you can bet on that. Really. Even though there was an international tribunal that said it was them...
," Presidency sources said."They agreed on the need to take initiative to rectify the relations with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Fifteen of the nineteen WTC hijackers were Saudis, and most major jihadi commanders were Saudis, to include Osama bin Laden. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman quietly folded that tent in 2016, doing terrible things to the guys running it, and has since been dragging the kingdom into the current century...
and a number of Arab Gulf countries," the sources told the Nidaa al-Watan newspaper in remarks published Friday.

"This initiative is based on two key points: the first is based on the information minister himself taking initiative to resign without wasting further time, to prevent certain parties and forces from aggravating the tensions between Lebanon and the Gulf Cooperation Council member states," the sources added.

The second point stressed the need for Cabinet to convene without any delay "after the developments surpassed the issue of the stance on investigative judge Tarek Bitar, and after it has been proved that there is no solution for any objection against his investigations or performance except through the judiciary itself," the sources went on to say.



Link



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