Obama Tries To Explain To the World Why He Hasn't Done Jack Shit To Exterminate ISIS

I looked at the headline below from ABC News and just laughed.  Mr. Barack "Containment" Obama tries to rally the nations of the world in this battle against ISIS.

Do you suppose any of these world leaders stepped up to the reality plate and asked Pussy Obama what he was thinking with his "contain ISIS" instead of "defeat or destroy ISIS" strategy?  Did anyone point a finger at Obama and repeat his claim that ISIS is a jayvee team?

ISIS is entrenched.  They are growing their area and their influence.  They have taken root in areas where they may NEVER be defeated.  They were given the time they needed by the only man on this planet who could have seen that they were blown out of the water.  The plan worked.  The plan for Obama to assist ISIS and instill true Islam to Syria and replace what Obama considers a farce in Assad has worked to perfection.  The world now lives with the horror of ISIS, just like the citizens of America have lived with the horror of Obama for seven bloody years.

President Obama Hosts UN Summit on ISIS, Violent Extremism

President Obama hosted a group of world leaders today at the United Nations in a summit to discuss the ongoing fight against the terror group ISIS and the global spread of violent extremism.

"There are going to be successes and there are going to be setbacks," Obama said, beginning his remarks to the leaders of the more than 100 nations present. "This is not a conventional battle. This is a long-term campaign."

Obama and Putin's First Formal Meeting in Two Years Described as 'Businesslike' Despite Tensions

President Obama Rejects 'Notion That the West Is at War With Islam'

Similar to his speech Monday to the United Nations, Obama reiterated that he was ready to work with countries like Iran and Russia to fight ISIS.

Obama stressed the long-term nature of the fight against ISIS, and said that while law enforcement must not profile or target people based on their faith, countries must be aware that ISIS is making unique efforts to target Muslim communities.

“This is not going to be turned around overnight because it is not just a military campaign that we are involved in,” Obama said. “There are problems that have built up over decades that are expressing themselves and manifesting themselves in organizations like ISIL,” another name for ISIS.

In his remarks sitting alongside Obama, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said significant improvements have been made in the fight against ISIS over the past year, and thanked the more than 60 coalition countries who have come to assist in the fight. He pressed neighboring countries to increase enforcement to stem the flow of foreign fighters and stop outside financing for terrorist groups.

Obama gave a brief preview of his meeting in his confrontational speech to the UN Monday.

"Part of our job, together, is to work to reject such extremism that infects too many of our young people," Obama said. "Part of that effort must be a continued rejection by Muslims of those who distort Islam to preach intolerance and promote violence, and it must also a rejection by non-Muslims of the ignorance that equates Islam with terror."

Just prior to the summit, both the Treasury and State Departments announced new sanctions against foreign terrorist groups and ISIS fighters. In all, the new sanctions target 25 new individuals and five terror groups.

Taliban storm Kunduz city

Taliban.  Afghanistan.  Count the days people, count the days.

Story comes from The Long War Journal.

Taliban storm Kunduz city

The Taliban assaulted the northern provincial capital of Kunduz from three directions and seized control of areas in the city. Unconfirmed reports from residents and Taliban fighters inside Kunduz indicate that Afghan forces have been driven out of the city and the Taliban are in full control.

According to the BBC, hundreds of Taliban fighters launched their offensive today from three districts: Imam Sahib to the north, Khanabad from the southeast, and Chardara from the southwest. All three districts are thought to be under Taliban control.

The Taliban confirmed they launched a three-pronged assault on Kunduz city. “The operations have commenced on the city center from 3 directions with Mujahideen quickly taking enemy positions and the enemy is retreating from their positions,” according to an initial statement that was posted on Voice of Jihad.

The Taliban later stated that their fighters have “reached the main city intersection, are targeting the governors [sic] compound and clearing the small remaining pockets from enemy presence.”

Afghan security officials have denied that the Taliban are in control of the city and have stated that the fighting was largely confined to the outskirts of the provincial capital.

But reports from the Afghan media, as well as Taliban fighters and residents from inside the city, indicate that parts if not all of the city are now under Taliban control.

According to TOLONews, “Taliban insurgents have taken control of Kunduz city’s provincial council building and the local High Peace Council offices.”

Ehsanullah Ehsan, a stabilization manager at the international development agency DAI who is based in Kunduz, has said that the Taliban have seized the city and Afghan National Security Forces [ANSF] have retreated.

“Kunduz city is completely with taliban ANSF are out,” Ehsan tweeted. “[T]he city is completely with taliban now, taliban walking inside streets, i am trapped at home.”

Ehsan posted photographs purportedly showing Taliban fighters walking the streets of Kunduz and prisoners who have been freed from the city’s main jail.

Kunduz province has been hotly contested since the Taliban and its allies launched an offensive to seize control of the province at the end of April. The districts of Imam Sahib, Aliabad, and Qala-i-Zal were overrun in the initial assault, while Chardara and Dasht-i-Archi fell in mid-June. Khanabad fell under Taliban control the same day that Kunduz fell. The status of the six districts is unclear, but the Taliban is still thought to be in control of Imam Sahib, Aliabad, Chardara, Khanabad, and Dasht-i-Archi.

The Taliban and allied jihadist groups based in Kunduz have been flexing their muscles in the province in recent weeks. In August, hundreds of fighters from the Taliban and the allied Islamic Jihad Union massed in the open, in daylight, to swear allegiance to Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour, the new emir of the Taliban. Last week, the Islamic Jihad Union claimed it controlled large areas of the border with Tajikistan and a border crossing from Kunduz into the northern Afghan neighbor.

The loss of Kunduz city, if confirmed, would be a major blow to the Afghan government and military, which have struggled to maintain security after US and NATO forces have drawn down to a token presence. Kunduz city would be the first provincial capital to fall to the Taliban.

Additionally, the fall of Kunduz would invalidate the entire US “surge” strategy from 2009 to 2012. The US military focused its efforts on the southern Afghan provinces of Helmand and Kandahar, claiming that these provinces were the key to breaking the Taliban. Little attention was given to other areas of Afghanistan, including the northern provinces, where the Taliban have expended considerable effort in fighting the military and government. Today, the Taliban are gaining ground in northern, central, eastern and southern Afghanistan, with dozens of districts falling under Taliban control over the past year.

Iraq Turns To Russia and Iran For Support Against ISIS - America Is Ignored Like a Third World Player

 Moscow’s involvement in Iraq could mean increased competition for Washington from a Cold War enemy. (File photo of Russian President Vladmir Putin: Reuters)



Barack Hussein Obama has gotten what he wanted - America is now not even considered a player in world affairs, our military might is dismissed as nothing because it is in the hands of a pussy footing yellow belly revolutionary global warming wimp.


The story comes from Al Arabiya.

Russia, Iran, Syria ‘cooperating’ on Baghdad security

Iraq said on Saturday that its military officials were engaged in intelligence and security cooperation in Baghdad with Russia, Iran and Syria to counter the threat from the ISIS militant group, a pact that could raise concerns in Washington.

A statement from the Iraqi military’s joint operations command said the cooperation had come “with increased Russian concern about the presence of thousands of terrorists from Russia undertaking criminal acts with Daesh (ISIS).”

The move could give Moscow more sway in the Middle East. It has stepped up its military involvement in Syria in recent weeks while pressing for Damascus to be included in international efforts to fight ISIS, a demand Washington rejects.

Moscow’s involvement in Iraq could mean increased competition for Washington from a Cold War enemy as long-time enemy Iran increases its influence through Shiite militia allies just four years after the withdrawal of U.S. troops.

By raising the stakes in Syria’s four-year-old civil war, Russia has prompted its Cold War foe to expand diplomatic channels with it.

Western officials have said U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry wants to launch a new effort at the U.N. General Assembly this week to try to find a political solution to the Syrian conflict.

Diplomacy has taken on new urgency in light of Russia’s military build-up in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and a refugee crisis that has spilled into Europe.

Critics have urged U.S. President Barack Obama to be more decisive in the Middle East, particularly towards the Syrian conflict, and say lack of a clear American policy has given ISIS opportunities to expand.

Russian news agency Interfax quoted a military diplomatic source in Moscow as saying the Baghdad coordination center would be led on a rotating basis by officers of the four countries, starting with Iraq.

The source added a committee might be created in Baghdad to plan military operations and control armed forces units in the fight against ISIS.

A Russian foreign ministry official told Interfax on Friday that Moscow could “theoretically” join the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS if Damascus were included in international efforts to combat ISIS and any international military operation in Syria had a U.N. mandate.

Iraqi officials on Friday had denied reports of a coordination cell in Baghdad set up by Russian, Syrian and Iranian military commanders aimed at working with Iranian-backed Shiite militias in Iraq.

The armed groups, some of which have fought alongside troops loyal to Assad, are seen as a critical weapon in Baghdad’s battle against the radical Sunni militants of ISIS.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said in New York on Friday that his country had not received any Russian military advisers to help its forces but called for the U.S.-led coalition to bomb more ISIS targets in Iraq.

Despite more than $20 billion in U.S. aid and training, Iraq’s army has nearly collapsed twice in the last year in the face of advances by ISIS, which controls large swathes of territory in the north and west of the OPEC oil producer.

Bring it

US-trained Syrian rebels gave weapons, equipment to Al-Nusra: official

When Barack Obama announced that, rather than destroy ISIS, he was going to "contain" ISIS, some of us knew he was really pledging his support for ISIS.  Now, when you consider the fact that the forces in Syria that Obama wanted all trained up to fight battles have in essence, disintegrated and apparently armed the enemies of America in the region, I guess I will just rest my case.

The story comes from DAWN.

US-trained Syrian rebels gave weapons, equipment to Al-Nusra: official

WASHINGTON: The Pentagon on Friday admitted that a group of US-trained Syrian rebels had handed over most of their weapons, ammunition and equipment to Al-Qaeda's affiliate in the country, the Al-Nusra Front, purportedly in exchange for safe passage.

The startling acknowledgement contrasted with earlier Pentagon denials of reports that some fighters had either defected or handed over gear.

“Unfortunately, we learned late today that the NSF (New Syrian Forces) unit now says it did in fact provide six pickup trucks and their ammunition to Al-Nusra Front,” Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said.

Colonel Patrick Ryder, a spokesman for Central Command (CENTCOM), which is overseeing efforts against the self-styled Islamic State (IS), said the fighters had handed over the gear in exchange for safe passage in the Al-Nusra occupied area.

“If accurate, the report of NSF members providing equipment and weapons to Al-Nusra Front is very concerning and a violation of Syria train-and-equip program guidelines,” Ryder said.

“We are using all means at our disposal to look into what exactly happened and determine the appropriate response,” Ryder said.

A defense official told AFP that according to the rebels, there had not been any defections, but he stressed: “We only know what they have told us.“
Another embarrassing setback

The development is another embarrassing setback for the US effort to “train and equip” moderate Syrian rebels to fight IS jihadists in Syria.

The $500-million program originally aimed to ready around 5,400 vetted fighters a year for three years but problems finding suitable candidates have seen negligible numbers getting trained.

The first graduates, who made up a group of 54 fighters, were attacked by Al-Nusra in July and the Pentagon isn't sure what happened to them all. At least one was killed.

The second group, consisting of about 70 rebels, were sent back to Syria last weekend and reports began circulating on Twitter soon after that they had either defected or handed over equipment.

Last week, before the insertion of the new fighters, the US general overseeing efforts against IS drew disbelief from senior lawmakers when he told them only “four or five” US-trained rebels were on the ground fighting in Syria.

Unwilling to commit US ground troops in the region, the Obama administration in January launched the train-and-equip mission for Syrian opposition fighters as part of a broader push to work with locals there and in Iraq.

The program has faltered, with many would-be fighters failing the strict screening process. The troops are being trained as part of the US-led fight against Islamic State in the region.

Finland demonstrators attack refugees with stones and fireworks

Gotta love the Finlanders!

The story comes from Times of India.

UPDATE:  Some fool over on Twitter is saying this article proves that the KKK and fascists are alive and well in Finland.  Idiots.  I put this article up for various reasons, first to congratulate the Finns for standing up to Muslim invaders but also to show that the Marxist media in Europe fabricates the lies in EVERY story - white KKK outfit.....give me a fucking break.  To my little troll friend at Twitter, where does it mention the race or color of the "migrants"?  Are you sure they weren't WHITE Muslims refugees?  Why would a guy wear a KKK sheet to protest Muslims?  

Same old same old in Europe - if you don't embrace multiculturalism, if you don't bow to Islam, if you don't want the destruction of your European homeland the media there portrays you as "fascist" as "supremacist" as "Nazi."  Get used to it America, it's already started here.

Finland demonstrators attack refugees with stones and fireworks

HELSINKI: Demonstrators threw stones and launched fireworks at a bus full of asylum seekers arriving at a reception centre in Lahti in southern Finland, late on Thursday, Finnish media reported on Friday.

Between 30 and 40 demonstrators, one in a white robe like those worn by the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan in the United States, waved the Finnish flag and shouted abuse at the bus.

Some demonstrators also hurled stones and let off fireworks at the vehicle carrying 40 asylum seekers, including several young children, Finnish television YLE said.

Meanwhile, a petrol bomb was thrown at another reception centre in Kouvola, also in southern Finland, police said. No one was known to be hurt in the incidents.

"The Finnish government strongly condemns last night's racist protests against asylum seekers who had entered the country," the government said in a statement. "Violence or the threat of violence is always to be condemned."

Prime Minister Juha Sipila this month offered to take in refugees at his home, a move that attracted international attention but also criticism in Finland.

"Sipila's noble-minded gesture was like a Christmas gift for human traffickers and refugees. The news about open doors in Finland have sent many young men on a journey towards the promised land," Mika Niikko, a deputy from anti-immigrant party The Finns, said last week in a statement.

So far this year more than 13,000 asylum seekers, most of them from Iraq, have come to Finland, compared to just 3,600 in the whole of last year.

In recent days, about 500 refugees per day have crossed the Finnish land border in Tornio, near the Arctic Circle, after a long journey through Sweden.

The Finnish government has launched random border checks and identity checks around the country amid the influx of refugees.

Finland was the only European Union state to abstain from this week's vote about relocating asylum seekers across the member countries. It accepted its 2 per cent share of 120,000 asylum seekers in question but said it was opposed to a mandatory quota system.

Nigerian Military Clears Out Boko Haram Terror Camps, Rescues 241 Women and Girls

The story comes from DAWN.

Nigeria claims rescuing 241 women, girls from Boko Haram

LAGOS: Nigeria’s military on Wednesday said troops had rescued 241 women and children during operations against Boko Haram Islamist militants in the country’s restive northeast.

The women and children were picked up on Tuesday as soldiers cleared what the military said were “terrorist camps” near Banki in Borno state, close to the border with Cameroon.

Boko Haram has used Banki to launch cross-border attacks, including in and around the Cameroon town of Amchide, where the Islamists clashed with security forces and there were failed suicide attacks on Tuesday.

Army spokesman Sani Usman said it was not immediately clear whether all of those rescued had been kidnapped by the Islamists.

“Screening is ongoing to know their exact status. Some were being held, some belonged to their (the militants’) families,” he said.

" for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed "

The Taliban Begin Shoring Up Eastern Afghanistan

The Taliban are moving deliberately in their quest to regain Afghanistan.  They have made serious strides in the North, they are engaged in the South and as it appears, the Eastern front is next on the list.  It's my guess that America's new President in 2017 will be welcomed by the new Taliban-run Afghanistan with its countless terrorist camps and a renewed mission to destroy America.

Thanks Barry.  Yet again.

The story comes from The Long War Journal.

Taliban overruns outpost in eastern Afghanistan

As the Taliban mounts offensives in the northern province of Kunduz and the southern province of Helmand, it has also been consolidating its grip on areas in eastern Afghanistan. A video from Paktika province, a bastion of the Haqqani Network, shows the Taliban in control of a military outpost along the Pakistani border.

The Taliban released a video entitled “Liberation of Ghwasta” that shows scores of its fighters attacking and then walking inside a US-built outpost in the Waza Khwa district in Paktika. The footage was released on Voice of Jihad, the jihadist group’s official propaganda website, on Sept. 21. The exact date of the attack was not given, but the accompanying statement said that it occurred “a few weeks earlier.”

According to the Taliban, the Ghwasta area of the district “was cleared from the hireling troops after dozens were killed and wounded, many vehicles destroyed and a sizable amount of arms and ammunition seized.”

The video does show the jihadists in possession of captured vehicles, including a US-made Humvee, and a large quantity of weapons, rockets, mortars, ammunition, and other supplies (screen shots from the video are below). The Taliban does not show the bodies of Afghan soldiers or policemen who were purportedly killed in the battle.

Also included in the footage is an interview with Mawlawi Muhammad Iqbal, AKA Takal, the “deputy provincial governor,” or deputy shadow governor, for Paktika. Iqbal is on the scene with the Taliban in Waza Khwa district.

The Taliban’s shadow governor for the province is Bilal Fateh, who swore allegiance to Mullah Mohammad Mansour, the new emir, in early August. The Taliban previously identified the deputy shadow governor of Paktika as “Abdullah” and “Hamad.” In a December 2013 interview, Abdullah claimed that the districts of Dila, Nika, and “Charbaran,” which may be a reference to Gomal district (the Charbaran Valley is in Gomal), are under the jihadist group’s control.

The exact security status of Paktika is unclear. The Afghan government has claimed that the Taliban only controls four of the more than 400 districts in the entire country, but the Taliban are known to control far more than that number. In Paktika, the districts of Bermal, Dila, Nika, Urgun, Yahya Khel, Waza Khwa, Yusuf Khel, and Ziruk are thought to be heavily contested or under Taliban control. The Afghan government often only maintains its writ in the district centers but not in the rural areas of the country.

The Waza Khwa district borders Pakistan’s Baluchistan province, where the Afghan Taliban wields considerable influence. The cities of Zhob and Qila Saifullah, where the jihadist group runs madrassas, recruiting centers, training camps, and command centers, are within 50 miles of the district.

Paktika province is also a stronghold of the Haqqani Network, a powerful subgroup that wields considerable influence within the Taliban. Jalaluddin Haqqani, the group’s founder, is a member of the Taliban’s Quetta Shura, while Sirajuddin Haqqani is one of Mansour’s two deputy emirs.

The Haqqanis maintain close ties with al Qaeda and shelter the global jihadist group’s top leaders in Paktika to this day. At the end of July 2015, the US killed Abu Khalil al Sudani, a senior al Qaeda leader who took direction from Ayman al Zawahiri, in an airstrike in Paktika’s Bermal district. Sudani had a hand in al Qaeda’s external operations network, which plots attacks against the US and the West. On Sept. 14, Afghan intelligence said that it killed an al Qaeda commander known as as Khuram in the Gomal district.

Sondrakistan Scores

There is no possible way I can improve on this post from yesterday over at Sondrakistan.

awfercryinoutloud...

By any measure, President Obama’s effort to train a Syrian opposition army to fight the Islamic State on the ground has been an abysmal failure. The military acknowledged this week that just four or five American-trained fighters are actually fighting.

But the White House says it is not to blame. The finger, it says, should be pointed not at Mr. Obama but at those who pressed him to attempt training Syrian rebels in the first place — a group that, in addition to congressional Republicans, happened to include former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

At briefings this week after the disclosure of the paltry results, Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, repeatedly noted that Mr. Obama always had been a skeptic of training Syrian rebels. The military was correct in concluding that “this was a more difficult endeavor than we assumed and that we need to make some changes to that program,” Mr. Earnest said. “But I think it’s also time for our critics to ‘fess up in this regard as well. They were wrong.”

In effect, Mr. Obama is arguing that he reluctantly went along with those who said it was the way to combat the Islamic State, but that he never wanted to do it and has now has been vindicated in his original judgment.

Saudi air strikes in Yemen's capital kill 29

Yemen....hell on earth.

The story comes from Times of India.

Saudi air strikes in Yemen's capital kill 29

SANAA: The Saudi-led coalition's airstrikes against Yemen's Shiite rebels and their allies have killed 29 people, including civilians, in the capital Sanaa, security and medical officials there said on Saturday.

The coalition's airstrikes hit an apartment building in the centre of the capital, a Unesco world heritage site, killing a family of nine, the officials who remain neutral in the conflict that has divided Yemen's security forces said.

One more civilian was killed and the search for more that may be buried under rubble is ongoing. The rebels, known as Houthis, lost 19 fighters in the overnight attack, the officials said.

"It was a terrifying night," said Sanaa resident Mohsen Faleeh. "The air strikes were heard in every corner of the city."

Yemen's fighting pits the internationally recognised President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi's forces backed by the coalition against the Houthis and troops loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The strikes targeted some of Saleh's estates, prompting pro-Saleh media to circulate a defiant statement from the former president, saying "the person they are searching for lives in the hearts of 25 million Yemenis."

All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorised to brief reporters.

First Secretly Gay U.S. President Selects First Openly Gay Man To Lead America's Army

Folks, it's not even about sabotaging America anymore.  It's about humiliating the American people and provoking the Heavenly Father.

The story comes from The Washington Post.

Obama to nominate first openly gay service secretary to lead the Army

President Obama, in a historic first for the Pentagon, has chosen to nominate Eric Fanning to lead the Army, a move that would make him the first openly gay civilian secretary of one of the military services.

Fanning, 47, has been a specialist on national security issues for more than two decades and has played a key role overseeing some of the Pentagon’s biggest shipbuilding and fighter jet programs. Now he will oversee an Army that has been battered by the longest stretch of continuous combat in U.S. history and is facing potentially severe budget cuts. It’s also an Army that after a long stretch of patrolling Iraqi and Afghan villages is searching for its postwar role in protecting the nation.

Fanning’s nomination, which must go to the Senate for confirmation, reflects a major shift for the Pentagon, which only four years ago prevented openly gay troops from serving in the military. The policy didn’t extend to civilian leaders, such as Fanning.

His long tenure in the Pentagon and his breadth of experience in shepherding some of the department’s most complex and sensitive weapons programs was a key factor in his nomination for the Army’s top job, administration officials said.

“Eric brings many years of proven experience and exceptional leadership to this new role,” Obama said in a statement.

Fanning’s rise to one of the Pentagon’s toughest and most prominent jobs also reflects the Obama’s commitment to diversity at the highest levels of his administration. During his time in office, Obama has overhauled internal policies to provide federal benefits to same-sex partners, appointed gay men and lesbians to the executive branch and the federal courts and ended the 18-year ban on gays serving openly in the military.

As Army secretary, Fanning will be teamed with Gen. Mark Milley, who took over in August as the Army’s top general, the chief of staff. The two men will assume responsibility for the Pentagon’s largest and most troubled service.

The Army, which swelled to about 570,000 active-duty troops during the height of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, has shed about 80,000 soldiers in recent years and plans to cut 40,000 more over the next few years. The planned cuts would shrink the service to its smallest size of the post-World War II era.

Transformed

Whoa! Taliban Attack Pakistani Air Force Camp

The Taliban got even gutsier than normal with this somewhat breaking news of their attack on a Pakistani air force base in Peshawar.

The story comes from DAWN.

Militants attack Pakistan Air Force camp in Peshawar

PESHAWAR: The Pakistan Air Force (PAF) camp at Inqalab road in the Badhbir area has come under attack early Friday, DawnNews reported.

Sources say this is a residential camp with high ranking officers stationed there, who are probably the target of the assault..

A heavy contingent of the Quick Response Force has reached the spot and exchange of fire with the militants is ongoing. The area has been sealed by security forces.

Initial details of the attack were confirmed by Director-General Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Major-General Asim Bajwa through his Twitter account:

AsimBajwaISPR @AsimBajwaISPR

Badaber PAF Base: Terrorists attk guard room early morning.Quick reaction force reached,surrounded, isolated them.Fire exch continues- 1
8:46 PM - 17 Sep 2015

Security sources say the number of terrorists and other details are yet to be ascertained. Initial reports indicate that there have been no loud explosions in the attack so far.

This is a developing story that will be further updated as new information is received.

The Latest Taliban Prison Break - 350 Taliban Freed in Afghanistan

Just think of the time, the effort and the blood expended to put 350 Taliban into prison inside of Afghanistan and then consider that a couple of hundred bucks placed in the grubby hands of a couple of Afghani prison guards frees them all to kill and maim the innocent.

Oh well, welcome to Afghanistan - future fascist state of the Taliban.

The story comes from Times of India.

Taliban storm Afghanistan jail, free 350 inmates

GHAZNI: Taliban insurgents stormed a prison in Afghanistan's Ghazni on Monday , killing police and releasing more than 350 inmates, including nearly 150 deemed a threat to national security , and then at tacked troops rushing to help officials said.

The latest Taliban prison raid, on the outskirts of the central city of Ghazni, comes after setbacks for the government in different parts of the country and deadly attacks in Kabul which have dashed hopes for peace talks. A journalist outside the mud fort prison in Ghazni, 120 km southwest o Kabul, saw the bodies of two men who appeared to be suicide bombers and a blown-up car that had apparently been used to destroy the main entrance Clusters of bullet casings were scattered across the road.

The interior ministry said that 355 of the 436 prisoners had escaped. Of those who got away , 148 were a "threat to national security and 207 were criminals," the ministry said, adding that four Taliban and four members of the security forces were killed.

Mohammed Ali Ahmadi, deputy city governor, said the prison's security was well below recommended standards as it was so close to Ghazni -only seven km from the city centre -and it was believed that reinforcements would get there quickly in the event of trouble. On Sunday , officials concerned about a breakout had transferred 18 "dangerous" Taliban to a jail operated by the Afghan intelligence agency, Ahmadi said. Seventeen were left behind.

From the WTF Files: Egypt forces kill 12 Mexican tourists, mistaking them for militants

Yeah, this is a story you don't see everyday.

From DAWN.

Egypt forces kill 12 Mexican tourists, mistaking them for militants

CAIRO: Egyptian security forces have mistakenly killed 12 people including Mexican tourists while chasing militants in the vast Western Desert, sparking condemnation of what Mexico called a “deplorable” air attack.

A joint police and military operation Sunday “chasing terrorist elements“ had “mistakenly” targeted four pick-up trucks carrying Mexican tourists, the interior ministry said in a statement.

It did not give a casualties breakdown, but said “the incident led to the death of 12 Mexicans and Egyptians and the wounding of 10 others”.

It said the tourists had been in an “off-limits” area, but did not give an exact location.

Mexican tourists who survived the mistaken attack were bombed by military helicopters and an aircraft while they stopped for a break in the desert.

Mexican Foreign Minister Claudia Ruiz Massieu told reporters that at least two Mexican tourists had been killed in an air strike.

The group had arrived in Cairo on September 11 and left two days later on their way to the Bahariya oasis, Ruiz Massieu said.

She said six Mexican survivors told Mexico's ambassador to Cairo that they had stopped for a meal when they “suffered an aerial attack with bombs launched by a plane and helicopters".

Ruiz Massieu said Mexico had expressed its “deep dismay over these deplorable events” in a diplomatic note to Cairo's ambassador, demanding a “swift, exhaustive and deep investigation”.

She said Egypt had pledged to create an investigative committee into the incident that would be headed by the prime minister.

In a tweet earlier, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto had demanded “an exhaustive investigation about what happened" from the government of Egypt.

Mexican media identified one of the dead as 40-year-old musician Rafael Jose Bejarano Rangel, whose mother, Marisela Rangel, was wounded.

Her sister, Araceli Rangel Davalos, told Milenio television that Marisela was in a stable condition but that they have not yet been able to talk.

The incident was likely to raise further concerns for Egypt's vital tourism industry, which has struggled to recover from years of political and economic chaos.

Mexico's envoy in Cairo had visited wounded nationals in the city's Dar al-Fouad Hospital where they were listed in stable condition, the foreign ministry in Mexico City said.
Militant hideout

The Western Desert, a popular destination for tour groups, extends from the suburbs of Cairo to the border with Libya.

A senior tourism ministry official told AFP the incident happened as the tourists were travelling between Cairo and the Bahariya oasis, about 350 kilometres southwest of the capital.

A police source said special forces were on Sunday carrying out an operation involving air support about 150 kilometres west of Bahariya.

The desert is also a militant hideout, and Western embassies have long warned against non-essential travel to the area.

Last month, Egypt's branch of the Islamic State group beheaded a young Croatian there who was working for a French company, and IS has also attacked security forces there several times.

IS in Egypt said in a statement that it had “resisted a military operation in the Western Desert” on Sunday, but gave no other details.

Egypt has been struggling to quell a militant insurgency since the military overthrew Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013, focused mainly on their primary holdout in the Sinai Peninsula in the east.

The country has one of the region's most powerful and well-equipped militaries, and was further boosted by recent deliveries of F-16 warplanes by Washington and Rafale fighters from France.
Militant tactics

Last week, the army launched an anti-IS operation in the Sinai which it said killed 56 militants.

The army often reports large death tolls among the insurgents but they are impossible to verify and there has been little noticeable effect on IS's ability to stage attacks.

The government says hundreds of police and soldiers have been killed, many in attacks claimed by IS's Sinai Province affiliate.

After launching spectacular attacks targeting security forces in its North Sinai bastion over the past two years, militants are increasingly adopting tactics similar to the main IS group in Iraq and Syria.

In July, the group claimed the bombing of the Italian consulate in Cairo in which one civilian was killed, and it also claimed the killing of an American employee of oil company Apache last year in the Western Desert.

The beheading in July of Croatian engineer Tomislav Salopek, claimed by IS, appeared aimed at scaring off tourists and foreign employees of Western firms - two cornerstones of an economy battered by years of unrest since the 2011 uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak.

About 10 million tourists visited Egypt in 2014, down sharply from a 2010 figure of almost 15 million.

US airstrike kills 15 Pakistani Taliban fighters in eastern Afghanistan

The uplifting story comes from The Long War Journal.

US airstrike kills 15 Pakistani Taliban fighters in eastern Afghanistan


The US killed 15 fighters from the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan (TTP) in an airstrike in the eastern Afghan province of Paktika earlier this week. Both the TTP and its ally, al Qaeda, have stepped up their presence in eastern Afghanistan over the past several years.

The Pakistani Taliban fighters were killed on Sept. 9 in what was said to be a drone strike in the Gomal district, which directly borders Pakistan’s Taliban-infested tribal agency of South Waziristan, according to Khaama Press. It is unclear if the CIA or the US military executed the airstrike, or if remotely piloted Predators or Reapers or conventional aircraft were used to conduct the attack. The US military operates both manned and unmanned aircraft inside Afghanistan.

Intelligence officials in the region said that the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan fighters belonged to “the Gandapur faction,” Reuters reported. “Fifteen dead bodies of killed militants will be shifted soon to their native areas in Dera Ismail Khan,” an intelligence official told the news agency.

The “Gandapur Group” is a Taliban faction that is known to operate in Dera Ismail Khan in Pakistan’s northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. This faction assassinated Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s law minister and nine guests at his home in Dera Ismail Khan in October 2013.

Dera Ismail Khan borders the tribal agency of South Waziristan, which is home to numerous Taliban groups and is used as a jump-off point for jihadists to enter Afghanistan to fight US, Coalition, and Afghan forces. The Haqqani Network, a powerful Afghan Taliban subgroup that is allied with al Qaeda, administers Paktika province and allows the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan to operate in areas under its control.

The Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, al Qaeda, and other jihadist groups that operate in the tribal areas have shifted some of their operations into Afghanistan as the Pakistani government began targeting the so-called “bad Taliban,” or groups that overtly threaten the state, in North Waziristan. The Pakistani military has not targeted the “good Taliban,” such as the Haqqani Network, as they are considered to be assets to the state.

The US has targeted and killed dozens of Pakistani Taliban fighters in eastern Afghanistan since the Pakistani military launched its offensive in June 2014. On Aug. 24, 2012, the US killed Mullah Dadullah (a.k.a. Maulana Mohammad Jamal), his deputy, Shakir, and 10 Taliban fighters in an airstrike in the Shigal wa Sheltan district in Kunar province.

Mullah Fazullah, the emir of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, and several senior leaders and military commanders were the target of at least three US airstrikes in the eastern province of Nangarhar in late November and early December. At least eight commanders and two fighters were reported killed in the strikes. [See LWJ report, US airstrikes in eastern Afghanistan target Pakistani Taliban.]

Al Qaeda senior leaders return to Eastern Afghanistan

Obama administration officials, military commanders, and intelligence officials have downplayed or largely ignored the presence of the TTP, al Qaeda, and other jihadist groups that are operating in Afghanistan. For years, US officials have insisted that al Qaeda maintains a token presence of no more than 50 to 100 operatives in the country and that it is disconnected from the Taliban.

However, eastern Afghanistan has become a safe haven for al al Qaeda, especially since the US began withdrawing the bulk of its forces in 2011. Evidence of this presence can be seen in the US targeting of al Qaeda leaders there. In December 2013, the US killed two al Qaeda military commanders, three members of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, and two members of the Afghan Taliban in an airstrike in the Lal Pur district in Nangarhar. The two al Qaeda commanders were associates of Ilyas Kashmiri, the renowned Pakistani jihadist who was a top military leader in al Qaeda before he was killed in a US drone strike in South Waziristan in June 2011.

In October 2014, the US killed al Qaeda leader Abu Bara al Kuwaiti in an airstrike in Nangarhar’s Nazyan district. He was at the home of Abdul Samad Khanjari, an al Qaeda military commander who doubled as the Taliban’s shadow governor for the Achin district in Nangarhar. Afghanistan’s National Security Directorate said that Abu Bara “had close relations with the family of Ayman al Zawahiri,” al Qaeda’s emir. He was likely a member of al Qaeda’s General Command and known to be a “student” and “comrade” of Atiyah Abd al Rahman, al Qaeda’s former general manager (also known as Atiyah Allah), who was killed in a US drone strike in Pakistan in August 2011. Abu Bara wrote Atiyah’s eulogy, which was published in Vanguards of Khorasan, al Qaeda’s official magazine.

And just two months ago, the US killed Abu Khalil al Sudani, a senior al Qaeda leader who took direction from Ayman al Zawahiri, in an airstrike in the Bermal district in Paktika province. Sudani had a hand in al Qaeda’s external operations network, which plots attacks against the US and the West. Sudani’s role in al Qaeda is discussed in several of the declassified files recovered in Osama bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

The presence of Kuwaiti and Sudani in eastern Afghanistan is a clear indication that Osama bin Laden’s directive to relocate some of its top leaders from Pakistan has been heeded. In a letter dated October 21, 2010, bin Laden told Rahman that al Qaeda should relocate as many “brothers” as possible to the eastern Afghan provinces of Nuristan, Kunar, Ghazni, and Zabul to avoid the US drone campaign in North and South Waziristan. [See LWJ reports, Bin Laden advised relocation of some leaders to Afghanistan due to drone strikes in Waziristan.]

Putin Sends SA-22 Missile System To Syria

Russia has gone all in when it comes to the defense of Syria with rumored military bases there under construction and now word is leaked that the Russians have sent the SA-22 anti-aircraft missile system to Syria.  Now, I find it odd that an anti-AIRCRAFT system is on its way when it's obvious that the one missing link in ISIS' attack on Assad's forces is any kind of military aircraft but I guess that's a question for Vladimir Putin.

The story comes from The Jerusalem Post.

'Russia sending advanced air defenses to help Syria's Assad'


Moscow is sending an advanced anti-aircraft missile system to Syria, two Western officials and a Russian source said, as part of what the West believes is stepped-up military support for embattled President Bashar Assad.

The Western officials said the SA-22 system would be operated by Russian troops, rather than Syrians. It was on its way to Syria but had not yet arrived.

"This system is the advanced version used by Russia and it's meant to be operated by Russians in Syria," said one of the sources, a Western diplomat who is regularly briefed on US, Israeli and other intelligence assessments.

A US official separately confirmed the information.

The Russian source, who is close to the Russian navy, said the delivery would not be the first time Moscow had sent the SA-22 system, known as Pantsir-S1 in Russian, to Syria. It had been sent in 2013, the source said.

"There are plans now to send a new set," the source said, without detailing how far along the process was.

However, the Western diplomat said the version of the SA-22 on its way to Syria was newer than previous missile systems deployed there.

Syrian officials could not be reached for comment.

The United States has been leading a campaign of air strikes in Syrian air space for a year, joined by aircraft from European and regional allies including Britain, France, Jordan and Turkey. US forces operating in the area are concerned about the potential introduction of the weapon, the diplomat said.

US officials say they believe Moscow has been sending troops and equipment to Syria, although they say Russia's intentions are not clear.

Lebanese sources have told Reuters that Russian troops have begun participating in combat operations on behalf of the Assad government. Moscow has not commented on those reports.

Speaking at a news conference in Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia was sending military equipment to Syria to help the Assad government combat Islamic State fighters, and had sent experts to help train the Syrian army to use it.

However, the dispatch of advanced anti-aircraft missiles would appear to undermine that justification, since neither Islamic State nor any other Syrian rebel group possesses any aircraft.

Lavrov also said coordination was needed between Russia's military and the Pentagon to avoid "unintended incidents" around Syria. Russia was conducting pre-planned naval drills in the eastern Mediterranean, he said.

This year has seen momentum shift against Assad's government in Syria's 4-year-old civil war, which has killed 250,000 people and driven around half of Syria's 23 million people from their homes.

An ally of Damascus since the Cold War, Moscow maintains its only Mediterranean naval base at Tartous on the Syrian coast, and protecting it would be a strategic objective.

Recent months have also seen talk of a new role for outside forces in Syria, with NATO-member Turkey proposing the creation of a "safe zone" free from both Islamic State and government forces near its Syrian border.

Even if Russians operated the missiles and kept them out of the hands of the Syrian army, the arrival of such an advanced anti-aircraft system could also unsettle Israel, which in the past has bombed sophisticated arms it suspected were being handed to Assad's Lebanese guerrilla allies, Hezbollah.

"In the Middle East you never know what will happen. If the Russians end up handing it (SA-22) over to the Syrian military I don't think the Israelis would intervene but they would go bananas if they see it heading towards Hezbollah in Lebanon," the diplomatic source said.

An Israeli military spokesman declined to comment on the missile system. A senior Israeli defense official briefing reporters on Thursday said Israel was in contact with Moscow and would continue its policy of stopping advanced weapons reaching Hezbollah.

"We have open relations with the Russians who have come to save Assad in the civil war. Along with this, we will not allow our sovereignty to be compromised or the transfer of advanced or chemical weapons [to Hezbollah]. We are following the developments and keeping open channels with Moscow."

Always Remember September 11th, 2001

ISIS Keeps Rolling In Syria

The story comes from DAWN.

RAMADI UPDATE:  Just an update to confirm for my readers that the Iraqi Shia militias STILL have not gained one inch of Ramadi in Iraq.  That's all for now.

At least 54 dead as IS advances on east Syria airbase: monitor


BEIRUT: Jihadists of Daesh or the self-styled Islamic State group edged closer to a strategic airbase in eastern Syria in heavy fighting that left more than 54 combatants dead, a monitoring group said Thursday.

The extremist group, which has captured territory across Iraq and Syria, seized control late Wednesday of a small base near the regime-held military airport outside Deir Ezzor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said.

"It was one of the IS fiercest attacks on the airport. Eighteen regime soldiers and 23 Daesh fighters were killed," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said, using an Arabic acronym for the jihadist group.

He said 36 IS fighters and 18 regime soldiers were killed.

The seizure of the small base, used by the army's rocket battalion, brings IS within little more than a kilometre of the airport.

Abdel Rahman said the jihadists had used two suicide bombers in the assault, one of them a child, driving cars laden with explosives.

More than 50 jihadists were wounded in the fighting, he added.

IS already controls most of oil-rich Deir Ezzor province including roughly half of its capital, and has attempted to capture the airport and the rest of the city for more than a year.

If IS succeeds, Deir Ezzor would be the second provincial capital to fall to the group after the northern city of Raqa, which it named the capital of its "caliphate."

The assault came as rival jihadists of Al Qaeda's Syrian affiliate and their allies seized the last regime-held military base in Idlib province in the Northwest.

According to the Observatory, the regime is now left with just three airbases in the east and north — Deir Ezzor, and Neirab and Kweyris in Aleppo province.