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Post by DavidH on Mar 21, 2017 21:51:34 GMT
Warnings of a ‘Powder Keg’ in Libya as ISIS RegroupsWestern and African counterterrorism officials say its leaders are already regrouping and exploiting the chaos and political vacuum gripping the country. Gen. Thomas D. Waldhauser, head of the Pentagon’s Africa Command, told a Senate panel this month that after their expulsion from Surt, many militants from the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, were moving to southern Libya. Libya’s neighbors have rushed to ward off the threat of Islamic fighters seeking safe haven within their borders or trying to recruit their young people to fill its depleted ranks. Algeria announced this month that it had opened a new air base in the country’s far south to help secure its borders with Mali, Niger and Libya. And Chad closed its borders with Libya in January, fearing potential terrorist infiltration. Perhaps several hundred fighters have survived and fled in various directions within Libya, or even to Europe, military officials and intelligence analysts say. American Special Operations forces and the C.I.A. have been working for more than a year to identify militia fighters in Libya who the United States can trust and support as a ground force to combat ISIS fighters, as the Pentagon did last year with militias from Misrata. www.nytimes.com/2017/03/21/world/africa/libya-isis.html?_r=0
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Post by DavidH on Mar 21, 2017 21:53:40 GMT
Afghanistan supports sending more U.S. forcesAfghanistan says it wants the Trump administration to send more forces and help meet “military shortfalls” in the battle against the Taliban and the Islamic State group. Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani welcomed the recent call by U.S. Gen. John Nicholson, the top American commander in Afghanistan, for an increase of a few thousand more troops. www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation-politics/afghanistan-supports-sending-more-us-forces/
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Post by DavidH on Mar 22, 2017 10:00:54 GMT
Russia underplayed losses in recapture of Syria's PalmyraRussia's force in Syria has suffered losses since late January more than three times higher than the official toll, according to evidence gathered by Reuters, a tally that shows the fight in Syria is tougher and more costly than the Kremlin has disclosed. Eighteen Russian citizens fighting alongside Moscow's allies, the Syrian government forces, have been killed since Jan. 29 -- a period that coincided with intense fighting to recapture the city of Palmyra from the Islamic State group. The Russian defense ministry has publicly reported only five servicemen's deaths in Syria over the same period, and its officials' statements have not mentioned any large-scale Russian ground operations in the fight for Palmyra. www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-russia-casualtie-idUSKBN16T0S4
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Post by DavidH on Mar 22, 2017 10:05:57 GMT
Syrian rebels report fresh Israeli airstrikes near DamascusIsraeli jets were reported to have carried out airstrikes near the Syrian capital early Wednesday, hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to continue hitting weapons convoys and rebuffed claims Russia had ordered the strikes halted. Syrian opposition news outlets reported that the airstrikes took place in the Mount Qasioun region near Damascus overnight. The Israeli raids targeted Syrian army posts in the area, the reports said, in the fourth round of airstrikes attributed to Israel in Syria in less than a week. There was no immediate confirmation from Jerusalem, nor any information on casualties or damage. www.timesofisrael.com/syrian-rebels-report-fresh-israeli-airstrikes-near-damascus/
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Post by DavidH on Mar 22, 2017 10:08:53 GMT
IDF chief says Lebanon responsible for next conflict with HezbollahThe head of the IDF warned Beirut Sunday that the army would continue to thwart terror group Hezbollah and said any future war with the Shiite group would take place on Lebanese territory, as tensions rose over airstrikes against the group in Syria. In a “future war, there will be a clear address: the state of Lebanon and the terror groups operating in its territory and under its authority,” IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot said during a ceremony at an army base in northern Israel. On Friday, Israeli planes struck deep inside Lebanon to thwart an arms transfer to the terror group. Eizenkot warned that Hezbollah was bolstering its military capabilities and operating south of the Litani river near the border with Israel, against a UN-brokered ceasefire, following the 2006 war between Israel and the terror group. www.timesofisrael.com/idf-chief-says-lebanon-responsible-for-next-conflict-with-hezbollah/?utm_content=buffer71de8&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
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Post by DavidH on Mar 22, 2017 10:09:19 GMT
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Post by DavidH on Mar 22, 2017 10:44:07 GMT
Houthi forces appear to be using Iranian-made drones to ram Saudi air defenses in YemenHouthi forces are using a type of drone probably built by Iran to attack Saudi and UAE missile defense sites in Yemen, an arms research organization said in a report Wednesday. The report, put out by the group Conflict Armament Research, or CAR, looks at seven Houthi Qasef-1 drones and one drone engine recovered by forces from the United Arab Emirates. Six of the drones were captured in October on a known Iranian smuggling route that runs through Oman, while another was found after an attack by Houthi forces near Aden, Yemen, last month. The Qasef-1 is “consistent with descriptions and imagery” of an Iranian drone called the Ababil-T, produced by Iran’s Aircraft Manufacturing Industrial Company, according to the report. The identification of the Qasef-1 as a possible Iranian drone variant comes almost two months after Houthi forces used an explosive drone boat to attack a Saudi frigate. Vice Adm. Kevin M. Donegan, commander of the U.S. Fifth Fleet, told Defense News that the drone boat probably had been supplied by Iran. The attack killed one, and the frigate returned to port with minor damage. www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2017/03/22/houthi-forces-appear-to-be-using-iranian-made-drones-to-ram-saudi-air-defenses-in-yemen-report-says/?utm_term=.9ce728fea133
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Post by DavidH on Mar 22, 2017 12:17:49 GMT
33 dead in US-led north Syria air strikeA reported coalition strike in the northern province of Raqa early Tuesday has killed 33 civilians, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The monitor said Wednesday that the strike hit a school being used as a temporary shelter for displaced families, about 30 kilometres (20 miles) west of IS-held Raqa city. "We can now confirm that 33 people were killed, and they were displaced civilians from Raqa, Aleppo and Homs," said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman. "They're still pulling bodies out of the rubble until now. Only two people were pulled out alive," Abdel Rahman told AFP. "Raqa is Being Slaughtered Silently," an activist group that publishes news from IS-held territory in Syria, blamed the coalition for the strike. "The school that was targeted hosts nearly 50 displaced families," it said. uk.news.yahoo.com/33-dead-us-led-north-syria-air-strike-083513622.html
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Post by DavidH on Mar 22, 2017 12:36:34 GMT
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Post by DavidH on Mar 22, 2017 13:06:36 GMT
Germany blocks arms sales to TurkeyBerlin has rejected more than 10 applications for arms exports to Turkey in recent months, the German daily "Süddeutsche Zeitung" (SZ) reports, citing a letter from the Ministry of Economic Affairs. The ministry was answering questions by the left-wing MP Jan van Aken. According to German government figures, the federal government had rejected eleven individual arms shipments starting November 2016, compared to only eight between 2010 and 2015. The most recent refusals involved weapons, ammunitions and parts for the manufacture of certain armaments. www.dw.com/en/germany-blocks-arms-sales-to-turkey-report/a-38059815?maca=en-tco-dw
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Post by DavidH on Mar 22, 2017 13:29:48 GMT
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Post by DavidH on Mar 22, 2017 13:58:38 GMT
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Post by DavidH on Mar 22, 2017 15:27:17 GMT
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Post by DavidH on Mar 22, 2017 15:32:07 GMT
IS Threat Led to US Laptop Ban U.S. media reports say worries about an Islamic State bomb led U.S. authorities to ban passengers from carrying large electronic devices on inbound flights from some airports in the Middle East. Citing unnamed sources, The New York Times reports that the ban was put in place to counter IS jihadists' plans to develop a bomb small enough to fit inside a laptop battery. ABC reports that intelligence obtained by U.S. officials earlier this year showed the IS group working on ways to smuggle explosives onto U.S.-bound planes. A government source told ABC the threat information is "substantiated" and "credible." Terrorism analyst Greg Barton of Australia's Deakin University said the action seems to be linked to al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the terror group's affiliate active in Yemen and Saudi Arabia that has targeted airlines in the past. www.voanews.com/a/islamic-state-threat-led-to-us-laptop-ban-media-reports/3777042.html
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Post by DavidH on Mar 22, 2017 17:48:20 GMT
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