terrorism

Trump Withholding US Aid to Pakistan, citing “Lies and Deceit”

Never one to mince words, especially on Twitter, President Trump will, according to The White House, that the U.S. will continue to withhold $255 million in military aid to Pakistan out of frustration over what it has characterized as Islamabad’s reluctance in confronting terrorist networks.Bottom of Form

“The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools,” he posted on Twitter. “They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!”

“The United States does not plan to spend the $255 million in FY 2016 foreign military financing for Pakistan at this time,” a National Security Council spokesman said. “The President has made clear that the United States expects Pakistan to take decisive action against terrorists and militants on its soil, and that Pakistan’s actions in support of the South Asia strategy will ultimately determine the trajectory of our relationship, including future security assistance.”
The administration first said in August it was temporarily withholding the $255 million, which was part of a $1.1 billion aid package authorized in 2016 by Congress. The money was put on hold until Pakistan agreed to do more to combat terrorist networks.
The National Security Council official said the administration would continue to review Pakistan’s level of cooperation in security areas.

The Pakistanis bristle at Trump’s comments and continuously say that they have suffered more at the hands of terrorists than the US has. In response to this latest tweet by the President, the Pakistani government summoned the US ambassador David Hale to explain this.

Not surprisingly, Trump’s tweet was met with praise from Pakistan’s foe, India while China, who are close to Pakistan, defended their history of dealing with terrorism.

To read the entire article from CNN, click here:

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Coptic Christian Church in Cairo Attacked by Gunman, 11 Dead

A gunman, said to be part of the Islamic Stated killed at least 11 people on Friday in attacks on a Coptic Orthodox church and a Christian-owned shop near Cairo. Police forces then shot and wounded the gunman who was then arrested, the Egyptian interior ministry and church officials said.

The Islamic State, as is their usual operating procedure immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, in a statement carried out by its Amaq news agency. Although as usual, they offered no proof. However, the gunman was known to have carried out other attacks recently according to police reports.

Police have stepped up security measures around churches ahead of Coptic Christmas celebrations on Jan. 7, deploying officers outside Christian places of worship and setting up metal detectors at some of the bigger churches.
Islamist militants have claimed several attacks on Egypt’s large Christian minority in recent years, including two bombings on Palm Sunday in April and a blast at Cairo’s largest Coptic cathedral in December 2016 that killed 28 people.
The Coptic Church said the gunman first shot at a Christian-owned shop 4 km (3 miles) away, killing two people, before proceeding to the Mar Mina church in the southern Cairo suburb of Helwan. The Interior Ministry said he opened fire at the entrance to the site and tried to throw an explosive device.
The gunman killed at least nine people, including a policeman, at the church, according to Interior Ministry and Coptic Church accounts. The Church said a young woman had died later from her wounds, bringing the civilian death toll at the church to eight.
The ministry said security forces had “immediately dealt with the (attacker) and arrested him after he was wounded.” It added, “Legal measures have been taken,” without elaborating.

The attack began at 10:30 a.m. and last about 15 minutes, witnesses told police that the Police Officer was killed trying to secure the door to the church keeping the attackers out. The gunman was well-known to the police and had allegedly carried out several attacks in the past year.

To read the entire article from Reuters, click here:

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Putin Says War in Syria Shows Off Russia’s Military Might

Russian President Vladimir Putin boasted of his nation’s military strength at a ceremony where he praised Russian soldiers for their actions in Syria. The Russians supported the government of President Assad in ridding Syria of the Islamic State.

Speaking at a Kremlin awards ceremony for troops who fought in Syria, Putin says Russia has “made the main, decisive contribution to the destruction of a criminal group that cast a challenge to the entire civilization.” He added that the Islamic State group was seeking to turn Syria into a base for “global aggression” and threaten Russia.
Putin said the more than 48,000 Russian troops who took part in the Syria campaign were fighting for their “homeland, for a just and fair cause.”
“Your heroic actions and professionalism helped preserve the Syrian state, stop mass killings, executions and terror against civilians,” Putin told hundreds of soldiers who gathered in the Kremlin’s opulent, gold-and-white St. George’s Hall.
Russia launched a campaign in Syria on Sept. 30, 2015 when Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government was on the verge of collapse, quickly turning the tide of conflict in his favor. Thanks to Russian air cover and its special operations forces, Assad’s military has routed both the IS militants and the rebels and seized wide swathes of land.
Putin declared victory in Syria on a visit to the Russian air base there on Dec. 11 and ordered a partial pullout of Russian forces from the country. He emphasized that the military will maintain its presence at both the Hemeimeem air base in Syria and a naval facility in the Syrian port of Tartus.
“They are an important factor in protecting our national interests, ensuring Russia’s security in one of the key strategic regions,” Putin said.

With a thinly veiled jab at the U.S. Putin said, “The army has radically changed,” he said. “It has changed because people have felt themselves on top, which was very important, and because they saw how our weapons work. The entire world saw it, and our people saw it.”

He was referencing weapons that the Russians had used for the first time including ship and submarine-launched cruise missiles. Russian pilots flew 34,000 combat sorties and launched 166 cruise missiles during the war on ISIS. Putin failed to mention the U.S. led coalition which also fought in Syria.

To read the entire article from ABC News click here:

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Australia To End Airstrikes in Iraq Due to Defeat of ISIS

Australia will begin to pull out its attack aircraft from Iraq following an announcement from their Defense Minister. Marise Payne announced that after discussions with the Iraqi government and other allies, Australia will begin to scale back its air operations due to the crushing of the Islamic State in both Iraq and Syria.

The country’s six super hornets will head home from the Middle East, marking the end of Australia’s airstrike operations.
Payne said the decision follows discussions with the Iraqi government and other allies.
“I want to particularly acknowledge the phenomenal efforts of the hornet and super hornet pilots and support crew over the last three years,” she told reporters at RAAF Base Glenbrook on Friday.
Despite the hornet air personnel returning home in the new year she insisted it was not the end of Australia’s contribution in Iraq.
Earlier this month Iraq’s prime minister declared victory over the terrorist group.
Labor’s former defence spokesman Stephen Conroy described the announcement as great news.
“I remember being in the room in the briefings when Isis first starting rolling through all those towns in Iraq and there was enormous pessimism that Iraq would never come together,” he told Sky News.
“The troops over there have done a fantastic job and this is a real tribute to their professionalism.”

The attack aircraft pullout will not end Australia’s commitment to Iraq however. Payne said that 80-man Special Operations Task Group will continue to support Iraq’s forces and help ensure that the Islamic State or Daesh, as she called it, doesn’t try to make a comeback. The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) will also continue to fly surveillance and refueling aircraft over Iraq for the foreseeable future.

To read the entire article from The Guardian, click here:

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Pence Makes Surprise Visit to Afghanistan, Vows “To See it Through”

Vice President Mike Pence made an unannounced trip to Afghanistan to meet its leaders and US troops but the true purpose was to assure Afghan leaders that the US was going to stay in Afghanistan for the long haul and the commitment for the Afghan people was strong.

Pence whisked into Afghanistan on a military flight early Thursday. He then flew by helicopter to Kabul, where he met President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah at the presidential palace.

Pence told the leaders he hoped his presence there was tangible evidence that the United States was “here to see this through.”
In a reversal of his campaign call for a swift withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan, Trump in August pledged a stepped-up military campaign against Taliban insurgents and signaled the United States would send more troops to fight in what is the longest war in its history.
At the end of August, there were some 11,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan and more have since arrived.
Ghani expressed gratitude to the U.S. government and said Afghanistan’s partnership with the United States was cemented in sacrifice.
Pence told reporters the strategy of increased troops on the ground and greater authorities for military leaders was paying dividends.

Pence told Afghan officials that President Trump’s campaign will see it through for stability for Afghanistan and the defeat of the Taliban but deferred to the press to President Trump when asked if the US will commit more troops.

To read the entire article from Reuters click here:

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Hezbollah Teaches Hate to the Very Young Over the Pretext of Jerusalem

For Hezbollah, the indoctrination of hate begins with the very young. With some young boys barely out of diapers, the Tehran-based terror group must be proud to see six-year-olds robotically rattle off their “enemies’ names” and call for their deaths.

The sham outrage is based on the excuse of President Donald Trump moving the US Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.Their mothers insist that early childhood is “the right age to learn” the ideology of hate.

Ali is six, and yet already he fiercely chants “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” at a rally alongside his family. It is a typical Beirut rally, organized by the Shia militia Hezbollah, to protest US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
“At six, he is too old to not be here,” his mother Fatima said as she pushed the stroller carrying Ali’s baby brother, justifying her decision to bring her children to a political rally. She seemed unconcerned that his words were hate speech.
“This is the right age to learn about how the Jews took our land,” Fatima said. She spoke heatedly about the events of 1948, when the state of Israel was formed on Palestinian land. “America helps Israel regularly and imposes war on us and now the Satan wants to give our mosque to the Jews,” Fatima said.
The Al Aqsa Mosque is the third most sacred site in Islam and is situated in East Jerusalem. In the Six-Day War in 1967, Israel seized and annexed the Old City, and Palestinians and the wider Arab world have been demanding its return ever since.

It is small wonder that a single stone remains of the Al Aqsa mosque. According to the propaganda reports that continuously broadcast from Hezbollah and others in the Arab world, Israel is constantly “attacking” the mosque, yet Muslims remain free to worship there.

To read the entire article from Deutsche Welle, click here:

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Taliban Attack NATO Convoy, Kills 14 Afghan Soldiers in Separate Attacks

Taliban insurgents, in a series of attacks, stormed isolated police outposts around the provincial capital of Lashkargah, killing at least 14 Afghan troops and injured several others in a pre-dawn attack in southern Helmand province. Afghan officials claim to have beaten back the attack and inflicted serious casualties on the attackers.
Taliban sources later claimed that the death toll of government troops was much higher. They frequently attack police outposts as those are considered “soft targets” where the number of troops is smaller and the troops are far less trained than some of their contemporaries in the Afghan Special Forces.
Later, a suicide bomber in neighboring Kandahar province detonated his explosives-laden vehicle near a NATO convoy.
Provincial police spokesman, Matiullah Helal, told VOA, the blast killed a woman passerby and wounded five other civilians, but did not harm any foreign troops.

There are about 300 US Marines in Helmand province training and assisting the Afghan police and army forces. The area is a hotspot due to the opium fields that blanket the area. The Taliban use the opium trade to earn money to fund operations.

The woman civilian killed in the blast of the convoy died when her house, near the ambush, collapsed from the blast on top of her.

To read the entire article from Voice of America, click here:

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Coalition-Backed Syrian Troops Kill 20 ISIS Fighters at Tanf

U.S.-led coalition and its Syrian partners killed more than 20 Islamic State fighters and captured 17 others Wednesday in fighting outside U.S. base at Tanf, the coalition said Thursday.

It was the second combat action around that key US base and coalition officials took issue with what they described as ISIS has been able to move freely through Syrian regime-controlled territory with a Russian military presence.

“Despite the presence of Russian-backed, pro-Syrian regime forces in the area, Daesh still finds ways to move freely through regime lines and pose a threat,” coalition director of operations Brig. Gen. Jonathan Braga said in the statement, using an alternate name for ISIS. “We shall continue to work by, with and through our partner forces to deny Daesh the ability to regroup and reorganize.”
Given its location, the base has been seen as an important outpost as the United States, Russia and Iran jockey for influence in the region. Iran in particular is said to want to control a route running from Iran to the Mediterranean that would runs through that area.
Reports citing unnamed U.S. officials said the convoy had about 10 vehicles and got within 55 kilometers of the base. The United States has established a so-called deconfliction zone of 55 kilometers around al Tanf.
“Though Daesh has lost over 98 percent of the land it once controlled, this exchange is evidence that Daesh still poses a threat to the people of Syria,” the statement. “The coalition remains committed to standing with our partner forces to see a lasting defeat of Daesh.”

During the summer, the area around Tanf has been the scene of several operations. US airstrikes hit Syrian-backed militias inside the 55-kilometer zone around the US base and coalition troops shot down an Iranian drone.

To read the entire article from The Hill, click here:

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Iraq Executes 38 ISIS/al-Qaida Fighters on Terrorism Charges

Iraqi government officials said that Iraq hanged 38 jihadists, 37 Iraqis, and one Swedish citizen, belonging to the Islamic State group or Al-Qaida for terrorism offenses on Thursday in the southern city of Nasiriyah.

It was the largest number of executions in Iraq on a single day since September 25 when 42 people were put to death in the same prison.

“The prison administration executed on Thursday in the presence of Justice Minister Haidar al-Zameli, in Nasiriyah prison, 38 death row prisoners belonging to Al-Qaida or Daesh (IS) accused of terrorist activities,” said Dakhel Kazem, a senior official in the provincial council.
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Saturday declared victory against IS after a three-year campaign by government forces backed by a U.S.-led coalition to retake territory seized by the jihadists.
Rights watchdog Amnesty International has voiced repeated concerns about the use of the death penalty in Iraq, which it ranks as one of the world’s top executioners behind China, Iran, and Saudi Arabia.
“Iraqi justice is failing to distinguish between the culpability of doctors who protected lives under ISIS rule and those responsible for crimes against humanity,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, HRW’s Middle East director.
HRW said it regretted what it called the inconsistent application of a 2016 law granting amnesty to suspects who can show they joined IS or any extremist group against their will and have not committed a crime.
“Execution of fighters who surrender or are hors de combat is a war crime,” HRW added.

Human Rights Watch made a case for many Iraqis who were forced to join the Islamic State against their will during the IS invasion of 2014 where they took a large percentage of Iraq before the government struck back and drove them out in subsequent operations.

To read the entire article from The Voice of America, click here:

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“This Will Be a Very Long Winter For the Taliban” – US General

While many greeted the strategy presented by President Trump in August with what it is best described as a lukewarm embrace, at least one US general officer, tasked with breaking the war’s 16-year stalemate, believes that things are about to change for the better.

U.S. commanders on the ground are now free to target Taliban networks and revenue sources, as well as support local Afghan forces on the ground in ways that weren’t available to them prior.

“It’s only just begun,” said Brig. Gen. Lance Bunch in a briefing piped into the Pentagon from Kabul. “This will be a very long winter for the Taliban.”
Bunch described the new strategy as “taking the gloves off,” and said it has dramatically shifted the momentum in favor of Afghan forces in the past few months.
“These are new efforts that have never been tried before in Afghanistan,” Bunch said. “These are new, the war has changed.”
“We are able to go after their [Taliban] weapons cache sites, their revenue generation, their C2 [command and control] nodes, all the areas where they thought they were safe and they are no longer so,” Bunch said. “It has definitely been a game-changer, and the Taliban is definitely feeling it.”
The cornerstone of the new strategy is what Bunch called a “dedicated air interdiction campaign” that is designed to deny the Taliban the huge profits it has reaped for years from Afghanistan’s illicit opium trade.

By going after the Taliban’s money-making opium trade, the US hopes to financially strap them and prevent them from being able to finance their war-making ability. The US and Afghan air strikes along with local Special Operations Forces, raided and destroyed 25 narcotics processing sites destroying $80 million dollars of drugs that directly finance Taliban operations. This has just been in the past three weeks.

This along with the change in embedding US Special Operations Forces advisors at the lowest level of Afghan troops has resulted in much better intelligence and support and the ability to coordinate combat firepower where it is needed, much like US-led coalition forces in Syria.

To read the entire article from The Washington Examiner click here:

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