[Garowe] al-Shabaab ...... the personification of Somali state failure... suffered huge setbacks on Monday in the latest operation carried out by spy agency; the National Intelligence Security Agency [NISA] with assistance from foreign troops, leaving at least 61 people dead according to the Ministry of Information.
International partners led by the US Africa Command and the African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... Transition Mission in Somalia [ATMIS] have been cooperating with the Somali National Army [SNA] and other security agencies in the war against terrorism. The operation was conducted in Middle Shabelle.
The al-Shabaab hard boyz killed during the operation, the ministry said in a statement, were planning to attack a Forward Operating Base at Hawadlay in central Somalia. Usually, the hard boyz target army bases in their cowardly attacks.
According to the ministry, there were close to 150 hard boyz who were planning the attack and are said to have planted explosives at the time of the attack.
Deputy Information Minister Abdirahman Yusuf al-Adalla, who spoke to journalists moments after the attack, said the group was inflicted heavy defeat and "the conspiracies they have been working on to destroy the national army camp on the outskirts of Hawadley" were foiled.
Incidentally, this is the first time this year the international community is supporting local forces in conducting operations but their contribution has been significant since September 2019. The US Africa Command is yet to confirm the operation but usually, they do thorough verification before going public.
The war against al-Shabaab has been domiciled in rural central and southern Somalia with President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud declaring total war against the al-Qaeda-linked group. The government refuted claims that it is planning to hold talks with al-Shabaab, as the group also denied such plans.
A number of strategic towns have been liberated across the country from al-Shabaab following smooth cooperation involving local militia, the Somali National Army, and foreign troops. President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud asked locals to join the fight against the bully boys.
The report released by the United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... showed that al-Shabaab killed over 600 civilians and members of security forces in 2022, with those injured estimated at 800. Somalia has also announced that by the end of this month, HirShabelle and Galmadug will be completely free from al-Shabaab.
[AlAhram] Twelve Nigeria security personnel and local vigilantes were killed by unidentified button men in an area of northwestern Kaduna state where criminal gangs and jihadists are both active, officials said on Tuesday.
A patrol of Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) paramilitary and the local vigilantes who work with the military were ambushed around a mining site on Monday morning, Olusola Odumosu, NSCDC front man said in a statement.
Attacks from heavily armed criminal gangs, militias and Islamist gunnies occur across Nigeria, where growing insecurity will be a major theme in next month's election to replace President Muhammadu Buhari.
"Seven personnel of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) were ambushed and killed alongside five others from a sister security agency and local security service," Odumosu said.
He did not reference the other security agency, but community leaders in the area identified the five others as local vigilantes working alongside military and paramilitary personnel.
Monday's Kaduna attack came just over a day after button men assaulted a train station in southern Edo State and kidnapped more than 30 people, before security forces rescued six kidnapped victims.
JIHADISTS, BANDITS
The NSCDC is a security outfit established by the Nigerian government in 2003 with the primary function of protecting lives and property in conjunction with police.
The Kaduna personnel, who were attached to the Kaduna State Ministry of Mines, were ambushed while on official duty at a mining site in Birnin Gwari area of Kaduna.
The attackers carted away rifles of the slain personnel whose dead bodies were recovered and taken to a hospital in the state capital Kaduna, Odumosu said.
He did not blame any group for the attack, but Birnin Gwari has been a stronghold of criminal gangs known locally as bandidos and jihadists from al Qaeda-allied Ansaru and 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.... West Africa Province (ISWAP).
Militants have been establishing a presence in northwest and central Nigeria outside their traditional northeast base where they have been waging a more than 13-year old insurgency.
The bandit militias terrorise local communities where they raid villages, kill and kidnap residents for ransom as well as burn homes after looting them.
Jihadists have been carrying out deadly attacks and high-profile kidnappings while taking over some communities in Birnin Gwari where they assert control and enforce their strict version of Islamic sharia law.
In May last year, Kaduna State Governor Nasiru el-Rufai said ISWAP and Ansaru jihadists were setting up bases in the state, particularly in Birnin Gwari district.
This followed a daring attack on a train outside Kaduna the previous March where button men killed eight passengers and kidnapped dozens after blasting the rail line with dynamite and opening fire on coaches.
The government blamed the high-profile attack on jihadists working in league with bandit kidnap gangs.
In February 2020 the police said they killed more than 250 members of Ansaru jihadist group in an extensive operation in Birnin Gwari, the first official admission of jihadist presence in the region.
Ansaru is believed to be active in central Kogi state, Birnin Gwari forests, and the areas around Kaduna and Nigeria's capital Abuja where they collaborate with bandidos, according to security sources.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/11/2023 01:14 ||
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[17 views]
Top|| File under: Boko Haram (ISIS)
[HODHODYEMENNEWS] After escalations and mutual military mobilizations between the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council ( STC)’s militia and the Islah Party militants in the valley and desert districts, the UAE occupation force made new moves to ignite the battle of Hadhramaut.
Military sources in Hadhramaut said that in the past few hours an Emirati military cargo plane landed at Al-Rayyan airport in the city of Mukalla, the administrative center of the province.
The sources pointed out that the Emirati plane unloaded its cargo at the airport. The cargo included spare parts for military vehicles and devices, as well as large quantities of ammunition.
The new Emirati reinforcements reflect the mass preparations for the battle in the oil plateau, where they aim to remove the Islah forces. The UAE-backed forces carried out similar operations during the battles of Shabwah and Abyan. These operations are a part of the STC’s march towards the city of Seiyun, where the command of the forces of the First Military Region loyal to Islah is based.
Shipment of uranium has been seized at Heathrow airport, sparking terror fears
The undeclared material was discovered on December 29 on a passenger flight
It was destined for an Iranian business with a premises in the UK, sources say
The package originated from Pakistan and arrived on a flight via Oman
Sources said the uranium was ‘not weapons-grade’ - and so could not be used to manufacture a thermo-nuclear weapon.
But the security services are understood to be investigating whether the undeclared package could have been destined for an improvised nuclear device, known as a ‘dirty bomb’.
Such a device - which has long been a nightmare scenario for counter-terror experts - combines conventional explosives with nuclear material to disperse a lethal radioactive plume.
In 2004 British security services arrested Dhiren Barot, a Muslim convert who planned to assemble and use dirty bombs in the UK and the US to kill members of the public.
Mr. Barot aka Issa al-Hindi headed a Lashkar e-Taiba jihadi cell in the UK that planned a series of attacks against major targets in Britain and the Greater NYC area. His manual for jihad was published in a large enough run that copies could still be found in bookshops six years later.
The uranium was found in a shipment of scrap metal and investigators were looking into whether it was the result of “poor handling” in Pakistan, the BBC reported.
“I want to reassure the public that the amount of contaminated material was extremely small and has been assessed by experts as posing no threat to the public,” police commander Richard Smith said in a statement to British media.
“Although our investigation remains ongoing, from our inquiries so far, it does not appear to be linked to any direct threat,” Smith said.
No arrests have been made so far. According to The Sun, police are thought to be focusing on an Iran-based firm that has premises in the UK where the package was supposed to be delivered.
Still, let’s wait for more information before moving it to Page 2: WoT Background/Politics. It could be someone testing the system, and it definitely shows the English response to such a concern.
#7
shipping scrap metal by plane doesn't make much economic sense, so Ima call Bullshit
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/11/2023 11:30 Comments ||
Top||
#8
Not just by plane, but by passenger plane.
Thank you for that perspective, Frank G — I rely on y’all to provide the real-world knowledge that I lack. 24 Hour Rule, but malevolent testing sounds more probable, Or perhaps the machines at the airport that respond to radiation need to be recalibrated?
#9
The FAA shutdown and this story seem coincidental in time, and yet, if the UK event was determined as a test of sensor systems, such info relayed to the US might have been a trigger?
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. [KavkazUzel] The Terek Court of Kabardino-Balkaria found a local resident guilty of spreading calls for extremism on social networks and assigned her a suspended sentence.
A resident of Kabardino-Balkaria was accused of posting materials containing calls for extremist activity on a social network, a criminal case was initiated against her on public calls for extremist activity (Part 2 of Article 280 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), Interfax reported today, citing to the press service of the UFSB in the republic.
The court sentenced her to a year and six months of imprisonment with probation for one year. In addition, she was banned from administering the sites of electronic or information and telecommunication networks, including the Internet, the message says.
Only one case was found on the website of the Tersky District Court under Part 2 of Article 280 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation by 19.50 Moscow time. The name of the defendant is not indicated in it.
The " Caucasian Knot " also wrote that the Prokhladnensky District Court of Kabardino-Balkaria convicted a resident of the district in the case of public calls for extremism. Ataev was sentenced to one year and five months of imprisonment conditionally.
[MSN] 24 hr rule, but....
A man who left at least six people injured in an attack at the Gare du Nord station in Paris early Wednesday morning was shot by police and hospitalized, authorities said.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on Twitter that "an individual injured several people this morning at the Gare du Nord. He was quickly neutralized. Thank you to the police for their effective and courageous response.”
The alleged attacker is alive and has been hospitalized, authorities said. The six injured people were also taken to the hospital, Darmanin said at a news conference at the station, where he was flanked by armed police officers. An officer was injured during the attack, he said.
The attack began at about 6:42 a.m. local time, with police responding within a minute, Darmanin said. The suspect, who did not appear to say anything prior to the attack, was shot three times by police, the minister told reporters.
Prosecutors said they are investigating all possible leads. Investigators haven't yet ruled terrorism out as a motive, they said. Police have not yet identified a weapon.
“I confirm that an investigation has been opened by the Paris prosecutor's office," the Paris Prosecutor's Office said in a statement obtained by ABC News. "The investigations were entrusted to the judicial police. The provisional assessment is 6 people injured including one in absolute emergency. The suspect was hospitalized after being shot several times by police. His vital prognosis is engaged.”
Six people were lightly wounded on Wednesday by a man wielding a knife at the busy Gare du Nord station in Paris, police and prosecutors said.
The man was arrested by police at the station — a busy commuter hub that also serves as a departure point for trains to northern France, London and northern Europe — after they opened fire and wounded him, said a police source, who asked not to be named.
Police were treating the stabbings as a criminal act, not a terrorist attack, a source close to the case said.
The attacker sustained a life-threatening chest injury as police fired several rounds, the source said.
An off-duty police officer was the first to act against the attacker, Le Parisien daily said.
I vote we leave this on Page 1 until we know more about the knifeman. Just because the authorities would prefer not to call this a jihad attack does not mean it is not a jihad attack,
Police are yet to name the suspected attacker, who was not holding any identity documents when detained by officers. Darmanin has said the attacker’s weapon was not a knife but what looked like a homemade weapon.
[DW] Humanitarian activist muppets are back in a Greek court on Tuesday, accused of helping migrants colonists cross the Aegean Sea.. Rights groups and EU politicians have called on Greece to stop criminalizing their lifesaving work.
The trial of 24 aid workers who helped rescue migrants colonists off the coast of Greece is set to begin on the Greek island of Lesbos on Tuesday.
The 24 defendants, including several foreign nationals, worked for the now defunct NGO Emergency Response Centre International — a search and rescue group operating on the island of Lesbos from 2016 to 2018 — and have been charged with facilitating illegal migration into the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... , as well as other felonies.
Three of the defendants — Sarah Mardini, Sean Binder and Nassos Karakitsos, who were arrested in August 2018 — have already spent more than three months in pre-trial detention after providing lifesaving assistance to refugees.
They also face a raft of other charges including espionage, people smuggling, belonging to a criminal group and money laundering — felonies which can carry up to 25 years in a Greek prison.
"When you say something is criminal, or heroic, you somehow imply that it is abnormal. And helping someone from drowning is the most normal thing you could do," Binder told DW in a 2021 interview. "What would you do if you see somebody in the water and they're reaching out to hold you? You would obviously put your hand out and pull them in.
"As soon as you've done so, you've supposedly committed the same crime that I've committed. This isn't a crime and it's not heroic," he added.
Greece trying to criminalize humanitarian work: Amnesty
The two dozen aid workers including Binder, Mardini and Karakitsos first stood trial in November 2021. But the case was adjourned within a few hours, with the Mytilene Misdemeanour Court ruling that it did not have jurisdiction since one of the defendants was also a lawyer.
"But there were other reasons it could have been adjourned," said Binder. "For example, the indictment — the document that was sent to us was in a language we don't understand and if we were to proceed on that basis with this indictment, it would be a violation of our right to a fair trial," he said.
Suspected warlord Gibril Massaquoi appears in a Finnish appeals court accused of atrocities in #Liberia’s civil war following his acquittal in a lower court in 2022.https://t.co/UkXCC9aolV
Suspected warlord Gibril Massaquoi appeared Tuesday in a Finnish appeals court accused of atrocities in Liberia’s civil war following his acquittal last year in a lower court.
The trial was taking place in the Finnish city of Turku, about 170 kilometers (106 miles) west of Helsinki.
Massaquoi, who moved to Finland in 2008,
...from Liberia? Was the man mad?
is accused of murders, rapes and war crimes.
The first day of the trial was to include decisions on witness confidentiality and the presentation of the case by both the prosecutor and Massaquoi’s defense.
The trial will subsequently move to Liberia and Sierra Leone to hear witness testimony before returning to Finland.
The main trial will start in Turku in January 2023 and will continue in Liberia for about two months from the beginning of February," the Turku Court of Appeal said.
A Finnish district court acquitted Massaquoi in April 2022.
It ruled that the prosecution had "not proven with sufficient certainty" that he had been involved in the crimes, which occurred in the later years of Liberia’s second civil war.
The impoverished West African state was plunged into a first war which ran from 1989 to 1998, followed by a second, from 1999 to 2003. As many as a quarter of a million people died, according to some estimates.
Massaquoi was arrested in Finland in 2020 after a rights group investigated his war record, and was held in jug for around two years pending the trial.
The district court ordered his release in February pending the April verdict, when he was acquitted.
Finnish prosecutors appealed the verdict.
Massaquoi was formerly a senior commander of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF),
...sounds Communist, but apparently they were merely vicious...
a Sierra Leonean rebel group that fought in Liberia.
He denies all the charges, arguing that he was not in Liberia when the alleged offences took place.
The Turku appeals court said it would hear from witnesses in Liberia in February and in May from witnesses in Sierra Leone, before returning to Finland by June 5.
[GreaterKashmir] Police on Tuesday claimed to have arrested one terror associate of Lashkar-e-Taiba ...the Army of the Pure, an Ahl-e-Hadith terror organization founded by Hafiz Saeed. LeT masquerades behind the Jamaat-ud-Dawa facade within Pakistain and periodically blows things up and kills people in India. Despite the fact that it is banned, always an interesting concept in Pakistain, the organization remains an blatant tool and perhaps an arm of the ISI... oufit along with Heroin and cash in central Kashmir ...a disputed territory lying between India and Pakistain. After partition, the Paks grabbed half of it and call it Azad (Free) Kashmir. The remainder they refer to as "Indian Occupied Kashmir". They have fought four wars with India over it, the score currently 4-0 in New Delhi's favor. After 72 years of this nonsense, India cut the Gordian knot in 2019, removing the area's special status, breaking off Ladakh as a separate state, and allowing people from other areas to settle (or in the case of the Pandits, to resettle) there.... ’s Srinagar district.
In a tweet Srinagar police wrote: "One terror associate of LeT namely Farzan Farooz S/o Farooz Mir R/o Pampore arrested on a naka. Proceeds of terror worth Rs 9,95,000, 450 grams of Heroine, letter pads of LeT, Matrix sheets, Bike etc recovered. FIR 02/23 in sections of UAPA & NDPS act registered in kothibagh PS".
An Iraqi policeman was shot and killed by 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) sniper in Diyala’s Muqdadiya district, the spokesperson for Diyala’s police told Rudaw on Tuesday.
A policeman identified as Hassan Ahmad Jabbar, 53, was killed on Monday morning when suspected ISIS button men attacked a police checkpoint in Muqdadiya district, approximately 80 kilometers northeast of Baghdad, Diyala police spokesperson Nihad Mohammed told Rudaw’s Hastyar Qadir.
Mohammed added that a police dispatch chased the turbans away from the scene.
ISIS is particularly active in the disputed territories between Erbil and Baghdad, stretching across several provinces including Kirkuk, ... a thick stew of Arabs, Turkmen, Kurds, and probably Antarcticans, all of them mutually hostile most of the time... Salahaddin, and Diyala.
Over 200 ISIS fighters were killed in Iraq in 2022, Major General Tahsin al-Khafaji, spokesperson for the Joint Operations Command, told Rudaw late December.
A series of deadly ISIS attacks in Iraq’s Kirkuk and Diyala provinces in December killed at least 15 security force members and civilians, attracting condemnations "in the strongest terms" from the UN Security Council.
In the annual statistics published on ISIS’s propaganda magazine, the terror group claimed to have carried out 484 attacks in Iraq in 2022, killing and injuring 833 people.
[IsraelTimes] Wasim Estitiyeh wanted for recent shooting attacks in northern West Bank; Paleostinian button men attempt to target troops during operation
Israeli troops on Tuesday morning detained a member of the Lion’s Den terror group in the West Bank city of Nablus as local button men attempted to target the forces, the military said.
The arrest came amid a months-long Israeli anti-terror effort, mostly in the northern West Bank, following a series of terror attacks that killed 31 people in 2022.
The Israel Defense Forces said troops entered Nablus’s Rafidiya neighborhood to arrest Wasim Zaher Estitiyeh, 26, a member of the gang based in the northern West Bank city who was responsible for recent shooting attacks in the area.
Paleostinian media reports said button menshot up the Israeli troops operating in the city. The IDF said "gunfire was heard in the area" during the operation, but troops did not directly come under attack.
The IDF said another 15 Paleostinians were arrested elsewhere across the West Bank, with some violent mostly peaceful incidents.
In the West Bank town of Yabed, an bomb was hurled at troops and gunfire was heard in the area; and in Anata, on the outskirts of Jerusalem, troops used riot dispersal means against Paleostinians hurling Molotov cocktails, the military said.
The IDF said troops also seized two hunting rifles and other military equipment during a raid in Beit Ummar.
The 16 Paleostinians who were wanted over suspected terror activities were taken to be questioned by the Shin Bet security agency.
No Israeli soldiers were hurt in the overnight raids, the army said.
Thai soldiers kill six suspected drug smugglers in a shoot-out near the “Golden Triangle” – where #Thailand, Myanmar and Laos meet – long a hub for smuggling despite repeated crackdowns.https://t.co/X3LGBg0qs7
[Rudaw] Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has imposed an economic blockade on a restive Kurdish town in west of the country to intimidate residents who have given a new lease of life to the antigovernment protests across the country by refusing to back down despite facing unprecedented violence being unleashed on them.
At least eight protesters have been killed with live ammunition fired by the IRGC and its militia the Basij since November 20 when the residents of the Kurdish town of Javanrud in western 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... (Rojhelat) joined the nationwide protests. The movement was sparked by the death of Zhina (Mahsa) Amini at the hands of the morality on September 16 in Tehran.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/11/2023 00:39 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[12 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
[IsraelTimes] Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites.... has sentenced a Belgian aid worker to 40 years in prison and 74 lashes after convicting him of espionage charges in a closed-door trial, state media reports.
The website of Iran’s judiciary says a Revolutionary Court sentenced 41-year-old Olivier Vandecasteele to 12.5 years in prison for espionage, 12.5 years for collaboration with hostile governments and 12.5 years for money laundering. He was also fined $1 million and sentenced to 2.5 years for currency smuggling.
Iran has detained a number of foreigners and dual nationals over the years, accusing them of espionage or other state security offenses and sentencing them after secretive trials in which rights groups say they are denied due process. Critics accuse Iran of using such prisoners as bargaining chips with the West, something Iranian officials deny.
Iran has not released any details about the charges against Vandecasteele. It is unclear if they are related to anti-government protests that have convulsed Iran for months or a long-running shadow war with Israel and the US marked by covert attacks on Iran’s disputed nuclear program.
#HTS carried out an infiltration operation against Syrian government forces, reportedly as a response to efforts of normalization between #Ankara and #Damascus. https://t.co/AFng1rL1BQ
A notable of an Arab clan survives an assassination attempt by armed men in a town in the northern countryside of #Deir_ez_Zor, eastern #Syria. https://t.co/9nPUyVwhn6
Three #HTS militants were killed in an attack on military posts of the Syrian government forces in the western countryside of #Syria's #Aleppo. https://t.co/muQMpE2BA6
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[REGNUM] In Iran, two task forces of the Israeli intelligence "Mossad" were arrested, which were supposed to carry out a terrorist attack. In total, 13 people were detained who were planning an assassination attempt on a high-ranking employee of the military department, as well as sabotage in a number of cities. Information about the detention was made on January 10 by the Ministry of Intelligence of the Islamic Republic, writes ISNA. "Squirrel!"
Thus, the number of exposed Mossad task forces increased to six. They were led from the territory of one of the European countries through messages on social networks using Instagram (an organization whose activities are banned in the Russian Federation) and the WhatsApp messenger.
As established in the course of operational work by Iranian intelligence services, Israeli groups of saboteurs were supposed to take advantage of the recent unrest in Iran and carry out a number of terrorist attacks, including an attempt on the life of one of the officials of the Ministry of Defense, and sabotage in large cities. They also planned to deliver high-yield explosive devices from southern Iran.
According to a statement cited by several Iranian news outlets, the network included 23 members, which were all identified, including 13 who were operating in Iran ...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... and were detained.
The ministry said they were detained in the provinces of Tehran, Isfahan, Yazd, West Azarbaijan, and Golestan.
Tehran identified one operative as "Sirous," described in the report as the primary liaison to the network in Iran. The ministry said he was based in an unspecified European country and would contact the agents through social media platforms, specifically Instagram and WhatsApp.
Posted by: badanov ||
01/11/2023 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[17 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
[FoxNews] The vessel was smuggling weapons from Iran to Houthi rebels in Yemen.
The U.S. Navy seized more than 2,000 assault rifles after halting a suspected smuggling vessel on its way from Iran to Yemen, the Navy announced Tuesday.
The USS Chinook deployed a boarding team to the vessel in the Gulf of Oman with support from the USS Monsoon and USS The Sullivans on January 6, discovering a crew of Yemeni nationals. The US confiscated 2,116 assault rifles and is in the process of repatriating the ship and its crew, according to a Navy statement.
"This shipment is part of a continued pattern of destabilizing activity from Iran," said Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, U.S. 5th Fleet and Combined Maritime Forces. "These threats have our attention. We remain vigilant in detecting any maritime activity that impedes freedom of navigation or compromises regional security."
The Yemeni-crewed ship was the third fishing vessel to be found smuggling lethal aid from Iran to Houthi rebels in Yemen since November. U.S. forces also seized more than 50 tons of ammunition rounds, fuses and propellants for rockets on December 1. The Sullivans, USS Hurricane and USCG John Scheuerman also intercepted more than 70 tons of chemicals used to make rocket propellant and explosives on November 8.
The U.S. Navy routinely patrols common smuggling routes in the Gulf of Oman. Iranian vessels smuggling weapons to Yemen must travel east through the gulf before heading south to Yemen.
International law and the U.N. Security Council ban the direct or indirect supply, sale or transfer of weapons to Houthi rebels in Yemen.
The U.S. Navy has a long history of interactions with Iranian vessels in the area as well. Three Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy vessels (IRGCN) confronted a U.S. convoy in the Strait of Hormuz in June 2022, with one of the vessels closing within 50 yards of the USS Sirocco.
"One of the IRGCN vessels approached Sirocco head-on at a dangerously high speed and only altered course after the U.S. patrol coastal ship issued audible warning signals to avoid collision. The Iranian vessel also came within 50 yards of the U.S. Navy ship during the interaction, and Sirocco responded by deploying a warning flare," the U.S. Navy said of the incident.
U.S. warships fired warning shots at Iranian boats during a similar encounter in May 2021.
#1
Earlier: U.S. & Britain Seized Iranian Missiles
July 8, 2022
Britain and the United States confiscated Iranian weapons bound for Yemen during naval military operations on January 28 and February 25. The equipment included surface-to-air missiles and cruise-missile rocket engines that were on speedboats in the Gulf of Oman. “This is the first time a British Naval warship has interdicted a vessel carrying such sophisticated weapons from Iran,” the Royal Navy said in a statement on July 7.
A U.S. Navy destroyer supported Royal Navy forces in the second seizure in February. “This action demonstrates that we will not allow irresponsible and aggressive acts by Iran to go unchecked on land, sea, and air,” U.S. Central Command said in a statement.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...... the personification of Somali state failure...
...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 
[HODHODYEMENNEWS] After escalations and mutual military mobilizations between the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council ( STC)’s militia and the Islah Party militants in the valley and desert districts, the UAE occupation force made new moves to ignite the battle of 
[KavkazUzel] The Terek Court of 
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing....jpg "Kashmir")
...a disputed territory lying between India and Pakistain. After partition, the Paks grabbed half of it and call it 
...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 
[IsraelTimes] Wasim Estitiyeh wanted for recent shooting attacks in northern West Bank; Paleostinian 
...The nation is noted for 
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites....
...The word 
