[Garowe] At least 80 al-Shabaab ...... al-Qaeda's tentacle in East Africa... holy warriors have been killed following operations across Somalia in the last week, the government has confirmed while calling for vigilance in the fight against the group, which has strained economic progress in the country.
Somalia activated the fight against al-Shabaab in the last two years when President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud took over, leading to the death of over 3,000 Death Eaters. The military focused on Hirshabelle and Galmadug state in Somalia.
According to the government, the operations took place in Harardhere (Mudug), Fiiqaay jungle near Daaru-Nicma (Middle Shabelle), and a hideout near Waajid town (Bakool). In general, the government reports, that over 80 holy warriors were killed.
The operation in Fiiqaay, officials said, was participated by ’international parents’ and has targeted holy warriors who attacked Daaru-Nicma on Tuesday. The holy warriors had also heightened their attacks across the country during the Holy Month of Ramadan.
To thwart the group's cowardly attacks, the government has deployed security officers in strategic towns across the Horn of Africa nation. Special Forces have been working hard to secure Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia and regional administrative states.
On Thursday, al-Shabaab holy warriors reported seizing a surveillance drone that crashed near Bulobarde town, Hiran region. The Somali National Army has been working closely with 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) in the ongoing operations.
[ShabelleMedia] India’s navy said Friday it intercepted a fishing vessel in the Arabian Sea after a suspected hijacking, its latest anti-piracy operation after a spate of regional attacks on shipping.
Two Indian vessels had approached the Iranian-flagged FV Al Kamar 786 around 165 kilometers (103 miles) southwest of the Yemeni island of Socotra, not far from the eastern tip of Somalia.
An operation was "currently underway by the Indian Navy towards the rescue of hijacked FV & its crew," the navy said in a statement posted on X, formerly Twitter.
The statement added that nine armed pirates were believed to have taken over the vessel. It did not say how many crew members were aboard.
India’s navy has been deployed continuously off Somalia since 2008.
It stepped up anti-piracy efforts last year following a surge in maritime assaults, including in the Arabian Sea and by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels in the Red Sea.
This month, the Indian navy rescued 19 crew members off the Maltese-flagged cargo ship MV Ruen, which had been hijacked by Somali pirates in December.
On Saturday, it brought 35 Somali nationals accused of the hijacking to Mumbai aboard the warship INS Kolkata, which had led the rescue operation, to face a piracy trial in an Indian court.
[ShabelleMedia] The bodies of six Kenyan traders who were rubbed out by Al-Shabaab ...... Somalia's version of the Taliban ...Arabic for students... , functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda... gunnies at Dhobley town in Somalia on Friday have been airlifted to Kenya.
A police report seen by Citizen Digital indicated that a helicopter belonging to the Kenya Defence Forces ferried the bodies on Saturday morning and flew them to Isiolo town.
"Today 30/03/2024 at around 0940hrs Kenya Air Force helicopter airlifted the bodies from Atmis Dhobley Somalia to Isiolo. The same has been confirmed to have landed in Isiolo through cellphone conversation," read the report.
The six people who had crossed the Kenya-Somalia border to open their shops on the Somalian side were ambushed and killed in cold blood by the terror group at around 7 am.
Garissa County Police Commander John Samburumo confirmed the incident saying the button men whose faces were covered and were driving in a probox shot at them randomly killing four on the spot while two died while receiving treatment in hospital.
The suspects then fled immediately.
Reports have since emerged claiming that the victims were targeted due to their perceived religious association.
27-03-2024
[Garowe] Heavy fighting ... as opposed to the more usual name-calling or slapsy... was reportedly in Somalia on Wednesday, multiple sources confirmed, following an al-Shabaab ...... Somalia's version of the Taliban ...Arabic for students... , functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda... raid in Harardhere town, a strategic region in the fight against the Death Eaters who are fighting to control the country.
According to sources, heavy fighting erupted in the town after the Death Eaters targeted military officers, resulting in casualties on the al-Shabaab side. Local government officers faced the Death Eaters in the early morning battle.
The fighting reportedly started after soldiers on patrol clashed with al-Shabaab fighters in Bacaadka area near Harardheere. The town was recaptured from al-Shabaab early last year, records in our possession indicate.
Since the start of Ramadan, the Death Eaters have heightened attacks across the country, leading to deaths of several officers and innocent civilians. The government has activated security forces to help restore peace and stability across Somalia.
On Tuesday, al-shabaab launched a vicious attack on government soldiers in Daaru-Nicma village in Middle Shabelle region. Tuesday's attack was at least the third time al-Shabaab fighters attacked the village since last year.
A source in the region told VOA that phone calls are not going through but they they know government troops are under attack. The Death Eaters have been on the receiving end for the last two years following activation of serious onslaught against the group.
In the midst of increased operations, the Somali army and clan militia targeted Al-Shabaab militants in their stronghold in the country’s central Galmudug state.
Seven kilometers from the Harardhere district in central Somalia, in the Farah Adan area, the combined troops and Al-Shabaab rebels engaged in fierce combat.
Mohamed Yusuf, the governor of the Harardere district and a combatant himself, claimed that they killed numerous Al-Shabaab members, including foreigners, by attacking the group from multiple angles.
They were now in the locations where the battle took place, as the governor stated, adding that the fighting went on for several hours.
In the operation, some government soldiers lost their lives, according to the governor. He made the remarks after the gunfight stopped, and the the SNA and clan militia overpowered the militants.
In order to attack the Harardhere district, he claimed that the Al-Shabaab had sent additional troops to the Farah Adan Sand area. Nonetheless, he claimed that the army that was fighting morally was unable to overcome Al-Shabaab.
26 March 2024
[HodhodYemenNews] At least seven militia members of the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) were injured on Monday, in two separate attacks in Abyan Governorate, southern Yemen.
Informed sources reported that Al-Qaeda elements targeted approximately seven soldiers affiliated with the STC’s factions with an improvised explosive device (IED) in Wadi Omran, east of Mudiyah district, resulting in the injury of five.
The same source confirmed that the second operation by Al-Qaeda targeted a motorcycle carrying two of the STC’s soldiers who sustained serious injuries.
The attacks occurred approximately 24 hours after the killing of two soldiers and the injury of four others from the STC in an ambush with an IED followed by an armed attack in the same district
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/31/2024 03:11 ||
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26. March 2024
[HodhodYemenNews] The Yemeni Armed Forces have carried out a series of military operations during the past 72 hours against US and British ships and destroyers in the Red Sea and in the Gulf of Aden, as well as against Zionist targets in the area of Umm Al-Rashrash in the south of occupied Palestine, Yemen’s military spokesman, Brigadier General Yahya Sare’e said in a statement on Tuesday.
According to the Brigadier General Yahya Sare’e, the Yemeni Armed Forces carried out six military operations during the past 72 hours using a large number of ballistic missiles and drones, as follows:
• The naval forces and the missile force carried out four joint operations on four ships, including the American ship Maersk Saratoga in the Gulf of Aden, the American ship APL Detroit in the Red Sea, the British ship Huang Pu in the Red Sea, and the ship Pretty Lady, which was heading to the ports of occupied Palestine.
• The Air Force carried out a specific military operation targeting two American war destroyers in the Red Sea.
• The missile force carried out a military operation and targeted a number of Israeli targets in the Umm al-Rashrash area, south of occupied Palestine.
Brigadier General Yahya Sare’e confirmed that the military operations achieved their objectives successfully.
He added, "These operations are carried out in support of the oppressed Palestinian people and in retaliation for the American-British aggression against our country."
"The Yemeni Armed Forces, in dedicating these military operations to all the Mujahideen in the Palestinian resistance factions in the Gaza Strip, confirm their continuation of carrying out more operations against all hostile targets and confirming the continuation of the decision to prevent Israeli navigation or those heading to the ports of occupied Palestine in the Red and Arabian Seas and in the Indian Ocean, until the aggression is stopped and the siege is lifted on the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip," the Brigadier General stressed.
[IsraelTimes] Thousands of pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel protesters rallied in London today, in the latest demonstration in the British capital demanding a ceasefire in Gaza and more aid for the war-ravaged territory.
The event, organized by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, began at Russell Square in the city center before attendees marched to Trafalgar Square for a mid-afternoon rally.
A smaller number of demonstrators also turned out for a counter-protest in support of Israel, with lines of police separating the two gatherings.
London has seen numerous large-scale anti-Israel protests since Israel mounted its military response to Hamas’s unprecedented attack on October 7, as well as smaller pro-Israel counter-demonstrations.
The rallies for Palestinians have proved contentious, attracting criticism for fueling a hostile environment towards Jewish people. Some ruling Conservative lawmakers have branded them "hate marches."
Police have made dozens of arrests over those months for antisemitic chanting and banners, promoting a proscribed organization, and assaulting emergency workers.
That included on Saturday, with officers making four arrests for hate crime, public disorder and terrorism offences.
A man was detained for the terror-related offence related to "inviting support for a proscribed organization," London’s Metropolitan Police say.
Organizers have insisted throughout they are exercising their democratic rights and that law-breakers make up a tiny minority of the sometimes tens of thousands of people who have turned out.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak earlier this month called for officers to take tougher action against protesters at such events, saying they "had descended into intimidation, threats and planned acts of violence".
The pro-terrorist mob is marching through London carrying their genocidal signs. pic.twitter.com/uFohdPKvwV
Protesting the Hamas demonstration in London today and demanding release of hostages still being tortured and sexually abused by Hamas in Gaza. pic.twitter.com/Xk8NKcOrEg
#1
Police have made dozens of arrests over those months for antisemitic chanting and banners, promoting a proscribed organization, and assaulting emergency workers.
[IsraelTimes] Pouria Zeraati, who interviewed Netanyahu last year, sustains leg injury; UK counter-terror police probe if assault connected to his job after multiple plots against opposition outlet
British counter-terrorism detectives are investigating after a journalist working for a Persian language media organization was stabbed in London on Friday amid fears he had been targeted because of his job, police said.
Police said the man, aged in his 30s, was attacked and sustained an injury to his leg in the incident in Wimbledon, southwest London, on Friday afternoon.
Britannia’s National Union of Journalists (NUJ) said the victim was prominent British-based Iranian journalist Pouria Zeraati, who hosts a show on the Persian language television news network Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... International, which is critical of Iran’s government. Last year, Zeraati interviewed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Police said his injuries were not believed to be life-threatening and he was in a stable condition.
"This cowardly attack on Pouria is deeply shocking, and our thoughts are with him, his family and all of his colleagues at Iran International," Michelle Stanistreet, the NUJ general secretary said in a statement.
In January, Britannia imposed sanctions on Iranian officials it said were involved in threats to kill journalists on British soil.
Those officials were members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Unit 840, which an investigation by ITV news in Britannia said was involved in plots to assassinate two television presenters from Iran International in the UK.
"While we are keeping an open mind, given the occupation of the victim and our publicized concerns about the threat to employees of that organization, the investigation is being led by the Counter Terrorism Command," Commander Dominic Murphy, the head of that unit, said.
"I must stress that, at this early stage of our investigation, we do not know the reason why this victim was attacked and there could be a number of explanations for this."
There was no immediate response from Iranian officials to the report.
British police and security officials have increasingly warned about Iran’s growing use of criminal proxies to carry out attacks abroad.
They say there have been more than 15 direct threats to kill or kidnap dissidents or political opponents that were linked to the Iranian state apparatus over the last two years.
In December, an Austrian man was convicted of collecting information that could be used in a terrorist attack after he was accused of carrying out "hostile reconnaissance" on Iran International’s London headquarters.
Last year, Channel 12 reported that Israeli security officials gave intelligence to the United Kingdom suggesting that Iran intended to harm journalists at Iran International, leading them to shift their broadcasts to Washington.
"It is too early to know whether this violent mostly peaceful assault is connected to the escalating intimidation and harassment by Iran, including the plot to assassinate journalists Fardad Farahzad and Sima Sabet in 2022," Stanistreet said.
"However, Caliphornia hasn't yet slid into the ocean, no matter how hard it's tried... this brutal stabbing will inevitably raise fears among the many journalists targeted at Iran International and the BBC Persian Service that they are not safe at home or going about their work."
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[KavkazUzel] A military court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced a native of the Stavropol Territory, Asadulu Abdulaev, to 18 years of strict regime, recognizing him as a participant in hostilities in the Middle East as part of IS units*.
Abdulaev was charged with three counts: undergoing training for the purpose of terrorist activities, participating in the activities of a terrorist organization and participating in an illegal armed group.
According to the prosecution, in 2016, Abdulaev joined an illegal armed group as part of the international terrorist organization "Islamic State" and took the oath to its leader. In September-October of the same year, the accused studied at a militant training camp, and after that he participated in battles against Syrian government forces, guarded militant locations and carried out other orders from commanders.
The prosecution believes that Asadula Abdulaev left the militants in February 2017 and went to Cairo, where he was hiding from law enforcement agencies. He was detained on August 3, 2023, according to a message from the official Telegram channel of the court dated March 28.
The Southern District Military Court, having considered the case, found Abdulaev guilty and sentenced him to 18 years in a maximum security colony. The verdict has not yet entered into legal force.
The name of the convicted person appeared on the list of terrorists and extremists maintained by Rosfinmonitoring. According to the list, Abdulaev was born in 1996 in the village of Krasny Manych in the Stavropol region. The "Caucasian Knot" does not yet have any comments from the accused or his lawyer regarding the verdict.
Posted by: badanov ||
03/31/2024 00:00 ||
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Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[KavkazUzel] Security forces detained six people in Rostov-on-Don, calling them members of the Allya-Ayat
… apparently a new-age religious group originating in Kazakhstan, whatever that means…
extremist organization banned in Russia. According to the prosecution, they were actively engaged in recruitment “under foreign supervision.” The court sent four defendants into custody and another one under house arrest.
One of the detainees, a 65-year-old resident of Rostov-on-Don, is considered by law enforcement to be the organizer of the activities of a banned religious association. Five more detainees, according to investigators, were its participants.
According to investigators, the elderly man was a “follower of the Alla-Ayat creed and in 2023 organized a religious association based on it in Rostov-on-Don, where he attracted local residents.
“The defendants held general meetings and “pseudo-treatment” sessions in a rented office, using the religious practices of an extremist organization,” says a message published on March 27 on the official website of the regional department of the Investigative Committee.
The report notes that FSB and Ministry of Internal Affairs officers jointly conducted searches in the houses of the detainees and in the office where, according to their information, meetings were held. According to the department, “items and documents relevant to the investigation were seized,” but the publication did not specify which items were being referred to.
The detainees acted “under foreign supervision,” pursued an “aggressive recruitment policy among residents” and transferred “financial flows” to “unfriendly states,” TASS reported, citing a source in law enforcement agencies.
On March 27, the Leninsky District Court of Rostov-on-Don chose a preventive measure for five defendants - the alleged organizer of the cell and three alleged participants, including two women, and were assigned detention until May 24. The court sent another alleged member of the organization under house arrest, the agency reported.
The accused carried out recruiting work not only among the civilian population, but also among the military, a RIA Novosti source claims. According to him, “participants of the occult-religious movement promoted their own method of pseudo-healing and self-medication,” which had previously spread in Kazakhstan.
The 65-year-old Rostovite was charged under the article on organizing extremist activities (Part 1 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of Russia), which provides for six to ten years in prison. The remaining five detainees were charged under Part 2 of the same article, which implies from two to six years in prison.
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Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] Several people were taken hostage in the city of Ede in the eastern Netherlands. The Netherlands Broadcasting Corporation ( NOS ) reported this on March 30.
It is noted that unknown persons took people hostage in a popular cafe in the city center. Nothing is yet known about the number of captured people and about the invaders themselves.
Several police and special forces units were sent to the scene. Residents of 150 houses located nearby were evacuated.
As IA Regnum previously reported, in January in the German city of Ulm in the federal state of Baden-Württemberg, an unknown person took four people hostage in a Starbucks cafe.
It was also reported that an armed man took employees of a Procter & Gamble plant in Istanbul hostage. The attacker was allegedly protesting against events in the Gaza Strip by taking hostages.
Police in the Dutch city of Ede have detained one suspect in hostage-taking. The local police reported this on the social network X on March 30.
“One person was detained,” the message said.
It is noted that two more hostages were released.
As Regnum reported, on the afternoon of March 30, several people were taken hostage in the city of Ede in the eastern Netherlands.
It was noted that unknown persons took people hostage in a popular cafe in the city center. No information was provided about the number of captured people or the invaders themselves. Several police and special forces units were sent to the scene. Residents of 150 houses located nearby were evacuated.
It later became known that the police released three hostages who were held in the cafe.
A hostage drama at a nightclub in the eastern Netherlands ended peacefully after several hours on Saturday with the arrest of a suspect - a man wearing a balaclava mask who exited the building and surrendered to police.
"The last hostage has just been released. One person has been arrested," a police statement said. "We cannot share more information at this time."
Several people, including employees, had been taken hostage at the Cafe Petticoat in the town of Ede early on Saturday morning. The motive was unclear.
Officials said at a news briefing that the suspect, who was previously known to police, had threatened the hostages with knives. There was no indication of a terrorist motive, police have said.
The suspect walked out of the club, put his hands behind his head and got to his knees before being handcuffed by police, a Rooters video journalist at the scene said.
Police explosives units had been deployed to the building in the town center. Streets in the area had been evacuated and trains canceled to the town, nearly 80 kilometers (50 miles) from Amsterdam.
[Rudaw] An Iraqi soldier was killed in Kirkuk province on Friday in a suspected attack by the Islamic State (ISIS), a military source told Rudaw.
A member of Iraq’s armed forces told Rudaw on condition of anonymity that one of his colleagues from the 44th Brigade was killed in a valley located on the border of Kirkuk and Salahaddin provinces.
"Despite a response from my colleagues, no ISIS members were hurt. They managed to run away," said the soldier, who was off-duty at the time of the attack, but was told what occurred by his fellow soldiers.
The incident took place in Shay Valley in the Daquq district of Kirkuk province.
ISIS has not immediately claimed responsibility.
The Iraqi government has said that ISIS is no longer a public security threat as the group has been confined. Baghdad is now in talks with the United States to wind down the global mission against the terror group in Iraq.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/31/2024 04:02 ||
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27 March 2024
[HodhodYemenNews] The Islamic Resistance in Iraq has said it has carried out new operations against Israeli targets in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Did Israel notice?
The Iraqi umbrella group of anti-terror groups said in a statement published on its Telegram channel on Wednesday that the first operation targeted the Ovda air base in the occupied Palestinian territories using drones.
"The Mujahideen of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, targeted on 03/26/2024, the Israeli Uvda Air Base with drones," the Islamic Resistance statement said.
In the second operation, the resistance’s drones hit Israel’s Speer military site also in the occupied territories.
"The fighters of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq targeted this morning, Wednesday 27/3/2024, the ’Speer’ military site of the Zionist occupation in our occupied lands by drones," the statement said.
"The Mujahideen of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, targeted on 03/27/2024, the Israeli Speer military site with drones," it added.
The Iraqi resistance said the operations were carried out in response to the latest massacres of the people of Gaza by Israel.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq has carried out several key operations in recent months, including multiple attacks on Ben Gurion Airport, a power plant in Tel Aviv as well as major Israeli ports in solidarity with the people of Gaza.
What the hell is wrong with these people? How are they incapable of realizing that Hamas are the ones refusing to negotiate, and that every time they protest they strengthen Hamas’s resolve?
[IsraelTimes] ’We will not meet here again,’ says father of abductee at Tel Aviv’s Hostages’ Square rally; tens of thousands at protests across Israel; over a dozen arrested in clashes with police
Tens of thousands of people turned out for mass protests across Israel on Saturday night as the weekly demonstrations in Tel Aviv by the hostages’ families took a dramatic turn after speakers called on attendees to "take to the streets" and join the anti-government protesters in the heart of the city, announcing an apparent discontinuation of the separate gathering.
Eli Albag, father of Hamas-held hostage Liri Albag, said there would be no more separate protests at Hostages’ Square in front of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.
"This is the last Shabbat that we will be here," he said. "We won’t meet here anymore, we will be in the streets... this is the moment where we turn off the lights."
The only light that remained on stage was from a giant screen with a message to protesters in Hostages’ Square: "Come with us to Begin [Street] and Dizengoff Street to make our shouts heard. All of them, now!"
"The rallies are over, the protests have just begun," tweeted Hostages and Missing Families Forum spokesman Haim Rubinstein soon after the announcement from the stage.
Police made over a dozen arrests in Tel Aviv where some protesters blocked major roads, and deployed water canons to disperse the demonstrations.
Clashes with police were also recorded in Jerusalem, where about 200 protesters burst through a set of police barriers to demonstrate about 100 yards from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence on Azza Street, and in Caesarea where police detained protesters who blocked roads near Netanyahu’s private residence and chanted for the PM to resign.
Protesters also gathered in Sderot, Or Akiva, and Beersheba, in the wake of the public statement by hostage family members, calling the longtime prime minister an "obstacle to a deal" to release the hostages.
The protests were among the largest since the war broke out on October 7 with Hamas’s shock onslaught that killed 1,200 and saw 253 taken hostage, about 130 of whom remain in Gaza, not all of them alive.
Efforts to secure a second hostage deal, following the one in November in which 105 were freed, have faltered but have not been called off.
Einav Zangauker, the mother of Hamas captive Matan Zangauker, called Netanyahu’s handling of the hostage issue "incomprehensible and criminal," in a speech on Saturday night in Jerusalem.
"Prime Minister Netanyahu, after you abandoned our families on October 7, and after 176 days when you didn’t bring a deal [for their return], and because you are continually engaged in torpedoing a deal, we have realized that you are the obstacle to the deal. You are the obstacle. You are the one who stands between us and the return home of our loved ones," she said.
"From now," she pledged, "we will work to immediately replace you. We have concluded that that is the fastest way to bring a deal... We will demonstrate and demand your ouster. We will publicly hound you."
After the anti-government rally dispersed on Tel Aviv’s Kaplan Street and participants in the hostage families’ protest left the Hostages’ Square, a mass of demonstrators from both events converged at the nearby Begin Street where Brothers and Sisters in Arms, a reservist group that was among the leaders of last year’s anti-judicial overhaul protests, called for the release of hostages held by Hamas.
There was a large police presence throughout the entire area, with barricades on large chunks Begin and Kaplan streets, as well as some of the exits to the Ayalon Highway to prevent protesters from blocking that road.
Like in previous weeks, protesters lit a bonfire on the road, which police extinguished, only for another one to be lit. Many demonstrators waved torches, a symbol of the hostages’ plight.
Organizers used the bridge above Begin Street as a makeshift podium from which family members of the hostages spoke one after the other, with more combative rhetoric than that of previous weeks.
Hadas Calderon, whose two children were released from Gaza while their father, Ofer Calderon, remains there, stressed to the crowd below that her children were released only through negotiations and that a deal must be made to release the rest of the hostages.
Yehuda Cohen, father of Nimrod Cohen, a soldier taken hostage on October 7, spoke after Calderon, saying that he talked with Netanyahu this week as part of a wider group of parents of abducted IDF soldiers, and asked him what price Israel was willing to pay to return his son, and that he never received an answer.
He added that if Netanyahu cannot bring his son home, he should resign and let someone else try.
Early on in the protest on Begin Street, police commander Menashe Mansour declared the rally for a hostage deal illegal and urged protesters to disperse, setting off a series of skirmishes between demonstrators and police. Though this is a weekly occurrence, an announcement came at a much later stage on previous Saturday nights.
A group of protesters also managed to block part of Ayalon Highway and marched southward before police managed to disperse them with water cannons.
Police said they made 16 arrests overall in Tel Aviv and gave fines to nine for disturbances and blocking traffic.
’THE EXCUSES HAVE RUN OUT’
Before the lights went out at Hostages’ Square, two former Hamas hostages who were freed during the truce deal in November spoke harshly about Netanyahu’s conduct, marking a change in tone for the Hostages and Missing Families Forum rallies whose speakers — until this week — made an effort to abstain from overt condemnation of Israel’s current government.
Aviva Siegel, whose husband Keith Siegel remains in captivity, called on Netanyahu and other members of the government to stop treating hostage negotiations "as if they are a children’s game."
"You cannot bring back the delegation from Qatar without a deal," she said onstage, referring to ongoing, indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas in Doha.
"Do you hear me Bibi? I don’t know if my husband is alive. Stop talking about victory, stop talking about military pressure. Nothing will work. Nothing has worked until now. They’re dying there every day," she continued.
Raz Ben Ami, a freed hostage who was also released in November and whose husband is also still a hostage in Gaza, joined Siegel in urging the government to strike a deal with Hamas.
"They [the hostages] won’t last there, no one can survive what they go through there. Believe me," said Ben Ami at the weekly Hostages and Missing Families forum protest in Tel Aviv’s Hostages’ Square.
Shira Albag, Liri’s mother, called on protesters to take up the struggle "against indifference, and in support of life."
"It’s been 176 days that I haven’t turned a blind eye to the thoughts and fear of what Liri and the other abductees are going through," she said. "The people of Israel won’t forget or forgive anyone who prevents a deal that would bring them [the hostages] back to us. After 176 days, 4,224 hours, the excuses have run out."
’INCREASING THE PRESSURE’ ON NETANYAHU
At the weekly Jerusalem protest, Udi Goren, cousin of Tal Haimi who was killed while defending Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak on October 7, said that his cousin’s new baby is about to be born.
"Listen to me, they’re coming home, until the very last one. It’s on us to make sure it happens as quickly as possible," he said, listing the names of the hostages. "Bibi, listen, you’re right, the victory is in our hands, let the nation of Israel win and bring the hostages home."
In Caesarea, a local protester named Hannah Zissel told The Times of Israel that the rallies are designed to "increase the pressure on him [Netanyahu] so he goes to a new election."
Amos Malka, a former head of the Israel Defense Forces’ Military Intelligence Directorate, kicked off the speaker’s portion of the rally with an address in which he accused Netanyahu of "abandoning the hostages" that Hamas is holding in Gaza.
"If the families knew how small the gap is, which Netanyahu is refusing to close" in negotiations with Hamas, "they would explode," said Malka. "This is more evidence of his unsuitability to serve."
Speaking to The Times of Israel, Malka, a leader of the protest movement against Netanyahu’s government, clarified that "the failures leading up to October 7 are shared among many, across the defense and establishment community. But what happened since" — that’s on Netanyahu.
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#1
After nearly 6 months, I am sad to say I have my doubts that many of the hostages are still alive and/or uninjured.
For HAMAS to prove otherwise, it should be required to have the hostages pictures taken holding an Israeli Newspaper with a current date and Headline on it.
Because I wouldn't trust any US MSM, nor a lot of other nations Media given their openly Anti-Semitic positions of late.
[IsraelTimes] Army chief Halevi visits troops, praises ’very, very successful’ campaign at hospital, as fighting continues throughout Gazoo
The IDF and Shin Bet security agency on Saturday announced that four senior Hamas, one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede,bad boyz were potted by troops at Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital in recent days.
Troops have been raiding buildings at the hospital complex, following intelligence indicating that brass hats in the terror group are holed up there. They’ve arrested hundreds of terror operatives and killed over 200 in days-long exchanges of fire at the complex.
In one incident, the IDF said troops of the Navy’s Shayetet 13 unit, Givati Brigade’s Shaked Battalion and Duvdevan unit encountered and killed a group of armed Hamas operatives who ran out of Shifa’s emergency room.
Among them was senior Hamas commander Raad Thabet — named by the IDF on Thursday as the head of the terror group’s recruitment and supply acquisition — and Mahmoud Khalil Zakzuk, who the IDF says is the deputy commander of Hamas’s rocket unit in Gaza City.
In another incident, troops of the Nahal Brigade’s reconnaissance unit killed senior Hamas operatives Fadi Dweik and Zakaria Najib during a chase at Shifa’s maternity ward, according to the IDF.
The IDF and Shin Bet say Dweik was a senior member of Hamas’s intelligence division. He perpetrated the 2002 terrorist shooting attack in the West Bank settlement of Adora, killing four civilians, and was exiled to the Gaza Strip in the 2011 Shalit deal with Hamas, in which Israel released 1,027 Paleostinian terror convicts in exchange for captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. In Gaza, he continued to advance attacks in the West Bank, defense officials say.
Najib, according to the IDF and Shin Bet, was a senior operative in Hamas’s so-called West Bank headquarters, tasked with promoting attacks against Israel from the West Bank. He is accused of involvement in the 1994 abduction and killing of Nachshon Wachsman, and was also released in the 2011 Shalit deal.
Other Hamas button men have been killed by troops in and around the hospital, the IDF said, adding that troops have seized weapons and intelligence documents.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi hailed the ongoing operation at Shifa Hospital during a visit to the medical center on Friday.
"Almost two weeks, very, very successful, and this is an operation... to plan it in a war, to carry it out in a war, to execute it correctly in a war, [is] very, very complex," Halevi told troops.
"So far [there have been] very great achievements... no one can roll back [the effects of] such a large number of arrested terrorists, such a large number of dead terrorists, so many senior people," he said.
Halevi said the operation has "achieved its goal," but added that it will continue "thoroughly until it is announced that we are done."
The Hamas-controlled health ministry in Gaza said Saturday that at least 32,705 people had been killed in the territory during more than five months of war between Israel and the Paleostinian terror group.
The toll includes at least 82 deaths over the past 24 hours, a ministry statement said, adding that 75,190 people had been maimed in the Gaza Strip since the war was triggered by the devastating Hamas-led onslaught against Israel on October 7.
The Hamas-run ministry’s figures, which are unverified, do not differentiate between fighters and civilians, and are also believed to include Paleostinians killed by terrorists’ misfired rockets. Israel says some 13,000 terror operatives are among the dead.
Earlier Saturday the Paleostine Red Islamic Thingy said five people were killed and dozens maimed by gunfire and a stampede during an aid delivery in Gaza.
AFP said it had footage of a convoy of trucks moving quickly past burning debris near the distribution point in pre-dawn darkness as people shout and gunfire echoes — some of which were warning shots, according to unnamed witnesses quoted by the French news agency.
The Red Islamic Thingy said it happened after thousands of people gathered for the arrival of around 15 trucks of flour and other food, which were supposed to be handed out at Gaza City’s Kuwait roundabout, in the territory’s north. The roundabout has been the scene of several chaotic and deadly aid distribution incidents, including a deadly incident on March 23 that drew intense international scrutiny.
Eyewitnesses told AFP that Gazooks overseeing the aid delivery shot in the air, and that Israeli troops in the area also fired and some moving trucks hit people trying to get the food. The Israeli military told AFP it "has no record of the incident described."
In the al-Amal neighborhood of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, the IDF said troops of the Givati Brigade killed several button men, including some who tried to attack them with bombs.
The Israeli Air Force carried out dozens of strikes across Gaza over the past day, mostly in al-Amal and al-Qarara, which the IDF said was to support the maneuvering ground troops.
The IAF also struck three tunnel shafts in an area from which a rocket was fired toward the border community of Kissufim on Friday, the IDF said.
Meanwhile, ...back at the abandoned silver mine, the water was up to Jack's neck and still rising. And then he smelled the smoke... in central Gaza, the IDF said troops of the Nahal Brigade killed several terror operatives over the past day.
In one incident, the army said Nahal troops spotted a cell moving weaponry and called in a dronezap against them. Large secondary blasts were seen after the strike, according to the IDF. A fighter jet later struck the building the cell was seen leaving.
Two more Hamas cells were struck by drones in northern Gaza after being identified by the 215th Artillery Regiment. Fighter jets later also struck a building used by those operatives, the IDF adds.
[IsraelTimes] Military says incident under review, occurred during exchanges of fire near Jenin
Israeli forces rubbed out a 13-year-old Paleostinian boy during a raid in the West Bank, the official Paleostinian news agency Wafa reported on Saturday, an incident which the Israeli military said was under review.
There were confrontations with Israeli forces at the town of Qabatiya, south of Jenin, during a pre-dawn military raid there, the Wafa report said. The Israeli military said a number of Paleostinian button men had shot at its troops, who returned fire.
A report was later received regarding a Paleostinian minor who was killed, the military said.
"The circumstances of the incident are under review," it said in a statement to Rooters.
The teen’s death was confirmed by Fawaz Hammad, director of al-Razi Hospital in Jenin, Wafa said.
On Thursday three Israelis were maimed in a terror shooting against school buses and other cars on a major highway in the West Bank. The attack took place in the town of al-Auja. Route 90, the main north-south artery in the Jordan Valley, passes through the Paleostinian town.
Two bulletproof school buses and at least two cars were hit in the attack as they drove through al-Auja, according to medics and local authorities.
In one of the cars, a 30-year-old man was shot and left in moderate condition and another man was shot and lightly hurt, the Magen David Adom ambulance service said. In the second car, a 13-year-old boy hit by glass shards was lightly hurt.
The Paleostinian Authority’s official news agency reports that a 13-year-old was killed by Israeli fire during a raid in the northern West Bank.
He is named as Moatasem Nabil Abu Abed, 13, of Qabitya. The report says two other young men were also maimed, one seriously, during confrontations between soldiers and Paleostinians in Qabitaya, and that the first Israeli forces to enter the town did so in vehicles bearing Paleostinian license plates.
27. March 2024
[IsraelTimes] IDF says 2 button men targeted by UAV, 3rd man killed after hurling explosives at soldiers in West Bank city; troops destroy vehicle containing primed bombs
Three Paleostinians were killed — two of them in a dronezap — during an arrest raid in the West Bank city Jenin on Wednesday, the Israel Defense Forces said.
The military said that the two killed in the dronezap were button men, and that the third Paleostinian killed by Israeli fire during the raid had hurled bombs at troops, who responded by opening fire toward the man.
The official Paleostinian news agency Wafa named the two killed in the dronezap as Hamza Ararawi, 27, and Muhammad Nasser al-Sabti, 19.
The army said that combat engineers destroyed a vehicle that contained several primed bombs during the raid, which began overnight and continued into the morning.
Two suspects in the car were detained by troops before it was blown up. Combat engineers also uncovered roadside explosives in the city.
One more wanted Paleostinian was detained in Jenin, and weapons were seized, the IDF added.
Videos on social media showed army vehicles and bulldozers operating in the northern West Bank city, amid gunfire and at least one large explosion.
Security forces in Jerusalem and the West Bank have been on high alert since the start of Ramadan last week. Tensions were already high between Israelis and Paleostinians due to the war between Israel and Hamas, the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®, in Gazoo ...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamaswith about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... , triggered by the October 7 massacre.
Since October 7, the IDF has said troops have arrested some 3,600 wanted Paleostinians across the West Bank, including more than 1,600 affiliated with Hamas.
Paleostinians say over 450 people have been killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank since hostilities broke out, most while carrying out attacks or during festivities with IDF troops during nightly raids that have largely concentrated on a handful of areas in the northern West Bank. However, there is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened... killings of innocent bystanders have also been alleged.
[Rudaw] At least four pro-regime soldiers were killed on Wednesday in a desert attack by 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) cells in northern Raqqa province, a war monitor reported, amid fears of a resurgence of the terror group.
"Armed men from ISIS launched a surprise attack with light and medium weapons in the deep of the Syrian desert, targeting military points of the National Defense Forces [NDF] ... and killing four members of the militia," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britannia-based war monitor.
ISIS attacks have been on the rise in Syria, particularly in the vast expanses of its eastern and northern deserts where the terror group launches surprise attacks amid a security vacuum.
On Monday, ISIS killed 11 unsuspecting truffle hunters in the Raqqa desert, days after five people, including NDF fighters, were killed in an ISIS attack in the same area while hunting for truffles.
The NDF is a pro-government militia that has fought alongside Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Terror of Aleppo ... since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war.
[Rudaw] Israeli Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s targeted multiple locations in Aleppo in the early hours of Friday, including positions of Iran-backed militias and Syrian military bases, killing at least 36 Syrian regime soldiers and injuring dozens others, a war monitor reported.
The Syrian defense ministry said that the attacks were launched at around 1:45 am, striking several military positions in the countryside of Aleppo, killing and injuring a number of civilians and military men.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that the attacks struck a weapons depot belonging to Lebanon Hezbollahstan ...Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. ... ’s Hezbollah, near Aleppo International Airport, as well "defense factories" in al-Safira subdistrict, 25 kilometers southeast of Aleppo.
The airport was not damaged in the attacks, SOHR noted.
The war monitor described the overnight strikes as being among Israel’s deadliest attacks on regime forces in Syrian territory.
Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes on regime-controlled areas of Syria throughout its nearly 13-year civil war, often claiming to strike pro-Iran ...Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979... militias such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah that supports the Syrian army.
Israel has intensified its strikes on Syria since October 7. It has attacked Syrian territory at least 26 times since the start of the year, killing around 90 people and wounding over 20 others, according to SOHR.
At least two non-combatants were killed after an Israeli attack struck a residential building in the countryside of Damascus, Syrian state media reported.
While it rarely comments on strikes attributed to it in Syria, Israel has repeatedly warned that it would not tolerate its arch-rival Iran gaining a foothold there.
Perhaps there will be an update with actual details in the morning.
[IsraelTimes] Syrian sources are reporting an alleged Israeli Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... in southwestern Syria, in the Daraa area, according to multiple reports in the Hebrew-language media, which cited no further details.
The IDF says it struck sites used by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon's Taybeh, Naqoura, and Hanine a short while ago.
Since this morning, Hezbollah fired several rockets and missiles at northern Israel. The IDF says it shelled the launch sites with artillery. pic.twitter.com/y1LfLhga4i
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) March 30, 2024
[Rudaw] At least thirteen pro-Iran militiamen were killed in unidentified airstrikes on Tuesday in Syria’s eastern Deir ez-Zor province, a war monitor reported. A local media outlet attributed the strike to the US.
"Nine pro-Iran militiamen were killed and more than 20 wounded as a result of airstrikes that targeted sites and headquarters of Iran-affiliated militias in Deir ez-Zor after midnight," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a Britain-based war monitor, adding that an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander was among the dead.
SOHR later updated the death toll, saying four militants were killed in a separate airstrike on the town of al-Bukamal in Deir ez-Zor countryside. The strikes injured 36 people, including ten civilians.
Local news outlet DeirEzzor24 said the strikes targeted military and security headquarters of the IRGC in the province, seriously injuring an IRGC commander known as Hajj Askar.
The strikes come amid simmering tensions in Syria and Iraq against the backdrop of the Israel-Gaza war, with Washington having previously engaged in tit-for-tat strikes with pro-Iran militias in the region.
US troops in Iraq and Syria have come under a series of rocket and drone attacks by pro-Iran militias since October 7, in retaliation for Washington’s support for Israel in its war against the Gaza Strip.
In early February, Washington launched a large-scale retaliation campaign against IRGC-Quds Force and affiliated militia groups in Syria. The strikes were ordered in retaliation for the deaths of three US soldiers in a drone strike carried out by pro-Iran militias on a US military base in Jordan a week prior.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a network of shadow Iraqi militia groups affiliated with the IRGC, has claimed responsibility for over 165 rocket and drone attacks on US interests in Iraq, Syria, and Jordan.
Around 2,500 American troops in Iraq and 900 in Syria are leading an international coalition through Operation Inherent Resolve that has assisted Kurdish, Iraqi, and local Syrian forces in the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS).
But why was the WHO staffer hanging out with Iran’s sockpuppets? Don’t people realize that being near one of Israel’s targets is unhealthy?
[Rudaw] The World Health Organization on Tuesday said that a member of its team in Syria was killed in Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s launched hours earlier in the country’s eastern Deir ez-Zor province, which also killed 16 pro-Iran ...Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979... militiamen.
Emad Shehab was working as an engineer with the organization and was the focal point for water, sanitation, and hygiene in the city. Shehab was killed when his building was struck by the airstrikes launched in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
"His untimely death is a stark reminder of the ongoing violence and suffering endured by the people of Syria. He will be greatly missed," WHO Director-General Tedris Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X.
UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said at least 16 pro-Iranian Death Eaters were killed in the strikes. Iranian media reported the death of an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) adviser in the strikes.
Local news outlet DeirEzzor24 said the strikes targeted military and security headquarters of the IRGC in the province, seriously injuring an IRGC commander known as Hajj Askar.
Syria’s foreign ministry condemned the strikes and blamed Washington for switching roles with Israel, accusing both of seek to cause regional instability.
Washington on Tuesday evening denied carrying out the strikes.
"We did not carry out air strikes in Syria last night," Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh told news hounds.
Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes on regime-controlled areas of Syria throughout its 12-year civil war, often claiming to strike pro-Iran militias such as Lebanon Hezbollahstan ...the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity™, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade... ’s Hezbollah group that supports the Syrian army. The US has also carried several rounds of retaliatory strikes on IRGC positions in Syria following attacks by Iran-backed militia groups on American bases in the country and neighboring Iraq.
Iran says IRGC officers serve an advisory role in Syria at the invitation of the government to prop up Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Terror of Aleppo ... during a decade-long civil war. Iran-backed militia groups maintain a strong foothold in Deir ez-Zor, particularly in the area near the Iraqi border.
[Rudaw] Clashes broke out between the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Iran-backed militia groups in eastern Syria’s Deir ez-Zor province on Wednesday, with no reports of casualties, according to a war monitor.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said that the festivities occurred in the town of Ayyash, west of Deir ez-Zor and on both banks of the Euphrates River, using machine guns and mortar shells.
The banks separate the areas under the control of the Syrian regime and those under the control of the SDF. The area is characterized by frequent smuggling operations, due to the difference in price of goods on either side.
The SDF, who control northeast Syria (Rojava), has been the main ally of the US-led global coalition in the war against 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.... (ISIS) in Syria. The forces arrested thousands of the group’s fighters along with their wives and children when they defeated ISIS territorially and took the group’s last stronghold in Syria in 2019.
The watchdog on Tuesday reported that at least 16 pro-Iran ...The nation is noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence... turbans were killed in unidentified Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s in Deir ez-Zor. Damascus blamed Washington for the attack, but the Pentagon denied responsibility later in the day.
US forces have in recent months carried out several rounds of retaliatory strikes on Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) positions in Syria following a series of attacks by Iran-backed militia groups on American bases in the country and neighboring Iraq.
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.
...... al-Qaeda's tentacle in East Africa...
The operation in Fiiqaay, officials said, was participated by ’international parents’ and has targeted 
...... Somalia's version of the 
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for 
[IsraelTimes] Army chief Halevi visits troops, praises ’very, very successful’ campaign at hospital, as fighting continues throughout 
...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 
Hezbollah
...Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979...
...
...The nation is noted for 
