Since a war is not as popular as it once was…..any news seems to drift from the front page to be buried somewhere between the Kardashians and other such common bullsh*t…….
So I will give my reader a synopsis of the news that is glazed over….at best……
The US has made an acquisition recently….the chem war chief for ISIS……
Reports surfaced last week that US special forces had captured a prominent but unidentified player in the Islamic State, and it turns out those reports weren’t exaggerated. The detainee in Iraq has been identified as the head of the group’s burgeoning chemical weapons unit, reports the AP. Sleiman Daoud al-Afari, thought to be about 50, previously worked in Saddam Hussein’s military with the same specialty. He’s been in US custody for a month now and has given up information about how ISIS converts mustard gas into powder for use in artillery shells, reports the New York Times. Evidence of such weapons has turned up in Syria and Iraq.
A defense official tells the Times that these ISIS shells are potent enough to maim but not kill. What remains unclear is how the group got its hands on the sulfur mustard needed for the weaponry. Also not clear is exactly what kind of information al-Afari has given up, though the AP reports that the US-led coalition has conducted airstrikes on suspected chemical facilities in Iraq within the last week. The US says it plans to turn over the prisoner to Iraqi or Kurdish authorities eventually, and a representative from the International Committee of the Red Cross has visited him in custody.
The US recently attacked an al Shabaab site and killed 150 people…..not much as been said on the identity of these people just that it was a terrorist “training” camp…….but now there seems to be a bit more to the story…….
Pentagon officials have confirmed that US ground troops were involved in a raid against an al-Shabaab-held town in Somalia, arriving by helicopter in a raid which also involved Somali forces, and which they say killed “more than 10″ fighters.
The US rarely discusses its troops in Somalia, which are nominally “advisers,” Officials suggested today that the troops were again in an “advisory” role and that they didn’t go “all the way” in the raid. They were involved enough that al-Shabaab confirmed their presence.
Shabaab reported that the attack only killed one of their fighters, and only attacked a single checkpoint, as opposed to an entire town. Somali officials suggested the attack was aimed at an “illegal taxation checkpoint.”
This disputed death toll comes after a massive US drone strike against Somalia, which US officials claim killed over 150, Somali officials claim killed over 200, and which al-Shabaab insisted killed far less, maintaining they never have that many of their fighters together in a single place.
Back in 2005 the US was up to its butt in bad guys…..seemed everybody wanted our blood….but the biggest mouth was that of a Shia cleric with an army, al-Sadr….but not much has been heard from him for some time now…..and this could be the reason……
Shia cleric Muqtada Sadr led a rally in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square, pressing Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to deliver reforms he promised in response to anti-government protests that erupted in August 2015.
Sadr’s ability to mobilise a crowd of close to 100,000 demonstrates his ability to reinvent himself, once again, in Iraq’s post-2003 political landscape. In Sadr’s latest political incarnation, he has embraced the politics of protest to become both an anti-politician and king-maker. His latest rally is symbolic of his political movement’s evolution over a decade, a reflection of the vicissitudes of Iraq’s politics since 2003.
Source: Iraq: The reinvention of Muqtada al-Sadr – Al Jazeera English
Finally, the Syrian conflict has been anything but clear….the confusion about who is who and what is what has made this situation the point of much discussion and debate…..
Maybe this article would help those who would like to understand……
You now have more information than most people who read the news…..most people re afraid of knowledge……I do not believe that my readers will fall into that category….
nice round up.
Thanx…..I try to keep everyone up on the war news that our media prefers to ignore…chuq
yes, indeed. media is biased besides as well.