Category: Terrorism

Southern Strike 2020

Closing Thought–17Feb20

This may not be of much interest to most of my readers……I just want to point out the training that our troops must go through……….

I am a student of conflict and these days we fight terrorists not so much grand armies…..and my area has been part of the training to fight our enemies…….

Gulfport Combat Readiness Training Center CRTC

Special Tactics Airmen and Green Berets from the 3rd and 20th Special Forces Group participated in Southern Strike 2020. The event was a large-scale, joint multinational combat exercise hosted by the Mississippi Air National Guard. This exercise provided special operators a unique training opportunity that provided tactical level training for the full spectrum conflict.

This rundown is from sof.news……

Exercise Scope. The time frame of the exercise was from January 30 to February 13, 2020. The Southern Strike exercise is a National Guard Bureau (NGB), Title 32 funded, tactical exercise program. The Joint Exercise Control Group (JECG) is comprised of military and civilian personnel with extensive SOF experience. The Mississippi National Guard hosts and supports this annual event.

Training Areas. The large-scale exercise took place in Mississippi at several military installations. Many of the primary (C2) events took place at the Combat Readiness Training Center (CRTC) in Gulfport, Mississippi. Outlying locations provided many of the field training opportunities. These included Camp Shelby, Fort Morgan (AL), Camp McCain Training Center, and Naval Air Station Meridian.

Participating Units. More than 2,000 service members from 22 states – and some international participants as well – conducted missions designed to enhance their effectiveness. The participating air units came from diverse fields to include ISR, close air support, airlift (fixed and rotary), and Aeromedical Evacuation. Active duty, National Guard, Reserve units were all represented. The countries of Bulgaria, Uzbekistan, and the Netherlands all provided military personnel.

List of Units:

  • 3rd Special Forces Group
  • 20th Special Forces Group
  • Dutch SOF
  • Air Force Special Operations Surgical Team (SOST)
  • 125th Special Tactics Squadron (STS) (ANG)
  • 183rd Airlift Squadron
  • 1st Battalion, 185th Aviation Regiment
  • Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 133 (Seabees)
  • Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron 60
  • 49th Fighter Training Squadron
  • 119th Wing
  • 266th Range Squadron
  • And many more . . .

Exercise Features. The Southern Strike 2020 event featured counterinsurgency, air supremacy, close air support, en route casualty care, non-combatant evacuations, maritime and riverine special operations. In addition, staffs were provided the opportunity to further develop staff functions and procedures.

SOF Ground Unit Training. Ground units from Special Tactics, 3rd Special Forces Group, and the 20th Special Forces Group conducted a variety of missions supported by air assets. COIN, Direct Action, Close Air Support, and other missions were exercised. There was a lot of air activity due to the huge role played by the air units. This afforded the SOF ground elements plenty of opportunities to conduct air infils, exfils, close air support calls for fire, helicopter hoist operations, and more.

Our military is prepared for the wars to come…..

Personally I would prefer that we worry about the failure of our infrastructure….we have always had a superior military….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Yemen For 2020

The saga around the events in the Middle East, especially Iraq and Iran, have made the news but a war torn Yemen falls to the back pages of the paper…..

The people are still suffering and the war continues….but there are a few things that needs to be reported more widely…..but there was a window of opportunity to find a lasting ceasefire…..but that is not so likely now…..

The narrow window of opportunity to end the Yemen war that opened in late 2019 may fast be closing. Fighting along key front lines in northern Yemen, along with Huthi rebel missile strikes and the resumption of Saudi-led aerial bombardment, threatens to tilt the conflict toward a major escalation, reversing tentative steps toward dialogue. There is still a chance to break the cycle by expanding newly opened communication channels between Huthi rebels (who call themselves Ansar Allah) and Saudi Arabia to include the internationally recognised Yemeni government and others in order to negotiate a truce on all major fronts. But success will require a coordinated and continuous regional and international effort.

The swing from stalemate and de-escalation to shooting war was sudden. On 18 January, after a month that UN Envoy Martin Griffiths described as one of the conflict’s quietest periods, the government alleges that the Huthis launched missiles at one of its military camps in Marib governorate (the Huthis refuse to confirm responsibility). The strike reportedly killed more than 100 soldiers in one of the war’s deadliest single incidents to date. It came amid intensified combat along previously stalemated front lines in al-Jawf, Nihm and Marib between allies of the Huthis, on one side, and of the government, on the other. These battles became still fiercer after the strike, with both sides suffering heavy losses. The Huthis have since fired several more missiles at military facilities in Marib. Saudi Arabia, in turn, has ramped up its air campaign, launching dozens of raids in what the Huthis argue is a breach of a putative cross-border truce. Saudi officials label the fighting a Huthi attempt to take advantage of border ceasefire negotiations under way since October. For now, neither the Huthis nor the Saudis wish to abandon the talks, but the de-escalation process is under severe strain.

https://www.crisisgroup.org/middle-east-north-africa/gulf-and-arabian-peninsula/yemen/breaking-renewed-conflict-cycle-yemen

For years if not decades the media and the Pentagon has been spinning the yarn that the Houthi rebels were terrorists….akin to AQ or ISIS….well that may not be as likely as the news reported…..

The death toll in Yemen has reached 102,000 according to data released by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project in October of 2019. Since the war started in 2015, the United States government has maintained one steadfast talking point. The Houthis are an Iranian proxy in Yemen. Government officials and those in mainstream media have repeatedly regurgitated this talking point without ever providing evidence to back up this claim.

By repeatedly claiming that the Houthis are an Iranian proxy, it allows the United States government to try and justify what is happening in Yemen daily. All the United States has to do whenever a government official has to answer a question about the war in Yemen, is mention Iran. No matter how undefendable America’s involvement in the war in Yemen has become the excuse to justify the atrocities in Yemen never falter, its Iran’s fault.

US Admits Yemen’s Houthis Aren’t an Iranian Proxy as the Death Toll Climbs

Just another illustration how the propaganda molds societal attitudes.

As always it is LIES to justify armed conflict……Hitler would be proud the MSM and the Pentagon.

The more you know the less you support war of adventurism.

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Jabba The Jihadi

Ever hear of this guy?

Of course not you have been focused on and bitching about the impeachment trial……

It seems that this overweight jihadist has been arrested in Iraq…

Iraqi authorities made an arrest so large they had to load it onto a flatbed truck.

An Iraqi SWAT team arrested 560-pound Islamic State preacher Abu Abdul Bari, also known as Shifa al Nima, this week in Mosul. The extremist ideologue was transported in the back of a truck.

The Iraqi government said the large jihadi is a top ISIS leader known for “provocative speeches against the security forces,” according to a statement by the Iraqi government.

Bari issued religious decrees, known as fatwas, that ordered the execution of clerics and scholars who refused to pledge loyalty to the brutal terrorist group.

He also ordered the 2014 demolition of a mosque built on the site believed to be the burial spot for the biblical prophet Jonah. As ISIS came to power in the region, its clerics ordered the destruction of many cultural sites, ruining centuries of history.

Maajid Nawaz, founder of anti-extremism group Quilliam, said that images of the arrest are likely humiliating for ISIS.

“Do not underestimate the psychological blow the image of this obese monster being arrested is to ISIS. Gluttony is frowned upon by jihadists. But, also, ISIS branded themselves as fighters possessing rare courage & discipline… meanwhile this walrus was their top religious cleric,” he said

No way he was gonna outrun the law……

High-ranking Islamic State official, Abu Abdul Bari

Another terrorist taken from the field…..and yet it keeps going and going kinda like the Energizer Bunny…..

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Magical Mystery Tour

This post is about that ever elusive “Peace Plan” that has been promised by Trump and his ilk for the Middle East…in June a meeting was held (there is always a meeting being held)……

Since taking office, U.S. President Donald Trump has said he wants to strike a peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians. Details about his on-again, off-again peace plan are sparse. Washington recently unveiled the economic component of its vision, which will be discussed at the Peace to Prosperity workshop in Bahrain this week. But neither the Israeli government nor the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) will be there.

What do the countries involved think of the latest attempt to resolve one of the world’s thorniest diplomatic challenges?

https://carnegieendowment.org/2019/06/24/trump-s-middle-east-peace-plan-is-in-works.-what-does-region-think-pub-79365

Trump’s self entitled the “Deal of the Century” has been released (sort of)…….

The so-called “Deal of the Century” would see a trilateral agreement signed between Israel, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Hamas, with the establishment of a Palestinian state branded “New Palestine” on the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/international/middle-east/1576531861-report-trump-middle-east-peace-draft-supports-formation-of-new-palestine

Now that you have the details (as much as we can give the reader)……but all the optimism has come to a raging abrupt HALT…….

A bi-partisan move has put a dagger in that deal….

The United States Congress has rejected a request from the White House for $175m in funds that would go towards pushing the Trump administration’s Middle East “peace plan”.

In a bipartisan decision on Monday, lawmakers rejected having funds be set aside in the government’s 2020 budget.  

In a section devoted to the Middle East, a Congressional document stated: “The agreement does not provide $175,000,000 for a Diplomatic Progress Fund, as proposed in the House report.” 

The Trump administration’s “deal of the century” plan for the future of Israel and Palestine has faced one obstacle after another since inception, including a complete boycott by Palestinian officials. 

The plan calls for $50bn in regional investments over 10 years, with $28bn going to the Palestinian territories – the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip – as well as $7.5bn to Jordan, $9bn to Egypt and $6n for Lebanon.

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/congress-rejects-trumps-175m-request-deal-century-funding

Did you see that…BI-PARTISAN!

Oh crap!

Well “back to the drawing board” as they say……

But good news for Jared….he gets to travel on the taxpayers dime and do god knows what for this country.

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Terrorists: Will They Go Or Will They Stay?

The evacuation of Kurds and US troops from Northern Syria left “many many” (a Trumpian term) ISIS prisoners in limbo…will they stay of will they go?

SecState has demanded that countries take their terrorist back,,,,,,

European and other members of the international coalition fighting the Islamic State group must take back and prosecute their nationals detained in Iraq and Syria to help keep IS from regaining territory, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday. Pompeo told foreign ministers and senior officials from some 30 coalition members that it’s imperative that they hold thousands of detained foreign fighters accountable for atrocities committed while the Islamic State held swaths of territory in the two countries. Many of the detained foreign fighters are from Europe, the AP reports, but countries have been reluctant to take them back and officials acknowledged there are still differences of opinion among coalition partners about how best to deal with them.

The meeting came amid concerns about the US commitment to the fight against IS remnants. Those concerns have increased as President Trump has pressed to withdraw American troops from Syria. It was also the first meeting at such a senior level since IS was driven from the last of its major strongholds in March and the first since the group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, killed himself during a US raid last month. Pompeo said bringing the foreign fighters to justice in their home countries is critical to preventing IS from resurrecting its caliphate and exporting its ideology. “That work begins with carrying out justice against those who deserve it,” he said. Recent court rulings in Europe have required the governments to repatriate their nationals, per the Washington Post. The governments “are fighting a losing battle,” one lawyer involved in the cases said.

I found a wrinkle in Pompeo’s demands/ultimatum…….it begins in Alabama……

A woman who moved from Alabama to Syria, pledged allegiance to ISIS, and burned her American passport will not be getting a new one. A federal judge ruled Thursday that 25-year-old Hoda Muthana, who is currently in a refugee camp in Syria with her 2-year-old son, is not an American citizen, the Wall Street Journal reports. Judge Reggie Walton of the US District Court for the District of Columbia ruled in the support of the State Department’s decision that Muthana should never have been granted US citizenship, despite having been born in New Jersey, because her father was in the US as a Yemeni diplomat when she was born. Her passport was revoked by the Obama administration in 2016.

Muthana, who grew up in Alabama, was detained by Kurdish forces in Syria earlier this year. She says she was “brainwashed” by ISIS members she encountered online, reports the AFP. After she moved to Syria, she married three different foreign fighters, all of whom were killed in combat, and urged the group’s supporters worldwide to carry out terrorist acts against non-Muslims. Her lawyers say they plan to look at further options. Muthana says she regrets “every single thing” and is willing to face prosecution if she is allowed to return to the US with her son. “Anyone that believes in God believes that everyone deserves a second chance, no matter how harmful their sins were,” she told NBC in a recent interview.

Will the US let her return to her country of origin?  Will they disobey a edit issued by SecState Pompeo?

Just a thought?

More information on these people……https://www.crisisgroup.org/middle-east-north-africa/eastern-mediterranean/syria/208-women-and-children-first-repatriating-westerners-affiliated-isis

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Patriot Act Reauthorization

While the country was sitting around watching the TV or scratching their asses while Uncle Bob tells them what is what in the impeachment…..the Dems proved to me that they are just as big a warmonger bunch of d/bags as the GOP…..

Why?

Without much ado the Dems in the House voted to reauthorize the Patriot Act and all the authoritarian crap that goes with it……House Democrats are ignoring civil liberties and including a three month straight reauthorization of the Patriot Act (with zero reform) in the continuing resolution.

Buried in a stopgap government funding resolution unveiled by House Democrats Monday is a provision that would reauthorize the notoriously abusive Patriot Act for three months, a move privacy advocates warned would ensure President Donald Trump’s administration holds on to “terrifying authoritarian surveillance powers.”

Evan Greer, deputy director of digital rights group Fight for the Future, highlighted the provision on Twitter shortly after House Democrats released the continuing resolution (pdf), which would temporarily avert a looming government shutdown by providing funding for federal agencies through December 20. A House vote on the measure is expected as early as Tuesday.

“The continuing resolution would reauthorize a mass surveillance authority that has never been proven useful and that has consistently broken the laws and rules governing surveillance,” tweeted Demand Progress. “Democrats must not hand this president these dangerous Patriot Act authorities.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/11/19/handing-trump-terrifying-authoritarian-surveillance-powers-house-democrats-include

The Dems are proving that they are bigger Neocon toadies than their GOP counterparts…..https://www.truthdig.com/articles/democrats-are-becoming-the-party-of-permanent-war/

I do this stuff so that you do not have and maybe miss an episode of “Naked And Afraid”…you are welcome.

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

That ISIS Thing

We have not had much news about ISIS…as it should be because according to Trump he defeated them single handed….and yet they still exist….

Even before the recent raid that resulted in the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the erstwhile head of the Islamic State, Donald Trump had spoken of how he had single-handedly defeated the caliphate.

“Now, when I came, the caliphate was all over the place,” the president said apropos of nothing during a news conference with the Australian prime minister on September 20. “I defeated the caliphate — ISIS.”

At a press conference on October 21, after pulling troops out of Syria, Trump put himself even closer to the battle with the Islamic State: “I’m the one that did the capturing. I’m the one who that knows more about it than you people or the fake pundits.”

The Islamic State and Trump’s Delusion

A look at this ISIS thing through the eyes of a Neocon think tank……

Almost as soon as it became clear that ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was dead, the revisionism began about whether this was actually a good thing.

Some analysts predicted that al-Baghdadi’s death as a “martyr” would inspire others, becoming a “propaganda bonanza” for the Islamic State, also known as ISIS.

We should not be so gloomy. The death of such a sadistic killer and serial rapist is unambiguously good news.

It was also the last thing that ISIS needed. Caliphate relinquished, the group’s operations inevitably will be disrupted by the death of its emir, especially with Abu Hassan al-Muhajir—a potential successor—killed in a U.S. airstrike just hours later.

5 Things to Watch in Tracking the Future of ISIS

The group has been diminished but not gone……and they have a new tactic of terror….FIRE

A media outlet affiliated with ISIS has been instructing the group’s radical adherents to set forest fires in the United States and Europe to cause mass ecological disasters, according to posts on an internet forum dedicated to the terror group.

At least four propaganda posters that have appeared on the pro-ISIS Quraysh media outlet have urged followers to “ignite fires” as part of an ongoing jihad against America and its allies.

https://freebeacon.com/national-security/isis-tells-followers-to-set-forest-fires-in-u-s-europe/

The caliphate is down but not out……

Just months after the Islamic State militant group lost the last of its territory in Syria, and days after its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was killed in a U.S.-led raid, the group has found safe haven in a remote, ungoverned space in Iraq, as foreign fighters move across the border from Syria, military officials tell NBC news.

“The fight against ISIS is continuous,” said U.S. Marine Corps Brig. Gen. William Seely, commander of Task Force-Iraq. “We’re seeing ISIS fighters move from Syria across hundreds of miles of desert.”

Their goal, Seely says, is to re-establish their physical caliphate in the region.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/mideast/defeated-isis-has-found-safe-haven-ungoverned-part-iraq-n1076081

How many times must I say this….ISIS IS NOT DEFEATED!

It is only napping waiting for the day to return.

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

What Did Turkey Know?

Remember when the US killed Osama and they questions started flying around about what did Pakistan know about it?

Did Pakistan know that Osama was hiding in plain sight?

Now a few in the intel service are starting to ask similar questions about Turkey and Baghdadi…..

As U.S. intelligence analysts comb through electronic and paper documents seized last weekend from the lair of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, one question is foremost on their minds: How was the Islamic State leader able to find refuge in a Syrian province secured by the Turkish military and its proxy forces?

Three U.S. national security officials told me that they want to know more about Turkey’s knowledge of Baghdadi’s whereabouts. One important task for the team now going through the material seized in the Baghdadi raid and another raid that killed organization’s spokesman, Abul Hassan al-Muhajir, is to map out the relationship between Turkey’s intelligence service and Islamic State.

Both men were hiding close to the Turkish border in Syrian territory. Muhajir was found in Jarabulus, a town in the Aleppo province patrolled by Turkish forces. Baghdadi was found in Idlib province, where there are numerous Turkish military checkpoints.

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-11-01/baghdadi-raid-did-turkey-know-where-he-was-hiding-in-syria

For me do not care one way of the other….Baghdadi is dead and that is all that is important.

This looks like Bloomberg just trying to stir shit…..for it matters not what Turkey knew or did not know….Baghdadi is dead…..

His second in command is dead as well and the new leader is some dude from the the ranks that few knew of….the intel people might want to worry about this new guy more than what Turkey knew and when.

Baghdadi is DEAD….he took the cowards way out a blew himself up….Turkey had nothing to do with this event….our military people achieved their goal and took the bastard out.  PERIOD!

Turkey is trying to regain their primo spot in the elimination of ISIS after the US and the Kurds killed Baghdadi…..

Turkey announced that they have captured the older sister of the late ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The woman, identified as 65-year-old Rasmiya Awad, is being described as having suspected affiliation with an extremist group.

Turkey captured Awad in a raid in north Syria’s town of Azaz, in the Turkish-controlled part of the Aleppo Province. Officials said she is believed to be an intelligence “gold mine.”

Little is known about Baghdadi’s sister, though Turkish officials say they believe what she knows about ISIS could significantly expand understanding of the group, and facilitate more raids.

This is likely an attempt for Turkey to score a big win in anti-ISIS operations, after the US killing of Baghdadi was attributed in many reports to the Kurdish YPG sharing intelligence about him.

(antiwar.com)

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Tulsi And The Saudis

First I want to remind everyone reading this that the majority, 15 of 19, of the terrorists that attacked on 9/11 were Saudis…..

Moving on…..

My candidate in the 2020 Dem race for the nomination is Rep. Tulsi Gabbard has made the news by attacking the Saudis position on 9/11…..

Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard joined relatives of Sept. 11 victims on Tuesday in demanding that the federal government release the findings of its investigation into the Saudi government’s role in the Sept. 11 attacks.

“We are 18 years removed from this terrible crime, and the victims of this crime, the families who are here today, the American people deserve all of the evidence to fully come to light,” the Hawaii congresswoman said in New York City. She said the victims’ families “want the truth, and they deserve the truth.”

Plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit seeking the release of documents that they believe link the attackers to Saudi government officials joined Gabbard at a museum near the former site of the twin towers.

“Our government should not be invoking secrecy to keep its own mistakes hidden from the American people and should certainly not be used to protect the Saudis from embarrassment or, worse yet, accountability,” said Terry Strada, a Sept. 11 widow and the chairwoman of 9/11 Families and Survivors United for Justice Against Terrorism. “Until there is an accounting, we will never go away.”

The Saudi government has repeatedly denied involvement in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, though 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudis.

Gabbard said she would reintroduce House Resolution 663 from 2017, which would demand that documents related to Sept. 11 be declassified “to the greatest extent possible so as to provide answers to survivors, the families of the victims, and the people of the United States.”

She said she was seeking “not a highly redacted version of this information that makes no sense but a declassified version that actually speaks the truth of what led to the attack on 9/11.”

(Yahoo News)

I am with Tulsi on this one….we, the American people, need to read the full u redacted report on the attacks.

More on Tulsi vs the Saudis………

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) called for the end of U.S. assistance to Saudi Arabia while speaking at a 9/11 tribute museum in New York City on Tuesday.

“We should not be selling them our weapons. We should not be aiding or providing them with any kind of support so long as they continue with the kind of actions that I’ve just spoken about,” she said of Saudi Arabia.

The Democratic presidential candidate slammed Saudi Arabia for the death of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in its consulate in Istanbul last year as well as for its role in the conflict in Yemen.

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/467978-rep-tulsi-gabbard-demands-an-end-to-us-aid-to-saudi-arabia

For all those that think there is something hinkey between the Saudis and the attacks…then you should be in Tulsi’s corner…..

Tulsi has her critics in the MSM and any time I see someone come out and defend her like I try to do…I feel their words need exposure….

At times it’s been a decidedly lonely journey, particularly in the many years I remained on active duty while actively dissenting. I was, and remain, struck by how few of my fellow soldiers, officers and recent post-9/11 veterans felt as I did—strongly enough, at least, to publicly decry U.S. militarism. Then I discovered Tulsi Gabbard, an obscure young congresswoman from Hawaii who, coincidentally, serves in the Army and is herself a veteran of the war in Iraq. In the current climate of Gabbard-bashing, where even sites like Truthdig offer measured criticism, it’s hard to convey the profound sense of relief I felt that someone as outspokenly anti-war as Gabbard even existed way back in 2016. She said things I only dared think back then; and as I did, she backed Bernie Sanders—a risky endeavor that likely doomed her to the recent slanderous accusations of treason by Hillary Clinton. That’s called courage.

In Defense of Tulsi Gabbard

I say join with Tulsi and demand to make the report known……if there is nothing in it then release it and let the American people see the real story.

So far the rest of the Dem field is too busy trying to perform for the closest camera to worry about this situation.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

VOTE!

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

AQ Makes A Comeback

All the reporting from the MSM lately has been about the terrorist group, ISIS and very little has been reported on that other group, Al-Qaeda….

It never really left the region but a recent report points to a resurgence of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan……we are talking about AQ not the Taleban….not necessarily the same group although sympathies overlap.

We have lost our concern over AQ after the death of Osama and the rise of ISIS,,,,the world took their eye off this group of terrorists……and in doing so have made this rise possible…..

Al Qaeda has prioritized its re-entry into Afghanistan since 2014, when the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) drew down forces.[3] Al Qaeda Emir Ayman al Zawahiri announced the formation of al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) in 2014, a move intended to counter the Islamic State’s declaration of a so-called caliphate in Iraq and Syria as well as exploit the ISAF drawdown.[4] Al Qaeda’s re-entry into Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan forced the U.S. to resume counter-terrorism operations there in 2015.

Senior AQIS leaders and Taliban commanders are co-located in Afghanistan today, signaling an enduring and high-level partnership. American and Afghan forces targeted a joint Taliban-al Qaeda compound in Musah Qal’ah District, a Taliban stronghold considered the group’s de facto capital, in Helmand Province on September 22.[5] Multiple Afghan security organizations reported that the operation killed senior AQIS leader Asim Umar and a courier who connected AQIS leaders to Zawahiri. Afghanistan’s intelligence agency and a U.S. official have since confirmed Umar’s death in the raid.[6] The operation also targeted several Taliban commanders from districts in Helmand Province.[7] It is a sign of the extent of al Qaeda’s return to the area.

http://iswresearch.blogspot.com/2019/10/al-qaeda-expands-its-presence-in.html

Further Reading:

https://lobotero.com/2018/07/06/does-anyone-remember-al-qaeda/

Never turn your back on a dangerous animal……

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“Lego Ergo Scribo”