Category: Terror War

Mick sends us a link from Fox News which reports that USS Nitze, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, fired cruise missiles at, and destroyed radar installations on the coast of Yemen that had been targeting missiles on US ships that were in international waters.

Cook said President Barack Obama authorized the strikes at the recommendation of Defense Secretary Ash Carter and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joseph Dunford. He added that these were limited self-defense strikes conducted to protect U.S. personnel, ships and freedom of navigation.

Meanwhile, the state news agency Saba— under Houthis’ control— quoted an unnamed military official as saying that US accusations that a US destroyer had come under attack from areas under control of Houthis were false. He said, “all these claims are totally untrue and that the popular committees (Houthi militias) have nothing to do with such action.”

There is no word on casualties related to the strike on Iranian-backed Houthi installations – my guess would be “not enough”.

The UK’s Daily Mail reports that Jaber Albakr, the Syrian arrested last weekend after an improvised explosive was found in his apartment and he went on the run until he was captured by fellow Syrian refugees, has killed himself while he was in the custody of German authorities;

An ISIS migrant who planned a bomb attack at an airport in Germany has taken his own life while in police custody, according to judicial sources.

[…]

It was not yet clear how he had killed himself, the German news website Spiegel reported.

So, I guess we’ll never know why he planned to bomb something in Germany. Another perplexing riddle.

The Daily Mail says that Germany accepted 800,000 Syrian refuges were last year and Jaber Albakr was one of them.

David sends us a link to the news that the Defense Department is considering action against the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen who perpetrated a guided missile attack on USS Mason and USS Ponce in the Red Sea the other day;

Captain Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said today that the U.S. is still assessing who fired missiles at the destroyer when it was in the Red Sea on Sunday.

“Anytime anyone engages a U.S. Navy ship at sea in hostility … they do so at great peril to themselves,” said Davis.

Asked if that could mean retaliatory strikes against those responsible for firing the missiles, Davis said, “Those things are things that we’re looking at.”

“We want very much to get to the bottom of what happened,” said Davis. “We’re going to find out who did this, and we’ll take action accordingly.”

I’m sure that those guys who fired the missiles are shaking in their boots at this point in anticipation of receiving a strongly worded letter from John Kerry promising to sail closer to shore next time.

UPDATE: It looks like MASON fired two missiles in retaliation.

After being targeted by two missile launches off the coast of Yemen, the USS Mason, a guided missile destroyer, fired two missiles in defense.

The USS Mason fired missiles defending itself and the USS Ponce, an amphibious dock ship, after it detected inbound cruise missiles presumably fired from Houthi militants on shore in Yemen.

According to the Washington Post, Donald Trump urged the Pentagon to stop telegraphing their intents in Iraq. Specifically, in Mosul. The armchair generals at the Post write that Trump doesn’t know what he’s talking about;

“The biggest problem I have with the stupidity of our foreign policy, we have Mosul. They think a lot of the ISIS leaders are in Mosul,” Trump said, using an alternate name for the militant group. “So we have announcements coming out of Washington and coming out of Iraq: We will be attacking Mosul in three weeks or four weeks. Well, all of these bad leaders from ISIS are leaving Mosul. Why can’t they do it quietly?”

He later added: “How stupid is our country?”

[CNN’s armchair general Martha] Raddatz countered that there could be reasons military commanders have elected to share details about the planned mission, including “psychological operations,” in which information is selectively shared to achieve a desired outcome. She cited allowing civilians to flee as one example — a strong possibility in Mosul, a city of more than 1 million people.

Well, another thing that could happen is we give enough warning beforehand so that the ISIS folks have to time booby-trap the city, dig earthen fortifications and tunnels from which to defend the city from the US troops and Iraqis tasked to take the city back. In fact, that’s what they’re doing, according to Reuters;

Islamic State militants have placed booby traps across the city of Mosul, dug tunnels and recruited children as spies in anticipation of an offensive to dislodge the jihadists from their Iraqi stronghold, Iraqis and U.S. officials said.

[…]

The battle for the city, expected later this month, will help shape the future of Iraq and the legacy of U.S. President Barack Obama. Even if Islamic State is driven out, there is a real danger of sectarian strife, especially if civilian casualties are high in a mainly Sunni city wary of the Shi-ite led Iraqi government and the Shi’ite militias it depends on.

The jihadists, who swept into Mosul almost unopposed two years ago as Iraqi forces fled, have rigged its five bridges with explosives, prepared car bombs and suicide attackers and stepped up surveillance, according to four residents who spoke via telephone or social media.

The Kurds are well-acquainted with ISIS’ unexploded ordnance.

“The strongest weapon they (the militants) have is the bombs left behind. The main fight for the Peshmerga against ISIS is avoiding the bombs left behind by them. Each time the Peshmerga take a village they see a lot of bombs,” [Peshmerga General Salar] Taymour said.

Last month, a Peshmerga explosives expert told Rudaw that Kurdish bomb disposal teams have defused more than 13,000 booby traps and landmines left behind by ISIS since the start of the war in August 2014.

He said that, in addition to improvised explosives and landmines, the Peshmerga have also defused 800 munitions, cleared 240 homes of bombs, and destroyed six tons of TNT. He added that, on average, Peshmerga bomb disposal teams defuse more than 17 bombs per day.

Maybe we can get the Washington Post editorial staff and Martha Raddatz to lead the troops into Mosul since they have such a firm grasp of the intent of the operation. It should be a clean sweep.

Thanks to Chief Tango for the links.

UPI reports that Mahin Atif Khan pleaded guilty to planning a terrorist attack in the Tucson, Arizona area in support of ISIS;

Khan, 18, who the government said has pledged his allegiance to the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, ISIL and Daesh, was accused of writing e-mails to an alleged member of the Pakistan Taliban, looking for help to build explosives and plan their use.

Rather than militants overseas, Khan was actually talking to FBI agents for several months while planning a “lone jihad attack,” telling the agents he’d been considering a Jewish Community Center and Air Force recruitment Center in Tucson and the Motor Vehicle Division office in Mesa as potential targets.

From Arizona Central;

Mahin Atif Khan pleaded guilty to inciting or inducing terrorism, financing or managing terrorism, and to manufacturing, possessing or selling a prohibited weapon, court records show.

[…]

At various points, Khan said he was eyeing a Jewish community center and an Air Force recruitment center in Tucson for attacks, as well as the state Motor Vehicle Division office in Mesa, [FBI agent Benjamin] Trentlage said.

From CR Connection;

Khan ultimately set his sights on a Division of Motor Vehicles office in the Phoenix area, reasoning that relatively light security and crowded conditions there offered the best chance of inflicting high casualties, prosecutors said in court.

He’s looking at five to ten years and a period of supervised probation upon release. He changed his “not guilty” plea to guilty after reaching a deal with prosecutors. Yay! Justice auctioning wins again.

If these guys ever decide to quit asking the FBI how to commit terrorist acts, we’re going to be in trouble.

The other day we talked about Syrian-born Jaber Albakr who was found to have an explosive device in his apartment. He went on the run while German authorities conducted a manhunt for him. Today we learn from the German press that he was captured. Two other Syrians subdued him and tied him up for the German police;

The men invited Albakr to their apartment after he approached them at Leipzig train station, but later realized that their guest was being sought when police broadcast an appeal for help in Arabic, Bild newspaper said.

One of the two hosts quickly telephoned police while another tied Albakr to the sofa he was sitting on in the living room.

When they noticed that he had almost managed to undo the knots, the Syrians rang police again.

When police stormed the apartment, the officers found one of the Syrians kneeling on Albakr to hold him down, said Bild.

Albakr has been in Germany since February last year when he was granted asylum. German police have connected him to ISIS and they’ve arrested a couple of others who worked with him.

The Associated Press reports that Syrian-born Jaber Albakr is on the run in Germany after Investigators found a fairly large bomb he had made in an apartment in the eastern city of Chemnitz.

Authorities have not said where they think the suspected attack was going to take place.

The German news agency dpa reported, citing unidentified German security sources, that the suspect is believed to be connected to Islamic extremist groups. Bernhardt said, however, that police are still trying to determine what his motivation might be and would only say he was “known” to German intelligence.

Authorities released no details about how long the suspect had been in Germany, and Bernhardt said it was unclear whether he had come in the wave of asylum-seekers in 2015. Germany took in 890,000 asylum-seekers last year, and Syrians fleeing civil war were the single largest group.

Three associates of his are being questioned in hopes of finding him so we can fix the problems that may have influenced him to build a bomb. I’m sure that a meaningful job or an increase in his monthly stipend could have prevented this, you know, because deep inside, he’s probably grateful for the relative peace that German tax payers provide for the military-aged Syrian.