CENTCOM: US, Iraqi Security Forces Kill 15 ISIS Operatives; In Yemen, Two Shia Houthi Drones Destroyed
A UH-60 Black Hawk flies during a 2022 mission targeting ISIS. (MAJ Karl R. Cain II/ US Army)
CENTCOM forces and Iraqi Security Forces conducted a partnered raid in Western Iraq in the early hours of 29 Aug, resulting in the death of 15 ISIS operatives. Seven US casualties were reported. The ISIS element was armed with numerous weapons, grenades, and explosive “suicide” belts. There is no indication of civilian casualties or if any prisoners were taken for interrogation or prosecution. Iraqi Security Forces continue to further exploit the locations raided. CENTCOM also reported in the past 24 hours they destroyed two Iranian-backed Houthi uncrewed aerial vehicles in a Houthi-controlled area of Yemen.
The Houthis are a Shia Muslim minority in Yemen, seen as heretical by the majority Sunnis Muslims on the Saudi Peninsula. After the Yemen government collapsed earlier this century, Saudi Arabia, led by the king and Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman (MBS), supported the Yemeni Sunnis in the ensuing civil war. After the Yemeni Shias defeated and humiliated the Saudi Army in 2015, MBS instituted a Saudi air and naval blockade of Houthi-controlled territory in Yemen. This created an appalling humanitarian disaster of starvation and disease. The UN estimates 130,000 deaths from lack of food, health services, and infrastructure as of December 2020.
Hashem Mahmoud Atin, a 10-month-old displaced child suffering from acute malnutrition and who is unable to reach a hospital for treatment, is held by his mother at a refugee camp in Yemen. (2020 image: Sky News).
The famine and blockade propelled the beleaguered Shia Yemenis into the arms of Iran and Lebanese Hezbollah, their fellow Shia co-religionists. This is why we see Houthi drone counterattacks against Western maritime targets in the Red Sea or the Gulf of Aden after Israel conducts an Extra-Judicial Killing (XJK) in Lebanon, Syria, or sovereign Iranian territory (via drone, missile, jet, or assassin). The Shia Houthis are simply supporting the two groups that are helping them to survive. This humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen can be laid squarely at the feet of the notorious MBS, who allegedly had a dissident journalist named Jamal Khashoggi literally butchered and dismembered in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on 2 Oct 2018.
Sources:
15 ISIS militants killed, 7 US troops injured during Iraq raid (airforcetimes.com)
The Houthis: Who They Are and Why Conflict Exists (brookings.edu)
Famine in Yemen (2016–present) – Wikipedia
Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi – Wikipedia
Hundreds of Taiwanese Disappear in China Like a Black Hole Over Past Ten Years
Victims of enforced disappearance in China (L to R) rights attorney Gao Zhisheng, retired university professor Sun Wenguang, 2022 bridge banner protester Peng Lifa, and the 11th Panchen Lama.
More than 800 nationals of democratic Taiwan have “disappeared” over the past ten years in China, which has long used forced disappearances to silence and control its own dissidents and rights activists, rights groups. Figures compiled by the Taiwan Association for Human Rights and several other non-government groups showed that 857 Taiwan nationals have been “forcibly disappeared or arbitrarily arrested” in China.
The victims include publisher Li Yanhe (pen name Fu Cha), detained in Shanghai since April 2023, democracy activist Lee Ming-cheh, who served a five-year jail term in Hunan province for “attempting to subvert state power,” and businessman Lee Meng-Chu, jailed for nearly two years for “espionage” after he snapped photos of People’s Armed Police personnel during the 2019 Hong Kong protests.
Meanwhile, Taiwanese lawmaker Hung Shen-han warned that it’s not only Taiwanese who are at risk of arbitrary arrest and “disappearance” in China. “Chinese citizens themselves face the same problem.”
Geng He, the US-based wife of human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng said it has been seven years since he “disappeared” on 13 Aug 2017.
Disappeared Chinese rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng in an undated photo. (Weiquanwang)
Chinese authorities have also forcibly disappeared Uyghurs and Tibetans in the far-western part of mainland China. An estimated 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims have been detained in Xinjiang under flimsy pretexts during mass incarcerations that began more than seven years ago in an effort by Chinese authorities in a massive Sinicization project.
Former Xinjiang University President Tashpolat Teyip, who himself vanished in 2017 amid rumors he had run afoul of China’s increasingly hardline policies in Xinjiang has had no news about his brother, Nury, who also fell victim to an enforced disappearance. Teyip, who now lives in the US state of Virginia, said he has lost faith in the UN and international human rights organizations which did little to help except release a statement.
The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy highlighted a “disturbing trend” of underreporting of the number of Tibetans who are victims of enforced disappearances as China cracks down more heavily with restrictions and heightened surveillance in Tibet. The rights group has documented more than 63 known cases of Tibetans subjected to enforced disappearance in Tibet over the past four years, but said the underreporting likely had to do with fear of reprisals.
In February 2024, Tibetan performer Gyegjom Dorjee (pictured below), who sang publicly about the exiled Dalai Lama’s return to Tibet and blasted Chinese leaders as “false,” was arrested in China’s Sichuan province.
In March, Chinese police arrested Pema, a Tibetan monk from Kirti Monastery, for staging a solo protest while holding a portrait of the Dalai Lama. And on May 28, the Chinese authorities arrested Rabgang Tenzin who hoisted the Tibetan national flag in Tibet’s Chamdo prefecture as part of a consecration ceremony.
The U.S. Congressional Executive Commission on China and the Tibetan government in exile urged Beijing to reveal the whereabouts of one of the highest Tibetan Buddhist leaders, the 11th Panchen Lama, or Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, as one of the “most prominent enforced disappearance cases.” He was abducted by Chinese authorities in May 1995, just days after the Dalai Lama recognized the then six-year-old as the 11th reincarnation of the Panchen Lama, the second-highest spiritual leader in the largest sect of Tibetan Buddhism.
Source:
Hundreds of Taiwanese ‘disappear’ in China over past 10 years — Radio Free Asia (rfa.org)
Since Its War in Ukraine, Russia Relies More on “Bargain Basement” Spies
Pablo Gonzalez (second from left in back), a freelance journalist from Spain, listens to Russian President Vladimir Putin addressing him and other “swapped” Russian prisoners upon their arrival in Moscow on 1 Aug 2024. (Imagery: Radio Free Europe)
After Russia lost many of its valuable spy assets when dozens of diplomats were expelled from Western countries after the invasion of Ukraine, non-diplomatic civilian agents have now become essential. 90% of operations now carried out by these shadowy figures.
Many manage to avoid detection by working in innocuous jobs that allow them access to events and people of interest to Moscow. One purpose of these low-level spies is to exert influence on the Western world by infiltrating radical protest groups or opposition organizations.
A recent prisoner swap with Moscow included supposed art dealers and a Spanish-Russian freelance reporter Pablo Gonzalez, also known as Pavel Rubtsov.
On the surface, Pablo Gonzalez worked as a reporter for media outlets that included Deutsche Welle (DW) and the Voice of America (VOA), specializing in Eastern Europe and the Caucasus. But in reality, according to the head of the British MI6 secret service, Gonzalez was gathering information on Russian opposition groups and trying to destabilize Ukraine in the run up to Moscow’s full-scale invasion. Polish authorities detained Gonzalez in February 2022. Until 1 August, he was held in a high-security jail on charges of spying for Russia — allegations he had denied.
Media watchdogs condemned the conditions in which Poland held Gonzalez, but video footage of him being welcomed by Putin after the swap appeared to confirm his primary role was spy craft, not journalism.
Marc Marginedas, a correspondent for Spanish newspaper El Periodico, said despite the expulsions of Russian diplomats after the Ukraine invasion, the Russian intelligence service is like a small army. Staff in Russian embassies and state-run media organizations are probably forced to work in some kind of intelligence capacity. Marginedas agreed that “illegals” or “bargain basement” agents are now a mainstay of Moscow’s spying operation.
“Russia has invested heavily in ‘illegal’ agents who do not enjoy diplomatic protection,” he said. “Putin, by receiving those people with pomp at [Moscow’s] airport and promising them jobs and medals, was sending out the message to the future spies that the Russian state will not abandon its spies.”
Sources:
‘Renaissance of illegals’: Since its war in Ukraine, Russia is relying more on bargain basement spies (voanews.com)
Putin’s welcome ends speculation around true identity of Pablo Gonzalez
South Africans Flocking to Visiting Chinese Hospital Ship for Free Medical Care
The Peace Ark has a capacity to treat 700 patients each day and the service forms part of a joint exercise between the South African and Chinese armies. (Image: BBC)
As reported above, while undesirables are disappearing in China, Beijing is fostering goodwill in Africa with the Peace Ark, a 300-bed hospital that is docked in Capetown, South Africa. The military medical staff on board are providing free health care to needy South Africans.
Since the Peace Ark arrived last week, more than 2,000 South Africans have been treated on board – ranging from maternity check-ups and cataract surgeries to cupping therapy. Approximately 60 surgeries have been carried out so far, a tiny dent in the province’s waiting list of 80,000 patients.
The floating hospital leaves Cape Town for Angola before moving on to several other countries. The Peace Ark already visited the Seychelles, Tanzania, Madagascar, and Mozambique on this 10th excursion since being commissioned in 2008.
China enjoys a strong political partnership with South Africa, and this is Beijing’s latest show of soft power and a further step in China’s efforts to increase its influence on the African continent.
The 300-bed Peace Ark has a crew of 100, 20 intensive care beds, operating theatres, clinical departments, and a rescue helicopter.
Source:
Peace Ark: South Africans flock to Chinese hospital ship in Cape Town (bbc.com)
West Nile Virus Kills Two in New Jersey as US Death Toll Reaches Five; EEE Threatens New England
Two people have died in New Jersey after contracting West Nile virus — marking the fourth and fifth deaths in the US this year from the mosquito-borne disease. Little is known about the victims, beyond that they’ve been identified as “older adults.”
The deaths come on the heels of two virus-related fatalities in Wisconsin and one in Illinois. There have been a total of eight West Nile cases in New Jersey this year, leading to seven hospitalizations for encephalitis or meningitis. In 2023, 14 cases were reported in New Jersey and one death. NYC has reported six cases of West Nile and a total of 20 cases have been reported throughout NYS.
To the north as reported in a previous post, New England health authorities have been dealing with mosquitos carrying eastern equine encephalitis (EEE). Vermont’s health department is urging residents of several towns, including one bordering Quebec, to stay indoors from dusk to dawn to prevent the spread of a mosquito-borne illness.
Sources:
West Nile kills 2 in NJ — 5 total dead across US (nypost.com)
Quebec towns near U.S. border alerted as Vermont faces mosquito-borne illness threat | CBC News
Jews and Arabs Hoped to Fill One Truck with Aid for Gaza Civilians. They filled 300.
Haviva Ner-David (R) with other Standing Together volunteers collecting humanitarian aid for civilians in Gaza at Umm al-Fahem, a mostly Arab Israeli city in the Haifa district, 11 Aug 2024. (Photo: Faisel Mahagneh)
Standing Together, a joint Jewish-Arab Israeli national activist movement working for peace, equality and justice, had a plan to hire one big truck to go from one Arab town to another across Israel collecting donations of supplies. These would then be transported across the border and distributed to Gazan civilians through an international organization.
But already at the first site in northern Arab city of Sakhnin, it became clear more than one truck would be needed and volunteers filled three trucks. At Umm El Fahem, these volunteers collected 29 trucks full of aid. Donations included tuna fish, baby formula, bags of legumes and flour, as well as packages of diapers and menstrual pads. By the end of the humanitarian aid drive, which was extended a few extra days to include a couple more sites, Standing Together filled 300 trucks with supplies.
Before the war, back in January 2023, Standing Together organized the first mass demonstration against the government in Tel Aviv, drawing thousands of Arabs and Jews.
Humanitarian aid collected for civilians in Gaza at a warehouse in Umm al-Fahem, Israel, Aug. 11, 2024. (Jacob Ner-David)
Source:
American Warzone: NFL Rookie Wounded During Robbery Attempt in San Francisco
San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Ricky Pearsall during NFL football training camp in Santa Clara, Calif., Wednesday, 31 July 2024. Photo by: Jeff Chiu/AP
America’s two favorite pastimes, firearms and football, collided this weekend when 49ers wide receiver Ricky Pearsall (23) was shot Saturday during an attempted robbery in central San Francisco. Police said that Pearsall was injured while being robbed and so was the suspect. Both were taken to the hospital and Pearsall’s condition was reported as “good” by his teammate Deebo Samuel (posted on X).
In an average year, 3,299 people die and 9,787 are wounded by guns in California. The Golden State has the 32nd-highest rate of gun violence in the US. Per CBS News, California firearms licenses in 2021 numbered 406,360 and an estimated 28.3% of adults in California have guns in their homes. The number of illegal firearms in California is unknown.
Sources:
San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Ricky Pearsall shot during attempted robbery (scrippsnews.com)
Gun-Violence-in-California-2024-05.pdf (everystat.org)
4. California – Gun map: Ownership by state – statistics and rates (cbsnews.com)
Baby Rhino’s First Video: Southern White Calf Born in Melbourne Zoo
The new rhino calf will be named by public vote in the coming weeks. His mother, Kipenzi, means “precious one” in Swahili. Imagery: Werribee Open Range Zoo
Kipenzi is an 11-year-old southern white rhino, one of the most numerous rhino subspecies. Her calf was born on 18 Aug, and unlike her first baby which she tragically rejected years ago, she has been an attentive mother this time around.
Sheltered from public view as the two bond, visitors will soon be able to see the new boy stomping about his enclosure. Dr. Mark Pilgrim, the zoo’s director, said that Kipenzi was “doing her best to shepherd it and keep it close to her, and making sure that it’s not wandering off too far. So she’s just doing the perfect thing we expect a mother rhino to do.”
Kipenzi herself was born at Werribee Zoo in 2013 to resident rhino Sisi, who also presented a danger to her calf as she would not let Kipenzi out of her sight, even just to walk alongside her to nurse.
Source:
Coriolanus 