Mediaboss Marketing

WASHINGTON Three senior Islamic State military leaders and planners were killed in coalition attacks in Iraq and Syria over the past two months, the coalition fighting the militants said in a statement released by the Pentagon on Friday.

Mustafa Gunes, an Islamic State operative from Turkey, was killed in an air strike in Mayadin, Syria, on April 27, the statement said. Abu Asim al-Jazeri, an Islamic State planner from Algeria, was killed in Mayadin on May 11, it said.

Abu Khattab al-Rawi, an Islamic State military leader, was killed in al Qaim, Iraq, on May 18, the statement said. It said all three were foreign fighters but did not identify al-Rawi's home country.

(Reporting by David Alexander; Editing by Doina Chiacu)

MINYA, Egypt Egyptian air force planes on Friday carried out strikes directed at camps in Libya where Cairo believes militants responsible for a deadly attack on Christians earlier in the day were trained, Egyptian military sources said.

WASHINGTON Two Chinese fighter jets intercepted a U.S. Navy surveillance plane over the South China Sea on Wednesday, with one coming within 200 yards (180 meters) of the American aircraft, U.S. officials told Reuters.

TRIPOLI Heavy clashes erupted in the Libyan capital Tripoli on Friday, as armed groups aligned with the U.N.-backed government fought to fend off a major offensive by rival Islamist-leaning forces and militia fighters.

Originally posted here:
Three top Islamic State militants killed in Iraq, Syria: Pentagon - Reuters

IRBIL, Iraq The U.S. Army failed to properly keep tracks of hundreds of humvees, tens of thousands of rifles and other pieces of military equipment that were sent to Iraq, according to a governmentaudit from 2016 that was obtained by Amnesty International and released Wednesday.

The price of the equipment meant to equip the Iraqi army, Shiite militias and the Kurdish peshmerga totaled more than $1 billion.

This audit provides a worrying insight into the U.S. Armys flawed and potentially dangerous system for controlling millions of dollars worth of arms transfers to a hugely volatile region, Patrick Wilcken, Amnesty Internationals Arms Control and Human Rights researcher, said in an emailed statement.

[Tracking U.S. weapons grows harder in the fog of Iraqs fragmented war]

The arms and equipment transfers were apart of the Iraq Train and Equip Fund, a program that initially appropriated $1.6 billionunder the 2015 National Defense Authorization Act to help Iraqi forces combat the rise of the Islamic State. The 2017 act is slated to lend$919.5 million to the fund.

The audit found that improper record-keeping, including duplicatedspreadsheets, handwritten receipts and a lack of a central database to track the transfers, contributed to the reportsfindings. Additionally, the audit claimed that under the Iraqi Train and Equip Fund, once the equipment was transferredto the government of Iraq, the Pentagon no longer had to monitor the materialas it was no longer U.S. government property.

While likely not an issue for things such as uniform items and body armor, the lack of any post-transfer accountability on U.S. arms and munitions raises the chances for illicitdiversion from the intended supply chain. Currently, the Middle East is awash in U.S. weapons and equipment, and with President Trumps decision to equip Kurdish forces in Syria with more weapons, it is unclear whether the United States has learned from any of its past mistakes in the region.

The need for post-delivery checks is vital, Wilcken said. Any fragilities along the transfer chain greatly increase the risks of weapons going astray in a region where armed groups have wrought havoc and caused immense human suffering.

The audit said the training and equipment fundsmanagementhad initiateda two-step corrective action plan to implement visibility and accountability systems following concerns raised by the Pentagons inspector general. The audit does not detail what the corrective actions might entail. However, it wouldlikely include greater oversight by the Pentagons End Use Monitoring division. The division runs the Golden Sentry Program, with the intended purpose ofmonitoring the transfer and stockpiles of U.S. equipment that is providedto other countries.

[Afghanistan may have lost track of more than 200,000 weapons]

A 2015 audit on the Iraq Train and Equip Fund found similar issues, including almost no record-keeping on the Iraqi side.

Iain Overton, a former BBC journalist, and histeam of researchers pulled 14 years of Pentagon contracts, revealing that the United States has supplied more than 1.45 million firearms to various armed groupsin Afghanistan and Iraq, according to a New York Times magazine report. Those includemore than 978,000 assault rifles, 266,000 pistols and almost 112,000 machine guns. It is unclear how many of those remain in possession of their intended recipients.

Read more:

Mosul residents say U.S.-led coalition airstrikes killed scores of people

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news

View post:
U.S. failed to keep proper track of more than $1 billion in weapons and - Washington Post

A U.S. Air Force MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle sits in a shelter at Joint Base Balad, Iraq in this file photo. An investigation by The Associated Press this month found that Sallyport Global fired two of its investigators after they uncovered evidence of the trafficking as well as alcohol smuggling and major security violations at Balad Air Base. Photo by REUTERS/U.S. Air Force/Tech. Sgt. Erik Gudmundson/Handout.

WASHINGTON A congressional investigative panel is demanding documents and testimony from an embattled U.S. defense contractor accused of failing to promptly disclose human trafficking on a base in Iraq.

An investigation by The Associated Press this month found that Sallyport Global fired two of its investigators after they uncovered evidence of the trafficking as well as alcohol smuggling and major security violations at Balad Air Base.

In a letter to Sallyports Chief Executive Officer, Victor Esposito, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform ordered Sallyport to turn over an extensive list of documents and to make company representatives available to answer questions before June 9. The letter signed by the committees chairman, Jason Chaffetz, a Republican, and top Democrat, Elijah Cummings, cited the APs reporting.

The allegations include prostitution, alcohol smuggling, timesheet fraud, concealment from Department of Defense auditors, and retaliation against employees whose duty it was to investigate these allegations, the letter says.

Sallyport Global Holdings was paid nearly $700 million in federal contracts to secure Balad Air Base, home to a squadron of F-16 fighter jets as part of the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State group.

In a statement, Sallyport Chief Operating Officer Matt Stuckart said the company looked forward to speaking to the panel.

The allegations include prostitution, alcohol smuggling, timesheet fraud, concealment from Department of Defense auditors, and retaliation against employees whose duty it was to investigate these allegations.

Sallyport takes any suggestion of wrongdoing at Balad Air Force Base in Iraq very seriously and strongly disputes the claims made by two former employees, said Matt Stuckart, Chief Operating Officer. Since taking over operations January 2014, Sallyport has helped turn Balad Air Base into an instrumental part of the fight against ISIS.

In their letter, the lawmakers wrote, Protecting American troops and facilities abroad is a solemn responsibility. They then raised concerns about the fired investigators charge that the company shut down their investigations.

Making matters worse, according to the report, Sallyport management short-circuited internal investigations and fired the employees responsible for them when they requested to interview Sallyport management suspected of wrongdoing, they wrote.

After the APs report, the company denied the allegation that company managers had shut down an investigation into alcohol smuggling and human trafficking. They later acknowledged that after learning that the original probe had been stopped, lawyers had asked for a second investigation into new reports of prostitution on the base.

According to the investigators original report in February 2016, four Ethiopian women who were suspected of working at a hotel in Baghdad as prostitutes moved to the base after customers at the hotel complained about contracting sexually transmitted diseases. Those customers included Sallyport employees, the investigators said.

The House panel is also scrutinizing allegations raised in another AP investigation that contractors have reported fraudulent data in a key military program to counter IS propaganda online.

Based in Reston, Virginia, Sallyport was founded in 2003 to work in Iraq on reconstruction, and has since expanded its operations globally.

Read the original:
Lawmakers demand documents, testimony from U.S. contractor in Iraq sex trafficking case - PBS NewsHour

Iraq's Interior Ministry said it launched an investigation into allegations of human rights violations perpetrated by its forces fighting the Islamic State group in Mosul.

The allegations were first reported by Germany's Der Spiegel magazine last weekend. The report, authored by an Iraqi photographer reportedly embedded with the police unit, claims he witnessed killing, torture and rape of IS suspects.

The ministry's spokesman, Brig. Gen Saad Maan, said on Tuesday that the newspaper report identifies the Emergency Response Division an elite unit that answers to the Interior Ministry and has been closely backed by the U.S.-led coalition in the Mosul fight as the perpetrator of the abuses. Maan did not give a time frame for the investigating but said "legal measures will be applied ... against wrongdoers."

An officer with the ERD reached by The Associated Press said his unit is not authorized to comment and that all inquiries should be directed to the Interior Ministry. In other developments, Amnesty International released a report on Wednesday saying the U.S. Army in Iraq and Kuwait failed to keep track of more a $1 billion worth of arms and other military equipment provided to forces in the fight against IS, according to a 2016 Department of Defense audit obtained by the rights group.

The report "makes for especially sobering reading, given the long history of leakage of U.S. arms to multiple armed groups committing atrocities in Iraq, including the armed group calling itself the Islamic State," said Patrick Wilcken, a researcher with Amnesty. Iraq's ERD forces have been closely backed by airstrikes from the U.S.-led coalition in the fight to retake Mosul. Coalition forces also shared surveillance and intelligence information with the forces to aid in their advances on the city's eastern and western sides.

Following the Interior Ministry statement, Brett McGurk, U.S. envoy for the global coalition against IS, said Iraqi security forces have "bravely placed civilian protection as top priority" throughout the Mosul campaign but that "individuals or units failing to uphold that standard ... must be investigated and held accountable."

U.S.-backed Iraqi forces are closing in on the last IS held neighborhoods in western Mosul nearly three years after the extremists overran almost a third of Iraq in 2014. With the help of more than 12,000 airstrikes and $12.5 billion dollars in training, logistics and support from the U.S.-led coalition, in addition to Iranian training and support, Iraqi forces have retaken more than half of the territory IS once held in the country.

The operation to retake Mosul was launched in October and the city's east was declared "fully liberated" in January.

Associated Press writers Geir Moulson in Berlin and Susannah George in Baghdad contributed to this report.

Read more:
Iraq probes allegations of human rights violations in Mosul - ABC ... - ABC News

Master Sergeant Roberto Oquendo Castro, a Hawthorne resident, will be honored at the borough's Memorial Day parade for serving in the New Jersey National Air Guard. Oquendo Castro also received a proclamation during the May 17 council meeting. Lindsey Kelleher/NorthJersey.com

Master Sergeant Roberto Castro, right, was honored during a recent Hawthorne Council meeting for his service in Iraq. He will be honored this Memorial Day at the Borough's annual parade.(Photo: Lindsey Kelleher/NorthJersey.com)

Master Sgt.Robert Oquendo Castro has been to Iraq.

Oquendo Castro has also been to Kuwait.

And Kyrgyzstanand Afghanistan.

Oquendo Castro was deployed a total of 11 times to Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, Egypt, Qatar, Kuwait and Iraq between 2000 and 2010 as part of the New Jersey National Air Guard, 108th Civil Engineer Squadron.

For his service, the Hawthorne resident will be honored at the borough's annual Memorial Day parade.

The parade will begin at 1:30 p.m. Mondayat the intersection of Rea and Lafayette avenues and will end at Hawthorne Borough Hall. A service will startat noon.

Oquendo Castro received a proclamation during the Hawthorne Borough Council meeting May 17. In return, he presented an American flag, a New Jersey flagand a Borough of Hawthorne flag,which had been displayed in Iraq for a week in April 2010, when he was stationed there. The flags will be mounted on borough property.

Master Sergeant Roberto Oquendo Castro, a Hawthorne resident, has a pin to show that he served in the New Jersey Air National Guard. He was deployed to Sather Air Base in Iraq. He was deployed 11 times between 2000 and 2010 in support to Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation New Dawn, and Operation Desert Storm.(Photo: Lindsey Kelleher/NorthJersey.com)

In an interview, Mayor Richard Goldberg recalled when he first met Oquendo Castro at Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida.

"We ate lunch and talked together," Goldberg recalled. "Then we flew back to New Jersey together."

That December, Oquendo Castro went back to the McGuire Air Force Base in Fort Dix, where he trained until he was deployed to the Sather Air Base in Iraq the following month.

In an interview, he recalled a tense moment whenthe Taliban threw an improvised explosive device into the base. Luckily, he said, servicemen locatedthe device and deactivated it before it could injureanyone.

"We were one of the last units to get out," when President Barack Obama closed the base and started to send the troops home, said Oquendo Castro.

While he was serving in Kyrgyzstan, a Taliban attack on his base was repelled by fighter planes.

"We saw the flash from the mountain coming at us. The mountain lit up like Christmas lights," he said.

The troop he was inresponded quickly, firing back from eight to 10 fighter planes.

"Since that day, they never shot as us again," he said.

Hawthorne resident's book shares stories of veterans

Texas man visits Hawthorne to see street named for his father

Oquendo Castro was born in Puerto Ricoand joined the Puerto Rico Air National Guard with the 140th Air Control Command in Punta Salinas, according to his proclamation. He was transferred to the New Jersey Air National Guard in 1991, andserved until he retired in September 2016.

Oquendo Castro now works forthe U.S. Postal Service.

The Borough of Hawthorne frequently honors military members and police officers with proclamations during council meetings. Some fallen service members havebeen honored with sections of streets named after them.

Read or Share this story: https://njersy.co/2rO50Lc

Go here to see the original:
Hawthorne honors Iraq War veteran - NorthJersey.com