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THNEIBEH, Jordan: Jordan is deploying more forces to face a growing threat to its borders, as Daesh extremists in neighboring Iraq and Syria are being dislodged from some strongholds, the commander of the kingdoms border guards said Thursday. The Daesh group, which seized large parts of Iraq and Syria in 2014, is under intense military pressure in both countries and has lost significant territory in recent months. US-backed Iraqi forces recently announced the recapture of the eastern side of Mosul, the northern city where they have been waging a three-month-old offensive. Brig. Gen. Sami Kafawin, commander of Jordans border forces, said he expects some of the retreating Daesg fighters to make their way to southern Syria, close to Jordan. Daesh-affiliated groups already hold positions in southern Syria, some a few hundred meters from the border, the commander said, ahead of a tour of military positions along the western-most stretch of Jordans border with Syria. One such position, Thneibeh, faces the small Syrian village of Qusair, across the Yarmouk River. Qusair is controlled by an Daesh-affiliated group, said Col. Rami Sondos, a border official. Another Syrian village, separated from Qusair by a deep ravine, is run by Syrian rebels. The Syrian groups mostly fight each other, trading fire between the two villages, as the Jordanian troops observe. During Thursdays visit, a soldier perched on a lookout in a watchtower monitored the villages through large, mounted binoculars. A camera used at night can detect movement eight kilometers (five miles) into Syria, while cameras mounted at other border posts have a reach of 20 kilometers, Sondos said. Infiltration attempts from Syria, including by drug smugglers suspected of ties to the militants, have so far been one of the biggest threats, border officials said. Kafawin said that if more Daesh fighters reach southern or eastern Syria, we expect everything to be armed, to be dangerous, to become a real threat to the Jordan borders, including possible car bombs and suicide attacks. Jordan, which is part of a US-led anti-Daesh military coalition, has been deploying more and more forces to the borders, currently close to half the militarys personnel and resources, the commander said. This is a sharp increase from before the 2011 outbreak of the Syria conflict, he added.

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Jordan boosts border forces amid Daesh threat from Iraq, Syria - Arab News

A high-ranking member of the United Nations gang has been deported to his native Iraq after finishing his sentence for plotting to kill the Bacon brothers.

Postmedia has learned that Barzan Tilli-Choli, who came to Canada as a teenager in 1999, was transported to Iraq on Tuesday by officers with the Canada Border Services Agency.

On Monday, he left Kent prison in the Fraser Valley, where he was serving his term after pleading guilty in July 2013 to conspiracy to commit murder.

His deportation was not a surprise.

Two years ago, Immigration and Refugee Board member Marc Tessler told Tilli-Choli he had no choice but to order the gangsters removal from Canada because of his serious conviction and the fact he was not a Canadian citizen.

Then last August, two Parole Board of Canada members concluded that there was no need to keep Tilli-Choli incarcerated beyond his statutory release date this month because he was going to be deported to Iraq.

They were provided with a psychologists report from July that said Tilli-Choli was a low risk of re-offending if you are to be removed to your home country, although your risk would be significantly higher if you were to remain in Canada.

Tilli-Choli also provided the parole board with support letters from relatives inIraq.

Barzan Tilli-Choli in undated jail photo

He was sentenced to 14 years minus almost nine years as double credit for the 4 years he spent in pre-trial custody, for a net term of five years and three months.

Tilli-Choli was later identified in a related prosecution as the shooter who blasted an AK-47 atJonathan Barberin Burnaby in May 2008, killing the stereo installer who had been mistaken for one of the Bacons.

WhenTilli-Choliwas arrested in March 2009, he had photos of the Bacons on his iPhone. He was also captured on wiretaps attempting to get a gun for an attack on a limousine the Bacons were in following a January 2009 concert in downtown Vancouver.

The Pigs gangsters are here, man,Tilli-Cholisaid in the recording.He also said that whoever was in the limo is gonna get shot.

A month later, Tilli-Choliand others shot up the vehicle of another Bacon associate outside T-Barz strip club in Surrey.

Tilli-Choliwas born in the Kurdistan province ofIraqand came to Canada as a 17-year-old.

Staff Sgt. Lindsey Houghton, of the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, said Tilli-Choli is just one of several gangsters living in B.C. who have recently been deported because of serious criminality.

We have seen several people and families come to Canada in the past and they make the choice to involve themselves in gangs, organized crime, and violent lifestyles, Houghton said. These choices not only lead to tragic ends for many of those involved, but can also lead to those people being removed from Canada.

kbolan@postmedia.com

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REAL SCOOP: Barzan Tilli-Choli sent back to Iraq - Vancouver Sun (blog)

A member of the Iraqi special forces patrols a street in eastern Mosul. Photograph: Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty

Iraqi government troops say they are in full control of east Mosul three months into a major operation to recapture the countrys second city, despite some Islamic State fighters remaining along the Tigris river.

The Iraqi armys Lt Gen Talib Shaghati, who commands the counter-terrorism forces, hailed what he called a big victory and told reporters that plans were now being drawn up to retake the Isis-held western part of the city. He did not elaborate on when that part of the operation would begin.

Sheghati added however that while the east of the city could be considered under government control, some work remained to flush out the last Isis fighters. Important lines and important areas are finished ... there is only a bit of the northern (front) remaining, he said at a press conference.

Wednesdays advance came after Iraqi troops over the past few days intensified their push into the last Isis-held neighbourhoods in east Mosul, closing in on the Tigris river. Stiff resistance by the militants, thousands of civilians being trapped in their houses by the fighting, and bad weather, had previously slowed the advances of the troops.

Skirmishes and clashes have continued in some pockets along the Tigris in east Mosul, according to Iraqi special forces Maj Ali Hussein, who said his unit was still pushing into the Ghabat area along the riverbank. Small arms fire could be heard and at least one civilian was wounded by mortar fire.

The Iraqi prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, issued a statement saying that work is underway to liberate Ghabat and the area housing Saddam Husseins former presidential palaces in east Mosul. He also vowed to liberate the western side of the city.

The task of retaking west Mosul is likely to be a difficult one for Iraqi forces. It is home to some of Mosuls oldest neighbourhoods, with narrow streets packed with buildings that will further complicate the urban fight.

Mosul fell to Isis in the summer of 2014, when the militant group captured large swaths of northern and western Iraq. It is the groups last remaining major stronghold in Iraq.

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Iraq has retaken east Mosul from Isis, says army general - The Guardian

RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany (AFNS) -- Reservists from the 315th Airlift Wing delivered humanitarian aid here Jan. 13 while also conducting a multifaceted training mission; the aid is bound for refugee camps in northern Iraq.

From a big picture stand point, even though the Reserve crews are training to stay proficient, we were able to help Kurdish refugees who were fleeing (the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant), said Master Sgt. Chris Fabel, a 315th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron crew chief stationed at Joint Base Charleston, South Carolina.

The humanitarian aid was flown using the Denton Amendment, a State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development program that allows humanitarian supplies to be flown aboard Air Force aircraft on a space available basis.

According to the Denton cargo application, Global Samaritan Resources, a nonprofit corporation located in Abilene, Texas, donated 35 pallets, containing more than 275,000 dehydrated rice soy casserole meals intended for the refugees.

Our mission is simple, yet significant; we help people help people, said Danny Sims, the executive director of Global Samaritan Resources. It makes me proud as a U.S. citizen to know we are sending food, and proud to know that the U.S. Air Force is delivering it.

The donated meals, worth approximately $85,000, will feed an estimated 285,000 Kurdish men, women, and children who have fled ISIL-controlled areas and are currently living in refugee camps in northern Iraq.

The mission was difficult, yet rewarding, according to Tech. Sgt. Brian Farmintino, one of the loadmasters from the 300th Airlift Squadron who was on the mission.

Personally, I love flying these types of missions, Farmintino said. They really show the flexibility of our wing. We combined a training mission with evaluations and an instructional ride with a real-world humanitarian mission and added an aeromedical evacuation trainer on top of that.

The dehydrated food was delivered to Germany by the 315th AW and will be flown later to Iraq, and trucked to Barzani for distribution throughout the refugee camps in that area.

When asked about the importance of helping those in need, Sims said it was the most important and most gratifying part of his life.

I believe pretty much everyone wants to help someone else, its written in our DNA, he said. "But regardless, we all understand the beauty of helping people. That is something that transcends our differences and brings us together. It is a beautiful thing.

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Airmen deliver aid to refugees in northern Iraq - Edwards Air Force Base

NEW YORK A federal judge scolded the government on Wednesday for being overprotective of potentially disturbing images of how the military treated prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan and proceeding as if court review of its decisions about the pictures should not exist. U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein said in a written decision that the government had not explained the criteria it considered in determining that the release of an undetermined number of pictures he had already ordered released would threaten Americans overseas. The government has said release of the photographs showing abuse of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan could provoke attacks against U.S. military forces or incite anti-U.S. sentiment across the region. It released 198 pictures last year, but hundreds or thousands more are believed to exist. The judge said the government fell far short of defending its claims, including by failing to explain why the photographs would produce such results. He chastised the government for arguing that judicial review of national security judgments is disallowed. "But that is not the law," he said. An aerial view of Pol-i-Charkhi Prison in Afghanistan. Photo Credit: Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction The judge noted U.S. involvement in the region has changed dramatically in the 12 years of his rulings regarding an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit brought under the Freedom of Information Act to force release of the pictures. He said the government should consider that U.S. troop presence in Iraq has declined from more than 100,000 troops in 2009 to approximately 5,000 today and it should determine whether the many photographs of abuse already released have caused violence. International outrage resulted after some images of abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq appeared publicly in 2004 and 2006. "To give in to fear of our enemies, their propaganda, or their blackmail, is to surrender some of our dearest held values," he wrote. He cited the Islamic State group's presence in parts of Iraq and said the group's "pernicious campaign of public beheadings, enslavement, and indiscriminate killings of people it considers apostates are indisputable proof that its members ... 'do not need pretexts for their barbarism.'" A spokesman for government lawyers declined to comment. The director of the ACLU National Security Project, Hina Shamsi, called the decision "a victory for government transparency on national security issues." "All of the pictures must be released to help ensure the full story of American torture is truly known," Shamsi said. "This is important now more than ever in light of recent calls by some to return to torture." In 2009, Congress passed a law letting the government keep the photos secret if the secretary of defense certified that unveiling them would endanger U.S. citizens or government or military personnel. Defense secretaries have since done so, but the judge said the government must provide enough information to make judicial review possible.

He said the latest government claim was "vague and unlimited as to who is endangered." He said the Department of Defense secretary's methodologies and criteria must be disclosed.

Originally posted here:
Judge scolds government over Iraq detainee abuse pictures - Military Times