Free Republic

The U.S. Department of State’s Reward for Justice Program is offering a reward of up to $15 million for information leading to the disruption of the financial mechanisms of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and its branches, including the IRGC-Qods Force (IRGC-QF). The IRGC has financed numerous terrorist attacks and activities globally. The IRGC-QF leads Iran’s terrorist operations outside Iran via its proxies, such as Hizballah and Hamas. (excerpt) (Read specifics on info State Dept is looking for at the link above) The IRGC was founded in 1979 after the Iranian Revolution. It is a branch of the Iranian...

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan told a special session of the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir "assembly" in Muzaffarabad on Wednesday, Pakistan's independence day, that India had plans to attack PoK and that Islamabad would "fight till the end" to counter that. Khan also tweeted separately that RSS's ideology was "as dangerous" as that of the Nazis and that the withdrawal of Article 370 was RSS's "final solution". The "prime minister" of PoK, Raja Farooq Haider, meanwhile, said at the same session that PoK would soon issue a notification - after bringing a resolution in the assembly - renaming the Line of...

India’s Bharatiya Janata Party-led government realised a long-standing aspiration of its followers and ideological fellow travellers on August 5. By announcing it would abrogate Article 370 of the Indian constitution, thereby ending special status for the state of Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi moved to consolidate its control over this region. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his right-hand man and home minister, Amit Shah, had cashed in on the massive electoral mandate the party had won in general elections earlier this year. While the government’s move has won favour among both supporters and some opposition parties in India, it has...

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan...invoked their respective weapons of mass destruction twice, stoking alarm over the arsenals that make the question of who controls the border region of Kashmir one of the “most dangerous” controversies in the world. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi tightened his government’s control over the Indian-held portion of Kashmir, arguing that the changes would enhance security in an area simmering with terrorism threats, but Khan suggested that New Delhi is preparing a “false-flag operation” to justify a military conflict with his country. “Khan has been attempting to turn the tables on India, and characterize it as...

Hundreds of the millions in the United States illegally are in the custody of.... 680 is the number of established by ICE of those originally arrested but now some 300 are freed.... "The same Democrat Party that has left places like Jackson, Detroit, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Chicago and Houston to suffer under the tyranny of violent criminals wants us to believe they have the solution to mass shootings" That's part of the latest message from 2020 Republican US Senate candidate Judge Roy Moore in Alabama who's also noting that many in the Republican Party seem to be moving in the direction...

Pakistan's prime minister warned that a move by India to strip Kashmir of its special status could lead to war between the two countries and the "ethnic cleansing" of Muslims in the restive Himalayan region. Imran Khan referred to a suicide attack in February that killed at least 40 Indian security forces in Indian-controlled Kashmir, and was followed by airstrikes and a dogfight between Indian and Pakistani pilots. "Such incidents are bound to happen again. I can already predict this will happen," Khan said, addressing a joint session of Parliament on Tuesday. A Pakistan-based militant group, Jaish-e-Mohammed, claimed responsibility for...

India’s government on Monday revoked the special status of Kashmir in a bid to fully integrate its only Muslim-majority region with the rest of the country, the most far-reaching move on the troubled Himalayan territory in nearly seven decades. Interior Minister Amit Shah told parliament the federal government would scrap Article 370, a constitutional provision that grants special status for disputed Kashmir and allows the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir to make its own laws.

Thousands of people, including tourists and Hindu pilgrims, are leaving Indian-administered Kashmir after local officials issued a security alert. Indian authorities warned of a "terror threat" against Hindu pilgrims heading to the Amarnath shrine. Militants backed by Pakistan were planning an attack on the annual pilgrimage, officials have said. India accuses Pakistan of backing militant groups based in Kashmir, something denied by Pakistan. The 45-day pilgrimage began on 1 July and about 300,000 pilgrims have visited the cave shrine, located high in the Himalayan mountains, according to AP news agency. Kashmir's government has advised them to leave the area "immediately",...

Comments come as Pakistan’s leader visits White House and Washington presses for truce in Afghanistan. WASHINGTON—President Trump offered to help mediate the long-running Kashmir conflict in a White House meeting with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, a move that India swiftly rejected. In comments in front of media in the Oval Office on Monday, Mr. Khan said he was hoping that the president would be able to “bring the two countries together,” saying the U.S. could play the “most important role.” Mr. Trump chimed in that he would love to be a mediator, and said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi...

I-Derby-ER missile will replace Russian R-77 in the Indian Air Force fleet. NEW DELHI: In two years from now, the Indian Air Force's frontline Sukhoi-30 fighters may be re-armed with Israeli Derby air-to-air missiles after the jet's Russian-made R-77 missiles were found wanting in air combat operations over the Line of Control on February 27 this year. Sources in the Indian Air Force told NDTV, "We already have the missile as part of the SPYDER (Surface-to-Air Missile) system. Integration (with the IAF's Su-30s) is the next step.'' Retaliating to the IAF strike on the Jaish-e-Mohammed training facility in Balakot on...

Jammu and Kashmir: Muslims take 12-year-old boy hostage and kill him despite mother’s appeal “Atif and his uncle, Abdul Hameed, were abducted when the family tried to flee the house as security forces cordoned off the area.” The jihadis apparently thought that by fleeing, they were siding with unbelievers against the believers, and therefore the boy could lawfully be taken hostage and killed. “J&K: 12-year-old boy held hostage, killed despite mother’s appeal to militants,” by Adil Akhzer, Indian Express, March 23, 2019: A 12-year-old boy held hostage in Bandipora for around nine hours was killed Friday by militants before they...

ROME - Italy has planned to sign a memorandum of understanding to become part of China's Belt and Road Initiative. "The negotiation is not over yet, but it is possible that it will be concluded in time for (Xi's) visit," the newspaper reported, quoting Michele Geraci, the undersecretary in the Italian economic development ministry. The United States said the project was unlikely to help Italy economically and could significantly damage the country's international image, the paper reported. "We view BRI as a 'made by China, for China' initiative,"the report quoted Garrett Marquis, White House National Security Council spokesman, as saying....

At least 23 are reported dead after tornadoes ripped through Lee County, Alabama. The National Weather Service believes the first tornado to strike had winds up to 165 miles per hour, classified as an EF-3 tornado. The tornado said to be a half-mile wide..... Four American tourists and a pilot are dead in Kenya following a helicopter crash Sunday night.... Venezuela's Interim President Juan Guaido calling for mass protests Monday and Tuesday in Venezuela. Guaido asking for protests to start at 11 am Monday. Guaido set to return home Monday..... 16 Syrian soldiers killed, one captured and beheaded by Al-Qaeda...

“We Muslims will set India on fire. We will kill them and blow them up.” Many Muslims in Pakistan are seeing the prospect of war between India and Pakistan as the latest episode of the 1,400-year jihad against India, one of the bloodiest of jihads, very little known in the West. The History of Jihad From Muhammad to ISIS contains the whole shocking story of the jihad against India, told from Muslim sources. “Jamaat-e-Islami is recruiting volunteers if India and Pakistan go to war,” by Roohan Ahmed, Samaa, March 2, 2019: Eleven-year-old Aamir Khan is homeless, doesn’t know who his...

If nothing else comes of it, the latest round of Pakistani aggression against India served as yet another signal to the U.S. that the time has come to cut its losses and walk away from Afghanistan. On February 14, a Pakistani terrorist from Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorist organization, infiatrated the Indian side of the disputed Jammu and Kashmir province and murdered more than forty Indian paramilitary forces in a suicide bombing..... Regarding China, however, even as this concern informed U.S. decisionmakers, Pakistan expanded its strategic and political ties with China. In 2016, 63 percent of Pakistan’s foreign military assistance was Chinese....

Feb. 28 (UPI) -- The United States is offering $1 million for information on the whereabouts of Osama Bin Laden's son. The State Department said in a notice Thursday that Hamza Bin Laden is "emerging as a leader" of terrorist organization al-Qaida and is offering the reward through its "rewards justice" program for any information on his location in any country. The announcement said that since August 2015, Hamza has released audio and video messages on the Internet encouraging his followers to "launch attacks against the United States and Western allies." He has also threatened attacks against America for killing...

Military tensions in the disputed region of Kashmir have erupted in recent weeks, with India and Pakistan painting different versions of events. One thing we do know for certain is that an Indian pilot, identified as Wing Commander Abhinandan, was captured by Pakistan after his plane was shot down in a dogfight earlier this week between Pakistani and Indian warplanes over the ceasefire line in Kashmir. He was due to be handed back to India on Friday afternoon, at a famous border post in the village of Wagah. While Indian-controlled Kashmir and Pakistani-controlled Kashmir are separated by a 435-mile de...

Facing a steady decline in available fighter jets, the Indian Air Force is now reportedly in talks to buy 21 unfinished Soviet-era MiG-29 Fulcrums from Russia and have them completed in a modernized configuration. The proposed deal comes as India continues to struggle with a host of other fighter jet procurement efforts, most notably a more than decade long effort to purchase of more than a hundred new fighter jets, which is now effectively in its third incarnation. The Times of India was first to report on the possible acquisition of the MiG-29 hulks, which date to the late 1980s...

India and Pakistan both said they shot down each other’s fighter jets on Wednesday, with Pakistan capturing an Indian pilot a day after Indian warplanes struck inside Pakistan for the first time since a 1971 war, prompting world powers to urge restraint. Both countries have ordered air strikes over the last two days, the first time in history that two nuclear-armed powers have done so, while ground forces have exchanged fire in more than a dozen locations.

Pakistan's civil aviation authority has confirmed the closure of its airspace, while its Indian counterpart has barred all flights from eight northern airports, amid clashes between the nations' forces in the disputed Kashmir region. India's Directorate General of Civil Aviation issued a NOTAM barring flights in and out of Amritsar, Jammu, Kangra, Kullu Manali, Kushok Bakula, Pathankot, Rimpochee, Shimla and Srinajar "due to operational reasons", shortly before 11:30 local time. IndiGo, Vistara and SpiceJet have confirmed suspensions of flights to the affected airports. In IndiGo's case, Chandigarh and Dehradun join Amritsar, Jammu and Srinajar among the airports from which flights...