Author: Jimmie Mann

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi forces and American troops have killed a senior commander with the Islamic State group who was wanted by the United States, as well as several other prominent militants, Iraq’s military said on Friday. The operation in Iraq’s western Anbar province began in late August, the Iraqi military said, and involved also members of the Iraqi National Intelligence Service and Iraq’s air force. Among the dead was an IS commander from Tunisia, known as Abu Ali Al-Tunisi, for whom the U.S. Treasury Department had offered $5 million for information. Also killed was Ahmad Hamed Zwein, the IS deputy…

WASHINGTON – Pakistan has received “significant financing assurances” from China, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates linked to a new International Monetary Fund program that go beyond a deal to roll over $12 billion in bilateral loans owed to them by Islamabad, an IMF official said on Thursday. IMF Pakistan Mission Chief Nathan Porter declined to provide details of additional financing amounts committed by the three countries but said they would come on top of the debt rollover. “I won’t go into the specifics, but UAE, China and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia all provided significant financing assurances joined…

A Pakistani national with purported ties to Iran was arrested last month on charges he plotted to assassinate former President Donald Trump and multiple other public officials, according to a criminal complaint unsealed Tuesday in Brooklyn federal court. While the criminal complaint does not mention Trump by name, multiple sources familiar with the case told ABC News one of the intended targets of the alleged plot was Trump. Other possible targets included government officials from both sides of the aisle, the sources said. After spending time in Iran, Asif Merchant flew from Pakistan to the U.S. to recruit hitmen to carry out…

As Kazakhstan moves to remove the Taliban from the list of terrorist groups, Rustam Emomali, speaker of Tajikistan’s parliament, said that the spread of religious extremism from Afghanistan poses a threat to members of the CSTO. Religious schools in Afghanistan “train suicide fighters”, he said. According to TASS news agency, the Tajik president’s son stressed that “more than 1,000 religious schools have been established in Afghanistan, most of them in Afghanistan’s border provinces”. The risk of extremism infiltrating from Afghanistan into CSTO countries has increased more than ever, the speaker of Tajikistan’s parliament told a meeting of the heads of…

The Soviet Union’s collapse 32 years ago led to rapid change, economic collapse, and violence. In Tajikistan, that violence slid rapidly into civil war. Reflecting on the Soviet Union’s collapse 32 years ago and attempting to draw any sort of conclusion is often a matter of perspective. In his new book, “Moscow’s Heavy Shadow: The Violent Collapse of the USSR,” Dr. Isaac McKean Scarborough, an assistant professor of Russian and Eurasian Studies at Leiden University, writes of the collapse from one of the Soviet Union’s most distant peripheries — Dushanbe. In doing so, he highlights a perspective not often taken…

A year ago Germany deported to Tajikistan an activist from that country’s exiled opposition movement who had been living in Dortmund since 2009. What happened next is a shocking example of what can occur when Germany fails to uphold safeguards in its increased efforts to deport unsuccessful asylum seekers. The Bundestag this month gave police greater powers to carry out deportations. The activist, Abdullohi Shamsiddin, 33, was deported to Tajikistan on January 18 2023. He was detained on arrival by the security services. Two months later he was convicted of trying to overthrow the constitution and jailed for seven years. No credible…

Pakistan has set an ambitious goal to increase annual rice exports to $10 billion by 2030, representing a fourfold surge from the current $2.5 billion. This initiative is part of the country’s broader strategy to diversify its export portfolio and explore new markets, as discussed during the maiden Export Advisory Council Meeting on Friday. Chaired by Commerce Minister Gohar Ejaz, the meeting delved into various aspects of rice exports, with a particular focus on developing a precise roadmap to achieve the $10 billion target. Chairman of the Punjab Rice Research Board and CEO of Guard Agricultural Research & Services Shehzad…

Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited’s (SNGPL) task force continued its efforts to curb gas theft in Islamabad and uncovered an illicit gas pipeline stretching 1,500 meters from the village of Japan Road, Kangota Syedan. A spokesperson for SNGPL reported on Thursday that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has initiated legal actions against those responsible for establishing unauthorized gas networks. Providing details, the spokesperson mentioned that joint operations involving task force teams and FIA officials were conducted to dismantle an illicit gas pipeline installed in a private housing society near Village Kangota Syedan along Japan Road. The spokesperson revealed that the…

PESHAWAR: Jamiat Ule­ma-i-Islam (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Reh­man claimed on Saturday that Pakistan had been facing economic pressure from different segments to recognise Israel. Speaking at a corner meeting of party workers, he alleged that the previous PTI government had been “backed by Jews” to come to power with the agenda of “withdrawing support from Kashmir, recognising Israel and disintegrating Pakistan”. On the Gaza conflict, the JUI-F chief said the Israeli invasion of the enclave had brought the Palestine issue to the limelight again, stressing that indiscriminate bombing of the residential population in the Gaza Strip was a war crime.…

Copenhagen (13/11 – 37.5) When Ranil Wickremesinghe took over as Sri Lanka’s president in July after a popular uprising ousted his predecessor, the South Asian island nation was engulfed in its worst economic meltdown in 75 years. Since then, President Wickremesinghe has managed to a keep a lid on mass protests, improve supplies of essentials and on Monday, secured a nearly $3 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that opens the door to restructuring about $58 billion of debt and receive funding from other lenders. He has done that despite a deeply unpopular government, his own party commanding just one…