Monday 11 January 2016 / Hour 1, Block A:Bill Roggio, Long War Journal senior editor  & FDD, in re: Afghanistan. Syria. Iraq.   Whether or not the UK leaves Brussels, the pirate states are pressing on.  Taliban in Ghazni Province: claim that the Afgh govt is putting out false claims – and Taliban are right. US is finally issuing air strikes against Taliban: too little too late. Afghan army is in retreat; any US plan is not working.  / Syria:  Three Russian soldiers allegedly killed on the roadside . . . Russian military says that’s not true.  Is this video designed to undermine Russian support within the population? What's the goal in issuing such a vid? First, for ISIS followers. Second, to embarrass Putin.  / Al Qaeda, Jaish al Fatah – the army of conquest: in Aleppo.  Has it been aided by US air power?  Not intensively, but, unh, yes a handful of strikes against al Nusrah Front (the Khorasan Group), where the US considerably helped al Qaeda. / Syria:  The US has no discernable plan here; ki==like WWII, where each side advanced and retreated. Can yu say that Syria remains a totally nontransparent collapse.  It's Mad Max Land.   Afghanistan: failure.  Syria: failure. The Great Voice of the Great Lakes? Success.
Islamic State claims 3 Russian soldiers killed in Syria The Islamic State's Amaq News Agency claims that three Russian soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in Syria. The claim could not be immediately verified. In recent days, the Russian-Syrian-Iranian axis has suffered setbacks along the same road where the Russians were allegedly killed. [Update: A Russian Defense Ministry spokesman subsequently denied Amaq's claim.]
Taliban deny Ghazni shadow governor killed in airstrike. The Afghan Taliban denied government claims that its shadow governor for the important southeastern province of Ghazni was killed last weekend in an airstrike. Ghazni has served as a haven for the Taliban and its ally, al Qaeda.  Afghanistan’s Ministry of the Interior claimed on June 18 that Mullah Mohammad Qasim and an undisclosed number of fighters were killed in an airstrike in the Aab Band district of Ghazni. The strike also destroyed several vehicles and motorcycles,  “According to MoI [the Ministry of Interior], Mullah Qasim had a major role in terrorist activities in various parts of Ghazni province and his death will have a positive result on security situation of the province,” Khaama Press noted.  The Taliban quickly denied reports of Qasim’s death. Spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid rejected reports that Qasim was killed, and described the Ministry of Interior’s claim as “the enemy’s propaganda.”  “We strongly reject the enemy’s propaganda. Nothing has happened to our Ghazni governor Mawlawi Mohammad Qasim Samim; he is alive and occupied with his jihadist work,” Mujahid said in an official statement released on Voice of Jihad’s Pashto-language website.