Hoplite Group

#Beirut / #Lebanon - The mosque was closed but the nightclub opened its doors: bombed-out families find shelter in Beirut venue. The exclusive Skybar welcomed in 400 Lebanese people made homeless in the ever-widening war - from The Guardian: Inside the cavernous black walls of Beirut’s most exclusive after-hours club, two people are asleep on sofas tucked under the DJ booth. Beds fill the section normally used for bottle service, and piles of blankets are piled high on tables around the dancefloor. Outside the guest entrance to the hulking venue is a family who fled rural southern Lebanon camps. Now their goat is chewing leaves from a tree branch that supports a washing line and a makeshift kitchen. Ali Ahmed sits outside the backstage entrance with 11 members of his family, smiling when he talks about the warm welcome they received at Beirut’s best-known nightclub, one he’d only ever heard about before on local television. His expression grows darker when he describes fleeing Beirut’s southern suburbs last week amid a fierce Israeli bombing campaign. The family slept in the open in the capital’s Martyr’s Square, he says, describing their first night in the shadow of the imposing cobalt blue domes of the Mohammed al-Amin mosque. “The mosque kept its doors closed. But this nightclub opened its doors to us when the mosque didn’t,” he says. Ahmed considers his family lucky – not only were they able to claim a spot in the club’s VIP area but staying at the nightclub has meant food delivery, clean bathrooms and privacy that those in many of Lebanon’s makeshift shelters lack. Some 400 people displaced by Israeli bombardments across southern Lebanon and the Dahiyeh suburb of Beirut are currently sheltering inside Skybar, which until recently welcomed guests to sip champagne on the top floor with a view of the Mediterranean and then party until the early hours in the Skin club below. The families sleeping on the black-and-white floor of the club entrance, around the mirrored bars and beneath the plush black upholstered balconies of the nightclub are just some of the 1.2 million people now displaced in Lebanon. UN officials said late last week that almost 900 shelters set up by the government were full. Staff at the nightclub, who are now coordinating its day-to-day operations as a shelter, said that the owner of the venue was moved to open it up after seeing displaced families sleeping on the streets outside. In less than two weeks, the country of just 5 million people has witnessed a mass displacement crisis, mounting Israeli airstrikes and a troop invasion in its south. More than 1,000 people were killed over 10 days in late September and hundreds more in the period since as Israeli forces repeatedly struck a swathe of Beirut’s suburbs and southern Lebanon. Story continues: https://lnkd.in/euD8Euh2

#Beirut / #Lebanon / #Hezbollah - Israeli Air Force hit a target in southern suburb of Dahyieh, near Airport Road. This video says it all. Massive explosion likely caused by the munitions/weapons storage site targeted. From various outlets and teammates. https://lnkd.in/ejTKFyev

#Israel - Halevi calls to strike Hezbollah ‘without respite’; north bombarded by Lebanon rockets - The Times of Israel: IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari says Israeli troops have killed at least 440 Hezbollah operatives during ground operations in southern Lebanon. “We are pushing Hezbollah north. Some of the terrorists fled, and some are being defeated by our troops in close-quarters battles,” Hagari says in a press conference. “Since the beginning of the ground maneuver, the troops have killed on the ground and from the air, some 440 terrorists, including 30 commanders,” he says. Hagari in his press conference also shows a video of a 250-meter-long Hezbollah tunnel that he says was located some 300 meters from the border, and did not cross into Israeli territory. “These compounds were to be used by Hezbollah terrorists in an attack on the Galilee communities… yesterday we destroyed this tunnel,” he says. https://lnkd.in/eSQCxXrZ

From our CEO Ioannis Koskinas about Darrell Utt's forthcoming book.

#Iran - Reuters #SpecialReport - Murder for hire: Inside Iran’s proxy war with Israel in the West - the Islamic Republic’s long shadow war with Israel is playing out in the West with a rise in alleged Iran-linked murder and kidnapping plots, often with the help of hired assassins. As the Iran-Israel conflict intensifies, Tehran is roiling the West with a wave of attempted hits and kidnappings against targets in Europe and the US. Washington and its allies have reported a sharp rise in such plots linked to the Islamic Republic in recent years. Since 2020, there have been at least 33 assassination or abduction attempts in the West in which local or Israeli authorities allege an Iran link, Reuters found in an examination of court documents and public statements by government officials. Among recent alleged targets: a building that houses a Jewish center and kosher restaurant in downtown Athens. From his perch in Iran, a Pakistani named Sayed Fakhar Abbas recruited an old acquaintance living in Greece and directed him to attack the site, investigators allege in documents submitted to judicial authorities in the case and viewed by Reuters. Abbas told his contact that he was working for a group that would pay some 15,000 euros per kill. In a January 2023 WhatsApp exchange detailed in the documents, the two men discussed whether to use explosives or arson in the attack. Abbas stressed the need to provide proof of casualties after the strike. “There are secret agencies” involved, he said, without naming names. “Do the job in a way that does not leave any room for complaints by them.” The previously unreported documents include hundreds of pages of evidence gathered during Greece’s pre-trial probe, including witness testimony, police statements and details of WhatsApp messages. They purport to show how Abbas groomed his contact, a slim-built fellow Pakistani named Syed Irtaza Haider, as the two drifted between prosaic talk of life back home and plotting attacks. Greek authorities arrested Haider and another Pakistani last year, saying police helped dismantle a terrorist network directed from abroad that intended to inflict “human loss.” The two men face terrorism-related charges. They deny wrongdoing. Haider, released from pre-trial detention this spring with restrictions, says he’s innocent. In an interview, the 28-year-old told Reuters he sent Abbas images of the building but intentionally stalled on carrying out any attack, hoping to get paid without harming anyone. “It was all talk but no action,” he said. His lawyer, Zacharias Kesses, said Haider “never participated substantially” in illegal activity. Alleged ringleader Abbas also faces terrorism-related charges. Back home in Pakistan, he is wanted on suspicion of murder, a Pakistani police official said. Story continues: https://lnkd.in/e8KVS7Sw

#Ukraine / #Russia - War Update - Ukraine downs a Russian warplane and Russia claims gains in the east - from The Associated Press: Ukrainian forces said they shot down a Russian fighter plane on Saturday while Russia claimed it made gains in Ukraine’s east. The Russian bomber was shot down near the city of Kostiantynivka in the Donetsk province, head of the Kostiantynivka Military Administration Serhiy Horbunov was quoted as saying by Ukraine’s public broadcaster, Suspilne. Photos showed charred remains of an aircraft after it landed on a house that caught fire. Also in the partially occupied Donetsk province, Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed Saturday that it had taken control of the village of Zhelanne Druhe.  If confirmed, the capture would come three days after Ukrainian forces said they were withdrawing from the front-line town of Vuhledar, some 33 kilometers (21 miles) from Zhelanne Druhe, following a hard-fought two-year defense. Although unlikely to change the course of the war, the loss of Vuhledar is indicative of Kyiv’s worsening position, in part the result of Washington’s refusal to grant Ukraine permission to strike targets deep inside Russian territory and preventing Kyiv from degrading Moscow’s capabilities. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday that he will present his “victory plan” at the Oct. 12 meeting of the Ramstein group of nations that supplies arms to Ukraine. Story continues: https://lnkd.in/e5BPF8c6

#Iran / #Israel / #Beirut / #Lebanon - Quds Force commander Esmail Qaani may have been wounded in Beirut bombing - report from Jerusalem Post: The possibility that Esmail Qaani, the commander of the Quds Force in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was wounded in an Israeli bombing in Beirut is being investigated, News 12 reported on Saturday. Qaani oversees Iran's terrorist and proxy affiliates in the region, News 12 reported, noting that he may have been hit in an air force strike in southern Beirut, in the same attack that targeted Hashem Safieddine, Nasrallah's presumed successor. Qaani succeeded Qasem Soleimani after the latter was targeted by the United States in 2020. https://lnkd.in/eZi7JNnd

#Afghanistan - 'Russian leadership’ decides to delist Taliban as terrorist group - from Voice of America: Russia reported Friday that a "principal decision" had already been made to remove Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban from Moscow’s list of terrorist organizations. Zamir Kabulov, the Russian presidential envoy for Afghanistan, was quoted by state-run TASS news agency as saying that the foreign ministry and national security agencies "are putting finishing legal touches" on the Taliban's delisting in line with federal laws. "A principal decision on this has already been made by the Russian leadership," said Kabulov. "Hopefully, the final decision will be announced soon." The remarks were reported on the same day that Moscow hosted a conference of regional countries to discuss Afghanistan, with Russian Foreign Minister (FM) Sergey Lavrov presiding over the proceedings. Lavrov later held bilateral talks with Taliban FM Amir Khan Muttaqi, who led his delegation at Friday’s multilateral event in the Russian capital organized under the Moscow Format platform. "We firmly believe in the importance of maintaining a pragmatic dialogue with the current Afghan government," Lavrov said in his inaugural speech to delegates from countries such as China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, and Uzbekistan. "Moscow will continue to develop political, trade, and economic ties with Kabul," Lavrov pledged. Russia launched the Moscow Format in 2017 and it has since become a regular platform for discussing challenges facing impoverished, war-torn Afghanistan. Muttaqi, in his broadcast address to Friday’s gathering, welcomed Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan's recent announcements that they will remove the Taliban from their lists of outlawed groups. "We also appreciate the positive remarks [made] by the high-ranking officials of the Russian Federation in this regard and hope to see more effective steps soon," said the Taliban chief diplomat. Russia's involvement in Afghanistan has been tumultuous. The Soviet army entered the country in 1979 to help a pro-Moscow government in Kabul but pulled out a decade later due to heavy losses inflicted by U.S.-backed Afghan insurgents, or mujahideen. Moscow has developed close informal ties with the Taliban since they regained power in Afghanistan three years ago after the US and NATO forces withdrew ending 20 years of war. President Vladimir Putin stated in July that Russia considered the Taliban an ally in the fight against terrorism. The former Afghan insurgent group has been on the Russian list of terrorist organizations since 2003. Russian FM Lavrov praised the Taliban for combating narcotics in Afghanistan and fighting a regional Islamic State affiliate known as IS-Khorasan. "We support the Afghan authorities’ resolve to combat the terrorist threat," he told the conference Friday. Story continues: https://lnkd.in/e8cJ-rQw

#Lebanon / #Hezbollah - In case you missed it, Congressional Research Service primer on Lebanese Hezbollah. https://lnkd.in/e8CD4Nnb

#Ukraine / #Russia - War Update - Kyiv Says Russia Has Executed 93 Ukrainian POWs Since Start Of War - from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Ukraine has documented evidence related to the execution of 93 Ukrainian prisoners of war, according to a law enforcement official tasked with investigating war crimes related to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Yuriy Belousov, who heads the Prosecutor-General's Office’s department in charge of investigating crimes committed in armed conflict, provided the latest figure during a live television appearance on October 4. "Now we have information about the death of 93 of our soldiers who were executed on the battlefield," Belousov told Yedyniy Novyny, a broadcast that unites multiple Ukrainian television channels. Belousov said that about 80 percent of the executions were recorded this year, but that the number of executions began rising in November “when there were changes for the worse in the attitude of Russian servicemen toward our prisoners of war." On October 1, the Prosecutor-General’s Office announced it had opened an investigation into what it described as the "largest mass execution" of Ukrainian prisoners of war by Russian troops since the start of Moscow's full-scale invasion in February 2022. According to an official statement published on the office’s Telegram channel, Russian forces recently killed 16 Ukrainian "prisoners of war" near the villages of Mykolayivka and Sukhiy Yar in the Pokrovsk district of the Donetsk region. Videos circulated on various Telegram channels appear to show Ukrainian soldiers, freshly captured by Russian troops, emerging from a forested area. After the prisoners have lined up, Russian forces appear to open fire. The videos then appear to show Russian soldiers approaching those who were only wounded and shooting them again at close range with machine guns. The videos have not been independently verified. https://lnkd.in/eSncYsEj