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Today's Headlines
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Arabia
Saudi's King Fahd Said to Be Stable
Kind of like Yasser?
King Fahd was in stable condition Saturday with an apparent case of pneumonia, officials said, as Saudis prayed for the health of the ruler who brought the oil-rich kingdom closer to the United States during more than two decades as monarch. The elderly king's health was the main topic of discussion wherever people gathered in the Saudi capital, a day after he was hospitalized for officially unspecified reasons.
Posted by: Fred || 05/29/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The elderly king's health was the main topic of discussion wherever people gathered in the Saudi capital...

Ahmed: So how are you and the family, Abdul?
Abdul: Couldn't be better, and you, Ahmed?
Ahmed: Pretty good, though I am worried about King Fahd's health.
Abdul: So am I. Though I was talking to Mohammed earlier today and he said the King was stable.
Ahmed: Stable, ya say? That's good news.
Abdul: Maybe, someone else said that the King was dead.
Ahmed: Well, that is stable, too.
Abdul: And there was this guy at the mosque, and he said....

And it goes on and on....
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 05/29/2005 0:31 Comments || Top||

#2  Stable as in room temp?
Posted by: Sock Puppet 0’ Doom || 05/29/2005 0:51 Comments || Top||

#3  Entropy triumphs again.
Posted by: Shipman || 05/29/2005 10:09 Comments || Top||

#4  When will the Saudis introduce their new entropy reduction program, Shipman?
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 05/29/2005 12:45 Comments || Top||

#5  I think the only way you can reduce entropy overall is to ship some of it to another universe. Sounds like a plan to me, open the wormhole and start dropping Saudi Arabia into it wholesale.

I leave it up to my fellow Rantburgers to figure out what might happen when muslims realise the focal point of their religion is now in another universe.
Posted by: Tony (UK) || 05/29/2005 16:50 Comments || Top||

#6  Well, Tony, Muslims are required to make haj, so long as they are able. In theory, if the land mass of Saudi Arabia can successfully be dropped through a wormhole into another universe, then so can the people who must get to Mecca.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/29/2005 17:27 Comments || Top||

#7  I see our thought processes coincide trailing wife...
Posted by: Tony (UK) || 05/29/2005 18:05 Comments || Top||

#8  Hummm.... the presence of mooselimbs in this universe naturally implies the exsistence of anti-mooslems in another. Likely the same universe that contains the exploding Jooooooooooos.
Posted by: Shipman || 05/29/2005 19:16 Comments || Top||

#9  In which direction they should face to pray, now that may be a problem. After all, the wormhole will be othogonal to the XY plane of the conventional compass rose. So, if the wormhole is above the plane of the elliptic, or below it, will pius muslims have to pray standing on their heads, depending on their planetary location? Or will they ignore the third dimension, and stick with the historic direction?

Yup. Let a girl take one too many math classes, and see what happens. ;-)
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/29/2005 19:21 Comments || Top||

#10  Hmmm, if we're up to creating wormholes, then I think we can move it around pretty easily - how's about a 90% speed-of-light equatorial circuit around the earth. It'll be rattling around the planet 6 times a second. Lots of whiplash potential there though.

Easiest thing might be to close it off completely and only open it (briefly) if there's been a full lunar month of 'peace'.

- crickets, tumbleweed -
Posted by: Tony (UK) || 05/29/2005 19:34 Comments || Top||

#11  well, I wouldn't be sticking my ass in the air five times a day if wormholes were on the agenda
Posted by: Frank G || 05/29/2005 19:38 Comments || Top||

#12  This is all covered by Stephen Hawkings in A Brief History of Slime.
Posted by: Matt || 05/29/2005 19:41 Comments || Top||

#13  FrankG, I'm grinning like a Cheshire Cat here, and not sure quite why? :)
Posted by: Tony (UK) || 05/29/2005 19:42 Comments || Top||


Europe
Turkish army claims Syrian missile exploded near Turkey
That's like saying Hek threw a grenade near a target ...
ANKARA: Objects found in a field near Turkey's border with Syria shortly after an explosion was heard in the sky may have come from a Syrian missile, the Turkish military said on Saturday. The general staff said in a statement that paramilitary troops were alerted by villagers in the Golbasi and Mahmutlu villages in the southern province of Hatay that objects had rained down on their fields on Friday after an aerial explosion. The incident caused no injuries or material damage, it added. "An investigation by military units in the region assessed that the parts in question could possibly belong to a missile originating from Syria," the statement said. It was not immediately confirmed that the incident was due to a Syrian missile, or, if it was, why it would have been fired in such a way as to come down in Turkey.
Posted by: Fred || 05/29/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  SAM test went awry, missile self-destructed.
Posted by: gromky || 05/29/2005 11:47 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
US deports Pakistani militant
A member of a terrorist group linked to Al Qaeda has been deported to Pakistan after being detained for over a year, US investigators said on Friday. Pakistani native Khamal Muhammad told authorities he was an armed guard and cook for Harakatul Mujahideen — designated by the State Department as a terrorist organisation associated with Al Qaeda.

Muhammad, 23, was living in the San Francisco area when he was arrested in January 2004 for overstaying his visa by eight months, according to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), an arm of the Homeland Security Department. He entered the United States in 2001, a year after ICE officials said he trained to use pistols, rifles and grenades in a Harakatul Mujahidin camp in Afghanistan. The leader of Harakatul Mujahideen is believed to be a close ally to Osama Bin Laden, ICE officials said. The Justice Department did not pursue criminal charges against Muhammad. "Knowledge or connection to a terrorist activity may not be sufficient to prove a terrorism crime," said Justice spokesman Kevin Madden. "Sometimes the best alternative from a national security standpoint is to pursue other disruption efforts, including removal from the US."
This article starring:
KHAMAL MUHAMADHarakatul Mujahideen
Harakatul Mujahideen
Posted by: Fred || 05/29/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Sri Lanka
Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels kill Sri Lankan police officer
COLOMBO - Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels shot dead a police officer in Sri Lanka's volatile east on Saturday, triggering concerns that the guerrillas were now targeting security forces, a senior police officer said.
Suspected Tamil Tigers? Who else could it have been, Estonians?
I definitely detect a Samoan hand in this...
Police Inspector Jude Theygarajha, 35, was fatally shot while riding a bicycle back home from a local market, said local police chief Nevil Wijesinghe. Theygarajha was involved in intelligence gathering on the Tamil Tigers and had returned home for a vacation near Batticaloa, eastern Sri Lanka's main town. Killings intensified in the east after the rebel movement split in March last year. Most of the victims were members of the two factions, and it's rare for the rebels to directly target police officers.
Posted by: Steve White || 05/29/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Super Mario strikes again, I see ...
Posted by: Dan Darling || 05/29/2005 15:39 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syria Arrests 300 Saudis: Report
More than 300 Saudis have been arrested at the airport in Damascus and along the Syrian border on suspicion they were en route to Iraq to fight alongside insurgents, press reports said yesterday.
Ummm... About a light battalion...
Relatives of some of the arrested told Al-Watan Arabic daily that the Saudis had no intention of entering Iraq in order to take part in a jihad against American and other occupation forces.
"No, no! Certainly not!"
They said some of the Saudis were arrested on arrival at the airport in Damascus.
"Welcome to Syria! Stick 'em up!"
"The Saudis had gone to Syria to spend their holidays," the paper quoted the relatives as saying.
"What holiday's that?"
"The Festival of Dynamite!"
The hotels in Mauritania were full?
A Saudi woman said her husband was arrested soon after his arrival at the airport in Damascus. "He called me from the airport to let me know he had arrived safely. Then we had no word for a while and later we learned he had been arrested at the airport," she told the daily. The paper did not say when exactly the arrest had taken place.
Sounds like it was shortly after he got there, doesn't it?
At least she'll get him back alive and unventilated.
According to the Syrian ambassador to the United Nations, Faisal Mekdad, his country has arrested some 1,200 people over the past few months to prevent them from entering Iraq. Many of the those trying to cross the border into Iraq, most likely to join the insurgents, were sent home "to face trial" or were being held in Syrian jails, Mekdad told Reuters.
No doubt we'll be hearing all the details of the trials in the Green Truth...
He would not say exactly where the detainees were from but that they were from "Iraq's neighbors and other countries in the region."
"You know: Samoa, Nova Scotia, Equador, those kinds of places..."
Mekdad said: "We have done a great job in this respect, something which should be recognized by the United States and others. We have arrested (about) 1,200 people who had come into Syria from other countries and who were going to the front," he explained.
Since they're clearly able to arrest these mooks now, why weren't they doing it before?
The Bush administration has complained frequently that Syria is not doing enough to halt the flow of men and money to the insurgency in Iraq. Hoshyar Zebari, the Iraqi foreign minister, said his country's neighbors could do more to prevent foreign fighters from entering Iraq.
Posted by: Fred || 05/29/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Since they're clearly able to arrest these mooks now, why weren't they doing it before?

I swear that it looked like a bundle of carrots, but upon closer inspection, it became apparent that it's a bunch of big stick. Neither do Americans speak softly.
Posted by: Assad || 05/29/2005 0:49 Comments || Top||

#2  "..most likely to join the insurgents, were sent home “to face trial” or were being held in Syrian jails."

“to face trial”=Syrian 90 day slaughter boot camp.

/[nice algorithm name]
Posted by: Spack Joger1278 || 05/29/2005 2:51 Comments || Top||

#3  The Syrians may be arresting these chaps and holding them for a while for appearance sake. I don't trust the Syrians for some reason. Must be the change in barometric pressure or something.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 05/29/2005 12:53 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
Anti-terrorist politician killed in Pakistan
A politician known for supporting the fight against Al Qaeda-linked militants was gunned down with two others in a restive Pakistani tribal district near Afghanistan border, witnesses said Sunday.


Unidentified gunmen opened fire at the vehicle of Faridullah Khan, a former federal minister and chief of the Ahmedzai Wazir tribe, near Jandola, a town on the border of the South Waziristan tribal district, witnesses said.

Khan and two others travelling with him were killed in the attack, launched from two cars coming from the opposite direction, they said.

Two more people travelling in his vehicle were wounded, they said.

Khan's driver Habib Shah, who was also hurt in the attack, told AFP that Khan was returning from South Waziristan after a meeting with military commanders.

"When we reached near Jandola, two cars came from opposite direction and opened fire at us. We also returned the fire but they fled," Shah said.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 05/29/2005 15:50 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq-Jordan
Iraq launches crackdown, al-Qaeda defiant
Iraqi forces launched their biggest security crackdown since the fall of Saddam Hussein with the start of Operation Lightning on Sunday, a sweep by 40,000 Iraqi troops who will seal off Baghdad and hunt for insurgents.

Over the next few days, Iraqi soldiers would block major routes into Baghdad and search the city district by district, looking for foreign Arab fighters and Iraqi guerrillas, Iraqi officials said. They would be backed up by around 10,000 U.S. troops deployed in the capital.

But al Qaeda's network in Iraq said it had launched a new offensive of its own in response to the operation. Insurgents killed 20 people across Iraq, including a British soldier.

An Internet statement from the group said its offensive was led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi "under his planning and supervision." "This ... is in response to the futile plan announced by defense and interior ministers to seal off Baghdad."

An Internet posting on Web sites used by insurgents said last week that Zarqawi, the Jordanian militant who leads al Qaeda in Iraq, had been wounded. Britain's Sunday Times newspaper said he had been moved to Iran for treatment after being wounded by shrapnel in a U.S. rocket attack.

U.S. Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Sunday that suggestions Zarqawi was wounded were credible. But al Qaeda in Iraq has said Zarqawi is recovering and is still directing his forces. Washington is offering a $25 million bounty for Zarqawi's death or capture.

By Sunday evening, there were few signs of a heightened security presence in Baghdad, although checkpoints were set up in the north and south of the city and cars were searched. Officials said the operation would gather steam in coming days.

The launch of the crackdown came after a sharp increase in suicide bombings and ambushes by insurgents who have killed around 700 people in the past month since a new Shi'ite Islamist-led government was announced.

At least 70 U.S. troops have been killed in the same period, the highest monthly American death toll since January when insurgents were trying to derail the Jan. 30 elections.

"The operation began today. The troops will block all entrances of Baghdad to prevent terrorists from conducting activities in the capital. It's a crackdown on the terrorism infrastructure," a Defense Ministry official told Reuters.

The operation was announced on Thursday -- potentially giving insurgents the chance to flee Baghdad before it began.
Iraq's government has come under pressure from Washington to launch a decisive response to insurgent attacks, to try to restore public confidence sapped by relentless violence and the long delay in forming a cabinet after the elections.

Insurgents kept up their offensive on Sunday. Gunmen ambushed a car carrying Iraqi soldiers south of Baghdad, killing six troops, police said.

In Baghdad, insurgents fought gunbattles with police in the west of the capital. Hospital officials said three people were killed, including two police.

Two suicide car bomb attacks in the capital, one near the Oil Ministry and the other targeting a police patrol, killed at least six Iraqis, police said.

In the town of Tuz Khurmatu south of the oil city of Kirkuk, a suicide bomber blew up his vehicle near an American military convoy, killing at least two Iraqis. Witnesses said some U.S. casualties were evacuated from the scene by helicopter, but the U.S. military had no immediate information on the attack.

Islamic militant group Army of Ansar al-Sunna said in an Internet statement it carried out the attack in Tuz Khurmatu. "This heroic operation was conducted jointly with our brothers in Al Qaeda Organization for Holy War in Iraq."

In Madaen, a mixed Sunni-Shi'ite town southeast of Baghdad, a car bomb killed two policemen.

Near the town of Amara in mainly Shi'ite southern Iraq, insurgents attacked a British military patrol, killing a British soldier, the Ministry of Defense in London said.

"The incident is under investigation but it appears to have been the result of an explosion," a spokesman said, adding several soldiers had been wounded.

The U.S. military announced the deaths of two more servicemen. A Marine was killed on Saturday in a roadside bomb attack on his vehicle in western Iraq and an American soldier died on Friday after being wounded by a roadside bomb the previous day southwest of Baghdad.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 05/29/2005 15:43 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "This ... is in response to the futile plan announced by defense and interior ministers to seal off Baghdad."

Good to know Bagdad Bob is still employed.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 05/29/2005 15:53 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
Afghan women gun for drug lords
TO NEIGHBOURS, Sheima looks like a kindergarten teacher. The diminutive 26-year-old Afghan sets off from her mud-brick house in west Kabul each morning in a headscarf, long shirt and baggy pants. She even tucks textbooks under her arm to keep up the illusion. But Sheima's job is far from elementary. She is part of a new counter-narcotics force fighting on the front line of Afghanistan's war on drugs. Once she has made her way through the dusty chaos of Kabul's streets, she swaps her traditional garb for khaki fatigues, combat boots, dark sunglasses and an AK-47 Kalashnikov. "I have to live a double life," said Sheima, who — unusually for an Afghan woman — wears her hair short and chews gum. "Only my immediate family know what I do. I haven't even told my other relatives because the heroin traders have spies everywhere. If they found out, they'd probably kill me."

Sheima and her 150-strong outfit are based at a multi- million-dollar facility in the foothills of the Hindu Kush. The perimeter is protected by blast-proof concrete barricades, topped with razor wire. Here, among rows of prefabricated buildings, the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) is training and funding an Afghan force to engage the country's giant opium industry in battle.

The base is run by stony-faced American instructors, their blood types clearly marked on their boots. A bald, stocky Texan barks orders at recruits shooting live ammunition at paper targets. Most recruits to the National Interdiction Unit (NIU) are battle-hardened Pashtun men from disbanded mujaheddin groups. Dressed in body armour, they dwarf the handful of women within their ranks. The sex ratio is roughly 10 to one. But Sheima insists that she and her female counterparts are a match for the best of them. "Before I came here, I had never fired a gun before and it was hard," she admitted, strapping on her helmet for a live-fire exercise. "But we Afghan women can fight too! I have been trained in martial arts and combat. I can shoot just as well as any man." These are no empty boasts. Sheima and another policewoman recently proved themselves when their unit raided a suspected drug smuggler's home near Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan. Shortly after being dropped by helicopter, they were ambushed. The DEA officer leading the raid ordered a retreat. To his astonishment, they refused to leave his side. "Afghans don't always follow the chain of command," he said in a Southern drawl tinged with a hint of exasperation. "But there's no doubting their bravery."

Sheima was born as her family fled the invading Soviet army and spent her first 12 years in a refugee camp in Pakistan's Northwest Frontier province. When the mujaheddin captured Kabul from the communists in 1992 her family returned to the city, and Sheima witnessed the horror of civil war. Then came the Taliban, forcing her into a burqa and preventing her from going to school. "I used to pray to Allah that Afghanistan would have freedom," she said. "Sometimes, secretly, at a friend's house, we watched American cop movies on video and I would dream of bringing justice to my country." Her chance came soon after the Taliban were ousted following the September 2001 attacks on New York and Washington. The government of President Hamid Karzai brought with it a liberalism, and women were recruited into the police force for the first time. Sheima was at the head of the queue. "At first it was only a desk job and I was very bored," she said. "Every day, I said to myself, this is not police work." It was only when the NIU started recruiting women that she found her calling. Without women in their ranks, the drug-busting force would be severely handicapped. Afghan culture forbids a man from shaking the hand of a woman he does not know, let alone giving her a body search. Sheima and her female colleagues can move freely inside women's quarters. They can also make arrests and conduct interrogations. "Last month we found a woman carrying two kilos of heroin under her burqa," said Sheima. "Without us, she would have got away."

But Sheima is under no illusions about the monumental battle facing the NIU. Its committed but tiny force is ranged against a multi-billion-dollar criminal industry. Last year farmers with no alternative cash crop produced a record poppy harvest, 50 tons of which ended up in Europe. The drugs trade now accounts for up to 60% of Afghanistan's economy. A cable sent from the US embassy in Kabul to Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state, and leaked last week, chastised Britain, which leads the attack on Afghanistan's drug industry, for making slow progress in eradicating poppy cultivation. But Major-General Sayed Kamal Sadaat, the head of the NIU, is convinced that American policy is at the root of the problem. "The US military is giving support to the warlords helping them fight Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, and it is these people who run the drug business," he said.

Sheima and her fellow officers are also frustrated by widespread corruption within the Afghan criminal justice system. But none of this has dampened her crusading spirit. She believes fervently that drugs are anti-Islamic and that Afghanistan will never achieve stability until the industry is wiped out. Nevertheless, she does not take the dangers of her occupation lightly. Even her fellow officers do not know her home address. When, after work, she changes back into her civilian clothes, she checks to make sure nobody is following her.

Within her family, however, she faces a battle of a different nature. Her parents want her to agree to an arranged marriage. But Sheima knows that no Afghan man will allow her to continue the job she cherishes. Settling down to watch her favourite Indian cop show, she said half-jokingly: "I lived under the Taliban, so I know what it is to be robbed of your dreams."
Posted by: Bulldog || 05/29/2005 08:13 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  You go get 'em, girl!
Posted by: Ptah || 05/29/2005 8:54 Comments || Top||

#2  She believes fervently that drugs are anti-Islamic and that Afghanistan will never achieve stability until the industry is wiped out.

Now if only we could get this through some foggy bottom's head.
Posted by: mmurray821 || 05/29/2005 10:39 Comments || Top||

#3  You go, girl! :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 05/29/2005 12:01 Comments || Top||

#4  From what I have read about 19th century Afghanistan, the women there were quite amazingly independent, capable... and extremely effecient with knives and other small arms. Ms. S. would only seem to be reverting to type... and the best of good luck to her, at that.
Posted by: Sgt. Mom || 05/29/2005 17:18 Comments || Top||

#5  When you're wounded and left
On Afghanistan's plains
And the women come out
To cut up what remains
Just roll to your rifle
And blow out yer brains
And go to yer God
Like a soldier
Posted by: Matt || 05/29/2005 17:23 Comments || Top||


Iraq-Jordan
Security Forces Launch Baghdad Crackdown
Iraqi security forces launched a high-profile crackdown in this battle-scarred city Sunday, erecting scores of checkpoints and raiding houses in search of insurgents responsible for hundreds of deaths in recent weeks. But as Operation Lightning started, violence continued in Baghdad and on its outskirts. The first of more than 40,000 soldiers and police deployed to Baghdad's streets early Sunday for Operation Lightning, erecting scores of checkpoints on the southern and northern outskirts of the city. Iraqi security forces, backed by U.S. troops, searched hundreds of vehicles in a bid to curb a raging insurgency that has killed more than 700 people since Iraq's new Shiite-led government was announced April 28, according to an AP count. "We set up these checkpoints in order to arrest all those insurgents trying to destroy this country and we will hit them with an iron fist," said Iraqi army Sgt. Ali al-Khazali while manning a highway checkpoint in southern Baghdad's Dora neighborhood.

Iraqi soldiers and police raided several houses, described as "terrorist dens" in Dora, arresting several suspects, according to army Capt. Ihssan Abdel-Hamza. Iraqi security forces will erect 675 checkpoints along with mobile checkpoints to try to deter assailants around the city and in areas where attacks are frequent, and begin street-to-street sweeps. Baghdad will be divided into two sectors, Karkh on the west bank of the Tigris river that separates the city, and Risafa on the east. Karkh would be divided into 15 sub-districts and Risafa into seven sub-districts. Police and emergency personnel will operate in Baghdad 24 hours a day. Laith Kuba, spokesman to Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, said the government expected insurgents to challenge the crackdown by trying to launch more attacks. "With the escalating operations by security forces, we expect such reactions coming to the surface, but this will have no affect on the operations," Kuba said during a press conference.
Posted by: Fred || 05/29/2005 06:44 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Excellent news.
Posted by: phil_b || 05/29/2005 7:21 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
Top Cleric Killed in Southern Afghanistan
Gunmen shot and killed the top Muslim leader in southern Afghanistan's Kandahar province on Sunday, police said. Mullah Abdul Fayaz, a supporter of U.S.-backed President Hamid Karzai, was shot while driving in the center of Kandahar city, said deputy police chief Gen Salim Khan. One of the cleric's aides, Haji Qari, said Fayaz died while being taken to a hospital in the city.
Posted by: Fred || 05/29/2005 06:46 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq-Jordan
6 Die in Triple Iraq Attack; Police Nab 11 Al-Qaeda Men

Six Iraqis, including security force members, were killed and 58 wounded when three suicide car bombs exploded in quick succession at an army base yesterday, police said. The attack came as police, struggling to stem a surge in violence, announced they had arrested 11 Al-Qaeda-linked insurgents, including a man who allegedly confessed to a Baghdad bombing that killed 18 people including two US security contractors.

Insurgents said they had killed a Japanese hostage seized in Iraq and posted footage on the Internet apparently showing his bloodied corpse. Japan's Foreign Ministry confirmed that the video footage showed the body of Akihiko Saito, 44, a former paratrooper and veteran of the French Foreign Legion, who was captured on May 8 when insurgents ambushed a civilian security convoy. The Army of Ansar Al-Sunna, which claimed responsibility for killing Saito, is one of Iraq's most feared insurgent groups. In the video footage the group posted on the Internet yesterday, a corpse was shown lying on its back, its face bloodied. "This is your punishment ... infidel," shouted an unseen man as gunshots rang out.

At least 650 people have been killed, many of them security forces, in attacks this month that coincided with the formation of Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari's government. In the oil refining city of Baiji, north of Baghdad, an Iraqi soldier was killed when a joint US-Iraqi patrol was targeted by a suicide car bomber while in Tarmiyah, about 40 kilometers north of the capital, truck driver Husham Ata was killed early yesterday by a roadside bomb.

Meanwhile, police said Zaal Awad Al-Kubaisi, the Al-Qaeda linked insurgent picked up earlier this week, had confessed to taking part in a May 7 attack in Baghdad that killed 18 people. In Kut, southeast of Baghdad, police arrested 10 suspected members of the Ansar Al-Sunna group.
This article starring:
ZAAL AWAD AL KUBAISIal-Qaeda in Iraq
Posted by: Fred || 05/29/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Fred, I like the photo. Esp. the yellow warning signs. We need some like that, where I am stationed.
Posted by: N guard || 05/29/2005 7:04 Comments || Top||

#2  If the good guys are always "struggling" to stem a surge in violence", what are the bad guys doing? Improving their tactics? Winning the war against the forces of corrupt westernism? Continuing the valiant struggle crusade against the infidel? Or is the leftist slant showing?
Posted by: Bobby || 05/29/2005 11:39 Comments || Top||

#3  Actually the Arab News has become less biased over the past few months.

According to Strategypage, so has Al J, Al-Aribiya and some of the others.

At this point, if you want to get a consistent anti American slant, you have to go to the BBC or the Guardian or the NYTimes or the newsletter of the Berkeley polysci faculty.
Posted by: mhw || 05/29/2005 13:33 Comments || Top||

#4  Is that a real photo or photoshop?
Posted by: True German Ally || 05/29/2005 13:40 Comments || Top||

#5  An accurate photoshop.
Posted by: Darth Rather || 05/29/2005 14:14 Comments || Top||

#6  Interesting that the lighting and shadows on the Iraq and Traffic signs don't match that of the humvie.
Posted by: Frozen Al || 05/29/2005 14:38 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
Pak: Bomber's Photo Released
A photograph of the suspected bomber who killed at least 25 people in an attack at a shrine in the Pakistani capital was released here yesterday. Nearly 100 people wounded in Friday's bomb blast were being treated in different hospitals, and the death toll was likely to rise with some of the wounded described in critical condition.
Zaheer's just so proud of that!
The blast occurred inside the compound of the Bari Imam shrine, where thousands of Muslims had gathered to pray. It was just the latest incident of religious violence to rock the Pakistan since it joined the US-led war on terrorism after the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001, but the worst ever attack in the capital, which has largely been spared militant attacks.
Prior to Pak joining the US-led war on terrorism after the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001 there wasn't any sectarian violence in the country, y'see...
Police had recovered the head of the suspected bomber with his face still intact, as rest of his body was completely blown up. Authorities have circulated a picture of the suspected bomber, showing a bloodstained, clean-shaven face and announced an 800,000 rupee ($8,300) reward for information.
"Hey! Ain't that Mahmoud?"
"Nah! Mahmoud's much taller than that!"
"Luckily his face is not damaged. It is very clear and can be easily identified," a police investigator said. "We hope to establish identity within a few days."
At which point Mom will say it's not him...
"(Investigators) are trying to identify him. We will soon determine who he is," Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said. Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao said it was too early to be sure about motive, but the involvement of sectarian militants could not be ruled out.
"We're hoping it's not the usual... Even though we know it is."
"Since this was a separate Shiite gathering, there is a possibility of that, but we are not ruling out other options as well," he told reporters after visiting the scene of the blast.
Coulda been Lutherans, I suppose...
Investigators say the bomber made his way into the gathering when a group of Shiites was arriving to listen to a sermon. "He sat near the podium for some time and then blew himself up," the police investigator said. President Pervez Musharraf condemned the deadliest attack in the capital for years, and appealed for his countrymen to unite against "religious terrorism, sectarianism and extremism."
I thought those were the Pak national sports?
Posted by: Fred || 05/29/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  You don't see minority Lithuanian Bhuddists blowing up Jewish synagogues or Mormon churches. Only Islam has this thing about booming the competition.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 05/29/2005 16:44 Comments || Top||


Africa: North
Egypt Frees 77 Muslim Brotherhood Members
Dozens of students arrested in a government crackdown on protests organized by the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood were freed Saturday after they were ordered released in time for university exams, police said. The 77 students had been arrested in recent weeks as part of a government crackdown on demonstrations sparked by a wave of pro-reform protests by the powerful group. There was no immediate confirmation from the Brotherhood. More than 800 Brotherhood members where detained this month in connection with anti-government protests planned ahead of last Wednesday's nationwide referendum which has paved the way for Egypt's first multicandidate presidential elections.
Posted by: Fred || 05/29/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  after they were ordered released in time for university exams,

Becausae we all know the value of a good education!
Posted by: Raj || 05/29/2005 9:28 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine
Palestinian Authority Recruiting 5,000
The Palestinian Authority has put out a call for 5,000 new security forces to secure the coastal Gaza Strip area that Israel is to evacuate this summer, an Interior Ministry spokesman said Saturday. But although there are fears Palestinian militants will fire on Israeli targets during and after the pullout, the new recruits won't be armed, because of Israeli restrictions on the number of guns Palestinian security forces can carry, said the spokesman, Tawfiq Abu Khousa. Abu Khousa urged Israel to let other countries supply the Palestinian Authority with additional weapons, as they have offered to do, if it wants maximum security in Gaza.
"Guns! We need guns! We need lotsa guns! To... ummm... promote domestic tranquility!"
Posted by: Fred || 05/29/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Afghanistan/South Asia
Rocket attacks, explosions hit Balochistan
Unidentified people attacked a Frontier Constabulary (FC) checkpost in Mand in Turbat, 700 kilometres from Quetta on Saturday, but no casualties were reported. FC officials said unidentified attackers fired about six rockets at the checkpost at Aspikan in Mand, adding that they repulsed the attack and arrested a suspect from the area. A bomb exploded near a vehicle of the paramilitary force in the Mand area, but no casualties were reported. The Baloch Liberation Army and Baloch Liberation Front claimed responsibility for the incidents. Another bomb exploded near a police station in Machh, 50 kilometres south of Quetta. Three rockets were also fired in the Kohlu area.
Posted by: Fred || 05/29/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Memorial Day weekend festivities? No?
Posted by: Frank G || 05/29/2005 18:43 Comments || Top||


12 civilians killed in Kunar
Twelve civilians were killed after unidentified assailants opened fire on them in eastern Afghanistan's Kunar province on Friday, the provincial governor said on Saturday. In a separate incident, two soldiers were injured in a grenade attack in the provincial capital, Asad Abad, governor Assadulla Wafa said.

Tribal elder Muhammad Faqir and several relatives and friends were ambushed and killed in Manogay district of Kunar province, Wafa said. "Faqir and his 11 friends and relatives were on their way home as their vehicle came under light arms fire by unidentified armed men and they were all killed," Wafa said. "They were civilians and it is not known who was behind the attack, if it was enmity with the family or it was an attack by insurgents," he added.
Posted by: Fred || 05/29/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Kashmir blasts injure 31
A remote controlled car bomb on Saturday toppled a paramilitary truck as it drove through a village in Indian Held Kashmir, and a grenade exploded near a group of civilians in a separate attack, leaving 31 people injured, police said. 11 civilians and seven soldiers were injured when a bomb placed in a car exploded at Lazbal village, said SSP Ashiq Hussain. A Hizbul Mujahideen spokesman claimed responsibility for the bombing. Hours later in Srinagar, suspected rebels hurled a grenade at a paramilitary patrol vehicle but missed, injuring 13 civilians, said SP SA Sayeed. The injured included an Indian tourist.
Posted by: Fred || 05/29/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Some of the victims of the missed grenade.



Some payback

Two LeT militants shot dead in J&K

May 29, 2005 13:56 IST

Jammu and Kashmir police on Sunday shot dead two Lashkar-e-Tayiba militants in an encounter in Udhampur district, a senior police officer said.

Acting on specific information, the police launched a search-and-cordon operation in the Gool area of Udhampur district early on Sunday, Deputy Inspector General of Police, Satvir Gupta told PTI.

Two AK rifles, two magazines, three grenades and one wireless set were recovered, he added.
Posted by: john || 05/29/2005 14:47 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine
Snuffy self-kabooms in Gaza
A Palestinian militant was killed and two others were wounded when explosives they were handling blew up prematurely in the Gaza Strip early on Saturday, Palestinian medical and security sources said. A Palestinian security source said a militant from the Islamic Hamas group was killed in what he described as a "work accident", when an explosive device blew up prematurely outdoors in the northern Gaza Strip. The Hamas group identified the man who died as a 21-year-old field commander and said he was killed doing his "jihadic duty". It said he had been manning a Hamas position near the Jewish Elei Sinai settlement but gave no further details.
We haven't had any good red-wire/green-wire stories lately...
Another workman's comp claim for Mutual of Gaza ...
Posted by: Fred || 05/29/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The Hamas group identified the man who died as a 21-year-old field commander and said he was killed doing his "jihadic duty".

Of trying to kill Jews. Well this guy is dead for sure while the Zarq drama continues.
Posted by: sea cruise || 05/29/2005 2:29 Comments || Top||

#2  This just in: "Another workman's comp claim for Mutual of Gaza..."


Amnesty International will despute wage garnishment anginst all Palestinian militant's families who are are routinely docked cold hard
cash for the time subjects are up in the sky.
Posted by: AI™®© || 05/29/2005 2:34 Comments || Top||

#3  Heh, heh, heh. Blow'd up good. Blow'd up real good.

/SCTV
Posted by: xbalanke || 05/29/2005 8:01 Comments || Top||

#4  Improvised, old, unstable explosives tend to go off in unexpected ways. This is from someone who got very lucky when a pound of unstable blackpower went off all and once last July getting caught in the gas cloud was a pain full experience.
Posted by: Sock Puppet 0’ Doom || 05/29/2005 16:11 Comments || Top||

#5  Via LGF - all three deaders

an additional Paleo contribution to the Darwin ward nominees:

RPG kills Hamas man as he tries to fire it.

also via LGF

Posted by: Frank G || 05/29/2005 18:03 Comments || Top||

#6  SPoD - a pound? I did myself some damage with a *much* smaller amount (Ok, I did put it in a bottle - I was *very* stupid, and much much younger), but a pound?! - wow, glad you're still here!

...as for the Hamas worm getting vaped, I simply raise a glass to its shade on the way to Hell...
Posted by: Tony (UK) || 05/29/2005 18:17 Comments || Top||

#7  Fresh improvised explosives also tend to explode in unexpected ways, or so my father has warned me. There was this accident in his lab when he was young... anyway, he ended up being an experimental subject for the Israeli transplant training program for their leading surgeons. And a bang-up job they did, too, although he only has nine fingers. Very odd to shake hands with the first few times, observed Mr. Wife, back before he earned his title. ;-)
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/29/2005 21:56 Comments || Top||


Africa: Subsaharan
Eight killed in Uganda attack
Ugandan rebels killed at least eight people in an attack on villagers in a remote northern district, the army and aid workers said on Saturday. Some of the victims were dragged to the middle of a road after being shot and beaten to death by fighters from the Lords Resistance Army (LRA). "Eight people were killed. This was a desperate attack on civilians, but our forces are on the ground to capture these bandits and punish them," said Lieutenant Tabaro Kiconco, army spokesman in the north. Uganda's military often says it is close to defeating the cult-like LRA after 19 years of war, but attacks have continued.
Posted by: Fred || 05/29/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:



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Sun 2005-05-29
  "Non."
Sat 2005-05-28
  King Fahd is dead?
Fri 2005-05-27
  Zark is dead?
Thu 2005-05-26
  Iraqi Officials Confirm Zarqawi Is Wounded
Wed 2005-05-25
  Huge US raid on al-Qaim
Tue 2005-05-24
  Syria ending cooperation with the US
Mon 2005-05-23
  Mulla Omar aide escapes Multan raid
Sun 2005-05-22
  Cairo Blast Suspect Dies in Custody
Sat 2005-05-21
  DHS Arrests 60 Illegals in Sensitive Jobs
Fri 2005-05-20
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Thu 2005-05-19
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Wed 2005-05-18
  Uzbek Rebel Leader Wants Islamic State
Tue 2005-05-17
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Mon 2005-05-16
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Sun 2005-05-15
  500 reported dead in Uzbek unrest

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