The bullet marks on Maj. Todd Strickland's light armoured vehicle are a testament to the kind of weekend Canadian troops had in the sun-baked sands west of here as they fought two major engagements with Taliban militants.
On the one hand, the hearty LAV III, which was peppered with machine-gun fire near Sangiser, bears witness to the ferocity of the fighting in and around that insurgent stronghold.
At the same time, the fact that the bullets simply ricochetted off the reinforced armour hull with no casualties was cause for optimism among troops, hardened by the deaths last weekend of four comrades.
``A soldier's luck is a funny thing _ sometimes you got it, sometimes you don't,'' said Strickland, deputy commander of Canada's battle group in southern Afghanistan.
``Yesterday we were lucky.''
One protracted battle, complete with artillery and air cover, took place over 72 hours in the Punjiwai district, 45 kilometres southwest of Kandahar. The barren, dusty expanse, which is punctuated with irregular patches of green pasture, was the scene of a vicious firefight two weeks ago that killed Afghan police officers.
The second engagement happened Saturday in nearby Helmand province, where a platoon of Canadian soldiers got the jump on what was thought to be a planned Taliban ambush. Two LAVs opened fire on three trucks that had been shadowing them and their logistics convoy, bound for Forward Operating Base Robinson.
The insurgents ``are opportunistic, but we continue to evolve with new skills that are better than what the Taliban can throw at us,'' said Brig.-Gen. David Fraser in an interview with The Canadian Press.
The spike in action comes after a week of relative calm following the roadside bomb attack that killed four Canadian soldiers in the Gumbad region on April 22.
Bravo Company of the 1st Battlion of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry regiment deployed in the Punjwai area, south of Sangiser, Thursday night at the behest of the governor of Kandahar province.
Working alongside Afghan army and police units, the troops established a cordon of roadblocks in the region, pocketing suspected Taliban militants in villages with their backs to the Arghandab River.
``We had a major contact, if I can put it that way,'' said Strickland, who described a pitched battle with Canadian and Afghan forces trading fire with militants.
Three Afghan police officers were wounded _ one of them seriously.
American Apache attack helicopters were called in, raking the compounds with 30-millimetre automatic machine-gun fire.
``What can be taken as a sign of lessons learned from our previous efforts, we co-ordinated extensively with the (Afghan army) and the (police) to ensure there was no possibility of friendly fire,'' said Strickland, who directed the battle in conjunction with Afghan army and police commanders.
On Good Friday, six Afghan police officers were killed in a battle at Sangiser. Four them may have died from friendly fire after American attack helicopters swooped down firing into the village.
As night fell in this latest engagement, Canadian artillery fired illumination rounds to force the Taliban to keep their heads down. As well, an unmanned aerial vehicle patrolled the skies watching for signs of movement.
When the sun came up on Friday, Canadian soldiers swept through the villages followed by Afghan police, who conducted house-to-house searches and urged residents to flee.
A flood of civilians was driven up against the Canadian blocking positions, where women and children were separated from able-bodied men.
As many as 12 suspected Taliban fighters were held in place by the Canadians until the Afghan police could do a more thorough interrogation, said Strickland.
Local authorities reported Sunday that seven insurgents were killed and nine wounded.
It is not clear how many suspected militants died in the separate action involving the logistics convoy in Helmand province.
Strickland said after the LAVs fired on the trucks, which contained about 15 armed men, the Canadian vehicles retreated to a defensive position, but eventually made their way unmolested to the remote coalition outpost, where Pte. Robert Costall was killed in late March.
A patrol sent out early Sunday found only broken glass and tire tracks at the potential ambush site.
``Despite the absence of bodies, I think it's quite safe to assume there are dead (insurgents),'' Strickland said.
``Our own estimate is between 15 and 20. There is no doubt in our mind these were Taliban. They were armed. They were manoeuvring against us, and when the platoon commander on the ground says it looks like these guys are setting up an ambush, it's a pretty safe assumption.''
Afghan troops backed by coalition forces killed 11 Taliban militants and detained a dozen, including top commanders, in separate raids across volatile southern Afghanistan while insurgents ambushed and shot dead three policemen, officials said Saturday.
Taliban militants also threatened Saturday to execute Indian hostage K. Suryanarayana if all Indians didn't leave Afghanistan within 24 hours, according to the insurgent group's purported spokesman. Suryanarayana was abducted Friday when driving through another dangerous southern province, Zabul.
Meanwhile, a boy herding cows accidentally detonated an anti-tank mine south of Kabul, killing himself and another child and wounding two others, police said Saturday.
Afghanistan is littered with landmines left over from almost three decades of conflict.
Nine Taliban militants were killed during fighting that raged late Friday into Saturday, while 12 insurgents, including top commanders, were captured in the joint Afghan-coalition operation in Panjwayi, a western district in the southern Kandahar province, said Gov. Asadullah Khalid.
Khalid said seven more Taliban members were wounded and carried away by fleeing militants.
"Taliban and foreign al-Qaida fighters are working together against our forces across southern Afghanistan, including in Panjwayi," Khalid told The Associated Press. It was unclear if any of the 12 detainees were members of the al-Qaida terror network.
Later Saturday morning, about 50 Afghan soldiers and police attacked a Taliban camp hidden in mountains in the Kajaki district, about 100 kilometres north of the Helmand capital of Lashkar Gah, local Afghan army commander Gen. Rahmattalluh Roufi said.
After an hour-long battle, Afghan forces ventured into the mountains and found caves that had been used by Taliban militants. The bodies of two slain militants were found along with several machine-guns.
Taliban militants concealed in mountains also fired on a vehicle carrying four policemen late Friday, killing three and wounding the other on a remote road outside the southern Helmand provincial town of Baghran.
Taliban militants have been blamed for a spike in violence across Afghanistan's southern provinces, which were long strongholds of the hardline regime that was toppled in late 2001 by a U.S.-led invasion.
In a speech at a Kabul stadium to several thousand students, President Hamid Karzai condemned the Taliban for the incessant violence as well as attacks against schools.
"There are 100,000 students who can't go to school in the five southern provinces of Uruzgan, Helmand, Kandahar, Khost and Zabul because they have been closed as a result of the enemies of this country burning and attacking their schools," Karzai said.
Two schools housed in temporary tents were burned to the ground Thursday and Friday in the northern Sari Pul province, believed carried out by Taliban extremists opposed to co-education for Afghan boys and girls.
Qari Yousaf Ahmadi, who releases regular statements on behalf of outlawed Taliban fighters, said militants kidnapped Indian telecommunications engineer Suryanarayana on suspicion that he was an American spy.
"We warn all Indians working here to leave Afghanistan within 24 hours starting 6 p.m. Saturday (2:30 a.m. EDT Sunday) , otherwise we will kill him," Ahmadi said after contacting AP by telephone.
Suryanarayana, a father of three from Hyderabad aged in his early 40s, was held up at gunpoint while driving Friday afternoon on the Kandahar-Kabul highway in the Hassan Kariez district of Zabul, the scene of a recent spate of increased militant activity.
He has worked since January for a Bahrain-based company, al-Moayed, which has been contracted by an Afghan mobile phone company, Roshan, to expand its network across volatile provinces in southern Afghanistan.
The kidnapping was the first here since four Macedonians of Albanian descent were kidnapped and killed in March, purportedly by Taliban militants.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/30/2006 00:24 ||
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Move the schools into the village headman's compound, and make ensuring the schooling of the children his personal responsibility. Or perhaps into the local police/military compound. Somewhere in the midst of armed men at night, where someone is personally responsible for ensuring that it's still there for the children in the morning.
Three Afghan police were killed on Saturday in southern Helmand province, officials said. A rocket hit a police patrol killing three police and injuring another in the province's Baghran district, interior ministry spokesman Yousuf Stanizai said. "Three police were martyred and one was wounded after their patrol came under a sudden rocket attack in Baghran district," he said. The assailants fled the area after the rocket attack.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/30/2006 00:00 ||
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Afghan police and military have mounted search to ensure safe recovery of an Indian engineer, who was kidnapped in southern Afghanistan on Friday. Elsewhere in the volatile Helmand province, two Taliban agents were reported dead after exchange of fire with military on Saturday. The Taliban were encircled by the police and military in a mountainous area in the Kajaki district of the Helmand province. Military commander Rahmatullah Raufi said the battle continued for about an hour. Two Taliban were killed while their other accomplices managed to escape.
"Peshawar, here we come!"
"Curly-toed slippers, don't fail us now!"
The military had also captured arms and ammunitions after unearthing a sanctuary of the militants. Meanwhile, the Afghan police and military have mounted search operation for the safe recovery of the Indian engineer. Identified as Mr Narainan, worker of the Afghanistan-based foreign telecom company Roshan, was kidnapped on Friday evening while traveling on Kabul - Kandahar Highway. Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi had claimed responsibility for the kidnapping. This is the third incident of abduction of Indian workers in Afghanistan in the past four months.
Quite by coincidence, India is Pak's Numbah One enemy, despite their current round of peace talks; the Paks accuse RAW of running the Balochistan and, much less believably, the Wazoo insurgencies; and the Afghan Talibs want the Heathen Hindoo out.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2006 00:00 ||
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They found the poor engineer.
http://news.yahoo.com/
s/ap/20060430/ap_on_re_as/
afghan_indian_kidnapped
(you'll have to re-assemble the link - I can't make it embed - it either vanishes or busts format for some reason.)
Police found an Indian hostage's beheaded body in southern Afghanistan on Sunday, officials said. Taliban militants said they shot the hostage dead as he tried to escape.
An Afghan highway police patrol found K. Suryanarayana's decapitated body in a field near the highway where the telecommunications engineer was abducted Friday in Zabul province, said the provincial police chief, Ghulam Nabi Malakhail.
#2
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy on Sunday announced Rs 500,000 compensation to the family of telecom engineer K Suryanarayana, who was killed by Taliban militants in Afghanistan, and a job to a member of his family.
Posted by: john ||
04/30/2006 9:56 Comments ||
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Here's hoping K Suryanarayana reincarnated as a Brahmin boy, or at least as a call center operator with a nice American accent and good future prospects.
As the Afghan and US-led coalition forces launched a massive operation in southern Afghanistan, a provincial governor claimed their forces had killed nine Taliban and arrested a dozen in different areas.
Hurray for our guys!
Governor of Afghanistan's troubled Kandahar province Asadullah Khalid said the operation was launched in the Panjwayee and Jarai districts of the province after the insurgents pushed backed by security forces from neighbouring Helmand province, entered Kandahar.
"Dis province is gettin' too hot for us, boyz! Load up! We're headin' for Kandahar!"
Addressing a press conference in the evening, the governor said there were clashes as well as searches in some areas. He said so far a dozen Taliban militants had been arrested and nine killed in fighting. He said only three Afghan security personnel had so far been injured in the firefight with the militants. Both the coalition forces and Afghan national army were jointly conducting the operation, said Khalid. Taliban did not issue any comment about the clashes. The operation had been launched at a time when Taliban have stepped up attacks in three southern provinces, including Kandahar, Zabul and Helmand. All the three provinces have been restive over the past few months.
This is all part of the Taliban spring offensive. They had a press release the other day warning the Brits of what fearsome guerilla fighters they are, but they're just the same Pashtun dumbasses who're giving the Paks so much trouble in Waziristan. Individually they're tough guys, I suppose, but their tough guy "victories" are against poor souls they can kidnap, or against inanimate objects like schools, or against non-combatants like women and kiddies. In real military operations, against real soldiers, they consistently lose.
The Afghan Taliban have ceased to be a problem in themselves. They're merely the extension of the Wazoo problem. Waziristan and Bajaur and parts of Balochistan are where the drivers live for the Taliban on both sides of the border. That makes it as much a problem in international relations as a military problem, so I expect that Afghanistan's problems will continue to grind on at about their present low level until the Pakistan problem's been taken care of, and I have no idea what form that will take at this point.
I believe the Talibs (and their Arab masters) expect the same thing. They see the war against the Taliban as a replay of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, with themselves in the role of the mujaheddin and us in the role of the Russers. They expect a long war, with us taking economic hits and getting tied down in other places, which is why they're so hot on Iraq. Eventually we're supposed to go broke and go home and our government collapse, at which time they expect to go back to beating women with battery cables, enforcing their perverse interpretations of Koranic injunctions, and becoming part of the Caliphate, if not the very center of reborn Islamic glory.
The difference is that we're not the Russers. We're not sending three or four divisions of draftees in to pacify the country; we're sending professionals who know what they're doing and do it well. The home front, for the most part, supports operations in Afghanistan, regardless of their opinion of Iraq.
Just as importantly, the support network that was provided for the mujaheddin in the 1980s isn't there now. There's only a truncated stump. The ISI may want to run a war against us using Afghan proxies, but they've got to be very low key about it, otherwise we'll be down Perv's throat with both feet. Mullah Diesel (Fazl) is a politician now and there's only so much assistance his party can extend without us putting them on the list of terror organizations. Mullah Sandwich (Sami) was been rather skillfully put on the outs with the rest of the fundos. He's close to Haqqani, but he doesn't command the resources for big time support. Nizamuddin Shamzai is dead and his successors don't command the same influence. In Afghanistan, Rasool Sayyaf appears to be coopted by the Karzai government and maneuvered away from the main chance. The Soddy money pipe, while not totally closed off, at least now has a valve in it, so the cash isn't coming quite so fast. The only resource the Talibs really have is the supply of yokels willing to cross the border and kill infidels, who it turns out are better than them at killing people.
The only real hope the Talibs and their Qaeda masters have is for regime change in Pakistan. Zawahiri harps on it regularly. That leaves us with Perv, who isn't going to shut the whole thing down for matters of Strategic Depth, but who also isn't going to openly support it, and who faces the danger of seeing his Frankenstein's monster bust up his laboratory.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2006 00:00 ||
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Excellent summary, Fred. I'd like to interject a bit of speculation. I think time is running out for both the Talibanis and Perv. I think the patience of high-level decision-makers in Washington has been totally exhausted with both. The next event will be a two-front war between the United States and India on one side, and the ISI and Pakistan on the other. The first indication that war has begun is the destruction of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal. When China screams, we simply say we'll shut off oil supplies to China by invading Iran. China needs oil more than it needs the Paks.
Pakistan's army is equipped with old and outdated arms. India's equipment may be equally as old, but is much better maintained. We don't need to speculate on the status of US equipment. Such a war should be fought as a war of destruction, and we'll let the Indians decide how much rebuilding occurs after we whack all the mullahs, shut down the madrassahs that supply 90% of the Islamic cannon-fodder, and grind their "civilization" into dust. Maybe we'll divide the country equally between India and Afghanistan, and Pakiwakiland will disappear from the world maps.
Any scenario we come up with, we're going to have to become totally barbarian on our enemies, so they will know that messing with the US is not a smart thing to do.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/30/2006 13:41 Comments ||
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In Pak-land and Wazoo, we have the same base situation for Al and the Qs, their cads and lackies, like Afghanistan used to be. It is a delicate and insane dance that we have been doing with Perv, while he carries around the jar of nitroglycerine that is Pakistan. If we maintain the status quo, then it will be a war of attrition against the Talibs and Paks in Wazoo. It will also be a war of attrition against us.
The bottom line is that these bases of operations across the Afghan border need to be destroyed or neutralized. Now how that all ties in with logistics through the NWFP into Afghanistan I do not know, but I imagine that it is a major factor in planning. Regardless, it is time to put these Lions of Islam on the defensive and serious hurt.
As is usual in this part of the world, Pakland runs on Saudi money, and others in the NWFP must run on the opium trade. Without Saudi money, Pakland would be a backwater. So interrupting the money flow should be one of our highest priorities.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/30/2006 14:39 Comments ||
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Wetworks on Saudi money men is a good start
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/30/2006 15:30 Comments ||
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They see the war against the Taliban as a replay of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, with themselves in the role of the mujaheddin and us in the role of the Russers.
Unfortunately for them, they have no one to play the supply role that the US played in that affair. Big damn oversight on their part.
#5
Questions for Old Patriot and Fred - if the whole scenario plays out, and Pakistan disappears, how does it do so - in particular, how will the UN treat a completely different rearranging of national borders?
Has this question arising aside from very constrained or somewhat consenting arrangements (such as the old USSR, eastern Europe, Czech/Slovak????)
I guess what I'm getting at is that a dissolution of a UN member state could lead, certainly in a small, and possible a much larger way to the dissolution of the UN itself.
I think that may be one part of the end game, and not an altogether unworthy part at that.
THE genocide catastrophe in Sudans western province of Darfur, which has been seeping into neighbouring Chad for much of the past three years, is now bleeding freely across the border.
The Arab government in Khartoum, Sudans capital on the river Nile, has exported the Darfur calamity by backing Chadian rebel groups which it allows to operate from bases in Darfur.
This expansion of the Darfur chaos has created a major regional and international crisis. It seems certain to lead to the collapse today of long-running peace talks designed to resolve the western Sudan conflict that has seen more than 300,000 black African Darfurians killed, mainly by Khartoum-backed Arab militias the so-called janjaweed (Arabic slang for armed men on horseback) and more than two million made refugees.
Oliver Bercault, a researcher with advocacy group Human Rights Watch, said last week, while visiting NDjamena, Chads capital: Darfur has become like west Africa and eastern Congo, where war is exported and flowing over borders. It is just very sad for the civilians caught up in it all.
Diplomats and aid workers are freely admitting that the situation is now totally out of control and extremely dangerous, leaving millions of civilians in both Darfur and Chad virtually abandoned to their fates.
What had been a Chadian tragedy long in the making became obvious to the outside world in mid-April when a column of Chadian rebels, trained by the Sudan government, made a lightning advance from bases over the border in Darfur across 600 miles of desert to attack NDjamena. The rebels, in trucks mounted with heavy machine guns and carrying mortars and rocket-propelled grenades, stormed the capital.
Some 350 people died in the fighting after soldiers loyal to Chads President Idriss Déby repulsed the attack with helicopters, tanks and artillery. French fighter jets flew overhead in support of the beleaguered regime, an ally of Paris.
The multiple fallout from this latest African tragedy will today focus most immediately on the people of Darfur, who, for the past three years, have endured assaults by Sudanese government forces and militias that the US administration has labelled genocide a contention supported by human rights organisations and a host of independent observers.
But despite such a serious charge against the Sudanese government, neither the UN, Western nations nor the African Union have been able to find a solution to stem the violence. Darfur and now Chad is a stunning example of the worlds inability to resolve such humanitarian crises.
Long-running peace talks on Darfur in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, are expected to be disbanded today with no agreement. Sudans government has rejected the key proposal that 20,000 UN peacekeepers replace the current 7000 ineffectual African Union troops, financed by the US and the European Union, trying to maintain peace in a region the size of France.
Robert Zoellick, the US deputy secretary of state, last week said of the peace talks: Either you get approval of the [Khartoum] government or you invade, and thats a very big, serious challenge.
In other words, all the game plans to provide relief and succour to the besieged and careworn ordinary people of Darfur are falling apart.
Human Rights Watch said the Khartoum government is using the chaos in Chad and the failure in Abuja as cover to launch new military offensives in Darfur on African villages a continuation of a campaign of ethnic cleansing, allowing Arab pastoralists loyal to Khartoum to take over the better watered and higher ground of African agriculturalists.
This latest assault is also backed by al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden who, in his latest audiotape, urged his followers to launch a second front against the West in Darfur.
The suffering of the millions of internal refugees in Darfur worsened still further when the UN announced last week that its food rations will be halved.
The UN World Food Programme [WFP] in Sudan costs £440 million a year, approximately. But donors have provided only one-third of this sum for 2006 . Britain and the US are the two most munificent bilateral donors. But, apart from Libya, no Arab state has contributed anything, despite windfall gains from high oil prices and Sudans membership of the Arab League.
WFP director James Morris said his only option is to reduce the daily ration from 2100 calories to 1050 per person. The cut takes effect next month. This is one of the hardest decisions I have ever made, said Morris. Havent the people of Darfur suffered enough?
Chad is a vast expanse of rock and desert twice the size of France where the harsh conditions have been ameliorated only by the fresh waters of Lake Chad. But since independence, the huge inland sea has receded to less than 20% of it former water volume and now covers just 500 square miles.
The reasons for this environmental and economic disaster are complex, but Lake Chads disappearing act is just one more major factor in a regional disaster of epic proportions.
The challenge of Chad for the West is daunting as Sudan has begun a campaign to topple a government in NDjamena that is hardly more palatable than the appalling regime in Khartoum.
Chad is an oil-rich state which is, nevertheless, one of the poorest countries in the world. Half the population is illiterate. There is no electricity or piped water outside the capital. Since independence from France, Chadians have experienced a 30-year civil war which ended in 1990 and which is beginning again now together with four coups and several attempted coups.
Ironically, President Déby himself came to power in a coup in 1990, thanks to support from Sudan which gave him and his rebels bases in Darfur.
He is now opposed by a mishmash of rebel groups, including Sudan-backed factions, who have united in one main alliance, the United Front for Change. He is even opposed by many of his own relatives, angered by the way he is squandering oil riches, including expenditure on the white armour-plated Hummer in which he travels around NDjamena.
Two of Débys uncles defected from their posts as top Chadian Army commanders in February to become rebels, an illustration of the desperation that exists among the 10 million people of Chad.
Western strategists now surely realise that Déby will have to be got rid of before Darfur can be tackled. But they worry that if Déby falls that a new government will be sympathetic to the very regime in Sudan that has wreaked such havoc in Darfur.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/30/2006 01:26 ||
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I propose that we make it a punishable offense for reporters who abuse quotes in this manner THE genocide catastrophe
Besides, this reporter should be fired just for all of his "riddle talk". For example, what exactly does this mean? The reasons for this environmental and economic disaster are complex, but Lake Chads disappearing act is just one more major factor in a regional disaster of epic proportions. There is a F'n reason why the huge inland sea has receded to less than 20% of it former water volume and now covers just 500 square miles. What is it you little dipwad reporter? Did aliens suck it up with a straw? No? ooooh, such a mystery. Not.
And how about this one...a continuation of a campaign of ethnic cleansing, allowing Arab pastoralists loyal to Khartoum to take over the better watered and higher ground of African agriculturalists. What exactly does that mean? I don't follow Africa, I can't handle the death and disappointment. However I can only assume by that sentence that there is some sort of PC whitewash behind the sentence. Whatever. It's just that it is a pointless use of verbs and adjectives which tells me nothing. Perhaps telling me nothing is the point.
#4
Well, the Arab janjaweed better be careful. Chad is in France's sphere of influence and the French have such a sterling record of standing up to Muslim atrocities. What they should worry about is the lowkey but steadily increasing US involvement in the area. One of these days they will attack someone who will shoot back.
#7
Forget this nonsense. The liberal MSM and their Hollywood darlings (George Clooney) are trying to involve US ground forces in a place where we have zero national interests at stake.
This is the kind of intervention liberals love: Nothing at stake, people of color tearing each other apart, and we're supposed to expend our troops and resources for what?
#8
BTW: Lest I forget, how that thingy in Somalia turn out the last time liberals persuaded two Presidents (Bush 1 and Clinton) to save a nation from itself? And how is Somalia doing these days?
#9
This is the kind of intervention liberals love: Nothing at stake,
It's sad, but with world cooperation, this could be ended without too much trouble. But for the liberals, its really not so much the genocide they care about- otherwise we'd see them also focus on the other areas of genocide, starvation etc. For them, its really just about parading themselves around making themselves feel like they are doing something self-righteous and important without ever having to get their own hands dirty or bloody. The liberal's motto is "I'm a good person, because I've noted that somebody (else) should do something".
The only good thing about this whole crisis is that I enjoyed watching liberalhawk being used as tool for a publicity stunt by Cynthia McKinney and friends.
#10
2b, in bin Laden's latest recording, he made Darfur one of his jihad fronts. I read something here that suggested he is retreating to Sudan, where he got started. If that's so, don't we want an effective presence to make the area seriously uncomfortable for the bad guys (Al Q & associates... and their Sudanese hosts)? Bush/Rumsfeld can acquiesce to the posturing and accomplish something necessary in one fell swoop, and woe betide the posturers if they complain about the result afterward -- this country is not in the same place it was when we sent the troops into Somalia.
#11
best of arms for our African friends to use against the Arabs
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/30/2006 19:49 Comments ||
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TWs correct. We are not the same nation we were. We should also not go in to just feed and protect. We should go in, feed, arm and train them to defend themselves. Then go South and arm and train the Christians to defend themselves as well. Eventually the Khartoum Government will fall from within.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
04/30/2006 20:20 Comments ||
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49P, that probably won't happen because the Dems would have collective heart failure if the US backed Christians against anyone.
Our military sources reveal the battle is raging on Jebel Magharah, 22km SW of El Arish and west of a former al Qaeda base on Jebel Hilal (alt. 654 meters). The fortified al Qaeda stronghold on Jebel Magharah is beating back an Egyptian assault on the mountain site. Signals passed among the troops describe the operation as the Tora Bora of Sinai, naming it after the fierce epic US-al Qaeda engagement in Afghanistan three years ago. Both sides have sustained casualties.
Egypt launched a large-scale clean-up operation against al Qaedas Sinai bases last week after three bomb blasts killed at least 34 people at the Sinai resort of Dahab Tuesday. They are also reported to be raiding more new al Qaeda havens around St. Catherines monastery and Wadi Paran in the south.
No doubt the battles are fearsome. Another proud entry in the annals of what I've been thinking of for some time as Short Attention Span Warfare — I may trademark the term, in fact. Short Attention Span Warfare™ is when you go all out, great guns, throttling and bashing and booming the enemy, then decide you haven't had lunch and leave. Examples are previous Egyptian experiences in the wake of gruesome bombings at Sharm el-Sheikh and most things in Pakistan involving tribal lashkars.
Really? No details, huh? Okaaaay. I predict amazing stories of brave Egytptos engaging the Bad Guys (who's on the menu this weeks?) in fierce blazing gunbattles lasting for days... resulting in several (more than 3) painfully in-grown toenails and numerous (more than 5) cases of trigger-finger sarpal cunnel tyndrome.
And lots of really shiny medals for all involved. Especially Mubarak who will get at least one sprocket out of it.
#9
"Egypt launched a large-scale clean-up operation against al Qaedas Sinai bases last week after three bomb blasts killed at least 34 people at the Sinai resort of Dahab Tuesday."
___________
Oh yes, just like the successful (not!) clean-up operations they have launched the previous two times similar attacks occurred in almost the exact locations.
#10
spooky info: 1)maybe the Israelis are helping them, thus the great secrecy.2)former base? ummmm........giving the successes in the past I wouldn't count to much on this word "former" and call it still existing because we (=Egyptians)are not too good at cleaning up properly............I like this SASW. Please TM it before anybody beats you.............
Egyptian Security officials and a number of fundamentalists have stated that the recent bombings in the Dahab resort of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula on 24 April 2006 were linked to the attacks in Taba 2004, and Sharm Al-Sheikh 2005 carried out by an Islamic group called Al Tawhid wa Jihad (Monotheism and Jihad).
Major General Fouad Allam, former director of Egypt's State Security Investigation Department, told Asharq Al-Awsat that there are similarities between the methods used in all three operations, as simultaneous or successive bombings occurred targeting civilians and attempting to undermine tourism. Allam believes that there are perhaps terrorist cells in Sinai that are not known to each other or that a new organization has started operating. He pointed out that the suspects who were detained by the security services and who belong to the so-called Tawhid wa Jihad group are perhaps not directly connected to the Dahab bombers.
Allam added that it was Al-Qaeda that introduced the method of simultaneous bombings, which was first used in the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Nairobi, and Dar al-Salam.
Major General Allam stated that limited resources were used in the Dahab bombings, with most of the casualties caused by fragments of glass from the damaged shops and restaurants. The attacks caused 62 injuries in Dahab, a popular diving resort.
Egyptian police have detained two men they said drove people suspected of involvement in bomb attacks in the resort of Dahab and north Sinai, the state MENA news agency reported. In a report published late on Friday, MENA quoted security forces as saying they were questioning two drivers whose passengers could have been involved in the blasts.
Considering that the Dahab bombings followed closely the Taba and Sharm al-Sheikh bombings, Allam said that he believes this has been caused by negligence and complacence on the part of the security forces, which allowed the culprits to infiltrate the resort. He pointed out that this requires a revision of the country's security plans. He recalled that another unknown group carried out two other attacks on the Red Sea coast during the past two years.
Security experts, meanwhile, have played down the likelihood that the groups responsible for the recent attacks are linked to extremist foreign organizations such as Al-Qaeda. They point out, however, that these foreign organizations might be a source of inspiration for local Egyptian groups.
Islamists in London said that those who carried out the simultaneous attacks probably embrace Al-Qaeda's ideology and methods.
Abdullah Uns, son-in-law of Abdullah Azzam, the spiritual leader of the Arab Afghans, argued that a state of resentment exists because of the events in Iraq and Palestine. He added that although the new groups accept Al-Qaeda's ideology, they use different names.
Other fundamentalists also living in London expressed their beliefs that the Dahab attackers are no strangers to the Sinai Peninsula and are probably native to the area where the attacks occurred. Shortly after the Dahab blasts, police said they had formally detained at least 10 people and taken in about 70 local Bedouin for questioning. Egypt has since said the Dahab and north Sinai attacks could be linked.
Egyptian Islamist Dr Hani Al-Sibai, director of the London-based Al-Maqrizi Research Center, said that Osama Bin Laden's most recent recorded message had no connection with the attacks in the Dahab resort, as this message may have reached Al-Jazeera, the Arabic news channel that received the video, a long time ago. In addition, he said, a terrorist attack requires much preparation and research in the location's weak points and the most suitable time to carry out the operation. He noted that there is a strong similarity between the Sharm Al-Sheikh bombing for which Tawhid wa Jihad claimed responsibility, and the Dahab attack.
He added that Al-Qaeda might be a source of inspiration for the local terrorist organizations. He did not rule out the possibility that Bedouin from the Sinai Peninsula could have been involved in the attack as an act of revenge for the earlier imprisonment of hundreds of Bedouin in the wake of the Taba and Sharm Al-Sheikh bombings.
In agreement with General Allam, Al-Sibai said that Al-Qaeda invented the method of simultaneous bombings when it attacked the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar al-Salam in August 1998.
The Dahab resort has been the third target to be attacked in the Sinai Peninsula after Sharm Al-Sheikh in July 2005, and Taba in October 2004.
Egyptian courts announced earlier that the Islamist group Tawhid wa Jihad was responsible for the Taba attack, which killed 34 people in October 2004, and the Sharm Al-Sheikh operation, which killed 70 people in 2005.
Three leading members of the group that carried out the earlier bombings, namely, Nasser Khamis Al-Milahi, Id Salamah Al-Tarawi, and Muhammad Abdallah Jarjar operated within the organization. During interrogation, they confessed that they targeted tourist areas in southern Sinai.
In the statement issued after the Sharm Al-Sheikh bombing in July 2005, the group said: "We, Tawhid wa Jihad in Egypt, are continuing our war to expel the Jews and Christians from the land of Islam. Our war has begun by targeting the axis of Zionist evil and immorality in Sinai, where Moses spoke to God, in Taba, Ras Shaytan, and Nuweiba. May God accept our martyrs who fell in this blessed raid."
Al-Zayyat, an Egyptian lawyer who usually represents Islamists said, "We appear to be seeing the birth of a new generation of Jihadist Salafism in Egypt. However, it is not true that Gamaat Salafiya Jihadiya is behind this operation."
He explained that this generation adopts Al-Qaeda's ideology, which is spreading fast. He pointed out that the recent bombings are linked to what is happening in Palestine and the attempt to pressure Hamas and to remove the movement from power.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/30/2006 00:48 ||
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Egyptian security forces killed one person and captured four early on Sunday in a gun battle in the center of Sinai while investigating bomb attacks in the resort of Dahab and north Sinai, security sources said.
Two people involved in the gunfight escaped, the sources added. However, separate security sources said that one man was killed and no one was captured. Details of the shootout were not immediately available.
On Saturday police detained two men they said drove people suspected of involvement in the attacks. Shortly after the Dahab blasts police said they had formally detained at least 10 people and taken in about 70 local Bedouin for questioning.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/30/2006 00:23 ||
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Nigerian militants said on Saturday they had detonated a car bomb near a refinery in Warri in the southern oil-producing Niger Delta, extending a campaign of attacks that has cut Nigerian exports by a quarter.
No information was immediately available on whether there were any casualties or damage.
A Reuters reporter in Warri who was 4 km (2.5 miles) away from the refinery heard an explosion at the time when the militants said they detonated the bomb. A spokesman for Delta state said there had been a blast but had no further details.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), which demands more local control over the region's oil wealth, said the bombing was a warning to all people working in OPEC member Nigeria's oil industry, and particularly to China.
``We wish to warn the Chinese government and its oil companies to steer well clear of the Niger Delta ... The Chinese government by investing in stolen crude (oil) places its citizens in our line of fire,'' said MEND.
Earlier this week, Chinese President Hu Jintao visited Nigeria and signed deals to explore Nigerian oilfields in return for a commitment to invest $4 billion in infrastructure to help develop Africa's most populous country.
MEND has staged a series of kidnappings and attacks against the oil industry in the world's eighth-biggest exporter that has forced companies to cut production by 550,000 barrels per day.
This has contributed to recent spikes in world oil prices, including last week's record high at over $75 per barrel.
The militants, who have abducted a total of 13 foreign oil workers this year and held some of them for several weeks, have warned all oil workers to leave the delta and vowed to halt exports completely. They have now freed all the hostages.
MEND said it used a mobile phone to detonate 30 kgof dynamite in the bombing. The use of car bombs is unusual in Nigeria, but it was MEND's second such attack in nine days.
``Our operatives in Delta state in the Niger Delta planted and detonated one car bomb amidst petroleum product bridging tankers located close to the refinery in Warri,'' it said.
The militants have provided accurate details of their attacks in the past.
The Warri refinery has not been functioning for several months and no information was immediately available on whether any petroleum products were on site at the time of the blast.
It was not possible to get close to the area on Saturday night as Warri, a volatile city with a history of inter-ethnic violence, is under a near-curfew and it is dangerous to move around the city late at night.
MEND said Saturday's blast was similar to another car bomb attack they staged in Port Harcourt, another major city in the Niger Delta, on April 20. That bombing, close to an army barracks, killed two people.
A little-known group that first appeared in December, MEND is a coalition of militias which the government accuses of involvement in a lucrative trade in stolen crude oil.
But its demands -- which also include the release of two jailed leaders from the region and compensation for oil spills -- are shared by many activists in the area, where most people live in poverty despite the riches being pumped from their land.
President Olusegun Obasanjo has tried to address some of the grievances by promising to build a $1.8 billion highway across the delta, a region almost the size of England, and create 20,000 jobs. But MEND rejected the initiative.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/30/2006 00:22 ||
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American authorities would hand to Saudi Arabia 14-16 Saudis detained in Guantanamo prison by the end of May, Saudi newspaper cited Saturday a senior Saudi official as saying.
The official told Okaz newspaper that Saudi and American authorities have been communicating constantly to discuss preparations for the return of the Saudi detainees from Guantanamo, noting that more Saudi detainees in the American detention camp would be returned later on. He added that Saudi Interior Ministry would allow families of the returning detainees to meet them at the airport, noting that there was a department in the ministry tasked with following up on the needs of detainees' families. Security authorities, he added, would interrogate the returning detainees and would deal with their situation according to the law.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
To a Hero's Welcome.
Posted by: ed ||
04/30/2006 9:43 Comments ||
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Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of the pro-Moscow government of volatile Chechnya province, on Saturday disbanded his security service, Russian agencies reported.
Rights bodies have accused Kadyrov's security service of human rights violations.
"Kadyrovtsy", an irregular army of thousands of former rebels who once fought against federal troops for the independence of their tiny North Caucasus republic, have been pivotal in supporting Kadyrov, whose father, Akhmad, was president of Chechnya until he was assassinated in 2004.
Rights activists working in Chechnya say the Kadyrovtsy abused their powers to crush any rivals to Kadyrov.
They have repeatedly accused Kadyrov's personal guard of using kidnapping, murder and torture to cement his rule.
"These structures are no longer existent, and those calling themselves 'Kadyrovtsy' are impostors and must be punished in accordance with the law," Kadyrov was quoted as telling a television programme in Chechnya.
"Two battalions of Interior Ministry troops, codenamed North and South, have been formed from these fighters, they have their own commanders and generals, and from now on have nothing to do with Kadyrov."
Kadyrov is lionised by compliant Chechen media, and his every move features in local television reports.
When his first son was born in November, the region enjoyed a public holiday, marked by all-night salutes of machinegun fire that left civilians cowering in their basements.
Few observers doubt that when Kadyrov in October turns 30, the minimum age to become Chechen president, he will follow his father into the region's top job.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/30/2006 02:14 ||
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Few observers doubt that when Kadyrov in October turns 30, the minimum age to become Chechen president, he will follow his father into the region's top job.
Security forces on Saturday killed two suspected militants who were holed up on a roof in the southern Russian city of Nalchik, police said.
In the latest violence in the tense Kabardino-Balkariya region, officers surrounded a five-story apartment building on the outskirts of the regional capital Nalchik where the suspected militants had taken refuge on the roof and opened fire in response to demands they surrender, Kabardino-Balkariya Interior Ministry spokeswoman Marina Kyasova said.
She said both gunmen were killed when security forces returned fire. State-run television showed footage of two bodies lying on a roof and reported that the owner of the apartment they had been staying in had been detained and questioned.
One of the gunmen was a native of war-ravaged Chechnya and was wanted on suspicion of attacks and abductions there, Kyasova said, and the other was a native of the Kostroma region northeast of Moscow who had identification documents issued in Ingushetia.
Chechnya, Ingushetia and Kabardino-Balkariya are all republics in Russia's ethnically mixed North Caucasus, where poverty and corruption, and persecution connected with Islam are fueling anger at the authorities. Deadly raids by security forces on homes inhabited by suspected militants are frequent.
Kabardino-Balkariya has been tense since October, when suspected Islamic extremists led a bold daylight attack on law enforcement and government offices in Nalchik that left at least 139 people dead, including 94 alleged attackers.
Relatives of alleged attackers say the assault was provoked by relentless official repression of innocent Muslims in the region. Since the attack, regional law enforcement have staged a wide-ranging investigation, and rights groups say innocent, observant Muslims have been swept up in the dragnet.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/30/2006 02:14 ||
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Fears were growing over the stability of Chechnya yesterday after it emerged that security forces loyal to the prime minister, Ramzan Kadyrov, had fought a gun battle with the bodyguards of the pro-Russian president, Alu Alkhanov.
Two men were reportedly killed in the clash at the presidential administration, sparking fears of a broader power struggle between the groups of Chechen mercenaries who control the republic on behalf of the Russian authorities.
The exchange of fire happened during a meeting between Mr Alkhanov and a Russian official. A veteran journalist of the Chechen conflict, Anna Politkovskaya, reported that Mr Kadyrov was incensed at not being invited to the meeting.
Mr Kadyrov, 29, is the son of Akhmad Kadyrov, Mr Alkhanov's predecessor, who was assassinated in May 2004. As well as being prime minister, he is the head of a private army known as the Kadyrovtsi, whose brutal administration of Russian rule allowed Moscow to reduce its military presence in the republic.
Mr Kadyrov, already the most powerful figure in Chechnya, is expected to replace Mr Alkhanov as president in October when he turns 30, the minimum age for the post. Yesterday's reports will fuel doubts over whether Mr Kadyrov can keep a lid on the warring factions that compete to control Chechnya.
Ms Politkovskaya reported yesterday that Mr Kadyrov insisted on attending the meeting and brought his security men with him to the building's entrance, where a fight broke out. She reported that two people had died in the clash.
The Moskovski Komsomolets newspaper reported that Mr Alkhanov had banned Mr Kadyrov from bringing more than two of his private army with him into meetings. It reported that Mr Kadyrov had rung Mr Alkhanov and given him 30 minutes to flee the presidential administration as his men wanted to storm it. Both sides called for reinforcements and there was further shooting before the situation was defused. Mr Kadyrov later rang Mr Alkhanov to apologise, the paper said.
An aide to Mr Kadyrov played down the clash, saying Mr Kadyrov had attended the meeting. "It was simply a fight between two young sporty guys who don't know how to use their energy and so had a fight," he said. "No one was killed. One hit the other and he got a bruise."
One member of the Kadyrovtsi told the Guardian that four people had been injured in the clash. "Bodyguards on both sides had a quarrel about who they would let into the building, and it blew up."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/30/2006 02:13 ||
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Unidentified gunmen fired at a UAZ jeep of the local district police department in the Nozhai-Yurt region of Chechnya. One policeman was killed and another two were injured in the shootout, a source in Chechen police told Itar-Tass on Thursday.
A police patrol car convoyed a Niva jeep with representatives of the republican and local authorities who were going for a meeting with Gordali residents. The automatic fire and from an under-barrel grenade launcher was opened at the police patrol car on the highway near Tsentoroi, the source said.
No Niva passengers were hurt. The medical aid was given to the injured policemen.
The search operation for the gunmen hot on their traces has not yielded results yet. The search operation is underway.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/30/2006 02:12 ||
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Prosecutors in Diyarbakir in the restless Kurdish region of southeastern Turkey have charged 175 people with involvement in violent clashes last month, court sources said Friday. Charges include violation of laws on demonstrations, and one of operating and membership of an armed group - a reference to the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), accused of orchestrating the riots.
If convicted of the charges, the accused will face possible sentences ranging from three years to life imprisonment. The latest charges bring the number indicted so far to 265, including 80 minors who could face up to 24 years in prison.
Riots erupted in Diyarbakir, the main town of the Kurdish region, on March 28 after youths demanding vengeance attacked the police following the funerals of PKK rebels killed in fighting with Turkish armed forces. A total of 16 people, including three small boys, were killed when security forces opened fire and used tear gas to disperse crowds, which attacked the police with Molotov cocktails and vandalized public buildings and shops. Three women were crushed to death in Istanbul when Kurdish rioters set a city bus ablaze with a petrol bomb.
Court officials said legal proceedings were in progress against some 171 people, of whom 135 were in detention. The prosecution has already charged suspects with offenses including membership in an armed organization, damaging public property, preventing public servants from carrying out their duties and breaching the country's law on meetings and demonstrations.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2006 00:00 ||
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Dutch police have arrested three men and a woman after finding explosives in their apartment in the port city of Rotterdam, a police spokeswoman said. "We searched a house in Rotterdam early this morning based on information we had received," the spokeswoman said. She did not disclose what sort of explosives were found nor the identities of those arrested, but said they were being questioned by police. "The explosives are being brought to explode in an open area nearby and then an investigation will start," the spokeswoman said. During the raid, 15 residents from seven neighbouring apartments were evacuated, she said. A Reuters photographer said the area had been cordoned off.
The Netherlands' security alert level has been at "substantial" since the bombing attacks in London on July 7 last year, the second highest in a four-stage warning system. The country was shaken by the 2004 murder of a film-maker critical of Islam. Nine young Muslim men were sentenced to jail terms recently for belonging to a terrorist organisation.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2006 00:00 ||
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Rotterdam has a rep as an arms black-market. Wonder if business has been hurt by the increased security.
Suspected militants abducted nine Hindu villagers at gunpoint in a remote area of Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday and soon murdered four of them. The fate of the others is not known, the police said.
A senior police official, confirming the gory incident, said the villagers had gone up in the hills of Basantgarh in Udhampur district with their cattle for grazing. They were spotted by the gunmen who seized them at gunpoint. "The bodies of four of the villagers have been found lying in the woods, but the fate of the five others is not known," said deputy inspector-general of police (Jammu range) Lalit I. Mohanty. He added that the victims corpses bore bullet wounds.
The DIG went on to say: "It is up in the mountains where the gory incident has occurred. We have sent a police party with a contingent of the Border Security Force (BSF) to launch a search operation to secure the release of the remaining five abductees if they have not been harmed and to capture the marauders."
The latest reports reaching Jammu, the states winter capital, said that the villagers were seized by militants along a meadow in the Ludana area near Loran Gala.
The reports added that among the slain men were three brothers. The victims who bodies were found have been identified by the police as Shyam Lal, Angrez Singh, Sunit Singh and Om Prakash. Among those still missing are Ramesh Chand, Jagdish Lal and Yog Raj, as well as two others.
The reports also said that before seizing the villagers, the gunmen had kidnapped two other villagers, Seraj Din and Rukum Din, from the same village.
Posted by: john ||
04/30/2006 17:39 ||
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Religion of Peace
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/30/2006 18:58 Comments ||
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Disciples from the Religion of Butchering Thrill Killers slaughters unarmed villagers again.
NEW DELHI: Proof is now available to support suggestions that the United States came close to declaring Pakistan a terrorist State in 1992, as Islamabad increased support to militant elements operating in Jammu & Kashmir.
Pakistani scholar Hussain Haqqani reveals that a May 12, 1992 letter from U.S. Secretary of State James Baker to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif directly blamed Islamabad for extending support to terrorists operating in India.
Handing over the letter to Mr. Sharif, U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan Nicholas Platt also provided some "talking points," which are, now, in the possession of Mr. Haqqani, who had worked as Press Secretary to both Mr. Sharif and Ms. Benazir Bhutto.
The "talking points" are damning. "We are very confident of our information that your intelligence service, the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, and elements of the Army are supporting Kashmiri and Sikh militants who carry out acts of terrorism... This support takes the form of providing weapons, training and assistance in infiltration ... We're talking about direct, covert support from the Government of Pakistan," Mr. Platt's written "talking points"stated.
"Our information is certain. It does not come from the Indian Government. Please consider the serious consequences to our relationship if this support continues... If the situation persists, the Secretary of State may find himself required by law to place Pakistan in the U.S.G. [United States Government] State sponsors of terrorism list... You must take concrete steps to curtail assistance to militants and not allow their training camps to operate in Pakistan or Azad Kashmir," the "talking points" added.
In his book, "Pakistan: Between Mosque and Military," Mr. Haqqani referred to a meeting that Mr. Sharif presided over on May 18, 1992. "We have been covering our tracks so far and will cover them even better in the future," Mr. Haqqani, who was present at the meeting, quoted ISI chief Lt. Gen. Javed Nasir as saying.
According to Mr. Haqqani, Mr. Sharif agreed with this assessment and sanctioned a sum of $2 million for stronger lobbying efforts in the U.S. Foreign Secretary Shehryar Khan, however, disagreed with this assessment, the book said.
The Foreign Secretary said Pakistan would "probably be more successful by focussing on diplomacy and political action" in favour of the Kashmiris, instead of "setting off bombs."
At the same meeting, Chief of Army Staff Asif Nawaz said it was not in Pakistan's interest to get into a confrontation with the U.S., but "we cannot shut down military operations against India either."
The removal of Lt. Gen. Javed Nasir as ISI chief in 1993 took the pressure off Pakistan and the Americans backed off from their threat of declaring Islamabad a State sponsor of terrorism.
Posted by: john ||
04/30/2006 08:52 ||
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If the situation persists, the Secretary of State may find himself required by law to place Pakistan in the U.S.G. [United States Government] State sponsors of terrorism list.
Yet in 2006, the situation continues..
The removal of Lt. Gen. Javed Nasir as ISI chief in 1993 took the pressure off Pakistan and the Americans backed off from their threat of declaring Islamabad a State sponsor of terrorism.
But there are an endless supply of snakes.
Javed Nasir was removed but a decade later another ISI chief, General Mahmood Ahmed, had Omar Saeed Sheikh wire $ 100,000 to Maohammed Atta.
The snake pit needs to be cleaned out..
Posted by: john ||
04/30/2006 9:12 Comments ||
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What is your solution John?
Posted by: ed ||
04/30/2006 9:20 Comments ||
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Dicey, if Perv goes down, we have to secure the nukes.
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/30/2006 12:06 Comments ||
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Between the US hammer and the Indian Anvil, there is enough pressure to both secure nukes and ensure civilized behavior on the part of the Pakistanis.
Posted by: john ||
04/30/2006 12:19 Comments ||
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We sure as hell are not going into the nation building business with Pakistan. Actually, who cares what happens to them as long as the nukes are secured. The Paks are propped up with ours and Saudi money. They used to make clothing with their cheap labor, among other things, but I do not know their economic situation w/r/t foreign exchange now (not counting the Khan nuke enterprise). Without Saudi money, they won't be much. The madarassas will dry up for lack of funds, and the fundos over at J&K will not have any money to persue their mischief.
I think that all of Pak-Land needs to be neutralized. These guys are hopeless.
I wonder if we can buy off the chaps over Peshawar way for safe passage for supplies to Afghanistan.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/30/2006 14:51 Comments ||
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Yes, Alaska Paul, but until they stop overtly encouraging jihad to get employ their excess boys, they'll still be a threat to Kashmir and Afghanistan. We're going to have to change their entire school curriculum and replace all their textbooks for a start. In the meantime, perhaps regularly publicizing the number of Pakistani lads killed due to an excess of religious enthusiasm would be helpful to dampen that enthusiasm. Anonymously placed full page ads in the local newspapers, perhaps, or a regular addition to the radio news.
Al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri has lashed out at US President George W Bush accusing him of giving a "strong impetus" to India's nuclear programme while "doling out orders" to Pakistan.
In a video released on a Jihadist website, Zawahiri pointed to a visit by Bush in March to New Delhi during which he signed a nuclear cooperation agreement with India.
"He gives a strong impetus to the Indian nuclear programme, while doling out orders to Pakistan," the Al-Qaeda leader said on Friday.
He also lashed out at Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf for his support to the US-led war on terror.
"Musharraf is fighting Islam in Pakistan ... Threatens national security in Pakistan... Has placed Pakistan's nuclear programme under Americans, therefore Jewish and Indian control."
"I call on the people of Pakistan to work to remove this traitor from power...And I call on every officer and soldier in the Pakistani army to disobey their commanders' orders to kill Muslims in Pakistan and Afghanistan," Zawahiri said.
In the third message from the organisation in a week, Zawahiri said "Musharraf was prepared to flee abroad where he had bank accounts when the popular revolution breaks out."
According to the video the "message to the people of Pakistan" was recorded after the third anniversary of the fall of the regime of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein on April 9, 2003.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/30/2006 01:17 ||
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The Pakistani military said on Saturday it had killed 324 pro-Taliban militants and al Qaeda in North Waziristan, while losing 56 soldiers in the tribal region since the middle of last year.
The army also managed to capture 142 militants, Major General Akram Sahi, the army's commander in North Waziristan told journalists on a trip organised by the military to Pakistan's frontline in its war on terrorism.
Nearly half of those killed died in fighting since early March. Hardly a day has passed since then without an account of some kind of violence, involving ambushes, roadside bombs, helicopter gunship attacks or missile strikes.
But the military was keen to show that, despite stories to the contrary, the tribal region was not completely out of control and security forces were gaining the upper hand.
"The situation is not absolutely peaceful ... But, to say that there is no writ of the government, it is absolutely wrong," said Major-General Shaukat Sultan, who is spokesman for both the military and President Pervez Musharraf.
Intelligence officials reckoned there were up to 1,000 fighters in North Waziristan, and they have support from the deeply religious and conservative tribes of the region.
On April 13, a Pakistani helicopter strike killed an Egyptian al Qaeda member wanted for involvement in the 1998 bomb attacks on U.S. embassies in East Africa.
Muhsin Musa Matwalli Atwah's death was confirmed by intelligence sources even though his corpse was never found after a precision attack just six km south of Miranshah, the main military headquarters in North Waziristan.
"We don't have his body, but we have good reason to believe that he was among six or seven militants killed," Sultan said.
Sahi said he is sure that his men have managed to seal North Waziristan's border with Afghanistan, to stop the militants harrying U.S. and Afghan troops on the other side.
Pakistan's 2,450-km (1,450-mile) frontier with Afghanistan runs through North Waziristan for just 175 km (109 miles), and while the army has put around 80,000 men into the border areas, close to half are in North Waziristan alone.
Haji Omar, a Taliban leader in neighbouring South Waziristan, where the army finished an offensive early last year, told Reuters this week he was actively recruiting fighters and sending them to fight U.S. and British troops in Afghanistan.
But the government's patience with the tribes appears to be wearing thin.
Musharraf told a tribal council, or jirga, in the North West Frontier Province, capital of Peshawar, last week he was embarrassed because even good friends like China were complaining that Pakistan was being used by Islamist militants causing trouble in Central Asia.
The government's chief administrator for North Waziristan, Syed Zaheer-ul-Islam, told reporters in Miranshah that a jirga will be called there too.
The tribes will be told to forcefully evict foreigners from the area or make them surrender their arms, he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/30/2006 01:15 ||
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These guys have got to learn to get control of their own border, like the United StatesMexicoFrancethe NetherlandsSweden Iceland.
#2
From their perspective they do, Perfesser. After all, the Taliban continue to cross into Afghanistan to cause trouble, just as they've been trained to do.
The movie salesman was selling jihad to the converted.
The buyers thronging his stall on the sidelines of a late-night rally in the Pakistani capital belonged to a crowd organised by a sectarian Sunni Muslim group.
"This is the latest video of the beheadings," he told his customers, as they pored over titles including "Slaughter of Americans in Iraq", "Slaughter of Traitors in Afghanistan" and "Taliban Celebrations".
At the other end of the country, in the Waziristan tribal area bordering Afghanistan, the toll from weeks of fighting between security forces and pro-Taliban and al Qaeda tribesmen pushed towards 300.
The video seller didn't have the latest action from the conflict on the Afghan border, but he had something just as gruesome.
"This one is about the activities of mujahideen in Waziristan and Afghanistan," the seller said.
Dated in December, and supposedly shot in Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, it had footage of hangings ordered by influential militant clerics.
The bodies of the hanged men, described as criminals and bandits, were then dragged through the streets by pick-up trucks, in a grisly demonstration of rough justice in an area where the civil administration has, according to tribesmen, collapsed.
"The commentary in them makes no bones about who is producing them -- they are Pakistani Talibs," said Samina Ahmed, the Islamabad-based director of the International Crisis Group's South Asia project.
For less than a dollar apiece, some VCDs glorify the exploits of al Qaeda and Taliban fighters, promise 72 heavenly virgins for prospective suicide bombers and prescribe beheadings for informers.
There are also training films on how to run a guerrilla war, based on Islamist militants fighting the Russian army in Chechnya.
Messages in the films put Presidents George W. Bush, Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan and Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan at the top of a hit list for would-be assassins in a war against what are described as the American "crusader forces".
Musharraf has banned several militant organisations since 2002, and just last year he launched yet another campaign against groups stirring sectarian violence between Pakistan's majority Sunni Muslims and minority Shi'ites.
But some, such as Sipah-e-Sahaba (Soldiers of Companions of the Prophet), keep bouncing back, although they seem to be getting less space to put their message across. The group organised the recent late-night rally in Islamabad but under another name.
Irfan Ali runs an Islamic bookshop in Karachi and says Musharraf's policies since Sept. 11, 2001, have definitely been bad for business.
"The fact is our business was doing very well when we were selling jihadi literature," Ali lamented. "Now our sales have come down drastically."
The owner of another bookshop in Karachi said such material could always be arranged for trusted customers.
"Jihadi literature, cassettes and VCDs are still available but you will not find it openly. This business has gone underground. It is only sold to known acquaintances or reliable people," he said.
That said, it is not too hard to find the leader of one of the most feared militant groups in Pakistan. His message of radical Islam can be heard outside a number of well-known mosques.
Maulana Masood Azhar, head of Jaish-i-Mohammad, has kept a low profile for some time because of pressure from Pakistan's security apparatus, according to some analysts.
But outside Islamabad's Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, his voice blares out from speakers from among the stalls selling perfumes, skull caps, religious texts, cassettes and videos after Friday prayers.
"Curse on the face of the Americans ... Mullah Omar and Osama are the light of our eyes. Whoever tries to steal this light, we will rob them of their peace," Azhar shouts.
"Spread the message of Jihad in every street."
Not all Pakistani preachers of militant jihad are such shadowy figures. Some are members of the National Assembly, representatives of Islamist parties that form the largest opposition block. Maulana Mairaj-ud-Din, a legislator from South Waziristan, is captured on a video titled "Ghadaran", or Traitors, inciting tribesmen to take up arms for the cause.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/30/2006 01:14 ||
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#1
"This is the latest video of the beheadings," he told his customers, as they pored over titles including "Slaughter of Americans in Iraq", "Slaughter of Traitors in Afghanistan" and "Taliban Celebrations".
#4
No, they'll tell their grandchildren the stories of the "good old days." "I was there when Omar beheaded three infidels at once!"
Posted by: James ||
04/30/2006 12:32 Comments ||
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#5
Watch reruns. And the latest from Sudan, Chad, Chenchya, Kashmir, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Nigeria, and all the other places Islamists like to spread their little wings.
Although Pakistani security agencies have arrested thousands of foreigners from tribal areas, especially South and North Waziristan, hundreds are still living there in the guise of locals and are behind the unrest there, a tribal leader from Miranshah by the name of Haji Khalil told Daily Times.
The foreigners had settled in tribal areas when the NWFP province was declared the base camp for yesterdays mujahideen and todays terrorists in the wake of the Russian occupation of Afghanistan. The first group of the Arab holy warriors came to Pakistan for jihad against Russia in 1980. Later, the warriors from Arab, African and Central Asian states continued to come to Peshawar to cross into Afghanistan to fight Russia.
After the Afghan jihad was over, thousands of jihadis settled in Waziristan, Bannu, Miranshah, Para Chanar, Bajaur and Dera Ismail Khan and most of them married tribal girls or gave their daughters to tribesmen. They were in trouble after the US attacked Afghanistan and again when thousands of Al Qaeda operatives escaped from Tora Bora and Qandooz and crossed into Pakistan.
Al Qaeda operatives again used the same modus operandi to get shelter from local tribes and established family relationships with leading tribes of the area, Khalil said. He said that those who could not marry tribal girls paid $100 to $300 a week to local tribes for shelter.
When Pakistani security forces started an operation against foreigners living in Waziristan, hundreds were arrested, dozens were killed and hundreds fled to various cities of Punjab and Sindh provinces.
Hundreds of foreigners are still living in tribal areas and nobody can differentiate between them and the locals because they wear local dresses and speak Pushto fluently, the tribal leader said. These foreigners are reorganising Al Qaeda and Taliban militants and planning attacks on Pakistani forces, he added.
An Uzbek warrior Tahir Yaldeshiv, Al Qaeda big gun Abu Marwan Soori, who is believed to have died in a US air strike on Bajaur, and widow of a Tajik warrior ran camps to train militants in tribal areas, Khalil said, adding that a widow, who ran a camp to train women militants, had disappeared from the area.
Javed Ibrahim Paracha, former National Assembly member from Kohat and also a tribal chief, said that he helped release around 3,000 Arab and African warriors from various Pakistani jails, and sent them back to their native countries. All of them had been arrested from tribal areas.
There are still over 2,000 foreign warriors in various NWFP jails and I am fighting their cases. Their families are also living in Pakistan and waiting for their release, Paracha said.
About the number of foreigners in tribal areas, he said that some of them could be living in Waziristan, but he did not know about them.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/30/2006 01:12 ||
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LAHORE: Security agencies have arrested a suspected terrorist of the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LJ) from Kot Momin, Sargodha, and seized weapons from him, sources told Daily Times on Saturday. Security agencies, acting on a tip off, raided a house and arrested the accused and seized three hand grenades, one Kalashnikov rifle and 300 bullets from him. He was arrested on a tip off from a cleric who was held on suspicions of having links with the banned militant group, said the sources. The accused identified himself as Ahmad Khan and claimed to be an activist of the banned LJ. He also admitted to planning sectarian-related acts of terrorism in Sargodha. Sargodha is believed to be a stronghold of the banned Lashkar and Riaz Basra, the founder of the outfit, also hailed from there. Meanwhile, Sargodha Police denied arresting any suspected terrorist. "It is quite possible that the Crimes Investigation Department carried out the operation," said a Sargodha police official.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2006 00:00 ||
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An anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Karachi has awarded the death sentence to Kamran alias Atif, an activist of the banned jihadi outfit Harkatul Mujahideen Al Almi on multiple charges. Atif is also believed to be involved in an aborted murder attempt on President General Pervez Musharraf and the American consulate bombing in 2002. He was injured in an encounter with the CID police before his arrest in Buffer Zone in May this year. A passer-by Sarwar Bibi was also killed during the encounter. Police had recovered a huge quantity of explosives on his indication besides live cartages and had registered separate cases against him under the Explosives and Arms Ordinance.
Earlier, the ATC had awarded him five years imprisonment on charges of 'Qatel-e-Khata'. When Atif filed an appeal against his conviction in the Sindh High Court, its anti-terrorism appellate (ATA) bench remanded the case back to the ATC with the instructions to separate the charges against the accused arising from different FIRs and try him for each of them.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2006 00:00 ||
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Nawab Akbar Bugti's lover aide and chief of the Kalper Bugti tribe Wadera Qamar Din has surrendered and become an approver against Akbar Bugti, Aaj television reported on Saturday. Din surrendered his arms before Wadera Jalal Khan Kalper, gave his tribal chief's turban to the latter and accepted him as the new chief of the Kalper Bugti tribe, the channel said.
"A tribal chief's turban? For me? Oh, you shouldn't have!"
Akbar Bugti made Din chief of the Kalper tribe in 1994 and gave him the traditional tribal chief's turban. Din was one of the most wanted men in Balochistan with 27 cases of terrorism against him. He was also reportedly involved in the Dr Shazia Khalid rape case. Din, a former Sui gas employee, has been an absconder for the last six months, the channel said. With Din's surrender, it is said that the whole Kalper Bugti tribe has turned against Akbar Bugti.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Hmmm, a used turban? Maybe thet got all the cooties out.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
04/30/2006 8:33 Comments ||
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Din, a former Sui gas employee, has been an absconder for the last six months, the channel said.
That should have been 'alleged' absconder...I see a lawsuit here.
Is entertainment allowed?
Writing in Jang Ataul Haq Qasimi referred to a statement made by singer Abrarul Haq on the question of music as a source of peace of mind. A lady had asked if namaz was not the only source of this tranquillity. The columnist stated that the ulema were not united on the concept of entertainment in Pakistani culture. Were music, photography, singing, painting, poetry and cinema allowed as entertainment or not?
Khalid Khwaja and Osama bin Laden
Columnist Hamid Mir wrote in Jang that ex-ISI operative Khalid Khwaja had recently revealed that Osama bin Laden had paid Nawaz Sharif money to get rid of Ms Bhuttos government in 1989 and that he himself had carried the money to Mr Sharif. The truth was that Osama was not interested in bringing a no-confidence vote against Ms Bhutto, he was more interested in getting his Arab friends out of trouble in Peshawar. That year Hosni Mubarak, Qaddafi and Shah Husain had asked Ms Bhutto to get rid of the Arab terrorists in Peshawar. In the operation that was mounted, Abu Mussab Al Zarqavi too had to spend six months in jail in Peshawar. After his release he was imprisoned in Jordan too. Khalid Khwaja was then retired from the ISI but was personally serving Nawaz Sharif and flying Nawaz Sharifs personal plane between Pindi and Lahore. He proposed that Osama pay money to end Ms Bhuttos government so that his men would not be bothered any more. One Khayyam Qaiser got some of the money but returned it to Khalid Khwaja because no next ruler would save Osamas men in Peshawar.
Nawaz Sharif and Osama bin Laden
Writing in Jang Hamid Mir stated that Nawaz Sharif had done a lot of planning to help the Americans get Osama bin Laden. The Americans thought they could trust Nawaz more in the matter of capturing Osama. In 1998 when Nawaz Sharif was prime minister the Americans bombed Afghanistan for the first time. In 1999, it was agreed between Nawaz Sharif, American adviser on security Sandy Burger, Shahbaz Sharif and ISI chief Ziauddin to mount an operation to capture Osama; and the army chief Musharraf was unaware of it. American writer Bob Woodward had revealed that an operation was afoot in 1999 in the border areas in Pakistan which also triggered the reaction from JUIs Maulana Fazlur Rehman that any American found in the area should be shot on sight. Nawaz Sharif had also banned Harkatul Ansar and declared war on Al Qaeda, but was toppled in 1999.
Magician burns Quran
Reporting from Haroonabad in Punjab, the daily Pakistan stated that an aamil (exorcist) of Faqirwali put a copy of the Holy Quran on the burner as a part of his magic spell. When his wife tried to stop him he slapped her. When the village got to know he was given a thrashing and was handed over to the police. During his arrest he tried to throw his magic spell but was not able to do so. Witnesses said he seemed possessed. Some people were thinking of destroying public property to express their anger.
A shroud-eating corpse
Reported in Khabrain a spiritual baba Pir Fazl told a family that their recently dead family members were in great pain in their graves because another dead man was eating up their shrouds (kafan). In Rajanpur everyone became alerted to the underground shroud-eater who was named by Pir Baba as Allahyar. He asked the relatives to open his grave and break his skull with a hammer. The concerned family did the deed but the relatives of the shroud-eater found out that their man had been defiled in his grave and there was much trouble in the village.
Speaker asked to open his legs
According to Sarerahe in Nawa-e-Waqt speaker National Assembly Chaudhry Amir Hussain was about to enter the Australian parliament when he was body-searched (jama-talashi). He submitted to that but then he was asked to spread his legs which he found most insulting. The column was most offended with the thought that the Australians were after something more embarrassing than explosives when they asked him to open his legs.
Fish with divine names
According to Nawa-e-Waqt a Muslim in London, Ali Al Wakeedi, had bought a pair of fish with Allah and Muhammad written on their bodies. He said the divine names were not very clear to the eye but he believed that the names were there. He now receives a lot of Muslims who want to see the miraculous fish to increase their faith.
America running the show!
Famous historian Dr Safdar Mehmood wrote in Jang that the educated people of Pakistan were becoming increasingly aware that Pakistan had become the colony of the US and the US could bomb our region any time and arrest anyone it wanted any time and then go back home. They thought that Pakistani rulers had become functionaries (karinday) of America and, after the Bush visit, had come to realise that America itself was not satisfied with these rulers. On the other hand the one-man show in Pakistan was ignoring merit and inducting army officers and friends into important jobs. In these conditions, Pakistan was simmering with underground moves for a final dangal (wrestling bout) against the rulers.
Talaq while sleeping
According to Sarerahe in Nawa-e-Waqt a Muslim in India divorced his wife in his sleep. When he approached his local Islamic scholar he was told that divorce had actually happened and now he had to get his ex-wife married off to a cleric who would divorce her to make her eligible for remarriage to him. Sarerahe thought that the Islamic cleric too gave his fatwa while asleep.
Sardar Atiq and snakes
Writing in Khabrain Tariq Hamid stated that Azad Kashmiri and Muslim Conference leader Sardar Atiq Khan was an accomplished politician but he was also into spiritual practices. For instance, he could make your headache go away in an instant through incantation. He was also an expert at making the snakes of Azad Kashmir run away from homes. There were many miraculous stories associated with his magical powers. But the columnist wondered why, if Sardar Atiq was against snakes, did he want American and NATO forces to stay on in Azad Kashmir.
Chief minister in trouble
Writing in the daily Pakistan, Naseer Ahmad Salimi stated that chief minister Arbab Ghulam Raheem was under pressure from coalition in-fighting and a rapidly deteriorating law and order situation in Sindh. After the coming to power of the present MQM-PML coalition, the following politicians had been gunned down in Karachi: PPPs Abdullah Murad, Jamaat Islamis MPA Aslam Mujahid, MQMs former speaker assembly Abdur Raziq Khan, former Sindh minister Badar Iqbal and MQMs Khalid bin Waleed.
Iran has guts!
Quoted in Nawa-e-Waqt ex-ISI chief Hameed Gul said that Iran will not accept dictation from America because Iran had guts (jaan hai). He said that American ambassadors statement that there would be no AQ Khan in future was against diplomatic rules. He added that there was ember in the ashes of the Muslim ummah and it will become a fire. MMA leader Hafiz Hussain Ahmad said that hundreds of AQ Khans had been born in Pakistan; but America would not find a single Musharraf here in future.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2006 00:00 ||
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...Now THAT'S a Stephen King title if I ever heard one.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
04/30/2006 7:42 Comments ||
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#4
"When he approached his local Islamic scholar he was told that divorce had actually happened and now he had to get his ex-wife married off to a cleric who would divorce her to make her eligible for remarriage to him."
It seems being a cleric has some unexpected fringe benefits in that part of the world. (I assume that if the lady was ugly he'd have ruled the other way.)
Posted by: James ||
04/30/2006 12:42 Comments ||
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(I assume that if the lady was ugly he'd have ruled the other way.)
If all he sees is a bit of wrist and ankle, how is he to judge, James? So long as she has the requisite female bits...
Security forces in Indian administered Jammu and Kashmir Saturday gunned down a top commander of terror outfit Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) in southern part of the state.
News agency United News of India quoting Indian Defence Ministry spokesman at Srinagar (capital of Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir) said Saturday that security personnel launched a joint operation at a village in south Kashmir district of Pulwama early Saturday morning. However, when the troops were about to storm a particular house in that village, militants opened fire and also hurled hand grenades. In the encounter between the security forces and terrorists, self-styled Battalion Commander of HM Bilal Ahmad Dar was killed, the spokesman said. One AK rifle and other arms and ammunition were recovered from the slain militant, the news agency reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2006 00:00 ||
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GENEVA (Reuters) - Detainees are enjoying better treatment at the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, and the Red Cross is satisfied with its access to them, the humanitarian agency's chief said on Tuesday.
Jakob Kellenberger, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), said detention conditions at Guantanamo had "improved considerably" over the past four years.
"There have also been improvements in the treatment of prisoners, but that does not mean that there are no longer any problems at all," he told the daily Tribune de Geneve in an interview.
The Pentagon last week released the names and nationalities of 558 terrorism suspects held at the U.S. naval base in Cuba.
Kellenberger said the ICRC, whose work is based on the principle of confidentiality, has known the identities of those held there since the beginning of 2002. It had been able to visit the detainees regularly under satisfactory conditions.
But he said the ICRC and Washington remained at odds over whether the detainees, which the United States calls "enemy combatants," are protected under the 1949 Geneva Convention on the rights of prisoners of war.
"On this issue, I don't see a possible agreement at this stage. But we are not abandoning our efforts," he said.
He called it "extremely regrettable" that intense media focus on Guantanamo seemed to distract from troubled sites in places like Chechnya and Myanmar, where the ICRC has suspended prison visits over disagreements with local authorities.
ICRC officials visit more than 500,000 detainees worldwide each year. In 2005, Kellenberger said it sent staff to nearly 2,600 detention centers in 76 countries.
#1
You find the uniforms, name, and rank on those guys, and I'll send every one of 'em a copy of the Geneva phone book and menu of Cafe de Paris. Until then, Sierra Tango Foxtrot Uniform about the Geneva convention.
#2
Looks like the Moolahs are playin' the Turkey card. My $$ is on the PKK
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/30/2006 12:01 Comments ||
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They're testing the waters to see how much they can get away with. Waiting for a response from Iraqis. Just like a bunch of pushy Arabs, arent they?
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/30/2006 16:51 Comments ||
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more context:
April 30, 2006 last week, according to angry Foreign Ministry officials in Baghdad, Turkish commandos briefly crossed 15 kilometers into Iraqi territory in pursuit of PKK rebelsa move that could signal dangerous new frictions to come.
..Kurdish leaders are seeking investment from Turkish firms. To date, 314 Turkish companies have signed contracts for projects valued at more than $1 billion, officials of Iraqi Kurdistan have said.
Visitors to Kurdistan can fly into one of two airports built by companies based in Turkey, drive Turkish-built roads and see Turkish-built housing developments and university buildings.
"Turkish companies are everywhere in Kurdistan and doing everything," said Ilnur Cevik, a Turkish businessman whose Cevik Ler company claims more than $100 million in Kurdish government construction contracts.
#8
TURKEY is by far the militarily strongest of Tehran's potential regional Muslim competitors. Tehran's Shia Mullahs and MadMoud ultimately want Radical Iran to be SOLE center on earth for Muslim thought, politics, Govt. and power, the unipolar USA of the absolutist Muslim universe. As Lawrence Eagleburger stated on FNC, there are many good reasons for the USA-WEst and UNO to stop Iran from having nukes, and not all said reasons entails responding only after Iran's sends nuke-tipped missles or nuclearized terrorists-anarchists against targets in Israel or Western Europe. RADICAL IRAN'S EXPANSION TOWARD EMPIRE = DE FACTO DECLINE OF AMERICAN AND WESTERN POWER-INFLUENCE.
#10
please do not overestimate the iranian moolahs,although they are smarter than the wahabis and they enjoy the good life. They definitely do not want to turn into camel drivers, thus they are not going to kill the wealth engine of globalization, meaning USA. They slow us done and they don't get to sell their precious oil @ 70 dollars per barrel.All they really want is an oil burse in euros, manipulate the europeans,have their women permanently dress in black (it's cheaper) and lots of influence in Iran......they play one of the most sophisticated geo-political games. What a dance. Next they are going to hook up with Morales, Chavez,Castro.............Personally I think that they will have their nukes.......
#11
I dont think we have much of any forces up in Kurdistan. The Kurds have been self sufficient for sometime now. I would imagine this incursion was on the border hitting one of those Iranian Kurdish rebel bases.
Gotta give it to the Iranians pretty savvy move. If we retaliate on the Iranian forces in support of the PKK then what about all those same incursions coming from Turkey are we going to do in kind? Will Turkey accept our open protection of the PKK even if its the Iranian branch only? The Pesh Merga claim they dont associate with the Turkish PKK so we get a pass on them from Turkey. On the same note if we dont retaliate Iran looks like the strong horse worsening our position with the Iranian rebels.
If I was Bush I would applaud the Iranian action coming out openly supporting their attacks on terrorist then follow that up with an announcement that we hope the Iranians would support our own actions in kind. Iran will declare any incursion will be met with arms and then we of course will be justified to act in kind to their incursions. Even Turkey could support that
U.S. intelligence officials say they are seeing early signs that jihadist fighters who came to Iraq to contest the U.S.-led coalition are looking beyond Iraq's borders to spread a radical, violent agenda.
American analysts are trying to understand a web of complex political, cultural and economic issues contributing to the instability in Iraq, said the senior officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity Friday because of the sensitive positions they occupy.
When asked about the extent to which Sunni Muslim jihadists in Iraq are feeding other groups in the region, one official said the primary link between the global jihadist movement and the Iraq insurgency was believed to be rhetorical.
But the official said authorities cannot rule out that some of the foreign fighters -- who came to fight for al-Qaida's leader there, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi -- will adopt a more regional focus.
"We are seeing indications," said the official, who declined to elaborate and cautioned that the signs are on a small scale now.
U.S. intelligence is trying to understand how local Muslim groups become more radical and plot attacks with little or no contact with a central al-Qaida organization in Iraq or Afghanistan.
That appears to have been the case with this week's resort attacks in Dahab, Egypt, as well as the 2004 Madrid train bombings and last year's London transit attacks.
By a number of measures, the region has become more violent since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. A State Department report on terrorism Friday tallied a dramatic increase in terror attacks in Iraq last year, where about 3,500 of the world's more than 11,000 attacks took place.
A wider focus for al-Zarqawi, who is intent on overthrowing the government in his home country of Jordan, comes as no surprise.
But his organization has launched only limited attacks beyond Iraq, claiming responsibility for three outside Iraq's borders last year -- most notably, the suicide attacks on three Jordanian hotels that killed 60 in the country's worst-ever terror bombings.
The decision to use Iraqi bombers in that assault was no accident, said one of the senior officials.
U.S. intelligence is changing its focus given the ever-evolving situation in Iraq.
In the past four to five months, intelligence agencies have looked more at the growing sectarian strife rather than considering the insurgency the primary problem.
Speaking at Washington's National Press Club last week, National Intelligence Director John Negroponte said Iraqis urgently need to form their new government under the constitution to address the serious challenges posed by sectarian violence. He said the military and police forces must continue to improve.
"There's no denying that it's an extremely challenging situation," he said.
Experts in and out of government note that sectarian militias have become increasingly powerful, at the expense of the Iraqi military and police, and populations of Sunnis and Shiites have been displaced by the violence.
U.S. intelligence is also paying close attention to Iraq's neighbor, Iran and its Shiite government. Officials including Bush have alleged that Tehran has provided increasingly deadly roadside bombs to insurgents and meddled in other ways.
One of the senior officials said as part of Iran's effort to disrupt the U.S. mission, it has given limited help to the religiously minded Sunni insurgents, such as the group Ansar al-Islam. He declined to elaborate.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/30/2006 01:53 ||
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Iraqi jihadis looking to the future, Iran supporting Ansar al-Islam
thats not news, its olds, an questionable relevant today, according to the Kurds and Yon. Halabja
U.S. intelligence officials say they are seeing early signs that jihadist fighters who came to Iraq to contest the U.S.-led coalition are looking beyond Iraq's borders to spread a radical, violent agenda.
ho'kay ['cause they got their asses handed to them]
American analysts are trying to understand a web of complex political, cultural and economic issues contributing to the instability in Iraq, said the senior officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity Friday because of the sensitive positions they occupy.
wooo0ooo
When asked about the extent to which Sunni Muslim jihadists in Iraq are feeding other groups in the region, one official said the primary link between the global jihadist movement and the Iraq insurgency was believed to be rhetorical.
m'kay..[sic the underlying theory..shhh]
But the official said authorities cannot rule out that some of the foreign fighters -- who came to fight for al-Qaida's leader there, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi -- will adopt a more regional focus
heavy
"We are seeing indications," said the official, who declined to elaborate and cautioned that the signs are on a small scale now.
keep thatun under ur hat!
U.S. intelligence is trying to understand how local Muslim groups become more radical and plot attacks with little or no contact with a central al-Qaida organization in Iraq or Afghanistan.
jeeze 'nuff, i quitum..
Do articles like this seem to be written for the sole purpose of a reporter's deadline, or whaaat?
THE leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, is attempting to set up his own mini-army and move away from individual suicide attacks to a more organised resistance movement, according to US intelligence sources.
Faced with a shortage of foreign fighters willing to undertake suicide missions, Zarqawi wants to turn his group into a more traditional force mounting co-ordinated guerrilla raids on coalition targets.
Al-Qaeda is sending training and planning experts to help to set up the force and infiltrate members into Iraq with the assistance of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, the sources said.
Mowaffak al-Rubaie, Iraqs national security adviser, said this weekend that the majority of American and British troops would have left by the end of next year. By the middle of 2008 there will be no foreign soldiers in the country, he predicted.
In a video posted yesterday on an Islamist website, Ayman al-Zawahiri, deputy leader of Al-Qaeda, claimed that 800 martyrdom operations in three years had broken the back of America in Iraq.
The change of strategy will make it easier for Zarqawi to link up with Iraqi insurgents and evade the allied special operations teams trying to track him down.
Zarqawi came close to capture two weeks ago, Defense News, the international news weekly, reported yesterday. An American raid on a terrorist safe house in Yusifiya, 20 miles southwest of Baghdad, was aimed at capturing one of his lieutenants, but when five men at the house were interrogated, it emerged that Zarqawi had been in a house close by.
* The US military has charged the former head of the interrogation centre at Abu Ghraib prison with the maltreatment of Iraqi prisoners. Lieutenant-Colonel Steven Jordan is the highest ranking officer to face criminal charges over abuse of detainees at the Baghdad jail.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/30/2006 01:20 ||
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#1
Rumsfeld is such an idiot and his generals so out of touch, why can't they devise a battle plan that the enemy can stick to? Quagmire, retreat, retreat!
#8
The idiot is Bush for not getting rid of Rumsfeld a long time ago...........unless the news on Iraq will start to get better as election time in the USA gets closer........games within games within games..................
Two key members of the Al Qaeda network were killed and captured in separate operations in Iraq over the past two days, US and Iraqi security sources reported Friday.
Al Qaeda's regional leader in the city of Samaraa, Hammad Al Takhy, was killed on Friday morning, while on Thursday, Al Qaeda leader Abdel Qader Makhul was captured near Tikrit, the sources said.
In the raid at Samaraa, 110 kilometres north of Baghdad, US military sources claimed the killing of al Takhy by coalition forces, while Iraqi security sources claimed the killing by Iraqi forces.
The Iraqi sources added that al Takhy's whereabouts were revealed by individuals accusing the Al Qaeda leader of killing their family members and relatives.
Reports said that after he was killed, people dragged al Takhy's corpse through the streets along the Al Rusasi River, a branch of the Tigris River.
Al Takhy and his brother Nejm, who has not been apprehended, are accused of killing a number of Iraqi civilians in the region between Samaraa and Al Dawr, including a female reporter from the Al Arabiya satellite news channel, Atwar Bahjat.
US armed forces had raided this region in March and had described its operation as the largest of its kind conducted in the Samaraa area. Al Qaeda's influence in the vicinity of Samaraa is said to have been dealt a serious blow by the killing of al Takhy.
The operation in Samaraa came a day after the raid at a village 20 kilometres south of Tikrit, led to the capture of local Abdel Qader Makhul, Al Qaeda's chief of the Salah el Dein governorate on Thursday night by Iraqi forces.
The operation came only three days after the killings of two Al Qaeda leaders - one chief and his deputy - who were said to be the regional leaders in the area of Al Jazeera. They were killed only two days after the release of Abu Musaab el Zarqawi's latest video recording.
In a separate incident, Iraqi armed forces arrested the chief of an armed Islamist organization along with two other members of the group on Thursday, Iraqi security sources said. The three were apprehended near the city of Telafar.
The leader, Khairy Abdel Hameed, and his two associates were arrested in the village of Hassan Kawi west of Mosul, 400 kilometers north of Baghdad. The group was said to have twelve explosive belts in their possession.
The operations against the Al Qaeda came amid further clashes between coalition forces and insurgents, with US sources saying Friday that Iraqi security forces had killed 21 insurgents and captured another 43 in fighting in Baquba and Dali Abbas.
The fighting took place on Thursday when insurgents attacked the Buhriz police station in Baquba and five checkpoints. Iraqi army and police forces responded to the attacks, killing 17 insurgents and capturing 28, the US sources said.
One Iraqi soldier was killed and two others were wounded, in addition to four members of the Iraqi police force also reportedly wounded, according to the same sources.
In another attack on Iraqi army headquarters in Dali Abbas, four insurgents were reported killed and 15 captured.
Six Iraqi soldiers were killed and eight wounded in the incident, while two civilians were killed and four wounded.
Iraqi security sources, however, had reported the deaths of five security forces and three civilians in the Dali Abbas incident.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/30/2006 01:10 ||
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#1
"...people dragged al Takhy's corpse through the streets..."
This must be some general Muslim cultural thing. I'm not defending al Takyy or anything, but just questioning the whole 'multi-culturalism/diversity wonderful' mindset.
#3
Excellent news about mistreatement of the corpse: They're not only sending a message to AQ about how they feel about them, but communication that the locals are not afraid of reprisals.
U.S. forces killed a local leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq and captured another in raids north of Baghdad on Thursday and Friday, dealing a blow to the insurgent organization's leadership in the violent city of Samarra, Iraqi police and U.S. military authorities said.
U.S. troops tracked Hamadi al-Takhi al-Nissani, al-Qaeda's "emir" in Samarra, to a safe house north of the city Friday morning, the U.S. military said in a statement. As the soldiers approached the house, Nissani fled and was killed. Two other armed insurgents in the house were also killed, according to the statement.
Police in Samarra who spoke on condition of anonymity gave a slightly different account, saying that the house was east of the city and that the three men were running to a getaway car when fire from an American helicopter killed them.
On Thursday night, U.S. troops also arrested Abdul Qadir Makhool, another al-Qaeda leader in Samarra, and released a police officer who had been kidnapped by the group, Maj. Jamal Samarraie, an officer at the provincial Joint Command Center, said in an interview.
The U.S. military referred to capturing an armed insurgent in a statement on Friday but did not give the man's name or say precisely when he had been captured.
Nissani "was an individual who they had been working to capture and take down for some time," Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, a U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, said in a telephone interview. "This is a very critical element in halting a lot of the illegal terrorist activity there."
Samarra, a city of 70,000 residents 65 miles north of Baghdad, has long presented a challenge for U.S. and Iraqi government troops trying to stop violence in Salahuddin province. Last August, U.S. engineers built an 8-foot-high, 6 1/2 -mile-long dirt wall around Samarra, the provincial capital, limiting access to three checkpoints.
Though the measure resulted in a drop in attacks, it did not prevent insurgents from destroying the Askariya mosque, a shrine sacred to Shiite Muslims, on Feb. 22. The attack triggered a wave of sectarian violence between Shiite and Sunni Arabs that has pushed the country toward civil war.
U.S. military officials have said they believe the mosque attack was carried out by al-Qaeda in Iraq, a prominent insurgent group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. It is unknown whether Nissani had any role. Samarra police said Nissani was the deputy of Haytham Sabaa, an al-Qaeda leader for all of Salahuddin province.
"He was certainly a key individual responsible for terrorist attacks of all kinds," Johnson said.
The blow to the al-Qaeda leadership in Samarra coincided with a surge in violence in the city of Baqubah, about 35 miles northeast of Baghdad. An Iraqi general there said 58 people, most of them insurgents, had been killed over two days of fighting in the restive city, the Associated Press reported.
The violence began Thursday afternoon when a large force of insurgents launched simultaneous attacks on five police checkpoints and a police station, the U.S. military said in a statement. Elsewhere in the city, a force of more than 100 insurgents attacked an army headquarters with a barrage of mortar fire, rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifle fire. Iraqi troops fought off all the attacks, the U.S. military said, killing 21 insurgents and capturing 43.
A roadside bomb also killed a U.S. soldier traveling north of Baghdad on Thursday, the military said in a statement.
On Saturday, in a video posted on an Islamic militant Web forum, Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda's No. 2 leader, said hundreds of suicide bombings in Iraq had "broken the back" of the U.S. military, the Associated Press reported. It was the latest in a recent series of messages from the terrorist network. Zawahiri also denounced the leaders of Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Iraq as "traitors" and called on Muslims to rise up to "confront them."
The video was first obtained by IntelCenter, a U.S. government contractor that does work for various intelligence agencies. U.S. counterterrorism officials were aware of the video and analyzing it, two officials said on condition of anonymity. One of the officials, who would not be identified in compliance with office policy, said it was part of an ongoing propaganda blitz by al-Qaeda to demonstrate it is still relevant.]
The seesaw nature of the violence and the constant dangers posed by the war are taking their toll on the Iraqi public, according to new poll data released by the International Republican Institute, a Washington-based organization that promotes democracy outside the United States.
Although 45 percent of the 2,800 Iraqis questioned said they favored a government uniting the country's ethnic and sectarian factions, and only a small number supported the division of the country into separate parts, 52 percent said they thought the country was headed "in the wrong direction." Thirty percent believed the opposite.
The poll was taken in late March, while the country's politicians were deadlocked over the choice of a new prime minister, and may have reflected the frustration of waiting for the parliament to make its choice.
Meanwhile, some Iraqis marked what was once cause for mandatory national celebration: the 69th birthday of Saddam Hussein, the former president, who is in jail while being tried by his countrymen.
In Auja, Hussein's home town, a group of about 200 young men showed some of the old spirit. A disc jockey played folk music, and guests ate cake as others chanted, "Our blood, our lives, we sacrifice for you, Saddam." Some read poetry describing the ousted leader as a symbol of the Arab nation.
The birthday party went undisturbed by a passing police patrol, which left without saying anything. The town resounded with celebratory shooting and songs until midnight.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/30/2006 01:06 ||
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"The town resounded with celebratory shooting and songs until midnight."
Followed inexplicably by a dozen FAE bombs at 3 am....
The al-Qaeda terrorist group has attempted to bribe Fijian guards at Saddam Hussein's trial into identifying witnesses so they could be killed, a Fiji newspaper has reported.
A Fijian guard attached to the US Marshalls told the Fiji Times he and four others had been offered $F3.48 million ($A2.65 million) for information which led to the death of the witnesses.
Josevata Tuisavalu said al-Qaeda operatives contacted the Fijian guards to make the bribe attempt, which was rejected.
"Our work here involves security for the witnesses against Saddam and also defence lawyers, judge and translators," the paper reports Tuisavalu as saying.
"During trial the witnesses faces are covered and their voices are made to echo.
"The al-Qaeda offered us $F3.48 million for the death of any of the witnesses but we are not easily tempted."
Tuisavalu said the Fijian guards protected close to 50 people involved in the trial of the former Iraqi dictator.
"We are the only one allowed up at the court house and have the privilege of (being) face to face with Saddam," he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/30/2006 00:52 ||
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A multi-charged roadside bomb, developed by Hizbollah in Lebanon, is being used against British and American soldiers by Iraqi insurgents linked to Iran, according to military intelligence sources. The device consists of an array of up to five armour-piercing "explosively formed projectiles" or EFPs, also known as shaped charges. They are fired at different angles at coalition vehicles, resulting in almost certain death for at least some of the soldiers inside.
See the accompanying illustration; makes this pretty clear.
The bombs are easier for insurgents to use because, unlike single EFP devices, they do not need to be carefully aimed and so can be planted beside a road within a few seconds. Their killing potential is also enhanced because more than one EFP is likely to hit a single vehicle.
Some have been painted to look like concrete blocks - a modification of a tactic used by Iranian-backed Hizbollah, which hollowed out imitation rocks, bought in Beirut garden centres, to conceal bombs targeting Israeli vehicles. A senior defence source said: "There are clear signs of Iran's sinister hand, and through that, Hizbollah, in this development."
A Pentagon document obtained by The Sunday Telegraph describes the devices as "well manufactured by experienced bomb makers" and "pioneered by Lebanese Hizbollah". It adds: "The United Kingdom has accused Iran of providing these devices to insurgents in Iraq."
Triggered when an infra-red beam is broken, the projectiles are capable of penetrating the armour of 60-ton Abrams tanks. Warrior armoured vehicles and Land Rovers, used by British forces in southern Iraq, offer almost no protection against them.
The Sunday Telegraph was the first newspaper to report the use of infra-red triggered devices, believed to be from Iran, against British troops. Since last May, 14 British soldiers have been killed in Iraq, including 12 by roadside bombs made up of EFPs and an infra-red trigger.
In February, John Negroponte, America's director of national intelligence, blamed the Iranian government for the spread of such weapons throughout Iraq. He told a United States Senate committee: "Teheran is responsible for at least some of the increasing lethality of anti-coalition attacks in 2005, by providing Shia militants with the capability to build IEDs [Improvised Explosive Devices] with explosively formed projectiles, similar to those developed by Iran and Lebanese Hizbollah."
Coalition forces recently intercepted an infra-red EFP device being transported into Iraq across the Shatt al-Arab waterway from Iran.
Many such devices use a simple motion sensor, made and sold legally by the Taiwan-based company Everspring. EFP devices have a steel or copper curved dish that becomes a molten dart when the blasting cap is detonated. The Pentagon documents say that EFPs are "capable of penetrating armour plate up to 10cm thick or more at a range of 100 metres or more".
There were 10,953 roadside bombings last year, compared with 5,607 in 2004.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/30/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
If the EFP is remotely armed, then there must be a way to remotely disarm it.
#2
Not saying that Iran isn't a tactical and strategic problem, it is, But shape charges aren't difficult to build, and high explosive, copper, and switches are found in abundance in Iraq.
#4
RD, I think I've asked you this before but I'm curious, you generally seem to have a skeptical attitude towards reports of Iranian involvement in anti-US terrorism. Is it just the fact that most of it is sourced to anonymous people, that you feel the nuclear issue is making people overly credulous of these reports, that you don't trust the MEK (definitely not a criticism, IMO), or is there another reason to it.
I'm not trying to be critical, but if there is something you see that I'm missing I would like to know so I can factor it into my own analysis.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/30/2006 4:54 Comments ||
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Iranian involvement in anti-US terrorism
Dan, In the past here at the RB, you and I initially were the first to suspect that Steven Vincent's death was connected in some way to Iranian agents/orders.
and while I'm certain that the Iranian State has a large active terrorist apprat working around the world,
[eg. samples of their work...
April 1983 U.S. Embassy bombing Beirut
1983 Beirut barracks bombing
Israelite Mutual Association Buenos Aires
Alas Chiricanas Flight 00901
Khobar Towers
Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia
etc.]
By now you would think the Kurds would have been all over this story unless they are working the problem in the black.
Of course Dan, I defer to your expertise on these matters on the principal that you are the professional and I am just a blogger with an interest!
shape charges, even clustered with hard shrapnel and photo switched [garage doors] are not rocket science. ...confined in city streets where traffic is channeled they are way bad news and effective.
The terrorists also use massive IEDs, brute force to defeat armor. ..at least one M1A2 was blown to pieces with 3 anti-tank mines [stacked].
[pics if you want them.]
to recap: In open sources there's been massive documentation of The rat line from Syria [money, splodys, material] but nothing on that scale from Iran, directly anyways.
Just to be clear though, In no way can we let the current batch of Iranians Nazis have nuclear weapons.
#6
It's true that there isn't a single high traffic ratline from Iran to Iraq.
Think instead of things oozing through the border like a sieve.
The UK isn't the only one accusing Iran. CENTCOM also thinks the shaped charges are being promulgated by Iran, given that we captured some of them with Iranian markings a while back in Iraq and trucks with them coming over the border.
The question isn't whether the lastest ones were assembled in Iraq, it's whether Iran is actively encouraging their use and promulgating the design and know how, probably also backed up with money and supplies.
#7
"...range of 100 metres or more".
I'm speking from ignorance here.But this bothers mw,I would think that after traveling that kind of distance the molten core would hqve cooled considerablly.Making it ineffective.
#8
Oh, I didn't mean to imply that you were soft on Iran or any such twaddle. As far as Iranian support for Ansar al-Islam, the Kurds have been saying since as far back as 2003 (and we've noted here on Rantburg) that after the fall of Saddam the IRGC sheltered the group's surviving leadership. Even the ICG report on Iraq, which adopted the most minimalist position possible towards Iranian influence on Iraq, conceded this much. So the Kurds have been saying this for sometime now, what is new is that the US appears (at least on the basis of this story) to be repeating some of those same allegations.
Concerning IEDs, it seems reasonably straight-forward that the US and UK have captured several shipments of this crap coming in from Iran. Expertise aside, stuff is being manufactured there and shipped into Iraq, where it is used by people of ill will. You are quite correct to note that the problem of Iran isn't as bad as say, that of Syria. It's true that the Hezbollah IED techniques and designs have been widely-distributed since their inception, but it's also true that the same techniques and designs started with Hezbollah and if those same IEDs are coming in from Iran I think it's entirely fair to say rhat 2+2 still equals 4 here as far as logic goes.
On MEK intel, some it has turned out to be good relating to the nuclear program. Since the CIA inadvertently rolled up all the US assets inside Iran, we don't have any decent HUMINT there besides what our allies and various opposition groups like the MEK choose to throw our way - this is one of the reasons why I am very concerned over possibility of using that intel to plan airstrikes, BTW.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/30/2006 12:41 Comments ||
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after traveling that kind of distance the molten core would hqve cooled considerablly
Yeah, I think someone moved a decimel point or screwed up the metric conversion.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/30/2006 12:44 Comments ||
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#10
If it's like a poor man's HEAT round it certainly would chill after a few feet. But this is likely something akin to the US steel rain thingy. Solid bolt.
#11
after traveling that kind of distance the molten core would hqve cooled considerablly
Yeah, I think someone moved a decimel point or screwed up the metric conversion.
The round does not get a chance to cool appreciably as it travels at a not-inconsiderable speed. According to Wikipedia the round can move at speeds up to 25 times the speed of sound (speed of sound at sea level 664 mph) for self-forgers, so by the time you hear the explosion you're already dead.
Also, from Wiki,
Most of the jet formed moves at hypersonic speed, the tip at 7 to 14 km/s, the jet tail at a lower velocity (1 to 3 km/s), and the slug at a still lower velocity (less than 1 km/s). The exact velocities are dependent on the charge's configuration and confinement, explosive type, materials used, and the explosive-initiation mode. At typical velocities, the penetration process generates such enormous pressures that it may be considered hydrodynamic; to a good approximation, the jet and armor may be treated as incompressible fluids, with their material strengths ignored.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaped_charge for even more info.
The US army arrested two cameramen working for armed groups in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, a statement by the army said Saturday. US soldiers "noticed the two men video taping their convoy as they conducted a security patrol in the city," the statement said. It added, "As soon as the Soldiers began to move towards the camera crew, the two individuals scrambled in an attempt to flee. Effective maneuvering allowed the troops to box in the men without incident." According to the statement, weapons and an initiating improvised explosive device was found in the vehicle of the camera crew.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Say cheese, KABOOM!
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/30/2006 12:15 Comments ||
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Two Iraqis were killed while four gunmen were captured and three bodies were discovered across Baghdad, Iraqi police sources and Multi-Nation forces in Iraq said Saturday. Iraqi police sources told KUNA that an Iraqi policeman and his brother were abducted this morning by unknown gunmen in the south of the capital before they were shot dead in an area near their house.
Meanwhile, Multinational forces said in a statement that American forces stormed earlier this morning Al-Forat neighborhood west of Baghdad where they managed to arrest four gunmen and confiscate large amounts of explosives and ammunitions. On other developments, three dead bodies were discovered by Iraqi security forces in the east of the capital.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2006 00:00 ||
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An iraqi civilian was killed and two were injured on Saturday as a result of three bomb blasts in Kirkuk, northern Iraq. Other blasts occured in Kirkuk but with no damages. A police source told KUNA that a bomb blasted in Al-Courniche Street crossing, resulted in the death of a Dawood Salim, while the other two civilians were injured in other blasts in Huwaija, west of Kirkuk and the highway between Kirkuk and Tikrit.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2006 00:00 ||
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The Iraqi Defense Ministry said on Saturday that its forces arrested 120 armed men, among them a member of Al-Qaeda and four foreigners. The ministry said the arrests were the result of last week raids. A statement by the ministry also said weapons and explosives were seized during the operations. The statement said the unnamed Al-Qaeda member was captured in Ramadi, one of Anbar's biggest towns. "Half of the arrested were in Mosul north of Iraq", statement added.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
hey, they are rolling.. sure sounds like the cycle is up and running, arrests are leading to even more intel which then lead to even more arrests etc.
Israel has shelled the northern Gaza Strip with artillery fire, wounding seven Palestinians, including two children. Palestinian medical sources said on Saturday: "Seven civilians, including a five-year-old child and a 13-year-old boy, were wounded by artillery fire west of Bait Hanun." Other medical sources told Aljazeera's correspondent in Gaza that only five Palestinians were wounded in the attack. They added that the wounded had been taken to hospitals in northern provinces for treatment. An Israeli military source had earlier said the shelling was in retaliation for rocket fire overnight on Friday, adding that four rockets coming from the area had exploded in Israeli territory but did not cause any casualties.
Meanwhile, Palestinian security sources said the wife and the mother of a wanted al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades local leader were arrested on Saturday at an Israeli checkpoint near the West Bank town of Nablus.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2006 00:00 ||
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ONE of Asia's most wanted men, master terrorist Noordin Top, has escaped an early morning police raid in which two Islamic militants were shot dead, including a senior aide.
The Malaysian-born Top, nicknamed the "Moneyman" and blamed for a string of terrorist attacks including both Bali bombings and the 2004 suicide bomb attack on Australia's Jakarta Embassy, fled the house in Binangun, Central Java, before elite anti-terror police closed in.
A senior police officer with the Detachment 88 anti-terror squad said police had shot dead two militants named Abdul Hadi, alias Bambang, and Jabir.
Another man named Solahudin surrendered, while a courier for Top named Mustafirin was captured in the town of Temanggung.
Jabir was a senior aide to Top and was the cousin of another senior Jemaah Islamiah (JI) terrorist, Fathur Rohman Al-Ghozi, who was trained in explosives use by al-Qaeda on the Afghan-Pakistani border.
"Two militants have been shot dead among five men cornered in the house," the officer, who could not be named, said.
"These men are an important catch."
Indonesia's chief of police General Sutanto later confirmed Top said to be a master of disguise had escaped before the raid began about 5.20am local time (8.20am AEST).
Top, aged in his 40s, is Indonesia's most wanted man and is said to be an expert at recruiting militants into becoming suicide bombers and collecting funds for terror attacks.
His bombmaker partner Azahari Husin was killed in a hail of gunfire last November after police tracked him down to a rented house in the East Java mountain town of Batu.
Along with Azahari, Top had reportedly forged a new militant group of fighters known as Thoifah Muqatilah, or the combat unit.
He is linked to terror attacks which together have killed more than 245 people, including 92 Australians.
Police originally thought they had cornered Top in a house near a railway station.
Local residents reported gunfire and blasts coming from a cordoned off area where he was believed to be holed up as a helicopter circled overhead.
Top has been the focus of an intense manhunt involving both Indonesian and Australian federal police after escaping a dragnet set up in the wake of Azahari's shooting.
A police investigation of Azahari's house uncovered a video in which a balaclava-wearing Top warned western countries, especially Australia, of more suicide bomb attacks.
"We repeat that America, Australia, England and Italy are all our enemies," he said while waving his right finger threateningly in the air.
He made particular mention of Prime Minister John Howard and Foreign Minister Alexander Downer.
"We especially remind Australia that you, Downer and Howard, are killing Australia, leading it into darkness and misfortune and mujahideen terror," he said.
"Know that as long as you continue to colonise the land of Iraq and Afghanistan and intimidate Muslims then you too will feel our intimidation and terror."
Top has narrowly escaped several police raids, including another early morning assault in 2003 in the West Java capital Bandung.
Recent intelligence suggests that Top is still recruiting people to carry out more suicide attacks and remains in close contact with jailed extremists.
A number of Muslim militants linked to Top have been arrested in the past couple of months, but Indonesian authorities and western governments say he and his followers are still a threat despite arrests and the killing of Azahari.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/30/2006 01:31 ||
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One of Southeast Asia's most-wanted terrorists escaped capture when security forces launched a raid on his hideout early Saturday, sparking a gunbattle that left two militants dead, police said.
Noordin Top, regarded as a key leader of the Al Qaeda-linked group Jemaah Islamiyah, was not in the safe house when heavily armed police arrived before dawn, police spokesman Brig. Gen. Anton Bahrul Alam told el-Shinta radio.
Authorities started staking out the location in Binangun, a village in Central Java, three months ago, he said as he headed to the scene by helicopter.
"But when they launched their raid at around 3 a.m., he was gone," Alam said.
Residents told el-Shinta they heard a fierce hour-long gun and grenade battle at around 5 a.m., and that helicopters were flying overhead. Roads leading to the house were blocked off and ambulances on standby.
National police chief Gen. Sutanto told el-Shinta that two suspects identified as Abdul Hadi, also known as Bambang, and Jabir were killed in a firefight and authorities in the capital said two others were arrested.
Abdul Hadi and Jabir, both alleged explosives experts, are accused of participating in a failed assassination attempt against former President Megawati Sukarnoputri in 2003 and an attack on the Australian Embassy in September 2004.
The Malaysian terror suspect, in his 40s, has eluded capture for years, several times escaping hours before police arrived at his hideout.
Alam told The Associated Press it was too early to comment on the terror raid.
"We're still investigating," he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/30/2006 00:38 ||
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A MEMBER of an Al-Qaeda-linked Muslim extremist group in the Philippines, who was involved in the kidnapping of three Americans five years ago, has been captured today, officials said.
Abu Sayyaf member Abdusalih Dimah was apprehended in Sumisip town in the rebel stronghold of Basilan island before dawn today, military intelligence officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Dimah helped support Abu Sayyaf members who kidnapped three American tourists and 17 Filipinos from a resort in May 2001, they said.
The hostages were taken by boat to Basilan, a rugged island in the southern Philippines. Two of the Americans were killed in Abu Sayyaf custody while the third was later recovered.
While Dimah did not take part in the actual abduction, he helped his Abu Sayyaf comrades fight off military pursuers and kidnapped and killed Filipino civilians in Basilan afterwards, the officials said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/30/2006 00:37 ||
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Amidst conflicting reports and rumours, it has emerged that five Maldivians are being questioned in Male over an alleged attempt to fly to the Middle East, via Colombo, to link up with fundamentalist islamic groups. Three were arrested at Colombo airport on Sunday after their families reportedly discovered letters outlining their intentions and alerted the authorities.
Chief Government Spokesman Mohamed Hussain Shareef (Mundhood) confirmed on Monday that three 21 year old girls, a 21 year old man and a 27 year old man were arrested and brought to Male for interrogation. He said that two girls and the 21-year-old boy were arrested at Sri Lanka's airport and that the other two were arrested later on.
"A guardian of one of them informed police on April 17 that the youth under that person's guardianship along with that youth's friends had gone missing. The guardian said that those youth had fundamentalist ideas and that they were going to do 'certain things'. From that point on police started investigations where they came to know that the youths had flown to Sri Lanka," he said.
One policeman involved in the case in Colombo suggested that three of the suspects were trying to reach North West Province, Pakistan. They were waiting for a flight to Qatar when they were apprehended.
They were taken into custody at the request of the Maldives government and handed over to the Maldivian high commission, according to Sri Lankan police chief Chandra Fernando. "We acted on a request by the Maldivian authorities," Fernando told AFP. "We have no information to suggest that the suspects are Al-Qaeda." Some family members are reportedly angry at the way the Maldivian authorities have handled the case, claiming that their relatives were 'young runaways', and were not making a serious attempt to participate in jihadi activities.
Speaking to Minivan from Male on Wednesday, Mohamed Arif, whose niece 'Raushan' is allegedly one of the girls under arrest, said she was an "extreme and very strict Muslim" but claimed that she had been brainwashed by others. He alleged that a Maldivian called 'Ali Jaleel' was the ringleader of the group, although Minivan could not confirm whether such a man was being held by the authorities.
There are 52 madrassas (Islamic schools) in Maldives, set up under the patronage of President Gayoom. Some have been linked to militant Islam in recent years.
A Maldivian idenitified as Ibrahim Fauzee appeared in the list of detainees held by the United States at its military base at Guantanmo Bay, Cuba. He was released in 2005 and has returned to Maldives. There is no indication that he is linked to the current arrests.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/30/2006 01:28 ||
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Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers and the military exchanged fire across front lines on Saturday, while diplomats tried to bring about new peace talks and avert renewed civil war.
The army said they believed rebels of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were responsible for shooting dead a policeman in Vavuniya, a town just to the south of the front line with rebel territory.
The Tigers fired shots across a northern checkpoint with government territory in the early hours of the morning, drawing small arms fire from government forces, the army said.
"We have retaliated and they have drawn back," said a military spokesman. "There were no casualties."
The events around the front line capped a week of the worst violence since the government and Tigers signed a Norwegian-brokered ceasefire in 2002 after two decades of fighting that killed 64,000 people.
A suicide bomb attack in the capital that killed 11 and wounded the army commander was followed by military air and artillery strikes on rebel positions in the north and east, leading many to fear the war over a homeland for minority Tamils would resume.
At a meeting of Sri Lanka's main aid donors in Oslo on Friday, mediator Norway said that despite the violence both sides remained committed to peace talks meant to take place in Geneva earlier this month.
The Tigers pulled out of the negotiations citing a dispute over transport of rebel commanders to their northern headquarters for pre-talks consultations, but the government was hopeful they might accept a new offer of a sea plane for the transport.
"So far the reaction we have through Norway has been positive," Palitha Kohona, head of the government's peace secretariat, told Reuters.
The Tigers said they were giving the offer some thought.
"Our leadership is considering it but we have to discuss many practical things with the Norwegians," said Tiger media co-ordinator Daya Master.
The new sticking point appears to be whether the plane would land in government or rebel-controlled territory.
Even if transport arrangements can be made, analysts say the real issue is the Tigers' anger the government has not reined in a group of breakaway rebels, who truce monitors say have been operating from government territory and attacking the LTTE.
The military has held off air strikes since Wednesday, the day after the suicide bombing in Colombo, and life in the north and east was returning to normal, but continuing violence was also overshadowing efforts to get back to the negotiating table.
LTTE sniper fire in the northwest region of Mannar killed an unarmed soldier late on Friday as he was bathing in a lake, the army said.
The pro-rebel Tamilnet Web site reported the army shot dead a former Tiger member in the eastern district of Batticaloa and said two cadres were killed in a claymore mine attack it blamed on the army in an LTTE-controlled part of the east.
The cycle of suspected Tiger attacks on the military, ethnic riots and political killings, along with the air strikes and suicide bombing, has claimed some 120 lives in less than a month.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/30/2006 00:28 ||
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Surely full scale war would advantage the government, and severely disadvantage the Tigers?
Iran is developing an advanced centrifuge that would allow it to accelerate its controversial uranium enrichment programme, a senior official told state television yesterday.
Mohammad Saidi, the vice-president of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, made the claim a day after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed that Iran had ignored a United Nations ultimatum to end enrichment work.
A more sophisticated breed of centrifuge would allow scientists to speed up purification of uranium towards the 90 per cent level required for bomb-making. They recently achieved an initial enrichment level of 3.6 per cent - the purity required to generate electricity. "We have told the agency [IAEA] that we are studying and conducting research on different types of machines," Mr Saidi said. "We cannot limit ourselves when we have an enrichment programme."
His comments were supported by a television interview with Gholamreza Aghazadeh, Iran's nuclear chief. "As for more advanced machines - we indeed have plans to develop such machines," he said. "Having the advanced type of centrifuges and the new technology enables one to multiply production."
Britain will this week introduce a draft resolution at the UN Security Council for a mandatory order to Iran to halt enrichment after it ignored Friday's deadline to cease the work voluntarily. But diplomatic deadlock looms as Russia and China say that they will veto any moves to impose sanctions or enforce action against Iran.
Teheran snubbed requests by the IAEA for an explanation of recent claims by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad about Iran's centrifuge operations. The hard-line leader revealed that Iran was conducting research on the P2 centrifuge, based on technology acquired from the secret network of A Q Khan, the rogue Pakistani nuclear scientist - even though Teheran had long insisted that it had abandoned such work.
In referring to even more sophisticated centrifuges, Mr Saidi may have been alluding to the P3, which Pakistan is known to have developed.
The Sunday Telegraph was last week supplied by the main exiled opposition group, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), with a detailed breakdown of locations, scientists and front companies involved in building the P2.
The work is focused on two sites - at Ab-e Ali, in northern Teheran, and in secret underground facilities at the Natanz enrichment plant. Testing on P2 prototypes is being conducted at Ab-e Ali, in two huge workshops, under the guidance of Chinese and North Korean nuclear experts, according to the NCRI, which revealed the existence of Iran's clandestine nuclear programme in 2002.
The successful construction of P2 centrifuges would be a giant leap for the regime's nuclear ambitions as they would quadruple the enrichment speed of the present P1 machines.
A country that masters enrichment will have the capacity to manufacture nuclear weapons. Teheran says its programme is a peaceful effort to generate electricity, but the West is convinced that it is secretly trying to build an atomic bomb.
After disclosing details of Iran's P2 programme, Maryam Rajavi, the NCRI leader, told The Sunday Telegraph: "There is no doubt that the clerical regime is only interested in deceiving the world community and the IAEA, in order to buy time and obtain nuclear weapons. There is no room for appeasement toward this regime."
Mr Ahmadinejad insisted yesterday that Teheran would "never" renounce its nuclear programme. "Iran's decision to master nuclear technology and the production of nuclear fuel is irreversible."
Other officials said that Iran would allow the resumption of full IAEA inspections if its case was removed from the attention of the UN Security Council, but the offer was viewed as meaningless by Western officials.
Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, urged his Iranian counterpart, Manouchehr Mottaki, to suspend uranium enrichment and co-operate fully with the IAEA. But Russia remains opposed to any punitive UN action.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/30/2006 00:19 ||
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Bomb them. The new bunker busters would do nicely, I imagine.
#2
Mullah-fied IRAN 's only strategic line of retreat is into Central Asia and Russia-China - BUT, US bases are already being set up there. It thus behooves Iran's Mullahs and MadMoud of the Apocalypse to accelerate or intensify their nuclear agendums, prob in dual-track or multi-track to accomplish AMAP in the shortest lead times, POTUS Hillary notwithstanding.
Iran has enriched uranium to more than 4 per cent, a level higher than Iran previously told the United Nations (UN) nuclear watchdog but still in the range used for fuel in nuclear power stations. Iran had told the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in mid-April that it had enriched uranium to 3.6 per cent, a level which the IAEA confirmed from samples it took.
Experts say uranium enriched to a range of roughly 3 to 5 per cent is a low level used in atomic power reactors. Uranium would have to be enriched far higher, to 80 per cent or more, to make nuclear weapons, which is what the West fears Iran wants. "We have done enrichment in the range of above 4 per cent," Mohammad Saeedi, deputy head of Iran's Atomic Energy Agency, said.
He also repeated Iran's position that it would not give up enrichment, describing it as an "issue of life and death for Iranian society" and saying the goal enjoyed broad support. "It is up to Iran to decide if it will keep enrichment at a pilot level or move towards an industrial scale," he said. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said Iran will pursue large-scale enrichment in defiance of UN demands for suspending the sensitive nuclear work.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2006 00:00 ||
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Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Al Qaeda mastermind accused of orchestrating dozens of bombings and beheadings in Iraq, sought yesterday in a rare videotaped message to portray himself as a leader of radical Islam's global struggle against the West.
While restating his allegiance to Osama bin Laden, Zarqawi appeared to go out of his way to look the part of an influential holy warrior on a par with Al Qaeda's chieftain, sitting cross-legged and bin Laden-like before a circle of his followers, with an AK-47 by his side and wearing what looked like a suicide bomb vest.
He urged Iraqis to fight the American ''crusader" and hailed the deadly terror campaign waged by foreign Arabs, North Africans, and other Sunni Muslim militants he has helped recruit for suicide attacks. He also criticized the new Iraqi government led by the Shi'ite Muslim majority as a stooge of the United States.
''Your mujahideen sons were able to confront the most ferocious of crusader campaigns on a Muslim state," he told listeners. ''They have stood in the face of this onslaught for three years."
The video, which also showed Zarqawi firing a weapon in a desert landscape, was released several days after a new videotape from bin Laden aired by the Al Jazeera television network urged Muslims to prepare for a ''long war" with the West. It also appeared just a day after an Egyptian resort was bombed by a militant group that some intelligence analysts suspect is connected to Zarqawi's network.
The Zarqawi video, which he said was taped on Friday, was aired on a radical Islamic website, a mode of communication that specialists said is more difficult to trace than tapes sent by courier to television outlets, while providing greater control over the timing of the broadcast.
''It appears to be him," said a US counterterrorism official involved in the US government's analysis of the tape. The official said it was the first known video of Zarqawi in at least three years.
The Jordanian-born terrorist, now believed to be about 40 years old, has released various audio messages in the past and is suspected of being among the hooded figures in videotaped beheadings of kidnapped Westerners in Iraq. He is believed to have personally beheaded American Nicholas Berg in 2004.
The brutal killings sparked controversy within the ranks of Islamic radicals, and Zarqawi's group has refrained from using the tactic in recent months. Zarqawi himself, the focus of a fierce manhunt, has also kept a lower profile.
US intelligence officials suggested the timing of the video could be an attempt to stem rumors that Zarqawi had been sidelined by other insurgent leaders for alienating too many Muslims with his brutal tactics.
''It could be an effort on his part to quell rumors that he has been marginalized," said a senior government official involved in reviewing the new tape. The official asked not to be named because of the sensitive nature of the matter. In January, Zarqawi's group said in a Web statement that it had joined five other Iraqi insurgent groups to form the Mujahideen Shura Council. An Iraqi, Abdullah Rashid Al Baghdadi, was reported to have been named leader. ''Clearly this was done for propaganda purposes to portray the unity of Islamic militants in Iraq," said the US counterterrorism official. ''He is trying to put an Iraqi face on the foreign fighter effort and get more jihadists to join them. There is a lot of jihadist bravado."
The footage, released just days after a new Iraqi prime minister was named, showed Zarqawi and about a dozen masked individuals undergoing combat training and depicted him sitting around a map with fellow militants and a man identified as the commander of insurgents in Iraq's Al Anbar Province.
''Any government which is formed in Iraq now -- whether by Shi'ites or Zionist Kurds or those who are dubbed Sunnis -- would only be a stooge," Zarqawi said on the video, according to a translation by the Associated Press. ''They are a poisoned dagger in the heart of the Muslim nation."
Zarqawi has steadily grown in notoriety since he was first named by Bush administration officials as a member of Al Qaeda who was operating in Saddam Hussein's Iraq in the months before the March 2003 US invasion -- though outside of Hussein's sphere of influence in the Kurdish-held north.
Since the fall of Hussein, he has been blamed for organizing dozens of attacks against Iraq's Shi'ite majority and for enlisting hundreds of young militants from across the region to be ''freedom fighters" against the American-led occupation and help foment a civil war.
Despite Zarqawi's reign of terror, there remain doubts about his overall influence in the Iraq insurgency, which US intelligence officials still believe is made up primarily of disaffected Iraqi Sunnis and remnants of the former Hussein regime.
Some analysts contend that the United States, by singling out Zarqawi, has only exaggerated his stature and has used his Al Qaeda connection to help build public support for the war.
Still, Zarqawi has maintained militant links across the Muslim world since before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, when he headed an Al Qaeda training camp for bin Laden in Afghanistan, according to US intelligence officials. And his actions in Iraq have only served to expand his following.
Indeed, the deadly bombings in the Egyptian town of Dahab on the Sinai Peninsula on Monday appeared to be the work of a newly identified Egyptian terrorist group that may be connected to Zarqawi, according to US intelligence officials and private specialists.
The home-grown organization, which calls itself the Egyptian Tawhid wal-Jihad Movement -- meaning unity and holy war -- is believed to be responsible for attacks in nearby Taba and Sharm El-Sheikh in 2004 and 2005 that killed more than 100 people.
The name of the Egyptian group was previously used by Zarqawi's organization before he pledged allegiance to bin Laden in December 2004 and renamed his organization, according to Evan Kholmann, a terrorism specialist who tracks Islamic websites and advises US counterterrorism authorities.
Meanwhile, the Egyptian group has also taken responsibility for previous attacks via the same website that Zarqawi has used to broadcast messages to his followers.
After the bombing in Sharm El-Sheikh last year, Zarqawi's group released a video of the captured Egyptian ambassador to Iraq, Ihab el-Sherif, being interrogated about the location of Jews in the Sinai Peninsula. Sherif responded: ''From Taba to Sharm El-Sheikh."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/30/2006 00:53 ||
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#1
This is a great quote. I'm going to save it. ''Any government which is formed in Iraq now -- whether by Shi'ites or Zionist Kurds or those who are dubbed Sunnis -- would only be a stooge,"
Zarqawi has mastered the art of dividing and conquering his own side.
I like this part of the quote too: ''They are a poisoned dagger in the heart of the Muslim nation." So according to Zarqawi, ol' GWB isn't such a dumb cowboy afterall.
Terrorists exploit electronic infrastructure such as the Internet, global media, and satellite communications for recruitment, training, planning, resource transfer, and intelligence collection between and among terrorists and terrorist groups. Like many others, terrorists view the Internet as the most powerful and inexpensive form of communication yet
developed. Harnessing the Internet's potential for speed, security, and global linkage gives terrorists the ability to conduct many of the activities that once required physical haven, yet without the associated security risks. With the ability to communicate, recruit, train, and prepare for attacks, any computer may function essentially as a virtual safe haven. Closing these havens demands concerted action at the global and regional levels.
The Internet also has empowered the enemy with the ability to produce and sustain its own public media outlets and to present its own distorted view of the world to further its agenda. Terrorists are placing encrypted messages in electronic files to hide photos, maps, and messages on innocent third-party websites, chat rooms, and bulletin boards.
There are several thousand radical or extremist websites worldwide, many of which disseminate a mixture of fact and propaganda designed to challenge information gleaned from
other sources. Traditions of tolerance, political asylum, and multiculturalism are key elements of open societies. The enemy has been savvy in exploiting this and in having a consistent message easily heard in the cacophony of the global media and the Internet. Countering the messages that terrorists propagate cannot be done quickly or easily; it must become part of a long-term strategy.
Physical Safe Haven
The remainder of this chapter provides a survey of the status of selected potential and physical safe havens worldwide.
AFRICA
The Trans-Sahara
The sparsely inhabited Trans-Sahara region provides safe haven for terrorist groups operating in North and Northwest Africa.
Mali. The Algeria-based Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) maintains a regular but small-scale presence in Mali's northern desert, where it is engaged in recruiting, training, and smuggling activities. GSPC members have been able to move without hindrance in northern Mali; the government has maintained a limited military presence in the north since the negotiated end of a rebellion by elements of the Tuareg
population in 1996. The size of the country and the limited resources of the Malian Government hamper the effectiveness of military patrols and border control measures. There have been no confrontations between the military and the GSPC in 2005, and
the government has not taken any steps to modify its military force posture in the region or directly confront GSPC elements in the north because of the perceived potential to create unrest. The Malian Government did cooperate fully with neighboring countries in June and July to try to isolate and capture GSPC cells in its territory, including those responsible for an attack in el-Mreiti, Mauritania.
Mauritania. The GSPC and the Mauritanian Group for Preaching and Jihad (GMPJ) have conducted supply, smuggling, fundraising, and recruiting operations in Mauritania and the region.
Somalia
Parts of Somalia, which has no functioning central government, have become havens for terrorist and other illicit activities, threatening the security of the whole region.
A small number of al-Qaida (AQ) terrorists, responsible for the 1998 bombings of the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, continue to operate in Somalia and are assisted by elements within the complicated Somali clan structure.
Members of the Somalia-based al-Ittihad al-Islami (AIAI) have committed terrorist acts in the past, primarily in Ethiopia. AIAI rose to prominence in the early 1990s with the goal of creating a pan-Somali Islamic state in the Horn of Africa. Presently, AIAI is highly factionalized and diffuse, and its membership is difficult to define.
Other groups have appeared in Somalia that are suspected to have committed terrorist acts against Western interests in the region, or to be capable of doing so. Little is known about movements such as al-Takfir wal-Hijra ("al-Takfir"), but the extremist ideology and the violent character of takfiri groups elsewhere suggests that the movement merits close monitoring. (Takfiri ideology is an inflexible interpretation of Islam that labels those who do not share the same interpretation as "infidels.) Some individuals and groups with past AIAI association and/or current takfiri leanings are sympathetic to and maintain ties with al-Qaida.
EAST ASIA
The Sulawesi/Celebes Sea
East Asia includes a maritime safe haven area composed of the Sulawesi/Celebes Sea and Sulu Archipelago, which sit astride the maritime boundary between Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines. The physical geography of the thousands of islands in the region makes them very difficult for authorities to monitor. Thus, they are well suited to terrorist operations and
activities, such as movement of personnel, equipment, and funds. This area represents a safe haven for the AQ-linked Jemaah Islamiya (JI) group.
The southern Philippines and Sabah, Malaysia. The Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), responsible for multiple bombings and kidnappings throughout the southern Philippines in recent years, remains active despite the loss of key leaders and Philippine military operations against the group. In addition, some JI members have
obtained safe haven in Mindanao in areas under the control of elements of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and Abu Sayyaf Group. The Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) is addressing the JI presence through military operations and ongoing peace talks with the MILF. The Government of Malaysia is mediating the GRP-MILF peace talks. The U.S. Institute for Peace is supporting the process by facilitating dialogue on contentious issues such as control of territory. The
GRP-MILF talks have made progress, and could lead to a formal peace agreement that would be crucial in addressing the issue of safe haven in the long term. Two specific mechanisms have grown out of the peace process to increase cooperation between the
Philippine Government and the MILF. The Coordinating Committee for the Cessation of Hostilities (CCCH) allows Philippine Government and MILF representatives to broker cease-fire violations. The Ad Hoc Joint Action Group provides a framework
for Philippine Government and MILF representatives to cooperate against terrorists and criminals in MILF areas, and has operated with some success over the last year.
Indonesia. JI has had links to al-Qaida and was responsible for the August 2003 bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta and the bombing outside the Australian Embassy in September 2004. While Indonesia has significantly improved its efforts to
control the maritime boundary area with the Philippines, the area remains difficult to control, surveillance is partial at best, and traditional smuggling and piracy groups provide an effective cover for terrorist activities in the area.
EUROPE
Although most of Europe is not a physical safe haven in a literal sense, domestic terrorist groups, as well as AQ and its associated terrorist cells, remain the principal groups of concern in Europe. North African Salafist groups are especially active, such as the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group, the Armed Islamic Group, and the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat. Moreover, extremist groups recruit and proselytize heavily in some major European cities. The presence and activity of such terrorist cells was dramatically highlighted by the London bombings in July. In addition, terrorist groups opposed to the Middle East peace process such as HAMAS and Hizballah have active propaganda, fundraising, and other support activities in Europe.
Mediterranean
Smuggling, illegal immigration, and narcotics trafficking networks traverse the Mediterranean Sea between Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East, providing opportunities for potential terrorist movement and support.
Cyprus forms a transit and support hub for various organizations operating in the Eastern Mediterranean and Levant. The Kongra-Gel/PKK has an active presence in Cyprus on both sides of the buffer zone, which it reportedly uses as both a fundraising and transit point. The Kurdish community in the south of Cyprus is estimated at approximately 1,500.
The Caucasus
Over the past decade, insurgent activities in Chechnya, Daghestan, North Ossetia, and surrounding areas have created opportunities for establishing a terrorist safe haven in the
north Caucasus. The Pankisi Gorge area of Georgia was previously noted as a safe haven; however, Georgian authorities were largely successful in eliminating it. Georgian internal troops continued to carry out operations to rid the Pankisi Gorge of terrorists. The identification and safe removal of hidden weapons caches in the Pankisi area enabled Georgian security forces to secure and protect it from terrorist acts or transit. Although border guard and customs reform continued, Georgia was still used to a limited degree as a transit state for weapons and money. Georgia made efforts to close its borders to those who wished to smuggle money, weapons, and supplies, but was hindered in particular by corruption at border checkpoints, as well as by lack of territorial integrity in the separatist
areas of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
SOUTH & CENTRAL ASIA
Afghan-Pakistan Border
For decades, the mountainous and sparsely populated Afghan-Pakistani border has been an autonomous area, with little control by Islamabad or Kabul. The Northwest Frontier Province
(NWFP) and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan have been a safe haven for AQ fighters since the fall of the Taliban in December 2001. The FATA also includes Islamist groups and local tribesmen who continue to resist the governments efforts to improve governance and administrative control at the expense of longstanding local autonomy. Bringing government services to this region, and turning an AQ safe haven into a regularly administered province of Pakistan, remains an important objective in the global war on terror.
Through substantial efforts since 2004, the Government of Pakistan has deployed more than 80,000 security forces into the FATA and made some improvements in health care, education,
and social services. These operations have disrupted the terrorists but also affected tribal institutions in the area, requiring efforts to build new political and economic institutions.
Meanwhile, the Afghan Government, in concert with U.S. forces and the international community, continues efforts to build security on the Afghan side of the border. The border areas remain a contested region, however, with ongoing insurgent and terrorist attacks and AQ-linked propaganda activity.
Iraq
Iraq is not currently a terrorist safe haven, but terrorists, including Sunni groups like al-Qaida in Iraq (AQI), Ansar al-Islam (AI), and Ansar al-Sunna (AS), as well as Shia extremists and other groups, view Iraq as a potential safe
haven and are attempting to make it a reality.
Terrorist groups coordinated and conducted attacks on Iraqs utility infrastructure and claimed responsibility for kidnappings and attacks on Iraqi personnel working at refineries and electrical stations. Terrorists efforts to disrupt and destroy Iraqs energy infrastructure not only made the Iraqi
Government appear incapable of providing essential services, but hindered economic development. These attacks also sought to undercut public and international support for Iraq.
Efforts by the Iraqi Government, the United States, Coalition partners, and the international community are helping to thwart AQIs ambitions, but the battle is far from over. Not all of
Iraqs neighbors have supported the international community in this effort. In particular:
Syria. Designated by the United States as a state sponsor of terror, Syria was used as a facilitation hub for terrorist groups operating in Iraq, as well as for traditional tribal
groups, smugglers, and border-crossers exploiting a porous border with Iraq and lax immigration controls. Foreign terrorists constituted a small percentage of insurgent forces, but their impact was dramatic. Although Coalition and Iraqi commanders consistently reported that most of the enemy killed or captured were Iraqi citizens, the foreign terrorist cells continued to move and kept a low profile while training, equipping, and supporting other terrorist groups. In addition, HAMAS, Hizballah, and several other Palestinian terrorist organizations operate offices in Damascus, and the Syrian Government has taken little effective action to curb this activity.
Iran. Also designated by the United States as a state sponsor of terror, Iran has provided political and ideological support for several terrorist and militant groups active in Iraq. Attractive to terrorists in part because of the limited presence of the United States and other Western governments there, Iran is also a safe haven in that known terrorists, extremists, and sympathizers are able to transit its territory and cross the long and porous border into Iraq. Iran also equips terrorists with technology and provides training in extremist ideology and militant techniques.
Northern Iraq/Southeastern Turkey. The Kongra-Gel/PKK maintains an active presence in the predominantly ethnic Kurdish areas of southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq. The Kongra-Gel/PKK operates several base camps along the border in
northern Iraq from which it provides logistical support to forces that launch attacks into Turkey, primarily against Turkish security forces, local Turkish officials, and villagers who oppose the organization.
Lebanon
The Lebanese Government recognizes several terrorist organizations, including Hizballah, which holds several seats in Parliament, as "legitimate resistance groups" and permits them to maintain offices in Beirut and elsewhere around the country. The Lebanese Government recently agreed to work to control the weapons of Palestinian militias outside the refugee camps within six months and, for the first time, is discussing possible limits to Hizballahs arms. Although Syria withdrew its military forces in April 2005, it maintains an intelligence presence in Lebanon and continues to offer support and facilitate arms smuggling to Hizballah and Palestinian terrorist groups. Because the Government of Lebanon does not exercise effective control over areas in the south and inside the Palestinian refugee camps, terrorists can operate relatively freely in those areas.
Yemen
Several terrorist organizations continued to maintain a presence in Yemen throughout 2005. The Government of Yemen recognizes HAMAS and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) as legal organizations. HAMAS conducted extensive fundraising through mosques and other charitable organizations and maintains offices. In December, HAMAS leader Khaled Mishal visited Sanaa and met publicly with President Saleh. Al-Qaidas operational structure in Yemen has been weakened and dispersed, but concerns remain about the organization's attempts to reconstitute operational cells there. Yemen continues to increase its maritime security capabilities, but land border security along the extensive frontier with Saudi Arabia remains a problem, despite increased Yemeni-Saudi cooperation on bilateral security issues.
THE AMERICAS
Colombia Border Region
This region includes the borders between Colombia on one side, and Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Panama, and Brazil on the other. Rough terrain, dense forest cover, and lack of government authority and presence in this area create a safe haven for insurgent and terrorist groups, including the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, and Panama have adopted an unstated policy mix of containment and non-confrontation with Colombian narcoterrorist groups, while Peru pursues the domestic terrorist group Sendero Luminoso (SL). FARC used remote areas to house prisoners and hostages and to
stage and train for terrorist attacks in cities.
The Triborder Area
Suspected supporters of Islamic terrorist groups, including Hizballah and HAMAS, take advantage of loosely regulated territory and proximity to Muslim communities in Ciudad del
Este, Paraguay, and Foz do Iguacu, Brazil, to engage in illegal activity and illicit fundraising.
Venezuela
Venezuelan President Chavez has an ideological affinity with two Colombian terrorist organizations, the FARC and the National Liberation Army (ELN), which in turn limits Venezuelan cooperation with Colombia in combating terrorism. The FARC and ELN regard Venezuelan territory near the border as a safe haven and often use the area for cross-border incursions. In addition, splinter groups of the FARC and another designated terrorist
organization, the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), operate in various parts of Venezuela and are involved in drug trafficking.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/30/2006 00:03 ||
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#1
Missed the biggest terrorist organization in the world: Palestinian People.
#2
And the oldest too, if you take into account the baas was a political party, and the muslim brotherhood a fascist league. Btw, technically, wasn't arafat a baathist, over his relation with saddam?
#3
They all were Arab Nation socialists in those days, a5089, with close ties to the Soviet Union. At one point Egypt and Syria made of themselves one country, which of course didn't work well or last long.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Afghan police and military have mounted search to ensure safe recovery of an Indian engineer, who was kidnapped in southern Afghanistan on Friday. Elsewhere in the volatile Helmand province, two Taliban agents were reported dead after exchange of fire with military on Saturday. The Taliban were encircled by the police and military in a mountainous area in the Kajaki district of the 
As the Afghan and US-led coalition forces launched a massive operation in southern Afghanistan, a provincial governor claimed their forces had killed nine Taliban and arrested a dozen in different areas.
THE genocide catastrophe in Sudans western province of Darfur, which has been seeping into neighbouring Chad for much of the past three years, is now bleeding freely across the border.
Our military sources reveal the battle is raging on Jebel Magharah, 22km SW of El Arish and west of a former al Qaeda base on Jebel Hilal (alt. 654 meters). The fortified al Qaeda stronghold on Jebel Magharah is beating back an Egyptian assault on the mountain site. Signals passed among the troops describe the operation as the Tora Bora of Sinai, naming it after the fierce epic US-al Qaeda engagement in Afghanistan three years ago. Both sides have sustained casualties.
American authorities would hand to Saudi Arabia 14-16 Saudis detained in Guantanamo prison by the end of May, Saudi newspaper cited Saturday a senior Saudi official as saying.
Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of the pro-Moscow government of volatile Chechnya province, on Saturday disbanded his security service, Russian agencies reported.
Prosecutors in Diyarbakir in the restless Kurdish region of southeastern Turkey have charged 175 people with involvement in violent clashes last month, court sources said Friday. Charges include violation of laws on demonstrations, and one of operating and membership of an armed group - a reference to the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), accused of orchestrating the riots.
Dutch police have arrested three men and a woman after finding explosives in their apartment in the port city of Rotterdam, a police spokeswoman said. "We searched a house in Rotterdam early this morning based on information we had received," the spokeswoman said. She did not disclose what sort of explosives were found nor the identities of those arrested, but said they were being questioned by police. "The explosives are being brought to explode in an open area nearby and then an investigation will start," the spokeswoman said. During the raid, 15 residents from seven neighbouring apartments were evacuated, she said. A Reuters photographer said the area had been cordoned off. 
LAHORE: Security agencies have arrested a suspected terrorist of the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LJ) from Kot Momin, Sargodha, and seized weapons from him, sources told Daily Times on Saturday. Security agencies, acting on a tip off, raided a house and arrested the accused and seized three hand grenades, one Kalashnikov rifle and 300 bullets from him. He was arrested on a tip off from a cleric who was held on suspicions of having links with the banned militant group, said the sources. The accused identified himself as Ahmad Khan and claimed to be an activist of the banned LJ. He also admitted to planning sectarian-related acts of terrorism in Sargodha. Sargodha is believed to be a stronghold of the banned Lashkar and Riaz Basra, the founder of the outfit, also hailed from there. Meanwhile, Sargodha Police denied arresting any suspected terrorist. "It is quite possible that the Crimes Investigation Department carried out the operation," said a Sargodha police official.
An anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Karachi has awarded the death sentence to Kamran alias Atif, an activist of the banned jihadi outfit Harkatul Mujahideen Al Almi on multiple charges. Atif is also believed to be involved in an aborted murder attempt on President General Pervez Musharraf and the American consulate bombing in 2002. He was injured in an encounter with the CID police before his arrest in Buffer Zone in May this year. A passer-by Sarwar Bibi was also killed during the encounter. Police had recovered a huge quantity of explosives on his indication besides live cartages and had registered separate cases against him under the Explosives and Arms Ordinance.
Nawab Akbar Bugti's 
Is entertainment allowed?
Security forces in Indian administered Jammu and Kashmir Saturday gunned down a top commander of terror outfit 
The US army arrested two cameramen working for armed groups in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, a statement by the army said Saturday. US soldiers "noticed the two men video taping their convoy as they conducted a security patrol in the city," the statement said. It added, "As soon as the Soldiers began to move towards the camera crew, the two individuals scrambled in an attempt to flee. Effective maneuvering allowed the troops to box in the men without incident." According to the statement, weapons and an initiating improvised explosive device was found in the vehicle of the camera crew.
Two Iraqis were killed while four gunmen were captured and three bodies were discovered across Baghdad, Iraqi police sources and Multi-Nation forces in Iraq said Saturday. Iraqi police sources told KUNA that an Iraqi policeman and his brother were abducted this morning by unknown gunmen in the south of the capital before they were shot dead in an area near their house.
The Iraqi Defense Ministry said on Saturday that its forces arrested 120 armed men, among them a member of Al-Qaeda and four foreigners. The ministry said the arrests were the result of last week raids. A statement by the ministry also said weapons and explosives were seized during the operations. The statement said the unnamed Al-Qaeda member was captured in Ramadi, one of Anbar's biggest towns. "Half of the arrested were in Mosul north of Iraq", statement added.
Israel has shelled the northern Gaza Strip with artillery fire, wounding seven Palestinians, including two children. Palestinian medical sources said on Saturday: "Seven civilians, including a five-year-old child and a 13-year-old boy, were wounded by artillery fire west of Bait Hanun." Other medical sources told Aljazeera's correspondent in Gaza that only five Palestinians were wounded in the attack. They added that the wounded had been taken to hospitals in northern provinces for treatment. An Israeli military source had earlier said the shelling was in retaliation for rocket fire overnight on Friday, adding that four rockets coming from the area had exploded in Israeli territory but did not cause any casualties.
ONE of Asia's most wanted men, master terrorist Noordin Top, has escaped an early morning police raid in which two Islamic militants were shot dead, including a senior aide.
One of Southeast Asia's most-wanted terrorists escaped capture when security forces launched a raid on his hideout early Saturday, sparking a gunbattle that left two militants dead, police said.
