Nato and Afghan forces have killed 18 Taleban militants in a raid in southern Afghanistan, officials say. It took place late on Tuesday in the town of Garmser in Helmand province, which was recaptured from the Taleban last month. It comes a day after three British soldiers were killed in Helmand. Separately, a car has exploded in the capital Kabul, killing its driver and injuring two other people - one of them a passenger - police say. 'We carried out the operation in which 18 Taleban got killed and we recovered a huge amount of ammunitions," provincial police chief, Nabi Mullahkhail, told Reuters.
Killed is good
He said there were no casualties among the Nato or Afghan forces. The Kabul incident happened when police tried to stop the car in the Binay Hisar area of the capital. Police said it was still unclear whether it was a suicide attack or the car was transporting explosives. Bomb blasts in Kabul are rare, although there have been a few suicide bomb attacks on the outskirts the city. Gen Alishah Paktiwal, head of Kabul's criminal investigation department told the BBC that the Toyota Corolla car driving into the city refused to stop when the police flagged it down. "It kept speeding on and then it exploded," he said. The blast badly injured a civilian bystander as well as killing the driver and injuring a passenger, he added.
Nato spokesman Maj Luke Knittig told the Associated Press that it seemed a suicide attacker had detonated his car rigged with bombs after the police tried to stop him. "Someone preparing to deliver a suicide bomb was intercepted by police and prematurely exploded his bomb," he said.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/02/2006 09:02 ||
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#1
18? Not 20? The ranks must be thinning....
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/02/2006 9:47 Comments ||
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(SomaliNet) Eight South Korean seamen kidnapped on Somali waters were released on Monday, confirmed South Korea's Foreign Ministry. Seventeen others, five from Vietnam, nine Indonesians and three Chinese were also released. Foreign ministry spokesman Choo Kyu-ho said, "The ship Dongwon is now out of Somalian waters and is on a move to a safe area." The ship was escorted by a U.S warship at the request of the Korean government.
The release of the vessel came after an agreement with the owner to pay a certain amount. The fishing company has accepted that they did pay a ransom for the boat but they declined to disclose the amount saying that they would be setting an example to other pirates. The ship owned by Dongwon Fisheries Company was hijacked on April 4 off the Somalian coast. President of the fisheries company said that all the members were unharmed.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/02/2006 00:00 ||
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(KUNA) -- Up to 24 armed militants surrendered to government troops after being besieged in the village of Maslmoun in the region of Tibaza 80 kilometers west of the capital, a security source said. The source, quoted by the press on Tuesday, said the gunmen who gave up were affiliated to the "salafi group for daawa and fighting," a hardline group that has refused to join the peace national conciliation pocess.
The gunmen had been surrounded, since last Thursday, by a combined force of the security troops and the anti-terrorism squad, the source said. Several hardline groups have given up arms to the government and taken advantage of a presidential clemency. Internal violence broke out in the early 90s after Islamic groups were barred from taking part in polls. More than 100,000 people have been killed since then.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/02/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Were any of these gunmen among those granted amnesty and released a few months back?
A small explosive device was sent to an office of Prime Minister Tony Blair's governing Labour Party, police in south-east England said today.
The device was found in a package delivered to the office in Cambridge after a member of staff raised the alarm. No one was hurt, police said.
"We analysed the package and discovered that it did contain a small explosive device," a police spokeswoman said.
"Had it gone off, someone would have been hurt," she said.
Police are expected to give more details about the incident at a press briefing in Cambridge tomorrow.
(Itar-Tass) - Twelve gunmen surrendered voluntarily in Chechnya, the common press center of the regional operational headquarters told Itar-Tass on Tuesday. "A former gunman of Raduyev's gang turned in police in the Kurchaloi region. According to available information, he participated in the capture of the hospital in Kizlyar and the battle near Pervomaiskoye in 1995," the common press center said.
Another 11 gunmen surrendered to police in other five regions of Chechnya. "Most of them surrendered in the Gudermes region. The former commander of militia in Komsomolskoye also turned in. He is known to take part in the clashes with the federal troops in 1995," the common press center said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/02/2006 00:00 ||
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Last night (July 31) mobile units of Chechen Mujahideen attacked 7 times the positions of Russian invaders and proxies in various districts of the Chechen capital Jokhar. In addition, an enemy patrol was gunned down in Zavodsky district of the capital, killing 2 and wounding 4 invaders and proxies. One humvee was disabled, report the Chechen military sources.
On July 30, a Mujahideen unit attacked a Russian convoy of military vehicles which consisted of 4 heavy and 3 light armored personnel carriers (APC), and some trucks, killing 4 and wounding at least 6 Russian kafirs (infidels). One heavy APC was disabled and one truck damaged. The Mujahideen suffered no casualties. Also on July 30, a mobile group of Mujahideen fired with machine guns on a convoy of several Russian military vehicles in Shelkovskoi district of Chechnya; killing and wounding somel invaders. However, the exact numbers of Russian casualties are unknown to the Chechen military sources.
On July 29, a Russian heavy APC was blown up on a landmine in Vedeno district on the highway Shali -Tovzeni, killing 4 and wounding at least other 4 invaders. The APC was destroyed. In the last 3 days, two Mujahideen martyred (insha Allah) in various firefights against invaders and proxies.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/02/2006 00:00 ||
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#5
"arabs" seem to be slow learners generally. Memorizing the Koran seems to take up a lot of space that could be utilized for more immediate cognitive activity. I am surprised Microsoft has not come up with a fix for this as of yet.
Posted by: john ||
08/02/2006 12:00 Comments ||
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LONDON: A furious political row has erupted over British PM Tony Blair's decision to link the Kashmir dispute and Chechen fighting with the conflict in Iraq, Afghanistan and West Asia which he described as part of an over-arching "arc of (Muslim) extremism" across the world.
Just hours after he called for the West to totally rethink its strategy on the war on terror, Blair's critics said it was wrong to link regional territorial disputes such as Kashmir to global Islamist extremism.
In his speech at the World Affairs Council in Los Angeles on Tuesday, the British PM said: "The fanatics, attached to a completely wrong and reactionary view of Islam, had been engaging in terrorism for years before September 11.
In Chechnya, in India and Pakistan, in Algeria, in many other Muslim countries, atrocities were occurring." He declared that "these acts of terrorism were not isolated incidents. They were part of a growing movement."
Blair said the "movement believed Muslims had departed from their proper faith, were being taken over by Western culture, were being governed treacherously by Muslims complicit in this takeover, whereas the true way to recover not just the true faith, but Muslim confidence and self esteem, was to take on the West and all its works."
In his speech, Blair said that the West had been mistaken in previously failing to link Kashmir and Chechnya-inspired terrorist attacks to a growing baleful Islamism.
"We were not bending our eye or our will to it as we should have... We rather inclined to the view that where there was terrorism, perhaps it was partly the fault of the governments of the countries concerned," he said.
He said it was time to recognize that "whatever the outward manifestation at any one time in Lebanon, in Gaza, in Iraq in Afghanistan, in Kashmir, in a host of other nations including some in Africa now it is a global fight about global values; it is about modernisation, within Islam and outside of it".
Britain's former foreign secretary Malcolm Rifkind said the Kashmir issue was a "matter between India and Pakistan" and it was "silly" for Blair to portray it as a sign of extremist Islam's war on other cultures.
Posted by: john ||
08/02/2006 19:26 ||
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#1
"Master of the Obvious" graphic, please. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/02/2006 20:31 Comments ||
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#2
Who took away the Clinton's buddy pretty Tony and put the mouthpiece of Americas in his place?
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/02/2006 21:42 Comments ||
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It is wonderful to hear even one western leader finally publicly stating what the MSM and the vast majority of the world's "enlightened" talking heads have failed to articulate.
(KUNA) -- The government has disallowed tribal Lashkar (forces) participating in the Lebanon war saying that it is supporting the Lebanese government and people at every level. Federal Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Sherpao, talking to newsmen Monday, warned that the government would not let anyone participate in the war in Lebanon in his personal capacity, said press reports Tuesday.
Maulana Fazlur Rehman and tribal leaders had asked the government to authorize a tribal Lashkar of 100,000 tribesmen to fight in Lebanon against Israel.
Opposition leader in the lower house in parliament and leader of the religious alliance Mutahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) Maulana Fazlur Rehman and tribal leaders had asked the government to authorize a tribal Lashkar of 100,000 tribesmen to fight in Lebanon against Israel.
Sherpao said the government is supporting the Lebanese government and people at every level and is also providing all necessary aid. He said "we have condemned the killing of innocent women and children and are stressing the UN must... call for ceasefire. However, we will not allow anyone to take part in the war on individual capacity."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/02/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
No fun for youus
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/02/2006 1:32 Comments ||
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Article: Opposition leader in the lower house in parliament and leader of the religious alliance Mutahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) Maulana Fazlur Rehman and tribal leaders had asked the government to authorize a tribal Lashkar of 100,000 tribesmen to fight in Lebanon against Israel.
At $200 per person for chartered flights, this would cost about $20m. Do they have that, and the weapons and ammo needed to fight in Lebanon. Are the Lebanese Shias likely to cotton on to the idea of 100,000 armed Pakistani illegals settling down in their region for good, after the hostilities are over? It's not like Lebanon needs another faction battling over who gets to rule.
#7
The constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is quite clear on the matter of organized armed groups - only the Armed Forces and the Police may bear arms - all other armed groups are prohibited.
Of course it also forbids overthrowing the elected government, so Perv probably hasn't read it recently.
Posted by: john ||
08/02/2006 8:44 Comments ||
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It also forbids the jihadi groups waging war against India and Afghanistan, so I suppose Perv really never got around to reading it
Posted by: john ||
08/02/2006 8:48 Comments ||
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john, I remember an article here mentioning that many Pakistani prison convicts are fully armed.
The constitution must have been referring to a form of Sharia. Only the army and police have the right to body appendages below the shoulder.
Posted by: john ||
08/02/2006 12:12 Comments ||
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#10
I'd say let them go. They'd just be in the way, may lead Israel to some of Hezbollah's hideouts, and make the job of cleaning up packiwackiland easier for the Marines when we get around to it. All they'll do against Israel is make more targets and raise the enemy body count.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/02/2006 15:42 Comments ||
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Militants on Tuesday staged broad daylight attacks in Srinagar killing four security men. In separate incidents four militants and a security jawan were also killed and one Divisional Commander of Hizbul Mujahideen was arrested.
At about 11:35 a.m., two CRPF soldiers were approached near Dalgate by militants from Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), which has claimed responsibility for the attacks. "Militants shot at our jawans at Dalgate by pistols from point blank range," said CRPF Public Relations Officer Dalip Singh Ambesh. Head Constable of 172nd Bn, Mohammad Aziz Khan, died on the spot, while constable Kapil Kumar was rushed to the hospital by his colleagues, but succumbed to his injuries en route. Ambesh confirmed the two killings and said the killed soldiers belonged to Special Operations Group (SOG) of the CRPF.
In a separate but similar incident militants struck at Kak Sarai at around 3:30 p.m., killing two BSF personnel, Head Constable Ram Avtar of 143 Bn and Constable Uday Sanjay of 39 Bn. Police said both incidents involved the use of mouser pistols shot at close range. The two were reportedly purchasing medicines for Sanjay, who was ill, when the armed men fired at them from point blank range, police said. Avtar accompanied his colleague to the hospital from Panthachowk.
Soon after these incidents took place police and security forces cordoned off both areas and launched intense manhunts but the militants managed to escape and no arrests were made. In a call to a local news agency, a spokesperson of Jaish, Abu Qadama claimed responsibility for both the incidents.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/02/2006 00:00 ||
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Coalition forces successfully targeted and detained two senior al-Qaida in Iraq leaders and three other suspected terrorists during multiple raids in central and northern Iraq on the morning of July 29.
A recent detainee provided information that led the security forces to one of the terrorists, a top leader for the Al Dhuluiyah area. The targeted individual was reportedly the main planner for the attack against Peshmerga forces at a checkpoint in Al Dhuluiya in May 2006. Credible intelligence also ties the terrorist leader to other al-Qaida leaders in the area.
In a separate raid, security forces detained a principal financial and logistical coordinator for al-Qaida in the MosulMosul. area. He also was reportedly the leader of a terrorist cell responsible for kidnappings and executing vehicle borne improvised explosive device (VBIED) and IED attacks in
Ground troops discovered a large weapons cache at another target site. The cache included several rocket propelled grenades, multiple launchers, explosives and materials for IEDs, small arms, and ordnance. All of them were destroyed on location.
Coalition forces quickly secured the areas in all of the raids and detained the individuals without incident. These and other recent assaults are helping Coalition forces get a clearer picture of the enemy network in the region, and they continue to methodically degrade the terrorist network.
Multiple women and children were present at the raid sites. None were harmed and all were returned to their homes once the troops ensured the area was secure.
#1
Notes from a a senior leader returning from Iraq.
Hi Gang.
Left Iraq on Saturday, 29 JUL 06, and thought I would share some final observations as I look back on the past 14 months. I'm currently
processing through Ft Bliss, and should be home on Thursday.
Al Qaida is wounded and is lashing out. Although not defeated, our operations have significantly degraded their leadership capability. They are having success in killing Shia civilians, which gives the Shia militias an excuse to murder Sunnis in retaliation. This sectarian militia violence poses the largest threat to the stability of Iraq, and therefore we are focusing much of our effort against the various militias.
Despite the impression given by much of the press, we don't ride and walk around all day waiting to be blown up by an IED. Our intelligence enables us to conduct raids every day and every night to kill or capture specific targets, which in turn leads to more intelligence.
Concurrently we are training the Iraqi Army, which is becoming quite good at accepting battlespace from us and taking the lead in the fight.
We still have a number of challenges training the police. We turned over the security of the first province to the Iraqi security forces,
and will steadily add provinces this fall.
Caught up in the day to day operations, casualties, and events of this fight, it is easy to become mired in the belief that we are not making progress. One has to occasionally step back from the current fight and assess how far we have come. Since my arrival in May 05, the Iraqis have written and ratified a Constitution, elected a government in a free, democratic process, and made significant progress in developing a capable Army. We have inflicted significant damage on Al Qaida and its
leadership, and have prevented them from gaining the initiative.
Much work has been done to rebuild the infrastructure that received no attention during Saddam's regime.
However, we still have a tough fight ahead of us. We are focusing on disarming or destroying the militias and securing Baghdad, while
concurrently continuing to pound Al Qaida. The Government leaders have said the right things, but now need to follow through with action. They must take concrete steps to unify Iraq and eliminate sectarian violence.They have about six months to get it right and show some progress.
Our DOD, DOS, and DOJ advisors are working hard to make it happen.
I think it is important to remember that Al Qaida chose to fight us in Iraq, not the other way around. We are their main effort, and their
senior leadership understands what is at stake in Iraq. It's about defeating the United States and establishing a base of operations in
the Middle East from which to continue their terrorist quest to establish a caliphate that reaches across North Africa and into Europe,increasing their chances for successful strikes against the U.S. homeland. America needs to wake up and understand that we have more at stake as a country in this fight than we did in WW II. Losing Iraq will provide Al Qaida a significant base of operations and the psychological edge to continue to attack America and enlist allies in their cause. Conversely, defeating Al Qaida in Iraq and establishing a democracy with an economy embracing capitalism will start to unravel the repressive regimes of the Middle East that provide the support base
Al Qaida so desperately needs.
As I close out this tour, I would be remiss if I did not mention one of the great Americans carrying this fight to the enemy, GEN George Casey.
In June he began his third year as the overall commander in Iraq. The continuity he provides in both defeating the enemy and building a
democratic Iraq cannot be underestimated. He is shouldering a heavy burden for our country, and America owes him a heavy debt of gratitude.
It was my honor to serve with him on both ends of my career. With him the entire tour has been another outstanding soldier, CSM XXX XXXXXXXXX, an NCO who truly exemplifies the NCO and Ranger Creeds as he moves around Iraq checking on the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines who are doing the heavy lifting.
As I depart, I will miss the great young Americans who do our country's tough work every day and every night. Their selfless service,
dedication, teamwork, camaraderie, and humor in the face of adversity are beacons for all Americans to follow. I will miss the smile on an Iraqi child's face when we open her new school, and the satisfaction our engineers have when they provide potable water to a village. I will miss the determination of the Iraqi people to risk death in order to exercise their right to vote. I will miss the NCO Corps, truly the
backbone of our Army and the single characteristic that distinguishes
our Army from every other army in the world. The NCOs guarantee us victory in every endeavor. I won't miss the rear echelon military bureaucracy we have created to support this operation, despite the valiant efforts of outstanding staff officers and NCOs to fight through it and accomplish the mission. I won't miss performing or attending memorial services. I thought I had attended my last one on Sunday, but we had another Soldier killed by an IED four days before I left. Losing these great young Americans has become progressively harder each
of my 31 years in this business. I guess it has a cumulative effect.
We have made an astounding amount of progress in the past 14 months, and are on the edge of winning this fight. The next six months will be
decisive. We will destroy the militias and continue to decimate Al Qaida.
Our biggest challenge is to get this new Government to step up to the plate, begin cleaning out the corruption, and take decisive steps in securing its people. Concurrently we must help them fight the growing
Iranian influence. It is a tough fight, but the Iraqis can do it as long as America does not lose its resolve. With what is at stake for
us, we cannot afford to.
Thanks for the support and the prayers this past 14 months; they work.
Please keep the kids I left behind in your prayers until we can finish this job and bring them home.
#4
I went ahead and posted the letter on my website, Besoeker. If you know the Officer's name, I'd like to post it as well. If there are objections, I'll remove it.
Posted by: BA ||
08/02/2006 13:04 Comments ||
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#6
For reasons of privacy, rather not divulge without his expressed permission. I will say he was well placed at Multi-National Force Iraq (MNF-I), and that it was passed to me by a GO. Identities produced NVA bounties in the 60's and 70's, especially among folks on rotational tours. Hope you understand.
Coalition forces announce theyve turned over to the Iraqi government an al-Qaida in Iraq leader that has admitted to conducting terrorist activity since 2004. The terrorist will now be prosecuted by the Iraqi government under the Iraqi justice system.
The terrorist leader held multiple leadership positions within al-Qaida and was appointed by Abu Musab al Zarqawi and Abu Ayyub al Masri to two of the positions he held. At one time, he coordinated and oversaw the operations of five different terrorist cells at one time.
The Iraqi admitted to coordinating over ten death squad attacks, personally participating in several of them, while he was a member of one terrorist cell. The cell targeted several innocent Iraqis including grocery store and butcher store owners. Another of the groups he led coordinated kidnappings and large scale bombings throughout Baghdad.
He was captured in a raid in western Baghdad that resulted from intelligence gathered during the successful targeting of former al-Qaida in Iraq leader Zarqawi in early June.
Iraqi and Coalition officials will continue to work closely to ensure the terrorist receives due process through the Iraqi justice system.
#3
"No, no, kufr wimman, don't tease me with these titties again... I'll speak, damn you, evil-sexy-she-demon! I just can't take it anymore... hand me a gun, for the love of allan, I need to shoot off wildly in the air..."
#6
I always ask myself if we could win even a long drawn out war if we couldn't stop the enemy from full knwoledge of our past and present operations and methods. We couldn't, neither can al Qaeda.
Each time we add another volume of data to the growing al Qaeda ops files, we tighten the rope around their necks. The only real danger is that pacifists will manage to end all hostilities before we mop up the entire spill. Stay the course till the end and several anniversaries thereafter.
(KUNA) -- Two policemen were killed, another was wounded, on Tuesday in a blast that targeted a police patrol in Kirkuk, northern Iraq. An Iraqi Police source told KUNA that the blast took place near a market area, noting that a lieutenant colonel was wounded in the attack.
In a related incident, a man, a woman, and a child were wounded when an explosive device targeted a Multi-National Force patrol near the Celebrations Square in Kirkuk. The source said a military vehicle was damaged in the blast, but did not touch on any human losses among members of the patrol.
Meanwhile, unknown gunmen opened fire on leader of Al-Abbadi tribe in the area of Domiz in Kirkuk, northern Iraq, killing him instantly. In another development, unknown gunmen abducted 45 civilian passengers on a road between Iraq and Syria.
Governor of Najaf Asaad Abu Kalal said in a press conference that unknown gunmen hijacked six busses transporting 45 residents of Najaf while returning from Syria. The source said the hostages were taken to an unknown destination and their fate remains unknown.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/02/2006 00:00 ||
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(KUNA) -- Unknown gunmen on Tuesday burst into the residence of Iraqi undersecretary of finance, abducted his guards, and seized some weapons. A Ministry of Interior source told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) that unknown gunmen stormed into the residence of Karim Hammoud Faraj in the area of Talibiya nearby Al-Sadr City in eastern Baghdad and abducted two of his guards. Iraqi Police forces cordoned off the area, while security sources confirmed that Faraj was not in his residence at the time of the attack, noting that he is abroad on an official mission.
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08/02/2006 00:00 ||
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(KUNA) -- A Security committee in the province of Kirkuk ordered Tuesday an Iraqi military force in Suleimania area to move to southern Kirkuk in northern Iraq. A military senior official told KUNA that this military maneuver was taken to protect southern Kirkuk from insurgents who have increasingly stepped up their attacks in the area. The Iraqi forces and Multi-National force (MNF) previously conducted several operations in the area which resulted in the capture of 169 suspects.
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A roadside bomb blew up a bus, killing 24 people in it as gunmen ambushed and shot dead five workers of a power station in a day of widespread violence across Iraq that left 63 people dead on Tuesday. Among the dead was a British soldier who died in a mortar attack in the south, while the US military announced that an American soldier was killed by a roadside bomb on Monday. Also Tuesday, the spokesman of a political coalition was kidnapped.
The worst carnage occurred near the northern industrial city of Beiji where a bus carrying 24 soldiers was hit by a roadside bomb, said Defence Ministry spokesman Mohammed al-Askari. He said all on board died. Following the blast, a curfew was imposed in Beiji. A few hours later, a bomb-laden car blew up near a bank in the once-fashionable Karradah neighborhood of Baghdad, killing at least 14 people and injuring 37, said police Lt Col Abbas Mohammed Salman. He said the target was well chosen because Iraqi security forces draw their salaries from the bank on the first of every month.
Also on Tuesday, unidentified gunmen ambushed a mini-bus, carrying 11 employees of Al-Taji power station in Baghdad. The gunmen opened fire, killing five and injuring the other six, said police Maj Khalil Ibrahim. Separately, 45 Shias from Najaf were kidnapped as they travelled home past the Sunni rebel stronghold of Ramadi on Monday, the Najaf governor said on Tuesday. Police could not immediately confirm the kidnappings
Meanwhile, a car bomb targeting a police patrol killed one policeman and six civilians in Muqdadiyah in northern Iraq, said the joint Iraqi-US military coordination centre.
In other violence Tuesday, 12 people were killed, mostly by bombs. The bodies of two men with bullet wounds were found in different places in Baghdad Tuesday, police said. Gunmen kidnapped Mohammed Shihab al-Dulaimi, the spokesman of MARAM, a coalition of political parties that reject the Dec 15, 2005, parliamentary elections as fraudulent. The kidnappers contacted MARAM officials and demanded a ransom, said Hatam Hattab al-Janabi of MARAM. He did not elaborate.
Meanwhile, a British soldier was killed in a mortar attack on a base in Basra, a spokeswoman of Britains Defence Ministry said. The infantry soldier died after being airlifted from a base in Basra to a field hospital outside the city, said the spokeswoman on customary condition of anonymity in line with ministry policy.
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08/02/2006 00:00 ||
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Molotov cocktails were thrown at Israeli vehicles in two separate incidents in the West Bank on Wednesday night. One was thrown at a car near Nablus, while in another incident, a bus south of Bethlehem was struck. No one was wounded in either incident, nor was any damage caused.
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08/02/2006 18:42 ||
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#1
Is it possible to contact the Pope and ask for an armed force to protect the Holy sites of Christianity?
I would prefer something in the version of the Knights Templar if possible.. Thanks in advance...
#2
And Ehud Olmert says that the Lebanon crisis will expedite his plan to give up the West Bank. Look in the dictionary under the word 'idiot' and it says, "See Ehud".
Hezbollah fighters have launched more than 220 rockets into Israel from Lebanon, the biggest single-day barrage since the conflict began. One person was killed and dozens injured as some rockets landed up to 70km inside Israel, the deepest so far. The upsurge came as Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel had destroyed Hezbollah's infrastructure. Mr Olmert insisted there would be no ceasefire until an international force is deployed in southern Lebanon. "I said I'd be ready to enter a ceasefire when the international forces, not will be ready, but will be deployed," Mr Olmert said of the timetable for a halt to the violence.
The hail of Hezbollah rockets came after Israeli troops raided Baalbek, a Hezbollah stronghold in north-east Lebanon, seizing five people they said were Hezbollah fighters. Hezbollah said they were civilians. In southern Lebanon, clashes have been continuing between Hezbollah and Israeli troops, now said to number around 12,000. About 750 people - mainly civilians - have been killed by Israeli action in Lebanon, according to the Lebanese health minister. This figure includes unrecovered bodies. A total of 55 Israelis, including at least 19 civilians, are known to have been killed by Hezbollah.
In other developments:
Britain's UN ambassador says agreement on an initial Security Council resolution to end the violence is close
World Food Programme officials say Israel has assured them emergency fuel supplies will be given safe passage into Lebanon
Iran's supreme leader urges the Muslim world to stand up to Israel and the US over their role in the conflict in Lebanon
One of the Hezbollah rockets landed near the town of Nahariya on the west coast, killing one person. Another struck close to the town of Beit Shean on the edge of the West Bank, 70km from the Lebanese border, while another landed in the West Bank - the deepest hit so far. Israeli planes also struck a village near Baalbek, killing several people.
The BBC's Richard Miron in the northern Israeli town of Tiberias said some residents had begun returning home, believing that the Israeli army had dealt with the rocket threat.
Hezbollah militants have claimed they used a new type of rocket for the attack - a Khaibar-1, thought by the Israelis to be a modified Iranian Fajr-5, which has a longer range than the Katyusha rockets they usually fire into Israel. A Hezbollah spokesman, Ghalib Abu Zeinab, said in an interview with the BBC Arabic Service that the latest attacks showed that Hezbollah was unbroken. "The rockets that have been raining down since this morning... and the firing of a missile over a distance of 70km, all this proves that the Lebanese resistance still has a high capability, including a missile capability."
Israeli Interior Minister Avi Dichter told the BBC that although Hezbollah remained active, he was confident Israel would achieve its aims in Lebanon. "Hezbollah is still alive, but the mission of this operation is not to crack down Hezbollah totally." he said. "We're trying to minimise the number of rockets launched towards Israel, and we know that all other targets that we have put right at the beginning of this special operation are going to be fulfilled."
Did the Germans do this poorly with their V-1 and V-2 rockets against London and other UK cities? Does anyone have the data on number of casualties and number of German rockets used?
Hundreds more were launched that blew up in mid-flight, and so never made it into allied statistics. (Final development of the V-2 during the war was in fact to remedy this problem)
The final two exploded on (or near) their targets on 27 March 1945. The last British civilian killed was Mrs Ivy Millichamp, 34, in her home in Orpington. In all, about seven thousand civilians were killed in London by the V-2, an average of over 5 deaths per attack. This, however, understates the potential of the V-2, since many rockets were mis-directed and exploded harmlessly. Accurately targeted missiles were often devastating, causing large numbers of deaths - about 160 in one explosion in Woolwich, south-east London and 567 deaths in a cinema in Antwerp - and significant damage in the critically important Antwerp docks.
So using V2's as a yardstick, 201 missiles should have killed 1005 people.
V1's (again from Wikipedia);
Almost 30,000 V-1s were manufactured. Approximately 10,000 were fired at England up to March 29, 1945. Of these, 2,419 reached Metropolitan London. In the London area, roughly 5,500 persons died as a result of V-1 attacks, with some 16,000 more injured.
So Hizbollocks is doing nowhere near as well as the Germans did (thankfully)
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
08/02/2006 19:14 Comments ||
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#3
Hezbolloh only thinks they're rocket scientists.
#6
Not quite. I had some direct awareness of the Lavi project, for instance, and there was a fair amount of Israeli tech in that F-16 replacement. Cancelled due to US pressure when the Israelis made it clear they wanted to export the Lavi to pay for their own portion of the program ... the US tech in it was under the ITAR (international traffic in arms regulations) licensing and the US said no to the export, the Lavi was cancelled and they stuck with F-16s.
Much later they exported some of the Lavi tech to China ... 2003 I think it was. The Lavi was back in the mid-late 80s.
A high-ranking IAF officer said Wednesday that the military was considering escalating the offensive by stepping up the use of targeted killings in daily operations. "Hizbullah is like a puzzle made up of different pieces," the officer said, "and now we need to begin to knock off each and every piece."
DEBKAfiles Update of DEBKA-Net-Weeklys Exclusive Military Analysis of July 28
Israels audacious commando raid of a Hizballah stronghold near Baalbek more than 100 km north of the border recalled the old panache associated with Israeli military feats in the past. However the 22 days of the Lebanon war have shown an army hampered and slowed down by tactical and intelligence deficiencies which showed up in the costly Maroun er-Ras and Bin Jubeil operations in South Lebanon and again this week in the Ayta a-Chaab battle. Those three engagements have claimed 17 lives. Between six and eight thousand troops and reservists are now deployed in South Lebanon fighting in Hizballah village-strongholds and positions along the Israeli border and plunging deeper for the mission assigned this week to push Hizballah out of the south as far as the Litani River. More such battles therefore lie ahead.
It is therefore important to heed the senior Israeli officers who tell DEBKAfile that a single successful commando raid is not going to cure the deficiencies hampering its 22-day Lebanon campaign.
Looks like DEBKA is the place where "senior" (most likely retired) Israeli officers come to bitch about how things are being run. Kind of like CNN and the NYT are full of old generals complaining about Rumsfeld.
The officers direct most of their criticism at the Northern Commands handling of the war, arguing that the IDF should have kicked off the entire campaign with a series of audacious assaults like Tuesdays Baalbek operation so as to catch Hizballah off-balance. Without these tactics, the three battles against a tough enemy which refuses to break under sustained battering were bound to end as they did.
On July 28, DEBKA-Net-Weekly 263 cited its military analysts on the IDFs six principal failings in the Lebanon war:
1. Israeli elected leaders, Olmert and defense minister Peretz, lack military experience and the skills required for managing a war.
2. The military leadership qualities of chief of staff Lt.-General Halutz, former commander of the air force where he grew up, are questionable.
3. Olmerts predecessor left him with a flawed legacy. During his six and-a- half years as premier, Ariel Sharon shook up the top levels of the IDFs general command, military intelligence and the Mossad (although not the Shin Bet) and stuffed them with appointees who subscribed to his political philosophy. Israels top military and security echelons have never before been picked for their political outlook. Sharons axe created a monolithic establishment lacking in the motivation burning in their predecessors for developing brilliantly innovative methods of warfare.
4. In six years of counter-terror warfare against the Palestinians, the IDF focused on perfecting small-time tactics for keeping local terror fires under control, but failed to produce methods applicable to a transition from fighting terrorists to waging war. Hizballah has foisted this transition on the Israeli military.
5. Israeli war planners, like the US army in Iraq, came to rely too heavily on air power, firepower and hi-tech weaponry for combating terror. They neglected to draw the lessons of the three-year Iraq war.
6. Hizballahs tacticians and their Iranian Revolutionary Guards mentors studied every Israeli move in its 2002 Defensive Wall Operation against the Palestinian terrorist stronghold of Jenin, which ended in all the towns of the West Bank falling to the Israeli military. Taking this battle as their master plan, they invented a new war doctrine to fit a Hizballah offensive against an Israeli army which had not revised its doctrines of war in the intervening four years.
The battle fought in Jenins refugee camp on April 14, 2002, was the only engagement in the entire Israel-Palestinian conflict in which Hizballah and al Qaeda terrorists fought Israeli forces face to face.
The Palestinians fielded a small number of fighters. The Israeli army won the day but paid dearly in casualties. Drawing on the Jenin lesson, Iranian and Hizballah war planners are hammering at the Jewish states most vulnerable point - military losses and loss of life in general. By maximizing Israeli casualties, they believe that Hizballah does not have to win the war; it will turn the tables sufficiently to achieve parity with the Israeli army. For a small militia dependent on two outside governments, Iran and Syria, for heavy weapons and permission to use them, this would be no mean feat better in fact that any Arab army has ever achieved in the past.
Nasrallah is fond of boasting that he has surprised Israel and will again. But it must be said that, going back to the Yom Kippur shock, the Israeli army did in fact recover from its early setbacks and turned the tide. It is still early days, and Israel may have surprises of its own up its sleeve. The pressure of war on the countrys borders and their homes under attack has always goaded Israels army into flights of improvisation and stimulated its generals into using the war arena as a testing ground for ingenious new ideas. But much depends on Olmert, Peretz and General Halutz, giving them enough rein to succeed while restraining their own pointless and often damaging statements.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/02/2006 09:19 ||
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#1
better in fact that any Arab army has ever achieved in the past
Wow, that good? Old Groucho Marx line: "I started out without a nickel in my pocket and now, after twenty years of hard work, I've got a nickel in my pocket."
Posted by: Matt ||
08/02/2006 10:02 Comments ||
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#2
Debka, Debka, would you like a saucer of milk? MEEEEOOOOW!
Steve's green comments nailed it. After this pitiful display of envy and spite - the answer to the mysterious question re: WHO IS DEBKA? is finally crystal clear. Not a pretty display.
At least they did manage to rise beyond their petty jealousies over not being in charge and pull it together in the last paragraph, which really should have been the lead. Boys, boys, get pull yourselves together. Maybe they will need you enough to call you back and you can be in the game once again.
#3
Drawing on the Jenin lesson, Iranian and Hizballah war planners are hammering at the Jewish states most vulnerable point - military losses and loss of life in general. By maximizing Israeli casualties, they believe that Hizballah does not have to win the war;
You heard it from me first (not that you didn't know it already) but this belief is, unfortunately, the Iranian and Hizballah Achilles heel of their war.
Sure, we do care about human life. We will give you ample opportunity to surrender so that your hostages will be safe. We'll even let you keep your own people hostage. But when this war comes down to being between our civilians or your civilians you don't have what it takes to win.
It's time all the civilized world leaders made this point very, very, clear so that we can end this thing (more) peacefully.
#4
army hampered and slowed down by tactical and intelligence deficiencies
Most advancing armies are "hampered and slowed down by tactical and intelligence deficiences." It is the nature of modern warfare. I have yet to hear a commander say, "thats it, no more intelligence updates, Class I or Class V, I've got all I need. Unless the enemy advances on-line shoulder to shoulder in mass formations this will always be case.
In case youve overlooked it, Likud is in opposition, and doesnt like the Olmert-Peretz govt (though of course they are supportingthe IDF in the war). Its not at all unlikely they will poke at how the war is being executed, militarily.
#8
Oh no ! 17 soldiers dead....we've lost ! Oh, the horrors.
So what ? 17 honorable deaths is a good thing. The deaths of many more civilians by incoming rockets is a bad thing.
Fight hard and kill the enemy, damnit, now shut up.
#12
Debka ends up siding close to where Ralph Peters and the Israeli citizenry are.
Given the sorry state of which Lebanon exists today, it's time for Israel for overtake the country (vis-a-vis land for peace).
Otherwise, this battle will never end.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/02/2006 14:48 Comments ||
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#13
This is the first war Israel is fighting against entrenched terrorists instead of national armies in the field. Beyond that, I'll leave commentary to the experts.
#14
With due respect, PLO and Hezbo were not national armies pre-2000 and beyond.
Southern Lebanon is forboding terrain, both for airpower and armor, requiring heavy infantry.
One exceptable reason for going light for the first two weeks was that the Israelis were trying to learn about the tactics being employed by Hezbo. However, to take such tough terrain and move the Hezbos back requires considerable investment in troops.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/02/2006 21:14 Comments ||
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I thought of those more as an ongoing police action, Captain America. This is a real war... finally!
Stole this right out from under Rich Lowry at National Review online -- found the article written by Krauthammer in 2002. Sure blows away some of that "disinformation" about intel not knowing of the buildup by the Hez in the south
Watch Lebanon. If you want to know where the Israeli-Palestinian war is going, watch Lebanon. If the war goes -- literally -- ballistic, the fuse will have been lit by the Iran-backed Hezbollah guerrillas now firing rockets into Israel from Lebanon.
But did Israel not withdraw from Lebanon almost two years ago? Why is there still a problem with Lebanon?
Indeed, Israel had been in Lebanon for about 20 years. It was a classic defensive occupation. Israel laid claim to not an inch of Lebanese soil. It diverted not a drop of water. It had no interest in staying. It was in there for one reason: to protect Israel's northern frontier from various guerrillas -- first Yasser Arafat's PLO, then the Lebanese Shiite Party of God (Hezbollah) -- using south Lebanon to attack Israel.
Yet for two decades, Israel was hectored to comply with U.N. resolutions demanding Israel's withdrawal. In May 2000, it complied. To ensure that there could be no possible residual territorial dispute, Israel asked the United Nations to draw the line demarcating the true Israeli-Lebanese border -- the so-called Blue Line -- then pulled back behind it.
Israel's reward?
Hezbollah was not mollified. While its ostensible mission was the liberation of Lebanese territory, it did not disband. On the contrary. It occupied south Lebanon, imported huge new supplies of weapons from Iran and began sporadic cross-border attacks on Israel. Remember, this was written in 2002
Hezbollah has killed Israeli soldiers situated in Israeli territory. It kidnapped three soldiers who have never been seen since. Just one month ago, infiltrators from the Hezbollah territory shot and killed seven Israelis on a road in northern Israel. And now, since the end of March, Hezbollah has embarked on a serious and deadly escalation, firing rockets into Israel.
Now we know why Nasrallah was suprised at Israel's response this go around
Hezbollah is armed with 8,000 Katyusha rockets. So much for all these media folks crying about US and Israel intel not knowing about all these Katyusha rockets! Somehow, Krauthammer knew!
Practically all of northern Israel lies under its guns. They are ready for firing. Hezbollah's spiritual leader, Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, threatened Monday to hit Haifa with Katyusha rockets if Israel dared to respond to Hezbollah attacks.
Were that to happen, the northern front would explode. Israel has been sending urgent messages through the United Nations and the United States that it would not tolerate such aggression. It would be forced to counterattack -- on Lebanon, on Syrian army positions in Lebanon and possibly on Syria itself, Syria being Hezbollah's boss and patron.
Syria could not withstand such an Israeli attack conventionally. It might then launch its missiles equipped with chemical weapons into Israeli cities. And that could trigger Armageddon. Israel was established so that never again would the gassing of Jews be permitted.
Not only, therefore, is Lebanon the most dangerous piece of tinder in the region. It is the most instructive. The Arabs claim that their grievance is Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. Give it back and you'll have land for peace. Like the Lebanon peace?
Western observers totally missed the irony of the Arab summit whose "Saudi peace plan" ostensibly offered Israel peace in return for full territorial withdrawal. The offer was made in Beirut, capital of a country from which Israel had done precisely that -- fully withdraw -- and received in return a more entrenched, emboldened, heavily armed enemy ready to trigger a general war.
It gets better. To justify carrying on the war after Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon, Hezbollah concocted a territorial claim on a few acres called the Shebaa Farms. Hezbollah says it is Lebanese territory, and therefore occupied -- a position contrary to the internationally sanctioned Blue Line drawn by the United Nations, hardly a partisan of Israel.
What is the Arab League position on all this? Few Western observers actually read the Saudi peace plan adopted by the Arab League. If they had, they would have seen that the plan demands not just the usual withdrawal from Palestinian and Syrian territory but also from "remaining occupied Lebanese territories."
But there are no remaining occupied Lebanese territories. Thus the Arab League, in precisely the same document -- no, the same breath -- in which it ostensibly offers land for peace, endorses a totally fabricated, post-withdrawal Lebanese land claim that even the United Nations rejects. Why? Because it serves as an excuse for continuing the war against Israel.
Just end the occupation of the West Bank, say the Arabs, and we will guarantee Israel peace. Do you want to see Israel's future if it caves in to that demand? Look at Lebanon, where Israel gave up a defensive occupation and is now looking squarely in the face of Armageddon.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/02/2006 1:37 Comments ||
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#4
The mods must like you better. My stuff always ends up in the scrap bin.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/02/2006 1:39 Comments ||
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#5
"So much for all these media folks crying about US and Israel intel not knowing about all these Katyusha rockets! Somehow, Krauthammer knew!"
Everyone that mattered knew and it had been widely reported for a long time. This notion that the number of rockets was unknown and some kind of intelligence failure is just so much propaganda.
#7
Hmmm... I guess this puts the nail in the post by the idiot (Megan Mcardle?) subbing for Instapundit. She was whining about how the rockets didn't start until after the "Israel invasion".
Personally, I've stopped reading Instapundit for the week. May never go back. Letting someone that depraved and ignorant in as a guest poster is a bad sign.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
08/02/2006 6:19 Comments ||
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#8
is this an instapundit thing? I havent been reading Instapundit lately, and i havent heard anyone say there was an Israeli intell failure wrt to the number of Hezb missiles.
Rather what ive gleaned is that Tzahal was not prepared for the Hezb being as strong ON THE GROUND as they proved to be. So well dug in, bunkers, tunnels, etc.
In all likelihood there will be a ceasefire very soon. The big question will then be how much did Tzahal manage to achieve in degrading Hezb capacity - rockets, launchers, "militants", command and control etc. Right now Tzahal is indicating substantial progress, but the number of missiles still being fired is very high. After action reports will be very important.
Israel will face two questions - 1. could Tzahal have done more damage if they were better prepared - that will be a judgement of Halutz primarily (Peretz simply hasnt been office long enough for it to reflect much on him, I think)
2. Was it enough damage to offset the political costs of the sustained campaign - that will be a judgement on Peretz and Olmert.
#9
LH: People who write about "intel failures" know nothing about the fog of war or even business for that matter. I wonder how many of these folks have ever been in a game or a business situation where an opponent has been trying to outmaneuver him?
#10
Let's hope Sir Charles ends up wrong on Syrian chem bombs on Israel.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/02/2006 14:45 Comments ||
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#11
"People who write about "intel failures" know nothing about the fog of war or even business for that matter. I wonder how many of these folks have ever been in a game or a business situation where an opponent has been trying to outmaneuver him?"
Israel simply cant afford to be outmaneuvered. Its Dan Halutz' job to know what there is on the ground in a situation like this. Certainly the Israeli polity was not forgiving of Dayan, Golda Meir, or Chaim Bar Lev for the intell failures prior to the Yom Kippur war.
Im not saying that will happen to Halutz, who may very well be able, ultimately, to point to good results.
#12
In all likelihood there will be a ceasefire very soon
oh yes. And we'll all have free health care, and poor people will no longer be at a disadvantage because enough money was placed in a social program, conservatives will be eliminated from the planet and there will be no more racism, and everyone will live happily ever after.
#13
"oh yes. And we'll all have free health care, and poor people will no longer be at a disadvantage because enough money was placed in a social program, conservatives will be eliminated from the planet and there will be no more racism, and everyone will live happily ever after"
Huh? what are you getting at? There very likely WILL be a UNSC ceasefire resolution, if not this week, than next week. With a US yes vote. At which point Israel will have no choice but to stop its operation. Which puts time pressure on Tzahal. Thats a reality Israel faces, just as it faced it in 1973 and 1967.
Are you trying to say that Hezb wont stick to the ceasefire? Probably they wont, but thats not relevant to what I was saying.
#14
LH, I don't think there will be an unconditional ceasefire UNSC resolution. GWB has said no return to the pre-war status quo and I believe he will stick to his guns.
What there will be is a conditional ceasefire. Conditional on some international force that may or may not materialize.
Personally, I think this is a masterful strategy. It forces the usual suspects to actually do something substantial and they will be found seriously wanting. It will be fun watching them squirm and wriggle because they can't deliver.
#16
Also don't forget media reports of anywhere between several 00 to several 000's of Iranian fighters and "advisors" in Lebanon or coming into Lebanon, espec during the Clinton years.
Israeli aircraft on Wednesday bombed buildings in the Gaza Strip used by militants to store and smuggle weapons, the army said. There were no immediate reports of casualties in the air strikes. Palestinian security sources said one of the destroyed buildings was a house in central Gaza owned by a Hamas militant.
"Ahead of the attack, the people in the area were warned to stay away," an army spokesman said. Palestinian security sources said the second building, west of Gaza City, was hit by four missiles. The Israeli army has killed 154 Palestinians, more than half of them civilians, in Gaza since it began an offensive to stop gunmen from firing rockets into Israel and to pressure militants to free a soldier that armed groups captured on June 25. An air strike in northern Gaza on Tuesday killed a Palestinian teenager and a woman.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/02/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Unfortunately, they are not using even one of those.
The 14-year-old Palestinian killed by the IDF in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday was involved in the launching of Kassam rockets into Israel, the IDF spokesman said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/02/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Obviously a Work Accident during "take you kid to work" day. reset the 'days worked without an accident counter to zero, please.
IDF forces identified several suspicious persons at the Agricultural College in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip at approximately 3 p.m. Tuesday. The IDF said that the suspects had arrived there in order to pick up Kassam launchers, which had been used to shoot rockets into Israel Tuesday morning. The army opened fire in the direction of the suspects.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/02/2006 00:00 ||
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Five IDF soldiers were wounded, two moderately and the rest lightly, by a mortar shell fired at an IDF troops near the Israel-Lebanon border on Tuesday night. The wounded soldiers were evacuated to the hospital in Nahariya for treatment.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/02/2006 00:00 ||
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The Philippine military says five members of the Muslim group the Abu Sayyaf have been killed in fierce fighting in the south of the country. Rockets have been fired and bombs dropped on a base of suspected members of the Abu Sayyaf on Jolo island. The army says five soldiers were wounded and a civilian guide was killed in the clashes, which started on Tuesday. The casualties cannot be independently confirmed.
Heavy fighting broke out on Jolo after soldiers caught up with militants fleeing the air strikes on their camp. The Philippines is trying to stop Abu Sayyaf and members of Jemaah Islamiah, a regional network with alleged links to al-Qaeda, from using Jolo as a base to train militants and plot bomb attacks.
The United States believes two main suspects in the 2002 Bali bombings - Dulmatin and Umar Patek - are also hiding in the south. The Philippine military says it is confident it will flush them and Abu Sayyaf's leader, Khaddafy Janjalani, out of Jolo.
Abu Sayyaf is the smallest of four Muslim rebel groups in the Philippines with around 400 members. Muslim separatists have been fighting in the south since the 1960s for greater independence from the mainly Catholic government in Manila. The conflict has killed over 120,000 people and stunted development in the area, which is rich in natural resources.
The government is in peace talks with the largest rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. But it wants to destroy the Abu Sayyaf, which is blamed for the country's most deadly militant attack - the bombing of a ferry in 2004 that killed more than 100 people.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/02/2006 08:46 ||
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#3
A quiet little fishing island just south of Basilan. The inhabatants are peace loving, but violent codependant, Tausug muslims. Mostly fishermen, pirates, and pearl divers who kidnap and hack westerners to death. Except, of course when Lybia offers to pay them a 25 million ransom, 24.6 million more than they were asking. I think that about sums up Jolo.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
08/02/2006 22:35 Comments ||
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Today
Militants detonated a bomb on a bridge on the main railway line through Thailand's rebellious Muslim south on Wednesday, killing three policemen and stranding thousands of travellers, police and a rail official said. At least five trains, including one from Bangkok and one from the Thai-Malaysian border, had to stop at nearby stations as security officials checked the line for damage and more devices, officials said.
"Police and troops are making sure there are no more bombs hidden on the rails and rail officials are checking if the bridge is physically safe for trains to cross," state rail official Thanongsak Pongprasert told Reuters.
Militants detonated a 5kg bomb placed near the bridge as a car of four rail patrolmen passed by. Three of the officers died instantly, and the other was wounded. "We've found two bodies so far and are still looking for the other," an officer at the local Chana police station said.
The blast followed a night of arson, bombs and shooting across Thailand's three southernmost provinces, where more than 1 300 people have been killed in a two-year Muslim separatist insurgency, officials said.
NARATHIWAT: A wave of 40 coordinated bomb and arson attacks struck government and civilian targets across Thailand's Muslim-majority south late on Tuesday, injuring at least two, officials said. Homemade devices, many triggered by remote-control, hit the homes of police and government officials, karaoke bars and a train station in the three restive provinces along the Malaysian border. It was the largest and best organised attack in more than a month in the south, where 1,400 people have died over the past two years in attacks blamed mainly on Islamic militant separatists.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/02/2006 00:00 ||
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"...1,400 people have died over the past two years in attacks blamed mainly on Islamic militant separatists."
Oh well, they're certainly not going to blame Franciscan monks.
The Sri Lankan defence ministry said its forces have repulsed Wednesday's attacks by Tamil Tiger rebels around a strategic northeastern port, killing 40 insurgents and wounding 70 others. The latest fighting raised fears that Sri Lanka was heading for a full-scale war. The rebels said earlier that they had overrun four Sri Lankan army camps around the strategic port of Trincomalee, a day after the guerrillas laid siege to the area, which has seen some of the fiercest fighting in years.
The port is an important lifeline for thousands of troops stationed in the northeast, where the rebels want to carve out a separate homeland for the country's 3.2 million ethnic Tamil minority. Trincomalee, with its natural harbour, is of strategic importance to the army and the rebels. The area falls within the envisioned Tamil homeland. Trincomalee town and surrounding areas are controlled by the government, but the surrounding villages and jungle are under rebel rule.
Meanwhile, there was no independent confirmation of the ministry's claim, but the administration acknowledged that five soldiers were killed in Wednesday's rebel attacks. In a statement, the ministry said troops had inflicted "heavy casualties killing over 40 Tiger cadres and wounding 70 other terrorists". The statement said the insurgents retreated, leaving bodies behind.
Earlier, witnesses in Muttur, near Trincomalee, said they saw the bodies of five rebels. The witnesses spoke on condition that they not be identified out of fear of being victims of violence. If the ministry's claim proves to be true, the death toll in recent days will rise to 128 on both sides.
Tamil Tiger rebels attacked three army camps near a strategic eastern Sri Lankan port before dawn on Wednesday, military sources said, a day after rebel suicide bombers tried to sink a troop transport ship with 850 aboard. There were no immediate details of any casualties in the attacks in the restive eastern district of Trincomalee, which come as the battle front for control over a water sluice in the restive east widens.
Diplomats and analysts increasingly fear a return to a two-decade civil war that has killed more than 65,000 people since 1983. "The Tigers have fired artillery at three camps," one military source told Reuters. "Communications with one of those camps has been lost."
Nordic truce monitors say a 2002 ceasefire has broken down in all but name and that the foes are locked in a low intensity war. Well over 800 people have died in a series of attacks and military clashes so far this year. On Monday, a senior rebel in the east said an army offensive meant the ceasefire was over and that the war had started. But the government says it remains committed to the ceasefire and the Tigers say they are only acting defensively. "This certainly looks like a war," said one diplomat. "Neither side has shown any sign of wanting to de-escalate this situation and seek peace."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/02/2006 00:00 ||
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Another nice catch from Eureferendum where they analyze a video of al-Jazeera interviewing Green Helmet and then a focus on a strether arriving with body. What is not said is that the body is being hauled back up to the destroyed building for the benefit of al-Jazeera's audience and Hizb'allah.
#2
Hizb'allah hospitals specialize in inserting high speed objects into bodies. Hope the Israelis dropped a few 2000 pounders as they were leaving.
Posted by: ed ||
08/02/2006 17:50 Comments ||
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#3
If the Palestinian and Lebanese people refuse to recognize how Hezbollah places each and every one of them in harm's way, then they are only worthy of becoming the martyrs they so vociferously extoll. It is almost impossible to imagine a more deranged collection of useless f&ckwits than these terrorist supporters.
#7
It was reported somewhere, not sure exactly where, that the "hospital" was nothing more than an outpatient clinic. No patients would have been admitted and there would have been nobody there overnight.
#1
They are simply wasting their ammo. These missiles will not be easily replaced unless another hapless and dangerous UN ceasefire is implemented replete with unless UN "peace-keepers."
Iran has freed a son of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden from house arrest, a German newspaper reported on Wednesday. Die Welt said the Iranian Revolutionary Guard released Saad bin Laden on July 28 with the aim of sending him to the Syria-Lebanon border. It linked the reported move to the outbreak of war between Israel and Lebanese-based Hizbollah. "From the Lebanese border, he has the task of building Islamist terror cells and preparing them to fight together with Hizbollah," Die Welt said, quoting intelligence information. "Apparently Tehran is counting on recruiting Lebanese refugees in Syria for the fight against Israel, using bin Laden's help," it added in a preview of a report to appear in its Thursday edition.
Western intelligence sources have long suspected that Iran is holding a number of al Qaeda figures, possibly including Saad bin Laden and Saif al-Adel, the network's security chief. Kamal Kharrazi, then Iran's foreign minister, said in January 2004 that Tehran had jailed about a dozen al Qaeda suspects and would put them on trial.
"Our general view is Iran certainly does have a few al Qaeda-related figures The general perception is Iran keeps these people as a bargaining chip," said a European counter-terrorism official when asked about the Die Welt report. He said Shia Muslim Iran was not sympathetic to members of Sunni-dominated al Qaeda but "they protect them as long as they think they can make use of them." Al Qaeda's deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri issued a video message last week in which, while not mentioning Hizbollah by name, he urged Muslims everywhere to "fight and become martyrs" in response to the conflict in Lebanon.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/02/2006 16:24 ||
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#3
Iran's harboring of al Qaeda players is just another button on the coat with respect to overthrowing their government with all possible haste. There is absolutely nothing worse that could take the place of Tehran's mullahs. Any power vacuum will only serve to draw in more radicals (to be disposed of onthe spot) or finally summon forth actual leadership intent on reintegrating Iran with the global community.
A French language Lebanese publication, citing an unnamed source in Hezbollah, has claimed that the organization placed a rocket launcher on the roof of the notorious building in Qana to provoke an Israeli attack and brought invalid children inside to serve as victims and blacken Israel's name.
The Lebanese magazine LIBANOSCOPIE, associated with Christian elements which support the anti-Syrian movement called the "March 14 Forces," report that Hizbullah masterminded a plan that would result in the killing of innocents in Qana, in an attempt to foil Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's "Seven Points Plan" calling for deployment of the Lebanese army in southern Lebanon and the disarming of Hizbullah. The magazine reported:
"We have it from a credible source that Hezbollah, alarmed by Siniora's plan, has concocted an incident that would help thwart the negotiations.... Hezbollah gunmen placed a rocket launcher on the roof in Qana and brought disabled children inside, in a bid to provoke a response by the Israeli Air Force. In this way, they were planning to take advantage of the death of innocents and curtail the diplomatic initiative," the site stated.
The site's editors claimed that Hezbollah staged the event because of Qana's symbolic significance: "They used Qana because the village had already turned into a symbol for massacring innocent civilians, and so they set up 'Qana 2'." The incident has indeed been dubbed "The second Qana massacre" by the Arab media.
The scenario described, which has yet to be confirmed by a named source, would explain the fact that the victims were not residents of the building and also the disproportionate number of small children and the lack of adult males among them.
Meanwhile, the Lebanese Red Cross reported on Monday that only 28 bodies, 19 of them children, were removed from the rubble. The count is half that of the 50-60 bodies still being reported by news agencies, quoting Lebanese security officials.
#2
Me either. But ... the Maronite christian community in Lebanon has historically had contempt for the Shia, so a little salt mnight or might not be in order.
#5
My first observation on this subject was genocide! Whenever an initial report is proffered and such language as "these were handicapped children in this building" and subsequent reports do not include the inflamatory language, you can pretty much bet that the original language was correct and the subsequent language omitting the information is second guessing of an original premise.
Since this event the time line story came out, because israel had called tennents of this building to warn them to get out, these unfortunates were sacrificed as expendable within the context of hezbully social services.
Hezbullies are communists, religion is thier appendage, this is also why the christian president is on thier side, he too is a beneficiary of elitist social regression, as all socialists are. Make no mistake, this is exactly what it appears to be, genocide.
#6
Qana death count dropped from 54 to 28. So what were all those bloodless bodies? Now I don't think anyone would suggest that Hezbos sometimes pose as injured. Nahhh... they'd never do a thing like that!
Israeli commandoes landed by helicopter near Baalbek Tuesday night kill 10 Hizballah operatives, take 5 prisoners and return safely to base. DEBKAfile reports the Israeli force fought its way into the Dar al Hikmeh hospital which Hizballahs Beqaa commander Muhammad Yazbek had converted into his staff headquarters. This was the deepest Israeli incursion in Lebanon so far, 150km from the border. Yazbek, member of Hizballah's high council and close to Tehran, was not there.
DEBKAfiles senior military sources report Israel is going all out in an effort to finally overwhelm Hizballah on all fronts and generate conditions for the deployment of a multinational force in South Lebanon. Overnight, Lebanese witnesses reported an unprecedented number of Israeli warplanes over the Beqaa valley Tuesday night and aerial strikes against five Hizballah positions near Baalbek. From the Mediterranean, Israel naval artillery pounded Hizballah rocket sites on the Lebanese shore.
Hizballah denies losing 240 men in the three-week Lebanon war. Its Al Manar television station claims the prisoners taken in the Israeli commando operation and the Lebanese killed in Israeli air attacks around Baalbek were innocent civilians. This is a routine claim in its propaganda war. Tuesday, Israeli Arabic broadcasts began reading out the names of Hizballah casualties.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/02/2006 09:07 ||
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Link ||
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#1
I would laugh if they caught Iranian soldiers there. Um... Iran, mind explaining what your goons are doing in Lebanon? Really? Aid for civilians, huh? Along with these rockets they were setting up? Those were deserters? We are gonna desert some nukes over your country now.
#4
Hezbollah = fools
Israel catches 10, Hezb says only 6. Therefore, 4 hezbs are expendable. Open the pigpen and torture room, we got 4 live ones for Q & A.
#7
The thing to keep in mind is that this was one of only several such raids Israel has been doing according to IDF sources quoted in the news. Expect more tonite and every night until this is done.
#8
Converting a Hospital to a command center? What is the world missing here.
Hizb'allah violates all the rules and is not held to account by the MSM. Israel must account for every bit of colateral damage and telegraph every punch to "protect inocents" while the MSM waves a blood shirt.
Maybe, maybe not. I'd sure like to know the truth, whatever that may be. Anybody know anything about this? If the photographers came from different time zones it might make sense. But even then, the hours should be different but not the minutes for the most part.
By DAVID BAUDER
Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK
Three news agencies on Tuesday rejected challenges to the veracity of photographs of bodies taken in the aftermath of an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon, strongly denying that the images were staged.
"They were not staged. They were fabricated. Hmph."
Photographers from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France- Presse all covered rescue operations Sunday in Qana, where 56 Lebanese were killed. Many of their photos depicted rescue workers carrying dead children.
A British Web site, the EU Referendum blog, built an argument that chicanery may have been involved by citing time stamps that went with captions of the photographs.
For example, the Web site draws attention to a photo by AP's Lefteris Pitarakis time stamped 7:21 a.m., showing a dead girl in an ambulance. Another picture, stamped 10:25 a.m. and taken by AP's Mohammed Zaatari, shows the same girl being loaded onto the ambulance. In a third, by AP photographer Nasser Nasser and stamped 10:44 a.m., a rescue worker carries the girl with no ambulance nearby.
The site suggests these events were staged for effect, a criticism echoed by talk show host Rush Limbaugh when he directed listeners to the blog on Monday.
"These photographers are obviously willing to participate in propaganda," Limbaugh said. "They know exactly what's being done, all these photos, bringing the bodies out of the rubble, posing them for the cameras, it's all staged. Every bit of it is staged and the still photographers know it."
The AP said information from its photo editors showed the events were not staged, and that the time stamps could be misleading for several reasons, including that web sites can use such stamps to show when pictures are posted, not taken. An AFP executive said he was stunned to be questioned about it. Reuters, in a statement, said it categorically rejects any such suggestion.
Maybe, but you got some explaining to do.
"It's hard to imagine how someone sitting in an air-conditioned office or broadcast studio many thousands of miles from the scene can decide what occurred on the ground with any degree of accuracy," said Kathleen Carroll, AP's senior vice president and executive editor.
Not any harder than it is to imagine the press intentionally slanting the wording or evidence in a story to draw market segment. I see it all the time.
Carroll said in addition to personally speaking with photo editors, "I also know from 30 years of experience in this business that you can't get competitive journalists to participate in the kind of (staging) experience that is being described."
Perhaps other kinds of staging experiences, but not that kind of staging experience. I'll be she said that with a straight face, too!
Photographers are experienced in recognizing when someone is trying to stage something for their benefit, she said.
I'm sure they are.
"Do you really think these people would risk their lives under Israeli shelling to set up a digging ceremony for dead Lebanese kids?" asked Patrick Baz, Mideast photo director for AFP. "I'm totally stunned by first the question, and I can't imagine that somebody would think something like that would have happened."
Do you really want me to answer that?
The AP had three different photographers there who weren't always aware of what the others were doing, and filed their images to editors separately, said Santiago Lyon, director of photography.
Is it standard practice not to set the time on your cameras when you are taking pictures in a war zone that may be used as evidence?
There are also several reasons not to draw conclusions from time stamps, Lyon said. Following a news event like this, the AP does not distribute pictures sequentially; photos are moved based on news value and how quickly they are available for an editor to transmit.
The AP indicates to its members when they are sent on the wire, and member Web sites sometimes use a different time stamp to show when they are posted.
Like who? Is EXIF info embedded in the photos stripped out? Then if the photographer filed several photos, they should all have exactly the same time stamp?
#1
Dead Americans: Cover it up, to keep the people from getting enraged against terrorists.
Dead Muslims: Splash it everywhere; cooperate with staged press events; don't explain why a single guy has been running these photo-ops for a decade -- gotta keep people mad at the Americans and Jews.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
08/02/2006 7:43 Comments ||
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#3
The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France- Presse
Usual MSM suspects. Good reasons to question the veracity of the photographs. Saw Lou Dobbs, very briefly the other day--say I had a weak moment or wanted to know what the enemy was saying. What came across was BLAME Israel for everything. It is there responsibility to do something, etc, ya da ya da ya da, ad nauseum. I had to turn the channel. He is the most sniveling, islamofasicst apologist. He is awful at the reporting (?) game.
#4
"Do you really think these people would risk their lives under Israeli shelling to set up a digging ceremony for dead Lebanese kids?" asked Patrick Baz, Mideast photo director for AFP. "I'm totally stunned by first the question, and I can't imagine that somebody would think something like that would have happened."
Mr Baz, Mr Baz, what did you expect? You've been drinking your own Kool Aid for too long now. You're starting to believe the propaganda yourself. More and more evidence is coming to light about press duplicity with terrorists and apologists for mass murder and you can't escape it, really you can't Mr Baz. You're not the only ones with connections to people's minds now Mr Baz - and guess what, there's a hell of a lot more of us than there are of you, so one slip up - just one, and we're all over you like a rash.
Think on this a moment, a relatively unknown blog notices that there's something strange with the photos the AP has been pumping out (as well as 'Mr Green Helmet') and via linkups through other blogs like our own dear RB and with the help of the Pajamaheddin, Rush Limbaugh gets to hear about it and summons his army of the night (diabolical laugh here) to do his bidding ;)
Then the AP has to issue a rebuttal to say that of course the photos are what they purport to be. Maybe they are, maybe they aren't, but just giving us the tired old line of 'trust us' is a bit weak.
If this doesn't tell the MSM that they have a major problem on their hands, then I wonder what will.
Big high-five to EU Referendum, Rush, the Pajamaheddin and all seekers of truth!
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
08/02/2006 8:49 Comments ||
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#5
Three news agencies
THREE STOOGE AGENCIES???????
#6
"It's hard to imagine how someone sitting in an air-conditioned office or broadcast studio many thousands of miles from the scene can decide what occurred on the ground with any degree of accuracy," said Kathleen Carroll, AP's senior vice president and executive editor. from her air-conditioned office and broadcast studio many thousands of miles away from the scene....
And what photographer wouldn't set their camera clock to the local time?
And, no, I don't trust you - you traded in any trust we had long, long ago. You have lied before and you will likely lie again. You are a known liar.
#8
We have an expression in Australia - white-anting. It means to slowly nibble away at at some structure and eventually bring it crashing down. We are white-anting the MSM and will bring it down.
#11
And what photographer wouldn't set their camera clock to the local time?
If I were running the photo-handling operaton for an international news agency, I'd require all photogs to set their digital cameras to GMT. And I'd put a visible timestamp (date, time in 24-hour format) on every pic I publish.
But I like the idea of people being able to judge the evidence themselves.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
08/02/2006 9:56 Comments ||
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#12
Thanks phil_b! - and I'll keep 'white-anting' for later...
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
08/02/2006 11:10 Comments ||
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#14
There is a long history of battle photographers 'improving' their shots via staging. In the American Civil war a study of battle dead photos showed guns being placed onto corpses, and in one case a body being dragged 50 yards or so to a new position for visual effect.
#15
And here's an example of us getting media through sites like YouTube. This is of a Hizbollocks terrorist using a house to fire missiles into Israel, what he doesn't realise is the IDF are watching...
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
08/02/2006 12:01 Comments ||
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#16
I believe Ms. Michelle Malkin also pointed out evidence that the bodies themselves do not look JUST 3 hours old, freshly dead.
Posted by: john ||
08/02/2006 12:26 Comments ||
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#18
Carroll said in addition to personally speaking with photo editors, "I also know from 30 years of experience in this business that you can't get competitive journalists to participate in the kind of (staging) experience that is being described."
Of course not. So Jason Eason was lying through his teeth when he described CNN's news policy in Saddam's Iraq.
I'm guessing every one of these photographers has a bodyguard supplied by....Hezbollah. And a guide, supplied by....Hezbollah. And got a taxi to Qana supplied by....Hezbollah. And all pictures and editorial content is monitored by ....Hezbollah.
He's right. No participation. Ever. Must be referring to those other guys.
Posted by: john ||
08/02/2006 12:41 Comments ||
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#20
Ho ho ho, looks like this story still has some legs, the Jerusalem Post reports that the IDF are looking into the allegations...
The IDF is looking into allegations raised over the past few days by several pro-Israel, Jewish and conservative Weblogs that Hizbullah may have staged aspects of the Kana tragedy on Sunday, in which some 60 Lebanese bodies were removed from a building that collapsed seven hours after being hit in an Israel Air Force strike.
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
08/02/2006 13:50 Comments ||
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#21
Easy to check - the digital photos have time stamps right in them. Release the original images.
Well, to be fair, I think Dan just jumped the gun. These guys are seeming to be more and more complicit as time goes on. Huge opportunity here for Israel, huge risk of exposure here for the MSM.
#25
What else can we expect from the anti-semite, anti-US, anti-capitalist news agencies?
Ummm ... how about outright treason? This is essentially fifth estate column activity and our government is far beyond stupid not to expose such flagrant abetting of the enemy.
They are going down, they are begining to realize it and good fucking riddance.
Let's hope so, DV. As with the Internet's role in the Soviet Union's demise, so shall it be with biased media. Proliferation of the cell phone camera will go a long way towards unmasking fraudulent reporting.
The Internet will also prove one of the most valuable tools in unseating terrorist domination of the Arab Muslim autocracies. Free exchange of information is one of the most prominent levers for globalization. Only such freedom of information will overcome the shadow of Islamist mind-control that is currently in vogue. At some point the entire Muslim Middle East will be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century. Globalization and the Internet (plus a sh!tload of dead jihadists) will be the tools that do it.
We need to continue a two-pronged program of decapping terrorist sponsors and leadership wherever it arises while importing connectivity everywhere possible.
#26
What else can we expect from the anti-semite, anti-US, anti-capitalist news agencies?
Irony is, AP and company are pay per pixel. They run a subscription service, so good pictures are lucrative both to the cameraman and the agency. Pictures that can be splashed across the front pages of every Sunday paper in the world can inspire pure capitalist greed. The anti-semite and anti US bias just add to the incidental value in many parts of the globe.
When tough questions are suddenly asked on Monday with respect to the credibility of the photography, a defense must be released or otherwise a few of those Sunday editors may just think twice before they spend their budget on potential bogus images next week.
Dan Rather did us all a great public service.
Posted by: john ||
08/02/2006 19:56 Comments ||
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#1
Hezbollah's leadership is under increasing pressure, well-informed Lebanese sources reported a few days ago. "They only pretend that they are successful, in control, and that everything is going according to plan."
This assessment was correct up to the day the Israel Air Force accidentally bombed a building in Qana and caused the deaths of dozens of people. Although the bombing somewhat boosted support for Hezbollah in Lebanon or, more to the point, somewhat reduced hostility to it, the basic feeling of those in Lebanon who have had enough of Hezbollah remained unchanged. The real sentiments of the majority of Lebanese do not get appropriate coverage in Lebanon, the international media or, to their disappointment, in Israel, said the sources. Fearing for their safety, they asked to remain anonymous. They said that morale among Hezbollah's leadership is low:
"The IAF bombing of the Dahiya neighborhood was a hard and humiliating blow to the Hezbollah leadership," the sources stated. "This is not only because the offices were destroyed. The offices were equipped with command, control and computer systems and valuable intelligence. But the psychological blow was just as important. They were surprised by the attack and by the precise information Israel possessed. The headquarters was their pride and joy. Its destruction served as a painful reminder of the gap, one that no Lebanese can miss, between their pretension of power and the truth."
The sources added that Hezbollah makes use of its security apparatus to terrorize opposing leaders and political activists. In fact, the sources claim, close to 70 percent of the Lebanese opposes Hezbollah and the escapade into which it dragged the country. The Shi'ites, the source of Hezbollah's authority and power, constitute 40 percent to 53 percent of the Lebanese population. But the sources estimate that among them a third does not support the organization, and some even oppose it.
"But Hezbollah threatens people. Their security men wander armed in the streets of Beirut and, in fact, have control over the capital. The opposition ? Saad Hariri's party and other parties ? oppose Hezbollah, and they privately rejoice at the blows Israel gives the organization. But they are afraid to speak out. Only Druze leader Walid Jumblatt has no fear of publicly expressing his opinion."
According to the sources, Hezbollah almost openly promises that after the war it will settle scores with its opposition. This was confirmed in a Saturday article in "The Guardian," whose reporter talked to Hezbollah fighters. "The real battle will be after the conclusion of this war. We will have a score to settle with Lebanese politicians," they said. "We have the best intelligence bodies in the country, and we can reach anyone who opposes. Let us finish with the Israelis, then we will settle the rest of the scores."
The sources claimed that despite IAF success, Israel has still failed to hit any chief Hezbollah leader, especially any of the military command. Israeli sources said last week that Nabil Kauk, the commander of Southern Lebanon, and Nur Shalhob, responsible for rocket supply, were killed by the IAF. But the Lebanese sources said that Kauck escaped and only his bodyguards were killed in the attack. The sources, however, named a few more of the military command that they believed Israel is interested in eliminating, and hoped it will do so. This Hezbollah command has experience both in terrorist activity against Israeli targets abroad and in the '90s guerrilla struggle in South Lebanon with Israel. They were trained by Iranian experts, and are proficient in covert activity. This military command is politically subordinate to Hassan Nasrallah, but also has fast ties with the intelligence apparatus of Iran's Revolutionary Guards. Chief among them is Imad Mugniyeh, "defense minister" of Hezbollah and responsible for its military force, the division of its terrorist operations abroad, its internal security and intelligence units and counter-intelligence operations. Mugniyeh, in his late 40's, is also the key figure in Hezbollah's liaison with Iran's Revolutionary Guards, which have advisers and experts now in Lebanon, although they try to keep a safe distance from IAF bombed areas.
Second to Mugniyeh is the less known Fuad Shukur. He is "chief of staff" of the military force of about 7,000 fighters in regular units assigned to specific roles and duties, such as rocket launchers, radio operators and frontline fighters. These are full-time fighters on salary. Alongside them operates a reserve force, less trained and prepared, but just as determined. Shukur, in his 40's, reportedly injured his left arm a decade ago when fighting the IDF in South Lebanon.
Another key figure is Talal Hamia. Among his other duties, Hamia is in charge of the terrorist operations abroad, which have "sleeper" cells worldwide, mainly in South America, Western Europe and Africa. Since the 1994 bombing of AMIA, the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, some of these cells have been activated, but their intentions were foiled. According to sources in Lebanon, Hamia was responsible for setting up some of these networks, and operated mainly in the Gulf countries and Africa. His modus operandi relies on sympathetic Shi'ite communities from which collaborators and agents are recruited, and funds are raised. The arsenal is delivered via diplomatic bags to an Iranian embassy nearby. Such was the case in the terrorist attacks on both the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires in 1992 and on AMIA. Hamia has spent the last few months traveling between Beirut and Iraq. Hezbollah sent him there to strengthen ties with Shi'ite militias and coordinate joint operations. The most important contact is with the Mahdi Army of the cleric Moqtada Sadr. It is not clear what exactly Hamia was up to in his sorties to Iraq, but presumably he wanted to recruit volunteers for operations abroad or to coordinate the possibility of dispatching Shi'ite volunteers from Iraq to Lebanon.
Sadr issued an announcement last Friday from his Najaf home, condemning the "Israeli enemy" and expressing support of Hezbollah. One of his men, Abu Mujtaba, said that the Mahdi Army was preparing to send volunteers. "We are choosing the men", he stated, and added that ways are being explored to send the fighters without the knowledge of the Iraqi government.
Incidentally, Sunni clerics ?(opposed to the Shi'ites?) also did not hesitate to condemn Israeli actions. Cleric Abd al-Rahman Duleimi called for volunteers and donations for the war against Israel.
According to the Lebanese sources, another key figure in the Hezbollah military structure, though on a lower rung than the others but also worth mentioning, is Ibrahim Akil, who was in charge of South Lebanon and now operates in counter-intelligence. Israeli intelligence made a failed attempt on his life shortly before the IDF withdrawal in 2000.
Most of Hezbollah's activities are carried out at night, which is when its leaders move about, said the sources. At night hundreds of rockets are moved from hideouts and warehouses to the firing positions while the leaders meet to plan the operations. The sources claimed that Mugniyeh and Shukur spend every night in a different hotel or apartment hideout. They keep switching cars and only a handful of loyalists are aware of their whereabouts. "They suspect everyone", it was stated. Once every few days they arrive at the Iranian embassy in Beirut. The embassy is in a large building with several levels underground. In those underground levels are branches of Iranian intelligence and intelligence units of the Revolutionary Guards.
The sources also claimed that Nasrallah uses the Presidential Palace of his supporter and admirer, President Emil Lahoud, as one of his hideouts. Obviously these claims can not be corroborated. They make sense just as any other assumption made during the fighting as to the hiding places of Hezbollah leaders.
The fact that Israel has failed so far to hit Hezbollah leaders can presumably suggest flawed intelligence, especially by the Mossad. The difficulty shows in the fact that Israel does not even have an updated photo of Mugniyeh. Mossad units face difficulties in obtaining information on targets during combat. Agents are cut off, many have to abandon the villages together with the rest of the population, and Hezbollah leaders have gone underground. In recent cabinet meetings Mossad head Meir Dagan disagreed with the assessments of Military Intelligence chief Amos Yadlin on everything related to Hezbollah's capabilities and resilience. Dagan sees himself as a great authority on Lebanon. During the 1980s, while he was head of the Lebanon Liaison Unit ?(Yakal?), he tried, and failed, to turn it into an intelligence operations unit to compete with the greater intelligence bodies. The unit under his command was involved in several operations. During one of the last cabinet meetings Dagan made several proposals for operations that reporters called "brash" and were rejected by the cabinet members. It is fair to state that during Ephraim Halevy's ?(Dagan's predecessor?) time, the Mossad also scored many important accomplishments in fighting Hezbollah; in thwarting terror attacks abroad; covering the dormant networks abroad; and especially in obtaining information on the Katyusha arsenal and infrastructure in Lebanon. The information obtained in this area contributed to the success of IAF strikes in the first days of the war: the destruction of the Dahiya in Beirut and the strike on secret storages of Katyusha rockets and launchers that Hezbollah set up in careful secrecy, especially those that stored long-range rockets.
So far Hezbollah has fired 3,500 Katyushas. The IAF and the artillery have destroyed 2,500 more. In toto, from 40 percent to 50 percent of Hezbollah's rocket capability has been destroyed. In addition, at least a third of its launchers has been destroyed. As for Hezbollah's attempt at psychological warfare by hitting Israeli urban centers, this too has failed. The Israel rear displayed a resilience it didn't know it had ? and Hezbollah didn't expect.
Damage to the military fighting force is also insubstantial: approximately 300 to 400 of its fighters were killed, and dozens more were injured. Nevertheless the political and civilian leadership of Hezbollah, as far as we know, has not been hurt.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/02/2006 0:16 Comments ||
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#2
Look, any "sustainable" peace must include getting rid of the Hezbo enablers, like the Lebanese PM and president. Otherwise its just pounding sand.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/02/2006 1:41 Comments ||
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#3
Media was reporting that a total of 300-500 Hezzies were in Lebanon. Reported numbers must be screwy if 400 have already been iced. There have got to be more than 300-500 Hezbos in Lebanon. Anyone have realistic numbers?
#5
I think it was 500-2000 cadres, or core troops, plus a number of bullyboys more accustomed to lording it over civilians. The dead are likely a mixture of cadres and bullyboys -- very difficult to tell apart without the Eyes Only program, especially when there are an odd number of ears and fingers buried under the rubble.
#6
According to sources in Lebanon, Hamia was responsible for setting up some of these networks, and operated mainly in the Gulf countries and Africa. His modus operandi relies on sympathetic Shi'ite communities from which collaborators and agents are recruited, and funds are raised. The arsenal is delivered via diplomatic bags to an Iranian embassy nearby. Such was the case in the terrorist attacks on both the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires in 1992 and on AMIA.
Yet one more reason to off the Iranian mullahs.
Personally, I wouldn't bet a plug nickel on Nasrallah or any of his cohorts consuming oxygen on a prolonged basis. Each of them may as well have a bulls-eye tattooed on their forehead.
Israel Defense Forces commandos reportedly landed by helicopter late Tuesday night near the Hezbollah stronghold of Baalbek in what Lebanese security sources described as a major operation against suspected Hezbollah positions. Lebanese security sources said the troops landed as aircraft launched several strikes near Baalbek, which is located in eastern Lebanon's Bekaa Valley. One Lebanese officer said the Israel Air Force presence in the air above the ancient city was "unprecedented."
The IDF reported at daybreak on Wednesday that its troops returned from the operation to their base in Israel unharmed. IDF also reported that Hezbollah militants sustained some casualties during the fighting and that several militants were captured by the IDF and taken back to Israel.
Lebanese security sources reported at least seven civilians killed in the air strike on a village near Baalbek. They said Israel Air Force planes bombarded the village of Jammaliyeh during clashes nearby in Baalbek. They said five members of the same family were found dead in one house and two more were found dead in another collapsed house.
The operation began with at least five rapid air strikes on Baalbek and its surroundings at 10:20 P.M. - three hours before the end of Israel's self-imposed two-day pause in air attacks. Helicopters fired rockets and heavy machinegun fire at targets near a hospital in Baalbek and other sites in the city, witnesses said. Witnesses in Baalbek said they saw dozens of IAF helicopters hovering over the city.
They said the hospital in Baalbek, filled with patients and wounded people, was bombed by IAF helicopters late Tuesday. Plumes of burning smoke billowed from the hospital after it was directly hit, they said. "The extreme, unprecedented number of aircraft indicates the possibility that the Israelis are planning to land troops, but we cannot yet confirm that," a security official said earlier, on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.
Flares held aloft by parachutes lighted the night sky to a daytime brilliance, the official said. Four hours into the operation the fighting continued, witnesses said. IAF warplanes staged more than 10 bombing runs at 2.20 A.M. (2320 GMT) Wednesday around the hospital as well as on hills in east and north Baalbek. The planes also dropped flares over the city while the heavy fighting was raging around the hospital, they added. Shortly after the IAF raids began, electricity was cut off, plunging Baalbek and other neighboring villages in total darkness.
IAF helicopters also attacked a target 15 kilometers west of Baalbek, starting a huge fire, witnesses said. It was not immediately known if the target was controlled by Hezbollah or the Lebanese army. Hezbollah claimed that the IDF commandos were trapped inside the hospital and were engaged in fierce fighting with guerilla fighters who surrounded the facility. There was no independent confirmation.
They were. Now they're out, with no losses, according to Fox News...
"A group of Israeli commandos was brought to the hospital by a helicopter. They entered the hospital and are trapped inside as our fighters opened fire on them and fierce fighting is still raging," Hezbollah spokesman Hussein Rahal told AP. Rahal said IAF jets were attacking the surrounding guerillas with rockets. "The units have been surrounded by Hezbollah fighters and heavy fire is covering the area," said a Hezbollah source. "They [the Israelis] are firing everywhere and trying to get out of the area," the source said. Rahal said Hezbollah guerrillas were using automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. He dismissed as "untrue" reports that the commandos managed to snatch some patients from the hospital and spirit them away in helicopters.
IAF helicopters also opened machine-gun fire on Hezbollah fighters entrenched outside the hospital, witnesses said. Repeated telephone calls to the Dar al-Hikma hospital went unanswered. "The battles are fierce... there are casualties among the civilians who live in the area," a Lebanese security source said.
Al-Jazeera reported that the commando force landed at the hospital, in the village of Tel Al-Abayed, in an apparent effort to strike a senior Hezbollah official Israel suspected was hospitalized there. According to the report, the hospital was evacuated prior to the start of the IDF operation. IAF fighter jets returned at 3:35 A.M. Wednesday and fired eight missiles on residential neighborhoods in eastern and northern Baalbek where Hezbollah's Shiite supporters live, witnesses said. There was no immediate word on casualties.
However, fierce fighting around the hospital stopped shortly before 4 A.M. as precarious calm prevailed in Baalbek, residents said. Speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation, the residents said the Dar al-Hikma hospital is financed by an Iranian charity, the Imam Khomeini Charitable Society, which is close to Hezbollah. The hospital is also run by people close to Hezbollah, the residents said. Repeated telephone calls to the Dar al-Hikma hospital went unanswered.
After several hours of intense fighting in and around a hospital in the southern Lebanon town of Baalbek, IDF commando forces on Wednesday morning took a number of Hizbullah officials captive.
#3
I believe I read three different articles today declaring that Israel was in a "quagmire", defined as "not conducting war on the pundit's timetable".
I don't know that they're not in a quagmire, but the timing is amusing, nonetheless. In future, we need to determine the Quagmire Interval, which is the time between simultaneous media eruptions of "Quagmire!", and the re-commencement of vigorous military operations. In this case I think it was about twelve hours.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/02/2006 0:43 Comments ||
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#7
That operation officially annonced to the world...and more importantly to the Hezzies, Iram and Syria: We can do da** near anything we want if it suits our purpose...and there's not a da** thing you can do about it.
#8
Enjoyed watching Gens Scales and Andrews on Greta tonite, talking about laughing with each other before they came on, about the reporting of the "troops surrounded, heavy fighting", etc. etc. They were actually giggling, saying, "these guys are good. They aren't in trouble."
#20
Finally the IDF of yore. I know this raid was a big success because for the first time in three weeks when Radio Hezb'Allah (NPR) ran their top of the hour headlines there was NO mention of the raid or the increased troops in the south. I love it when they are shut up.
#21
Takes time to plan, to prep the battlefield, insert forward ops people ....
Geez, NS - it isn't a video game! Instantaneous satisfaction isn't always on tap.
Gotta appreciate NS' worrying though. As my mother-in-law says when told she worries too much, "I have to - no one else around here is pulling their worrying weight!" LOL
#28
Where are all the doom-and-gloomers now? IDF mission was spotted in advance by Hezbos, and still managed to land near hospital, check out everybody's IDs, captured five Hezbos, kill another ten in combat, and safely extricate from the area without a single commando even wounded.
#31
I was JUST thinkin' the same, Iblis! They don't know what's gonna hit 'em when they surround us, do they?
Posted by: BA ||
08/02/2006 13:16 Comments ||
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#32
as tasty as lutefisk
Gotta make sure to really, REALLY rinse that lutefisk before you heat it up. The results aren't pretty if you don't do a good job. DAMHIKT...
#34
Lebanese security sources reported at least seven civilians killed in the air strike on a village near Baalbek. They said Israel Air Force planes bombarded the village of Jammaliyeh during clashes nearby in Baalbek. They said five members of the same family were found dead in one house and two more were found dead in another collapsed house.
Sleep with dogs and wake up dead with fleas. Baalbak is a known Hebollah stronghold. Anyone living within 100km of there has to have a death wish.
Personally, even lutefisk probably smells better than any of the prisoners they took. Captured terrorists should be fed it three times a day.
Israel says it will resume full air raids in Lebanon early on Wednesday, at the end of a partial, 48-hour suspension. Brigadier-General Shuki Shahur, a senior Israeli commander, said Israel would resume full air strikes after the partial suspension which Israel said was to give civilians time to leave. The army said on Tuesday that it had warned residents north of Lebanon's Litani river to leave the area, suggesting air raids could target areas further north than most previous strikes. "There are a small number of places north of the Litani river where we know Hezbollah operates, where leaflets were distributed," an army spokeswoman said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/02/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Shoudn't the headline read something like: "Israel to resume full air onslaught with manned aircraft."?
#2
Yes, but then that would be telling. The Israelis played the Arabs like a cheap violin with this one : reduce the manned aircraft but full ahead with the UAVs. A nice little propaganda move.
#3
Things seem to be coming unravelled for the Hizballah and its Syrian and Iranian backers. Even the UN seems to realize that no one is taking notice of their pointless blather.
Lebanese army and security officials said a major Israeli operation was underway against suspected Hezbollah positions near Baalbeek in eastern Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, with one officer saying the Israeli presence in the air above the ancient city was "unprecedented." The operation began with at least five rapid air strikes above the city.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/02/2006 00:00 ||
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The IDF has warned residents of 10 towns and villages in southern Lebanon presumed to be Hizbullah strongholds to evacuate, Army Radio reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/02/2006 00:00 ||
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ok I am an official witness to the statement of warning...So when the calls of genocide begin please call me to testify on Isreals behalf.
Im tired of the slant given to the people who live in these towns.. IF your state and local government cared about you they would move you if you cant do it yourself...Ask ole ray, he didnt care He will be able to tell you the deal.
Skirmishes with Hizbullah guerrillas in the southern Lebanese village of Aita al-Shaab on Tuesday left three soldiers, including an officer, of a Paratrooper Brigade unit dead and at least another 25 wounded. Dozens of Hizbullah gunmen, the IDF said, surprised a force from the brigade's Battalion 101 as it moved through the small town just over the hill from the Israeli community of Shtula, in the central sector. Once home to 5,000 Shi'ites, Aita al-Shaab was believed by the IDF to be a Hizbullah stronghold, one of many in which soldiers were operating on Tuesday as the IDF geared up for an effort to push Hizbullah north to the Litani River.
Led by Lt.-Col. Ariel Yohanon, commander of Battalion 101, the troops moved quietly through the narrow alleys in the small village with some troops taking up positions in homes vacated by their owners who fled north in anticipation of the expected incursion. Suddenly, IDF officers recalled, a wave of anti-tank missiles, RPGs and heavy gunfire hit a group of troops in one of the homes. Two soldiers were killed during the initial clashes and a third was killed in a later rocket attack. The battle lasted for several hours and the wounded soldiers were treated at the scene under heavy gunfire, as an evacuation was deemed almost impossible.
Yohanon and his men fought fiercely, senior officers in the Northern Command said, and succeeded in killing more than 15 Hizbullah guerrillas in the village, which was simultaneously bombarded by missiles fired by attack helicopters providing cover for the ground troops and artillery shells. The idea, a senior officer said, was to stay in the village for up to 24 hours, to kill as many Hizbullah gunmen as possible and then to move on to the next village with the ultimate goal of pushing the Hizbullah as far north as deemed necessary even beyond the Litani. A total of five brigades were operating in the region, and heavy gunfights involving light machine guns and rockets were reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/02/2006 00:00 ||
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I wonder if the IDF has finally uncovered the MLR.
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Nato and Afghan forces have killed 18 Taleban militants in a raid in southern Afghanistan, officials say. It took place late on Tuesday in the town of Garmser in Helmand province, which was recaptured from the Taleban last month. It comes a day after three British soldiers were killed in Helmand. Separately, a car has exploded in the capital Kabul, killing its driver and injuring two other people - one of them a passenger - police say. 'We carried out the operation in which 18 Taleban got killed and we recovered a huge amount of ammunitions," provincial police chief, Nabi Mullahkhail, told Reuters. 
He said there were no casualties among the Nato or Afghan forces. The Kabul incident happened when police tried to stop the car in the Binay Hisar area of the capital. Police said it was still unclear whether it was a suicide attack or the car was transporting explosives. Bomb blasts in Kabul are rare, although there have been a few suicide bomb attacks on the outskirts the city. Gen Alishah Paktiwal, head of Kabul's criminal investigation department told the BBC that the Toyota Corolla car driving into the city refused to stop when the police flagged it down. "It kept speeding on and then it exploded," he said. The blast badly injured a civilian bystander as well as killing the driver and injuring a passenger, he added. 
(SomaliNet) Eight South Korean seamen kidnapped on Somali waters were released on Monday, confirmed South Korea's Foreign Ministry. Seventeen others, five from Vietnam, nine Indonesians and three Chinese were also released. Foreign ministry spokesman Choo Kyu-ho said, "The ship Dongwon is now out of Somalian waters and is on a move to a safe area." The ship was escorted by a U.S warship at the request of the Korean government. 
(KUNA) -- Up to 24 armed militants surrendered to government troops after being besieged in the village of Maslmoun in the region of Tibaza 80 kilometers west of the capital, a security source said. The source, quoted by the press on Tuesday, said the gunmen who gave up were affiliated to the "salafi group for daawa and fighting," a hardline group that has refused to join the peace national conciliation pocess.
(KUNA) -- The government has disallowed tribal Lashkar (forces) participating in the Lebanon war saying that it is supporting the Lebanese government and people at every level. Federal Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Sherpao, talking to newsmen Monday, warned that the government would not let anyone participate in the war in Lebanon in his personal capacity, said press reports Tuesday.
Militants on Tuesday staged broad daylight attacks in Srinagar killing four security men. In separate incidents four militants and a security jawan were also killed and one Divisional Commander of Hizbul Mujahideen was arrested. 
Coalition forces successfully targeted and detained two senior al-Qaida in Iraq leaders and three other suspected terrorists during multiple raids in central and northern Iraq on the morning of July 29.
(KUNA) -- Two policemen were killed, another was wounded, on Tuesday in a blast that targeted a police patrol in Kirkuk, northern Iraq. An Iraqi Police source told KUNA that the blast took place near a market area, noting that a lieutenant colonel was wounded in the attack.
(KUNA) -- Unknown gunmen on Tuesday burst into the residence of Iraqi undersecretary of finance, abducted his guards, and seized some weapons. A Ministry of Interior source told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) that unknown gunmen stormed into the residence of Karim Hammoud Faraj in the area of Talibiya nearby Al-Sadr City in eastern Baghdad and abducted two of his guards. Iraqi Police forces cordoned off the area, while security sources confirmed that Faraj was not in his residence at the time of the attack, noting that he is abroad on an official mission.
(KUNA) -- A Security committee in the province of Kirkuk ordered Tuesday an Iraqi military force in Suleimania area to move to southern Kirkuk in northern Iraq. A military senior official told KUNA that this military maneuver was taken to protect southern Kirkuk from insurgents who have increasingly stepped up their attacks in the area. The Iraqi forces and Multi-National force (MNF) previously conducted several operations in the area which resulted in the capture of 169 suspects.
A roadside bomb blew up a bus, killing 24 people in it as gunmen ambushed and shot dead five workers of a power station in a day of widespread violence across Iraq that left 63 people dead on Tuesday. Among the dead was a British soldier who died in a mortar attack in the south, while the US military announced that an American soldier was killed by a roadside bomb on Monday. Also Tuesday, the spokesman of a political coalition was kidnapped. 
Hezbollah fighters have launched more than 220 rockets into Israel from Lebanon, the biggest single-day barrage since the conflict began. One person was killed and dozens injured as some rockets landed up to 70km inside Israel, the deepest so far. The upsurge came as Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel had destroyed Hezbollah's infrastructure. Mr Olmert insisted there would be no ceasefire until an international force is deployed in southern Lebanon. "I said I'd be ready to enter a ceasefire when the international forces, not will be ready, but will be deployed," Mr Olmert said of the timetable for a halt to the violence. 
Israeli aircraft on Wednesday bombed buildings in the Gaza Strip used by militants to store and smuggle weapons, the army said. There were no immediate reports of casualties in the air strikes. Palestinian security sources said one of the destroyed buildings was a house in central Gaza owned by a Hamas militant.
The 14-year-old Palestinian killed by the IDF in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday was involved in the launching of Kassam rockets into Israel, the IDF spokesman said.
IDF forces identified several suspicious persons at the Agricultural College in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip at approximately 3 p.m. Tuesday. The IDF said that the suspects had arrived there in order to pick up Kassam launchers, which had been used to shoot rockets into Israel Tuesday morning. The army opened fire in the direction of the suspects.
NARATHIWAT: A wave of 40 coordinated bomb and arson attacks struck government and civilian targets across Thailand's Muslim-majority south late on Tuesday, injuring at least two, officials said. Homemade devices, many triggered by remote-control, hit the homes of police and government officials, karaoke bars and a train station in the three restive provinces along the Malaysian border. It was the largest and best organised attack in more than a month in the south, where 1,400 people have died over the past two years in attacks blamed mainly on Islamic militant separatists.
Iran has freed a son of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden from house arrest, a German newspaper reported on Wednesday. Die Welt said the 
Israel says it will resume full air raids in Lebanon early on Wednesday, at the end of a partial, 48-hour suspension. Brigadier-General Shuki Shahur, a senior Israeli commander, said Israel would resume full air strikes after the partial suspension which Israel said was to give civilians time to leave. The army said on Tuesday that it had warned residents north of Lebanon's Litani river to leave the area, suggesting air raids could target areas further north than most previous strikes. "There are a small number of places north of the Litani river where we know Hezbollah operates, where leaflets were distributed," an army spokeswoman said.
Skirmishes with Hizbullah guerrillas in the southern Lebanese village of Aita al-Shaab on Tuesday left three soldiers, including an officer, of a Paratrooper Brigade unit dead and at least another 25 wounded. Dozens of Hizbullah gunmen, the IDF said, surprised a force from the brigade's Battalion 101 as it moved through the small town just over the hill from the Israeli community of Shtula, in the central sector. Once home to 5,000 Shi'ites, Aita al-Shaab was believed by the IDF to be a Hizbullah stronghold, one of many in which soldiers were operating on Tuesday as the IDF geared up for an effort to push Hizbullah north to the Litani River. 
