Nelofer Pazira, the journalist who starred in the film 'Kandahar', has gone back to the southern Afghan city for the first time in four years. There she found residents living in fear as Islamic insurgents extend their deadly reach still deeper into the country
21 August 2006
Fear permeates Kandahar. Eyes watch every passer-by, every car. Everyone is suspect. People shrink away from me when I ask to interview them. They run when they see a camera. The few brave souls who agree to talk do so either anonymously or because they are desperate.
There is no war, no shooting, no rockets. At least not yet, although the Taliban wave is reconquering Afghanistan, and fighting is spreading through Kandahar province.
Only a few months ago, the city of Kandahar was on the road to prosperity. Newly-paved streets with proper signs - one even named after Queen Soraya, wife of the 1920s reformer King Amanullah Khan - a park with a playground for children and several smart guesthouses were part of the new image. Near the Kandahar market, the foundations of many new modern buildings and houses had been laid.
Mohammad Hikmat and his younger brother bought land here - £27,000 for 400 sq m - to build a home. Over the past five years they made good money working with foreign reporters and aid agencies. But six months ago it all came to an end. The Taliban were coming back. All construction stopped. Fear spread like a fire. Then came a series of suicide attacks and printed decrees, often hung on the walls of local mosques, ordering the people to stop supporting the government.
Mr Hikmat decided to shelve his dream of owning a house and took his family to safety, across the Afghan-Pakistan border to Quetta. The construction company where he worked as an engineer fired most of its staff.
Mr Hikmat destroyed the press cards and letters of recommendation he and his brother had collected from journalists. His brother, who worked as a cameraman, erased all footage from his tapes, all film of the city, interviews and pictures of American troops, for fear of punishment by the Taliban. An Indian company that built the road between Kandahar and Spinboldak fled when news spread that the Pakistani army was helping the Taliban to reach Kandahar. Most foreigners left.
"The Americans abandoned Afghanistan," says Mr Hikmat. "When they were around, people were making money. The Taliban had run away but they were not defeated and the Americans knew that too. Yet the US decreased the number of its troops."
Then it was announced Nato would replace the US forces, a decision which encouraged the Taliban. People in Kandahar talk about a power vacuum of which the Taliban took full advantage. They had five years to organise and returned in force.
"Now the Taliban are everywhere," says Alia, a nurse in Kandahar's Polyclinic Hospital. She returned from Pakistan four years ago in the hope of living and working in Kandahar and made her home in the Khoshal Mena neighbourhood, a short distance from the city centre.
"There was a doctor called Aziz in this building" she says. "The Taliban hung a leaflet on his door, telling him if he didn't stop working for the government and didn't take his children out of school, he would be killed." He and his family escaped overnight.
Now Alia says she is scared for her own family's life. She has taken down the sign on her door which carried her name and occupation. "My children are also in school and I'm worried that I may face a similar threat," she says. Najeeba has her own mocking reaction. "At least they give you a warning," she remarks, although this might be a compliment by Afghan standards.
But Alia has another reason to worry. In recent months she engaged her 16-year-old daughter to a young Afghan who works for the Western military forces. He paid the family a bride price of about £7,000. But now Alia is fearful that her daughter and her new family will also become a Taliban target. For the Taliban control most of Helmand province, where some 4,000 British troops are stationed.
In the Panjwai district of Kandahar province, the Taliban have even been using loudspeakers, taunting Canadian troops to attack them. In the past week, Canadian soldiers travelled to Panjwai but can only hold the city centre.
In Panjwai, 30km west of Kandahar, where fighting began two weeks ago, 71 Taliban fighters died during the weekend in running battles with Nato and Afghan forces after an attack on government headquarters, according to officials.
Maiwand, the site of a great British military defeat during the Second Afghan War in 1778-1880, is now the seat of resistance to the government, and Nato.
A Maiwand resident who is hiding in Kandahar tells me he was threatened by the Taliban. He works in one of Kandahar's hospitals. "I can't go home because I know the Taliban will kill me," he says. "From our entire village there are only two educated people. It's not hard for the Taliban to find us there.
"They have continued to issue decrees announcing that the killing of all those working with the current government or any of the foreign agencies - especially the military - is an "Islamic duty". In neighbouring Helmand province, a leaflet pinned to the wall of a mosque says the Taliban will give $1,000 (£680) to anyone who brings them the head of a government worker or a foreigner.
Where is all this power and money coming from? A member of a religious group, Wakil Sahib, accuses neigbouring Pakistan. "They don't want Afghanistan to be free and economically independent," he says. "They want to keep Afghanistan as their market. They want us to continue to go to their doctors, buy their medicine, use their products. To serve their own interests, the Pakistani intelligence service funds the Taliban."
Saifullah, who is too frightened to identify his job, says everyone in Kandahar knows who created and supported the Taliban. "Pakistan, with the help of the US, originally created them -- and to this day they are providing them with weapons and money," he says.
Saifullah is one of those who suspect that the Americans directly help the Taliban. "They could control the Pakistani border and stop the Taliban crossing. So why don't they?" he asks.
The educated classes in Kandahar also tend to blame the United States. "The Americans realised that Afghanistan held no economic benefit for them so they decided to ignore the country despite all their promises," says Rafi, an unemployed engineer. "After the US, the responsibility lies on our own government, which has also failed.
"But I wonder if the war in Afghanistan is less about the Taliban and Pakistan, and more about the rivalry between America and Europe. Afghanistan has become a victim once again, just like it was during the Cold War."
But there is another reality which also helps the Taliban. When the Americans arrived in Kandahar, they also brought money, rebuilding projects, jobs and the hope of stability. Power was restored and the city had electricity, especially during the summer, when temperatures reach 55C. But the Americans also left the drug mafia and warlords intact. The former Kandahar governor, General Gulagha Shirzai, and the President's brother, Wali Karzai, who now heads the Provincial Council, have been accused of drug trafficking. They, and others like them, were America's allies.
Under the American administration, "warlordism" and poppy cultivation soared. Kandahar owed its new wealth in part to drug money. But with the shift from US to Nato forces, there came a "War on drugs" and Nato launched a relentless campaign to stop poppy cultivation. Using Afghan National Police and Afghan National Army, the Canadians and the British started to destroy the poppy fields, a policy which faced opposition from both the traffickers and the farmers. The first casualty was the power supply.
"When Nato took over, the electricity disappeared," says Ahmedallah. The Americans had apparently donated 14 powerful generators to the city, seven of them operational at any one time. But the Kandaharis are paying the price for the oil-operating machines, which provide the city with a few hours of electricity every other day. "We only had power for four days, if you counted all the hours together. And the bill for the month was $40," says Ahmedallah of his own home. An average government employee makes about $50 a month.
To continue the drug production, the traffickers as well as the farmers welcomed the Taliban. Poppy cultivation was allowed by the Taliban. "Farmers now let the Taliban stay in their homes," says Wali, who works part-time for the ROSHAN mobile phone company. "Wherever you find the Taliban, the Brits and Canadians can't go."
Two weeks ago, Wali was driving from Helmand to Kandahar when he saw a gun battle between the Taliban and Nato forces. He abandoned his car and ran to safety. A few days later he returned to find his car. The Taliban had burned it, he says, because they found papers from his work and his mobile phone inside. He'd paid $3,500 for the car and sold the burned wreck for less than $100. "If tomorrow the British and Canadians announced that the growing of poppies was allowed, the people wouldn't let the Taliban stay in the country," says Wali.
"It would certainly help if they also restore power," adds Ahmedallah. And if they established better control over the Pakistan-Afghan border, and paid the Afghan army better salaries, and used the old commanders who are now unemployed, and, above all, cleansed the current Afghan administration of corruption. The list goes on.
In Kandahar, they make a distinction between the old Pakistani-supported Taliban and the new forces of Gulbudin Hekmatyar. Hekmatyar was a well-paid CIA man during the Cold War, the much-feared leader of the Hizb-i-Islami (party of God) which brutalised the Kabul population before the Taliban. Some suspect that the CIA has called again on his services.
Of course, there are more conspiracy theories than facts. But the reality is that fear dominates every aspect of life here. "It would be easier to live under the full control of one or another government, be it the Taliban or a US-supported Afghan government," says Rafi. "But this is like living in purgatory."
If the Americans leave, Kandahar will fall in a week. That's what people in the city's bazaar say - and they are the ones who know the Taliban and al-Qa'ida.
In the crowded streets, where shops are filled with goods imported from Pakistan, Iran and China, where young boys sell large square blocks of ice and bottled water, foreigners are no longer welcome.
No Nato patrol can pass through here. "They are too scared to come to this area," says my guide Ahmedallah. So the Taliban don't attack the market because there are no foreigners - or perhaps, as the Kandaharis claim, because this place is their nest. Kandahar is lost.
Posted by: john ||
08/21/2006 20:07 ||
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Nelofer Pazira, the star of the movie "Kandahar", was born in India, into an Afghan professional family in 1973. The family returned to Kabul when Nelofer was a child. Nelofer grew up in Kabul during the Russian occupation of the country. The family fled to Pakistan in 1989, when Nelofer was sixteen.
As s refugee, Nelofer lived in Pakistan for one year before migrating to Canada. She obtained her degree in Journalism and English Literature from Carleton University in Ottawa and is working on her MA thesis at Concordia University, Montreal.
Since 1996, Nelofer has made two documentary films about Iran. As a journalist, she has worked for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) Radio, written for Sight & Sound (British Film Institute Magazine), Elm Street, McLeans, The Ottawa Citizen, The Toronto Star, Panorama, and EI Semanal.
Pazira played the lead role in Mohsen Makhmalbaf's film "Kandahar" a film based on Pazira's real life story. The film made her, unwittingly, a representative of a cause the need for the world to stop ignoring the tragedy of the Afghan war. She was awarded "Prix de interpretation" by the New Cinema, New Media Montreal Film Festival (October 2001).
Taliban fighters are asking Canadian and Afghan forces to return the bodies of their fighters killed over the weekend in bloody battles. As many as 72 Taliban insurgents were killed in the offensive west of Kandahar, according to NATO officials. "Witnesses at the scene say there were bodies everywhere, in and around this village that has been a Taliban hotbed where they had been amassing recently," reported CTV's Matt McClure from Kandahar.
Sources tell The Canadian Press that 18 bodies have been returned so far in a gesture of reconciliation.
"Here you go. What, oh..those boxs taped to their chests? It's a gift for their next of kin. To be opened in private, be careful not to drop them, they're rather fragile. heh."
No Canadians were killed in the fighting that began late Saturday and lasted through the night, thanks in part to careful planning by the soldiers' new battle group commander. "I planned that operation to the level not as if I was sending in a faceless, nameless soldier. I planned that operation to the same level of detail as if I was sending out my 17-year-old daughter, or my brother," said Lt.-Col. Omer Lavoie, just three days into his job.
However, The Canadian Press cited sources who reported that as many as seven Afghan soldiers were killed in the fighting. Though it is not clear who initiated the fighting, it took place after suspected Taliban insurgents attacked a market in Panjwaii and overran a police checkpoint, according to McClure. "Afghan forces battled on their own for some four hours trying to repulse these insurgents before Canadian forces arrived on the scene in their Light Armoured Vehicles," he told CTV Newsnet. "We're told the battle then raged through the night, some 12 hours, almost into the morning time."
Heavy artillery and coalition air support were called in before the fighting ended, McClure said. By the time the battle did come to a close, bodies and body parts were scattered around the area in a gruesome display of bloodshed, according to reports.
NATO said in a statement the fighting was part of "deliberate operations," in the region. ''Afghan National Security Forces and ISAF inflicted heavy casualties against Taliban fighters in Kandahar's Panjwaii district,'' the statement read. It was ''a deliberate operation to extend security along southern Afghanistan's Highway 1 corridor.''
While the battle is considered a success, it is by no means the end of the campaign, says the multinational brigade commander, Canadian Brig.-Gen. David Fraser. "There's no such thing as one decisive battle that they're finished," he told McClure in an interview. "There's no such thing as the end of summer when they throw in the towel and they throw in the rifles and they say, that's it, we're done."
When asked about the mounting Canadian casualties, Fraser said troops understand the importance of the mission. "Every soldier that I've talked to has said that they believe in what they're doing here and they're more determined than ever to go back out there and do what they were doing."
Twenty-six Canadian soldiers and one diplomat have died in Afghanistan since the Forces were deployed there in 2002.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/21/2006 11:33 ||
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Of course, some of the bodies may be giving off radio signatures that can be detected as far away as Canada...
#9
The US position on the Taliban is that they were representatives of a "failed state," thus undeserving of any recognition. However, I would return them personally to Mullah Omar and bin Laden.
#10
Might make for good local TV. Talibunnies showing up to meekly accept the bodies of their fallen. Stack em high and let the Talibs rummage around looking for their kin. Show it on Afghan TV every night for a few weeks.
Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan were embroiled in fierce fighting overnight that left as many as 72 suspected Taliban insurgents dead, according to NATO officials. "Witnesses at the scene say there were bodies everywhere, in and around this village that has been a Taliban hotbed where they had been amassing recently," reported CTV's Matt McClure from Kandahar.
"It's almost as brutal as the Yankee - Red Sox series"
No Canadians were killed in the fighting west of Kandahar that began late Saturday and lasted through the night, thanks in part to careful planning by the soldiers' new battle group commander.
Posted by: john ||
08/21/2006 08:22 ||
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were they virgins?
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/21/2006 8:31 Comments ||
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Good job to the Canadian troops.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
08/21/2006 8:45 Comments ||
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"Were they virgins?" Yep, all dead for the first time.
#8
I'm calling the Canadian action "disproportionate". Some of the 72 must be innocent women and children, and baby ducks, and fluffy bunnies.
Posted by: john ||
08/21/2006 10:17 Comments ||
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"I'm calling the Canadian action "disproportionate". Some of the 72 must be innocent women and children, and baby ducks, and fluffy bunnies."
Oh come now John! I'm sure no women and children were taken out, but reast assured that stuffed bunny rabbits and little rubber duckies will be found among the busted RPGs and AKs.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/21/2006 12:40 Comments ||
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72 squared is over 5000 - big Mo's gonna run out of virgins at this rate. I've heard through the grapevine he's already looking to four-year-olds... and most of those were rabbits!
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/21/2006 14:42 Comments ||
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Looks like that Taliban hotbed just assumed room temperature.
Posted by: ed ||
08/21/2006 14:48 Comments ||
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This is "low hanging fruit" - send the bodies back with honors.
LONDON - A British soldier has been killed and three injuried in fighting in Afghanistan, a spokesman for Britains defence ministry told AFP on Sunday. It is with deep regret that the MoD can confirm the death of a British soldier during a contact in northern Helmand province at around noon today local time, the spokesman said.
He said the soldier, whose identity has not been released, died from injuries sustained in fighting. Three other British soldiers suffered minor injuries.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/21/2006 00:00 ||
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Cpl Budd was married to Lorena and had a two-year-old daughter, Isabelle. Lorena is expecting a second child in September.
The MoD said Cpl Budd was softly spoken and a calm character whose "keenest passion" was his wife and daughter.
He was described as a shining example to those under his command, with great courage and a quick sense of humour.
He had been in the Army for 10 years serving in Yugoslavia, Sierra Leone, Macedonia, Afghanistan and Iraq. He was about to be promoted to platoon sergeant when he died.
Rest in Peace Corporal Budd.
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
08/21/2006 17:19 Comments ||
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At least 74 Taliban militants, 4 U.S. soldiers, and 10 Afghan policemen were killed in the fresh weekend violence in war-weary Afghanistan. In the deadliest conflict starting from late Saturday, 70 Taliban insurgents were killed in Panjwai district of the southern Kandahar province, district chief Niaz Mohammad Sarhadi told Xinhua on Sunday. The clash, which lasted till early hours of Sunday, also killed four policemen and one Afghan soldier, said a local police officer who refused to be named. Three policemen and three Afghan soldiers were injured in the conflict, he added.
In a latest statement, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said Afghan forces and ISAF had inflicted heavy casualties against Taliban fighters in Panjwayi district. "Afghan officials have reported that between 60 and 72 Taliban fighters were killed" in Saturday's conflict, it said, adding ISAF ground forces called upon air and artillery assets. It also said there were no ISAF casualties in the engagements. Panjwai, about 40 km west of Kandahar city, capital of Kandahar province, has been a hotbed of Taliban militants, who have frequently clashed with government and foreign troops in the past months.
Meanwhile, Afghan officials said Sunday that six border policemen and four Taliban insurgents were killed in the western Nimroz province on Saturday, according to reports. Four U.S. soldiers were also killed in the volatile country on Saturday, which was Afghanistan's 87th Independence Day. Three coalition troops were killed in a clash in Pech district of the eastern Kunar province in the morning, Chris Miller, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition forces told Xinhua. A coalition combat patrol struck a roadside bomb and engaged a group of Taliban extremists in the district, coalition forces said in a statement, which added three coalition troops were injured. Later reports confirmed the killed and wounded soldiers are all Americans.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2006 00:00 ||
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...over 1,800 people, mostly Taliban insurgents, have been killed.
Obviously, not a New York Times phrase. Also true, and more imflammatory, would have been the statement, "over 1,800 people have been killed, including women and children."
There. See? Anybody can spin!
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/21/2006 7:13 Comments ||
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At this rate of attrition, how long before the islamonazis give up and become farmers ?
200 years ?
300 years ?
Riyadh, 21 August (AKI) - Saudi police on Monday surrounded four terror suspects in the Red Sea city of Jeddah, satellite broadcaster al-Arabiya reports. According to the network's reporter, who quoted local security sources, the four men are wanted in connection with Islamic terrorism. The police reportedly traced their presence to a residence in Jeddah which they have surrounded.
Escape in 5..4..3..
"Inhabitants of the building were evacuated as the operation is still under way," an interior ministry spokesman said. The spokesman said security forces had arrested seven suspects in Jeddah on Sunday, but so far there was no link between the arrests and Monday's siege.
"The seven that we arrested on Sunday are not on the wanted list but are being interrogated," he said.The Saudi police regularly prepare lists of 'most-wanted' terrorist suspects. It is not known whether the four men involved in Monday's standoff are on one of these lists. Police in the Kingdom have in the past eighteen months been involved in various gun battles - some of them lasting more than a day - with suspected Saudi militants.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/21/2006 10:24 ||
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With apologies to the "Religious Policeman".
Yep, they got 'em cornered.
The surrounding is complete.
But the only one to get nailed,
Is the one with bad feet.
British police, investigating an alleged plot to blow up US-bound airliners, are optimistic they will be able to charge most of the 23 suspects in custody, reports said on Sunday. The newspaper reports come after the British Broadcasting Corp said that detectives have recovered martyrdom videos as well as a suitcase containing components needed to make a bomb.
Senior police and government officials told The Sunday Times that more than half of the 23 suspects held over the alleged plot to blow up the trans-Atlantic airliners are expected to be charged with terrorist offences. Most of the 23 can be held until Wednesday before police have to ask a judge to further extend their detention, police say. Under Britains anti-terror laws, police can hold them up to 28 days before charging or releasing them. Two people arrested by the police have already been released.
The Sunday Times said that police are building a strong case after having uncovered bomb-making equipment, chemicals, a large sum of cash, at least one gun and significant documents. The BBC, quoting unofficial police sources, reported that detectives found at least half a dozen martyrdom videos on laptops apparently recorded by some of the suspects as they prepared for suicide attacks. Londons Metropolitan Police declined to comment on the report.
The BBC has also reported that police had found a suitcase containing components needed to make an explosive device in High Wycombe, northwest of London. A police spokeswoman told AFP late on Saturday that investigators are still searching 12 locations. Since announcing the foiled plot, they have obtained more than 50 search warrants. Senior sources quoted by The Sunday Times claim that the first batch of suspects will be charged with terrorism offences within the next 10 days.
Additional: LONDON (AP) -- Eleven people were charged Monday with conspiracy to commit murder in the alleged plot to blow up as many as 10 trans-Atlantic jetliners, prosecutors said Monday. One person, a woman, was released without charge. The investigation discovered bomb-making equipment, including chemicals and electrical components, along with the existence of martyrdom videos on the computers belonging to those in custody, said Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke. He didn't say if those in custody had made the videos.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2006 00:03 ||
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Call me silly, but I would tend to think of a matrydom video as rather incriminating.
They were just pious young men rehearsing for a play down at the mosque. Said play to explain to the other pious young moslems why they shouldn't do stuff like that, and why Allan really wants them to be kind to fluffy bunnies everyone.
Yeah - that's the ticket....
/moonbat
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/21/2006 3:23 Comments ||
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And so, what is the reaction of the UK Muslim community.......
Do they get angry at these horrible men? No.
Do they take to the streets shouting "NOT IN OUR NAME" to take back their religion that is being hijacked by these radicals? No.
Do they engage in open, candid debate about the shortcomings of their culture and of their faith? No.
Do they look at other "oppressed" cultures and question why their's is the only one that resorts to such disgusting tactics? No.
Do they deny these men did anything wrong? Yes.
And even while denying the men did anything wrong, do they also say that the West drove them to do it? Yes.
Do they implicitly threaten the government by basically saying "If you don't change your foreign policy, we'll do more of this?" Yup.
The reaction of the Muslim community is a testament to how bankrupt their culture is.
#5
11 Of 23 London Terror Plot Suspects Charged (AP) LONDON British investigators say that 11 of the 23 suspects being held in the foiled plot to blow up as many as 10 trans-Atlantic flights have been charged with conspiracy to commit murder, a British TV network reported Monday. Police refused to comment on the Sky television report, which could not be immediately verified. A news conference was scheduled for later in the day.
Earlier, lawyers for a female suspect detained in the alleged plot asked a British court for a hearing to review the order keeping her in custody. Police have held the woman, identified only as "Detainee J," since Aug. 10. Lawyers representing the woman went to High Court to ask for the hearing to force judges to reveal the reasons for her continued detention. "Detainee J" has already had her time in custody extended once. "My client seeks full reasons for the continued decision to extend the warrants in this case," her lawyer, Saghir Hussain, said in a statement outside the courthouse.
London's Metropolitan Police said it could not confirm if officers would make any application to continue to detain the two suspects due to be released Monday under the current deadlines. On Wednesday, detention orders for another 21 people are due to expire, and police will either have to release or charge them, or ask a judge for an extension. Police investigating the alleged plot have gathered "substantial material" as evidence, Home Secretary John Reid said. He indicated some individuals could be charged with criminal offenses in the next few days as a result of the inquiry, but refused to disclose specific details, in keeping with the tightlipped nature of the operation.
In Pakistan, law enforcement authorities are continuing to interrogate Rashid Rauf, a Briton of Pakistani descent, over his alleged key role in the plot, officials said. Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao said British police were conducting inquiries in Pakistan, but were not involved in questioning Rauf.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/21/2006 11:33 Comments ||
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There have been 69 searches. These have been in houses, flats and business premises, vehicles and open spaces.
As well as the bomb making equipment, we have found more than 400 computers, 200 mobile telephones and 8,000 items of removable storage media such as memory sticks, CDs and DVDs.
So far, from the computers alone, we have removed some 6,000 gigabytes of data.
Abdullah el-Faisal, a Jamaican-born convert to Islam, has been informed he will be expelled from Britain on completion of his current jail term, the Home Office said. The cleric was sentenced to nine years jail in 2003 on charges of incitement to murder and stirring racial hatred after he urged followers to kill Hindus, Jews and Americans. Prosecutors said that in study group lectures and on audio tapes, the cleric had also attempted to recruit British youths for terrorist training.
El-Faisal, who had his sentence cut to seven years on appeal, is eligible to apply for parole after serving half his jail term, but has been informed he will be deported to Jamaica immediately following his release from prison.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2006 00:00 ||
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Great, he should be in Philadelphia three days later.
#3
All the time, effort and taxpayers money to build up a case to get one of 'em bastid but only perhaps to have the idiotarian immigration letting in ten more in half the time.
#4
His trial heard recordings of el-Faisal, Jamaican by birth but living in Stratford, east London, praising Osama bin Laden. 'You have to learn how to shoot and fly planes and drive tanks,' el-Faisal told those who attended his lectures. 'Jews,' el-Faisal said, 'should be killed... as by Hitler.'
He encouraged the use of chemical weapons to 'exterminate non-believers', and exhorted Muslim women to buy toy guns for their children to train them for jihad. He also suggested that nuclear power stations could be fuelled with bodies of Hindus, slaughtered for their 'oppression' of Muslims in Kashmir.
Posted by: john ||
08/21/2006 18:37 Comments ||
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Jamaican schools aren't up on the latest in nuclear engineering, I guess.
Pakistani authorities interrogated a key British suspect Sunday in the alleged plot to blow up U.S.-bound passenger jetliners. Britain's top security official said that police have gathered "substantial material" and indicated they were close to charging some of the suspects. Rashid Rauf, a Briton of Pakistani descent, was arrested days before authorities said they had uncovered the plot to bomb 10 trans-Atlantic jetliners with liquid explosives. Britain has arrested 23 people, including a brother of Rauf. Rauf has been described by Islamabad as a "key person" in the alleged conspiracy. Britain announced on Aug. 10 that security services had foiled a plan to "bring down a number of aircraft through mid-flight explosions, causing a considerable loss of life." Pakistani Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao would not provide any details of Rauf's interrogation. He said a British team had arrived in Pakistan but was not involved in the investigation.
British Home Secretary John Reid indicated Sunday that criminal charges could be filed in the next few days but did not disclose specific details. "Police and the security authorities are content that their investigation is rewarding substantial material which would allow them to take forward the judicial process," Reid said in an interview with ABC-TV's "This Week."
"The police and the authorities are convinced that there was an alleged plot here," he said. "They have intervened. And in the course of the next few days, we'll wait and see what happens in terms of charges."
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2006 00:00 ||
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Pakistan is the hub of international terrorism funded by Saudi and brainwashed through the Madrasses.Why dont US/Britain target Pakistan more in the WOT.Until Pakistan is sorted from top to bottom terrorism will continue.
Summary-
Sunni terrorism epicentre is Pakistan funded by Saudi.
Shiite Terrorim is Hisbollah funded by Iran/Syria.
These are the West Main enemys!!!They need sorting especially Iran and Pakistan.
#2
Pakistan is only going to get sorted via above ground nuclear testing in the tribal areas. Sad to say, but I don't see any other way to deal with it barring a wholesale reveral of message by the Wahhabists...like that is going to happen.
Two men, who could be involved in Moscow market bombing were detained by the markets security service few minutes before the blast occurred, tradesmen told Gazeta.ru online daily. A powerful blast ripped through a market in eastern Moscow on Monday morning, killing at least 10 people and injuring scores. Preliminary reports said the blast was triggered by a hand-made explosive device, although police earlier blamed the explosion on a faulty gas cylinder.
Three or four people left a suspicious bag in the markets cafe and tried to escape, unnamed witness said. Security was able to catch 2 of them, the one ran away. Russian authorities so far did not confirm the information about possible detention of the bombers.
Deputy Mayor Vladimir Resin said a homemade bomb detonated in a two-story trading arcade at Cherkizovsky market in the northeastern part of the city about 10:30 a.m. City prosecutor Yuri Syomin told reporters at the scene that 41 people had been hospitalized. The bombing was likely connected with organized crime or a dispute between businessmen, however investigators were not ruling out terrorism, Syomin is quoted by Associated Press as saying.
A 200-square-meter (2,150-square-feet) section of the market collapsed in the blast, Emergency Situations Ministry spokeswoman Yulia Stadnikova said. She said at least two of those killed were children. The Russian general prosecutors office said it had opened a murder investigation. Terrorism is a separate offense under Russian law.
The market is one of several sprawling complexes on the outskirts of the central city with hundreds of food, clothing and hardware stands. It sounded like a thunderstorm. Who knows what happened? said Vyacheslav Lobastov, who was shopping at the market.
Markets in Russias restive Caucasus region frequently have been targeted by bombers over the past several years; most of the blasts are believed to be connected to organized crime or commercial disputes. In June, two people were injured in an explosion at a market in Samara.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/21/2006 10:36 ||
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Did they look like Swedes ? Lithuanians ? Germans ?
MOSCOW (AFP) - Ten people have been killed and 41 injured after an explosion ripped through an Asian market in Moscow in what officials called a settling of scores between criminal groups. The explosion struck the two-story shopping pavilion at about 10:30 am, destroying 200 square meters (2,150 square feet) of stalls and tearing a 100-square-meter hole in the market's roof, news agencies reported on Monday.
Nuriya, a 37-year-old shoe vendor, said he had seen the market's roof "fly away.I realized right away that it had been an explosion because of the smell of powder," said Nuriya, who asked that his family name be withheld. People started to scream and flee the pavilion."
There was chaos at the scene as a fire burned at the explosion site and merchants fled with carts of goods, initially blocking rescue vehicles from reaching the market. Eight people died at the scene as a result of the blast and two more died at hospitals from their injuries, a spokeswoman for the emergency situations ministry said, adding that 41 other wounded had been hospitalized. Two of the dead were children, the spokeswoman said.
As to the cause of the blast, "the most likely hypothesis is that the explosion was motivated by commercial competition or a dispute between criminal groups," Moscow prosecutor Yury Semin told journalists at a briefing near the explosion site. "The explosion took place between two containers which were located in the closed shopping pavilion... It is clear that initially a bomb exploded, and a gas explosion then followed," Semin said.
Moscow Deputy Mayor Vladimir Resin also said the blast appeared to have been "intentional" and caused by a homemade bomb, Interfax reported. Officials and witnesses at the scene had initially attributed the blast, which Semin said had killed eight people and wounded 41, to an exploding gas container.
Nuriya said ambulances arrived at the scene around half an hour after the explosion occurred.
The Moscow prosecutor's office has opened a criminal investigation regarding the blast, and has not ruled out that it was a terrorist attack, Interfax reported.
Eight explosions have taken place at Russian markets since March 1999, leaving dozens dead and hundreds wounded. Such incidents are frequently attributed to disputes among criminal groups that are tied to the markets.
#3
Caucasus muslims control a lot of the market stall trade in Russia. They have a better business sense and import food and goods from the south and trade it up north. It goes without saying "mafia" tactics are just a part of business over there.
Posted by: ed ||
08/21/2006 13:07 Comments ||
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Police have released video of what they say is a terrorist training camp on the New South Wales south coast. It is claimed the surveillance tape shows a group of men in bush land near Eden, preparing for an attack on Australia.
The video was played to a Melbourne court today during a hearing for 13 men accused of plotting terrorism. They said it was an innocent elk hunting fishing trip but police claim it proves they are part of an organised group.
After the Us intervention in Afghanistan, when "french" jihadists were found there, the underground railway for jihad, in chechnya notably, was explored, and it was discovered would-be jihadis underwent a physical preparation/screening process consisting of physical outdoor activities; this included hiking in the french alps with "training camps" there; IIRC, there was even an instance when one Moderate Muslim boy scout leader was found to have been rescued once by mountain rescue when his group was trapped in a snow storm.
KARLSRUHE, Germany - A Lebanese Muslim student accused of membership in a previously unknown terrorist group that narrowly failed to blow up two German passenger trains three weeks ago was remanded in custody on Sunday, a day after his arrest.
Police say the two bombs only failed to explode July 31 because of a construction flaw. The devices, concealed in suitcases, could have killed many people as did the Islamist bomb attacks on a Madrid train in 2004 and London trains last year. The threat has never been closer to us than now, said German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble on German television.
Perhaps now you guys will wake up a little?
The 21-year-old man, identified only as Gunter Youssef Mohamad E H, appeared before a magistrate in Germanys federal justice capital, Karlsruhe, after being flown there by police helicopter from the northern port city of Kiel where he was arrested in a station. German prosecutor-general Monika Harms said the Lebanese was seized as he tried to flee Kiel by train before dawn on Saturday.
Timers in the suitcases went off simultaneously as the trains approached the cities of Hamm and Koblenz, north and south of Cologne, but failed to detonate propane gas and petrol in the cases, police say. The prosecutors said Sunday the arrested man had not stayed with his suitcase, but had left the train before it reached Koblenz. According to the prosecutor, the 25-kilo bomb would have unleashed a powerful shockwave, with petrol causing a fireball.
Police said in Kiel on Saturday that he had been taking a college course that combined engineering, information technology and electronics in Kiel since last year. Fellow students in a hostel described him as very religious. The police said it was too early to specify the motive behind the attempted attacks.
No, no, we wouldn't want to impugn his religious motives now would we?
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/21/2006 00:00 ||
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I'm surprised that the media haven't explained the design flaw in great detail, so the terrorists can get it right next time. Maybe the police aren't saying?
ISLAMABAD - Pakistan on Monday rejected reports that wanted Al Qaeda militant Matiur Rehman had been arrested and denied that he was linked to an alleged plot to blow up US-bound airliners. ABC News reported last week quoting unnamed intelligence sources that Rehman, who is also wanted in a December 25, 2003 attack on President Pervez Musharraf, was arrested from central Pakistan. The news channel and some newspapers have linked Rehman to an ongoing probe into the alleged conspiracy to bomb transatlantic jets flying from Britain and said Rehman was the key in the plot.
It is totally baseless, foreign office spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam told AFP. It is a fictitious story. Matiur Rehman has not been arrested, we are still looking for him, she said. He is not linked to the airline plot, she added.
Methinks the lady douth protest too much
Pakistani agents earlier this month seized Briton Rashid Rauf in Bawahalpur in southern Punjab province, saying he was a key man in the airliner plot with links to Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. Security officials have said a Middle Eastern Al Qaeda operative suspected of masterminding the scheme is in Afghanistans eastern Kunar province bordering Pakistan.
Rehman, 32, who comes from from Bahawalpur, tops the Pakistani security agencies most wanted list and carries a bounty of 10 million rupees (166,666 dollars). He is also wanted for the bombing of the Sheraton Hotel in Karachi in 2002. Rehman is said to be a member of Harkatul-Jihad-e-Islami, a group which formed the core of the gang that kidnapped US reporter Daniel Pearl in Karachi in 2002, and to have links with the anti-Shiite outfit Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.
Officials say he took over from Amjad Farooqi -- one of the leaders of the Pearl gang who was killed by police in 2004 -- as the chief Pakistani facilitator for Al Qaeda in Pakistan. He was a close associate of former Al Qaeda number three Abu Faraj al-Libbi before the Libyan was arrested in northwestern Pakistan in 2005.
Either; 1. They ain't got him, 2. They've already put him on the CIA 'Ghost Plane', 3. Keeping his capture quiet until he gives up more of al-Qaeda or 4. They got him, but he knows too much to let us question him.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/21/2006 11:06 ||
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They are probably telling the truth. I'm sure he is considered a "national treasure".
KARACHI - Two al Qaeda militants suspected of planning a suicide car bomb attack that killed a US diplomat earlier this year have been arrested, Pakistan police said on Monday. The March 2 blast near the gates of the US consulate in the southern city of Karchi killed the bomber, US diplomat David Foy and three other people on the eve of a visit to Pakistan by US President George W. Bush.
Jahangir Mirza, police chief of southern Sindh province, said the suspectsAnwar-ul-Haq and Usman Ghaniwere arrested in a raid on a hideout in the city on Monday. Both of them belong to al Qaeda and have no links with any local militant group, Mirza told a news conference. They are trained militants and have fought against US forces in Afghanistan. Last week, a senior government official said police had arrested six militants involved in the same attack. None of those suspects was identified. Following those arrests, the government said the case had been resolved.
Mirza said the two militants arrested on Monday were among key suspects in the case. Some other suspects are also being interrogated and more arrests are expected soon, he said.
Police said at the time of attack they suspected Islamist militants opposed to President Pervez Musharrafs support for the U.S.-led war on terrorism were responsible. They said the blast, which wounded 49 people, was aimed at disrupting Bushs visit to Pakistan, but the president went ahead with his trip to the capital, Islamabad, as scheduled.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/21/2006 10:57 ||
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And if we are lucky they will get a 3 year prison sentence, if not aquitted.
Indian forces fatally shot two suspected militants during a raid on their village hideout in Indian-held Kashmir, police said on Sunday. A fierce shootout erupted late on Saturday after Indian soldiers cordoned off Ranipura village following a tip-off that some rebels were hiding there, said Imtiaz Hussain, a local police officer. Suspected rebels fired on the soldiers when they began a house-to-house search, Hussain said. The soldiers recovered two bodies from a house damaged by the gunfire, he added. There was no independent confirmation of the police claim. Most residents fled the village during the fighting. Ranipura is 65 kilometres south of Srinagar.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2006 00:00 ||
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Ah yes, nationals of a foreign country, owing no allegiance to India, become 'rebels' when they infiltrate into India and make war on it.
MSM at work...
Posted by: john ||
08/21/2006 18:14 Comments ||
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Tribal insurgents early on Sunday blew up a gas pipeline in Balochistan, disrupting supplies to the area, officials said. The pre-dawn blast damaged the main pipeline in the Loti gas field, 450 kilometres southeast of Quetta, a gas company official said. Requesting anonymity, he said that the attack affected gas supplies to local consumers. He blamed rebels, who are fighting for greater autonomy and a share of profits from the region's natural resources. Sunday's attack was the fourth on gas pipelines in the province this month.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2006 00:00 ||
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Anti-terrorist forces arrested four suspected terrorists, including a former Taliban commander, in a raid on Punjpai refugee camp early on Sunday. Locals told Online that the forces cordoned off the area at 3 am and raided houses. However, the police, when contacted, denied having any knowledge of the raid. Meanwhile, 11 Afghan nationals were arrested by the Frontier Constabulary for illegally crossing the Pak-Afghan border near Chaman and Qamaruddin Caraze. Cases have been registered against them under the Foreign Act.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2006 00:00 ||
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Pakistan has placed under watch Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JUD) of Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), even as it claims that it is a charity organisation not connected with terrorism. Pakistan has protested the US charges against JUD and Saeed has repeatedly alleged that the US was doing so under Indias pressure, calling it a conspiracy against Islam. President Pervez Musharraf has earlier gone on record that his government would not act against JUD, insisting that it is a charity organisation and not a front for the LeT. On his directives, however, JUD was placed under watch by the Inter-Provincial Coordination Committee that met here on Saturday, The News said on Sunday.
Saeed, who was arrested earlier this month, has denied any connection with LeT, whose men India suspects were behind the terror blasts in Mumbai and numerous terror attacks in Kashmir, Kanpur, Varanasi and Aurangabad.
The Saturday meeting took a number of decisions to fight extremism, sectarianism, the misuse of loudspeakers and take action against activists of banned organisations, the newspaper said. Decision was also taken to take swift action against banned parties and organisations. Four hundred extremists were put on a watch list and six websites run by them would be closed down. They would be proceeded against under the Anti-Terrorist Act and detained for a year. However, their cases would be reviewed every three months. Also placed under watch is Sunni Tehrik, a radical body with headquarters in Karachi. Drawing its support and funds from the business communities of Memon, Khatri and Bohras, who migrated from western India when Pakistan was created, it has been involved in battles with other radical organisations.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2006 00:00 ||
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Two senior Palestinian militants escaped an Israeli army arrest attempt in the West Bank town of Tulkarem on Monday. Witnesses said Israeli soldiers failed to arrest Annan Yaeesh, a leader of Fatah's armed wing, and a fellow militant. The Israeli forces surrounded a building just moments after the two men left, they added. Israel has accused Yaeesh of trying to send a suicide bomber inside Israel. The senior Palestinian militant has survived Israeli assassination and arrest attempts in the past. But the Israeli troops detained five other Fatah members in Tulkarem. The Fatah movement is led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Elsewhere in the West Bank cities of Nablus and Bethlehem, Israeli troops arrested another five Palestinians, including four members of the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2006 21:15 ||
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Too bad.. but snakes do have a tendancy to
'slip away'
Posted by: Jim Moore ||
08/21/2006 21:31 Comments ||
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They should have been shot. Must be using the Jimmah Cahtah ROE.
At least five Palestinians were wounded Monday in a mysterious explosion in the southern Gaza Strip, security officials and medics said.
It would be a mystery if there wasn't explosions in Gaza
The group were in a former settlement in southern Gaza, apparently scrounging for scrap metal, when an explosion occurred, injuring four people, the security officials said.
Scrap metal, why does it hate us?
Medics said five people, aged three-40, were wounded in the explosion. Officials said they were investigating whether the blast was caused by unexploded ordnance, possibly an old artillery shell.
"Little Ali, don't poke that shell with a stick. Here, use this hammer"
Posted by: Steve ||
08/21/2006 13:39 ||
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Mahmoud--Go reset the "No Work Accidents in XXX Days" sign!
Posted by: Dar ||
08/21/2006 14:38 Comments ||
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#2
Mahood: Ali, is it the red or green wire?
Ali: I dunno. Ask Mohammed.
Mahood: Which one?
Ali: I dunno. The ugly one with a beard, and likes goats.
#5
Anybody have the address for the Acme Sympathy Meter Company?
I get a kick out of driving through west Texas on my way to visit my brother or my wife's family. There's a "town" on US 287 between Amarillo and Wichita Falls called Acme. The only buildings I can see there are those of a large fertilizer plant. One can just imagine Wilie Coyote showing up, looking for something to use against the Roadrunner.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/21/2006 21:40 Comments ||
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Israeli forces have seized another senior Hamas politician, drawing angry accusations from Palestinian leaders that Israel is undermining their efforts to form a unity government. Troops and agents of the Shin Bet intelligence agency grabbed Mahmoud al-Ramahi, a senior Hamas member and secretary-general of the Palestinian parliament, at his Ramallah home, a military statement said. Al-Ramahi's sister Yaqeen said the raid took place in broad daylight.
The Hamas politician had evaded capture since Israel began a crackdown on the movement following the June 25 abduction of an Israeli soldier by Hamas-linked militants who crossed into Israel from the Gaza Strip then took their captive back with them. A doctor by training, al-Ramahi is the fourth-ranking member of the parliament, dealing with administrative and procedural affairs. His capture puts almost all of Hamas's West Bank leadership in Israeli custody.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2006 00:00 ||
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Israeli forces have seized another senior Hamas politician, drawing angry accusations from Palestinian leaders that Israel is undermining their efforts to form a unity terrorist government.
As some one else here said, more "trade bait".
His capture puts almost all of Hamas's West Bank leadership in Israeli custody.
Nice to see some repercussions for having elected terrorist leadership. Pardon me while I laugh and point.
Muslim militants shot dead three Buddhist men and wounded three women in attacks in Thailand's rebellious south on Monday, police said, the latest in the two-year separatist insurgency. Gunmen riding pillion on two motorcycles shot dead the three Buddhists 300 metres from an army outpost as they loaded a truck with pungent smelling durian fruit they had bought from farmers in a Muslim village in Yala province.
The killing came days after leaflets were strewn around towns in Yala, one of three violence-plagued southern provinces, telling Buddhist to leave the predominantly Muslim areas.
In nearby Narathiwat province, a gunman riding pillion on a motorcycle wounded two Buddhist women and a Muslim woman as they rode home from a market on a single motorcycle, police said. "Muslim villagers took the Muslim woman to hospital, but the Buddhist mother and daughter had to wait until police arrived because they were afraid of being seen as helping the government," Police Colonel Thanongsak Wangsupa told Reuters.
#2
"Muslim militants shot dead three Buddhist men and wounded three women in attacks in Thailand's rebellious south on Monday, police said ..."
Very misleading to call it Thailand's "rebellious south." More like infiltrators from Muslim Malaysia, supported by Saudi-funded Wahhabi imams, schools, audio and video tapes, literature, and of course, weapons, is the real problem. That local Muzzies have joined the call to jihad is certain, but the issue remains: From where to the exhortations and weapons come?
#4
You Buddists are no longer welcome in your own country. Muzzie invaders say so. Pacifism will only get you murdered. Time to start a rampage on Muzzies. Stackem' and burnem' as rapidly as you can. You have no alternative.
#5
Seriously, when WILL the Buddhist majority in Thailand wake the hell up to the cancer in their midst? How many dead is it going to take for them to realize that the muzzies want to take the southern part of their country. Stackem and burnem indeed.
COLOMBO - Sri Lankan troops backed by artillery and fighter jets are resisting a Tamil Tiger rebel advance on the Jaffna peninsula amid moves to lift a nine-day siege of the embattled region, military officials said on Sunday.
Overnight attacks by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on troops at Muhamali on the southern edge of the Jaffna district led to casualties on both sides, a military official said. He said at least 10 soldiers had been killed and about 125 wounded in sporadic clashes along front lines in the past two days. The rebel offensive began nine days ago and is believed aimed at capturing Jaffna.
Tigers ran the peninsula as a de facto separate state for five years till they were driven out in 1995. They tried to recapture it in 2000 but were stopped after advancing one third of the way to Jaffna town, the cultural centre of the Tamils. The objective of the latest LTTE offensive is to recapture Jaffna, defence ministry spokesman Upali Rajapakse said. We have successfully resisted their advance.
The fighting has cut the only land access to the peninsula and also prevented aircraft flying to Palaly airbase at the northern edge of the peninsula after the runway was hit by Tiger shells last week. Supplies by ship were also hampered as the Tigers hit the northeast port of Trincomalee where Jaffna-bound cargoes originate.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/21/2006 00:00 ||
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(IsraelNN.com) Israel has freed five Lebanon civilians who were arrested during clashes in southern Lebanon between the IDF and Hizbullah terrorist guerillas, according to Lebanese media. One of those arrested was identified as Hassan Dib Nasrallah, who apparently was taken into custody because of the similarity of his name with the Hizbullah terrorist leader.
Hassan Dib was the guy with the grocery store in the Bekaa Valley.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2006 18:56 ||
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Prime Minister Romano Prodi said Monday he told U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan that Italy is willing to command the U.N. force in Lebanon, news agencies reported. Prodi said Annan would make the decision about who would lead the force "after completing an analysis and discussions with the leaders of countries that are interested in joining the mission," the Italian news agencies ANSA and Apcom reported. "It is a decision that Kofi Annan will take at the end of broad consultations," Prodi told reporters in the seaside resort of Castiglione della Pescaia. "We will have a definitive solution in the coming days."
Posted by: ed ||
08/21/2006 15:15 ||
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Does anyone smell GWB and Condi behind this ?
The Phrench took the green pill(TM), and somebody with some measure of integrity is needed.
The green pill(TM) is for sniveling wimps to overlook integrity and embrace sniveling.
Israel Defense Forces paratroopers shot and killed three Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon on Monday evening, Al Arabiya television reported. "A force identified armed gunmen coming toward them in a threatening way," an IDF spokesman said. "The soldiers fired at them and identified three hits."
The IDF did not immediately confirm whether or not the Hezbollah men were killed. The incident took place some four kilometers north of the border.
Israel on Monday handed over to UN peacekeepers five Lebanese men who were captured during an Israel Defense Forces commando raid late on August 1 on the Hezbollah stronghold of Baalbek, according to a peacekeeping official. At least 16 Lebanese were killed in the commando operation against what authorities in the Bekaa Valley city said was in Iranian-built hospital. Israel said the building was a Hezbollah base and claimed it captured five Hezbollah fighters and killed 10 guerrillas.
The UN peacekeeping official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information, said the prisoners were returned to the UNIFIL headquarters in Naqoura, just north of the Israeli
border.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/21/2006 14:11 ||
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In the least friendly fire imaginable, Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon encountered Hezbollah wearing Israel Defense Force uniforms, the Jewish state's leading investigative news program reported. During a battle on the evening of August 6 and early hours of August 7, in the town of Hule, an IDF unit found two Hezbollah dressed in Israeli fatigues and helmets in a civilian home. The battlefield commander was forced to order his men to remove the white hats they wear on their helmets to distinguish his men from the enemy.
An embedded reporter, Itai Engel, from the weekly television news series "Uvda" widely regarded as Israel's equivalent to "60 Minutes" filmed the battle with a night vision camera. In an interview yesterday, Mr. Engel said,"There were two of them in one of the houses. The soldiers realized they were wearing army uniforms. They had the helmet cover as well. They were wearing everything the IDF soldiers wear."
The report of Hezbollah in IDF uniforms fighting Israelis shows that Israel's foe has studied the Israel Defense Force closely. The tactic presents a challenge for soldiers trying to fight them; according to Mr. Engel, the house to house fighting was brutal, and the surprise of fighting the enemy in friendly uniforms only added to the fog of war. The story also serves as another example of the Iranian proxy's predilection for fighting outside the laws of war. Earlier, the Israelis claimed Hezbollah fired rockets into its northern towns and cities from civilian positions, and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon warned in the first week of fighting that the terrorists were using the U.N. positions as cover.
#2
I'm surprised we haven't seen more of this in Iraq. There are plenty of available Fritz helmets used by the Iraqi forces and uniforms can be copied. Maybe there are so few American weapons captured to make this very rare, though M-16s should be easy to smuggle in from Lebanon.
Posted by: ed ||
08/21/2006 14:36 Comments ||
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#3
Why should not Iran be charged by the international community with this offense?
#6
The story also serves as another example of the Iranian proxy's predilection for fighting outside the laws of war.
This is good. They have never followed the "rules" of war, while the west has studiously. The more of this that comes to light, the less will be the pressure on the west to continue to observe the rules. And that is when this war will begin to be won, not because the rules will be broken, because they generally won't, but because it will mean the west finally realizes it is in a war and victory is more important than rules.
#8
Ed,
Unfortunately, they use friendly uniforms alot in Iraq. That's how they they got the Blackwater guys in Falluja. Also, Zarqawi routinely drove around dressed as a high ranking Iraqi officer.
Al
Posted by: frozen al ||
08/21/2006 17:09 Comments ||
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#9
I should have been more clear. I realize a lot of the sectarians murders are done by those wearing (fake, sometimes not) police uniforms. I'm surprised we haven't seen Saddamites and terrorists don fake US uniforms and weapons in order to ambush American patrols. This could work at early morning or dusk when lighting makes identification difficult.
Posted by: ed ||
08/21/2006 17:42 Comments ||
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#10
Simple solution, stitch RFID tags into each uniform that matches whichever soldier's dogtag (also RFID active) that the outfit is issued to. Anyone wearing a uniform that does not successfully interrogate with a paired RFID dogtag code is immediately apprehended or (if positive biometric mismatch is confirmed), shot on sight.
I have to agree with, NS. These constantly escalating violation of the rules of engagement will eventually result in the West abandoning all pretenses of battlefield etiquette. This will be a good thing because only by giving up on (as .com has said), "all this Order of the Garter" sh!t will we ever have a chance of vanquishing our terrorist foes. They prove this to us in each and every engagement. It is time for us to respond accordingly.
Iran has turned away U.N. inspectors wanting to examine its underground nuclear site in an apparent violation of the Nonproliferation Treaty, diplomats and U.N. officials said Monday. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the confidentiality of the information, told The Associated Press that Iran's unprecedented refusal to allow access to the facility at Natanz could seriously hamper international efforts to ensure that Tehran is not trying to make nuclear weapons.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/21/2006 11:42 ||
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Six Iranian ILDT type 4-cargo planes and a Syrian aircraft were forced to land at the southeast Turkish military airport last Thursday after US spy satellites spotted they were loaded with missiles, missile launchers and eight boxes of Chinese made C-802 missiles, dubbed by Iran Nur.
DEBKAfiles military sources disclose: The flights were bound for Damascus and Syrian military air bases just across the Turkish border. The C-802 is the advanced ground-ship missile which crippled the Israeli Navys gunship off Beirut, and killed three of its crew on July 14, two days after the outbreak of the Lebanon war. Searches by the Turkish authorities disclosed that one of the planes was carrying crates of Fajer rockets which Hizballah fired at Israeli towns. Two of the Iranian cargo planes have not been permitted to take off from Turkey unless they fly back to Iran.
Four flights, carrying light ammunition including anti-tank weapons, were allowed to complete their journey to Syria after their pilots presented documents proving they were purchased in Iran for the Syrian army.
DEBKAfile adds: This is the first time American military satellites have been openly revealed to have aided in the UN embargo against arms transfers from Syria and Iran to the Hizballah.
DEBKAfiles military sources also disclose that the Iranian and Syrian cargo flights were bound for three Syrian military airfields, two of which were transferred at the end of July to the control and supervision of the air wing of Irans Revolutionary Guards. The flight carrying the C-802 missile was destined for the military section of Damascus Mezze international airport. The launchers and Fajer rockets would have been unloaded at Syrias Nasiriya air base, 40 km from the Lebanese border. The anti-tank rockets and ammunition were bound for al Qusayr, north of Damascus and only 25 km from Lebanons northern Beqaa Valley.
#3
Let's see...and keeping it simple for Gromky...satellites can hear things and see things: So, therefore, a satellite hears that a known weapons depot is going to transfer some missiles by aircraft on a certain date...another satellite...on that date observes all traffic at the depot and at the airport. In real time, the now loaded aircraft take off...are tracked...TurkAir is vectored to intercept...planes are escorted to a Turk air base.
#5
"...a minor gangster and abusive boyfriend named Johnny Stompanato, who was fatally stabbed by Turner's daughter, Cheryl Crane. The killing was deemed a justifiable homicide by coroner's inquest. Prior to Stompanato's death, he had stormed onto a movie set while Turner was filming 'Another Place, Another Time', with costar Sean Connery, later of James Bond fame. Stompanato accused Connery of having an affair with Turner, and pointed a gun at him. Connery took the gun away from Stompanato, beat him, and threw him off the movie set."
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Taliban fighters are asking Canadian and Afghan forces to return the bodies of their fighters killed over the weekend in bloody battles. As many as 72 Taliban insurgents were killed in the offensive west of Kandahar, according to NATO officials. "Witnesses at the scene say there were bodies everywhere, in and around this village that has been a Taliban hotbed where they had been amassing recently," reported CTV's Matt McClure from Kandahar. 
LONDON - A British soldier has been killed and three injuried in fighting in Afghanistan, a spokesman for Britains defence ministry told AFP on Sunday. It is with deep regret that the MoD can confirm the death of a British soldier during a contact in northern Helmand province at around noon today local time, the spokesman said.
At least 74 Taliban militants, 4 U.S. soldiers, and 10 Afghan policemen were killed in the fresh weekend violence in war-weary Afghanistan. In the deadliest conflict starting from late Saturday, 70 Taliban insurgents were killed in Panjwai district of the southern Kandahar province, district chief Niaz Mohammad Sarhadi told Xinhua on Sunday. The clash, which lasted till early hours of Sunday, also killed four policemen and one Afghan soldier, said a local police officer who refused to be named. Three policemen and three Afghan soldiers were injured in the conflict, he added. 
Abdullah el-Faisal, a Jamaican-born convert to Islam, has been informed he will be expelled from Britain on completion of his current jail term, the Home Office said. The cleric was sentenced to nine years jail in 2003 on charges of incitement to murder and stirring racial hatred after he urged followers to kill Hindus, Jews and Americans. Prosecutors said that in study group lectures and on audio tapes, the cleric had also attempted to recruit British youths for terrorist training.
Pakistani authorities interrogated a key British suspect Sunday in the alleged plot to blow up U.S.-bound passenger jetliners. Britain's top security official said that police have gathered "substantial material" and indicated they were close to charging some of the suspects. Rashid Rauf, a Briton of Pakistani descent, was arrested days before authorities said they had uncovered the plot to bomb 10 trans-Atlantic jetliners with liquid explosives. Britain has arrested 23 people, including a brother of Rauf. Rauf has been described by Islamabad as a "key person" in the alleged conspiracy. Britain announced on Aug. 10 that security services had foiled a plan to "bring down a number of aircraft through mid-flight explosions, causing a considerable loss of life." Pakistani Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao would not provide any details of Rauf's interrogation. He said a British team had arrived in Pakistan but was not involved in the investigation.
MOSCOW (AFP) - Ten people have been killed and 41 injured after an explosion ripped through an Asian market in Moscow in what officials called a settling of scores between criminal groups. The explosion struck the two-story shopping pavilion at about 10:30 am, destroying 200 square meters (2,150 square feet) of stalls and tearing a 100-square-meter hole in the market's roof, news agencies reported on Monday.
KARLSRUHE, Germany - A Lebanese Muslim student accused of membership in a previously unknown terrorist group that narrowly failed to blow up two German passenger trains three weeks ago was remanded in custody on Sunday, a day after his arrest.
Indian forces fatally shot two suspected militants during a raid on their village hideout in Indian-held Kashmir, police said on Sunday. A fierce shootout erupted late on Saturday after Indian soldiers cordoned off Ranipura village following a tip-off that some rebels were hiding there, said Imtiaz Hussain, a local police officer. Suspected rebels fired on the soldiers when they began a house-to-house search, Hussain said. The soldiers recovered two bodies from a house damaged by the gunfire, he added. There was no independent confirmation of the police claim. Most residents fled the village during the fighting. Ranipura is 65 kilometres south of Srinagar.
Tribal insurgents early on Sunday blew up a gas pipeline in Balochistan, disrupting supplies to the area, officials said. The pre-dawn blast damaged the main pipeline in the Loti gas field, 450 kilometres southeast of Quetta, a gas company official said. Requesting anonymity, he said that the attack affected gas supplies to local consumers. He blamed rebels, who are fighting for greater autonomy and a share of profits from the region's natural resources. Sunday's attack was the fourth on gas pipelines in the province this month.
Anti-terrorist forces arrested four suspected terrorists, including a former Taliban commander, in a raid on Punjpai refugee camp early on Sunday. Locals told Online that the forces cordoned off the area at 3 am and raided houses. However, the police, when contacted, denied having any knowledge of the raid. Meanwhile, 11 Afghan nationals were arrested by the Frontier Constabulary for illegally crossing the Pak-Afghan border near Chaman and Qamaruddin Caraze. Cases have been registered against them under the Foreign Act.
Pakistan has placed under watch Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JUD) of Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), even as it claims that it is a charity organisation not connected with terrorism. Pakistan has protested the US charges against JUD and Saeed has repeatedly alleged that the US was doing so under Indias pressure, calling it a conspiracy against Islam. President Pervez Musharraf has earlier gone on record that his government would not act against JUD, insisting that it is a charity organisation and not a front for the LeT. On his directives, however, JUD was placed under watch by the Inter-Provincial Coordination Committee that met here on Saturday, The News said on Sunday.
Two senior Palestinian militants escaped an Israeli army arrest attempt in the West Bank town of Tulkarem on Monday. Witnesses said Israeli soldiers failed to arrest Annan Yaeesh, a leader of Fatah's armed wing, and a fellow militant. The Israeli forces surrounded a building just moments after the two men left, they added. Israel has accused Yaeesh of trying to send a suicide bomber inside Israel. The senior Palestinian militant has survived Israeli assassination and arrest attempts in the past. But the Israeli troops detained five other Fatah members in Tulkarem. The Fatah movement is led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
At least five Palestinians were wounded Monday in a mysterious explosion in the southern Gaza Strip, security officials and medics said. 
Israeli forces have seized another senior Hamas politician, drawing angry accusations from Palestinian leaders that Israel is undermining their efforts to form a unity government. Troops and agents of the Shin Bet intelligence agency grabbed Mahmoud al-Ramahi, a senior Hamas member and secretary-general of the Palestinian parliament, at his Ramallah home, a military statement said. Al-Ramahi's sister Yaqeen said the raid took place in broad daylight.
COLOMBO - Sri Lankan troops backed by artillery and fighter jets are resisting a Tamil Tiger rebel advance on the Jaffna peninsula amid moves to lift a nine-day siege of the embattled region, military officials said on Sunday.
In the least friendly fire imaginable, Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon encountered Hezbollah wearing Israel Defense Force uniforms, the Jewish state's leading investigative news program reported. During a battle on the evening of August 6 and early hours of August 7, in the town of Hule, an IDF unit found two Hezbollah dressed in Israeli fatigues and helmets in a civilian home. The battlefield commander was forced to order his men to remove the white hats they wear on their helmets to distinguish his men from the enemy.
Iran has turned away U.N. inspectors wanting to examine its underground nuclear site in an apparent violation of the Nonproliferation Treaty, diplomats and U.N. officials said Monday. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the confidentiality of the information, told The Associated Press that Iran's unprecedented refusal to allow access to the facility at Natanz could seriously hamper international efforts to ensure that Tehran is not trying to make nuclear weapons. 
Six Iranian ILDT type 4-cargo planes and a Syrian aircraft were forced to land at the southeast Turkish military airport last Thursday after US spy satellites spotted they were loaded with missiles, missile launchers and eight boxes of Chinese made C-802 missiles, dubbed by Iran Nur.
