The Afghan government and its NATO allies are preparing to take back a remote town occupied by the Taliban, who vowed to resist as residents fled fearing military strikes.
The rebels raised the Taliban movement's white flag over government offices in the small southern town of Musa Qala in Helmand province, which they stormed late Thursday, a provincial tribal chief said citing locals.
Provincial authorities would drop leaflets into the town on Sunday to tell the Taliban to leave or "face our very serious reaction," Helmand province information chief Jan Gul Khan said. "If the letters are dropped and the Taliban don't abandon the area, we'll take action," he said Saturday.
The situation was unclear but "we have indications that Taliban are fortifying their positions in the district centre," said Colonel Thomas Collins, spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force. "They control a small area but to say they control the entire district is going too far," Collins said.
The British military deployed in Helmand under ISAF vacated the town, capital of Musa Qala district, about four months ago after a controversial deal in which the tribal leaders said they would keep control.
Authorities were "working on a plan" to take back the area, interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary told reporters. "It will be a serious attack in the very near future," he said. ISAF said the government's authority would be restored "at a time and manner of (its) choosing" and the 37-nation force was ready to assist. ...
Posted by: ed ||
02/03/2007 16:56 ||
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#1
Just be sure to both cover the exits and to have lateral security ready for any efforts at reinforcement. This should be a 100% take down.
#3
Actually, if you think about it, the biggest problem fighting Lions of Islam(TM) is to make them fight. And they just can't resist defending fortified positions.
Up to 27 militants were killed on Friday in separate clashes with Afghan police and US-led coalition forces in the latest violence to hit Afghanistan, officials said.
Twenty Taliban were killed after a seven-hour gun battle with a police convoy in the western province of Farah, Interior Ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary said. Our police engaged the enemy with bravery and killed 20 Taliban, he said, adding that three policemen were also injured during the fighting in the Dasht-i-Bakwa area. Officials say insurgents have infiltrated Farah province bordering Iran after being defeated by foreign and Afghan troops in the troubled southern provinces last year.
Separately, US-led troops and aircraft attacked a group of militants preparing to launch a rocket attack in the eastern province of Paktika and killed up to seven rebels on Friday, the coalition said in a statement. The attack happened in Bermel district.
A militant was killed and another was injured late on Thursday when a bomb they were planting on a roadside went off prematurely in eastern Kunar province, a police official said.
Meanwhile, hundreds of Taliban militants overran Afghan town of Musa Qala that British troops left after a contentious peace agreement in October, destroying the government centre and temporarily holding elders hostage, officials and residents said Friday.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Aieee! That picture! My eyes! My eyes!
Posted by: Mike ||
02/03/2007 8:02 Comments ||
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It's okay, Mike, Allan's just run short of nubile virgins for the recently departed Heroes of Islam ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/03/2007 10:42 Comments ||
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Really, "nubile" and "hefty" aren't mutually exclusive...
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2007 10:54 Comments ||
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Somehow it reminds me of something from Bloom County.
KABUL - US-led troops and aircraft on Friday attacked a group of militants preparing to launch a rocket attack in eastern Afghanistan and killed up to seven rebels, the military said.
The attack happened in eastern Paktika provinces Bermel district, the coalition forces said in a statement. Coalition forces spotted a group setting up rockets and engaged the group with indirect fire ... Coalition aircraft dropped two munitions on the site and then another one on five personnel moving into a wadi (valley), it said. A ground patrol moved to the site and confirmed that two were killed and another five are suspected dead, the statement said.
"We counted a bunch of body parts lying in the field of fire. Forensics is trying to assemble them right now."
Separately a militant was killed and another was injured when a bomb they were planting on a roadside went off prematurely in eastern Kunar province late Thursday, a police official said. The injured man was detained by US-led troops for questioning, the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/03/2007 00:00 ||
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A ground patrol moved to the site and confirmed that two were killed and another five are suspected dead,
Parade a goat by the bodies - if nothing twitches, they're dead.
Taleban forces in southern Afghanistan have taken control of a town which British troops had pulled out of after a peace deal with local elders. Some local people said they were leaving the town, Musa Qala in Helmand province, for fear of bombing raids on the Taleban by Nato forces.
US commanders and diplomats had criticised the deal. They said it had not been done with elders but with the Taleban themselves and was not the way to defeat them.
The BBC's Alastair Leithead in Kabul says the loss of Musa Qala to the Taleban is a blow to the strategy of establishing peace deals in Helmand. A fatal blow, I hope.
It comes just days before the British hand over command of Nato forces to an American general. My boy friend's back and you're gonna be in trouble...
The Musa Qala peace deal was a controversial change of tactics for British troops in Afghanistan. It saw them pull out of the small Helmand town as part of an agreement with the elders, who said they would keep Taleban fighters out of the town centre and run security with their own auxiliary police unit.
There has been peace for a 142 days, a British spokesman said - but that appears to have come to an end. We beat the Paleostinians by a mile.
The Helmand governor and local people told the BBC that the Taleban had moved in overnight, arrested some of the elders who opposed them and destroyed part of the government compound. It was this compound that British troops defended from wave after wave of attack in the summer.
#3
I googled Musa Qala and found this from a man who knows the Taliban better than the Western Officials.
The Musa Qala project has sent two messages: one, recognition for the enemy, and two, military defeat, said Mustafa Qazemi, a member of Afghanistans Parliament and a former resistance fighter with the Northern Alliance, which fought the Taliban for seven years.
This is a model for the destruction of the country, he said, and it is just a defeat for NATO, just a defeat.
#4
Last one out of Afghanistan, don't forget to turn the lights off.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
02/03/2007 13:28 Comments ||
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Since they failed to keep their agreement, carpet-bomb the town. Let them realize the consequences of their actions. Right now, they can safely play both sides. They must be more afraid to cross us than the Taliban. It will be tough on the puppies and baby ducks, I know.
(SomaliNet) The recently detained top Islamist leader Sheikh Sharif Ahmed was on Friday released from Kenya and reported to be leaving soon for Yemen. Sheikh Sharif Ahmed is viewed by the United States (US) government in Washington as a potential key to reconciliation in post-war in Somalia. Its true that Im heading to Yemen, Sheikh Sharif was quoted as saying on the Web site of the London-based ONKOD news agency, which is run by a Somali journalist.
The Somali Islamist told the press from his location in Kenyan capital Nairobi that he was in good health but declined to confirm his future plans. I am 100 per cent fine, he said. But there are no questions I can answer at this time.
Ahmed is the highest-ranking Islamist leader to turn himself in after defeat in a war over the New Year. Meanwhile, several Islamist leaders have taken refuge in Yemen since their movements defeat over the New Year in an offensive by Somali government forces backed by the Ethiopian military. Sheikh Ahmed was one of the two main leaders of the movement that took Somali capital Mogadishu in June last year and ruled a swathe of south Somalia until the end of the year.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2007 00:00 ||
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I hope they released him with a bullet behind his left ear. Anything else was stupidity.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/03/2007 14:39 Comments ||
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A Moroccan court on Friday jailed eight Islamists for up to 10 years for plotting attacks and belonging to the al Qaeda network, court officials and lawyers said. The court in Sale, a twin city to Rabat, convicted Ben Moujane Mohamed for "belonging to al Qaeda and preparing terrorist attacks". Mohamed, who was captured in 2002 by the US military in Afghanistan and jailed at Guantanamo Bay prison, was handed over to Morocco early last year. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Friday, Sale court officials and lawyers said.
The court, in a separate case, condemned six Islamists to between one and 10 years for plotting attacks and attempting to get military training with al Qaeda-linked guerrillas in Algeria. Algerian authorities seized the six men early in 2006 before they joined the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) which led an insurgency in Algeria. Last month, the GSPC adopted the name Al Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb, saying it had the approval of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden for the change.
In another case, Islamist Anouar Majrar was jailed for seven years for "preparing terrorist attacks with the aim of undermining public order". Majrar had worked in France as a waiter before returning home in 2005.
Morocco has been on alert since 2003 when suicide bombings killed 45 people in Casablanca. The authorities said police had arrested more than 3,000 people since and broken up more than 80 cells.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2007 00:00 ||
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Saudi police have arrested 10 people for collecting donations and recruiting on behalf of militant groups, an interior ministry spokesman said. The arrests follow claims in the US bipartisan Iraq Study Group report issued in December that Saudi Arabia has been a source of funding for the Sunni insurgency in Iraq since the US-led invasion of Iraq deposed Saddam Hussein in 2003. The Saudi Ministry of Interior issued a statement on January 22 warning against collecting donations for groups not registered with the government.
Posted by: ed ||
02/03/2007 17:47 ||
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Kind of an SEC thing. The problem isn't financing terrorism, but not allowing the proper rake-offs.
BISHKEK: Kyrgyz authorities have arrested an alleged member of a regional militant Islamic group linked to Al Qaeda, prompting a protest by his supporters, the Interior Ministry said Friday. Atabek Abdumomunov, 32, a suspected member of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan who was wanted by the neighbouring countrys authorities since 2001 for his alleged involvement in bombings, was arrested in his home town of Uzgen by Kyrgyz security officers on Thursday, the ministrys press office said. Officers also seized a sawn-off rifle, a handmade pistol, bullets and CDs, video and audio tapes with religious content in Arabic at his home, the Ministry said.
About 20 of the suspects relatives and supporters protested his arrest for several hours outside the regional administration building demanding his release, the Osh regional police department said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2007 00:00 ||
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sounds like 20 more prisoners is in order
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/03/2007 0:26 Comments ||
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Rockets fired at the strategic Gwadar port in Pakistan's Balochistan province led to the disruption of power supply in the entire district.
Two rockets were targeted at the Gwadar port on Thursday from Padi Zar, the eastern part of the city. One of the rockets fell into the sea while the other landed in the port area, said Baharam Baloch, a Gwadar-based journalist.
He was quoted by the Daily Times on Saturday as saying that the rocket hit an electricity pylon in Mullah Band area.
Baloch nationalists have targetted Gwadar port in the past as they look upon the Chinese-financed port as a gateway to facilitate the exploitation of the gas resources of the province.
In another related development sourced to the Geo Television, the daily said that the security forces on Friday seized more than 30 surface-to-surface missiles from a militant hideout in Sui, Balochistan.
Posted by: john ||
02/03/2007 15:29 ||
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Protesters in Indian-administered Kashmir have seized the body of a second civilian who was allegedly shot wrongfully by the security forces. Thousands of people, many armed with batons and chanting slogans against the police, briefly took away the body.
On Thursday a similar incident involving a dead civilian took place. The bodies have been exhumed in a probe into claims that police are fabricating clashes with militants as an excuse to carry out extra-judicial killings. The body of the second civilian, Nazir Ahmed Deka, was seized as it was being dug up his grave in the Ganderbal area near the summer capital Srinagar on Friday afternoon.
Mr Deka's family say he went missing last February from outside a school in Srinagar where he sold perfumes on a footpath. The security forces said that he was a member of the Lashkar-e-Toiba militant group.
The BBC's Altaf Hussain in Srinagar says that 3,000 protesters overran the cemetery as the exhumation was taking place. They demanded a "public hanging" of the officials who they said were responsible for the staged gun battles.
Our correspondent says that the protesters took away the body as helpless police looked on.
The Deputy Inspector General of Police, Farooq Ahmed Bhat, told reporters that his officers could not collect samples from the body for DNA testing. But Mr Bhat later said that the body was returned to them. He said that an investigating team was probing four cases of staged encounters in which civilians had been killed.
On Thursday, the body of Abdul Rehman Paddar was also snatched by protesters as it was being exhumed.
Two policemen have been arrested for killing Mr Paddar. He was killed by the anti-militancy task force in the Sumbal area in December. Police said that he was a leading militant.
The authorities now believe that Mr Paddar paid 80,000 rupees (nearly $2,000) to a policeman in order to get a government job. But it is suspected that the policeman arranged for him to be killed.
Posted by: john ||
02/03/2007 12:12 ||
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MIRANSHAH: A beheaded body was found in North Waziristan with a note saying he was spying for the US, political administration said Friday. The murder came a day after three government officials were gunned down near Miranshah, the regional headquarters of North Waziristan. The note identified the alleged spy as Ghafoor, resident of Tanai village in Khost province of Afghanistan, the administration told Daily Times. It said that the decapitated body was found in a ditch beside a road near Ghulam Khan, a border village in the west of Miranshah. Those who spy for America will meet this fate, the note in Pushto language read. It did not mention who beheaded him.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2007 00:00 ||
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It did not mention who beheaded him.
hmmm. Thai Buddhists?
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/03/2007 0:21 Comments ||
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Afghan 'US spy' killed in North Waziristan
some peasant probably took a bath and they mistook him for a clean person.
KURRAM AGENCY: At least three music shops were ruined and four partially damaged because of a bomb blast in Sadda Bazaar on Friday. According to a private TV channel, unidentified people had placed the bomb. Security personnel diffused another time bomb from the market while searching the site. The watchman has been taken into custody for investigation. No loss of life has been reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2007 00:00 ||
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A policeman injured in Mondays suicide bombing in DI Khan has said the attacker spoke Pushto, had a fair complexion and was wearing a black shawl. Muhammad Siddiq, who led the police party, said that 10 minutes before a Muharram procession was scheduled to begin, he saw a 16 or 17 year old boy running towards Topanwala Chowk.
Constable Abdul Halim asked the bomber to stop so that he could be searched, he said, but the boy refused to remove his shawl. When Halim tried to remove it himself, the boy blew himself up, said Siddiq, who has been admitted to DI Khan Headquarters Hospital. Nasir, a passer by, also died in the attack. ASP Captain Hamad told Daily Times that police had begun an investigation and sent the suicide bombers legs to Islamabad for a DNA test.
He said DI Khan police arrested six suspects (including Amirullah, Bashir, Mohammad Jan, Ateeq and Abdullah) with the help of law-enforcement agencies on Monday, and seized explosives belts, weapons, mobile phones and hand grenades. The suspects, he said, had been shifted to Islamabad for interrogation. Frontier Police Additional IG Fayyaz Toro has said significant progress had been made in the investigations of Saturdays Peshawar bombing, adding that the culprits would be arrested soon.
Police sources said several suspects had been arrested and were being interrogated. They did not identify the suspects. Security agencies have seized two grenades and a detonator during a search of the bombing site. Peshawar Police Chief Abdul Majeed Marwat said the explosives used in the blast weighed two to two-and-a-half kilogrammes and the attacker also had two hand bombs.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2007 00:00 ||
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Jammu and Kashmir police on Friday arrested two militants of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) outfit at Sopore in Baramulla district, police said. The militants were identified as Mohammad Rafiq Zaqi alias Janbaz, a resident of Baba Yousuf Sopore and Sajad Ahmad Daga, a resident of Khushal Mattoo Sopore, wanted in a number of militancy related incidents, a police spokesman said. Rafiq Zaqi is a category C militant and active member of Salfi group of LeT. Salfi group commander was eliminated on January 1 this year.
The arrested militants had created an atmosphere of fear in Sopore town and were motivating youth for terrorism, the spokesman said. Both the militants were responsible for numbers of grenade and IED blasts in Sopore town and its periphery during the summer of 2006. The spokesman said their involvement in the cases of civilian slaughter and beheading is also being investigated.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2007 00:00 ||
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What we should do instead of the surge is pull out of the cities and cover the Iran and Syrian Border and the Kurdish area where we are welcome. Then we allow the wackos to kill eachother until they are all dead or tired of killing and being killed. Stepping in the middle of a religious blood letting is nuts. We still have a presence and Iran is cut out of the action.
#4
This just shows you how bad we need Tater's Tots to protect the Shi'ites.
Suspects? Iran, Tots, and Sunnis - in that order.
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/03/2007 17:46 Comments ||
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Where does this lead? It is clearly just more Muslim terrorism, no different than Bali clubs, NY office towers, or London subways, but directed at other Muslims instead of Westerners. Do we end up with a Lebanon-style civil war, with the equivalent of a million (or more) dead? Would even that escalate into a regional Shia-Sunni war, even broader than the Iran-Iraq war, with multiple millions killed over decades? Is that what would happen if the US pulled out, leaving nothing to restrain the native anti-civilization forces? Worse thought - would this be a bad thing?
#6
Wretchard, on Belmont Club, expressed the situation perfectly, though specifically referenced to Gaza:
"The intifada eventually becomes a circular firing squad."
#7
There ya go Glenmore, circular Russian R-you know what [don't want to go to Roadside America for the R-word]
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/03/2007 19:05 Comments ||
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This is a classic Baathist terror op : slaughter as many civilians as possible in as horrific manner as possible. Remember, the Baathists used poison gas on civilians, ran people feet first through plastics shredders, and ran rape centers to punish families of regime opponents. This type of scum you do NOT surrender to or walk away from, you exterminate them. To permit their terrorism to continue and wash your hands of the situation is the same as deciding NOT to wipe the Nazis out because you could not effectively should down Auschwitz -- in other words, make the slaughter horrific enough and the terrorist is allowed to win by default.
AN IRAQI police officer was the hero of a suicide bomb attack in a crowded market street when his brave action perhaps saved dozens of lives in the southern city of Hillah. Even so the death toll was put at 60. Mohammed Raad and his friends, Ali and Abdullah Sami, had just left a nearby gym when the first explosion ripped through the market overturning carts and blowing out shop windows. Over the chaos, Mr Raad clearly heard a police officer shout "suicide bomber".
He saw the officer run towards a man who had opened his jacket to reveal a belt of explosives. With a last heroic gesture, the policeman threw his arms around the bomber, shielding others with his own body from the force of the second blast, according to Mr Raad and other witnesses. "He hugged him and the explosives tore apart both bodies," Mr Raad said.
On the city's main street, families had been walking among the market stalls, finishing their weekend shopping. Mr Raad, a 19-year-old high school student, and his friends were heading towards a stationery shop. A rueful Mr Raad then described how he raced from the scene without looking back, leaving his friends, who were knocked down by the second explosion. "I ran, and I just left them there," he said.
The bombs that struck the busy Shiite Muslim market on Thursday also wounded 150, police said. Fortunately, Mr Raad said, his friends were not among the dead.
Bombings, mortar attacks and assassinations around other parts of Iraq on Thursday left more than 40 other people dead, authorities said. It was the third such attack in the heart of Hillah in two years, and the second on Maktabat Street, for which Mr Raad blamed Sunnis. Police said a pair of suicide bombers had blown up the market, but Mr Raad said the first explosion had been caused by a roadside bomb. "Everything was turned upside down," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2007 00:00 ||
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BAGHDAD - The US military announced the deaths of six more troops on Friday, including two killed by Sunni Arab insurgents in their stronghold of Al Anbar province, west of the capital.
A marine and a soldier died from wounds received due to enemy action during combat operations in Al-Anbar Friday, while another marine died from a heart attack while operating in the province. Earlier, the military announced the deaths of three soldiers in two separate traffic accidents Thursday.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/03/2007 00:00 ||
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Bad guys seem to be getting too good at this - where'd they get the newfound skill, Iran?
A US Apache helicopter shot down, killing two soldiers on board, near Taji air base north of Baghdad Friday. After the fourth helicopter crash in two weeks, Americas top general Peter Pace acknowledged that US aircraft were increasingly in danger from ground fire. The Apache was one of two flying together when gunmen opened fire sending it crashing to the ground. It was the first admission by a US military official that the recent crashes were caused by ground fire.
With what? I sure as hell hope they aren't bringing these down with AK's.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
02/03/2007 0:06 Comments ||
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They are using a PKS/PKMS or other variants firing the powerful 7.62x54 rimmed round. These are not lucky hits. The bastards are being advised and are developing sophisticated TTP's. With the introduction and increased utilization of MANPADS and the continued use of SAFIRE (small arms fire), It appears we are now facing an escalating, theater wide anti-aircraft program. My fear is we may see a C-130 or other heavy hauler going down soon. An active anti-aircraft threat, increased use of IED's, and occassional sniper fire is keeping the pressure on the US Coalition and public opinion back home. It worked in SE Asia, Beruit, and Somalia. Why scew with success. Until we bomb the hell out of them and they submit, there will be no peace.
#6
Verlaine, thank you. Also, I have a question for you. When your were in Iraq, did they have the "I heart Sadr City" bumper stickers? I just got a picture of the Suburban my brother rides around in, and my side split when I saw it.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
02/03/2007 13:20 Comments ||
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Does anybody really think we will change the ROE's to eliminate cross border infiltration from Syria and Iran?
I don't think so either...regardless of the blurb that came out this week. The ROE's value the life of a terrorist more than the life of a US soldier/marine.
As McDonald's says "I am lovin' it".
Forces loyal to Hamas appeared to consolidate their hold on northern Gaza and much of Gaza City today, with at least 12 more people wounded in continuing clashes between Palestinian factions. "loyal" in timesspeak means part of.
What has been some of the worst internal Palestinian fighting in years ebbed overnight after the warring factions, Hamas and Fatah, met to try to arrange a cease-fire. But gun battles raged into today, and masked men continued to hold positions and operate checkpoints throughout Gaza City. Ah, the old "ebbing" and a flowing. My vote is for Krakatoa-sized flowing.
Hamas forces appear to be in control of northern Gaza, bordering Israel, down through most of Gaza City, with Fatah forces concentrated around the government and security compounds of the Remal neighborhood, surrounding the main security headquarters, Saraya, and the presidential compound of Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, who is not in Gaza. Ah, good news! Hamas is within range of 155mm shellfre. Crank up the M109, Ari!
Hamas fighters at checkpoints were stopping all cars to look for Fatah members or members of the security forces, said Tawfiq Abu Khoussa, a Fatah leader in Gaza City. He demanded that Hamas remove all the checkpoints throughout the Gaza Strip but mainly in Gaza City. "My wife needs to go shopping, but there are bad gunnies out there".
Continuing detentions or kidnappings of fighters were reported, with Fatah accusing Hamas of detaining as many as 40 of its members or security officials at such roadblocks. Hamas forces have also been overrunning and sometimes destroying headquarters of the Fatah-dominated Preventive Security forces in northern Gaza. Ohhhhhh, detentions. Oh, my. What will they do.
Few people ventured from their homes, and many stayed away from windows. On Friday, Wasi Kurdish, 20, was killed as he watched television when a bullet came through a window and hit him in the chest. Life's a bitch in Arafatistan, but it's your country, paid for with your blood. I think this calls for "Dire Revenge".
Ghada Abu Daoud, who works for the Gaza office of a Persian Gulf emirate, said: Hamas is in control of the streets of Gaza City. Its Hamas that seems to initiate every raid, and the number of Fatah wounded seems higher. Who cares? After all, both groups are Paleostinians, the lowest and most wretched "people" on the planet. Their sole problem is themselves, so knock yourselves out.
Ms. Daoud said in a telephone interview that she ventured out This morning in a car, but that masked men stopped her at a checkpoint and strongly suggested that she return home. Everyone is wearing black, she said. But the Qassam brigades seem stronger than anyone. The Qassam brigades are the military wing of Hamas, which also dominates a separate, parallel police force known as the Executive Force. 'parallel' police for a parallel world.
Dr. Jumaa al-Saqqa, a surgeon and spokesman for Al Shifa hospital, Gazas largest, said Hamas forces had taken over the hospital and were using it as a protected firing position. Were extremely depressed, he said by telephone. Im afraid to walk to my office in the hospital. Even in my apartment Im afraid of a bullet coming through the window. So fucking typical of the paleos. They take over a palestinian Hospital and make it a fort. As Charles Johnson points out: "What a worthy people. Let's give them a country", sarcastically of course.
Dr. Saqqa said that blood supplies were low, and that given the street fighting and what he called the shame of the internal fighting, few Gazans were going out to give blood. People arent willing to give blood for this internal fighting, he said. ...... (speechless)
Abed Salaam Shihada, a Gazan documentary maker, said: One prisoner is punishing another. But Hamas feels itself under real threat; its defending itself. LOLOL. Yeah, that's the problem, but the prison you are in wasn't made by the Joooos. It was created by a Arab who some mistakenly call a "prophet".
Mr. Shihada suggested that with the international boycott on Hamas and the increased pressure from the United States, including the prospect of $86.4 million in aid and training to Fatah forces loyal to Mr. Abbas, Hamas is asserting its presence in Gaza. For them its a battle for existence, he said. "All they want to do is kill Jooos and destroy Israel and who can argue with that except those damn fatah punks."
Hamas sharply criticized the meeting of major countries involved in Middle East diplomacy on Friday in Washington. The meeting of the Quartet the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations expressed concern about the violence and pressed for a meeting soon of Mr. Abbas, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to find a clearer political horizon toward peace. But the group insisted that it would not deal with Hamas until it recognized Israel, forswore violence and accepted previous Israeli-Palestinian agreements. LOL. As if. Hamas is trying to redeem the Paleos lost 'honor' by losing the 3rd holiest site in mohammedism and earning the scores of all the arabs. Hamas would sooner all die rather than live with the Jooos in Israel (we can always hope!).
Ahmed Youssef, an adviser to the Palestinian prime minister, Ismail Haniya, who is a member of Hamas, said the meeting produced nothing positive. He criticized Germany, as the current president of the European Union, for failing to end the boycott of Hamas. "We need money for guns too!"
A small protest against the internal bloodletting was called today in Unknown Soldiers Square in Gaza City, near the Parliament building, but few Gazans felt safe to venture out to join it, residents said. Scores had come in previous days, but only 20 or so on Saturday. How does one protest the actions of one's self? Only the paleos can achieve this level of assholedom.
The United Nations issued a statement today deploring the violence on behalf of the many agencies that work in Gaza to provide food, education and medical care to refugees and terrorists others. With their own workers at risk and often unable to travel safely, the agencies said, it is becoming extremely difficult for us to fulfill our humanitarian mandates to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people. The implications of this for a population already facing extreme hardship are grave. Heh. He said "grave". Heh. Let's hope so!
United Nations schools did not reopen today after a vacation, leaving more than 200,000 students at home. How will they learn to hate Jooos if the UN isn't there to teach them?
Mr. Abbas and the on-the-run-and-hiding-in-fear exiled leader of Hamass political bureau, Khaled Meshal, are to meet Tuesday in Mecca at the invitation of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia to continue talks on a unity government. Bribetime!
Mr. Haniya and other living noted Hamas leaders have been silent and apparently hiding under the bed in a burqa underground during these days of fighting, while many senior Fatah leaders left Gaza to go to the West Bank, taking their families. How? Through Israel?
Arab countries are realizing how worthless the paleos are and wondering how they ever figured these losers were worth a thin dime embarrassed and angry about the fighting. The Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat warned today that the infighting has harmed the Palestinian cause. This appeared clearly in the results of the Quartet meeting yesterday and its statement that questioned the ability of the Palestinian people to rule themselves, he said. Why would they think that? LOLOL.
At least 17 people, mostly fighters, were killed Friday, and six others on Thursday. The latest clash between Hamas and Fatah, breaking yet another cease-fire, began when Hamas forces attacked a convoy of trucks from Egypt. Hamas said the trucks were full of weapons and military equipment. A spokesman for the Executive Force, Islam Shahwan, said Saturday that the containers included Kalashnikov rifles, ammunition, flak jackets and helmets intended for Fatah forces in Gaza. Fatah spokesmen say the trucks contained tents and medical equipment.
Fatah also said that caches of weapons were at the Islamic University, which is aligned with Hamas, and that it had captured some Iranian weapons experts there. But there has been nothing to back up these charges and no release of documentary evidence, and most experts regard the Iranian charge in particular as Fatah propaganda. Hamas has provided no evidence that the trucks were full of weapons.
#3
How about a partition of Gaza into Hamastan and Fatahstan?
Hamastan could force the women to wear all body coverings and force men to pray 5 times a day while in Fatahstan the leaders would content themselves with stealing foreign aid.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Fatah fighters stormed a Hamas-affiliated university on Friday, setting buildings on fire and dealing a sharp blow to Hamas prestige as a new round of heavy fighting erupted between the two factions throughout the Gaza Strip. Fifteen people, including four children, were killed.
With a total of 22 killed and 245 wounded since Thursday afternoon, Gazans huddled in their homes to escape the crossfire. Hospital officials said were running out of blood to treat the wounded.
"Better open up a vein in Mahmoud, we need more O-positive!"
On Friday afternoon, leaders of Hamas and Fatah said they had agreed in principle to a new cease-fire, but needed more ammo meetings to work out the details of a pullback of forces, who were battling in the streets with mortar shells, rockets and heavy guns.
All that ammo expended and so little in the way of deaders ...
The deal was announced after a meeting at the Egyptian embassy. We, the leaders of the two groups, agreed with Gods help on a cease-fire, said Nizar Rayan, a regional Hamas leader, after the meeting.
I'm not sure Allan (PTUI) had a whole lot to do with this. Then again, maybe he did.
The measures that will be taken on the ground will be discussed in the next few hours. A Fatah spokesman, Abdel Hakim Awad, confirmed agreement was reached in principle.
An earlier truce unravelled after just two hours days. Previous rounds of talks have ended in failure and often led to new waves of bloodshed.
Which is why they'll try again!
In another effort to end the fighting, Abbas was to travel Tuesday to Saudi Arabia for talks with Hamas supreme leader, Khaled Mashaal, on forming a national unity government, said Jamal Shobaki, Palestinian ambassador to Saudi Arabia.
Yeah, get the Saoodis involved, they can fix anything.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/03/2007 00:00 ||
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Muslim separatists in the southern Philippines are holding Manila's military chief, the head of the government's truce panel, a colonel and an undetermined number of soldiers hostage, senior military sources said on Saturday.
Members of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) were refusing to let Brigadier-General Ben Dolorfino, the commander of military forces in the capital, and Ramon Santos, government undersecretary for the peace process with the MNLF, leave their camp until their jailed founder was released. Local media reported that more than 20 senior military, defense and government officials were being held at the MNLF's camp near Panamao town on Jolo island, 600 miles (950 km) south of Manila but senior military sources, who declined to be identified, would only confirm three hostages.
Dolorfino, a Muslim convert who had flown to Jolo for talks with the MNLF, told reporters by text message that he was safe. "Sorry I can't comment. Just wait for the policymakers to speak," he said. A military spokesman declined to comment.
The governor of Sulu, an archipelago that includes Jolo, said a local MNLF commander, Habier Malik, had refused to allow Dolorfino, Santos and 11 others to leave on Friday until their leader, Nur Misuari, was released from detention in Manila. Misuari was jailed in 2002 for rebellion after the breakdown of a peace deal the MNLF signed with the government in 1996.
Misuari's followers want him to go to Saudi Arabia this month for a meeting of government officials, rebel leaders and the Organisation of the Islamic Conference to review progress of the peace deal, which they argue has not been properly implemented.
Dolorfino, former deputy commander of the Philippines's southern forces, is the highest-ranked Muslim in the armed forces.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
02/03/2007 11:00 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Related event?
In Zamboanga, "Dozens of people were killed yesterday when a trailer truck carrying chemicals overturned and exploded, ripping apart a passenger bus that was passing by...
We categorically dismiss speculation that it was a bomb attack carried out by terrorists, said Col. Emmanuel Sison, 53rd IB chief.
I am always suspicious when authorites are so positive they know the answer so quickly - they can only be that sure of it if they were involved. Which is to say that either they are lying because they really aren't sure, or they are lying because it actually was terrorism.
#6
USEC Santos is a beloved friend and a patriot to his nation. Nur is a snake that deserves the fate of all vipers, a fast death. Santos is a favorite of the old powers in that country. all hell is about to break loose if he is hurt.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
02/03/2007 14:43 Comments ||
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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.
Up to 27 militants were killed on Friday in separate clashes with Afghan police and US-led coalition forces in the latest violence to hit Afghanistan, officials said.
KABUL - US-led troops and aircraft on Friday attacked a group of militants preparing to launch a rocket attack in eastern Afghanistan and killed up to seven rebels, the military said.
Taleban forces in southern Afghanistan have taken control of a town which British troops had pulled out of after a peace deal with local elders. Some local people said they were leaving the town, Musa Qala in Helmand province, for fear of bombing raids on the Taleban by Nato forces.
(SomaliNet) The recently detained top Islamist leader Sheikh Sharif Ahmed was on Friday released from Kenya and reported to be leaving soon for Yemen. Sheikh Sharif Ahmed is viewed by the United States (US) government in Washington as a potential key to reconciliation in post-war in Somalia. Its true that Im heading to Yemen, Sheikh Sharif was quoted as saying on the Web site of the London-based ONKOD news agency, which is run by a Somali journalist. 
A Moroccan court on Friday jailed eight Islamists for up to 10 years for plotting attacks and belonging to the al Qaeda network, court officials and lawyers said. The court in Sale, a twin city to Rabat, convicted Ben Moujane Mohamed for "belonging to al Qaeda and preparing terrorist attacks". Mohamed, who was captured in 2002 by the US military in Afghanistan and jailed at Guantanamo Bay prison, was handed over to Morocco early last year. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Friday, Sale court officials and lawyers said.
BISHKEK: Kyrgyz authorities have arrested an alleged member of a regional militant Islamic group linked to Al Qaeda, prompting a protest by his supporters, the Interior Ministry said Friday. Atabek Abdumomunov, 32, a suspected member of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan who was wanted by the neighbouring countrys authorities since 2001 for his alleged involvement in bombings, was arrested in his home town of Uzgen by Kyrgyz security officers on Thursday, the ministrys press office said. Officers also seized a sawn-off rifle, a handmade pistol, bullets and CDs, video and audio tapes with religious content in Arabic at his home, the Ministry said. 
Protesters in Indian-administered Kashmir have seized the body of a second civilian who was allegedly shot wrongfully by the security forces. Thousands of people, many armed with batons and chanting slogans against the police, briefly took away the body.
Our correspondent says that the protesters took away the body as helpless police looked on. 
A policeman injured in Mondays suicide bombing in DI Khan has said the attacker spoke Pushto, had a fair complexion and was wearing a black shawl. Muhammad Siddiq, who led the police party, said that 10 minutes before a Muharram procession was scheduled to begin, he saw a 16 or 17 year old boy running towards Topanwala Chowk. 
Jammu and Kashmir police on Friday arrested two militants of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) outfit at Sopore in Baramulla district, police said. The militants were identified as Mohammad Rafiq Zaqi alias Janbaz, a resident of Baba Yousuf Sopore and Sajad Ahmad Daga, a resident of Khushal Mattoo Sopore, wanted in a number of militancy related incidents, a police spokesman said. Rafiq Zaqi is a category C militant and active member of Salfi group of LeT. Salfi group commander was eliminated on January 1 this year. 
BAGHDAD - The US military announced the deaths of six more troops on Friday, including two killed by Sunni Arab insurgents in their stronghold of Al Anbar province, west of the capital.
