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Attempt to hijack Maretanian plane painfully foiled
Today's Headlines
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Page 1: WoT Operations
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Afghanistan
Taliban Deploys 10,000 Fighters for Dread Spring Offensive
SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan -- The Taliban have deployed 10,000 fighters for a spring offensive of "bloody attacks" against foreign troops in Afghanistan, a rebel commander said on Friday.
"Dread Spring Offensive" time again? My, how time does fly..
More than 4,000 people, a quarter of them civilians, were killed in fighting last year, the most violent year since the Taliban were ousted in 2001.
What the reporter fails mention is that the other three quarters of those killed were Taliban.
NATO commanders and analysts warn this year could be just as bad or worse.
"Why, we could be forced to kill even more Taliban!"
As the harsh winter snows melt, the insurgents have resumed their attacks, mostly in the south, where they have captured a major town and have threatened a key hydroelectric dam.

Mullah Abdul Rahim, the Taliban's operational commander for southern Helmand province - the opium center of the world's major producer - said militants would step up attacks in spring. "As the weather becomes warm and leaves turn green, we will unleash bloody attacks on the U.S.-led foreign troops," Rahim told Reuters by satellite phone from a safe secret location in Quetta. "Our war preparations, especially in southern Afghanistan and in Helmand province, are complete and for this our 10,000 fighters are ready to take up arms the moment they are ordered."
"Forward men! I'll be praying for your victory, sorry I can't go with you this time."
Ater attempts at conventional pitched battles failed last year, the Taliban are expected to return to more conventional guerrilla tactics against government forces and the roughly 45,000 foreign soldiers in the country. A key tactic is expected to be suicide bombings, which rose dramatically last year, killing more than 200 people, but which still remain much rarer than in Iraq. The Taliban say they have 2,000 suicide bombers ready and another 3,000 in training.
"No, no, no! First you get close to the infidels, then you push the button!"
Rahim said the focus of attacks will be southern areas, where the Taliban was born. Afghanistan's government says the militants are still sponsored by Pakistan, their main backer until September 11 attacks on the United States.

Islamabad concedes there is some border infiltration by the militants along the porous and largely lawless frontier, but denies supporting the rebels, who have ethnic roots on both sides of the British-drawn border. Pakistan says the insurgency is Afghanistan's problem.
This article starring:
MULLAH ABDUL RAHIMTaliban
Posted by: Steve || 02/16/2007 12:12 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Load HE!"
"UP!"
"FIRE!"
Posted by: mojo || 02/16/2007 12:43 Comments || Top||

#2  ...and I'll bet Rahim wishes them the best of luck. He'd like to be with them, of course, but he has to finish his application to Yale...
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/16/2007 12:52 Comments || Top||

#3  Is the Saudis still funding the Taliban?

They are funding the sunni insurgents in Iraq!

All this and some how Bush still see Saudi Arabia as allies?????
Posted by: Ebbolump Glomotle9608 || 02/16/2007 12:55 Comments || Top||

#4  Islamabad concedes there is some border infiltration by the militants along the porous and largely lawless frontier, but denies supporting the rebels, who have ethnic roots on both sides of the British-drawn border. Pakistan says the insurgency is Afghanistan's problem.

Maybe some of this is needed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vs7V_IBQcDg
Posted by: Glavitle Jeanter2433 || 02/16/2007 13:12 Comments || Top||

#5  The Taliban say they have 2,000 suicide bombers ready and another 3,000 in training.

How much training does it take to be a suicide bomber?

Step 1. Press this button.
Step 2. Find out how many virgins await you.

Training over.
Posted by: Intrinsicpilot || 02/16/2007 14:10 Comments || Top||

#6  Well, kinda...

Step 1. Press this button.
Step 2. NO! NOT NOW!!
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/16/2007 14:11 Comments || Top||

#7  We can all appreciate the warning, mullah boy, but plans have been underway for months to kill your advertised offensive. Surprise is the big key to guerilla offenses, and thank you for the added notices.
Posted by: whatadeal || 02/16/2007 14:13 Comments || Top||

#8  Hopefully they will send in 10,000; and it will be 10,000 sent through "The valley of the shadow of death."

I hope they can do a repeat of the Korean War's "Wonju Shoot."
Posted by: Anonymoose || 02/16/2007 15:08 Comments || Top||

#9  The annual Dreaded Spring Offensive, coming as it does on the heels of the Brutal Afghan Winter, . . . .
Posted by: Mike || 02/16/2007 15:10 Comments || Top||

#10  Ah, the 'Wonju Shoot' brings back pleasant memories of slaughtered enemies.
Posted by: Brett || 02/16/2007 15:50 Comments || Top||

#11  they have captured a major town and have threatened a key hydroelectric dam

Didn't we hear just a day or so ago that they ended up having to use children as human shields in their retreat from this dam they were threatening?

Mullah Abdul Rahim, the Taliban's operational commander for southern Helmand province - the opium center of the world's major producer - said militants would step up attacks in spring.

Of course, it's not un-islamic to cultivate opium as long as it's for sale to the infidels.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 02/16/2007 15:53 Comments || Top||

#12  Nah...The Brave, Lions of islam TM would never hide behind women and children.
Posted by: anymouse || 02/16/2007 17:32 Comments || Top||

#13  (Snicker)
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/16/2007 18:05 Comments || Top||

#14  Arc Light to the tenth power
Posted by: VietVet68 || 02/16/2007 18:07 Comments || Top||


Three accused US informants hanged
TALIBAN militants hanged three Afghans after accusing them of informing US and NATO military forces about rebel bases and hideouts.

The men hanged in the Gereshk area of the southern province of Helmand on Thursday were two "ordinary villagers" and a former policeman who had surrendered to the rebels, a police officer said on condition of anonymity. The officer rejected the charge that they had been spying.

A Taliban spokesman, Yousuf Ahmadi, claimed the men were executed after documents were found on them that showed they informed foreign militaries about hideouts and bases.

Early Wednesday planes from NATO's International Security Assistance Force used precision munitions to destroy a Taliban compound near Helmand's town of Musa Qala, which was captured by the rebels more than two weeks ago. Around 10 rebels and a commander called Mullah Manan, who was involved in the capture of Musa Qala on February 2, were killed.

The same day the separate US-led coalition conducted a "precision strike" on a compound housing a high-ranking Taliban commander near Gereshk. It said it believed the man, "among the top militant commanders in southern Afghanistan", was there at the time but did not say if he may have been killed. Another rebel commander was killed near Musa Qala in a precision strike about 10 days ago. He was said to have been a key player in the takeover of the town.

SAF has said it is targeting the leaders of the Taliban-led insurgency believing many of their fighters can be persuaded to side with the Government and its allies. The Government said it is trying to find a peaceful solution to end the occupation of Musa Qala. A village elder told said this week that the rebels did not want to negotiate and were still in control.
Graveyards are pretty peaceful places. Just a thought...
The Taliban, who have been waging an insurgency since their ouster from government in a US-led invasion in 2001, have executed several Afghans whom they have accused of spying for foreign troops here to hunt the rebels down.
This article starring:
MULLAH MANANTaliban
Musa Qala
YUSUF AHMEDITaliban
Posted by: tipper || 02/16/2007 11:46 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The Taliban are so good at killing prisoners, farmers, and women, who are completely under their control. Is their version of the fairness doctrine?
Posted by: whatadeal || 02/16/2007 14:20 Comments || Top||


Al-Q video shows 'victory' over empty huts, potato chip bag
Al-Qaida posted Friday a video showing what it claimed to be an insurgent attack on a military position of U.S. and Afghan forces in southern Afghanistan. The video appears to be an attempt by the terror network to disparage U.S. claims of winning the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan. It argues that the people of Afghanistan support the insurgents and assist their attacks on U.S.-Afghan forces.

The tape comes as the United States and Britain deploy more troops to Afghanistan, after the worst year of insurgency-related violence since the Taliban regime was overthrown in 2001. The 24-minute video carries the logo of the al-Qaida media company, as-Sahab, and was posted on an Islamic Web site known for hosting extremist material. It was titled "Holocaust of the Americans in the land of Khorasan, the Islamic emirate: Capture of an American post, Arghandab." Khorasan refers to Afghanistan.

The tape begins with the deputy leader of al-Qaida, Ayman al-Zawahri, ridiculing President Bush's claim to have deprived al-Qaida of a safe haven in Afghanistan as a "barefaced lie." Al-Zawahri, who speaks in Arabic with an English translation in subtitles, seems to be referring to Bush's speech on Jan. 10 when the president said that U.S. forces "took away al-Qaida's safe haven in Afghanistan — and we will not allow them to re-establish it in Iraq."

With a narrator speaking in American-accented English, the tape shows video film of a purported attack on a military position in Arghandab, a district 100 miles northeast of the city of Kandahar. The narrator, who sounds like the American al-Qaida member Adam Gadahn, claims that the position is "liberated" by the insurgents. The film does not show the insurgents capturing the target — a compound of mud-plastered buildings in a valley — during the nighttime battle. It only shows the insurgents walking through the compound in daylight.

Bari said the NATO and Afghan troops suffered no casualties, but they detained one man after the battle, which ended with the Taliban retreating.
The authenticity of the scenes shown could not be verified. When asked about the video, the district chief of Arghandab, Fazel Bari, told The Associated Press that the only recent clash in that area was last month when suspected Taliban militants ambushed a NATO and Afghan force on the road between Arghandab and Qalat. Bari said the NATO and Afghan troops suffered no casualties, but they detained one man after the battle, which ended with the Taliban retreating.

The video was first obtained by IntelCenter, a U.S. group that tracks extremist messages. IntelCenter said the tape represented a "significant step up" in al-Qaida's video marketing. It was more than twice as long as previous operational videos, and it was distributed in two versions — Arabic with English subtitles and another with an English voiceover. The footage shows what is said to be the mujahedeen reconnoitering the target, then firing. Tracer bullets cross the night sky, fire is returned and there are explosions of what are said to be rocket-propelled grenades. "After a fierce battle, the mujahedeen begin their retreat from the zone of operations," the narrator says in English.

An empty packet of Lay's potato chips is found. The camera focuses on the name of the Saudi manufacturer, Saudi Snack Food Co. Ltd, as the narrator says: "As is always the case in our tours of liberated bases, we find evidence that the primary financiers of this crusade are the puppet regimes of the Gulf."
In the day time footage, the video shows a dusty compound of single-story buildings which were once occupied by Americans soldiers. Scrawled on the walls are words such as: "Scalp Hunters," "CPT ASHWOKTH UTAH. N6 '06 ETT," and "Spc Smith Commo US Army 2006." ETT stands for Embedded Training Teams — the U.S. and other Western soldiers who serve as mentors to the Afghan security forces.

An empty packet of Lay's potato chips is found. The camera focuses on the name of the Saudi manufacturer, Saudi Snack Food Co. Ltd, as the narrator says: "As is always the case in our tours of liberated bases, we find evidence that the primary financiers of this crusade are the puppet regimes of the Gulf."

An Afghan with a white beard and black turban tells the camera that local residents suffered under the foreign "devils."

"No one could leave his house, not even for absolutions [sic] and prayers. We couldn't even light a lamp at night ... The people are very happy about the coming of the Taliban," he says.

The video has an element of theater. It shows a U.S. helicopter flying overhead and a fighter trying to camouflage himself under dried grass. "The reconnaissance operation is not free of danger," the narrator says. But the fighter does not work with any urgency. He talks to the cameraman, who does not take cover himself.
This article starring:
ADAM GADAHNal-Qaeda
as-Sahab
Posted by: Whaviper Elmineling6276 || 02/16/2007 09:20 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  An empty packet of Lay's potato chips is found. The camera focuses on the name of the Saudi manufacturer, Saudi Snack Food Co. Ltd, as the narrator says: "As is always the case in our tours of liberated bases, we find evidence that the primary financiers of this crusade are the puppet regimes of the Gulf."

"Here we see more proof that the infidels are addicted to the poisons of the capitalist West. It is said that they cannot eat only one."
Posted by: Mike || 02/16/2007 10:08 Comments || Top||

#2  They'd get pretty good traction among the US left if they'd show a man holding the potato chip bag with a tear running down his cheek.
Posted by: eLarson || 02/16/2007 10:11 Comments || Top||

#3  Potato Chip Bags - Why do they Hate Al-Q?

/had to be said..../
Posted by: CrazyFool || 02/16/2007 10:56 Comments || Top||

#4  Azzam the American needs an American boot up his ass.

These spoiled brats who go over to Pakistan and become A-Q zombies clearly have daddy issues.
Posted by: garbagecowboy || 02/16/2007 11:55 Comments || Top||

#5  OT but I had to put this somewhere (hope it's not a RB oldie) I just got this today...


Ted Nugent's outlook...Gotta love it!!

HOW DO DEER THINK... Ted Nugent, Rock
star and avid Bowhunter was being interviewed by a French journalist
and the discussion came around to deer hunting. The journalist asked,
"What do you think is the last thought in the head of a deer before
you shoot him? Is it, "Are you my friend?" or is it "Are you the one
who killed my brother?"Nugent replied, "Deer aren't capable of that
kind of thinking. All they care about is, "What am I going to eat
next, who am I going to screw next, and can I run fast enough to get
away. They are very much like the French."

Posted by: AlanC || 02/16/2007 12:29 Comments || Top||

#6  I think the Academy should nominate one of these amateurish productions in it's best Foreign Film by a Jihadi category.

My personal fave is the Abduction and Ransom of GI Joe.
Posted by: doc || 02/16/2007 12:42 Comments || Top||

#7  Great analysis of this PROPAGANDA:

Exclusive Video: as Sahab 'Holocaust of the Americans in Afghanistan' Exposes al Qaeda Misinformation Campaign

http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/186567.php
Posted by: cajunbelle || 02/16/2007 13:30 Comments || Top||

#8  The Japanese gave us Tokyo Rose. Why can't AQ give us Wazoo Wanda? C'mon you guys, show some class.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 02/16/2007 15:59 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
One person dies after Mortars explode in Mogadishu
Mogadishu 15, Feb.07 ( Sh.M.Network) - At least one person was reported killed and more than 10 were wounded after barrage of mortars and rockets were exchanged in the Somali capital Mogadishu. Unknown gunmen have fired at least five mortars at Mogadishu international seaport. Witnesses told Shabelle that some of the mortars hit inside the port.

One teenage boy was killed and at least six others were hurt in the incident... Residents in Mogadishu blame the Ethiopian and government forces for firing back when they are targeted by unknown assailants.
Witnesses said other three mortars hit the seashore near the port where a few children were swimming. One teenage boy was killed and at least six others were hurt in the incident. A witness, who spoke to Shabelle on the condition of anonymity in fear for his security, said Ethiopian troops based in former Somali national university compound, about 7 km south Mogadishu downtown, fired several rockets after the five mortars were targeted at the seaport.

Residents in Mogadishu blame the Ethiopian and government forces for firing back when they are targeted by unknown assailants.
Oh, those perfidious Aethiops! Shooting back after being targeted? Quelle horror!
Posted by: Steve White || 02/16/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Come on strategists! A couple of the pro-West militias should be re-armed and let loose on the terrorists. Worthless consensus building is sandbagging the GWOT. Again and again, we hand the terrorists the opportunity to polarize peoples. That is the recipe for long term instability. These never-ending war scenarios are perverse morale and funding killers. Have all our leaders got S&$% for brains?
Posted by: Sneaze || 02/16/2007 9:40 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Air Mauritania Muslim Hijacker Subdued by Pilot, Passengers
A bit more detail on the earlier story...
Category: good old fashion ass whooping
Feb. 15: An Air Mauritania Boeing 737 passenger plane is seen at Gando military base in Las Palmas on the Canary island of Gran Cararia, Spain.
MADRID, Spain — A fast-thinking pilot, with the help of passengers, fooled a gunman who had hijacked a jetliner flying from Africa to the Canary Islands, braking hard upon landing then quickly accelerating to knock the man down so travelers could pounce on him, Spanish officials said Friday.
Get the feeling they weren't to gentle with this idiot
A lone gunman brandishing two pistols hijacked the Air Mauritania Boeing 737, carrying 71 passengers and a crew of eight, Thursday evening shortly after it took off from the Mauritanian capital of Nouakchott for Gran Canaria, one of Spain's Canary Islands, with a planned stopover in Nouadhibou in northern Mauritania. He wanted to divert the plane to France so he could request political asylum, said Mohamed Ould Mohamed Cheikh, Mauritania's top police official.
Just in time for the Muslim burnings of Paris. Is that a weekly thing now or just Monthly?
The hijacker has been identified as Mohamed Abderraman, ...
now there's a suprise
... a 32-year-old Mauritanian, said an official with the Spanish Interior Ministry office on Tenerife, another of the islands in the Atlantic archipelago. He spoke under rules barring publication of his name. Mauritania has said the hijacker was a Muslim Moroccan from the Western Sahara.
To bad they didn't throw him and his turban into the turbine. Guess mistakes will happen.
This article starring:
Mohamed Abderraman
Mohamed Ould Mohamed Cheikh
Posted by: Icerigger || 02/16/2007 12:06 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Mohamed was still breathing when taken off the plane? For shame.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 02/16/2007 12:32 Comments || Top||

#2  It worked. The man was standing in the middle aisle when the pilot carried out his maneuver, and he fell to the floor, dropping one of his two 7mm pistols. Flight attendants then threw boiling water from a coffee machine in his face and at his chest, and some 10 people jumped on the man and beat him, the Spanish official said.

truly heart warming, I hope they beat this bastard into bloody pulp.
Posted by: RD || 02/16/2007 12:48 Comments || Top||

#3  "some 10 people jumped on the man and beat him"

Heh.™

I particularly like the beating part. :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 02/16/2007 13:06 Comments || Top||

#4  afaict all the guys who jumped him, and perhaps the pilot, were muslim as well.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 02/16/2007 13:47 Comments || Top||

#5  In the immortal words of Dean Martin:
"Ain't that a kick in the head?"
Posted by: mojo || 02/16/2007 13:55 Comments || Top||

#6  afaict all the guys who jumped him, and perhaps the pilot, were muslim as well

Should we be surprised that Muslims will fight for their lives?
Posted by: Shineger Unatle5424 || 02/16/2007 14:02 Comments || Top||

#7  "Should we be surprised that Muslims will fight for their lives?"

Interesting question, that.
Posted by: kelly || 02/16/2007 14:07 Comments || Top||

#8  how odd. a muslim hijacking a plane? Someone call CAIR before we start profiling. FYI Great story that could only be improved by the Jihadi Hijacker swinging from a rope in the very near future.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 02/16/2007 14:22 Comments || Top||

#9  Flight attendants then threw boiling water from a coffee machine in his face

Bet this is practiced reaction.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/16/2007 17:14 Comments || Top||

#10  "Should we be surprised that Muslims will fight for their lives?"

certainly not, when muslims are fighting jihadis across the muslim world.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 02/16/2007 17:48 Comments || Top||

#11  uh huh... It's too early for a bedtime story....will you be back later?
Posted by: Frank G || 02/16/2007 18:17 Comments || Top||

#12  --Flight attendants then threw boiling water from a coffee machine in his face--

Nice to know "the world" was paying attention after 9/11.

Was it SOP before?
Posted by: anonymous2u || 02/16/2007 21:19 Comments || Top||

#13  afaict all the guys who jumped him, and perhaps the pilot, were muslim as well.

That's nice. Lemme know when that happens on a US domestic flight.
Posted by: Pappy || 02/16/2007 21:28 Comments || Top||

#14  afaict all the guys who jumped him, and perhaps the pilot, were muslim as well.

Not likely since the flight was going to Canary Islands. Majority Spanish tourists returning from holiday.
Posted by: ed || 02/16/2007 23:02 Comments || Top||


Hijacker of Mauritanian plane arrested
Passengers overpowered a suspected armed hijacker who had commandeered a Mauritanian plane on Thursday when he was knocked off his feet during a hard landing, a source close to the Mauritanian presidency said. The Air Mauritania Boeing 737 was on an internal flight in Mauritania when the hijacker, armed with pistols, demanded to be flown to France, officials said. The pilot landed in Spain's Canary Islands instead, where Spanish police arrested the man.
"When the pilot landed he deliberately braked very hard. The man fell to the ground and was jumped on by passengers. He fired two bullets but there are no serious injuries."
"When the pilot landed he deliberately braked very hard. The man fell to the ground and was jumped on by passengers. He fired two bullets but there are no serious injuries," the Mauritanian source told Reuters.
"Ow! Ow! The bastard shot me!"
"Don't worry about it! Those aren't serious injuries!"
"That's my brisket bleeding!"
A spokeswoman for the Spanish emergency services said 20 people suffered minor cuts and bruises but added she knew of nobody being injured by gunfire, as one emergency services source had reported earlier. Spain's Interior Ministry said security forces arrested the hijacker and freed all 71 passengers and eight crew after the plane touched down at Gando airport on the island of Gran Canaria. Media reported the hijacker was North African.

Air Mauritania's Director General Mohamed Ould El Moctar said the crew told him nobody was hurt and that the hijacker had acted alone. "The lone hijacker was armed with two pistols but it is not clear whether these were real or not," he told Al Jazeera television.
Posted by: Fred || 02/16/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  CO-operation pays off.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/16/2007 9:45 Comments || Top||

#2  Two bullets fired and they're "Not sure if the were real or not"? Idiots, fake guns do not shoot.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/16/2007 20:31 Comments || Top||


Morocco Raises Threat Alert
[MENL] -- Morocco has raised its security alert amid the threat of an Al Qaida strike. Moroccan security sources said authorities have raised the threat alert to Code Yellow in wake of an intelligence report that Al Qaida-aligned insurgents have infiltrated the North African kingdom. They said the insurgents intend to conduct a series of attacks in Morocco. "We believe that the terrorists have come from Algeria," a security source said.

The sources said Code Yellow, one below the highest level of alert, required authorities to increase security at all installations regarded as critical and sensitive. They said this included Western embassies and diplomatic residences.
Posted by: Fred || 02/16/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Probably more to do with Western Sahara dispute. Algerians are kicking out the AQ band of brothers there and maybe telling to go to WS as their proxy and put the fear of Allan into tangine cookers.
Posted by: Jack is Back || 02/16/2007 15:46 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Kuwait Increases Security Alert
[MENL] -- Kuwait has increased its security alert amid the threat of sectarian strife. Officials said the Interior Ministry has decided to increase the threat level over the next few weeks. They said the alert was being raised in advance of the Hala celebrations later in February. "According to instructions from the first Deputy Prime Minister and Defense and Interior Minister Jaber Al Mubarak, security authorities will be on higher alert during Hala February," an official statement said.

Under the alert, Kuwait would bolster security along the northern border with Iraq. Officials said authorities did not rule out the prospect that Al Qaida insurgents from Iraq would seek to infiltrate Kuwait and conduct attacks during Hala.
Posted by: Fred || 02/16/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  All borders are in jeopardy during the "surge' forget Hala. Hard to believe the Brits and Shia's controlling Basra would allow any AQ and other hard boyz to come dancing down the road to Q8.
Posted by: Jack is Back || 02/16/2007 15:48 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Two militants killed in Grozny clash
(RIA Novosti) - Two militants have been killed and one detained in a clash in the capital of Chechnya, Grozny, the prosecutor of the Russian North Caucasus republic said Thursday. "The prosecutor's office has launched a criminal case into the facts of the clash," Valery Kuznetsov said, adding that two policemen were wounded. He said information was received that a group of militants had barricaded themselves inside a multistory building. A Chechen Interior Ministry source said one of the dead militants was a local ringleader. An investigation is underway.
Posted by: Fred || 02/16/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Europe
'Mastermind' of Madrid bombing goes on trial
The man accused of masterminding Europe's worst Islamist terror attack took the stand yesterday as the trial opened in Madrid of 29 men accused over multiple train bombings in the Spanish capital on 11 March 2004.

Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed, known as "Mohamed the Egyptian" sat impassively facing three Spanish magistrates while an unprecedented charge list was read out.
If convicted, he faces eighteen years jail for membership of a terrorist group, 30 years for each of the 191 people killed when multiple explosions ripped through four Madrid commuter trains; 18 years for each attempted murder of the 1,824 wounded, and a further eight years each for the unborn children of two pregnant women killed.
If convicted, he faces eighteen years jail for membership of a terrorist group, 30 years for each of the 191 people killed when multiple explosions ripped through four Madrid commuter trains; 18 years for each attempted murder of the 1,824 wounded, and a further eight years each for the unborn children of two pregnant women killed.

The figures brought home the massive scale of a massacrethat has left deep emotional and political scars in Spain. Speaking through his lawyer, Mr Osman denied all involvement: "I never had any relation to the events that occurred in Madrid. I condemn these attacks unconditionally," he said.
"Lies! All lies!"
The presiding magistrate, Javier Gomez Bermudez, clarified that, under Spanish law, Mr Osman would face a maximum of 40 years and not the potential 40,000 years sentence if found guilty. For the next five months, the trial will bring Spain face to face with the men accused of carrying out the country's worst atrocity in living memory.

Pilar Manjon, who lost her son Daniel and has become a spokeswoman for other victims and their families, stood up and faced the accused as they filed into their armoured glass cage. "I looked them in the eye as I wanted them to know I was going to be their worst nightmare. They avoided my gaze," she said.

Prosecutors argue the plot was the work of a home-grown Islamist cell inspired by al-Qa'ida, who sought to punish Spain for participating in the war in Iraq. But the three years of investigations summarised in hundreds of cardboard boxfiles lined up yesterday behind the judges will afford a painful reminder of past mistakes - and of just how easily a clutch of religious fanatics was able to exploit enormous security gaps in a country obsessed with combating terrorism.
This article starring:
Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed
Posted by: Fred || 02/16/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The investigation hgas been so plagued with goofings (NO analyisis of explosives), clues who mysteriously appear in places who had alreday be searched and found empty, downright falsifications of documents (a high ranking poice is under indictment), plus that the official suspects were all pàolice informants and attempts by the socialist government to close the parlamentary investigation that any suspicions are possible.

In fact it looks like the socialists have something to hide.
Posted by: JFM || 02/16/2007 4:38 Comments || Top||

#2  Retreat ! We are threatened . Cave in to their demands , withdraw from Iraq ! That'll solve our problems ! BOOM , welcome to the real world . Wake up Spain. Nothing worse than appeasment in these situations

Emu meet sand. No wonder ETA et al love Spanish politics and policies
Posted by: MacNails || 02/16/2007 5:26 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
WND : Terrorism not ruled out in Salt Lake case
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 02/16/2007 13:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  With the FBI and police refusing to take this Islamic kid's computers we may never know.

The leader of his mosque was convicted of wife beating but heh, that's Islam for you. Specifially the koran.
Posted by: Icerigger || 02/16/2007 13:13 Comments || Top||

#2  My brother in law's best friend is the one who shot the bastard! Good going!
Posted by: Angenter Crolugum3645 || 02/16/2007 13:27 Comments || Top||

#3  Buy that man a beer for stopping that asshat.
Posted by: Anon4021 || 02/16/2007 15:23 Comments || Top||

#4  AC

good shot for your b-i-l best friend

we might have gotten a jihad confession if the murderer had lived, but the taxpayers would have been stuck with a big legal bill and then a big incarceration bill so - once again --- good shot
Posted by: mhw || 02/16/2007 15:23 Comments || Top||

#5  I live near SLC, and have followed the local coverage closely.

First, Ken Hammond of the Ogden Police Department did an outstanding job. He knew what to do, and did it perfectly. He cleared as many people as he could, and engaged the shooter with his Kimber .45. Officer Hammond engaged the shooter about 3 minutes into the episode, and it was another 3 minutes until the SLCPD arrived in force. So, for 3 minutes, he was all there was between the shooter and more victims. I think it is significant that once Hammond engaged the shooter, no more bystanders were injured. Fine job.

The shooter had a troubled past, with two past incidents of threatening girls with a knife, and one of shoplifting.

There is nothing so far that indicates to me that the kid was anything but a sad, lonely, flipped out kid who happened to be a Muslim. Maybe there will be facts that overturn that opinion, but so far, none have been presented.

The local Muslim and Bosnian communities are appalled at this action, and have offered public condolences.

Terrorism? Maybe that will be shown. But so far, not.
Posted by: w7db || 02/16/2007 17:20 Comments || Top||

#6  thx w7db
Posted by: Frank G || 02/16/2007 18:18 Comments || Top||

#7  Sounds like Ken Hammond fought like he trained, and it sounds like he trained well. Very heartening to see good people like this make a difference. And he had a good caliber (.45ACP) weapon with knock-down power to take this guy out.

I would like to see a lot more people trained and obtain concealed carry handgun permits. It makes everyone safer. Utah has a concealed carry law that has reciprocity in many states.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 02/16/2007 21:59 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Bomb kills polio health official
A senior health official has been killed and three guards injured in a bomb blast in Pakistan's tribal region bordering Afghanistan, officials say.

The dead man, Abdul Ghani Khan, played a key role in a polio immunisation drive in the Bajaur tribal region. Dr Khan was returning from a meeting of tribal elders to persuade them to end their opposition to the campaign. It is not clear if he was targeted because of his work to eradicate polio in the area.
Nope, nope, that had nothing to do with it, nope. He's an educated man seen discussing things with infidels but nope, that couldn't be it.
No one has admitted to carrying out the blast. Officials said the assailants used a remote-controlled bomb.

Two of the three guards travelling with Dr Khan are in a serious condition after the blast, in a village around 50kms (30 miles) northeast of Khar, the main town in the Bajaur tribal region.

Pro-Taleban militants are known to be active in the area.
Posted by: john || 02/16/2007 12:32 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  You try to help/save these ignorant idiots and how do they treat you!!!!
Posted by: Ebbolump Glomotle9608 || 02/16/2007 12:57 Comments || Top||

#2  "Some tribal leaders say the vaccine is a part of a US conspiracy to reduce fertility and reproduction rates."

Well, Jonas Salk was from New York and Jewish. If that doesn't confirm their warped mentality nuthin will.
Posted by: DepotGuy || 02/16/2007 13:58 Comments || Top||

#3  Let Allan cure 'em.
Posted by: gromgoru || 02/16/2007 18:01 Comments || Top||

#4  LAHORE: The parents of 24,000 children in northern Pakistan refused to allow health workers to administer polio vaccinations last month, mostly due to rumours that the harmless vaccine was an American plot to sterilise innocent Muslim children, The Guardian newspaper reported on Thursday.

The disinformation - spread by extremist clerics using mosque loudspeakers and illegal radio stations, and by word of mouth - has caused a sharp jump in polio cases in Pakistan and hit global efforts to eradicate the debilitating disease, the newspaper said.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) recorded 39 cases of polio in Pakistan in 2006, up from 28 in 2005. The disease is concentrated in North West Frontier Province (NWFP), where 60 percent of the refusals were attributed to “religious reasons”.

“It was very striking. There was a lot of anti-American propaganda as well as some misconceptions about sterilisation,” said Dr Sarfaraz Afridi, a campaign manager with the WHO in Peshawar.

The NWFP government made strenuous efforts to counter talk of an “infidel vaccine”. Health workers fanning across the province last month were equipped with copies of a fatwa (religious order), endorsing the vaccinations and signed by Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Qazi Hussain Ahmed, the leaders of Pakistan’s most powerful religious parties. The move reassured many doubters.

Although only 24,000 children missed the vaccine, the WHO officials said failure to vaccinate in small pockets of the country gave the virus a fresh toehold to spread.

The vaccination struggle is entangled with the confrontation between the government and powerful militants in the tribal areas. Refusals were highest in areas where conservative clerics and self-styled “Pakistani Taliban” fighters hold sway, flouting government authority and making their own strict laws.

Almost 2,000 children were not vaccinated in Bajaur, a tribal agency on the Afghan border. In nearby Swat Valley, a young firebrand cleric, Maulana Fazlullah, denounced the polio campaign through a local FM radio station. Almost 4,000 children were not vaccinated in Swat.

Imran Khan, of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, said: “Some people feel they are under attack here ... That is clouding their attitudes.”

Aid workers fear they are being pushed into the frontline of the struggle between the government and tribal militants. Last weekend a grenade was lobbed into a Red Crescent compound in Peshawar, damaging vehicles but killing nobody. Cleric Mufti Khalid Shah declared a fatwa on employees of the UN, WHO and all other foreign organisations. “Killing their employees is in line with the teachings of jihad in Islam,” said a notice. Recently aid workers in Bannu were threatened with death.
Posted by: John Frum || 02/16/2007 18:07 Comments || Top||

#5  er.... John Frum.... isn't this outta your fiefdom :-)

Next, they'll decry the poor quality of Jooooo-designed crutches and wheelchairs
Posted by: Frank G || 02/16/2007 18:36 Comments || Top||

#6  message to Perv: you're the leader of a country. You have an army. They have "powerful extremist clerics". Who is in charge. If a bullet ended the tenure of these clerics, wouldn't you be DOING YOUR JOB???
Posted by: Frank G || 02/16/2007 18:38 Comments || Top||

#7  John Frum.... isn't this outta your fiefdom

but plain "john" is so boring.

I'm quite taken with this "John Frum" - being a minor south pacific deity is cool.
Posted by: John Frum || 02/16/2007 18:42 Comments || Top||

#8  fair enuf! I'm quite enamored of the "Commodore Frank" label ...LOL, although my kids still call me "Dad", and snicker behind my back when I answer the phone as "Commodore Frank". Alaska Paul is guilty of falsely elevating my self-esteem, dammit! Ima victim :-)
Posted by: Frank G || 02/16/2007 18:49 Comments || Top||

#9  When you coming back sailor man? Our needs are many, but our faith in you is pure.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/16/2007 19:44 Comments || Top||


Suicide bomber training camp
MILITARY intelligence experts have identified three al-Qaeda camps which may be training British suicide bombers. More than 150 men have been observed visiting the camps, which are in the remote border area between Pakistan and Afghanistan, in recent months.

Some of them are said to have been British citizens who spent time at the desert compounds before returning to the UK.

Coalition commanders have repeatedly demanded Pakistani permission to destroy the camps in Zahendan, Dalbandin and Suyrab but have been refused. It is believed Pakistan may have plans to launch its own attacks.

Coalition sources in Afghanistan say commanders have become increasingly frustrated over the Pakistan intelligence service's failure to adequately track the al-Qaeda suspects. They say it has enabled many to "slip under the radar" and return to Europe undetected. It is feared there are up to 30 British nationals in the UK who have trained in these camps in the past two years.

The camps, which are being kept under observation by spy satellites, are relatively small compared to the training complexes set up by Osama bin Laden before 9/11. They are said to host just 20 "trainees" at a time. A source said: "It is believed the numbers are kept relatively low so that participants can avoid detection."

Meanwhile a NATO airstrike yesterday killed leading Taliban warlord Mullah Manan and ten henchmen during an attack on a compound in Afghanistan's Helmand province.
This article starring:
MULLAH MANANTaliban
Posted by: john || 02/16/2007 07:42 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  You just can't find any good suicide bombers anymore.
Posted by: doc || 02/16/2007 8:51 Comments || Top||

#2  Coalition commanders have repeatedly demanded Pakistani permission to destroy the camps in Zahendan, Dalbandin and Suyrab but have been refused... It is believed Pakistan may have plans to launch its own attacks.

Or not.
Posted by: Howard UK || 02/16/2007 9:21 Comments || Top||

#3  google earth
possibly Dalbandin camp , remote , no roads , no agriculture ?

28.53'01.38 N
64.26'49.55 E




Posted by: MacNails || 02/16/2007 9:23 Comments || Top||

#4  Coalition commanders have repeatedly demanded Pakistani permission to destroy the camps in Zahendan, Dalbandin and Suyrab but have been refused... It is believed Pakistan may have plans to launch its own attacks.

They'll attack after the ISI trainers and most of the bombers leave.
Posted by: john || 02/16/2007 9:42 Comments || Top||

#5 
It is believed Pakistan may have plans to launch its own attacks.


So they admit they're involved in funding the suicide bombers? Oh, you mean the reporter was referring to attacks on the camps?

Wow. What an idiot.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 02/16/2007 9:47 Comments || Top||

#6  "Coalition commanders have repeatedly demanded Pakistani permission to destroy the camps in Zahendan, Dalbandin and Suyrab but have been refused."
So perhaps a wayward JDAM is in order?
What is the downside if we don't ask; Beg forgiveness? F#$k 'em.
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 02/16/2007 14:42 Comments || Top||

#7  Is anyone taking bets that the Brits know a whole lot more about the "up to 30 nationals" than they are letting on? They seem to be on top of these guys.
Posted by: whatadeal || 02/16/2007 22:57 Comments || Top||


Bomb targeting FC vehicles defused
KOHAT: A remote-controlled bomb, planted on Domail Road to target a Frontier Corps convoy, was found and defused here on Thursday. According to a private TV channel, police were tipped off that a 9-kilogramme remote-controlled bomb had been planted on Domail Road, following which bomb disposal squad officials defused the bomb. Police said the bomb had been planted to target four Frontier Corps vehicles, which were en route from Bannu to Kohat. Police have launched an investigation.
Posted by: Fred || 02/16/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Start by back tracing the phone number.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/16/2007 9:50 Comments || Top||


Peshawar police chief says suicide bombers' group identified
City Police Chief Abdul Majeed Marwat said on Thursday that his department had traced a suicide bombers’ group with links to suicide blasts in Islamabad, Peshawar and Dera Ismail Khan. “The investigation teams have obtained sufficient evidence of the group’s involvement in suicide blasts,” Marwat told a press conference at Police Lines, but he refused to identify the group, saying that reporters knew that the “group belongs to another territory”.

Police sources told Daily Times that the group belonged to Waziristan and therefore was not in the precincts of the Peshawar Police. Operations SSP Iftikhar Khan said that intelligence agencies had informed police that a group of suicide bombers had entered Peshawar. “The police is on alert and we have improved security in sensitive areas including the residences of the governor and the chief minister,” he added. Marwat said the Frontier police lacked defensive equipment and anti-terrorism training and was incapable of stopping suicide attacks.

“The intelligence agencies are responsible for foiling suicide blasts because the police’s duty is to stop social crimes only,” Marwat said, adding that suicide bombers were targeting police and army personnel to press the government. He said the government should provide the NWFP police with modern equipment so that the force could focus on anti-terrorism training. Marwat said that every citizen should respect the law and asked District Nazim Haji Ghulam Ali and other nazims to remove sirens and VIP number plates from their vehicles or face disciplinary action.
Posted by: Fred || 02/16/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


2 terrorists arrested
Police raided a house on Misrial Road on Thursday and arrested two men wanted for sectarian attacks on Shias. On a tip-off that the two men, Usman Chotu and Arshad Satti, who are members of the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi militant group, planned to carry out suicide attacks, the city police raided the house and arrested them after a brief scuffle.

The police seized five hand grenades, two Kalashnikovs and some explosive material from them. Usman Chotu is suspected to be the mastermind of various suicide bombings including a suicide attack on a mourning procession at Bari Imam, a bomb blast at Shah Najaf Imambargah, Rawalpindi, and a bomb blast at an imambargah in Sialkot. Sources said that the accused had confessed to police that they planned to target VIPs to avenge the ongoing military operation in Waziristan.
Posted by: Fred || 02/16/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Those darned Mormans!
Posted by: Icerigger || 02/16/2007 12:14 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Sadr orders militia heads out of Iraq - president
BAGHDAD (Rooters) - Radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has ordered heads of his Mehdi Army militia to hightail it out leave Iraq and asked the government to arrest "outlaws" under a U.S.- backed crackdown, Iraq's president said on Thursday.
"Head for the hills of Iran! Those crazy Americans are shooting back this time!"
President Jalal Talabani made the remarks after Iraq closed its borders with Iran and Syria and as U.S. and Iraqi troops tightened their grip on Baghdad, patrolling neighbourhoods and setting up checkpoints that searched even official convoys.

Talabani said he was unaware of Sadr's whereabouts. The U.S. military has said the anti-American cleric is in Iran, but his aides insist he is in Iraq's holy Shi'ite city Najaf. An Iraqi government official said he was in Tehran, but only for a short visit. "I think many of his top Mehdi Army officials have been ordered to leave Iraq to make the mission of the security forces easier," the president was quoted as saying in a statement from his office.
That's why they're called the Brave Lions of Islam™, you know.
Washington calls the Mehdi militia the greatest threat to Iraq's security. U.S. and Iraqi forces have arrested hundreds of Mehdi Army members in recent months.

The statement from Talabani's office added that Sadr supported the crackdown and had given the government the go- ahead to arrest any "outlaws". Talabani told a news conference that Sadr had asked Mehdi members to scram flee run away leave the country.

His comments and the melting away of many ordinary Mehdi fighters from Sadr City's streets are the clearest signs yet that the militia will not stand and fight like it did in 2004, when it twice rose up against American forces.
Because they remember what happened both times.
Some Shi'ite officials outside Sadr's movement say the militia wants to avoid a battle to protect the young cleric's political gains. Sadr's movement holds a quarter of the parliamentary seats in the ruling Shi'ite Alliance of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 02/16/2007 14:27 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has ordered heads of his Mehdi Army militia to leave Iraq

Sounds good. What should they do with the bodies?
Posted by: Shineger Unatle5424 || 02/16/2007 14:47 Comments || Top||

#2  RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY!
Posted by: mojo || 02/16/2007 14:49 Comments || Top||

#3  The character of this op has a very different complexion. Note how serious it is being taken by the bad guys, who are bugging out in all directions, and its national character, to include sealing the borders.

There is a lot more going on than meets the eye.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 02/16/2007 15:00 Comments || Top||

#4  Radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has ordered heads of his Mehdi Army militia to leave Iraq and asked the government to arrest "outlaws" under a U.S.- backed crackdown, Iraq's president said on Thursday.

Following the grand tradition of Brave Jihadi Pussies everywhere...
Do what you want to my lunatic desciples, just...leave me alone.
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/16/2007 15:05 Comments || Top||

#5  Sir Robin Moqtada.
Posted by: mrp || 02/16/2007 15:05 Comments || Top||

#6  The leaders always run and/or surrender leaving the soldiers to die. You think the guys joining these things would have learned by now, after several thousand years of pussy leadership.
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/16/2007 15:08 Comments || Top||

#7  "Continue the jihad against the Great Satan, my brothers! While you bravely stop the oppressor's bullets, I will lead you from this secret location in the home country of our mortal ethnic enemies the Persians, where I am safe from the glorious martyrdom which you are achieving."
Posted by: Mike || 02/16/2007 15:13 Comments || Top||

#8  This seems to be making the "We oppose the surge cuz it ain't gonna work" argument they are debating today moot.
Posted by: eLarson || 02/16/2007 15:38 Comments || Top||

#9  They have the Clear part down. Now to see if they can manage the Hold.
Posted by: Slailing Anginert2908 || 02/16/2007 15:51 Comments || Top||

#10  I just wish we didn't telegraph all this first. Seal the border, flush the city, hammer and anvil. Isn't Clear and Kill much easier than Clear and Hold? (suppose secrecy isn't possible though -- just a wish)
Posted by: Captain Lewis || 02/16/2007 16:20 Comments || Top||

#11  Captain Lewis, on one hand I totally agree. On the other, its better not to fight steet to street if we don't have to.

Announce, get them to flee. Seal the borders so they can't return. Pacify and make the areas inhospitable to their return. Mock. Then hope the whole affair adversly affects the Iranian regime who had clearly been trying to undermine Iraq.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 02/16/2007 16:51 Comments || Top||

#12  Whe they keep drugs out of prisones, I'll be lieve borders can be sealed.

However, these guys should be portrayed as yellow cowards in the Iraqi media and the people should be encouraged, by the government and the tribal leaders, to rat them out when they return. Failure to do so should result in the destruction of the house they are discovered in, etc. The civilian populace needs to decide which side they are on and we have to make it safe to choose our side and dangerous to choose the losers.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 02/16/2007 17:37 Comments || Top||


US rejects Masri wounding claim
Senior US military sources in Iraq have told the BBC they do not believe reports that the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq has been injured in fighting. Arab TV stations said early on Friday that Abu Ayyub al-Masri, also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, had been hurt during clashes north of Baghdad. The reports said that the incident had occurred in Balad.

Masri took over as the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq after the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in a 2006 US air raid. Little is known about Masri - the US military has said it believes him to be an Egyptian militant based in Baghdad.
Since "al-Masri" means "the Egyptian," that's prob'ly a pretty good bet.
He is understood to have trained in Afghanistan and helped Zarqawi form the first al-Qaeda cell in the Iraqi capital. A statement posted on a website used by Islamic militants in June 2006 announced that he would take over as the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq after Zarqawi was killed in a US air strike. The statement said he had a history of fighting a holy war and that he had been unanimously elected as the group's new chief.
"All in favor say 'Aye!'"
"Aye!"
"Opposed say 'Nay!'"
"Nay!"
[BANG!]
"The motion is carried unanimously!"
There is currently a $5m US bounty on Masri's head.
"But for his head only, let's be clear about that point."
This article starring:
ABU AIYUB AL MASRIal-Qaeda in Iraq
ABU HAMZA AL MUHAJIRal-Qaeda in Iraq
ABU MUSAB AL ZARQAWIal-Qaeda in Iraq
al-Qaeda in Iraq
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 02/16/2007 13:02 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Drastic drop in Baghdad civilian deaths for 2/16/07
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 02/16/2007 11:40 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Excerpt from the article:

Sunni cleric Harith al-Obeidi warned the government not to target mosques as part of the military action.

"Harming mosques and innocents are red lines to us," he said. "Mosques are places for worship and are symbols of peace."

I need say no more.
Posted by: Glenmore || 02/16/2007 12:33 Comments || Top||

#2  Gun Worship and Peaceful Safe Houses
Posted by: Angenter Crolugum3645 || 02/16/2007 13:28 Comments || Top||


Report: Al-Qaeda leader in Iraq hurt
US and Iraqi forces pushed deeper Thursday into Sunni militant strongholds in Baghdad — where cars rigged with explosives greeted their advance — while British-led teams in southern Iraq used shipping containers to block suspected weapon smuggling routes from Iran.

Early Friday, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry said the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, was wounded and an aide was killed in a clash the previous day with Iraqi forces north of Baghdad. However, the deputy interior minister said he had no information about such a clash, and two US officials could not immediately confirm the report.

The series of car bomb blasts, which killed at least seven civilians, touched all corners of Baghdad. But it did little to disrupt a security sweep seeking to weaken militia groups' ability to fight US-allied forces — and each other — as Iraq slips further into factional bloodshed.

The attacks, however, pointed to the critical struggle to gain the upper hand on Baghdad's streets. The Pentagon hopes its current campaign of arrests and arms seizures will convince average Iraqis that militiamen are losing ground. Yet each explosion is another reminder of the militants' resources and resolve.

Most of the latest resistance has come from Sunni factions, which perceive their Saddam Hussein-era influence slipping away as the majority Shiites extend their political muscle and bolster ties to powerful Iran. In Baghdad's Dora neighborhood — a longtime Sunni militant hotbed — two parked cars wired with explosives were triggered as a joint US-Iraqi patrol rolled past. The convoy was unharmed, but the blast killed at least four civilians and wounded 15.

Control of the Dora district, a once upscale neighborhood favored by Saddam's regime, is important as a gateway between Baghdad and the Shiite-dominated south. Two other car bomb blasts came as security forces moved through the capital, killing at least three civilians.

Outside Baghdad, troops also faced Sunni ambushes. In Buhriz, about 30 miles northeast of the capital, Sunni gunmen and soldiers from the 1st Squadron, 12th Cavalry Regiment engaged in a 20-minute firefight. US Bradley fighting vehicles fired 25mm rounds into homes shielding the gunmen, said an Associated Press reporter traveling with the unit. No US casualties were reported, and the militant toll was not known. Separately, however, a US Marine was killed in combat in Iraq's western Anbar province, a Sunni militant stronghold.

The announcement about the wounding of al-Masri, the al-Qaeda in Iraq leader, came from Brig. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, an Interior Ministry spokesman. He said the clash occurred near Balad, a major US base about 50 miles north of the capital, and identified the dead aide as Abu Abdullah al-Majemaai.

Al-Masri took over the leadership of al-Qaeda in Iraq after its charismatic leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was killed in a US airstrike last June in Diyala province northeast of Baghdad. In October, false reports surfaced that al-Masri was killed in a raid, and the US military performed DNA tests on a slain militant to see if he was the al-Qaeda leader.
This article starring:
ABU AIYUB AL MASRIal-Qaeda in Iraq
ABU MUSAB AL ZARQAWIal-Qaeda in Iraq
Posted by: phil_b || 02/16/2007 06:16 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Maybe yes, maybe no....

BAGHDAD, Iraq — An Iraqi army officer said Friday that an al-Qaida in Iraq deputy has been jailed south of Baghdad, casting doubt on reports that he was killed and the group's leader was wounded in clashes. The Interior Ministry spokesman, Brig. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf said terror leader Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, also known as Abu Ayyub al-Masri, was wounded and an aide killed Thursday in a clash with Iraqi forces near Balad, north of Baghdad.

Khalaf declined to say how Iraqi forces knew al-Masri had been injured, and deputy Interior Minister Maj. Gen. Hussein Ali Kamal later said he could not confirm the information.

An Iraqi army officer said the aide, identified as Abu Abdullah al-Majemaai, had been detained on Feb. 9 and remained in custody in a jail near Mahmoudiya, about 20 miles south of Baghdad. The officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to disclose the information, said he could not comment on al-Masri's whereabouts.

The U.S. military said it was looking into the reports, which come as American and Iraqi forces have launched a major security crackdown against Sunni insurgents, including al-Qaida in Iraq, as well as Shiite militias. Khalaf said the clash occurred near Balad, a major U.S. base about 50 miles north of the capital, and identified the dead aide as Abu Abdullah al-Majemaai.
Posted by: Steve || 02/16/2007 7:33 Comments || Top||

#2  Ouch!
Posted by: E.T. || 02/16/2007 9:46 Comments || Top||

#3  Bill Roggio says No.
Posted by: doc || 02/16/2007 12:46 Comments || Top||


U.S. and Iraqi forces raid leading Shiite mosque in Baghdad
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A U.S. military spokesman on Thursday hailed a joint American-Iraqi raid on Baghdad's leading Shiite Muslim mosque as proof of that the Baghdad security plan is being applied evenly against all sides of the country's sectarian divide.

The raid, which took place Wednesday, angered the mosque's imam, who took the unusual step of canceling Friday prayer services at the historic Baratha mosque, where, Shiites believe, Muhammad's son-in-law, Ali, converted a Christian missionary to Islam in the seventh century.
Too enraged to spittle properly, was he?
Sheik Jalal al-Din al-Saghir, a member of parliament from the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, denounced the raid, which the U.S. military said had turned up a cache of illegal weapons. The Supreme Council is one of Iraq's largest political parties and part of its governing coalition.

In a statement released Thursday afternoon, the U.S. military said the mosque was raided "during operations targeting illegally armed militia kidnapping, torture and murder activities." It said the mosque was used "to conduct sectarian violence against Iraqi civilians as well as a safe haven and weapons storage area for illegal militia groups."

The statement said U.S. forces had provided protection around the mosque while Iraqi soldiers entered it with the cooperation of its security guards. Three Russian PKC machine guns and 80 assault rifles were seized, the statement said. No one was detained and no injuries were reported.

In an interview, al-Saghir said the mosque was raided by Americans who, he charged, had relied on false intelligence from the Supreme Council's enemies. He said the Americans were looking for "prisons, vaults and torturing operations." "As they are used to doing, the Americans believed these lies," he said. "It was a disappointment for them because they didn't find anything."
Other than machine guns and rifles.
He said the searchers had rifled his files and had confiscated seven pistols, cell phones belonging to the mosque and its employees, 13 other communications devices and about $10,000 in U.S. currency. He said the Russian machine guns belonged to the Iraqi Interior Ministry, the department that controls the police, who are widely thought to be infiltrated by militias.
And what were the machine guns doing in the mosque, your Immenseness?
"The first thing we are going to do is cancel the Friday prayers of tomorrow as a protest against this raid," al-Saghir said. "There are other procedures which we don't mention to media."

Al-Saghir said he'd called the defense and interior ministries and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's office, demanding to know who'd authorized the search. "All of them denied any knowledge about the raid," Saghir said. "One of the Iraqi officials told me that the U.S. officials in Iraq are confused."

U.S. Army Lt. Col. Chris Garver, a spokesman for the coalition forces in Iraq, said American soldiers had entered the mosque only after the search had been completed and then only to help Iraqi special forces haul out the weapons. The search showed that the security forces would target Shiite militias, even if they had to enter mosques, he said. "The prime minister's guidance is that we will target everyone operating outside the law regardless of sect or political affiliation. We - the coalition forces - are continuing to do that," Garver said in an interview. "We'll go where we need to go."
Posted by: Steve White || 02/16/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  How is it that a society produces people who get so pissed off at the authorities when they get caught contributing to something so utterly despicable? How can a rational . . . Oh, nevermind.
Posted by: gorb || 02/16/2007 0:06 Comments || Top||

#2  "The first thing we are going to do is cancel the Friday prayers of tomorrow as a protest against this raid," al-Saghir said. "There are other procedures which we don't mention to media."

Those "other procedures" involve kidnapping, torture, and murder.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 02/16/2007 5:34 Comments || Top||

#3  They call'em "Mosques." We call'em armories. You decide.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/16/2007 5:51 Comments || Top||

#4  Rather than canceling one prayer service today as a protest, why not cancel all prayer services forever. That would teach us.

Even better, hit the self destruct button.
Posted by: mhw || 02/16/2007 9:27 Comments || Top||

#5  "The first thing we are going to do is cancel the Friday prayers of tomorrow

Oh yeah, that'l show us, (Sarc) Hard to "Protest" unarmed, isn't it?
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/16/2007 10:06 Comments || Top||

#6  Ummmm, Marines, you skipped step two, IE Call the D-9's and level the "Armory".
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/16/2007 10:08 Comments || Top||

#7  message to Shias: If this Super-Holy™ mosque can be searched, all can. No more safe harbor
Posted by: Frank G || 02/16/2007 10:36 Comments || Top||

#8  Three Russian PKC machine guns and 80 assault rifles were seized

Well I guess now we know why the imam was "angered".
He's lucky they didn't march him out front and put a bullet in his head...

"The first thing we are going to do is cancel the Friday prayers of tomorrow as a protest against this raid," al-Saghir said. "There are other procedures which we don't mention to media."

What's that? Go home and hide under your bed?
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/16/2007 11:00 Comments || Top||

#9  Muhammad's son-in-law, Ali was rumored to have been Muhammad's lover. Any conversion this animal may have done was more that likely at the edge of a sword.

So how about raiding the Mosques in the USA. Can't do that, hell the FBI informs CAIR before they go in. Dhimmis.

Anyways some fuvking good news. What they should have done is set a timer on one of the IEDs and left the building. Moon Goddess go BOOM!
Posted by: Icerigger || 02/16/2007 11:43 Comments || Top||


U.S., Iraqi forces expand Baghdad crackdown
U.S. and Iraqi forces expanded a security sweep to a southern Baghdad neighborhood Thursday, but suspected Sunni insurgents struck back with car bombs that killed four people. British troops sealed off the southern city of Basra and closed two border crossings to choke off what the Americans say are weapons from Iran.

Helicopters buzzed overhead as a joint U.S.-Iraqi force headed into the Dora neighborhood — a longtime Sunni militant area — on the second day of the operation, according to Iraqi officials. U.S. troops searched three Shiite areas Wednesday, meeting little resistance in house-to-house searches.

The Interior Ministry also said U.S. and Iraqi forces were sweeping through four main districts of the capital, including Sunni and Shiite areas, seizing various weapons and ammunitions.

Defying the operation, two parked car bombs struck Dora near a major intersection with a highway leading to Shiite areas in the south, killing at least four civilians and wounding 15, police said. Oranges and other fruit from stalls at a nearby market were scattered among debris near the charred cars. The blasts occurred about 80 yards from an Iraqi checkpoint on the southern edge of the district as patrols were passing, but no Iraqi forces were reported hurt.

A car packed with explosives also targeted an Iraqi patrol in the Sunni district of Jamiaa in western Baghdad, wounding two soldiers, while clashes erupted in another volatile Sunni area, leading to four arrests, police said.

Border with Iran closed
In southern Iraq, security forces closed two border points with Iran at al-Sheeb and Shalamcha — blocking the gates with large metal containers — and expanded coastal patrols to monitor maritime traffic into southern Iraq, a statement said. Authorities also set up checkpoints around Basra and were targeting the most dangerous areas in Iraq’s second-largest city about 340 miles southeast of Baghdad. The British military said the operation would last for 72 hours.

President Bush said Wednesday the Iranian government is providing armor-piercing weapons to kill American soldiers in Iraq, although he backed away from claims the top echelon of Iran’s government was responsible. The commander of the Baghdad security crackdown, Lt. Gen. Abboud Qanbar, also has said Iraq will close its borders with Syria.

U.S. and Iraqi forces also detained several suspects in a raid targeting a Mahdi Army militia cell accused of sectarian kidnappings and killings, as well as roadside bomb attacks, in Mahru, near Suwayrah, 25 miles south of Baghdad, the military said.

Maj. Steven Lamb, deputy public affairs officer for the military command in Baghdad, said the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division was working with Iraqi national police doing cordon and search operations in Dora.

Desire for change
Iraqi and security forces also intensified their presence elsewhere in eastern Baghdad and other parts of the capital, with vehicles and motorcycles subjected to comprehensive searches at checkpoints.

In western Baghdad, joint Iraqi-U.S. patrols roamed the streets and stepped up searches, but they showed no signs of sealing off neighborhoods, witnesses said. Some Iraqis were optimistic about the plan, while others complained about the inconvenience as traffic jams slowed movement in the capital.

Mohammed Ali Jassim, a 40-year-old Sunni owner of a spare parts store, said he was hopeful it would work after he was forced to abandon his business in Sinak, one of Baghdad’s commercial areas where more than 50 people were kidnapped by gunmen disguised in military uniforms late last year. Jassim’s brother was among the victims. “I wish I could open my store again and send my children to their schools without fear of being kidnapped or killed,” said Jassim, who has three children and lives in Baghdad’s western Khadra neighborhood. “The government must annihilate the Shiite militias which are supported by Iran and not turn eyes to their acts. The government should also seek political solutions not only military ones.”

But Anwar Abdullah, 30, a supermarket owner in the predominantly Shiite eastern area of Mashtaal, said the government had given the militants time to flee in advance of the operation, which was announced more than a month ago but only formally launched Wednesday. “Most of our clients have vanished since yesterday, just few of them showed up today. It sounds like we are going to be affected more than the terrorists by this security plan,” Abdullah said. “The government has been talking about this plan for ages and many of the terrorists have fled Baghdad to other areas.”

Sectarian accusations
Thousands of U.S. troops started a clearing operation in mostly Shiite areas north of the militia stronghold of Sadr City on Wednesday as new checkpoints went up across the city of 6 million people.

Some 2,500-3,000 troops — or an entire Stryker brigade — fanned out in the area, encountering little hostilities from the Iraqis who gathered on the street as they moved into houses, which ranged from squat structures with kitchens littered with dirty pots and pans to mansions with tall windows and spiral staircases. Soldiers even teased a young girl about her taste in music after they found her doing homework on a couch, with a poster of Shakira on the wall.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, owes his job to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, and his failure to confront sectarian violence carried out by the cleric’s Mahdi Army militia had been partly blamed for the failure of two previous security operations. But al-Maliki has promised not to let politics interfere with the current crackdown.

Senior Sunni politician Adnan al-Dulaimi expressed hope it would succeed, but he accused the Shiite-dominated government of concentrating the crackdown on Sunni areas. “We have noticed that this plan started with attacking Sunni neighborhoods in Baghdad in Ghazaliyah, Amiriyah, Jihad and Amil and conducting random arrests,” al-Dulaimi said. “It should concentrate on those inciting sedition, violence and terrorism in all areas without exception. And it should not only target Sunni neighborhoods.”

An adviser to al-Maliki, Sami al-Askari, also said that al-Sadr is in Iran, but denied he fled due to fear of arrest during the security crackdown. The assertion came a day after the U.S. military said he was believed to be in Iran, despite denials from his supporters.
Posted by: Fred || 02/16/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  When their done closing all the borders what do you think is the odds that we can get them to come over here and close the one with Mexico?
Posted by: Jack is Back || 02/16/2007 15:52 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Popcorn stocks: 3 Palestinians shot by Hamas forces in Khan Yunis
For all of you who'd worried what to do with your popcorn stocks after the Mecca Fatah/Hamas deal
Three Palestinians were wounded on Thursday when they were shot by members of Hamas's elite security force in the Khan Yunis area of the Gaza Strip.
Posted by: gromgoru || 02/16/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Jpost doesnt give any political background to this.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 02/16/2007 9:32 Comments || Top||

#2  The unity government™ shall hear of this!!!
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/16/2007 11:03 Comments || Top||

#3  They were shot for buying Velentine Day presents, LH.
Posted by: gromgoru || 02/16/2007 11:11 Comments || Top||

#4  in other words, Hold.
Posted by: Ptah || 02/16/2007 11:26 Comments || Top||

#5  Three is not very many.
Posted by: SteveS || 02/16/2007 14:38 Comments || Top||

#6  "Three is not very many"

Mabye not, but it beats a pair any day.....
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 02/16/2007 14:46 Comments || Top||

#7  Personally, I'm hoping Palestinian doctors will finish the job started by Palestinian gunmen.
Posted by: gromgoru || 02/16/2007 18:04 Comments || Top||

#8  Hey look! Hamas has an elite security force!
Posted by: Baba Tutu || 02/16/2007 18:42 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Village leader, 8 officers injured in southern Thailand
Suspected insurgents shot a village head in a mosque during Friday prayers in Pattani, while eight Rangers and police officers were wounded in two bomb blasts in Yala.

Four gunmen shot 55-year-old village head Latae Yuso in Kapor district as he joined Friday prayers at the mosque. He was hit by several bullets in his torso and seriously wounded. He was sent to hospital and his condition is still unknown.

Meanwhile, in Yala, two bombs exploded, wounding eight officers in Yaha district. The first bomb was detonated on the Saipatae-Yaha Road, wounding two paramilitary security men, on patrol in the area. The second bomb exploded when police and border patrol police inspected the bombing site. Six border patrol policemen were wounded and rushed to hospital. Tripod spikes were strewn on a road to prevent police pursuit.
Posted by: ryuge || 02/16/2007 07:37 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Payback? Not Muslim enough?
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/16/2007 11:04 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Austria approves export of 30,000 handguns to Iran
Austrian authorities have approved the export of 30,000 handguns to Iran, local media reported Friday, days after a report that sophisticated Austrian rifles were finding their way into the hands of Iraqi insurgents.

Austrian media reported the pistols had been sold to Iran's interior ministry, which is in charge of the police force.

Austrian economic ministry officials told state radio that their ministry had approved the sale of the "Glock" pistols last month, saying Iranian authorities had provided documentary evidence that they would not be passed on to others.

Another request for the weapons from the Iranian army was denied after it refused to give such assurances, said the officials, adding such sales to police were allowed under legislation governing the export of weapons.

The sales were first reported by the Austria Press Agency Friday, citing a story in preliminary copies of Saturday's edition of the daily "Oesterreich." After-hours phone calls to the ministry were not answered.

On Tuesday, Britain's "Daily Telegraph reported that American troops have recovered more than 100 "Steyr .50 HS" rifles in Iraq, part of an Austrian consignment of 800 such weapons delivered to Iran over American protests that they could be given to insurgents,

The Austrian government approved the sale of the rifles, made by precision weapons maker Steyr Mannlicher GmbH, after it concluded in 2004 that they would be used to fight narcotics smugglers.

"We checked the proposal very thoroughly," Austrian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Astrid Harz said, noting that the situation in Iraq and the region in 2003-2004 was very different then it is today. "What happened to the weapons then is the responsibility of the Iranians."

In comments to The Associated Press at the time, former Steyr owner Wolfgang Fuehrlinger said U.S. Embassy officials had expressed concerns that the rifles could be used against American troops in Iraq, adding that he had rebuffed a request to stop such sales.

The 12.7 x 99 mm rifles are about 1.2 meters (4 feet) long, weigh more than 12 kilograms (20 pounds) and count as an anti-armor weapon among experts because of the high punch of its projectile, Fuehrlinger said.

Franz Holzschuh, Steyr's CEO, said Tuesday the company had not officially been contacted by anyone to verify the serial numbers on the rifles. He said there was a possibility the weapons were reproductions and that there were "thousands" of these in circulation.

"Fact is, we never delivered to Iraq," he said.

The U.S. imposed sanctions on Steyr in December 2005, forbidding it from obtaining U.S. export licenses to do business in America. The Austrian government condemned the decision at the time, saying it made no sense to punish the company after the fact.

Holzschuh said there were still U.S. sanctions against his company.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 02/16/2007 20:55 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Operation "Stovepipe" is a go.
Posted by: Shavimble Jase5240 || 02/16/2007 21:26 Comments || Top||

#2  Austrian economic ministry officials told state radio that their ministry had approved the sale of the "Glock" pistols last month, saying Iranian authorities had provided documentary evidence that they would not be passed on to others.

ROTFLMFAOOL!!!

What fools these westerners be...

Posted by: FOTSGreg || 02/16/2007 21:35 Comments || Top||

#3  Austrian economic ministry officials told state radio that their ministry had approved the sale of the "Glock" pistols last month, saying Iranian authorities had provided documentary evidence that they would not be passed on to others.

Yeah, right. They won't pass on the weapons, only the bullets out of the business end.

The Austrian Authorities™, typical bureaucrats that play games in semantics and procedure to their satisfaction, so they can wash their hands of any responsibility---in their own minds, but not in ours. We will remember your deeds.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 02/16/2007 21:35 Comments || Top||

#4  What I can't figure out is why Iranians are buying handguns that they are perfectly capable of making in-country (not Glocks specifically, but just about any country in the world can make handguns). I get the impression that some Iranian official's been paid off.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 02/16/2007 21:43 Comments || Top||

#5  I guess Glocks need to be banned for imports to the US. Colt, Berreta, etc., will be happy
Posted by: Frank G || 02/16/2007 21:44 Comments || Top||

#6  2006 US Imports from Austria: $8.3 billion
2006 US Exports from Austria: $3.0 billion
2006 US deficit with Austria: $5.3 billion

Raise barriers and zero the trade deficit. That should be good for at least 100,000 unemployed Austrians and correspondingly more employment in the US. There is nothing we need from them. Those considering a Glock, please take a look at Smith & Wesson M&P line.
Posted by: ed || 02/16/2007 21:49 Comments || Top||

#7  I was pissed about the .50 cal thing, but come on, I think the Iranians will be able to get handguns even if the Austrians won't sell them to them.

At any rate, I doubt it is that hard to get a handgun in Iraq at this point, anyways, without a state sponsor.

I hope they don't ban glock imports, I love the glock sub-compact .45, and I wanted to get one in olive
Posted by: garbagecowboy || 02/16/2007 21:50 Comments || Top||

#8  Like that agreement is worth the paper it is written on. Didn't we learn anything from the "Peace in our time" paper from 1938?

Didn't think so.
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/16/2007 22:20 Comments || Top||

#9  The U.S. imposed sanctions on Steyr in December 2005, forbidding it from obtaining U.S. export licenses to do business in America. The Austrian government condemned the decision at the time, saying it made no sense to punish the company after the fact.

Huh.. pretty brazen eh, the Austrian authorities can't be so retarded they believe that load of merde. Most likely the Austrians were posing for their fellow Y'ur-0p--pee-ons, you know, the usual rabid cheeze eating Fuck America crowd.
Posted by: RD || 02/16/2007 22:27 Comments || Top||

#10  Before we all feel too high and mighty, the US has been selling arms to our enemies' enemies for years. Just saying. Sucks, but that's the way the world works.
Posted by: Geoffro || 02/16/2007 22:37 Comments || Top||

#11  Video of Iranian Revolutionary Guards firing the Steyr .50 cal sniper rifles. Border police they are not. See 1:20 into video.
Posted by: ed || 02/16/2007 22:52 Comments || Top||

#12  So then if official? Austria has entered the enemy camp.
Posted by: ed || 02/16/2007 22:53 Comments || Top||

#13  The IHT is wrong.
The guns were sold to the IRAQI police
Posted by: Creregum Gleanter1164 || 02/16/2007 23:48 Comments || Top||

#14  This is what the Austrian press reports: Iraq, not Iran:

http://www.wienweb.at/content.aspx?id=126520&cat=8&channel=2
Posted by: Creregum Gleanter1164 || 02/16/2007 23:51 Comments || Top||


Bomb blast in SE Iran, police clash with gunmen
Clashes broke out between police and an armed group following a bomb explosion in southeast Iran on Friday, the semi-official Fars news agency reported on Friday.

"The bandits were shooting at people after the bomb went off at a school. Clashes are still going on between police and the armed bandits," Fars said.

The agency said that after the explosion at about 1830 GMT in the city of Zahedan, capital of Sistan-Baluchestan province, electricity was cut off.

"Police have cordoned off the area and shooting can be heard in the area," Fars said.

The bombing in Zahedan was the second there in three days.

A booby-trapped car blew up a bus owned by Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards on Wednesday, killing at least 11 people.

Responsibility for the Wednesday attack was claimed by a shadowy Sunni group, Jundallah (God's soldiers), which Iran has said is linked to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network. Tehran has blamed Jundallah for past killings in the area, bordering Pakistan.

Iran has accused Britain and the United States of supporting ethnic minority rebels operating in the sensitive border areas in an attempt to destabilize the country.
Posted by: phil_b || 02/16/2007 20:49 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It is often said that "the best defense is a strong offense."

If Iran is too busy collecting scattered body parts of IRG members, nuclear scientists, and radial Islamacist mullahs to muster ofensive actiity in Iraq - well, I can live with that just fine.

And if we can make it look like the perps are Al Qaeda - so much the better. The more Sunni and Shia focus their destructive efforts on each other - the better.
Posted by: Lone Ranger || 02/16/2007 22:28 Comments || Top||

#2  Pres of Iran: Did you think the terrorism you work so hard to spread would not come home to you? You sneered when others said bombing buses and schools was so sad. How sad is it now?
Posted by: whatadeal || 02/16/2007 22:43 Comments || Top||


Iran executes three Arabs
Tehran, Iran, Feb. 15 – Three men were executed in a prison in the restive city of Ahwaz, south-western Iran, the government-owned news agency Fars reported on Wednesday.
More evidence that under the surface the Mad Mullahs™ are faced with some difficult problems.
The unnamed men were accused of involvement in deadly bombings in oil-rich Khuzestan Province more than a year ago. The province, which borders Iraq, has a large Arab population.
It would look good united with the Shi'a south of Iraq into a single country. They'd get along well enough. Kurds could get the northwest of Iran glued onto the north of Iraq. The Sunni part of Iraq could get glued onto Syria (they'd deserve each other).
The EU called on Tehran earlier this month to refrain from executing the three men.
Listened to the Y'urp-peons about as well as they did in the nuclear negotiations, huh.
In January, authorities in Ahwaz hanged four men facing similar charges. Three other Arab men were salso executed in December for alleged involvement in the attacks. Dissident Arab activists in Khuzestan have accused the government of setting up trump charges against Arab activists fighting against Tehran’s “repressive policies”.

A string of top Iranian officials, including hard-line President Ahmadinejad, have accused Britain of being behind the bombings in Ahwaz. Tehran has repeatedly accused the British secret services of training ethnic Iranian Arabs in southern Iraq and sending them to Iran to carry out sabotage operations. London has repeatedly refused to be a scapegoat denied any involvement in the events in the region.
Posted by: Steve White || 02/16/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  if you add up all the non-farsi population, the regime looks very vulnerable. However the largest minority is the Azeris, and while the Azeris in the Azeri homeland, including the city of Tabriz, are somewhat restive (though not as much so, apparently, as the Baluchis, Ahwazis, or Kurds) the Azeris who live in Teheran are somewhat assimilated, and generally supportive of the regime, and indeed some high level mullahs are Azeris.

They have managed to contain ethnic and other unrest for a long time. PERHAPS the sanctions will change that. We shall see.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 02/16/2007 9:31 Comments || Top||

#2  Darn. When I saw the headline, I was hoping Tater got his (). In any case, I agree with LH and Steve. This shows how weak the regime really is. Youn never know when another IRG compound gets popped, or another refinery.
Posted by: anymouse || 02/16/2007 10:13 Comments || Top||


Good morning
Iraq Adviser: Tater Really in IranHijacker of Mauritanian plane arrestedExiled Hamas leader calls for end to boycott after dealAirport attacker was a 'decent cricket fan''Mastermind' of Madrid bombing goes on trialSomali minister blames Islamists on the attacksCorrupt politicians barred from BD polls
Posted by: Fred || 02/16/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  What is this? Some sort of double your pleasure week? ;-)
Posted by: twobyfour || 02/16/2007 0:38 Comments || Top||

#2  Two! . . . [smack!] . . . Two! . . . [smack!] . . . Two cheesecakes in one!
Posted by: Mike || 02/16/2007 6:50 Comments || Top||

#3  it's Twins Week at RB, and for once we're not talking about just one woman!
Posted by: Frank G || 02/16/2007 7:35 Comments || Top||

#4  ...Ah, but Beauty is no promise of happiness:

...Their private life was as tragic as their public life was stellar. One of their Ziegfeld friends, Olive Thomas, who had invited Rosie to tour the nightclubs of Paris with her in September of 1920, would be found (supposedly wrapped in nothing more than a sable coat) dying of mercury bichloride poisoning. Rosie, who had declined the outing, would instead see Olive in hospital just before her death.

Such would be merely a foretaste of the tragedy to come as in 1933, Jenny was invovled in a serious car crash near Bordeaux with her former lover Max Constant. It took six weeks and fifteen painful surgeries and the sale of most her jewelry to restore her to some semblance of her former beauty but it left her ‘a broken shell' as she would say to friends. She lingered until May 1, 1941 when she committed suicide, hanging herself in the shower of her apartment in the Shelton Hotel.

As is often the case with twins, Rosie would prove to represent the opposite of the manic highs and lows of Jenny's personality, living long enough to see a biopic made in 1945 of their lives called, inevitably The Dolly Sisters - starring June Haver and Betty Grable - but in 1962 she attempted to follow her sister in suicide. It was a failed bid and she would live on until January 1, 1970, succumbing to heart failure.



Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 02/16/2007 8:21 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Fri 2007-02-16
  Attempt to hijack Maretanian plane painfully foiled
Thu 2007-02-15
  Al-Masri said wounded, aide killed
Wed 2007-02-14
  Bombs kill nine on buses in Lebanon
Tue 2007-02-13
  Tater bugs out
Mon 2007-02-12
  140 arrested in Baghdad sweeps: US military
Sun 2007-02-11
  Petraeus takes command
Sat 2007-02-10
  Iraqi and US forces push into Baghdad flashpoints
Fri 2007-02-09
  Hamas and Fatah sign unity accord
Thu 2007-02-08
  UN creates tribunal on Lebanon political killings
Wed 2007-02-07
  Fatah, Hamas talks kick off in Mecca
Tue 2007-02-06
  Yemen prepared to grant top Sheikh Sharif asylum
Mon 2007-02-05
  McNeill Assumes Command Of NATO Forces In Afghanistan
Sun 2007-02-04
  Truck boomer kills 135 in deadliest Iraq blast
Sat 2007-02-03
  22 killed and 245 wounded since Thursday in Trucefire™
Fri 2007-02-02
  Three wannabe head choppers in Brit court

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