Why does Google Earth's resolution suddenly improve in certain areas of the Pakistani-Afghan border? Wired thinks it knows the answer. Google Earth gets its data from the same providers of cartographic information as the US DOD and those sectors happen to be precisely where the US government has been hunting for bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, according to the magazine.
On the other hand, as many of Wretchard's commenters note, the resolution on Google Earth is a little hit-or-miss. (My house is in one of the hi-res areas; two blocks south, it goes all blurry.) On the other other hand, it does kinda make you go "Hmmmmmmmm."
Posted by: Mike ||
03/14/2007 13:19 ||
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#1
Is it just me or has the Rantburg been down most of the day?
#5
I imagine the best you can do with the resolution you get from Google Earth is identify areas you want to look at more closely. You'd need higher resolution, more pictures, and maybe even traffic analysis (J-STAR) to really figure it out.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
03/14/2007 17:59 Comments ||
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#6
Mike what in the hell are you gonna do with that Marlin man? You gotta do something about the rust, and get the 2-tone turquoise and funky ivory thing back.
#7
Google Earth resolution is based upon the imagery they get, and varies greatly, even in the US. Some spots (Germany, for instance) is pretty good - I can recognize most of the major attractions I visited. It' still not interpretive quality. Google Earth has a resolution of from 2 to 10 feet, depending on the source. Some reconnaissance imagery can get resolutions in the same number of INCHES. It's ok for mapping photography, but not for intelligence. Also, for intelligence purposes, you need repeated coverage, so you can detect changes. Google is pretty static. It's still nice to play games with...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/14/2007 19:19 Comments ||
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BTW, my credentials: I was an Air Force photo interpreter from 1965 through 1990. I've worked at every level from tactical reconnaissance to the "really super-dooper behind-the-special-door" stuff in Germany, Nebraska, and Washington, DC.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/14/2007 20:47 Comments ||
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OP, what I have needed to know for some time is
The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said Wednesday the body of one of those killed last week during 'precision air strikes' in southern Helmand province had been identified as a Taliban commander named Mullah Jamaluddin.
The attack took place in the Nowa Kalay area of Garmsir district soon after the alliance started its biggest-ever Operation Achilles in Helmand province, the ISAF said in a statement.
Jamaluddin was a joint deputy commander of Taliban forces in Garmsir district, the statement said, adding 'Jamaluddin was a violent Taliban extremist commander responsible for regular attacks in Garmsir.'
Some 5,500 Afghan and ISAF troops, a majority of them British soldiers, started Operation Achilles last week in Helmand province, with the aim of cracking down on Taliban militants in the province and creating secure conditions to facilitate reconstruction and development.
#1
I'd like to see an "Operation Thor's Hammer" somewhere in southern Afghanistan, VERY near the Pakistan border, where a flight of six B-52s unload a whole bomb load on a "group of infiltrators". No follow-up, except to make sure all the bombs exploded and can't be used by the taliwhackers. I'd be especially happy if such a display could be seen (felt, and heard) from one of the major cities in the NWFP, just to give them an indication of what COULD happen to them if they don't mend their ways.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/14/2007 11:30 Comments ||
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sorry too say old patriot ,it will not happen in either of our lifetimes.
#3
OP's definition of 'precision' and the current one are in serious conflict, so I agree, it will not happen. I would vote for it however. That and a entire carrier Alpha Strike of Rockeye raining down also......
Three Taliban suicide bombers killed themselves along with three Afghan civilians and wounded a dozen people in separate attacks in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, officials said. The Taliban have stepped up operations in their old heartland ahead of an anticipated spring offensive against government and Western forces. A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for all the three attacks.
In Spin Boldak, a suicide bomber blew himself up at a police checkpost, killing three civilians. The man entered from the Pakistani side and blew himself up as police tried to search him, alleged Abdul Razzaq, chief of the border security force in the area. He said eight people were wounded in the attack.
There were two suicide attacks in Lashkar Gah, capital of the southern province of Helmand. In both cases the bombers killed themselves but no one else.
One attacker targeted a NATO convoy, but only wounded two Afghan bystanders, according to the deputy police chief of Helmand, Mohammad Isa Iftikhari. In the other attack on an Afghan army office in the provincial capital, a soldier was wounded.
Tuesdays violence followed a roadside attack in Bakwa district of Farah province that killed nine policemen, including a local commander. The district briefly fell out of government control last month, but security forces have since moved back in.
Meanwhile, a Canadian soldier was charged with manslaughter in the accidental death of a comrade in August 2006 in Afghanistan, military police announced on Monday. Master Corporal Jeffrey Walsh was killed by a gun blast during a routine patrol near Kandahar in southern Afghanistan on August 9, 2006. Canadian authorities did not elaborate at the time on the circumstances surrounding his death, saying only that it was not due to enemy fire. In a statement on Monday, military police said Master Corporal Robbie Fraser was charged with one count of manslaughter and one count of negligent performance of duty.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2007 00:00 ||
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(SomaliNet) The deputy mayor of the Somalia capital Mogadishu Ibrahim Omar Sabriye known as Shaweye has been injured on Tuesday when a car exploded next to his car in south of the capital. The exploded car killed two of his secretaries and wounded fours others.
One of Shaweyes convoy reportedly run over a roadside bomb which burnt the car totally. Witnesses told Somalinet that government officials were inside the car as the convoy of Mogadishus deputy mayor was passing Wardhigley neighborhood.
No group has claimed the responsibility of the blast. But earlier supporters of the ousted Islamists in the capital vowed to hunt down all government officials and any one thought to be working with the government.
This article starring:
Ibrahim Omar Sabriye known as Shaweye
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/14/2007 00:00 ||
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A mortar attack on Somalia's presidential residence in Mogadishu Tuesday killed 13 civilians nearby, just hours after President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed moved there from a provincial town. "Eight people from one family have been killed in one house near a mosque when a mortar shell hit their house," resident Abdulkadir Ali Digi said.
"A family of eight has been wiped out," said another witness, who requested anonymity, while officials said Yusuf was unhurt and there were no casualties in the residence.
"The mortars landed inside and outside Villa Somalia," according to witness Jana Abdullahi, a taxi driver.
"The president was in his bedroom and he was unhurt because no mortar shell landed near him," a presidential security official said, asking not to be named, adding that there were no casualties inside the residence.
Five other civilians, including two children, were reported killed in crossfire between Somali-Ethiopian troops and the attackers. "I have seen two children who were killed by a mortar shell in their house that is near the presidential palace. It was terrible," said resident Abdul-Hafib Ali.
"Two people were killed outside where they were walking. It appears they were taken by stray bullets," said Hassan Yusuf Mohamed, another resident.
"My nephew was killed by stray bullets," said Gutale Hussein. Another resident said the attackers arrived near the residence in small vehicles and sealed off the neighbourhood. "They did not cover their faces, but they told civilians not to approach before they started firing," said resident Muhamoud Jeylani.
Witness Abdallaj Haji Hassan said the government troops responded to the attack with mortar fire which hit the ground and caused no casualties. Residents said the fighting was brief before the attackers fled.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2007 00:00 ||
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Extremists in Algeria may be plotting to attack a commercial airliner carrying Western workers, the U.S. Embassy in the North African country said. The embassy said officials have no specific details about which airline might be targeted or when the suspected plot could be carried out. Algeria is already subject to a State Department travel warning that says the risk of terrorism in parts of the country is significant. The embassy warning was posted on its Web site Monday.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Our ambassador there is a great public servant, a great linguist and capable expert of the sort that most think/wish/forlornly hope would be the norm at State. Though in my view the underlying strategy always lacked the muscle and "incentives" for Sunnis that it needed, while top political officer in Baghdad he helped make the most of Sunni engagement. The entirely under-appreciated (I see Austin Bay did some appreciating today somewhere) accomplishment of democratic elections and a sovereign multi-faction government in arguably the most ravaged political landscape in the region will some day burnish the legacy of Robert Ford and others.
#2
"great public servant, a great linguist and capable expert" -- must have been teleported here from our galactic allies. We seem to lack sufficient local resources to produce enough people like this.
Germany said on Tuesday that one of its nationals, arrested in Pakistan on suspicion of planning to attend a terrorist training camp, had been released. However, the German Foreign Ministry declined to say whether the man, identified only as Michael N, had returned to his home country. According to the German press, the 30-year-old convert to Islam was arrested on February 2 in the city of Raiwind, close to the border with India. The German magazine Der Spiegel reported that he had planned to attend a training camp with a German of Bosnian citizenship, Nihad C, who was arrested in Pakistan on January 30.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2007 00:00 ||
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Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged Sept. 11 mastermind, is seen shortly after his capture during a raid in Pakistan Saturday March 1, 2003 in this photo obtained by the Associated Press. Mohammed confessed to the 9/11 attacks and a string of others during a military hearing at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, according to a transcript released Wednesday by the military. amazing...he confesses and still the MSM calls him "alleged"
WASHINGTON (AP) Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, confessed to that attack and a string of others during a military hearing at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, according to a transcript released Wednesday by the Pentagon.
"I was responsible for the 9/11 operation from A to Z," Mohammed said during the session, which was held last Saturday.
Mohammed claimed responsibility for planning, financing, and training others for bombings ranging from the 1993 attack at the World Trade Center to the attempt by would-be shoe bomber Richard Reid to blow up a trans-Atlantic flight with explosives hidden in his shoes.
In all, Mohammed said he was responsible for planning 28 individual attacks, including many that were never executed. The comments were included in a 26-page transcript released by the Pentagon, which blacked out some of his remarks.
The Pentagon also released transcripts of the hearings of Abu Faraj al-Libi and Ramzi Binalshibh.
Binalshibh, a Yemeni, is suspected of helping Mohammed with the Sept. 11, 2001, attack plan and is also linked to a foiled plot to crash aircraft into London's Heathrow Airport. Al-Libi is a Libyan who reportedly masterminded two bombings 11 days apart in Pakistan in December 2003 that targeted President Pervez Musharraf for his support of the U.S.-led war on terror.
The hearings, which began last Friday, are being conducted in secret by the military as it tries to determine whether 14 alleged terrorist leaders should be declared "enemy combatants" who can be held indefinitely and prosecuted by military tribunals.
Hearings for six of the 14 have already been held. The military is not allowing reporters to attend the sessions and is limiting the information it provides about them, arguing that it wants to prevent sensitive information from being disclosed.
The 14 were moved in September from a secret CIA prison network to the prison at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, where about 385 men are being held on suspicion of links to al-Qaida or the Taliban.
Mohammed's confession was read by a member of the U.S. military who is serving as his personal representative, and it also claimed he shared responsibility for three other attacks, including assassination attempts against Pope John Paul II and Musharraf.
The transcripts also lay out evidence against Mohammed, saying that a computer seized during his capture included detailed information about the Sept. 11 plot - ranging from names and photos of the hijackers to photos of hijacker Mohammad Atta's pilot's license and even letters from al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
Al-Libi also made a statement through his personal representative largely claiming that the hearing process is unfair and that he will not attend unless it is corrected.
"The detainee is in a lose-lose situation," his statement said.
Binalshibh declined to participate in the process and the hearing was conducted in his absence. Military officials expected some of the 14 suspects not to participate.
Legal experts have criticized the U.S. decision to bar independent observers from the hearings from the high-value targets. The Associated Press filed a letter of protest, arguing that it would be "an unconstitutional mistake to close the proceedings in their entirety."
The military held 558 combatant status review tribunals between July 2004 and March 2005 and the panels concluded that all but 38 detainees were "enemy combatants" who should be held. Those 38 were eventually released from Guantanamo.
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/14/2007 20:33 ||
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Three Rochester businessmen sent $200,000 overseas knowing the money was illegally obtained and could benefit the Islamic terrorist organization Hezbollah, according to charges brought by federal prosecutors. But authorities stressed that the men had no links to any terrorist groups and have not been charged with any terrorism crimes. "This is simply a money laundering case. There are no charges claiming that they were giving money or aiding any terrorist organizations," federal prosecutor Bret Puscheck said Tuesday.
Yehia Ali Ahmed Alomari, 26; Mohamed Al Huraibi, 49; and Saleh Mohamed Taher Saeed, 27, were charged Monday with conspiring to launder money and laundering monetary instruments. All three men denied the charges during an appearance Monday before Federal Magistrate Marian Payson. Mr. Saeed's lawyer, James J. Rizzo, told The Rochester Democrat & Chronicle that his client thought he was helping a fellow Yemeni immigrant send money earned in the United States to relatives in Yemen.
If convicted, Messrs. Alomari, Al Huraibi and Saeed could be imprisoned for 20 years and fined $250,000. All three men are from Yemeni and could be deported. A detention hearing scheduled for Monday was postponed until March 19 for Mr. Al Huraibi and until March 26 for Messrs. Alomari and Saeed so their lawyers can determine whether the defendants' families have property that can secure their release from custody.
According to court documents, Messrs. Saeed and Alomari run convenience stores, while Mr. Al Huraibi was part owner and manager of a restaurant. The investigation began in January 2005 when banking records showed that
A Social Security number assigned to Saeed was associated with 324 overseas currency transaction reports totaling $12.3 million from October 2002 through November 2004.
a Social Security number assigned to Saeed was associated with 324 overseas currency transaction reports totaling $12.3 million from October 2002 through November 2004, Mr. Puscheck said. Under federal law, banks are required to report sizeable overseas transactions to federal authorities. A person described by authorities as a "confidential witness" befriended Mr. Saeed in January and told Mr. Saeed that he had made money illegally through food-stamp fraud and wanted to move cash to Yemen, Mr. Puscheck said.
The person then introduced an undercover agent to the men. The undercover agent told them he was a Hezbollah supporter and asked their help in transferring illegally raised money overseas to help the group. Between August 2006 and February of this year, $200,000 was transferred to an overseas account established by the federal government. The transactions were made in amounts of between $10,000 and $20,000, Mr. Puscheck said.
Agents also arrested Abdula Qassem Ahmed Muthana, 43, a minimart owner in Corcoran, California. Mr. Muthana was charged with accepting money from the federal agents with the intent that it be transferred to Hezbollah. Federal authorities said the charges against Mesrs. Alomari, Al Huraibi and Saeed were not related to the December 2003 raids on four groceries owned by other Yemenis. Although the raids were triggered by concerns about money transfers, no criminal charges have been brought. Neither were the charges related to the case of six Yemenis in Lackawanna who pleaded guilty four years ago to charges that they provided support to an Al Qaeda sleeper cell.
In 2005, Rafil Dhafir, a Muslim doctor from Syracuse was prosecuted for running an unregistered charity, cheating donors and illegally sending some of the money to Iraq in violation of U.S. sanctions. Dhafir is serving a 22-year prison sentence.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2007 00:00 ||
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But authorities stressed that the men had no links to any terrorist groups
The Cash IS the "Link" Morons.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/14/2007 5:48 Comments ||
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WANA: Pakistani militants beheaded a man near the South Waziristan area, whom they accused of spying for United States forces in Afghanistan, officials said on Tuesday.
Speaking to AFP, a security official said that the headless body of a man was found late on Monday in a sack on a roadside in Jandola town, bordering South Waziristan. He said that the severed head had been placed near the sack and a note near his body read US spy and Rawalpindi, in an apparent reference to the garrison city housing the army headquarters. Local residents failed to identify the man - who appeared to be in his mid-40s - after which the body was buried, the security official added. Separately, two mortar shells fired by suspected militants early on Tuesday exploded near a residential compound for military officers and their families in neighbouring North Waziristans main town, Miranshah, another security official said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2007 00:00 ||
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ASIA TIMES > BEARDS GET LONGER AS THE MUSIC DIES. No women allowed to attend schools, vaccination shots are a US plot, music stores may be bombed. Pakistani Taliban slowly but steadily exerting control over many areas.
MIRANSHAH: Suspected tribal militants fired two rockets on Tuesday morning that landed near a military base and government installations, said security sources. They said that the rockets, which appeared to have been fired from the southeast of Miranshah, caused no loss of life or damage to property. One rocket landed near a civil colony, which is 200 yards from an army rest house, while another landed near an intelligence officials house, the sources told Daily Times. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2007 00:00 ||
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The banned ULFA is planning strikes ahead of March 16, which it calls its `army day', intelligence sources claimed here on Tuesday. The ULFA has planned a series of strikes on security men and public installations on that date, the day the insurgent outfit "raised its own army" in 1979, the sources said. Cadres have fanned out to remote areas and have planned bomb and grenade attacks in various parts of the state, they said.
Usually, the outfit marked the day in "a big way", but following the Bhutan operations, the occasion has been made a low-key affair, sources said. However, the day will be observed in various camps of the outfits in the jungles of Bangladesh and Myanmar.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2007 00:00 ||
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Detailed information related to arrest of three Manipuri muslim youths claimed by Delhi police to be activists of Lashkar-e-taiba terrorist group has been forwarded to the State police authorities. Even though a police source declined to reveal details provided by Delhi police it identified the three arrested LeT operatives as Akbar Hussien alias Md Kashim alias Habib (19) of Yairipok Changamdabi Mayai Leikai, Md Abdur Rahman alias Md Hussien (22) of Kairang Awang Leikai and Md Salman Khurshid (23) of Yairipok Changamdabi Mayai Leikai. The source contended that the three had provided vital information on modus operandi of the terrorist organisation.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2007 00:00 ||
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DERA ISMAIL KHAN: Gunmen shot dead a Shia and a Sunni in northwest Pakistan on Tuesday, raising the toll from sectarian violence in a remote town in the last week to seven, said police. Police said that Niaz Ahmed (45), a teacher from the minority Shia community, was shot dead by unknown assailants on a motorcycle when he was going to school in Dera Ismail Khan. Around 50 minutes later, gunmen on a motorcycle killed 40-year-old Maulana Farooq Ahmed, a Sunni cleric, in the same city, said local police officials. Reuters reported that Ahmed was a member of the outlawed Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP). The officials said that in another incident, gunmen injured Hafiz Ishaq, another SSP activist. These killings and attacks all appear to be sectarian-linked, said a senior police official.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2007 00:00 ||
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Iraqi security forces raided a Palestinian compound in Baghdad on Wednesday after an attack on a police patrol, detaining at least 15 people after a gunbattle that left one Palestinian dead, [Iraqi] officials said.
Palestinian charge d'affaires Dalil al-Qusous said as many as 80 Palestinian refugees had been detained and demanded their release. He also claimed the Iraqi troops fired randomly during the raid, causing fear and awe.
An Iraqi Interior Ministry official said the raid was targeting the source of gunfire after a shooting attack against a police patrol was staged from the heavily barricaded compound. He said only 15 Palestinians had been detained.
representative of a failed non-state, huh? Demand away
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/14/2007 18:53 Comments ||
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Militants mixed in with refugee's
Who da thunk? The Moonbats will be out in force complaining about the use of weapons on defenseless refugees. "They were only defending themselves from the lackeys of the U.S." Yeh, that must be it.
The London-based Arabic language newspaper A-Sharq al-Awsat reported Wednesday that the Iranian army has lost contact with one of its high-ranking officers based in Iraq.
The report states that the officer, Mohammed Muhsayin Shiradi, from a unit in the Jerusalem Brigade, has not been in touch with his commanders for three weeks.
A senior source in the Iranian military told the newspaper that it is possible that Shiradi has been arrested by American forces.
Iran is already concerned by the disappearance last month of its former deputy defense minister, who vanished in Istabul. Tehran claims that Ali Reza Asghari has been abducted, and accused the United States and Israel of orchestrating his kidnap.
Meanwhile, the Washington Post last week cited a senior U.S. official as saying that Asghari had left his country and was willingly giving with Western intelligence agencies information on Hezbollah and Iranian ties to the group.
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/14/2007 10:26 Comments ||
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#6
Frank, depends... If he applied for a voluntary sqeeze, the execution may be inappropriate.
Naaah, exile him to the high mountains of Burma, whether he voluntarily came over or was captured. The mountain Burmese aren't getting enough red meat in their diet.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/14/2007 11:41 Comments ||
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#7
This IS how you win wars. Screw the PC warm fuzzy BS. Bout F*cking Time.
#9
"Nacht und Nabel" works for me. Make a few more senior military officers and scientists disappear into the night and fog and give those folks in Tehran something to worry about.
BAGHDAD, March 14 (KUNA) -- The rate of killings of US troops in Iraq has been on the decline, down by 60 percent, since the launch of the new security measures in Baghdad, according to statistics revealed by the Multi-National Force -Iraq Combined Press Information Centre. Note: Some of the language in the opening paragraphs is misleading, since (as stated later) the article refers only to fatalities within the Baghdad operational area.
Only 17 members of the US military in Iraq have been killed since February 14 till March 13, compared to 42 from January 13 to February 13; the rate was on the decline during the first month of the security crackdown, compared to a month before. Two of the 17 soldiers died at US Baghdad camps of non-combat causes.
The remarkable decrease in killings among the US troops came at a time when more of these troops were deployed in the Iraqi capital, especially in districts previously regarded as extremely hazardous for them such as Al-Sadr City, Al-Azamiyah, and Al-Doura.
Meanwhile, US attacks on insurgent strongholds north of Baghdad curbed attacks against helicopters. Before the new security plan, many such craft were downed leaving 20 soldiers dead.
The US army in Iraq had earlier said that sectarian fighting and violence in Baghdad had dropped sharply, by about 80 percent, since the launch of the plan. The statistics excluded US troops killed in other governorates such as Al-Anbar, Diyala, and Salahiddin.
As to the latest human losses, the US army announced Wednesday that two American soldiers had been killed, one in southern Baghdad and the other northeast of the capital.(end) ahh. Global Security's annotated and referenced lists indicate 77 US fatalities for the country as a whole during the referenced period (2-13 to 3-13), with 108 for the peceding period (1-13 to 2-13).
Overall US losses are indeed declining but not to the same degree as in Baghdad. The real story is the new strategy's success in securing the Baghdad area. The decline in casualties in Al Anbar is also noteworthy.
BAQOUBA, Iraq (AP) - Some 700 American soldiers rolled into Baqouba on Tuesday, shifted out of Baghdad to help carry the security campaign against sectarian violence to a nearby volatile province where Sunni Arab insurgents fled ahead of the crackdown in the capital.
The fresh troops from the Army's 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment - equipped with Stryker armored vehicles - joined 3,500 U.S. and 20,000 Iraqi soldiers already in Diyala, where insurgents have stepped up attacks as violence appears to be ebbing in Baghdad.
U.S. commanders said they had been planning to fan out from Baghdad into communities around the capital, such as Baqouba 35 miles to the northeast, to go after insurgents and clandestine workshops that rig car bombs used in attacks in the capital. "This is not a haphazard fire drill to save the house from burning," Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon, commander of U.S. forces in northern Iraq, told The Associated Press. "We began looking at this several months ago in support of the Baghdad plan. We knew the surrounding provinces would be in play."
For the soldiers of the 5th Battalion, the journey to Baqouba was another stage in a series of missions away from their home at Fort Lewis, Wash. "We embark on another journey, boys!" Sgt. William Rose told his platoon as their Stryker combat vehicle rumbled out of Baghdad at sunrise, one of about 100 vehicles making the journey.
The battalion will be based in Baqouba and focus on counterinsurgency measures and training Iraqi forces, said Col. David W. Sutherland, the U.S. commander in Diyala. "We'll have more soldiers to interact with the population," he said. "It's about making the Iraqi people feel secure, and we can do that with additional forces they have confidence in."
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/14/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Baqouba has been one of the worst places for a long, long time - far from a whack-a-mole reaction to the enemy reaction to the Baghdad op, this is long overdue (and almost certainly much too little, even then).
Yesterday when I heard the radio McNews version of the wire-service rip-and-read report about sallying forth to get VBIED/IED factories, I had to shake my head. Of course we've been hunting them down constantly for a long time, but given the still unfathomable performance by commanders last year and back into '05, I now always wonder whether the situation is as bad as the super-dumbed-down news report makes it (i.e., we're just now bestirring ourselves to target a key link in the enemy's capacity to wreak destruction in Baghdad going on 4 years now).
#3
As "V" indicates, Baqouba is indeed a snake pit. During the Viet era Laos and Cambodia were often referred to as "enemy sanctuaries." Baqouba, Ramadi, and Fullujah are the enemy sanctuaries of our time. There are several amazing parallels to that conflict and this is but one.
#4
Is it one snakepit of many, or is it going to leave a mark in the insurgency? I'm hoping it's the former, but I can never be sure.
Also, if they did this with no warning, I would think it would have way better effect than the SOP of giving a few days warning so all the terrorists have time to get their affairs in order and calmly walk through yet another revolving door with a suitcase full of IEDs in hand. Anybody know?
#6
Allowing terrorist sanctuaries like Baqouba to continue to exist and produce a sustained terror campaign against the rest of Iraq is indeed "unfathomable." Just the fact that places like Baqouba stay in business indicates the situation in Iraq is very bad. Tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis try to escape their country in any way they can, and Baqouba is left to go about its business. I know there aren't enough troops in Iraq to invade all these terrorist sanctuaries -- that's why artillery & heavy bombers exist. Drop leaflets, tell the innocent to get out of town, and level the place. Don't allow resettlement until the rest of Iraq is peaceful. Applied systematically across Anbar province, the net result would be less terror and fewer Iraqi refugees.
#7
Just the fact that places like Baqouba stay in business indicates the situation in Iraq is very bad.
Actually, no. The idea is to leave the enemy someplace they think is safe, so they concentrate there and place their resources there. Then you hit that area.
When they group up, they die. The key is to letting them think it's safe to group up.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/14/2007 5:29 Comments ||
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#8
violence appears to be ebbing in Baghdad.
From the AP, no less!
Nice graphic, Steve!
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/14/2007 5:36 Comments ||
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#9
Robert Crawford, we don't really disagree. I can follow your argument about getting the enemy to concentrate in one place so they can be easily hit there. "Hitting the area" hard enough seldom happens in Iraq. Some of these hardcore Sunni strongholds need to vanish from the face of Iraq for a couple of generations.
#10
Finding IED factories requires local intel. Locals would know of sentry guarded facilities where residents are not gainfully employed. Those are good tells. Prior to the 2-state gizmo imposed on Israel, the IDF would make numerous investigative detentions. Most captives wouldn't divulge but enough would, and that led the IDF to the factories. US field troops should not be forced to rely on Intel from Iraq walk-ins. The terrorists have eyes everywhere.
FYI: short term investigative detentions have been found constitutional in the US since SCOTUS issued "Terry v Ohio." These methods should not be treated as illegal in a combat zone. Time to shake Abu Ghraib fever.
#11
But, Sneaze (w.r.t short-term detentions) - What would the New York Times say?
Yeah, I don't care either.
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/14/2007 6:27 Comments ||
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Improvements in many parts of Al Anbar, the apparent result of a dramatic increase in local cooperation, have received little publicity.
This puts US and allied forces (including tribal militias) in a good position to crush the enemy sanctuaries of Baquouba, Fallujah, and Ramadi once and for all.
#13
Don't hear much from Anbar anymore, 2005's most wretched hive of scum and villany. Won't hear much from Diyala in 2008.
Posted by: ed ||
03/14/2007 14:16 Comments ||
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#14
There has been a lot of red on red going on in Anbar for several months. According to Roggio the locals have set up a militia to fight Al Q (aka the Islamic State of Iraq). My read on it is that a lot of these militia guys were formerly fighting us. It would seem they and their tribes are either getting tired of fighting (in general) and are looking for a better life or they just won't stand for pressure from an external group, even Al Q. I think this could be a case where Al Q's heavy handed tactics, particularly the targeted killings of tribal bigwigs, is coming back to bite them in the ass. It also may be as simple as the tribes finally understanding that the real money to be made will be done so when Iraq is stable. Regardless, it is a very positive development in Anbar and looks to be repeated in Diyala.
#19
Thanks for your service, NG. Most Americans are very proud of our military--and the ones that aren't are exercising their right to be damned fools. Hooah!
Posted by: mac ||
03/14/2007 23:53 Comments ||
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#20
N Guard, congratulations and many thanks for your service (and pass that along to your buddies and everyone's families).
This war thing is harder than it looks, and I haven't had info access to give me high confidence in my own mutterings, but .....
Letting/inducing the enemy to concentrate or otherwise render themselves more vulnerable, as Anguper pointed out, only makes sense IF you are going to apply decisive force when you finally do spring your trap. I think that - mostly - this has been one more "unfathomable" (my word - and by it I mean that the strategy adopted was not comprehensible when the costs and risks it incurred were considered) attempt to use finesse only when that's not what's called for.
Recall that the existence of "sanctuaries" inside a sovereign state (such sanctuaries typically economically marginal at best, with absolutely no defensible geography, nor in Iraq remoteness from government or Coalition forces or roads or communications) means that the enemy gets to apply their only real tactic (intimidation) without hindrance. Which leads to disastrous results - such as the ability to target an otherwise untouchably superior force with IEDs along roadways.
All these tactical gymnastics to 1) avoid the use of force, or of harsh yet effective measures 2) avoid the need for more than token forces have helped yield the slop that was Iraq in 2005 and most of 2006 (other key factor was embassy Sunni engagement strategy - which of course merely reinforced the MNF-I aversion to warfare).
I am nearly convinced that current US counterinsurgency thinking is dramatically and fatally flawed, mostly because we start with an historically perverse and irrational premise: we can't kill people, break stuff, or make things difficult for the society, we must only use positive non-kinetic measures combined with magically pin-point raids.
When the media talked to locals (locals - still there, going about their business) in Haifa Street following the recent unpleasantness there, they casually described how they supported the street executions being conducted by the enemy when the IP and eventually MND-B got involved. Small clue the size of the Milky Way to the US military and embassy: wars are about killing the enemy, capturing the enemy, and breaking their will to resist. If a segment of the society declares war on the rest, and on the country's future - that segment must be killed, detained, and their will to resist crushed. See Anguper's comment above.
If any given area - even one time - backslides following "clear and hold", this means you've left out the most important part - "pacify". That could mean things like, gee, I dunno - mass detentions of military-age males, seizure/destruction of homes and business of anyone involved with the enemy, total restriction on movement and activity, ceasing the local economy and putting everyone on WFP rations, exclusion of the area from national political activities, and general isolation of the area.
Every situation calls for a different approach - in an area with just a few bad apples obviously you can indulge yourself in all sorts of stuff like reconstruction and engagement and even PRTs, or maybe even spelling bees and mosque-painting parties. But in ENEMY areas you actually have be war-like - that is if you're interested in succeeding and not getting more Americans and Iraqis killed.
Did anyone else notice that even Michael Gordon, the NYT's military writer (who is so-so at best), commented as part of his "controversial" interview with Charlie Rose that the US "hadn't even been trying to win" in Iraq under Casey? I'm sure at least part of what he meant was this refusal to use effective measures in a situation almost begging for them.
I doubt there's a 1% chance Petraeus will be any more likely to follow a common sense approach than his predecessors - after all, he's the guru of COIN theory, and we all know how much theory is relevant to life's most practical problems. We'll prevail eventually, but the cost will have been multiples of what it should have been.
(KUNA) -- Eight people were Tuesday killed, including a judge, in separate violent incidents in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, according to the Iraqi police. A source at the police told KUNA unknown gunmen shot dead justice Omar Abdulnabi while he was heading to work. Four civilians were killed and seven were injured when a mortar shell slammed into a house in Karrada area in Baghdad, while three policemen were killed in an armed attack which left two injured.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2007 00:00 ||
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A Hamas military commander was killed Tuesday in a shootout with Fatah gunmen shortly before the leaders of the two groups met to try to bridge their differences over a power-sharing deal. A spokesman for Hamas' military wing, Abu Obeidah, blamed the killing of Allah Haddad, 35, on the Preventive Security force loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah.
The security force confirmed that one of its people was wounded in a shooting incident, but said the matter was a family feud and that the officer was not on duty. The battle erupted after members of a Gaza family tried to recover a stolen car, and its passengers members of a Hamas militia opened fire, the force said.
Shortly after the shooting, Abbas and Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas met in Gaza City to try to arrive at a consensus candidate for interior minister. The interior minister oversees some security forces, and disagreements over this key appointment have held up the formation of a government. The meeting ended without agreement on a candidate, but the two sides agreed to continue consultations.
It seems that their consultations are fruitful (producing an ample supply of rosebuds) and I support their further continuation as long as possible--till hell freezes over would be an acceptable outcome.
Nine other Palestinians were wounded in the shootings, most of whom were armed.
Alah Hadad, also known as Abu Salam, was killed in an exchange of fire between Hamas and Fatah gunmen on Tuesday, Palestinian sources reported. Hadad, a resident of the Tufah neighborhood in Gaza, was a key figure in the Hamas and responsible for many terrorist acts against Israel, including Kassam rocket attacks. Nine other Palestinians were wounded in the shootings, most of whom were armed.
This article starring:
ABU SALAM
Hamas
ALAH HADAD
Hamas
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2007 00:00 ||
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Suspected Muslim insurgents opened fire on nine Buddhists who were riding in a commuter van in Thailand's restive south Wednesday, killing all of them execution-style, police said.
Suspected insurgents bombed the van as it slowed into a curve in the road, which they also had blocked with a large tree trunk, said police Lt. Kitti Mankhong, a duty officer in the Yaha district of Yala province, where the attack occurred. Armed with assault rifles, the attackers first shot at the driver and then opened the side door of the van and fired at each of the passengers, he said. The driver, who was hospitalized with a gunshot wound to the face, was the only survivor from the morning attack. "Everyone was shot in the head at close range, execution style," Kitti said.
The van was shuttling people from the Betong district of Yala province to Hat Yai, the south's major city, in the neighboring province of Songkhla. All of the passengers were identified as Buddhists and the driver was Muslim. Police and soldiers were searching for the attackers, he said.
The attack came as authorities beefed up security for the Tuesday anniversary of the founding of the Barisan Revolusi Nasional, or National Revolution Front separatist group. Police had warned that insurgents might try to mark the anniversary with violence.
Three men and six women, including two girls aged 14 and 15, were shot in the head after the insurgents forced the van off the road. The bus driver, a Muslim man, was seriously injured.
After the attack, insurgents threw nails to slow down police. They also placed a suspicious box near the van, which exploded after police and soldiers arrived at the scene but was not planted close enough to wound anyone.
Meanwhile, in Bannang Sata district, insurgents ambushed and shot a police officer, who was rushed to a hospital by villagers.
The publics timely call for military assistance in South Upi, Maguindanao, prevented a bomb planted at the passenger terminal of the municipality from inflicting harm at dawn on Tuesday. Lt. Col. Julieto Ando, Armys 6th Infantry division spokesman, said a Teduray native first took notice of a suspiciouslooking package placed in a secluded portion of the terminal around 4:00 a.m. and called the attention of his companions. He said the natives, after taking a quick look at the package, immediately informed the terminal management, who, in turn, called for assistance. It was just fortunate that the bomb was discovered containing an 81-mm projectile with a battery-operated timing device attached to a mobile phone, Ando said. Local authorities immediately contacted the Armys bomb disposal unit whose members defused the bomb, Ando added.
According to witnesses, they earlier saw two men leaving the package at the terminal and both suddenly disappeared from sight. Ando said they suspect a local terror cell of the Jemaah Islamiyah as the ones behind the bombing attempt.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2007 00:00 ||
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Government security forces arrested a close associate of fugitive Abu Sayyaf bomber Abdul Basit Usman during a raid Monday in Sultan Mastura, Shariff Kabunsuan province, a regional military spokesperson said. Maj. Randolph Cabangbang, Eastern Mindanao Command spokesman, said the suspect, Acmak Saludin, is also long wanted for a series of bomb attacks in Mindanao just like Usman. Saludin was arrested at his hideout in barangay Tambo, Sultan Mastura, around 2:45 a.m. through the help of government intelligence personnel of the Army's 603rd Infantry Brigade. "He did not resist arrest. We are also looking into his involvement in the bomb attack in Makilala town last year," Cabangbang said.
Two improvised explosive devices, two rocket propelled grenades, mobile phones, and an electronic tester were recovered from the suspects' possession. The U.S. government has earlier offered US$ 50,000 dollars or approximately P2.5 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Usman. The fugitive bomber is linked to Jemaah Islamiyah and believed responsible for bombings in Makilala town in October 2006 that killed eight civilians and left 30 others wounded. Usman is also implicated in a recent series of bomb attacks in Mindanao.
Over the weekend, authorities also nabbed an Abu Sayyaf leader implicated in the kidnapping and beheading of civilians six years ago in Basilan. Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao police director Chief Supt. Joel Goltiao said the suspect, Abu Usman, was arrested by joint military and police troopers at the Port of Isabela, Basilan, through a tip from concerned civilians.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2007 00:00 ||
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Government forces have arrested a suspected member of the Abu Sayyaf wanted for kidnapping and killing plantation workers in 2001 in nearby Basilan province. Arrested was Al-hari Jakiri, alias Abu Usman, who was among those wanted for beheading nine workers of the Golden Harvest Plantation in Tairan, Lantawan town.
Usman was arrested last weekend at the port of Isabela City, the capital of Basilan province. The Abu Sayyaf seized 40 plantation workers to divert the military forces' attention at that time in their pursuit operations against the other terrorist group who seized 20 people, including three Americans from Dos Palmas, Puerto Princesa City, Palawan. Of the 40 people the Abu Sayyaf seized, nine were beheaded while one was shot dead.
The Abu Sayyafs has also burned some houses of the plantation workers at the time they seized the farmers. Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao police director Chief Supt. Joel Goltiao disclosed that Usman is facing three counts of kidnapping with serious illegal detention cases in court. The military's Western Mindanao Command (Wesmincom) has not issued statement surrounding Usman's arrest in Isabela City. He was placed under tactical interrogation. "Narcisso! My interrogator's pliers, please!"
"Sorry, boss! The electrician's not done with them yet!" "Well then call the plumber!"
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2007 00:00 ||
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At least eight Tamil Tiger cadre were killed in air raids on "identified targets" by the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) in the Batticaloa district on Tuesday. A Defence Ministry statement said the precision raids continued on an identified LTTE gathering in the un-cleared patches in Narakamulla General area at 10.15a.m. The air sorties followed information of a heavy build up of terrorist activities, said air force spokesperson, Group Captain Ajantha De Silva. He said terrorist activities in the general area Narakamulla had intensified after the death of the LTTE cadre including a leader of the Batticaloa intelligence unit. The statement said the air strikes were conducted as a defensive measure to smother potential threat to Batticaloa and Vavunathivu, main supply routes (MSR). It said intercepted LTTE communication had revealed that more than 12 Tigers died.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2007 00:00 ||
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This is NOT the guy in Iraq in article below
WASHINGTON -- The Iranian government is in full damage control mode over the recent defection of a top Revolutionary Guard general and former deputy defense minister, well-placed sources in Tehran tell NewsMax.
Iranian government officials have issued a series of contradictory claims about the defection of Gen. Alireza Asgari, 63, who "disappeared" from his hotel room in Istanbul, Turkey on Feb. 7 and reportedly defected to the United States.
But in recent days, the mood within intelligence circles in Tehran has turned to panic as rumors have begun to circulate that a second well-placed Revolutionary Guards general has defected.
When reports of Gen. Asgari's disappearance first surfaced last week, the regime immediately claimed that he had been "abducted" while on an overseas vacation, either by an Israeli or a U.S. intelligence unit. This ploy was backed by former Revolutionary Guards commander Gen. Mohsen Rezai, who now publishes an independent Internet news site in Persian, baztab.com.
"Rezai is close to Gen. Asgari," NewsMax sources in Tehran said, "and so he has been eager to paint Asgari as a devoted officer of the Revolutionary Guards who most certainly was kidnapped by U.S. or Israeli secret services."
On March 10, Baztab reported that Gen. Asgari's wife previously reported to have left Iran with him was actually in Tehran. If true, this would tend to credit the notion that Asgari had been abducted, and not defected.
As it turns out, Gen. Asgari has two wives. His first wife left Iran with him, bringing along their three children. His second wife, Mansoureh Mirmohammadi, is just 31 years old and is a relative of Rezai, the sources said. She has indeed remained in Iran.
Shortly after Gen. Asgari went missing on Feb. 7, a damage control team headed by Rev. Guards Brig. Gen. Naser Ghasemi was set up.
Gen. Ghasemi is the deputy chief of counterintelligence for the Revolutionary Guards. Over the weekend, he recommended that the regime blame the "kidnapping" of Asgari on the Mujahedin-e Khalq, a militant opposition group that was supported all during the 1980s and the 1990s by Saddam Hussein.
On Sunday, Baztab dutifully quoted Rasoul Nafisi, an Iranian political analyst based in Virginia, asserting that the MEK was responsible for Asgari's kidnapping, noting that the group "is active in Turkey . . . and might be behind this event."
Since then, various state-run news outlets and newspapers owned by senior government officials have published a series of contradictory reports about Asgari's disappearance.
Perhaps the strangest account was published on Monday by the Fars News Agency in Tehran. They claimed that Asgari's wife now named Ziba Ahmadi and three of his children had just met with the second secretary of the Turkish embassy in Tehran to inquire about Asgari's whereabouts.
Ms. Ahmadi then told state-run Tehran radio that her husband was "43 years old" but had retired "in the last two years" and was engaged in "import-export trade with Syria," primarily in olive oil. She added that he went missing on Dec. 9 not Feb. 7, as previously reported. NewsMax sources in Tehran believe that Ms. Ahmadi is an actor hired by the regime, not the wife of Gen. Asgari.
Her account was repeated in today's Guardian newspaper in London, which quoted Davoud Asgari, the brother of the missing general, who lives in London, claiming that his brother had been kidnapped and that all his family remained in Iran.
All this comes as no surprise to Iranian commentator Alireza Nourizadeh, who told NewsMax last week to expect a "smear campaign" against Gen. Asgari in the state-controlled media. "In the next few days, they will make every effort to destroy this man's reputation," he said. "This man came out with lots of secrets."
Gen. Asgari's defection comes as the United States continues to interrogate Iranian intelligence officers captured by U.S. forces in Iraq. The two most prominent Iranians are Jalal Sharifi, a professional intelligence officer posing as a diplomat, who was captured during the raid on an Iranian "consulate" in Irbil on Jan. 10, and Brig. Amir Mohsen Shirazi, a Revolutionary Guards intelligence operative captured in December in southern Iraq.
In recent days, intelligence circles in Tehran have been awash with rumors of a second high-level defection to the Americans of a Revolutionary Guards intelligence officer, Brig. Gen. Seyed Mohammad Soltani.
Gen. Soltani is a career intelligence officer, who took over as head of the Persian Gulf bureau of Rev. Guards intelligence in October 2006. On Feb. 8, just one day after Gen Asgari disappeared in Istanbul, Gen. Soltani traveled to Bandar Abbas, where he was scheduled to inspect an intelligence listening post. Instead, he vanished. Bandar Abbas is Iran's largest port and houses the Rev. Guards main naval base. It sits at the mid-point of the strategic Strait of Hormuz, where 20 percent of the world's oil transits daily.
So far, the official media in Tehran has not mentioned Gen. Soltani's alleged disappearance and defection. But NewsMax sources in Tehran said that his wife and two children have also disappeared, and that the Revolutionary Guards searched his house in the Amirieh district of Tehran searched on Feb. 11.
On Feb. 13, Rev. Guards counterintelligence officers informed the Ministry of Information and Security (MOIS) of Gen. Soltani's disappearance. On the following day, they sent a "red notice" with Soltani's photograph to all Iranian ports and airports. On Feb. 18, they arrested Soltani's brother, Seyed Akbar Soltani, who is a teacher at Imam Hussein University.
Gen. Soltani was known as "Engineer Mousavi" within Revolutionary Guards intelligence, and has intimate knowledge of foreign intelligence operations, especially in Iraq and in other Persian Gulf countries.
"How the United States treats these defectors is critically important," said opposition activist Sardar Haddad. "If they treat them well, the word will get back to Tehran and you could see the flood gates open. Lots of people are available for the taking under the right conditions."
#3
This is really starting to get good. If we bag a few more of these guys the mullahs are going to go nuts. It will leak to the populace. The regime is going to appear very weak and nothing but a bag of hot air. They may see their grip on power slip very quickly if people are no longer afaid of them.
#8
Baztab reported that Gen. Asgari's wife previously reported to have left Iran with him was actually in Tehran. As it turns out, Gen. Asgari has two wives. His first wife left Iran with him, bringing along their three children. His second wife, Mansoureh Mirmohammadi, is just 31 years old and is a relative of Rezai, the sources said. She has indeed remained in Iran.
It's always best to be the senior wife. Poor little Mansoureh Mirmohammadi, who is no doubt more accustomed to flaunt her connnections than be flouted.
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/14/2007 20:18 Comments ||
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#12
If this is true, it is great news. It could greatly accelerate the fall of the MMs and their system. It should be broadcasted to Iranians, to sow uncertainty and discontent among the masses and the just plain joes. We need to crank up the information war. It is just as important as the shooting war. And we are behind the power curve on it.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/14/2007 20:57 Comments ||
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#4
Heh, when the hubahubahuba-baloo over the Outlaw kept it from it's initial screenings she was for a short time The Queen of the Motionless Pictures.
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.
The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said Wednesday the body of one of those killed last week during 'precision air strikes' in southern Helmand province had been identified as a Taliban commander named 
In Spin Boldak, a suicide bomber blew himself up at a police checkpost, killing three civilians. The man entered from the Pakistani side and blew himself up as police tried to search him, alleged Abdul Razzaq, chief of the border security force in the area. He said eight people were wounded in the attack.
(SomaliNet) The deputy mayor of the Somalia capital Mogadishu 
A mortar attack on Somalia's presidential residence in Mogadishu Tuesday killed 13 civilians nearby, just hours after President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed moved there from a provincial town. "Eight people from one family have been killed in one house near a mosque when a mortar shell hit their house," resident Abdulkadir Ali Digi said. 
Extremists in Algeria may be plotting to attack a commercial airliner carrying Western workers, the U.S. Embassy in the North African country said. The embassy said officials have no specific details about which airline might be targeted or when the suspected plot could be carried out. Algeria is already subject to a State Department travel warning that says the risk of terrorism in parts of the country is significant. The embassy warning was posted on its Web site Monday.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged Sept. 11 mastermind, is seen shortly after his capture during a raid in Pakistan Saturday March 1, 2003 in this photo obtained by the Associated Press. Mohammed confessed to the 9/11 attacks and a string of others during a military hearing at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, according to a transcript released Wednesday by the military. 
Three Rochester businessmen sent $200,000 overseas knowing the money was illegally obtained and could benefit the Islamic terrorist organization Hezbollah, according to charges brought by federal prosecutors. But authorities stressed that the men had no links to any terrorist groups and have not been charged with any terrorism crimes. "This is simply a money laundering case. There are no charges claiming that they were giving money or aiding any terrorist organizations," federal prosecutor Bret Puscheck said Tuesday. 
Detailed information related to arrest of three Manipuri muslim youths claimed by Delhi police to be activists of Lashkar-e-taiba terrorist group has been forwarded to the State police authorities. Even though a police source declined to reveal details provided by Delhi police it identified the three arrested LeT operatives as Akbar Hussien alias Md Kashim alias Habib (19) of Yairipok Changamdabi Mayai Leikai, Md Abdur Rahman alias Md Hussien (22) of Kairang Awang Leikai and Md Salman Khurshid (23) of Yairipok Changamdabi Mayai Leikai. The source contended that the three had provided vital information on modus operandi of the terrorist organisation.
The London-based Arabic language newspaper A-Sharq al-Awsat reported Wednesday that the Iranian army has lost contact with one of its high-ranking officers based in Iraq. 
BAGHDAD, March 14 (KUNA) -- The rate of killings of US troops in Iraq has been on the decline, down by 60 percent, since the launch of the new security measures in Baghdad, according to statistics revealed by the Multi-National Force -Iraq Combined Press Information Centre.
BAQOUBA, Iraq (AP) - Some 700 American soldiers rolled into Baqouba on Tuesday, shifted out of Baghdad to help carry the security campaign against sectarian violence to a nearby volatile province where Sunni Arab insurgents fled ahead of the crackdown in the capital.
(KUNA) -- Eight people were Tuesday killed, including a judge, in separate violent incidents in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, according to the Iraqi police. A source at the police told KUNA unknown gunmen shot dead justice Omar Abdulnabi while he was heading to work. Four civilians were killed and seven were injured when a mortar shell slammed into a house in Karrada area in Baghdad, while three policemen were killed in an armed attack which left two injured.
A Hamas military commander was killed Tuesday in a shootout with Fatah gunmen shortly before the leaders of the two groups met to try to bridge their differences over a power-sharing deal. A spokesman for Hamas' military wing, 
A senior Hamas official, 
The publics timely call for military assistance in South Upi, Maguindanao, prevented a bomb planted at the passenger terminal of the municipality from inflicting harm at dawn on Tuesday. Lt. Col. Julieto Ando, Armys 6th Infantry division spokesman, said a Teduray native first took notice of a suspiciouslooking package placed in a secluded portion of the terminal around 4:00 a.m. and called the attention of his companions. He said the natives, after taking a quick look at the package, immediately informed the terminal management, who, in turn, called for assistance. It was just fortunate that the bomb was discovered containing an 81-mm projectile with a battery-operated timing device attached to a mobile phone, Ando said. Local authorities immediately contacted the Armys bomb disposal unit whose members defused the bomb, Ando added.
Arrested was Al-hari Jakiri, alias Abu Usman, who was among those wanted for beheading nine workers of the Golden Harvest Plantation in Tairan, Lantawan town.
At least eight Tamil Tiger cadre were killed in air raids on "identified targets" by the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) in the Batticaloa district on Tuesday. A Defence Ministry statement said the precision raids continued on an identified LTTE gathering in the un-cleared patches in Narakamulla General area at 10.15a.m. The air sorties followed information of a heavy build up of terrorist activities, said air force spokesperson, Group Captain Ajantha De Silva. He said terrorist activities in the general area Narakamulla had intensified after the death of the LTTE cadre including a leader of the Batticaloa intelligence unit. The statement said the air strikes were conducted as a defensive measure to smother potential threat to Batticaloa and Vavunathivu, main supply routes (MSR). It said intercepted LTTE communication had revealed that more than 12 Tigers died.
