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14 Arrested in Spain on Terror Charges
Today's Headlines
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Page 1: WoT Operations
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Page 4: Opinion
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Europe
14 Arrested in Spain on Terror Charges
Police arrested 14 people Monday on charges of recruiting volunteers for terror training in Afghanistan and Iraq. Eleven suspects were arrested in Barcelona and in two other northeastern towns. Two others were arrested in the central town of Aranjuez, and one in the southern city of Malaga, a National Police spokesman said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity as police force rules forbid him from being identified.

The suspects were believed to be Moroccan and they faced charges of recruiting people to be sent for training in camps in Afghanistan and Iraq. The spokesman said the police operation was continuing and that there could be more arrests. A substantial amount of computer material was seized during the pre-dawn raids, he said.
Posted by: ryuge || 05/28/2007 08:00 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A substantial amount of computer material was seized during the pre-dawn raids

Look for more arrests soon, then, in Spain and elsewhere. Afghanistan and Iraq, f'r instance. Sometimes being the good guys can be so very satisfying. :-)
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/28/2007 8:07 Comments || Top||

#2  There's more about this in the AKI article. Excerpt:

The Spanish police has recently raised the alarm about the presence of Jihadi militants in Catalonia.

Earlier this month, the Spanish Police Federation (CEP) warned that the Catalan region had become "the biggest recruiting centre for Islamist terrorirsts in Europe". It said that four or five jihadi fighters were believed to leave each months from Catalonia headed to Iraq, Chechnya or Afghanistan.


AKI also reports that many of the arrested were Paks.
Posted by: mrp || 05/28/2007 8:14 Comments || Top||

#3  The jihadi movement is brain-dead if they really plan to train Moroccans in Afghanistan. Here are some reasons why this is stupid:
They don't look like locals. They can't speak any of the local languages. There is limited mobility in and out of Afghanistan. A "camp" of any size will be noticeable to informants. Both Afghanistan and Iraq are free-fire zones who Americans forces that think they have detected a collection of training bad guys.
A "fearless leader" of even moderate metality could choose any of half a dozen training venues that didn't invovle JDAM interruptions. Lebanaon, Sudan, Somolia or Iran are just a few.
Posted by: Super Hose || 05/28/2007 11:36 Comments || Top||

#4  humm.. one more big jihadi op in Spain [a la Madrid Train Station] might roll the Spaniards back to an unenlightened Medieval period.
Posted by: RD || 05/28/2007 13:53 Comments || Top||

#5  It's a quagmire. Let's redeploy our sailors in Spain to Okinawa.
Posted by: ed || 05/28/2007 13:55 Comments || Top||

#6  It's a quagmire. Let's redeploy our sailors in Spain to Okinawa.

LOL ed, yeah back to Fat Rosie O'Murtha's Wading Pool!
Posted by: RD || 05/28/2007 14:06 Comments || Top||

#7  Hey it's the HoseMan.

Shamu is send greeters.
Posted by: Shipman || 05/28/2007 14:43 Comments || Top||

#8  mrp: AKI also reports that many of the arrested were Paks.

I wasn't aware that there was a substantial Pakistani community in Spain, and wouldn't have thought that the Moroccans would be very welcoming of such...
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/28/2007 20:45 Comments || Top||

#9  I'm sure they had Moroccan passports
Posted by: Frank G || 05/28/2007 20:46 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
'Militant' killed in DI Khan
DERA ISMAIL KHAN: A suspected militant was killed when a hand grenade he was carrying in his hand exploded prematurely some kilometres from Crick checkpoint here on Saturday morning. The unidentified militant was reportedly coming from Waziristan and wanted to target the checkpoint, but the grenade went off, killing him at the scene. Police took his body into custody for identification and investigation.
Posted by: Fred || 05/28/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Remember kiddies, once you pull the pin Mr. grenade is not our friend...
Posted by: Abu do you love || 05/28/2007 11:41 Comments || Top||


Tribal journalist's home attacked
Suspected militants hurled three grenades at the home of a senior tribal journalist in the Hayatabad area of Peshawar on Saturday. The blast damaged two rooms but no one was hurt.

Nasrullah Afridi, Khyber Agency correspondent for Urdu daily Mashriq, told Daily Times that him home in phase four of Hayatabad in Tatara police station limits was attacked at around 8:00pm. Shamsur Rehman of Tatara police station said that he had so far not received any information about the blast.

Afridi said he was not at home at the time of attack but his family was in another room and remained unhurt. He said the Khyber Agency based Lashkar-e-Islami was behind the attack and he would lodge an FIR against the organisation.
Posted by: Fred || 05/28/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Senior Tribal Journalist.

That'n look damn fine on your resume.
Posted by: Lionel Gromock4755 || 05/28/2007 10:36 Comments || Top||

#2  Me and Lionel are like damn homies
Posted by: Shipman || 05/28/2007 10:40 Comments || Top||

#3  Me and Lionel are like damn homies

Damn Collegial Homies!

>:
Posted by: Lionel || 05/28/2007 14:11 Comments || Top||


3 soldiers killed in blast near Tank
A remote control bomb killed three soldiers and injured seven on Saturday, a senior official said. Tank District Coordination Officer Syed Mohsin Shah told Daily Times a military convoy was headed to Wana when a remote control bomb went off at around 7:00am at a diversion near an under-construction bridge on the Tank-Wana road, killing the three soldiers. However, military spokesman Maj-Gen Waheed Arshad said two soldiers were killed in the blast. A security official said pro-Taliban militants appeared to be behind the attack. Security forces and militants have battled intermittently in Tank this year, evidence, some say, of the growing influence of the Taliban in NWFP.
Posted by: Fred || 05/28/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq
Gunmen Hijack Two Buses in Baghdad
A battle raged Monday in central Baghdad after insurgents hijacked two buses and kidnapped at least 15 passengers, police said. At least three policemen had been killed and eight wounded, including four passersby, authorities said.

The small buses where traveling through the Fadhil neighborhood, a Sunni enclave in central Baghdad, when they were waylaid by unidentified gunmen in three cars at 10:15 a.m.

The insurgents then abducted at least 15 passengers and took them to a nearby abandoned government building, a police officer said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters.

The buses were heading from Baghdad's central Bab al-Mudham bus station to the city's eastern Shiite neighborhoods.

The fighting began when Iraqi security forces reached the scene about 30 minutes later, police said. Nine militants were arrested as they attacked security forces from nearby alleys with light weapons.

According to Iraqi police, at least two U.S. helicopters were hovering overhead and U.S. forces had taken up positions near the fighting, but were not directly involved.

Sunni insurgents have repeatedly clashed with U.S. and Iraqi forces in the Fadhil area, which is also known for its high crime rate.
So any gunman, who used to be a criminal, is now an insurgent?
Posted by: Bobby || 05/28/2007 06:42 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Gunmen Hijack Two Buses in Baghdad

Viva Libre! take us to Cuba!
Posted by: Confused Baghdadi || 05/28/2007 13:42 Comments || Top||

#2  Thisn bus is going to Dothan

/Aubrn
Posted by: Shipman || 05/28/2007 14:50 Comments || Top||

#3  Are they gonna learn how to drive tractors, Ship?
Hard to tell if this is "insurgents" or "criminals". Not a nickle's worth of difference between the two.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 05/28/2007 15:07 Comments || Top||

#4  Saddam released all the major criminals from Iraqi prisons early in the war : it was one way he hoped to tie up Coalition forces and defeat us. It did not work out that way for him, but those thugs have been a major thorn in the side of the Iraqis ever since. So yes, in most major cities in Iraq, the thugs and terrs are pretty much the same group - with a few on either side not crossing over.
Posted by: Shieldwolf || 05/28/2007 18:14 Comments || Top||


U.S. forces detain at least two “terrorists” working for Iran
On some worlds, the presence of foreign nationals instigating terror attacks in a combat zone is a causus belli.
London, May 27 – United States-led forces in Iraq have arrested at least two “terrorists” working for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) in two separate raids since Friday, the Coalition announced.

“Iraqi and Coalition Forces detained one suspected terrorist while targeting a terrorist cell leader Friday morning during raids in Sadr City”, the Multi-National Force – Iraq (MNF-I) said in a statement. “The individual detained during the raid is closely linked to a suspected leader in a secret cell terrorist network known for facilitating the transport of weapons and explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs, from Iran to Iraq, as well as bringing militants from Iraq to Iran for terrorist training”, the MNF-I said.

“Intelligence reports indicate the individual targeted is suspected of having direct ties to the leader of the EFP network as well as acting as a proxy for an Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps officer”, it added. “These rogue militia elements have no respect for the peace of Iraq”, said Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, MNF-I spokesperson. “We will continue to track them and diminish their ability to attack the Iraqi people and disrupt the progress of the country”.

On Saturday, Iraqi and Coalition troops detained one “suspected terrorist cell leader” and killed at least five “terrorists” during raids in the Baghdad slum Sadr City. “The individual detained during the raid is believed to be the suspected leader in a secret cell terrorist network known for facilitating the transport of weapons and explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs, from Iran to Iraq, as well as bringing militants from Iraq to Iran for terrorist training”, the MNF-I said. “Intelligence reports indicate the individual detained is suspected of having direct ties to a senior leader of a significant EFP network as well as acting as a proxy for an Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps officer”, it added
Posted by: Steve White || 05/28/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  He'll sing like a birdie, and if he doesn't, it's part of the plan to both cover those spies already in place and place new ones in the highest levels of the organization.
Posted by: Bobby || 05/28/2007 6:29 Comments || Top||

#2  Let me have him for 24 hours - he'll never stop talking. Of course, much of what he says won't be printable, but he'll talk! I'llhave to go buy a new set of snagging hooks, though. The ones I have are TOO dull.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 05/28/2007 14:11 Comments || Top||


Ten US troops killed in Iraq
BAGHDAD - Ten more American soldiers have been killed in fighting in Iraq, the military announced on Sunday. Most of the 10 US soldiers were slain in and around Baghdad, the epicentre of Iraq’s vicious sectarian conflict and the focus of a controversial 28,000-strong surge in US troop numbers, which is due to peak next month.

Four soldiers were killed in two attacks in the Sunni province of Salaheddin on Saturday, while another four were killed in blasts in the capital. A marine and another soldier died in combat north and west of the capital.
Posted by: Steve White || 05/28/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Sweet Jesus.. the best gave for the rest of us.. us olde moldy types should be there instead..

RIP brothers..
Posted by: RD || 05/28/2007 1:14 Comments || Top||

#2  Makes me very sad.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/28/2007 6:09 Comments || Top||

#3  Rest in peace, with our thanks. May your sacrifice prove to have been worthwhile, and your memory a blessing for those you loved.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/28/2007 7:56 Comments || Top||

#4  God speed their souls and care for their families. This is yet another debt I will never be able to repay.
Posted by: Excalibur || 05/28/2007 8:42 Comments || Top||

#5  And the mission they were on? Any news of that?

Or are just US Dead in Iraq the only thing worth reporting, not worth reporting their accomplishments for which their lives were given - and not worth reporting the brave ones that give the last full measure of devotion elsewhere, like Afghanistan?

I've had my fill of this trash.

REPORT THE MISSION! Respect and publicize what they gave their lives to accomplish!
Posted by: OldSpook || 05/28/2007 10:00 Comments || Top||

#6  Now is this 10 more in addition to the 8 reported yesterday, or did 2 more die and they just make it a bigger headline by reporting all deaths since Wednesday? If 2 more die tomorrow, will the headline read "12 more soldiers dead in Iraq?" NUTS!
Posted by: 0369Grunt || 05/28/2007 10:43 Comments || Top||

#7  0369Grunt is onto something. I've seen them do this several times. They aggregate casualties over a multi-day period and report it each day as if it were a new event.

I hope that's the case here. If not ... can we please start seeing some enemy KIA numbers? They do it in Afghanistan, why not Iraq?
Posted by: Moon6 || 05/28/2007 11:45 Comments || Top||

#8  OldSpook and Grunt are both on to something. While MNF-I press releases often do contain very bare-bone references to enemy KIA, it is very unusual to see US KIA put in any context at all.

Grunt, as I recall, this phenomenon of reporting US military deaths in Iraq so frequently led to confusion (among wire-service subscribers, i.e., the press itself) back in 2004). So much so that AP had to do a note to editors and change their practices. Part of the problem was that web news sites would post as "new" what were updates to wire dispatches - but I think the wires themselves also had a problem with "over" reporting.

On the other matter, this has been a screaming problem for years. The Marines are the worst. Aside from Fallujah II, the mini-campaigns in the western Euphrates valley to secure elections, and of course the Haditha incident, there has hardly been any information about operations that's made its way into mass print. It would not be hard to conclude that the hundres of USMC KIA in Anbar the last two years accomplished nothing - "a Marine was killed by enemy action in Anbar province" - uh, what was he doing? Fishing in a canal and got shoved in? It's been going on literally for years like this.

I had the opportunity to raise these questions directly with relevant folks in Baghdad. Nobody disputed the facts or the possible impact over time, but nobody was willing to do anything about it.

A related matter, of course, is enemy KIA. While you'll see some mention of this in some press releases, it's almost never done in situations where the US loses someone, and I can't discern a pattern as to when enemy KIA is OK to mention, vs. when it's not permitted.

Right there, every morning, on the CG/MNF-I's battle update assessment (BUA) - unless Petraeus has changed things, is an enemy KIA number. A weekly and monthly roll-up slide shows numbers over those periods. Right there - but while it was only a "secret" level bit of info, it was the most secure info around. This bizarre obsession with an imagined concept of "body counts" persists, and it runs deep.

One of Caldwell's predecessors completely agreed with the substance of my point that enemy KIA should be reported (along with other results), but was resigned to it not being possible due to the fixed views of so many at DOD, in and out of uniform.

There were a few illuminating, amusing, frustrating incidents, one involving the Army to the east in Diyala, another with the Marines during a Euphrates valley mini-campaign, in which the local commanders blurted out the results of battle (as they should), including enemy KIA. The Marine got in some kind of trouble, and there was much huffing and puffing in some circles in Baghdad. The Army guy did not seem to get in trouble. But both instances led to more discussions in Baghdad about the bizarre practice of concealing enemy killed (that's what it amounts to).

Some of the most afflicted start by claiming that we don't have "hard" body counts. !!!!! Hilarious. I pointed out that we had more total control over the battlefield in Iraq than in any war in our history, and therefore at the very least hedged ("4 terrorists confirmed killed, possibly others inside the building") language could be used. No real answer to that point, of course.

The American people have been abandoned, from the Oval Office on down, since early in the Iraq saga (aside from Rummy's press conferences, for a while), to fend for themselves in terms of information about the war, what it means, and how to view costs and difficulties. This bizarre, one-sided release of information on casualties has been one part of it. Nice little reminder that while we have the deadliest and most careful military ever to take the field, our broader capability to wage war is pretty feeble.
Posted by: Verlaine || 05/28/2007 12:19 Comments || Top||

#9  Moon6, Chuck Simmons has been doing exactly that on his own blog, North Shore Journal. He documents his numbers, too, to avoid exactly the issue 0369Grunt raises. Click on the title in this post to go straight there.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/28/2007 12:20 Comments || Top||

#10  Here's what I can find at the MNF-I site:
May 23 2 dead IED east of Baghdad
May 25 1 dead complex attack Taji
May 26 3 dead explosion Salah Ad Din
May 26 1 dead unk Al Anbar
May 26 1 dead IED western Baghdad
May 26 1 dead explosion Diyala Province

It looks like the press story collects aggregates these. It's been a very bad month for IED deaths, 71 of the 103.
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 05/28/2007 14:25 Comments || Top||

#11  Hear hear OS.... and

"a Marine was killed by enemy action in Anbar province" - uh, what was he doing
?

I thought it was just me. Gives you the idea he was picked off from the herd, which is damn unlikely.
Posted by: Shipman || 05/28/2007 14:55 Comments || Top||

#12  Agreed Oldspook.
Very good point. Bless them and their families.
Posted by: Jan from work || 05/28/2007 20:54 Comments || Top||

#13  Media gools scream for pics
Posted by: Captain America || 05/28/2007 22:29 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Olmert announces new attack on Hamas
Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Sunday announced new strikes against the radical Islamist Hamas movement after another deadly missile attack on the Israeli border town of Sderot. Olmert said during Sunday’s cabinet meeting that nobody was immune against Israeli attacks. ‘We decide when, how and where we act without accepting any conditions from outside,’ he said.

On Sunday morning, a 36-year-old Israeli was killed in a renewed rocket attack on Sderot, when a missile launched from the Gaza Strip hit his car in the town centre. Another Israeli was injured. The military arm of Hamas took responsibility for the attack. A total of four rockets hit the town. Already on Monday a woman had been killed in another rocket attack on Sderot.

The Israeli air force attacked other Hamas posts in Rafah and in the Jabalija refugee camp late on Saturday night, injuring two Palestinians. Earlier, Israeli airstrikes killed five members of the Hamas police militia in the Gaza Strip. Another 20 Palestinians suffered injuries in the attacks.

Israeli police had raised alert levels Saturday night to the highest possible non-emergency level, following a Saturday afternoon shooting attack on security forces by two Palestinian terrorists in East Jerusalem, the Israeli online news service ynet reported Sunday.

‘We know that there is a strong desire right now to carry out terror attacks and attempts to carry them out are actively taking place,’ head of the police operations department, commander Yoram Ohayon, was quoted as saying by ynet.

On Saturday afternoon, two armed Palestinians were killed when they opened fire on a police patrol on the West Bank border with East Jerusalem, injuring four officers. A third Palestinian, uninvolved in the attack, was killed in the crossfire. The Islamic Hamas movement had responded to fresh strikes against its forces in the Gaza Strip by saying that renewed attacks in Israel were only a matter of time.
Posted by: Pappy || 05/28/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'll bet hamas is just quaking in their towels... my god what next? double secret probation?

Olmert has no balls and no public support and hamas knows it. all this 'announcement' does is give hamas more public support in gaza as the evil zionists are comming
Posted by: Abu do you love || 05/28/2007 11:49 Comments || Top||

#2  The Israelis aren't hurting the people that need to be hurt. Don't attack the rank and file, attack the head. Destroy Ramallah and see how quickly Abba$$ pleads for peace. Start levelling all of Gaza, and see how fast the other groups clamp down on Hama$$. HURT them, cut off all electricity, water, food, transport, and anything else that has to pass through Israel, and make it almost impossible for stuff to come in from elsewhere. I personally believe that Israel needs to shove all muslims out of the Land of Israel, including Gaza and the West Bank, and keep them out until the Second Coming or the end of the world, whichever happens first. That goes double for muzzie "diplomats" (a fancy name for "spy").
Posted by: Old Patriot || 05/28/2007 14:25 Comments || Top||

#3  I personally salute you, Old Patriot...I kind of welled up a bit after your statement!
Posted by: smn || 05/28/2007 17:55 Comments || Top||

#4  Maybe, just maybe, Olmert is like in a Bobby McGhee situation, nothing left to loose by doing the right thing. His numbers can't go lower.
Posted by: Shipman || 05/28/2007 18:28 Comments || Top||


Hamas mouthpiece: Johnston to be free "real soon now"
Alan Johnston, the kidnapped Scottish journalist, is alive and well and might soon be released, a Palestinian government official has claimed. Speaking at the Hay-on-Wye literary festival in Wales, Ghazi Hamad, a Hamas government spokesman, said he knew the group holding the BBC's Gaza correspondent and was personally involved in negotiations to free him.
Um. What the h*ll was a Hamas spokescritter doing in Wales at the Hay-on-Wye literary festival???????
"I know he is well and healthy, and in a good situation. No-one has tried to harm him or hurt him," he said. "I think there are continuous efforts to release him. We hope we can do it very, very soon." Mr Hamad said the people holding Mr Johnston had some "political demands", which he did not specify. Mr Hamad said he had "a lot" of information about the situation, but was not authorised to elaborate, saying efforts to release him are reaching a crucial stage and a breakthrough could be made soon. He said a "small group" had kidnapped Mr Johnston, and that he knows their identity. "I have my own channels to talk to these people," he said.
Snipped all the stuff about Abu Mazen, who has no ability to affect this situation in any way.
A Foreign Office spokesman had no comment on Mr Hamad's statement. Commenting on the presence in Britain of Mr Hamad, the spokesman said there had been no change in British policy towards the Islamist group. He added: "We don't engage with Hamas officials on policy discussions."
"We just invite them to our literary festivals to read bedtimes stories to our little kids."
The government also said it would not do any deals to secure the journalist's release.
Posted by: Seafarious || 05/28/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Do what ye want with Mr. Johnson, Hamasites. He's been yer tool for auld lang syne. We don't want him. Give him lots of time to get to know your evil ways. There's a novel book in the deal, I can smell the foul odor thereof it.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 05/28/2007 12:48 Comments || Top||

#2  This headline is wrong it should be.

Hamas mouthpiece Johnston, to be free "real soon now"
Posted by: Bright Pebbles in Blairistan || 05/28/2007 18:53 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Bombs hit southern Thai city, nine wounded
Seven small bombs wounded at least nine people in the southern Thai city of Hai Yai on Sunday in an attack resembling ones carried out by Muslim separatists, police said. Army-commander-in-chief General Sonthi Boonyaratglin declined to say immediately if separatists were responsible for the attacks, but said the bombs, all the size of soda cans, were aimed at causing chaos rather than major damage.

"The bombs weren't meant to destroy or sabotage, but just to wreak havoc," Sonthi, the leader of the bloodless coup which ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra last year, told TITV television.

One of the wounded was in serious condition after the bombs hit two department stores, two hotels, a restaurant, a Chinese shrine and a pharmacy in the city, the centre of the rubber trade in Thailand, the world's biggest producer, police said.
Posted by: Seafarious || 05/28/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Two killed at Lebanese army checkpoint at Beirut airport
BEIRUT - Two men were killed on Monday as their car sped away from a Lebanese army checkpoint outside Beirut international airport at a time of heightened tension in Lebanon, an army spokesman said.

‘The driver of the car, summoned by soldiers to stop for an identity check at the checkpoint, fled with two passengers. The soldiers fired at the tyre of the vehicle, which was being driven at speed and smashed into a wall,’ he said. ‘The two men, a Lebanese, Hassan Ali Karkai, and Hamadeh Hajj Ahmad, a Syrian, were killed on the spot,’ he told AFP, adding that an investigation was launched to determine if they died of gunshot wounds or because of the crash.
Does it really matter?
He said two other passengers were arrested, one of whom had been shot in the stomach. One of those detained had got out of the car at the checkpoint before the vehicle sped off.

In the bloodiest internal clashes for decades, the army has since May 20 been fighting Islamist militants entrenched in a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon. Meanwhile, the capital itself has been hit by a spate of bomb blasts in which one woman was killed and dozens of people were wounded.
Posted by: Steve White || 05/28/2007 23:14 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:


Iranian-Syrian Push To Topple Lebanon
The Grand Syro-Iranian spring offensive has begun in Lebanon. The design is to drag the Lebanese Army into side - but costly - fights with group A, while group B is preparing itself for the next stage, possibly a summer offensive.

There is a consensus among terrorism analysts in Lebanon — including those within the Lebanese Government and the Cedars Revolution – that elements within Syrian intelligence have been tasked with instigating or initiating a battle in Tripoli between Fatah al Islam and the Lebanese Army in hopes that Lebanese Army units would falter and Lebanese-Palestinian fighting would widen.

The second stage of this spring offensive is to push elements of Jund al Sham (another al Qaeda affiliate) into the southern Palestinian camp of Miyeh-Miyeh near Sidon. The objective is to open another front for Group A: that is the Salafists against the same Lebanese Armed Forces.

Ultimately, the Syro-Iranians hope to see the Lebanese armed forces engaged in fighting in multiple enclaves from Tripoli to Sidon, and perhaps to the Bekaa.

This terror plan is to drain the operational forces of the Lebanese Army by forcing the LA to engage enemy forces in multiple locations.

Such a situation would quickly deplete the munitions of regular forces and dangerously stretch Lebanese forces.

Aware that 10,000 soldiers of the Lebanese armed forces are already deployed south of the Litani in order to implement UN resolution 1701 along with UNIFIL forces [United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon], the joint Syrian-Hezbollah war room has in fact pushed the Salafist Jihadists toward the objective of spreading and dividing Lebanese forces across the Lebanese territories. The long-term objective is to "kill" the central force of the Lebanese Army and prevent it from being reinforced by its own reserve forces.

By early summer, Group B — composed of Hezbollah and all other pro-Syrian militias would join the fray against the Lebanese government and seize ground in Beirut and throughout the remainder of the country.

Hence, the Lebanese Army confrontation with al Qaeda in Tripoli — and eventually in Sidon — should take into consideration Group B preparing for future action.

Besides, when it comes to Hezbollah, many LA soldiers who are under the influence of (or who fear) the Iranian-backed militia might quit.

So, what we see right now, is a Lebanese Army engaging the northern front with al Qaeda. The Lebanese soldiers have very little equipment, and the may possibly have to engage the Bin Laden elements in the south, soon.

In our estimation, the international community (including the U.S.) must have an emergency plan for strategic assistance of the Lebanese government against Group A now. And it must expect attacks from Group B in the very near future.

Yes, the Lebanese troops, with their M16 rifles, M113 troop transports, and outdated M48 tanks, are showing courage against the most lethal terrorists on the face of the earth. But courage alone is not enough...
Posted by: Anonymoose || 05/28/2007 17:26 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Syria and Iran need some distractions so that they don't meddle in other people's countries so much.
Posted by: JohnQC || 05/28/2007 18:09 Comments || Top||

#2  Latakia wants to be free.
Posted by: Shipman || 05/28/2007 18:49 Comments || Top||

#3  Wrong answer. Lebanon is far greater than Syria shall ever be, and Iran is about to learn what Judgement day is about.
Posted by: newc || 05/28/2007 20:37 Comments || Top||

#4  Bless Lebanon.
Posted by: newc || 05/28/2007 20:38 Comments || Top||

#5  Syria and Iran are confident there will be no distractions because their friends the donks won last September. If you think this summer is bad, wait till next. The MM think they can pull off another Madrid. And I'm not sure they can't.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 05/28/2007 20:39 Comments || Top||

#6  Such a situation would quickly deplete the munitions of regular forces and dangerously stretch Lebanese forces.

P'rhaps that's why we're resupplying them. Counter to all those arguments is that this experience bloods the Lebanese troops, and peels off those who would otherwise evaporate at a critical moment. It's always better to know the stark reality, or so it seems to me in my innocence.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/28/2007 20:51 Comments || Top||


Video threatens Lebanese Christians
"Seas of blood, kiddies, seas of blood!"
A group calling itself "Al-Qaeda in Greater Syria" threatened on Sunday to spill "seas of blood" if the Lebanese Army does not call off its campaign against militants in the Nahr al-Bared camp. In a video broadcast on the Internet, a militant called the army's campaign a "crusade under the pretext of fighting terrorism." If the shelling continues, "Christians in Lebanon will suffer and tourism and trade will also suffer," the militant said. The video specifically threatened "the traitor Jewish agent, Lebanese Forces leader [Samir Geagea] and ... the ally of the disbelievers who is greedy and ambitious to become the king of Lebanon, Michel Aoun."

Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Butros Sfeir was also threatened. "If you do not stop firing on our family I warn ... after today not one Christian in Lebanon will be safe ... Just as you strike, you will be struck."
Posted by: Seafarious || 05/28/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  maybe it is time for another crusade!!!
Posted by: long hair republican || 05/28/2007 0:31 Comments || Top||

#2  I will sign up with any denomination declaring a new Crusade.
Posted by: Excalibur || 05/28/2007 8:50 Comments || Top||

#3  Christians are safe in Lebannon? Who knew?
Posted by: CrazyFool || 05/28/2007 9:32 Comments || Top||

#4  #1 & #2 - Hell, I'm not even Christian and I'm ready to sign up for a new Crusade.

Especially against the islamonazis bastards.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 05/28/2007 10:04 Comments || Top||

#5  Doesn't it hurt the AQ credibility when they threaten the Lebanese tourist trade. Tourist in Lebanon sounds like a bad CIA cover story.
Posted by: Super Hose || 05/28/2007 12:03 Comments || Top||


Achille Lauro hijacker at Lebanon's Nahr al-Bared camp
A Palestinian who escaped from Italy while on parole for the 1985 hijacking of cruise ship Achille Lauro is holed up in the Lebanon refugee camp where the army is besieging Islamist militants. Bassam al-Ashker, now 39, told reporters by telephone that he is now a militiaman for the mainstream Fatah faction of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and saw it as his duty to brave the fighting to help the thousands of trapped civilians.

Ashker was just 17 when he took part in the assault on the Achille Lauro by commandos of the Palestine Liberation Front of Abu Abbas in which some 450 passengers were held hostage for several days and a wheelchair-bound U.S. tourist was killed. He told reporters he had retained his radical anti-Western politics and,
After fleeing Italy in 1991 following his release on parole from nearly six years in jail, he spent 14 years in Iraq before moving to Lebanon's Nahr al-Bared refugee camp.
after fleeing Italy in 1991 following his release on parole from nearly six years in jail, spent 14 years in Iraq before moving to Lebanon's Nahr al-Bared refugee camp. "I organize the training of young Palestinian recruits who we send to fight the Americans alongside the Iraqi resistance," Ashker told reporters. "I have even fought them myself in Fallujah and Ramadi," two rebel bastions west of Baghdad.

Despite his anti-Western views, Ashker insisted he had no link with the Islamist fighters of fringe militant group Fatah al-Islam who are under siege by the Lebanese army and stand accused of using camp residents as human shields. "They have certainly proved their military prowess," he said referring to the fighting of the past week in which 33 Lebanese soldiers but only 25 of the group's fighters were among the 78 dead. "If they had used it to fight Israel, I would have been the first to join them, but they are fanatics who believe only in religion and have no regard of the consequences of their actions on civilians. Not a long time ago, Muslim clerics reminded them that it was wrong to attack Palestinians or Lebanese but they retorted that their religion took primacy over everything else."

Despite his disdain for the Fatah al-Islam fighters, Ashker insisted he had no intention of leaving the Nahr al-Bared camp, where living conditions have been deteriorating amid chronic shortages of water, food and power. "It is shameful for a young man to leave the camp -- we need all the help we can get. My men are organizing food and drink for trapped civilians, notably by going up on the rooftops to get water from the cisterns there, which is dangerous because of sniper fire. We're also organizing patrols to prevent burglaries from the homes of residents who have fled."
Posted by: Fred || 05/28/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Unless this brave lion of islam suddenly gets dead, we should try to obtain Bassam al-Ashker from the Lebanonese, send him to Gitmo or have him have his day in court for the murder of Leon Klinghoffer in the U.S.--just to let terrorists know that we do not forget. Of course we could arrange to just kill him in Lebanon.
Posted by: JohnQC || 05/28/2007 9:24 Comments || Top||

#2  A couple of points:

1) Excerpts:

Bassam al-Ashker, now 39, told reporters by telephone that he is now a militiaman for the mainstream Fatah faction of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas

AND:

"I organize the training of young Palestinian recruits who we send to fight the Americans alongside the Iraqi resistance," Ashker told reporters. "I have even fought them myself in Fallujah and Ramadi," two rebel bastions west of Baghdad.

The conclusions I draw from this:

a) Every nickel "donated" to Fatah and Abbas funds the murder of American servicemen, Iraqi military and civil authorities, and Iraqi citizens.

b) Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon are terrorist training sites.

c) Palestinian recruits and their instructor cadres are transiting somehow from Lebanon to Iraq. Syria has long been accused of allowing such access. And Syria is Persian satellite.

2) The original source for the Naharnet article is the Agence France Press (AFP). I don't recall this kind of detailed reporting involving a Fatah-related subject prior to Sarkozy's election. Come to think of it, the attack on the Nahr al-Bared camp took place shortly after his election, didn't it?
Posted by: mrp || 05/28/2007 9:53 Comments || Top||

#3  Send Billy Waugh after him.
Posted by: Super Hose || 05/28/2007 13:36 Comments || Top||

#4  I really, really do wish the US still had a couple of commissioned battleships. Replace those heavy, cumbersome turrets with GMLRS launchers, stand offshore, and start lobbing in missiles. When there's nothing left standing, napalm the rubble and bake it into a solid mass of twisted iron, crushed rock, and ash. When Iran and Syria make threatening noise, run a few nuke strikes through the heart of their "empires", and let them take care of themselves afterwards. We need to do the Mongols one better, and totally CRUSH for all time the entire muzzie world. We could all live a little easier afterwards. Oh, and we can then go in and steal all the oil we want or need, kicking the Russians and Chinese in the teeth as we do so.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 05/28/2007 14:35 Comments || Top||

#5  PLF Commando, jeez, the destruction of the language continues. Pretty damn sophisticated even then. Meanwhile US Administration Extremists souoght to undermine the Italian justice system.
Posted by: Shipman || 05/28/2007 18:57 Comments || Top||

#6  A useful analysis, mrp.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/28/2007 20:54 Comments || Top||

#7  If this fucker doesn't get smothered with a ham sandwich, there is no justice.
Posted by: Mike N. || 05/28/2007 22:13 Comments || Top||


3 wounded in another explosion in Lebanon 's capital
A hand grenade was tossed off Sunday at a unit of security forces at a major intersection in west Beirut , police said. The grenade was tossed off a bridge by assailants on a motorbike at the Barbir intersection, near Mazraa section of Beirut and fell near a checkpoint for security forces in this Sunni Muslim neighborhood of the Lebanese capital. Three from the unit of the security forces were injured according to police reports.

Beirut area and nearby suburbs have seen three explosions in the last week, killing a woman and injuring nearly 30 people. One in Ashrafiyieh, a Christian area, one in Verdun, a predominantly Moslem Sunni area and one in Aley, a Druze resort town east of Beirut . The violence came as Lebanese troops were fighting Islamic militants at the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr el-Bared in northern Lebanon. Scores of people have been killed in the northern fighting.
Posted by: Fred || 05/28/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:



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Two weeks of WOT
Mon 2007-05-28
  14 Arrested in Spain on Terror Charges
Sun 2007-05-27
  U.S. Military Rescues 41 Iraqis From Al Qaeda Prison
Sat 2007-05-26
  Nangahar big turban snagged
Fri 2007-05-25
  Dems blink: House Approves War-Funding Bill
Thu 2007-05-24
  Israel seizes Hamas leaders in West Bank
Wed 2007-05-23
  PLO backs army entry into Nahr al-Bared
Tue 2007-05-22
  Hamas threatens new wave of suicide attacks
Mon 2007-05-21
  Leb army lays siege to camp as fight continues
Sun 2007-05-20
  Leb army takes on Fatah al-Islam at Paleo camp
Sat 2007-05-19
  White House rejects Democrats' offer on war spending bill
Fri 2007-05-18
  9 dead after bomb explodes at India's oldest Mosque
Thu 2007-05-17
  IDF tanks enter Gaza Strip
Wed 2007-05-16
  Chlorine boom kills 20 in Diyala
Tue 2007-05-15
  Paleo interior minister quits
Mon 2007-05-14
  Extra troops as Karachi death toll mounts


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