Taliban insurgents raided a compound used by NATO and Afghan forces on Monday in a gun and truck bomb attack that caused several casualties, an Afghan provincial official said.
Assailants opened fire on soldiers manning the compound then drove a bomb-laden truck inside before detonating the explosives, the official from southeast Khost province said.
The attack occurred in Sabri district close to the border with Pakistan, Sabri's district chief, Lutfullah Babakarkheil, told Reuters.
"I know two rooms have been destroyed and there are some casualties," he said.
A spokesman for the Taliban, which leads the insurgency against the government and foreign troops, said members of the group had carried out the attack. The spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, was speaking by telephone from an undisclosed location.
Today in Asia - Pacific
Activists clash with the Japanese whaler Nisshin Maru3 NATO soldiers wounded in Afghan attackPyongyang dashes hopes of warmer ties
The base was used by U.S.-led coalition and Afghan security forces, said Major Christine Nelson-Chung, a spokeswoman for the U.S. military in the province.
"As of right now we are not tracking any killed... we believe it was a rocket attack," she said.
Three foreign soldiers were evacuated from the base, said another U.S. military spokesman in Bagram, the hub of the U.S. military. Bagram airbase is to the north of Kabul. "The reports are still coming in," he added.
Residents reported hearing several explosions at the base. Several NATO helicopters were also seen rushing towards the site, witnesses said, adding they saw a number of casualties being taken out from the base in vehicles.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/03/2008 15:50 ||
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Top|| File under: Taliban
BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan As he approached the aircraft in the darkness, the rotor wash whipped dust and dirt across his face. However, amid the noise of the rotor, Afghan National Army Spc. Mohammed Ali said all he could hear was his upcoming responsibilities whirling in his head, Run from the aircraft towards the target, breach the door, and clear my sector.
Ali, an ANA Commando with the 201st Commando Kandak was deployed to Helmand Province by the Afghan Ministry of Defense in response to the increasing attempts by Taliban extremists to terrorize Afghan citizens.
The commandos mission was to develop intelligence and conduct a surgical strike against key Taliban leadership and control in Helmand Province. In preparation for their mission, the troops conducted specialized training such as day and night live-fire maneuvers and multiple insertion techniques. Commando leaders examined the most recent intelligence and targeted key individuals for capture.
The mission was ambitious: conduct a night air assault against multiple Taliban command and control centers to capture or kill Taliban leadership targets deep within the Kajaki region. The commandos named the operation, SayLaab, meaning flood.
Buses containing nearly 100 ANA troops clad in black body armor and specialized weapons made their way from the 205th ANA camp to Kandahar Airfield where numerous Coalition aircraft awaited with rotor blades churning.
As Ali boarded the aircraft, he said his pre-mission prayers as the high-pitched whine of the engines gave way to the formidable thumping of the rotor blades above. Moments later, a massive formation of transport and attack helicopters lifted off the runway together toward their targets.
As the strike force approached its objectives, Coalition helicopters dropped to just above ground level and increased their speed. Commandos pulled their night vision goggles over their eyes bringing the black ground to green life. In spite of the intense training and mission preparation, the Commandos understood the risks associated with this operation.
Pilots relayed their final checkpoints to the Commandos over radio communications, informed them to ready their weapons, and remove their seatbelts. Seconds later, the helos pitched into multiple landing zones. The Commandos quickly disembarked from their helicopters and quickly closed on their target compounds. As the roar of departing rotor blades filled the sky, Commando assaulters cleared four separate compounds in search of their elusive quarry.
Within minutes of insertion, Commando assaulters seized their intended targets and secured a foothold deep within the city. Despite the advantage of tactical surprise, a fierce battle ensued. The report of multiple weapon systems rang out as insurgents put up a futile defense against the elite Afghan force. Commandos quickly and accurately eliminated threats with small-arms and machine gun fire.
The speed, surprise and tenacity of the assault not only caught the enemy insurgents off guard, but also prevented the escape of a senior Taliban commander.
Throughout the operation, intense anti-aircraft fire filled the night sky. Attack helicopters swarmed over their targets, placing precision-guided munitions and intense machine gun fire on enemy fighting positions. Coalition aircraft flew in support of the Afghan troops aiding in the elimination of enemy caches and drug processing facility.
At missions end, multiple enemy fighters were eliminated. The Commandos quickly boarded their aircraft with 11 combatants in custody. On the ground, six enemy vehicles containing thousands of pounds of weapons and munitions, as well as nearly $8 million of illegal narcotics, was destroyed.
As the helicopter assault force lifted off toward Kandahar, Ali shook the hands of his brothers-in-arms with an undeniable certainty that the people of Afghanistan were safer this night
The daring and complex operation highlighted the capacity of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to strategically deploy elite commando forces across the country to conduct surgical strikes in support of their national objectives, said Army Capt. Vanessa R. Bowman, a Coalition spokesperson. The success of Operation SayLaab reinforced the esprit de corps and operational reach of the nations most dedicated warriors. Commandos continue to ensure no safe haven exists for the enemies of freedom and prosperity, and that a brighter future lies ahead for the people of Afghanistan.
The U.S. military targeted "a known al Qaeda terrorist" in an attack early on Monday in southern Somalia, the Pentagon said. It was the fourth U.S. air strike on Somalia in 14 months.
A U.S. military official, who declined to be identified, told Reuters the action was a deliberate strike against suspected terrorists in remote Dobley, Somalia, about 140 miles (220 km) from the port city of Kismayu. But a Pentagon spokesman said later the target had been a single al Qaeda militant. "This attack was against a known al Qaeda terrorist," said Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman. "As we have repeatedly said, we will continue to pursue terrorist activities and their operations wherever we may find them." Whitman declined to provide details of the operation.
Meanwhile, the military official said it was too early to know what damage had been inflicted, including whether any people were injured or killed in the strike launched overnight Washington time (early morning GMT). The official declined to give details on the type of weapon used. Local officials and witnesses in Somalia said they believed two missiles hit a makeshift house the town.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/03/2008 12:21 ||
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Top|| File under: Islamic Courts
#1
Talk about global reach. The long arm of Uncle Sam reaching out and touching someone in the middle of nowhere, nowheresville.
Chad's government is digging a 3-metre deep trench around the capital to prevent a repeat of last month's attack, when rebels in pickup trucks rolled into N'Djamena and fought two days of heavy battles. The ditch will all but encircle the dusty city, slicing through neighbourhoods, cutting off a network of sandy tracks and forcing vehicles to pass through one of a handful of fortified gateways, a security source said.
Don't tell them about the crocodiles.
The Feb. 2-3 attack was the worst in several years of armed rebellion against President Idriss Deby, concentrated mainly in the unstable east near the border with Sudan's war-torn Darfur. After a week-long advance across Chad's vast, arid interior, a rebel column of 200 or 300 pickups battled government troops outside N'Djamena and entered the city, triggering fighting that Deby says killed at least 400 civilians.
Initial fears that the rebels would simply regroup and attack afresh proved unfounded. But the threat of attack remains -- eastern rebels launched another bloody offensive on N'Djamena in 2006 -- and work began on the trench two weeks ago.
Government officials, at least in public, are being coy. "It's part of a military secret. It's part of our strategy and I cannot tell you this," Interior Minister Ahmat Mahamat Bachir told Reuters when asked what the trench was for. The blanket of secrecy has increased residents' nervousness under a state of emergency that human rights campaigners and residents say has been used to seize property and arrest those suspected of opposing Deby's rule. "Be careful, the military are patrolling here and you might be arrested," one of a group of young man on motorcycles told a Reuters reporter in the outlying neighbourhood of Diguel, which the trench has cut in two.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/03/2008 12:29 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Sudan
#1
I would think a number of trenches to funnel trucks into certain areas mined with caltrops and road strips to tear out the tires would be more effective than a moat. Pop their tires and force them to abandon their vehicles.
Saudi Arabia said on Monday it has rounded up 28 more Al-Qaeda suspects after arresting an equal number in December who plotted "terrorist" attacks and were in contact with the group's number two Ayman al-Zawahiri. This brings to 56 the total number of members of the same group who have been detained and are linked to the Al-Qaeda leadership abroad, the interior ministry said in a statement carried by the state SPA news agency.
The group had been instructed by the Al-Qaeda leadership to launch a "terrorist campaign" inside the kingdom, it said. Interrogation of the first batch held in December, whose arrest was announced following an alleged plot to carry out a "terrorist" attack during the annual Muslim pilgrimage, showed they "belong to the deviant group (official terminology for Al-Qaeda) and were in contact with leaders of the Al-Qaeda organisation abroad," the ministry said. "They were instructed to rebuild the deviant organisation and launch a terrorist campaign inside Saudi Arabia. Preparations for these criminal plans had reached advanced stages," it said.
Some in the group collected money to finance their activities under the guise of charity, according to the statement. "Security forces arrested one of them who met an individual who came from outside the kingdom to (the Muslim holy city of) Mecca carrying a mobile phone chip containing a message from Ayman al-Zawahiri vouching for the group leader, so that he could collect money under the pretext of helping needy families in Pakistan and Afghanistan," the statement said.
Security forces have now rounded up a total of 56 members of the group who are of "various nationalities," including their leader, the Saudi ministry added, without naming its chief.
Saudi Arabia said in December it had arrested 28 suspects in the provinces of Mecca, Medina, Riyadh and the area around the kingdom's northern borders. The arrests were made public shortly after the interior ministry said that security forces had detained an Al-Qaeda-linked group planning a "terrorist act" during the hajj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca which this year attracted about 2.5 million Muslims from across the globe.
Saudi Arabia has often announced arrests of suspected Islamist militants since launching a relentless crackdown against them nearly five years ago. In November, Riyadh said it had arrested 208 suspected Al-Qaeda militants plotting assassinations and an attack on a logistical oil facility, in one of the biggest swoops in the Gulf kingdom.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/03/2008 15:01 ||
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia
#1
They've lost enough of their retarded younger sons, then?
Dozens of hooded attackers fired buckshot and nails at police this weekend, wounding four officers, France's interior minister said.
'hooded attackers': are these 'youts', 'miscreants' or jihadis?
Michele Alliot-Marie called the Sunday afternoon attack an "ambush," saying that about 30 people, some of them armed, were waiting for the officers in the southern Paris suburb of Grigny. The officers were responding to a call about vandalism at a local bakery.
Three officers were hit in face with buckshot; another was hit in the leg with buckshot and nails and was hospitalized, Sunday's statement said.
The minister expressed "total support" for the officers, who she said work under "particularly difficult conditions." Alliot-Marie said efforts were under way to identify and apprehend those involved in the incident.
In November, rioting youths in another Paris suburb opened fire on police, injuring at least 10. That attack in Villiers-le-Bel fueled fears of a repeat of riots that raged across France's neglected suburbs for three weeks in November 2005. Police managed to bring last year's unrest under control in a matter of days.
Last month, police raided housing projects in Villiers-le-Bel and neighboring towns north of the French capital, detaining 35 people in connection with the riots there. Authorities have said youths organized a system to target police with gunfire. Time for the French to "play dirty".
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
03/03/2008 16:11 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Euro-logic allows rioters to shield their identities, and toss "petrol bombs" at police. However after they burn cops, they are allowed to be arrested. But once arrested, elected politicians offer vocal support for them.
More Euro-logic: their secular-pluralist constitution allows massive immigration of vulgar eastern hordes, intent on abolishing secular-pluralist constitutions.
The purpose of Europe is: the destruction of Europe.
Fires gutted four multimillion-dollar model homes in a Seattle suburb on Monday, and authorities found a sign purportedly left by eco-terrorists that mocks claims that the homes were environmentally friendly. "Built Green? Nope black!" said the spray-painted sign that bore the initials of the radical environmental group Earth Liberation Front.
They're not "activists." They're arsonists.
Explosive devices were found in the homes, and crews were able to remove them, said Fire Chief Rick Eastman of Snohomish County District 7. The FBI was investigating the fires as a potential domestic terrorism act, said FBI spokesman Rich Kolko in Washington, D.C.
The fires started at the "Street of Dreams," a strip of unoccupied, furnished luxury model homes where developers show off the latest in high-end housing, interior design and landscaping. The homes are later sold.
No injuries were reported in the fires, which began before dawn in the wooded subdivision and were still smoldering by midmorning.
The homes are in a development near the headwaters of Bear Creek, which is home to endangered chinook salmon. Opponents of the development had questioned whether the luxury homes could pollute the creek and an aquifer that is a drinking water source, and whether enough was done to protect nearby wetlands.
The sign, a sheet with red scraggly letters, said "McMansions in RCDs r not green," a reference to rural cluster developments.
One of the people involved in the project said the homes used "green" techniques such as water-pervious sidewalks, super-insulated walls and windows and products made with recycled materials, such carpet pads. Advertising for last summer's Street of Dreams show focused on the environmentally friendly aspects of the homes, which were smaller than some of the huge houses featured in years past.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/03/2008 13:47 ||
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Top|| File under:
#1
if you want a laugh, goto www.seattlepi.com and then click on the article: there is a blog there that is running about 50-50 in support of these jerks.
(PTI): A militant and five civilians were on Sunday arrested for carrying arms and ammunition meant for a top Lashkar-e-Taiba ultra in Doda district of Jammu and Kashmir. A Tata Sumo SUV coming from Sopore in Baramulla district was stopped on the outskirts of Doda by security forces and the consignment seized, a police official said here. They arrested five people - Abdul Kabir, his wife Rafiqa Begum, Md Hanief, Md Amin, Rubeena Begum - from Kishtwar and Kulgam and recovered two AK-series assault rifles along with a magazine and 30 rounds of ammunition, he said.
He said the arrested civilians told interrogators that the consignement was to be delivered to a LeT 'divisional commander' Shabir code named Abu Yasir, currently operating in Bharat area of Doda district. They said it was to be handed to another LeT operative Zakir Hussain in Bhaderwah who would then give it to Yasir. On their information, Hussain was also arrested. Kabir also confessed to carrying a cash consignment of Rs 2 lakh meant for Yasir two months ago. They are being further questioned while Doda police and Rashtriya Rifles troops have launched a joint operation to catch Yasir, the police official said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/03/2008 13:54 ||
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Top|| File under: Lashkar e-Taiba
#1
"LeT militant, five civilians held with arms"
Probably better to hold them with handcuffs - but that's just me....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/03/2008 14:07 Comments ||
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#2
How are they civilians if they're carrying arms?
#3
Indian army soldiers take up position during a gun battle between militants and security forces in Chewdara, 40 km (25 miles) north of Srinagar, March 2, 2008. Indian soldiers shot dead two militants in a gun battle in the north Kashmir village of Chewdara. Four residential houses were also destroyed during the exchange of fire between militants and security forces, police said.
Posted by: john frum ||
03/03/2008 16:22 Comments ||
Top||
#4
An India Army soldier rescues a goat trapped during a gunbattle at Chewdara, some 45 kilometers (28 miles) north west of Srinagar,India, Sunday, March, 2, 2008. Two suspected rebels allegedly belonging to the AL Badar group were Sunday killed in a gunbattle with Indian Security forces, according to news reports.
Posted by: john frum ||
03/03/2008 16:25 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir SOG Policeman with Israeli made Tavor assault rifle
Posted by: john frum ||
03/03/2008 16:27 Comments ||
Top||
CAMP STRIKER Soldiers of Company A, 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) discovered a significant weapons cache, Feb. 25, just one day after Iraqi Army (IA) Soldiers turned in three caches in Yusufiyah.
While establishing a checkpoint, Soldiers from 1st Platoon, Company A, conducted a security sweep. Staff Sgt. Jon Hood, from Kansas City, Mo., noticed a plastic bag on the ground.
When he kicked the bag and heard a clink, he looked down and discovered several rounds uncovered by the rainy weather. Seeing the exposed rounds, Hood and his fellow Soldiers started digging and unearthed the largest cache the brigade has found since arriving in October.
There was a lot more to that little cache than we thought, Hood said. In all, more than 300 live mortar rounds, between 56 mm and 155 mm, were intermixed with more than 8,000 mortar shells. With the help of local Sons of Iraq, the unit spent more than 26 hours digging up the cache.
This is the largest cache Ive seen since I was a platoon leader with 3rd Infantry Division during Operation Iraqi Freedom I, said Capt. Terry Hilderbrand, of Atlanta, Ga., commander of Company A. This is definitely the largest cache weve pulled up since weve been here.
The discovery of the massive munitions stash came one day after Soldiers from Company C, 3-187th Inf. Regt. received three caches from their IA counterparts.
Iraqi troops from 4th Battalion, 4th Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division recovered three large caches from Qarghuli Village and Shubayshen, and turned the munitions over to Soldiers at Patrol Base Yusufiyah.
In total, the three caches yielded one complete improvised explosive device, 190 pounds of unknown bulk explosive, 40 pounds of dynamite, (74) 82 mm mortar rounds, (18) 122 mm artillery rounds, (38) 60 mm mortar rounds, 400 additional projectiles between 23 mm and 155 mm, hundreds of assorted munitions pieces, several radios and documents.
I learned over 30 years ago in Germany, at the height of the Baader-Meinhof terrorist attacks, that you NEVER pick up (or kick) a bag of any kind if you didn't put it there or know who did. And if a bag seems particularly out of place (for instance, a fire extinguisher inside a shopping bag sitting in the waiting room at the Frankfurt Airport), you tell the cops pronto.
Even to this day, I won't (can't, really), nor will I drive over a bag in the road if there's any safe way to avoid it. Won't park over one, either. Guess it's permanently ingrained, though it's a little hard to explain to people who weren't there.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/03/2008 20:02 Comments ||
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#3
Guess it's permanently ingrained, though it's a little hard to explain to people who weren't there.
Yeah, it does stay with you, doesn't it Barbara. 83 - 84, two years under the mountain, CINCENT Primary Static War HQ. I figured, being a Static War HQ, our life span was a couple of hours after the first tanks started rolling into the Fulda Gap. Of course, that was better than the 30 minutes in the Titan missile patch in Kansas.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/03/2008 22:28 Comments ||
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A spate of attacks against Iraqi security forces on Monday marked the second day of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejads first state visit to Iraq. Most of those killed in the violence were bystanders to attacks on Iraqi soldiers and police.
In Baghdad, three bombings killed at least 17 people and wounded at least 56 others . At least four of the dead were Iraqi police or soldiers. In the most deadly attack, a car bomb exploded in Bab al-Muadham neighborhood, a busy central Baghdad district, as an Iraqi Army convoy passed by.
Hadi Abdul Ridha Abdullah, 45, a guard for a local telephone exchange facility near the blast site, said he saw someone driving an American-made sport utility vehicle through the jammed traffic. The truck exploded when Iraqi army Humvees rolled past. One of the guards with me was on the ground a few feet away and was bleeding badly, said Mr. Abdullah, weeping. He died later. I even saw people burning inside their trucks and asking for help. But nobody could reach them. Ill never forget what I saw today.
Hours after the explosion, Iraqi security forces had towed away the husks of burned-out cars, while business owners and local residents hosed down streets and walls.
Many witnesses expressed anger that such attacks continued to occur in Baghdad despite increased security during the Iranian presidents visit. Im not against the visit of the Iranian president, but this is not a suitable time to receive any important officials, said Aboud Qasem, 38, the owner of a nearby restaurant. As he scanned the chaotic scene he said: It is always the innocents who pay the highest price.
In a coffee shop near the scene, Hajji Abbas, 73, was more direct in his condemnation of Mr. Ahmadinejads visit. We get all these problems from Iran and the other neighboring countries including the Arab nations, he said. Let them go to hell and leave us alone.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/03/2008 12:32 ||
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By Nidal al-Mughrabi, Reuters
Abu Mohammed picked up his rifle, said farewell to his wife and six children and went out to face the Israeli tanks, helicopter gunships and missile-firing airborne drones.
"Don't hold lunch, honey! I'm off to fight the Zionists!"
"Will you be home in time for dinner? We're having chicken ala caliph."
"Being unable to defeat Israel is no reason to surrender," the Hamas fighter said with a smile as he headed to the Gaza Strip's front line last Saturday, ignoring pleas from his family to stay.
"Danger? I laugh! Haw haw!"
"My children and wife are very dear to me," he said. "But reward in Heaven and the homeland are dearer."
"Hamasistan is filled with brave guys like me, y'know!"
The 38-year-old furniture salesman says he is not afraid to die for the cause of destroying Israel and forging a Palestinian state on all Israel's territory, the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Has anybody but me noticed that these guys love toting guns around and waving them and having gun sex, but that they seldom manage to even wound an actual Zionist aggressor?
To Israel and its allies, Abu Mohammed and his comrades are Jew-hating terrorists. But Abu Mohammed sees himself on a mission from God to rescue his people from 60 years of misery as refugees since the establishment of the Jewish state in 1948.
Yeah, yeah. So'd Himmler and so'd Heydrich. That still left them Jew-hating rat bastard Nazis, didn't it?
Though that conviction may, in some, mingle with bravado and self-interest, it does make Hamas an enemy to be reckoned with, for all that Israel's hi-tech army easily outguns their rifles, home-made rockets and, if they choose, their suicide bomb belts.
Owning a gun doesn't make you a real soldier, no matter how fearsomely you grimace.
After five days of air strikes and ground assaults that it said aimed to halt Hamas rocket fire, Israel pulled out its troops on Monday after appeals from the United States that followed at international outcry at the dozens of civilians among over 100 dead.
I didn't cry out. Did you?
BROKEN HAND
Abu Mohammed survived, though he broke a bone in his hand diving for cover.
... and he had to change his pants six or seven time.
The rocket fire resumed and Hamas and its fellow Islamist allies vowed to battle on, despite losing close to 60 fighters. Estimates vary but there may be 20,000 or more Abu Mohammeds left to continue the war in Gaza alone.
I guess the Zionist aggressors will just have to kill each and every one. No doubt they'll feel really bad afterwards. And the international outcry will be pretty awful.
Try earmuffs.
Islam forbids suicide, but rewards "martyrdom" with glory in this world and paradise in the next.
Yeah, yeah. He gets to diddle flat-chested 12-year-olds for all eternity. We've heard it all before. Notice they haven't yet presented a witness who's actually seen it being done.
For the 1.5 million Palestinians in the slums and refugee camps of the Gaza Strip, the question of why one of their compatriots would sacrifice his or her life to kill Israelis needs little soul-searching. "An Islamist fighter has two motives: a religious motive -- God's reward; and a social motive -- appreciation from the people he is defending," explained Fadel Abu Heen, a prominent Gaza psychiatrist. And religion was the stronger motivation for Islamist fighters. "That is what makes them braver and more aggressive fighters than others," he said.
Vicious and stupid were the words that sprang to my mind, but never mind. I'm not an Arab psychologist.
Older than most of his fellow combatants, Abu Mohammed said his family had fled to Gaza from a village nearby in 1948. "We have the right to all of Palestine," he said in his three-room, one-storey house in Gaza City. "If we are dead before we can liberate our land, then we did not give up. We have to set an example to our children that weakness is not an excuse for not putting up a fight."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/03/2008 11:59 ||
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Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
"My children and wife are very dear to me," he said. "But reward in Heaven and the homeland are dearer."
His wife must be so ugly that he can't wait for his 72 raisins.
#5
There's an old saying,
"Nobody is completely worthless, sometimes you need a good, "Bad example".
It just struck me that the whole Mideast is an absolute slap-in-the-face for the "Gun Grabbers".
They've been killing each other with swords and bombs for centuries, having guns simply makes it a bit easier.
Proof positive that eliminating "The EVIL gun" does nothing.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/03/2008 13:49 Comments ||
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#6
Maybe RJ, but if we take their guns and they use swords, and we take their swords and they use stones, and we take their ...ah, to hell with 'em, take away their arms. Let 'em spit and hiss.
#7
Here's my dumb question of the day. Tghis talk of "gun sex" has me curious. I've got a few guns and a little bit of sex, still. Can I do this at home? I await anxiously for instruction.
Posted by: Titus Cloling7944 ||
03/03/2008 14:14 Comments ||
Top||
#10
Here's my dumb question of the day. Tghis talk of "gun sex" has me curious. I've got a few guns and a little bit of sex, still. Can I do this at home? I await anxiously for instruction.
Why Yes.. at home, or n the middle of the road, or at the famous chicken ala caliph cafe!
Israeli tanks and infantry moved out of Gaza before dawn today after a five day operation to kill militants that left more than 110 Palestinians dead, including 22 children.
Hopes that the incursion had ended the barrage of Palestinian rockets raining down from Gaza on Israeli border towns proved in vain, however, when three missiles hit the resort town of Ashkelon this morning, damaging an apartment building. No-one was hurt.
Israel said that its withdrawal did not mean it was scaling back its operation against the Islamists, but merely suspending it temporarily for a two day visit by Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State.
This very limited (Gaza) operation was intended to show Hamas what could happen, what you may call a prequel, said an Israeli official. If they decide theyve seen enough and stop the rockets, if they get the message, then we may get into a period of quiet. If they continue to fire the rockets, then there will be more operations like this one, or worse.
But Hamas, the Islamist group which rules the Gaza Strip since its military overthrow of forces from its rival Fatah movement, issued a taunting message saying that the Israeli incursion had flopped. "This retreat is an expression of the failure of the Israeli soldiers facing the fighters of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades," said Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman.
A senior Israeli security source has told The Times that the incursion was triggered last Wednesday when an airstrike killed five top Hamas militants who had been training in Iran and Syria. They had been planning to carry out a terrorist attack inside Israel, the source said.
Hamas launched a barrage of homemade al-Qassam rockets in retaliation for their deaths, prompting the Israeli army to move beyond the borders of Gaza where the rockets were being launched. The fiercest day of fighting was Saturday, when more than 60 Palestinians died, about half of them civilians.
Yesterday the streets of Gaza City were choked with funeral corteges, as gunbattles between militants and Israeli soldiers raged a couple of miles away. The victims included several children and a 21-month-old baby. Israel said the high civilian death toll was Hamas's fault for storing weapons in residential areas.
Israeli airstrikes continued during the night, targeting a Hamas administration building and militants' workshops where weapons were made and stored.
The military withdrawal began around midnight, as foot soldiers moved back from the Jabaliya refugee camp, where there has been fighting for several days. Palestinian medics found at least three more bodies in Jabaliya after the Israelis moved back. Residents who had been trapped in their homes emerged to fetch food and scavenge any equipment that the Israelis had left behind.
Ahmed Dardouna said that he and his nine children had for days been confined to one room by soldiers who took over the rest of the house. "We couldn't distinguish day from night," he said. "The sounds of shooting and explosions, mixed with the screaming of soldiers and the screaming of my children who were asking to go to the bathroom and for food, is still in my ears."
The Israeli death toll is believed to number three - two soldiers killed in the fighting in Jabaliya, and a civilian killed by a rocket.
Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian President who belongs to the Fatah movement which Hamas removed from Gaza, has broken off peace talks with Israel in protest at the death toll in Gaza, and the UN, the EU and Turkey have criticised Israel for disproportionate use of force.
Riots broke out in the Fatah-controlled West Bank cities yesterday as Palestinians protested against the killings. One person died and a dozen were injured in clashes with Israeli security forces.
Hamas has called for renewed talks with the West Bank administration to reforge a Palestinian national unity government, which was broken by Hamas when its gunmen drove Fatah forces from Gaza.
Dr Rice is to hold talks in Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Ramallah tomorrow and Wednesday on moving Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations forward. Washington hopes a Palestinian statehood deal can be reached this year. But as both sides count the cost of the five days of violence, the peace process is likely to be the most prominent casualty.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/03/2008 08:54 ||
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Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
"leaving 110 dead'"
It's a start....
Does the number include the people killed by Ham-ass' backfires?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/03/2008 14:06 Comments ||
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#2
Hopes that the incursion had ended the barrage of Palestinian rockets raining down from Gaza on Israeli border towns proved in vain
An order of magnitude increase is clearly required.
#3
Condi is proving to be such a disappointment at State. The United States should come out with a blanket statement that any group that attacks the civilian population of any nation should be identified as terrorists, and any nation so attacked can do whatever it wishes to both to the armed terrorists fighting against them and the civilian population that supports them. Period. Full Stop.
Anything else is stupidity to the nth degree.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/03/2008 14:15 Comments ||
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#4
Hopes that the incursion had ended the barrage of Palestinian rockets raining down from Gaza on Israeli border towns proved in vain, however, when three missiles hit the resort town of Ashkelon this morning, damaging an apartment building.
Well, then rinse and repeat as necessary.
This also suggests a good place for Israel to offer to hold meetings with any other foreign dignitaries who want to complain about Israel's response to having Israeli civilian centers bombed at random.
#5
But Hamas, the Islamist group which rules the Gaza Strip since its military overthrow of forces from its rival Fatah movement, issued a taunting message saying that the Israeli incursion had flopped.
Yep, 110 dead. Let's have more Hamas victories like this.
I suppose tomorrow they'll be bitching about how the Zionists aren't sending them anymore diesel for their powerplants.
#6
Saw an article where Egypt is accepting the wounded in the hundreds. The deader headcount often overlooks the wounded. Hamas, others, will have a heck of a bill coming for this bit of showboating. I wonder if they have retirement, disability pay? Or is that where the money the US & EU contributes goes to?
Yes, I agree, Condi is a major disappointment on this issue (and some others). It may be an intellectual failure to understand the difference between killing civilians intentionally and killing them unintentionally. On the other hand, it may be that Condi is manuvering for post federal work getting fat consultant fees from Arab States.
#9
Israeli troops abruptly withdraw from Gaza. Seven-story Ashkelon building hit by Katyusha Monday
March 3, 2008, 10:28 PM (GMT+02:00)
Israel's anti-missile operation aborted
Shortly after Israels withdrawal, Monday, March 3, the Palestinians stepped up their missile and rocket attacks. One of three Katyusha rockets fired from Gaza at Ashkelon hit a seven-story building, sending a dozen people into shock and sowing wide panic in the city of 120,000. Eight missiles exploded in Sderot, 2 in Shear Hanegev and 4 in the Eshkol farmland area south of Sderot.
DEBKAfile reports: Prime minister Ehud Olmert suddenly decided on the pullback of Israeli ground and armored units from northern Gaza before dawn Monday without completing their mission of halting Palestinian fire. Stage one of Operation Hot Winter was announced at an end. He was later attacked by members of the Knesset foreign affairs and security committee for aborting the operation in contradiction of the pledges he and the defense minister made Sunday. Both had vowed that military ground action would press on until the Hamas missile-rocket offensive against Israeli civilians was stamped out.
Up until late Sunday night, Qassam rockets continued to explode in Sderot and surrounding villages and Katyusha rockets in Ashkelon at the average rate of 50 per day since Wednesday. The three-day Israeli infantry, tank and air incursion left more than 100 Palestinians dead, most Hamas combatants, some civilians and children. Two Israeli soldiers were killed.
DEBKAfiles military sources report: Aborting this action in mid-stream leaves Israel with the options of air, surface missile and artillery raids - or short, shallow forays all of which have long proved ineffectual.
Olmerts order to the Israeli ground force to turn around and withdraw in mid-offensive was astonishing and unprecedented. Senior officers fully expected the Palestinian Hamas terrorist leaders to rush into declarations of victory and claims that they had beaten the Israeli army into a retreat. And indeed, Hamas staged a victory march in Gaza City later Monday.
Our political sources disclose that Olmert, during his absence in Tokyo last week, was far from happy with the way acting PM Tzipi Livni and Barak handled the sharp spike in Palestinian missile attacks. He felt they had caused an unnecessary escalation of the crisis to the point that a major military operation became unavoidable.
Olmert insisted that short, sharp military strikes would have defused the crisis and obviated the need for a broad military offensive in Gaza, which he had consistently prevented.
By aborting the operation Monday night, he rapped them both and also moved to put down the incipient revolt in his government and Kadima party, spearheaded by two senior ministers Avi Dichter, internal security and former Shin Bet chief, and Shaul Mofaz, transport, ex-defense minister and chief of staff. Both publicly urged a stepped-up ground offensive to crush Hamas rule of Gaza, arguing that all other tactics - military, sanctions and siege - had failed.
DEBKAfiles political sources report that Hamas won useful points in the propaganda war by getting images and footage of Palestinian women and children casualties of Israeli strikes onto TV screens and front pages way ahead of the suffering of Israeli civilians from the gratuitous Hamas blitz.
This eased the way for Washington to lean hard on the prime minister to break off the operation. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice threatened to call off her visit on Tuesday, March 4, and laid the blame on Israel for the breakdown of peace talks with the Palestinians, although it was Mahmoud Abbas who formally suspended all contacts with Israel. She accused Israel of undermining the Bush administrations entire Middle East strategy. Olmert found it politic to bow to this pressure.
I've switched the servers, using the backup for Rantburg's base IP adddress and Apache for everything else. It's a little bit heavier duty than Lighttpd. As soon as we went back on line the SYN attack started up again, so I may end up turning it off. If I can, I'll put up nothing but a redirect page there, that'll bring live people to Rantburg.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/03/2008 12:32 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
There's still lotsa stuff that's broken. Please let me know as soon as you find it.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/03/2008 13:25 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Thanks for the redirect message. Sorry you are under attack. I miss the site being up and presenting the news.
#4
Hey, Fred, maybe someday you can write a book about spambots, hack attacks and countermeasures. Then you can tell them how grateful you are to them for giving you such an opportunity to cash in on their madness.
#5
Little Green footballs dot com gets this kind of attack all the time, and Charles Johnson the owner of the site is great at tracing where the attacks are originiating from and deflecting the attacks. You might consider shooting him an email and I am sure he would be glad to provide his approach to dealingwith these nitwits.
#9
Thanks, Fred, for all you do. I'll definitely hit the tip jar this month, now that the eagle has finally visited me again.
LGF is having similar problems today. We need to know who's doing this, and put a stop to it. I vote for a three-cell ARCLIGHT strike at 10AM, local time, over the site coordinates.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/03/2008 13:58 Comments ||
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#10
Geeze Fred sorry you are going through all that. I'll get you on the tip jar this month. Hang in there!
#12
Also Fred, there's a typo on your redirect page "I" instead of "If", and you should put your paypal email on the redirect page as well as your Amazon payments info, so we can keep giving you money.
#13
I am a human! Thanks, Fred, I was starting to get the shakes. Amazing how much I depend on this site. I'll hit the tip jar when my tax refund arrives. Regards, UB.
#15
Swedes can help you here against attacks :) Try Erlang-based web server YAWS (Erlang as programming language), and you will get at least 10x robustness.
#18
(I like the new name, beats Omung Squank anyway and avoids annoying the real OS, which could be hazardous.) :) I'll go back to pacing the floor for a few more hours/days, so don't screw up your new job, Fred, while you're stomping on the bad guys.
#19
Should we can the nation-building formula, and commence serious nation-destruction?
Surely no Rantburg regular denies that Muslim attacks will only escalate until we stop civil policing of the enemy, and commence wholesale quid pro quo. It is us v them, and they won't quit their aggression until there is no us. We are in a global lifeboat with a mortal enemy, and sharing conduces insecurity.
#20
Where are the DOS attacks coming from, Fred? I know you mentioned the other day, but I'm going to read today's posts just as fast as I can, in case I get cut off again.
#21
Great pic, Gorb. Something we need 'round here these days.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/03/2008 15:48 Comments ||
Top||
#22
They're coming from all over -- the machines are bots. The question is, who's controlling them? When the activity drops off I see a Dubai address connect and a little later it starts up again.
It doesn't do me much good to ban the bots. Our server has to identify them before it can drop the connection. The idea is to simply overload us, which they did over the weekend.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/03/2008 16:02 Comments ||
Top||
#23
Anyone in Rantburg'g Navy on duty over there willing to drop an anchor on Dubai's fiber optic cables?
Posted by: ed ||
03/03/2008 16:17 Comments ||
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#24
Works better if you first tie the spammer to the anchor, Ed.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/03/2008 16:18 Comments ||
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#25
And I so liked my Skunky Glins nom de jour.
Keep up the good work Fred. We were missing you.
Posted by: Creling Darling of the Lichtensteiners8341 ||
03/03/2008 16:20 Comments ||
Top||
#26
John, just type Skunky Glins into the name box, and you won't have to be Creling Darling etc. anymore. My cookies disappeared, too, no doubt a side effect of Fred fiddling madly under the hood.
#28
Someone rented a botnet to attack the site because they don't like our opinions. Hey, look at it this way, it's terrorist supporter money that won't be spent on explosive belts.
#30
OK. Enough of this chitchat. When are we going to get to the really important things, like the Rantburg Times-Picayune-Defender-Scimitar?
Missing that has been what's been putting me into serious withdrawal this weekend.
Of course, I read it only for the articles.
Posted by: Rambler in California ||
03/03/2008 18:29 Comments ||
Top||
#31
For those of you who are interested a description of botnets.
It uses a term I haven't heard in 40 years - 'scrumping', which led to this site that discusses the use and meaning of the word.
No one got the meaning correct (nor did online dictionaries) in the sense we used it as kids. We would go scrumping every day in the summer holidays. So I tried to sign up and post a comment and discovered it cost $5.
Cookies are only valid from the domain ssending them to you. Only rantburg.com will recognize the cookies storing your name and email address, because rantburg.com sent them to your computer after you first posted. Otherwise, nsfw.whitehouse.com might try to read your amazon.com cookies, and that would never do.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
03/03/2008 20:15 Comments ||
Top||
#33
Doesn't matter who is doing the attacks - its a hired botnet. Probably a lot from Korea, China, France, and some compromised machines in the US.
Better to find the one paying them to do it.
Get me an 8 digit grid and we'll see what we can make happen.
Oh I wish... I dont have that sort of access any more. Not that I ever did. But a few well placed and timed phone calls...
#34
'Twas my Rantburg cookies that disappeared, for both the 'burg and the O Club, Eric, and for both computers. I clean out most other cookies from the caches, but I never touch my Rantburg cookies... at least I don't think I do. ;-)
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Taliban insurgents raided a compound used by NATO and Afghan forces on Monday in a gun and truck bomb attack that caused several casualties, an Afghan provincial official said.
The U.S. military targeted "a known al Qaeda terrorist" in an attack early on Monday in southern Somalia, the Pentagon said. It was the fourth U.S. air strike on Somalia in 14 months.
Saudi Arabia said on Monday it has rounded up 28 more Al-Qaeda suspects after arresting an equal number in December who plotted "terrorist" attacks and were in contact with the group's number two Ayman al-Zawahiri. This brings to 56 the total number of members of the same group who have been detained and are linked to the Al-Qaeda leadership abroad, the interior ministry said in a statement carried by the state SPA news agency.
Fires gutted four multimillion-dollar model homes in a Seattle suburb on Monday, and authorities found a sign purportedly left by eco-terrorists that mocks claims that the homes were environmentally friendly. "Built Green? Nope black!" said the spray-painted sign that bore the initials of the radical environmental group Earth Liberation Front.
(PTI): A militant and five civilians were on Sunday arrested for carrying arms and ammunition meant for a top Lashkar-e-Taiba ultra in Doda district of Jammu and Kashmir. A Tata Sumo SUV coming from Sopore in Baramulla district was stopped on the outskirts of Doda by security forces and the consignment seized, a police official said here. They arrested five people - Abdul Kabir, his wife Rafiqa Begum, Md Hanief, Md Amin, Rubeena Begum - from Kishtwar and Kulgam and recovered two AK-series assault rifles along with a magazine and 30 rounds of ammunition, he said. 
A spate of attacks against Iraqi security forces on Monday marked the second day of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejads first state visit to Iraq. Most of those killed in the violence were bystanders to attacks on Iraqi soldiers and police.
