Feeling like Sadat & Deja Vu?
Suspected Taliban militants attacked a ceremony attended by the Afghan president on Sunday, unleashing automatic weapons fire that sent foreign dignitaries and senior members of the government fleeing for cover. Three people, including a lawmaker, were killed and eight were wounded. President Hamid Karzai, Cabinet ministers and ambassadors escaped unharmed, the presidential palace said. nice security breach
Karzai later appeared on television saying several suspects in the attack had been arrested. He said that the enemy of Afghanistan tried to disrupt the ceremony but were thwarted by security forces. feel lucky, Karzai? Perhaps it's time to take off the gloves with these assholes?
A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it had deployed six militants with suicide vests and guns to target the president. Spokesman Zabiullah Mujaheed said three had died.
A police official, who requested anonymity because of he was not authorized to speak to media, said security forces killed three gunmen who had opened fire from an apartment block not far from the ceremony and confiscated assault rifles and machine guns. Government officials could not immediately confirm that information.
Hundreds of people fled in chaos as shots rang out, just as the national anthem ended at a ceremony to mark the 16th anniversary of Afghanistan's victory over the Soviet invasion. The gunfire appeared to come from ruined houses about few hundred yards from where the VIPs were seated. Security forces deployed elsewhere opened fire at the houses.
Karzai was escorted from scene, surrounded by bodyguards, in one of four black Landcruisers. A U.S. embassy official said U.S. Ambassador William Wood also escaped unharmed. President Karzai condemns this act and asks for all the people to remain calm, a statement from the presidential palace said.
Along with lawmaker Fazel Rahman Samkanai, a local Shiite leader and a 10-year-old boy also died in the attack, officials said.
Karzai, who has led Afghanistan since soon after a U.S.-led invasion ousted the Taliban regime in 2001, has been targeted by assassins before and is constantly shadowed by a phalanx of bodyguards.
The attack came despite unprecedented tight security for Sunday's celebrations. For days Kabul has been ringed by checkpoints with security forces and plainclothes intelligence officials searching vehicles. The area where the ceremonies took place had been blocked off by troops, tanks and armored personnel carriers.
The live TV coverage of the assassination attempt will add to the sense of insecurity in the Afghan capital, which has been spared the worst of the violence as fighting has escalated between Taliban insurgents and NATO and U.S.-led forces leaving thousands dead last year. It was the first militant attack in the city since mid-March.
In TV footage, two lawmakers who were sitting about 30 yards from Karzai appeared to be hit by the gunfire. One of the men slumped back in his seat, while the other lay on the ground. People at the ceremony ducked for cover then fled among them Afghan police and soldiers who were assembled for the pageantry. Karzai had just completed a drive-past in a U.S.-supplied Humvee jeep.
Mujaheed, the Taliban spokesman, said insurgents carrying AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades perpetrated the attack. He said BM-12 missiles a crude rocket launched from a small platform were used in the attack. He spoke to an AP reporter by phone from an undisclosed location. but he just happened to have the AP reporter's phone number...
Mohammad Saleh Saljoqi, a lawmaker at the ceremony, said there was continuous AK-47 gunfire and two rockets which he described as rocket-propelled grenades landed near the dignitaries. One rocket hit inside the Eid Gah mosque opposite where Karzai was sitting. The second hit when the president had already left, landing about 50 yards away, Saljoqi said.
Must be Hekmatyar trained. Can't hit a thing.
About 100 people were rounded up for questioning, an Afghan intelligence official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media. "I can say no more"
Karzai's narrowest escape from an assassination attempt since he became president came in September 2002 when a gunman opened fire as he visited the southern city of Kandahar. Three people, including the gunman, died in that attack.
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/27/2008 15:28 ||
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Posted by: Frank G ||
04/27/2008 16:43 Comments ||
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#2
Is it my imagination, or did I not read within the last 48-72 hours, an article (here at RB) quoting Karzi piss bitchin' that he didn't want US or NATO troops arresting suspected members of the Taliban? IIRC, Karzai was saying that it was not helping for the US and / or NATO troops to arrest or to otherwise take into custody suspected members of the Taliban.
Given how the mind of the muslim works, Karzai will point to this incicdent (his attempted assasination) as proof that HE was correct to chastize US and NATO troops for being overzealous in arresting those who want him dead and a return to life as it was in August, 2001.
#3
The footage of this was so Sadat-like, it was chilling...
Posted by: john frum ||
04/27/2008 17:48 Comments ||
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#4
#2, Right on Mark. From today's Sunday Observer
citing a NYT article published yesterday: Leave Taliban alone, Afghan president tells West Karzai says US and British troops are undermining his authority and stopping insurgents from laying down their arms Link here. Is this what you had in mind, Hamid?
#5
Since they want 14th century life, let's let 'em have it. Bug out, and then bomb until there are no radio emissions and no light at night except campfires. Anywhere in the stans. If a vehicle moves, blow it up. If anyone tries to fly in or out, shoot 'em down. Rinse and repeat...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/27/2008 19:03 Comments ||
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#6
This incident will be a talking points bonanza to the Democrats. "Bogged down in Iraq, we are distracted from the 'real war on terror' in Afghanistan." Film at eleven.
Taliban attack Kabul military parade, say three dead
Afghanistan's extremist Taliban movement said it had attacked Sunday a military parade attended by President Hamid Karzai and three of its men were killed.
"We ululated and carried out the attack. We had gun sex fired rockets at the scene of the celebration," a spokesman for the group, Zabihullah Mujahed, told AFP.
"We had place six personnel in the area," he said. "Three of our men have been killed." The other three were vaporized.
He did not immediately say how they were killed but an AFP reporter at the scene said there was an exchange of gunfire, apparently between the attackers and a gazillion troops.
A security official at the scene said one suspected attacker was arrested. How do you put handcuffs on Red Mist(TM)?
Explosions and gunfire sent the thousands of troops and dignitaries assembled for the celebration scattering. Karzai and other officials were safe, a palace official said. So are the terrorists.
U.S. Marines are crossing the sands of southern Afghanistan for the first time in years, providing a boost to a NATO coalition that is growing but still short on manpower. They hope to retake the 10 percent of Afghanistan the Taliban holds.
Some of the Marines that make up the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit helped to tame a thriving insurgency in western Iraq. Some 3,500 newly arrived troops hope to move into regions of Afghanistan now controlled by the Taliban.
The Marines are working alongside British forces in Helmand province the world's largest opium-poppy region and site of the fiercest Taliban resistance over the last two years. The director of U.S. intelligence has said the Taliban controls 10 percent of Afghanistan much of that in Helmand.
"Our mission is to come here and essentially set the conditions, make Afghanistan a better place, provide some security, allow for the expansion of governance in those same areas," said Col. Peter Petronzio, the unit's commander.
Thirteen of the 19 Marines in the platoon of 1st Lt. Adam Lynch, 27, served in 2006 and 2007 in Ramadi, the capital of the Anbar province in western Iraq. The vast region was once al-Qaida in Iraq's stronghold before the militants were pushed out in early 2007.
Lynch expects the Marines, who arrived last month on a seven-month deployment, will help calm Helmand as well. "If you flood a city with Marines, it's going to quiet down," Lynch said in between sets of push-ups on Helmand province's sandy ground. "We know for seven months we're not here to occupy, we're just here to set conditions for whoever comes in after us."
Taliban fighters have largely shunned head-on battles since losing hundreds of fighters in the Panjwayi region of Kandahar province in fall 2006, and it's not clear that Taliban fighters will stay to face the Marines in regions they operate.
Lynch, a mobile assault commander, said he doesn't care if the militants flee: "Just get the Taliban out of here, that's the biggest thing."
Western countries, including the U.S. and other NATO nations, have been sending more troops to Afghanistan as violence has escalated. The U.S. now has 32,500 troops in the country the most since the 2001 invasion. In late 2006, Afghanistan had 40,000 international troops. Today, that number is almost 70,000.
The Marines' presence in southern Afghanistan is a clear sign that neither Britain nor Canada which operates in nearby Kandahar province have enough troops to control the region. But commanders and troops say the countries are working well together.
British Capt. Alex West helped deliver supplies to a remote and dusty firebase in Helmand province about a week ago. "We spent the last operations borrowing kit (gear) off you, so it's about time you borrow stuff from us," said West, 29, of Colchester, England. "All of us have been in operations where the American have helped us, so we're happy to help."
The Marines are known as the theater task force, meaning they fall under the direct control of U.S. Gen. Dan McNeill, the commander of NATO troops in Afghanistan. McNeill can move the Marines to whatever flashpoint he wants. Most other U.S. troops are stationed at permanent bases in the east.
The Marines have been moving supplies and forces through Helmand by ground convoys the last several weeks, a draining and dangerous task. Some convoys have taken more than 20 hours to complete, and two Marines were killed by a roadside bomb April 15.
Lt. Col. Ricky Brown, the commander of the logistics battalion, gave a pep talk to a supply convoy last week, hinting at operations to come. "You all are gonna move down there so the BLT (battalion landing team) can go in there and kick some Taliban butt," he said.
They have also been given directions to steer clear of the region's poppy fields so they don't risk alienating local farmers who rely on the cash crop for their income.
Counterinsurgency doctrine calls for forces to first clear a region of militants, hold that region and then build up government institutions and businesses. But the Marines are in the country for only seven months, meaning they don't have time to hold and build regions. But it's not clear if there are enough other NATO troops to hold areas, either.
While riding in a 47-vehicle convoy through the sands of Helmand province this past week, 1st Lt. Dan Brown said the terrain reminded him of other missions. "If you didn't know any better you'd think you were in Anbar right now," he said, referring to western Iraq.
#1
Happy hunting, Marines! Y'all are going to be linguists by the time this war is over -- which should make for interesting changes in a great many Middle Eastern Studies departments at the universities.
#2
But the Marines are in the country for only seven months, meaning they don't have time to hold and build regions.
When my kid went into Anbar with the Marines in 2004, they were replacing a unit on a seven-month deployment. When he left in 2005, another unit replaced his. The Marines repeated as necessary until the area was secured.
Maybe I should tell the author?
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/27/2008 13:32 Comments ||
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#3
Bobby...my son is deployed to Fallujah (though he has taken a sidebar to Basrah). His thinking is that his next deployment will be to Afghanistan.
(KUNA) -- As many as 15 Taliban were killed in an airstrike by the NATO forces in southeastern Afghanistan, a provincial official said on Saturday. The air raid was carried out in Afghanistan's southeastern province of Paktika, provincial government's spokesman Ghamay Khan told journalists. He said the Taliban positions were pounded on Friday evening following reports of militant activity in the area. The militants so far did not issue any comment on the government's statement.
Separately, a roadside bomb killed two policemen and injured four more in Ghazni province, located some 120 kilometres south of the central capital Kabul. The two policemen's vehicle was blown up with a remote-controlled bomb in Waghaz district, claimed the Taliban militants. Their claim was confirmed by the Afghan government saying enemies of the country killed two policemen in the Ghazni blast. Deputy police chief of the province Haji Zaman said condition of the wounded policemen was stable. Earlier, a district police chief and three more people were injured in a roadside bomb blast in the southeastern province of Khost. It was not known as who planted the bomb, but officials blamed Taliban for the attack.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/27/2008 00:00 ||
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Bomb blasts killed three Afghan policemen and four suspected Taliban militants on Saturday, officials said, also reporting that 17 other people, including a population census official, died in unrest on Friday.
Two police officers were killed on Saturday when a roadside bomb blew up their vehicle in the southern province of Ghazni, provincial spokesman Zia Wali told AFP, blaming the attack on the Taliban. Three others were wounded, he said. A third police officer was killed and another wounded also on Saturday in a similar blast in the southwestern province of Farah, Regional Police Commander Khalilullah Ziayee said, also accusing the Taliban.
More than three dozen Afghan policemen have been killed in attacks this month, according to an AFP tally.
Explosion:
Four suspected Taliban militants were killed when a car they were using to transport explosives blew up.
Also on Saturday, four suspected Taliban militants were killed when a car they were using to transport explosives blew up in the eastern province of Laghman, a provincial official said. Four terrorists were killed when the vehicle that they used to transport explosives for terrorist activities exploded. We think they were [the] Taliban, provincial spokesman Abdul Wakil Atak told AFP.
In another attack blamed on the militants, a district director for the census due in August was killed in an ambush in the eastern province of Paktia on Friday, a provincial spokesman said. His driver was also killed, said local government spokesman Rahmatullah Samoon. It was the work of the enemies of Afghanistan, Samoon told AFP, referring to the Taliban.
This article starring:
Khalilullah Ziayee
Rahmatullah Samoon
Posted by: Fred ||
04/27/2008 00:00 ||
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Two people were injured and three rooms damaged in a blast at the Military Intelligence Office in Dera Bugti on Saturday, according to BBC Urdu. Locals said that the area had been sealed off after the blast and that no one was being allowed entry. Currently the MI office, the building had previously served as a rest house and as the residence of the district nazim. The BBC quoted police officials as saying that there were no casualties. A tractor-trolley was damaged in a similar incident in the Kachi Canal area of Pat Feeder where, a few days earlier, one labourer was shot dead and two others were kidnapped.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/27/2008 00:00 ||
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Both parties involved in the clashes are using rocket launchers and other heavy weaponry and the fighting continues.
GHALANAI: Three people were killed while seven others sustained injuries when locals and Taliban clashed in Rahim Kor village, Yakagund tehsil of Mohmand Agency, on Saturday. The deceased included two civilians and a Talib. Taliban also took three villagers as hostage. They captured the house of local Hashim and established themselves, while other locals surrounded the house. Both parties involved in the clashes are using rocket launchers and other heavy weaponry and the fighting continues. The clash came a day after Taliban kidnapped a local Ghaffar while villagers attacked a group of Taliban headed towards the village.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/27/2008 00:00 ||
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Militants on Saturday blew up a gas pipeline in the Sui area near Jaffarabad, suspending the gas supply to various Punjab districts, Geo TV has reported.
The channel said the gas supply had been suspended to several southern Punjab districts and powerhouses. The Baloch Republican Army (BRA), a banned militant outfit, has claimed responsibility for the incident. Militants in Balochistan often blow up the gas pipeline and electricity poles to press the government for their demands from seeking royalties for the regions gas supply to getting share in government jobs.
The BRA also claimed responsibility for the killing of six army personnel in a remote control bomb blast in Dera Bugti in August 2007.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/27/2008 00:00 ||
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#5
THat being said, that was a hell of an impressive formation - and buttloads of sh*thooks, meaning a LOT of lift capacity there. (I've jumped from the back of those, called it "Hop-n-Pop").
A month after Iraqi troops poured into the southern city of Basra to take on militiamen who had overrun five neighbourhoods, the government claims to have regained control of the streets.
"All areas of Basra are under the command of the security forces," interior ministry spokesman Major General Abdel Karim Khalaf said on Thursday. "There are no areas under the control of armed men. Iraqi police are deployed in all Basra streets," he said.
Many residents reported they feel safer as a measure of normality has returned to the oil-rich city with the reopening of markets and the resumption of basic services.
The tide of fundamentalism which swept into the city with the Shiite militiamen who tried to force their brand of Islam onto local residents has been rolled back. Music stores have reopened, with US movies, cassettes and CDs on the shelves for the first time in years as residents again hold parties now that alcohol is once more available, albeit surreptitiously.
Schools in Basra reopened on April 6 and to make up for lost days, children are attending classes on Saturdays. Universities and colleges started again on April 20.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ordered the crackdown on March 25, vowing to rid Basra of "lawless gunmen" and personally took charge of the assault, codenamed Operation Sawlat Al-Fursan (Charge of the Knights).
At least 700 people were killed as Shiite militiamen, most of them loyalists of radical anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, battled the police and troops who raided their strongholds, according to United Nations figures. The fierce fighting which marked the first week of the operation has given way to slower, more focused house-by-house searches by Iraqi troops - mainly in areas dominated by Sadr's Mahdi Army militiamen.
A similar operation is under way in Sadr City, the Mahdi Army's eastern Baghdad bastion, where militiamen have been battling US and Iraqi troops in earnest since April 6.
More than 360 people have been killed in the fighting, which is still continuing.
Residents of Basra have generally welcomed the crackdown. "Thanks to Sawlat Al-Fursan, our stores are back to life again," said music shop owner Jassim al-Zuberi. "We have also been attending parties again," he added.
"After the fall of the (Saddam Hussein) regime, we were able for about six months to open our music stores and to play music at weddings and private parties," he said. "But then we were threatened and forced to close our shops. Some music store owners changed their focus to decorating cars for weddings."
Nahla Jawad, a local headmistress, said a sense of security now prevailed. "There are no armed men in the streets and the guns are in the hands of the government which is a good thing," she said. "We have a sense at last of a democracy."
The city of 1.6 million people is by no means functioning normally; the streets are still flooded with troops, innumerable checkpoints snarl the traffic and residents are scared to go out at night. Markets have reopened but owners complain that customers are not spending because many had stocked up with vast quantities of supplies during the fighting.
Most shops are closed by 7.00 pm (1600 GMT) instead of keeping the very late hours they did before March 25.
Residents expressed uneasiness at seeing foreign troops in the streets -- US special forces have been working alongside Iraqi soldiers during the crackdown. British forces also moved outside their base at Basra airport although they took no part in the fighting beyond providing logistic, air and artillery support. "Everybody feels happy that the law is being imposed but the deployment of US forces will make trouble once again; we don't want to see foreign forces in our streets," Economic and Management College student Entissar Ahmed said.
The Iraqi security operations have not been without severe problems, and earlier this month 1,300 police and soldiers were sacked for desertion, refusing to fight or for failing to perform their duties.
Ali Ghedan, commander of Iraqi ground forces in Basra, said many arms and ammunitions caches had been discovered during the raids. "Many gunmen however threw their arms in the river and some buried them in public squares."
#1
You mean the MSM is Bogged Down and in a Quagmire od their own making, don't you, GBUSMC?
Has anybody revised the estimate of the surviving members of the estimated 60,000-strong rebel force?
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/27/2008 7:04 Comments ||
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#2
Some music store owners changed their focus to decorating cars for weddings."
---------------------------------------------------------
Invisible Hand and cross-training, a serious threat to Islamism.
Posted by: George Smiley ||
04/27/2008 7:12 Comments ||
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#3
Has anybody revised the estimate of the surviving members of the estimated 60,000-strong rebel force?
Ummm, figure around 30% left, figure also that that figure is wildly exaggerated.
I'd guess under a thousand to start with, and around 300 left alive today.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/27/2008 13:41 Comments ||
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#4
I have to comment the New York Times on their patience, though. They waited three whole days before they declared this operation a failure.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
04/27/2008 18:15 Comments ||
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#5
I wrote "comment" but I meant "commend". But I meant it sarcastically. Sorry, it's Sunday afternoon and I wanna take a nap.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
04/27/2008 18:21 Comments ||
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#6
And besides that, what's up with ArabLounge.com? Does Osama bin Laden know that you're taking that kind of advertising?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
04/27/2008 18:23 Comments ||
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#7
"We don't want to see foreign forces on our streets" > Okay-y-y, lest we fergit WAFF.com/TOPIX [old] - IRAQ GENERAL claims IRAN controls andor supports over 43 ARMED MILITIA GROUPS in Basra.
BAGHDAD (AP) The U.S. military reported a relative lull in fighting Saturday, a day after radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said his threat of an "open war" applied only to American-led foreign troops.
Still, at least 12 Iraqis were wounded Saturday in sporadic clashes in the sprawling slum district of Sadr City, a stronghold of al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia, officials said. No U.S. or Iraqi troop casualties were reported. The injured in Sadr City included a school boy wounded by a stray bullet that pierced his school bag, health officials said. Elsewhere in Baghdad, eight people including five policemen were injured in separate attacks, officials said.
The lull in fighting came after Al-Sadr called Friday for an end to Iraqi bloodshed and said his threat of an "open war" applied only to U.S.-led foreign troops, stepping back from a full-blown confrontation with the government over a crackdown against his followers. Al-Sadr's appeal won support of some residents of Sadr City who also have been facing shortages of food and supplies.
"He wants this city to be stable taking into consideration that the people are suffering from the deteriorating situation and from escalating prices," said 42-year-old Naji Mohammed, a father of three. "In general, people in Sadr City are very happy about this decision. I think Mahdi Army elements are also happy about it, but till now the situation has not changed yet in Sadr City," he added.
Other residents were worried about factions within the Mahdi Army who may not be willing to observe the cease-fire. U.S. authorities claim that "special forces" trained by Iran are operating within the ranks of the Mahdi Army. "I am afraid that some ill-intentioned groups of Mahdi Army who are disloyal to (al-Sadr) will not respect this decision," said Ayad Muhsen, 21, a college student.
Al-Sadr's militia have clashed daily with U.S.-backed Iraqi security forces since al-Maliki launched a crackdown against the militias a month ago. Last week, al-Sadr issued what he called a "final warning" to the Shiite-led government to halt its offensive or face an "open war until liberation."
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Friday set conditions for calling off the crackdown against the Mahdi army and other militias, including the unconditional handover of weapons.
During the past month, the Mahdi army has regularly lobbed rockets and mortar shells at the fortified Green Zone that houses foreign embassies and the Iraqi government. But the U.S.-led forces said they have largely pushed them out of effective range of the area. "I'm seeing that basically since we took over south Sadr City the rocket and mortar attacks have become a lot less effective," said Lt. Col. Steve Stover, military spokesman for U.S. forces in Baghdad.
There were no major engagements that required the intervention of U.S. helicopter gunships, Stover said. "We had no airstrikes last night. There were no major engagements last night. it was fairly quiet," he said.
Two separate suicide bomb attacks have killed three people and injured 21 in the northern city of Mosul, said An Iraqi official Saturday.
Spokesman Brig. Gen. Khalid Abdul-Sattar says a suicide bomber detonated an explosives-laden car near an Iraqi army checkpoint after soldiers began firing at him. Saturday's attack killed three soldiers and wounded six civilians.
The spokesman said half an hour later, another suicide attack occurred elsewhere in Mosul when a bomber detonated his tanker loaded with explosives near a different Iraqi army checkpoint. He said that blast injured 15 civilians, mostly occupants of vehicles in traffic.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/27/2008 00:00 ||
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Fierce overnight clashes between Shia militiamen and the United States and Iraqi forces in Baghdads Sadr City killed at least eight people, including two children, a local medic told AFP on Saturday.
The firefight in Sadr City erupted at around 8:00pm (1700 GMT) on Friday and continued until 8:00am on Saturday, the medic said. Those killed include two kittens children and a fluffy bunny woman, he said on condition of anonymity.
Witnesses told AFP that the clashes broke out as security forces were putting up concrete barriers in the southern section of the sprawling district bastion of anti-American Shia cleric Moqtada Al Sadr in east Baghdad.
American forces began building a concrete wall there last week, in a bid to prevent rocket and mortar attacks on the heavily fortified Green Zone, seat of the Iraqi government and the US embassy. But the construction project has angered local followers of Al Sadr.
Militiamen from his Mehdi Army and security forces have been fighting since March 25 when Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki ordered a crackdown on Shia militiamen in the southern city of Basra.
This article starring:
Moqtada Al Sadr
Mahdi Army
Nuri Al Maliki
Posted by: Fred ||
04/27/2008 00:00 ||
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Turkeys army said its warplanes targeted Kurdish separatists in northern Iraq on Friday and Saturday, in the biggest Turkish air operation in Iraq this year, the army sources added. Turkish Air force planes, supported by ground weapons, struck PKK targets in an operation on April 25-26, the General Staff said in a statement on its website. A Kurdistan Workers Party spokesman said the bombing had caused no casualties. The Turkish military has carried out a series of air attacks on northern Iraq since the end of its February land offensive into the neighbouring country.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/27/2008 00:00 ||
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The IDF has captured the two terrorists who infiltrated Israel by crossing the Gaza border fence north of Kissufim Saturday night. IDF forces surrounded the area after the infiltrators were seen in Israeli territory. Soldiers fired at the suspects before apprehending them 1km from the border. The terrorists were apparently armed and wearing vests.
Security forces have not yet found the terrorists' weapons, and the purpose of the infiltration is still unclear.
The terror alert in the area has been lifted. Residents of Nir Oz, Re'im, Nirim, Kissufim, and Ein Hashlosha were ordered to stay indoors when the infiltrators were spotted.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/27/2008 00:00 ||
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The head of the Hamas students wing in Damascus has been killed in a car accident, Syrian sources confirmed to the London-based al-Quds newspaper Saturday.
A top Hamas official vehemently denied Israeli reports that the man, Isham Abu Libda, had run the office of Hamas leader Khaled Mashhal and that he had been assassinated in a hit-and-run. "Such fabricated reports that have no truth to them are part of a series lies and rumors propagated by the [Israeli] occupation authorities against the movement and its leaders in a Zionist bid to cause confusion within its rank," the official told the Palestinian Information Center (PIC).
Posted by: Fred ||
04/27/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Syria confirms head of Hamas students wing killed in car accident
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Taliban attack Kabul military parade, say three dead
U.S. Marines are crossing the sands of southern Afghanistan for the first time in years, providing a boost to a NATO coalition that is growing but still short on manpower. They hope to retake the 10 percent of Afghanistan the Taliban holds.
(KUNA) -- As many as 15 Taliban were killed in an airstrike by the NATO forces in southeastern Afghanistan, a provincial official said on Saturday. The air raid was carried out in Afghanistan's southeastern province of Paktika, provincial government's spokesman Ghamay Khan told journalists. He said the Taliban positions were pounded on Friday evening following reports of militant activity in the area. The militants so far did not issue any comment on the government's statement. 
Militants on Saturday blew up a gas pipeline in the Sui area near Jaffarabad, suspending the gas supply to various Punjab districts, Geo TV has reported.
At least 700 people were killed as Shiite militiamen, most of them loyalists of radical anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, battled the police and troops who raided their strongholds, according to United Nations figures. The fierce fighting which marked the first week of the operation has given way to slower, more focused house-by-house searches by Iraqi troops - mainly in areas dominated by Sadr's Mahdi Army militiamen.
The lull in fighting came after Al-Sadr called Friday for an end to Iraqi bloodshed and said his threat of an "open war" applied only to U.S.-led foreign troops, stepping back from a full-blown confrontation with the government over a crackdown against his followers. Al-Sadr's appeal won support of some residents of Sadr City who also have been facing shortages of food and supplies.
Fierce overnight clashes between Shia militiamen and the United States and Iraqi forces in Baghdads Sadr City killed at least eight people, including two children, a local medic told AFP on Saturday.
The head of the Hamas students wing in Damascus has been killed in a car accident, Syrian sources confirmed to the London-based al-Quds newspaper Saturday. 
