A dozen policemen and 12 civilians including three children were killed in violence Tuesday, officials said, in one of insurgency-hit Afghanistan's bloodiest days in weeks.
Five of the policemen were killed in an exchange of fire with Taliban rebels who attacked their remote outpost on the Pakistani border in the southern province of Kandahar in the early hours of the morning, police said. Four others sent as reinforcements were killed when their vehicles were blown up by remote-controlled bombs, Kandahar police chief Sayed Agha Saqeb told AFP. "They were going to reinforce the post under attack," he said. "We lost nine policemen."
I take it Amnesty International had no problem with any of this ...
Elsewhere in the same province three children and a militant died when a bomb the rebel was putting under a bridge exploded, Saqeb said. "The device he was planting exploded and killed himself and three children who were watching him playing nearby," he said.
Also Tuesday, three police officers and a civilian passer-by were killed in a roadside bomb explosion in Logar province just south of the capital, Kabul, police there said. "It was a remote-control bomb that struck one of our police vehicles patrolling the area," Logar police chief Ghulam Mustafa said. "We blame the Taliban for this attack."
Eight civilians were killed in a third blast, also caused by a roadside bomb, in the southwestern province of Farah, deputy provincial governor Younus Rasouli told AFP. Several other people were injured in the bombing in the province's troubled Delaram district, the official said, without giving a precise toll. "It was the work of the Taliban. They had planted the mine to target security forces but it hit the civilian bus," Rasouli said.
Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahamdi claimed responsibility for the Kandahar attacks but there were no immediate claims of responsibility for the Farah one.
US-led forces pursuing anti-militant operations in the restive south announced meanwhile they had killed "several" rebels in raids in Helmand province, a heartland of the Taliban-led insurgency and a booming drugs trade. The militants were killed in Garmser district bordering Pakistan during a hunt for a "Taliban leader involved with weapons smuggling operations," the US-led coalition said in a statement.
Thousands of US Marines serving under NATO are also operating in Garmser, which military officials say is used as a logistics hub for the Al-Qaeda-linked rebels who skim profits off Afghanistan's huge drugs trade.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
May God send them all speedily to Paradise... except for the rebel/militant/terrorist.
(SomaliNet) Heavy fighting erupted in Somali capital Mogadishu Monday leaving over eleven civilians dead, witnesses said. According to the residents, the incident sparked off when armed Islamist groups attacked at AMISOM troops later Monday.
News sources said eight of the dead civilians were killed after mortar fired by one of warred groups has landed in a house situated in Former Banadir Hospital while two others died at the rear of Ambassador Hotel next to Km4 area. A young boy also died in the vicinity of former Digfer hospital.
According to reports, the battle started after armed groups assaulted an AMISOM Ugandan troops at Km4 area where the two sides have randomly opened fire on each other. The spokesman of AMISOM troops in Somalia Major-Barigye-Bo-hoku told Shabelle by phone that their soldiers were unharmed excluding that they have killed two of the Islamist attackers.
"We killed two attackers' AMISOM soldiers professionally fired back at the assailants and they run away," Bo-hoku said in the interview. He also denied some reports from the warred area saying that the civilian died in a mortar fired from AMISOM troop's army base in KM4.
Further reports indicate that Alshabab Islamic group has claimed the responsibility of that attack.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/28/2008 00:00 ||
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SANAA - Yemeni authorities said on Tuesday they had crushed Zaidi rebels in a suburb of the capital Sanaa after what witnesses said was several days of heavy fighting that had left dozens of casualties.
Security forces "dealt with the rebellion in Bani Hushaish, which was a pocket of rebels led by Abdul Malak al-Huthi," an official told AFP, referring to the field commander of a four-year-old uprising in the far north of Yemen. Troops and police "crushed the dens of the strife and rebellion, the outlaws, in Bani Hushaish," a suburb 20 kilometres (12 miles) northeast of Sanaa, a defence ministry official told the state Saba news agency.
Tribal sources and witnesses told AFP that dozens of rebels and security forces were killed or wounded during three days of heavy fighting in Bani Hushaish which ended early Tuesday.
Last week they whacked the rebels in the north.
Today they whacked the rebels near the capital.
Tomorrow they'll whack the rebels in the capital.
Next week they'll whack the rebels on the palace steps.
Week after that they'll whack the rebels inside the inner sanctum.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/28/2008 00:00 ||
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The United States is freezing the assets of four prominent members of a militant Pakistan-based group with links to al Qaeda, the U.S. Treasury said on Tuesday .
The four are leaders of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), an al Qaeda affiliate that has staged attacks on the Indian military and civilians since 1993, the department said. The State Department designated it a foreign terrorist organization in 2001. The group's "transnational nature makes it crucial for governments worldwide to do all they can to stifle LeT's fund-raising and operations," said Stuart Levey, Treasury's undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.
Any assets these men have under U.S. jurisdiction will be frozen, and Americans will be prohibited from doing business with them, Treasury said. The four included Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, described by Treasury as the LeT chief who has played a major role in the the organization's operational and fund-raising activities. It named the others as Pakistan-born Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, the chief of operations, Haji Muhammad Ashraf, the chief of finance, and India-born Mahmoud Mohammad Ahmed Bahaziq, described as the main LeT financier in the 1980s and 1990s.
This article starring:
HAFIZ MUHAMAD SAID
Lashkar-e-Taiba
HAJI MUHAMAD ASHRAF
Lashkar-e-Taiba
MAHMUD MOHAMAD AHMED BAHAZIQ
Lashkar-e-Taiba
Stuart Levey
ZAKI UR REHMAN LAKHVI
Lashkar-e-Taiba
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Hopefully, the US intel guys on the ground will hear about which paki govt assholes are griping about not getting their monthly installments of LeT grease.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/28/2008 12:06 Comments ||
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An improvised explosive device went off in the Salarzai tehsil of the Bajaur Agency late on Monday, authorities said on Tuesday, adding that there were no casualties in the blast. The authorities said the device was triggered through a remote control. They said the bomb was planted 40 kilometres from the agency headquarters Khar, and caused panic in the area after the strong explosion. Authorities have registered a case and are investigating the incident.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2008 00:00 ||
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Local Taliban have released Dr Shahid after the political administration ordered release of eight tribesmen on Tuesday. The political administration in Mohmand Agency had ordered the release of eight people of Saafi tribe who were arrested under the collective responsibility clause of the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR). Their release was announced a day after successful meeting between a tribal jirga and local Taliban. Officials said the eight people were arrested on January 30 and were imprisoned in the Central Jail, Peshawar.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2008 00:00 ||
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Eight persons were killed and 13 injured in the Orakzai Agency when Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) and Ansarul Islam (AI), the two rival groups of Khyber Agency clashed on Tuesday, tribal sources told Daily Times. The clash occurred when activists of both outfits met in Kalaba tehsil of Orakzai Agency and opened fire on each other Sources said that the tribal elders of Orakzai Agency are considering a ban on movements of both the groups in the jurisdiction of the agency.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2008 00:00 ||
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Hello boss, this is Haji, Muji and I and the crew are picking up the lumber you wanted. These Infidels came along and claimed our purchase order is invalid so we decide to have a sit-in protest.
The sit-in worked because they finally backed down. What's more they gave us some additional services.
First of all they installed air conditioning in the company vehicle. Then they lowered it's center of gravity so we could carry more cargo. Finally they re-sized the lumber for us.
Could you call I double A for road service. We can't seem to get the car started.
Oh, by the way there is some cockamamie American news guy here. I'm sure he's getting the whole story wrong.
#6
My guess is this is old since the reference is to looting (immediate post-invasion stuff). The voice over / rapporteur sounds like PBS. It is made to have the US soldiers look like bad guys. Go figure.
#7
If they WERE looters, the action is perfectly justified. How were the soldiers sure, though? I'd back them just because they're U.S. soldiers and I'd assume they wouldn't do such things unnecessarily. If those Iraqis WEREN'T looters though, this type of thing doesn't do much for the "hearts and minds" campaign.
Posted by: Thaimble Scourge of the Pixies4707 ||
05/28/2008 18:29 Comments ||
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#8
But it is precisely because it was not tied to the "hearts and minds" campaign that it is likely old and from the early days of the war. We are much more seeeeeensitive these days, where appropriate. And they sure would not likely do this in front of some non-mil camera.
#10
3 dollah bill, outa date, outa sequence, and passable only to the blind.
Posted by: George Smiley ||
05/28/2008 19:58 Comments ||
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#11
It is old, I've seen that before, and I believe it does date to shortly after the capital was taken. Plus look at the body armor the tankers are wearing, that doesn't match what I've seen in more recent pictures and films of them.
When the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division arrived in Iraq's once infamous "Triangle of Death," violence there and in neighboring Baghdad was so intense that hundreds were dying every day and the country was virtually in a state of civil war. You mean the Triangle of Jihadis who Bravely Ran Away?
Now as the division heads home at the end of May, the region stretching south from Baghdad and across central Iraq has become a showcase for what the U.S. military hoped to achieve in Iraq.
"When we first arrived here 15 months ago there was nothing but sectarian violence, al-Qaida, Shiite extremists," the division commander Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch said as he wrapped up a tour of an industrial complex.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and U.S. officials are likely to tout successes like that here during a U.N. conference that begins Thursday in Sweden, aimed at reviewing political and security progress in Iraq. The gathering will also see pressure on Iraqi leaders to make similar movement on political goals, such as reconciliation between the country's Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds.
The U.S. military says violence across Iraq has reached its lowest level in more than four years after successes this year in breaking al-Qaida's and other Sunni insurgents' hold in western Iraq and more recently government crackdowns in the southern city of Basra and northern city of Mosul.
But the success in the Triangle of Death, centered on the town of Iskandariyah, is perhaps the most dramatic. The area's population is mixed between Sunnis and Shiites to a far greater degree than many others, and in 2006 and 2007 militants from each community were killing each other, as well as attacking U.S. and Iraqi forces.
The area has boomeranged to become a bastion of relative peace on the edge of a violent capital, while Sunni militants remain elusive in the north.
One likely reason for the greater success is the logistical support from being close to Baghdad. Mosul, where a major Iraqi military campaign is under way against al-Qaida, is 225 miles northwest of the capital compared to the 30 miles between Baghdad and Iskandariyah.
Another is the division's success recruiting members of the so-called Awakening Councils, Sunni groups who turned against al-Qaida in Iraq after the terror group began imposing draconian measures to enforce religious discipline in neighborhoods they controlled throughout the Triangle of Death. There are about 36,000 Awakening Council members on the payroll.
A third is a cease-fire ordered last August by radical anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose militia is present in the region far more than areas north of Baghdad.
Battalion commanders in the field also point to new counterinsurgency strategies, where units clear an area of fighters and stay to hold it from slipping back into insurgent hands.
Sunni fighters who swarmed the area are also nearly gone. They have either been killed, or co-opted into Awakening Councils, said Lt. Col. William Zemp, commander of the 3rd Battalion, 320th Field Artillery Regiment based in nearby Mahmoudiya.
"It was a place where they could consolidate, make plans and be put into action," Zemp said. "We have effectively shut that down."
The result is predominantly Shiite areas along the main corridors north into Baghdad.
Most recently, the farmlands south of Baghdad were flooded with U.S. soldiers, and areas once controlled by a single battalion of under 1,000 soldiers are now the responsibility of a brigade of 3,500.
The cigar-smoking Lynch has become a recognizable figure in Iskandariyah. The general often walks the narrow streets of its marketplace, which shows new signs of prosperity amid the greater calm.
Shortly after the 3rd ID arrived, its 20,000 soldiers launched large military operations to quash al-Qaida cells and Shiite militias.
"We focused on establishing security in this area of Iskandariyah, and now that we have the security right, we had to worry about the most pressing need of the people, and that was employment," Lynch said.
Violence in the area, where U.S. troops once traveled only in large numbers, has plunged by 89 percent since last year, according to the military. Mortar and rocket attacks are largely a thing of the past, though some suicide bombings continue, it said.
"I just don't see sectarian violence anymore," Lynch said. "In our area, people kept talking about Sunni versus Shiite. I don't see that now. Everywhere I go, people identify themselves as Iraqi. That is their identification I am not Shiite, I'm not Sunni, I'm Iraqi."
Lynch and his officers knew they did not have the resources to jump-start the region's economy, so instead they focused on a variety of ventures a vocational school, the industrial plant and smaller projects such as fish farming.
"Do you remember what this place used to look like 15 months ago?" Sabbah al-Khaffaji, who runs the industrial plant and sits on the city council, asked Lynch. "We hope that the next time, you can come without guns."
Al-Khaffaji's plant, which last year employed a couple hundred people on an intermittent basis, now has nearly 3,000 workers. It has contracts worth more than $6 million.
The vocational school had fewer than 500 students just six months ago; it now has about 1,500, learning generator maintenance, metal work, sewing and other skills needed by the local economy.
But Lynch warns that the fight has not been fully won.
"This is a tenuous security situation," Lynch said. "The enemy could indeed come back, the people could become dissatisfied with their government and as a result could revert back to old ways of doing business."
MOSUL, Iraq As the sun rose Sunday, it found the 43rd Engineer Companys bulldozers already at work scraping dirt into ever larger piles. East of the engineers, the sun lit up the buildings of Mosul at about 2 million people, Iraqs second biggest city. To the west, it shone on the vast emptiness of the desert outside the city.
Mosul has just three main roads going into it, but that desert offers an alternative for anyone who wants to circumvent the checkpoints on the official routes. So Army engineers have built a massive dirt berm around the city to funnel any insurgents through checkpoints, where they have a better chance of being discovered during routine searches.
"There are basically an infinite number of routes if youre coming in from the desert," said 1st Lt. Ben Weaver, a platoon leader in the company.
Leaders have named this massive berm the "Riyadh Line," after the senior Iraqi commander in the area. The berm is a wall of dirt at least four feet high but twice that in many places that almost completely encircles Mosul. The 43rd Engineer Company maintains about 15 kilometers of the berm, essentially the western half of the Riyadh Line.
Similar berms have been built around other Iraqi cities in the past, most notably in nearby Tal Afar. And long concrete blast walls have divided many parts of Baghdad in recent months.
In Mosul, the soldiers built their section of the line over eight freezing days in December. The city was still extremely violent then, so they tried to do as much of their work as possible at night. Still, some of the engineers worked upward of 20 hours a day.
Pvt. Edwin Ocampo drives one of the units armored combat earth movers, a bulldozer built like a tank. He recalled moving dirt for almost three days straight, getting a rest and then working another three days straight.
"It was a long, painful process," he said.
Soldiers anchored the berm to steep ridges and other natural obstacles that surround Mosul, as well as tank ditches from the Saddam regime. The majority of the engineers time Sunday was spent just negotiating the rough ground around the perimeter.
Most of the soldiers ride in massive armored trucks over steep ridges that would give many drivers pause even in vehicles with a lower center of gravity. Yet the soldiers doggedly plugged away at their mission, even when one of their bulldozers blew a hydraulic line and had to be towed by another bulldozer.
With no one guarding the Riyadh Line, insurgents can make a hole in the berm and get through, Weaver said. So soldiers with the 43rd Engineer Company must head out about once a week to repair the holes in their section of the line.
Even the holes arent completely without merit, though.
"At least we can identify their routes and pick em off easier," said Sgt. 1st Class Rodney Lerue, a platoon sergeant in the company.
Like other engineering projects in Iraq, the work has become a chess match with insurgents. Soldiers build the berm. The insurgents make a hole. Soldiers fill the hole. The insurgents plant a bomb in the next hole they make.
The engineers now use an armored truck to run a bomb-detonating device over each hole before they try to fill it with their bulldozers.
Soldiers are mixed in their opinion of the operations success. Ocampo credited the berm for reducing the number of attacks around Mosul in recent weeks. Weaver, however, said that although it was important it was just one piece of an overarching strategy thats also seen success in standing up the Iraqi army and catching insurgents.
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC ||
05/28/2008 02:44 ||
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#1
Catch him digging the holes, and you solve multiple problems.
#2
Perfect example of miltary utility of a barrier - its not there to stop enemy action completely, but to hamper it and increase the cost/time/effort of traversing certain routes, as well as increasing the chances of getting caught.
Kinda like a border fence here in the US, if we could ever be bothered to build one.
#3
The blimps used today are tethered, unmanned platforms called areostats. only one problems--It was discovered that the hajjiis like to use them for target practice, necessitating frequent downtime for repairs.
Now the military uses tall (102+ ft.) crank-up masts with cameras & designators on them. Word is that they work real good, range of 15 miles or so.
Posted by: N guard ||
05/28/2008 9:35 Comments ||
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#4
Thanks, interesting info - need to arm the blimps so they can fight back, still better to draw fire to a cheap gasbag than an valuable GI.
Masts seem better suited for the pure recon needed in this instance, but an armed blimp would still be interesting.
#6
Soldiers build the berm. The insurgents make a hole. Soldiers fill the hole. The insurgents plant a bomb in the next hole they make.
how about we plant the bombs in the berm to start with.
"At least we can identify their routes and pick em off easier," said Sgt. 1st Class Rodney Lerue, a platoon sergeant in the company.
Man I love the way our military think ;)
Posted by: Jan ||
05/28/2008 12:01 Comments ||
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#7
Put a UAV on patrol over the berm at night. A predator with a Hellfire or two should slow down any jihadis who try to break through. Or they could be used to call in an artillery strike at an appropriate moment.
Posted by: Rambler in California ||
05/28/2008 12:50 Comments ||
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#8
Well put, OldSpook. The analogy is, in fact, exact. Barriers (whether passive like berms or a bit more exciting like minefields) limit and channel enemy activity - that is, they're a part of seizing and maintaining the initiative. To digress to the domestic thing a bit, as many here and elsewhere have noted, a few simple and seemingly disconnected actions like making the border less passable, targeting huge illegal labor magnets such as specific manufacturing centers, and allowing immigration status to enter into some local/state law enforcement actions will, together, produce instant and dramatic changes in behavior by the target population.
In Iraq, one can only repeat the quiet refrain of "why only now?" WRT berms around Mosul. The strategic level is very similar to the illegal immigration issue: change the temperature of the water more to your liking, and only good things flow from it. Without the demonstration of will that the "surge" represents, or something similar, trying to pacify Iraq was doable but only in a horribly wasteful fashion.
The words "counterinsurgency strategy" should be banned from intelligent discourse, because they mask, as most such phrases do, the fact that only common sense is required. Berms to limit/channel enemy movement, systematic identification of enemy personnel through mass detentions/screenings of military-aged males, extreme differentiation in punishment/incentives meted out to hostile/cooperative neighborhoods, and like measures would produce much wrong-headed and morally narcissistic howling from the usual suspects (sadly, including many in uniform), along with instant and dramatic results. Weak versions of these measures have now been used, though not usually in conjunction with each other, and still have produced results.
On a micro level, beyond the surveillance issue (what about cheap distributed observation nodes connected wirelessly to an ops center?), I do wonder about other technical possibilities. Mines seem too indiscrimate considering the huge size and number of Iraqis who probably will have opportunities to be stupid around it. But how about passive fiber-optic sensors, wireless IR or visual cameras, all linked to UAVs and rapid-response teams.
#9
If the berm ranges from 4 - 8 feet. Make the 4 foot sections where you can set up traps with snipers. For a while, at least the jihadis would probably try to breach the berm in the easier 4 foot sections. This could develop into some target rich environments. "Pathways to Paradise."
#10
It would be easy enough to put a remote weapon system on the masts for immediate, light impact response. The light impact aspect comes from using small arms (7.62mm) rather than mortar, artillery or UAV-based missile fire. Not appropriate in all cases, but certainly in many of them.
#12
Just train the Iraqis to respond to trip flares and seismatic sensors. Station them in bunkers with good overhead cover. Hand them a field phone hooked to the US TOC.
On our part, have an alert5 helicopter gunship on hot standby, and a few tubes of 155 airburst pre-registered for immediate fire, and a platoon of Stryker Cav on warm ready (Soldiers up and equipped, vehicles PMCS'd but off).
That'll secure the berm for the most part if they want to really lock it down.
#14
Gorb - Any number of cheap gasbags come to mind. I'm just taken with the idea of barrage balloons returning fire as needed. Even better would be an armored blimp!
(VOI) A joint Iraqi-U.S. force captured five suspected gunmen in a security raid west of Kirkuk on Tuesday, the city's districts police chief said. "A force from the Iraqi police and the Multi-National Force (MNF) conducted a search raid in the villages of Rubeizar and Marziyeh, (65 km) west of Kirkuk, capturing five suspected gunmen," Brig. Sarhad Qader told Aswat al-Iraq Voices of Iraq (VOI).
"Also during the operation, 13 different weapons and an amount of ammunition were seized," said Qader, adding the operation ended without any casualties amongst security forces. Kirkuk, an oil-rich city of mixed population of ethnic and religious groups, lies 250 km northeast of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2008 00:00 ||
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(VOI) A policeman and a woman were killed in two separate attacks by unidentified gunmen in central and western Ninewa province on Tuesday, police said. "Unidentified gunmen killed a policeman who was roaming the pedestrian-thronged area of Bab el-Toub, central Mosul," a security source, who asked not to be named, told Aswat al-Iraq Voices of Iraq (VOI).
"The policeman was clad in uniform and was walking near the al-Hadbaa police department, where he worked," the source added, not giving more information. Meanwhile, the same source said, two unidentified gunmen opened a volley of fire at a woman in the western Mosul area of al-Shifaa, killing her instantly and escaping to an unknown place. "The 45-year-old woman was stepping out of al-Shifaa hospital when the gunmen attacked her," the source said, adding the woman was not identified by anyone yet.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2008 00:00 ||
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(VOI) - Six civilians were injured in an improvised explosive device attack targeting a police vehicle patrol in eastern Mosul, a security source said on Tuesday. A roadside bomb was detonated this afternoon targeting a police vehicle patrol in al-Darkazliya region in eastern Mosul, injuring six civilians and causing material damage to the vehicle, the source, who requested anonymity, told Aswat al-Iraq Voices of Iraq (VOI).
Meanwhile, an Iraqi army source said that army forces found a weapons depot, including nine tons of explosives, and arrested one suspected gunman in eastern Mosul. A force from the 8th brigade of the 2nd division managed on Monday afternoon to find an explosive depot and arrested a suspected gunman in al-Jazaer neighborhood in eastern Mosul, the source told VOI on condition of anonymity. The operation was carried out based on an intelligence tip, he also said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2008 00:00 ||
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(AKI) - The Islamic State of Iraq, the umbrella name adopted by al-Qaeda groups in the country, has released the first video of the group's new teenage terror cell for those under 16 years of age. The video of the terror cell known as "Youths of Heaven" is produced by al-Furqan, the media production arm of the Islamic State of Iraq. The video was aired for the first time on Tuesday on the Arabic satellite television channel Al-Arabiya. It shows a group of young aspiring suicide bombers brandishing Kalashnikovs and promising to blow themselves up against "the crusaders and apostates."
This new al-Qaeda terror cell in Iraq is only open to those under the age of 16.
In the first part of the film, six youngsters are seen, with their faces covered, sitting in a circle and shouting "Allah is great". In the second part, there is a video message recorded by a young suicide bomber on the eve of his attack. This new al-Qaeda terror cell in Iraq is only open to those under the age of 16.
In an interview with the pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat, Sayd Aziz Salman, the head of the Awakening Council in Taji, north of Baghdad, said that the cell was the latest danger that the country faced. Salman said that after al-Qaeda suffered major losses in battles with the Iraqi military and members of his Awakening Council, the terrorist group had decided to reorganise itself in a bid to target senior leaders from the Awakening Councils. In order to do this, they have formed a cell of aspiring suicide bombers who range in age from 11 to 16 years old. The young suicide bomber featured in the second part of Tuesday's video could be the same one that carried out an attack in the region of Tarimiya on Monday.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
And if one of these bombers gets through and blows up an American patrol it will be reported as 'American soldiers kill Iraqi child.'
#3
Just as you think muzzies can't get any more depraved, they come up with something like this. Each time the MNF captures a known member of Al-Qaida or any other terrorist group, they should wring him dry of all possible intelligence, then hand him over to the families of the victims of this senseless violence. Hopefully all of the depraved bas$$$$s will die a lingering, painful death.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/28/2008 11:04 Comments ||
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#4
Yeah, a cell is a compartmentalized element in a guerilla organization. If you're releasing press releases about a youth-only suicide unit, that's not a cell, that's a cadre. Either way, it sounds like propaganda bullshit.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
05/28/2008 11:51 Comments ||
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Iraqi officials reopened a landmark Baghdad bridge on Tuesday after it was destroyed by a truck bomb last year, vowing to defeat terrorists and unite a country ravaged by sectarian strife.
Snipers took up positions along the rebuilt Sarafiya bridge as Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki led the ceremony beneath the structure. "We have to mark this day to declare the victory of the generous will of Iraq which was not defeated," he told the crowd of mostly army and police officers. "A year ago when this bridge was blasted, Iraq was slipping into the brink of civil war." The violence has since eased.
The bombing of one of Baghdad's most famous landmarks was not only an attack on the city's infrastructure. Some saw the attack -- one of several on bridges at the time -- as part of a more sinister plot by insurgents to split Baghdad into a Shi'ite east bank and a Sunni west bank.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2008 00:00 ||
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(VOI) - An Iraqi army soldier was killed on Tuesday by unknown gunmen in central Amara city, a security source said. Unknown armed men opened fire on an Iraqi army soldier in al-Qadissiya region, killing him instantly, the source told Aswat al-Iraq Voices of Iraq (VOI) on condition of anonymity. They killed him in front of his house in the region, he added. He did not add more details.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2008 00:00 ||
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(VOI) - Iraqi Interior Ministrys forces arrested a senior leader of al-Qaeda group after armed clashes, during which three security elements were wounded in eastern Mosul, the ministry said on Tuesday. The emergency forces clashed with al-Qaeda gunmen in al-Zuhour region in eastern Mosul, where Adel Ismail Ahmed, al-Qaeda leader, was arrested and three security elements were wounded, General Abdul Karim Khalaf, the director of the national command center, told Aswat al-Iraq Voices of Iraq (VOI). He did not add more details. Earlier in May, the commander of Ninewa operations, Staff Lieutenant General Riyadh Jalal, announced the commencement of Operation Lion's Roar with the aim of tracking down al-Qaeda operatives. Five days later Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki launched another security campaign dubbed Um al-Rabieen with the same purpose.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2008 00:00 ||
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(VOI) - A policeman was killed on Tuesday in a roadside bomb explosion targeting a police vehicle patrol in eastern Falluja, a police source said. An explosive charge, planted on a road in al-Senaa neighborhood in eastern Falluja, went off, killing a policeman, the source, who wished to remain anonymous, told Aswat al-Iraq Voices of Iraq (VOI). The explosion caused severe material damage to one of the patrols vehicles, he added. Police patrols rushed to the scene, while the body was sent to the Falluja public hospital, he also said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Iraq
(VOI) - Iraqi forces on Tuesday arrested a 4-person oil smuggling gang in Basra, a military source said. A force from the Iraqi army apprehended a 4-person oil smuggling gang in Abu al-Khaseeb district, 20 km south of Basra, a source from Basra security command, who requested anonymity, told Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq - (VOI).
The source did not provide further details on whether any oil smuggling materials were seized in the operation. Shatt al-Arab is the only water gateway into Iraq, and is shared with Iran. Blurred borders and palm tree farmlands rendered the water space a favorite location for smugglers. Last March, smuggling operations decreased after the launch of a security plan dubbed as Saulat al-Fursan (Knights Assault) to crack down on gunmen and to stem the illegal smuggling operations in the oil-hub city.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2008 00:00 ||
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(VOI) - Security forces on Tuesday arrested an 8-person kidnapping gang and seized a weapons cache, the Karbala police chief said. Security forces captured eight wanted men, who were members of a gang involved in a number of kidnappings in Karbala, Brig. Gen. Raid Shakir, commander of Karbala security operations, told Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq - (VOI).
Karbala has seen a number of cases of kidnapping. A few days ago, a female university student was kidnapped by three kidnappers and released a short time later. The police chief noted "interrogations with the three kidnappers led to the location of the remaining gang members. Meanwhile, the police chief pointed out security forces, based on an intelligence tip-off, uncovered a weapons cache in a house located in western Karbala, adding it contained 239 canon rounds.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2008 00:00 ||
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(VOI) Seven gunmen suspected of belonging to al-Qaeda network were killed and two policemen wounded in clashes near the district of Baiji, Salah al-Din province, police said on Tuesday. "A police force conducted a raid on Monday in the village of al-Salam, near Baiji, in search of Sabbar Mahrous al-Qaysi, the director of the Tikrit public hospital, and his assistant, who were kidnapped a couple of weeks ago by unidentified gunmen," a security source told Aswat al-Iraq Voices of Iraq (VOI) on condition that his name not be mentioned.
"Clashes erupted between the security force and gunmen believed to be members of al-Qaeda Organization in Iraq. Seven gunmen were killed and two policemen slightly injured," the source said. "The raid continued until a late hour yesterday without finding Qaysi and his assistant," the source indicated.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2008 00:00 ||
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(VOI) - The director of Talafar hospital said on Tuesday that casualties from the car bomb explosion that jolted the city earlier rose to four dead and 46 wounded. Talafar hospital received four bodies and 46 wounded in the car bomb blast in al-Qalaa square in central Talafar, Dr. Saleh al-Qado told Aswat al-Iraq Voices of Iraq (VOI) by phone.
Talafar mayor General Nijm Abdullah had said earlier three civilians were killed and 27 others were wounded on Tuesday afternoon in a car bomb explosion in Talafar city. A car rigged with explosives went off amid a market in al-Khadraa neighborhood in Talafar, west of Mosul, killing three and injuring 27, including six that are in critical condition, General Nijm Abdullah told Aswat al-Iraq Voices of Iraq (VOI). Five policemen are among the wounded, he also said. The explosion is the first of its kind since the beginning of military operations in Ninewa province.
The last car bomb explosion to take place in Ninewa was on May 8, 2008 in western Mosul, where one was killed and another was injured. Earlier in May, the commander of Ninewa operations, Staff Lieutenant General Riyadh Jalal, announced the commencement of Operation Lion's Roar with the aim of tracking down al-Qaeda operatives.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Message to Talafarians: this only happened because the Americans pushed AQ out of Baghdad, and Baquba, and now Mosul. It's the Americans' fault for not leaving things alone.
(VOI) - Security forces killed eight gunmen and arrested 24 suspects during operations conducted in Baghdad over the past 24 hours, a military spokesman said. "Security forces in Karkh arrested seven suspects and defused 30 roadside bombs in Kadhmiya, northern Baghdad, and in al-Rasheed sector, south-western Baghdad," Brig. Gen Qassem Atta, spokesman for Baghdad's security plan, told Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq - (VOI). "Security forces killed eight gunmen, destroying their vehicle, and arrested seven individuals including three wanted men in Adhimiya, eastern Baghdad," the spokesman noted. In Baghdad suburbs, Atta said "forces captured six wanted men, defused 16 roadside bombs in al-Mahmoudiya district, southern Baghdad, and detained four wanted men in Abu Ghraib, western Baghdad."
"Three servicemen were killed and five wounded," he added without providing further details. U.S.-backed Iraqi security forces have launched a large-scale operation dubbed as Fardh al-Qanoon (Law Imposing) to crack down on gunmen in Baghdad and its suburbs.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency
IDF forces arrested three Palestinian terror suspects during operations in Kalkilya Tuesday. A handgun and two magazines were found during a search conducted by soldiers. The men were transferred to security forces for questioning.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Palestinian Authority
(Xinhua) -- The police in Sri Lanka said Tuesday 33 people have been held on suspicion over the bomb blast which killed nine people and injured 86 more on Monday. The blast on board a crowded train along the western coastal line hit the Colombo suburb of Dehiwala late Monday afternoon. Officials said 72 of the 86 injured are still being treated in two hospitals.
A senior police officer said 15 people out of the 33 arrested on suspicion were released after painful questioning.
The authorities have alerted the commuters in public transport to be aware of attempts by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to explode bombs.
The government says LTTE rebels are desperate in view of the defeat they are facing in the hands of government troops in the north and east. Bus and train bombs have become frequent since the government walked out of the six-year-old Norwegian backed ceasefire in mid-January.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Since trains seem to be a favorite target for terrorists, I thought it a little odd over the number of US incidents in just the last few days. Chicago, Boston, Mississippi, and now another tanker car with hydrochloric acid leaking is reported in Omaha, after the one in Louisiana previously. Hazmat crews have evacuated the neighborhood but professionals from Arkansas are flying in, when this is the HQ of Union Pacific. I hope Homeland security hasn't overlooked an obvious weak spot in lieu of threats.
(AKI) - A carbomb exploded in a western suburb of the Iranian capital Tehran on Monday. No one was hurt in the blast but some buildings were damaged. The area where the car bomb exploded was immediately isolated by security forces. No one has claimed responsibility for the incident. According to a report on the Fars news agency, one person has been arrested in connection with the blast.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
In Tehran Shi'ite is always happening!
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
05/28/2008 5:15 Comments ||
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MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- Seven federal police officers were killed Tuesday in northwest Mexico in the latest in a series of drug-related violence, a spokesman for the federal police said.
Mexican police say seven officers were killed and four were wounded in a raid of a home in Culiacan. Another four officers were wounded and a civilian was killed during the incident, which occurred as police were conducting a weapons and drugs raid on a home in Culiacan, police spokesman Armando Arteaga said.
Upon arriving at the house, the officers were fired upon and a grenade was thrown at them, Arteaga said. Authorities arrested two people, including a minor, and confiscated seven AK-47s and dozens of ammunition clips.
Culiacan, a city of more than 600,000 people in the state of Sinaloa, has become a key battleground in Mexico's drug war. In recent days, President Felipe Calderon has sent 2,000 federal police and army troops to Culiacan in an effort to stem the flow of drugs through the city.
But Calderon's campaign has been met with a vicious response that has resulted in more than 1,000 people dead in drug-related violence since the beginning of the year. The victims include Mexico City's top federal police chief as well as four other federal police killed in an ambush this month in Culiacan. It's a quagmire!
Pitched battles between rival drug gangs, assassinations of police officers and ambushes on city streets have made life hell for many residents of Culiacan.
Some 300 tons of cocaine are estimated to pass through Mexico to the United States each year, and Mexico is considered the largest foreign supplier of crystal methamphetamine to the United States.
A U.S. counternarcotics official predicted Calderon's battle will be a long, bloody and uphill slog. But Police Commander Gen. Jose Antonio Guzman, speaking before Tuesday's incident, was more optimistic. "I feel we are making progress," he said. "Let's see how long it lasts."
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.
SANAA - Yemeni authorities said on Tuesday they had crushed Zaidi rebels in a suburb of the capital Sanaa after what witnesses said was several days of heavy fighting that had left dozens of casualties.
Mosul has just three main roads going into it, but that desert offers an alternative for anyone who wants to circumvent the checkpoints on the official routes. So Army engineers have built a massive dirt berm around the city to funnel any insurgents through checkpoints, where they have a better chance of being discovered during routine searches.
(AKI) - The Islamic State of Iraq, the umbrella name adopted by al-Qaeda groups in the country, has released the first video of the group's new teenage terror cell for those under 16 years of age. The video of the terror cell known as "Youths of Heaven" is produced by al-Furqan, the media production arm of the Islamic State of Iraq. The video was aired for the first time on Tuesday on the Arabic satellite television channel Al-Arabiya. It shows a group of young aspiring suicide bombers brandishing Kalashnikovs and promising to blow themselves up against "the crusaders and apostates."
Iraqi officials reopened a landmark Baghdad bridge on Tuesday after it was destroyed by a truck bomb last year, vowing to defeat terrorists and unite a country ravaged by sectarian strife.
MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- Seven federal police officers were killed Tuesday in northwest Mexico in the latest in a series of drug-related violence, a spokesman for the federal police said.
