These Brit MRAPS could use a Ma Deuce instead of those little pop guns they carry. Of course if they fired a Ma Deuce broadside the recoil would turn one of these high center of gravity monstrosities on it's side.
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Afghan and NATO-led forces killed or wounded hundreds of Taliban on Thursday in an offensive to clear the militants from the outskirts of Kandahar city, the provincial governor said.
Whoa! Really? But I thought the Talibs were massing to threaten Kandahar and we were really gonna get it because they're so resurgent and stuff?
NATO confirmed in a statement issued in Kabul that Taliban fighters, including many believed to have escaped during a mass jail break last week, had been routed from positions among the orchards and farms of Arghandab district, northwest of Kandahar.
Tree to tree fighting was supposed to make Stalingrad look like a cakewalk, or at least a kangaroo hop...
On Thursday, Afghan and mostly Canadian forces of NATO's International Security Assistance Force attacked enemy positions, having used helicopter gunships at the start of one of the biggest battles in Afghanistan in recent years.
When the Talibs are shrieking and hollering and waving guns back in Pakistain they're not thinking about those gunships.
Earlier NATO had said the offensive, which began on Wednesday, was expected to last until the weekend, and it estimated some 600 Taliban fighters had slipped into the Arghandab valley.
They were threatening a major city with a battalion? Those Pashtuns, they're born military geniuses.
Kandahar provincial governor Assadullah Khalid told a news conference that the Taliban had been driven out, and troops were searching villagers' houses for fighters left behind.
'The Taliban have been cleared totally from Arghandab district,' Khalid said. 'They have suffered hundreds of dead and wounded and many of their casualties are Pakistanis.'
'The Taliban have been cleared totally from Arghandab district,' Khalid said. 'They have suffered hundreds of dead and wounded and many of their casualties are Pakistanis,' he said.
No! Reeeeeally? They prob'ly know the Mighty Pak Army would make minced meat of them, so they took on an easier target like the Afghan army and the Canucks.
A Defence Ministry spokesman also said Arghandab district had been retaken, and 56 insurgents killed. Azimi said two Afghan army officers had been killed and two wounded.
Baitullah's heroes were only decimated? I'm sure the Mighty Pak Army woulda wiped them out.
NATO said the district was retaken in a statement. 'Afghan and ISAF forces have cleared the Arghandab district and have created a safe and stable environment in the region,' it said. 'When Afghan and ISAF units moved into the area, they encountered only minor incidents with insurgents and never met or spotted the large numbers of insurgents as claimed.'
You mean they ran away before you got there?
The Taliban could not be reached immediately for comment.
'We'll get back to you tomorrow on that! Or maybe Thursday!'
TYPICALLY TAKE BUT CAN'T HOLD
About 800 Afghan government troops, backed by hundreds of NATO soldiers, are fighting the Taliban insurgents who seized seven villages in the district on Monday. A Taliban spokesman said the group's objective was to retake Kandahar, the birthplace of the Islamist movement which seized power in 1996 and was ousted by U.S.-led forces in 2001.
That worked well, didn't it?
Analysts said the raid on the jail and the infiltration into Arghandab showed the Taliban's confidence was growing at a time when NATO casualties were mounting and questions were being raised among NATO member states about the Afghan mission.
Those Talibs are really resurgent.
Security has deteriorated despite the presence of about 60,000 foreign troops and about 150,000 government troops.
Not that it has anything to do with the situation across the border in Pakistain, mind you...
Major-General Marc Lessard, the commander of NATO forces in south Afghanistan, said the infiltration of Taliban into Arghandab and the jailbreak were setbacks for NATO. 'They've definitely managed to achieve some kind of tactical success, there's no doubt there,' Lessard told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday.
I understand Pyrrhus met with a certain amount of success, too...
Typically, the Taliban have been unable to hold on to captured villages, and melt away to step up suicide bomb attacks and ambushes on NATO and Afghan forces. In January, the militants attacked a luxury hotel popular with Westerners in Kabul and in April they tried to assassinate President Hamid Karzai as he was watching a military parade. The Afghan government says some members of its own security forces had helped the Taliban mount both the attack on the Kandahar jail and the attempt on Karzai's life.
Shoot them in the courtyard and you have "atrocity" headlines in the west. Shoot them on the battlefield, and its completely ignored for the most part since thats an allied success.
#7
This is Afghanistan. I imagine in prison you stink in a cell with 30 other guys, then once a day they give you a bucket of cooked rice. You figure out how to divvy it up.
#9
I b'lieve the inline comments are in Fred's post-it note yellow, not the highlighter yellow used by regular posters, 3dc. Too, dear GolfBravoUSMC doesn't commonly reference Classical Period battles.
Hundreds of Taliban fighters have been killed or wounded after the group's forces were driven from all the villages around Afghanistan's southern city of Kandahar, the provincial governor has said.
"The Taliban have been cleared totally [by Afghan and Nato forces] from Arghandab district," Assadullah Khalid said on Thursday. About 800 Afghan government troops, backed by hundreds of mainly Canadian Nato soldiers, had fought Taliban who seized seven villages in the Arghandab district three days ago. Khalid said: "The Taliban have suffered hundreds of dead and wounded and many of their casualties are Pakistanis."
Al Jazeera's Hashem Ahlbarra said: "If this is confirmed, it could further strain relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan. "Khalid said the forces have taught a lesson to Baitullah Mahsud [a tribal leader sympathetic to the Taliban] and Mullah Omar, leader of the Taliban. "Some of the people here are returning to their farms as it is harvest season and they want to go back before everything is rotten. It is very quiet, for the moment."
The Taliban "did choose not to fight" and there had been only minor clashes, a spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Kabul, said on Thursday. General Carlos Branco, and ISAF spokesman, said: "During the first 24 hours of operations, only small pockets of insurgents were encountered so only minor incidents occurred and some of them are still going on." He said the incidents were "mainly exchanges of small arms fire and skirmishes."
Branco played down reports about the number of Taliban killed, adding they had "not engaged decisively, limiting their activity to small disruptive attacks".
"Our assessment is that if the insurgents are there they have not the numbers and the foothold that they previously claimed and, obviously, they did choose not to fight," Branco said. He said Afghan and Nato forces "do not expect any dramatic changes in the behavior of the insurgents".
About 5,000 families have fled their homes in Arghandab's lush valley after Nato warned about the launch of the offensive, a provincial official said.
A Taliban spokesman said before the assault started that the the group had set its sights on Kandahar. The al Qaeda-backed group is largely active in southern and eastern areas along the border region with Pakistan
Posted by: john frum ||
06/19/2008 13:11 ||
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#2
Unsightly Taliban in your neighborhood? Call NATO! You can count on NATO to sweep your area clean of those pesky Taliban with our patented treatment containing Talib-out! Talib-out gets the Taliban out and keeps them out!
#3
Hundreds of Taliban fighters have been killed or wounded after the group's forces were driven from all the villages around Afghanistan's southern city of Kandahar..
OK... Wot this means in MSM speak is that the TaliBans changed their name to TaliBites!
(Xinhua) -- Afghan police killed 14 Taliban insurgents in Maywand district of southern Kandahar province, while Afghan and NATO forces killed over 23 militants in Arghandab district Wednesday, an official said.
A group of Taliban militants ambushed a police convoy in Maywand and the clash left 14 militants dead but caused no casualties to the police, Kandahar provincial governor Asadullah Khalid said.
At a press conference in Kandahar city, the provincial capital, Khalid said Afghan and NATO forces killed over 20 militants and wounded 40 more insurgents during a major operation beginning Wednesday morning to drive out militants from Arghandab. Earlier, a defense ministry press release said over 23 militants including 'foreign terrorists' were killed in the anti-Taliban operation in Arghandab, some 20 km north of Kandahar city.
Khalid said two foreign journalists on the scene were also wounded by hostile firing as Afghan and NATO troops were battling hundreds of militants in Arghandab. Both were undergoing treatment at NATO military's medical facilities.
Following a Taliban-led prison break on June 13 in Kandahar city, the largest city in the country, Afghan troops backed by foreign forces have intensified the search and fight operations against militants. Scores of militants have been killed in the province, a known birthplace of Taliban militants. Since three days ago, a group of Taliban militants have massed in Arghandab and occupied several villages, forcing hundreds of local families to escape.
Afghan and NATO forces Wednesday started a major offensive to combat the militants and reportedly have recaptured some villages. The ongoing operation is expected to be completed with the next three days, according to the NATO military.
The past three weeks have seen an escalated militancy across Afghanistan, where Taliban-led violence and related conflicts left 8,000 people, mostly insurgents, dead last year.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/19/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
On NPR ther other night, I heard US forces are part of the arghandan op, as well as afghans and canadians.
#5
AFP sources it to a joint press conf of Afghan Defense Ministry and NATO/ISAF officials. Im assuming the NATO/ISAF officials are getting their info direct from the Canadian military.
#6
AP and reuters were at the same news conf, and confirm its contents.
There is apparently some disagreement as to whether the area has been completely cleared, with the governor of Kandahar province claiming it has been, but NATO officers saying theres still some work to be done, though no further engagements in the last few hours. Apparently they still want to check more thoroughly before announcing the area cleared.
#10
Let's not forget that our guys undercount, and there's no mention of numbers of wounded. Forty-eight hour rule, of course, although at the rate they're going, there will have been several battles and several more scores of bad guys killed by then.
#11
Skunky, thanks for the Torch link. Very informative. Also very funny:
So to the idiots at the Globe & (bloody) Mail: show me where exactly Canadian and Afghan troops can't go in Arghandab. Because the Taliban can't be said to control a damned thing otherwise...
(SomaliNet) Witnesses said At least four people were killed in Somalia's violent capital Mogadishu on Tuesday after insurgents ambushed Somali and Ethiopian troops. According to the witnesses, the fighting erupted in northern Mogadishu's Huriwa district, which has been vacant for months as a bloody insurgency continues into its 17th consecutive month.
Meanwhile, unconfirmed reports said the government wanted to establish a new military base in Huriwa, but Islamist rebels attacked the allied troops as they arrived, using rocket-propelled grenades and machineguns to face off against Ethiopian tanks. More than 10 people with various wounds were admitted to local hospitals afterwards.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/19/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
how long before some of the pain is pushed back on Eritrea?
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/19/2008 8:57 Comments ||
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Fighting between Islamist-led insurgents and allied Somali-Ethiopian troops has killed at least 17 people, residents said on Wednesday, underlining the lack of impact of a U.N.-brokered peace agreement.
Imagine how many would have died without the peace agreement ...
One attack on a troop patrol on Tuesday night prompted return fire towards Mogadishu's SOS hospital, killing three people outside, witnesses said.
Stray bullets from crossfire killed another three in a separate incident about the same time. Mogadishu resident Fatuma Hussein said a mortar landed on her neighbor's house, also on Tuesday night, killing a woman and two children.
Then on Wednesday, two policemen died when their car hit a roadside bomb -- a typical tactic in the insurgents' Iraq-style campaign of hit-and-run attacks, bombs and assassinations.
Staff at Mogadishu's Madina hospital said they took in 76 wounded people in the last 24 hours, of whom six died there. 'The rest are still under treatment,' one doctor, Dahi Deere, said from the overcrowded and under-equipped hospital.
Somalia's government and members of an exiled opposition group signed a U.N.-mediated ceasefire in Djibouti earlier this month, but hardline Islamist leaders and insurgents on the ground rejected the pact. They say they will not talk until thousands of Ethiopian troops backing President Abdullahi Yusuf's government leave the Horn of Africa nation. Somalia has been in near-perpetual conflict since the 1991 toppling of a military dictator.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/19/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Questions is do the Ethiopian/Somalia govt forces ever kill any bad guys? It's always civilians and police. Maybe they need to go on the offensive for a change instead of being sitting ducks?
#2
I'm surprised the US isn't helping out more with intelligence. We found the NVA trail/road system in Vietnam, and did some major damage. I'm sure we could find the infiltration routes in Somalia with drones, especially since there's no triple-canopy jungle to hide them. Ethiopia has an air force, and I'm sure they have at least a few better weapons they can drop. Start catching these rat-bas$$$$s where they regroup and re-arm.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
06/19/2008 12:57 Comments ||
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#3
We found the NVA trail/road system in Vietnam, and did some major damage.
The US also had significant assets in-theater, remember?
Doing the same for Somalia requires having assets nearby. The closest (at this point)would be Djibouti, and there likely aren't the types necessary for doing the job easily.
(Xinhua) -- A senior Somali police commander and two of his bodyguards were killed by a roadside bomb Wednesday shortly after the arrival of Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf backto Mogadishu, a Somali government official confirmed to reporters on Wednesday.
Lieutenant Colonel Hassan Mohamed Wasuge, head of the Western Section of Mogadishu police command and two of his bodyguards died as they were taking part in the security operation for the return of Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, who came back from an official visit to Djibouti, Deputy Mogadishu Mayor for Security Affairs Abditetaf Shaweye said.
The blast occurred shortly after the president arrived in the capital. The commander's vehicle was reportedly destroyed by the huge explosion which could be heard in much of the Somali capital.
The Somali president attended a regional summit in Addis Abba, the Ethiopian capital, before he went to Djibouti for an official visit. Peace talks between the Somali transitional government and opposition members were recently concluded in Djibouti.
No one has claimed for the assassination of the senior Somali police commander but Shaweye said that insurgents were behind the blast. "The anti-peace forces who often disrupt the social peace and security are behind this heinous act but the security forces will pursue the perpetrators and put them before the law," Shaweye said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/19/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
The commander's vehicle was reportedly destroyed by the huge explosion which could be heard in much of the Somali capital.
My personal reaction to loud explosions has gone from "Ack! What was that?" to "Oh heck, what did the muzzies blow up this time?"
Fortunately I live in NYC, so the only huge explosions I've heard turned out to be a gas main destroying half a city block and an electrical step-down transformer cooking off.
Four Pakistani soldiers were killed on Thursday in an exchange of fire with unknown attackers at the border with India in disputed Kashmir, the military said. The soldiers were on a routine patrol along the Line of Control, the de facto border with India, when unknown miscreants fired at them, military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas told AFP. Two of our soldiers embraced martyrdom at the spot and two others injured later died at hospital, Abbas said, adding that three others suffered minor injuries. The attackers were hiding in the thick forest in Hajera sector along the Line of Control when they fired at the troops, he said. Abbas said the soldiers returned fire and afterwards search parties were sent to hunt the attackers. Search parties retrieved the bodies of the martyred soldiers and the injured. The fire was not from the Indian bunkers, a Reuters reports quoting Maj-Gen Abbas said. Associated Press adds: Lt. Col. Shantanu Dass Goswami, an Indian army spokesman, said Indian and Pakistani troops both fired at the attackers, who he said were attempting to infiltrate the Indian side from Pakistan. The fighting lasted about five hours, he said. There was an information sharing from both the sides to zero in on the militants, Goswami said. Abbas said the attack took place near the village of Battal along the Line of Control. A rescue party came under fire as well, Abbas added. Militants have been fighting since 1989 to win Kashmir's independence or have the Indian-controlled portion of the predominantly Muslim region merged with Pakistan. More than 68,000 people, most of them civilians, have died since the start of the insurgency
Posted by: john frum ||
06/19/2008 13:10 ||
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#1
caught the backlash from infiltration support fire? Too Fn bad
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/19/2008 20:08 Comments ||
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More on the Great Helicopter Heist...
KABUL (Reuters) - Four U.S. helicopter engines worth more than $13 million have been stolen while they were being trucked from Afghanistan to a port in Pakistan to be shipped home, the U.S. military said.
Most supplies for the U.S. military in landlocked Afghanistan, including fuel, are transported through Pakistan, and militants in both Pakistan and Afghanistan have been stepping up attacks on shipments.
A U.S. military spokesman said the engines were being transported by a Pakistani trucking company when they went missing some time in the month before April 10. It was not known if the shipment went missing on the Afghan side of the border or in Pakistan, Sergeant Mark Swart said on Thursday."We don't have the information on exactly where it disappeared. We just know that it did not get to the port," he said.
The U.S. military declined to say what type of helicopters the engines were for but said the shipment was a part of a routine redeployment of the 82nd Airborne Division.
Militants in Afghanistan and northwest Pakistan regularly attack trucks carrying supplies for foreign forces in Afghanistan and the dependence on routes through violence-plagued northwest Pakistan is a concern for foreign forces. Most supplies go through two crossing points on the Afghan-Pakistani border, one at the Khyber pass and the other to the southwest, at the Afghan town of Spin Boldak in Kandahar province.
NATO and Russia signed a land transit agreement in April allowing the Western alliance to use Russian land to deliver non-lethal supplies to its troops in Afghanistan.
#3
Uhm, something makes no sense here. Helicopter engines will fit easily in a C-17 or even carried by a CH-47. As these supply routes have never been secure, anything sent by that route would be known to be subject to hijack.
I am not sure how much stock I put in this story. Any shipping any supplies on this route that you don't want to fall in enemy hands should lose their job.
#5
I can see shipping stuff overland, even something valuable like engines. There's only so much lift capacity around and it may all be committed to other operations.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/19/2008 12:51 Comments ||
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crosspatch I agree. How is it that this cargo that could be tampered with and possibly be sabotaged not just stolen be allowed to happen? Why weren't our troops transporting this cargo?
Or following it's path very closely.
Posted by: Jan ||
06/19/2008 13:01 Comments ||
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#7
It can carry a Bradley so it can certainly carry those engines. I still smell something fishy with that report.
As of mid-March 2002 American heavy construction equipment was employed at Bagram erecting steel frames for new shelters and building earth-filled security barriers. American C-17 transport aircraft were arriving every few hours, and as many as 50 helicopters, including CH-47 Chinooks, AH-64 Apaches, AH-1 Cobras, and UH-60 Black Hawks were visible on the taxiways.
So why would they transport those engines over land when they can fly them out from Kabul directly? There is more (or less) to the report than is meeting the eye.
#11
I don't buy that either. I would only send things by that route that I *wanted* to fall into Iranian hands. That's why we have C-5's. C-5's use the airport at Kandahar. A C-5 could fly all three of those helicopters in one flight.
There is something seriously fishy here on a lot of different levels.
#12
C-5's use both Bagram and Kandahar. No need to ship a helicopter over land. Any idea how rugged that terrain is? Can you imagine a truck with a helicopter trying to navigate roads that are little more than paved goat trails? I am sorry but I am just not buying it. It would be a major load to transport one on a truck over a US highway, let along the mountain passes of the Hindu Kush.
Three persons were killed and eight injured in a mortar attack and firing incident in village Shalozan in Kurram Agency on Wednesday.Political administration sources said that the armed supporters of Mengal tribes allegedly fired mortar shells and opened indiscriminate fire on the positions of rivals from the Bangesh tribe. The Bangesh tribesmen also retaliated and reportedly injured two men of the Mengal tribe. The incident left three persons dead and wounded eight others.The dead included Syed Younis Hussain, Hasmat Ali and Tajdar.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/19/2008 00:00 ||
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Six armed men attacked a police picket with rockets and light arms in the RD 238 area of the Jaffarabad district on Wednesday, officials said, adding that no casualties were reported. The officials said the boundary wall of the Sarwar Shaheed police picket was damaged when the armed men fired rockets at it. Police retaliated, but the attackers fled safely.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/19/2008 00:00 ||
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Several weeks ago, I posted this Cats Out of the Bag: Onwards to Maysan Looks like it has started.
Iraqi troops on Thursday arrested the top official in Amarah, a Muqtada al-Sadr loyalist, officials said, drawing swift condemnations from followers of the anti-U.S. cleric and raising tensions as a military operation against Shiite militias got under way.
Rafia Abdul-Jabbar, who also was acting deputy governor for Maysan province, was seized from his office Thursday morning along with a member of the provincial council, a local official said.
The arrest came as Iraqi troops fanned out and gunmen tossed weapons on the streets or in canals with the official launch of the military crackdown in Amarah, a stronghold of al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia and the purported center of weapons smuggling from neighboring Iran. The military action came a day after the expiration of a four-day deadline for militants in Amarah to surrender their arms or face arrest.
It's the fourth such U.S.-backed Iraqi military operation launched against Shiite and Sunni extremists in recent months as Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki seeks to assert government control over the country ahead of provincial elections to be held in the fall.
The Sadrists have accused the Shiite-led government of trying to undermine the movement ahead of the vote, which is expected to redistribute more power among their bloc and Sunni parties who boycotted the last provincial vote in January 2005.
The Iraqi Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Mohammed al-Askari told AP Television News that Abdul-Jabbar was among 17 wanted people detained Thursday morning.
Sadrist officials said the arrest violated the spirit of agreements made in talks with the government in the run-up to the operation. The Sadrists had promised not to resist the operation as long as Iraqi troops did not make arrests without warrants or commit other violations.
'We were surprised by the violations and the random raids in Amarah,' said Hazim al-Araji, a senior al-Sadr aide in the holy city of Najaf. 'We condemn the latest events that show a deliberate targeting of al-Sadr's movement.'
Al-Araji said he suspected some officers were linked to rival Shiite parties and were 'trying to create a crisis and a tension through these operations.'
'We were so surprised to hear of the arrest of the mayor. He was very cooperative and working to make the plan a success,' al-Araji said.
In announcing the start of the operation, the government said Col. Mahdi al-Assadi, the provincial police commander, has imposed an indefinite curfew on parts of the city but said government offices, schools and colleges won't be affected. Iraqi security forces already have found large weapons caches and munitions in the run-up to the offensive, it said.
About 30 gunmen handed in weapons, while others were randomly throwing them in the streets or in canals to avoid arrest, the provincial spokesman said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release the information. He added that large weapons caches had been found hidden outside the city.
In a bid to shore up support among the local populace, recruiting centers for the Iraqi police and the army were opened in the city center.
Iraqi army reinforcements began arriving last week in Amarah, 320 kilometers (200 miles) southeast of Baghdad, to prepare for the operation, but no fighting has been reported.
The Amarah operation comes as U.S. and Iraqi troops continue offensives against Shiite militias in the southern city of Basra and Baghdad's Sadr City district as well as against Sunni insurgents in the northern city of Mosul. Iraqi troops arrested 11 people on the wanted list who were believed be members of armed groups and seized an unspecified number of weapons during overnight raids in Basra, Iraqi military commander Maj. Gen. Mohammed Jawad Huwaidi told The Associated Press.
U.S. troops also captured six suspected insurgents, including a wanted man believed to have ties to local al-Qaida in Iraq leaders, the military said. Fifteen others were captured during operations targeting al-Qaida elsewhere in northern Iraq, according to the statement.
Posted by: Sherry ||
06/19/2008 12:59 ||
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Posted by: Steve White ||
06/19/2008 13:13 Comments ||
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#3
How comely!
Posted by: Fred ||
06/19/2008 13:22 Comments ||
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#4
Congratulations and welcome to the newest member of the Mod Squad and Bottle Washing Brigade: Sherry!
I've been on a sorta extended leave of absence because of my work. But I'm still checking in each day and trying to help out when I can, and I still have my blue stripes and whack-a-troll privileges.
Sherry, welcome and thanks. Your parking pass should arrive shortly.
#6
This article was written by Bushra Juhi. If you look at most of his writing, he tends to slant anti-American whenever possible.
I find it very interesting how he gets direct quotes from people in very widely separated parts of Iraq and most of the quotes come from Sadrists. How does he manage that? Does he have half of the Mookateers on speed dial?
U.S. forces on Wednesday blamed a rogue Shi'ite militia group seeking to stir up sectarian violence for a devastating truck bombing that killed 63 people in Baghdad. The U.S. military said intelligence information showed Tuesday's attack in a predominantly Shi'ite district, the deadliest in the Iraqi capital in more than three months, was carried out by a 'special groups cell'.
That is military jargon for rogue elements of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army. The U.S. military says the special groups receive weapons, training and funding from neighboring Iran, a charge Tehran denies.
Iraqi police said another 75 people were wounded in the bombing in a crowded market area of northwestern Baghdad. Four children and five women were among the dead. The blast in the al-Hurriya neighborhood set three buildings ablaze and destroyed a marketplace, police said.
The U.S. military said it believed the bombers used a truck packed with 200 to 300 lbs (90 to 135 kg) of explosives.
The attack, just weeks after the U.S. military announced violence in Iraq had dropped to a four-year low, shattered weeks of relative calm in the Iraqi capital. Trucks and diggers were busy on Wednesday removing rubble from the bomb site. Smoke hung in the air.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/19/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
The main source of Shia related terrorism in Iraq is Iran.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
06/19/2008 9:03 Comments ||
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(VOI)- At least eight civilians were wounded on Wednesday in a booby-trapped car blast in eastern Mosul, a security source said. 'A car crammed with explosives, parked on the main road in al-Karama neighborhood in eastern Mosul, went off, injuring eight civilians,' the source told Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq (VOI) on condition of anonymity. 'The wounded were rushed to al-Joumhouri hospital for treatment,' he explained.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/19/2008 00:00 ||
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(VOI)- Police forces on Wednesday arrested two gangs, four wanted men and defused a bomb during crackdown operations throughout Basra, said a police source. "Our forces managed to arrest four wanted men, believed of being involvement in armed attacks in the two regions of al-Zubeir, west of Basra, and al-Maaqel in northern Basra," the source, who asked to be unnamed, told Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq (VOI). "An explosive device was defused in Khamsmel region in al-Maaqel," he added.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced last April the commencement of a security operation codenamed Saulat al-Forsan (Knights' Assault) in Basra, Iraq's second largest province and an oil-hub, 590 km south of Baghdad, which he said targeted "outlaws."
Hundreds of supporters of Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr were killed or wounded in intense fighting.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/19/2008 00:00 ||
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(VOI)- A policeman was killed and two more were wounded on Wednesday in a roadside bomb explosion in southwestern Kirkuk, said a police source. 'A roadside bomb went off targeting a police vehicle patrol near a fuel station in al-Waseti neighborhood in southwestern Kirkuk, killing a policeman and injuring two others,' the source, who asked for anonymity, told Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq (VOI). 'The explosion caused also a material damage to one of the patrol's vehicles,' he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/19/2008 00:00 ||
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(VOI)- Security authorities released 25 detainees from Iraqi detention centers through the Diala police department after proving that they were not involved in any criminal acts, the chief of local police said on Wednesday morning. "The Diala police freed 25 detainees from the Bucca detention center in Basra and the Karkoush jail in Baladruz after they were proved not guilty of involvement in any crime," General Ghanem al-Qureshi told Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq - (VOI). "A total of 1726 detainees have been released since January 2008," the general explained.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/19/2008 00:00 ||
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Pic at the link. It looks huge.
A warm dawn haze lifted over the desert, but the moon was still out, and it dimly lit a group of soldiers in the distance - dots of green against the dark, barren landscape - charging silently towards the village. Within minutes the silence was shattered. Gunfire, smoke and the low boom of grenade explosions echoed through the early morning, as regular infantry outfits mixed with occasional long-haired reservists advanced on their targets, yelling out commands.
"Cover me, I'm moving ahead!" yelled one private, lifting himself up from the ground and bee-lining to a small house on the village outskirts. His comrades followed, one after the other, as rays of sunlight and the neon green light of mosque minarets began to better illuminate the scene
The soldiers moved boldly, pushing forward in clear, decisive steps. Their mission: Enter the large Arab village in pursuit of a terrorist cell and engage in intensive house-to-house combat. Each section of the built-up area would need to be cleared.
We could have been in Gaza, the West Bank or Lebanon. But the "fighting" that took place early Thursday morning was actually a training exercise outside Beersheba, and the guns were firing blanks.
Dozens of infantry companies, mainly from the Givati Brigade, stormed the large "village" set up in the desert, at the start of another day's instruction at the IDF's Ground Troop Training Center. Built a year and a half ago, the GTTC is a mock Arab village complete with outlying rural areas, a downtown district and a winding maze of streets and alleyways, pregnant with the constant risk of an unexpected close encounter with the enemy.
During Thursday's drill, that enemy was a company of female soldiers, dressed in khaki pants and camouflage jackets - a nod to the garb of choice among Hamas and Hizbullah gunmen. Equipped with machine guns, Humvees mounted with rocket-launchers and a steady hold on key positions in the village, the "enemy" soldiers' resemblance to the IDF's most potent recent threats extended far beyond clothing.
Explosions continued rocking the town as the sun began to show itself completely, and soldiers, some of whom lay "wounded" or hunkered-down under enemy fire, were forced to deal with a range of volatile factors in the battlefield. As the drill progressed, dozens of officers monitored their troops, looking for flaws and weaknesses that on a real battlefield, in a real conflict, would mean real casualties. "What are you doing?" barked one company commander as his troops barreled their way into the courtyard of a home. "Do you want to die? You have to move in better than that if you want to do it right." Troops were seen evacuating their wounded comrades to safety as others focused heavy gunfire at buildings where "terrorists" had been trapped and were firing in volleys at approaching soldiers.
Designed to train combat units for urban warfare, the GTTC village aims to replicate situations that soldiers may encounter in an urban combat situation. While Thursday's drill highlighted basic familiarity with the buildings and other logistical factors in such an environment, other drills feature civilians, media personnel and a central market area filled with people and goods. Additionally, the GTTC has made the implementation of lessons learned from the Second Lebanon War a top priority. Concepts such as the maneuverability of infantry forces and greater collaboration with the Air Force are heavily stressed, with an emphasis on creating a light, fast-moving fighting force that suffers minimal casualties - a tacit acknowledgement of key mistakes made in the summer of 2006.
Soldiers seemed to be adjusting well on Thursday morning, and commanders, who refused to be interviewed, seemed pleased with their troops' performance and hard work.
As the drill ended, smoked billowed over the village and the sun was rising red behind a hulking minaret. From that point, commanders were taken to a debriefing room outfitted with the latest digital equipment, to review snapshots, analyze video clips and make recommendations for improvements. Soldiers were seen taking a break from combat, smoking cigarettes and sitting down in the sand as they relieved themselves of vests and stretchers. The village stood empty in the morning light. And preparations for the next drill were likely already under way.
#1
much like the Urban-warfare training at Pendleton and the former living quarters at George AFB in Victorville. Nothing helps like the real geography/layouts
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/19/2008 20:11 Comments ||
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#2
ION INTERFAX > RUSSIAN GENERAL PARTs I,II: THE US NURTURED [World-dangerous/risque']PLANS TO REQUIP STRATEGIC MISSLES WITH CONVENTIONAL WARHEADS. Russia > from the viewpoint of the regular Mil Servicemember, MISSLE TRAJECTORY + END-TARGET IS MORE IMPORTANT TO HIM THAN TYPE OF WARHEAD, vv ABILITY + RATIONALE FOR MIL RESPONSE.
lest we fergit, TOPIX [old] > IRAN WILL DEVELOP AIR-LAUNCHED MUNITIONS.
WASHINGTON: Israel carried out a major military exercise earlier this month that American officials say appeared to be a rehearsal for a potential bombing attack on Iran's nuclear facilities.
Several American officials said the Israeli exercise appeared to be an effort to develop the military's capacity to carry out long-range strikes and to demonstrate the seriousness with which Israel views Iran's nuclear program.
More than 100 Israeli F-16 and F-15 fighters participated in the maneuvers, which were carried out over the eastern Mediterranean and over Greece during the first week of June, American officials said.
The exercise also included Israeli helicopters that could be used to rescue downed pilots. The helicopters and refueling tankers flew more than 900 miles, which is about the same distance between Israel and Iran's uranium enrichment plant at Natanz, American officials said.
Israeli officials declined to discuss the details of the exercise. A spokesman for the Israeli military would say only that the country's air force "regularly trains for various missions in order to confront and meet the challenges posed by the threats facing Israel." more @ Linky!
(Xinhua) -- Palestinian militants fired rockets into Israel early Wednesday, a day before an Egyptian-brokered shaky ceasefire takes effect between Hamas and Israel in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
The Islamic Jihad movement claimed responsibility for the attack which involved the firing of nine rockets into Sderot city in southern Israel. "The operation comes in retaliation for the Israeli aggressions against our people and to strengthen the choice of resistance," the group said in a statement sent to the media.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/19/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
And will continue to fire rockets all through the "fragile lull".
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/19/2008 7:59 Comments ||
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#4
Well, as I said yesterday, Hamas and Israel signed the agreement, not Islamic Jihad. So IJ is not bound by the ceasefire. And Hamas isn't strong enough to keep IJ from firing.
Posted by: Rambler in California ||
06/19/2008 11:53 Comments ||
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#5
6:01 thursday waz my official prediction:
Navy fires shells into Gaza waters
...The navy fired four shells into the waters off Gaza City minutes after the Israel-Hamas truce began, as Defense Minister Ehud Barak was quoted in French newspaper Le Monde as saying he did not know how long the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas would last.
(Xinhua) -- Jordan's State Security Court has decided to uphold the death sentence it delivered over a year ago against an alleged top aide to late al-Qaida leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a court source said Wednesday.
The 25-year-old Iraqi suspect, Ziad Khalaf Raja al-Karbouly, was convicted guilty for plotting attacks on Jordanians, including killing a truck driver on the highway between Iraq and Jordan, said the source. Wednesday's guilty verdict can be appealed, said the court.
The court had sentenced al-Karbouly to death in March 2007 but the verdict was overturned by an appeal court since judges initially rejected his application for mental checks. State doctors later conducted psychiatric tests to al-Karbouly and concluded that he was mentally sound, paving the way for his retrial.
Al-Karbouly was arrested by Jordanian intelligence agents in May 2006. He claimed that he was a member of the terrorist group al-Qaida in Iraq, which was later denied by the group in a statement. He also admitted that he had abducted two Moroccans with Moroccan embassy in Baghdad and killed a Jordanian trucker but later denied it in the first trial.
This article starring:
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
al-Qaeda in Iraq
Ziad Khalaf Raja al-Karbouly
al-Qaeda in Iraq
Posted by: Fred ||
06/19/2008 00:00 ||
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[1 views]
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#1
Translation: there will be a prison breakout within a year.
#2
Once someone's been sentenced, they're no longer a "suspect", Xinhua! They are, in linguistic point of fact, a "convict". Given that they've been convicted of a crime.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
06/19/2008 8:14 Comments ||
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#3
It seems he has killed a Mulsim so perhaps the sentence will be carried: I don't remember a single case where the murderer of mere untermenschen infidels has not been pardoned (eg in Ramadan's amenesties).
A Muslim man and his 3-year-old son and two Buddhist policemen were killed in two separate bomb and gun attacks in Thailand's rebellious Muslim south, police said on Thursday. The man, believed to be an army informant, was attacked by four men with M-16 rifles while taking his family to work in a rubber plantation in Yala, one of the four southernmost provinces where 3,000 people have been killed since 2004, police said. His wife, who was riding pillion on the same motorcycle, survived, they said.
In the nearby province of Pattani, a police colonel and his driver were killed and five other policemen were wounded on Wednesday by a roadside bomb that hit their pickup truck as they drove to inspect an outpost attacked by terrorists insurgents, police said. Terrorists Insurgents opened fire on the stricken vehicle as security forces tried to drag out their colleagues' charred bodies, police said.
Levels of violence in the predominantly Muslim region appear to have fallen since more troops were deployed after a new army chief took office in October. Deep South Watch, a think-tank at a Pattani university that collates daily media reports of attacks, said deaths related to the insurgency had fallen to 19 in May from 32 in April -- and 65 in November 2007.
#1
Well, the unrest in the South of Thailand is likely to pick up - because the Thai government is going to be preoccupied with trying to survive over the next week.
As a resident of Bangkok, it appears to me likely that major civil unrest is about to break out here in the government center. The political opposition is planning to launch a concerted effort tomorrow - 20 June - to topple the current government, which is led by the People Power Party.
"If they try to break through using flag poles, baseball bats or other objects they will be regarded as using weapons... Police will take action according to international crowd control principles." - Pol Maj-Gen Surapol Thuanthong, deputy police spokesman
Police said on Thursday they will not allow protesters from the People's Alliance for Democracy move to Government House or parliament on Friday. The PAD said it would push forward with its plans to move its rally from the Makkhawan Rangsan Bridge early on Friday afternoon, and defied the police to arrest its leaders.
Core PAD organiser Maj-Gen Chamlong said the group had every right to move to Government House, but promised no one would go inside - "even if gates may be open for us. Our aim is not to lay siege to Government House but to show our force," At Government House, a siege mentality set it. Non-essential workers were told to take Friday off, and other workers were warned not to park their cars in the compound. All schools in the area of Government House were ordered shut for Friday.
Investors were spooked. The Stock Exchange index fell more than 20 points in morning trade, and the baht dropped by 0.5 per cent, more than any regional currency. It was trading at noon at 33.41 per dollar and still falling, the lowest point of the year.
Pol Maj-Gen Surapol said police would definitely not allow PAD protesters to move to Government House, and said officers would be prepared to use force to stop them. He did not give details but referred to "international crowd control principles," presumably including riot police and tear gas. He said police try to negotiate with the PAD leaders before any show of force. Starting this evening, police will set up barricades on major roads in the area around the current PAD protest: Phitsanulok, Ratchasima, Rama V, Sri Ayutthaya and Ratchadamnern. Every move by the PAD will be photographed and videotaped, Pol Maj-Gen Surapol said.
Maj-Gen Chamlong, who has been the leading figure in the current protest, stopped short of saying what the PAD will do, but insisted he would not be pushed backwards. "We have appointed a second batch of leaders to continue with the rally in case we are arrested," he said.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej said he believed police are still able to contain the PAD rally and that it is not yet necessary to ask for help from the military. The situation is not yet so serious that the Internal Security Operations Command must step in, said Mr Samak, who is director of the Isoc. He also said that police can control the situation, and that there is no need for the military to step in.
But the premier was clearly angry at the PAD insistence on taking to the streets again, in a city where traffic already is being held up on street after street by protests. "Why are they doing this? Don't they realise how much the country is damaged by the rallies?" he asked reporters rhetorically on Thursday. "I don't understand why the PAD has announced that they will take over Government House. There is no reason. Was the election illegal? There were voters who cast their votes, the government was installed and took the royal oath. Is the government illegal? We are not street gangsters."
Takes a fair bit of moral and physical courage to be a US diplomat in Lebanon. Thank goodness Ms. Sison wasn't injured.
WASHINGTON (AFP) - A Lebanese guard working for the US embassy in Beirut was slightly hurt when Hezbollah supporters stoned a US motorcade driving through south Lebanon on Wednesday, a US official said.
"There were no serious injuries" in the incident in the village of Nabatiyeh, State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey told reporters in Washington. "I do understand that one of our security guards -- one of the local Lebanese security guards -- did get hit in the leg by one of the stones that was thrown," Casey said. But he understood the guard "did not require any kind of medical treatment or certainly hospitalization."
Casey said the incident happened when one of the cars in the motorcade broke down and the charge d'affaires, Michele Sison, and the others in the group decided to stop in the village for lunch while the car was being repaired. Sison was invited to lunch by a village family, he added.
Around a dozen individuals -- mainly young men -- "started throwing some stones at the vehicles" after the car was repaired and the motorcade prepared to depart, Casey said. "Charge Sison was able to carry out the rest of her visit and ultimately returned back to the embassy in Beirut," he said.
She visited US-sponsored initiatives and programs like a school for girls, a social center, and US Agency for International Development projects, he said.
A Lebanese security official told AFP in Lebanon that the convoy was greeted with stones and chants of "Death to America" by Hezbollah supporters as Sison met with Abdullah Bitar, a Shiite official who is opposed to Hezbollah. The official said some 200 people, including women and children, surrounded Bitar's house and shouted "Death to America, Death to Israel, we don't want you in south Lebanon," as extra Lebanese police converged on the site. The official said Sison's car was hit by several stones as she was being evacuated from the area, but she emerged unharmed.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/19/2008 00:00 ||
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[5 views]
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Security officials in Lebanon say supporters of the militant group Hezbollah have attacked a U.S. envoy's motorcade with stones to protest her visit to southern Lebanon.
U.S. State Department spokesman Tom Casey says a Lebanese security guard was slightly wounded in the attack against U.S. envoy Michele Sison Wednesday in Nabatiyeh. Officials and witnesses say at least 100 Hezbollah supporters also surrounded the house of local official Abdullah Bitar as he met with Sison, throwing stones and shouting anti-U.S. slogans.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/19/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
I hope, in the next Hezbullawww/Israel war, the US parks a couple of carriers just outside missile range, and helps Israel level everything between Beirut and the Litani, plus the Bekaa Valley. I'm not opposed to using nukes, either.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
06/19/2008 13:25 Comments ||
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#2
I wonder, how far up (or down) on the diplomatic shit list one has to be to get a middle east assignment?
Posted by: Scott R ||
06/19/2008 16:07 Comments ||
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#3
With Secretary of State Rice in charge, I believe she has resorted to "accept the assignment when it's your turn or leave the department," Scott. There was a big meeting a few months back, because about half the people were refusing any challenging assignments at all.
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.
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Afghan and NATO-led forces killed or wounded hundreds of Taliban on Thursday in an offensive to clear the militants from the outskirts of Kandahar city, the provincial governor said.
(SomaliNet) Witnesses said At least four people were killed in Somalia's violent capital Mogadishu on Tuesday after insurgents ambushed Somali and Ethiopian troops. According to the witnesses, the fighting erupted in northern Mogadishu's Huriwa district, which has been vacant for months as a bloody insurgency continues into its 17th consecutive month. 
Fighting between Islamist-led insurgents and allied Somali-Ethiopian troops has killed at least 17 people, residents said on Wednesday, underlining the lack of impact of a U.N.-brokered peace agreement.
U.S. forces on Wednesday blamed a rogue Shi'ite militia group seeking to stir up sectarian violence for a devastating truck bombing that killed 63 people in Baghdad. The U.S. military said intelligence information showed Tuesday's attack in a predominantly Shi'ite district, the deadliest in the Iraqi capital in more than three months, was carried out by a 'special groups cell'.
(Xinhua) -- Jordan's State Security Court has decided to uphold the death sentence it delivered over a year ago against an alleged top aide to late al-Qaida leader 
