#7
She was a great, sexy comic actress. Worked on all the Hope and Crosby movies. She was type-cast as a sexy actress. Which means: she got a lot of work.
Somali troops have shot dead seven civilians in southern Mogadishu after accusing them of being Islamic insurgents.
A Somali aid worker affiliated to the UN World Food Programme was also shot dead in a separate incident, according to witnesses.
Witness Liban Ahmed said government soldiers killed at least seven civilians and wounded four more during an operation in Daynile neighbourhood in the capital but government commander Dahir Ali Farey insisted the dead were Islamist fighters.
Witness Abdirahman Munim said three gunmen shot dead the deputy chairman of a local aid organisation at a food distribution point eight miles outside the capital in a separate incident.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/12/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Islamic Courts
BEIJING: Chinese police has shot down five suspected criminals in the troubled Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region sending out clear signals that the government would allow no disturbances ahead of the Olympic Games.
Uighur separatists had been earlier blamed by the Chinese government of plotting to blow up Olympic facilities.
But the government did not clarify if the Uighurs shot dead belonged to a specific separatist group or were merely oridinary criminals with no political intensions.
Two other persons sustained bullet injuries after the police opened fire on a group of people trying to resist arrest after they had stabbed a police officer in this Muslim dominated area. Eight others have been arrested. Police said that the 15-member gang had burst into a beauty saloon and injured its owner.
A Turkish news agency reported Friday that army troops clashed with Kurdish rebels in the southeast and that 10 of the rebels were killed.
Dogan news agency said the clashes occurred on Mount Kato, in the predominantly Kurdish province of Sirnak, which borders Iraq. The report, which could not immediately be confirmed, also said a village guard -- armed and paid by the government to help troops fight the rebels -- was killed in the violence.
The rebels of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, have been fighting for self-rule in southeast Turkey since 1984. The fighting has killed tens of thousands of people.
The rebels abducted three German climbers on Mount Ararat in eastern Turkey on Tuesday and said they would not release them until Berlin put an end to a crackdown on the guerrilla group in Germany. The German government called for the immediate and unconditional release of the kidnapped Germans.
Turkey, the U.S. and the European Union consider the PKK a terrorist organization.
Earlier in the year, Turkish war planes carried out several strikes on suspected rebel targets across the border in northern Iraq, where thousands of rebels have their main bases. In February ground troops also crossed the border for an eight-day long incursion to hunt down rebels.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/12/2008 00:00 ||
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(AKI) A Macedonian court sentenced on Friday seventeen ethnic Albanians for terrorism, police spokesman Ivo Kotevski told media, but but did not give any names. Kotevski said the group arrested last November was charged with "terrorism, attacks on police, hostile activities and illegal possession of arms."
Four members of the group, one from Albania and three from neighboring Kosovo, were sentenced in absentia to 15 years in jail, one man got 12 years and others, who were from Macedonia, got ten years each, Kotevski said.
Ethnic Albanians make about 25 per cent of Macedonia's two million population. They rebelled in 2001 demanding greater rights and regional autonomy. The stand-off was solved with the help of international community, but the situation has remained tense in northwestern Albanian populated areas. "At the beginning we believed it was an extremist criminal group, but after discovering a significant quantity of weapons, the prosecutors pressed charges for terrorism," Kotevski said.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/12/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Global Jihad
#1
Albania: the gift that keeps on giving.
Posted by: Abu Uluque6305 ||
07/12/2008 11:42 Comments ||
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(Xinhua) -- Istanbul Governor Muammer Guler said on Friday that Wednesday's attack on the U.S. Consulate General in the Turkish city of Istanbul was "undoubtedly a suicide attack."
Guler said that "the fourth person, who brought the terrorists to the U.S. Consulate General, has been found. This person's interrogation continued till morning hours." "Based on this interrogation, we may detain other people," Guler was quoted as saying by the semi-official Anatolia news agency.
Four terrorists attacked the U.S. Consulate General in Istanbul with pistols and shotguns on Wednesday.
A white car carrying the four people came to the scene of attack and three of the assailants got out of the car and fired at police officer standing sentry in front of the U.S. Consulate General.
An armed clash erupted as the police officer together with two others patrolling in the neighborhood responded to the fire. Three assailants who got out of the car were killed. One policeman died in the scene while two others were undergoing treatment due to injuries in hospital.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/12/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Turkey
#1
Given the Turkish military's response to these kinds of things, it most undoubtedly is a suicide attack. The suicide will just be somewhat delayed.
PESHAWAR, Pakistan, July 11 (AP) Militants will start killing a group of hostages if several militant prisoners are not released by Saturday afternoon, Pakistani Taliban spokesman Maulvi Umar Friday said. Umar claimed the Taliban kidnapped 29 people, most of them security forces. However, Hangu district official Haji Khan Afzal said 16 or 17 people were being held. The hostages were taken during a militant siege of a police station Wednesday. A man named Rafiuddin suspected of being a deputy to top Pakistani Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud is believed to be among those prisoners. Umar said the government must release the prisoners by Saturday afternoon or the hostages will be killed.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/12/2008 12:39 ||
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Local Taliban on Friday destroyed three police pickets in Dandopull and Michni road areas in the Shabqadar tehsil of Charsadda district, Dawn News reported on Friday. Tehreek-e-Taliban deputy chief in Mohmand agency Qari Shakeel told the channel that Taliban would not accept the presence of police or security forces in Michni and Shabqadar areas as they are disputed areas. He said these areas were part of the Mohmand Agency and Taliban would neither accept their annexure with the settled districts of Charsadda and Peshawar nor any police or security forces' movement there. According to the channel, about 45 police and FC personnel were present at the pickets but they did not offer any resistance. Taliban also laid temporary siege to Sadoklai Police Station in Shabqadar area for half an hour but left the area after negotiations with local elders, it said.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/12/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Taliban
A trustee of the Hussainian Iranian Imambargah in Kharadar was shot dead on Thursday night just two days after the killing of an eyewitness to the Imambargah Ali Murtaza bomb blast.
Twenty-five year old Agha Mansoor Ahmed was attacked while he was sitting with some friends at his restaurant on MA Jinnah Road in Saddar late on Thursday night.
"According to the initial investigation, this is a case of a sectarian killing," said Saddar Town Superintendent of Police Dr Ameer Sheikh.
Quoting the deceased's friends, the deputy superintendent of police (DSP) said that an armed man entered the restaurant and opened fire at Ahmed before fleeing. The DSP said that while nobody knew if there were more assailants, he was sure that the assailant had not entered the restaurant with the intention of robbery, as no nothing was stolen.
Ahmed's funeral prayers were offered at the imambargah after Friday prayers and he was laid to rest at Lyari graveyard.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/12/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Takfir wal-Hijra
Eight Pakistani troops and five Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers have been wounded in a cross fire on the Pak-Afghan border late on Thursday, sources in local security agencies said.
The incident took place at Angoor Adda, a village in Wana, headquarters of South Waziristan Agency. The firing began after Taliban attacked a foreign troop base in Machi-dad on the Afghan side of the border, a Pakistani intelligence official said. "The clash between militants and the ANA occurred just across the Afghan border, but some shells fired by the ANA hit the Pakistani post, which injured the soldiers," the sources said. Pakistani troops retaliated injuring at least five Afghan soldiers, the sources added.
Strong protest: Army's top spokesman has said mortar shells fired from Afghanistan wounded six Pakistani security forces along the border, and Pakistan has lodged a "strong protest" with NATO, AP reported. "This was mortar fire from the Afghan side," Abbas said. "Whether it was foreign forces or Afghan forces it's yet to be determined."
Six mortars were fired which fell close to a military post in the town of Angoor Adda in the South Waziristan tribal region, Maj Gen Athar Abbas said. Pakistani forces immediately returned fire, and "casualties were reported on the other side," he said. Asked if militants across the border could have been behind the firing, Abbas said he did not want to speculate. According to AFP, the intelligence official said, "About 60 rounds fell in Angoor Adda." "Some of them hit our post and wounded seven soldiers," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/12/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
your soldiers didn't do squat to stop the Taliban, did they? F*ck off then
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/12/2008 0:13 Comments ||
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#2
but some shells fired by the ANA hit the Pakistani post
Ooopsie!
Posted by: Abu Uluque6305 ||
07/12/2008 11:46 Comments ||
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#3
Looks like the ANA training is paying off.
Posted by: ed ||
07/12/2008 12:05 Comments ||
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#4
From what I have read, this event seems to have been Talibunnies firing simultaneously on both the Paks and the ANA in order to try to incite an 'event'. But our eyes in the sky were watching, and blowed up the mortar team.
#6
not so clever:
"Insurgents simultaneously fired at targets in Afghanistan and Pakistan on the evening of July 10," ISAF reported in a press release. Afghan police in Paktika province and a Pakistani military unit along the border in South Waziristan reported taking mortar fire at the same time, the US military stated. Eight Pakistani soldiers and four Afghan police were reported wounded in the initial attack.
The US military determined the origin of mortar fire to have started at two points inside Afghanistan and returned fire with artillery and a laser-guided GBU-13 bomb dropped from an F-15. The US fires were "verified to have hit the origins of insurgent fire."
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/12/2008 20:35 Comments ||
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Elements of the Lal Masjid on Friday protested after Friday prayers against the editorial position of national Daily Aaj Kal which routinely writes against religious extremism and fanaticism in the country. Raising clenched fists in front of TV cameras, the clerics condemned the editorial position of the paper, and pointed to the publication of a cartoon in Daily Aaj Kal which showed the leader of the women students of Lal Masjid, Umme Hassaan, in a burqa, "educating" female students to wage jihad and martyrdom, a position she has reiterated many times in public.
The clerics chanted slogans and warned the editor-in-chief and publisher not to "test their patience". Aamir Siddique, Naib Khateeb of Lal Masjid, addressed the protest demonstration after Friday prayers and said that their "movement" cannot be stopped by any such "propaganda". He said those responsible for the bloodshed in Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa would have to pay the price. "This is an attack on the freedom of the press," said the editor of the paper, who called upon all media bodies to rise to the occasion and be counted.
The management of the paper immediately informed the administration in Islamabad, provoking a strong reaction against the extremists from the government.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/12/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Taliban
#1
Yaddah, yaddah, yaddah. Nothing will happen until the Pak government breaks some kneecaps. When you're talking imams, mullahs, and other clerics, the best place to break THEIR kneecaps is just under their chin. Of course, something like that takes courage, which is in very short supply in Pakistan.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/12/2008 13:37 Comments ||
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Militants will start killing a group of hostages if the government does not release several insurgent prisoners within a day, a Pakistani Taliban spokesman threatened Friday. A suspected militant leader is among those the Taliban want freed.
Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said his country does not negotiate with terrorists and will not capitulate to threats. "We will take action when it's required," he said after a speech at a think tank in Washington.
The action they'll take will look remarkably like capitualion, but don't go calling it that. Call it a spade or something.
Maulvi Umar, the Taliban spokesman, claimed the Taliban had kidnapped 29 people, most of them security forces. However, Hangu district official Haji Khan Afzal said only 16 or 17 people were being held.
Oh, well. That's different then.
Both sides have been negotiating over the captives, who Afzal said were taken in the wake of a militant siege of a local police station earlier this week in the country's volatile northwest. Officials said more than 100 militants surrounded the Doaba station to demand their associates be freed, and the siege ended after army troops showed up. But the militants have not dropped their demands. Umar insisted the government release seven militant prisoners, including a suspected top insurgent known as Rafiuddin, by 2 p.m. Saturday or the hostages would be slain. "It's our final warning," Umar said.
#2
'cause the Taliban serve the strategic interests of the Pakistani military.
Posted by: john frum ||
07/12/2008 7:25 Comments ||
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#3
#2: 'cause the Taliban serve the strategic interests of the Pakistani military. Posted by: john frum|| 2008-07-12 07:25
Just one more reason to remove from the world maps the "nation" known as "pakistan". There has not been a year since Pakistan was created in 1947 where there wasn't fighting of some kind going on there. Pakistan is a boil on the body politic of the world, and needs to be surgically lanced.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/12/2008 13:41 Comments ||
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(VOI) - Iraqi army troops on Thursday arrested 20 wanted individuals during raid operations conducted in Babel, a military source said. "The Iraqi army 31st Brigade conducted a round-up operation in Yusufiya district Babel, capturing 20 individuals who were on a wanted list," a military source, who requested anonymity told Aswat al Iraq - Voices of Iraq - (VOI). "Forces seized weapons, ammunition stockpiles, and roadside bombs stashed in a barrel," the source noted. "The operation was based on intelligence tips-off," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/12/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Interogation has been hampered due to language barriers...?
(VOI) -- Police forces on Thursday arrested eight wanted people and seized quantities of ammunition during raid operations conducted in Basra, a police source said. "Police forces conducted raid operations in different places of Basra,capturing eight people in a wanted list," a Basra police source told Aswat al-Iraq -- Voices of Iraq -- (VOI) on condition of anonymity. The source noted "a team from Criminal Investigation police defused three roadside bombs". "Forces also seized "Six mortar shells, one Katyusha rocket, and eight different calibre cannon shells along with three RPG7 missiles," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/12/2008 00:00 ||
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(VOI) -- Coalition forces detained 30 suspected "terrorists" during three days of operations targeting al-Qaeda leaders, subordinates and facilitators in central and northern Iraq, according to a statement by the U.S. army.
"Coalition forces captured the alleged leader of an al-Qaeda in Iraq bombing network in the Tigris River Valley on Thursday and detained nine additional suspected terrorists. The alleged leader had moved into his position after his predecessor was killed in an operation June 4. During two operations near Tikrit, about 160 kilometers north of Baghdad, Coalition forces also discovered a machine gun, body armor and bomb-making materials," read the statement received by Aswat al-Iraq -- Voices of Iraq -- (VOI).
"Thursday near Tikrit, Coalition forces captured a wanted man believed to help foreign terrorists get into Iraq to conduct attacks for AQI. The man is suspected of forging documents for foreign terrorists and coordinating suicide operations targeting both security forces and civilians. One additional suspect was detained in the operation."
"Farther north, near Baoji, Coalition forces detained four suspected terrorists Thursday while targeting a man believed to provide shelter to foreign terrorists who come into Iraq to conduct attacks. In a nearby operation Wednesday, Coalition forces used information from an operation June 30 to capture an alleged close associate of a bombing cell leader and four additional suspects."
"Thursday in Fallujah, about 55 kilometers west of Baghdad, Coalition forces captured an alleged cell leader believed to be involved with AQI in the Southern Belts around the city. The man is suspected of manufacturing and distributing car bombs for terrorist attacks."
"Closer to the Baghdad, Coalition forces in Abu Grab detained four suspected terrorists Wednesday while targeting a car-bombing cell."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/12/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Iraq
#1
The alleged leader had moved into his position after his predecessor was killed in an operation June 4.
We're well inside their training cycle, now. There probably isn't even anyone left who can show the next leader where the key to the executive bathroom is hidden... or even which door leads to said bathroom.
(VOI) -- A security force raided a mosque belonging to the Sadrists, or Iraqis loyal to Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr, and arrested its imam (preacher) along with 25 worshippers in Diwaniya on Friday, Sadr's office director in the province said.
"A force from the Diwaniya Emergency raided Imam Ali mosque in northwestern Diwaniya and arrested the mosque preacher Sheikh Hussein al-Karbalaie and 25 worshippers," Sayyed Ali al-Gharabi told Aswat al-Iraq -- Voices of Iraq -- (VOI). Gharabi said the raiding force assaulted the imam and the worshippers by beating and verbal abuse before arresting them without any apparent reason," he said. Police sources could not be reached immediately for clarifications on the incident. However, an official source in the Diwaniya provincial building told VOI by phone that the reason for the arrest was "excesses and insults against the government during religious sermons and occasions in Imam Ali mosque". "According to the Iraqi law, the security forces are authorized to interfere against whoever needlessly insults the government and tarnish its image," the source, who did not want his name mentioned, said, not giving details.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/12/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Mahdi Army
(VOI) -- A total of 23 persons were arrested during operations launched by the Iraqi forces in separate areas in southern Baghdad, the official spokesman for the Baghdad's operations command said on Friday. "Forces from the 17th division of the Iraqi army arrested six wanted men and 17 suspected gunmen during security operations in al-Yousifiya, al-Mahmoudiya and al-Rashied areas in southern Baghdad," General Qassem Atta told Aswat al-Iraq -- Voices of Iraq (VOI). "Two weapons caches were found and one bomb was defused during the operation," he noted, without giving further details.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/12/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency
#1
Lotsa bad men being arrested all over by Iraqi forces. Bad news for Barry. Maybe he should have the MSM find out if the Iraqis are using panties on the detainees. That would be a good story.
(VOI) -- Six civilians were wounded on Friday in a bomb blast in eastern Mosul, said a police source. "An improvised explosive device went off targeting a police vehicle patrol in al-Jamassa region in eastern Mosul, injuring six civilians," the source told Aswat al-Iraq -- Voices of Iraq (VOI) on condition of anonymity "The bomb was placed under a vegetable cart," the source, added, noting that the explosion left no casualties among the policemen. "The wounded were rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment," he also said, adding none more details.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/12/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Iraq
(VOI) -- Iraqi security forces arrested two wanted men, defused a bomb and seized explosives in west of Mosul, the spokesman for the Ninewa operations command said on Friday. "A force from the 2nd division of the Iraqi army in Mosul managed to arrest two wanted men during a security raid in Mafraq al-Qayara region and al-Shefaa neighborhood in west of Mosul," Brig. Khaled Abdul Sattar told Aswat al-Iraq -- Voices of Iraq (VOI). "Policemen seized two Austrian--made bombs in al-Boursa region in west of Mosul," Abdul Sattar added. "Another police force defused a bomb in al-Wehda neighborhood without casualties," he also said. Mosul, the capital city of Ninewa, lies 405 km north of Baghdad.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/12/2008 00:00 ||
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(VOI) -- Unidentified gunmen on Friday shot and killed a policeman in northern Mosul, said a police source. "Unknown gunmen killed a cop working in the Ninewa province's building in al-Qahera neighborhood in northern Mosul," the source, who preferred to remain anonymous, told Aswat al-Iraq -- Voices of Iraq (VOI). "The gunmen shot him in the head while driving his car," he explained.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/12/2008 00:00 ||
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(VOI) -- Police forces defused two bombs in south and central Missan, a security source said on Friday. "Police forces defused a bomb planted in a residential neighborhood in al-Majar al-Kabier district in south of Amara," the source told Aswat al-Iraq -- Voices of Iraq (VOI) on condition of anonymity. "Joint security forces defused another bomb planted on the main road linking al-Thawra neighborhood and al-Mualameen region in central Amara during a security operation," the source added. Iraqi security forces have been launching a large-scale military campaign codenamed Bashaer al-Salam (Promise of Peace) since June 19. The operation was aimed to track down gunmen and to confiscate unlicensed weapons in Missan province.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/12/2008 00:00 ||
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(VOI) -- Military reinforcements arrived on Friday morning in Diala province from Baghdad to participate in the operations recently announced by the Iraqi Premier Nouri al-Maliki to track down gunmen, said a security source. "Scores of military vehicles carrying Iraqi troops with armored vehicles, arrived today in al-Moradiya area in Baaquba on the road linking Diala to Baghdad," the source told Aswat al-Iraq -- Voices of Iraq -- (VOI) on condition of anonymity. "The reinforcements came to participate in the imminent military operations in Diala," he said. He did not mention further details.
In June 2008, the Iraqi premier Nouri al-Maliki announced "the next stage will be in Diala," referring to a military operation similar to Saulat al-Forsan (Knights Assault) in Basra and Bashaer al-Salam (Promise of Peace) in Missan.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/12/2008 00:00 ||
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US forces detained nine suspected members of the al-Qaeda in Iraq group in separate raids, an Iraqi was reported killed and eight civilians were reported injured in Iraq Friday.
The nine suspects were captured in raids in Baghdad and the northern cities of Bayji and Mosul, a US military statement said. A suspected leader of a bombing cell within the al-Qaeda in Iraq group was among the detainees.
Six civilians were wounded when a bomb that targeted a police patrol exploded in the northern province of Nineveh, a source in Nineveh police said. The source told Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency that an explosive device was placed under a vegetable cart in east of Nineveh's capital, Mosul. He added that no policemen were injured.
In the southern city of Nasiriyah, a joint US-Iraqi air operation targeting the house of a suspected member of a 'special group' trained in Iran was carried out, US military spokesman Abdel-Latif Rayan told VOI.
The joint forces shot dead a man in self-defence when he pointed a weapon at them. Two men were injured in the incident, the spokesman said.
The US military uses the term 'special groups' to refer to members of Shiite armed groups believed to be trained and armed by Iran.
Military reinforcements arrived Friday morning in Diyala province from Baghdad to participate in an operation recently announced by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to track down gunmen, said a security source. The source did not mention when the military operation was to take place.
Last month, al-Maliki announced that 'the next stage will be in Diyala,' referring to military operations that took place in several provinces over the last few months.
Meanwhile, the US Department of Defense announced the deaths of two soldiers who were previously listed as 'missing-captured', raising the US fatalities in Iraq since the US-led invasion in 2003 to 4,118. Three soldiers have been killed so far in Iraq in July. 'The soldiers were part of a patrol that was ambushed south of Baghdad in May 2007,' VOI quoted the Pentagon statement as saying.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/12/2008 00:00 ||
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AP: CAMP LIBERTY, Iraq - U.S. forces may be close to unlocking the mystery of who is behind a deadly innovation in Iraqi insurgents' weapons, a "lob bomb" now being used in Baghdad to target U.S. and Iraqi combat outposts, a senior American general said Friday in an Associated Press interview.
Maj. Gen. Jeffery Hammond, commander of U.S. forces in Baghdad, called the weapon "the greatest threat right now that we face," and he likened the shadowy group behind it to the American military's elite Delta Force. Quagmire!
The weapon is particularly worrying because it is designed to cause catastrophic damage and cannot be stopped once it has been launched, Hammond, commander of the 4th Infantry Division, said in an interview in his office at this U.S. military headquarters compound just west of the capital.
U.S. forces detained a man on Thursday who Hammond said could provide valuable insights into the group behind the bombmaking. "We think we have defined the network," he said. He would not elaborate, although other American officers said in interviews that the group is Shiite and may have links to Iran. Say it ain't so!
"We think we might have picked up a guy that could lead us could be a big lead in this," Hammond said. But before we ask, we're going to be doing a little gratuitious waterboardig.
It's not clear whether this small group is related to efforts by anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to revitalize his Mahdi Army, which had held sway in the Sadr City section of Baghdad until U.S. and Iraqi forces wrested control after seven weeks of fighting that ended in May.
Arguing against a link to such an al-Sadr initiative is the fact that the group that Hammond described has been operating since at least late 2007, although it has become more active in recent months.
The 107 mm rockets that are used in the improvised bombs which some call an airborne version of the roadside bombs that through the course of the war have been the leading killer of U.S. troops are manufactured in Iran, officials said. But some officers cautioned against assuming Iran is directly involved. Just kick 'em in the nutz already.
The weapons are launched from small trucks and are fired in multiples of four to nine rockets at a time. The detonation is sometimes triggered by a signal from a cell phone, other times by a washing machine timer.
Brig. Gen. Will Grimsley, deputy commander of U.S. forces in Baghdad, said in a separate AP interview on Thursday that for lack of a better term he refers to the group as "the evil militia." He said it is small and exhibits a high degree of technical skill in assembling the weapons and executing attacks. Sounds sorta like the Iranian equivalent of the Delta Team: The Maytag Special Forces Team.
The military calls the weapon an "improvised rocket-assisted mortar," or IRAM. Why not just call it the "Improvised Rocket-Assisted Nortar" and get it over with?
Grimsley on Thursday went to the Sadr City section of eastern Baghdad to visit a joint U.S.-Iraqi military outpost that suffered an IRAM attack on April 28. The building was heavily damaged, and 15 U.S. soldiers were wounded, none seriously enough to prevent their return to duty, said Lt. Col. Steven Stover, a military spokesman.
The weapon innovation has gained relatively little public attention because it has yet to kill in large numbers.
So far, in 11 attacks, three U.S. soldiers have been killed, Stover said. The three were killed April 28 the same day as the Sadr City assault in an attack on a larger U.S. base in eastern Baghdad.
At the Sadr City base, Grimsley consulted with Lt. Col. Brian Eifler, commander of 1st Battalion, 6th Armor, 2nd Brigade, 1st Armored Division, inside a newly constructed combat outpost a stone's throw from the damaged one. Eifler said he is focused heavily on the IRAM threat and how to minimize it. Just muke/mook them already.
Eifler estimated that a U.S. soldier who might be in position to witness the approach of a potential IRAM-bearing vehicle would have less then two seconds to decide whether the person emerging from it has just set it for firing or is simply an innocent driver getting out to change a tire. Sounds like that anti-RPG system the Israelis developed might be in order here.
"That's a call our young soldiers have to make when potentially 200 lives are at stake," Eifler said.
Hammond said the perpetrators are so skilled that he has likened their organization to the U.S. military's secretive and elite Delta Force. He said they have demonstrated an unusual degree of military skill and cunning.
"They don't leave a forensic trail, and that just means we're going to have to work a little bit longer" to eliminate them, he said. "Of everything we've had to deal with here, this is a tough one. They're sort of the Delta Force of this enemy we face out there. They are very good" at covering their tracks, picking out targets and preserving secrecy about their membership and movements.
#1
The detonation is sometimes triggered by a signal from a cell phone, other times by a washing machine timer.
Does he mean launched? No contact fuse? Or is this some sort of air delivered mine?
#2
Any bets they are GE washing machine timers? They continue to trade with Iran, claiming it makes for good relations with innocent housewives, while our beef is only with the leadership.
BEIJING: Chinese authorities have replaced top police and security officials in the Muslim dominated Xinjiang province, which is the hotbed of separatism and political violence. They have also closed down 41 "illegal" places of worship.
These places of worship were used as training ground for conducting a "holy war", Chen Zhuangwei Chen, the police chief of Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang province, said. Xinjiang, which borders central Asia and Pakistan, has been the scene of a pro-independence movement by a section of the eight million Uighurs living there for a long time.
The authorities also announced they have detained 82 "suspected terrorists" in the past six months in view of fears that they might disrupt the Olympic Games. They belong to five groups that "allegedly plotted sabotage against the Beijing Olympics", the official Xinhua news agency quoted the police chief in Urumqi, Xinjiang's capital, as saying.
The government has annouced the replacement of army and security officials in the ranks of three deputy core commanders, political commissars and the head of the Communist Party organisation department in the army. The replacement suggests that the central government has been unhappy about the inability of local officials to put down the surging separatist movement in the province.
The new head of the organisation department is Liu Xiang Song, the government announced. One of the three new core commanders is Hanabati Sabukhaya, an officer from the Kazak race. Xinjiang borders Kazakisthan and several other countries including Pakistan and Russia. "From now, all police officers must act urgently, get involved once more in Olympic security, to make sure large and small incidents alike do not happen," Chen was quoted by official media as saying.
#3
Anonymoose, trailing daughter #2 made use of your non-Gatorade suggestions on the 600-mile bike trip her youth group recently finished, and she was the only one who didn't suffer from electrolyte depletion. Thank you!!!!
#5
'moose, if they do, I hope they leave my Uighur friend Shakir alone. Actually, even in East Turkestan (Uighur-land) relatively few of the people are actively opposing the Central Chinese government and most of those who are in opposition have fairly legitimate greivances (similar to Tibet situation). The mosques may be the organizing centers of the opposition but in 'most' cases militant Islam is more of a parasitic addition to the opposition rather than its cause.
#8
I spend a fair bit of time in the Nevada and Utah desert. My trick is:
I have a hydration pack (Camel Back, etc.) to which I add only a single scoop of Gatorade powder. It makes it really dilute, not enough to really taste it much, just a hint of a flavor but enough that the water isn't completely flushing me of electrolytes.
I use Morton "Light Salt" while I am out there. That is a 50/50 mix of Sodium Chloride (regular table salt) and Potassium Chloride (AKA "salt substitute"). I use that on food out there and that helps provide both sodium and potassium.
And last year I took some huge Vitamin C tablets I can suck on ... they are like horse pills but they taste good. They also contain calcium.
Add to that some salty snacks like jerky and those individually wrapped large dill pickles and so far we have managed to avoid hydration issues or electrolyte problems.
I did have some problems back in 2004 and that was due to drinking too much straight water which simply acted to flush the electrolytes out without putting any back in. I completely avoid soft drinks, beer, etc. until the late afternoon/evening. I feel best sipping my water and chewing on a hunk of jerky in the hottest part of the day.
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.
Somali troops have shot dead seven civilians in southern Mogadishu after accusing them of being Islamic insurgents.
(Xinhua) -- Istanbul Governor Muammer Guler said on Friday that Wednesday's attack on the U.S. Consulate General in the Turkish city of Istanbul was "undoubtedly a suicide attack." 
Militants will start killing a group of hostages if the government does not release several insurgent prisoners within a day, a Pakistani Taliban spokesman threatened Friday. A suspected militant leader is among those the Taliban want freed.
