The Hiz'b insist that this was an accident. Bar of soap? Banana peel? Shoes untied? Loose guardrail. Call OHSA ...
Expect more accidents in the near future.
Gaza – Ma'an – Sherif Zaqqout, a senior leader of the Al-Qassam Brigades, died of a heart attack in the city of Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip.
The Brigades, part of the military wing of Hamas, sent the news in a statement on Friday morning.
#7
Jameel: "I would like to take flying lessons".
Boss: "OK, come with me to the roof".
Jameel: "Now what?"
Boss: You have to jump off, aim at the ground, and miss. You seem to be pretty good at missin your target".
Jameel: "Here I gooooooooo........SPLAT!"
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
08/29/2008 19:33 Comments ||
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A U.S. military review of an airstrike last week in western Afghanistan maintains that only five civilians were killed, Pentagon officials said yesterday, a finding that starkly contradicts reports by the United Nations and Afghan officials that the civilian death toll from the bombing was at least 90.
The completed review corroborates an initial assessment by the military of the operation Friday by U.S. and Afghan forces in a village in Herat province. The review determined that 25 militants, including a Taliban commander, and five civilians had been killed, the officials said.
"We did not kill up to 90 civilians as has been alleged," one U.S. military official said. The review "comports with our operational understanding" of the events, said the official, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record.
U.S. military commanders in Afghanistan were expected to present their findings to Afghan government officials -- possibly including President Hamid Karzai -- at a meeting Thursday, the officials said. The U.S. military planned to propose that the two sides conduct a joint investigation of the incident, they said. The Associated Press first reported the results of the U.S. review and stated that agreement had been reached on a U.S.-Afghan investigation.
The Associated Press reported yesterday that according to three Afghan officials, U.S. commanders were misled into striking the village. The Afghan officials said that the raid was aimed at militants who were supposed to be in the village, but that the operation was based on faulty information provided by the rival of a tribal leader.
The airstrike, which the U.S. military said took place after insurgents ambushed Afghan army commandos and coalition troops during a raid, came as U.S. and NATO forces escalated their reliance upon air power to combat an intensifying Taliban insurgency, in part because of a shortage of ground forces in Afghanistan. Sure, if we had the ground forces we could march on line with fixed bayonets instead of using our unfair advantage of air power.
The mistaken killing of civilians in airstrikes has long been a sore point between the U.S. military and Karzai, who has in the past demanded a temporary halt to airstrikes and other military operations in certain regions. Tensions over the issue have flared anew with the latest charges.
Senior U.S. military leaders have in recent days voiced doubt about the credibility of reports that scores of Afghan civilians died in the airstrike. "I've seen the account stated from both the U.N. and certainly from the Afghan government. I've also seen it . . . discussed that, in fact, that didn't happen," Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in a media roundtable at the Pentagon yesterday morning.
Mullen said he had not yet seen the results of the review ordered by Maj. Gen. Jeffrey J. Schloesser, who commands U.S. forces in eastern Afghanistan as well as U.S. Special Operations forces that operate in Afghanistan with Afghan army commandos.
Still, Mullen acknowledged that even a single civilian death harms the American effort in Afghanistan. "We know that when collateral damage occurs, that it really does set us back. So we work exceptionally hard to make sure that doesn't happen," he said.
The use of airstrikes in Afghanistan increased tenfold from 2004 to 2007 as a result of a growing Taliban insurgency and a lack of adequate ground forces, said Anthony Cordesman, a senior military analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Nevertheless, Cordesman also found that in many instances aircraft make sorties without dropping major munitions, suggesting that the military is using considerable restraint in targeting.
Mullen said Thursday that there is "an urgent requirement" to send additional troops to Afghanistan. "We're looking to do that as rapidly as we can," he said.
Mullen, who this week met with Pakistan's senior military leadership on a U.S. aircraft carrier, also said that the U.S. and Pakistani militaries must intensify efforts to crack down on insurgents flowing across the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, warning of "syndicate-like behavior" among extremist groups in Pakistan's tribal areas.
#4
camp followers don't count as civilians. I think we should remove any security we provide for Karzai and any provincial poohbah that perpetrate these lies.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/29/2008 9:48 Comments ||
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#5
The question here is whether Karzai and Afghan officials are so quick to claim casualties they could not possibly be certain of because they are skimming US aid in the form of compensation money. An earlier story said the governor immediately offered $200,000 in compensation.
#7
Other than a few units, my understanding is that the Afghan military is way behind where it should be (way behind the Iraqi military)and the civilian government is almost as corrupt as the one in Pakistan.
#8
Afghanistan is a far more primitive cultural landscape than Iraq. I doubt we will see the kind of progress of the Afghan army that we've seen in the Iraqi army. The concept of nationhood is substantially more tenuous in Afghanistan.
Regardless, Karzai is a lying weasel. I am in no mood to do long term nation-building in this cesspool. It simply does not have the strategic value, imo, of Iraq. If trouble comes from there, send in the MOAB's and be done with it.
KABUL (AFP) - The US-led coalition in Afghanistan said Friday its troops had killed almost a dozen militants after coming under attack while operating near the border with Pakistan. Two people were detained during the operation in the eastern province of Paktika on Thursday, the coalition said in a statement.
Troops were in Barmal, a district on the border, looking for militants involved in moving foreign fighters between the two countries when they were fired upon, it said.
"Militants engaged coalition forces during their search of the compounds. The forces responded with small-arms fire, killing the militants," it said. "Almost a dozen militants were killed and two were detained."
"Annabel", as the British had codenamed the tiny biblical Helmand village of mud compounds, was no more. The shattered wreck of crumbling walls and a giant crater left by a 2,000lb aerial bomb bore testament to the ferocity of the fighting that had taken place.
This was the front line between British forces and the Taliban pouring over the border from Pakistan. Until a few weeks ago, it was prime enemy territory, an unforgiving warren of trenches that British troops entered at their own peril.
Looking out over the deceptive calm of the newly planted corn fields, Captain George Aitken said: "We uncovered 37 bunkers. We found their sleeping bags. It was First World War trench warfare around here."
Just 100km (60 miles) north of the Pakistani province of Baluchistan, these small compounds in Garmsir were deserted by farmers long ago to be replaced by the invaders from the south. Garmsir -- it means "too much heat" -- proved a thorn in the British side for a long time. The impenetrable front line was 100 metres from a lookout where the British soldiers and insurgents could eyeball each other.
Nearby, 180 soldiers in the small outpost of FOB (Forward Operating Base) Delhi -- the most southern point of the British area of operations -- battled to stem the tide of insurgents coming up from the border to be "blooded" on their way north.
But this week there were signs of a return to normality. Small groups of families, the first intrepid pilgrims to return to their former homes, stood staring as a patrol from 5th Battalion, the Royal Regiment of Scotland (Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders) trod carefully through the compounds. The farmers' expressions were neither hostile, nor welcoming, simply guarded.
Everything changed with the arrival of 1,000 US Marines from 24 Marine Expeditionary Unit. As A Company, 5 Scots battled and cleared south of the district centre, the Americans moved east and then further south down through the "Snake's Head", a tangle of small irrigation canals, destroying the enemy in their path. Now the new frontline is 10km to the south. The key question remains whether the Taliban will remain at bay when the American show of strength departs next month.
Capt Aitken, an Irish Guard attached to the Scots, led a patrol through the compounds, all named after soldiers' girlfriends and wives. The Taliban may have been routed from their old home ground but pockets of resistance evidently remained somewhere. "They keep us on our toes," said the guardsman, explaining that, a fortnight ago, two of their number were injured here by a roadside bomb. Another recent patrol was ambushed as they tried to extract a heat casualty.
Moving tactically through the maze of compounds, vegetation and irrigation ditches, they scaled mud walls to surprise any enemy, maintained a watch from one compound as another was cleared and swept for mines.
"Annabel" was destroyed and "Emily" deserted while two lone men stood suspiciously watching from the roof at "Debbie". But in "Charlotte" -- or the village of Abdull Ghani -- there were signs of hope. Two months ago British troops were fighting, bayonets fixed, through the compound. Now they are back with a civil military aid team of Royal Engineers to talk to the locals, to see what work needs to be done and help them claim compensation for battle damage.
Mohammed Ali, an elderly farmer with shattered spectacles and a cane, said he would try to rebuild his home and "garden" before bringing his six children back. Left-over military ordnance has proved a huge problem. Two weeks ago, four children died after disturbing some, and yesterday the troops were handing out picture leaflets as a warning as they destroyed a number of left-over rocket-propelled grenades.
The Taliban no longer controls Garmsir. The once-deserted bazaar in Darvishan is booming, fruit shops jostling next to motorbike vendors, barbers and tailors.
A couple of months ago, one doctor -- Maula Khan Ahmadzai returned to the shattered remains of the district hospital. Now he has a team of three nurses, a pharmacist and a midwife trying to the cope with the needs of the town and 20 villages. Among the most common problems, he has to contend with the are malaria, TB and depression. Pointing over the wall, he said: "I had a problem before because the front line was just there but things are much better."
Colonel Gulli Khan, the local police chief, expressed happiness at the calm but reflected the fears of the locals. "They are worried the situation will get worse, the enemy will come back," he said.
Afghan security forces have begun taking over command of the capital, Kabul, from the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf). With this, the security operation in the capital will become Afghan-led.
It is a largely symbolic move and there will be little immediate impact on foreign forces still patrolling parts of the city. Isaf is keen to play down the transfer of power for fear that insurgents will try to destabilise the process.
President Hamid Karzai announced in June that responsibility for the capital's security would be handed over to the Afghan government, but there is no ceremony planned for the handover process, which the Afghan ministry of defence says will take a few days. It is a symbolic move to show the confidence in Afghanistan's security forces. There will be little difference to the number of Afghan and international troops on the streets of Kabul.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/29/2008 00:00 ||
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A four-day battle that began with an ambush on a joint U.S-Afghan patrol in southern Afghanistan has killed more than 100 militants, the coalition said Thursday.
Militants wielding rocket-propelled grenades, guns and mortars attacked the joint patrol in the southern province of Helmand multiple times starting Monday, the coalition said. The combined force called in fighter aircraft for support.
Capt. Scott Miller, a coalition spokesman, said he couldn't provide further details, including a more precise location of the fighting, because the battle was continuing. The coalition statement said no Afghan, coalition or civilian casualties had been reported.
Meanwhile, a roadside bomb killed a U.S. coalition soldier in southern Afghanistan on a patrol Wednesday. Neither the nationality of the soldier nor the location of the attack was released.
In the Nad Ali area of Helmand province, a fight between police and militants killed 14 insurgents late Wednesday, said Daud Ahmedi, the governor's spokesman.
More than 3,700 people, mostly militants, have died in insurgency-related violence so far this year according to an Associated Press tally of figures provided by Afghan and Western officials.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/29/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
called in fighter aircraft for support
So no doubt these dead militants will become dead innocent women and children within 24 hours. And fluffy bunnies.
Ethiopia is prepared to withdraw troops from Somalia even if the government is not stable, Ethiopia's PM says.
I don't regard that as a bad thing, assuming they're willing to come back if needed.
Not that anybody ever listens to me, since I'm just an old crank, but I'd suggest a policy of "thump and leave" as the standard for future operations of this type.
When some bad guy organization like the Powerful Islamic Courts™ takes power in this or that failed state, send in an army to beat the crap out of them and hand over power to someone more palatable. Then leave. When the Powerful Islamic Courts™ comes skulking back in and overthrows the more palatable bunch of crooks, send in the same or a similar army to beat the crap out of them and hand over power to another bunch that's more compatible. After no more than a half dozen iterations of the comedy the locals will get the idea that the Powerful Islamic Courts™ or whomever isn't going to be allowed by the civilized world to take power and oppress people. Maybe they'll start keeping the bad guys out themselves, or the Powerful Islamic Courts™ will decide that they were actually fighting for individual liberty all along.
As a side benefit, the Powerful Islamic Courts™ will be busy bumping off the more rapacious of the more palatable crooks, so that by the time they get the idea to go try their act somewhere else or reform the remaining lot will be more amenable to guidance from the civilized world.
It's a law of nature that gangs of Islamic hard boyz are better at setting up quagmires than they are at actually fielding competent armies. They get whupped each and every time they run into a remotely disciplined force. Their intent is always to make the festivities more like a one-on-one contest, where discipline and teamwork give way to individual prowess, thereby upping the odds of winning the encounter to 50-50 rather than the more usual 50-1.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/29/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
I'm with you fred, would add one more thing. Whenever four or more bad guys get together blow them up.
#2
Reading Rantburg, a half-dozen other sites, and my daily "news"paper, I've found that 80% of the trouble in today's world is caused by one group of religious extremists. Ten percent is caused by anti-religious extremists, and the rest is caused by Russia, trying to re-establish an empire and having daydreams of military hegemony over central Asia. Muslims are involved with 80% of the problems, with the Left and Russia making up the rest. In order to counter this, we need to make sure we can adequately suppress both the 80% and the 20%. We can counter the Left with the truth. We can counter Russia with more and better weapons on hand, without having to use them. To deal with the muslims, however, the only thing they understand is the "strongest horse" - brute military strength. Playing defense doesn't hack it, and being nice only works after you've beaten the living sh$$ out of them. The Ethiopians are playing defense, rather than taking the fight to the enemy. We've used surgically precise attacks to kill 'only' the enemy. Muslims look on both attempts as being weak and effeminate. If we brought only a small fraction of the effort we employed with the landing at Normandy or on Iwo Jima to bear on the muslims, they'd all slink back to their holes and whimper in fear. We, the West, haven't done that. It's costing us the lives of some of our finest and bravest citizens because we haven't. Until we do, this dam$$$ war could last another 40 years.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/29/2008 12:40 Comments ||
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#3
OP, we/the west won't do that until we suffer a major blow that involves 10,000+ civilian casualties. It is only the death of our own that will harden us to the moral consequence of widespread death on their side. We wouldn't have fire bombed Japanese cities at the start of WWII even if we'd had the planes and bases to do it.
Egypt's banned Muslim Brotherhood says police have arrested 21 of its members, including a former lawmaker. A statement posted Thursday on the group's Web site says the men were arrested while meeting the previous night at the Cairo home of former lawmaker Abdel Hamid el-Seyed.
The Brotherhood is Egypt's largest opposition group. Though officially banned, members have run for political office as independents, and they currently hold about a fifth of the seats in Egypt's parliament. The government has carried out a steady campaign of arrests against the group, with more than 800 members detained so far this year.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/29/2008 00:00 ||
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A new batch of Algerian detained in Guantanamo Bay prison are subject to cross examination by security services, in order to get more information about how did they get to Afghanistan, reliable sources told El Khabar.
The think is about Abdelah Faghoul and Abdelkader Terari. The same sources mentioned that the officials of the US prison have sent the two abovementioned prisoners on a plane last Tuesday, while they arrived to Algeria yesterday, where some detectives have been waiting for them for cross examination. They are expected to appear before the examining magistrate at Sidi M'hemed Court in Algiers to answer questions inspired from the police cross examination report.
Security services receive in such cases reports from authorities of the country where the prisoners used to be detained, in accordance to bilateral conventions being sealed between the two countries. Generally, prisoners being extradited to their country of origin face charges of belonging to terror groups operating abroad.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/29/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Euphemism: A euphemism is a substitution of an agreeable or less offensive expression in place of one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant to the listener; or in the case of doublespeak, to make it less troublesome for the speaker.
Example: A new batch of Algerian detained in Guantanamo Bay prison are subject to cross examination by security services.
A Tunisian court convicted 19 Islamic militants on charges linked to plots to carry out attacks in the north African country or send fighters to Iraq, a defense lawyer said Thursday.
Thirteen suspects were handed sentences on Saturday ranging from two to eight years, said lawyer Samir Ben Amor. Prosecutors had accused them of trying to set up a terror cell to carry out attacks in Tunisia - while some of its members had also sought to send Islamic fighters to Lebanon. Ben Amor claimed that the Tunis court did not give defense lawyers enough time to prepare or present their cases, nor did it ask questions of the suspects during the trial.
Separately in the same court, six defendants were convicted Tuesday of establishing a military camp in Tunisia's northeastern Kef region designed to train fighters to be sent to Iraq, he said. The defendants in both cases have appealed, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/29/2008 00:00 ||
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Asadullah Al Galib, chief of Islamist militant outfit Ahle Hadith Andolan Bangladesh (Ahab), was freed on bail yesterday from Bogra Jail. The High Court (HC) granted him bail in two cases as the trials could not be held within the time set by the HC six months ago.
Since his arrest on February 23, 2005, a total of ten cases were filed against the militant kingpin and a close ally of executed Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) chief Shayekh Abdur Rahman. However, during the then BNP-Jamaat alliance government, Galib was relieved of charges in six of the cases and was granted bail in another case.
On July 26, during the term of the present government, a Gaibandha court declared him not guilty in an explosives case. Six months back, the HC ordered that Galib would be awarded bail in two other cases (one for explosions in Shahjahanpur and the other for murdering a person in the explosions) unless the trial of the murder case is completed within three months and the trial of the explosion case in six months.
Galib was released on bail at around 5:30pm yesterday following the HC order as both the trials could not be held in time.
GALIB'S MILITANT TIES
In 1978, Galib formed Ahab's youth wing Ahle Hadith Jubo Shangha (AHJS), said AHJS workers. While forming the AHJS, Galib argued that they needed to engage in Jihad against Islamic fallacies including the mazar culture to bring an Islamic rule in the country.
Galib received funds from the Middle East through an Indian Islamist leader named Moulana Abdul Matin Salafi. Salafi sent huge funds to Galib from Saudi Aabia.
Galib received funds from the Middle East through an Indian Islamist leader named Moulana Abdul Matin Salafi. In 1988 the Ershad government expelled Salafi, who had been working as a Muballig (religious preacher), for anti-state activities. Abdul Matin Salafi sent huge funds to Galib from Saudi Arabia, sources said.
The mainstream organisation Ahab was formed in late 1994. With Galib's help and funds from Revival of Islamic Heritage Society (RIHS), the JMB militants used 700 mosques across the country. The bank accounts of RIHS in Pakistan were seized after the 9/11 incident.
Galib toured Afghanistan, India and Pakistan with fake travel documents. He had close relations with Islamist militants in Kashmir. He visited India in 1998 with a business passport. Police and intelligence sources said Ahab is just a cover-up of the JMB and most of the Ahab members are involved in JMB activities. Militants arrested in Thakurgaon, Joypurhat, Bogra and Natore told police that Galib was their leader and he used to meet with them at Ahle Hadith mosques.
JMB chief Rahman and Ahab Amir Galib were well-known to each other. Rahman studied at Medina University in Saudi Arabia on Galib's recommendation and after completing his course, he joined with Galib.
This article starring:
ASADULLAH AL GALIB
Ahle Hadith Andolan Bangladesh
MULANA ABDUL MATIN SALAFI
Ahle Hadith Andolan Bangladesh
SHAIEKH ABDUR RAHMAN
Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh
Posted by: Fred ||
08/29/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Tell the RAB he hangs out with Purba Banglar commies. He'll be dead by tomorrow night.
Three British men questioned about an online threat to assassinate Prime Minister Gordon Brown have been charged with a range of terror offenses, police said Thursday.
One of the men, 22-year-old Ishaq Kanmi, is accused of soliciting murder, being a member or "professing to belong" to al-Qaida, and distributing terrorist publications, Lancashire Constabulary said in a statement.
Abbas Iqbal, 23, has been charged with distributing terrorist publications, police said, adding that his 21-year-old brother, Ilya, is accused of possessing an item suspected of being useful for the preparation or instigation of an act of terrorism.
Police refused to elaborate on the charges. The men were due at Westminster Magistrates Court in central London on Friday. Kanmi and Abbas Iqbal were arrested Aug. 14 at Manchester Airport in northern England -- reportedly as they were about to board a flight to Finland, although police have refused to comment on their destination. Ilya Iqbal was arrested in Accrington, about 35 miles north of the airport. All three were described by police as being Asian, which in a British context suggests they are of Indian, Pakistani or Bangladeshi descent.
Media reports said the men were being held in connection with a Web site posting signed "al-Qaida in Britain" that threatened the life of Brown and his predecessor, Tony Blair. The statement, posted on a radical Web site earlier this year, demanded the withdrawal of British troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, and the release of some Muslim prison inmates from Britain's high security Belmarsh prison. Neither police nor officials at Brown's Downing Street office have provided any comment on the allegations.
The men's homes were in the northern English city of Blackburn, about 225 miles northwest of London. One of the addresses searched by police in connection to the investigation was close to the home of Junade Feroze, who was jailed in Britain for 22 years last year for conspiring to set off explosions at unspecified targets. Prosecutors said Feroze was a member of a terrorism cell led by al-Qaida-linked operative Dhiren Barot that plotted bomb attacks on U.S. financial targets, London hotels and train stations.
Police have made other arrests in the investigation. A fourth man, arrested Tuesday in Blackburn, remains in custody. So, too, does a fifth man, arrested in the northern English town of Derby the same day.
This article starring:
ABAS IQBAL
al-Qaeda in Britain
DHIREN BAROT
al-Qaeda in Britain
ILYA IQBAL
al-Qaeda in Britain
ISHAQ KANMI
al-Qaeda in Britain
JUNADE FEROZE
al-Qaeda in Britain
Posted by: Fred ||
08/29/2008 00:00 ||
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The first outbreak of violence in China's western region of Xinjiang since a pair of high-profile attacks during the Olympics has left two Chinese police officers dead and seven more wounded, authorities and an activist said yesterday.
The conflict in the predominantly Muslim region ignited Wednesday in a village in Jiashi County, but it was not immediately clear what caused it or if any Uighurs were injured. Activist Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the Germany-based World Uighur Congress, said witnesses heard "fierce gunfire" but did not give any details.
A woman at the emergency centre of the No. 1 People's Hospital in Kashgar, about 100 km west of Jiashi, said seven police officers were being treated at the facility, including one for stab wounds. She refused to give her name as is common among Chinese officials. Mu'erbiya, an official from Jiashi County's Communist Party propaganda office, said two police officers had died. Mu'erbiya, like some Uighurs, uses only one name.
A public security official said eight Uighurs - seven men and one woman - were involved. One man had been captured, but the others were still at large, said the official, who refused to give his name.
Tribesmen shot dead a suspected suicide bomber and arrested two armed Taliban militants when they barged into a gathering of tribal elders, officials said on Thursday. The tribal leaders were meeting in Pashak town to support the government's campaign against the Taliban.
Security forces killed five militants in attacks on Taliban hideouts in Bajaur Agency. The security forces pounded various areas of Khar tehsil including Saddiq Abad, Loyesam, and some areas of Mamoond tehsil, killing five militants and injuring seven, an official said. Meanwhile, militants blew up a government girls' middle school in Khar.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/29/2008 00:00 ||
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The army said it killed 23 militants during an operation in the restive Swat valley on Thursday. Army spokesman Maj Murad Khan said the insurgents died in three separate clashes in Swat, where the military is engaged with militants since early this month. Khan said helicopter gunships fired on militants riding in two vehicles and on a suspected hideout. He said no security forces had been killed. Meanwhile, militants killed four people they suspected of spying on them. They killed one person in Charbagh, one in Ali Gram and two in Koza Banda in Kabal tehsil of Swat district.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/29/2008 00:00 ||
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A missile fired from a United States drone injured a woman and three children in South Waziristan late on Wednesday night, officials and residents told Daily Times on Thursday.
The US missile struck the backyard of the house of Sardali Khan in the Ganghikhel area, wounding four members of his family. "It was fired from a drone," local resident Hafeez Khan told Daily Times. He said that the missile injured a woman, two boys and a minor girl.
The missile attack was carried out at a time when a jirga of Ahmedzai Wazirs was negotiating a ceasefire between the government and the Taliban.
Cease fire: Tribal elders told Daily Times on Thursday that the talks succeeded between 40-member jirga and the political administration. The jirga and the political administration agreed to cease fire and end curfew from today (Friday). The jirga ensured that it would co-operate with the political administration, while the authorities pledged to remove blockades from roads.
The talks were aimed at brokering a ceasefire between the government and the Taliban to enable locals to transport truckloads of vegetables and fruit outside the tribal agency. "Hundreds of such truckloads are awaiting the reopening of Wana-Tank highway that was closed by the local administration after militants attacked checkposts," said a tribal elder who did not want to be named.
Meanwhile, a tense calm prevailed in Wana bazaar as no clashes were reported on Thursday between the government forces and the Taliban after Wednesday's fierce fighting left 11 militants and two army personnel dead.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/29/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Probably a mortar round from one of the local "friendlies".
The air force is rushing planeloads of arms to security forces in Jammu and Kashmir, from places as far as the Northeast and Tamil Nadu. The AN-32s are bringing in lathis and tear-gas shells.
Caught between the protests in the Valley and Jammu, police and the CRPF -- which alone has some 25,000 men in the two sectors -- are running short of these commonest of weapons in a state that bristles with guns. Guns are, however, not the weapon of choice for the forces at a time their primary job is to control mammoth crowds of protesters rather than beat back militants.
So, the Centre has arranged for "solidified plastic lathis" to be flown in by the Indian Air Force, along with surplus teargas shells from states such as Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Assam.
Since the CRPF is deployed in Kashmir on counter-insurgency duties, it does not have enough lathis or tear-gas shells, used mainly to maintain law and order. Having fired close to 10,000 tear-gas shells in the past 15 days and beaten back tens of thousands of protesters, the CRPF has exhausted its stocks. Ditto for the state police.
"When most of the force has been deployed for counter-insurgency duty, how can the CRPF be equipped for law-and-order problems? We just planned our stocks," a senior CRPF official said.
Sources said there were fewer law-and-order problems in some states and so surplus stocks were available. Every state's police get monthly stocks of tear-gas shells, but not all of them need to fire these too often.
Bengal, where the need to control unruly mobs never goes out of fashion, may learn its lessons from Kashmir. The security forces' plight in the northern state -- and the shape the Singur siege is taking -- could well prompt the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government to consider stocking up on lathis and tear gas.
The batons Bengal police now use are made mostly of cane, fibreglass and wood, and are sourced from the Defence Research and Development Organisation, but the government might toy with the idea of using solidified plastic too.
However, in Jammu and Kashmir, where the security forces are bracing for a long haul, just getting extra stocks from other states may not be enough. The problem is, the country's only tear-gas factory at Tekanpur, near Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh, has shut down production for a month -- a yearly routine during the monsoon -- because of humidity.
Experts, however, have held out hope of production resuming soon. "Moisture absorbers, which are used on a smaller scale in cameras and electronic equipment, are now used on an industrial scale. So we have recommended that the factory be made moisture-resistant," a source said.
The factory is controlled by the home ministry and receives technical guidance from the Bureau of Police Research and Development.
Between June 22 and August 20, the CRPF has controlled protesters for about a week in Kashmir and a fortnight in Jammu. There were 74 incidents in the Valley and 30 in Jammu. In the Valley, 231 CRPF personnel were injured while four civilians died in firing by the force. In Jammu, 88 CRPF personnel were injured while controlling mobs.
Posted by: john frum ||
08/29/2008 00:00 ||
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(AKI) - Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani on Thursday condemned the bomb blast that killed at least nine people, including six policemen, in the town of Bannu near the Afghan border.
Gillani ordered an inquiry into the incident that shook the town in the North West Frontier Province. The bomb was planted in a vehicle parked on a bridge and detonated by remote control as a prison van approached, according to sources quoted by GEO News. The force of the explosion caused the van to plunge into a dry portion of the Karam River below, according to police. No-one claimed responsibility for the attack.
Bannu is close to the border with Afghanistan, where Islamist militants have been attacking security forces.
At least 13 people were taken to hospital for wounds, a doctor at Bannu hospital said. It is the latest in a series of recent attacks against security personnel in the volatile area.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/29/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: TTP
(AKI) - At least nine people including six policemen died on Thursday when a car bomb exploded near the town of Bannu in restive North West Frontier Province, Pakistan's GEO News TV channel reported. The blast also injured 13.
The bomb was planted in a vehicle parked on a bridge and detonated by remote control as a prison van approached, according to sources quoted by GEO News. The force of the explosion caused the van to plunge into a dry portion of the Karam River below, according to GEO News. No prisoners were in the prison van, according to police. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
Bannu is close to the border with Afghanistan, where Islamist militants have been attacking security forces. The Afgan and United States governments claim the area is a haven for pro-Taliban militants and al-Qaeda.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/29/2008 00:00 ||
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BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Rania is only 15-years old, but in the past week the softly spoken Iraqi girl has been drugged, strapped with explosives, arrested by men she nearly blew up and then shoved into a detention centre.
Now she finds herself at the heart of a propaganda war being waged by the Iraqi security forces against the same al Qaeda militants who tried to use her as a remote-controlled bomb. Police arrested the teenage Iraqi girl on Sunday in Iraq's violent Diyala province, where the Sunni Arab militants are waging a bitter campaign against U.S. and Iraqi forces.
She was caught with a vest packed with explosives by a local neighborhood patrol in the provincial capital, Baquba. Initial reports said she had turned herself in, although police later said she was searched and they found the vest.
She cannot have been very willing to go through with it in any case or she would have detonated herself at the checkpoint, as many suicide bombers do when they are rumbled by security, police sources told Reuters. U.S. military officials described her as an "unwilling" suicide bomber, as did the girl herself in a television interview for an Iraqi station obtained by Reuters.
Rania's ordeal is far from over. Wise to the potential publicity goldmine she could be as a poster-girl for al Qaeda's callous tactics, police have paraded her on television and invited journalists to interview her, the first time they have been allowed access to a detainee. Her interview was filmed under the scrutiny of prison officials after she had already been a captive for days. It was impossible to tell how much of it was her own story or coerced.
If Rania is to be believed, her profile matches that of other female suicide bombers in Iraq. Her father and brother both disappeared in 2006, she says, at the height of Iraq's vicious sectarian conflict. Their bodies turned up weeks later. "My father disappeared and my mother found his body in the morgue; they dumped my brother's body in the river," she said, as she sat on her cell bed, wrapped in a long black cloak.
Analysts say many female suicide bombers are motivated by a thirst for revenge for family members killed. But Rania says she never wanted to be a martyr. Then, staring blankly into the distance, she recounts how she was nearly blown to pieces. "My husband took me to see some of his relatives I'd not seen before. I stayed the night. ... Then, in the morning, they brought me breakfast with apricot juice. It tasted funny, so I asked what was in it. They told me 'nothing, just drink'."
Police said when they arrested her, she seemed drugged by a sedative, though it was not clear. "I was feeling dizzy and sick for days," she says.
After breakfast, an older woman who claimed to be a cousin of her husband started to put the vest on her, Rania said. She protested, but they told her not to worry. She must just go to a busy local market, where they would meet her. She was suspicious but they were older and very persuasive. Her husband was in another room. Rania did as she was told.
Before she left the house, her husband reappeared by the door. He stopped her and asked her: "If we meet in the next life, will you choose me or another man." She was unnerved by the question, but she joked: "I'd choose another man."
She hasn't seen him since.
Rania never got to the market. At a security checkpoint, a local Sunni Arab neighborhood patrol was suspicious of her long robe and searched her, finding wires then the explosive vest. "I never intended to blow myself up. When stopped at the checkpoint, I wanted to turn myself in, but I was afraid," she says. "Nobody told me how to use this vest. I don't know if they meant to blow me up by remote control. I just don't know."
Her capture -- or rescue -- is clearly a victory for U.S. and Iraqi security forces in the propaganda war. It has shown an al Qaeda that looks vulnerable, less competent and increasingly resorting to desperate tactics. Police are seeking her husband. "The fact he's not shown up to help me yet shows he must have something to hide," she says.
#1
Nice people. Really nice. Hard to imagine punishment fitting enough for any who are caught.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
08/29/2008 12:20 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Wise to the potential publicity goldmine she could be as a poster-girl for al Qaeda's callous tactics, ...
Callous? Callous? That's the harshest adjective Rooters can come up with to describe their heroes these monsters?
If Rania is to be believed, her profile matches that of other female suicide bombers in Iraq. ...
It was impossible to tell how much of it was her own story or coerced.
I love the oh-so-objective skepticism - as opposed to the wholesale acceptance of hearsay and obvious propaganda in the Haditha and similar cases. My hatred for the MSM sometimes scares me.
BAGHDAD – Coalition forces killed a terrorist in Tikrit during a daytime operation Thursday targeting associates of al-Qaeda leaders in central Iraq.
Coalition forces targeted a facilitator involved with providing bomb triggers for several attack cells in the Tigris River Valley bombing network. As they attempted to apprehend the wanted terrorist, the man rushed toward the security element and grabbed one soldierÂ’s rifle. Responding to the hostile threat, Coalition forces engaged and killed the man.
BAQOUBA, Iraq -- The Iraqi battalion leader huddled over the map with his American advisers, showing them how he planned to surround a Sunni enclave where al-Qaida militants were believed hiding. The Americans nodded in approval and assured Col. Faisal Malik Mohsen the roads would be cleared of bombs. U.S. attack helicopters would provide cover to keep insurgents from escaping.
The raid last week northeast of Baghdad did not find many weapons or flush out scores of hidden fighters. But it accomplished a wider objective: taking another step toward putting Iraqi security forces in control of ground operations.
Such transitions to Iraqi command _ occurring at different speeds around the country _ have taken on added importance as Washington and Baghdad negotiate a pact that could have the last U.S. soldiers leaving by the end of 2011.
But they also expose the many weaknesses of the Iraqi forces that still rely on American help for everything from air support to bottled water in the field. U.S. troops even were forced to step in and provide fuel when the National Police did not receive government allotments for about two weeks in July, leaving many units near empty.
Before the Aug. 21 raid, informants had warned that militants would likely stand and fight. The informants were wrong. Instead of bullets, the police commandos were greeted with smiles and glasses of water as they searched houses. Two men were detained without incident and several assault rifles were seized.
Mohsen, the 42-year-old commander from the southern Shiite city of Nasiriyah, and his U.S. advisers backers acknowledged their intelligence had been faulty. The militants probably fled ahead of the operation. Still they proclaimed the raid a success because one more al-Qaida safe haven was gone.
The National Police _ a 40,000-strong paramilitary force that is one of the three main pillars of the Iraqi security apparatus _ have faced roadside bombs and booby-trapped houses since arriving in Diyala province late last month in the latest government effort to rout insurgents there. Five commandos have been killed and eight wounded.
U.S. officials maintain the force is improving _ a necessary step before the Americans can go home. But the Iraqis are still lacking in logistical and explosives expertise as well as medical capabilities. "When people ask what the exit strategy is, this is it," said Col. Thearon Williams, 45, of Detroit, commander of the U.S. advisory team for the National Police. "It's small groups of Americans living among the Iraqis and training them."
The Iraqi security forces have enjoyed increased public confidence after a series of government offensives against Sunni and Shiite extremists that began in March in the southern city of Basra. But U.S. forces were needed as backup in every situation and it took a Shiite militia cease-fire and Iranian intervention to stop the fierce fighting that broke out in Basra.
Anthony Cordesman of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies warns against exaggerating the Iraqi troops' progress, citing serious ethnic and sectarian tensions and a shortage of experienced officers. "Both Iraqi and U.S. politicians now seem to take such reporting too seriously and be unaware of how much still needs to be done," he said in a recent analysis.
The Aug. 21 operation showed the interplay between the Iraqis and the Americans trying to get Iraq's forces into shape. Before the raid, Mohsen's American advisers told him to weigh the timing carefully. His Iraqi commanding general called him to a special meeting on the eve of the raid to make sure he was ready.
Mohsen, who is scheduled for leadership training in the United States later this year, was eager for the fight. Nevertheless, he acknowledges that his unit isn't ready to operate alone. "We need the Americans," he said. "We need time. We cannot build a whole country in a few years. We complement each other."
With the raid set to go, the national policemen in their trademark blue camouflage uniforms rolled out before dawn in blue-and-white pickups reinforced with metal sheeting and piled high with thin mattresses and plastic chairs that served as seats for the gunners.
To ensure surprise, Mohsen led a group on foot through a palm grove, while the convoy waited down the road for the go-ahead to approach the isolated Sunni hamlet of Harbatiliyah, 15 miles northeast of Baqouba. U.S. helicopters buzzed overhead. "Everybody knows this area used to be a bunker for al-Qaida in Iraq," Mohsen said. "But they know they can't fight us."
Sgt. Razzaq Latif al-Osmi, a 21-year-old newlywed from Nasiriyah, and other squadron leaders ordered their men into formation and began searching the collection of mud thatch compounds, including many houses abandoned last year after most Shiite residents were scared away. The troops knocked politely on the gates _ often welcomed by men holding out their IDs ready to be checked _ then carefully picked through piles of thin mattresses, clothing and bags.
Sheiks and young men wearing yellow bands showing they're members of a U.S.-allied Sunni group came forth to greet the police. At one point, al-Osmi questioned a teenage boy about Saddam Hussein-era uniforms found in a closet, then patted him on the shoulder and assured him the search was for his own security.
The young squadron commander, with sweat dripping off his face as temperatures pushed to 120 degrees, said he didn't really expect to find any weapons. "But it's important to send a message to the insurgents," he said.
(AKI) - Eight civilians were killed or wounded in an explosive charge attack that targeted a popular market in Kirkuk, a police source said on Thursday. "An improvised explosive device (IED) went off in a popular market in Domeez area, southern Kirkuk, killing a civilian and wounding seven others," a source told the news agency, Voices of Iraq. "The attack caused damage to several nearby shops," the source noted.
On Saturday violence erupted in Kirkuk when a suicide bombing killed at least five people and wounded at least seven, including Abdul Kareem Ahmed al-Obaydi, a prominent member of the US-backed Sunni Awakening Council.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/29/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Islamic State of Iraq
Iraqi Shiite leader Moqtada al-Sadr on Thursday ordered a halt to armed operations by his 60,000-strong Mahdi Army militia, blamed by Washington for some of the worst sectarian killings of Sunni Arabs in the war-torn country.
"The Mahdi Army suspension will be valid indefinitely and anyone who does not follow this order will not be considered a member of this group," Sadr said in a statement issued by his office in the Shiite shrine city of Najaf.
"Please don't kill me!"
The militia, created after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion to fight invading American troops, became the most active and feared armed Shiite group in post-Saddam Hussein Iraq, accused of operating death squads blamed for the killings of thousands.
The U.S. military cautiously welcomed Sadr's decision. "We welcome this announcement that appears to be an effort to support the Iraqi people," military spokesman Major John Hall told AFP. "The proof is always in the actions and not just in words."
"Okay, okay, keep yer trap shut and we won't kill you."
Sadr said the militia would now focus more on cultural programs. "We have set a cultural programs for the Mahdi Army and we have named it Al-Mumahidun (Supporters of the Mahdi), and everybody should abide by it and whoever does not agree with it will be expelled from the army."
He did not immediately give reasons for his decision which came after he promised earlier this month to dismantle the militia if a planned security pact between Baghdad and Washington provides for the withdrawal of U.S. troops.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/29/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Mahdi Army
#1
We must be gaining the upper hand in Sadr City!
#5
We've had him basically on the run or worse for years - he was never a potential spoiler other than he might be able to make our inevitable success messier or more difficult. Yet for years many nitwits have been claiming that only Tater's indulgence "allowed" us to make the progress we have. This adolescent cheerleading for our adversaries, so as to always denigrate our successes, is one of the most amazing and outrageous things about the many amazing and outrageous things that seem to have become common since 9/11.
Our patient dismantling of his most dangerous elements (and those most involved with the Persian enemy) while all the time claiming we were only going after "rogue" elements was a masterpiece.
(VOI) - U.S army on Thursday said its troops captured nine al-Qaeda suspects during operations conducted in Baghdad and Diala. "Coalition forces detained nine suspected terrorists, including two alleged al-Qaeda in Iraq leaders, during operations Thursday in Baghdad and the Hamrin Mountains region of Diyala province,"said U.S army statement received by Aswat al-Iraq-Voices of Iraq(VOI).
The announcement highlighted the U.S army arrested "a suspected terrorist who is believed to be a regional Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) leader who orchestrates assassinations of Iraqis and the security forces that protect them, and allegedly moves foreign terrorists into Iraq to conduct attacks. "Information from an operation Jul. 29 led Coalition forces to As Sadiyah, where they captured an alleged AQI leader suspected of directing attacks in the Hamrin Mountains region. Three additional suspects were detained in the operation,"the announcement added.
In Diala the U.S forces said its forces "detained four suspects near Qara Taba district while targeting another AQI leader who reportedly operates a kidnapping cell in the Hamrins and supplies terrorist cells with weapons and ammunition".
Posted by: Fred ||
08/29/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Iraq
(VOI) -- Police forces on Thursday arrested an abduction and robbery gang in Diwaniya, just an hour after the gang killed a person and stole his car, a security source said. "A three-members gang that were involved in killing, abduction and robbery operations killed a person and stole his car at Ghamass district, 50 km west of Diwaniya city," the source told Aswat al-Iraq -- Voices of Iraq -- (VOI) on condition of anonymity.
"Based on information tipped by a person, a police force tracked down the gang, and arrested them an hour after the incident," the source said. He did not elaborate further details, but noted "the gang members were driving the victim's car when they were arrested".
Posted by: Fred ||
08/29/2008 00:00 ||
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Security forces on Thursday arrested a Fatah operative who had been given a pardon by Israel as part of agreements between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. The security establishment said the man, Adham Lubada, had returned to terror activity and production of explosive belts following his pardon. Lubada was caught in Nablus.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/29/2008 00:00 ||
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(AKI) - Fierce fighting between government troops and separatist Tamil Tigers across Sri Lanka's volatile northeast killed 38 rebels and five soldiers, the government said on Thursday. The latest violence took place along the front lines separating government-controlled territory and the rebels' de facto state in the north, said military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara.
The army and the air force launched a joint offensive on rebel bunkers in the Kilinochchi district killing 18 rebels and four soldiers. Another 31 soldiers were wounded. Sri Lankan air force jets and helicopters reportedly attacked Tamil Tiger militants near their headquarters after the group staged its first air raid on a major target in nearly a year.
The strikes were to support the 58th Division troops who were advancing into the Kilinochchi area. The aircraft dropped two bombs on a navy camp after being driven away from the dockyards, the Defence Ministry said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/29/2008 00:00 ||
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A Lebanese airman was killed Thursday when the military helicopter he was flying over Sojod hills in south Lebanon came under gunfire attack from Hezbollah gunmen.
Hezbollah didn't comment on the incident initially, but later attempted to justify taking the life of a true Lebanese patriot: a Hezbollah source said the helicopter was shot down "because it crossed red lines that Hezbollah had warned the Defense Ministry and army command" not to cross.
The helicopter was conducting a training mission over the southern village of Sojod when it came under fire and was forced to make an emergency landing. The Telal Sojod area lies some 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of the Israeli border.
Details about the incident were sketchy and the military sealed off the area, but an army statement said the helicopter was on a training mission when it came under fire from armed elements and was forced down in the highlands of the Iqlim al Tuffah province.
The statement said 1st Lt. Samer Hanna, a navigator, was killed and that the aircraft was damaged. No one else in the crew was hurt and the army was investigating, it added. A subsequent report stated that several crew members were also wounded.
Cleric blames Israel
Deputy President of the Higher Islamic Shia Council Sheikh Abdul Amir Qabalan condemned the attack on a military helicopter on Thursday. Qabalan said he feared the attack, which killed a Lebanese army officer, was committed by "infiltrators" working on behalf of Israel. He said that the army needed to investigate the incident and bring those responsible to justice, as soon as possible.
Hezbollah sources stated that the militia fighters said they shot at the military helicopter after monitoring video cameras, and were aiming to warn the pilot, but claim they did not mean to kill anyone.
The sources also said that the Resistance considered the region very sensitive, and Hezbollah leaders have already stressed the importance of the location because it contained the Resistance's telecommunications apparatus.
This is not the first time Hezbollah has killed fellow Lebanese over their sacred telecommunication infrastructure.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/29/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Hezbollah
Hezbollah is armed with Iranian-supplied advanced missiles capable of reaching targets deep into Israel, according to a report in Friday editions of the London-based pan-Arab daily Al-Quds al-Arabi.
The report quotes senior Arab sources who claim that the Shi'ite group in Lebanon plans to use the missiles in the event Israel decides to attack Iranian nuclear facilities, or if the United States launches an offensive that has the potential to ignite a regional war.
The sources added that the new missiles have a range that Israel "cannot even fathom," and that the new arms are the "surprise" that Hezbollah secretary general Hassan Nasrallah spoke of in his recent statements to the public. The report says the missiles are armed with a precision-guided mechanism that increases their accuracy.
A spate of media reports in recent months have indicated that Hezbollah has stockpiled new arms, including anti-aircraft systems, that it has deployed in the mountainous regions of Lebanon. Israel has repeatedly warned that positioning these missile batteries in Lebanon would be viewed as "a step that tilts the balance." Officials in Jerusalem say this would justify a preemptive strike on these weapons systems.
Iranian defense experts are also reportedly in Lebanon in an effort to assist Hezbollah in developing anti-aircraft capabilities.
#4
These idiots are setting themselves up to be simultaneous targets. The hits on Iran will be world news. The simultaneous hits on Hezbollah will be little more than a footnote. Good riddance.
#5
Gonna be awfully hard to fire those missiles when you're dying of radiation sickness.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/29/2008 13:09 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Gonna be awfully hard to fire those missiles when you're dying of radiation sickness.
Plus radiation efects (Blast) destroys electronics, and I'll bet these jumped up Camel herders don't have any shielding, after all the idea comes from those "EEEEVil JOOs" and "Amerikka" so it can't even be discussed.
Good, die stupid or die from rad poisioning, just DIE.(And good riddance)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/29/2008 15:00 Comments ||
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#7
Those camel herding mooks are like cockroaches, you can probably put them in the microwave and it wouldn't hurt them.
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.
The Hiz'b insist that this was an accident.
A U.S. military review of an airstrike last week in western Afghanistan maintains that only five civilians were killed, Pentagon officials said yesterday, a finding that starkly contradicts reports by the United Nations and Afghan officials that the civilian death toll from the bombing was at least 90. 
KABUL (AFP) - The US-led coalition in Afghanistan said Friday its troops had killed almost a dozen militants after coming under attack while operating near the border with Pakistan. Two people were detained during the operation in the eastern province of Paktika on Thursday, the coalition said in a statement.
"Annabel", as the British had codenamed the tiny biblical Helmand village of mud compounds, was no more. The shattered wreck of crumbling walls and a giant crater left by a 2,000lb aerial bomb bore testament to the ferocity of the fighting that had taken place. 
Afghan security forces have begun taking over command of the capital, Kabul, from the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf). With this, the security operation in the capital will become Afghan-led. 
A four-day battle that began with an ambush on a joint U.S-Afghan patrol in southern Afghanistan has killed more than 100 militants, the coalition said Thursday.
A new batch of Algerian detained in Guantanamo Bay prison are subject to cross examination by security services, in order to get more information about how did they get to Afghanistan, reliable sources told El Khabar. 
A Tunisian court convicted 19 Islamic militants on charges linked to plots to carry out attacks in the north African country or send fighters to Iraq, a defense lawyer said Thursday. 
Three British men questioned about an online threat to assassinate Prime Minister Gordon Brown have been charged with a range of terror offenses, police said Thursday.
(AKI) - Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani on Thursday condemned the bomb blast that killed at least nine people, including six policemen, in the town of Bannu near the Afghan border.
(AKI) - At least nine people including six policemen died on Thursday when a car bomb exploded near the town of Bannu in restive North West Frontier Province, Pakistan's GEO News TV channel reported. The blast also injured 13.
BAGHDAD – Coalition forces killed a terrorist in Tikrit during a daytime operation Thursday targeting associates of al-Qaeda leaders in central Iraq.
Iraqi Shiite leader Moqtada al-Sadr on Thursday ordered a halt to armed operations by his 60,000-strong Mahdi Army militia, blamed by Washington for some of the worst sectarian killings of Sunni Arabs in the war-torn country. 
