Authorities have arrested eight people, including one in Saudi Arabia, in connection with this week's deadly attack on a guest house used by United Nations employees, the Afghan intelligence chief said Saturday. He said those arrested claimed the assailants came from Pakistan's Swat Valley.
Amrullah Saleh also told reporters that Afghan intelligence had advance information that a Taliban attack in Kabul was in the works but was expected during rush hour. Instead, the attackers struck just before dawn Wednesday, killing eight people -- five of them United Nations foreign staffers. The three assailants also died.
Saleh said the eight men taken into custody in connection with the assault included an imam who provided a hide-out for the assailants before the attack.
Saleh said the eight men taken into custody in connection with the assault included an imam who provided a hide-out for the assailants before the attack. He did not elaborate on what role the other seven may have played.
He said Aghan authorities had no evidence that the assailants were from Pakistan apart from statements made by the detainees. The Swat Valley fell under Taliban control until Pakistani forces pushed out the militants in an offensive last spring.
Saleh said the guest house attack was directed by an al-Qaida operative known as Ajmal who fled to the Waziristan area of northwest Pakistan. Pakistani troops have launched an offensive in South Waziristan, stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban.
According to Saleh, the imam, Qari Aminullah, runs a mosque and a religious school in west Kabul. He was picked up by Saudi police at the airport in Jiddah, he said.
According to Saleh, the imam, Qari Aminullah, runs a mosque and a religious school in west Kabul. He was picked up by Saudi police at the airport in Jiddah, he said.
"We were aware of the attack in Kabul city one week before," Saleh said. "Based on our information were able to prevent a part of the attack, by arresting of some of their men and disrupting their plans."
This article starring:
QARI AMINULLAH
al-Qaeda
Posted by: ed ||
10/31/2009 11:47 ||
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[Dawn] A roadside bomb struck a station wagon in Afghanistan on Friday, killing eight civilians, including a woman, a provincial government spokesman said.
The vehicle was travelling through the Khwarano area of Khogyani district in eastern Nangarhar province, which shares a long porous border with Pakistan. 'Eight civilians, including one woman, were killed in the roadside bomb explosion,' Ahmad Zia Abdulzai, a spokesman for the provincial governor's office, told AFP.
No one has so far claimed responsibility for the attack, but Taliban insurgents who are waging a bloody campaign against Western forces in Afghanistan frequently plant similar explosives along main roads. Abdulzai blamed the attack on 'enemies of Afghanistan', a term often used to refer to the Taliban.
Nangarhar is one of Afghanistan's most prosperous provinces and is located on the main highway between the capital Kabul and the Pakistani border.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/31/2009 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] Somali pirates are demanding a ransom of $7 million to set free a British couple and $3.5 million for the release of a Greek ship they captured off the Somali coast.
The Chandler couple -- Paul, 59, and Rachel, 55 -- were sailing in their yacht the Lynn Rival last Friday when they were captured by pirates, according to Britain's Foreign Office.
A spokesman for the pirates in a taped voice released by the BBC said, "If they do not harm us, we will not harm them. We only need a little amount of seven million dollars".
The two Britons are thought to be held in a Singapore-flagged container ship called the Kota Wajar, which was seized by pirates two weeks ago.
Meanwhile, the Somali pirates said on Thursday that they had agreed a ransom of $3.5 million for the release of Greek ship Ariana hijacked in May. They said that they would release the ship once the ransom money is received.
The Ariana was seized on May 2 north of Madagascar en route to the Middle East from Brazil with 24 Ukrainian crew aboard. The Maltese-flagged ship belongs to All Oceans shipping in Greece.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/31/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
"We only need a little amount of seven million dollars".
#3
I think a good bet would be to get a boat load of stone killers to look like tourists. They surrender immediately to the pirates, are taken back to their base, and then they kill *everyone*. Such people can be amazingly deadly, and are very, very hard to keep prisoner.
Then, when done, they arrange a pick up and disappear. Nobody who knows what they look like is left alive.
[Maghrebia] The terrorist attack on Algerian workers in Tizi-Ouzou last week claimed another victim on Thursday (October 29th), Tout sur l'Algerie reported. The toll now stands at eight, after the van driver died following a week-long coma. The 30-year-old was reportedly filling in for another driver on the day of the attack. The victims, Kabylie natives who worked as security staff for Canadian company SNC Lavalin on the Ouadhias water project construction site, were ambushed on October 22nd between Maatkas and Souk El Tenine.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/31/2009 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Some displaced Yemenis at a UNHCR-managed camp in northern Yemen have been killed or injured in an exchange of fire between government troops and Shiite rebels, the UN refugee agency said Friday.
"According to sketchy information from Saada, a rocket or a mortar round landed in the camp, killing and wounding the IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons), women and children among them," said a statement issued by the UNHCR.
Around 500 people were at the al-Sam camp on the outskirts of the northern provincial capital of Saada, said the UNHCR, which did not have figures on those killed and injured by the attack.
But it noted that the "security situation in that area has been deteriorating over the past few days."
"UNHCR is shocked and saddened by the latest reports of the loss of life and indiscriminate targeting of Yemeni civilians forced to flee their homes," it added.
About 150,200 people are thought to have been displaced or affected by the conflict in Yemen.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/31/2009 00:00 ||
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Ten suspected militants and one police officer have been killed in the volatile southern provinces of Dagestan and Chechnya in three separate incidents, officials said.
Posted by: ed ||
10/31/2009 11:44 ||
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President Obama has asked the Pentagon's top generals to provide him with more options for troop levels in Afghanistan, two U.S. officials said late Friday, with one adding that some of the alternatives would allow Obama to send fewer new troops than the roughly 40,000 requested by his top commander.
Obama met with the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the White House on Friday, holding a 90-minute discussion that centered on the strain on the force after eight years of war in two countries. The meeting -- the first of its kind with the chiefs of the Navy, Army, Marine Corps and Air Force, who were not part of the president's war council meetings on Afghanistan in recent weeks -- prompted Obama to request another such meeting before he announces a decision on sending additional troops, the officials said. This just blows my mind. The man takes over as president of country with two war fronts, gets summary evaluations from the out-going president, and is only NOW meeting with his Joint Chiefs of Staff? And sets up another meeting at an undetermined time, cause, see, he doesn't have much time between his Wednesday night White House parties, his weekend golfing outing (understand he is terrible), and his traveling around the world to view his worldly kingdom, thinking his presence alone solves all problems.
The military chiefs have been largely supportive of a resource request by Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, that would by one Pentagon estimate require the deployment of 44,000 additional troops. But opinion among members of Obama's national security team is divided, and he now appears to be seeking a compromise solution that would satisfy both his military and civilian advisers. I call this "voting presence." His "reasoning" for voting present so often was that that vote wasn't the final vote on the bill, he oppose something in the bill. "Phew," I say
Obama is expected to receive several options from the Pentagon about troop levels next week, according to the two officials, who discussed the deliberations on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly.
Before he can determine troop levels, his advisers have said, he must decide whether to embrace a strategy focused heavily on counterinsurgency, which would require additional forces to protect population centers, or one that makes counterterrorism the main focus of U.S. efforts in the country, which would rely on relatively fewer American troops.
One option under review involves a blend of the two approaches, featuring an emphasis on counterterrorism in the north and some parts of western Afghanistan as well as an expanded counterinsurgency effort in the south and east, one of the officials said. Obama has also asked for a province-by-province review of the country to determine which areas can by managed effectively by local leaders.
The president appears committed to adding at least 10,000 to 15,000 troops in Afghanistan in an effort to bolster the training of Afghan army and police officers in the country. Current plans call for the United States to double the size of the Afghan army and police forces to about 400,000 in the hope that they can take over security responsibilities.
In meeting with the military chiefs, Obama heard their assessment of the how prepared the services are to handle a new commitment. "Each chief discussed the state of their own service, how they are doing today and what the long-term consequences will be for each of their services," an administration official said. The military advisers also put the troop deployments in the context of the rest of their global deployments, including in Iraq.
It was not a "recommendations meeting," with concrete options of how to proceed, the official said. That will presumably come in the next such meeting, which has not been scheduled. You have a meeting that the determination is to have another meeting and not set a date and time for that meeting? He doesn't even know how to be a good bureaucrat! That's what meetings are about. a meeting about a meeting, about a meeting.
The timing of Obama's decision on Afghanistan remains up in the air. But his request for another meeting with the military chiefs -- and the expectation that he will meet again with his top national security advisers before reaching a conclusion -- may leave him too little time to decide the issue before he travels to Asia on Nov. 11. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton plans to be overseas for much of that time, except for a brief stint at home from Wednesday to Friday. , giving Obama little opportunity to convene his war council in person. It appears increasingly likely that Obama will not announce his new Afghanistan strategy until after returning to the United States on Nov. 20. Will he or won't he, since in the neighorhood, drop in for Turkey Day treats with the troops in Afghan?
Obama has come under criticism from Republicans, notably former vice president Richard B. Cheney, for deliberating so long, but his advisers have said he is determined to get the decision right rather than satisfy his critics. Notice, this writer chose to NOT use Cheney's word dithering. Others have, however. I've noticed, an unusual amount of the number of times dithering is now being used after Cheney's remark! Has become the word of the day! Google dithering Cheney and you get 577,000 hits.
In contrast to Iraq, where there was significant dissension on whether to deploy an additional 30,000 troops in 2007, the top brass has been mostly united in the support of McChrystal's call for more troops in Afghanistan. And The One still votes Present. Oh, the color of that Present button in the Illinois State House? It's yellow.
Both Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top commander in the Middle East, have told the administration that they agree with McChrystal's dire assessment of the security situation and his call for more forces to wrest the initiative back from the Taliban.
The service chiefs have not publicly voiced either support or opposition. Gen. James T. Conway, the Marine Corps chief, had campaigned hard this year for the Marines to play a much larger role in the country. In internal meetings, Army chief Gen. George W. Casey Jr. has raised concerns about "dwell time" -- the periods that troops have at home between deployments.
The Army is particularly concerned that soldiers who spend less than 18 months at home between combat tours do not have enough time to train for high-intensity tank warfare.
A U.S.-Iraq security pact requires the United States to withdraw its forces from Iraq by the end of 2011, which would reduce some of the strain on the American military. But bombings this week in Baghdad, which killed more than 155 Iraqis, raise questions about whether Iraq is stable enough to allow for an accelerated drawdown in advance of that deadline, as some military officials had hoped. Pray for our guys and gals, send letters, cards, get in touch with some organization to help. Our troops need to know now, more than ever, that we support them and their mission, because they aren't getting it from their CIC. Wonder if he will dare to show up for the Army-Navy game? Probably. His ego is too big to pass up such a photo-op.
#1
Obama continues to trash his credibility with, well just about everyone, friend or foe. Surely he knows the damage he is doing to himself - never mind the troops as it's painfully clear that is image is more important. What is it that he is so terribly afraid of that he is avoiding?
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
10/31/2009 15:26 Comments ||
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#2
Wonder if he will dare to show up for the Army-Navy game?
#4
But opinion among members of Obama's national security team is divided, and he now appears to be seeking a compromise solution that would satisfy both his military and civilian advisers.
$$*$&#*#&@!!....How about making a 'decision' based on the IMPERITIVES OF SUCCESS!!! The poor helpless, communist bugger isn't worth 2 cents.
#5
...Ladies and gentlemen, he doesn't WANT to make a decision. Nobel Peace Prize winners don't prosecute a war. Presidents who want to remake a nation in their image don't want to be trapped in tough, difficult war overseas - that's what happened to LBJ, ya know.
The only thing President Obama wants to do is snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
10/31/2009 15:59 Comments ||
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#6
He's not making his decision about anything else than how he can appear to come out of it ahead. Right now neither option let's him do that, so he's letting the clock tick. Never forget, its about him.
#7
he's trying to kick the can past the Nov 3rd votes
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/31/2009 16:05 Comments ||
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#8
Thanks Mike and Pk2. I lost my head there for a moment and thought Barry might be thinking about the lives of soldiers and the mission. Not sure what came over me.
#9
Iraq is done. Afghanistan is a mess, and there's probably not a damn thing that could change that. Since McCrystal is going for "the British technique", of pulling back into the cities, "winning" is no longer an issue. There is nothing, and no way, to win.
The mission from now on is to keep anyone else from filling the national power vacuum, to use Afghanistan as a base. If the bad guys start getting legs in the countryside, send out an attack to wipe out a bunch of them, and any locals who let them hang out.
In other words, stalemate with minimal loss of NATO life.
The secondary mission will probably involve using biological weapons against the opium crop, since chemical herbicides are a no-go for many reasons. But some opium poppy disease that wipes out poppies in Afghanistan will solve that nuisance.
So make a contract with Monsanto, then spray the crap from the air with drone crop dusters. They can grow any other plant but poppies.
[Dawn] A US judge sentenced Al Qaeda sleeper agent Ali al-Marri to more than eight years in prison on Thursday, rejecting pleas from prosecutors for a much longer jail term.
Judge Michael Mihm expressed fears Marri could reoffend but said a 'just sentence' must reflect the fact he was designated an 'enemy combatant' and forced to spend more than six years in a US navy brig without charge.
Judge Michael Mihm expressed fears Marri could reoffend but said a 'just sentence' must reflect the fact he was designated an 'enemy combatant' and forced to spend more than six years in a US navy brig without charge.
Marri, a 44-year-old dual Saudi-Qatari national, confessed in April to having trained in terrorist camps in Pakistan before being sent to the US on a mission by September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
'We are defined as a people by how we deal with difficult and unpopular legal issues,' Mihm said, before handing down a sentence of eight years and four months at the court in Peoria in the US state of Illinois. With credit for about two years already served in civilian jails, and given the 54 days he could earn each year for good behaviour, Marri might be released as early as 2015 after serving less than six years.
Initially arrested on credit card fraud charges, Marri was declared an enemy combatant in 2003 and spent nearly six years in solitary confinement in a military brig in South Carolina without charge. His case was transferred to civil court on February 26 when he was formally indicted on charges of providing support to Al-Qaeda and conspiring with others to do the same.
In a tearful and emotional statement Marri, who admitted in April to conspiring with Al-Qaeda to carry out a terrorist attack within the United States, vowed he would never again wish harm upon the American people.
During Thursday's sentencing the judge was clear about the fact that Marri was likely to reoffend. 'I believe that you have not totally rejected what you did and that you would do it again after you go home, whether here or somewhere else,' Mihm said.
Marri's case has reignited debate over whether an American president should have the authority to detain terror suspects -- including legal US residents -- indefinitely without charge. Unlike detainees held at the American naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Marri was a legal US resident when he was arrested in Illinois in December 2001 in connection with the 9/11 attacks. President Barack Obama has eliminated the 'enemy combatant' designation and vowed to shut down Guantanamo by January.
He met Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, considered the architect of the September 11, 2001 attacks, at one of the camps and agreed to go to the United States for an Al-Qaeda operation.
Marri admitted in April that he attended several terrorist training camps in Pakistan from 1998 to 2001, according to his plea agreement. He met Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, considered the architect of the September 11, 2001 attacks, at one of the camps and agreed to go to the United States for an Al-Qaeda operation. Marri entered the US on September 10, 2001 with his wife and children, ostensibly to study at an Illinois university. The next day Al-Qaeda launched its attacks, and Marri has said he continued to work for the extremist organization by researching poisons such as cyanide and the location of dams, waterways and tunnels.
This article starring:
ALI AL MARRI
al-Qaeda
KHALID SHEIKH MOHAMED
al-Qaeda
Posted by: Fred ||
10/31/2009 00:00 ||
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Rajouri (Jammu): In a revenge attack, terrorists on Friday night hurled grenades at the house of Ruksana Kausar, the woman who shot into national limelight by taking on armed terrorists of Lashar-e-Toiba killing one of them, but she was not present there at the time of the incident.
Rajouri district collector S Jaipal Singh said the terrorists hurled grenades at the house of Ruksana at Thanamandi in Rajouri but neither she nor any member of her family was present there when the attack took place late on Friday evening.
"Ruksana and her family members are at a very safe place in Rajouri", he said.
'After hurling the grenades like Nancy boys, the terrorists fled under the cover of darkness like cowards.
Singh said the 22-year-old girl was aware of the imminent attack on her house. He said the attack was expected and that was why she and her family members were kept in a safe place.
The targeting of Ruksana's house came a little more than a month after she killed a top Pakistani terrorist belonging to Lashker-e-Toiba and injured another at Kalsian village in Rajouri district, about 217 km from Jammu, on the night of September 27.
She, along with her sibling, had overpowered the terrorists who had barged into their house at Upper Kalsi, snatched the rifle of one of them and fired at him, killing him on the spot. Ruksana's parents Noor Hussain and Rashida were injured in the incident.
The bravery of Ruksana, who had never picked up a gun before September 27, made her a celebrity overnight and her act came in for praise from President Pratibha Patil and Home Minister P Chidambaram during their visits to Jammu and Kashmir.
Posted by: john frum ||
10/31/2009 12:16 ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] In the latest spike of violence, militants blow up two educational institutes, two houses and a health clinic in Hangu district in the restive northwest Pakistan.
The militants planted explosives alongside a 12-room state-run high school for boys in Shahukhel village, a Press TV correspondent reported late Friday, citing local sources from Islamabad.
Chief of Hangu district administration, Gul Wali Khan, said that up to 80 kilograms (176 pounds) of explosives were used in the blast, also destroyed another school, two houses and a basic health clinic in Shao Khel area.
No loss of life was reported as no one was present at the time of the blast.
Violence in the restive northwest has left 300 people dead this month.
Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik has said that pro-Taliban militants in their subversive activities have burned 473 schools, mostly for girls, in North West Frontier Province (NWFP) over the past few years.
Malik said in a statement on Friday that Taliban militants destroyed 409 educational institutions in Swat valley and 64 in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).
Nearly 200 schools were destroyed in the Swat valley alone during a two-year violent campaign by Tehrik-e-Taliban's Swat chief Maulana Fazlullah to enforce the Sharia law.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/31/2009 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] An anti-terrorism court acquitted a man on Friday in a case relating to the killing of 11 Frenchmen in a suicide bomb attack outside Sheraton Hotel in May 2002.
The accused, Mohammad Sohail alias Akram, who was described as a member of the banned Harkatul Mujahideen al-Alami, was charged with masterminding the suicide bombing that killed 14 people including two bystanders.
Judge Abdul Ghafoor Memon of the ATC-II pronounced his verdict after recording testimonies of witnesses and final arguments from both sides.
The court also issued the release order of Sohail, directing the jail authorities to release him forthwith if not required in any other case.
The judge wrote in his verdict that after considering the material evidence available on record, he was of the considered view that the prosecution had failed to prove its case against the accused beyond any reasonable doubt.
The verdict stated that the prosecution had focused on the confessional statement of a co-accused who had been acquitted by the high court, and, therefore, this piece of evidence was discarded.
There were material contradictions in the statements of witnesses which created doubts about the prosecution's case, it added.
According to the prosecution, 11 French engineers and two other persons were killed on May 8, 2002, when a suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden car into the bus carrying Frenchmen near Sheraton Hotel.
The Frenchmen killed in the attack were: De Lecar Bicaiteir, J.M. Cheyasutt, Claude Trouet, B. Dupond, Leclerc J.Y., Bled Cedrick, Pascal de Counte, J. Pierre Delavie, Laurnet Jaques, Grous Pastal and Donnard Jhisrry.
Two local bystanders, Hashim Abbas and Mewa Begum, were also killed in the attack, which left many others wounded.
The co-accused, Asif Zaheer and Mohammad Rizwan, said to be members of the same group, were sentenced to death by the same court on June 30, 2003 for organising the suicide attack.
However, the convicts challenged the trial court verdict in the Sindh High Court and on May 5, 2009, the SHC set aside their conviction and acquitted the two appellants.
The same court had tried Mohammad Sohail in absentia and also sentenced him to death.
However, he was arrested in 2007 and his case was retried in accordance with the law.
In the final arguments, the defence counsel contended that the prosecution had miserably failed to link the accused with the alleged offence and its case was based on the confessional statement of a co-accused and the testimonies of two main witnesses, but the same set of evidence was discarded as the high court had set side the conviction of the co-accused.
However, the special public prosecutor maintained that it was a case fit for conviction and sought maximum punishment for the accused.
The Sindh government vowed to appeal the verdict, adds AFP.
'We'll challenge the decision in the high court soon,' said Advocate-General M. Yousuf Laghari.
The government is also challenging the acquittal of Asif Zaheer and Mohammad Rizwan in the Supreme Court.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/31/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
where's the RAB when you need em?
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/31/2009 10:02 Comments ||
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#2
Quick arrests, long trial, release---keeps everybody happy.
#3
The next time we hear of these three, the Indians will have killed them in Kashmir. Disgusting. Why we think the Pakistanis will actually work WITH us is a mystery to me.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/31/2009 16:45 Comments ||
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[Dawn] Pakistani forces pressing an offensive inside the militant stronghold of South Waziristan are closing in on a major Taliban base and have killed 14 insurgents over the last 24 hours, the army said Friday.
In a statement, the army said its soldiers now control the hills above the village of Sararogha, a reputed base where Taliban leaders have long operated openly. The army said 14 militants had been killed, along with two Pakistani soldiers.
In Shakai, security forces have secured the Asman Manza area, and they are expanding their perimeter of security. Meanwhile, search and clearance operations have also been started in Kaniguram.
Security forces are also consolidating their positions on the crucial Razmak-Makeen Axis. A training camp of militants was also located during a search operation on the same axis. Weapons and ammunitions were also recovered.
A total of 289 militants and 34 government soldiers have been killed in the offensive, according to a tally of army figures. Six more militants have been arrested.
Access to South Waziristan is heavily restricted, so independently verifying death tolls from fighting is all but impossible.
On Thursday, during a journalists' visit to South Waziristan, the army displayed a German passport apparently belonging to a suspect in the 9/11 attacks. They showed off another passport, from Spain, bearing the name of a woman who Spanish media have reported is married to an alleged al-Qaida member from Morocco suspected in both the 9/11 attacks and the 2004 Madrid train bombings.
The Pakistani military launched a ground offensive earlier this month in the rugged, tribally controlled region of South Waziristan, where the Pakistani Taliban are based and are believed to shelter al-Qaida leaders.
It has deployed about 30,000 troops against some 5,000 to 8,000 militants, a top general said Thursday during a rare visit to the battle area by journalists. His estimate included up to 1,500 foreign fighters, most of them Uzbeks.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/31/2009 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] KARACHI: Security has been intensified across Karachi following intelligence reports regarding terror threats on Friday. Pickets have been set-up across the metropolis, where police and other supportive law-enforcers stayed vigilant to ensure that no untoward incident takes place.
According to the police, an extensive campaign has been launched to identify suspects and suspicious activities in the city during the past 24 hours. Meanwhile over 250 suspects have been detained from various city areas during overnight raids.
Police sources told DawnNews that most of the detainees are Afghan nationals, who were residing in Karachi illegally. They added that security has been beefed-up and snap checking intensified following credible security threats. Sniffing-dogs have also been placed at over a dozen sensitive locations.
Police sources also said that appropriate arrangements have been made at all mosques, imambargahs and places of worship, especially during Friday prayers.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/31/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
TOPIX > ARMY CHIEF: INDIA IS READY FOR ANY THREAT FROM THE TALIBAN.
[Dawn] Police arrested more than 50 Afghan nationals in different parts of the city and three Tajik students in a North Nazimabad seminary on Thursday, in a surprise move against foreigners staying in the city illegally.
The fresh action within the remits of some half a dozen police stations led to the arrest of a total of 58 Afghans, who would be charged under the Foreign Act.
'The police action began in the second half of the day and led to the arrest of 58 Afghan nationals in Surjani, Sohrab Goth, Maghopir, Gulshan-i-Maymar, Taimuria and Gadap police stations,' said an official. 'All the arrested persons were questioned before their formal arrest and none of them could justify their stay in the country.'
He said the police had enhanced patrolling across the city in the wake of recent security threats and closely monitored the movements of foreigners in parts of the city.
'The action is only meant to keep a check on foreigners in the city and the recent vigilance has resulted in the arrest of a number of foreigners staying in the country without legal documents,' added the official.
At sunset a heavy contingent of the police raided a madressah in the Buffer Zone area, where a large number of foreign students were enrolled in different courses.
'The police checked the record and data with the madressah administration,' said the official. 'During the course of brief questioning, the police came to know about three Tajik nationals, enrolled with the madressah, who failed to come up with required documents for their stay and education in Pakistan.'
He said the three Tajiks would be booked for violating the respective law.
Meanwhile, a source in the police shared with this reporter the figures of the arrested Afghans. 'A total of 20 Afghans were arrested in the Surjani police station, 25 in Sohrab Goth, three in Manghopir, five in Gadap, four each in Gulshan-i-Maymar and Taimuria police station limits,' added the source.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/31/2009 00:00 ||
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[Ma'an] Ma'an - At least two protesters and one Israeli soldier were injured during an anti-wall rally in the West Bank village of Bil'in on Friday, according to Palestinian activists and Israeli media.
Protesters told Ma'an that two Palestinians were injured and dozens of other internationals, including several Israelis, choked on tear gas fired by forces manning the still-under-construction barrier there.
An Israeli soldier was lightly injured when a stun grenade exploded in his hand during the event, according to several Israeli newspapers. Ma'an could not independently confirm those reports, although stun grenades are commonly used on the mostly nonviolent protesters each week.
The Popular Committee Against the Wall reported that protesters demonstrated on behalf of Adeeb Abu Rahmah, a Palestinian jailed since 10 July presumably for his participation in the weekly rallies.
This week's demonstration was "devoted to calling for the release of Abu Rahmah, as well as to protesting the ongoing attempts to eliminate the village's resistance," the statement said, referring to Israel's ongoing night raids during which protesters or suspected protesters are rounded up and taken to detention facilities.
Abu Rahmah, who has been detained for over three months, is not actually suspected of physical violence, the statement said, but was indicted with a blanket charge of incitement to violence, "which was very liberally interpreted in this case to include the organizing of grassroots demonstrations."
A judge had initially ruled that Abu Rahmah be released with restrictive conditions, but an appeal filed by the military prosecution had the decision overturned, and he was remanded until the end of legal proceedings. Since the arrest, the defense has appealed this decision four times. Trials often last up to a year and Abu Rahmah is the sole provider for a family of 11, the statement said.
Abu Rahmah's arrest came amid an Israeli arrest campaign that began concurrently with preliminary hearings in a Bil'in lawsuit against two Canadian companies responsible for construction of the illegal Modi'in Illit settlement.
In almost five years of protests, some 75 Bil'in residents have been arrested in connection with demonstrations against the wall. Of them, 27 have been arrested in the recent, ongoing campaign. Israeli forces have been regularly invading homes and forcefully searching for demonstration participants, targeting the leaders of the Popular Committee, as well as teenage boys accused of stone-throwing.
On 23 June 2009, a Canadian court heard the preliminary arguments for a suit brought by Bil'in against two companies registered in Canada (Green Park International and Green Mount International). The village is seeking an end to settlements on its lands under the 2000 Canadian Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Statute, which incorporates international humanitarian law into Canadian federal law.
Some of the people arrested in the latest wave of arrests have reported being questioned in regard to this suit during their interrogations. Sixteen currently remain in detention, nine of them minors.
In the nearby village of Ni'lin, Israeli forces held a large-scale invasion, according organizers.
They said some four dozen military jeeps entered the heart of the village at around 9:30am and imposed a curfew on residents. Israeli forces fired rubber-coated bullets at the villagers, closed shops and forced people to stay in their homes, a separate statement said. Those able to participate in the Friday protest marched to the threatened land, but were met by soldiers and prevented from reaching the bulldozers.
In any event, locals insisted that Israel's heavy-handed measures had failed to break Ni'lin's resolve, "and the strength of the local solidarity between Ni'lin and the surrounding villages continues to grow," their statement added.
"[T]he public struggle the only way for getting our freedom back," local organizer Ibrahim Ameera told WAFA, the Palestinian Authority's official news agency, vowing to continue the protests.
Residents of nearby Al-Midya and other villages have been active, as well. Last Tuesday, for example, people in villages around Ni'lin voluntarily closed their shops and joined in the protest.
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[Ma'an] Ma'an - Egyptian authorities discovered a smuggling tunnel and seized a warehouse containing goods prepared to be smuggled from the Rafah to the Gaza Strip on Friday.
Security sources in Cairo told Ma'an that one tunnel was uncovered in the Salah Ad-Din area at an unpopulated plot of land.
No one was arrested there as the area was empty, the sources said, but authorities were working to destroy the tunnel.
Meanwhile, security forces took over a warehouse full of goods at Rafah, where they seized nine tons of iron, five washing machines, and 1,300 glass jars, as well as 30 cartons of household appliances and some spare car parts.
The Egyptians seized five trucks near the tunnel area, which were loaded with goods containing cookies and other sweets apparently intended for children, as well as chips and olive oil.
The sources reiterated that they were making every effort to obstruct the smuggling industry, which Egypt and Israel consider illegal, and have worked to stop since 2006 when the two countries began their devastating blockade of the coastal strip.
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Security forces clashed Saturday with Moro rebels in the southern Philippine province of Sulu, killing one gunman, but three soldiers were also wounded in the fighting, officials said. Marine Major General Benjamin Dolorfino, commander of military forces in Mindanao, said the fighting erupted at around 6:45 a.m. on a village in Panamao town. He said soldiers were tracking down rebels when they clashed with gunmen under Moro National Liberation Front leader Habier Malik.
We have recovered the body of the slain rebel and his weapon, an M16 automatic rifle. Three soldiers were wounded in the fighting, Dolorfino told the regional newspaper the Mindanao Examiner. He said Maliks group has joined forces with Abu Sayyaf militants blamed for the spate of bombings and ambuscades of soldiers in Sulu in recent months.
The Abu Sayyaf was also tagged as behind this weeks grenade attack at a Roman Catholic Church in the capital town of Jolo. The group was also linked to the kidnapping early this year of a Filipino, Italian and Swiss Red Cross workers in Sulus Patikul town and freed weeks later in exchange for huge ransom.
Suspected Muslim terrorists insurgents killed a Buddhist woman and seriously wounded her husband in a dawn ambush at their home in Thailand's southernmost province on Saturday, police said. The 19-year-old woman was shot dead in Yala province while trying to escape and her 29-year-old husband hospitalised, police said. As authorities examined the site of the shooting, a bomb exploded, seriously wounding three officers, police said.
Separately, in the same insurgency-plagued province, police found the body of a 42-year-old Muslim villager, handcuffed and shot in the head in a rice farm, police said. He was believed to have been killed near midnight on Friday or early Saturday.
[Asharq al-Aswat] A Lebanon-based Al Qaeda-linked group claimed responsibility Thursday for a rocket attack against Israel this week, saying it was in retaliation for the Jewish state's crackdown on protesters at a Jerusalem shrine.
The claim from a group calling itself the Battalions of Ziad Jarrah came two days after a rocket was fired from Lebanon into northern Israel, causing no casualties. Lebanese troops subsequently found and dismantled four rockets in the village of Houla near the border with Israel.
The claim of responsibility, made on a Web site often used by Islamic militants, could not be independently verified. The group is named after a Lebanese militant who as among the 19 suicide attackers that carried out the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States. It has claimed responsibility for previous rocket-firings across the border into Israel.
The group said its fighters set up five rockets in Houla on Tuesday night but one launched prematurely, leading the militants to flee the area leaving four rockets behind. It was the fifth such attack against Israel from Lebanon this year. Israel responded with artillery fire, but there were no reports of casualties.
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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.
[Iran Press TV Latest] Somali pirates are demanding a ransom of $7 million to set free a British couple and $3.5 million for the release of a Greek ship they captured off the Somali coast. 
Ten suspected militants and one police officer have been killed in the volatile southern provinces of Dagestan and Chechnya in three separate incidents, officials said.
[Ma'an] Ma'an - Egyptian authorities discovered a smuggling tunnel and seized a warehouse containing goods prepared to be smuggled from the Rafah to the Gaza Strip on Friday. 
