Warsaw - The wife of the Polish foreign minister escaped unhurt when her car blew up in mysterious circumstances, Polish authorities said Sunday. Looks like someone didn't like her columns
Police said Anne Applebaum, an American journalist married to foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski, was driving on Saturday evening in a Warsaw suburb when a "strange noise" from the engine prompted her to stop the car and get out.
An explosion took place shortly afterwards, seriously damaging the car but leaving Applebaum unscathed.
Applebaum has been put under police protection while officers try to establish the cause of the blast, a spokesman for the government protection bureau said in comments reported by the PAP news agency. Next time, Vlad, try polonium Continued on Page 49
#2
She's one of the few western journalists who still remembers, and is brave enough to document and remind us all of, the monstrously brutality of the Stalinist regime that Putin and the rest of his criminalized state idolize.
#4
Need a bit more information here, Cars CAN explode "Normaly".
When a rod comes through the side of the engine block, Many folks would say "It Exploded".
Question, was there a fireball,
Yes, it was a bomb,
No, it was a "Normal" explosion.(Mechanical failure)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/06/2009 18:25 Comments ||
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#5
Gulag was a powerful read, but I don't know that it would be influential in American intelectual circles which are mostly are in the bag for Stalin.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
12/06/2009 18:59 Comments ||
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[Asharq al-Aswat] U.S. Marines and Afghan troops have killed at least seven Taliban fighters during the first U.S.-led offensive since President Barack Obama announced a new American war plan this week, Afghan officials said Saturday. American and Afghan troops have met little resistance since Operation Cobra's Anger was launched Friday to disrupt Taliban supply and communications lines in the strategic Now Zad Valley of Helmand province in southern Afghanistan, Marine officials said.
About 1,000 Marines and 150 Afghan troops are taking part in the offensive, including hundreds of Marines dropped behind Taliban lines by helicopters and MV-22 Osprey aircraft.
Isn't "behind Taliban lines" somewhere in the vicinity of Islamabad? The CIA must be miffed at having to share their area of operations.
Nah, it could be Quetta or even Karachi ...
A second, larger Marine force pushed northward from the Marines' main base.
"We're not taking for granted the low level of contact," Marine spokesman Maj. William Pelletier said Saturday. "Just because it's quiet now doesn't mean it will be in 24 hours. Part of the operation is to have a disruptive effect on the Taliban resupply activities. The Marines and Afghan forces are continuing the clearing operation, continuing to move through the valley."
No coalition casualties have been reported. Daood Ahmadi, spokesman for the governor of Helmand province, said 11 Taliban fighters have been killed and five captured. The Afghan Defense Ministry said seven militants were killed and two captured.
Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. general in charge of both the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, told The Associated Press on Friday that the offensive was part of preparations for the arrival of 30,000 new U.S. reinforcements. Petraeus said the military has been working for months to extend what he called "the envelope of security" around key towns in Helmand and Kandahar provinces.
Now Zad was one of the largest towns in Helmand until fighting drove away the 30,000 inhabitants. Now the area is a major supply and transportation hub for Taliban forces that use the valley to move drugs, weapons and fighters south toward major populations and to provinces in western Afghanistan.
Back in August, U.S. forces launched "Operation Eastern Resolve II" in the Now Zad Valley to help provide security for the Afghan presidential elections and disrupt enemy activity in the area. Pelletier said the latest offensive was launched before the reinforcements arrive because it was the best time to limit the militants' freedom of movement in the area.
"We have sufficient forces to clear this area, especially when you consider that our number of Afghan partners has almost quadrupled since July," Pelletier said. "So we felt this was a mission we could do without additional troops and without stretching our forces too thin." The Afghan government has approved a new seventh corps of the Afghan National Army, Corps 215 Maiwand, to be based in the Helmand capital of Lashkar Gah where the first fresh U.S. troops are expected to arrive. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said the Afghans have vowed to deploy 5,000 members of the new Afghan army corps to Helmand, to be partnered by British troops next year. Elsewhere, three Taliban militants were killed Friday during a gunbattle with Afghan National Police at a checkpoint in Nimroz province, provincial Gov. Ghulam Dastagir Azad said Saturday. Five other militants and five policemen were wounded in the clash in the Khash Rod district. The battle started after the Taliban fighters attacked the checkpoint with mortars and machine guns, he said.
NATO reported that a joint Afghan-international security force detained a handful of militants Saturday in Logar province, including an individual linked to senior leadership in the province who allegedly was helping militants move and train in the area.
The joint security force targeted a compound near the village of Sejawand in the Baraki Barak district of Logar in eastern Afghanistan and recovered AK-47 rifles, pistols, fragmentation grenades and chest racks fully loaded with AK-47 magazines, NATO said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
About 1,000 Marines and 150 Afghan troops are taking part in the offensive
I do hope they've assigned some of the Marines to watching these 150 Afghans. Cause turning your back to a Muslim ally is culturally insensitive.
#5
The Taliban most likely have learned that you don't shoot at the Marines. They will chase you down and 'neutralize' your 'attitude'.
Our family's Sergeant tells us that the Iraqi forces during the 2003 invasion learned that quickly and would hide when the Marines went through, only to attack the following Army columns.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
12/06/2009 11:54 Comments ||
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#6
I was referring to the Taliban, not the Marines.
Yes, I know. It was a gentle smack at your chronic 'pull 'em out yesterday' remarks.
Without bars in Afghanistan, I'm sure they're looking for a fight.
Nah, they just like combat. Recently, I got to sit in while a Marine staff sergeant - by request - gave an impromptu lesson in small-unit tactics to two PFCs while they were waiting for their appointments. Impressive all the way around, especially considering these guys are all part of a Wounded Warrior battalion.
The government is gathering evidence to make it clear that al Shabaab was responsible for the recent suicide bombing of a university graduation ceremony in Mogadishu. Many of the graduates were medical specialists, which Somalia is desperately short of. In cases like this, where a bombing attack creates great public anger against the attacker, the terrorists responsible either remain silent, or, if suspected, deny responsibility. This attack had al Shabaab written all over it, and there's no mystery why it was carried out. The attacker was a man disguised as a woman (wearing a burqa). Four government ministers were killed in the attack, which al Shabaab believes will intimidate the surviving senior officials of the Transitional Government, and discourage other prominent Somalis from opposing Islamic radicals like al Shabaab.
Currently, the only thing keeping the Transitional Government in Mogadishu is the AU (African Union) peacekeeping force. The 5,000 professional soldiers of the AU force have been able to deal with the al Shabaab irregulars. In three years of action, the AU troops have suffered about same rate of casualties the foreign troops have (400 dead per 100,000 troops per year) in the last two years of fighting in Afghanistan. That's half the rate of loss for the peak years of fighting in Iraq (which itself was about a third of the rate in Vietnam or World War II). This is a rate of loss (60 dead, about 200 wounded) that the peacekeepers can sustain, especially since battalions stay in Mogadishu for only a year (or less) at a time. The biggest problem the peacekeepers are having is with their own leaders, as much of their pay appears to have been stolen by the corrupt officials.
The civil war between Islamic radical groups Hizbul Islam and al Shabaab is partly about a leadership struggle, and partly about nationalism. Al Shabaab has allied itself with al Qaeda, thus gaining international support from Islamic radicals, including many Somali expatriates. But in doing so, al Shabaab has come to be seen, by Somalis, as a bunch of foreigners invading the country while pretending to be allies. Hizbul Islam is more a coalition of tribal Islamic radical factions. Sort of an Islamic radical "Somalia for the Somalis". Hizbul Islam believes it can successfully play the "expel the foreigner (over a thousand al Qaeda gunmen)" card and defeat al Shabaab. There is a real danger here for al Shabaab, which is why they openly deny any responsibility for the December 3rd suicide bomber attack that killed all those medical personnel. But Hizbul Islam also has problems, the main one being that is more factious than al Shabaab, and many of those factions don't want to fight al Shabaab.
There's growing enthusiasm in the UN, and among nations losing ships to the Somali pirates, that a more robust response to the pirates is required. But there are two schools of thought on how to go about this. The more timid want to go after the foreign contracts the pirates are using to handle negotiations and delivery of the ransom, as well as those merchants who are supplying the pirates with consumer goods, purchased with the ransom money. This would be difficult to do, because the pirates are using a lot of the same foreign merchants (largely in Yemen or the Persian Gulf) who handle all commerce for Somalia (which still has an economy, despite the chaos, and millions of consumers). The other faction backs more aggressive action against the pirates. This includes an attempt to halt the payment of ransoms, and the use of force to take back captured ships. This will get people killed, but is seen as the only way to halt the pirate activity. However, many UN members, and leftists in general, sympathize with the pirates, who are seen as freedom fighters against illegal fishing, and dumping of toxic waste in Somali waters.
Yemen is asking for more help in dealing with a million Somali refugees. Even more Somalis have crossed the Gulf of Aden since government disappeared in Somalia in the early 1990s, but many of those moved on to find refuge in other countries. Smuggling Somalis (and Africans in general) across the Gulf of Aden, to Yemen, is a big business, and what many Somali fishermen did before they discovered piracy pays better.
So far this year, the pirates have seized 40 ships and over 500 sailors. Most were held for ransom, but some of the seagoing fishing ships were kept for use as mother ships, for the increasing attacks far off the east coast of Somalia.
Posted by: Fozen Al ||
12/06/2009 13:28 ||
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#1
More proof they're animals, not People.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/06/2009 18:27 Comments ||
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#2
I don't know that you do anything but help al Shabaab if you clampdown on the piracy. My understanding is that they are on opposite sides.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
12/06/2009 19:07 Comments ||
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[Asharq al-Aswat] Two Rwandan peacekeepers were shot dead and one was wounded in Sudan's Darfur region on Saturday, the second attack on their contingent in 24 hours, the force said. At least one gunman opened fire on the soldiers as they distributed water in a refugee camp in north Darfur, the joint U.N./African Union force said, a day after three Rwandan soldiers were killed in an ambush as they escorted a water tanker.
UNAMID spokesman Kemal Saiki said it was too early to say whether the attacks were linked. The shooting brought to 22 the number of peacekeepers killed since the undermanned and underequipped force started work in January 2008.
UNAMID, which is supposed to keep the peace in a territory about the size of Spain, has faced threats and harassment from Sudanese government troops, the United Nations reported last month, and has also been targeted by bandit gangs active in the remote western region. Khartoum dismissed the U.N. report.
Saiki said the Rwandans were distributing water to residents of a refugee camp in the settlement of Shangil Tobay, about 65 km (40 miles) south of the capital of north Darfur El Fasher. "At least one armed man walked up and opened fire without warning. Two of the peacekeepers were killed on the spot," Saiki said. "We don't know if this was an attempted car-jacking or a random attack. We have no idea of motives or the identity of the attacker." He said a third Rwandan soldier was wounded.
Three Rwandan soldiers were killed and two wounded in an ambush near the north Darfur settlement of Saraf Omra, about 200 km east of El fasher, on Friday.
UNAMID said it was investigating the cause of the attack, but suspected the gunmen may have been trying to steal a vehicle.
Law and order has collapsed more than six years after mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms against Sudan's government, accusing it of neglecting the region.
Sudan's government mobilised mostly Arab militias to crush the uprising. Violence has diminished in recent years, replaced in many areas by a free-for-all involving rival tribes, rebel splinter groups and bandits.
Estimates of the death toll range from 300,000 according to U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes, to 10,000 according to Khartoum.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2009 00:00 ||
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Houthi fighters say they have opened a front against Saudi Arabia in northern Yemen, as the Saudi invaders reportedly step up their offensives against the Shia population.
The fighters on Saturday said they had taken on Saudi forces in the northern Yemeni province of Al-Jawf. They added that locals had joined forces with the fighters to fend off the Saudi cross-border attacks.
Riyadh has recently reinforced Sana'a's offensives against Houthis, charging that the fighters had attacked one of its border checkpoints.
Already involved in defending the Shia minority in the northwestern Sa'ada Province from Yemeni soldiers, the fighters previously said they could not be interested in opening another front.
According to the Houthi website, however, Saudi fighter planes launched more than 13 assaults on Sa'ada throughout Saturday and Friday.
The aircraft released as many as 115 missiles, added the statement which also said four civilians, including a three-year-old child, had been killed in attacks on the northern Malahit and Saqain districts.
Besides inflicting civilian casualties, the state-led and Saudi aided offensives have forced tens of thousands to flee their homes.
The fighters say Saudi forces venture beyond Houthi positions targeting civilian areas. They have also been reportedly using unconventional weaponry including flesh-eating white phosphorus bombs.
It's getting close to the time when the Saudis call in their chips and demand to use the nuclear bombs Pakistan is storing for them.
I'm waiting for the Saudi version of an 'arclight' (drinks are on me) ....
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2009 00:00 ||
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#7
ION TOPIX > HOUTHIS EXPAND WAR AGZ SAUDIS + TROUBLE ON THE SA'ADA MOUNTAINS; + YEMEN: SAUDI-IRAN PROXY WAR [regional]OR PERSISTENT LOCAL INSURGENCY?
* SAME > US ON GUARD AGZ AL QAEDA IN SOMALIA AND YEMEN.
[Ma'an] Four Palestinians were added to the latest edition of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation's "Most Wanted Terrorist List," Agence France-Presse reported Friday.
The men were added to the list for their alleged participation in a 1986 hijacking of a Pan Am flight in Pakistan, the report said. The incident left 20 dead.
Information on the men, identified as Dawood Muhammad Hafith At-Turki, 54, Jamal Shahid Abdul-Rahim, 44, Muhammad Abdullah Khalil Hussein Ar-Rahayil, 44, and Muhammad Ahmad Al-Munawwar, 44, is being purchased by the American government for five million dollars.
The FBI list said the four likely belonged to the Marxist group Abu Nidal, and added that the men were believed to reside in the Middle East.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2009 00:00 ||
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A lot of Mohammed's in there.
Posted by: Dave UK ||
12/06/2009 17:42 Comments ||
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#2
A coincidence, I'm sure, Dave.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/06/2009 18:15 Comments ||
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#3
Unitarian Universalists are underpresented in Palestine.
#4
Why would the FBI want them? Hopefully, we can put some kind of cap on collecting bloodthirsty psychos excercising Constitutional rights that they didn't know they had.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
12/06/2009 19:02 Comments ||
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#5
IIRC Saddam hosted some Abu Nidal for years, including an airliner hijack training center. Maybe they're involved in the insurgency in Iraq, maybe some other current activity.
[Dawn] Up to 40 militants attacked an army checkpoint, killing one soldier, a security official said on Saturday, after suicide bombers and gunmen killed dozens at a mosque near Pakistan's military headquarters.
Soldiers at the checkpoint on a bridge in Wana, the main town in South Waziristan, retaliated after coming under fire on Friday night, said the security official.
'There were 30 to 40 militants who first fired rocket-propelled grenades at our post and then opened fire with AK-47 rifles which killed one of our soldiers. But we retaliated and killed six militants,' a security official in the region, who asked not to be named, told Reuters.
An intelligence official said helicopter gunships also hit militant positions in the battle.-- Reuters
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2009 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Thirteen suspected militants were killed in latest clashes in South Waziristan and Orakzai agencies. At least seven suspected militants were killed and 11 others were injured as security forces pounded militant hideouts in Orakzai's Hiljok, Arkhanjo and Mamozai areas, ... where you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy...
official sources said.Meanwhile, six suspected militants were killed in clashes with security forces in the Makeen and Ladha areas of South Waziristan.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2009 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] An accidental blast destroyed a shop in northwest Pakistan on Saturday, killing at least three people, officials said, unnerving a city frequently bombed by militants.
Police said initially that a bomb had exploded near a fast food restaurant. Hours later two police officers and a local government official said it was an accidental blast.
'We did not find any substance which indicated it was a bomb,' said Peshawar police chief Liaqat Ali Khan.
In a reminder of serious security challenges Pakistan faces, militants attacked a mosque near Pakistan's army headquarters in Rawalpindi on Friday, killing at least 40 people, including army officers, just a 30-minute drive from Islamabad.
Peshawar has been hit the hardest by bombings blamed on militants. Aside from a loss of life, the violence has also had a psychological and financial toll.
Standing at the scene of Saturday's blast, where people on the second floor of a burning building pleaded for help, taxi driver Noorzada Khan tried to make sense of all the violence that has kept residents at home and deprived him of business.
'They're professional killers. They're doing all this for money. They must be funded from outside. They cannot run such things alone,' he said.
Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi condemned the latest wave of violence and said Pakistan's will would not be broken.
'Such reprehensible acts can never defeat our national resolve to fight out terrorism and militancy,' he said in a statement.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2009 00:00 ||
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An Indian-held Kashmiri separatist leader who supports talks with New Delhi over the restive region's future was battling for his life on Saturday after being critically injured by unknown attackers.
Fazal Haque Qureshi, 64, a leader of the moderate arm of the main political separatist group, was wounded late on Friday near his home in Srinagar. Police initially believed the widely-respected separatist leader had been shot, but doctors said later he was hit with a blunt weapon.
"Doctors said he was most likely hit with a blunt weapon causing serious head injuries," senior police officer Maqsoodul Zaman told AFP. "He's fighting for his life." Shops and businesses in Srinagar closed to protest against the attack. Qureshi is one of the separatists who welcomed India's recent offer to start a "quiet dialogue" to resolve the future of Kashmir. Indian Home Minister P Chidamabaram said he was "deeply distressed" by the attack.
"The cowardly attack won't be allowed to derail the peace process," he said in a statement. "We will continue the quiet dialogue with all shades of opinion."
There has been no claim of responsibility for the attack, which IHK Chief Minister Omar Abdullah told the Indian Express was "meant to instil fear in those who are talking".
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2009 00:00 ||
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Law-enforcement agencies on Saturday arrested six people from Islamabad and Rawalpindi for their alleged involvement in Friday's attack on the Parade Lane mosque in the garrison city.
A joint investigation team -- consisting of army personnel and officials of civilian law enforcement agencies -- has been tasked to investigate the attack on the mosque. During the investigations, the authorities took Imran into custody. The vehicle used by the terrorists was registered in his name.
According to Islamabad Police sources, the suspects were arrested from Sector E-11 of the federal capital as well as from various localities in Rawalpindi.
The team said investigators had gathered evidence from the crime scene, adding that the faces of only one of the four attackers, who were killed by the law enforcement officials on Friday, was recognisable.
The heads of the remaining terrorists had been dispatched to the hospital for reconstructive surgery on their faces.
They said fingerprints of the terrorists involved in the attack had also been taken from the weapons recovered from the site of the blast. Security forces also recovered a large number of hand grenades from the site.
Meanwhile, Regional Police Officer (RPO) Aslam Khan Tareen said efforts were being made to trace the perpetrators of the Parade Lane mosque blast.
Tareen appealed to the public to cooperate with police to cope with the recent wave of terrorism in the country, APP reported. He also denied media reports that the owner of the vehicle used by terrorists had been arrested.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2009 00:00 ||
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Security forces have captured former Tehreek-e-Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud's right-hand commander, Rafiuddin, along with five other terrorists in Hangu, official sources told Daily Times on Saturday, adding the forces had also killed a Taliban commander.
The sources said Taliban commander Zahir Shah was killed during a military operation in Tal area, adding that the six arrested Taliban members included Baitullah's close aide, commander Rafiuddin.
They said the arrested Taliban belonged to Sararogha area in South Waziristan and may have fled the area after Operation Rah-e-Nijat was launched in Waziristan. The forces also seized sophisticated weapons from their possession.
Killed: Separately, around 40 terrorists attacked an army checkpoint in Wana, killing one soldier, Reuters reported.
"Soldiers at the checkpoint on a bridge in Wana retaliated after coming under fire on Friday night," a security official said. "There were 30 to 40 Taliban who first fired rocket-propelled grenades at our post and then opened fire with AK-47 rifles which killed one of our soldiers. But we retaliated and killed six of them," he said. Also, one soldier was killed by terrorsits in Ladha, South Waziirstan, as security forces continue the ongoing military oepration in the region. "A soldier was martyred when terroists shot and killed him in Ladha," the Inter-Services Public Relations said.
The forces conducted search operations in Shikaro near Janata and Haider Killi near Tank, and cleared the area around Barwand, recovering caches of weapons and ammunition. The security forces also cleared Dashkai Algad, Barhka near Marakai, Tauda China Khula East. Security forces apprehended six terrorists during search and clearance operations in Swat at Behar near Shalpin, Nawe Kale and Fatehpur. Four suspects surrendered to security forces at Main Killi and Naranjpura. The forces also conducted search operations at Takhtaband, Udigram, Dadrah and apprehended three more terrorists.
Arrested: Also, security forces arrested 35 suspected Taliban, including three important commanders, during search operations in Bara Tehsil of Khyber Agency, APP reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2009 00:00 ||
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[Ma'an] Hamas officials accused the Palestinian Authority of arresting three of its affiliates in the West Bank in a statement released Friday. The Islamic movement said PA security forces arrested three supporters from Nablus, Ramallah and Hebron.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Just start booming each other. If Pakis can boom each other, why you---who invented the business---can't?
[Ma'an] Ma'an -- Egyptian security services raided a tunnel and two storehouses holding goods to be smuggled through tunnels into the Gaza Strip, following a security operation on the Egyptian border with Rafah on Saturday.
The Egyptian security forces exposed a storehouse behind the local council of Rafah City, on the Egyptian side, and discovered a smuggling tunnel.
Further Egyptian security sources stated that they confiscated a number of goods in the warehouse, many of which were smuggled through the tunnel. They also raided another storehouse owned by a fish merchant in Al-Arish, where they found four cars loaded with fabric prepared for the tunnels.
The sources added that four men were detained, including one governmental employee in Al-Arish city, who admitted that the goods were prepared for smuggling into Gaza via the tunnels.
Meanwhile, the Sawasiyah human rights center warned on Saturday of the harsh living conditions endured by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, largely resulting from Israel's refusal to permit the entry of domestic gas for over three months. The centre also cautioned that searching for alternatives to compensate for the domestic gas shortage further frustrates the population, as such products are also unavailable as a result of Israel's blockade.
The human rights center further stated that many bakeries and factories in the Gaza Strip have been shut down as a result of the domestic gas crisis, adding that agricultural greenhouses and poultry farms have ceased functioning as a result, in turn threatening to escalate the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.
Irael intends to permit small amounts of humanitarian aid intermittently into the Gaza Strip. However, the Sawasiyah human rights center said that this move is only an attempt to show international observers that it allows the bare minimum in to the besieged strip, describing the policy as an "insult" to Palestinians in Gaza.
The human rights group stressed that deepening the crisis during the winter months violates international law and treaties and called on Egypt to provide Gaza with the required amounts of domestic gas, adding that efforts need to be undertaken by the Arab world to end the siege and allow the Rafah crossing to be opened to rescue Palestinians from the "coming disasters."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
where they found four cars loaded with fabric prepared for the tunnels
Hmmm, Like Subway cars? or maybe mine carts?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/06/2009 18:32 Comments ||
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they were Faaaabulous carts!
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/06/2009 18:38 Comments ||
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The military arrested dozens of people and seized caches of weapons after martial law was imposed over the weekend on a southern Philippine province where 57 people had been killed in a massacre, officials said Sunday.
The military so far has detained a total of 47 people, most of them this weekend, after taking control over Maguindanao Province, in an attempt to quell a rebellion by supporters of a powerful political family accused of carrying out a massacre two weeks ago, said Maj. Randolph Cabangbang of the army.
Among those arrested over the weekend were six members of the Ampatuan family, including the patriarch, Andal Ampatuan Sr., and his son, Zaldy, the governor of the five-province Muslim autonomous region that includes Maguindanao. A seventh member, Andal Ampatuan Jr., had been arrested before the crackdown.
The military said Sunday that it had raided a property owned by the family patriarch and found 40 firearms, including Armalite assault rifles and ammunition. It was the latest in a series of raids.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo cited a breakdown of law and order in Maguindanao. Her announcement of martial law, made public on Saturday, drew some criticism.
The Ampatuans were once among Mrs. Arroyos closest political allies in the south, but they are now accused of staging the massacre, as well as a rebellion against her government.
Heavily armed groups in the province of Maguindanao have established positions to resist government troops thereby depriving the Executive of its powers and prerogatives to enforce the laws of the land to maintain public order and safety, read a portion of Proclamation No. 1959, signed by Mrs. Arroyo late Friday.
Law and order, it said, has deteriorated to the extent that local judicial system and other government mechanisms in the province are not functioning; thus, endangering public safety.
Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera said the imposition of martial law, which came with the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus and allows the military to arrest suspects without a warrant, was necessary because of the rebellion being waged by the Ampatuan family. She also asserted that trying the Ampatuans in court would prove difficult because, according to her, no judge would hear the case, and because prosecutors had begged off from handling the case for fear of the Ampatuans. The family ruled the province for much of this decade and are known for their vast private army.
Brig. Gen. Gaudencio Pangilinan, operations chief of the armed forces of the Philippines, said at a briefing at the presidential palace that supporters of the Ampatuans had been massing in several areas around the province and that violence was imminent.
Ms. Devanadera said that Mrs. Arroyo was supposed to make a report to Congress about her decision to impose military rule in Maguindanao, as mandated by the Constitution.
All these actions that the government is doing are in accordance with the Constitution, Ms. Devanadera said Sunday. The declaration of martial law is not a taste test for doing the same in other parts of the country, referring to the criticism that the move had generated.
While some Filipinos welcomed the declaration, some denounced it, calling it unnecessary.
It appears to me as an overreaction, a former president, Fidel Ramos, told ABS-CBN television, a local station. Mr. Ramos, speaking from Sydney, is a former general who implemented martial law after it was imposed by Ferdinand Marcos in 1972.
The former rulers son, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., said Saturday that Filipinos should watch closely how martial law will be used by the government.
The criticism of Mrs. Arroyo centers on the two constitutional requirements for martial law: an invasion by a foreign power or a rebellion. Critics said neither of these two were present.
Before the declaration Friday night, government had not mentioned a rebellion. But Saturday, the justice secretary said that cases against the Ampatuans would not be classified as such.
They are criminals, not rebels, said Luz Ilagan, a congresswoman who spoke at a protest in Manila on Saturday, referring to the Ampatuans.
Marvic Leonen, dean of the College of Law of the University of the Philippines, said Mrs. Arroyo should also observe an extraordinary level of transparency and accountability with this declaration.
Mrs. Arroyo has been under pressure to act on the massacre of 57 people, including journalists and media workers, supporters and relatives of a rival political leader, as well as motorists who just happened to have been at the checkpoint where the convoy of victims was stopped. They were brought to a nearby hilltop where they were shot, hacked and buried using a backhoe owned by the provincial government of Maguindanao, where Andal Ampatuan Sr. is governor.
Police commandos rescued a kidnapped Indian businessman on Sunday and killed six people suspected of being his abductors in two gun battles, The Associated Press reported, quoting officials.
Heavily armed police officers, backed by military intelligence agents, raided the kidnappers hide-out in Calumpit township in Bulacan Province, north of Manila, after midnight, provoking a brief clash in which three abductors were killed, said Senior Superintendent Isagani Nerez of the police.
They rescued Avtar Singh, 52, who was tied and blindfolded in a room but unharmed. Three other kidnappers left the gangs hide-out two hours before the raid and were killed in a shoot-out with the police, the authorities said.
Mr. Singh, who has a money-lending company, was kidnapped Friday in the Manila suburb of Quezon City by four gunmen, who took his van.
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.
Warsaw - The wife of the Polish foreign minister escaped unhurt when her car blew up in mysterious circumstances, Polish authorities said Sunday.
[Asharq al-Aswat] U.S. Marines and Afghan troops have killed at least seven Taliban fighters during the first U.S.-led offensive since President Barack Obama announced a new American war plan this week, Afghan officials said Saturday. American and Afghan troops have met little resistance since Operation Cobra's Anger was launched Friday to disrupt Taliban supply and communications lines in the strategic Now Zad Valley of Helmand province in southern Afghanistan, Marine officials said.
[Asharq al-Aswat] Two Rwandan peacekeepers were shot dead and one was wounded in Sudan's Darfur region on Saturday, the second attack on their contingent in 24 hours, the force said. At least one gunman opened fire on the soldiers as they distributed water in a refugee camp in north Darfur, the joint U.N./African Union force said, a day after three Rwandan soldiers were killed in an ambush as they escorted a water tanker.
An Indian-held Kashmiri separatist leader who supports talks with New Delhi over the restive region's future was battling for his life on Saturday after being critically injured by unknown attackers.
Law-enforcement agencies on Saturday arrested six people from Islamabad and Rawalpindi for their alleged involvement in Friday's attack on the Parade Lane mosque in the garrison city.
Security forces have captured former Tehreek-e-Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud's right-hand commander, Rafiuddin, along with five other terrorists in Hangu, official sources told Daily Times on Saturday, adding the forces had also killed a Taliban commander.
[Ma'an] Ma'an -- Egyptian security services raided a tunnel and two storehouses holding goods to be smuggled through tunnels into the Gaza Strip, following a security operation on the Egyptian border with Rafah on Saturday. 
