#1
Naimatullahs dedication paid off and his commander eventually sent him back to school, this time to a madrasah in Pakistans North West Frontier province. On his first day there, a leading cleric stood up in front of the pupils and asked them what they would rather be: a suicide bomber, a bomb maker or a fighter.
#2
The students learned to be a suicide bomber or a bomb maker or a fighter in the madrashah. Sounds like their religion is death. One can hope Naimatullah will blow himself up sooner than later in a work accident.
The top Canadian soldier in Afghanistan, Brig.-Gen. Daniel Menard, has been relieved of duty and ordered home immediately, accused of having an inappropriate personal relationship with a female soldier.
An investigation has been launched into the conduct of Menard, who is married. Until next week, the forces in Afghanistan will be commanded by Col. Simon Hetherington, the deputy-commander of Canada's 2,800 soldiers in the country.
An official in Defence Minister Peter MacKay's office said the allegations against Menard involve a member of his staff.
Hetherington told reporters at Kandahar Airfield that Lt.-Gen. Marc Lessard, commander of Canadian military stationed overseas, decided to relieve Menard of his duties after he lost confidence in his capacity to command. Hetherington declined to comment on specifics of the allegations.
"As soon as Lt.-Gen. Lessard was made aware of the allegations, which was the 29th of May, he did the proper assessment and made the decision to have him relieved," Hetherington said.
Menard received the news Sunday morning in Afghanistan.
The military has a strict non-fraternization policy for deployed troops, forbidding personal relationships of an emotional, romantic or sexual nature.
#1
It's unfortunate they didn't do it for lack of competence, the most appropriate reason to have DX'd him. Apparently blaming it on fraternization is higher's attempt at a fig leaf
#2
The top Canadian soldier in Afghanistan, Brig.-Gen. Daniel Menard, has been relieved of duty and ordered home immediately, accused of having an inappropriate personal relationship with a female soldier.
In other news . . . former U.S. president Bill Clinton volunteered for the Canadian military today, . . .
Posted by: Mike ||
05/30/2010 9:36 Comments ||
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#3
So much for DADT for straights. Oh, its Canadian, never mind.
[Quqnoos] A suicide attacker blew himself up Saturday outside a military caterer in Kabul but caused no casualties, officials said
The explosion took place east of the capital, close to a warehouse and supermarket run by Supreme Food Services, supplier of food to the foreign military, ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary told AFP.
"It was suicide attack and the suicide attacker detonated explosives strapped to his body," he said.
It was not immediately clear what the target of the attack had been, he said, adding the attacker, who was on foot, may have detonated prematurely.
The blast took place at the Kabul end of the road to Bagram air base, a huge NATO installation and until recently the biggest in the country, which is about 45 kilometres (30 miles) further north.
Two suicide bomb attacks in Kabul earlier this month ended a peaceful stretch in the capital of almost three months.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/30/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Premature explodation - a common issue with teens.
[Dawn] Militants ambushed an Afghan police convoy with a roadside bomb and gunfire in eastern Afghanistan, killing five officers before fleeing Nato aerial bombardment, an official said Saturday.
Two militants were killed and up to six wounded in the battle Friday in Paktia province, said Ghulam Dastagir, the deputy provincial police chief.
He said the convoy was headed toward the Dandi Pathan district when one vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb blast, killing five officers and wounding the district police chief. Militants opened fire after the blast, triggering a gunbattle that lasted several hours before Nato aircraft were called in.
Farther north, officials in Nuristan province were still trying to confirm reports that a senior Pakistani Taliban leader was killed in several days of fighting between security forces and militants who have been trying to seize control of the Barg-e-Matal district on the Pakistan border.
Villagers who took part in the fighting said they had killed Taliban commander Maulana Fazlullah, who spearheaded the takeover of Pakistan's Swat Valley three years ago, gaining prominence as the ''Radio Mullah'' for his vehemently anti-Western sermons on local radio. The former mountain resort area fell under Taliban control until Pakistani forces drove them out last year.
Pakistani Taliban leaders say Fazlullah was in Nuristan but they believe he is still alive.
Meanwhile, Nato announced Friday that Afghan and international troops acting on intelligence information found and destroyed two bomb-making and weapons storage facilities this week in Kandahar province, and battled with militants who tried to defend them.
A cache found at one facility, in the Panjwai district, included high explosives, mortar rounds, roadside bombs, rocket-propelled grenades and automatic rifles, a Nato statement said. At the other, mines, roadside bombs and a stockpile of materials and equipment for making more were found. The exact location was not disclosed.
On Friday, the top US commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, and other dignitaries officially launched the construction of a rail link between northern Afghanistan and neighboring Uzbekistan. The 50-mile line from the Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif to Termez in Uzbekistan would eventually carry millions of tons of goods between the two countries, officials said.
Transport routes from Central Asia are among key supply lines for trade in Afghanistan -- and for US military operations. Taliban militants have sought to disrupt and control transport routes all over the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/30/2010 00:00 ||
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[Maghrebia] Tunisia on Thursday (May 27th) imposed prison sentences on 11 convicted terrorists, Reuters reported. Without identifying their group's name or links to other terror networks, defence attorney Samir Ben Amor said the men received "jail terms ranging from four to 12 years, as they were accused of having ties with a terrorist group, recruiting persons and providing it with money". All of the convicts were arrested in 2009.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/30/2010 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] The Yemeni navy has arrested 13 Somali pirates and liberated a fishing boat and its crew four days after they were seized near the island of Socotra, the defence ministry announced on Saturday.
The fishing boat's nine crew members were reported to be "safe and sound" after being freed by Yemeni marines operating in cooperation with international forces in the Arabian Sea, naval chief Rouis Abdullah Majur said.
The interior ministry website first reported the act of piracy on Friday, without specifying when it had taken place. The defense ministry report said the boat and crew had remained captive for four days.
Yemeni forces recovered weapons including machine guns and two RPG launchers, the defense ministry newspaper's website 26sep.net cited Majur as saying.
It said the rescue operation took place off Yemen's Al-Mahrah province, which borders Oman, and added that the captured Somalis would face trial in Yemen.
The vessel was attacked off Socotra at the mouth of the Gulf of Aden as it sailed to Al-Mukalla port.
Heavily armed pirates using speed boats operate in the Gulf of Aden where they prey on ships, sometimes holding them for weeks before releasing them for large ransoms paid by governments or ship-owners.
On May 18, a Yemeni court sentenced six Somali pirates to death and jailed six others for 10 years each for seizing a Yemeni oil tanker and killing two cabin crew in April 2009.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/30/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Yemeni court sentenced six Somali pirates to death
Between the Yemenis and the Russias, we just may get control over this pirate problem.
#2
by Yemeni marines operating in cooperation with international forces in the Arabian Sea
Fast-forward 2 weeks.
The ACLU, at the behest of CAIR, has begun an investigation into the possible collusion between Yemen and US intelligence, regarding the capture and disposition of said pirates. Several or all of said pirates could simply be fishermen.
"Due to the savage level of jurisprudence in Yemen, and to the involvement of the United States, we insist that the venue be transferred to Detroit, MI," said a chief operative of the ACLU. "True justice could never be served in Yemen."
[Al Arabiya Latest] Yemen is hunting 60 suspects allegedly involved in kidnapping foreigners, the interior ministry said on Saturday, just days after two American tourists were snatched and then released by armed tribesmen.
The suspects, some of whom are wanted for abductions that took place more than 10 years ago, are on a wanted list that includes 65 others suspected of kidnapping Yemenis, a source at the ministry told AFP.
Another 140 suspects have been arrested, most of whom have already been tried, the ministry said in a statement.
Yemen's security forces have been engaged since mid-2008 in a "relentless war against abductions and those responsible for them... the kidnappers being as dangerous as terrorists," the ministry added.
The latest kidnapping took place on May 24, when two Americans and their driver were seized near a popular tourist attraction around 70 kilometers (45 miles) west of Sanaa, with the kidnappers hoping to exchange them for a jailed fellow tribesman.
They were released the following day, though it was not clear whether this was a result of any deal.
Yemen's powerful tribes often kidnap foreigners for use as bargaining chips in disputes with the central government. Of about 200 foreigners seized in Yemen over the past decade, almost all have been released unharmed.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/30/2010 00:00 ||
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[Quqnoos] Members of an armed gang, who killed more than 80 people in a double attack on two mosques in the eastern city of Lahore were arrested in Pakistan, reports
Security forces battled the attackers for several hours in the aftermath of the co-ordinated suicide and grenade attacks on Friday, but some escaped.
Shortly after Friday prayers, the co-ordinated assaults took place in different residential neighborhoods of the city, police said.
Sajjad Bhutta, the deputy commissioner of Lahore, said the twin attacks took place on mosques in Garhi Shahu and Model Town.
Bhutta said the death toll at Garhi Shahu was higher because three attackers blew themselves up with suicide vests packed with explosives when police tried to enter the building.
Lahore is the second largest city in Pakistan and a key military and political centre. It has been the scene of several attacks by opposition groups.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/30/2010 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] Pakistan has established an alternative to Facebook after the website was banned for hosting a sacrilegious cartoon contest about Prophet Mohammed (PTUI!).
MillatFacebook helps connect users to 1.57 billion Muslims as well as what it describes as "sweet people from other religions." Like Ahmadis?
It also aims to offer an alternative to a site that has been criticized for its confusing privacy controls, NDTV reported.
Thousands of people demonstrated in Pakistan on May 19 to protest against a Facebook page that encouraged users to post images of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH.)
The Pakistani government ordered Internet service providers to block Facebook after a group of Islamic lawyers won a court order requiring Pakistan to block the US-based social networking site until May 30.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/30/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
It'll get monotonous, not to mention confusing, real fast.
Posted by: ed ||
05/30/2010 0:20 Comments ||
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#2
well Facebook should put its Everybody Draw Mohammed Day page back up toot sweet then! Now the Muslims can segregate themselves if they don't like it
[The News (Pak)] An important commander of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Ebad-ul-Rehman alias Farooq Chatan, wanted for allegedly coordinating assassination of Benazir Bhutto, is said to have been killed along with his brother Yousaf, in the first-ever drone strike in Khyber Agency two weeks ago.
There is no official word available but intelligence sources involved in tracking his movement said they are 95 per cent sure that he had been killed. "The rest 5 per cent confirmation can only be obtained through DNA testing and we do not have access to the body," said an intelligence source. An official of the ISPR said they generally don't confirm or deny killings of particular militant leaders.
A drone strike on May 15 had reportedly left around 15 people dead, including 13 militants. The local administration denying that it was a drone strike, had said the attack was carried out by a Pakistani fighter plane. According to sources, those killed other than Ebad-ul-Rehman and his brother Yousaf included eight Uzbek militants.
Ebad-ul-Rehman is believed to have coordinated between the TTP and the al-Qaeda the assassination plan of Benazir Bhutto as multiple teams were deputed to places where Benazir Bhutto was addressing the election rallies. It transpired during the investigation with those arrested in connection of Benazir Bhutto's assassination that the plan was first approved by Abu Abaida al-Misri, the head of al-Qaeda's Shura, and allegedly executed by Baitullah Mehsud-led TTP.
Abu Abaida died in January 2008, due to illness. Another TTP leader, Nadir alias Ismail, from district Swabi, who was allegedly in-charge of this assassination squad and reportedly presided over the meeting in Akora Khattak of the bombers sent on the mission, was intriguingly also killed, again in January 2008, during in an encounter with the Frontier Corps.
As far as Ebad-ul-Rehman is concerned, he belonged to Malakand Agency, and was a Hafiz-e-Quran and a frequent user of satellite phone. He was carrying the head money in millions of rupees. Killed in drone strikes near the Jabrol Camp located in Ragha area in Tirah Valley in Landikotal Tehsil of Khyber Agency, Ebad is said to have been buried in Tirah.
As the investigators were looking into the family tree obtained from the Nadra record, they found his eight relatives working in lower positions in a security institution, four of them were declared deserters as they had quit their jobs never to return. The rest of the four, who were still in service, were investigated for their possible links with Ebad but found to be innocent.
A source, however, told The News that TTP chief Baitullah Mehsud had denied the charge of involvement in Benazir Bhutto's killing. He had then said that Taliban did not kill women. The source said the TTP used to own what they did and they never owned Benazir's killing.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/30/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
"This is Kyber, the infidels don't come here. We'll be safe. I need to make a call. Hand me the Sat..."
*Boom*
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/30/2010 9:47 Comments ||
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LAHORE: Police say the men who attacked two mosques of a religious minority in Pakistan's east belonged to the Pakistani Taleban.
No kidding? Hard-line Islamic hard boyz attack religious minority? Who would have guessed?
The attacks Friday killed 93 people at sites of worship belonging to the Ahmadi sect.
Senior police officer Akram Naeem said Saturday one of the captured attackers said the men had trained in North Waziristan, a region where the U.S. wants Islamabad to mount an army operation.
Leaders of Pakistan's minority Ahmadi sect demanded better government protection Saturday as they buried many of the 93 sect members killed by Islamist militants at two of the group's mosques. The request could test the government's willingness to take on hard-line Islamists whose influence is behind decades of state-sanctioned discrimination against the Ahmadis in the Sunni Muslim-majority country.
The attacks occurred minutes apart Friday in two neighborhoods in the eastern city of Lahore. Two teams of gunmen, including some in suicide vests, stormed the mosques and sprayed bullets at worshippers while holding off police.
Thirteen people died overnight at hospitals, raising the death toll to 93, said Raja Ghalab Ahmad, a local sect leader. Dozens were hurt. Waseem Sayed, a U.S.-based Ahmadi spokesman, said it was the worst attack in the group's 121-year history.
Local TV channels reported that the Pakistani Taliban, or their Punjab province branch, had claimed responsibility.
Ahmad called on the government to take action against the militant group, which also has attacked security, government and foreign targets throughout the country in recent years. Are we not the citizens of Pakistan?' he asked at the site of the attacks in the Garhi Shahu section of Lahore. We do have the right to be protected, but unfortunately we were not given this protection.'
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/30/2010 00:00 ||
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BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: Two soldiers were killed and four others, including two policemen, wounded when an improvised explosive device (IED) went off near a joint army-police patrol in northern Baghdad on Saturday, a security source said.
The IED went off when a joint police-army patrol was passing by near Dhiraa Dijla area, al-Taji district, northern Baghdad, leaving two army men killed and four others wounded,' the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
The blast caused severe damage to two of the patrol vehicles,' he added.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/30/2010 00:00 ||
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SALAH AL-DIN / Aswat al-Iraq: The U.S. Anaconda base came under heavy shelling' with mortars but no reports are clear yet about losses or casualties, a security source in Balad district said on Saturday.
The U.S. base Anaconda (formerly al-Bakr) came today (May 29) under violent attack with three mortar shells of 120 mm. caliber. The source of the fire could not be known,' the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
The three shells all landed outside the base,' he added.
Balad district lies 70 km south of Tikrit city. Anaconda, which lies in Yathrib district, east of Balad, is one of the most important strategic bases in Iraq as it offers logistical support for the U.S. army.
Tikrit, the capital city of the province of Salah al-Din, lies 175 km north of Baghdad.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/30/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
The U.S. base Anaconda came today under violent attack with three mortar shells of 120 mm. caliber."
Three? Somewhere, Charlie is laughing.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/30/2010 14:50 Comments ||
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#2
The hapless splodadopes dupes are not buying into the one-way trip? Questioning the 72 virgin sales pitch? Not closing the deals as often? They are catching on that they are only tools to be used by the higher ups who are safely pulling the strings somewhere else?
#3
AQ in IRAQ is running out of splodeydopes. The candidates are heading fr A'stan and Pakistan, where there are more Americans to target (and miss/mist).
[Al Arabiya Latest] Six Palestinians were killed and 12 others injured as a Gaza smuggling tunnel collapse after contraband gas canisters exploded on Saturday, medics in the coastal enclave said.
The accident occurred as the canisters were being smuggled through the tunnel under the Egyptian border with the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, the medics and witnesses said.
The explosion caused the tunnel to collapse, they said, adding that one of the wounded was in critical condition. An earlier report said two Palestinians were killed and 11 wounded.
The impoverished territory of 1.5 million people has largely relied on the vast network of tunnels since Israel and Egypt sealed Gaza off to all but what it says is vital aid after the Islamist Hamas seized power in June 2007.
Most of the tunnels are used to bring in basic goods like food, household appliances and livestock, but Hamas and other militant groups reportedly use their own more secret tunnels to bring in arms and money.
More than 130 Palestinians have died in cave-ins or been killed by Israeli military operations aimed at the tunnels since the Hamas takeover, medics say.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/30/2010 00:00 ||
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#2
I have to believe by this time, that there are several reinforced (but tightly controlled) tunnels leading into Egypt. Seems too good a money maker for the Egyptians to not have one.
GAZA - The Israeli military carried out air strikes against targets in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, an army spokesman and Palestinian witnesses said. No one was wounded in the attacks, Palestinian medical workers said.
The army spokesman said the air strikes targeted a metal factory in northern Gaza that Israel believed was used to make weapons and a tunnel dug by militants near the Israeli border. He said the strikes were in response to a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip towards Israel on Thursday.
In a separate incident, two Palestinians were killed and several injured when a cooking gas canister smuggled from Egypt exploded in a tunnel, medical workers said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/30/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Gaza is full of "medical workers", yet so much unemployment.
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.
[Al Arabiya Latest] The Yemeni navy has arrested 13 Somali pirates and liberated a fishing boat and its crew four days after they were seized near the island of Socotra, the defence ministry announced on Saturday.
[The News (Pak)] An important commander of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Ebad-ul-Rehman alias Farooq Chatan, wanted for allegedly coordinating assassination of Benazir Bhutto, is said to have been killed along with his brother Yousaf, in the first-ever drone strike in Khyber Agency two weeks ago.
