#3
WASHINGTON The Obama administration reaffirmed Sunday that it will begin pulling U.S. troops out of Afghanistan next summer Surely Afghan forces are aware of what this means for them and their futures.
The rate at which British soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan is almost four times that of their US counterparts, and double the rate which is officially classified as "major combat".
Analysis by the Medical Research Council's biostatistics unit at the University of Cambridge also found that the death rate of UK troops is twice that of 2006, when they were described as being involved in the fiercest fighting since their involvement in Korea 50 years ago.
The researchers said the "UK could expect at least as many military fatalities in 10 weeks in Afghanistan as in 20 weeks in 2006".
The official classification of "major combat" is a killing rate of six per 1,000 personnel years. For the 12 months up to May, the killing rate for British troops in Afghanistan stood at 13.
During February and May, the death rate of UK military personnel reached 9.9 per 1,000 personnel years compared with 2.7 for US forces in Afghanistan.
During the four previous months, the UK rate reached 12 compared with 3.9 for the US and between May and October last year it peaked at 17.3, twice the figure of 8.4 experienced by American forces during the period.
Of the 299 British soldiers killed during the Afghanistan campaign so far, 265 were killed in action, with the remainder victim to accidents, friendly fire or suicide. There has been a spike in the number of British soldiers killed by gunfire as opposed to roadside bombs, the asymmetric tactics utilised with deadly effect by the Taliban throughout last year. During 2009, fewer than one in five soldiers was killed by small-arms fire.
The average age of British casualties is 22. Two hundred soldiers have been killed in their twenties and 31 teenagers are among the death toll.
Twenty-six of the 299 British casualties are officer class and one female soldier has died. Geographically, they are from a fairly even spread throughout the UK.
#1
Thank you to all of the brave warriors from our ally England who stepped up and stood side by side with us in the fire. No matter what happens in the future there are many of us in the U.S. who will never forget them.
#3
Mainly equipment issues - the Brits like most Europeans do NOT have enough helicopters, LAVs, MRAPS, or even proper LBE for their troops. The US is effectively re-equipping Euro units as they arrive in-country from older US stocks.
NATO says nine of its soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan, including four in a helicopter crash in the south.
Three Australian soldiers and an American service member were killed Monday, when their helicopter went down in Kandahar province. A NATO statement says there are no indications of enemy involvement in the crash. Seven other Australian soldiers were wounded.
NATO says separate bomb explosions killed two other service members, including an American, in the south. A small-arms attack killed another service member in the region. And NATO says two of its soldiers were killed in a roadside bombing in eastern Afghanistan.
A recent United Nations report noted an increase in violence in Afghanistan, with the number of roadside bombings jumping 94 percent in the first quarter of this year compared to 2009.
Also Monday, Britain announced its 300th fatality in the nine-year Afghan war after one of its soldiers died from wounds suffered in a June 12 explosion in southern Helmand province.
British Prime Minister David Cameron said Monday that Britain was "paying a high price" in Afghanistan and that British forces would leave the country as soon as Afghans can "take security for their own country."
Britain has about 10,000 troops in Afghanistan, the second largest foreign contingent after the United States.
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen expressed his condolences to Britain in a statement and said international forces have helped to ensure that Afghanistan is no longer a safe haven for terrorists.
[Dawn] Up to 26 Taliban suspects have been freed from jails in Afghanistan as part of efforts to persuade insurgents to make peace, Afghan and US officials said Monday.
The prisoners included men detained by the US military at Bagram Air Base, two in police custody in Kabul and six from a small prison in the eastern province Khost, the officials told AFP.
"They were detained for suspected links to armed opposition groups," said Nasrullah Stanikzai, advisor to President Hamid Karzai and a member of a government committee assigned to review the cases of the prisoners.
"We reviewed their cases one by one. But there was not enough evidence against them," Stanikzai said.
Stanikzai said 12 of the men were freed from a US-run jail at Bagram, the biggest NATO and US military base in Afghanistan.
Michael Gottlieb, a civilian US official dealing with prisoners, however, said 18 had been freed from Bagram after a landmark peace conference on June 2.
The release came after hundreds of tribal elders, religious leaders and other Afghan notables called at the "peace jirga" for ways to get insurgents to lay down their weapons.
The gathering called on the US-backed administration to release ordinary Taliban fighters to gain the trust of rebels fighting against the government.
Karzai then established a commission and ordered it to re-examine and free Taliban-linked prisoners detained on weak evidence.
Stankzai, one of the five members of the committee, said that his body had found 35 other prisoners of "the same category".
"They'll be freed soon," he said, adding that 19 of the men were being held by the US military and the rest by the Afghan government.
He said "dozens" of prisoners could be freed under his committee's review.
Gottlieb told AFP: "We share the commission's goal of ensuring that no detainee is held on the basis of unfounded charges or false accusations." "We welcome the input of the Consultative Peace Jirga Commission into our existing process of reviewing detainee cases," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/22/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Evidence? Isn't there enough evidence? They're Taliban, right? albeit low-level fighters? You know, I'm not sure if Afghanistan understands they are in a war so, how's that go? If you're not a part of the solution, you're part of the problem. Let's clean house and hand over the govt. to any loyal Pakistani politicians we can find (and good luck with that).
#2
Perhaps one of them will give Karzai a big hug while wearing a bomb belt.
Posted by: ed ||
06/22/2010 14:39 Comments ||
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#3
D *** NG IT, clearly it didn't have anything to do wid the AFGHAN TALIBS offering a PRISONER/HOSTAGE SWAP in exchange for them NOT EXECUTING AN ESTIM 33 MISSING/KIDNAPPED SOLDIERS [remnant from an orginal group of 40-54 or 65 Soldats kidnapped time back]???
versus
NEWS KERALA > [LTG Pasha]ISI CHIEF CONFIRMS THE INVOLVEMENT OF AFGHAN ARMY [+ Afghan Talibs] IN HELPING TERRORISTS ENTERING PAKISTAN.
But firsties first NATO weirdly and mysteriously removed their Border Checkpoints, thus facilitating the above.
The revolt of the Gizab Good Guys began with a clandestine 2 a.m. meeting. By sunrise, 15 angry villagers had set up checkpoints on the main road and captured their first prisoners. In the following hours, their ranks swelled with dozens of rifle-toting neighbors eager to join.
Gunfights erupted and a panicked request for help was sent to the nearest U.S. troops, but the residents of this mountain-ringed hamlet in southern Afghanistan held their ground. By sundown, they managed to pull off a most unusual feat: They kicked out the Taliban.
"We had enough of their oppression," Lalay, the one-named shopkeeper who organized the uprising, said in recounting the late April battle. "So we decided to fight back."
U.S. diplomats and military officials view the rebellion as a milestone in the nearly nine-year-long war. For the first time in this phase of the conflict, ordinary Afghans in the violence-racked south have risen on their own to reclaim territory under insurgent control.
It is a turnabout that U.S. and Afghan officials were not certain would ever occur. One U.S. commander called it "perhaps the most important thing that has happened in southern Afghanistan this year."
Although Gizab had long been used by the Taliban as a rest-and-resupply area for fighters traveling to battlegrounds in Kandahar and Helmand provinces, losing access to the area represents at best a tactical blow for the insurgency. It will not, by itself, change the course of the war. There is no indication that the defeat will have any immediate effect in violence-plagued areas such as Marja or the city of Kandahar.
But U.S. officials say they have heard concern voiced by Taliban commanders on intercepts of telephone conversations. Several rank-and-file fighters, and even a few mid-level leaders, have put down their weapons and reintegrated into the community. Residents of neighboring towns have told Gizab elders that they also want to rise against the insurgents.
"The Taliban thought this place was untouchable, and what the people here showed them and everyone else was that they could stand up and break free from that grip," said Brig. Gen. Austin S. Miller, the top U.S. Special Operations commander in Afghanistan. One of his Special Forces teams moved here after the uprising to train the self-appointed local guardians, whom the American troops christened the Good Guys.
The insurrection did not draw immediate attention in Kabul or Washington because Gizab is in a remote part of the country that has largely been ignored by the Afghan government and international military forces. But as word of what occurred here has trickled out, U.S. and Afghan officials have scrambled to understand how it started and how it can be replicated.
Conversations with Gizab leaders and Special Forces officers suggest that there was no single proximate cause. The uprising appears to have been the result of a combination of Taliban overreaching, U.S. encouragement and local resentment.
"We're looking for the patterns," said a State Department official in southern Afghanistan. "If we can find it, we'll be on the verge of a breakthrough."
#2
We should offer these brave people a first class ticket to the United States (because you know after all that they are all most likely marked for death). We can find an apartment building in Dearborn, Michigan to move them into and show the populace there what truly grateful Arab immigrants are supposed to look like.
Three peace keepers were killed by gunmen in an attack in the Darfur region of western Sudan, an official of the joint UN-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) said.
The peace keepers were civil engineering workers providing security at a base this morning in the Nertiti area of West Darfur when the incident happened, AFP reported.
"Brutally and without warning, about 20 men armed with AK47s )automatic weapons) opened fire at our troops," said Kemal Saiki, UNAMID's communications director.
"Three peacekeepers were killed and one was seriously wounded," and needed to be hospitalized by helicopter, he said.
The battle reportedly lasted an hour as three of the assailants were also killed.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/22/2010 00:00 ||
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[Maghrebia] Algiers remains on high alert following information that a suicide bomber planned to attack the capital, El Watan reported on Monday (June 21st). According to a terrorist arrested last week in Boumerdes, the attack was to occur Thursday or Friday. His tip also reportedly helped dismantle the bombers' support network.
Week-end roadblocks on all inbound arteries to Algiers allowed security services to conduct comprehensive vehicle checks but also created hours-long traffic jams. The heightened security measures will likely remain in place until several remaining suspects are captured, an unidentified security source said.
"The safety of people and goods has a price," the source added.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/22/2010 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Moroccan security services dismantled Monday a suspected Islamic extremist network headed by a Palestinian national, the interior ministry said.
The network of 11 members led by a Palestinian "planned to commit terrorist acts within the national territory," the ministry said in a statement, adding that the activists involved were Takfirists.
Islamist-linked violence is rare in Morocco, a staunch Western ally with a reputation for stability that has helped to entice millions of tourists to visit the country.
The last big attack was a series of suicide bombings in the economic capital, Casablanca, in 2003 which killed 45 people, and since then security services say they have rounded up more than 60 radical cells.
MAP quoted an Interior Ministry statement but gave no details of the planned attacks. However, it said the group had 11 members and that its members follow a radical, Jihadist strain of Islam.
The members of the group were in custody and would soon appear before a judge, the agency said.
The Moroccan government carried out mass arrests after the Casablanca bombings but in recent years has shifted to more targeted surveillance that security experts say has helped the government to prevent several planned attacks.
More than 1,000 Islamist militants are now held in Moroccan jails, many of them after trials described by defense lawyers and judicial reform campaigners as unfair and based on flimsy evidence.
The government insists only genuine criminals are imprisoned on solid information and after fair trials.
The Interior Ministry statement quoted by MAP said the men arrested for planning the attacks were Takfirie Jihadists.
This group, which is distinct from al Qaeda, usually targets government officials and secular intellectuals in the Muslim world rather than following the al Qaeda tactic of trying to attack foreign targets.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/22/2010 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] The Rapid Action Battalion in the last two days arrested two Huji (Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami) members, who had been sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment for possessing illegal firearms and explosives.
The arrestees are Abul Kashem alias Abdullah and Abdul Haque alias Jahangir.
The law enforcers arrested Abdullah on Sunday at about 9:00pm and Jahangir yesterday morning from Valuka bus stand in Mymensingh, said Legal and Media Wing Director of Rab Commander Mohammad Sohail.
Earlier, Abdullah and Jahangir were arrested with another 39 Huji members on February 19, 1996 from a training camp in a deep forest at Thanaikhali of Ukhia near the Bangladesh-Myanmar border.
A large cache of firearms and ammunition were seized in the joint drive.
In 1998, the arrestees were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment by a special tribunal.
But they all were released on bail from the High Court soon after the BNP-Jamaat alliance assumed power in 2001.
The two arrestees during interrogation said they are not directly involved with the banned outfit, the Rab official said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/22/2010 00:00 ||
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Six people lost their lives in ongoing drug related and gang violence in northern Mexico which included a Juarez CIPOL agent shot to death near his home.
Three men were shot to death Monday morning in Juarez in three separate crimes Monday morning, according to the Mexican news daily La Polaka.
Juan Vazquez, 43, was found in a hotel room on calle Manuel Acuña with three gunshot wounds one to the head. An unidentified female companion was arrested at the scene in which she and the scene were covered in blood. An unidentified man was found shot to death on calle Oasis Revolucion on a vacant lot next to a church.
A Juarez CIPOL agent was found shot to death near his home near the intersection of calles Tepatzingo and Congreso Constituyente in the Morelos 2 district. Luis Rey Macias, 43, was hit four times in the head. His home was riddled with bullet holes.
A CIPOL agent is similar to a detective.
An unidentified man was shot to death and another was wounded in a garage of a residence late Sunday night in Juarez, according to Mexican news reports..
Witnesses say the shooting, near the intersection of Rubén Jaramillo and América Latina in the Villa Nueva district took place when a number of armed suspects riding aboard a Ford Explorer drove by the residence and fired on the pair, killing one and wounding the other.
An unidentified minor was stabbed to death while saving another minor female from an attempted rape by a well known minor gang member early Sunday morning in Chihuahua, Chihuahua, say Mexican news reports. The incident took place at a shelter near the intersection of calles Río Chuvíscar and Río Tamesis in the Martín López district of Chihuahua.
According to the translation, the young gang member, furious he had been denied entry to a shelter, sexually attacked a minor female. When another minor male attempted to intervene, he was stabbed by the gang member, mortally wounding him. The ruckus alerted an adult who attempted to intervene and was stabbed as well.
The gang member escaped without capture, but was also injured in the fight. He was later denounced by the surviving victims while at the hospital.
One man was shot to death and another was wounded by an armed suspect Monday afternoon in the southern zone of Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, according to Mexican press accounts.
Alfredo Esparza Perales, 36, was shot near the intersection of calles de Tamaulipas y Ornelas in the América 2 district. Manuel Zúñiga was shot and wounded nearby.
According to witnesses the two were shot by armed suspects riding aboard an unidentified vehicle. Investigators at the scene found seven 9mm spent cartridge casings.
#1
Sonora - The Puerto Peñasco police chief and his bodyguard are recovering after they were shot Saturday night. Erick Francisco Landagaray, and his bodyguard Luis Huerta Ibarra, were attacked around 11 p.m. while patrolling the seaside city, also known as Rocky Point. Right after the attack city officials asked for help from federal and state authorities and more agents were sent to patrol Rocky Point, said a city spokesman.
#2
Rocky Point is the northernmost beach town in Sonora, and as such has become like Ft. Lauderdale over the years to partying college kids. Violence there could be a disaster for a town that's got DICK besides tourism.
#4
Rocky Point = thought of as "gringolandia del sur" - now? RP real estate agents use the "Arizona RED Daily Star" to pimp for how safe things are down there. RP would have been a U.S. port if certain elements had had their say so after 1847...
#5
From last midnight,Los Herreras, NL, Mexico (AP) -- Authorities in northern Mexico say assailants sprayed a town hall with gunfire, killing at least three police officers.
The Nuevo Leon state attorney general's office says police found 200 shell casings from assault and semiautomatic rifles outside the Los Herreras municipal office, which also houses the town's police force.
Pakistani intelligence reported that a recent American UAV missile attack in North Waziristan had killed Mohammed Ali Hamadi, and fifteen other Islamic terrorists. Hamadi, who had been freed from a German prison five years ago (apparently to obtain the freedom of a German archeologist, who refused German and American government advice to get out of Iraq).
Letting Hamadi go caused a big stink in the U.S. Special Operations community. That's because Hamadi was one of three Hezbollah terrorists who hijacked an American airliner in 1985. When they found a U.S. Navy SEAL was on board, they tortured and killed him. The hijacked aircraft, and the remaining 150 passengers and crew, were eventually freed, in return for the release of over 700 Lebanese prisoners held in Israel.
Hamadi was arrested two years later, while trying to smuggle explosives into Germany. He was convicted, in 1987, of hijacking and the murder of the U.S. SEAL, and sentenced to life in prison. In Germany, "life" means you are eligible for parole after 15 years. But Hamadi's crime was considered so atrocious that the court recommended that he not be eligible for parole until he had been in prison for about twenty years.
Ignoring U.S. extradition requests, Germany released Hamadi after 18 years. Hamadi then went back to Lebanon. The U.S. put pressure on the Lebanese government to extradite Hamadi. In 2007, the U.S. offered a $5 million reward for Hamadi. Apparently fearful that someone in Lebanon might be tempted to go after that reward, Hamadi went to Pakistan in 2009, and was reported in Waziristan, planning new terror attacks.
When he died, he was in the presence of ten other foreign (non-Pakistani) Islamic terrorists, and four from Pakistan. It's not known if anyone collected a reward for Hamadi. The U.S. will pay informants these rewards if information provided leads to the death of wanted terrorists.
Several Pakistanis and Afghans have become very rich because of these rewards (and some are living in a form of Witness Protection Program as a result).
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
06/22/2010 12:12 ||
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#1
The murdered sailor was Robert Dean Stethem. He was a Seabee diver rather than a SEAL. USS Stethem (DDG-63) is named for him.
Another of the Flight 847 terrorists, Imad Mughniyeh, was killed in a "mysterious" explosion in Damascus on February 13, 2008.
#2
Justice is served albeit a little slowly. Strange how guys like Hamadi end up in the Afghanistan theater after being released from a prison in Germany five years ago. These guys are hardcore and aren't likely to change their stripes. It would almost make one think that it is a waste of time taking prisoners.
#4
WHY do you take prisoners in the first place? Because they say pretty please? You dont HAVE to take prisoners, do you? Do you need them for something? Like what?
Some may be useful for "information", that's so cerebral and abstract.
Ask yourself a question. Are there any Officers around? No? Now what is your next thought?
Which is going to be harder...pulling the trigger on this clown and pushing him in a hole in the rubble...OR herding him around and guarding him and feeding him and seeing to his welfare, medical, etc. Offer him a cigarette( how many do you have?).
You love him because he is a fellow human being , right? You feel "empathy" for him ? Tender feelings of empathy, right? Yeah?
You will even share your dry socks with him and give him some of your food. You are just that kinda guy. Uh huh.
One might debate, if one were a thinky college boy( are you a college boy?) that if WE take prisoners then They would take prisoners. OK?
When is the last time you heard of them taking any of us prisoner? Think real hard. But...but..if we shoot this suckah in cold blood we would be "no better than they are". That kind of argument is way over my head. Sorry. And just between the two of us:"Bite me!"
What does the Geneva Convention have to say about accepting a surrender...he was doing his best about a minute ago to blow your brains out...and "somebody", either him or his friends did kill Sgt. Kelly, didnt they? I havent got the slightest idea about what the Geneva Convention says. I never read it. I dont even know where to find a copy, do you?
I never signed it. His people probably never signed it either.
#5
Do calm down, Knuckles dear. Even Wikipedia has an article on the Geneva Conventions, with links to the actual documents. However, the key bit you care about, is that the conventions only apply to
1. the uniformed troops of nations at war with one another,
2. civilians, and
3. spies.
Spies are people who shoot at uniformed troops but don't wear the uniform of a warring nation's armed forces. (Spies also collect information and cause damage, but that's away from the battlefield, and therefore not of interest to this discussion.) The people you are concerned with are by definition spies, and we can do anything we want to them, according to the Geneva Conventions, whether summarily shooting them or... not.
By the way, I am not a college boy, although I did go to college, where I met a nice college boy and married him. Subsequently I followed him halfway around the world, and eventually back home again. Just so that we understand one another. Because I am assigning you homework: go to the Wikipedia link above and read the Geneva Conventions. You really need to know what you are talking about when you are tempted to blither on, it will make your blithering so much more effective.
They don't call this place Rantburg U for no reason, you see.
#6
I am a College Boy. I grew up to be a College Man. I agree with tw (you have such a way with enlightening people)you really need to read the article and know about the subjects you opine on.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
06/22/2010 18:37 Comments ||
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#7
I think Knuckles is looking at it from the grunt's point of view, which is dead-on in my opinion. One of the biggest problems we've had so far in OEF/OIF is having to put up with political philosophy that our great-grandparents wouldn't even think about affording these Arab/Afghan savages. I'm with you Knuckles, don't listen to these dinosaurs.
[Dawn] Police have arrested the key commander of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Asmat Ullah Mehsud during a raid in the SITE area of Karachi.
Sources said that Mehsud was planning attacks on CID officers with his group.
The arrested commander was involved in providing financial support to the TTP campaign and was providing safe hideouts and medical treatment to injured militants in the city, sources added.
Mehsud, who is the brother of Commander Abdul Wahab Mehsud, had also facilitated militants involved in the Karsaz incident and the failed terror attack on the Kimari oil terminal.
The government had announced a Rs.10 million bounty on Abdul Wahab Mehsud.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/22/2010 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] A militant ambush has killed at least three soldiers in the troubled northwestern Pakistan amid escalating violence in the volatile region.
According to Pakistani officials, the incident took place in Kasha village in Orakzai tribal district on Monday, a Press TV correspondent reported. Five more troops were wounded in the fatal incident.
The ambush sparked pitched battles between the Pakistani army and the pro-Taliban militants active in the region.
The assault came a day after dozens of militants were killed during an operation by security forces in Orakzai district and its surrounding areas.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/22/2010 00:00 ||
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THI-QAR / Aswat al-Iraq: A total of 26 policemen have been wounded during clashes with angry men who protested the deterioration of electricity in the city of Nassiriya, head of the security committee of the Thi-Qar council said on Monday.
Fierce clashes flared up on Monday (June 21) between police forces and protestors, who demonstrated against the deterioration of electricity in Nassiriya, during which 26 cops were wounded,' Sajad al-Asadi told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
All casualties were reported among cops, including a colonel, and no casualties among protestors,' he added.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/22/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Not good. Coppers need a better training. Regardless whether the complaint was legitimate or not. One does not beat a cop for an outage.
#3
Nassiriya is about 150km northwest of Basra. The latter city, if anyone bothered to remember, had a similar riot on Saturday. I suspected then that it was Shiite elements who weren't happy with the Basra Provincial Council's "failure" in upholding sharia law.
That's likely a similar case here.
Hey, it's Iraq. You didn't think they were actually going to become civilized?
Oh goody - an Iraq expert who also can't tell Afghans from Arabs.
BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: Turkish commandos backed by helicopters deployed along the Iraqi border Monday after Kurdish guerrillas killed 11 soldiers at the weekend in one of the deadliest attacks for years in their separatist war, Reuters reported.
In Ankara, President Abdullah Gul chaired an emergency security meeting, attended by Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and military leaders, as pressure mounted for the government to rein in violence in the mainly Kurdish southeast.
The deployment has boosted troop numbers well into the thousands along the border with Iraq, where Kurdish rebels are based.
Helicopter gunships bombed suspected positions of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels group in the mountains in the provinces of Hakkari and Sirnak,' security sources said.
More than 40,000 people, mainly Kurds, have been killed since the PKK took up arms in 1984 with the aim of creating an ethnic homeland in the southeast.
A review of intelligence and the structure of personnel in the region was discussed,' a statement from Gul's office said after the security summit.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/22/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
ION ANKARA TOPIX > TURKEY LOOKING EAST AND MAKES WAVES.
ARTIC > denotes that while TURKEY, IRAN ARE RISING, ARABS as a class are NOT. EGYPT'S TIME IS DONE = FINIS'. Better for TURKEY's interests to be a "BIG BROTHER" IN THE EAST = CENTRAL ASIA, ETC. THAN A "SMALL BROTHER" IN THE WEST.
* SAME > RUSSIA TO SELL S-300, S-400 SAMS TO TURKEY, to defend its SOuthern borders.
* SAME > WE'RE NOT FOLLOWING TURKEY'S "SEA CHANGE", as per CYPRUS ISSUE agz GREECE | RESOLUTION OF CYPRUS ISSUE KEY TO TURKEY'S BID FOR EU MEMBERSHIP.
#2
As Erdogan is clearly realigning with the Iranian and Islamic axes, I wouldn't be surprised if the Turks find some excuse to invade the Kurdish part of Iraq under some excuse or pretext of PKK agression and just in passing consolidate their occupation of the oil producing fields in this region.
This would clearly be a proper response to the weakness being broadcasted by Obama on Middle east issues.
The silence of Obama and Hillary to the clear cut Turkish provocation with the Gaza "Peace" flotilla- and their demand for investigation of Israeli attempts at self defense was a clear hint to the Turks that the US has abandoned the war on terror and has given up hope of being a decision maker in ME geopolitics.
I think in the very near future we can expect some kind of reshuffling of the power balance in the ME with some kind of Iran-Turky alliance with either the Chinese or the Russians who will gradually oust the US from any position of power in the ME.
What the heck, I've been wondering lately if Israel should not read the writing on the wall and cut some deal with the Chinese.
The only thing that keeps me from being totaly cynical is that I know Bambi will not be allowed a second (disastrous) term as POTUS by the American voter. The question is how much damage will Bambi be able to inflict on Israel (and on US citizens in the long term) in the next two years, and whether we can afford to sit quitely and do nothing as Iran gets to become a nuclear power ( we have a very good example of how Americans are able to cope with a rough nuclear states - look up the NORKS).
My personal opinion is that with or without Bambi, Israel will have to stike and we are facing an all out war in which we will be attacked simultaneously by Iran-Syria-Lebanon/Hizballa, the Hamas and possibly Turkey if Erdogan decides to go Jihadi.
In the latter case I expect nukes to be used because we will not be supported by the US and we cannot risk a long attrition war with all the above islamonuts without suffering a devastating blow to our economy.
It will be interesting to see how far Erdogan will push his luck with additional Iranian inspired "Peace Flotilas" - this could be the final match to ignite the ME.
Lots of popcorn will be needed soon.
We are constantly being pushed against the wall by the Eunuchs in Eurabia, including official NATO members and Bambi is sitting quietly on the fence and smiling. Eventually even our dumb leaders will understand that a decision has to be taken.....
The ME is now in the process of redefining spheres of influence and power. Bambi is a looser in this struggle. The strongest will survive.
The irony here is that the verbose and eloquent stance of Obama for limiting nuclear weapons and proliferation, because of a combined weak politics and inability to stand up to defiance worldwide and a tendency for abandonment of former alliances- seems to be pushing the ME towards it's first nuclear war.
Posted by: Elder of Zion ||
06/22/2010 4:17 Comments ||
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#3
Turkish commando sounds kind of like Dutch oven. It sounds like it could be something else unrelated to the Turkish military. Like a spicy, spicy submarine sandwich.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Iran has barred two U.N. nuclear inspectors from entering the Islamic Republic, a senior official was quoted as saying on Monday, in a further escalation of an international dispute over Tehran's nuclear ambitions.
The head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, Ali Akbar Salehi, said the two were declared persona non-grata for authoring an "untruthful" report by the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) about the country's nuclear work.
Salehi did not name them nor give details over what elements of the report he did not believe were accurate.
The action against the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors comes less than a fortnight after the U.N. Security Council imposed a fourth set of sanctions on Iran, followed soon after by unilateral punitive measures by the United States and the European Union.
It also comes after the IAEA in its latest report raised fresh doubts about the true nature of Iran's nuclear program.
"These two inspectors do not have the right to come to Iran because they leaked information before it was to be officially announced and they also filed a false report," Salehi was quoted by ISNA as saying.
"In other words because of these two reasons it has led us to (bar) them from coming to Iran," he said, adding that Iran has asked the IAEA to replace the two inspectors with new officials, who would be allowed to visit the Islamic republic to check its nuclear facilities.
"In the last session of the IAEA board of governors, we told the IAEA that the report filed by the two inspectors was incorrect and we objected to it," he said.
"The report was totally wrong. Based on the safeguard agreement, we requested that these two inspectors do not come to Iran and be replaced with two others."
Salehi said the decision is also an attempt to convince Iranian lawmakers that Tehran's "cooperation with the IAEA will only be within the framework of the safeguard agreement" between Iran and the UN nuclear body.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/22/2010 00:00 ||
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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.
The revolt of the Gizab Good Guys began with a clandestine 2 a.m. meeting. By sunrise, 15 angry villagers had set up checkpoints on the main road and captured their first prisoners. In the following hours, their ranks swelled with dozens of rifle-toting neighbors eager to join.
