KABUL, Afghanistan One of two U.S. sailors missing in Afghanistan since last week has been confirmed dead and his body recovered, a NATO spokesman said Tuesday.
Jim Kerr, a Colorado legislator from the Denver suburb of Littleton, said the sailor killed was his wifes nephew, Hull Maintenance Technician 2nd Class Justin McNeley, 30. He said the family learned of his death Monday. He said McNeleys mother is in Kingman, Arizona, but declined to give her name. Kerr told The Denver Post that McNeley was due to return to the U.S. in August.
The Taliban have said the captured sailor is in a safe place where he will not be found.
Wikileaks, the Taliban say thanks for the feedback, guys.
Taliban insurgents used a heat-seeking missile to down a Nato transport helicopter in Helmand killing a British soldier, five Americans and a Canadian, the documents show.
#2
95% of all shoulder launched man portable anti-aircraft missiles are heat seekers : Chinese, Russian, American, French, British,etc. Sort of like saying a car has an internal combustion engine.
#6
"The documents show"
The Telegraph has manufactured this assertion almost out of thin air, thereby proving once again that lies travel around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes.
What the documents really show is that a single witness reported seeing a smoke trail from the rocket. Wikileaks and NYT analysts, not the documents themselves, therefore concluded that it was a MANPAD rather than a rocket propelled grenade because, according to them, RPGs don't leave a smoke trail.
Judge for yourself, and imagine that you are target and the projectile is coming straight at you, that is, you are looking at the smoke plume head-on: Video, RPG 7 launch
So this supposedly happened in May, 2007. And it's the only time. Which tells me either the countermeasures are very good, the Taliban doesn't have very many of them, or they really suck at using them. Or it's doom and gloom bullshit made to fit the agenda.
You don't need a shoulder fired SAM to shoot down a helicopter. The VC and NVA shot down over 5,000 in Vietnam. I doubt they had very many shoulder fired SAMs.
#9
they get their hands on or make about every weapon ever produced not far from the Khyber Pass so why does this surprise anyone? They just wanna say it is a stinger left over from the 80's is what is getting their panties in a wad so they throw it in someones face.I'm also pretty sure the ISI knows someone too buy these from too.
Posted by: chris ||
07/27/2010 13:47 Comments ||
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#10
More like the journalist firing off his manpad.
One hit on a Chinook while taking off (2007), 10 near misses? Not saying that real SAMs have not been acquired and/or used; one of the most heavily armed lawless and contested areas in the world. If over all the years and all the missions, its what an average of 1 per month, most of which were just crashes not losses? No offense to the brave men and women who were hurt bad or died...but that ain't much, and give credit to the great machines and better pilots and fantastic ground crews for such.
#11
One nice thing about Stingers -- the launch coolant/battery combo goes bad in 10 years and MUST be replaced, or the Stinger is just a really expensive IED. There is NO way to launch a Stinger without the valid coolant/battery component -- if you try to jerry-rig it, it blows up in your face. And that is a design feature of the missile system.
#12
Unfortunately, unlike Stingers, SA7's don't have a shelf life, in general. Fortunately they are not all that effective except against older rotary winged A/C.
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[Tolo News] Afghan security forces recaptured Barg-e-Matal district of the eastern Nuristan province on Sunday night that had come under Taliban control on Saturday night, local officials say That was quick.
Afghan Security Forces started their operations on Sunday night and wiped out Taliban bad boyz from the area, said the governor of Nuristan, Jamaluddin Badder. "Yep. They're all dead now."
Barg-e-Matal district came under the control of Taliban when a group of 700 Afghan and Pakistaini Taliban hard boys invaded the district of Saturday night. No casualties have been reported in last night's attacks. So they came, they saw, they conquered, they left. And the place hasn't actually been recaptured, it's just been reoccupied until they come back.
The governor of Nuristan had told TOLOnews on Sunday that Afghan troops were forced to evacuate the area to prevent civilian casualties, but Taliban put fire to the people's houses after they captured the district. So the civilian casualties thing didn't work so well for the civilians, but it got the Mighty Afghan Army out of the line of fire.
President Karzai has ordered to increase the number of police forces in the province to overcome the situation. And King Canute ordered the sea to back off...
Taliban have captured Barg-e-Matal district two times in the past two months. Seems like they just get a bunch of turbans together and take it whenever they feel like a little adventure. Then they go home and have gun sex.
Meanwhile, five Afghan police were maimed in an attack conducted by Taliban bad boyz in Wygal district of Nuristan province. "My arm! They got me, Mahmoud!"
A group of government opposition forces attacked a police checkpoint in the district, in which two Taliban hard boys were killed and another was wounded, the Police Chief of Nuristan told TOLOnews. "He's dead, Jim! He's wounded."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/27/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
King Canute gets a bad rap: he actually was one of those few Christian kings who took seriously the Christian virtue of humility. He ordered the sea to back off in response to a comment from an a**-kissing courtier, to show them he wasn't God.
#1
ION NEWS KERALA > AHMADINEJAD DENIES [Iran]AIDING TALIBAN, DEMANDS US-NATO TROOPS PULL OUT FROM AFGHANISTAN. US-NATO must withdraw from AFPAK so that Locals can control + govern their own Country(s) widout foreign interference.
* DAILY TIMES.PK > {TTP] TALIBAN SAYS IT WILL CONTINUE ITS "JIHAD" AGZ ANP. The ANP = Awami National Party is described as an ENEMY OF PAK + ISLAM WHOSE VERY EXISTENCE IN PAK + REGION IS IMMORAL = HATED BY THE TTP TALIBS.
IIUC, TTP "Jihad" agz ANP > INTER-MUSLIM WAR OF ANNIHILATION???
[The Nation (Nairobi)] Abdirashid Mohamed Irro, the minister for commerce of the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia, stated yesterday that his government was aware that militias trained in Southern Somalia have been sent to cause instability in Puntland, a semi-autonomous state in Northeastern Somalia.
Minister Irro said that the radical group Al Shabaab, has trained and sent militias to destabilise a previously unwavering region.
"At least 50 regional officials have recently been killed in Puntland by al Shabaab organised militias," said the TFG's commerce minister who hails from the Puntland region.
He urged the authority there and the people to collaborate in tackling the growing menace and added that the flow of fanatical militants to the region was high.
The government in Puntland has accused a cleric, Sheikh Mohamed Said of keeping militias in the mountain range overlooking Bossaso, the commercial capital of Puntland, 1,500 kilometres northeast of Mogadishu.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/27/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
TOPIX > ALLAFRICA > {Somali] CONFLICT WILL SPREAD UNLESS INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY CAN ACT: US POLICYMAKER.
Artic > Most Somalis are MODERATE, HENCE A "CLEAR ALTERNATIVE TO AL-SHABAAB" is needed.
* SAME > UGANDA: WE ARE PREPARING OUT FORCES TO DEFEND SOMALIA: SOMALI MINISTER [Defense].
ARTIC > many foreign "CRIMINALS" from AFGHANISTAN, PAKISTAN, YEMEN, EUROPE + AMERICA + whom are trying to escape justice from their countries are now in SOMALIA waging violent Jihad + fighting for AL-SHABAAB.
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[Maghrebia] A suicide kaboom on a building used by gendarmes in Ait Aissi, 15km south of Tizi-Ouzou, killed a municipal guard and injured at least eight cops on Sunday (July 25th), Algerian and international press reported. The bomber's explosives-laden vehicle damaged the building and the neighbouring headquarters of the mayor and the municipal police. Some residents told AFP that the attack was carried with a bomb planted at the site, rather than a rigged car.
Tizi-Ouzou, the scene of government clashes with Orcs and similar vermin, has recently witnessed citizen protests against kidnappings by terrorist groups.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/27/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Fred,
Mayber replace explosives-laden vehicle with "violent car-be-que"?
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/27/2010 19:35 Comments ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] President Nicolas Sarkozy vowed on Monday to punish al Qaeda's north African wing after confirming the death of a 78-year-old French hostage kidnapped in Niger.
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) said on Sunday it had killed Michel Germaneau in response to a raid by France and Mauritania against the group last week.
French commandos, acting with Mauritanian troops, had tried to free Germaneau, a retired engineer kidnapped on April 20, but had not found him when they raided a desert al-Qaeda camp in Mali, Sarkozy said.
"Convinced that he was condemned to a certain death, it was our duty to try to save him from his captors. Unfortunately Michel Germaneau was not there," Sarkozy said in a live televised statement.
"Far from weakening our determination, his death must reinforce it," the president said.
He urged French citizens to avoid travel to the Sahel region and vowed: "This crime will not go unpunished."
Sarkozy said France had received no sign since May that Germaneau was alive, and had intervened after AQIM threatened on July 11 to kill him within two weeks unless Paris arranged a prisoner exchange.
Spain, which also has two hostages held by another al-Qaeda faction in the region, condemned the killing of Germaneau and said it would continue with efforts to free its citizens.
"The Spanish government wants to transmit to the French government its full solidarity and support in the face of this brutal crime," Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said in a statement.
Spread Fear
Security analysts said the group would use the raid as an excuse to target French interests in the region, though probably not on French soil.
"Looking at the way al-Qaeda made the threat, I think they will try and take further revenge against French interests, in other words do something in addition to having killed the French hostage," said Camille Tawil, an author and expert on north African militant groups.
"They don't have the capability to do something in France. If they had it, they would not have hesitated to act. They would be more likely to act against French interests in Africa," he said.
Domestically, the failed raid seemed unlikely to dent Sarkozy's standing, although the Socialist mayor of Germaneau's hometown, Olivier Thomas, questioned the use of force, saying the French tradition was to negotiate hostages' freedom.
Paris negotiated the release of another hostage, Pierre Camatte, who was released in February after Mali agreed to free four Islamist prisoners it was holding.
Defence Minister Herve Morin, justified the government's decision to participate in the raid saying AQIM had no intention to negotiate.
"We are facing a group that is completely determined in pursuing a holy war and had refused all direct or indirect means to initiate any dialogue with us," Morin told public radio France Inter.
Islamists in the Sahara have so far not staged any large-scale attacks, and experts say they have concentrated largely on collecting revenues from ransom payments and the smuggling of goods, including cocaine.
But, fearing these groups could become too powerful in vast desert zones governments have little sway over, Western nations led by France and the United States have stepped up involvement in the region and are seeking to forge better coordination.
Noman Benotman, a Libyan analyst based in Britain who is a former associate of Osama bin Laden, said AQIM will do its utmost to inflict further punishment on France.
"They will want to send a message of being tough, of spreading fear," Banotman said.
The same AQIM wing killed British captive Edwin Dyer last year after Britain refused to give in to its demands.
Sarkozy said he was sending Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner to Mali, Niger and Mauritania from Monday evening to discuss increased security measures for French nationals in the region.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/27/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Olivier Thomas, questioned the use of force, saying the French tradition was to negotiate hostages' freedom.
The French tradition is immediate surrender. "Negotiate", used here, is a synonym.
#2
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) said on Sunday it had killed Michel Germaneau in response to a raid by France and Mauritania against the group last week.
#3
I would like to point out that why negotiations were on the way, the French were also attempting to find where the hostages were being held and raided a camp when the obvious became obvious. The French government, at least in public, has been taking a fine stance recently IMHO, and are hopefully backing up the tough actions behind the scenes.
#4
You guys are a bit off in your estimation of France's determination and effectiveness in counterterrorism. In reality, the French state has far more power, and uses it more effectively, than we do when it comes to cracking down on internal threats.
France has embraced a law enforcement strategy that relies heavily on preemptive arrests, ethnic profiling and an efficient domestic intelligence-gathering network. French anti-terrorism prosecutors and investigators are among the most powerful in Europe, backed by laws that allow them to interrogate suspects for days without interference from defense attorneys.
...Despite the political discord over Iraq, France's intelligence and counterterrorism officials say they work closely with their American counterparts on terrorism investigations.
With the largest Muslim population in Europe, France is being closely watched in neighboring countries, many of which are tightening their own anti-terror and immigration laws. But even following the Sept. 11 attacks and the March 11 bombings of commuter trains in Madrid, other European countries have been reluctant to fully embrace the French model, part of a legal tradition from the Napoleonic era that has always given prosecutors strong powers....
Many of the anti-terror laws and policies in France date to 1986, when the country was grappling with Palestinian and European extremist groups. Since then, the government has modified and expanded those laws several times, gradually giving authorities expanded powers to deport and detain people.
'High Pressure Zones'
Terrorism is "a very new and unprecedented belligerence, a new form of war and we should be flexible in how we fight it," said Jean-Louis Bruguiere, a senior French anti-terrorism judge. "When you have your enemy in your own territory, whether in Europe or in North America, you can't use military forces because it would be inappropriate and contrary to the law. So you have to use new forces, new weapons."
At times, French authorities have pursued terrorism cases outside their borders, taking over investigations from countries unwilling or unable to arrest suspects on their own....
Over the past decade, Bruguiere has ordered the arrests of more than 500 people on suspicion of "conspiracy in relation to terrorism," a broad charge that gives him leeway to lock up suspects while he carries out investigations.
"There is no equivalent anywhere else in Europe. This provision is very, very efficient for judicial rule in tackling terrorist support networks," Bruguiere said in an interview.
"Fighting terrorism is like the weather. You have high pressure zones and low pressure zones. Countries that have low pressure zones" attract terrorism.
#1
Contract with some Gurkas and send them to Tunisia. Let them have free reign and pay them well. They will go through this bunch of slackjaws like goats goin through kudzu.
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Yemeni troops killed three suspected al-Qaeda suspects, one of them believed to be a senior one, in clashes late on Sunday in Shabwa province, a jihadist stronghold, a security official said.
"Three al-Qaeda members, one of them a top leader, were killed" in the deadly exchanges with troops guarding an oilfield in the province, the official told AFP.
The suspects killed six soldiers in the firefight, a local official told AFP on Sunday.
The attackers, riding in an offroad vehicle, opened fire with machine guns and rockets at the soldiers who were posted near a foreign oil company's operations, the official said.
The attack happened in the al-Aqla distrct, 45 kilometers (30 miles) east of the provincial capital Ataq.
The area produces between 10,000 and 15,000 barrels of crude a day, provincial official Abdel Mohsen Ben Saad told AFP.
Shabwa province is a stronghold of al-Qaeda hard boys as it is the base of the al-Awalaq tribe of the radical Yemeni American preacher Anwa al-Awlaqi, who is wanted by both U.S. and Yemeni authorities.
Awlaqi has been accused of ties to al-Qaeda's Yemeni branch.
On Thursday a similar ambush killed five soldiers in the same province.
U.S officials worry al-Qaeda's offshoot in Yemen has found refuge in the country's remote, lawless areas and could be plotting attacks against American and other Western targets.
The United States has earmarked some $150 million to help the government in Sanaa combat al-Qaeda's Yemeni offshoot with training, equipment and intelligence help.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/27/2010 00:00 ||
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[Arab News] Iranian catspaws captured an army base and several soldiers on Monday in clashes with the army and tribesmen that killed 10 people and threatened a fragile truce in northern Yemen, rebel and officials said. I'm still not real clear on how it's a truce if they're killing people.
It's an Islamicist truce.
If they're killing people it's a 'fragile' truce. If Israel does it it's a 'violated' truce ...
Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh accused the rebels, known as Houthis after the name of their leaders' clan, of trying to ignite a new war with the government.
Both the government and the rebels confirmed that a number of soldiers had been taken hostage at the Zuala army base in the flashpoint north district of Harf Sufyan, but neither side would give an exact number of how many men were seized by the Houthis.
Among those killed in the clashes were rebels, soldiers, and tribesmen from the Ibn Aziz tribe which allied with the government against the Houthis in the northern war. Both sides declined to say how many men they lost.
Yemen agreed a truce with Houthis in February to halt a war that has raged on and off since 2004 and displaced 350,000 people. But instability still threatens Yemen, neighbor to top oil exporter Saudi Arabia, which was briefly drawn into the conflict last year when rebels seized Saudi border areas.
Houthi rebels complain of socio-economic and religious discrimination by the government, accusations it denies.
Tensions between the rebels and the Ibn Aziz tribe, from the same Zaidi sect of Shiite Islam but which sides with the government, have increased in past months. Clashes last week were the bloodiest since the truce and drew in government forces.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/27/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
A half-dozen ARCLIGHT strikes and a hundred or so canisters of NAPALM would put an end to all that, especially if the US threatened to do it again until whatever idiots are "threatening the peace" stop the behavior that results in such strikes. "Political Correctness" has sapped our backbone and viciousness that led us to victory in previous wars. We'll continue to pay for the pussyfooting until we finally grow a new pair, and go Mongol on some third-world sh$$hole. Then all the "civilized" people who don't have the cojones to do likewise will tut-tut and accuse us of "genocide" or worse. "War" means crushing your enemy to the point where he either cannot fight any longer, or he no longer has the will to fight. Pussyfooting only gets good people killed.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/27/2010 20:06 Comments ||
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In the suburb of San Pedro Garza Garcia, which claims to be the richest neighborhood in Latin America, Mayor Mauricio Fernandez says Monterrey has a very close and complicated relationship with the U.S. For years Monterrey's proximity to the U.S. border helped the city boom, but now with the drug trade, this has become a huge liability.
Fernandez's answer to the problem at least for his suburb was to try to drive all the criminals out of town.
He formed a gang intelligence unit. He hired what he says is a network or more than 2,000 informants and put out the word that he won't tolerate drug violence inside San Pedro. And he created what he calls a "group of tough guys."
"Their job was to intimidate or convince the organized crime that they couldn't be here. So I'd say, well, if we catch you, we let you know that you're not welcome, and if we catch you again [at your own] risk. And they happen to leave," Fernandez says.
On the day he was sworn into office in November, Fernandez announced with glee that a notorious local gangster, "Black Saldana," was dead. But police didn't find Saldana's body until almost four hours later, hundreds of miles away in Mexico City.
"Everybody thought that I'd killed him. But it wasn't true. I didn't kill anyone," Fernandez says.
Fernandez says Saldana's murder on his first day in office just happened to be a coincidence. But he does add that extortion in San Pedro dropped off dramatically after Saldana's demise.
While extortion may have gone down in San Pedro, drug violence across the rest of Monterrey has increased dramatically in recent months.
Business leaders say high-profile murders, kidnappings and other gang activity are stifling foreign investment and hurting Monterrey just as it's poised to pull out of the global recession. Mayor Mauricio Fernández Garza has a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Purdue, and a Mexican MBA, and is connected to one of the top Mexican families that own Mexico. He is of the center-right PAN party, and does not sound like somebody to mess with.
#2
On the day he was sworn into office in November, Fernandez announced with glee that a notorious local gangster, "Black Saldana," was dead. But police didn't find Saldana's body until almost four hours later, hundreds of miles away in Mexico City.
#4
At first glance, it might seem spiffy. Now though, you have a criminal elected into office. I wonder how many rights and who he paid off/threatened to get the informants and into office. They basically elected a Mafia official. He sounds as corrupts as the guys he's outing. It's all seems good until the left hook comes around the blindside.
#5
you ahve a crimial in office who is talking alot of shit, wonder how long before he disappears?
Posted by: chris ||
07/27/2010 13:50 Comments ||
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#6
...and the difference between a 'criminal' and the posers who play politicians put up by the ruling caste is? One just has more power than the other, for the moment.
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[Dawn] At least eight people, two children and three coppers among them, were killed and at least 15 injured when a boomerdetonated on Monday near the home of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, aka Terrorism Central Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain whose only son was killed in the same area on Saturday.
The banned but still somehow murderously active Tehrik-i-TalibanPakistainclaimed the credit for the blast and warned of more attacks on leaders and workers of the Awami National Party (ANP).
According to witnesses, the bomber detonated his boom vest after he was intercepted by coppers deputed at the entrance of an alley in the Miagan area where the minister lived.
The blast destroyed nearby shops and caused some damage to a number of houses and a mosque. Three relatives of the minister were among the injured.
A number of women were present in Mian Iftikhar's house, about 40 metres from the place where the blast took place, to offer condolences over the death of his son.
The minister, the most vocal critic of hard boys, was at the Government Degree College outside the town meeting people who had come to offer condolence.
"We suspect that the target of the attacker was the mosque in the street, but the coppers on duty sacrificed their lives and averted what could have been a large-scale devastation," Beautiful Downtown Peshawar police chief Liaqat Ali Khan said, adding that the bomber had used eight to 10kgs of explosives.
The police official said there were reports about presence of another two bombers in the area and a search was under way.
Frontier Constabulary Commandant Safwat Ghayur ordered a thorough search for suspected hard boys around the area.
A relative of Mian Iftikhar told Dawn that the mother and wife of Chief Minister Ameer Haider Hoti were at his home when the blast took place. "I am not sure whether the attacker wanted to attack the house or the mosque," Mian Naveed said.
"We received seven bodies, some of which were mutilated. Most of the injured were shifted to Beautiful Downtown Peshawar," Pabbi Satellite Hospital Medical Superintendent Dr Akber Khaksar said.
He said the hospital had also received two legs, apparently of the bomber.
"I saw the attacker in black clothes with a bandaged arm. He was posing as a drug addict or a beggar and was trying to force his way into the street," local resident Zabiullah said.
When the man approached the police checkpoint, he blew himself up. There was a loud explosion which raised a plume of dust.
He said he fell on ground and when the dust settled he saw a number of bodies lying around. People who were injured were crying in pain. The place was littered with human limbs and shards of glass.
Those killed were sub-inspector Gul Malook Khan, constables Hemat Khan and Alamzaib, shopkeeper Mudasir Khan, children Abdullah and Ayesha, passerby Suleman Khan and Syed Raziq Shah, the principal of a private school for orphans.
Pabbi police have started the paperwork but haven't done much else under the Pakistain Penal Code, Explosive Substances Act and Anti-Terrorism Act.
Sailab Mehsud adds from Ladha: Claiming responsibility for the blast TTP's deputy spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan told this correspondent by phone that such attacks would continue till the ANP stopped following dictates of the United States and security forces.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/27/2010 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Four people were killed and more than 10 others wounded in Baghdad on Monday when a suicide bomber blew up a vehicle by the offices of Al Arabiya, its correspondent in Baghdad and interior ministry officials said.
The bomber struck at around 9:30 am (06:30 GMT) in front of the station's bureau in the city center, leaving a massive crater and sending a plume of smoke into the air that could be seen from several kilometers (miles) away.
Majid Hamid, a journalist for Al Arabiya, said four people had been killed in the attack -- three security guards and a female office assistant. That toll was confirmed by an official at al-Yarmuk hospital in west Baghdad.
An interior ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity said that former deputy prime minister Salam al-Zawbayi and two of his guards were among the wounded.
"There was a huge explosion that shook the building -- all the rooms were damaged," Al Arabiya journalist Tareq Maher said in a live broadcast.
Maher said he was in the building when the blast occurred, adding that the building sustained heavy damage and the explosion left a massive crater.
The street in front of the channel's offices was covered in shards of glass and debris, and nearby buildings showed signs of damage as did several cars.
Baghdad security spokesman Major General Qassim Atta said that the explosives-laden vehicle had passed through a checkpoint, and charged that there may have been "cooperation" between the car's driver and the guards.
Major General Jihad al-Jaabari, the head of the Iraqi army's explosives handling unit, said the bomber was an Iraqi and added that the vehicle was carrying more than 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of ammonium nitrate.
"He was waved through, but if they had searched him, it would have been easy to find the explosive material," Jaabari said.
The bomber, who was driving a minibus, was apparently waved through the first checkpoint after security guards checked his identification, Iraqi military spokesman Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi said.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/27/2010 00:00 ||
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KARBALA / Aswat al-Iraq: Casualties from Karbalas earlier two car bomb attacks on a checkpoint near the Karbala silo, south of the city, on Monday rose to 19 deaths and 47 wounded, a security source said.
One car bombt went off near a checkpoint while the other was in al-Hai al-Sinaie neighborhood, south of Karbalam which both left 19 people killed and 47 others wounded, the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
On Sunday, the provinces police chief said more than 30,000 security personnel were deployed in nine intersections of Karbala within preparations for the Shiite pilgrimage of al-Ziyara al-Shaabaniya.
Meanwhile, the Karbala Operations Command (KOC) chief, General Othman al-Ghanimi, revealed during the press conference that intelligence reports referred to plans targeting pilgrims in Karbala from al-Anbar and northern Babel.
The al-Ziyara al-Shaabaniya, literally the mid-Shaaban visit, is a pilgrimage to revive the memory of the birth of the Messiah-like Imam al-Mahdi, the 12th holiest figure for Shiites Muslims. Karbala, with an estimated population of 572,300 people in 2003, is the capital of the province and is considered to be one of Shiite Muslims holiest cities.
At the center of the old city is al-Masjid al-Husseini, the tomb of Imam Hussein Ibn Ali, grandsone of the Prophet Muhammad by his daughter Fatima al-Zahraa and Ali Ibn Abi Taleb.
Imam Hussiens tomb is a place of pilgrimage for many Shiite Muslims. Many elderly pilgrims travel there to await death, as they believe the tomb to be one of the gates to paradise. On April 14, 2007, a car bomb exploded about 200 meters from the shrine, killing 47 and wounding over 150.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/27/2010 00:00 ||
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Autoedited by Rantburg [Arab News] Israeli warplanes fired missiles at two smuggling tunnels in Gazoo early Monday, causing damage but no causalities were reported, according to witnesses.
The Israeli attack created a state of fear among civilians, especially women and children.
Witnesses said that the Israeli air strikes which targeted two tunnels near Salah Al-Deen gate along the Egypt border have completely destroyed them. The third attack hit an open area causing no casualties.
In northern Strip, a metal workshop was also hit by the Israeli warplanes.
The Israeli military said that the attacks on Gazoo came in response to homemade rockets and mortar shells that were fired from the enclave and hit southern Israel.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/27/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Just a line of D9s to carve a channel along the border to the sea. Tunnels over.
A village headman was killed by gunmen in Pattani's Muang district on Tuesday morning. Police said Sakkarin Waeda-o, 36, was attacked by three men in his house. He was shot in the head and body. About 15 M16 shells were found at the crime scene.
Another man, Maruding Tae, 32, sustained gunshot wounds during the attack. He was sent to Pattani Hospital and is now reported to be out of danger.
Government forces believe they have wounded at least one member of a group of armed terrorists insurgents in a gunfight at a deserted house in Narathiwat.
The clash took place yesterday in Rueso district in a mountainous forest area in Ban Tanyong in tambon Batong. The suspected terrorists insurgents are believed to be connected to the Runda Kumpulan Kecil (RKK) group. Government forces exchanged fire with six or seven terrorists insurgents for about 10 minutes before the insurgents fled from the house and escaped.
Security officers seized a 38-calibre pistol, two mobile phones and three knives at the house. They also found bloodstains nearby and assume some of the insurgents were wounded.
In Sungai Padi district, a team of border rangers suffered minor injuries in a bomb attack on a road in Dohe village, tambon Riko, about 11am yesterday. The bomb damaged the pickup truck the rangers were travelling in.
Cpl Mongkhon, the team leader, said the bomb exploded as the pickup truck was passing the spot where it was planted. He said the bomb was hidden in a fruit basket on the roadside and was set off with a mobile phone. Security officers have detained two suspects.
Meanwhile, Chaiyong Maneerungsakul, a member of the Advisory Council for Peace Building in the Southern Border Provinces, said yesterday the council had asked the government to pay members of the provincial Islamic committees in the five southern border provinces a 3,000 baht a month allowance to boost morale. Each Islamic committee has 30 members.
#1
Meanwhile, Chaiyong Maneerungsakul, a member of the Advisory Council for Peace Building in the Southern Border Provinces, said yesterday the council had asked the government to pay members of the provincial Islamic committees in the five southern border provinces a 3,000 baht a month allowance to boost morale. Each Islamic committee has 30 members.
"Let's have the government fund us, instead of having to use cash from the Widows' and Orphans' Ammunition Fund."
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/27/2010 20:22 Comments ||
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#2
40,000 headmen couldn`t make me change my mind
If I had to choose between a deaf man and a blind.
Posted by: Steve Winwood ||
07/27/2010 23:58 Comments ||
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[Straits Times] PHILIPPINE police said on Monday they have captured a member of the Al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group who joined in the abduction and beheading of Christian workers when he was 14.
The suspect, Jirome Mustakin, now 22, was arrested on Sunday in the southern port city of Zamboanga as he waited to board a ferry heading across the sea border to Sabah in Malaysia, police said.
'Mustakin was positively identified by a witness as one of those who were involved in the kidnapping,' city police chief Senior Superintendent Edwin de Ocampo told reporters.
He said Mustakin was 14 when he joined an Abu Sayyaf unit in kidnapping six local members of the Jehovah's Witness sect on nearby Jolo island in 2002.
Two of the six captives were beheaded and their heads dumped in the town plaza. The four others were freed weeks later, allegedly after ransom payments, police said.
After the kidnappings, police offered a bounty of 150,000 pesos (S$4,438) for Mustakin's arrest.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/27/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Ah, 14. Never too early to start removing those pesky heads from those pesky Christians.
Posted by: American Delight ||
07/27/2010 4:08 Comments ||
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Ima thinkrn of an appropriate punishment, just off the top of my his head
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/27/2010 8:56 Comments ||
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Life can be hard for a psychic cephalopod. One day your countrymen are threatening to turn you into calamari for correctly betting against the national soccer team, the next day you're being denounced as a symbol of western imperialism:
[T]he Iranian president accused the octopus of spreading "western propaganda and superstition." Paul was mentioned by Mr Ahmadinejad on various occasions during a speech in Tehran at the weekend.
"Those who believe in this type of thing cannot be the leaders of the global nations that aspire, like Iran, to human perfection, basing themselves in the love of all sacred values," he said.
One would think that at this point, national leaders would want to stay on Paolo's good side.
BRUSSELS - The European Union called on Monday for the release of two prominent Syrian lawyers and said Syria must abide by international rights standards, in rare criticism of the Damascus government.
Haitham al-Maleh, aged 79, and Mohannad al-Hassani, 43, were sentenced several weeks ago to three years in prison each on charges of weakening national morale. They had intensified their criticism of the authorities' treatment of political prisoners and the perpetuation of emergency law, imposed when the ruling Baath Party took power in 1963, banning all opposition.
European Union High Representative Catherine Ashton said in a statement that the charges against the two "appear to be in breach of their fundamental rights and freedoms".
Pencilneck is just doing what dictators do. What are you going to do about it, Catherine, other than issue a statement?
"The EU is in particular gravely concerned by the situation of Mr. Al Maleh, due to his fragile health and advanced age," Ashton said.
Maleh, a former judge, was a political prisoner for six years in the 1980s. He was awarded the Dutch Geuzen Medal in 2006, named after resistance fighters against the Nazis. Banned from leaving Syria, he could not collect the prize.
"The EU calls on the Syrian Government to reconsider all cases of prisoners of conscience in accordance with its national Constitution and its international commitments and to immediately release all such prisoners," Ashton said.
The European Union has been trying for years to persuade Syria to sign an economic agreement that would lower trade tariffs between Europe and Syria and has clauses emphasising human rights and the rule of law. Damascus has refused to sign the agreement it had sought for years, citing what it termed as infringements of Syrian sovereignty and uncertainty about economic benefits.
Syria has intensified a campaign of arrests of political opponents over the last two years while still enjoying international rehabilitation after years in isolation due to disputes with the West over its role in Lebanon and Iraq, and its support for militant groups.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/27/2010 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.
KARBALA / Aswat al-Iraq: Casualties from Karbalas earlier two car bomb attacks on a checkpoint near the Karbala silo, south of the city, on Monday rose to 19 deaths and 47 wounded, a security source said.
[Arab News] Israeli warplanes fired missiles at two smuggling tunnels in 
