KABUL, Afghanistan (July 29) - A Taliban commander and his accomplice were apprehended in Farah province after Afghan National Army Commandos discovered them disguised in burkas July 25.
Afghan National Army officials said the insurgent commander was responsible for numerous attacks on Afghan and Coalition forces in Farah province. The 1st Company, 4th Commando Kandak, partnered with Coalition forces, was conducting a presence patrol to disrupt insurgent activity when the men were captured, according to ANA officials on the scene. Coalition officials said the two men were dressed up like girls to disguise themselves after a failed attempt to emplace an IED in the southern part of Diware Village.
Throughout the course of the operation, the ANA Commandos also found a large quantity of opium and a cache of explosives. An explosive ordnance disposal team disabled, removed, and destroyed the cache to prevent the materials from being used to harm innocent civilians, Afghan, and Coalition forces. According to Afghan customs, men wearing burkas is considered cowardly and demeaning toward women.
#1
I suppose that one of the DOD contractor companies came up with a device that detects anomalies,; ie, a person with a burka scratching their nuts, clearing their nostrils in public or instinctively attacking woman actually wearing burkas.
Posted by: Martin ||
07/31/2010 15:45 Comments ||
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#4
The 1st Company, 4th Commando Kandak, partnered with Coalition forces, was conducting a presence patrol to disrupt insurgent activity when the men were captured, according to ANA officials on the scene.
"Presence" patrol? Whatever happened to search and destroy?
Which can't be seen through the eyes screen of a burqa anyway...
Any stratagem is permitted in fooling the infidel, I suspect, including beard shaving, as long as it is grown back as soon as one is safe. As I recall we've seen that behaviour before, although I think it was in Pakistan.
Afghans staged anti-US demonstrations outside the United States Embassy in Kabul, condemning the killing of civilians by foreign forces.
The Anti-American protests followed an incident in which a US military vehicle collided with an Afghan civilian car in the center of Kabul city, killing at least four civilians, a Press TV correspondent reported. Geez...hope their Korans are all right. That'd really piss people off.
Demonstrators chanted anti-US slogans and set fire to two vehicles belonging to the US Embassy.
The protesters threw stones at NATO forces and scuffled with Afghan security forces as they marched toward the embassy compound.
Afghan officials say the demonstrators have been dispersed and the situation is under control in the heavily-fortified area of the capital.
Civilians have been the main victims of violence in Afghanistan, particularly in the country's troubled southern and eastern provinces.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Here's a link to some pics of some very unappreciative Afghans. Maybe it would be better to leave them to the tender mercies of the Taliban.
Of course, I don't know if the military vehicle was doing something it shouldn't have been. I suppose that will come out later today.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Five Taliban have been struck off a U.N. Security Council list of people subject to sanctions -- a move sought by Kabul to ease reconciliation talks with bad boys, a U.N. diplomat said on Friday.
Two of the five were delisted because they were dead, the diplomat said.
The move followed a review of the list of Taliban and al-Qaeda members maintained by a Security Council committee. Two of the five were delisted because they were dead, the diplomat said.
Afghanistan had pressed the committee to take some names off the list as part of a scheduled update. A "peace Jirga" in Afghanistan last month recommended negotiations with moderate Taliban leaders and other bad boys to end a worsening nine-year war in the country.
Diplomats said Afghanistan's Caped President Hamid Karzai had been seeking the delisting of about a dozen Taliban, either because they had joined the government side or because they were dead.
But Russia, which sits on the committee along with other Security Council members, had been cautious about deleting names, they said.
The diplomat named the five delisted as Abdul Hakim Mujahid Mohammed Awrang, a former Afghan ambassador to the United Nations, Abdul Salam Zaeef and Abdul Satar Paktin, as well as Abdul Samad Khaksar and Mohammed Islam Mohammadi, who have both died.
Russia, diplomats said, has indicated reluctance to remove even the names of dead people from the U.N. blacklist, possibly because it would free up any frozen assets that could somehow be used to help fund the Taliban insurgency.
The committee has been reviewing all the more than 500 Taliban and al-Qaeda entries on the blacklist.
"The review of the Taliban and al-Qaeda sanctions list will continue," a diplomat said. "There may be more names coming off the list in the weeks and months ahead."
Five years ago Karzai's office had asked the Security Council committee that oversees implementation of resolution 1267, approved in 1999, to remove some 20 names from the roughly 140 on the list at the time. Some have already been removed.
Resolution 1267 freezes assets and bans travel of senior Taliban and al-Qaeda figures and firms associated with them.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2010 00:00 ||
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[Tolo News] Nearly, 50 Afghan policemen accused of bribery and misuse of their posts were sacked in Herat, a Western Afghan province
Provincial police officials in western Afghanistan said that these policemen were taking money from drivers on Herat-Kandahar high way.
A Police Chief in western Afghanistan said that the policemen misused their positions, sought money from drivers using the highway.
"Four police checkpoints were creating problems for people on the way, and passengers had also complained against them. Today we sacked a total number of 50 policemen from these checkpoints," Deputy Police Chief in western Afghanistan, Ikramuddin told TOLOnews.
Meanwhile, Afghan police forces have always been criticised by the international community as corrupt and undisciplined.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2010 00:00 ||
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[The Nation (Nairobi)] A Ugandan court on Friday charged three Kenyans over the Kampala bombings, the first such cases opened against suspects in the July 11 kabooms.
Hussein Hassan Agad, Mohamed Adan Abdow and Idris Magondu were charged before a Kampala magistrate's court, but did not enter a plea.
They face 61 counts of murder for those killed while watching the World Cup final at the Kyadondo Rugby Club in the east of the Ugandan capital and 15 counts for those killed at an Ethiopian restaurant.
Mr Mogandu, 42, is an employee of Flexible Trading Company based in Nairobi and hails from the sprawling Kawangware estate, while
Mr Agad, 27, lives in Athi River while Mr Abdow, 25, a hails from Tawa in Makueni.
At 3. 35 p.m., the three men appeared before chief magistrate Deo Sejjemba, who asked the suspects whether they understood English.
Mr Abdow said he only understood Kiswahili and an interpreter was immediately made available.
"You are charged with 79 offences, I will summarise and read them to you, your work is to listen and say nothing because this Court has no Jurisdiction over the offences. You will be allowed to answer to the charges before a High Court judge who will try you on the matter," Sejjemba said.
Prosecution led by Joan Kagezi, Principal State Attorney from the Director of Public Prosecution, said the men on July 11, 2010 committed the offence of terrorism, murder and attempted murder in three separate places- Kyadondo Rugby Club Lugogo in Nakawa division, Ethiopian Village Restaurant in Kabalagala, Makindye Division and Makindye House, a popular hangout place in the same area.
The State Prosecutor said investigations into the matter were still going on and the Magistrate remanded the men to Luzira Maximum Prison until August 27.
Security sources said the three men were part of the inner ring of Orcs and similar vermin who were involved in moving the bomb blast materials from Kenya to Uganda having received them from the Somalia based al- Shabaab hard boys.
They were reportedly involved in recruiting the boomers who executed the grisly bomb blasted that killed football lovers and inflamed emotions in the country.
According to security agents, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the matter is sensitive, the three suspects reportedly helped establish Al-Shabab operations in Uganda. After the bomb attacks, al Shabaab took credit of the Kampala attack.
Two of the suspects were Christians but were radicalised after embracing Islam.
"Hassan Agade and Magondu were Christians. The Orcs and similar vermin use them because they understand Christian behaviour and can hide in that knowledge to elude security," said a senior officer familiar with the investigations.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2010 00:00 ||
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[Maghrebia] Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has took credit for a suicide kaboom on Sunday in a village near Tizi-Ouzou, AFP reported on Thursday (July 29th). The attack killed a municipal guard and wounded at least eight coppers. AFP quoted the SITE monitoring group as claiming that an AQIM online statement said the attacker rammed a barracks in Ait Aissi with a truckload of explosives. Algerian security forces claim to have identified the attack's mastermind, an alleged AQIM emir named Sidi Mohand Ouramdane, aka El Khechkhache.
This article starring:
SIDI MOHAND URAMDANE, AKA EL KHECHKHACHE
al-Qaeda in North Africa
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
ION AQ, TOPIX > SUDAN: COUNTRY CLOSING/SHUTTING ITS BORDERS WID LIBYA, as due to "banditry".
* NEWS KERALA > AL QAEDA PLANNED 9-11 STYLE ATTACK ON KABUL.
* TOPIX > [AQAP/AQIY Commander] AL QAEDA FORMS ARMY OF 12,000 FIGHTERS IN YEMEN, in ADAN + ABYAN. Ultimate purpose is to establish an Islamic Caliphate + resist US conversion of Yemen into a Slave-Proxy for anti-Muslim US Imperialism, Zionism + Crusader-ism???
* TOPIX > SOUTH AFRICA: SA DEFENCE MINSTER SISULU WARNS OF KAMAPALA-STYLE TERROR THREATS [Bombings] FOR JOINING AU FORCES [Somalia].
[Ma'an] Egyptian security forces said officers located a weapons storehouse in the northern Sinai south of Al-Arish on Friday, and said they believed the goods were destined for the Gaza Strip.
Police uncovered what a report described as a three-meter deep hole near a small warehouse, and said the hole was filled with munitions and weaponry.
The store was found in the Beir Lahfan area in the northern Sinai, which police said was being searched as a routine action, as the area is known as a smuggling hotbed.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2010 00:00 ||
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[Maghrebia] Mauritanian soldiers have apprehended two suspected scouts of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), Mauritanie-web reported on Friday (July 30th). The arrests occurred overnight Wednesday at the border with Algeria and Mali, near Lemgheitty, the scene of a bloody 2005 terrorist attack. The suspects were jugged after a car chase and exchange of fire, said security sources quoted by Mauritanie-web. Lemgheitty has for several months been declared a "military zone" controlled by the army's counter-terrorism forces.
The arrests follow a Mauritanian army raid on an AQIM stronghold in Mali that aimed at finding French hostage Michel Germaneau, whose execution prompted a French declaration of "war" on Al-Qaeda.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2010 00:00 ||
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For reference, this pic here is a clickable link to a higher-res shot of the damage to the USS Cole. Pics of the damage to that Japanese oil tanker can be found at the link. Looks like an explosion of some sort to me. It certainly wasn't a sub. Remember that the side of the cole was angled, not vertical. Seems to me the more vertical hull of the tanker vs. the angled hull on the USS Cole may explain the differences in the damage. If the hull were angled away from the bomb, it seems to me that there would have been very little damage, but towards the bomb is going to reflect/focus the blast energy in a way consistent with the picture. To me, it seems that part of the blast energy directed against the vertical wall of the tanker was reflected off the water, which would the cause maximum blast force to be several meters above the waterline, and a more-or-less spherical blast front.
Can anyone out there who actually knows something about explosives confirm or refute this idea?
The M. Star, a Japanese oil tanker, suffered ... something in the early-morning hours Wednesday as it passed through the Strait of Hormuz. Crew members heard a blast and saw a flash, windows were blasted out, ceiling panels in a dining room were shaken loose, and one crew member suffered minor injuries. And most significant, an enormous dent appeared on the tanker's starboard side, extending from the waterline more than halfway up the hull. 1) Crew saw a flash
2) Straits of Hormuz
3) Crew heard blast
4) Straits of Hormuz
5) Spherical compression wave damage above the waterline
6) Straits of Hormuz
7) The USS Cole's damage was mostly above the waterline, too
8) Straits of Hormuz
The only evidence I see against the idea that some jihadi did it is that none of the crew heard "Allahu Snackbar!" before the blast.
#6
That dent is well above the water line. The center of the dent is above the top of the red water line marker. It was not an underwater collision that caused that. Looks to me like it was rammed by a surface vessel.
#10
The paint is still there. Explosions are VERY hot and would blacken the paint job.
Doesn't look like a sub collision either. Although that is much more common than you'd think.
Bubble jet device like the one that sank the Cheonan? I never saw damage photos, plus like Phil, I don't know anything about explosives either. Just the physics.
#11
Looking at the article again in the morning, with some working neurons, and actually reading for comprehension, I see the pic I thought as the tanker turned out to be the Cole instead.
Now, granted, other submarines also have conning towers. The #1 Persian Gulf player right now is the USN, but Israel and Europe have interest, China(*) wants to watch the flow of oil and to watch US naval ops, and even Russia would want at least a few boats in the area.
The other big question, more an assumption, is that if a US submarine bumped into it, why would the US do a disinformation campaign, unless it was operationally significant? That is, if the damage was minor, the US boat *had* to stay there, because it was going to go 'live' shortly.
#13
furthering #12 why shouldn't this be an Israeli sub to have collided? Subs are covered in rubber so this is very possibly the source of the dent.
Tests will tell if there is explosive residue on the oil tanker.
Posted by: Bacon in the Mosque horror ||
07/31/2010 11:09 Comments ||
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#14
When ships collide there's always "Paint Transfer" (Paint is scraped off and onto the other ship).
I see NO paint transfer, that one fact pretty well eliminates a ship collisionehatevr hit this tanker was NOT painted OR unpainted(No rust steaks) That leaves an unfotunate whale with a hell of a headache.
Even a wooden vessel is painted.
Salt is corrosive as hell.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/31/2010 11:23 Comments ||
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#15
Does conning tower 'A' about match dent 'B'?
If the strike was perpendicular, you would expect the hull to punch a hole in the tanker below the waterline.
If the strike was parallel, I would expect the vertical hull of the tanker to impact the hull of the sub, not the conning tower.
In any case, what about the flash and explosion?
As for the charring, I can't tell. The paint is dark, so it wouldn't show charring much. The red paint looks a bit darker on the right side, but I can't tell if that's some kind of stain or what. Looks suspicious. And wherever there is a metal rib under the metal plate, you can see that it looks like the paint has been somewhat removed. I can't tell if where the paint has been removed is charred.
#18
You know, the damage to the M. Star is a big weird. I don't think it was a bomb. Absoultely no charring or blast streaks or evidince of fragmentation. It's also compeletly above the water line. Well, the damage starts just above the water line, and goes up.
The other weird thing is, if it was a collision, where are the streak marks of the object that collided with it? It doesn't look like to large object moving in different directions collided and glanced off one another. I couldn't see any scraping of the paint. It looks like some thing punched the tanker or through a very large ball at it. I would expect even a cannon ball to leave scarring.
The current theory is it hit a Chinese sub, but would that have scraped the bugger out of the side of the vessel? Also, wouldn't a conning tower get the worst of it? It is a double hulled tanker after all.
Posted by: chris ||
07/31/2010 15:29 Comments ||
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#21
I need to ask, between Wednesday and these pictures, has the tanker offloaded, becoming lighter and therefore sitting higher in the water?
The max water level line suggests the dent could be equal distance over and under the water level; stronger suggesting a ramming by a sub perpendicular to the tankers hull.
Posted by: Bacon in the Mosque horror ||
07/31/2010 15:35 Comments ||
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#22
What is the water displacement difference between a fully laden tanker and an unladen one?
And in this case, its an unladen Oriental tanker, neither a European nor African one.
#23
Mitsui maintains the explosion was "caused by an external attack," potentially by rocket missile, because a crewman reported seeing a flash on the horizon just before the explosion.
The company said the explosion occurred on the ship's deck. One crewman was slightly injured when doors and windows from crew quarters were destroyed. The blast also caused a rescue boat to fall overboard.
A Japan Coast Guard official said chances were very low that another ship had collided with the tanker because the dent was higher than the waterline.
With almost no reports of piracy around the strait, a local media outlet reported that high waves damaged the tanker. Mitsui has refuted this claim, saying waves do not cause explosions.
The crude carrier M. Star was loaded with about 270,000 tons of oil at the time of the blast but no leakage has been reported. link
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/31/2010 16:06 Comments ||
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#24
Talking as a photo interpreter, this looks like something very large hit the ship squarely in the side, but only over about three bulkheads. There isn't much scarring. Most of the dark area appears to be the way the light hits the paint where the side is bashed in. So many things stand out that make this extremely unusual: the area is virtually rectangular (bomb blasts, even mine blasts, are circular); rogue waves would have hit in a long arch along the side, not one specific point; most of the characteristics of an impact (caused by hitting another vessel) are missing (no paint scrapes, no punctures, no BIG dents caused by the bow of another ship hitting the side of the tanker, etc., and impacts are usually horizontal, not square); and so forth. There is one possibility: they could have hit a wooden, unpainted dhow running without lights (smuggling?) that was sucked into the side of the ship. The location of the impact point is one reason to consider this - the bow wave would push the other ship away along the front of the tanker, but suck it back in toward the stern. The impact could have caused the dhow's fuel tank to explode, and the dhow to completely break apart. If this is what happened, wood from the wreck will begin floating ashore in Oman or the UAE in a few days.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/31/2010 16:13 Comments ||
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#25
Nice, OP. That's the only explanation that makes more sense than Moby Dick. Guess that's why you had the job.
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/31/2010 16:24 Comments ||
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#28
Bobby noted: Mitsui maintains the explosion was "caused by an external attack," potentially by rocket missile, because a crewman reported seeing a flash on the horizon just before the explosion.
Could it have been an Iranian test run with a low-yield warhead? Anyone know the geography here and the situation to know what direction that missile may have come from? The guy on the tanker said "the horizon" I gather. Could it have been fired from another ship or sub?
Might just be something to get people a-thinkin', you know.
#30
The only thing that makes sense to me is that it was a small anti-ship missile that failed and blew itself up just before hitting the ship. The effect would be an explosion off the side of the ship, above the waterline. There would be a healthy, focused concussion, but not much shrapnel.
Posted by: Bruce ||
07/31/2010 20:13 Comments ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] Police yesterday busted a militants' den at Mirpur in the capital and seized a firearm, ammunition and bomb-making materials.
They also recovered 35kg of powder which they suspect to be explosives. They sent the powder to Detective Branch of police to know for sure what it is.
They recovered a homemade grenade, 36 grenade cases, a pistol, a sub-machine-carbine, 18 bullets, batteries and wires, 150 to 200 clocks and three bags of metals, which police believe are meant for use as splinters. There were 35 books on jihad and Bengali translation of the holy Quran as well.
None was arrested and police are yet to find out which organisation was behind this.
Officer-in-Charge of Shah Ali Police Station Abdul Latif said the clues indicate that the militants were trying to make time bombs. He said they sent the powder to Detective Branch of police to verify if it was explosive.
The recovery prompted investigators to examine whether the militants, who are yet to be identified, were trying to launch attacks at a time when the trial of war criminals has just begun, police said.
The den was in a rented room in a three-storey building on Road-10 of Uttar Bishil in Mirpur.
Landlord Musharraf Hossain discovered sacks and cloth-wrapped packages containing arms and powder in the rented out room on the top floor of his building around 10:00am. Everything in the room was packed, even the gun and bomb-making materials.
He had broken into the room as his tenants had been traceless since July 10, the day he asked for their particulars (photo copy of the national ID card) with photographs.
The police were informed and they reached the spot around noon. They were examining the recovered materials at the time of filing of this report at 9:00pm.
"The tenants had sought time till July 15 for providing me with the particulars and left the house keeping the door locked," said Saju, caretaker of the house.
Four people aged between 28 and 35 rented the room on July 1 for Tk 2,400 a month. They told Saju that they were from Patuakhali and they hawked gas for refilling cigarette lighters.
"The men rarely talked to neighbours. They appeared to be less interested in having unnecessary interaction with us and were hardly seen outside the room," said Parvez, a next-door neighbour of the four men.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner AKM Shahidul Hoque said, "The amount of 'explosive materials' recovered is enough to make at least 1,000 grenades." He said they were still unable to confirm which organisation the den belonged to.
"We are also investigating whether empathy for war criminals being tried had made militants to get organised in this way," Shahidul Hoque told reporters visiting the spot after the recovery.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2010 00:00 ||
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Note: The claim of 20 dead is added to today's Mexican Mayhem. Early reports are that the toll will be much higher,but at the moment the official word is 20 dead in Sonora.
A total of 26 individuals is the toll for drug and gang related violence in northern Mexico which included a Sonoran state police investigator murdered Thursday and a Guadalupe, Nuevo Leon police officer wounded in a hand grenade attack.
An unidentified man was found shot to death Friday morning near Chihuahua, Chihuahua, say Mexican press reports. The find was made on the main highway to Juarez at about the 4.5 km. marker. The victim, a male, was shot in the head.
An unidentified man was found shot to death in southern Chihuahua city, say Mexican press accounts. The scene was near the intersection of Carrizalillo and calle 82nd involving a man in his 30s bound by his hands and shot in the forehead.
Two bomb threats were issued Friday causing the evacuation of a newspaper office and other facilities in Juarez, say Mexican press reports. An unidentified caller phoned in a bomb threat to the offices of the Juarez newspaper El Norte Friday, near then intersection of calles Templo de San Lorenzo and El Mexicano downtown. A search conducted by Mexican Federal agents found no explosive device.
In a related development, another message spray painted on a wall near the intersection of calles Isla Java and Isla in the 16 de Septiembre district, and signed La Linea, said a previous warning had been ignored. The previous warning issued on July 19th that Mexican federal officials known to be in the pay of drug gangs be arrested expires on August 3rd with the threat of another cab bomb.
An unidentified woman was shot to death in Juarez Friday, say Mexican press accounts. The attack took place by the Super Mercado Gonzalez near the intersection of calles Ramon Rayon and Santiago Blancas. The victim was shot aboard her Lincoln Navigator with Oklahoma plates.
A man walking alone was shot to death in Juarez Friday, accodring to Mexican press accounts. The attack took place near the intersection of calles Camilo Cienfuegos and Batalla de Santa Clara in the Che Guevara district when two armed suspects stepped from their vehicle and shot at the victim 13 times. A 9mm weapon was used in the attack. Witnesses say the armed suspects then re-boarded their vehicle and left normally.
An unidentified man as found shot to death on the Chihuahua city-Delicias highway Friday according to Mexican press accounts.
The victim was found on Km. Marker 207 with a single gunshot wound to the head.
An agent with the Sonora Policia Estatal Investigadora (PEI) was shot to death and another agent was wounded in an attack near San Pedro, Sonora Thursday, say Mexican press reports.
Jesús Gerardo Cäzarez Valenzuela, 27, was shot to death near the intersection of real Zamora and calle San Pedro while in his official Dodge Dakota by armed suspects riding aboard a Chevrolet Silverado. His partner, Leonardo Espino Valenzuela, was wounded in the attack. Investigators say AK-47 assault rifles were used in the attack. Police reports say the pair were shot with automatic fire.
A Guadalupe, Nuevo Leon police officer was wounded in a hand grenade attack Wednesday night, say Mexican press reports. Tomas Lopez de Leon was wounded in the attack near the intersection of Avenida Las Americas and Calle Solidaridad in the Contry La Silla district while in his official vehicle. The vehicle was destroyed by a resulting fire. The officer suffered wounds on his legs.
A television station was attacked by a suspect with a hand grenade in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas according to Mexican press reports. The Televisa Channel 57 offices were attacked at 1900 hrs when a grenade was detonated in the facility parking lot. The explosion damaged a car and made a crater in the ground. No one was reported hurt in the attack.
Google Translate from a variety of web news sources. For a map, click here
Currently a gallery of photos are being circulated about this latest confrontation showing a large number of dead bodies. These are not from the confrontation July 29th but from the ambush July 2nd.
Latest reports are military forces in the area have found three dead and have arrested four so far. Most unofficial reports say there are many more dead.
Updating to corrected death toll.
As many as 21 individuals have been shot to death, six wounded and nine captured following an apparent intergang firefight near the Sonoran town of Saric Thursday night according to several Mexican news accounts.
Unofficial police sources from the nearby towns of Tubutama, Carborca and Saric said that between 300 and 400 heavily armed suspects entered the area seeking to exact revenge for a firefight that took place earlier this month in the same area near Tubutama between a sub gang associated with the Sinaloa Cartel called Command X and Los Zetas who are associated with the Beltran-Leyva Cartel of Baja California.
Sources say Command X attempted to enter the area again Thursday, but a communications center maintained by drug gangs in Saric intercepted communications and enabled a direct confrontation between rival gangs.
The actual site of the battle was an area known as Cara Pinta between seven and eight kilometers north of Saric. The area is a dirt road that wends through mountains towards the Sonoran border city of Nogales. The area is so remote that cell phone do not work and thus news has been slow in getting out.
The latest body count was confirmed at 2330 hrs Friday night by ProcuradurÃa General de Sonora spokesman Jose Larrinaga Talamante.
Residents of Saric reported the gunfire last 20 minutes starting at about 1900 hrs. Local paramedics were refused access to the area by Mexican Federal, military and Sonoran state security elements, who moved to cordon the area in an attempt to prevent the violence from spreading to nearby towns. Residents remained in their homes through the night fearing being hit by stray rounds.
Because of the delay, unofficially the death toll is expected to rise.
#1
They're much better shooters than the Arabs. Sounds like the authorities were disappointed the death toll wasn't higher. Nonetheless, it is a mistake for the state to give up its monopoly on violence.
#2
For many years now, Mexican TV and movie violence has been of the "ultraviolent" variety, and its mix of realism and fantasy is different from that of US violence movies.
For example, few if any death scenes involve anyone getting shot just once, or just a few times. Squibs and plastic blood packs are cheap, so they use a lot of them.
This means a lot fewer people are wounded in a real Mexican gunfight. It's either "not a scratch", or "blown to bits". They also bring lots of extra weapons and ammo to a fight, which works. Thugs with combat loads.
They are also very big on ambushes, fights not "being fair", and torture before death with mutilation after death.
And relatively speaking, there is big money in being a fighter. Family is a little less important than pay, and the cartels pay handsomely. It also motivates better.
[Al Arabiya Latest] A U.S. soldier accused of leaking a military video from Iraq and suspected in the release of thousands of secret documents on the Afghan war has been moved to a U.S. military jail, the Pentagon said on Friday.
Private First Class Bradley Manning arrived at Quantico Marine Base in Virginia late on Thursday, the Pentagon said, after his court martial proceedings were transferred from Camp Arifjan, Kuwait.
Manning is facing four charges related to the leak to the website WikiLeaks of a video showing a U.S. Apache helicopter strike in Baghdad in July 2007 that killed several people.
He now is also suspected of possible involvement in the bombshell leak to the same website of tens of thousands of classified documents related to the war in Afghanistan.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said posting the war logs on the Web jeopardized national security and put the lives of Afghan informants and U.S. military personnel at risk. Asked what the Obama administration could do to stop the posting of more war secrets, Gibbs said, "We can do nothing but implore the person that has those classified top secret documents not to post anymore."
"I think it's important that no more damage be done to our national security," Gibbs told NBC television's "Today" show Friday.
This article starring:
Bradley Manning
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
"I think it's important that no more damage be done to our national security," Gibbs told NBC television's "Today" show Friday.
I'm sure the "Present" administration will soon be able to say they've put a stop to further leaks. Of course, the fact that there's nothing left to leak may play a small part in this, but let's ignore that.
#3
Wanted - Romantic roommate to share small one-room studio apartment and split expenses in Pound, Virginia. Must agree to lifetime lease. If you can't pay, I'm sure other arrangements can be made. If you think this might fit you, please call Bubba. 555-1212.
#5
Article from the Oklahoman online, interviews with people who knew him back then. Chera Moore, 23, was friends with Manning from kindergarten until he left Crescent in the first semester of his eighth-grade year. She said he was quiet outside of class but would always chime in when discussions in class turned toward politics or religion.
"He didn't hide his feelings on those things," Moore said. "He didn't agree with how stuff was being run. He didn't believe in God. He had a problem with the Pledge of Allegiance because of the 'under God' part. He had different views than everyone else in our class, and he didn't really care what anyone thought about it."
According to chat logs between Lamo and Manning, the soldier reportedly had dog tags custom made with "Humanist" listed as his religion.
Manning apparently got his high school education in the UK.
#6
If none of the informants has died yet, it is only because they went into hiding, and the Taliban haven't found them. But they will, they will.
And then Mr Assange will have lots of blood on his hands.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
07/31/2010 0:38 Comments ||
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#7
Earlier this week, Assange told a mob of fawning media beasts:
It is not our role to play sides for states, he said. States have national security concerns, we do not have national security concerns.
Really? The Taliban considers itself a state, and it was internationally recognized as such at one time. Assange does not mind playing sides for them. The ongoing liquidation of American and Afghan government agents will certainly improve their security, and that of their client, Al Qaeda.
This is not free speech, it is mass murder and it was committed on behalf of one of the most brutal, misogynistic, and intolerant regimes to have existed since medieval times.
Assange is responsible for his actions. He should be arrested and jailed the very minute he sets foot in the United States. Every possible pressure should be brought to bear against the Australian and British governments to extradite him.
For that matter, both Australia and the UK have troops fighting in Afghanistan. Assange has materially harmed them as well. Why isn't he already in jail? Is treason legal in the Commonwealth these days?
There is no statute of limitations on this. We will very likely have a new administration in 2013. Assange is a marked man, even assuming that private actors don't get to him first. For that matter, there are potential state actors other than the cowardly regimes currently in power in the US, the UK, and Australia.
#8
To me, Assange comes across as a sociopathic narcissist. One of these "I must destroy the world to save it" people. I think he could be up to his neck in somebody else's blood and it wouldn't phase him in the least.
His ego's so big that he seems to think he's invulnerable to any consequences of his actions.
But I'll bet there are some people in this world right now with the means and the ability to do it who have recently made it their mission in life to take this smarmy little prick down. And down hard.
#9
This is not insoluble. If he had the balls for it (ha ha!) the big Zero could have this babboon shot like a dog on the street, then he could use the President's ABSOLUTE power of pardons and paroles to pardon both himself and the shooters.
Failing that, private citizens or foreign operatives of some sort will have to take care of it.
Whatever happens, Assange has to know that he can never have a minute of peace for the rest of his (hopefully short) life. Is that gawky looking kid walking toward him on the sidewalk actually a master marksman with a suppressed pistol in the waistband of his jogging suit? Does that Volvo parked outside his neighbor's house conceal a bomb in the trunk? Is the cable guy really a cable guy? Is that old fart in the parking lot a former KGB agent and is there a nasty surprise in the tip of his umbrella?
I'm very glad I don't have to think about these things.
#14
I have this jackass over in the "Just because you can doesn't mean you should", with the book burners and ground zero builders.
There was the question, what would W. have done? Nothing because he wouldn't have been given the option. Well the current commander in chief had the option, even if wiki people did not visit the wh staff its not like this came out of nowhere. The current CiC did not do everything possible to protect military mission and people.
If its a giant misinformation gig, I have a difficult time imagining the benifit justifying the collateral damage. So then at the least non-sinister, the White House shows a dangerous carelessness. Any congresscritters involved in the military committees should be pointed at as well.
So its difficult for me to be too upset with Assangle when the military let the secrets out and the cic does not seem to care. Hey, I know, let's tear out our gates so we can have a shiny trophy to look at.
#15
You don't have to kill the guy, you ruin him. You wreck his credibility, his reputation, you make him an unreliable source. You turn him into an object of ridicule, like Sy Hersh or Peter Arnett or Dan Rather, taken seriously only by the lunatic fringe. That's a fate worse then death to a guy like this.
[Al Arabiya Latest] A Canadian man convicted of trying to send nuclear technology to his native Iran has been sentenced to 20 months in prison.
In addition to his 20 months in jail, the Ontario Court of Justice sentenced Mahmoud Yadegar to another 15.5 months of pre-sentence custody, Canada's public prosecution service said in a statement.
"Because the court granted double credit for pre-sentence custody, this amounts to a four-year, three-month sentence," the statement read.
He was found guilty on July 6 of nine out of 10 charges, including offences under the Customs Act, the United Nations Act, and the Criminal Code.
Prosecutors were seeking 6.5 years prison for Yadegari, 37, who was born in Iran but has been living in Canada since 1988.
On March 4, 2009, Yadegari "attempted to export controlled material to Iran" via Dubai, read the statement. "The goods, known as pressure transducers, are subject to a United Nations embargo on nuclear-related exports to Iran."
The items, it said, "are also on Canada's Export Control List."
Yadegari was arrested in April 2009 following a two-month investigation carried out jointly with US officials, and is the first person convicted of violating UN anti-nuclear proliferation resolutions against the Tehran regime, Crown prosecutor Bradley Reitz said earlier.
Yadegari could face maximum sentences of 10 years in prison or $482,000 in fines.
This article starring:
Mahmoud Yadegar
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
ION TOPIX > NORTH KOREA WARHEAD TEST SEEMS TO BE PROBABLE. Next NOKOR test may be a WARHEAD-ON-A-ROCKET/MISSLE thingy.
ARTIC >CHINA believes that NOKOR has "sufficient nuclear weapons manufacturing" capability, + now desires to dev or improve its ability to miniaturize potentially nuclear-capable new Warheads???
[Geo News] Two muscle of an outlawed religious outfit allegedly involved in supplying weapons to Orcs and similar vermin have been rounded up in Shershah area, Geo News reported Friday. According to SP CID Mazhar Shawani, in raid conducted in Shershah area police jugged two muscleMuhamamd Rizwan and Dawood belonging to defunct Jaish-e-Muhammad and recovered two TT pistols. He said the accused were involved in supplying weapons to Orcs and similar vermin in Sukkur and that they had fled to Karachi following a raid on their hideout in Sukkur. A police party has been sent to Sukkur to arrest other accomplices of the accused and to seize more weapons.
This article starring:
MUHAMAMD RIZWAN
Jaish-e-Muhammad
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2010 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Three protesters were killed by security forces Friday in a day of violence in Indian-administered Kashmir that also left 75 people injured, police and witnesses said.
The fatalities added to a string of deaths that have fuelled a rolling series of angry protests across the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley in the past two months.
At least 20 people are known to have died in the latest burst of violence which erupted when a 17-year-old boy was killed after being hit by a police tear gas shell in early June. Many of those killed have been teenagers.
Witnesses said two men were shot on Friday when security forces opened fire on a demonstration in Sopore town, about 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of Srinagar. Both died on the way to hospital.
"Both men had bullet wounds and were dead by the time they reached us," a doctor in Srinagar's main hospital told AFP.
Police said the demonstrators tried to damage a railway track and also attacked paramilitary forces with stones.
However, locals said they were holding a peaceful protest after Friday prayers when troops fired at them.
The deaths brought thousands of people out onto the streets of Sopore and adjoining villages, residents said.
In neighbouring Patan town, angry protesters ransacked a police station and set part of it on fire. One person died when police opened fire on the crowd, a witness said.
Earlier in the day authorities imposed a strict curfew in Srinagar after security forces opened fire at stone-throwing protesters, injuring three people. One of the injured is in critical condition in hospital.
No prayers were held at the region's main mosque, the Jamia Masjid in Srinagar, for the fifth consecutive Friday as security forces had sealed off entrances to the Mughal-built mosque with coils of barbed wire.
However, residents were able to attend prayers in smaller local mosques.
More than 75 people, including ten policemen, were injured during Friday clashes between protesters and security forces across the Kashmir valley, police said, adding 10 protesters were hospitalised with bullet wounds. Separatists had called for protests on Friday.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2010 00:00 ||
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WASSIT / Aswat al-Iraq: An Iraqi security force seized four rockets ready for firing in the direction of a U.S. military base in western al-Kut city on Friday, according to a local security source in Wassit province.
An Iraqi interior ministry force seized today (July 30) four Katyusha rockets in a farmland in al-Ahrar district, (25 km) western Kut, the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
The rockets, ready for firing on the Delta military base, (7 km) western Kut, which is taken by the U.S. forces as their headquarters, were defused by a bomb squad, he said, adding intelligence tip-offs led the force to the site of the rockets.
The Delta base had come on July 20 under attack with four Katyusha rockets but there was nothing revealed about possible losses or casualties.
Kut, the capital city of Wassit province, lies 180 km southeast of Baghdad.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/31/2010 00:00 ||
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GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Israeli warplanes fired missiles at five targets across Gazoo, killing a senior commander of the Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, military wing and wounding 11 people, the group said Saturday.
The Israeli military confirmed the air strikes and said they came in response to a rocket attack from Gazoo on the Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon on Friday. The attack on Ashkelon caused damage but no injuries. The cross-border violence came after weeks of relative calm and raised concerns of further escalation.
Hamas' military wing, Izzedine al-Qassam, swore Dire Revenge for the killing of Issa Batran, 42. It identified Batran as a commander of the military wing in central Gazoo and a senior rocket maker.
Hamas says eight of its supporters and three civilians were wounded in the air strikes.
The targets hit by missiles included a Hamas military training camp in Gazoo City, smuggling tunnels under the Gazoo-Egypt border and a shack on the outskirts of the Nusseirat refugee camp, Hamas security officials said.
There has been no claim of responsibility for Friday's rocket strike against Ashkelon, a city of 120,000 located 11 miles (18 kilometers) to the north of Gazoo and a short drive from Israel's main population center in Tel Aviv.
Since Israel's military offensive, small renegade groups in Gazoo have occasionally fired crude short-range rockets. However, in Friday's attack, Ashkelon was hit by a military-grade Grad rocket.
NABLUS, Palestinian Territories Palestinians and Israeli settlers clashed in the northern West Bank on Friday, throwing stones at each other and damaging property, witnesses and the army said. The clashes occurred just south of Nablus, between the Palestinian village of Iraq Burin and the neighbouring Jewish settlement of Bracha, a frequent flashpoint.
Palestinian witnesses said settlers had attacked the village, throwing stones at cars and houses. However, the Israeli army said the Palestinians had attempted to attack Bracha, before the military intervened.
Approximately 30 Palestinians gathered near Bracha and began hurling rocks. Troops responded with riot dispersal means, an army spokeswoman said.
Neither side reported any casualties and it was not immediately clear what sparked the unrest Friday.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/31/2010 00:00 ||
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A suspected terrorist insurgent facing seven arrest warrants for his alleged involvement in violent attacks in Pattani has been captured. Following a tip, police stormed a house in Pattani's Nong Chik district where they arrested Sakareeya Sameng, 28. Mr Sakareeya, a native of the province's Kho Pho district, had seven outstanding arrest warrants for charges related to violent attacks, including murder, arson, and terrorism.
In Narathiwat, three defence volunteers providing protection for teachers were injured in a bomb attack in Sungai Padi district yesterday. The bomb went off about 3pm as the volunteers were on their way to a school to escort teachers home. The blast injured Nukul Ngern-niam, 23, Suwit Nukhorwat, 35 and Banjit Salee 31.
Meanwhile, police allege that two men who were shot dead in a clash with officers in Bannang Sata district on Thursday had taken part in violent attacks in the province.
Arhama Dorni, 25, had two outstanding arrest warrants, while Sukri Dueramae, 24, had one, police said. The suspects were killed in an exchange of gunfire with police who raided a house in Bannang Sata. Police officers claim they had tried to persuade the pair to surrender, but they opened fire instead. One officer was injured in the attack.
The Facebook group Nueng Khwamdee Puea Phorluang (One Good Deed for the King) yesterday donated 150 bullet-proof vests for police in the deep South.
[Straits Times] A MALAYSIAN court on Friday acquitted a Muslim man of arson charges on Friday after he was accused of torching a church during a religious tensions over whether non-Muslims can use the word 'Allah' to refer to God.
The firebombing of the church in this Muslim-majority country marked the start of an unprecedented string of assaults on places of worship in January following a court verdict that allowed Christians to use 'Allah' in their Malay-language publications.
The attacks threatened decades of harmonious ties between ethnic Malay Muslims, who make up nearly two-thirds of Malaysia's 28 million people, and minority ethnic Chinese and Indians who mainly practice Buddhism, Christianity or Hinduism.
Azuwan Shah, 23, was acquitted because of a lack of evidence proving he had a role in starting the fire that partially gutted a Protestant church in a Kuala Lumpur neighborhood on Jan. 8, said his lawyer Rosal Azimin.
He said two witnesses testified Azuwan was not at the church when the fire started.
Two Muslim brothers charged along with Azuwan were ordered Friday to enter pleas at the Kuala Lumpur district court, Rosal said. The brothers in their 20s face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison if convicted of 'mischief by fire' with the intention of destroying a place of worship.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2010 00:00 ||
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[Jakarta Post] West Java police have deployed about 500 reinforcement troops from the anti-riot and Mobile Brigade units to conflict-torn regency of Kuningan, following clashes between hard-line Muslim groups and followers of Islamic minority sect Ahmadiyah on Thursday.
Spokesman for the National Police Insp. Gen. Edward Aritonang told a media conference peace and order had gradually been restored in Manis Lor village, where the fight erupted, but said the reinforcement troops were needed to prevent the communal conflict from recurring.
"The police are there to secure the place so that no more fight will erupt. It's not true if we take side with one of the groups," Edward said as quoted by kompas.com.
Earlier President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had asked the police to take tough measures against perpetrators of acts of violence in the regency.
The fight followed a plan by Kuningan regent Aang Hamid Suganda to seal eight mosques belonging to the Islamic sect, which is deemed heretical. Village residents, mostly Ahmadiyah followers, resisted the plan and guarded the mosques, only to spark anger among hard-line Islamic groups.
Edward said the attackers came from Kuningan and neighboring regions of Cianjur, Tasikmalaya, Garut, Cirebon and Banten.
An Ahmadiyah follower and two police officers were injured in the clashes, Edward said.
West Java police chief Insp. Gen. Sutarman called on the public not to take the law into their hands in settling the matter.
"If Ahmadiyah is considered heretical, people can ask the government to enforce the law," he said.
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[Straits Times] GOVERNMENT troops killed three communist rebels in a clash on Friday in the northern Philippines while roadside bombings blamed on another guerrilla faction wounded four soldiers in a southern city, officials said.
The country's 41-year communist rebellion is one of Asia's longest-running insurgencies. Maoist rebels, who are on a US terrorist blacklist, have become more active in recent months, attacking distant military and police outposts to seize badly needed weapons.
Lieutenant Colonel Rogelio Mesias, an army spokesman, said troops clashed with rebels they were pursuing in northern Pampanga province's Mexico township.
After an hourlong battle, soldiers recovered the bodies of three members of the Marxist Leninist Proletariat Party-Revolutionary Army, a group that broke away from the main rebel force New People's Army in the 1990s. No one was wounded on the government side.
In southern Davao city, New People Army rebels exploded two improvised bombs planted on a roadside, wounding four soldiers from a platoon dispatched to check on armed men seen by villagers, said Major General Carlos Holganza.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2010 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.
KABUL, Afghanistan (July 29) - A Taliban commander and his accomplice were apprehended in Farah province after Afghan National Army Commandos discovered them disguised in burkas July 25. 
[The Nation (Nairobi)] A Ugandan court on Friday charged three Kenyans over the Kampala bombings, the first such cases opened against suspects in the July 11 
[Al Arabiya Latest] A U.S. soldier accused of leaking a military video from Iraq and suspected in the release of thousands of secret documents on the Afghan war has been moved to a U.S. military jail, the Pentagon said on Friday.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Israeli warplanes fired missiles at five targets across 
A suspected 
