AFGHANISTAN'S former president tasked with leading peace efforts in the war-torn country has been assassinated in a suicide attack at his Kabul home.
Two of his close political allies told AFP of Burhanuddin Rabbani's assassination after police confirmed a suicide explosion in his street.
"Yes, he is dead," said one of the two sources, both of whom wept as they confirmed the news by telephone.
Rabbani was the chief of President Hamid Karzai's High Council for Peace, which is tasked with negotiating with the Taliban, so far unsuccessfully.
The blast, which happened close to the US embassy yesterday, is the second attack within a week to strike within Kabul's supposedly secure diplomatic zone. An ambulance has arrived at the scene and surrounding roads have been blocked off by police.
Posted by: Barbara ||
09/20/2011 14:30 Comments ||
Top||
#5
I have no idea if his public statements mirror his private sentiments, but the guy always struck me as a borderline fellow traveler with the Taliban. He certainly made it easy for his killers. From Wikipedia:
Rabbani was killed in a suicide bombing at his home in Kabul on 20 September 2011 while meeting with a Taliban delegation. Two Taliban members approached him to shake hands, and detonated themselves with explosives. One, at least, hid the explosives within his turban.
It's amusing that someone this simpatico wasn't extreme enough for the Taliban.
KARACHI: A Taleban suicide bomber detonated a vehicle packed with explosives Monday outside the home of a senior police officer tasked with cracking down on militants in Pakistan's largest city. The blast killed at least eight people and left a crater 10 feet deep, police said.
Martyrs, all, except for the suicide murderer, who no doubt is just joining Himmler and Osama bin Laden in hell, according to the latest in jihad theory.
The Pakistani Taleban claimed responsibility for the early morning attack in the southern port city of Karachi. The target of the bombing, Chaudhry Aslam, escaped unscathed and said he would not be cowed by the attack.
"This is a cowardly act," Aslam told local television. "I'm not scared. I will not spare them."
The eight people killed included six policemen guarding Aslam's house as well as a schoolteacher and her son who were passing by, said Karachi police chief Saud Mirza. He estimated that at least 300 kg of explosives were used in the attack.
The death toll could have been even worse if it had happened a few minutes later when many children would have been headed to schools located near Aslam's house in the Defense neighborhood of Karachi, an upscale residential area that rarely experiences militant attacks or other forms of violence that plague the city.
"Thank God it was half an hour before school time," said former Pakistani cricket team captain Moin Khan, who passed by the site of the attack shortly after the blast.
"It was horrible. I saw four bodies," said Khan. "Broken pieces of vehicles were scattered more than 100 feet."
Local television footage showed extensive damage from the blast. The fronts of several two-story concrete buildings were totally blown away. Rubble littered the streets amid the burned wreckage of cars hit by the explosion.
Aslam is a top police officer in the Crime Investigation Department, which works to arrest Taleban fighters and other militants in Karachi.
Pakistani Taleban spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan claimed responsibility for Monday's attack. "We will continue targeting all such officers who are involved in the killing of our comrades," Ahsan told The Associated Press.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/20/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
SIRTE, Libya: Revolutionary fighters fired rockets at Moammar Qaddafi's hometown and traded gunfire with loyalist forces, sending up clouds of white smoke, as forces of Libya's new rulers struggle to seize control of strongholds that remain loyal to the fugitive leader.
Sporadic battles also broke out to the east in Bani Walid as poorly equipped former rebels grouped at the town's northern gate tried to fight their way into town but were blasted by mortar shells and machine-gun fire.
The new leadership is facing a tough fight uprooting the remnants of Qaddafi's regime nearly four weeks after the then-rebels rolled into Tripoli on Aug. 21 and ousted the authoritarian leader.
Fighting in Qaddafi's hometown of Sirte, 250 miles (400 kilometers) southeast of Tripoli, ebbed by Monday afternoon. Revolutionary forces said they were waiting to launch another full assault after being routed by Qaddafi's forces two days earlier. At least 25 former rebels were killed and more than 50 wounded on Saturday.
The fighters push into the city in the morning but withdraw at night, forcing them to battle their way in each day.
"We can't stay at night in the city because Qaddafi cut the electricity and they know their own city," revolutionary fighter Lotfi Al-Amin said. "We stay outside and then push in." Al-Amin, a 37-year-old former postal worker who is now the head of a sniper unit, said the fighters also were concerned about a number of families from the city of Misrata who had been living in a Sirte neighborhood and were trapped.
He claimed Qaddafi's forces surrounded the neighborhood and killed five boys they kidnapped.
"The first thing we have to do is get the Misrata families out, then we can use all the firepower we have," he said.
Pro-Qaddafi fighters also fired anti-aircraft guns at revolutionary forces holding the northern gate of Bani Walid, another loyalist stronghold, for a second day Monday, as frustration with weeks of halting advances grows among the former rebel ranks.
The official, trained military of the National Transitional Council, Libya's interim government, pulled away from Bani Walid to regroup and reinforce for a new assault after they were heavily beaten in the city Friday. That has left bands of ragtag, undisciplined fighters on the front line. These include fighters as young as 18 who spend hours smoking hash, shooting at plastic bottles, arguing with one another and sometimes just firing wildly into the streets out of apparent boredom.
When they decide to enter the town, they charge in half a dozen pickup trucks, only to retreat a short while later.
On Monday, three of their cars rode right into an ambush by Qaddafi forces on a street none of the outsiders was familiar with. One of their fellow fighters, Wassim Rajab, said he heard from comrades that four of them were killed.
Describing another typical attempt, fighter Lutfi Al-Shibly from Libya's western mountains, said, "We entered the city, 600 meters from the city center, but we didn't have enough forces, so we lost the position and had to retreat." Revolutionary commanders were meeting with the leaders of the rebel brigades on Monday to try to rein in the chaotic fighting and organize ranks before a new push on the town, military spokesman Tarek Hadoud told The Associated Press.
Late Sunday, Qaddafi spokesman Moussa Ibrahim charged that revolutionary fighters have killed "hundreds every day." He told the Syrian Al-Rai TV station, which has become the Qaddafi mouthpiece, "Sirte is the symbol of resistance in Libya." He did not say where he or Qaddafi were.
He also claimed that Qaddafi fighters captured 17 mercenaries from France, Britain and Qatar near Bani Walid. Britain's Foreign Office said it was aware of Ibrahim's claims but had no evidence that they were correct.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/20/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Judging by Afghanistan/Iraq, the festivities are just beginning.
SANAA: Yemeni security forces killed 20 people, some shot by snipers from rooftops, in a crowd of protesters on Monday demanding the removal of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, medics and witnesses said, in rising violence that has broken an uneasy stalemate.
Rising violence? Uneasy stalemate? Did the reporter file this from Paris?
In the worst bloodshed seen since March, medics at various hospitals said a further 113 protesters were wounded in the capital Sanaa, a day after 26 demonstrators in a massive anti-government march were shot dead.
Gunfire and shelling echoed sporadically across the divided capital as pro-Saleh troops and protesters clashed on Monday.Government troops were firing into the air to scatter demonstrators, according to witnesses. But a Reuters reporter saw snipers shooting from rooftops and upper stories of buildings into the throng of demonstrators. Some of the deaths appeared to have been caused by rocket-propelled grenades.
Injured people were whisked on motorcycles to a makeshift hospital in protester-dubbed Change Square where people have been camped for eight months calling for an end to Salehs 33 years of repressive rule in the poor Arabian Peninsula state.
I fear the situation will get out of hand. There is no new initiative to cool things off and the other political players doubt that Saleh will abide by any terms that are set, said Saadaldeen Talib, a former Yemeni opposition parliamentarian. Complete disintegration and chaos might come very soon.
Not that you'll be able to tell the difference...
Mondays violence erupted as protesters tried to push further into areas of Sanaa controlled by government forces after extending their camp overnight to a junction known locally as Kentucky Roundabout. The area had previously marked the dividing line between parts of Sanaa held by loyalist troops and defected forces.
The thugs are hurting our brothers. We will go, the road is open. The free men will meet at Kentucky Roundabout! organizers shouted over loudspeakers in Change Square.
Earlier on Monday, troops belonging to defected General Ali Mohsen, who threw his support behind the anti-Saleh movement some months ago, blocked the protesters efforts to advance, in an apparent attempt to defuse the situation. Some Mohsen soldiers were among the injured at the hospital.
The new bloodshed, shredding a weeks-long stand-off, was the worst in recent months. Hundreds of people were wounded too when security forces fired on protesters who charged police lines.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/20/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
But since the current regime is acceptable to Saudis, the word is mum.
JEDDAH: Muejib bin Muhammad Al-Qahtani, who was on a list of 47 most wanted terrorists published by the Interior Ministry this year, has surrendered to security authorities, ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki announced Sunday.
Did they check his shoes, underwear, and anal cavity for explosives? All have been tried, with unhappy results...not to mention the traditional Afghan turban bomb.
"Al-Qahtani contacted his family expressing his desire to return to the Kingdom and surrender to authorities. The relevant security agencies made necessary arrangements for his return and reunion with his family," the spokesman told Arab News.
Al-Turki said Al-Qahtani would be treated like other militants who had surrendered to police and his initiative would be taken into consideration when looking into his case. He advised the remaining wanted militants abroad to surrender.
The surrender of Al-Qahtani and two others has brought down the number of militants on the list published by the Interior Ministry to 44. Previously, Khaled Hadal Al-Qahtani surrendered on May 6 and Abdussalam Abdul Aziz Al-Farraj on Aug. 3.
All the men on the list are living outside the Kingdom and many of them had left the country illegally. Their association with Al-Qaeda poses a danger to the Kingdom's security. The government has information that 16 of them are in Yemen, 27 in Afghanistan and Pakistan and four in Iraq. Four of these militants have left the Kingdom using the passports of others, 13 sneaked out through the border while 30 left legally.
According to Al-Turki, immigration officers allowed these militants to leave the Kingdom legally because they did not have evidence to stop them or confirm their association with Al-Qaeda and the government would not prevent a person from traveling without any genuine reason.
Funny how a dictatorship can't come up with a reason to stop terrorists from leaving but can always find a reason to stop a dissident.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/20/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
No doubt he will go through Rehab and then back to fight another day like many ex-gitmo prisoners!
Saudi like Pakistan is a two faced ally!
Posted by: Paul D ||
09/20/2011 15:34 Comments ||
Top||
Dinajpur, Sept 19 (UNB) - An Indian gun runner, who was arrested on Sunday at Hili land port, allegedly committed suicide at Hakimpur police station on Monday.
Why even bother with the banana grove at 3 am?
The deceased was identified as Niten Pal, 40, son of Bipin Pal of Suihari village in South Dinajpur district of India.
Because he came from India. Only B'desh natives rate a shutter-gun farewell near a secret lair...
Police said Niten came to the port from India as a helper of a maize-laden truck on Sunday noon.
On suspicion, customs officials detained Niten when he was going out of the port carrying a bag. Later, a shutter gun and three rounds of bullet were recovered from his bag.
So THAT'S where shutter guns come from!
He was taken to Hakimpur police station after arrest. Police found Niten hanging from the ceiling of the prison cell in the early morning.
Hanging from the ceiling, with his hands tied conveniently behind him...
The body was sent to Dinajpur Medical College Hospital morgue for autopsy.
"So, whatcha think Dr. Q?"
"Hanged himself, Sam. See the rope burns around the wrists?"
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/20/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
DHAKA: Street marches by members of Bangladeshs biggest Islamic party seeking the release of its leaders from jail turned violent across the country on Monday, with at least 70 people wounded in clashes, witnesses said.
Activists belonging to the Jamaat-e-Islami party, many carrying sticks and throwing rocks, fought running battles with steel-helmeted riot police in Dhaka and set at least 30 vehicles on fire. Twenty people were wounded and police detained nearly 25, the witnesses said.
"Calling all RAB cadres! Calling all RAB cadres! Assemble at the usual banana groves, fields and secret lairs at 3 am! Bring at least four rounds of bullet! That is all!"
The violence has spread through a large part of the city, with smoke from the burning vehicles filling the sky, a witness said.
There were similar clashes in Chittagong, Comilla and other cities in which 50 people including police were injured.
Police said Jamaat called the marches to demand the release of the partys top leaders who have been held in prison for months, facing charges of acts of genocide during Bangladeshs 1971 war of independence against Pakistan.
Jamaat, a political ally of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) led by former prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia, has vowed to free their leaders and support BNPs campaign to oust the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina from power.
Since Khaleda and the BNP got waxed in the last election and have lost support amongst the people, violent protest is all they have left...
The government has rejected BNPs demand for early elections, saying there will be no vote before Hasina completes her five-year term at the end of 2013.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/20/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
While in America SEIUs Stephen Lerner and ACORN founder Wade Rathke, who wanted such violence here, are terribly disappointed at their cowardly followers, who have not only failed them, but "the cause" as well.
A car bomb which exploded outside a secondary school in Ankara has killed at least three people and injured 24.
The blast on Tuesday, near government buildings, including the prime minister's office in the Turkish capital, was a terrorist attack, the prosecutor's office said. "The explosion occurred in a place where car and people traffic is intense. It looks like the intention was to inflict as much harm to people as possible," said the interior minister, Idris Naim Sahin. He said the bodies of three people were found in a building near the car in central Ankara and five of the injured were in a critical condition.
The deputy prime minister, Bulent Arinc, blamed the blast on a bomb planted on a vehicle. Bulent Tanik, a local mayor, said a witness told him someone threw a burning gas canister on to the vehicles from a nearby building. "If true, that canister might have triggered the blast of a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) tank on a vehicle," he said. Witnesses said vehicles were thrown through the air by the force of the blast and shops were destroyed beyond recognition. The parked car that triggered the blast was purchased a week ago but had not been registered.
There was no claim of responsibility but Kurdish rebels, Islamists and leftist militants have all carried out bombings on Turkish soil.
Turkey analyst at Chatham House, Fadi Hakura, said if it was confirmed to be a bomb, the method and targets of the attack suggested it was the work of the Kurdistan Workers' party (PKK). "The PKK is the only group in Turkey with the capacity and wherewithal to carry out such an attack," said Hakura. He added that Islamists have tended to attack high-profile foreign targets in the Nato-member country, while the PKK had past form of striking against civilians, although he said the Kurdish rebels tended to claim attacks only when they were against foreign targets.
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I will now piss in your ear and call it rain...
BRUSSELS -- Washington aims to close the Guantanamo Bay detention centre before next year's November US presidential election, US Attorney General Eric Holder said Tuesday.
"We share the view that the closing of the Guantanamo facility would be a positive thing," Holder said after an exchange of views with the European Parliament's Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee. "There is no question that there is strong opposition," he said. But there was "equal determination" by both President Barack Obama and himself to shut the centre down before the November 2012 polls. Almost as determined as we were in 2010...and 2009...and 2008...and 2007
"We will be pressing for closure between now and then," he said. "It is the determination of this adnministration to close Guantanamo and to do it as quickly as possible, recognising that we will face much internal pressure." And you have Barry's and my word on that...and we all know what that's worth.
Earlier this month, the EU's home affairs commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem slammed Washington's failure to close the detention centre as "a shame. We are very displeased, this is the opinion of the European Union and of the whole of Europe, of all the member states, expressed repeatedly in our contacts with the Americans," she said after launching new EU anti-terror measures two days before the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. "It is a shame that it is still open and that people have not been put on trial," she added. "We continue to repeat to our American friends that it must be closed." Oooh, the EU is displeased...
#3
Tell you what, Cecilia. We will try these folks, find them guilty, sentence for time served, and dump them in a halfway house in your fair city, where they can be understood and treated with all the love, generosity, and respect that you can dredge up.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
09/20/2011 18:00 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Tell you what, Cecilia. We will try these folks, find them guilty, sentence for time served, and dump them ina halfway your house in your fair city, where they can be understood and treated with all the love, generosity, and respect that you can dredge up.
FIFY, Paul
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
09/20/2011 18:38 Comments ||
Top||
#5
What's the proven recidivism rate of the lower-risk inmates that have already been released? 30%?
Since the base is an extreme version of the left and they are one jump from tin hats about 9/11, Guantanamo, Cheney, and global warming, this election is going to be a doozy. Just imagine the dirt and crap and muckraking the left is going to try this time around.
This next election will be the dirtiest in history.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
09/20/2011 23:45 Comments ||
Top||
BAJAUR AGENCY: Unidentified terrorists gunmen shot dead a tribal elder at Tehsil Mamound, officials said on Monday.
Malik Aziz Khan was on his way to mosque for prayer when unidentified terrorists gunmen ambushed him by starting indiscriminate firing at him that caused his death on the spot. Political authorities have started investigations and search operation for the arrest of the terrorists culprits.
A Tribal elder and peace committee member, Malik Noor Gul, was also killed by terrorists assailants at Dama Dola of Mamound tehsil a few days ago. The tribesmen of Mamound have expressed deep concerns over the killing of noted tribal elders and demanded the government to arrest terrorists killers besides improving law and order situation in Bajaur Agency.
"Don't let them kill us too!"
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/20/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
MASTUNG: Three oil tankers were gutted in firing by unidentified armed men late night between Sunday and Monday. Unidentified gunmen riding bikes opened fire at three oil tankers owned by a private company on Quetta-Taftan National Highway, police said, adding that resultantly, all three tankers were gutted.
The assailants managed to escape. Sadar Levies Thana has registered a case against unidentified suspects and started investigation into the incident.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/20/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
PESHAWAR: At least five persons, including a woman, were killed and 21 others were injured in a bomb blast in CD shop in the old city on Monday, police said. Firefighters were trying to put out the fire that engulfed the shop after the blast, till the filing of this report.
"We told you Mahmoud, no more Bay City Rollers, but you didn't listen, did you?"
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Senior Minister Bashir Bilour, while saying that terrorists had targeted innocent civilians, told reporters that two persons, including a woman, were killed in the blast. The bomb was emplaced in a bicycle and triggered by a remote control, added Bilour. Among the injured persons, condition of six was stated to be critical.
Nishterabad is known for CD shops that have been a frequent target of Taliban.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/20/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Nishterabad is known for CD shops that have been a frequent target of Taliban.
Interesting tenacity on the part of the CD shop owners/employees/customers.
NINEWA / Aswat al-Iraq: Ninewa's deputy police commander nearly escaped death from an assassination attempt, two of his body guards wounded, police sources said here today.
The source told Aswat al-iraq that the attempt was by bomb implanted on the route of his convoy, east of Mosul city.
His vehicle was damaged, but no further details were mentioned, the source added.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/20/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Thailand's deputy national police chief Pol Gen Adul Sangsingkaew on Monday confirmed that arrest warrants have been issued against two suspects in the coordinated bombings in Narathiwat province last Friday. Those coordinated bombings killed five people, including three Malaysian tourists, and injured more than 100 others.
Speaking to reporters after meeting with the prime minister about the continuing violence in the southern border region, Gen Adul disclosed that there was substantial evidence against the two. At least five people are thought to have been involved in the deadly bomb attacks.
Gen Adul brushed aside suggestions that the blasts were aimed at challenging the new Pheu Thai-led government.
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.
KARACHI: A Taleban suicide bomber detonated a vehicle packed with explosives Monday outside the home of a senior police officer tasked with cracking down on militants in Pakistan's largest city. The blast killed at least eight people and left a crater 10 feet deep, police said.
SANAA: Yemeni security forces killed 20 people, some shot by snipers from rooftops, in a crowd of protesters on Monday demanding the removal of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, medics and witnesses said, in rising violence that has broken an uneasy stalemate.
JEDDAH: 
