The Interior Ministry announced that 10 civilians and up to 60 Taliban were killed in the past few days of fighting in the Uruzgan province, but rejected claims by locals that dozens more were killed in NATO bombing raids.
Meanwhile, Afghan police said on Tuesday they had reclaimed control of a district held by the Taliban for less than 24 hours but had made a tactical withdrawal from another the rebels claimed to hold.
Local officials alleged on Monday that scores of civilians were killed in three days of fighting, including NATO bombardments, to dislodge a group of the Taliban from the Chora district in Uruzgan province. An Interior Ministry spokesman said the Taliban had killed 10 civilians and four policemen and 50 to 60 enemy elements were also dead. He said claims that more civilians had died in bombing raids were not true.
Uruzgan provincial council chief Mawlawi Hamdullah told AFP late on Monday that accounts from the area suggested that around 60 civilians might have been killed, most of them in bombing raids.
Around 100 people were in a hospital in Tirin Kot, but there were other wounded that were unable to leave Chora, he said, adding that helicopters should be sent to airlift them out. NATOs International Security Assistance Force said it had no reports of civilian deaths but believed around 50-60 Taliban may have been killed.
The fighting in Uruzgan still goes on, ISAF spokesman Major John Thomas told AFP. He said he doubted Afghan officials could differentiate between civilians and militants, adding some of wounded who claimed to be civilians were insurgents. Police faced little resistance when they reclaimed the mountainous Myanishen district in the southern province of Kandahar, provincial police chief Esmatullah Alizai said. Taliban insurgents trying to overthrow the government had said they captured the district late Monday and were in control of its administrative headquarters.
There was an exchange of fire, Alizai said. We managed to retake control of the district. There wasnt very heavy resistance from the enemy side. He said his officers suffered no casualties and it was unclear if there had been any Taliban deaths.
However, police had to pull out of Kandahars Ghorak district, the police chief said as the Taliban claimed to have also captured that area. Today at noon we made a tactical withdrawal from Ghorak, Alizai added. Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi had earlier told AFP the Taliban controlled the district administration offices and had taken possession of government vehicles and weapons.
On Tuesday, a group representing 94 foreign and Afghan aid agencies said international and Afghan forces had been responsible for the deaths of at least 230 civilians this year. Initial goodwill towards the international military presence in 2002 has substantially diminished in many parts of the country, stated the Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief in a statement.
Meanwhile, Afghan troops killed seven suspected militants in the Sangin district of Helmand province on Monday, the Defense Ministry said. Separately, witnesses and relatives said foreign troops raided a housing complex in Kandahar late on Monday, killing one man and detaining ten others, although US-led coalition and NATO said they have no reports of such an incident.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
60 Taliban ded is way gud!
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
06/20/2007 4:21 Comments ||
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Somalias presidential spokesman had been shot twice at close range on Monday in the latest assassination attempt on government officials in the country, officials said on Tuesday. He was shot in the neck and near the jaw, a security official wanting anonymity said. The gunman wanted to eliminate him as he was aiming for the head.
The source said that he had seen presidential spokesman Hussein Mohamed Mahamud Hubsired recovering in a African Union peacekeepers hospital in Mogadishu and that he was in a stable condition and was soon to be flown to Nairobi for treatment. The identity of gunman was not unknown, he added.
Insurgents from a militant Islamist movement ousted from Mogadishu routinely attack government soldiers and their Ethiopian backers, and have increasingly used tactics similar to Iraqi insurgents including assassinations, suicide bombings and roadside blasts.
A heavy and load explosion occurred on Tuesday near the former defense compound in south of Mogadishu where based by the Ethiopian forces as insurgency escalates in recent weeks. The explosion which happened around 3:00pm local time was targeted on a convoy belonged by the Ethiopian forces. It is hard to find out the casualty on the Ethiopian forces here in Mogadishu. Witnesses told Somalinet that the blast was caused by a roadside bomb which hit one of the convoy trucks but there is no immediate casualty on the soldiers. The area of the blast was cordoned by the Ethiopian forces and began arresting many people.
(SomaliNet)
The Ethiopian forces in Mogadishu are always target for the attacks by the insurgents. Since the local insurgents were defeated in the capital by the allied forces of Somalia and Ethiopia last month, they began hit and run attacks including suicide bombing.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
NSFW Fred, dem dancers is too suggestive good buddy!!
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
06/20/2007 4:26 Comments ||
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#3
Pangs of nostalgia ..... for the ole CB nation. Unfortunately, it also reminds me that Jimmy Carter was President at the same time. No wonder we needed the diversion. He know says we need to give Hamas some time. He has changed his name to Dhimmi Carter.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
06/20/2007 11:03 Comments ||
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(SomaliNet) Two civilians were killed by a large blast in Somali capital Mogadishu Monday close to the venue for next months planned peace conference that has already been delayed twice over security fears, police said.
At least it wasn't the Conflict Resolution Workshop. I don't think I coulda stood that...
Mondays blast -the latest in a string of guerrilla-style strikes against the interim government and its Ethiopian military allies came when an unknown attacker detonated a landmine by remote control as government vehicles passed. Abdifatah Ibrahim Omar, Mogadishus deputy mayor in charge of security, said two children were wounded in the explosion which missed its intended target. It was unclear if those two were the victims later confirmed dead by police.
Five suspects had been arrested. Witness Abdullahi Yere, who was standing outside his nearby house, said there were many government troops in the area when the explosion ripped through an intersection, Mr Omar said. I heard a loud explosion that shook the whole ground near me. I saw a burning car thrown high in the sky by the intensity of the explosion, Yere said.
Insurgents from a militant Islamist movement ousted from Mogadishu routinely attack government soldiers and their Ethiopian backers, and have increasingly used Iraq-style tactics including assassinations, suicide bombings and roadside blasts.
The reconciliation conference, which many diplomats say is the interim governments best chance to boost its legitimacy and quell the violence, was due to be held last week at a rundown and bullet-scared former police compound. But the government postponed it for a second time, saying some clans had asked for more time to buy armaments choose delegates and that the venue was still being refurbished.
A security source, speaking anonymously, said the explosion was an insurgent move to edge closer to the venue of the reconciliation conference. He added: This is a message they are trying to convey to the government, warning the government against the proposed reconciliation meeting. Security experts and diplomats say poor security in Mogadishu and the threat of insurgent attacks targeting the conference necessitated its delay to July 18.
This article starring:
Abdifatah Ibrahim Omar, Mogadishus deputy mayor in charge of security
Abdullahi Hassan Bariise, Somali police head of operations
Witness Abdullahi Yere
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
We don't need no darn peace conference.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
06/20/2007 11:08 Comments ||
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Kuwaits highest court commuted on Tuesday death sentences passed on four militants suspected of links to Al Qaeda to life imprisonment. A court ruling read out to reporters also confirmed life sentences for two other militants.
Is this an EU-style 'life sentence', as in about, oh, eight years?
The four militants had appealed against death sentences handed down by a criminal court in 2005 for bloody attacks in the Gulf Arab state. An appeals court had confirmed the death sentences in 2006.
The militants had been charged for their part in clashes with police in 2005 in which four security officers and nine militants were killed. Charges against the defendants had also included belonging to an extremist group, calling for attacks on state facilities, and trying to kill Kuwaiti security officers as well as members of friendly forces in the country, which hosts thousands of US troops.
The defendants were among 37 Islamists on trial as members of the group calling itself Peninsula Lions, which is suspected of having links to Al Qaeda.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Hey, Eid's coming up. Wouldn't be surprised if the snag Ye Olde Royal Pardon.
North Korea has fired a short-range missile towards the Sea of Japan, public broadcaster NHK said on Tuesday. Quoting a Japanese government source, NHK said one missile was fired earlier in the day, adding that it was not a ballistic missile.
Meanwhile North Korean funds at the heart of a dispute that held up a nuclear disarmament deal were deposited on Tuesday in a Pyongyang bank account in Russia, US envoy Christopher Hill said here. To my understanding, today it was deposited in North Korean accounts in their bank accounts in Russia, Hill told reporters on arrival in Tokyo.
Hill, who has also visited South Korea and China on a regional tour, also sounded upbeat on the resumption of six-nation disarmament talks. I am hopeful that we can get to six-party talks of some kind in early July, Hill said.
The 20 to 25 million dollars in funds had been frozen at a bank in Macau in 2005 on US suspicions of money-laundering and counterfeiting. North Korea had refused to comply with a February six-nation deal to shut down its nuclear reactor until it received the money. After weeks spent grappling with technical and legal issues, the cash transfer began last Thursday.
Few banks had wanted to deal with the North Korean funds for fear of sullying their own reputations. In a complex deal, the funds were shifted through the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to the Russian central bank, where the money arrived Monday en route to North Korean accounts.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Fools, now they've got the cash, and you've got nothing.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/20/2007 6:15 Comments ||
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#2
The 20 to 25 million dollars in funds had been frozen at a bank in Macau in 2005 on US suspicions of money-laundering and counterfeiting.
Idiots in government. They just laundered dirty money for the North Korean dictator and gave him crisp $100 bills. Wonder if the DEA and IRS will give me the same deal?
Posted by: ed ||
06/20/2007 9:59 Comments ||
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#3
Imperious Leader Kim say : This will teach Rice Patty Collective people not to demand bigger ration.
One soldier and three militants had been killed in two separate clashes overnight in eastern Turkey, security officials said on Tuesday. They said the soldier was killed in fighting with Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerrillas in Gumushane province near the Black Sea normally not the rebels area of activity.
In a separate gun battle in the Erzincan province, three Maoist rebels were killed and five soldiers were wounded when a military patrol team stopped a truck carrying some 10 militants. Two rebels were captured and the others escaped. The latest violence comes amid speculation that Turkey will launch a military incursion against PKK rebels based in the mountains of northern Iraq. Turkey is currently carrying out major military operations against the guerrillas in the southeast, where it has stationed some 150,000 soldiers.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2007 00:00 ||
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Chitral Scouts arrested on Tuesday four suspected suicide bombers trying to cross the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, Aaj television reported. According to the channel, the scouts recovered explosives, Pakistani currency, extremist literature as well as wills from the alleged suicide bombers. Police presented them before the Mala Kand Anti Terrorist Court for remand. The arrested include Shabir Ahmad, Muhammad Imran and Inayat from Pakistan and Habib-ur-Rehman from Afghanistan, the channel reported.
This article starring:
HABIB UR REHMAN
Taliban
MUHAMAD IMRAN
Taliban
SHABIR AHMED
Taliban
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2007 00:00 ||
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Political authorities have arrested around 39 people in connection with Mondays remote-controlled blast that left three people injured. Most of the arrested people are Afghan refugees who were arrested under the Frontier Crimes Regulations and sent to prison. The political administration also warned that it would take strict action against those wearing masks or displaying arms in public. Nawagai Assistant Political Agent (APA) Mohammad Jamil told journalists that political authorities had banned the wearing of masks and displaying of arms in public in the peace accord. He said that two days ago, however, some armed masked men made announcements through loudspeakers mounted on their vehicles, which directly violated the accord. He said new check posts had been setup in the Umarai, Inayat Qila and Tangay areas.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2007 00:00 ||
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June 20, 2007: After weeks of maneuvering in and around Baghdad, U.S. and Iraqi forces have isolated and cornered large numbers of terrorists in Diyala province (northeast of Baghdad), and especially in the provincial capital, Baqouba. This is a major operation, with 9,000 Americans and a thousand Iraqi troops (and police) involved.
In addition, there are several hundred local irregulars, who have switched sides. This is a big change in the Baghdad suburbs. While tribal leaders and warlords in the west (Anbar province) have been turning on terrorist groups, especially al Qaeda, for several years, the gangs of Baghdad were more resistant to changing sides. That's because Baghdad is the home of Saddam's staunchest supporters. These guys are prime candidates for war crimes prosecutions, for the many atrocities committed by Saddams' secret police over the decades.
While the government has been willing to offer amnesty to many lower ranking Baath party members, the Baghdad neighborhoods and suburbs are full of people considered too dirty to qualify. This is the no-surrender crowd.
But let's face it, these guys are also all over the lists Shia death squads carry. Iran has even offered cash rewards for the deaths of many Saddam lieutenants who were involved in the 1980s Iran-Iraq war, or subsequent murders of Shia clergy. The Kurds have their death lists as well. These are desperate and dangerous people.
Years of collecting data on the bad guys has paid off as well. Month by month, the picture of the enemy became clearer. This was literally the case, with some of the intelligence software that created visual representations of what was known of the enemy, and how reliable it was. The picture is clear enough to maneuver key enemy factions into positions that make them easier to run down.
Saddam's henchmen were no dummies. They were smart enough, and resourceful enough, to build a police state apparatus that kept Saddam in power for over three decades. For the last three years, that talent has been applied to keeping the henchmen alive and out of jail.
Three years of fighting has reduced the original 100,000 or so core Saddam thugs, to a few thousand diehards. Three years ago, there were hundreds of thousands of allies and supporters from the Sunni minority (then, about five million people, now, less than half that), who wanted to be back in charge.
Now the remaining Sunni Arabs just want to be left in peace. Thus the Sunni nationalists of Baqouba are shooting at, and turning in, their old allies from Saddams Baath party and secret police. This isn't easy for some of these guys, but it's seen as a matter of survival.
While the Battle of Baqouba is officially about rooting out al Qaeda, and hard core terrorists, it's also about taking down the Baath party bankers and organizers who have been sustaining the bombers with cash, information and encouragement.
Both the terrorists and U.S. troops know that victory has been defined as several weeks with no bombs going off in Baghdad. The media is keeping score, and they use their ears and video cameras. No loud bangs and no bodies equals no news. That's victory.
Not really. The real war is within the Iraqi government. The terrorists lost two years ago, when the relentless slaughter of Moslem civilians turned the Arab world against al Qaeda. Journalists missed that one, but not the historians.
The war in Iraq has always been about Arabs demonstrating that they can run a clean government, for the benefit of all the people, not just the tyrants on top. So far, there have lots of victories and defeats in this, and no clear decision overall.
Elections have been held several times, but the people elected have proved to be as corrupt and venal as their tyrannical predecessors. Everyone admits that this bad behavior is not a good thing, but attempts to stop it have been only partially successful.
Changing thousands of years of custom and tradition is not easy. The clay tablets dug up in the vicinity of Baghdad, reveal similar scandal and despair over four thousand years ago.
Most Iraqis realize, however, that if the chain of corruption is not broken, the dreary past will again become a painful present.
#7
Iff recent news reports about Iran becoming more open = brazen about its support for local and regional insurgent, etc violence are correct, WAR WITH IRAN WILL COME. Dubya = USA is entrenching in the ME and around the world. * RUSSIA > Russian youths or younger generations want $$$ and materialism, NOT politix. Iran's youths will be no exception.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2007 23:34 Comments ||
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#9
I know a fair number of Mormons. Most of them seem to think Mitt is an OK guy who did a great job in the SLC Olympics. I don't know ANY Mormons who don't think Harry Reid is a sleazy, lying disgrace to their religion. The folks I know, who are pretty politically knowledgeable, think Harry Reid couldn't get most Mormons to even shake his hand.
Posted by: Mac ||
06/20/2007 23:38 Comments ||
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BAGHDAD - More than 10 Iraqi tribes in the Baghdad area have reached agreements with U.S. and Iraqi forces for the first time to oppose al-Qaeda, raising the U.S. military's hopes that a trend started in western Iraq is spreading here.
Some of the groups, which have members who fought alongside al-Qaeda in the past, have been providing useful intelligence to U.S. forces about their former allies, according to the U.S. military.
"They know where they live and who they are," said Lt. Col. Rick Welch, a staff officer who works with tribes in the capital area. "They know how they operate." Some tribes are also taking up arms against al-Qaeda allies.
About 100 tribes live in greater Baghdad. Many of these clans are groups of relatives who share the same name and have thousands of members.
U.S. commanders have reached similar deals in Sunni-dominated Anbar province in western Iraq. Attacks there have dropped by 60% in the last year, according to the U.S. military. Tribes in Diyala province north of Baghdad are also negotiating with U.S. forces, which have launched a major offensive in the region.
Most of the Baghdad tribes cooperating with U.S. forces are Sunni, Welch said, but he didn't have a specific breakdown.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said this week that his government objected to the arming of various tribes "because this will create new militias."
U.S. commanders are urging al-Maliki to bring the tribes into the legitimate security forces in order to avoid creating militias outside government control. "The goal is to tap into the movement, but not create a threat," Welch said. "If it continues and the government doesn't thwart it, it will be a huge event."
Iraq's government has started to recruit some Baghdad tribe members into the police, Welch said.
Tribal leaders in Baghdad are less influential than in Anbar.
"In Anbar, tribal engagement appears to be the answer," said Lt. Col. Douglas Ollivant, chief of plans for the American division in Baghdad. "In Baghdad it's not going to be the answer. It's going to be part of the answer."
The United States will keep working with al-Maliki's government, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said during a weekend visit to Baghdad, but it can't ignore the result from such "ground up" negotiations with tribes.
#1
We are finally seeing the results of years of fighting, rebuilding, and talking to the tribes : they are switching to the government side because that is where all the major goodies are. For anyone who thinks this is something new, I would suggest that they read the history of the US Army and the Marine Corps : this is the standard small war/counter-insurgency/counter-tribal warfare model that the US has used for over 200 years. It is how we broke the Plains Indians, the Apaches, the Comanches, the Moro revolt in the Phillipines, the communist revolts in Guatemala in the 1930s, etc.
The advantage we had back then was that the media of the day was NOT a cheerleading section for the enemy, as it is today. Counter-insurgency warfare takes about 10 years to be completed successfully, but the Dhimmocrats and the media will only permit a 3 year period nowadays.
#2
I was hoping the Apaches, long docile on their reservations here in Arizona were going to be unleashed on the Iraquis to fulfill their cultural destiny.
#3
maybe Al Q in Iraq finally started to run low of cash to bribe tribal leaders at the same time that Al Q was annoying the tribal leaders by implementing real sharia
A look at the largest offensive operation in Iraq since 2003
Five days after the announcement of major offensive combat operations against al Qaeda in Iraq and its allies, the picture becomes clearer on the size and scope of the operation. In today's press briefing, Rear Admiral Mark noted that the ongoing operation is a corps directed and coordinated offensive operation. This is the largest offensive operation since the first phase of Operation Iraqi Freedom ended in the spring of 2003.
The corps level operation is being conducted in three zones in the Baghdad Belts -- Diyala/southern Salahadin, northern Babil province, and eastern Anbar province --- as well as inside Baghdad proper, where clearing operations continue in Sadr City and the Rashid district. Iraqi and Coalition forces are now moving into areas which were ignored in the past and served as safe havens for al Qaeda and Sunni insurgent groups. As the corps level operation is ongoing, Coalition and Iraqi forces are striking at the rogue Iranian backed elements of Muqtada al Sadr's Mahdi Army and continuing the daily intelligence driven raids against al Qaeda's network nationwide.
Multinational Division North is leading the offensive in Diyala province and southern Salahadin. The current offensive in Diyala was telegraphed when Multinational Forces Iraq announced the creation of the Diyala Operational Command on June 14, just as the announcement of the Baghdad Operational Command in January immediately preceded the onset of the Baghdad Security Plan. The Diyala Operational Command is essentially a corps command for the Iraqi security forces in the province which allows for the Army an National Police units to coordinate efforts throughout the region.
Operation Arrowhead Ripper the assault on Baqubah, kicked off with an air assault. Iraqi Army scouts accompanied elements of the 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team of the 2nd Infantry Division. The operation in Baqubah is modeled after the successful operation to clear Tal Afar in September of 2005, which was designed and executed by Col. H.R. McMaster. The plan is to essentially "seal, kill, hold and rebuild." The city is cordoned, neighborhoods are identified as friendly or enemy territory, the neighborhoods are then segmented and forces move in with the intent to kill or capture the enemy. As both Michael Gordon and Michael Yon reported from Baqubah, the goal isn't just to clear the city of insurgents, but to trap and kill them in place. The combat operations are then immediately followed by humanitarian and reconstruction projects.
At last count, three U.S. combat brigades, Two Iraqi Army Brigades and one Iraqi National Police Brigade in direct action at Baqubah. The number of Iraqi brigades inside the city may be growing, however. "Iraqi Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammed al-Askari said about 5,000 Iraqi soldiers and 2,000 paramilitary police were fighting," reported the Associated Press. "Iraqi forces said they took control of neighborhoods in Baqouba and were greeted by cheering people." This would equate to two Iraqi Army brigades (2-5 and probably 3-5). The "paramilitary police" is probably an Iraqi National Police Mechanized Brigade from Taji.
One U.S. and two Iraqi Army brigades (possibly upwards of four) are in blocking positions in the area. Newer Iraqi Army units are being used as blocking forces. The police units were not built for major offensive operations of this scale, and the less seasoned Iraqi Army units are better suited to take blocking positions.
Iraqi Armored units are likely taking up blocking positions along the Tigris River to prevent al Qaeda fighters from crossing into neighboring Salahadin province. The long guns and heavy machine guns on the armor allow the Iraqi forces to protect the bridge crossings and take out barges and craft used to cross the river. A curfew has been imposed on the province of Diyala, which likely includes instructions to keep off the rivers. This strategy has been employed by Multinational Division Central, which destroyed a barge on the Tigris river near Salman Pak south of Baghdad. The craft was being used to smuggle "ammunition and bomb-making materials into Baghdad.'
The operation in Baqubah is a microcosm of the larger operation in Diyala, while Diyala is one but one of three of the corps level operations. The same goal is shared across the three theaters: cordon the regions, trap and kill al Qaeda and clear the areas, and then move in security forces in for stability and reconstruction operations.
In the south, Multinational Division Central is leading offensive operations, dubbed Operation Marne Torch, in northern Babil province. Two U.S. combat brigades and one Iraqi Army brigade are on the offensive south of Baghdad, while one U.S. Army brigade and two Iraqi National Police are in blocking positions.
In the east, Multinational Forces West is engaged "north of Fallujah" - likely in Karma and the Thar Thar region, where al Qaeda and Sunni insurgents maintain support nodes in the desert expanse of the Jazeera desert nearly equidistant to Baghdad, Fallujah and Samarra. A Marine Regimental Combat Team, a Marine Expeditionary Unit and an Iraqi Army Brigade appear to be the teeth of the offensive operations while elements of the 1st Iraqi Army Division are in blocking positions. An aside, my 20 year young Marine neighbor in is this MEU.
While the major offensive operation is occurring in the Baghdad Belts against al Qaeda and Sunni insurgent holdouts, major raids continue against Sadr's forces and the Iranian cells in Baghdad and the south. Two major engagements occurred against Sadr's forces since Monday -- one in Amara and one in Nasariyah. Scores of Mahdi Army fighters were killed during both engagements after Iraqi Special Operations Forces, backed by Coalition support, took on Sadr's forces.
The Iraqi government and Multinational Forces Iraq are sending a clear message to Sadr: when the fighting against al Qaeda is finished, the Iranian backed elements of the Mahdi Army are next on the list if they are not disbanded. Also, the Iraqi military and Multinational Forces Iraq possesses enough forces to take on Sadr's militia if they attempt to interfere with current operations.
Finally, as the major operation is ongoing and Sadr's forces are challenged, Task Force 145 (or Task Force 88, it appears) continues its war in the shadows against al Qaeda's network nationwide. Raids against al Qaeda's networked on June 16 and 17 resulted in 10 terrorists killed and 20 captured, while raids on June 18 and 19 resulted in one al Qaeda killed and 15 captured.
#1
To Sherry's neighbor, and anyone else in the offensive who may be reading this:
Good luck, good hunting, and get home safe.
Posted by: Mike ||
06/20/2007 12:40 Comments ||
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#2
The beauty part is "kill in place." Should have been doing that all along...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
06/20/2007 13:45 Comments ||
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#3
When your army is at the point of "surround and annihilate", it really smacks of end game. It then is a political conclusion--insuring that the Iraqis are capably running their country without totally bollixing up things.
In more than four years in Iraq, American forces have been confounded by insurgents who have often slipped away only to fight another day. The war in Iraq has been likened to the arcade game of whack-a-mole, where as soon as you knock down one mole another pops up.
Taking the fight to insurgents from Al Qaeda did not so much destroy them in Anbar Province as dislodge them, prompting the fighters to build up their strength elsewhere, including Baquba, the capital of Diyala Province.
So the planners of this latest operation are attempting to plug the holes that have allowed the insurgents to escape in the past. The goal is not merely to reclaim western Baquba from insurgent control, but to capture or kill the estimated 300 fighters to 500 fighters who are believed to be based in that part of the city.
In the first hours of the American military assault, after midnight early Monday, helicopters flew two teams of American troops and a platoon of Iraqi scouts so they could block the southern escape routes from the city. Stryker armored vehicles moved along the western outskirts of Baquba and then down a main north-south route that cuts through the center of the city.
By the time dawn broke on Tuesday, the insurgent sanctuary in western Baquba had been cordoned off. Then, the American forces established footholds on the periphery of the section and slowly pressed in. Rather than let the problem export to some other place and then have to fight them again, my goal is to isolate this thing and cordon it off, said Col. Steve Townsend, the commander of the Third Stryker Brigade Combat Team, Second Infantry Division.
It promises to be a methodical, steady squeeze against fighters from Al Qaeda of Mesopotamia, who have fortified their positions and have shown no signs of giving in.
The problem of collaring the Qaeda fighters is challenging in several respects. Unlike Falluja, where most of the population fled in advance of the battle, thousands of civilians remain in the western section of the city.
American helicopters dropped leaflets last night urging the residents to stay in their homes. The hope was to keep civilians off the streets while American forces began to close in on the insurgents. The appeal appeared to have little effect, though, as large groups of civilians mingled on the streets Tuesday and some students even sought to go to the local university.
The presence of so many civilians on an urban battlefield affords the operatives from Al Qaeda another possible means to elude their American pursuers. If the insurgents do not manage to sneak out, some may hide their weapons and try to blend with the citys residents.
To frustrate such plans, the Americans intend to take fingerprints and other biometric data from every resident who seems to be a potential fighter after they and Iraqi forces have gained control of the western side of the city. The Americans will also test for the presence of explosive material on suspects hands.
Officers are hoping that local residents and even former insurgents who have split with Al Qaeda may quietly help the American troops pick out insurgents. American troops have already begun to work with more than 100 Iraqis on the eastern side of the city a group American soldiers have nicknamed the Kit Carson scouts. To try to prevent insurgents from escaping, American commanders are also stepping up their reconnaissance efforts.
Since the battle for western Baquba began, Qaeda insurgents have carried out a delaying action, employing snipers and engaging American troops in several firefights. A small group of insurgents was seen via an Army drone leaving a building on a mosque compound to lay a roadside bomb.
Backing the insurgents into a corner may mean that the Stryker units that are edging their way into the city the Fifth Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment and the Third Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment are in for much tougher fighting ahead.
An indication of what may be in store for those units came Tuesday when a Bradley fighting vehicle was upended by a large, buried bomb, which killed an American crew member. The insurgents have fortified their position by burying many such bombs and laying wires that can be triggered from safe houses. What made the loss of the Bradley particularly worrisome is that the explosion occurred in a heavily trafficked area that American forces had considered successfully cleared.
This American counterinsurgency operation has some of the firepower associated with conventional war. American forces have already fired more than 20 satellite-guided rockets into western Baquba. Apache helicopters have attacked enemy fighters.
Warplanes have also dropped satellite-guided bombs on suspected roadside bombs and a weapons cache, which produced spectacular secondary explosions after it was struck. M1 tanks have maneuvered through the narrow city lanes. The Americans have responded to insurgent attacks with mortar fire.
On Tuesday afternoon, a Stryker company tried to blaze a path through the road believed to be full of buried bombs by firing a line-charge, a cable festooned with explosions. The hope was that the explosion would cut the wires that the Qaeda fighters use to set off the blasts.
After a delay in getting the line-charge to detonate, the weapon went off. There was a resounding thud and the skies over Baquba were smeared by a spiraling mushroom cloud.
#2
Sounds like the engineers are getting to use some of their special tools. Engineers can kick ass if used properly.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
06/20/2007 13:06 Comments ||
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#3
"...The goal is not merely to reclaim western Baquba from insurgent control, but to capture or kill the estimated 300 fighters to 500 fighters who are believed to be based in that part of the city..."
#5
How come we didn't telegraph this operation? Did I miss it?
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/20/2007 14:01 Comments ||
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#6
No offense to the commanders on the ground but would this not have been a good idea before now? I always keep some mounted units on hand to run down routed armies in the tactical level of Total War...
#7
Reading this article it is obvious that the new GPS Multiple Rocket Launching System (GMRLS) are in theater and in use. Just think no loitering aircraft that need to be refueled or go back to base and be re-armed. No waiting for an aircraft to get on station.
These babies are on call 24/7 and can reach out up to 50 miles. It only takes a few minutes to rack up another 12 rockets. With multiple launcher systems they can rain GPS munitions on a battle space to order. The grunts have got to love this system.
The GPS warheads are expensive, but compared to lives saved who cares. This cost is offset by the savings from old system of Planes, Crews, Refuelers, Fuel, GPS Bombs, Airbases, Carriers, etc.
This probably doesnt make the flyboys to secure and fuzzy.
#8
American troops have already begun to work with more than 100 Iraqis on the eastern side of the city a group American soldiers have nicknamed the Kit Carson scouts.
The press isn't much for historical references, are they?
As for the story... Yon's description was much better. The US and Iraqi forces are leaving an escape route for the jihadis -- into Iran. You always leave your enemies a way out, hopefully one you have a good watch over.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
06/20/2007 17:45 Comments ||
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#9
Yeah, just because the Kit Carson Scouts have been used by the US military since the 1860s, why should the media pay attention to that? Just because converting former hostiles into fighters on the side of the US against their traditional/tribal enemies is something the US military has been doing since the battles with the Navajos, why should the media have any institutional memory about such things.
#12
Would be nice, phil_b, I can't imagine more deserving end to them. Hope that if that is the case, they won't be overcomed by a gnawing suspicion they are about to enter a trap.
#14
This helps me to get a better image of where folks are. Knew we were north and south of Baghdad, but didn't realize we were bumping them up next to that line in the sand that is Iran. Thanks guys
(CBS) It was a scene that shocked battle-hardened soldiers, captured in photographs obtained exclusively by CBS News. On a daytime patrol in central Baghdad just over than a week ago, a U.S. military advisory team and Iraqi soldiers happened to look over a wall and found something horrific.
"They saw multiple bodies laying on the floor of the facility," Staff Sgt. Mitchell Gibson of the 82nd Airborne Division told CBS News chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan. "They thought they were all dead, so they threw a basketball (to) try and get some attention, and actually one of the kids lifted up their head, tilted it over and just looked and then went back down. And they said, 'oh, they're alive' and so they went into the building."
Inside the building, a government-run orphanage for special needs children, the soldiers found more emaciated little bodies tied to the cribs. They had been kept this way for more than a month, according to the soldiers called in to rescue the 24 boys.
"I saw children that you could see literally every bone in their body that were so skinny, they had no energy to move whatsoever, no expression on their face," Staff Sgt. Michael Beale said. "The kids were tied up, naked, covered in their own waste feces and there were three people that were cooking themselves food, but nothing for the kids," Lt. Stephen Duperre said.
Logan asked: So there were three people cooking their own food? "They were in the kitchen, yes ma'am," Duperre said.
With all these kids starving around them? "Yes ma'am," Duperre said.
It didn't stop there. The soldiers found kitchen shelves packed with food and in the stockroom, rows of brand-new clothing still in their plastic wrapping. Instead of giving it to the boys, the soldiers believe it was being sold to local markets.
The man in charge, the orphanage caretaker, had a well-kept office a stark contrast to the terrible conditions just outside that room. "I got extremely angry with the caretaker when I got there," Capt. Benjamin Morales said. "It took every muscle in my body to restrain myself from not going after that guy."
He has since disappeared and is believed to be on the run. But two security guards are in custody, arrested on the orders of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Two women also working there, who posed for pictures in front of the naked boys as if there was nothing wrong, have also disappeared.
"My first thought when I walked in there was shock, and then I got a little angry that they were treating kids like that, then that's when everybody just started getting upset," Capt. Jim Cook said. "There were people crying. It was definitely a bad emotional scene."
There was nothing more emotional than finding one boy who Army medics did not expect to survive. For Gibson, that was the hardest part: Seeing a boy who was at the orphanage, where Logan reported from, "with thousands of flies covering his body, unable to move any part of his body, you know we had to actually hold his head up and tilt his head to make sure that he was OK, and the only thing basically that was moving was his eyeballs," Gibson explained. "Flies in the mouth, in the eyes, in the nose, ears, eating all the open wounds from sleeping on the concrete."
All that, and the boy was laying in the boiling sun temperatures of 120 degrees or so, according to Gibson. Looking at the boy today, as he sits up in his crib without help, it is hard to believe he is the same boy, one week later now clean and being cared for along with all the other boys in a different orphanage located only a few minutes away from where they suffered their ordeal.
Another little boy right shown in the photos was carried out of the orphanage by Beale. He was very emaciated. "I picked him up and then immediately the kid started smiling, and as I got a little bit closer to the ambulance he just started laughing. It was almost like he completely understood what was going on," Beale said.
When CBS News visited the orphanage with the soldiers, it was clear the boys had been starved of human contact as much as anything else, Logan said. Some still had marks on their ankles from where they were tied. Since only one boy can talk, it's impossible to know what terrible memories they might have locked away. The memory of what he saw when he helped rescue the boys that night haunts Ali Soheil, the local council head, who wept during the interview.
Later at the hospital, Lt. Jason Smith brushed teeth and helped clean up the boys. He and his wife are both special education teachers, and he was proud to tell her what the soldiers had done. "She said that one day was worth my entire deployment," Smith said. "It makes the whole thing worthwhile."
This is a tough test for the Iraqi government: How a nation cares for its most vulnerable is one of the most important benchmarks for the health of any society.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/20/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
".....there were three people that were cooking themselves food, but nothing for the kids,' Lt. Stephen Duperre said."
#2
jesus did you see those poor kids... God Damn the islamic bastards responsible.
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
06/20/2007 4:29 Comments ||
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#3
SeeBS probably showed this because the concentration camp was run by Iraqis nominally on OUR side, not Al Quaeda or Iran. It's a valid point - corruption seems worse on the gov't side ("It's an Arab thing, you just wouldn't understand.") and associated disregard for human values seems not a whole lot different. Until these problems can be successfully addressed I have doubts about the prospects for overall mission success.
#4
Glenmore, we're going to be there at least a generation, God willing. It'll take at least that long to change a culture going back to the bronze age.
#5
TW: Do you think if the Dhimmicrats take the Potus and increase their lead in Congress we will be there for a generation? I sure don't and I don't buy the theory that you have get a dhimmicrat elected Potus to get them behing the WoT. They will bolt and turn our security and foreign policy over to the UN, EU and OAS before they assume any leadership responsibility. I mean that is their tendency now, past and in the future.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
06/20/2007 11:51 Comments ||
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#6
Ladies and gentlemen, don't be surprised. I saw such maltreatment in Vietnam, Panama, and here in the US of A. It's not an "Arab" thing, but a "human" thing. There are corrupt people who think nothing of doing vile things to children to enrich themselves. They don't deserve a rope - they deserve 20 strands of razor wire wrapped around their scrawny necks, and hanged from the nearest telephone pole until they rot. My wife and I became foster-parents because there ARE people like this in every society. We only stopped when we could no longer handle it. Now we're back into it, too old, too tired, but not immune to the need.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
06/20/2007 13:40 Comments ||
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#7
Old Patiot, my aside on the 'Arab thing' was a NYT-liberal reference to the corruption, not to the inhumanity. And I do know that both characteristics are by no means limited to Arabs.
#8
If the Democrats take the White House? I have no idea, Jack is back. I hope they will see no alternative to staying the course President Bush laid out, but... I'm voting the WoT ticket until further notice.
A truck bomb has exploded near a Shia mosque in a busy commercial district in Baghdad, killing at least 78 people and wounding dozens. At least 78 people were killed and over 200 others wounded when a parked truck near Al-Kholani mosque exploded, the sources said.
The explosion, the deadliest in Iraq since mid-April, spared the green dome of Al-Kholani mosque in the Sinak area but destroyed its main prayer hall. The thunderous explosion, which occurred just before 2 pm on Tuesday sent white dust and a pall of billowing black smoke into the sky over concrete buildings in Sinak district of the capital, Baghdad, Iraqi police said.
The incident came two days after the expiration of a curfew imposed following last week's bombing of a revered Shia shrine mosque in Samarra. It is not the first time the Sinak area has been hit. A suicide car bomber killed at least 21 people there on May 28.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
It just struck me as ironic that the very-religious hard boyz blow up the less-religious mosques - Muzz on Muzz - a variation of "You're not islamic enough.
Or all the Christian churches are long gone ...
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/20/2007 5:41 Comments ||
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A Task Force Marne Soldier was killed and three were wounded when their patrol was struck by a roadside bomb south of Baghdad Monday. The Soldiers were responding to another improvised explosive device attack that wounded one Soldier. The name of the Soldier killed is being withheld pending notification of the next of kin.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2007 00:00 ||
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Multi-National Division-Baghdad Soldiers discovered and destroyed an explosively-formed penetrator factory and suspected torture house in southern Baghdad June 19 while conducting clearing operations.
While searching abandoned buildings in the western Rashid District, Soldiers of Company A, 1st Battalion 38th Infantry Regiment found six EFPs, 24 sticks of C4 plastic explosive, one pipe bomb without initiator and a rocket-propelled grenade launcher. A house nearby was also searched and contained one 105mm artillery round with a satchel charge attached and duct tape coated with blood and hair. After inspecting the houses Soldiers found materials believed to aid in camouflaging roadside bombs.
An explosive ordnance disposal unit arrived on the scene and detonated the cache. However, the resulting explosion was larger than expected and collapsed a nearby home. Soldiers searched the rubble for any possible trapped civilians. One female civilian was found dead.
Our deepest sympathies are with the family of the deceased, said Maj. Kirk Luedeke, spokesperson and public affairs officer for the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division. This unfortunate event is something we are investigating and will take precautionary measures to prevent from happening again.
Earlier in the day, Coalition aircraft dropped six bombs on the palm grove along the Tigris River in the eastern portion of the Rashid District, targeting an infiltration route and possible cache storage site for al-Qaeda operating in an area that has been used to conduct indirect fire attacks against the International Zone and Coalition outposts..
This area was used by al-Qaeda in Iraq for its ability to conceal weapons and target civilians and security forces with indirect fires, Luedeke said. There were no injuries or collateral damage resulting from the air strikes.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
"collapsed a nearby home... civilian was found dead"
Lay down with dogs, wake up with fleas. Can one live next door to a bomb factory/torture house and not know anything is going on? Sometimes, but it's not likely.
#3
tu, I think the demo boys got their explosives right; I suspect they underestimated the yield of the munitions they were blowing up - or triggered a big undiscovered secondary.
One Task Force Lightning Soldier died as a result of injuries sustained from an explosion near his vehicle while conducting operations in Diyala Province June 19. Two Soldiers were also wounded and transported to a Coalition medical facility for treatment. The name of the deceased is being withheld pending next of kin notification and release by the Department of Defense.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Honour, duty, country. Rest in peace, soldier, with our gratitude.
Coalition and Iraqi Security Forces conducted a cordon and search operation in the Adhamiyah District June 18, resulting in the capture of three suspects caught with materials used in the manufacture of car bombs. A fourth suspect was also detained during the operation. Operation Castine was conducted by Soldiers from the U.S. Army 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment and Soldiers from the 1st Brigade, 11th Iraqi Army Division.
The operation began before sunrise, when U.S. and Iraqi forces made a tactical foot movement from Coalition Outpost Apache into the Safina neighborhood of Adhamiyah. For the next five hours, Soldiers moved up and down the narrow city streets, searching hundreds of homes looking for illegal weapons and other contraband. Coalition and Iraqi forces are going to continue to conduct aggressive operations like this, until extremists get the message that Adhamiyah is not a place where they can operate, said Fort Worth, Texas native Capt. Cecil Strickland, commander of Company C, 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Ooooh -- more cell phones with directories to trace!
National Police repelled an attack on their outpost by unknown gunmen in Samarra June 18. More than 2,000 Iraqi soldiers and policemen moved into Samarra to provide additional security for its citizens following the recent attack on the Askira Mosque June 13.
NPs were occupying and conducting patrols about two miles from the Askira Mosque when gunmen attacked with small-arms fire and a suicide car bomb. NPs defended their outpost, returning fire from a nearby checkpoint and repelling the attack with minimal casualties. This demonstrates total lack of respect for the Askira Mosque in light of its recent attack, said Col. Bryan Owens, commander, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division. The policemen injured were dedicated to protecting the mosque from any future attacks.
The car bomb damaged the outside of a school and other buildings in the immediate area. There was no damage to the Askira Mosque. Two NPs injured in the attack were transported to a Coalition Forces medical facility for treatment.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
They're getting better. A year ago they would have dropped their guns and ran for their lives.
#2
#1 They're getting better. A year ago they would have dropped their guns and ran for their lives. Posted by: bigjim-ky 2007-06-20 10:51
I'd bet my next paycheck they also have fire discipline and hit targets they aim at, rather than "spray and pray". Look at the difference between this engagement and the Hamass/Fartwah civil war in Gaza. The Iraqi Army is also killing those that attack it, rather than try to force them to run away. We're seeing the growth of a professional army and national police in Iraq. If we can work with them long enough, they will become strong enough to protect Iraq from anything, including Iran and Syria.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
06/20/2007 13:48 Comments ||
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#3
Old Patriot,
"able to protect Iraq from anything, including" .... US, if they don't behave and we feel the need to go back in again.
Soldiers from 2nd Brigade, 5th Iraqi Army engaged and killed four extremist gunmen during two separate engagements in the city of Baqouba, Monday. In the engagement, Iraqi Security Forces reported receiving fire from a sniper, maneuvered and returned fire, killing four gunmen and detaining two other suspects. In a separate engagement, Coalition attack helicopters from the 25th Combat Aviation Brigade, working with Coalition Forces on the ground, identified four extremists operating in a wooded area in another portion of Baqubah. Attack helicopters engaged and killed the four extremists.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2007 00:00 ||
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Deputy Defense Minister Efraim Sneh, together with Givati Brigade troops, crossed into the Gaza Strip overnight Monday in order to rescue several Fatah operatives, Channel 10 reported. The Palestinian Authority in Ramallah reportedly gave Sneh a list of Fatah men, fearing that Hamas would kill them.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2007 00:00 ||
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#2
Standard counter-insurgency warfare when dealing with tribes : pick one that is the least repellent and use them as your local levies. You don't need to like them, respect them, or wish them well - just use them so your guys don't die.
#3
Shieldwolf, I understand that. But I have a hard time to decide which of the 2 terr outlets is the least repellent.
I would also rather see the opposite, an influx of Fataheen into Gaza rather than extraction. I may have ODed on popcorn, but I can switch to doritos, if necessary.
#4
I have a hard time to decide which of the 2 terr outlets is the least repellent.
Good for you, twobyfour. Quite obviously your conscience is still functioning. All of these rotten turds need to die. Garnering either side's support merely prolongs the agony.
#5
I long for the day where we have the technology allowing to give weapons to the lest bad guys and wheen those bad guys are no longer useful, we push a button and the weapons self destroy.
#8
"Deputy Defense Minister Efraim Sneh, together with Givati Brigade troops, crossed into the Gaza Strip overnight Monday in order to rescue several Fatah operatives, Channel 10 reported"
Sneh went in PERSONALLY? WTF!?!? Even in Israel this is not normal behavior for a bureucrat or pol. Frankly Im skeptical, until I see some confirmation. If its true, a feather in the cap for Sneh.
#9
BTW, the side you favor is the one that doesnt fire rockets at you, or send suicide bombers against you. Thats MORE likely to be Fatah than Hamas, although we have yet to see if AAMB will attempt to attack Israel from the WB, and if so, what Abbas will do about it. Meanwhile there may well be fighting between Hamasniks and Fatah on the WB, and getting Fatah operatives to the WB to participate is a good idea.
#10
Also, this is standard "the enemy of my enemy is my friend (sorta kinda)" Once fatah is seen as an Israeli proxy by the paleo population at large, sides will be taken, and the Israelis will have divided the paleo house against itself...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
06/20/2007 13:57 Comments ||
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#11
That is another point in all of this : there are several tribe-based mafias in the WB and Gaza, and some of them are associated with Hamas, and some with Fatah. Hamas is likely to stomp on the Fatah mafias in Gaza now, and Fatah will return the favor against the Hamas mafias in the WB.
Plus standard counter-mafia police work involves making deals for favorable treatment of "good" mobsters' friends and associates - Israel can play all Paleo sides against the middle on this one. Let Abdulah's boy out of prison earlier for ratting on Mustafah's operations and vice versa.
One last point that I think most people forget is that the Paleos are generational welfare hustlers : they have been sucking off of the UN's teats for going on 60 years. If Fatah is the one to get all the Western dollars, then it is likely to be the one to be able to buy the continuing loyalty of much of the Paleo population; that means that Hamas will need to "cleanse" Paleo society of these "slaves of the Zionists", and that will lead to much killing of Paleos by all sides.
The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) announced Tuesday that it had thwarted a terror plot by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) to blow up a central synagogue in Modi'in in an attack that could have killed dozens of people.
Over the past two months, Shin Bet operatives working in conjunction with the IDF apprehended 12 members of a PFLP cell in the West Bank that was planning to destroy the synagogue on the corner of Rehov Nehar Hayarden and Rehov Nahal Zohar in Modi'in.
The cell also planned to kidnap American citizens in the Hebron area whom they intended to use as bargaining chips in negotiations for the release of jailed PFLP chief Ahmed Sadat. Last year, the cell kidnapped an American near Hebron, but he quickly managed to escape.
In February, the Shin Bet arrested Ramzi Sharwana, a PFLP member from Dura near Hebron who was working illegally at a construction site in Modi'in.
Sharwana told interrogators he was in touch with PFLP operatives in the Gaza Strip who had asked him to set up a terrorist cell in the West Bank, recruit suicide bombers and locate a synagogue that could be targeted to avenge "what the Jews are doing on the Temple Mount."
Sharwana chose the synagogue on Rehov Nehar Hayarden as the target because he was familiar with Modi'in from his work in the area. He said the cell had also planned to perpetrate shooting attacks against Israelis waiting at bus stops in the city.
"Many lives were saved with the arrest of the cell members," security officials said, adding that the case was another example of how Gaza-based terrorists were trying to organize attacks from the West Bank.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
and here i thunk that all the MODI came from MODI'IN.
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
06/20/2007 4:34 Comments ||
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Unidentified gunmen have broken into and set fire to the house of a Palestinian legislator, as Hamas holds Fatah responsible for the attack. In a statement on Monday, the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), dominated by Hamas, accused Fatah's armed wing, the al-Aqsa Brigades, and the security forces loyal to Fatah of attacking the house of the jailed PLC speaker Aziz Dweik in Ramallah, in the central West Bank.
The council said that the gunmen barred firefighters from getting to the scene in order to curb the fire.
Dweik's son said on Monday that nobody was at home at the time of the attack, adding that the family has not yet been allowed to get to the house and estimate the losses.
The PLC, in its statement, condemned Monday's assault and the earlier attack that targeted Hasan Khreisha, deputy PLC speaker.
On Saturday, Fatah-affiliated gunmen attempted to abduct Khreisha after they stormed the parliament building in Ramallah. According to Khreisha, he was physically assaulted by the assailants. Hamas points its accusing finger to Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah who dissolved the Hamas-led government and ousted prime minister of Hamas on Friday. The Islamic group called on Abbas to put an end to the violence and lawlessness perpetrated by his loyalists, urging him to adopt measures "against the assailants and the groups who launch attacks against Hamas-run facilities."
Dweik, along with dozens of other Palestinian legislators, mayors and politicians were abducted last year by the Israeli forces and are behind Israeli bars.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2007 00:00 ||
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Everyone knows explosively forged projectiles (EFPs) are an effective weapon against vehicles in Iraq. However, troops in the field have noticed that although EFPs go through metal armor, often glass laminate armor (aka glass ballistic laminate armor) will stop them. Troops report that the EFPs would not go through the bullet proof windows, which are made of glass laminate. However, the glass laminate only works once. When an EFP strikes the glass, the glass "spiderwebs" (shatters laterally and vertically) but it stops the penetrator.
Could this be more battlefield rumors? Even if it is, the armor and vehicle R&D crowds need to step in and check it out.
#1
It is already known : one component of Chobham armor is fused glass rods and ceramics, to help defeat HEAT and EFP. It is just expensive to make it for one shot uses - unless the DoD does a recycle on the rejected glass laminate by approving side plates of the window rejects.
#2
I should think the slatted armor, or even the wrappings of cyclone fence around vehicles, would be effective at EFP protection. The EFP relies on FOCUS of energy rather than raw power, so anything that distorts its focussing shape before it reaches its intended target should greatly reduce its effectiveness. Similarly, sandbags would likely give more protection per inch or per pound than solid steel. I'm no armorer, so take this for what it's worth.
#3
If glass laminate armor does indeed stop EFPs, it does not logically follow that glass laminate is the only thing that would work for that purpose as the article seems to imply. Instead, it should be viewed as a demonstration of a physical principle for defeating EFPs. Cheaper, lighter, more effective anti-EFP armor could likely be made with other materials that needn't be transparent, but use the same physical principles.
#5
The space shuttle tile is made of a material which is a silica, alumina fiber and borosilicate glass composite. If it can take the heat of reentry, I'd think the science is already available. Just no one looking?
#8
From what I have read on this issue, the major advantage of the laminate is that the EFP loses so much of its energy during the spiderwebbing of the laminate, that the projectile is then unable to burn and puncture its way through steel/aluminum armor. So it would seem that another ceramic base that converts heat into crazing damage to its outer layers would be just as effective against EFPs. Plus, if it were to be made in standard sized sections that would be bolted onto the existing armor, one could eliminate a good deal of the threat. Of course, the sections would also have to be able to take direct fire from rifles and machine guns without failing; otherwise, all the terrorists would have to do is setup a daisy chain of IEDs - one that was a Claymore-style weapon, and the others that would be EFPs. The Claymore would strip the ceramic and the EFPs would be detonated like 1-3 seconds later.
Thailand's cabinet has approved deployment of 2,760 additional locally-recruited paramilitary rangers, including a dozen platoons of woman rangers, to the country's southernmost provinces to carry out tactical missions in the turbulent region. Assistant government spokesman Natthawat Suthiyothin said the Cabinet decision for an additional deployment of army-trained rangers included 28 companies of rangers, plus 11 platoons of women rangers, to carry out missions in Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani with a Bt1.4 billion budget earmarked for this year, to be followed by an added Bt381 million budget for the following year.
The paramilitary rangers, however, are generally younger and usually provide deeper local understanding than seasoned veterans reassigned from other parts of the country.
The nearly 2,800 rangers will serve under the command of the Fourth Army Region which is directly tasked with containing southern border unrest and combating insurgents. The rangers have been trained to operate with high degrees of flexibility and rapidness, especially in the mountainous, remote areas of the southernmost region. The Fourth Army began to deploy the rangers during the past few months as a supplementary tactical force.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
06/20/2007 8:57 Comments ||
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#4
The Thais need to deploy some of their Marines from the Thai-Burma jungle area south. Many of the Marines are Karen, others are Hmong, some are Lao. While they're all Buddhists, they're ferocious fighters. They would have no qualms about taking out muslim infiltrators. It'd take them a couple of months to get aclimated, but after that, the muzzies would be in deep doo doo.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
06/20/2007 14:40 Comments ||
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#5
The Thai rangers are best thought of as local militia scout units, augmenting whatever unit they are assigned to. As such, it would be no problem for the Thai government to switch major units out and have the Thai Marines or non-Thai ethnic units serve in the South. The rangers could then identify the local troublemakers to be dealt with.
A Thai border patrol police officer was killed in a drive-by shooting in Pattani, even as a combined military and police force arrested three insurgent suspects and confiscated explosive materials elsewhere in the violence plagued province of Pattani on Wednesday. Pol.Sr.Sgt-Maj. Boontham Thavornsin was shot dead by a gunman in front of a school in Yarang district. His wife, a passenger on his motorbike, was unscathed.
An over 100-man strong combined force raided targeted areas in Yarang district and the provincial seat in Pattani. They detained three suspects of involvement in insurgent attacks. Nuradin Hasa was arrested in his house in Yarang district. The police found two remote-controlled bombs, ammunition and a shotgun in his house.
The joint force also detained two men at their home in the provincial seat. Da-o Mamu and his son, Wae-arong Mamu were taken into custody for interrogation. Two ready-to-use bombs were seized from their house. Pol.Maj-Gen. Kokiart Wongworachart, commander of Pattani Provincial Police said police conducted a raid after a tip-off on hidden explosive materials. The authorities are now questioning the three suspects for possible involvement in attacks in local areas.
Reports have emerged of a possible cease-fire agreement with the militants holed up in a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon.
According to a Palestinian Muslim cleric who has been mediating between the authorities and the Fatah al-Islam fighters inside the camp, the deal would include a cease-fire, to be followed by the militants' disarmament and surrender, AP reported on Tuesday.
The cleric, Sheik Mohammed Haj, told the official Lebanese news agency that the militants agreed to conditions of his Palestinian Scholars Association and that he would present the proposal to the army on Wednesday.
Sheik Mohammed did not offer more details, but the private New TV station said the conditions also include return of refugees, takeover of the camp by Palestinian factions and Fatah al-Islam's dissolution.
Lebanon's army battled militants in the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared in northern Lebanon on Tuesday as the troops inched toward the militants' strongholds. Officials said two soldiers were killed in the fighting.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
What about all that "fight to the last drop of blood" stuff they were talking?
A Lebanese citizen discovered 7 B7 rockets on the side of a road, near the al Rafeed Lebanese security station in the city of Rashayya, south east Lebanon. He immediately alerted the Lebanese army to his findings. The army swiftly showed up and started investigating. According to army sources, the rockets appear to be in a working/armed condition. They were found covered with plastic sheeting. The B-7 type rocket launchers, also known as RPG-7 rocket-propelled grenades, are Russian made.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
That Lebanese citizen had better be very anonymous, or on his way out of the country. It has never been good for one's life expectancy to turn in Syrian or Hezbo weapons or operators.
This is at least the second time lately that we have heard of something like this though - sounds encouraging, what am I missing?
The daily As Safir on Tuesday said Lebanon's military prosecutor Judge Jean Fahd has charged 14 people with setting up a terrorist cell in east Lebanon's Bekaa Valley town of Bar Elias. It said
Among the detainees were a Saudi, two Syrians and six Lebanese.
among the detainees were a Saudi, two Syrians and six Lebanese. They were charged with setting up a "gang" with intentions "of committing crime against people attack (government) institutions robbery, booby-trapping cars designed to carry out terrorist acts," As Safir said. The terrorist cell was also charged with "possession of explosive materials and weapons as well as with forging passports, identification cards and official papers."
In a related event, As Safir branded as "invasion" the spread of the Islamic paramilitary al-Qaida organization in Lebanon. However, it said, terrorist operatives working for al-Qaida were being pursued by Lebanese authorities. On June 8, Lebanese border police at the Masnaa border crossing in eastern Lebanon detained 12 men as they tried to enter the country with forged foreign passports. The arrests came a few days after three detainees, apprehended in Bar Elias, testified that they belonged to al-Qaida. A statement by the General Directorate for State Security had said the detainees also confessed to rigging three vehicles with explosives. Lebanese troops had discovered the booby-trapped cars during a raid on a hideout in Bar Elias.
As Safir said the three detainees were "very dangerous." An Nahar newspaper had identified them as Fahd Bin Abdulaaziz al-Meghamis, from Saudi Arabia, and Syrians Ahmed Mohammed Osseili and Mohammed Abdul Rahim Abdul Rahim. As Safir said Lebanese military experts were surprised at the way the bombs had been "very delicately assembled" and at the use of "unfamiliar digital techniques."
Lebanese security forces were only able to dismantle the rigged cars with the help of Fahd Bin Abdulaaziz al-Meghamis, who was described by the army as an expert, the daily said. A big amount of 500-Euro bills, apparently planned to be spent on recruiting young men with "terrorist tasks aimed at destabilizing security," was found and confiscated from the Bar Elias network, according to As Safir.
It said further evidence that al-Qaida was swelling in Lebanon came from another source -- the alleged confessions made to the police by Saudi detainee Abdullah Beeshi, who was arrested a few hours after the Feb. 13 Ain Alaq bus bombings. As Safir said Beeshi, who left Saudi Arabia for Iran towards the end of July 2006 upon instructions from two al-Qaidi members, met with Abu Mohammed, a Kurdish-Iranian, in the presence of Saudi Abdul Rahman al-Yehyi in an Iranian city. About one month later, Beeshi traveled to Lebanon, where he was met by Abu Baker, a Lebanese, upon arrival at Rafik Hariri airport, As Safir reported. It said Abu Baker escorted Beeshi to the house of sheikh N.R. in the northern port city of Tripoli, where Yehyi, who goes by his nom de guerre of Talha, was waiting for him. The daily said Talha had landed in Lebanon two weeks ahead of Beeshi.
At that meeting Beeshi was introduced to the brother-in-law of Fatah al-Islam's leader Shaker Absi as well as to Saudi Abu Rishaj, who was recruiting young Saudis to join Absi's terrorist group at the northern refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared, according to As Safir. It said that while preparations were underway to send Beeshi to Iraq, the Saudi detainee, together with Absi's brother-in-law, identified as Syrian Hani al-Sankari, were "transporting weapons and explosives" provided by Absi, who was hiding in Nahr al-Bared, according to Talha.
As Safir said only three hours after the Ain Aalq twin blasts, authorities arrested Beeshi and Sankari as they tried to cross into Syria through the northern border crossing at Abboudieh. However, the paper said, in contrast to earlier belief that the two men had been arrested in connection with the Ain Alaq bomb attack, investigation showed that Beeshi and Sankari were not linked to the bus bombings. It said testimonies of four other detainees uncovered their involvement in the Ain Alaq assault.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2007 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Fatah al-Islam
#1
"Fahd Bin Abdulaaziz al-Meghamis, who was described by the army as an expert"
And just who TAUGHT him his expertise?
"the alleged confessions made to the police by Saudi detainee "
I wonder if AI vetted their interrogation procedures.
Ya Libnan reported yesterday about an explosion that ripped through a tire shop in the south Lebanon Palestinian refugee camp of Ein al-Helweh, killing 2 people. Security sources initially reported that the blast was caused by the explosion of an oxygen canister. The story changed later based on Palestinian sources that the blast was caused by a bomb that was placed inside a tire in the tire shop.
The real story, according to Lebanese security officials, is that the explosion occurred while the extremist militants of Jund al-Sham tried to prepare a bomb in the tire shop. The Lebanese security officials said that some of Jund al-Sham members were extracting TNT from a 107 mm shell, apparently to use it in making a bomb. Among those lightly wounded was a leader of Jund al-Sham, Shehadeh Jawhar, also known as Abu Omar, according to residents and Abu Sharif, the officials said. Residents said the two dead men were the shop owner ... Jawhar's uncle ... and his nephew. Also wounded was a Lebanese man named Mohammed Ghuneim, whose brother, Shadi, has been held for months in Saudi Arabia for suspected links with al-Qaida, the security officials said.
Since the Lebanese army and security personnel cannot enter the Palestinian refugee camps, based on the absurd "Cairo agreement" that was agreed on in 1969, the camps have become breeding grounds for terrorism. A number of small, little known Islamic militant groups proclaiming a Jihadist (holy war) ideology have arisen in recent years in Lebanon's Palestinian refugee camps, which have long been home to numerous Palestinian militias. Jund al-Sham, which is Arabic means literally "Soldiers of Damascus", is a splinter group from another Palestinian militant group called Asbat al-Ansar based in Ein al-Helweh.
Jund al-Sham's fighters battled Lebanese troops earlier this month, killing two soldiers, as the army fought Fatah al-Islam terrorists in the northern Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared. Another group using the name Jund al-Sham has carried out attacks in Syria, seeking to topple its secular regime, but it is not known whether it is connected to the Ein al-Helweh group.
It is obvious that the Ein al-Helweh camp is a tinderbox, like the other 11 camps in Lebanon, and people like Abu Chehadeh Jawhar, are a living symbol of the weakness of the Lebanese state, in not being able exercise its authority throughout the Lebanese territory. This arrangement has been a haven for criminals, who within the camps' confines, were immune from the country's rules, laws, police and oversight, but for the average Palestinian this has been hell as this turned them into second-class citizens.
The explosion that took place yesterday could repeat itself again. For example Abu Omar lives in a basement apartment on Emergency Street, a free-wheeling alley known for its filthy condition. Inside his apartment, Abu Omar stores TNT, plastic explosives, guns, land mines, detonating wires, and ammunition. According to reliable reports the explosives stored in his basement are similar to those that have been used to destabilize Lebanon since the assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister, Rafik Hariri, in February 2005. There is no way to know if the basement was the source of any of those bombs.
Political insiders in Lebanon are calling for canceling the Cairo agreement, to enable the Lebanese government to control activities in its own territory. This should lead to law and order throughout the country, and help integrate the camps into the Lebanese society, which should improve the lives of the Palestinian people.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2007 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Jund al-Shams
#1
It is obvious that the Ein al-Helweh camp is a tinderbox
So? Strike the effing match!
This arrangement has been a haven for criminals, who within the camps' confines, were immune from the country's rules, laws, police and oversight, but for the average Palestinian this has been hell as this turned them into second-class citizens.
My heart pumps piss.
The explosion that took place yesterday could repeat itself again.
Seems to be a commonplace problem wherever Palestinians are involved.
#5
What is this, Pile on Zenster week? Hows about we lay off the personla snarks? It doesn't add anything to the conversation, just leads to flame wars.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
06/20/2007 11:57 Comments ||
Top||
#6
I happen to enjoy Zenster's comments a lot for his keen insights and lack of BS is attractive to many women;) This Cairo Agreement on the otherhand, is total BS. Lebanese Paleos have also intentionally colonized to all parts of the world but have not seemed to garner as much attention as they should.
This arrangement has been a haven for criminals, who within the camps' confines, were immune from the country's rules, laws, police and oversight, but for the average Palestinian this has been hell as this turned them into second-class citizens.
My heart pumps piss.
Zenster, giving the Palestinians over to the likes of Hamas, Hezbollah, and Fatah to be ruled, even if you think they deserve the likes of those those three groups, only serves to increace the power of Hamas, Hezbollah, and Fatah, and decreaces those of the civilized countries.
Generally in warfare, keeping a nation intact is best, destroying a nation second best;
keeping an army intact is best, destroying an army second best;
keeping a battalion intact is best, destroying a battalion second best;
keeping a company intact is best, destroying a company second best;
keeping a squad intact is best, destroying a squad second best.
Therefore, to gain a hundred victories in a hundred battles is not the highest excellence;
to subjugate the enemy's army without doing battle is the highest of excellence.
Therefore, the best warfare strategy is to attack the enemy's plans, next is to attack alliances, next is to attack the army, and the worst is to attack a walled city.
If the phrase "attacking alliances" (which is different, please note, than attacking the enemies' allies) sounds familiar, it should. It's what Petraeus has been trying to do in Iraq, and I suspect it's a major reason behind the tribes in Anbar turning against the Al Qaeda-backed terrorists they were formerly fighting against.
Syria, Iran, and others' apparent control of the Palestinians, in addition to giving them an army, also gives them leverage to attack whatever alliances we might form:
Hamas effectively completed its victory over Fatah in the Gaza Strip yesterday following a day of fighting in which 26 persons lost their lives. Most of the dead were affiliated with Fatah, although at least two civilians participating in a peace demonstration and two United Nations aid workers were also killed. Since the fighting began on Sunday, at least 67 Palestinians were killed in the internecine battles.
...Before noon, two civilians were killed during a protest held in Gaza City under the banner "Stop the Killing." Some 1,000 Palestinians marched in the city, calling for an end to the fighting, but when they approached a Hamas position, militants fired at the protesters, killing two...
#9
Search LGF, and you'll be able to find pictures of Palestinian civilians being hung by the Palestinian Government way back before Hamas took over the whole thing,
(I mention that for the benefit of the people who will say that the success of these tactics are because we didn't support Fatah enough. I think with groups like those two, who both receive most of their funding from outside sources like Saudi Arabia or Iran, the differences are on a par with Professional Wrestling, and the west let itself get suckered. I did say earlier we should seek to divide the enemy, but there needs to be a side to begin with that doesn't want to hang anyone who wants to negotiate.)
#11
Funny how I can always know it is Zenster before I have scrolled down to the signature.
S'alright, Excal. I suppose we'll just have to settle for dividing the spoils once we've finished conquering a burnt and smoking globe.
It doesn't add anything to the conversation, just leads to flame wars.
Whoa, Deac! You been hanging out at the O Club or something? It just so happens that evidently this is "pile on Zenster week". Nothing I haven't seen before. Some people just don't have anything better to do that sit around and snipe at someone behind their back. Far as I can tell, it says more about them than me, but what do I know? Whether we agree or not, you've got the right attitude. Leave the personalities out of it and cut to the chase. Makes for a lot more interesting reading.
Danielle, you're far too kind, but thank you very much.
Abdominal Snowman, I wonder if you ever bother to consider what intellectually honest people think of those who constantly snipe but have little to offer in the way of constructive contributions.
#12
Abdominal Snowman, I wonder if you ever bother to consider what intellectually honest people think of those who constantly snipe but have little to offer in the way of constructive contributions.
That's your macro-of-the-week, no matter what I actually type into here?
#13
Right, Zen. Snipes are fine if accompanied by meaningful contribution, cuz they are spice of life. The very essence of RB--well reasoned civil discourse with ocassional 2x4s. ;-)
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.
Somalias presidential spokesman had been shot twice at close range on Monday in the latest assassination attempt on government officials in the country, officials said on Tuesday. He was shot in the neck and near the jaw, a security official wanting anonymity said. The gunman wanted to eliminate him as he was aiming for the head. 
The explosion happened as some government officials were passing, but they survived. However, two civilians were killed on the spot, Mr 
One soldier and three militants had been killed in two separate clashes overnight in eastern Turkey, security officials said on Tuesday. They said the soldier was killed in fighting with Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerrillas in Gumushane province near the Black Sea normally not the rebels area of activity. 
Chitral Scouts arrested on Tuesday four suspected suicide bombers trying to cross the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, Aaj television reported. According to the channel, the scouts recovered explosives, Pakistani currency, extremist literature as well as wills from the alleged suicide bombers. Police presented them before the Mala Kand Anti Terrorist Court for remand. The arrested include 
"They know where they live and who they are," said Lt. Col. Rick Welch, a staff officer who works with tribes in the capital area. "They know how they operate." Some tribes are also taking up arms against al-Qaeda allies. 
In more than four years in Iraq, American forces have been confounded by insurgents who have often slipped away only to fight another day. The war in Iraq has been likened to the arcade game of whack-a-mole, where as soon as you knock down one mole another pops up. 
To frustrate such plans, the Americans intend to take fingerprints and other biometric data from every resident who seems to be a potential fighter after they and Iraqi forces have gained control of the western side of the city. The Americans will also test for the presence of explosive material on suspects hands. 
This American counterinsurgency operation has some of the firepower associated with conventional war. American forces have already fired more than 
A truck bomb has exploded near a Shia mosque in a busy commercial district in Baghdad, killing at least 78 people and wounding dozens. At least 78 people were killed and over 200 others wounded when a parked truck near Al-Kholani mosque exploded, the sources said. 
