Afghan and NATO-led forces killed or wounded more than two dozen insurgents in a 21-hour battle in the northeast of the country close to the border with Pakistan, the alliance said on Saturday. The clash began when troops from the Afghan army and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) attacked a group of fighters in the Watapoor district of Kunar province late on Thursday as they were massing to attack an ISAF base. "Small arms, machineguns, mortars, artillery, attack helicopters and close-air support with precision guided munitions were all used during the engagement," the statement said. Most ISAF troops in eastern Afghanistan are American.
Allied fighters belonging to the Taliban, former Afghan Prime Minister Gulduddin Hekmatyar's Hezb-e Islami and al Qaeda are all active in Kunar province, a heavily wooded, mountainous province which borders tribal areas of Pakistan. The rough terrain made it difficult to confirm rebel casualties, ISAF said, but "based on intelligence reports received through a number of sources, insurgent losses are estimated at more than two dozen killed or wounded." There were no casualties among Afghan or ISAF troops or civilians, it said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2008 00:00 ||
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Around 20 Talibans were killed and over a dozen wounded in a joint operation between Afghan and Western forces in eastern Afghanistan, officials said on Saturday.
They were killed late on Friday in Kunar province, its governor Fazlullah Wahedi said, adding that
The rebels had recently crossed the border from Pakistan to launch an attack on foreign forces.
the rebels had recently crossed the border from Pakistan to launch an attack on foreign forces. The Afghan National Army and our foreign friends identified their locations and launched a successful operation, he said.
Captain Adam Khan Mateen of the Afghanistan Army, citing military intelligence reports, said some of the fighters were foreigners. Weve intercepted their radio conversations and have intelligence reports stating that some of them were foreigners, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
from Pakland? Surely they're mistaken
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/20/2008 9:42 Comments ||
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Yemen on Saturday offered a 75,000-dollar reward for information leading to the capture of the gumen who shot dead two Belgian tourists in the impoverished country. "The interior ministry has earmarked 15 million riyals (75,000 dollars) as a reward to whoever gives information or helps in arresting the terrorists involved in the terrorist attack," the defence ministry said on its website.
Two Belgian women tourists were among four people killed, and four more Belgians wounded when suspected Al-Qaeda gunmen opened fire on their bus in the eastern province of Hadramut's Do'an Valley on Friday.
The attackers hit the vehicle carrying the group, killing the driver, a Yemeni guide and the two women -- identified as 65-year-old Claudine Van Caillie and Katrine Glorie, 54, before the gunmen fled the scene in a car. Eleven of the tourists, who are from the Flanders region, flew into Brussels on Saturday while a twelfth, Patrick Coucke, 65, who was shot in the stomach, is expected to return on Sunday.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
$75K being less than one years retirement for those tourist.... Oh well Darwin and all that...
Why would anybody in their right mind go to Yemen? I remember our boat stopping their in 1965, as a kid, and watching a torch lite mob rampage Aden looking for English Men. We went back to the ship. Better things to do than wander an asylum.
Face it: Islamic society = the worst kind of mental asylum.
#3
Hey it is according to the Yemen Tourism Board it is one of the NYT top 2007 tourist destinations. If you can't trust the NYT who can you trust?
"TO the untrained thrill-seeker, Yemen would seem to promise the kind of adventures that only James Bond would relish: kidnapping by tribal factions, riots over gasoline prices, cheap and plentiful AK-47s, and taxi drivers who pack daggers and pistols. Plus, theres the specter of terrorism: the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole in Aden in 2000 presaged much bigger attacksSkip to next paragraph
But in contrast to the rest of the Arabian Peninsula, which is mostly hot, dry and barren, Yemen is practically a cool green paradise, with crisp mountain air, enormous acacia trees, pristine coral reefs and verdant fields bursting with khat, a psychoactive plant that induces mild euphoria.
In recent years, tour operators have started to capitalize on Yemens exotic geography as the new frontier in adventure travel. New outfits offer grueling treks to mountaintop villages, four-wheel-drive safaris through untrammeled deserts and sailing voyages aboard ancient dhows to isolated, Galápagos-like islands. And unlike Dubai, the Oz-like emirate on the other side of Saudi Arabia, Yemen is nothing if not authentic.
Yemen is also safer today, thanks to post-9/11 ties between Yemen and the United States that seem to have quieted tribal tensions and undermined terrorist operations in the country. A steady stream of European adventurers have already arrived.
One of the more intrepid tours is offered by Arabia Felix, a tour company based in Dubai. It has started two-week-long safaris that snake from Dubai across Oman, and along old frankincense trading routes into eastern Yemen. Guests alternate between camping alongside desert nomads and staying at luxurious places like the Al Hawta Palace Hotel, a former Yemeni palace in Sayun.
Visitors get to see an Arabia with no borders, said Marco Livadiotti, one of the principals of Arabia Felix.
After crossing into Yemen, the journey continues through the fabled Empty Quarter of the Arabian Desert, the worlds largest stretch of sand. Then it proceeds to the fertile green valley of Wadi Hadramaut, home to Yemens two most atmospheric towns. The walled city of Shibam has a skyline of tall mud-brick houses, earning it the nickname the Manhattan of the Desert. Nearby, the ancient town of Tarim has 365 mosques, one for each day of the year.
The final leg of the journey, from archaeologically rich Marib to the capital, Sana, is a bit dodgier and requires an armed Bedouin escort because of tribal unrest.
For those who want to explore by foot, the Haraz Mountains along Yemens western edge are a hikers paradise. The region is linked by well-worn trails that cut through fields of prized khat, zigzag across lush green mountaintops and pass through fortresslike villages of mud and stone houses.
Along the way, you can pitch a tent, check into small village guesthouses, or luck out with an invitation to stay at someones home. Yemen may seem chaotic, but old-school Arabian hospitality, especially toward foreigners, almost always prevails.
Yemens most far-flung adventure is undoubtedly the island of Socotra, a time capsule 210 miles off the coast in the Indian Ocean. Socotra is an alien world, even to most Yemenis. Natives speak an obscure language, Soqotri, that is virtually unintelligible to mainlanders. The fauna and flora of this island evolved separately from mainland Arabia.
Until recently, the island could be reached only by boat and was cut off from the rest of the world during the monsoon season, June to September. Now flights land year round, bringing scuba divers to spectacular reefs that are only beginning to be explored. There are steep limestone cliffs that plunge into dark chasms, a colorful bounty of coral and other rich (and endangered) marine species like sea turtles and groupers.
Inland, you can hike up the Haghier Mountains, camp on a beach or go off-roading along the wadis (dry riverbeds), where you might come across endemic birds and plants like the dragons blood tree, which leaks red liquid when cut.
But the most exotic encounter on Socotra may be its people, descendants of both African and South Arabian tribes, who have developed a culture unique from any other place on the planet. Even today, the islanders seem to live as they want, not to please or profit from the few tourists who reach their home."
see: http://www.yementourism.com/ for more reasons to make it Yemen this year.
Posted by: bruce ||
01/20/2008 7:28 Comments ||
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#4
Thanks for the brochure, Bruce, but I'm gonna pass...
MADRID: Spain was on high alert for terrorist attacks on Saturday after the police arrested 14 suspects of Pakistani and Indian origin who authorities contend were plotting an attack on Barcelona, officials said.
Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, the interior minister, told reporters that the 14 had been arrested in Barcelona, the capital of the Catalonia region in the northeast, and that more arrests were expected. The police, who acted with the help of information from foreign intelligence agencies, raided several apartments, a prominent mosque and a small prayer hall, Rubalcaba and local Muslim representatives said.
Rubalcaba would not say which countries' intelligence services had provided information. He said the police had confiscated material for making explosives, including four timing devices, in the raids. The detainees were Islamists who "belonged to a well-organized group that had gone a step beyond radicalization," he said. "When someone has timers in their home, you have no option but to think violent acts are being planned," he said.
With a general election set for March 9, Spanish authorities are on the alert for terrorist attacks by Islamist groups or the Basque militant group ETA.
Muslim representatives in the Raval neighborhood of Barcelona said the police raided the Torek Ben Ziad mosque, one of the city's most prominent mosques, about 3 a.m. One Muslim leader in Barcelona, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the issue, said the arrested men belonged to Tabligh Jamaat, a Pakistan-based group. The group publicizes a benign strain of revivalist Islam but is suspected by Western intelligence agencies to be a recruiting ground for jihadists.
Spanish and international intelligence officials say they are worried the growing Pakistani population in Spain is becoming a new European link in the global terrorism network.
One way to deal with the problem is to stop allowing the Paks into your country. Sucks for the Paks who aren't involved with terrorism, but it would certainly focus world attention on the problem.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/20/2008 03:04 ||
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#1
Thank God they pulled out of Iraq.(sar).They should send thier troops back for this.
Islamic radicals may have been plotting attacks in Barcelona, Spain's Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said on Saturday, after police found bomb-making materials and arrested 14 South Asians. Rubalcaba told a news conference civil guard police found explosives and other equipment during raids on five addresses in Spain's second city, and arrested 12 Pakistanis and two Indians after receiving information from its own and other European intelligence agencies.
Spain suffered Europe's deadliest Islamist attack when four Madrid trains were bombed in March 2004, killing 191 commuters and wounding a further 1,800, three days before a general election. With less than two months before Spain's next national poll, Rubalcaba said security services remained on high alert.
The interior minister said Saturday's raids were distinct from many operations against Islamic militants in the past, which largely targeted groups seeking to finance radical groups or recruit members to fight. "Here we are looking at something different: a well-organized group who were going beyond ideological radicalism to acquiring materials to make explosives and therefore eventually to carry out violent attacks," he said.
Spain's intelligence services have warned France, Portugal and the UK that radicals, principally of Pakistani origin, were ready to launch imminent attacks, newspaper website El Pais reported. It gave no further details. Spain's Interior Ministry regards Islamic militants, rather than Basque separatists ETA, as Spain's greatest security threat and has significantly beefed up surveillance of mosques and employed more Arabic translators in the last four years.
Rubalcaba said the group, which had stockpiled bomb-making materials including timers and ball-bearings, had been ready to act. Computers were also seized during the operation in the historic district of Raval just after midnight.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2008 00:00 ||
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Shillong (PTI): A top ULFA leader was killed in a gunfight at Kathalbari in Meghalaya's West Garo Hills district on Sunday. Security forces gunned down self-styled sergeant major Madan Koch, who allegedly ferried arms regularly from Bangladesh to Assam, during a joint operation by the Army's Assam-based Third Sikh Regiment and Meghalaya police at Kathalbari along the Assam-Meghalaya border, West Garo Hills SP JFK Marak said.
Koch, police said, was the operational head of the separatist group's 109 battalion. He was the key contact for transaction of arms, ammunition and explosives from Bangladesh to Assam through the Garo Hills corridor. Police seized a 9 mm pistol, two magazines, one hand-grenade, a wireless set, two mobile sets and 8.6 kg of RDX from the slain rebel's possession.
Intelligence reports had earlier indicated that ULFA rebels were using Garo Hills region as a corridor to sneak in from bases in Bangladesh. Koch's killing is seen as a major blow to the outfit by intelligence officials.
With ULFA and four other rebel groups calling for boycotting the Republic Day celebarations in Northeastern states, top intelligence officials said Koch had monitored delivery of a large quantity of arms to Assam during the past one month for use on and before January 26.
This article starring:
Madan Koch
Posted by: john frum ||
01/20/2008 16:04 ||
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Pakistani security agents have arrested a youth who said he had been trained as a suicide bomber to kill opposition leader Benazir Bhutto had other militants failed to kill her, in the first arrests in the case, a security official said.
The 15-year-old and his militant "handler" were arrested in the northwestern town of Dera Ismail Khan on Thursday night. The teenager, identified as Aitezaz Shah, told interrogators he would have been "next in line" to kill Bhutto if another team had failed on December 27, the security official said on Saturday. The youth told interrogators he prepared for his mission in a stronghold of al Qaeda-linked militant leader Baitullah Mehsud in the South Waziristan region on the Afghan border, said the official who declined to be identified.
The official said the "handler", identified as Sher Zaman, was the more important catch. "He is the real catch who can give us more clues," the official said.
The government said Mehsud was behind Bhutto's killing. CIA Director Michael Hayden, in an interview with the Washington Post published on Friday, blamed Mehsud for Bhutto's killing. Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz and his ministry's spokesman said they had no information about the arrest of the two.
The interior minister is always the last to know.
The security official said Shah came from another northwestern district, Mansehra, but had been brought up in the southern city of Karachi.
This article starring:
Aitezaz Shah
Taliban
Baitullah Mehsud
Taliban
Sher Zaman
Taliban
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Whatever they do, I sure hope it doesn't involve waterboarding. That would be cruel and inhumane. Of course, to be effective, it would have to involve spiked testicle clamps and a blowtorch. Or money and virgins.
Pakistani police say they foiled a planned attack on a Shi'ite Muslim procession with cyanide and suicide bombs. Pakistani police say they had averted a disaster with the arrest of five militants planning to attack the processions. The arrests in the southern city of Karachi came as minority Shi'ite Muslims across Pakistan gathered for religious commemorations that have in recent years drawn attacks from Sunni Muslim militants.
More, from Pak Daily Times...
Sindh Police Inspector General (IG) Azhar Ali Farooqui told a press conference that they had arrested the militants after a brief encounter on a tip-off. The five militants, one of whom was preparing to become a suicide bomber, belonged to different Sunni Muslim militant groups - Jaish-e-Muhammad, Harkatul Mujahideen and Harkat-e-Jihad-e-Islami.
Meaning they all belonged to al-Qaeda...
The police also found six kilogrammes (kg) of explosives, ammunition, two kg of ball bearings and one kg of nails. Police also seized 500 gram of cyanide that Farooqui said was going to be used to poison drinks handed out to people taking part in the processions, Reuters reported. In the preliminary interrogation, the militants have confessed to planning three kind of attacks to disrupt peace in Karachi - attacking Shia processions with suicide bombings and hand grenades, targeting army installations and adding cyanide in Sabeels for Muharram processions, the IG said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
ION, PAYVAND > AFGHANISTAN WAR IS "JUST BEGINNING", claims the Afghanistan NGO Security office. 2007 will go down as the yarn the Taliban rejoined the fight.
Troops captured 50 Islamist militants in an operation in South Waziristan, a day after killing dozens of rebels in the area, the military said on Saturday. Troops also recovered 10 bodies of the rebels from the Chaghmalai area in South Waziristan, which was scene of a major clash on Friday in which an estimated 30 militants were killed, chief military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said. Security forces launched an operation in the Chaghmalai area last night and captured 40 militants, he told AFP. The village has been completely cleared of the militants, he said.
Security forces also launched a search operation in Ladah town and arrested 10 militants, including some of their local commanders, the spokesman said.
The clash in Chaghmalai erupted after militants ambushed a convoy of security forces with rockets and small arms. The military said an hour-long firefight in the area left 20 to 30 fighters dead and four soldiers wounded. Troops fought off a large number of insurgents who surrounded and attacked Ladah Fort on Friday, killing 50 to 60 of the attackers, the army said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the army also pounded a suspected hideout in neighbouring North Waziristan with artillery killing a man and wounding two people after a rocket attack on their base overnight. Suspected Islamic militants launched a barrage of 14 rockets on a military base in Razmak town in the lawless tribal region late Friday, a security official told AFP on Saturday. Troops retaliated and several houses were hit in Makeen town killing a man and wounding a girl and another local man, the official, asking not to be named, said. Residents said several families began shifting to Miranshah, the main town in the rugged terrain, amid tensions in the region.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2008 00:00 ||
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Security forces have taken control of the Namal, Shor and Sardan Top areas in Matta tehsil of the troubled Swat district in an ongoing operation against extremists on Saturday.
TNSM's better at waving swords and rolling their eyes than they are at actually being krazed killers.
Militants have vacated the areas of Manja, Totanoo Bandai, Shah Dheri in Kabal tehsil and Puchar, Namal, Sardan Top and Shor in Matta tehsil, which were strongholds of Mullah Fazlullah, sources added.
Security forces said they arrested 10 militants and found 2.5 tonnes of explosives hidden in a mosque in Swat.
They said militants bunkers in these areas were empty, and they took their weapons with them as they moved to unknown locations. The troops imposed a curfew during their forward march in the areas from 7pm on Friday night and no one was allowed to come out of their houses. The security forces, during the operation, destroyed the houses of local militant commanders Sayed Karim, Lajbar Khan, Sahib and Bin Yamin, a close aide of rebel cleric Maulana Fazlullah. During the search operation, the troops also arrested several militants and shifted them to an undisclosed location for interrogation.
Sources told Daily Times that the security forces had also recovered a police van belonging to the Matta Police Station. In a separate incident, the security forces said they arrested 10 militants and found 2.5 tonnes of explosives hidden in a mosque in Swat, Reuters added.
If I was looking for 2 and a half tons of explosives, a mosque'd be the first place I'd look.
This article starring:
Bin Yamin
TNSM
Lajbar Khan
TNSM
Mullah Fazlullah
TNSM
Sayed Karim
TNSM
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2008 00:00 ||
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An Afghan national has been arrested while he was suspiciously roaming along the route of the Zuljinnah procession taken out from Nisar Haveli, said Rang Mahal police on Saturday.
"Oh, I-I-I-I-I love a para-a-a-a-de..."
"Stick 'em up!"
They said Abbas, an Afghan national, had been locked up in the police station because of his suspicious movement along the procession route.
"Oboy! Oboy! I wonder if they're gonna have elephants!"
Superintendent of police (Security) Hussain Habib Imtiaz denied that any Afghan had been arrested.
"Nope. Nope. Never happened."
Rang Mahal Station House Officer Nauman Khan, however, confirmed the arrest and said that during the initial investigation, the suspect claimed that he had only come to see the procession.
"We don't get many parades back home in Balkh, y'know..."
Sources in the police also said that at least four people from the procession had been arrested, but no arrests have been has officially confirmed.
"Here, you people! Step away from the float witcher hands up! You, too, Fatty!""
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
So there I was, sipping my tea while scrolling through the Burg and I come across Fred's excellent snark.
A blast outside the house of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Balochistan President Sardar Yaqoob Khan Nasir on Saturday partially damaged his house in Loralai, Geo News television channel reported. Law-enforcement personnel reached the site after the blast and began investigations, the channel reported. It did not report any deaths or injuries.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2008 00:00 ||
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A major Shi'ite ritual ended peacefully in the southern city of Kerbala on Saturday after Iraqi forces imposed tight security around 2.5 million pilgrims, but attacks in the north killed nine worshippers.
Police Brigadier-General Najim Abdullah said a large group of Shi'ites had been returning from the annual Ashura religious ritual in Tal Afar, 420 km (260 miles) northwest of Baghdad, when they were hit by a Katyusha rocket that killed seven. In northern Kirkuk, a bomb killed two Shi'ite pilgrims heading to a mosque for the ceremonies.
Police said sporadic fighting between security forces and gunmen from a messianic Shi'ite cult broke out again in the southern cities of Basra and Nassiriya on Saturday, a day after gunmen attacked worshippers and police. There was no information on casualties. Nearly 70 people were killed and more than 100 wounded in gunbattles on Friday after gunmen from the "Soldiers of Heaven" cult launched nearly simultaneous attacks in the two cities.
In Kerbala, tight security meant there were few incidents as pilgrims thronged streets and alleyways for the end of the 10- day Ashura ritual, in which Shi'ites mourn the slaying over 1,300 years ago of the Prophet Mohammad's grandson, Imam Hussein.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2008 00:00 ||
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Gaza City was plunged into darkness Sunday after Israel blocked the shipment of fuel that powers its only electrical plant in retaliation for persistent rocket attacks by Gaza militants.
'Militants' already having been forgiven by the EU and the MSM. Never their fault for launching rockets, of course.
The power cut sent already beleaguered Gazans to stock up on food and batteries in anticipation of dark, cold days ahead. Gaza officials warned the move would cause a health catastrophe while a U.N. agency and human rights groups condemned Israel.
"We have the choice to either cut electricity on babies in the maternity ward or heart surgery patients or stop operating rooms," Gaza Health Ministry official Dr. Moaiya Hassanain said.
They do heart surgery in Gaza?
Israel justified the cutoff because of continuous rocket attacks by Gaza militants. Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Arye Meckel said the Gaza Strip continues to receive 70 percent of its electricity supply directly from Israel, which would not be affected, and another 5 percent from Egypt. The blackout "is a Hamas ploy to pretend there is some kind of crisis to attract international sympathy," he told The Associated Press.
And it'll work, just you wait and see.
Officials from the ruling Islamic militant group Hamas shut down the plant just before 8 p.m. and Gaza City went dark, Gaza Energy Authority head Kanan Obeid said. TV crews and reporters were invited to witness the shutdown.
Going for the EU prime time news market. 8 pm Gazook time is 7 pm in France.
Minutes later, residents started a candlelight march as a protest. Live Associated Press TV pictures showed dots of light moving slowly up a darkened main street.
Israel has blockaded Gaza incompletely for seven months, since the Islamic militant Hamas overran the territory, allowing up until now only basic food items and humanitarian supplies into Gaza. That changed Thursday when Defense Minister Ehud Barak ordered all crossings into Gaza closed because of a spike in rocket barrages, cutting off fuel supplies. Several weeks ago, Israel reduced the fuel supply as a pressure tactic.
A defiant Hamas said its attacks on Israel would not cease because of the sanctions. "We will not raise the white flag, and we will not surrender, " Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said Sunday.
"We will starve our babies and stop doing heart surgery instead!"
The regular fuel shipment from Israel did not arrive Sunday because the fuel terminal was closed, and the power plant has almost no reserves, said Rafik Maliha, director of the power plant.
The U.N. organization in charge of Palestinian refugees warned the blockade would drastically affect hospitals, sewage treatment and water facilities.
Presumably also afffect the bunny hutches though he didn't say that.
"The logic of this defies basic humanitarian standards," said Christopher Gunness, spokesman for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA.
The British group Oxfam called Israel's cutoff "ineffective as well as unlawful." Gisha, an Israeli group that has fought the fuel cutbacks in Israel's Supreme Court, said: "Punishing Gaza's 1.5 million civilians does not stop the rocket fire. It only creates an impossible 'balance' of human suffering on both sides of the border."
In a sense I agree: the only way to stop the rocket attacks is to flatten Gazoo, and that means Israel going back in, which they don't want to do.
Israeli Cabinet minister Zeev Boim said that rather than condemning Israel, the U.N. should condemn Palestinian militants for firing rocket barrages at Israel. "I don't hear the U.N.'s voice," Boim said.
Did you expect to?
Meanwhile, Gaza City residents were busy buying up batteries and candles, as well as basic foods such as rice, flour and cooking oil, said grocery store owner Sami Mousa. More would be doing the same, he said, but "the problem is that the people don't have the money to buy."
Bakeries stopped operating because they had neither power nor flour, bakers said.
Does Hamas still have ammunition?
The Hamas-linked Popular Resistance Committees threatened to break the blockade by crashing through the border with Egypt "by force."
There were no signs of panic, as Gazans have been living with fuel cutbacks, power outages and shortages since Islamic Hamas militants overran the seaside territory in June, triggering international sanctions.
Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005, but many see Israel as still responsible, since it controls most land, sea and air access to the territory.
Alon Ben-David, military analyst for Israel's Channel 10 TV, said Israel could not maintain the blockade for more than a few days. "Israel understands that a humanitarian crisis is developing here," he said.
And unlike me, they'll pull back.
Four rockets exploded in Israel throughout the day, a significant drop from the level of last week. The military said since last Tuesday, the start of the escalation, more than 200 rockets and mortars hit Israel. There have been no serious injuries over the past week, but residents of the Israeli towns have been traumatized by months of daily salvos.
Addressing the annual Herzliya Conference on security, the Israeli military commander, Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, said his forces have exacted "a heavy toll" from the militants, but he admitted a solution to the rocket fire is not near. "Even if it takes time, the goal will be achieved," he pledged.
#3
"We have the choice to either cut electricity on babies in the maternity ward or heart surgery patients or stop operating rooms," Gaza Health Ministry official Dr. Moaiya Hassanain said.
Horse$hit. They get plenty of fuel to run the important stuff. The cretins just choose to give it to the guy who shells out the most shekels for it. More money in the appropriate minister's pocket that way, you see.
Also, doesn't Egypt supply plenty of power to run all the essential stuff? If not, they could always increase what they supply by just running a few distribution lines to tie their grids together better.
But then again, words are cheaper than power lines and power for their Arab brothers and sisters.
#4
And the same things happen here when there's a budget crunch - police get laid off and schools close, but nary a city hall or county courthouse official feels the pinch. Politicians are the same everywhere.
#5
Related Subject: Why haven't the Israeli's bought or borrowed a couple of those naval Gatling guns we use to defend the Green Zone in Iraq. Too cheap, too proud or too much politics?
Israeli soldiers captured four Hamas militants after a gunfight in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, the Israeli army and Hamas's armed wing said. "The four gunmen were taken into Israel for questioning," an army spokeswoman said.
Israel has killed at least 35 Palestinians in Gaza this week as part of what officials describe as a stepped-up campaign to curb rocket fire into the Jewish state. Gaza militants have fired about 230 mortars and rockets at Israel in the past five days, the army said.
Hamas's armed wing confirmed Saturday's arrests and said the four gunmen were besieged in a house near the northern Gaza town of Jabalya. "They fought until the last bullet," a Hamas spokesman said. Hamas said the Israeli soldiers also arrested family members who had been in the house.
"C'mon, Granny! Into the paddy wagon wit' yez!"
The Israeli army said in a statement the four militants, armed with assault rifles and grenades, opened fire at the soldiers. The gunmen were taken for questioning in Israel along with several other suspects, the statement said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Maybe they could make some body parts out of them to trade for those that Nassrallah claims to hold.
Or they could hold onto them incommunicado until they cough up Shalit.
#2
Nej, gorb, won't work. Worthless, even the islamonuts recognise that,
(What do you say to someone you dont like in da Gaza? : take this Suicide Belt and FOAD) but I got 72 raisins for each one. Piri-piri raisins, hottern'hell, just like Mo ordered. Seems like I'm the only one that cares sometimes.
#3
WAFF.com > PRESSTV - APPEAL FOR INYERNATIONAL PROTECTION [UNO] FOR GAZA. PA FM Fayyad calls for international response = mil protection of Gazans from Israeli IDF.
The Sri Lankan military said on Saturday its troops had killed 38 Tamil Tiger rebels and one of its soldiers had died in fresh fighting in the north.
A six-year truce between the state and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) formally ended on Wednesday, opening the way for a military push for the Tigers' northern stronghold and a bloody escalation in a 25-year civil war, analysts say. "In Welioya troops confronted with a group of terrorists and killed two today (Saturday). Confrontations on Friday killed 36 LTTE terrorists in Jaffna, Vavuniya, Welioya and Mannar and destroyed four LTTE bunkers," said military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara.
On Wednesday 27 people were killed in a bus ambush in the central town of Buttala which the military blamed on the Tigers. On Friday suspected Tamil Tiger rebels shot and killed 10 people in southern Sri Lanka, the military said. The Tigers were not immediately available for comment on the fighting. There were no independent accounts of casualties.
The Sri Lankan government scrapped the 2002 truce a fortnight ago. The military said more than 40 civilians, 23 soldiers and over 200 rebels had been killed in fighting since then.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2008 00:00 ||
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After Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said Saturday that his organization is holding the remains of Israel Defense Forces soldiers killed in the Second Lebanon War, several government ministers on Sunday called for the militant chief's assassination. "Nasrallah is a cruel and crazy man," said Minister Yitzhak Cohen (Shas), during the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem. "I don't understand why he is still breathing. We should have liquidated him a long time ago. I recommend the cabinet assassinate the man.
Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit (Kadima) echoed the sentiment, saying, "Nasrallah is a person who has crossed all lines of inhumanity. We don't need to negotiate with him, we need to destroy him."
Absorption Minister Ze'ev Boim called Nasrallah a "sewer rat," adding, "we must make sure he does not see the light of day."
Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Sunday advised the cabinet ministers to pay no heed to Nasrallah, maintaining that responding to Nasrallah's remarks only lends them validity. "The determining factor is not Nasrallah's comments. Our problem is that we always strengthen him and his words more than necessary. He always uses psychological pressure, and I recommend paying no heed to his comments," Barak said.
Highly-placed sources in Jerusalem said Saturday that Israel would not negotiate with Hezbollah over the return of soldiers' remains the Islamist group claimed to be holding and was focusing on obtaining the release of kidnapped soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev.
The Jerusalem sources expressed shock at Hezbollah Secretary-General Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah's claims about the body parts in his organization's possession. "There is no intention of cooperating with Nasrallah. We will not be a party to profiteering in the remains of Israeli soldiers and will not trade in body parts," they said.
Senior military officials Saturday confirmed that Hezbollah was in possession of the remains of IDF who died in the Second Lebanon War. They said the security establishment had updated the families of soldiers who could possibly be affected. Sources in Jerusalem, meanwhile, confirmed that the person mediating between Israel and Hezbollah is continuing his efforts to bring about another prisoner exchange agreement, one that would include Regev and Goldwasser.
Israeli officials have long been aware that Hezbollah possesses the remains of Israeli soldiers. No complete bodies are involved; the bodies of all soldiers who were killed in the war were retrieved and buried in Israel and every family who asked received a full report about the state of the body at the time of burial.
A statement by the IDF Spokesman's Office said the statements "constitute a cruel and cynical move by an organization that fragrantly tramples the most fundamental, ethical codes, shows no respect for human rights or the international conventions that govern these matters ... we call upon all those with the most basic common sense to view him as cowardly and to condemn him."
Military officials said they believe the remains of about 10 soldiers are involved. Nasrallah made the statements Saturday in a rally marking the Shi'ite holiday of Ashura. "Oh Zionists, your army is lying to you ... your army has left the body parts of your soldiers in our villages and fields," Nasrallah said. "Our mujahideen used to fight these Zionists, killing them and collecting their body parts. I am not talking about regular body parts. I tell the Israelis, we have the heads of your soldiers, we have hands, we have legs ... there is even a near-complete body, a half or three-quarters of a body, from head, to chest to the torso," he added.
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/20/2008 17:31 ||
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#1
Absorption Minister Ze'ev Boim called Nasrallah a "sewer rat," Impressive title, and a keen eye for the obvious.
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Afghan and NATO-led forces killed or wounded more than two dozen insurgents in a 21-hour battle in the northeast of the country close to the border with Pakistan, the alliance said on Saturday. The clash began when troops from the Afghan army and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) attacked a group of fighters in the Watapoor district of Kunar province late on Thursday as they were massing to attack an ISAF base. "Small arms, machineguns, mortars, artillery, attack helicopters and close-air support with precision guided munitions were all used during the engagement," the statement said. Most ISAF troops in eastern Afghanistan are American.
Around 20 Talibans were killed and over a dozen wounded in a joint operation between Afghan and Western forces in eastern Afghanistan, officials said on Saturday.
Yemen on Saturday offered a 75,000-dollar reward for information leading to the capture of the gumen who shot dead two Belgian tourists in the impoverished country. "The interior ministry has earmarked 15 million riyals (75,000 dollars) as a reward to whoever gives information or helps in arresting the terrorists involved in the terrorist attack," the defence ministry said on its website.
MADRID: Spain was on high alert for terrorist attacks on Saturday after the police arrested 14 suspects of Pakistani and Indian origin who authorities contend were plotting an attack on Barcelona, officials said.
Islamic radicals may have been plotting attacks in Barcelona, Spain's Interior Minister 
Shillong (PTI): A top ULFA leader was killed in a gunfight at Kathalbari in Meghalaya's West Garo Hills district on Sunday. Security forces gunned down self-styled sergeant major 
Pakistani security agents have arrested a youth who said he had been trained as a suicide bomber to kill opposition leader Benazir Bhutto had other militants failed to kill her, in the first arrests in the case, a security official said.
Troops captured 50 Islamist militants in an operation in South Waziristan, a day after killing dozens of rebels in the area, the military said on Saturday. Troops also recovered 10 bodies of the rebels from the Chaghmalai area in South Waziristan, which was scene of a major clash on Friday in which an estimated 30 militants were killed, chief military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said. Security forces launched an operation in the Chaghmalai area last night and captured 40 militants, he told AFP. The village has been completely cleared of the militants, he said.
An Afghan national has been arrested while he was suspiciously roaming along the route of the Zuljinnah procession taken out from Nisar Haveli, said Rang Mahal police on Saturday.
Gaza City was plunged into darkness Sunday after Israel blocked the shipment of fuel that powers its only electrical plant in retaliation for persistent rocket attacks by Gaza militants.
Israeli soldiers captured four Hamas militants after a gunfight in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, the Israeli army and Hamas's armed wing said. "The four gunmen were taken into Israel for questioning," an army spokeswoman said.
The Sri Lankan military said on Saturday its troops had killed 38 Tamil Tiger rebels and one of its soldiers had died in fresh fighting in the north.
After Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said Saturday that his organization is holding the remains of Israel Defense Forces soldiers killed in the Second Lebanon War, several government ministers on Sunday called for the militant chief's assassination. "Nasrallah is a cruel and crazy man," said Minister Yitzhak Cohen (Shas), during the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem. "I don't understand why he is still breathing. We should have liquidated him a long time ago. I recommend the cabinet assassinate the man. 
