Kabul - A suicide bomber on Monday destroyed two vehicles in an attack in a US Embassy convoy travelling in Kabul that injured several people according to initial reports. It was not immediately clear if anyone had been killed in the blast which occurred on a main road often used by US and NATO troops travelling to the eastern city of Jalalabad. A US embassy spokesman cited by the Reuters newsagency said US Ambassador Ronald Neumann was not in the convoy.
Taliban rebels have in recent weeks stepped up their attacks on government and Western-led coalition targets - including suicide attacks while NATO has launched an offensive in the south this month to pre-empt an expected spring offensive by the rebels.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/19/2007 08:16 ||
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#1
One deader for sure - the bomber. Hope that's the only fatality. Love it when they take out their own, but nobody else.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/19/2007 11:56 Comments ||
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A two-hour gunbattle between suspected Taliban militants and police left two policemen dead in western Afghanistan, a spokesman said on Sunday. The Taliban attacked a highway police checkpoint on Saturday night in Farah provinces Bakwa district and two officers were killed in the subsequent clash, said Baryalai Khan, spokesman for the provincial police chief.
Separately, a UN mine-clearing worker was wounded when suspected Taliban militants ambushed Afghan and US-led coalition forces north of Kabul, the coalition said on Sunday. The militants fired rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns at Afghan and coalition forces on Saturday in the Tag Ab district of Kapisa province, a coalition statement said. It said no Afghan or coalition forces were hurt in the attack. However, the de-miners UN vehicle, which had been travelling separately from the convoy in the opposite direction on the same road, was hit in the attack, the statement said. The de-miner was wounded by extremist forces small-arms fire, it said.
Denise Duclaux, a spokeswoman for the UN Mine Action Centre for Afghanistan, said the Afghan de-miner had been returning from a work site to his base camp. He was hit in the shoulder and treated by a paramedic travelling with him, Duclaux said, adding that his condition was stable.
Meanwhile, the Taliban said on Sunday they had released an Italian journalist held for spying, along with his Afghan translator, but Rome said it still had no reason to believe the reporter had been freed. Karachi-born La Repubblica reporter Daniele Mastrogiacomo was released after Afghan authorities freed two Taliban officials, rebel spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf said by satellite phone from a secret location. A provincial official said two Taliban were released late on Saturday night. They were spokesman Latif Hakimi and a leader known as Ustad Yasar, Yousuf said.
However, an Italian government spokesman in Rome, as well as its mission in Kabul, said they had no confirmation. The Italian news agency ANSA reported that veteran correspondent Daniele Mastrogiacomo, 52, had been freed but his employer, Rome-based La Repubblica newspaper, said it did not have confirmation.
Separately, Taliban guerrillas chopped noses and ears of at least five truck drivers in eastern Afghanistan as punishment for transporting supplies to US-led troops, officials and residents said on Sunday.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2007 00:00 ||
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Security agencies said they had seized over 5,000 kilograms ...
... that's about 11,023 pounds, or 5 1/2 tons ...
... of explosives during raids in different areas of this northern city. The raids are part of the security measures ahead of the Nawroz festival, locally known as Mella-i-Gul Surkh.
From the link, it's a (pre-islam) Kurdish new year festival, so presumably abhorrent in the eyes of Allan and his overseers....
The explosives were brought into the province for disruptive activities, said a press release issued from the Balkh national security department on Sunday. The festival begins on the first day of the new Afghan year, commencing on March 21. The press release says the explosives were seized from different areas of Mazar-i-Sharif. Three people have been arrested on charges of keeping the explosives in their possession. Two of them are residents of Balkh and the third comes from the central province of Parwan.
Ustad Basir Arifi, official of the disarmament of irresponsible armed groups (DIAG) programme
Love that name...
... full time job, I expect ...
in Balkh, told Pajhwok Afghan News the weapon caches included guns, rockets, remote-controlled mines, bullets, pistols and radio sets. "Enemies of the country wanted to use these weapons and munitions to disrupt security on the occasion of the new year festivities," he said. He added the confiscated ammunition had been handed over to DIAG officials in the province. It will be submitted to the Ministry of Defense. Balkh security officials had also seized more than 1,000 kilograms of explosives some ten days back. Nawroz festival begins on the first day of the Afghan calendar year (March 21). Thousands of people from all parts of the country throng Mazar-i-Sharif to attend the celebration, which continues for 40 days. Balkh Governor Atta Mohammad Noor said all measures were in place to ensure foolproof security in the city during the Mela-i-Gul Surkh.
Afghanistans Taliban said Sunday it had handed an Italian journalist whom it captured two weeks ago and threatened to kill to tribal elders pending a final deal for his release. A senior Afghan intelligence official said on condition of anonymity that the government had agreed to free two Taliban in exchange for correspondent Daniele Mastrogiacomo but the negotiations were not over. In Rome Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi said authorities had been working since dawn to secure the release of Mastrogiacomo, 52, captured March 4 with two Afghan colleagues in the province of Helmand, a Taliban stronghold. The Taliban had set a deadline of Monday evening.
A Taliban spokesman, Yousuf Ahmadi, said Mastrogiacomo and his Afghan translator were handed to the elders in Helmand after authorities agreed to free a one-time Taliban spokesman and an information chief. But the Taliban also wanted back a third man another former spokesman, Mohammad Hanif, arrested in October in Afghanistan. If Hanif is not released, well take back the journalists... Once Hanif is released, the elders can take the Italian anywhere he wishes to go well let him go, he said. The intelligence official said that ex-Taliban spokesman Latif Hakimi and information chief Ustad Yasar had been moved from Kabul to the Helmand capital, Lashkar Gah, for a likely exchange. Right now theyre negotiating a mechanism for the exchange, he said. The Helmand security chief, Isau Khan, said the Italian was expected to be freed in days. Im aware that he was supposed to be freed within one or two days. But Im not aware at this point if he has been freed. The negotiations have been very successful, he said.
Presidential spokesman Karim Rahimi would not confirm any exchange of captives was planned but said from Germany, where he was with President Hamid Karzai: The government will use any possible means to secure his release. The Italian prime minister spoke with Karzai Sunday about the kidnapping, Italys ANSA news agency reported. There is little that can be done today, Prodi told reporters later. We have been working since dawn, and we are continuing now.
UPDATE: Kabul, 19 March. (AKI) - Kidnapped Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo was set free Monday by his Taliban captors after being held hostage for 15 days, the Italian government confirmed on Monday. Mastrogiacomo, who works for the Rome daily La Repubblica was seized on 5 March by Taliban fighters while on a reporting trip in the restive province of Helmand. He is currently at the hospital in Lashkar Gah of the aid group Emergency, which helped negotiate his release, and is in a good condition. Mastrogiacomo's interpreter is also reported to be safe. His driver was killed by the Taliban last week.
Now, the bad news
Sources privy to the clandestine deal told Pajhwok Afghan News the hostage had been handed over to the Italian officials in the Hazarjuft district. Confirming the release of the Italian journalist, Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah said the hostage was set free in exchange for the release of five Taliban prisoners. He said the Taliban leaders released in exchange for the Italian journalist included Ustad Yasir, Mufti Latifullah Hakimi (former Taliban spokesman), Mansoor Ahmad (Dadullah's brother) and two commanders Hamdullah and Abdul Ghaffar.
#1
Nice. That oughta stop these kidnappings cold.
Although this is Dadullah. I might wanna wait for a more official word. You probably sound much more like an Islamic hero if you say you swapped him for 5 Jihadi warrior pussies rather then a couple of million bucks.
An Afghan UN mine-clearing worker was injured as anti-government elements ambushed a combined convoy of coalition and Afghan forces in central Kapisa province, coalition forces said in a statement on Sunday. The incident occurred in Tagab district of the province on Saturday, the statement said, the attack caused no casualties of Afghan and coalition forces. The injured UN worker was getting medical aid and his condition was stable, the source said. Abdul Satar Murad, Governor of the central Kapisa province, said Taliban attacked the mine-clearing workers in Qala-e-Salih area of the district.
(SomaliNet) Militants have launched a mortar attack at the main seaport of the Somalia capital Mogadishu on Sunday killing at least one civilian and wounding five others. The latest attack happened round 2:15 pm local time. Witnesses told Somalinet that un unidentified militia fired eight mortar rounds towards the seaport, four of the shells landed inside the port causing the death of a man named Mumin who was among the dock workers while the rest of the fired mortars hit nearby Xamar Jajab neighborhood wounding four civilians.
The Ethiopian soldiers at the seaport fired more than ten artillery shells hitting Behani village of Shibis district in return. There is no immediate casualty on the latest attack.
Shortly after the attack, the allied forces of Somalia and Ethiopia sealed the area near the seaport searching and people, houses and cars. No one was reported being held for suspicion.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/19/2007 00:00 ||
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An Algerian court has sentenced to death in absentia two former leaders of an al Qaeda-aligned rebel group for forming "an armed terrorist group" and carrying out attacks, state radio said on Sunday. Hassan Hattab, former leader of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) and Mokhtar Belmokhtar, a senior member of the same armed movement, were condemned to death on Saturday at a court in Batna province, 430 km (270 miles) east of the capital Algiers, the radio said. The GSPC this year renamed itself al Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb to boost its links to al Qaeda.
Hattab and Belmokhtar were among 27 Islamist militants sentenced to death at the Saturday session for "forming an armed terorist group and possession of weapons" and carrying out armed attacks, the radio said. It was not immediately clear whether the 25 others were present in court or, like Hattab and Belmokhtar, on the run.
State media have said Belmokhtar joined the GSPC through his role as a leader of a smuggling group operating in Algeria's Sahara desert and in neighbouring Mali, Niger and Libya. Newspapers have said Hattab had been trying to negotiate a surrender under an amnesty last year that gave immunity to any rebel who gives himself up provided he did not take part in massacres, rape or bombings of public places.
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Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2007 00:00 ||
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Yemen said on Sunday seven soldiers and at least 25 Shi'ite rebels had been killed in clashes in the past two days, despite calls on the rebels to put down their weapons after six weeks of fighting. A government official said the troops were killed in battles with followers of Shi'ite Muslim rebel leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi in remote mountains in the north of the country. "Leaflets have been dropped from the air asking people to hand in their arms and vowing they would not be detained," the official said.
It was not immediately possible to get comment from Houthi's followers. Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has rejected talks with the rebels and urged them to surrender to end the violence. Government officials say at least 275 rebels and 124 soldiers have been killed in the clashes this year. Houthi's followers say the official figures of rebel losses are inflated but give no numbers of their own.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2007 00:00 ||
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Belgrade, 19 March (AKI) - Serbian police continued on Monday to comb the mountainous terrain of the southern Sandzak region, after they said Saturday they had uncovered a Wahabi Muslim terrorist training camp near the town of Novi Pazar. Police said they arrested four people training at the camp but one managed to escape. A cache of weapons, ammunition and plastic explosive with detonators was discovered by police in a nearby mountain cave. "The action that began three days ago is continuing today," said Serbian police minister Dragan Jocic. "We are continuing to comb the terrain and search for other members of the group," he said, adding that the state organs were "determined to prevent any form of violence and terrorism."
The fundamentalist Wahhabi movement which preaches a "pure Islam" originated in Saudi Arabia in early 18th century and preaches religious intolerance towards other religious groups, including moderate Muslims. The police said that up to 30 Wahabis had been gathering and undergoing training in the camp at Ninaja Mountain.
The Wahabi movement first emerged in the Balkans during the 1992-1995 civil war in Bosnia, when thousands of mujahadeen fighters from Islamic countries came to fight on the side of local Muslims. Many have remained in the country since the war, and according to foreign intelligence sources have been indoctrinating local youths and even operating terrorist training camps. Several clashes have been reported lately in Bosnia and in Sandzak between Wahabis and moderate Muslims and three people were wounded in a shootout in Novi Pazar last November.
Terrorism expert Darko Trifunovic, a professor at Belgrade university's security faculty blamed the Wahabi upsurge on the overly tolerant stance towards them by Bosnian Muslim political, military and religious leaders. "Today we are paying the price for this, but there is no doubt that the main victims of the divisions in the Muslim community will be Muslims themselves," he said.
Trifunovic said the Wahabis were covertly financed by Saudi "humanitarian organisations" and were training their members for suicide attacks against selective targets in Europe.
Turn over a suicide boomer and you'll find a traveling Saudi "Humanitarian" with a bag of cash.
Like Bosnia and Serbias breakaway Muslim majority Kosovo province, Sandzak - whose population is 50 percent Muslim - has provided fertile ground for Wahabi extremism, Trifunovic told Serbian media.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/19/2007 08:10 ||
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#1
Another example of Saudi's influence worldwide.
Bush needs to confront the Saudis re their funding of terrorism!!!!
#5
When you're ready to give up your car we can confront the Soddies. Truth is, I'm about ready to give up mine. The repair bills, insurance and gas prices are killing me.
His point is, that the chances are slim and none, and slim is out of town.
I'm sure that giving up your car makes you feel so superior to the rest of us tools. You know, if you had a better job, maybe you could afford to have and maintain a better car. Just sayin'!
#9
innate ability and predilections
I concur, life is short make it shorter.
Posted by: Joe Camel ||
03/19/2007 18:26 Comments ||
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#10
I have a decent job, Chiper. Not the greatest but decent. I certainly won't apologize for it. But I'm keeping four cars going. Mine, my wife's and two kids in college. I don't know where you work but putting kids through college is a challenge for me especially when they have to have cars. No, I don't feel superior but, yes, I do ride the train to work. I find it more relaxing to socialize with people on the train than to be flipping them off on the freeway. And face it, when you buy gasoline money goes to the Soddies.
#13
If I had access to public transportation of any sort, or even key shops within walking distance, I'd consider giving up my car, too, Elmereter Hupash6222; I've lived very happily without one under those conditions. But out here in the outer suburbs I don't and I can't, and sadly most of the population outside the Boston-Washington,DC corridor and the city cores do not have access to useful public transport. For us it's get a car or be housebound... which is why there are so many uninsured junkers on the roads. You are to be congratulated on all your blessings: two kids in college, a lovely (and no doubt charming) wife, a decent job, and the choice to support one fewer vehicles than you do now.
Two people were injured in an explosion in Bhana Marhi police precincts on Sunday, police said. The blast occurred at around 6:15am in Gulshan-e-Rehman Colony, Haleem Gul, duty officer at Bhana Marhi police station, told Daily Times. He said that an unidentified man handed over a box to Shaukat, a guard at Gulshan Market, saying that he was going to offer prayers and would take the box on his return. Gul said the explosive device placed in the box detonated soon after the man left, injuring Shaukat and a passerby, Ayaz. He said the police had registered a case and started investigations. The homemade bomb damaged four music and video shops just weeks after their owners refused an order to close down from Islamic hardliners, AFP reported.
One of the shopkeepers, Bashir Khan, said that hardliners calling themselves the Soldiers of Islam had left him a note several weeks ago, saying that music shops in Gulshan market should close their doors. We had informed the police about the note and requested them to provide security, Khan said.
Zar Dad Khan was playing with a grenade in his house when it exploded, killing Zar Dad and injuring his wife Samina and four-year-old daughter Haseena.
In a separate incident in Bukshali Bazaar in Mardan on Sunday, unidentified men gunned down a security guard and blew up four video CD shops. Bukshali police station duty officer Niaz Ali told Daily Times that security guard Darwaish Khan was shot dead by unknown men before four music shops were blown up in the same market. A local resident, Shahid, claimed that the security guard was gunned down when he tried to stop the unidentified men from placing explosives in the market.
In another incident, Kohat police seized two rockets near Jarma Bridge, Indus Highway, police said. Police seized two rockets hidden in bushes near Jarma Bridge, Dildar, an official of the Kohat City police, told Daily Times over the telephone. Sources said that the rockets were aimed at the nearby Kohat Cadet College and the Garrison College.
Agencies add: A man was killed while his wife and daughter were seriously injured in a grenade explosion in Ghari Ismail Zai on Sunday. Zar Dad Khan was playing with a grenade in his house when it exploded, killing Zar Dad and injuring his wife Samina and four-year-old daughter Haseena.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Whenever you are in an Islamic country, never, NEVER, go to a blowout sale!
#3
A man was killed while his wife and daughter were seriously injured in a grenade explosion in Ghari Ismail Zai on Sunday. Zar Dad Khan was playing with a grenade in his house when it exploded, killing Zar Dad and injuring his wife Samina and four-year-old daughter Haseena.
Baghdad (AINA) -- Muslims in the Dora neighborhood of Iraq are forcing Assyrians (also known as Chaldeans and Syriacs) to pay the jizya, the poll tax demanded by the Koran which all Christians and Jews must pay in exchange for being allowed to live and practice their faith as well as being entitled to 'Muslim protection' from outside aggression.
At least two cases have been reported to a government employee -- who wishes to remain anonymous -- in which the Christian Assyrian wives were instructed to go to a certain mosque and pay, which they did out of fear. The stated reason for the payment was "we do the fighting and you pay to support."
The jizya has been collected since the arrival of Islam in 630 A.D. The last systematic collection was by the Ottomans (Turks), which came to an end only in 1918, when the Ottoman empire was defeated and partitioned in World War One.
#7
The Assyrians have a great PR department. If one of them gets a hangnail, they issue a presser blaming the Moslems. This one is a doozy. Two cases reported to an anonymous government employee.
Protection money is a racket, whether the Irish, Italians or the Moslems do it. A thug is a thug.
And, let us not forget that some Assyrians did very well under Saddam. Could that be the source of the animosity, perchance?
Police found the decapitated and bound bodies of nine policemen in an al Qaeda stronghold in Iraq on Sunday, as U.S. commanders blamed the militant group for chlorine gas bombs that poisoned hundreds in the same province. Anbar, a Sunni Arab province west of Baghdad, has long been among the most troublesome areas of Iraq for the U.S. military, which is sending additional combat troops there to fight insurgents and al Qaeda militants engaged in an escalating power struggle with local Sunni tribesmen.
Iraqi police Colonel Tareq al-Theybani said the bodies, which bore signs of torture, were discovered in an abandoned post office in the town of Juwayba, near the city of Ramadi, capital of Anbar province.
A U.S. military spokesman, meanwhile, said al Qaeda was behind the chlorine gas car bomb attacks earlier this week which killed at least two and made hundreds ill in villages near the city of Falluja. But, he said, tight Iraqi security measures had prevented a higher number of casualties. Friday's apparently coordinated attacks by two suicide bombers driving dump trucks carrying chlorine and another smaller car bomb that also released chlorine came weeks after two similar attacks sparked fears of a new campaign to use unconventional weapons in Iraq.
Rear Adm. Mark Fox said one of the attackers detonated his explosives when he was unable to get past an Iraqi checkpoint, killing only himself, and avoiding more casualties. "Steps and measures are being taken to protect people from car bombs," Fox told reporters at a news conference.
U.S. commanders have warned that while the number of murders and executions have fallen sharply in Baghdad since a U.S.- backed security crackdown was launched in mid-February, car bombs by suspected Sunni Arab insurgents blamed for trying to incite sectarian civil war remain a serious concern.
On Sunday, a car bomb at a crowded market in a mainly Shi'ite neighborhood of northern Baghdad killed six people and wounded 30, police said. Five bodies were also found in different parts of Baghdad on Sunday, a police source said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
one of the attackers detonated his explosives when he was unable to get past an Iraqi checkpoint, killing only himself
Is this like a single car accident with only one fatality?
#2
Anbar, a Sunni Arab province west of Baghdad, has long been among the most troublesome areas of Iraq for the U.S. military, which is sending additional combat troops there to fight insurgents and al Qaeda militants engaged in an escalating power struggle with local Sunni tribesmen.
Appears the price just went up.
GAZA CITY (AFP) - The BBC appealed on Monday for help to find a veteran British correspondent who was kidnapped at gunpoint in the Gaza Strip a week ago, saying concern was mounting for his well-being. Alan Johnston, the British broadcaster's main correspondent in Gaza for the past three years, has been neither seen nor heard from since gunmen forced him out of his car while the 44-year-old was driving home from work on March 12. Well, the end of another day in paradise. Time to kickback, have a coupla beers...oh-oh.
"We call on everyone with influence on this situation... it is time to redouble our efforts, all of us, now that Alan has been missing for more than a week," BBC Middle East bureau chief Simon Wilson told a Gaza news conference. Please. Release him so I can get the hell outta Gaza. I'll pay anything...
"Although we have not been able to establish exactly what has happened to Alan, it seems certain that he has been abducted and is being held somewhere in the Gaza Strip," the BBC said in a statement released in London. "As time passes, we are growing increasingly concerned about Alan's safety. Over the past week, we have worked intensively with the authorities in Gaza and elsewhere to try to locate Alan, and we continue to receive assurances that everything possible is being done." I assure you, CSI:Gaza is determining the split on the case...
"It is disappointing that, after seven days, there has still been no firm word either about his whereabouts or his condition," it said. Must we send for another bag o' money?
In a video released by the BBC, Johnston's father Graham appealed to the captors to release his son. "Holding Alan is not doing the Palestinian people any favours, quite the opposite," he said. "It's no way to treat a friend of the Palestinian people. All I can say to the men who are holding Alan (is) please let my son go, now, today." Yes, they're always so grateful to their "friends", especially the infidel ones...
Experienced reporter Johnston, who was previously posted to Afghanistan and Uzbekistan, was one of the few Western journalists still based in the increasingly lawless
Gaza Strip. Jeez, wonder why that is?
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and Hamas, the majority party in the new unity government, have condemned the abduction, the latest in a spate of kidnappings that has seen around 20 foreigners seized over the past year. I condemn the capture of this infidel reporter! Now, lunch...
To protest against Johnston's abduction, the Palestinian journalists' union in Gaza City said it would observe a 24-hour strike on Tuesday. "We won't guarantee any coverage, pending any Israeli aggression," the union announced. Boys, the Israeli's are the least of your problems...
In the West Bank political capital of Ramallah, foreign and local journalists staged a sit-in at which Palestinian information minister Mustafa al-Barghuti condemned Johston's abduction as an "unacceptable criminal act." As opposed to the usual "acceptable criminal act"...
Hostages are frequently used as bargaining chips to gain concessions from the Palestinian Authority, and so far all have been released unharmed. Yeah, so far it's a frat prank, right? But there's a first time for everything.
The longest captivity endured by foreign hostages was the two-week ordeal last August of two journalists for the US-based Fox News television network. I wonder how their conversion's going?
#2
UK taxpayers to fund Paleos overtly through "aid" or covertly through "not really ransom, more of a 'understanding' between two peoples of good will."
#3
As I've said before, I hope he's released soon. The Palestinian journalists' "threat" has so many layers of rich irony and hilarity, like a fine wine, that I have trouble finding the words to describe it.
Very well done, tu3031. The quality of postings around here lately is just outstanding.
#5
"Hostages are frequently used as bargaining chips to gain concessions from the Palestinian Authority, and so far all have been released unharmed."
Oh really? I think the family of Corporal Shalit might take issue with that statement.
Maybe they meant to insert "all infidel reporters/collaborators" before the clause "released unharmed"?
My dark, shrivelled little heart actually hopes this BBC tool is returned to his bureau in several different pieces. Let the BBC brass consider that result before sending another of their propoganda agents to serve those barbarians.
GAZA (Reuters) - An explosion ripped through the house of an Islamic Jihad member in the Gaza Strip on Monday, killing him and wounding at least nine people, hospital workers and residents said. The militant, a member of Islamic Jihad's armed wing, was identified as Ala al-Hessi.
"Yeah, that's him. I'd recognize that ear lobe anywhere."
It was not immediately clear what caused the blast in the Beach refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.
"I'll take 'Work Accident' for $500, Alex."
Israel has not conducted military operations in Gaza since a November ceasefire with the Palestinians. "We are not aware of such an incident from an initial check," an Israeli army spokeswoman said.
Wasn't on their weekend 'Honey-do' list
Islamic Jihad has continued firing makeshift rockets into Israel from Gaza despite the ceasefire, to which it never signed up. An Islamic Jihad suicide bomber killed three Israelis in the Jewish state in January.
This article starring:
ALA AL HESI
Islamic Jihad
Posted by: Steve ||
03/19/2007 08:45 ||
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#1
I think he was the grenade juggler at the Big Gaza Circus...
GAZA (Reuters) - The armed wing of Hamas said its gunmen shot an Israeli near the Gaza Strip on Monday, effectively breaking a truce with Israel declared by the Islamist group in November. An official in Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office called the shooting a "terror" attack.
The Israeli electricity company employee was working near the Karni commercial crossing between Israel and Gaza when he was shot and seriously wounded, Israeli rescue services said. "The (Hamas) Qassam Brigades announced its responsibility for shooting a Zionist (Israeli) and firing two mortar bombs against a gathering of Zionist soldiers near Karni crossing," the statement by Hamas's armed wing said. "Our strikes against the enemy will continue," it added.
The attack occurred two days after Hamas formed a unity government with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction. It was the first claimed by Hamas's armed wing since the November truce, which it had upheld. Other groups, such as Islamic Jihad, stayed out of the truce and continued to fire makeshift rockets into Israel from Gaza.
Olmert has vowed to boycott the new government in its entirety, including non-Hamas ministers, saying its platform does not meet international demands to recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept interim peace deals. "This is precisely the type of terror that the new Palestinian government steadfastly refuses to condemn, thus rejecting a principle condition placed upon it by the international community," the official in Olmert's office said.
A year-old diplomatic boycott of the Palestinian government eased on Monday when Norway's deputy foreign minister met Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas in Gaza. The unity government says it will "respect" previous interim peace agreements with Israel. Its platform does not recognize Israel and asserts that Palestinian resistance in "all its forms" is a legitimate right.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/19/2007 08:25 ||
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#1
An official in Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office called the shooting a "terror" attack.
An explosion went off Monday in the home of an Islamic Jihad operative, killing him and wounding 20 others, including children, Palestinian security officials said. Palestinian security officials identified the dead man as 30-year-old Alla al-Hesi.
The blast took place in the crowded Shati refugee camp on the outskirts of Gaza City. The officials said the cause of the blast wasn't immediately known, but raised the possibility that the operative had mishandled explosives. The blast went off near the UN's food distribution warehouse.
JERUSALEM - Palestinian militants fired two rockets into Israel from the Gaza Strip on Sunday without causing casualties, the Israeli army said. One struck south of the coastal city of Ashkelon.
The latest rocket attacks came despite a trucefire ceasefire which has been in force between Israel and Gaza militants since last November 26. Under the terms of the agreement, the Israeli army withdrew its troops from the coastal territory in exchange for Palestinian militants stopping the rocket fire. However, more than 100 rockets have since been fired into Israel despite the truce.
Makes you wonder why the world expects Israel to keep honoring the trucefire, doesn't it?
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/19/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Two Palestinian Rockets Strike Israel . . . More at 11:00 after Olmert comes out from under his bed.
SABAYOI, Thailand: Suspected Muslim separatists shot and killed three Buddhist women involved with a project for victims of Thailand's insurgency Monday, just two days after three Muslim children were killed in an attack on a boarding school.
Increasing violence that has targeted children, commuters and other innocent bystanders is raising fears that the insurgency, in which more than 2,000 people have been killed, could erupt into open combat between the Muslim and Buddhist communities in provinces along the Malaysian border.
Thailand is overwhelmingly Buddhist, but the country's far south is predominantly Muslim, and residents of the region have long felt that they are treated like second-class citizens.
The latest victims were headed to work at a farm project funded by Thailand's Queen Sirikit in the Nong Chik district of Pattani province, said police Lt. Phuen Khongdee.
The 'model farm' project was one of several in the area set up to help women, including some widowed by the ongoing violence. It teaches them to grow vegetables, fruit and other basic necessities.
On Saturday evening, attackers hurled explosives and opened fire on a dormitory at an Islamic boarding school in the southern province of Songkhla. Three young teenagers were killed, police said.
Though Buddhist teachers have been targeted by the violence that flared three years ago, schoolchildren have largely been spared.
Police said they believe Muslim insurgents staged the attack on the Bamrungsart Pondok school in an attempt to convince villagers that authorities were responsible and win them over to the insurgents' cause. Villagers, however, refused to believe Muslims were behind the violence and blamed government security forces.
Buddhists and Muslims staged separate protests Monday in the district of Sabayoi, where the school is located. About 500 Buddhists gathered peacefully in front of the district chief's office to protest against the ongoing violence.
"We can't handle this anymore," said Somchai Chuebumrung, the protest leader. "If the authorities can't do anything to make it safer here, the village elders may have to take the matter into their own hands to protect ourselves."
About 100 Muslim women and children led a separate protest outside the school where the attack took place, about 6 miles from the Buddhist protest, blocking police and military from entering the site to investigate. The protesters dispersed peacefully in the evening but the police and military authorities have not gained access to the site.
"Soldiers killed the children. Don't come into our village," the women shouted. "We don't want any help from you Buddhists."
Police Gen. Paithoon Pattanasophon said that the protest heightened authorities' suspicion that villagers or the school itself had something to hide.
"They use women and children to prevent us from investigating the crime, making us believe that they have illegal activities inside," Paithoon said. He said authorities believe some key members of the separatist movement lived in the village.
The southern Muslim provinces have hundreds of religious Islamic schools, and authorities have accused some of them of harboring insurgents and serving as a training ground for violence.
In the latest case of violence Monday, five Muslim civilians were injured in Narathiwat's Sisakhon district when an unknown number of assailants opened fire on their pickup truck with assault rifles, police said.
#5
For every person killed, burn down a nearby mosque. Preferrably on a busy Friday. Nothing will change until Thailand's Muslims start suffering consequences for the murder being done in their name.
Suspected separatist militants on motorbikes killed three Buddhist women and wounded three in Thailand's Muslim-majority far south as they travelled to work at a farm on Monday, an official said.
Four gunmen ambushed a pick-up truck carrying 19 workers to the farm in Pattani, one of three far south provinces where most of the separatist violence has occurred over the past three years, the official said. "They blocked the road with motorbikes and attacked the truck with automatic rifles," Sanan Pongaksorn, head of Pattani's Nong Jik district, where the attack took place, said in a statement.
The attack took place as General Sonthi Boonyaratglin, Thailand's first Muslim army commander and leader of a September coup which ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, flew to the region where more than 2,000 people have been killed. His visit followed an attack by gunmen on an Islamic boarding school in nearby Songkhla province on Saturday in which three Muslim boys were killed and eight people were wounded. Police blamed separatist militants for the attack but angry villagers accused Thai army Rangers, saying they did not believe Muslims could have been responsible.
Army spokesman Colonel Acra Tiproch said police and soldiers suspected the attack at the school was in fact an accidental explosion as a separatist bomb expert showed pupils how to make bombs. "They didn't want the authorities to get in to find out the truth," Acra said. "A lot of evidence must have been tampered with by now."
On Monday, 200 angry Buddhist villagers demonstrated in front of the Saba Yoi District office demanding the government get tough on militants while 300 Muslim protesters stopped police and soldiers from entering the village to inspect the school. "Why do you please only the militants while the plight of the good people has been ignored?" a Buddhist placard read. We've been asking the same question here for quite some time now.
On Sunday, attackers shot dead a man and two women, all Buddhists, also in Songkhla's Saba Yoi district where the school attack took place, police said. The man, a rubber tapper, and a mother and daughter taking a break from work at a charcoal furnace were killed by gunmen on motorcycles, police said.
Malaysia has introduced a new tough anti-terror law under which convicted terrorists and those who fund them face the mandatory death penalty, a report said on Sunday. The Sunday Star newspaper said the new law came into effect on March 6 A minister declined to comment on the report. Under the law, those convicted of acts of terrorism that cause death and those convicted of giving financial aid to such terrorists would meet the same fate, it said. The death sentence in Malaysia is carried out by hanging. If there is no death, the convicted persons would be liable to a jail sentence of between seven and 30 years. The new law defines terrorist acts as providing devices, training facilities as well as harbouring terrorists and intentionally not giving information about the terrorists. Malaysia already has a controversial draconian security law, the Internal Security Act (ISA), which allows for indefinite detention without trial. Malaysia is currently holding over 100 people in detention under the act, more than 80 of whom are described as suspected Islamic militants.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
[hyper cynical mode]
By what definition?
[/hyper cynical mode]
In its best light this should be truly welcome news. Let's all hope so.
#3
Yeah, the British had that too, during the Emergency. They almost never used it, although it was a good tool for extorting inducing cooperation from ComChink terrorists.
Posted by: Mac ||
03/19/2007 9:18 Comments ||
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COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) Government troops killed six separatist rebels and suffered two fatalities in two clashes in volatile eastern Sri Lanka, the military said Monday. Sri Lankan commandos on foot patrol gunned down four Tamil Tiger rebels in Wellaweli, in eastern Batticaloa on Monday, military spokesman Brig. Prasad Samarasinghe said. In a separate incident in the same district, soldiers killed two rebels and 12 soldiers were wounded, he said.
Rebel spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan had different casualty figures, saying three soldiers and one of their fighters were killed during the second incident, which took place on Sunday. He was not available to comment on Monday's incident. The rebels are fighting to create a separate homeland in Sri Lanka's north and northeast for minority ethnic Tamils.
A Norway-brokered cease-fire signed in 2002 mostly stopped two decades of violence, but fighting flared in 2005 after a new government was elected on a platform of getting tough with the insurgents. At least 4,000 people have since been killed, although neither side has officially withdrawn from the truce.
On Sunday, Sri Lanka said its navy sank two ships believed to be ferrying arms and ammunition to the rebels. But the rebel spokesman, speaking by phone from the rebel headquarters in Kilinochchi, declined to either conform or deny the account. "I am awaiting reports from our field commanders," he said.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/19/2007 08:17 ||
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Artillery duels between the military and the Tamil rebels raged in Sri Lankas embattled northern and eastern regions Sunday forcing more civilians to flee their homes, the two sides said. Troops and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) guerrillas traded long-range attacks in the northern and eastern regions where at least six troops and one guerrilla were killed on Friday night.
The LTTE said Sunday that security forces were attacking territory held by them and the guerrillas were retaliatingin kind. Sporadic artillery exchange is reported at Mannar, Vavuniya, Manalaru and along the northern forward defence line of Vanni, LTTE spokesman Rasiah Ilanthiriyan said in a statement. The military said it lost six soldiers killed and 30 wounded since Friday, while the Tigers placed their losses at one killed and several others wounded.
Sri Lankas navy sank two large ships on Sunday it said were transporting arms for Tamil Tiger rebels and the blazing vessels and the crew disappeared under the waves after a series of explosions.
The incident, off the restive eastern coast, came after a series of land and sea clashes over the past year and a military offensive to wipe out the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rebels from east. The Navy detected a suspicious 70 to 75 metre vessel about 195 nautical miles (400 kms) around 2.30 am (2100 GMT) off Arugambey and the details given by the ship were false. We fired warning shots and they fired at us, said Navy spokesman Commander DKP Dassanayake.
Another ship was spotted five hours later in the same area, and when challenged it opened fire, he said. Both the rebel ships, which were carrying explosives and mortar bombs, were destroyed.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2007 00:00 ||
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The Sri Lankans sure seem to be doing better these days against the rebels.
Tensions ran high on Sunday at the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp, where an estimated 150 to 200 members of the militant off-shoot of Fatah al-Intifada, Fatah al-Islam, were holed up despite pressure from camp residents, security sources said. With a beefed-up Army presence around the Tripoli-based camp, the possibility of an armed confrontation loomed large.
"Any individuals belonging to either Fatah al-Intifada or Fatah al-Islam who are wanted by the judiciary will be detained by the army if they leave the camp," a source at the Defense Ministry told The Daily Star. The source said that the army did not have a list of wanted individuals. A separate security source said pressure from inside the camp "will likely force Fatah al-Islam out of the camp."
The senior security adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Jibril Rajoub, in Beirut for an academic conference, told The Daily Star on Sunday that the situation in Nahr al-Bared "needs to be treated carefully by Palestinians in conjunction with the Lebanese government so as not to harm Lebanese-Palestinian relations and threaten coexistence in Lebanon." Rajoub said that Fatah al-Islam "has nothing to do with the Palestinian cause and does not serve the cause." Rajoub had given a news conference on Saturday, in which he said that "the resistance should only be in Palestine and nowhere else."
A delegation of community leaders and merchants from Nahr al-Bared, objecting to the presence of the militant group in the camp, submitted a formal objection on Saturday to the camp's Popular Committee. The delegation asked the committee to "find an immediate solution to the Fatah al-Islam group," stressing the deteriorating economic situation inside the camp. The delegation stated doubt, however, as to the group's alleged involvement in twin bus-bombings on February 13 in Ain Alaq that killed three people, and other terrorist plots the faction is accused of planning to carry out.
Four suspects in the Ain Alaq bombings currently in custody have claimed to be members of Fatah al-Islam, placing the whole militant group in the cross-hairs of Lebanese security forces.
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A two-hour gunbattle between suspected Taliban militants and police left two policemen dead in western Afghanistan, a spokesman said on Sunday. The Taliban attacked a highway police checkpoint on Saturday night in Farah provinces Bakwa district and two officers were killed in the subsequent clash, said Baryalai Khan, spokesman for the provincial police chief. 
(SomaliNet) Militants have launched a mortar attack at the main seaport of the Somalia capital Mogadishu on Sunday killing at least one civilian and wounding five others. The latest attack happened round 2:15 pm local time. Witnesses told Somalinet that un unidentified militia fired eight mortar rounds towards the seaport, four of the shells landed inside the port causing the death of a man named Mumin who was among the dock workers while the rest of the fired mortars hit nearby Xamar Jajab neighborhood wounding four civilians. 
An Algerian court has sentenced to death in absentia two former leaders of an al Qaeda-aligned rebel group for forming "an armed terrorist group" and carrying out attacks, state radio said on Sunday. Hassan Hattab, former leader of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) and Mokhtar Belmokhtar, a senior member of the same armed movement, were condemned to death on Saturday at a court in Batna province, 430 km (270 miles) east of the capital Algiers, the radio said. The GSPC this year renamed itself al Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb to boost its links to al Qaeda.
Yemen said on Sunday seven soldiers and at least 25 Shi'ite rebels had been killed in clashes in the past two days, despite calls on the rebels to put down their weapons after six weeks of fighting. A government official said the troops were killed in battles with followers of Shi'ite Muslim rebel leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi in remote mountains in the north of the country. "Leaflets have been dropped from the air asking people to hand in their arms and vowing they would not be detained," the official said.
Two people were injured in an explosion in Bhana Marhi police precincts on Sunday, police said. The blast occurred at around 6:15am in Gulshan-e-Rehman Colony, Haleem Gul, duty officer at Bhana Marhi police station, told Daily Times. He said that an unidentified man handed over a box to Shaukat, a guard at Gulshan Market, saying that he was going to offer prayers and would take the box on his return. Gul said the explosive device placed in the box detonated soon after the man left, injuring Shaukat and a passerby, Ayaz. He said the police had registered a case and started investigations. The homemade bomb damaged four music and video shops just weeks after their owners refused an order to close down from Islamic hardliners, AFP reported.
Police found the decapitated and bound bodies of nine policemen in an al Qaeda stronghold in Iraq on Sunday, as U.S. commanders blamed the militant group for chlorine gas bombs that poisoned hundreds in the same province. Anbar, a Sunni Arab province west of Baghdad, has long been among the most troublesome areas of Iraq for the U.S. military, which is sending additional combat troops there to fight insurgents and al Qaeda militants engaged in an escalating power struggle with local Sunni tribesmen. 
GAZA (Reuters) - An explosion ripped through the house of an Islamic Jihad member in the Gaza Strip on Monday, killing him and wounding at least nine people, hospital workers and residents said. The militant, a member of Islamic Jihad's armed wing, was identified as 
JERUSALEM - Palestinian militants fired two rockets into Israel from the Gaza Strip on Sunday without causing casualties, the Israeli army said. One struck south of the coastal city of Ashkelon.
Artillery duels between the military and the Tamil rebels raged in Sri Lankas embattled northern and eastern regions Sunday forcing more civilians to flee their homes, the two sides said. Troops and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) guerrillas traded long-range attacks in the northern and eastern regions where at least six troops and one guerrilla were killed on Friday night.
