[Dawn] A suicide bomber killed 10 civilians on Sunday when he detonated his explosives near a crowd in southern Afghanistan, while a roadside bomb in the east killed two others, officials said.
Violence in Afghanistan has surged, with 2009 being the worst year since US-backed Afghan forces overthrew the Taliban in 2001. More than 2,400 civilians were killed last year, a 14 per cent rise on 2008, the United Nations said.
In the first incident, a suicide bomber driving a three-wheeled rickshaw detonated his explosives near a crowd who were holding a picnic for the Afghan New Year in Gereshk district of Helmand province, the provincial governor's spokesman said.
"The target was an Afghan Army vehicle. The first reports are that 10 civilians have been killed and seven more wounded," said spokesman Daoud Ahmadi, adding the bomb missed its target.
A witness at the scene told Reuters by telephone he had been no more than 50 metres away from the blast.
"The bomber was driving a rickshaw and was targeting an army vehicle. When the soldiers saw the rickshaw they sped up. The bomb exploded in a crowded area where many people were having picnics," said Khan Mohammad.
"Many people have been killed and wounded," he said.
A spokesman for Nato-led forces in Kabul said none of its forces were killed or wounded in the attack, but that foreign troops were now in the area assessing the situation.
In February, thousands of US Marines launched an assault in Marjah, another part of Helmand, which had been under the insurgents' control. The operation was described as the biggest offensive of the eight-year war.
There are some 120,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan and that is set to rise to nearly 150,000 by the end of this year as Washington sends in more troops as part of a new strategy to try and quell the mounting violence.
Separately, in Khost province in the southeast of the country, a roadside bomb killed two Afghan civilians and wounded four, a senior police chief said.
"A civilian car hit a roadside bomb on the outskirts of Khost city. Two civilians were killed and four wounded," acting provincial police chief Mohammad Yaqoub Mandozai told Reuters.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/22/2010 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] A regional leader of outlawed Gono Mukti Fouz ... aka, the Fonz ...
... was killed in a 'shootout' between his cohorts and law enforcers at Gobinpur village in Kumarkhali upazila of Kushtia early yesterday. You couldn't find that upazila on a 1:100,000 map ...
The dead was identified as Abdul Khaleq alias Jhoru, 35, son of Ali Hossain of Chapra in Kumarkhali. So Khaleq got kakked ...
A joint team of Kumarkhali police and Detective Branch, acting on a tip-off, raided a banana orchard at about 2:25am where Khaleq and his men were holding a secret meeting. Who in the world has a secret meeting in a banana orchard? But at least it was about the right time of night.
Sensing presence of the police, "Hark! My spider-sense is tingling!"
the gang opened fire on lawenforcers prompting them to fire back that triggered a gunbattle. Even though the forensics team won't find a single round of bullet embedded in a single Chiquita ...
At one stage, the cohorts of Khaleq managed to flee the scene. As if they were never there in the first place ...
Later, police found the bullet-hit body of Khaleq lying on the ground. Right where the coppers left him with one behind each ear. Good thing they knew where to look ...
Police recovered one light gun, six bullets and a sharp weapon from the spot. "Hey Sarge! This gun is awfully light!"
Officer-In-Charge of Kumrakhali Police Station Atiar Rahman said eight general diaries have been lodged with the police station accusing Khaleq of extortion in last one year. Khaleq was also wanted in twelve systems seven cases, including three for murder, police said. So it's not like his mother loved him ...
Posted by: Fred ||
03/22/2010 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] A criminal case was filed with a Dhaka court yesterday against five Jamaat-e-Islami leaders including its Ameer Motiur Rahman Nizami and Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed for hurting religious sentiment of Muslims.
The case stated that Dhaka City Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Rafiqul Islam Khan at a discussion in Dhaka on March 17 compared Nizami to Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (SM), which hurt the Muslims.
The three other accused are Jamaat-e-Islami Nayebe Ameer Delwar Hossain Sayedee, Rafiqul Islam Khan and city president of Islami Chhatra Shibir ASM Yahia.
Meanwhile, a Lalmonirhat court yesterday issued a summons on Nizami and three of his party leaders to appear before it on May 25 in a case filed on similar charge.
Syed Rejaul Haque Chandpuri, secretary general of Bangladesh Tarikat Federation, filed the case with a metropolitan magistrate's court in Dhaka against five Jamaat leaders.
After hearing the case, Metropolitan Magistrate Abdullah-Al Mamun yesterday fixed Tuesday for passing an order on the case.
Our Lalmonirhat correspondent reports that Chief Judicial Magistrate of the district Abu Mansur Mohammad Ziaul Haque yesterday issued the summons on four Jamaat leaders after district Awami League General Secretary Motiar Rahman filed the case.
The three other accused are Delwar Hossain Sayedee, Rafiqul Islam Khan and Shafiqul Islam.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/22/2010 00:00 ||
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A US drone fires two missiles into the troubled northwestern Pakistan, killing at least eight people and injuring several others.
According to Pakistani intelligence officials, the two missiles hit the North Waziristan tribal region bordering Afghanistan. Earlier reports said four people had lost their lives in the lethal attack; however, officials put the death toll at 8 later on.
The death toll is expected to rise as some of the injured are reported to be in critical conditions, sources said.
The attack comes less than a week after two similar airstrikes left 17 people dead in the same region.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/22/2010 00:00 ||
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At least 32 people have been killed and several others injured in two separate incidents in troubled northwestern Pakistan.
On Saturday, the Pakistani army helicopters bombed what officials called five militant training camps in the Orakzai tribal area, killing at least 10 people and injuring several others, the Press TV correspondent reported.
The Orakzai Agency, one of the country's 'Federally Administered Tribal Areas', is believed to be a stronghold of pro-Taliban militants.
In a separate incident, clashes between pro-government tribesmen and militants left 22 people dead in the nearby Kurram Agency, another tribal area.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/22/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
The STBE (Save The Battered Ewes) must be celebrating this morning.
[Bangla Daily Star] Police in India's southern tourist resort state of Kerala said yesterday they had recovered explosives from an airliner.
The explosives, made in India, were discovered as airport personnel were offloading luggage from a Kingfisher Airlines flight that had arrived at Kerala's main Thiruvananthapuram airport from Bangalore. "The explosive was found wrapped in a newspaper," senior Kerala police officer P Chandrashekar told AFP.
It was not immediately whether the police were dealing a completed bomb or some other form of munitions. "We are investigating the nature of the explosive and how it got into the aircraft," the officer said, adding that the passengers and crew were safe.
Security at Indian airports and on airliners has been high since a December 1999 hijack of state-run Indian Airlines plane, en route to New Delhi from Nepal, by Islamic militants. The hijackers forced the pilot to fly the plane to Taliban stronghold Kandahar in southern Afghanistan and freed the 167 passengers and crew only after New Delhi agreed to release four Islamic militants. In January, the federal civil aviation ministry ordered a further increase of airport security after Western intelligence agencies warned India of a possible hijack attempt by groups aligned to al-Qaeda or by Pakistan-based militant groups.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/22/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
"The explosive was found wrapped in a newspaper,"
...while offloading luggage. I'm a simple soul, and easily confused: was the explosive intended to explode aboard the airplane, but once again terrorist explosives manufacturers failed to live up to their billing, or were the explosives being transported to Kerala for nefarious purposes, and the shippers fondly believed that wrapping in newspaper was an adequate disguise?
Posted by: trailing wife on the other computer ||
03/22/2010 12:34 Comments ||
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#2
You spelled schizo wrong.
I figure, while the boys were all congratulating themselves on finding some explosives wrapped in newspaper, something more professionally done slipped by.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
03/22/2010 15:30 Comments ||
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[Dawn] The bullet-riddled bodies of four tribesmen killed for allegedly spying for the United States were found Sunday in Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal region, witnesses and officials said.
Officials said the four were kidnapped by the Taliban about ten days ago.
Gul Akber Khan, who lives in the village of Srakhula, just outside of Mir Ali in North Waziristan, said he heard gunshots in the middle of the night. When he went to the mosque for morning prayers a few hours later, he found the bodies dumped along the road into Miramshah, the main city in the tribal region.
Intelligence officials said a note was found by one of the corpses. It warned, in Pashto: ''Spies are spies, and they will come to the same fate as these men. ... Do not spy for America.''
The tribal regions along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, strongholds for al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters, have seen bloody fighting and regular attacks by American drone aircraft as the Pakistani and US governments try to defeat the militants.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/22/2010 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Iraq's electoral commission rejected on Sunday a request by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki calling for a manual recount of votes cast in the country's March 7 polls after new results revealed his bloc was trailing a main rival.
"We have provided all political entities with CDs with the results of counting at the political centers, after thorough checks on our part," commission chief Faraj al-Haidari told AFP.
"If they have doubts and think that there are errors, they can ask us to hold recounts at particular centers, but not across all of Iraq," he added.
"Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki calls for the high electoral commission to immediately answer the demands of political parties to proceed with a manual recount," the statement said.
Latest figures by Iraq's election commission and based on 92 percent of ballots counted show Maliki's State of Law Alliance trailing the bloc of his main rival, Iyad Allawi, by 7,928 votes.
The statement added, noting that Maliki remained head of the country's armed forces, that he wanted a recount to "protect political stability, avoid a degradation of the security situation and prevent a return to violence."
The statement did not specify whether he wanted a nationwide recount, or of particularly provinces.
It differs markedly from Maliki's own comments just a week ago, when he said on television that election complaints were "very small" in nature and "cannot affect the results."
A "clear threat"
The bloc led by Maliki's main rival responded by accusing him of making a "clear threat" against the election commission. "This is a clear threat against the commission that aims to put pressure on it, in order to carry out fraud in favour of (Maliki's) State of Law Alliance" said Intisar Allawi, a senior candidate of the Iraqiya bloc headed by Iyad Allawi.
She added that Maliki's statement Sunday calling for a manual recount was a "contradiction" that was fuelled by news that Iraqiya had taken the lead in the nationwide vote tally.
"While he says that the election is accurate, fair and transparent, when Iraqiya takes the lead, he accuses the commission," said Intisar Allawi, a relative of Iraqiya's leader.
She noted that a manual recount "would mean a delay of the results for several months. This would lead to a political vacuum that would affect the security situation.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/22/2010 00:00 ||
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[11130 views]
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#1
They must be using Diebold voting machines.
/Moonbat conspiracy (i.e. sore loser) division
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
03/22/2010 11:14 Comments ||
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#2
Call Al Gore -- he'll know what to do.
Posted by: trailing wife on the other computer ||
03/22/2010 12:35 Comments ||
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[Dawn] Israeli soldiers shot and killed two Palestinians Sunday at an army check post near the northern West Bank city of Nablus after they tried to stab a soldier, an Israeli army spokeswoman said.
The killings brings to four the number of Palestinians shot dead by Israeli forces in the West Bank over the weekend, the first Palestinian fatalities since clashes with Israeli security forces erupted early March.
"Two Palestinians were killed after attempting to stab a soldier on patrol near Awarta, southeast of Nablus. Other soldiers opened fire at the attackers, killing them," the spokeswoman told AFP.
There was no immediate confirmation from the Palestinian side.
Israeli media said the two apparently tried to disguise themselves as farmers and stab the soldier with pitchforks.
Awarta is an army check post that controls commercial goods entering Nablus.
Medics at Nablus hospital announced earlier Sunday that a Palestinian shot by Israeli soldiers during clashes in the West Bank on Saturday died of his wounds.
Osayed Qadus, 20, was seriously wounded after being shot at Burin, south of Nablus, when Israeli troops soldiers opened fire on a group of protesters, according to medics and Palestinian security officials.
Another Palestinian, 17-year-old Mohammed Qadus, was shot dead by Israeli fire during the same clashes, they said.
Soldiers moved in to Burin, south of Nablus, to prevent clashes between Palestinians and Jewish settlers in the neighbouring settlement of Bracha.
Villagers said the clashes broke out when settlers attacked the village and was unrelated to the organised protests against Israeli settlements that have rippled through the West Bank and east Jerusalem over the past two weeks.
But the Israeli army said the Palestinians had been heading for the settlement and had hurled stones at soldiers trying to stop them.
Troops had used tear gas and rubber bullets but not live rounds, an army spokesman said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/22/2010 00:00 ||
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[Jakarta Post] Indonesian officials have asked Philippine authorities to track down an Indonesian fugitive wanted in connection with several beheadings who is now helping to train militants in an insurgency-wracked Philippine region, security officials said Sunday.
Sanusi, who like many Indonesians uses only one name, has been monitored in Mindanao's marshy heartland, two Philippine intelligence officials said. He fled to the region after being accused of ordering militants in 2007 to behead three people in the eastern Indonesian town of Poso, where Islamist militants had launched a series of bloody attacks on Christians and government workers.
An Indonesian Embassy official said his government has asked Philippine authorities to capture Sanusi, who was spotted at a mosque near southern Cotabato city during the holy month of Ramadan last fall. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
A senior Philippine military intelligence official said Sanusi has emerged as a key operative of Jemaah Islamiyah, a Southeast Asian terror group linked to al-Qaida. He is believed to have helped fund and organize religious and combat training for new Indonesian militant recruits in Mindanao, where local guerrillas are fighting to create an independent Muslim state.
Sanusi has not been implicated in any attack in the Philippines and is not on any terrorist backlist because authorities are only just beginning to uncover his activities and the role he plays, according to the military intelligence official, who spoke on customary condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of his post.
Another government intelligence official said Sanusi has been trying to link up Filipino Muslim guerrillas with potential financial donors in the Middle East.
There are at least two dozen Jemaah Islamiyah members in central Mindanao. At least another 25 Indonesian and Asian militants, who belong to other underground groups, have been given refuge mainly by the Abu Sayyaf extremist group on southern Jolo island and nearby Basilan province, according to the military. Abu Sayyaf is another Southeast Asian terror network linked to al-Qaida.
Among the Indonesian militants allied with the Abu Sayyaf were Umar Patek and Dulmatin, who had recently returned to Indonesia after hiding for years in Mindanao. Indonesian police killed Dulmatin, Southeast Asia's most-wanted terrorist and a master bomb-maker, in an Internet cafe near Jakarta last March 9.
Patek and Dulmatin had been suspected of helping plot the 2002 nightclub bombings that killed 202 people in Bali, Indonesia.
American troops have provided combat training, intelligence and weapons to the underfunded Philippine military for years to help combat the Abu Sayyaf, which is on U.S. and European terrorist lists, and its Asian militant allies.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/22/2010 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Dawn] A suicide bomber killed 10 civilians on Sunday when he detonated his explosives near a crowd in southern Afghanistan, while a roadside bomb in the east killed two others, officials said.
[Bangla Daily Star] A regional leader of outlawed Gono Mukti Fouz 
A US drone fires two missiles into the troubled northwestern Pakistan, killing at least eight people and injuring several others. 
[Jakarta Post] Indonesian officials have asked Philippine authorities to track down an Indonesian fugitive wanted in connection with several beheadings who is now helping to train militants in an insurgency-wracked Philippine region, security officials said Sunday.
