(KUNA) -- Three German soldiers were injured in a bomb attack on their convoy in northern Afghanistan, the military said on Thursday. The blast on German forces convoy was carried out in the northern province of Kunduz, locals officials said. NATO's press office in Kabul did not issue any comment. The officials said the troops were medically evacuated to the NATO base in the province. They would not say about the health condition of the soldiers.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Taliban
KABUL - A Danish soldier was killed and another wounded in a firefight with Taliban insurgents in southern Afghanistan, NATOs International Security Assistance Force said on Thursday.
The Danes were on patrol Wednesday in Helmand province, a hotbed of Taliban activity, when they came under fire in the Gereshk area, said an ISAF spokesman in the province, British Lieutenant Colonel Simon Miller. Regrettably as a result of the firefight one Danish soldier was killed and another was wounded, Miller said.
Including the latest death, Denmark has lost 13 soldiers in Afghanistan. Two other Danes were killed March 17 in an attack on an ISAF convoy. Denmark has about 550 troops in Helmand, where most international soliders with ISAF are British.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/28/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Taliban
#1
The Danish fatality rate in the GWOT is very close to the American rate (.005 per deployed position per year), if my arithmetic is correct. Working from memory & estimates (without looking up actual numbers) this would be about 1/5 the rate for Vietnam.
Yemen has extradited to Saudi Arabia four Saudis suspected of being Al-Qaeda militants, an official Yemeni weekly said Thursday. The four were "wanted by Saudi security authorities on charges of affiliation to Al-Qaeda," said September 26, the defence ministry mouthpiece. The four were handed over on Sunday.
Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh visited Saudi Arabia on Tuesday and held talks with King Abdullah. Riyadh and Sanaa have exchanged dozens of suspects under a 2003 security agreement that strengthened an extradition treaty signed in 1998. The two neighbours have both been battling suspected Al-Qaeda militants.
This article starring:
Ali Abdullah Saleh
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Yemen
#1
It is all part of a new "Catch and release" program dreamed up by PETA
A Dutch judge is due on Friday to hear the petition of a Muslim group seeking an independent review of an anti-Quran film by lawmaker Geert Wilders to see whether it violates hate speech laws.
The petition, seen by The Associated Press Thursday at the Hague District Court, says the Dutch Islamic Federation "believes the situation of Muslims in the Netherlands today is comparable with that of our Jewish fellow-citizens in the 1930s." The federation asked for a fine of $79,000 per day if Wilders airs the film, and a $7,900 fine for each future instance of an "injuring remark."
Although the exact contents of the 15-minute film are unknown, Wilders has said it will underscore his opinion that the Quran is a "fascist" book and Islam is incompatible with democracy. Officials fear it could spark violent protests in Muslim countries, similar to those two years ago after the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in a Danish newspaper.
This article starring:
Dutch Islamic Federation
Geert Wilders
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Global Jihad
#1
The three things featured in the film are quotes from the Koran, video of Mullahs screaming for murder, and video of terrorist attacks. It contains no commentary about any of the above, so is indistinguishable from ordinary news.
If anything, the objectivity of the movie, not baiting, is an excellent tactic by Wilders, and serves his political purposes well. The important thing is what will Muslims do, and how Wilders plans to follow up.
Versus directly from the Koran, being read by Imams, and Imams giving speeches or Muslims dutifuly acting out those versus. That is all. Oh, by the way, the only "hate" in the film are the numerous versus from the Quran regarding any non-muslim.
#7
#6, I wouldn't bet on it. Reading the article I suspect Ehsan Jami is an apostate so is scheduled for death anyway even without coming up with this cartoon.
#8
A Dutch judge is due on Friday to hear the petition of a Muslim group seeking an independent review of an anti-Quran film by lawmaker Geert Wilders to see whether it violates hate speech laws.
The thing is absolutely chock-full of hate speech.
#9
They really don't like it when the whitewashed veil the MSM puts over them is lifted, do they?
Fuck them, fuck their murderous ideology and if they lift one finger in a western nation to do violence, kill them. Non-violent protests are OK, but make sure it is filmed. We need more pictures of people calling for beheading people that "insult" Islam.
#12
Officials fear it could spark violent protests in Muslim countries...
Well...what doesn't? They go all exploding head over teddy bears for crissakes.
Maybe we could make a movie about what wouldn't spark violent protests in Muslim countries? I would think it would be a very short one. Although it would take a long, long time to figure out what it could be about.
Virginia State Police are looking for a suspect in a series of shootings at vehicles along Interstate 64 in Virginia, a police spokesman told ABC News. Sgt. Dave Cooper said that five vehicles were hit by gunfire in three locations along I-64 in Virginia early this morning.
According to police, two people sustained non-life threatening injuries and were treated at area hospitals. Police said it was not clear if the injuries were caused directly by the gunfire, or from broken glass and fragments caused by the shots.
The first reports of gunfire came in at 12:10 a.m. near mile marker 114 on the on-ramp to westbound I-64. State police closed the intestate to traffic minutes later, Cooper said. Three vehicles were reported to have been struck by gunfire near the overpass at mile marker 106. A fifth unoccupied Virginia Department of Transportation vehicle was also struck. That vehicle was parked near the Yancey Mill exit of I-64. Police say they are not releasing the type gun believed to have been used, but shell casings recovered at the scenes indicate that all five shootings might be connected.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is also involved in the investigation and is expected to examine the shell casings, according to a law enforcement official.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
USA Today on line says they have a suspect. Got into a shootout with the VA SP. And none of that PC-RAB crap either.
Two men later identified as intelligence officials were shot dead within the jurisdiction of Preedy Police Station, by two men on motorcycles, who managed a clean get-away. After being informed, the police rushed to the scene and shifted the bodies to Civil Hospital Karachi.
DSP Syed Salman Hussain, while talking to Daily Times, said, The deceased have been identified as Inspector Fazal-ur-Rehman and ASI Mohammad Ibrahim. Both of them worked for the Anti-Terrorist Cell (ATC) of the Intelligence Bureau. They were passing through Akber Road when they got stuck in a traffic jam. Suddenly, the deceased were shot point blank with TT pistols in the head by two motorcyclists, receiving a bullet each.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
At least 50 Swat police personnel have been relieved of their duties for showing a lack of courage during the last years operation against pro-Taliban militants, District Police Officer (DPO) Waqif Khan told Daily Times on Thursday. Prolonged absence from duty is another reason for their dismissal, the DPO said. Waqif Khan said that around 200 policemen were on French leave or unauthorised absence, 151 were absent from Sindh (River) Police Lines, Mingora, and 31 were absent from the Mingora Police Station. An official source said that policemen in Swat were taking leave to avoid any possible militant attack on them. The relieved policemen were served several notices but they did not show up. Consequently, they were terminated, the source said. We cant work on a low salary and that too when your life is at stake, one of the dismissed policemen said on condition of anonymity.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2008 00:00 ||
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(KUNA) -- Police Thursday in an eastern Pakistani city arrested four terrorists and recovered suicide jackets and other ammunition from their possession.
City police officer, Malik Iqbal, addressing a press conference in Lahore city told newsmen that four terrorists have been arrested and two of them are suspected to be involved in suicide attacks on Naval War College (NWC) and near High Court building. He said police also recovered suicide jackets, 20 detonators and huge cache of ammunition from their custody. He added that the terrorists belong to a banned extremist group. The officers said that detained terrorists during initial investigations admitted to have planned attacks on vital government installations in the city. Four suicide attacks in last two months targeted NWC, six-storey building of Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and a former FIA special investigation cell building. The attacks left over two dozen killed and near 100 wounded.
This article starring:
Malik Iqbal
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2008 00:00 ||
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A group of Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives, arrested in Uttar Pradesh last month, were just days away from executing an attack on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), police sources have told The Hindu. Investigators say Fahim Ahmed Ansari, who was arrested last month along with seven other suspects, planned to travel from Rampur to Mumbai in mid-February with two specially trained Pakistanis who were to carry out the strike.
Both fidayeen, Imran Shehzad from Bhimber in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and Mohammad Farooq Bhatti from Gujranwala in Punjab, had carried out the New Year-eve assault on a Central Reserve Police Force training camp in Rampur, Uttar Pradesh. Having survived the high-risk attack, the two men were tasked to execute a similar strike on the BSE.
Officials believe Shehzad and Bhatti could have claimed dozens of lives as guards at the BSE are neither trained nor equipped to prevent a fidayeen-type strike. Typically, fidayeen storm the gates of premises using grenades, following it up with the indiscriminate firing from assault rifles a tactic used with effect at Rampur and in dozens of similar operations in Jammu and Kashmir.
Lashkar cells have made repeated plans to hit the BSE in the past. In 2004, for example, Javed Sheikh and Manzoor Ahmed Chilloo are believed to have planned a fidayeen strike. However, the Lashkar succeeded in attacking the exchange during the 1993 serial bombing of Mumbai that claimed over 250 lives.
The owner of a small-scale paper-envelope manufacturing business, Ansari is believed to have been recruited by the Lashkar during a visit to Dubai in 2003. A one-time activist of the proscribed Students Islamic Movement of India, he received advanced weapons and spycraft training at Lashkar camps in Pakistan over the next four years.
Uttar Pradesh police officials say Ansari returned to India through Kathmandu in late 2007. He stayed at the Sunlight Guest House from November 28 to December 10 before renting a room off Falkland Road. Ansari then secured a driving licence under the alias Samir Sheikh and enrolled himself as a student at a computer institute near the BSE. All three BSE assault-team volunteers held Pakistani passports, which they hoped would enable them to escape through Nepal.
Bangalore connection
Uttar Pradesh authorities say the three men operated under the direct command of Bihar-born Mohammad Sabahuddin, one of the Lashkars seniormost Indian operatives. Sabahuddin in turn reported to a Pakistan-based commander code-named Muzammil, the man believed to have overall charge of the organisations offensive operations in India outside of Jammu and Kashmir.
Like Ansari, who was a one-time SIMI activist, Sabahuddin also trained at Lashkar camps from 2003 under the tutelage of Muzammil. In mid-2005, investigators say, he returned to India via Dhaka and Kathmandu, travelling on a Pakistani passport. Posing as a medical student, he proceeded to rent a house in Bangalore and study potential targets in the city.
IISc convention
Sabahuddin was eventually drawn by the publicity surrounding the Indian Institute of Sciences 2005 convention. Observing that the institute had almost no security cover, he decided a single terrorist would be able to shoot at delegates. Lashkar leaders then despatched a Pakistani fidayeen code-named Hamza, whom Sabahuddin had earlier seen working in Muzammils office, to execute the strike. Identical tactics were used to stage the Rampur attacks. Investigators have found that Sabahuddins group at first planned to target a military convoy near the headquarters of the Central Army Command at Lucknow. However, these plans were dropped after the group determined the attackers would have a low chance of success.
This article starring:
Fahim Ahmed Ansari
Lashkar-e-Taiba
Imran Shehzad
Lashkar-e-Taiba
Javed Sheikh
Lashkar-e-Taiba
Manzoor Ahmed Chilloo
Lashkar-e-Taiba
Mohammad Farooq Bhatti
Lashkar-e-Taiba
Mohammad Sabahuddin
Lashkar-e-Taiba
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2008 00:00 ||
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An alleged courier of the Lashkar-e-Taiba escaped from police custody in Doda district of Jammu and Kashmir on Monday.
Abdul Qadir, a resident of Kishtwar district, was described as a prize catch by the police on March 2 as he was arrested with arms and ammunition which were to be supplied to Yasir Ittoo, divisional commander of the Lashkar-e-Taiba. Abdul Qadir, as per police interrogation, was given arms by another Lashkar functionary in Baramulla district of the Kashmir valley, who remains to be identified.
Talking to The Hindu, SSP, Doda, Manohar Singh said, The person under custody escaped on Monday when he was brought from the jail to the police station to be taken to the court for hearing of his case. Qadir was able to dodge the police personnel who were guarding him. We have suspended the two policemen who were on duty. At the same a massive man hunt to nab the escapee has started.
This article starring:
Abdul Qadir
Lashkar-e-Taiba
Manohar Singh
Yasir Ittoo
Lashkar-e-Taiba
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Needs the revolving door Graphic.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/28/2008 14:43 Comments ||
Top||
PARACHINAR, Pakistan - Suspected militants attacked an ambulance in northwest Pakistan on Thursday killing seven people including two nurses, a doctor and local residents said.
Was the ambulance running ammo for the other side or was this the local crazies crusading against modern ideas and technology?
The ambulance was taking people to a health meeting when it was attacked, said a doctor, named Mohibullah, who is based in the town of Parachinar, near the Afghan border.
Probably Polio Vaccination Briefing
Residents of the area said the ambulance was attacked with a rocket-propelled grenade in the Kurram tribal region, which has seen bloody sectarian clashes between Sunni and Shia Muslims in recent months.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/28/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under:
#1
Two possibilities Doc. (1) As you mentioned, ambulances are normally used by Muzz to transport ammo and jihadis, (2) medical care is Unislamic. Watch out, you have a major concentration of Islamos in ChiTown.
NEW DELHI: The arrest of SIMI's national general secretary Safdar Nagori from Indore is a major breakthrough for the security agencies banking on his interrogation to help unravel the mystery surrounding many of the recent terror attacks. Senior intelligence officials say Nagori was responsible for setting up terrorist sleeper cells for Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba by reorganizing SIMI's cadre, driven underground by police pressure, in the northern and southern states. He enjoyed good working relationship with other Pakistan and Bangladesh-based terror outfits such as Jaish-e-Mohammed and Harkat-ul-Jihad Islami (HuJI) though officials rule out his direct linkage with the Pakistan intelligence agency ISI.
The upwardly mobile cadres of SIMI, many of them trained engineers, doctors and IT professionals, have been arranging logistical support to the terrorists, lodging Pakistani and Bangladeshi terrorists of LeT, Jaish and HuJI in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, UP, Bihar and West Bengal where the outfit(SIMI) now has a significant presence. SIMI activists also acted as guides to jehadis coming to India from Pakistan and Bangladesh. Nagori, on the run since 2001 when SIMI was banned and its headquarters sealed at Zakir Nagar in Delhi, swears by Osama bin Laden and finds jehad as the only means to achieve the goals of a pan-Islamic nation.
SIMI's links had appeared in the July 11, 2006 serial blasts in suburban trains in Mumbai and the serial blasts in Malegaon on September 8 the same year. Over 250 were killed and at least 800 injured in the Mumbai and Malegaon serial blasts. The probe trail in the Shramjeevi Express blasts of July 28, 2005, in which 12 persons were killed, had also put the needle of suspicion on the outfit. Sources said SIMI inducted many IT professionals and engineers in its ranks and spread the reach of the organisation in the southern states. Despite being under the scanner of the security agencies, Nagori had reorganised the banned outfit in a corporatised manner creating several wings within the outfit such as the publicity wing, weapon procurement and financing branches.
Nagori's arrest in Madhya Pradesh indicates that he was making inroads in the BJP-ruled state. Its leaders had gathered in the state earlier also, at Ujjain. His deputies were, meanwhile, active in other states organising regular meetings and sending new recruits for arms training in camps in J&K and at other makeshift sites elsewhere in the country. The arrest of a software engineer, Yahya Kammakutty, by the Karnataka police last month had revealed SIMI's rising clout among educated Muslim youths in southern states of Karnataka and Kerala. Among the half-a-dozen persons arrested in Karnataka for suspected SIMI links, at least four were found to be medical students and some IT professionals.
SIMI's major funding source is suspected to be charities in Saudi Arabia. I know, I'm suprised too.
Interrogation of Yahya had revealed that he had made several trips to the Middle-East. These visits were probably made in connection with raising funds. The banned outfit operates through several front organisations registered as NGOs and has several publications, printed regularly, professing its ideology.
Posted by: Steve ||
03/28/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Lashkar e-Taiba
'D-Company' is now officially part of the Lashkar-e-Toiba's terror network, with Pakistan's notorious Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) getting Dawood Ibrahim to merge his gang with the fundamentalist terror organisation as part of a gameplan to crank up its anti-India campaign.
Sources in Indian agencies tracking ISI's moves confirmed the coming together of the two outfits and the danger that it poses to India.
"The underworld gang and the Lashkar jihadis have been knocked into a single entity and this has serious implications for India's internal security," a senior intelligence official told TOI on Thursday.
ISI's links with D-Company are old, going back to 1993 when Pakistan's external intelligence agency used Dawood and his henchmen to execute the March 12 terror attack on Mumbai in what marked the first instance anywhere of serial bombings. (TOI was the first to report the detention of Dawood, Chhota Shakeel and Tiger Memon by Pakistani authorities).
There has since been a shift in the dynamics of ISI-Dawood equations, reducing D-Company from being a useful ally to a group of individuals dependent on ISI to escape international law agencies.
Following the Mumbai blasts, Dawood along with his accomplices Chhota Shakeel and Tiger Memon fled to Pakistan. Pakistan has since shielded them from India and the new anti-terrorism sensitivities post-9/11 which saw Dawood being branded a global terrorist by the US.
But the hospitality has a tag attached to it: complete dependence for survival on ISI, which does not mind displaying its leverage vis-a-vis the once ruthless gang.
The merger will, inevitably, transform the character of Dawood's gang, which did not display any communal tendency before the serial bombings aimed against members of a particular community.
In fact, many of their business partners were non-Muslims like Raj Shetty. Chhota Rajan was also a senior member of the gang before splitting in protest against the serial blasts triggered by Dawood, Shakeel and the Memons.
"The serial blasts were essentially a retaliation for the January 1993 communal riots. But now there is a qualitative change with D-Company becoming part of a jihadi organisation like the LeT. Earlier, this gang's members were not religiously indoctrinated, but now they are. The motivation now is not money, but religion," a senior official said.
The joining of ranks with Lashkar, one of the most dangerous terrorist outfits which treats "liberation" of large tracts of India from "Hindu domination" as its religious obligation, can help ISI to further its subversive agenda.
Stints with Lashkar camps can morph Dawood's band of urban gangsters into well-armed and jihad-driven terrorists.
On the other hand, Lashkar benefits immensely from collaboration with D-Company which continues to attract recruits and has acquired financial muscle by venturing into mainstream commercial enterprises without letting go of its original money spinner, smuggling.
Posted by: john frum ||
03/28/2008 00:00 ||
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Mahdi Army commanders have told the AP that the militia has recently taken delivery of new weapons supplied by backers in Iran. The arsenal, they said, included roadside bombs, anti-aircraft guns and Soviet-designed Grad rockets.
They also said an infusion of cash, also from Iran, helped the militia set up new command centers equipped with Internet-linked computers, fax machines and satellite mobile phones. They have also received global positioning system devices, they said.
#1
This Basra battle is another defining moment in Iraq. Al Qaeda is getting pounded, but Iran is making its move through Tater and his Tots. Can Maliki do what is necessary to kick Iran's proxy a$$es from here to Sunday? I have my doubts. Iran and its proxies can undo all the progress we have made so far. The question is what are we prepared to do about it?
I have not seen serious consequences for the nasty business that Syria and Iran have been in since the beginning of the Iraq war.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/28/2008 20:36 Comments ||
Top||
#2
REDDIT > LEW ROCKWELL - Are still dangerous rumors circulating from RUSSIA THAT DUBYA-CHENEY PLAN/INTEND TO DE FACTO ATTACK IRAN CIRCA APRIL 5th OR 6TH = IN EARLY APRIL 2008. Not agz Iran's nucfacs [except for Russ construx] but nominally ALSO AGZ MAJOR IRANIAN MIL TARGETS = NATIONAL MIL ASSETS [read - protect Israel + "Moderate" Arab-Muslim ME].
*MOSCOW NEWS > THE RISKS OF DEFEATING AL QAEDA IN IRAQ. Defeated-Deadlocked Islamists or groups, as e.g. 1980's anti-Soviet Afghanistan War, will attempt to seek safe refuge andor new bases in surrounding Muslim nations and begin conflict = Jihad anew.
A MAJOR ARTICLE POINT - AL QAEDA PER SE IS PRES NOT WINNING IN IRAQ-ME, BUT NEITHER IS IT THOROUGHLY/ABSOLUTELY DEFEATED YET, NOR IS SAME WHOLLY INCAPABLE OF MOUNTING NEW TERROR CAMPAIGNS, DESPITE SUFFERING INTENSE LOSSES.
#3
REDDIT/STRATEGYPAGE > AFGHANISTAN: ANOTHER SUICIDAL SPRING OFFENSIVE; + TOPIX [old] > ANOTHER DOOMED TALIBAN OFENSIVE?
As argues or inferred before, IMO/IMA OSAMA + RADICAL ISLAM need the ISLAMIST BOMB/SWORD now
[Nukes-WMDS. LR Missles, Population - Economic
factors, etc.]. ISRAEL, LEBANON, IRAQ, PAKI + AFGHANI = "HOLDING FRONTS/ACTIONS" > REAL TARGET = STRATEGIC DIRECTION IS NOW AGZ RUSSIA + CENTRAL ASIA.
MSM > POTUS Dubya CAN NOT = WILL NOT = MUST NOT = DARE NOT, etc. DO ANYTHING MIL AGZ IRAN in this his final year as POTUS. BAD FOR AMERICA AND BAD MCCAIN-GOP AS TO WH-CONGRESS ELEX HOPES.
* AQ, Iran get to look good and inspire Paleos agz ISRAEL-US-WEST.
* ISRAEL, "MODERATE" ISLAM STILL FACES NEAR-TERM DESTRUCTION, ONLY NOW IS NUCLEARIZED.
* Iran = Radical Islam-Terror gets "the Bomb" + WMDS, Missle Techs. US-WEST FACES LONG TERM DESTRUCTION.
* AQ + Radical Islam-Terror draw replacements from new resources.
* Sunnis still get to show Shia Iran the "Nuclear Finger", iff needed.
* Nuclear Islamist Empire = Bloc.
#4
no surprise - Iran's trying to spread influence, distract from the US (and Iraqi) victory over AQI, and general mischief. The last thing the Iranian regime wants is a multi-ethnic federation, democratically elected and prosperous, next door while the Iranian economy digs south. Time to make Tater's tots suffer, publicly identify them as Iranian tools (not popular even among shiites IIUC), whip their asses in the streets and shut off the border from retreat and recuperating. IOW: Killbox time
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/28/2008 22:04 Comments ||
Top||
#5
ION, INTERFAX > RUSSIA WILL USE MILITARY FORCE IFF GEORGIA INVADES/ATTACKS ABKHAZIA; + TOPIX > RUSSIA:NO NATO BASES, TROOPS IN GEORGIA AND UKRAINE.
Posted by: Herman Sninesing5936 ||
03/28/2008 23:30 Comments ||
Top||
#11
Erk, that was me. Damned cookies.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/28/2008 23:30 Comments ||
Top||
#12
Disproportionate retaliation works against jihadis, because islam imposes a protracted view of jihad: only fight the decisive contests when you can win them. Hence, whenever muslims weaken in their strength of terror purpose they are prone to believe: this is not the time.
I know: disproportionate retaliation was a PR disaster after the Haditha incident disclosures. Too bad. That incident followed a gruesome death of a Marine in an IED incident. It was later proven that jihad animals planted that bomb in broad daylight, and locals omitted to report same. Ergo: to hell with locals. Hearts and minds practises have limited effects on muslim populations. If it was up to me, I would have dampened the retaliation tendency that arose after the Haditha terror, by having a policy of demolishing the 15 nearest homes to an IED attack.
U.S. forces in armored vehicles battled Mahdi Army fighters Thursday in Sadr City, the vast Shiite stronghold in eastern Baghdad, as an offensive to quell party-backed militias entered its third day. Iraqi army and police units appeared to be largely holding to the outskirts of the area as American troops took the lead in the fighting.
Four U.S. Stryker armored vehicles were seen in Sadr City by a Washington Post correspondent, one of them engaging Mahdi Army militiamen with heavy fire. The din of American weapons, along with the Mahdi Army's AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades, was heard through much of the day. U.S. helicopters and drones buzzed overhead.
The clashes suggested that American forces were being drawn more deeply into a broad offensive that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, launched in the southern city of Basra on Tuesday, saying death squads, criminal gangs and rogue militias were the targets. The Mahdi Army of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, a Shiite rival of Maliki, appeared to have taken the brunt of the attacks; fighting spread to many southern cities and parts of Baghdad.
As President Bush told an Ohio audience that Iraq was returning to "normalcy," administration officials in Washington held meetings to assess what appeared to be a rapidly deteriorating security situation in many parts of the country.
Maliki decided to launch the offensive without consulting his U.S. allies, according to administration officials. With little U.S. presence in the south, and British forces in Basra confined to an air base outside the city, one administration official said that "we can't quite decipher" what is going on. It's a question, he said, of "who's got the best conspiracy" theory about why Maliki decided to act now.
In Basra, three rival Shiite groups have been trying to position themselves, sometimes through force of arms, to dominate recently approved provincial elections.
The U.S. officials, who were not authorized to speak on the record, said that they believe Iran has provided assistance in the past to all three groups -- the Mahdi Army; the Badr Organization of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, Iraq's largest Shiite party; and forces loyal to the Fadhila Party, which holds the Basra governor's seat. But the officials see the current conflict as a purely internal Iraqi dispute.
Some officials have concluded that Maliki himself is firing "the first salvo in upcoming elections," the administration official said.
"His dog in that fight is that he is basically allied with the Badr Corps" against forces loyal to Sadr, the official said. "It's not a pretty picture."
Elements of Sadr's militia have fought fiercely, including rocketing the Green Zone, the huge fortified compound in Baghdad where the U.S. Embassy, Iraqi government offices and international agencies are located.
Starting about 5:25 p.m., the Post reporter heard the launch of 14 rockets, which Mahdi Army officers in the area said were aimed at the Green Zone. U.S. officials reported that 12 rounds hit the zone in that time frame, including six that fell inside the embassy compound. An American civilian contractor was killed in a residential area of the embassy compound, while another death was reported in the zone's U.N. compound.
Several Mahdi Army commanders said they had been fighting U.S. forces for the past three days in Sadr City, engaging Humvees as well as the Strykers. By their account, an Iraqi special forces unit had entered Sadr City from another direction, backed by Americans, but otherwise the fighting had not been with Iraqis.
"If there were no Americans, there would be no fighting," said Abu Mustafa al-Thahabi, 38, a senior Mahdi Army member.
In August, Sadr ordered his militia to observe a cease-fire, a move widely credited with helping to reduce violence across Iraq. In recent days, Sadr officials have said the cease-fire remains in force. But in practice, his fighters and Iraqi and U.S. forces are waging full-scale war in places. Further fighting with his men could slow U.S. troop withdrawals from Iraq.
American commanders said in recent days that their units were taking only a backup role in the offensive and that Iraqi forces were growing strong enough to shoulder the country's security needs.
Maj. Mark Cheadle, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, said he could not make an accurate assessment of what the Post reporter saw without knowing the precise location. He underlined that U.S. troops were playing a backup role in the offensive but that on a battlefield that is "360 degrees," it might seem at times that they were out front. If an Iraqi unit was about to be overwhelmed by an enemy, "of course we are going to assist."
On Thursday, thousands of followers of Sadr turned out for a peaceful demonstration in Baghdad. Iraqi television channels carried crowd scenes in which people carried a coffin draped in flags and decorated with a portrait of Maliki. They denounced him as a "new dictator" and chanted: "Maliki keep your hands off. People do not want you."
Gunmen wearing police commando uniforms stormed the Baghdad home of a well-known member of Maliki's government, Tahseen al-Sheikhli, and took him hostage, according to the Information Ministry. Sheikhli is a chief spokesman for the Baghdad security plan, in charge of building public support for government efforts to quell violence in the city.
As fighting continued in Basra, saboteurs blew up one of the city's main oil pipelines. Gunmen opened fire on the city's police chief, wounding him and killing three of his bodyguards.
Maj. Gen. Abdul Aziz Mohammad, director of military operations at Iraq's Defense Ministry, said the Basra operation would continue until security forces captured the outlaws or wiped them out. He said the Iraqi military planned to seal and search every neighborhood to capture suspected criminals and confiscate weapons.
But an adviser to Iraqi security forces, who had predicted that the fight in Basra would take 10 days, said it could go on much longer. He also said Iraqi forces were calling on U.S. and British forces for help. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he said he was not authorized to speak with reporters.
"I think the government can't win this battle without interference of Americans or British," he said. "I think the aid or assistance is on the way." In his view, the Iraqi military needed air coverage and help with logistics and intelligence.
The fighters "are opening many, many fronts against the army," he said. The adviser said the militia's weapons, some of them made in Iran, are more powerful than those of the Iraqi army.
So far, casualties in Basra on all sides have totaled about 400 killed and 300 wounded, he said.
Maj. Tom Holloway, a British military spokesman, said Iraqi security forces were "consolidating their current positions" and preparing for the next stage of the offensive. They were cordoning off areas and trying to gain control of the city "bite-size chunk by bite-size chunk."
Residents in Basra said they observed Mahdi Army militiamen gathering in their neighborhood stronghold of Jumhuriyah, assembling men and weapons while dodging gunfire from Iraqi army snipers at intersections.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2008 13:57 ||
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Link ||
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#1
It's a question, he said, of "who's got the best conspiracy" theory about why Maliki decided to act now.
Give the guy a little credit. He's smart enough to do it before the election so he doesn't risk having a donk in the White House when he's fighting Sadr. He's probably also smart enough to know that sooner or later he would have to fight Sadr.
#4
And thank you (NOT!) to the British asshats that left us with that terrible situation in Basra, who had their troops there but didn't allow them to fully engage all the enemies.
More failed accommodationist strategy from Euros.
When will they learn appeasement doesn't work?
Failed in pre-WW2 germany, Failed with the Soviet Union (only confrontation worked), Failed in Bosnia and Kosovo. Faield in Iraq in 90. Failed in Afghanistan, Failed in Basra Iraq.
#5
"If there were no Americans, there would be no fighting," said Abu Mustafa al-Thahabi, 38, a senior Mahdi Army member.
It doesn't matter from which perspective you cut the cake, this guy is exactly right. Too bad for his perspective that means he doesn't get to run around with an AK-47 in hand and order people to do what his mullah thinks they should be doing.
I for one am glad this is happening. I think these a-holes are the last meaningful Islamic Bomb that Anti-Iraqi Forces can hold over everyone's heads. They seem to me to be an extensive network of safehouses and moral support. Rip them up by the root and the rest will fade away. Hopefully quickly.
I sort of wonder if Maliki said it was going to be an Iraqi-only operation in part just to get the bad guys to stay put for once, hoping that he might actually be able to pull it off using Iraqi forces only. They probably would have bailed if they heard the full Coalition was coming. In any case, they are going to learn a lot from this one.
#9
The clashes suggested that American forces were being drawn more deeply into a broad offensive that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, launched in the southern city of Basra on Tuesday, saying death squads, criminal gangs and rogue militias were the targets.
OK - as a former English major and sometimes teacher, go ahead and try to parse that sentence - diagram it as taught in elementary school - verbs, nouns, subject, predicate and so on. It's difficult, but not impossible.
That's the first hint the writer is confused, ignorant or both.
Now try the easier analytical tool for WAPO, NYT, etc.. Assume it's either completely wrong, or intentionally misleading.
With that tool, I read this to mean US forces are acting as planned, in concert with Iraqi Govt. forces, in limited areas, using elements of surprise and overwhelming firepower to gain immediate tactical advantage within a carefully crafted strategy.
The two attributed quotes from US and British military spokesman affirm this, amidst the cloud of misleading adjectival speculation of typical MSM combat reporting.
I'll pay attention when they report from the scene, with accompanying video.
#13
Does this sound like Armagedan to anyone besides me? Fortunately, we seem to be on the winning side. I haven't seen one word lately about AQ Iraq and the bad old Sunni's. This is all Iran and Shiite militias. Progress is a wonderful thing.
Posted by: Titus Cloling7944 ||
03/28/2008 16:19 Comments ||
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#14
Are those on-air reports, liberalhawk, because the current version of the BBC's article on the situation sounds pretty damned bleak. Lots of "Maliki blinked first" water-carrying going on there, and Paul Wood sounds like he's practically pissing himself.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
03/28/2008 16:37 Comments ||
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#15
I'd bet a large nachos with cheese and jalapenos that these stories have been written within the last couple months, waiting for something to happen and fill in the name blanks - sitting at the climate controlled bar with a G&T with ice, twiddling a pencil and trying to come up with 2 or 3 sensational stories before they happen. It's a question, he said, of "who's got the best conspiracy" theory about why Maliki decided to act now.
"Oh, the consensus is Walter's, he is over at the dart board playing cricket if you would like to talk to him."
#16
Are you suggesting that they write these stories ahead of time when and cut and paste them together to save time when they have more important "functions" to attend?
#17
Soft power and soft journalism, nothing to see here except for Sadr's mooks getting their a$$ handed to them.
"It's a question, he said, of "who's got the best conspiracy" theory about why Maliki decided to act now." Seems it started with the other side....must be a soft thinking administration unnamed source at the WaPo.
At least 120 "enemy" fighters have been killed in a four-day-old Iraqi military operation against Shi'ite militias in the southern oil hub of Basra, a senior Iraqi commander said on Friday. "So far the sighted casualties are 120 killed from the enemy and 450 wounded," Major-General Ali Zaidan, commander of Iraqi ground forces in the operation, told Reuters by telephone from Basra.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2008 13:24 ||
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#1
Air Force reports an F-18 strafing a car, and a building in Basra on 3/27. No discussion of enemy losses. 3/24, our guys caught terrs in the open placing IEDs. Aerial assets killed 5.
I'm betting that Iraqi reports are closer to accurate than fantasy.
#2
I personally would be thrilled if the press would stop the body count crap.
You win by driving the enemy from the field and reducing ability to wage war....
You could kill a zillion of these nut jobs and it wouldn't stop them.....I mean there are a BILLION Moslems and about ten percent are wack jobs so that means about 100 million crazed fruit loops out there.
Doesn't seem like there is ever going to be an end to the supply of these dumbasses who want to become martyrs.
It is very hard to destroy the will of an enemy that WANTS to die as compared to WILLING to die. The WANT to die crowd is hard to reason with and in the long run, its just easier to accommodate them than waste your breath with negotiations, peace talks, gestures of good will, food, jobs, clean water, electricity, schools and reliable healthcare.........who cares about healthcare? I want to DIE!!!
Kill them kill them all.......does anyone out there have a 12.5 KT tactical nuke to spare?
Abu Iman barely flinched when the Iraqi Government ordered his unit of special police to move against al-Mahdi Army fighters in Basra.
His response, while swift, was not what British and US military trainers who have spent the past five years schooling the Iraqi security forces would have hoped for. He and 15 of his comrades took off their uniforms, kept their government-issued rifles and went over to the other side without a second thought.
Such turncoats are the thread that could unravel the British Armys policy in southern Iraq. The military hoped that local forces would be able to combat extremists and allow the Army to withdraw gradually from the battle-scarred and untamed oil city that has fallen under the sway of Islamic fundamentalists, oil smugglers and petty tribal warlords. But if the British taught the police to shoot straight, they failed to instil a sense of unwavering loyalty to the State.
We know the outcome of the fighting in advance because we already defeated the British in the streets of Basra and forced them to withdraw to their base, Abu Iman told The Times.
If we go back a bit, everyone remembers the fight with the US in Najaf and the damage and defeat we inflicted on them. Do you think the Iraqi Army is better than those armies? We are right and the Government is wrong. [Nouri al] Maliki [the Iraqi Prime Minister] is driving his Government into the ground.
The reason for his apparent switch of sides was simple: the 36-year-old was already a member of the al-Mahdi Army which, like other militias, has massively infiltrated the British-trained police force in the southern oil city. He claimed that hundreds of others from the 16,000-strong force have also defected to the rebels ranks.Abu Iman joined the new Iraqi police force after the invasion, joining the Mugawil, a special police unit infamous for brutality, kidnapping and sectarian murders.
We already heard two weeks ago that we were going to attack the Mahdi Army, so we were ready, he said. I decided to take off my uniform and join my brothers and friends in the Mahdi Army. All these years, we were like a scream in the face of the dictator and the occupation. He said: I joined the police because I believed we have to protect Basra and save it with our own hands. You can see we were the first fighters to take on Sadd-am and his regime, the best example being the Shabaniya uprising.
Abu Iman said that the fighting raging in Basra yesterday was intense because the al-Mahdi Army was operating on its own turf. He was confident that the Shia militia would prevail because its cause was just.
The Iraqi Army is already defeated from within. They come to Basra with fear in their hearts, knowing they have to fight their brothers, the sons of Iraq, because of an order from Bush and his friends in the Iraq Government. For this reason, all of the battles are going in the Mahdi Armys favour.
Major-General Abdelaziz Moham-med Jassim, the director of operations at the Ministry of Defence, played down reports of defections in the Basra police force. The problem of one policeman doesnt make up for the whole of the force, he said.
In recent months Major-General Abdul Jalil Khalaf, Basras police chief, has tried to shake up the force and drive out militia infiltrators, who have wrought havoc in the past, often turning police stations into torture cells in which factions settled vendettas and power struggles with murder and abuse. But he only narrowly escaped an assassination attempt yesterday when a suicide car bomb attack in Basra killed three of his policemen. A local tribal leader said the police directorate building was later gutted by fire.
#2
Swine-On-Line, Gloom, Doom and the finest BullSh*t slopped right here.
********************************************
Abu Iman, working hand and glove with "Swine on Line"
His response, while swift, was not what British and US military trainers who have spent the past five years schooling the Iraqi security forces would have hoped for. He and 15 of his comrades took off their uniforms, kept their government-issued rifles and went over to the other side without a second thought.
Such turncoats are the thread that could unravel the British Armys policy in southern Iraq..
Abu Iman, If we go back a bit, everyone remembers the fight with the US in Najaf and the damage and defeat we inflicted on them. Do you think the Iraqi Army is better than those armies? We are right and the Government is wrong. [Nouri al] Maliki [the Iraqi Prime Minister] is driving his Government into the ground.
without the slightest pause for an honest breath of oxygen "Swine on line" prints that Lie to glorify doom, gloom and disaster in Iraq.
#3
"everyone remembers the fight with the US in Najaf and the damage and defeat we inflicted on them."
Yes, everyone remembers Najaf and the 50:1 kill ratio. We also remember how the JAM hid in the mosque to keep from being wiped out.
If the Marines ever show up in Basra, Abu Iman better wear an extra set of pampers 'cause 1 might not be enough.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
03/28/2008 14:49 Comments ||
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#4
it's been know for years they the police force in Basra was infiltrated by the militia's and criminals this isn't news, this is the situation resulting from the "go softly" approach the British military leadership has taken.
The solution is to kill anyone seen in the streets with a gun or rpg, it's not rocket science. This same method should apply to Sadar City and any other place the Madi army goes into open revolt.
If police men are caught working for the other side they should be shot on the spot. Loyalty to the elected government needs to be absolute unless it is acting in a criminal fashion.
#5
Abu Iman and fellow turncoats are in a world of hurt. It's not like the the gov doesn't know who they are or where they live. Or have 400,000 under arms and a reliable supply line. Be sure to say hello to Uday and Qusay for me.
Posted by: ed ||
03/28/2008 15:26 Comments ||
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#6
Why does the Times seem to have exclusive access to insurgents, cutthroats, turncoats, doomsayers and other such miserable skidmarks? Birds of a feather I guess.
#8
If I understand this correctly, Maliki has fully committed the government to ending these Shiite militias and to cleaning up the mess left by the British in the south. He has fully engaged Iraqi military and police toward that end. He has asked for and gotten full American support. Yes! There is a God. Maliki could also use our prayers.
Posted by: Titus Cloling7944 ||
03/28/2008 16:12 Comments ||
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#9
The British went into the situation full of confidence that they "understood Arabs and the Arab way", and sneered at "cowboy" Americans who looked at the situation objectively.
Now we see that the American way of having few preconceived notions and trusting only those who earn that trust has turned out to have been the far wiser tack.
#11
Count is 79 dead terrs in Baghdad and 25 in Hillah and Kut. 5 Americans and about 15 Iraqis. IP took it on the chin in Kut before rebounding and kicking butt.
#12
Find the turncoat triator quoted int he article. Drumhead court martial. Hang him and the others from a lamppost in the public square - and do not allow them to take him down until the crows have had their fill.
#13
"We know the outcome of the fighting in advance because we already defeated the British in the streets of Basra and forced them to withdraw to their base, Abu Iman told The Times."
In other words, like I and many other who know the culture ther said, the Brits are setting themselves up for failure with the "soft" approach.
All the locals learned from that is the Brits leaders are pussies and retreat when challenged.
They are about to learn differently from US and the better Iraqi Army units that will mow these turncoat cops down. Welcome to "boom goes my house" starring the Iraqi troops, US Spotters, and the USAF 500lb JDAM.
Iraqi Security Forces, U.S. Special Forces engage criminal elements in Hillah, al-Kut
BALAD, Iraq Hillahs Iraqi Special Weapons and Tactics unit, advised by U.S. Special Forces, engaged Special Groups criminals in Hillah, killing 14 and wounding 20 March 26. These seem to be the same guys that were hiding in the mosque. It's been a while since I've seen 'Special Groups' explicitly mentioned in an MNF release. I was - and still am - wondering what's the story behind that absence. For a month we had seen an average of one Special Groups defeat per day, then nothing.
Criminals armed with AK-47 assault rifles, rocket propelled grenades and automatic machine guns attacked two companies of Hillah SWAT as they were securing a road intersection. As a firefight developed, a U.S. Special Forces team arrived and, fighting alongside SWAT, began engaging the armed individuals. Maaa! No Fair!
The criminal group broke contact after delivering intense RPG and automatic weapons fire, and was seen by an Air Weapons Team regrouping in three groups of 20 to 30 men near a mosque.
The AWT, from 3rd Squadron, 17th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Combat Aviation Brigade, reported the armed individuals were maneuvering back toward SWAT and the U.S. SF team, and, due to the hostile intent of the act, engaged the threat from the air.
One Hellfire missile was fired, killing five.
After the strike, the AWT reported the remaining group of individuals dispersed and were no longer a threat.
Nine Hillah SWAT team members were killed during the firefight. Sounds like they were in combat against something more than 'ordinary criminals'. I hope Allan is merciful.
Two additional SWAT team members were injured and treated by a U.S. SF medic.
Also March 26 in Al Kut, an Iraqi Special Weapons and Tactics unit advised by U.S. SF conducted a combined presence patrol to counter recent violence in the area.
The patrol took small-arms and RPG fire in the Old Izza and Karamiyah districts.
Both times, the patrol returned fire suppressing the enemy fighters.
As the patrol left the Old Izza and Karamiyah districts, they linked up with Iraqi Police and 8th Division Iraqi Army Scouts.
The group then patrolled the Sharkiyah district, also receiving small-arms fire from a vehicle with four armed individuals.
The patrol engaged the vehicle, killing two individuals.
After eliminating the threat in the area, the patrol departed for the Al Kut SWAT headquarters and was attacked by an improvised explosive device. One vehicle was damaged, but the attacks resulted in no injuries.
#1
ARGHH! The smell of burning rats in Hell! I love it!
Posted by: Titus Cloling7944 ||
03/28/2008 15:56 Comments ||
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#2
STRATEGYPAGE + MILITARY.com [NEWS] + ARMED FORCES JOURNAL, etc, had artiiikles indic that Iran's QUDS FORCE + related SPECGROUPS are still oper inside Iraq despite recent high profile defeats-losses to USA + IGA units.
#4
Maybe the news is that they're still at it after meeting resistance? I figure we're giving them a chance to prove themselves, so they're getting minimal support/air-power from us?
Posted by: Captain Lewis ||
03/28/2008 8:29 Comments ||
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#5
g: Surprise meter?
Well, Fallujah took weeks using GI's and close air support. There's no way the Iraqis are going to clear out Basra in 3 days without air support (at their own request - which makes sense, given that if either Democrat becomes president, US forces will leave Iraq chop chop - Iraqi forces might as well get used to doing without).
#10
The violence underscored the fragile nature of the security improvements partly credited to the American troop increase that began last year.
Ahhh yes the ole 3 legged stool pitch. An oldie but a goodie! What scammer and used-car salesman hasnt used that one at least once or twice? Basically the metaphor is spun by saying that if one leg is pulled then the whole shootin-match collapses. Remember now, to be most persuasive the mark consumer should imagine that all the legs carry equal weight. You know the drill Yeah that troop surge thingy may have helped alittle but we certainly couldnt have done it without the help of our favorite Firebrand cleric Mookie.
#14
1. Times thinks this is like Israelis - who HAVE to win within days of a serious engagement beginning before the inevitable UNSC resolution is passed. No UNSC res here, no similar deadline
2. There IS the issue of the Green Zone. The longer it takes to win in Basra, the more time the taters have to fire at the emerald city. Which can get embarassing to the US, forcing a maybe premature attack on Sadr City. Which seems to have already begun.
3. Then theres the "civilians are starving" tactic. already hearing that in Basra. Not sure the Iraqi forces know how to handle that.
#15
The national government would prefer to negotiate a solution, because the alternative is going to kill a lot of people and wreck a lot of the city. Also, the Sadr revolt looses face if it negotiates a solution rather than dying as martyrs.
#16
Iraq the model is reporting that the upcoming Iraq election is driving events. The current government wants to stay in power and is striking at Sadr, a rival. Call me cynical, but NOW I believe the Iraq Army is serious about completing this task; their bosses continued employment depends on it. Enlightened self interest can be a beautiful thing.
Followers of radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr staged protests in Baghdad denouncing Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Thursday after he launched a crackdown on Shiite militias in the southern city of Basra, AFP reported. Elsewhere, saboteurs blew up one of the two mail pipelines exporting crude oil from Iraq.
The protests began around 10am (local time) outside the office of the Sadr movement in its Baghdad bastion, the impoverished Sadr City district containing some two million people. Maliki you are a coward! Maliki is an American agent! Leave the government, Maliki! How can you strike Basra? shouted the crowd as they began gathering in the area, while Iraqi and US troops sealed off the streets.
The Sadr group announced on Wednesday that it would hold protest rallies against Maliki in Baghdad and the southern city of Amara after he launched a crackdown on Mahdi Army strongholds in Basra.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Only the free can protest like this. Maliki's enemies have freedom, but they would kill Maliki's supporters for comparable demonstrations. In environments like this public demonstrations have even less statistical significance than in, say, the US.
Yeah, and Sadr is an Iranian agent. Take your pick. That's what those election thingies are for. Didn't do all that well in the last election? Tough shiite!
#3
Didn't Sadr run to Iran when the government was being formed? If so, he should lose any rights to say how the government should be now other than just as another citizen of Iraq.
(KUNA) -- Clouds of smoke hang in the air near the US embassy in the green zone after attacks by mortar shells in various parts of Baghdad, while other mortar shells hit residential areas in the Iraqi capital.
KUNA's correspondent saw columns of smoke rising from a building near the US embassy following the attack on the green zone. Toll of casualties has not been determined yet and it is still not clear whether the building on fire belonged to the US embassy or not, but workers in the green zone said mortar shells hit an oil pipeline near the embassy which led to the fire.
A mortar shell landed near Kamal Al-Samarae Hospital in Al-Andalus Square in Baghdad, wounding four civilians. Eyewitnesses said two mortar shells hit civilian houses near one of the headquarters of Vice President Adel Al-Mehdi in Al-Karada area and reports said six civilians were injured. The attacks on Baghdad have spread fear among the civilians, as most of the mortar shells are hitting residential areas, killing and wounding many people.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Counterbattery radars should have identified the launch sites - either we are not hearing about the counterbattery fire or there isn't any (or much). If there isn't much, it suggests the launches are from 'safe zones' - like schools, hospitals, mosques etc. where the political cost of retaliatory fire is greater than the physical cost of damage and casualties in the IZ.
(KUNA) -- An Iraqi officer was killed and seven others, including civilians, were injured when a car planted with bombs exploded near a Kurdish security forces (Asayish) patrol in Kirkuk, according to an Iraqi Police source. The explosion which took place, Thursday, in Al-Quds street in the Tiseen area of Kirkuk killed the officer, who was a captain, and injured seven others.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2008 00:00 ||
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(KUNA) — Heavy clashes erupted in Naseriya city, one of the biggest cities in the southern Iraqi province of Thi-Qaar, Iraqi eyewitnesses said on Thursday. Eyewitnesses told KUNA the clashes began at six o'clock p.m. local time, and bomb blasts shook the city after gun fires were heard. The clashes were between armed men and Iraqi military forces where RPG's and small weapons were used, eyewitnesses said. Meanwhile, in Shatra city north of Al-Naseriya armed clashes between armed men and Iraqi military forces also occurred in western part of the city where commercial shops were shut down.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Right on time. Basra, then Kut, then Sadr City, now Nasiriya. Surprised we haven't heard anything about Amarah yet.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
03/28/2008 9:09 Comments ||
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(KUNA) -- Violence in Basra city, southern Iraq, continued Thursday leading to the death of a hospital director in addition to the injury of 20 soldiers.
According to a security source, Dr. Najem Abdullah, Director of Basra General Hospital was targeted by gunmen while leaving his house with the encounter resulting in the death of Dr. Abdullah. Meanwhile, 20 soldiers were transferred to Al-Yarmouk hospital after being seriously injured in the operations to crackdown on militias in Basra. Around 130 people where killed since the operations began on Tuesday.
On other developments, the Iraqi police apprehended three policemen accused of leading insurgents to locations of the Iraqi army. Four citizens were killed in Al-Hussien neighborhood when demonstrating against the military campaign supervised personally by Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki.
Also three policemen were killed when a convoy of Basra's chief of police was targeted by a suicide bomber while other militias decided to blow up an oil pipeline in an effort to effect the local economy, a step feared by the government since the operations began three days ago.
This article starring:
Dr. Najem Abdullah
Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2008 00:00 ||
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Rockets and mortars rained down on Baghdad today, and a high-ranking Iraqi government spokesman was abducted from his home, as violence continued in the wake of a crackdown on Shiite Muslim militiamen.
Scores of people have died since the fighting erupted early Tuesday, including at least 51 in the southern oil port city of Basra, where the Iraqi offensive began. At least 15 people, most of them civilians, were reported killed in attacks today in Baghdad and nearby Babil province to the south. Skirmishes also continued in Basra, where a pipeline carrying oil to the city's port was hit by a major blast that sent flames soaring into the sky.
In Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood, thousands of supporters of Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr marched through the streets demanding the ouster of Prime Minister Nouri Maliki and accusing him of targeting Sadr loyalists in the Basra offensive. Maliki, meanwhile, rejected negotiations with what he called "criminal gangs" to end the violence. "Their only choice is to hand over their weapons and sign pledges that they will henceforth abide by the law and return to the right path," said Maliki, who Wednesday gave militiamen 72 hours to put down their weapons.
Police said gunmen attacked the east Baghdad home of Tahseen Sheikhly, a spokesman for the Baghdad security plan launched in February 2007 to stabilize the capital. According to officials in the Interior Ministry, which oversees police, the attackers shot and wounded at least one of Sheikhly's guards and ransacked his home before fleeing with the spokesman. Sheikhly has appeared frequently at news conferences alongside U.S. officials discussing what they consider progress of the security plan. The bold abduction, in the middle of the afternoon, was a sign of the spreading insecurity since the Basra offensive began.
This article starring:
Prime Minister Nouri Maliki
Tahseen Sheikhly
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2008 00:00 ||
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(KUNA) -- Iraqi forces decided to shut down Al-Kathimiya Shiite area, northern Baghdad, when US forces reported that at least 16 rockets were fired onto the Green Zone. A statement issued by Iraqi forces in Baghdad said civilians were banned from entering Al-Khathmiya area except for residents.
Meanwhile, several people are reported to have been injured after rockets were fired onto Baghdad's heavily-fortified Green Zone, as fighting between Iraqi forces and Shiite fighters spread through the Iraqi capital and the south of the country. This came after an ultimatum from Iraq's prime minister to fighters in the southern city of Basra, loyal to Shiite leader Muqtada Al-Sadr, to put down arms within three days.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2008 00:00 ||
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BAGHDAD - A Kurdish police officer was killed on Thursday and six members of the Kurdish security forces were wounded in an explosion in the city of Kirkuk, some 250 kilometres north of Baghdad, media reports said.
The Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency said that a vehicle bomb targeted a Kurdish patrol in Kirkuks Qods street. The blast killed a police officer and wounded six members of the Kurdish forces.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/28/2008 00:00 ||
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(KUNA) -- The Egyptian border guards exchanged fire with two persons who tried to infiltrate into Israel through Rafah border crossing. The two persons, a Senegalese and another one with unknown nationality, were intercepted as they approached the southern part of the border crossing, Egypt's state-run Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported Thursday. When they refused the orders to stop and started a fire exchange, the Egyptian border guards shot and killed them on the spot. The two bodies were moved to a nearby hospital pending investigation into the incident, MENA added. Egypt's security agencies said they arrested 16 persons of African origins attempting to infiltrate into Israel two days.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Odd? Why would Egypt care, now if they were sneaking INTO Egypt that's a whole "nother story"?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/28/2008 6:14 Comments ||
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#2
They had to sneak into Egypt first, Redneck Jim. Besides, if the Egyptians do not enforce the border now, after the Hamas breakout, Israel will take it away from them.
(KUNA) -- Israeli forces arrested on Thursday eight Palestinians in the West Bank during raids throughout Palestinian towns. The Palestinian Prisoners Club said in a statement, the Israeli forces arrested eight Palestinians today, including one girl. The statement added the forces stormed into Nablus, Tolkarem, and Jenin, where they inspected several homes and arrested several suspected activists.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2008 00:00 ||
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Three policemen were injured Friday afternoon when terrorists insurgents detonated a bomb to ambush them. The three policemen were patrolling a village road in Tambon Mae Had of Thanto district when the bomb exploded at 2:20 am. They were flown on a helicopter to the provincial hospital.
Security forces shot dead a suspected terrorist insurgent after he shot dead an assistant to village headman on Friday morning in Pattani province. Police said an unknown amount of terrorists insurgents killed an assistant to village headman Magree Dama when he was driving a pick-up in Muang district. Then he fled on a road leading to Yarang district. Police were able to track down one of the terrorists insurgents. They are chasing the rest.
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.
KABUL - A Danish soldier was killed and another wounded in a firefight with Taliban insurgents in southern Afghanistan, NATOs International Security Assistance Force said on Thursday.
A Dutch judge is due on Friday to hear the petition of a Muslim group seeking an independent review of an anti-Quran film by lawmaker 
(KUNA) -- Police Thursday in an eastern Pakistani city arrested four terrorists and recovered suicide jackets and other ammunition from their possession.
An alleged courier of the Lashkar-e-Taiba escaped from police custody in Doda district of Jammu and Kashmir on Monday. 
PARACHINAR, Pakistan - Suspected militants attacked an ambulance in northwest Pakistan on Thursday killing seven people including two nurses, a doctor and local residents said.
U.S. forces in armored vehicles battled Mahdi Army fighters Thursday in Sadr City, the vast Shiite stronghold in eastern Baghdad, as an offensive to quell party-backed militias entered its third day. Iraqi army and police units appeared to be largely holding to the outskirts of the area as American troops took the lead in the fighting.
(KUNA) — Heavy clashes erupted in Naseriya city, one of the biggest cities in the southern Iraqi province of Thi-Qaar, Iraqi eyewitnesses said on Thursday. Eyewitnesses told KUNA the clashes began at six o'clock p.m. local time, and bomb blasts shook the city after gun fires were heard. The clashes were between armed men and Iraqi military forces where RPG's and small weapons were used, eyewitnesses said. Meanwhile, in Shatra city north of Al-Naseriya armed clashes between armed men and Iraqi military forces also occurred in western part of the city where commercial shops were shut down.
(KUNA) -- Violence in Basra city, southern Iraq, continued Thursday leading to the death of a hospital director in addition to the injury of 20 soldiers.
Rockets and mortars rained down on Baghdad today, and a high-ranking Iraqi government spokesman was abducted from his home, as violence continued in the wake of a crackdown on Shiite Muslim militiamen.
BAGHDAD - A Kurdish police officer was killed on Thursday and six members of the Kurdish security forces were wounded in an explosion in the city of Kirkuk, some 250 kilometres north of Baghdad, media reports said.
