Just a reminder that it's the MoD who's wimpy, not the Brit troops.
A Royal Marine in southern Afghanistan threw himself onto an exploding grenade to save the lives of his patrol.
Miraculously, Lance Corporal Matt Croucher, a marine reservist from Birmingham, survived the blast with little injury when his rucksack and body armour took the force of the blast. He is expected to receive one of the highest awards for gallantry.
The story of his courage emerged last week in interviews with marines occupying a forward operating base near Sangin in Helmand province. They are preparing to leave after serving for six months at the centre of some of the fiercest fighting in Afghanistan. The outpost, Forward Operating Base Inkerman, is better known to troops as "FOB Incoming".
Croucher's action occurred just before dawn on February 9, as the reconnaissance troop from 40 Commando, operating to the south of Sangin, was searching a compound it suspected was being used for making bombs to attack British and Afghan troops.
Walking in the darkness among a group of four men, Croucher stepped into a tripwire that pulled the pin from a boobytrap grenade. His patrol commander, Corporal Adam Lesley, remembered Croucher's shout of: "Grenade!"
As others dived for cover, Croucher, 24, did something nobody expected. He lay down on the grenade to smother the blast. Lesley got on the ground, another man got behind a wall, but the last member of the patrol was still standing in the open when the grenade went off.
"My reaction was, 'My God this can't be real'," said Lesley. "Croucher had simply lain back and used his day sack to blunt the force of the explosion. You would expect nine out of 10 people to die in that situation."
Then they waited. "It felt like a lifetime," said Lesley. When the grenade went off it blew Croucher's rucksack more than 30ft and sent a burning radio battery fizzing into the air. As the noise died down, one of the patrol, Marine Scott Easter, was standing "just completely frozen" and untouched. Croucher was in deep shock but, apart from a bloody nose, had few injuries. "He had shrapnel in his helmet, in the plate of his body armour, but he was basically okay," said Lesley. "His day sack had taken the blast."
Croucher told the News of the World: "All I could hear was a loud ringing and the faint sound of people shouting 'are you ok? Are you ok?'
"Then I felt one of the lads giving me a top to toe check. My head was ringing. Blood was streaming from my nose. It took 30 seconds before I realised I was definitely not dead," he added.
The troop commander, Captain Dan Venables, said they decided to exploit the incident. "I made the decision that after the grenade went off, the Taliban would come to see what had happened. So we lay in wait and ambushed them."
Croucher's actions prompted his colleagues to pass a citation to the Commanding Officer of 40 Commando, Lieutenant Colonel Stuart Birrell, to recommend him for the Victoria Cross. "It's a pretty unusual thing but the lads put me forward for the VC themselves.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/30/2008 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[11134 views]
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#1
agreed, Fred. It's a management/decision loop problem above the front lines to the PM that sucks
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/30/2008 0:16 Comments ||
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#2
So...does he win the Victoria Cross or will he be charged with an anti Muslim hate crime when he gets back to England?
#3
I got a lecture from a combat NCO once on blast physics, and why there are few if any reasons to jump on a grenade. Even if you are lying prone just two or three feet away from one, there's a good chance that the worst you'll get is a ruptured eardrum and what he called "band-aid" frag.
But you *don't* want to be standing up near one. If you are its blast cone, you are boned. But the blast cone is a 45 degree up angle from where it is on the ground. Outside of that cone, there is a lot less of everything.
He figured that unless you get an airburst, if it manages to hit the ground, the odds favor at least 1/2 to 1 second to get flat, even if the thrower cooked it off before throwing. This is because most throwers give themselves extra time, even if they know what they are doing.
If it is an inexperienced or scared thrower, you could have 2 or three very long seconds to get out of there. Unless you are lying on top of the grenade.
#4
When my son was in Marine Corps boot camp in 1996, they told him that if they threw themselves on a grenade and died, they would get the Medal of Honor, but if they lived, they'd only get the Silver Star. (Not that they were recommending doing it.)
I never quite figured that one out.
Posted by: Rambler in California ||
03/30/2008 2:44 Comments ||
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#5
It seems to me that the MoH thing would probably be wheeled out for PR, and the SS would probably be the MC's way of saying "Brave, but we don't want you to make a practice of it because there are better ways. And some PR, of course!".
#7
Moose, very good advice. I always thought and did the same thing. Just get as flat as you can as fast as you can (terrain depending)...."running" for cover usual is what gets you hurt. But, wow, these young guys are amazing, huh?
#8
You guys who are huffing that the Lance Corporal did it all wrong, how about demonstrating it the correct way and posting the video so I can understand. I don't quite get it from your descriptions.
Posted by: Titus Cloling7944 ||
03/30/2008 11:05 Comments ||
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#9
jumping on it is instinct.
supposed to go flat prone with you helm toward it (your best armor point) and arms tucked under (grab yer nuts is what we were told), so as to present the minimum profile. Used to be feet toward it until the Kpot came around (the old WW2 steel jobs were not all that great against grenades).
#11
...how about demonstrating it the correct way and posting the video so I can understand. I don't quite get it from your descriptions.
The physics is, explosions, like water, will follow the path of least resistance. Ground offers more resistance than air. Their will be some dirt removed, simply because of the force of the blast, but a good 80-90% of the explosion goes into the air, carrying shrapnel, dirt and other. This causes a hourglass shape of explosion. The plane of the explosion will be the "waist" and is generally at ground level. That is why the safest place to be is on the ground near an explosion on the ground. The blast will travel some 4-6 inches off the ground and above. That is why proximity fuses on artillery are great. If the round explodes some 4-5 feet off the ground, the hourglass shape doesn't happen and you get a nice sphere. Also, dropping to the dirt won't save your ass anymore. The same idea is used with a "bouncing Betty" anti-personal mine. It jumps up to waist level (3-4 feet) and explodes above the ground, peppering everything around it with shrapnel.
#12
Maybe his Mates were standing up and didn't see the grenade so he jumped on it to keep them from getting hurt. I'd share a foxhole with him.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
03/30/2008 13:30 Comments ||
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#13
It's never smart to sacrifice oneself to save one's comrades. Which makes doing so even more brave and noble... and dumb if it wasn't necessary. But in this case, one of Lance Corporal Croucher's patrol froze instead of dropping to the ground or getting behind cover, so Cpl Croucher's brave action resulted in the saving of a comrade's life. Although why he decided in that brief moment to lie down on his back on the thing is quite beyond me.
#14
TW, he chose the back because he had a huge backpack, that with the armored vest was enough to absorb the blast, no pack on front, more likely for death or injury, Mighty quick thinker that lad.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/30/2008 15:39 Comments ||
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#15
But ... he ruined a perfectly good radio that way! Prob'ly get docked from his pay.
Posted by: Brian H ||
03/30/2008 22:31 Comments ||
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KABUL - Taliban insurgents blew up a power station in the southern Afghan province of Helmand on Saturday, killing two people and wounding eight, police said. The power station, in the district of Girishk, is the main source of electricity for the area.
Two employees of the station were killed and eight other people including two passers-by were wounded in the explosion, said provincial police chief, Hussain Andiwal. The building was damaged but the power supply machinery is safe, he said.
This article starring:
Hussain Andiwal
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/30/2008 00:00 ||
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[11131 views]
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#1
For the benefit of all those who are truly faithful, of course.
#3
First they came for the twin towers. Then they came for the cell towers. Then they came for the transmission towers... The Taliban: Boldly Leading the World into the 6th Century.
At least 11 people were killed in Mogadishu on Saturday when troops at the Villa Somalia presidential palace returned fire against Islamist insurgents who attacked it with mortar bombs, witnesses said.
The sprawling market is notorious for its open-air arms bazaar, and has been the site of frequent skirmishes between guerrillas and government troops backed by Ethiopian forces.
aide told Reuters, but no one in the hilltop compound was hurt.
Residents said Ethiopian soldiers guarding Yusuf then launched shells at Bakara Market in the city below, killing a number of people and wounding dozens more. "Seven people including a woman died in the money changers' area when more than eight mortar bombs struck several parts of Bakara," shopkeeper Muse Ahmed told Reuters. "Four people were killed inside the market's food section," said another local trader, Yonis Abshir.
The sprawling market is notorious for its open-air arms bazaar, and has been the site of frequent skirmishes between guerrillas and government troops backed by Ethiopian forces.
This article starring:
Abdullahi Yusuf
Seyoum Mesfin
Posted by: Fred ||
03/30/2008 00:00 ||
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[11127 views]
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#1
The good thing about firing mortars in Somalia is you won't hit an innocent civilian -- because there aren't any.
Posted by: regular joe ||
03/30/2008 10:48 Comments ||
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An escalating war of words across the worlds last Cold War, nuclear-armed border spiraled dramatically yesterday when North Korea threatened to wreak total destruction on its neighbour to the south.
Our military will not sit idle until warmongers launch a pre-emptive strike, the official news agency in Pyongyang reported a senior military commander as saing, everything will be in ashes, not just a sea of fire, if our advanced pre-emptive strike once begins.
The threat was among the most direct and bellicose statements from Pyongyang since North Korea test-fired an atomic device in late 2006. International efforts since then to persuade the countrys enigmatic dictator, Kim Jong il, to abandon his weapons programme have repeatedly stalled.
The threat also marked a fourth day of rapidly deteriorating relations on the Korean peninsula, which remains technically still at war despite more than 50 years of often uncomfortable armistice.
The two countries the prosperous, modern South and the unpredictable Stalinist Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK) continue to glare at one another across the worlds most heavily armed border.
A note sent by a North Korean military delegation to its South Korean counterpart on Saturday, said that these outbursts are the gravest challenge ever in the history of the inter-Korean relations and a reckless provocation little short of a war declaration against the DPRK.
Sundays warning followed remarks in Seoul earlier in the weekend in which the head of South Koreas military vowed to conduct a pre-emptive strike on the suspected North Korean nuclear weapons site if Pyongyang tried to attack with atomic weapons.
The office of the chairman of the Souths joint chiefs of staff later explained that it was a statement of general principles, rather than a hint that the South was planning any unprovoked attack on the North. Pyongyang said that it would suspend all cross-border dialogue unless the remarks were withdrawn and an apology issued.
Although the communist regime of Kim Jong Il has regularly used this form of extreme language in the past, long-term North Korea experts said that its renewed appearance of the past few days should be treated with some caution.
The row, which has already seen 11 South Korean officials expelled from a joint economic friendship zone by the North, is thought to be a test by Pyongyang of the mettle of the new president in Seoul.
On Friday the DPRK test-fired a salvo of short-range missiles, reprising an act that has traditionally provoked outrage in Seoul and placed South Korean leaderships under immense domestic strain.
Lee Myung Bak was elected to the South Korean presidency in December last year on promises of a stronger economy. But he made little secret that his view towards North Korea and Kim Jong il would be far less conciliatory than his predecessors.
His response to the current escalation of tensions will be closely scrutinised on both sides of the demilitarized zone that splits the peninsula.
In addition to the deeper conflict over Pyongyangs atomic weapons programme, the most recent row has ignited an argument over a line in the Yellow Sea that has never been recognised by North Korea: officials in Pyongyang said on Friday that armed conflict may break out at any moment over the boundary
Posted by: john frum ||
03/30/2008 19:31 ||
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[11134 views]
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#1
Meeeooooow!
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/30/2008 19:48 Comments ||
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#2
See also REDDIT > RIAN [3/2007 redux?] > RUSSIAN INTELLIGENCE SEES US BUILDUP NEAR IRAN BORDER.
#4
N. Korea has slipped off > MAINE SEQUENCE likely in collapsar state > PATERNO? Meanwhile back at the ranch BOWDEN HOLTZ conspire to bring OWO to NCAA and Cuba. Video soon. GRAVOTRPM REAl? you vote at SHRODINGERSCATS.MEW thars a chance you might get in, but don't tell'em how fast youz goig if you catch mai drift/
State police announced today that the same weapon was used in all of the shootings that occurred Thursday on or near Interstate 64. The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives found a positive match between shell casings collected at each of the six shooting sites and a Ruger .22-caliber magnum rifle that was found at Yonder Hill Farm in Crozet, according to a press release from the Virginia State Police.
The shootings slightly injured two motorists. A third person was shot by police during a Friday raid at the Crozet farm.
An analysis of ballistic evidence also showed a positive match between the shell casings at the crime scenes and the shell casings found in a 1974 AMC Gremlin, owned by Slade Allen Woodson, 19, of Afton, according to the release. Police arrested Woodson at the Crozet farm, after finding the abandoned Gremlin parked along U.S. 29 on Thursday. The Gremlin is similar in appearance to a car that appeared in a surveillance video from DuPont Community Credit Union in Waynesboro, where a repossessed van and the building were hit by gunfire.
Woodson and a 16-year-old boy have both been charged with ten felony counts of malicious wounding, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, maliciously shooting at an occupied vehicle, and destruction of property, the release states.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/30/2008 00:00 ||
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[11132 views]
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#1
driving a Gremlin? I understand his "issues" then
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/30/2008 9:39 Comments ||
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#2
It's worse than that, Frank - the picture I saw on the news was of an orangeish-red Gremlin....
Oy.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/30/2008 11:05 Comments ||
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#4
Damn, there are stll functioning Gremlins around?
How does your client plead, counselor?
My client pleads not guilty by reason of loserdom, your honor.
Police in Indore have arrested 10 leaders of the Students Islamic Movement of India in a dramatic intelligence-led operation that could help to unravel jihadist networks responsible for major terrorist bombings.
Key among those arrested are general-secretary Safdar Nagori, the organisations top jihadist ideologue and organiser, and Shibly Peedical Abdul, a Kerala-born computer engineer sought by police ever since the Lashkar-e-Taiba-led 2006 serial bombings of Mumbai.
Officials say side arms, cartridges and special jungle ropes used in combat-hardening courses for SIMI cadre were found in the safehouse. Police also recovered two computers and external hard drives which, they believe, may contain data on SIMIs structure, finances and strategy.
Top leaders
Wanted by police in six States, Nagori had evaded arrest ever since SIMI was proscribed in September 2001. Little is known about Nagoris activities over the last seven years, other than that he sustained SIMIs organisational networks in central and western India through front organisations such as the Tehreek Ihya-e-Ummat, or the Movement for the Revival of Muslims.
Nagori is not thought to have personally carried out terrorist operations, but investigators believe that he provided logistics support and finance to SIMIs jihadist cells. Much of this is thought to have been sourced from West Asia-based supporters, Pakistan-based terror groups such as the Lashkar, and the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate.
One of Nagoris most successful networks was run by Abdul, who worked as computer engineer in a multinational company before setting up an independent firm. Ehtesham Siddiqui, SIMIs Maharashtra general secretary and one of the alleged architects of the 2006 bombings, first told police that Abdul had a parallel life as one of top operatives of the proscribed Islamist group.
Operating through a religious front-organisation, Abdul recruited over a dozen local men to SARANI men who set up the jihad cell discovered by police in Bangalore last month. He is believed to have participated in a conclave of SIMI members at Ujjain from July 4 to 7, 2006, where plans to revitalise the jihad in India were discussed.
Several members of the terror cell that executed the 2006 Mumbai bombings, which claimed 209 lives and left 704 injured, participated in the Ujjain discussions among them computer technician and SARANI member Muzammil Sheikh, who is now being tried for his role, along with his brother, Faisal Sheikh, in the serial bombings.
Unconfirmed reports suggest that one of the men arrested in Indore could be Mohammad Adnan, a key south India SIMI organiser. A resident of Bijapur in Karnataka, Adnan is alleged to have provided weapons and training to Abduls Bangalore jihad cell. However, sources in the Indore police said confirmation of the suspects identity was still awaited.
Back to roots
Wednesdays arrests could strengthen political Islamists within SIMI who have been struggling to bring the organisation back to its political roots. SIMI leaders grouped around its former president, Shahid Badr Falahi, long argued that the organisations turn to terror would be disastrous, and made persistent efforts to marginalise jihadists in its ranks.
In January, 2006, SIMI members met in secret to discuss means to have the ban on the organisation revoked, and elected West Bengals Mohammad Misbah-ul-Islam their new president.
Again, in January 2007, a senior New Delhi-based Jamaat-e-Islami leader hosted a meeting of the political Islamists to discuss strategies to distance SIMI from the jihadists.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/30/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Ooooh, the police got computers and hard drives, too! We can look for lots more arrests in the future. :-)
Security forces on Saturday arrested a top militant in Swat, government sources told Daily Times. Police raided a house in Saidu Sharif on a tip-off and arrested Mian Syed, resident of Puchar Matta, and took him to an undisclosed location for investigation, they added. Meanwhile, a bomb disposal squad defused a bomb planted on a main road in the Gashkor area of Khawazakhela tehsil.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/30/2008 00:00 ||
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Iraq's radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Sunday ordered his fighters off the streets, paving the way for an end to clashes with security forces that have killed hundreds of people. "We want the Iraqi people to stop this bloodshed and maintain Iraq's independence and stability," Sadr said in a statement with his seal released by his headquarters in the holy city of Najaf.
On accounta our motives are pure as driven snow. And stuff.
"Please don't kill us!"
"For that we have decided to withdraw from the streets of Basra and all other provinces."
Sadr's latest call came after six days of fighting between Shiite fighters and Iraqi forces in the southern port city of Basra, Baghdad and several other Shiite regions that have killed at least 270 people.
He said he took the decision as it was his "legitimate responsibility to stop the bleeding of Iraqis, to maintain the reputation of Iraqi people, the unity of land and people, to prepare for its independence and liberation from the dark forces and to quell the fire of division by the occupier and its followers."
Sadr's call came after negotiations in Najaf that began on Saturday between representatives of his movement and the Iraqi authorities.
The Iraqi capital and Basra both remained under curfew on Sunday although there was a lull in the fighting, according to residents of affected neighbourhoods.
Maliki had given a 72-hour deadline to Shiite fighters in Basra to disarm after launching an offensive against them last Tuesday but the call was ignored by the militia. "Sadr has told us not to surrender our arms except to a state that can throw out the (US) occupation," Haider al-Jabari of the Sadr movement's political bureau told AFP on Saturday.
The same day, Maliki vowed to press on with his assault in Basra, saying the militiamen were "worse than Al-Qaeda." "Unfortunately we were talking about Al-Qaeda but there are some among us who are worse than Al-Qaeda. Al-Qaeda is killing innocents, Al-Qaeda is destroying establishments and they (Shiite gunmen) also," he said.
Basra, Iraq's crucial oil hub, is the focus of a turf war between the Mahdi Army and two rival Shiite factions -- the powerful Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC) of Abdel Aziz al-Hakim and the smaller Fadhila party. The stand-off there has spread to other Shiite areas of Iraq, including the sprawling Shiite neighbourhood of Baghdad's Sadr City, the bastion of Sadr loyalists.
Pedestrians and vehicles stayed off the streets of the Iraqi capital for a third straight day of curfew, while Basra was relatively calm, residents said.
On Sunday, the US military acknowledged that its ground troops had started participating in the Basra assault. A team of American special forces joined the battle in Basra, combining with Iraqi troops in an operation that killed 22 militants on Saturday, the military said. The joint operation was in a known "criminal stronghold" in western Basra, a US military statement said.
US and British forces have said they have been giving air support to operations since Tuesday.
British troops have deployed outside their base on the edge of Basra in support of the Iraqi operations, British military spokesman Major Tom Holloway said on Sunday. "There are no plans for our troops to enter the city. We are providing other forms of support," he told AFP. This includes air support and surveillance as well as logistical back-up including refuelling helicopters and supplying ammunition and medical supplies.
Posted by: lotp ||
03/30/2008 09:38 ||
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[11130 views]
Top|| File under: Mahdi Army
#1
Hudna? Things not as dire for Maliki as NYT is presenting? Or Iran's backing a new horse & Sadr is being left hanging out to dry?
#2
sadr was taking losses, he always wanted the element of surprise, of course when his forces are forced to defend against initiative, they are not prepared for that.
maliki should press his demands, and disarm these guys. Forcing iran to rearm them all over again. these on again off again commands, simply show he's a puppet. michael Yon was right, this IA offensive, forces sadr to negotiate not from strength but from weakness if this lasts another week, he could loose 15% or more of his fighters..maybe the USAF hit some of the tunnels they were counting on to hide?
#3
A truce? Sadr is asking for a truce? A truce is a loss for the one asking. That's the Islamic way. Let's hope that Maliki doesn't relent, but instead goes on to finish the job. This may be his last good chance to do it. Who know who the crazy Americans are going to vote into office. If Sadr takes over, Maliki could become dog food.
Posted by: Titus Cloling7944 ||
03/30/2008 10:57 Comments ||
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#4
I for one hope Maliki takes this opportunity to pound Sadr and his goons into the ground until they achieve the consistenty of fine talcum powder.
This is an important moment for Maliki, Iraq, and the Iraqi people. If Maliki can continue to show strength, the people will notice and they will follow his lead. Then some semblance of normality and national unity can begin to take hold in this devasted country, wherein the healing process can begin.
If that happens, and it's still a big if at this point, when the dust settles and all is said and done, the Iraqi people will thank America for what we have done and Bush will finally get the credit he would rightfully deserve.
I think it will take a while and a new generation of media types but one of these days Bush's efforts in the middle east will be recognized as a watershed in the political development of that region.
One would hope that once Iraq becomes a successful democracy, Assad adn his cronies in Syria will be on thin ice as will the mullahs in Iran (which while not being well publicized, is in the midst of very nearly a civil war)
#6
We'll see if his followers follow his orders. He may have no real power to wield anymore. Iran may have supplanted him with one of their surrogates.
#7
It still isn't clear whether Iraqis have the political will to shake off Iranian influence. Shiites have to decide whether or not they are going to let Iran run their country by proxy. If they are going to let them do that, there is no point wasting our time with them any longer.
#9
It's a delicate challenge for Iraqi authorities to keep Sadr alive, around and emasculated. It could also be a first in the arab world - a failed, living, discredited, and unimprisoned/unexecuted leader.
It's a necessary step for a civilization to take if it wants to move toward political maturity. Sadr is clearly no RE Lee, nor Jeff Davis, and perhaps only one step this side of John Wilkes Booth, but if Maliki can retain power, step down peacefully, and keep Sadr marginalized throughout, he may accomplish more than simply and literally killing him outright.
Going after his follows is his big chance and he seems to be doing so fairly well, at least judging by the confused coverage of the MSM and others nowhere near the activity.
#11
"Sadr alive, around and emasculated. It could also be a first in the arab world - a failed, living, discredited, and unimprisoned/unexecuted leader."
#13
It's a necessary step for a civilization to take if it wants to move toward political maturity. Sadr is clearly no RE Lee, nor Jeff Davis, and perhaps only one step this side of John Wilkes Booth, but if Maliki can retain power, step down peacefully, and keep Sadr marginalized throughout, he may accomplish more than simply and literally killing him outright.
It occurs to me that John Wilkes Booth didn't shoot at Lincoln, miss, and then offer a truce.
This is what, the fourteenth time Sadr has pulled this stuff? He always manages to kill civilians, kill troops, get his own guys killed, and then go back to being a "partner for peace."
#14
It could also be a first in the arab world - a failed, living, discredited, and unimprisoned/unexecuted leader.
Like Bin Ladin? Nah, I prefer my Arab "leaders" dead.
Posted by: regular joe ||
03/30/2008 12:56 Comments ||
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#15
It still isn't clear whether Iraqis have the political will to shake off Iranian influence.
They don't; not all by themselves.
Shiites have to decide whether or not they are going to let Iran run their country by proxy.
No, old Iraqi shiites who cannot change their minds and continue to submit to Iran need to die, preferably of natural causes, and be replaced by younger ones who can change and understand they don't have to live that way.
If they are going to let them do that, there is no point wasting our time with them any longer.
No. If we aren't willing to wait till all the old ones die and the new generations are ready to take over, we're wasting our time and should submit to Qom now. It took several generations with the Japanese and Koreans. There is no reason to think the ME mentality can do it faster. So maybe it will take 60 years instead of 40. But we've got to try. Because the alternative isn't pretty. For anybody.
#16
A preemptive strike to reduce the ability of the Sadr masters in Tehran from trying a Tet during the fall American elections. Don't think the people in the Iraq government aren't aware of the game and its impact upon their future.
#18
I think its possible that one faction in Iran is backing Sadr, another is backing the Hakim gang, and another is working with any odd lots they can find, including former Al Qaeda types.
#19
I think I agree that at this point it is more beneficial to not allow Sadr a martyrs death. I think we should use this opportunity to pound his street thugs until Sadr is just a toothless podium pounder.
#20
The game isn't worth the candle? I disagree. What President Bush started is a play for the entire Muslim Middle East. Iraq is in one sense just the staging ground, from which we threaten the status quo of Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and the rest of bankrupt, corrupt, jihadi-ridden region. I think we can count on President McCain not to pull out, regardless the frustrations and temptations. Whoever is elected after that will have to respond to the House and Senate full of War on Terror veterans, which should completely change the tenor of the discussions.
#21
IMHO, Tater was given the white gloves treatment because of his father, Cleric What's His Name, oh, yes Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr. Tater has used the mantle of cleric for too long and it has worn thin. He has caused the murder of hundreds of innocents, and he needed to be taken out in August 2004 at an Najaf. But he wasn't.
Tater and his Mahdi Army (militia) need to be ground into dust, as a lesson to the other militias out there. It is 2008, 4 years after the big show in an Najaf, and we are still screwing around with this criminal and tool for Iran.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/30/2008 14:53 Comments ||
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#23
"For that we have decided to withdraw from the streets of Basra and all other provinces."
Didn't say they were quitting, just getting off the streets where they're dog meat.
Betcha this means they're going to the alleys where theres more cover.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/30/2008 15:33 Comments ||
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#24
The best would be some form of "internecine power strugle" within Tater Tots, and if necessary, making it look that way would do too. Toten Tater With a Whimper.
#25
FOX NEWS > MCCONNELL -it is highly likely that should Iran successfully unilater master the nuclear enrichment cycle, PROLIFERATION WILL TAKE PLACE, + IRAN AND POTEN OTHER ME NATIONS WILL INEVITABLE DESIRE TO [immediately/quickly?]DEV NUCLEAR WEAPONS???
#26
NS n TW...thanks for your wise council. Above all, we need to look at this sit through Iraqi eyes - not our own - if we are to discern what is going down. I see 2 things...Maliki's street cred just got a big boost... and Iraq (cough cough, Maliki) is not about to shake off Iran any time soon, and may even be lookin' to cut a deal.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
03/30/2008 21:05 Comments ||
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#27
PAYVAND > US TAKING SIDES WITH BASRA?; + IRANIAN.WS > ALTERNET.ORG - WHO IS THE IRAQI ARMY?
"Good Guy" BADR CORPS is a Shiite Militia closer to Iran than rival Sadr's Mahdi Army!?
Also from PAYVAND > IRAN, AZERBAIJAN, AND RUSSIA TO HOLD RAIL CONFERENCE, + RUSSIA AND CHINA UNLIKELY TO WELCOME IRAN INTO SCO ORGANIZATION. However, IRANIAN.WS/TOPIX > CHINA WELCOMES IRAN MOVE TO JOIN SCO [wid some reservations].
Iraqi Special Operations Forces engaged and killed several criminal fighters in Basra March 29. The operation was conducted in support of the Government of Iraqs efforts to secure and stabilize the city.
The ISOF conducted the operation in a known criminal stronghold in western Basra to disrupt criminal activities and capture criminal leaders. En route to their target, the ISOF were engaged multiple times by small arms and rocket propelled grenades. Upon arrival at the target, and under fire, the ground assault force entered a building and killed four enemy fighters. Ground forces cleared the structure, finding two women and five children who were unharmed.
While at the target location, ISOF came under enemy fire from ground level and roof-top locations. They killed two enemy fighters on an apartment roof.
While engaged with hostile forces, ISOF and a supporting U.S. Special Forces team identified additional armed criminal elements in the area. A supporting Coalition forces aircraft identified enemy forces on three roof-tops and engaged with precision gunfire after being cleared by ground forces. Initial reports indicate 16 criminal fighters were killed.
While exiting the area, ISOF were under enemy small arms and RPG attacks. One vehicle was also struck by an improvised explosive device causing minor damage to the vehicle. Two ISOF Soldiers were wounded during the operation.
Four plus two plus sixteen. Gonna be a rush job to get all the virgins ready in Paradise. Nice job by the ISOF, and nice work by our SF team backing them up.
Posted by: Chuck Simmins ||
03/30/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Four plus two plus sixteen. Gonna be a rush job to get all the virgins ready in Paradise.
I think I just figured out why terrorists like to use human shields . . . .
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/30/2008 11:47 Comments ||
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#7
Key takeaway here is that the ISOF are very capable and very deadly on their own terrain, especially with US air support (the likely role of the US-SOF troops, coaching, spotting and calling in the Boom).
#8
You do come in handy, Frank. :-) I'm looking forward to the time when "Infidel American", or perhaps just "american", becomes an Iraqi epithet of high praise.
#9
ISOF is interesting. I'm guessing it takes a few years to make a capable special forces soldier, since you have to start with a pretty darned good regular soldier and go from there. If ISOF is capable of these operations it suggests that they're pretty well along in their training and ability.
Perhaps other Arab states should be taking note, and calculating how far along ISOF will be in a few more years.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/30/2008 17:36 Comments ||
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#10
Commodore Frank G got his moniker through Josaia Voreqe Bainimarama, MSD, OStJ, Fijian Navy, known commonly as Commodore Frank Bainimarama and sometimes by the chiefly title, Ratu.
Commodore Frank deposed the previous Fijiian President, and did not suffer fools kindly.
Just a bit of Rantburg history.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/30/2008 21:51 Comments ||
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#11
crap, AP! Thank God I didn't have to spell those names!
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/30/2008 21:59 Comments ||
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Shiite militiamen in Basra openly controlled wide swaths of the city on Saturday and staged increasingly bold raids on Iraqi government forces sent five days ago to wrest control from the gunmen, witnesses said, as Iraqi political leaders grew increasingly critical of the stalled assault.
Witnesses in Basra said members of the most powerful militia in the city, the Mahdi Army, were setting up checkpoints and controlling traffic in many places ringing the central district controlled by some of the 30,000 Iraqi Army and police forces involved in the assault. Fighters were regularly attacking the government forces, then quickly retreating.
Senior members of several political parties said the operation, ordered by Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, had been poorly planned. The growing discontent adds a new level of complication to the American-led effort to demonstrate that the Iraqi government had made strides toward being able to operate a functioning country and keep the peace without thousands of American troops.
Mr. Maliki has staked his reputation on the success of the Basra assault, fulfilling a longstanding American desire for him to boldly take on militias.
But as criticism of the assault has risen, it has brought into question another American benchmark of progress in Iraq: political reconciliation.
Security has suffered as well. Since the Basra assault began Tuesday, violence has spread to Shiite districts of Baghdad and other places in Iraq where Shiite militiamen hold sway, raising fears that security gains often attributed to a yearlong American troop buildup could be at risk. Any widespread breakdown of a cease-fire called by Moktada al-Sadr, the Shiite cleric who founded the Mahdi Army, could bring the country back to the sectarian violence that strained it in 2006 and 2007.
We dont have to rush to military solutions, said Nadeem al-Jabiri, a Parliament member from the Fadhila Party, a strong rival of Mr. Sadrs party that would have been expected to back the operation, at least on political grounds. Instead of solving the problems in Basra, Mr. Jabiri said, Mr. Maliki escalated the situation.
For the third straight day, the American military was reported to be conducting airstrikes in support of Iraqi troops in Basra. Iraqi police officials reported that an American bombing run had killed eight civilians.
The American military did not immediately acknowledge the report. But Maj. Tom Holloway, a British military spokesman, said that the reports were being investigated and that he had no further information.
Major Holloway did say that coalition air power, meaning American or British jets, dropped two more precision-guided bombs just after noon on Saturday on what was identified as an enemy stronghold in Basra. Shortly afterward, British artillery fired on a militia mortar team. The mortar was destroyed, Major Holloway said.
At a news briefing in Basra on Saturday, Iraqs defense minister, Abdul-Kader Jassem al-Obeidi , conceded that the assault had not gone according to expectations. We were surprised by a very strong resistance that made us change our plans, he said.
In Baghdad, the American military was also drawn deeper into the violence generated by the Basra assault. The military issued a statement saying that American soldiers had killed nine Iraqis that it called terrorists in firefights around Sadr City, the Shiite slum that forms Mr. Sadrs base of support. The statement said seven of the Iraqis were killed after they attacked an American unit, and two more when they were caught placing roadside bombs. Later Saturday, the military announced that two American soldiers had been killed by a roadside bomb in Shiite-controlled eastern Baghdad.
Iraqi Interior Ministry officials said they would extend a strict and citywide curfew indefinitely, in an attempt to keep the streets clear.
Mr. Malikis forces may also have lost ground in the battle for public opinion when, in a well-publicized event in Sadr City, 40 men who said they were Iraqi police officers surrendered their weapons to Sadr officials, who symbolically gave the officers olive branches and Korans. The weapons were returned after the officers pledged not to use them against Mahdi Army members. These weapons are for defending the country but not for fighting your brothers, said Sheik Salman al-Fraji, head of the Sadr office there.
Although a citywide curfew remained in effect in Baghdad, the booms of rockets or mortars were heard in the morning. It was not immediately clear who had fired them or where they landed, although the fortified Green Zone, the nerve center of American and Iraqi governmental operations here, has been a frequent target since the Basra operation began.
Clashes between militias and Iraqi government security forces continued elsewhere. There was intense fighting for a second day north of Basra in Dhi Qar Province and its capital, Nasiriya, where officials said the toll on Saturday was 28 killed and 59 wounded. There were running battles on a main bridge in Nasiriya, an Iraqi police officer said, and gunmen controlled the town of Shatra, about 20 miles north.
There also appeared to be a major operation under way around Baquba, north of Baghdad, where government tanks blocked streets in at least three neighborhoods as troops sought out members of the Mahdi Army.
The Turkish military said Saturday that it had killed 15 Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq on Thursday using long-range land weapons, Reuters reported.
In Basra, mortar shells rained down in the late afternoon on the area of the Presidential Palace and the Shatt al Arab hotel, where the assault has its operations center. Groups of 10 to 12 militia members set up a dense net of checkpoints throughout the northern and western parts of the city, carrying out raids on remaining areas in the city center still controlled by government forces.
The government set up an Army recruitment center in the center of Basra. But anyone heading in that direction was stopped by Mahdi Army members, who questioned whether they were Hakims people, loyalists of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, whose armed wing, the Badr Organization, is a prime rival of the Mahdi Army on the streets of Basra. Few people were seen in front of the recruitment center itself. Unfortunately we were expecting one thing but we saw something else, said Ali Hussam, 48, a teacher, who said that after Saddam Hussein the people of Basra had hoped for peace. But unfortunately with the presence of this new government and this democracy that was brought to us by the invader, it made us kill each other. And the war is now between us.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/30/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Well, this sucks. Iraqi government getting their asses kicked by Tater and his tots. So much for the idea that they can hold their own.
The distortions about desertions etc. I attribute to the first precepts of MSM Orthodoxy. sic; Gloom, Doom and always twist the facts while praying for America's defeat.
With the fifth day of fighting in Baghdad, Basrah and the South completed, the Mahdi Army has suffered major losses over the past 36 hours. The Mahdi Army has not faired well over the past five days of fighting, losing an estimated two percent of its combat power, using the best case estimate for the size of the militia.
A look at the open source press reports from the US and Iraqi military and the established newspapers indicates 145 Mahdi Army fighters were killed, 81 were wounded, 98 were captured, and 30 surrendered during the past 36 hours.
Since the fighting began on Tuesday 358 Mahdi Army fighters were killed, 531 were wounded, 343 were captured, and 30 surrendered. The US and Iraqi security forces have killed 125 Mahdi Army fighters in Baghdad alone, while Iraqi security forces have killed 140 Mahdi fighters in Basra.
While the size of the Mahdi Army is a constant source of debate, media accounts often put the Mahdi Army at anywhere from 40,000 to 60,000 fighters. With an estimated 1,000 Mahdi fighters killed, captured, wounded and surrendered, the Mahdi Army has taken an attrition rate of 1.5 to 2.5 percent over the past five days.
The political front
The major political parties in the ruling Coalition remain united in supporting the offensive against the Mahdi Army and the Iranian-backed Special Groups cells. President Jalal Talabani and Massoud Barazani, the president of the Kurdish Regional Government reiterated their support for the operation on Friday, while Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki ratcheted up the rhetoric against the Shia terror groups.
Maliki called the Shia terrorists "worse than al Qaeda" and vowed to remain in Basrah until the operation is completed. "Our determination is strong ... those who break the law are punished, and those who draw their weapons in the face of the state are punished," Maliki said on Iraqi state television.
Muqtada al Sadr, the leader of the Iranian-backed Mahdi Army currently sheltering in Iran, has called on his militia to keep their weapons in defiance to Maliki's order, and but still calls for negotiated settlement to the fighting as well as civil disobedience. "Muqtada al Sadr asks his followers not to deliver weapons to the government," said Hassan Zargan, a Sadr aide. "Weapons should be turned over only to a government which can expel the (US) occupiers."
The Sadrist movement claimed numerous Iraqi policemen and soldiers are defecting. "Groups of Iraqi troops came to us to lay down their arms," said Sheikh Salam al Afraiji, the leader of the Sadrist movement in eastern Baghdad.
But the spokesman of Baghdad Operations Command denied Iraqi security forces are defecting en masse. "The registered number that we have [defecting to the Sadrists] is that 15 soldiers were able to escape," said Major General Qassim Atta in a briefing today in Baghdad. Atta stressed that there are over 50,000 Iraqi security forces operating in Baghdad, and some level of defections should be expected. Atta also said Maliki has "ordered [the military] to prosecute those soldiers according to the Military Punishments Law."
Fighting in Baghdad remains intense
Some of the heaviest fighting in Iraq is occurring in the Mahdi Army-dominated Shia neighborhoods in Baghdad. The government has extended the around the clock curfew indefinitely in Baghdad until the security situation improves.
The intensity in fighting is reflected in the number of press releases issued by Multinational Forces Iraq over the past 24 hours. The US military has issued six separate press releases on fighting in Baghdad over the past 36 hours, and an additional release from Suwayrah, just south of Baghdad.
Seventy Mahdi Army and Special Groups fighters were killed in a series of clashes with US and Iraqi security forces. The fighting included engagements in and around Sadr City as well as a strike against a Mahdi Army rocket and mortar team in eastern Baghdad.
Basrah
The fighting in Basrah continues as Iraqi forces attempt to dislodge the Mahdi Army from their strongholds in the city. Forty-four Mahdi Army fighters have been killed during fighting in Basrah over the past 24 hours.
McClatchy newspapers reports 39 bodies were taken to the morgue on Saturday. Twenty Mahdi Army fighters were reported killed and another 22 wounded during separate engagements with US and Iraqi forces. Another 22 Mahdi Army fighters were killed by Iraqi Special Operations Forces operating with US Special Forces advisers.
US and British warplanes have begun to conduct strikes against Mahdi Army positions inside Basrah, while the British forces have conducted counter-battery fire against Mahdi Army mortar teams. The Three British battlegroups at the Basrah airport, consisting of 650 men each, are said to be preparing to enter Basrah to support the Iraqi Army and police.
Nasiriyah, Diwaniyah appear to be back under government control
The strategic city of Nasiriyah, which sits at the crossroads of southern Iraq, appears to be back under government control after an unconfirmed report on March 28 that indicated the Mahdi Army was occupying the center of the city. "Security forces controlled the situation in the city's districts and neighborhoods after limited confrontations with the gunmen," said Radi al Rekabi, the media spokesman for the provincial police.
The 24 hour casualty total in Nasiriyah from March 27-28 was 30 killed, including 10 Mahdi Army fighters, four police and 16 civilians killed. Nineteen policemen, 26 civilians and 7 Mahdi fighters were wounded, while another 13 Mahdi fighters were captured.
While there has been few press reports from Diwaniyah, several hundred residents felt the security situation was good enough to hold a rally in the center of the city. More than 200 demonstrators marched in support for Maliki's operation to uproot the Mahdi Army in Basra. Police and tribal militias were also seen patrolling the streets.
Networks disrupted in Babil, Karbala
Iraqi security forces appear to have uprooted two large Mahdi Army networks in the city of Karbala and in Babil province. Iraqi police launched a major operation in Karbala on Friday night. Twelve Mahdi Army fighters were killed, 50 were wounded, and another 30 surrendered, Major General Raed Shakir Jawdat, the operations commander for Karbala told Voices of Iraq. Police also seized 25 missile launchers, 60 rifles, five mortars and a large amount of ammunition, Raed said.
Police have been active in Babil province since the operation in Basrah kicked off on March 25. Eighty-five Mahdi Fighters have been captured and "a large number of gunmen were killed," an unnamed source told Voices of Iraq. The Hillah Special Weapons and Tactics police teams killed 14 Special Groups fighters and wounded 20 on March 28.
#6
How much attrition do these idiots typically need to suffer before they fold? Will they hang around and fight until it is decided or is the IA capable of containing them and forcing them to hang around until they suffer enough to give up? Will they truly capitulate or just turn in their arms and wait for Iranian replacement arms and fight again another day?
I know nothing about these things, but I figure if the IA can contain them, they'll cave when they get to about 20% attrition. Is this reasonable? Will any lessons that they manage to learn stick? The reason I ask is that I don't think the motivation to fight here is religious so much as it is a hybrid of religion and politics, with the majority part being political power disguised as religion.
And I would think the bad guys would start crumbling exponentially at about 20% attrition, about at which point the IA should know most of the useful stuff about the terrain as the locals do, and have neutralized any of their effective use of tunnels, etc..
How would they deal with the remaining 80%? Fingerprint and photograph and watch for repeat offenses?
Since the surge of US forces began to produce undeniable results last year, the Times, along with the other usual suspects in the anti-war media, has been frantically trying to change the narrative, and identify new metrics by which to measure American failure, both in Iraq and in the wider war on terror.
Among other things weve had the lack of political progress, Blackwater, waterboarding, and now the investigations over CIA interrogation tapes. And all the time the good news from Iraq has been going largely unreported, as the media loses interest in events on the ground.
The media appears to be failing to get its message of doom and gloom by other means through to the American people, however, with one recent poll showing Americans are increasingly optimistic about the outcome in Iraq - an optimism thats matched by the Iraqi people.
But now the media once again has tangible bad news to report. As has often been the case in Iraq over the past five years, the situation in Basra and other militant Shia strongholds is likely to get worse before it gets better. If Sadr decides to fully join the fray, rather than cheering from the sidelines, US forces will finally have to confront him, and if they do its likely that hell suffer the same fate as Al Qaeda has in the Sunni provinces.
Theres no reason why the Iraqis and their US allies shouldnt defeat this latest threat to the countrys future. If would be nice if the New York Times could see its way fit to supporting them for once, or at least refrain from greeting every new setback with barely-concealed glee.
#9
How much attrition do these idiots typically need to suffer before they fold?
My gut feeling says not much. Madhi Army is more criminal than religious. The realization will hit that the days of easy money and women are over and its better to fade away and enjoy the loot and four wives than get killed.
The US and gov forces should concentrate on killing middle and upper leadership targets that control the money and hold the organization together.
Posted by: ed ||
03/30/2008 10:49 Comments ||
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Iraqi authorities on Saturday extended a curfew in Baghdad indefinitely in an attempt to contain clashes between Shi'ite militants and Iraqi security forces that have threatened to spiral out of control. But in an indication that the violence was set to continue, Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr ordered his followers not to lay down their weapons, defying a five-day-old crackdown by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who has ordered them to disarm.
The latest violence has spread from the southern city of Basra through towns in Iraq's southern Shi'ite heartland and neighbourhoods of Baghdad. "Moqtada al-Sadr asks his followers not to deliver weapons to the government. Weapons should be turned over only to a government which can expel the (U.S.) occupiers," Sadr aide Hassan Zargani told Reuters by telephone.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/30/2008 00:00 ||
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Turkey's armed forces killed 15 members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq on Thursday using long-range land weapons, and then followed up with air strikes, they said on Saturday.
It was the first time Turkish forces had killed a group of Kurdish rebels inside northern Iraq since the end of a large-scale ground incursion into the neighbouring country last month, according to information given by the armed forces.
The General Staff said on its website that the militants were trying to cross into Turkey, where they planned an attack.
The army fired on the separatists with long-range weapons, killing 15, and then launched air strikes in the same area of northern Iraq on Friday. It was unclear how many had been killed in the air strikes.
On the other side of the border on Saturday, troops pursued rebels in the mountainous province of Sirnak, backed up by attack helicopters, security sources said.
Turkish warplanes and artillery have periodically bombed and shelled PKK positions in northern Iraq over several months, helped by intelligence provided by U.S. forces in Iraq.
On February 21, the military launched a major ground incursion against the PKK, sending thousands of troops into Iraq. The General Staff says 240 rebels were killed in the week-long campaign, along with 27 of its own men.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/30/2008 00:00 ||
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A US warplane strafed a house in a southern Iraqi city and killed eight milita-men and camp followers civilians, including two women and one child, Iraqi police said Saturday. The US military had no immediate comment on the report, which came a day after the first American airstrikes were launched in Basra during a week-old offensive against militant followers of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
Seven other people were wounded when the plane fired on a house in Basra's Hananiyah neighborhood overnight, a local policeman said on condition of anonymity because of security concerns.
While the Iraqi police officer claimed it was a US plane, British jets also have been providing air support in the area; it couldn't be immediately confirmed whether the plane was British or American.
The British military had no immediate information but said it also was looking into the reports. "We are aware of reports of incidents in the Basra area resulting in civilian casualties," said Maj. Tom Holloway, a British military spokesman. "We are investigating those reports and do not have any further details at this time."
AP Television News footage showed smoke rising from Hananiyah. Pools of blood and a destroyed pickup truck were seen outside the home hit by the plane.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/30/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Pools of blood and a destroyed pickup truck were seen outside the home hit by the plane.
The new-born dolphins in the nonexistent trailer were biled, then stolen,
Two Palestinian terrorists were killed by the IDF late Saturday evening, Palestinian sources claimed. Rescue workers reported three explosions near the town of Jabaliya in the northern Gaza Strip. They said the two gunmen. Reportedly they were trying to plant an explosive device near the security barrier. Military officials said the Palestinian report was being looked into.
On Friday, IDF troops shot and killed two Palestinian gunmen during clashes in the Gaza Strip, and a Kassam rocket slammed into a kibbutz kindergarten moments after the children had left the playground.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/30/2008 00:00 ||
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Suspected separatist terrorists rebels have shot dead three Muslim men in separate attacks across the jihad insurgency-hit south of Thailand, police said Sunday.
Two unidentified men on a motorcycle shot dead a 28-year-old villager in front of his house in Narathiwat province late on Saturday. Hours later in nearby Yala province, the son of a local politician was killed by gunmen, while a third Muslim was shot dead elsewhere in the same province as he returned home from the local mosque, police reported.
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.
A Royal Marine in southern Afghanistan threw himself onto an exploding grenade to save the lives of his patrol. 
KABUL - Taliban insurgents blew up a power station in the southern Afghan province of Helmand on Saturday, killing two people and wounding eight, police said. The power station, in the district of Girishk, is the main source of electricity for the area.
Iraqi Special Operations Forces engaged and killed several criminal fighters in Basra March 29. The operation was conducted in support of the Government of Iraqs efforts to secure and stabilize the city.
Turkey's armed forces killed 15 members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq on Thursday using long-range land weapons, and then followed up with air strikes, they said on Saturday.
A US warplane strafed a house in a southern Iraqi city and killed eight 
Two Palestinian terrorists were killed by the IDF late Saturday evening, Palestinian sources claimed. Rescue workers reported three explosions near the town of Jabaliya in the northern Gaza Strip. They said the two gunmen. Reportedly they were trying to plant an explosive device near the security barrier. Military officials said the Palestinian report was being looked into. 
