Afghan and NATO -led forces killed more than ten Taliban militants in a joint operation in the province of Kandahar in south Afghanistan, an Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman said on April 6. "During the operation, more than ten Taliban militants were killed and a large amount of weapons and ammunition was seized. The operation is continuing," the spokesman said.
The Taliban carried out more than 140 suicide missions in Afghanistan last year. More than 6,000 people were killed in violence in the country in 2007, nearly 2,000 of them civilians, according to official sources. Taliban militants are especially active in the southern and eastern parts of Afghanistan, which border on Pakistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/08/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11125 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
#1
LUCIANNE > AFGHANISTAN: GENERAL DAN MCNEILL WARNS ABOUT MORE RUTHLESS TALEBAN. Up-and-coming "Young Turks" wid "kill-Em-All" bad attitudes.
#8
Sounds right to me Snoggum, as many "Over ten" as possible.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/08/2008 13:38 Comments ||
Top||
#9
PS, I can count to 23, but I have to take my pants off. ;-)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/08/2008 13:40 Comments ||
Top||
#10
I'd like to see those numbers repeated, but only if the number of deaders is increased by at LEAST a power of ten.
Redneck Jim - one of the reasons I give for living where it gets cold is that you can always put more clothes on to be warm, but after you reach a certain point in taking them off to be cool, they'll arrest ya.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/08/2008 15:55 Comments ||
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#11
I dunno about that, what we see on the Beaches around here there seems to be some clothes on our babes, but they're very hard to find.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/08/2008 20:36 Comments ||
Top||
#12
PS, I ran across some wesite recently showing ladies body-painted for Mardi-Gras, all I saw was paint, not a scrap of cloth to be seen.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/08/2008 20:38 Comments ||
Top||
US and Afghan forces attacked a remote village in a mountainous region of northeastern Afghanistan following reports that an infamous insurgent leader was in the area, a governor said Monday. At least 16 people were killed.
Gov. Tamim Nuristani said US-led coalition and Afghan forces believed Gulbuddin Hekmatyar was meeting with top deputy Kashmir Khan in the Dohabi district of Nuristan province on Sunday, sparking a fierce bombardment that included air strikes. Other provincial leaders say many civilians were killed in the hours-long clash, which included air strikes in the remote villages of Shok and Kendal. Nuristani said it was too early to know if any of the 16 killed were civilians. His casualty figures came from police who had reached the remote district. US officials and the Afghan Defense Ministry have denied that any civilians were killed.
The competing claims were impossible to reconcile because the fighting took part in a remote and dangerous part of the country. US officials say that militants falsely claim civilian casualties as a strategy to weaken the international military coalition and the Afghan government.
The Afghan Defense Ministry said the strike targeted a terrorist center that included a suicide bomb cell. It said it would release casualty figures later. Hekmatyar heads the militant group Hezb-i-Islami, which has links with the Taliban and al-Qaida in fighting the Afghan government, though Hekmatyar has denied direct links with those groups.
The chief of Nuristan's provincial council, Rahmatullah Rashid, said 19 people were killed in the battle - all civilians. He said six children, five women and eight men were killed in the attack. He said he didn't have a report of how many militants were killed. Rashid's information was relayed to him by villagers via radio communications.
US Marine 1st Lt. Richard Ulsh said, "Coalition Forces have received no reports of civilian casualties at this time as a result of that conflict."
Mohammad Farooq, the province's criminal investigations director, said 20 people were killed, including civilians. He said that some two dozen houses were destroyed.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/08/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11127 views]
Top|| File under: Hizb-i-Islami-Hekmatyar
#1
There's a major difference between "civilians" and unarmed criminal collaborators. Unfortunately, the NYT and most of the rest of the "media" don't have enough active brain cells to understand that.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/08/2008 16:05 Comments ||
Top||
#2
looks like they could get som e kinda satellite rsolution on those glasses
Members of France's GIGN, a military police counter-terrorism unit, have been sent to Djibouti, which neighbors Somalia to the North and hosts nearly 3,000 French soldiers.
The French luxury yacht "Ponant" was hijacked by Somali pirates on Friday as it passed through the Gulf of Aden en route from the Seychelles to the Mediterranean Sea. The yacht was carrying 30 crew members, the majority French citizens, but no other passengers.
The yacht had been sighted off the coast of Puntland, a relatively stable semi-autonomous region in Somalia's north. But Puntland officials say the hijackers have moved into southern Somalia.
Puntland's minister of information Abdirahman Bangah says his government lacks the capacity to go after such pirates and has not been involved in the French response. "We did not communicate with anyone in France," he said. "Those people [hijackers], they do not call us, they call straight to the owners. And we do not have an ability to catch those people. We do not have much capacity to run after the coastal areas. They are not in our hands. We do not have coastal guards."
What's missing is the part where he says, "nevertheless, we condemn this piracy in the strongest terms and will support the French government in every way possible. We warn these murderous pirates that they will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law." VOA must have snipped that part.
In addition to mobilizing the military police unit, France has diverted a naval ship to monitor the hijackers, and has sent at least one patrol by aircraft based in Djibouti.
French officials have said the crew has not been harmed and that their safety is the top priority in the French response. On Sunday, Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner kept open the possibility of paying ransom to the hijackers.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/08/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11131 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"Well, if you're not going to help at least stay the hell out of our way. These guys are about to get messily dead."
#2
France has diverted a naval ship to monitor the hijackers,
"Monitor" the Hijackers, NOT reassuring.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/08/2008 13:44 Comments ||
Top||
#3
May I suggest sailing alongside and swinging out a cargo net full of Marines,(Hanging all over the outside, and armed to the teeth.) end of problem.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/08/2008 13:47 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Add three or four snipers and a machine gun or two mounted on the frigate's rail for support and cover? (Poor Dead Pirates)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/08/2008 13:49 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Quote,
"Come and jump on my Sword Evil, for I shall NOT be so gentle"
Two points if you know who said this;-)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/08/2008 13:53 Comments ||
Top||
Thousands of Somali citizens flee their homes as more than 14,000 Ethiopian soldiers have entered the East African nation's territories. Over 9,000 of the troops with armored vehicles are heading to the Capital, Mogadishu after crossing the border, a PressTV correspondent reported on Monday.
There are grave concerns about heavy clashes between Ethiopians and the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) fighters in the area between Afgoye (less than 250 Km away from the Capital) and Mogadishu where thousands of displaced people are living in refugee camps. Warning leaflets have been distributed in the camps, urging the people to leave the place as clashes may erupt any time.
It is also reported that over 5,000 other Ethiopian Soldiers have reached near Belet Weyne town, the Hiiraan regional capital in central Somalia. The citizens of the region are also fleeing their homes to save their lives because of a highly volatile situation.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/08/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11125 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic Courts
#1
Here we go again.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
04/08/2008 11:22 Comments ||
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(AKI) - The deadline for the release of two Austrian hostages held captive by an al-Qaeda organisation in Algeria has expired with no indication of whether they are dead or alive. The Al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb had given authorities until midnight (local time) on Sunday to free its members held in prison in exchange for Wolfgang Ebner and Andrea Kloiber.
Ebner, 51, and Kloiberg, 43, were kidnapped in February while on holiday in Tunisia. Two previous deadlines for their release expired in March while the Austrian government continued negotiations on their behalf.
Their captors are understood to have demanded five million euros and were believed to have moved the pair to Mali, on the other side of the Algerian border. Austrian authorities have not confirmed whether they have received a final ultimatum from the al-Qaeda branch.
Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal, an Austrian foreign ministry spokesman, said on Sunday that the government was continuing its efforts for their release.
But the Al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb said in an online statement on 24 March that the new deadline was the final one. The kidnappers previously warned that any attempt to free the hostages would result in their execution.
In March, Austrian foreign minister Ursula Plassnik told the media the government was doing everything possible to work for the hostages' release. "The safe return of Andrea Kloiber and Wolfgang Ebner to Austria is our uppermost goal," she said. "The federal governments crisis team is working round the clock. "We are involved in top-class networking at the international level."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/08/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11124 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa
RABAT (AFP) - Nine Islamic extremists convicted over the Casablanca bombings that killed 45 people in 2003, including one facing the death sentence, tunnelled their way out of a Moroccan prison early Monday, officials said. The Kenitra "prison administration noted the escape Monday morning and all measures have been taken to find the escaped prisoners and establish who was responsible," the justice ministry said in a statement quoted by the MAP state news agency.
The Casablanca bombings were the deadliest ever in Morocco, killing 45 people including 12 suicide bombers, and injuring scores more.
Which is why they guarded the bloodthirsty killers so closely ...
An official representing a group looking after the welfare of jailed Islamic militants said the fugitives had escaped from the Kenitra prison north of Rabat after dawn prayers at 5:30 am (0530 GMT).
Abderrahim Mahtade of the Annasir association said one of the nine had been sentenced to death, six others to life imprisonment and two were given 20 years in jail, and all came from Casablanca. Mahtade, who is the president of Annasir, earlier said seven of those who escaped were doing life terms. His association works for the wellbeing of several hundred Islamic detainees in the north African kingdom.
The prisoners tunnelled their way out, according to a source in the ministry of the interior, who told AFP that details of the fugitives had been released to help the search, while border guards had been placed on alert.
Must have watched the Great Escape. Dug their way out in Harry. Scattered the dirt in the gardens they were tending to fool the keepers. Took bedboards to shore up the tunnel. Built a minature railroad and had candles to light the way. Had to be it, right? Couldn't have just borrowed a Bobcat and dug their way out in an afternoon, could they?
Mahtade said they had left a letter behind them denouncing the injustice of which they said they were victims and explaining that having resorted in vain to all legal measures, the nine men were left with only one option.
"We assume responsibility for our actions and there should be no search for accomplices among detainees or in the prison administration," the letter said, according to Mahtade. "We will hurt nobody, but we are glad to get our beloved freedom back."
An estimated more than 900 Islamic extremists have been detained in some 10 Moroccan prisons. On Monday, many started a 24-hour hunger strike, in the latest of a series of protests over bad detention conditions.
We have openings in Guantamano if you're interested ...
Last December a drug baron called Mohamed Ouazzani, alias Nini, strolled out of Kenitra prison unhindered and the justice ministry was informed only a week later of his disappearance. In January, eight prison guards were sentenced to sentences ranging from two months to two years for abetting his escape.
This article starring:
Abderrahim Mahtade
Posted by: Seafarious ||
04/08/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11126 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa
#1
They should be forced to do their time chained to a wall upside down, and fed whirled peas through an eyedropper. THEN they may have a legitimate gripe. They just won't be able to do anything about it.
One of the main rules about "rights" that so many people seem to forget is that unless everyone has the SAME right, it's not a 'right' but a privilege. Taking someone else's rights away from them, either through terrorism or "religion", is to deny them equal rights. Anyone who does that deserves to have ALL THEIR RIGHTS taken away from them, including the right to life.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/08/2008 16:35 Comments ||
Top||
(AKI) - An al-Qaeda cell has claimed responsibility for Sunday's rocket attack which targeted US oil experts in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa. According to a report on the ArabTV network Al-Jazeera, Yemeni government sources said that the terrorists had released a statement on the Internet claiming responsibility for the attack against the homes of the Americans in the al-Falal suburb of Sanaa.
Yemeni security sources said that there were no reports of casualties from the attacks. The terrorists said that the attack came two days after the arrest of one of their members, Abdullah al-Raimi. Monday's statement was not posted on any jihadi websites normally used by al-Qaeda, such as the site that claimed responsibility for last month's attack against the US embassy in Yemen.
Reports say that the three missiles struck the villas of US employees of the Yemen-owned Safer oil company, formerly known as Hunt Oil. Hunt Oil was founded in Texas in 1934 and the company has agreements with the government of Yemen to develop liquefied natural gas and offshore oil supplies.
This article starring:
ABDULLAH AL RAIMI
al-Qaeda in Yemen
Posted by: Fred ||
04/08/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11132 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Yemen
#1
Ala FREEREPUBLIC, US FBI HEAD argues that AL QAEDA = OSAMA BIN LADEN, ZAWI, etc. will be defeated in roughly 3 to 3-1/2 Years [round off to 2012?].
IOW, OSAMA HAS THAT LONG, OR SOONER, TO PROCURE NUKES-WMDS + ACHIEVE NUCLEAR IRAN, ETC. in suffic quantity to MilPol deter the US-West/Coalition from attack and save the Islamist Ideo-Jihad.
For me, 2010 is MORE REALISTIC FOR OSAMA + AQ TO ACQUIRE THEIR ARSENALS.
ION LIVESCIENCE > REGIONAL NUCLEAR WAR COULD [detrimentally]AFFECT ENTIRE GLOBAL.
Yemeni police arrested an al-Qaeda suspect on Monday, one day after a mortar attack against a housing complex for US citizens and other Westerners in the capital Sana'a, a security source said. The source, quoted by a web site run by the Defence Ministry, said Abdullah al-Raimi was arrested in Sana'a. The unnamed source described al-Raimi as "one of the dangerous al-Qaeda members."
He said al-Raimi was "suspected to have been involved in several terrorist operations against Yemen recently." It was not clear from the source's remarks whether al-Raimi was linked to Sunday's mortar attack on the residential complex.
Al-Raimi was among 23 al-Qaeda operatives who escaped from a heavily-guarded intelligence jail in Sana'a in February 2006. He had been serving a 4-year jail sentence handed down by a state security court in 2005. The men tunnelled their way out of the prison in a mass escape that embarrassed the Yemeni government and dealt a major blow to its efforts to pursue supporters of the al-Qaeda terrorist network. Earlier Monday, a government official said an al-Qaeda wing in Yemen has claimed responsibility for the Sunday's attack.
This article starring:
ABDULLAH AL RAIMI
al-Qaeda in Yemen
Posted by: Fred ||
04/08/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11127 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Yemen
In yet another setback to the pro-Pakistan Hizbul Mujahideen, security forces on Tuesday shot dead a divisional commander of the terrorist outfit in Doda district of Jammu and Kashmir.
On a tip off, troops and police launched a cordon and search operation in Batyas area in remote Gandoh tehsil of Doda district late Monday night, official sources said. During the search, police and 26 Rastriya Rifles troops zeroed in on a hideout, where a meeting of United Jehad council terrorists was taking place. A fierce encounter soon ensued between the two sides in which a Hizbul divisional commander -- Gulam Hassan Wani alias Shamim Thool -- was killed.
This is Gulam. This is a rock. Which one's deader?
An AK 47 rifle, pistol, satellite phone, grenades and wireless set were recovered from the scene.
Thool was very big among the Hittites.
The operation is still continuing.
Thool, who had joined the outfit in 1992 and had trained in terrorist camps in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and Khost in Afghanistan, was the oldest surviving terrorist in Jammu and Kashmir, the sources said. He had also served as the security guard of the Hizbul supremo Sayeed Salahuddin in PoK.
There's no separate title for who's the "deadest" terrorist in Kashmire.
Eleven top Hizbul terrorists have been killed in Jammu and Kashmir since January this year.
This article starring:
GULAM HASAN WANI
Hizbul Mujahideen
SAIID SALAHUDIN
Hizbul Mujahideen
SHAMIM THUL
Hizbul Mujahideen
Posted by: john frum ||
04/08/2008 06:26 ||
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Link ||
[11125 views]
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BAGHDAD Three U.S. airstrikes targeted mortar launching sites in northeastern Baghdad on Tuesday, killing 12 suspected gunmen, the military said.
The deadliest strike occurred shortly before 2 p.m. when an unmanned drone spotted a large group of militants with weapons and mortar tubes, according to an e-mailed statement. The drone fired a Hellfire missile, killing some 10 militants who were heavily armed, it said. Iraqi police said 15 people, including women and children, also were wounded in the strike.
But military spokesman Lt. Col. Steve Stover said all three strikes were precise and video footage showed no children or other apparent civilians in the areas.
Another aerial weapons team fired a Hellfire missile elsewhere in the area, killing two suspected militants after two mortar rounds were fired at U.S. forces, according to the statement, which added that the mortar tube also had been destroyed.
In the third incident, an unmanned drone fired a Hellfire missile to destroy four rocket rails in an open field after determining no civilians were in the area. The military didnt specify the locations of the strikes, but northeastern Baghdad is a predominantly Shiite area that has seen fierce clashes between militia fighters and U.S.-Iraqi forces in recent days.
#3
HMMMMMM, well, over at WAFF.com > VIDEO shows Palestinian Militants putting MORTAR TUBE ARTY agz own shoulders while getting ready to fire. Vid isn't clear as to whether it was an actual militant strike [agz Israeli targets] or CREW TRAINING - I'm inclined to believe the latter???
Multinational Forces Iraq released statistics on the improving security situation and the current level of violence in Iraq, al Qaeda in Iraqs area of operations, and the development of the Iraqi security forces. Violence in Iraq continues to drop as the Iraqi security forces begin to take over a great responsibility for security. Al Qaedas safe havens in Iraq continue to decrease as the terror groups is isolated to largely rural areas in the north. Mosul remains a major hub for al Qaeda activity.
Click the image to view the information presented in General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crockers testimony to the US Congress on the security and political situation in Iraq. General Patraeus and Ambassador Crocker's testimony is also available below, in PDf format.
Iraq's top Shiite religious leaders have told anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr not to disband his Mehdi Army, an al-Sadr spokesman said Monday amid fresh fighting in the militia's Baghdad strongholds.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki demanded Sunday that the cleric disband his militia, which waged two uprisings against U.S. troops in 2004, or see his supporters barred from public office. But al-Sadr spokesman Salah al-Obeidi said al-Sadr has consulted with Iraq's Shiite clerical leadership "and they refused that." He did not provide details of the talks. So he claims.
Rest at link.
Posted by: ed ||
04/08/2008 10:41 ||
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Link ||
[11127 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
We'll have our top men working on it.
Top men.
Be a good time for Sistani to cut him off at the knees, if that worthy was so inclined. Although who knows, maybe top religious leaders in taterland means some obscure students of Sadr's pet ayatollah back in Qom, whasshisname.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
04/08/2008 11:19 Comments ||
Top||
#2
That'd be the "Top Iraqi clerics" in Qom, Iran, I take it.
#4
Agreed. The Shiites want the leverage but the major players want to apppear 'clean'; if they have to use a wannabe cleric and his Fighters of Dubious Distinction, so be it.
#5
It seems to me that Sadr is going to be politically marginalized if the Mahdi "army" does not cease activities and lay down its arms. Perhaps that is the preferred outcome. Keep them fighting for a while...it makes it clear that they are not for a peaceful actor in the new Iraq, it makes them appear as tools of Iran, it makes the local populace hate them even more and it gives our guys and the Iraqi Army a chance to kill even more of them. All a win from my perspective (other than the risk of losing more of our people of course).
#9
MSNBC/CNBC + CNN this AM > news interpreted by Perst as meaning that IRAN WILL CONTINUE TO BE A SUBSTANS POWER PLAYER IN THE SUCCESS OR FAILURE OF DEMOCRACY IN IRAQ + that IGA must formally consider Iran's viewpoint in any and all national policies. IOW, IRAN "DID NOT LOSE" IN BASRA FIGHTING.
Hat tip, LGF
An upcoming joint US-Israel report on the September 6 IAF strike on a Syrian facility will claim that former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein transferred weapons of mass destruction to the country, Channel 2 stated Monday. 24 hours rule
Posted by: g(r)omgoru ||
04/08/2008 05:48 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11129 views]
Top|| File under: Iraqi Baath Party
#1
Bush lied, thousands died
Bush lied, thousands died
(repeat until your head explodes)
Posted by: Moonbat Bobby ||
04/08/2008 6:46 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Hope the commandos on the ground took lots of pretty pictures.
Posted by: ed ||
04/08/2008 8:09 Comments ||
Top||
#3
What have I been saying about where those went, since oh, back in 2003?
#4
We saw photos of that here just before the 2003 invasion, and reports from the Iraqi general involved, sometime later. The truck convoys trundled across the border, heading toward the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon, as I recall, carrying WMDs, precursers, missiles and other weaponry, and lots of cash to finance the fighters after the invasion -- as indeed happened. It seems to me that Old Patriot in particular had opinions on what the photos showed.
#5
[moonbat]
I question the timing. This is more BushCo propaganda intended to scare people into supporting Chimpy McHaliburton's racist oil war.
[/moonbat]
Seriously, folks . . . you called it, 'Spook.
Posted by: Mike ||
04/08/2008 9:27 Comments ||
Top||
Debka has some nuggets of pure intelligence gold in it. You just have to sift through all the other dross in the meantime. Makes me not want the data sorter job in the CIA.
Interestingly, the article in the link above ties in with a link to Debka in today's Rantburg WOT Background section about trouble in the Syrian government between Baby Assad and his brother-in-law Gen. Asif Shawqat.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
04/08/2008 10:29 Comments ||
Top||
#10
And yet, when I try to tell these things to my moonbat friends they look at me like my head is on backwards. I'm sure they will continue to do so even after this report is released.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
04/08/2008 10:49 Comments ||
Top||
#11
and your moonbat friends will continue to look at you that way regardless of proof positive.
#12
It's sort of the default moonbat facial expression.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
04/08/2008 11:21 Comments ||
Top||
#13
If the WMD's moved to Syria, then this administration had to know about it. So, the $64 question is, why did they chose to weather the storm of criticism instead of saying something. A couple of recon photos would have made many Dems look really stupid, especially since they also must have known about it. So, why stay silent?
I chalk it up to the general incompetence the Bush administration has shown in publicly making its case for ANYTHING.
I think you are wrong. Problem is that thanks to the MSM, Chirak, Villepin and the "pesace" movement Bush had to spend all of his pôlitical capital for going into Irak. AZfter that he was politically paralyzed.
Also Saddams plan was to lay underground until the "peace" movement and the Hanoi Fondas foprced a withdrawal from Irak, perhpas through a Democratic victory in 2004. Of course it was essential to make Bush look like an idiot, thus put the weapons in another country. Notivce that Bush never told the WMD's were the only or even the main motive to invade, it was the MSM who placed that emphasis on the WMDs and so increased the political cost of not finding them.
Iraqs largest and most dangerous militia will voluntarily disband if Shia scholars advise its leader to do so, officials said yesterday a dramatic move that could quell much of the fighting in the war-torn country.
Aides to Hojatoleslam Moqtada al-Sadr said that he would send delegations to Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, a moderate religious leader in Najaf, and to senior clerics in Iran to consult on whether he should stand down his 60,000-strong al-Mahdi Army.
The sudden announcement the first time that the rebellious cleric had offered to disband his forces came as US and Iraqi troops were poised for a key offensive into his Baghdad stronghold of Sadr City.
Yesterday streams of refugees were pouring out of Sadr City as automatic gunfire and mortar bomb blasts ripped through the giant slum that is home to 2.5 million people. Terrified residents scuttled down side streets as tanks trundled along the main thoroughfares, shooting at guerrillas. A massive American and Iraqi security presence had ringed the area, with police and soldiers guarding every exit with many predicting a final, bloody showdown as popular support drained from al-Mahdi Army.
The position of Hojatoleslam al-Sadr, whose fighters fought government forces to a standstill in Basra, was looking precarious. His former erstwhile ally Nouri al-Maliki, the Shia Prime Minister who personally led the Basra crackdown, saw his standing bolstered by his tough approach to the militias.
Despite the inconclusive results of his Basra offensive, Mr al-Maliki has refused to back down and this weekend stitched together a rare consensus of Kurds, Sunnis and Shias to back a law banning from future elections any party that maintains a militia.
That united stance has put the Sadrists on the back foot, and support for the militia was waning even in Sadr City itself as official forces pushed ever deeper into al-Mahdi Army territory.
Ali Nema, a 45-year-old bureaucrat, was pushing his elderly parents and young children out of Sadr City on a wooden market barrow as gunfire rattled a few streets away. I had to get them out now because almost the whole of my sector has left, more than 80 per cent of the houses are empty now. The Americans are attacking, the Mahdi Army mortars are falling and the Iraqi Army are fighting too, he said.
Zainab Amer, a student, was stuck in her house for two weeks, too afraid to leave. She fled yesterday after a mortar bomb killed four neighbours. Before she left, four militiamen were shot dead in her street fighting the US Army. I saw one of them having his hand blown off right in front of our door. It was a horrible sight, she said. Everyone is fighting everyone else.
An Iraqi police commander whose forces have sealed the eastern approaches to Sadr City said that raids would resume today when a government deadline for the militia to disarm expires. I think this time theyre finished, said Brigadier Ali Ibrahim Daboun. In all the previous battles, they were attacking and we were on the defensive. Now its the other way round.
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC ||
04/08/2008 03:48 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11128 views]
Top|| File under: Mahdi Army
#1
Yes another defeat for Bush and the Bush-backed govenrment of Iraq, this is clearly a victory for al Sadr, who is biding his time and lulling his hapless enemies into a false sense of security.
Hey! That's not bad! Maybe I'll apply to The New York Times!
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/08/2008 5:53 Comments ||
Top||
#2
The MSM were completely wrong on who was winning and losing. It occured to me a couple of days ago that they were reporting what they wished were true.
#4
Is it even Maliki behind the push anymore? He's a duplicitous toad and I wouldn't trust him any further than I could throw him. My brother is being moved from Al-Taji airbase to a Stryker brigade in Baghdad for the festivities, I bid him happy hunting.
#6
Looks like 2004 left a deep impression on Sadr. He also knows hiding in a Shiite holy site won't save him or his lackeys this time.
Posted by: ed ||
04/08/2008 8:07 Comments ||
Top||
#7
One of the effects of having Tater in Iran studying is that he is buying into the religious structure. His status as a hojatoleslam (authority on Islam) makes it a requirement that he seek guidance from the grand ayatollah (sign of Allah).
Now, whether Sistani will actually help out here is probably less than 50%.
#8
That ayatollah-in-training all-Sadr is asking means the answer in his mind is already in the affirmative. He never thought of asking the question before.
Good luck to your brother, bigjim-ky, and all the rest who are rooting out the bad guys.
Two Thai soldiers were wounded in a roadside bomb blast in the southernmost border province of Yala. The bomb was detonated as six soldiers patrolled an area in the provincial seat. Volunteer Rangers Suwanai Maitim and Pongtad Pansanun were rushed to hospital.
The road where the incident occurred was temporarily closed for evidence gathering. According to the initial investigation, it was a remote controlled bomb but police are not yet certain how it was activated.
Iran has begun installing 6,000 new centrifuges at its uranium enrichment plant in Natanz, state television quoted President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as saying Tuesday.
...
Iran already has about 3,000 centrifuges operating at its underground nuclear facility in Natanz, and the U.N. has passed three sets of sanctions against Iran for its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment. Tehran insists its nuclear program is focused on the peaceful production of energy, not the development of weapons as claimed by the U.S. and many of its allies.
...
Ahmadinejad made Tuesday's announcement as he toured the Natanz facility in central Iran. "The president announced the start of the phase of installing 6,000 new centrifuges in Natanz," state television reported. State television also quoted Ahmadinejad as saying that "we have reached new achievements" in Natanz that he would announce later Tuesday.
The president's trip was scheduled to coincide with Iran's National Day of Nuclear Technology, marking the second anniversary of Iran's first enrichment of uranium. Ahmadinejad is widely expected to confirm for the first time Tuesday that Iran has installed hundreds of more sophisticated centrifuges that can enrich uranium faster.
The workhorse of Iran's enrichment program is the P-1 centrifuge, which is run in cascades of 164 machines. But Iranian officials confirmed in February that they had started using the IR-2 centrifuge that can churn out enriched uranium at more than double the rate.
Diplomats in Vienna told The Associated Press on Thursday that Iran has assembled hundreds of advanced centrifuges at Natanz. One diplomat said more than 300 of the centrifuges have been linked up in two separate units in Iran's underground enrichment plant and a third was being assembled. He said the machines apparently are more advanced than the thousands already running underground.
But a senior diplomat said that while the new work appeared to include advanced centrifuges, they were not IR-2s. Both diplomats are linked to the IAEA and asked for anonymity because their information was confidential.
A total of 3,000 centrifuges is the commonly accepted figure for a nuclear enrichment program that is past the experimental stage and can be used as a platform for a full industrial-scale program that could churn out enough enriched material for dozens of nuclear weapons. Iran says it plans to move toward large-scale uranium enrichment that ultimately will involve 54,000 centrifuges.
Posted by: ed ||
04/08/2008 10:46 ||
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#1
We might as well get used to the idea of Iran having nukes, holding the world hostage, and probably nuking Israel. Since we're all to big of pussies to do anything about it.
#2
See also STRATEGYPAGE > IRAN: LIFE IS GOOD. The Mullahocracy believes it is prevailing BOTH AT HOME INSIDE IRAN, AS WELL AS OUTSIDE i.e. "Many foreign attempts to SPREAD THE ISLAMIST[FUNDAMENTALIST] REVOLUTION CONTINUE TO PROSPER".
* ALa FREEREPUBLIC, Radical Islam + AQ face defeat in approxi 3 to 3-1/2 years, which can be indirectly reinterpreted as ALL THINGS EQUAL, BOTH IRAN + RADICAL ISLAMISM-TERROR HAVE 3+ YEARS TO GET THEIR NUKES-WMDS. FOR IRAN TO BECOME A DE FACTO NUCLEAR MIL-ECON POWER + RADICAL TERROR TO POSSESS THEIR OWN [INDEPEDENT]ARSENALS.
IOW, among other thinys BOTH BARACK OBAMA'S + HILLARY'S "END THE WAR/BRING THE TROOPS HOME" 2008 ELEX CLAIMS JUST FLEW OUT THE WINDOW.
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US and Afghan forces attacked a remote village in a mountainous region of northeastern Afghanistan following reports that an infamous insurgent leader was in the area, a governor said Monday. At least 16 people were killed. 
Members of France's GIGN, a military police counter-terrorism unit, have been sent to Djibouti, which neighbors Somalia to the North and hosts nearly 3,000 French soldiers.
Thousands of Somali citizens flee their homes as more than 14,000 Ethiopian soldiers have entered the East African nation's territories. Over 9,000 of the troops with armored vehicles are heading to the Capital, Mogadishu after crossing the border, a PressTV correspondent reported on Monday. 
(AKI) - The deadline for the release of two Austrian hostages held captive by an al-Qaeda organisation in Algeria has expired with no indication of whether they are dead or alive. The Al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb had given authorities until midnight (local time) on Sunday to free its members held in prison in exchange for Wolfgang Ebner and Andrea Kloiber.
RABAT (AFP) - Nine Islamic extremists convicted over the Casablanca bombings that killed 45 people in 2003, including one facing the death sentence, tunnelled their way out of a Moroccan prison early Monday, officials said. The Kenitra "prison administration noted the escape Monday morning and all measures have been taken to find the escaped prisoners and establish who was responsible," the justice ministry said in a statement quoted by the MAP state news agency.
(AKI) - An al-Qaeda cell has claimed responsibility for Sunday's rocket attack which targeted US oil experts in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa. According to a report on the ArabTV network Al-Jazeera, Yemeni government sources said that the terrorists had released a statement on the Internet claiming responsibility for the attack against the homes of the Americans in the al-Falal suburb of Sanaa. 
Yemeni police arrested an al-Qaeda suspect on Monday, one day after a mortar attack against a housing complex for US citizens and other Westerners in the capital Sana'a, a security source said. The source, quoted by a web site run by the Defence Ministry, said 
In yet another setback to the pro-Pakistan 
BAGHDAD Three U.S. airstrikes targeted mortar launching sites in northeastern Baghdad on Tuesday, killing 12 suspected gunmen, the military said.
But military spokesman Lt. Col. Steve Stover said all three strikes were precise and video footage showed no children or other apparent civilians in the areas.
Iraqs largest and most dangerous militia will voluntarily disband if Shia scholars advise its leader to do so, officials said yesterday a dramatic move that could quell much of the fighting in the war-torn country. 
