On this day in history: April 24th
1184 BC Greeks enter Troy using the Trojan Horse.
1704 The first regular newspaper in the United States, the Boston, Massachusetts New-Letter, is published.
1704 The first regular newspaper in the United States, the Boston, Massachusetts New-Letter, is published.
1898 The United States declares war on Spain.
1913 The skyscraper Woolworth Building in New York City is opened.
1918 First tank-to-tank combat, at Villers-Bretonneux, France, when three British Mark IVs met three German A7Vs.
1967 American General William Westmoreland says in a news conference that the enemy had "gained support in the United States that gives him hope that he can win politically that which he cannot win militarily."
1980 Eight U.S. servicemen die in Operation Eagle Claw as they attempt to end the Iran hostage crisis.
1990 STS-31: The Hubble Space Telescope is launched by the Space Shuttle Discovery.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
04/24/2009 13:43 Comments ||
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#8
As to when the Greeks entered Troy, I think it was a Tuesday around 7:30 A.M. It was chilly for an April morning. Wind out of the southwest at 15 gusting to 25. No other details available.
Posted by: Total War ||
04/24/2009 13:46 Comments ||
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#9
OK TotalWar, this bit of drivel is signifigant HOW?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/24/2009 16:12 Comments ||
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#10
Deacon I had the same reaction when I clicked on Babs. I don't know why I did it; call it OCD. Frightening experience. It will take a long time to get her image out of my mind. There should be some kind of WARNING such as click at your own risk.
***NSFW*** False advertising Poster from Jihad Travel Service.
The US military said Friday that air strikes killed 14 insurgents when troops under its command were locked in a six-hour battle with militants at a Taliban hotspot in southern Afghanistan.
It said insurgents ambushed an Afghan-coalition patrol in the Sangin district of Helmand province, a notorious hub for Taliban militants fighting against foreign troops and the main opium producing part of Afghanistan. After coming under attack troops "identified an enemy position and called in for close-air support resulting in six insurgents killed," the military said.
Insurgents then opened fire with rocket-propelled grenades (RPG) and gunfire before troops called in another air strike "killing eight more insurgents," it added in a statement. Three suspects were arrested during the incident Thursday, including one who surrendered with a RPG launcher and was receiving medical treatment, it said.
There was no independent confirmation of the death tolls.
Separately, a makeshift bomb exploded in the same province Friday, killing a man and a woman riding a motorbike, a local official said. "Today at 8:00 am (0430 GMT) a roadside bomb exploded against a woman and a man travelling by motorcycle. Both of them were killed," said Daud Ahmadi, spokesman for the Helmand governor. He blamed the attack on "enemies of Afghanistan".
In the capital Kabul, a policeman was killed when a booby-trapped bag he was inspecting blew up, an interior ministry spokesman told AFP.
A roadside bomb killed two Afghan soldiers and wounded another four late Thursday in Paktia province in eastern Afghanistan, an army commander said.
There were no immediate claims for any of the attacks.
I, for one, did not see this coming. Why hasn't the MSM been following this? Could it be that the reporting on Afghanistan is as innaccurate and biased as the reporting on Iraq?
Western and Taliban-led forces between them killed almost 40 per cent fewer Afghan civilians in the first three months of this year than in the same period of 2008, NATO's top spokesman told journalists in Brussels on Wednesday. The 39-per-cent reduction in civilian deaths "at least in part reflects the increased efforts by international forces" to reduce the body count, James Appathurai said.
NATO heads the UN-mandated International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, but has been plagued by accusations of civilian deaths - an issue which has had a serious impact on the alliance's image among some segments of the Afghan population.
Over the last 18 months, NATO has boosted its troop presence in Afghanistan by almost half in a bid to rein in the rising Taliban-led insurgency, with thousands more troops set to join ISAF's current 58,000 soldiers over the summer. NATO and Afghan forces are also due to set up some three dozen coordination centres around the country over the summer in order to beef up security ahead of national elections.
Despite those major boosts, "it is important to note that efforts to reduce the number of civilian casualties are having an effect," Appathurai stressed.
According to NATO's figures, Taliban-led fighters killed roughly four times as many Afghan civilians as did international forces in the first quarter of the year. That proportion was unchanged since last year, Appathurai said.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
04/24/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
"Western and Taliban-led forces between them killed almost 40 per cent fewer Afghan civilians in the first three months of this year"
Oy. So, what was the actual reduction figure attributed to EACH??? (like the Taliban actually gives a $hit about civilians)
WASHINGTON The top U.S. military officer in charge of the African coastline plagued by pirates says shipping companies should take a hard look at hiring armed guards to protect their ships.
Gen. David Petraeus said Friday that the U.S. military already has used armed guards aboard some commercial ships that carry military cargo. He said cargo ships cant really protect themselves with fire hoses when the pirates have rocket-propelled grenades.
Testifying Friday in Congress, Petraeus said that shipping companies have regarded piracy as a business problem for too long. He said now that pirates have become bolder and the costs of their attacks are higher, its time for the shippers to consider measures they have resisted until now.
#3
It's long past the time the owners took responsibility for their ships and armed them. They have been taking a free ride for too long. The consequences have gone from annoying to dangerous.
#4
The whole problem is that "Civillian" ships cannot be armed legaly. Only warships.
Seems the "Law of the Sea" badly needs a
rewrite.
Or to be ignored.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/24/2009 13:44 Comments ||
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#5
I'll take Door #2, RJ.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/24/2009 14:10 Comments ||
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#6
I'd opt for #1.
The problem with #2 is that it tends to run into problems with other nations, who for various and quite legitimate reasons, might have a problem with an 'armed merchant' entering their ports or territorial waters.
And before you go knee-jerk with a response, think. Not all places have piracy problems.
#11
To paraphrase what someone said sometime, artillery shells don't leave any holes in the water. I agree with the sink them, sink the mother ship, don't say anything, deny deny deny if anyone complains.
Especially when the ships are 300+ miles out to sea - the Somalis are NOT "protecting their fishing waters".
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
04/24/2009 20:49 Comments ||
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#12
Don't think of New York harbor; think of the smaller port of Lower Grubovia, where the navy is off visiting a sick aunt this week.
A small armed merchant ship comes in. Are they bringing cargo or is this their week for being pirates themselves?
Posted by: James ||
04/24/2009 21:18 Comments ||
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#13
Don't think of New York harbor; think of the smaller port of Lower Grubovia
Or Myannmar. Or Venzuela. Or Indonesia. Or China. Or any number of West African countries.
SAN'A, Yemen (AP) The two young sons of a Yemeni detainee at Guantanamo died when a grenade they were playing with accidentally detonated inside their home, a human rights lawyer and the detainee's brother said Thursday. They blame Bush yet?
The two boys were the sons of Guantanamo prisoner #1463, Abdelsalam al-Hilah, a businessman who was captured in Cairo in 2002 and sent to Guantanamo on charges of terrorism, said Ahmed Irman of the Hood Organization for Defending Human Rights, an organization that advocates for Guantanamo detainees in Yemen. The Hood Organization?
The children, Youssef, 11, and Omar, 10, were playing unsupervised with the grenade in a room in the house when it exploded. It is unclear why the grenade was in the house. Please supervise your children when they play with grenades. I can't stress that enough. Thank you.
The detainee's brother, Nabil al-Hilah, confirmed the boys were killed. Yeah, they're dead all right...
Irman said the boys had just received a rare phone call from their father two days before their death in which they chatted with their dad about their schoolwork and classes they were attending. You flunked grenade class! You'll have to practice more...
Irman said their father was shocked to hear how big the boys had grown. Well he won't have to worry about that anymore...
During the two-hour phone call, Irman said al-Hilah spoke about his frustration with being detained for such a long period of time and expressed pessimism at being released in the near future. Irman said he also spoke about what he described as a bad conditions in Guantanamo and a lack of change since President Barack Obama took office. The boys were buried on Wednesday. It is unclear if their father has been notified of their death. Hello, Abdelsalam? First the good news. We found that grenade you were looking for...
Boyah is a pirate. One of the original "Old Boys", he quietly pursued his trade in the waters of his coastal home town of Eyl, years before it galvanised the world's imagination as Somalia's infamous "pirate haven". Boyah is dismissive of the recent poseurs, the headline-grabbers who have bathed in the international media spotlight and it shows; he exudes a self-assured superiority.
Pirates are easy to spot on the streets of Garowe, the regional capital: their Toyota 4x4s cluster around equally new white-washed mansions on the edge of town. But to approach them, I am warned, is to invite kidnapping or robbery. In Somalia, everything is done through connections, be they clan, family, or friend, and Mohamed, my interpreter, was on and off the phone for almost a week to coax his network into producing Boyah.
Our meeting takes place at a virtually deserted farm 15km outside Garowe. Mohamed is the son of the newly elected president of Puntland and does not want to be seen in public cavorting with pirates. Moreover, Boyah has recently contracted tuberculosis and Mohamed insists that we meet him in an open space.
Continued on Page 49
#1
their Toyota 4x4s cluster around equally new white-washed mansions on the edge of town. But to approach them, I am warned, is to invite kidnapping or robbery.
What if we approach them via a 500lb bomb, ARCLIGHT, or hellfire missle?
#2
Illegal fishing IS a problem, not only along the Somali coast, but in dozens of places around the world. The worst offenders are the Chinese and Japanese. Just plain OVER-fishing is also a major problem. The North Sea is almost fished out. The northern Atlantic used to produce 50-lb cod, now anything over five pounds is considered "big".
While overfishing and illegal fishing are major problems, Somalia's largest problem is the lack of a proper government. Al-Qaida, tribalism, Islam, and just plain lack of faith in governments all play a role. It stinks to heaven of colonialism, but the best thing that could happen to Somalia is to be made a ward of the EU, India, Australia, Brazil, or some other group that would be willing to take on a long-term headache and money hole.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/24/2009 14:44 Comments ||
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#3
OP - I'm afraid all we've got planned is golden gopher colonialism. Seems we're part way through a generation of Minnesotan - Somalis, and it's an even bet as to which side, if any, they'll want to take on in future visits to the Olde Country.
On the other hand hand, Indian-American relations are thriving, particularly if Gov. Jindal ages gracefully.
[Iran Press TV Latest] Cairo has warned what it calls "hostile elements" to beware of "Egypt's wrath" as the country steps up the number of its arrests.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said on Thursday that the country would not tolerate "the intervention of regional powers that are hostile to peace and that aim to drag the region into the abyss. They aspire to impose their influence on our Arab world by introducing hostile elements into the region, in efforts to threaten Egypt's national security. We will uncover their plot; beware of Egypt's wrath!"
The remarks were made after Egypt said it had arrested 49 people over links with the Lebanese movement Hezbollah.
The remarks were made after Egypt said it had arrested 49 people over links with the Lebanese movement Hezbollah. The country initially alleged that the detainees supported Hamas but later accused them of conspiring to destabilize the country.
Egyptian state-run media later claimed that the group was plotting to carry out an attack in Tel Aviv. Hezbollah, however, has denied the allegations, saying the arrests were politically motivated and aimed at harming the movement ahead of the June elections in Lebanon.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/24/2009 00:00 ||
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[Maghrebia] Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb on Wednesday (April 22nd) released in Mali four foreign hostages who had been held for months, international news agencies reported. UN special envoy to Niger Robert Fowler and his assistant were abducted last December near Niamey, Niger, while the two female tourists from Germany and Switzerland were kidnapped in January along the Niger border. The hostages arrived early Thursday in Bamako after flying from an undisclosed location in Mali's northern desert region bordering Algeria, Mauritania and Niger. Two male hostages, a Swiss and a Briton, remain held by the kidnappers. In an audio recording broadcast by Qatari satellite TV channel Aljazeera in February, Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the kidnappings.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/24/2009 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) arrested 22 people, including 21 female, in Barisal yesterday. Some religious books were seized from their possession.
Rab officials at a press briefing said they were arrested on suspicion of criminal activities. Rab handed them over to Kotwali Police Station after daylong interrogation.
An 18-member team of Rab-8 led by Lt Commander KM Mamunur Rashid in the morning arrested Jalil and two women at a house near Rab's Rupatoli office. Later, the team rounded up another 19 while holding a meeting at a house at New Circular Road.
The arrestees claimed that they are Tabligh Jamaat members and came to attend Tabligh and Talim from different areas of the region and other districts.
Safura Khatun, 71, a resident of New Circular Road of the city, told The Daily Star that Rab detained them from the house of Rashu Begum. Rashu resides in Dhaka and Tabligh Jamaat is using her house for last 10 years, Safura said.
Hayatul Islam Khan, assistant commissioner of Barisal Metropolitan Police, told The Daily Star that the arrestees would be produced before judicial magistrate court under section 54 of CrPC for their suspicious movements.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/24/2009 00:00 ||
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This made my day.
On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that "the Pakistani government is basically abdicating to the Taliban," but the spokesman, Haji Muslim Khan, said that Taliban anger was partly caused by the presence of female American soldiers in the region. Mr. Khan said that Pakistan's Prime Minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, "should think about Western white women who take up arms and come from 20,000 miles away to fight against us here." That's one thing to think about. The other thing to think about is: they're kicking your ass.
Given that the circumference of the planet is only about 25,000 miles, it is not clear what route Mr. Khan believes Western forces are taking to get to Pakistan.
This article starring:
HAJI MUSLIM KHAN
TTP
Posted by: Matt ||
04/24/2009 19:40 ||
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#1
not so bad when a blond petite from Des Moines puts the lead to your Jihadis, huh? Little bit 'o shrinkage, Abdul? Unable to impress your goat with the latest exploits what with an infidel wymyn capping your bad asses?
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/24/2009 20:25 Comments ||
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#2
American Woman, stay away from me
American Woman, mama let me be
Don't come a hangin' around my door
I don't wanna see your face no more
I got more important things to do
Than spend my time gettin' shot by you
Now Woman, I said stay away
American Woman, listen what I say-ay-ay-ay-ay-ay
PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- Taliban militants who had seized a district just 60 miles (100 kilometers) from Pakistan's capital began pulling out Friday after the government warned it would use force to evict them.
The withdrawal from Buner, if completed, eliminates the most immediate threat to a peace agreement in the neighboring militant-held Swat Valley that the U.S. government worries has created a haven for allies of al-Qaida. But it is unlikely to quell fears that Islamabad is failing to deal forcefully with Islamist militants slowly expanding toward the heart of the nuclear-armed country from their strongholds along the Afghan border.
TV images showed dozens of militants emerging Friday from a high-walled villa that served as their headquarters in Buner, a rural area in the foothills of the Karakoram mountains. The men, most of them masked with black scarves and carrying automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades, clambered into several pickup trucks and minibuses before driving away. Had they not clambered into the several pickup trucks and minibuses before driving away the several pickup trucks and minibuses would have left without them, leaving them far from home, their faces masked with black scarves, still carrying automatic weapons, but vastly outnumbered by a populace that thinks they suck.
A hard-line cleric who helped mediate the disputed peace deal persuaded the Taliban to return to Swat in Friday's meeting, said Syed Mohammed Javed, the top government administrator in the region. "We told them that we have a deal, we have a peace agreement. We told them not to become a tool in the hands of someone aiming at sabotaging the peace in the region," Javed told The Associated Press by telephone from Buner. Javed said he and the aging cleric, Sufi Muhammad, were leading the Taliban convoy back to Mingora, Swat's main town, but it was not clear when they would cross the mountain passes leading out of Buner.
The government agreed in February to impose Islamic law in Swat and surrounding areas of the northwest in return for a cease-fire that halted nearly two years of bloody fighting between militants and Pakistani security forces. But hard-liners have seized on the concession to demand Islamic law across the country, and the Swat Taliban used it to justify their push into Buner, putting them within striking distance of the capital and key roads leading to the main northwestern city of Peshawar.
Taliban commanders insisted their fighters had been preaching peacefully for Islamic law, or Sharia, in Buner and their spokesman said they were leaving "of their own accord, not under any pressure."
President Barack Obama's administration, which views the elimination of militant sanctuaries in Pakistan critical to success in the Afghan war and to preventing another Sept. 11-style terrorist strike on the United States, has expressed dismay. Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in an interview broadcast Friday that the Buner episode had brought Pakistan "closer to the tipping point" where it could be overtaken by Islamic extremists. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Thursday that Washington was trying to persuade Islamabad to shift its security focus from archrival India to Islamic extremists.
With the pressure mounting, the army, whose ability and commitment to combating Islamist extremists is under intense international scrutiny, issued an unusually tough statement Friday.
Apparently referring to the Swat deal, army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani said the current pause in military operations was "meant to give the reconciliatory forces a chance (but) must not be taken for a concession to the militants." Kayani said the army was "determined to root out the menace of terrorism" and would "not allow the militants to dictate terms to the government or impose their way of life."
The Taliban pulled back from Buner before that resolve was put to the test.
With police hunkered down in their barracks, provincial authorities on Wednesday sent a few hundred lightly armed paramilitary troops to protect government buildings. But they were halted shortly after crossing the district border by gunfire that killed a police officer, prompting a string of statements from politicians warning that they could scupper the peace agreement.
Ikram Sehgal, a Pakistani military analyst, said that while the attempt to insert the paramilitaries was a "fiasco," the Taliban likely feared that a full-blown army operation might follow. "Buner is basically a one-road valley that would have been easy to seal. It was a tactical retreat," Sehgal said.
He said recent statements by Sufi Muhammad denouncing democracy had opened the eyes of ordinary Pakistanis as well as its generals to the real nature of the militants, who have beheaded opponents, torched girls schools and recently offered protection to al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden.
The peace accord covers Swat, Buner and other districts in the Malakand Division, an area of about 10,000 square miles (25,900 square kilometers) near the Afghan border and the tribal areas where al-Qaida and the Taliban have strongholds. Supporters have said the deal takes away the militants' main rallying call for Islamic law and will let the government gradually reassert control. But critics say it hands immunity to criminals and note that the militants have rejected calls for them to give up their arms.
#1
Syed Mohammed Javed, the top government administrator in the region, said a hard-line cleric who helped mediate the peace deal persuaded the Taliban to return to Swat in a meeting Friday. "No need to worry, they all are on their way back," Javed told The Associated Press by telephone from Buner.
#2
"We were going to withdraw, but Achmed's Landcruiser got a nail in the tire, so we'll have to stay....a while....to make sure all our tires are OK. But we're leaving, really"
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/24/2009 18:38 Comments ||
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I saw the news about the taliban pulling back but then all of a sudden i hear breaking news of a military operation just now. So now they've got time to get out of the way and the Mighty Pak Army can do its strut and nobody gets hurt. Do they have drums? The Mighty Pak Army can't move without lashkar drums ...
ISLAMABAD: A military operation against militants in Swat is to start within 48 hours, military sources said, adding that a troop build-up in the region was ongoing, DawnNews reported.
#4
Maybe somebody told 'em they could end up getting nuked if they don't get a handle on the situation.
But the question remains, Is the "real" Pak army gonna fight? Wouldn't be surprised if it takes them a few days to redeploy from the Indian border. Gosh, does anybody think India would take advantage?
#5
Likely as not this will be a photo op event with troops and tanks going in, blowing some stuff up, making a few arrests and then declaring victory and leaving.
[Geo News] Police arrested 10 kidnappers and seized weapons from their possession during a search operation in District Hangu on Thursday. The District Police Officer Sher Akbar Khan told that police had launched the operation against the alleged abductors in Tull and Doaba tehsils of Hangu. He said that houses of the alleged kidnappers were also torched. DPO Akbar said that the operation would continue for an unspecified period.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/24/2009 00:00 ||
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Security forces on Thursday killed 11 Taliban in Orakzai Agency and destroyed nearly a dozen of their hideouts, the army said. "In a successful operation reportedly 11 militants were killed by the army in the agency," it said in a statement. It was not possible to confirm the death toll independently. The statement said that 11 hideouts were targeted and destroyed in Chapri Feroze Khel, Khawaja Khizer and Bizoti areas of the agency. Security forces killed at least 27 Taliban on Tuesday and Wednesday in Ghiljo, it said.
Separately, security forces seized a huge cache of arms and ammunition during a search operation in Darra Adam Khel, it added.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/24/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Up to 46. Supposedly...
KALAYA: Forty six militants have been killed and 26 injured in the four-day military operation in the Orakzai Agency, tribal and official sources said on Thursday.
The sources said jet fighters and gunship helicopters pounded the militants hideouts in Balozai area of the Kalaya Tehsil on Thursday at 2:00 pm, killing five militants and a civilian. A number of hideouts and bunkers of the militants were destroyed on Shawazar mountains, the sources said.
They said several government and private installations were also damaged during the shelling by the jet fighters and gunship helicopters on Wednesday. The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Orakzai chapter commander, Hakimullah Mehsud, told reporters by phone from an undisclosed location that the TTP was not responsible for the killing of civilians. Until the government stops operations and ensures a halt to the drone attacks in the tribal areas, the TTP will continue attacking the government installations, he added.
The residents of Dabori, Khadizai and Ghiljo Tehsil have started migration to safer places in tractors, vans and carts. They complained that no camp had been set up in Hangu for the migrating people by the political authorities.
We have no proper place to accommodate the internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Hangu and have requested the provincial government to allot us a place for setting up a camp for the affected people, Political Agent Orakzai Agency Abdul Baseer said, adding the political authorities had also sought funds from the central government on an emergency basis for the rehabilitation of the affected people in the district.
Meanwhile, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) media cell said the security forces had killed 11 militants in the Orakzai Agency on Thursday after hitting the militants hideouts in Chapri, Ferozkhel, Khwajakhizar and Bizoti areas of the Orakzai Agency.
It further said that the security forces in operations on Tuesday and Wednesday killed 27 militants in Ghiljo Tehsil. A big cache of arms and ammunition was seized in a search operation in Darra Adamkhel, Frontier Region (FR), Kohat.
Six tankers supplying fuel to NATO forces in Afghanistan were gutted and a guard sustained injuries after suspected Taliban opened fire on them on Thursday, police said. A Chamkani police official told Daily Times that five militants equipped with sophisticated weapons and rocket launchers entered the Pakistan Oil Tanker terminal at Jhagra Chowk at around 3am and opened fire on the tankers parked there. He said the guard, Razam Khan, sustained injuries and six tankers were charred. He said at least three blasts were also heard, but the cause was not certain yet. The official said the fire was put out after seven hours of struggle.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/24/2009 00:00 ||
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Eight Frontier Constabulary platoons rushed to Buner on Thursday to protect vital state installations in the northwestern town now virtually under Taliban control, while the Taliban entered the adjacent Shangla district in another brazen move.
Local residents and police in Poran tehsil of Shangla said around 30 armed Taliban arrived in the town on Thursday morning. "They entered the tehsil in cars and are still in the area," a police official said.
Governing Buner: The march on Shangla came after the district administration recognised Taliban's control over Buner district by holding a jirga with a local commander to lay down procedures to govern the district.
"We will not display weapons in public, and we will stay away from undue interference in the district administration," Taliban commanders Mufti Bashir and Ustad Yasir told the jirga which local administration officials and jirga elders attended.
Attack on FC convoy: But moments after the Taliban pledged to stay peaceful, a convoy of Frontier Constabulary was attacked in the Totalai area. Two escorting police officers were killed and another was wounded.
No group has claimed responsibility so far, but the Taliban are being suspected.
In a second attack, armedmen robbed a truck carrying supplies for the security forces in Baboo area in Khawazakhela tehsil and abducted three soldiers, local residents said.
However, there was no official confirmation.
At the jirga earlier on Thursday, the Taliban agreed to pardon some of those who had taken up arms against them, but kept others on their hit list.
Army spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas insisted the situation in Buner was not as dire as some have portrayed -- telling the Associated Press that Taliban were in control of less than 25 percent of the district, mostly its north.
"We are fully aware of the situation," Abbas said. "The other side has been informed to move these people out of this area."
The NWFP government convened a meeting of provincial heads of political parties to discuss the situation after the approval of Nizam-e-Adal Regulation and the concerns following reports that the Taliban are running a parallel administration, abductions for ransom continue and the writ of the state is far from returning to the area.
"It was decided to convene a joint meeting of all political parties to brief them on the situation in the region," a communiqué from the Chief Minister's Secretariat in Peshawar read.
NWFP Senior Minister Bashir Bilour said the government "reserves the right" to use force if peace accord violations continued. "But first we want to let peace come," he told reporters in Peshawar.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/24/2009 00:00 ||
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Couldn't afford the fare to Afghanistan?
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The top U.S. military commander in the Mideast says attacks in Iraq will continue for some time, and they may be the work of a network of foreign fighters from Tunisia.
U.S. Gen. David Petraeus told a House panel Friday that four recent suicide bombers in Iraq were from Tunisia. He said officials have captured one who planned an attack. He said the Tunisian militants have returned to Iraq in the last several months as the number of Iraqi suicide bombers have dwindled.
Petraeus cited some successes in Iraq, but he cautioned that progress continues to be fragile and reversible.
[Bangla Daily Star] The Iraqi military announced the capture yesterday of the man they say is the head of al-Qaeda in Iraq, as at least 73 people were killed in two bloody suicide bombings.
"Abu Omar al-Baghdadi was arrested today in Baghdad," Baghdad security spokesman Major General Qasim Atta told AFP. "It was Iraqi forces who arrested him based on an intelligence tipoff from someone." Baghdadi is said to be the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq, a self-styled umbrella organisation for al-Qaeda affiliated insurgent groups fighting US and Iraqi forces. He has been reported captured or killed several times in the past. But the US military claims there is nobody called Baghdadi in the Islamic State of Iraq, and that it is merely an Internet-based organisation.
The Iraqi military's announcement came amid a surge in bloodshed in two attacks on Thursday. In the deadliest strike, at least 45 people, including Iranian pilgrims, were killed when a suicide bomber struck a restaurant in a town northeast of Baghdad, a military official said.
Another 28 people, including children, were killed in a suicide attack on a police patrol in southeastern Baghdad, defence and interior ministry officials told AFP.
In Muqdadiyah northeast of Baquba, at least 45 people were killed and 55 wounded in the attack on the restaurant, which was packed with Iranian pilgrims on their way to the Shia holy city of Karbala south of Baghdad.
In southeastern Baghdad, another 28 people were killed in the attack on a police patrol in the mixed district of Al-Riyadh, officials said. "Iraqi police were distributing aid to displaced families when a suicide bomber blew himself up," an interior ministry official said. "At least 10 police and five children are among 28 dead."
Fifty-two people were also wounded in the blast, defence and interior ministry officials said. A second interior ministry source said the suicide bomber was a woman, but this could not immediately be confirmed. A hospital official told AFP that families were fighting to discover if their relatives were listed as dead on a casualty list. Sixteen people, including the 10 policemen, five children and a woman, were confirmed dead at the hospital, he said, with 25 wounded receiving treatment there.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki warned on Sunday at a meeting of senior security officials that the danger from terrorist cells was far from over. His remarks followed an upsurge in violence over recent weeks after several months in which there was a steady reduction in the number of attacks. "We have succeeded in re-establishing security, but maintaining it is more difficult," Maliki told the meeting of senior police officers.
Iraq's 560,000 police and 260,000 soldiers are to assume greater responsibility for security as US forces withdraw from all cities by June 30 and from the country as a whole by the end of 2011. Violence has plummeted over the past two years as American and Iraqi forces have allied with local tribes and former insurgents to bring calm to vast swathes of the country. However more than 100 people have been killed since the start of April, according to an AFP count based on reports from security officials.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/24/2009 00:00 ||
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Army chief Gen. Anupong Paochinda said on Thursday that the situation in Thailands southernmost jihad insurgency-affected provinces has improved but the State of Emergency Decree is necessary to be maintained to restore peace in the area. The Army chief made his comments during a visit to the border province of Pattani to follow up on the latest situation in the area and the implementation of security measures.
Gen. Anupong said that the situation has dramatically improved as a result of increasing cooperation between locals and the authorities. The Army chief cited the case of Pattani shooting incident early Thursday when a presumed insurgent attempted to shoot a local resident, but the assailant was wounded when the targeted victim fired back, allowing security forces to track and arrest the assailant later in the day.
Despite calls from human rights activists who claim the implementation of the State of Emergency Decree in the southernmost provinces affect the ways of life of local people, Gen. Anupong said the decree in effect remain in force in the region to restore peace and it did not restrict human rights. In fact, local people have not been affected by the decree. The Army has frequently evaluated the situation and its impact, Gen. Anupong said.
As the Army chief meanwhile was in a security meeting with concerned agencies at Sirindhorn camp in Pattanis Yarang district, a roadside bomb was detonated when a pick-up truck returning provincial paramilitary rangers from their daily security mission in Krong Pinang district passed by. Three paramilitary rangers were wounded and were sent to Yala Hospital.
[Bangla Daily Star] Tamil Tiger rebels encircled in a tiny strip of land by Sri Lankan troops are still putting up stiff resistance despite calls for their surrender, the military said yesterday. The army said the guerrillas controlled a mere 10-12 square kilometres (around four square miles) of territory on the northeast coast, where thousands of civilians are still trapped by the fighting.
Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara, the island's military spokesman, said the Tigers were using artillery and tanks. "There are sporadic clashes but our priority is to get the civilians out. We can finish them off very quickly after the civilians get out of the way," he said.
"We can claim we have completely defeated the Tigers when we have captured the remaining area," he said. The defence ministry, meanwhile, said guerrilla resistance was "dwindling."
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
04/24/2009 00:00 ||
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The news agencies keep talking about "jungle", but there isn't any jungle where the Tamils are holed up. They're on a narrow strip of land, less than a mile wide, that is bordered on one side by the ocean and the other by one of several lagoons. There are houses and small fields all along the peninsula, and three bridges that link the peninsula with the mainland - one at the lower end that links the peninsula with Mullaitivu to the south, and two that link the peninsula to the mainland across the lagoon. There are the equivalent of about eight divisions surrounding the Tamils, and an ever-shrinking piece of ground for them to stand upon. You can't fire artillery from six feet of water - it just doesn't work. It looks very likely that the Tigers are about to be defanged.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/24/2009 15:11 Comments ||
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A Lebanese prosecutor on Thursday charged a former general and three other people with spying for Israel and referred them to the military court.
Adeeb al-Alam, a retired brigadier general of the prominent General Security directorate, his wife and nephew were arrested this month by the Lebanese police on suspicion of espionage. A fourth person linked to the cell is still at large, judicial sources said. The arrests had been described by the local media as a major achievement for the Lebanese security services and a blow to Israel's spying networks monitoring the anti-Israeli guerrilla and political group Hezbollah.
Judge Sakr Sakr charged the four with establishing contact with Israel's Mossad spy agency "and supplying it with information about military and civilian Lebanese and Syrian centers with the aim of facilitating its aggressive acts". Sakr also accused Alam of possession of weapons and of him and his wife, Hayat Saloumi, of visiting "the enemy country" without permission. If indicted and later convicted by the military court, the four face the death penalty.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/24/2009 00:00 ||
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"Spying for Israel" seems to be the way the Lebanese are using to get rid of anyone not "acceptable" to Hezbollah. I doubt if one in 500 is actually a spy for Israel.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/24/2009 15:14 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
SAN'A, Yemen (AP) The two young sons of a Yemeni detainee at Guantanamo died when a grenade they were playing with accidentally detonated inside their home, a human rights lawyer and the detainee's brother said Thursday.
[Iran Press TV Latest] Cairo has warned what it calls "hostile elements" to beware of "Egypt's wrath" as the country steps up the number of its arrests. 
Security forces on Thursday killed 11 Taliban in Orakzai Agency and destroyed nearly a dozen of their hideouts, the army said. "In a successful operation reportedly 11 militants were killed by the army in the agency," it said in a statement. It was not possible to confirm the death toll independently. The statement said that 11 hideouts were targeted and destroyed in Chapri Feroze Khel, Khawaja Khizer and Bizoti areas of the agency. Security forces killed at least 27 Taliban on Tuesday and Wednesday in Ghiljo, it said.
Eight Frontier Constabulary platoons rushed to Buner on Thursday to protect vital state installations in the northwestern town now virtually under Taliban control, while the Taliban entered the adjacent Shangla district in another brazen move.
[Bangla Daily Star] The Iraqi military announced the capture yesterday of the man they say is the head of al-Qaeda in Iraq, as at least 73 people were killed in two bloody suicide bombings.
A Lebanese prosecutor on Thursday charged a former general and three other people with spying for Israel and referred them to the military court. 
