Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/19/2006 01:47 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Congratulations to a self-confessed Rantburger, Mr. Roggio! Good luck with your future embed with the troops in Afghanistan; I look forward to reading the articles that come out of that adventure.
IRAQI CITIZEN'S TIP LEADS TO MND-B SOLDIERS CAPTURING WEAPONS CACHES
4/19/2006
BAGHDAD, Iraq Responding to a tip from an Iraqi citizen, Multi-National Division Baghdad Soldiers found a weapons cache south of Baghdad April 17.
At approximately 6 p.m., while conducting a combat patrol, Soldiers from 1st Squadron, 10th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division received a tip from the local national that led the Soldiers to the cache.
The cache consisted of eight 250- to 500-pound aerial bombs stored in a steel cage and ready to be transported. The Soldiers contacted an explosive ordnance disposal team, which conducted a controlled detonation and destroyed the cache.
Earlier in the day, Soldiers from MND-Bs 2nd Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, discovered a cache while conducting a combat patrol southwest of Baghdad. The cache consisted of two rocket-propelled grenade launchers, 15 rocket-propelled grenades, a mortar tube, a 60 mm round, two green star clusters (flares) and an Iraqi police vest.
The cache was turned over to an EOD team and rendered safe.
A massive explosion rocked the Afghan capital late Wednesday near the diplomatic area where the U.S. Embassy is located. A large plume of white smoke rose into the air.
The source of the blast was not immediately clear. Emergency vehicle sirens could be heard speeding to the area.
A massive explosion believed to have been caused by a rocket shook the Afghan capital late Wednesday near the diplomatic area where the U.S. Embassy is located, a police official said.
At least one policeman was wounded, and a large plume of white smoke rose into the air.
The explosion occurred at the state TV building, which is next to the heavily fortified U.S. Embassy and the base for NATO-led forces in the capital, a police official at the scene said.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was unauthorized to speak to the media, said the blast was apparently caused by a rocket targeting the U.S. Embassy building.
Embassy spokesman Lou Fintor could not confirm if the blast targeted the heavily guarded American mission, where staff rushed to a bunker in the compound.
"We are trying to determine what has happened and locate the source of the explosion," Fintor told The Associated Press.
KABUL - Afghan and US-led coalition forces detained eight Taleban insurgents during a combat operation in the Maiwand district of the southern province of Kandahar, US military said late Tuesday. The joint operatives raided a compound in Dukah village, detaining suspected narcotics traffickers, and confiscating weapons. A US attack helicopter provided close-air support during the mission, the US military said in a statement.
In recent weeks, combat missions led by Afghan security forces have disrupted multiple terrorist cells and foiled several suicide-and roadside-bombing plots in southern Afghanistan, the statement added. Kandahar was once the main stronghold of former Taleban spiritual leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, whose tyrannic regime was toppled by an international military coalition led by the United States in late 2001.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/19/2006 09:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
In tit-for-tat reaction to the government's ban on pillion riding, Taliban in the Andar district of Ghazni province have warned residents against vehicle movement.
The provincial authorities have banned unregistered motorcycles in the province after the killing of former governor Taj Mohammad, alias Qari Baba about a month back.
A number of residents of the Andar district told Pajhwok Afghan News over the telephone that Taliban went into villages and warned people against riding vehicles in the district, which is adjacent to the provincial capital.
Amin Khan Qayumzai, resident of Andar and a doctor, who is running his clinic in Ghazni City, said he had been informed by his family not to come to house in his car.
Another resident of the district Haji Sher Mohammad said they had seen no vehicle plying roads in the district today (Monday). The warning was issued by Taliban last night.
Confirming the ban on vehicle movement by Taliban in Andar, provincial Governor Sher Alam Ibrahimi said the militants did so in response to the government's ban on pillion riding.
He said the Taliban were involved in killing of innocent citizens and sabotaging the peace of the province. "Taliban have further weakened and they want to hide their weakness by teasing and threatening the common citizens."
An officer in the provincial police headquarters, on condition of anonymity, said no vehicle had come from the Andar district to Ghazni City or other districts today. He said the law-enforcement agencies were ready to launch an anti-Taliban operation in the district.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/19/2006 01:49 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
A Taliban commander was killed and his two colleagues arrested in a police raid in southern Afghanistan late on Monday while a senior police officer was injured in an overnight clash with Taliban in the same region.
A Taliban commander named Abdul Haleem was killed in Kalat city of Zabul province when police raided their hideout Monday night. The three militants were hiding in a house and on seeing the police approaching they opened fire and exchange of fire resulted in the killing of the commander while his two other colleagues surrendered. Police chief of the Zabul province Nabi Mulakhail said the commander was wanted to the government. He would not disclose names of the two arrested people. Separately, a district police chief was injured as a result of a clash between Taliban and police in the neighbouring Helmand province last night.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/19/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
A three-and-half year old girl, Aisha-Luul, last month became a victim of the latest fighting in Mogadishu. She sustained a serious injury after being shot in the arm by a stray bullet while standing outside of her family's house at SOS sub- district in the city. The fighting erupted in mid February when a new coalition calling itself the "anti-terrorist" group was formed to counter the growing influence of islamist groups in the city. Hardened warlords in the capital have reportedly established a partnership with some wealthy businessmen to challenge heavily armed religious leaders who are running a network of islamic Courts.
Although name calling is nothing new in Somalia, especially among the bitter political rivals, the new coalition of the warlords call their islamist foes "terrorists", while the Sheikhs call the warlords "demons." Many people are shocked by the intensity of the violent confrontations, but the events have a clear background. When Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG) was formed in Kenya, a number of MPs-cum-ministers returned to Mogadishu confident that they had a mandate to rule the country. They vowed to tame armed militia, remove roadblocks from streets and establish an administration for the city. Nine months lapsed between April and December 2005 and the warlords achieved none of their three goals. Demobilisation of militias, removal of roadblocks and establishment of an administration for the city have not materialised. In fact, they reached a dead end when the militias they assembled at two camps at the outskirts of Mogadishu left without notice. The dismantled roadblocks were occupied by other groups and the attempt to form a city council attracted officials who were unwilling to obey their masters.
The shocking reality is that the warlords found themselves face to face with the leaders of the islamic courts, an equally armed group with an even more hardline political agenda. The most dramatic showdown occurred in October last year when islamists began to forcibly close down various entertainment centres, often clashing with their owners. Although it was during the Muslim holy month of Ramadhan, what was happening was like a rehearsal for what was likely to occur in the immediate future. Those running the entertainment centres were mainly supporters of the warlords. Their leaders, however, could not intervene, fearing confrontations. The islamic courts strategically occupied every roadblock that was removed by the warlords. Even members of the city council were more inclined to listen to the instructions of the religious leaders than the warlords who masterminded the council's formation. For the warlords, it amounted to one frustration after another, feeling that the 15 year soap opera of violence was being snatched from them.
When the main bodies of the TFG began moving to Baidoa in Southern Somalia following the announcement that the parliamentary sessions were going to be held there, the humiliated warlords opted not to leave the city at the mercy of the islamists. The best option for the warlords to teach the bearded men a lesson was to form a coalition and to accuse the islamic courts of being a terrorist hub. Furious islamists reacted by attacking the warlords, whom they called "demons," with guns and mortar shells. The city soon degenerated into full scale violence in which hundreds of people died and many more were injured. While the coalition of warlords has admitted that they are part of the global war on terror with a mission to hunt down terrorists operating in Somalia, the Sheikhs have denied being part of al-Qaeda's global terror network.
The islamists are claiming victory in their confrontation with the warlords, who are denying this and claiming even bigger victory for being able to link the islamic courts with al-Qaeda. At the end of the day, however, as the islamists and warlords battle for supremacy, the losers are innocent victims such as Aisha-Luul, who is too young to understand what the war that caused her a bullet wound is all about.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/19/2006 01:11 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Sit back and see who wins. Then nuke the place.
Despite ongoing and often tricky efforts to end the civil war that since 1991 has turned Somalia into a worn-out and destitute failed state, heavy clashes have recently erupted between warlords and Islamist extremists in the capital, Mogadishu.
The fighting, which has involved indiscriminate barrages of mortar and anti- aircraft fire leveled point blank across the city, represents the worst violence in almost a decade and is bad news for a region already suffering from the ravages of acute drought.
Clans traditionally at war with one another are uniting to fight the Islamists, whom they call terrorists, but the Islamists say they can bring order to a lawless state that has not had a central government for 16 years. And while the renewed conflict has been restricted largely to Mogadishu, it is proving detrimental to the overall peace process, the political survival of the country's fragile United Nations-backed transitional government, and critical humanitarian operations.
"You feel that one is just beginning to make some good progress against all odds, when something like this happens," observed one Nairobi-based official with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA).
Much like the Taliban in Afghanistan during the mid-'90s, the Islamists have declared that they are determined to end the current lawlessness but also place Somalia under strict sharia or Islamic law. They have accused the warlords of being supported by "non-Muslim foreigners," implying the US anti-terrorist task force stationed in neighboring Djibouti.
The warlords, who have formed a coalition called the "Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism," claim that the Islamists are behind many recent targeted assassinations of prominent figures, particularly those who have argued in favor of an international peacekeeping force, which the fundamentalists are dead-set against.
Last year, a country director of the Geneva-based War-Torn Societies Project (WSP), who was heavily involved in promoting peace-building initiatives between the different rival groups, was assassinated in what international aid workers and diplomatsmaintain was clearly because of his links with outside organizations.
The warlords also accuse the Islamists of cultivating close links to Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations. According to the Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG), terror-related groups have taken advantage of Somalia's collapse to attack neighboring countries as well as transit agents and material.
"The country is a refuge for the Al Qaeda team that bombed a Kenyan resort in 2002 and tried to down an Israeli aircraft in 2003," according to a December 2005 ICG report. The organization further asserts that the Islamists have been behind the murders of Somalis and foreigners alike since 2003.
The fighting has raised considerable international concern about the protection of civilians and the ability of aid agencies to continue providing key humanitarian relief. Compounded by the drought, which is beginning to create dire famine conditions, including the loss of more than half the country's cattle and sheep, current insecurity is causing people to flee to safer areas, including northern Kenya, where the UN says more than 100,000 Somali refugees are living.
According to international aid groups, most of which operate out of neighboring Kenya because they consider it too dangerous to work full time inside Somalia, at least 70 people, mainly civilians, have been killed with hundreds more injured over the past two months.
"They don't call the Somali situation a complex emergency for nothing," notes Robert Malleta, a veteran American aid consultant based in the region."There are areas of southern Somalia which are very insecure. You have to know whom to trust. Effective aid depends very much on working with good local NGOs (nongovernmental organizations) and civil society groups."
Particularly critical has been the situation in Baidoa, where Somalia's Transitional Federal Parliament (TFP) has been sitting since February in a bid to reconcile differences and reestablish some form of government. Unpaid local militia roam the town threatening and assaulting civilians and aid workers alike. Although local authorities have imposed a curfew, the UN has declared Baidoa off-limits to all its international staff.
On April 4, the international aid community appealed for $326 million to help thwart the onset of famine that threatens the lives of some 2.1 million out of Somalia's estimated 9 million people.
According to Christian Balslev-Olesen, the UN's acting humanitarian coordinator for Somalia, emergency relief is also needed to bolster current peace-building initiatives. "If we cannot deliver on the humanitarian situation, it's going to backfire on the political process," he says.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/19/2006 01:09 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Deja vu all over again? Count us out this time.
#4
"You feel that one is just beginning to make some good progress against all odds, when something like this happens," observed one Nairobi-based official with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA).
#5
Notice the article says southern Somalia has the problems, not the area that the Somaliland government controls. Somaliland is stable and peaceful, and unfortunately, will not become an independent fucntional nation because of international politics at its worst.
The Darfur Equality and Justice rebel movement has taken control of the Sudanese embassy in N'Djamena, the capital of Chad, the Sudanese news agency said Tuesday evening. The agency quoting an un-named source as saying that armed personnel have destroyed communication equipment and have beaten the Charge d'affaires. The source also said that the group leader, Khalil Ibrahim, has held a meeting inside the Charge d'affaires' office, and later released all staff working inside the embassy.
Another group of rebels have attacked the house of the military attache, and destroyed it completely, the source added. Sudanese minister of state at the foreign ministry Al-Samani Al-Wasila said his government has taken all necessary measures to guarantee safe return of the Sudanese diplomats and nationals from Chad. Chad has cut off diplomatic ties with Sudan after accusing the latter of supporting rebels attacking the capital, N'Djamena, last Thursday.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/19/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Sudan is supposed to be backing the rebels. maybe the weapons and money didn't arrive in time.
#2
This is the rebels against Sudan, kicking the gummint out and taking over the Sudanese embassy.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/19/2006 9:13 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Maybe a promising sign for things to come in the s#!thole of a country? I mean, enough's enough for these people. I pray and weep for each soul lost in this new genocide (although it won't be called as such by the UN). I'm all for inserting just a few groups in Sudan and TCOB of the janjaweed ASAP. We pledged "never again" after Rwanda, and it's happening again right before our eyes.
Posted by: BA ||
04/19/2006 9:45 Comments ||
Top||
#4
The Chadian cops were busy buying a donut maker. The old one broke.
Cairo, 19 April (AKI) - The Egyptian government announced on Wednesday that it has broken up a suspected terror cell and arrested at least 22 militant Islamists planning bomb attacks on different locations throughout the country, including tourist targets, a gas pipeline near the capital, Cairo, and Muslim and Christian religious leaders. The group called itself the Victorious Group and had member in various Cairo suburbs, the interior ministry said in a statement.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/19/2006 08:30 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Sanaa, 19 April (AKI) - A court in Yemen has sentenced 14 Islamists to jail terms between 18 months to seven years for planning to abduct Americans in order to negotiate the release of prisoners. The 14 men were also convicted of plotting to attack military and security installations in the country. Reports say that as the judge pronounced the verdict on Wednesday, the defendents chanted Islamic hyms.
During the legal proceedings, the 14 men admitted that they had been planning to travel to Iraq to fight against the US-led forces there but they denied all the other charges. Kidnapping is a common strategy among tribes in Yemen, who use hostages as levers to extract money or make demands from the government. Some 200 foreigners were kidnapped in Yemen between 1991- 2001.
The government in Yemen has vowed to crack down on these abductions and has already put to death two kidnappers in April. The impoverished country is a key partner in the US-led 'war on terror' and is trying to rid itself of its reputation as a haven for Islamic extremists.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/19/2006 08:39 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
A seventh al-Qaida runaway from the 23 prisoners who fled the central intelligence prison in Sanaa February has surrendered to Yemeni authorities.
Daily al-Rai quoted a security source as saying Tuesday that "the seventh runaway al-Qaida member surrendered Monday in an operation that appears to have been preceded by negotiations."
The source said security forces raided an apartment in a neighborhood south of Sanaa where they seized Zakaria Yafii, who made no attempt to resist arrest. He was taken back to the central intelligence prison which he fled 75 days ago in an operation still shrouded in mystery and suspicion.
The source said the police had been tipped off with regard to Yafii's whereabouts and that the information was checked by intelligence agents before they carried out the operation and forced the man to surrender.
Yafii's surrender is believed to have been the result of negotiations between the intelligence service and tribal leaders, as were previous deals that led to the surrender of six other runaway prisoners.
Yafii was among 23 inmates who managed to flee through a tunnel dug between a cell and a nearby mosque located outside the prison's fence Feb. 3. He is one of six suspects who were waiting to be tried on charges of belonging to al-Qaida and planning terrorist attacks against foreign interests in Yemen.
The runaway prisoners described as "dangerous" included convicts in the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in the port of Aden in which 17 U.S. servicemen were killed. Their escape caused tensions in U.S.-Yemeni relations as Washington suspected the complicity of high intelligence officials.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/19/2006 01:36 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
A Yemeni state security court wrapped up on Tuesday the trial of the suspected second-in-command of the terror al-Qaeda network in Yemen and set April 26 for pronouncing the verdict.
Mohammad Hamdi al-Ahdal, 35, has been charged with financing attacks against Western targets in Yemen.
Prosecutors have told the court that al-Ahdal had received up to 50,000 dollars from al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden to finance the networks operations in Yemen and to give aid for families of detained members of the group.
They said he had received around 150, 000 dollars from a fellow al-Qaeda man identified as Saudi national Abu-Omar al-Usaimi.
At Tuesday's final hearing, al-Ahdal rejected the charge of financing attacks in Yemen. But he admitted to having aided families of Islamic militants held in custody of US or Yemeni authorities.
'Yes, I have been giving financial aid to families of Mujahedeen (holy warriors), and I'm happy for doing that,' al-Ahdal said.
He further said that American and Saudi investigators had interrogated him during his detention in a Sana'a jail.
Yemeni authorities believe that al-Ahdal, who was arrested in 2003, was the deputy of Ali Qaed Sinan al-Harthi, alias Abu Ali al- Harthi, who was killed in a November 2002 CIA missile attack on his car in eastern Yemen.
Harthi has been described by Yemeni officials as the top al-Qaeda local leader in Yemen.
Officials have said that al-Ahdal was believed to be the financier of the October 12, 2000 suicide attack on the US navy destroyer USS Cole in Yemens southern harbour of Aden, which killed 17 American sailors. This charge, however, was not mentioned in the charges sheet read out in the courtroom when the trial began on February 13.
Contrary to previous reports that al-Ahdal had lost a leg fighting in Chechnya, he appeared looking healthy and with all his limbs.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/19/2006 00:58 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
RIYADH - Saudi authorities said on Tuesday they raided an explosives depot in Riyadh five days ago and had also recently arrested five suspects linked to Februarys failed attempt on an oil processing plant.
Alk runners are becoming increasingly well armed ...
The investigation led us to one of their dens (five days ago) ... in the (eastern) Al Sulai neighbourood in Riyadh and we found 123 explosives bags weighing more than a tonne and a half, an interior ministry official was quoted by the state-owned SPA news agency as saying.
Which would make quite a hole in a princely palace ...
He said the five suspects were arrested in the aftermath of clashes in another Riyadh neighbourhood in late February that killed another five linked to the attempted attack on the Abqaiq processing plant in the oil-rich Eastern Province. They may have been arrested during several operations. I do not have the full picture yet, interior ministry spokesman Major Mansur Al Turki told AFP.
"Nor am I capable of getting the full picture," he added.
He said he did not know if the five men were members of the Al Qaeda terror network and whether they had been planning to carry out fresh attacks using the materials seized at the Riyadh hideout.
Might have been hunting the mighty Arabian elk ...
In addition to the explosives, three cars, 16 pistols, eight machine guns and rifles, fake license plates, ammunition, mobile telephones, video equipment, tapes and compact discs were seized at the Sulai hideout.
You can bag a lot of elk with that-there stash ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/19/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
Apr 18: Two cadres of an outlawed party were killed by the armed cadres of their rival group at Sujanagar and Chatmohor Upazilas of the district on April 12.
Read on, it's a light-hearted comedy ...
Police said the armed cadres of the opponent underground party- Peoples Front of Judaea Janajoddha (Red Flag) raided the house of Riazul Karim (26), an active cadre of Judaean Peoples Front Purba Banglar Communist Party (PBCP) at Goalbari village under Sadar Upazila on April 12 night. The armed cadres took Riazul to a paddy field at Bialbari- Bhobanipur village under Sujanagar Upazila and shot him to death. They slaughtered Riazul to confirm his death and fled the scene leaving the body there.
"Better make sure he's dead. Hand me that chainsaw."
Police on information rushed to the spot on April 13, recovered the body and sent it to Pabna General Hospital for autopsy.
An autopsy of a 'slaughtered' body? Does Dr. Quincy get paid by the case?
I think he's paid piece work.
On the same night, the armed cadres of Peoples Front of Judaea Jana Juddha raided the house of Hasan Ali (28), an active member of Judaean Peoples Front Purba Banglar Communist Party (PBCP) at Patli village under Chatmohor Upazila. They took Hasan Ali to a nearby marsh and shot him to death. They also slaughtered Hasan Ali to confirm his death and fled the scene leaving the body there. Police recovered the body next day on April 13 and sent it to Pabna Genral Hospital for autopsy.
"Here's another one, Dr. Quincy."
"Okay. ... $100 ... $200 ... $300 ..."
Police said the two murders were the sequel to the arch rivalry between Judaean Peoples Front PBCP and Peoples Front of Judaea Jana Juddha for establishing dominance in the area.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/19/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
You mean they had an actual crossfire? For real?
Top leaders of Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) Abdur Rahman, Bangla Bhai and others were produced yesterday before two trial courts in Jhalakathi for two separate cases. The district judge court in the Jhalakathi judges killing case against eight JMB leaders and activists set the date for hearing on charge-framing on April 23. Besides, the Jhalakathi sadar upazila magistrate court granted ten days' remand for Abdur Rahman and Siddiqul Islam Bangla Bhai, for interrogation about the August 17 blast cases. Lawyers of the district brought out a procession on the court compound with brooms and threw shoes at JMB chief Abdur Rahman during the trial.
Rahman, Bangla Bhai, Abdul Awal and Ataur Rahman Sunny were brought from Dhaka and Mamun and Sultan from Barisal Central Jail to Jhalakathi District and Sessions Judge Court for the Jhalakathi judges killing case.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/19/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Damn it! I said throw the book at him.
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/19/2006 9:50 Comments ||
Top||
Belfast, 19 April (AKI) - Police on Wednesday arrested four men in Northern Ireland, after a major security operation in the town of Lurgan, County Armagh uncovered component parts of a bomb that could have weighed up to 90 kilogrammes. Part of the town remains cordoned off, reports said. The plot comes amid intensifying efforts to revive a local government that shares power between Irish nationalists and pro-British parties.
Dolores Kelly, an MP for the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SLP) one of two main nationalist parties, which supports the reunification of Ireland by consent and opposes violence, said police officers had discovered the four suspected members of the dissident splinter group, Continuity Irish Republican Army (IRA), manufacturing the bomb during a raid on a scrapyard in Lurgan. Such splinter groups still believe in violent means to end British rule in Northern Ireland, despite the main IRA announcing last year it had abandoned its armed struggle.
The device which was in an advanced stage of preparation would be detonated by bomb disposal experts in an unknown location later on Wednesday, Kelly was quoted as saying by Ireland Online. She condemned those responsible, saying they were constructing the bomb in a highly residential area of Lurgan town centre and close to a shopping centre used by local people.
There have been no major bomb attacks in Northern Ireland since August 1998, when the Real IRA another IRA splinter grouo, detonated bombs in the market town of Omagh, killing 29 people and injuring 200.
A somewhat shaky peace has held since the landmark Good Friday agreement of 1998, which led to a new assembly with devolved powers. In mid-2005, the the IRA announced an end to its armed campaign and its intention to pursue its aims of uniting Northern Ireland with the Republic of Ireland solely through political means. Soon afterwards, the arms decommissioning body declared that it was satisfied the organisation had put all its weapons out of use. The Northern Ireland assembly was suspended in autumn 2002 when a row erupted over allegations about IRA activities. It is due to be be recalled in May. Bombs blamed on IRA activists went off at the BBC offices in west London in March 2000 and in August 2001.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/19/2006 08:43 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
manufacturing the bomb during a raid on a scrapyard in Lurgan
Extreme JunkYarde Warz?
I believe this is the original Brit program, "Scrapheap Challenge"
Posted by: Steve ||
04/19/2006 10:09 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Saddly the end of terrorism in Northern Ireland is far off in the future. Even if a complete concensus were reached either for union with the UK or re-unification with the Republic there will those on the fringe that are opposed. And the only weapon they will have is the bomb or the assasians gun. Just my $.02
#4
I spent a fair amount of time in the North over the years. One thing you do not do is to motor about in County Armagh at night. You will get your car lifted for the cause. I do not know how it is now, but the Brits were careful about flying around there in the 80s, as there were some shoulder-fired missiles about. Rebel country at the time.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/19/2006 14:04 Comments ||
Top||
Lack of cash is hampering the Chechen rebels' ability to strike Russian forces and stopping them from accepting all the recruits they would like, a top rebel leader said on Tuesday.
But Doku Umarov said morale remained high and that the movement, of which he is deputy leader, would never ask for peace talks with Moscow. "We can at any time conduct a large military operation, it all depends on the political advantage for us. Apart from this, such an operation demands large financial and human resources," he said in comments published on a separatist Web site. "Many young people ask to join our ranks, but we cannot take all the applicants for physical and financial reasons. The mountain conditions are harsh, and not everyone can stand them."
The Chechen rebels have been battered by 11 years of war, and have been shattered into small groups that can only stage hit-and-run attacks and bombings.
Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, have repeatedly said the war is over but rebels and troops die daily. Web site voinenet.ru, which monitors local media to form a composite picture of a war that grinds on largely outside the world's gaze, said at least 17 people had died and 19 were wounded in fighting over the last week.
Rebel figures have said Chechens at home and abroad contribute to their funding, while Russian officials say Islamist networks such as al Qaeda finance the war. It is not clear where most of the money comes from, but officials say the illegal trade in Chechen oil -- once a major moneyspinner for criminals -- has been largely suppressed.
Putin blames the fighting on international terrorists linked to al Qaeda trying to destabilise the north Caucasus, but Umarov denied any substantial help from foreign fighters. "They need to show us where these Arabs are -- and how many of them are in Chechnya at the moment. I can only think of five people from our forces," he said. "It is the Russians and their allied unbelievers who invent them so as to sign up for the so-called 'anti-terrorist company'."
The Kremlin rejected several peace appeals by former rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov, who was killed by troops a year ago in what the separatists said was a cynical operation to lure him into peace talks. Umarov said the mistake would not be repeated. "We have suggested (talks) many times. But it turned out that we are always pushing for talks and standing there with our hand outstretched, and this is already taken as a sign of our weakness. Therefore we won't do this again," he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/19/2006 01:15 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
A bomb with a timing system was discovered on a major French railway line Wednesday, sparking an investigation by anti-terrorist police, law enforcement officials said.
The device was found beside the Paris-Nantes line used by high-speed trains near the western village of Saint-Sylvain-d'Anjou by a railway worker making a regular inspection of the track.
The plastic tube containing nitrate fuel and wired to a timer with a battery appeared home-made, the state prosecutor's office said, adding that the bomb could have been placed there any time in the past 10 days.
Authorities said they had received no claim of responsibility or demand from the person or group that
placed the bomb.
If it had gone off, "it could have damaged the track and caused a derailment," an official in the prosecutor's office said.
#6
#1 They target trains because its' occupants are almost entirely civilian.
#2 I think you're right. This sounds like domestic terrorists.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
04/19/2006 17:20 Comments ||
Top||
#7
The europapers have had dozens of stories about these outfits. They are trying to stop construction of some additional tracks... there were a bunch of protesters during the olympics.
Naples, 19 April (AKI) - Italian and French anti-terror police on Wednesday arrested eight men in Italy and five in France in a vast operation against a criminal ring believed to support an Islamic militant group. The police operation, which follows a year-long investigation, took place in the Italian cities of Naples, Caserta and Milan and in Marseilles, France. The men arrested are charged with aiding and abetting illegal immigrants and with forging documents for alleged hardline Salafite militants. Six of the men arrested in Italy are Algerians and the other two Italians.
The group allegedly forged documents in Naples and brought them to Marseilles on a weekly basis.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/19/2006 08:45 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
And they are Muslime terrorist? Who would have thunked it?
A Turkish soldier and PKK rebel member were killed in clashes on Tuesday between government troops and PKK armed fighters in southeast Turkey where the population is mostly Kurds. According to Ihlas news agency, the clashes took place in an area called Siirt, close to the Iraqi and Iranian borders. The troops accosted the PKK fighters while patroling the region. Following the armed clashes between both sides, army troops secured the area which is currently under a heavyily-armed watch.
The southeastern regions in Turkey have witnessed a Kurdish uprising for nearly 15 years now, mainly carried out by members of the banned Kurdish PKK party. Up to 37,000 people have so far perished in the continuous clashes between government troops and PKK fighters. In 1999, the PKK ostensibly announced it had abandoned armed struggle against the government while it sought a peaceful solution to the Kurdish problem in Turkey.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/19/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
We, the PKK have decided to abandon fighting and instead, talk turkey about autonomy. But, now this. What to do ? What to do ?
Officials shut down all security checkpoint at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson Airport after a "suspicious device" was detected in a screening machine.
The airport remained open while an airport explosive detection unit was called in, airport spokeswoman Felicia Browder said, but passengers not yet screened were unable to reach the gates for their flights.
Transportation Security Administration workers detected the suspicious item inside a bag just before 2 p.m., Browder said. She declined to comment further.
TSA spokeswoman Amy von Walter said a possible improvised explosive device had been detected at the airport's main checkpoint.
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport holds the title of the nation's busiest airport in number of takeoffs and landings, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. It wasn't immediately clear what impact the checkpoint shutdown would have on flights.
Former CENTCOM Commander, Gen. Anthony Zinni - who has called for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to resign because of Rumsfeld's alleged incompetence in running the Iraq war - admitted six years ago that he made the disastrous decision to have the USS Cole use the port of Aden, Yemen for refueling, where the ship was blown up by al-Qaida terrorists. Worse still, at least one report indicates that Gen. Zinni may have played a role in an August 1998 leak that tipped off Osama bin Laden to an impending U.S. cruise missile attack - allowing the top terrorist to escape.
Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee in October 2000, a week after the Cole attack, the then-recently retired Zinni said: "I pass that buck on to nobody." The Rumsfeld critic explained that he personally signed off on berthing the Cole in Yemen even though "their coast is a sieve for terrorists."
"The threat conditions in Aden were better than elsewhere," he insisted, citing risk assessments for Sudan and Saudi Arabia.
Gen. Zinni said that cutbacks in the size of the Navy's fleet during the Clinton years made it necessary to use regional ports for refueling, noting: "Ten years ago, we did all refueling at sea" using Navy oilers. Still, prior to the Cole attack, there's no record that Gen. Zinni ever complained about Clinton era defense cuts.
In what may be an even more troubling development, a report indicates that the leading Rumsfeld critic may have inadvertently played a role in tipping off Osama bin Laden to an impending U.S. cruise missile attack two years before the Cole episode. Two days after President Clinton ordered the attack on bin Laden's encampment in Khost Afghanistan, the Associated Press reported:
"Kuwait's Al-Watan newspaper, quoting unidentified sources in London today, reported that Pakistan leaked to bin Laden news about an impending U.S. strike. The sources said the leak was aimed at limiting casualties, so that bin Laden would have less justification for a counterattack. "A Pakistani government source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Gen. Anthony Zinni, commander of the U.S. Central Command, was in Peshawar the day before the attack to meet with Pakistani officials. "Other Pakistani sources said Zinni came with a team of U.S. intelligence experts whose task was to pinpoint the camps and determine bin Laden's exact whereabouts."
Posted by: Steve ||
04/19/2006 09:21 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
ohmygawd!
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/19/2006 9:36 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Gen. Zinni said that cutbacks in the size of the Navy's fleet during the Clinton years made it necessary to use regional ports for refueling, noting: "Ten years ago, we did all refueling at sea" using Navy oilers. Still, prior to the Cole attack, there's no record that Gen. Zinni ever complained about Clinton era defense cuts.
Classic Clinton general CYA. Zinni was a moron then, he is a moron now. Spineless and nothing more than a Democratic ball licker.
Good riddance!
#3
Zinni is a good man. But he's got an ego and also feels that the US is too cozy with Israel. This more or less explains his behavior since retirement. I just wish he'd not taken the Mideast envoy job because somebody less pro-Arab might have sent a better message. Refueling in Aden was a defensible decision but precautions should have been taken to protect the ship.
#8
Jimmy Carter syndrome - f*&k up in the job and spend the rest of your life reminding everyone
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/19/2006 11:08 Comments ||
Top||
#9
Gen. Zinni said that cutbacks in the size of the Navy's fleet during the Clinton years made it necessary to use regional ports for refueling, noting: "Ten years ago, we did all refueling at sea" using Navy oilers. Still, prior to the Cole attack, there's no record that Gen. Zinni ever complained about Clinton era defense cuts.
Looks like someone else aside from Monica was on his knees in front of our national security. BJs for America's down fall.
#15
I intercepted a top democrat memo covering their secret security plans. First, no photo IDs will be required to vote or enter congressional offices. Second, no profiling of any kind except the usual attempts to insult Catholics and members of the American military. Third, release of all detained bombers and other political prisoners and immediate voter registration as democrats. Fourth, removal of the loss of voting rights for felons and the usual voter registration as democrats. Fifth, allow foreign interests to contribute to politicians as needed to advance their business or political interests. Sixth, removal of FBI checks for democrat staff members, but establishment of a high moral standard for new CIA hires. Six A, all FBI files on republican staff and party members are to be forwarded to the DNC for proper distribution. Seventh, IRS audits on all RNC contributors.
This would be silly if it weren't based on recent history, eh ?
#17
Yes Mr. President, I'm sorry to report that both you and Hillary are in the advanced stages of the dreaded..."Jimmy Carter syndrome." There's literally nothing we can do here at Walter Reed, I recommend a long, long vacation, well out of the spotlight, and far, far, far, away.
#18
Hillary is here to the end, until she gets her eight years of being POTUS, andor as Senator America is undeniably on the path to unchallenged pro forma national Socialism and Socialist OWG. She and the anti-American Lefts have given America up to 2015-2020, while Russia-China both indic that 2015-2018 war againt the USA and only the USA is not only possible but desired, WHICH OF COURSE IS ONLY A WEIRD AND MYSTERIOUS COINCIDENCE!? Marxism-Leninism says the GLOBAL Proletarian/Communist Revolution will come or devolve from Capitalism and the Right - now you know why a major reason why the Clintonoid pre 9-11, and post 9-11, RINO CINO agenda-less Lefties are such vv IRAN = NORTH KOREA = TAIWAN, etal, and why the criticisms of Dubya are so vile and hate-filled. THE DEMOLEFTIES WANT WAR, CIVIL ANDOR INTERNATIONAL, AND A DEFEATED SUBORNED AMERICA AMERICA UNDER ANTI-AMER AMER SOCIALISM AND SOCIALIST WORLD ORDER/OWG - but, like good Lefties, they can't be blamed for it or anything.
The Left > Get the $$$, NOT the blame, not the bills, not the litigations, nor the death camps-gulags. BUTHA-ISM > the Dems will vote to send Amer boyz/milfors to attack Iran and North Korea and defend Taiwan, etc. before voting against the same. AMERICA CAN FIGHT, WAGE WAR, AND WIN GLOBAL EMPIRE IN POST-9-11 RIGHTEOUS INDIGNATION AS LONG AS CLINTONIAN FASCIST = HALFCOMMIE, SOCIALIST = PRE-COMMUNIST AMERIKA LOSES SAID NEW EMPIRE, PLUS SOVEREIGNTY + FREEDOMS + GOVT. + ENDOWMENTS, VOLUNTARILY OR FORCIBLY IN THE END. America and Americans can fight for Democracy + Empire, just NOT Win, Control, or have either or any when all is said and done.
Paramilitary forces deployed in Upper and Lower Dir along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border have started building trenches and installing heavy weapons to ensure security at the border area.
The forces have been deployed to check infiltration of suspected Al Qaeda and Taliban fugitives from Afghanistans Kunar province. Eyewitnesses said helicopters were seen hovering over the border. The paramilitary forces were deployed at Shahi Kot, Binshahi and Shahi, following an operation launched by the US and Afghan forces in the Kunar province against Al Qaeda and Taliban militants.
A source told Daily Times that the forces were also dispatched to Sroo Kalay to protect Pakistani territory. A number of trenches have been built near Shahi, and others are being built while heavy weapons have been installed at the Shahi Rest House, the source said. Eyewitnesses said they saw three helicopters flying over their area but could not say whether they were Pakistani or American.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/19/2006 01:48 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
The local Taliban have killed as many as 150 pro-government tribal leaders (Maliks) in North and South Waziristan and openly challenging the writ of the federal government and engaging a number of security forces' personnel in the area.
Federal Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao said that the Taliban was a serious threat to the country's national security and economic development and must be dealt with in a firm manner.
He said the Talibanization of Waziristan was not only posing a threat to FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas), but also having a negative impact in other parts of the NWFP.
So great has been the impact that the local 'Maliks' and political administration have all been limited to their houses and offices, reports the Daily Times.
"The Taliban's sphere of influence has expanded to DI Khan, Tank and the Khyber Agency, where clerks of the area have started to join them. There has been a sharp increase in attacks on heavily-defended military targets in these areas as well," said Sherpao.
He said, "religious extremism, militancy and terrorism were continuously undermining Pakistan's image in the international community" and the situation remained volatile in both North and South Waziristan agencies, despite the deployment of a heavy contingent of armed forces.
The presence of Indian consulates in Afghan cities near the Pakistan border was another major concern.
"The other concern of the government is the presence of Indian consulates in the Afghan cities, which are near the Pakistani border," he said.
Pakistan had accused Afghanistan of turning a blind eye towards the activities of Indian consulates and allowing them to foment trouble in the Pakistan-Afghan border areas in FATA and Balochistan.
He said that restoration of normalcy in all districts of the NWFP and eliminating militancy and Talibnisation in FATA and the border areas were the government's top priorities and it had adopted a two-pronged strategy in this regard.
"The government, on one hand, is focusing on socio-economic development and political dialogue while, on the other hand, it is utilising its military options as well," he further said.
In this regard, all towns and major markets of the area have been declared weapon-free zones, and efforts have been initiated for taking action against defiant tribes, restoring the position of tribal elders and Maliks, and reinforcing the restoration of 'political agent' in the area. (ANI)
The situation in Waziristan has been quite grim for sometime.
The local Taliban have taken control of most of North and South Waziristan and enforced a strict Islamic code, including a ban on sale of music and films. They have also ordered the men to not shave off their beards.
While they have established an Islamic court in Wana, headquarters of South Waziristan, replacing the traditional jirga, in Miramshah, capital of North Waziristan, curfew has been imposed after bloody clashes between federal forces and alleged Al Qaeda militants.
And though the capital is under the control of the security forces, the situation is far from normal and sporadic incidents of violence occur every now and then.
The federal government has also imposed a ban on carrying arms and ammunition in North Waziristan, which has met with stiff opposition from tribal elders who have said that the ban, if enforced, will put their lives at stake.
Elsewhere, Musharraf has said that though the situation in Waziristan is bad, it has not deteriorated to the extent that it won't be possible to hold talks to find an amicable solution to the crisis.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/19/2006 01:34 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
Pakistan has sealed a section of its western border with Afghanistan to stop militants fleeing a U.S.-led offensive on the Afghan side from sneaking into the country, the military said on Tuesday.
U.S. and Afghan government troops launched an air and ground assault, code named Operation Mountain Lion, last week to clear militants from the eastern province of Kunar, bordering Pakistan.
Military spokesman Major-General Shaukat Sultan said Pakistan had deployed troops in its tribal areas, opposite Afghanistan's Kunar and neighboring Nangarhar provinces, to stop militants infiltrating into Pakistan.
"We do block certain routes whenever an operation is carried out on the other side of the border to prevent terrorists from crossing the border," Sultan said.
"Yes, we have deployed certain forces ... in Bajaur and Mohmand because of the latest operation," he said of the two tribal areas opposite Kunar and Nangarhar.
Some press reports suggested that troops had also been deployed in the mountainous Chitral and Dir districts.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/19/2006 01:25 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
Pakistani security forces Tuesday foiled a bid to target an airport, girls school and a children park in a north-west town of frontier province (NWFP), but no arrests were made, said officials.
Forces acting on an intelligence report, put the airport in Kohat town, about 250 kilometers from here, on alert, security officials told KUNA. They said after thorough surveillance, forces recovered three rockets, planted near the main wall of airport. Forces also recovered a five Russian made hand-grenades, 3 fuse and batteries, they added. In similar raids, officials said further, a time bomb was recovered from the office of government girls school and a children park. Officials said security in the town had been put on red alert and police was trying to trace the suspects involved.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/19/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
MIRANSHAH: About 90 percent of the residents of Panghar village in the troubled North Waziristan Agency have moved to other parts of the province to avoid a possible military action in the village after the killing of six militants a few days ago, sources told Daily Times on Tuesday. Sources said that the villagers panicked after the bodies of five of the six militants were exhumed and shifted to an unknown location. Most villagers have gone to Bannu district while the rest of them have taken refuge in Peshawar.
If you can't maintain order in your own country, why do you have a country?
Posted by: Fred ||
04/19/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
PESHAWAR: Police have arrested an Arab and three Afghans suspected of militant links, officials said on Tuesday. Brigadier Javed Iqbal Cheema, head of ministry's Crisis Management Cell said they were linked to a local militant groups rather than Qaeda. Intelligence officials, however, said there could be a Al Qaeda connection. The men were arrested on Tuesday after the car they were travelling in ignored a police picket on the outskirts of Peshawar.
I think this is the same story as yesterday. Two of the guys were cross-dressers. I think the other two were into leather.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/19/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
FAISALABAD: A prominent Shia cleric and his driver were gunned down in a drive-by shooting at Raja Wala Road on Tuesday, sources told Daily Times. Sources said that Fazal Hussain Alvi and his driver Qasim Ali were in their car when unidentified motorcyclists ambushed them near Faisalabads University of Agriculture boundary wall at Raja Wala Road. Bullets pierced the cars fuel tank and the vehicle caught fire. The bodies were completely burnt and beyond identification, said sources. Alvis relatives identified the dead by the vehicles number plate, they added. The assailants fled and police reached the spot after half-an-hour. The area was cordoned off. The bodies have been sent for autopsies.
Alvi was from Garh Maharaja, Jhang, and had been living here for the past 15 years. He had been banned from public speaking by the government because of the fiery nature of his speeches. Alvi was a prominent Shia cleric and it is necessary to tighten security around all famous religious personalities in the aftermath of the Nishtar Park blast, said a police officer on condition of anonymity. Police stations were put on high alert after the killing and security around imambarghas and mosques tightened. All road access to the Markazi Imambargah Azakhanea Shabbir was blocked.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/19/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Appears to be the work of the Faisalabad chapter of the Hell's Angels MC. Our thanks to the chapter president.
QUETTA: Militants blew up a main pipeline supplying gas to Qalat and Mangochar in Balochistan on Tuesday. Muhammad Nawaz, general manager of the gas company, said that an explosive device was fixed under the pipeline near Mastung, some 60 kilometres from Quetta. He said that an 8-inch diameter pipeline was blown up and that suspended supply to Qalat and Mangochar. President Parvez Musharaf had inaugurated the gas supply to the historic city of Qalat in 2004.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/19/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
The brothers at Iraq the Model have lost a brother-in-law to terrorists. (EFL)
Last week our little and peaceful family was struck by the tragic loss of one of its members in a savage criminal act of assassination. The member we lost was my sister's husband who lived with their two little children in our house.
He was a brilliant young doctor with a whole future awaiting him, the couple were the top graduates in their branch of specialty. They had to travel abroad to get their degrees and the war started while they were there but months after Saddam fallen they decided to come back to help rebuild the country and serve their people...
It was the day he was celebrating the opening of a foundation that was going to offer essential services to the poor but the criminals were waiting for him to end his life with their evil bullets and to stab our family deep in the heart.
#2
We are fighting the forces of darkness. They want chaos and death. They offer no future, no goodness, no hope. They hide behind what are called holy words. They are animals.
#4
This would be a good case for the Iraqi police to make an example of. I hope they catch these bastards. Think the MSM will cover this one? I for one will be sending an email to all the major T.V. news staions requesting that they do.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
04/19/2006 17:16 Comments ||
Top||
Five people were killed and 22 others injured when a bomb exploded in a car parking in the Cairo district of Baghdad. A security source told KUNA that four Iraqi policemen are among the injured and that the explosion caused major damage in a number of civilian cars and a police vehicle. Eyewitnesses said the number of victims was high because the bomb was close to a small cafe where drivers gathered every morning.
Meanwhile two US soldiers were injured when a bomb exploded as they passed by in Al-Qadisiya district in Baghdad. Two Iraqi civilians were injured in the same incident, Iraqi police said.
In Irbil, an Iraqi policeman was gunned down and six civilians were wounded in a drive-by shooting.
A source from the Iraqi Police in Kirkuk told KUNA that a bomb exploded in Al-Qadisiya district near a Multi-National Forces (MNF) patrol without causing any damage.
Another bomb exploded at the passage of another MNF convey in the industrial district. No reports on casualties or damage were available.
Meanwhile, head of the de-Baathification institution, Ali Faisal Al-Lamy, told KUNA that a number of officials in the Interior and Defense Ministries were forced out according to the de-Baathification laws.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/19/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
Four Iraqi civilians were wounded on Tuesday when an explosive device went off near a civilian car in Mosul, northern Iraq. An Iraqi Police source told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) that two of the wounded where inside the car, while the two others happened to be at the site. Security unrest has been a common word in several areas in Iraq. Western and Iraqi forces are working hard to crack down on insurgents.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/19/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
Israeli multi-winged aircraft hovering across dark and stormy skies carried out an overnight raid striking a metal workshop suspected of being a makeshift factory for making short-range rockets in a district in Gaza city, amid high tension resulting from a bombing attack on Monday that killed at least nine people and wounded 60 others in the heart of the Israeli city of Tel Aviv.
Suddenly a shot rang out! Somewhere, a woman screamed.
"Norton!" Armstrong said, catching the faint whiff of cordite. "There's something amiss, and I intend to find out what it is!"
Palestinian security sources said early on Tuesday that Israeli gunship helicopters struck the workshop with missiles in the region of Askula in the middle of Gaza City, destroying the whole compound but inflicting no casualties.
Amazingly, Armstrong was untouched by the furious fusillade of hot lead!
The strike, however, inflicted extensive damage in nearby buildings and panicked civilians, namely children, huddling indoors.
"Quick, Miss Whittington! Get the children indoors!" he cried.
"Oh, Jack!" she replied. "The puppies! The kittens! The baby ducks!"
"Yes! Get them all! I'll hold them off!"
"You've been shot!" she cried.
"It's only a flesh wound!"
"Oh, Jack! If something should happen to you, I'd... I'd..."
"Miss Whittington! Cynthia! Go! Now! Before it is too late!" he said tenderly, clasping her to his manly chest.
Israeli warplanes have repeatedly targeted such workshops, suspected of fabricating and assembling locally-made short-range missiles, used by the Palestinian factions to hit Israeli targets.
The Baron marched stiffly to the map table, screwing his monocle more securely into his eye. The duelling scar disfiguring his coldly handsome face was like a flame in the dim light. "Zeese wörkshöps," he sneered, pointing to the pitiful village's location, "are suspected of fabricating and assembling löcally-made shört-range missiles. Ve must... eradicate zem!"
The Palestinians, who cannot import heavy arms from abroad due to Israeli measures, have designed these rockets, using meagre materials available on the local market.
"I'd like two rocket motors and a detonator, please!"
"Aisle 6, next to the Pampers."
The rockets are said to be of limited destruction capacity, but they are perceived of being of "psychological impact" on the Israeli military -- considering the fact that Israel has built a huge fence around the Palestinian territories in the hope of foiling ground attacks.
"Professor Farrington! Surely you're not proposing..."
"Yes! A gigantic steel-reinforced concrete umbrella over the entire country!"
Posted by: Fred ||
04/19/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I like my dime store novels just like my orange juice - extra pulpy.
#2
"Multi-Winged aircraft"... Could it be, yes, maybe it is, the return of the World War 1 Flying Ace atop his trusty Sopwith Camel.
"If I can't find that cursed Red Baron, this workshop full of locally-made short-range missiles, capable of limited destruction capacity, yet having psychological impact will have to do."
#3
"The Palestinians, who cannot import heavy arms from abroad due to Israeli measures, have designed these rockets, using meagre materials available on the local market."
Maybe they should look into making tourist handicrafts instead? I imagine there would be quite a European fancy for little hand-carved statues of Arafat.
#4
mabey they should glass the inside of the perimeter fence
Posted by: bk ||
04/19/2006 2:02 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Methink the esteemed RB Supremo is moonlighting as a pulp novel writer, and is giving us not-so-subtle hints about it. Stop playing with our minds, dammit!
#8
I doubt the Israeli are really doing much except PR to their own citizens. Are we suppost to believe that Israel did not know this was a makeshift factory making rockets till now or they just held off knowing this till now.
A better solution would be to hit the HAMAS leadership again
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/19/2006 9:33 Comments ||
Top||
#12
I hereby nominate our fearless RB leader for a Pulitzer Prize. His writing is much better than the fishwrap put out by the MSM that passes as news these days (and is much more entertaining to boot).
Posted by: BA ||
04/19/2006 9:48 Comments ||
Top||
#13
Don't most aircraft have more than one wing?
I keep expecting Mike Hammer to show up, somehow...
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/19/2006 15:10 Comments ||
Top||
#20
The strike, however, inflicted extensive damage in nearby buildings and panicked civilians, namely children, huddling indoors.
I can only wonder how much of that "extensive damage" was caused by secondary ignition of ancillary flammables, like rocket motors and warheads, so carelessly stored near those huddling children. Funny how the article's author failed to make note of that.
Israeli military troops, on the offensive since Monday's bombing attack in Tel Aviv, advanced into the Palestinian village of Al-Arqa and arrested father of the Palestinian young man who blew himself up in yesterday's attack, Palestinian sources said on Tuesday. Simultaneously, other forces burst into the town of Jenin, searched houses and captured 15 suspected activists.
Palestinian sources said the troops burst into the house of the bomber, Sami Hamad, 21, arrested his father and forced the family out of the house in preparation for blowing it up. At the same time, other troops advanced into Jenin, searched several sectors of the town and arrested 15 suspected activists, the sources said.
In the nearby village of Birqin, witnesses said the assaulting regulars, aided with sniffer dogs, opened fire in the direction of students and prevented them from proceeding to school. Over the night, Israeli multi-winged aircraft hovering across dark skies carried out a raid striking a metal workshop suspected of being a makeshift factory for making short-range rockets in a district in Gaza city, amid high tension resulting from a bombing attack on Monday that killed at least nine people and wounded 60 others in the heart of the Israeli city of Tel Aviv.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/19/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Had to re-read the headline, I first thought the arrestee had fathered 16; all ne'er-do-wells.
And once again the mutli-winged aircraft appear.
RAB has the shutter gun, the IDF has, oh you know....
April 19, 2006: An upgrade has been completed on 189 older U.S. Litening targeting pods. These are used AV-8B (Harrier), A-10, B-52, F-15E, F-16 and F-18 aircraft. Similar pods were first used during the 1991 Gulf War, with great success. The Israeli made Litening appeared in 1992, and thereafter set the standard for what a targeting pod could do. The latest models of Litening give the pilot a night vision computer display of what's on the ground, even when the aircraft is flying at 20,000 feet. The pod has a laser designator, which enables the pilot to find and designate targets for its laser guided smart bombs.
These pods have been so good at spotting things on the ground, that the infantry call on Litening equipped warplanes to do aerial reconnaissance for them, and then drop smart bombs as needed. The pilots are eager to oblige, as this sort of cooperation is unique, and highly effective. Used on the A-10 has been particularly effective, as this armored aircraft can fly lower and slower, and see what's on the ground in even greater detail.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/19/2006 09:33 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Litening equipped warplanes to do aerial reconnaissance for them, and then drop smart bombs as needed. The pilots are eager to oblige,
Fantastic!
Splash one, we have the towel heads in our sites...
#2
hehehe, Iran talks crap and we slowly but surely build up for war. It like when you put a frog in cold water then slowly boil the water, the frog never jumps out.
BANGKOK, Thailand - Suspected Muslim insurgents ambushed election officials Wednesday in Thailands restive south, killing a policemen and injuring six other people in two separate attacks, just before polls opened for Thais to elect a new Senate, police said. The insurgents attacked the two groups of election officials as they were on their way to polling stations Wednesday morning in the Srisakorn district of Narathiwat province, said police Lt. Watcharin Tancharoensap.
Watcharin said insurgents detonated a small explosive and then opened fire in one attack, killing police Sgt. Sakchai Innoi, and fired gun shots in the other. Three village headmen assigned to the election committee and three policemen deployed to guard them were injured, delaying the opening of the two polling stations in Srisakorn, he said.
In neighboring Yala province, Raman District police Col. Wisuth Nakchu said a bomb was detonated by the side of the road, but no one was nearby when it exploded.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/19/2006 09:02 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
The Abu Sayyaf on Tuesday threatened to kill a popular radio broadcaster in Zamboanga City in the southern Philippines, accusing him of continuously criticizing the terror group linked to the spate of bombings and murders in the troubled region.
"If Mr. Vic Alvarez will not stop his recorded tape, saying...good morning Abu Sayyaf, our serious threat to him still goes on until the right time we can have a good timing to kill him just downstairs of (your) radio station," said Abu Omar, a self-confessed spokesman of the Abu Sayyaf group.
"It will become a headline, ASG assassinate (sic) the hard-hitting anchorman of RGMA," warned Omar in a cell phone text message sent to the morning public service program of the radio network owned by television giant GMA 7.
Alvarez's daily public affairs program "Good Morning Zamboanga" often starts with the journalist greeting criminals, drug syndicates, thieves and corrupt government officials, including the Abu Sayyaf, but the terror group resented this.
"I am not discounting this threat to my life," said Alvarez, who is also the radio station's news chief.
Last year, the Manila-based Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFJ) reported that Omar also threatened to kill Alvarez and other local journalists and government officials critical of the Abu Sayyaf group.
In a letter sent in November to local radio stations, the Abu Sayyaf said it dispatched liquidation squads to carry out the killings. Omar's letter was the seventh mailed to RGMA and other local media outlets, according to CMFJ.
It said Omar, the source of the letter, admitted they were conducting surveillance on their targets. Alvarez, a staunch advocate of press freedom, topped the hit list.
The Abu Sayyaf previously admitted killing local broadcaster Rey Bancayrin, of radio station dxLL, in March 1998. Two gunmen entered the studio and shot the outspoken commentator three times before escaping. It was thought that Bancayrin was murdered because of his reporting on local government corruption and drug trafficking.
Last month, Omar also sent a text message to RGMA warning of more bomb attacks in Zamboanga City and Basilan Island. The warning came just two days after an Abu Sayyaf bomb exploded March 27 inside a two-storey convenience store in Jolo island, killing 9 people.
"The next bombings will be in Zamboanga City and Basilan," said Omar.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/19/2006 01:45 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
they are cowardly little bitches
Posted by: bk ||
04/19/2006 1:59 Comments ||
Top||
An Indonesian militant awaiting execution for his role in the 2002 Bali bombings testified Wednesday that he was tortured into implicating a Muslim cleric alleged by Washington to be Southeast Asia's terror chief.
Amrozi Nurhasyim made the remarks during an appeal of Abu Bakar Bashir's conviction and 2-year sentence for conspiring in the blasts, which killed 202 people, mostly foreigners on vacation. The attacks were blamed on the al-Qaida linked Jemaah Islamiyah network.
Bashir, 70, who was not in court, is scheduled to be released from prison in June when his sentence ends, and his lawyers have acknowledged that it is unlikely that judges will rule in the appeal before that date.
A victory would have symbolic value to hardliners in the world's most populous Muslim nation, where some see the aging cleric as a victim of foreign interference.
``We were all tortured to say we were ordered by Abu Bakar Bashir (to carry out the blasts),'' Nurhasyim told the court to cheers and shouts of ``God is Great'' from about 100 Bashir supporters.
``But this old man has no links (with terrorism),'' he said, without elaborating on the torture allegations.
Police have denied mistreating any of the more than 30 militants convicted in the attacks.
The United States and Australia maintain Bashir is a key leader of Jemaah Islamiyah.
Bashir has always denied any wrongdoing, but admits knowing several key Southeast Asian militants in the 1980s and 1990s who went to Afghanistan and trained there with al-Qaida.
Before the Bali attacks, he was best known for his fiercely anti-American and Jewish views and his campaign to transform secular Indonesia into an Islamic state.
Nurhasyim, nicknamed the ``Smiling Bomber'' for his frequent gloating over the blasts, arrived at the court after traveling by boat from a nearby prison island, where he and two other militants sentenced to die for the bombings are being held.
He smiled at reporters, and jokingly asked the judges if he could have a cup of coffee.
When asked by judges what his profession was, Bashir's supporters shouted: ``Holy warrior! Holy warrior!''
At Bashir's original trial, prosecutors said Nurhasyim visited the cleric three months before the attacks to ask for his blessing, which they said he obtained. Prosecutors cited a confession by Nurhasyim that he allegedly made to police.
Nurhasyim said he had met Bashir at a boarding school the cleric used to run, but that they did not discuss his plans to bomb the nightclubs on Bali island.
``From the beginning, police told me to say I was ordered by Abu Bakar Bashir. They said 'if you admit that you will receive a lesser punishment, or even be freed.'''
Bashir's lawyers plan to continue with the appeal even after his release in June.
Bashir was first arrested in 2002 shortly after the Bali bombings amid intense pressure on Indonesia to detain suspects in the blasts.
In the trial that followed, he was acquitted of heading Jemaah Islamiyah, but sentenced to 18-months in prison for minor immigration violations.
As his release date approached, U.S. and Australian officials both publicly called on Indonesia not to free him, saying he was a key terrorist leader.
Denying they were acting on the orders of foreigners, police arrested Bashir as he left jail in 2003 and charged him with several terror crimes based on new evidence. But judges only convicted him in the Bali attacks and sentenced him to a relatively short prison term.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/19/2006 01:37 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
COLOMBO - The bodies of five slain Tamil civilians were found in northern Sri Lanka Wednesday, while two sailors were wounded when an anti-personnel mine exploded, police and navy officials said. The bodies of the civilians were recovered in Tamil majority Jaffna, 300 kilometers, north of the capital, Colombo, area police officer W.G. Ranasinghe said. They had left their homes Tuesday evening in a motorized three-wheeler taxi for a nearby village and their bodies were discovered with gunshot wounds on Wednesday, he said. The identity of the assailants and the motive behind the killings was not immediately known.
In a separate incident, two sailors were wounded when an anti-personnel mine exploded in northwestern Mannar district Wednesday, navy spokesman, Commander, D.K.P. Dassanayake said. The sailors were filling a water truck when the mine exploded, Dassanayake. The information we have says two of our men were wounded, Dassanayake said. Another explosion hit the northern town of Vavuniya hours later, but no details were immediately available, military spokesman Brig. Prasad Samarasinghe said.
Vavuniya is 210 kilometers (130 miles) north of the capital, Colombo and is the last garrison town before rebel territory starts. The incidents come as Norways peace envoy Jon Hanssen-Bauer met Sri Lankas Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayake in an effort to save an Oslo-brokered cease-fire that has come under threat because of frequent violence.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/19/2006 08:57 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Tehran, 19 April (AKI) - Iran's top students' movement openly criticised the nuclear ambitions of president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a statement published in Tehran on Wednesday. The association of the Islamic student councils, Daftar Tahkim Vahdat (the Office to Foster Unity), slammed Ahmadinejad's nuclear plan. "This aggressive policy and the decision to resume uranium enrichment threatens the security of the country and the population," the statement said.
"Once again, as in the past, the population was not consulted by the cabinet and decision makers," the note also said. "The country needs a responsible and democratic government which can be trusted by the international community, a necessary condition for the development of a nuclear policy." The students' movement criticised as "not very smart and offensive" Ahmadinejad's strategy "which defies for no reason the international community."
The students of Daftar Tahkim Vahdat concluded their statement denouncing the "fierce censorship imposed on the media in the Islamic Republic to prevent the public opinion from obtaining correct information on the nuclear issue."
Posted by: Steve ||
04/19/2006 08:47 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
We'll be reading about this group stuffed in a shallow grave.
Relations between the west and the hardline Iranian regime are set to worsen after a Tehran-based group claimed yesterday it was trying to recruit Iranians and other Muslims in Britain to carry out suicide bombings against Israel.
The Committee for the Commemoration of Martyrs of the Global Islamic Campaign, which claims to be independent but has the backing of the regime, said it is targeting potential recruits in Britain because of the relative ease with which UK passport-holders can enter Israel.
The claim came hours after nine people were killed by a suicide bomber in Tel Aviv, and days after a prediction by the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, that Israel would be blown away in a "storm". President George Bush refused to rule out a limited nuclear strike on Iranian nuclear facilities.
Mohammad Samadi, a spokesman for the group, told the Guardian that striking at Israel was the priority of his recruitment drive. "The first target is Israel. For us, that is the battlefield," he said. "All the Jews are targets, whether military or civilian. It's our land and they are in the wrong place. It's their duty to pay attention to safety of their own families and move them away from the battlefield," he said.
Mr Samadi's group was participating in a recruitment fair for "martyrdom seekers" being held in the grounds of the former US embassy in Tehran. Several hundred volunteers have signed up for missions in the past few days.
Volunteers attracted to his group were asked to complete forms specifying whether they prefer to carry out operations against "the Quds occupiers" [Israel], the British author Salman Rushdie - subject of a death sentence passed by Iran's late spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, over The Satanic Verses - or "the occupiers of Islamic lands", the US and Britain.
Mr Samadi was standing at an exhibition stall festooned with portraits of Palestinian suicide bombers, including pictures of the aftermaths of attacks. It also featured a tribute to Rachel Corrie, the American peace activist killed by an Israeli army bulldozer in Gaza three years ago. A banner outside the fair read: "There is no voice higher than intifada." Nearby stood a mock model of the Statue of Liberty, with iron bars cut into the torso to symbolise a prison cell.
The British embassy has called on the Iranian government to renounce support for the group. A Foreign Office spokesman said: "We have longstanding concerns at the support that Iran provides to groups undermining peace in the Middle East through violence, including the activities of this group."
But western diplomats played down the significance of the group's threat, saying it was primarily a campaign to gather signatures of protest against Israel rather than recruiting bombers. But the group's pronouncements add to the list of western indictments against Iran since the election last year of Mr Ahmadinejad, who has called for Israel to be wiped off the face of the Earth.
While the committee claims to be independent it has previously been linked with the Revolutionary Guards. It claims it has gathered 52,000 recruits - of whom 30% are women - since forming two years ago. According to the group, recruits are instructed in target planning and military discipline before progressing to intensive urban guerrilla warfare training, involving the use of bomb belts.
When asked how Iranian volunteers would get into Israel, Mr Samadi cited the precedent of Asif Mohammed Hanif and Omar Sharif, two British Muslims who attacked a bar in Tel Aviv, killing three Israelis, in 2003 after entering Israel as tourists and then posing as peace activists. Hanif blew himself up at the scene while Sharif fled, but was found drowned in the Mediterranean.
"That shows that it has not been difficult getting into Israel," he said. "Do you think getting hold of a British passport for an Iranian citizen is hard? Tens of passports are issued for Iranian asylum seekers in Britain every day. There are hundreds of other ways available to us, such as illegal entry [into Britain], fake passports, etc.
"Britain and other European countries have a lot of disaffected Muslims who are ready. We understand the suspicion with which Britain, America and other western countries regard their Muslim populations. We don't condemn them for this because we believe every Muslim has the potential to turn into a bomb against the west."
Mr Samadi said recruits would not be told to attack British cities. "With the exception of Israel, we do not target civilians," he said. "They would definitely not be sent to carry out an attack on London unless it was to kill Salman Rushdie."
Israeli security analysts said there is no evidence that the group has been directly linked to suicide bombings or other attacks in Israel.
Israel's ambassador to the UN, Dan Gillerman, in a security council debate about Monday's Tel Aviv bombing, called Iranian threats against Israel a "declaration of war".
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/19/2006 01:59 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"We do not target civilians" - and a mighty successful tactic everywhere its been used, NOT!
So he wants to forcibly defeat or conquer Britain [for Islam] while allegedly NOT killing any [true]civilians - thats mighty waffling policratic Lefty of him. HOW UNCONVENTIONAL CAN SOVIET/
COMMIE UNCONVENTIONAL PRE-STRIKE OR FIRST-STRIKE WARFARE COMMANDOS GET WHEN THEY START DEPENDING ON CAMEL-KAZES TO SINK HMS WARSPITE AND ARK ROYAL.
Its a dedicated camel that gives its life to make NORLANT safe for the Kilo-class and Commie Airborne.
Iranian Hizbollah threatened suicide attacks on U.S. targets worldwide in case of a military campaign against Iran and its nuclear program and warned Turkey would also be targeted if it cooperates with the United States.
"You should have no doubt that we would attack you as well if the United States uses bases in Turkey, receives support from Turkey," Sayyid Muhammed Bager Kharrazi, leader of Iranian Hizbollah, said in an interview with Turkish private television NTV. "We will retaliate against all of those who support our attacker."
Kharrazi also claimed that their retaliation would be unparalleled, even when compared to the attacks of al-Qaeda.
Kharrazi's remarks come amid reports in the Turkish press that the United States was seeking naval and air bases in Turkey. Daily Akşam said lands belonging to villagers near the Turkish-Iranian border have been expropriated, purportedly in preparation for building an airport.
Daily Cumhuriyet said the United States was seeking to establish three naval bases in Turkey's Aegean and Mediterranean coasts, but the U.S. Embassy in Ankara yesterday denied the report, saying the story has "no factual basis."
The Turkish Foreign Ministry also denied both reports.
In his interview with NTV, Kharrazi said Iranian Hizbollah would spread the war beyond Iran's borders and into the United States and countries supporting it, if the United States attacks Iran's nuclear targets.
"If our nuclear facilities are attacked, Hizbollah commandos will attack nuclear facilities in Europe and the United States," he was quoted as saying.
The United States and other Western nations accuse Iran of seeking to master uranium enrichment technology to build atomic weapons, a charge Iran denies. Washington says it wants a diplomatic solution but has not ruled out a military option. Turkey says Iran has the right to acquire nuclear energy for peaceful purposes but opposes its having nuclear weapons.
International news reports have said some 200 Iranians have volunteered in the past few days to carry out "martyrdom missions" against U.S. and British interests if Iran is attacked.
Mohammad Ali Samadi, spokesman for the Committee for the Commemoration of Martyrs of the Global Islamic Campaign, said fresh fears over a possible U.S. attack on Iran's nuclear sites helped attract volunteers during its latest recruitment drive. "Because of the recent threats, we have started to register more volunteers since Friday," Samadi told Reuters. "Some 200 people have registered to carry out operations against our enemies. America and Britain are definitely considered enemies." Chanting "Death to America" and "Nuclear technology is our right," volunteers registered their names at the former American Embassy in southern Tehran on Sunday and signed a document called "Registration form for martyrdom-seeking operations" and pledged to "defend the Islamic Republic's interests." The Sunday Times of London, quoting unnamed Iranian officials, reported Iran had 40,000 trained suicide bombers prepared to strike Western targets if Iran is attacked.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/19/2006 01:28 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
As said before, iff America does NOT attack and wage war, America will be attacked and warred against. Looks like the US Marines, Brit Marines-SAS, Rapid Deployment boyz + Allies now have to add SAVING TURKISH BABES to their long list of Internat beach babes and beers to be saved. Looks like SPRING BREAK and its bikinis-Wet Tees on VH1 will have to go both Global and Year-round - D*** IT, and just when it and MTV just started playing actual muzik videos again.
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 Taliban commander was killed and his two colleagues arrested in a police raid in southern Afghanistan late on Monday while a senior police officer was injured in an overnight clash with Taliban in the same region.
A three-and-half year old girl, Aisha-Luul, last month became a victim of the latest fighting in Mogadishu. She sustained a serious injury after being shot in the arm by a stray bullet while standing outside of her family's house at SOS sub- district in the city. The fighting erupted in mid February when a new coalition calling itself the "anti-terrorist" group was formed to counter the growing influence of islamist groups in the city. Hardened warlords in the capital have reportedly established a partnership with some wealthy businessmen to challenge heavily armed religious leaders who are running a network of islamic Courts.
Although name calling is nothing new in Somalia, especially among the bitter political rivals, the new coalition of the warlords call their islamist foes "terrorists", while the Sheikhs call the warlords "demons." Many people are shocked by the intensity of the violent confrontations, but the events have a clear background. When Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG) was formed in Kenya, a number of MPs-cum-ministers returned to Mogadishu confident that they had a mandate to rule the country. They vowed to tame armed militia, remove roadblocks from streets and establish an administration for the city. Nine months lapsed between April and December 2005 and the warlords achieved none of their three goals. Demobilisation of militias, removal of roadblocks and establishment of an administration for the city have not materialised. In fact, they reached a dead end when the militias they assembled at two camps at the outskirts of Mogadishu left without notice. The dismantled roadblocks were occupied by other groups and the attempt to form a city council attracted officials who were unwilling to obey their masters.
When the main bodies of the TFG began moving to Baidoa in Southern Somalia following the announcement that the parliamentary sessions were going to be held there, the humiliated warlords opted not to leave the city at the mercy of the islamists. The best option for the warlords to teach the bearded men a lesson was to form a coalition and to accuse the islamic courts of being a terrorist hub. Furious islamists reacted by attacking the warlords, whom they called "demons," with guns and mortar shells. The city soon degenerated into full scale violence in which hundreds of people died and many more were injured. While the coalition of warlords has admitted that they are part of the global war on terror with a mission to hunt down terrorists operating in Somalia, the Sheikhs have denied being part of al-Qaeda's global terror network.
Cairo, 19 April (AKI) - The Egyptian government announced on Wednesday that it has broken up a suspected terror cell and arrested at least 22 militant Islamists planning bomb attacks on different locations throughout the country, including tourist targets, a gas pipeline near the capital, Cairo, and Muslim and Christian religious leaders. The group called itself the Victorious Group and had member in various Cairo suburbs, the interior ministry said in a statement.
Sanaa, 19 April (AKI) - A court in Yemen has sentenced 14 Islamists to jail terms between 18 months to seven years for planning to abduct Americans in order to negotiate the release of prisoners. The 14 men were also convicted of plotting to attack military and security installations in the country. Reports say that as the judge pronounced the verdict on Wednesday, the defendents chanted Islamic hyms.
A seventh al-Qaida runaway from the 23 prisoners who fled the central intelligence prison in Sanaa February has surrendered to Yemeni authorities.
RIYADH - Saudi authorities said on Tuesday they raided an explosives depot in Riyadh five days ago and had also recently arrested five suspects linked to Februarys failed attempt on an oil processing plant.
Apr 18: Two cadres of an outlawed party were killed by the armed cadres of their rival group at Sujanagar and Chatmohor Upazilas of the district on April 12.
Top leaders of Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) Abdur Rahman, Bangla Bhai and others were produced yesterday before two trial courts in Jhalakathi for two separate cases. The district judge court in the Jhalakathi judges killing case against eight JMB leaders and activists set the date for hearing on charge-framing on April 23. Besides, the Jhalakathi sadar upazila magistrate court granted ten days' remand for Abdur Rahman and Siddiqul Islam Bangla Bhai, for interrogation about the August 17 blast cases. Lawyers of the district brought out a procession on the court compound with brooms and threw shoes at JMB chief Abdur Rahman during the trial. 
Lack of cash is hampering the Chechen rebels' ability to strike Russian forces and stopping them from accepting all the recruits they would like, a top rebel leader said on Tuesday.
A Turkish soldier and PKK rebel member were killed in clashes on Tuesday between government troops and PKK armed fighters in southeast Turkey where the population is mostly Kurds. According to Ihlas news agency, the clashes took place in an area called Siirt, close to the Iraqi and Iranian borders. The troops accosted the PKK fighters while patroling the region. Following the armed clashes between both sides, army troops secured the area which is currently under a heavyily-armed watch.
Pakistani security forces Tuesday foiled a bid to target an airport, girls school and a children park in a north-west town of frontier province (NWFP), but no arrests were made, said officials.
MIRANSHAH: About 90 percent of the residents of Panghar village in the troubled North Waziristan Agency have moved to other parts of the province to avoid a possible military action in the village after the killing of six militants a few days ago, sources told Daily Times on Tuesday. Sources said that the villagers panicked after the bodies of five of the six militants were exhumed and shifted to an unknown location. Most villagers have gone to Bannu district while the rest of them have taken refuge in Peshawar.
PESHAWAR: Police have arrested an Arab and three Afghans suspected of militant links, officials said on Tuesday. Brigadier Javed Iqbal Cheema, head of ministry's Crisis Management Cell said they were linked to a local militant groups rather than Qaeda. Intelligence officials, however, said there could be a Al Qaeda connection. The men were arrested on Tuesday after the car they were travelling in ignored a police picket on the outskirts of Peshawar. 
FAISALABAD: A prominent Shia cleric and his driver were gunned down in a drive-by shooting at Raja Wala Road on Tuesday, sources told Daily Times. Sources said that Fazal Hussain Alvi and his driver Qasim Ali were in their car when unidentified motorcyclists ambushed them near Faisalabads University of Agriculture boundary wall at Raja Wala Road. Bullets pierced the cars fuel tank and the vehicle caught fire. The bodies were completely burnt and beyond identification, said sources. Alvis relatives identified the dead by the vehicles number plate, they added. The assailants fled and police reached the spot after half-an-hour. The area was cordoned off. The bodies have been sent for autopsies.
QUETTA: Militants blew up a main pipeline supplying gas to Qalat and Mangochar in Balochistan on Tuesday. Muhammad Nawaz, general manager of the gas company, said that an explosive device was fixed under the pipeline near Mastung, some 60 kilometres from Quetta. He said that an 8-inch diameter pipeline was blown up and that suspended supply to Qalat and Mangochar. President Parvez Musharaf had inaugurated the gas supply to the historic city of Qalat in 2004.
Five people were killed and 22 others injured when a bomb exploded in a car parking in the Cairo district of Baghdad. A security source told KUNA that four Iraqi policemen are among the injured and that the explosion caused major damage in a number of civilian cars and a police vehicle. Eyewitnesses said the number of victims was high because the bomb was close to a small cafe where drivers gathered every morning.
Israeli multi-winged aircraft hovering across dark 
