For a map, click here. For a map of Michoacan state, click here
By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
A total of 62 Policia Federal (PF) agents have been kidnapped in Uruapan municipality in Michaocan state, according to a several Mexican news accounts.
Twelve PF agents apparently happened upon a roadblock maintained by local indigenous Angahuan and Carapan Indians when they w ere tkaen prisoner Indigenous Indians are protesting illegal logging in the Meseta Purepecha area, according to a report posted on the website of El Sol de Zacatecas news daily.
According to a late article posted on the website of El Sol de Mexico news daily, a total of 50 additional PF agents were kidnapped. The article failed to elaborate when and where the additional police were kidnapped.
The roads between Uruapan and Paracho, and Los Reyes and Zamora are being blocked as well as roads near Angahuan Capacuaro, Santa Cruz Tanaco and Tlazazalca. Those stretches of roads are less than seven kilometers from Cheran municipality, where continual protests against activity residents have claimed as illegal logging has taken place the past two years.
Wednesday a Michoacan government news release said that at least three mixed operating bases would be established in the areas around Cheran, Paracho and Santa Cruz Tanaco. BOM or Base de Operaciones Mixtas, is a mixture of federal and state security forces. The mixing of security forces from all levels of government is a practice in routine use in Nuevo Leon state to counter drug gangs operating in the area, and to provide patrols.
According to the El Sol de Mexico article the kidnappings are a response to the Michoacan state government plan to beef up security forces in the area. PF have also been asked to leave the area by indigent Indians.
The news release, which names Michoacan governor Fausto Vallejo Figueroa said a number of repeated meetings would take place to assess the security situation in the area.
The uptick in activity takes place in the wake of the murder of two Cheran residents two weeks ago near Cheran. The victims, Urbano Macias Rafael, 48, and Guadalupe Geronimo Velazquez, 28 were kidnapped as they attempted to bring in cattle from the fields. A protest by Cheran residents not only locked local officials in the town hall, but also took place in the capital of Morelia at the legislative palace.
The two men were later found dead.
Issues for local indigenous Indians in Michoacan boil down to illegal use of lands they consider tribal and sacred. Residents of Cheran have been protesting illegal logging and organized crime activity in the area for years.
Even so, indigenous Indians such as the residents of Cheran have allegedly themselves been involved in a number of illegal acts such as auto theft carjacking, illegal roadblocks and imposition of illegal duties, as well a number of other petty crimes.
Michoacan is one of the six most heavily reinforced states in Mexico with at least 8,000 Mexican army troops deployed to the area. Those troops along with elements of Mexican Naval Infantry troops and Policia Federal troops were ordered into the state to provide additional security for the November 2011 elections. Those troops have only been reinforced since then.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
#1
If this is truly related to Indians and indigenous rights - then most likely the police will be released. The Mexican Govt can bargain in this situation. The local Indians in Mexico are at the bottom of the food chain in the economy, and they are really getting scre**d by the system. So you can't blame them for setting up roadblocks and trying to get some attention.
On the other hand, if the 62 police disappear for good - then you pretty much know it was a cartel that was responsible and not the Indians.
For a map, click here. For a map of Durango state, click here.
By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
A total of six unidentified individuals were killed or were found dead in drug or gang related violence in Durango state, according to Mexican news reports.
Four men were found shot to death in Santiago Papasquiaro municipality early Wednesday morning, according to a news item posted on the website of El Siglo de Durango news daily. The victims were found near a dirt road at its terminus in the village of Francisco Javier Leyva.
An unidentified woman in her 20s was found shot to death Sunday in Gomez Palacio municipality, according to a news item posted on the website of El Contexto de Durango news daily. The victim was found on a road near the ejido San Isidro shot once in the head.
An unidentified man in his early 20s was found shot to death in Gomez Palacio municipality Tuesday afternoon, according to a news report posted on the website of El Contexto de Durango news daily. The victim was found near the ejido Santa Rita shot in the head.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
Turkish security forces clashed with a group of Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) terrorists, resulting in the death of one PKK member, according to a statement released by the Bingol Governor's Office on Thursday Today`s Zaman reproted
The operation was conducted by a special operation teams from the Bingol Gendarmerie Command against a PKK group that torched two vehicles in the Genc district of Bingol on Monday. The group refused to surrender and opened fire on security forces. Following the ensuing clash, a PKK terrorist codenamed "Baver" was found dead with a Kalashnikov rifle and a hand grenade.
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Watch : Turkish Occupation : Possible : Boomville From : Air : Northern Iraq : P-O-S-S-I-B-L-E-
PESHAWAR/KHAR: A remote-controlled bomb blast killed 11 people, including two children, and injured 23 others in the militancy-hit tribal district of Bajaur on Thursday, officials said.
Is there a place in Pakiwakiland that ISN'T 'militancy-hit'...
The blast took place in Pushat Bazaar, the headquarters of Salarzai area, where local population drove Taliban militants out in a popular uprising two years back.
Nine people were killed and 22 are wounded, four of them in critical condition, said an official. Ambulances rushed to the scene from Khar to transport the wounded people to hospital, the officials said, adding, The injured are being treated at Khar Hospital and those wounded critically were transported to Peshawar.
It was not clear who was the target of the blast inside a shop. But a tribal journalist in Khar told Daily Times that the blast was aimed at anti-Taliban vigilantes and public supporting the government forces against the militants.
Bajaur has been comparatively peaceful in the recent times after government forces took control of areas where Taliban had been in a strong position, Salarzai being one of those areas. Nobody claimed the responsibility for the bombing, but Taliban have carried out several attacks against Salarzai tribesmen for forming pro-government militias and supporting military operations. The military conducted major anti-Taliban offensives in Bajaur in August 2008 and February 2009, and has repeatedly declared the district secure. But militants have still proved able to strike.
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07/27/2012 00:00 ||
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QUETTA: The Levies Force have arrested 22 simple, heavily-armed Afghan nationals under Foreigners Act from Panjgur district. The Levies Force said on Thursday that these Afghan nationals were apprehended from a passenger bus during checking. They were travelling without documents and wanted to go to Iran through Pakistan.
Instead of just, you know, crossing the Afghan-Iran border...
Later, they were handed over to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for further investigation.
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BIJNI, India: Trucks loaded with women, children, mattresses and bags of rice rolled into a refugee camp in Indias northeastern Assam state yesterday as security forces tried to stamp out the worst communal violence in a decade with shoot-on-sight orders.
The death toll from clashes between Bodo tribespeople and Muslim settlers rose to 40 overnight, police said, after four more bodies were found. Police also opened fire on groups armed with sticks and spears for violating a curfew.
Fearing for their lives, tens of thousands of Muslims and Bodos have fled their homes in remote hamlets along the border with Bhutan, and sought shelter in camps in larger towns. Roving armed bands have set ablaze hundreds of tin-roofed homes, many made of hay and clay, in the nearly week-long orgy of violence.
Local officials estimate 150,000 people have been displaced by the fighting. The relief camp in a school in the town of Bijni is just one of nearly 60 hastily set up to cope with the flood of refugees, officials said. Many of the camps lack food, water and security. Angry refugees surrounded a group of state lawmakers visiting the Bijni camp on Wednesday and demanded they take action.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who represents Assam in parliaments upper house, may fly to the area on Saturday, his office said.
Ringed by China, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Bhutan, Indias northeast is home to more than 200 ethnic and tribal groups and has been racked by separatist revolts since Indias independence from Britain in 1947. In recent years, Hindu and Christian tribes have vented strong anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim sentiment against settlers from mostly Muslim Bangladesh, which neighbors Assam.
The latest violence erupted days after floods killed more than 100 people and left at least 400,000 homeless in Assam.
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Aswan : Egypt : Meditiate : Non- Aligned Movement & Agha Khan : The Arab League : Red Crescent Society : Int.l Red Cross 2
PESHAWAR, Pakistan: Pakistan has temporarily stopped NATO supply trucks crossing its northwestern border into Afghanistan over security concerns due to fears of Islamist attacks, officials said yesterday.
Gunmen on Tuesday attacked a convoy of NATO supply trucks, killing a driver, in the town of Jamrud near the main northwestern city of Peshawar, in the first such attack since Pakistan lifted a seven-month blockade of the border.
Movement of NATO vehicles has been temporarily suspended since Wednesday evening to beef up security, a paramilitary official told AFP. We have launched a search operation in the hills surrounding Jamrud."
On Wednesday officials at the northwestern Torkham crossing had said traffic was picking up for the first time since the blockade ended, with more than 100 vehicles crossing in recent days.
Local administration official Bakhtiar Khan confirmed Thursday the supply route had been suspended due to security reasons.
Intelligence officials have informed the authority that attacks may occur on NATO vehicles this week and in the light of this a security plan is being chalked out, Khan told AFP. He said the NATO route would resume very soon, but that until then trucks carrying supplies for the 130,000-strong US-led mission in Afghanistan had been told not to approach the border.
We have been told by authorities to wait here as they are building up security after the firing incident, Amanullah Khan, a NATO truck driver, told AFP in Peshawar.
So far, the closure has only affected the Torkham crossing.
At the southwestern crossing of Chaman, some 17 trucks were awaiting clearance to enter Afghanistan and 20 other trucks were parked in Quetta, clearing agent Ashraf Khan told AFP.
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ISAF trucks parked in Chaman and Quetta? No worries, no harm will come to them there.
#4
See also DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > COPY OF [US-Pak] MOU PREPARED FOR REOPENING OF NATO SUPPLY ROUTE | MEDIA RECEIVES COPY OF ....
* TOPIX > PAKISTAN ACCEPTS DRAFT OF MOU TO REOPEN SUPPLY ROUTE.
* SAME > PAKISTAN TO NOT ALLOW ARMS SUPPLY THRU NATO SUPPLY ROUTE.
Collectively, IIUC above Artics, no Truck Storage, Warehouses, or Holding Depots will be allowed by Pakistan at Karachi, only DIRECT SHIP-TO-TRUCK LOADING, UNLOADING???
[Jerusalem Post] Border Police officers locked away Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! a Paleostinian woman near the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron on Thursday after she allegedly tried to pepper spray them.
She was in a mood.
Upon a full search of the suspect, around 20 years old, forces discovered a knife and suspect that she was planning to use it to stab IDF personnel.
And it's Ramadan, so her blood sugar was low.
The Border Police officers locked away Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! the woman and security forces opened an investigation into the incident.
[Ma'an] Forces loyal to Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Despoiler of Deraa... on Thursday bombed a hospital in Damascus ...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world... ' Yarmouk refugee camp, Paleostinian sources told Ma'an.
Sources in the camp told Ma'an that that there have been heavy festivities between Assad's troops and opposition forces around the Paleostine hospital since Monday morning, and that Assad's forces shelled the building twice on Thursday causing a huge fire.
Paleostinians in Yarmouk told Ma'an that the Syrian army was targeting the hospital because medics were treating maimed from all sides, while Assad's regime only allowed its soldiers to be treated.
They added that fighting in Yarmouk was intensifying daily, and that the number of Paleostinians killed was rising dramatically in camps across Damascus and in Daraa and Halab.
A resident of Yarmouk told Rooters on Thursday that the army seemed to be targeting sites on the edges of the camp, firing shells every minute. The bombardment started around 7 a.m. and was still going three hours later.
Yarmouk is the largest Paleostinian refugee camp in Syria.
Damascus and Syria's second biggest city, Aleppo ...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins... , came under shell fire on Thursday as Assad's forces stepped up efforts to crush rebels threatening the government's two main power centers.
One of the most senior figures to defect from Assad's inner circle, Brigadier General Manaf Tlas, put himself forward as someone who could help unite the fragmented opposition inside and outside Syria on a blueprint for a transfer of power.
A kaboom that killed four of Assad's closest lieutenants last week prompted predictions among his enemies that the 46-year-old president's time in power was drawing to a close.
But in the days that have followed that attack, Assad's forces have noticeably toughened their response to the armed revolt, with fixed-wing combat aircraft seen in action over Aleppo and rebel fighters said by opposition sources to have been summarily executed on the streets of Damascus.
Military experts believe an overstretched Syrian army is pulling back to concentrate on Aleppo and Damascus, while leaving outlying areas in the hands of rebels.
In its most recent comment on the fighting, state-run Syrian television said on Wednesday that government troops were imposing security and stability in and around Aleppo.
Assad himself has not spoken in public in more than a week since the Damascus kaboom on his inner circle, confining himself to appearing at formal televised events.
ISTANBUL Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Syria of letting Turkeys Kurdish rebels operate inside the north of the country and warned that Ankara would not hesitate to strike against them.
In the north, it (President Bashar Al Assads government) has allotted five provinces to the Kurds, to the terrorist organisation, Erdogan said on Turkish television late on Wednesday, referring to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
The Syrian Kurds have been playing a dangerous game. Sometimes they fight Pencilneck and his goons, sometimes they take what he'll give them and fight the Turks. One of these days they're going to be the jelly in the sandwich...
He said the move was explicitly aimed against Turkey and warned that there will undoubtedly be a response on our part to this attitude.
Asked if Ankara would strike fleeing rebels after an attack on Turkish soil, Erdogan said: Thats not even a matter of discussion, it is a given. That is the objective, that is what must be done.
That is what we have been doing and will continue to do in Iraq, he said during a programme aired on Kanal 24.
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exactly what PencilNeck wanted when he invited the PKK in.
Erdogan is following Syria and Iran's plans for him.
Posted by: Water Modem ||
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Iraq : Iraq : Turkey : Won't For Fear Rumour : Taking Side : ASSAD : Turkey In Doghouse : In'tl/ Community : CRAWFORD
#3
The Turks are obviously having so much success fighting Kurd rebels in Turkey that they've decided to branch out to fight Kurd rebels in Syria, as well. Maybe they should think about franchising the operation.
#4
OTOH WAFF > [Hurriyet News] A MEGA KURDISH STATE BEING CREATED, from parts of Syria, etc. as Assad seemingly chooses to prioritize defense of Self, Family-Regime, + Damascus power base over rest of country???
Arise, Saladin, arise ....
and
* TOPIX, FREEREPUBLIC > AL-QAEDA/AL-QAEDA IN IRAQ THREATEN ATTACKS ON US TARGETS.
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > AL-QAIDA EYES ISLAMIC STATE IN SYRIA AND IRAQ TO FIGHT [attack?] TURKEY AND iSRAEL.
* RENSE > [Activist Post] US TREASURY: AL-QAEDA RUNS SYRIAN "REBELLION" [Rebels], under the operat guise of "Al-Nusra Front for the People of the Levant" organization.
> solicitations for $$$ donations.
> uses various types of covert Intermediaries, legit or illegit e.g. traffickers, to funnel in Foreign Fighters to fight Baby Assad from all over the Middle East or Muslim World.
BEIRUT: Damascus and Syrias second biggest city, Aleppo, came under shell fire yesterday as troops loyal to President Bashar Assad stepped up efforts to crush fighters threatening the governments two main power centers.
One of the most senior figures to defect from Assads inner circle, Brig. Gen. Manaf Tlas, put himself forward as someone who could help unite the fragmented opposition inside and outside Syria on a blueprint for a transfer of power.
He'd reluctantly agree to be the new head cheese. You'd have to force him to do it, but the burdens of power are those that he could bear...
Residents in the capital reported a shell landing in southern districts every minute yesterday morning. Helicopters were attacking the Hajar-al-Aswad district, one of the last rebel strongholds in the city after days of street fighting, opposition activists said. After a major assault on rebels in Damascus last week, the army has turned to Aleppo, reinforcing troops there with an armored column that had been operating in a northern province, apparent evidence of the governments aim not to lose control of Syrias commercial capital, a city of 2.5 million.
Fierce clashes raged in the early hours of Thursday in Aleppo, and an activist said rebels now controlled half of the city, a claim that could not be independently verified.
There was shelling this morning on the Salaheddine and Mashhad districts, said Aleppo activist Abu Hisham. Now it has stopped, but helicopters are buzzing overhead.
Activists said 24 people were killed in fighting in and around Aleppo on Wednesday, swelling a national death toll of about 18,000 since the revolt against Assad began 16 months ago.
In the Syrian capital, a resident in the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp reported heavy shelling, particularly near the southern Hajar Al-Aswad district. She said the army seemed to be targeting sites on the edges of the camp, firing shells every minute. The bombardment started around 7 a.m. (0400 GMT) and was still going three hours later.
As hostilities have intensified in the north, in and around Aleppo, Turkey closed its border posts to commercial traffic on Wednesday, but not to refugees fleeing Syria. At the Syrian town of Azaz, a few miles south of the Turkish border, rebels appeared in control after heavy clashes over the past month in which they succeeded in driving government forces out of what had become a rubble-strewn ghost town, a Reuters correspondent who visited the town said.
Military experts believe an overstretched Syrian army is pulling back to concentrate on Aleppo and Damascus, while leaving outlying areas in the hands of rebels.
In its most recent comment on the fighting, state-run Syrian television said on Wednesday that government troops were imposing security and stability in and around Aleppo.
The terrorists are suffering terrible losses. Groups of them are throwing their weapons away and giving themselves up. Others are fleeing for the Turkish border, the television said.
Assad himself has not spoken in public in more than a week since the Damascus bomb attack on his inner circle, confining himself to appearing at formal televised events.
General Tlas, a former friend of Assads who could play a role in any transition of power, said he had not defected from Syria in order to play a leadership role.
I am discussing with ... people outside Syria to reach a consensus with those inside, he told Thursdays edition of the Saudi newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat. I left (Syria)...to try to help the best I can to unite the honorable people inside and outside Syria to set out a road map to get Syria out of this crisis.
Tlas, who is in Jeddah and has been interviewed by a Saudi-owned newspaper and a television station, appeared to have tacit Saudi support for his stance. The general, a Sunni Muslim member of Assads mostly Alawite inner circle and a senior officer in the Republican Guards, defected earlier this month.
I will cooperate with every honorable person who wants to rebuild Syria, be it the National Council or the (rebel) Free Syria Army, he said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/27/2012 00:00 ||
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Copters + Armored column + Alawite thugs vs. Sunni wahbabi in a city of 2.5 million is a recipe for a really really bad couple of days.
Posted by: lord garth ||
07/27/2012 1:02 Comments ||
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"The terrorists are suffering terrible losses. Groups of them are throwing their weapons away and giving themselves up. Others are fleeing for the Turkish border," the television said.
Doubtful these lads are merely detained for questioning for few hours or days, then released.
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.
Turkish security forces clashed with a group of Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) terrorists, resulting in the death of one PKK member, according to a statement released by the Bingol Governor's Office on Thursday Today`s Zaman reproted
PESHAWAR/KHAR: A remote-controlled bomb blast killed 11 people, including two children, and injured 23 others in the militancy-hit tribal district of Bajaur on Thursday, officials said. 
PESHAWAR, Pakistan: Pakistan has temporarily stopped NATO supply trucks crossing its northwestern border into Afghanistan over security concerns due to fears of Islamist attacks, officials said yesterday.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
