KABUL (AFP) Afghan and international troops have destroyed a massive bunker complex in eastern Afghanistan used by the Haqqani insurgent network to store arms and shelter foreign fighters, officials said Sunday.
The troops were backed by helicopters in a battle on Friday that lasted 24 hours and resulted in the deaths of "a large number of enemy militants," the defence ministry and NATO said in a joint statement.
The operation took place in an isolated mountain region of Urgun district, in Paktika province which borders Pakistan, it said.
The joint force under command of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) "engaged small arms fire from hostile militants" during the operation, it said.
"The force used direct fire and close air support to repel the attacks from militants.
"The force killed a large number of hostile militants and recovered multiple anti-aircraft artillery pieces, two heavy machine guns, two light machine guns, several assault rifles, multiple chest racks, ammunition and communications gear.
"The force destroyed the bunker complex and all enemy weaponry in place," it said.
The Haqqani network is a powerful group based in northwest Pakistan closely linked to Al-Qaeda and known for its ruthless and sophisticated attacks, including an assassination attempt on Afghan President Hamid Karzai in 2008.
It is led by former mujahideen leader Jalaludin Haqqani, who was a hero of the resistance against Soviet occupation during the 1980s. He aligned himself with the Taliban in the 1990s and became an important insurgent leader in 2003.
His son Siraj is believed to have taken recent command of the network.
#3
"used ... to store arms and shelter foreign fighters"
One would hope there were many being sheltered inside when the bombs hit.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/31/2009 15:27 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Try "Penetrator".
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/31/2009 15:27 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Mission Impossible Four: codename Reduce and Deoderize: How bout a bomb that simultaneously disenfects and deoderizes any Afghan civilian it comes with but kills insurgents? Couple that with airdropped condoms with instructions condemning copulatory behavior?
The number of British troops in Afghanistan is to stay at 9,000 despite a pledge from Gordon Brown to send 200 more roadside-bomb specialists and to increase the number of Afghan army trainers, defence officials have revealed. The announcements from the Prime Minister during his brief visit to Helmand on Saturday appeared not to have been clarified in advance with the Ministry of Defence, even though Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, the Chief of the Defence Staff, was on the same trip.
It emerged only today that the 200 additional specialists would not increase the overall size of the force. There will be some rebalancing to make sure the top baseline figure of 9,000 troops remains constant, one defence official said.
This means military commanders will have to send home 200 support troops to keep to the limit of 9,000. This has not yet been worked out, the official admitted.
The emphasis Mr Brown placed on training an extra 50,000 more Afghan soldiers over the next year was also interpreted as meaning Britain would have to send more troops to train and mentor the new recruits to the Afghan National Security Force (ANSF). However, defence officials said that there were no plans to boost the size of the British force and that the extra effort to be put into instructing greater numbers of Afghan soldiers would be achieved by switching more members of Britains Task Force in Helmand from combat operations to training.
The Prime Ministers comments on Saturday about accelerating the training of Afghan soldiers pre-empted the expected recommendation from General Stanley McChrystal, the US commander of Natos International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, whose report on a new strategy for the mission is due early next month. General McChrystal is not expected to specify how many extra troops he needs to boost the training of the ANSF. It has been presumed that Britain would have to offer more trainers. But MoD sources said the focus would be, again, on rebalancing the tasks of the troops already in Helmand.
Officials travelling with Mr Brown confirmed that the extra 700 troops from the 4th Battalion The Rifles sent for the election in Afghanistan would be staying in Helmand, confirming the decision to maintain the force at 9,000 service personnel.
The MoD also said more unmanned aerial vehicles surveillance drones were to be sent to Helmand to improve reconnaissance and to catch the bombers. At present the British force has three Reaper drones, although one is out of action after a crash-landing, and a mix of Hermes 450 drones and tiny Desert Hawks.
The Prime Minister talked about increasing the number of drone flying hours to provide extra aerial surveillance protection for the troops.
The other announcements he made that had yet to be clarified by the MoD were: 20 additional Ridgback armoured vehicles to be added to the 30 already in Helmand, a better armoured Mastiff troop-carrier to counter the threat from roadside bombs, and accelerated delivery of the new Warthog vehicle replacing Vikings that have proved vulnerable to improvised explosive devices. The Treasury will fund the vehicle programme with an extra £25 million.
Mr Brown also promised more helicopters, although this has already been announced. Six Merlins are being sent from Iraq to Helmand, a small number of Lynx helicopters with improved engines are to be deployed once the temperature begins to drop and two Chinook Mk 3s, now being reverted to basic Mk 2as, will be in theatre by the spring.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/31/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11124 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
Hundreds of Ethiopian troops have crossed the border and seized control of a Somali town from Islamist insurgents, witnesses said on Saturday.
The overnight incursion into the strategically important town of Belet Weyne is the first time Ethiopian troops have seized control of a town in war-ravaged Somalia since leaving the country in January as part of a peace deal. The Islamist insurgency had used the presence of Ethiopian Christian troops on Somali soil as a propaganda tool to recruit fighters.
Local resident Abdinur Ahmad Maow said the Ethiopians who crossed the border and joined other Ethiopian troops had been near the town for around three days and that the Islamist forces left "without a single shot." Resident Abdulahi Faramiliq said the troops were cordoning off residential areas and going house-to-house searching for weapons.
Islamist fighters had been present in the western part of the town, which is divided by a river, since the Ethiopian pullout in January.
Kenya-based Somalia analyst Rashid Abdi at the International Crisis Group, a conflict-resolution organisation, said it was unlikely the troops were a vanguard for a larger Ethiopian force.
"It's a strategic town for them," he said, referring to the town's location near the border. "They want a buffer zone and they won't allow it to be in hostile hands."
There have been several reports of Ethiopian troops crossing the border in recent months, but the Somali government has not publicised their presence. Ethiopian soldiers are unpopular with the majority of Somalis, both because they are often Christian and because human rights groups say they committed a string of rights abuses during their two-year occupation of the country. The Somali government military commander in the region, General Muqtar Hassan Afrah, denied the Ethiopians were in town and said only Somali troops were in Belet Weyne.
Ethiopian officials could not be reached yesterday morning for comment.
[Maghrebia] Two young soldiers and a 24-year-old civilian friend died in a roadside bomb explosion in Bordj Emir Abdelkader, north-central Tissemsilt province, El Watan reported on Saturday (August 29th). The three were travelling last Thursday to the local military detachment when the incident occurred.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/31/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11125 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa
That stands for Improvised Rectal Explosive Device; Al-Qaeda's newest weapon. The suicide bomber who tried to assassinate a Saudi prince used an unusual place to conceal his explosive charge; his anus.
One would think the jihadi would walk a bit funny, if the bomb is to be big enough to do any good be effective in killing a number of others. Of course, one is as ignorant as she can make herself be about such things, and determined to stay that way if at all possible.
The network also quoted an expert as saying that the method of concealment aimed the blast away from the target, while blowing the bomber to bits.
Gladly the attack failed, otherwise Iraqi officials would freak out and demand that all visitors to government offices have their anuses probed before entry.
But seriously, how did he place the explosives in his anus? I don't think he could've done it on his own. But on the other hand, if someone else helped him do it then that makes the whole operation unholy, and very gay, right?
Anything is permitted to those involved with jihad. We saw that when the 9/11 hijackers took their final vacation in, I believe, Las Vegas with all that entails.
[Iran Press TV Latest] At least four Turkish soldiers have been killed in an armed clash with the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) in the Hakkari province in east Turkey.
In a statement, the Turkish Army said that the clash occurred when Turkish soldiers were patrolling in the Derecik area of Semdili town in the Hakkari province.
Established in 1978, the PKK took up arms in 1984 to create an ethnic homeland in southeastern Turkey. Some 40,000 people have been killed in conflicts over the past two decades.
It is estimated that there are a total of 5,000 PKK militants, the majority of whom are holed up in northern Iraq where the PKK headquarters is situated.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/31/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11125 views]
Top|| File under:
WASHINGTON -- Former Vice President Dick Cheney hinted that, in the waning days of the Bush administration, he had pushed for a military strike to destroy Iran's nuclear-weapons program.
In an interview on Fox News Sunday, Mr. Cheney described himself as being isolated among advisers to then-President George W. Bush, who ultimately decided against direct military action.
"I was probably a bigger advocate of military action than any of my colleagues," Mr. Cheney said in response to questions about whether the Bush administration should have launched a pre-emptive attack prior to handing over the White House to Barack Obama.
"I thought that negotiations could not possibly succeed unless the Iranians really believed we were prepared to use military force," Mr. Cheney said. "And to date, of course, they are still proceeding with their nuclear program and the matter has not yet been resolved."
Mr. Cheney's views were at odds with those of other top officials at the time. Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had said repeatedly during those final months that a strike against Iran would make the Middle East more unstable and would raise the risk on American forces in neighboring Iraq and Afghanistan.
"This is a very unstable part of the world, and I don't need it to be more unstable," Adm. Mullen said in July 2008.
The Cheney interview focused mostly on Attorney General Eric Holder's naming of a special prosecutor to assess whether, during the Bush administration, Central Intelligence Agency interrogators' harsh questioning of terror suspects illegally exceeded the guidance of Justice Department lawyers.
Mr. Cheney said the legal review set a "terrible precedent" that would shatter morale at the CIA and increase the likelihood of future terror attacks. He accused President Obama of using the threat of criminal charges to score political points with the left wing of the Democratic Party.
"It's clearly a political move; there's no other rationale for them to be doing this," the former vice president said of the Obama administration review.
Mr. Cheney was particularly critical of Mr. Obama's statement that he had not influenced the attorney general's decision, and charged the president with waffling on his earlier pledge not to unearth old allegations. "I think he's trying to duck the responsibility for what's going on here, and I think it's wrong," Mr. Cheney said of the president.
The White House declined to issue a statement responding to Mr. Cheney's criticism. But an administration official, speaking anonymously, denied that Mr. Obama has been inconsistent. The new special prosecutor is only looking into cases where CIA agents allegedly went beyond the interrogation guidance given by the Bush Justice Department.
"What the president said weeks ago is that he agrees with the attorney general that those interrogators who followed the legal guidance from DOJ in good faith in conducting interrogations should not be prosecuted," the official said. "Nothing has changed in terms of that."
Mr. Cheney's comments drew sharp responses from some Democrats. "Dick Cheney has shown over the years, frankly, a disrespect for the Constitution," Sen. John Kerry (D., Mass.) said on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos."
Some Democrats are idiots, as used in the technical sense, the honourable junior senator from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts leading the charge.
Posted by: bgrebel ||
08/31/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11125 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
Mr. Cheney described himself as being isolated among advisers to then-President George W. Bush
#5
Hell we wouldn't even be there if they hadn't kicked us in the nuts with 9-11
Keep your prejudices at home, or die.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/31/2009 14:29 Comments ||
Top||
#6
I miss Dick Cheney. You always knew whose side he was one. What ever happened to that little pyramid of skulls he was assembling back behind the White House.
[Dawn] A militant blew himself at a police station in Pakistan's northwestern Swat Valley on Sunday killing 12 cadets in the second such attack in the area in recent weeks, a senior government official said.
The military went on the offensive in the region northwest of the capital in late April and has killed or driven out many Taliban militants in what has been widely seen as a successful operation, but the attacks show the militants can hit back.
'Training was going on when a suicide bomber disguised as a recruit walked into the building and blew himself up,' Mian Iftikhar Hussain, information minister of the North West Frontier Province where Swat is located, told Reuters.
'We have reports that 12 were killed' in the attack in the main town of Mingora, he said.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani condemned the killings but said the government was determined to fight militancy. 'We will not allow the enemies of the country to succeed in their evil designs,' a statement from Gilani's office quoted him as saying.
Pakistan's military push had allayed fears among its allies, in particular the United States and other countries with troops in neighbouring Afghanistan, that the nuclear-armed country was failing to get to grips with spreading militant violence.
However, security analysts said militants allied to al-Qaeda and the Taliban still posed a serious threat to Pakistan.
A suicide bomber killed 22 Pakistani border guards on Thursday in an attack at the main crossing point into Afghanistan at the west end of the Khyber Pass.
It was the first big attack in Pakistan since Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud was killed in a US missile strike on August 5 and raised fears that the militants were hitting back.
Five Pakistan soldiers were killed in a suicide attack at a security checkpoint in the Swat valley on August 15.
The death of Mehsud, blamed for a series of suicide bombings in Pakistan including the one that killed former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in December 2007, is seen as a major blow for the Pakistani Taliban.
The militants appointed Hakimullah Mehsud, a Mehsud aide, as the new leader of an alliance of 13 militant groups known as Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), or Taliban Movement of Pakistan. The militant group fighting in Swat is also part of TTP. Hakimullah has been described as a young and aggressive commander and security officials and analysts say it has yet to be seen whether he can keep the TTP as strong and united as it was under Mehsud amid reports of rivalry with a commander who holds sway in Mehsud's South Waziristan stronghold.
This article starring:
Hakimullah Mehsud
Posted by: Fred ||
08/31/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11125 views]
Top|| File under: TTP
#1
A message for all who think that it's possible to achieve Peace by surrendering to Islam.
[Dawn] An explosion set several Nato fuel tankers on fire at a backed-up Afghan border crossing, said police.
Police officer Abdul Rauf says he heard the blast Sunday night near the Chaman border crossing in Balochistan province and saw three oil tankers, two container trucks and two dump trucks on fire.
The Chaman border is one of two main crossing points for supplies for American and Nato troops fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan. The foreign troops get about 75 percent of their supplies through Pakistan.
The crossing has been closed for two days amid a dispute between Afghan and Pakistani customs officers that police said earlier had left more than 1,000 trucks backed up along the road to the border.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/31/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11125 views]
Top|| File under: TTP
#1
Why are we not suspicious of any border guard dispute at such an important checkpoint.
One can only assume that one or both groups wanted the delay for the talibunnies to have a chance to set explosives...
[Iran Press TV Latest] Pakistani security forces have reportedly killed at least 14 militants in the northwestern Swat Valley as part of a fresh military operation against the gunmen.
The Sunday operation in the valley's Charbagh Tehsil area also left several others injured, the Swat Media Centre said in a statement.
The forces confiscated large quantities of arms from the men.
The servicemen have launched a new round of military assaults on the area's militants over the last two days, the statement added.
Earlier in the day, a suicide bomber had blown himself up in a police station in the region's Mingora town, killing at least 17 Pakistani policemen.
Despite the government armed campaign, pro-Taliban militants continue to inflict heavy tolls in the northwestern tribal area.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/31/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11130 views]
Top|| File under: TTP
NINEWA / Aswat al-Iraq: Unidentified gunmen on Sunday killed a policeman in downtown Mosul city, according to a local security source. "Today, unknown gunmen assassinated a cop while he was off-duty in al-Sirgkhana area, downtown Mosul," the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. "The cop died upon reaching the hospital," the source noted, providing no further details.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/31/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11128 views]
Top|| File under:
KIRKUK / Aswat al-Iraq: A policeman on Sunday was seriously wounded when armed men opened fire on him in Kirkuk city, according to a local police chief.
On Sunday, unknown gunmen opened fire on a police lieutenant on his way back home near al-Asdiqaa gas station in al-Wassity neighborhood, southwestern Kirkuk, Brig. Sarhad Qadir told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. The cop was badly wounded and was immediately taken to the hospital, the official noted.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/31/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11125 views]
Top|| File under:
Officials say suspected militants planted a bomb that exploded near an airport and an air force base in the southern Philippines, wounding two soldiers. Regional military chief Maj.-Gen. Benjamin Dolorfino said Abu Sayyaf extremists most likely planted the bomb that exploded late Sunday on a narrow road in Jolo township, wounding the two troops who were riding a scooter to a mosque. The soldiers were taken to a hospital for treatment to shrapnel wounds.
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.
KABUL (AFP) Afghan and international troops have destroyed a massive bunker complex in eastern Afghanistan used by the Haqqani insurgent network to store arms and shelter foreign fighters, officials said Sunday.
[Dawn] A militant blew himself at a police station in Pakistan's northwestern Swat Valley on Sunday killing 12 cadets in the second such attack in the area in recent weeks, a senior government official said.
