The bodies of at least 10 children and many more adults covered in blankets and white shrouds appear in videos obtained by The Associated Press on Monday, lending weight to Afghan and U.N. allegations that a U.S.-led raid last month killed more civilians than the U.S. reported.
The sounds of wailing women mixed with the voices of men shouting inside a white-walled mosque in the western village of Azizabad, where an Afghan government commission and U.N. report said some 90 civilians -- including 60 children and 15 women -- were killed.
The two grainy videos, apparently taken by cell phones, showed bodies lying side-by-side on the mosque floor, covered by floral-patterned blankets and black-and-white checkered shawls. One young boy lay curled in a fetal position; others looked as though they were asleep. One child had half its head blown off.
Turbaned men walked around, gently lifting the blankets covering the faces of the dead. At least two elderly men were among the dead. There appeared to be several dozen bodies lying on the mosque floor, though a precise count was difficult because of the poor quality of the images.
The videos do not provide proof that 60 children died in the operation, but the images do appear to contradict a U.S. military investigation that found only seven civilians were killed in Azizabad, along with up to 35 militants.
The U.S. said Sunday it would reopen the investigation because of emerging new evidence. On Monday, a Pentagon spokesman said new "imagery evidence" came to the attention over the weekend of Gen. David D. McKiernan, the American commander of the NATO-led force here.
"There is some evidence that suggests that the evidence that the U.S. military used in ... its investigation may not have been complete," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said.
He said a general to be sent to Afghanistan by U.S. Central Command will review the initial investigation. But it is also possible there will be a new inquiry into the raid in Azizabad -- this time conducted by Central Command, said Lt. Cmdr. Bill Speaks, a spokesman for the command in Tampa, Fla.
The Afghan government has agreed to a joint U.S.-U.N.-Afghan investigation, said Sultan Ahmad Baheen, spokesman for Afghanistan's Foreign Ministry. It's not clear when or how that will be conducted.
In the videos, several dozen bodies covered by blankets were lined up in two rows, some with their feet protruding. Veiled Afghan women were seen shrieking in grief, alongside a young boy who squatted and rocked back and forth, sobbing beside one of the bodies.
One video showed three young children wrapped in white shrouds. A fourth child had gruesome head wounds, while a fifth appeared to be a girl lying on her back, her head resting on a red blanket.
It was impossible to verify conclusively that the videos showed the aftermath of the Azizabad attack, but the contents appeared to back claims by Afghan and U.N. officials that the U.S. operation killed far more civilians than the military has acknowledged.
U.S. special forces and Afghan commandos carried out the operation.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has repeatedly warned the U.S. and NATO that it must stop killing civilians in its bombing runs, saying such deaths undermine his government and the international mission. But the Azizabad incident could finally push Karzai to take action.
Karzai says the Azizabad bombings have brought relations between the Afghan government and the U.S. to one of its lowest points since the ouster of the Islamic militia from power in 2001.
Shortly after the Azizabad attack, he ordered a review of whether the U.S. and NATO should be allowed to use airstrikes or carry out raids in villages. He also called for an updated "status of force" agreement between the Afghan government and foreign militaries. That review has not yet been completed.
Afghan officials say U.S. special forces and Afghan commandos raided the village while hundreds of people were gathered in a large compound for a memorial service honoring a tribal leader, Timor Shah, who was killed eight months ago by a rival, Nader Tawakal.
The U.S. investigative report released last week said American and Afghan forces took fire from militants while approaching Azizabad and that "justified use of well-aimed small-arms fire and close air support to defend the combined force."
The report said investigators discovered evidence the militants planned to attack a nearby coalition base. This included weapons, explosives, intelligence materials and an access badge to the base, as well as photographs from inside and outside the base, the U.S. report said.
#2
It turns out that Oliver North and a Foxnews cameraman, Chris Jackson, were embedded with the unit that entered Azizabad, and testified that the dead they saw were all combatants.
Black-ops by ISI/Taliban to fabricate an atrocity to create a furor that would force the US to abandon Afghanistan?
#3
Black-ops by ISI/Taliban to fabricate an atrocity to create a furor that would force the US to abandon Afghanistan?
SPOT-ON!!! Though not so black. Coalition forces are well aware, and frustrated by, the fact that the Taliban use tactics similar to that displayed by Hezbollah in Lebanon in '06.
It simply doesn't make the 'news' to that effect...
#4
Add to that the fact that Iran has been supplying and no doubt training Talibunnies for awhile. SOP for Hezzies, exported from the latest Lebanon war. Someone needs to check the video carefully for Green Helmet Guy.
#9
I think it's time to open a new front in the GWOT. We need to begin striking back at the press and the UN for aiding and abetting our enemies. There are a few guys that we can let slide - Michael Yon, Ollie North, etc. - but the rest need a thorough whacking.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
09/09/2008 15:32 Comments ||
Top||
#10
What weapons do we have against a press that happily passes along untrue propaganda? And how do we activate it?
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
09/09/2008 17:15 Comments ||
Top||
#11
Yup, the IslamoFacists kill their own (send them to a "martyr's death) so they can create furor over the BIG BAD AMERICAN SOLDIER BABY KILLERS, for the press and to change world opinion. All part of jihad. Of course, since Obama has been saying he WANTS to go into Afganistan, me wonderin' how will end up.
#12
I was a wedding party! I worked in that area for 1 & 1/2 years. They are good people! They grow silk worms and are very, very poor!! This is an area that has never, ever welcomed the Taliban!!!! They hate the Taliban more then anyone. So it is absolutely ridicules that there would be Taliban there!
The Taliban are Pakistani not Iranian. Iran is Shia and Pakistan is Sunni!
Posted by: Deb ||
09/09/2008 19:58 Comments ||
Top||
#13
"I was a wedding party!"
Huh?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/09/2008 20:12 Comments ||
Top||
(AKI) - The Taliban has claimed responsibility for a failed suicide attack that targeted an Italian military convoy in the western Afghan province of Herat on Sunday. A suicide bomber blew himself up in a bid to target the convoy a few kilometres from the city of Herat in the province as they were returning to their base.
But jihadi forums have disputed the damage caused by the attack.
In a message published on jihadi forums by Qari Muhammad Yusuf, said "at 11 a.m. a hero of the Islamic emirate, Mujahid Shir, attacked a convoy of NATO forces occupying the area of Hud Karbaz near the city of Herat".
While the Italian government said no one was injured in the bomb attack, the Taliban has told its sympathisers on the web that "two of the convoy vehicles were destroyed and six soldiers on board were killed and another six were injured". The Taliban also claimed to have carried out a second suicide attack in a nearby province against the secret services of the Afghan government.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/09/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[10325 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
#1
Taliban has told its sympathisers on the web that "two of the convoy vehicles were destroyed and six soldiers on board were killed and another six were injured".
Not without verification by the UN, their not.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
09/09/2008 11:04 Comments ||
Top||
#2
The MSM would crap in their pants if they ever read what a real war/combat correspondent writes and survives. Especially one that has actually walked the talk and talked the walk, unlike our boy Dexter Filkins at the Times. I don't know of any other writer out there on a daily basis that has been a member of SFO and understands how to handle himself in a combat situation. Does anyone?
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
09/09/2008 11:07 Comments ||
Top||
(AKI) - Police in Algeria have broken up a terrorist cell in southern Algeria that they claim was poised to deploy a female suicide bomber in an attack against a military barracks. The terror cell was based in Waraqla and had four members: an engineer, a doctor, a teacher and woman whose profession was unspecified, according to Algerian press reports.
Police said they uncovered the cell after phone taps of conversations between suspected members who spoke about an apartment. They traced the apartment and found explosives, weapons and documents inside. One of the documents allegedly contained details of an imminent suicide attack, which the female cell member was planning to carry out against the military barracks.
The woman is reportedly the wife of a suspected Al-Qaeda militant who was killed last year during an offensive by security forces. Observers were cited as saying the planning of Iraq-style suicide attacks by female suicide bombers showed that Al-Qaeda's North African branch was now in disarray.
There have been at least 16 suicide attacks carried out by women in recent months in the volatile Al-Qaeda stronghold of Diyala province, north of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.
American and Iraqi security forces are conducting a major offensive in the province to uproot remnants of Al-Qaeda from their strongholds.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/09/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[10329 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa
Mir Mosharraf Hossain Kochi alias Kochi Bhai, 40, a notorious pirate of the Sundarbans, ...
"Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum, I be the notorious pirate of .. um .. oh yeah, the Underarms!"
... was killed in a “shootout” between his cohorts and Rab personnel at Purba Hatimpur under Patharghata upazila of Barguna district early yesterday.
We have no idea where that is.
Major Habibur Rahaman, deputy director of Rab-8, Patuakhali, said a gang of seven to eight pirates opened fire on a Rab patrol team when it challenged the gang aboard a trawler anchored at Purbo Hatimpur on the river Bishkhali at around 4:00am.
"Avast ye scurvy dogs! It's the RAB! Open up, boys!"
The Rab men returned fire, leading to a gunfight between the two sides.
With no bullet impacts for forensics to review ...
Rab sources said Kochi received bullets during the shootout and died instantly while his accomplices managed to flee with the trawler.
"Hey, they're getting away with the trawler!"
"Who cares, we got Kochi."
One revolver, two rifles and 18 bullets were recovered from the scene. The body was sent to Barguna Sadar Hospital morgue for autopsy.
"Oh, ick Sam! This one was in the water and everything!"
Rab said Kochi was wanted on twelve systems in several criminal cases including for murder. A case was filed with Patharghata Police Station.
"Case closed, Sarge?"
"Case closed."
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/09/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[10324 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Even the normally land-based RAB is getting into the pirate-hunting business. I can see this being a sport in the next Summer Olympics.
#8
Another interesting thing: I found a site called Banglapedia, but they don't have an entry for the Rapid Action Battalion. Maybe I misspelled something.
The men had pleaded guilty to causing a public nuisance, claiming the videos were simply part of a propaganda stunt, and the jury was unable to agree on whether Savant, Khan, Zaman and Islam had intended to carry out their threats. That's one dumb ass jury.
Posted by: tu3031 ||
09/09/2008 08:23 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[10325 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Britain
#2
Disgusting. And this is post September 11th jury. Hindsight isn't 20-20, is it?
I wonder if, on the morning of September 11th, 19 muslims had been pulled off four airline flights, would a jury have convicted or acted differently than the dumbass jury in the UK? At least a jury in the USA would have an excuse to the extent they were not deliberately in hindsight to a September 11th.
I only know what I read in the papers regarding the UK case. Were the prosecutors incompetent? I don't know.
At least 24 protestors and 11 troops were injured in Indian-held Kashmir when troops used force to disperse hundreds of demonstrators protesting elections due in October, police and doctors said on Monday
Police fired rubber bullets, live ammunition and lobbed tear gas to quell the protestors. Shops, banks and government offices were closed for the day, and public and private vehicles stayed off the roads across much of the region in response to a strike called by Muslim separatists protesting Indian rule in Kashmir.
Central Reserve Police Force spokesman Prabhakar Tripathi said protesters had clashed with paramilitary forces at three places in Srinagar, adding that troops fired live ammunition in some places. Protestors pelted stones at paramilitary soldiers, and injured 11.
Doctors in at least three Srinagar hospitals and police said at least 24 protesters were injured, some with bullet wounds.
The Jammu-Kashmir Co-ordination Committee (JKCC) called Monday's strike. "The strike is to denounce the holding of a meeting by India's Election Commission in New Delhi," the JKCC said in a statement.
In the past, militants have threatened to kill voters if they cast ballots in polls. During the last state elections in 2002, nearly 850 people were killed. Many victims were party workers and around 50 were politicians. Syed Ali Shah Gilani, a key pro-Pakistan leader, also warned the Indian government against holding state legislative elections in the region, which are due in October.
"If New Delhi goes ahead with the elections, it will add fuel to the fire in Kashmir," said Gilani.
Gilani's comments came as the Indian Election Commission began consulting various political groups to set a date for the election.
Gilani and two other separatist leaders, Yasin Malik and Mirwaiz Omer Farooq, have been put under house arrest by Indian authorities since Friday to prevent them from leading protest marches.
On Monday, Farooq told reporters that India was pursuing a "policy of force, intimidation and terror to subjugate" people in Kashmir. "When you are making peaceful revolution impossible, you're making violent revolution inevitable."
Farooq also demanded that the Indian allow cross-border trade between Indian-held Kashmir and Azad Kashmir. "India should open the cross border road for trade and people, or entirely close it. We're determined to see it as an alternate route, not yet another symbolic move."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/09/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[10326 views]
Top|| File under:
Several suspected Taliban hideouts were destroyed on Monday as security forces re-established their posts in Khar, the headquarters of Bajaur Agency. Residents welcomed arrival of security forces in the area. Taliban hideouts were destroyed in Khar and Siddiq Abad areas. A curfew was in place during the troops' advance. Locals said they were facing problems in getting food and medicine due to the imposition of curfew. Schools, offices and other government and private institutions were closed while traffic remained off the roads. A woman and two children died on Monday when a mortar shell hit their house in Shago area of Khar.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/09/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[10326 views]
Top|| File under: TTP
Police on Monday evening arrested 10 suspected Uzbek-Afghan nationals, Chaman Sub-Division Police Officer (SDPO) Zia Mandokhel said. According to Mandokhel, the Uzbeks entered Pakistani territory without legal documents and wanted to proceed to Quetta and other parts of the country. Police arrested them after receiving a tip-off, and registered cases against them, the SDPO said.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/09/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[10326 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
Ten suspected suicide bombers from Wana have entered the Punjab, prompting increased security measures in the province. According to Geo News, the militants have entered the province through Tank. Sources said that the would-be suicide bombers could target important political personalities, government officials and law enforcement agencies, the channel said, adding that the Interior Ministry had immediately ordered an increase in security.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/09/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[10328 views]
Top|| File under: TTP
Security forces foiled a suicide bombing attempt early Monday morning in Nowshera and arrested the would-be bomber, the ISPR said in a statement.
The ISPR statement said a youth, aged 17 or 18 years, reportedly wearing a jacket packed with 10-15 kilogrammes of explosives, was spotted by two junior officers of the School of Artillery, when he was about to target a forces' convoy. The officers "daringly got hold" of the youth, the statement said. However, senior police official Akhtar Ali told AP, "Swift action by the police yielded the arrest of the boy."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/09/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[10326 views]
Top|| File under: TTP
Seventeen people including at least seven Taliban militants were killed in a missile attack by United States spy planes targeting Taliban commander Jalaluddin Haqqani's compound in North Waziristan on Monday, witnesses and officials said. Haqqani is a veteran commander of the US-backed Afghan war against the Soviet invasion in the 1970s and 1980s, and his links with Osama Bin Laden go back to the late 1980s.
"About six Hellfire missiles were fired from two drones" near a madrassa he had founded adjacent to his house in Dandi Darpakhel area two kilometres north of Miranshah bazaar," officials at a hospital told Daily Times, speaking on condition of anonymity. They said 19 people were injured in the attack, and that some of the injured were in a critical condition.
Among the dead were Haqqani's daughter, daughter-in-law and two nephews, witnesses said, but Haqqani's sons only confirmed the death of an aunt while talking to Reuters. US intelligence officials disagreed on whether any foreign militants were killed, but said Arab and Uzbek militants had stayed at the madrassa.
Haqqani is said to be in ill health and his son, Sirajuddin, has been leading the Haqqani group.
Haqqani in Afghanistan: One of Haqqani's younger sons said his father and Sirajuddin were nowhere near when the attack took place. "Haqqani and Sirajuddin were in Afghanistan at the time of the attack. They are alive," Badruddin, the commander's third son, told Reuters by telephone.
He said six missiles had struck the house, which the family had owned for 30 years. Residents said militants cordoned off the bombed site. Military spokesman Major-General Athar Abbas told Reuters an 'incident' had taken place and its cause was being ascertained.
The New York Times reported in July that the US Central Intelligence Agency had given Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani evidence of a Pakistani intelligence agency's ties with Haqqani.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/09/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[10327 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
#1
You go cause trouble in Afghanistan, we'll take care of your family while you're gone.
We'll even do some work on your house.
The Arab Socialist Baath Party announced Sunday it would hold its first conference in Algeria despite the unlikelihood of obtaining official permission. The party, chaired by Algerian academician Ahmed Choutri, is affiliated to the general command in Iraq. One of Choutri's close aids, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AlArabiya.net that he does not expect the party will be able to obtain permission from the authorities and would therefore operate underground. "Göbbels! Issue a press release! Tell Deutschland we're going to operate ünderground!"
"Jawohl, mein Führer!"
Choutri, secretary general of the Baath regional command in Algeria, issued a statement that was posted on websites sympathetic to the Iraqi resistance under the leadership of the former Iraqi vice president Izzat Ibrahim ad-Douri.
According to the statement, the party held its first regional meeting in August 2008 under the title "The Conference of Party and Nation Martyr Saddam Hussein" The conference came "after years of public and clandestine struggle and resistance to popular and francophone trends grudging Algeria its nationalism and cultural identity."
The statement added that the Algerian authorities could not understand the Baath Party's message of peace and that the regime had isolated Baathists and their allies in favor of other security and ceremonial parties.
The statement discussed the necessity of following a clear national policy to solve the problem of Algerian politics. The party also pledged its allegiance to ad-Douri, although the statement did not refer to any Algerian funding of the Iraqi resistance.
#2
Before going "underground" Saddam visited a COB north of Baghdad. He flew in on a UH-60 in the middle of the night and left in a limo. I blame Bush!
With Kalashnikovs slung over their shoulders, Iraq's first Christian militia enforces one simple rule on the border of this little village. "Anyone not from Tel Asquf, is banned." "Y'ain't from around here, air yew?"
This village in northern Iraq's flashpoint Nineveh province, frequently targeted by Sunni and Shiite fighters, has now taken security into its own hands with armed patrols and checkpoints at the village's four entrances. "The terrorists want to kill us because we are Christian. If we don't defend ourselves, who will?" asked militia group leader Abu Nataq.
Associated with the "Crusader" invaders and regarded as well-off, they are often victims of sectarian violence, killings and kidnappings at the hands of both Sunni and Shiite Islamists, as well as criminal gangs.
Iraq's Christians, with the Chaldean rite by far the largest community, were said to number as many as 800,000 before the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, but this number is believed to have halved as people fled the brutal sectarian violence.
Neighborhood militias have become popular in Iraq, particularly with the rise of the Awakening groups -- former Sunni insurgents who switched sides and are now paid by U.S. forces to battle al-Qaeda. "We used to pay "jezya" (protection money) and they would leave us alone," Nataq said in reference to a tax levied on the Christian community by al-Qaeda in exchange for peace.
The term harks back to the seventh century, a period of great expansion in Islam when Christians and Jews were forced to pay taxes to the majority Muslims.
Kurdish help
But Tel Asquf's villagers rebelled against the payments and called on the help of the Kurdish forces of Arbil, the nearby capital of Iraq's Kurdish region, after judging that its own provincial capital, Mosul, had too large a Sunni population. "I prefer the help of Kurdistan, of the Peshmerga," Nataq said. The Kurdish fighters now controlled the roads leading to the village and claimed large swathes of the region, much to the fury of Mosul's Arab population, he added.
The Peshmerga provide Kalashnikov rifles and radios to the 200 Christian militiamen who receive around 200 dollars (140 euros) a month from the Arbil administration to protect the 8,000 inhabitants of the village. Since the arrangement was introduced around 10 months ago, the Christian militiamen have never had to use their weapons, "because the Peshmerga form the first line of defense," Nataq said.
St George
Christian fighters are stationed at the village's entry points and mobile teams patrol inside the inner cordon, especially around the Chaldean Catholic church of St George, which, like many of Iraq's churches, has paid a heavy price in this blood-soaked land.
On January 6, a series of bombs exploded outside churches and a monastery in Mosul, in an apparently coordinated attack that wounded four people and damaged buildings, as Christians celebrated Epiphany.
In March, the body of Iraq's kidnapped Chaldean Catholic archbishop, Paulos Faraj Rahho, was found near Mosul, prompting the condemnation of Pope Benedict XVI and U.S. President George W. Bush.
Along with thousands of other Christians, the archbishop used to pay the "jezya" but decided to stop. Some believe that this was the reason for his kidnapping and murder.
Salem Samoon Jbo used to sell liquor in Basra but fled north, first to Baghdad and then Tel Asquf, after Shiite extremists ordered he close the store in 2006. They had learned that he was a part-time bomb disposal expert for the U.S. forces.
Now the 46-year-old stands guard outside one of the entrances to the St. George church. "There isn't any other work here. There is nothing else to do. I don't like guns but I have no other choice," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/09/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[10325 views]
Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency
#1
It's about time they learned to fight back. In a country with guns lying in the gutters, you might have expected them to pick that up earlier.
#2
Standard practice in Muslim countries has been to wipe to a man any village opposing resistance to their Muslim overlords. Even if it was a Christian in legimate defence. Sometimes it even happened after the accidental death of a a Muslim.
Not opposing resiatnce was essantial for survival unless you had a good hope to expel Muslims from teh entire country and had hoped to withsatnd their counterattack (eg Spain or Greece).
Lt. Christopher Hanes knew something was wrong as soon as he stepped into the Friends bakery. The oven was unused, the water tank was empty and a large concrete bin was full of dirt that the two employees claimed was used to cool cakes.
Hanes and his soldiers moved the water tank and found the entrance to a 50-foot tunnel heading straight for the nearby provincial government headquarters.
The U.S. military believes insurgents planned to tunnel underneath the compound's blast walls and blow up the headquarters building. With 250-300 Iraqis working in the governor's office and perhaps hundreds more there for business, casualties from such a blast could have been catastrophic.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
09/09/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[10325 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Iraq
#1
Kudos to Lt. Christopher Hanes for his alertness.
(VOI) -- Gunmen suspected members of al-Qaeda kidnapped on Monday the leader of the al-Mansouriya district's Sahwa (Awakening) tribal force in Diala province, a security source said. "The gunmen raided the house of Raad Rasheed, the leader of al-Mansouriya Sahwa, and led him to an unknown place," the source, who asked that his name not be mentioned, told Aswat al-Iraq -- Voices of Iraq -- (VOI).
Posted by: Fred ||
09/09/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[10325 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Iraq
(VOI) -- Four policemen on Monday were arrested by a combined Iraqi-U.S. force, northeast of Baaquba, according to Operation Bashaer al-Kheir (Promise of Good), said a security source from Diala province. "A combined Iraqi-U.S. force today arrested four policemen from al-Mansooriya district, al-Muqdadiya suburb (45 km northeastern Diala), according to Operation Bashaer al-Kheir (Promise of Good)," the source told Aswat al-Iraq -- Voices of Iraq -- (VOI) on condition of anonymity.
"The four policemen were arrested when they were inside al-Mansooriya police station," he said. "The operation took place according to an arrest warrant," he added. "Since the beginning of Operation Bashaer al-Kheir (Promise of Good) in last July, 14 military and security elements have been arrested," he noted.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/09/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[10325 views]
Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency
(VOI) -- The car bomb that targeted the motorcade of Ahmed Chalabi, the head of the Iraqi National Congress, in western Baghdad on Friday belongs to a state department, an official spokesman for the INC said on Monday. "The initial investigations held that the explosive vehicle that targeted the INC leader's convoy belonged to a state department and contained two cannon shells of 130 mm. caliber," Muhammad Hassan al-Musawi said in a press release by the INC as received by Aswat al-Iraq -- Voices of Iraq -- (VOI).
Chalabi's motorcade had come under a bombing attack in the western Baghdad area of al-Mansour, leaving two civilians killed and 17 others, including nine of his bodyguards, wounded. "Investigations are still going on to unravel this sinful operation," Musawi added. Chalabi, an ex-Iraqi deputy prime minister and former Pentagon favorite, survived the attack unscathed.
A secular Shiite who was once viewed by Washington as a possible successor to Saddam Hussein, Chalabi was on his way to his headquarters in the area when the bomb exploded, his office said.
After spending most of his life abroad, Chalabi returned to Iraq in 2003 and served in the 25-member Governing Council appointed by the American occupation authorities to run the country's day-to-day affairs. He was a member of the next two cabinets, serving as finance minister and then as deputy prime minister but failed to win a seat in parliament in the 2005 election. He now is chairman of the debaathification commission, which is responsible for keeping Saddam loyalists out of government posts and is believed to have escaped several assassination attempts since 2003.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/09/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[10326 views]
Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency
(VOI) -- Coalition forces detained 15 suspected al-Qaeda operatives, including two wanted men, during operations targeting the armed group in two of the country's largest cities Monday, according to a release issued by the Multi-National Force (MNF) in Iraq. "Coalition forces captured a wanted man with alleged historic ties to al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) during an operation in Baghdad and detained two additional suspects," read the release as received by Aswat al-Iraq -- Voices of Iraq -- (VOI). "In Mosul, Coalition forces detained a dozen suspected terrorists while targeting AQI propaganda nodes, including a wanted man assessed to be part of multiple AQI networks. The wanted man allegedly distributes extremist propaganda and acts as a liaison between AQI senior leaders," it added.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/09/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[10326 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Iraq
Busy day at Jihad Watch
More than 150 Muslim workers didn't report to their meatpacking plant jobs Monday in the wake of what they called JBS Swift & Co.'s sudden reversal of accommodation for their religious fasting during Ramadan. Nice pic at the link. Looks like downtown Mogadishu...
The workers initially planned a two-mile march from downtown Greeley's Lincoln Park to the plant, but a gathering that formed mid-morning never left the park. Throughout the day, several Greeley police officers watched from the park's edge. Company officials met with several workers Monday afternoon at the plant, and Somali representatives later spoke with workers in downtown Greeley.
Graen Isse, a Swift worker and group spokesman, said the workers would not discuss details of their grievances, which were supplied to Swift in writing, until the company responded. He said he expected to hear from Swift Tuesday morning. "I believe (the workers) will be back to their jobs," Isse said. Asked what would happen if the workers didn't get what they wanted, Isse said, "That's another question. We'll pass on that."
The workers, mostly Somalis but many also from several other East African nations, said they were told by Swift management on Friday to not report to work Monday until the matter of changing break times to accommodate their Ramadan fasts was settled.
On Friday, about 300 Muslim workers left work mid-shift -- about 9:30 p.m. -- when they say they were told not to break at 7:30 p.m., when their roughly 12 hours of daily fasting for Ramadan ended. Earlier in the week, the workers negotiated with Swift to get an earlier break to allow them food and water after their fast. Several Somali workers said Monday the company had fired as many as six employees on Friday, but a Swift official said Monday afternoon that was not true. "No one has been terminated at this point," said JBS Swift spokeswoman Tamara Smid.
Mohammed Osman, a Swift worker, said three women Muslim workers were fired after they went into an employee locker room to pray in the early evening Friday. Omar Clarke, who described himself as "a white-and-black" Muslim but not Somali, said workers at 7:30 p.m. Friday were told not to leave their work lines. He said the company then locked bathrooms to stop workers from going to them. "At 7:30 Friday they did not accommodate us on our religious beliefs," he said. "After they told us we couldn't pray, we all walked out."
Ramadan is one of the most important parts of the Muslim calendar. The fasting, which lasts a month, is one of the five pillars of the Muslim religion. The month, based on the Muslim lunar calendar, requires Muslims to fast from sunrise until sunset. The fast is a method of purification, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Swift has hired hundreds of Somalis -- as well as Ethiopians, Eritreans, Sudanese, Cameroonians and Congolese -- in the past two years. The company's recent addition of 1,300 jobs on a second shift opened the door to the African refugees who are legally in the United States. The Somalis -- about 1,085 came to Colorado in the last year -- have come to the United States under the United Nations resettlement program for refugees. Something else to thank them for.
Smid read a company statement late Monday afternoon: "Friday evening, a group of employees left work without proper authorization. The matter was discussed with their union representatives and the company took appropriate action. JBS Swift desires to accommodate the religious practices of all employees, which includes its Muslim employees, provided it can do so reasonably, safely and without undue burden. JBS Swift works closely with its employees and their union representatives to accomplish this balance of reasonable accommodation and operational requirements," the statement concluded.
Smid said she could not elaborate on the size of the group that left work and what the company's "appropriate action" might entail. The workers said they didn't know if they would return to work Tuesday. Many said they were waiting to hear from Swift management. Ah, but there's a backlash...
Friday afternoon, about 150 non-Muslim Swift workers protested the company's break-time accommodation of the Muslims. They said that the change was unfair to workers of other religious beliefs who don't receive similar concessions. Friggin...INFIDELS!
Brianna Castillo, a non-Muslim JBS Swift worker told the Tribune Friday, "The Somalis are running our plant. They are telling us what do to."
Aziz Dhies, who doesn't work at Swift but said he is a local representative of the Somali community, said the Somalis are peacefully trying to get what they consider a rightful concession to their religious beliefs. "We are very peaceful people. We don't hate anybody," he said. "We love everybody here." ...as long as we get what we want.
On Friday, JBS Swift's global human resources director Jack Shandley said U.S. law requires companies to "make reasonable accommodations" for religious observances. Shandley said the company was working quickly to address worker complaints on both sides of the issue. "We're working with all parties to try to reach a reasonable accommodation," Shandley said. "We think we're reaching that to balance the needs of everybody." Manny Gonzales, spokesman for United Food Commercial Workers Local 7, the union that represents production workers at Swift, said Monday that the union was "filing the appropriate grievances over the matter" and working to negotiate a resolution.
Greeley police spokesman Joe Tymkowych said Monday morning that the Somali workers had notified the police they would march to the plant. As of early afternoon, the workers were meeting peacefully in the downtown park and not causing a disturbance, he said. Meanwhile, at about 3:30 p.m. Monday, about 30 East African workers walked into the plant for the evening work shift. Isse said they were brand-new hires reporting for their first day of work.
Joe Rios, a day-shifter for nine months at Swift, said he felt the Somalis were asking for special treatment and "taking advantage of our kindness" in America. He said "most of us" at Swift are Catholic and observe a month of Lent each year without seeking work concessions based on religion. "I think it's either you want to make money and work and put your prayers aside or you stay home," he said. "Mean spirited" bastard! You just made the list, buddy...
Rios said he'd heard that some disgruntled Muslim workers damaged property in the Swift parking lot Friday. Tymkowych said police, who responded to the release of workers Friday night, didn't encounter any vandalism. "If it happened inside (the plant), they didn't tell us about it," he said.
#2
"We're working with all parties to try to reach a reasonable accommodation," Shandley said. "We think we're reaching that to balance the needs of everybody."
What's that mean? Everybody at the plant converts to Islam?
#3
"On Friday, JBS Swift's global human resources director Jack Shandley said U.S. law requires companies to "make reasonable accommodations" for religious observances."
Can anybody here tell me what law he's referring to?
#8
They could move to Minnesota and get a job driving cabs at the airport. That way they could take time off when needed for prayers.
(of course there is that little booze thing to worry about)
#10
Shut these friggin' plants down now. If they can't hire American workers at union wages, close them. I wouldn't eat any meat out of these ratholes if I was starving. I'd be eating nuts and twigs first.
Separatist terrorists militants shot dead and beheaded a Buddhist state official in Thailand's Muslim south on Tuesday, police said, the latest death in 57 months of jihad insurgency in which more than 3,100 people have died.
Police found 29 spent M-16 bullets around the pickup truck of the victim, identified as 26-year-old Attapong Gonlom, after at least two gunmen opened fire on him at a school in Pattani, one of four southern provinces hit by the violence. "After the attack, the gunmen dragged his body out of the truck and chopped his head off, to the horror of students and teachers," a police incident report said. The incident pushed the number of people decapitated in the Malay-speaking region to 34, a Reuters calculation based on police data and newspaper reports showed.
In the nearby province of Yala, rebels raided a seven-man army outpost late on Monday, killing one ranger and wounding another, police said. The terrorists militants walked away with seven automatic rifles, a pistol, four flak jackets and 1,000 bullets, police said. An army spokesman could not say what happened to the other five rangers. "The attack happened when the rangers were about to have dinner and it is not clear if the rest were able to escape," Colonel Acra Tiproch told Reuters by telephone.
A crude bomb went off at a public market and another was defused near a hospital in two southern Philippine cities on Monday, as the military chief warned of more bombings after Manila broke off talks with Muslim rebels.
As fresh fighting erupted in the southern Philippines, the Red Cross issued a funding appeal to help more than 500,000 people displaced by the decades-old Muslim separatist insurgency.
A regional military spokesman said 16 Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels were either killed or wounded when Philippine military aircraft attacked boats carrying 100 rebels. Regional Military Spokesman Major Armand Rico said the aircraft, two helicopter gunships and two fixed wing aircraft carrying bombs, were providing aircover for ground troops when the rebels using machine guns opened fire on them, which prompted one of the pilots to return fire. "Our latest report is that they (MILF) suffered many casualties. That report is based on a pilot's account after scoring a direct hit on one of the boats," he said.
It was the first time aircraft had been used in the fighting since the Muslim holy month of Ramadan started on September 1.
Local residents reported shrapnel from the bombing killed four children, said Mosib Tan, the municipal administrator. Local military commander Colonel Marlou Salazar, however, rejected the report, telling journalists: "Those who claimed there were children fatalities were not in the area, (there were) no civilians there except government troops and MILF rebels."
Army ordnance experts disarmed two improvised bombs elsewhere in Mindanao, one planted outside a hospital in Tacurong city and another at the public market in Isulan town, Salazar said, although there had been no claims of responsibility.
The Red Cross has said "up to a half a million people have been affected," with many forced to flee their homes. The agency said Monday it would need more funds to help up to 80,000 people a month since the agency's yearly budget of seven million dollars for the nation has nearly been exhausted due to the conflict.
Manila has effectively suspended peace talks with the MILF, which seeks to establish an independent Moro homeland governed by Islamic sharia law. Fighting broke out in Mindanao island on August 10 after the Supreme Court blocked a draft peace agreement intended to create a political settlement to end four decades of sectarian bloodshed.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/09/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[10326 views]
Top|| File under: Moro Islamic Liberation Front
(AKI) - Sixteen rebels from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front are believed to have been killed or injured in an air strike by government troops in Mindanao in the southern Philippines on Monday, a military official said.
Major Armand Rico of the military's Eastern Mindanao Command said the conflict occurred when militants opened fire at two SF-260 planes and two helicopters dispatched to provide air support to ground troops in the district of Maduinganao. "Such acts of aggression (by the rebels) prompted the pilots to return fire," Rico said, in a report by the news network, GMA. Rico said the soldiers in the aircraft used machine guns in retaliation.
The Philippine military on Monday also warned of possible terrorist attacks to be launched by rogue elements of the MILF who have splintered into smaller groups to avoid detection by government security forces.
The latest conflict in the south occurred as the Red Cross issued a funding appeal to help more than 500,000 people displaced by the Muslim separatist insurgency. The Red Cross said clashes between government troops and the MILF are the worst seen in five years.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/09/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[10328 views]
Top|| File under: Moro Islamic Liberation Front
(AKI) - Fighter jets bombed the strongholds of suspected Tamil separatists in northern Sri Lanka in a new air campaign on Monday as more casualties were reported in the country's civil war. Twenty-two rebels were killed in battles on the ground, the Defence Ministry said.
War planes targeted militants from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to support an advance by ground troops advancing in rebel-held territory. There were no immediate reports of casualties from the latest air strikes, but the ministry said 22 rebels were killed and another 24 wounded in fresh fighting on Sunday.
Official reports show the government has intensified air strikes in the jungles on the north of the island against the rebels since the weekend.
There was no comment from the Tigers about the latest fighting, which came as Sri Lankan troops moved closer to capturing Kilinochchi, political capital of the Tigers in northern Sri Lanka.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/09/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[10325 views]
Top|| File under:
A reconciliation accord was signed Monday between Alawites and Sunnis in northern Lebanon's capital of Tripoli aiming to restore state control in the port city and put an end to bloodshed.
At least 23 people have been killed since clashes broke out in May between residents of Jabal Mohsen, who mostly support Lebanon's opposition led by Hezbollah, and those of Bab al-Tebbaneh who back the anti-Syrian ruling bloc.
The six-point Tripoli Document calls for armed men to withdraw from the streets, security forces to deploy, the displaced to return home, compensation for material losses, and an economic development plan for the city.
The accord was signed in the home of Tripoli's mufti Sheikh Malek al-Shaar, who oversaw the talks between Prime Minister Fuad Siniora and political leaders from different factions in Tripoli. "Tripoli is a single, unified city where there is no difference between Lebanese and Lebanese, Muslim and Muslim or Muslim or Christian. We are all Lebanese," Siniora said in a televised speech from Shaar's home before the agreement was signed. "Tripoli needs to be a city free of weapons. Weapons don't protect anyone," he said of the arsenals held by different political groups in the country's second city before reading out the text of the accord.
Siniora called the agreement a contract which all sides should commit to and abide by, and said "the state will play a complete role" in keeping the peace.
Parliamentary leader Saad Hariri, a Sunni leader, has been in Tripoli since Saturday trying to reconcile the city's feuding communities. There has been tension between the two sects ever since Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war.
Alawites are an offshoot of Shiite Islam and straddle the border into Syria whose President Bashar al-Assad is a follower of the faith.
Hariri accused Syria on Friday of using the instability in Tripoli as a means to meddle in Lebanese affairs. The Syrians "want to use the situation in Tripoli as a pretext to involve themselves in Lebanese affairs and use it as a means for their military and security return to Lebanon," Hariri charged.
But Assad said he had asked Lebanese President Michel Sleiman to urgently send more troops to northern Lebanon to combat "extremism."
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said in comments published on Monday that he fully supported Hariri's efforts to calm sectarian tensions in Tripoli.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/09/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[10325 views]
Top|| File under: Hezbollah
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.
The bodies of at least 10 children and many more adults covered in blankets and white shrouds appear in videos obtained by The Associated Press on Monday, lending weight to Afghan and U.N. allegations that a U.S.-led raid last month killed more civilians than the U.S. reported. 
(AKI) - Police in Algeria have broken up a terrorist cell in southern Algeria that they claim was poised to deploy a female suicide bomber in an attack against a military barracks. The terror cell was based in Waraqla and had four members: an engineer, a doctor, a teacher and woman whose profession was unspecified, according to Algerian press reports. 
Mir Mosharraf Hossain Kochi alias Kochi Bhai, 40, a notorious pirate of the Sundarbans, ...
Security forces foiled a suicide bombing attempt early Monday morning in Nowshera and arrested the would-be bomber, the ISPR said in a statement. 
Seventeen people including at least seven Taliban militants were killed in a missile attack by United States spy planes targeting Taliban commander Jalaluddin Haqqani's compound in North Waziristan on Monday, witnesses and officials said. Haqqani is a veteran commander of the US-backed Afghan war against the Soviet invasion in the 1970s and 1980s, and his links with Osama Bin Laden go back to the late 1980s.
The Arab Socialist Baath Party announced Sunday it would hold its first conference in Algeria despite the unlikelihood of obtaining official permission. The party, chaired by Algerian academician Ahmed Choutri, is affiliated to the general command in Iraq. One of Choutri's close aids, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AlArabiya.net that he does not expect the party will be able to obtain permission from the authorities and would therefore operate underground.
Lt. Christopher Hanes knew something was wrong as soon as he stepped into the Friends bakery. The oven was unused, the water tank was empty and a large concrete bin was full of dirt that the two employees claimed was used to cool cakes. 
(VOI) -- Coalition forces detained 15 suspected al-Qaeda operatives, including two wanted men, during operations targeting the armed group in two of the country's largest cities Monday, according to a release issued by the Multi-National Force (MNF) in Iraq. "Coalition forces captured a wanted man with alleged historic ties to al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) during an operation in Baghdad and detained two additional suspects," read the release as received by Aswat al-Iraq -- Voices of Iraq -- (VOI). "In Mosul, Coalition forces detained a dozen suspected terrorists while targeting AQI propaganda nodes, including a wanted man assessed to be part of multiple AQI networks. The wanted man allegedly distributes extremist propaganda and acts as a liaison between AQI senior leaders," it added.
(AKI) - Sixteen rebels from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front are believed to have been killed or injured in an air strike by government troops in Mindanao in the southern Philippines on Monday, a military official said. 
