A TALIBAN leader has accused Australian special forces troops of killing innocent civilians in Afghanistan.
The claims come just a day after Special Forces commander Major General Michael Hindmarsh praised the work of Australian soldiers in a battle in a small Afghanistan valley.
Major General Hindmarsh talked about the brave action of Australian troops during the 10-day action involving 500 coalition forces in Oruzgan province.
He said the battle involved a small Australian force virtually surrounded for more than six hours by a couple of hundred enemy hell-bent on scoring an early and decisive victory.
However, in an interview with an Afghani journalist recorded on behalf of the ABC, Taliban commander Mullah Mohammad accused the SAS soldiers and Australian commandos of killing innocent civilians during clashes.
"They caused a lot of damage and killed a lot of villagers, ordinary people, the Taliban didn't received a lot of casualties," he said.
Mullah Mohammad dismissed the idea that Australian soldiers are trying to make the area safer for residents.
"We won't let them be based here. They are our enemies, they are no different to the Americans," he said.
Mullah Mohammad also claimed the Taliban still had a force of up to 6000 guerrillas to fight to remove Australian soldiers from Afghan soil.
However, the commander of the Australian deployment, Lieutenant Colonel Mick Ryan, said Australian troops were just trying to help rebuild the area.
"The Australian soldiers are here to help the people of Oruzgan. Australian soldiers are here to help develop the basic infrastructure and that's what we are here to do."
Taliban said on Tuesday that friends of Osama Bin Laden had told it he was still alive, after a weekend newspaper report suggesting he had died of typhoid. "We actually don't have any direct contacts with Al Qaeda in the battlefields because of the current situation," a Taliban spokesman Mohammad Hanif told AFP, referring to the terror network headed by bin Laden. "But according to some of Osama's friends we've contacted, he's alive," said Hanif, who tells the media he speaks for the Taliban.
Dubai-based Al Arabiya television on Tuesday quoted a Taliban official as saying Osama Bin Laden was alive and in good health. The Arabic channel said its Pakistan bureau had received a call from the unnamed Taliban official a few days after a leaked French secret document said Saudi intelligence believed Bin Laden died last month in Pakistan. "The official said bin Laden was alive and that reports that he is ill are not true," said Bakr Atyani, Al Arabiya's Islamabad correspondent. "The Taliban checked with members who are close to Al Qaeda that these reports are baseless."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/27/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
What is this 5 Degrees of Kevin Bacon? You're the damn Taliban. Tell us whether he's alive or he's dead. Don't give us this third hand baloney. You guys were his home-boys not the nephews of his accountant's sister.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
09/27/2006 0:25 Comments ||
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#2
Hey, we can only assume they're sheltering bin Laden. Just one more reason to keep blowing their scummy asses to hell.
#6
One way to try to find him could be to intentionally leak the rumor of his demise and then monitor attempts by known terrorists to check back through the network. Even if we don't find him that way it's likely we pick up a few new links.
#9
One way to try to find him could be to intentionally leak the rumor of his demise and then monitor attempts by known terrorists to check back through the network
Would shame work? Like this: Of course he's dead. Either that or he's scared like little, cowering bunny. Why else would Zawahiri be doing all the talking?
KISMAYO, Somalia (Reuters) -- Somali Islamists disarmed hundreds of militiamen in the port of Kismayo on Wednesday, seizing battlewagons and guns in a move to cement their control over the city they took this week. Officials from the Juba Valley Alliance, an independent authority which controlled the region around Somalia's third largest city before Islamists took over on Monday, gathered in an open field to present their weapons.
"It is a big relief for me," said Yusuf Mire Mahmud, a lawmaker and deputy to the warlord who had controlled the region before fleeing. He said he had handed over 18 technicals -- trucks mounted with guns -- and 300 militia fighters.
"I'm a free man. Now I can do anything I want or go anywhere I want," he told Reuters at the field where the Islamists then tested the machine guns.
"I'm outta here!"
The Islamists seized Kismayo without firing a shot, expanding their control of south central Somalia since capturing Mogadishu in June, and effectively flanking the weak interim government, based in a provincial town, on three sides. Their takeover of Kismayo was met with two days of protests, one of them violent. They have since imposed an overnight curfew and arrested several protesters.
One Islamist official said remaining Juba Valley Alliance officials were free to stay in Kismayo as long as they did not interfere with security. "They can stay on if they want, but there are no longer part of the administration here," Ibrahim Shukri said. Shukri added that the militiamen who handed over their weapons were pro-Islamist and would be taken to a "rehabilitation" center where they will be weaned off khat, a mild leafy stimulant, among other things.
Hundreds of khat junkies, going cold turkey. I'd take the guns far away too.
Somalia's weak central government, the 14th attempt at effective central rule since the 1991 ouster of a dictator, views the Islamists' capture of Kismayo as breaching a ceasefire agreement reached at peace talks in Sudan.
But diplomats who met Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi in neighboring Kenya said on Tuesday he was still committed to the talks, despite expressing pessimism the day before. Analysts fear the Islamist-government standoff could spark a major regional crisis in the Horn of Africa.
As opposed to the current festering boil
The Islamists and the government are due to meet in the Sudanese capital Khartoum at the end of October for a third round of talks.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/27/2006 14:40 ||
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#1
A "battlewagon" in this context is NOT a warship. It's a wagon with a BFG on it.
(KUNA) -- Moroccan security forces arrested on Tuesday members of an unlicensed political group, the Islamic Moroccan liberation party (Hizb-ut-Tahrir Al-Islami Al-Maghrebi). An official source said 13 persons belonging to the party were apprehended under the supervision of the attorney-general's office. The arrest took place in the cities of Meknes, Casablanca and Tetouan, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/27/2006 00:00 ||
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Outlaw killed in 'shootout'
A regional leader of Purba Banglar Communist Party (PBCP) Janajuddha faction was killed in 'crossfire' yesterday during an encounter between Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) and his accomplices at Shubharara in Abhaynagar upazila in Jessore.
Looks like commie hunting season is open and the RAB has gone back to their fill-in-the-blanks press releases.
Rab arrested ( Mishiul Islam Moshi ),( 35 ), on Monday at Daulatpur. Following his confessional statement, a Rab team along with ( Moshi )went to ( Shubharara ) around ( 3:30am )to recover hidden firearms and arrest his accomplices, Rab claimed in a press release.
( Moshi's ) accomplices opened fire on the team in a bid to snatch him from Rab custody. Rab retaliated and ( Moshi ) was bullet-hit during the shootout. He died on the spot.
Rab recovered one shutter gun and a bullet from the spot. ( Moshi's ) cohorts, however, managed to escape. Rab sources said ( Moshi ) had six cases including two murder cases filed against him with different police stations.
And the RAB wonders why no one believes them?
Posted by: Steve ||
09/27/2006 15:03 ||
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A TEENAGE boy has been charged with explosives offences after a police raid uncovered chemicals and other bomb-making materials in a northern Sydney home.
The 16-year-old boy was arrested overnight during a raid on a house in Hornsby, police said.
Police and the NSW Fire Brigades officers stormed the house about 8.30pm (AEST), finding a number of chemicals used to manufacture explosives.
The youth has been charged with one count each of possessing and making explosive, and granted police bail to appear in Hornsby Childrens Court on November 9.
Hazardous materials specialists will continue removing chemicals today.
The house is believed to be that of the boy's parents.
A MAN is expected be charged with a drive-by shooting of a Sydney police station and the wounding of another man when he appears in court later today following his extradition from Lebanon.
Saleh Jamal, 31, has been taken to Sydney Police Centre in inner-city Surry Hills after arriving at Sydney Airport accompanied by detectives about 6.30am (AEST) today.
He is due to face a Sydney court later today.
Jamal was arrested in May by Lebanese authorities after completing a two-year jail sentence for weapons offences in Beirut.
NSW police officers had been preparing to collect him from Beirut when Israeli military aircraft bombed Beirut's international airport in July.
With the Hezbollah-Israeli conflict over and the airport open, NSW police decided to proceed with the extradition.
Jamal, of Belfield in Sydney, was arrested in May 2004 while trying to flee Lebanon, again using a false passport.
He was sentenced by a Lebanese Military Court to five years in jail for possessing weapons and explosives, forging an Australian passport, forming a group and planning acts that endangered state security.
Lebanese prosecutors wanted to charge Jamal for planning to become a suicide bomber, but did not proceed because of insufficient evidence.
The Lebanese Court of Appeal in April slashed his sentence to two years after ruling the terrorism charge could not be upheld.
It looks as if immigrants youths want to turn nightly rioting during the Islamic holy month of ramadan into an annual tradition. Well, caroling and trick or treating are already spoken for, so what's left?
Around 8:30pm last night violence erupted again in Brussels, the capital of Europe. The riots centered on the Brussels Marollen quarter and the area near the Midi Train Station, where the international trains from London and Paris arrive. Youths threw stones at passing people and cars, windows of parked cars were smashed, bus shelters were demolished, cars were set ablaze, a youth club was arsoned and a shop was looted. Two molotov cocktails were thrown into St.Peters hospital, one of the main hospitals of central Brussels. The fire brigade was able to extinguish the fires at the hospital, but youths managed to steal the keys of the fire engine. Think that will get the EUrocrats' attention? Nah, probably not.
During the month of ramadan Muslims are required to fast during the day and are only allowed to eat after sunset. As Esther pointed out What should be noticed about the riots is that they start after sunset. Besides the fact that they start after dark, it also gives the rioters enough time to break their fast and enjoy the traditional family meal. Sunset is around 7:30pm. Tuesdays and Mondays riots began around 8:30pm. How nice. A quick family meal, and then they go terrorize someone else's family....
Last night the police arrested 45 rioters. One of them will be prosecuted for assaulting the owner of a shop. So, even if you get busted, you have about a 2% chance of facing charges? That will really make them stop and think about the consequences of their actions....NOT!
Philippe Close, the chef de cabinet of the Mayor of Brussels, Freddy Thielemans, said that the authorities would continue their efforts to defuse the situation in a peaceful manner, but he announced that the police will be less complacent in future, since we cannot tolerate that this [Marollen] neighbourhood falls victim to a problem from outside the neighbourhood.
The immigrant youths claim that they are upset by the death of Fayçal Chaaban, a 25-year old criminal and local hero, in a Brussels prison last Sunday. Yesterday morning the authorities announced they would hold a meeting with the youths to hear their grievances about security in prison, but the meeting, which was due last night, could not take place because of the riots.
The authorities are especially nervous since the Belgian municipal elections are being held on Sunday October 8th. It is likely that the elections will be won by anti-immigrant, islamophobic parties. Hmm. And how do you think the immigrants will feel about this turn of events?
Since ramadan will not be over on October 8th and many immigrants might perceive a victory of the indigenous right (as opposed to their own far-right) as an insult, Muslim indignation over the election results in major cities may spark serious disturbances. So in other words, they're just warming up right now for the big day?
According to a poll published today the Vlaams Belang party is set to win 38.6% of the vote in Antwerp (compared to 33,0% in the previous municipal elections six years ago).
#1
Hire 300 Ghurkas, give them very sharp machetes, and turn them loose against the "rioters". Send the trash trucks around to pick up the pieces afterwards. There will be no reoccurances.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
09/27/2006 15:23 Comments ||
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#2
More hijinks for Rama-dama-ding-dong. Get out the tear gas and lay it on heavy. The dimwits will charge backward to escape. The ones with a good dose won't be able to see or breathe. They'll drop to the ground and probably start puking. For the ones able to run, have water cannons in place to knock them off their feet. Head in there with batons swinging. Crack their skulls good. I mean brain concussions and freely flowing blood. Repeat for several consecutive days. I suspect these incidents will decrease.
#6
Note that this party is the Flemish nationalist party, who want to secede from Belgium, and are not too terribly keen on the idea of the EU. And since Brussels is in Flemish territory, and is also the capitol of the EU...
#8
I thought the socialist weenies had bought peace by opposing the imperialist United States. It's almost enough for me to doubt the value of the Leftist-Islamic alliance.
Al
Posted by: frozen al ||
09/27/2006 20:52 Comments ||
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#1
"It is likely that the elections will be won by anti-immigrant, islamophobic parties."
Phobia n: 1. A persistent, abnormal, and irrational fear of a specific thing or situation that compels one to avoid it, despite the awareness and reassurance that it is not dangerous.
Cmon fire bombs hurled into a hospital can be a little disturbing but dont get all irrational about it.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
09/27/2006 10:53 Comments ||
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#4
It's nice that traditions can evolve over time.
The traditional fast during the day and eat at night has been updated to fast during the day, eat and riot/vandalize at night.
LOS ANGELES A California man worked as a spy for Saddam Hussein's former regime, gathering information in the United States for the Iraqi Intelligence Service [Mukhabarat] in exchange for cash and whiskey, authorities said yesterday.
Code-named "9211," William Shaoul Benjamin, 64, who used six aliases, was indicted by a federal grand jury for failing to register as an agent of a foreign government. He also faces charges of conspiracy and making false statements, the FBI said. He was arrested Sept. 14.
Benjamin, who pleaded not guilty to the charges, is home on $500,000 bail, wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet. He declined to comment, referring calls to his attorney, James Edward Blatt, who did not return calls.
Benjamin lives in a modest, two-story white house in West Hills, a Los Angeles suburb of quiet, tree-lined streets and well-groomed yards. The FBI did not say whether Benjamin had another occupation.
His role for the Iraqi Intelligence Service was to monitor U.S. organizations considered hostile to Saddam's former regime and then pass on information about groups and their members, according to a nine-page indictment filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. Any guesses as to which U.S. organizations Mr.Benjamin was monitoring?
Prosecutors allege that Benjamin traveled to Iraq for Iraqi Intelligence Service training, and from at least July 1993 to Sept. 3, 2001, he communicated with Iraqi intelligence officers, who called him by his code name and told him what to do.
The indictment alleges that Iraqi Intelligence Service officers paid him at least $8,500 in cash, some for travel back and forth from America to Iraq, which occurred at least three times. He also received two bottles of whiskey for his efforts, it said.
Besides failing to register as an agent of a foreign government, Benjamin is accused of falsely declaring under oath that he had renounced allegiance to Iraq. And on his application for American citizenship he is a naturalized citizen he failed to mention his work for the Iraqi Intelligence Service.
Saddam's government was toppled in 2003 when the United States and a number of its allies invaded Iraq.
Benjamin's trial is set to begin Nov. 7. He faces 20 years in prison if convicted on all counts. Lets hope that was some really fine whiskey.
#1
I suspect this bust is due to someone finally getting around to translating secret documents from Saddam's archives More to follow.
It's fortunate for this traitor he lives under the Bush administration. Were it mine they'd have found his body with a bullet to the temple. No muss. No fuss. No trial. No expense.
Posted by: Mark Z ||
09/27/2006 12:48 Comments ||
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SAN DIEGO: A Pakistani man was sentenced on Monday to more than 18 years in prison for conspiring with an Indian-born US citizen to obtain and sell Stinger anti-aircraft missiles to the Taliban and Al Qaeda.
Syed Mustajab Shah, 55, pleaded guilty last March in federal court to one count of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and one count of conspiracy to distribute heroin and hashish. Shah admitted that he tried to sell five tonnes of hashish and a half-tonne of heroin in exchange for cash and four shoulder-fired Stinger missiles, which he and the other defendants intended to sell to members of the Taliban. Such missiles could be used to shoot down airplanes, including commercial jets, flying at low altitudes.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/27/2006 00:00 ||
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WEST POINT, N.Y. (AP) - The first member of West Point's "Class of 9-11" to die in combat was buried at the military academy Tuesday, two weeks after she was killed by a bomb at the head of a convoy in Iraq. 2nd Lt. Emily Perez, 23, was leading a platoon when a roadside bomb exploded Sept. 12 south of Baghdad. She was the first female West Point graduate to die in Iraq and the highest-ranking black and Hispanic woman cadet in the school's history.
A female USMA graduate died in Afghanistan a little while ago, as well. Recent grad, engineer leading efforts to reconstruct roads.
"She was like a little superwoman, so full of energy and life," said Meghan Venable-Thomas, a senior who was on the track team and in the gospel choir with Perez.
The academy's Class of 2005 is called the "Class of 9-11" because the 2001 terrorist attacks occurred just weeks into the students' freshman year. "I think we all hoped it wouldn't happen," said class President James Freeze of the first death among the graduates, who numbered exactly 911. Half of the class remains on duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Perez was a Medical Service Corps officer assigned to the 204th Support Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 4th Infantry Division in Fort Hood, Texas.
Dozens of cadets watched as she was buried in the West Point Cemetery. After accepting the folded American flag from Perez's coffin, her mother leaned over, put her forehead on the casket and whispered.
Perez was fluent in German from growing up overseas. She also played the clarinet and helped start an AIDS ministry at her church. Before leaving for Iraq, she donated bone marrow to a stranger. "One of the things important to Emily was not the fear of death, but the fear of not living," the Rev. E. Faith Bell said after the service.
Thank you, Lt. Perez, and God bless your family and mates.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/27/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
I remember reading about two West Point classmates who died within 24 hours of each other in assaults on Pork Chop Hill. One or both of their bodies were never recovered.
Two years ago at Army-Navy the Navy football team sat three pairs of empty jerseys and shoulder-pads on the bench to represent the three football player Marines that had died in 2nd Fallujah.
What an incredible price we pay.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
09/27/2006 0:39 Comments ||
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#2
Indeed it is Hose. I hope time, events and history will vindicate the current effort. I question the worth of it every day.
#3
Thus far, 39 West Point graduates have died in the GWOT, starting with 9-11. 37 were on active duty (one other was a retired LTC serving as a contractor in Iraq, and one died as a civilain in the WTC attack).
The 37 WP grads killed on active duty represent 1.08% of ALL COALITION deaths in the two theaters of the GWOT, as listed at http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2004/oef.casualties/ and http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2003/iraq/forces/casualties/
That is - more than 1% of all service-related deaths - all military services, all coalition countries.
When you think about it, that is a truly HUGE percentage of a very large population - and speaks to "up-front' role that West Point graduates play.
#4
My heart dies a little death, every time I hear of some brave soldier who fought to defend this country, having died in combat.
I know full well, that most of them did so with their boots on, eyes wide open to their possible destinies when they first joined their country's service.
Like so many others, I am unbelievably grateful to every soldier, sailor, Marine, Coast Guardsman, who gives his life for us.
But much moreso, for those who stayed the course after 9/11, knowing the ultimate sacrifice could be asked of them, by circumstances beyond their control.
God bless Lt. Emily Perez, who seemed to be by all accounts, a little dynamo of courage.
Cheers,
Victoria
Posted by: Victoria ||
09/27/2006 2:47 Comments ||
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#5
LR-
The friendly rivalries between services aside, I know this: somehow, the Point has always managed to turn out the right person at the right time to help keep this nation safe.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
09/27/2006 6:37 Comments ||
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#6
Here's an obituary with picture and a link to the guest book.
#9
I've read this three times so far today, and wept each time with grief and pride. The Islamofascists send their children off to murder innocents; our young men and women volunteer to go halfway round the world to protect strangers. I have no words weighty enough to be equal to the sacrifice this young woman made freely and with the full knowledge of the situation. We are honoured that she considered this country worth giving her life to... and in the end for.
#10
Rest in peace, Lt. Perez. A grateful country owes you more than they will ever know.
"I think we all hoped it wouldn't happen," said class President James Freeze of the first death among the graduates, who numbered exactly 911.
Here's hoping that there are 911 terrorists killed per every graduate in West Point's 9-11 class. That would total nearly 830,000 dead terrorists and represent a good start in what it will take to rid this world of Islamic fanatics.
SRINAGAR: An army officer and two suspected Islamic rebels were killed on Tuesday in a fierce gunbattle in Indian held Kashmir, said an army spokesman. Indian soldiers came under heavy gunfire as they cordoned off Sumlar village after receiving information that some suspected militants were hiding there, said Col Hemant Juneja, adding that an army officer was killed in the ensuing gunbattle.
He said that gunbattle continued for five hours before troops managed to kill the gunmen. Two houses in Sumlar, 80 kilometres north of Srinagar, were destroyed in the fight and the army recovered two rifles and several grenades and launchers, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/27/2006 00:00 ||
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PESHAWAR: Peshawar High Court (PHC) Chief Justice Tariq Pervez Khan on Tuesday released an Uzbek couple from the city's central prison. Intelligence agencies had arrested the couple a few years ago for suspected links with Al Qaeda.
Javed Ibrahim Paracha, chairman of the World Prisoner's Relief Commission of Pakistan, said in a press statement that NWFP acting Home Secretary Manzoor Ahmad had written a letter to Peshawar Additional Sessions Judge Syed Ihtisham Ali, objecting to the "terrorist couple's easy release". Paracha said that the additional sessions judge sent the letter to the PHC chief justice. The chief justice visited the prison along with Judicial Magistrate Malik Amjad Rahim. The magistrate imposed a Rs 1,000 fine on the accused - Sheikhul Hadith Maulana Abdur Rahim and his wife Hafiza Bibi - under Section 14 of the Foreigners Act and handed them to police for deportation.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/27/2006 00:00 ||
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NEW DELHI - An Indian court fixed October 20 as the date for executing a Muslim man convicted for his role in the 2001 militant attack on Indias parliament. Mohammed Afzal, an Indian national, had been sentenced to death by a lower court for his role in the conspiracy and the conviction was upheld by the Supreme Court last year.
On Tuesday, a city court fixed 6 a.m. on Oct. 20 as the day and time for his execution in a Delhi jail. Executions are carried out in India by hanging.
Five gunmen stormed the heavily-guarded Indian parliament complex on Dec. 13, 2001 but were killed by the security forces before they could enter the building where lawmakers sit. The attack, blamed by India on Pakistan but denied by Islamabad, brought the nuclear-armed rivals dangerously close to their fourth war.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/27/2006 00:00 ||
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Short of cadre due to elimination of its men, including some top leaders, by security forces, the Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist outfit is forcibly taking students away for recruitment, official sources said in Jammu on Tuesday. "The LeT is short of cadre as a large number of its men and top leaders were eliminated. Now they are forcibly enrolling students and taking them away to remote areas for arms training," a source said.
They said a class IX student Nayaz Ahmed was kidnapped by an LeT area commander, Abu Arif, from Gool area of Udhampur district when he had gone to school a fortnight ago. An FIR has been registered in this regard by his parents and relatives, who have urged police and security forces to rescue the student from the clutches of terrorists.
More than 20 students have been taken away in a similar manner by the LeT terrorists in far-flung areas in Gool, Darhal, Basantgarh, Madwa and Mendhar belt of Jammu region, they said adding, some of their parents have been given money ranging from Rs 30,000 to 50,000. Security agencies are trying to rescue the students and crack down on the overground workers of the outfit instrumental in recruitment of youth and students in remote areas.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/27/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
This could be a good thing; well bad for those shanghied, but big picture good: if they are to be splodeydopes, they might just have a 'work accident' and take out those who kidnapped them. Or if given a weapon could suffer premature firing in a wrong ( read: towards the leaders) direction.
Frag by any other name is still dead terrs.
#3
The LeT is short of cadre as a large number of its men and top leaders were eliminated.
The mark of a severely, quite possibly fatally, damaged organization. They no longer have their best-trained people, and likely have lost quite a lot of well-trained people as well. So the newbies and the unpromotables are trying to train the uninterested, as well as to organize future actions to make use of skills they haven't much got. I imagine there'll be lots of work accidents as they try to teach one another using directions downloaded from the internet... once they figure out how to use the internet.
forcibly taking students away for recruitment Let's not forget that Taliban translates as students also. Are these public school lads that have been torn from their chemistry and their Chaucer? Or more likely madrassah boys, reared on the Koran, who've not quite gotten to the point of volunteering yet?
Iraqi security forces have arrested another leader of the 1920 Revolution Brigades, a group accused of numerous attacks on U.S. forces, the General Command of the Armed Forces said Wednesday.
The man was arrested Tuesday night in the village of al-Jazira, about 60 miles north of Baghdad, said Brig. Qassim al-Mussawi. The operation follows the arrest of another leader of the group and seven aides early Saturday in the same area.
Authorities have not released the insurgents' names, citing security.
The Sunni militant group, a mixture of Iraqi nationalists and Islamic extremists, is believed to be responsible for numerous attacks against U.S. forces and a series of kidnappings.
It was one of seven Sunni Arab insurgent groups the government said in June had contacted authorities to declare their readiness to join in efforts at national reconciliation.
British and Iraqi troops set out Wednesday on an ambitious mission to pacify the southern city of Basra, root out its corrupt police and help the residents rebuild.
Some 2,300 Iraqi army troops and 1,000 British soldiers are taking part in "Operation Sinbad," with another 2,000 British troops deployed in the surrounding area, said British forces spokesman Maj. Charlie Burbridge.
The troops swept into a southeastern section of the city, Iraq's second-largest, at about 5:30 a.m. Eventually they will move through the entire city in an operation expected to take months, Burbridge said in a telephone interview from southern Iraq.
"We're gradually inching our way forward. Ultimately our aim here is to take Basra to a place where it can be turned over to Iraqi control," he said.
In June, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki declared a state of emergency in Basra following a rise in violence among mostly Shiite groups competing for power. Basra is 340 miles southeast of the capital, about 30 from the Iranian border.
Since January 2005, the city has fallen under the influence of Shiite militias, which have infiltrated police and government institutions there.
A big part of the operation is to crack down on police corruption, and a special team will be going station by station to weed out those involved, Burbridge said.
"We know where the problems are," he said.
He said Operation Sinbad is similar to the U.S. and Iraqi security drive in the capital, Operation Together Forward. There troops have been rooting out militias one neighborhood at a time, then following up with reconstruction projects.
"It's broadly akin to the operation that has been going on in Baghdad," Burbridge said. "We're not going house to house, although we have a search warrant that allows us to do that, however, and if there is specific intelligence that a place needs to be searched and we will do that. But the focus is really on increasing the standard of living for your average Basra resident."
Projects will start with simple things like street cleaning and ensuring street lights are working, then move to renovating hospitals and restoring a date plantation.
"In time, it will employ several thousands of people," Burbridge said.
There is no specific timeframe for the operation to be completed, but Burbridge said it will last "a number of months until the end of the year, at least."
#3
The Brits and Iraqis are using a technique that has now been fine-tuned in Baghdad, allowing them to do the same in Basra, but with fewer personnel.
The importance of this is stepping the city down from a war footing to something more like a big episode of "Cops". It takes a long time, but in the end, the city will be well-ordered, managed, and rebuilding.
Most Surreal Moment - Watching Marines arrive at my detention facility and unload a truck load of flex-cuffed midgets. 26 to be exact. I had put the word out earlier in the day to the Marines in Fallujah that we were looking for Bad Guy X, who was described as a midget. Little did I know that Fallujah was home to a small community of midgets, who banded together for support since they were considered as social outcasts. The Marines were anxious to get back to the midget colony to bring in the rest of the midget suspects, but I called off the search, figuring Bad Guy X was long gone on his short legs after seeing his companions rounded up by the giant infidels. Da Plane, Boss, Da Plane!
Most Profound Man in Iraq - an unidentified farmer in a fairly remote area who, after being asked by Reconnaissance Marines (searching for Syrians) if he had seen any foreign fighters in the area replied Yes, you.... If they'd ask him if he'd lived there all his life, he probably would have answered, Not Yet!
Worst City in al-Anbar Province - Ramadi, hands down. The provincial capital of 400,000 people. Killed over 1,000 insurgents in there since we arrived in February. Every day is a nasty gun battle. They blast us with giant bombs in the road, snipers, mortars and small arms. We blast them with tanks, attack helicopters, artillery, our snipers (much better than theirs), and every weapon that an infantryman can carry. Every day. Incredibly, I rarely see Ramadi in the news. We have as many attacks out here in the west as Baghdad . Yet, Baghdad has 7 million people, we have just 1.2 million. Per capita, al-Anbar province is the most violent place in Iraq by several orders of magnitude. I suppose it was no accident that the Marines were assigned this area in 2003 Trying to figure out who's winning in Iraq is like trying to follow sports when only one teams score is reported. I guess we are super sensitive about not repeating the Vietnam Body Count Game.
Biggest Outrage - Practically anything said by talking heads on TV about the war in Iraq , not that I get to watch much TV. Their thoughts are consistently both grossly simplistic and politically slanted. Biggest offender - Bill OReilly - what a buffoon. Is that like a Bloviator?
Best Chuck Norris Moment - 13 May. Bad Guys arrived at the government center in the small town of Kubaysah to kidnap the town mayor, since they have a problem with any form of government that does not include regular beheadings and women wearing burqahs. There were seven of them. As they brought the mayor out to put him in a pick-up truck to take him off to be beheaded (on video, as usual), one of the bad Guys put down his machinegun so that he could tie the mayors hands. The mayor took the opportunity to pick up the machinegun and drill five of the Bad Guys. The other two ran away. One of the dead Bad Guys was on our top twenty wanted list. Like they say, you cant fight City Hall. We often said: Mess with the bull, you get the horns!
(KUNA) - A suicide bomber killed three people on Tuesday, while Iraqi security forces killed two militants and arrested 82 suspects in several Iraqi cities.
A suicide bomber riding a motorcycle blew up himself targeting policemen in Andalus square in central Baghdad, a source from the Iraqi Police said. The attack killed three people and injured nine others, the source added.
Meanwhile, a government press release said Tuesday that Iraqi forces killed two militants, arrested 82 terrorist suspects, and defused seven bombs in the past 24 hours. According to the release, the arrests took place in Mosul, Baghdad, Salah Al-Din, Diala, Kirkuk, and central and south Qate Al-Furat.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/27/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
I wish those last two numbers were reversed.
Posted by: Scott R ||
09/27/2006 0:27 Comments ||
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#2
Anyone else notice that the square where the bombing took place carries the Muslim name for Moorish-invaded and conquered Spain?
BAGHDAD: Iraqi insurgents destroyed a police station in a sustained attack with mortars and a car bomb, the prime minister's office said on Tuesday as attacks around the country left 15 people dead. The assault was launched with the detonation of a booby-trapped car near the police post in Jorf Al-Sakhr, 60 kilometres south of Baghdad. The blast and a subsequent mortar barrage killed three officers and wounded several others, said Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki in a statement that described the attack as having taken place in the last 24 hours.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/27/2006 00:00 ||
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Duplicate of Dr. Steve's post several lines below; although both were posted at 00:00. His midnight beat your midnight by four or five picoseconds.
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/27/2006 6:31 Comments ||
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CAIRO, Egypt Al Qaeda No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahiri will soon release a new message about the pope, President Bush and Sudan's troubled Darfur region, an Islamic Web site said Wednesday.
Zawahiri and not Binny? Interesting
A banner warning of the upcoming message was posted on the site, which frequently airs Al Qaeda videos. Wednesday's notice did not specify whether the new message was a video, audiotape or text, but al-Zawahiri usually releases videos.
His latest came earlier this month, to coincide with the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. Al Qaeda released a string of videos for the anniversary, showing increasingly sophisticated production techniques in a likely effort to demonstrate that it remains a powerful, confident force despite the U.S.-led war on terror.
Usama bin Laden and his deputy al-Zawahiri are believed to be hiding in the Afghan-Pakistan border region. Many analysts believe that they no longer have centralized control to order or organize attacks by militants around the world. The capture and killing of many midlevel commanders has left Al Qaeda more diffuse and amorphous. But at the same time, the terror network's propaganda machine has grown more sophisticated, aiming to rally militants and romanticizing jihad, or holy war.
That's about all al-Qaeda HQ has left. Most of the operational commanders have been captured or killed.
The banner did not give a specific time, saying only that al-Zawahiri would release a message about the pope, Bush and Darfur "soon, God willing."
Pope Benedict XVI angered the Muslim world in a speech in Germany on Sept. 12, when he quoted a 14th century Byzantine emperor as saying: "Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."
Benedict has expressed regret for offending Muslims by his remarks and said they did not reflect his personal views, but he has not offered a complete apology as some had sought.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/27/2006 14:54 ||
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Well what else would he be talking about? "Desperate Housewives" and who's Paris Hilton banging this week?
My predictions:
1. Kill Bush.
2. Pope must convert to Islam. Then be killed.
3. Leave the killing to them in Darfur. They're pretty good at it.
A banner warning of the upcoming message was posted on the site, which frequently airs Al Qaeda videos.
Reminds me of the principal of of the local high school when I was a kid. He was in the early-to-mid stages of senility and used to get on the intercom to announce that he would be making an announcement in 10 minutes.
"soon, God willing."
They always add that, but it seems to me that God hasn't been all that willing with them lately.
#7
Ole Z has been roumored to be the emincence grisee even before 911. Perhaps he's holding poor Osama hostage and raking in the dough from sick Binnies milk goats brothers.
Hi all. I'm still a little giddy after meeting the galaxy of blogging stars at the National Press Club last night.
I arrived a little past cocktail hour (though the open bar remained in operation all evening), took one of the last available chairs for the overflow crowd, and settled in for the presentation. The hatless Roger Simon was at the podium to open the event and announce PJMedia's newest editors (Richard Miniter and Nidra Poller), and also their new web poll to choose a name for America's "midpartisans" (ie folks who don't really identify with either party but still care about being part of the political process). Then he introduced the panel and stepped aside for Glenn Reynolds to moderate the discussion.
The panel's topic was partisanship and whether we have too much of it right now. The panelists began on their prepared remarks and my attention drifted as I looked around the room and started reading nametags...
Hey! There in the second row with the camera, I think thats Michael Totten! I thought he was in Tel Aviv or Beirut, but no hes here in DC! And over there! With a nice Florida groove working, its Val Prieto of Babalu Blog. And hmmm...Scott Koenig...I know that name...OMG its LT Smash. And theres Townhall's Mary Katherine Ham and Pamela from Atlas Shrugs, and over there is Eric Scheie with Baron Bodissey, and here is a very handsome TigerHawk, and Yehudit from Kesher Talk, and Colonel Austin Bay is here and so is Kevin Awlyard Aylward, and hes standing next to the Powerline guys, and Fausta just gave me her card ...I better go get a drink. Nearly my whole extended blog family, all here in one room.
Zowie. Ive been reading their words, and internalizing, refining, and refuting their arguments, for most of the last five years. I know some of their kids, and some of their pets, all from links on the internets. Its almost too much to take in.
But not quite too much cos now its time to mingle, and maybe, just maybe grab dinner. One group heads out, another slightly trailing group wants to know where they went, I dont know for sure but I do know where the best view in DC is, so we head for the rooftop bar at Hotel Washington. Along the way we are subsumed by group #1, and after a coin toss between Old Ebbitt Grill and Hotel Washington, the rooftop bar wins and twenty or so bloggers settle in for the view, the drinks, and the company. My end of the table has Richard Miniter, Gerard Van der Leun, Judith Weiss, Fausta, TigerHawk, and Claudia Rossett. The other end of the table has Glenn Reynolds, Michael Totten, Colonel Bay, Pamela, Baron Bodissey, Michael Barone and Roger Simon. The banter, as you may imagine, was sublime, and I bid everyone farewell at about 11:30.
Plenty pix were taken, though few of me, available at many of the fine links herein.
#1
And there are people who go gaga over movie stars. What a waste of a goog gaga, when there are Bloggerfests in the world! It sounds divine, Seafarious.
Oh, did you notice whether everyone was wearing shoes, two (2), one each left and right, matching?
#6
From the link on the Pajamas Media comment page -- someone liveblogging the event:
As I meet and greet old friends for the first time, my mind fixes on an analogy
to our little community of bloggers. The more I think about it, the more certain
I am that it applies:
We bloggers are "men of letters".
Most people don't realize that what we call the mainstream media really only
dates back to the first daily newspapers of the early eighteenth century. Before
that, and for over a hundred years later, it was the letter-writers who shaped
the world. The salons of the French and the coffee-houses of the English are the
places where politics, science, and culture were shaped. Us bloggers use email
and blog posts to communicate. Our spiritual predecessors used letters and
mass-produced pamphlets.
#7
There were easily three or four shoes per blogger by the end of open bar, lol. I'm fairly sure they all matched, but don't quote me.
BTW, I left dinner at 11:30, just as Prof. Reynolds was getting a glass of wine. By 12:07 he's already posted with multiple links. Dunno how he does it...
#9
BTW, I left dinner at 11:30, just as Prof. Reynolds was getting a glass of wine. By 12:07 he's already posted with multiple links. Dunno how he does it...
#10
I'm still a little giddy after meeting the galaxy of blogging stars at the National Press Club last night. And I'll wager that some of them are boasting that they finally got to meet Seafarious.
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.
Taliban said on Tuesday that friends of Osama Bin Laden had told it he was still alive, after a weekend newspaper report suggesting he had died of typhoid. "We actually don't have any direct contacts with Al Qaeda in the battlefields because of the current situation," a Taliban spokesman Mohammad Hanif told AFP, referring to the terror network headed by bin Laden. "But according to some of Osama's friends we've contacted, he's alive," said Hanif, who tells the media he speaks for the Taliban. 
(KUNA) -- Moroccan security forces arrested on Tuesday members of an unlicensed political group, the Islamic Moroccan liberation party (Hizb-ut-Tahrir Al-Islami Al-Maghrebi). An official source said 13 persons belonging to the party were apprehended under the supervision of the attorney-general's office. The arrest took place in the cities of Meknes, Casablanca and Tetouan, he said.
Outlaw killed in 'shootout'
LOS ANGELES A California man worked as a spy for Saddam Hussein's former regime, gathering information in the United States for the Iraqi Intelligence Service 
WEST POINT, N.Y. (AP) - The first member of West Point's "Class of 9-11" to die in combat was buried at the military academy Tuesday, two weeks after she was killed by a bomb at the head of a convoy in Iraq. 2nd Lt. 
SRINAGAR: An army officer and two suspected Islamic rebels were killed on Tuesday in a fierce gunbattle in Indian held Kashmir, said an army spokesman. Indian soldiers came under heavy gunfire as they cordoned off Sumlar village after receiving information that some suspected militants were hiding there, said Col Hemant Juneja, adding that an army officer was killed in the ensuing gunbattle. 
PESHAWAR: Peshawar High Court (PHC) Chief Justice Tariq Pervez Khan on Tuesday released an Uzbek couple from the city's central prison. Intelligence agencies had arrested the couple a few years ago for suspected links with Al Qaeda. 
NEW DELHI - An Indian court fixed October 20 as the date for executing a Muslim man convicted for his role in the 2001 militant attack on Indias parliament. Mohammed Afzal, an Indian national, had been sentenced to death by a lower court for his role in the conspiracy and the conviction was upheld by the Supreme Court last year.
Short of cadre due to elimination of its men, including some top leaders, by security forces, the Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist outfit is forcibly taking students away for recruitment, official sources said in Jammu on Tuesday. "The LeT is short of cadre as a large number of its men and top leaders were eliminated. Now they are forcibly enrolling students and taking them away to remote areas for arms training," a source said.
Most Surreal Moment - Watching Marines arrive at my detention facility and unload a truck load of flex-cuffed midgets. 26 to be exact. I had put the word out earlier in the day to the Marines in Fallujah that we were looking for Bad Guy X, who was described as a midget. Little did I know that Fallujah was home to a small community of midgets, who banded together for support since they were considered as social outcasts. The Marines were anxious to get back to the midget colony to bring in the rest of the midget suspects, but I called off the search, figuring Bad Guy X was long gone on his short legs after seeing his companions rounded up by the giant infidels. 
(KUNA) - A suicide bomber killed three people on Tuesday, while Iraqi security forces killed two militants and arrested 82 suspects in several Iraqi cities.
BAGHDAD: Iraqi insurgents destroyed a police station in a sustained attack with mortars and a car bomb, the prime minister's office said on Tuesday as attacks around the country left 15 people dead. The assault was launched with the detonation of a booby-trapped car near the police post in Jorf Al-Sakhr, 60 kilometres south of Baghdad. The blast and a subsequent mortar barrage killed three officers and wounded several others, said Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki in a statement that described the attack as having taken place in the last 24 hours.
CAIRO, Egypt Al Qaeda No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahiri will soon release a new message about the pope, President Bush and Sudan's troubled Darfur region, an Islamic Web site said Wednesday. 
