A 12-year-old Afghan boy whose family was killed in a NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... Arclight airstrikebeat feet from Taliban bully boyz attempting to use him as a jacket wallah in southern Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... province, local officials said.
The boy, Neyaz Mohammad, was a resident in the Kajaki district of southern Helmand province who lost his family in a NATO Arclight airstrike, provincial police front man Farid Ahmad Farhang told TOLOnews.
Farhang said that Neyaz was taken around three months ago by bully boyz in the Nawa district of the province and given money to convince him to wear a boom jacket to attack security forces.
"The first time [he was kidnapped], a resident of Nawa freed the boy from Taliban, but again they captured him," Farhang added.
The boy escaped on Tuesday and went to the police. He is currently under their care, officials said.
Isaf also confirmed the report in their operational update Wednesday and said that the boy being supported by Afghan police.
But Taliban front man Qari Yousuf rejected the claim in an interview with TOLOnews, saying it was "government propaganda".
"I have spoken with Taliban [leaders], it's not true. The government wants to defame the Taliban. We condemn this," Qari Yousuf said.
He added that the Taliban are not hiring "under-age" bombers.
#5
Killed by a NATO airstrike? Unlikely, though I suppose it's possible the boys family was being held hostage inside a target house. Good on the boy for running away though, tells me he at least has some common sense.
Posted by: Charles ||
09/27/2012 19:28 Comments ||
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A Taliban capo was killed by Arclight airstrike during a joint Afghan and NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... troop operation in the Sayed Abad district of central Wardak province on Tuesday, Isaf said.
The commander Malang, also known as Monsur, "was directly involved in planning attacks using improvised bombs (IEDs) against Afghan and coalition forces, as well coordinating the movement of krazed killer fighters throughout the region", Isaf said in a statement Wednesday.
The Arclight airstrike was conducted after ensuring that no civilians were in the area, according to the statement.
In eastern Ghazni province, two other Taliban leaders -- an attack commander and an IED expert -- were captured during a joint operation in Ghazni district Wednesday, said Isaf.
The tossed in the calaboose Please don't kill me! IED expert acquired and constructed several types of explosives or krazed killer attacks and is also believed to be involved in jacket wallah training, it added.
In Ghazni's Khugyani district, Taliban leader Wali Muhammad Shahid was also captured Wednesday, suspected of coordinating with krazed killer groups to conduct direct-fire and IED attacks against Afghan and coalition forces.
Meanwhile in eastern Khost province ... across the border from Miranshah, within commuting distance of Haqqani hangouts such as Datta Khel and probably within sight of Mordor. Khost is populated by six different tribes of Pashtuns, the largest probably being the Khostwal, from which it takes its name... , a Haqqani IED attack leader was captured Monday in a joint Afghan and NATO troop operation. He is suspected of coordinating and planning IED attacks against Afghan and coalition forces throughout the region, Isaf said.
A jacket wallah struck a NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... convoy in Pashtun-infested Logar province Wednesday morning, killing two NATO soldiers and injuring at least one more troop, local officials said.
The bomber, who was on foot, targeted the NATO convoy while it was in the Alias village of Pashtun-infested Logar's Baraki Barack district at around 08:30AM local time, provincial front man Din Mohammad Darwish told TOLOnews.
Isaf confirmed to TOLOnews that the attack was the same mentioned it its casualty report Wednesday morning.
The report said two NATO troops were killed in an Death Eater attack in eastern Afghanistan Wednesday, but gave no further details.
The Isaf spokeperson declined to confirm whether any other soldiers were maimed.
Darwish said more NATO soldiers had arrived in the area.
No group has grabbed credit for the attack.
Baraki Barak district is considered insecure in the province with cut-throats frequently using improvised bombs to target NATO and Afghan troops.
Kenya said its navy hit military targets belonging to al Shabaab militants in the port of Kismayu in south Somalia on Wednesday, ahead of a ground assault on the rebels' last bastion.
Along with forces from Uganda, Burundi and Djibouti, Kenyan troops have been battling the al Qaeda-linked fighters as part of an African Union peacekeeping force tasked with wiping out the rebels from their strongholds.
Kenyan military spokesman Cyrus Oguna said the Kenyan navy shelled rebel gun placements on the jetty at Kismayu on Wednesday morning, after fighter jets launched air strikes on a warehouse and armoury near the airport on Tuesday. "It is what we call shaping up operations for the eventual attack on Kismayu. The attack by ground forces is not yet (on). What we hit yesterday are targets we have been mapping for some time," Oguna told Reuters.
Kenya's military says its jets have bombed the airport in the Somali city of Kismayo, destroying an armoury and warehouse used by Islamist militants.
The port city of Kismayo in southern Somalia is a stronghold of the al-Qaeda aligned group al-Shabab.
An al-Shabab spokesman said no-one was killed and no property damaged.
Kenyan troops are part of an African Union force trying to wrest control of the country from the militants for the newly elected UN-backed president.
Al-Shabab has been forced out of the capital, Mogadishu, and several other towns over the past year but still controls much of the countryside in south and central Somalia.
Unknown warships off the Somali coast bombarded Somalia's southern port city of Kismayo, 500 Km south of Mogadishu, Somali capital on Wednesday afternoon, forcing local residents to flee, reports said.
Kismayo residents, who requested anonymity, told Shabelle Media station in Mogadishu via telephone that the warships shelled villages in the heart of the rebel-held town on Wednesday, saying it was an apparent strike on Islamist militants' bases.
"Missiles fired from unidentified warships are raining down into the town, we run to the concrete buildings, to save our selves and avoid casualties--the situation is very tense everybody is fearful," another resident said.
Some news accounts quoted locals as saying that at least one person was killed and another has been seriously injured in the naval shelling.
No government has yet said it carried out the attack.
Kismayo, a key town and the largest town controlled by Al shabab that is located near the Indian Ocean on the southern tip of Somalia
It only took a week or so to get the Sec. State to admit this. Baby steps, Hilde, baby steps...
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton
Who will never be confused with John Foster Dulles, John Quincy Adams or Condeleeza Rice...
...although apparently she was a much better lawyer than her husband, once she got over the idea that led to her unplanned resignation from her first job in Washington, DC, so she's got that.
. indicated for the first time on Wednesday that there was an explicit link between the Qaeda franchise in North Africa and the attack at the American diplomatic mission in Libya that killed four Americans, including the ambassador, J. Christopher Stevens.
Hard to blame it on a homemade video when the attackers had mortars...
She also said American intelligence and law enforcement agencies were working not only with Libya but also with other nations in the region to investigate the attack in Benghazi on Sept. 11. That indicated that the attack's planning and execution might not have been the local, spontaneous eruption of violence that the administration had initially described.
Did they finally secure the consulate?
Mrs. Clinton made her remarks at a special United Nations meeting on the political and security crisis in the swath of North Africa known as the Maghreb and the Sahel, a crisis that is particularly affecting northern Mali, which has been overrun by Islamic extremists since a military coup divided that country earlier this year.
She said Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, which originated in Algeria, was now using the region as a haven to support extremism and terrorist violence in countries like Libya.
If you read Rantburg you would have known this before now...
"Now, with a larger safe haven and increased freedom to maneuver, terrorists are seeking to extend their reach and their networks in multiple directions," Mrs. Clinton told world leaders assembled at the United Nations meeting. "And they are working with other violent extremists to undermine the democratic transitions under way in North Africa, as we tragically saw in Benghazi."
She did not detail any new evidence of the linkage. Some Republican critics in Washington have argued that the administration played down the possibility of any connection to Al Qaeda, especially with President Obama in the midst of a re-election campaign in which the killing of Osama bin Laden is a major talking point.
Most especially with Champ on the trail. Wouldn't look good to have to admit that there was a terrorist attack and murder of our ambassador on the anniversary of 9/11. But that's what they did...
"The United States is stepping up our counterterrorism efforts across the Maghreb and the Sahel," Mrs. Clinton added, "and we're working with the Libyan government and other partners to find those responsible for the attack on our diplomatic post in Benghazi and bring them to justice."
Libya's president, Mohamed Magariaf, who met with Mrs. Clinton and other American officials on Monday, also attributed the attack to what he called "Al Qaeda elements who are hiding in Libya," citing the sophistication of the attack on the mission in Benghazi and the date, Sept. 11, the anniversary of the attacks in New York and near Washington in 2001.
Magariaf, to his credit, has been saying this from the first moment, even when it would have been easier to go along with Champ.
He also did not disclose any evidence, saying he did not want to interfere with the investigations under way. From the start, however, Libyan officials have sought to shift the blame to foreigners, even as they move to crack down on extremist militias that took part in the armed uprising against Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi last year and clearly had a role in the attack.
"It was a preplanned act of terrorism directed against American citizens," Mr. Magariaf said in remarks broadcast on NBC's "Today" show on Wednesday.
Mrs. Clinton's remarks appeared to go beyond comments made last week by Matthew Olsen, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, who said intelligence analysts were investigating ties between local Libyan militias and Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, but had not yet come to any conclusions.
Wonder if Hilde will ever get around to disciplining our UN ambassador, Ms. Susan Rice, for what she said...
"We are looking at indications that individuals involved in the attack may have had connections to Al Qaeda or Al Qaeda's affiliates, in particular, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb," Mr. Olsen told the Senate Homeland Security Committee on Sept. 19.
When asked which group or groups were involved in the attack, Mr. Olsen said, "The picture that is emerging is one where a number of different individuals were involved, so it's not necessarily an either/or proposition."
At that same hearing, Mr. Olsen said the assault on the American mission and a nearby annex in Benghazi was a "terrorist attack," the first time the administration had ascribed the attack to terrorists. The next day, Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, said on Air Force One, "It is self-evident that what happened in Benghazi was a terrorist attack." He added, "Our embassy was attacked violently, and the result was four deaths of American officials."
A senior administration official said on Wednesday that Mrs. Clinton intended to underscore the rising threat that Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and other extremist groups posed to the emerging democratic governments in countries like Tunisia and Libya, adding that the group clearly intended to make contacts with extremists in Benghazi and elsewhere. The final determination of the group's role, the official said, would await the investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Mrs. Clinton has also ordered a review of diplomatic security that is being led by a veteran diplomat and former under secretary of state, Thomas R. Pickering.
Mrs. Clinton's comments caught intelligence and other administration officials off guard, with some saying there was not yet conclusive evidence that the operatives from the Qaeda affiliate were involved in the attacks.
It's pretty conclusive that it wasn't a 'spontaneous riot', though I suppose it could have been Spanish public union employees angry over losing their pensions...
A spokesman for the Central Intelligence Agency declined to comment on Mrs. Clinton's remarks.
Eight House chairmen on Wednesday wrote Mr. Obama seeking information on the intelligence American officials had before the Libyan attack. In the letter, circulated by Representative Howard P. McKeon of California, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, they suggested that the Obama administration had "a pre-9/11 mind-set -- treating an act of war solely as a criminal matter, rather than also prioritizing the gathering of intelligence to prevent future attacks."
According to Champ and Moochelle 9/11 was supposed to become a 'day of service', remember?
Representative Peter T. King, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said that in the days after the attack he and many others on Capitol Hill believed that Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb was probably behind the attack because it has such a stronghold in eastern Libya.
"Understandably, there was a lot of uncertainty in the days immediately following the attacks in Benghazi," he said. "And while the administration was saying definitively it wasn't a terrorist attack, those of us who believed there had to be significant terrorist involvement believed it was almost certainly A.Q.I.M. because they are such a major force, the major force, in that part of Libya. If it was terrorism, which we believed had to have played a role, it almost certainly had to be them."
Mr. King, a New York Republican, said some reports had indicated that smaller elements of Ansar al-Sharia, a Libyan rebel brigade, played a role in the attack, although he described the group as a "grab bag of jihadists" that is far less organized and sophisticated than the Al Qaeda affiliate.
"It was very irresponsible for the administration to say in the days after the attack that it wasn't a terrorist attack when all the information was not in," he said.
The administration is irresponsible today in not doing anything about it. AQIM is involved? Okay, when do we flatten their camps? When do we send in the teams to hunt down their leaders? For goodness sakes, here we have a president who loves drone-zaps and we haven't even done one of those.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/27/2012 00:00 ||
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Link ||
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#1
AQIM is involved. They've spread to Mali and Libya and are active elsewhere in the years since they announced their broader ambitions and changed their name from GSPC (Algeria) to being Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
We lost our entire humint network in north Africa in the Benghazi raid, if comments from intel sources are to be believed - docs stolen, IDs compromised. And therefore we've lost the ability track and counter AQIM efforts. We've lost respect too, so there goes that deterrent ....
But Hillary, Obama and Holder are adamant this is a law enforcement issue, right up there with parking tickets and being late paying your taxes.
#2
President Mohamed Magariaf is the key to rebuilding and improving what has been lost. Opportunity often knocks in tragedy. It will be interesting to see the relationship that may be developed with this fellow.
#3
It is frustrating, frightening and disgusting that President Mohamed Magariaf has been and still is far out in front of anyone in our regime on this issue.
#5
read the cables they invaded for no reason and the people asking the questions are the ones that led the charge! Who did cut that side deal in the 90's with those hard knockers over in the Balkans wtc 1993 and 2001 all of them came from Afghanistan and Pakistan! Remember our troops had to keep them from slicing and dicing up the other side like foot ball refs?!? Research would show that at this point in history it's just a bunch of Nazis and stupid people who were duped killing each other! Do your home work kidz!
#8
Clinton is a day late and a dollar short. Of course, the Obama never wanted to have a 911 on its watch just before election. In the denial stage--few sane people are buying it.
#10
I say old chaps ... where is the French Foreign Legion when you need them? You can't just let them sit around all day - building sand castles and pi**ing into the wind. They are the perfect guys to go after AQIM. France is broke ... so just FUND THEM !!!
#12
I'd be okay with borrowing Chinese money to pay the FFL.
Then, of course, I'd stiff the Chinese :-)
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/27/2012 13:56 Comments ||
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#13
Sometimes its hard to beat boots on the ground. For the price that we're paying for drones and surveillance ... we could probably rent a lot of FFL boots.
Libyan militia fighters assaulted a hotel in Tripoli housing members of the newly elected General National Congress on Tuesday, dramatizing the challenge the government faces in enforcing its ultimatum that all unauthorized brigades must submit to its authority or disband by the start of the day.
The attack came as an American team arrived in Tripoli to investigate the death of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens in an assault this month on the American Mission in Benghazi. Libyans who had spoken with the team said the investigators had reached Tripoli, but it was unclear when they might proceed to Benghazi, where security for American government officials is precarious. Representatives of the State and Justice Departments would not comment on the investigators whereabouts.
For a map, click here. For a map of Coahuila state, click here
By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
A total of six armed suspects were killed by Mexican security forces in three separate incidents in northern Coahuila state Wednesday, according to Mexican news accounts.
According to a news story posted on the website of El Diario de Coahuila news daily, a unit of the Coahuila state Grupo Armas y Tacticos Especiales (GATE) encountered a suspect who was travelling aboard a Volkswagen Golf sedan in Piedras Negras municipality. The police unit located the suspect near the intersection of Libramiento Sur and Calle Rio Usumacinta in Nueva Americana colony at around 1700 hrs.
The deceased was identified by fingerprints as José Guadalupe Leija Camarillo, who had escaped from the Centro de Readaptacion Social (CERESO) in Piedra Negras municipality September 17th. Mexican press had previously reported that many of the escapees were members of the Los Zetas criminal gang.
At the scene police seized one AK-47 rifle, one Barrett .50 caliber rifle, boots, radio equipment and "stars" used to puncture automobile tires.
A second incident took place also in Piedras Negras municipality at around 1830 hrs near the intersection of Libramiento Perez Treviño and Calle Durango in Las Torres colony, where a unit of the Coahuila GATE encountered armed suspects travelling aboard a Mazda vehicle.
Two unidentified suspects died in the encounter and another four were detained at the scene. Police also seized an AK-47 assault rifle, weapons magazines, radio equipment and "stars".
En Saltillo
In a separate report which appeared in El Diario de Coahuila news daily, in the Ejido Huachichil, about 50 kilometers from Saltillo, the capital of Coahuila state, three unidentified armed suspects were killed and two others were detained following a shoplifting incident at a local grocery store Wednesday. Of the two captives, one was identified as an escapee from Piedra Negras, Roberto Elizondo Francisco Lopez.
A group of as many as 14 suspects had entered and had allegedly stolen food from a grocery store. As they were heading away, they were encountered by a Mexican Army road patrol. According to the report, the latest incident was one of a series of incidents except the last time was with 14 suspects and was much more violent.
The news story fails to make clear where the three armed suspects died, only that a pursuit took place with suspects attempting to flee into the mountains aboard a Nissan Murano SUV. The pursuit ended near a gypsum mine near ejido El Esporon, where two suspects were captured and two other vehicles were recovered.
Additional weapons were also recovered at the scene but the description of the haul was not disclosed.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
One unidentified Mexican soldier and total of 10 unidentified armed suspects, including one female were killed in a gunfight in northern Guerrero state Wednesday morning, according to Mexican news accounts.
An article which appeared on the website of Milenio news daily said that a Mexican Army road patrol, identified as an element of the Mexican 27th Infantry Battalion, encountered armed suspects travelling aboard two vehicles in Tepecpacuilco municipality. The suspects opened fire on the patrol after being signalled to stop. The gunfight took place in La Moneda colony near the village of Rincon de la Cocina.
A separate wire service dispatch posted on holaciudad.com news website said the gunfight took place in Santiago Apostol chapel near Cerro de Jumil, where the suspects had apparently abandoned their vehicles to seek refuge.
Another report from the Reuters wire service posted on ntn24.com said that two unidentified civilians who had been abducted by the armed group were wounded in the firefight. The report adds that La Familia Michoacana and Los Pelones criminal gangs operate in the area.
Following the end of the firefight, soldiers seized two vehicles, five AK-47 rifles, five AR-15 rifles, two .380 caliber pistols and 65 bags of marijuana.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
[Dawn] KALAYA/MIRAMSHAH, Sept 25: Eight hard boyz were killed and a security man injured in a clash in upper Orakzai Agency ... crawling with holy men, home to Darra Adam Khel, the world's largest illegal arms bazaar. 14 distinct tribes of beturbanned primitives inhabit Orakzai agency's 1500 or so square kilometers... on Tuesday.
Official sources told Dawn that hard boyz attacked security forces in Barlas area, some 45km west of Ghaljo, agency headquarters of upper Orakzai Agency, injuring soldier Omar Gul.
They said the soldier was shifted to the hospital before security forces backed by tanks and artillery targeted bad turbans, killing eight and injuring three.
Sources said a vehicle of hard boyz was also destroyed in the fighting.
However, some men learn by reading. A few learn by observation. The rest have to pee on the electric fence for themselves... the Taliban denied the killings and said not a single bad turban was killed in the clash.
Spokesman for Taliban Hafiz Muhammad Saeed ...who would be wearing a canvas jacket with very long sleeves anyplace but Pakistain... said from Qazi's guesthouse an undisclosed location over the telephone that hard boyz had caused heavy damage to the life and property of security forces.
Meanwhile, ...back at the revival hall, the SWAT team had finally arrived... security forces conducted search operation in Narik and Dappar Kalli areas also in the day and seized a huge cache of arms.
In Miranshah ... headquarters of al-Qaeda in Pakistain and likely location of Ayman al-Zawahiri. The Haqqani network has established a ministate in centered on the town with courts, tax offices and lots of madrassas... , three Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) employees returned home within 72 hours of their kidnapping.
Azhar, Fayyaz and Haider Shah, all belonging to Punjab province and working on a highway in Ghulama Khan area, were taken away by unidentified people along with an oil tanker.
Shortly after the kidnappings, local political agent Siraj Ahmad Khan ordered the sealing of all entry and exit points to North Wazoo Agency to keep a tight watch on the movement of kidnappers.
He also formed parties to raid possible hideouts of kidnappers under the supervision of Ghulama Khan's political tehsildar Khandan and tehsildar Shah Wazir.
The political agent told local news hounds that efforts of the said parties led to safe recovery of the kidnapped FWO employees along with the oil tanker and that, too, without payment of ransom.
He said nobody would be allowed to take the law into their own hands and that the administration had zero tolerance for kidnappings.
Local elders and holy mans, who were also in attendance, assured the administration of complete support for peace.
Meanwhile, ...back at the revival hall, the SWAT team had finally arrived... political agent Siraj Ahmad Khan restored all perks and privileges of local rustics.
He said he was hopeful that rustics wouldn't shelter hard boyz in their respective areas after the restoration of perks and privileges.
Mr Khan urged rustics to help the administration establish the writ of the government in the area.
He said funding valuing billions of rupees had been allocated for development work in the region.
[Dawn] KARACHI: A man and his two sons and two workers of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement ...English: United National Movement, generally known as MQM, is the 3rd largest political party and the largest secular political party in Pakistain with particular strength in Sindh. From 1992 to 1999, the MQM was the target of the Pak Army's Operation Cleanup leaving thousands of urdu speaking civilians dead... were among 10 people bumped off in different parts of the city on Tuesday as both the security and political administrations appeared powerless to check the renewed wave of assassinations.
The man and his two sons were bumped off while one of their relatives was maimed in a targeted attack in the old city area on Tuesday night.
Police said the incident took place at Paan Mandi within the remit of the Risala cop shoppe.
They said the killings took place when gunnies riding a cycle of violence opened fire on a Santro car carrying the four men.
The victims were heading home after closing their shop in Jodia Bazaar when they were targeted at Paan Mandi near the City Courts.
"The three victims were 'Ahl-e-Tashee'," said SSP-South Asif Aijaz Sheikh.
"Two suspects riding a cycle of violence, one wearing a helmet, fired at the car and escaped," the SSP said.
"We have found five spent bullet casings of the 9mm pistol from the scene of the crime."
The SSP said apparently it was an act of sectarian killing.
The victims were rushed to the Civil Hospital Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... (CHK), where Mohammad Raza, 65, and his sons Kumail Raza, 35, and Abbas Raza, 45, were pronounced dead on arrival, while their relative Ali Raza was admitted for treatment.
Following the medico-legal formalities the bodies were shifted to the Imambargah Mehfil Shah-e-Khurasan.
Earlier on Monday morning, three brothers were attacked in Jafar-e-Tayyar Society, where one was killed and two were maimed. Late on Monday evening four brothers were bumped off in North Bloody Karachi. And on Tuesday night, a man and his two sons were bumped off in the old city area. On Sept 5, the chairman of Islamic Research Centre, Mukhtar Azmi, his son Baqar Azmi and grandson Mohammad Ali were targeted by assassins on University Road. Mukhtar and his son Baqar were killed in the attack.
Two Muttahida men
The two MQM activists were bumped off in Surjani Town.
Police said the incident took place in Sector 10/5 of the town within the remit of the Surjani Town cop shoppe, where three suspects riding two cycle of violences targeted two men also riding a cycle of violence.
The police said both victims suffered multiple gunshot wounds and died before they could be taken to hospital.
The bodies were taken to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, where the victims were identified as Riaz, 45, son of Abdul Ghaffar, and Yaqoob, 25, son of Abdul Hafeez.
Police said Riaz was a committee member of Unit 7 of the MQM and Yaqoob was a worker of the party.
The police said Riaz ran a Gutka business in Surjani Town and lived in Sector 7A of the locality.
Following the killings tension gripped parts of Surjani and shops and all other commercial activities were closed.
Additional police and Rangers were deployed in the area.
Other killings
A teenage boy was killed and a friend of his was maimed when gunnies opened fire on them in Surjani Town on Tuesday.
Police said the incident took place in Yousuf Goth near Allahwalli Stop close to a milk shop, where gunnies riding a cycle of violence opened fire on Nasir, 18, son of Akhtar Ali, and Mohammad Salman.
The suspects rode away following the shooting.
Both men were rushed to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, where Nasir died during treatment while Salman was admitted.
Police said both men were daily wage earners.
The police said they were not sure about the motive for the killing.
A young man was killed in Korangi.
The victim was found dead in Sector 33-E, and the police shifted the body to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) for
medico-legal formalities.
The victim, Amir Ali, 32, was identified by his brother-in-law.
The police said the victim, a pickup driver, was a resident of Korangi 2½. Early on Tuesday morning he had gone out, but later he was found dead.
Police suspected personal enmity as a motive for the murder.
The body of an unidentified man was found in the Lyari ...one of the eighteen constituent towns of the city of Karachi. It is the smallest town by area in the city but also the most densely populated. Lyari has few schools, substandard hospitals, a poor water system, limited infrastructure, and broken roads. It is a stronghold of ruling Pakistan Peoples Party. Ubiquitous gang activity and a thriving narcotics industry make Lyari one of the most disturbed places in Karachi, which is really saying a lot.... rive on Tuesday morning.
Police said the body was found near Niazi Mohallah in the river within the remit of the Pak Colony cop shoppe.
The victim was in his mid-20s. The body was trussed up and bore torture marks. The victim was shot in the head, the police added. The body was shifted to the CHK for medico-legal formalities. The police said the victim had been kidnapped somewhere else and his body was dumped at the scene. An unidentified young man was killed within the remit of the Garden cop shoppe on Tuesday.
Police said the incident took place in Ranchhore Line near Mehmood Bakery, where a young man was drinking water from a Sabeel when two gunnies riding a cycle of violence opened fire on him and fled.
The victim was struck down in his prime and his body was taken to the CHK for medico-legal formalities and later to the Edhi morgue for want of identification.
A hairdressing salon owner was bumped off and two others were maimed near Baakhra Hotel within the remit of the Kharadar cop shoppe on Tuesday evening.
Police said the incident took place when suspects on a cycle of violence opened fire on Shafeeq Babu, 40. Two others, Mohammad Aslam and Sajid, were also maimed in the firing.
The victims were taken to the CHK, where Shafeeq was pronounced dead and the two others were admitted for treatment.
Police described the incident as part of the on-going killings that had been taking place in the old city area for some time.
Girl raped, strangled
An unidentified teenage girl was found raped and killed in a city locality on Tuesday.
Her body was found at a deserted place in the Shah Latif Town area.
Police said the body of the 19-year-old girl was found at a deserted place in Gulshan Colony within the remit of the Khuldabad police post.
It was taken to the JPMC for a post-mortem examination. Quoting hospital sources, the police said the victim had been subjected to rape.
Police said the girl was strangled with a piece of rope which was still tied around her neck. However, facts are stubborn; statistics are more pliable... nothing could be found in the vicitm's possession that could help identify her, the police said.
Following medico-legal formalities, the body was taken to the Edhi morgue for want of identification.
[Dawn] QUETTA: Unidentified gunniesrubbed out three people including a bigwig of the Geological Survey of Pakistain on Wednesday in the southwestern province of Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... , police said.
According to police officials, assailants shot up a shop near Burma Hotel on Quetta's Sariab Road severely wounding two people.
Both men, identified as Abdul Kareem and Saleh Mohammad, passed away while being transported to the hospital. The unknown gunnies were able to escape the scene, police said.
Earlier in the day, in an apparent sectarian attack, Mohsin Ali Naqvi, a member of the Shia community, was bumped off outside his office also on Quetta's Sariab Road, said Mohammed Ayaz, a senior police official.
Mohsin Ali Naqvi, a member of the minority Shia community, was bumped off outside his office in Quetta, the Balochistan capital, Mohammed Ayaz, a senior police official, told AFP.
"We are investigating the crime but it seems a case of sectarian killing. There is a wave of sectarian killing in the country and this is part of that,"Ayaz said.
Another official who is in charge of the local cop shoppe said the gunnies were waiting for Naqvi, a deputy director of the Survey, at the main gate of his office.
"Two gunnies were waiting for him at the main gate of his office. They fired bullets at him from close range and escaped," said Noor Bukhsh. "His family said they had no feud with anybody and Naqvi was killed because he was Shia."
Balochistan, which borders Iran and Afghanistan, is plagued by sectarian violence as well as Taliban attacks and a separatist insurgency.
Sectarian violence has killed more than 4,000 people since the late 1990s. Last month a Shia judge was rubbed out in Quetta along with his driver and police bodyguard.
Bombings and shootings mainly targeting Iraqi security forces killed eight people on Wednesday, among them a senior police officer, security and medical officials said.
The violence comes a day after a wave of attacks against members of the security forces left nine police and soldiers dead and 11 wounded.
In the deadliest attack, two roadside bombs exploded in an area about 40 kilometres (24 miles) north of Hilla, which lies south of Baghdad. The bombings killed police Lieutenant Colonel Salman Kadhim Al Khazraji, two other policeman and a civilian and wounded two other police, an officer in the Babil police media office and a doctor from Hilla hospital said.
Gunmen also shot dead two soldiers and wounded a third at a checkpoint near Iskandiriyah, 50 kilometres (30 miles) south of Baghdad, an army first lieutenant and a medical source said.
A policeman was killed and another wounded by a roadside bomb that targeted a checkpoint in a village near Balad, north of the capital.
And gunmen killed a civilian in the north Iraq city of Mosul, police and a doctor there said.
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At least 500 protesters in the Gaza Strip have called for the overthrow of the ruling Hamas group in a rare demonstration triggered by the death of a three-year-old boy in a fire during a power outage.
Protesters in the Bureij refugee camp, where the boys family live, called for Hamas to be toppled and chanted The people want to down the regime late on Tuesday night. The police swiftly dispersed the crowd. Demonstrators took to the streets as the boys body was being moved to a hospital, saying they were protesting against the incompetent way Hamas ruled Gaza. Anger spilled over after the boy died and his infant sister suffered critical burns when a candle lit amid a power outage burnt their house down. Anti-Hamas protests in Gaza, where power failures have left households with just six hours of electricity a day since February, are extremely rare. Three children were killed earlier in the year by similar fires during an outage.
Hamas blames the electricity shortages on Egypt which it says is restricting the flow of fuel, and on Israel, which imposed a blockade on the coastal enclave in 2007 when Hamas seized control from the Palestinian Fatah party.
The dead boys father called for more protests, saying he hoped a healing of internal Palestinian political rifts could ease the Strips problems.
I call on people to take to the streets and not to fear being clubbed by policemen, Abdel-Fattah Al-Baghdadi, 23, said. I hold both the governments in Gaza and in the West Bank responsible for what happened to us."
Earning 1,250 shekels ($318) a month from working as a civil guard at the Religious Affairs Ministry, he said he had been using candles to light his house during blackouts because he could not afford to buy a generator or fuel.
Besides my wife and two children, I had to spend money to help my bigger family, he said.
Taher Al-Nono, a spokesman for the Hamas government in Gaza, said the death of Baghdadis son was a message to Egypt that it had to speed up its promised efforts to help solve the power crisis in Gaza. The international communitys silence is an accomplice in the crime of blockading Gaza, Nono said in a statement.
Hamas has banned protests, including any demonstrations calling for an end to divisions between it and Fatah.
On Tuesday, police in Gaza dispersed what they said was an unlicenced rally organised by dozens of women calling for unity between Gaza and the West Bank.
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Two students were wounded by shrapnel when their school bus was hit by an bomb blast in Narathiwat province Thursday morning.
Police were alerted about the bomb attack at 7:40 a.m. It took place at a bridge in Bukeh Palash village. Arriving at the scene, police found the school bus, which had a flat tire and was riddled with shrapnel. Police believed that terrorists insurgents planted explosives on the approach to the bridge and detonated them as the school bus passed by.
The bus driver told police that he drove the bus every morning to pick up some 70 students and had an army vehicle in front of him for protection. When the bus was approaching the bridge, the explosives were set off, wounding two students who were sitting near the front door.
Police believe that the terrorists insurgents were targeting soldiers in the army vehicle but missed.
Meanwhile in Yala province, police were alerted about a bomb attack in a rubber plantation which injured a cow. The investigation found that villagers heard the sound of an explosion at 3:50 a.m. but did not come out to check. In the morning, they found a cow with an injured leg by a rubber tree and alerted police. The bomb squad defused two booby traps nearby.
Police believed that terrorists insurgents planted the explosives at the base tree and at two others nearby to lure officials to the scene before detonating them.
BEIRUT: Syrian fighters bombed a military complex in Damascus yesterday, striking at the heart of President Bashar Assad's power and igniting a fire which gutted the army command headquarters. The Free Syrian Army, the main opposition force fighting to overthrow Assad, claimed responsibility for the attack in central Damascus which it said killed dozens of people.
An armed forces statement said no military leaders were hurt and only a number of guards were wounded in the blasts, which shook the whole city at around 7 a.m. (0400 GMT) before regular working hours.
It was the biggest attack in Damascus since July 18 when a blast killed several senior security officials, including Assad's brother-in-law, the defense minister and a general.
"The attack in Damascus once again proves that, with sufficient planning and co-ordination, the opposition appears to retain the ability to strike at the heart of regime," said David Hartwell, Middle East analyst at IHS Jane's. "This is despite the fact that the FSA has appeared in recent weeks to be under pressure as a result of the fighting in Aleppo and other parts of the country."
The main gate of the military complex was blackened from the fire while all the windows of the building were blown out. Glass shards littered nearby streets and a deep crater was gouged in the road, apparently formed when an explosive-laden car blew up. Residents reported that gunfire rattled out around the district for at least two hours after the explosions. Roads in the area were blocked off as ambulances rushed to the scene.
"All our colleagues in the military leadership, the army staff command and the Defense Ministry are unhurt," Information Minister Omran Zoabi told Syrian Television. He said security forces were chasing "armed terrorists" -- a term the authorities use to refer to the insurgents. "It's a terrorist act, close to an important site, that's true. But as usual they failed to achieve their goal," he said.
Activist Samir Al-Shami said the main explosions were caused by a suicide car bombing and second car loaded with explosives on the perimeter of the complex.
"Then the fighters went inside and clashed with security inside, while some of the men started to torch the building," he said.
That appeared to tally with accounts from residents who heard gunfire and smaller blasts after the first explosions. "The explosions were very loud. They shook the whole city and the windows of our house were shuddering," one resident reached by telephone said.
A reporter for Al-Manar television, run by Assad's Lebanese ally Hezbollah, said he was in the building after the explosion and saw the bodies of three armed men, suggesting clashes between security forces and fighters at the site.
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A rocket fired during clashes between Syrian regime forces and rebels exploded on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Wednesday without causing casualties, the military said.
"A rocket fired in the morning during fighting inside Syria exploded on the Golan, without causing casualties or damage," an Israeli military spokesperson told AFP.
The latest spillover of fire from the conflict comes a day after the Golan was hit by mortar rounds which the Jewish state's military said were fired at "villages inside Syria and are part of the ongoing internal conflict."
On Tuesday, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least five Syrian troops and two rebels were killed after insurgents attacked army checkpoints near the Golan.
The clashes took place in the villages of Hamidiyeh and Horriyeh in Quneitra province, located in the small part of the Golan that is not held by Israel, it said.
Blasts and clashes rattled Syria on Wednesday and claimed the lives of many people at a time some defected military officers said that carrying guns will not solve the Syrian crisis.
Earlier Wednesday, twin blasts rattled the Syrian military command headquarters in the heart of the Syrian capital of Damascus, the latest brazen attack in a series of violence targeting security and army bases.
The blasts shook the Umayyad Square, where the military command headquarters and the state TV are located, at around 6:45 a.m. local time (0345 GMT), and were followed by intense gunfire that lasted for a couple of hours. Lebanese al-Manar TV said that after the blast, armed insurgents tried to storm the army's headquarters, but the Syrian troops responded and managed to kill a number of them.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
A 
Kenya said its navy hit military targets belonging to al Shabaab militants in the port of Kismayu in south Somalia on Wednesday, ahead of a ground assault on the rebels' last bastion. 
Orakzai Agency
At least 500 protesters in the Gaza Strip have called for the overthrow of the ruling Hamas group in a rare demonstration triggered by the death of a three-year-old boy in a fire during a power outage.
A rocket fired during clashes between Syrian regime forces and rebels exploded on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Wednesday without causing casualties, the military said.
