Somalis who fled war in their homeland say they fear militants are snatching or luring away their children from the safety of their new life in Kenya to fight 'holy war' in the failed Horn of Africa state.
Representatives of the hardline Al Shabaab insurgents, seen by Washington as an Al Qaeda proxy, are battling the moderate government of President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed for control in the latest twist of an 18-year civil war. Worried Somali parents in Kenya say Al Shabaab representatives are targeting children on the streets of Nairobi or at Islamic centres popular with Somalis who have taken refuge in the Kenyan capital or provincial towns.
Missing students: "Seven students are already missing," said Sheikh Ishaq Miruka, head teacher of Fathu Rahman Primary School sited near a noisy air force base in Nairobi's Eastleigh neighbourhood.
Although none of the missing students are from Fathu Rahman, Miruka says he was once offered a job at one of the schools from which some children have disappeared. "We found out that they were hired by a militant group in Somalia. Children, all boys, aged between 14-17 years were transported from Eastleigh to Somalia." He said the institutions are financed from abroad and that most Somalis did not have any qualms about enrolling their children in the schools.
"Most of these institutions do not rely on local money. They are financed by Al Shabaab and its agents in Kenya," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/18/2009 00:00 ||
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[Maghrebia] The April 11, 2007 suicide bombings are among 57 terrorism cases on the docket for the new Court of Algiers session on Sunday (October 18th), APS reported. At least 80 people were killed by the car bomb explosions at the Government Palace in Algiers and a police station in Bab Ezzouar. Al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb claimed responsibility for the attacks.
In separate criminal court proceedings in Morocco, three suspected members of a terrorist recruiting network were arraigned on Thursday (October 15th), bringing the number of defendants in the case to 28, MAP reported. Last month, Moroccan authorities dismantled a terrorist network that allegedly recruited suicide bombers and guerrilla fighters for al-Qaeda in Iraq, Somalia and Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, another terrorism-recruiting trial in Tunisia on Friday resulted in sentences of up to six years for nine men. The defendants were convicted of trying to join al-Qaeda fighters in Iraq, Reuters quoted defence lawyer Samir Ben Amor as saying. No further information was released.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/18/2009 00:00 ||
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RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- The Saudi Interior Ministry says the two Al Qaeda militants killed in a recent shootout snuck into the
The two men, who had disguised themselves as women, were Saudi and on a militant wanted list.
country from Yemen and were planning to carry out attacks in the country.
The ministry said in a statement Sunday that the two men, who had disguised themselves as women, were Saudi and on a militant wanted list. Six Yemenis working with them were also arrested.
Youssef al-Shihri and Raed al-Harbi were on the country's list of 85 most wanted militant suspects living abroad and were part of Al Qaeda's operations in Yemen.
Tuesday's shootout in southern Saudi Arabia also killed a soldier
[Asharq al-Aswat] A Yemeni court sentenced to death on Saturday two members of a northern insurgency movement which has raised fears that the Arabian peninsula nation might break up.
The two men were among a group of 12 on trial, and the rest were given sentences of up to 10 years in prison, the court announced.
The trials are of men captured during fighting last year. It is not clear how many have been killed or taken prisoner during fighting this year.
The Zaidi Shi'ite Muslims first took up arms against the rule of veteran President Ali Abdullah Saleh in 2004, citing political, economic and religious marginalisation by the Saudi-and Western-backed government. But the conflict intensified when the army unleashed Operation Scorched Earth on Aug. 11. Aid groups, which have been given limited access to the northern provinces, say up to 150,000 people have fled their homes.
Saleh, who also faces a separatist movement in the south, said last week that the army would crush the uprising "within days".
Yahya al-Houthi, who is brother of the rebels' leader in the northern Saada province, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, mocked Saleh in a statement issued from exile in Germany. He accused Saleh and the ruling elite of using the war in Saada to rally support and gather funds to maintain their hold on power.
"Saleh has begun robbing citizens through gathering aid for the displaced who are held in camps while they receive nothing and we see women and children fighting over pieces of bread on television," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/18/2009 00:00 ||
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PAKISTAN'S military says that 60 militants were killed during the first 24 hours of a major offensive against the Taliban in South Waziristan.
It was the first militant death toll released today by the military since ground troops, backed by fighter jets, launched the operation yesterday.
The figures were impossible to confirm with the battleground sealed off to journalists and all communications in the area shut down.
"In last 24 hours, reportedly 60 terrorists have been killed in operation Rah-e-Nijat. Casualties of security forces are five soldiers and 11 are injured," the military said.
A spokesman said that troops in the field submitted the casualty report to headquarters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, which was besieged by Islamist gunmen last week.
In operations in the east, 30 militants were killed and two soldiers died with troops extending their control up to Mandana, on the road to Kotkai, the home town of Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud.
Around Sherwangi, where security officials have reported the heaviest Taliban resistance, the military said 20 militants and one soldier died.
The military said "important features and tactical heights" around Razmak have been secured, costing the lives of two soldiers and killing 10 militants.
#1
In the past I found the correction factor for Pakistani casualty claims to be about 30; if it still holds for (presumably) top tier Pak units then these actions would have cost 5 Pak soldiers to kill 2 Taliban. That doesn't sound like an unrealistic ratio for moderately modern units attacking well dug-in defenses.
#2
By now, the whole region must be aware of the US practice of strongly under-counting enemy dead. This about drove the friendly Afghans bonkers until we explained our very good reasons for doing so.
It completely goes against the grain of macho braggadocio, but leaves the enemy thinking they are stronger than they really are--the worst possible situation for planning. Which is why western armies have been obsessive about personnel counts going way back.
It leaves the bad guyz not knowing if their personnel were killed, deserted, are lost, just hiding, or what. So they have to send a supervisor/paymaster with every group. And if he gets killed, they don't get paid. Bad all the way around.
[Dawn] A roadside bomb exploded alongside a military convoy, killing three soldiers and wounding another four in the North Waziristan tribal region on Saturday, security officials said.
Suspected Taliban militants detonated the remote-controlled device as the convoy left Razmak military base, one official told AFP.
The convoy was moving towards a military post in the area, another security official said. One vehicle hit by the bomb was destroyed, he added.
Razmak is the main military base in North Waziristan, which is part of the country's lawless tribal region on the Afghan border where Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants have carved out sanctuaries.
Troops are preparing to launch a major ground offensive against militant hideouts in South Waziristan, where supporters of slain Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud are entrenched.
A bomb attack killed one soldier and wounded two others in Jandola town of South Waziristan, a security official said.
The improvised-explosive device was planted on the road and exploded near a military vehicle, causing the casualties, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/18/2009 00:00 ||
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Twelve Taliban were killed and two injured in clashes between security forces and Taliban in the Bajaur and Mohmand agencies on Saturday.
Political administration officials told Daily Times that three Taliban were killed in clashes between security forces and Taliban in the Salarzai tehsil of the Bajaur Agency, adding two others were injured. Security forces also arrested four Taliban at Khar, headquarters of Bajaur, while 16 Taliban surrendered to security forces in Mamoond tehsil.
Official sources said that security forces continued the military operation in the Warr Mamoond and Salarzai tehsils to restore the government's writ in these areas, adding Taliban hideouts were being shelled with helicopters.
Also on Saturday, a spokesman for the Frontier Corps Media Cell told the APP news agency that security forces killed nine Taliban, including seven foreigners, in an overnight operation in Agra Post, Mohmand Agency, said a spokesman for FC Media Cell. He said one soldier was martyred in the fighting.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/18/2009 00:00 ||
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Police on Saturday arrested 35 members of the banned Hizbut Tahrir during a meeting at a house in Sector F. Margallah police, on a tip-off, raided House No 8, Street No 9 in Sector F-8/3 and discovered over 30 workers of the banned organisation conducting a secret meeting. The arrested were immediately shifted to the Margallah Police Station for investigation. Sources said the raiding team had recovered banned literature, computers, mobile phones and banners at the site, adding 15 vehicles had also been taken into custody. Islamabad Senior Superintendent of Police Operations Tahir Alam Khan confirmed the police had raided the house on a tip-off. He said further investigations were underway. The London-based Hizbut Tahrir seeks to unite Muslims in a pan-Islamic state but says its means are peaceful. Former president Pervez Musharraf banned it.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/18/2009 00:00 ||
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The red zone is for immediate loading and unloading of passengers only. There is no stopping in the white zone.
No, the white zone is for loading.Now, there is no stopping in the RED zone.
The red zone has always been for loading.
Don't tell me which zone is for loading, and which zone is for unloading.
Look Betty, don't start with your white zone shit again.
There's just no stopping in the white zone.
Oh really, Vernon? Why pretend, we both know perfectly well what this is about. You want me to have an abortion.
The Punjab government on Saturday declared Bhakkar district a 'Red Zone', following apprehensions that the Taliban, under attack in South Waziristan, could enter Punjab from there, a private TV channel reported. The channel said the provincial government has deployed security personnel on both banks of the Indus River running through Bhakkar and set up checkposts to monitor possible Taliban infiltration. The security personnel have also seized all boats in order to control all means of crossing the river. Those entering or leaving the district would have to prove their identities, the channel said.
Fred -- are you getting enough sleep? That was seriously silly.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/18/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Man I wouldn't take any shit about the white zone from anyone.
The military launched its long-awaited Operation Rah-e-Nijat (Path of Salvation) late on Friday night, combating the Hakeemullah Mehsud-led Pakistani Taliban in South Waziristan on three different fronts to neutralise the "centre of gravity of terrorism" in Pakistan, a military spokesman and several senior officials said.
The ground offensive comes hours after the country's military and political leaders agreed to stage the final assault on the "headquarters of terrorism" following a wave of terror attacks throughout the country in the past two weeks.
"The ground offensive has started," military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas told Daily Times. "The headquarters of the defunct Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) will be surgically targeted to dismantle the network of the terror outfit," the APP news agency quoted him as stating on a radio programme. He said intelligence reports had revealed around 80% of the terror attacks in the country originated from South Waziristan, adding about 1,500 foreign terrorists were believed to be hiding in the area in addition to the locals.
Curfew: The government imposed a curfew in the region late on Friday, shutting down all link roads to and from Waziristan and jamming the mobile and telecommunication systems in Dera Ismail Khan, Tank, Lakki Marwat and Bannu districts. Official sources said the military was converging on Taliban strongholds from three directions -- Jandola in the east, Shakai in the west and Razmak in the north. They said initial reports had revealed the Taliban were putting up a "stiff resistance" to the army's advances.
Completion prediction: The ground offensive will be supported with airstrikes, tanks and long-range artillery at Shakai, Jandola and Razmak bases. Military experts said the terrorists would likely adopt guerrilla tactics and stage ambushes with the help of improvised explosive devices. The military sources said the offensive would be swift and could be completed within eight weeks.
Deceased: A private TV channel reported that 30 Taliban had been killed in airstrikes targeting the Kotkai, Makeen and Ladah regions. They said four soldiers had also been martyred and 12 wounded on the first day of the offensives. However, the army statement did not provide any details of the militant casualties.
Safe zones: Meanwhile, the local population of the conflict-stricken areas has moved to safer places, with the UN predicting around 250,000 people fled their homes in anticipation of the operation. Authorities have set up registration camps for these internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Tank and Dera Ismail Khan. Sources in the FATA Secretariat said 12,800 families had already been registered in DI Khan and Tank, adding preparations were underway to accommodate more in the relief camps.
They said the IDP families who had registered would receive Rs 5000/month in addition to daily essentials such as utensils, mattresses, pillows and tents. The secretariat has been tasked to safely evacuate the civilian population with the help of the political agent, they added.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/18/2009 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: TTP
#1
Napalm is the type of field weapon that would devastate that type of enemy. However, use of same makes sense, ergo: it is a non-starter.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Around 30 Iraqi asylum seekers who Britain tried to send back to Iraq were refused entry to their homeland and are now back on English soil, officials said Friday.
A plane chartered by Britain with about 40 Iraqis on board landed in Baghdad Thursday but only about 10 of them were allowed to remain. The others were flown back to Britain and are now in a detention centre.
The flight, which was strongly opposed by refugee and human rights groups, was the first taking failed asylum seekers back to Baghdad since the start of the Iraq war in 2003.
"We are establishing a new route to southern Iraq and have successfully returned 10 Iraqis to the Baghdad area. This is an important first step for us," the chief executive of the U.K. Border Agency Lin Homer said.
"We are working closely with the Iraq government to iron out the issues which led to some of the returnees being sent back, and expect to carry out another flight in the future."
The Home Office could not immediately say when this would be or why they were refused entry.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/18/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Should have shot the returnees as they stepped off the plane.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
10/18/2009 20:33 Comments ||
Top||
Nine people were killed, including six soldiers and two policemen, in a swathe of bombings and shootings across Iraq on Saturday, ministry and security officials said.
In the deadliest attack, four soldiers died and 10 others were wounded when their patrol struck a roadside bomb near a petrol station 50 kilometres west of Baghdad, an Interior Ministry official said. In Kirkuk, a roadside bomb in the town of Hawijaa killed two soldiers who were on a military patrol. Two civilians were also injured in the bombing, according to an army officer.
The restive northern city of Mosul saw three attacks which left two policemen and a civilian dead. In a market, gunmen killed a policeman and injured two civilians, police said. Also in central Mosul, a roadside bomb targeting a police patrol killed one policeman and wounded two civilians. In another attack in the city centre, gunmen shot dead a civilian outside his home. Police said the reasons behind the attack were not immediately clear.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/18/2009 00:00 ||
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Ma'an -- The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine claimed its armed wing, the Abu Ali Mustapha Brigades, exchanged gunfire with Israeli forces operating in the Gaza Strip on Saturday.
In a statement, the movement's military wing said its forces injured a soldier east of Al-Bureij refugee camp, and that Israeli forces responded with machine-gun fire.
Separately, the group claimed to have launched two 120 millimeter mortar shells at the Zakim military base just outside of Gaza.
Approached by Ma'an, a spokeswoman for Israel's military said the army looked into the claims and found both to be baseless.
In any event, the Brigades said the purported operations "were in response to the [Israeli] occupation's crimes in the West Bank and Gaza," and added that "our response is still ongoing."
The claims of responsibility coincided with the eight-year anniversary of the PFLP's assassination of Israel's ultra right-wing tourism minister, Rehavam Ze'evi, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in East Jerusalem on 17 October 2001.
That attack was said to have been in response to Israel's assassination, a month earlier, of Abu Ali Mustapha, the politically leftist Palestinian movement's late leader and armed wing's namesake.
Earlier on Saturday, the PFLP wing said its forces fired four mortars toward the Israeli military post of Netiv HaAsara, west of the Erez crossing near the northern Strip, but their statement made no mention of the assassination anniversary.
Israel's army said it was unaware of that attack, as well.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/18/2009 00:00 ||
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A SUICIDE bomber blew himself up at a meeting of senior military officers of the elite Revolutionary Guards Corps in south-eastern Iran today, killing about 20 people and wounding another 40, news agencies said. The attack, the deadliest in Iran in recent years, occurred in the city of Pisheen, near the border with Pakistan in Sistan-Baluchestan province, Fars and ILNA news agencies said.
"A man wearing an explosives vest blew himself up inside the meeting," the official IRNA news agency said.
Iran's state broadcaster said the attack occurred at around 8am today (3.30pm AEDT) in front of a local gymnasium. Fars said the strike took place when officers from the Guards were preparing to stage a meeting between local leaders of Shiite and Sunni communities. Some local tribal heads were also among the slain, media reports said.
"In this terrorist act, General Nur-Ali Shushtari, deputy commander of the Revolutionary Guards ground forces, General Mohammad-Zadeh, commander of the Revolutionary Guards in Sistan-Baluchestan province, the Guards' commander for the town of Iranshahr and the commander of the Amir al-Momenin unit died," the news agency reported.
Parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani confirmed the officers' death in an announcement to parliament which was broadcast on television.
"The goal of the terrorists is to disturb the security of the Sistan-Baluchestan province," he told parliament. "It shows they do not want to have economic progress in this region. But certainly the Guards will act with more force to establish security in the region."
Iran has previously accused shadowy Sunni group Jundallah (Soldiers of God) of launching regular attacks in the province, which borders both Afghanistan and Pakistan. The mostly Shiite Sistan-Baluchestan is home to a sizeable Baluch minority which adheres to Sunni Islam.
Jundallah is strongly opposed to the Government of predominantly Shiite Iran.
Iranian officials have been reluctant to open full-scale military operations in the southeastern border zone, fearing it could become a hotspot for sectarian violence with the potential to draw in al-Qaida and Sunni militants from nearby Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Controlling the scrubland and arid hills along the southeastern borders is a huge challenge that has been out of Iran's reach. Drug traffickers ferry opium and other narcotics through the cross-border badlandsa key source of income for the Taliban in Afghanistan and the ethnic Baluchi tribes that straddle the three-nation region and include members of Jundallah. Iran has pleaded for more international help to cut off the drug routes and criminal gangs.
Iran also has accused Jundallah of receiving support from al-Qaida and the Taliban. "There is no evidence of outside help for Jundallah from wider militant networks," said Mustafa Alani, director of security and terrorism studies at the Gulf Research Center in Dubai. "It's a homegrown group that moves across the borders within fellow Baluchi tribes. It is very hard to control the border."
In an attempt to boost security in the region, Iran in April put the Revolutionary Guard directly in control of the Sistan-Baluchistan Province in Iran's southeastern corner.
In Quetta, Pakistan, police official Akbar Sanjrani said Iran had closed at least one border crossing. He said Iranian authorities did not give a reason for blocking the route, but Sanjrani speculated it was related to the bombing.
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/18/2009 8:26 Comments ||
Top||
#2
seems somewhat 'karmic' in a way i just cant put my finger on...
Posted by: abu do you love ||
10/18/2009 8:56 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Allah tells us:
"Wherever you are, death will overtake you, though you are in lofty towers, and if a benefit comes to them, they say: This is from Allah; and if a misfortune befalls them, they say: This is from you. Say: All is from Allah, but what is the matter with these people that they do not make approach to understanding what is told (them)?"
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
10/18/2009 9:00 Comments ||
Top||
#4
MO is taliban
Posted by: lord garth ||
10/18/2009 9:24 Comments ||
Top||
#5
up to 29 dead now: A suicide bomber killed six senior Revolutionary Guards commanders and 23 other people on Sunday in one of the boldest attacks on Iran's most powerful military institution.
Fox just said 30, and the number is expected to go higher. Apparently Allah doesn't like the RG
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/18/2009 10:08 Comments ||
Top||
#6
One hopes these two groups are very effective at killing each other.
#8
The RG leadership are all buddies of Nutjob, and theirs is not a large cult, so every time one of them gets taken down, it is a serious gut punch to his power. The RG are mostly draftees, with only a few hardcore brigades of brown shirts to force Nutjob's will on the country.
This means that they are often on the road, going from city to city, brutalizing then taking off for their next assignment.
#11
IRAN is appar blaming the BRITISH [ + US-ISRAEL] as being the mastermind(s) behind this attack - the Brits podt-attack were repor fingered almost "immediately" by Iranain state medias???
* ION WAFF > TALIBAN ASK THE SCO FOR HELP TO LIBERATE AFGHANISTAN.
Although, as you say, the IRG is blaming the west, it is quite possible that funding from the other side of the Persian Gulf (Saudis, Kuwait, Qatar) is behind this particular attack.
Posted by: lord garth ||
10/18/2009 14:48 Comments ||
Top||
#15
But, if they're smart, they hire a local fanatic-nut to do the job, during which they are far away, sipping martinis in the Holiday Inn while watching ESPN international.
#16
Suicide bombing is a way of introducing ordnance to a target.
The moral issue is whether it's a military target, or innocent civilians to foment terror and political instability.
This was moral, presuming the suicide bomber was fully informed.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
10/18/2009 20:51 Comments ||
Top||
#17
TOPIX > IRAN IRGC VOWS CRUSHING RESPONSE FOR JUNDALLAH ATTACK. Top IRGC Commander claims that Jundallah Group will not be allowed to threaten the Iranian Nation any more.
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.
Somalis who fled war in their homeland say they fear militants are snatching or luring away their children from the safety of their new life in Kenya to fight 'holy war' in the failed Horn of Africa state. 
[Maghrebia] The April 11, 2007 suicide bombings are among 57 terrorism cases on the docket for the new Court of Algiers session on Sunday (October 18th), APS reported. At least 80 people were killed by the car bomb explosions at the Government Palace in Algiers and a police station in Bab Ezzouar. Al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb claimed responsibility for the attacks. 
[Asharq al-Aswat] A Yemeni court sentenced to death on Saturday two members of a northern insurgency movement which has raised fears that the Arabian peninsula nation might break up.
PAKISTAN'S military says that 60 militants were killed during the first 24 hours of a major offensive against the Taliban in South Waziristan.
[Dawn] A roadside bomb exploded alongside a military convoy, killing three soldiers and wounding another four in the North Waziristan tribal region on Saturday, security officials said. 
Twelve Taliban were killed and two injured in clashes between security forces and Taliban in the Bajaur and Mohmand agencies on Saturday.
Police on Saturday arrested 35 members of the banned Hizbut Tahrir during a meeting at a house in Sector F. Margallah police, on a tip-off, raided House No 8, Street No 9 in Sector F-8/3 and discovered over 30 workers of the banned organisation conducting a secret meeting. The arrested were immediately shifted to the Margallah Police Station for investigation. Sources said the raiding team had recovered banned literature, computers, mobile phones and banners at the site, adding 15 vehicles had also been taken into custody. Islamabad Senior Superintendent of Police Operations Tahir Alam Khan confirmed the police had raided the house on a tip-off. He said further investigations were underway. The London-based Hizbut Tahrir seeks to unite Muslims in a pan-Islamic state but says its means are peaceful. Former president Pervez Musharraf banned it.
The military launched its long-awaited Operation Rah-e-Nijat (Path of Salvation) late on Friday night, combating the Hakeemullah Mehsud-led Pakistani Taliban in South Waziristan on three different fronts to neutralise the "centre of gravity of terrorism" in Pakistan, a military spokesman and several senior officials said.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Around 30 Iraqi asylum seekers who Britain tried to send back to Iraq were refused entry to their homeland and are now back on English soil, officials said Friday.
Nine people were killed, including six soldiers and two policemen, in a swathe of bombings and shootings across Iraq on Saturday, ministry and security officials said.
