The Saudi government has ordered the closure of a large charity that Washington accuses of helping finance terrorist activities, a Saudi official said Tuesday. The Riyadh-based Al-Haramain foundation has until Oct. 15 to dissolve all its operations, the official said on condition of anonymity. Officials from the Ministry of Religious Affairs and from Al-Haramain could not be reached.
They were busy trying on false moustaches...
Adel al-Jubeir, foreign policy adviser to Crown Prince Abdullah, announced in Washington in June that in an effort to prevent charitable donations from bankrolling terrorism, the Saudi government was creating a commission to filter contributions raised inside the kingdom to support causes abroad. The plan included dissolving Al-Haramain and other Saudi charities and folding their financial assets into the new national commission.
So the next time we're attacked we can come directly to the Soddy government. I'm surprised they'd leave themselves open like that. A case of overconfidence?
The U.S. government, as part of its anti-terrorism strategy after the Sept. 11 attacks, has sought to cut off the sources of terrorists' financing. Al-Haramain came under scrutiny after the attacks on suspicion of funding al-Qaida terror activities. Last month, the Bush administration designated Al-Haramain as a group suspected of supporting terrorism through its Springfield, Mo. mosque and its main location in Ashland, Ore., saying the charity "shows direct links between the U.S. branch and Osama bin Laden." Assets of the two properties have been frozen since February. The charity's branches in 10 countries, mostly in Africa and Asia, have been shut down for suspected ties to al-Qaida and other terror groups. Al-Haramain has repeatedly denied that its donations fund terror.
"No, no! Certainly not!"
Last year, Saudi Arabia banned all private relief and charitable groups from sending money overseas until regulations were in place to ensure the money does not go to terrorist groups. Al-Haramain's previous activities included sending relief to Muslims in war-torn countries, including the Palestinians, Afghans and Bosnians.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/05/2004 8:44:47 PM ||
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America has indicted a Briton wanted on suspicion of helping shoe-bomber Richard Reid in his failed attempt to down a US passenger jet. Saajid Mohammed Badat, 25, is being held in a London jail and has pleaded innocent to similar charges. He will be tried in the UK in February. He was arrested in Britain in November last year and is accused by US authorities of conspiring to destroy an aircraft and several related crimes.
[snip] This was the 'nice quiet boy' over whose arrest the muslim residents of Gloucester protested so vociferously. I hear nice, quiet boys 'go down' well in jails on both sides of the Atlantic.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
10/05/2004 7:46:12 AM ||
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I'm guessing that if Richard Reid isn't in protective custody - he won't live long. He'll probably become an experiment gone horribly wrong on just how many shoes will fit - a la VW style - in a place I won't mention. If I were him, I'd have chosen the needle.
Three British residents may have been involved in last month's attack in Beslan, and one of them may have escaped the school only to be detained on the Russian-Azeri border, British newspaper The Observer reported, citing sources in the Russian security services. One of the possible hostage-takers, Kamel Rabat Bouralha, a 46-year-old British citizen, was arrested while trying to cross the Russian-Azeri border, The Observer reported Sunday. The newspaper quoted Scotland Yard as saying that Bouralha had attended a Finsbury Park mosque in London known for its radical Islamic preaching.
Major General Ilya Shabalkin, federal forces spokesman for the North Caucasus, confirmed by telephone Monday that Bouralha had been detained at the Dagestani border with Azerbaijan, but declined to comment whether he had played a role in the Beslan attack. If confirmed, Bouralha's participation would cast doubts on earlier statements by the Prosecutor General's Office that none of the terrorists had escaped from Beslan. Federal authorities' assessments of the number and origin of the hostage-takers have been revised many times. Deputy Prosecutor Sergei Fridinsky initially said that Chechens, Ingush, Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Koreans and even a black man were among the hostage-takers. Later it was discovered that the black man was only covered with soot. Most of the 33 hostage-takers have now been identified by the authorities, but not all of their names have been released. The Observer said they include two Algerians in their mid-30s, Osman Larussi and Yacine Benalia. Both were thought to have lived in London until recently, but it is not known whether they were British citizens, The Observer said. Oleg Vershinin, spokesman for the Federal Security Service in North Ossetia, and Sergei Probkov, spokesman for the Prosecutor General's Office in the North Caucasus, declined to comment on the report when reached by telephone Monday.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/05/2004 12:50:43 AM ||
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Any UK viewers - have you heard mention of this on the TV/radio news? - I certainly haven't, (apart from The Observer article). WTF? Is it being supressed as other stories that paint Islamofascists in a bad light are? They should torch that bloody place, pref on a Friday morning. Off to search the Beeb website: Ho Ho Ho!!!
Posted by: Howard UK ||
10/05/2004 4:25 Comments ||
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Or is this down to the reliability of Russian security services? Will the story only break with concrete proof?
Posted by: Howard UK ||
10/05/2004 5:14 Comments ||
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Hmmmm. This is the Russian version (Moscow Times) of the Al Guardian story from 10/3...
Does it corroborate it, substantially? It is funny to see them relying heavily upon an Observer version. Press incest.
#4
The BBC? Howard you expect the BBC to cover any story that makes UK muslims look bad? Acording to the BBC only Tony Blair and George Bush are responsible for all the worlds problems. All muslims are victims. All persons living in the USA are stupid ape like planet rapers who drive SUV's and have daily gunfights out in front of our homes and lynch people who are not "white" especially muslims.
No UK muslim has ever been anywhere near terror. All confessions of terrorist ties are the result of torture and detention without charge. That is the BBC line on this all.
#9
Christopher Hitchers was the one who said there are Muslim prayer rooms at the BBC. Men only of course. Would not be all BBC facilities but:
"I had, during my appointment at the BBC offices in London, already had to pass a door with a sign reading 'Male Prayer Room,' which means that the British taxpayer is already funding not just religious observance on public property but the sexual segregation of same,"
#10
Be assured that the British public are aware of the Beeb's current bias - the prayer room thing is scary. Will check with friends who work at White City. It's not just the Beeb who aren't covering this - all media outlets apart from (somewhat ironically) The Observer/ Guardian have gone mute over this which smacks of some level of control from 'higher-up' or a fundamental lack of credibility for the story. The Obsever article was mentioned in 'What the Papers Say' on BBC Radio 4's Broadcasting House programme on Sunday but given little credence to the point where it was viewed as risible. Anyone else in the U.K. heard it on the news anywhere? - This could be a potentially devastating blow for UK Islamofascists and Blair's liberal attitude to the asylum/immigration question.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
10/05/2004 6:25 Comments ||
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Have sent comment similar to the above to the News Editor of the Beeb website for what good that'll do.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
10/05/2004 6:27 Comments ||
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What strikes me is how one mosque can spread its bad influence so far across the globe. Another argument for a campaign against the radical clerics, their mosques, and their madrassas?
Posted by: V is for Victory ||
10/05/2004 7:17 Comments ||
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First I heard of it was here, Howard. I have to say I treat any news coming out of Russia as suspect.
#16
The Sun? The Sun is to busy selling ring tones and naked lady wall paper to be covering the news. This large grain of salt I am carrying is getting too heavy. I am not fully buying this until we see some more info from other sources. I would like to believe it but there is nothing to support it right now.
North Korea has trained as many as 600 computer hackers to be capable of launching a cyber-war on South Korea, the US or Japan, South Korea's defence ministry said on Monday. Coming amid intelligence reports that Pyongyang might be preparing to test a ballistic missile, the report will exacerbate jitters over the extent of the communist state's destructive ability. "North Korea's intelligence warfare capability is estimated to have reached the level of advanced countries," the ministry said in a report to the National Assembly's national defence committee.
North Korea's military command has 500 to 600 hacking staff who have undertaken a five-year university programme, the report said. Their main task is to gather intelligence from - or launch a cyber attack on - the US, Japan and South Korea. In a wave of attacks earlier this year, nearly 300 South Korean government computers at departments including the National Assembly and an atomic energy research institute were infected with viruses capable of stealing passwords and other sensitive information. South Korea is particularly vulnerable to cyber-crime because it has the world's highest usage of broadband services and relatively poor levels of internet security.
The South Korean intelligence traced the hackers to China, although it was unclear whether they were based in China or just using a Chinese network.
The defence ministry's report comes as Pyongyang's relations with Washington, Seoul and Tokyo deteriorate.
Posted by: tipper ||
10/05/2004 12:17:22 AM ||
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If the attack comes, it will be the Dawn of the Dead.
#7
LOL BigEd! But one of the VS's is inaccurate: the height (given as 19") is variable. Depending on whether it is a 'good' or 'bad' day, that can vary by as much as four inches.
France on Tuesday expelled an Algerian-born Islamic prayer leader who condoned wife beating, part of a French campaign to punish Muslim clerics preaching violence. Abdelkader Bouziane boarded an Algeria-bound flight from the southeastern city of Lyon, Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin told parliament. "I salute this decision that today allows us to pursue, to expulse foreign citizens who insult or call for violence against women," he said.
Bouziane, who was an imam or prayer leader in the Lyon suburb of Venissieux, was first deported to his native Algeria in April on orders from the Interior Ministry. But the imam returned to France a month later after an administrative court suspended the ruling. France's highest administrative body, the Council of State, on Monday overturned that suspension, clearing the way for Bouziane to be deported again. He was taken into custody on Tuesday morning near one of his homes in Lyon before his expulsion. In the April edition of the magazine Lyon Mag, Bouziane said he favors wife-beating "under certain conditions, notably if the woman cheats on her husband." He claimed the Quran authorizes such punishment, an interpretation rejected by moderate Muslims. The Interior Ministry said he was already on an expulsion list since Feb. 26 for disturbing public order, but the effort to deport him was sped up after the magazine article.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/05/2004 8:50:57 PM ||
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I will insult expel you for a 2nd time.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
10/06/2004 1:19 Comments ||
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A ground-to-air missile used in shoulder launchers has been found in one of seven arms caches in southwest France uncovered in weekend raids against suspected members of Spain's armed Basque separatist group ETA, a French official said Tuesday. The missile was discovered along with a large amount of explosive material in a house under construction in the town of Urrugne, near the Spanish border.
Seventeen people, including Mikel "Antza" Albizu Iriarte, ETA's political leader and chief theoretician, and his girlfriend, Soledad "Anboto" Iparragirre Genetxea, a suspected former military chief of the group, were arrested in the region Sunday in swoops by French anti-terrorist officers. Spanish officials said they arrested another four suspects on their side of the border the same day. Three of the suspects arrested in France were released Monday and the 14 others remain in custody, the French official said, adding that searches of the arms caches were continuing and would "take several days". The official said experts were examining the missile to determine where it was made and how it might have been acquired by ETA. According to the Spanish newspaper El Diario Vasco, the separatist group is believed to have several SAM-7 missiles able to blast low-flying aircraft out of the sky, according to documents found in previous raids. ETA has been waging a bloody campaign for an independent homeland in parts of northern Spain and southwestern France since 1959. It has been blamed for the deaths of 817 people in that time, according to a toll published Monday by Spain's El Pais daily. Both Spain and France hailed Sunday's raids against the group as a "historic" victory.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/05/2004 10:50:00 AM ||
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I still think the best thing these ETA members could do to "get even" is to publically claim responsiblity for the Madrid bombing.
#2
A "historic" reward given to the Spanish after they had recently decided to kiss zee French le bottom. The French intelligence service have prolly know about, and even encouraged the ETA for years, both to annoy the Dons and to bribe peace from the Basques in France.
You are as silly as badly informed. Serious anti-ETA cooperation between France and Spain began under Aznar.
For France needing to appease ETA this is ridiculous: between the Basques of France the independentist movement has ever been very, very weak. Reasons are largely economic. During XIXth century Spanish Basque region became richer than the rest of Spain (mostly bacause Madrid's commercial policy favoured the Basque and Catalan industries). At one point a such Sabino Arana formulated an openly racist doctrine viewing the Basques as the Chosen people and not only other Spaniards but the rest of the world as unworthy of kissing their footpprints let alone befriend or marry them.
But France's Basque region has never been an economic or industrial powerhouse. It lives mostly of agriculture, fishing and tourism. While French Basque region is not poor I doubt very much it is a neat contributor to the French Treasure.
Thus the French Basques never got swollen heads.
Ah, the French Basques have ever been quick to ask assistance from the French Navy and Coastguards when the Spanish Basques came to fish in _their zones_.
#4
According to the Spanish newspaper El Diario Vasco, the separatist group is believed to have several SAM-7 missiles able to blast low-flying aircraft out of the sky
Bad guys seem to have a lot of these oldies, is the IR seeker battery cooled? It's seems like they're thousands of these suckers around but they're rarely used. Lack of skilled operators? Batteries?
SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Monday, October 4th, 2004 This is sounding like another U.N-Saddam 'Oil for Food' (Profits) but is at least being reported during the acts of multi-greed to assist fanatical Islamic Iran to become even more of an unstable threat then at the present.
U.S. officials said state-owned companies primarily from China but also from Belarus, North Korea, Russia and Ukraine have contributed to Iran's Shihab-3 intermediate missile program. They said the aid has been in the form of exports of missile components and expertise. For the first time, officials said, a company in a NATO ally also sold missile and WMD components to Iran. That company was identified as being located in Spain. On Sept. 29, the State Department imposed sanctions on 14 foreign firms and individuals regarding the sale of missile and WMD technology and equipment to Iran. Officials said seven of those sanctioned were from China. So far, 23 foreign entities have been sanctioned under the Iran Nonproliferation Act, Middle East Newsline reported. The legislation was meant to halt the sale of cruise and ballistic missile equipment and expertise as well as WMD technology to Iran.
Officials acknowledge that sanctions have not stopped many of these companies from Iranian missile and WMD contracts. The Chinese state-owned North Industries Corp., or Norinco, has been sanctioned several times for selling missile and WMD components to Iran. North Korea's Changgwang Sinyong Corp., a leading in missile proliferation in the Middle East, has also been sanctioned numerous times, including last week. Changgwang is the state arms export agency of Pyongyang. No government was sanctioned despite the acknowledgement by officials that several of the companies cited by the State Department were state-owned.
Officials said the sanctions marked the most sweeping action by the State Department under the Iran Nonproliferation Act approved by Congress in 2000. They said the decision reflected concern by the Bush administration that Iran was rapidly completing its nuclear weapons as well as intermediate-range missile delivery systems. "In many cases the imposition of successive sanctions, one on top of the other, the main effect is to extend the period of time that entity would be subject to sanctions for," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said. "But it is a requirement of law that we make these determinations, and impose sanctions. And somebody who has been doing something more recently deserves to suffer the consequences for a longer period of time."
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Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
10/05/2004 3:54:44 AM ||
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I really don't understand Russia and China's motivations. Surely they understand that the mad mullahs will eventually target them as well.
From IntelWire, an article by J. M. Berger
The latest audiotape communique from Ayman Al-Zawahiri contained a new element that caught the attention of many analysts -- a reference to his possible death or imprisonment. According to a CNN translation, Zawahiri said:
Oh, young men of Islam, here is our message to you. If we are killed or captured, you should carry on the fight.
The reference is interesting in the context of the past week. The Jerusalem Post reported last week that the top-level al Qaeda leader had been captured in Pakistan. In itself, an unconfirmed report of Zawahiri's capture is not especially notable. There have been dozens of similar reports since September 11. But the reference to capture in the new audiotape could be suggestive. The audio message contained no clues about when it was recorded ....
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
10/05/2004 6:32:07 PM ||
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calling Teraaayyyyzuh! October surprise on the menu!
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/05/2004 18:45 Comments ||
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So is the suggestion that the recording was made after Zawahiri was captured? If not, is Zawahiri psychic, and knew he was about to be captured? Or did he decide to surrender? I like a good conspiracy theory as much as the next guy, but c'mon.
#3
Sludj: Tape is prerecorded with instructions to release it should he be killed or captured.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
10/05/2004 18:54 Comments ||
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cripes! who was the last guy that couldn't get video or photos to accompany his messages? Edison?
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/05/2004 19:03 Comments ||
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Bell I think...but he wasn't waddling for his life. Still I don't see Zwahiri gettin taken alive. More n likely he has or soon will be joining Binny in the 9th ring of hell.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
10/05/2004 19:14 Comments ||
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Actually, I just saw A-Z down at the corner bar hoisting a few brewskis. Funny though, he was wearing arm and leg cuffs.
Posted by: Capt America ||
10/05/2004 19:15 Comments ||
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It would certainly explain all of the good intel they had lately...isn't it about time to find him in a hole somewhere?
Afghan soldiers and police overran a hideout where a large group of suspected Taliban were preparing to disrupt upcoming presidential elections, prompting a three-hour firefight that left seven insurgents dead, officials said Tuesday. The fighting broke out at about 3 p.m. Monday in a mountainous area of southern Uruzgan province, hours after rebels had attacked a police checkpoint, said Matiullah Khan, the provincial chief of police. Police in pursuit followed the rebels into the mountains, where they came across dozens of other Taliban fighters. Seven rebels were killed, and five others arrested. The Afghan forces suffered no casualties. Khan said officials believe the men were plotting to launch attacks ahead of landmark Oct. 9 presidential elections, though he gave no specifics on what they might have been up to. "We have increased our security all over the province because of the election," said Khan. "We don't want any of the Taliban to be in a position to attack polling sites." Khan said authorities found five missiles, as well as automatic weapons, after a search of the hideout. The remaining rebels fled deeper into the mountains.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/05/2004 8:56:34 PM ||
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Gunmen sent by Islamic officials battled freelance militiamen for control of a lucrative checkpoint in the Somali capital on Tuesday, killing at least two people, including a three-year-old boy. Fighting began when gunmen loyal to three Islamic courts seized the checkpoint from militiamen operating near the main business district in Mogadishu, witnesses said. The illegal checkpoint, at a key road junction, was a lucrative source of revenue for gunmen who extorted money from drivers using the road.
Somalia's a warrior society. Warriors don't have jobs. They have guns. Non-warriors are there to provide money to warriors.
Nearly 100 gunmen using anti-aircraft guns, machine guns and assault rifles were involved in the battle, witnesses said.
And only two people were killed, one of them a toddler? It's a warrior society, but they're not very good warriors...
Gunmen loyal to the courts would remain at the junction to keep the militiamen away and guarantee the security of civilians, said Hersi Lugey, a court spokesman. "We came here at the request of the local population and we will remain until we secure it," Lugey said.
"They can pay us for awhile..."
Somalia has had no effective central government since a rebellion ousted dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, transforming the nation of 7 million people into a patchwork of battling fiefdoms. A transitional federal parliament, whose members include Somalia's main warlords and which is supported by the country's traditional leaders, was formed last month. It has a five-year term. Members of parliament are scheduled to elect a president Oct. 10. The president would nominate a prime minister to form a government.
The warriors will them attempt to bump him off, though they'll probably miss and hit a few kiddies...
Posted by: Fred ||
10/05/2004 8:42:47 PM ||
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The stake through his heart confirms he'll stay that way...
DNA tests confirm that a slain Pakistani militant was the man accused of beheading Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl and carrying out two assassination attempts on Pakistan's president, a minister said Tuesday. Amjad Hussain Farooqi, 32, leader of an outlawed al-Qaida-linked Sunni militant group, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, was killed Sept. 26 when security forces raided a home in Nawabshah, a town in southern Sindh province. Authorities said Farooqi was asked to surrender but refused and attacked with grenades instead.
"Put the grenades down and come out witcher hands up, Farooqi!"
"You'll never take me alive, coppers!"
"Hokay."
Pakistani officials maintained that the slain militant was Farooqi, but said they conducted DNA tests to be sure. Days after Farooqi's death, a suicide attacker detonated a bomb hidden in a briefcase at a Shiite mosque in the eastern city of Sialkot, killing 31 people and wounding more than 50. On Tuesday, Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao traveled to Sialkot, where he told reporters that Friday's attack was possibly a reaction to Farooqi's death. "This is very much possible," he said, but added that police were probing other "aspects as well." He did not elaborate. Intelligence officials have identified Farooqi as a co-organizer of two attempts to assassinate President Gen. Pervez Musharraf last December by blowing up his motorcade. Musharraf escaped injury both times, but 17 others were killed. Farooqi is also suspected of taking part in the 1999 hijacking of an Indian airliner to Afghanistan that resulted in a hostages-for-prisoners exchange that freed British-born militant Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh from an Indian prison. Sheikh was sentenced to death for his role in setting up the Pearl abduction in 2002. Three other Pakistani associates have been imprisoned for life. All four have appealed their sentences. Police are still searching for others believed to have been involved.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/05/2004 8:38:50 PM ||
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They wear uniforms without insignia, travel a rolling countryside of charred and emptied villages on camels, horses or pickup trucks with mounted machine guns, and call themselves "the Quick and the Horrible." International monitors and non-Arab African farmers who accuse them of raping, killing and burning call them something else: Janjaweed. Fighters at this stronghold — visited by journalists Tuesday for the first time since Darfur's war began — belong to the government-allied Arab militia that international monitors blame for the worst atrocities of the 20-month-old war.
The Sudanese government describes its allies in Darfur as militias hastily organized to defend against rebels. The fighters known as Janjaweed, it says, are renegades and bandits, and it has no ties to those men. But international organizations and the victims of the violence say the fighters in Mistiria are the Janjaweed. The fighters in Mistiria said Tuesday they have close ties to the government — in coordination, sympathies and the salaries of about $20 a month they collect. "The government called on us to defend our land, and the tribes responded," said fighter Ina Saleh, a member of the Arab Rizigat tribe, wearing a uniform with no marks or name tag. "We responded, like the other tribes."
"We defended our land by taking their land! What could be more tribal than that?"
Mistiria, in northern Darfur, 16 miles west of the town of Kabkabiyeh, is identified by foreign governments and international rights groups as the birthplace of the Janjaweed. In February 2003, Sudan's government sent out a plea for fighters to help combat two non-Arab rebel groups that had taken up arms in western Darfur, the international community says, in accounts backed up by the fighters. Arab tribal leader Musa Hilal, who lived in Mistiria, answered that plea, rallying men of several Arab tribes, training them and arming them, they say. In all, some 2,000 tribal fighters responded to the government call, most from Hilal's tribe, said Omer el Amin, a lawyer in Kabkabiyeh representing Hilal and other men now accused as alleged Janjaweed. In Mistiria, they called themselves the Bloodthirsty Martyrs of Isssssss-lam Border Intelligence Division, and answered to Hilal, el Amin said.
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Posted by: Fred ||
10/05/2004 8:28:52 PM ||
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More than 3,000 U.S. and Iraqi forces launched a major operation Tuesday against insurgent strongholds just south of Baghdad, their second mission in five days to wrest control from militants whose attacks threaten national elections seen as crucial to stabilizing this turbulent country. The operation in Babil province —an area notorious for kidnappings and ambushes and home to the fabled, ancient city of Babylon — follows last week's U.S.-Iraqi drive to oust insurgent forces from Samarra, about 60 miles north of Baghdad. The 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit and Iraqi forces went into action after a string of bombings set off clashes Tuesday between U.S. troops and gunmen west of Baghdad and in the northern city of Mosul, and as the discovery of five beheaded bodies over two days indicated the pace of such grisly killings was also surging.
The Marines and Iraqis punched their way across the Euphrates River, rounded up 160 suspects, seized a suspected training camp and took control of a major bridge, the U.S. command said. The bridge, spanning the Euphrates, is believed to be a favored corridor linking insurgent areas around Baghdad, Fallujah and towns farther south. The area in which they were operating was an estimated 40 to 45 miles northwest of ancient Babylon. The capital of Babil province is Hillah, about 65 miles south of Baghdad. The provincial capital sits near the Euphrates in a belt of rich agricultural land between that river and the nearby Tigris.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/05/2004 8:27:16 PM ||
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From Jihad Unspun Monday was another hot day in Iraq with four major car bombings and an multitude of resistance attacks throughout the country. Here are just some of the attacks that took place in brief.
Three US troops were killed in Resistance car bombing north of Balad at about 6:30am local time Monday. ...
At 9:00am an Iraqi Resistance bomb struck a US patrol killing two US troops and destroying one Humvee on the Saddam International Airport road.
Iraqi Resistance forces killed a first lieutenant and a colonel in the so-called "Iraqi national guard" in an Iraqi Resistance ambush in al-'Amarah at about 12 noon local time Monday. Two US troops were killed and a troop carrier loaded with military equipment destroyed in an Iraqi Resistance attack in the Manaysir region between al-Ghazaliyah (west of Baghdad) and Abu Ghurayb (south of Baghdad) at 2:10pm Monday afternoon. ....
Iraqi Resistance forces attacked a US patrol in ad-Durah at 6:45pm with RPGs and C5Ks, killing four troops, according to local eyewitnesses, who added that the Resistance fighters seized 17 American machineguns in the attack.
Fierce battles were later reported at ad-Durah around 8:45pm that lasted for 25 minutes and left four US troops dead.
Two US troops were killed and three others wounded in al-Karakh in Baghdad at around 4pm local time Monday when American forces tried to break into Hayfa Street in the area with four Bradley armored vehicles. Their aim was to set up check points inside the defiant area, but they were thrown back by RPG7 and Iraqi sharpshooter fire. ....
A Resistance ambush destroyed one fuel tanker on the Army Canal road in Baghdad, killing one US soldier Monday evening. ...
â¢One Abrams tank was destroyed and its crew of five killed by an Iraqi Resistance bomb at 3:10pm Monday in Bahraz in the Ba'qubah area. ....
Four US troops were killed in an Iraqi Resistance ambush of a fuel and provisions convoy in al-Latifiyah south of Baghdad at 8:45pm Monday. Three trucks were destroyed, and fires blazed in the vehicles until 11:15pm. ...
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
10/05/2004 6:54:27 PM ||
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Kripes! How long before the resistance reaches San Diego????
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/05/2004 19:37 Comments ||
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But of course - it's common knowledge that 10,000 American troops lie dead in mass graves in the Iraqi desert. Shhh - it's a secret.
From Jihad Unspun The local correspondent of Mafkarat al-Islam reported from Baghdad Monday morning that at 10am local time an Iraqi Resistance martyrdom fighter attacked one of the largest headquarters of the US Central Intelligence Agency (the CIA) in Baghdad. The massive explosion occurred near Sa'dun Street, very close to the ar-Rashid Hotel. At least 3,000 US security employees work out of the massive headquarters a scale of operations that strongly suggests that it is the main headquarters for the US state intelligence agency in occupied Iraq. ....
The American Associated Press (AP) reported that the blast occurred at 9:45 and that it targeted "a convoy of 4-wheel drive vehicles leaving a complex of major hotels where foreign contractors and journalists reside." ....
In a later dispatch posted at 1:40pm Mecca time, the Mafkarat al-Islam correspondent presented the version of the incident that he had pieced together from his sources. He wrote that a Resistance fighter driving a 2-ton booby trapped Kia loaded with fruits and vegetables blew up the vehicle at 10am local time. The correspondent estimates that the truck must have been loaded with 1.5 to 2 tons of explosive material. The target building, an old structure formerly used by Iraqi military industry, has been taken over by the CIA and surrounded by a huge concrete wall. Deployed around it are watch points and numerous inspection stations. Large numbers of American snipers are perched atop the building.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
10/05/2004 7:01:41 PM ||
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Anybody know if Mary Mapes moonlights for these guys?
From Compass Direct
Arrest warrants were issued yesterday by a provincial high court in southern Pakistan against two Karachi police officers standing trial for contempt of court. Deputy Superintendent of Police Qasim Ghori and Inspector Tasarrud Mumtaz Mehmood of the Criminal Investigation Agency (CIA) failed to appear yesterday before a special division bench of the Sindh High Court hearing their case. .... Charges have been filed against Ghori and Mehmood for manhandling several lawyers and abducting their Christian client from the Sindh High Court premises on October 22, 2002. The police actions flouted the court's specific orders, issued minutes earlier, to release the Christian prisoner from "illegal police detention."
The case constitutes a rare legal challenge against members of Pakistan's powerful intelligence agencies, with two of its officers charged with alleged misconduct during security police investigations into a terrorist attack against a Christian welfare organization two years ago. Seven Christians were shot and killed in the still unsolved massacre at the downtown Karachi offices of the Institute of Peace and Justice (IPJ) in September 2002.
At an initial hearing on the case in early September, the two police officers had tendered their "unconditional apologies" for the incident, claiming that they were acting "for the protection of Robin Piranditta." The only uninjured Christian survivor of the attack, Piranditta had been arrested at the scene by police and kept under so-called "protective custody" for four weeks at the CIA's Saddar center in Karachi.
I guess that makes sense in Pakland: seven people bumped off, so they arrest the survivor...
#1
They're also saying that following the capture, coalition forces used a loud speaker warning the Insurgents that if the hostages weren't released, they would begin to open fire on the Insurgents homes. This report hasn't been confirmed yet by any military sources.
Let's wait and see - if true - level to rubble and bounce the rubble.Twice
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/05/2004 18:47 Comments ||
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Another shoe drops.
More than 3,000 U.S. and Iraqi troops launched an operation in the southern approaches to Baghdad on Tuesday, seizing a suspected insurgent training camp and capturing more than 160 alleged rebels, the U.S. military command said.
"Captain Krebs, we have siezed a camp with firing ranges, large quantities of arms and ammunition, an artillery range, and a headquarters complex! I suspect it's an insurgent training camp!"
"Brilliant, sir! Brilliant! Tell me, what was it that tipped you off?"
The force also took control of a bridge across the Euphrates River believed to be a favored corridor for insurgents moving into and out of key cities, including Baghdad and the Sunni rebel stronghold of Fallujah, a command release said. The operation involved the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit as well as U.S. and Iraqi army troops and members of the Iraqi National Guard. The release did not report any casualties taken or inflicted. The mission, the release said, was to "assist Iraqi authorities in fostering security and stability for the nearly 900,000 citizens of the province" of Babil, located just south of the Iraqi capital. The force punched west across the Euphrates in pursuit of insurgents, discovering numerous weapons caches and destroying 35,000 pounds of explosives.
#1
Allow me to correct my own post. The news media got the release slightly incorrect. These are operations that have been on-going for a while. CentCom link The 160 rebels and 35,000 lbs of explosives are to date. However:
From their forward operating bases throughout the zone, Iraqi and Multi-National forces, led by the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, punched west across the Euphrates River in search of anti-Iraqi forces and those who aid them.
While rounding up 30 suspects during the initial sweep, the Iraqis and their American allies seized a suspected insurgent training camp and took control of the Jurf Kas Sukr Bridge.
The bridge, spanning the Euphrates southwest of Baghdad, is believed to be a favored corridor for insurgents moving into and out of key cities, including the capital hub and the current AIF sanctuary of Fallujah.
The operation involves more than 3,000 Iraqi and Multi-National forces, including elements from Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 2nd Marines -- the MEU's ground combat element, 2nd Battalion, 24th Marines, the Army's 1-23 Stryker Battalion, Iraq's 2nd Ministry of the Interior Commando Battalion and the 507th Iraqi National Guard Battalion. In their coordinated thrusts this week, the ISF and Marines are intensifying operations they've been conducting since the 24th MEU assumed operational control of Northern Babil in July.
#1
Israel has arrested 13 U.N. employees and plans to indict them for "suspected links to terrorism," an Israeli army officer said Tuesday. Maj.-Gen. Yisrael Ziv, speaking to reporters, did not say when they were arrested. His comments came after Israel backed away from an accusation that Palestinian militants had used a U.N. ambulance in Gaza to transport a rocket to be fired at Israel.
The Interim Iraqi Interior Minister stated that armed Iranian agents have been arrested among rebels fighting in the city of Samarra. The Al-Hurriya TV aired footage of Falah Naqib who accused Iran of backing insurgents in this presently volatile region of Iraq. Fighting in Samarra has left over 150 rebels and one U.S. soldier dead. On Sunday, residents said they heard random explosions as U.S. and Iraqi forces hunted for insurgent holdouts. Iraqi police have been patrolling the city, while U.S. troops and Iraqi Forces search houses for rebels and weapons caches. Military sources also confirmed that following extensive clashes between U.S. troops and the rebel militia, a large number of armed agents working for Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) were arrested.
"Howdy boys, say, ya'll ain't from round here are you?"
Naqib's comments came after U.S. forces separately confirmed the arrests of 80 Iranian fighters who had posed as regular Iraqis. Iraqi Interior Ministry spokesman Sabah Kazem also recently confirmed that the flow of Iranian arms and agents into Iraq was continuing. "The Iranian regime's declared policy contradicts the events that are taking place," he said. "In its comments, Iran speaks about the need to establish security in Iraq. What actually happens, however, is the complete opposite, so much that we arrest individuals every day coming with their weapons from Iran into Iraq," Kazem added.
Last week Iran Focus reported the arrest of Nashaat Abd Ali Al-Hussaini, an Iranian agent who was detained and later made startling revelations in his interrogation about the role of the Iranian embassy in Baghdad in the espionage and sabotage activities conducted by clerical regime. Al-Hussaini's also revealed that his handler was Mohammad Qorbani, a senior agent of the MOIS who is working under diplomatic cover in the Iranian embassy in Baghdad and who runs a large spy ring in Iraq. Iran's Revolutionary Guards and other state agencies have been sending more gunmen and weapons into Iraq in recent weeks in preparation for a "hot October", according to sources in the Iranian government with a good knowledge of security issues.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/05/2004 1:51:52 PM ||
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#1
"There are no Iranians in Samarra. They are CIA plants. The Jews are behind it."
#2
Isn't this grounds for attacking Iran? After all, Iran is engaging in military action against the US and its allies. Is there not enough proof that this is officially sanctioned? Is our reluctance purely political?
#3
need a pliars and blowtorch graphic for these assholes. Dead men
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/05/2004 14:04 Comments ||
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#4
Not a good time for Iran to piss of the US when we've got 100,000 + highly motivated and well trained military just next door. I'm sure we've got a few MOAB's that are gathering dust and need a place to nest.
For President Bush this wouldn't be wagging the dog...rather just twisting the turban.
#5
Armed Iranian agents fighting in Samarra? Yep, that's a case o' belly, alright. I've been wanting to see mullahs swinging from lampposts ever since 1979; let 'er rip!
Posted by: Dave D. ||
10/05/2004 14:17 Comments ||
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#6
And sKerry wants to give these people nuclar fuel based on their promises to allow us to re-process it?
#12
Y'know all those nuclear mines we had that we might use if the Soviet army came across the Inter-German border area? Maybe we need to plant a few of those along the Iraq/Iran border. Just be sure to warn the Iraqis to stay away from the border region because "we're gonna fly Apache gunships there, and they'll fire at anything moving". We'd have a "hot October" all right, about 35,000 degrees Celcius hot. Doubt if there'd be much cross-border traffic after the first one went off, though...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/05/2004 23:38 Comments ||
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#13
What am I missing here? The Iranians are Shi'ites. Under an election system in Iraq, the Shi'ites would have significant control just due to numbers. So 1-2-3-4 what the hell are they fighting for? I guess I'm just too Western. Is the logical conclusion they are fighting to drive us out. They seem to follow a fire ant or wasp nest analogy.
#15
JQC, I think that you are assuming that a Shiite is a Shiite. The majority of the Iraqi variety have no interest in being controlled from Tehran thus Iran is funding the resistance.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
10/06/2004 1:15 Comments ||
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A 17-year-old Palestinian girl was arrested by security forces in the al-Aida refugee camp in Bethlehem on Tuesday. Islam al-Alawim, a member of Fatah's al-Aksa Martyrs' Brigades, lately expressed willingness to carry out a suicide bombing attack in Israel, Israel Radio reported. The girl was arrested following intelligence information received by security services.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/05/2004 12:47:01 PM ||
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#1
fantastic pic there fred, the pics are a quite brilliant addition to rantburg! more pics.
Posted by: Shep UK ||
10/05/2004 17:09 Comments ||
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Israeli aircraft fired two missiles at a car in Gaza City, killing one person and wounding four in what appeared to be the latest strike against militants. One missile hit the car, killing one of its two passengers and setting the vehicle ablaze, witnesses and hospital officials said. The second missile missed. Four people were wounded, including the other passenger in the car. It was not immediately clear who the passengers were. The Israeli army had no immediate comment.
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/05/2004 12:35 ||
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10/05/2004 12:36 Comments ||
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#2
No name yet, but a nice car swarm on Fox News.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/05/2004 12:41 Comments ||
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#3
excellent swarm, nice form, good non-coordination of efforts to get Bits-O'-IJ-Biggy bodyparts....what the hell do they do with the parts after they get em? Wipe it on your shirt to try and prove you were there (like Jesse Jackson at MLK's shooting)?
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/05/2004 12:44 Comments ||
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#4
From Debka: Jihad Islami commander Bashar al-Dabja and one other terrorist killed by Israeli missile launched against their car in Gaza City Shati camp Tuesday night.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/05/2004 12:46 Comments ||
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#5
Ah--I was wondering where the dancing vegans virgins were.
Posted by: Dar ||
10/05/2004 12:48 Comments ||
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#6
Shati Camp...truth in advertising
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/05/2004 12:48 Comments ||
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#7
We need a good car swarm graphic, methinks.
Posted by: Dar ||
10/05/2004 12:49 Comments ||
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#8
AP confirms 2 dead: The militant group Islamic Jihad identified those killed as Bashir Aldabash, 40, one of its top officials in Gaza, and a group member, Zarees Alareer.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/05/2004 13:05 Comments ||
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#10
bet Alareer had a tough time with nicknames in grade school as well
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/05/2004 13:12 Comments ||
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#11
GAZA (Reuters) - Israel killed the chief military commander of the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad in a airstrike Tuesday, the highest profile Israeli assassination for months, local leaders of the group said. The Israeli army had no immediate comment on the death of Bashir ad-Dabbash, 38. Another militant was critically wounded in the strike, witnesses said.
Bashir/Bashar Bashed
"Israel will soon see our reaction. Revenge will be painful and inside the depths of the Zionist entity," one local leader said at the morgue in Gaza. Dabbash was the most senior militant killed in Gaza since Israel's assassination of Hamas leader Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi in April.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/05/2004 13:15 Comments ||
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#12
Ol' Bash-Da-Bash Got Bashed, open arms of the 72 succubi in hell... God is truly Great!
#13
Frank, you're right, this is an excellent swarm. I give it a 9.0 for form and a 9.5 for style, the guy in the weird yellow hardhat is an expecially artful and flamboyant touch.
#15
I detect a general "swarthyness" at most car swarms - ya don't see a lotta blond swedes there - would it be inappropriate to suggest it's a cultural thing? LOL
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/05/2004 13:31 Comments ||
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#16
No, I'd rank it as a 8.5 swarm. No smoking rubble. No baby ducks, puppies, kittens, women, or children.
#18
AM, you're just not examining this with the requisite degree of nuance:
1. Remains of baby duck embedded in frame.
2. Smashed kitten beneath wreckage
3. Kid with creep's arm around his neck.
Smoldering rubble may be spectacular, but I consider a bit bourgeois and even crass.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/05/2004 19:09 Comments ||
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#27
There's a woman in a hijab on the left-hand side, only her eyes visible. Some dude in a yellow-and-brown speckled shirt is running up like he's afraid somebody's gonna get all the big pieces before he can. Kinda reminds me of the Afghani game of Buzkashi, where they ride around on horses and bash a goat's inflated stomach around (wonder who gets the swell job of inflating the stomach?).
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/05/2004 23:54 Comments ||
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#28
What amazes me is that the flash from the photographer's camera is the only thing illuminating the whole scene. You have the yellow-helmet guy with a lamp, and some source of illumination in the middle background, but that's it.
Imagine rooting through the smoking wreckage of a burned-out car looking for exploded body parts in near complete darkness. Take what you'd think of yourself doing so, and project this image onto the Palestinians. Act accordingly. Lesson 1 completed! Nice Job.
Hat tip: Mudville Gazette Article is from Oct. 1, but gives an insight to the depravity of the Islamist Jihadis.
For many Iraqi children, a car bombing or mortar strike isn't a tragedy. It's the biggest excitement of the week. They are drawn by billowing smoke, police sirens and the certainty that journalists will soon arrive to interview witnesses. The children flood to the scene, pick through debris, wave to television cameras and interact with the U.S. troops who show up to clear the wreckage.
So it was Thursday when scores of children rushed to the site of a suicide car bombing in the working-class Amal district of Baghdad. They marveled at the crater left by the bomb, practiced their English on troops and rode bicycles around the American tanks. They accepted candy from a soldier. Then a second suicide bomber barreled down the street toward the U.S. and Iraqi forces — and the children who surrounded them. And then a third. The children were no longer observers of the attack, but its victims. "I saw dead bodies scattered like sheep," said Rashid Salih, 67, describing the scene where his grandson was killed. Children's shoes, clothing and crumpled red bicycles decorated with feathers littered the street.
Iraqi health officials said 35 of the 42 fatalities from Thursday's blasts were children. "What really hurt me was that most of the killed or injured people were children," said Moyad Ismail, 25, who saw the U.S. soldier handing out candy minutes before the second explosion. "The children were making a ring around the soldiers." The disaster sent panic through the neighborhood. By Thursday afternoon, nearby Yarmouk Hospital was overrun with parents roaming the hallways and makeshift emergency rooms, looking for their children. At the morgue, stunned mothers and fathers left with only body parts to take home and bury.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: ed ||
10/05/2004 10:28:27 AM ||
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#3
The US soldiers need to quit this handing out candy sh*t, too. The soldiers know they are targets for these jihadi f*ckwads, they shouldn't be attracting children to themselves.
What sort of jihad is this?" asked Salih, the 67-year-old grandfather. "What sort of religion allows such bad people to commit such hideous, horrible crimes?"
Yours.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/05/2004 15:34 Comments ||
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#5
BH: The US soldiers need to quit this handing out candy sh*t, too. The soldiers know they are targets for these jihadi f*ckwads, they shouldn't be attracting children to themselves.
Can't be helped. Part of hearts and minds. Decades later, the future leaders of Iraq will remember their interactions with our GI's. The kids naturally swarm around our boys. What are our soldiers supposed to do? Beat them off with a stick? Remember - the kids swarmed towards the scene of the explosion. It sounds like the original story about the GI's asking to kids to come over because they were handing out candy is a lie made up by Baathist stringers working for the news agencies. The kids showed up after the first attack to check out the wreckage.
#6
"What sort of jihad is this?" asked Salih, the 67-year-old grandfather. "What sort of religion allows such bad people to commit such hideous, horrible crimes?"
Good point, Barbara Skolaut, but it's good that although he's a "moslem," he is NOT identifying with the so-called "jihad." We need a lot more like him.
"Decades later, the future leaders of Iraq will remember their interactions with our GI's."
Well then, invite them out to the base for a weenie roast, toast some marshmellows & sing a few rousing bars of kumbaya! But handing out candy and encouraging them to flock around our soldiers just gets them killed.
Posted by: Mr. Peabody ||
10/05/2004 21:09 Comments ||
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The brother of the British hostage Kenneth Bigley said yesterday that he hoped to pay a ransom to secure his release. Paul Bigley was speaking after it emerged that Kenneth may have been handed to another group. Mr Bigley said no contact had been made with the new group, but he believed they were now holding his brother. He said he was prepared to fly to Kuwait to pay any ransom in full. "My bag is packed and I have an open-ended ticket," he said. Jassim Bodai, the editor of the Kuwaiti newspaper al-Rai al-Aam, which first reported that Mr Bigley, 62, might have been handed to other kidnappers, said he believed he could have been given to the group that freed two Italian aid workers last week. Paul Bigley said: "I wouldn't use the word confident. I'm very hopeful and I'd like to be there to embrace Ken and Ken would like to embrace me. God knows, when he's set free it'll be euphoric for him but it will be absolute trauma for him as well."
In recent days the Bigley family has been in touch with the government of Ireland - Mr Bigley's mother, Elizabeth, was born in Co Dublin. An Islamic website quoted an Iraqi cleric, who met Mr Bigley on Saturday, as saying that his captors asked for clarification of his Irish heritage. "They clearly stated to me that they have no fight with the Irish people, but were unsure if he was an Irishman or English," Imam Syed al-Karemm was quoted as saying. "O'course he's Oirish! Can't ya see the state he's in? That's Guinness deprivation, ye' beasts."
Posted by: Bulldog ||
10/05/2004 10:23:51 AM ||
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#1
In that case everyone over there should start wearing those pins that say "Kiss me I'm Irish".
#3
which first reported that Mr Bigley, 62, might have been handed to other kidnappers, said he believed he could have been given to the group that freed two Italian aid workers last week.
hmmm...this fits into my conspiracy theory (tin foil, please).
The other two hostages had their heads chopped off and it was captured on video. Why was Mr. Bigley spared? It's just so not Al Qaeda to give a hostage back...it shows weakness in their minds. (see my opinion yesterday on Al Qaeda as serial killers ..and yes...I spelled Beslan wrong..I alway do that..darn).
There was a very bizzare article, several days back, from a member of the "resistance" who said that Bigley was only put in a cage during the video process - but he was free to roam about otherwise. Hmmm...why would a resistance fighter, against the US, be willing to divulge that? The article was very convoluted and didn't make sense to me.
now...(extra tin-foil, please)..could it be possible that it wasn't the "resistance fighter" that exposed that fact, but the Italian women upon their release?
There is something very, very, wrong with this whole story.
Israeli jet fighters have forced an incoming Lufthansa airliner to land in Cyprus after a bomb alert that German officials had not considered serious. "We wanted to fly to Tel Aviv but the Israeli authorities forced us to land in Larnaca," said a Lufthansa official. The flight from Frankfurt landed safely and security staff are searching it. "We came to the conclusion with the German authorities that this alert was not serious," a spokeswoman told the AFP news agency.
Posted by: Bulldog ||
10/05/2004 9:37:54 AM ||
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not serious? Since when is a bomb scare "not serious"? I guess it's ok to make jokes about bombs as I walk through the screeners now...ya think?
Iraqi security forces, bloodied by weeks of suicide bombings and assassinations, patrolled yesterday in Samarra after a morale-boosting victory in the Sunni Triangle city. U.S. commanders praised the Iraqis' performance and declared the operation a successful first step in a push to wrest key areas of Iraq from terrorists before January elections. "It would be premature to say that it is wrapped up, because insurgencies have a tendency to wax and wane, but clearly, the really good news out of this is that Iraqi forces have fought alongside American forces, and ... they've done well," National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said on CNN's "Late Edition."
Some locals were angered by the civilian death toll in the city 60 miles northwest of Baghdad. Of the 70 dead brought to Samarra General Hospital since fighting erupted, 23 were children and 18 were women, hospital official Abdul-Nasser Hamed Yassin said. An additional 160 wounded persons were treated. "The people who were hurt most are normal people who have nothing to do with anything," said Abdel Latif Hadi, 45. Police also reported the discovery of a headless man and a dead woman 12 miles south of Baghdad and said the corpses looked like those of Westerners. Police Lt. Hussein Rizouqi said no identification was found on the corpses. The woman, who was shot in the head, had blond hair, he said.
U.S. warplanes hammered another rebel-held city, Fallujah, in the latest strike in weeks of attacks targeting groups linked to terrorists, particularly the network of Jordanian militant Abu Musab Zarqawi. The city hospital said two persons were killed and 12 wounded in the air strikes. Two more persons, a man and his wife, were killed, and two others were wounded when a tank fired on a house, Dr. Rafe al-Issawi said. The U.S. military, which confirmed only one strike targeting a building where terrorists were moving weapons, regularly accuses the hospital of inflating casualty figures. Residents said U.S. troops built temporary checkpoints across two entrances into the city, 40 miles west of Baghdad, regarded by the U.S. military as the "toughest nut to crack" in Iraq. "We're very worried that Fallujah might be next after Samarra," said Fallujah resident Saad Majid, 40. "I have children. I'm very worried about them. We don't sleep all night because of the strikes."
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: tipper ||
10/05/2004 4:35:28 AM ||
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They certainly have the SOP down - first order of business: get a local hospital poobah to make claims regards civilians casulaties. Do nothing to corroborate or substantiate. Not necessary.
As for the Iraqi forces - good on ya, people. Good luck and cool runnings.
US aircraft have bombed suspected rebel positions in the Shia area of Sadr City in Baghdad, witnesses said. American forces have staged regular attacks on the suburb - a stronghold of radical cleric Moqtada Sadr. The US has not confirmed Monday's raid. But the reports came as Washington promised to crush Iraqi insurgents ahead of elections due in January. US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said large-scale assaults would wrest trouble spots from the militants. "That's what happened in Samarra," he told the Council on Foreign Relations, a New York-based think-tank. Mr Rumsfeld was referring to the city retaken by coalition and Iraqi forces on Sunday after a two-day assault. Analysts say Falluja - a centre of Sunni militancy west of Baghdad - and Sadr City may also be on the target list. "You cannot allow a series of safe havens" for insurgents, the defence secretary said. Mr Rumsfeld said he did not see civil war as the main danger in Iraq. Instead, "the risk is that the terrorists... and the people who are running around chopping off people's heads and killing innocent men, women and children will take over" Iraq.
The Defence Secretary's statement came after another day of violence in the country. At least 20 Iraqis are reported to have been killed and about 100 wounded in a series of bomb attacks. Central Baghdad was shaken by two powerful car bombs. The first went off outside an army recruitment centre near an entrance to the high-security Green Zone in the centre of the city. Less than an hour later, another blast targeted a convoy of cars coming out of a hotel used by foreigners. Overnight on Monday, one US soldier was killed and two injured by a roadside bomb near Baghdad. In the northern city of Mosul, a car bomb attack near a primary school killed at least three people. The BBC's Caroline Hawley in Baghdad says that although the increasing violence has raised doubts about the elections due in January, a new survey of Iraqis suggests most people remain enthusiastic. About two-thirds of those asked said it was very likely they would vote with another 25% saying they probably would.
Note BBC buries this nugget in the middle of the story.
On Sunday night the residents of Falluja, 65km (40 miles) west of Baghdad, endured another night of bombardment from the air. The US military says precision strikes have inflicted significant damage on insurgent networks. But hospital sources said at least nine people were killed, including women and children, puppies and baby ducks.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
10/05/2004 2:25:02 AM ||
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"Through the current state of chaos I doubt that any thing legitimate could come out of elections in Iraq now
Adil Al Ouardighi, Rabat, Morocco"
I sense a harmonic syncopation here...
Due to longstanding nepotism, despotism, corruption, incompetence, and chaos in the 22 Arab shitholes remaining, I doubt that anything legitimate could come out of their continued existence, now or ever.
Paco Degaillo, Tierra Del Fungo, Isles of Langerhans
#2
The people at the BBC HOPE they won't have elections. That's why they hightlighted that quote, in an article noting that the terrorist strong holds are being routed.
Islamic rebels wounded seven soldiers in bomb attacks in eastern Algeria and lost one fighter in an army offensive, newspapers said on Monday, suggesting rising violence ahead of the holy month of Ramadan. The daily Liberte, citing unnamed sources, said the soldiers were wounded by home-made bombs on Saturday when they were combing through forests suspected of being rebel hideouts some 100 km (60 miles) east of the capital Algiers. An Islamic militant was killed on Sunday in a separate military operation in the mountains near the city of Chlef west of Algiers, newspaper El Watan reported, citing security sources.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/05/2004 12:52:31 AM ||
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It appears the runup in violence is a necessary component in Ramadan, no?
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/05/2004 17:48 Comments ||
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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.
America has indicted a Briton wanted on suspicion of helping shoe-bomber 
Three British residents may have been involved in last month's attack in Beslan, and one of them may have escaped the school only to be detained on the Russian-Azeri border, British newspaper The Observer reported, citing sources in the Russian security services. One of the possible hostage-takers, 
Afghan soldiers and police overran a hideout where a large group of suspected Taliban were preparing to disrupt upcoming presidential elections, prompting a three-hour firefight that left seven insurgents dead, officials said Tuesday. The fighting broke out at about 3 p.m. Monday in a mountainous area of southern Uruzgan province, hours after rebels had attacked a police checkpoint, said Matiullah Khan, the provincial chief of police. Police in pursuit followed the rebels into the mountains, where they came across dozens of other Taliban fighters. Seven rebels were killed, and five others arrested. The Afghan forces suffered no casualties. Khan said officials believe the men were plotting to launch attacks ahead of landmark Oct. 9 presidential elections, though he gave no specifics on what they might have been up to. "We have increased our security all over the province because of the election," said Khan. "We don't want any of the Taliban to be in a position to attack polling sites." Khan said authorities found five missiles, as well as automatic weapons, after a search of the hideout. The remaining rebels fled deeper into the mountains.
Monday was another hot day in Iraq with four major car bombings and an multitude of resistance attacks throughout the country. Here are just some of the attacks that took place in brief.
