KANDAHAR - a hundred talibans found death in engagements in the south of Afghanistan in 72 hours. They perished in a vast offensive of the launched coalition Wednesday to subdue the rebellion.
Seven rebels died in the province of Kandahar during a confrontation with the Afghan national police force, which also lost one as of his. The battle lasted a good part of the night. Three other talibans died in the premature explosion of their artisanal bomb in the province of Helmand.
Friday evening, the international military coalition, carried out by the United States, announced to have killed 45 risen in the province close to Oruzgan in two separate attacks. In the night of Wednesday to Thursday, it had already announced to have killed 40 rebels.
These operations lie within the scope of the operation "attack against the mountain" (Mountain Thrust), the most important offensive launched by the coalition and the Afghan forces of safety since the fall of the talibans at the end of 2001.
Since mid-May, the American, Canadian and British forces accentuated the pressure on the rebels with the assistance of the police force and the Afghan national army. But the losses do not seem for the hour to have started the determination of the talibans to launching frontal attacks on the Afghan forces of safety and the coalition.
Continued on Page 49
#1
Noteworthy that there have been several battles resulting in the demise of between 40-50 Taliban. This would seem to indicate that they are now operating as platoon-sized elements.
In turn, this might be both their minimum-effective and maximum-effective element size. Any smaller and the locals would kill them, and any larger would be unable to move without coalition forces being all over them.
#2
Noteworthy that there have been several battles resulting in the demise of between 40-50 Taliban. This would seem to indicate that they are now operating as platoon-sized elements.
I'd say company-sized.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
06/17/2006 11:41 Comments ||
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#3
"found death" by looking in all the wrong places. Shoulda stayed in Pakland assholes
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/17/2006 11:57 Comments ||
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#4
artisanal bomb
Good grief only the French (babelfish intuited the right word), can turn a homemade bomb into an art.
A Taliban leader who thanked God and Canadians before renouncing the insurgents under an Afghan reconciliation program Friday may have been involved in the planning of attacks on Canadian troops, sources say.
Mullah Ibrahim, who has lost a leg, was rolled before the international media in a wheelchair Friday to repent. No mention was made of his activities with the Taliban during the news conference.
``I have signed the papers to join the Strengthening Peace Program. I want peace and national union in Afghanistan in an Islamic system,'' Ibrahim said through an interpreter as ``contractors'' armed with machine-guns stood by. ``It was God and the Canadians who saved my life.''
Ibrahim, a village elder from a district west of Kandahar, was arrested by Afghan forces May 19 at the same time Canadian troops were fighting Taliban in the area in what became known as the Battle of Panjwai. Seriously ill with jaundice and a degenerative disorder, he was brought to the coalition base hospital where he was treated by Canadians. More at link
Posted by: Captain America ||
06/17/2006 9:53 Comments ||
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#5
Afghanis have a looooong history of siding with whoever is the strong horse at the moment. I'm sure that at this moment, Mullah Ibrahim most sincerely sides with the Canadians, as previously he most sincerely sided with the Taliban. If the ISI should come to look stronger in his neighborhood, he will equally strongly side with them then. Much the same for the "Islamic enough" idea. This gentleman falls under the "Welcome, but verify daily" heading -- no doubt it's a large category in that part of the world.
#6
plant an explosive chip in his pointy head. We may need to use it next week or next year or.....
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/17/2006 12:00 Comments ||
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#7
I've said before, the culture is a very practical one. They respect, understand, and aspire to power for the most part. Everything else is window dressing.
Posted by: grb ||
06/17/2006 15:27 Comments ||
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Coalition forces attacked Taliban militant camps in southern Afghanistan, killing about 45 insurgents, coalition officials said Saturday.
On Friday, Afghan and coalition forces surrounded a "known enemy camp" in Khod Valley, Shaheed Hasas district of Uruzgan province, killing an estimated 40 fighters, the military said in a statement. "Coalition forces tracked the development of this meeting until there were more than 50 extremists gathered before attacking the compound," said military spokesman Lt. Col. Paul Fitzpatrick. "The compound was severely damaged, and we anticipate most of those present were killed."
In a separate incident, Afghan and coalition forces conducted a raid on a Taliban compound near Tarin Kowt, the capital of Uruzgan, killing five insurgents, the military said. They also seized about eight pounds of opium.
Posted by: ed ||
06/17/2006 02:03 ||
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Looks like the Islamacists are about to face some real opposition.
For what the Aethiopian army's worth...
ABOUT 300 Ethiopian troops crossed into Somalia today, a top Islamist said, as Islamic fighters who wrested control of Mogadishu moved inland toward the seat of Somalia's interim government. Somalia's interim President Abdullahi Yusuf, a former warlord, is closely allied with Addis Ababa, which was instrumental in his election after peace talks in Kenya in 2004. "There are Ethiopian troops just past the border and coming in," Islamic Courts Union Chairman Sharif Sheikh Ahmed said, citing the incursion in Dollow in southwest Somalia this morning.
The Ethiopian Government had no immediate comment. Dollow is near the intersection of the Kenyan, Ethiopian and Somali borders and is on the road to Baidoa, where Somalia's weak interim government is based and has been increasingly surrounded by the Islamist militias.
Ethiopia, Washington's top counterterrorism ally in the Horn of Africa, had backed warlords the Islamists have routed from their strongholds in Mogadishu in a swift march from the coastal capital to Baladwayne near the Ethiopian border. Largely secular Ethiopia has long been wary of the influence of Islam in the region, and has not hesitated to send its military into Somalia. It has fought Islamic forces inside Somalia before, and Mr Yusuf was involved in the fighting. The warlords have been supported and armed by Ethiopia as a proxy force for years, and are widely believed to have been financed with US money in their last stand against the Islamists, which killed 350 people in battles since February.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/17/2006 15:38 Comments ||
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#2
"Mr Ahmed's group has said it wants peaceful dialogue"
When the Islamists are killing, there's no chance for peaceful dialogue, but when the Islamists are threatened, they want peaceful dialogue. How convenient for Alan.
#4
The Ethiopian Army may not be truly high-level, but they did fight the Somali Army back when there was one and crushed it in open battles. They are more than a match for khat-chewing jihadis in technicals, especially since their rules of warfare tend to be much more practical and basic. The Ethiopians also did show much concern with taking Somali prisoners, the last go-around.
2 top outlaws killed in 'crossfire' with Rab
Two top leaders of outlawed Purbo Banglar Communist Party (PBCP M-L) were killed in an encounter between the members of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) and their cohorts at Singchhara village in Atrai upazila of Naogaon district early yesterday.
"Commies. Why does it have to be commies."
They are Abul Fazal alias Tusher, 38, military commander for 'Ka' region comprising four greater Rajshahi districts, and Muktar Hossain alias Agun, 37, Atrai upazila commander. Rab members arrested the two on Thursday at Nilkadam village in Singra upazila of Natore and took them to Rajshahi Rab office for quizzing.
"I'll take "Things that can hurt me" for $500, Alex"
On their statements, a Rab team along with the two outlaws set out for Singchhara in Atrai upazila at about 4:15am to recover hidden firearms and arrest their accomplices.
RAB gives 'Overnight Delivery' a whole new meaning
When they reached the village, the accomplices of the PBCP leaders opened fire on the law enforcers, prompting them to retaliate.
Rab sources said Fazal and Muktar received bullets during the "shootout".
One each, behind the ear
They were taken to Naogaon Hospital where the doctors declared them dead.
"They're dead, Jim"
Fazal, son of Abdur Rahim of Damdama village, and Miuktar, son of Abdul Gafur of Bhar Tetulia village in Atrai upazila, were wanted in 30 cases on twelve systems including six for murder and 14 for extortion. RAB recovered a rifle and a revolver from the scene.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/17/2006 07:50 ||
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#1
took them to Rajshahi Rab office for quizzing.
I hate pop quizzes in general. This kind of pop quiz must be especialy unpleasant.
Posted by: N guard ||
06/17/2006 16:57 Comments ||
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The jury in the trial of seven men accused of plotting a bomb campaign in the UK has heard of a plan to hijack and crash a British Airways plane. The alleged plot was heard in a bugged conversation recorded by the security service, MI5, and played to jurors.
A voice says: "The beauty is they don't have to fly into a building, just crash the flipping thing." Prosecutors say Omar Khyam was speaking to Jawad Akbar. The men and five others deny conspiring to cause explosions.
The voice said to be Mr Khyam's discusses a plot to use 30 "brothers" prepared to commit suicide on a British Airways plane.
Plans to attack electricity, gas and water supplies are also discussed in the conversation, which the Old Bailey jurors were told had been recorded in Mr Akbar's flat in Uxbridge, west of London.
The voice, said to be Mr Khyam's, says: "Imagine you've got a plane, 300 people in it, you buy tickets for 30 brothers in there. They're massive brothers, you just crash the plane. You could do it easy." The voice said to be Mr Akbar's then says: "To find 30 brothers willing to commit suicide is a big thing."
Describing the plot as a "good idea" the first voice then adds: "If you spoke to some serious brothers, to the right people, you'd probably get it, bro'... whether they were from abroad, you'd get it. Thirty brothers on a British Airways flight... as soon as an air marshal gets up and shoots one the others just jump him."
The defendants were arrested on 30 March, 2004, after fertiliser was found stored in a west London depot. Mr Akbar, 22, Mr Khyam, 24, and his brother Shujah Mahmood, 19, and Waheed Mahmood, 34, all of Crawley, west Sussex, Salahuddin Amin, 31, of Luton, Beds, Anthony Garcia, 23, of Ilford, east London, and Nabeel Hussain, 21, of Horley, Surrey, are accused of conspiring to cause explosions likely to endanger life between 1 January, 2003 and 31 March, 2004.
Mr Khyam, Mr Garcia and Mr Hussain also deny a charge under the Terrorism Act of possessing 600kg (1,300lb) of ammonium nitrate fertiliser for terrorism. Mr Khyam and Shujah Mahmood further deny possessing aluminium powder for terrorism.
Posted by: Captain America ||
06/17/2006 15:57 ||
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Abdul-Khalim Saidullayev, the Chechen rebel "president" killed Saturday by pro-Russian forces, was the fourth pro-independence leader of the Muslim province to be killed in more than a decade of conflict with Moscow. Saidullayev's precedessor, Aslan Maskhadov, was also killed by pro-Russian forces in Chechnya on March 8, 2005. His death came after those of Akhmad Kadyrov, Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev and Djokhar Dudayev. Maskhadov was killed after a battle with Russian forces in the Chechen village of Tolstoi-Yurt after he was, according to Russian officials, trapped in a bunker under a house there.
Dudayev's killing, in April 1996, resulted from a bizarre blend of high technology and long-distance military intelligence as the Russian air force finally got their man after several attempts. Dudayev, 52, was in the village of Gekhi-Chu, about 30 kilometers southwest of the capital Grozny, when he answered a satellite telephone call from a Russian politician in Moscow who was ostensibly acting as a go-between in impending peace negotiations. But minutes later, two missiles exploded at the exact spot where he was standing and he died of his injuries shortly afterwards. Russian authorities at the time confirmed that the missiles had been guided to their target by the signal emitted by Dudayev's satellite phone.
Previous attempts by the air force to eliminate the man whose proud boast was "I have only one bodyguard - Allah," had failed as Dudayev had hung up too quickly. Dudayev had been elected president in October 1991 and proclaimed unilateral Chechen independence the following month.
Continued on Page 49
#5
Use bigger bombs. Find one big enough, you only have to get close to him.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
06/17/2006 17:04 Comments ||
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#6
Oops. Correction. Kydarov was Moscow's man. His son, Achmed, is leading the charge against the rebels and trying to avenge the death of his father at the hands of Shamil Basayev. Still the Russkies got every single reb 'president' and this one was only in office for a few months. Good going Russkies!
Chechen separatist rebel leader Abdul-Khalim Saydullayev has been killed in a police operation, the pro-Moscow government says. Police had located him in the town of Argun and he was killed in a gun battle when they moved in, said Chechen cabinet minister Muslim Khuchiyev. No comment from the rebels was immediately available.
Mr Saydullayev was appointed in 2005 to replace Aslan Maskhadov after the rebel president died in a Russian attack. Details of his death are still being investigated, Mr Khuchiyev added. Chechen Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov welcomed the news as "a severe blow" to the separatists. "The terrorists have been virtually beheaded... and they are never going to recover from it," he told Russian news agencies.
Though appointed leader, Mr Saydullayev was a relatively obscure figure, correspondents say. He used to make religious programmes for the separatists' TV station and speeches he released as leader are couched in Islamist language.
He was much less prominent than veteran separatist commander Shamil Basayev who appeared on a rebel website last week in what was billed as a new video.
Bad Guyz confirm...
The Press Service and the Administration of the President of the CRI have officially confirmed the death of the President of CRI, the Amir SDK Majlisul Shura of CRI, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of CRI Armed Forces, the Amir of Caucasian Mujahideen Sheikh Abdul-Halim Sadulayev.
Sheikh Abdul-Halim has been martyred (Insha Allah!) in an unequal battle with Russian invaders and national traitors in his hometown Argun.
The invaders and puppets report that Sheikh Abdul-Halim died in a battle that took place in the town of Argun on Saturday morning of June 17, 2006. Two members of the FSB were killed in this battle. Because of this, two of the people who took up the fight in a private house in Argun were able to break through the ring of encirclement and to get away.
Ringleaders of puppet formations declared that the assassination of Chechen leader and Amir of Caucasian Mujahideen was "a big success of exceptional importance" which "will deal a severe blow" to Mujahideen.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/17/2006 07:26 ||
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#1
With all the caveats concerning the russians and trutiness, still this is good to hear.
According to the AP story, he was sold out for a dose of heroin. If true, ouch.
Posted by: N guard ||
06/17/2006 16:53 Comments ||
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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korea loaded booster rockets onto a launch pad in preparation to test-fire a long-range missile that could reach as far as the U.S. mainland, with the launch expected as early as Sunday, South Korean and Japanese media reports said. The reports follows warnings by the U.S. government that the communist state is accelerating preparations for testing a Taepodong-2 missile. A U.S. government official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information, said Friday that a test may be imminent.
South Korea's Chosun Ilbo newspaper said South Korean and U.S. intelligence authorities had made an assessment based on recent satellite images that the North had loaded booster rockets onto a launch pad and moved about 10 large tanks of liquid fuel close by. The Taepodong-2 is a three-stage missile, but the warhead section hasn't been loaded yet, the paper said, quoting an unnamed high-level South Korean government official. It wasn't clear if the fuel had been unloaded, it said. South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Choo Kyu-ho couldn't confirm the report.
Japan's mainstream conservative Sankei Shimbun, also citing unnamed government sources, said the North could test the missile as early as Sunday.
Japan has dispatched two Aegis destroyers to the Sea of Japan and the Pacific Ocean, the paper said. Hidetsugu Iwamasa, a Japanese naval official, said he could not comment on the reported Aegis deployment.
Bet these two have the SM-3 missiles aboard
The Sankei also said the U.S. military has deployed a RC-135S electronic surveillance plane and a WC135W weather reconnaissance plane, which could detect nuclear weapon tests, around Okinawa, Japan's southernmost island.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/17/2006 08:17 ||
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#1
it would be a shame if it "exploded" on the pad.
#6
This seems awfully crude. They clearly lack the ability to build large liquid or solid motors.
They're putting together various assorted stages in the hope of getting that thing into the air.
It might just as well break apart after launch.
Even if it works, the throw weight will be too low to be militarily useful (if they want extended range), and the configuration will leave it vulnerable. This thing can't be moved around. The Norks will have to assemble this inside a silo, and leave it unfuelled. It will take hours to launch and they don't have the technology to harden a silo against attack.
A cry for attention from kimmi ? He wants more aid money or food?
This is a perfect target for a standard SM3 test.
Posted by: john ||
06/17/2006 10:01 Comments ||
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#7
If it does break apart, pieces will fall on Japan?
Posted by: john ||
06/17/2006 10:02 Comments ||
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The reports follows warnings by the U.S. government that the communist state is accelerating preparations for testing a Taepodong-2 missile. A U.S. government official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information, said Friday that a test may be imminent.
#14
I'm not sure, but I think it stands for Unsymmetrical Di-Methyl Hydrazine.
Which is basically a hydrocarbon group with most of a hydrazine ion tied on.
It's unstable (like hydrazine), toxic, hard to handle, and hypergolic. Like many hypergolic fuels attaining combustion stability in the rocket engine is going to be tricky, unless they're just using someone else's engine.
Posted by: Phil ||
06/17/2006 11:12 Comments ||
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#15
Now an easy liquid propellant engine to build would be one running on pure peroxide, where the peroxide is decomposed, used to run a turbine (to pump the fuel), and then the decomposed products burned with kerosene or some other fuel. This would be a sort of two-step engine, and it's what the British used on their ICBM's and launchers when they had some of their own. Combustion stability is easier once you have one of the chemical reactants in gaseous form already.
I don't think you can do that with UDMH. You might be able to, though. Probably a trip to the encyclopedia astronautica is in order.
Posted by: Phil ||
06/17/2006 11:15 Comments ||
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Unsymmetrical Dimethylhydrazine ((CH3)2NNH2) became the storable liquid fuel of choice by the mid-1950's. Development of UDMH in the Soviet Union began in 1949. It is used in virtually all storable liquid rocket engines except for some orbital manoeuvring engines in the United States.
#22
Using UDMH + N2O4 would indicate their liquid fuel technology has advanced significantly from the Scud type engines third world ntions play around with.
These fuels are storable and quite efficient. The French Arianne vehicles use it for their Viking engine stages. The Indian PSLV vehicle uses a variant of the Viking engine (France needed a lot of aerospace engineers to design the Viking and India had a surplus of engineers.. the French got their engine and the Indians got the technology as payment and designed their own versions).
More ominously, the Soviet SS-18 uses UDMH+ N2O4 engines.
Posted by: john ||
06/17/2006 11:36 Comments ||
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#23
So the Norks might have made the technological leap to being able to build large liquid fuel engines that could be used on a silo based, heavy ICBM.
Somebody has been teaching them... either Chinese or Russian engineers..
Posted by: john ||
06/17/2006 11:43 Comments ||
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#24
right there close to the sea, a low-flying object could be damn near undetectable before it....um.... rammed into the boosters, eh?
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/17/2006 12:07 Comments ||
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#26
If you have GoogleEarth, the launch pad and the assocated facilities are really easy to spot.
Posted by: Mike ||
06/17/2006 12:17 Comments ||
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#27
The strap-on boosters indicate they can't yet make large first stage engines. They're forced to cobble together stuff.
So they may have gotten the design of an early Chinese engine?
Posted by: john ||
06/17/2006 12:20 Comments ||
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#28
Here's the Encyclopedia Astronautica articles on the Nodong IRBM and Taepodong-1 ICBM/booster. The article on the Taepodong says in pertinent part:
North Korea announced the launch of its first satellite on 31 August 1998. Despite these claims no foreign observer ever detected the satellite visually, by radar, or picked up its radio signals. . . . What seems to have happened is that the third stage either failed and fell into the Pacific or misfired and put the satellite into a low orbit where it decayed very quickly before it could be detected by foreign observers.
The launch vehicle consisted of the No-Dong 1 IRBM as a first stage. This IRBM uses a cluster of four rocket engines derived from the Scud-C version produced by the North Koreans. The second stage was derived from the Scud-C itself. The third stage was probably a small solid rocket engine. These missiles were developed and put into production in North Korea with assistance from Russian technicians from the Makeyev design bureau in the Gorbachev era. . . .
Posted by: Mike ||
06/17/2006 12:25 Comments ||
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#29
right there close to the sea, a low-flying object could be damn near undetectable before it....um.... rammed into the boosters, eh?
A guided munition during fuelling would cause a hell of a bang. They would never know what hit them.. witnesses would die in the fire.
Problem would be bomb debris. The NoKos would probably have a few thousand "volunteers" walk over every square inch picking up fragments.
Posted by: john ||
06/17/2006 12:28 Comments ||
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#30
All: Now that it is a very real threat, does anyone have a listing of those congressmen and senators who were adamant against the US having missile defenses?
I think that now is the perfect time to remind America of who, exactly, is responsible for allowing our nation to be threatened in this way.
#31
Russian space launches used strap-on boosters to gain extra thrust for launch. North Korea may be trying to launch their own space satellite. That would be a huge coup for them, politically.
I just went through GeoStrategy's imagery. I wish I could get about 20 different shots of the entire area that I could blow up and manipulate. There are several military-looking compounds around the area that they ignore. I think they also fail to take into consideration the amount of burrowing the Norks do. I hope the folks and NGA are doing a much better job.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
06/17/2006 15:41 Comments ||
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#32
OP: use GoogleEarth if you have a broadband connection. It's a freebee.
Posted by: Mike ||
06/17/2006 16:23 Comments ||
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#33
Uhh, how exactly do we know that this is a test?
Posted by: Matt ||
06/17/2006 17:12 Comments ||
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#34
long and lat?
Google for Linux is wonderful.
Kill this in it's boost phase, a message to China and the Norks. You need not wonder where the Technology came from. China seeks to destablise The US of A and Japan. OIt clinet the NORKS are glad to oblige
#37
Just checking, but y'all said they were using UDMH and Liquid Oxygen?
That doesn't make sense to me, but I'll have to check with the real experts.
Posted by: Phil ||
06/17/2006 18:29 Comments ||
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#38
no remedial "self esteem classes" needed, 6, just math and sciences
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/17/2006 18:45 Comments ||
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#39
It would be a wonderful sight for all of Kim's people to see. The rocket lifts off and at 5,000 feet the lazer trained on it cooks thru to the fuel and it explodes removing the sucker from the sky!
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
06/17/2006 19:18 Comments ||
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#40
Not LOX. They don't have that kind of technology. If they can handle LOX, they would be using LOX + Kerosene.
Either UDMH + N2O4 (nitrogen tetraoxide) this is the stuff used in SS-18 missiles and civilian space launch vehicles.
The Titan ICBM uses N2O4 + "Aerozine" - a 50-50 mixture of hydrazine and unsymmetrical dimethyl hydrazine (UDMH)
or
UDMH + RFNA (red fuming nitric acid)
This isn't storable and is particularly nasty.
Hopefully they are using this. It may blow up on them.
Posted by: john ||
06/17/2006 19:21 Comments ||
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#41
Correction - IRFNA (inhibited red fuming nitric acid) is storable.
IIRC the Russians had some nasty accidents with this stuff.
Posted by: john ||
06/17/2006 19:39 Comments ||
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#42
The NK launch complex at Musudan is located at Latitude: 40°51' N. Longitude: 129°40' E
Posted by: Mike ||
06/17/2006 20:00 Comments ||
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#43
Well I guess we will know in about three hours, I am not sure why else North Korea would be telling people to put their flags out and sit by the radio at 2 pm their time
#44
NORTH KOREAN RADIO IS BROADCASTING A COMMAND TO ALL NORTH KOREANS TO PLACE NORTH KOREAN FLAGS OUTSIDE THEIR HOMES AND TUNE IN TO RADIO/TV FOR AN 'IMPORTANT' ANNOUNCEMENT AT 2:00 P.M. LOCAL TIME, SUNDAY 18 JUNE (1:00 A.M. Eastern Sunday / 11:00 p.m. Eastern Tonight (17 June)
OCEANSIDE, Calif. Military officials on Friday said they have decided to remove shackles put on seven confined Marines and one sailor whenever theyre outside their individual cells at the Camp Pendleton brig, a Marine Corps spokesman said.
The eight men, confined at the brig since May 24, were being held with maximum restraints based on their battalion commanders decision following an initial investigation into the shooting. As of Friday, they were shifted into whats called medium-in restraint in pre-trial custody, which does not require shackles to be worn, although they remain escorted anytime they are outside their cell, according to 2nd Lt. Lawton King, a base spokesman.
Under medium-in, they wont have any personal restraint while inside the brig, but once outside such as to go to a court hearing each is restrained with handcuffs attached to a leather belt and their respective escorts carry along leg cuffs in the event they are needed, King said.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/17/2006 00:00 ||
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VP Cheney is right, there is and should be a presumption of innocence.
Posted by: Captain America ||
06/17/2006 0:18 Comments ||
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#2
Thing is, I believe I read someplace a while back that they have confessions in this case. I thought I also read that the corpsman was going to be released soon so I am surprised he is still there.
#3
The men would not be in shackles unless military investigators already possesses some type of sworn physical or written evidence against them, i.e. non-perjurious [for now] direct evidence has been levied against them. It is up to the men's counsel(s) to submit either evidence of fraud-on-the-court, absolute non-guilt of any crime or unprofessional/immoral/unlawful/unethical
action, or in the alternate not as guilty as others. THE LEAD DEFENSE COUNSEL(S) MUST PROVE PERJURY OR MISTAKE. Remember also, one of the allegations or charges against them is alleged wilful falsifying of combat or after-action reports to disguise engaging in atrocity(s) against ordinary civilians. Any investigation or court(s)-martial will follow or should follow the USCMJ, MilRegs, International Agreements in regards to US mil forces, and Fed-DOD caselaws and protocols, not the MSM.
ht to Drudge
Pentagon investigators threatened the death penalty and used other coercive techniques to obtain statements from some of the seven Marines and a Navy corpsman jailed for the shooting death of an Iraqi civilian, two defense lawyers say. illegal if threatened against Gitmo scumbags?
Attorney Jane Siegel, who represents Marine Pfc. John Jodka, 20, said Naval Criminal Investigative Service officials spoke to her client three times after he was taken into custody May 12. Jodka was questioned for up to eight hours at a time and was not offered water or toilet breaks, Siegel said. Where's AI or ACLU or HRW? Cowardly traitorous hypocrites. Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/17/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Pisses me off.
Pretty fucking bad when illegal combatants who have a habit of sawing off heads and blowing up innocent civilians in cold blood get kid-glove treatment while our own men - who are fighting the above and risking their lives so traitors like the NYT, LAT, Murtha and Kerry can slander them are treated as common criminals before even being charged.
What the hell is the brass thinking? Who's side are they on anyway? Apparently not ours! Do they *want* to lose the WOT? That is what they are working toward. Sounds like someone needs to clean house. And a few people (and a couple of Senators) need to be brought up on charges treason or aiding-and-abedding the enemy.
#2
Wait a frikkin' minute....OK I'm spouting off without reading the entire article but what's described above IS NOT THE HADITHA CASE.... this whole crap bag is so out of hand that even the basic facts aren't being accounted for - and as such...those poor Marines are screwed.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
06/17/2006 1:44 Comments ||
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#3
The Gitmo detainees are not going to be tried before a court of law. They were captured on an active battlefield and are being held as illegal combatants. Information solicited from them is not for prosecution of crimes. It is being employed to identify the terrorist network, means of operation, and potential future actions.
Those policed up in a criminal investigation have to be handled differently if the authorities intend to criminally prosecute. Miranda warnings and, once given and invoked, the presence of his/her attorney must be followed. If the information posted is valid, it appears theyve already jeopardized their case.
The Military Court of Appeals has no sense of humor. The command chain may indeed be able to railroad someone for a while, but in the end, the MCA will hammer back. Thats when separate investigations begin focused on those involved in corrupting the process.
Jammu and Kashmir police on Saturday arrested ten militants involved in the recent car bombings and grenade attacks, including two on tourists, in the valley and claimed that three Hizbul Mujahideen militants were linked with the killing of nine non-Kashmiri labourers in Anantnag district early this week.
Seven militants, involved in the car-bombings and grenade attacks, have been arrested in Srinagar and Budgam district while three others were arrested from Kulgam area of Anantnag, Director General of Police Gopal Sharma told reporters in Srinagar.
The militants were responsible for four grenade attacks on tourists at Zakura, Soura and Dalgate areas of the city during Round Table Conference in Srinagar on May 25, which claimed the lives six tourists -- four from Gujarat, one each from Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal -- were killed and more than twenty others were injured in April and May months.
During the interrogation, the militants confessed their involvement in the crime, he added.
The police chief said the militants were also responsible for triggering car bomb blasts in the valley, particularly on the national highway.
Posted by: john ||
06/17/2006 20:31 ||
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#1
meanwhile
HuJI terrorist surrenders in J&K
A terrorist of the Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islamia on Saturday laid down arms before the police in Doda district of Jammu and Kashmir.
Mohammad Shafi Gujjar of Patnazi-Bunjwa area in the district surrendered before the station house officer of Chatroo police station, handing over an AK series assault rifle, two magazines and a hand grenade, officials in Jammu said.
Gujjar was involved in terrorist-related incidents since April 2005 and was active in Chatroo block of Doda, they said.
He would be questioned in detail on his links with other ultras of the Bangladesh-based HuJI and overground supporters of terrorists, they added.
Posted by: john ||
06/17/2006 20:55 Comments ||
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The demand for deployment of Army to combat the overgrown Naxalite-Maoist menace has been put on hold with the Defence Ministry not favouring any such move.
The Defence Ministry made a detailed presentation before the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCCS) on Friday night explaining why the Armed Forces should not be asked to take on Naxal-Maoists.
Sources said on Saturday adding the PMO and the Home Ministry were quite keen on Army deployment in the worst-hit Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh.
The Defence Ministry, however, said the Army was overstretched due to its involvement in Jammu and Kashmir and the North-East. Moreover, it contended that the Naxalite problem was a socio-political issue and should be addressed within those parameters.
The Home Ministry has, over the last few months, been mooting the proposal for involving the Army in tackling the Naxal problem and National Security Advisor M K Narayanan held a meeting with the Army brass recently to elicit their views on such a move.
At the CCS meeting, where the Naxal problem was in special focus, Defence Ministry officials drew attention towards the fact that the Army had been in Jammu and Kashmir for over a decade now.
The Pakistan angle, they said, was a major reason for the Army's active role in the troubled border State.
Similarly, in the N-E, the Army had been in action for four decades and the situation was only now slowly improving due to sustained pressure on insurgent groups, they added.
While against going into Naxal-hit areas, the Defence Ministry was, however, open to the idea of the Army training central para-military forces and State police forces in counter-insurgency operations. In fact, some units of the para-military forces and State police have already undergone training in jungle warfare, fighting terrorism in a rural scenario and in the hinterland at the specialised schools of the Army, sources said.
The Jharkhand Government has set up a jungle warfare and anti-insurgency training school in the State and recruited a retired brigadier to head it. The former Army officer was the principal of the Army's elite Jungle Warfare School, Mizoram, before taking up his present assignment.
The Armed Forces, officials said, would also be willing to chip in their bit by providing operation-based help like aerial surveillance, ferrying commandos for specific tasks and helping State forces to handle sophisticated communication systems and related duties, sources said.
Posted by: john ||
06/17/2006 20:10 ||
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#1
It was the Punjab state police under KPS Gill that exterminated the sikh rebels in the Punjab, not the army.
It is one of the most sucessful counter-insurgency campaigns in modern history.
Because of their work, the police have contacts within the local community that the army lacks.
When you combine that with the ruthlessness of someone like Gill, you have effective COIN ops.
Posted by: john ||
06/17/2006 20:26 Comments ||
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A top leader of India's main Maoist group has been killed in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, police say. Police say the Maoist leader, Ravi Kumar, was shot dead in an exchange on Friday night. In a separate incident, three other Maoist rebels are said to have killed on Saturday.
A senior police official, N Balasubramaniam, said the exchange took place in a forest in the state's Prakasham district. He said police came upon Maoist rebels during a search operation. In the gun battle that followed, Ravi Kumar is said to have died. Two Maoists were injured but managed to escape. The police recovered arms and literature from the scene.
The BBC's Omer Farooq in Andhra Pradesh says this is a big set back for the Maoists as Ravi Kumar was a strategist for the group and is the senior most leader to have been killed by the police. Police had announced a reward of 1.5 million rupees ($32,700) for his capture. His killing has evoked an instant reaction from the underground organisation. The Maoists have issued a statement condemning the killing. Separately, on Saturday, the police said they had killed three Maoists in an exchange in the same district.
Posted by: john ||
06/17/2006 13:37 ||
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KARACHI: Habibullah Niazi, the brother of the Deputy Superintendent Karachi Central Prison Amanullah Khan Niazi who was killed on Thursday, succumbed to his injuries Friday at Liaquat National Hospital bringing the number of dead to five. Niazi's brother Habibullah was shot thrice when several assailants toting Kalashnikovs and a .22 pistol ambushed Niazi's car and the van Habibullah was following in. Habibullah was shot in the head and doctors claimed he had slim chances of survival.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/17/2006 00:00 ||
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JAMMU: Suspected Islamist militants killed a villager in Indian-held Kashmir by slitting his throat and cut off the tongues and noses of four others, accusing them of being police informers, authorities said on Friday. The attackers also beat up seven other villagers and set several houses ablaze late on Wednesday in a remote village near Mahore town, 65 kilometres northeast of Jammu city. "These foreign militants are ruthless," he said, referring to insurgents that India says are Islamists crossing into its part of administered Kashmir from Pakistan, and sometimes even from Afghanistan.
Villagers in the area said that the attackers had probably acted out of revenge, suspecting the locals of informing the police about the presence of a militant who had been killed in the area in April.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/17/2006 00:00 ||
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"winning hearts and minds and tips of noses"
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/17/2006 0:13 Comments ||
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MIRANSHAH: Suspected pro-Taliban militants directed a rocket barrage at a military post in a northwestern tribal region, wounding one soldier and damaging two vehicles, officials said on Friday. No one claimed responsibility for the attack late on Thursday in Mir Ali, near North Waziristan's main town of Miranshah, and security forces were hunting for the assailants, a security official said. "The miscreants fired 10 rockets, but only one or two hit the military post," the official said on condition of anonymity as he was unauthorised to speak to the media.Also Thursday, security forces and "miscreants" traded fire near Miranshah and two youths "accidentally died when stray bullets hit them," the official said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/17/2006 00:00 ||
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QUETTA: Two people were killed in a landmine blast in the Nelakh vicinity in Sui on Friday, while unidentified men blew up a main power transmission line in the Harnai area. One of the dead in the blast was identified as Chandi Khan Bugti, while the other could not be identified. The power transmission line between Sibi and Harnai was blown up with a powerful bomb, disrupting supplies to several neighbouring localities.
Also, security forces defused a 2kg bomb installed near tower No 318, one-and-a-half kilometres east of a 132 KV grid station in Harnai. Separately, 13 rockets were fired at Frontier Corps (FC) check posts in the Bibi Nani area of Bolan district. Sources told Daily Times that insurgents and FC men exchanged fire for a long time, but there were no casualties.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/17/2006 00:00 ||
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BAGHDAD - Gunmen killed the local head of a Sunni religious group in the Iraqi Shiite city of Basra on Friday, the group and state television said. Unknown gunmen shot dead Yusif Al Hassan near the mosque where he led prayers in Basra, 550 km (340 miles) south of Baghdad, colleagues said.
Hassan was a senior member of the Muslim Scholars Association, a group from the Sunni minority community that is critical of the U.S.-backed political process.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/17/2006 00:00 ||
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A soldier in the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq was killed and two others were missing after an attack on a checkpoint southwest of Baghdad on Friday, the U.S. military said.
The attacked took place around 8 p.m. near the town of Yusufiyah, about 12 miles southwest of Baghdad.
"After hearing small arms fire and explosions in the vicinity of the checkpoint, a quick reaction force responded to the scene," a military statement said. "Coalition forces have initiated a search operation to locate and determine the status of the soldiers."
The statement didn't provide any other information and the U.S. military in Iraq couldn't immediately be reached.
#1
Yahoo News: One U.S. soldier was killed and two others were missing Saturday after they were attacked at a traffic checkpoint south of Baghdad.
Posted by: ed ||
06/17/2006 1:44 Comments ||
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#2
The news we haven't wanted to hear. We had the GI Joe replica, but this rings too clear. Our worst dreams, the savages have our guys. May they be safe.
(KUNA) -- The head of the Karbala Council arrested Thursday is a terrorist and leader of an assassination ring in the Southern Iraqi region, the US Army stated Friday. The army statement said Iraqi land forces raided a location in Karbala yesterday morning and arrested Sheikh Aqeel as a senior terrorist leader and head of a terrorist organization. According to the same statement, Iraqi Army soldiers arrested Aqeel with the assistance of coalition consultants and that not a single fire had been shot.
Or something like that...
Not even one round of bullet?
The statement said "Aqeel is wanted for the assassination of several Iraqi nationals and was planning attacks against Iraqi forces and coalition targets. He was also responsible for financing second-line leaders and supplying them with explosives." The US Army claimed Aqeel was involved in the killing of seven members of the coalition in Karbala last year and the assassination of Iraqi intelligence officers of Karbala's Al-Mukhayem Precinct. The Iraqi and US forces had jointly arrested Aqeel Al-Zubaidi, head of Karbala Governorate Council, and one of his aides in a grand-scale raid that involved 50 soldiers from both sides.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/17/2006 00:00 ||
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nice catch and great public announcement: your sheikh is a criminal
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/17/2006 0:11 Comments ||
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#2
I wonder if the council is still demanding an apology.
Posted by: grb ||
06/17/2006 1:05 Comments ||
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(KUNA) -- A high ranking Iraqi police officer was assassinated in front of his house by unidentified gunmen on Friday in Al Mosul City, Northern Iraq, an Interior Ministry source said. Separately, a North Gas Company employee was assassinated by anonymous militants near Kirkuk. Efforts were made to revive the employee but he died and the body was taken to the coroner's office.
"Mahmoud! There's a guy here to read the meter!"
"I'm busy right now. Just kill him."
In the meantime, explosive devices were found and diffused in different parts of the city, Interior Ministry source said. In other developments, two mortar shells struck Iraqi Army facilities near Wadi Al-Zgheitoun, without causing damage. Another explosive device exploded in front of a house in Al-Huwija but there was only minor damage to the house's fence and no casualties.(
Posted by: Fred ||
06/17/2006 00:00 ||
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(KUNA) -- Three Iraqis were killed and 17 others injured Friday in a mortar attack that targeted a residential area in northern Baghdad. An Iraqi police source told KUNA the mortar shells slammed into the Sabaa Al-Bour area. As many as 11 people were killed in a suicide bombing that hit a mosque in Baghdad earlier on friday.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/17/2006 00:00 ||
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Two Palestinian fighters have been killed and two others wounded in an Israeli air strike on the Gaza Strip. Aljazeera, quoting Palestinian medical sources, said the fighters, who belonged to Islamic Jihad's al-Quds Brigades, were killed inside a car late on Friday in northern Gaza. Islamic Jihad identified the dead men as Emad Yassin and Habib Ashour.
An Israeli army spokeswoman said the air strike targeted "a car between Gaza City and the Deir al-Balah camp carrying an Islamic Jihad cell responsible for the firing of rockets into Israel". The army says 120 rockets have been fired in southern Israel in the past week. Israel's Army Radio said Yassin was one of Islamic Jihad's top operatives in the Gaza Strip and was responsible for many of the rocket attacks against Israel in recent days. Earlier in the day, Palestinian fighters had fired five homemade rockets into Israel but the army reported that no injuries were caused by the attacks.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/17/2006 19:13 ||
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The Bush administration said Friday that it would go along with a European proposal to transfer funds through the World Bank to pay stipends to poor Palestinians, some of whom had previously drawn salaries from the Palestinian government.
The European plan would also pay "emergency allowances," but not salaries, to some nurses, doctors and others in health care.
The European Union had earlier proposed a transfer of money from European governments to a "mechanism" set up by the World Bank to pay salaries for nurses, doctors and others in the Palestinian government. But because the government is now run by Hamas, which the United States considers a terrorist organization, the administration had opposed payment of salaries as a violation of American laws barring bank transfers to terrorists.
But the chief European envoy on the issue, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, said Friday that she would visit Israel and the Palestinian territories on Monday to work out final details in a way she hoped would satisfy American objections.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the United States was "close to substantial agreement" with Ms. Ferrero-Waldner's proposal.
A senior State Department official, going further, said there was an agreement in principle among the United States, Europe, Russia and the United Nations that would be announced as early as this weekend.
The official, speaking anonymously because details remained to be worked out, said the breakthrough in the talks had occurred because the payments would be "based on need" and not on who had been employed by the Palestinian government. But he said some government employees might qualify. Such insanity. Not a single dollar flows into that place that doesn't somehow end up supporting violence.
#6
I'm beginning to dislike President Bush. I've never much liked the Republicans - but I've been forced to vote for them because the Dems are such a bunch of nose-picking losers. Sigh.
At least one Palestinian was killed and three other wounded in an Israeli air strike targeting a car in Gaza City late on Friday, Palestinian medical sources said. "Two of the wounded have serious burns and their condition is very serious," said a medical source. A missile hit the car in the village of Wadi Gaza on the southern outskirts of Gaza City, witnesses said. An Israeli army spokeswoman said that the air strike targeted "a car between Gaza City and the Deir al-Balah camp carrying an Islamic Jihad cell responsible for firing rockets into Israel". The Islamic Jihad has fired dozens of makeshift rockets into neighbouring areas in Israel, causing little damage. According to the Israeli military, some 120 rockets have struck southern Israel over the past week.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/17/2006 00:00 ||
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Heh, coming in under the pali civil war dead zark radar, good work.
#4
At least every kid at the car swarm gets an individual body part to parade around....which is nice.
Even the little spazzy kidz? I guess that's nice. But it does take the edge off the competition. It'll be different once they get to Babe Rube league, that's a picked team, gotta show an organ to even be considered.
Sri Lankan officials said Tamil rebels launched attacks on police and navy targets in the northwest part of the island. At least 20 people were reportedly killed after a rebel attack on a government navy base in the northwest, news services reported. The reported attack would be the first rebel response to government strikes on insurgent positions. The Friday aerial strikes by the government against Tamil Tiger positions followed a deadly landmine attack that killed 64 people on a crowded bus in the north-central part of the island.
On Saturday, at least six navy sailors were killed in the rebel attack, a government spokesman said in a report from The Associated Press. The Reuters news service reported around people died in Saturday's fighting. The AP reported that at least six government sailors and between 25-30 rebels were killed in the fighting. BBC sez:At least 31 people are reported to have been killed after Tamil Tiger rebels launched a major attack against Sri Lankan government forces from the sea. The military says six naval personnel had been killed during the assault. Eight rebel boats had been destroyed, killing at least 25 rebels, it added. The military said navy and police came under attack from a Sea Tiger unit and responded with air and artillery strikes. "We destroyed eight of the 11 boats that came for the attack," navy spokesman DLP Dassanayake is quoted as saying by the Associated Press.
On Friday, Sri Lanka's air force dropped bombs near the Tamil Tiger rebel headquarters in Kilinochchi on Friday, Reuters reported. Hours before the airstrikes began, a powerful Claymore mine tore through a crowded bus carrying more than 100 passengers, mostly workers and school children, in the village of Kebettigollawa in the North Central Province. Army officials said 58 people died at the scene, including 15 children. Six others died after being taken to hospitals, officials said.
A cease-fire between the rebels and the government -- brokered by Norway in 2002 -- has broken down during the past several months after rebel attacks and government reprisals against Tamil strongholds. Talks scheduled for mid-April in Geneva were canceled after rebel leaders blamed the government for breaking a promise to disband paramilitary groups.
The rebels accuse paramilitaries of acting with Sri Lanka security forces to carry out attacks on rebel members and supporters.
Last month the European Union listed the Tamil Tigers as a terrorist group alongside al Qaeda.
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/17/2006 15:10 Comments ||
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#3
Any group that deliberately targets women and children should be totally, ruthlessly destroyed. Not just "killed", but crushed into dust, and the dust washed away. They aren't human.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
06/17/2006 16:02 Comments ||
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#4
For those who have not been following Sri Lanka's travails for the long-term, the LTTE are unrepentant terrorists. They were the ones who started using human bombs, and the ones that the Chetchin scum copied the Black Widows from. LTTE loves to send human bombs into marketplaces, to insure maximum civilian dead and wounded.
#5
The LTTE are they group who perfected the suicide bomber system. Part of that was the "Martyr's video clip". Before he went off to blow up his target (when the reality hadn't quite set in yet) they would get the gullible moronstupid idiot candidate to make a make a video clip where he proclaimed he was some kind of subhuman freedom fighter who was going to blow whatever up in the name of Allah. If he didn't follow through, they would just hand the tape to whoever and his life would be over. It was so successful, Hamas and the rest picked up on it. Ever notice all the pictures of all the "martyrs" they have? Those pictures aren't there just to glorify the bomber. I even wonder if the bombers know they've been had until it's too late. Who's going to complain? Very clever indeed, eh?
Posted by: grb ||
06/17/2006 22:49 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.
2 top outlaws killed in 'crossfire' with Rab
The jury in the trial of seven men accused of plotting a bomb campaign in the UK has heard of a plan to hijack and crash a British Airways plane. The alleged plot was heard in a bugged conversation recorded by the security service, MI5, and played to jurors. 
Chechen separatist rebel leader 
A top leader of India's main Maoist group has been killed in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, police say. Police say the Maoist leader, Ravi Kumar, was shot dead in an exchange on Friday night. In a separate incident, three other Maoist rebels are said to have killed on Saturday.
KARACHI: Habibullah Niazi, the brother of the Deputy Superintendent Karachi Central Prison Amanullah Khan Niazi who was killed on Thursday, succumbed to his injuries Friday at Liaquat National Hospital bringing the number of dead to five. Niazi's brother Habibullah was shot thrice when several assailants toting Kalashnikovs and a .22 pistol ambushed Niazi's car and the van Habibullah was following in. Habibullah was shot in the head and doctors claimed he had slim chances of survival.
JAMMU: Suspected Islamist militants killed a villager in Indian-held Kashmir by slitting his throat and cut off the tongues and noses of four others, accusing them of being police informers, authorities said on Friday. The attackers also beat up seven other villagers and set several houses ablaze late on Wednesday in a remote village near Mahore town, 65 kilometres northeast of Jammu city. "These foreign militants are ruthless," he said, referring to insurgents that India says are Islamists crossing into its part of administered Kashmir from Pakistan, and sometimes even from Afghanistan. 
MIRANSHAH: Suspected pro-Taliban militants directed a rocket barrage at a military post in a northwestern tribal region, wounding one soldier and damaging two vehicles, officials said on Friday. No one claimed responsibility for the attack late on Thursday in Mir Ali, near North Waziristan's main town of Miranshah, and security forces were hunting for the assailants, a security official said. "The miscreants fired 10 rockets, but only one or two hit the military post," the official said on condition of anonymity as he was unauthorised to speak to the media.Also Thursday, security forces and "miscreants" traded fire near Miranshah and two youths "accidentally died when stray bullets hit them," the official said.
QUETTA: Two people were killed in a landmine blast in the Nelakh vicinity in Sui on Friday, while unidentified men blew up a main power transmission line in the Harnai area. One of the dead in the blast was identified as Chandi Khan Bugti, while the other could not be identified. The power transmission line between Sibi and Harnai was blown up with a powerful bomb, disrupting supplies to several neighbouring localities. 
BAGHDAD - Gunmen killed the local head of a Sunni religious group in the Iraqi Shiite city of Basra on Friday, the group and state television said. Unknown gunmen shot dead 
(KUNA) -- The head of the Karbala Council arrested Thursday is a terrorist and leader of an assassination ring in the Southern Iraqi region, the US Army stated Friday. The army statement said Iraqi land forces raided a location in Karbala yesterday morning and arrested Sheikh Aqeel as a senior terrorist leader and head of a terrorist organization. According to the same statement, Iraqi Army soldiers arrested Aqeel with the assistance of coalition consultants and that not a single fire had been shot.
(KUNA) -- A high ranking Iraqi police officer was assassinated in front of his house by unidentified gunmen on Friday in Al Mosul City, Northern Iraq, an Interior Ministry source said. Separately, a North Gas Company employee was assassinated by anonymous militants near Kirkuk. Efforts were made to revive the employee but he died and the body was taken to the coroner's office.
Two Palestinian fighters have been killed and two others wounded in an Israeli air strike on the Gaza Strip. Aljazeera, quoting Palestinian medical sources, said the fighters, who belonged to Islamic Jihad's al-Quds Brigades, were killed inside a car late on Friday in northern Gaza. Islamic Jihad identified the dead men as Emad Yassin and Habib Ashour.
