Afghan and coalition troops killed about 45 insurgents in attacks on Taliban camps in southern Afghanistan as U.S.-led forces pressed on with their largest offensive since 2001, military officials said Saturday.
A total of about 85 suspected militants have been killed in the past week as some 10,000 U.S.-led troops spread out over four southern provinces in the campaign dubbed Operation Mountain Thrust aimed at quelling a Taliban resurgence.
An estimated 40 fighters were killed Friday when coalition forces surprised militants as they gathered at a camp in Khod Valley, part of Shahidi Hassas district of Uruzgan province, the military said.
Continued on Page 49
KANDAHAR: Ten Taliban were killed in fresh fighting in Afghanistan, officials said on Saturday, taking the rebel death toll to around 100 since a major new military operation was made public three days ago. Seven died in the southern province of Kandahar in the hours-long gunfight that erupted after rebels stormed a district government office at midnight. Afterwards, "the Taliban fled, leaving the seven bodies at the site," Interior Ministry spokesman Yousuf Stanizai said. "One police was also martyred and one was wounded in the several hours' fighting." Three more Taliban were killed in neighbouring Helmand province late on Friday when a bomb they were planting in a road exploded, provincial spokesman Muhaidin Khan said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/18/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
that makes me feel all sunshiney inside . Good mornin' Afghanistan!
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/18/2006 10:22 Comments ||
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(AIP): Taliban claimed Friday killing seven US soldiers in Oruzgan province last night. Taliban Spokesman Qari Muhammad Yousaf phoned Afghan Islamic Press and said, Taliban attacked US troops in Oruzgans capital city Teren Kot last night and killed seven US soldiers. US war-plans bombard the area after the clash which left three civilians and two Taliban dead. Taliban claim was still not confirmed by any independent source.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/18/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
These folks learn fast. Just claim, US kills civilians, and you got attention! Sheezzz.. how do we stop this?
(AIP): Seven Taliban and one policeman killed in a clash in Kandahar last night, officials said on Saturday. Spokesman of Governor Kandahar Muhmmad Daud Ahmadi, while giving details to Afghan Islamic Press, said Seven Taliban were killed in a clash in Miannasheen district of Kandahar province. One injured Talib was detained in the clash. One policeman was also killed in the clash, he added. Mainnasheen district is some 100 kilometers northeast of Kandahar city.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/18/2006 00:00 ||
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(AIP): Dil Aram explosion was a suicide attack which left two Afghan National Army and three civilian injured, official said on Saturday. Nimroz Governor Spokesman Waheedullah Khairzad confirmed the Dil Aram explosion and said, A suicide bomber collided his explosive laden motorcycle with an ANA vehicle which killed the bomber itself and injured five including two ANA soldiers. On the question, is he sure that it is suicide attacked, he replied, Yes! I am sure it was a suicide attack and I am not joking at all. Earlier a security officer said that bomb exploded in motorcycle which destroyed ANA vehicle and injured 12 people including six ANA soldiers.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/18/2006 00:00 ||
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(SomaliNet) Former trade minister Muse Sudi Yalahow and warlord turned businessman Bashir Rage Shirar who both had also given up the membership of the defeated alliance for restoration of peace and counter terrorism (ARPCT) which was believed to have been backed by the US government, are reported to have left their strong residences in north Mogadishu overnight and sailed on a boat from the shore. Both leaders were seen sailing one of the speedy boats from Lido coast in Karan district of north Mogadishu, they carried no weapons, they were alone and it is not known where they have gone, Ubah Abukar, one of the residents told Somalinet on Saturday.
There have been conflicting reports on where they were heading to and sailed. Sources close to Muse Sudi and Bashir Rage say they have properly been called by US navy officials in Djibouti and sent them a craft to take them to the US navy base in horn of Africa. It is yet known why the US navy officials called the warlords who were finished in more than three months bloody street battles with Islamic courts union who now controls most of the Somalia capital city Mogadishu and extended its power to central regions in Somalia.
Some reports say they might have gone to Addale or Eldher districts of Galgadud region; both districts are alongside the northern coast of Somalia. Before their departure, both warlords did not talk to anyone or informed the people their sailing. Abdulahi Sheekh Hassan, one of the well known Somali politicians who were so close to Sudi and Rage confirmed the reporters the departure of both leaders but declined to comment on their voyage. Mr. Hassan denied that the weapons of Muse Sudi were looted as one of local FM stations in Mogadishu broadcasted on Saturday morning. It is untrue and baseless assertion there have been no looting on the weapons left by Muse Sudi, the weapons are in hands of the elders of his sub-clan Daud of Abgal clan, Hassan said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/18/2006 00:00 ||
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For "warlords", they don't seem too good at it. Could we change the name to "runawaylords" or "surrenderlords"?
Fourteen people have gone on trial over three terrorist attacks in Cairo which killed two French tourists and an American. The 14 defendants, including two women, all pleaded innocent to charges on Saturday that included collaborating in the April 2005 attacks, the unlicensed possession of weapons, ammunition and explosives, harbouring fugitives, and belonging to a banned group.
"Nope. Nope. Wudn't us."
In the first of the three attacks, on the edge of the Khan el-Khalili bazaar, the bomber and the three foreigners died and 18 people were wounded. In the second, three weeks later, only the bomber died when he jumped from a bridge behind the Egyptian Museum in central Cairo, landing near a tourist bus. Nine people were wounded, four of them foreigners. A few hours later, two women opened fire on a tourist bus near the Cairo Citadel. There were no casualties in the attack but one of the pair shot dead her accomplice before turning the gun on herself and later died in a hospital.
The defendants appeared in a caged dock at the Cairo emergency security court. Five other people implicated in the attacks are dead. Four died carrying them out, and the other in police custody. The prosecutor told the court that the defendants had confessed during interrogation to buying the explosive materials and making the bombs used in the attacks.
On a cold night last October, police stormed a West London apartment and found Younis Tsouli at his computer, allegedly building a Web page with the title "You Bomb It."
Initially, the raid seemed relatively routine, one of about 1,000 arrests made under Britain's terrorism act during the last five years. The more eye-popping evidence was allegedly found in the London-area homes of two accused co-conspirators: a DVD manual on making suicide bomb vests, a note with the heading "Welcome to Jihad," material on beheadings, a recipe for rocket fuel, and a note with the formula "hospital = attack." But as investigators sifted through computer disk information the picture that emerged was dramatic. Police had apparently stumbled on the man suspected of being the most hunted cyber-extremist in the world.
Tsouli, a 22-year-old Moroccan, is being widely named as a central figure in a cyber-terrorist network that has inspired suspected homegrown extremists in Europe and North America, including the 17 people recently arrested in the Toronto area. The massive, 750 gigabytes of confiscated computer and disk information an average DVD movie is 4.7 gigabytes found on Tsouli's computer files is an Internet trail believed to link some of the 39 terror suspects arrested in Canada, Britain, the United States, Sweden, Denmark and Bosnia over the past eight months.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
06/18/2006 00:00 ||
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N. Korean leadership ordered its citizen to raise their flag and listen to their (government) communique from TV in the evening, according to Sankei Shimbun (of Japan), quoting Japanese government sources.
The paper said it is paying attention this development because it could be related to the launch of Taepodong-2.
#4
"North Korean officials denied that the country is preparing to test-launch a missile... Visiting officials from the North told a South Korean lawmaker that concerns over Pyongyang's possible missile test are "unfounded," Japan's Kyodo News agency reported from Seoul.
"
#12
According to Fox, the "big announcement" at 2pm had nothing to do with rockets:
There was no mention of a missile in a report from North Korea's state media on a national meeting marking the anniversary of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il starting work in the country's communist party.
Wonder if they were going to launch today, and the rocket didn't behave itself, so they had to go with Plan B.
Posted by: Mike ||
06/18/2006 8:47 Comments ||
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#13
Another floral gift to Kimmie from the Greater Guineau Bissau Peoples Chapter for the Study of the Juche Idea and Tractor Repair maybe?
Raise your glasses of sour potato milk high and toast Dear Leader!
#18
North Korea was poised Sunday to test-fire a missile after satellite imagery showed fueling had been completed, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported.
The launch site is on the country's remote east coast and images show the missile is larger and more sophisticated than the one Pyongyang test-fired over Japan in 1998. U.S. experts said it likely has an estimated range of 2,400 miles, the New York Times reported.
Japan's Sankei Shimbun newspaper reported the government had ordered citizens to raise the national flag and watch television in anticipation of a "message to the people."
The Times said experts suspect the missile would probably carry a satellite, which would enable North Korea to say it was a civilian endeavor and not a military move.
Saturday, the United States, Japan and South Korea called for North Korea to cancel the test and return to six-nation talks aimed at dismantling its nuclear program.
Posted by: john ||
06/18/2006 15:54 Comments ||
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Hatem Fariz, 33, charged in Florida with having ties to a terrorist organization pleaded guilty Friday to processing more than $1.4 million in phony food stamp transactions at a grocery store he once owned. He faces up to 20 years in prison on each count and a fine of up to twice the value of the transactions when he is sentenced Aug. 18.
Prosecutors say Fariz and his employees defrauded the federal food stamp program by trading cash for food stamp benefits credited to the store he owned in Chicago. The transactions would be rung up with specialized debit cards used by food stamp recipients to buy groceries, but the cardholders instead received cash payments for lesser amounts, according to the plea agreement. Fariz also acknowledged processing transactions for other businesses not authorized to take food stamps.
Fariz, who now lives in Spring Hill, Fla., is also charged in an unrelated federal case there in which prosecutors allege he supported and raised money for a terrorist group.
#4
Food stamps are one of the most aggravating aspects of welfare.
For every family that desperately need food to survive; there is another who spends an entire month's worth of stamps for a week of meat--then go hungry for the rest of the month; and another that trades their stamps so that they can get junk food, soda, cigarettes and liquor; and another that only eats rice and beans no matter what they could eat, so they trade their extra stamps to buy frivolous crap, the only furniture in their home being a satellite wide-screen TV.
And of course there are corrupt grocers and black marketeers, and government bureaucrats that seem to really *hate* the poor, who make it their job to torment people who *can't* get on workfare because of disability.
And politicians who don't distinguish between groceries and cash payments. Cut one?, why not cut them both? Nothing motivates like children starving to death.
As I said, aggravating, all the way around. And in a country so bloated with excess food that thousands of tons of it rot every year.
#5
This reminds me of the Edward Everett Hale story, "The Man Without a Country." Rather than waste $1 on putting this putz in prison, ship him to Gaza with the proviso that he NEVER be allowed back in the US.
HT to LGF!
Marya Bangee doesn't know what to believe. The UC Irvine sophomore thinks the fact that she's Muslim is the reason she's been singled out for searches at airports and been scrutinized by police at anti-war demonstrations. "racism!... er...profiling!"
She's also distrustful of the FBI, uncertain whether the agency is telling the complete story of whether its employees are monitoring Orange County's Muslim community.
#2
I don't know why it's so hard for some FBI Agents to answer these questions. The answer should be that the FBI follows all credible leads involving terrorism irrespective of its origin. Moreover, the FBI does not have the time nor inclination to drive around any community looking for Muslims to investigate. When I retired from the BU recently I could have opened 15-20 cases based upon exisiting cases, but did not have the time or resources.
#3
In addition, she said, agents have asked college students questions about their mosque and what the iman preaches.
Did the students answer? Were their answers honest?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
06/18/2006 15:51 Comments ||
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#4
The four-year investigation of the Central California city's large Muslim community began after a former Lodi resident gave erroneous information to FBI agents. No evidence surfaced of any al-Qaida connections.
Perhaps not al'Qaida, but funding of jihadi camps in Pakistan.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
06/18/2006 15:53 Comments ||
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#5
"They cite several instances of agents asking people which mosque they attend and whom they visited during family vacations to the Middle East."
If the FBI came to visit, I would have no problem telling them which church I attend and whom I visited during family vacations. In fact, I would have no problem with them analyzing my hard drive or analyzing my financial transactions. Or asking anyone about me. Oh, and another thing Marya Bangee, I'm not a Muslim and I too have been "singled out" for searches at airports. Terrorism has a largely-Muslim face -- deal with it.
#6
They better be watching them or I want my tax dollars back. I bet ol' Marya didn't have any problem when they were watching the KKK or other militia groups. Since the Muslims don't watch their own, we rely on the FBI to do it. Too bad so sad, Marya. If you didn't have anything to hide, it wouldn't bother you so much. Don't like it, leave.
#7
The FBI on Friday released a statement announcing that its agents plan to undergo training at a Los Angeles mosque to learn more about Muslim religion and culture. "The FBI is committed to ensuring that our personnel become more culturally fluent so that our investigations are more effective and respectful," the statement said.
This is the sentence that scares me the most out of the whole article. Recruiting is a matter of skill and statistics. We are now passing all of these FBI agents through a potential enemy indoctrination center. 99% of them will pass through with no problems, but all it takes is one guy with family problems or some other personal crisis (not to mention Chinese broad issues, eh, Frank G). He goes to the mosque for "training" and he finds that Islam appeals to some unmet need or desire, and just like that, the FBI is infiltrated. I sometimes feel that our whole society has just plain gone nuts.
... U.S. intelligence got its first inkling of the plot from the contents of a laptop computer belonging to a Bahraini jihadist captured in Saudi Arabia early in 2003. It contained plans for a gas-dispersal system dubbed "the mubtakkar" (Arabic for inventive). Fearing that al-Qaeda's engineers had achieved the holy grail of terror R&D a device to effectively distribute hydrogen-cyanide gas, which is deadly when inhaled the CIA immediately set about building a prototype based on the captured design, which comprised two separate chambers for sodium cyanide and a stable source of hydrogen, such as hydrochloric acid. A seal between the two could be broken by a remote trigger, producing the gas for dispersal. The prototype confirmed their worst fears: "In the world of terrorist weaponry," writes Suskind, "this was the equivalent of splitting the atom. Obtain a few widely available chemicals, and you could construct it with a trip to Home Depot and then kill everyone in the store."
Having discovered the device, exposing the plot in which it might be used became a matter of extreme urgency. Although the Saudis were cooperating more than ever before in efforts to track down al-Qaeda operatives in the kingdom, the interrogations of suspects connected with the Bahraini on whose computer the Mubtakkar was discovered were going nowhere. The U.S. would have to look elsewhere.
Conventional wisdom has long held that the U.S. has no human intelligence assets inside al Qaeda. "That is not true," writes Suskind. Over the previous six months, U.S. agents had been receiving accurate tips from a man the writer identifies simply as "Ali," a management-level al-Qaeda operative who believed his leaders had erred in attacking the U.S. directly.... And when asked about the Mubtakkar and the names of the men arrested in Saudi Arabia, Ali was aware of the plot. He identified the key man as Bin Laden's top operative on the Arabian Peninsula, Yusuf al Ayeri, a.k.a. "Swift Sword," who had been released days earlier by Saudi authorities, unaware that al-Ayeri was bin Laden's point man in the kingdom...
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Posted by: Fred ||
06/18/2006 00:00 ||
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Keep in mind, this is Time mag and this is from a guy trying to hock a book. Suskind is the guy who authored a book about Paul O'Neil, former treasury head and traveling companion of Bono.
Posted by: Captain America ||
06/18/2006 1:24 Comments ||
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#2
So I decided to figure out if this could really be a threat. My assumptions:
• Standard temperature and pressure (STP, ∴ Avogardro's law is valid)
• 1000m3 room volume (envision a 70' by 70' conference room with high ceilings)
• The room has poor ventilation and excellent circulation (air conditioning is out, so the management brought in fans... I didn't want to spend 2 hours relearning differential calculus and diffusion equations, yuk)
• The device can generate one kilogram of HCN (hydrogen cyanide) in a few seconds
Anyway, HCN is 31g/mole and 1 kg of it is 32.25 moles. The room has a volume of 1000m3 and thus 1,000,000 liters. All gasses have a molar volume of 22.4 moles/liter at STP, so that gives me 44,643 moles of gas in the room. The HCN released in the room will yield a concentration of 722 ppm of HCN. NIOSH gives the Immediate Danger to Life and Health of HCN as 50 ppm. The median lethal concentration for a rat is between 323 and 503 parts per million for 5 minutes. The back of the envelope calculation says it might be technically feasible. Of course my math could be all screwed up, too.
#3
Suskind quotes a CIA operative as questioning whether it was an accident that the Saudis had killed the kingpin who could expose a cell planning a chemical weapons attack inside the U.S. "The Saudis just shrugged," the source tells Suskind. "They said their people got a little overzealous."
Funny how many Saudi agents terror suspects end up shot or beheaded before they can be interrogated.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
06/18/2006 8:33 Comments ||
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#4
Hmmm. HCN = 1+12+14 = 27g/mol, so 1 kg HCN = 37 moles, times 22.4L/mol = 830 liters HCN. Assuming instant, uniform dispersal through a volume of 1,000,000 liters, I get 830 ppm HCN (I think ppm is by volume, not by moles). I'd use the same source you do for LD50s, so I'd have to agree that it could be adios muchachos.
HCN was better known an Zyklon B, and it used to be the gas used for capital punishment in the US. So we know HCN works just fine in enclosed spaces.
The 1993 WTC bombers originally planned to load the truck with many cylinders of HCN as well as explosives. Yousef's idea was to detonate the truck bomb next to a key support pillar, knocking one tower over into the other, and then gassing everyone as they fled.
That wouldn't have worked. The subway scenario could. But that also isn't news. See, e.g., Aum Shinrikyo, sarin, Tokyo subway, 1995.
#6
Parts per million (ppm)is usually expressed as milligrams per liter. 11A5S---Avagadro would be proud of ye, heh.
If al Q was to do an effective subway job, they would have to deal with the ventilation issue. And they would have to coordinate with others, which would increase the chance of being noticed by security personnel and cameras. A terrorist could do some damage, and hurt or kill a number of civilians, but I doubt that they could successfully pull off the big show that they would want to happen.
Also, they are probably thinking of the rain of hell that they would experience if they did pull it off. We are fighting Al Q in a pretty restrained fashion. If we had a mass casualty incident, Wazoo, for one place, would become land 'o' many BIG craters, along with other places.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
06/18/2006 15:22 Comments ||
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#7
If we had a mass casualty incident, Wazoo, for one place, would become land 'o' many BIG craters, along with other places.
Never happen, regardless of what happens. Jihadis could rape and gas a day care center and the response would be lectures about our need to understand Islam.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
06/18/2006 15:55 Comments ||
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#8
I have fears that you are right, Robert, but my hopes are that we get a clue. The Brits totally fell apart, governmental-wise after their 7/7 incident. Russia under Putin, the same thing. Only thing that happened after Beslan was Putin consolidating power.
A couple of serious reprisals against al Q and the financiers would put a message out and stop this nonsense. We don't have to be loved. We don't have to be liked. Hell, we don't have to be respected. All we have to be with our enemies is feared. They need to feel real fear for themselves and their kin. That will get them squared away.
This whole thing is very frustrating, when we have the means but not the will to deal with it.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
06/18/2006 16:28 Comments ||
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#9
ES2219: You're right. I screwed up the easiest calc of the whole bunch, adding up the atomic weights of H, C, and N. I now come up with the same number as you.
#11
BTW, AP, sorry for the non-standard units, but all of my edumacation in toxic gasses comes from the OSHA HAZWOPER world and their literature always uses ppm.
#12
I just came back from a water pilot testing trip. All of our chemical additions are in mg/l or parts per million. When we mix the volumes, we convert ppm or mg/l to volumes with specific gravity. Volumes come and go, but weight, well is more constant.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
06/18/2006 18:16 Comments ||
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Thousands of US and Iraqi troops set up outposts Sunday in southern parts of Ramadi as part of an operation to establish Iraqi army bases in the country's largest Sunni Arab city and begin wresting it away from months of insurgent control.
US commanders stressed that the operation was not a large-scale assault on the city - Arab television networks and some Western outlets have reported on an impending attack on the city - but rather an "isolation" tactic to prevent insurgents from receiving supplies or reinforcements from outside.
Large swathes of Ramadi have been in insurgent control for months. Powerful roadside bombings and running gunbattles in the street take place everyday, confining US patrols to small sections of the city. Prominent tribal leaders who have cooperated with US forces have been assassinated or forced to flee outside the country.
#4
this is why United Morons of America one day sooon will be nuked .
reading the vitriolic comments of rantburg posters show the racist and troglodite mind of
pro iszrael fondamentalist Amerikan hillbilly
monday morning I will be reporting your site to the nuke police .....
#8
who is this "Nuke police" you speak of and why should I be afraid of them?
Ramadi has proven itself to be a festering boil that should be lanced and bled dry.
We and the Iraqis have tried several things to change the situation their and if the Iraqi gov says it has had enough then the Sunni must either get out or give up. or die with the satisfaction that they remained defiant to the end.
Much like S.C. in 1864 we could have columbia burned or not, when it was we knew the war was over
#9
Crasher, please tell me more about yourself. I'd really like to know all the details you can share about how you got to this informed position. Knowing details helps improve the focus of the collection process immensely!
#10
Hey mods! Can you give us crasher's IP address and location just for educational purposes? He sounds a little hostile. I'd like to know if he's in my neighborhood or not.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - U.S. troops on Saturday searched for two soldiers missing after an attack that killed one of their comrades at a checkpoint in the so-called "Triangle of Death" south of Baghdad.
U.S. Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said four raids had been carried out since Friday's attack and that ground forces, helicopters and airplanes were taking part in the search. He said a dive team also was going to search for the men, whose checkpoint was located by a Euphrates River canal near Youssifiyah, 12 miles south of Baghdad.
The New York Times reported that Iraqi residents in the area said they saw two soldiers taken prisoner by a group of masked guerrillas. It said the two surviving soldiers were led to two cars and driven away.
Fellow soldiers at a nearby checkpoint heard small-arms fire and explosions, and a quick-reaction force reached the scene in 15 minutes, the military said. The force found one soldier dead but no sign of the two others.
"We are currently using every means at our disposal on the ground, in the air and in the water to find them," said Caldwell, the spokesman for U.S. forces in Baghdad. "We continue to search using every means available and will not stop looking until we find the missing soldiers," he said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/18/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
This calls for "on your knees" praying. Might be time to go tie a big yellow ribbon around a front porch column. At least, it would let me feel, I am doing something and showing my support for their return. Keep them and their families in your hearts. Hold them ever so close, till we get them back.
#2
And if that don't work, the next 100 terrorist "leaders" caught get tossed in the wood chipper. Feet first. With a pig.
Posted by: grb ||
06/18/2006 1:12 Comments ||
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#3
Ahmed Khalaf Falah, a farmer who said he witnessed the attack Friday, said three Humvees were manning a checkpoint when they came under fire from many directions. Two Humvees went after the assailants, but the third was ambushed before it could move, he told The Associated Press.
Seven masked gunmen, including one carrying what Falah described as a heavy machine gun, killed the driver of the third vehicle, then took the two other U.S. soldiers captive, the witness said. His account could not be verified independently.
About 40 people have been killed and more than 80 wounded in a string of bomb and mortar attacks across Iraq, most of them in Baghdad. The violence on Saturday, which included at least four car bombs in or near Baghdad, occurred despite a security crackdown in the Iraqi capital.
In the deadliest attack, a car bomb struck an Iraqi police checkpoint in al-Maalef district, a Shia area southwest of Baghdad, killing at least 12 people and wounding 38, police said. Another car bomb targeting the Iraqi army and police killed 11 people. Fifteen others were wounded when a bomber blew himself up at a joint Iraqi army and police checkpoint in Baghdad's Karrada neighbourhood, an interior ministry official said.
Meanwhile, Aljazeera reported quoting a hospital source in Falluja in western Iraq that eight Iraqis, among them women and children belonging to one family, were killed and six others wounded on Friday night in an air strike by US warplanes. The bombing targeted a house in Ibrahim Bin Ali district in north-eastern Falluja.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
06/18/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Maybe they should turn Baghdad into a beach town, flipflops mandatory, nothing more than bermudas and a tank top. And dogs welcome, especially bomb-sniffing ones.
JERUSALEM (AFP) - An Israeli court sentenced a colonel to 15 years in prison for providing the Lebanese militia Hezbollah with sensitive information on military deployments along Israel's northern border. The military tribune also ordered Colonel Omar el-Heib's immediate expulsion from the army, a military source told AFP.
Heib, a member of Israel's Bedouin minority, was last May found guilty of charges of aggravated espionage, contact with an enemy agent and trafficking drugs which he received in exchange for the information. He was nevertheless acquitted of charges of high treason.
Following his sentence, Heib said he intended to appeal the decision.
"I'm innocent I tells yez! Pure as the driven snow!"
According to his indictment, Heib provided a Hezbollah agent in 2002 with details on tanks and troops along the border, as well as on Israeli air force activity over southern Lebanon, where most Hezbollah forces are deployed.
Heib, who had been a commander in an elite scouting unit before being seriously wounded in an exchange of fire with Hezbollah along the border, went on to recruit Bedouin youths who can volunteer to serve in the army.
Arab terrorists are using tunnels from Egypt to smuggle arms and ammunition to the Gaza area in greater amounts since Israel demolished Jewish communities in the region and withdrew its troops. Israel Security Agency Yuval Diskin told a Knesset panel more than week ago of the smuggling but did not detail the use of tunnels.
Israel agreed to withdraw its troops from the area on condition that Egypt patrol the smuggling tunnels along the Philadelphi Route. However, tons of explosives, millions of bullets and thousands of guns and dozens of shoulder-launchers, missiles and grenade launches have passed through the tunnels, according to the Israel newspaper Ha'aretz.
#2
Although at the moment it appears they are using their little toys more on one another. And occasionally on the Egyptians... but that is the cost of doing business with such people.
Silly me. I'd have said that rocket fire indicates there's no ceasefire.
Militants fired five homemade rockets into Israel Friday, a day after the Palestinian government offered to renew a cease-fire. Hamas announced Thursday it was ready to restore a February 2005 cease-fire that broke down last week after a beach explosion killed eight Palestinians. A Hamas official said the group also was working to stop the daily rocket barrages against Israel.
Differences over the truce offer, which was conditional on Israel stopping raids and air strikes in Gaza and the West Bank, could point to disagreement between the Hamas grassroots and the government over tactics. "We are not interested in making any offers or proposals," Sami Abu Zuhri, official spokesman for the Hamas movement, said. "When the occupation stops its killings and crimes against our people then the factions may look into the issue in accordance with the interests of our people," he said. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement and the Islamic Jihad group both rejected the government's truce offer.
Israel had its own conditions for a truce. "If it is quiet, we will answer that with quiet," said Mark Regev, spokesman for Israel's Foreign Ministry.
But violence quickly resumed. Late Thursday, an Israeli aircraft attacked a group of militants on the Gaza-Israel border. The military said the militants were trying to plant bombs. Palestinian hospital officials said the bodies of two Islamic Jihad militants were recovered. Sources identified the dead as Mohammad Abu Tanjara, 22, and Salam Abu Zubeida, 23, both from Islamic Jihad. Militant groups loosely linked to Fatah claimed responsibility for the rocket attacks.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/18/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Heh, this article is a clusterfuck... Sorting it out a little...
1) Hamas offers to restore a cease-fire and "try" to stop daily rocket attacks.
2) Official Hamas spokesman says "We are not interested in making any offers or proposals..."
3) Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement and the Islamic Jihad group both rejected the government's truce offer.
4) Militant groups loosely linked to Fatah continue the daily rocket attacks.
5) Two Islamic Jihad "militants" were zapped trying to plant bombson the Gaza-Israel border.
Sheesh.
Pilots, loosely linked to the IAF, blew the little fuckers away.
#2
And let's not forget that all those loosely linked militants are on the payroll of Fatah/PLO, IJ, Hamas, or Hizbollah. They aren't just going to Party barbeques for the food.
#3
Using the word "homemade" makes it sound all so inoffensive, like strawberry jam, rather than a device that is perfectly capable of killing people indiscriminantly (and is used for exactly that purpose).
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
06/18/2006 10:20 Comments ||
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#4
Firecrackers purchased with suitcase money.
Posted by: Captain America ||
06/18/2006 12:28 Comments ||
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Sri Lanka's police said suspected Tamil Tiger rebels ambushed and killed three policemen in the island's north on Sunday, while the rebels said they were also attacked.
If government estimates are correct that 25-30 Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels were killed in a naval clash on Saturday, more than 100 people have died since Thursday, the worst violence since a 2002 ceasefire halted two decades of war.
Police Deputy Inspector General Gamini Silva told Reuters that a police water tanker was attacked with a claymore fragmentation mine near the northern town of Vavuniya, just south of rebel territory. He blamed the Tigers.
Continued on Page 49
COLOMBO - Sri Lankan police Saturday arrested five suspected Tamil Tiger frogmen who were laying mines along a strategic sea lane used by naval craft, police chief Chandra Fernando said.
The inspector general of police said information from local residents helped them to make the arrest of the frogmen laying a locally produced version of limpet mines that magnetically attach to the hull of vessels. They were on a suicidal mission to lay the mine, Fernando told reporters here. When we tried to arrest two of them, they swallowed cyanide and tried to commit suicide. They are now in hospital.
Hospital sources said one of them succumbed to his injuries while police maintained they were questioning the others who were believed to be members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) seagoing wing.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/18/2006 00:00 ||
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Sri Lanka's government and Tamil Tiger guerrillas have each claimed victory after a naval clash that officials said left more than 40 people dead or missing. The Tigers also threatened retaliation if air force bombing continued. SP Thamilselvan, the Tigers' political wing leader, said the military attacks "would only lead Sri Lanka to a fatal war".
Sri Lankan jets pounded guerrilla targets on Thursday and Friday in response to an attack on a civilian bus that killed 64 people in the worst violence since a 2002 ceasefire, raising fears of an imminent return to civil war. Thamilselvan denied the separatist group had anything to do with the bus bombing. The government said on Saturday that the air strikes had ceased.
But officials said more than 40 people were dead or missing in a clash in the northeastern Mannar district, while suspected Tiger frogmen were captured and attempted suicide near the capital. A military spokesman said eight Tiger boats were destroyed by government naval fire. "They attacked the navy and police. We think 20-25 LTTE cadres are dead. Four navy sailors were also killed and one civilian succumbed to his wounds. Three naval craft were slightly damaged," the spokesman said. But another military source said the government toll could be higher, with eight naval special forces troops missing.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/18/2006 00:00 ||
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Lebanon's defence minister says an Israeli aircraft probably set off the bomb that killed an Islamic Jihad leader in the southern city of Sidon on May 26. The blast killed Mahmud al-Majzub as well as his brother Nidal.
On Thursday, Ilias Murr said: "Information received so far shows there is a strong possibility that the detonator in the booby-trapped car was set off by an Israeli aircraft monitoring his movements via a camera mounted on a truck." Referring to daily violations of Lebanese airspace by Israeli aircraft, Murr said "the worst thing is that these violations enable the carrying out of terrorist operations in Lebanon, which is both frightening and dangerous".
He said it was "the first time in the 30 years Israel has been carrying out operations in Lebanon that an operation was executed at such a high-tech level. Nothing can provide protection in the face of this superior technique in terrorism and explosives."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/18/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
send the Lebanese or Syrian Air Force up to stop em.....no? Oh, that's right....you can't
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/18/2006 10:28 Comments ||
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#2
Nothing can provide protection in the face of this superior technique in terrorism and explosives.
Our weapons are useless against them! Nothing can stop them! NOTHING!
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Afghan and coalition troops killed about 45 insurgents in attacks on Taliban camps in southern Afghanistan as U.S.-led forces pressed on with their largest offensive since 2001, military officials said Saturday.
KANDAHAR: Ten Taliban were killed in fresh fighting in Afghanistan, officials said on Saturday, taking the rebel death toll to around 100 since a major new military operation was made public three days ago. Seven died in the southern province of Kandahar in the hours-long gunfight that erupted after rebels stormed a district government office at midnight. Afterwards, "the Taliban fled, leaving the seven bodies at the site," Interior Ministry spokesman Yousuf Stanizai said. "One police was also martyred and one was wounded in the several hours' fighting." Three more Taliban were killed in neighbouring Helmand province late on Friday when a bomb they were planting in a road exploded, provincial spokesman Muhaidin Khan said.
(AIP): Taliban claimed Friday killing seven US soldiers in Oruzgan province last night. Taliban Spokesman Qari Muhammad Yousaf phoned Afghan Islamic Press and said, Taliban attacked US troops in Oruzgans capital city Teren Kot last night and killed seven US soldiers. US war-plans bombard the area after the clash which left three civilians and two Taliban dead. Taliban claim was still not confirmed by any independent source.
(AIP): Dil Aram explosion was a suicide attack which left two Afghan National Army and three civilian injured, official said on Saturday. Nimroz Governor Spokesman Waheedullah Khairzad confirmed the Dil Aram explosion and said, A suicide bomber collided his explosive laden motorcycle with an ANA vehicle which killed the bomber itself and injured five including two ANA soldiers. On the question, is he sure that it is suicide attacked, he replied, Yes! I am sure it was a suicide attack and I am not joking at all. Earlier a security officer said that bomb exploded in motorcycle which destroyed ANA vehicle and injured 12 people including six ANA soldiers.
Fourteen people have gone on trial over three terrorist attacks in Cairo which killed two French tourists and an American. The 14 defendants, including two women, all pleaded innocent to charges on Saturday that included collaborating in the April 2005 attacks, the unlicensed possession of weapons, ammunition and explosives, harbouring fugitives, and belonging to a banned group.
On a cold night last October, police stormed a West London apartment and found 
... U.S. intelligence got its first inkling of the plot from the contents of a laptop computer belonging to a Bahraini jihadist captured in Saudi Arabia early in 2003. It contained plans for a gas-dispersal system dubbed "the mubtakkar" (Arabic for inventive). Fearing that al-Qaeda's engineers had achieved the holy grail of terror R&D a device to effectively distribute hydrogen-cyanide gas, which is deadly when inhaled the CIA immediately set about building a prototype based on the captured design, which comprised two separate chambers for sodium cyanide and a stable source of hydrogen, such as hydrochloric acid. A seal between the two could be broken by a remote trigger, producing the gas for dispersal. The prototype confirmed their worst fears: "In the world of terrorist weaponry," writes Suskind, "this was the equivalent of splitting the atom. Obtain a few widely available chemicals, and you could construct it with a trip to Home Depot and then kill everyone in the store." 
About 40 people have been killed and more than 80 wounded in a string of bomb and mortar attacks across Iraq, most of them in Baghdad. The violence on Saturday, which included at least four car bombs in or near Baghdad, occurred despite a security crackdown in the Iraqi capital.
JERUSALEM (AFP) - An Israeli court sentenced a colonel to 15 years in prison for providing the Lebanese militia Hezbollah with sensitive information on military deployments along Israel's northern border. The military tribune also ordered Colonel Omar el-Heib's immediate expulsion from the army, a military source told AFP.
Arab terrorists are using tunnels from Egypt to smuggle arms and ammunition to the Gaza area in greater amounts since Israel demolished Jewish communities in the region and withdrew its troops. Israel Security Agency Yuval Diskin told a Knesset panel more than week ago of the smuggling but did not detail the use of tunnels.
Militants fired five homemade rockets into Israel Friday, a day after the Palestinian government offered to renew a cease-fire. Hamas announced Thursday it was ready to restore a February 2005 cease-fire that broke down last week after a beach explosion killed eight Palestinians. A Hamas official said the group also was working to stop the daily rocket barrages against Israel.
COLOMBO - Sri Lankan police Saturday arrested five suspected Tamil Tiger frogmen who were laying mines along a strategic sea lane used by naval craft, police chief Chandra Fernando said.
Sri Lanka's government and Tamil Tiger guerrillas have each claimed victory after a naval clash that officials said left more than 40 people dead or missing. The Tigers also threatened retaliation if air force bombing continued. SP Thamilselvan, the Tigers' political wing leader, said the military attacks "would only lead Sri Lanka to a fatal war".
Lebanon's defence minister says an Israeli aircraft probably set off the bomb that killed an Islamic Jihad leader in the southern city of Sidon on May 26. The blast killed Mahmud al-Majzub as well as his brother Nidal. 
