(SomaliNet) The police commander of the semi-autonomous region of Puntland Yusuf Ahmed Kheyr and Puntland deputy finance minister were reported have been gone under house-arrest on Thursday after they were accused of having links with Islamic Courts running the capital of Somalia Mogadishu and other key towns of south and central of the country.
Fifth columnists, eh?
The Puntland authorities said the two officials are under house arrest because they expressed their support for the role of Islamists in Mogadishu. Both officials have been convicted in the acts of holding lecture on discussing Islamic Courts in Mogadishu, Puntland official said. The order of putting the police chief and the minister came from the presidential palace of Puntland state.
"They said what? Are they nuts? Oh, right. Okay, jug 'em!"
The Muslim clerics in Puntland condemned the house-arrest of the officials as illegal an in violation of their religious belief.
"They have the right to support mayhem and insurrection! Says so in the Holy Book, you can look it up!"
Puntland have been conducting anti Islamist operations in the region imposing tough actions against any one suspected to be in favor of Islamic Courts in south of Somalia.
Since they've seen what's been going on with their crazy cousins to the south.
Earlier Puntland authority accused Islamists of planning to attack Puntland settlements which are almost relatively calm since its formation in 1997 according to the southern parts of the country. Islamic Courts denied of being on attack to Puntland.
"Lies! All lies!"
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/01/2006 00:36 ||
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#1
The oldest known expedition to Punt was organized by Pharaoh Sahure of the Fifth Dynasty (25th century BC). Around 1950 BC, in the reign of Mentuhotep III, an officer named Hennu made one or more voyages to Punt. A very famous expedition was conducted by Nehsi for Queen Hatshepsut in the 15th century BC to obtain myrrh; a report of that voyage survives on a relief in Hatshepsut's funerary temple at Deir el-Bahri. At the time, Punt was ruled by Queen Ati. Several of her successors, including Thutmoses III, also organized expeditions to Punt.
The precise location of the land of Punt has been a subject of debate. Ancient Egyptian texts are consistent about connecting the location of Punt with the Red Sea, narrowing the possibilities for Punt's geographic location. These records indicate Punt's location to be found south of Nubia, but exactly what modern territory it corresponds to is disputed. Historians generally agree on eastern Africa, possibly near what is now the coast of Sudan or Eritrea (as is suggested by archaeological evidence). Some argue Punt was as far away as Puntland, Somalia.
#2
My pre-caffienated eyes first read the headline as PORTLAND Officials this morning - and I thought it strange that the Northwest headquarters of liberal enablement of Islamism was showing some common sense. Alas, it was only Puntland.
(SomaliNet) Somalia was hit by catastrophe as grenade attackers attacked a market in Somalias capital, Mogadishu. Nine natives of Somalia have been confirmed injured as a result of the attack. The Somalia attack was at the hands of a native who threw the grenade into the market in the north of Somalias capital. This led to commotion as Somalias natives sought for security. "I saw something being thrown from a speeding white car and seconds later, I heard a heavy explosion," Gaal Omar Hudow, a Somalia native said in a conversation with AFP. Nine people are undergoing treatment at Somalias Keysaney hospital.
Somalias security officials have confirmed the attack and are searching for those responsible for the selfish act on Somalias natives. "There was blood everywhere, but nobody knows the motive or who is behind this evil act. We have already tightened security around the area, but we have not yet arrested anybody," said a Security Official, attached to Somalias Islamic Supreme Council.
Meet the new regime, much like the old regime...
Posted by: Fred ||
09/01/2006 00:00 ||
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Somalia was hit by catastrophe as grenade attackers attacked a market in Somalias capital, Mogadishu. Nine natives of Somalia have been confirmed injured as a result of the attack.
Catastrophe? Only nine hurt? I'm surprised anybody in Mogadishu noticed...
Eight militants of banned Islamist outfit Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) were sentenced to life imprisonment in separate cases in Thakurgaon and Rajshahi yesterday. Of them, six were awarded life imprisonment in the August 27 bombing case in Thakurgaon town, while the remaining two in an arms case in Rajshahi. Those who have been put into jail by Additional District and Sessions Judge's Court in Thakurgaon are Abdul Latif, son of Nazrul Islam, A Razzak, son of Mujibar Rahman, and Abdur Razzak, son of Asir Uddin of Sadar upazila; Hefzur Rahman, son of Hazrat Ali of Baliadangi upazila in Thakurgaon, Rashidul Islam alias Asadullah alias Asad, son of Abdun Nur of Debiganj, and Shafiqul Islam, son of A Samad of Sadar upazila in Panchagarh.
The court also fined them Tk 10,000 each, in default, they are to suffer another year in jail, according to the UNB. Of the six convicts, Rashidul Islam and Shafiqul Islam have been absconding since the bombings in the district town.
According to the prosecution, the JMB militants exploded six bombs at five points in the town as part of serial bombings across the country on August 17 last year. After the incident, police arrested 38 people, including the six JMB militants, at different places of the district. The arrested JMB activists confessed to the police that they were involved in the bombings. Police later pressed charges against the JMB men.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/01/2006 00:00 ||
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The High Court (HC) yesterday confirmed death sentences to seven militant leaders of Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) including its five kingpins for killing two judges in Jhalakathi as it found the trial court's judgment appropriate. The government and state lawyers believe that the punishment to the seven Islamist militants can be executed before the ruling coalition government's tenure ends on October 28 provided the convicts do not appeal against the verdict with the Appellate Division within 30 days.
In the quickest disposal of a case in the history of Bangladesh, the trial of the sensational case for the first suicide bomb attack in the country was completed in just 131 days from framing of the charges in the lower court. Senior assistant judges Jagannath Pandey and Sohel Ahmed were killed in the suicide bomb attack at Purba Chadkati in Jhalakathi town on November 14 last year in the wake of a series of bombings by the militants across the country. On May 29, Additional District and Sessions Judge of Jhalakathi Reza Tarik Ahmed ordered for hanging the seven JMB men, including its chief Abdur Rahman and his top aide Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai, until death and acquitted one.
Other convicts in the case are JMB Majlish-e-Shura members Ataur Rahman Sunny, Abdul Awal and Faruk Hossain Khan alias Khaled Saifullah, suicide bombers Iftekhar Hasan Al Mamun and absconding Asadul Islam alias Arif. "The additional sessions judge did not commit any illegality by handing death sentences on the seven accused. There is no ground to interfere in the judgment passed by the additional sessions judge Jhalakathi," the HC bench comprising Justice Ali Asgar Khan and Justice Emdadul Haque said while confirming the death sentence in a crowded courtroom yesterday.
Security was beefed up on the Supreme Court premises yesterday but no special security was arranged for the two judges who delivered the verdict. "They [the seven convicts] carried out terrorist activities in the name of Islam. Islam does not support terrorist activities," the court said, adding that the prosecution has proved the case beyond reasonable doubt.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/01/2006 00:00 ||
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kill a judge? Don't expect judicial sympathy
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/01/2006 7:58 Comments ||
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China has said that it has prevented armed Muslim separatists from blowing up oilfields, power plants and highways in the country's northwestern Xinjiang region. Chinese police have cracked down on illegal possession of explosives since July in the region where Muslims make up a narrow majority of the population, Wang Lexiang, Xinjiang's deputy chief of public security, said on Wednesday. He said this had helped China fight what he called the "three forces" of religious "extremism, separatism and terrorism" in the mainly Muslim region. "We've forcefully dealt a blow to the 'three forces' and maintained stability in Xinjiang," he also told Ta Kung Pao, a Beijing-funded Hong Kong newspaper.
The number of violations of rules governing explosives increased by 195 per cent last year, he said. Armed Uighur separatists, who are Central Asian by blood and Muslim by religion, have been for decades attempted to make the predominantly Muslim region of Xinjiang an independent Islamic state called East Turkestan.
"The social situation is still grave," said Wang, adding that more than 41 tons of explosives had been seized in the region since 1990. Police had also confiscated 6,540 grenades and 4.15 metric tons of raw materials to make explosives during the period, he said
Posted by: Fred ||
09/01/2006 00:00 ||
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Its about time China woke up that they are not immune from this muslim global caliphate ambitions.
#3
China may be willing to deal with Militant Islamists (e. g. Iran) because it finds the benefits (energy supply) outweigh the risks - because China believes it has the ability to deal with situations like this. In the past (and unlike the West) China has shown little hesitation in cracking down ruthlessly on people it views as a threat to the state. In addition, timely and (more or less) accurate crackdowns are a lot easier because of the degree of government oversight/intrusion of everyone's everyday lives.
The Uighurs (non-ethnic Chinese who include most of China's Muslims) have some legitimate grievances (much like Tibetans) but as long as their region remains so important to the overall Chinese economy (energy sources and transit lines) China is not going to negotiate any increase in autonomy nor show mercy to those who push for it.
THE FBI has accused Australia's Tamil community of helping fund terrorist attacks by the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka.
The FBI says the support may also include buying technology and military arms and equipment to help the Tamils in their bloody separatist war against the Sri Lankan Government.
The accusation was made after the Federal Bureau of Investigations arrested 13 men in the US last week for plotting to buy Russian-made shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles and assault rifles for the Tamil Tigers.
It is not known if the men have links to Australia. However, Australian Federal Police officers are investigating the activities of several Tamil organisations in Melbourne and Sydney.
FBI documents tendered in a New York court said Australia played a key role in the global fundraising efforts for the Tamil Tigers.
"The LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) relies heavily upon supporters in Europe, US, Canada and Australia to raise and launder money, acquire intelligence and purchase technology and military arms and equipment," the FBI said in a statement.
Concerns that Australia's Tamil community was helping fund the Tigers led to a series of raids by the AFP in Melbourne and Sydney in December. No arrests have been made but investigations are continuing.
The AFP is also expected to examine any links with those arrested in the US.
Shortly before the AFP's raids, Sri Lanka warned the Howard Government that charity donations given by Australians after the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami may have been used to fund the Tamil Tigers.
Australians gave more than $1million to Sri Lankan victims of the tsunami, largely through two Tamil organisations, the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation and the Tamil Co-ordinating Committee.
But the FBI said last week the North American offices of these two organisations were "fronts" for the clandestine channelling of financial and military aid to the Tamil Tigers.
"The LTTE relies on front charitable organisations, including the TRO and World Tamil Co-ordinating Committee among others to give their fundraising activities the appearance of legitimacy," the FBI said.
"These organisations are also used to smuggle goods to the LTTE in Sri Lanka."
The TCC and the TRO in Australia have strongly denied channelling funds to the Tamil Tigers.
The FBI arrests came less than a month after a frail four-year-old ceasefire between the Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan Government fell apart.
Since 1983, the Tamil Tigers have waged a bloody war - including about 200 suicide-bomb attacks - in a campaign for a separate homeland within Sri Lanka.
While the Tamil Tigers are not officially proscribed as a terrorist organisation in Australia, they are considered to be engaged in terrorist activity in their homeland and it is illegal to fund the group.
The TCC's offices in Melbourne were raided by the AFP in December but no charges have yet been laid.
TCC spokesman Perambalam Senthooran told The Weekend Australian yesterday that the organisation had received legal advice that its fundraising activities did not breach Australian law. He said money sent to the Tamil community in Sri Lanka was used for community projects and not to assist the separatist guerilla group.
The AFP has also been closely monitoring the actions of the Australian office of the TRO after Sri Lanka told the federal Government it was concerned about the group's fundraising activities.
The funds raised by the TRO in Australia jumped from $200,000 a year to more than $1.1million after the tsunami.
The head of the TRO in Australia, Melbourne-based gynaecologist Rajan Rasiah, has denied that the group funds the Tamil Tigers.
But he has said that the TRO had no choice but to co-operate with the Tamil Tigers in directing charitable contributions because they controlled northeast parts of the country.
"You have to work with the permission, with the approval and with the support of the LTTE if you want to work in the northeast," Dr Rasiah said.
#1
My Sri Lanka friends [extended family] are still afraid [to a degree] of the Tamils even here in the USA.
In fact the main figurehead of the family, D__, still looks furtively around before he answers any of my questions about the Tamils and/or what he thinks about them.
BTW, if i remember correctly he rates the Tamils right up there with Pestilence and Black Death.
The "Dawn" of Karachi has reported on August 17,2006, that Col. (retd) Bashir Wali, who escaped an attempt allegedly by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to assassinate him on August 14,2006, would be returning to Pakistan next week and is expected to be succeeded by Air Vice-Marshal Shehzad Chaudhry as the new Pakistani High Commissioner to Sri Lanka. [..]
[..] 7. According to the Sri Lankan media, about 200 Sri Lankan armed forces personnel of different ranks are presently undergoing training in different training institutions of Pakistan. Reliable Tamil sources also say that about 12 to 15 members of the Pakistani Armed Forces, including four or five from the Pakistan Air Force, are stationed in Colombo to guide the Sri Lankan security forces in their counter-insurgency operations. The Pakistan Air Force officers have reportedly been guiding the SLAF officers in effectively carrying out air-mounted operations against the LTTE. They have also been reportedly involved in drawing up plans for a decapitation strike from the air, with bunker-buster bombs, to kill Prabakaran.
Pakistan is playing an increased role in Sri Lanka's counter-insurgency operations against the Tamil Tigers -- and this new development is worrying India.
Indian intelligence sources claim that a group of Pakistani officers were drawing up plans jointly with the Sri Lankan Air Force for "a decapitation strike from the air, with bunker-buster bombs, to kill Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran."
This explains why the Tamil Tigers aimed to assassinate Col (retd) Bashir Wali Mohammed, the last High Commissioner (ambassador) to Sri Lanka, when he was on his way back to his residence in Colombo on August 14, 2006 The bomb planted in a trishaw killed four commandos escorting Mohammed who narrowly escaped the explosion. Col. Wali Mohammed is a former Director of the Pakistan Intelligence Bureau. He is the first diplomat to be targeted by the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka.
#2
Not a bad idea. You know how many poor Americans are sneaking through the vast tracts of frozen desert, risking their lives to cross the border to Canada every day . . .
Posted by: The Doctor ||
09/01/2006 11:49 Comments ||
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You must have missed the stories last year, mcsegeek1. The US *pressured* Canada to do this after several incidents made it clear that criminals and jihadis could cross in either direction and the Canadian border guards would and could do nothing.
NORFOLK, Va. - For the entire year he was in Baghdad analyzing more than 1,000 roadside bomb detonators, Benito Baylosis never took a day off. No one did. And no one complained about it, he said, as they explored the electronic circuits of defused improvised explosive devices, or IEDs. "What we did was that important. You get time off when you go home, or on R & R," he said.
Baylosis, 41, a Navy lieutenant commander, came back to his hometown of Norfolk to receive the Bronze Star on Tuesday. The award cited him for personally handling more than 1,000 IEDs, providing "critical countermeasures" and saving "countless coalition forces' lives."
"He developed and monitored over 136 bombmaker profiles," said the Army's citation, which added that "no one in the U.S. armed forces knows more about enemy IED initiators utilized in the Iraqi theater of operations."
Baylosis, who graduated from Old Dominion University with an undergraduate electrical engineering degree, will return soon to his regular duty station in Naples, Italy, where his family resides. In Iraq, he headed a team of American, British and Australian military specialists, mainly engineers. He also worked with agents from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, gathering forensic evidence for possible future court cases related to terrorism. The team, operating from Camp Victory near the international airport in Baghdad, examined IEDs, traced their origins and turned over information to help find the manufacturer.
"They are some of the most basic forms, from mechanical to electrical, to remote," he said in an interview. Because of the sensitivity of the work, he could not detail what his team found. Published reports say many devices use garage-door openers or cell phones to activate the explosives. Baylosis is assigned to a detachment of the Norfolk-based Mid-Atlantic Regional Maintenance Center in Naples. He was the electronics laboratory manager of the Multi-National Corps-Iraq, Combined Explosive Cell in Iraq.
Baylosis said he normally specializes in shipbuilding and program management in his job in Naples, but his electronics skills seemed a good match for what he was asked to do. "We felt that the job we were doing did save lives and will continue to save lives as long as we get to do it," said the father of three. "I think we are making a difference. Obviously, we want to get ahead of the IED maker. We want to be a step ahead of them and with increased security, I think it will eventually get solved. I just don't know the time line."
According to Michael White, who compiles casualty figures of Operation Iraqi Freedom on the Web site icasualties.org, and Defense Department figures, 904 of the 2,087 American service members killed in action in Iraq have died of injuries from IEDs.
#2
The Bronze Star has become the prerequisite for promotion in today's military. Look at it as another "attaboy!" award. Nearly all of these go to officers.
Bronzes with V go overwhelmingly to enlisted personnel, due to the requirement that they be earned in combat.
#5
this is really cool but i gotta wonder about the logic of publishing the man's name and home town. sets his family up as a target, to my way of thinking.
The body of a Pakistani rebel leader whose killing by the military triggered violent protests has been dug out from a collapsed cave and his funeral will take place today, a senior official said late yesterday. The body of Nawab Akbar Bugti, a respected tribal chieftain from energy-rich Balochistan province, was badly decomposed after his death at the weekend, military spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan said. The body is in an advanced stage of decay as it had been badly crushed under a big boulder, he said.
Army engineers clearing debris at the collapsed cave sighted the body of ethnic Baloch nationalist Nawab Akbar Bugti on Wednesday. The octogenarian rebel Baloch leader, who had been involved in a long-running confrontation with the central government, was killed when the cave crashed in as security forces besieging it tried to arrest him on Saturday.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/01/2006 00:00 ||
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P. U.
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/01/2006 0:08 Comments ||
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The boulder killed him, I tell ya
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/01/2006 0:09 Comments ||
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Squashed like a damned bug. Squeegees didn't help either as most of the wet work had already been absorbed by the sand. What a great pity!
#4
I dunno. I have mixed feelings about Foster's tragic demise. I'd much rather Pakistan had dropped a boulder on Hafez Saeed and a really big boulder on Qazi & Fazl.
And perhaps a couple of "stray" boulders on ISI HQ.
Hail and farewell, Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti. You died a warrior to the end.
(KUNA) -- Security forces have busted two terror hideouts and recovered arms and explosives from them in the border districts of Rajouri and Poonch in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir. Army troops busted a guerilla hideout at Bharat Gala in Rajouri town on Wednesday night during a search operation and recovered arms and explosives, news agency Press Trust of India reported Thursday. The recoveries from the hideout included one rocket, five anti-tank rifle grenades, three grenades and one plastic cylinder.
Another guerilla hideout was busted at Kalaban in Mendhar tehsil of Poonch district on Wednesday night and some rations and a tourist map of Howrah town in Eastern Indian state of West Bengal were recovered from there, the news agency reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/01/2006 00:00 ||
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US troops are finding stolen cars from the United States used in suicide attacks in Iraq, including attacks by the late Abu Musab Al Zarqawi. The FBI's counterterrorism unit has launched a broad investigation of US-based theft rings after discovering that some of the vehicles used in deadly car bombings in Iraq, including attacks that killed US troops and Iraqi civilians, were probably stolen in the United States, according to senior government officials.
Inspector John E. Lewis, deputy assistant director of the FBI for counterterrorism, told the Globe that the investigation hasn't yielded any evidence that the vehicles were stolen specifically for car bombings. But there is evidence, he said, that the cars were smuggled from the United States as part of a widespread criminal network that includes terrorists and insurgents.
Cracking the car theft rings and tracing the cars could help identify the leaders of insurgent forces in Iraq and shut down at least one of the means they use to attack the US-led coalition and the Iraqi government, the officials said.
The inquiry began after coalition troops raided a bomb-making factory in Fallujah last November and found a sport utility vehicle registered in Texas that was being prepared for a bombing mission.
Investigators said they are comparing several other cases where vehicles evidently stolen in the United States wound up in Syria or other Middle East countries and ultimately into the hands of Iraqi insurgent groups -- including Al Qaeda in Iraq, led by Jordanian-born Abu Musab Al Zarqawi.
Investigators believe the cars were stolen by local car thieves in US cities, then smuggled to waiting ships at ports in Los Angeles, Seattle, and Houston, among other cities. From there they are shipped to black-market dealers all over the world, including in places like Syria where foreign militants fighting in Iraq are thought to be transiting from countries across the region and where they gain critical logistical support.
I
n March of this year a Pakistani truck driver was arrested and confessed to transporting stolen cars from Syria into Iraq.
Stolen United Nations cars have also been used in suicide attacks against US troops in Iraq.
A US soldier on Sean Hannity today claimed that that Allied forces are still finding US cars in Iraq.
#3
Things brings to mind a trend I've been seeing over the past two years. Nearly everyday on I-40, I see a caravan of 2 or 3 vehicles each towing an additional vehicle. It is rare that any of the vehicles have tags and 99.9% of the drivers are Hispanic. The caravan is heading west in every instance I can think of.
#5
Well most local police and DAs think that with insurance, its just low level property crime unworthy of resources. Even when caught and convicted the perp usually gets only a year or two. What was the old saying in Missouri, 'we hang horse thieves'?
It goes along with the degraded treatment of property by government. It's only things. No - actually it took some of my limited lifetime on this planet to accumulate enough resources to procure the 'thing'. The act of theft is stealing part of my life. And time on this planet is one thing that you can not get back.
#7
Yea, but don't tell anyone what the FBI is doing so we can catch them in the act.
sssshhh
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/01/2006 14:15 Comments ||
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#8
stinky linky
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/01/2006 14:16 Comments ||
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#9
3dc:while i like the thought, it would only take a short while before the 'big brother' syndrome would kick in and i am not wanting my daily movements tracked. its bad enough that living in a small town everybody already knows what you are up to, but these folks can be (loosely) labeled 'friends.' maybe a gps or rfid tag that can only be activated by the owner would work. other wise i gotta vote no on your proposal.
#11
Well, we could address the problem with better police work and reduction in stolen vehicles. Auto theft is rampant in many American cities, and one of the reasons (speaking as a former cop) is that departments don't make stopping it a priority. Usually the only way a car is recovered is if there's a BOLO and some 16 y/o punk is joyriding in it at 80 mph. Hard to miss. But the good old fashioned grind it out investigation that's required to stop the theft rings is not being emphasized. Why? I suspect because there's not as much revenue generating potential as there is in writing speeding tickets for 40 in a 35 zone.
#13
Start inspecting all containers entering Iraq. Sideline all arriving vehicles and secrete transponders coupled with inexpensive vibration detectors (accelerometers) on them. Monitor all of their destinations and pay especially close attention to when vehicles are static but the vibration detector is indicating. This will show when modification work is being performed on the vehicle.
Or simply hand-deliver each arriving vehicle to it's final address and note who it is. Tag the entire vehicle's body with glass micro-spheres or polymer flags and track car bomb remnants back to the delivery addresses.
Iraqi forces will take over security of a southern province from coalition troops next month, and will have control of most of the country by the end of the year, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Thursday. Maliki's unwavering optimism came on a day when insurgents killed at least 29 people, including 14 people in a car-bomb attack on a popular market in Baghdad, and attacked a British diplomatic convoy. Maliki said Iraqi security forces will take over Dhi Qar Province in September, and will take over control of more provinces during the rest of the year.
Dhi Qar will be the second province to come under full Iraqi control after the July handover of the Southern Muthanna Province from British troops. "This year will witness the handing over of other provinces and we hope that by the end of the year, our security forces will take over most of the Iraqi provinces," Maliki said. "This makes us optimistic and proud because we managed to fulfilled our promise. We were able ... to develop the abilities of our forces," he added. "This gives us the feeling that we are close to taking over the whole security file of the country, God willing."
The British Defense Ministry said Britain expects an announcement to be made on the handover of security control of the Iraqi province of Dhi Qar "imminently," adding: "We would expect the handover within 45 days of the announcement."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/01/2006 00:00 ||
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BAGHDAD - A convoy of British diplomats and guards was blasted by a roadside bomb in western Baghdad on Thursday but the British embassy said no one was injured. An incident occurred this morning involving British embassy personnel travelling outside the International Zone, an embassy spokesman said in a statement. There were no injuries.
Iraqi police sources said two people were hurt in the attack in the Mansour district. It is close to the International Zone, better known as the Green Zone, a fortified area that houses the British and US embassies and much of the Iraqi government.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/01/2006 00:00 ||
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(KUNA) -- The number of victims that died from a series of blasts on Thursday had risen to 52 killed, 160 injured based on hospital records, an Iraqi security source said. The source added these numbers were gleaned from death and injury medical reports coming directly through Al-Kandi, Ibn Al-Nafis, and Imam Ali hospitals. Meanwhile, Iraqi police sources said that the armed men who instigated the series of attacks had used Grad rockets with which they targeted civilian areas including buildings in many parts of Baghdad.
Rocketing the capital? Hek? Is that you?
Posted by: Fred ||
09/01/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Today
warm and sunny
High 103° F / RealFeel[TM] 110° F.
Tonight
Clear.
Low 78° F / RealFeel[TM] 80° F.
Humidity: 14%
Dew Point: 46 °F / 8 °C
Winds 12 mph / 18 km/h from the NW
Wind Gust: 20 mph / 32 km/h
Pressure: 29.54 in / 1000 hPa
Visibility: 6.2 miles / 10.0 kilometers
UV: 11 out of 16
Clouds: Clear -
(Above Ground Level)
VIBEDs predicted to kill 52 Iraqis, and injure 160 others in the surrounding Baghdad neighborhoods.
(KUNA) -- A bomb exploded at a wedding in Baghdad Thursday wounding seven civilians, said an Iraqi police source.
Just as a newly-weds convoy was passing, a bomb exploded at a street...
Just as a newly-weds convoy was passing, a bomb exploded at a street in Jablah town in southern Baghdad, the source said, noting the wounded civilians were transported to a near by hospital.
Iraqi police said in a statement that they found and foiled two booby trapped busses in the areas Boaythiya and Raay in southern Baghdad.
In a separate development, Iraqi police and the UK Embassy said today that two British diplomats survived a bomb explosion that targeted their convoy in Baghdad in Mansoura area. The embassy said that two guards were wounded in the explosion without revealing the identity of the diplomats.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/01/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
What quaint customs. We in the west normally just throw rice at the couple. Leave it to muzzies oneupmanship...they throw grenades at the ceremonies. Gets lots more attention.
Only 20% of Israeli deaths from missiles, occured inside buildings. Pictorial evidence - no gory photos - suggests that bearing-shot, packed in missile heads, probably caused more deaths than blast, fire and schrapnel. If my re-collection is correct, then 10% of civilian casualties were Israeli Arab.
From July 13 to August 13, the Israel Police reported 4,228 rocket impacts inside Israel from rockets fired by Hizballah. No geographical area in the world has sustained such a large quantity of rocket strikes since the Iran-Iraq war in the early 1980s.
Most rockets fired by Hizballah at Israel were taken from the Syrian arsenal rather than from Iran. On most occasions, the rocket warhead contained anti-personnel munitions, a mixture of explosives and steel balls or fragments that were lethal to all those caught outside.
One-fourth of the rockets that landed within Israel landed within built-up areas. During the first two weeks, rocket attacks averaged about 100 per day. Then in early August, Hizballah proceeded to double its rate of fire to a daily average of 200 rocket attacks. There was a decline during the final week, but on August 13, the day before the cease-fire, 250 rockets landed in Israel. Israeli counterattacks apparently had no serious influence on Hizballah's rate of fire, but had an effect on the accuracy and geography of the attacks.
Israel's losses and damage from Hizballah rocket attacks include 53 fatalities, 250 severely wounded, and 2,000 lightly wounded. There was extensive damage to hundreds of dwellings, several public utilities, and dozens of industrial plants. One million Israelis lived near or in shelters or security rooms, with some 250,000 civilians evacuating the north and relocating to other areas of the country.
Early Warning sirens provided timely alarms, saving innumerable lives. Israel's long-standing policy of constructing public shelters, combined with building codes that require reinforced spaces in private dwellings, proved to be generally effective as a system of passive defense against most of the rockets fired by Hizballah. Nearly 80 percent of fatalities involved persons caught in the open.
Rockets and rocket launchers emerged as one of the defining weapons of the second Lebanon War and will remain so in the foreseeable future. This impacts on the security of U.S. and Western interests in the Middle East. Effective response measures must be devised and deployed as soon as possible. Two objectives should be pursued: first, to reduce the "Flash to Bang" (Hizballah rocket launch to Israeli response) cycle time to a few seconds from the time of launcher location pinpointing; and second, to develop and deploy effective and affordable active defense against rockets to protect vital civilian and military installations.
An Israeli military court yesterday ordered 15 Hamas leaders, including two cabinet ministers and the speaker of Palestine's parliament, to go on trial charged with membership of an outlawed organisation. The group, 12 of them elected members of the parliament, appeared in court at Ofer Camp on the occupied West Bank. At trial on December 12 they face a maximum jail sentence of 10 years if convicted.
They are among more than 30 Hamas political leaders detained in recent weeks after the capture by militants near Gaza of an Israeli soldier, Corporal Gilad Shalit, who is still being held. The men, in brown prison shirts and trousers, each held a finger aloft as an act of defiance as they sat together in the dock, surrounded by armed troops. Abdul Aziz Duaik, speaker of parliament, one of the most recent detained, was in pyjamas and chains.
Jawad Boulous, a lawyer representing Mr Duaik and some others, challenged the Israeli court's jurisdiction. "The defence does not recognise the legality of this court because it is a political trial," he said outside the hearing. "We're talking about leaders abducted by Israel. We demand the release of all of them."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/01/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
We demand the release of all of them
Or what? You'll send suicide bombers into our cities?
#2
I know I will sound draconian but would life become a lot simpler in Israel if say after a Military court found them guilty they were taken out and shot? Oh the outrage, the gnashing of teeth, and probably burning of flags! But after a couple dozen of the leadership is executed (after a trial of course) the third generation might think before they sign on to kidnapping and missile launching. I would add that I doubt Israel would be any worse of diplomatically than they are right at this very minute.
#4
Now these are martyrs with whom even a Christian can relate. Their crime is stating upfront and direct a policy of resistance?
Could a Palestinian court try Israeli settlers?
Posted by: Bruce ||
09/01/2006 19:51 Comments ||
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#5
The Palestinians don't bother with courts when there are Jews involved, Bruce. They go straight to murdering them in their beds whenever possible...or on the street, bombing the schoolbus, blowing up the school, whatever it takes to make their territory Judenrein.
Do feel free to come here for answers to whatever little questions you may have.
An Iraqi Al-Qaeda suspect on Thursday refused a court-appointed lawyer at the beginning of his trial in Jordan on charges of murder and plotting "terrorist" acts. The court also decided to try 11 suspects who are still at large in absentia. The court told Ziad Khalaf al-Karbuli that his might be sentenced to death if indicted and decided to appoint a lawyer to defend him in the upcoming court session. Al-Karbuli refused a court-appointed lawyer and said he does not afford to appoint a lawyer himself. The court postponed the trial to Wednesday, when charges will be formally read out against Karbuli in the presence of a court-appointed lawyer.
Karbuli, 23, and 13 other Iraqi fugitives were indicted in July on charges of "carrying out terrorist acts that led to the death of an individual", namely a Jordanian truck driver, as well as "membership in an illegal organisation" and possessions of weapons and explosives.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/01/2006 00:00 ||
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(KUNA) -- Masked gunmen assassinated Thursday Raeed Al-Nahaal, the leader of Al-Nasser Salahudeen military brigades of the Popular Resistance Committees in northern Gaza Strip. A Palestinian source said masked gunmen opened fire on Al-Nahaal in an area in northern Gaza Strip this morning. He was with his family when the gunmen attacked him, according to the source. Meanwhile, a statement by Salahudeen Brigades accused the assassins of being "Mercenaries used by the Israelis". The group sworn vengeance for the assassination of the leaders and called upon Palestinians "to purge elements that are creating tensions amongst them."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/01/2006 00:00 ||
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...called upon Palestinians "to purge elements that are creating tensions amongst them."
The Fatah movement in the Gaza Strip claimed responsibility on Thursday for the morning's Kassam rocket attacks on the western Negev. Two women suffered shock and property was damaged when five rockets landed in the region.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/01/2006 00:00 ||
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... police found an improvised rifle, bullets, a machine for forging credit cards, IDF uniforms, a fake driving license, 10 compact disk players, a kilogram of Marijuana and dozens of Viagra pills...
Police caught a Palestinian fugitive from the West Bank in a Petah Tikva apartment on Thursday morning. Upon searching the apartment, police found an improvised rifle, bullets, a machine for forging credit cards, IDF uniforms, a fake driving license, 10 compact disk players, a kilogram of Marijuana and dozens of Viagra pills. The Palestinian is suspected of carrying out several robberies and vehicle thefts. A 15-year-old suspected associate of the man was also arrested.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/01/2006 00:00 ||
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15 year old lover
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/01/2006 0:10 Comments ||
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10 compact disk players, a kilogram of Marijuana and dozens of Viagra pills.
(KUNA) -- Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad Movement, launched Thursday eight Quds-3 missiles against the Israeli city of Sderot in southern Israel. The brigades said in a statement that the attack was in retaliation for assassination of its leader in the West Bank, Hussam Jaradat, who passed away last night in a Jordanian hospital from wounds he had sustained last week. According to the statement, Israeli news sources indicated that the attack caused damage.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/01/2006 00:00 ||
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(KUNA) -- Israeli troops shot dead a commander of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, military wing of the Palestinian mainstream group Fatah, in the city of Nablus on Thursday, witnesses said. They said Israeli special troops burst into the district of Al-Qiryoun in the ancient sector of the city and opened fire at a group of members of the brigades, touching off fierce armed clashes that killed Fadi Qafishah, 33. Qafishah had passed away upon arrival at hospital, the witnesses said, adding that six Palestinians were also wounded in the firefight. The clashes inflicted casualties among the regular troops, according to the witnesses.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/01/2006 00:00 ||
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The U.S. military shot down a target ballistic missile over the Pacific on Friday in the widest test of its emerging antimissile shield in 18 months, the Defense Department announced.
The Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency said it had successfully completed an important exercise involving the launch of an improved ground-based interceptor missile designed to protect the United States against a limited long-range ballistic missile attack.
The test results will help improve the performance of a multibillion-dollar shield against the type of long-range ballistic missile that could be used to attack a U.S. city with a weapon of mass destruction, the agency said in a statement.
Officially, the $85 million test was designed to collect data rather than shoot down the target.
It was the first involving a live target since interceptor rockets failed to leave their silos during tests in December 2004 and February 2005.
It was also the first since the ground-based system, which is part of a layered shield that includes naval and aerial components, was activated to guard against ballistic missiles test-fired on July 4 and 5 by North Korea.
Boeing Co. is prime contractor for the ground-based mid-course defense. Major subcontractors include Lockheed Martin Corp., Northrop Grumman Corp. and Raytheon Co..
In the exercise, a target missile was launched from Kodiak, Alaska. And for the first time, the ground-based interceptor missile was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in central California. Previous launches have been from the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands.
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/01/2006 15:49 ||
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Officially, the $85 million test was designed to collect data rather than shoot down the target.
I'm glad they said that, to avoid hyping it up incase of a miss.
UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 1 (UPI) -- The International Atomic Energy Agency told the U.N. Security Council its inspectors have found new traces of enriched uranium in Iran.
The discovery marked the third instance that highly enriched uranium was found at an Iranian facility, but the IAEA said the nuclear fingerprint on the new discovery does not match that found on earlier samples, which the agency had concluded came from contaminated equipment from Pakistan, The New York Times reported Friday.
The 6-page IAEA report did not identify where the uranium might have originated or whether it was connected to a secret nuclear program in Iran. The country has insisted that its nuclear program is aimed only at producing energy, a task that would use uranium enriched at much lower levels than that found by the IAEA inspectors.
The report said that Iran was continuing to produce enriched uranium at low levels and on a small scale at its Natanz facility.
The Security Council had set Thursday as a deadline for Iran to discontinue enrichment, and a failure to comply by the country could result in economic and political penalties.
#1
Lies, all lies, every single d@mn thing the Iranians have ever told us.
Natanz had better be a wasteland the second after polls close in November.
It's cold consolation that we might finally have obtained an isotopic fingerprint of refined Iranian fissile material. That way, we'll know if Iran contributed a nuclear weapon for use against an American city.
#2
Don't assume that Natanz is the only place where they are operating centrifuges, and don't assume that home-based enrichment is their only source of bomb material. Kimmie has enough to sell some, especially to enemies of his enemies.
#3
Darrell, if you've been reading any of my other related posts, then you must certainly know that Natanz is just one of many sites on my personal Christmas list.
Does anyone here know if the IAEA was ever able to gather any sort of samples from North Korea before they were ejected? If so, then we would also be able to trace a proxy supply of fissile material from Kim. The end result being two countries glassed for the price of one.
#4
Highly enriched uranium, good for poppin popcorn no doubt
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/01/2006 14:14 Comments ||
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Popcorn! Yahoo another popcorn day.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
09/01/2006 15:12 Comments ||
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It's cold consolation that we might finally have obtained an isotopic fingerprint of refined Iranian fissile material.
It's probably very easy to make a one-off batch to throw investigators off.
Iran got busted for this quite a while ago. They claimed it was a little experiment, with the implication being they wouldn't need to do it again. So why are they doing it again? Oh, wait. That's already been answered I see . . . .
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Friday that Syria would step up border patrols and work with the Lebanese army to stop the flow of weapons to Hizbullah.
Syria will increase its own patrols along the Lebanon-Syria border, and establish joint patrols with the Lebanese army "when possible," Annan said after meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus.
Assad made no public comments after their meeting, but Annan spoke with reporters at the Damascus airport before he departed midday for Qatar.
The UN resolution that halted fighting between Israel and Hizbullah calls for an arms embargo on the guerrilla group, and for Lebanon to "secure its borders and other entry points."
Annan said Assad informed him that Syria would "take all necessary measures" to implement paragraph 15 of UN resolution 1701, which calls on countries to prevent the sale or supply of weapons to entities in Lebanon without the consent of the Lebanese government or UN peacekeepers.
The UN chief also asked Syria to "use its influence" to win the release of three Israeli soldiers - two captured by Hezbollah in a July 12 cross-border raid that started the war, and one captured by Hamas-linked militants in Gaza the previous month. Assad said he supported their release, but raised the issue of Syrian prisoners held in Israel, Annan said.
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/01/2006 09:30 ||
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Kofi buys BS and becomes a reseller of them. What else does he he do?
#4
Syria will increase its own patrols along the Lebanon-Syria border, and establish joint patrols with the Lebanese army "when possible," Annan said after meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus.
Pardon me, but didn't Res. 1559 kick the Syrian army outta Lebanon?
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/01/2006 10:28 Comments ||
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HARDLINE Somali Islamists overnight banned all trade and public transportation during prayer times in areas under their control, fuelling fears of a Taliban-style takeover of the lawless nation.
A day ahead of a second round of peace talks with Somalia's weak government in Sudan, Muslim clerics ordered all businesses to close during the five-times daily prayers under threat of severe punishment from Sharia law courts.
The move tightens the enforcement of strict Islamic law in much of southern Somalia, further challenging the transitional government's limited authority and is likely to exacerbate strains at the Arab League-mediated talks.
"The courts have banned business and public transport during prayer time," said Sheikh Mowliid Ahmed, who chairs the Islamic court in northern Mogadishu's Siinay district. "This is religious obligation and we have to implement it."
"If a community is Islamic and the country is Islamic, anyone who fails to abide by the order must be punished," he said after Friday prayers. "We will use force to enforce this and we will not hesitate to do so."
Islamic court officials and residents of the town of Jowhar, about 90 km north of Mogadishu, said similar restrictions had gone into effect and were being enforced by heavily armed Muslim militia.
"Everybody must leave his business and go for prayer when the muezzin is heard," said Sheikh Mohamed Mohamoud, Jowhar's deputy security chief. "Anybody who does not obey will face painful punishment."
The new regulations appear to mirror the fundamentalist interpretation of Sharia law adopted by the Taliban in Afghanistan and follow a July edict that Muslims who do not perform daily prayers may be punished by death.
It is not clear if anyone has yet been condemned to die under that ruling but the Islamists have tightened their enforcement of Sharia since seizing the capital in June from secular warlords and expanding their territory.
Muslim militia have presided over the public executions of at least two convicted murderers, the flogging of more than a dozen people, including two women, for drug offences, and have forcibly closed cinemas and photo shops.
They have also banned live music at wedding receptions and other events and have harassed civilians, mainly women, for failing to wear appropriate dress in public.
US and other western officials have expressed concern about a "creeping Talibanisation" in Somalia at the hands of the Islamists, some of whom are accused of links with Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network.
The Islamists flatly reject the charges, but have vowed to impose strict Sharia law across the largely Muslim Horn of Africa nation of some 10 million that has been without a functioning central authority for the last 16 years.
#3
Sheesh. Here we go with the unstated, but subtly implied, memed Myth of Moderate Islam, again. This isn't "hardline" or "fundamentalist" or particularly "Talibanisation", it's completely "normal" in any Islam-dominated shithole. The key is Islam-dominated. Where they have the numbers or power, they proceed with Sharia. Period. Full stop. These cretins are merely following Sharia and instituting the norm because they can. Brutal blind subservience to barbarism. There is no saving grace for any population that accepts Sharia.
Re: Prayer Times...
You learn to do everythingaround prayer times - and trust me, 4 of the 5 come at damned inconvenient times. Everyone carries a couple of weeks of the schedule around with them.
There's nothing quite like riding in a taxi and having the driver suddenly pull over, get out, consult his little compass, roll out his prayer rug, and start banging his head on the ground -- while you miss your flight. Only happens once, lol.
Extrapolate the ramifications of True Believers in occupations that require full attention...
#7
Hey, .com, I think I missed your earlier forays, but I'm glad you're feeling better. (Or still feeling worse but having the energy to post, whichever applies). And hoping you're feeling better (or even better, whichever applicable) soon.
Posted by: Phil ||
09/01/2006 21:08 Comments ||
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Hiya .com, nice to see you again!
As Phil said.
#8
When I was a young boy listening to the Radio I pictured Bobbie Benson's B-Bar-B Riders a little differently!
I wonder what was going on at Sky King's Flying Crown Ranch?
Wait a minute? Now I know why Hopalong Cassidy was always smiling. This also explains the name Hopalong!
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.
(SomaliNet) The police commander of the semi-autonomous region of Puntland Yusuf Ahmed Kheyr and Puntland deputy finance minister were reported have been gone under house-arrest on Thursday after they were accused of having links with Islamic Courts running the capital of Somalia Mogadishu and other key towns of south and central of the country. 
(SomaliNet) Somalia was hit by catastrophe as grenade attackers attacked a market in Somalias capital, Mogadishu. Nine natives of Somalia have been confirmed injured as a result of the attack. The Somalia attack was at the hands of a native who threw the grenade into the market in the north of Somalias capital. This led to commotion as Somalias natives sought for security. "I saw something being thrown from a speeding white car and seconds later, I heard a heavy explosion," Gaal Omar Hudow, a Somalia native said in a conversation with AFP. Nine people are undergoing treatment at Somalias Keysaney hospital. 
Eight militants of banned Islamist outfit 
The High Court (HC) yesterday confirmed death sentences to seven militant leaders of 
China has said that it has prevented armed Muslim separatists from blowing up oilfields, power plants and highways in the country's northwestern Xinjiang region. Chinese police have cracked down on illegal possession of explosives since July in the region where Muslims make up a narrow majority of the population, Wang Lexiang, Xinjiang's deputy chief of public security, said on Wednesday. He said this had helped China fight what he called the "three forces" of religious "extremism, separatism and terrorism" in the mainly Muslim region. "We've forcefully dealt a blow to the 'three forces' and maintained stability in Xinjiang," he also told Ta Kung Pao, a Beijing-funded Hong Kong newspaper.
NORFOLK, Va. - For the entire year he was in Baghdad analyzing more than 1,000 roadside bomb detonators, Benito Baylosis never took a day off. No one did. And no one complained about it, he said, as they explored the electronic circuits of defused improvised explosive devices, or IEDs. "What we did was that important. You get time off when you go home, or on R & R," he said.
The body of a Pakistani rebel leader whose killing by the military triggered violent protests has been dug out from a collapsed cave and his funeral will take place today, a senior official said late yesterday. The body of 
(KUNA) -- Security forces have busted two terror hideouts and recovered arms and explosives from them in the border districts of Rajouri and Poonch in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir. Army troops busted a guerilla hideout at Bharat Gala in Rajouri town on Wednesday night during a search operation and recovered arms and explosives, news agency Press Trust of India reported Thursday. The recoveries from the hideout included one rocket, five anti-tank rifle grenades, three grenades and one plastic cylinder.
US troops are finding stolen cars from the United States used in suicide attacks in Iraq, including attacks by the late Abu Musab Al Zarqawi. The FBI's counterterrorism unit has launched a broad investigation of US-based theft rings after discovering that some of the vehicles used in deadly car bombings in Iraq, including attacks that killed US troops and Iraqi civilians, were probably stolen in the United States, according to senior government officials.
Iraqi forces will take over security of a southern province from coalition troops next month, and will have control of most of the country by the end of the year, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Thursday. Maliki's unwavering optimism came on a day when insurgents killed at least 29 people, including 14 people in a car-bomb attack on a popular market in Baghdad, and attacked a British diplomatic convoy. Maliki said Iraqi security forces will take over Dhi Qar Province in September, and will take over control of more provinces during the rest of the year.
BAGHDAD - A convoy of British diplomats and guards was blasted by a roadside bomb in western Baghdad on Thursday but the British embassy said no one was injured. An incident occurred this morning involving British embassy personnel travelling outside the International Zone, an embassy spokesman said in a statement. There were no injuries.
(KUNA) -- The number of victims that died from a series of blasts on Thursday had risen to 52 killed, 160 injured based on hospital records, an Iraqi security source said. The source added these numbers were gleaned from death and injury medical reports coming directly through Al-Kandi, Ibn Al-Nafis, and Imam Ali hospitals. Meanwhile, Iraqi police sources said that the armed men who instigated the series of attacks had used Grad rockets with which they targeted civilian areas including buildings in many parts of Baghdad.
(KUNA) -- A bomb exploded at a wedding in Baghdad Thursday wounding seven civilians, said an Iraqi police source. 
An Israeli military court yesterday ordered 15 Hamas leaders, including two cabinet ministers and the speaker of Palestine's parliament, to go on trial charged with membership of an outlawed organisation. The group, 12 of them elected members of the parliament, appeared in court at Ofer Camp on the occupied West Bank. At trial on December 12 they face a maximum jail sentence of 10 years if convicted.
An Iraqi Al-Qaeda suspect on Thursday refused a court-appointed lawyer at the beginning of his trial in Jordan on charges of murder and plotting "terrorist" acts. The court also decided to try 11 suspects who are still at large in absentia. The court told 
(KUNA) -- Masked gunmen assassinated Thursday 
Police caught a Palestinian fugitive from the West Bank in a Petah Tikva apartment on Thursday morning. Upon searching the apartment, police found an improvised rifle, bullets, a machine for forging credit cards, IDF uniforms, a fake driving license, 10 compact disk players, a kilogram of Marijuana and dozens of Viagra pills. The Palestinian is suspected of carrying out several robberies and vehicle thefts. A 15-year-old suspected associate of the man was also arrested.
(KUNA) -- 
(KUNA) -- Israeli troops shot dead a commander of 
