Amid the deaths and the grim daily struggle bravely borne by Britain's forces in southern Iraq, one tale of heroism stands out.
Private Johnson Beharry's courage in rescuing an ambushed foot patrol then, in a second act, saving his vehicle's crew despite his own terrible injuries earned him a Victoria Cross.
For the BBC, however, his story is "too positive" about the conflict.
The corporation has cancelled the commission for a 90-minute drama about Britain's youngest surviving Victoria Cross hero because it feared it would alienate members of the audience opposed to the war in Iraq.
The BBC's retreat from the project, which had the working title Victoria Cross, has sparked accusations of cowardice and will reignite the debate about the broadcaster's alleged lack of patriotism.
"The BBC has behaved in a cowardly fashion by pulling the plug on the project altogether," said a source close to the project. "It began to have second thoughts last year as the war in Iraq deteriorated. It felt it couldn't show anything with a degree of positivity about the conflict.
"It needed to tell stories about Iraq which reflected the fact that some members of the audience didn't approve of what was going on. Obviously a story about Johnson Beharry could never do that. You couldn't have a scene where he suddenly turned around and denounced the war because he just wouldn't do that.
"The film is now on hold and it will only make it to the screen if another broadcaster picks it up."
Pic of Private Johnson Beharry with medal at site. Also, more on his heoric actions.
Six Canadian soldiers were killed in southern Afghanistan on Sunday when their vehicle was blown up by a roadside bomb, a coalition spokesman said. At least two soldiers were injured. It was the worst single incident for the 33,000-strong NATO multinational force in several months of fighting Taliban insurgents.
The Canadian defense ministry later said on its Web site the incident happened west of Kandahar city, in the heartland of support for the Taliban. Canada's main base is in Kandahar. About 5,000 NATO and Afghan troops are engaged in a major offensive, Operation Achilles, in Helmand province in the south, the opium heartland of the world's biggest producer. British and Canadian troops make up the bulk of coalition forces in the south of the country.
Earlier in the day, one NATO soldier was killed and another injured by a similar bomb in another part of the volatile south, a NATO spokeswoman said. She did not say where the second attack took place. Almost all NATO'S combat activities in Afghanistan are being conducted by U.S., British, Canadian and Dutch soldiers in the south and east, bordering Pakistan.
Britain has said it will send another 1,400 soldiers soon -- making its deployment in Afghanistan greater than in Iraq. The United States has also committed an extra 3,200 soldiers. The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) has nearly quadrupled within the last three years, largely as a result of U.S. and British reinforcements, and the transfer of U.S. troops from a separate U.S.-led coalition to ISAF.
The kidnapped translator for an Italian journalist was killed on Sunday in southern Afghanistan, a purported spokesman for the Taliban said. The report could not be independently confirmed. Ajmal Nashqbandi, a freelance journalist and translator, was kidnapped along with Daniele Mastrogiacomo, of Italian daily La Repubblica, and a driver in southern Helmand province on March 5. The driver was beheaded, and Mastrogiacomo was released March 19 in a much criticized swap for five Taliban militants. The Taliban made a similar demand in return for the release of Nashqbandi.
"We asked for two Taliban commanders to be released in exchange for Ajmal Nashqbandi, but the government did not care for our demands, and today, at 3:05 p.m., we beheaded Ajmal in Garmsir district of Helmand province," said Shahabuddin Atal, who claimed to be a spokesman for the regional Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah. "When we demanded the exchange for the Italian journalist, the government released the prisoners, but for the Afghan journalist, the government did not care," Atal said, but his claim could not be independently verified.
Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary said that police have no evidence yet that Nashqbandi has been killed. Another Taliban spokesman who frequently speaks with the media, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, said he was not aware of the killing. Local Tolo television station also reported Atal's claim that Nashqbandi had been beheaded.
Dozens of Taliban militants attacked a US-funded mine-clearing team in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, killing three deminers, three guards and one female passer-by, police said. The attack on the demining team working for the US-based demining company RONCO in western Farah province was the latest in a wave of violence blamed on the Taliban insurgents, police said. The Taliban attacked a demining team. Three deminers and three guards supporting them were killed, a highway police official, Saydo Jan told AFP. One Afghan woman nearby was also killed in the shootout, he said.
Five other people nearby including three women were wounded in the attack in the provinces Bakwa district, the police official said, blaming the attack on Taliban militants active in the area.
Afghanistan is the worlds second most mined country, the result of years of war and insurgency. The crew were travelling to the western city of Herat from Taliban-dominated Kandahar when they came under attack.
In a separate incident on Saturday, US warplanes bombed a Taliban hideout, killing five militants in Zabul province. The combined force used coalition close air support to drop munitions on the Taliban position. Secondary explosions killed the five Taliban fighters, the United States military said in a statement. It said a weapons cache in nearby caves was also destroyed in the bombardment. It did not give details.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/08/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Afghanistan is the worlds second most mined country
may I ask what's the 1st?
Posted by: Jan from work ||
04/08/2007 14:25 Comments ||
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RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) - Saudi Arabia's interior minister said Saturday that a slain militant suspected of involvement in the February killing of four French nationals was among the kingdom's most wanted terrorists. Saudi security troops on Friday shot dead a militant identified as Waleed bin Mutlaq al-Radadi in a gunbattle after the forces came under attack in a residential building north of the holy city of Medina, the kingdom's news agency said. One soldier was also killed and two were wounded.
Al-Radadi was among the kingdom's 36 most wanted, a convict on the run, and his killing was not a coincidence but the ``normal result of security forces' endeavors'' to fight terrorists, the official Saudi Press Agency quoted Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz as saying.
Too bad for Waleed that they didn't 'surround' him.
The four French nationals were shot dead Feb. 26 by two gunmen on the side of a road leading to Medina in an area restricted to Muslims only. The Interior Ministry has said all four - three men and one teenage boy - lived in Saudi Arabia.
Prince Nayef also called on other wanted militants to surrender. If they did not, he vowed that al-Radadi's fate would ``God willing (be) the destiny of every wanted'' militant.
After the killings of the Frenchmen, police said they arrested several suspects and were looking for two others, identified as Abdullah Thair Al Muhammadi and Nasser Al Balawi, but authorities have not said whether the attack was a case of terrorism. Al-Radadi was not identified as a suspect at the time.
This article starring:
Abdullah Thair Al Muhammadi
Nasser Al Balawi
Waleed bin Mutlaq al-Radadi
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/08/2007 00:21 ||
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Attackers poured fuel over worshippers at a mosque in northern Yemen, locked the doors and set fire to it,
Attackers poured fuel over worshippers at a mosque in northern Yemen, locked the doors and set fire to it.
wounding 30 people, the official Saba news agency reported. The attack took place on Friday in the northern province of Amran, south of Saada. Security authorities are investigating to identify the assailants and the motives of this criminal act, Saba quoted Amran Governor Taha Hajar as saying.
Eight victims in critical condition were taken to the capital Sanaa, while 22 were admitted to local hospitals for treatment for burns, the agency said late on Friday. Several people suffered from smoke inhalation. Saba said the attack was the third in Amran. In 2001 a man opened fire at worshippers, killing three, and in 2003 a bomb exploded in a mosque killing one man and wounding 50, it said.
This article starring:
Amran Governor Taha Hajar
Posted by: Fred ||
04/08/2007 00:00 ||
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Police arrested 17 activists of Islamist outfit Allahar Dal at Malibari village under Gaibandha Sadar upazila yesterday. Acting on a tip-ff, the law enforcers from Gaibandha Sadar Police Station raided the house of Abu Bakker Siddique where the activists of the Islamist party were holding a "secret" meeting.
Locals said the Allahar Dal activists used to hold meetings at the house on Saturdays for two hours from 7:00am to 9:00am with its leader Nizamuddin in the chair. Nizamuddin told police that they carried out their activities in Dhaperhat under Sadullapur upazila for a few months. After being driven out from Dhaperhat by the locals, they took shelter at Malibari village. Police produced the arrested Allahar Dal activists before the court that sent them to jail.
This article starring:
ABU BAKKER SIDIQUE
Allahar Dal
ANWARUL ISLAM
Allahar Dal
FERDUS
Allahar Dal
JAHANGIR ALAM
Allahar Dal
JAHURUL ALAM
Allahar Dal
LALTU MIA
Allahar Dal
MOZAHAR ALI
Allahar Dal
NIZAM UDIN
Allahar Dal
RAFIQUL ISLAM
Allahar Dal
RAJU MIA
Allahar Dal
SADEQUR RAHMAN
Allahar Dal
SALIMUDIN
Allahar Dal
TASLIM UDIN
Allahar Dal
TOFAZZAL
Allahar Dal
ZAHURUL ISLAM
Allahar Dal
Allahar Dal
Posted by: Fred ||
04/08/2007 00:00 ||
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Tanjime Tamiruddin, listed by the government as a suspected militant outfit, has been renamed Hijbe Abu Omar so it could be run unhindered in the face of the crackdown on Islamic militancy. Its founder Moulana Abdur Rouf, now behind bars, had ordered his disciples sometime last year to operate under the new name. An Afghan War veteran, he is a former leader of Harkatul Jihad Al-Islami (HuJi) Bangladesh that was banned by the government in 2005.
Despite his absence, the organisation continued to thrive with several hundred cadres active across the country. It is working to send its activists abroad to fight the 'enemies of Islam' in places across the globe, said intelligence sources. Recently, the Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) has arrested seven members of the militant outfit. In primary interrogation, the arrestees have admitted to having gone through a month's physical training at Jibontoli, a faraway village in Bhaluka of Mymensingh. The elite crime busters have also seized three firearms and ammunition, explosives and bomb-making materials from Mymensingh and Barisal.
Derived from Arabic, 'Hijbe Abu Omar' means the party of Omar's father. Omar is the only son of Abdur Rouf. Tanjime Tamiruddin was renamed after Rouf was captured along with his wife and some other militants during a raid at Jibontoli Madrasa on August 2 last year. During the raid, the law enforcers also recovered some bomb-making materials and training equipment from the militants' den that also had four bunkers and two sentry outposts.
Continued on Page 49
This article starring:
HAFIZ YAHYA
Islami Dawati Kafela Bangladesh
MULANA ABDUR RUF
Harkatul Jihad Al-Islami
MULANA ABDUR RUF
Hijbe Abu Omar
MULANA ABDUR RUF
Tanjime Tamiruddin
NAWAB MUKUT
Hijbe Abu Omar
NAWAB MUKUT
Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh
SHAHIDUL ISLAM
Hijbe Abu Omar
Darul Ulum Deobond Madrasa
Harkatul Jihad Al-Islami
Hijbe Abu Omar
Islami Dawati Kafela Bangladesh
Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh
Tanjime Tamiruddin
Posted by: Fred ||
04/08/2007 00:00 ||
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NEW DELHI: A 48-year-old man has been arrested at Nandnagri here on charges of circulating counterfeit currency notes. The police claim to have recovered fake currency worth Rs. 50,000 that was smuggled in on board the Delhi-Lahore bus.
The Inter-State Cell of the Crime Branch received a tip-off over this past Friday that Shamim, a resident of Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh, had been circulating counterfeit currency notes of Rs. 1,000 and Rs.500 denominations in the Capital.
A decoy customer was sent by the police to strike a deal with him.
Shamim came to a bus shelter at Nandnagri on Friday afternoon to deliver the consignment when he was arrested. Shamim had allegedly demanded Rs. 25,000 in exchange for Rs. 50,000 counterfeit notes. During interrogation, he purportedly disclosed that the notes had been smuggled in from Pakistan on board the Delhi-Lahore bus.
The police said the notes were of very good quality and it was difficult to distinguish them from the real. The seized notes are part of a consignment brought by a woman who had visited Pakistan for 20 days recently.
He told interrogators that he procured notes worth Rs. 1 lakh from the woman through an agent at Kabootar Market in the Walled City here.
He then went back to Muzaffarnagar where he circulated counterfeit notes worth Rs. 50,000.
According to the police, Shamim was earlier arrested twice on charges of circulating forged currency notes at Panipat in Haryana.
He was also arrested for smuggling of arms and drug peddling in Uttar Pradesh.
The police are trying to trace the agent through whom he had procured the notes.
Efforts are also on to identify the woman who had allegedly brought the consignment from Pakistan.
"There have been cases in the past where fake currency notes were smuggled in either on board the Samjhauta Express train or through the Indo-Pakistan border along Punjab. However, it now appears that the Delhi-Lahore bus is also being used to smuggle in fake notes," said a police officer.
Posted by: John Frum ||
04/08/2007 17:10 ||
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Two Railway Protection Force personnel were killed and three injured in a Maoist attack on a train in Bihar's extremist-infested Jamui district on Sunday.
Nearly 40 suspected members of the banned Communist Party of India-Maoist, who boarded the Howrah-Gaya passenger train at Ghorpara railway station in Jamui district posing as passengers, whipped out pistols and opened fire at the RPF escort, killing two constables and injuring three personnel, including a sub-inspector, near Narganjo railway station.
No passenger was harmed, railway and police officials said.
While getting off the train after bringing it to a halt by pulling the alarm chain, the Maoists took away two carbines, a SLR and two pistols rpt two carbines, a SLR and two pistols from the slain and injured RPF personnel, railway officials said.
The Ghorpara station where they boarded the train is located close to the Jharkhand border. About a year ago, Maoist rebels blasted the building of Narganjo railway station.
Sunday's attack came a couple of days after a Naxalite strike on a Central Industrial Security Force picket in Bokaro district of Jharkhand, in which two personnel of the paramilitary force and four other persons were killed.
Eastern Railway's chief public relations officer S Majumdar told PTI by phone from Kolkata that the injured RPF personnel were admitted to Sadar hospital at Jhajha and the condition of two of them was described as serious.
A 100-strong RPF contingent was rushed from Asansol in West Bengal to the place of the attack to assist Bihar Police in combing operations launched in the area with the help of Central paramilitary forces.
Posted by: John Frum ||
04/08/2007 09:38 ||
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#1
Soldiers body: military honours accorded
Thiruvananthapuram, April 8.: The body of Lance Havildar G. Ramachandran, who died fighting terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir on April 5, was received with military honours at the International Airport here on Sunday afternoon.
The 29-year-old soldier had joined the 16 Madras Regiment in 1995. His wife, Mutulakshmi and his two-year-old son survive him. The body was taken under Army and State Police escort to his native place at Thuravankara in Thenkasi taluk in Thirunelveli district in Tamil Nadu.
The Additional District Magistrate, K. Surendran, placed a wreath on behalf of the Chief Minister of Kerala. Earlier, soldiers from the Madras Regiment presented arms and Army buglers sounded the last post in mark respect for the fallen soldier.
Posted by: John Frum ||
04/08/2007 10:07 Comments ||
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As the tribal Lashkar made advances in the Azam Warsak, Kalosha and Wacha Dana areas of South Waziristan Agency on Saturday, Army troops took control of more bunkers the Lashkar had got vacated from foreigners. However, the troops have so far stayed away from the fighting.
Sporadic firing continued in Bar Karmazai, Kalosha, Azam Warsak and Nandroon Ghundai, sources told The News. It was also observed that the Uzbek militants were moving towards mountains near the Afghan border like Nandroon. According to a report nine bodies of foreign militants killed in the clashes were recovered at Azam Warsak and buried by locals.
The tribesmen in a Jirga held on Saturday renewed their demand for government support in the final push against the Uzbeks, especially air support. The Jirga held at Wana, the headquarters of South Waziristan Agency, asked tribal elders from different sub-tribes who have left the agency due to threats, to return and join the Lashkar. Warning was also issued to others, including Malik Besmillah Khan, Malik Khanzada Khan, Malik Ali Shah Khan of Sheikh Bazidkhel tribe, Ajmal Khan of Kakakhel tribe and Malik Noor Ali Khan of Utmankhel to attend the Jirga being held tomorrow.
The exact number of casualties could not be ascertained due to host of reasons, including journalists inaccessibility to the area and political authorities reluctance to talk to reporters. However, reports say that at least 220 foreigners have so far been killed in the fighting. The locals killed in the clashes include seven close relatives of Maulvi Nazeer, identified as Azhay, Malik Pashat Khan, Malik Juma Khan, who was hanged at Wana Bazaar by the Uzbeks, Hamdullah, and a female and two youths. Three relatives of the Lashkar leader, Malik Sherin, have also been killed besides setting on fire his two houses.
There are also reports that the Uzbeks are getting supply from certain elements. They are in possession of heavy and light machine guns, sophisticated artillery, multi-barrel short-range missile-rocket launchers and ordinary rocket launchers.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/08/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
I wish I had been around for the introductions. Doing a MuzzieFest ScoreCard on the fly is tricky, who is in the heck is certain elements? ISI?
At least 40 persons were killed and scores of others injured in Parachinar and other parts of the Kurram tribal agency on Saturday on the second day of sectarian clashes. Arbab Muhammad Arif, Secretary (security) for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), told The News that 40 persons were killed and 43 injured in the fighting in Kurram Agency. He said the authorities have not kept any count of the number of Sunnis and Shias who lost their lives in the clashes. However, he did not agree with the suggestion that Pakistan Armys helicopter gunships had caused most of the fatalities by firing at combatants from the air.
Conceding that the clashes have spread out of the regional headquarters, Parachinar, to other parts of Kurram Agency, he said efforts were being made to control the situation through effective measures. Earlier, Kurram Agency's Political Agent Sahibzada Anees said the government could resort to the use of helicopter gunships to intercept and attack fighters in outlying areas of Kurram Agency to prevent the escalation of fighting. He said shoot-at-sight orders have been given to the troops patrolling the streets of Parachinar town to stop violation of curfew and check the activities of miscreants bent upon attacking members of the rival sects and their properties.
Unconfirmed reports from Kurram Agency said the death toll was more than 40 and it was rising due to the continuing clashes and the spread of fighting to hitherto peaceful villages. The use of heavy weapons by the combatants, including missiles, rocket launchers and mortar guns was said to be taking heavy toll of life and property in the affected areas. Isolated Sunni and Shia villages were particularly being targeted as reinforcements could not reach there in time from members of their sects. One report said 75 persons were injured in the fighting and many of them were unable to receive medical treatment due to intense clashes and closure of roads on account of insecure conditions.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
04/08/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Sunni vs. Shia amongst the tribes? How quaint. They certainly seem to be offsetting their vaunted high birth rate by trying to kill as many of themselves as possible.
US forces captured a leading al-Qaeda militant on Sunday whom they hold responsible for a wave of deadly car bombings in the capital, the military said in a statement. It did not name the suspect but said he was a close aide of al-Qaeda's Baghdad commander. It said the captured militant had ties to several senior al-Qaeda figures and was suspected of involvement in a series of deadly vehicle bombings in the capital. And, that he was detained along with two other known al-Qaeda militants.
A US military spokesperson told AFP the captured militant acted as a point man for the al-Qaeda commander. He was a "gatekeeper, somebody through whom you needed to go to meet the leader," he said.
#2
He was a "gatekeeper, somebody through whom you needed to go to meet the leader," he said.
I'd suggest we go through him then - use a door-knob-hole drill...oh... er, my bad, he said "go to", not go through"
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/08/2007 19:18 Comments ||
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#3
Laptops, cell phones, Ouroubos (spelling?) fingerprint machine... in these technical times, no real need to ask the meat person any questions. Throw them in the prison's general population, and let all there despair thinking of those still temporarily free.
The renegade cleric Muqtada al-Sadr who is hiding in Iran urged Iraqi forces to stop cooperating with the United States and told his guerrilla fighters to concentrate their attacks on American troops rather than Iraqis, according to a statement issued Sunday.
The statement, stamped with al-Sadr's official seal, was distributed in the Shiite holy city of Najaf on Sunday a day before a large demonstration there, called for by al-Sadr, to mark the fourth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad. "You, the Iraqi army and police forces, don't walk alongside the occupiers, because they are your archenemy," the statement said. Its authenticity could not be verified.
In the statement, al-Sadr who commands an enormous following among Iraq's majority Shiites and has close allies in the Shiite-dominated government also encouraged his followers to attack only American forces, not fellow Iraqis. "God has ordered you to be patient in front of your enemy, and unify your efforts against them not against the sons of Iraq," the statement said, in an apparent reference to clashes between al-Sadr's Mahdi Army fighters and Iraqi troops in Diwaniyah, south of Baghdad. "You have to protect and build Iraq."
Thousands of Iraqis streamed toward the Shiite holy city of Najaf for a demonstration Monday to mark the fourth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad. Witnesses said thousands of residents of Baghdad's largest Shiite slum, Sadr City, boarded buses and minivans Sunday for Najaf.
"The faithful should participate in a demonstration in Najaf on April 9, demanding that the occupiers withdraw from our lands. They should carry or wear Iraqi flags," said a statement released by al-Sadr's office.
On Sunday, Iraqi flags flew from most houses and shops in Sadr City. Drivers and motorcyclists affixed them to their vehicles. Police escorted convoys of pickup trucks overflowing with young boys waving Iraqi flags, en route to Najaf.
#2
Okay, he has clearly declared his position. No ambiguity now. Smoke him.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
04/08/2007 10:11 Comments ||
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#3
Regular Joe Calls for Attacks on Al-Sadr Guerrillas
Posted by: regular joe ||
04/08/2007 10:23 Comments ||
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#4
Separately, a pickup truck loaded with artillery shells exploded Sunday near a hospital south of Baghdad, killing at least 15 people. The blast left a crater 10 yards wide, the Iraqi military said. Three mortars sailed into houses in eastern Baghdad, sending six people to the hospital with breathing difficulties from a possible chemical agent, police said. Doctors said the victims' faces turned yellow and they were unable to open their eyes. One hospital official said the chemical was chlorine, and that the victims were expected to recover
now how did they get their hands on arty and mortars with chlorine agents? Everyone knows there was no WMD's in Iraq....
/Dem asshole
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/08/2007 10:30 Comments ||
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#6
Fun times ahead for those Mahdi Army boys. I am hoping we have a sniper team out there looking for a clean head shot of Al-Sadr. Hearing Sadr got his head taken off from over 300 yards away would scare the living crap out of quite a few jihadi's.
Posted by: Charles ||
04/08/2007 10:57 Comments ||
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#7
he's still hiding under a little girl's bed in Iran, IIRC
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/08/2007 10:58 Comments ||
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#8
Hours later, five burned and mutilated bodies remained scattered at the scene. Most of the dead were technicians who worked at auto repair shops nearby, officials said.
Hmmm, you'd expect Mechanics to understand red wire-green wire, Work "Accident", or wiping out the tecnicaly trained?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/08/2007 10:59 Comments ||
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#9
He will run this guerrillas from Tehran, just like Hizzbollah in Lebanon.
Posted by: regular joe ||
04/08/2007 11:07 Comments ||
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#10
This is good becuase it will make his entire crew including himself and hopefully his reps in the gov open targets.
Get ready thou becuase the Mehdi army while is no match for US they will spin up the casualties and choas for a limited period of time. That means we should brace for the media to harp blow out of proportion with no context every up tick in violence in Iraq.
Cities to watch would be Basra, Najaf (we better not let them get in that dam church again), Karbala, Sadr City. Side bonus that may come of this is that if Sadr's people do as he ask it may go along way to helping US identify the infiltrators in the IP.
We better finish these people this time. The catch and release policy and especially this fight knock them down stop fight knock em down stop cycle is BS should be fight knock em down kill kill smash kill check for life kill one more for sure.
#12
He will run this guerrillas from Tehran, just like Hizzbollah in Lebanon.
One more reason to bring it to Tehran's mullahs. If you want to wipe out vermin, you've got to go for the nest. For way too long now, Moqtada Sadr has been stealing valuable oxygen from far more deserving lifeforms like roaches, lice and slime molds.
US warplanes blasted a militia team firing rocket-propelled grenades in the second day of heavy fighting in a major offensive to drive Shiite Mahdi Army militiamen out of Diwaniyah, a farm-belt city south of Baghdad.
North of the capital, in the increasingly dangerous Diyala provincial capital of Baqouba, police reported finding 21 more bodies dumped in the streets, victims of the intense sectarian warfare. All were shot execution-style and many had been tortured. At least 62 bodies have been found in or near Baqouba since Tuesday.
At least 64 people were killed or found dead across Iraq on Saturday in the eighth week of the US-Iraqi security crackdown on the capital and surrounding cities and towns.
Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, meanwhile, said that government officials from Iraq's neighbors, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and representatives of the Group of Eight industrialized nations would meet in Egypt early next month.
The session - originally set for Istanbul, Turkey - is a follow-up to the international conference held in Baghdad last month during which envoys from Iran and the US spoke directly for the first time in years.
The Egyptian meeting will be held at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik on May 3-4, Zebari said.
The security committee chief in Karbala province, south of Baghdad, said authorities found the bodies of six shepherds from a group of 22 who were abducted Wednesday, along with their livestock, by suspected al-Qaida in Iraq fighters.
"We have confirmed the 22 shepherds were killed by al-Qaida. We found six of their bodies today and we will continue searching the desert tomorrow," said Ghalib al-Daami. He would not reveal how he knew all 22 were dead.
Maj. Gen. Oothman Farhood al-Ghanemi, commander of the Iraqi army's 8th Division, said the US-Iraqi operation to retake Diwaniyah took shape after a three-month crescendo of violence in which at least 58 people were killed or kidnapped.
In violence leading up to the offensive, many women reportedly were killed after the hard-line fundamentalist militiamen accused them of violating their strict interpretation of Islamic morality.
Al-Ghanemi told The Associated Press that militants were armed with rocket-propelled grenades, Katyusha rockets, Strela anti-aircraft rockets and AK-47 assault rifles. Before the offensive, militants attacked Iraqi and US-led coalition forces 17 times with roadside bombs - some of them armor-piercing explosively formed projectiles.
The US military accuses Iran of providing militants with the deadly EFPs.
"Although the army now is in the city, gunmen still have an armed presence. This will take time to finish. We are backed by friendly multinational forces and had it not been for them we would not have been able to detect and dismantle so many roadside bombs today," the general said.
Al-Ghanemi said the tipping point in Diwaniyah was March 20, when militiamen attacked and set fire to police roadblocks in 15 southeast neighborhoods and turned them into no-go zones for the authorities.
Much of the Diwaniyah police force is said to be controlled by the Badr Brigade, a rival militia linked to the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the country's most powerful Shiite political party. SCIRI, as it is known, controls the Qadisiyah provincial council.
Police were ordered off the streets Saturday and some residents said the Iraqi military did not trust them. But Brig. Sadiq Jaafar, the city police chief, said his men were sent indoors because they were too poorly equipped to be of use in the fighting.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/08/2007 00:00 ||
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A Sunni insurgent group has claimed responsibility for a deadly roadside bomb attack on a British patrol this week in southern Iraq, according to a message posted on a militant website. The Mujahedeen Army, or Jaish al-Mujahedeen, said it was responsible for planting the explosives that killed four British servicemen and their Kuwaiti interpreter on April 5, said the US-based SITE Institute, which monitors Islamist sites.
The group set up an ambush in the early morning hours against the British patrol, planting an improvised explosive device near the southern city of Basra which detonated as a British armored vehicle approached the area, it said. The explosion "led to its complete destruction and the death of those who were in it," and was followed by an exchange of fire "which led to the injury of several British soldiers," it said. The British military said earlier this week that the four soldiers and civilian translator travelling in the same vehicle were killed outside Basra in a complex roadside bomb, small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenade attack.
Jaish al-Mujahedeen first emerged in February 2005 when it claimed the abduction of two Indonesian journalists, who were freed after nearly a week in captivity. It has since taken credit for several attacks in Iraq, including shooting down a US Blackhawk helicopter in February.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/08/2007 00:00 ||
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A Palestinian attacker stabbed and wounded two Israeli police officers Sunday at a checkpoint outside a Hebron shrine that has been a flashpoint for violence in the past, the Israeli army said. Israeli forces responded by shooting the attacker in the leg, the army said.
The attack during the weeklong Jewish holiday of Passover occurred at a checkpoint outside the shrine, known to Jews as the Tomb of the Patriarchs and to Muslims as the Ibrahimi Mosque.
In the early afternoon, a Palestinian, who appeared to be about 17 years old, pulled out a knife and stabbed two policemen at the checkpoint, the army said. One was lightly wounded and the other was more seriously injured, the army said. A third police officer shot the attacker in the leg, and he was taken to the hospital, the army said. Palestinian militants have repeatedly attacked Israeli forces near the shrine. In 1994, Jewish militant Baruch Goldstein opened fire at the shrine, killing 29 Palestinians.
Israeli Army helicopters fired at Palestinian militants in the northern Gaza Strip early Saturday, killing one, the military said. It was the third Israeli military strike in Gaza in 10 days, indicating a further erosion of the tenuous cease-fire that was declared in November. An Army spokesman said the militants were trying to plant an explosive device near the Israeli-Gaza border fence east of Jabaliya. He emphasized that the army did not initiate the action, but was responding to Palestinian activity.
The Palestinian killed Saturday was identified as Fuad Maarouf, 22, a member of the leftist Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Mr. Maarouf had apparently joined up with Islamic Jihad, a small, extremist group that rejects the cease-fire, to carry out an operation. Islamic Jihads military wing said in a statement that its acts were a response to the Israeli Armys daily violations in the West Bank.
Also early Saturday, Israeli troops shot a well-known militia leader, Zacharia Zubeidi, during a clash with armed men in Jenin in the northern West Bank. Mr. Zubeidi is the local leader of Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades, which is affiliated with the mainstream Fatah organization.
Palestinian officials recently sought to extend the cease-fire from Gaza to the West Bank, but Israeli officials say they want to see it being enforced in Gaza first. Israel withdrew its military from the Gaza Strip and evacuated all Jewish settlements there in 2005. The Army spokesman said more than 40 explosive devices have been planted since November, all intended for Israeli patrols along the Gaza fence. The soldiers had escaped injury by luck, he said. About 200 Qassam rockets have been fired at Israel in the same period, according to army officials. Two rockets were launched at Israel on Saturday, army officials said. One damaged a factory in the Israeli town of Sderot.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/08/2007 00:00 ||
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The PA cabinet held an emergency meeting in Gaza City on Saturday to discuss ways of ending the state of lawlessness in PA-controlled territories, as anarchy grew in the Strip. Interior Minister Hani Kawassmeh, who is formally in charge of the PA security forces, presented the cabinet with a new "security plan" aimed at restoring law and order. Contrary to expectations, the cabinet did not take any decision on the plan. Instead, it decided to hold another meeting next week to discuss ways of implementing it.
Kawassmeh also briefed the cabinet on efforts to secure the release of BBC correspondent Alan Johnston, who was kidnapped in Gaza City more than three weeks ago. Some of the ministers expressed deep concern that Johnston's abduction, in addition to the growing anarchy, could prompt the United Nations to declare the Gaza Strip a "dangerous zone."
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh were scheduled to meet late Saturday night to discuss the security situation in the Gaza Strip and efforts to release both Johnston and kidnapped IDF Cpl. Gilad Schalit. The two were also expected to reach an agreement on the formation of a new National Security Council comprising representatives of all Palestinian factions.
But even as the Hamas-led cabinet was meeting in Gaza City, anarchy continued on the streets. PA security sources said Muhammad Samhan, 21, was shot and seriously wounded as he was walking in the street in the town of Bani Suheila, south of the Gaza Strip. Hamas accused Fatah gunmen of being behind the assassination attempt.
A hitherto unknown group calling itself The Apparatus of the Oppressed claimed responsibility for hijacking two vehicles belonging to the PA General Intelligence Force in the center of the Gaza Strip. PA security sources said the group apparently consisted of Palestinian security officers who were recently fired because of their affiliation with Hamas. The sources also reported that Hamas and Fatah gunmen exchanged gunfire in several locations in the Gaza Strip in the past 48 hours.
On Friday, unidentified gunmen shot and wounded Rasem Bayari, chairman of the Palestinian Workers Union, outside his home in Gaza City. No group claimed responsibility. Fatah gunmen later announced that they had captured three Hamas members who were allegedly involved in the attack.
Hamas legislator Ismail al-Ashkar claimed that Israel and the US were continuing to arm forces loyal to Abbas and his Fatah faction. He said that in recent weeks large shipments of weapons had entered the Gaza Strip with the hope that they would be used by Fatah against Hamas. The Israelis and Americans, he added, have decided to fight Hamas by using Palestinian puppets. "The weapons that they are sending to the Gaza Strip are for use against Palestinians, not the occupation," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/08/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
It would be cool if one of the warring clans took one of the cabinet ministers hostage.
Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels set off a roadside blast, killing seven bus passengers and wounding 26 in Sri Lanka yesterday, the government said, marking the latest violence on the island. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) detonated the blast outside the town of Vavuniya, 250 kilometres north of Colombo, the defence ministry said, adding a soldier was among the bus passengers killed. "A Claymore mine hit the bus as it was halfway through to the destination," an area military official said. "The bomb was rigged up on a tree and manually triggered as the bus passed. It was the work of the Tigers."
However, the pro-rebel Tamilnet.com website said the Tigers denied the charge and blamed military intelligence. "The Sri Lankan military intelligence establishment has devised bomb attacks and wanton killings during the last two weeks with a sinister motive of tarnishing the image of the Tigers," LTTE spokesman Rasiah Ilanthiriyan was quoted as saying.
Five people were dead on arrival at Vavuniya hospital, where two passengers died from their injuries, a hospital official said, adding seven soldiers were among those wounded. Tamilnet said the blast killed at least seven civilians and injured 27 others, including four children. The attack came five days after a bomb exploded inside a bus in the east of the island, killing 17 people and wounding 25.
Immediately after yesterday's blast, the government asked people to be cautious of "suspicious persons or activities" ahead of the traditional New Year next week. "The government is requesting the general public to be cautious of suspicious persons or activities, especially at crowded places, inside buses and trains during the upcoming festive season," the government said in a statement. Security has also been intensified across the island's northern and eastern regions in a bid to prevent Tiger attacks, the government said.
Yesterday's blast came a day after Sri Lanka's navy and Tiger rebels fought a sea battle off the island's northwestern coast with the warring parties each claiming losses for the other side.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/08/2007 00:00 ||
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#4
And did the Goracle pass through South Texas on his way to someplace else? We had a freeze warning last night.
A freeze warning... on Easter weekend!
#5
That's my all-time favorite Easter Cartoon, It's so nice to find like minded people to converse with.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/08/2007 10:13 Comments ||
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#6
I never met THAT Easter "Bunny" Yawsa, Yawsa, Yawsa,
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/08/2007 10:15 Comments ||
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#7
Is algore in Colorado Springs? It's been snowing off and on since Friday evening.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/08/2007 11:40 Comments ||
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#8
May the Lord's joyous spirit rise anew in the hearts of His flock and proclaim His profound benovolence by guiding us to victory over those who seek to forever vanquish all memory of Him.
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.
Dozens of Taliban militants attacked a US-funded mine-clearing team in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, killing three deminers, three guards and one female passer-by, police said. The attack on the demining team working for the US-based demining company RONCO in western Farah province was the latest in a wave of violence blamed on the Taliban insurgents, police said. The Taliban attacked a demining team. Three deminers and three guards supporting them were killed, a highway police official, Saydo Jan told AFP. One Afghan woman nearby was also killed in the shootout, he said.
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) - Saudi Arabia's interior minister said Saturday that a slain militant suspected of involvement in the February killing of four French nationals was among the kingdom's most wanted terrorists. Saudi security troops on Friday shot dead a militant identified as 
Police arrested 17 activists of Islamist outfit 
As the tribal Lashkar made advances in the Azam Warsak, Kalosha and Wacha Dana areas of South Waziristan Agency on Saturday, Army troops took control of more bunkers the Lashkar had got vacated from foreigners. However, the troops have so far stayed away from the fighting.
At least 40 persons were killed and scores of others injured in Parachinar and other parts of the Kurram tribal agency on Saturday on the second day of sectarian clashes. Arbab Muhammad Arif, Secretary (security) for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), told The News that 40 persons were killed and 43 injured in the fighting in Kurram Agency. He said the authorities have not kept any count of the number of Sunnis and Shias who lost their lives in the clashes. However, he did not agree with the suggestion that Pakistan Armys helicopter gunships had caused most of the fatalities by firing at combatants from the air.
The renegade cleric Muqtada al-Sadr 
US warplanes blasted a militia team firing rocket-propelled grenades in the second day of heavy fighting in a major offensive to drive Shiite Mahdi Army militiamen out of Diwaniyah, a farm-belt city south of Baghdad. 
A Sunni insurgent group has claimed responsibility for a deadly roadside bomb attack on a British patrol this week in southern Iraq, according to a message posted on a militant website. The Mujahedeen Army, or Jaish al-Mujahedeen, said it was responsible for planting the explosives that killed four British servicemen and their Kuwaiti interpreter on April 5, said the US-based SITE Institute, which monitors Islamist sites. 
Israeli Army helicopters fired at Palestinian militants in the northern Gaza Strip early Saturday, killing one, the military said. It was the third Israeli military strike in Gaza in 10 days, indicating a further erosion of the tenuous cease-fire that was declared in November. An Army spokesman said the militants were trying to plant an explosive device near the Israeli-Gaza border fence east of Jabaliya. He emphasized that the army did not initiate the action, but was responding to Palestinian activity. 
The PA cabinet held an emergency meeting in Gaza City on Saturday to discuss ways of ending the state of lawlessness in PA-controlled territories, as anarchy grew in the Strip. Interior Minister Hani Kawassmeh, who is formally in charge of the PA security forces, presented the cabinet with a new "security plan" aimed at restoring law and order. Contrary to expectations, the cabinet did not take any decision on the plan. Instead, it decided to hold another meeting next week to discuss ways of implementing it. 
Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels set off a roadside blast, killing seven bus passengers and wounding 26 in Sri Lanka yesterday, the government said, marking the latest violence on the island. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) detonated the blast outside the town of Vavuniya, 250 kilometres north of Colombo, the defence ministry said, adding a soldier was among the bus passengers killed. "A Claymore mine hit the bus as it was halfway through to the destination," an area military official said. "The bomb was rigged up on a tree and manually triggered as the bus passed. It was the work of the Tigers."
