Two Estonian soldiers were killed in a missile attack in Afghanistan on June 23 - the nations first casualties in the NATO-led mission.
The two men, members of the Estonian mine clearance team, were attacked with a 107 mm missile during their lunch break in the Sangin Valley in the Helmand Province of southern Afghanistan.
Sgt. Kalle Torn, 24, the assistant commander of the ordnance disposal team, and Jn. Sgt. Jako Karuks, 33, the driver of the team, were named as the deceased. Four other soldiers sustained injuries in the same attack and remain in medical care at Camp Bastion.
Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, who began an official visit to the United States on June 24, called on the nation to lower its flags to half mast.
"Kalle Torn and Jako Karuks as well as their wounded companions were not just soldiers but mine clearance specialists whose duty it was to clear Afghanistan, ridden by decades of war, from deadly explosives planted into its soil," the president said.
"This shows how difficult and dangerous our struggle is together with Afghans for a peaceful Afghanistan. This shows that we have no right to break this mission.
Estonia also lost two soldiers in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
All of them are men who wanted to make the world a better place," the president said.
"I will lower the flag to half staff at my home in mourning of the Estonian soldiers killed in Afghanistan on Victory Day and ask all my countrymen to do the same.
Estonia has taken part in the operation in Afghanistan since 2003. On December 7, 2005 the Estonian parliament extended participation of the Estonian defense forces in Afghanistan by two years with up to 150 soldiers at any one time.
The military deaths will no doubt be the subject of discussion between Ilves and U.S. President George W. Bush, who are scheduled to meet in the Oval Office on June 25. Vice President Dick Cheney, Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte and other high-ranking U.S. officials are also to attend the meeting.
#1
Rest in peace, gentlemen, with our thanks. You've done your share to keep the civilized world safe. May that knowledge be of some comfort to those you left behind.
#4
It's a shame that men who come to Afghanistan to help make life better for everyone by removing mines planted over 28 years of fighting are killed by those whose only goal is to keep the Afghan population in bondage. God has a special place for men like these Estonian soldiers, and a far less hospitable place for the perps that killed them.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
06/25/2007 15:21 Comments ||
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The new favorite word - surge, along with an old favorite activity - hand wringing.
Taliban fighters attack U.S. or NATO forces in populated areas, then retreat to civilian homes. Western forces respond with massive firepower or an airstrike. That increasingly common pattern of clashes has led to a climbing number of civilian deaths and rising anger among Afghan officials and ordinary people. While militants killed 178 civilians in attacks through June 23, Western forces killed 203, according to an Associated Press count based on figures from Afghan and international officials. There are several different totals near the end of the article.
Exact counts are nearly impossible in the chaos of war. Separate figures from the U.N. and an umbrella organization of Afghan and international aid groups show that, through May 31, the number of civilians killed by international forces was roughly equal to those killed by insurgents.
What is clear is the political fallout: President Hamid Karzai has repeatedly pleaded with foreign troops to exercise caution and work more closely with Afghan forces, who might be able to minimize civilian casualties because of their knowledge of the terrain. On Saturday, he denounced the Taliban for killing civilians but directed most of his anger at foreign forces for being careless and viewing Afghan lives as "cheap."
"Afghan life is not cheap and it should not be treated as such," Karzai said. The AP would have us believe he believes infidel life is worth less.
NATO defends its right to fire on anyone who fires at its troops first, noting that it is not intentionally targeting civilians, as the Taliban sometimes does. The U.S.-led coalition suggested that many civilians reportedly killed by international troops may in fact have been killed by insurgents.
But such arguments fail to address the growing Afghan anger, said Michael Shaikh, a researcher for Human Rights Watch in Afghanistan. "When you're on the ground and your child has been killed by a 2,000-pound bomb, you don't care if the attack was legal or illegal in the laws of war. You care if your son or daughter was killed," Shaikh said. "That's what NATO is not getting. They need to be doing it cleaner and doing it better. Every death has a profound effect on the Afghan population," he said.
...much of Afghanistan's violence takes place in remote areas are too far or dangerous for independent observers to reach, and it is not uncommon for figures cited by international forces, the U.N. or Afghan officials to vary widely.
In addition, militants often wear civilian dress and seek shelter in innocent villagers' homes, making it hard to differentiate between fighters and civilians in the aftermath of battles. Further complicating death toll counts, Afghans tend to bury their dead soon after they are killed - following the rules of Islam - and those deaths are hard to verify or not included in casualty tolls.
The AP count of civilian casualties runs from Jan. 1 through June 23 and is based on reports from witnesses and U.S., U.N., NATO and Afghan officials. Of the 399 civilian deaths in the tally, 18 were reportedly from crossfire between Taliban militants and foreign forces.
The U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan has counted 213 civilians killed by insurgents through May and 207 killed by Afghan and international forces, based on reports from Afghan and international forces and verification by its own human rights officers.
ACBAR - the Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief - has counted 230 civilians killed in U.S. and NATO operations through May and roughly the same number killed by militants. The ACBAR tally is based on numbers from the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, the Afghan NGO Security Office and the U.N.
The U.N. and ACBAR figures do not include June, which saw a huge spike in military operations and insurgency attacks. Karzai on Saturday said that in the past 10 days more than 90 civilians have been killed in U.S. or NATO operations. He did not say how many had been killed by the Taliban.
The U.S. and NATO said they did not have civilian casualty figures.
NATO says it tries to observe a target for as long as possible from both the ground and the air and only attacks it if there is no sign of civilians. NATO blames the insurgents for hiding among civilians, and insists that troops have the right to defend themselves.
"If someone's firing at me, he's a combatant," said Maj. John Thomas, a spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force.
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/25/2007 06:23 ||
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#1
Militants = terrorists. It is the fault of the terrorists who are causing civilians (if they are really civilians) to get killed. The MSM and human rights organizations should take this up with the terrorists---hah hah hah. As if that is going to happen.
#3
when a Taliban presence gets a civilian killed, they caused the death, HRW Assholes
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/25/2007 7:36 Comments ||
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#4
If you are shot at from a place where there might be civilians around, you must not shoot back. Same thing if they run to somewhere civilians might be. If those are now the rules, I hope Karzai is ready to fly solo, because we have to leave.
#5
The enemy are civilians. They are not a uniformed, structured army, just gangs of gunmen attacking everything under civilian control so they can take control.
Karzai better wake up, because Glenmore is right. If NATO leaves, he better fly solo, and never land.
#8
The guy firing at you is a combatant, but his wife is loading mags for him and his 8-year old kid is spotting for him, and his mother is cooking for him, all within a single 10' square room. That means if you call in an air or arty strike, or even just fling a grenade into the room or do a 'Haditha', you are going to kill 3 'innocent' civilians as well as the guy shooting at you. According to the desired new ROE, that is unacceptable, which leaves two choices: sit there quietly and get shot at or leave.
#9
Yeah, but I think this is a HRW story, with a Karzi quote taken out of context. If so, that's just what Harry Reid and the MSM want - encourage us to run away and make him a prophet.
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/25/2007 9:25 Comments ||
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#10
Helmand district Pashtos revere Taliban/al-Qaeda as protectors of the heroin trade. Karzai is depraved for treating drug lords and their workers and families, as "civilians." There are alternatives to nation-building in Afghanistan; Karzai wouldn't like them.
An explosion in southern Afghanistan on Sunday killed a British soldier and injured four others, the Ministry of Defense said. The soldier from the 1st Battalion The Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters died after the "Snatch" Land Rover he was traveling in was caught in the explosion near Lashkar Gah, in the volatile Helmand province, the ministry said. All five soldiers caught in the blast were airlifted to hospital, where one was pronounced dead. He was not identified by name, pending notification of his next of kin.
Shortly afterward a man failed to stop at a security cordon around the scene and was shot and killed, the ministry said. A second man was also wounded.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2007 00:00 ||
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(SomaliNet) A civilian person has been shot dead in the Somalia capital Mogadishu late Sunday by an unknown gunman hours after a huge bomb exploded and people wounded. Witnesses told Somalinet that this afternoon a man armed with a pistol shot several time a man walking near Amal Bank building in Bakara market, south of the capital and escaped unharmed. The victim died on the spot. The nearby police forces cordoned off the area and began searching but no one was arrested for the latest killing. We are investigating the matter and we are tracing down the criminal sooner, said local official.
Also within today around 1:25pm local time a hand grenade bomb was targeted on a Khat market near Howl-Wadag junction not far from Bakara market wounding four civilians. Two of the injured persons were women who were busy in selling Khat. A truck carrying police officers was passing the area in time of the bomb attack, according to local resident.
It is much harder for journalists to find out what is exactly on the ground because of security reasons. No group has claimed the responsibility of the latest killing and blasts although the transitional government blames all these acts of violence on the remnants of the ousted Islamic Courts Union.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2007 00:00 ||
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Hattip Lucianne.com
Terrorist sleeper cells said to be planning attacks in the UK have been unmasked after the bodies of Britons killed in US bombing raids in Somalia were identified by a top-secret SAS mission. The four British men were among an estimated 400 people killed in a series of American air raids on Al Qaeda training camps in the war-torn East African state in January.
In March, British and US special-forces troops were secretly sent back into the region to take DNA samples from the exhumed remains of more than 50 of those killed during the attacks. The joint SAS and Delta Force teams spent a number of days in the former Al Qaeda strongholds of Hayo and the island of Lamu, trying to identify foreign terrorists. They were armed with profiles of wanted terrorists they believed had been hiding and training in the area. The wanted list included people who were tracked from America, the UK and other European countries - notably France, Spain, Italy and Germany.
The British and American teams are now playing a key role in the war against terror and take their orders directly from the CIA.
The DNA samples were processed on a US aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea and the results sent to the CIA's headquarters in Langley, Washington DC.
MI5 is understood to have used the samples to identify four British men killed in the US attacks. Their relatives and friends have now been put under covert surveillance in the hope of identifying further terror cells in the UK. Said a source, "Up to four UK-based terror cells may have been disrupted or destroyed because of the air strikes, as well as cells based in other European countries."
The attacks were mounted from the neighbouring state of Djibouti, where 2,000 US troops were stationed. They had been waiting to join a push by the Somali government against the Islamic Courts regime in Mogadishu, which forcibly took over much of the country in 2006.
Three Britons were arrested in Kenya after fleeing the US air raids on Somalia. All were interrogated but were finally allowed to return to the UK. One of the men, Reza Afsharzadagen, 25, from North London, says he was in Somalia teaching computer programming. I believe him. Programming is a key skill for brave electronic jihadis, hoping to die suddenly as they sit at the keyboard, so as to achieve their 72 perpetual virgins and the unnumbered boys with faces as beautiful as pearls. Of course, there is the presumption that this Persian-named Englishman knows enough about programming to teach it to others.
He claims to have been accused of terrorism and interviewed by MI5, but he has faced no charges on his return to Britain. No mention of the watchers at his windows, the taps on his phones, and the ever so slight disarrangement of his possessions he noticed when coming back from a short holiday. Then too, his computer seems to have slowed down a bit lately, but the virus scans aren't turning up anything.
#1
Eventually the DNA library may get good enough where we can sift out the likely suspects prior to interrogation. That is based on the assumption that many of the jihadi groups are inbred than Warren Jeffs cult.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
06/25/2007 0:09 Comments ||
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#2
"When I woke up this morning, I discovered that during the night, someone had replaced all my possessions with identical duplicates. So I asked my roommate if he had noticed anything unusual last night. He replied, 'Who are you?'"
#3
Nothing to worry about. Merely a few kilt wearing Scots skipping down to toss some cabers at the locals.
Eventually the DNA library may get good enough where we can sift out the likely suspects prior to interrogation. That is based on the assumption that many of the jihadi groups are inbred
That would be a good assumption to make. Terrorism runs in the family. Secrecy, loyalty and supportiveness are all a lot easier to gauge and garner amongst relatives. We really should consider using DNA tests to qualify who gets into America. Now that idiotic European countries like Britain and France have flooded themselves with jihadis, nation of origin is no longer a defining criteria.
I'd wager the presence of a DNA lab on one of our aircraft carriers is a solid indication that this idea is being taken seriously at some level. While I'm no fan of using genomic traits for the purpose of discrimination, the consequences of not performing intensive screening as persons of unknown origin or allegiance arrive at our shores are simply too great.
Absent any other containment policy, a program that involves cataloging the DNA of known terroristsincluding their family members and relativesis a matter of prudence. That bin Laden's relatives were allowed to exit the United States without undergoing any sampling of genetic material was a total failure of national security. I also refuse to be disuaded by any arguments that the Muslim preference for marriage between cousins would make such a methodology overly inclusive. That would beas they saya feature and not a bug.
It still remains an item of curiousity as to whether a predisposition for violence is genetically transmissible. The penchant for bloodshed that is so common amongst many Muslim cultures suggests this trait has been reinforced by untold centuries of intermarriage between cousins. Any conclusive proof of such an apparently warranted assumption would certainly seem to validate selective application of genomic cataloging in an attempt to screen potential terrorist candidates.
#4
Thats what we get for being the dumping ground of the World where anyone who wants a free house,medical treatment/education no need to work comes to the UK.Last 10 years we have let loads of scum into this country and we are now paying for it!!!!!!.
Ps There are loads of somalians in London alone!!!!!
Posted by: Paul ||
06/25/2007 6:48 Comments ||
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#5
SAS and Delta Force, lot of Spec Op guys. Talk about bringing in the heavy hitters!
Paul we've got them by the boat load in Minnesota too. TW nice to see someone else understands the Quran "boys and pearls" passage. Zen, tis Islam not family genetics, I think.... Point taken, what a fricking cocktail.
#9
Wake me up when their relatives, clan, tribe begin to spontaneously combust.
Posted by: ed ||
06/25/2007 9:48 Comments ||
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#10
I think you are on to something Frank G: "The taxi-cab gene." I think you could steal some of our money back from our "ferel govmint" via a grant to study the taxi-cab gene. There is probably a terrorist gene too. :)
#11
Unfortunately this victory vs. Al Queda is a one-time event since we blew operational security and let the bad guys know what we were doing after the Aethiops flushed the jihadis and we sent Spooky and SOF to deal with them.
#13
It's a good thing the Special Forces are being expanded, DarthVader, to include the junior varsity team. But note that the Special Forces guys were in Somalia in March. It's now nearly July, plenty of time to trace connections and bug computers. I suspect, in my ignorance, that the international connections are long since under observation, whatever that means in the real world. ;-)
Two people were killed on Sunday when leftist guerrillas detonated a bomb in Colombia's main port, Buenaventura, where rebels have been blamed for a series of attacks over the last two days, authorities said.
Seven bombs or grenades exploded at a police station and commercial centers Friday and Saturday, injuring 23 people in the Pacific port city, which handles about half of the Andean country's international shipments.
FARC detonated a bomb as a vehicle passed a tourist area, killing one person and a 3-year-old girl and wounding seven others.
In the latest attack, officials said rebels from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, detonated a bomb as a vehicle passed a tourist area, killing one person and a 3-year-old girl and wounding seven others.
"This is retaliation from the FARC for the killing of one of their key leaders," Interior Minister Carlos Holguin told local Caracol Radio. "These bandits have decided to attack the civilian population and create acts of terror."
Colombia remains the world's biggest producer of cocaine despite billions in U.S. military and counternarcotics aid to fight guerrillas who use drug trafficking and extortion to finance Latin America's oldest insurgency.
Violence from the conflict has dropped under Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, but the FARC, a smaller rebel group known as the ELN, and renegade paramilitaries are still fighting in remote parts of the country, often over the spoils of the drug trade.
Buenaventura, with its easy access to the coast, has become embroiled in a battle among urban guerrilla groups, drug traffickers and paramilitary gangs for control of lucrative narcotics smuggling routes.
Experts say Colombia produces around 600 to 700 tonnes of cocaine a year, most of its destined for the United States and Europe.
Two suspected separatist Kurdish rebels were killed when a fuel tanker they were planning to ram into a military outpost in a suicide attack exploded before they could approach, officials said Sunday.
The rebels drove the tanker toward the Karsilar outpost in the eastern province of Tunceli late Saturday, but were stopped by guards who fired at it. The tanker caught fire and exploded, an official from the local governor's office said. He was speaking on condition of anonymity because of rules that bar civil servants from speaking to journalists.
The militants had hijacked the tanker earlier at gunpoint, the official said. There was confusion, however, over the identity of one of the alleged militants. Private Dogan news agency said the driver of the hijacked vehicle may have been forced to drive the tanker toward the outpost, and been killed alongside the militant in the explosion.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2007 00:00 ||
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JCO Naib Subedar Chunni Lal, was killed on Sunday even as he shot down five intruding terrorists near the Line of Control in Northern Kashmir.
Lal, belonging to the Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry, displayed exemplary courage and leadership when he charged at a group of heavily-armed terrorists who had sneaked across the LoC on Sunday night.
According to official reports, Lal was heading a party of troops, which had trapped all escape routes of intruding terrorists when he found that another group was attempting to join the fight to break the cordon.
"Sensing the criticality of the situation and threat to life of his fellow soldiers, Chunni Lal, with total disregard to personal safety charged at the terrorists killing three terrorists with his bayonet and gunning down two others, before falling to bullets.
According to reports, 'this act of great bravery, leadership and supreme sacrifice by Subedar Chunni Lal not only resulted in elimination of five Pakistani terrorists, but also saved the lives of fellow soldiers under his command.'
He had played a key role in 1987 in capturing the now famous Bana Post at 21,153 feet on the Siachen glacier.
He had been decorated with the Vir Chakra, the country's third highest gallantry award, and the Sena Medal.
His wife Chinta Devi and two children - a 16-year-old son and an eight-year-old daughter - survive him.
Posted by: John Frum ||
06/25/2007 18:38 ||
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#1
Bravery isn't just for Gurkhas
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/25/2007 22:35 Comments ||
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#2
May his children live to make him as proud as his country is of him.
Junior Commissioned Officer Chunni Lal, with total disregard to personal safety charged at the terrorists killing three terrorists with his bayonet and gunning down two others, before falling to bullets.
RIP JCO Naib Subedar Chunni Lal,
we salute another hero who died defending our civilization.
Security forces arrested on Sunday five suspected Tajik militants just after they crossed the border from Iran, officials said. The militants were caught after they crossed the border post into Balochistan, a security official added. The militants, holding Tajik passports, were carrying fake Afghan identity cards and literature showing their links to a radical group in Tajikistan, the official said, requesting anonymity. He gave no further details, saying intelligence agencies were interrogating them.
Officials said the security forces had in the past few weeks arrested seven suspected foreign militants including three Germans, two Turkish nationals and two from Kyrghyzstan. In March, security agencies captured former Taliban defence minister Mullah Obaidullah Akhund at a hotel in Quetta. Akhund, who has a one-million-dollar US bounty on his head, was functioning as an insurgent commander in southern neighbouring Afghanistan, officials said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
The militants are down to the drooling certifiables then? I guess the madrassas aren't the pool of volunteers as they were in the good old days of a few months ago. Oh, well, I'm sure the Afghan troops will get trained somehow.
Iranian Revolutionary Guard forces have been spotted by British troops crossing the border into southern Iraq, The Sun tabloid reported on Tuesday.
Britain's defence ministry would not confirm or deny the report, with a spokesman declining to comment on "intelligence matters".
An unidentified intelligence source told the tabloid: "It is an extremely alarming development and raises the stakes considerably. In effect, it means we are in a full on war with Iran -- but nobody has officially declared it."
"We have hard proof that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps have crossed the border to attack us. It is very hard for us to strike back. All we can do is try to defend ourselves. We are badly on the back foot."
The Sun said that radar sightings of Iranian helicopters crossing into the Iraqi desert were confirmed to it by very senior military sources.
In response to the report, a British defence ministry spokesman said: "There is evidence that explosive devices used against our troops in southern Iraq originated in Iran."
"Any Iranian link to armed militias in Iraq either through weapons supply, training or funding are unacceptable."
#2
Now we know why the third Carrier Group is 'speeding' to the area. If we hear of a rumored 4th group movement to the Theater, grab the popcorn...It's ON!!
#5
Two points. First of all, the Iranians are probably doing recce into Iraq in hopes of probing defenses, and generally seeing what they can get away with. It might be to our advantage to let these small groups enter and leave, assuming they do little harm, to advise their command that the front is wide open for invasion.
Assuming, of course, that if too large an element enters Iraq, we can swat it like a fly. Gives us magnificent causus belli.
The other point is that the fourth carrier group is planned for the region, but is intended to stay in the Red Sea, watching the back of the other three groups from attacks coming from the Suez Canal and the Gulf of Aqaba. It can help also insure that friendly ships passing through the Suez Canal are not molested.
#6
I have long considered it one of Iran's tactical goals to make a quick incursion into southern Iraq, with the idea that the Iraqi Shiites will support their invasion. They also figure that it will tie down the US divisions in Iraq, so that they cannot attack Iran.
Their primary target would be to occupy Basra, to control Iraq's oil resources, but I would not put it past them to even think they could occupy Najaf.
Typically, they would try to use the Iraqi inhabitants as shields, seeing them as expendable. They would also expect a significant fifth column to rise up and create chaos through the region and in Baghdad.
The Iranian army on the northern border would be in a defensive posture.
#7
Lure them, trap them and kill them. See Sitting Bull for directions. I'm not sure why the Iranian navy was allowed to snatch British personnel out of Iraqi waters. The answer is to kill a bunch of them. How can the Iranians complain?
Posted by: Super Hose ||
06/25/2007 21:38 Comments ||
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#8
Even better is if actually Iraqi forces make pink sand with the next batch of geraniums.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
06/25/2007 22:13 Comments ||
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#13
The purpose of the probe is to gain confidence and experience. Why do you think they are attacking the British in the south? Not only is the population sympathetic to Iran, due to tribal roots, but the British have proven themselves to be incapable of fighting back. If I was the Iraqi theater commander, I would order the probe crushed and the dropping of bodies with notes attached to them in Persian warning them if they tried such nonsense again, we would drop the bodies over Tehran and after 24 hours the bombing of Iran would start.
Religion of Peace, my a**. How can any person of humane spirit demand we walk away and leave the creatures who murder pediatricians and minefield sweepers to win?
Baghdad, June 24 VOI - Iraqi Police said that unknown gunmen killed the director of the Children's Hospital in the Mansour area of Baghdad today.
A police source told the Independent News (Voices of Iraq) that "assassins killed Dr Ahmad Shehab, director of the Central Children Hospital, in an armed attack in Al-Mansour" located west of the capital. He pointed out that the armed men "fled to an unknown destination," saying that the security forces "opened an investigation into the incident to identify the perpetrators and the party that stands behind them."
The Iraqi Ministry of Health earlier spoke of a a sharp deterioration of the health situation due to a campaign of assassinations and death threats targeting Iraqi doctors, many of whom have fled abroad the ministry. The ministry reports that of the 34,000 Iraqi doctors, more than half have fled the country or taken refuge in Kurdistan in northern Iraq.
#1
You may have noticed a pattern to my postings of late. Documented examples of the utter evilness of our enemy which receive virtually no exposure in our media. How can our elite 'leaders' continue to ignore this? How can they say "we can't win", when the truth is 'we may not win because we choose not to try'? And why would we choose not to try? Because our so-called leaders choose not to lead. Bush actually made the point back in September 2001 - 'If you're not with us, you're against us' - but he seems to have forgotten. What awful drug is being put in the water supplies of Washington DC and our universities?
#5
Animals. Nothing but phreaking animals. Our society has to realize this. This realization is not nice as it dehumanizes them. But so what, they demonstrate their utter lack of humanity every day. They must be eradicated and so must the ideology that spawned them.
Rest in peace doctor. I'll bet it came as a bit of a surprise when you got to heaven and found out the religion you probably followed was a scam. Given your profession though, I'll bet you had more than an inkling before that.
#6
Did you ever read/see the movie The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis? Wonderful children's book/movie, and the start of a series (the books, anyway), full of all sorts of wonderful adventures and character building moral choices. The final book entitled, appropriately enough, The Last Battle, is about the final armageddon battle in the magical land of Narnia. In it Aslan the Lion, who we discover is the Christ figure in this volume, says that those who did good in the name of the Satan figure 'twere as if they'd it for the love of Aslan; those who'd done evil in his name, 'twere as if they'd done so for the favour of Satan. I can't speak for you Christians, of course, but it seems to me a loving God would see it so. (It doesn't hurt that Professor Lewis was somewhat of an amateur theologian, who also published a number of Christian apologetics and a charming tale about one of Satan's minor imps called The Screwtape Letters, which shaped some of my own thinking.)
ISF, CF DISCOVER EXECUTION HOUSE, ILLEGAL PRISON IN BAQOUBA
BAQOUBA, Iraq Iraqi Security Forces and Task Force Lightning Soldiers discovered an execution house and an illegal prison in the Baqouba neighborhood of Khatoon Sunday during the sixth day of Operation Arrowhead Ripper.
The two buildings were in the same area as a torture chamber and illegal courthouse linked to al-Qaida, which were found on the fourth and fifth day of the operation.
Soldiers from 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment discovered the execution house using information from local citizens, who said it had been used by al-Qaida. Soldiers searching the house found five bodies buried in the yard behind the building and bloody clothes in several rooms inside it.
Located nearby, a house had been converted into an illegal prison with several numbered rooms and bars covering the buildings windows. Several blind folds were found inside.
Elsewhere in Baqouba, Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment identified a house that was filled with explosives and had been booby trapped. The Soldiers cleared the area and destroyed the house through the use of attack aircraft and indirect fire.
The fact that we continue to find these booby-trapped houses filled with explosives and torture chambers only reaffirms that al-Qaida has no regard for the safety and welfare of the people of Baqouba They only want to see death and destruction, said Col. Gary Patton, chief of staff for Task Force Lightning.
Posted by: Glenmore ||
06/25/2007 15:45 ||
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Suicide bombers in Iraq have staged a deadly surge of their own, striking three targets on Monday including the highly fortified Mansour Hotel in central Baghdad. Early reports put the combined death toll at 50, and climbing. But how are militant groups sneaking their bombs and bombers past the giant security dragnet around Baghdad? There are over 70,000 U.S. and Iraqi soldiers and Iraqi policemen spread across the city, conducting house-to-house searches and street patrols, walling off entire neighborhoods and setting up hundreds of checkpoints.
An ongoing TIME investigation has turned up several tactics insurgents use to evade detection and get past the security arrangements. Most of the tactics are designed to exploit the ineptitude of Iraqi security forces the 30,000 soldiers and 21,000 police who are meant to support U.S. troops. Lacking in training, equipment and motivation, the Iraqis are the soft underbelly of the surge. A U.S. military internal assessment of the surge in late May showed that they are often unable to perform the simplest tasks, like manning checkpoints. And insurgent groups take full advantage, easily slipping men and munitions in and out of neighborhoods guarded by Iraqi soldiers and police. The simplest ruses work best, as the field commander of one insurgent group told me: "They never check cars with families, or children, or old people. If you have a woman passenger, you can drive past 50 checkpoints with a trunk full of C4, and you won't be stopped once."
Even so, some insurgent groups are taking precautions, giving their fighters new ID cards and papers with government markings that look remarkably authentic. Some don't need to: another insurgent commander told me his group has recruited many government officials and even soldiers. "I'm bringing weapons into the city in official cars," he said. In the Abu Ghraib area west of Baghdad, some fighters in the Brigades of the 1920 Revolution say they have been ordered to sign up for the Iraqi Army in order to get official papers that would allow them to move freely in the city.
Perhaps the most telling indication of the ineffectiveness of Iraq checkpoints is that the black market prices of weapons and ammunition have remained unchanged since the start of the surge. A Chinese-made AK-47, the cheapest on the market, goes for $200, the same price as in January; the Russian model is similarly unchanged at $700. A crate of 750 bullets is now cheaper at $325; the January price was $400.
The incompetence of Iraqi forces helps to explain why, after a sharp drop in the early weeks of the surge, the civilian death toll from sectarian violence has begun to climb. Nearly 2,000 Iraqis were killed in May, the highest since the start of the security crackdown. The familiar signs of Shi'ite militia activity have returned: grossly mutilated bodies of Sunnis are turning up in the streets and Sunni residents in mixed neighborhoods are again being forced out of their homes. Sunni suicide bombings have multiplied, too.
At least one Sunni group has adapted its "martyrdom operations" to eliminate the risk to its own fighters. The Al-Qaeda-linked Ayesha Brigade plants bombs in cars owned by Shi'ites and, when the unwitting owners drive them into a crowded area, detonate them by remote control. The videotape of one such operation, bearing the date stamp March 26, was showed to TIME by an insurgent who said he had participated in at least six such operations. (We were not allowed to make a copy since the video had not been edited and the faces of several of the Ayesha Brigade fighters were clearly visible.) In the video, a Shi'ite man named Hassan is "kidnapped" by fighters claiming to represent the Mahdi Army, a well-known Shi'ite militia. When he claims to have connections in the militia, they let him go and follow his car at a discreet distance. The man operating the camera intones, "He doesn't know that while he was being interrogated, we put a bomb in the boot."
Hassan's car is waved through two police checkpoints before it arrives at a crowded square named after the 19th century Iraqi poet al-Rusafi. When he stops, the cameraman begins to shout, "God is great! God is great!" A man sitting next to him is shown dialing a cellphone, evidently to set off the bomb. A huge explosion is heard, and the video ends with scenes of people fleeing from the scene. Iraqi authorities have confirmed that two men were killed and seven injured in a March 26 bombing in Rusafi Square, but would not say if the Ayesha Brigade was involved.
#2
Article: The incompetence of Iraqi forces helps to explain why, after a sharp drop in the early weeks of the surge, the civilian death toll from sectarian violence has begun to climb.
There is incompetence in Iraq, but it is mostly on the part of reporters. There is no capability in any country in the world to prevent people from killing large numbers of civilians at random by perpetrators who are willing to lose their lives doing it. We have certainly not been able to prevent massacres of dozens of civilians stateside. The difference in Iraq is that there are tens of thousands of people whose goal in life is to kill civilians. Short of finding and killing (or imprisoning) all of these perps, there's no way to prevent large scale civilian casualties. And finding them is easier said than done, given that there are at least hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who tacitly support them, and an equal number who might be intimidated by torture and threats of massacre (of family members) to assist them.
Article: Nearly 2,000 Iraqis were killed in May, the highest since the start of the security crackdown.
But the security crackdown started in April. What the heck does the highest in two months mean?
#3
Unfortunately though, it's beginning to look like this cesspool isn't worth saving. Pull back to secure bases in Kurdistan and fiddle while shiites kill sunnis and vise versa. Remember that we civilized peoples don't kill conmpletely innocent bystanders for nothing, but Islamists do. And, because of that fact, we cannot understand them except to consider them insects and rodents worthy of extermination.
Suicide bombers struck a busy hotel in central Baghdad and four other targets across Iraq on Monday, in a surge of five attacks attacks that left at least 29 people dead, authorities reported.
They said a U.S.-allied tribal leader was among those killed at the Mansour Hotel. Police said among the dead was Fassal al-Guood, a Ramadi tribal sheik and former governor of Anbar province who was a leader of the Anbar Salvation Council, which has partnered with U.S. and Iraqi officials to fight al-Qaida influence in Anbar.
A man wearing a belt of explosives walked into the hotel's bustling lobby around noon, approached the reception desk and detonated his bomb, police reported. Nine people were killed and at least 16 others were wounded, they said. One of Baghdad's leading hotels, the high-rise Mansour, on the banks of the Tigris River, houses the Chinese Embassy and several news organizations. A number of Iraqi parliament members also stay at the Mansour.
The deadliest occurred at a police station in Beiji, 155 miles north of Baghdad, at 8:30 a.m., when at least nine civilians were killed and 21 others wounded, police and medical officials reported. American troops share the post with the local police, on the main road in central Beiji. That's the second one.
About 45 minutes later, another suicide car bomb exploded at a joint U.S.-Iraqi army checkpoint in central Siniyah, nine miles west of Beiji, killing two Iraqi soldiers and wounding three others, an Iraqi army officer reported. Makes three.
Earlier in the morning, a suicide car bomber struck a checkpoint near the governor's offices in the predominantly Shiite southern city of Hillah, killing at least eight people and wounding 31, police said. Three of the eight killed in the 6:30 a.m. explosion were policemen, as were at least four of the wounded, said a spokesman for the provincial police department. I count four.
The fourth bomb was in a parked car that exploded in the center of the northern city of Mosul, killing one civilian and wounding 20 others, police Brig. Mohammed al-Wakaa said. He said there were no police or military targets at the site. That's the fourth bomb after the first one, making five. Remedial math at 11.
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/25/2007 06:12 ||
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Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency
A major US offensive has cleared about 60 percent of western Baqouba of militants, but Iraqi security forces are not quite up to the job of holding ground in the long term, the commander of the US operation said on Sunday, as a car bombing in the southern city of Hillah killed at least two people and wounded 18 others.
Around 10,000 were in their sixth day of combat here part of a quartet of US operations to oust Al Qaeda from the capitalls outskirts. The 25th Infantry Divisions Brigadier General Mick Bednarek, head of Operation Arrowhead Ripper, said US forces now control about 60 percent of the citys west side, have killed between 60 and 100 suspected Al Qaeda fighters and have detained about 60 insurgents. One American soldier died in the fighting, he added.
The challenge now is how do you hold onto the terrain youve cleared? You have to do that shoulder-to-shoulder with Iraqi security forces, Bednarek said. And theyre not quite up to the job yet.
Across Diyala province, where Baqouba is the capital, Iraqi troops are short on uniforms, weapons, ammunition, trucks and radios, he said. He predicted it would be several weeks before Iraqi police and soldiers could keep Al Qaeda out of western Baqouba and months before they were able to do the same on the citys east side and outlying villages.
He estimated that between 50 and 100 insurgents were left inside a US security cordon tightening in on the Khatoon neighborhood of the city. Were closing the noose, Bednarek said. Its the hard-core fighters left guys who will die for their cause, as misaligned as that is. And they want to kill as many US forces as they can.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2007 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Iraq
#1
Their actuals are far lower than the original estimates of how many bad guyz were in the city. I imagine a lot of questions are being raised about that exact point right now.
#2
Excuuuse me, but what game is this ? Americans are being sacrificed daily and shredded by IED's continually and we know full well that the rag-tag Iraqis are going to walk away and turn the area back to the insurgents ? Same game as 3 years ago ? Just what is this about ? (Yeah, the oil)
#3
Yea, our refinerys are overflowing with oil from Iraq, dimwit.
It is about an effort to prevent a full blown world war. The results are still unclear and it may be a failed effort, in the end. But it had to be attempted--the future generations would not forgive us if it wasn't, in the light of what we and they would have to do.
#4
Hope you'll forgive the cynicism, but the first thing that came into my mind upon reading the headline was "They've killed 60% of that city's population?".
#6
"Americans are being sacrificed daily and shredded by IED's continually and we know full well that the rag-tag Iraqis are going to walk away and turn the area back to the insurgents ? Same game as 3 years ago ?"
From everything ive read, there are far more competent Iraqi units then there were 3 years ago (time of the Fallujah battle). But far from all of them are up to snuff, and Iraqs a big country. And the Kurds like to retain at least some of the crack Kurdish units in the north for their own defense. Presumably most of the best Iraqi units are going to be used to hold newly cleared areas of Baghdad. But the Q is, does that leave enough for Baquba, and the belts around Baghdad? Ideally youd only use Iraqi army units in a given area for a while, and then turn over to the police. But the police are very unreliable, as well as less competent than the Iraqi Army, from what I understand. So there really isnt any choice but to A. turn some of the holding over to less than ideal Iraqi army units and B. Have US forces keep holding their hands, to some degree.
Whether that will work or not, is an open question at this point.
#7
Read this and tell me what you think, dear Woozle Elmeter2970. I found it very helpful in clarifying my own thinking on the subject, which too often has a tendency to be a bit cluttered with sentiment.
#8
Well said, Liberalhawk (the things that get posted between the time I start thinking and the time I actually hit Submit!). In many ways this offensive is yet another training exercise for the various Iraqi army and police units. The key is continuous improvement rather than current competence on an absolute scale. The Iraqi security and defense forces are growing as rapidly as acceptable recruits can be found, so it should be expected that many units and individuals perform like the newbies they are.
#9
Were closing the noose, Bednarek said. Its the hard-core fighters left guys who will die for their cause, as misaligned as that is. And they want to kill as many US forces as they can.
General Mick Bednarek is a bulldog scrapper, a quiet professional, who stays engaged, and is highly respected in the Division. All Americans should be proud of him and the 25th ID. Damn fine officer.
This is very much a joint effort with the Iraqi Security Forces. The I/As are patrolling with our soldiers, and then the I/Ps move in and keep the area secured. We are getting a lot of intelligence from the locals.
This is our first use of combined arms doctrine with the Iraqi Army. Weve got a command and control unit with the ISF, weve got translators, and we bring in air support as requested and as necessary. The 5th Iraqi Div is integrated into our fight.
We need to clear this area quickly, and then we need to stay.
This is high-intensity combat. The first days were very intense; there were 4- 5 hour engagements where our M1-Abrams are engaging insurgents holed up. We brought both fixed and rotary assets to help blast them out. Were also using indirect fire from our artillery batteries.
From the Army Air point of view, this is the first time weve used this new mix of rotary and fixed wing with unmanned aerial vehicles. This exponentially increases the effectiveness of the ground forces tempo across the board.
A large part of Al Qaeda in Iraq did bolt before we attacked, but we know who and where they are, and we will be refocusing our ops on them shortly
#11
Woozle: suggest you read Michael Yon and others who are actually there before drawing conclusions.
(Additional hint: Cindy Sheehan is not a reliable source.)
Posted by: Mike ||
06/25/2007 12:50 Comments ||
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#12
TW, I found your link to the eleven resolutions very interesting. I prefer number ten, but different countries will have to choose a method of dealing with them. Specifically, Israel, who is in imminent danger and India, who can and will get tough. Between these two, and necessary support from the US, UK, Australia and some others, an effective violent method of dealing with Islamic fundamentalism may drive it out of modern civilization. But, I personally assume nuclear weapons must be used.
It is stressful to work with Iraqis who by nature will sell their souls for a slice of pizza and a beer. So few of them have any honor, (as defined by western standards). It's as if we were different species, like Vulcans and Klingons, unable to understand each others rules of engagement. But, Islam has taught to upset civility by doing the totally unexpected....a brilliant move. Mohammed was no fool, he was the devil, the personification of evil.
Imagine if we fought them by their methods. Car bombs in Mecca, poison gas in mosques, random sniper shots whenever muzzies are seen on the streets, lethal injections when they go to hospitals, release of deadly disease among their crowds, random missle or morter attacks, anyone in a burka or praying at certain times would be a target. That would be item 12 on the list, except it is against reason to become such bloodthirsty killers.
INTIMIDATION / DETERRENCE:
We could respond to terrorist attacks on American soil with extravagently disproportionate retaliation against the cities and infrastructure of the Muslim world: kill a thousand of us, and we'll kill a million of you. Repeated often enough, and brutally enough, this might eventually deter them from further terrorist attacks.
It remains a toss-up between Door #9 and Door #10
EXPULSION & QUARANTINE:
We could outlaw Islam within the U.S. and expel all Muslims, citizens or not. Forbid entry into the U.S.-- even for brief visits-- to all Muslims regardless of their country of origin and to all nationals, regardless of religion, from countries that are predominantly Muslim. Seal the Canadian and Mexican borders tight with orders to shoot to kill, and NOT bother asking questions later.
I do believe that David D. has things in the right order. The whole idea of expulsion and containment has been implementedwithin legal and current military limitationsfor many years now and to little effect. Our judicial tools are inadequate to the task. Likewise, our military will seems ill-suited to cordoning off a major portion of the MME (Muslim Middle East). Witness how poorly America is dealing with its own illegal immigrant population and then ask yourself how well we could cope with the enhanced legalistic burdens of expulsion based upon putative religious grounds.
Between those selfsame legalistic or military burdens and Islam's adamant refusal to respect any and all Western wartime conventions, it is long past tea for us to begin giving Muslims a dose of their own medicine. The 9-11 atrocity's extravagant display of hostility for Western culture needs to be answered with a resolute demonstration of exactly what sort of price tag comes attached to such evil. Overturning the Taliban's Afghani applecart did little or nothing to notify the Saudismajor players in the 9-11 attacksof our intense displeasure.
Disproportionate retaliation is one of the only available military responses which has any economy of scale. It will generate one key feature which all other efforts have failed to do; Namely, evince Muslim displeasure with their jihadist leadership. The vast majority of Islam's followers have yet to demonstrate any dissatisfaction with where jihadism is steering their faith. It is upon us to begin a campaign of massive retaliation that imposes the most severe penalties for jihad against the West. It must be made clear that continued abdication of their collective fate will only summon Armageddon. Our retaliation must be so severe as to compel Muslims to begin the onerous task of housecleaning that they have cheerfully surrendered into less-than-competent Western hands.
We need to make it explicitly clear that any failure to expunge terrorism, shari'a law and taqiyya from Islam's doctrinal role call will result in Door #11.
EXTERMINATION:
We could end this 1,400 year struggle between Islam and the West once and for all, with a war that would last barely a half-hour: simply nuke the entire Islamic world and then let our descendents inherit the guilt from murdering a billion people.
#15
And you're a pissant handwringer. Those options weren't anything I came up with, they're the product of one of Rantburg's own MODERATORS. Go piss up a rope until you have some actual suggestions. You love to get on my case but remain mute when others suggest far more unpleasant things. You're an opportunistic bottom feeder.
#16
Tragically, Darrell, if what we're doing now fails, we'll either have to surrender completely or go to extreme methods. Please, please read Dave D's list at the link, remembering that he's our goldenrod coloured moderator and a crackerjack engineer. The thing gave me nightmares for days, but then I really do empathise entirely too much for my own comfort. But in the end I couldn't find an argument to counter his logic. That's why it's so important not to slow down or quit now, because we will have to go back, and then we'll have to make the really hard choices.
#18
I'm glad you found the Conjectures useful, wxjames. So you've dealt with Iraqis,then? What do you think of Michael Yon's and Bill Roggio's observations?
#19
Words are pretty much all I've got, Zenster. ;-) Unlike so many that I'm proud to know here. My prayer these days is that what seems to be working, however much less than ideally, does actually work so that we don't have to go down the list. My other prayer, besides the one that Israel survives the current craziness, is that if we get to that point, we actually do what must be done, because the alternative doesn't bear thinking about.
And with that I'll wish you and the rest of those Rantburgers still awake a good night. May your sleep be restful, may you awaken refreshed.
(Xinhua) -- Two people were killed and five others injured in two attacks in Baghdad on Sunday night, while the police collected 11 unidentified bodies in the capital, a well-informed police source said. Gunmen opened fire on a police patrol in Baghdad's southern district of Doura, killing a policeman and wounding another, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
Mortar barrage struck a residential area in the capital's northern suburb of Sabie al-Bor, killing a civilian and wounding four more, the source said. The source added that they found 11 unidentified bodies in execution-style in different parts of the capital during the past24 hours. Most of bodies were handcuffed, blindfolded, showing signs of torture with bullet holes in the chest and the head, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2007 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Mahdi Army
JERUSALEM Israel is preparing for an imminent war with Iran, Syria and/or their non-state clients.
Israeli military intelligence has projected that a major attack could come from any of five adversaries in the Middle East. Officials said such a strike could spark a war as early as July 2007.
On Sunday, Israeli military intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin told the Cabinet that the Jewish state faces five adversaries in what could result in an imminent confrontation. Yadlin cited Iran, Syria, Hizbullah, Hamas and Al Qaida.
"Each of these adversaries is capable of sparking a war in the summer," Yadlin was quoted as saying.
[On Monday, Al Qaida's No. 2 Ayman Zawahiri endorsed the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip, Middle East Newsline reported. The Al Qaida statement came after Zawahiri repeatedly criticized Hamas for tolerating Palestinian Authority cooperation with the United States.]
Yadlin said Hamas could be planning a major attack to divert attention away from efforts by the Palestinian Authority to isolate the Gaza Strip. He said Syria might be promoting such an attack.
Officials said Iran has direct influence over Syria, Hizbullah and Hamas. He said Al Qaida has increasingly come under Iranian influence and was being used by Iran and Syria in such countries as Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon.
Already, military intelligence has assessed that Hamas acquired more than 50 missiles with a range of 22 kilometers. Officials said this would allow Palestinian missile strikes on any part of Ashkelon, the largest city in southeastern Israel and which contains strategic sites.
Hamas has also deployed at least 20 SA-7 anti-aircraft systems, officials said. They said the missiles threaten Israeli combat helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft that conduct missions over the Gaza Strip.
On Monday, Palestinian gunners continued missile fire into Israel. Hours earlier, the Israel Air Force struck an Islamic Jihad squad said to have been driving toward the northern Gaza Strip to launch missiles toward Israel. One Jihad operative was killed and two others were injured.
Israeli military intelligence has assessed that Hamas was being quietly supported by neighboring Egypt. Officials said that despite Egypt's announced ban, Cairo has continued to allow Hamas leaders to enter the Sinai Peninsula from the Gaza Strip.
Over the weekend, officials said, a Hamas delegation led by former PA Interior Minister Said Siyyam entered Sinai. They said the 15-member delegation was escorted by Egyptian security forces to Cairo for a flight to Damascus, where they were scheduled to meet Hamas political bureau chief Khaled Masha'al.
On Monday, Egypt was scheduled to host a regional summit meant to support PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. Israel, Jordan and Abbas were expected to attend the meeting in the Sinai resort town of Sharm e-Sheik.
Posted by: Threregum McGurque6712 ||
06/25/2007 17:41 ||
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Top|| File under: Global Jihad
#1
So we have a openly terror state on the southern border of an ally; we have a de facto terror state on the northern border of an ally. At least 2 states openly support terror attacks on Israel.
What happened to the Global War on Terror? Does Israel really have allies?
#3
The SA-7 is not that much of a threat to helicopters if they use flares : it is a first generation MANPAD and not particularly effective. What it is good for is terror strikes on airliners and shutting down airports due to security sweeps.
This is the shit that's gotta end. Nations known to be sponsoring terrorism and proxy agggressors must be shut down. Non-State clients are the sharp end of a stick who's handle lies in Islamabad, Riyadh, Tehran and Damascus. Our current GWoT strategy is like using streetsweepers to fix a geysering sewer main. We need to dig out the responsible parties with a backhoe and make sure the shit flows downhill where it belongs.
#6
so, Egypt is not helping, Syria is posturing, Lebanon is in deep "caca", Jordan is quiet or so we think...........woww!..........who understands what Israeli security services do and what diarrhea-Olmert think to do and why is the USA shoring up Abbas, so on and so on
#7
I agree that Israel continues to feed the fire that wants to burn it. At best, they should have an energy and water ultimatum. Stop the rockets, or stop drinking.
The kidnappers of BBC correspondent Alan Johnston have released a new video of him in which he is wearing what he says is an explosives vest. In the tape, Mr Johnston says his captors have said they will detonate the vest if force is used to try to free him.
The BBC said it was aware of the video and appealed for Mr Johnston's release. BBC statement:
In a statement, the corporation said: "It is very distressing for Alan's family and colleagues to see him being threatened in this way. We ask those holding Alan to avoid him being harmed by releasing him immediately. We are keeping his family fully informed and offering them our continued support." Johnston's family's statement:
Mr Johnston's father, Graham, said: "My family and I are obviously most concerned and distressed at this latest development. "Our thoughts, of course, are with Alan in his present predicament. We earnestly request his abductors to release Alan, unharmed in any way." Jonston's own [coerced] statement:
In the tape, posted on a website used by militants, Mr Johnston is seen wearing a device around his torso and attached to shoulder straps. "The situation now is very serious. As you can see I have been dressed in what is an explosive belt, which the kidnappers say will be detonated if there was any attempt to storm this area," he says. Mr Johnston appeals for a peaceful resolution to his situation, saying talks had reached an advanced stage. Captors tell me that very promising negotiations were ruined when the Hamas movement and the British government decided to press for a military solution to this kidnapping." Hamas' statement:
Earlier, Hamas leader Ismail Haniya said Mr Johnston's captivity could not carry on. "We will not allow the continuation of the abduction of the British journalist. The issue of Alan Johnston must end," he said in a speech to his supporters. The FO statement:
The British Foreign Office said it deplored such footage of Alan Johnston. "We condemn the continued release of videos like this which can only add to the distress of Alan Johnston's family and friends," a spokeswoman said. "They have not seen Alan for over 14 weeks. Those holding Alan should release him."
Oh and by the way, here are the kidnappers' demands buried at the ass end of the article...
The Army of Islam has demanded the release of Abu Qatada, a Palestinian-born Islamic cleric who is suspected of having close links with al-Qaeda and is held by the UK government as a threat to national security.
#4
It is sad by Geraldo Rivera probably makig inquiries about whether he can arranged to be held in Gaza. If he works a deal, he will demand the vest treatment.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
06/25/2007 0:16 Comments ||
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#5
Obviously the only answer to the 'Belt' threat, is to put Abu Qatada in a bomb belt, and release a counter suggestion that he will splode if Alan Johnston splodes, then proceed with the rescue plans! "Tit For Tats" work great, Russia, China and Iran will vouch for that!
#6
Dunno, something is not right in this story. My bullshit meter pegged a bit.
Here is my take:
1. Johnson did agreee to make a Paliwood production piece with his friends, and make a cut on the proceeds.
2. Hamas takeover created an unanticipated problem. They would use the situation for their own ends and that brings a degree of danger as Hamas can't accept any other group with a smidget of influence or power.
3. Johnson and his friends have no choice but to up the ante a tad, as the status quo was not in their favor. Not that it decreased the danger, but at least there is a shift of focus.
4. If AOI 'releases' Johnson, the next thing that happens is that Hamass will hand their ass to them. If they don't, Hamas may still get in and kill all of them including Johnson (as a collateral).
5. AOI may try to get some sort of deal, where they leave Gaza to save their behinds and get some relocation startup cash and when they are safe, they would hand Johnson to Hamas which would then turn Hamas propaganda machine into high gear.
6. In any case, Hamas is the winner, no matter whether Johnson ends up dead or not.
#7
This is amazing, both my "Pathetic" and "Hilarious" meters are pegging at the same time. As always with such an anomaly, I'm going for the "Hilarious" option and laughing myself silly. If only to prevent such a stupid git from profiting through his role in this theater of the absurd, I'm hoping Johnston gets to test drive his vest. Let's see just what sort of gloriously lucrative narration he can write about it afterwards. This turd went after a sensational and obviously pro-Palestinian story and needs to get one helluva a lot more than he bargained for.
Whenever a self-aggrandizing opportunistic pro-Muslim journalist tool is suddenly bemired after voluntarily traipsing into a bed of known quicksand for the purpose of interviewing some obviously rabid scorpions about who their next innocent victim will be, all I'm obliged to do is laugh and point.
#12
I think this is all just kabuki and hence I can't bring myself to find it hilarious.
Then where is it at all "pathetic"? If this is merely charades on both parts, Johnston and Fatah alike, then all that is called for is outrage. Pathetic implies a modicum of due sympathy. There is nothing of the sort merited from what I can tell.
#17
Gordo Brown's first act as PM should be to effect a rescue mission as rapidly as possible. If that means the rescue doesn't quite work, but the belt does, well, so much the better.
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/25/2007 9:29 Comments ||
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#19
In my case it is missing the modicum of sympathy, implied or otherwise.
No harm, no foul, twobyfour.
PATHETIC
1. Arousing or capable of arousing sympathetic sadness and compassion
2. Arousing or capable of arousing scornful pity.
I suppose we're going with the "scornful pity" end of things. However, while the whole affair is pitiful, I really don't feel any pity for those involved.
At a public meeting in London on Wednesday 11 April, I was asked for my thoughts (as a former ITN and BBC Panorama correspondent) about Alan Johnston's "disappearance" in Gaza. I said that I feared he could be dead, and that if he was, he might well have been shot in the head within minutes of being taken more than a month ago.
If Alan is dead, the truth about who killed him might be in accordance with the claim of the Tawhid al Jihad Brigades group that it was responsible; but it also might not be (repeat might not be).
The group which claimed responsibility in a fax to news agencies on 17 April is an Al Qaeda franchise (driven by events in Iraq), and was unknown in the Palestinian territories; and what can be said for certain is that the Palestinians were the party with absolutely nothing to gain and much to lose from Alan's permanent removal from the scene. And they had much to lose on two counts.
On Count One, Alan was not only the BBC's man, he was the only permanent foreign correspondent in Gaza. He was, in short, the best and most informed provider of news about the Palestinian side of the story; a story which, in many of its details, is an embarrassment to Israel and those governments, most notably the Bush and Blair regimes, which support Israel's efforts to break the will of the Palestinians to continue their struggle for an acceptable minimum of justice.
On Count Two, and if he has been murdered, Alan's death, if it could be blamed on a Palestinian or a pro-Palestinian Arab and/or other Islamist group, would be a huge political setback for the legitimacy of the Palestinian struggle and the present leadership of it. (The Al Qaeda franchise would not give a damn about harming the Palestinian cause).
There is a case for saying (repeat a case) that the party with most to gain from Alan Johnston's permanent disappearance was Israel. It would not be the first time that Israeli agents had dressed as Arabs to make a hit.
If Alan Johnston is dead, it's my hope that the BBC at executive management level will rise above its fear of offending Zionism too much and allow its reporters (Frank Gardner and Jeremy Bowen are second to none) to make a full, thorough and honest investigation.
Oh, don't worry, Alan. I'm sure the BBC will get by that Zionist bias of there's and get to the bottom of it...
#23
There is a case for saying (repeat a case) that the party with most to gain from Alan Johnston's permanent disappearance was Israel. It would not be the first time that Israeli agents had dressed as Arabs to make a hit.
This is total anti-Semetic filth. If Israel has already whacked Johnston, I doubt Hamas and the Dughmush clan would be going through all these backflips over a rotting corpse. To review:
On Count One, Alan was not only the BBC's man, he was the only permanent foreign correspondent in Gaza. He was, in short, the best and most informed provider of news about the Palestinian side of the story; a story which, in many of its details, is an embarrassment to Israel and those governments, most notably the Bush and Blair regimes, which support Israel's efforts to break the will of the Palestinians to continue their struggle for an acceptable minimum of justice.
From the BBC's anti-Semetic tone, it sounds as if this world will be a lot better off if Johnston falls down and goes boom. He sounds like a prime enabler of terrorist Palestinian scum.
An Islamic Jihad gunman was killed and two others were wounded when an IAF aircraft targeted a car traveling in eastern Gaza City on Sunday night, the first such attack since Hamas took over the Gaza Strip earlier this month. The IDF said that the man killed, Hussan Khalil al-Hur, had fired Kassam rockets at Sderot earlier in the day, wounding three people. Military source said he was also suspected of being the engineer who manufactured the rockets. The two other operatives in the car had also been involved in terror activity, including rocket attacks on Israel.
Islamic Jihad said the vehicle was carrying its members on a "holy mission" - code for an attack on Israel. Hamas television footage showed the burned car with at least one rocket inside.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri warned that his organization would retaliate against Israel. "Israeli attacks are continuing on Gaza, and there are responses from the resistance to these attacks," he said.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said on Sunday that the kidnappers of BBC correspondent Alan Johnston had made a new video of the abducted journalist wearing what appeared to be explosives around his waist, Reuters reported. "In the past they showed him in an orange uniform. Today they showed him with an explosives belt round his waist," it quoted Haniyeh as saying. Johnston was abducted in Gaza on March 12 and is believed to be held by a small group of gunmen called Army of Islam.
On Sunday morning, three people were lightly wounded when they were hit by shrapnel from two Kassam rockets fired from the Gaza Strip. Both rockets landed in Sderot, one in the city's center. In addition to the wounded, several people suffered from shock. The victims were evacuated to Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon. A residential home that was hit approximately a month ago sustained damage in the attack.
Palestinian terrorists fired 11 mortars at Israel on Sunday afternoon, hitting an area near the Karni crossing. Nobody was hurt in the attack, but firefighters were working to put out a brush fire that erupted as a result of the explosions.
This article starring:
BBC correspondent Alan Johnston
HUSAN KHALIL AL HUR
Islamic Jihad
ISMAIL HANIYEH
Hamas
SAMI ABU ZUHRI
Hamas
Army of Islam
Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2007 00:00 ||
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The Thai army has detained 160 Muslims, including six women, without charge in a series of raids in the rebellious far south, a spokesman said on Monday. The detainees were taken for questioning to an army camp in Pattani, one of three provinces where more than 2,300 people have been killed in a three-year separatist insurgency in the Malay-speaking region.
Colonel Acra Tiproch said the detainees, who can be kept without charge for 28 days under an emergency law, would be freed if found not to have been involved in the violence but DNA samples would be kept on record. Acra said he believed about a quarter of the detainees were subject to arrest warrants and would be charged and those found to support or sympathise with the insurgency would go through a re-education camp.
The latest arson attack occurred at Bantaladlammai school in the provincial seat of Yala early Monday, destroying two classrooms. The police believe that the arson was the work of presumed insurgents who broke into the school as security personnel were changing shifts during the night. The school has 80 students and eight teachers.
Combined police and military security for teachers in the increasingly targeted education sector of the three southern provinces on Monday was stepped up, with reinforcements being deployed to areas with higher incidences of violence. Two schools in Narathiat's Rueso district remained closed Monday after the schools were torched on Saturday night. It is expected that the schools will reopen Wednesday.
Basic Education Commission secretary-general Khunying Kasama Varavarn na Ayudhaya on Monday convened a meeting of school administrators in Songkhla after six schools were burned by arson last week in the province's Saba Yoi district. The meeting discussed security measures for teachers and schools as the increasingly frequent attacks are having a serious affect on teachers' morale. The six schools remain open but the number of students going to classes has dropped because parents fear for the safety of their children.
(Xinhua) -- At least 13 Tamil Tigers rebels were killed by government troops in Sri Lanka's northern Vavuniya district, the military said on Sunday. The Media Center for National Security said in a statement that the troops attacked a group of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels" who were preparing to launch an attack around West of Omanthai, Murunthankulam on Saturday." The monitored LTTE communications revealed that 13 terrorists were killed in the incident, said the statement, adding that the remained LTTE members fled, carrying with them the injured and some of their dead. No casualties have been reported about the troops, the statement said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2007 00:00 ||
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Tropical Cyclone Gonu did considerable damage to Oman and Iran earlier this month. Currently Tropical Cyclone 3B, which killed over a hundred in India but weakened to below tropical storm status in the process of land interaction, is, at narrative time, stengthening in the Arabian (a.k.a. Persian) Sea.
It is currently well below hurricane strength but if it does reach that level it will given a name, probably, Yemyin.
At this time it is not forecast to strengthen that much but is expected in strike SW Pakistan and SE Iran.
At least 10 people have been killed in fighting between Lebanese troops and suspected Islamic militants in the northern city of Tripoli.
Two civilians, one soldier, a policeman and at least six Islamist gunmen are said to have been killed in the fight. It came after the army raided an apartment of a suspected militant in the Abu Samra district on Saturday.
The clashes mark a shift in fighting away from the nearby Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp.
The latest violence began when gunmen fired at soldiers who were trying to raid their apartment, the Reuters news agency reported. The army responded with an attack, blocking off the area and bringing in reinforcements. At least twelve people were wounded in the stand-off.
Earlier, four soldiers were killed in fighting with Islamist militants in the Nahr al-Bared camp. A bomb killed three soldiers and a sniper shot dead another.
The army responded by shelling the militants, who are from the Fatah al-Islam group and have been besieged at the camp for more than a month.
A month of fighting has left more than 170 people dead, in Lebanon's worst internal violence since the 1975-90 civil war.
Ten people have been killed in clashes between Lebanese troops and Fatah al-Islam in the port city of Tripoli, including six terrorists and a policeman's 4-year-old daughter, the army says.
The killed Islamist terrorists included three Saudis, a Russian from Chechnya and two Lebanese.
The killed Islamist terrorists included three Saudis, a Russian from Chechnya and two Lebanese. Apart from the Fatah al-Islam terrorists, two civilians, one soldier and the police sergeant died in a three-hour firefight which erupted last Saturday as the army raided the apartment of a militant, an army spokesman said.
The army confiscated "large quantities" of weapons , explosives and missiles from the apartment compound during the raid, the spokesman said. The army also found and confiscated tents, binoculars , wireless electronics for booby traps, computers and army uniforms. "The army has found the bodies of six Islamists inside an apartment building in Abu Samra," the spokesman said. "They were killed in clashes with our soldiers in which small arms and medium-sized weapons were used. We have not yet recovered the bodies because they may be booby-trapped."
The fighting began when the Islamist terrorists opened up with automatic weapons on an army jeep in the Abu Samra district of northern Lebanon's port city, killing one soldier. A military statement said 11 soldiers were also wounded, some seriously, in the clash with Fatah al-Islam, whose gunmen are locked in fierce combat with the Lebanese army in a nearby refugee camp. The military spokesman said the dead policeman had lived in the same Abu Samra apartment building which was raided. "He was killed in exchanges of fire with the Islamists who had taken his 4-year-old daughter hostage," he said. "The police sergeant, Khaled Khodor, his 4 year old daughter and his father-in-law Mohammed Abdul Rahman Theeb were all killed, and his wife and two of his sons were wounded."
Apartments burned
The photographer said four apartments were burnt out in the battle and the building's walls were burst open by tank and rocket fire. The army withdrew most of the soldiers from the area at midday, local time.
They were the first clashes in the mainly Sunni Muslim city between security forces and the militants since fighting broke out five weeks ago and a siege began at the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared. Twelve Fatah al-Islam members were killed by security forces in Tripoli between May 20 and 23.
The army spokesman said soldiers also arrested three Islamists after the overnight fighting in Tripoli but that a fourth who escaped was being hunted. Renewed shelling and small arms fire erupted on Sunday at Nahr al-Bared, 15 kilometres further north toward the Syrian border, a reporter said. Eighty soldiers have now been killed in the deadliest internal violence to afflict Lebanon since the 1975-1990 civil war - more than twice the number of troops killed during last summer's 34-day Israeli war against Shiite Hezbollah guerrillas. A total of 157 people, including at least 57 Islamists, have died in the violence. Three soldiers were killed on Saturday by a Fatah al-Islam booby-trap on the 35th day of the siege, the army said. A fourth was in critical condition.
In a statement, the military warned that "elements of the terrorist network... must not be permitted refuge among the civilians in the camp, allowing them to continue their aggression against our soldiers."
The army urged the population of Nahr al-Bared "to take a courageous stand so it does not fall victim to these criminals who have only one choice -- to surrender and be brought to justice." About 2,000 residents of the camp's pre-battle population of 31,000 are still inside Nahr al-Bared, with those who fled now dispersed among other Palestinian camps around the country, mostly at nearby Beddawi.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2007 00:00 ||
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The Lebanese Police has reported that the blast that has killed 6 Spanish UNIFIL soldiers and injured 5 others could have most probably been caused by a suicide bomber using a Renault Rapide car. The UNIFIL has not yet confirmed the Lebanese police report about the Suicide bomber theory.
The previous report said Five Spanish United Nations soldiers were killed and six were injured Sunday when 2 Spanish vehicles of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon were rocked by recently planted and remotely controlled Bomb blast in the Marjeyoun-Khiyam area in southern Lebanon. The reports issued immediately after the incident, said the blast was cause by a landmine but could not determine how recently it was planted . The whole border region is thick with mines, cluster bombs and other unexploded ordnance left over from last year's war between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas, and previous conflicts. Israel has refused to give the UN the maps that show the location of the mines, despite repeated requests. Early reports also said 4 were killed and 3 were injured
UNIFIL said the two U.N. vehicles were badly damaged in the explosion. Residents said ammunition in one U.N. troop carrier exploded after the blast, because it was transporting fuel and ammunition.
Hezbollah has condemned the incident which it described as being "suspicious". No organization claimed responsibility but forces affiliated with al-Qaeda, like Fatah al-Islam, who have been battling the Lebanese army since May 20 in northern Lebanon have threatened to hit UNIFIL forces in southern Lebanon. "During questioning, some members of Fatah al-Islam confessed that one of the main aims of their group was to carry out attacks on UNIFIL in southern Lebanon," one Lebanese security source said.
Fatah al-Islam spokesman Abu Selim had threatened to hit the UNIFIL force after accusing them of helping the Lebanese army shelling their bases in Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp.
The Lebanese parliament majority claims that Fatah al-Islam is a Syrian sponsored group of militants and say it is an offshoot of Fatah al-Intifadah , an operation of the Syrian Intelligence , created to destabilize the Palestinian refugee camps and undermine Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement. Syria denied any connections with the militant group, but refused to hand over its leader Shaker el Absi to the Jordanians when they asked for his extradition. Absi, the Fatah al Islam leader was sentenced to death by Jordan for the murder of a US diplomat .
Lebanese politicians flocked to condemn the bombing, which Saad al-Hariri, Sunni leader of the ruling Western-backed coalition, described as "a grave terrorist attack". Prime Minister Fouad Siniora called his Spanish counterpart to decry the bombing, which he said would "only increase the Lebanese government's determination to implement (U.N. Security Council) resolution 1701 literally and step up cooperation between the Lebanese army and UNIFIL".
In Paris, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice joined French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner in denouncing the attack on the Spanish U.N. soldiers. "I join you in absolutely condemning any attack that was launched against them," she said.
Spain has 1,100 troops serving in the UNIFIL force which patrols the south and Lebanese coastal waters. UNIFIL has suffered 260 fatalities since it was set up after an Israeli invasion in 1978. The dead include 250 troops, two military observers, four international and four local staff.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
I would suggest Syria or iran have a hand in this!
Posted by: Paul ||
06/25/2007 7:09 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Israel has refused to give the UN the maps that show the location of the mines, despite repeated requests. Early reports also said 4 were killed and 3 were injured
The Jooooooooooos done it!
#4
Whoa Nellie. People from an organization that has repeatedly refused to denounce terrorist nations being killed by a suicide bomber. Let's see if the UN can muster enough grit to condemn this latest outrage. I'm not going to hold my breath.
An Australian man is believed to be among seven Islamist militants killed in a raid on their hideout in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli yesterday, and three other Australians have been arrested in Lebanon over suspected links to hardline groups, Lebanese officials say. The man died as a 10-hour siege at an apartment block reached a bloody climax when Lebanese troops stormed the building. One soldier was killed and 14 injured, and militants had also killed a policeman and three civilians.
The stand-off, which began shortly before midnight yesterday, was linked to 36-day-old battles between the army and Fatah al-Islam militants at a Palestinian refugee camp. The violence in Tripoli, Lebanon's second largest city, began when militants believed linked to Fatah al-Islam fired at soldiers trying to raid their apartment in Abu Samra district, starting a firefight with assault rifles and grenade launchers. The army then blocked off the area and brought in reinforcements, including an armored troop carrier. It was unclear whether any of the militants in the building had survived.
Meanwhile, officials at the Australian embassy in Beirut were seeking access to the three detained men to offer them consular assistance and were also helping their families, a Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesman said in Canberra last night. "Three Australian men have been arrested in Tripoli over the last few days, however the reasons and the circumstances are unclear," he said.
One of the three is believed to be a Sydney man, Ibrahim Sabouh, 33, who has been living in Lebanon for more than a year with his wife and family. Sabouh, 33, who has worked in finance in Sydney, was arrested on Thursday at his apartment in Abu Samra.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2007 00:00 ||
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Fighters of the Fatah mainstream organization that is headed by Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas have entered the Nahr el-Bared Palestinian refugee camp and killed 3 Fatah al-Islam militants The above was based on information provided by Abu Emad Allouni , Fatah mainstream representative at the camp.
Abbas has voiced his strong support to the Lebanese government in its fight against Fatah Al-Islam, who have absolutely no relationship whatsoever with Fatah mainstream according to him. Fatah al-Islam is a branch of Fatah al-Intifada, which is part of the Syrian intelligence operation , created to oppose Yasser Arafat's Fatah organization and to destabilize the Palestinian camps in Lebanon.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2007 00:00 ||
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#7
from wiki:
Hedy Lamarr (under her then-married name of Hedy Kiesler Markey) and composer George Antheil received U.S. Patent 2,292,387 for their Secret Communication System on August 11, 1942. This early version of frequency hopping used a piano roll to change between 88 frequencies and was intended to make radio-guided torpedoes harder for enemies to detect or jam. This idea was controversial and ahead of its time and technology. The technology was not implemented until 1962, when it was used by U.S. military ships during a blockade of Cuba,[2] after the patent had expired. Neither Lamarr nor Antheil made any money from the patent. Perhaps due to this lag in development, the patent was little-known until 1997, when the Electronic Frontier Foundation gave Lamarr an award[3] for this contribution.
Lamarr's frequency-hopping idea served as the basis for modern spread-spectrum communication technology used in devices ranging from cordless telephones to WiFi Internet connections. The technology in particular that is often attributed to her and George Antheil is CDMA.[4]
Lamarr wanted to join the National Inventors Council but she was told that she could better help the war effort by using her celebrity status to sell War Bonds. She once raised $7,000,000 at just one event.
Lamarr had already appeared in several European films, including Ecstasy (1933), in which she played a love-hungry young wife of an indifferent old husband. Closeups of her face in passion, and long shots of her running nude through the woods, gave the film notoriety. She also gained notoriety as one of the first actresses to bare her breasts in a major film and for faking an orgasm on film. (husband) Mandl bought up as many copies of the film as he could possibly find, as he objected to her nudity, as well as "the expression on her face.
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) A civilian person has been shot dead in the Somalia capital Mogadishu late Sunday by an unknown gunman hours after a huge bomb exploded and people wounded. Witnesses told Somalinet that this afternoon a man armed with a pistol shot several time a man walking near Amal Bank building in Bakara market, south of the capital and escaped unharmed. The victim died on the spot. The nearby police forces cordoned off the area and began searching but no one was arrested for the latest killing. We are investigating the matter and we are tracing down the criminal sooner, said local official. 
Two suspected separatist Kurdish rebels were killed when a fuel tanker they were planning to ram into a military outpost in a suicide attack exploded before they could approach, officials said Sunday. 
Security forces arrested on Sunday five suspected Tajik militants just after they crossed the border from Iran, officials said. The militants were caught after they crossed the border post into Balochistan, a security official added. The militants, holding Tajik passports, were carrying fake Afghan identity cards and literature showing their links to a radical group in Tajikistan, the official said, requesting anonymity. He gave no further details, saying intelligence agencies were interrogating them.
Suicide bombers in Iraq have staged a deadly surge of their own, striking three targets on Monday including the highly fortified Mansour Hotel in central Baghdad. Early reports put the combined death toll at 50, and climbing. But how are militant groups sneaking their bombs and bombers past the giant security dragnet around Baghdad? There are over 70,000 U.S. and Iraqi soldiers and Iraqi policemen spread across the city, conducting house-to-house searches and street patrols, walling off entire neighborhoods and setting up hundreds of checkpoints. 
A man wearing a belt of explosives walked into the hotel's bustling lobby around noon, approached the reception desk and detonated his bomb, police reported. Nine people were killed and at least 16 others were wounded, they said. One of Baghdad's leading hotels, the high-rise Mansour, on the banks of the Tigris River, houses the Chinese Embassy and several news organizations. A number of Iraqi parliament members also stay at the Mansour.
A major US offensive has cleared about 60 percent of western Baqouba of militants, but Iraqi security forces are not quite up to the job of holding ground in the long term, the commander of the US operation said on Sunday, as a car bombing in the southern city of Hillah killed at least two people and wounded 18 others.
(Xinhua) -- Two people were killed and five others injured in two attacks in Baghdad on Sunday night, while the police collected 11 unidentified bodies in the capital, a well-informed police source said. Gunmen opened fire on a police patrol in Baghdad's southern district of Doura, killing a policeman and wounding another, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. 
An Islamic Jihad gunman was killed and two others were wounded when an IAF aircraft targeted a car traveling in eastern Gaza City on Sunday night, the first such attack since Hamas took over the Gaza Strip earlier this month. The IDF said that the man killed, 
Islamic Jihad said the vehicle was carrying its members on a "holy mission" - code for an attack on Israel. Hamas television footage showed the burned car with at least one rocket inside. 
(Xinhua) -- At least 13 Tamil Tigers rebels were killed by government troops in Sri Lanka's northern Vavuniya district, the military said on Sunday. The Media Center for National Security said in a statement that the troops attacked a group of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels" who were preparing to launch an attack around West of Omanthai, Murunthankulam on Saturday." The monitored LTTE communications revealed that 13 terrorists were killed in the incident, said the statement, adding that the remained LTTE members fled, carrying with them the injured and some of their dead. No casualties have been reported about the troops, the statement said.
Ten people have been killed in clashes between Lebanese troops and Fatah al-Islam in the port city of Tripoli, including six terrorists and a policeman's 4-year-old daughter, the army says. 
The previous report said Five Spanish United Nations soldiers were killed and six were injured Sunday when 2 Spanish vehicles of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon were rocked by recently planted and remotely controlled Bomb blast in the Marjeyoun-Khiyam area in southern Lebanon. The reports issued immediately after the incident, said the blast was cause by a landmine but could not determine how recently it was planted . The whole border region is thick with mines, cluster bombs and other unexploded ordnance left over from last year's war between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas, and previous conflicts. Israel has refused to give the UN the maps that show the location of the mines, despite repeated requests. Early reports also said 4 were killed and 3 were injured
An Australian man is believed to be among seven Islamist militants killed in a raid on their hideout in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli yesterday, and three other Australians have been arrested in Lebanon over suspected links to hardline groups, Lebanese officials say. The man died as a 10-hour siege at an apartment block reached a bloody climax when Lebanese troops stormed the building. One soldier was killed and 14 injured, and militants had also killed a policeman and three civilians.
Fighters of the Fatah mainstream organization that is headed by Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas have entered the Nahr el-Bared Palestinian refugee camp and killed 3 Fatah al-Islam militants The above was based on information provided by Abu Emad Allouni , Fatah mainstream representative at the camp.
