By NOOR KHAN
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - A suicide bomber targeted a NATO patrol in a crowded marketplace in southern Afghanistan Tuesday, killing 17 civilians, officials said.
At least 30 people were among the wounded, including seven Western soldiers, officials said.
The attackone of the deadliest of the yeartargeted troops patrolling on foot through a bazaar, said Gen. Qassim Khan, the provincial police chief who provided the casualty figures.
He said school children were among the wounded.
Maj. John Thomas, a spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force, said seven NATO troops were also wounded. Most soldiers in Uruzgan province are Dutch, though NATO couldn't immediately confirm their nationalities.
Thomas, who said the bomber showed "no concern for the potential deaths and injuries of civilians," said some Afghans were treated at ISAF medical facilities.
"It's pretty shocking that with the recent calls by some insurgent leaders to protect civilians in this conflict that they would undertake a massacre of civilians in a market place," Thomas said.
The attack came at the southern tip of Uruzgan province, near the border with Helmand and Kandaharamong the most violent areas in Afghanistan and the heart of the poppy-growing region.
The bombing appeared to be the third-deadliest of the year. On June 17, a suicide bomber exploded himself on a bus carrying police instructors in Kabul, killing 35 people. In February, a bomber carrying explosives detonated them outside the main U.S. base at Bagram Air Field, killing 23 people, during a visit by U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney.
An Afghan soldier opened fire in his barracks on Monday, killing four of his fellow troopers, a spokeswoman for the provincial governor said.
A US spokesman reported that US-led coalition forces and Afghan troops killed a Taliban leader, adding that two children were caught in the crossfire, while Taliban fighters ambushed a police patrol over the weekend, and the subsequent battle left six police and 12 militants dead, said Kandahar provincial police chief Sayed Agha Saqib. Farzana Ahmadi said authorities had arrested one soldier and suspected he had links with guerrillas fighting the government and foreign troops stationed in Afghanistan. Four soldiers were killed in the shooting and authorities say probably the soldier who fired had links with government opponents, she said.
During the raid of the home in eastern Paktia province, suspected militants fired guns and rocket-propelled grenades at the coalition and Afghan troops, forcing the soldiers to return fire. Two children were killed in the exchange, said Major Donald Korpi. The midlevel leader killed in the raid was identified as Commander Saleem, whom the US accused of having attacked Afghan and foreign troops.
In Kandahar province, Taliban fighters ambushed police traveling in between Ghorak and Mawiwand on Saturday, sparking a six-hour battle, Saqib said. Elsewhere in Kandahar province, Taliban fighters beheaded two civilians they accused of being spies for the government or NATO, Saqib said.
In the east, insurgents fired mortars at a village in Kunar province, killing a boy and wounding eight other people, including five NATO soldiers, a NATO statement said on Monday. Also on Monday, a bomb attached to a bicycle detonated near the Turkish consulate in Mazar-i-Sharif, wounding three civilians, including one child, an official and witnesses said.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/10/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Update on the first item:
KABUL (Reuters) - A soldier from the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan died of gunshot wounds he received when a suspected Taliban insurgent who had infiltrated Afghan army ranks opened fire on troops at a base in the west of the country.
The U.S. military said on Tuesday the soldier died late on Monday after the incident at the Afghan army base in the western city of Herat earlier in the day.
The U.S. military statement did not give the nationality of the dead man, but local government officials said on Monday two U.S. soldiers were wounded in the attack. Four Afghan soldiers were killed immediately and 10 more wounded in the incident, the officials said.
They said one man was detained and suspected of having links with Taliban insurgents. Other Afghan officials said the incident was due to a personal dispute.The U.S. military said an investigation into the incident was underway.
(SomaliNet) New York, July 9, 2007A prominent broadcaster covering public reaction to a large-scale government security crackdown in the commercial district of the capital, Mogadishu, was raided four times over the weekend by Somali government troops, according to news reports and the National Union of Somali Journalists.
First three times they stole everything that wasn't nailed down. Fourth time they came back with wrecking bars, unhinged everything that was nailed down, and then stole those.
In four separate raids since Friday, troops searched the offices of Radio Shabelle, a leading independent station, according to the same sources. Troops searched for weapons, threatened staff at gunpoint, and disrupted live broadcasts, but the searches did not yield any weapons, journalists at the station told CPJ. Last month, authorities confiscated guns carried by the stations security personnel after conducting a search, according to CPJ research.
The station had aired recent interviews in which merchants and local residents alleged abuses by joint Somali-Ethiopian military forces in and around Mogadishus main Bakara market, local journalists told CPJ. Authorities launched a massive security sweep of the market last week in response to a spate of deadly attacks in the area, according to news reports.
Thousands of people have been killed or wounded in grenade attacks and roadside blasts set off by armed groups, and in counter-attacks by security forces since Ethiopian-backed Somali forces ousted an Islamist group from control of Mogadishu late last year. Battles in Mogadishu between March 12 and April 26 alone killed at least 1,670 people, The Associated Press reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/10/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
You know, it is really hard to believe that anyone has a radio much less a station to listen to in Somalia. My vision is one of pre-stone age communications - hollow logs and thigh bones. So, for me this is good news. They must even have a tape recorder to get the man-in-the-street interviews. Things are looking much brighter. Next, they'll have B&W television and puppet shows.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
07/10/2007 9:53 Comments ||
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#2
If they confiscated all the guns in the Bakara market, what are they going to sell?
Posted by: Super Hose ||
07/10/2007 16:28 Comments ||
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(SomaliNet) An MSF-Swiss personnel was gunned down in Beledweyne city, 350km north of the Somalia capital Mogadishu on Monday, reports say. A man wearing government army uniform killed Mr. Ibrahim Abdi Isse, according to local officials.
Mr. Abdi was shot down walking in Beledweyne city center, the provincial capital of Hiran region. This morning we heard gun shots and later found out that MSF-Swiss officer was killed by an armed man who resembled the government and dressed like government soldiers. Some reports say that he was killed for clan-feud.
Abdis killing came as there is wider security concern in the region. The attacker also wounded two other passersby and escaped away. Shortly after the incident, the security forces in Beledweyne reached the area and began investigations. Killings over clan causes have been common in Somalia for the last four decades.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/10/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
An MSF-Swiss personnel was gunned down in Beledweyne city, 350km north of the Somalia capital Mogadishu on Monday, reports say. A man wearing government army uniform killed Mr. Ibrahim Abdi Isse, according to local officials.
I thought the people in Switzerland were all named William Tell and Heidi.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
07/10/2007 9:55 Comments ||
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#2
Must've been the yodeling. Drives people nuts...
(SomaliNet) The Ethiopian forces in the Somalia capital Mogadishu arrested seven people from Towfiq village in Yaqshid district, south of the capital following last nights bomb attack near the Ethiopian base in the Mogadishu soccer stadium in the capital. Witnesses told Somalinet that the Ethiopian forces raided houses near their base arresting seven men including old men this morning. After the dawn break, the Ethiopians stationing in the Mogadishu stadium soccer compound searched several houses near the site of last nights bomb blast, taking seven men from their houses, said Ali Duale. One of the detainees was later released, according to reports.
Duale added that two men threw a hand grenade bomb into a house near the Ethiopian base aiming to rob the houses property but the target of the blast was not the Ethiopians. The arrests came as the Somalias government soldiers continue massive security operations in and around the main Bakara market for the fifth day in row.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/10/2007 00:00 ||
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(SomaliNet) Two people were killed and five others were wounded when a bomb exploded in Bakara market, south of the Somalia capital Mogadishu on Monday as the city entered its fifth consecutive day of massive search operations for weapons and hunting down what the Somalias government called the terror groups.
The blast happened this morning in the markets gold selling section when an unknown man thrown a hand grenade at the government soldiers who were in the act of the search operations. The bomb is said to have missed the target and killed two civilians and wounded five others in the market. I became very scared when the explosion happened, I saw two persons laying on the ground and their bodies covered with blood, I was sure that they were dead, I was so lucky to have survived, it was a terrible incident, said Nasro Abdulahi, among the women gold sellers. Adding I dont want to stay here longer because it is becoming more dangerous,
Shortly after the bomb attack, the government soldiers sealed off the area of the explosion but no one was arrested for the latest bomb attack. There is no group who claims the responsibility of the bombings in Mogadishu. The business people in Bakara market, the biggest hub in southern Somalia expressed their deep concern over the siege by the government soldiers.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/10/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
when an unknown man thrown a hand grenade at the government soldiers who were in the act of the search operations. The bomb is said to have missed the target and killed two civilians and wounded five others in the market
former attendee at Hek's Summer Baseball and Hand Grenade camp
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/10/2007 11:29 Comments ||
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#14
is it too late to request that lard be spread over the burns to ease the pain? it worked for me whenever i burnt my hands, Mom said so, and you gotta trust Mom.
#16
One of my uncles died from burns suffered in a work accident. I know what kind of agony he went through, and I don't wish that kind of pain on anyone, even this perp. He's probably burned so badly he can't talk. Just shoot him full of heroin and let him die peacefully in his dreams. He will suffer enough pain when he reaches hell.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/10/2007 14:52 Comments ||
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#17
OP, I agree with your prescription, but I do believe that, as previously suggested, his burns be treated with lard and it clearly explained to him where lard comes from.
#18
The evil side of me says keep him alive as long as possible to maximize the pain.
The good side of me says it is cruel...
I suggest a coin flip and let the quantum gods decide.
A POTENTIAL terrorist threat could be posed by a group of 20 to 25 Australian men and women now under constant surveillance, according to an intelligence source.
The intelligence source and several government figures have told The Bulletin magazine that the "highly dangerous" group has been assessed as posing a potential terrorist threat to national security.
The group is the subject of detailed counter-intelligence phone, email and mail intercepts, and constant surveillance, The Bulletin reports.
"Have those 20 or 25 people been in contact with a bombmaker or vice versa? No," the intelligence source is quoted as saying. "But that is what authorities are on the lookout for.
"The public might assume that bombmaking is simple. Well, it is simple to make a simple bomb, but the truly effective VBIEDs (vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices) take some expertise - the sort of expertise gained in Iraq and Afghanistan."
The people do not include the doctors recently questioned in relation to the British bombs, the magazine reports.
A government figure privy to Australia's tightly held counter-terrorism intelligence assessments is quoted as saying: "We don't have any specific intelligence on any plot. But there are people in Australia, perhaps 22 to 25, who we know have evil intentions and who are capable of carrying out very bad acts."
Intelligence officials believe the APEC meeting later this year would be an appealing target, the magazine says.
Asia Pacific leaders will converge on Sydney in September for the meeting.
Security will be especially tight when 21 world leaders, including United States President George W Bush, Chinese President Hu Jintao and Russian President Vladimir Putin, attend the APEC leaders summit on the weekend of September 8 and 9.
A 36-year-old Kurd who collected funds for the Iraqi terrorist group Ansar al-Islam was jailed for five-and-a-half years by a court in Munich on Monday. The man was convicted of supporting a foreign terrorist organization and violating Germany's foreign trade laws, the court said in a statement.
The accused was said to have links to the leader of a trio on trial for plotting to kill former Iraqi premier Allawi during a visit to Berlin.
The accused was said to have links to the leader of a trio currently on trial in Stuttgart for plotting to kill former Iraqi premier Ayad Allawi during a visit to Berlin in December 2004. The three were arrested beforehand after police tapped their phones. Allawi visited Germany for talks on aid for his country. He failed to win re-election after his party performed badly in 2005 polls.
Germany changed its law after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States to make it a crime punishable by up to 10 years in jail for persons on German soil to belong to a foreign terror group. Prosecutors say Ansar al-Islam has a fund-raising and recruitment network in Western Europe.
SCRANTON, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - A Pennsylvania man who sympathized with al Qaeda plotted to blow up U.S. energy installations in a bid to drive up gas prices and prompt a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, prosecutors alleged on Monday.
Defendant Michael Curtis Reynolds believed gasoline prices could hit "astronomical" levels if he succeeded in attacking the Alaska pipeline or the Transcontinental Pipeline connecting the Gulf of Mexico and the U.S. Northeast, a jury heard in federal court.
Reynolds, 49, of Wilkes-Barre, faces six charges including attempting to support al Qaeda, plotting to damage an interstate pipeline, distributing instructions on making explosives over the Internet, and possession of hand grenades. Reynolds is a divorced father of three who has held a series of electronics jobs and once worked at a paintball field. His suspected plans were uncovered by Shannen Rossmiller, a former Montana magistrate and Internet sleuth with a record for tracking down extremists online. The Information Warfare detachment of the 93rd Volunteer Infantry.
Good job, Shannen!
Rossmiller posed as an al Qaeda operative, luring Reynolds to a rest stop on a remote Idaho highway with the promise of $40,000 to finance his plot. He was arrested there by the FBI.
"Americans will trample Washington to recall troops, and people will make a new government," Reynolds wrote to Rossmiller in one e-mail, [Assistant U.S. Attorney John] Gurganus told the court. . . . "It's true America has overstepped its bounds in invading Iraq," said one e-mail purportedly written by Reynolds. "Those serious enough to do something about it should e-mail ..."
Jurors were shown a series of e-mails including one in which Reynolds was said to have called for supplies, including a bus and four propane tanks, to carry out the planned attack. In one, Reynolds expressed his disillusion with the United States, saying his goal was to "leave this accursed land forever. It is not the land of the free but the home of the new dictators." Looks like he's a regular reader over at Daily Kos.
Or MyDD, or the DU, or Washington Monthly, or Atrios, ...
Posted by: Mike ||
07/10/2007 14:56 ||
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#1
Continued claims of global warming by dhimmicrats drove him nuts.
#4
Nah! Nothing special. 40 years before any parole, with the general prison population, ought to be sufficient.
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/10/2007 16:01 Comments ||
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#5
Not to negotiate down his death penalty, but this loon doesn't sound savy enough to be highly dangerous. A bus and four propane tanks -- yeah, that'll bring Bush and Cheney and Zenster to their knees.
#7
Make him empty the dung trundles for the latrines at Bagram until he rediscovers his love of America. I am unable to follow his train of thought through the lookinglass. Why would he think that higher gas prices would drives us to abandon Iraq to AQ.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
07/10/2007 16:15 Comments ||
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Abdul Rashid Ghazi's body was found in the basement of the mosque, hours after troops stormed it, officials said. The army says up to 50 militants and eight soldiers have been killed, and about 50 women and children rescued. Students at the mosque and its attached religious schools have waged a campaign for months pressing for Sharia law.
Mr Ghazi is thought to have barricaded himself and others in the basement of the mosque after troops attacked overnight and took control of most of the complex. Officials said he was killed after he tried to surrender. It is not clear if troops or militants fired the shots which killed him.
Additional: ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistani security forces killed on Tuesday rebel cleric Abdul Rashid Ghazi during an assault on his mosque complex, an interior ministry official told Reuters. "I can confirm that Ghazi is dead," said the senior official, speaking on condition of anonymity. "He was killed in the last stage of fighting."
"He's dead, Jim."
Around 50 Islamist fighters had died earlier in the assault on Islamabad's Lal Masid, Red Mosque.
LONDON (Thomson Financial) - Rebel cleric Abdul Rashid Ghazi was killed in crossfire between militants and Pakistani forces who stormed an Islamabad mosque, an RAB interior ministry spokesman told AFP.
'He was spotted in the basement and asked to come out. He came out with four or five militants who kept on firing at security forces,' spokesman Brigadier Javed Cheema said, updating his earlier account of the incident. 'The troops responded and in the crossfire he was killed.'
#7
I'm very confused... were his Famous Last Words "Don't shoot, I'm che guevara Abdul Rashid Ghazi, I'm worth more to you alive than dead", or "I am saddam hussein abdul rashid ghazi, I am the president of iraq Rebel Cleric, and I want to negociate"?
Hard-line cleric Abdul Rashid Ghazi was speaking to a local news channel when forces apparently arrived at his location in the Red Mosque compound in central Islamabad.
'Commandos are at the door of my room,' he told Aaj news channel, before the connection was lost. It was not clear whether he was arrested or killed.
#9
OT: Watched a History Channel show on World War Two in Alaska. In Attu the Japanese had 3,000 troops. It took as over 2 weeks to get in position to surround them and tighten the noose. Instead of surrender, the ones we didn't kill (around 2,000) committed mass suicide. Now why the hell can't we come up with a strategy that gives the AQ and Sunni thugs and other muzzie insurgents the same kind of option?
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
07/10/2007 14:58 Comments ||
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#3
I think I read at one site that the govt (minster of religion) tried to find a high level iman to issue a fatwa requiring the terrorists to release their human shields. Unfortunately, not a single iman could be found who would do this (either felt the human shield use was Ok or else to sacred).
If this is true, it says something really horrible (although perhaps not unexpected) about the Pak religious establishment.
Troops in Pakistan's city of Islamabad have stormed the Red Mosque, after talks with radicals broke down. "It is a final push to clear the place of armed militants," said military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad.
The army said at 20 militants were killed in the operation, as loud explosions and gunfire were heard. Looks like Perv means business
Twenty children escaped from the mosque, where women are also being held. Three soldiers are reported killed and some 20 others injured. C'est la guerre. Good about the kids getting out. Now can someone deprogram them?
Talks reportedly broke down over the militants' demand for an amnesty for all inside the mosque.
The military operation began at about 0400 (2300 GMT Monday). Crack of dawn, I like that
The troops entered the compound and exchanged fire with the militants holed up inside. It is an anxious wait for those with relatives inside the mosque You do wonder what they were thinking, letting their kiddies go to such a notorious place
They were thinking about the glory of Jihad against Western infidels, not Junior getting iced by the Pak army.
The army said 20 militants were killed and another 15 injured. Local medical officials said 20 government troops were injured, and three had died of their wounds after being taken to local hospitals.
The army says it has taken over the building's roof. However, it is meeting particularly strong resistance from militants in the basement, reports the BBC's Syed Shoaib Hasan at the scene. Urban warfare op, the terrs will use every hiding place, lots of booby traps,etc
Those inside the mosque are using hand grenades, light machine guns, petrol bombs and other weapons, and the army says it expects the operation will last another four hours. we wouldnt want to desecrate the mosque, now would we?
It is not clear exactly how many people were left inside the mosque when the assault began.
Talks aimed at resolving the crisis peacefully reportedly broke down over the militants' demand for an amnesty for all inside the mosque. The government wants to detain a number of people on a wanted list, and also a number of foreigners whom it says are inside. and Aziz wouldnt let the AQ biggies go. But dont count on it being a household name
"I am returning very disappointed," said former PM Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, after talks conducted by loudspeaker and mobile phone with mosque leader Abdul Rashid Ghazi. "We offered him a lot, but he wasn't ready to come on our terms," said Mr Hussain. well you couldnt offer him 70 virgins and eternal glory, could you?
Students at the Red Mosque and its attached religious schools have been defying the authorities for several months in their campaign for Sharia law in the capital.
There is speculation that Islamic militants may be targeting Chinese people in Pakistan
Security forces began their siege of the mosque a week ago, not long after students there abducted seven Chinese workers they accused of running a brothel. Law number 1 in Pakistan. Beat up on Shias and Christians, run guns to Afghanistan, blow up liquor stores, but NEVER, NEVER, touch the Chinese
On Monday, three Chinese workers were killed in Peshawar in an attack said to be linked to the unrest in Islamabad. There is speculation that Islamic militants may be targeting Chinese people in Pakistan. Proof, as if more were needed,that these folks are insane.
They'd better learn to kowtow real quick.
Religious affairs minister Ejaz-ul-Haq, one of the negotiators who tried to reach an agreement, has described those in charge at the mosque as "hardened terrorists". Im glad Im not the only one who sees that
At least 21 people have died since fighting erupted when the army surrounded the mosque last Tuesday, including an army commander shot dead inside the mosque on Sunday.
Women and children are locked up on two floors of the Jamia Hafsa religious school, which is attached to the mosque
Mr ul-Haq said women and children had been locked up on two floors of the Jamia Hafsa religious school, which is attached to the mosque. As many as five "hardcore terrorists" were inside the mosque, he added, saying that one person killed on the first day of the siege belonged to Jaish-e-Mohammad, an outlawed radical Muslim organisation which has been linked to al-Qaeda. Did they get the body or is he rotting inside?
Mosque leader Abdul Rashid Ghazi has denied the presence of any banned extremist groups. "Here? Never. Just little girls. Very heavily armed little girls."
He says those inside are students of his religious school and he is in charge.
Abdul Rashid Ghazi has said as many as 1,800 followers remained in the mosque, although this cannot be verified. More than 1,000 supporters left last week under mounting pressure from security forces, although only about 20 have left since Friday.
Earlier, Mr ul-Haq said up to 250 militants - including foreign radicals - were leading the fighting.
#2
Too bad this is just a token demonstration upon Musharraf's part. If he was serious, there'd be one-a-day of these cleanups. More than likely, this is paybacks for the people who tried to shoot down his plane and has nothing to do with truly dismantling the Taliban.
#3
Whether Perv's actions are derived from self interest is irrelevant. The fact that the extreme Muzzies keep trying to off him tells me he is doing something right.
Natural gas is heavier than air and if there should happen to be a leak (caused) in the supply line to the stove the gas would accumulate in the lowest places, where a stray spark from an AK-47 being fired would likely set it off in a really pretty fireball.
(hint, hint)
#6
I was thinking for the Iwo Jima approach. Just bulldoze and seal the basement up.
Posted by: Gary and the Samoyeds ||
07/10/2007 8:45 Comments ||
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#7
Can the Pakistanis do a better job than the Russians? Or will we soon be seeing Beslan-style images? Using children - even Islamist children - as hostages or human shields is an abomination.
#10
Natural gas is lighter than air. Propane is heavier.
Posted by: John J. Simmins ||
07/10/2007 9:34 Comments ||
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#11
Whatever! At least Perv has more balls than Rummy, if you believe the NYTs [which I don't want to do here]. Sooner or later [and I hope it is sooner] will have to do the black op on NWF and screw diplomacy and Paki outrage. If Perv can take out a musk then why can't we summon up the pol/mil courage to go for the queen bee?
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
07/10/2007 10:00 Comments ||
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#12
Rummy's not in charge any more, who is NWF, and what do you refer to as the queen bee ?
Other than that, I got every word.
A. he doesnt like these guys, cause theyve tried to kill him.
B. The Red mosque was right in the heart of the capital. This was profoundly embarrassing to Perv, and made it look like he wasnt doing anything against the Taliban. He needed to assuage the West
C. It was also embarrassing in front of his own people. At a time when the secular opposition is acting up, he cant afford to look weak, and ineffective. This is aimed to shore up his domestic position
D. The Red Mosque guys were going after Chinese. China wasnt pleased. Pakistan cannot afford to piss of the West and the Chinese at the same time, given that the relationship to India is none too great.
Now having done, this, what does he do in NWFP? The cost of winning in NWFP is much higher, and the payoff somewhat less. OTOH the tribes may start acting up even Perv does nothing up there. Id give it 50-50 whether he starts in on the NWFP again. Even if he does, expect the Paki army to meet with mixed success at best.
#15
wxjames: Speakie code - NWF is where you Binny and the Doc live - sort of like our old "hole in the wall". Binny is the Queen Bee and controls the coming and goings of his worker bees. No Rummy isn't in charge anymore (thank God). But anyone more concerned about world reaction and casualties will never win any war much less something as difficult as this one.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
07/10/2007 11:39 Comments ||
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#16
Based on the number of people in the mosque, the size of the Pak force and the types of weapons and tactics on both size, the number killed will probably easily exceed 100 and may go over 250.
The islamists are already sending out the message that Mush is really an infidel and its everyone's duty to kill him. Most of the population dislikes the islamists but are easily intimidated.
If Musharraf is smart, he is already preparing a move against another islamist target in the vicinity of the capital.
#17
I'm trying to remember if that is the "red mosque" I was in at 1989. Think there is another in Lahore. If it was, that place is a fortress but apparently not as good as Abdul Rashid Ghazi would have liked because, news flash, the bastard is dead!
Omar Abdullah, the head of Kashmirs main opposition party, escaped injury on Monday after suspected separatist militants hurled a grenade at him while he was entering a colleagues house, a party official said. The grenade exploded outside the house of an activist of Abdullahs pro-India National Conference party, wounding four policemen and a civilian, said party spokesman Nasir Sogami. Omar Abdullah is safe, he said. Abdullah is the grandson of the states first prime minister and son of a former chief minister.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/10/2007 00:00 ||
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The Pakistan armed forces have redeployed troops to checkpoints they had vacated following a peace deal struck last year with pro-Taliban militants in North Waziristan, to boost security after a spate of roadside bombings and suicide attacks, officials said on Monday.
Army spokesman Major-General Waheed Arshad said a platoon-size deployment of paramilitary Frontier Corps forces usually about 30 troops had been sent to each of the four or five posts in the tribal region, mostly around the towns of Miranshah and nearby Mir Ali.i. He said the deployment did not herald the unraveling of a deal struck last September, under which militants agreed to halt attacks on Pakistani troops and cross-border raids into Afghanistan. This is to strengthen security and stabilise the situation. It is nothing to do with the peace deal, Arshad told the Associated Press. The deal, whose enforcement was to be overseen by local tribal leaders, temporarily stopped attacks on Pakistans forces although US military officials across the border reported an upsurge in attacks on its soldiers in eastern Afghanistan.
A local intelligence official in North Waziristan said Pakistani troops had revived checkpoints in Miranshah, where they were telling tribesmen not to bring weapons into the towns bazaar. Troops were also redeployed in Mir Ali, Data Khel and Razmak, the official added. Heavy machine guns manned by three to five soldiers had been set up at checkpoints established every 10 to 15 kilometres along the road leading out of Miranshah to Ghulam Khan and Data Khel, and some army forces were deployed on surrounding hills, a local resident said. Arshad also said troops had been deployed in Swat, where a pro-Taliban cleric has irked authorities by his opposition to a polio-immunisation campaign and his vocal support for Lal Masjid.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/10/2007 00:00 ||
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A policemen was killed and three wounded when a police vehicle was ambushed by gunmen in Bannu district on Sunday night, while the wana political administration halted all privileges of the Michi Kheel tribe after the death of two Mehsud elders. Police official Asmatullah told Daily Times that unknown gunmen attacked the vehicle at around 2.30am on Bannu-Lakki Road. Constable Suleman Shah died, and three received injuries, he said.
Bannu DPO Dar Ali Khattak said it was premature to say anything about the incident. Agencies add: Witnesses said the attackers appeared to be pro-Taliban militants. A senior official in Islamabad said the latest attack and the murder of three Chinese appeared to be retaliation for the ongoing security operation against Lal Masjid.
Meanwhile, the political administration in Wana on Monday halted all privileges to the Michi Kheel tribe following the killing of two tribal elders on Saturday and Sunday.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/10/2007 00:00 ||
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The police arrested 60 people on Monday for helping militants still holed up inside the besieged Lal Masjid. The 60 people had helped the holdouts get phone cards to load up credit on their mobiles, and provided information to them about the movement of security forces around the mosque. They were tracked down through the mobile phone numbers they used to contact those inside the mosque. According to Geo News, the 60 were arrested under various sections of the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) and sent to Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/10/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Yet, due to mysterious unknown rules of Islamic illogic, the same deft methods of electronic interception cannot possibly be used to narrow down the location of mullah Omar or [gasp], bin Laden's whereabouts. Perish the fucking thought.
PAKISTAN took the battle against Islamic extremists to its borderlands with Afghanistan yesterday, as violence spread from a tense stand-off with militants sheltering in a mosque in the capital, Islamabad.
Troops were rushed to the Malakand and Dir districts of the North West Frontier Province after firebrand cleric Maulana Fazalullah declared holy war on the Government for its handling of the Red Mosque stand-off and called for a nationwide Islamic uprising.
Pakistani opposition leaders added to President Pervez Musharraf's woes yesterday by calling for his resignation and for former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif to be permitted to return to the country.
In a joint declaration issued at the end of a weekend conference in London, the All Parties Conference said General Musharraf's military rule had "brought Pakistan to the edge of a precipice, leading to strife, chaos and the threat of disintegration".
The call came as General Musharraf weighed up the cost of a full-scale assault against the Red Mosque. However, he decided to give clerics more time to persuade defiant militants to lay down their arms and surrender the mosque they have defended against thousands of government troops.
Some clerics have attempted without success to persuade the militants' leader Abdul Rashid Ghazi to end the siege peacefully since the crisis erupted.
Local media reported solid support in hundreds of madrassas (religious schools) in the NWFP for Fazalullah's call to arms to back the Islamabad extremists.
Many of the madrassa students still in the mosque are from the frontier regions that openly support al-Qa'ida and the Taliban.
Fazalullah's Movement for the Enforcement of Islamic Laws is one of Pakistan's most powerful, and has thrived despite attempts by General Musharraf to proscribe it for its alleged links to al-Qa'ida and the Taliban.
His call for jihad echoes a statement made to a Pakistani reporter yesterday by Ghazi.
Declaring that he would prefer "martyrdom" to surrender, Ghazi said he believed his death and that of the other militants would spark Islamic revolution in Pakistan.
Most analysts believe the looming showdown represents a tipping point in the future of Pakistan and the global war against Islamic radicalism linked to al-Qa'ida and the Taliban.
There is no doubt the forces of Islamic fervour in Pakistan are watching the Islamabad stand-off with intense concern, and that a bloody showdown could lead to even greater problems for the Government.
Pakistani officials claim many of those still in the mosque are "terrorists who are wanted within and outside Pakistan", including members of Harkat Jihad-e-Islam, a proscribed group which is suspected of killing Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.
The Government has also claimed the mosque is harbouring Chechen and Arab members of al-Qa'ida, which Ghazi denies.
#2
Declaring that he would prefer "martyrdom" to surrender, Ghazi said he believed his death and that of the other militants would spark Islamic revolution in Pakistan.
Dish out enough martyrdom and there won't be anyone left to spark an Islamic revolution. Case closed.
#5
?Why is this "All Parties Conference" permitted to exist on your soil?
Why?
3dc: Because they already know that Brown is weak on terror and wants everyone to watch their "words" and is anti-sloganeering. The rap the British police and G2 agencies are taking from Interpol also supports their vision of weakness. More at 11 with video.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
07/10/2007 10:04 Comments ||
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#6
And, of course, Fazalullah will be right out there in front.
Won't you, Maulana?
Gen Petraeus was keen to emphasise that the ongoing unrest in Iraq is not something he expects to be resolved overnight.
"Northern Ireland, I think, taught you that very well. My counterparts in your [British] forces really understand this kind of operation... It took a long time, decades," he said.
He went on to say that more important than the length of time it would take to stabilise Iraq was the number of US troops which would be required to remain in the country.
"I think the question is at what level... and really, the question is how can we gradually reduce our forces so we reduce the strain on the army, on the nation and so forth," he said.
He said everyone wanted the US forces to be able to leave, both Americans and Iraqis alike, but he said it was vital to ensure that "the gains that have been hard fought in places like Baquba and Ramadi could be sustained, maintained and even built on by Iraqi forces and Iraqi political leaders".
#2
It'll be a long war, but by this time next year we won't be in it. Think of Lebanon as a model.
The tragic thing is that the war never needed to happen at all - Saddam would have likely backed down if faced with a united front from US & Europe. Even once the war began, it did not have to still be going on (and I am not even considering potential mismanagement) - faced with a united United States home front (eg. no Abu Graib bash-fest, etc.) the so-called insurgency would have withered on the vine.
But from where we are now, I can't see reconciliation between the various Iraqi parties - there are several who each think they can win total control, and will fight to do so. Our presence only delays the inevitable, at a large cost in lives and dollars. Our internal political fighting is probably going to cost a couple MILLION Iraqi lives. Furthermore, we will have lost all credibility as an ally, such that we will have as little effective influence on future foreign affairs as Europe does now. China will pick up the pieces. They see the big picture and operate long-term. Encourage your children to learn Mandarin.
#3
War isn't about giving out welfare and baby sitting your enemies. War is about killing our enemies, taking what is useful and destroying the rest. Unless the thinking of our leaders and citizens changes, the results will be disappointing.
Posted by: ed ||
07/10/2007 18:59 Comments ||
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#4
Petraeus is generally correct within the scope of the USA allowing the Radics to detrimentally attack USA-Allies on battleground(s) of Amer's choosing. That being said, the last thing the Spetzlamists. Moud = Iran, and aligned anti-US OWG Globalists, etc. want is a stronger America, nor even a US-style Federalist OWG. In short, Amer's enemies are likely NOT gonna wait for yarns or generations. CONTINUING, STRONGER AMER REGIONAL-GLOBAL ENTRENCHMENT MEANS THE RADICS + ANTI-US LEFTIES, ANTI-US OWG GLOBALISTS, ETC. LOSE. *Israel vz Syria-Iran-Hizzies + "war this summer" > IMO means Syria-Iran are willing to escalate unto global geopol chaos, and are unilater willing to induce conventional-nuclear confrontation amongst the world's great powers.
A very cool story
With two well-timed phone calls, Iraqi civilians made some Soldiers day July 9.
The first tipster called Troop C, 1st Squadron, 89th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) out of Fort Drum, N.Y., and alerted them to a cache south of the village of Al-Dhour, Iraq, south of Baghdad.
The troop responded, located the buried weapons, and was only five minutes into the process of digging them up when they got another call.
A man claimed he had the 2nd BCTs top high-value target and would deliver him to coalition custody. The man and Capt. Adam Sawyer, Troop C commander, agreed on a pickup site.
The Soldiers hastily re-buried the cache and moved out, and when the vehicle arrived, they stopped it and took the most wanted man and two other men into custody.
Some of the Soldiers were still able to see the cache from their vantage point - and were surprised to see a civilian pickup truck stop there and begin hastily loading the weapons into the bed of the truck.
They engaged the vehicle with an M-240 machine gun, and the men tried to flee, but the Troop C Soldiers detained them all and called an explosive ordnance disposal team to destroy the weapons.
Sawyer a native of Reading, Penn., was jubilant about the operation.
All of this was possible because of sources weve developed, through local-national engagements and working with the residents of the area, he said. Its our work with the people in these areas, our relations with them, paying off.
The primary target is allegedly responsible for shooting down an AH-64 helicopter in April 2006, the abductions of two Soldiers in June 2006, and complex attacks on patrol bases and terrorist acts against both Coalition Forces and Iraqi civilians.
Additionally, he is believed to be the leader of an al Qaeda network, known to prey on the general public through intimidation and murder against those resisting compliance to the AQI demands and decrees
One of the detainees had been wounded in a previous engagement, and was taken to a coalition hospital for treatment. The other six are being held for further questioning.
#3
While a welcome development, please let me know when this happens on a daily basis. Only then will the Iraqis even begin to deserve the tremendous boon that has been handed to them on a silver platter.
#4
They only do this when they see we are winning in their area and giving them at least some safety from AQ. Thats why more such stories since the surge. And from areas where the surge forces have been concentrated.
#5
LH is absolutely right (and James, you're absolutely wrong). Civilians are just that -- civilians, or as Bill Whittle would call them, sheep. Nothing wrong with being a sheep, that's what most of us are.
But you have to be a mighty brave sheep to go messing with the wolves when there's no sheepdogs around to protect you. Most folks won't do that.
'Clear and hold' means that we keep the sheepdogs around (either our troops or sufficiently capable Iraqi troops), so that civilians are willing to risk their necks to provide information. When they see that the sheepdogs are honest, aren't brutal (that's the point, wxjames), and risk their own lives to protect the population, then the civilians will step up, just like this.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/10/2007 16:47 Comments ||
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Foot soldiers and US commanders say Iraq's security forces include officers working with insurgents.
Khalis, Iraq - As the US military continues to move through Diyala Province to uproot Al Qaeda fighters hidden amid its villages, an emerging foe may be helping to erode many of the successes the Americans are having in the three-week-old operation "Arrowhead Ripper."
According to Iraqi soldiers and US officers, militants linked to Al Qaeda are using tribal and family connections and, in some cases, also providing financial incentives to members of the Iraqi Army to help them remain strong and evade capture.
Al Qaeda's position is also bolstered by a broader internecine sectarian struggle for survival, power, and resources between Sunnis and Shiites that has spilled into the Army itself. This fight within Iraqi security services often pits elements of the Army against the Shiite-dominated police force.
In interviews with Iraqi soldiers from the battalion based in Khalis, about 10 miles northwest of the provincial capital Baquba, some troops allege that Sunni and Shiite officers cooperate, respectively, with Al Qaeda-linked militants and Shiite militias. They say that this ranges from turning a blind eye to illegal checkpoints to actually facilitating the transit of weapons, ammunition, and cash through the checkpoints manned by the Iraqi Army.
A US Army officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, goes even further.
"There have been reports of Iraqi Army units transporting weapons for militias and insurgents in military vehicles," he says, adding that some officers even receive money from truckers in return for assurances that the roads on which their convoys travel will be protected.
For example, six Sunni officers in the Iraqi Army battalion in Khalis hail from the prominent Sunni Arab Obeidi tribe. They are accused by Shiite officers in the battalion, and even by some fellow Sunni soldiers, of being on the payroll of fellow Obeidi Khaled Albu-Abali, a former senior officer in Saddam Hussein's army, who is suspected to have links to Al Qaeda in Iraq.
"Yes, some Sunnis in our battalion are sympathetic to these elements because they still cannot accept an Iraq where Shiites have power," says Maj. Hussein Kadhim.
In an interview, three of the Sunni officers deny the charges and accuse some of their Shiite comrades of running death squads and manning illegal checkpoints in cooperation with the recently formed Khalis Emergency Response Force (ERF), a mostly Shiite paramilitary group, and the Khalis Shiite mayor, Uday Adnan, to cleanse the whole area of Sunnis.
Maj. Wissam Hamid admits, though, that some Sunni villages in Diyala have sought the protection of Al Qaeda operatives against Shiite militias and warns that more will do the same if the militias are not reined in.
These competing interests and allegiances that often get in the way of the American mission in Diyala to defeat Al Qaeda forces were on full display here last Thursday.
While Iraqi officers were having lunch, Maj. Faisal Majid, a Sunni, received a call on his cellphone. The person on the other end told him that a mob, backed by a local paramilitary group, had descended on the homes of the Albu-Abali Sunni family. The group was about to loot and set the properties on fire, the caller said.
US Army Maj. Dom Dionne, who is part of the team working with the Iraqi battalion in Khalis, rushed to the scene. When he arrived with his men, not a single shop in the area was open. A police pickup truck blocked a side street where the Albu-Abali homes are located. Members of the ERF, a Shiite paramilitary group dressed in green camouflage and red berets, stood on street corners.
Major Dionne was greeted by the ERF leader Col. Hussein Hamham. One of Colonel Hamham's men showed off a sword that was found in the home of Khaled Albu-Abali. Many in Khalis say he's now a senior leader in the Islamic State in Iraq an Al Qaeda umbrella group who goes by the pseudonym Abu Walid al-Shami.
They used this to kill Shiites," says the policeman.
Hamham assures Dionne that his men had simply gone into the homes for a routine search. The next day, all six homes were looted and set on fire. Iraqi security forces did little to stop it.
Dionne suspects it was the work of the Mahdi Army militia of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in retaliation for attacks on the homes of Shiites east of Khalis a few days before.
There is no proof that Albu-Abali is a member of Al Qaeda, says Dionne, but the episode is just one of many examples of the sectarian disputes involving Iraqi security forces that the US Army often finds itself having to navigate.
"The military goes through a vetting process to ensure that the soldiers are not known criminals or insurgents, but there is no process after that to screen them periodically to make sure they have not turned or started supporting criminals and terrorists," says Dionne.He says that is the responsibility of the sovereign Iraqi government and not the US Army. "With our current manning, it's not feasible," he adds.
Furthermore, the US military cannot put too much pressure on Sunni tribes in Diyala because, according to the Arrowhead Ripper commander, Gen. Mick Bednarek, it needs them to renounce Al Qaeda, provide intelligence, and encourage their sons to join the police and Army.
#1
I would consider this report good news for a couple of reasons. First of all it says that we are finally getting some good intelligence in learning who's who as far as corrupt officers are concerned. We have known about this problem for as long as we have been in Iraq but getting a clear picture of the problem has been elusive. We seem to be getting a grip on that.
And secondly, in some cases the connections between these offices and tribal groups can be exploited to bring those groups under the government umbrella as has been the case in Anbar and to some degree, Diyala.
So overall I would have selected a different headline. Something more along the lines of "US getting clearer picture of tribal alliances".
#3
My favorite dead horse rears its ugly head again. Still comes down to knowing/understanding the tribal culture and who is who. Something our gov't usually fails at w/every turn. They ain't westerners folks, quit treating them as such.
#4
I'm rather surprised that they're mentioning the Army cooperating with AQ. The Army has a reputation for relative honesty and competence. Also the Army may has many Sunni officers, but the rank and file are Shia and Kurds. I can't see the enlisted puting up with this treason.
As for the Police, this is old news. Zarqawi was captured twice by the IP and managed to escape each time with a combination of bribes and threats.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
07/10/2007 14:19 Comments ||
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#5
Counterintelligence guys live for just this. When they compile a dossier on a corrupt officer, at a particular point they turn it over to SOCOM and he has a fatal accident. Along with as many of his associates as possible. You know, group heart attacks and things like that.
Then they let it be known through back channels why.
#7
I would say, if you catch someone working with AQ, skin them alive in the town square and nail their hide to the side of the town hall as a warning to others. Then drop their body in the trash heap outside of town for the dogs to eat.
#8
I'm sure the people actually in the field caught on pretty quickly to the fact that you can't turn your back on an Arab---twice. The fact that they're willing to talk about it, means the top brass is starting to caught on.
According to the ancient war oracles and secrete rumor mills...
During the course of all wars, all sorts of payoffs and bribes are made to the local indigenous enterprises, 'all varieties insurgent' and the local war lords, it's is a time honored tradition.
an example:
The rumor was [a few years ago] in the Republic of Vietnam, that the local VC chief/s were paid NOT to attack Brown and Root around the Chu Lai area during the Concrete Run Way project that replaced the temp aluminum matting..
sniper rounds and occasional mortars weren't counted.
When distinguished visitors come to where the action is, it can be disruptive to the point of wasteful. Ive heard commanders grumble all over Iraq about the steady streams of VIPs who, while intending to be seen observing operations, instead seize the mechanics with their clumsy footprint. These are called dog and pony shows.
But on D+18, when a most important visitor came to Baqubah, not only did he not seem to cause a hiccup, but everyone I talked with was happy to see him. General Petraeus came to Baqubah on July 7, 2007, amid practically zero fuss.
The day wasnt much different from any other. Mine began with an unrelated mission with the Brigade deputy commander, from which we returned around noon. General Petraeus had lunch with commanders, followed by a couple of interesting briefings that the tag-along press there for only those few hours were allowed to attend.
After the briefings, General Petraeus headed downtown to an area where many of the buildings had been made into bombs. Most VIPs will not dare leave base, but the top generals and command sergeant majors in this war all roll downtown taking their chances with getting blown sky-high.
When I wrote the dispatch Be Not Afraid, I thought at least dozens of soldiers might be killed when we attacked on June 19, and that hundreds might be wounded. After years of experience, the terrorists had prepared Baqubah to an extent greater than either Fallujah or Ramadi had been. During one of the briefings Saturday, General Petraeus mentioned that Baqubah was probably the most rigged city of the entire war. Another officer at the briefing said there is so much explosives residue in Baqubah that the bomb dogs get confused.
Since the beginning of Arrowhead Ripper with the loss of one 3-2 SBCT soldier killed in action troops found more than 130 bombs planted in ambush, about two dozen buildings rigged to explode, and more than half a dozen car bombs. (Thats only the beginning.) Yet street by street, house by house, step by step, the infantry soldiers cleared Baqubah, working under intensely stressful conditions. They cleared block by block, no place to sleep but the ground, no showers to wash away the sweaty grit of war. This combat-experienced brigade outsmarted the enemy. Id like to say more, but the enemy will get no help from these pages. . . .
Posted by: Mike ||
07/10/2007 09:47 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency
#1
Even for some of you who have seen inhumanity in war up close, reading the whole article, especially the end piece may be a little too much. Michael being ex SF's understands what his writing will mean if taken in context. But if it is true his interpretation of what the elder told him then we are certainly dealing with an enemy more monsterous and evil than anything faced before, including the Nazis or suicidal Japanese (i.e. Iwo Jima and Attu, etc.). The only way then is total annilhation of the vipers nest starting at about 53E-38N.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
07/10/2007 11:30 Comments ||
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#2
But on D+18, when a most important visitor came to Baqubah, not only did he not seem to cause a hiccup, but everyone I talked with was happy to see him.
I think we [at least those of us who are actually paying attention to the real war and not the one painted in the MSM or by the Wormtongues] are witnessing real combat leadership not seen on the field of battle by a senior commander since Gen. Ridgway turn the 8th Army around in Korea after the collapse with the first Chinese offensive in 1951. In this case the collapse has been a political one in Washington, but the shift in strategy and operational execution by someone willing to go down into the line to show the troops that we can still beat the enemy, anyplace and anytime, has the stuff that in early times would have been 'the news' of the day. Of course, that was a time when the MSM thought of itself as part of the country, not agents of the enemy's war machine to demoralize the American public.
#3
I saw Wallach go blank and silent. He stopped interpreting for a moment. I asked Wallach, What did he say? Wallach said that at these luncheons, the families were sat down to eat. And then their boy was brought in with his mouth stuffed. The boy had been baked. Al Qaeda served the boy to his family.
If 'moderate muslims' cannot react to this, then genocide becomes a viable resolution. END Islam NOW !
Slightly EFL.
By LEE KEATH
BAGHDAD (AP) - Sunni extremists attacked an isolated village northwest of Baghdad in a fierce battle with residents that reportedly left dozens dead, the deputy governor of Iraq's Diyala province said Tuesday.
Residents of the village of Sherween called Deputy Gov. Auf Rahim appealing for help, saying there were no Iraqi police or army units nearby to protect them, according to an Associated Press reporter who was in Rahim's office in the city of Baqouba when he received the call.
Rahim said he was told in the call that the attackers were believed to belong to al-Qaida and that the fighting the was still going on but the insurgents appeared to have control over the village. It was not clear how many extremists were involved.
Rahim said the villagers reported that 25 extremists and 18 local residents were killed in the battles and 40 people wounded. The casualty figures could not be independently confirmed.
A resident of the town of Dali Abbas, neighboring Sherween, told AP "the area has come under attack since yesterday, and the people of the village are the only ones defending it." He spoke on condition his name not be used for fear of reprisals.
An Iraqi army officer in the Mansouria region close to Sherween confirmed that insurgents appeared to be in control of the village. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.
Sherweena village of about 7,000 people, about equally divided between Shiites and Sunnislies about 35 miles northwest of Baqouba, where U.S. troops have been fighting a three-week-old offensive to uproot Sunni extremists who use the area to launch attacks in nearby Baghdad.
U.S. commanders say they are making progress in clearing Baqouba, but acknowledge that many militantsincluding leaders of al-Qaida's branch in Iraqfled the city before the assault began in mid-June. After three years of U.S. training, however, the Iraqi army remains incapable of operating on its own, U.S. officials say.
Fleeing insurgents are believed to have headed north to carry out strikes in unprotected areas. On Friday, a suicide bomber hit a Shiite Kurdish village, Zargoush, near Sharween, that killed 22 people.
The next morning, a suicide truck bomber hit the Shiite Turkoman town of Armili, west of the region, killing at least 160 people. The attack raised an outcry that Iraqi security forces were not doing enough to protect vulnerable areasand calls that residents be given arms.
U.S. and British forces also targeted Shiite militants accused in attacks on coalition troops and sectarian killings.
The British military said Tuesday warplanes struck the day before in the southern town of al-Majar al-Kabir near the Iranian border, killing three militants suspected of smuggling weapons into Iraq. Iraqi police officials said a British helicopter strike killed the brother and two guards of radical Shiite cleric Sheik Abu Jamal al- Fartousi, whom the British military accused of being a leader in Iran's elite Quds Force suspected of arming militants.
The U.S. military said American special operations forces in a raid Sunday captured 12 militants in Baghdad who had broken away from the Mahdi Army, the militia of anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, and had carried out attacks on U.S. and Iraqi troops
AP correspondents Anne Flaherty and Anne Gearan in Washington contributed to this report.
Posted by: anonymous5089 ||
07/10/2007 07:30 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Iraq
#1
Thank you for the post, A5089, but not edited enough, in my humble opinion.
The last half is old (doom-and-gloom) news, just in case you didn't get gloomy enough from the news article - Bad Guys Attack Helpless Village But No One Comes to Help them Out of the Quagmire.
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/10/2007 8:36 Comments ||
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#2
This is AP, probably from a "stringer", so needs to be taken with a very large grain of salt. I'm trying to confirm the item on some other news site - something not from AP.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/10/2007 15:18 Comments ||
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While the Washington Post is reporting a massive suicide attack outside of Fallujah, claiming 23 killed and 27 wounded in an attack on an Iraqi Army recruitment center, Multinational Forces West told The Fourth Rail that this report is false. The Post report is based on a Voice of Iraq article, which claimed 17 killed and 27 wounded.
1st Lt. Shawn Mercer, the deputy Public Affairs Officer for Multinational Forces West, he denied such an attack took place in an email. "We don't have any reports of an attack on a recruiting center (or any static location) and certainly not with that kind of death toll in our AO," said 1st Lt. Mercer. He noted there was an IED attack near Abu Ghraib that killed one Iraqi soldier and wounded three on Saturday night, and suspected the reports may have been confused. "I'm not sure how the reporting on this got so confused but the sources were not reliable," he stated. In March 2007, Voice of Iraq falsely reported an attack on U.S. forces outside Rutbah.
In the Thar Thar and Karma regions, the Marines of the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit "discovered more than 17,000 kilograms of explosives in a series of weapons cache[s]..." The finds included a homemade explosives factory, which "contained more than 6,000 kilograms of homemade explosives, 8,000 kilograms of ammonium nitrate, a common [Home Made Explosive] component, and the equipment to mix, manufacture and transport large quantities of the explosives." Chlorine gas, which al Qaeda in Iraq used against Anbari civilians in the spring of 2007, was also found at one of the caches.
In Samawa, Iraqi Army and police units deployed throughout the city "after negotiations with Sadr's office in the city reached a 'deadlock.'" Sadr sought a truce with the provincial government. Eight were killed and 66 wounded in the fighting over the past several days. In Diwaniyah, the 8th Iraqi Army Division paired up with the Hilla SWAT special police and killed nine members of the "rogue Jaysh al-Mahdi [Mahdi Army] militia and captured four others on July 7." In Baghdad, Iraqi Special Operations Forces captured seven members of "a rogue Jaysh al-Madhi" cell on July 7. This cell was part of "a network involved in death squad activities, kidnapping and assassination activities."
In Northern Babil province, Operations Marne Torch and Commando Eagle are underway. Late last week, Major General Rick Lynch, the commander of Multinational Division Center and the 3rd Infantry Division, briefed on Operation Marne Torch and stated that roughly 70 percent of the area of operations for Marne Torch in the region southeast of Baghdad centering on Arab Jabour are now under control, while 30 percent still required clearing. No numbers were provided for Commando Eagle, which encompasses the region around Mahmudiyah.
In the village of Qarghuli, near where three U.S. troops were kidnapped after an assault on their patrol in early May, residents pointed out 12 weapons caches to U.S. forces operating in the area. Two wanted insurgents were also identified by the villagers and captured. "Residents, fed up with the violence plaguing their neighborhood, have repeatedly revealed al Qaeda-affiliated terrorists in the area to patrolling Soldiers," Multinational Forces Iraq reported. In the in Chaka III area, Coalition forces captured four members of an IED cell and found IED materials. Since those arrests, a significant drop in attacks in that region has been reported.
The kinetic portion of Operation Arrowhead Ripper in Baqubah has largely finished, as Iraqi and Coalition forces are focusing on aid and reconstruction efforts in the city al Qaeda once declared as the capital of its Islamic State. "Since the beginning of Operation Arrowhead Ripper, at least 60 al-Qaida operatives have been killed, 215 have been detained, 55 weapons caches have been discovered, 124 improvised explosive devices have been destroyed and 24 booby-trapped structures have been destroyed," Multinational Forces Iraq reported. Iraqi and U.S. forces have pushed outwards into the Diyala River Valley north of the city. Al Qaeda has conducted horrific suicide attacks and assaults on small villages along the Iranian border. Much more at link...thanks Bill Roggio!
#2
So who ya gonna believe? The Washington Post or the Military?
Guess it depends on your agenda....
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/10/2007 6:26 Comments ||
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#3
key graf:
"The kinetic portion of Operation Arrowhead Ripper in Baqubah has largely finished, as Iraqi and Coalition forces are focusing on aid and reconstruction efforts in the city al Qaeda once declared as the capital of its Islamic State."
So we onto hold and build now in Baquba. Still many other parts of Diyala province not cleared yet, and a good part of Baghdad, based on the map the other day.
#4
It's reaching a point where the bad guys don't even need to blow themselves up. All they need do is issue a press release announcing a suicide bombing with massive casualties, and the MSM runs it word for word.
Posted by: Mike ||
07/10/2007 9:47 Comments ||
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#5
Oooh. They are using the words Al Queda. Didn't they read the Sunday NYTs. There is no AQ in Iraq. We keep mixing up our metaphors and our insurgents. Got to listen to Pinch, he's got the scoop and the poop!
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
07/10/2007 11:43 Comments ||
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Two explosions early Wednesday caused a large hole in the Gaza-Egypt border wall, witnesses reported, sending people rushing to the open crossing but causing no injuries.
Hamas gunmen rushed to the scene to prevent Gazans from fleeing to Egypt and there were no immediate crossings reported. Several groups had issued threats in recent days about attacking the wall.
Hamas confirmed two explosions took place but denied any hole was created in the wall between Gaza and Egypt. Fleeing to Egypt is bad. Bringing weapons in is good
#1
Israel should unilaterally "gift" Gaza to Egypt (whether they want it or not). Turn off water and electricty, and then just sit back and watch the show!
#3
I can hardly blaming the typical Paleo for wanting to get the hell out of Hamas controlled Gaza, any more than all the Afghans who fled the Taliban.
Just the high, I mean low, oh hell. AS Charles Johnson says "let's give these people a country"
Adham Mustafa's family found his mutilated body at the morgue two days after Hamas captured the pro-Fatah security official. Tarek Asfour says Hamas gunmen banged nails into his legs until he revealed where he hid his weapons. Salama Barbakh was seized trying to flee to Egypt, dragged back to his Gaza hometown and killed.
Hamas promised amnesty for its vanquished Fatah rivals in the Gaza Strip, which the Islamic militant group violently seized last month. But since then, at least nine Fatah loyalists have been killed and 20 others arrested, according to local human rights workers, raising fears Hamas is gradually imposing authoritarian rule by silencing critics.
Hamas lied? They're implementing totalitarian rule based on Sharia and thuggery? Gee, stop the presses.
"Either there's law, or there's no law," said Issam Younis, the head of the independent Gaza-based human rights group Mezan, which posted the names of the dead on its Web site. Oh, Irony lives! Paleostinian law?
Hamas says it restored calm to Gaza and insists the amnesty is holding, though it acknowledges there have been exceptions. Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said it took time for the pardon pledge to trickle down to local commanders."The decision of a general amnesty needed several days to be implemented, and now it's very clear that there is complete quiet and commitment of Hamas members to this decision," he said.
Last month, another Hamas spokesman, Islam Shahwan, said the group's Executive Force, which polices Gaza, had a secret list with the names of Fatah loyalists marked for death for their roles in killing Hamas activists. He said they would not be granted trials if caught. Abu Zuhri said Hamas is reviewing those cases, and they would not necessarily be executed.
Some say Hamas could not use the existing but worthless judicial system even if it wanted to. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who set up a moderate government in the West Bank without Hamas after the Gaza takeover, has barred judges, prosecutors and police from cooperating with the coastal strip's new rulers. Those ignoring the ban aren't paid.
Paleostine has judges and prosecutors? Who knew?
Hamas has complained of a campaign against its followers in the West Bank, where it says security forces and Fatah gunmen have seized 336 Hamas supporters in the past month and beaten some of them. One Hamas activist was killed and one critically wounded in a Fatah attack.
After rubbing out Fatah in Gaza, Hamas is complaining about the same in the West Bank. Do they know that the word 'chutzpah' isn't an Arabic one?
In Gaza, 19-year-old Mustafa was captured by Hamas on the last day of fighting. A forensics report from Shifa Hospital in Gaza City said he was killed June 15, hours after the amnesty was announced. The report said he was shot at least seven times. A homemade video of Mustafa's corpse showed his left eye was missing, as well as a chunk of flesh under his right arm. Mohammedeans and movie cameras. is there a greater love?
"How do you know that's Mustafa's missing eye?"
"It's brown."
"Oh, hokay."
His family had been assured by Hamas that Mustafa would be freed.
Instead, his relatives found his body at the morgue two days after his capture.
Was that enough time for Dr. Quincy to see to him?
Abu Zuhri declined to comment on the case. "I can say no more!"
On the day the amnesty was announced, Fatah fighter Salama Barbakh tried to escape to Egypt. At the border, he was grabbed by Hamas gunmen, shot in the legs and taken back to his hometown of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, according to relatives and human rights activists. He was taken to the house of Wasfi Shahwan, a Hamas supporter whom Barbakh had allegedly killed more than a year ago.
"Hi Salami! Remember me?"
"Oh my Allan! It's you! You was supposed to be dead!"
"Guess again, oh legless one!"
At the house, Barbakh was shot to death, and his body was then stabbed and stomped on. Hamas claimed responsibility.
You bet they did, you always sign a message like that.
In the village of Abassan, Fatah loyalist Tarek Asfour lay on a bed outside his home. Darkened bruises covered his body, and bandages were placed over 10 wounds on his legs, each a quarter-inch deep. Those were the spots where Hamas interrogators banged nails into him, he said.
Don't let Andrew Sullivan hear about that.
He said he was seized by Hamas gunmen on June 29 and taken to an abandoned house. Hamas interrogators hit him with a large stick, then with a hammer on his joints, all the time asking him questions about his participation in the fighting, where he hid his weapons, and the whereabouts of his brother, a senior Fatah leader.
"He won't tell us anything about Sonny, boss."
"Hit him again."
"Hokay." [THUMP]
"Owwwwww ...."
"Hit and ask, hit and ask," he recounted. "I kept saying no, no, no, screaming and crying, I was afraid any admission would kill me. I thought I was a dead man."
I thought you were too.
When they received no answers, "they pulled my legs up and told me, 'we will put these nails in your legs,'" Asfour said. Ten nails later, Asfour revealed where he hid his weapons.
There, see? That wasn't so bad, was it?
In some cases, local Hamas commanders have worked out amnesty deals. In the northern town Beit Lahiya, local Hamas leaders organized a "forgiveness festival" for four Fatah members, declaring in front of thousands that they had been forgiven. 'We have forgiven these martyrs to allen"
#1
Back when the Hamas-Fatah shooting war began, just for amusement purposes, I sent an e-mail to the International Solidarity Movement (of "St. Pancake" fame) asking them what they were doing to stop the Palestinian-on-Palestinian violence. I was polite, brief, and to the point.
I figured since they had so many of these "peace teams" and "human shields" in-country, they'd be doing something, right? Particularly if they're actually interested in, you know, peace and stuff, and not just a bunch of anti-Semitic whackjobs working to facilitate the Palestinian goon-ocracy.
I awaited their reply with baited breath.
No response. Nothing.
Surprise meter reads "off-scale low."
Posted by: Mike ||
07/10/2007 18:33 Comments ||
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#2
Hamas gunmen banged nails into his legs until he revealed where he hid his weapons.
Jee, torture does work and quickly too.
Posted by: ed ||
07/10/2007 19:21 Comments ||
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#3
By DIAA HADID, Associated Press Writer
Date line Gaza Strip. This may all be true, or it may be that overactive Middle Eastern imagination. We know how good AP is about checking sources when a horror story is involved.
Southern Command intelligence officer tells Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi that Hamas' military industry is being run in organized manner and developing in many areas. 'Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are controlled in Strip by Hamas army,' he say
Hamas' military industry is giving serial production numbers to the roadside charges and Qassam rockets it manufactures, a senior intelligence officer in the Southern Command told Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi during his visit to the rocket-battered town of Sderot on Monday.
According to the officer, intelligence sources believe that a real 'Hamas army' exists in the Gaza Strip and includes between 7,000 and 10,000 soldiers, who are being armed continuously with weapons smuggled through the Philadelphi route.
The officer told Prodi that Hamas and radical Islam organizations have completely taken over the Fatah headquarters in the Strip.
"Six kilometers (3.7 miles) away from here, some 800,000 people are concentrated in the Gaza Strip, where they are controlled by the Hamas army. This army's goal is to hurt innocent Israeli citizens living around the Gaza Strip," the officer said.
According to the report given to the Italian premier, about 30 tons of explosives have been smuggled over the past year into the Strip to Hamas and radical Islam organizations. Thousands of rifles and antitank missiles were also smuggled.
"As if this smuggling, which comes from Egypt, is not enough, Hamas has developed a real military industry, which operates inside buildings and private houses. The weapons manufactured there already have serial numbers, which testify to the development of this military industry," the intelligence officer said. My take on this, is Hamas will attempt a Hizbollah type war against Israel by the end of the year, with the understanding Syria will use it as an opportunity to attack the Golan. Syria will then back out of its 'commitment. The UN/Euros might send in peacekeepers but I doubt it and Gaza ends up starving in the dark as international aid dissapears.
#2
Unfortunately, the NYT's Sunday Mag had a front cover story about Zippy. Much like SI covers, this is a bad omen. She may have been the best hope outside Benny [damaged goods] to take the offense and QB the IDF response to anything Syria, Hizbollah, Hamas or the Euro/UN throw at them. Who is ready to lead Israel? Not much to choose from these days.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
07/10/2007 10:11 Comments ||
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The UN said on Monday it had suspended its building projects in the Gaza Strip due to a shortage of supplies following Hamass violent seizure of the Palestinian territory last month. Some 93 million dollars-worth of projects are on hold because cement and other building supplies have run out, John Ging, the director of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza, said in a statement. UNRWA warned in the wake of the Islamist groups seizure of Gaza on June 15 that aid flowing into the impoverished territory, mainly from Israel, was not enough to prevent a humanitarian crisis.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/10/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
#3
I guess Hamas will have to do without the hardened bunkers and reenforced fighting holes.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
07/10/2007 7:54 Comments ||
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#4
Oh, man. Gaza was the jewel of the Mediterranean because of the effectiveness of the UN. Without them, it will probably have soaring unemployment and violence.
Posted by: Gary and the Samoyeds ||
07/10/2007 8:47 Comments ||
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#5
When has there not been a "humanitarian crisis" in Gaza? And when will these UN goombas start realizing when they constantly use phrases like "humanitarian crisis", most people hit the internal "off" switch in their head?
I'll bet the lack of Israeli sewer pipe has crippled the Gaza space program metal shop sector.
Although statistics specifically for Gaza are hard to come by, an important 2002 Commentary article by Efraim Karsh noted that under the Israeli occupationmore fairly termed administrationthat began in 1967, Gaza and the West Bank in fact made astounding social and economic progress:
In the economic sphere, most of this . . . was the result of access to the . . . Israeli economy: the number of Palestinians working in Israel rose from zero in 1967 to 66,000 in 1975 and 109,000 by 1986, accounting for 35 percent of the employed population of the West Bank and 45 percent in Gaza. Close to 2,000 industrial plants, employing almost half of the work force, were established in the territories under Israeli rule.
During the 1970's, the West Bank and Gaza constituted the fourth fastest-growing economy in the worldahead of such "wonders"as Singapore, Hong Kong, and Korea, and substantially ahead of Israel itself. . . . GNP per capita grew somewhat more slowly, [but] expand[ed] tenfold between 1968 and 1991 from $165 to $1,715. . . . By 1999, Palestinian per-capita income was nearly double Syria's, more than four times Yemen's, and 10 percent higher than Jordan's. . . . Only the oil-rich Gulf states and Lebanon were more affluent.
(...)
perhaps most strikingly, during the two decades preceding the intifada of the late 1980s, the number of schoolchildren in the territories grew by 102 percent, and the number of classes by 99 percent, though the population itself had grown by only 28 percent. Even more dramatic was the progress in higher education. At the time of the Israeli occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, not a single university existed in these territories. By the early 1990s, there were seven such institutions, boasting some 16,500 students. Illiteracy rates dropped to 14 percent of adults over age 15, compared with 69 percent in Morocco, 61 percent in Egypt, 45 percent in Tunisia, and 44 percent in Syria.
#8
Jeebus, you mean that Gaza (at one time) was actually better off than Syria? Say it ain't so! Actually, for that "neck of the woods," that's pretty good progress. Now, if only the dang Joos hadn't ruined it all (/sarcasm).
Posted by: BA ||
07/10/2007 9:45 Comments ||
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#9
What the hell is Hamas using all the stolen cement for ?
#11
a5089, the jooos really could be the best friends the paleos ever had. But then that would be unIslamic. I'm sure the Soddies were not pleased by all this economic progress because it would only go to show that the jooos are not so bad after all and allan couldn't have that.
#12
Well WXjames, I think it was probably to imitate the infidels' concrete bombs, but they got the instructions wrong and ended up with this instead:
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
07/10/2007 14:22 Comments ||
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#13
Our local paper carried an AP story that said shortages threatens 121,000 Paleo jobs because of irael's border closures. Israel is not responsible for damage to buildings in the Gaza strip detroyed by Hamas and Fatah. Why should they open their border? Why doesn't Egypt open their border to the UN? Why doesn't Gaza manufacture their own cement? Why don't the Paleos build a port? Weapons don't have any difficulty getting into Gaza.
F8ck the UN and the Paleos. I don't have any sympathy for them. They made their own bed now they have to lay in it.
#14
I saw something elsewhere that Hamas are blocking imports of Israeli fruits and vegetables at the border. God forbid Palestinian bodies be polluted by Jewish foodstuffs!
#15
I wonder how the Gazans would react if they were told that every breath of air they take contains molecules that have previously been inhaled by Jews. Maybe they would all stop seething breathing.
I read that, statistically speaking, with each breath you inhale an atom that passed through Einstein's lungs and even those of the dinosaurs.
#16
EU6305, the British assumed that would happen when they accepted the Palestine Mandate in the early 1920's. The reality, of course, was that the Arabs simply couldn't stand that another, more capable and competent people, quickly showed them up as lazy, ignorant and feckless. Instead of being grateful for the improvements the Jews brought, they just made the Arabs hate them more. I truly believe that Islam can be legitimately defined as a form of dementia.
Posted by: Mac ||
07/10/2007 18:40 Comments ||
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#17
I am convinced islam is a form of mental illness.
#18
As has been said before, many times in the past, the U.N. sucks, the Arabic world is still living in the 7th century and Islam is nothing but bull$hit. Damn, sometimes it feels good to just rant...nowadimean??
Five soldiers were wounded when insurgents detonated a roadside bomb in Pattani on Tuesday, police said. The soldiers were ambushed when they were patrolling on a pick-up in Mayo district shortly before noon. Police said the bomb, hidden near a trash can, was detonated when they were passing by. The vehicle was partly damaged.
Sri Lankan army commandoes seized a massive rocky plateau nicknamed Tora Bora and searched through grassy fields and brush looking for as many as 200 Tamil Tiger rebels, the military said Monday.
The operation could result in eastern Sri Lanka coming under government control by the end of the month - the first time since 1994 - a military commander said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. Government forces have cleared the rebels from much of eastern Sri Lanka and are now pushing to seize the eastern rebel bastion of Thoppigala, parts of which has been nicknamed Tora Bora after the famous mountain in Afghanistan known for militancy.
Separately, soldiers found 15 anti-personnel mines buried near Thoppigala during a search for insurgents on Sunday, said an officer at the Defense Ministrys media center. The mines were later defused, the officer said on condition of anonymity in line with policy. The recovery on Sunday came as fighter jets pounded rebel mortar positions in Thoppigala. Airstrikes hit four guerrilla mortar positions, but there were no casualty figures to report, the media center.
The rebels military spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan was not available for an immediate comment.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/10/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
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Iran has arrested 20 members of an alleged spy network in the western part of the country near the border with Iraq, the state-run news agency reported Monday. The 20 included both Iranians and foreigners who were trained by intelligence services "of the enemy," the IRNA news agency quoted the head of the intelligence department in the Kerman Shah province as saying. IRNA did not provide the official's full name or provide more details about their nationalities.
IRNA, quoting the official, said the alleged spies were trained for economic, military, political, cultural and social purposes. It did not elaborate. Iran has escalated accusations against the US, saying last month that it had uncovered spy rings organized by the US and its Western allies.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/10/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#2
Do these 20 include both the squirrels AND their handlers? I thought I saw where they had captured 10 spy squirrels yesterday. Or did they torture the squirrels and get leads to roll up 20 OTHER spies?
#3
What a farce! We have 20 MILLION spies in Iran. Capturing 20 means they've rolled up less than 0.00001%. They're going to have to do better than that! Why, half the police force, a third of the Quds Brigade, two-thirds of their nuclear scientists, and 90% of their Air Force are US spies. Iran needs to get busy!
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/10/2007 15:38 Comments ||
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Lebanese troops have fought new battles with Islamist militants around a Palestinian refugee camp in the north of the country, reports say. Militants fired mortars from the Nahr al-Bared camp, the official Lebanese news agency said. The army was reported to have responded with artillery fire.
Militants from the Fatah al-Islam group have been besieged in the camp for seven weeks, during which time more than 200 people have been killed. The violence has been Lebanon's worst internal conflict since the end of the civil war in 1990. Much of Nahr al-Bared has been destroyed during the fighting, in which the army has bombarded the camp in an effort to flush out the militants within. Virtually all of the residents of the camp, which was previously home to some 30,000 people, have fled their homes.
Last month the government claimed victory over Fatah al-Islam, a radical Palestinian splinter group with an ideological link to al-Qaeda. But clashes have broken out sporadically since then, with an unknown number of militants remaining in the camps.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/10/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: Fatah al-Islam
Lebanese authorities have identified the bodies of 10 Saudis among Fatah al-Islam militants killed in fighting with the army in northern Lebanon, a senior security official said on Monday. "We have identified the bodies of 10 Saudis among the 27 bodies taken by police" since clashes first erupted between the Islamists and Lebanese armed forces on May 20, he said on condition of anonymity.
The official said 17 bodies of Fatah al-Islam combatants were found in the main northern port city of Tripoli and 10 others nearby. "Police have not taken away the body of any combatant from inside Nahr al-Bared," he said, referring to the impoverished camp near Tripoli where clashes are continuing.
He said the body of Fatah al-Islam spokesman Abu Salim Taha, who has been reportedly killed in the clashes, was not among the 27 bodies recovered by police. "I don't think that Abu Salim is Saudi. He is probably a Palestinian national," he said.
The Saudi newspaper Al-Watan said on Sunday that six Saudi militants had been killed in the clashes, including Abu Salim Taha whose real name is Al-Hamadi Abdullah al-Dussari, 23. "We are running DNA tests in order to identify the combattants, most of whom were carrying false passports or false identity cards," the Lebanese security official said.
Saudi Arabia in Denial
On July 2, Sultan Abul Aynayn, the Lebanon chief of the mainstream Fatah faction, said that 42 Saudis figured among the Fatah al-Islam militiamen fighting the army. He said 20 had been killed, one has surrendered, and another 21 were still holed up inside Nahr al-Bared, three of them wounded.
But Riyadh's consul in Beruit, Abdel-Hadi al Shafei, said few of the dead fighters had been identified as Saudi and there was no evidence that many more were fighting at the camp. "Lebanese parties are exploiting the Saudi presence among Fatah al-Islam in the Nahr al-Bared camp," Shafei told London- based daily al-Hayat, which is owned by a senior Saudi prince. "There is a desire to embarrass Saudi Arabia by announcing 'large numbers' of Saudis among the dead, although bodies are charred and disfigured and no documents have affirmed they are Saudi."
Shafei said only six to eight bodies in a Tripoli morgue were those of Saudi nationals and one body had been delivered to its Saudi family. He said it was not known if any Saudis were among Fatah al-Islam fighters who had been buried in Lebanon. The Al-Qaeda-inspired group is also made up of Lebanese, Palestinian, Iraqi and Syrian fighters, according to the army, which has been battling Fatah al-Islam in the bloodiest internal violence since the 1975-1990 civil war.
According to a count compiled from official figures, the conflict has claimed at least 173 lives, including 85 soldiers. Many bodies are believed to have abandoned amid the ruins of Nahr al-Bared.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/10/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Fatah al-Islam
#1
KSA seems to have a working plan - export their Islamist militants to get killed someplace other than KSA. That way the royals get rid of potential enemies without 'martyrdom' rallying new recruits against the royals.
#2
So can we apply their plan to Mikey Moore and Sean Penn? And Alec Baldwin, too.
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/10/2007 7:41 Comments ||
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#3
I think it's more convoluted than that.
Prince Nayef, the uncle of the current king, has been interior minister since 1975. He's the one who retires to a Bedouin tent for a few months a year, lives a relatively austere life and has personally bankrolled much of the Wahabist expansion.
He's a behind the scenes political enemy of Prince Sultan, who is more worldly and better at subtle politics but who is also in ill health now.
His hold on the mutawa (religious police) and his support from the extremist imams makes him formidable, but he can only go so far publicly in attacking the power bases of the other princes.
His approach to Iran recently, followed by Shia-Al Q. cooperation in Iraq, is aimed as much at forwarding his political point of view within the Kingdom as it is aimed at exporting their troublemakers IMO.
#5
"Prince Nayef ... retires to a Bedouin tent for a few months a year, lives a relatively austere life and has personally bankrolled much of the Wahabist expansion"
Anybody got GPS coordinates on that tent....?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/10/2007 17:47 Comments ||
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Most of the time the article shows up, but a few just never post.
Posted by: ed ||
07/10/2007 19:48 Comments ||
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#8
I'll check it out. I was working under the hood around that time, so hopefully it was just temporary.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/10/2007 22:29 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Abdul Rashid Ghazi's body was found in the basement of the mosque, hours after troops stormed it, officials said. The army says up to 50 militants and eight soldiers have been killed, and about 50 women and children rescued. Students at the mosque and its attached religious schools have waged a campaign for months pressing for Sharia law.
Omar Abdullah, the head of Kashmirs main opposition party, escaped injury on Monday after suspected separatist militants hurled a grenade at him while he was entering a colleagues house, a party official said. The grenade exploded outside the house of an activist of Abdullahs pro-India National Conference party, wounding four policemen and a civilian, said party spokesman Nasir Sogami. Omar Abdullah is safe, he said. Abdullah is the grandson of the states first prime minister and son of a former chief minister.
According to Iraqi soldiers and US officers, militants linked to Al Qaeda are using tribal and family connections and, in some cases, also providing financial incentives to members of the Iraqi Army to help them remain strong and evade capture. 
The UN said on Monday it had suspended its building projects in the Gaza Strip due to a shortage of supplies following Hamass violent seizure of the Palestinian territory last month. Some 93 million dollars-worth of projects are on hold because cement and other building supplies have run out, John Ging, the director of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza, said in a statement. UNRWA warned in the wake of the Islamist groups seizure of Gaza on June 15 that aid flowing into the impoverished territory, mainly from Israel, was not enough to prevent a humanitarian crisis.
Iran has arrested 20 members of an alleged spy network in the western part of the country near the border with Iraq, the state-run news agency reported Monday. The 20 included both Iranians and foreigners who were trained by intelligence services "of the enemy," the IRNA news agency quoted the head of the intelligence department in the Kerman Shah province as saying. IRNA did not provide the official's full name or provide more details about their nationalities. 
Lebanese troops have fought new battles with Islamist militants around a Palestinian refugee camp in the north of the country, reports say. Militants fired mortars from the Nahr al-Bared camp, the official Lebanese news agency said. The army was reported to have responded with artillery fire.
