Six American forces serving under NATO's International Security Assistance Force were killed in an insurgent ambush while patrolling in eastern Afghanistan, a NATO spokesman told CNN on Saturday. In addition, eight other NATO soldiers were wounded. It was not immediately clear whether those were Americans.
The U.S. troops were on joint-foot patrol with Afghan National Army soldiers -- three of whom were killed and 11 who were wounded, NATO said. The combined forces came under fire from small arms and rocket-propelled grenades during the "ambush."
In response, NATO said forces fired back with small-arms, machine guns, mortars, artillery and close-air support. At least one insurgent was killed in the clashes.
Violence in Afghanistan this year is the deadliest for U.S. troops since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion. So far this year 100 U.S. military personnel have died due mainly to insurgency-related violence, according to a CNN count based on figures from the U.S.-led NATO and Coalition.
Posted by: john frum ||
11/10/2007 07:46 ||
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Top|| File under: Taliban
#2
Why is ambush in quotes in the article? Was it not an ambush?
How big of a patrol was this? The casualties are the better part of a platoon - was this a company-size maneuver, or was a platoon-strength patrol effectively wiped out? How did the wounded get out of the trap if it was the latter? Was there a QRF? Air support? Are the high casualties due to a lack of air support? Were they too far away from their supports to be reinforced in time?
This report sucks rocks. Something stinks, but it's so bare bones that I can't tell if it's the reporting or something is terribly bent with the NATO force wherever the hell this happened - the article doesn't even get more detailed than "eastern Afghanistan". I'm going to presume that this isn't the Panshir Valley or someplace relatively friendly. Were did this happen?
Nggh!
OK, here's the AFP version. Much better. This was *not* a combat patrol, but rather a group coming back from a meeting with local officials. It was a true ambush of an unprepared group, not a combat element caught off guard. Nuristan, huh? The locals aren't Pashtuns, and the politics of the region are kind of complicated, from what I just read. It might not have even been the Taliban - the Nuristanis are real hillbillies.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
11/10/2007 11:32 Comments ||
Top||
#3
My best guess is that it was a PRT meeting and that the group may not have been all military. Two platoons of troops sounds wonky somehow.
Let's reason together and see if we can figure out why this report sucks rocks.
COULD IT HAVE TO DO WITH THE DAMN WAR MORON?
How does I make MORON look bigger?
Posted by: Thomas Woof ||
11/10/2007 13:16 Comments ||
Top||
#5
You would have preferred Afghan women being stoned, banned from hospitals, treated like cattle and afgahn children dying like flies (infant mortality is in freefall and that is thanks to GW Bush not to you).
You are not merely a moron, you are morally repellant. Racist too.
#6
easy now..... Mitch H is absolutely not a troll/racist/bigot/bigamist/puppie blender - he was complaining about the lack of clear info, nothing else, IMHO....
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/10/2007 17:41 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Agreed, Frank. I understood Mitch's comment ... the initial report was too sketchy to understand what exactly happened. And being CNN, they weren't particularly interested in accurate reporting.
He found the AFP report that added more details and made more sense... it was a nation-building team that got ambushed after a meeting with the locals, not a combat patrol that got overpowered.
May G-d bless those Troops and their families. It will be a bleak Thanksgiving.
#9
Or one or more of the local officials, mhw, or the man at the falafel stall outside the meeting (or whatever the local equivalent is -- I'm sure it isn't falafels), or one of the women had a cousin whose husband's brother is with the bad guys...
MAZAR-I-SHARIF: Afghan police have detained two men on suspicion of involvement in a suicide bomb attack this week that killed more than 50 people in the north of the country, the provincial governor said on Friday. Tuesdays blast, in the relatively peaceful north, shook public confidence in the ability of the government and the 50,000 foreign troops in the country to provide security more than six years after the Taliban were ousted from power.
Taliban denied responsibility for the attack in the northern town of Baghlan that killed six opposition parliamentarians and a large number of schoolchildren. Police arrested two men in Baghlan - one a mosque prayer leader, the other a resident of the industrial part of the town where the blast took place - provincial governor Mohammad Alam Ishaaqzai said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/10/2007 00:00 ||
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A seemingly small-time drug ring busted this week in Los Angeles was actually targeted for funding the Lebanese militia group Hezbollah, the Daily News has learned. Prosecutors left out the terror tie when they announced Tuesday that federal agents and local cops had arrested a dozen people for allegedly peddling cocaine and counterfeit clothing in Bell, Calif.
U.S. Attorney's Office announced the names of the dozen people that were arrested as follows:
Ali Khalil Elreda , 32, of Bell;
Mohamad Elreda, Ali's brother, 25, of Bell
Susanne Elreda, Ali's sister, 34, of Smyrna, Ga.
Hussein Saleh Saleh, 37, of Bell
Robert Bell, 36, of Corona
Dalisa Johnson, 37, of Corona
Moussa Matar, 48, of Cudahy
Mohamad Matar, Moussa's son, 28, of Cudahy
Ali Matar, Mohamad's twin brother, 28, of Cudahy
Juan Gonzalez, 26, of Lynwood
Frankie Higuea, 24, of Downey
Crystal Hill, 25, of Hawthorne
Two additional defendants, Epifanio Mercado, 29, of Perris, and Ricardo Nava, of El Monte, were arrested over the weekend, prosecutors said. Three fugitives still remain at-large: Hassan Saleh Salehy, Hussein's brother, 36; Juan Galindo, age unavailable, of Cudahy; and Alfonso Bernal Barron, age and hometown unavailable.
The focus of the federal investigation was Ali Khalil Elreda, 32, who was detained at Los Angeles International Airport last year, accused of trying to smuggle $120,000 in money orders and cashier's checks, hidden in a child's toy, to Lebanon, according to an indictment and an affidavit filed in the case.
Several sources familiar with the investigation said the predominantly Arab-American and Latin gang was believed to have smuggled its crime cash to the Syrian and Iranian-backed group which is listed by US as a terrorist organization. "This was a classic case of terrorism financing, and it was pretty sophisticated how they did it," a source close to Operation Bell Bottoms told The News.
The Justice Department's national security division and an FBI counterterrorism agent have signed all the court filings. Because information linking the gang to Hezbollah came from classified intelligence, the alleged ringleader and "his siblings and associates" face criminal charges instead of a terror rap.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/10/2007 00:00 ||
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[3 views]
Top|| File under: Hezbollah
#1
But they'll get maximum sentences, and be deported when their sentences are complete. And of course, the FBI and Homeland Security get access to their computers, cell phones, bank accounts... all sorts of fun things for their clever boys and girls to play with!
#2
Not surprising considering the world's richest man is a Mexican-Lebanese and remember when Carlos Menem was President of Argentina the Jewish Cultural Center was bombed by Hizbollah. I was driving in from Eziza on the main highway which was elevated as it approached centro and you could see the smoke blooming from the explosion. Oh, yeah. Carlos Menem of Syrian extraction. Do you believe in coincidences?
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
11/10/2007 12:22 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Do you believe in coincidences?
A little less every day, Jack.
Danish politician with Syrian father and Palestinian mother could be kingmaker in... Denmark.
Maldives police said 10 suspects in a bomb attack on international tourists in September fled to Pakistan and the Indian Ocean island nation is seeking Interpol's assistance to detain the fugitives. The two prime suspects, Abdul Latheef Ibrahim and Ali Shameem, escaped the Maldives with the assistance of the terror cell logistics guy an immigration officer, Assistant Commissioner of Police Abdullah Riyaz said. Another eight entered Pakistan through Karachi before the Sept. 29 blast in the capital, Male, he said.
The suspects targeted non-Muslims to fulfill their ``jihad,'' or holy war, Riyaz said, in a statement on the Maldives Police Service Web site. Several of the fugitives and people already detained in connection with the attack received training in bomb making at Pakistani madrassas, or religious schools, the British Broadcasting Corp. reported.
A suicide bomber killed at least three people and injured two others when he detonated explosives at the house of Federal Political Affairs Minister Amir Muqam on Friday. Muqam survived the attack that left Tariq of the Islamabad police, Arif of the Peshawar police and Farooq Shah of the Frontier Constabulary (FC) dead. Former Pakistan Muslim League MPA Pir Mohammad Khan, a cousin of Muqam, and Atibar Khan were injured. They were rushed to the Hayatabad Medical Complex in a critical condition.
A botched attempt: The bomber was clean-shaven, in his 20s, and had long hair. He tried to enter the ministers house in Hayatabad at around 4:15pm, but blew himself up when the security personnel stopped him. City Police Officer Abdul Majeed Marwat confirmed the suicide attack and subsequent casualties. He said police had collected the remains of the bomber from the blast scene.
Muqum told reporters that he was attending a PML meeting at his house when the explosion took place. He said he saw blood-littered bodies on the lawn when he came out. Obviously I was the target, he said. He refused to comment when asked if the blast was in reaction to the Swat operation.
The attack on Muqams house was a suicide bombing, Interior Ministry Spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema told Daily Times on Friday. He did not suspect any person or group unless the investigation is completed.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/10/2007 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
MINGORA/MIRANSHAH: A bomb hit a paramilitary soldiers vehicle in Kabal tehsil on Friday injuring 35 soldiers and some civilians, as a cleric warned residents Sharia laws would be strictly enforced, officials said. An improvised explosive device attack injured 35 people, including Frontier Constabulary, Frontier Corps and police personnel and some civilians, military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad told Daily Times. Two badly injured soldiers were rushed to Peshawar for treatment. Others were taken to Saidu Sharif hospital.
Later, Maj Gen Waheed Arshad told AFP the blast killed two FC soldiers. Arshad told PTV five soldiers were wounded in the incident. Fazlullahs aide Muhammad Alam told Madayan residents they must begin observing Shariah laws strictly. He demanded men grow beards and women veil themselves properly.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/10/2007 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: TNSM
Masked gunmen attacked three pro-government tribal elders near the Khwaja Khar checkpost in Bannus frontier region here on Friday, sources said. The gunmen suspected to be pro-Taliban militants attacked Malik Nazar Khan, Malik Noor Alam and Malik Noor Sahib Khan, all belonging to Eidak sub-tribe in North Waziristan. The elders were going to Bannu from Mir Ali. The sources said Nazar was injured in the attack. Two weeks ago, unknown assailants blew up a fuel station owned by Nazar near Mir Ali towns Eidak area.
Taliban warn: Also, a pro-Taliban militant leader warned tribal people against smuggling weapons outside North Waziristan, saying that no one would be allowed to smuggle the weapons to other parts of the country. Taking weapons outside North Waziristan means weakening the Taliban and supporting the United States, Hafiz Gul Bahadir, leader of Taliban in North Waziristan, said in a pamphlet.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/10/2007 00:00 ||
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A deadly four-day gunbattle between government troops and suspected militants in Indian-controlled Kashmir ended on Friday, police and army officials said.
Four soldiers and three suspected militants were killed in the fighting as government forces battled militants in Pattan, a town 30 kilometers north of Srinagar, said Col Majinder Singh, an Indian army spokesman. The firefight started late on Tuesday when suspected militants hurled grenades and opened heavy gunfire on an army patrol in the town, Singh said. One soldier was killed on Tuesday and two others on Wednesday. On Friday, an army officer was killed when suspected militants opened fire on advancing troops. However, a police officer at the scene said that a bullet fired by his own colleague during the gunbattle killed the army officer. Troops recovered the body of a suspected militant on Friday morning, said the police officer. The officer said six soldiers including an army officer and a civilian were also wounded in the gunbattle.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/10/2007 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
Indian policemen running for cover during a gunbattle in Pattan, Kashmir. Three Indian army soldiers were killed and six injured in a gunbattle with Islamic militants that also left three terrorists dead.
Indian army soldiers run towards the scene of a gun battle as a villager ducks for safety in Pattan, north of Srinagar,
Indian army soldiers search a villager during a gun battle in Pattan, north of Srinagar
Posted by: john frum ||
11/10/2007 6:16 Comments ||
Top||
#2
In almost 2 decades of counter-insurgency, the Indian Army has never used artillery or airpower.
It has never used helicopter gunships or used air delivered munitions against buildings.
Because of the danger to neighboring homes or mosques, it uses anti-tank weapons sparingly.
That means several day long gun battles, with soldiers vulnerable as they do things the hard way. That means losing officers like Major Verinder Singh at Pattan village for the sake of 3 lice ridden jihadis.
4 for 3. Not good.
Posted by: john frum ||
11/10/2007 7:59 Comments ||
Top||
Posted by: john frum ||
11/10/2007 8:14 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Makes you wonder what the Indian and US troops could do together in joint training ops. I would guess that the Indian army has a full-size mock training facility for urban combat; perhaps US and Indian troops would train together and learn from each other.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/10/2007 9:36 Comments ||
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#5
Steve,
What do you and John think would happen if American and Indian forces combined even for a freeking exercise? The muzzie world would explode especially the Paki one. I would rather see India play its role in isolating the Jihadis and killing them off one by one and blocking further expansion in Kashmir. Then I would like to see Pakistan find a way to swallow hard and let us jointly rip the heart out of the Taliban and Binny in the Weirdostans and NWFP.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
11/10/2007 12:26 Comments ||
Top||
BAGHDAD - Former insurgents who turned against al-Qaida in Iraq launched an attack against the terror group and killed 18 of its members, asking the U.S. military to stay away while the battle raged, an ex-insurgent leader and Iraqi police said Saturday.
Most members of the Islamic Army, a major Sunni Arab insurgent group that includes former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party, joined U.S. forces battling al-Qaida in Iraq earlier this year, though some of the group's leaders deny any contact with American troops.
A top Islamic Army leader, known as Abu Ibrahim, told The Associated Press that his fighters ambushed al-Qaida members near Samarra on Friday, killing 18 people and seizing 16 prisoners.
An Iraqi police officer in the area corroborated Abu Ibrahim's account. The officer spoke on condition of anonymity because of the situation's sensitivity.
The insurgent commander contacted Iraqi police in Samarra and told them his plans to attack al-Qaida, according to the officer and Abu Ibrahim himself.
"We found out that al-Qaida intended to attack us, so we ambushed them at 3 p.m. on Friday," Abu Ibrahim said.
He asked that Iraqi authorities inform the American military about his plans, and requested that no U.S. troops interfere, they said. He worried that U.S. helicopters might mistakenly fire on his fighters, since they had no uniforms and were indistinguishable from the al-Qaida militants, they said.
Friday's clashes raged for nearly four hours about nine miles southeast of Samarra, Abu Ibrahim said. Police said they knew about the battle, but were unable to reach the site because it was too violent. Abu Ibrahim would not say whether Islamic Army members were killed.
The U.S. military had no immediate comment.
The Iraqi officer said the hostages would not be transferred to Iraqi police. Instead, he said he believed the Islamic Army would offer a prisoner swap for some of its members held by al-Qaida.
Many Sunni tribesmen and former insurgents some of whom once attacked U.S. and Iraqi forces themselves have turned against al-Qaida, repelled by the terror group's sheer brutality and austere religious extremism. The uprising originated in Iraq's western Anbar province, and has spread to the capital and beyond.
So-called "Awakening councils" have sprouted up in communities across Iraq, where members swear allegiance to Iraq's U.S.-backed government and disavow militants. U.S. officials say the movement, along with a 30,000-strong American troop buildup, has been key in tamping violence in recent months.
At the Abu Hanifa mosque, Baghdad's most revered Sunni shrine, voices blasted from loudspeakers Saturday urging residents to turn against al-Qaida as well: "We are your sons, the sons of the awakening, and we want to end the operations of al-Qaida...We call upon you not to be frightened, and to cooperate with us."
Meanwhile, roadside bombs and shootings killed at least 12 Iraqis early Saturday, police said, and the American military issued a statement saying a U.S. soldier was killed in Diyala province.
The soldier, assigned to Multi-National Division-North, died from injuries suffered in an explosion on Friday, the statement said. Three more soldiers were wounded in the blast, and evacuated to a U.S. combat hospital, it said.
At least 3,861 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an AP count. The figure includes eight civilians working for the military.
Also Saturday, the U.S. military said its troops detained 10 suspects in raids across central and northern Iraq.
The Iraqi death toll included four civilians who died on minibuses hit by roadside bombs on their way to work, police said.
One of the explosions, which missed the passing police patrol that was apparently its target, struck a minibus, killing two people in a predominantly Shiite area of Baghdad, an officer said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.
One of the victims, Qais Hassoun, was riding in a nearby pickup truck. He spoke to AP Television News at a hospital in the Sadr City area, where the victims lay on gurneys in a grimy corridor.
"We are just construction workers, trying to get to our jobs. We were riding in the minibus when the explosion went off," Hassoun said.
#4
Why is it that the media insists on reporting the WoT as if it was a football or baseball game and the only score we were interested in was the home teams? I want to know the full score - including the number of insurgents, terrorists, freedom fighters, AQ, Hezzies, Paleos, foreign fighters, idiots, dhimmis and other fellow travelers have been killed, maimed for life, buried headless, immolated, hung from bridge girders, etc. Lets have a true accounting you morons.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
11/10/2007 12:31 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Wouldn't it be beautiful if Al Quaida types began dying by IEDs?
A leading Iraqi tribesman was among those killed in a suicide bomb attack in the village of Dujema north of Baaqouba on Friday, a security source said. Sheikh Sabah Al-Shammari, spokesman of the Salvation Council in Diyala, told KUNA that Sheikh Fa'ez Al-Ubaidi, Al-Ubaid tribe chief, was killed when a suicide bomber, strapped in a belt of explosives, blew himself up in the midst of a congregation of tribal chiefs in Dujema in the province of Diyala, north of here. Four people from Al-Ubaid tribe were also killed in the attack, he said. Coalition forces regretted the death of Al-Ubaidi, who was among the tribesmen fighting hand-in-hand with the Iraqi and coalition troops against Al-Qaeda militants.
A suicide bomber, strapped in a belt of explosives, blew himself up in the midst of a congregation of tribal chiefs in the province of Diyala, north of here, killing at least five of them, police said on Friday.
The explosion occurred at 8:00 p.m. local time and resulted in damaging a number of buildings and the injury of 12 people who were wisked off to hospitals in the city of Baaqouba, 60 km northeast of Baghdad.
The suicide bomber sought to target a meeting of the council of the province of Diyala which was attended by 75 tribal chiefs of the province, both Sunni and Shiite, some of them heading separately 18 zone offices of the council all across Diyala.
A similar number of tribal chiefs in the township of al-Khalis repelled today an attack by a band of armed gunmen from the al-Qaeda, resulting in the killing of four of the gunmen, three of the tribesmen, and the injury of three bystanders. The gunmen used light and medium weapons in their assault.
#2
Unless they can somehow kill off two generations of tribal leaders in a short time, the jihadis are hastening the day when Iraq will be a fully functioning secular democracy.
Zawahiri and the rest of the al-Q leadership are beginning to realize this, but they have let loose an avalanche of unthinking, ill-educated fanatics they no longer control. Much as Arafat's duplicity has led to Hamas and the divisions in Gaza and the west bank.
Would that those were the only examples .... but I fear we'll see a lot more unravelling around the world before this plays itself out. And I don't think the Islamicists will be the only players - the morphing of MS-13 in latin america and their challenge of our borders & police murders here being another example.
IDF troops shot two Palestinians who were crawling near the security fence separating the Gaza Strip from Israel on Friday night, apparently planting an explosive device, the army said. No further details were available on the shooting in central Gaza.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/10/2007 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Hamas
If Israel moves out of the West Bank, Hamas will take over as it did the Gaza Strip, Army Radio quoted Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar as saying Friday. Al-Zahar spoke at a supporters' rally in the Jabaliya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip. "Israel says that if it will move out of the West bank, Hamas will take control. We say this is true," he said.
Al-Zahar's words contradicted statements made by Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh earlier in the week, when he said his organization had no intention of repeating its Gaza takeover in the West Bank.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/10/2007 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Hamas
#2
Well, that settles it, then. This gives Israel all the justification they need to go into Gaza and completely wipe out Hamas in order to give Palestine back to the Palestinians.
Iranian backed Hamas said they would "take over" the west bank so Israel has little choice now but eliminate Hamas if it wants to give the West bank back to the Palestinians rather than to the Iranian/Syrian axis.
#3
The "Proxy War" just got a little more exciting. But the operative word here is "If" as if Israel would ever be that stupid. But if it does happen, pass the popcorn.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
11/10/2007 12:55 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Popcorn request? I promised Barbara I'd cover that until she gets back, so I'll go fire up the popcorn machine. Just one of them, though (Barbara has two, last time I looked), because the real excitements haven't started yet. But when they do, we're stocked up. ;-)
Terrorists Suspected separatist rebels shot dead four Muslims in restive southern Thailand overnight, police said on Saturday.
The 46-year-old deputy chairman of a local administrative body and his 20-year-old neighbour were shot dead in Narathiwat town, capital of Narathiwat province, Friday evening as they were talking in a front yard.
A 45-year-old Muslim woman and her 25-year-old son were also gunned down on Friday evening as they were walking home after evening prayers at a local mosque in Bannang Sata district of neighbouring Yala province.
A bomb went off in front of a train station in Yala province on Saturday morning, causing damage to an electric pole and a pick-up truck that parked nearby. There is no report of injuries. Initial investigation found that a five-kilogramme explosive, detonated by a clock, went off, with the aim to attack garbage collectors who take away garbage at the location daily. But the garbage truck came later than usual on Saturday.
MANILA - Authorities arrested a former Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) member in the southern Philippines, a report said Saturday, amid suspicions he was involved with local Islamic militants. Immigration, police and military personnel arrested Yussof Umar Animour, 41, also known as Yusop Omar, in the town of Sibalu in the southernmost islands of Tawi-Tawi on November 1 for illegally staying in the country, an Immigration Bureau report said.
However sources in the intelligence community believe he has ties with local Muslim militants who have battled the government. Intelligence reports say that in 2000 he was spotted in a Philippine camp with insurgents of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) while the military was launching an assault against the group. It was unclear what he was doing in the Philippines at the time of his arrest.
Hmmm, let's see, a Palestinian, on the run, five thousand miles from home, in a land with an active Muslim insurrection, running with a crazed bunch of jihadis ... nope, sure can't figure that one out ...
Omar was as a communications specialist with the PLO in Lebanon from 1982 to 1984, then went to Manila to study in 1986. However schools rejected his application because he did not have a student visa, the bureau report said.
He then stayed with Muslim friends in Manila until he left for Sabah, Malaysia in 1989, only to be jailed there for three years for posing as a Pakistani, the report added.
Figured that out when he demonstrated he could read and write ...
Omar later slipped back into the Philippines and married a Tawi-Tawi woman.
Umar-umar and tawi-tawi did the old boinko-boinko ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/10/2007 00:00 ||
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Sri Lankan troops killed eight Tamil Tiger rebels in fighting in the north of the island, while two policemen were killed by a suspected rebel roadside bomb, a military spokesman said on Friday.
The clashes, in the northern district of Vavuniya and northwestern district of Mannar on Thursday, were the latest in a series of near-daily engagements in recent months between government forces and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The troops killed five terrorists in two separate confrontations in Vavuniya and three terrorists were killed when troops retaliated to LTTE mortar fire in Mannar, a spokesman at the Media Centre for National Security said. Four soldiers were wounded in the fighting in Vavuniya, the spokesman added. In a separate incident in the northern area of Welioya on Friday, two police officials were killed by a suspected Tamil Tiger roadside Claymore fragmentation mine explosion, the military said.
The fighting follows a major battle in the Jaffna peninsula on Wednesday in which the military said they killed 60 rebels. The Tigers said 20 soldiers were killed and more than 100 wounded in the clash, and that just one of their fighters was killed.
Tamil faction hit: A pro-government faction of Tamil Tiger defectors has been hit by major political in-fighting following the arrest in London of its leader, known as Colonel Karuna, military officials said Friday. Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan, alias Karuna, was detained by immigration authorities in London last week and since then his followers in Sri Lanka have been battling for control over his faction, the officials said. Karuna, the former number two in the Tamil Tigers, led a split from the guerrillas in March 2004. Since then he has reportedly been collaborating with government forces to drive the Tigers from the east of the island. He was arrested and is being held in immigration detention having apparently fled Sri Lanka because of threats to his life from Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran.
A faction within the Karuna group has been taking over the political offices and the finances which were earlier controlled by Karuna, a military source in the islands east said. There had been several attacks against Karuna cadres from his rivals. The problems in the Karuna faction are a potential issue for the Sri Lankan government, which has used the groups loyalty to stake its claim over the islands east - an area the LTTE want as their independent Tamil homeland. The affair is also embarrassing, and officials in Colombo have yet to comment on his arrest.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/10/2007 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under:
#7
I guess I should further elaborate -
"The lady..is reconstructed from the sculpture known as La Dama de Elche considered a masterpiece of ancient Spanish art...The magnificent headdress is thought to be of gold. The Lady of Elache may be admired today in Madrid's National Archaeological Museum."
Rome's Enemies (4): Spanish Armies 218BC-19BC, Rafael Trevino.
#18
Wow. So that's what headphones used to look like.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
11/10/2007 18:14 Comments ||
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#19
All seriousness aside, Frank, Ima thinkerin on a good night with no solar flares or whatnot she can probably pull in Radio Budapest on that rig! Whooooeeee!
Posted by: Dave D. ||
11/10/2007 18:39 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.
Six American forces serving under NATO's International Security Assistance Force were killed in an insurgent ambush while patrolling in eastern Afghanistan, a NATO spokesman told CNN on Saturday. In addition, eight other NATO soldiers were wounded. It was not immediately clear whether those were Americans.
A suicide bomber killed at least three people and injured two others when he detonated explosives at the house of Federal Political Affairs Minister Amir Muqam on Friday. Muqam survived the attack that left Tariq of the Islamabad police, Arif of the Peshawar police and Farooq Shah of the Frontier Constabulary (FC) dead. Former Pakistan Muslim League MPA Pir Mohammad Khan, a cousin of Muqam, and Atibar Khan were injured. They were rushed to the Hayatabad Medical Complex in a critical condition.
MINGORA/MIRANSHAH: A bomb hit a paramilitary soldiers vehicle in Kabal tehsil on Friday injuring 35 soldiers and some civilians, as a cleric warned residents Sharia laws would be strictly enforced, officials said. An improvised explosive device attack injured 35 people, including Frontier Constabulary, Frontier Corps and police personnel and some civilians, military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad told Daily Times. Two badly injured soldiers were rushed to Peshawar for treatment. Others were taken to Saidu Sharif hospital. 
By SINAN SALAHEDDIN, Associated Press Writer 
If Israel moves out of the West Bank, Hamas will take over as it did the Gaza Strip, Army Radio quoted Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar as saying Friday. Al-Zahar spoke at a supporters' rally in the Jabaliya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip. "Israel says that if it will move out of the West bank, Hamas will take control. We say this is true," he said. 
MANILA - Authorities arrested a former Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) member in the southern Philippines, a report said Saturday, amid suspicions he was involved with local Islamic militants. Immigration, police and military personnel arrested 
