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Marines chase Talibs through Helmand poppy fields
Today's Headlines
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Page 1: WoT Operations
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-Obits-
Sgt. Merlin German USMC
Merlin German, the son of immigrants, joined the United States Marine Corps in 2003, after his high school graduation. In 2005, the vehicle he was riding in was struck by an IED and he was burned over ninty-seven percent of his body.

This is an injury that few survive. German spent 17 months at the Brooke Army Medical Center before he was recovered enough to move to Fisher House in San Antonio. Burns like this are horribly painful, requiring that damaged tissue be scraped off the patient, debriding. In addition to burn care, he underwent over 40 surgeries, amputations and grafts.
Chuck Simmons has the details at the North Shore Journal. This is one where 'RTWT' definitely applies. Rest in peace and thank you for your service and life, Sgt. German.
Posted by: || 05/03/2008 11:46 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban

#1  He was a awesomely courageous man and an American Warrior. Prayers for him and his family, he is in a better place
Posted by: Frank G || 05/03/2008 14:59 Comments || Top||

#2  A man millionaire Wright and Obama weren't worth the dust on his soles.
Posted by: JFM || 05/03/2008 16:11 Comments || Top||

#3  while you're at Northshore, if you can kick in a few bucks to our good friend and RB regular Chuck Simmins, do so? I'll start it
Posted by: Frank G || 05/03/2008 17:06 Comments || Top||

#4  The wife and I read the account of Sgt. Merlin this morning in our local paper and we both got choked up over his story. A hell of a man. RIP.
Posted by: JohnQC || 05/03/2008 18:13 Comments || Top||

#5  Let this nation prove worthy of his sacrifice.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/03/2008 23:05 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
A day of skirmishing for Marines in southern Afghan town
GARMSER, Afghanistan (AP) — Gunfire zings in near Sgt. Dan Linas' patrol, pinning his squad down against a dirt berm. The Marines peer across the field to their left, at three mud huts and a grove of trees, searching for the muzzle flash. Then they cut loose with their M-16s.

The sun is barely up, but for the men of Bravo Company's 2nd Platoon, the firefight proves just the first in a series of skirmishes Friday that will see Marines unleash earsplitting barrages of machine gun fire, mortars and artillery, most of which land just 600 yards away.

To the east, north and south lie bountiful fields of opium poppies, to the west an unseen enemy.

Airstrikes and artillery have thundered around this southern Afghan town all week, since several companies of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit took the offensive before dawn Tuesday and swept into Garmser, which sits in Taliban territory where no NATO troops had ventured.

The British military is responsible for Helmand Province, but its 7,500 soldiers, along with 2,500 Canadian troops in neighboring Kandahar, hasn't been enough manpower to tame Afghanistan's south. So the 2,400-strong 24th Marines have come to help.

The push into Garmser is their first mission since arriving from the U.S. last month, and it is the farthest south that American troops have been in several years. Most of the 33,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan operate along the border with Pakistan.

Some of the men in the 24th Marines have seen combat in the toughest parts of Iraq, and their commanders hope that experience will help calm the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan.

British forces are mainly in the northern part of Helmand, which is the world's biggest producer of opium poppies. Britain has an outpost on Garmser's northern outskirts, but NATO has had no presence south of that.

The Marines in Garmser do not plan a long stay. They will leave the poppy fields be. Their only mission is to open the road for a Marine convoy that will move through town. They sit and defend the 10-foot-wide lane of dirt.

After returning fire from the berm across the empty field, the men under Linas — a 21-year-old from Richmond, Va. — jog 100 yards to the platoon command center, where Marines in the lookout post provide covering machine-gun fire.

The platoon mortar team then dials in coordinates and fires off shells in high arcs toward the suspected location of Taliban fighters, throwing up puffs of smoke in the field. There is no way to tell if any militants are hit.

In the foreground, perhaps 40 yards from the Marines' post, a half dozen Afghan men work in their illegal poppy fields, slicing the bulbs to coax out opium resin that will be used to make heroin. They look up as the mortars boom out, then go back to work.

The 24th Marines served in 2006 and 2007 in Ramadi, capital of Anbar province in western Iraq. The vast region was al-Qaida in Iraq's stronghold before the militants were pushed out in early 2007. Compared with the dense population centers where they fought in Iraq, Marine artillery and mortar teams have much more freedom to fire in the open spaces of rural Afghanistan, where the Taliban operate.

But before more mortars are fired, 2nd Lt. Mark Greenleaf, the 24-year-old platoon commander from Monmouth, Ill., asks his observers if any civilians are in danger. "What's the collateral damage beyond the tree line?" he barks.

The expanse to the Marine post's west has been empty for days, even as farmers have worked with their poppy plants in all other directions — an indication the Taliban have a heavy presence to the west. But the company commander, Capt. Charles O'Neill, decides he's not interested in an all-day mortar battle with the insurgents.

Mere moments later, the Marines hear the whoosh of a rocket being fired in the distance. Everyone rushes for cover, pushing themselves up against mud walls or down into trenches. The boom of exploding missile rattles the outpost but it's a couple hundred yards off target. A wave of gunfire rings out as Marines react, until sergeants shout for the men to cease fire. One Marine infantryman with a team still on the berm states the obvious: "They missed."

But Lance Cpl. Matthew Cato of Simpsonville, S.C., 21, says: "I don't care, it scared the ... out of me."

"I hate hearing those things go off because then you're just sitting here going, 'Oh, man,'" adds Cpl. Keith Manley, 23, of Ilion, N.Y.

The heat of the noon sun settles in. Marines — and militants — put down their weapons and hunker down in any shade they can find.

The countryside stays quiet until a convoy of Humvees pulls up in midafternoon to evacuate a Marine with a badly swollen ankle from a sprain. As soon as the Humvees stop, incoming fire starts up.

The gunner atop one Humvee opens fire with his .50-caliber machine gun, and Marines with M-16s also blaze away. After several minutes of heavy gunfire, which kicks up clouds of fine sand that sift down on the Marines, squad leaders yell for their men to conserve ammo. "If there's too much ... smoke to see the target, then don't waste the rounds," yells Sgt. Chris Battaglia, 28.

An artillery post outside town then joins the skirmish, sending round after round exploding only 600 yards away. Marines yell for everyone to stay down, in a case a shell falls short.

O'Neill, the company commander, says all-day potshots by Taliban fighters are little more than nuisance attacks. The militants use binoculars and have forward observers with cell phones to try to aim better at the Marines, he says. "This is pure asymmetric harassment," he says. "They'll pop out of a position and fire a rocket or mortar."

The Marines don't move into the field to take on the Taliban at close range. Their mission is to open the road that goes through Garmser, and nothing more. NATO troops are not authorized to eradicate poppy crops, and the Marines have assured farmers their fields won't be touched.

At the end of the day, no Marines are hurt or wounded. The Taliban casualty count is not known. But the Marines living in the mud-hut compound under Greenleaf are buzzing from a day filled with adrenaline. "I thought it was fun," says Cato. "I know I'm doing my job. It's just a good feeling."
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 05/03/2008 02:11 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban

#1  Kill the poppies.
Posted by: gorb || 05/03/2008 2:50 Comments || Top||

#2  NATO troops are not authorized to eradicate poppy crops

why not just pay off the farmers and burn the fields????
Posted by: Paul || 05/03/2008 6:49 Comments || Top||

#3  Agreed Paul - let's hope that's phase two, and this phase one is just an outdoor works program.

PS - wonder where the one-man launch UAV w/recon is? Thought the USMC had those for just this situation?
Posted by: Angavins Scourge of the Munchkins9583 || 05/03/2008 7:23 Comments || Top||

#4  The Dragon Eye UAV is a bit too small for this job - it's primary use is close-in recon in urban settings.

Not sure if this unit has the Scan Eagle, which is a little bigger IIRC and has longer endurance.
Posted by: lotp || 05/03/2008 16:18 Comments || Top||


Marines, Taliban battle in Afghanistan poppy fields
U.S. Marines called in reinforcements Friday after meeting fierce resistance from the Taliban in the poppy fields of southern Afghanistan. Two dozen Marines arrived here from the military base at Kandahar Air Field to join hundreds already engaged in an offensive here in southern Helmand Province, a center of opium production and sanctuary for Taliban insurgents.

Infantrymen from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit came under intense fire from rockets and rifles Friday, the fourth day of their mission in Helmand. Taliban leaders ordered their fighters to defend the ground at all costs, according to information intercepted by the Marines.

Behind the Taliban's resolve: The Marine Operation Azada Wosa – "Stay Free" in the local Pashto language – threatens to disrupt the Taliban's lucrative trade in opium, says Maj. Tom Clinton Jr., executive officer of the Marines' infantry battalion. "We're sitting on their money," Clinton said at this military base near Garmsir, a Helmand market town seized earlier this week by the Marines. "If they don't have money, they can't buy weapons."

Despite the intense fighting, the Marines had suffered no serious casualties by Friday evening. But they believe they have killed dozens of Taliban fighters.

The expeditionary unit's 2,400 Marines arrived in Afghanistan from Camp Lejuene, N.C., several weeks ago to bolster a 40-nation NATO force struggling to contain a resurgent Taliban. Driven from power in Afghanistan by U.S.-led forces in 2001, the Taliban regrouped across the border in Pakistan and now are threatening the pro-U.S. Afghan government of President Hamid Karzai.

Operation Azada Wosa, the Marines' first mission since arriving, is designed to clear the Taliban out of southern Helmand, where they have operated with impunity for more than a year, and to cut off their escape routes to Pakistan.
Posted by: Fred || 05/03/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Taliban

#1  Is this Afghanistan's version of flypaper?
Posted by: gorb || 05/03/2008 1:42 Comments || Top||

#2  Better, this is Afghanistan's version of the hunt for Pablo Escobar - take out the opium production and the Taliban/Al-Q/Jihadi Inc's funding dries up; and all that the thugs are left with is some vig from black market gasoline and small time smuggling.
Posted by: Shieldwolf || 05/03/2008 3:24 Comments || Top||

#3  Welcome to Afghanistan. Killing the poppies is like killing corn in Iowa (circa 1850). Hard to do, and everyone will hate you. Plus, the rural folk live the Taliban philosophy. They drop their AKs and pick up a razor once in a while to tend their fields, but they're still just militant illiterates, looking out for their own.

Even if the farmers are compensated, their families become targets of the Taliban. Iraq-style COIN doesn't translate well. Let's hope that smarter brains than ours can come up with a solution.
Posted by: Vanc || 05/03/2008 4:24 Comments || Top||

#4  Let's hope that smarter brains than ours can come up with a solution.

Thanks but I will assess the smarts of my own brain for myself. I am not betting against the USMC.
Posted by: Excalibur || 05/03/2008 7:40 Comments || Top||

#5  economics will prevail locally, opium econ does not favor the farmer it favors the systems distribution elements, that convey it through its channels. Poppy fields could be eradicated by adapting UAV with sprayers working 24/7.

Next idle the fields but pay the farmers double, and also engage the farmers with some infrastructure project during the down year, so their incomes go up.Taliban initimidation must be stalked by the locals just like the awakening in Iraq.

Replace opium with another cash crop in 3rd year.



Posted by: Thraviper Panda2099 || 05/03/2008 9:00 Comments || Top||

#6  If we can pay these folks farm subsidies, I'm sure we can compensate almost all the local folk in Afghanistan to start planting crap for bio-fuel today lowering the local price of gas for them at the same time.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 05/03/2008 9:41 Comments || Top||

#7  Bad link - try this this.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 05/03/2008 9:43 Comments || Top||

#8  well if the ones growing poippy are under taliban control and put up resistance then kill them too. they are no beter than the taliban or al queda
Posted by: sinse || 05/03/2008 12:59 Comments || Top||

#9  I have never been to Afghanistan, so I am ignorant of all the intricacies of their existance. But it seems to me that we are trying to do a social transformation of a tribal society ages old.

What do we really want in Afghanistan? We want a place that will not allow outfits like al Q to set up shop and be a terrorist base. I am not real keen on the social transformation thing. They are tribal to the max, their loyalties are to the tribe and or bakseesh, and they will shift loyalties to meet their ends. They have enough Islamic glue to hold this tribal society together.
So we are taking on a huge expensive project when we are trying to transform them to something of our image.

Being a westerner, I would look at the problem and come up with a number of solutions, then I would look at the cost/benefit ratio, and this would have to include the human cost, too.

It would seem to me that you go for the leaders, the financiers, and the source of the funds, in some combination thereof. Being tribal, they understand and RESPECT power. So you do the kinetic thing to get their attention. That includes the Pak frontier areas. Remember that they have little use for the PAK/Afghanistan border. They get the message: don't f*ck with us. We are more brutal than G. Khan if you pi$$ us off. Then you deal with the tribes in a bargaining, business-like manner.

Chasing around after Taliban without destroying the source is attritting yourself. They have, say 20K males a year they can throw at us without getting hurt. We need to quit fighting the symptoms and go for the source of the disease.

Our Marines are second to none. Let's put them where they can do the most strategic good.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 05/03/2008 15:11 Comments || Top||

#10  yeah they are islamist all the way but i thiought it was ahgainst islam too do the dope which slot do/
you cut into someones mo ey thwn you know uoi hurt them
and by the spewlling yes i
m drunk
Posted by: sinse || 05/03/2008 15:34 Comments || Top||

#11  no! reeeaaaaalllly?
Posted by: Frank G || 05/03/2008 15:42 Comments || Top||

#12  After reading that,Mendiola makes complete sense.
Posted by: Slappy || 05/03/2008 16:08 Comments || Top||

#13  He makes sinse, even drunk it's understandable.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 05/03/2008 18:55 Comments || Top||


Three militants, 18 armed men detained in Khost
KABUL - US-led coalition and Afghan forces detained three militants during a joint operation in Khost province, official said on Friday.

A military statement issued by the coalition forces from Bagram airbase near Kabul said the two militants were detained during a search operation in the south-eastern province of Khost. “Aim of the search operation was district targeting a Haqqani network militant known to finance and facilitate attacks against the Afghan government,” it added, but did not specify when the operation took place.

At the same time, coalition forces in a separate statement informed about the arrest of another militant in the same province. “The militant came to Forward Operating Base Mando Zayi, Khost, to lodge a complaint that Coalition forces had searched his house in Nadar Shah Kot District the previous night. When coalition forces identified him as the militant targeted in the previous night’s search, he was apprehended,” said the statement.
So he's not too bright ...
Meanwhile, Afghan forces arrested 18 other armed men in norther Jawzjan province. Local police officials said “probably detained armed men would involved in killing of the Afghan Technical Consultants (ATC), a land mine clearance NGO workers. Unknown armed men attacked the ATC staff vehicle in the northern province of Jawzjan as they drove back to their base camp after mine clearing operations in a remote area about two weeks ago.
Good. Try 'em fair and hang 'em fair.
Posted by: Steve White || 05/03/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Arabia
Eighteen not six killed in mosque blast in Yemen
Follow-up with a higher body count.
SANAA - Eighteen people, mostly soldiers, were killed in Yemen on Friday when a blast blamed by authorities on Shiite insurgents exploded at the entrance to a mosque in the rebels' stronghold. Forty-five people were wounded.

A booby-trapped motorcycle exploded as hundreds of Muslim faithful were leaving the Bin Salman mosque in the northwestern town of Saada after Friday prayers, according to military sources at the site.

The attack on the mosque, located near an army barracks, raised fears of an escalation in violence between the government and Shiite rebels whose insurgency in the mountainous province of Saada has claimed thousands of lives since 2004. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but a local official told AFP the attack bears the hallmarks of the "Huthis," as the rebels are known.
Posted by: Steve White || 05/03/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Takfir wal-Hijra


India-Pakistan
7 BC personnel injured in grenade attack
Seven personnel from the Balochistan Constabulary were injured in an attack on a check post late on Friday night, hospital sources said. Unidentified people reportedly lobbed a hand grenade at a check post in Sabzal Road, before fleeing from the scene. The injured were taken to Bolan Medical College for treatment. Police cordoned off the area after the attack.
Posted by: Fred || 05/03/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  Test.

damn cookies
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 05/03/2008 0:15 Comments || Top||

#2  God Damn American Cookies!
Posted by: George Smiley || 05/03/2008 8:14 Comments || Top||


Three injured in bomb attacks
LANDI KOTAL: At least three people were injured in bomb attacks on Friday in the Wazir Dhand area of the NWFP. Local sources reported that three bombs went-off around 9:00pm in the Aziz and Shah Noor Markets, arms markets near Karkhano Market, and injured three people, including two Afghan refugees Najibullah and Rahimullah. The identity of the third person could not be verified. According to sources, there had previously been significant pressure from the Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) group to shut down “illegal” liquor, music, and hashish shops, some of which were still operating up until last month A suicide attacker rocked a madrassah being run by the Amr Bil Maroof militant group in Bara on Thursday, injuring 18 people.
Posted by: Fred || 05/03/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


PHC releases 4 accused of Dargai suicide attack
The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Friday released on bail four activists from the defunct militant organisation Jaish-e-Muhammad, who were charged with the killing of 42 army recruits of the Punjab Regiment Centre (PRC) in Dargai.

On November 8, 2006, at least 42 army recruits of the PRC were killed and more than 60 others injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a military training centre where the recruits were attending a class outside the PRC Fort.

Justice Jehanzaib Rahim heard the case. Accused Ziauddin, Muhammad Yousaf, Muhammad Shah and Umer Zeb had submitted their bail petitions through Advocate Yousaf Khan Yousafzai.

The Dargai Police Station, in its FIR, charged the four — all residents of Swatt’s Matta tehsil — under sections 302, 324 and 34 of the Pakistan Penal Code and sections 7 and 12 of the Anti-Terrorism Act on November 8, 2006..

The FIR stated that the four were active members of Jaish-e-Muhammad and that they were involved in the Dargai suicide attack. The accused petitioners, however, claimed that they were innocent and prayed for their release on bail.

They said that on November 24, 2006, Matta DSP Sirajul Hasan phoned them, asking them to meet him at his office. Their family members said the four went to the DSP but did not return home for three days. “When we contacted the DSP, he said that they would return home within a week,” the family members said. They said police expressed ignorance about the four even after a week had passed.

Advocate Yousafzai said the accused were detained in Taimergara District Prison. An Anti-Terrorism Court in Saidu had turned down the bail application by the four, following which they moved the PHC for their release on bail.
Posted by: Fred || 05/03/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Jaish-e-Mohammad


Iraq
Mahdi Army fighters grateful for sand storm standstills in Sadr City
On a bare patch of ground outside the entrance to Sadr general hospital, 15 women clad from head to foot in black squatted in a sandstorm, wailing and waiting for their dead.

Lightning flashed, thunder rolled and the women’s robes were spattered with mud falling from a sky filled with rain and sand, but they did not notice.

“Ya’mma, Ya’ba” (“Oh mother, oh father”), cried Amira Zaydan, a 45-year-old spinster, slapping her face and chest as she grieved for her parents Jaleel, 65, and Hanounah, 60, whose house had exploded after apparently being hit by an American rocket.

“Where are you, my brothers?” she sobbed, lamenting Samir, 32, and Amir, 29, who had also perished along with their wives, one of whom was nine months pregnant.

“What wrong have you done, my children?” she howled to the spirits of four nephews and nieces who completed a toll of 10 family members in the disaster that struck last Tuesday. “Mothers, children, babies; all obliterated for nothing.”

The keening of Zaydan and her distraught circle of friends was drowned out briefly by sirens shrieking as ambulances sped through the hospital gateway with the latest consignment of casualties from a brutal battle that has been raging for the past month in Sadr City, a slum of more than 2m souls on the eastern side of Baghdad.

Doctors and nurses with pinched faces darted out of the dilapidated hospital to greet the wounded and dying, while administrators stared at the weeping women and saw that they were beyond comforting.

Zaydan had hardly moved from the hospital for 24 hours since her family’s home was demolished as she and her sister Samira, 43, prepared lunch. Neighbours were trying to dig bodies out of the debris when another rocket landed, killing at least six rescuers.

Apart from the two sisters, the family’s only survivor was their brother Ahmad, 25, who arrived at the hospital with leg injuries and shock. “I lost everybody,” was all he could say.

On Wednesday afternoon, Zaydan was still waiting for seven family members to be disinterred from the rubble and delivered to Sadr general. The other three were in the morgue, among them a nephew, aged three, lying on a trolley in a puddle of blood from a head wound.

The child was another helpless victim of a clash between titanic powers which has killed 935 people and wounded 2,605. Even by the callous standards of Iraq’s cruel war, this is a ruthless struggle. Most of the dead and injured have been civilians.

On one side is the Iranian-backed Mahdi Army of the radical Shi’ite cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr, which is defending Sadr City, its biggest stronghold, with a resilience it failed to show when it ceded parts of the southern port of Basra last month.

On the other is the American-backed Iraqi army of the prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, which launched an offensive on March 30 with the aim of seizing control of the city but which took only one southern district before its advance was halted.

The fight between Sadr and Maliki, between the dirt-poor who look to the firebrand cleric for inspiration and the relatively secure who support the prime minister, is one that neither side can afford to lose.

Last week the Mahdi fighters took advantage of the sandstorms, which grounded US helicopters, to blast the Iraqi army’s front line positions with roadside bombs, mortar rounds, rocket-propelled grenades and machinegun fire.

Embedded with them for four days and three nights, I witnessed the fighting at close quarters, learnt of preparations being made by Mahdi special forces to spread the violence to other parts of Baghdad and heard their commanders swear to paralyse the government and destroy Maliki if their own leader authorises all-out war.

The battle of Sadr City, with all the human misery it entails, is in danger of spilling out across the capital, reversing the security gains that followed last summer’s American troop surge.

It is little wonder that US commanders say the Shi’ite militias backed by Iran now pose a greater threat than the Sunni insurgents who were their deadliest enemies when Al-Qaeda in Iraq was at its peak.

“We can bring Baghdad to a standstill,” boasted one Mahdi commander. “Be assured that when all-out war is eventually declared, we will be able to take over the city.”

No sooner had I arrived in Sadr City than my escorts received word that an attack was about to be launched on Al-Quds Road, the dividing line between the Mahdi forces to the north and the Iraqi army to the south.

Sand was swirling through the air as a fresh storm stirred and the men knew this presented them with an opportunity.

“Allah is on our side,” said one. “They bombard us with artillery, war planes and helicopters at will. Maliki has the entire US air force behind his army and all we need is a bit of sand to bring it to a standstill.”

As we reached the narrow streets that ran down to Al-Quds Road, nothing appeared to be out of the ordinary at first. But one by one, young men in western jeans and T-shirts appeared from the alleyways with machineguns or rifles slung across their shoulders. They grinned, patted each other’s backs and uttered the greeting “Peace be with you”, before getting down to the business of war.

Two snipers had already entered shattered buildings overlooking the highway beyond which the Iraqi army was hunkered down. The dozen or so gunmen who had congregated in front of me ran forwards 50 yards to take up their positions. Then one of them briefly broke cover to open fire with his AK47 assault rifle. Another stepped round a corner and unleashed a volley of bullets from a heavy-calibre machinegun, followed by another and another.

As the Mahdi positions came under equally heavy machinegun fire in turn, the noise reached a crescendo with an exchange of mortar rounds that smashed shops on either side of Al-Quds Road, showering the whole area with shards of debris. The cacophony faded, only to be replaced by the whizz of snipers’ bullets shooting up the street. It was time to take cover.

My escort hammered on the gates of the nearest house and a woman ushered me into her courtyard, introducing herself as Salma Jamila, an unmarried teacher aged 40 who lived with her elderly parents. When she heard that I had come to report on the fighting, she fetched a small plastic chair and propped it against the yard wall so that I could peep over it to see what was happening.

Evidently a cool hostess in a crisis, she disappeared into her kitchen and returned beaming with bottles of orange juice on a tray as mortar rounds crashed on to the road less than 100 yards away.

Stranger still, another guest arrived, a cousin and Mahdi Army commander named Abu Ali who was enjoying a day off. He hugged Jamila, explained that he had come to visit her father and chatted away about how he had been arrested a few days earlier.

“One of the officers with the Iraqi army is a Mahdi sympathiser and he arranged for me to be released within two hours,” he said with a smile. “We have quite a number of Mahdi people in the army and they tip us off about certain movements.”

The violence died down as suddenly as it had flared up and some of the fighters shouted that it was all over. A man with a relaxed manner and a Russian rifle on his back sauntered past. I asked him how old he was.

“Twenty-three,” he answered. “Young for a sniper,” I said. He shrugged.

“I killed two Iraqi soldiers,” he replied, and strolled away.

Another passing fighter, a well-built man with fair skin, said he had set fire to an Iraqi tank with a rocket. There was no way to verify either account.

The men exchanged information for a few moments before walking off in different directions. Some were collected by cars as they approached neighbouring streets incongruously thronged with shoppers inured to shooting and buying food for the evening meal.

It was around 6pm, as we were driving towards the centre of Sadr City, that another call came through and we headed back to the front line. This time Mahdi fighters were trying to push back Iraqi army and American forces.

Several people were said to be buried under collapsed buildings and the Mahdi Army – which, like Hezbollah in Lebanon, has made itself popular by providing welfare services to local people – had decided to take responsibility for rescuing them, even if that meant fighting its way to the scene.

Driving along roads lined with open sewers, past children playing football in winding alleys and old women peering out from their doorways, we reached a point where men on street corners were handing cold water to fighters taking a break from the front line.

We parked and moved forwards through ranks of Mahdi Army fighters who had lined an alleyway with rocket-launchers, rifles and machineguns. The sound of sniper fire intensified but the hardened militiamen who were accompanying me paid no attention.

The regular thud of mortars and the relentless clatter of machineguns indicated that the fighting here was far more intense than it had been earlier on Al-Quds Road.

As we rounded a corner, I noticed a school 100 yards ahead on the right-hand side. I was wondering how long it would be before the pupils could return when an explosion almost knocked us off our feet. An artillery shell had landed in the playground and the classrooms were shattered by shrapnel.

I froze with fear. For the second time that day, a fighter rapped on the nearest house gate and I was beckoned into a secluded courtyard. So shaken was I that my legs barely carried me into the house. I squatted on the floor to catch my breath.

Three spinsters produced a large bottle of fizzy drink from a shop they ran from their house. As before, the fighting subsided after about half an hour and we returned to our vehicle.

The inconclusive nature of both confrontations witnessed suggested that neither side could be confident of gaining the upper hand.

The Iraqi army may have the superior fire-power but Mahdi commanders were eager to show off their own arsenal. Seven of them gathered in a single-storey concrete house to display weapons ranging from mainly American-made guns, including M16 and M18 rifles, to homemade roadside bombs known as raaed, or thunder.

“Our bombs are not Iranian-made – they are produced locally,” said one commander. “Any Mahdi fighter can put one together.”

The plastic cylinders packed with gunpowder, TNT and C4 explosives came in four sizes, he explained: 5kg and 15kg for use against small military vehicles, and 25kg and 50kg against armoured personnel carriers.

Another commander, who gave his name as Abu Ahmad, was limping from an injury sustained one week into the battle when his unit set an American tank on fire, only to be wiped out by a helicopter gunship.

He spoke softly as he described seeing his best friend, Uday al-Dulemi, killed in front of him. Dulemi’s father refused to accept condolences and insisted that his “martyred” son’s burial be treated as his wedding day. He said that if his three other sons in the Mahdi Army were killed too, he would volunteer himself.

The Mahdi Army also claims to have a secret weapon at its disposal. Its elite special forces, called “The Nerves of the Righteous – the Islamic Resistance in Iraq”, are said to be lying in wait in sleeper cells across the country, ready to carry out unspecified “spectacular” attacks against coalition forces.

Many of the members, known as “shadows”, have been trained in Iran.

According to a senior aide to Moqtada al-Sadr, they are capable of raining down missiles on the heavily protected Green Zone where the Iraqi government and US military are based, causing disarray among Iraq’s security forces and halting the work of ministries.

They have also created a potential “ring of fire” around Sadr City that could be ignited in the event of a full-scale offensive by Maliki.

Whether Sadr or Maliki will order an escalation of the conflict in the days ahead depends on efforts to secure a resolution.

Sadr is understood to believe that his rival has set out to destroy his power bases in Baghdad and Basra to ensure that he is a spent force before local elections in the autumn. He is resisting demands by Maliki for 500 named Mahdi “criminals” to be handed over. In turn, Sadr is demanding that the Iraqi army stay out of Sadr City indefinitely.

The negotiations hang in the balance but one thing is certain: if the two Shi’ite leaders fail to resolve their differences, it is the civilians of Sadr City who will suffer for it.

At Sadr general hospital last week, Amira Zaydan was by no means the only woman mourning her family. Beside her sat her neighbour Um Aseel Ali, who had lost her husband and three boys, aged six, four and two, when their house was blown up by a rocket.

“As I ran to them, the second rocket dropped,” she cried. “I started shouting their names. I looked for them and tried to dig through the rubble. What fault did we commit for this? What wrong have we done to Maliki?”

While she spoke, another woman, Um Marwa Muntasser, wept softly. Her pregnant daughter Marwa survived the same attack but was being kept under sedation, unaware that her husband Samir, her four-year-old boy, Sajad, and her two-year-old girl, Ayat, had all been killed.

“Was my daughter a fighter?” asked Muntasser. “My daughter was not a fighter. She and her family were innocent civilians minding their own business and now they are dead.” The toll in the row of six houses inhabited by these families climbed to 25.

A spokesman for the US military, which has lost at least nine men in Sadr City, said a vehicle carrying an injured soldier had been hit by two roadside bombs, gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades, and at least 28 “extremists” had died in subsequent fighting. He said there had been no American air strikes that day but US ground forces had fired rockets at “militants firing from buildings, alleyways and roof-tops”. “We have every right to defend ourselves,” he added.

Witnesses in Sadr City, however, told of a second multiple rocket attack on four houses on the same afternoon in which at least five civilians died.

I found Lina Mohsen, 24, walking in a daze at the hospital, her face covered in brown dust. One minute she had been watching her 18-month-old toddler Ali play in the courtyard of their home, she said; the next, a rocket had struck.

“I began screaming for him, shouting his name, trying to find him, but I couldn’t see him for dust and smoke,” she said. Eventually, she saw that he was dead.

“I blame Maliki and his government and all those who are sitting in power and letting this happen,” she said. Then she burst into tears and walked away.

Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 05/03/2008 17:40 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Mahdi Army

#1  wow, that's pretty disgusting PR for an Iranian terrorist group perpetuating war crimes. Or don't using human shields, hiding among civilians populations, and no uniforms count? F*ckers
Posted by: Frank G || 05/03/2008 18:10 Comments || Top||

#2  On the other is the American-backed Iraqi army of the prime minister

In other words, the National Army of the sovereign country of Iraq?
Posted by: Frank G || 05/03/2008 18:11 Comments || Top||

#3  Where's Baghdad Bob when you seek the unadulterated truth?
Posted by: GK || 05/03/2008 18:15 Comments || Top||

#4  Reads like a friggin' novel. Probably about as factual, too...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 05/03/2008 18:34 Comments || Top||

#5  Hmmm. Fearless reportage by Hala Jaber. Londonistan indeed.
Posted by: ed || 05/03/2008 20:04 Comments || Top||

#6  Yeah, Hala Jabar ... she is from Lebanon originally. She obviously has an agenda.
Posted by: crosspatch || 05/03/2008 20:53 Comments || Top||


Hospital attack update - Bill Roggio's Long War Journal

GMLRS strike knocks out Special Groups command center in Sadr City

By Bill RoggioMay 3, 2008 1:25 PM

US and Iraqi forces continue to target the Mahdi Army as an Iraqi delegation visited Iran to confront the country over its support of Shia militias battling the government. The US military conducted a guided rocket attack on a Special Groups headquarters adjacent to a hospital in Sadr City, while 14 Mahdi Army fighters have been killed during clashes over the past 24 hours.

The US army targeted and destroyed a Special Groups command and control center with Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System in Sadr City at 10 a.m. Saturday morning, Multinational Forces Iraq reported. "There were six GMLRS rocket strikes on these Special Groups criminal command and control nodes," Lieutenant Colonel Steven Stover, the chief Public Affairs Officer for Multinational Division Baghdad, told The Long War Journal while refuting claims that the US used aircraft to attack. "We conducted a precision strike, hopefully got a few leaders, and sent a very strong message."

The Special Groups have been using the location near the hospital for an extended period of time and US intelligence has followed the activities at this site. "We had been tracking it for some time," Stover said. "Operations made the call to hit it. There may have been damages to the hospital - broken glass. There was likely ambulances damaged; however, it was the Special Groups criminal leadership that purposely put their command and control node there."

The Special Groups are a subset of the Mahdi Army that receives backing from Iran's Qods Force, its foreign clandestine operations wing that has supported Shia terror groups in Iraq. The Mahdi Army and the Special Groups have intentionally fought amongst the civilian population and use civilians as human shields in an attempt to inflate civilian casualties and create a media backlash against Iraqi and US operations.

The Rusafa health department media director claimed 28 Iraqi were wounded in the strike, and nine ambulances and 40 civilian vehicles were damaged. The Sadrist bloc ran the Health Ministry prior to withdrawing from the government in 2007, and the hospitals in Sadr City are known to be infiltrated with Mahdi Army and Sadrist bloc members. The Mahdi Army used hospitals as staging areas for sectarian attacks and weapons storage depots.

More Here
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 05/03/2008 17:16 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: IRGC

#1  While I certainly understand the need to take out these guys it might not have been the right time or technique. I KNOW an important target located next to (or even in) a hospital is 'fair game', but I am not sure the 'message' sent is worth the bad PR in Sadr City - 'hearts and minds' and all that really IS important in this kind of fight. I suspect it was a tough call, and I know our guys have a lot more knowledge and information than I, but it does concern me.
Posted by: Glenmore || 05/03/2008 17:41 Comments || Top||

#2  The Sadrist bloc ran the Health Ministry prior to withdrawing from the government in 2007, and the hospitals in Sadr City are known to be infiltrated with Mahdi Army and Sadrist bloc members. The Mahdi Army used hospitals as staging areas for sectarian attacks and weapons storage depots.

they obviously aren't "hospitals" in our way of thinking (I asked at my Kaiser Permanente where the weapons storage area and C-in-C area was and all I got was a referral to mental health). This activity is a war crime, but nobody calls them or Hezbollah, or Hamas, or...hmmm, what do these groups all have in common? Islam
Posted by: Frank G || 05/03/2008 17:46 Comments || Top||

#3  the Iraqi national gov't is ultimately Islamic/Kurd too. My point being, the international community, msm, and WE should start inciting the war crimes standards again, not just for rationalization of attacks, but as reminder at every point that the enemy doesn't play by the rules we are held to. We do our part because of who we are, the other side needs to be painted in broad accurate colors of who they really are. It's not just PR, it's strategic in setting the battlefield for support, domestic and foreign. It DOES matter. If there's one thing teh Bush team has fallen down on, it's teh messaging on who/what/why/how we are fighting. It should be accurate, repeated, and relentless in the exposure of the AQI/Al Quds/Sadr-Mahdi war crimes
Posted by: Frank G || 05/03/2008 17:56 Comments || Top||

#4  The paleos like to say "suicide bombers are our F-16s." I guess the hospital is the quds assholes' aircraft carrier. Fair Game. Bang...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 05/03/2008 18:54 Comments || Top||


Air raid hits Baghdad hospital, US says 14 fighters dead
BAGHDAD (AFP) - A US air strike damaged a hospital in the Iraqi capital's violent Shiite stronghold of Sadr City on Saturday, injuring 20 people, as American forces claimed to have killed 14 militiamen.

The US military said it carried out the strike in Sadr City, a bastion of anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, where US troops in separate confrontations killed at least 14 militiamen since Friday. "I can confirm that we conducted a strike in Sadr City this morning," a US military spokesman told AFP. "The targets were known criminal elements. Battle damage assessment is currently ongoing."

However, witnesses and an AFP reporter at the scene said the main Al-Sadr hospital had been badly damaged and a fleet of ambulances were destroyed.

Just outside the hospital, a shack which appeared to be the target was reduced to a pile of rubble.

The military said it destroyed a "criminal element command and control centre" at approximately 10 am (0700 GMT). "Intelligence reports indicate the command and control centre was used by criminal elements to plan and coordinate attacks against Iraqi security and coalition forces and innocent Iraqi citizens."

"Intelligence reports indicate the command and control centre was used by criminal elements to plan and coordinate attacks against Iraqi security and coalition forces and innocent Iraqi citizens."
Hospital staff said at least 20 people wounded in the air raid were taken to the same hospital which had its glass windows shattered, and medical and electrical equipment damaged. Doctors and hospital staff were livid they had been hit. "They (the Americans) will say it was a weapons cache (they hit)," said the head of Baghdad's health department, Dr Ali Bistan. "But, in fact they want to destroy the infrastructure of the country."
Judging from the damage descriptions is was a weapons cache. One Hellfire wouldn't do all that collateral damage.
He charged that the attack was aimed at preventing doctors and medicines reaching the hospital which is located inside an area of increased clashes between American troops and militiamen.

The corridors of the hospital were littered with glass splinters, twisted metal and hanging electrical wiring. Partitions in wards had collapsed. The huge concrete blocks forming a protective wall against explosions had collapsed on parked vehicles, including up to 17 ambulances, disabling the emergency response teams.

Nurse Zahra was recovering from the shock of the attack. "I was very afraid. I thought I would die. Everyone was scared. They ran in all directions," she told AFP. "Now I am more sad than frightened because hospital facilities have been destroyed."

Hospital guard Alaa Mohamed, 26, was at a side entrance when the bombs exploded. "There were five missiles that exploded outside the parking lot," he said.
One missle and four large secondaries, I'll bet.
An AFP reporter saw three huge craters, each with a diameter of six metres (yards), created by the impact of the explosions. Youngsters climbed on top of the rubble and looked for anyone trapped underneath. Residents said the shack that appeared to be the main target of the air strike was a transit point for Muslim pilgrims.
Al Qods pilgrims with weapons offerings.
Pilgrims. Simple, pious pilgrims. With automatic weapons.
The AFP reporter witnessed several US helicopters sweeping above Sadr City amid a steady barrage of gunfire.

The strike came as the US military said it killed at least 14 Shiite fighters since Friday in a series of clashes around Sadr City. The firefights which began at 7:20 am (0420 GMT) on Friday and have continued sporadically saw US forces use air support and tanks as they clashed with militants in the impoverished district of some two million people.

On Friday, an M1A1 Abrams tanks engaged "criminals" with one round from its main gun after Iraqi army soldiers reported being attacked by small arms fire from a house, the military said. "Three criminals were killed in the engagements," the military said.

Later Friday, a US warplane also dropped a bomb and killed two others. Nine other militants were killed in other exchanges, some of them early on Saturday.
Mooselimbs would never do that, never I say.
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 05/03/2008 09:23 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Mahdi Army

#1  nice of us to injure the Sadr goons close enough that they can be drug by the severed limbs carried to the hospital, but do they thank us? Noooooo
Posted by: Frank G || 05/03/2008 9:51 Comments || Top||

#2  US military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Steven Stover

The Army Of Steve....


Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 05/03/2008 11:32 Comments || Top||


FA/18 hoses down Jihadi rocket team, survivors regroup, happy ending
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 05/03/2008 01:52 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Predator crashes in Iraq
BAGHDAD - An American spy plane crashed in southern Iraq on Friday during a pre-dawn mission, the US military said.

The remotely piloted long-endurance MQ-1 Predator crashed after it was launched from what was described as “Ali Base,” the US airforce authorities in Iraq said in a statement. It gave no additional details about the incident or where the aircraft went down, but added that an investigation would be launched. “Mechanical failure is suspected,” the statement said.
Posted by: Steve White || 05/03/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Could have been pilot error.
Posted by: phil_b || 05/03/2008 1:02 Comments || Top||

#2  The good thing about UAV's is that there is nobody in the plane to die when things like this happen.
Posted by: Rambler in California || 05/03/2008 2:05 Comments || Top||

#3  Plus they can stay in the air for like 20 hours at a time, carry enough munitions to do some serious damage, and even after being all tricked out, they cost about 10% of a F-16. Also, MUCH lower per hour operational costs, and no lost pilot if one goes down.
Posted by: Shieldwolf || 05/03/2008 3:41 Comments || Top||

#4  I don't know jack about Preds, but I would assume that they can, and do, launch themselves. I'm inclined to buy the mechanical failure, but if anyone is in the know...
Posted by: Vanc || 05/03/2008 4:31 Comments || Top||

#5  It's likely the aircraft could have been saved with a real pilot making RT decisions, course those Baker 0/0 seats are not inexpensive.
Posted by: George Smiley || 05/03/2008 7:02 Comments || Top||

#6  These stories are few and far between. Unless there's far more than meets the eye, this seems a very acceptable loss rate, especially considering the alternatives.
Posted by: Angavins Scourge of the Munchkins9583 || 05/03/2008 7:31 Comments || Top||

#7  What if the alternative is loss of pilot seats?
Posted by: George Smiley || 05/03/2008 8:15 Comments || Top||

#8  unfortunately, the Jihadis captured the AF Special Ops Pilot. Here's hopes and prayers for his safe return
Posted by: Frank G || 05/03/2008 8:49 Comments || Top||

#9  A major paradigm shift in UAVs will come when they are perfected enough for mass production at reasonably low cost. Imagine a "Predator lite", that only can stay in the air a few hours, carries some "off the shelf" weaponry, yet only costs as much as a new car?

That would be cheap enough to issue at the company level, with several company's CAS coordinated at battalion level. Each UAV would restrict its flight pattern to a 3D box of airspace in front of the company's position, with an upper altitude limit.

The big question would be what weaponry it would carry.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 05/03/2008 9:28 Comments || Top||

#10  The airframes do launch themselves, triggered by a control console at the point of launch. The systems are made up of 4 airframes plus one control console so that the soldiers can have one unit flying, one ready to launch and the other two being maintained/fueled/etc.
Posted by: lotp || 05/03/2008 11:12 Comments || Top||

#11  The Future Combat Systems plan for UAVs includes a Type 2 UAV that would be organic (assigned to) maneuver companies (infantry, armor ....).

It's shelved for now due to cost. Design is a 'flying trashcan' with an induction fan propulsion rather than the airplane-with-wings.
Posted by: lotp || 05/03/2008 11:13 Comments || Top||

#12  It's shelved for now due to cost. M/em>

Bet they cost less than an F-35.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 05/03/2008 11:16 Comments || Top||

#13  Yup. Sorry, I wasn't clear. The reason for putting the FCS Type II UAV on hold had to do with overall budget, not the cost per UAV.

This was the least mature of the 4 FCS UAV designs. They're pressing ahead with the others:

- Type I man-packable little airplane that resembles the Raven (organic to platoons)

- Type III battalion level asset that resembles the Shadow

- Type IV brigade level helicopter UAV

The reason for an induction fan design for the Type II is that it can be launched without requiring an airstrip. But some studies have questioned whether company commanders would get better reconnaisance data by owning a Type II vs. sharing an additional battalion-level Type III. Reasons include flight altitude & duration, time to repair etc.

So with budget for FCS under Congressional pressure, the least mature design & possibly least needed of the 4 was put on hold for now.
Posted by: lotp || 05/03/2008 11:23 Comments || Top||

#14  Yup. The more likely a weapon will be used by a private, the less likely it will be funded.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 05/03/2008 12:20 Comments || Top||

#15  Sounds to me like there may have been a bad hand-off. IIRC, the Predators are launched and recovered using local control, but mission control is switched to Nellis via secure comm channels. If Nellis wasn't ready, or if the handoff was initiated too soon, it could cause a crash.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 05/03/2008 12:55 Comments || Top||

#16  The more likely a weapon will be used by a private, the less likely it will be funded.

Nope. Sorry, NS - it's a funny snark but not true in this case.

The Type Is are funded and pushing forward quickly -- and those are the little UAVs that get carried by squads and launched by privates.
Posted by: lotp || 05/03/2008 13:11 Comments || Top||

#17  Yeah, I noticed that after I posted but hoped you wouldn't come back. Still, the exception that proves the rule.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 05/03/2008 13:44 Comments || Top||

#18  The Raven! How could I forget. Hope it's not reported in this encounter simply as an oversight - otherwise, the Marines should have them buzzing up and down this road. - seems the perfect setting for them to keep watch laterally.
Posted by: Harcourt Jush7795 || 05/03/2008 15:46 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Operation vs Abu Sayyaf triggers clash with MNLF in Sulu
The military operation on Tuesday against Abu Sayyaf fighters in Sulu that led to the reported wounding of an extremist leader and his son also triggered a clash with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) that sent more than 200 families fleeing. But the Sulu provincial government, backed by civil society groups and non-government organizations, convinced the military and MNLF to disengage from the hostilities that broke out in Indanan town on Tuesday.

Sulu Governor Abdusakur Tan told the Philippine Daily Inquirer that as early as 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday, they had tried to reach out to both groups. Tan said they asked government forces to pull out of the area to end the hostilities. He said the fighting finally subsided around 1 p.m. Wednesday after he talked with Brigadier General Juancho Sabban of Task Force Comet and Khaid Adjibun of the MNLF.

The military said Tuesday evening's assault in Sitio (sub-village) Marang in Barangay (village) Kagay was aimed against the Abu Sayyaf. But MNLF members in the area denied the presence of the extremist fighters and said it was they who were fired on by government forces.
Posted by: Fred || 05/03/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: MNLF

#1  Abu Sayyaf = MNLF.

Just depends on what they are doing at the moment. If they are being naughty, they are Abu's. If they are involved in peace talks, they are MNLF.
Posted by: Iblis || 05/03/2008 17:01 Comments || Top||

#2  MNLF made 'peace' with the government and split off the 'MILF'...

The MILF is making peace with the government (for additional land) and is splitting off Abu Sayyaf...

No doubt Abu.. will eventually make peace (for even more land) and split off some other group....

Anyone but me see a trend here?
Posted by: CrazyFool || 05/03/2008 17:32 Comments || Top||


Isnilon Hapilon wounded, escapes Philippines clash
(dpa) - A senior Muslim rebel leader and his son were wounded in an attack by government troops on an Abu Sayyaf camp on a southern Philippine island, a regional military spokesman said Thursday. Isnilon Hapilon and his son Tabari were injured in the fighting Wednesday in Indanan town on Jolo Island, 1,000 kilometres south of Manila, Major Eugene Batarra said.

Hapilon, one of the Abu Sayyaf leaders wanted by the the United States, and his son were able to escape into the jungle, Batarra said. The major added that the rebels suffered heavy casualties in Wednesday's attack, which led to the seizure of a guerrilla bomb-making facility. About 200 guerrillas were in the camp during the attack, including militants with the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) regional terrorist group, he said.

The Abu Sayyaf and JI have been blamed for the most deadly terrorist attacks in the country. Both groups have been linked to the al Qaeda terrorist network.
Posted by: Fred || 05/03/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Abu Sayyaf

#1  Today's word is: fester.
Posted by: Seafarious || 05/03/2008 6:52 Comments || Top||

#2  Can you give me tomorrows word today?
Septic?
Opppsie?
Posted by: George Smiley || 05/03/2008 7:11 Comments || Top||

#3  Isnilon Hapilon, AKA "Hopalong"
Posted by: Frank G || 05/03/2008 8:51 Comments || Top||


Good... ummm... evening
Posted by: Fred || 05/03/2008 19:12 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Fred! Missed you sir.
Posted by: Sheang Henbane2687 || 05/03/2008 19:29 Comments || Top||

#2  Spent the day being Dad (and Grandaddy)...
Posted by: Fred || 05/03/2008 20:55 Comments || Top||

#3  :-) good for you, Fred
Posted by: Frank G || 05/03/2008 21:03 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
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Sat 2008-05-03
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Wed 2008-04-30
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Sun 2008-04-27
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