A Taliban suicide bomber rammed an explosives-packed car into the gate of the main U.S. military base in southeastern Afghanistan on Monday, killing nine civilians and wounding 13, Afghan and U.S. officials said. Two more suicide bombers in another car approached the base near the southeastern town of Khost as security forces dealt with the aftermath of the first attack, but were shot dead by police before they were able to detonate their explosives,
Khost's governor, Arsala Jamal, told Reuters. "The victims were all poor labourers and civilians. This was a barbaric act carried out by the enemies of Afghanistan at a time of celebration of independence," he said. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the blast.
Security was tightened in and around Kabul Sunday with 7,000 additional police officers deployed ahead of Monday's 89th observance of Afghanistan's independence from Great Britain.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/18/2008 00:00 ||
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Violence raged across southern and eastern Afghanistan with about 88 people killed in a series of bombings and clashes, authorities said on Sunday as the country prepared to celebrate Independence Day.
Zabul Deputy Governor Gulab Shah Alikheil said 32 Taliban fighters and five private security guards died during a four-hour battle on Sunday. Alikheil said the militants ambushed a NATO supply convoy escorted by private security, sparking the battle.
In Kandahar province, a roadside blast killed 10 police officers on patrol on Saturday, said Matiullah Khan, the provincial police chief. Khan blamed the Taliban. Taliban insurgents attacked police checkpoints in Nad Ali district of southern Helmand province on Friday, sparking clashes that killed 23 militants, the Interior Ministry said on Sunday. Four police were wounded and 13 other militants were detained, it said.
Afghan and foreign troops clashed with militants on Saturday in a mountainous area of Zabul province, killing seven militants, said district chief Fazel Bari. In eastern Paktika province, police clashed with militants on Saturday in Shwak district, killing four other insurgents, said Ruhulla Samon, spokesman for the provincial governor. Three police were wounded. Afghan and foreign troops clashed with insurgents in the same area on Thursday, killing seven militants, the Defence Ministry said.
Meanwhile, scores of police manned checkpoints around Afghanistan's capital after authorities ordered more than 7,000 officers to secure Kabul ahead of the country's Independence Day, an indication of how militants pose a growing threat to the capital. The Interior Ministry said the beefed-up police force in the capital would search buildings as well as cars to "create an environment of trust and prevent any disruptive actions by the enemy." The security increase comes a day before the country celebrates the 89th anniversary of its independence from Britain. Any breach of security during the celebration would be an embarrassment for President Hamid Karzai's government.
Remains: Separately, Afghan authorities announced on Sunday they had found mass graves containing the remains of nine relatives of ex-president Mohammad Daud Khan, shot dead in a Soviet-backed coup three decades ago. The body of the ex-president, also killed in the 1978 military coup, is thought to be among those recovered from the two graves on the outskirts of the capital that were found to contain 29 bodies, deputy public health minister Faizullah Kakar told reporters. "We have identified nine members of Mr Daud Khan's family but not that of himself," said Kakar, head of a commission appointed by President Hamid Karzai in April to locate the body of Khan, Afghanistan's first president. The nine included Khan's wife, a son, two daughters, his sister and an 18-month-old grandchild as well as other relatives, Kakar said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/18/2008 00:00 ||
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The Defense Intelligence Agency's newly created Defense Counterintelligence and Human Intelligence Center is going to have an office authorized for the first time to carry out "strategic offensive counterintelligence operations," according to Mike Pick, who will direct the program.
Such covert offensive operations are carried out at home and abroad against people known or suspected to be foreign intelligence officers or connected to foreign intelligence or international terrorist activities -- but not against U.S. citizens, said Toby Sullivan, director of counterintelligence for James R. Clapper Jr., the undersecretary of defense for intelligence.
Sullivan and Pick, who is chief of the agency's Counterintelligence Human Intelligence Enterprise Management Office, spoke to reporters during a Pentagon briefing this month.
These sensitive, clandestine operations are "tightly controlled departmental activities run by a small group of specially selected people" within the Defense Department, said Sullivan, who exercises authority over all Pentagon counterintelligence activities.
The investigative branches of the three services -- the Army's Counterintelligence Corps, the Air Force Office of Special Investigations and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service -- have done secret offensive counterintelligence operations for years, and now DIA has been given the authority.
The purpose of an offensive counterintelligence operation is not criminal prosecution, which would be the goal if the target were an American recruited by a foreign power to be an agent in this country. In such an investigation, DIA officers would work with the FBI to gather evidence for use in an indictment and a trial.
In strategic offensive counterintelligence operations, a foreign intelligence officer is the target, and the main goals most often are "to gather information, to make something happen . . . to thwart what the opposition is trying to do to us and to learn more about what they're trying to get from us," Sullivan said. In the case of terrorists, the object would be to identify people who might be "trying to do harm, collect information about us, and keep them from doing that."
With foreign intelligence officers, the end could be having them declared persona non grata and thrown out of the country. "There have been situations where . . . the embassy has been asked to remove the diplomat from the country in the past," Sullivan said. But other operations have run so smoothly that the targeted foreign intelligence officer did not know he had been discovered, or even that he had been manipulated by having been fed false information to send back to superiors. "Depending on the nature of the operation," Sullivan said, "the guy could finish his or her job in the U.S. and be allowed to go wherever they're going."
Two years ago, the DIA asked then-Undersecretary of Defense Stephen A. Cambone for authority to run offensive operations along with a newer Pentagon intelligence agency, the Counterintelligence Field Activity (CIFA). Cambone agreed to a two-year trial, during which those involved "performed admirably," according to Sullivan. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates recently approved the merger of CIFA into the new DIA center.
Senior Defense Department officials and the combat commanders overseas will now decide what to do with the DIA's new offensive operational authority. "These operations are based on national or DoD security requirements," Sullivan said. "We are an arrow in somebody's quiver," he said. "We identify the possible threat; we work with those who are feeling the focus of the threat; and they give us some ideas about objectives, at least in the operational areas, what we're trying to accomplish."
Asked by a reporter if he could tell of some past successes, Sullivan replied: "No, I cannot. We're talking about classified operations."
...to gather information, to make something happen (BOOM!)... to thwart what the opposition is trying to do to us (BOOM! BOOM!) and to learn more about what they're trying to get from us (no longer at Gitmo)...(BOOM!)
More and more of CIA ops responsibility will we transferred to DOD with the ops subcontracted to US contractors until CIA does only analysis. At some point CIA will lose access to NSA intel and become an open source think tank, sort of an international affairs GAO or CBO. DOD will start to have legal problems and will swing out black ops units to an independent agency.
#4
Methinks the real brains of intelligence have realized, albeit almost too late, that the CIA has been too politicized by the Clintons and is too poisoned by self interest to give anyone reliable and accurate intelligence about anything except their own self serving attitudes, political leanings and self preservation/turf protection.
This is good news, the CIA is dysfunctional and incompetent.
Its time for the adults to take over kindergarten and give us some real intelligence and not the musings of some petty bureaucrat with a political axe to gring.
Posted by: James Carville ||
08/18/2008 10:38 Comments ||
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#5
DOD will start to have legal problems and will swing out black ops units to an independent agency.
They'll call it the Agency for Centralized Intelligence.
#6
#4, Rumsfeld knew that a long time ago. That's why he set up Doug Feith's shop, which was bitterly resisted by the CIA and the Dems and ultimately forced to close.
#7
Bush got a standing ovation upon entering the cafeteria at CIA headquarters. He spent two extra hours signing autographs and b.s. ing with ther operatives. Perhaps the CIA has changed a bit over eight years of war.
Maulana Faqir Muhammad, the Deputy Emir of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, has been killed along with eight other Taliban militants, according to a report in the Urdu-language newspaper Roznama Khabrain.
According to the report, the Pakistani officials confirmed that Maulana Faqir Muhammad was killed during the fighting between the Taliban and the Pakistani security forces in the tribal district of Bajaur Agency.
Big news if true....Muhammad is friend and protector of Ayman Zawahiri.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, facing impeachment by parliament, has announced that he is resigning. "That's it! I'm outta here!"
In a national televised address he said he was confident the charges against him would not stand, but this was not the time for more confrontation. "I seen what they did to Bhutto, father and daughter! This is what my back looks like!"
The charges against the president include violation of the constitution and gross misconduct. "My work here is done!"
He has been one of the United States' strongest allies in its war against Islamist extremism. I'm not sure I'd characterize him as one of the "strongest."
His political rivals swept to power last February in national and provincial elections after months of political confrontation and worsening militant violence.
The BBC's Chris Morris in Islamabad says Mr Musharraf's resignation marks the end of an era for a country facing enormous economic and security challenges.
Posted by: john frum ||
08/18/2008 07:36 ||
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#3
Considering the various attempts on his life already , if I was him , I would leave Pakistan very quickly and move to somewhere less volatile . Maybe America , I reckon .
I definitely will look forward to reading his memoirs ,if he gets to write them
A Saudi aircraft has been on the tarmac at Rawalpindi for two days. He will stay there for a while but needs a long term home.
Royal Saudi 'No' to Musharraf for refuge
Monday, 18 August , 2008, 12:40
Islamabad: After the US refused to offer Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf an asylum after being ousted, or stepping down, the Presidential camp in Rawalpindi got another setback when Saudi Arabia also refused to extend him a long stay in Jeddahs Al-Saroor Palace.
This is the same palace where former Pakistan premier Nawaz Sharif spent seven years after being thrown out by Musharraf in a military coup in October 1999.
If sources are to be believed, the Saudis do not want to convert the Al-Saroor Palace into the Guantanamo Bay of exiled Pakistani leaders, though Musharraf has been offered with a dignified route for travelling to another destination. But not a permanent stay in the Saudi Kingdom, said the sources.
Presently, the Palace is lying vacant.
Interestingly, earlier Saudi Arabia had provided shelter to Ugandan military dictator for about 16 years with his 60 children and four wives when he was ousted from his country after a coup. He had his last breath in the Saudi Kingdom.
Posted by: john frum ||
08/18/2008 8:16 Comments ||
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#5
Here we go. Hang on to your butts, this could get rocky.
#6
Within three years, Pakistan will be longing for his leadership.
He was only modestly corrupt and minimally oppressive. The economy grew at somewhere between 5% and 10% a year during his administration and inflation was between 4% and 9%.
Given the tribal, sectarian and Islamist influences in this country, I don't think an objective person could be too critical of this fellow (and I think most educated Pakistanis living in the US would agree).
#11
London. Former President General (ret'd) Dr. Musharref likely doesn't speak French. Malaysia and Indonesia have too many crazy jihadis. Why, in Malaysia they're teaching the programming students to carry out cyberjihad, or so I've been told.
#13
The worst Muslin dictators, like Idi Amin, go to Saudi. The bad dictators go to Paris The moderate dictators go to South America, except for Fujimoro, an odd case.
The US is pretty out of the question, because of our insane profusion of lawyers.
Perv has some new opportunities that he might consider, depending on how internationally comfortable he is. Christian Ethiopia, perhaps Mexico, northeastern Europe.
Much depends on how much money he brings with him.
#16
Perv was actually better leadership than the Paks deserved, which isn't saying much at all.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/18/2008 11:08 Comments ||
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#17
Canada.
He'll come here, demand "Rufugee Status" and be accepted into the country while his claim is investigated for the next twenty years and I'll have to pay for all the goodies he will be given.
#18
If all else fails, his old family home in Delhi is still there
Posted by: john frum ||
08/18/2008 11:18 Comments ||
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#19
lol! at # 18, good idea though. Too hard to secure him there.
He did a deeply good thing at ONE time, in Sept 2001. While its not clear he had many real options, I remain grateful. OTOH he was clearly on the way out for a long time, and we need not forget how early he started working with the MMA.
Whether they will want him back, I dont know. Trend in Pakistan is when the civies get too corrupt, to want a NEW military dictator, not an old one. Hope springs eternal.
Where should he go. I dunno, how much trouble is pakistan gonna make for whoever takes him in? Clearly folks expect SOME, or US could have and should have taken him. Nominally we owe him more than most people.
In terms of security, his best best is probably China. Hes never particularly done anything to anger them. Only obstacle would be if Paki govt really makes a stink to the Chinese about it. I dont know Paki govt has much leverage on China though.
#21
Funny that Saudi Arabia won't take him. He did manage the aftermath to the 9/11 attacks pretty well, such that neither Pakistan nor Saudi Arabia are paved with trinitite.
Musharraf is a former chief of army staff of the Pakistan army. The army guards its position and prerogatives zealously. It has its pride. It will attempt to shield Perv.
Chaudhry and Nawaz Sharif may relish seeing Perv in Saudi exile but will probably have to back down. The army can and will hurt them.
Posted by: john frum ||
08/18/2008 18:44 Comments ||
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#33
That's one less spot in the amerikan archipelago of fascist partners. Do you people ever look in the mirror?
Posted by: Data Analyst ||
08/18/2008 18:58 Comments ||
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#34
At least we can see our reflections, Data Analyst. I'm sorry your cannot.
#42
In any military unit the most worthless waste of flesh and bones gets the name "pappy." why the fuck would you willingly take that name when it reveals a career of negative value. do you wear a clown suit when you go to the mall? how many front teeth do you have? i get the picture; beer and do nuts. fuck off
Posted by: ima moron ||
08/18/2008 22:56 Comments ||
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Four militants were killed on Sunday when three Pakistan Army gunship helicopters targeted Taliban fighters. Military sources said two militants riding a motorcycle in Inayat Killay Bypass Road were targeted by the military chopper and killed on the spot.
Tribal sources, however, said both the men were local residents and were on their way home in Inayat Killay when they came under attack. In the same area, local tribal sources said military choppers hit a petrol pump and razed it to the ground. Military authorities suspected that militants operating in the adjoining Mamond Tehsil and Inayat Killay were getting fuel from the petrol pump.
Similarly, military sources said two militants were killed when a chopper fired on Haji Lawang bridge in the almost peaceful Utmankhel Tehsil of the troubled tribal region. The sources said both the militants were armed and started running towards the crops when military helicopters were flying over the village.
Also, official sources said a house was targeted in Badano village where militants had hidden vehicles they had snatched from the security forces. They claimed that four to six vehicles, including jeeps and pick-ups, were destroyed in the strikes on the house.
They said choppers were also sent and directed to destroy the house of TTP spokesman Maulvi Omar but since it was located in middle of the houses and aerial strikes could cause damage to other houses and residents, therefore, the idea was dropped. The gunship choppers also bombed militants' suspected hideouts in other small villages of Mamond Tehsil and Mulla Said Banda and Pashat in Salarzai Tehsil.
There were no details about the losses suffered by the militants. This correspondent on Sunday visited Bajaur Agency's troubled spots including Seway, where the militants headquarters was located and a so-called Islamic court had been established, Chopatra, the hometown of militants' commander Maulana Faqir Mohammad, Badan village, the hometown of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman Maulvi Omar, and several other places, which were once the strongholds of the Taliban fighters and where their armed men were once publicly checking vehicles at roadside checkpoints. But amazingly, the entire region is now presenting a deserted look and there are no militants on the roadside checkpoints and their famous camps. Majority of them have reportedly gone underground and shifted to their hideouts in upper parts of Mamond and Salarzai subdivisions.
In their Seway Markaz, around two dozen militants armed with AK-47 assault rifles and G-III automatic guns which they claimed to have snatched from the paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) personnel near Loisam a week ago, were seen guarding the building and checking vehicles. However, when two military gunship choppers appeared in the air from Bajaur's headquarters Khar, the armed militants present around Seway Markaz became scared and started escaping into the dense maize crops.
Militants also suggested to this correspondent to flee and hide in the maize crop fields and under the shadow of dense trees. This practice of hide and seek took place several times and the militants said they had no solution for choppers and warplanes. The militants admitted that they had suffered heavy losses due to choppers and warplanes and now the thundering voice of gunship choppers created panic in the hearts of many of their colleagues.
The entire population of this sensitive region had left their homes due to bombing and shifted to distant towns of Peshawar, Mardan, Nowshera, etc. But a small number of residents left here to look after their households were critical of Taliban's harsh policies that had brought miseries and total destruction to them.
This article starring:
Badano village
Badan village
Chopatra
Haji Lawang
Inayat Killay
Killay Bypass
Loisam
Mamond Tehsil
Mardan
Mulla Said Banda
Nowshera
Pashat
Salarzai Tehsil
Seway
Seway Markaz
Utmankhel Tehsil
MAULANA FAQIR MOHAMAD
TTP
MAULVI OMAR
TTP
Posted by: Fred ||
08/18/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Two men on a motorcycle deserve's some kind of response. Ewwww.
#2
#1 Two men on a motorcycle deserve's some kind of response. Ewwww. Posted by: Pheamble the Elder7006
It's obvious you've never been to Vietnam, where I've seen whole families (including some of the pets) on a Honda-50. The South Vietnamese army gave out medium-sized motorcycles for a reenlistment bonus. That was all the 'wheels' many of the locals could afford, and accounted for more than half the traffic on any Saigon street. Saw the same thing in Thailand, and it's almost as bad in Manila.
Two on a cycle wasn't bad, but after three, things got dangerous. Didn't seem to stop 'em.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/18/2008 15:44 Comments ||
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Investigation agencies are interrogating three people arrested on Saturday from an undisclosed place in Toba Tek Singh for alleged links with terrorists in the Tribal Areas, Dawn News reported on Sunday. The channel quoted its sources as saying that a student of a seminary functioning in the provincial Auqaf Department's mosque Jamia Masjid Markazi Talib Bazar in Rawalpindi was arrested by an intelligence agency a few days ago. During interrogation, he divulged the names of other seminary students who were trained by a Taliban group in Waziristan in the past few months, it said. The police raided the seminary on Saturday night and arrested a teacher, Mufti Muhammad Qasim. Police said a student was also held in the raid.
This article starring:
Toba Tek Singh
Jamia Masjid Markazi Talib Bazar in Rawalpindi
MUFTI MUHAMAD QASIM
TTP
Posted by: Fred ||
08/18/2008 00:00 ||
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Two separate explosions on Sunday injured at least seven people in Balochistan, a satellite television channel reported. According to Dawn News, five civilians were injured in Kohlu when a bomb planted outside a sweets shop went off. The injured were taken to a nearby civil hospital for medical treatment, the channel reported, adding that doctors could not be reached to get information about the condition of the injured. In a separate incident, two civilians were injured when their vehicle hit a landmine near the Pak-Afghan border in Naushki.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/18/2008 00:00 ||
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Militants beheaded a man accused of spying for the United States-led NATO forces late on Saturday in Shawaal, 70 kilometres from Miranshah in North Waziristan. The beheaded body of 40-year-old Said Munir, a resident of Zoee Saidgi, was found on Sunday. Locals also found a note pinned to the body, which read that Munir had been spying for NATO forces.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/18/2008 00:00 ||
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Militants in Maoond tehsil of Bajaur are forcefully stopping men from leaving the area, people arriving here told Daily Times.
Taliban had warned people of Mamoond tehsil not to leave the area. "May be Taliban intend to use the civilians as human shield," several displaced people said.
Talking to Daily Times at the Charsadda Suzuki Stand, an elderly man said armed militants in Anayat Kalay area disembarked his three sons from a vehicle.
"I and my three sons were on the way to Peshawar along with their wives and 13 children when armed Taliban stopped us in Mamoond and asked my sons to step down," said the man.
Post: According to sources in security forces, "Taliban tried to persuade civilians not to migrate. Failing on that count, Taliban set up a checkpost near Inyat Kalay to stop people from fleeing."
Meanwhile, Mohammad Sajjad, a resident of Bajaur, told Daily Times over the telephone that such cases were occurring only in Mamoond tehsil.
He said jet fighters had stopped targeting the areas, while helicopter gunships could still be heard. "Residents raise their hands at the sight of a chopper," he said, adding: "We've been told to do so to avoid falling prey to shelling by gunships." The security forces dropped these instruction leaflets from planes in an effort to control collateral damage, he said.
Army: Sajjad said ground troops [army] had started movement in the Tor Ghundai area of Munda tehsil. The area is located some 20 kilometres from Khar, headquarters of Bajaur, on Timargara side. Ajmal Khan, a student and resident of Shago Kalay, said helicopters had sprayed chemicals on the maze crop, which Taliban were hiding in to avoid shelling. The military operation in Bajaur has displaced around 250,000 people.
Independent sources said the Bajaur operation had badly hit the capability of local militants to target the security forces. The sources also said that the Taliban were pressuring local elected representatives to force government to halt the Operation and desist from carrying out similar operation in Mohmand.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/18/2008 00:00 ||
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Law enforcement agencies have arrested a terror suspect for making threatening telephone calls to various embassies, intelligence agencies' sources claimed on Sunday.
According to sources, several embassies had been receiving threatening telephone calls and letters since a blast in front of the Danish embassy in Islamabad in June. They said the embassies had forwarded their complaints to the Interior Ministry, after which the country's intelligence agencies had begun tracing all mobile numbers from which the calls were made.
Sources said intelligence agencies had traced the suspect to Jhang, after which a massive crackdown had been launched and the suspected caller arrested on August 12. Sources said agents investigating the Danish embassy blast had also questioned the caller, as the terrorists involved in the blast had been traced to Jhang.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/18/2008 00:00 ||
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TIMERGARA: There was a sense of relief in Lower Dir District on Sunday after people learnt that the Taliban fighters had left the Maidan area following some tough negotiations with the Jirga of local elders.
The Jirga had given them five days initially to leave Maidan. Later, Jirga members held talks with the Taliban fighters, mostly Pakistanis but also including Afghans and some non-Afghans, and insisted they must leave Maidan to avoid confrontation with the local people.
Reports from the area said the Taliban fighters left Maidan for an unknown location on Saturday. Earlier, Maidan Peace Jirga President Amanullah Khan, General Secretary Professor Muhammad Akram Khan and its other members told a press conference at the Government Rest House Lal Qilla that the Taliban had left the area. They said next time the local people would not let anyone spoil peace in the area.
They said when the Maidan residents came to know about the presence of foreigners (Taliban) they decided to hold talks with them. They told the Taliban that they were Muslims, understand Shariah and concept of Jihad and would never take dictation from anyone in this regard.
The Taliban were told that their presence could pave the way for a military operation in the area, and hence they should leave the area, the Jirga members said. "The Taliban commander was convinced and after accepting their demands, safe passage and protection to those sheltering them, they left the area", they added.
They said they had fulfilled their promise of maintaining peace in their area with administration and military officials They said the Maidan Peace Jirga would not shy away from any sacrifice for the peace, integrity and security of Pakistan and Islam. Meanwhile, Upper Dir Police said the local people had raised a 'Lashkar' which would take action against the Taliban in case of their entry into the district.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/18/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
aliban fighters had left the Maidan area following some tough negotiations with the Jirga of local elders.
Five people, including a woman and a police constable, were killed and 20 others injured as violence continued in parts of the troubled Swat valley on Sunday.
Sources said six cattle heads also perished and a number of houses were destroyed in artillery shelling and firing while miscreants torched a girls' middle school, a boys' primary school, a health centre and a barber shop in different localities of the valley.
The security forces continued shelling suspected militants' locations in different areas. A woman was killed and five other members of a family sustained severe injuries when a shell hit the house of Wazirzada in Dagai area of Kabal Tehsil.
Another shell landed on the house of one Mian Gul, killing a 15-year-old youth and injuring four others in Hazara area of Kabal. In another incident, two persons identified as Sher Bahadur and Muhammad Rahim were killed and five wounded when the security forces shelled the area after unknown armed men opened fire on them at Manglawar.
A police constable, Fazal Murad Khan, was killed when armed men attacked the Wenai check-post in Matta Tehsil. Soon after the incident, gunship helicopters bombed militants' hideouts in upper areas of Kabal and Matta Tehsils.
Miscreants set ablaze a health centre in Gulibagh area of Charbagh Tehsil, reducing the furniture and medicines to ashes. They also torched a barber shop run by Usman Ali in the same area.
Likewise, a girls' middle school in Sambat area of Matta and a boys' primary school in Qambar near Mingora city were set on fire by the miscreants. All the furniture and record of both the schools were destroyed.
A bomb planted by unknown miscreants at a police post building in Dew near Landaki, exploded, damaging it completely. However, no casualty was reported as personnel of the law-enforcement agencies had already abandoned the building. APP adds: The curfew in Swat district will be relaxed from 7:00 am to 8:00 pm on Monday morning.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/18/2008 00:00 ||
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The body of a Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) militant was today recovered from the Chontimula forest area in Bandipora district.
The militant was identified as Liyat Khan, alias Harris, a resident of Surender in Bandipora district, police sources said. They added that Liyat died of natural causes.
One AK rifle, two magazines and 30 rounds were recovered from near the body. Liyat was reportedly suffering from illness
This article starring:
LIYAT KHAN, ALIAS HARRIS
Hizbul Mujahideen
Posted by: john frum ||
08/18/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Lead poisoning?
Posted by: Steven ||
08/18/2008 0:18 Comments ||
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#2
One AK rifle, two magazines and 30 29 rounds were recovered from near the body.
SRINAGAR: In an unprecedented development, the Jammu and Kashmir government has allowed Islamists to stage a massive pro-Pakistan protest in the heart of Srinagar ignoring warnings from Indias intelligence services that the decision could lead to a meltdown of state authority.
Tehreek-i-Hurriyat chief Syed Ali Shah Geelani and All Parties Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq are expected to address over 100,000 protesters at the Tourist Reception Centre on Monday morning, in the first major Islamist gathering in central Srinagar.
Later, both leaders are scheduled to march to the offices of the United Nations Military Observer Group for India and Pakistan to present a petition demanding an end to what secessionists describe as the military occupation of Jammu and Kashmir.
Srinagar District Commissioner K. Afsandyar Khan and Senior Superintendent of Police S.A. Mujitaba were despatched to stage negotiations on the management on the scheduled protests with Mr. Geelani on Sunday afternoon. Police sources said their request for the protest to be scaled down was rejected by the Islamist leader.
Governor N.N. Vohra and his advisors then ordered Director-General of Police Kuldeep Khoda to move his forces out of central Srinagar, to avoid clashes with protestors
Mr. Vohra has adopted a controversial policy of avoiding confrontation with protesters, amidst signs that a month of communally-charged protests have led to a collapse of police authority.
Last week, Kulgam Senior Superintendent of Police Imtiaz Mir was reported to have been surrounded by a mob and compelled to raise pro-Pakistan slogans.
On August 15, CRPF personnel were even forced to remove Indias national flag from the historic Lal Chowk in Srinagar, after a pro-Pakistan mob marched on the building.
State government sources said secessionist leaders had promised to ensure that Mondays protests were peaceful, and noted that similar assurances delivered before a massive rally in Pampore on Saturday had been met.
However, police sources said, no plans were in place to protect important institutions and offices which could become targets of the crowds, including the residence of the Chief Justice of Jammu and Kashmir, the homes of the former Chief Minister, Farooq Abdullah, and the former Union Minister of State for External Affairs, Omar Abdullah, and several important government offices.
Sources in the APHC said strains among the secessionist conglomerate were making it difficult to control elements in the mobs. At an APHC meeting held late on Sunday, Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front leader Yasin Malik accused Mr. Geelani and Mr. Farooq of having deviated from their agreed common minimum programme. He said both Islamist leaders had used protests organised against the alleged economic blockade of the Kashmir Valley by Hindu fundamentalists to push their pro-Pakistan Islamist agenda.
Maulvi Shaukat Shah of the right-wing Jamaat Ahl-e-Hadith warned that the protests were spiralling out of the control of the secessionist leadership, and were paving the way for a bloody showdown with the armed forces.
However, these moderates came in for criticism from leaders like Asiya Andrabi, who claimed they were taking an excessively conciliatory position.
Protestors from various political groups have infiltrated crowds celebrating Shab-e-Baraat a night of fasting and penance when, in popular Islamic tradition, Allah prepares the destiny of mortals for the coming year.
Posted by: john frum ||
08/18/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
Almost 200 people have died in nearly two weeks of fierce sectarian clashes between Sunni and Shiite Muslims in a remote Pakistani tribal region, officials said Sunday.
The toll rose after 23 people were killed in fresh fighting overnight in the Kurram tribal region bordering Afghanistan, which has historically experienced tensions between the two sides, they said.
Local newspapers said that Taliban militants from the neighboring North Waziristan tribal zone had entered Kurram to back the Sunni tribes involved in the fighting, now in its 12th day.
Local newspapers said that Taliban militants from the neighboring North Waziristan tribal zone had entered Kurram to back the Sunni tribes involved in the fighting, now in its 12th day.
Residents said Sunni tribesmen torched three villages belonging to Shiite tribes and both sides used rockets, heavy machine guns and mortars in the fierce clashes. "In today's and yesterday's clashes at least 23 people have been killed on both sides and 28 others were injured," a security official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
According to reports gathered through local intelligence officials and hospitals, the overall death toll from the days of fighting has risen to 194, with 286 others injured, the official said.
The government earlier this week warned the tribes to end the fighting or face military action. Local administration officials said that elders from both tribes have been approached to restore peace in the area and local residents are also supporting the initiative.
Sectarian violence involving militants from Sunni and Shiite sects has claimed more than 4,000 lives in Pakistan since the late 1980s. That's it? Only 4000 deaders? At the rate they burn ammunition? Highly unlikely, I'd say.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/18/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Takfir wal-Hijra
#1
thats only Sunni - shia violence, not Sunni-Amadiyah (sp?) violence, not Taliban vs State violence, not Taliban vs Tribal violence, not tribal vs tribal violence, .......
Opportunity for adventure is as high as its mighty mountain ranges, with weapons training, murder and goat humping all popular and rewarding activities. Coupled with this is a profound sense of cultural concoction. NWFP's landscape is as fractured and unsettled as its history and as unhinged as its inhabitants.
Turkish fighter planes bombed a Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerrilla group in northern Iraq late on Saturday, the army said on its website on Sunday, without giving further details on what it described as a "successful operation".
The air raid targeted a cave in the Avasin-Basyan region, which served as a base for a "large group" of PKK militants who were preparing for an attack across the border in Turkey, the statement said.
The hideout "was hit successfully" and the warplanes returned safely to their bases, it said, without giving details on any losses among the rebels.
Turkish fighter jets have been bombing PKK positions in the mountains of northern Iraq since December 16.
Ankara estimates that more than 2,000 militants are holed up in Kurdish-run northern Iraq, using camps there as a springboard for attacks on Turkish targets across the border.
The Turkish government has a one-year parliamentary authorization for cross-border military action against the PKK, which expires in October.
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08/18/2008 00:00 ||
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Iraqi and U.S. troops have replaced the Georgian contingent in Kut, south of the capital, that was withdrawn to face up to the crisis back home with Russia, the U.S. military has said. "Iraqi security forces will partner with the 41st Fires Brigade and occupy several checkpoints and patrol bases previously manned by the 1st Georgian Brigade," it said Saturday in a statement.
Georgian troops manned a key checkpoint about 30 kilometers (18 miles) from Kut and patrolled the city. "Right now, the Iraqi soldiers have taken over the responsibility of the traffic control point, but we are going to train them to be able to take over the entire patrol base," U.S. 2nd Lieutenant Charles Hines said in the statement.
Most of the 2,000-strong contingent, posted in Iraq since August 2003, were rushed back to Georgia since August 10 on board U.S. military aircraft to support their comrades in battle with Russian forces.
Local Iraqis on Saturday appeared unmoved by the departure of the Georgian contingent. "The Georgian forces had no experience, they didn't know how to fight. They didn't follow army orders, that's why their duties were to man checkpoints and search cars," said Mohammed Khudaia, a former officer in Saddam Hussein's army.
Taxi-driver Amer Abid said 200 dollars went missing after a search at a Georgian checkpoint. "The departure of the Georgians is a good thing. They're just the same as the other occupation forces. The Iraqi forces are quite capable of taking care of security," said Saab Ali, a 49-year-old trader.
As the third largest contributor to coalition forces in Iraq after the United States and Britain, the departure of the Georgian troops has entailed adjustments for the U.S. military.
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08/18/2008 00:00 ||
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A suicide bomber has killed at least 15 people and wounded 29 near a mosque in a mainly Sunni part of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, security sources say.
The attacker rode up on a motorcycle before setting off a bomb in the Adhamiya district.
The dead include Faruq al-Obeidi, a local leader of a US-backed Sunni militia fighting al-Qaeda in Iraq.
The BBC's correspondent in Baghdad notes that suicide bombings are still a daily occurrence in Iraq.
Mr Obeidi died on his way to hospital, reports say.
The bomber attacked as the militia leader sat with his bodyguards at a cafe and six guards died along with him, according to the Associated Press.
"I rushed to the scene of the explosion to see terrified people running everywhere, and women calling for their missing children," said witness Abu Mohammed, 54.
"The situation was chaotic and horrible. I saw dead bodies, wounded people and blood stains on the ground."
The bomber struck close to the Abu Hanifa mosque, one of the most important Sunni shrines in Iraq, just after the end of evening prayers.
Early reports gave Mr Obeidi's name as Faruq Abu Omar.
The militiamen, popularly known as the Sons of Iraq, are paid by US forces as members of "Awakening Councils" to protect neighbourhoods in areas where the local tribes have turned against al- Qaeda.
Awakening Councils have been credited with helping to reduce violence in Iraq and are a continual target for Sunni insurgents, the BBC's Crispin Thorold reports.
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08/18/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Islamic State of Iraq
Unidentified gunmen ambushed a military convoy on Sunday and killing seven people, including four soldiers in the province of Lanao del Sur, officials said. At least eight more soldiers and three government militias were wounded in the attack at around 8 a.m. in the town of Malundo. The ambush sparked a firefight between the soldiers and militias, said Army Brig. Gen. Hilario Atendido, commander of a military task force.
Four of our soldiers and three militias were killed and 11 others wounded in the ambush. We still do not know who was behind the attack, he said, adding that armed rebels of the Moro Islamic Liferation Front and the New Peoples Army are known to operate in the area.
The motive of the attack was unknown, but the general said the soldiers were just distributing salaries of members of the paramilitary Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Units. Army spokesman Romeo Brawner said the attacked happened at around 8 a.m. Sunday in the boundary of Mulondo and Buadiposo-Buntong towns, which is part of the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao.
Apart from the fatalities 11 were also wounded in the government sideeight Army men, three Cafgus. The said ambush was staged a day after the MILF successfully forced out Muslim insurgents from 15 villages it illegally occupied in several towns in North Cotabato.
On Friday, Armed Forces chief Alexander Yano admitted that the security situation in Mindanao is still volatile and fluid despite the withdrawal of MILF rebels belonging to 105th Base Command headed by Commander Umbra Kato. But he was confident that government troops are ready to counter any offensive that will be launched by the Moro rebels and still remain committed to follow the path of peace.
Two homemade bombs exploded almost simultaneously on Sunday in two budget hotels in a southern Philippine city, wounding at least four persons, officials said. The first bomb exploded in a guestroom in the Iligan Travelers Inn near a shopping mall in the southern Iligan city, wounding at least three people. A second bomb went off within minutes in a room in the Caprice Lodging House, injuring one, according to army and police officials.
Bomb experts checked all hotels and lodging houses in Iligan to make sure they were safe, Brig Gen Hilario Atendido said. No one has claimed responsibility for the blasts, the latest to hit the country's south in recent days amid renewed hostilities between government troops and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, an 11,000-strong militant group that has waged a decades-long battle for Muslim self-rule in the southern Mindanao region. Officials in Iligan, a predominantly Christian city of 300,000 people, have strongly opposed a preliminary accord between the government and the militants that calls for the expansion of an existing Muslim autonomous region to include more than 700 new villages, including eight in Iligan, subject to the approval of residents in a plebiscite.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/18/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Moro Islamic Liberation Front
#1
I thought Abu Sayef was just about done, I guess they still got a few bombs hidden in the chicken coop.
The Sri Lankan military says it has captured a massive Tamil Tiger training base with underground bunkers, lecture halls and a cemetery.
According to a military statement, a series of battles across the northern war zone Saturday killed 27 Tamil Tiger fighters and seven government troops. A military spokesman said soldiers took control of a rebel training base in Andankulam in the Welioya region on Saturday after Tamil Tiger fighters fled the area. He said troops uncovered about 100 underground bunkers, four lecture halls, water wells, toilet facilities and a cemetery for fallen fighters with 67 buried bodies.
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08/18/2008 00:00 ||
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In the latest violence to hit the troubled northern city of Tripoli, three grenades exploded in the early hours of Saturday morning, just days after a bomb targeting soldiers ripped through a bus on a busy commercial street. Lebanese Armed Forces soldiers carried out house raids throughout the city after two hand grenades exploded on Syria Street in the impoverished Bab al-Tabbaneh neighborhood.
In a separate incident, a stun grenade was hurled at a political party's office in Tripoli early Saturday morning. The grenade was thrown by an unknown attacker into the garden of the office in the Abi Samra area at about 3 a.m., said a report on Naharnet.
Tripoli has been the scene of bloody fighting since May. In June and July, at least 23 people were killed in battles between mainly Sunni militants from the Bab al-Tabbaneh district and Alawite residents of nearby Jabal Mohsen, although hostilities had been calming down. Tensions between the two communities have been simmering since the end of Lebanon's 1975-90 Civil War.
In another blow to the fragile security situation in the city, a bomb hidden in a briefcase exploded by a bus last Wednesday, killing nine soldiers, at least five civilians and injuring over 40 others.
The blast came one day after the new unity government received a vote of confidence from Parliament and on the morning of the first day of a historic visit by President Michel Sleiman to Syria in a bid to establish diplomatic ties.
Speaking after the attack, Information Minister Tarek Mitri told reporters, "The investigation [into the bombing] has begun and there are many interpretations, political interpretations" regarding who was responsible. "Once again, they want our country to be an arena for settling scores and battling for influence," Mitri added.
Investigators on Saturday continued to probe the attack, examining surveillance images of the suspected bomber.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/18/2008 00:00 ||
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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.
Maulana Faqir Muhammad, the Deputy Emir of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, has been killed along with eight other Taliban militants, according to a report in the Urdu-language newspaper Roznama Khabrain.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, facing impeachment by parliament, has announced that he is resigning.
Four militants were killed on Sunday when three Pakistan Army gunship helicopters targeted Taliban fighters. Military sources said two militants riding a motorcycle in Inayat 
Investigation agencies are interrogating three people arrested on Saturday from an undisclosed place in 
Two separate explosions on Sunday injured at least seven people in Balochistan, a satellite television channel reported. According to Dawn News, five civilians were injured in Kohlu when a bomb planted outside a sweets shop went off. The injured were taken to a nearby civil hospital for medical treatment, the channel reported, adding that doctors could not be reached to get information about the condition of the injured. In a separate incident, two civilians were injured when their vehicle hit a landmine near the Pak-Afghan border in Naushki.
Almost 200 people have died in nearly two weeks of fierce sectarian clashes between Sunni and Shiite Muslims in a remote Pakistani tribal region, officials said Sunday.
Turkish fighter planes bombed a Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerrilla group in northern Iraq late on Saturday, the army said on its website on Sunday, without giving further details on what it described as a "successful operation".
A suicide bomber has killed at least 15 people and wounded 29 near a mosque in a mainly Sunni part of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, security sources say. 
In the latest violence to hit the troubled northern city of Tripoli, three grenades exploded in the early hours of Saturday morning, just days after a bomb targeting soldiers ripped through a bus on a busy commercial street. Lebanese Armed Forces soldiers carried out house raids throughout the city after two hand grenades exploded on Syria Street in the impoverished Bab al-Tabbaneh neighborhood.
