A donkey loaded with explosives was remotely blown up close to a police vehicle in southern Afghanistan Thursday, killing a policeman and wounding three others, police said. The force of the blast flung the vehicle into a ditch several meters away in the southern city of Kandahar, a stronghold of the Taliban movement that is behind an increasing number of bombings in Afghanistan.
Flesh and parts of the donkey were scattered across the road, an AFP reporter at the scene said. "A policeman was killed, two policemen and a civilian were wounded in the blast," Kandahar Province police chief Mutihullah Qatah told AFP.
The animal had been tied to a pole and the explosives detonated remotely by suspected militants believed to be in a garden 50 meters away, police said.
Police arrested a man on suspicion of involvement in the attack, which Qatah blamed on the "enemies of Afghanistan," a term often used by officials to refer to Taliban insurgents.
The hard-line Taliban were in government between 1996 and 2001 and are waging an insurgency against the US-backed government of President Hamid Karzai that increasingly relies on bombings.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/24/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
That's not right. That's all wrong. Get PETA on the horn, buy these POS some cars.
Nine suspected Somali pirates have been captured by the French navy and handed over to regional officials in northern Somalia, the authorities there say. Patrolling French marines arrested the pirates in the Gulf of Aden after intercepting two boats on Wednesday, officials in Puntland said.
It comes as the International Maritime Bureau said the waters off Somalia were the world's worst for pirate attacks. Pirates believed they can act with impunity, the monitoring agency said.
Nato ships are expected in the region in the coming days to escort aid ships through the dangerous waters. But a spokesman said a precise time for the fleet's arrival could not be given because of delays caused by a violent storm that has sunk boats and killed livestock in northern Somalia.
'Robust action'
The crew of a French warship picked up the suspected pirates and handed them over to the authorities in semi-autonomous Puntland on Wednesday, Puntland's presidential adviser Bile Mohamoud Qabowsade said. He said eight suspects had been caught, although other reports put the figure at nine. "The pirates were on board two small boats when the French military arrested them. They dropped all their weapons in the water before they were caught," Puntland's deputy Fisheries Minister Abdukadir Muse Yusuf was quoted as saying by AFP news agency.
Many pirates are based in the Puntland town of Eyl. The authorities there had been accused of turning a blind eye but have recently stormed two ships seized by pirates and freed the crew.
France has launched two operations already this year to free French ships and crew seized by Somali pirates.
Pirates are still holding the Ukrainian ship, the MV Faina, and its cargo of tanks and military hardware, off the Somali coast. They demand $20m (£12m).
The International Maritime Bureau (IMB) said on Thursday that 63 of 199 incidents of piracy worldwide recorded in the first nine months of this year had taken place off east Somalia and the Gulf of Aden. This was double the 36 attacks blamed on Somali pirates out of 198 worldwide in the same period last year, the bureau added. "Piracy attacks off the coast of Somalia are unprecedented," said IMB director Pottengal Mukundan. "It is clear that pirates in the Gulf of Aden believe that they can operate with impunity in attacking vessels."
He said the extension of attacks from eastern Somalia into the Gulf of Aden now threatened a vital trade route between Asia and Europe. International naval forces patrolling the region must take greater action to prevent future attacks, he said. "What is required is robust action against the pirates' mother ships before they succeed in hijacking vessels," he said. "The locations and descriptions of these mother ships are known."
'Self-defence measures'
The flotilla of seven Nato frigates and destroyers is due in the area "sometime in the next four or five days", a spokesman said. He said the fleet will then split, with three or four carrying on with their original plan to conduct exercises with the Gulf States, while the result continue to Somalia. The ships will escort World Food Programme ships carrying aid into Somalia, and provide a general deterrent.
Chief Nato spokesman James Appathurai said the crew would have a "full range of self-defence" measures at their disposal, including the "use of force". But he admitted "what they are trying to do is complicated".
"There are a host of pirates, but they don't identify themselves with eye-patches and hook hands so it isn't immediately obvious that they are pirates." He said the rules of engagement should be agreed and finalised in the next day or two.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/24/2008 00:00 ||
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#2
"The locations and descriptions of these mother ships are known."
"Chief Nato spokesman James Appathurai said the crew would have a "full range of self-defence" measures at their disposal, including the "use of force". But he admitted "what they are trying to do is complicated".
Please James, explain the "complications" if you will.
#3
"There are a host of pirates, but they don't identify themselves with eye-patches and hook hands so it isn't immediately obvious that they are pirates."
#5
Please James, explain the "complications" if you will.
The unified communications and inter-work structure is there. What lacks is a unified NATO policy as yet wrt dealing with the pirates. Likely 4-5 different ROEs and operating procedures as a result.
Think 'Mogadishu redux' or the Europeans in Afghanistan.
#7
They're still not serious about putting a permanent stop to this sh$$. One six-ship ARCLIGHT strike down through the center of Eyl would get their attention, permanently. These people only have one way to operate - join with the strongest power. Until we show these idiots that we're quite willing to destroy both them and their grandmother's grave, they'll continue to harass us around the edges. A 10MT nuke on the center of Riyadh would get the same result, but be a lot messier. If we don't do the simple things, we'll end up having to do the messy things. It's well past time to stop playing games.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/24/2008 14:02 Comments ||
Top||
DEVELOPING: A passenger aboard a domestic Russian flight has hijacked the aircraft and ordered it to divert to Vienna, according to Russian law enforcement, Reuters reported.
"At 5.20 p.m. one of the passengers on a flight from Adler to Moscow cried 'Allah Akbar' and announced that the flight had been hijacked and demanded to change the course from Vnukovo (airport outside Moscow) to Vienna," Reuters quotes Russian news sources as reporting.
Emergency vehicles are on their way to Vnukovo Moscow airport.
Maybe if the Russians elected Obama everyone would love them and they wouldn't have this stuff happening.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain ||
10/24/2008 10:55 ||
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#1
why vienna?
Posted by: chris ||
10/24/2008 14:05 Comments ||
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#2
All over...
MOSCOW A passenger threatened to blow up a Moscow-bound airliner and demanded it change course but was overpowered and the plane landed safely, Russian news agencies reported Friday.
The plane, belonging to the Russian low-fare airline Sky Express, was flying from the Black Sea resort city of Sochi when a passenger demanded it head to Vienna, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency citing airline spokesman Vitaly Korenyugin.
The Interfax agency, citing an unidentified law enforcement source, said that the passenger shouted "Allahu Akhbar" and threatened to blow up the Boeing 737 with about 130 people aboard.
Ah, Allahu Akhbar. Translates in Russian to "Please beat the shit outta me". In English too, for that matter
Reports said the man was overpowered by people aboard the plane, but there were no immediate details.
...and so they did.
The RIA-Novosti news agency quoted an unnamed representative of the Federal Security Service as saying the disruptive passenger had been identified and that he was believed to have a record of mental illness.
#6
Judging from the historical lack of Russian sense of humor about these things, I expect that shortly, he will find himself tied to a gurney being pushed towards a large furnace.
#10
ION RUSSIA, WORLD MILITARY FORUM [China= paraph] > RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION TO VERIFY RUMORS/STATE OF CHINESE IMMIGRATION. Approxi 8.0Milyuhn alleged Chinese emigres to Russia may become 44.0Milyuhn by Year 2020, or roughly 1/3 of future population of Russia as per demographic trends.: + RUSSIAN SIBERIAN REGION NOW HEAVILY DEPENDENT ON CHINESE LABOR, MERCANTILISM FOR DEVELOPMENT.
You know, you've gotten drunk enough to get on an aeroflot plane, you go through all that security hassle, and then while you're sitting in this seat in coach you've been crowbarred into, some of the vodka starts wearing off and you realize you're on your way to Moscow... Vienna probably just seemed a lot more fun.
A car bomb in the Croatian capital Zagreb has killed two journalists, including Ivo Pukanic, the owner of a leading weekly newspaper, reports say. Mr Pukanic, 47, was killed with Nacional weekly newspaper's marketing executive, Niko Franic, in the blast outside the newspaper's premises.
There is no indication who was behind the attack, which occurred in central Zagreb at about 1820 (1620 GMT). The city has been gripped by a wave of violence this year.
President Stipe Mesic said the bomb, which was reportedly planted underneath Mr Pukanic's Lexus, meant "terrorism has become a fact on the streets of our capital".
"The state is faced with an unprecedented challenge from the criminal circles," he said. "Now it is them or us... rule of law and safety of citizens against criminals, terrorists and mafia."
Nacional is an investigative paper that often exposes corruption and human rights abuses. Mr Pukanic, who was also the paper's editor-in-chief, had spoken out about a plot to assassinate him earlier this year.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/24/2008 00:00 ||
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A Paris criminal court convicted nine people on Thursday including a French-Algerian former prison inmate who admitted establishing an Islamic group that called for armed jihad in France. Safe Bourada, 38, was sentenced to 15 years in prison while eight others received penalties of one to nine years on charges linked to financing of and association with a terror group.
Bourada admitted in court to creating a militant group called "Ansar al-Fath," or Partisans of Victory. The group was suspected of planning attacks on the Paris Metro and Orly airport. It was dismantled in 2005 after French authorities received a tip from Algerian counterparts.
In 2005, Christophe Chaboud, head of the counterterrorism unit of the national police, told The Associated Press that the group had had "indirect" contacts with Iraq's former al-Qaida leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed in a U.S. airstrike in June 2006 in Diyala province.
The court ruled that one of the group's members -- Kaci Ouarab, 31 -- had received weapons training in Lebanon in 2005 that was designed to help carry out bombings in France. Ouarab, who the court considered "the natural, legitimate and even operational successor" of Bourada, was sentenced to nine years without the possibility of parole for at least six.
Kais Melliti, 36, considered an important organizing and financial operative, was given eight years _ without the possibility of parole for at least two-thirds of that term. Another suspect, Djamel Badaoui, 31, was sentenced to five years. The court ruled he was in charge of "seizing goods" _ notably by extorting money from prostitutes on three occasions, to fund terror attacks.
Two French converts to Islam _ Stephane Hadoux, 40, and Emmanuel Nieto, 34, _ were given three-year sentences, half of which were suspended by the court.
Bourada was one of 36 Islamic militants convicted a decade ago for providing support for bombings that terrorized France in 1995. He received a 10-year term, but won early release in 2003 under police surveillance. Under Thursday's verdict, he will not be eligible for parole for at least 10 years.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/24/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
The group was suspected of planning attacks on the Paris Metro
Recommend "attacking" with stiff bristled brushes and cases of Clorox Toilet Bowl Cleanser with Bleach, the handly 24 oz size would do. Then authorize the Nationale police to shoot the first bugger who pisses in a stairwell! Time to return the historic Metro to it's original grandeur. Viva La France!
BARA: The personnel of the paramilitary Khasadar Force ran for their life as militants driving in two vehicles stormed their checkpost in Sakhi Bridge area in the wee hours of Thursday and abducted five people including one of their colleagues.
Over a dozen militants driving two double cabin pick-ups attacked the Khasadar checkpost on Sakhi Bridge, located on the border between Peshawar city and Jamrud tehsil of Khyber agency.
The personnel on duty ran immediately after spotting two vehicles speeding towards their check post, an eyewitness told The News, adding that the fleeing personnel of the Khasadar Force took shelter in the surrounding houses.
However, the source added that the militants took away with them a guard, an employee of the mineral department and an official of the paramilitary Khasadar Force along with his two companions who were allegedly loading smuggled flour in their truck at that time.
Luckily Muslim Khan, a police constable, who was already in the custody of the militants, jumped from the vehicle of the militants and escaped. Muslim Khan got his both legs fractured in the incident.
Posted by: john frum ||
10/24/2008 07:18 ||
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#1
Those boys really covered themselves in glory. Surely some medals are in the offing
Posted by: john frum ||
10/24/2008 7:21 Comments ||
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#2
Wonder if they ever thought too fire at the drivers? And what do they think would happen if they fired upon US forces entering their teritory
Posted by: chris ||
10/24/2008 10:11 Comments ||
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#3
A somewhat OT thought : shouldn't the India-pakistan category be breaken up in "India-Kashmire" and "pakistan"? As it is now, it's kinda like lumping the aggressor and the aggressed together, not to mention that sometimes, it's counter-intuitive to know if a given "lurid crime tales" or something in the lines happened in Inida or in pakiland.
#5
ION INDIA-PAKIS > CAPTURED ISLAMIST MILITANTS NAME RAW INDIAN AGENCY AS SPONSOR OF SUICIDE, TERROR ATTACKS IN PAKISTAN, in collusion wid Afghan Secret Agency. India allegedly secretly funneling Milyuhns and Zilyuhns of Rupees = Rs denomin, or 630Milyuhn Rs, to suppr anti-Paki terror activities.; + INDIA'S INTERVENTIONIST POLICIES IN NEIGHBORING COUNTRIES [e.g. Sri Lanka, Burma, Bangla, Afghanistan, China], + INDIA HAS THE MOST NUMBER OF SEPARATIST ORGZ/MOVEMENTS IN ASIA AND THE WORLD!?
A senior al Qaeda operational commander is believed to have been killed recently in Pakistan's South Waziristan region, several U.S. officials told CNN Wednesday. The officials identified the man as Khalid Habib, who is considered to have been an operations coordinator for al Qaeda in the tribal region along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border where al Qaeda leaders, including Osama bin Laden, are believed to be hiding. One official described him as the "chief of external operations" for al Qaeda.
Officially, the U.S. intelligence assessment is that Habib was "probably" killed last Thursday, because there is no final DNA match, but there is every reason to believe he was killed, the officials said. Local groups in Pakistan also reported his death over the weekend.
The U.S. officials would not confirm Habib's apparent death was the result of a missile strike by a U.S. Predator unmanned drone.
But a Pakistani intelligence official and eyewitnesses reported October 16 that unmanned planes fired missiles over the village of Saam, in Wana -- the capital of South Waziristan -- killing at least four civilians and wounding seven others.
The United States, which has a presence in Afghanistan, is the only country operating in the region known to have the capability to launch missiles from drones, which are controlled remotely.
Did they check with the Ruritanians ...
At the time, U.S. Forces Afghanistan in Kabul had no comment on such strikes, as part of its standing policy.
One U.S. official described Habib Wednesday as "one of the top figures" in al Qaeda, who is believed to have had direct contact with bin Laden in the past. He's also believed to be a key deputy to Mustafa Abu Al Yazid, also known as "Sheikh Said," who is the commander of the al Qaeda in Afghanistan.
A source in Pakistan told CNN it is believed Habib replaced the previous operational chief, Abu-Laith al-Libi, who was killed several months ago.
This article starring:
Abu-Laith al-Libi
Khalid Habib
Posted by: Fred ||
10/24/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
A new Cobra commander. The reason he wears a mask is because it is a different guy every month.
#2
Funny you should say that. The parallels are there. Other games like C&C with the drug growing bad guys forget their names lead by Kain are another. Life imitating (er) art?
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
10/24/2008 5:16 Comments ||
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#3
The Brotherhood of Nod will not forget you Anonymouse!
WANA (APP): Five children were killed and two injured when an undefused mortar shell exploded in a house at Azam Worsk here in South Waziristan Agency on Thursday. According to sources in political administration, the children of Malik Zayid Ullah Wazir were playing with an undefused bomb brought by them from nearby fields, which suddenly went-off.
As result of which five children died instantly while two others sustained injuries. The injured were shifted to the Agency's Headquarters hospital, Wana.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/24/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Probably nother metal salvage accident. Happens all too often in war zones past and current.
(APP): The ground and air strikes carried out by the security forces killed at least 35 extremists in parts of Bajaur agency on Thursday, Frontier Constabulary (FC) source told. The jet planes continued targeting hideouts of the militants at Loi Sam, Charmang and other areas of the volatile agency. According to official sources the dead also included some important extremist commanders.
Ground forces also pounded militants' positions with cannon fire and mortar guns last night. Moreover, military planes also targeted a suspected hideout of local Taliban commander Maulvi Omer in Badan killing eight of his associates.
Meanwhile, curfew has been imposed in Sadiqabad, Sunday Morr and Nawakaly areas of agency headquarters Khar. The security forces took control of various areas of the agency and are constantly making advancements.
The house of Maulvi Omer has already been destroyed in the earlier operation in Bajaur agency.
The law enforcing agencies have strengthened their positions in strategically important Loisam in Tehsil Khar and established check-posts in its surrounding areas to counter the entry of unwanted elements and check the movement of militants.
The house of Taliban commander, Qari Gul Raz is among the houses put on fire by the tribal laskhar. The laskhar also torched the house of another militant commander at Sor Dag area.
The Salarzai tribal Jirga has imposed ban on the entry of relatives of militants and warned that strict action would be taken against those tribesmen, who provided shelters to heirs or family members of Taliban besides imposing a heavy fine of Rs.2million.
Political Agent Shafeerullah Khan lauding the action taken by tribesmen against hardened militants and Talibans in Bajaur Agency vowed that Bajaur Agency would be again converted into cradle of peace.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/24/2008 00:00 ||
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Taliban killed at least eight pro-government Ferozkhel tribal elders in an ambush in Orakzai Agency on Thursday. The victims were returning from a jirga to discuss strategies for combating Taliban in the agency when their vehicle was stopped in the Babraki Ziarat area on the Oblana-Kohat road, local official Ahmed Khan said. "Armed Taliban stopped their vehicle, ordered the tribesmen to come out and shot them dead one by one," he said. Sixteen Taliban had been made hostage and two killed in recent clashes with the Ferozkhel tribal militia. Taliban have not accepted responsibility so far.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/24/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
this would be that truce we had an article about yesterday?
The U.S. military on Thursday gave Iraqi authorities control of security in most of the "Triangle of Death," an area south of Baghdad that has seen a dramatic turnaround.
But in a sign of continuing instability, a suicide bomber in Baghdad tried to assassinate Iraq's labor minister, slamming an explosives-laden sport-utility vehicle into an official convoy and killing nine people, authorities said. The minister, Mahmoud al-Sheikh Radhi, escaped injury. The blast occurred in what is regarded as one of the safest areas of Baghdad, just 200 yards from the entrance to the heavily guarded Green Zone, which includes the U.S. Embassy and the office of the prime minister.
Violence overall has decreased sharply in Iraq in the past year, and U.S. authorities have been eager to transfer security responsibilities to the Iraqi security forces they have been trying to rebuild since the toppling of Saddam Hussein in 2003.
On Thursday, the province of Babil became the 12th of Iraq's 18 provinces in which the responsibility for security was passed to domestic forces. Most of what was called the "Triangle of Death" was located within its borders. Thousands of people have been killed in sectarian clashes in the mostly Sunni Arab area in the past five years. "Today's security handover is the fruit of the victory over al-Qaeda," Babil's governor, Salim al-Musilmawi, said, referring to the mostly domestic group al-Qaeda in Iraq, according to the Associated Press. He credited members of the Sons of Iraq, a U.S.-paid group of mostly Sunni fighters who broke with the insurgents and allied with American forces.
Lt. Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III, the No. 2 U.S. commander in Iraq, called the transfer a "milestone," noting that the number of attacks in the province had fallen 80 percent from an average of 20 per week last year. But he noted that "while the enemies of Iraq are down, they are not necessarily defeated," the AP reported.
The approximately 3,800 U.S. troops in the province will remain to train Iraqi security forces and to assist if violence spikes and the Iraqi authorities request assistance, U.S. military officials said.
Under the Iraq strategy announced by President Bush in January 2007, security for all of Iraq's provinces was to be transferred by November of that year. U.S. military officials have said the process was delayed because if the inability of the Iraqi police to handle the responsibility.
The United States has not yet ceded control of security in Baghdad, which has been plagued by explosions. Officials have tried to prevent car bombings by setting up checkpoints and turning the city into a honeycomb of blast walls that limit the movement of vehicles. But while bombings at mosques and other crowded places have declined, assailants have turned to assassinations, officials say.
The attack against Radhi occurred during the morning rush hour, when a gray 1979 Toyota Land Cruiser slammed into his official motorcade in Tahrir Square in central Baghdad and exploded, authorities said. The minister is a member of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, a major Shiite coalition partner of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
The blast killed nine people and wounded 26, according to Maj. Gen. Qassim Atta, the top spokesman for Iraqi military operations in Baghdad. Among the dead were three of the minister's bodyguards, including his nephew, according to a statement from the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs. The explosion blew a hole in the street, sheared chunks of brick off buildings and damaged many cars in the area. The windows of stores surrounding the square were shattered, and glass carpeted the sidewalks.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/24/2008 00:00 ||
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Aswat al-Iraq: Iraqi army on Thursday announced its troops arrested three al-Qaeda-linked group gunmen in a military operation conducted in Ninewa. "An Iraqi army force captured a gunman from self-proclaimed Iraq's Islamic State during a security operation conducted in Eden district, east Mosul," a Ninewa military source told Aswat al-Iraq. "The force captured two more gunmen after tips confessed by the first detainee," the source noted.
Self-proclaimed Iraq's Islamic State is a mantle for a number of Sunni groups. Al-Qaeda network in Iraq is one of major founders.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/24/2008 00:00 ||
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Aswat al-Iraq: The U.S. army on Thursday announced its forces arrested ten "Special Groups" suspects during raid operations conducted in Baghdad. "Coalition forces continue to degrade the Special Groups network with the capture of three suspects Thursday morning during two separate operations in New Baghdad," said a U.S. army statement received by Aswat al-Iraq. "Coalition forces have apprehended seven Special Groups criminals," the announcement noted.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/24/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
We're at it again. Nabbed, arrested, captured. Interview - cull intel. FT! The headlines should start reading: SHOT DEAD
#4
It is my understanding that there is.... alot of hang'ns going on in the Iraqi justice system of late. Of course I would personally never attempt to attribute a downturn in violence to capital punishment.
#6
Kinda hard to be a recidivist when you're hangin' by your scrawny neck from a rafter, with nothin' but ten feet of air below your feet. I know a few politicians...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/24/2008 14:15 Comments ||
Top||
#7
It is my understanding that there is.... alot of hang'ns going on in the Iraqi justice system of late.
Besoeker,
Last year the MNF news releases contained regular summaries of judicial results of terror trials but they seem to have stopped.
Aswat al-Iraq: At least two civilians were killed and two others wounded when a mortar round fell into their house in Wassit on Thursday, a security source said. "The victims from the same family were inside their home in al-Falahiya district, east Kut when a mortar struck the house," a Wassit security house told Aswat al-Iraq. "Police sealed off the accident area and file an urgent investigation," the source added.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/24/2008 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.
Nine suspected Somali pirates have been captured by the French navy and handed over to regional officials in northern Somalia, the authorities there say. Patrolling French marines arrested the pirates in the Gulf of Aden after intercepting two boats on Wednesday, officials in Puntland said. 
A Paris criminal court convicted nine people on Thursday including a French-Algerian former prison inmate who admitted establishing an Islamic group that called for armed jihad in France. Safe Bourada, 38, was sentenced to 15 years in prison while eight others received penalties of one to nine years on charges linked to financing of and association with a terror group.
A senior al Qaeda operational commander is believed to have been killed recently in Pakistan's South Waziristan region, several U.S. officials told CNN Wednesday. The officials identified the man as 
(APP): The ground and air strikes carried out by the security forces killed at least 35 extremists in parts of Bajaur agency on Thursday, Frontier Constabulary (FC) source told. The jet planes continued targeting hideouts of the militants at Loi Sam, Charmang and other areas of the volatile agency. According to official sources the dead also included some important extremist commanders. 
The U.S. military on Thursday gave Iraqi authorities control of security in most of the "Triangle of Death," an area south of Baghdad that has seen a dramatic turnaround. 
Aswat al-Iraq: Iraqi army on Thursday announced its troops arrested three al-Qaeda-linked group gunmen in a military operation conducted in Ninewa. "An Iraqi army force captured a gunman from self-proclaimed Iraq's Islamic State during a security operation conducted in Eden district, east Mosul," a Ninewa military source told Aswat al-Iraq. "The force captured two more gunmen after tips confessed by the first detainee," the source noted. 
Aswat al-Iraq: The U.S. army on Thursday announced its forces arrested ten "Special Groups" suspects during raid operations conducted in Baghdad. "Coalition forces continue to degrade the Special Groups network with the capture of three suspects Thursday morning during two separate operations in New Baghdad," said a U.S. army statement received by Aswat al-Iraq. "Coalition forces have apprehended seven Special Groups criminals," the announcement noted.
