#14
Happy New Year, all. Let us hope that someone in the US Military has the cojones this year to tell BO what needs to be done to win in Afghanistan, and how certain actions (ARCLIGHT!) can change the complexion of Somalia. I will continue to HOPE that things CHANGE for the better for all of us. In the meantime, a little prayer now and then can do wonders.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/01/2009 13:00 Comments ||
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#15
Happy New Year! Drink up!
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/01/2009 13:01 Comments ||
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#25
I'm with OP on the ARCLIGHT thing, never even been near one, but it sounds like some folk would learn some manners and respect, instead of lying like taqiya b'stards.
And, no, I never got a New Year snog, Miss Blondie, Isa still looking for a volunteer, all the English girls sit on their hands, lol!
International military forces helping Afghanistan to fight Islamic extremists said Wednesday they had killed 17 militants in separate operations.
The US military said troops under its command had killed 11 militants Tuesday in an operation against the radical Hizb-e-Islami faction led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, about 60 kilometers from the capital, Kabul. The battle was fought in the Sarobi district, where militants killed 10 French soldiers in August in the deadliest ground battle for international soldiers since the invasion of Afghanistan by US-led forces in 2001.
The US attack in Sarobi targeted a Hizb-e-Islami leader wanted for trafficking weapons and fighters and for carrying out attacks, the US military said in a statement. The militants had opened fire on approaching troops, it said. "Coalition forces returned fire and killed two of the militants. Still receiving fire, coalition forces engaged the militants with close-air precision munitions and killed the remaining nine militants," it said, referring to air strikes. Weapons, ammunition and other military equipment found at the scene were destroyed, the statement said.
Meanwhile, the separate NATO-led force said that its aircraft on a combat-escort mission had spotted "eight insurgents with weapons moving into fighting positions" in eastern Afghanistan Tuesday. "The aircraft engaged the insurgents, killing six," it said.
There were allegations that some civilians were hurt in the strikes, the International Security Assistance Force said, adding that it was investigating, but it had clear evidence the aircraft fired at "enemy insurgents."
Also Wednesday, French Defense Minister Herve Morin arrived in Kabul for a New Year visit with French soldiers in the NATO-led force. Morin was also due to meet Afghan President Hamid Karzai, and to visit a French-funded mother-and-children's hospital in the capital. He will also take part in a military outreach operation with Afghan civilians and join French troops at one of their forward operating bases for the New Year's Eve celebration. On Thursday Morin is scheduled to fly to a large military base outside the southern city of Kandahar, where France has stationed six Mirage 2000 fighter jets to support US and NATO-led troops on the ground.
This article starring:
Sarobi district
French Defense Minister Herve Morin
GULBUDIN HEKMATYAR
Hizb-e-Islami
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2009 00:00 ||
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NATO is seeking to seal an agreement with Moscow to allow the military alliance to fly equipment over Russian airspace to Afghanistan, an official said Wednesday. "Both sides are already aware of the fact that an air agreement would be desirable," the NATO official told AFP.
The talks "at many levels" are able to take place now following the end of a four-month freeze the alliance imposed after Moscow sent troops into Georgia. Envoys from NATO and Russia are set to hold top-level talks next month where the question could be raised. Moscow agreed in April to allow "non-lethal" NATO supplies to transit Russian territory by land on its way to Afghanistan.
This must be done largely by train and involves obtaining similar transit agreements with other countries in the region such as Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan, the official said. "This is part of the Russian-NATO cooperation regarding Afghanistan. We have the land agreement and now of course one important thing is also to have an air transit agreement." Some individual countries, including Germany, already have such an agreement for supplies to Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2009 00:00 ||
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Ethiopian troops who have been propping up Somalia's interim government since invading two years ago were packing up to leave the country on Wednesday amid fears their departure will allow a strengthening Islamic insurgency to take over. But it was unclear when the thousands of soldiers would actually depart.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2009 00:00 ||
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Army troops at Kaous municipality, 15km from Jijel downtown, have eliminated a terrorist at an ambush at a mountainous road through the mountain of Bouhenech, a security source said. The terrorist was surprised by the Army troops opening fire on him. A Kalashnikov has been seized, while the security services are still investigating his identity.
In the meantime, a terrorist group composed of 4 elements in Tipaza central province, have managed stealing 9 cows near Menacer municipality.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2009 00:00 ||
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A Saudi Web site says that a popular radical cleric who urged Muslims to target Israeli interests around the world was arrested.
Saudi security officials were not available for comment Wednesday. The site, Rasid, posts news about Saudi Arabia's Shiite community and has reliable contacts within both the Sunni and Shi'ite religious community. The site said Sheik Awadh al-Garni was detained Monday in connection with his recent fatwa, or religious edict.
Al-Garni had called on Muslims to avenge the attacks on Gaza by targeting Israeli interests "everywhere." Fatwas are not legally binding and it is up to individual Muslims to follow them. Al-Garni is popular but not a member of the official religious establishment.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Really? Doesn't this deserve the flying pig graphic?
#2
If he's Shia, he probably was arrested for something related to all the yoof riotings.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
01/01/2009 2:04 Comments ||
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#3
A Hyper fantasy for the New Year:
1) Sunnis use the current Israel-Hamas dance as an Islam-based excuse to oppose Shia governments, resulting in intra-Islam jihad focused between Sunni and Shia dominant countries, and finally rid the world of those dirty Shiite infidels! Inshralla! Allua akbar!
2) Temporarily relieved of the heartbreak of Mohameditis while Islamic jihadi-rage is turned inward until Shiites are no more, Western societies implement legal and militaristic measures designed to wage...
At least 82 people, mostly the activists and supporters of BNP, were injured in post-election violence in seven districts Tuesday night and yesterday.
Reports from different districts said over 20 people were injured in Patuakhali while 10 in Khulna, 12 in Kishoreganj, 14 in Satkhira, 15 in Thakurgaon, 10 in Natore and one at Jagangirnagar University.
Meanwhile, the officer-in-charge (OC) of Kuliarchar Police Station in Kishoreganj has been suspended for his negligence of duty as well as for his failure to control the post-polls law and order situation.
Assistant Inspector General (AIG-Media) Nazrul Islam told The Daily Star that the OC did not take proper measures to prevent the attack by the criminals. "It's a message to all police officials so that they do not neglect their duties," he said.
Khulna Correspondent adds: The lone elected BNP lawmaker from Khulna-2, Nazrul Islam Manju, yesterday urged AL leaders to stop attack on the supporters of four-party alliance in his constituency.
Addressing a press conference, Manju alleged that at least 10 supporters of BNP and Jamaat were injured in separate attacks by AL activists in the city since the announcement of Monday's polls results.
A correspondent from Kishoreganj reports: At least 20 to 30 AL activists attacked the houses of local BNP men in Kuliarchar and Katiadi upazilas Tuesday midnight and yesterday morning, leaving 12 injured.
The AL activists, led by Abul Mansur Rubel who is the younger brother of Kuliarchar upazila unit AL president Abul Hossain Liton, attacked the house of Nityalal Das, BNP president of ward no-3, at Daspara under Kuliarchar pourasava at about 5am.
The attackers ransacked the house of Nityalal and hacked him, leaving him critically injured. The group also beat up his mother, sister and wife as they tried to save Nityalal. The BNP leader was first taken to Zahurul Islam Medical College Hospital where he was shifted to Dhaka.
In another incident, six BNP men were injured by AL workers at Parbacharparatala village in Katiadi upazila Tuesday midnight.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2009 00:00 ||
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(Xinhua) -- A car loaded with 100 kg of explosives exploded on Wednesday in Bilbao of northern Spain, causing considerable property damages but no casualties, local media reported.
The blast occurred in front of the facilities of Radiotelevision of Basque Country, shortly after an anonymous call in the name of the Basque separatist organization ETA sounded a bomb alert, local police was quoted as saying.
The building affected by the explosion accommodates the offices of daily newspapers El Mundo, Deia, Marca and Expansion, radio station Onda Cero, and TV channel Antena 3.
The Spanish Interior Ministry said that ETA's target was the Basque Radiotelevision, as shown by some ETA documents seized by the ministry earlier in the year.
The bomb was planted on a stolen car, whose owner was found to be tied to a tree near Bilbao.
According to official information, ETA killed 14 people in 17 attacks in 2008.
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said on Wednesday that "ETA will lose all the battles," while opposition leader Mariano Rajoy of the Popular Party echoed that "the Spanish society will defeat ETA."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2009 00:00 ||
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Federal authorities have charged an Iraqi-born Canadian citizen with conspiring to spy for the former regime of Saddam Hussein while allegedly working at the Iraqi embassy in Washington, in the second such case to emerge in a week.
The U.S. Justice Department filed a criminal complaint in Maryland against Muyad Mahmud Darwish, a Canadian citizen born in Iraq, alleging he was paid by the Iraqi government and the Iraqi Intelligence Service (IIS) for providing assistance and information.
Last week, Saubhe Jassim al-Dellemy, an Iraqi national living in Maryland, pleaded guilty to the same charges.
Both Darwish, 47, and Dellemy, 67, face a maximum five-year prison sentence for conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government. They are not accused of seeking or obtaining classified information. Neither one was ever recognized by the U.S. government as an Iraqi government diplomatic or consular officer.
The agency said in a statement that the charges were backed by confidential IIS documents seized by the U.S. military after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
In one incident described by an IIS document, Darwish, who lived in Maryland, reported that Iraqi volunteers were being trained by the US military in Virginia.
Darwish was detained in Buffalo, New York on Dec. 24 after trying to enter the United States from Canada, where he resides. He was scheduled to appear in a Buffalo court on Tuesday for a detention hearing. Dellemy is scheduled for sentencing on March 5.
This article starring:
Muyad Mahmud Darwish
Saubhe Jassim al-Dellemy
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
It's a bitch spying for a fallen regime that kept good records. See: "East Germany" and "Iraq"
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/01/2009 8:08 Comments ||
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A US judge refused to release two Guantanamo terrorism suspects on Tuesday and upheld the government's authority to keep them, after ordering freedom last month for five prisoners whose case led to a landmark Supreme Court ruling.
Federal District Court Judge Richard Leon said in two separate rulings the government had shown enough evidence to justify holding Yemeni citizen Moath Hamza Amhed Al Alwi and Tunisian Hisham Sliti as "enemy combatants" linked to al Qaeda or Taliban forces. The Bush administration welcomed the rulings, but the American Civil Liberties Union expressed concern over potential precedents. "This decision raises serious concerns given the reliance on classified evidence and the very broad definition of detention authority that it contains," American Civil Liberties Union attorney Jonathan Hafetz said.
Alwi and Sliti said the US government has illegally held them for seven years at the US Naval base on Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. About 250 terrorism suspects remain at the Guantanamo prison, and most are contesting their confinement after the Supreme Court in June ruled that they have a constitutional right to do so.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2009 00:00 ||
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Harkatul Mujahideen district Commander Bilal Ahmad has been killed in an encounter with the Army at Sopore in Baramulla district of J&K. One more terrorist is still holed up and the encounter is on.
This is an Indian-style encounter, not an RAB-style encounter.
Two army personnel were killed in an encounter with six suspected Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorists which continued for the second day on Thursday in the Poonch sector close to the Line of Control.
The deceased have been identified as Subedar Rakesh Kumar and Nayak A P Singh of Rashtriya Rifles, Army sources said. The six terrorists that included JeM local commander Abu Dawood have been encircled by the security forces amidst intermittent gunfire. The gunbattle was on till the last reports came in.
The encounter took place in the backdrop of Indo-Pak tensions following evidence that the November 26 Mumbai terror attacks originated from Pakistan.
Meanwhile, two pistols with its three magazines and 50 rounds of ammunition of pika guns were recovered in Nangali forest area in the same border district, the sources said.
Posted by: john frum ||
01/01/2009 16:39 ||
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GUWAHATI: Five people were killed and at least 20 wounded, six of them critically, when serial explosions rocked busy market places and other areas in Assam's main city of Guwahati on New Year's day on Thursday. "The nature of the explosives is not immediately known although it appears to be some improvised explosive device," the police official said. He said in two of the instances, bombs were planted on parked bicycles.
"We suspect it to be the handiwork of the ULFA (United Liberation Front of Asom)," Deputy Inspector General of Assam police G.P. Singh said. The blasts took place ahead of home minister P Chidambaram's visit to the state. At least 12 people were injured when a suspected cycle bomb exploded at Bhootnath locality, which falls on the route Chidambaram was to take, shortly before his arrival here on a visit.
Three persons were injured in a blast outside a Big Bazar retail chain outlet at Bhangagarh, an upmarket commercial area near Guwahati Medical College. Earlier, an Improvised Explosive Devise (IED) kept in a municipal corporation dustbin went off at around 3.30 pm leaving three persons wounded. The injured admitted to the hospital were identified as Altaf Ali, Fatema Begum and Raul Ali, official sources said. The dustbin was kept near a TB hospital. The state witnessed serial blasts on October 30 killing 88 people.
Posted by: john frum ||
01/01/2009 09:21 ||
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#1
we need the 'geeze not this shit again' picture
Posted by: Abu do you love ||
01/01/2009 15:26 Comments ||
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Macro F8
A suspected U.S. missile strike by a drone aircraft destroyed a vehicle in northwest Pakistan on Thursday, killing at least three foreign militants, said intelligence officials. "This is OnStar. We received a signal that your airbags have deployed, oh...and your sunroof is open. Whoops, apparently your vehicle didn't have a sunroof..."
At least one local militant was wounded in the attack in the South Waziristan tribal region near the Afghan border, said the two officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media. "I can say no more"
The three militants killed Thursday were from a Central Asian country, said the officials without providing further details. They said they received information about the attack from local agents. Hmmmm Central Asian....
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/01/2009 08:09 ||
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CHENNAI: The 'Q' branch police on Tuesday arrested a 23-year-old Sri Lankan Tamil for helping the LTTE smuggle goods from the state. Dileepan, a native of Jaffna, was arrested from Red Hills and three satellite phones which he had brought from Switzerland were recovered from him. He landed in the police net after sleuths traced the calls he made to an LTTE organiser, Antony, who was under police detention.
Police had arrested Antony, also a Sri Lankan citizen, on Sunday from Madambakkam near Tambaram. The police team recovered eight pieces of GPS equipment, three satellite phones, two cell phone repeaters and 500 kg of ammonium nitrate from his house and also from his friend's house in Acharapakkam.
Dileepan, who left for Switzerland at the age 17, had been living in that country. He was working in a bakery there, where he got friendly with a person called Rome alias Johnson, police said. Johnson gave him three satellite phones and asked him to pass them on to a person called Ameer Antony in Chennai. Johnson, police said, has been a procurement agent for the LTTE.
Dileepan, who did not know that Antony has been in police detention since Sunday, tried to reach him on his mobile phone. Officers tracked down the call and arrested Dileepan.
Police sources said LTTE has some agents active in Switzerland through whom it was procuring electronic goods, which are first brought to Chennai. The goods are then taken to Sri Lanka by fishing boats from coastal hamlets
Posted by: john frum ||
01/01/2009 00:00 ||
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Taliban militants executed a man in a restive Pakistani tribal region near the Afghan border after accusing him of spying for the United States, an official said Wednesday. The bullet-riddled body of 28-year-old Mohammad Nawaz was found dumped on a roadside on Wednesday in the town of Mir Ali in North Waziristan.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
It doesn't matter whether he was actually a spy. All they have to do is kill some poor schmo they don't like, and call him a spy; it has the same deterrant effect on potential future spies.
#5
Did they do, lotp? I've only ever read about them, never saw one close enough to note details...unlike those either sending or receiving the dear little things. ;-)
Federal investigation agencies discovered important evidence about last week's suicide blast in Bunir and arrested six people on Wednesday, police said. The blast occurred during the by-election in NA-28 at a polling station on Sunday, killing at least 35 people. Investigators have recovered a shoe of the suicide bomber. They said the vehicle used in the blast was snatched from Karachi. They said 80 kilogrammes of explosive was used and hundreds of AK-47 bullets were packed in it to increase the intensity of the blast.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2009 00:00 ||
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Security forces have flushed out the Taliban from various areas of Salarzai tehsil and Khar area of Bajaur Agency, officials said on Wednesday. The areas cleared of Taliban presence include Arrang and Barrang in Utmankhel tehsil, Roghgan and Pashat in Salarzai tehsil and Khar area of Bajaur, they said. In other areas, security forces continued targeting Taliban positions with artillery and mortars, but there were no reports of casualties. A grand jirga of Mandal tribes held in Civil Colony, Khar, on Wednesday assured the government of support against the Taliban. The Bajaur assistant political agent said it was the responsibility of local people to thwart rocket and missile attacks from their areas on Khar and other locations of the agency.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2009 00:00 ||
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Security forces arrested 28 alleged Al Qaeda and Taliban 'facilitators' and demolished 19 houses including that of a senator as troops backed by helicopter gunships and tanks continued a major operation to secure the international highway in Khyber Agency that serves as a supply route for NATO forces in Afghanistan.
It was not clear if the arrested men would be tried under the Anti-Terrorism Act or tribal laws.
Security forces also arrested more than 100 Afghan nationals illegally living in Pakistan from Jamrud tehsil and deported them through the Torkham crossing point to Afghanistan, Khyber Agency Political Agent Tariq Hayat Khan told a news conference in Peshawar. "We are heading towards our goals," Khan said.
Security forces ensured during the operation that they avoid collateral damage, and hospital officials in Jamrud said they had not treated anyone with wounds on Wednesday. Five civilians had been reported dead during the operations on Tuesday. Khan regretted the civilian deaths and announced compensation for the victims' families.
The political administration imposed a curfew in the area and all roads leading to Jamrud were blocked for all traffic, causing problems for some commuters.
Pakistan has commuters?
Afghanistan-bound trucks carrying military and non-military goods for the NATO and American forces were stopped for the second day, as the operation against six outfits threatening the route continued.
"There was no resistance at all from the Taliban side as they seem to have gone underground," local residents said, amid heavy artillery fire heard in Peshawar.
Locals of Ghundi and Shahkas area said by telephone the security forces dynamited the mudhouse of Malik Attaullah amid a curfew in Ghundi. Attaullah is alleged to have provided shelter to the defunct Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan's local commander Mustafa Kamal Hijrat. Media reports said intelligence agencies arrested Hijrat last month, after he led several attacks on truck terminals in Peshawar.
Senator: The security forces also razed the house of Senator Nasir Khan following intelligence reports that he provided land to a private militia to set up a centre in Jamrud, administration sources said. "I will lodge strong protest against the forces' action against me," the enraged senator said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
This at least sounds like a good way to clear a supply route. It might be more effective with some US tanks and gunships though - you know, guys that hit what they aim at (and aim at what needs hitting.)
PESHAWAR: A series of massive blasts has been reportedly heard in Peshawar, the capital city of NWFP province on early Thursday, police sources reported. Police is trying to locate the exact scenes of blasts however, no casualty reports have so far been received in the incidents, police confirmed.
Posted by: john frum ||
01/01/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Last day of class at some girls schools?
Work accident at some bomb school (& secondaries)?
(AKI) - Five people were killed and several others were injured in bomb attacks in northern Iraq on Wednesday. In the largest attack, three people were killed when a car bomb exploded in a crowded market in the town of Sinjar, northwest of Mosul, near the Syrian border.
"The car bomb exploded at a market in central Sinjar city, west of Mosul, killing three and injuring four, including two policemen," a source told news agency, Voices of Iraq.
Sinjar, 120 kilometres northwest of Mosul, is inhabited by Yazidis, a religious minority whose followers are generally situated in northern Iraq.
According to the UN High Commission for Refugees, there are about 550,000 Yazidis in Iraq and concentrated in the district of Sinjar.
In a second attack on Wednesday, a bomb targeted a police patrol in Mosul. Two Iraqi civilians were killed and nine others were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded. No police were injured in the attacks.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2009 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Iraq
Aswat al-Iraq: Two Katyusha rockets were fired at a Multi-National Force (MNF) base near Kut city, a local source in Wassit's police said on Wednesday. "On Wednesday evening, the MNF's Camp Delta Base (15 km west of Kut city) was hit by a Katyusha rocket attack," the source told Aswat al-Iraq. The source did not reveal whether the attack has caused damage to the base.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2009 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Mahdi Army
#1
Time to kill us some more JAM insects, and some Iranian microbes. Can we still do that, as of midnight tonight?
#2
Can only use force now while under direct attack or with the cooperation and foreknowledge of the Iraqi government (and thus the warning and escape of the targetted bad guys.) Not sure how counter-battery fire fits in.
Aswat al-Iraq: One gunman was killed and another was wounded while they were trying to plant an improvised explosive device (IED) in southwestern Kirkuk city. "The incident occurred in Wahed Hozayran area, southwestern Kirkuk city," Brig. Sarhad Qadir told Aswat al-Iraq. "The wounded gunman is currently being interrogated," the officer said, providing no further details.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
So did you hear the one about the two jihadis who bombed at the improv?
Aswat al-Iraq: Two Iraqi policemen on Wednesday were wounded while trying to defuse an explosive charge in a Diala neighborhood, according to a local security source. "One of the cops is an explosives disposal expert," the source told Aswat al-Iraq. "The wounded were taken to a nearby hospital for treatment," the source noted, adding that the improvised explosive device (IED) went off in al-Hurriya neighborhood, downtown Saadiya district (155 km northeast of Baaquba).
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2009 00:00 ||
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Aswat al-Iraq: Police forces on Wednesday arrested 18 wanted persons and seized a large amount of arms and ammunition during security operations in different parts of Basra province, according to a local source. "Police forces conducted search raids in the areas of Shatt al-Arab, eastern Basra; Abi al-Khaseeb (20 km south of Basra city), and al-Zubeir district (35 km west of Basra)," the media office of Basra's police told Aswat al-Iraq. "Eighteen men, who are wanted on criminal and terror-related charges, were arrested during the raids," it noted. "One of those arrested was disguised in women's clothes," it added. "Two machine guns, Katyusha rockets and three boxes containing ammunition were seized during the raids," according to the office.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
"One of those arrested was disguised in women's clothes,"
A clear violation of transvestite rights! Notify the ICLU (Iraqi Civil Liberties Union)!
The IAF on Thursday bombed a building in the Jabalya refugee camp in Gaza, reportedly killing seven people, including senior Hamas leader and cleric Sheikh Nizar Rayyan, and injuring thirty others. Army Radio reported that according to Palestinian sources, his family was warned before the attack but did not leave the building.
Earlier, the IAF launched a quick-fire response shortly after a Grad-type missile slammed into the top floor of an Ashdod building. The army said that the air force struck both the Gaza terror cell that launched the projectile and the launching device. Several Hamas homes which were used to store weapons were also bombed in the afternoon air raid.
Since Thursday morning, the IAF struck over 20 targets, including rocket launching sites in northern Gaza, as well as tunnels and a car in the southern Gaza Strip, killing several Hamas operatives. In addition, the IAF bombed the homes of three senior Gaza terrorists.
One of the homes belonged to Mohammad Baroud, a top Popular Resistance Committees operative. The army said that Baroud was the head of all rocket cells in northern Gaza and that he was funded and supported by Hamas. The army said that there were anti-tank missiles, rockets and bombs in the home.
Another of the homes destroyed belonged to Hasim Drili, a northern Gaza Hamas operative. The army said that he had a manufacturing plant in his home for rockets, mortar shells and missiles.
The third home belonged to Tafik Abu Raf, a Hamas terror operative in the central Gaza Strip. The IDF said that he had a weapons laboratory in his house.
Not including Thursday's strikes, IAF warplanes have carried out some 500 sorties against Hamas targets, and helicopters have flown hundreds more combat missions in five days of raids, a senior Israeli military officer said Wednesday on condition of anonymity in line with military regulations.
More than 400 Gazans have been killed and more than 1,600 have been wounded since the start of the Gaza operation, Gaza health officials said. The UN said the Gaza death toll includes more than 60 civilians.
Meanwhile, IDF Infantry, Engineering Corps and Artillery Corps troops, as well as thousands of reserve soldiers, were awaiting an order to cross into the Strip in the event of a ground operation. The IDF said the imminent military action would be limited, but that it would involve a large number of ground forces, Israel Radio reported.
Military spokeswoman Maj. Avital Leibovich said preparations for a ground operation were complete. "The infantry, the artillery and other forces are ready. They're around the Gaza Strip, waiting for any calls to go inside," Leibovich said.
Also Thursday, government officials said that Israel was demanding international monitors as a key term of any future truce with Gaza factions. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who rebuffed a French proposal for a two-day timeout, won't agree to a truce unless international monitors take responsibility for enforcing it, the officials said. Something like UNIFIL, Ehud?
He had made this point in talks with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other world leaders who are pressing for an end to the violence, they added. The idea was floated before the offensive but did not gain traction because of the complications created by the existence of rival Palestinian governments in the West Bank and Gaza, defense officials said.
This article starring:
Popular Resistance Committees
Hasim Drili
Hamas
Military spokeswoman Maj. Avital Leibovich
Mohammad Baroud
Hamas
Sheikh Nizar Rayyan
Hamas
Tafik Abu Raf
Hamas
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2009 10:27 ||
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#1
In other words:
To the World: Put your bodies where your mouths are, or shut up.
Most sincerely yours,
Ehud Olmert,
democratically elected Prime Minister of Israel
on the other hand, the fact that any liberal has figured it out is a positive sign
Posted by: Abu do you love ||
01/01/2009 15:28 Comments ||
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#6
Olmert talked big last time, too. Ended up doing the same thing they always do. Drop some bombs and arty and called it a day. I'll be impressed when I see something intended to have long term effects.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
01/01/2009 15:43 Comments ||
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#7
IAF just knocked off another mosque that was being used for weapons storage and the like. This is the third or fourth mosque so destroyed.
The IDF had expected Hamas to be able to launch 200 or so rockets/day but the actual is averaging about 60-70 or so even with the cloudy weather which helps Hamas. Maybe they are saving their best shot to coincide with a ground invasion.
Stepping up the rhetoric in what has escalated into an all-out verbal war between Hamas and Egypt over the Gaza government's perceived responsibility for the devastating results of Operation Cast Lead, a senior Egyptian parliamentarian on Thursday accused Hamas leaders of abandoning the Palestinians of Gaza to their fate.
"Where are the Hamas leaders now, when the residents of Gaza are getting killed? All of Hamas's leadership is in bunkers"
"Where are the Hamas leaders now, when the residents of Gaza are getting killed? All of Hamas's leadership is in bunkers," Muhammad Bassiouny, the head of the parliament's foreign affairs and defense committee, charged in an interview with an Egyptian television channel.
Egyptian security forces were in pursuit of a Hamas terror cell that had recently infiltrated Egypt
Hamas leaders have largely gone underground since the IAF began its extensive bombing campaign of the Gaza Strip on Saturday and on Wednesday, Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) head Yuval Diskin said that many members of the organization's leadership echelon were hiding out in mosques and hospitals, some of them disguised as doctors and male nurses.
In a televised address to the Palestinian public on Wednesday evening - the first such appearance since violence flared six days ago - Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh derived confidence from his conviction that "the Arab people have proven the Palestinian issue is in their hearts."
Bassiouny, a former ambassador to Israel, scoffed at Haniyeh's faith in the Arab world's support, saying, "No one cares if all of the Palestinians are destroyed; what kind of talk is this?"
Bassiouny was also highly critical of Hamas for killing an Egyptian border guard on Sunday.
Meanwhile, the Egyptian daily Al-Ahram reported Thursday that Egyptian security forces were in pursuit of a Hamas terror cell that had recently infiltrated Egypt - for fear of a terror attack on Egyptian soil. According to the report, Egyptian authorities were also concerned over the possibility that the cell would try to target security forces along the Gaza border.
The paper reported that Egyptian forces had arrested 59 Palestinians in the city of Al Qantarah El Sharqiyya in the northeast of the country. The fugitives from Gaza were unarmed, the report said, but authorities were nevertheless taking steps to return them to the Strip.
#1
Bassiouny, a former ambassador to Israel, scoffed at Haniyeh's faith in the Arab world's support, saying, "No one cares if all of the Palestinians are destroyed; what kind of talk is this?"
Heh. The Paleos don't realize they are the turd in the punchbowl now.
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/01/2009 10:12 Comments ||
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#2
Hamas abandoning Gazans
Since when were Gazans anything but a tool and a means to an end for Hamas?
#3
Bassiouny, a former ambassador to Israel, scoffed at Haniyeh's faith in the Arab world's support, saying, "No one cares if all of the Palestinians are destroyed; what kind of talk is this?"
Finally, an Arab that will admit the truth - the Palestinians are only pawns in a game of "gotcha". This should be broadcast around the world.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/01/2009 13:37 Comments ||
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#4
This article backs up the point that I was trying to make yesterday. The exiled Hamas leadership needs Jihadi's and the Gazans need food, clothing, jobs, etc...marriage of necessity. The commonality being, they all want to kill Jews.
Now, they are off to divorce court. Too late, "Divorce not Approved", by the IDF.
Sheikh Nizar Ryyan, a senior Hamas leader and cleric was killed along with several others when an IAF aircraft dropped a bomb on his Jabalya home, Palestinian sources reported Thursday. We're running out of white raisins.
#1
gee. That's too bad for Hamas. But I keep logging on to see if the ground invasion has begun yet. I thought they would do it on New Years day when a good percentage of the world would not be paying attention. I thought they were really serious this time. Maybe I was wrong.
#2
You are probably right. They are like a tough woman in a down and dirty biker bar. Maybe it is best for them to not to pick a fight. But they can't leave and they can't stay. There are just no good options available. At least none that I can see.
#3
Not that I give a crap. But there seem to be some confusion concerning the correct spelling of his last name. Jpost and AP is spelling it as, Ryyan and CNN is spelling it as, Rayan.
Again, I don't give a crap. I would like a clarification for research purposes. Nizar Rayan is not listed as a "cleric" also, Rayan has the surname, Dr. (MD or PhD.)
#4
Israel assassinated a Hamas strongman Thursday in its first assault on the top leadership of Gaza's rulers, escalating a crushing aerial offensive even as it declared it was ready to launch a ground invasion.
The airstrike targeted the eight-story apartment building that was home to Nizar Rayan, 52, ranked among Hamas' top five decision-makers in Gaza. The attack killed 12 other people including two of Rayan's four wives and four of his 12 children, Palestinian health officials said. The Muslim faith allows men to have up to four wives.
In launching the campaign on Saturday, Israel made it clear that no one in Hamas was immune and Thursday's strike drove that point home. The airstrike blew a huge hole in the side of the building where Rayan lived and sent a thick plume of smoke into the air.
Hamas leaders went into hiding before Israel launched its operation, but Rayan was known for openly defying Israel.
Heh
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/01/2009 10:19 Comments ||
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#5
"but Rayan was known for openly defying Israel"
Now he can be known for openly being dead.
Enjoy eternity in HELL, asshole.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/01/2009 10:58 Comments ||
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#6
Remeber that Arabic is written in a different alphabet, Poison Reverse, and the names are being transliterated, based on what the writer is capable of hearing. I'm afraid there will never be perfect consensus on the proper spelling of such names. For that matter, think of the variation in spelling of Slavic names as ambitious but illiterate peasants emigrated to the U.S. Looking randomly in the Cincinnati telephone book, a city full of German rather than Slavic names, I find quite a few variations on a single name (Novak, Nowak, Novick, Nowacki, etc.), and the Poles use the Latin alphabet, not Cyrillic.
Security officials said that Rayyan was not only the religious leader of Hamas's military wing, Izzadin Kassam, but also one of their military commanders. He was often seen in uniform, and participated in military exercises. He was considered one of the most fanatical Hamas commanders, and was said to be close to Hamas terrorist Salah Shehadeh, who was killed by the IAF in 2002.
He was both the director and the financier of the 2004 terrorist attack at Ashdod's port which killed ten Israelis.
In October 2001, he sent his son to perpetrate a suicide attack in the Gush Katif settlement Elei Sinai, in which two young Israelis were killed.
Channel 10 reported that Rayyan had replaced Sheikh Ahmed Yassin as the organization's top clerical authority after Yassin's assassination in 2004.
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/01/2009 11:23 Comments ||
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#8
"In October 2001, he sent his son to perpetrate a suicide attack in the Gush Katif settlement Elei Sinai, in which two young Israelis were killed."
Way to go, Daddy. That'll show those Jooooooos.
Luckily, now you'll have eternity to sit in by the fire and explain to your son what a failure he was for killing only two Jooooooo.
Aren't family reunions heartwarming? *sniff*
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/01/2009 11:31 Comments ||
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#9
From Timesonline Mr Rayyan, a 52-year-old lecturer at Gazas Islamist University who was rated by some amongst Hamas's top decision makers, had mentored suicide bombers and would sometimes go on patrol with Hamas fighters.
#11
On eve of his death, Hamas leader Nizar Rayan predicted victory
THE day before a powerful blast sent his headless body flying out of his Gaza home, senior Hamas leader Nizar Rayan predicted that the Islamist movement would defeat Israel.
"God willing, Hamas will win," Rayan said in a vitriol-laden speech that the movement's television broadcast just after he, his four wives and two of his daughters were killed in the Israeli blitz of the Gaza Strip on Thursday.
Rayan, who was 51, is the most senior Hamas leader killed since Israel unleashed its massive bombardment on Saturday in response to persistent rocket fire from the enclave.
Israeli F-16 jets fired two missiles at Rayan's five-storey house in the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza. The powerful explosion hurled his decapitated body out into the street, according to witnesses.
"It was like an earthquake," a neighbour said of the massive blast.
A dozen neighbouring houses were destroyed or damaged in the explosion which killed 12 people in all and brought to 414 the death toll since "Operation Cast Lead" started.
The Israeli air force said the secondary blasts demonstrated the house was used for weapons storage, and claimed it was also a communication centre. "In addition, a tunnel was located under the house and was used for the escape of terror operatives," it said.
In the minutes following the strike, dozens of people rushed to the scene, pulling bodies from the rubble including those of the two girls, aged seven and 10.
A neighbour, Mohammed Al-Madhun, 75, watched flames emerging from his building but refused the leave.
"I want to die like Sheikh Nizar," he said, referring to the bearded Hamas commander's honorary title.
Rayan was a hardliner within the Islamist movement.
A few months after Hamas seized control of Gaza in June 2007, Rayan vowed at a Gaza City rally that the Islamists would also seize control in the Israeli-occupied West Bank which is administered by Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.
#13
Rayan's five-storey house in the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza
The guy had a five-storey house in a refugee camp? Was it one storey for each of his four wives and then a ground floor for communal gatherings? Or one storey for himself where he could get away from all the nagging?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/01/2009 13:01 Comments ||
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#14
Gateway has an update that sez all four naggers bought the farm with the headless Hamas Hamster
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/01/2009 13:03 Comments ||
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#17
THE day before a powerful blast sent his headless body flying out of his Gaza home, senior Hamas leader Nizar Rayan predicted that the Islamist movement would defeat Israel.
#18
Was it one storey for each of his four wives and then a ground floor for communal gatherings? Or one storey for himself where he could get away from all the nagging?
I doubt the wives of a hardcore Islamicist were free to nag. This was a guy who sent his son to suicide - you can be pretty sure he didn't hesitate to beat the women he married.
1st floor for the wives
2nd floor for young boys
3rd floor for goats
4th floor for sheep
5th floor for watching paleo rockets outbound as aphrodesiac prelude for the other floors and occasional gun seks
Posted by: Abu do you love ||
01/01/2009 15:11 Comments ||
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#20
Here is a compilation of interview blurbs from Bloomberg.
My favorite is, :
"...Abusada [a prof at Alazur U in Gaza which is loosely affiliated with Fatah] said Hamas had to bear some responsibility for the situation in Gaza because it had refused to renew the cease-fire with Israel and had boycotted national unity talks with Abbas. Even though there is some criticism of Hamas, you wont hear it now, he said. People feel this is not the time to criticize Hamas. Not when they are facing aggression from an enemy."
#21
GEO TV pakiwikiland says:
GAZA CITY: Senior Hamas leader Nizar Rayan was killed on Thursday with his four wives and 10 of his children in an Israeli air strike in Gaza, medics and witnesses said.
and 2 other people
#22
"God willing, Hamas will win," Rayan said in a vitriol-laden speech that the movement's television broadcast just after he, his four wives and two of his daughters were killed in the Israeli blitz of the Gaza Strip on Thursday.
#23
Translation error? - he actually said "Allah", and God didn't understand?
/discuss amongst yourselves, quiz in 1 hour
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/01/2009 20:19 Comments ||
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#24
Frank,
There is absolutely no error. The Hindu's are also known making similar statements. For example, if a family member of a Hindu family is sick, the quote "if it is the will of God, he or she will live but, if he or she dies, God is not God or God doesn't understand," is stated.
My understanding is that all religions quote "if is the the will of God then..." but, Christians refrain from quoting "God is not God or God doesn't understand" when the Christian doesn't get his or her way with God/Jesus.
Both Iran and its Hamas proxy in Gaza have been busy this Christmas week showing Christendom just what they think of it. But no one seems to have noticed.
On Tuesday, Hamas legislators marked the Christmas season by passing a Shari'a criminal code for the Palestinian Authority. Among other things, it legalizes crucifixion.
Hamas's endorsement of nailing enemies of Islam to crosses came at the same time it renewed its jihad. Here, too, Hamas wanted to make sure that Christians didn't feel neglected as its fighters launched missiles at Jewish day care centers and schools. So on Wednesday, Hamas lobbed a mortar shell at the Erez crossing point into Israel just as a group of Gazan Christians were standing on line waiting to travel to Bethlehem for Christmas.
While Hamas joyously renewed its jihad against Jews and Christians, its overlords in Iran also basked in jihadist triumphalism. The source of Teheran's sense of ascendancy this week was Britain's Channel 4 network's decision to request that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad give a special Christmas Day address to the British people. Ahmadinejad's speech was supposed to be a response to Queen Elizabeth II's traditional Christmas Day address to her subjects. That is, Channel 4 presented his message as a reasonable counterpoint to the Christmas greetings of the head of the Church of England.
Channel 4 justified its move by proclaiming that it was providing a public service. As a spokesman told The Jerusalem Post, "We're offering [Ahmadinejad] the chance to speak for himself, which people in the West don't often get the chance to see."
While that sounds reasonable, the fact is that Westerners see Ahmadinejad speaking for himself all the time. They saw him at the UN two years in a row as he called for the countries of the world to submit to Islam; claimed that Iran's nuclear weapons program is divinely inspired; and castigated Jews as subhuman menaces to humanity. Balance at the link.
The involvement of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in pushing a cease-fire indicates primarily the deep-seated differences between the Syria-Hamas-Iran axis and the Egypt-Saudi Arabia-Palestinian Authority axis. These two axes that now need an external mediator still cannot agree on Hamas' status.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who earlier this week outlined his plan, is willing to open the Rafah crossing on the condition there is a cease-fire and the crossing is operated by the PA with European observers, according to a 2005 agreement. Mubarak thus seeks to shrink Hamas down to a Palestinian faction that must first make peace with Fatah and the PA.
Saudi Arabia and Egypt seek to prevent Hamas not only setting the cease-fire terms, but gaining the status of a sovereign authority, an almost-government, undermining Mahmoud Abbas' authority and becoming an equal to Israel or any other partner in the cease-fire. Egypt is concerned that a separate cease-fire with Hamas, under Arab and international pressure, could be considered recognition of Gaza's separation from the West Bank, turning the Strip into a Syrian-Iranian satellite on Egypt's border.
In contrast, Syria with Iranian support sees Turkish brokering as a chance to achieve full partnership in the crisis management, and later, as a veto-holder over the rest of the Israel-Palestinian negotiations. So Erdogan's toughest job is to find a common denominator that will satisfy the rival axes and allow an Arab consensus regarding Hamas and Israel. Turkish sources say Erdogan has no plan or organized initiative, and he intends at this stage to hear both sides and locate points of agreement.
Hamas is opposed for the moment to the Egyptian plan that delegitimizes it as a governmental authority, and demands total control of the crossings, a cease-fire contingent on Israel stopping all "acts of aggression" and opening the crossings between Israel and Gaza.
Hamas can already chalk up a few achievements in this conflict. It didn't seek the cease-fire - Egypt, the Arab League, the Palestinian Authority and France are trying to convince it and Israel to accept one. Thus Hamas moves itself and Gaza from a local conflict between Israel and the organization into the international and inter-Arab arenas. Hamas, which has conquered Arab public opinion, has also won the status of a legitimate and critical partner in the dialogue in which the legitimacy of the Israel's attack is crumbling after its rejection of the humanitarian cease-fire.
#1
Hamas, which has conquered Arab public opinion, has also won the status of a legitimate and critical partner in the dialogue in which the legitimacy of the Israel's attack is crumbling after its rejection of the humanitarian cease-fire.
Well Goollly!! It just sounds like it is all so rosey for Hamas. Lucky for them they just got the snot knocked out of them.
I'm sure Erdogan will achieve his "most difficult job" of becoming the leader of the Arab world by finding "a common denominator that will satisfy the rival axes and allow an Arab consensus regarding Hamas and Israel"
Don't worry individual Gazan citizens. Erdogan is coming to your rescue! Though he has "no plan or organized initiative, and he intends at this stage to hear both sides and locate points of agreement" so you can sleep well knowing that Erdogan has (according to this piece of propaganda) assumed command and has his strongly worded statements and lunch menus planned.
#2
Israel should propose that these brave Sunnis send military detachments to occupy Gaza, to insure order and demilitarization, then Israel would not only cease fire, but it would open wide power, water, the flow of non-military goods, etc.
Of course, the Sunnis would be there entirely on a "humanitarian" mission, to insure that the Paleos don't hurt themselves...
#3
That's an old timey negotiating trick from way, way back. Be totally agreeable, but set the terms very carefully.
In this case, the terms sound fine to rational persons, but totally outrageous to Ham-Ass.
Ma'an -- Gaza's Hospitals are the source of the latest dead as yesterday's wounded head to overcrowded morgues and medical supplies dwindle. Medical sources put the number of dead at 398.
Among those who succumbed to their wounds on Wednesday were:
*Mahmoud Abu Nahl, who died in an Egyptian hospital
*Ismail Hamdan, a 10-year-old boy who was hit with a missile Tuesday along with his two sisters
*Paramedics Eyhab Al-Madhoun and Mahmoud Abu Hasira who were hit while rescuing civilians
Fresh airstrikes bring more dead
After a several-hour noontime lull Israel resumed airstrikes in the Gaza Strip Wednesday afternoon. The lull coaxed many families out of their homes to inspect damage, find family or replenish food reserves. By four o'clock however, Israeli strikes resumed and targeted a donkey-cart in Bani Suhayla Square in Khan Younis, killing two and injuring several others.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
No mention that most targets were Hamas ordinance or launchers.
"targeted a donkey-cart in Bani Suhayla Square" No mention of the contents of the cart.
Fred's not shy about scouting sources (Iran, Gaza, ect.) so we get an idea of the propaganda these folks live with. It's no wonder their heads are warped.
#2
I noted the scrupulous use of the word "projectile" to describe missile and rocket launches by Gazans against Israel. Their use of language is positively Orwellian. Projectile = rock?
#3
By four o'clock however, Israeli strikes resumed and targeted a donkey-cart in Bani Suhayla Square in Khan Younis, killing two and injuring several others.
Two Palis or two donkeys? Dare we hope that some ISM jackasses were included?
#5
Have the Paleostain rockets EVER hit a Soldier or Military Installation? I can't remember a single one.
Therefore they all hit civilians.
But nobody seems to care about that.
An IAF helicopter on Wednesday afternoon carried out a targeted strike in Rafah, Channel 2 reported. There was no initial word as to who was targeted in the strike.
Earlier, a senior Islamic Jihad rocket-maker and dispatcher of rocket-firing squads was killed in a targeted killing in Khan Yunis.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic Jihad
(Xinhua) -- In spite of the whether conditions, Israeli warplanes continued on Wednesday targeting by missiles different targets belongs to Islamic Hamas and Islamic Jihad movements, witnesses said.
Whither the weather ...
They said that Israeli Apache helicopters struck a house in the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis, which belongs to an Islamic Jihad (Holy War) movement's activists.
Mo'aweya Hassanein, chief of emergency and ambulance services in the Palestinian Health Ministry told reporters that Ihab el-Madhoun, a Palestinian doctor died of his wounds he sustained on Tuesday. El-Madhoun was critically wounded as he was working with a medical team trying to rescue a number of Palestinian casualties northeast of Gaza City on Tuesday night. The paramedic Mohamed Abu Hasira was killed in the strike.
Meanwhile, Omer Alnasser, head of public relations in the Hamas-ruled ministry of health in Gaza said in a statement that since Saturday, 390 Palestinians were killed and 1900 wounded. "We are about to prepare a list of names of all were killed so far, and an up to date figures will be delivered to the mass media within the coming a few hours," said Alnasser.
The Israeli air fighters supported by the pilotless drones kept hovering over the Gaza Strip, in spite of the raining and cloudy whether, where a house in southern Gaza strip was bombarded, whereone woman was critically wounded. Witnesses said that four more airstrikes were carried out on different targets in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah, not far from the border with Egypt, where Israeli artillery and naval gunships shells other targets in the enclave.
Overnight, Israeli airstrikes continued, where more than 40 Israeli airstikes were carried out on different targets in the Gaza Strip, where two Hamas-government's installations were bombarded for the second time.
The building of Hamas cabinet and the building of the former preventive security of president Mahmoud Abbas security forces were leveled to the ground after they were bombarded by Israeli rockets. Israeli warplanes had also launched airstrikes on the borderline between southern Gaza Strip and Egypt, saying that the airstrike targeted dozens of underground tunnels under the bordersused for smuggling.
Meanwhile, in spite of the intensive airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, Islamic Hamas movement's armed wing, al-Qassam Brigades, claimed responsibility for launching more than 40 long-range rockets at Israeli cities. The group said in short statements sent to reporters' cellular phones that the rockets targeted the cities of Beer Sheva, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Sderout and other Jewish communities in the vicinity of the Gaza Strip.
"Our operation called the Oil Spot will continue and rockets' firing on the Zionist enemy cities and towns would be widened to revenge the massive massacres committed against our people," the Hamas armed wing said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
Line up the artillery, and pound away. Walk it right up to the sea and down to the Egyptian border. Nobody's going to complain but the idiots on the far left in the West.
I HOPE there's an ammo ship on its way to Tel Aviv with all the weaponry the Israelis might ever need, including some of the heaviest bunker-busters the IAF can handle. Every member of Hamass needs to die, and quite a few of the other fringe groups. Since the "palestinians" "elected" these a$$holes, may every person over the age of 12 die as accessories before the fact and collaborators. It's time for Gaza to cease being a problem for the Israelis.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/01/2009 14:15 Comments ||
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#2
[I'm a repetitious random spammer with below-average links]
Canada has not been granted consular access to detained Iranian-Canadian blogger Hossein Derakhshan in Iran, a foreign affairs spokesman said in Ottawa Tuesday.
"Consular officials have been in contact with Iranian authorities, including by diplomatic note, to obtain confirmation of Derakhshan's arrest and to seek consular access," Canadian foreign ministry spokesman Rodney Moore told AFP. "To date, we have not received a response from the Government of Iran." "Consular officials will continue to press Iranian authorities for access to Mr. Derakhshan, consistent with the provisions of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations," he added.
The Iranian judiciary confirmed earlier Tuesday that Derakhshan, whose highly political "hoder.com" blog has not been updated since October 30, is under arrest over remarks he allegedly made about key figures of the Shiite faith. Derakhshan's "case is under preliminary investigation and he is in custody," Iran's ILNA news agency quoted judiciary spokesman Ali Reza Jamshidi as saying. Jamshidi did not say when and where Derakhshan was detained.
Some reports outside Iran said he was arrested on November 1 shortly after arriving in Tehran on a private visit. Moore said Canada learned of his reported arrest in mid-November. A conservative Iranian website said in November that Derakhshan had been arrested on suspicion of spying for Israel. Dubbed the "father" of Iranian blogging, Derakhshan, 34, sparked a blogging revolution in the Islamic republic by posting precise instructions in 2001 on how to set up Persian-language blogs, which have burgeoned to around 70,000 in recent years.
I'm sorry to see him arrested but he got pretty anti-US and pro-DinnerJacket of late. Guess the mullahs failed to be impressed. Maybe they figured it was an overly obvious cover for his Zionist conversion.
Or maybe they're just paranoid.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
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.
International military forces helping Afghanistan to fight Islamic extremists said Wednesday they had killed 17 militants in separate operations.
Ethiopian troops who have been propping up Somalia's interim government since invading two years ago were packing up to leave the country on Wednesday amid fears their departure will allow a strengthening Islamic insurgency to take over. But it was unclear when the thousands of soldiers would actually depart.
Army troops at Kaous municipality, 15km from Jijel downtown, have eliminated a terrorist at an ambush at a mountainous road through the mountain of Bouhenech, a security source said. The terrorist was surprised by the Army troops opening fire on him. A Kalashnikov has been seized, while the security services are still investigating his identity. 
A Saudi Web site says that a popular radical cleric who urged Muslims to target Israeli interests around the world was arrested. 
At least 82 people, mostly the activists and supporters of BNP, were injured in post-election violence in seven districts Tuesday night and yesterday.
(Xinhua) -- A car loaded with 100 kg of explosives exploded on Wednesday in Bilbao of northern Spain, causing considerable property damages but no casualties, local media reported. 
Federal authorities have charged an Iraqi-born Canadian citizen with conspiring to spy for the former regime of Saddam Hussein while allegedly working at the Iraqi embassy in Washington, in the second such case to emerge in a week.
A US judge refused to release two Guantanamo terrorism suspects on Tuesday and upheld the government's authority to keep them, after ordering freedom last month for five prisoners whose case led to a landmark Supreme Court ruling. 
Taliban militants executed a man in a restive Pakistani tribal region near the Afghan border after accusing him of spying for the United States, an official said Wednesday. The bullet-riddled body of 28-year-old Mohammad Nawaz was found dumped on a roadside on Wednesday in the town of Mir Ali in North Waziristan.
Federal investigation agencies discovered important evidence about last week's suicide blast in Bunir and arrested six people on Wednesday, police said. The blast occurred during the by-election in NA-28 at a polling station on Sunday, killing at least 35 people. Investigators have recovered a shoe of the suicide bomber. They said the vehicle used in the blast was snatched from Karachi. They said 80 kilogrammes of explosive was used and hundreds of AK-47 bullets were packed in it to increase the intensity of the blast.
Security forces have flushed out the Taliban from various areas of Salarzai tehsil and Khar area of Bajaur Agency, officials said on Wednesday. The areas cleared of Taliban presence include Arrang and Barrang in Utmankhel tehsil, Roghgan and Pashat in Salarzai tehsil and Khar area of Bajaur, they said. In other areas, security forces continued targeting Taliban positions with artillery and mortars, but there were no reports of casualties. A grand jirga of Mandal tribes held in Civil Colony, Khar, on Wednesday assured the government of support against the Taliban. The Bajaur assistant political agent said it was the responsibility of local people to thwart rocket and missile attacks from their areas on Khar and other locations of the agency.
Security forces arrested 28 alleged Al Qaeda and Taliban 'facilitators' and demolished 19 houses including that of a senator as troops backed by helicopter gunships and tanks continued a major operation to secure the international highway in Khyber Agency that serves as a supply route for NATO forces in Afghanistan.
(AKI) - Five people were killed and several others were injured in bomb attacks in northern Iraq on Wednesday. In the largest attack, three people were killed when a car bomb exploded in a crowded market in the town of Sinjar, northwest of Mosul, near the Syrian border.
Aswat al-Iraq: One gunman was killed and another was wounded while they were trying to plant an improvised explosive device (IED) in southwestern Kirkuk city. "The incident occurred in Wahed Hozayran area, southwestern Kirkuk city," Brig. Sarhad Qadir told Aswat al-Iraq. "The wounded gunman is currently being interrogated," the officer said, providing no further details.
Aswat al-Iraq: Police forces on Wednesday arrested 18 wanted persons and seized a large amount of arms and ammunition during security operations in different parts of Basra province, according to a local source. "Police forces conducted search raids in the areas of Shatt al-Arab, eastern Basra; Abi al-Khaseeb (20 km south of Basra city), and al-Zubeir district (35 km west of Basra)," the media office of Basra's police told Aswat al-Iraq. "Eighteen men, who are wanted on criminal and terror-related charges, were arrested during the raids," it noted. "One of those arrested was disguised in women's clothes," it added. "Two machine guns, Katyusha rockets and three boxes containing ammunition were seized during the raids," according to the office.
The IAF on Thursday bombed a building in the Jabalya refugee camp in Gaza, reportedly killing seven people, including senior Hamas leader and cleric 
Sheikh Nizar Ryyan, a senior Hamas leader and cleric was killed along with several others when an IAF aircraft dropped a bomb on his Jabalya home, Palestinian sources reported Thursday.
An IAF helicopter on Wednesday afternoon carried out a targeted strike in Rafah, Channel 2 reported. There was no initial word as to who was targeted in the strike. 
(Xinhua) -- In spite of the whether conditions, Israeli warplanes continued on Wednesday targeting by missiles different targets belongs to Islamic Hamas and Islamic Jihad movements, witnesses said. 
