ATO and Afghan officials say a U.S. helicopter has attacked a medical clinic in eastern Afghanistan after a wounded Taliban commander sought treatment there. Officials say U.S. and Afghan forces clashed with insurgents at the clinic after militants put up resistance. The militant death toll from Wednesday's fight varied widely from none killed to 12 dead.
A U.S. statement Thursday says an AH-64 Apache helicopter fired rounds at the clinic after it was cleared of civilians. It says seven insurgents have been detained. Hamidullah Zhwak, spokesman for Paktika province's governor, says the attack began after a wounded Taliban commander went for treatment at the clinic. U.S. and Afghan forces were tipped off and fighting with some 20 militants lasted about five hours.
Posted by: ed ||
08/27/2009 06:41 ||
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#1
A few more details. Captured commander is Mullah Muslim. He was wounded Aug 20, election day. 12 Banditos killed. One ISAF soldier killed.
The key to winning. You need Hearts and Minds, to get people to want to tip you off(Talib abusive rule helps, of course), but also security so they feel safe doing so. A counter insurgency campaign needs intelligence.
Posted by: liberal hawk ||
08/27/2009 10:07 Comments ||
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[Quqnoos] A provincial chief justice in the northern Kunduz province was killed by explosives placed in his vehicle on Wednesday, officials said
The incident took place about 8:00am while Qari Jahangir, head of the provincial Justice Department, was driving to his office, said Kunduz Police Chief, Gen Abdul Razaq Yaqubi. Gen Yaqubi said a bomb was secretly put under his car seat. No groups, including the Taliban, have claimed responsibility for the bombing.
Last month, Kunduz governor, Mohammad Omar, was wounded when his vehicle struck a roadside bomb in the outskirt of the provincial capital.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/27/2009 00:00 ||
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Somali pirates holding a hijacked ship off the coast of Somalia fired at a U.S. Navy helicopter as it made a surveillance flight over the vessel, the first such attack by pirates on an American military aircraft, the Navy said Thursday.
The helicopter, which is based on the USS Chancellorsville, wasn't hit and there were no injuries, the Navy said.
The chopper was flying on Wednesday over a Taiwanese-flagged fishing vessel, the Win Far, which pirates seized along with its 30-member crew in April and were holding south of the Somali port town of Hobyo.
The helicopter was about 3,000 yards away from the ship when the pirates opened fire with " a large caliber weapon," the Navy said in a statement. The helicopter didn't return fire, it said.
Since seizing the Win Far in the Gulf of Aden, the pirates have used the vessel as a base for attacking other commercial ships, including the U.S.-flagged Maersk Alabama.
Posted by: ed ||
08/27/2009 07:17 ||
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#1
Sounds like someone just received a shipment of .50 cals and wanted to try it out.
#3
Also, as I understand it, most Naval helicopters, especially those embarked on cruiser/destroyer types like the Chancellorsville, are unarmed. At most they might carry an anti-submarine torpedo.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
08/27/2009 22:23 Comments ||
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#4
first report i read said they'd only realized they'd been fired at later, reviewing the after action films.
More details emerge
The French security consultant, who was abducted last month at a Mogadishu hotel, slipped away while his captors slept, then used the stars to navigate the city and get to the presidential palace.
The gentleman's consultant fee is going up by the hour -- and demonstrably well worth it.
Posted by: ed ||
08/27/2009 07:12 ||
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[Maghrebia] Algerian security services thwarted al-Qaeda plans for a 13-year-old boy to perpetrate a suicide attack in Skikda during Ramadan, L'Expression reported on Wednesday (August 26th). The child, Abou El Miaâd, reportedly assumed his father's name in 2005 when the senior El Miaâd -- an al-Qaeda regional emir - was killed during Ramadan in a Skikda clash. After his mother and siblings surrendered to authorities in 2006 to benefit from National Reconciliation, the boy was reportedly taken by al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb leader Abdelmalek Droukdel to be raised by other armed fighters.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/27/2009 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] Three alleged criminals including a leader of the outlawed Purbo Banglar Communist Party (PBCP) were killed in separate shootouts with law enforcers early yesterday in the capital and Khulna.
The men killed in Dhaka were identified as Akhil, 30 and Nayon, 27 -- both members of a gang called Gangchil Bahini which operates in Mirpur, Savar, Gabtali and Amin Bazar areas.
Both men are accused in different robbery and murder cases with Savar police Stations, police said.
Officer-in-charge (OC) of Savar police station AKM Nasir Ullah said that acting on a tip off a combined patrol team of Rab and police at around 4:00am
They do like going a'encountering while good citizens are snugly tucked abed...
went to at Jahid Brick Field area where the gang was said to be preparing for a strike.
Yesterday a jute field, today a brick field. It'll be amongst the lollipop tree groves next, you watch.
As the combined team approached the area, they came under gun attack from the gang. The law enforcers retaliated with bullets and after the gunfight, bodies of the two criminals were found in the spot.
Two? Unusually good shooting, gentlemen!
Others managed to flee the spot. Police also recovered two pistols, a gun, eight rounds of bullets and four machetes from the spot.
Machetes, eh? That's for harvesting the bricks, dontchaknow.
Rab personnel Nizam Uddin sustained injuries during the gunfight. He was later treated at Savar hospital.
Get well soon, Agent Uddin. The lollipop trees are calling your name.
Locals alleged that the gang regularly realised toll form the factory and industry owners as well as local residents.
"Nice factory you got there, Mr. Owner. Be a shame if something happened to it."
Our staff correspondent from Khulna reports that a regional leader of Lal Pataka faction of the PBCP was killed in a shootout between his cohorts and policemen at 2:30am yesterday at Dearha village under Rupsha upazila in Khulna.
*closes eyes, points at map* Right there, see?
The deceased was identified as Rahat Khan alias Nipu alias Zia, 32, son of Abdul Karim of the same village under the same upazila.
I think his mother might have some memory formation issues
.He is wanted in six cases including two for murder and two for robbery.
Another badman. Why are there so many badmen in Bangladesh?
Khulna Police Super Md Shamsuddin said the police received information that the outlawed outlaw was to hold a secret meeting with his cohorts at the Agradut School ground at Dearha village. As the police approached the school premises, Rahat and his cohorts opened fire. Police fired back and the ensuing gun battle lasted for almost 15 minutes.
A baby gun battle. How cute!
At one stage, the gang fled the scene leaving injured ringleader behind. When taken to Khulna Medical College Hospital, doctors declared Rahat dead on arrival.
How lovely, he didn't have to suffer long.
Police recovered a gun, four rounds of ammunition and some leaflets from spot.
What's the literacy rate in Bangladesh?
An FIR has been lodged in connection with the incident.
And so it should be.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/27/2009 00:00 ||
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[Kyodo: Korea] Russia has deployed S-400 air defense missile complexes, capable of intercepting ballistic missiles, in the Russian Far East to counter the threat posed by North Korea"s missile tests, the country"s top general said Wednesday. ""We have already deployed the S-400 division in the Far East,"" Gen. Nikolai Makarov, the chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, was quoted as saying by Itar-Tass News Agency.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/27/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Clue me in -- Is this the same kind of system that Russia is having fits about the US putting in a couple of countries facing Iran?
#2
If the Ruskies are worried about the Norks why don't they do us all a favor do something a little more preemptive about it? It's not like anybody would complain.
#5
Russia and Korea have a lot in common..cold at times, Communist at times, short on food at times, and cabbage loving all the time, as well as paranoid.
[BBC] At least six suspected militants have been killed in a US drone attack in north-west Pakistan, officials say. A militant hideout was targeted in the South Waziristan tribal region, Pakistani intelligence officials said. A similar attack in the same region in early August killed top Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud. There were others, before and since, that didn't kill him.
Posted by: ed ||
08/27/2009 06:46 ||
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[Dawn] Two persons, including a police inspector, were wounded in an explosion in Quetta on Wednesday. The blast occurred on the city's outskirts as an explosive device planted on a motorcycle went off, police said. The explosion caused injuries to a police inspector and an 11-year-old child. Both the injured were rushed to civil hospital where their conditions are stated to be stable.
Meanwhile, in another incident, some unknown men hurled a hand grenade at the house of an official of the Election Commission of Pakistan in the city's Brewary area. It caused no casualties but caused damage to the window panes of the house.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/27/2009 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Jets and helicopter gunships pounded militant positions in South Waziristan on Wednesday, officials said, in a fresh assault on Taliban militants in the lawless tribal belt.
The bombardment in the northwestern region comes after the death of Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud and as analysts urge Pakistan to exploit apparent rifts in the militant leadership.
The strikes hit about 40 kilometres east of South Waziristan's main town Wana, security and military officials said, with a handful of troops and militants killed in the bombing and clashes.
'This is basically a road clearance operation. Gunships and heavy artillery are taking part. Jet fighters also bombed their positions,' a military official based in Peshawar told AFP.
A security official said paramilitary forces were clearing about 20 kilometres of road from South Waziristan to the neighbouring Dera Ismail Khan district to make it secure for paramilitary and military movement.
'We are facing some minor resistance, militants are firing rockets and using other weapons,' the security official said.
The military official in Peshawar said: 'Two paramilitary troops were martyred and seven injured during two days of operations. Several militants have been killed and an unknown number of them injured in the operation.'
Pakistan in late April launched an offensive against the Taliban in the northwestern Swat valley and claims to have 'eliminated' extremists there.
The government then vowed to take on the Taliban leadership entrenched in South Waziristan, but despite sporadic air assaults there has been no sign of a full-scale military offensive.
Pakistani Taliban on Tuesday finally confirmed the death of their leader Baitullah Mehsud after a US drone missile strike on August 5.
They named young militant commander Hakimullah Mehsud his successor, and he swiftly vowed fresh attacks.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/27/2009 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] The Peshawar High Court (PHC) granting bail to three sons of Sufi Mohammad, chief of the banned outfit Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM), has ordered their release.
Sufi Mohammad's sons, including Rizwanullah, Hayatullah and Ziaullah, filed a petition against their illegal detention and the PHC approved their petition.
Sufi's sons were taken into custody by security forces on July 27 under 3MPO.
A bench of the Peshawar High Court, consisting of Justice Ejaz Afzal, declared the arrest of Sufi sons under 3 MPO as unconstitutional.
On Tuesday Peshawar High Court reserved its judgment in a writ petition filed by three sons of TNSM Chief Maulana Sufi Mohammad, challenging their detention under the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance (MPO).
The petitioners, Ziaullah, Rizwanullah and Hayatullah, along with Sufi Mohammad, were arrested from their residence in Sethi Town here on July 26 by law-enforcement agencies under Section 3 of MPO on the orders of Peshawar DCO Sahibzada Anees.
The petitioners' counsel Mohammad Atlas Khan contended that they were innocent and the administration had no grounds to detain them under the MPO.
He claimed that the impugned order of the DCO was illegal and unconstitutional, adding the petitioners were law-abiding citizens and there was no threat to public order from them.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/27/2009 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV] The international police agency, Interpol, has issued a "red notice" alert for the founder of a Pakistan-based militants group in connection with last year's Mumbai raids.
Interpol said in a statement on Wednesday that a red notice was issued after authorities in New Delhi sought help with the "identification or location" of Hafiz Saeed.
Saeed chairs the Jamaat-ud-Dawa charity -- a front group for the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant outfit accused of masterminding the November attacks on India's commercial hub.
The deadly attack killed about 170 people including nine militants belonging to the LeT organization.
Islamabad security forces detained Saeed and some of his comrades in December after a UN Security Council resolution put him on a list of people who support the al-Qaeda terrorist group.
However in June, a court released the senior militant on grounds of insufficient evidence, prompting criticism from Indian authorities.
India's foreign minister, S.M. Krishna, said on Wednesday that the world must understand the severity of the situation due to the Interpol warrant.
"I think the world should take note of these developments and then you know they will have to come to their own conclusions."
However, sources suggest that a Red Corner Notice (RCN) is not an international arrest warrant and that Interpol cannot force Islamabad to arrest Saeed and his close aide Zaki Ur Rehman Lakhvi, who New Delhi says is one of the masterminds behind the deadly raids.
Relations between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan fell to a new low and the peace talks between the two neighbors were put on hold following the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
The two archrivals have blamed one another for attacks staged on their major cities since they secured freedom from Britain in 1947.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/27/2009 00:00 ||
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[Al-Arabiya] Iraq and Syria recalled their ambassadors on Tuesday after Baghdad demanded Damascus hand over two people it says masterminded bombings in the Iraqi capital last week which killed almost 100 people.
Iraq's Shiite-led government has blamed supporters of Saddam Hussein's outlawed Baath party for massive truck bombs and other attacks last Wednesday, and says it has already captured some suspects it deems responsible.
" The cabinet decided to ask that they be handed over for their direct role in carrying out the terrorist operation "
Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh
In a tape aired on Sunday, one man captured said he acted under orders from a man in Syria called Sattam Farhan, a member of a wing of the Baath party headed by Mohammad Younis al-Ahmed.
"The cabinet demands the Syrian government hand over Mohammed Yunis al-Ahmed and Sattam Farhan," said government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh, announcing that Iraq's ambassador would return to Baghdad. "The cabinet decided to ask that they be handed over for their direct role in carrying out the terrorist operation," the statement added, referring to "the terrorist crime committed by Baathists and Takfiri (extremists)."
Takfiri is a term used by the Iraqi government to refer to al-Qaeda members.
Dabbagh said the Foreign Ministry would ask Syria to hand over all those wanted for crimes in Iraq and "to banish the terrorist organizations that use Syria as a base from which to carry out terrorist acts against the Iraqi nation".
He also said the cabinet had summoned Iraq's ambassador to Syria back to Baghdad to discuss the issue, prompting the Syrian government to recall its ambassador to Iraq in response.
Expelled last year
Diplomats in Damascus say Syria, ruled by a rival branch of the Sunni Arab Baath party, and expelled Younis earlier this year.
Syria's official news agency SANA, quoting "an official Syrian source", rebuffed Dabbagh's comments about the attacks, which Damascus has strongly condemned as a "terrorist act".
"Syria informed the Iraqi side of its readiness to receive an Iraqi delegation and discuss with it available evidence on the perpetrators of the bombings. Otherwise, it would consider what is broadcast on Iraqi media as evidence fabricated for domestic political goals," the source said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/27/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
I must be giddy today. I initially read that as "Baghdad demands Alleged Masterminds Hand Over Damascus". And when we stop referring to Baathists as former members of a dead man's party, and start referring to them as Iraqi members of the TOTALITARIAN PARTY RUNNING SYRIA?
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
08/27/2009 13:40 Comments ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Iran put several leading reformers in the dock on Tuesday, official media reported, in its fourth mass trial of people accused of fomenting unrest after June's disputed presidential election.
Iran has already staged mass trials of around 140 people on offences linked to the massive demonstrations and street violence that followed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's hotly-disputed victory in the June election.
The court proceedings, which opposition leaders denounced as "show trials," have angered the international community and heightened political tensions as Iran battles its worst crisis since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Attempt to uproot opposition
" In the fourth court session, the elements and plotters of the recent riots and disturbances in Iran will be put on trial and some of them are expected to present their defiance "
IRNA
Those tried in a Revolutionary Court on Tuesday included several aides to former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami, former Deputy Interior Minister Mostafa Tajzadeh, former Deputy Foreign Minister Mohsen Aminzadeh, former government spokesman Abdollah Ramezanzadeh and Iranian-American scholar Kian Tajbakhsh, news agencies said.
Saaed Hajjarian, a former deputy intelligence minister turned architect of Iran's reform movement, was also among the accused, the official IRNA news agency said. Hajjarian was disabled after an assassination attempt in 2000. "In the fourth court session, the elements and plotters of the recent riots and disturbances in Iran will be put on trial and some of them are expected to present their defiance," IRNA said.
Analysts regard the trials as an attempt by the authorities to uproot the moderate opposition and put an end to the street protests that erupted after the poll.
Most of the former officials held their positions during the 1997-2005 presidency of Khatami, who backed moderate opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi in the election against the incumbent, hardliner Ahmadinejad.
Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi, who came second and fourth in the election respectively, say the vote was rigged to secure the re-election of Ahmadinejad.
The authorities deny the charge, saying it was the "healthiest" vote the country has had in the past three decades.
French teaching assistant Clotilde Reiss and two Iranians working for the British and French embassies in Tehran were among those tried on Aug. 8.
Unconstitutional trials
Khatami said the trials violated Iran's constitution and Mousavi said confessions by some of the accused were made under duress.
Others tried on Tuesday included former Economy Minister Mohsen Safaie-Farahani, former mines and industries minister Behzad Nabavi, business newspaper editor Saeed Laylaz and journalist Ahmad Zeidabadi, media reported.
Rights groups say hundreds of people, including senior pro-reform politicians, journalists, activists and lawyers, have been detained since the presidential election. Many of them are still in jail.
Iran accuses the West, particularly the United States and Britain, of inciting the unrest, in which at least 30 people were killed. They deny the charge. Hardliners have called for Mousavi and Karoubi to also be arrested.
About 4,000 people were initially detained over the protests and hundreds are still behind bars, amid opposition allegations that some have been killed, raped and abused in custody.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/27/2009 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.
[Quqnoos] A provincial chief justice in the northern Kunduz province was killed by explosives placed in his vehicle on Wednesday, officials said
[Maghrebia] Algerian security services thwarted al-Qaeda plans for a 13-year-old boy to perpetrate a suicide attack in Skikda during Ramadan, L'Expression reported on Wednesday (August 26th). The child, Abou El Miaâd, reportedly assumed his father's name in 2005 when the senior El Miaâd -- an al-Qaeda regional emir - was killed during Ramadan in a Skikda clash. After his mother and siblings surrendered to authorities in 2006 to benefit from National Reconciliation, the boy was reportedly taken by al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb leader Abdelmalek Droukdel to be raised by other armed fighters.
[Bangla Daily Star] Three alleged criminals including a leader of the outlawed Purbo Banglar Communist Party (PBCP) were killed in separate shootouts with law enforcers early yesterday in the capital and Khulna.
[Kyodo: Korea] Russia has deployed S-400 air defense missile complexes, capable of intercepting ballistic missiles, in the Russian Far East to counter the threat posed by North Korea"s missile tests, the country"s top general said Wednesday. ""We have already deployed the S-400 division in the Far East,"" Gen. Nikolai Makarov, the chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, was quoted as saying by Itar-Tass News Agency.
[Dawn] Jets and helicopter gunships pounded militant positions in South Waziristan on Wednesday, officials said, in a fresh assault on Taliban militants in the lawless tribal belt.
[Dawn] The Peshawar High Court (PHC) granting bail to three sons of Sufi Mohammad, chief of the banned outfit Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM), has ordered their release.
[Iran Press TV] The international police agency, Interpol, has issued a "red notice" alert for the founder of a Pakistan-based militants group in connection with last year's Mumbai raids. 
