The assault began at dawn, as bullets and rockets peppered the remote outpost in eastern Afghanistan.
The insurgency was so fierce, according to one soldier, that the troops couldn't get to their mortars to fire back.
"They were under heavy enemy contact," Sgt. Jayson Souter said, describing the October 3 attack that pinned his comrades at Combat Outpost Keating, a remote base in Nuristan province.
Four servicemen -- Souter, a fellow soldier, an Apache helicopter pilot, and a gunner -- talked to a military reporter about their roles during the Keating attack in an interview posted by the Department of Defense on Facebook and NATO's International Security Assistance Force YouTube Channel.
The United States says about 200 insurgents -- mostly local fighters, with some Taliban organizers and leaders -- had been planning the attack for days, hiding mortars, rockets and heavy machine guns in the mountains.
The battle started early on October 3 and lasted for 12 hours. At the end, eight American soldiers and more than 100 militants were killed and buildings at the outpost were destroyed.
Fire support officer 1st Lt. Cason Shrode said the initial round "didn't seem like anything out of the ordinary." There was a lull and then there was a heavy attack.
"We started receiving a heavy volley of fire. Probably 90 seconds into the fight they ended up hitting one of our generators so we lost all power," Shrode said in the interview posted online by the Defense Department. "At that point I knew that this was something bigger than normal."
Troops called in air support. Helicopter gunner Chad Bardwell said he had to confirm the fighters he saw on ridgelines were the enemy because he had never seen such a large group of insurgents.
"We tried to stop them as they were coming down the hill. ... We were taking fire pretty much the entire day," he said in the Defense Department interview.
Chief Warrant Officer Ross Lewallen, the Apache pilot, said a few aircraft were damaged in what was a "time-consuming endeavor" governed by tough terrain. He said the morning battle was "significant," but later troops were able to identify targets and eliminate larger weapons.
"One of the primary reasons for the fight taking so long is that it is an extreme terrain," he said in the same interview.
Lewallen said the valley sits beneath mountains to the west and north.
"There's a lot of cover so you really can't detect the enemy until they start moving again," he said, adding that it was tough for medical evacuation aircraft to land "because we were still trying to control" the outpost.
The intense assault on Keating led to fires. There were five main buildings at the post and four of them burned. Soldiers eventually ended up going into one building.
"The next morning it was pretty much ash besides that one building. I mean that's the way to describe it. Most of it had burned down. So we were pretty much at one building and the rest was just a shadow of what it used to be," Shrode said in the Defense Department interview.
Lewallen said what came together was "air-ground integration."
"All the training we've done before deploying here; it really clicked that day," he said in the interview. "We started realizing that the guys on the ground knew what they needed to tell us to get the job done. It made things that much easier."
He disputed media reports suggesting that there weren't enough weapons and troops. He said 40 minutes into the fight, air power arrived.
"We had everything we needed. It was just a big attack with a lot of people. Bad things happen -- but I think we did well, under the circumstances."
Reflecting on the fight, Souter said, "Everybody basically came together and in the mix of it all, they were donating blood for the wounded that we had. They all pulled together to make sure that we can pull our boys out of this."
[Dawn] Afghan and US forces killed 20 insurgents in separate operations in eastern and southern Afghanistan while a 12-year-old girl died in a roadside bomb blast, officials said Sunday.
Afghan and US forces killed 16 insurgents during an overnight operation against al-Qaeda in eastern Kunar province, which borders Pakistan.
'Today a joint security force killed more than a dozen militants and detained a suspected militant after searching a mountainside compound in Kunar province known to be used by an Al-Qaeda commander,' NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a statement.
'During the search of the compound located near Tantil village, northeast of Jalalabad, the force received hostile enemy fire on two occasions and returned fire, killing the enemy militants.
'The joint force also found a number of rocket-propelled grenades, machine guns, multiple AK-47 rifles and other grenades. All items were destroyed in place,' the statement added.
An ISAF spokesman said 16 people were killed and there were no civilian casualties. Kunar's police chief, Khalilullah Ziayi, said: 'Sixteen people were killed. All of them were Taliban.'
However, in the village of Tantil, residents Asghar and Sayed Hassan insisted that those killed were civilians, among them an 80-year-old man, as well as nine members of one family. This claim could not be confirmed by official sources.
Kunar is known for high levels of insurgent attacks and as a centre of operations by the powerful Haqqani insurgent group, named after Jalaluddin Haqqani, which cut its teeth resisting Soviet rule in the 1980s.
In southern Helmand province, a Taliban bastion, the Afghan army killed four insurgents in Garmser district on Saturday.
And in eastern Khowst province, a police car was struck by a roadside bomb but none of its passengers was injured, the interior ministry said.
However, shrapnel also hit a nearby car, killing a 12-year-old girl and wounding three other civilians, the ministry said.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/12/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
killed more than a dozen militants and detained a suspected militant
Perfect. Detain ONE for interrogation and kill the rest. Reduces future Gitmo release recidivism rate.
[Quqnoos] Afghan forces have arrested four Taliban insurgents, including a Taliban spokesman, in western Afghanistan, officials said on Sunday. Bashir Qinaat, who was claiming responsibility for multiple insurgent attacks on behalf of the Taliban, was captured in a military operation in the Guzara district of the western Herat province.
Mr Qinaat has been accused of having ties with the Al Qaeda network and other sources funding the insurgency in Afghanistan, said Gen Jalandar Shah Behnam, Commander of Afghan Army in western Afghanistan.
The detained Taliban media man has links with two other purported Taliban spokesmen in the restive southern Afghan region, Gen Behnam added.
The official further said that Qinaat was arrested just a day after the killing of a key militant commander, Ghulam Yahya Akbari, in the region.
The prominent militant leader, including 26 insurgents, was killed in a major overnight military offensive in the district of Guzara.
Afghan and NATO-led forces stormed a militant stronghold in the district on Thursday, killing scores of insurgents, including their leader, Akbari.
The death of Akbari is considered a major blow in the militant network in Herat.
Akbari's militant group has been known as 'Al Fath' and was apparently affiliated both to Taliban and Al Qaeda networks.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/12/2009 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Egyptian police detained 24 members of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood on Saturday, sources from the outlawed group and the Interior Ministry said.
The arrests come a day after protests organized by the Brotherhood, Egypt's largest opposition group, in support of Palestinians protesting in Jerusalem against perceived attempts by Jewish religious activists to enter a holy site in the city. The group won roughly a fifth of seats in the lower house of parliament in 2005, but Egyptian authorities have since obstructed its efforts to further its electoral gains in votes for municipal councils or parliament's upper house.
Police raided the homes of five senior Brotherhood members in and around the Nile delta city of Damanhour and detained them at dawn, a Brotherhood source in the Beheira province said.
Two other Brotherhood sources said 16 members of the group were detained in Sharqiya province, also in the delta, and three in the Suez province further east.
An Interior Ministry source confirmed the detentions and said those held had been organizing demonstrations without the ministry's permission.
The Brotherhood said on its website that the arrests in Sharqiya were a direct result of more than 120 rallies in that province involving 20,000 people and organized by the group to "demonstrate solidarity with the Palestinians and to voice anger at the barbaric measures" of Israeli police in the past week.
Palestinians in east Jerusalem and the West Bank observed a general strike on Friday called by the Palestinian Authority after clashes at the flashpoint al-Aqsa mosque two weeks ago. Egypt rounded up hundreds of Brotherhood members in January during Israel's assault on Gaza, when the group brought thousands onto the streets in a campaign supporting Gaza's Hamas rulers, with which it shares historical and ideological ties.
The Brotherhood, which the government has banned but allows to operate relatively openly, seeks an Islamic state through democratic means. It is one of the largest and oldest Islamist groups in the world, and has eschewed violence for decades.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/12/2009 00:00 ||
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[Maghrebia] Algerian security forces killed ten terrorists in the Al Madjrouna border area between Ghardaia and Bechar provinces, local press reported on Friday (October 9th). Reportedly tipped off about a planned al-Qaeda ambush, gendarmes and special army units attacked a convoy of heavily armed terrorists late Thursday. The military action included aerial bombardment.
Oh, those poor Al Qaeda-niks -- Algeria is picking on them!
Posted by: Fred ||
10/12/2009 00:00 ||
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The Houthi fighters say Saudi Arabia is recruiting gunmen to form a militia in a bid to help the Yemeni government's crackdown on the Houthis.
The rehabilitating jihadis were piling up, and no doubt most of them were not suitable for regular employment.
In a statement issued on Sunday, the Shia fighters accused the Saudi Interior Ministry of planning to form the militia to fight them on both sides of the Saudi-Yemeni border. It added that Saudi Arabia also dispatched a number of Wahabi clerics to mobilize al-Qaeda elements inside Yemen to help the army fight the Houthis in the Sa'ada region.
"The Saudi authorities have mobilized the remnants of the so-called Mujahideen forces to train Wahabi militants, who have already announced readiness to fight Houthis," read the statement
According to the report, the Saudi Interior Ministry also erected training camps for the Salafi militia.
Saudi Arabia's deputy interior minister Prince Mohammed Bin-Naif has reportedly increased his efforts to contact Wahabi elements since Ramadan, claiming that the Shia minority in the south poses a threat to the kingdom.
On Sunday, fierce clashes broke out after the army tried to force Houthi fighters out of a northern city, a military source said. The battle reportedly caused huge casualties on both sides. The Houthis said that they attacked several military bases in the town of Sufian Harf.
The Yemeni government accuses the Houthis of seeking to restore an imamate that was toppled in a 1962 coup. The Houthis, however, laugh off dismiss the allegation, saying they solely want an end to what they call discriminative policies of the government and its campaign to spread Wahabism in the mainly Zaidi north.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/12/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Press TV Iran. It would be very unlike the Sauds to do this... if there is proof, then the Iranians have REALLY rattled them I would think.
#2
It would be very unlike the Sauds to do this...
It makes a Machiavellian-sort of sense. The Sauds had no problem with the Wahabi clerics recruiting for jihad in Iraq. It was only when they returned and caused trouble for the Magic Kingdom that the jihadis became an issue. So they'll point them toward Yemen. Benefits the goevernment, gives some sort of 'honor' to the jihadis. Like the Pakistanis aiming their militant religious fanatics at the Indians.
#3
If it gets even a bit more complicated, nobody will be able to figure out who's on whose side.
The morning orders will be followed by a dozen "never mind" by lunch.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
10/12/2009 16:31 Comments ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] A court here yesterday sentenced five years' rigorous imprisonment each to four members of Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) in an explosives case filed with the Cox's Bazar Police Station.
The convicted were JMB Chittagong divisional chief Javed Iqbal alias Mohammad, its explosives expert Zahidul Islam alias Boma Mizan, Ayub Ali alias Abu Jar and Naimuzzaman alias Shohag.
Judge Shafiqul Karim of Chittagong Divisional Speedy Trial Tribunal also penalised each with a fine of Tk 5,000 in default of which they will have to suffer another year's imprisonment.
According to the deposition of the case, police arrested Ayub Ali with 53 types of explosives in his possession
Fifty three seems like rather a lot...
at a rental house in Nur Para under Cox's Bazar headquarters on December 11, 2005.
The mills of justice grind slowly...
In this connection, Sub Inspector Abul Hashem of Cox's Bazar Police Station filed a case under Special Powers Act 1974 on December 13 accusing seven persons, including JMB chief Shaekh Abdur Rahman, its military chief Ataur Rahman Sunny and Mashiur Rahman alias Milon.
Police submitted the charge sheet of the case on February 28, 2007 and the charge was framed on March 31 this year.
Abdur Rahman and Sunny have already been executed, and Mashiur Rahman was exempted from the case.
Public Prosecutor Ayub Khan said the accused confessed that they stockpiled the explosives to attack on Brac, other NGO offices and churches.
"It was them damned kufrs, y'r honer -- they wuz askin' fer it! Whut's a good Muslim t'do?"
The court delivered its verdict yesterday after hearing 18 witnesses, he added.
With this verdict, the JMB Chittagong divisional chief Mohammad is awarded 229 years' imprisonment.
So much for getting to know the grandchildren.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/12/2009 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Two blasts in Chechnya's capital Grozny on Friday killed one policeman and injured up to 12, police officials said early Saturday.
'First one explosive device blasted off, and when people gathered around, another followed,' Colonel Apti Aluvdinov told AFP.
One policeman was killed and 12 were rushed to hospital, including two in serious condition, an investigator was quoted by the RIA Novosti news agency as saying.
There has been mounting violence throughout Russia's largely Muslim Northern Caucasus over the last months as militants wage a low-level insurgency against the Moscow-backed local authorities.
Russia this year ended a decade-long 'counter-terror' operation in Chechnya, the scene of two post-Soviet separatist wars, but the unrest has continued, including a string of suicide bombings in Grozny.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/12/2009 00:00 ||
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An Irish republican paramilitary group responsible for dozens of murders during three decades of violence in Northern Ireland has renounced its armed struggle, its political wing said on Sunday.
The renunciation of violence by the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) came as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Dublin, from where she was due to travel to Belfast later in the day.
"The Republican Socialist Movement has been informed by the INLA that following a process of serious debate... it has concluded that the armed struggle is over," said Martin McMonagle of the Irish Republican Socialist Party, the INLA's political wing.
"The objective of a 32-county socialist republic will be best achieved through exclusively peaceful political struggle," he added, referring to the aim of a united Ireland, including the British province of Northern Ireland.
The statement made at a ceremony in Bray, outside Dublin, made no mention of decommissioning weapons.
The INLA's highest-profile attack was the 1979 murder of the British Conservative Party's Northern Ireland spokesman Airey Neave -- a close adviser of future prime minister Margaret Thatcher.
The INLA's decision is likely to boost the British-run province's peace process, which has come under the microscope in recent weeks.
Meanwhile, Clinton said militants behind a resurgence of violence in Northern Ireland "are out of step and out of time".
"To me terrorism is terrorism. Those who would try to disrupt the peace of people going about their daily lives are out of step and out of time," she said. agencies
Posted by: Fred ||
10/12/2009 00:00 ||
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In the latest strike, a suicide bomber detonated a car packed with explosives near an army vehicle in a market in the northwest Shangla district, provincial Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said. The attack killed 41, including six security officers, and wounded 45 other people, he said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
Shangla lies east of Swat, which has been the focus of an intense military operation against the Taliban. The army says it has largely cleared the valley of the insurgents, but the bombing demonstrated their continuing ability to mount deadly attacks there. Many Taliban are believed to have melted into the rural areas or gone to neighboring districts. Anyone care to dance to the Paki Two Step?
Also Monday, the Lahore High Court told police to toss out two criminal cases against a hardline cleric India blames for the last year's deadly siege of Mumbai, an official said.
Police had accused Hafiz Saeed of illegally holding a public gathering and raising funds for a group they say was banned. The cases appeared designed to keep Saeed under some sort of detention while Pakistan probes his alleged role in the November attack that killed 166 people.
But government prosecutor Malik Abdul Aziz said the court found there was no proof the government ever technically banned the group, Jamaat-ud-Dawa. Saeed says Jamaat is a charity, but the U.N. has described it as a front for the militant group suspected in the siege, Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Posted by: ed ||
10/12/2009 14:55 ||
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[Geo News] The jets of Pakistani armed forces attacked in an area of South Waziristan Agency (SWA), killing at least 13 extremists, Geo News reported Sunday.
According to sources, the jets of Pak security forces pounded various hideouts of the extremists in Makeen and Ladha areas of SWA, killing 13 extremists.
Meantime, the surveillance planes are intermittently flying over various areas of North and South Waziristan.
Moreover, national lashkar destroyed three hideouts of the extremists in Lakki Marwat area of Shami Khel.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/12/2009 00:00 ||
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[Geo News] Police have found the engine of the vehicle used in suicide blast at Soekarno Square in Khyber Bazaar of Peshawar, Geo News reported Sunday.
Talking to Geo News, SSP Operations Peshawar Karim Khan said the engine of 2.0D white car used in the blast of Khyber Bazaar has been found, adding the search for the car owner has been started.
Karim Khan said the operation against the Afghan refugees is underway in various areas of city and 121 refugees including 13 'paish imam' have been arrested.
The SSP Operations said the cases against these arrested refugees would be filed under Article-14 of the Foreign Act and they would be deported.
The police officer said the search operation was conducted at various hotels in the city, where 108 suspected people have been arrested.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/12/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
"Paish Imam"?
Lemme guess - what the Soviets would've called a "Political Officer".
[Geo News] At least 35 extremists have been arrested during the search operation in southern district of NWFP, Hangu's areas Tal and Duaba, Geo News reported Sunday.
According to police sources, at least 11 suspected militants have been arrested from Hangu's area of Tal and 18 others from Duaba.
Police also recovered huge cache of arms and automatic weaponry during the operation.
There are some important Taliban commanders among the arrested militants.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/12/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
ION WAFF > HINDU TALIBAN WANT GOVT, 3-PRONGED ATTACK AGZ CHINA.
Actually, IMO ARTIC > should be re-Titled = Paraphased seriously as "HINDU TALIBAN" DEMAND INDIAN GOVT. LEAD THREE-PRONG DIPLOMATIC/MILPOL APPROACH AGZ CHINA.
IIUC agz CHINA's own alleged "3-E's" ANTI-INDIA APPROACH...???
To wit,
* E-ngagement
* E-ncirclement
* E-ncouragement
** RELATED > WMF - INDIAN EXTREMIST NATIONALIST GROUPS [e.g. HINDU] CLAIM NEW DELHI'S HANDLING OF SINO-INDIAN BORDER ISSUES IS A FAILURE; + INDIA TP STRENGTHEN ANTI-CHINESE MILITARY TIES WITH MYANMAR [aka BURMA] TO COUNTER CHIN'S STRATEGIC ENCIRCLEMENT OF INDIA.
[Dawn] Police have picked up the owner of a house believed to have been rented by people suspected of involvement in the attack at the General Headquarters (GHQ), sources told Dawn. Police have also taken into custody the property dealer concerned.
The house is situated in Dhok Awan, Model Town Humak, and lies within the jurisdiction of the Sihala police. Police believe the suspects used the premises as a safe house and drove to the GHQ from there.
The raiding party found the entrance to the house already unlocked and saw several sets of Pakistan Army uniform, maps of sensitive locations, fuses and detonators used in explosives, material used in making suicide jackets, several identity cards, etc.
Two pairs of trousers, two jeans, over 10 pairs of Shalwar Kameez and fluffy pink bunny slippers were also found.
The police also stumbled upon the rent agreement of the house which, according to the document, was hired on Sept 9 against a rent of Rs10,000.
The evidence suggested that the suspects had been staying at the place for the past 20 to 25 days.
Preliminary investigation showed that 10 to 12 people were living in the house. Most of them were clean-shaven and some had moustache.
Suspicious movements of people riding in sports utility vehicles were seen around the house on Friday night, an official said.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/12/2009 00:00 ||
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(Reuters) - Three hostages, two commandos and four of the gunmen were killed in the pre-dawn rescue operation, said army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas. One wounded gunman was captured and Abbas said he was the ringleader.
Commandos launched their assault under cover of darkness with a blast and gunfire erupting at 6 a.m. (8 p.m. Saturday EDT). "They were in a room with a terrorist who was wearing a suicide jacket but the commandos acted promptly and gunned him down before he could pull the trigger," Abbas said of one large group of hostages. Three of the hostages were killed due to militant firing," he said. More hostages were later found alive.
Interior Minister Malik said the raid, which bore the hallmarks of several similarly ruthless "swarm" attacks this year, was apparently carried out by Pakistani Taliban and al Qaeda. They are widely believed to have been helped by militants from Punjab province.
Abbas identified the militant captured on Sunday as Aqeel, alias Dr Usman. A security official in Punjab said Usman was believed to be a member of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi group.
Not exactly the same as the Ajmad Farooqi splinter group of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) that called in to claim responsibility for the attack...
"Militants we arrested in Lahore had told us during interrogation that he masterminded the attack on the Sri Lankan team and provided weapons," said the official.
Some hostage takers' phone calls were intercepted and they were speaking Punjabi, another security official said.
A series of car bombings killed 19 people in western Iraq on Sunday, in attacks that spotlight a surge in violence in Anbar province, once a hotbed of the insurgency that has since become a showcase for restoring peace.
The province was the scene of some of the most intense fighting by US troops during the insurgency. The explosions on Sunday occurred in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province about 115 kilometres west of Baghdad. According to a local police official, a parked car exploded near the Anbar province police headquarters and the provincial council building. The second car bombing took place as police and bystanders rushed to the scene to help, while a third car exploded about an hour later at the gates to the Ramadi hospital, the police official said.
One bystander, Musaab Ali Mohammed, said he was buying cigarettes from a nearby shop when he heard a big explosion and saw smoke billowing out from the parking lot. "I saw police cars and firefighters, and they started to carry out the wounded and dead. ... Minutes later, a second explosion took place," he said.
Such explosions coming in quick succession are usually designed to target rescuers and security forces who rush to the scene to assist and were a hallmark of the insurgent group, Al Qaeda in Iraq, during the height of the insurgency. Sunday's attacks follow a bombing last week in another Anbar city, Fallujah, in which a car bomb tore through an open-air market, killing at least eight people. At least seven people were killed in late September in Ramadi when a suicide bomber slammed a tanker truck packed with explosives into a police outpost.
Iraqi officials have portrayed such attacks as limited in nature and not an indication that the insurgency is regaining its footing. A member of the Anbar provincial council, Aeefan Sadoun, said Sunday's attacks "represent a limited security breach that will be fixed soon". He said the attacks do not indicate a significant deterioration in security in the once-volatile province. "The security situation in Anbar is good and al-Qaida will never be able to take over again," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/12/2009 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] Afghan forces have arrested four Taliban insurgents, including a Taliban spokesman, in western Afghanistan, officials said on Sunday. Bashir Qinaat, who was claiming responsibility for multiple insurgent attacks on behalf of the Taliban, was captured in a military operation in the Guzara district of the western Herat province. 
