#1
The boys are busy. A couple of major deflection changes.
Charge zero at the beginning. The bad guys were in close.
They were shoveling out the ordnance. Good for them.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
03/04/2010 16:14 Comments ||
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This is one reason why the Northerners are willing tolerate Karzai for the time being. When the West leaves, they will control a large, reasonably well armed and trained army, which they can let loose on the Pushtuns without any of that ROE nonsense.
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - High drop-out and low recruitment rates have hampered NATO efforts to boost security forces to control insurgents in southern Afghanistan, the U.S. general leading the effort said on Wednesday. Ignorance is considered a virtue among the Pashtuns. That doesn't make them good soldier material.
Lieutenant-General William B. Caldwell, who is directing an effort to increase the size of the Afghan army and police to 300,000 by 2011, said drop-out rates for the police stood at 25 percent and at 18 percent for the army. The rate for the best police unit, the paramilitary Afghan National Civil Order Police, was 60-70 percent, Caldwell told reporters. "This is absolutely unacceptable," he said.
I disagree. Everyone who drops out will know just enough to understand they don't want to go up against trained units unless they have a significant numerical and weapons advantage... and will increase the prestige of organizations that haven't had much up 'til now. And contrast the drop-out rate to the percentage of Americans who would qualify to apply to our armed forces -- on the order of 5% of our youth even meet the physical, health, and morality requirements. Even fewer make it through basic training and the trial period.
Training Afghan soldiers and police to take over security is critical to the U.S. and NATO strategy in Afghanistan. The sooner Afghans are capable of securing the country, the sooner foreign troops can withdraw, commanders say.
It won't be soon. It was never going to be soon. Despite President Obama's promises of withdrawal, the Afghans simply won't be ready to be on their own for a decade or several... especially as they won't be fighting recalcitrant countrymen, but also the most nefarious that Pakistan can throw at them.
But the strategy hinges on finding enough recruits and training them rapidly. While new pay scales had helped push recruitment rates since December to more than 7,000 a month, the number of recruits from among ethnic Pashtuns in southern provinces, where the Taliban insurgency is fiercest, remains only 2-3 percent of the total. That's merely reflective of the fact that it's a war by the Pashtuns against the rest of Afghanistan.
"We are not satisfied with the number of Pashtuns coming into the army from the south," Caldwell said. I agree. Two or three percent's probably way too high.
"We are trying to change the dynamics of this country, to make the southern Pashtun feel part of this nation... we are going to have to do a better job of recruiting down there," he said. Unlike the semi-civilized inhabitants of the northern half of the country, the Pashtuns want everybody but them to either die or to become their slaves. Why's that so difficult to understand?
The Pashtuns, who make up about 40 percent of Afghanistan's population, are the predominant ethnic group in southern provinces bordering Pakistan. It is from there that the Taliban draws the vast majority of its support. They're the largest single ethnic group in Afghanistan, but they regard themselves as part of Greater Pashtunistan, the bulk of which is actually in Pakistain. Since ignorance is a virtue, they're perfectly willing to allow themselves to be manipulated and controlled by Arab and Punjabi supermen in return for a little tribal ego-stroking.
Caldwell said NATO planned to launch an advertising campaign to attract Pashtun recruits, and hoped the effort would be helped by a big military operation designed to reassert government control in Helmand province, in the south. Caldwell said the overall recruitment drive had been helped by increases in basic pay to $165 a month, topped up with another $45 a month in regions worst affected by the insurgency. "We are generally aware what a Taliban foot-soldier makes," he said. "We are comparable to probably what we hear most foot soldiers make doing something for the Taliban."
Caldwell said his mission, which relies on training personnel provided by NATO allies was still 1,900 short of its target strength of 5,200 trainers. NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he was working to persuade allies to contribute more to the training mission, which is vital for NATO's long-term exit strategy. "I feel confident we will be able to build up our training mission to the required level," he told a news briefing.
#1
State Department scrambling to get as many bodies in uniform (especially from the South, diversity you know) so they can leave on schedule. Since they can hardly train their own people they are having fits and the buck is being passed onto the DOD (just in case the DOD doesn't have anything else to do).
#2
Caldwell needs to talk to his training staff. They seem fairly happy with the turnover rate.
"The attrition is sitting at 67.9 percent right now. You probably are going, well, how do you know it's 67.9 percent? Because we track it every day. We have a band between 60 and 70 percent. If they hit within that band we're in pretty good shape."
Might as well have posted under Homefront:Politics.
A man freed from Guantanamo more than two years ago after he claimed he only wanted to go home and help his family is now a senior commander running Taliban resistance to the U.S.-led offensive in southern Afghanistan, two senior Afghan intelligence officials say. I'm sure we drove him to it.
Abdul Qayyum is also seen as a leading candidate to be the next No. 2 in the Afghan Taliban hierarchy, said the officials, interviewed last week by The Associated Press. He's number 1 on the list to be drone-zapped .. with a bullet ...
The story of Abdul Qayyum could add to the complications President Barack Obama is facing in fulfilling his pledge to close the prison at Guantanamo by sending some prisoners back to their home countries or to other willing nations, while putting others on trial.
U.S. intelligence asserts that 20 percent of suspects released from the Guantanamo Bay prison have returned to the fight and the number has been steadily increasing.
Qayyum's key aide in plotting attacks on Afghan and international forces is another former Guantanamo prisoner, said the Afghan intelligence officials as well as a former Helmand governor, Sher Mohammed Akundzada. Abdul Rauf, who told his U.S. interrogators he had only loose connections to the Taliban, spent time in an Afghan jail before being freed last year.
He rejoined the Taliban, they said. Akundzada said he warned authorities against releasing both him and Qayyum.
Posted by: ed ||
03/04/2010 01:21 ||
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[Quqnoos] The Afghan intelligence agency Tuesday blamed Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba for last week's attacks in Kabul.
At least 16 people, including 9 Indians, were killed Friday in a string of explosions and gunfire in a commercial district in central Kabul.
Sayed Ansari, a spokesman for Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security, or NDS, said that they have evidence that Lashkar-e-Taiba was involved in the attacks. The accusation comes after the Taliban claimed responsibility for the assault on an Indian guest house that also left at least 56 others wounded.
"We are very close to the exact proof and evidence that the attack on the Indian guest house ... is not the work of the Afghan Taliban but this attack was carried out by Lashkar-e-Taiba network," Ansari told journalists.
The Afghan intelligence agency's spokesman said Lashkar-e Taiba are dependent on the Pakistan military.
There were four men armed with rifles and suicide vests, one of them was heard speaking Urdu, and that they wore burqas to hide their gear, Ansari added.
Friday's assault was the second major attack this year in the fortified Afghan capital. The last incident took place Jan 18, when three teams of gunmen attacked a popular shopping centre and several surrounding buildings near the presidential palace.
The Indian Embassy in Kabul has twice come under attack over the past two years, leaving dozens of casualties.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/04/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
ION BHARAT RALSHAK > ISI HAND IN TALIBAN KABUL ATTACK?
* SAME > NEW THREAT AGZ INDIANS IN AFGHANISTAN. More + more Terrorists entering PAK to conduct new terror strikes specifically agz the Indian Embassy + other India-specific interests.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Fighting between al-Shabaab rebels and African Union (AU) troops in the heart of the capital Mogadishu killed at least 12 people and wounded 49, a human rights group and witnesses said on Wednesday.
Residents said an al-Shabaab truck with a mounted anti-aircraft gun approached government and AU bases near a major junction known as K4 on Tuesday, leading to deafening barrages of shells and indiscriminate exchanges of machinegun fire.
Al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab and the more moderate Hizbul Islam group have often fought together against government forces in a bid to topple the Western-backed administration which controls but a few blocks of the capital.
"At least 12 people, including children, died and 49 others were injured on Tuesday," Ali Yasin Gedi, the vice chairman of Elman group rights group told Reuters.
"The government and Islamists are engaged in a never-ending war and the people suffer more. Shells falling blindly on civilians has become the norm," he said.
Residents in the areas under government control said they initially thought the key junction linking the airport to Mogadishu's center had been seized by the rebels.
"We thought the whole area had been captured ... government and AU forces fired from and in every direction," said resident Abdulle Ismail.
Violence has killed at least 21,000 people in the failed Horn of Africa nation since the start of 2007 and driven another 1.5 million from their homes, triggering one of the world's worst humanitarian emergencies.
Western nations and neighboring countries say the anarchic country serves as a shelter for militants bent on launching attacks in east Africa and further afield.
In another district of Mogadishu, six al-Shabaab rebels died when a mortar shell hit their house on Tuesday, sparking reprisal killings, witnesses said.
"The six dead al Shabaab were carried away in a minibus and soon two Hizbul Islam, including my cousin, were executed for spying. They were accused of directing the government's shells," said resident Fatuma Hassan.
Government and al-Shabaab officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/04/2010 00:00 ||
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Follow up on yesterday's raid
Yemeni security forces arrested 11 men in the capital Sanaa on suspicion of plotting attacks for Al-Qaeda, killing one man during the operation, a security source said on Thursday.
"The 11 men are currently under interrogation. They were planning to assassinate security officials and target interests in Sanaa," the source told AFP, without specifying what interests the 11 were suspected of targeting.
The source added that the raid took place in a residential area of the capital.
Posted by: ed ||
03/04/2010 10:37 ||
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#1
March 2, 2010: The government apologized for a December 17th air raid in the south, which killed 42 civilians. It was originally reported as an attack on an al Qaeda meeting, that killed 30 terrorists. That was later amended to two dead terrorists. Now the government admits that the air strike only killed civilians. News of the raid spread the old fashioned way (as gossip), and the government realized it was better off coming clean, and offering the traditional cash compensation.
Posted by: ed ||
03/04/2010 11:23 Comments ||
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One more alleged terrorist was killed in 'shootout' between his cohorts and Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) in front of Chitra Cinema hall in English Road of the old part of Dhaka early Tuesday taking the total of such extra judicial killings to 105 in seven months from August 1, 2009 to March 2, 2010.(TBT Report) Steve walks warily down the street with the brim pulled way down low
Ain't no sound but the sound of his feet, machine gun's ready to go
Are you ready? Hey, are you ready for this?
Are you hanging on the edge of your seat?
Out of the doorway the bullets rip to the sound of the beat, Yeah
With this 13 extra judicial killings took place in the new year 2010. Earlier, an outlawed party leader, a ringleader of a robber gang, a criminal, an outlawed party leader, a terrorist, a alleged outlawed party leader, a ring leader, two terrorists and two dacoits were killed in shootouts on 9, 11, 12, 30 January and 10, 16, 19, 23, 25 and 28 February respectively. Another one bites the dust
Another one bites the dust
According to UNB News Agency, a notorious terrorist was killed in a 'shootout' between his cohorts and Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) in front of Chitra Cinema hall in English Road of the old town early Tuesday. The deceased was identified as Mamunur Rashid, alias Kala Mamun, 29, son of Abdul Mannaf of Alukanda of South Keraniganj. And another one gone
And another one gone
Police said Mamun was a professional killer and wanted in number of criminal cases, including murder. RAB also recovered two foreign made pistols, seven rounds of bullet and two magazines from the spot. Another one bites the dust
Hey, I'm gonna get you too
Another one bites the dust
The unlawful killings are taking place despite mounting protests by human rights activists, civil society members and political parties and repeated assurances of the government that such killings would be stopped and actions would be taken against those found responsible. Another one bites the dust
Another one bites the dust, oh
Another one bites the dust, hey, hey
Another one bites the dust, heeeeey
Oh, shoot out
Posted by: Steve ||
03/04/2010 00:00 ||
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Violence is growing in North Korea amid a worsening food shortage after the disastrous currency revaluation last December, according to sources in the hermit country.
One person was killed by armed guards on Feb. 16 when a group of people attempted to rob a food train at Komusan Railway Station in Puryong-gun, North Hamgyong Province, defector group North Korea Intellectuals Solidarity said. The attack came on North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's birthday after a disastrous currency reform sent food prices skyrocketing.
The train was loaded with rice imported from China, the group said. Workers, outraged over the death, attacked armed guards with ploughs
Oh dear. Do they mean the old horse-drawn plows or the modern tractor plows?
and police and military were called in.
"North Koreans are angry that guards shot a worker dead for a few kilograms of rice but protesters are unlikely to get off lightly because the incident happened on Kim's birthday," the group said. You've ruined Dear Leader's birthday party! And you all know what that means...
A South Korean security official would not confirm the bloodshed but said there have been reports of violence in the North due to the serious food shortage.
In a recent newsletter, South Korean activist group Good Friends said guards last month stole part of several tons of corn, which was piled Hoeryong Railyway Station in North Hamgyong Province, to be given to workers at Kim Chaek Iron & Steel Complex.
The Daily NK, an online newspaper, reported the price of rice in the border city of Sinuiju, which was 400 won per kg late last month, more than doubled to 1,000 won. The official rice price fixed by the regime on Feb. 4 is 240 won per kg.
A North Korean source said the regime is trying all it can to overcome the food crisis and all agencies involved in earning dollars have been told to import food.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/04/2010 00:00 ||
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Dozens of militants armed with assault rifles attacked a security checkpoint in Pakistan's volatile northwest, sparking a gunbattle that left 30 insurgents and one soldier dead, officials said Thursday.
The battle occurred overnight in the Chamarkand area of the Mohmand tribal region near the Afghan border, said government and military officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
Posted by: ed ||
03/04/2010 10:25 ||
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[Dawn] A list of wanted persons prepared by Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) names 119 individuals including those involved in attacks on former premier Benazir Bhutto, Pervez Musharraf and on the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad. However, the list does not include names of prominent Taliban leaders, a BBCUrdu report said.
Although the list formulated with the assistance of intelligence officials working with provincial police departments is not complete, it includes sufficient information on suspected militants.
The list received by BBCUrdu was prepared in October 2009. The published list, also known as the 'red book,' includes details on the most dangerous individuals and has been put together with the assistance of provincial police departments and Islamabad police.
The list also includes names of 11 wanted individuals with respect to the Mumbai attacks but there are no details on the bounty in case of their arrests. Similarly, the list does not include names of prominent militant leaders from Swat and Fata. The list mostly includes individuals working for or with banned outfit Lashkar-i-Jhangvi.
The interesting bit is the absence of names of militant leaders from Fata from the FIA's Special Investigation Group's list. Wanted persons from the four provinces and Islamabad have been mentioned but there is no mention of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan's leadership. The list includes the names of 25 wanted individuals from Punjab, 24 from Sindh and 18 from Balochistan. Surprisingly, the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) has the least number of wanted individuals (16). This is despite the fact that the province has been the hardest hit by militancy.
An important name in the list is that of Attock's Abdur Rahman, the report said. Abdur Rahman is also said to be associated with the group formed by Darul Uloom Haqqania's Qari Ismail. According to the 'red book,' Abdur Rahman was involved in the attack on Benazir Bhutto on the instructions of former Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan chief Baitullah Mehsud. Abdur Rahman also used to operate a militant training camp in Khyber agency's Bara tehsil.
Similarly, the 'red book' says Rana Ashfaq Ahmed, wanted in the attack on Islamabad's Marriott Hotel, was associated with Qari Saifullah's group in Waziristan. Ahmed is also said to be associated with militant organisation Hizb-i-jihad and was allegedly receiving monthly income from the organisation since 1997. Ahmed has been accused of sheltering the suicide bomber involved in the attack on Marriott Hotel. He has also previously worked as a driver to Maulana Alam Tariq, the brother of former Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) chief Maulana Azam Tariq.
The book also details identification information on the wanted indiviuals and there are cases in which photographs are also available.
Other details are also available. However, journalists and analysts are of the view that the information available in the book is insufficient and that they have better information on the listed individuals.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/04/2010 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Taliban militants blew up a boys' school and assailants threw grenades into a music event, killing a student, in separate incidents in north and southwest Pakistan, officials said Wednesday.
The boys' school attack took place overnight in the Spin Qabar area of Khyber, a lawless district that straddles the main supply line for Nato troops fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan.
"All four rooms of the government boys' primary school were completely destroyed. Taliban are responsible," Khyber's top administrative official Shafirillah Khan told AFP, adding that no one was hurt as the school was closed for the night.
Militants opposed to co-education and advocating sharia law have destroyed hundreds of schools, mostly for girls, in northwest Pakistan in recent years -- including 16 last month.
In the southwestern province of Balochistan, unknown attackers hurled three grenades into a cultural show at an engineering university in Khuzdar district, some 300 kilometres south of the provincial capital Quetta.
One student was killed and 13 wounded, district police chief Nazir Ahmad Kurd told AFP.
"This was an attack on a cultural show while students were enjoying music," he said.
Pakistan has seen a growth in religious conservatism in parts of the northwest and Balochistan, which borders Afghanistan and Iran, with militants opposing music and films and instead advocating Islamic education.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/04/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Car bombs And other Stunt factors About : PAK ! Kashmir : India : PAK : Too ! Africa : Comorro Islands : Madagascar : Algeria : Etc. ! Check for : Blog Of Fun : Decades : Historical , too ! Europe : Too : Iffy !!
#2
Pakistan has seen a growth in religious conservatism in parts of the northwest and Balochistan, which borders Afghanistan and Iran, with militants opposing music and films and instead advocating Islamic education.
"Brave Lions of Islam". When you can't find any real combatants to fight, attack school children.
[Dawn] The military said Wednesday that a supplier of suicide jackets and explosives who operated a key inter-city network had been killed during a gun battle with soldiers. Hmmmmmmm...what're you, like a 36 short? Well, we've got something very nice in a Semtex...
"Two important terrorist commanders named Mohammad Tufail alias Abdullah and Mohammad Iqbal were killed by security forces in an exchange of fire," the military announced overnight in the northwestern city of Peshawar.
The gun battle happened late Monday on the outskirts of Peshawar, a military spokesman told AFP.
The military said Iqbal belonged to Pakistan's Tehrik-i-Taliban faction in the lawless district of Khyber, which straddles the main supply line for Nato troops fighting against the Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan.
"He was a key supplier of suicide bomb jackets and explosives to Islamabad and other cities of Pakistan," the army said.
He was accused of supplying explosives for "21 suicide vehicles" to northwest district Swat, where Pakistan launched an offensive last year to quell a Taliban insurgency, Balochistan province and other cities.
The military said Tufail, alias Abdullah, had been a Taliban commander in the northwestern district of Nowshera, where he had been involved in missile and rocket assaults and a car suicide attack on an army mosque last June.
The bombing killed four people and wounded at least 90 others after a car packed with explosives ploughed into the wall of a mosque in the garrison town of Nowshera, bringing down the roof of the building.
Pakistan is under huge US pressure to eliminate Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants who pose a domestic threat and who infiltrate Afghanistan to attack Western forces fighting an eight-year war.
More than 3,000 people have been killed in suicide and bomb attacks across Pakistan since July 2007 — a deadly campaign blamed on militants opposed to the government's alliance with the United States.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/04/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
"three-button front, nice shoulder pads, epaulets like that Sudan guy...it's to die for!"
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/04/2010 16:35 Comments ||
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[Dawn] Indian police have arrested a senior Maoist rebel blamed for an attack on a police camp in the east of the country last month that killed 25 people, officials said on Wednesday.
The man, known by the names Deepak and Venkateswar Reddy, is a close associate of the rebels' top commander Kishenji, West Bengal government official Raj Kanojia told AFP.
A special police team arrested the 45-year-old Reddy late on Tuesday in Kolkata, capital of West Bengal state and one of the many areas across India afflicted by Maoist violence.
"Reddy is a key aide of Maoist leader Kishenji," Kanojia said, adding that intelligence officials had been shadowing him for several days.
"He is an explosives expert and we think he had a major role in the Silda attack that claimed the lives of 24 policemen and a civilian in a western district of West Bengal," Kanojia said.
The official was referring to the February 15 attack in restive Midnapore district, in which around 20 rebels attacked a police camp using guns and landmines.
Police at the time described the armed assault as the worst ever by Maoists on security forces in West Bengal.
New Delhi has acknowledged that the Maoist threat cannot be eradicated by brute force and that steps need to be taken to develop the regions where chronic poverty has fuelled the rebels' ability to recruit new members.
Reddy hails from the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, where the rebels are highly active, the Press Trust of India news agency said, adding that he faces about 50 criminal cases in the state.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/04/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
BHARAT RAKSHAK > WAR OR TRUCE? MAOIST LEADERS UNDECIDED [espec CPIM].
Two students of Khuzdar Engineering University were killed and nine others injured when a bomb exploded on the university premises on Tuesday night.
Khuzdar DIG Asif Ejaz Sheikh said the cause of the blast was being investigated.
Police and security personnel took the bodies and the injured to the Khuzdar civil hospital. Sources said two of the injured were in a serious condition. One of the deceased was identified as Junaid Baloch, a son of a university official.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/04/2010 00:00 ||
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[The News (Pak) Top Stories] Security forces on Wednesday started deployment of the Bajaur Levies and the Frontier Corps (FC) on various positions in Damadola, the former stronghold of militants, in Mamond Tehsil, Bajaur Agency, official sources said.
The sources said security forces strengthened their positions in the area after one month of intense fighting. The militants were entrenched in Damadola for the last several years. Security forces destroyed hideouts of the militants, including tunnels and caves, the sources said.
The paramilitary Bajaur Levies and the the FC have started replacing the Army troops that were handing over responsibility after completing the job. The sources added that Assistant Political Agent Iqbal Khattak was supervising the new deployment and in the first phase, 240 Levies personnel were deputed to the area.
The sources said the Levies personnel deployed in Inam Khwar, Cheenagai and Shinkot had received training and would be able to maintain law and order in the area. Though the militants have been dislodged from Damadola, the Army would stay for some time in Mamond Tehsil. Damadola is part of Mamond and was known as the nerve-centre of the militants in Bajaur. Meanwhile, six militants surrendered to security forces in the Malangi area on Wednesday.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/04/2010 00:00 ||
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WASHINGTON -- The U.S. will deliver this month to Pakistan 1,000 sophisticated laser-guided bomb kits that would enable the government there to strike insurgent targets with more precision. 500 for the Paks, 500 to the Chinese ...
The arms sale suggests that U.S. officials are trying to deepen America's relationship with Pakistan and increase military cooperation. The U.S. has been trying to encourage Pakistan to take a tougher stand against Taliban forces operating within its borders.
Lt. Col. Jeffry Glenn, an Air Force spokesman, said Tuesday the U.S. had delivered 1,000 MK-82 bombs to Pakistan last month. This month's shipment of kits would enable Pakistan to use sophisticated laser technology to guide the bombs to specific targets.
Glenn said the U.S. also plans to provide Pakistan 18 new F-16 fighter jets by June.
Posted by: john frum ||
03/04/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Karin Mohl is a : Hacker ! Leave your : Cervix enclosed : Knots Berry Blueberry Jelly Jar! Hello : Hilo Hospital ! Knuck nuk : tubr aio
[Al Arabiya Latest] Three co-ordinated suicide attacks in the central Iraqi city of Baquba killed at least 38 people and wounded 48 on Wednesday, just days before parliamentary elections, a security official said.
Two suicide bombers in cars attacked police stations and another blew himself up in a hospital where the wounded were being treated, police said.
The attacks were the bloodiest in the immediate run-up to a parliamentary election on Sunday that is seen as pivotal for the war-scarred nation as U.S. troops prepare to end combat operations in August, ahead of a full withdrawal by end-2011.
Police said two attackers drove explosives-packed cars at police stations in the center and west of Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) northeast of the capital, in volatile Diyala province where Sunni Islamist groups like al-Qaeda still battle U.S. troops and Iraqi security forces.
The third assailant, apparently wearing a military or police uniform and on foot, blew himself up in the grounds of the city's main hospital as the wounded were taken there for treatment, police said.
The sectarian slaughter unleashed after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion has largely receded, but relations remain strained between once dominant Sunnis and the Shiite majority that was empowered by the fall of dictator Saddam Hussein.
The immediate run-up to the election has been marred by sporadic political violence and assassinations.
So far the campaign has not witnessed a major bombing of the sort that devastated government buildings and hotels in Baghdad in January, December, October and August.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/04/2010 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Italian police arrested seven people on Wednesday on suspicion of trafficking arms to Iran, two Iranians they believe are secret agents and five Italians. Two more Iranians were being sought, police said.
Police made the arrests overnight in several cities. They initially said nine people had been held but later said two arrest warrants for Iranians had not yet been served.
One of those arrested was an Iranian journalist accredited with Rome's foreign press club. All four Iranians, including the two who remain at large, "are believed to be members of the Iranian secret services," police said in a statement.
The operation scuppered plans to export to Iran a large quantity of tracer bullets, explosives from eastern Europe and explosive material to make incendiary bombs, police said.
It began in June and uncovered a ring that exports weapons to Iran from Italy and via third countries.
Police said they had worked with authorities in Britain, Switzerland and Romania and had interrupted the supply of German-produced optical gear and special jackets made for military use.
Among the Italians arrested was a lawyer from northern Turin who runs an arms import-export company and another who is normally resident in Switzerland.
Italy is one of Iran's main trading partners in Europe but Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's close ties with Israel and diplomatic pressure over the nuclear dispute with Tehran have led to a sharp reduction in Italian investments in Iran.
Iran is subject to an international arms embargo and Berlusconi has said on several occasions that trade sanctions against Tehran ought to be toughened up.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/04/2010 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] The Afghan intelligence agency Tuesday blamed Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba for last week's attacks in Kabul.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Fighting between al-Shabaab rebels and African Union (AU) troops in the heart of the capital Mogadishu killed at least 12 people and wounded 49, a human rights group and witnesses said on Wednesday.
One more alleged terrorist was killed in 'shootout' between his cohorts and Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) in front of Chitra Cinema hall in English Road of the old part of Dhaka early Tuesday taking the total of such extra judicial killings to 105 in seven months from August 1, 2009 to March 2, 2010.(TBT Report) 
Violence is growing in North Korea amid a worsening food shortage after the disastrous currency revaluation last December, according to sources in the hermit country. 
