US special forces have a novel weapon in the fight to expel Taliban from a desolate and war-weary farming community in southern Afghanistan -- heavy metal music.
When insurgents open fire in Marjah, an armoured vehicle wired up to powerful speakers blasts out country, heavy metal and rock music so loudly it can be heard up to two kilometres (one mile) away.
The playlist has been hand-selected to annoy the Taliban, according to one US special forces officer.
Posted by: ed ||
04/06/2010 10:10 ||
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#1
Lieutenant Colonel Brian Christmas -- the commander of US Marines in northern Marjah -- said he was unaware of the musical psy ops. "It's inappropriate," he told AFP, mindful that a major part of the counter-insurgency plan is focused on winning over Afghans from the insurgents. "I'm going to ask this to stop right now."
Posted by: ed ||
04/06/2010 10:12 Comments ||
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#2
I gotta quit reading this shit, it's about long overdue we stop pussy footing around these cavemen and kill every damn last one of them and quit worrying about "winning over hearts and minds" fuck that, they aren't worth winning over
Posted by: chris ||
04/06/2010 11:02 Comments ||
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#3
Do a commo check, Lock and load your weapons, and put on Metallica. We're going out the gate.
#9
just out of curiosity... why no rap? Country and heavy metal can crack the Taliban's mental state but rap can't? What if we played music they liked? Wouldn't they pop their heads out to see who was playing it? And then BAM! Never knew what hit 'em.
#11
phimble the troops also have too hear what they are playing. alot of military comp. vids are set too heavy metal so I would guess that's what they like too listen too
Posted by: chris ||
04/06/2010 13:27 Comments ||
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#16
John, you seemed to have overlooked CrazyFool's suggestion in #10.
I first visited Disney Land in 1979 and I STILL HATE THAT SONG!!!! (and now, I can't get it out of my head)
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
04/06/2010 17:18 Comments ||
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#17
Have they installed the ice cream truck music on the drones yet?
Afghanistan's military said 27 insurgents were been killed in ground fighting and airstrikes in a western province on Tuesday, in what appeared to be a major blow to Taliban influence in the region, while four civilians died in a NATO airstrike in the south.
NATO and Afghan forces launched an operation western Badghis province before dawn, with troops parachuting behind Taliban lines to trap the militants, the regional Afghan corps commander Gen. Jalandar Shah Behnam said. Fighting continued well into Tuesday afternoon, he said.
In addition to the 27 Taliban bodies collected, one Afghan soldier was killed and five wounded, he said. One U.S. soldier was reported wounded.
Posted by: ed ||
04/06/2010 09:40 ||
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[Quqnoos] The NATO-led force has admitted the killing of five civilians, including three women, during an overnight operation in Paktia province in February
NATO said its troops, in a joint patrol with Afghan soldiers, had entered the house in Gardez district on February 12, believing an armed fighter was inside.
They killed the two men because they carried weapons, although later leaned they were not Taliban fighters.
"We now understand that the men killed were only trying to protect their families," Brigadier General Eric Tremblay, a spokesman for Nato-led forces, said on Monday.
NATO had earlier said its troops had found the women already killed, bound and gagged, but later acknowledged that this was not right.
In March, Gen Stanley McChrystal, the commander of foreign troops in Afghanistan, issued new directives to his troops calling for restrictions on night raids.
But civilian deaths reportedly rose overall, because the number killed by Taliban fighters rose by 40 per cent, making last year the deadliest year for Afghan civilians.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/06/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
They killed the two men because they carried weapons, although later leaned they were not Taliban fighters.
"We now understand that the men killed were only trying to protect their families," Brigadier General Eric Tremblay, a spokesman for Nato-led forces, said on Monday.
Threatening coalition forces with your family standing behind you is not the ideal way to do this. Telling everyone to remain calm and putting your hands in plain view would work way better. Not carrying an AK-47 to a baby-naming party would help, too.
[Dawn] Nato forces said they killed 10 militants in a raid on a compound near the Pakistani border early Monday, while gunmen seriously wounded an Afghan provincial councilwoman in a drive-by shooting in the country's increasingly violent north.
Meanwhile, Nato confirmed that international troops were responsible for the deaths of five civilians, including three women, in February. Such killings have inflamed frictions between the government of President Hamid Karzai and his Western backers.
A Nato statement said a joint international-Afghan patrol fired on two men mistakenly believed to be insurgents in the Feb. 12 incident in Gardez, south of Kabul. It said the three women were "accidentally killed as a result of the joint force firing at the men."
Family members said they were awaiting formal notice of the Nato admission.
In Monday's raid, which began around 2 a.m. (2130 GMT), US troops backed by Afghan army and police forces moved on a compound in Nangarhar province's Khogyani district after receiving reports of militant activity there, the international forces command said in another statement.
They were fired on with heavy weapons and 10 militants were killed and one wounded in the ensuing firefight, the statement said. A search of the compound found automatic rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, material for building roadside bombs, and communications equipment, Nato said. It said no civilians were harmed in the operation.
In the latest of a series of targeted assassination attempts blamed on militants, Baghlan provincial council member Nida Khyani was struck by gunfire in the leg and abdomen in Pul-e Khumri, the capital of the northern province, said Salim Rasouli, head of the provincial health department. Khyani's bodyguard was also slightly injured in the attack.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the shooting, although suspicion immediately fell on Taliban fighters who often target people working with the Afghan government and their Western backers.
In the national parliament in Kabul, a lawmaker from Baghlan province shared details of the attack and lamented the security problems female officials face in Afghanistan.
"It happened in the center of the city," said Shaukria Esakhil. "How can a woman work under these kinds of conditions?"
One month ago, a member of the Afghan national parliament escaped injury when her convoy was attacked by Taliban insurgents in eastern Afghanistan. Female government officials regularly report receiving threats to their safety. Some women leaders, including a prominent policewoman, have been assassinated.
The Taliban rigidly oppose education for girls and women's participation in public affairs, citing their narrow interpretation of conservative Islam and tribal traditions.
Militants, who are strongest in the south and east, carry out beatings and other brutal punishments for perceived women's crimes from immodesty to leaving home unaccompanied by a male relative.
Nato, meanwhile, is under constant pressure to prevent killings of civilians in military operations, amid concerns it only serves to boost support for the insurgency and undermine Karzai's weak government.
Nato conceded the Feb. 12 killings in Gardez were the result of faulty intelligence and that its forces had killed the two men because they believed they posed a threat to their personal safety. On the night of the attack, the family had been celebrating the birth of a grandson.
"We deeply regret the outcome of this operation, accept responsibility for our actions that night, and know that this loss will be felt forever by the families," spokesman Brig Gen. Eric Tremblay said in the statement.
"We now understand that the men killed were only trying to protect their families," he said.
International forces were working with Afghan security partners to improve coordination and "help prevent such mistakes from happening again," Tremblay said.
Tremblay said initial reports that the dead women had been bound and gagged before the raid had been apparently based on a misinterpretation of Islamic burial customs, which require bodies be shrouded for speedy burial. Typically limbs are bound to allow the body to be more easily lifted into the grave.
International force officials will discuss the results of the investigation with family of those killed, apologize and provide compensation, he said.
The two men killed in the Gardez raid had been long-serving government loyalists and opponents of Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, one serving as provincial district attorney and the other as police chief in Paktia's Zurmat district.
Their brother, who also lost his wife and a sister, said he learned of the investigation result from the Internet, but had yet to receive formal notice.
Mohammad Sabar said the family's only demand was that the informant who passed on the faulty information about militant activity be tried and publicly executed.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/06/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
We should have the Pakistanis come on overe and give us some lessons on how to attack and only kill "militants".
Heavy clashes have broken out between two rival militant groups in central Somalia, leaving at least 21 people dead and over 30 others injured.
The fierce fighting between loyalists of Somalia's most prominent anti-government group, al-Shabab, and their archrivals Ahlu Sunnah began in the Rage Ele area in Middle Shabelle on Saturday night and continued Sunday, a Press TV correspondent reported.
The clashes, described as extreme, reportedly left at least 21 fighters dead and around 33 others injured.
No civilian casualties have been reported, but eyewitnesses say with the scale of fighting, casualties are expected to rise on both sides.
So far, both warring sides have claimed victory. Locals, however, say al-Shabab fighters have managed to capture the town.
Meanwhile, clashes also broke out in the Gal-qoryale area that connects Elbur, al-Shabab's largest military base, and Guriel town, Ahlu Sunnah's stronghold in the central Galgadud region.
Residents say al-Shabab attacked the area, driving the local fighters away.
The government of President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed has recently brought Ahlu Sunnah on board ahead of an expected military push against the fighters.
Reports say that hundreds of al-Shabab fighters have meanwhile massed in anticipation of another planned offensive against Ahlu Sunnah strongholds in central Somalia.
Al-Shabab is fighting against the Somali government and African Union troops.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/06/2010 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] The European Union Naval Force says one of its frigates freed a German cargo ship that had been hijacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia, arresting 10 attackers.
The Dutch frigate, Tromp, rescued the 12,612-ton MV Taipan, which was en route to Mombasa, Kenya from Djibouti, when pirates attacked it on Monday morning and took it over, a Press TV correspondent reported, quoting the Dutch defense ministry.
The Dutch vessel rescued the ship and its 13 crew members at around 1140 GMT about 900 kilometers (560 miles) east of the Somali coast, it said.
A Dutch soldier was slightly wounded in an exchange of gunfire with the pirates.
The Dutch navy launched the operation as part of an EU naval mission called Operation Atalanta, which protects shipping along the key route off Somalia.
Foreign fleets are patrolling the waters off the Horn of Africa as part of a UN-led anti-piracy mission to deter Somali pirates, who have become more sophisticated and broadened their range of operations in seizing vulnerable vessels transiting the waters.
There are still eight vessels and 157 hostages in the hands of Somali pirates, an official said on March 31.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/06/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
No mention of what happened to the pirates. Good idea - when asked say "what pirates?" after they've been fed to the sharks.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
04/06/2010 17:20 Comments ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] A suicide bomber killed two policemen and wounded a third near the police headquarters of a town in Russia's North Caucasus region of Ingushetia on Monday, officials said.
The bombing in Karabulak, about 20 km (12 miles) from the regional capital Magas, followed suicide attacks in Moscow and the Dagestan region of the Caucasus over the past week that killed 50 people. Russia has sought to tighten security and boost efforts to hunt down insurgents since then.
"According to preliminary information a suicide bomber set off an explosion outside the town's police station," said a spokesman for the local interior ministry.
"Two policemen were killed and one policeman was injured and is now being treated in the hospital," the spokesman said.
Officials said Karabulak was rocked by a second blast at the scene of the suicide bombing.
Fears of a new bombing campaign against the Russian heartland intensified after a twin bomb attack on a railway line in Dagestan on Sunday that security forces said was linked to the other attacks.
Ingushetia is a predominantly Muslim region of Russia's North Caucasus which neighbors war-torn Chechnya and has been troubled in recent years by a violent Islamist insurgency.
Ingushetia is plagued by almost daily attacks targeting law enforcement authorities, part of an upsurge in violence in Russia's North Caucasus a decade after the second of two wars pitting government forces against Chechen separatists.
Officials blame militants for the violence, but local residents and rights activists say it is fuelled by government corruption and other factors.
On Wednesday, Chechen rebels claimed responsibility for the Moscow metro bombings and threatened further attacks against Russian cities.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/06/2010 00:00 ||
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PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- A stepped-up campaign of American drone strikes over the past three months has battered Al Qaeda and its Pakistani and Afghan brethren in the tribal area of North Waziristan, according to a mid-ranking militant and supporters of the government there.
The strikes have cast a pall of fear over an area that was once a free zone for Al Qaeda and the Taliban, forcing militants to abandon satellite phones and large gatherings in favor of communicating by courier and moving stealthily in small groups, they said.
The drones, operated by the C.I.A., fly overhead sometimes four at a time, emitting a beelike hum virtually 24 hours a day, observing and tracking targets, then unleashing missiles on their quarry, they said.
The strikes have sharpened tensions between the local tribesmen and the militants, who have dumped bodies with signs accusing the victims of being American spies in Miram Shah, the main town in North Waziristan, they said.
The impact of the drone strikes on the militants' operations -- on freedom of movement, ability to communicate and the ease of importing new recruits to replace those who have been killed -- has been difficult to divine because North Waziristan, at the nether reaches of the tribal area, is virtually sealed from the outside world.
None of those interviewed would allow their names to be used for fear for their safety, and all were interviewed separately in a city outside the tribal areas. The supporters of the government worked in positions where they had access to information about the effects of the drone campaign.
Along with that of the militant, the accounts provided a rare window on how the drones have transformed life for all in the region.
By all reports, the bombardment of North Waziristan, and to a lesser extent South Waziristan, has become fast and furious since a combined Taliban and Qaeda suicide attack on a C.I.A. base in Khost, in southern Afghanistan, in late December. In the first six weeks of this year, more than a dozen strikes killed up to 90 people suspected of being militants, according to Pakistani and American accounts. There are now multiple strikes on some days, and in some weeks the strikes occur every other day, the people from North Waziristan said.
The strikes have become so ferocious, "It seems they really want to kill everyone, not just the leaders," said the militant, who is a mid-ranking fighter associated with the insurgent network headed by Jalaluddin and Sirajuddin Haqqani. By "everyone" he meant rank-and-file fighters, though civilians are being killed, too.
Tactics used just a year ago to avoid the drones could not be relied on, he said. It is, for instance, no longer feasible to sleep under the trees as a way of avoiding the drones. "We can't lead a jungle existence for 24 hours every day," he said.
Militants now sneak into villages two at a time to sleep, he said. Some homeowners were refusing to rent space to Arabs, who are associated with Al Qaeda, for fear of their families' being killed by the drones, he said.
The militants have abandoned all-terrain vehicles in favor of humdrum public transportation, one of the government supporters said.
The Arabs, who have always preferred to keep at a distance from the locals, have now gone further underground, resorting to hide-outs in tunnels dug into the mountainside in the Datta Khel area adjacent to Miram Shah, he said.
"Definitely Haqqani is under a lot of pressure," the militant said. "He has lost commanders, a brother and other family members."
While unpopular among the Pakistani public, the drone strikes have become a weapon of choice for the Obama administration after the Pakistani Army rebuffed pleas to mount a ground offensive in North Waziristan to take on the militants who use the area to strike at American and NATO forces in Afghanistan. The Pakistani military says it is already overstretched fighting militants on other fronts. But the militants in North Waziristan -- the Haqqani network backed by Al Qaeda -- are also longtime allies of Pakistan's military and intelligence services. The group may yet prove useful for Pakistan to exert influence in postwar Afghanistan.
The army maintains a division of soldiers in North Waziristan, but, the militant said, the Pakistani soldiers do little to hinder militant operations, which, though under greater pressure from the drones, have by no means stopped.
Training sessions on how to make improvised explosive devices for use against American and NATO soldiers in Afghanistan continue, the militant said.
At one eight-day "crash course" in March, the militant said he learned how to mix explosive chemicals and how to load a car with explosives that would be used in suicide bombings.
In public, the Pakistani government opposes the drones, citing a violation of sovereignty. Under American pressure, however, the Pakistani intelligence agency, Inter-Services Intelligence, has provided important intelligence for targets, American and Pakistani officials have said.
But increasingly the Americans appear to have developed their own sources, the militant said.
An influx of young Arabs turned up in North Waziristan recently, presumably to replace some of the older Arabs who had been killed by the drones. But many militants assumed that some of these Arabs were actually American agents, he said.
"Al Qaeda is very careful who they take among the new Arab recruits because they are informants for America," the militant said.
Perhaps the most disturbing strike for the Haqqanis was the killing of Sirajuddin Haqqani's younger brother, Mohammad, on Feb. 16. One government supporter in the area said he witnessed the attack. "I was walking when I saw two drones, one going in one direction, one in another direction. I had a feeling they were preparing," he said.
There were "two blasts" when a car was hit about 1,200 feet in front of him, he said.
"There was total dust, everything was hazy," he said. Suddenly, Haqqani fighters appeared out of nowhere. "All these vehicles rushed up, cordoned the site so no outsider could come. They took away the dead bodies."
The question of civilian deaths is an almost daily worry, all four men said. "Civilians are worried because there is hardly a house without a fighter," the militant said.
Two of the government supporters said they knew of civilians, including friends, who had been killed by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. But, they said, they are prepared to sacrifice the civilians if it means North Waziristan will be rid of the militants, in particular the Arabs.
"On balance, the drones may have killed 100, 200, 500 civilians," said one of the men. "If you look at the other guys, the Arabs and the kidnappings and the targeted killings, I would go for the drones."
This reminds me more and more of Vietnam, with the drones taking place of F-4s and other aircraft. We're fighting a war against an insurgency, with a safe haven just across the border. We're using airpower to try to destroy the insurgency. Pakistan is the new Laos, but with an even less friendly government.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/06/2010 16:47 Comments ||
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Police killed two suspected suicide bombers during a raid in northwest Pakistan on Tuesday, officials said, further rattling the Afghan border region following attacks on the U.S. Consulate and a political rally that killed at least 53 people.
Posted by: ed ||
04/06/2010 09:57 ||
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[Dawn] At least 10 Indian policemen were killed on Sunday when their vehicle struck a land mine planted by suspected Maoist militants in the eastern state of Orissa, police said.
The attack took place as Home Minister P. Chidambaram visited a militant stronghold in the neighbouring state of West Bengal where he reviewed the progress of the government's anti-Maoist offensive.
"We are confirming 10 deaths but the toll might go up as the search for more bodies is on," senior police official Sanjeev Panda told AFP.
The Maoists have stepped up attacks in response to the government offensive that began late last year to hunt down Maoists entrenched in the thick forests of the so-called "Red corridor" that stretches across north and eastern India.
Chidambaram said "Operation Greenhunt" had weakened the extreme left-wing movement and he appealed to villagers not to give in to fear.
The vehicle that was ripped apart in the blast was the first of three returning from a patrol and was carrying more than 20 men, Panda said.
The Maoist insurgency began as a peasant uprising in 1967 and has now spread to 20 of India's 28 states.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/06/2010 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Two former officials of the premier intelligence agency, Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), and a free lance journalist have gone missing in suspicious circumstances from Kohat.
Family sources of the missing ISI officials Col (retired) Imam and Sq Leader (retired) Khalid Khawaja revealed that these officers were assisting the free lance journalist Asad Qureshi who was making a documentary on Taliban and Al-Qaeda.
They were on way back to their homes after having a meeting with the Taliban leadership in tribal areas when they were allegedly picked up by unknown people. It is yet not clear who kidnapped them.
However, it is pertinent to mention that both the former ISI officers were having close relations with Taliban and Al-Qaeda leadership.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/06/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
From wiki
Brigadier Amir Sultan Tarar, better known as Colonel Imam, is a veteran Pakistan Army and Inter-Services Intelligence officer and former Pakistani Consul General at Herat.[1] He is widely believed to have played a key role in the formation of the Taliban, after having helped train the Afghan Mujahidin on behalf of the United States in the 1980s.[2]
Colonel Imam, who is a commando-Guerrilla warfare specialist, has trained Mullah Omar and other Taliban factions. Colonel Imam remained active in Afghanistan's civil war until 2001 U. S. led War on Terrorism, and still supports the Taliban.
He is a graduate of Pakistan Military Academy , Kakul ; and Fort Bragg, North Carolina, USA. He still independently supports the Taliban independance movement in Afghanistan
After the Soviet defeat and the collapse of communism, Colonel Imam was invited to the White House by the then President George Bush Sr, and was given a piece of the Berlin Wall with a brass plaque inscribed: "To the one who dealt the first blow." Today, western intelligence agencies believe Imam is among a group of renegade officers from Pakistan's ISI who continued to help the Taliban after Pakistan turned against them following the attacks of September 11, 2001
Posted by: john frum ||
04/06/2010 8:43 Comments ||
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#2
Khalid Khawaja is a citizen of Pakistan and a former Air Force officer and former Officer of the Pakistani Inter Services Intelligence agency.[2]
Khawaja describes himself as a close associate of Osama bin Laden in the early days of the Afghan resistance against the Soviet Union
We don't believe in killing innocent people, but we would certainly like to send you into the Stone Age the same way you have sent us into the Stone Age...a slave normally hates his master
Khalid Khawaja, 2005
Posted by: john frum ||
04/06/2010 8:45 Comments ||
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[Dawn] Indian troops Sunday shot dead two suspected militants after they allegedly sneaked into Indian-hold Kashmir from the Pakistani-zone of the disputed region, an army spokesman said.
The two were killed along the Line of Control (LOC) -- the de facto border that splits Kashmir between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan -- in the northern Keran sector, spokesman J.S. Brar said.
The army has warned of a possible escalation in rebel violence this summer.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/06/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Headline: Burglar Killed in "Clash" with Homeowner
Posted by: American Delight ||
04/06/2010 7:05 Comments ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Militants using a car bomb and firing weapons attacked the U.S. consulate in the Pakistani city of Peshawar on Monday hours after a suicide bomber killed 43 people elsewhere in the northwest, officials said.
Pakistani Taliban militants claimed responsibility for the attack on the consulate, in which eight people including three militants were killed but no one in the mission was hurt, and vowed more violence. The United States condemned the consulate attack and expressed "great concern" after Islamist militants targeted the building in Pakistan's northwestern capital.
The apparently coordinated attacks were the deadliest so far this year in nuclear-armed Pakistan, where the government is closely allied to the U.S.-led war against al-Qaeda and in neighboring Afghanistan. The ability of heavily-armed militants to get so close to the U.S. mission and other military installations, such as the provincial headquarters of Pakistan's premier spy agency, will raise further questions about insecurity.
Up to 15 militants armed with explosives and driving in two vehicles targeted the heavily guarded U.S. consulate in Peshawar, a city of 2.5 million on the edge of Pakistan's lawless tribal belt, setting off multiple explosions.
"The target was certainly the American consulate but they didn't succeed in getting there," Pakistani police officer Ghulam Hussain told AFP. "One of the suicide bombers blew himself up close to the gate. Police guarding the U.S. consulate started retaliatory fire. More blasts took place. We have recovered unexploded material from four different points," he said.
Three powerful explosions and bouts of gunfire echoed through the area, where an AFP reporter said the attacks occurred at a checkpoint about 20 meters (yards) from the U.S. consulate where heavy thick smoke spewed into the sky.
"We can confirm there has been an attack on the U.S. consulate Peshawar facilities," U.S. embassy spokeswoman Ariel Howard told AFP, unable to provide any details about the nature of the attack, possible damage or casualties.
Pakistani police and army sealed off the area, preventing journalists from accessing the scene and later carried out a number of controlled explosions.
A provincial cabinet minister said four militants, a policeman and another person were killed during the attack.
"They came in two vehicles. The militants were well-equipped. It was a well-organized attack," Bashir Ahmed Bilour, senior minister in the North West Frontier Province government headquartered in the city, told reporters.
"The situation is now under control," he said, following a gun battle between the assailants and security forces. "The militants were trying to enter the American consulate, but they did not succeed," he said.
It was not clear whether some of the assailants may have escaped.
Earlier on Monday, a suicide bomber attacked an open-air rally in the northwest district of Lower Dir, where Pakistan waged a major offensive against local Taliban insurgents last year. The attack killed 43 people during a celebration organized by the leading secular political party in northwest and was the deadliest in Lower Dir since the anti-Taliban offensive. Residents reportedly said a bomb exploded close to the stage at the political gathering.
The Awami National Party (ANP) said it organized the meeting to celebrate plans to rename North West Frontier Province -- Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, as laid out in a package of constitutional reform being debated in the federal parliament. The new name honors the Pashtun-majority population in the province, replaces a name that dates back to British colonial rule and is part of efforts to devolve greater authority to the provinces.
Lower Dir borders Pakistan's lawless tribal belt, where suspected Taliban armed with petrol bombs and rockets torched eight tankers used to supply fuel to NATO forces in Afghanistan before dawn on Monday, officials said. Dozens of fighters launched the attack at Zakha Khel in the tribal district of Khyber, local administration chief Shafeerullah Wazir told AFP.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/06/2010 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] A bomb attack killed 30 people at a celebration organised by a political party in northwest Pakistan on Monday, with fears the death toll could rise further, police said.
The suspected suicide bomber attacked the open-air gathering in Timargarah, the main town in the district of Lower Dir, where Pakistan waged a major offensive against local Taliban insurgents last year.
"Twenty-five people were killed," Qazi Jamil, police chief for the northwestern region of Malakand, told AFP. However, DawnNews reported that at least 30 people were killed in the blast.
"Evidence collected so far indicates it was a suicide attack. We are investigating."
"We are investigating whether it was a suicide attack or a bomb planted in the area. Residents said the blast occurred near the stage," he added.
The Awami National Party (ANP), the secular political party that dominates government in North West Frontier Province organised the meeting to celebrate plans to re-name the province Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
The new name honours the Pashtun-majority population in the province and is set to replace a name that dates back to British colonial rule.
"Our party had arranged a thanksgiving day to celebrate the changing of the name after 200 years of colonial legacy," an ANP spokesman told Geo television.
"People are saying it was a suicide attack. Many people have been martyred, many more have been wounded," he added, speaking from the main northwestern city of Peshawar.
Rescue workers were searching the site of the blast as people were feared to be trapped under the rubble. The dead and the injured have been shifted to GHQ hospital.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/06/2010 00:00 ||
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At least five bombs ripped through apartment buildings across Baghdad Tuesday and another struck a market, killing 49 people and wounding more than 160, authorities said. More from the VoA here.
Posted by: ed ||
04/06/2010 09:36 ||
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#1
The WHITE HOUSE = POTUS BAMMER is repor syaing that these attcks will NOT delay the scheduled withdrawal of US forces from Iraq.
BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: A U.S. soldier was killed in a reportedly non-combat incident in Baghdad, upping the total number of U.S. deaths in Iraq to 4,388, according to the U.S. army in Iraq on Monday.
The non-combat incident is pending investigation,' said the U.S. army in a statement received by Aswat al-Iraq news agency. The statement did not give further details.
The number increases to 18 the number of fatalities in 2010, including seven in non-combat' incidents.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/06/2010 00:00 ||
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NINEWA / Aswat al-Iraq: Two students were wounded in a bomb blast in northern Talafar, a police source said on Monday.
The bomb exploded on Monday afternoon (April 5) near a preparatory school in al-Nour neighborhood in northern Talafar, injuring two students while leaving the school,' the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. They were rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment,' he added.
Talafar suburb is 60 km northwest of Mosul the capital city of Ninewa province lies 405 km north of Baghdad.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/06/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Here is how : Jihadists do : BBC : Second Moscow Bomber a : Teacher ! Russia in $5bn Chavez arms deal ! Thieves dig into Paris bank , again ! Ingushetia hit by suicide attack ! Watch : Jihadists : Rebound : MOSCOW : BOOM !! Americans : Congeration : World : Russia : Embassies : Watch : Chavez : Russki Narody : Embassy : Venezuela : FUCKED ! Thieves hit : Paris bank : Job : Security : Jihadists : Paris : Bang !! And then........................................Ingushetia ,,,,Whacked ,,,,Georgia .....Hullo : Narody : Neighbours ,,,,,,Ola : Akbar
[Al Arabiya Latest] Iraq's security forces were on high alert Monday after three suicide car bombs targeting regional and European embassies rocked Baghdad, killing up to 42 people. Officials said the near-simultaneous attacks, which a minister said bore the signature of al-Qaeda, had also wounded as many as 224 people.
Two were suicide attacks against the Egyptian and Iranian embassies, while a third struck an intersection near the German, Spanish and Syrian missions.
The attacks came as Iraq's political parties struggled to form a government.
"How much longer will this last?"
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, whose coalition finished second in the March 7 general election, held a meeting with Iraq's national security council over Sunday's blasts, a statement from his office said.
Baghdad security spokesman Major General Qassim Atta said a bomb-laden car had also been intercepted in Masbah, central Baghdad, apparently heading towards the headquarters of police tasked with diplomatic protection. Its driver was arrested and the device was defused, he said.
"It looks like (al-Qaeda)," Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told AFP. "I really feel it's early, however, unless we ensure the investigation is complete" to say who was behind the blasts, he added.
"They bear the same marks of previous attacks, in the timing, the targeting, the simultaneous attacks on different targets in different places to have maximum impact," Zebari said. He was referring to coordinated bombings in August, October, December and January that killed more than 400 people.
The two bombs that battered the diplomatic western neighborhood of Mansur were followed soon afterwards by a third huge explosion outside the Iranian embassy in central Baghdad.
"The explosion was really strong," taxi driver Abu Ahmed told AFP of the blast at the Iranian embassy, which caused no casualties among its staff.
"They never kill ministers, officials or heads of state. They kill taxi drivers, public employees and shopkeepers," he added. "How much longer will this last?"
"Barbaric"
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in Berlin she was "profoundly affected" by the blasts, while the Arab League said that they sought to destabilize Iraq at a "delicate moment."
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner condemned the bombings as "barbaric."
EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton condemned the attacks, saying in a statement that it was important that Iraq's political parties and leaders "continue to strengthen Iraq's democratic institutions."
"No terrorist attack should prevent Iraqis from achieving their fundamental right of a peaceful and normal life," she said.
The attacks came as Iraqi political parties negotiate to form a government, nearly a month after an election that left none of the four main blocs with enough seats to form a 163-seat parliamentary majority on its own. Former premier Iyad Allawi, whose bloc finished first in the election, has accused Iran of seeking to prevent him becoming prime minister again by inviting all major parties except his secular bloc to Tehran.
Security officials had warned that protracted coalition building could give insurgents an opportunity to further destabilize the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/06/2010 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency
[Ma'an] The Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, the armed wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, said its forces targeted a military site near Nahal Oz, east of Gaza, with a C5K missile on Saturday.
"This action comes in the course of addressing the continuing crimes of the occupation against our people," the PFLP said in a statement, claiming that Israel's Haaretz newspaper and the Hebrew-language Army Radio confirmed that the rocket hit the military site.
An Israeli military spokeswoman said the army was not familiar with any such attack on Saturday.
Jamil Mizher, member of the Central Committee of the PFLP, commented to Al-Alam News a day earlier that the "threats of the occupation will not succeed in breaking the will of the Palestinian people or deterring the resistance." He said that the resistance factions have met in Gaza to coordinate mechanisms to "collectively confront Israeli aggression in Gaza."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/06/2010 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: PFLP
#1
"I thought we were the Popular Front."
"Nah, we're the People's Front!"
#2
ION DAILY TIMES.PK > ISRAEL FM WARNS PALESTINIANS NOT TO DECLARE STATEHOOD [next year > 2011], warning that Israel may revoke 1990's OSLO ACCORDS + formally annex parts of GAZA-WB for its security.
A bomb attack in Yala's Than Toh district injured seven soldiers on Tuesday morning. The blast at a roadside pavillion happened at about 10.15am. Bomb squads rushed to the scene and found four soldiers seriously wounded while three others slightly injured.
Initial investigation showed that the seven were engineer soldiers, surveying the site to construct a bridge in the district when the explosive went off. It was suspected that the terrorists insurgents dug a pit at a tree near the construction site and hid the explosives. They waited for the soldiers to be at the scene before triggering them.
[Straits Times] AN INDONESIAN woman went on trial on Monday on charges of harbouring South-east Asia's most wanted terrorist at the home where he was slain last year in a shootout with police.
Judges opened and then immediately adjourned the trial of 21-year-old Putri Munawaroh, who was arrested after September's gunbattle at a home in Central Java. The trial was scheduled to resume on Wednesday. The proceedings will focus on Munawaroh's ties to alleged militant mastermind Noordin Top, who was killed in the raid along with three other suspected terrorists, including Munawaroh's husband.
Noordin, a Malaysian who eluded capture for more than seven years, was said to be an Al-Qaeda-funded bomb maker wanted in connection with five major bombings in Indonesia since 2002, including the massive blast in Bali that year that left more than 200 dead.
He was also accused of ties to last July's twin suicide attacks at the Ritz-Carlton and J.W. Marriott hotels in Jakarta that killed seven and wounded 50. Those strikes ended four-year lull in terrorist attacks in the world's largest Muslim-majority country.
Prosecutors say Munawaroh's husband was an aide to Noordin and rented the safe house police raided. Investigators say that during interrogations Munawaroh, who was wounded in the shootout, said she didn't surrender because she had intended to die as a martyr while protecting Noordin. She was pregnant at the time of her arrest and later gave birth to a son, who lives with her in prison.
If convicted of harbouring terrorists and concealing information about terrorist activities, she faces 20 years in prison. She has yet to speak publicly about the charges. Her trial is expected to last months.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/06/2010 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Jemaah Islamiyah
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.
[Dawn] Nato forces said they killed 10 militants in a raid on a compound near the Pakistani border early Monday, while gunmen seriously wounded an Afghan provincial councilwoman in a drive-by shooting in the country's increasingly violent north.
[Al Arabiya Latest] A suicide bomber killed two policemen and wounded a third near the police headquarters of a town in Russia's North Caucasus region of Ingushetia on Monday, officials said.
PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- A stepped-up campaign of American drone strikes over the past three months has battered Al Qaeda and its Pakistani and Afghan brethren in the tribal area of North Waziristan, according to a mid-ranking militant and supporters of the government there.
[Dawn] A bomb attack killed 30 people at a celebration organised by a political party in northwest Pakistan on Monday, with fears the death toll could rise further, police said.
