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Today: 78 articles and 197 comments as of 14:10.
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Area: WoT Background    Non-WoT    Opinion        Politix   
Yemeni regime loses grip on four provinces
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 1: WoT Operations
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Good morning
Posted by: Fred || 03/29/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Happy Birthday/Daily Gam Shot

Marina Sirtis aka Counselor Deanna Troi in "Star Trek: The Next Generation" aka Dr. Svetlana Markova in "Stargate: SG-1" aka Sister Margarette in "Earth: Final Conflict" (age 56)



Whoa!
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 03/29/2011 0:48 Comments || Top||

#2  Whoa, is right, dang!
Posted by: Jefferson || 03/29/2011 7:01 Comments || Top||

#3  Add in 7 of 9 and you've got quite a pair...or is that a quad? Yum!
Posted by: AlanC || 03/29/2011 8:25 Comments || Top||

#4  Definitely a quad!!
Posted by: WolfDog || 03/29/2011 9:14 Comments || Top||

#5  Whoa?
I was thinking "Giddy-up!"
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 || 03/29/2011 10:54 Comments || Top||

#6  All I could think was "humana-humana-humana".
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 03/29/2011 19:27 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Pentagon Reacts to Alleged Afghanistan "Kill Teams"
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 03/29/2011 13:42 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Taliban overrun outpost in Waygal District
About 300 Taliban fighters on Tuesday overran the tiny capital of a remote and mountainous district in northeast Afghanistan, forcing police to retreat from their small outpost in the area, an official said.

The takeover was another indication of the deteriorating security situation in the north and east of the country,
or maybe a sign that bunnies hopped thataway because the bunny hunting was too good down south
and a sign that the Taliban are preparing for a spring offensive
the dreaded spring offensive
against Afghan security forces and coalition forces.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said the district was captured along with 12 police officers and their weaponry. He said the Taliban met little resistance and the rest of the police retreated in the direction of the provincial capital.

Nato said it had no forces at all in the district.
That's a real shame, 300 taliban fighters would have made a good target, and with the police all having retreated, a low collateral damage target for an AC-130 - except I guess they were in Libya and too far away.
Posted by: Glenmore || 03/29/2011 12:45 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Interesting that they were able to muster 300. That takes considerable planning and supplies.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/29/2011 15:41 Comments || Top||

#2  Afghanistan is so yesterday's news. Our A-10's and AC-130's are in Libya attacking providing air support for al Qaeda.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 03/29/2011 17:32 Comments || Top||


Taliban Leader Denies Setting Fire to Schools
[Tolo News] Mullah Omar, the Taliban leading leader, denied setting fire on schools and attacks on common locations by the Taliban.
"Wudn't me."
In his latest comments the Taliban leader said Afghan government and Nato should provide evidence on their allegations.
"Yeah. Da witnesses are all dead!"
Experts say Mullah Omar's comment is an indication of fragment within the Taliban groups. "Within the Taliban some Death Eater groups have shaped under the influence of al-Qaeda which means a part of the Taliban have begun to turn more Death Eater compared to traditional Taliban," Wahid Muzhda, an Afghan political analyst, said.

But Afghan citizens frustrated by the Taliban attacks say the Taliban have begun to target civilian locations recently. "Each suicide kaboom has led to the death of innocent Afghan civilians and nobody cares about it," said Ahmad Jawad Fazel, 24, who lives in Kabul.
We at Rantburg care, but news of that isn't likely to have reached the Afghan interior.
As part of the government outreach to the Taliban, Karzai formed high peace council to convince the Taliban to prepare for peace talks.

Mullah Omar dismisses the Taliban attacks on common locations as the Taliban claim responsibility to the suicide attacks right after they happen.

In the latest suicide attack in Barmal district of Paktia province, which targeted a road construction company, 20 road construction personnel were killed and fifty others were hurt.
Posted by: Fred || 03/29/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Taliban

#1  There are times when I would rather have Mullah Omars head on my desk as an ashtray than Binny.

This is certainly the most loathsome, slithering little verminous monster on early...
Posted by: Bill Clinton || 03/29/2011 1:00 Comments || Top||

#2  I dunno, Bill. I think his Paki bosses are worse.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 03/29/2011 11:30 Comments || Top||

#3  To cut a long story short he may play some cards , but he aint in charge of the whole deck anymore
Posted by: Albert Fleting6496 || 03/29/2011 12:48 Comments || Top||

#4  Any relation to Omar Addams, "The Firebug of the Bosporus"?
Posted by: mojo || 03/29/2011 14:58 Comments || Top||

#5  Well Karzai said no real Afghani would burn a school so there!

Ttthhhhhppphhhzz!
Posted by: swksvolFF || 03/29/2011 16:39 Comments || Top||


Deaths in Afghan suicide blast
[Al Jazeera] At least 20 people have been killed and 50 others injured in a suicide kaboom on a construction company in eastern Afghanistan, local authorities said.

The Taliban grabbed credit for the blast, which occurred late on Sunday in the remote Bermel district of Paktika
...which coincidentally borders South Wazoo...
province.

"The attacker smashed a car laden with explosives into the construction company building," Mokhles Afghan, spokesperson for the provincial governor, told the AFP news agency of the attack.

He said that engineers, construction workers and security guards were among those killed in the blast in the restive eastern province, which shares a long, mostly non-existent border with Pak areas troubled by Taliban fighters.

The Afghan interior ministry said the attackers used a truck carrying a large amount of explosives. They shot their way into the company's compound before detonating the bomb, a statement from the ministry said.

In an emailed statement to media, Taliban front man Zabihullah Mujahid said the group had carried out the attack but said it had been on a military base and that 49 foreign and Afghan troops had been killed and maimed.

However,
The emphatic However...
local officials in Paktika said the dead and maimed included employees of the firm and other civilians.

The United Nations
... aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society...
said that last year was the deadliest for civilians since the conflict began, with 2,777 killed - a 15 per cent increase on 2009 figures. Three-quarters of these deaths were caused by attacks linked to the bad boys.

Sunday's attack underscores the huge security challenges Afghanistan faces, less than a week after president Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai
... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use...
announced that local military and police will take over from NATO in seven parts of the country this summer.
Posted by: Fred || 03/29/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Africa Horn
29 people die in battle for Mogadishu
[Iran Press TV] Heavy festivities between Somali government troops backed by African Union forces and al-Shabaab
... Harakat ash-Shabaab al-Mujahidin aka the Mujahideen Youth Movement. It was originally the youth movement of the Islamic Courts, now pretty much all of what's left of it. They are aligned with al-Qaeda but operate more like the Afghan or Pakistani Taliban. The organization's current leader is Ibrahim Haji Jama Mee'aad, also known as Ibrahim al-Afghani. Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, a Kenyan al-Qaeda member, is considered the group's military leader...
fighters have resulted in the deaths of 29 people in Mogadishu.

At least 18 Somali soldiers died on Monday after bitter festivities broke out between al-Shaboobs and the transitional government troops in Mogadishu's northern district of Afarta Darjino, a Press TV correspondent in Mogadishu reported.

More than 11 civilians were also killed and 30 others injured when Somali soldiers and al-Shaboobs exchanged heavy gunfire, and barrages of mortar shells were fired.

Somali ambulance workers ferried those maimed to Medina hospital.

Boilerplate follows...
Somalia has not had a functioning government
since 1991, when warlords overthrew former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.

The Somali government has struggled for years to restore security but efforts have not yet yielded results in the nation.

Nearly a million people have died following years of fighting between rival warlords and also due to the country's inability to deal with famine and disease.

There are more than 1.4 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Somalia. More than 300,000 IDPs have been sheltered in Mogadishu alone.

Most of the displaced live in squalid conditions at makeshift sites in southern and central Somalia, according to the United Nations
... aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society...
High Commissioner for Refugees.
Posted by: Fred || 03/29/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Shabaab


Iran Navy saves commercial ships
[Iran Press TV] The Islamic Theocratic Republic of Iran's Navy warship fleet has thwarted two separate attempts by pirates to seize two Iranian fat merchantmen in the Gulf of Aden.

The VALHLH ship was attacked by three pirate boats in the Suez Canal, but was saved thanks to the timely measure taken by the Iranian Navy warships and continued on its way to Bandar Abbas without suffering any loss or dely.

In another incident pirates attacked an Iranian commercial ship, Nabi, with four speedboats but were forced to retreat because of the heavy fire of the Iranian Navy's special operation team.

Nabi had departed Kharg Island for Port of Ain Sukhna (Sokhna) in Egypt

The Iranian Navy's 13th fleet of warships, comprised of Tonb and Delvar vessels, was deployed to the pirate-infested waters of the Gulf of Aden in 2011 in a bid to guard Iranian merchant containers and oil-tankers.

The Iranian Navy has been conducting anti-piracy patrols in the Gulf of Aden since November 2008, when Somali raiders hijacked the Iranian-chartered fat merchantman MV Delight off the coast of Yemen.
Posted by: Fred || 03/29/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran


India arrests 16 Somali pirates
[Emirates 24/7] The Indian navy has placed in durance vile 16 Somali pirates and freed the same number of crewmen after a battle with a hijacked ship in the Arabian Sea, a front man said on Monday.

A navy vessel and a coasties patrol boat on Saturday intercepted an Iranian fishing boat that had been seized by pirates near the Lakshadweep islands off India's west coast.

The pirates were attempting to capture another merchant ship, the MV Maersk Kensington. The navy vessel ordered the hijacked ship to halt but the pirates opened fire, a government statement said.

Attacks by pirates off the Indian coast have become increasingly violent. The Indian navy said that before Saturday's arrests 104 pirates had been apprehended in three similar incidents since January 28.

Last month, India warned of an increased threat to shipping off its southwest coast, as Somali pirates hunt targets beyond African waters to evade the clutches of an international naval force. The Indian government says it is working on a law to tackle piracy and find ways to negotiate with pirates for the release of Indian sailors.
Posted by: Fred || 03/29/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Pirates


Africa North
Dupe URL: Pro-Gaddafi forces retake Bin Jawad, rebels retreat
Troops loyal to Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, have shelled pro-democracy forces heading west on the main coastal highway, pushing them out of Bin Jawad, a small town around 150km east of Sirte, Gaddafi's hometown. Pro-Gaddafi forces were mostly using mortars and artillery, as opposed to the tanks and airstrikes of early advances.

"The Gaddafi guys hit us with Grads [rockets] and they came round our flanks," Ashraf Mohammed, a 28-year-old fighter wearing a bandolier of bullets, told a reporter from the 'Rooters' news agency at the front.

Also on Tuesday, several explosions were heard in the capital, Tripoli, but it was unclear as to where exactly they occured. The Pentagon said that international forces had launched 22 Tomahawk cruise missiles and flew 115 strike sorties over Libya in the last 24 hours.

The reversal for Libya's nascent opposition came after their forces had made a speedy, two-day advance from Ajdabiya. Ajdabiya is a crossroads town that Gaddafi's troops had held for two weeks before an international military intervention allowed pro-democracy fighters to take it back.

A spokesman in the eastern opposition stronghold of Benghazi had announced earlier that day that Sirte itself had fallen, a rumour that turned out to be untrue.

The rebel retreat from Bin Jawad came as representatives from more than 40 countries gathered in London for a conference aimed at a post-Gaddafi political future for Libya.
Posted by: Pappy || 03/29/2011 20:57 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


US To Purchase Oil From Libyan Rebels, Thereby Funding "Flickers" Of Al Qaeda
Posted by: tipper || 03/29/2011 18:01 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So it is a war for oil. And the profits will fund our mortal enemies.

Remind me just who the fuck is the genius behind our foreign policy?
Posted by: DarthVader || 03/29/2011 18:16 Comments || Top||

#2  Ya gotta understand. Obama asked Bush, "Why haven't you captured Osama?" Then Obama promised during his election campaign to capture Osama. Couldn't do it after being Prez Obama. So now he is arming Osama's Al Qaueda, hoping they will help him capture somebody, maybe even Qaddaffy.

Now is that messed up or what!?
Posted by: Unuper Gonque1986 || 03/29/2011 18:51 Comments || Top||

#3  Oh, one more thing. Obama by supporting these rebels is creating another group of taliban, like the CIA did in supporting the resistance to the Soviet Union in Afghanistan years ago.
Posted by: Unuper Gonque1986 || 03/29/2011 18:56 Comments || Top||

#4  Correction: The CIA supported the Mujahideen. It was Pakistan's ISI that created and nurtured the Taliban.
Posted by: OldSpook || 03/29/2011 19:55 Comments || Top||

#5  Correction: The CIA supported the Mujahideen. It was Pakistan's ISI that created and nurtured the Taliban.

Without our billions of dollars of military aid for the mujahideen, the Soviets would have crushed the Afghan rebels, meaning no mujahideen victory and no Taliban (whose luminaries were drawn from various mujahideen factions). Would we be better off today if we had stood by and let the Soviets wipe out the Islamists in Afghanistan, thereby turning Afghanistan into yet another Islam-suppressing Central Asian republic? I happen to think so. We might even be better off if we had let the Soviets overrun Pakistan jointly with India.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 03/29/2011 20:38 Comments || Top||

#6  We might still have the Soviet Union in that case.

Not really an option
Posted by: European Conservative || 03/29/2011 20:43 Comments || Top||

#7  Not out sourcing (drilling) to foreigners is another campaign promise Big zero has broken. We now see that Islamists get the dough, Americans get the shaft.
Posted by: Phuting and Company7064 || 03/29/2011 22:03 Comments || Top||

#8  We might still have the Soviet Union in that case.

Not really an option


The Soviet Union collapsed because it spent between 15 to 17 per cent of national output on defense, not because the Soviets got tired of fighting in Afghanistan and left. Having them ensnared in a poor and populous country like Pakistan would have made their problems worse. It was bad enough having to subsidize Cuba's 10m people, but to subsidize 85m Pakistani religious nuts would have been catastrophic.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 03/29/2011 22:28 Comments || Top||


Libya PsyOps Mission Broadcast from EC-130J "Commando Solo"
"Commando Solo’ is a United States Air Force EC-130J designed for one purpose and that is psychological operations (PsyOps). The aircraft is equipped with high powered television and radio transmitters intended to broadcast pre-recorded propaganda messages. The following audio clip is a broadcast they made today on 10405 kHz to Libyan naval officers and sailors.

Posted by: gromky || 03/29/2011 11:20 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  We are daleks , return home and go upstairs - we cannot climb your non moving elevators

Dr Who and the Daleks

Posted by: Albert Fleting6496 || 03/29/2011 12:53 Comments || Top||

#2  The inside still looks it came off the set of a 1960's space launch movie.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 03/29/2011 18:20 Comments || Top||


U.S. General to Libyan Rebels: Slow Down or Be Destroyed
But U.S. Gen. Carter F. Ham issued a warning today to Libyan rebel forces.
Proof that the American military has done away with being PC.
"Among my concerns right now is that the opposition will over-reach in their haste to move west. They are not a match for the regime forces. If they move hastily and get destroyed. Then there's nothing to stop regime from moving right back down the coast road," he told ABC News.
But we're not picking sides, mind you. ;-)
Posted by: gorb || 03/29/2011 10:55 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Actually pretty good advice. The rebels are a bunch of guys waving guns and going frontal envelopments until they overrun the Qadaffy forces or scare them off. The Qadaffy forces are minimally trained troops but they're still soldiers of a sort, which means that if the mob of rebels happens to run into an actual disciplined unit they're gonna get beat up.

The other point I'm guessing the general is making is that bullets and beans (or couscous) don't rain down from heaven. They probably have supply lines of a sort and outrunning them will increase their chances of getting beat up.
Posted by: Fred || 03/29/2011 11:41 Comments || Top||

#2  One thought is that the rebels aren't fighting in a hostile environment. They could probably ask for beans just about anywhere and get it, including lodging. I don't know about bullets, though. It would depend on how big the caches were that are already around, assuming there are enough sympathetic locals along the way to point them out.
Posted by: gorb || 03/29/2011 11:59 Comments || Top||

#3  Ahhhh, what does he know. Oh, wait...

Libyan rebels retreating after Gadhafi onslaught

RAS LANOUF, Libya – Libyan government tanks and rockets pounded rebel forces into a panicked full retreat Tuesday after an hourslong, back-and-forth battle that highlighted the superior might of Moammar Gadhafi's forces, even hobbled by international airstrikes.Rockets and tank fire sent Libya's rebels in a panicked scramble away from the front lines. The opposition was able to bring up truck-mounted rocket launchers of their own and return fire, but they went into full retreat after government shelling resumed.
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/29/2011 12:00 Comments || Top||

#4  The AFRICOM Commander telegraphing tactical control measures via the open media may indicate he has ineffective communications with rebel forces, or none at all.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/29/2011 12:09 Comments || Top||

#5  Speaking of which, since we are playing siege, wonder what Team Daffy has stored away.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 03/29/2011 12:13 Comments || Top||

#6  Where is the Desert Fox when you need him?
Posted by: Capsu78 || 03/29/2011 12:20 Comments || Top||

#7  A very, very dangerous undertaking. Kinetic fraticide in uncontrolled situations like this is inevitable. I suspect this is what General Ham is attempting to prevent. But come to think about it, the term fraticide really isn't applicable.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/29/2011 12:25 Comments || Top||

#8  Sounds as if we're attempting to use these guys without having any of our people there to act as forward air controllers or whatever the equivalent is, so not too many of our people are exposed to who these rebels really are.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 03/29/2011 12:31 Comments || Top||

#9  The rebels not only need to slow down but also to stay out of pro Qaddafi areas (there are some, presumably including Sirte, Qaddafi's home town).

The reason is that, assuming we refuse to bomb pro Qaddafi areas, those areas are kill zones for the rebels.

Of course if the rebels stay out of pro Qaddafi areas, we are ultimately looking at a partition of Libya into pro and anti Qaddafi parts.
Posted by: Lord Garth || 03/29/2011 12:35 Comments || Top||

#10  Precisely! High flying platforms are most likely making the targeting calls vs boots on the ground and eyes-on-target. The manuever space between blue force/red force becomes very critical. If Gadaffy was smart, he'd park those T-72's (A-10 magnets), and Russian trucks next to schools and hospitals, dismount, and conduct company size deep penetrations and narrow, surgical sweeps into the rebel held areas.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/29/2011 12:43 Comments || Top||

#11  What the general meant to say was that he and the rest of 'cavalry' don't know what specific direction they're going to get out of the clown circus on Pennsylvania Avenue at any time. Without experienced adults in charge, that means things are a bit flaky as to what you can count on [other than the underside of the bus].
Posted by: Procopius2k || 03/29/2011 12:47 Comments || Top||

#12  Neutral. Of course.
Posted by: Jack Thuter4002 || 03/29/2011 12:50 Comments || Top||

#13  AFRICOM has been looking for a place to hang their hats and a valid mission since it's inception. Unfortuately this exercise in futility will produce neither. When the first "baby milk" factory or elementry school disappears in a firey vapor, look for the targeting officers aboard the vectoring aircraft to be tossed under the bus along with half of the AFRICOM Air Staff.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/29/2011 12:57 Comments || Top||

#14  This story was dated yesterday. Today reports are coming out that the rebels are high tailing it out of Sirte.
Posted by: Jack Thuter4002 || 03/29/2011 12:59 Comments || Top||

#15  Bay of Pigs 2.0

Then brought to you by America's most overrated president.

Now brought to you by Americas most incompetent president... ever

(Sorry Jimmy Carter, even you come in second)
Posted by: European Conservative || 03/29/2011 16:46 Comments || Top||

#16  (Sorry Jimmy Carter, even you come in second)

I'd list jimmuh as third worst. LBJ was the worst. Bummer would be second but he's trying hard to measure up to old Lyndon. You might argue that at least LBJ was not incompetent, just evil. OK. I'll give you that.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 03/29/2011 18:16 Comments || Top||

#17  FDR worst. So many of Americas problems stem from him.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 03/29/2011 22:18 Comments || Top||

#18  Bay of Pigs 2.0

Worse. The Cubans at least had a semblance of military training. The Libyan rebel forces are not only mostly untrained, they don't trust what military leadership (and regular military units) that has defected to their side; the regular military units are staying back, not wanting to get killed because of the amateurs.

I guess the only bright spot is that the Obama administration isn't just promising the Libyans air support, only to abandon them at a crucial time. They'll abandon the French and the Italians too.
Posted by: Pappy || 03/29/2011 22:42 Comments || Top||

#19  This is like the Arab Revolt of 1916 before 'Lawrence of Arabia' effectively took it over. The tactics the 'Opposition' are using are a carbon copy of Fisals Army, before it was whacked at Medina.
Posted by: Bill Griling5080 || 03/29/2011 23:59 Comments || Top||


P-C3 engages Libyan Coast Guard, Ensign Mohammad al Parker beaches PT73
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 03/29/2011 09:32 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  That boat is getting away with our per diem checks!

(Sorry, I couldn't help it.)
Posted by: Penguin || 03/29/2011 10:12 Comments || Top||

#2  A U.S. Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt said it also fired on two smaller Libyan vessels traveling with the larger ship, destroying one and forcing the other to be abandoned

A-10 against a boat? Ouch.
Posted by: The Other Beldar || 03/29/2011 10:27 Comments || Top||

#3  Obviously there are still some who think Gadaffy is the team to be on. I wonder why.
Posted by: gorb || 03/29/2011 10:45 Comments || Top||

#4  I think it should be P-3C
Posted by: crosspatch || 03/29/2011 11:05 Comments || Top||

#5  You're prob'ly right. My mind corrected it to that while I was reading. But a PC-3 sounds so... ummm... Politically correct.
Posted by: Fred || 03/29/2011 11:45 Comments || Top||

#6  I'm just happy that GolfBravoUSMC posted an on-topic link instead of the usual "gorilla slips on banana peel" video. Never mind the nonsensical headline...Ensign Mohammad al Parker?
Posted by: gromky || 03/29/2011 12:00 Comments || Top||

#7  I think they changed it to a PC-3 for preventative civilian casualty deployments in oversea contingency operations considering but not limited to kinetic military options involving man made disasters.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 03/29/2011 12:02 Comments || Top||

#8  "Ensign Mohammad al Parker?"

Ensign Parker was a character played by Tim Conway on a TV show called McHale's Navy. If you didn't grow up in the 1960's you probably missed it.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1102105/
Posted by: crosspatch || 03/29/2011 12:20 Comments || Top||

#9  "I think they changed it to a PC-3 for preventative civilian casualty deployments"

Yeah, for "peace strikes".
Posted by: crosspatch || 03/29/2011 12:22 Comments || Top||

#10  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJafUZ0HUqM
Posted by: crosspatch || 03/29/2011 12:27 Comments || Top||

#11  I don't know about you but I do feel sorry for all those Libyan spiders.

They must be starving because of that no-fly zone.
Posted by: Fi || 03/29/2011 14:04 Comments || Top||

#12  Bah dum dum (or however you write that drum line after a bad joke, suggestions welcome) :-)
Posted by: Fi || 03/29/2011 14:11 Comments || Top||

#13  Actually, the stellar service record that got Ens. Parker ONTO the 73 included such gems as "Rammed the dock with a destroyer, while still tied up."
Posted by: mojo || 03/29/2011 14:26 Comments || Top||

#14  The Real Deal

Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 03/29/2011 14:43 Comments || Top||

#15  German Navy has Ens. Parker Moment

Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 03/29/2011 14:53 Comments || Top||

#16  P-3C used, perhaps the first time in history a P-3 has fired its missiles in combat. Looks like it was a 32 m boat, built by Croatia. PV30-LS

E-mail me if anyone can confirm this was a P-3 first.
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 03/29/2011 16:42 Comments || Top||

#17  I'm just happy that GolfBravoUSMC posted an on-topic link instead of the usual "gorilla slips on banana peel" video

And we're sooo happy that our resident Mandarin is happy.
Posted by: Pappy || 03/29/2011 21:06 Comments || Top||

#18  Hey, I went through a lot of trouble making those vídeos, I think I deserve more respect than being called a gorilla.

- tfsm
Posted by: Menhadden Whaish8836 || 03/29/2011 21:14 Comments || Top||


Cameron in talks with Libyan opposition as rebels are pushed back by Gaddafi's forces

* International leaders meeting in London to discuss future of Libya
* Government troops force rebels back from Gaddafi's home town Sirte
* Obama says regime change 'would be a mistake'
* Gaddafi's son Khamis 'appears on TV' after claims he had been killed

Posted by: tipper || 03/29/2011 09:09 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ...ITNC special envoy Mahmoud Jabril was expected to be invited into Number 10...

Remember Mahmoud? Yeah, he was the one sayin' the CIA provided Belgian nurses with the AIDS virus to kill Libyan babies. Yep...this is gonna end well.
Posted by: DepotGuy || 03/29/2011 10:30 Comments || Top||

#2  Remember Mahmoud? Yeah, he was the one sayin' the CIA provided Belgian nurses with the AIDS virus to kill Libyan babies. Yep...this is gonna end well.

The following passage from the article is a pretty amusing bunch of claims about what will replace Gaddafi.

In a statement entitled 'A Vision of a Democratic Libya', the INC said it was committed - following the defeat of the 'illegal' Gaddafi regime - to a 'civil society that recognises intellectual and political pluralism and allows for the peaceful transition of power through legal institutions and ballot boxes; in accordance with a national constitution crafted by the people and endorsed in a referendum'.

Every adult citizen would have the right to vote in 'free and fair parliamentary and presidential elections as well as the right to run for office', it said.

It said the state would 'respect the sanctity of religious doctrine and condemn intolerance, extremism and violence' and 'denounce violence, terrorism, intolerance and cultural isolation'.


In truth, my feeling is that Gaddafi's tribe is about to be erased from Libya, much as the Taliban attempted to wipe out the Hazara from Afghanistan. This could be the first time NATO has aided and abetted a large scale massacre.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 03/29/2011 17:42 Comments || Top||

#3  Given the Allah-centric tendencies of the Eastern part of Libya, and the sorry record of American-backed governments in Iraq and Afghanistan, the few Libyan Christians left in the country would be wise to leave for the shores of an EU country rather than wait around to be killed by the rebels.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 03/29/2011 17:47 Comments || Top||


A-10s Invade Libya
The U.S. military dramatically stepped up its assault on Libyan government ground forces over the weekend, launching its first missions with AC-130 flying gunships and A-10 attack aircraft designed to strike enemy ground troops and supply convoys.
I suppose NATO requested them.
The Washington Post learned of their deployment last week but withheld reporting the information until their first missions at the request of U.S. military officials.
Until the morning after the Zero's speech.
The use of the aircraft, during days of heavy fighting in which the momentum seemed to swing in favor of the rebels, demonstrated how allied military forces have been drawn deeper into the chaotic fight in Libya. A mission that initially seemed to revolve around establishing a no-fly zone has become focused on halting advances by government ground forces in and around key coastal cities.
Quagmire!
AC-130s were used to great effect during the two U.S. offensives in Fallujah, a stronghold of the insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq in the early days of the Iraq war.
al-Qaeda was in Iraq? Who knew?
In Afghanistan, the military considers them particularly effective against entrenched militants, mercenaries, fluffy ducks, and baby bunnies and commanders have frequently complained that they are in too short supply.
Diverting resources from the good war!
Military officials consider AC-130s and A-10s well suited to attacks in built-up areas, although their use has led to civilian deaths.
Brilliant, Holmes!
Posted by: Bobby || 03/29/2011 06:29 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Oh, ratpoop!

phil_b posted that yesterday! But this has got WaPo hand-wringing, worth the update, I hope!
Posted by: Bobby || 03/29/2011 7:05 Comments || Top||

#2  And your snark, of course :-)
Posted by: Steve White || 03/29/2011 8:00 Comments || Top||

#3  You do realize that the A-10 Warthog is considered haram by most Moslems.
Posted by: Eric Jablow || 03/29/2011 8:34 Comments || Top||

#4  So the Washington Post is admitting that Al Qaeda was in Iraq and it wasn't just a bunch of poor misunderstood freedom fighters behind the violence?

I am still in the British Sepoy Rebellion/Blackjack Pershing mode of spray em with pig fat and bury them wrapped in pig hide.

Hey Mahmoud pass the porkrinds will ya?
Posted by: Bill Clinton || 03/29/2011 10:27 Comments || Top||

#5  You do realize that the A-10 Warthog is considered haram by most Moslems

Only if used against the losing side.
Posted by: gorb || 03/29/2011 10:48 Comments || Top||

#6  So much for the no fly zone, AC130s and A-10s are direct ground support. I think the A-10s are all flown by Guardsman. The USAF wanted to get rid of them, not sexy like F-15s, until the Army said hell we'll fly em. They're trying to avoid another "Marsh Arabs" slaughter. The no fly didn't help there.
Posted by: Retired LEO || 03/29/2011 15:23 Comments || Top||

#7  The Washington Post learned of their deployment last week but withheld reporting the information until their first missions at the request of U.S. military officials.

Would the Washington Post have done this six years ago?
Posted by: Pappy || 03/29/2011 21:09 Comments || Top||


RAF Tornadoes Swarm Sirte
With the Libyan regime's forces and rebels squared for a battle around Gaddafi's birthplace of Sirte, British planes taking part in the coalition campaign stepped up their bombardment.

RAF Tornados hit 22 tanks, armoured vehicles and artillery pieces over the weekend, the Ministry of Defence said. Early Monday, they struck ammunition bunkers near Subha in southern Libya, according to Major General John Lorimer, the MoD's chief military spokesman. Defence officials said the higher tempo was the result of more intelligence surveillance and assessments from reconnaissance aircraft.
Posted by: Steve White || 03/29/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Looks like Quadaffi pissed in the RAF's cheerios today.

Boy they are just out there tearing the crap out of everything.

Between the RAF and the French and the Piper Cub from Bahrain, ole Daffy doesn't stand a chance.
Posted by: Bill Clinton || 03/29/2011 1:11 Comments || Top||

#2  Tornados were designed to attack Soviet armoured formations.

Attacking Daffy's armour without air defence would be like shooting fish in the proverbial barrel.
Posted by: phil_b || 03/29/2011 2:45 Comments || Top||


NATO "not picking sides"
[Al Jazeera] International air strikes continued on Monday with British Tornado aircraft attacking and destroying Libyan government ammunition bunkers in the Sabha area of the southern desert, the British defence ministry said.

"Storm Shadow missiles were launched against ammunition bunkers used to re-supply Libyan government troops attacking civilians in the north of the country, including Misurata," it said in a statement.

NATO on Sunday assumed full command of coalition air operations in Libya.

"We have directed NATO's top operational commander to begin executing this operation with immediate effect," Anders Fogh Rasmussen, NATO's secretary general, said in a statement

"Our goal is to protect civilians and civilian-populated areas under threat from the Qadaffy regime."

The operations will be led by Canadian General Charles Bouchard, NATO said.

Speaking to Al Jizz, Rasmussen said that NATO was "impartial" and not picking sides, and that its mandate was only to prevent violence against civilians.
"After we have trounced the Qadaffy side we intend to trounce the rebels, and then we may take drastic measures to stamp out juvenile delinquency!"
Rasmussen said that NATO's taking authority over the military intervention would provide "unity of command".

He also confirmed that several non-NATO countries would be contributing to the military effort, but said he would leave announcements up to individual governments.

James Spencer, a Middle East and North Africa defence analyst, told Al Jizz that removing Qadaffy from power was "not within NATO's purview".

"If you listen very carefully, the Secretary-General of NATO has been very clear. [Intervention] is to protect civilians against Qadaffy attacks," he said.
Posted by: Fred || 03/29/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "After we have trounced the Qadaffy side we intend to trounce the rebels, and then we may take drastic measures to stamp out juvenile delinquency!"

Hey Fred - Do not forget child obesity, McDonalds happy meals, plastic bags, curry (I retract curry), soda pop drinks, wallmart, violent video games, sugar, Cigarettes, Incandescent lightbulbs, operating flush toilets, animal crackers, dodgeball, football, cookies, water bottles, gas operated automobiles, electrical power, running water, sewage, music, dancing, womens education, trade schools, diving lessons, and God forbid gummy bears.
Posted by: newc || 03/29/2011 1:01 Comments || Top||

#2  Oh Really???

Not picking sides?

Just bombing whatever in Libya?

While you are at it hook up some sprayers and do some crop dusting, it is almost boll weavil season you know.

Everytime someone in NATO opens their mouth, I have blood running out of my ears...and a migraine.

What on earth has happened to that place?

Is Obama in charge of NATO? or is Litchestein running it?
Posted by: Bill Clinton || 03/29/2011 1:05 Comments || Top||

#3  So when Obama said in his speech we will "assist the opposition" he prolly just meant we're gonna help the rebels open twitter and facebook accounts.
Posted by: DepotGuy || 03/29/2011 10:40 Comments || Top||

#4  "We're just here for the beer."
Posted by: mojo || 03/29/2011 11:02 Comments || Top||

#5  I hear a lot of doublespeak. Is it 1984 yet?
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 03/29/2011 12:16 Comments || Top||

#6  I wonder if the Russians see this inane crap and regret they didn't come pouring through the Fulda Gap back in the 80's.
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/29/2011 12:21 Comments || Top||

#7  What are all these do gooders gonna do when the heroic, freedom loving rebels start murdering civilians in Tripoli whom they suspect of being sympathetic to Daffy?

Sorry, Anders. Your argument about protecting civilians is every bit as bogus as Hamid Karzai and the Talibunnies bemoaning the way NATO troops kill civilians in Afghanistan. In other words, you are a damn liar because you know as well as everybody else that the term civilian has no meaning in these Third World conflicts. They don't have regular, uniformed, standing armies and they did NOT sign the Geneva Convention treaties. Those rebels all look like civilians except for the fact that they are carrying AK-47s and RPGs. When they die their buddies pick up the weapons and they become civilians again. Neat, huh? Yeah, and they require their troops to be any certain age before they take up arms either.

Why don't you just tell us the truth which is that you want Daffy's oil and you think he's an easy mark unlike the Mad Mullahs of Iran who really do murder civilians, support terrorism and who really do pose a danger to the rest of the world?
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 03/29/2011 12:38 Comments || Top||

#8  Yeah, and they require their troops to be any certain age before they take up arms either.

Sorry, I meant they do NOT require their troops to be any certain age before they take up arms. I proofread it but not well enough.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 03/29/2011 12:42 Comments || Top||

#9  How many sides are there in the area formally called Libya? Team Daffy and the Tribes Called Questionable certainly.

NATO, European Union, Mediterranian Union, Africa Union, Arab League, OIC, UN with bonus of Libya on Human Rights Board, OPEC, thoght I saw the Organization of American States wanted their say on account of US&Canada, who'd I miss (besides the non-nation clubs but perhaps should include)?
Posted by: swksvolFF || 03/29/2011 17:19 Comments || Top||

#10 
I wonder if the Russians see this inane crap and regret they didn't come pouring through the Fulda Gap back in the 80's.

The European Commission is not available for comment
Posted by: European Conservative || 03/29/2011 20:41 Comments || Top||


Libya: Malian Tuareg, threat on the Sahel
[Ennahar] Hundreds of Malian Tuareg attracted by money fight in Libya alongside the forces of Muammar Qadaffy, whose latest setback, however, pushed them to return to Mali, but with weapons brought from the front, therefore posing a threat on peace in the Sahel.

Gadhafi's regime, facing since mid-February a popular uprising, has especially relied on Malian Tuareg to fight the turbans.

In the desert of Mali, a truck passes. A Malian guide, Souleh, suspects the men aboard change vehicles once go to Niger to support Qadaffy.

"At one point, the young Tuareg who joined the ranks of Qadaffy earned up to $ 1000 a few days. It paid well," says Ag Abdoulsalam Assalat, president of the Regional Assembly of Kidal (northeast).

According to the overlap of the AFP, the Tuareg and other young Mali people who go to Libya leave from the north of their country via the area of Tamasna, then pass through the Aïr and Ténéré in Niger, Mali's neighbor, before arriving in Ghat, a town in southern Libya where they are led to Sabha, another town in the same area.

"From Sabha, they are sent to the front," said a security source in Niger.

This recruitment is booming for these intermediate Malians, Nigerians and Libyans, according to several sources.

A Libyan diplomat based in Bamako who recently defected has been accused by Malian Tuareg to have pocketed "several million dollars" after providing the Tuareg fighters to Libyan troops.

Two other intermediate Malians bought in record time, houses and cars, according to the same sources.

But "there is danger for everyone. Many people have made weapons of war in Libya to sell to al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM)" present in many Sahelian countries, including the north of Mali, said Abdoulsalam Ag Assalat.

"These heavy weapons will destabilize the entire Sahel. AQIM will become more the master of the region with the temptations of young Touaregs to integrate its ranks," he warned.

The array brought from Libya to AQIM fighters would include surface to air missile SAM 7, and anti-tank rockets RPG7, according to military sources in Mali and Niger.

AQIM has carried in recent years kidnappings of Europeans, killing some of them.

This information about the Tuareg who sold Libyan arms to AQIM are denied by Ahmed, a young Tuareg met in Gao, more than 1200 km north of Bamako.

"We have to stop accusing the Tuareg of all evils", said Ahmed who had recently returned from the Libyan front with a "war trophy" a 4X4 car that wants to sell 6,000,000 CFA (more than 9,100 euros).

"I go down to Bamako to sell the car. Others have sold theirs in the north of Mali," he said.

But Abdoulsalam Ag Assalat told to expect a massive return of Tuareg to Mali with the latest setback suffered by the Libyan army.

"We are worried. Over forty Malian Tuareg fighters alongside the troops of Colonel Qadaffy have disappeared or been killed in the bombings" carried out since March 19 by the international coalition against Libyan military targets, adds Abdoulsam Assalat Ag.

Nomadic community of about 1.5 million people, the Tuareg is divided between Niger, Mali, Algeria, Libya and Burkina Faso.

Tuareg rebellions have existed in Mali and Niger in the 1990s and early 2000s with resurgence from 2006 to 2009. Tens of thousands of them decamped to Libya to avoid these conflicts.
Posted by: Fred || 03/29/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


 Libyan rebels seize Gaddafi town of Sirte
[Geo TV] A Libyan rebel front man said Muammar Qadaffy's hometown of Sirte had been captured by the rebels on Monday.

"It's confirmed Sirte has fallen into pro-democracy hands," said the rebel front man, Shamsiddin Abdulmolah. He said the rebels had not faced much resistance from pro-Qadaffy forces.

No independent verification of the rebel statement was immediately available.

Celebratory gunfire erupted and car horns sounded in the eastern rebel stronghold of Benghazi as news of the rebel statement about Sirte spread.

The ramshackle rebel army has pushed west to retake a series of towns from pro-Qadaffy forces who are being pounded by Western air strikes. Emboldened by the help of the air strikes, the rebels have rapidly reversed military losses in their five-week insurgency and regained control of all the main oil terminals in eastern Libya, as far as the town of Bin Jawad.

Qadaffy's hometown and an important military base about 150 km (90 miles) further along the coast, heard four blasts on Sunday night. It was unclear if they were in the town or its outskirts.

A convoy of 20 military vehicles including truck-mounted anti-aircraft guns leaving Sirte and moving westwards towards Tripoli, along with dozens of civilian cars carrying families and stuffed with personal belongings.

The advance along Libya's Mediterranean coast by a poorly armed and uncoordinated force of volunteer rebels suggested that Western strikes under a U.N. no-fly zone were shifting the battlefield dynamics dramatically, in the east at least. The rebels are now back in control of the main oil terminals in the east -- Es Sider, Ras Lanuf, Brega, Zueitina and Tobruk-- while Qadaffy appears to be retrenching in the west.
Posted by: Fred || 03/29/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


'French jets hit Gaddafi command center'
[Iran Press TV] The French military says it has hit a command center belonging to troops loyal to Libyan ruler Muammar Qadaffy near the capital, Tripoli.

"[There were] strikes on a command center 10 kilometers south of the Tripoli suburbs on the night of the 27th and 28th," Rooters quoted French Armed Forces Spokesman Thierry Burkhard as saying on Monday.

This comes as Libyan revolutionary forces, already in full control of several key cities, are advancing towards the capital. Anti-regime forces say they have captured the city of Sirte -- the hometown of Colonel Qadaffy.

On Monday, British fighter jets also bombed several targets in the south.

Libya's state TV has broadcast pictures said to be of civilians killed and maimed in the Western coalition Arclight airstrikes.

Tripoli claims the coalition Arclight airstrikes on Sabha hit residential areas packed with civilians.

Dozens of civilians have been killed by in Libya since US-led forces launched aerial and sea attacks on the North African country.

In recent days, the opposition forces have taken control of the cities of Ras Lanuf, Ben Jawad, Uqaylah, Ajdabiya and Brega.

Meanwhile,
...back at the hoedown Bob finally got to dance with Sally...
Qatar has become the first Arab country to recognize the National Libyan Council as the legitimate representatives of Libya. The move is seen as a symbolic diplomatic victory for the opposition.

However,
The emphatic However...
Russia has once again condemned Western Arclight airstrikes against Libya. Russia abstained during the UN Security Council vote on imposing a no-fly zone over Libya.

Dozens of civilians have been killed in Libya since US-led forces launched aerial and sea attacks on the North African country. Moreover, Libyan troops have also killed thousands of civilians since the revolution started against Colonel Qadaffy in mid-February.
Posted by: Fred || 03/29/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Qatar has become the first Arab country to recognize the National Libyan Council as the legitimate representatives of Libya.

UN membership to be announced soon.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/29/2011 2:31 Comments || Top||

#2  how soon before they demand a seat on the Security Council?
Posted by: Frank G || 03/29/2011 8:28 Comments || Top||


Qatar recognizes Libyan opposition
[Iran Press TV] Qatar has recognized Libya's opposition council as the legitimate representative of the North African state, says a Qatari Foreign Ministry official.

"This recognition comes from a conviction that the council has become, practically, a representative of Libya and its brotherly people," the Qatar News Agency quoted the official as saying on Monday.

The official added that the Libyan National Council included the representatives of different regions and had acceptance among the Libyan people.

The [Persian] Gulf Cooperation Council Secretary General Abdulrahman al-Attiyah said the "Libyan system has lost its legitimacy."

Apart from Qatar, the bloc includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Soddy Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Posted by: Fred || 03/29/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ION NOT-US-BASE-TOO-FAR-QATAR, WORLD NEWS > US SAYS LIBYAN REBELS CAN SELL OIL, widout being subject to Internat sanctions as imposed upon Gaddafi.

* Also from WORLD NEWS > LIBYA MAY BE OBAMA'S KOREA.

Uncle Muammar = Kimmie, Rebels = ROK, + two sovereign polities devol from one former unified Nation - US-CHINA WAR IN NE ASIA = POST-JASMINE GADDAFI-SPONSORED PROXY TERROR STRIKES AGZ US-WEST???

[Pregnant? Ukrainian Nurse here].
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/29/2011 1:36 Comments || Top||


Gaddafi forces hit Libya's Zintan with rockets
[Emirates 24/7] A rebel front man in Zintan said Muammar Qadaffy's forces bombarded the western Libyan town with rockets early on Monday, Al Jizz television reported.

Ali Saleh, front man of the rebel movement in Zintan, said Qadaffy's forces fired the rockets from positions north of the city.

"The city of Zintan was bombarded this morning by Qadaffy's forces from the north with Grad rockets," he said.

Saleh added that the rebels have received aid from the United Arab Emirates and Tunisia.
Posted by: Fred || 03/29/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Nine powerful explosions shake Sirte
[Emirates 24/7] Nine powerful kabooms early Monday shook the city of Sirte as rebels closed in on loyalist troops holding Libyan leader Moamer Qadaffy's
... Custodian of Wheelus AFB for 42 long years ...
home town, an AFP journalist reported.

The latest blasts followed two kabooms on Sunday evening in the city, blamed by Libyan state television on an air raid by coalition forces.

Sirte, 360 kilometres (225 miles) east of Tripoli, is the next target of pro-democracy rebels as they push towards the capital from their eastern bastion Benghazi.

The streets of Sirte early on Monday morning were quiet and deserted, and it was not immediately possible to establish if the overnight bombings caused any damage.

An AFP news hound is part of a group of journalists invited by the Libyan regime to tour the city.

The kabooms shattered the calm intermittently between 0420 GMT and 0435 GMT as warplanes flew overhead, indicating they were caused by coalition air strikes.

On Sunday, AFP correspondents witnessed families fleeing west from the town following coalition air raids the previous night.

A dozen cars were seen heading towards Tripoli, filled with women and kiddies fearing coalition air strikes and the advancing rebel fighters, who have been pushing Qadaffy's forces back along the main coastal road.

The rebels' pursuit of Qadaffy forces saw them wrest back control of key oil town Ras Lanuf and press on as far as Nofilia with Sirte firmly in their sights 100 kilometres (60 miles) farther along the road where the next major battle was expected.
Posted by: Fred || 03/29/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Turkey to take over Benghazi airport
[Al Jazeera] Turkey has said it will help with distributing humanitarian aid to Libya and has suggested it could play a part in mediating between rebels and the government of Muammar Qadaffy.
I think the rebels are 'mediating' just fine with French air cover...
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the country's prime minister, said Turkey would take over the running of Benghazi airport to take responsibility for distributing humanitarian aid from the rebel-held eastern city.

The AFP news agency also quoted an official as saying Turkey was responding to a request from fighters in Libya, saying civilian and technical personnel would be sent out.

Ankara has already sent a ferry carrying a medical team, two ambulances and two tonnes of medical supplies to Libya in an attempt to help treat maimed people.

Cemil Cicek, the deputy prime minister, said Turkey was planning to take around 450 injured people from the rebel-held port of Misurata to Turkey for treatment.

Last week, the Turkish parliament also approved the dispatch of a naval force to Libyan waters as the government moved reluctantly to join the military campaign in the north African country.

Role of mediator
Turkey, the primary Islamic voice in NATO, has previously voiced concerns over the alliance taking command of the UN-backed no-fly zone over the north African nation. It has since pledged six vessels to a patrol mission to enforce a UN arms embargo against Qadaffy's government.

In an interview with British newspaper The Guardian on Monday, Erdogan said it was "out of the question [for Turkey] to shoot at Libyan people or drop bombs on the Libyan people".
"We save that for the Kurds!"
"Turkey's role will be to withdraw from Libya as soon as possible" and "restore the unity and integrity of the country based on the democratic demands of the people", he said.

The prime minister also said his country could take on the role of mediator within the framework of NATO, the vaporous Arab League and the African Union if asked by the two sides of the conflict.

"We can never ignore the democratic rights and liberties called for by the people of Libya, and change and transformation can never be delayed or postponed," he told the paper.
But no shooting, you hear...
The Turkish leader said he had spoken to the Libyan prime minister since international air strikes began, and Turkey's foreign minister was in close touch with the opposition based in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi.

"Qadaffy wants a ceasefire; this came up when I was talking to the prime minister, but it's important for those circumstances to mature. It wouldn't be consistent to keep shooting while demanding a ceasefire," Erdogan said.
Posted by: Fred || 03/29/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Libyan rebels facing tough fight for Sirte
[Al Jazeera] Forces loyal to Muammar Qadaffy are resisting an advance by Libyan rebels towards the embattled Libyan leader's hometown of Sirte in the fiercest festivities since the start of a sweeping offensive that has brought a string of coastal towns under opposition control.
Per later news reports, they didn't resist too long...
The rebels, backed by international coalition air strikes, have advanced largely unchecked since Friday but claims in Benghazi, the rebel's eastern stronghold, earlier on Monday that Sirte had also fallen were premature.

Opposition fighters are now engaged in festivities about 100km east of the city, with pro-Qadaffy forces shelling their front lines.

Fighting is ongoing at Nawfaliya, about 180km east of Sirte, where opposition forces say they have come upon a heavily mined road. Pro-Qadaffy forces have dug into positions near the front line, and are shelling opposition fighters.

Al Jizz's Hoda Abdel Hamid, reporting from the east of Nawfaliya, said: "I've not been able to confirm that there has actually been an advance in the town itself [Sirte]. They [rebels] managed to get really close to Sirte but they didn't get in."

"Sirte will not be easy to take," said General Hamdi Hassi, an opposition commander from the city of Bin Jawad.

"Now, because of NATO strikes on [the government's] heavy weapons, we're almost fighting with the same weapons."

'We're manoeuvring'
Fawzi Bukatif, the commander of the Martyr's Brigade, part of the forces battling Qadaffy, told Al Jizz: "We're manoeuvring ... we are starting ... we are checking what kind of forces they have there but we are standing at Hagela now - almost 100km from Sirte."

Bukatif said the rebels' progress has been hampered by a lack of weapons as they rely on "old Russian weapons".

"The ... problem we have is we have run out of weapons," he said. "You know our weapons are traditional ones; the old ones; the Russian weapons. We need ammunition. We need new weapons. We need anti-tanks; we do not have facilities [but] we have the soldiers left behind by Qadaffy ...

"If we do have weapons and ammunitions that we need at the moment, we can move strongly and faster."

Fresh fighting continued further west in rebel-held Misurata, where rebels admitted that Qadaffy forces had gained control of part of the town after days of heavy fighting
... as opposed to the more usual light or sporadic fighting...
and despite air strikes on Saturday by French and British forces.

"Part of the city is under rebel control and the other part is under the control of forces loyal to Qadaffy," a front man told the Rooters news agency.

Rebels dimissed reports that a ceasefire had been declared by the Libyan foreign ministry in Misurata and that anti-terrorism units there had stopped firing at rebel forces.

Saddun al-Misrati, a member of the rebels' revolutionary committee, told Al Jizz: "We rubbish this announcement ... Nothing that they say will make a difference on the ground."

Nine people were killed overnight by snipers and shelling by pro-Qadaffy forces, according to a doctor in Misurata, while a resident told Rooters that 24 people had been maimed in mortar attacks by government forces.

A Libyan government front man claimed Misurata had been liberated.

Al Jizz's James Bays has been following the rebel offensive, which has seen them claim the towns of Ajdabiya, Brega, Ras Lanuf and Bin Jawad.

Stretched lines
Speaking from Bin Jawad, Bays said it was uncertain where the frontline was. People coming along the coastal road from Sirte said Qadaffy forces were gathered around 60km outside the city, positioned in trees, our correspondent said.

The speed of the rebel advance has stretched lines of communications and created logistical problems, said Bays. One problem is a lack of electricity, which means that petrol pumps do not work.

"At petrol stations they're using plastic bottles on strings down into the tank below the station to pull up fuel," said Bays.

The rebels' advance along the coast has triggered exuberant celebrations in towns along the route such as Ajdabiya with rebel fighters firing their weapons in celebration.

But government forces appear to have been withdrawing their heavy armour, rather than engaging with the rebels.

There were reports on Sunday of a column of military vehicles, including truck-mounted anti-aircraft guns, seen leaving Sirte in the direction of Tripoli, accompanied by dozens of civilian cars carrying families, according to a Rooters news hound in the vicinity.

The opposition's National Council has said it expects a major battle to occur in the area around Tripoli, as opposed to at Sirte.
Posted by: Fred || 03/29/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Arabia
GPC: President Saleh will Stay in Power until 2013
[Yemen Post] Yemen's ruling General People Congress party, (GPC), affirmed on Sunday that President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh
... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, after serving as a lieutenant colonel in the army. He had been part of the conspiracy that bumped off his predecessor, Ibrahim al-Hamdi, in the usual tiresome military coup, and he has maintained power by keeping Yemen's many tribes fighting with each other, rather than uniting to string him up. ...
will stay until his presidential term expires in 2013.

In a statement by the ruling party which came after a meeting President-for-Life Saleh
... exemplifying the Arab's propensity to combine brutality with incompetence...
had with members of the GPC, it discussed the ongoing political crisis and affirmed Saleh's right to stay in power. The statement renewed the calls for the opposition coalition, the Joint Meeting Party, JMP, to resume dialogue for the sake of the country.

President Saleh has been facing escalating protests since mid February demanding the fall of Saleh's regime.
Posted by: Fred || 03/29/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "2013"

versus

* TOPIX > [Examiner.com]IRAN'S AHMADINEJAD TO CONQUER JERUSALEM BY AUGUST 2011?, as derived from "Mahdi is Near" Iran videos earlier today.

* SAME > [Bulgaria] MIDDLE EAST PROFESSOR VLADIMIR CHUKOV: LIBYA, ARAB WORLD TO SEE RISE, REHABILITATION OF POLITICAL ISLAM, espec as Regional Arab States being controlled or dictated to in subornment ala the Muslim Brotherhood.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/29/2011 1:16 Comments || Top||


At Least 15 Injured as Pro-Saleh Thugs Attacks Ibb Demo
At least 15 people including two women were maimed when pro-government thugs attacked on Sunday a female demonstration in Ibb province demanding the ouster of President-for-Life Saleh
... exemplifying the Arab's propensity to combine brutality with incompetence...
of Yemen.

The first of its kind protest in the province started afternoon calling for Saleh to resign and condemning his last threats.

Saleh has recently attacked the Joint Meeting Parties, the opposition coalition, amid the escalating anti-government protests across the republic, threatening to Somalize Yemen and warning Yemen call fall in civil war if those calling for his resignation insist on their demand.

The protesters also condemned the killing of the anti-Saleh protesters in Yemeni cities including those who were killed last Friday in the capital Sana'a, but while chanting anti-Saleh slogans the pro-government thugs threw rocks at the women and the protection committee injuring at least 15 people.

The thugs also confiscated the cameras of and severely attacked some journalists and correspondents.

Hundreds of thousands have been conducting protests and sit-ins in various cities to call for the departure of Saleh, who was to resign on Saturday.

President Saleh said yesterday there were talks over his exit but insisted on handing power to safe hands or the people, not to conspirers.

He said he was ready to step down right now as the public pressure mounts, but today he held the opposition full responsible for the consequences as the people are determined he and his family should leave their posts and the country.
Posted by: Fred || 03/29/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Bahrain shuns Kuwait's mediation offer
[Al Jazeera] Bahrain's Foreign Minister has denied reports that Kuwait would mediate to resolve Bahrain's political crisis.

Wefaq, the island's leading Iranian catspaw, said on Sunday it would accept an offer by Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, Kuwait's Emir, to mediate between Bahrain's ruling Sunni Mohammedan al-Khalifa family and the Shia opposition groups.

The Gulf Cooperation Council, a regional political and economic bloc made up of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Soddy Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, had welcomed the mediation move on Sunday.

The oppositon party is hoping to re-open a dialogue with the government in an effort to end the political crisis in Bahrain.

A British newspaper report says the opposition is no longer insisting on certain conditions for talks, including the sacking of the cabinet, or a new assembly to rewrite the constitution.

Sheikh Khaled bin Ahmed bin Mohammed al-Khalifa, Bahrain minister of foreign affairs said on his Twitter page there were no plans for a Kuwaiti-led dialogue.

"Any talk about Kuwaiti mediation in Bahrain is completely untrue, there were previous efforts that were not answered, but these were ended by the act of National Safety (martial law)."

Jasim Husain, Wefaq member, said Ali al-Matrook, a Kuwaiti Shia businessman, was one of the mediators.

Husain told Al Jizz, "There is so much at stake now, the country's economy, the reputation, credit rating, safety and security [of people], there is no point in missing out on this rising opportunity from Kuwait [of mediation].

"The opposition has always said that they need to make the environment conducive for talks - there are no conditions, we just have to agree on the agenda."

More than 60 per cent of Bahrain's population is Shia and most are campaigning for a constitutional monarchy.

But calls by hardliners for the overthrow of the monarchy have alarmed Sunnis, who fear that unrest serves Iran, the non-Arab Shia power just across Gulf waters.

Earlier this month, Bahrain's rulers imposed martial law in the tiny Gulf Arab state.

They also called in troops from Gulf neighbours, including Soddy Arabia, to quell weeks of unrest during pro-democracy demonstrations by mostly Shia protesters which stalled talks proposed by Bahrain's crown prince.

The move stunned the Shia majority and angered Iran.

Seven civilians and four police died in the crackdown on protesters earlier in March by Bahrain's forces.

Al-Seyassah, a Kuwait daily, said on Sunday that a Wefaq delegation was to meet Kuwaiti politicians including Jassem al-Kharafi, parliament speaker, citing unnamed political sources.

Kuwait, which has a Shia minority of its own, has sent navy vessels to Bahrain under a Gulf security pact to patrol its northern coastline.
Posted by: Fred || 03/29/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Yemeni regime loses grip on four provinces
[Arab News] As Yemen searches for a solution to the current political crisis, many restive areas in the poverty-stricken country have broken away from the central government and are being governed by local gangs. The regime has lost its grip on many provinces such as Saada, Jawf, Abyan and Shabwa.

In the northern province of Saada, Houthi rebels seized control of the province following festivities with local tribes, a resident told Arab News. The rebels now run government facilities and control checkpoints. Residents approved Faris Manna, a notorious arms dealer, as replacement for the governor who has decamped to the capital. Police deserted their posts and relocated themselves to army camps.

In Shabwa, gunnies from Southern Movement attacked and looted Central Security camps. They are now in full control of four major districts including Nessab, Al-Saaed, Haban and Maevaa, a local journalist told Arab News by telephone. The government's writ runs only in Ataq, the capital of the province, and another district, Bayhan.

The journalist, who preferred to remain anonymous, said that anti-terrorism forces that were deployed to fight Al-Qaeda in Shabwa, no longer exist. Shabwa is the ancestral land of Anwar Al-Awlaki, a radical American holy man, who is thought to be hiding in the mountainous area.

Extremists raided Sunday a government office and a local TV station and exchanged fire with security forces in Jaar province. Earlier, the same gang looted a weapons factory.

In the central province of Mareb, suspected Al-Qaeda gunnies rubbed out seven soldiers and injured nine on Sunday, a local source said. The assailants attacked a military checkpoint in the troubled province, killing the soldiers and took a military vehicle.

Marebpress, an independent website, reported Sunday that Yemeni security forces released prominent Southern Movement leaders who were tossed in the calaboose more than a month ago. President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh
... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, after serving as a lieutenant colonel in the army. He had been part of the conspiracy that bumped off his predecessor, Ibrahim al-Hamdi, in the usual tiresome military coup, and he has maintained power by keeping Yemen's many tribes fighting with each other, rather than uniting to string him up. ...
also ordered the release of Hassan Baoum, a key figure of the movement, and his son Fawaz. Baoum was tossed in the calaboose on Feb. 20 in Aden. Southern Movement is regarded by the government as a secessionist organization that has called for Yemen's breakup.

On Sunday, Saleh, who is under pressure from tens of thousands of Yemenis protesting in the streets to demand his departure after 32 years in power, convened a meeting of his ruling General People's Congress party. A party source said that its central committee, which contains thousands of members, had asked Saleh to stay in power until 2013, when his presidential term expires.
Posted by: Fred || 03/29/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Houthi Group Appoints Arms Dealer as Governor of Sa'ada province
[Yemen Post] The Houthi Group appointed on Saturday Fares Mana'a, a Yemeni Arms Dealer, as governor of Yemen's northern province of Sa'ada after the fall of the Saleh loyal governor of Sa'ada.

Sources said that the appointment came after Taha Hajer, the current governor left the province and decamped to Sana'a. They added that all the leaders of the army headquarters within the province handed over their military equipment, including their personal guns, arms, tanks, and vehicles to the leaders of the Houthi Group.

Houthis said that they declared on Saturday the independence of Sa'ada province from Sana'a authorities. This step came after festivities have been taking place in northern Sa'ada for months between the Houthis and pro-government rustics, belonging to Sheikh Othman Majali, a Yemeni parliament member.

The government was unable to confirm or deny the fall of Sa'ada.

In February hundreds of Houthi followers joined protesters at Sana'a University campus, demanding the fall of President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh's regime.
Posted by: Fred || 03/29/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  He is kind of a big deal guy on the ground if you know what I mean.
Posted by: newc || 03/29/2011 0:46 Comments || Top||


Yemeni general vows to topple Saleh
[Iran Press TV] A defected Yemeni army commander has pledged to overthrow President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh
... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, after serving as a lieutenant colonel in the army. He had been part of the conspiracy that bumped off his predecessor, Ibrahim al-Hamdi, in the usual tiresome military coup, and he has maintained power by keeping Yemen's many tribes fighting with each other, rather than uniting to string him up. ...
amid rising anti-government protests in the country.

In a statement on Monday, Major General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar vowed to protect protesters and demanded that Saleh steps down peacefully in order to avoid further bloodshed.

Ahmar, who is the former head of the northwestern military zone, quit in protest at the March 18 shootings that left 52 protesters dead outside Sana'a University in the capital and joined the country's revolution.

Meanwhile,
...back at the Hubba Hubba Club, Nunzio had his hands full of angry bleached blonde...
dozens of cabinet ministers, politicians, diplomats and tribal leaders abandoned the Yemeni president and joined the opposition to show solidarity with the people.

The commander also said via a front man that he would topple the incumbent regime in the Middle Eastern country.

Ahmar noted that he would back the "peaceful youth revolution, whatever the cost will be."

Anti-government protesters once again on Monday gathered at Change Square in the capital, demanding Saleh to stand trial.

The protesters have been camping near Sana'a University since mid-February.

However,
The over-used However...
three-decade ruler Saleh has rejected calls to step down immediately, saying that he is ready to cede power only to "safe hands."

Dozens of people have so far been killed in anti-government demonstrations in Yemen.
Posted by: Fred || 03/29/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If it wasn't for Al Qaeda behind the curtains and goodness knows what else out there in the desert waiting to pouch, I'd say it was time for the popcorn.

There is nothing at all funny about what is going on in the ME. The inmates have definitely taken over the asylum.

It is interesting to note that except for the bi-weekly kaboom in Baghdad, Iraq is relatively quiet.
Posted by: Bill Clinton || 03/29/2011 1:08 Comments || Top||


Scores killed in Yemen arms factory blasts
[Al Jazeera] A series of blasts at an ammunition factory has left at least 100 people dead and injured dozens more near the southern Yemeni town of Jaar, a day after the plant was looted by masked gunnies.

A local official said on Monday that the corpse count could still rise significantly as bodies were recovered from the factory.

Witnesses said the blasts, possibly triggered by a cigarette, caused a massive fire in the factory, which is located in the Khanfar area close to Jaar city. The plant produces ammunition and Kalashnikov rifles.

Local residents told Al Jizz that more than 100 men, women and kiddies were looting the left-overs in the factory when the first kaboom occurred.

"This accident is a true catastrophe, the first of its kind in Abyan," a doctor at the state-run hospital said.
"There are so many burned bodies. I can't even describe the situation."

Doctors said that the charred remains were difficult to count. They said some victims, including women and kiddies, would be buried in a mass grave.

Scores were maimed, many suffering from burns, doctors said, and many bodies remained inside the factory, which also contained stores of gunpowder.

One resident said the blasts were heard as far as 15km from the factory in the southern province of Abyan.

Armed men took control over Jaar [Al Jizz]

Clashes broke out in Jaar on Sunday between gangs operating in the area, feeding Western and Saudi fears that chaos in Yemen would benefit al-Qaeda's Yemen-based arm.

On Sunday, around 30 armed and hooded gunnies stormed three sites in and near Jaar, including the ammunition factory, and made off in four vehicles with cases of weapons, witnesses said.

The incident came as a security official said that suspected al-Qaeda gunnies had seized control of Jaar, a known al-Qaeda stronghold where police presence has been weak for many months.

Salem Mansour, a local member of the Yemeni parliament, told Al Jizz that the fire in the factory is still burning and that the gunnies, who are now in control of the town, are "just local people".

He said that the Yemeni government troops could have protected the ammunition factory "because there are military brigades and central security forces in Abyan".

Mansour blamed the government for not guarding the factory "although it had the capabilities to do so".
Posted by: Fred || 03/29/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Excuse me for sounding stupid but why did Yemen need an arms factory?

Wait, isn't there a certain amount of anecdotal information about Yemen being a way stop in the arms trafficking to Angola, Nigeria, Mexico and Columbia?

Does that mean Los Zetas are going to be short of bullets for a while?

Does it mean that either the Yemeni government or someone with a vested interest blew the place up to keep the automatic rifles and other goodies out of the hands of the rebels?
Posted by: Bill Clinton || 03/29/2011 10:18 Comments || Top||

#2  Women & children were among the looters? Interesting...
Posted by: American Delight || 03/29/2011 12:51 Comments || Top||

#3  Women & children were among the looters?

Somebody has to carry the loot.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/29/2011 14:27 Comments || Top||


Britain
Police discover bomb in Northern Ireland
[Iran Press TV] A timely tipoff has helped the Northern Ireland police discover a bomb, presumably planted by a dissident group, in Londonderry.

Police on Sunday described the bomb as a "substantial viable device" that could have caused deaths.

District Commander Stephen Martin believes a dissident republican group will accept responsibility for the attack.

"In my view it will be either the Real IRA or Oglaigh na hEireann," he said.

"It's just a highly built up residential part of the city within the walls and a device this size would have caused considerable devastation, " Martin added.

Sinn Fein MLA, Martina Anderson, also condemned this act, saying, "We are all of the view that an attack on any place in this city is an attack on us all."

"Even with people who have not been evacuated there is a sense of confusion, because in the city centre there are a lot of residential areas in and around this particular area," Pat Ramsey, SDLP representative said.
Posted by: Fred || 03/29/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Caribbean-Latin America
More Mexican Mayhem
16 Die in Chihuahua
  • A woman was shot to death on a highway near Chihuahua, Chihuahua early Friday morning. Rebeca Rubio Valle, 33, was driving her Dodge Avenger at kilometer 29 on the Cuauhtemoc highway when armed suspects pursued then shot her to death in her car. A total of 15 9mm spent shell casings were found at the scene.

  • Four unidentified men were shot to death in two separate incidents in Juarez Friday night, according to the Mexican news daily La Polaka.
    • Two men were shot aboard an abandoned vehicle on the Juarez-Porvenir highway near Loma Blanca. Both victims appeared to have been tortured before they were shot in the head.

    • Two men were shot to death in two separate colonies only meters from one another. Both victims were bound hand and foot and had been gagged using duct tape. One victim was found near the intersection of calles Mexico and Cuautemoc in the Fidel Avila colony, while the other was found near the corner of calles Camino Viejo San Jose and Fresno.

  • A man was shot to death Saturday in Chihuahua, Chihuahua. Hector Gomez was aboard his Mercury Grand Marquis allegedly selling drug near the intersection of calles Arturo Gamiz and Pablo Gomez near the Smart La Villita shopping center when two unidentified armed suspects aboard a sedan shot him. The suspects fled in the scene on Avenida Tecnologico.

  • Two owners of an auto repair shop in Juarez were shot to death Saturday. Armed suspects entered the De Leon auto repair shop near the intersection of calles Centeno andTamaulipas and shot the two men.

  • A man was shot to death in southeast Juarez Saturday. Jose Luis Vazquez, 23 was found near the intersection of calles Mar Azul and Tierra de Fuego in the Paraje del Sur colony. 9mm spent shell casings were found at the scene.

  • Two unidentified bar bouncers were shot to death and a bar patron was wounded in a shooting in Chihuahua, Chihuahua Saturday night. Reprots say two armed suspects went to the Bar Skandalos bar near the intersection of calles 20 de Noviembre and 27th and shot the victims as they were posted outside the entrance.

  • A gunfight between a local detachment of Policia Federal and armed suspects took place late Saturday night in the Granjas Polo Gamboa colony in Juarez. Reports say agents were pursing suspects across residents' roofs and in their courtyards.

  • Two unidentified men were shot to death and two churchgoers were wounded in a shooting in Chihuahua Sunday. Armed suspects attacked the two victims at a store enar the intersection of calles Hermandad and Prolongacion de la Liberacion im the Unidad colony. The two wounded individuals were hit by stray gunfire.

  • An unidentified man grocery shopping was shot to death iun Juarez Sunday. The victim was in fornt of a radiator shop near the intersection of calles Genoveva de la O and Fray Marcos de Niza in the Unidad Emiliano Zapata colony when he was shot. Reports say the victim worked as plainclothes security for a popular shopping center.

  • Two unidentified men said to be brothers were shot to death while on foot in Juarez late Sunday ngiht. One of the victims, the elder brother was shot near the intersection of calles Batopilas and 5 de Febrero, while the other was caught and shot near the corner of calles Municipio Libre y 5 de Febrero both in the Anahuac colony.
Posted by: badanov || 03/29/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


3 Die in Coahuila Gunfight, Cop Shop Attacked with Grenades
For a map, click here. For a map of Coahuila click here
Three armed suspects were killed by a detachment of the Mexican Army in Coahuila Saturday, according to Mexican news reports.
  • A Saltillo, Coahuila municipal police substation was attacked by armed suspects using hand grenades at about 1740 hrs. Friday. The device detonated in the parking lot of the Delagacion Sur station near the corner of Periferico Luis Echeverria Alvarez and Bulevar W. Gonzalez. Two municipal police officers were wounded in the attack. Damage was limited to three official patrol units.

  • A pursuit and a subsequent exchange in gunfire in Coahuila between a detachment of the Mexican Army and armed suspects has left three unidentified suspects dead. Reports say the army unit pulled in for a refueling stop at a gas station on kilometer 83 of the Saltillo-Monclova section of Mexico Highway 57 when soldiers observed a Chevrolet Suburban leaving the scene at a high rate of speed. Suspects aboard the vehicle refused a signal to pull over, and instead opened fire on the army unit initiating a pursuit and gunfight that lasted several minutes. One soldier was reportedly wounded.
Posted by: badanov || 03/29/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Russia's "bin Laden" Umarov may have been killed
Russian special forces may have killed Chechnya's top terrorism suspect, Doku Umarov, who claimed responsibility for the January bombing at Moscow's Domododevo airport, the Interfax news agency reported Tuesday. There was no official confirmation.

Umarov is believed to have been among 17 suspected terrorists killed Monday in an attack on a terrorist training camp in Ingushetia in the volatile North Caucasus region. But he has been declared dead before.

Islamist leaders and Umarov's bodyguard were among the dead, said the president of the Republic of Ingushetia, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, but the bodies had not yet been identified. Three security force members were also killed in Monday's attack.
Posted by: tipper || 03/29/2011 08:45 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Yep,

The Chechnian rebels still do not understand who they are dealing with.

I bet ole Vladamir is using Umarov's head for a door stop right now.

When the Russians confirm the killing of a terrorist, it usually means it was up close and personal.
Posted by: Bill Clinton || 03/29/2011 10:08 Comments || Top||

#2  Doku Umarov is dead. Islamist leaders are dead and the bodyguard is dead. Most likely, Vladamir is looking for his wife, children, and dog too.
Posted by: JohnQC || 03/29/2011 10:41 Comments || Top||

#3  Must have been a heckuva raid.

Good picture.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 03/29/2011 11:55 Comments || Top||

#4  48 hr rule or congrats time?
Posted by: Water Modem || 03/29/2011 23:00 Comments || Top||

#5  Good picture.


He looks like an ex boyfriend of mine...just kidding!
Posted by: Fi || 03/29/2011 23:10 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Obama's text on Libya
"I made it clear that Gaddafi had lost the confidence of his people and the legitimacy to lead, and I said that he needed to step down from power."
First off, champ, it wasn't YOU who make it clear, it was the Libyan people. You were relatively a johnny-come-lately.

Now then, if Gaddafi has to go, then get rid of him. Don't tell us he has to step down and then say you won't actually do anything about it. You have this thing called the CIA. I know you think it's icky, and you put one of your political hard boyz in charge of it to ensure that it doesn't act up, but you might consider letting them do their job in Libya.
It's obvious that at no point in the past 42 years has Qadaffy lost that legitimacy, only now.
"We then took a series of swift steps in a matter of days to answer Gaddafi's aggression."
You're trying hard to answer the charge that you were golfing and learning to samba at a time when the wheels came off in Libya. Compared to the typical European response, this WAS swift, but we all know you had your eye off the ball for a couple weeks here.
"...a matter of days" was sufficient time for the rebels to take Benghazi, to roll across the coast, and to threaten Tripoli, then to lose their momentum and be rolled almost all the way back to Benghazi.
"Gaddafi chose to escalate his attacks, launching a military campaign against the Libyan people.
Yep. Said he was gonna kill 'em all, or at least all of them that weren't brimming with love for him. That was packed into one or two of those days...
"Innocent people were targeted for killing. Hospitals and ambulances were attacked. Journalists were arrested, sexually assaulted, and killed. Supplies of food and fuel were choked off. The water for hundreds of thousands of people in Misratah was shut off. Cities and towns were shelled, mosques destroyed, and apartment buildings reduced to rubble. Military jets and helicopter gunships were unleashed upon people who had no means to defend themselves against assault from the air."
Yes, all that happened. And we let Gaddafi's myrmidons get to the city limits of Benghazi before we stopped them. Better late than never, I suppose, but do you think the few hundred to thousand dead civilians on the coast highway would have preferred that you move a little sooner?
Oh, certainly not without due deliberation. I'm sure they consider their pointless little lives well expended...
"In this effort, the United States has not acted alone. Instead, we have been joined by a strong and growing coalition. This includes our closest allies -- nations like the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Denmark, Norway, Italy, Spain, Greece, and Turkey -- all of whom have fought by our side for decades."
We had 30-plus countries help us in Iraq, yet you called George Bush 'unilateral'. Are we able to act only when France acts?
Doing anything without a coalition would be unilateralism. You know how nasty that is.
"To lend some perspective on how rapidly this military and diplomatic response came together, when people were being brutalized in Bosnia in the 1990s, it took the international community more than a year to intervene with air power to protect civilians."
That's because it was the Euros for about 11 months, and Bill Clinton for the remaining month that decided it.
The fact that they let a genocidal campaign go on then isn't a justification to let one go on now...
"To brush aside America's responsibility as a leader and -- more profoundly -- our responsibilities to our fellow human beings under such circumstances would have been a betrayal of who we are. Some nations may be able to turn a blind eye to atrocities in other countries. The United States of America is different. "
Oh, so we ARE exceptional after all, are we? You're right, America will not turn a blind eye -- well, except Cambodia and Rwanda, to our shame. I'm glad, for one, that you won't add Libya to that list, though you were all for adding Iraq. Funny how being in the White House changes a man.
We're not gonna turn a blind eye as long as we've got a coalition to give us cover.
"I refused to wait for the images of slaughter and mass graves before taking action."
That's good for Libya. What about Syria, Yemen, Egypt and, ahem, Iran?
And Sudan. Leave us not forget Sudan.
"We welcome the fact that history is on the move."
It got right past you in Tehran.
"The writ of the UN Security Council would have been shown to be little more than empty words, crippling its future credibility to uphold global peace and security."
One of the reasons why GWB went to Iraq, in fact, was to enforce 17 such resolutions...
"But broadening our military mission to include regime change would be a mistake."
But that's what you're doing. Out with Gaddafi, in with -- well, who knows, but you previously told us that we 'and the international community' would have to 'help' whomever came next. Sounds like a 'kinder, gentler' regime change to me. Or bloodier, if the absence of US and European troops leads to a bloody post-civil war sorting out of interests in Libya, aided and abetted by al-Qaeda thugs. Part of our putting ground troops into Iraq was to dig out Saddam once and for all, but the other part was to maintain order afterwards. And that took a while. What will you do when CNN begins to transmit pictures of sectarian strife in Benghazi? What will you do if Tripoli begins to look like Mogadishu?
If it doesn't mean regime change what does it mean? Qadaffy remaining in orifice will remain the same Qadaffy who's been been bemusing the world with his pretensions of sanity for 42 years...
"I have made it clear that I will never hesitate to use our military swiftly, decisively, and unilaterally when necessary to defend our people, our homeland, our allies, and our core interests."
You're always 'making it clear', which is why people around the world are challenging you.
Hrmph. Just goes to show what you know. Look at all the times B.O. has acted "swiftly, decisively, and unilaterally"...
"Real leadership creates the conditions and coalitions for others to step up as well; to work with allies and partners so that they bear their share of the burden and pay their share of the costs; and to see that the principles of justice and human dignity are upheld by all."
Sure hope you can cash that check from the Europeans.
"Born, as we are, out of a revolution by those who longed to be free, we welcome the fact that history is on the move in the Middle East and North Africa, and that young people are leading the way. Because wherever people long to be free, they will find a friend in the United States. Ultimately, it is that faith -- those ideals -- that are the true measure of American leadership."
That's positively...neo-con...
Posted by: Steve White || 03/29/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This man boy "Commander in Chief" has the mind of an 8 year old. He never read anything pertinent and he never studied for the job he has. It is of my advise that he refrain from making any more national decisions.
Posted by: newc || 03/29/2011 1:24 Comments || Top||

#2  "But broadening our military mission to include regime change would be a mistake."

Someone, please tell me.....is this bugger living in a parallel universe, on drugs, in denial, just that stupid, or all of the above?
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/29/2011 3:13 Comments || Top||

#3  "I have made it clear that I will never hesitate to use our military swiftly, decisively, and unilaterally when necessary to defend our people, our homeland, our allies, and our core interests."

I was hoping the next sentence would explain how one or more of these reasons applied to Libya. I guess Sarkosy double-dawg dared him.
Posted by: Bobby || 03/29/2011 5:52 Comments || Top||

#4  Would it really hurt anything if we held the next Presidential election like next week? I'd vote for anyone the Repubs want to throw out right now, even Gingrich or Trump.
Posted by: Jefferson || 03/29/2011 6:51 Comments || Top||

#5  Word.
Posted by: RandomJD || 03/29/2011 7:19 Comments || Top||

#6  I do not want a re-tread or a circus clown to lead this nation. I want Herman Cain. Come on, get a new face.
Posted by: newc || 03/29/2011 8:21 Comments || Top||

#7  Someone, please tell me.....is this bugger living in a parallel universe, on drugs, in denial, just that stupid, or all of the above?
Yup across the board.
Posted by: JohnQC || 03/29/2011 9:55 Comments || Top||

#8  We will safeguard the more than $33 billion that was frozen from the Gaddafi regime so that it is available to rebuild Libya. After all, this money does not belong to Gaddafi or to us – it belongs to the Libyan people, and we will make sure they receive it.

Please keep this concept in mind the next time you start thinking about taking this country into receivership--the money belongs to the American people.

Word. Please stop bashing Bush. This has gotten thin and tiring long ago--shows no class or character. Comes across as blaming someone else for your failures.
Posted by: JohnQC || 03/29/2011 10:05 Comments || Top||

#9  We will deny the regime arms, cut off its supply of cash, assist the opposition, and work with other nations to hasten the day when Gaddafi leaves power.

You know, maybe someone in congress should ask the administration exactly what kind of assistance "we" will be providing. I dunno...I think that's part of their job description.
Posted by: DepotGuy || 03/29/2011 10:22 Comments || Top||

#10  "Some nations may be able to turn a blind eye to atrocities in other countries. The United States of America is different. "

This is probably the most obnoxious statement. Obama and almost the entire west have turned a blind eye to the continuing Moslem persecution of non Moslems, including gruesome murders.
Posted by: Lord Garth || 03/29/2011 10:31 Comments || Top||

#11  Moving on the floor now babe you're a bird of paradise
Cherry ice cream smile I suppose it's very nice
With a step to your left and a flick to the right you catch that mirror way out west
You know you're something special and you look like you're the best.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 03/29/2011 10:50 Comments || Top||

#12  Someone, please tell me.....is this bugger living in a parallel universe, on drugs, in denial, just that stupid, or all of the above?

I dunno about any parallel universe. But the rest seems to fit.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 03/29/2011 13:51 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Umar Patek Busted on Vacation to Pakistan
Little big Indonesian Bali-bombing terrorist Umar Patek is said (in Ay-Pee) by anonymous intelligence sources to have been caught in Pakistan. What was he doing there - picking up his paycheck?
He probably was. And getting his new tasking...
News of his arrest came from two intelligence officials -- one in Indonesia and the other in the Philippines -- who said Tuesday that Patek was taken into custody in Pakistan earlier this year. Both spoke on condition of anonymity, citing the sensitivity of the information.
My guess is that the story's gonna die right here. We occasionally have these, and they just go away. A few months ago Adam Gadahn was arrested, also in Pakistain. So have a few other Qaeda and Taliban bigs.
Patek's whereabouts were not immediately known Tuesday.
My guess is that he's moved from Qazi's guesthouse to Binny's guest room in Chitral.
Check the Peshawar Hilton, just in case...
Posted by: Glenmore || 03/29/2011 12:58 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  All roads lead to Pakistan!
Posted by: Angeretle Snore6772 || 03/29/2011 15:26 Comments || Top||

#2  After he traveled all that way, it's a pity Umar is going to miss his Jihad U. 20th reunion.
Posted by: Zebulon Thranter9685 || 03/29/2011 17:26 Comments || Top||


Two more schools blown up in Darra Adam Khel
[Dawn] Two more government boys schools in Jovakai, Darra Adam Khel, Frontier Region (FR) Kohat were blown up by faceless myrmidons, said the political administration here on Monday.

According to the political administration, unknown myrmidons went kaboom! two government schools in Jovakai area of the FR Kohat on Sunday night. No human loss was reported in the incident while the schools have been destroyed completely.

After this incident, the total number of the targeted schools had reached to 30 while three schools have been destroyed in the Jovakai area.
Posted by: Fred || 03/29/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: TTP


Political violence in Karachi kills 43: Malik
[Dawn] At least 43 people have been killed in political violence in the city during the last 18 days, officials said Monday as they announced the arrest of 11 suspects.

"We can confirm that as many as 43 people had been the victims of assassinations in Bloody Karachi during the last 18 days," Interior Minister Rehman Malik
Pak politician, current Interior Minister under the Gilani administration. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. He later joined the Pak Peoples Party and was chief security officer to Bhutto. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Näwaz Shärif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men.
told a presser.

"We have placed in durance vile 11 men suspected of involvement in the assassinations."

"There is a conspiracy going on against Pakistain to destabilise it, but I can't share the evidence at the moment," Malik added.

"Criminal elements could be almost present in all political parties and action will be taken across the board against them."

Malik had also held a detailed meeting with DG Rangers Pakistain (Sindh) here today.

It is our priority to provide protection to the life and property of the masses, he said.

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah confirmed the number of victims and said they included members of different political groups.

"Some 43 innocent people have been bumped off since March 10, which included the activists of various political parties," said Shah.

Another 17 people were rubbed out in Bloody Karachi, Pakistain's largest city and commercial capital, in January this year.
Posted by: Fred || 03/29/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Taliban create unit to hunt down drone spies
Some Talibunnies, based in North Wazoo, have established a unit to hunt down people suspected of providing intelligence to help the United States in its drone campaign.

The group, known as Lashkar-e-Khorasan (LeKh), was created to identify, capture and execute people allegedly working for spies associated with the CIA.

The Lashkar is connected with both the Haqqani network and the Hafiz Gul Bahadur group. The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) led by Hakimullah Mehsud is also reported to have “active cooperation” with the Lashkar on occasion.

The unit is active in the Datta Khel, Miramshah and Mir Ali regions of North Wazoo, and the surrounding areas where US drone strikes have been most frequent.

The unit was set up last year by leaders of the groups, both having a tacit peace understanding with the Pak military.

It is widely believed that the drone hits a mechanical chip placed on the ground by spies at Taliban hideouts. “The LeKh is working to find out who exactly does that and how Americans are able to find out where the mujahideen are holding a meeting or which vehicle they are travelling on,” said a source from the Bahadur group.

Two months ago, the LeKh beheaded almost half a dozen mechanics in Mir Ali after the US changed its policy of hitting compounds and started targeting vehicles with Taliban leaders on board.

The mechanics, mostly from nearby Bannu district, became the subject of LeKh outrage after they were blamed for placing chips in a Taliban car.
Posted by: ryuge || 03/29/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The squeegee men are spies. Execute them!
Posted by: Zebulon Thranter9685 || 03/29/2011 1:17 Comments || Top||

#2  Army To Deploy ARGUS Sensor To Afghanistan Aboard Unmanned Helo.

The Army plans to deploy a new ground urveillance sensor to Afghanistan this summer designed to identify and track people across large swaths of
land, according to officials.

The deployment of the ARGUS sensors, developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, is the latest advance in a growth area defense
officials refer to as wide-area surveillance. These capabilities are sought-after because, in the expanse of the Afghan hinterland, they enable
the simultaneous tracking of dozens of individuals for surveillance or targeting.

ARGUS is short for Autonomous Real-time Ground Ubiquitous Surveillance. BAE Systems has manufactured a daylight-only system, first tested in 2009 aboard a Black Hawk helicopter. The company announced last September it was awarded
a $50 million follow-on contract to make an infrared, night-capable version.

Argus is a figure in Greek mythology, depicted as an all-seeing giant with 100 eyes.

Army Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence Lt. Gen. Richard Zahner described the sensor, which he said would see its first action on an
unmanned Boeing A160 "Hummingbird" drone, as a breakthrough technology. The system can track 96 "entities, individuals or vehicles" in separate videofeeds, he said in a March 22 interview with Inside the Army.

The system is part of a new generation of sensors capable of automatic cuingand interaction with processing systems for minimal human analyst
involvement, Zahner said. These new sensors, he added, would help steer the Army away from a "bottomless pit of requirement" for processing,
exploitation and dissemination capabilities that are traditionally needed to prepare sensor data, make sense of it and distribute it among forces.

The ARGUS sensor, for example, could be turned into a "tracking engine" by connecting it to a high-resolution video collection capability or a signals intelligence system instructing ARGUS where to train its eyes.

The sensor's breakthrough capability lies not in its ability to deliver simultaneous video feeds, but rather the promise that it can present
contextual information on individuals to the degree that the system can tell operators instantly what those individuals' "patterns of life" are, Zahner said.

"We fundamentally change the set where the sensors now work for us, as opposed to having banks of operators now slaved to a video stream, trying to extract something out," he told ITA.
Posted by: Rantburg DARPA Support Team || 03/29/2011 3:24 Comments || Top||

#3  I wonder what drunkenpredator thinks about this?
Posted by: newc || 03/29/2011 8:36 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Iraqi insurgents kill dozens in Tikrit raid
Uniformed attackers driving military trucks and armed with a car bomb, guns, grenades and suicide belts blasted their way into a provincial government headquarters in the northern city of Tikrit on Tuesday, killing at least 53 people in a highly organized raid, according to witnesses and local officials.

Over several hours, the attackers went room to room, tossing grenades down hallways and through doorways and killing local politicians and government workers with shots to the head, according to Iraqi security forces and two witnesses who escaped by jumping out of a second-floor window. More than 90 people were wounded, officials said.
Posted by: tipper || 03/29/2011 20:26 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraqi violence kills nine people
[Emirates 24/7] Improvised bombs killed an army officer and policeman south of Storied Baghdad on Monday, and gunnies overnight killed six women and a man in north Iraq, police and medical sources said.

"An army officer and policeman were killed by a roadside kaboom that targeted their patrol in the city of Mussayib" 60 kilometres (37 miles) south of Storied Baghdad, a police chief told AFP.

"Sixteen people were also maimed, among them three soldiers and two coppers, by roadside kabooms in Mussayib and in different parts of Storied Baghdad," he said.

Overnight, gunnies stormed into a notorious and poor district of the northern city of djinn-infested Mosul, killing six women and a man, police and medical sources said.

"Six women and one man were killed last night by gunnies who stormed into a home in Al-Tanak neighbourhood of djinn-infested Mosul," a police major told AFP of a poor district known as a location for brothels, which are illegal in Iraq.

A source at Al-djinn-infested Mosul hospital confirmed that the bodies of six women and a man had been received. He said the women were aged between 20 and 40.

djinn-infested Mosul's Nineveh province is home to armed Islamic groups, some related to Al-Qaeda.

Violence in Iraq has fallen since its peak in 2006-2007, but bombings, gun attacks and kidnappings are still routine.
Posted by: Fred || 03/29/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Iraq


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syrian Parliament Urges Assad to Clarify 'Reforms'
[An Nahar] Syria's parliament has asked President Bashir al-Assad to explain in detail a string of reforms promised in response to a wave of popular dissent across the country, an MP said Monday.
"On Sunday night, MPs requested that the president clarify the measures that authorities have announced and urged him to address parliament and explain," MP Mohammed Habash told Agence La Belle France Presse.

Parliamentarians also held a minute of silence, he said, to honor those killed in two weeks of unrest in Syria, where demonstrators earlier this month began taking to the streets to demand change.

The security situation in the country has worsened in past days, with reports of gangs wreaking havoc in the northern port city of Latakia and sporadic bouts of violence in the southern governorate of Daraa.

Rights groups have put the corpse count at around 130, with Daraa -- a tribal area at the Jordanian border -- sustaining the most casualties.

Authorities have accused Mohammedan fundamentalists of aiming to incite sectarian-based strife in Syria, a majority Sunni Mohammedan country which is also home to Christians, Druze and Alawite Mohammedans.

Presidential adviser Buthaina Shaaban on Sunday told AFP Assad, who is facing unprecedented domestic pressure in his 11-year rule, was expected to address his nation in the days to come.

Authorities on Thursday had said Syria has decided to end emergency rule, which has been in force since the Alawite-controlled Baath came to power in 1963.
Posted by: Fred || 03/29/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  It is ironic to hear a representative of the Syrian Government A well known sponsor of terrorism complaining about radical fundementalist Islam.
Posted by: Bill Clinton || 03/29/2011 1:28 Comments || Top||

#2  Turning on you also, are mad dogs and Englishmen.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/29/2011 2:34 Comments || Top||


Syria deploys troops after clashes
[Al Jazeera] Syria has deployed security forces to the northern city of Latakia after violent protests left at least 12 people dead and more than 150 injured amid calls for reform.

Troops patrolled the streets of Latakia - a religiously diverse port city 350km northwest of the capital, Damascus
...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti...
- in force on Sunday, in response to a wave of unrest that has put president Bashir al-Assad under unprecedented pressure.

Syrian authorities have accused "gangs" of seeking to incite sectarian strife in the city, which has seen violent festivities between pro-reform protesters, security forces and government supporters.

Dozens of pro-reform protesters have been killed in similar festivities in towns and cities across the country, including the city of Daraa and nearby Sanamin.

In Sanamin, the relatives of those killed in festivities on Friday said their loved ones had been demonstrating peacefully and that security forces - not gunnies - killed at least 10 people there.

However,
The essential However...
Bouthaina Shaaban, an adviser to the president, told Al Jizz's Cal Perry that "what happened in Sanamin, it was not a protest, it was not a demonstration, it was a group of about 10 people who attacked a cop shoppe".

"They [then] went to a military station and were firing at the guards. And so obviously the guards, it's their duty to protect their military station. And here is where firing began and unfortunately there were victims there," she said.

The competing claims came as Syrian authorities announced they would end decades of emergency rule in the country.

Shaaban told our correspondent that the law would "absolutely" be lifted, but she failed to give a timetable.

The repeal of the emergency law, in place since the 1963 coup that brought the Baath Party to power, has been a key demand of protesters demanding greater political freedoms.
Posted by: Fred || 03/29/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria



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Two weeks of WOT
Tue 2011-03-29
  Yemeni regime loses grip on four provinces
Mon 2011-03-28
  Rebels push towards Sirte
Sun 2011-03-27
  Libyan rebels say forces reach oil town of Brega
Sat 2011-03-26
  Libyan Rebels Reclaim Ajdabiya
Fri 2011-03-25
  Libya: French aircraft destroyed a dozen armored vehicles in 3 days
Thu 2011-03-24
  15 dead in new clashes in Deraa
Wed 2011-03-23
  Qaddafi attacks rebel towns
Tue 2011-03-22
  Western War Planes Hit Qadaffy Command Post
Mon 2011-03-21
  Gaddafi compound attacked again amid reports son killed
Sun 2011-03-20
  Crisis in Libya: U.S. bombs Qaddafi's airfields
Sat 2011-03-19
  Fighting reported near Benghazi - Tanks enter city
Fri 2011-03-18
  Libya declares ceasefire after UN resolution
Thu 2011-03-17
  Bahrain forces launch crackdown on protesters
Wed 2011-03-16
  UNSC Introduces No-Fly Zone Draft Resolution
Tue 2011-03-15
  Gaddafi army penetrates rebel areas

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