[Pak Daily Times] The Afghan Taliban said on Saturday they had recruited an Afghan soldier who rubbed out four French soldiers a day earlier, raising fears the myrmidon group had managed to deepen its infiltration of the country's struggling security forces. The killings prompted La Belle France to threaten an early pullout from the NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... -led war. The claim of responsibility raises serious concerns about handing control of security over to the Afghan army and police, which NATO-led forces are currently in the process of doing before all foreign combat troops leave by the end of 2014. "The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has recruited people in important positions," Taliban front man Zabihullah Mujahid told Rooters by telephone from Qazi's guesthouse an undisclosed location, using another name the bad turban group call themselves. "Some of them have already accomplished their missions." The killings in Kapisa province were the latest in a string of such attacks in which Afghan troops turn on their Western allies and mentors.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
A failure of counterintelligence and screening by unit NCOs.
Even ROTC units in the US strongly screen against kooks and "unreliables", and they get their fair share. The screening process never ends, even with senior NCOs and officers, who have to be watched for their own set of problems.
This killer probably put out all kinds of warning flags that nobody noticed, or just ignored.
#2
Northern Cousin posted the following last night on the French story, which I found thought-provoking:
#7 I have deployed three times to Afghanistan, including almost a full year working next to ANA each and every day. They are a proud people and take these kind of incidents extremely seriously.
There are three problems ---
1 Stolen ANA uniforms -which are easy to come by when you have over a 1000 soldiers defecting from the ranks every month. The old "use the uniform" trick
2.Unfortunately, the larger number of attacks have been soldiers that lose the bubble. We can really rub people the wrong way. And when their pay is on average 200 to 300 bucks a month, which some of us earn in a day or less, its easy to get, well, out of step. What is not reported is the number of attacks of ANA against their own.
3. The ANA has been forced to push its numbers at an extrem pace. In part because the West wants to say --- over to you and get out of Dodge. Result poor sreening - and where some just sign up to a room and food for the winter away from ones village, Taliban symbathizers can get recruited. No lie detector there. No written exam either as 9 out of 10 recruits cant read.
What irritates me is the French knee jerk reaction. He just placed a lot more people in danger. The Taliban arent stupid. Hey lets do this some more and more countries will leave --- lets do more the ANA on Coalition attack more -its working. I was furious when I heard his weak whining press conference statements. And the most at risk, in my view will now be his own troops. Big oops. He shoould had have his peepee slapped by other heads of state. But that will not happen. Too sensitive --- More likely behind the scene view - The French gov would like to pull troops to cut costs - and now they have an excuse -a lame one but an excuse nevertheless.
[Dawn] At least 13 people, including five Afghan border police, a NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and organization.... soldier and two would-be jacket wallahs were killed across Afghanistan Saturday, officials said.
The border guards died when their vehicle was ambushed in Gulran district of Hirat province in western Afghanistan, General Sulaiman, the commander of rapid reaction forces in the area, told AFP.
"The vehicle first hit a roadside kaboom and then the forces of Evil opened fire using grenade launchers and small arms," he said.
The NATO soldier died in an thug attack in southern Afghanistan, the International Security Assistance Force said, without providing any further details.
Also on Saturday, a roadside kaboom hit a civilian truck in Lashkar Gah, the capital city of volatile Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... Province in southern Afghanistan, killing three civilians and wounding three others.
"They were labours going to their work in the morning when their truck hit the roadside kaboom that killed three and maimed three others," the provincial front man Daud Ahmadi said.
In southeastern Afghanistan, Afghan and NATO security forces rubbed out four attackers attempting to target Barmal district chief office in Paktika ...which coincidentally borders South Wazoo... province on Saturday, Mukhlis Afghan the provincial front man said.
"Two attackers had boom jackets on, but were killed before being able to detonate and two others were armed," he said, adding that there were no other fatalities.
The east and southeastern regions of Afghanistan have been the focus of US-led coalition efforts recently, shifting from Taliban strongholds in the south towards the restive area along the border with Pakistain.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2012 00:00 ||
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At around 2 p.m., a U.S. drone targeted our Mujahidin. One foreigner, a Lebanese with a British passport died, the chief spokesman for Al-Shabaab, Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage, told news agency Reuters, Bilal Al-Barjawi, a great Mujahid brother who was in Somalia for a long time was killed today. He was in a car in Elasha. This foreigner is a martyr.
The British-Lebanese is Bilal Al-Barjawi known as Abu Hafsa, a Islamist who came to Somalia in 2006 and served as the deputy to Fazul Abdallah, Al-Qaida´s most senior commander in Somalia killed in June 2011 by Somali troops in a Mogadishu shoot-out.
When a U.S. airstrike targeted Lower Jubba region in Southern Somalia in July 2011 Bilal Al-Barjawi was injured on his head and later received treatment in Kenya according to Al-Shabaab.
British intelligence officials have warned about the emerging threat of Western Jihadi militants trained as terrorists in Somalia especially those holding Western passports. Numerous of these foreigners have died in Somalia, most of them during gun-battles, others became suicide bombers. If the news of Bilal Al-Barjawi is confirmed, this shows: a Western Jihadi was for some years Al-Qaida´s No.2 man in the country.
#2
"Bilal Al-Barjawi, a great Mujahid brother who was in Somalia for a long time was killed today. He was in a car in Elasha. This foreigner is a debris field martyr."
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/22/2012 8:19 Comments ||
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[Pak Daily Times] Gunmen kidnapped a western foreigner in central Somalia's Galmudug region on Saturday, local government and military officials said, adding that they believed the assailants had been the man's own guards and might be linked to a pirate gang.
Western foreigners were designed by Allah for kidnapping. Everyone knows that.
"Gunmen kidnapped the foreigner and we understand they took him to Hobyo," Abshir Dini, interior minister of the semi-autonomous region, told Rooters, referring to a coastal town that is a known pirate base. Colonel Mohamed Hussein, a local military official, said the hostage had been part of a two-man group who had been in the region under the pretext of being journalists, but that their exact mission was unclear. "He was kidnapped by his own guards.
See? Designed.
We understand the clan militia have a link with a pirate leader in Haradheere," Hussein said, in reference to a second pirate lair just south of Hobyo.
Kidnappings are relatively common in the anarchic Horn of Africa country, considered among the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists, aid workers and private contractors to work in. The other man, Hussein said, flew earlier to the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. Neither had contacted local officials about security when they arrived, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2012 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] A Lebanese-British fighter with the Islamist Shebab militia in Somalia was killed Saturday during a drone attack in the capital Mogadishu, said the movement's front man Sheik Ali Mohamoud Rage.
"This afternoon unmanned aircraft bombed and killed our brother Hilal al-Barzawi from Leb with British citizenship who fought in Somalia for a long time," he told news hounds.
He added that they were not yet sure to whom the aircraft belonged, "but it is America that is known for utilizing such aircraft."
Targeting people like Barzawi would not put off the Shebab, he said, adding: "God willing we are all waiting to be deaders like him."
Witnesses reported at least three kabooms near Garasbaley, about 13 kilometers south of Mogadishu.
"We heard three kabooms a few minutes after recognizing the sound of aircraft," said one witness, Bashir Ali.
"One of the missiles apparently hit a car belonging to al-Shebab fighters but we don't know who was targeted," he added.
News of the death came as Somalia's transitional government forces vowed Saturday to rid Mogadishu of all "violent elements".
On Friday they launched a major offensive aimed at dislodging the al-Qaeda-linked Shebab militia from the capital.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
"One of the missiles apparently hit a car belonging to al-Shebab fighters but we don't know who was targeted," he added.
Some difficulties separating the vehicle wreckage from the...uhm, biological materials, no doubt.
[Pak Daily Times] Egypt's military ruler has pardoned 1,959 people convicted by military courts in the year since President Hosni Mubarak's ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... ouster, including activist Michael Nabil whose hunger strike had brought him close to death.
The state al Nil television channel said the convicts had been pardoned by Hussein Tantawi, head of the military council that has ruled Egypt since Mubarak's removal in February 2011 in the midst of the Arab Spring protests that swept the region.
The pardon comes just four days before the first anniversary of the 18-day Egyptian uprising, which began on January 25, 2011 though it was not clear if any of the detainees had yet been released.
Nabil, incarcerated by a military court for defaming the army, had his prison term reduced to two years from three in December following criticism from international human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... groups.
The 25-year-old was placed in long-term storage in March and began a hunger strike to protest against his conviction for posting remarks saying the army had tried to quell the uprising against Mubarak.
The generals now ruling Egypt say the army took no part in a police crackdown on protesters and have pledged to hand over to civilian rule by June.
Activists say Nabil's case highlights the Egyptian army's heavy-handed approach to dissenters who criticise its top generals for using tactics reminiscent of Mubarak's regime.
"We can only say the revolution has succeeded when they release all activists, besides Michael, who are still being held in military courts and retry all civilians who have been prosecuted by courts they shouldn't have been prosecuted by," Nabil's brother Mark told news hounds.
No To Military Trials, a pressure group set up after the uprising, says at least 12,000 cases have come before the military courts since February. The group says sentences are often handed out swiftly behind closed doors and without proper legal representation. It is not clear exactly how many activists and protesters convicted by military courts in the past year remain in jail.
The pardon comes as youth groups plan to hold major demonstrations to mark the anniversary of a revolt they say will not be complete until the generals hand power to civilians.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2012 00:00 ||
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[Yemen Post] Director of Aden Security has said that the governorate faces risks of Al-Qaea, gunnies of the Southern Movement and other groups, emphasizing that Al-Qaeda operates without restraint in Aden.
"Al-Qaeda operates in view of everyone and security officials are still sitting at homes" Major Genreral Ghasi Ahmed Ali told Alsaeed local TV on Friday.
As Yemeni news hounds stated that the regime has not used counter-terrorism forces in encountering Al-Qaeda in Abyan and Rada'a, Ali reiterated that the US-trained counter-terrorism forces are not existed in Aden.
Ali beat feet an liquidation bid by unidentified gunnies who opened fire on him, as he was returning from work late on Tuesday.
Yemeni politicians has criticized non-involvement of the counter-terrorism forces in encountering Al-Qaeda faceless myrmidons who have recently captured Rada'a, 150 kilometers southeast of the capital Sana'a.
Yemeni analysts and politicians had affirmed that Saleh and his associates planned to provoke chaos and turbulence through the use of terrorist groups with the aim of impeding the GCC-brokered transfer power deal.
According to analysts, Al-Qaeda has taken advantage of the weak central government and political turmoil roiling the nation for the past year during an anti-regime uprising inspired by Arab Spring revolts.
Yemen Prime Minister Mohammad Salem Basindiwa had alleged that Saleh provided Al-Qaeda with a fertile ground to grow and expand.
"Saleh used to use Al-Qaeda to blackmail and intimidate the oil-rich neighboring GCC states, the United States and other western countries" added he.
The coalition of the main Yemeni opposition parties, the Joint Meeting Parties (JMP), has stated that security services that are still loyal to Saleh was responsible for insecurity occurred in Rada'a.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2012 00:00 ||
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[Yemen Post] Ansar Al-Sharia, a group affiliated to al-Qaeda, announced Friday it would hold a presser in the southern Yemeni province of Abyan.
The terrorist group invited all internal and international news agencies to attend the conference set to take place today.
Al-Qaeda did not; however, reveal what sort of announcements will be made at the conference. But some sources asserted it would clarify what's going on in the province and its position regarding the return of refugees to their homes.
Ansar Al-Sharia has been involved in fierce battles with security force since May when it took over Zinjubar, the bustling provincial capital of Abyan, leaving hundreds killed of the two sides and displacing tens of thousands.
It's noteworthy that this move is the first of its kind for the al-Qaeda affiliated group.
Cooperation between Yemen and US on terrorism has been disrupted due to the unrest storming the country since February, when thousands of Yemenis took to streets demanding an end to authoritarian rule of President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... .
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2012 00:00 ||
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[Pak Daily Times] Police on Saturday placed in long-term storage three German nationals for not having valid travel documents and sent them to Islamabad for questioning. The arrests come days after Norwegian internal security chief Janne Kristiansen resigned over leaks that Norwegian spy agents had worked in Pakistain, setting off alarm bells in the security establishment in Islamabad.
The University Town cop shoppe and intelligence officials raided a house and placed in long-term storage three German nationals without valid travel documents.
"The three Germans did not satisfy us to let them stay as they needed certain documents for legal stay," a senior police official wishing not to be named told Daily Times while confirming the arrests. He did not clarify whether the three Germans were diplomats or working with any international non-governmental organization.
"They have been sent to Islamabad where they may be interrogated," the police official added. The latest report said that the Germans drove back to the federal capital after being served "expulsion order" by the Beautiful Downtown Peshawar administration, official sources confided to this scribe. Foreign nationals were trying to visit Peshawar without legal documents and this process "aims at countering efforts" by foreign intelligence agencies trying to undertake "covert operations" against al Qaeda.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2012 00:00 ||
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[Pak Daily Times] Security forces on Saturday set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock 35 people in the wake of Friday's bombing of a school in Torkham. The security forces and the political administration had nabbed more than 50 people while raiding the houses of residents of Bacha Mena. However, there's more than one way to stuff a chicken... they jugged 35 of them in Landikotal and released the remaining people, Tehsildar Abdul Nabi said. Nabi said a joint investigation team would question the suspects. Separately, security forces disposed of 16 mortars shell at Khyber Sultan Khel. Residents of the area had spotted the mortars, which were wrapped in a bag. The bomb disposal was called in which disposed of the shells.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2012 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Four snuffies and two coppers were killed in different incidents in Khyber Agency while an elder of Mohmand ... Named for the Mohmand clan of the Sarban Pahstuns, a truculent, quarrelsome lot. In Pakistain, the Mohmands infest their eponymous Agency, metastasizing as far as the plains of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar, Charsadda, and Mardan. Mohmands are also scattered throughout Pakistan in urban areas including Karachi, Lahore, and Quetta. In Afghanistan they are mainly found in Nangarhar and Kunar... tribal region was rubbed out in Peshawar on Friday.
Officials said that unidentified persons rubbed out an official of Frontier Corps in Malakdinkhel area of Bara tehsil in Khyber Agency.
In another incident seven security personnel were maimed when their vehicle was hit by a roadside kaboom in Baz Garha area of Bara.
One of the critically injured personnel later departed this vale of tears in a hospital. Security forces launched a search operation in the area but made no arrest.
Reports received from Tirah valley of the tribal region said that four myrmidons, two each from both sides, were killed when activists of banned myrmidon outfit Lashkar-I-Islam clashed with Taliban on Friday.Meanwhile, ...back at the mall, Clarissa spent the day shopping for new underwear. Tonight was going to be a special occasion... snuffies blew up a government school near the Torkhum border late on Friday evening.
Officials that the building of a government primary school for boys at Bacha Mayna was partially damaged when kaboom planted inside its building went of at around 8:30pm. Nobody was hurt in the kaboom.
In another incident, three volunteers of a tribal peace committee were maimed in a kaboom in Tirah valley of Khyber Agency.
Sources said that an bomb planted along a roadside went off when volunteers of Kukikhel ...a tribe of primitives inhabiting Khyber Agency. They are a branch of the Afridi tribe. Traditionally they have been migratory, tromping between Jamrud and the Rajgal valley with the seasons. The tribe has had mustache-cursing relationships with several other tribes, including the Zakkakhel and Kambarkhel, and with the Mullagori. They make welcome most anyone with a turban and automatic weapons, but every once in awhile they get together a tribal lashkar to mollify the government... tribal lashkar were on a routine patrol in Dwa Thoe area after the Friday prayers.
The blast caused injuries to at least three rustics and the vehicle was also partially damaged. Nobody has so far grabbed credit for the blast.
The Kukikhel rustics had in the re-cent past raised an armed lashkar against Taliban in their areas of Tirah valley.
In Peshawar, gunniesrubbed out an elder of Mohmand Agency and beat feet late on Friday.An official said that Fazal Maula Mohmand had shifted from his native tribal region to Bakhshi Pul area on the outskirts of Peshawar few years ago owing to lawlessness in the agency.
`So far no one has grabbed credit for his murder but it seems that he had contacts the with peace committees supporting security forces in Mohmand Agency,` he said.
The official said that the primitive had opened a tandoor in the area. He was sitting there when the attackers riding a cycle of violence opened indiscriminate firing on him and managed to escape.
A case in this regard, he said, had been registered at Khazana cop shoppe against unidentified murderers but sofar no one had been jugged.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2012 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] A civilian facing a court martial under the Army Act on charges of attacking the GHQ and ISI Hamza camp died mysteriously on Friday, a brother of the dear departed, told Dawn on Friday.
Abdul Saboor, 29, is the fourth civilian jugged in the case to have died in mysterious circumstances over the past six months -- Mohammad Aamir died on Aug 15, last year, Tahseen Ullah on Dec 17, and Said Arab on Dec 18.
Their bodies were recovered from the Lady Reading Hospital in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar.
Abdul Saboor's brother, Mufti Shakoor, said that an unknown caller asked him to collect the body of his brother from the Haji camp in Peshawar.
Saboor had been picked up by intelligence agencies on Nov 25, 2007, along with his younger brothers Abdul Basit and Abdul Majid from Lahore.
According to Mufti Shakoor, who lives in Lahore, the caller initially asked him to go to the Peshawar hospital, but later told him that he would find the body in an ambulance parked near the Haji camp.
Finally, he said, he found the body on the GT Road near the camp. By that time the cellphone of the caller had switched off.
Tariq Asad, a lawyer who had filed a petition in the Supreme Court on behalf of Ms Rohaifa -- the mother of three detainees, Abdul Saboor (deceased), Abdul Basit and Abdul Majid -- for their recovery, said he had already expressed fears about their unnatural death.
In the petition filed on Jan 6, the ailing mother made an emotional appeal to the Supreme Court to order intelligence agencies to immediately kill her sons and hand over their bodies to her if superior courts could not provide relief to common citizens of the country.
According to Advocate Asad, Saboor died when a petition about his recovery was pending with the Supreme Court, but the court was dealing with matters "more important than the life of a citizen".
In the petition, Advocate Asad pointed out that the bodies of three detainees who had died earlier during investigation, showed clear signs of acute renal failure (ARF) apparently caused by slow poisoning.
He said military authorities had kept them in illegal confinement and contended that under the Army Act, civilians could be tried only in circumstances gravely affecting the maintenance of discipline in the army.
He requested the court to seek a report on causes of the death of three detainees and record of proceedings against survivors.
It may be mentioned here that the accused -- Abdul Basit, Abdul Majid, Dr Niaz Ahmad, Mohammad Aamir, Mazharul Haq, Shafigur Rehman, Mohammad Shafiq, Said Arab, Tahseen Ullah and Gul Roze -- were acquitted by the Anti-Terrorism Court in Rawalpindi on April 8, 2008, because the prosecution could not make out a case against them.
But before their release, the Rawalpindi DCO issued a detention order under the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance.
On May 6, 2010, it was extended for 90 days by the Punjab home secretary, but it was set aside by the Lahore High Court's Rawalpindi bench on May 28, 2010.
The Superintendent of Adiyala jail, Saeedulllah Gondal, is reported to have handed over the detainees to ISI and MI.
But in May, 2011, the advocate general informed the apex court that the detainees had been formally tossed in the calaboose in the first week of April and a case under Section 2 (1) (d) of the Pakistain Army Act, 1952, was registered against them.
Raja Mohammad Irshad, the counsel of ISI and MI, told the court that the 11 men were among the 20 suspects taken into custody from operational areas.
He said the men were in the custody of law-enforcement agencies and they had been interrogated for their "close/deep links with beturbanned goons operating in different areas of the country".
He told the apex court that they were allegedly involved in attacks on ISI's Hamza Camp, GHQ, defence installations, kabooms at various places, killing of a three-star general and several other army personnel and civilians.
In August 2011, when the court was hearing a petition for the recovery of the three brothers, the Military Intelligence told the court that the detainees were in their custody and they had been kept "in accordance with the law".
The military authorities also arranged meetings of the detainees with their family.
According to Mufti Abdul Baais and Mufti Abdul Shakoor their jugged brothers had been brutally tortured and they could not stand because their legs were swollen.
Advocate Colonel (reted) Inamur Rahim, another counsel of the detainees, said he had also filed a human rights ...not to be confused with individual rights, mind you... application in the Supreme Court for their recovery.
"I will try to take other like-minded lawyers on board on this particular issue because it is possible that the remaining seven detainees might experience the same fate," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
The ISI run the country like John Gotti run New York.
Posted by: Paul ||
01/22/2012 10:22 Comments ||
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[Pak Daily Times] Maoists rebels killed 13 coppers in a landmine attack in eastern India on Saturday, state TV said, prolonging what Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has described as the country's biggest internal security threat. The rebels, who say they are fighting for the rights of landless labourers and poor farmers, have killed about 1,600 police and civilians in the last two years, the government has said. Saturday's attack happened in the forests of Garhwa in Jharkhand state. "Thirteen coppers were killed and two copperswere maimed in the blast," Doordarshan, India's state TV Channel reported, citing state police officials.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2012 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Police killed a big shot of Al-Qaeda's front group in Iraq in festivities while attempting to arrest him on Saturday, the interior ministry said in a statement.
Majid Hassan Ali, head of the Islamic State of Iraq's operations in the main northern city of djinn-infested Mosul, was killed and 19 Al-Qaeda gunnies, two of them Paleostinian, locked away in the shootout south of the city.
"The third division of the federal police ... killed the chief of the ISI in djinn-infested Mosul," the statement said.
It said Ali, who is also known as Abu Ayman, was hiding in the village of Rufaila, just outside djinn-infested Mosul, a former Al-Qaeda bastion in which the jihadists retain a foothold, when federal police forces conducted an assault on the area.
"During the arrests, heavy festivities erupted between the police and the terrorists," the statement said. "During these festivities, he was killed and 19 gunnies were locked away, including two Paleostinians."
Federal coppers recovered magnetic "sticky bombs", roadside kabooms, and several bags of explosives, as well as weapons and ammunition as a result of the operation, according to the statement.
The ISI, while regarded by analysts and officials as much weaker now than at the height of the sectarian bloodshed that rocked Iraq from 2006 to 2007, remains capable of mounting spectacular mass-casualty attacks.
While violence is down across Iraq, attacks remain common, especially in djinn-infested Mosul. More than 200 people have been killed in violence since the December 18 withdrawal of U.S. forces.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2012 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Gunmen killed four Iraqi soldiers in an attack in the former bad turban bastion of Fallujah west of Storied Baghdad ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... on Saturday, the provincial security command center said.
The attack took place at a checkpoint near a public park in the center of the city, 60 kilometers west of the capital, at around 6:45 pm (15:45 GMT), according to Major Yassin Mohammed in Anbar province operations center.
"Four Iraqi soldiers were killed by unknown gunnies," Mohammed said.
"The six gunnies attacked the checkpoint with two cars and killed the soldiers using machineguns."
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01/22/2012 00:00 ||
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Heh... thought Mossad being Jews weren't allowed to work Saturdays.
Only the Orthodox. The free-thinkers have no limitations.
Ruritanians live for Saturdays...
A 43-year-old Iranian military officer was shot to death on Saturday by two motorcyclists in the city of Khorramabad, local media reported.
Another soldier was injured in the incident. The two assailants fled the scene, according to reports.
The incident occurred when the motorcyclists fired shots at a group of soldiers who were on their way to an air force base located near the city, Israel's Channel 2 reported.
The local head of security forces said the incident occurred at 6:30 am. "The search for the assailants continues, and we have launched an investigation into the circumstances of the incident," he said.
A senior official in the Lorestan province, where Khorramabad is located, said that according to eyewitnesses "many bullets were fired at the soldiers, causing great panic in the area."
#1
we'll can't the Iranian police pick out the yarmulke over the helmet?
Posted by: jack salami ||
01/22/2012 9:58 Comments ||
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#2
I call these Larry, Moe and Curly Joe assassinations. Two or three men on two motorcycles.
It's a pretty good technique, because most people cannot tell one motorcycle from another, helmets make good masks, they split up and go in opposite directions after the hit. They move quickly through traffic, are often faster and more maneuverable in cities, and can easily go off-road if pursued.
#4
I understand whacking the scientists. I wouldn't think that random hits on the military would have an effect worth the risk of having the operative get caught.
Degrading the Iranian military readiness by assassinating their officer corps kind of assumes that they had good officers.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/22/2012 13:18 Comments ||
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#5
It's the instability that it creates. Even in Iran with the Mad Mullahs and Revolutionary Guard calling all the shots, if you start to thin the officer corps they'll have to call up a bunch of Number Threes as replacements. That can't be helpful.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/22/2012 14:03 Comments ||
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#6
There is also the possibility that it was an attack by a Lorestan-nationalist movement (the province used to be independent).
#7
The IRG are in a perpetual power struggle with the conventional military. This does not surprise me. There is likely a power struggle going on between the IRG and the regular military services.
#13
It's real, gromky. The title of the YouTube video is "Black Devil - Moscow Ride on R1". I got 40 seconds into it before I had to give up...but roller coasters scare me and motorcycles terrify me, so that is not a measure of whether it's as good as Ducatisti claims.
Also, he and ansky26 appear to be different people, and both new posters. Welcome to the conversation, both of you! :-)
#17
There is also the possibility that it was an attack by a Lorestan-nationalist movement (the province used to be independent).
There's a saying that victory begets victory. It's a lot like how a snowball gets bigger as it turns into an avalanche. If these things aren't stamped out quickly, it's an indication that the regime is weak, and more political entrepreneurs will either strike out on their own or cast their lot with the opposition. If dozens of these events start happening on a daily basis, revolution is on the way. The Iranian opposition appears to be much more skilful and determined than the Syrian opposition, given the fact that senior Iranian government figures are targeted on a routine basis.
#18
no tally of the wrecks he caused in opposing traffic. Asshat
Yep. Way too much trust in other people to behave as expected. If just one person had opened their door to yak => no more than bug guts on a windshield.
[Al Ahram] Qatar, which has called for Arab troops to deploy in crisis-hit Syria, is a "tool" being used by the United States against Damascus ...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world... , state newspaper Ath-Thawra newspaper reported on Saturday.
The claim was made as Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... foreign ministers are to meet in Cairo on review an observer mission critics say has been unable to stem the violence in Syria. League officials have voiced satisfaction with the mission's progress so far.
"It is clear that Qatar, disappointed by the first report of the observers, has started to distance itself from the vaporous Arab League and the report expected" on Sunday, the paper wrote.
The emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, only has use for the observers if they give "their approval to put in place his plans, conforming with the obligations taken from Washington", the paper alleged.
The emir told the US-television programme "60 Minutes" that Arab troops should deploy in Syria to "stop the killing," in an interview broadcast last Sunday. Syria has fiercely rejected the proposal.
The paper accused Qatar of financing the armed snuffies that Damascus blames for fuelling 10 months of unrest that has claimed more than 5,400 lives, according to UN estimates.
The paper charged that Washington does not want to be "directly implicated" in the Syria crisis and therefore "intends to turn Qatar into a tool to tear down" Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Lord of the Baath... 's regime.
The head of the Arab League mission, General Mohammed Ahmed Mustafa al-Dabi of Sudan, will present a report to Arab foreign ministers, after a meeting of the League's Syria crisis panel, which is chaired by Qatar.
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01/22/2012 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] The rebel Free Syrian Army, whose forces are present in Zabadani northeast of Damascus ...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world... , fears a government offensive on the city after its forces withdrew several days ago, a front man said on Saturday.
Major Maher Nueimi told Agence La Belle France Presse by telephone from Turkey that the army had pulled back a few kilometers from the city near the Lebanese border "in what may have been a tactical retreat to prepare an attack."
"I am afraid the regime is making plans to do what it did in Hama and Rastan," he said, referring to army assaults against those cities in July and October respectively, to oust beturbanned goon forces.
But Nueimi said the FSA does not have the capability of an all-out counter-strike and is concerned basically with defending the populace.
"The weapons we have do not allow for a confrontation with the regular army. We will continue with lightning strikes... and defensive ambushes to protect the civilians of Zabadani."
On Wednesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights' Rami Abdel Rahman said "tanks and troop transports were on the outskirts" of Zabadani, which has become one of the anti-regime rebellion's strongholds.
He added that shelling of the city, which had been going on for six days, had diminished.
A harsh crackdown on anti-regime protests that erupted in March has killed more than 5,400 civilians, the United Nations ...an international organization whose stated aims of facilitating interational security involves making sure that nobody with live ammo is offended unless it's a civilized country... has estimated.
In reaction, many soldiers have deserted and joined the FSA, which claims to have 40,000 fighters, and festivities with loyalist troops have killed dozens.
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01/22/2012 00:00 ||
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BEIRUT - Syrian rebels seized parts of the town of Douma near the capital Damascus on Saturday and then withdrew to their hideouts, activists said.
Night-time gunbattles and explosions rocked Douma, 14 kilometres (9 miles) northwest of the capital, activists said. Douma has been a centre of protests in the 10-month revolt against President Bashar al-Assad.
The head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the fighters retreated to their hideouts once they had pushed state forces outside of Douma.
"It seems they chose not to hold on to the territory, most likely because it could offer the regime an excuse to storm the area," Rami Abdelrahman told Reuters.
The fighting posed no direct threat to Damascus itself but may be seen as too close for comfort to the government, which has launched a heavy crackdown since unrest began in March.
One resident told Reuters the move marked the first time rebels, who call themselves the Free Syrian Army, held territory in Douma for an extended period of time.
"No one can get in or out of Douma right now. This is the first time the rebels do anything more than hit-and-run attacks. Tonight they started making barriers in the streets," an activist living in Douma told Reuters by Skype.
The fighting began on Saturday afternoon, after security forces killed four people when they fired on a funeral march for a slain protester. Ensuing clashes left dozens wounded, activists said. Activists on Skype from Douma and the neighbouring town of Harasta said troops were gathered outside the rebellious suburb.
Another resident in Douma told Reuters she had not heard of the temporary takeover of the suburb but had heard a large explosion.
"One of the explosions was so loud it felt like the whole city shook," another activist told Reuters on Skype.
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01/22/2012 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] A 16-year-old Lebanese boy was shot and fatally maimed after gunnies opened fire on a fishing boat on the maritime border with Syria on Saturday, his father and a local official told Agence La Belle France Presse.
"My wife crossed the border into Syria and has seen his body in the morgue of Bassel Assad hospital" in the coastal city of Tartus, said Ahmad Hamad of his son Maher.
President Michel Suleiman ...before assuming office as President, he held the position of commander of the Leb Armed Forces. That was after the previous commander, the loathesome Emile Lahoud, took office as president in November of 1998. Likely the next president of Leb will be whoever's commander of the armed forces, too... condemned the kidnapping of three Lebanese fishermen after a Syrian fishing boat approached their vessel, shot up it, and then took it into Syrian territory.
Suleiman followed up with Prime Minister Najib Miqati and Security Forces leaders, demanding the Syrian authorities to release them immediately.
His stressed the need that the illusory sovereignty of both countries be respected, urging both Leb and Syria to reinforce coordination in order to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future.
For his part, Miqati condemned the attack on Lebanese fishermen saying that the Lebanese-Syrian coordination committee should swiftly resolve the incident and bring back the kidnapped men.
According to the National News Agency the fishermen will be released on Saturday night as a result of the intensive contacts held between Lebanese and Syrian authorities.
Residents of the border town of al-Arida, where the fishermen come from, consequently blocked the international road leading to Syria by burning tyres in protest over the kidnapping.
MTV said that all border-crossings in northern Leb leading to Syria have been closed.
A local official, Ali Assad Khaled, mayor of the town of al-Arida, said brothers Fadi and Khaled Hamad and Maher were seized from their boat off the coast of northern Leb.
"Gunmen on another boat opened fire on the three Lebanese before seizing them and taking them off to Syria," he told AFP, adding that the incident was witnessed by other fishermen who insisted it took place in Lebanese waters.
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01/22/2012 00:00 ||
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[Pak Daily Times] Syrian forces killed a Lebanese fisherman and maimed another when they seized a boat suspected of smuggling off the Lebanese-Syrian coast on Saturday, a relative said.
Syria's state news agency SANA said the sailors were smugglers and that Syria's naval patrol tried to stop the boat but was fired on by other nearby Lebanese vessels. It said two of the men on the seized boat were maimed by friendly fire.
The border areas between Leb and Syria are known for smuggling, and Syrian security services have become especially sensitive to contraband runs since a revolt against President Bashar al Assad erupted 10 months ago.
Syria complains that its neighbours are not clamping down on smuggling of weapons they say are destined for bad boys.
Residents in Leb's northern coastal town of Arida said they heard gunfire offshore but did not see who was shooting. They said they later saw a Syrian boat towing the Lebanese fishing boat toward the nearby Syrian port of Tartous.
Syrian authorities did not report any deaths to SANA but the agency said two maimed sailors were in hospital. It said a third man had been "turned in to concerned authorities".
"The port patrol warned the infiltrating boat to stop more than once but the crew did not obey orders and instead threw their cargo overboard and tried to escape toward northern Leb," SANA said. Lebanese security sources confirmed the seizure of the boat but declined to give details of any casualties. Ahmed Hamad told news hounds his wife had crossed into Syria and had found their 16-year-old son Maher Hamad dead in a Syrian state hospital. He said a second fisherman had been maimed and the third was being interrogated by Syrian security forces.
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01/22/2012 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] A roadside kaboom killed 15 detainees being transported in a Syrian prison truck in Idlib province in the northwest on Saturday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
"15 prisoners were killed in the kaboom which targeted a prison truck on the road between Idlib town and the village of Mastumeh," the Britannia-based group's chairman, Rami Abdul Rahman, told Agence La Belle France Presse by telephone.
Syrian dissidents killed 9 troops during festivities in Maarat al-Noman in Idlib, according to the Syrian Observatory.
Coordination Committees said that "the number of deaders on Saturday rose to 50 after a massive grave was discovered including 30 unidentified people, two people killed in Douma in Reef Damascus ...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world... , a person in Deir al-Zour, and 3 citizens in Homs, in addition to the 15 detainees."
A number of security personnel accompanying the prisoners were maimed, Abdel Rahman said, without being able to provide details.
Syria's official SANA news agency blamed on an "armed terrorist group.
Separately, the Observatory reported that a member of the security forces was killed in fighting between dissidents and soldiers at Kfarnabl, in the Zawiya mountains of Idlib province, with troops using heavy machineguns.
It also said security forces had locked away seven people Saturday, including four members of the same family, in Iblin village.
Syrian army deserters on Saturday seized control of the town of Douma just northeast of Damascus after fierce fighting, according to the Syrian Observatory.
"Groups of deserters took control of all districts in the town of Douma, near Damascus, after fierce fighting on Saturday with Syrian security forces," the Observatory's chief told AFP.
The United Nations ...an organization whose definition of human rights is interesting, to say the least... estimates that more than 5,400 people have been killed in Syria since anti-regime demonstrations erupted in March.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2012 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Pak Daily Times] The Afghan Taliban said on Saturday they had recruited an Afghan soldier who 
[Dawn] At least 13 people, including five Afghan border police, a 
[Pak Daily Times] Gunmen kidnapped a western foreigner in central Somalia's Galmudug region on Saturday, local government and military officials said, adding that they believed the assailants had been the man's own guards and might be linked to a pirate gang. 
[An Nahar] A Lebanese-British fighter with the Islamist Shebab militia in Somalia was killed Saturday during a drone attack in the capital Mogadishu, said the movement's 
[Pak Daily Times] Egypt's military ruler has pardoned 1,959 people convicted by military courts in the year since President 
[Yemen Post] Ansar Al-Sharia, a group affiliated to al-Qaeda, announced Friday it would hold a 
[Pak Daily Times] Police on Saturday 
[Pak Daily Times] Security forces on Saturday 
A civilian facing a court martial under the Army Act on charges of attacking the GHQ and ISI Hamza camp died mysteriously on Friday, a brother of 
Punjab
Maoists rebels killed 13 
[An Nahar] Police killed a 
Gunmen killed four Iraqi soldiers in an attack in the former
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Najib Miqati
[Pak Daily Times] Syrian forces killed a Lebanese fisherman and 
[An Nahar] A 
