Marines from Regimental Combat Team 6 observed and engaged an armed group of al Qaeda in Iraq terrorists killing 12 and destroying two vehicles near the town of Karmah Aug. 29.
A group of three men was seen loading objects into a bongo truck from a nearby growth of weeds 11 kilometers northeast of Fallujah, in an area known to be a historical weapons cache site. A second group of four men arrived in another bongo truck, followed by a third group of six men on foot through the reeds.
A team of Marines was dispatched to better observe the scene and a third cargo truck carrying three men waving weapons and wearing ski masks approached the group a few moments later.
The Marines called for air support and a section of AV-8B Harrier jets dropped two precision-guided bombs, destroying the initial two cargo trucks. Marines called for artillery fire on the dismounted enemy personnel immediately following the air attack.
Twelve members of al Qaeda were found dead upon investigation of the scene. Numerous weapons and roadside bomb making materials were also found. All unexploded ordnance was removed from the scene and transported to a Coalition base for investigation and disposal. Bongo trucks--Beatnik al-Qaeda?
#1
Now, now. These were just simple workers, loading soccer balls and toys for the kids, and making the area safe for ducks ans little kittens. After all, everybody knows that there is no Al-Quaeda in Iraq.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
08/31/2007 12:39 Comments ||
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#5
C'mon, Al--think of the environment! We need to recycle virgins to meet the quota!
Posted by: Dar ||
08/31/2007 13:31 Comments ||
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#6
Good way to end the month.
Also I noticed at one of the OIF sites that the fatality rate for Aug was about the same as the relatively low rate in July (despite the 15 fatality helo crash).
Hasn't been much of that in Iraq. Nice to see modern warfare's biggest killer being applied to the Sunni problem (uh, yeah, I meant to say it that way).
#10
What's even better is that our lads prolly never gave their position away when calling in the indirect fire and CAS. Just dialed in the targets and made popcorn.
About 100 Pakistani soldiers who were missing and feared captured by pro-Taleban militants have been found, the army says. The militants had claimed they had seized 300 men in south Waziristan.
But the military said the soldiers in the convoy which had lost contact were sheltering in a valley during a storm and would return to base on Friday. "There is no suggestion of kidnapping or fighting," Major General Waheed Arshad told the AFP news agency.
"No, no, certainly not!"
A Muslim militant group had said it had taken the troops because the government was not honouring a recent peace deal.
There has been rising violence in the region in recent months, with at least 60 soldiers and 250 militants killed. Several peace deals between the government and rebels have collapsed.
Surprise, surprise.
US officials have described the tribal areas near the Afghan border as an al-Qaeda safe haven. Earlier in the week 18 soldiers were freed by militants following a deal brokered by tribal chiefs.
#1
I hope the militants terrorists behead all of them.
Nasty as it sound, it will help bring about a few things:
1.) The military will think twice about allowing themselves to be captured.
2.) A wedge will be driven between military and terrorist forces.
3.) It might cause enough outrage whereby any displays of public sympathy for the terrorists would elicit serious government crackdowns.
As it stands, there is far too much alignment between terrorist and Pak military forces. This needs to be broken and if a whole bunch of Pakistan's corrupt and ineffectual military must to die in order for that to happen, then so be it.
A British soldier and a civilian Afghan interpreter were killed Thursday when their vehicle was caught in an explosion near Kandahar Airfield in southern Afghanistan, Britain's Ministry of Defense said.
The soldier, a gunner in the 51 Squadron RAF Regiment, was on patrol around the airfield at the time of the blast shortly after midnight local time, the ministry said in a statement. Two other soldiers were lightly wounded. The casualties were evacuated by helicopter to a medical facility at the airport, where the soldier was pronounced dead. The interpreter later died of his wounds. The defense ministry declined to say what caused the blast. The names of the soldier and interpreter have not been released, although the ministry said the soldier's next of kin had been notified.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/31/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Our thanks to both for the sacrifices they and their families made to protect civilization from the barbarians.
Taliban militants released the final three of 21 South Koreans they had been holding on Thursday, bringing to an end a six-week hostage drama, witnesses said. The two women and one man were covered in dust as they walked out of the desert, accompanied by three armed men, and were turned over to waiting officials of the International Committee of the Red Thingy Cross, an Associated Press reporter at the scene said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/31/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
"We will do the same thing with the other allies in Afghanistan, because we found this way to be successful," Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi told The Associated Press by phone on Thursday.
Taliban militants released four more South Korean hostages on Thursday, an Associated Press reporter witnessed. The remaining three hostages were also scheduled to be freed. The two men and two women were handed over to officials from the International Committee of the Red Thingy Cross on a road in the Janda area of central Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/31/2007 00:00 ||
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Kenyan Muslims marched on police headquarters in Nairobi on Thursday in protest against what they called the illegal detention and torture of fellow Muslims in an anti-terrorist drive urged on by the United States.
The protest involving a few dozen people followed months of careful coaching and well-financed if shadowy operatives working to properly orchestrate the simmering tensions between the east African nation's Muslim community and authorities they accuse of persecuting and arresting them on U.S. government orders.
Step One, the deep-laid plot:
"We don't expect this in our country. Just how much power do the Americans have over the Kenyan government?" said Al-Amin Kimathi, chairman of Kenya's Muslim Human Rights Forum.
Kenyan authorities could not be reached for comment.
Of course not. They're infidels and part of the plot.
The United States embassy in Nairobi said the United States was committed to working with regional partners to oppose terrorism. "We are sensibly working to...disrupt the efforts of terrorists wherever they may be active," embassy spokeswoman Jennifer Barnes said.
Step Two, the Western apologists:
Human Rights groups accuse Kenya of involvement in a clandestine U.S. practice of detainee transfer known as rendition. Kenyan police arrested scores of people on the Somali border in January and February after allied Ethiopian and Somali government troops chased Islamist fighters Washington accuses of having links to Al Qaeda out of Mogadishu.
Links that we made up of thin air. It's all part of The Plot.
Human rights groups say Kenyan authorities put dozens of terror suspects from Kenya on secret rendition flights to Ethiopia for interrogation by U.S. officials. Local activists said none had been prosecuted in any court. "We know from a 110% reliable released prisoner that it is Americans doing the aggressive interrogating, and the Kenyan government is making it possible for them," Kimathi said.
"He said they tortured him to death, even! Poor dear."
At police headquarters, protesters demanded to know the whereabouts of two brothers who have gone missing. They said Kenyan police took the younger brother to Somalia, then Ethiopia, in January without charge or explanation. He was able to contact relatives once to tell of his torture, the activists say. Police seized his older brother last week outside a Nairobi mosque, according to relatives who were told nothing further and fear he faces the same fate as his younger brother. Family members of the two brothers joined Thursday's protest and delivered a letter to police.
"The crack-down of so-called terrorists...is a blanket design and a veiled, skilful and state-orchestrated machination aimed at intimidating, harassing and persecuting members of the Muslim community," the letter said.
"Plus it dented our Dignity. We must have Dire Revenge!"
#4
Kenya is overwhelmingly Christian, only about 10% are Muslim and they are artifacts of Omani colonization and exploitation (spices and slaves). If the Government of Kenya were smart, they would immediately expel every muslim from the country, ship them to any country that would take them.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
08/31/2007 10:20 Comments ||
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#7
Dealing with "incensed" muslimes is going to get down to breaking kneecaps - at about the sixth cervical vertebrae. It's about the only thing that works.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/31/2007 15:17 Comments ||
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#8
If the government of all Western nations Kenya were smart, they would immediately expel every muslim from the country, ship them to any country that would take them.
There, fixed that for ya, RWV.
As to these Kenyan whingers, boo-effing-hoo, cry me a river and fill it with herring! Kidnapping and torture are Islam's favored techniques. Can't stand the heat? Get out of the kitchen Go to hell.
Dealing with "incensed" muslimes is going to get down to breaking kneecaps
(SomaliNet) The 45-day Somalis reconciliation conference has been concluded on Thursday in Mogadishu, where the U.N. secretary-general's special representative to Somalia Francois Lonseny Fall and other international delegates attended the ceremony of the meetings closure.
The security was heavily tightened as hundreds of forces were deployed in all streets of the capital to prevent any attacks from the opposition groups.
How good could security have been if two were wounded? Oh right, this is Somalia.
Somalis president Abdulahi Yusuf, his Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Geedi and the parliament speaker Sheik Adan Madobe also attended the occasion of concluding the congress which lacked the needed financial support. Also officials from the United Nations, the donor nations and the neighbor countries today attended the ceremony, spokesman for the reconciliation congress Abdirahman Shift told reporters.
The occasion of ending the congress came as many Somali peace delegates are not in a good mood complaining about the lack of payment.
All about the Benjamins.
Many Somalis believe that the conference which did not gathered the suitable stakeholders ended in failure and deepened the crises
Meanwhile, two civilians got injured in police shootouts after two grenade bomb attacks in the capital. The first explosion happened on the main industry road near the former match and cigarette factory where bomb was thrown at the police. In Wardhigley district, the soldiers arrested several people suspected in connection with the bomb attack.
General Abdiwahid Mohamed Hussein, the police spokesman said the city was quiet except two bomb incidents which the police succeeded to arrest the some of the attackers. In Wardhigley district, the police forces confiscated a group of militants and their trying to escape after throwing bomb, also on the industry road, the soldiers arrested a man after he hurled grenade bomb, said Mohamed.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/31/2007 00:00 ||
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(SomaliNet) Five people got injured when a homemade bomb targeting a police patrol exploded outside the Algerian capital on Sunday, police officials said. Sources say the blast occurred in the town of Bordj Menaiel, in the Boumerdes region, located 55km east of Algiers.
The bomb - covered with soil and placed by the side of a road in the town's crowded central district - exploded as the police car passed. Two officers and three civilians were injured in the blast, which partially damaged the patrol car. Emergency room Dr Hassan Terkman said, the civilians were being treated at a local hospital for minor injuries.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/31/2007 00:00 ||
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LINCOLN, Neb. Soldiers in Iraq are encountering a difficult obstacle that doesnt have anything to do with their enemy: bureaucracy on the battlefield.
Two of about 30 members of the Nebraska Army National Guard who met with Sen. Ben Nelson on Monday told him that before striking targets in Iraq, they had to make phone calls to get permission first. If I see a target out there, I cant shoot it, Lt. Col. Martin Apprich, of Papillion, told Nelson. I have to make a phone call first. Apprich was commander of a unit that defended a joint Air Force and Army logistics base while in Iraq from March 2006 until June. We have many ... roadblocks precluding us from what we couldve done over there, he said.
In one case where Apprich said his unit detected somebody installing what appeared to be an improvised explosive device outside his patrol area, he felt obligated to bypass protocol and sent out soldiers without seeking permission.
Another soldier shared similar stories with Nelson, who appeared taken aback. It doesnt make any sense, Nelson said. Later, the senator said he would pass the concerns along to military leaders.
Nelson will travel to Iraq next month with Sens. Max Baucus, D-Mt.; Ken Salazar, D-Colo.; and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine. Its Nelsons fourth fact-finding mission to the country. While Nelson, a Democrat, doesnt support a set date for withdrawing troops, he said he supports setting a date for a transitional mission that likely would mean fewer troops.
About 615 Nebraska Guard members remain in Iraq, 15 in Afghanistan and eight are heading to Kosovo, Army National Guard spokesman Kevin Hynes said late last week.
Some soldiers at the meeting Monday said they are concerned that there arent adequate support services for troops once they return home. Soldiers who dont live close to a major base are sometimes left in a lurch as they seek services to segue back in to civilian life, they said. Im still not confident were getting all the support services our returning veterans deserve, Col. Tom Schuurmans said.
Hynes said problems cited by veterans arent keeping people from signing up with the guard, Weve got the second or third highest enlistment rate weve seen in decades, Hynes said. And he said 400 of the guards 3,600 soldiers have volunteered to go back for second tours.
#1
Hynes said problems cited by veterans aren�t keeping people from signing up with the guard, �We�ve got the second or third highest enlistment rate we�ve seen in decades,� Hynes said. And he said 400 of the guard�s 3,600 soldiers have volunteered to go back for second tours.
But...but...but, the MSM insists that morale is low. How can this be? /sarcasm off
#2
Again, more antedotal evidence of the ROE's being overlawyered. What's great about this is that the Senators going to Iraq are all lawyers and will only make matters worse by proposing changes that will require even more fricking lawyers.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
08/31/2007 10:25 Comments ||
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#3
It's what I've been saying for quite a while now, that one of the paradoxes of winning is that the ROE has to change. That is, while US military personnel want to intervene, they have to stand down at some point and let the locals take over.
And does this get frustrating in a hurry. Being ordered to "call a cop" instead of doing something about it yourself.
#4
On occasion, you will get a video with an unedited 5-10 minutes section where the pilot waits and waits for the "layers" of *Higher Authority* to give him orders *TO STRIKE* a 10-man-rocket-team!
Meanwhile: after 10 minutes has passed, the 10 maned team is now down to 1 rocketeer, the other 9 having left the area on foot in groups of onezs and twozs after they fired off all of their rockets.
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
08/31/2007 11:14 Comments ||
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Maoists shot dead 12 Indian policemen in an ambush in the densely forested central state of Chhattisgarh, police said yesterday. The 12 were part of a team dispatched to clear Maoist landmines in Dantewada district, 500km from state capital Raipur, late Wednesday. "We have received information about 12 bodies recovered," said police official RK Vij.
The rebels, who launched their campaign in 1967 and today operate in 14 of India's 29 states, say they are fighting for the rights of landless farmers. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last year described them as the most serious threat to national security.
The killings follow the deaths of 24 security personnel in another insurgent ambush on July 11. In March, 55 policemen were killed in the worst-ever Maoist assault in Chhattisgarh, the epicentre of rebel attacks.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/31/2007 00:00 ||
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Owners of video centres and barbers in several areas of Swat have received threatening letters asking them to wind up their businesses or face the consequences. Nisar, owner of Nisar Video Centre in Gulab Market, Matta tehsil, closed his business and burnt the CDs and other material in Matta Bazaar on Thursday.
Nisar told Daily Times that the previous night attacks destroyed six CD shops, in addition to damaging nearly two dozen nearby shops and three houses. Keeping in mind the losses being suffered by locals, I closed down my business and burned the CDs worth thousands of rupees, he said.
When Daily Times contacted the Matta police station, the officials expressed ignorance about the incident. Unidentified people blew up six CD shops in Ishaq Market and partially damaged 20 nearby shops and three houses late on Wednesday. The owners of CDs shops received threatening letters 15 days ago and several shops at the market were blown up after the expiry of the deadline.
Meanwhile, Online reported that soon after the incident, a meeting presided over by the Swat district coordination officer told all video shop owners in the district to close down their businesses for security reasons. The owners of video centres in Matta told the meeting that they would close their businesses for good if the administration or the people sending them the threatening letters provided them with an alternative source of income.
Barbers in Matta tehsil have also been threatened to wind up their business within 15 days or face a similar fate. The threatening letters contain the words Taliban Zindabad at the end, but there is no reference to the organisation that had issued the letters.
Separately, the army deployed at the Saidu Sharif Airport has been withdrawn and sent to Timargara. The troops had been deployed in the area soon after the military operation against Jamia Hasfa to counter a possible public reaction to the operation. In another incident, the Bannu police seized 500 kilogrammes of explosives from a passenger van and arrested the driver, Wali Ayaz, APP reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/31/2007 00:00 ||
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Suspected militants blew up a pipeline in Sui on Thursday, officials said. Dera Bugti District Police Officer (DPO) Najam Tareen said the miscreants planted an improvised explosive device (IED) under a section of the pipeline passing through Muhammad Colony. The resultant blast disrupted the gas supply to the area, he said, adding that an electricity transformer and a few houses were also damaged in the blast.
"Legume! My cape! Someone has blown up the Sui gas line!"
"Again, Inspector?"
"Yes, Legume!"
"They do that every other day."
"Yes, Legume! I suspect they may be... militants!"
"Inspector! How do you do it?"
Posted by: Fred ||
08/31/2007 00:00 ||
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About 100 soldiers missing and fear kidnapped by militants in a tribal zone bordering Afghanistan have been found safe, a military spokesman said Thursday. A convoy transporting the troops had been travelling in South Waziristan district when it lost contact with army headquarters, raising fears they had been attacked or abducted by militants.
However the military was informed later Thursday that the convoy was off the main road in a valley in the region sheltering from a storm, Major General Waheed Arshad told AFP. We hope they will return to their camp Friday morning, there is no suggestion of kidnapping or fighting, Arshad said.
He added that the convoy had been surrounded by local villagers who thought the soldiers were preparing to launch an attack, triggering a tense standoff. But he said the situation had since been defused and the soldiers would remain in the valley overnight to ride out the bad weather. The convoy had been enroute to the neighbouring tribal territory of North Waziristan.
Concerns for the troops come after militants in South Waziristan on Tuesday released 19 soldiers who were abducted earlier this month. Fears had mounted earlier Thursday for the convoy, with a senator in the region, Salih Shah, saying it was believed the men were taken hostage due to some misunderstanding between security forces and the militants. He did not have further details.
Tribal elders said there had been no violation of a peace deal signed in September 2005 under which they undertook to prevent militancy in the remote region, Arshad earlier told AFP.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/31/2007 00:00 ||
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(CNN) -- A U.S. military plane carrying three U.S. senators and one member of the House of Representatives came under rocket fire Thursday night and had to make evasive maneuvers as it left Baghdad for Amman, Jordan.
"Our plane leaving Iraq was fired upon, and it was a close call, but this is something that our men and women in combat face every day," Rep. Bud Cramer, D-Alabama, said in a statement. "The flight crew was outstanding, and I credit them for the way they handled the situation."
Sens. Mel Martinez, R-Florida; Richard Shelby, R-Alabama; and James Inhofe, R-Oklahoma, were also on the flight. Three Republicans and a Blue Dog Democrat; we may have a motive. Or maybe it's just because it's an American plane.
Shelby told CNN affiliate WVTM in Birmingham, Alabama, that the rockets were "near misses." "I was looking out the window, a little small window, and I saw a shell or something," Shelby said in a phone interview from Amman, where the plane landed safely. "And then I see a flare. Our plane started maneuvering and changing directions and shaking all around."
The flares are part of the missile avoidance system aboard the lawmakers' C-130 aircraft. Heat from the flares distract rockets that have heat-seeking guidance systems. Where were the RPGs fired from? I didn't think those generally had the range to reach a C-130 using the twisty-turny landing and takeoff program at BIA unless the grenades were fired from inside the airport grounds. If they were, then someone let their guard down.
#5
At 10k feet there wasn't much chance of an RPG hitting it. Me thinks it was something else. We are still missing a bunch of Stingers from the first Gulf war plus Iranian Red Dogs could do the math.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
08/31/2007 10:30 Comments ||
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#6
The inflight meal probably posed a greater danger to the congressmen than the rockets.
An al-Qaida front group claimed Thursday on an Islamic Web site known to be used by extremists that it had executed an employee of the US Embassy in Baghdad. The veracity of the claim could not be independently verified and the US Embassy said it was looking into the report but had no immediate comment.
On the site, the Islamic State of Iraq claimed the execution of an embassy "official" it identified as Zaher Abdel Mohsin Abdel-Saheb took place Saturday as revenge for "the Muslim women who are still captives in the prisons of Shi'ites and crusaders." The Arabic-language statement was signed by the Ministry of Information of the Islamic State of Iraq.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/31/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Sh*t, now we have to employ a new janitor. Maybe that Craig guy - sounds like he'll need a new job soon, and he seems to know his way around a bathroom.
A protest by Fatah supporters against Hamas rule in the Gaza Strip turned violent Friday when Hamas men began forcefully dispersing the crowd, firing in the air and beating demonstrators and reporters. Some 20 people were wounded in the clashes, including two French journalists and two children, according to doctors and witnesses.
Reporters covering the protest said they witnessed the beating of one journalist by Hamas men. He was not seriously hurt. The violence began at the end of a Fatah prayer meeting held to protest against Hamas.
Troops from the Golani Brigade, operating in the Gaza Strip this week, arrested a 15-year-old Palestinian boy who had planned to perpetrate a suicide attack against nearby Israeli forces, it was released for publication on Thursday. The boy was apprehended Tuesday night during an operation near Beit Hanun after he had suspiciously approached the troops. He was later found to be carrying two large explosive devices on his body. The military force had received intelligence of a possible attack and had taken the necessary precautions to capture the youth without setting off the bombs.
Details on how soldiers persuaded the bomber to surrender weren't made available. Publication of the incident was prohibited until the operation ended on Thursday. The incident, officials said, demonstrated the growing use of children by Gaza-based terror groups. On Wednesday, two Palestinian youth were killed in an IDF strike on a number of Kassam launchers after they had been set there to collect them.
Also Thursday, two Kassam rockets were fired into the western Negev. One landed in an open field and the other struck an empty home in Sderot causing one woman light injuries and sending another woman into shock.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/31/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
"The military force had received intelligence of a possible attack and had taken the necessary precautions to capture the youth without setting off the bombs."
Did they goof and say this? Or did they say to see what happens?
Terrorists Insurgents killed a railway officer in Narathiwat province on Friday afternoon. The officer was shot while he was controlling signal at a station in Rueso District. They also hid a 10-kilogramme bomb at a sentry box nearby in an attempt to harm security officials who were expected to inspect the scene. The bomb failed to detonate.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/31/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
The Washington, DC Financial Services Association (DCFSA), a coalition of over 40 savings account payday loan stores in the District l promoting responsible lending, ...
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.
Marines from Regimental Combat Team 6 observed and engaged an armed group of al Qaeda in Iraq terrorists killing 12 and destroying two vehicles near the town of Karmah Aug. 29.
About 100 Pakistani soldiers who were missing and feared captured by pro-Taleban militants have been found, the army says. The militants had claimed they had seized 300 men in south Waziristan.
(SomaliNet) The 45-day Somalis reconciliation conference has been concluded on Thursday in Mogadishu, where the U.N. secretary-general's special representative to Somalia Francois Lonseny Fall and other international delegates attended the ceremony of the meetings closure. 
(SomaliNet) Five people got injured when a homemade bomb targeting a police patrol exploded outside the Algerian capital on Sunday, police officials said. Sources say the blast occurred in the town of Bordj Menaiel, in the Boumerdes region, located 55km east of Algiers. 
Maoists shot dead 12 Indian policemen in an ambush in the densely forested central state of Chhattisgarh, police said yesterday. The 12 were part of a team dispatched to clear Maoist landmines in Dantewada district, 500km from state capital Raipur, late Wednesday. "We have received information about 12 bodies recovered," said police official RK Vij. 
Owners of video centres and barbers in several areas of Swat have received threatening letters asking them to wind up their businesses or face the consequences. Nisar, owner of Nisar Video Centre in Gulab Market, Matta tehsil, closed his business and burnt the CDs and other material in Matta Bazaar on Thursday. 
Suspected militants blew up a pipeline in Sui on Thursday, officials said. Dera Bugti District Police Officer (DPO) Najam Tareen said the miscreants planted an improvised explosive device (IED) under a section of the pipeline passing through Muhammad Colony. The resultant blast disrupted the gas supply to the area, he said, adding that an electricity transformer and a few houses were also damaged in the blast.
An al-Qaida front group claimed Thursday on an Islamic Web site known to be used by extremists that it had executed an employee of the US Embassy in Baghdad. The veracity of the claim could not be independently verified and the US Embassy said it was looking into the report but had no immediate comment. 
A protest by Fatah supporters against Hamas rule in the Gaza Strip turned violent Friday when Hamas men began forcefully dispersing the crowd, firing in the air and beating demonstrators and reporters. Some 20 people were wounded in the clashes, including two French journalists and two children, according to doctors and witnesses. 
Troops from the Golani Brigade, operating in the Gaza Strip this week, arrested a 15-year-old Palestinian boy who had planned to perpetrate a suicide attack against nearby Israeli forces, it was released for publication on Thursday. The boy was apprehended Tuesday night during an operation near Beit Hanun after he had suspiciously approached the troops. He was later found to be carrying two large explosive devices on his body. The military force had received intelligence of a possible attack and had taken the necessary precautions to capture the youth without setting off the bombs. 
