On this day in history: April 29th
711 Islamic conquest of Hispania: Moorish troops led by Tariq ibn-Ziyad land at Gibraltar to begin their invasion of the Iberian Peninsula (Al-Andalus). (Religion of Peace conquest OK, but the Crusades were bad)
1916 The British 6th Indian Division surrenders to Ottoman Forces at Kut. One of the largest surrenders of British forces up to that point.
1945 The German Army in Italy unconditionally surrenders to the Allies.
1946 Former Prime Minister of Japan Hideki Tojo and 28 former Japanese leaders are indicted for war crimes.
1953 The first U.S. experimental 3D-TV broadcast showed an episode of Space Patrol on Los Angeles ABC affiliate KECA-TV.
1967 After refusing induction into the United States Army the day before (citing religious reasons), Muhammad Ali is stripped of his boxing title.
1970 United States and South Vietnamese forces invade Cambodia to hunt Viet Cong.
1975 The U.S. begins to evacuate US citizens from Saigon prior to an expected North Vietnamese takeover. U.S. involvement in the war comes to an end.
1986 Roger Clemens then of the Boston Red Sox sets a major league baseball record with 20 strikeouts in nine innings against the Seattle Mariners.
1992 Riots in Los Angeles, California, following the acquittal of police officers charged with excessive force in the beating of Rodney King. Over the next three days 53 people are killed and hundreds of buildings are destroyed.
2004 Oldsmobile builds its final car ending 107 years of production.
Through extortion and taxation, the Taliban are believed to reap as much as $300 million a year from Afghanistan's opium trade, which now makes up 90 percent of the world's total. That is enough, the Americans say, to sustain all of the Taliban's military operations in southern Afghanistan for an entire year.
"Opium is their financial engine," said Brig. Gen. John Nicholson, the deputy commander of NATO forces in southern Afghanistan. "That is why we think he will fight for these areas."
The Americans say that their main goal this summer will be to provide security for the Afghan population, and thereby isolate the insurgents. But because the opium is tilled in heavily populated areas, and because the Taliban are spread among the people, the Americans say they will have to break the group's hold on poppy cultivation to be successful.
No one here thinks that is going to be easy.
Only 10 minutes inside the tiny village of Zangabad, 20 miles southwest of Kandahar, a platoon of American soldiers stepped into a poppy field in full bloom on Monday. Taliban fighters opened fire from three sides.
"From the north!" one of the soldiers yelled, spinning and firing.
"West!" another screamed, turning and firing, too.
An hour passed and a thousand bullets whipped through the air. Ammunition was running low. The Taliban were circling.
Then the gunships arrived, swooping in, their bullet casings showering the ground beneath them, their rockets streaking and destroying. Behind a barrage of artillery, the soldiers shot their way out of Zangabad and moved into the cover of the vineyards.
"When are you going drop the bomb?" Capt. Chris Brawley said into his radio over the clatter of machine-gun fire. "I'm in a grape field."
The bomb came, and after a time the shooting stopped.
The firefight offered a preview of the Americans' summer in southern Afghanistan. By all accounts, it is going to be bloody.
Like the guerrillas they are, Taliban fighters often fade away when confronted by a conventional army. But in Afghanistan, as they did in Zangabad, the Taliban will probably stand and fight.
Among the ways the Taliban are believed to make money from the opium trade is by charging farmers for protection; if the Americans and British attack, the Taliban will be expected to make good on their side of that bargain.
#2
First we destroy the fields that the Taliban are protecting, thus removing favoured money source and bully boys alike... and thinning out the the bullied as well. Then we offer the rest help to plant alternative crops -- is wheat still more profitable to the farmers of Afghanistan than poppies? As I recall, they made more from wheat last year, although the Taliban didn't.
In the latest series of battles, coalition and Afghan forces killed 42 militants Wednesday in three clashes.
Though there were no casualties reported for Afghan or international troops in Wednesday's fighting, it served as a reminder of the upsurge in violence predicted by many as the weather warms and the additional U.S. forces continue to move into areas they previously had not operated in.
In the largest battle, a convoy of Afghan police and forces with the U.S.-led coalition came under fire from multiple sides during a patrol in southern Uruzgan province, the statement said. The troops fired back and called in air support, killing 23 insurgents.
Nine militants were killed when troops came under attack during a search operation in neighboring Helmand province, and another 10 in fighting that broke out southwest of Kabul when international and Afghan forces attacked compounds believed to belong to Taliban operatives, the coalition said.
Wednesday's series of clashes came as Germany's foreign minister met with Afghan officials in the capital. Though Germany's 3,750 troops serve in Afghanistan's relatively peaceful north, they also were hit by an attack Wednesday. A suicide bomber jumped in front of a German vehicle, wounding four German troops, the NATO-led force said.
Elsewhere in the country, four would-be suicide bombers died in southern Ghazni province when their explosives detonated in the house they were staying in, said Sayed Ismail Jahangir, spokesman for Ghazni's governor.
Jahangir said the men died Tuesday in what appeared to be an accidental explosion. He said the government had received reports that they were planning a suicide attack.
#1
Are the Gazans there now too? What with the 'splodeydopes and such. But even Paleo 'spoldies never took out 3 of their own. A big round of NO virgins, I mean raisins for them!
[ADN Kronos] Two rockets targeted foreign troops based at a NATO camp outside the Afghan capital Kabul on Tuesday. Twenty Italian soldiers were based at the camp, which is under French command, but the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force did not confirm whether there had been any casualties.
Italian soldiers helped the Afghan army and police thwart an attack by militants in Mupahhi district 25 kilometres south of Kabul on Monday, ISAF's regional command in Herat said.
ISAF gave no information on any casualties from the operation, which it said occurred in the village of Guldara.
US-led and Afghan troops killed five suspected militants on Monday during "complex operations" targeting rebels in the Taliban flashpoint of Zhari district in southern Khandahar province, according to US forces.
The rebels were shot dead as soldiers searched compounds in the province of Kandahar where troops found and "protected" 150 civilians, including 50 children, the US military said in a statement.
The militants were killed after refusing orders to evacuate buildings, according to the US military.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/29/2009 00:00 ||
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A follow-up to this story in which a Russian tanker fought off pirates with the fire hoses.
MOSCOW, April 29 (Itar-Tass) -- Crew of the Russian antisubmarine ship Admiral Panteleyev detained and examined a boat with Somali pirates aboard Tuesday night. The detention took place at 18:10 Moscow Daylight Saving Time /14:10 GMT/ some 15 miles east off Somalia's coast in the zone of intensive commercial navigation.
"During the inspection, the crew found seven Kalashnikov guns, handguns of various brands, aluminum ladders for ascending aboard, navigation equipment, including the satellite one, reserve tanks with fuel, and a big amount of empty cartridge cases," a source at the Russian Defense Ministry said. Busted! Continued on Page 49
#1
Pro tip: Never be captured by Russians when there are empty cartridge cases around. Traditionally they will pound one in each of your kneecaps before asking you questions.
#6
Given the Russian's behavior in Chechnya, I'm not sure the pirates would disagree that drowning might be a better fate. The clue will be, are any of these pirates EVER seen again.
[Mail and Globe] A Spanish warship has intercepted a skiff carrying nine suspected Somali pirates believed to have attacked an Italian cruise ship at the weekend, the defence ministry said on Monday.
The Numancia frigate "intercepted a skiff with nine occupants who could be connected to the hijacking attempt of the Italian cruise ship which was eventually repelled by the boat", it said in a statement.
The cruise liner Melody, carrying more than 1 500 people, was attacked on Saturday but Israeli security guards on board the ship responded to the pirates' gunfire and were able to repel them.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
04/29/2009 00:00 ||
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#4
The cruise liner Melody, carrying more than 1 500 people, was attacked on Saturday but Israeli security guards on board the ship responded to the pirates' gunfire and were able to repel them.
Not mentioned are the passengers who heaved deck chairs at the pirates as well.
#5
Hmmmm... Small passenger liner with 200-300 SF/SEALs aboard, cruising from Port Said to Mombassa. Should be attractive enough to get the pirates to "attack". Pirate launches found floating on the sea, no pirates, no weapons, no bullet holes. Should be able to get three groups before the pirates get wise.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/29/2009 13:22 Comments ||
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#6
"Israeli security guards... "
We may be seeing the beginning of a growth industry here....
[Maghrebia] Two communal guards died in a twin bomb attack Tuesday (April 28th) on a surveillance post in Mizrana (35 km north of Tizi-Ouzou), local press reported. Authorities believe that terrorists planted the bombs overnight Monday, since the communal guard post is only occupied during the day.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/29/2009 00:00 ||
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[Beirut Daily Star: Region] A Yemeni soldier was killed and 14 people wounded on Tuesday in an attack by armed anti-government protesters at a checkpoint in south Yemen where separatist sentiment remains strong, witnesses said. Ten of the wounded were soldiers and the rest civilians, witnesses said of the attack in Mukalla, which followed clashes between police and protesters at an opposition rally overnight.
Cars and shops were attacked during the earlier flare-up in the south coast town. Government officials were not immediately available for comment.
Yemeni police have arrested 51 people suspected of taking part in riots. Government spokesman Hassan al-Lawzi told reporters that the detainees will be tried.
The clashes followed a rally to mark a civil war in 1994 when the authorities under President Ali Abdullah Saleh crushed southern forces.
The separate states of North and South Yemen had united under a fragile political agreement in 1990.
Witnesses and websites said speakers at the rally complained that thousands of former government officials and soldiers from the south lost their jobs after the 1994 fighting, when some southern leaders went into exile. "There are some obscure ideas around about turning the clock back," Yemen's Vice President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi told a government rally in Aden, capital of the former South Yemen.
"Yes, there is financial and administrative corruption and yes, there are negative points. But we have to deal with them within the framework of Yemeni unity," he said in the comments carried by pan-Arab broadcaster Al-Arabiya.
The Arabian peninsula country of 19 million faces Al-Qaeda attacks, sporadic violence by Shiite rebels in the north and lawlessness among tribes.
In recent months, Somali pirates have staged numerous raids on ships passing through the Gulf of Aden, a key shipping lane for oil and cargo.
Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, fears instability could allow Yemen to become a staging post for the revival of a 2003-2006 campaign by Al-Qaeda militants to topple the ruling Al-Saud family.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/29/2009 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] The police yesterday pressed charges against Bangladesh-born British citizen Faisal Mostafa and 10 others in a case filed for arms haul at Green Crescent madrasa-cum-orphanage in Bhola.
Sub-Inspector Rafiqul Islam of Borhanuddin Police Station, also investigation officer (IO) of the case, submitted the charge sheet to judicial magistrate Aminul Islam. He accused Faisal of links to the mini-munitions factory unearthed in the madrasa founded by his charity Green Crescent.
The IO said despite knowing that Mohiuddin, a guard-cum-cook at Green Crescent, had been stockpiling huge arms and ammunition there, Faisal did not bother to inform the law enforcement agencies.
Hassan Saifuddin Badal, Moulana Muhammad Russell, Jasim, Abdul Halim, Abul Kalam, Mohiuddin, Kawmi Madrasa Oikya Parishad leader Moulana Mufti Mohiuddin, Humayun Ahmed, a local primary school teacher Abul Kalam and Mizanur Rahman are the other charge-sheeted accused. Of them, the last five are still at large.
The Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) found the arms factory inside the madrasa-cum-orphanage on March 24. During the bust, they arrested four suspected militants--Abul Kalam, Abdul Halim, Jasim and Moulana Mohammad Russell.
Initially, Faisal was not made accused in any of the two cases filed in connection with the arms recovery. Two days after the arms seizure, his relatives in Dhaka and UK claimed he had been detained since March 25. The law enforcement agencies, however, kept denying arresting him.
They didn't deny beating him ...
After days of mystery, Rab finally declared on April 6 that they arrested Faisal, 42, along with his close associate Badal in Gazipur in the early hours that day.
The charge sheet is based on painfully extracted confessional statements made by Faisal, Badal and Moulana Russell, and the information gleaned in interrogations. Both Faisal and Badal in their statements said Mohiuddin had long been building up stock of the weapons.
Sheikh Muhammad Ali, deputy assistant director of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab)-8, filed the two cases on March 24--one under the arms act and the other under Anti-Terrorism Act 2008. Eleven people were made accused in the cases.
SI Rafiqul said Faisal's name was included in the charge sheet after he confessed to having knowledge of the arms and ammunition stash.
This article starring:
Faisal Mostafa
Posted by: Fred ||
04/29/2009 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] Four more Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) soldiers, believed to be directly involved in the killings and looting of arsenals at Pilkhana, were arrested yesterday from the BDR headquarters. The arrested BDR men are deputy assistant directors (DADs) Abdul Jalil and Mirza Habibur Rahman and sepoys Selim Reza and Kajol Ali.
Members of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) made the arrests acting on information and also verifying the video footages.
Later, the four BDR personnel were placed on a seven-day remand each after the CID produced them before a Dhaka Court with a prayer for a 10-day remand for each of them.
In the forwarding report placed before the court, investigation officer of the mutiny case and CID senior assistant superintendent Abdul Kahar Akand has mentioned that Selim and Kajol killed most of the BDR officials during the mutiny.
About the two DADs, the report said they led the Feb 25-26 carnage inside the Pilkhana headquarters of BDR. According to the Rab, the arrested BDR soldiers were also involved in the mutiny planning.
Sources said jawan Selim asked the senior officers, including the slain Director General of BDR Major Gen Shakil Ahmed, to come out of Darbar Hall at around 10:22am on February 25 and opened fire on the officers. Later another jawan appeared on the scene and spread bullets on the senior officers, killing almost all of them on the spot.
During interrogation, many BDR jawans said jawans Selim and Kajol led a group of 10 to 12 BDR men in looting firearms from the armoury near the quarter guard inside Pilkhana on February 25. Another group of 10 to 12 BDR jawans led by Altaf and Jasim also looted arms and ammunition from the armoury on February 25.
Moreover, DADs Jalil and Habib were among those who went to the Banani residence of an important person to provide the man with leaflets mentioning the demands of BDR jawans prior to the BDR Darbar. Besides, DAD Jalil was also one of the members of the team, which met with prime minister Sheikh Hasina at her Jamuna residence while the mutiny was going on.
During interrogation of earlier arrested BDR jawans, investigators also came to know that jawans Selim and Kajol were present in two meetings of jawans from where the jawans planned to stage the mutiny to realise their demands.
The Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) arrested the four after screening them out from the BDR jawans and handed them over to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) yesterday after primary investigation.
Meanwhile, the army personnel yesterday recovered another firearm from Pilkhana during their search.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/29/2009 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Three Britons were cleared on Tuesday of helping to plot the deadly London suicide bombings in July 2005 in the first prosecution over the attacks which killed 52 people and left more than 700 injured.
Waheed Ali, 25, Mohammed Shakil, 32, and 28-year-old Sadeer Salem were accused of having carried out a two-day reconnaissance mission by visiting various tourist sites in London in the months leading up the attacks on three underground trains and a bus.
A jury last year failed to reach a verdict against the men, who were found not guilty of conspiracy to cause explosions at Tuesday's retrial at London's Kingston Crown Court, the Press Association reported.
Prosecutors had said the three men were friends of the bombers, Mohammed Sidique Khan, Shehzad Tanweer, Jermaine Lindsay and Hasib Hussain. The men attended the same mosque and gym in the tightly-knit town of Beeston, in northern England, prosecutors said.
Although they were not directly involved in making the bombs or carrying out the attacks, detectives believed the men had helped plan the attacks.
Ali and Shakil were convicted of a second charge of conspiracy to attend a place used for terrorist training. Prosecutors said they were planning to go to a camp in Pakistan when police arrested them in March 2007.
The court heard that the investigation into the bombings -- the largest ever carried out by London police -- discovered links between the men in mobile phone records, fingerprints connecting them to the bomb-factory in Beeston, family videos and surveillance.
Detectives found that about seven months before the bombings, Shakil, Saleem and Ali spent two days in London with Hussain and Lindsay, visiting tourist attractions such as the London Eye, the Natural History Museum and the London Aquarium.
They also visited locations similar to ones attacked on July 7 and detectives said the trip, the key element of the prosecution case, was part of preparations for attacks on the capital.
But the defendants argued the trip was to allow Ali to visit his sister and take in some tourist attractions.
The court also heard how in Nov. 2004, Khan, the ringleader of the July plot, recorded a farewell video for his baby daughter in 2004 before heading off on a mission to Afghanistan where he expected to die, prosecutors said.
Police have always maintained that the bombers had assistance from other people with links to al-Qaeda as they would not have had the technical expertise to construct the hydrogen peroxide-based bombs themselves.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/29/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Prosecutors said they were planning to go to a camp in Pakistan when police arrested them in March 2007.
Visiting "tourist attractions" in Pakistan as well....no doubt.
[Geo News] Dilawar Jan, The News correspondent, has been taken away by intelligence agencies from Peshawar, Geo News reported on Tuesday. The officials of intelligence agencies demanded Dilawar Khan to disclose the source of his story.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/29/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
I wonder when they will take away a Taliban commander? Or does the ISI reserve that for journalists?
Posted by: john frum ||
04/29/2009 7:12 Comments ||
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#2
Just as the Islamists used Islamic charities as cover for their activities, the terrorists and their supporters have tried for some time to infiltrate the media.
[Geo News] Six people were killed and 30 others wounded as violent incidents continued to take place in different parts of Karachi on Tuesday. While 10 shops were also torched in various acts of violence in the city. Armed clashes erupted on Monday between members of Lyari gangwar and local residents continued today too. An exchange of fire was underway from both sides in which three people, including two children, were killed and 21 others wounded. The victims include Amna, 12, Asad, 17 and Adam, 51 who were caught in the fire. According to reports, a rocket fired by some unknown persons landed at a home in Machar Colony, killing a boy and injuring seven persons, including five women. The terrified people had confined themselves to the homes due to armed clashes. On the other hand, a clash initially started among children in Korangi due to unknown reason intensified in which six people were injured.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/29/2009 00:00 ||
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[Geo News] Five policemen have been kidnapped while security forces arrested 11 suspects here on Tuesday. According to sources, militants attacked a police checkpost located in the outskirts of Mingora and kidnapped three policemen. Earlier, unidentified gunmen fired on a police party in Bahrain area injuring one while another policeman was abducted. Security forces arrested 11 suspected militants from Fizzaghat checkpost and shifted them to an undisclosed location.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/29/2009 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] At least 70 militants were killed by the security forces while nearly 450 terrorists were holed up in Buner area, Pakistan's interior ministry chief Rehman Malik said yesterday, adding "we will not tolerate them anymore."
Pakistan deployed troops and bombed Taliban positions in a district near the capital Tuesday, the military said, in an expansion of an offensive against militants seemingly emboldened by a much-criticised peace deal.
The operation in Buner follows urgent calls from the United States for Islamabad to step up its fight against he militants, who moved into the region this month from the nearby Swat Valley. They set up checkpoints, patrolled streets and warned locals to abide by strict interpretations of Islam.
It will cause major strains on an already shaky peace deal in the Malakand region, to which Buner belongs. The truce has been widely viewed in the West as a surrender to militants slowly expanding their grip over the nuclear-armed nation.
Malik told reporters at least 70 militants had been killed in the Dir operation so far, while 450 others were still present in Buner, Geo TV reported.
On the possibility of nuclear weapons falling in Taliban hands, Malik said Pakistan's nuclear assets were safe.
He said that Lower Dir was under the complete control of security forces. However, the extremists were still active in Buner district, Dawn reported.
Addressing a seminar, Malik categorised the Taliban elements, who were active in Buner and Lower Dir as extremists.
He said, "We will not tolerate them anymore."
He said there has been an attack on the Frontier Constabulary in the past 24 hours and there have been reports of shops being looted.
"Some of the Taliban were forcing the villagers to join them," he was quoted as saying.
He added that all efforts are being made to contain the activities of these extremists who are threatening the villagers about imposing their system by force.
He warned, "No one will be allowed to challenge the writ of the government."
He reiterated that if peace was not restored in the region, the Swat peace agreement would be scrapped.
The fresh offensive by the security forces has come as Western governments, including that of the US, raised serious concerns about the peace pact in the north-western Swat region and accused the nuclear-armed country of abdicating to the Taliban.
Sufi Mohammed's Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat Muhammadi and the NWFP government Feb 16 inked a controversial peace deal under which Sharia laws would be imposed in the Malakand division in return for the Taliban laying down their arms.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari had approved the imposition of Islamic sharia law in the Malakand division and Swat April 13, nearly two months after hardline cleric Sufi Mohammad brokered a peace deal between the regional government and the rebel.
Although the government began setting up Sharia courts, the emboldened militants refused to disarm and instead expanded their control over Swat's neighbouring districts of Buner and Shangla.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/29/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
At last check the Talibs have repor captured approximately 70+ PAK SECURITY PERSONNEL, to ostensib be used as HOSTAGES FOR BARTER???
The Talibs lied to President Ten-Percent? Say it ain't so!
Security forces backed by warplanes and helicopter gunships launched a new operation in Buner district near the Swat valley on Tuesday, bombing suspected Taliban hideouts in Kalil, Shera Turf, and Kandao areas. Fighter aircraft also bombed Mushki Pur, a mountainous area of Mardan district bordering Buner.
"Today at 4pm, the Frontier Corps (FC) and military troops launched a joint operation against the militants in Buner," Inter-Services Public Relations Director General Maj Gen Athar Abbas said at a press briefing in Islamabad. He said FC Inspector General Maj Gen Tariq Khan is commanding the operation.
Nearly 300 Taliban entered Buner from April 2 to 4 and began to terrorise the locals, in violation of the Swat deal, Gen Abbas said. "The government warned the militants but they refused to listen and staged only a symbolic withdrawal. They government was left with no option expect to use force," he said. According to several news agencies, he said it would take up to a week to clear an estimated 500 Taliban from Buner.
Surrender: Late on Tuesday, a private TV channel reported that the Pir Baba police station in Buner was under Taliban siege. It said sixty policemen and troops were inside the police station. Unconfirmed reports said that three FC platoons and an SHO were disarmed and captured by Taliban in Buner, the channel added.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/29/2009 00:00 ||
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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Six car bombings in four hours killed 48 people and wounded 81 in various Baghdad neighborhoods Wednesday, according to Iraq's Interior Ministry.
In a separate incident, five people were killed and three wounded by a roadside bomb south of Baghdad, a ministry official said.
Most of the deaths came when three car bombs parked at separate but nearby marketplaces exploded in quick succession in the eastern Baghdad Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City, killing at least 45 people and injuring at least 68, the ministry official said.
Three other car bombings followed. Two of those, outside a Shiite mosque in the Hurriya district of northern Baghdad, killed three people and wounded eight. The bombs exploded in close succession shortly before 9 p.m. (2 p.m. ET). A third a few hours earlier injured at least five civilians in a predominantly Shiite area of southwestern Baghdad, according to the ministry.
Wednesday's series of bombings echoed an incident earlier this month, when seven car bombs detonated within about four hours. The U.S. military blamed al Qaeda in Iraq for what it called coordinated attacks.
Sadr City is a heavily populated Shiite area, with an estimated 2.5 million people packed into a 25-square-kilometer area. The district was a stronghold of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army, but most of the fighters went underground after fierce fighting in April 2008.
In a seventh bombing Wednesday night, at least five people died and three were wounded south of Baghdad, a ministry official said. A roadside bomb struck a minibus in Hor Rajab, a predominantly Sunni area on the southern outskirts of Baghdad. The casualties were all civilians, the official said.
There has been an uptick in bombings and attacks in recent weeks, mainly targeting Shiites and Shiite areas. Last Thursday and Friday, five suicide bombings, as well as other attacks in Baghdad and Diyala province, left almost 160 people dead and 275 wounded.
Earlier Wednesday, U.S. and Iraqi troops were ambushed in northern Iraq, according to Maj. Derrick Cheng, spokesman for the U.S. military's Multi-National Division-North. The troops were on a joint mission in Riyadh, southwest of Kirkuk, where coalition forces are working with local police to provide micro-grants to small businesses, Cheng said. Several individuals attacked the troops using at least one grenade and small arms fire, he said.
Cheng said two of the attackers reportedly were killed and another two were wounded. A woman reportedly was injured by shrapnel from the grenade, but was treated and released, he said. A soldier was reported wounded but was in good condition, Cheng said.
So far this month, 15 U.S. soldiers have died in Iraq, compared to nine in March -- most of those in non-combat-related incidents. March's death toll was the lowest monthly toll for the U.S. military since the war began 2003.
The Riyadh incident comes at a time of heightened tension between the U.S. military and the Iraqi government, after two Iraqis were killed during a military raid south of Baghdad on Sunday. Iraqi state TV reported that Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki accused U.S. troops of violating the security agreement between the two countries with the raid in Wasit province.
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC ||
04/29/2009 16:37 ||
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#1
But, But, I thought Hilda Beast just reassured Iraq that the US will stand strong with Iraq. But the terrorists also know that Barack told Iraq they better get ready to handle Al Qaeda on their own. And THAT they know will be the real Big Zero plan.
Posted by: Ho Chi Uleating2853 ||
04/29/2009 17:47 Comments ||
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#2
When you have a diletant President the enemies are embolded and have hopes of victory. US soldiers will soon get hit too.
Posted by: Large Snerong7311 ||
04/29/2009 20:15 Comments ||
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BAGHDAD -- The American military says a U.S.-Iraqi patrol has been ambushed while distributing grants to Iraqi businesses near the northern city of Kirkuk. Iraqi officials say two civilians were killed when the Americans returned fire, but the U.S. military says those killed were enemy fighters. Insurgents revert to civilian status when they run out of ammunition or are killed, whichever comes first.
The shooting comes as tensions have risen over a deadly U.S. raid in southern Iraq that the Iraqi government says violated a security agreement.
U.S. spokesman Maj. Derrick Cheng says several people launched grenades and began shooting Wednesday as the patrol was handing out micro-grant money to stimulate small businesses in the town of Riyadh. He says reports indicate "two enemy killed and one wounded." He says one American was also wounded.
Aswat al-Iraq: Police forces on Tuesday found a weapons and explosive cache in eastern Falluja, according to a security source.
"A police force found on Tuesday (April 28) a weapons depot in al-Subayhat village in eastern Falluja," Major Abdulsattar Mohamed told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. "The depot contains 30 missiles, 5 Katyusha rockets, 14 explosive charges, 20 cannonballs, 10 mortar shells and 7 anti-shields missiles," he explained.
"The operation was launched in light of intelligence information from citizens," he noted.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/29/2009 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Iraq confirmed the identity of a suspect captured last week as Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, believed to be head of the Islamic State of Iraq, an al-Qaeda-linked group.
The arrest of al-Baghdadi could deal a blow to a weakened, yet still potent, insurgency in Iraq at a time when a rash of major bombings has cast a shadow over recent security gains. "As someone who works at the Defense Ministry and in the security field, I affirm that this is Abu Omar al-Baghdadi," Mohammed al-Askari, spokesman for the Iraqi Defense Ministry, told al-Iraqiya state television.
He said the arrest was carried out without American military assistance. "The operation was totally successful."
Baghdadi is said to be the head of the Islamic State of Iraq, close to al-Qaeda's main organization in Iraq, which is led by Abu Ayyub al-Masri, also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir. Who, last we heard, had decamped for Pakistain.
Some experts have said they remain unconvinced that Abu Omar al-Baghdadi actually exists. They believe he is a fictional character invented by al-Qaeda in Iraq as a kind of corporate logo, a product of a propaganda initiative to put an Iraqi figurehead at the top of an organization that is otherwise foreign-run.
On Sunday, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told the BBC that the man was Baghdadi, and said that results of an investigation would be released. The U.S. military has not yet confirmed that it believes the man was in fact Baghdadi.
Iraqi officials have in the past claimed to have captured senior al-Qaeda operatives who later turned out to have been mistakenly identified.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/29/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
I hope the Iraqi's do not use harsh interrogation techniques. I do not want the 'world' to have a negative image of Iraq.
HEBRON, West Bank - A Palestinian military court has sentenced a man to death by hanging for selling land to an Israeli company.
Too bad, buddy, you should have just stolen aid money from the EU ...
Land sales are considered treason by the Palestinians because of their long-running dispute with the Israelis, however the sentence is unlikely to be implemented. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas routinely withholds the required approval for executions. Several others are on death row as suspected informers for Israel.
The sentence was handed down Tuesday in a military court in the West Bank city of Hebron after two days of closed-door hearings. Prosecutor Issa Amer said the defendant sold land that didnt belong to him in the village of Beit Ummar using forged documents.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/29/2009 00:00 ||
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If I was a Paleo ruler I think I would praise such a sale. Since I would be claiming political jurisdiction of the land being 'sold' I would just void the title transfer and keep the Juice money. Since when has it been a capital offense to cheat Juice?
[Straits Times] SUSPECTED Muslim rebels killed 10 civilians in a flurry of attacks in insurgency-plagued southern Thailand, the army said on Tuesday on the fifth anniversary of a bloody assault by security forces against militants at a mosque. In the deadliest incident, at least six gunmen in a pickup truck stormed into a house in Yala province late Monday, opening fire on a Muslim family of five, army spokesman Col. Parinya Chaidilok said. Four people were killed.
Parinya said two Muslim rubber plantation workers were later found dead in the compound of a nearby mosque. Thai security officials blamed Muslim insurgents bent on stirring up communal tension between Buddhists and Muslims.
The incidents came ahead of the fifth anniversary of the April 28, 2004, assault on the Krue Se mosque by Thai security forces, in which 32 insurgents were killed. Other clashes the same day between Muslims and government forces resulted in the deaths of a total of 107 people at the hands of security forces, turning the mosque attack into a symbol of the heavy-handed tactics of Thai authorities.
The International Commission of Jurists and four Thai human rights groups issued a joint statement Tuesday asking Thailand's Attorney General for a public explanation of his decision not to prosecute certain officers involved in the assault on the mosque.
The groups said they were 'deeply concerned that the Attorney General's decision will undermine the prospects for peaceful resolution by furthering the perception that the Government is unable or unwilling to apply the rule of law in cases of alleged violation by security forces.'
The Krue Se killings fueled a nascent insurgency that has claimed more than 3,400 lives in Thailand's three southernmost provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat and some parts of neighboring Songkhla.
In the latest attack, a Buddhist government official was shot and killed in a drive-by shooting Tuesday in Pattani, Parinya said.
In a separate incident Monday evening, gunmen fatally shot a Muslim who served as a government-hired security volunteer in Yala province. Another Muslim man was killed in a drive-by shooting in the same province Monday evening.
In another district of Yala province, suspected militants fatally shot a Buddhist rubber plantation worker Tuesday.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/29/2009 00:00 ||
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[Straits Times] COMMUNIST insurgents who claimed to have wounded a US soldier mistook a light-skinned Filipino for an American, a Philippine military spokesman said on Tuesday. The communist New PeopleŽs Army (NPA) said it had wounded a US soldier helping local troops on the central island of Masbate two weeks ago, citing this as evidence of illegal US involvement in counter-insurgency operations.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/29/2009 00:00 ||
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mistook a light-skinned Filipino for an American
OK, I personally know a number of light-skinned Americans of Filipino ancestry. And some light-skinned Filipinos of American ancestry. The NPA needs to refine their identification criteria for American soldiers - maybe look at the uniform insignia.
#2
Typical IO op from the NPA. Usually they charge an American with rape. They get the initial press of US soldiers raping the helpless filipino girl only to have her recant the next day admitting she was forced by the NPA to do it. The recant never makes the papers and the smear is complete.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
04/29/2009 15:44 Comments ||
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[Straits Times] A SOUTH-EAST Asian terrorist who admitted to meeting Osama bin Laden many times was sentenced to 18 years in jail on Tuesday for killing an Indonesian teacher and plotting an attack on a bar frequented by non-Muslims.
Mohammad Hasan bin Saynudin, a 36-year-old Singaporean, was defiant as he was led into the South Jakarta District Court, saying he was proud of his actions and ready for whatever punishment was handed down.
Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, has been hit by a string of terrorist attacks in recent years blamed on South-East Asian militant network Jemaah Islamiyah - formerly funded by al-Qaeda. More than 240 people have been killed, many of them foreign tourists.
Saynudin - arrested with nine other Islamic militants and a cache of weapons on Sumatra island in July 2008 - admitted to many crimes during his trial, including helping mastermind a foiled plot to hijack a Russian Aeroflot plane and crash it into the terminal at Singapore's international airport in 2001.
However, the case that wrapped up on Tuesday focused only on crimes committed in Indonesia.
Judge Haswandi said Saynudin was guilty of orchestrating the fatal shooting of a teacher in front of the man's 9-year-old son in 2007 and trying to kill two Catholic priests in 2005. He was also found guilty of planning an attack on a bar on Sumatra that was called off at the last minute - apparently after the men realized it might unintentionally kill Muslims.
Saynudin violated the country's anti-terrorism laws and possession of illegal weapons, Haswandi said, in handing down the sentence.
The Singaporean told reporters he considered himself a 'Muslim hero.' 'I met Osama bin Laden countless times,' he said, calling the al-Qaeda chief 'the savior of the Muslim world.'
This article starring:
Mohammad Hasan bin Saynudin
Posted by: Fred ||
04/29/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Jemaah Islamiyah - formerly funded by al-Qaeda.
[Straits Times] AN ELDERLY Christian priest and his wife were hacked to death with machetes in Indonesia, police said on Monday. Frans Koagow, 64, and his wife, Femy Kumendong, 73, were found in the priest's home in Manado city, North Sulawesi province, on Saturday with deep slash wounds to their heads and necks, provincial police spokesman Benny Bella said.
'The priest was cut from behind in the neck while his wife was cut in the head while she lay down sick with a stroke,' Mr Bella said. 'The priest had been squatting down to tie his shoes when he was attacked... there was no time for him to fight back.'
Mr Bella said police were looking for suspects but were unsure how many people were involved in the attack. 'We found a machete but we don't know if it was one that was used in the murder,' he said.
North Sulawesi province is a stronghold of mostly Protestant Christianity in Indonesia, where Muslims make up roughly 90 per cent of the national population.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/29/2009 00:00 ||
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I'll take a chance and go with the 90% rule of thumb.
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.
Through extortion and taxation, the Taliban are believed to reap as much as $300 million a year from Afghanistan's opium trade, which now makes up 90 percent of the world's total. That is enough, the Americans say, to sustain all of the Taliban's military operations in southern Afghanistan for an entire year.
[Mail and Globe] A Spanish warship has intercepted a skiff carrying nine suspected Somali pirates believed to have attacked an Italian cruise ship at the weekend, the defence ministry said on Monday. 
[Bangla Daily Star] At least 70 militants were killed by the security forces while nearly 450 terrorists were holed up in Buner area, Pakistan's interior ministry chief Rehman Malik said yesterday, adding "we will not tolerate them anymore."
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Six car bombings in four hours killed 48 people and wounded 81 in various Baghdad neighborhoods Wednesday, according to Iraq's Interior Ministry.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Iraq confirmed the identity of a suspect captured last week as Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, believed to be head of the Islamic State of Iraq, an al-Qaeda-linked group.
HEBRON, West Bank - A Palestinian military court has sentenced a man to death by hanging for selling land to an Israeli company.
[Straits Times] A SOUTH-EAST Asian terrorist who admitted to meeting Osama bin Laden many times was sentenced to 18 years in jail on Tuesday for killing an Indonesian teacher and plotting an attack on a bar frequented by non-Muslims.
