Afghan police killed the self-styled governor and provincial chief of local Taliban in the western Afghan province of Ghor on Thursday, the Interior Ministry said. The police raid killed Mullah Sarajuddin identified as the Talibans governor in Ghor and the police chief named only as Mawlavi, along with five other militants while planning to carry out a sabotage plan, the ministry said. AFP put the number of militants killed at six. There were no casualties among the police, it said in a statement, terming the reported Taliban deaths a major achievement.
This article starring:
Mullah Sarajuddin
Taliban
Posted by: Fred ||
05/09/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
self-styled governor?
cool, and I'm Emperor of my block?
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/09/2008 0:16 Comments ||
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A suicide car bomber targeted a convoy carrying foreign soldiers on the western outskirts of Kabul, but missed the troops, and instead injured three civilians in the attack, a police official said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/09/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
who would have thunk... innocents killed by terrorists you say?
Posted by: Abu do you love ||
05/09/2008 0:52 Comments ||
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#2
I wonder how long it will be before analysts figure out it was Coalition forces who arranged for it to happen much in the way they tried to assasinate Karzai.
At least 23 people have been killed in heavy fighting between Ethiopian troops and fighters allied to the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) in Somalia, officials and witnesses said.
The fighting broke out after armed men ambushed an Ethiopian military convoy near the village of Garsani, about 300km north of Mogadishu, late on Wednesday. At least 13 civilians and eight Ethiopian soldiers were killed in the fighting, witnesses said on Thursday. The fighters, however, said they lost two members in the battle. "I have counted bodies of 13 civilians, including four children," Ibrahim Adan Moalim, a local resident said.
Sheikh Abdirahin Ise, an anti-government fighter, told AFP news agency: "The fighting was so heavy and our holy warriors with the help of Allah won a huge victory. In return they [Ethiopian troops] killed pastoralists who were near the fighting zone."
Apparenlty it's physically impossible for a gun battle to take place out of range of civilians.
This article starring:
Sheikh Abdirahin Ise
Islamic Courts
Posted by: Fred ||
05/09/2008 00:00 ||
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A firebrand preacher once described as Osama bin Ladens right-hand man in Europe is due to be freed within days after being granted bail by an immigration tribunal. So is England officially doomed yet, or what?
Abu Qatada, who last month defeated the Governments efforts to deport him to Jordan on terror charges, will be subject to a 22-hour curfew when he is released from Long Lartin high-security prison. Ooooooh. A curfew...
Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, said she was extremely disappointed at the decision and promised all steps necessary to protect the public.
Some of the bail money is thought to have been put up by Norman Kember, the Christian peace worker who was held hostage in Baghdad for four months from November 2005 by a group of insurgents. Qatada had made a video appeal for his release.
Stockholm syndrome ...
The bail decision by the Special Immigration Advisory Tribunal is a fresh blow to the Governments anti-terror policies. Last month, the Home Office was forced to abandon plans to deport 12 Libyan fanatics, leaving a memorandum of understanding with Libya, signed in October 2005, effectively in tatters.
The rulings mean that not a single international terrorist has been forcibly removed from this country. Nearly three years after the 7/7 attacks, the only Islamic extremists to depart are eight Algerians who left voluntarily.
Qatada 45, has been convicted in his absence in Jordan of involvement with terror attacks in 1998 and of plotting to plant bombs at the Millennium. The radical cleric once called on British Muslims to martyr themselves, and tapes of his sermons were found in a flat in Germany used by some of the September 11 hijackers.
Mrs Smith said: Public safety is our main priority and we will take all steps necessary to protect the public. We will ensure that necessary steps are taken to ensure the safety of the public. I am already seeking to appeal the Court of Appeals decision that it is not safe to deport Qatada and we will continue with deportation action with this and the other Jordanian cases.
Qatada could be freed within days and it is thought he will return to his family, who are understood to be living in Acton, West London. Once he has been released, the Jordanian father-of-five, can expect to receive £1,000 a month in benefit payments. The taxpayer will also face a bill of tens of thousands of pounds to keep the cleric under 24-hour watch.
David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary, said: This whole situation totally undermines the Governments assurances that memoranda of understanding are the solution to deporting terror suspects. The Government should at last answer our calls to focus on prevention and prosecution rather than just trying to deport these individuals once they are here.
Anejem Choudary, a former senior member of extreme Muslim group Al-Muhajiroun and the butt boy lieutenant to self-styled radical cleric Omar Bakri, said the freeing of Qatada was excellent news. He said:I think the decision is absolutely correct. He was a victim of total oppression and what happened to him was wrong. Theres no reason at all why he should have been held in custody in the first place. He deserves not only an apology but compensation. Hes a recognised Muslim scholar and hes never been prosecuted for any offences. I believe he deserves compensation for all his suffering.
When Qatada was arrested by anti-terrorism police officers in February 2001, he had £170,000 cash in his possession, including £805 in an envelope marked For the Mujahedin in Chechnya.
However he went on the run in December 2001 when new laws were brought in that allowed terror suspects to be detained without charge or trial. Qatada became one of Britains most wanted men. Over six feet tall and weighing more than 20 stone, he was an unlikely fugitive but he avoided capture for 10 months. Qatada, whose real name is Omar Mahmoud Mohammed Othman, was finally arrested in an armed raid on a council house in south London in October 2002 and held in Belmarsh prison in south east London.
#2
Look, if judges refuse to either convict or deport such individuals, then it is up to the people, one way or another, to take the law into their own hands.
Vigilante justice happens when government refuses to arrest crime.
North Korea has given thousands of pages of nuclear weapon documents to the US, another step toward full declaration, a US official says. "The North Koreans have handed them over as part of the verification effort with respect to their eventual declaration of their plutonium holdings," said the senior US official, who asked not to be identified.
The documents were handed over by the North Koreans to the State Department's Korea expert, Sung Kim, who is visiting Pyongyang. They provide detailed logs of how much plutonium was produced.
He said the US would carefully go through the documents after Kim and his team left Pyongyang later this week and traveled to South Korea.
The accord under which North Korea agreed to abandon all its nuclear programs in exchange for economic and diplomatic benefits has been bogged down by Pyongyang's failure to produce a declaration of those programs by the end of last year.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/09/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Said documents came from the same printer as the $100 bills?
Posted by: Creling Darling of the Lichtensteiners8341 ||
05/09/2008 8:37 Comments ||
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#2
Pogey bait. Sacrifice a little info and hold the rest of your hand close to your chest. Christopher hill and the rest of the easily deluded at State will eat it up. The NORKS have been stalling and they missed the deadline. No deals.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/09/2008 11:37 Comments ||
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#3
OTOH, WAFF.com > SIX MORE NUCLEAR REACTORS FOR PAKISTAN, CHINA = full cycle - Agreement also includes COAL-BASED POWER FACILS.
Troops blocked the main road leading to the South Waziristan Agency on Thursday in a confrontation with Al Qaeda-linked militants who operate there, Reuters quoted a security official as saying.
Residents of the ethnic Pashtun tribal region said tension was running high because of the blockade, which came as the new government was pursuing negotiations in an effort to end militant violence. The blockade of the road leading to South Waziristan on the Afghan border came after fighters loyal to Baitullah Mehsud, chief of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, set up checkposts on the road to exert control over the region.
Pressure tactics: The road is blocked to put pressure on the militants to remove the checkposts, said an intelligence official based in the area.
Hundreds of trucks and cars were backed up along the road from the town of Tank in North West Frontier Province, residents said. The new government, led by the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), is trying to negotiate peace through elders of the Pashtun tribes in the region.
Mehsud is accused of being behind many of the bomb attacks across the country, including the one in which PPP chairwoman Benazir Bhutto was killed in December. Mehsud announced a ceasefire last month but his men later said they were rejecting negotiations mediated by tribal elders after the government refused to withdraw troops from the tribal region. Tribal elders in Waziristan said authorities had asked them to re-establish contacts with Mehsud to revive the talks.
This article starring:
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan
Baitullah Mehsud
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan
Posted by: Fred ||
05/09/2008 00:00 ||
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Militants in Swat staged a second attack on security personnel in less than 48 hours, killing one and injuring another Frontier Corps (FC) man.
Swat Media Centre supervisor Col Abid told Daily Times that dozens of armed militants attacked the army camp at Kabal Golf ground and the Kabal police station early on Thursday morning. The exchange of fire continued for more than 60 minutes leaving one security personnel dead and another injured, said the official.
Security officials say they were not taking action against the militants according to the instructions of the provincial government.
Girls school: Separately, armed militants torched a girls school after overpowering the security guard in Matta area of the troubled valley on Wednesday night, officials and residents said. Furniture, stationery and higher secondary school record in twelve classrooms were damaged in the arson attack.
In another attack on Tuesday, armed militants gunned down two policemen guarding a bank in Kabal tehsil of Swat. No arrest had been made in any of the case so far.
Security officials say they were not taking action against the militants according to the instructions of the provincial government. Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman Maulvi Umar on Thursday denied involvement in the girls schools arsons, saying the TTP did not oppose girls education. He did however claim responsibility for the killing of the FC personnel.
Burning down girls' schools in the dead of night is the kind of bravery we'd expect from the TNSM.
This article starring:
Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan
Maulvi Umar
Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan
Posted by: Fred ||
05/09/2008 00:00 ||
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An Indian doctor who was jailed in Britain for withholding information about planned car bomb attacks in London and Glasgow has returned to India but will now face questioning by local police, an officer said.
Sabeel Ahmed, 26, arrived in the southern city of Bangalore on Thursday escorted by two British policemen, after serving 270 days in jail in Britain. He is the younger brother of Kafeel Ahmed, an engineer, who drove a jeep into the Glasgow airport terminal building on June 30 last year and set it alight. Kafeel died later in hospital from 90 percent burns. Police later arrested Sabeel Ahmed after learning that he was sent an e-mail with details of the attacks from his brother before he drove the jeep to Glasgow airport.
Sabeel was sentenced to 18 months in jail in April, but was allowed to go free because he had already spent around half that time in custody, and after he had confessed and signed a document stating that he would retun to India voluntarily. On Thursday, Sabeels mother said her son was tired and resting in their hometown of Bangalore. He did not cry, I cried. We are all happy to have him back, Zakia Ahmed, his mother said.
But Indian police said they were interested in questioning him, as part of an investigation into the banned Muslim group, the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). It could be a routine investigation, said a senior officer of the Corps of Detectives in the state of Karnataka state. We want to examine his role before he left India, the officer, who did not want to be named, said.
SIMI has been blamed for helping to carry out several bomb attacks in India. Police have arrested a medical student and a software engineer in Bangalore recently, following the arrest of the groups leader Safdori Nagori and 12 other senior members in March this year.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/09/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Using a large rusty piece of iron as a proctological probe one hopes.
Security forces clashes with gunmen in Basra - eyewitnesses
Clashes were reported in the southern Iraqi city of Basra after scores of projectiles hit on Thursday a security forces' camp at al-Zobair suburb, west of Basra city, according to eyewitnesses.
"More than 20 Katyusha rockets on Thursday hit an Iraqi security forces' camp in al-Zobair," an eyewitness from al-Askari neighborhood of al-Zubair suburb, 30 km west of Basra, told Aswat al-Iraq Voices of Iraq (VOI). "As a result, Iraqi army and police forces moved toward the missiles' launching location, and immediately clashes erupted with gunmen," he said.
"I heard explosions as security forces were approaching the area," he added.
Another eyewitness from al-Rasheediya area of al-Zobair suburb said "fierce clashes broke out between the national police and gunmen for more than two hours."
"Helicopters and jet fighters flew over the clashes field, but without bombarding any target," he added. "I saw an Iraqi Humvee vehicle damaged, while two houses were set on fire due to the random fire exchange," he noted.
Security forces' sources could not be immediately reached for a comment.
The U.S. military on Friday denied Iraqi government claims that the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq was captured and said a man with a similar name had been arrested in the northern city of Mosul. Iraqi authorities had announced Thursday that police commandos captured Abu Ayyub al-Masri in a raid in the northern city of Mosul.
"Neither coalition forces nor Iraqi security forces detained or killed Abu Ayyub al-Masri. This guy had a similar name," said Maj. Peggy Kageleiry, a U.S. military spokeswoman in northern Iraq. She said no additional details were being immediately provided.
Iraqi Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammed al-Askari said the confusion arose because the commander of Iraqi forces in northern Ninevah province was convinced that he had arrested al-Masri also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir. "We called the commander of Ninevah operations 10 times and every time he insisted it was Abu Hamza al-Muhajir because when they caught him, they asked him whether his name was Abu Hamza al-Muhajir and he said yes," al-Askari told The Associated Press by phone. He added that the commander repeatedly "insisted that it was him, how can we deny him then."
Posted by: ryuge ||
05/09/2008 07:12 ||
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"The Firefight happened In Zaidon north of the Euphrates River, Marines were been told to keep engaging the enemy until close air support arrived, and at the end the airsupport came and dropped a JDAM 500 lbs bomb on insurgents, and only one marine got shot in his left leg in the firefight while he was reloading his weapon"
If you listen closely you will hear the insurgents screaming Allah Akbar before they start shooting at marines.
You can hear a lot of snapping from the incoming rounds.
#1
Allah akhbar? That would make it jihad. Of course, the State Department doesn't use that word. Who were the Marines fighting? North of the Euphrates could mean: Mahdi Army.
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/09/2008 18:04 Comments ||
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#6
That's a roger. I wish I could talk a bit more about what he has passed on. It's not classified of course, but it does violate OPSEC. Suffice it to say there are a lot islamic criminals taking dirt naps because of their efforts.
The leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, was arrested in the northern city of Mosul, the Iraqi Defense Ministry spokesman said Thursday.
There was no immediate confirmation or comment from U.S. forces on the arrest.
Mohammed al-Askari said the arrest of al-Masri, also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, was confirmed to him by the Iraqi commander of the province. There was no immediate confirmation or comment from U.S. forces on the arrest. The U.S. military in Baghdad said "we are currently checking with Iraqi authorities to confirm the accuracy of this information."
Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf said that Mosul police "arrested one of al al Qaeda's leaders at midnight and during the primary investigations he admitted that he is Abu Hamza Al-Muhajir."
News of the arrest was also reported by Iraqi state television and Arab satellite TV stations. The state channel, Iraqiya, said that Minister of Interior Jawad al-Bolani would reward Mosul police for the capture.
Interior Ministry spokesman Khalaf told the station by phone that a source close to the al Qaeda leader informed Mosul police that al-Masri would be at a house in the city's Wadi Hajar area at midnight Wednesday.
"The police raided this house and arrested him. During the primary investigation, he confessed that he is Abu Hamza Al-Muhajir, the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq."
"The police raided this house and arrested him. During the primary investigation, he confessed that he is Abu Hamza Al-Muhajir, the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq. Now a broader investigation of him is being conducted," he said to Iraqiya.
If confirmed, the arrest would represent a major blow to al Qaeda in Iraq, which has been on the run for the past year following a shift in alliances by Sunni tribesmen in western Anbar province, and elsewhere, and an influx of thousands of U.S. troops. The U.S. military considers the organization its number one enemy in Iraq.
"The commander of Ninevah military operations informed me that Iraqi troops captured Abu Hamza al-Muhajir the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq," al-Askari told The Associated Press by telephone. He did not have any further details nor did he say when the al Qaeda leader was arrested.
Mosul is currently a major battleground for U.S. forces and al Qaeda. Ninevah governor Duraid Kashmola also said by phone that al-Masri had been arrested.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/09/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf said that Mosul police "arrested one of al al Qaeda's leaders at midnight and during the primary investigations he admitted that he is Abu Hamza Al-Muhajir."
News of the arrest was also reported by Iraqi state television and Arab satellite TV stations.
The state channel, Iraqiya, said that Minister of Interior Jawad al-Bolani would reward Mosul police for the capture.
Interior Ministry spokesman Khalaf told the station by phone that a source close to the al Qaeda leader informed Mosul police that al-Masri would be at a house in the city's Wadi Hajar area at midnight Wednesday.
"The police raided this house and arrested him. During the primary investigation, he confessed that he is Abu Hamza Al-Muhajir, the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq. Now a broader investigation of him is being conducted," he said to Iraqiya.
If confirmed, the arrest would represent a major blow to al Qaeda in Iraq, which has been on the run for the past year following a shift in alliances by Sunni tribesmen in western Anbar province, and elsewhere, and an influx of thousands of U.S. troops.
Thus the Life of running and hiding for Abu Ayub al-Masri is over... and the life of sitting in court and then swinging begins...
Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, has been arrested in Iraq, according to the country's defence ministry.
We don't have U.S. confirmation as yet...
The arrest occurred in the northern city of Mosul and was reported on al-Arabiya TV and Iraqi state television late on Thursday.
Mosul remains a Qaeda hotspot...
Al-Muhajir, also known as Abu Ayyub al-Masri, was detained in a joint Iraqi-US operation.
Which leads me to believe the U.S. should be aware if a big fish is caught...
He was caught in the Tayran area in central Mosul, 360km northwest of Baghdad, reportedly after police received a tip off of his location. The US military did not immediately confirm the arrest.
He is the successor to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian who was killed by a US air attack in 2006. The pair were close associates and al-Muhajir had a US bounty of $5m on his head. Al-Masri joined an extremist group led by al-Zarqawi in 1982 according to US officials.
That'd be al-Tawhid. Zarq and Abu Qatada founded it. I notice Abu Q just made bail in Britain a day or two ago.
He then graduated to al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan in 1999 before travelling to Iraq after the US-led invasion in 2003.
This article starring:
Abu Ayyub al-Masri
al-Qaeda in Iraq
Abu Hamza al-Muhajir
al-Qaeda in Iraq
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
al-Qaeda in Iraq
Posted by: Fred ||
05/09/2008 00:00 ||
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Fresh gun battles between Shia fighters and US forces in Baghdad's Sadr City have killed seven people and wounded 20 others, security and medical officials have said. A security official said the clashes erupted before midnight and continued until Thursday morning. A medic at Al-Sadr hospital, one of the main medical facilities in the impoverished Shia district of some two million people, said seven bodies had been brought in. The US military was not immediately available for comment.
Since March 25, US and Iraqi forces have been battling anti-government fighters, mostly those belonging to Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army. Hundreds of people have since been killed.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/09/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
killed seven people and wounded 20 others,
right before midnight huh? When all them kiddies, babies, ducks and kittens are about? Sounds like 27 assholes down for the count with 20 of em lingering, hollering in septic pain, eh?
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/09/2008 0:20 Comments ||
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#2
Just change a couple of words and you're in Gaza.
Mullah Nadhom Mahmud, a former top al-Qaeda leader now enforcing security alongside Iraqi police, has survived a suicide bombing. The suicide bomber detonated the explosives as his convoy was driven by Dhuluiyah, a town some 70 kilometers (40 miles) north of Baghdad, Iraqi police official Mohammed al-Jubburi said on Thursday. Mahmud, 30, and three others were wounded in the incident.
For the past six months, Mullah Nadhom Mahmud has been enforcing security in Dhuluiyah alongside Iraqi police. Al-Qaeda has put a 100,000-dollar bounty on Mahmud's head. He accordingly has been targeted numerous times. Seven months ago a bomb attack peppered his left leg with shrapnel.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/09/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Is there no Irony Meter?
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/09/2008 0:33 Comments ||
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#2
Al-Qaeda has put a 100,000-dollar bounty on Mahmud's head. He accordingly has been targeted numerous times.
Seven months ago a bomb attack peppered his left leg with shrapnel.
oooo]]]Damn[[[oooo,
Who wants to ride with Mullah Nadhom Mahmud on the next convoy plz raise their hand.
/not I!! >:)
#3
Fascinating. Another proof that Al Qaeda in Iraq has reached the toast stage -- or perhaps we can say they're climbing to the top of the ash heap of History.
Four Iraqi army soldiers have been killed in fierce clashes with insurgents in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, a security source says. "An army patrol was engaged in clashes with a terrorist group Wednesday in a Mosul district, about 400 kilometers north of Baghdad. The clashes left four patrol members dead," the source said.
Mosul has recently seen a surge in violence which is mostly blamed on insurgents, who are regrouping in northern Iraqi provinces after they were driven out of Baghdad and surrounding areas. The latest insurgency in Mosul came two weeks ago when a car bomb explosion left a dozen people dead and more than thirty others wounded.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/09/2008 00:00 ||
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At least 25 Israeli tanks and armored bulldozers have entered Abassan, east of Khan Yunis, killing a Palestinian and wounding 14 others. Palestinian witnesses said a total of 25 tanks and bulldozers entered Abassan, setting off battles with activists.
Israeli forces carried out at least four air strikes late Tuesday, including one attack that struck a group of Palestinians, witnesses said on Wednesday.
An Islamic Jihad activist was killed and another group member was wounded, said Dr. Moaiya Hassanain of the Palestinian Health Ministry. Three Hamas activists were also wounded in an earlier incursion, Hassanain added.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/09/2008 00:00 ||
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At least 64 Tamil Tiger rebels and two Sri Lankan soldiers have been killed in the latest battles in the island's north, according to the defence ministry yesterday. It said the two days of fighting on Tuesday and Wednesday occurred in the Vavuniya, Mannar and Weli Oya areas, from where government forces are trying to push into the guerrillas' northern mini-state. There was no immediate comment from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
The latest casualties raise to 3,471 the number of LTTE cadres the defence ministry says have been killed since the start of the year. It has admitted losing 261 soldiers in the same period. Information from the front line cannot be independently verified since Colombo prevents media and rights groups from visiting the embattled areas.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/09/2008 00:00 ||
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Hezbollah gunmen took control of large areas of Beirut on Friday in a third day of fighting between the pro-Iranian group and fighters loyal to the U.S.-backed governing coalition. Security sources said at least 10 people had been killed and 20 wounded. The thud of exploding grenades and crackle of automatic gunfire echoed overnight in the worst internal strife since the 1975-90 civil war.
Gunmen loyal to Hezbollah forced the pro-government Future News television off the air on Friday, said a senior official at the Beirut station. Future News is owned by Saad al-Hariri, a leader of the governing coalition.
The security sources said Hezbollah and fighters from the allied Amal movement -- both Shi'ite groups -- had overrun offices of Hariri's Future group across the predominantly Muslim western half of Beirut. Gunmen had also taken over the offices of Hariri's Al-Mustaqbal newspaper, witnesses said. Smoke billowed from the building's windows.
Hezbollah, a political movement with a powerful guerrilla army, took control early in the fighting of all roads leading to Beirut's international airport -- Lebanon's only air link to the outside world. The violence was triggered when the government declared Hezbollah's military communications network illegal. Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Thursday the government decision was a declaration of war.
Hezbollah's al-Manar television quoted an opposition source as rejecting any ideas for ending the fighting other than those proposed by Nasrallah
Hariri proposed a deal to end the violence under which government decisions that angered Hezbollah would be considered a "misunderstanding". But Hezbollah's al-Manar television quoted an opposition source as rejecting any ideas for ending the fighting other than those proposed by Nasrallah, who has demanded the government rescind its decisions.
The U.N. Security Council called for "calm and restraint", urging all sides to return to peaceful dialogue.
The U.N. Security Council called for "calm and restraint", urging all sides to return to peaceful dialogue. The White House urged Hezbollah to stop "disruptive" acts.
Fighters from Hezbollah and Amal exchanged assault rifle fire and rocket-propelled grenades with pro-government gunmen, including fighters loyal to the Sunni Future movement, in several areas of the capital.
Hezbollah, backed by Iran and Syria, has led a 17-month-long political campaign against Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's anti-Syrian cabinet. The group was the only Lebanese faction allowed to keep its weapons after the civil war to fight Israeli forces occupying the south. Israel withdrew in 2000 and the fate of Hezbollah's weapons is at the heart of the political crisis.
#1
Civil war is a natural state of Lebanon---the only stumbling block may be that Maronites are no longer capable of fighting. Still, I have great confidence in the Druze. Hopefully, the latest Olmert scandal will lead to early elections & prevent Israel from getting embroiled (every time Israel pulls America's chestnuts out of fire, we get rewarded with pressure to make more concessions to Paleos).
#5
The world really needs "Al Manar TV." Those rat bastards concocted the story of "4000 Jews" taking a 9-11 holiday at the WTC. Hezbollah has allies: Lebanon does not. That has to change.
#8
I think that unless Hez pushes its control pretty far they are quite vulnerable to a blockade. The anti-Hezbollah groups, supported by Leb's army could, if they were serious, potentially surround the Hez areas.
Of course the Hez would claim 'we need to eat' and get arms smuggled in with the food but it would hurt the Hez triumphalist meme.
#9
Leb army can't fight Hezbollah: it will disintegrate, just as it has before. They could fight the Paleos because the Paleos are 1) furriners and 2) hated. But the Hezbies are locals, for the most part, and they have plenty of support in the Shi'a south.
This isn't going to end well. I still think the March 14th movement precipitated this, thinking they were stronger than they really are. Nasrallah is going to show them.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/09/2008 12:54 Comments ||
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#10
Sounds like it's already over. There's a friend of Totten's in Beirut saying that Hizbullah is in control of the politically important parts of the capital. Aoun detached himself long enough to step in as a 'neutral' peacemaker.
It sucks, but I'm starting to think that Hizb won, and won fast.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
05/09/2008 15:21 Comments ||
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#11
The friend of Totten points out that the Leb Army didn't fight at all!
#13
i said this yesterday , we have planes that they can't see or hear that we could use a few strikes too disentegrate hezzies main control. if iran can fight a proxy war then we can too
Posted by: Scott R ||
05/09/2008 18:20 Comments ||
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#15
"The fate of Hebollah's weapons is at the heart of the political crisis" > NO, LEBANON's CRISES ARE NOW "SUB-CRISES" AS PER IRAN'S + RADICAL ISLAM'S DRIVE TO ACQUIRE STATEGIC WEAPONS -RETALIATORY CAPABILITIES. IMO, this is about helping to protect and empower Nuclear Iran while keeping any ISRAELI = USA, etc. GROUND FORCE RETALIATION BOGGED DOWN IN TIME-, LOGISTICS-, + ABOVE ALL POLITICS-CONSUMING, CASUALTY-INTENSIVE "WAR OF THE CITIES/RATS", ALA MIDEAT-SPECIFIC AYMMETRIC WARFARE.
Lest we fergit, CNN BLITZER SITUATION ROOM > OBAMA INTERVIEW - OBAMA stated that as POTUS he will initiate UNILATERAL PHASED, BUT MEASURED, US MILFORS WITHDRAWAL FROM IRAQ, NEGOTIATE WID IRAN, + REDIRECT US FOCII FROM IRAQ TO AFGHANISTAN-PAKI AGZ THE TALIBAN-AL QAEDA.
* BIGNEWSNETWORK > SAUDI KING CALLS FOR ECONOMIC ALLIANCE AMONG ALL MUSLIM NATIONS [includes CENTRAL ASIA states].
IOW, POTUS OBAMA 2008-2010 [2012?] = Iff POTUS Obama keeps his agenda, IRAN + RADICAL ISLAM ARE LIKELT TO GET THE LEAD TIME THEY WANT.
*SUB-IOW, IRAN + RADICAL ISLAM GET THEIR NUKES + STRATEGIC WEAPONS.
*SUB-SUB-IOW, ISLAMIST JIHAD-TERROR GET THEIR NUKES = NUCLEAR JIHAD-TERROR.
NUCLEAR JIHAD-TERROR ANYTIME AFTER 2010 or 2012???
Six people have been killed and 15 people wounded in Lebanon, according to security sources, as the country's political crisis threatened to spiral out of control.
It's not a political crisis. It's a civil war. Hezbollah's been trying to kick it off for the past couple years.
Seems like it's the government, the March 14th part of it at least, that's actually provoking this one. The Hezbies don't have their usual support -- Auon can't get the Christians in the north to join in, for example. I'm beginning to wonder if the March 14th faction knows something we don't ...
Fighting in Beirut intensified on Thursday, the second day of anti-government protests, after a speech by Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah secretary-general, in which he called a government crackdown on the Shia group "tantamount to a declaration of war".
So the rubes quite naturally rushed home to grab their RPGs...
In several neighbourhoods across the capital automatic rifle fire could be heard as fighters in support of Hezbollah and the allied Amal group exchanged fire with pro-government fighters in the worst domestic fighting since the 1975-90 civil war. Clashes were reported to have broken out in other parts of the country, with another seven people reported injured in the Beqaa valley.
The Lebanese army did not participate in the fighting. But Robert Fisk, a journalist in Beirut, speaking to Al Jazeera, said that could change if the fighting escalated. "If we have a situation where one group of people move into another group's area - either Shia or Sunni - then the army may have to take much harsher measures and that immediately raises the question of 'what is the future of the Lebanese army', because it's made up of all the citizens of this country, not just one group or the other," Fisk said.
Gun battles
"The fighting seems to be spreading," reported James Bays, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Beirut. "It's something all the political parties said they wanted to avoid."
Watch the hands, not the lips. Hezbollah's been truculent from the start. Nasrallah intended to set this off, in the expectation that Hezbollah's going to come out on top. He wants to be satrap.
But it's an existential fight this time: if Nastie fails he's out of a job and maybe out of a life. Nastie can't capitulate.
Thursday's fighting occurred on Corniche Mazraa, a major thoroughfare in Beirut that has become a demarcation line between mainly Sunni and Shia neighbourhoods, and the nearby Ras el-Nabeh area. The violence later spread to Khandaq el-Ghamiq, adjacent to the centre of the city. Television footage showed armed and masked men taking cover on street corners next to shuttered shops.
Yeah. I saw footage of some hard boy handing a gun to a guy in a blue suit, who stepped around the corner and blew off a few rounds toward Dog knows what.
Shootings and explosions were also reported near the office of Aisha Bakkar, the Sunni spiritual leader allied with the government, and in Ein el-Tineh where the opposition-aligned parliament speaker has his official residence.
PFLP-GC and its clones should be jumping in any time now, to add in the Paleo flavoring these affairs like.
This article starring:
Aisha Bakkar
Robert Fisk
Posted by: Fred ||
05/09/2008 00:00 ||
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[21 views]
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#1
Widespread fighting, and Bob "I like it rough" Fisk hasn't taken a beating yet? He must be disappointed
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/09/2008 0:37 Comments ||
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#2
It looks like a Hizballah, Iranian and Syrian backed coup. I doubt anyone is going to backup the Lebanese government.
Sigh! On days like this I wish gunboat diplomacy hadn't gone out of fashion.
#3
based on some wire service stuff, my impression is that Hezb WAS making aggressive moves in the neighborhoods, and THEN the govt went after their comm network. to which they responded by full fledged hitting the mattresses.
But expect a long "who started it" debate similar to that about the Pal Civil War in Gaza. Expect to see "neocons" blamed for not leaving well enough alone, and Harriri cast as Dahlan.
Aoun hasnt brought the Maronites with him, but hes never had the majority of the Maronites, has he? Word is the govt (other than the leaders trapped in homes or offices in W Beirut) are gathering in Christian terr E of Beirut.
Troubling is how fast Hezb is winning in W beirut, but then theyve been arming and training a long time, and the other guys really werent. This isnt as even a match up as Gaza was. OTOH unlike Gaza, theres territory that Hezb will have troubled moving into, and a counter siege around W Beirut is possible, cutting it off from the Hezbland in the south, and from the Bekaa.
#4
Time to ARCLIGHT everything from the Litani River to the center of Beirut, plus the Bekaa Valley. Then tell the survivors they can either rebuild and live together in peace, or we do it again. It cannot be said enough - the Arab will follow the strongest leader. I was hoping Bush was smart enough to know that, and strong enough to carry through. My bad...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/09/2008 12:41 Comments ||
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#5
Well, OP .... indiscriminate bombing raids on entire swaths of countries has gone out of style since VietNam it would seem. Especially where we've no declaration of war and are in fact trying to support the democratic government retain power. Annoying hindrances, you might say, but there it is.
#6
Beyond being a sock puppet for Iran and Syria, Hizb'allah has something to prove after provoking the destruction of southern Lebanon. From what I understand there are an awful lot of buildings still not rebuilt, which means even more unhappy Shiites. Not to mention the rest of Lebanon saw Hisb'allah getting their tails whipped, then trying to claim victory. That gives rather more poignancy to current developments, I think.
Iran has arrested members of a terrorist group with links to Britain and the United States who were behind a blast at a mosque last month that killed 14 and wounded 200 in the southern city of Shiraz, a news agency said.
Iranian officials had previously said the April 12 blast, in the Shohada mosque during an evening prayer sermon by a prominent local cleric, was caused by explosives left over from an exhibition commemorating the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. The blast ... was caused by a bombing by a terrorist group with links to Western countries, especially Britain and America, ISNA news agency quoted Intelligence Minister Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei as saying late on Wednesday.
More attacks: Five or six people were arrested, including the main culprit who was trying to flee the country, Mohseni-Ejei said. The group was found with weapons and intended to carry out similar acts in other places, he said. The group, which has relations to Western countries including Britain and America, has carried out other terrorist activities in the country in the past few years, he said.
Tehran has in the past accused Britain and the United States of trying to destabilise the Islamic Republic by supporting rebels, mainly those in sensitive border areas. Mohseni-Ejei said Iran had handed intelligence about the group to Western nations but they had ignored its appeal for action. They (those in the group) were even supported, the minister said.
The ministers remarks echo allegations US officials have made about Iranian support for militias in Iraq that have fought US and US-backed government forces there, accusations Tehran denies. Security is normally tight in Iran and bomb attacks have been rare in recent years. Several people were killed in 2005 and 2006 in blasts in a southwestern province population. Shiraz is a southern city with more than one million inhabitants and is a popular tourist destination.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/09/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Give Shiraz back to the Jews. They developed some of the world's best wine there.
Fierce armed clashes between supporters of Hezbollah and Lebanon's Western-backed government erupt in various districts of west Beirut.
The clashes broke out in several neighborhoods, with armed men using rocket-propelled grenades, assault rifles and machine guns, AFP reported. Loud explosions and gunfire could be heard in the capital and an army helicopter could be seen flying over the city. There were however no immediate reports of casualties.
Television footage showed armed gunmen in the Corniche al-Mazraa and Ras An-Nabaa districts firing at each other. Plumes of smoke rose from one building in Corniche al-Mazraa.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/09/2008 00:00 ||
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The Lebanese opposition rejected a proposal by governing coalition leader, Saad al-Hariri, to end conflict between the rival sides, al-Manar TV said. Al-Manar quoted an opposition source as rejecting any ideas for ending the conflict other than those proposed by Hezbollah leader Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah earlier on Thursday. Nasrallah has demanded measures taken by the government this week be rescinded.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/09/2008 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
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Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
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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.
Afghan police killed the self-styled governor and provincial chief of local Taliban in the western Afghan province of Ghor on Thursday, the Interior Ministry said. The police raid killed 
A firebrand preacher once described as Osama bin Ladens right-hand man in Europe is due to be freed within days after being granted bail by an immigration tribunal.
An Indian doctor who was jailed in Britain for withholding information about planned car bomb attacks in London and Glasgow has returned to India but will now face questioning by local police, an officer said. 
Security forces clashes with gunmen in Basra - eyewitnesses
The U.S. military on Friday denied Iraqi government claims that the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq was captured and said a man with a similar name had been arrested in the northern city of Mosul. Iraqi authorities had announced Thursday that police commandos captured Abu Ayyub al-Masri in a raid in the northern city of Mosul.
"The Firefight happened In Zaidon north of the Euphrates River, Marines were been told to keep engaging the enemy until close air support arrived, and at the end the airsupport came and dropped a JDAM 500 lbs bomb on insurgents, and only one marine got shot in his left leg in the firefight while he was reloading his weapon"
Fresh gun battles between Shia fighters and US forces in Baghdad's Sadr City have killed seven people and wounded 20 others, security and medical officials have said. A security official said the clashes erupted before midnight and continued until Thursday morning. A medic at Al-Sadr hospital, one of the main medical facilities in the impoverished Shia district of some two million people, said seven bodies had been brought in. The US military was not immediately available for comment. 
Six people have been killed and 15 people wounded in Lebanon, according to security sources, as the country's political crisis threatened to spiral out of control. 
