Mujahoodies,
The jihad goes on!
Wishing you well from Pakistan,
Mullah O
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - The Taliban leader Mullah Omar said the killing of the group's top field commander "won't create problems" for the hardline militia, a spokesman said Monday. Nah. No big deal. Room service still ran me up a nice big glass of goat milk this morning, so not much has changed for me... Qari Yousef Ahmadi, who claims to speak for the Taliban, told The Associated Press that Omar and other top Taliban leaders offered condolences to Mullah Dadullah's family over the killing by the U.S.-led coalition the first Taliban confirmation of Dadullah's killing. Better him then me, right, Blinky?
Ahmadi read a statement attributed to Omar insisting that Dadullah's death "won't create problems for the Taliban's jihad" and that militants will continue attacks against "occupying countries." Next time, use guys with two legs. They run faster.
Ahmadi said Omar and his council of top Taliban leaders decided against naming an immediate replacement for Dadullah. Let's get Blinky out there leading the charge. Whaddya say, OMan?
"Mullah Dadullah was the commander of all the fighting groups. Now all of the mujahedeen will carry on his same type of jihad. They will carry out attacks just as Mullah Dadullah did in his life," Ahmadi quoted Omar as saying. If da jihad turns out for them the same way it turned out for him, I'm all for it...
Ahmadi spoke by telephone from an undisclosed location. ...in the lobby of the Peshawar Hilton.
Dadullah was the second top-tier Taliban field commander to die in six months, after a U.S. airstrike killed Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Osmani in southern Afghanistan in December. Remember, Blinky. They come in threes...
Good news/bad news/same good news/more bad news, in the name of balance. Some editing for continuity. The killing of the top Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah, a one-legged fighter who orchestrated suicide attacks, beheadings and an ethnic massacre, marks a major victory for the U.S. campaign but in fairness, we must report it comes at a time of flagging Afghan support over civilian killings.
Kandahar Gov. Asadullah Khalid, who called Dadullah a "brutal and cruel commander" showed the body to reporters in Kandahar who saw a one-legged corpse with bullet wounds to the head, chest and stomach. Qari Yousef Ahmadi, a purported Taliban spokesman, denied that the Taliban commander had been killed, but there appeared little doubt Dadullah was dead.
Dadullah is the second top-tier Taliban field commander to be killed in the last six months, after a U.S. airstrike killed Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Osmani in December. Dadullah, Osmani and policy-maker Mullah Obaidullah had been considered to be Omar's top three leaders.
Rahimullah Yusufzai, a Peshawar-based editor for the Pakistani newspaper The News and an expert on the Taliban, said Dadullah's death was "the biggest loss for the Taliban in the last six years." But he noted that even though the Taliban were demoralized after Osmani's death in December, they quickly resumed attacks. "I don't think they can find someone as daring and as important as Dadullah," Yusufzai said. "I think maybe temporarily some of their big operations will be disrupted, but i don't think it will have a long-term effect."
Yusufzai said many Taliban fighters had been unhappy with Dadullah, saying he maligned the militant group with his beheadings, a rash of kidnappings and boastful videos that starred himself firing guns and walking in Afghanistan's mountains. "They thought he had become too big for his shoes," Yusufzai said.
Mustafa Alani, director of security and terrorism studies at the Dubai-based Gulf Research Center, noted that insurgent attacks in Iraq did not abate after the killing of al-Qaida's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, last June. "In this sort of organization, people are replaceable, and always there is a second layer, third layer. They will graduate to the leadership," Alani said. "He is important, no doubt about it. Yes, it is a moral victory, but he's replaceable." As opposed to our soldiers, who are leaving soon.
Still, Dadullah's particular brand of cruelty was unmatched inside the Taliban. Dadullah's men videotaped beheadings of Afghans suspected of cooperating with international forces or the Afghan government, and the suicide bombers he is believed to have commanded have killed or injured hundreds of Afghan civilians, soldiers and police, as well as dozens of international forces.
The Taliban's former ambassador to Pakistan, Abdul Salam Zaeef, said Dadullah's death would stir more violence and could motivate supporters to take revenge. He said negotiations were the only way to end the insurgency, echoing a call by Afghanistan's upper house of parliament this week for talks with Afghan Taliban fighters. "When they are killing one Mullah Dadullah, they are creating 10 more," Zaeef said. Maybe not as experienced and elusive, though.
NATO said Dadullah moved into Afghanistan from his "sanctuary" - a reference to Pakistan - where he trained suicide bombers. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf admitted in February that Dadullah had been in Pakistan several times and eluded capture. Dadullah "will most certainly be replaced in time, but the insurgency has received a serious blow," NATO said.
The Defense Ministry spokesman, Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi, said Dadullah was killed in the Sangin area of Helmand province, but just in case you think this is all good news, we must point out that this is a region that has seen heavy fighting in recent weeks and where airstrikes on Tuesday killed between 20 and 40 civilians, according to Afghan officials and villagers and Taliban Tools, the latest in a series of civilian deaths that has weakened support for the international mission.
Azimi said Dadullah was killed Friday, though the intelligence service and Kandahar governor said he died Saturday. He said Dadullah died in a shootout alongside 10 other fighters, and that military officials had reports Dadullah may have been at the battle site but weren't positive the information was true. Maybe he was wacked by his own folks, who "...thought he had become too big for his shoes"
An ethnic Pashtun, the group that makes up the core of the Taliban and is prominent in eastern and southern Afghanistan, Dadullah lost a leg fighting against the Soviet army that occupied Afghanistan in the 1980s. He stepped on a land mine. Maybe he never was in a battle - a boss, not a participant?
He emerged as a Taliban commander during its fight against the Northern Alliance in northern Afghanistan during the 1990s, helping the hard-line militia to capture the city of Mazar-e-Sharif. In 1999 he led a Taliban massacre of ethnic Hazaras in the province of Bamiyan, where the Taliban in 2000 destroyed two ancient Buddha statues carved into a hillside cliff. Brave Lions of Islam started with statues, then worked up to women and children.
Since the Taliban's ouster in late 2001, Dadullah emerged as the group's most prominent and feared commander. He often appeared in videos and media interviews, and earlier this year predicted a militant spring offensive that has failed to materialize. Of course it materialized. How do you think he got dead?
In March, London television Channel 4 aired an interview in which Dadullah said al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden was alive and well and in contact with Taliban officers. I saw the interview yesterday. IIRC, he said Binny directed several recent attacks, then a few minutes later said he'd heard reports he was alive. Couldn't keep his stories straight.
He's dead, Jim:
The Taliban in Afghanistan says the younger brother of a top military commander killed over the weekend will take over as chief military strategist for the movement.
The Taliban named Mullah Bakht to succeed Mullah Dadullah, a one-legged fighter who was killed on Saturday in Helmand province in a joint operation involving British and Afghan troops and U.S. Special Forces. The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force said in a statement that Dadullah's death means "the insurgency has received a serious blow," but the Taliban moved quickly to name a replacement. His brother, however, is said to have less combat experience.
This article starring:
ABDUL SALAM ZAIF
Taliban
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
Defense Ministry spokesman, Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi
Kandahar Gov. Asadullah Khalid
MULLAH AKHTAR MOHAMAD OSMANI
Taliban
MULLAH BAKHT
Taliban
MULLAH DADULLAH
Taliban
MULLAH OBAIDULLAH
Taliban
Mustafa Alani, director of security and terrorism studies at the Dubai-based Gulf Research Center
QARI YUSEF AHMEDI
Taliban
Rahimullah Yusufzai, a Peshawar-based editor
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/14/2007 06:18 ||
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#4
He said negotiations were the only way to end the insurgency...
Sounds like they're on the ropes.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
05/14/2007 9:25 Comments ||
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"Maybe he was wacked by his own folks, who "...thought he had become too big for his shoes" or as spot says "shoe". After all, he had bullet wounds to the head. Doubt we got that close to him.
Mullah Dadullah, the Taliban's top military commander, has been killed in southern Afghanistan, according to a government announcement denied by the extremist movement. Dadullah is the most important rebel commander to be killed since the Taliban was driven from government by a US-led coalition in late 2001, the Afghan intelligence department said. "Dadullah and his brother have been killed during an operation in Helmand province," the Ministry of Interior press office said.
His body was shown to reporters in the southern city of Kandahar. The city's provincial governor, Asadullah Khalid, said the militant was killed in an operation carried out based on very accurate information. He would not give precise details. The NATO and US-led military forces tackling the Taliban and its Islamist allies refused to comment and referred all queries to the Afghan Government. Television stations interrupted programs to advise of the killing.
A Taliban spokesman rejected the Government's claim. "This is nothing more than propaganda," spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said. "They claim they will show the body of Mullah Dadullah to media -- we are waiting to see that. We also promise to present to the media a fresh voice recording of Mullah Dadullah." The one-legged militant was the key strategist behind the Taliban and was said to be close to the fugitive Taliban supreme commander, Mullah Mohammad Omar.
This article starring:
Intelligence agency spokesman Sayed Ansari
MULLAH DADULLAH
Taliban
provincial governor, Asadullah Khalid,
ZABIHULLAH MUJAHID
Taliban
Posted by: Fred ||
05/14/2007 00:00 ||
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We also promise to present to the media a fresh voice recording of Mullah Dadullah."
You're gonna love it. Its by the guy they call the Rich Little of Waziristan; this guy's great! Totally pegs it. Sounds just like him. You'd swear it was him, and we intend to.
Posted by: Baba Tutu ||
05/14/2007 4:23 Comments ||
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"This is nothing more than propaganda,"
Pay no attention to that one legged stiff under the curtain!
FEARED Taliban military commander Mullah Dadullah survived war wounds and evaded capture for years, but yesterday his luck ran out. He was killed in the southern province of Helmand by the Western troops he had repeatedly vowed to expel.
The militant commander, who was about 40, lost a leg in a landmine blast during fighting in the 1990s but that didn't dampen his zeal for jihad, or holy war. "He was very kind to us but very brutal to enemies," a close aide to Mullah Dadullah said overnight.
Mullah Dadullah was an ethnic Pashtun from the southern province of Uruzgan and studied in Kandahar. During the Taliban's 1996-2001 rule he earned a reputation as a ruthless commander who ordered revenge massacres of Shia Muslim ethnic minority Hazara people in Afghanistan's central highlands. Towards the end of Taliban rule he was put in charge of the north of the country where most people loathed the hardline Islamists. An enthusiastic enforcer of the Taliban's strict Islamic code, residents of the north said Dadullah made a point of throwing the first stone on the many occasions he sentenced women to death by stoning for "prostitution".
Another of his favourite tactics was to burn villages to the ground if he suspected them of helping the Northern Alliance. Days before the fall of the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif to US-backed forces in November 2001, residents said he rounded up some farmers and had them hung from lamp-posts on suspicion that they were opposition supporters and as a warning to others.
But in late 2001, with the Taliban regime crumbling, opposition forces let Dadullah slip out of their hands after the hated commander was surrounded in the northeastern Taliban stronghold of Kunduz. Weeks later he surfaced, vowing the Taliban would regroup and regain power.
A member of the Taliban's 10-man leadership council, Dadullah took charge of Taliban military operations in the south of the country in 2004. He was known for personally taking part in fighting. He also seemed to relish media attention and was the only Taliban commander who would not hide his heavily bearded face and turbaned head while being interviewed. In recent years he championed suicide bombing, encouraging youngsters to sign up for missions and taunting foreign forces who he said were cowed in the face of suicide attacks.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/14/2007 00:00 ||
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Just in case it's true, I've written an obituary for him and had Babel translate it into his ethnic Pashtun. Here it is:
Mullah Mullah Da Dullah
Banana Fanna Fo Fullah
Fee Fi Mo Mullah
Dullah!
#14
"Dadullah made a point of throwing the first stone on the many occasions he sentenced women to death by stoning for "prostitution".
Isn't it nice to know that he was without sin?
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
05/14/2007 13:47 Comments ||
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I still can't get over the image of this guy skipping into paradise on one leg. Wonder if any of the 72 virgins know how quick he was to cast the first stone?
THOUSANDS of civilians joined Afghan forces to fight Pakistani troops who overnight took some areas in a border region, sparking the worst clash in decades between the two neighbours, an Afghan spokesman said.
Pakistan said up to seven Afghan troops were killed after they opened fire on Pakistani positions. Afghan defence ministry spokesman Zahir Azimi said local tribesmen had shot down a Pakistani helicopter at the site of the clash in Zazai district of southeastern Paktika province. Mr Azimi said Pakistani forces had penetrated several kilometres in some parts of a strategic area on the Afghan side of the Durand Line, which divides the two countries. "As soon as people heard that such an incident had happened, thousands of people started arriving at the battle front," he said in Kabul. "Perv! Perv! Karachi's burning!"
"Quick! Start a war with somebody!" "But not the Iranians. Keep it simple. And safe."
He said tens of thousands of tribesmen had offered to join government ranks, but Kabul had stopped them and was keen to find a diplomatic solution to the clash. Mr Azimi said the only two fatalities on the Afghan side were two schoolchildren. Two police officers were wounded. He said the clash, which lasted for several hours, was a provocative act by the Pakistani government designed to deflect attention from the violence that has erupted at home over the suspension of the country's chief justice. Not much gets by old Azimi, does it?
In Pakistan, military spokesman Major-General Waheed Arshad said up to seven Afghan troops were killed in a border clash with Pakistani forces. Maj-Gen Arshad said Afghan troops opened "unprovoked firing" on five or six border posts in the Kurram tribal region in northwest Pakistan. "And we wuz just sittin' there, doin' nuttin'! Reelly. They just opened fire for no reason!"
Pakistani paramilitary forces retaliated, he said. "What else could they do?"
"We have reports six to seven of their troops have been killed. Three of our soldiers have been wounded," Maj-Gen Arshad said. "Lightly wounded."
Relations between the neighbours have deteriorated sharply over the past 18 months, largely over Afghan complaints that Pakistan is not doing enough to stop Taliban insurgents operating from the Pakistani side of the disputed border. The clash comes two weeks after Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf met for the first time in months and agreed to step up security cooperation.
Afghanistan said a resurgent Taliban are operating from Pakistani sanctuaries. Pakistan, the main backer of the Taliban before the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, denies that and said the root of the Taliban problem is in Afghanistan.
Stung by accusations it is not doing enough to stop the insurgents, Pakistan has begun building a fence along parts of the border to stop militant infiltration. But Afghanistan opposes fencing a border it has never recognised. Disagreement over the internationally recognised border, known as the Durand Line after the British colonial administrator who drew it, has bedevilled relations since Pakistan's creation in 1947. Pakistan is also deeply suspicious of involvement by its old rival, India, in Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/14/2007 00:00 ||
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(SomaliNet) The African Union peacekeepers from Uganda in Somalia began Sunday demining mission in the capital - Mogadishu, one of the voilent cities in the world. The spokesman for the AU peacekeeping mission in Somalia Captian Paddy Ankunda told reporters this morning that the Ugandan peacekeepers started cleaning land mines from the capital. "we are doing this because the government soldiers are not trained to remove mines," said Ankund.
He asked Somali people to help the AU soldiers to do thier job safely and smoothly because landmines claimed and will claim the lives of many people. In today's mision, three landmines have been removed from Yaqshid neighborhood, one of the areas hit by the recent fighting in north of Mogadishu. The move followed yesterday's bomb attack in south of the capital killing four of the government security forces.
This article starring:
Captian Paddy Ankunda
Posted by: Fred ||
05/14/2007 00:00 ||
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the Ugandan peacekeepers started cleaning land mines from the capital.
Perhaps i'm misreading that, the City is mined?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
05/14/2007 6:11 Comments ||
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I suggest they use those rats the Belgians have trained to send to Mozambique to find mines. Just seems more appropriate - sending rats to Mogadishu. Like coals to Newcastle.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
05/14/2007 7:53 Comments ||
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I believe the Soviet marching while locked arm to arm mine clearing method using a lot of islamic "volunteers" is the most efficacious.
Posted by: ed ||
05/14/2007 7:58 Comments ||
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Good idea, Redneck Jim. Allan's will, an' all that...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/14/2007 10:40 Comments ||
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(SomaliNet) At least 20 people have been killed and more than 30 others were wounded in heavy clan fighting which erupted in middle Shabelle region in south-central Somalia, reports say on Sunday. The fighting between militias loyal to Warsangeli and Agonyare sub-clans of Abgal clan of Hawiye tribe took place in Ali-Haji village of Addale district some 150km north of Jowhar, the provincial capital of middle Shabelle region late last week.
The fighting which is still continuing in the area caused was by a row over houses and farm lands that was set on fire by one of the rival clans. Both warring sides killed dozens of people from the other using all sort of weapons.
Government soldiers who yesterday departed from Jowhar failed to stop the fighting which has intensified and spread into new areas. Efforts to stop the bloodshed are now under way in the region by clan intellectuals. Both rival sub-clans have history of brutal fighting over farm lands and pastoral areas.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/14/2007 00:00 ||
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Efforts to stop the bloodshed are now under way in the region by clan intellectuals.
ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) - The Algerian military surrounded an insurgent stronghold near the capital and pounded the area with bombs, in the latest in a series of raids that have killed more than 20 militants, news reports said Sunday. Government forces have stepped up sweeps of militant areas ahead of legislative elections next week.
Liberte newspaper said the air force bombed an insurgent stronghold near the region of Tizi-Ouzou, about 70 miles east of the Algiers. About 20 militants, including several leaders, have been holed up the area since Friday, the report said. Several bunkers used by the militants were destroyed in the bombings. The newspaper did not report any casualities from the bombing raid, though it did say soldiers had killed at least six armed militants around the nearby village of Ait Yahia Moussa since Thursday.
Sweeps in the eastern regions of Bejaia and Kalaa left at least eight militants dead, the report said. Three militants were also killed in a clash overnight Thursday in the Saida region about 435 miles west of the capital, Liberte said. A weeklong sweep of the forested zones of the Ain Defla region, also west of Algiers, has left two militants dead, El Watan newspaper said.
The newspaper reported that soldiers killed four armed militants in a clash Saturday near the village of Ghoumrassa, about 38 miles east of Algiers.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/14/2007 00:00 ||
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Yemeni forces, backed by tribesmen, have fought in recent days some of their toughest battles yet in a months-old conflict with Shi'ite Muslim rebels in the mountainous north of the country. The troops, with help from the tribesmen, retook a key government building in the Razih area on Sunday, a month after it was captured by followers of Shi'ite rebel leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi. They also pushed the rebels from the town Qalaa. Authorities declined to give the number of casualties in that operation, but a local official said some 40 soldiers and tribesmen were killed. He said around 20 rebels were also killed and 15 captured, but dozens more fled.
The government officials said intense fighting also broke out south of Saada, ending almost a week of relative calm after local tribes pledged to fight Houthi's followers and government forces prepared to change tactics as the conflict dragged on.
Thousands of people have fled their homes in the latest bout of the conflict, which has been raging on and off since 2004. The rebels oppose Yemen's close alliance with the United States and the government says they want to reinstall the Islamic Imamate that was overthrown in 1962. Sunnis make up most of Yemen's 19 million people, and most of the rest belong to the Zaidi branch of Shi'ite Islam.
The officials said government forces were now mounting simultaneous attacks on all rebel strongholds in an effort to prevent them from fleeing to other areas. It was not immediately possible to get a comment from Houthi. The official Socialist Party Web site, seen as sympathetic to Houthi, said it had information that Qatar was mediating to end the conflict. There was no official comment from Qatar, whose emir visited Sanaa last week.
The government official said battles that took place on Thursday and Friday were among the most intense since the hostilities flared up again in January. Houthi's followers attacked army barracks, and dozens were killed in ensuing battles, local officials and witnesses said. The conflict has proven costly for both sides. A senior Yemeni security source told Reuters that around 600 of Houthi's followers and 450 soldiers had been killed from the outbreak of the conflict until Wednesday. More than 3,000 people have been wounded on both sides, the source said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/14/2007 00:00 ||
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Another Shia/Sunni family feud, eh? Why can't we just have a full monty version in the ME? Then after there is nothing left we can go in take over the fields and.......
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
05/14/2007 7:56 Comments ||
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"The rebels oppose Yemen's close alliance with the United States and the government says they want to reinstall the Islamic Imamate that was overthrown in 1962."
A militant organisation claiming itself as the Barisal divisional al-Qaeda yesterday threatened the second additional and district sessions judge asking him to stay away from the court. Cleaning staffs found copies of a letter--written by Sanaullah Hugli who identified himself as a member of the organisation--in different rooms of the District and Sessions Judge's Court yesterday morning.
The letter addressed Judge Md Mainuddin Islam and said he had been cautioned many times earlier to abstain from his duties and is now being asked for the last time to stay away from the court, "otherwise no one but Almighty Allah knows what will happen". District judge Md Safiuddin and judge Mainuddin refused to make any comment on the matter but said the law enforcement agencies have been informed about the letter. Security was increased on the Barisal court compound following the incident.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/14/2007 00:00 ||
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ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A gunfight broke out at meeting involving U.S., Afghan and Pakistani soldiers in Pakistan on Monday, and a number of soldiers were killed and wounded, officials said. The flag meeting in the northwest Kurram tribal agency had been called in a bid to resolve a border clash between Pakistani troops and Afghans the previous day. Pakistan and Afghan officials gave starkly different accounts of the firing on the soldiers, while a U.S. military spokesman in Afghanistan said he had heard of an incident in a border area, but did not have details.
We'll have to wait for the U.S. troops to get back to base and be debriefed before we get the facts
Afghan Defence Ministry spokesman Zahir Azimi told Reuters: "At the meeting, a Pakistani officer rose up and fired at U.S. soldiers, resulting in the deaths of two soldiers and the wounding of two others." Azimi said U.S. helicopters later arrived to evacuate the casualties. He said he did not know why the Pakistani officer had opened fire.
Being Pakistani, we can guess
Somewhere a mustache was cursed ...
But Major-General Waheed Arshad, Pakistan's military spokesman, said Pakistani troops were not involved in the firing. "As the convoy (of U.S. soldiers) was moving back, some miscreants fired," Arshad said. "Three to four U.S. soldiers and three to four Pakistani soldiers were injured. Now we have reports that one U.S. soldier has died and a Pakistani soldier has also died."
"Unidentified miscreants, could be Samoans."
A senior Pakistani security official, however, gave another version of events. "A man disguising himself as a Pakistani paramilitary soldier opened fire," the official told Reuters.
"Why,it was such a good disguise, he'd been passing as a soldier for years."
The incident came a day after Pakistan said Afghan troops had started "unprovoked firing" on five or six border posts in the Kurram tribal region. Pakistani paramilitary forces retaliated and killed up to seven Afghan troops on Sunday, according to Pakistani officials. Afghanistan said its forces suffered minor injuries but two school children were killed, which prompted thousands of civilians to join government forces in fighting Pakistani troops in reaction to the "infiltration".
Relations between the neighbours have deteriorated sharply over the past 18 months, largely over Afghan complaints that Pakistan is not doing enough to stop Taliban insurgents operating from the Pakistani side of the disputed border. The clash comes two weeks after Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf met for the first time in months and agreed to step up security cooperation. Disagreement over the internationally recognised border, known as the Durand Line after the British colonial administrator who drew it, has bedevilled relations since Pakistan's creation in 1947. Pakistan is also deeply suspicious of the involvement of its old rival, India, in Afghanistan.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/14/2007 11:31 ||
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Latest US report says they were ambushed while going back to their helicopters. Paki soldiers wounded and one US soldier dead. No info on whether or not it was Paki army.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
05/14/2007 12:00 Comments ||
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Which Pak army ? The one Musharraf controls or the one radical Islam controls ?
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Militants opened fire Monday on a convoy carrying U.S. and Pakistani military officials near the Afghan border, killing one American and a Pakistani soldier, the Pakistani army spokesman said. Four Americans and four Pakistani soldiers were wounded.
Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad said unidentified "miscreants" a word usually used by Pakistani officials to describe Islamic militants fired at the convoy carrying military officials who attended a meeting in the northwestern town of Teri Mangal. "Efforts are being made to determine from where the firing came from and who carried it out. The area has been cordoned (off)," he said.
Afghan military officials also attended the talks to discuss recent fighting between Afghan and Pakistani forces that Kabul said killed at least 13 people inside Afghanistan inflaming already poor relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
NATO's International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan confirmed one ISAF soldier was killed and four wounded. According to policy, it did not give their nationalities. It said they "were ambushed by unknown assailants." NATO said its soldiers were being treated in Afghanistan.
Rahmatullah Rahmat, governor of the Afghan border province of Paktia, said he, U.S. military advisers and Afghan army leaders traveled by helicopter to Pakistan for the meeting. He said that after the meeting ended, gunmen opened fire as the group headed toward their helicopters. Rahmat said two Americans died and two were wounded. He said American soldiers returned fire.
Pakistan has ordered a high-level inquiry into the incident, Arshad said. He denied reports from the Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman that a Pakistani soldier had opened fire on the American troops.
Islamic militants, including supporters of the Taliban and al-Qaida, are active in the lawless border region.
Indian troops have shot dead five suspected Islamic militants in separate gun battles in Indian-controlled Kashmir, police said on Sunday.Three of the militants were shot dead in two gun battles in districts south of Srinagar early Sunday, police said. The encounters erupted when soldiers raided two hideouts, a police spokesman said.Two more militants were killed in a clash with security forces in Sopore late Saturday.Police said three of the slain rebels were from Hizbul Mujahedin, the regions most powerful militant group.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/14/2007 00:00 ||
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A complete shutter-down general strike, called by the Awami Tehreek, was observed in major cities and small towns all over Sindh on Sunday. The strike was called on account of the alleged murder of Awami Tahreek central leader Nawaz Kanrani by MQM activists near Karachi Airport yesterday. The general strike, sit-ins and protest rallies were organized in different major cities and thousands of Awami Tehreek activists, including its women and students wings, Sindhiani Tahreek and Sindhi Shagird Tahreek (SST), and the common citizens of Sindh gathered on the roads.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/14/2007 00:00 ||
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The offices of the MQM in interior Sindh and the NWFP and its workers were attacked Sunday by different parties. The MQM said that activists of the PPP, MMA, Sunni Tehrik, PPP(SB), ANP and other nationalists organizations attacked and burned the MQM office in Shikarpur. The arsons burned all the furniture and electrical appliances in the office. MQM activists in Qasimabad, Ghotki, Thatta, Khairpur, Jaccobabad and other cities in interior Sindh were threatened to close their offices. The MQM stated that MQM NWFP in-charge Rosha Khan was threatened by ANP activists to cease working for the MQM.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/14/2007 00:00 ||
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Heavy contingents of police and Frontier Corps have been deployed in various places of Swat in a crackdown against banned groups. The police and FC have been deployed at the Shor and Venai areas of Matta tehsil and Chiral areas. They have established check posts at various places in the region. The people of the area have expressed concern about the impending possibility of violence. City DSP Akbar Ali Khan said that the police deployment was a routine matter. He said the FC had been called in to maintain law and order during the public rally of banned party Tehrik-e-Nifaza-e-Shariat-e-Muhammadi.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/14/2007 00:00 ||
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Oh, that kind of outfit. At first, I thought they meant bikinis or burkas.
Pakistan ordered extra troops into Karachi on Sunday as deadly violence over the suspension of the countrys chief justice spilled into a second day, raising the death toll to 37. Three people including a policeman were the latest victims as protesters blocked the main highway with burning tyres and pelted vehicles with stones. Karachi police chief Azhar Farooqi described the situation as very tense.
The assailants set his bike on fire and tortured him before shooting him from close range, said police officer Shafiqur Rehman, referring to his dead colleague. Two other men were shot dead in separate incidents.
Heavy gunfire was also heard in the southern port citys impoverished Banaras Chowk area, where angry protesters beat up four policemen. Police used tear gas to clear the roadblock on the main highway. Amid heavy gunfire nearby, a mob set ablaze around eight bamboo shops of rival groups after prayers at the funeral of a violence victim in Karachis Federal-B area, but paramilitary troops and firefighters stopped the fire. The funerals of two other casualties went ahead peacefully near the tomb of Pakistans founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
Opposition parties observed a black day on Sunday over the Karachi killings and held protests in several Pakistani cities. Activists burnt an effigy of Musharraf in central Multan city with calls that he should resign.
The turmoil followed deadly clashes that broke out on Saturday between supporters of suspended chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and President Pervez Musharraf, who were due to hold rival mass rallies in Karachi. Gunmen armed with Kalashnikov rifles and pistols roamed the volatile southern port city throughout the day, torching vehicles and clashing with supporters of Chaudhry.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/14/2007 00:00 ||
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An Al Qaeda front group that claims it has captured American soldiers warned the United States on Monday to stop searching for them and suggested it attacked the U.S. convoy as revenge for the rape and murder of a local teenager last year.
The U.S. military also said for the first time it believes the three missing soldiers were abducted by Al Qaeda-linked militants after an attack that included three roadside bombs.
"What you are doing in searching for your soldiers will lead to nothing but exhaustion and headaches. Your soldiers are in our hands. If you want their safety, do not look for them," the Islamic State of Iraq said on a militant Web site.
"You should remember what you have done to our sister Abeer in the same area," the statement said, referring to five American soldiers who were charged in the rape and killing of 14-year-old Abeer Qassim al-Janabi and the killings of her parents and her younger sister last year.
Three soldiers have pleaded guilty in the case one of the most shocking atrocities committed by U.S. troops in the Iraq war.
Three U.S. soldiers have been missing since Saturday, since a deadly attack on their convoy in Mahmoudiya, about 20 miles south of Baghdad. The attack also killed four U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi soldier, according to the military, which had described the Iraqi as an interpreter...
#3
Well, not in 2003, danking_70, but they flocked in to help out the Brave Lions of Isalm in their resistance against the evil, crusader, cross-worshipping, occupiers dispatched by Bushitler to benefit Haliburton and the oiloiloil companies like Citgo. That's why the government destroyed the World Trade ... oh, nevermind.
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/14/2007 15:19 Comments ||
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#4
An Al Qaeda front group that claims it has captured American soldiers warned the United States on Monday to stop searching for them and suggested it attacked the U.S. convoy as revenge for the rape and murder of a local teenager last year.
The first treasonous c*nt "protester" with a sign referencing this propaganda should be tarred and feathered. Boiling pitch should get the message across.
#5
We never stop and never forget. Sleep well hostage takers, whoever and wherever you are. We will find you and kill you. No glory bomb, no press, no great ending, just painful death, alone and afraid. See you soon.
Yours truely
DOD
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
05/14/2007 15:41 Comments ||
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#6
We should let them know that the people found in possession of our soldiers will be bathed in pig's blood and hung by pig entrails from the neck until dead.
#7
Oh, and make sure THEY understand that DNA samples of their remains will be recovered so if we get really PO'd, we can make sure to hunt down every male member of their gene pool and insure that they never contribute to the population on this planet again.
#8
one of the most shocking atrocities committed by U.S. troops in the Iraq war.
Funny, innit. Our enemies have a strategy that consists of "commit atrocities until everyone gets sick of fighting us", yet their acts are buried, while the criminal acts of a few of our soldiers are turned into icons.
How many news stories are reporting that taking lawful combatants hostage and holding them without access to the Red Cross is a war crime? I'd bet the number approaches zero.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
05/14/2007 16:23 Comments ||
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#9
"An Al Qaeda front group that claims it has captured American soldiers warned the United States on Monday to stop searching for them"
Why? Are we getting too close?
I don't care if we find them or the local tribal sheiks find them - I want results to be the same, whether our guys are found alive or not.
Kill all the bastards involved. Painfully. And, if possible, let female troops do the shooting.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/14/2007 16:23 Comments ||
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#10
danking-70, you forgot the winky thingy, like I do to often. ;-) Of course Al Qaeda was in Iraq before 2003. They were there before 9/11, too, being trained in advanced terror techniques at Saddam Hussein's Salman Pak facility: one side for Iraqi specialists, no doubt many of whom became "insurgents" post-invasion, the other side for a variety of terrorists studying airplane hijacking, bomb making, chemical and biological weapons production, and so forth. *shrug* Not that this is new information to anyone here.
As for the rape being a shocking atrocity, I'm quite proud that our troops are so well behaved on the whole that all are appalled when a small number committed violence against a girl and her family... and were quickly arrested, tried and convicted for what all invading armies heretofore have considered an traditional job perk.
#11
convicted for what all invading armies heretofore have considered an traditional job perk.
And what the jihadis consider their holy privilege.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
05/14/2007 17:43 Comments ||
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#12
I would set a 10 mile circular perimeter. I would not hunt anything. I would gather the clan leaders and tell them they have 4 hours to produce the US soldiers.After that evrything inside the circle is destroyed. It should be clear that this is the one and only ultimatum they get.
#13
The only practical solution I see to this is to make Al-Q's life miserable. Round up 100 of their guys and get them to sing. Keep pulling on the string until you get all you can. We came down on the area pretty hard, which I doubt they could have fully prepared for by bugging out as usual. Maybe next time. I'll bet we end up with a bunch of them. If we are successful, they will think twice before they try this stunt again. Hopefully in this process we will end up with our guys back, but if they can't show proof of life by now in this internet age, it makes me worry they have nothing to produce but that they are hoping to use the threat as cover to get out of the hot water that I hope they are finding themselves in. And if this area peters out, go find another one and lean on it using the same reasoning "we think they are here". Rinse and repeat until they get the idea.
#14
Per Excalibur's timeless suggestion; If Muslims weren't capable of justifying and forgiving themselves for every last single monstrosity imaginable, perhaps the bacon fat/pig's blood/pork entrails alternative might carry some weight. I'm confident that the instant we adopted such a policy, numerous fatwan would be spewed forth absolving even those who were deep fried in lard prior to burial. For that reason, I'm more willing to consider Plan B, as presented by Procopius2k:
Oh, and make sure THEY understand that DNA samples of their remains will be recovered so if we get really PO'd, we can make sure to hunt down every male member of their gene pool and insure that they never contribute to the population on this planet again.
It is critical that the West adjust its strategy to embraceas neededthe elements of high context cultures. One pivotal construct of such backwards societies is an overwhelming reliance on familial ties. The is a singlular reason why it is so difficult to penetrate terrorist cells. Many of them exhibit strong family interconnections.
While it may seem off topic, I still question whether there is not also a degree of congenital disposition to psychopathy, retardation and general enfeeblement that arises from centuries, if not millennia of Arabic inbreeding through marriage to cousins.
Add to this the dire need of adopting a policy of collective punishment and retribution against entire families begins to take on a tactical dimension. Please do not think to feed me any horseradish about how unacceptable collective punishment is. Dhimmitude is a pluperfect example of collective punishment and Islam must have the tables turned upon it at every opportunity.
Much like Dulmatin's children were captured in a recent assault, it must become common policy to make the families of terrorists assume some degree of the burden. Too often there is a broad streak of fundamentalism in these clans and initiating a policy of eradicating the most hostile amongst them might well be a genetic method of culling the tendency towards jihad.
Personally, I'm at the point where we damn well better consider such previously distasteful approaches. Soon enough far more ruthless measures will present themselves as our only option and I'd like to think we exhausted less catastrophic approaches before that time comes.
Islam vigorously pushes forward the hands of its doomsday clock at every turn. There is a limit to how much we should or even can resist the rapid escalation that jihadists impose upon the time table of dealing with Islamic terrorism. If we claim to have an iota of humanity in us, then let's do Islam a favor and begin implementing the same harsh measures it seeks to impose upon us. Little else will do squat with respect to informing Islam of the rapidly mounting tab that has yet to be paid by this world's Muslim population. Until we have the courage to make Islam's constant predations upon the West painful in the extreme to Muslims in general, and their jihadist families in particular, little will change.
#16
Well, part of the problem is that the army isn't taking care of its soldiers who are surviving really bad conditions. No excuses whatsoever for the soldiers who were involved, but for the ones already on "psychological tilt," the constancy of a bad situation can push them over the edge. Glad they're in prison. And "retaliation kidnappings" are to be expected. The soldiers who broke the law are more to blame for the abduction than the Iraqis who are practicing their idea of justice in this instance.
Newly formed insurgent group accuses al-Qaida of killing 12 of its senior members
CAIRO, Egypt: A newly formed Islamic militant group accused al-Qaida of killing 12 of its senior members in Baghdad's Dora neighborhood in a statement posted Monday on its Web site. The Peoples Front of JudaeaJihad and Reform Front described Saturday's killings as a "catastrophe that befell on us" and urged the Judaean Peoples Front al-Qaida to hand over the culprits to be tried by its Islamic court, the posting said.
The group was formed by merging the Popular Front for the Liberation of JudaeaIslamic Army in Iraq, the Judaean Popular FrontMujahideen Army and some senior leaders from the Popular Movement for the Liberation of JudaeaSharia Commission of Ansar al-Sunnah, according to the Front's founding notice, posted two weeks ago. But leaflets recently plastered on walls in the western city of Fallujah said the Most Popular Front for the Liberation of Judaea, Really, and Don't You Believe those Other Heretics1920 Revolution Brigades had joined the Front as well.
"Twelve of our mujahideen, mostly field commanders from the Judaean Popular Front Mujahideen Army, were killed in a perfidious ambush set up by some of our past comrades whom we did not expect to betray us in such a cruel and barbaric way," the Front said in Monday's statement. According to the group, its emergence angered "those who work in darkness and who try to bury the newborn (Front) using the most savage means of hostilities and betrayal."
"We consider the al-Qaida organization fully responsible for this heinous crime and call upon them to adopt the true religious stand by handing over ... the criminal killers to the religious court of the Jihad and Reform Front," the statement said.
In its founding notice, the Front implied it was against al-Qaida extremist ideology and indiscriminate attacks on Shiite Muslims or other civilians. "The mujahideen's (Front's) military actions target the occupier and the agents and not innocent civilians . . . to endeavor to gain the confidence of the Muslims in general," it said.
Isn't that special.
The formation of the new group indicates the deepening rift between al-Qaida and Sunni guerrilla groups and tribes, especially in the Anbar area. These Sunnis are turning against al-Qaida because of its sheer brutality and austere religious extremism. Some militants have been negotiating with the government to join the political process.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Judaea Islamic Army of Iraq, which has said it opposes al-Qaida's claim to establishing the Islamic state, accused al-Qaida last month of killing 30 of its members. The Most Popular Front for the Liberation of Judaea, Really 1920 Revolution Brigades accused al-Qaida in March of assassinating one of its leaders, RegHarith Dhaher al-Dhari.
The rift prompted Omar al-Baghdadi, the head of al-Qaida's umbrella group, Amalgamated Fronts for the Popular Liberation of Judaea the Islamic State of Iraq, to appeal to all militants in an audiotape last month to please don't kill me stop spilling each others' blood and unite against the Americans and the government.
Meanwhile, 4,000 U.S. troops backed by aircraft, intelligence units and Iraqi forces were scouring the farming area around Mahmoudiya and the nearby town of Youssifiyah for the third day, as the military promised to make every effort available to find the missing soldiers.
Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, said the military could not verify the claim by the Islamic State of Iraq but "it would not surprise me if ... al-Qaida in Iraq is involved in this because there are similarities to what they've done before." He pointed out that the terror network also had claimed responsibility for killing two U.S. soldiers whose mutilated bodies were found after they went missing in the same area last year.
The Islamic State in Iraq offered no proof for its claim on Internet that it was behind the attack Saturday in Mahmoudiya, about 20 miles south of Baghdad, that also killed four U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi translator. If the claim proves true, it would mark one of the most brazen attacks by the Islamic State of Iraq, a coalition of eight insurgent groups, including al-Qaida in Iraq. Wonder how long it took him to find that word brazen in a Thesaurus? On Sunday, U.S. troops surrounded Youssifiyah and told residents over loudspeakers to stay inside, residents said. They then methodically searched the houses, focusing on possible secret chambers under the floors where the soldiers might be hidden, residents said. The soldiers marked each searched house with a white piece of cloth.
Soldiers also searched cars entering and leaving the town, writing "searched" on the side of each vehicle they had inspected. Several people were arrested, witnesses said.
Early Monday morning, U.S. and Iraqi forces exchanged fire with gunmen near Youssifiyah during the house-to-house search operation for the missing American soldiers, killing two suspected insurgents and injuring four others, a top Iraqi army officer in the area said. He said the fighting began at about 3:30 a.m. and lasted for about 30 minutes. The officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to security concerns, said the coalition's search operation in the region has detained more than 100 suspects.
The U.S. military did not immediate comment on the report.
In Mahmoudiyah, residents complained on Monday that coalition forces had searched through their homes, and AP Television News footage showed on one apartment that appeared to have been ransacked in the search. One resident also said three residents in the area, including two guards at a local mosque, had been detained by coalition forces, but that could not be immediately confirmed.
#2
In an era when sensors in puppies and autos for tracking purposes are commonplace, it's astounding that no such devices are utilized in our troops for search and rescue purposes. This IS the 21st Century, right?
#4
sorry. Our soldiers get zilch,nor armour, nothing, while the mercenaries that protect the authorities in the green zone get paid 13.000 /month.................
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
05/14/2007 15:44 Comments ||
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#11
Ya gotta work on the fake empathy, EF. Ya gotta sell it, really sell it. At least act like you actally give a shit about "our soldiers"...it makes the schtick that much more convincing.
My thoughts exactly. It would seem that in the 21st century when we can have detection collars for the Paris Hiltons of the world, we could do the same for our troops that would allow for quick GPS tracking of their position in these circumstances.
I mean, damn -- my mobile phone can tell me where I am within several hundred feet. Why can't we create some kind of electronic GPS dogtag?
#13
The chips in puppies only identify them when scanned, doc, they don't send out homing signals. I'm not sure, but I think the ones in cars make use of the vehicle's electrical power to maintain contact.
#14
On Sunday, U.S. troops surrounded Youssifiyah and told residents over loudspeakers to stay inside, residents said. They then methodically searched the houses, focusing on possible secret chambers under the floors where the soldiers might be hidden, residents said. The soldiers marked each searched house with a white piece of cloth.
Soldiers also searched cars entering and leaving the town, writing "searched" on the side of each vehicle they had inspected. Several people were arrested, witnesses said.
I contrast this description (from AP too - gasp!) with Matt Lauer's lead-in this morning: "As the US military desperately searches for its missing soldiers..." Grim determination, controlled hatred and fury, visions of righteous justice I'd buy, buy not desperation. Lauer is such a f*ing tool.
#16
In Mahmoudiyah, residents complained on Monday that coalition forces had searched through their homes, and AP Television News footage showed on one apartment that appeared to have been ransacked in the search.
My heart pumps piss. Cough up our soldiers or STFU. Your choice.
#17
I wonder if they want us to stop searching because we're getting close to finding some bigshot.
Kind of boggles that they would be claiming retaliation for a rape a year later.
I hope we don't see our guys on a video getting cut up. This just strengthens our resolve to stop these pond scum types to stop sharing the air with us.
I hope we're able to recover and save our guys soon.
ARBIL, Iraq - A suicide bomber killed 32 people on Sunday when he ploughed his explosives-laden SUV into local administrative offices in the northern Iraqi town of Mahmur, officials said. Police said the bomber hit a compound housing Mahmurs local administration and the offices of two Kurdish political parties.
All the dead are men, but there are women and children among the 115 wounded, and ten of those are grieviously wounded, Kurdish regional health minister Zirian Abdel Rahman told reporters.
We were holding a meeting in my office when there was an explosion outside, which smashed the windows, said Abdel Rahman Bilaf, the mayor of Makhmur, which lies 300 kilometres (180 miles) north of Baghdad. Bilaf was speaking as he was treated for cuts to his face in a hospital in the city of Arbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan.
A man in an army officers uniform driving a Chevrolet four-by-four pulled up and said he was expected at a meeting, said wounded policeman Ziad Ibrahim. We let him in and he drove to straight to the party offices and the car exploded, he explained, also speaking from his hospital bed.
Better operational security next time. Passes, call ahead, seach the vehicle even if you know the occupant, etc. Painful, painful lesson to learn.
Police Brigadier General Mohammed Alwagaa told AFP from Mosul that a senior police officer was among those killed in the attack.
Makhmur is a mixed town on the border between the Kurdish region and Iraqs Nineveh province. Abdel Rahman said that the compound was hosting a meeting of local officials when the attack took place. The local offices of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Kurdish leader Massud Barzani and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani were hit, and many local officials were among the wounded, police said.
Kurdish parties and security forces have become a target of choice for Sunni Arab extremists, who accuse the minority population of collaborating with the US forces fighting the countrys insurgency.
Well yeah, given the alternatives.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/14/2007 00:00 ||
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At least four Palestinians were killed and 25 were wounded in clashes between Hamas and Fatah militiamen in different parts of the Gaza Strip on Sunday. The fighting was said to be the worst since the two parties agreed to the formation of a unity government in Mecca in February. Those killed included Suleiman al-Ishi, a senior editor of the new Falasteen daily. Another journalist from the paper, Muhammad Abdo, was seriously wounded. Witnesses said the two were kidnapped by Fatah gunmen near the Ansar area, west of Gaza City, and shot at close range.
Sunday's violence began shortly after the assassination of Baha Abu Jarad, a senior commander of Fatah's armed wing, the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, in the northern Gaza Strip. Palestinian Authority security sources said Abu Jarad, who has long been on Israel's list of wanted terrorists, was gunned down by unidentified gunmen as he drove his pickup truck in Beit Lahiya. Tawfik al-Bodi, a bodyguard accompanying Abu Jarad, was also killed in the attack.
Nicknamed Al-Saker (The Eagle), Abu Jarad, 34, was also an officer in the PA's Preventive Security Service. In 2004, he escaped an Israeli assassination attempt. Abu Jarad was wanted by Hamas for his involvement in the assassination of Majed Abu Darabiyeh, 40, a senior Hamas official in the Gaza Strip who was gunned down in front of his wife and children late last year.
Fatah militiamen and officials accused Hamas of being behind the assassination of Abu Jarad and vowed to avenge his killing. "Hamas is lying about the killing of Abu Jarad," said Fatah spokesman Maher Miqdad. "We reject their attempt to justify the cowardly assassination of our colleague. They want their armed thugs and murderers to continue roaming the streets of the Gaza Strip, pursuing their crimes against Fatah."
Khaled al-Masri, a top Fatah official in the Strip, accused Hamas gunmen of shooting at mourners attending Abu Jarad's funeral. He said three children were wounded when members of Hamas's armed wing, Izaddin Kassam, fired automatic rifles at the funeral procession in downtown Beit Lahiya. "Fatah will have to respond very quickly to the massacres perpetrated by the murderers of Hamas," he said. "We call on the interior minister, Hani Kawassmeh, to submit his resignation because of his failure to enforce law and order."
Hamas strongly denied that its members had killed the Fatah commander. "Abu Jarad was killed as a result of an internal dispute inside Fatah," said Ayman Taha, a top Hamas official in Gaza City. "Those behind the killing are trying to drive a wedge between Fatah and Hamas. They are also trying to thwart the government's efforts to implement a security plan aimed at ending the state of lawlessness and anarchy in the Gaza Strip."
Another senior Hamas official claimed that PA National Security Adviser Muhammad Dahlan and his followers were trying to drag Hamas into another round of violence. The official said that Dahlan, with the help of the US and Israel, was doing his utmost to thwart the unity government's attempts to end the anarchy in the Gaza Strip. The Hamas official claimed that Ishi, the newspaper editor who was killed Sunday, had been "executed" by members of Abbas's Force 17 "Presidential Guard."
Hamas also accused Fatah gunmen of kidnapping Dr. Ali Sharif, a prominent Hamas figure and university lecturer. Sharif, 70, was abducted from his home in Gaza City's Sabra neighborhood together with his 20-year-old granddaughter. He was later released unharmed.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/14/2007 00:00 ||
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Separatist insurgents on Monday shot dead a Thai-Buddhist couple working as fruit pickers in the majority-Muslim area of Bannang Sata, Yala provine and injured their three-year-old daughter, police said. After gunning down Praphan Ponlarak, 36, and his wife Chaddakan, the assailants decapitated Praphan, making him the 29th victim to be beheaded in Thailand's troubled deep South since the region's separatist insurgency took a turn for the worse in January 2004. Their daughter was admitted to Bannang Sata hospital, 780 kilometres south of Bangkok, for treatment
Fighters from Indonesia may have trained southern Thai Muslims in terrorism, said army spokesman Col Acra Tiproch. The Indonesian Islamists also have used video clips of beheadings in the Middle East available on the Internet as part of their training of Thai militants in jungle camps. "You really need to know certain bones of the necks to behead someone and Thais don`t really know how," Col Acra said. "You need someone to be trained overseas or foreign trainers to teach them how."
The interrogation of captured insurgents suggested that foreign trainers, suspected to be Indonesian, were present in Thailand giving training through translators, he said.
Also on Monday, two Thai-Muslim labourers were gunned down in Kabang district, Yala, killing Luesong Hayiwale, 50, and seriously injuring Mahamu Samae, 41. On Sunday the bullet-riddled bodies of a Thai-Muslim couple working in a Bannang Sata rubber plantation were found by police. "The insurgents are trying to sow hatred between Thai-Muslims and Thai-Buddhists and terrorize the area," said Bannang Sata Police Sub-Lieutenant Than Serikan.
Despite the near daily killings in the region, Thai Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont on Sunday reiterated his pledge to resolve the conflict through peaceful means during a visit to Yala with several cabinet ministers over the weekend. Thus far the change of tactics have failed to end the near daily killings in the region, though Surayud has won international praise for adopting a conciliatory approach to the insurgency.
Police also found the bodies of a Muslim couple who had been reported missing three days ago. The remains of Romueree Sueni and his wife Royima Saleh were found in a remote area. Another Muslim man was found dead in the same district, apparently shot and killed by insurgents.
Meanwhile officials uncovered unexploded explosives on the Kehrow -Raman Road in Yala province. Demolition teams destroyed the explosives.
#2
Thus far the change of tactics have failed to end the near daily killings in the region, though Surayud has won international praise for adopting a conciliatory approach to the insurgency.
Shows you how much "international praise" is worth.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
05/14/2007 9:33 Comments ||
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#3
Anybody thought of actively arming the Buddhists?
#5
So I keep hearing that it's just a matter of time before the Thai's go medieval all over the muslim population in the south with implications that it'd be a typically Thai thing to do. Does anyone have any historical background supporting that view?
ONE of South-East Asia's most wanted fugitives, a key suspect in the 2002 Bali bombings, has again eluded capture in the southern Philippines. "Curses! Foiled again!"
Dulmatin, an Indonesian national who is a senior member of the Jemaah Islamiah terror network, fled a safe house on remote Simunul island just hours before crack Philippine forces raided the location, a military spokesman said today. A joint team of marines, police, and military intelligence agents only found four children aged 2 to 9, believed to be Dulmatin's children, regional military chief Lieutenant-General Eugenio Cedo said.
The children - all surnamed Pitono, a name sometimes used by Dulmatin - were airlifted to the regional military headquarters in the city of Zamboanga, where they were to be handed over to social workers, Lt-Gen Cedo said.
Dulmatin, who has a $US10 million ($12.12 million) price on his head, and fellow JI member Umar Patek are believed to be hiding out in the southern Philippines with the Abu Sayyaf, a local Muslim militant group with ties to al-Qaeda.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/14/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Leaves just in time (insider tip?) but leaves kids behind (tip came with seconds to spare?). I hope the 'pinos check all those kids body cavities and do xrays for IEDs.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
05/14/2007 7:59 Comments ||
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#2
"Keep the baby, Faith!"
Posted by: Fred ||
05/14/2007 18:54 Comments ||
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#3
Yet another sterling example of Islam gladly throwing its young into the furnace. I hope the Filipinos bring all those kids up as good Catholics.
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.
The killing of the top Taliban commander 
The Taliban in Afghanistan says the younger brother of a top military commander killed over the weekend will take over as chief military strategist for the movement.
FEARED Taliban military commander Mullah Dadullah survived war wounds and evaded capture for years, but yesterday his luck ran out. He was killed in the southern province of Helmand by the Western troops he had repeatedly vowed to expel. 
(SomaliNet) The African Union peacekeepers from Uganda in Somalia began Sunday demining mission in the capital - Mogadishu, one of the voilent cities in the world. The spokesman for the AU peacekeeping mission in Somalia 
(SomaliNet) At least 20 people have been killed and more than 30 others were wounded in heavy clan fighting which erupted in middle Shabelle region in south-central Somalia, reports say on Sunday. The fighting between militias loyal to Warsangeli and Agonyare sub-clans of Abgal clan of Hawiye tribe took place in Ali-Haji village of Addale district some 150km north of Jowhar, the provincial capital of middle Shabelle region late last week. 
Yemeni forces, backed by tribesmen, have fought in recent days some of their toughest battles yet in a months-old conflict with Shi'ite Muslim rebels in the mountainous north of the country. The troops, with help from the tribesmen, retook a key government building in the Razih area on Sunday, a month after it was captured by followers of Shi'ite rebel leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi. They also pushed the rebels from the town Qalaa. Authorities declined to give the number of casualties in that operation, but a local official said some 40 soldiers and tribesmen were killed. He said around 20 rebels were also killed and 15 captured, but dozens more fled.
Indian troops have shot dead five suspected Islamic militants in separate gun battles in Indian-controlled Kashmir, police said on Sunday.Three of the militants were shot dead in two gun battles in districts south of Srinagar early Sunday, police said. The encounters erupted when soldiers raided two hideouts, a police spokesman said.Two more militants were killed in a clash with security forces in Sopore late Saturday.Police said three of the slain rebels were from Hizbul Mujahedin, the regions most powerful militant group.
Heavy contingents of police and Frontier Corps have been deployed in various places of Swat in a crackdown against banned groups. The police and FC have been deployed at the Shor and Venai areas of Matta tehsil and Chiral areas. They have established check posts at various places in the region. The people of the area have expressed concern about the impending possibility of violence. City DSP Akbar Ali Khan said that the police deployment was a routine matter. He said the FC had been called in to maintain law and order during the public rally of banned party Tehrik-e-Nifaza-e-Shariat-e-Muhammadi.
Pakistan ordered extra troops into Karachi on Sunday as deadly violence over the suspension of the countrys chief justice spilled into a second day, raising the death toll to 37. Three people including a policeman were the latest victims as protesters blocked the main highway with burning tyres and pelted vehicles with stones. Karachi police chief Azhar Farooqi described the situation as very tense.
ARBIL, Iraq - A suicide bomber killed 32 people on Sunday when he ploughed his explosives-laden SUV into local administrative offices in the northern Iraqi town of Mahmur, officials said. Police said the bomber hit a compound housing Mahmurs local administration and the offices of two Kurdish political parties.
At least four Palestinians were killed and 25 were wounded in clashes between Hamas and Fatah militiamen in different parts of the Gaza Strip on Sunday. The fighting was said to be the worst since the two parties agreed to the formation of a unity government in Mecca in February. Those killed included Suleiman al-Ishi, a senior editor of the new Falasteen daily. Another journalist from the paper, Muhammad Abdo, was seriously wounded. Witnesses said the two were kidnapped by Fatah gunmen near the Ansar area, west of Gaza City, and shot at close range. 
