After a suicide bomber in army uniform blew up a military bus in Kabul, killing 30 people 28 of them soldiers - President Hamid Karzai appealed Saturday to insurgent leaders Mullah Omar and warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar for personal meetings. They quickly rejected his appeal demanding that foreign troops must first withdraw from the country. For a guy who wouldn't survive for 5 minutes without American bodyguards, Karzai is sure feeling empowered
Karzai also offered Talliban a share in government to stop the bloodshed destroying the country. But, he said, the insurgents standing pre-condition for foreign troops to quit could not be met. He also ruled out talks with al Qaeda and other non-Afghan fighters. Time to give up "Nation Building" and concentrate on the old tried & true methods (Carthage Delenda Est)
A man claiming to speak for Taliban claimed the bus bombing which reverberated through the capital Friday. Taliban later released four Red Cross workers kidnapped earlier this week during a failed negotiation to release a German hostage. The Islamist insurgents have sharply stepped up the pace of their suicide bombings and abductions since the beginning of this year.
#5
I don't like this. Karzai is in a position of strength. The north and central of the country are quiet; Kabul is quiet; the Afghan National Army is steadily improving; the NATO allies are (slowly) committing more, not less, to the country; and the Talibunnies fall like bowling pins whenever they show themselves.
Now's the time for Karzai to make clear the consequences if the the Talibs fail to take an offer.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/30/2007 12:09 Comments ||
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#6
#1 perhaps teh Taliban would like to negotiate with President Dostum? I thought not
Posted by Frank G 2007-09-30 08:13|| Front Page|| ||Comments Top
General Dostum will "make them a deal they cannot refuse!" Whahahaha..... Excellent choice Frank.
#7
He knew they wouldn't take him up on the offer. This was so he can say later "I didn't want to kill them all, but they gave me no choice."
Posted by: Steve ||
09/30/2007 13:01 Comments ||
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#8
S: Talibs apparently better at sticking to their principles than Karzai.
This is probably for the benefit of Taliban-supporting Afghans who are now teetering because of severe losses. It's the usual divide and conquer tactic of splitting off the Taliban who are tired of losses from the ones who want a fight to the finish.
Yup, JiB. End this farce now. A tidy little quote by Jeffry Imm from the excellent Counterterrorism Blog as posted here today by 3dc.
Earlier this month, Karzai called for peace talks with the Taliban, but the Taliban rejected such talks until "foreign troops" leave Afghanistan. This is a demand that Karzai has rejected on the basis: "[i]t should be very clear until all our roads are paved, until we have good electricity and good water, and also until we have a better Afghan national army and national police, I don't want any foreigners to leave Afghanistan". Is Karzai saying that he just doesn't want western aid to stop, as it did for Hamas?
[emphasis added]
Karzai is just another Islamic blood tick. Exactly as with Iraq, the Afghan government needs to be disbanded in order that shari'a law can be removed from its constitution and an end put to how their tainted political process interferes with swift and total annihilation of the Taliban terrorists.
#12
It's going to be a long time until the roads in Afghanistan are paved, power is ubiquitous and the army and police are up to snuff.
And in the meanwhile that army is being trained in good part by the US. Its leaders are being trained in a new military academy that is not only overtly modelled on West Point but also hosts rotating officers from West Point on its faculty. Friendships are being formed. The Army's leaders fully expect some of the graduates to move into civilian leadership over time, bringing a new national (vs tribal) identity with them.
Significantly different than Iraq and maybe than Pakistan.
#13
Significantly different than Iraq and maybe than Pakistan.
How much is that difference worth if shari'a law's constant abuse of human rights continues unabated? Are we not a party to that abuse by allowing its resumption?
#14
I could really care less if they have sharia law as long as they aren't blowing up our buildings or protecting those who do. Moving from the stone age to the 21st century won't be done in a year. A little patience might be in order.
#15
Where have I ever said that sorting out Karzai's treachery takes precedence over neutralizing Iran? Feel free to post some cites.
You're continually saying how awful it is we haven't fixed Afghanistan _to your liking_ when stopping to fix Afghanistan in such a manner is going to make fixing Iran impossible.
#16
I could really care less if they have sharia law as long as they aren't blowing up our buildings or protecting those who do.
I guess you just don't get it, then. From an Islamic site on shari'a law and jihad:
In religious parlance, this use of force is called Jihad, and in the Quran it can be classified in two distinct categories:
Firstly, against injustice and oppression.
Considering how farting in Mecca's general direction has been declared to be flagrant Islamophobia, just about anything an Infidel does currently constitutes "injustice and oppression" against Muslims. Or did the cartoonifada not make this clear?
Secondly, against the rejecters of truth after it has become evident to them.
Remember all those invitations bin Laden and Ahmadinejad have given Americans to embrace Islam? They've done it for a reason and it is in order to wage justified jihad because we have not immediately acquiesced to their demand for submission.
The firsttypeof Jihadisaneternaldirectiveof theShariah.
Got that? An ETERNAL DIRECTIVE OF THE SHARI'A. So long as shari'a law exists, Muslims are going to be "blowing up our buildings or protecting those who do". Need I make this any more clear?
As stated, it is launched to curb oppression and injustice. The second type, however, is specific to people whom the Almighty selects for delivering the truth as an obligation. They are called witnesses to the truth; the implication being that they bear witness to the truth before other people in such a complete and ultimate manner that no one is left with an excuse to deny the truth.
Which essentially grants any fanatical Muslim zealot the right to wage jihad against a pastrami sandwich if they so decide.
SHARI'A DECLARES JIHAD TO BE HALAL FOR MUSLIMS.
Shari'a essentially declares open season on all Infidels in all places.
KABUL, Afghanistan - President Hamid Karzai offered to meet with the Taliban leader and give militants a government position, but a spokesman for the militant group on Sunday said it will "never" negotiate with Afghan authorities until U.S. and NATO forces leave the country.
Karzai made the offer only hours after a suicide bomber in army disguise attacked a military bus Saturday, killing 30 people nearly all of them Afghan soldiers.
Strengthening a call for negotiations he has made with increasing frequency in recent weeks, Karzai said he was willing to meet with the reclusive leader Mullah Omar and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a former prime minister and factional warlord leader.
Continued on Page 49
A suicide bomber killed 28 Afghan troops and two civilians on Saturday in an attack on an army bus in Kabul, the Afghan president said.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.
A suicide bomber dressed in army uniform got on the bus carrying Afghan National Army personnel to work, the Defence Ministry said. The blast split the bus into two pieces and shattered shop windows in a central district of the capital. Police and soldiers piled bodies onto army vehicles. The explosion happened just after a group of Afghan National Army soldiers got onto the bus, said witness Mohammad Zaher.
President Hamid Karzai condemned the blast, which he said killed 28 soldiers and two civilians. Taliban on Saturday released four Red Cross workers captured near the capital four days ago, officials said. The four were handed to an Afghan International Committee of the Red Cross worker in Wardak, a spokesman for the provincial government told AFP. Karzai on Saturday offered to meet with Taliban leader Mullah Omar and give militants a position in government. Strengthening a call for negotiations he has made with increasing frequency in recent weeks, Karzai said he was willing to meet with the reclusive leader Omar and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/30/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
the AP version of this had this howler,
"Karzai strongly condemned Saturday's attack at a media briefing...He said the attack was "against humanity, definitely against Islam."
Which is why the entire Islamic world denounced it. Oh wait a minute...
#2
*ahem* the same Taliban Karzai hopes to reintegrate into Afghan Gov't? No, thank you. How about "killing them"?
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/30/2007 0:36 Comments ||
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#3
Karzai, the Pashto, has twice lectured US field troops on collateral kills in Opium country. UK, Canadian and Dutch troops have had to recover ground won from the Taliban, after Karzai troops gave it back to the terrorists. We pushed democracy too fast.
KABUL - Two foreign soldiers involved in military operations against the Taleban in Afghanistan have died, the international military force here announced Saturday. A soldier with the NATO-led force was killed Saturday during combat operations in eastern Afghanistan, NATOs International Security Assistance Force said in a statement.
The 37-nation ISAF does not release the nationalities of its casualties, leaving this to their home nations. It also gave no details of the incident. Most of the soldiers in eastern Afghanistan are US nationals.
The US-led coalition which operates alongside ISAF and the Afghan security forces announced meanwhile that one of its soldiers had died late Friday from a non-combat injury, giving no details.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/30/2007 00:00 ||
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KABUL - Taleban insurgents on Saturday freed four staff of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) they had kidnapped in Afghanistan three days ago, an ICRC statement said. The unconditional release of our four colleagues is a great relief to us and their families, Franz Rauchenstein, deputy head of the ICRC delegation in Kabul, said in a statement.
The four men, two Afghans, a Macedonian and a citizen of Myanmar, were seized by the Taleban in Wardak province, southwest of the Afghan capital Kabul on Wednesday.
One of the hostages said they had been well treated by their captors. The treatment was fine. There was no interrogation, no questioning, we lived in the same condition as the Taleban. There was food and water, the Macedonian hostage told an Afghan reporter shortly before his release. It was a long journey on foot in the mountains and then we spent the night in one housetwo nightsand then this morning we came down, he said in recorded comments made available to Reuters.
We were not afraid. We have contacts with the Taleban, we know the Taleban, he said.
And they're useful fools tools.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/30/2007 00:00 ||
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This and other sources reported that crowds began chanting, "Allah Akbar," after 30 soldiers were murdered. What would have happened if the Vietnamese began chanting, "Ho Chi Minh" after a Viet Cong terror? Muslims get special treatment.
Where do jihadi "Youtube" posters get their videos? From "info-Vlad." I have seen new vids get Youtubed a day after I-V has them. Vids don't download at normal Broadband speeds, and extensions often have to be added. As to the content, terror casettes are sold openly in Iraq markets. But they should give up the lie of using "homemade" mortars; standard issue instruments are quick loading.
A KEY suspect in the alleged plot to mount an attack in Germany on the scale of 9/11 is on the run in Britain, German security officials disclosed yesterday.
"Trainers, don't fail me now!"
Scotland Yard counterterrorism detectives are hunting the man, who escaped from Germany after a plot to explode bombs at Frankfurt airport and a US airbase. The collective power of the bombs would have exceeded those in Madrid and London in 2004 and 2005.
The plot was foiled on September 4 when three men were arrested at a rented holiday apartment near the central German town of Kassel. Police recovered chemicals and bomb-making equipment which investigators believe would have led to the biggest loss of life since the 9/11 attacks in America six years ago.
About 10 other members of the gang were said by German prosecutors to have escaped and one is now in Britain. The arrested three - two of whom were German nationals who had converted to Islam - were alleged by prosecutors to be members of an Al-Qaeda splinter group called the Islamic Jihad Union.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: mrp ||
09/30/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Hard to believe that all 10 could have got into the UK. UK, even though they are signatory to Schwengen Treaty, is very diligent when checking EU passport lines at Waterloo, St. Pancras, the ferry ports and all airports. Sure, no need for stamps, but the immigration people do random scanning and have police standing nearby to stop for further questioning.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
09/30/2007 8:56 Comments ||
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#2
So who hasn't the UK used their vaunted CCTV system to catch this clown?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/30/2007 17:41 Comments ||
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#5
The value of any deterrent is in the mind of your opponent/objective which perceives whether your threat is credible. The successful Syrian operation makes that deterrent ever more credible. It is better to keep playing this tune in public to keep the Mad Mullahs guessing.
#7
This makes little sense on the surface. That is, if we wanted to attack the IRGC, we could make a covert operation that resulted in mass casualties, yet still have plausible deniability. An easy way would be to contaminate the food or water of a large garrison. A thousand IRGC suddenly drop dead of botulism after a Ramadan feast.
That would put a serious crimp in the mullahs game plan.
If we wanted to destroy a lot of their stuff, it would be even easier. Their munitions and POL storage are probably not the best in the world.
#10
To be PC, Dubya = USA will need either a formal UNO Resolution in suppor of bombingh; or in alternate a unified consensus = diplom
"understanding" amongst the "Big Five". IN ANY CASE, CONSIDERING HOW LONG NK + MAJOR MUSLIM NATIONS [Read - SYRIA, LIBYA, SADDAMIST IRAQ, other] HAVE HAD NUCDEV PROGS [decades], AIR STRIKES IS AT BEST A TEMPORARY SOLUTION. Within the scope of Moud's rants to ignore the UNO + not stop enrichment, air strikes will DELAY Iran, NOT STOP IRAN. SHort of accepting a NUCLEAR IRAN = NUCLEARIZED ISLAMISM-FUNDAMENTALISM, the only real options for the USA-West is INVASION AND OCCUPATION ala IRAQ, or pro-Western democratic "regime change" by any means necessary including but not limited to (1).
#11
It takes a long time for "hot sand" to "cool down". Some of the half-lives from thermonuclear weapons are measured in eons.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
09/30/2007 22:52 Comments ||
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#12
NEW YORKER > US PRESDIENT RETHINKING IRAN ATTACK STRATEGY. Against the IRGC, i.e. Iran's "other Army", the one wid its own Navy + Air Force + Missles, + first to get any new toys + in charge of defending Islamic fundamentalism ala "the Revoluion" + power base for Moud/Khameini-Mullahs.
*TOPIX NEWS > IRAN - IRAN'S GOVT DECLARES USCIA + US ARMY [USDOD] AS TERRORIST ORGANIZATIONS.
#14
OS, the trick is to make idiots useful, in a way that they have no suspicion whatsoever. Not saying this is the case. Saying pity if it isn't and more of it. No reason that the other side has presently a monopoly on useful idiots. ;-)
I'm only posting this to get some help with research. I cannot find anything on this Marine, including anything showing he was at the Pentagon on 9/11. May just be poor research skills on my part. Major Gamal Awad
He was one of America's first defenders on Sept. 11, 2001, a Marine who pulled burned bodies from the ruins of the Pentagon. He saw more horrors in Kuwait and Iraq.
Today, he can't keep a job, pay his bills, or chase thoughts of suicide from his tortured brain. In a few weeks, he may lose his house, too.
Gamal Awad, the American son of a Sudanese immigrant, exemplifies an emerging group of war veterans: the economic casualties.
More than in past wars, many wounded troops are coming home alive from the Middle East. That's a triumph for military medicine. But they often return hobbled by prolonged physical and mental injuries from homemade bombs and the unremitting anxiety of fighting a hidden enemy along blurred battle lines. Treatment, recovery and retraining often can't be assured quickly or cheaply.
PESHAWAR, Sept 30(APP): A girl's high school in Kabal, Swat district, was blown up by miscreants in the early hours on Sunday, police said. The explosion totally destroyed the two storey school building and caused damage to a nearby mosque, besides smashing the window panes of the houses. The miscreants used three remote control bombs which all exploded at the same time.
Posted by: john frum ||
09/30/2007 09:41 ||
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#1
get em back in the sackcloth, barefoot and pregnant, where Islam sez they should be, huh?
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/30/2007 9:47 Comments ||
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Up to nine security personnel and six civilians, including an eight-year-old boy and a woman, were injured in incidents in North Waziristan on Saturday, officials and local residents said.
Local residents said six civilians were injured when a public transport vehicle was fired upon by soldiers in the Pattikhel area, 10 kilometres west of Miranshah. Military spokesman Maj-Gen Waheed Arshad said he had no information that army soldiers opened fire on the vehicle after it did not stop to allow a military convoy to pass through. Local officials in Mir Ali said militants fired around 30 rockets at an army camp at 3:00am on Saturday, injuring nine soldiers. However, according to Gen Waheed, only two or three soldiers were injured, none of them seriously.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/30/2007 00:00 ||
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Pro-Taliban barbarians militants failed in another attempt to blow up rock carvings of Buddha in Swat district, police said on Saturday. The militants, late Saturday night, tried to destroy the Buddha carvings through powerful explosives but failed in their attempt in the Jahanabad area of Swat Valley.
Previously, pro-Taliban militants tried to destroy the carvings on September 12 but only succeeded in partially damaging them. The incident recalled the internationally condemned destruction of the huge Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan by the Taliban regime in 2001. Police sources said shrapnel from the blast hit the rock but didnt damage the Buddhist images. It appears to be the work of the local militants who condemn these relics as being un-Islamic, police said.
Elsewhere, unidentified militants blew up two barbershops in the Manja area of Kabal tehsil in Swat Valley late Saturday night. Barbers Amjad and Rahmat Ali told Daily Times that before the attack, they both received threatening letters from unknown militants warning them to stop their un-Islamic business or face bombing. We were punished for not obeying militant orders, they said.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/30/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
It appears to be the work of the local militants who condemn these relics as being un-Islamic, police said.
#6
An example of how Buddhism was almost extinguished in the land of its birth by the followers of a foreign religion....
The very first mosque to be built in the Indian subcontinent is located in Sindh, Pakistan.
Excavations around the site reveal the remains of a Buddhist temple and a layer of human bones.
Posted by: john frum ||
09/30/2007 6:18 Comments ||
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#7
And the Buddha himself, Siddhartha Gautama, an Indian prince, is nowadays depicted as an obese, Chinese man.
Posted by: john frum ||
09/30/2007 6:24 Comments ||
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#8
nuke us please. This nation (Pakistan) can no longer hope for redemption.
#9
i wonder if they will have too bring i the engineers and paki ISI like they did with the Buddhas in afghanistan.Also looks like when you fail too blow something up the first 2 or 3 times that you would get a notion that they aren't meant too be blown up
#10
One of these days, some militant Hindi or Buddhist is going to find a way to get into Mecca and lay a charge at the Ka'bah. Then, we can run out into the streets and begin singing and waving our zionistic flags.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
09/30/2007 8:58 Comments ||
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#11
Thankfully most carvings on the subcontinent are out of reach of the Taliban
THE CHAITYA-GRIHA AT Bedsa,
NASHIK CAVES, 2ND century A.D. A grand group of rock-cut caves is on top of a high hill on the outskirts of Nashik.
The earliest depiction of Indra, Bhaja caves, 2nd century B.C. The vihara, Cave 18, at Bhaja has sculptures that have been identified as Brahmanical deities. Surya and Indra, who rides an elephant, can be seen in the veranda of the cave.
Mithunas, Karle chaitya-griha.
RANI GUMPHA, KHANDAGIRI, Orissa, Jaina caves, 1st century A.D. The rock-cut caves of the Jaina tradition are very similar to those of the Buddhist faith
MITHUNAS, CAVE 3, Kanheri, 2nd century A.D.
RIDERS ON ELEPHANTS, pillar capitals, Karle chaitya-griha
At Karle is one of the greatest rock-cut chaitya-grihas. This is of the 1st to 2nd century A.D. and is the largest to have ever been carved out of rock.
A Buddhist cave at Ellora
Pillar at Ellora
Jain cave at Ellora
Inside a Jain cave
Ajanta caves
Inside the Ajanta caves
Posted by: john frum ||
09/30/2007 12:39 Comments ||
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#13
Remember folks, the incredibly beautiful monuments in john frum's images would all be dynamited into rubble after the installation of a global caliphate. The Sistine Chapel, Notre Dame, St. Paul's and so much of our world's architectural heritage would be demolished. The Mona Lisa, all the Old Masters, our Library of Congress would all be heaped on bonfires. This is but one small fraction of the mayhem that awaits any failure in the Global War on Terrorism. The human death toll will be in the BILLIONS. If ever I seem impatient about crushing Islam, this is why. Thousands of years worth of human achievement and humanity itself stand at risk because a group of psychotic, genocidal thugs thinks it's their place to rule us. We cannot crush Islam fast enough. The Bamiyan Buddhas are just a small part of the price being paid for being slow to act.
SRINAGAR, India - Troops in Indian-administered Kashmir have surrounded a village mosque where three Islamic militants took refuge to evade capture, the army said Saturday. The three fled into a mosque when Indian army backed by police launched a search operation in Tujan village, army spokesman Anil Mathur told AFP. Tujan is in central Kashmir, about 30 km from Srinagar.
Of course the bad boyz holed up in an arms depot a mosque. They can reload and resupply ...
There has been no fighting so far and we have no plans to storm the mosque or intiate the fighting, Mathur said, adding efforts were on to motivate the militants to surrender. We are seeking help from elderly persons to try to motivate the militants to give themselves up without causing any damage to the mosque, he added.
Otherwise you go in there and dig them out, and no screwing around.
A police officer said a few shots were heard when the troops laid siege to the mosque.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/30/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
The Indian army has taken to using Shipon anti-tank missiles against buildings occupied by jihadis.
The Shipon is manufactured in Israel.
Posted by: john frum ||
09/30/2007 6:27 Comments ||
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#2
Militants holed up in mosque shot dead
Srinagar, Sept. 30 (PTI): The stand-off between two militants holed up inside a mosque and security forces in Jammu and Kashmir ended this afternoon with police gunning down the ultras, including a self-styled company commander of Hizbul Mujahideen.
The militants were killed after they came out from the mosque and attempted to break the cordon around the place of worship by the CRPF and police at village Tujan in central Kashmir, Badgam Senior Superintendent of Police A H Bukhari said.
He said the operation, which began last evening, was conducted with surgical precision without causing any damage to the mosque.
The slain militants were identified as Hizbul Mujahideen 'company commander' Khurshed Ahmad Rather alias Zubair of Kadipora-Rajpora and Nazir Ahmad Dar alias Irfan of Tujan, Bukhari said.
Police, CRPF and troops of the 53 Rashtriya Rifles had launched a joint operation yesterday after police received information regarding presence of militants in the village.
The militants had taken shelter inside the mosque after exchanging fire with a police search party and all attempts to persuade them to surrender bore no fruit, he said.
When police resumed its search this morning they were fired upon by militants from inside the mosque, Bukhari said, adding police then fired tear gas shells forcing the ultras to come out.
Posted by: john frum ||
09/30/2007 11:23 Comments ||
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Sep 30 04:23 PM US/Eastern
By STEVEN R. HURST
Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD (AP) - U.S. and Iraqi forces killed more than 60 insurgent and militia fighters in intense battles over the weekend, with most of the casualties believed to have been al-Qaida fighters, officials said Sunday.
U.S. aircraft killed more than 20 al-Qaida fighters who opened fire on an American air patrol northwest of Baghdad, the U.S. command said.
The firefight between U.S. aircraft and the insurgent fighters occurred Saturday about 17 miles northwest of the capital, the military said.
The aircraft observed about 25 al-Qaida insurgents carrying AK-47 assault riflesone brandishing a rocket-propelled grenadewalking into a palm grove, the military said.
"Shortly after spotting the men, the aircraft were fired upon by the insurgent fighters," it said.
The military did not say what kind of aircraft were involved but the fact that the fighters opened fire suggests they were low-flying Apache helicopters. The command said more than 20 of the group were killed and four vehicles were destroyed. No Iraqi civilians or U.S. soldiers were hurt.
"Coalition forces have dealt significant blows to Al-Qaida Iraq in recent months, including the recent killing of the Tunisian head of the foreign fighter network in Iraq and the blows struck in the past 24 hours," military spokesman Col. Steven Boylan told The Associated Press.
Iraq's Defense Ministry said in an e-mail Sunday afternoon that Iraqi soldiers had killed 44 "terrorists" over the past 24 hours. The operations were centered in Salahuddin and Diyala provinces and around the city of Kirkuk, where the ministry said its soldiers had killed 40 and arrested eight. It said 52 fighters were arrested altogether.
The ministry did not further identify those killed, but use of the word "terrorists" normally indicates al-Qaida.
In a separate operation, U.S. forces killed two insurgents and detained 21 others during weekend operations "to disrupt al-Qaida in Iraq networks in the Tigris River Valley."
Intelligence led to a raid early Sunday that netted what the U.S. military called 15 rogue members of the Mahdi Army militia at an undisclosed Baghdad location.
The mainstream of the militia, the armed wing of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's organization, has been ordered by the religious leader to stop attacks on U.S. and Iraqi forces.
But many one-time members of the group have split off and are acting independently of al-Sadr's control. Some have gone to Iran for training and are receiving weapons and financing from the Islamic regime in Tehran.
#5
But many one-time members of the group have split off and are acting independently of al-Sadr's control. Some have gone to Iran for training and are receiving weapons and financing from the Islamic regime in Tehran.
All the while, pretending to negotiate about this with Ahmadinejad, al-Maliki continues to piss in our ear and tell us it's raining.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has secured a pledge from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to help cut off weapons, funding, and other support to militiamen in Iraq, US and Iraqi officials said yesterday.
General David H. Petraeus, the top US commander in Iraq, said there were signs of a slight drop in the types of attacks associated with Shi'ite militants since the deal was reached last month, and he dangled the possibility that US and Iraqi officials might be able to do something in return. But he said it was too early to tell whether there has been a real reduction in Iranian support.
"Honestly, and I really mean this, all of us would really welcome the opportunity to see this, confirm it and even - in whatever way we could - to reciprocate," Petraeus told reporters on a visit to the Baghdad neighborhood of Karada. "But it really is wait and see time right now still."
Iranian officials have made no announcement of such a commitment and could not immediately be reached for comment yesterday. But they have consistently rejected US accusations that members of the elite Al Quds force of the Iranian National Guard are stoking the bloodshed in Iraq by supplying advanced weaponry and other help to rogue Shi'ite militiamen.
Meanwhile, at least 15 Iraqis were killed or found dead yesterday, victims of bomb blasts, mortar fire, shootings and other violence. The US military also announced the deaths of two soldiers in small arms fire, one during combat operations in a southern section of Baghdad and the other in Diyala.
Maliki's aides characterized the agreement reached during a three-day visit to Iran as a promise to better police the long and porous border between the two countries.
"The prime minister has been saying recently that the Iranians have been giving him strong promises that they will do better in terms of controlling the borders and that the results of these promises are starting to be felt . . . as far as the trafficking of weapons is concerned," said an official from Maliki's office. He asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to address the media.
Faruq Abdullah, one of Maliki's political advisers, said: "The agreement included a promise by the Iranian government to increase the number of Iranian forces on the border and to increase the efforts to guard the 1,000-kilometer-long frontier."
But Petraeus said Maliki told him the agreement went further than that.
"The president of Iran pledged to Prime Minister Maliki during a recent meeting that he would stop the flow of weapons, the training, the funding and the directing of these militia extremists that have been such a huge problem really for Iraq," Petraeus said.
He reiterated charges that Iran is supplying rocket-propelled grenades, shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles, large rockets, and armor-piercing bombs known as explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs, which have been used in attacks against US forces.
"Certainly, indirect fire is quite a bit down," Petraeus said, referring to rockets and mortar rounds, "EFPs arguably a bit down, some of these others we haven't seen for a bit. But it certainly is nothing sufficient to call even statistically significant, much less evidence that there has been a real reduction in the assistance provided." He did not provide the figures.
US-led forces have captured "quite a few" of the weapons during recent operations, he said. The apparent dip in such attacks could also be connected to a decision by Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to suspend the operations of his Mahdi militiamen for six months.
"It was the extreme elements of those, the special groups as they are called, that had been employing those different arms," Petraeus said.
Analysts cautioned against interpreting the commitment as an admission of responsibility by Ahmadinejad.
#1
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has secured a pledge from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to help cut off weapons, funding, and other support to militiamen in Iraq, US and Iraqi officials said yesterday.
And I've got a bridge to sell anyone who believes this unmitigated tripe. Maliki's willingness to cast Iran in any sort of legitimate light is a prime indicator of his credibility and what to expect from his continued leadership of Iraq.
#2
Hmmm, I wonder. Agreeing to stop is an admission of doing it. If we continue to find their fingerprints on evil goodies, it would warrant a a response. Maybe a little cross-border interdiction for starters?
(not that I disagree Maliki is a tool)
#4
If the Iranians really are scared about how Syrian air defense was shut down by the Jooos, and fears that they're next, it is possible - however unlikely - that Dinner jacket is really sin ....
Nah! Nevermind.
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/30/2007 17:44 Comments ||
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#5
JPOST OP-ED > THE MIDDLE EAST: [MOUD's] AGENDA/AMBITIONS. Author's description of Moud's = Iranian LT ambitions for regional domination by definition includes Lebanon.
#3
The democrats had better manage to choke out some praise for Petraeus over this. Oh, Hell, who am I kidding? They probably view this as a setback to their campaign strategy. Damn them all.
#6
Chuck Simmins: Same mistake as the media makes, however. 61 total deaths, 22 non-hostile, 39 hostile.
Well Chuck we have access to a first rate Iraq Combat analyst and statistician that's even better than the DOD staff gets!
~:)
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
09/30/2007 6:17 Comments ||
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#7
Same mistake as the media makes, however. 61 total deaths, 22 non-hostile, 39 hostile.
Vow, 22 non hostile deaths? I really have no point of reference, is it an high number for a 165 K population with biased demographics (younger average age, more males than females, fitter,...)?
I remember reading about non-hostile deaths like an humvee falling into the euphrates with its inoccupants drowning, or a soldier inside the green zone drowning while going to a swimming pool, so I guess these numbers include both occupational hazards and "fact of life" like diseases or random accidents, but is 22 an high figure?
#8
Humvee turns over into a canal drowning all aboard, CH46 or 47 buys the farm full up with troops..
anonymous5089, Just like maneuvers or routine transportation accidents during peace time.
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
09/30/2007 6:33 Comments ||
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#9
thank you for creating the table
the issue of non combat deaths is pretty difficult to analyze
yes it is true that back in the late 70s (w Pres Carter) the average non combat deaths in a year was about 2000 (worldwide all services)
however, that was with a much larger active military and without recent medical, logistical and military equipment improvements;
in any case, the non combat deaths in Iraq are, in many cases, related to the logistics needed to maintain the pace of military activity or are otherwise closely related to the needs for the combat
Call it Spook's Inverse Law of Iraq War Reporting: if you don't see a spate of stories on U.S. casualties at the end of the month, then there must be some good news the MSM is ignoring.
Posted by: Mike ||
09/30/2007 9:35 Comments ||
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#12
Its like this: there are ALWAYS non-hostile deaths in the military, Its a hazardous occupation. I lost a room mate in "peacetime" in Korea a couple of decades ago. But people only pay attention to military deaths, and only in aggregate, when it means something for them politically.
Three Iraqi soldiers and three civilians, killed in a suicide truck bombing near Mosul, were among 18 victims of sectarian violence across Iraq on Saturday.
Six people were killed and 17 wounded after a bomber in a pickup truck detonated his explosives as Iraqi forces chased the speeding vehicle near Mosul, an army officer said. Acting on a tip, a team of Iraqi soldiers tried to intercept the suicide driver as he was heading west from Mazra village toward Mosul, 360 kilometres northwest of Baghdad. As the Iraqi Humvee neared the truck, the driver detonated his explosive payload, according to the officer who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Also on Saturday, drive-by gunmen killed a Sunni sheikh near his home in Mosuls Mithaq neighborhood, said police spokesman Abdul Karim Al Jbouri. Sheikh Ghanim Qassim was a mosque preacher and member of Mosuls edict commission, a religious rule-making body.
Al-Jbouri also said a 50-year-old journalist visiting his brother in the Bab Al Baidh neighborhood in central Mosul was killed about 9:30am when he was caught in a mortar attack. In central Baghdad, gunmen opened fire at an Iraqi checkpoint, killing a civilian and wounding four others, police said.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/30/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency
A car bomb targeting an Iraqi police patrol killed four, apparently policemen, and wounded 16 among them many civilians, in Mosul on Saturday, a police source said Saturday. The blast took place in Al-Hamdaniya, 30 km in northeast Mosul, north of Iraq, at 3.30 in the afternoon (local time), Brigadier Mohammad Al-Waka'a told KUNA by phone. Al-Hamdaniya's is mostly inhabited by Christians.
Meanwhile, a journalist in the Sada Al-Mosul newspaper was killed Saturday when a mortar shell landed close to his house in central Mosul, 395 km north of Baghdad, Brigadier Saeed Al-Jabouri, spokesman of the Ninawa Province police said. Abdul-Khaleq Nasser was killed when the mortar, whose source was not identified, fell close to his house late Friday night.
In yet another act of violence, unidentified gunmen assassinated the Imam of a Sunni Muslim in Al-Methaq Mosque in Mosul on getting out of the mosque. Sheikh Ghanim Qasim was a Learned Elder of Islam member of the Iraqi Fatwa Authority, the highest Sunni authority in the country.
#1
In yet another act of violence, unidentified gunmen assassinated the Imam of a Sunni Muslim in Al-Methaq Mosque in Mosul on getting out of the mosque.
Muslims desecrating yet another mosque. Perish the effing thought!
Hamas and Fatah loyalists clashed Saturday at a mosque in the southern Gaza Strip, leaving nine people wounded in the latest flare-up of violence between the two factions, witnesses and medical officials said.
The melee erupted after Hamas tried to replace an independent cleric at a mosque in the town of Khan Yunis with one of its own religious leaders, witnesses said.
#4
Thank goodness Barbara Skolaut is in charge of the industrial popcorn machine, and AutoBartender stocked the back room of the O Club to the ceiling with kernels, butter, and salt.
#5
Kind of makes the Hatfields vs the McCoys look like restrained, civilized diplomacy, although I can't thing of a more deserving group of people. Question: Am I a bad person for enjoying this so much?
#6
I'm popping as fast as I can, tw. Got another boxcar load coming in tomorrow. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/30/2007 20:11 Comments ||
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#7
The Hatfields and the McCoys kept their battles in one small area. The Hatfields didn't demand the destruction of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. They didn't demand international aid to buy weapons. And they didn't strap explosives on and blow up a McCoy Ladies' tea party.
#8
The Hatfields and McCoys were profoundly unimaginitive, #7 mom. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/30/2007 20:15 Comments ||
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#9
I know of one Hatfield that had some brains.
One of the Hatfields' shirttail relatives had actually been to school. He learned a little arithmetic and a little about world events. He also saw that Devil Anse Hatfield was selling his land for peanuts to the mining companies to buy weapons, and at the tender age of 13, screwed his courage to the sticking place and told Devil Anse the Mining companies were cheating him. Devil Anse smacked him across the face and told him not to lecture his betters. The boy lit out on a flatboat down the Ohio and got as far away from the fight as he could. This young man eventually was my husband's great-grandfather.
#10
Great story, mom! Here's hoping some of the Paleos show such good sense and initiative. Stop laughing. Hope is often irrational. And no, I don't want to be any money on it.
Sri Lankan warplanes pounded Tamil Tiger targets in the far north of the island on Saturday, and nine rebels and a soldier were killed in a series of battles in the same region, the military said.
The violence in the north, focus of renewed civil war between the state and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), is just the latest in a series of near-daily clashes over recent months. The army killed nine LTTE terrorists in four different confrontations in Vavuniya on Friday, said a spokesman at the Defence Ministrys Media Centre for National Security. He said one solders was killed.
An air force spokesman said planes had attacked a Sea Tiger base northwest of Puthukkudiyiruppu in rebel-held Mullaitivu.
After observing some movement in the area we took the target using (Israeli-made) Kfirs and (Russian-made) MiGs, said Group Captain Ajanth De Silva. It was a Sea Tiger training camp and the intelligence confirmed the target. We have no details of casualties or damage but the planes hit the target, he said.
The Tigers, who say they are fighting for an independent state for minority ethnic Tamils in the north and east, were not immediately available for comment on the incident. There was no independent confirmation of how many people were killed in the fighting. Military analysts say both sides tend to exaggerate enemy losses and play down their own.
The attacks come on the heels of a new military offensive launched this month to drive the rebels from the northwestern district of Mannar.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/30/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
The Tigers are out of ammo after the Navy sunk all their supply vessels. The war is going quite well for the government at the moment, let's hope they can take the war to the heart of the enemy and put an end to the war once and for all.
#1
I always found this conflict unusually interesting for a 'small' war. Part of it, I guess, is the quirkiness - like the impromptu Tiger airforce, but mostly because it seems like a bunch of guys choosing up sides to re-enact small scale Harpoon scenarios.
But recently, I've lost track of this conflict. IIRC, there was a truce between the Lankans and the Tigers. So have hostilities resumed in earnest? Is this a truce-fire? A fight to the death? And who is winning?
And finally, here is the obligatory All your sea training base are belong to us reference.
#2
Just a little history on the subject: See Victor Heiser's 1936 book, "An American Doctor's Odyssey" for more details.
Heiser was a remarkable man who survived the Johnstown Flood and, without anything left of his family or possessions, managed to work his way through medical school. He passed an exam for the Marine Corps medical corps in his 20s and found a lot of work to be done in public health. He worked for the Marines, for the US Govt in the Phillippines, and for the Rockefeller public health program that eliminated hookworm in the US and around the world.
The British treated any coolie labor worse than animals. They imported large numbers of Tamils from South India to work their Sri Lankan tea plantations. The coolies were dying like rats because of the miserable sanitation conditions--dysentery and hookworm anemia. Heiser was trying to get the planters to reduce morbidity from hookworm infestation among the workers. Moral arguments for providing simple sanitation for the workers fell on deaf ears, so Heiser calculated in pounds and pence just how much money the tea planters could save if they provided privies and taught the workers to use them. Money talked where compassion couldn't get a word in edgewise.
"The Arab Center for the Studies of Arid Zones and Dry Lands" in Syria called the claims of an Israeli air strike "lies and fabrications", AFP reported on Sunday.
Center officials denied the reports and said that after they had seen pictures of the center in newspapers, they realized that the alleged strike was supposedly carried out in one of their abandoned sites.
An official message by the center read: "We were astonished by reports of an Israeli strike on one of our centers. The reports about the center in the Zionist press are lies and fabrications."
The center also offered journalists from around the world a tour of the location.
Two weeks ago, Syrian Ambassador to the United Nations Bashar Ja'afari said that nothing in Syria was bombed by the IAF, and nothing was damaged. Reports of such an attack were "ridiculous and not true," Army Radio reported Ja'afari as saying. Ja'afari added that "Syria does not have North Korean nuclear facilities." Anybody caught by surprise, raise a hand
#3
Syria does not have North Korean nuclear facilities
Nothing useful, anyway.
The center also offered journalists from around the world a tour of the location.
After the Syrians have had time to bomb another site.
Two weeks ago, Syrian Ambassador to the United Nations Bashar Ja'afari said that nothing in Syria was bombed by the IAF, and nothing was damaged.
So what's all the fuss I remember about how the Syrians said that because of this attack they would never make peace with Israel? It must have been just another flyover.
#6
STRATEGYPAGE > IRAN - FEAR AND LOATHING IN IRAN; + RUSSIA: LOSERS LAMENT. Success of Israel's 9/6 attack + failures of new Russ PANTYSR/PANTISR ADS has Iran hopping mad [believe they were had/tricked by Russ] + Russ' ME = Arms customers asking questions. Russ tells them don't worry.
#7
FT.com > WHY BUSH WON'T ATTACK IRAN. Not right now = not right away, anyhoo. INTERESTING - Diplomat says even iff SYRIA had a nascent nucdev prog, Syria's prog is no way near as advanced as IRAN'S???
Debka, salt etc...
A high-ranking Iranian air force and intelligence delegation, led by a general, is reported by DEBKAfiles intelligence sources to have landed secretly in the Turkish capital a few days ago. The visitors said Turkeys government and army should be warned that Iran would not stand by again in the event of another strike against Syria, whether by Israel or the US, or both. Next time, Iran would step in, he said, without specifying in what form.
The message was taken to mean that even if Syria decided against reprisal, Iran would act instead.
According to our military sources, the Iranian delegation returned to Tehran empty-handed.
Posted by: gromgoru ||
09/30/2007 06:05 ||
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[6 views]
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#1
Threatening Turks always works. The Iranians are lucky the Turks didn't send their heads home first.
#2
I don't think the Iranians would get away speaking to the Turkish Military like that but rather to their politicians. In Turkey, though, the military is pretty independent and very secular. If the Islamist in government go a little wobbly, the military will definitely straighten them and the Iranians out. Only the PKK can bring them together.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
09/30/2007 9:25 Comments ||
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#3
#2 and the ruling party is, more or less, owned by Soodies.
#5
See also YNETNEWS > HIZBULLAH - [US] SENATE HAS DECLARED WAR ON IRAN article > USG-Senate dessignating of Iran's IRGC as a de facto TERROR GROUP is tantamount TO DECLARATION OF WAR AGZ IRAN, and proves USA is bent on more regional wars.
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/30/2007 11:43 Comments ||
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#5
Thanks Frank, it's been a long pull. I managed to take in a very lovely farmers market near Kaiser this afternoon and have nearly caught up on my Wurst und Pilsner!
#10
More along the lines of, if B's flight home is routed with a layover or plane change through BWI, I'd drive up and buy him a beer.
Baltopalooza is a distinct possibility, but would need to happen prior to Thanksgiving or after January 1, and in accordance with the Grand Poohbah's schedule.
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.
KABUL - Two foreign soldiers involved in military operations against the Taleban in Afghanistan have died, the international military force here announced Saturday. A soldier with the NATO-led force was killed Saturday during combat operations in eastern Afghanistan, NATOs International Security Assistance Force said in a statement.
KABUL - Taleban insurgents on Saturday freed four staff of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) they had kidnapped in Afghanistan three days ago, an ICRC statement said. The unconditional release of our four colleagues is a great relief to us and their families, Franz Rauchenstein, deputy head of the ICRC delegation in Kabul, said in a statement.
Pro-Taliban 
Jain cave at Ellora
Three Iraqi soldiers and three civilians, killed in a suicide truck bombing near Mosul, were among 18 victims of sectarian violence across Iraq on Saturday.
A car bomb targeting an Iraqi police patrol killed four, apparently policemen, and wounded 16 among them many civilians, in Mosul on Saturday, a police source said Saturday. The blast took place in Al-Hamdaniya, 30 km in northeast Mosul, north of Iraq, at 3.30 in the afternoon (local time), Brigadier Mohammad Al-Waka'a told KUNA by phone. Al-Hamdaniya's is mostly inhabited by Christians.
Hamas and Fatah loyalists clashed Saturday at a mosque in the southern Gaza Strip, leaving nine people wounded in the latest flare-up of violence between the two factions, witnesses and medical officials said. 
"The Arab Center for the Studies of Arid Zones and Dry Lands" in Syria called the claims of an Israeli air strike "lies and fabrications", AFP reported on Sunday. 
