Melbourne residents terrified by a counter-terrorism exercise will seek compensation from federal and state agencies, saying they feared the operation was a genuine attack.
They fronted a meeting of the Yarra City Council overnight claiming they were traumatised by the exercise.
The residents say they were terrified when they saw men wearing balaclavas in their streets and helicopters hovering over head in the suburb of Collingwood last Friday.
They say loud explosions also blew out some windows.
The City of Yarra wants the agencies involved to pay for counselling and is exploring possible compensation for the damage to homes.
Councillor Stephen Jolly says residents were understandably frightened.
"I don't think I've ever been at a council meeting so far where I've seen such trauma on display," he said.
"People who are refugees who've come from war-torn areas, older people who've experience the Hoddle Street massacre in the late 1980s, just down the road ... they just simply did not know what happened.
"They didn't know if it was somebody roaming the street, whether it was a genuine terrorist attack.
"People weren't told it was going to happen."
Councillor Jolly believes the operation was bungled.
"The so-called security agencies told us that they'd spent six months planning this exercise and only two days beforehand they decided to letterbox the locals to let them know it was happening, but then they admitted the letterbox drop probably didn't happen," he said.
Victoria Police have apologised to residents.
Deputy Police Commissioner Bill Kelly admits the blasts, set off by defence personnel, were louder than expected.
"If people got woken up and weren't contacted and they were startled by those explosions, I'm sorry," he said.
"It's something that happened at the time but I don't apologise for the exercise."
Posted by: God Save The World ||
04/12/2005 11:51:57 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
Three men have been indicted on charges they plotted to attack financial institutions in New York, New Jersey and Washington.
A four-count indictment unsealed Tuesday accuses Dhiran Barot, Nadeem Tarmohammed and Qaisar Shaffi of scouting the New York Stock Exchange and Citicorp Building in New York, the Prudential Building in Newark, N.J., and the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in the District of Columbia.
The three men, already in custody in England, were charged with three conspiracy counts and providing material support to terrorists. U.S. officials claim that Barot is a senior al-Qaida figure, known variously as Abu Eisa al-Hindi, Abu Musa al-Hindi and Issa al-Britani, who scouted prominent financial targets in the United States at the behest of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
Prosecutors say the men conducted surveillance on the buildings between August 2000 and April 2001, including video surveillance in Manhattan around April 2001. The men face related charges in England. Barot, 32, was charged there with possessing reconnaissance plans for the U.S. institutions and notebooks containing information on explosives, poisons, chemicals and related matters "of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism."
Tarmohammed, 26, was charged there, along with Barot, with possessing plans of the Prudential building. Shaffi, 25, also was charged in Britain with possessing an extract from the "Terrorist's Handbook" on the preparation of chemicals, explosive recipes and other information.
This article starring:
ABU EISA AL HINDI
al-Qaeda
ABU MUSA AL HINDI
al-Qaeda
DHIRAN BAROT
al-Qaeda
ISA AL BRITANI
al-Qaeda
NADIM TARMOHAMED
al-Qaeda
QAISAR SHAFI
al-Qaeda
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/12/2005 12:20:47 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
A key prosecution witness at the trial of an Islamic scholar accused of exhorting his followers to fight U.S. troops in Afghanistan admitted under cross-examination Monday that he had long urged his friends to engage in holy war independent of any encouragement from the defendant.
Yong Ki Kwon has testified that he was inspired by the defendant - Ali al-Timimi, 41, of Fairfax - at a Sept. 16, 2001 meeting to aid the Taliban in Afghanistan as it faced a looming U.S. invasion after Sept. 11.
Kwon is one of four men who traveled to Pakistan in late September 2001 to train with a militant group called Lashkar-e-Taiba. Kwon has said it was his intention to use his training on behalf of the Taliban, though he never actually made it into Afghanistan and eventually established a business in Pakistan selling mangoes.
Kwon has said it was at the Sept. 16 meeting with al-Timimi that he was inspired to use his training on the Taliban's behalf, after hearing al-Timimi warn that an apocalyptic battle between Muslims and non-believers was at hand, and that it was the duty of all Muslims to engage in holy war in Afghanistan or anywhere else that Muslims are under attack.
But during Monday's cross-examination, Kwon's recollection of what was said during that meeting was often faulty, and he spoke haltingly. Kwon admitted that well before Sept. 11 he had urged his friends - who often got together to play paintball in the Virginia woods - to train with Lashkar-e-Taiba so they might be able to fight in Kashmir, Chechnya or other hot spots in the Muslim world. Kwon said Monday that he never discussed those recruiting efforts with al-Timimi.
Kwon already has struck a plea bargain and been convicted for his role in what prosecutors described as a "Virginia jihad network." Prosecutors have said al-Timimi was a respected scholar who enjoyed "rock star" status among his followers and that he used that influence to guide them into holy war against the United states. Al-Timimi's lawyers have said he only counseled young Muslims after Sept. 11 that they might be wise to leave the United states because it would become difficult to practice their faith in this country.
This article starring:
ALI AL TIMIMI
Lashkar-e-Taiba
YONG KI KWON
Lashkar-e-Taiba
Lashkar-e-Taiba
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/12/2005 1:44:48 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Sounds like the "respected scholar" was a busy beaver indeed.
Four suspected members of the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf Muslim extremist group kidnapped a Christian restaurant owner in the southern island of Jolo on Sunday, police said.
Four men wielding assault rifles burst into the Top Spot restaurant in Jolo town before dawn and seized the owner, Renato Yanga, 44, forcing him into a van and then fleeing, Inspector Abdulmutalib Hamid Hadjula, deputy police chief, said.
The victim's wife, Annie, said she did not think her husband had any enemies, adding that there had been no ransom demand yet.
Military intelligence sources said the kidnappers are believed to be led by Abu Solomon Isah, a member of the Abu Sayyaf group which is feared for kidnapping Christians and foreigners in the southern Philippines for over a decade.
The victim is a first cousin of Sr. Supt. Mario Yanga, police chief of the nearby southern city of Zamboanga, where many Abu Sayyaf members have been arrested.
Police chief Yanga has been informed of the kidnapping, Hadjula said.
Military checkpoints have been established around the area where the kidnappers are believed to have fled, added Hadjula.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/12/2005 1:27:01 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Two words: soggy lumpia.
Maintaining standards can be such a bother, but someone has to do it.
Poland will withdraw its troops from Iraq at the end of 2005 when the mandate of the United Nations multinational stabilisation force in the country expires, Polish Defence Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski said.
"When the UN mandate in Iraq expires, the Polish stabilisation mission must also end," Mr Szmajdzinski told reporters after a cabinet meeting in Warsaw.
"The Government adopted this position after examining the political situation in Iraq and the advances made in building Iraq's own security force, as well as (after examining) our own capacity."
Poland, a close ally of the United States in the Iraqi conflict despite strong domestic opposition, controls an area south of Baghdad with 4,000 troops from the US-led multinational force under its command.
Following elections in Iraq on January 30, Poland cut its contingent in Iraq from 2,400 to 1,700 soldiers.
The next contingent of troops that will be sent to Iraq from Poland will number "several hundred soldiers less" than previous deployments, Mr Szmajdzinski said.
Posted by: God Save The World ||
04/12/2005 4:18:55 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
U.S. troops and warplanes reinforced Afghan forces that were ambushed on a high mountain pass in a firefight that killed about 12 militants and wounded two American soldiers, officials said Tuesday.
In other reminders of Afghanistan's instability, farmers fought a gunbattle with counternarcotics police in the south, and authorities said they arrested three men suspected of trying to abduct an American in the capital.
U.S. forces scrambled to the aid of a convoy of government troops who came under fire Monday from 30-35 militants on a mountain pass near Khost, 90 miles south of Kabul, American and Afghan officials said.
"The insurgents were reported to be fleeing the area but the coalition forces were able to locate them," a U.S. military statement said. "Approximately a dozen insurgents were killed."
Troops found a bomb rigged to one corpse, it said.
The two injured Americans were airlifted to the main U.S. base at Bagram for treatment and were listed in stable condition.
Police blamed Taliban rebels for the attack and suggested Afghan Gen. Khial Baz, a former senior military commander traveling in the convoy, was their target. None of the Afghans were reported hurt.
Khost is a former stronghold of Taliban and al-Qaida militants close to the Pakistani frontier and sees regular skirmishes between militants and Afghan and U.S. forces. It also is riven by violent factional and tribal disputes.
Baz, who survived several earlier attacks, commanded a provincial militia which worked closely with U.S. troops until it disbanded earlier this year under a disarmament program. He has survived several attacks.
Afghanistan's unruly militias are being replaced by new foreign-trained forces, including the Afghan National Army, now 20,000-strong, and special forces to rein in its runaway narcotics industry.
Tuesday's gunbattle broke out when protesters prevented members of a U.S.-trained unit from beginning a campaign to destroy opium poppy crops in southern Kandahar province, leaving one person dead and seven wounded.
Hundreds of protesters set fire to car tires and blocked a main road near Maywand, 50 miles from Kandahar city, deputy police chief Salim Khan told The Associated Press.
"The poppy eradication team came under fire from several directions," Khan said. "They fired back and six people were injured and one killed. One of the team was also injured."
He said the operation was suspended, and officials were negotiating with the leaders of the protest.
President Hamid Karzai last year proclaimed a "holy war" on Afghanistan's drug industry, which has become the world's largest since U.S. forces ousted the hard-line Taliban government in 2001.
In 2004, the country produced 87 percent of the world's opium, the raw material for heroin, prompting warnings it was turning into a "narco-state," although preliminary surveys suggest cultivation is down this year.
Donors including the United States, Britain and the European Union are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to train special Afghan forces to destroy crops, smash laboratories and arrest traffickers. More funds are going to help farmers switch to legal crops.
Meanwhile, an official said police in the capital have arrested three men suspected of trying to kidnap an American civilian two days earlier.
The men fit descriptions of the suspects in Sunday's attack and appeared to be planning another abduction or robbery when they were apprehended, Interior Ministry spokesman Latfullah Mashal told the AP.
Three men forced the American into the trunk of their car after he had walked up a hill overlooking the city. The victim escaped by opening the trunk with a tire wrench and throwing himself from the vehicle as it sped toward Kabul airport.
EFL and to stick to news, not CNN spin on Rumsfeld
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The Iraqi government said its forces captured an insider from Saddam Hussein's ousted regime Tuesday. Fadhil Ibrahim Mahmud al-Mashadani, a former high-ranking member of Saddam's Baath Party, is among "the main facilitators of many terrorist attacks in Iraq," the government said in a statement. Authorities arrested him at a farm northeast of the capital, the statement said. Al-Mashadani led Iraq's military bureau in Baghdad during Saddam's rule.
"Al-Mashadani is believed to be personally responsible for coordinating and funding attacks against the Iraqi people, the Iraqi government and the Iraqi security force," the statement said. "He is also suspected of being a critical link between the senior Baathist leaders hiding in Syria and the terrorists within Iraq."
This article starring:
FADHIL IBRAHIM MAHMUD AL MASHADANI
Iraqi Insurgency
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/12/2005 6:31:18 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
sloooooooooooooow, and paaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiinful interrogation. One very painful day for each US serviceman and Iraqi citizen killed or wounded.
Four leaders of three Al-Qaeda linked groups were captured in a US-Iraqi operation Monday that netted 67 suspected insurgents in the volatile southern Baghdad district of Dura, US and Iraqi officers told reporters.
"For these four, the crimes were murder, assassination, beheadings, bombings and attacks against Iraqi security forces and American forces," said Colonel Edward Cardon of the Third Infantry Division's fourth brigade combat team.
The other 63 detainees were still being grilled to determine their role in lawless's Dura insidious mix of violence. No further information on the men was immediately forthcoming. The group Tawhid wal Jihad is the old named used by Islamist militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's group before it was formally recognised as Qaeda's official branch in Iraq last fall. It then renamed itself Al-Qaeda Group in the Land of the Two Rivers.
Iraq troops have officially taken over a 16-square kilometer region of Dura, following Monday's successful raid, Cardon and Ali said. "Dura was under MNF (multinational forces) control. Today, I officially take over the area," al-Obeidi said. "It is a great honor. It is our duty. It is time ... for Dura to be settled just like Haifa Street."
Cardon said the 600-man battalion was backed by 50 US military advisors as part of the new template already employed on Haifa street, once considered Baghdad's deadliest neighborhood. An Iraq army battalion has controlled the notorious street in central Baghdad since February. The US military has been working directly with newly trained Iraq army brigades to help them take over security duties so the Pentagon can start reducing its troop levels.
This article starring:
Colonel Ali al-Obeidi
Colonel Edward Cardon
Ansar al-Islam
Ansar al-Sunna
Tawhid Wal Jihad
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/12/2005 12:29:44 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Excellent! This is heady stuff: Iraqi units that have stones and their heads screwed on straight, sweeping hostile Sunni areas with few casualties and rounding up large numbers of possible jihadist terrs, and the cream on top is having some of them turn out to be AlQ leadership. W00t!
Kudos to all involved. This is what is needed to shut down the insurgency, not some lame mindless Ba'athist blather regurgitated by jihadi symp MSM about saving Saddam's narrow ass.
#2
And yet my Chicago Tribunes coverage of the exact same day in Iraq headlines with some combination of the words "INSURGANT" "VIOLENCE" "KIDNAPPED AMERICAN"... and way at the end of the story a mention of 500 iraqi soldiers and 200 US soldiers conducting door to door come to Jesus meetings.
Yesterday was a quagmire in Iraq. My Trib tells me so.
The US Army will by June deploy in Iraq its "Matrix" system of remotely-detonated landmines, despite widespread concerns about the technology. The Mosul-based Styker Brigade will, according to Yahoo! news, be able to control individual devices from a laptop via a WLAN set-up. The Army reckons Matrix will eliminate accidental deaths caused by dumb landmines. Critics say otherwise.
Following successful tests in September, the US will deploy 25 sets of mines in Iraq. These include both M18 Claymores, which deliver steel balls, and the "M5 Modular Crowd Control Munition" - a non-lethal rubber-ball-delivering alternative. The Army's Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey said in a January statement that Matrix was intended for "firebase security, landing zone security, remote offensive attack and both infrastructure and check point protection".
Matrix project leader, Major Joe Hitt, declared: "The system is user friendly and a soldier will require a minimal amount of training in order to safely employ and use the system."
However, Human Rights Watch researcher, Mark Hiznay, countered: "We're concerned the United States is going to field something that has the capability of taking the man out of the loop when engaging the target. Or that we're putting a 19-year-old soldier in the position of pushing a button when a blip shows up on a computer screen."
Globalsecurity.org military analyst, John Pike, weighed in: "If you've got 500 of these mines out there, trying to figure out which one you want to detonate, when the clock's ticking, well that could be a brain teaser."
Several organisations, including Landmine Survivors Network and the Presbytarian Peacemaking Program are urging opponents of Matrix to lobby Donald Rumsfeld for the deployment to be scrapped. A Landmine Survivors Network statement asserts: "It seems obvious that these remote-control anti-personnel mines, however carefully monitored, will present new dangers to innocent Iraqi civilians for years to come." ...innocent Iraqi civilians approaching US military positions while carrying weapons, that is.
Posted by: Anonymoose ||
04/12/2005 11:28:05 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
How does Landmine Survivors Network feel about insurgent IEDs? Are they planning to lobby Zarqawi about them?
Posted by: Mike ||
04/12/2005 12:05 Comments ||
Top||
#2
"It seems obvious that these remote-control anti-personnel mines, however carefully monitored, will present new dangers to innocent Iraqi civilians for years to come."
US minefields are carefully mapped and either use self-destructing mines that "expire" or command-detonated mines like these. While I have sympathy for the victims of third-world "insurgency" minefields -- more terrorist act than military fortification -- I think their advocates need to stop and think for a while.
Or, hell, they should just shut up and focus their efforts on the real problems instead of constantly drumming up cash by sliming the US.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
04/12/2005 12:09 Comments ||
Top||
#3
The US Army will by June deploy in Iraq its "Matrix" system of remotely-detonated landmines, despite widespread concerns about the technology.
#6
Most of the Staff of the Register are socialist hacks. Their coverage of IT is good to great and they are the home of the BOFH. Coverage of anything else mostly sucks. I have not doubt Lester belongs to some anti mine group or some other group affiliated with them.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/12/2005 13:44 Comments ||
Top||
#8
Bastard Operator From Hell - The greatest computer humor series ever. Goes back to the mid 90s. Here's the link.
Imagine a user hating IT/server administrator merged with a drunken serial killer. :)
The Register BOFH only goes back to 2001 or so, but stories back to around ~95 are out on the net.
SPoD is right about the Register's staff, though. Good IT coverage but "Socialist hacks" is a polite way of putting it regarding everything else.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
04/12/2005 14:26 Comments ||
Top||
#9
Imagine a user hating IT/server administrator merged with a drunken serial killer.
There's another kind?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
04/12/2005 14:41 Comments ||
Top||
#10
"..Or that weâre putting a 19-year-old soldier in the position of pushing a button when a blip shows up on a computer screen."
The insinuation here being that a 19-year-old serviceman is some sort of dunce. Yeah, real friendly types, these Human Rights Watch dipsh^H^H^H^H^H people...
#13
And even that won't work, since I employ a sinister technique to keep other sites from ripping off and linking directly to images I post on RB. Sigh. Screw it.
#22
Doc - Hmmm, nope, don't think so. This is the only other "project" thingy I have:
Evolution of a Project
1. Wild Enthusiasm
2. Uncritical Acceptance
3. Dawning Comprehension
4. Rejected Disillusionment
5. Search for the Guilty
6. Punishment of the Innocent
7. Promotion of the Non-Participants
#24
Lol - I know that one, heh - I have a few by that cartoonist along the same line... he's got a real knack for hitting the raw nerve in research, lol!
Here's one you may not have seen - but I'm sure you'll appreciate...
Pirates armed with grenade launchers and automatic weapons have recently attacked a vessel registered at the Murmansk Shipping Line. The Tim Buck ship flying a Cypriot flag was on its way from Jeddah port in Saudi Arabia to the Tanzanian port of Dar el-Salam. A telegram which the Tim Buck sailors radioed to the Murmansk Shipping Line administration says that the pirates set a starboard rescue boat on fire but failed to penetrate inside the ship. The crew acted in strict compliance with the International Ship and Port Facility Security Code (ISPS Code) in the emergency situation. The fire was localized. None of the sailors was hurt. The ship continues its voyage to the port of destination.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/12/2005 1:56:36 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
That is one hell of a pic! Arrr! On a serious note, the pirates are starting to use more heavy weapons, other than knives and other light things. Ship's crewmembers are going to be reluctant to man firehoses to repel boarders, which seemed to be the usual SOP.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/12/2005 11:13 Comments ||
Top||
Posted by: Mike ||
04/12/2005 13:14 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Shipping owners won't arm crews for anti-piracy operations. Part of the problem is that a merchant ship, once it uses weapons (even for self defense), is then considered a combatant, with all the baggage that entails.
One could deploy armed security forces aboard ships, but then one runs into the problem when a ship equipped with such a force enters territorial waters of a nation that objects. Most, if not nearly all owners don't want that kind of headache.
#8
Rock: If your ship is looted, you can't make much money.
Hard Place: If countries won't let your armed ship enter their port, you can't make much money.
As least 20 people have been reported killed and several dozen wounded in renewed clashes between two rival Somali clans over control of a town near the Kenyan border. Kenyan police said on Monday the fighting around the Somali town of Bura Hachi erupted between militiamen from the Marahan clan and their rivals from the Garri clan on Saturday. The Somali factions used heavy artillery, including anti-aircraft weapons, machine guns mounted on pickup trucks and mortars in the clashes, a police officer said. "Around 14 Marahans and six Garres were killed ... but the number of dead could be much higher," the officer said, adding that it had not been possible to establish whether the dead were civilians or armed men.
Nairobi's Daily Nation newspaper reported that up to 36 people had died in the clashes. Kenyan authorities said casualities were brought into Kenya for treatment, and expressed fear that possible revenge attacks might spill across the border. "We have reinforced security on the Kenyan side because we know the fighting may spill over to the Kenyan side and bring new problems," northeastern Police Commander Gabriel Ndolo said. Bura Hachi, about 3km from the border, has been hotly contested by the two clans, who have been at loggerheads since Somalia was plunged into anarchy after the 1991 ouster of leader Muhammad Siad Barri.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/12/2005 1:55:02 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"Heavy artillery"? Mortars aren't even light artillery.
I bet if anyone wrote to the journalist who wrote this piece, he'd get angry and insist there was no difference, or that he was merely exercising his journalistic license to spice things up a bit.
#3
Hatfields vs. McCoys with a weapons upgrade and different self-medication preferences. Nothing like a light AA cannon on the Toyota with a high rate of fire to clean the streets and take care of the light exterior demo work in your neighborhood.
The terror group al-Qaida in Iraq claimed to have carried out its second major attack against a U.S. base in a little over a week, saying it was responsible for suicide bombers who tried Monday to ram two cars and a fire truck into a remote military camp in western Iraq, injuring three Marines and three civilians.
Later Monday in Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, a pickup truck exploded in a crowded market, killing at least two people and injuring more than 20 others, hospital officials said. Witnesses said the blast was targeting a U.S. patrol, but the U.S. military did not have any immediate information.
In the earlier attack, suicide bombers detonated two cars and the fire truck at a security checkpoint at Camp Gannon, a small Marine outpost in the western Iraqi town of Qaim, the U.S. military said in a statement.
"The drivers of the vehicles were stopped short of the camp by forces manning the checkpoints," the statement said.
Military authorities said the blasts slightly damaged the camp's concrete barriers and barbed wire, as well as a nearby mosque.
Insurgents also opened fire on the camp, and a U.S. attack helicopter destroyed a car with a gunman, officials said. It was unclear how many insurgents and suicide bombers were killed in the assault. Three Marines were evacuated for medical treatment.
The attack came nine days after dozens of insurgents used rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and a car bomb in a failed attempt to break into the U.S. military's controversial Abu Ghraib prison west of Baghdad. The attack April 2 injured more than 40 U.S. service members and more than a dozen prisoners at a facility that has become synonymous with the military's prison abuse scandal.
Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed to have carried out that attack, too, although none of their statements can be independently confirmed. President Bush said the April 2 assault showed that the group was still deadly.
Also Monday, hundreds of U.S. and Iraqi forces launched their biggest Baghdad raid in recent weeks, moving on foot through a central neighborhood and rounding up dozens of suspected insurgents, the military said.
About 500 members of Iraq's police and army swept through buildings in the Rashid neighborhood along with some 200 American soldiers, detaining 65 suspected militants, Lt. Col. Clifford Kent of the Fort Stewart, Ga.-based 3rd Infantry Division said.
One Iraqi soldier suffered injuries but no American casualties were reported in the largest joint U.S.-Iraqi raid in Iraq's capital since the 3rd Infantry Division assumed responsibility for the city on Feb. 27, Kent said.
One suspected insurgent was also being treated for wounds, the military said in a statement.
In a small victory against kidnappings that have terrorized an already troubled nation, a Defense Ministry official said Monday that Iraqi security forces arrested a person who claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of two French journalists abducted and later released in Iraq.
Iraqi army soldiers detained Amer Hussein Sheikhan in the Mahmoudiya area on April 4, the official said on customary condition of anonymity. No other details were available.
Journalists Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot were released in December after four months in captivity.
In Romania, Adriana Saftoiu, spokeswoman for President Traian Basescu, said officials believe three Romanian journalists kidnapped along with their guide nearly two weeks ago in Iraq were still alive and authorities were optimistic they would return home. She offered no other information.
At the same time, a group claiming to have kidnapped a Pakistani official in Iraq has demanded money for his release, a senior Pakistani government official said without giving his name.
Malik Mohammed Javed, a deputy counselor at the Pakistani mission in Baghdad, went missing late Saturday after leaving home for prayers at a nearby mosque.
Legislators met Monday to discuss rules and regulations governing their sessions, but little headway was made on forming a new government. Shiite Ibrahim al-Jaafari was named last week to the country's interim prime minister post, but he is still forming his Cabinet.
Hussein al-Sadr, a lawmaker from the coalition of outgoing Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, said his group had decided to participate in the government, adding that the inclusion must be a "real and effective one and not a nominal one."
He said the coalition was demanding four ministerial posts, including one of the main ministries.
"If our demands are not met, then we will lead the opposition in the parliament," he said.
Ali al-Dabagh, a lawmaker from the Shiite-led United Iraq Alliance, said he thought the demands were too high.
Reaching out to the country's top religious officials, one of Iraq's two vice presidents — Ghazi al-Yawer, a Sunni Arab — met with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, a leading Shiite leader who called on voters to cast ballots during the country's historic Jan. 30 elections.
"We came as a delegation to thank Mr. al-Sistani for his great work and insistence that led to the success of the elections and formation of a National Assembly," al-Yawer told reporters after the 90-minute meeting in the holy city of Najaf.
Some have feared al-Sistani would influence the formation of a new government, signaling an increased role for the religious leadership. Al-Sistani has said he does not intend to involve himself in any political process, except for expressing his opinion during crises.
On Sunday, al-Yawer met with the influential Association of Muslim Scholars, a Sunni group with alleged ties to the insurgency. They discussed progress in naming the new government.
In Baqubah, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, demonstrators chanted anti-American slogans, continuing three days of protests against U.S. forces and calling for the Americans to go home. Tens of thousands gathered Saturday in Baghdad to call for U.S.-led troops to leave, and more demonstrations were held Sunday in Duluiyah, 45 miles north of the capital.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/12/2005 1:29:12 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
this is second time in a week that an Al Q affiliate staged a daytime frontal assault on a fixed US position- also second failure
If ALQ was to succeed in one of these it would undoubtedly be a big propaganda victory - certainly the ABC/AlJeera/CNN,etc. crowd would compare it to one of the times the NV/vietcong temporarily overan a base.
On the other hand, if they have a few more losses like the ones lately, they will have to abandon this tactic and that will be bad for their internal propaganda. Very very bad.
Senior U.S. military commanders have become so pleased with events in Iraq that they expect troop levels (search) to drop to about 100,000 by early next year, depending on the persistence of the insurgency and local security-force training, defense sources confirmed to FOX News.
"We're hitting our goals," one senior U.S. commander told FOX News, adding that the military did not want to be overly optimistic about developments in Iraq.
Sen. Norm Coleman (search), who recently visited Iraq and talked with Gen. David Petraeus (search), the top American military trainer in Iraq, said Iraqi security forces were taking more of a lead role in protecting their country, with American forces shifting to the background.
Coleman acknowledged that there was still work to be done.
"It's not an exit strategy, it's a success strategy," said the Minnesota Republican. "Success is this vision that I talked about — Americans embedded with [an] Iraqi army that is on the front line dealing with a policing operation and dealing with military operations and wiping out insurgency."
Military commanders in Iraq said joint exercises between U.S. troops and Iraqi forces were disrupting the insurgency. Since January's elections, violence against U.S. troops has been reduced by 20 percent, but insurgents have mounted more attacks on Iraqi forces and civilians.
Several top associates of Iraq's most-wanted man, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (search), have been captured or killed in recent weeks. Zarqawi is the Jordanian militant whose Al-Qaeda-affiliated network has claimed responsibility for many of the deadliest attacks.
American commanders say the insurgency's latest tactics, as shown by the many-pronged conventional assault on the Abu Ghraib (search) prison complex the night of April 2, which wounded 44 Americans and 13 Iraqi prisoners, means it will take longer for insurgents to plan and carry out attacks.
Senior commanders say the insurgency is still mostly driven by Iraqis, but add that small numbers of foreign fighters, who carry out most suicide bombings, are sneaking into the country, mainly from Syria.
U.S. officials said that as more Iraqi troops have taken the front lines against the insurgency, more Iraqi civilians and politicians have cooperated with multinational forces.
But no official would give a precise timetable about when American forces would withdraw or how many troops would be involved.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/12/2005 1:25:31 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Finally, an intelligent and sensible piece about troop reduction strategy. Wouldn't you know it - Fox. As for Coleman nattering about his "vision", lol! Duh! Everyone with a brain (okay, so that means just over half of Americans - quibble, quibble) "gets it" regards how it must happen. Sheesh, Norm, get a grip on it son.
Other than Normie's little brain fart, this is spot-on, from top to bottom. Thx, Dan!
Iraqi insurgents struck Monday in ways large and small and deadly, launching a concerted attack on U.S. forces near the Syrian border, detonating a truck bomb in a crowded market in Samarra and kidnapping an American contractor in the Baghdad area.
The U.S. Embassy declined to release details about the kidnapping, saying only that it occurred midday at the site of a reconstruction project. The man's family was notified, an embassy spokesman said.
The violence came as hundreds of Iraqi and American troops swept through a large section of Baghdad, raiding homes and arresting dozens of people suspected of links to the insurgency.
The raids provided the latest example of the growing role Iraqi forces play in combating the guerrillas. Iraq's new leaders, with the support of American officials, are working toward a transfer of security duties that would allow U.S.-led forces to draw down their numbers.
"We are trying to build as soon as possible our military forces," said Jalal Talabani, Iraq's newly elected president. "I think within two years we can do it."
But in an interview Sunday with CNN, Talabani said Iraq still was "in great need to have American and other allied forces" and would remain so "until we will be assured that there will be no danger from terrorism."
How soon the United States can start drawing down troops in earnest depends not only on how quickly Iraqi forces can get trained, equipped and battle-tested. It also depends on something harder to judge: the strength of the insurgents.
Guerrilla attacks are down across most of Iraq, and U.S. casualties have dropped dramatically in the last six weeks. But the attacks Monday showed that the insurgents remain active and deadly in several regions of the country.
The attack at Husaybah along the Syrian border came about 8:30 a.m. when insurgents assaulted Camp Gannon with three vehicle bombs, two packed into cars and a third in a firetruck. Other fighters opened fire with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades, apparently trying to take out Marine sentries in guard towers, a Marine commander said.
One car bomb went off well outside the camp in what Marines suspect may have been a diversion. The other two vehicle bombs were driven into the wall on the eastern side of the camp, said Lt. Col. T.S. Mundy, commanding officer of Task Force 3/2 at Qaim.
"The Marines on post fired on both vehicles, and probably were successful in causing them to detonate short of their targets," Mundy said. "The perimeter is still intact. ... The Marines held their ground."
A U.S. attack helicopter also destroyed a car with a gunman inside, officials said.
Mundy said a few Marines suffered minor wounds, and hospital officials said three civilians were injured.
The assault was similar to, though smaller than, an insurgent attack April 2 on the U.S. military base at Abu Ghraib prison. Both assaults were claimed by the group Al Qaeda in Iraq, led by militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The Abu Ghraib battle lasted two hours and left dozens wounded on both sides, the military said.
Fighting also was reported Monday in the town of Qaim a few miles inside the border. Al-Zarqawi's group claimed on its Web site to be in control of the town, and there were reports of several deaths. There was no indication that U.S. forces were involved.
The Samarra bombing targeted a U.S. military convoy as it patrolled a crowded market. At least three people were killed and more than 20 were wounded, including four U.S. soldiers, officials told The Associated Press. Most of the injured were women and children, AP said.
The raids in Baghdad's al-Rasheed district were the biggest in weeks, involving about 500 Iraqi troops and 200 American soldiers, the military said. The targets were insurgents and criminals who have turned certain neighborhoods into battlegrounds where Iraqi police fear to go and U.S. forces come under frequent fire.
The zone includes the Dora neighborhood in southern Baghdad, which over the last several months has seen scores of kidnappings, bombings and killings. Over the weekend, a Shiite cleric from Karbala and a police official from Najaf were killed in Dora.
The troops, moving on foot through the crowded streets, arrested 65 suspects. One suspect was injured, as was one Iraqi soldier.
The district is known for "harboring terrorist networks," a military statement said.
"Those detained are suspected of committing numerous crimes and activities to include assassinations, beheadings, kidnapping, intimidation and attacks," the military said.
The kidnapping gangs operating in Dora and elsewhere target Iraqis more than foreigners. The goal is to collect ransom, not make a political statement. But some Westerners have been kidnapped by criminal gangs and then sold up a chain to groups such as al-Zarqawi's. The militants use them to publicize their violent campaigns and raise money from rich backers, mostly in foreign countries.
The U.S. Embassy declined to release details about the kidnapping of the American contractor. Soldiers on guard duty in the heavily defended Green Zone stepped up searches of vehicles in response to the kidnapping, but an embassy spokesman who spoke on condition of anonymity denied that the abduction happened inside the protected zone.
Also Monday, a Pakistani government official said a group claiming to have kidnapped a Pakistani Embassy official over the weekend demanded money for his release, the AP reported.
Malik Mohammed Javed, a deputy counselor at the Pakistani mission in Baghdad, went missing late Saturday after leaving home for prayers at a nearby mosque. The previously unknown Omar bin Khattab group claimed responsibility for the kidnapping, and Javed called the embassy to say his abductors had not harmed him, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said.
The threat of kidnapping has become a major impediment to reconstruction efforts. And the reconstruction efforts are considered key to putting down the insurgency and clearing the way for U.S. forces to leave Iraq.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/12/2005 1:23:46 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
Hamas published an unprecedented statement Monday apologizing for the murder of a young woman by its gunmen near the town of Beit Lahiya in the Gaza Strip.
They look sorry, don't they?
According to Palestinian sources, several armed Hamas gunmen stopped a car with four passengers at around 9 P.M. last Friday. The gunmen who apparently were attempting to rob the couples - two brothers and their girlfriends - suddenly opened fire at the car to make it easier to rob them for unknown reasons and killed 20-year-old Yusra al-Azami, a student at the Islamic University in Gaza.
Hamas issued a statement several days later admitting that its people were responsible for the murder, calling it "an isolated act by irresponsible people, from which Hamas dissociates itself."
The Popular Front, to which al-Azami apparently belonged, asked Hamas on Monday to expel the murderers from its ranks.
Another murder occurred in Gaza last weekend under similar circumstances. Both incidents are indicative of the internal anarchy (or "fawda") in the Palestinian Authority over the past months. Hamas was seen until recently as a more disciplined organization than Fatah or the PA's security arms. The recent incident shows that Hamas too has members who engage in criminal activity.
Somewhere around 100%, based on activity.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/12/2005 12:16:44 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Them hanging from lamp posts would be a more profound apology but that isn't going to happen.
#3
This is the true face of Islam: If they are not murdering Jews they are murdering their own - same as Taliban, Saudies, Iran, etc., etc., etc. Pity those Euro's and bleeding hearts here, who always blame the US and want to "live together" w/the Muslims.
#7
Hamas issued a statement several days later admitting that its people were responsible for the murder, calling it "an isolated act by irresponsible people, from which Hamas dissociates itself."
Yeah, they're supposed to be killing Jews, aren't they?
#8
The promotion of disorganized and largely pointless violence begets what?!? Maybe they'll offer to whack them like the IRA did with it's own rabid dogs once exposed!
#9
everyone here is treating this as if it were a sectarian killing; however, it may be killing by a 'promote virture fight vice' squad -- possibly the woman was not wearing here veil or something
#12
"Both incidents are indicative of the internal anarchy (or "fawda") in the Palestinian Authority"
Doesn't this make all the paleostinians killed over not being holy enough "cannon" fawda?
Posted by: Dave ||
04/12/2005 11:49 Comments ||
Top||
#13
Cannon Fawdahr or not I'd let em go with a half-hearted apology and denial of BLT sami's for 3 whole weeks! What's an antifodder without good ol boys with bad aim(s)? Somebody's gotta keep the circus in business, don't they?
An intelligence agency conducted two separate operations against Al Qaeda elements on Saturday and arrested four Iraqis suspected of working for the group, officials said on Monday. In the first operation, intelligence personnel raided a house in Faisal Colony on Dalazak Road in the jurisdiction of Faqirabad Police Station and arrested an Iraqi, Abdul Aziz, who was fluent in Pashto, officials said. However, police expressed ignorance over the raid or arrest. In the second operation, three suspected Al Qaeda members, also of Iraqi origin, were arrested from a house on Charsadda Road, they added. All suspects were taken to an undisclosed location, officials said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/12/2005 00:00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
Iraqi security forces have arrested one of the kidnappers of two French journalists held for 124 days before being freed last December, the defence ministry said on Monday. Without naming the journalists - Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot - a ministry statement said troops "on April 4, 2005 at 05:00 am (0100 GMT) arrested the criminal Amer Hussein Shikhan who admitted kidnapping two French journalists, along with a Syrian, and having taken part in other terrorist operations." It gave no other details.
"We will say no more. But note the small, self-satisfied smile."
This article starring:
AMER HUSEIN SHIKHAN
Iraqi Insurgency
Christian Chesnot
Georges Malbrunot
Posted by: seafarious ||
04/12/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I wonder if he has any interesting stories to tell, like the journos were complicit in their own kidnapping? Inquiring minds need to know.
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.
Pirates armed with grenade launchers and automatic weapons have recently attacked a vessel registered at the Murmansk Shipping Line. The Tim Buck ship flying a Cypriot flag was on its way from Jeddah port in Saudi Arabia to the Tanzanian port of Dar el-Salam. A telegram which the Tim Buck sailors radioed to the Murmansk Shipping Line administration says that the pirates set a starboard rescue boat on fire but failed to penetrate inside the ship. The crew acted in strict compliance with the International Ship and Port Facility Security Code (ISPS Code) in the emergency situation. The fire was localized. None of the sailors was hurt. The ship continues its voyage to the port of destination.
As least 20 people have been reported killed and several dozen wounded in renewed clashes between two rival Somali clans over control of a town near the Kenyan border. Kenyan police said on Monday the fighting around the Somali town of Bura Hachi erupted between militiamen from the Marahan clan and their rivals from the Garri clan on Saturday. The Somali factions used heavy artillery, including anti-aircraft weapons, machine guns mounted on pickup trucks and mortars in the clashes, a police officer said. "Around 14 Marahans and six Garres were killed ... but the number of dead could be much higher," the officer said, adding that it had not been possible to establish whether the dead were civilians or armed men.
Hamas published an unprecedented statement Monday apologizing for the murder of a young woman by its gunmen near the town of Beit Lahiya in the Gaza Strip.
An intelligence agency conducted two separate operations against Al Qaeda elements on Saturday and arrested four Iraqis suspected of working for the group, officials said on Monday. In the first operation, intelligence personnel raided a house in Faisal Colony on Dalazak Road in the jurisdiction of Faqirabad Police Station and arrested an Iraqi, Abdul Aziz, who was fluent in Pashto, officials said. However, police expressed ignorance over the raid or arrest. In the second operation, three suspected Al Qaeda members, also of Iraqi origin, were arrested from a house on Charsadda Road, they added. All suspects were taken to an undisclosed location, officials said.
Iraqi security forces have arrested one of the kidnappers of two French journalists held for 124 days before being freed last December, the defence ministry said on Monday. Without naming the journalists - 
