Hi there, !
Today Tue 09/03/2002 Mon 09/02/2002 Sun 09/01/2002 Sat 08/31/2002 Fri 08/30/2002 Thu 08/29/2002 Wed 08/28/2002 Archives
Rantburg
532930 articles and 1859716 comments are archived on Rantburg.

Today: 18 articles and 11 comments as of 7:36.
Post a news link    Post your own article   
Area:                    
''Vote fundo, 'cuz we're not secular...''
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 1: WoT Operations
0 [1] 
1 00:00 Allah the Dog Faced God [2] 
0 [1] 
0 [] 
0 [1] 
2 00:00 Frank G [1] 
2 00:00 Allah the Dog Faced God [3] 
2 00:00 Fred [2] 
0 [1] 
0 [4] 
0 [4] 
3 00:00 Tom Roberts [1] 
0 [] 
0 [2] 
0 [] 
0 [1] 
1 00:00 Steve White [2] 
0 [1] 
Afghanistan
US troops, Afghan mercenaries arrest 97 in Kandahar
Kandahar Police have arrested 97 suspects and seized 400 different kinds of arms during a grand operation against Taliban and Al-Qaida in Mewand district of Kandahar province about 50 miles off the provincial capital, said Deputy Inspector General of Kandahar Police, Mohammed Anwar while talking to newsmen at Chaman. He said the Allied and Afghan forces had jointly launched a grand operation against Taliban and Al-Qaida in Kandahar and the detainees are thoroughly being interrogated by the US and local officials in jails.
Could this be a serious cleanup? Wotta surprise!
The arms included rocket launchers, rifles, machine guns, land mines and others. The operation could also be expanded to other areas, he added. He declined to have any information whether there were any Taliban or Al-Qaida officials included in the arrestees or not.
Probably mostly cannon fodder. Their relatives are probably on the way to Kandahar now, telling what good boys they are, how they all support the gummint, and how the arms and ammunition are just for hunting elk...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 08/31/2002 01:38 pm || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  why...dear god allah, why? does Mullah Omar still walk this Earth....make him a number one target and give him a LONG well deserved dirt nap...with no snack
Posted by: Frank G || 08/31/2002 16:38 Comments || Top||

#2  Frank G:
The Afghan war terminated by armistice, facilitated by the Northern Alliance. As perverted as he is, Mullah Omar has numerous supporters within and without the Karzai government. That is why Karzai is afraid to use an Afghan bodyguard. The US-Afghan relationship is the proverbial: marriage made in hell.
Posted by: Allah the Dog Faced God || 08/31/2002 20:32 Comments || Top||


200 to 400 prisoners died in metal containers
A northern Afghan warlord admitted Friday that 200 Taliban prisoners died last year while being transported in shipping containers, some by suffocation, but he said the deaths were unintentional and mostly due to disease and injuries suffered in heavy fighting.
And in sports today... Oh. They have more. What else is there to say?
Reports that up to 960 captured Taliban fighters suffocated to death after they were crammed into unventilated metal shipping containers began emerging late last year. Earlier this week, the UN envoy to Afghanistan said the current government did not have the resources to investigate the claims.
Nor do they care, particularly. If they did, they'd find the resources...
Abdul Rashid Dostum, a top northern commander and ally of United States in Afghanistan, said in a statement that the Taliban fighters died during a four-day operation in November to transfer them from Kunduz, which had just been captured by the then-opposition northern alliance, to the northern city of Shibergan. "In no case were any prisoners killed. In no case was there any intention that they should die in containers," Dostum said in a joint statement with three other northern alliance commanders. The statement said 200 out of 400 people died. "It is essential to recognize that most of these died of wounds from bombing and fighting in Kunduz ... but also due to disease, suffocation, suicide and a general weakness after weeks of intense fighting and bombardment," the statement added while justifying mass killings.
Sympathy meter hasn't twitched yet. Bad Guys fight like cornered rats at Konduz, then expect to be hugged and kissed when the city falls? I don't think so.
The prisoners were meant to be transferred to a prison in Shibergan, but investigators for the U.S.-based Physicians for Human Rights said hundreds died en route instead and ended up at a mass grave site in nearby Dasht-e-Leili.
If they'd put them in with the other prisoners they'd have started to stink...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 08/31/2002 02:08 pm || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I don't condone mistreatment of prisoners, but the Taleban were intentional non-signatories to any convention. Their apologist websites - azzam.com, khurasaan.com, al neda.org, islamicawakening.com, etc - all celebrated their disassociation from non-shariah law.
And they did carry out massacres such as that Mazhar-e-Sharif (Ironically, I think that means "manifestation of innocence" in Arabic). They set themselves up for revenge by paramilitaries. What goes around...
Posted by: Allah the Dog Faced God || 08/31/2002 15:30 Comments || Top||

#2  and this is bad.....why? I think the prisoners soon to be released to (again) fight against us and an elected representative government in Kabul should again be packed in similar containers...just a lot more tightly, especially if there was only a 50% attrition rate
Posted by: Frank G || 08/31/2002 16:36 Comments || Top||


Axis of Evil
Turkish Troops in Northern Iraq
The new chief of Turkey's powerful military has acknowledged Turkish military presence in neighboring Kurdish-held northern Iraq, but refused to elaborate on the force, news agencies reported Saturday, August 31, 2002. “We have some military elements in northern Iraq to serve a specific purpose, but it would not be right for me to explain the reason for their presence,” General Hilmi Ozkok told reporters at a reception late Friday, August 30, 2002 the Anatolia news agency reported.
So that one goes from rumor to confirmed...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 08/31/2002 07:48 am || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The question is why they are there. If they're dealing with Kurd separatists who've fled from Turkey to northern Iraq, that's not big news, though it could complicate things later. Perhaps they're giving us a helping hand training Kurds for the push south? That might come back to haunt the Turks unless we've all shook hands on how the region is going to look when the dust settles.

I keep wondering if one of the major things holding us back on Iraq, in addition to the need for stockpiling more precision-guided weapons, is the Kurdish issue. It's the second-touchiest thing for the Turks, and we've got to keep them happy.

Regards,
Posted by: Steve White || 08/31/2002 15:56 Comments || Top||


U.S. destroys major Iraqi military facility
The United States is said to have destroyed a major Iraqi air defense facility. Iraqi opposition sources said U.S. and British fighter-jets destroyed Iraqi army intelligence headquarters in the southern region. The facility struck on Sunday was located in Ashar south of Basra and contained advanced radar and surveillance equipment that monitored air and ground traffic in neighboring Iraq. The sources said the Iraqi facility was struck by four air-to-ground missiles. The allied attack was said to have been the most significant since February, when U.S. and British warplanes attacked Iraqi air defense network near Baghdad. Sunday's attack was followed by another U.S. attack on Tuesday that targeted an Iraqi radar site in the north. In all, the allies conducted seven raids over the last three days.
Normally, the time to hit this kind of facility would be just prior to an attack, so's to degrade their intelligence collection capability without giving them time to reconstitute it...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 08/31/2002 01:25 pm || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Syria's a key player in Iraqi buildup...
Leading military experts told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that Syria serves as a key conduit for the smuggling of weapons and components of military platforms to Baghdad. The experts said the Bush administration has not cited Syrian involvement because Damascus has played a small role in the U.S.-led war against terrorism. Anthony Cordesman, a former senior Pentagon official and senior fellow at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Syria has been used as a conduit for a range of what he termed critical parts for Iraq's military. He said many of the details of Syria's participation in Baghdad's military programs are known to the CIA and the rest of the U.S. intelligence community. "I think that we have perhaps found ourselves in a position where because Syria has cooperated in some aspects of dealing with Al Qaida and certain types of Islamic extremists, we have been a little reluctant to point out the fact that there is an increasing flow -- not so much of major arms but critical parts," Cordesman told the Senate committee recently. "We know things like jet engines, tank engines, some aspects of armored spare parts are beginning to move through Syria in very significant deliveries. I think, however, to get down to the details is something that really only people in the intelligence community can tell you."
Syria's trying to play both ends against the middle: cooperating in the war on terror, but also supporting Sammy's fellow Arab state and the Arab line in general. It's understandable — they're Arabs, after all, and they figure if they all pull hard enough the Soddies can pull this war with the west thing off. That doesn't mean they won't end up paying for it later, though they're hoping that we're really too nice to make that happen. I'm hoping we're not.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 08/31/2002 01:31 pm || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Syrian dictators: there is a large Assyrian nationalist movement that would like to bounce you Arabist cretins back to Mecca. If you lose this time, you lose everything.
Posted by: Allah the Dog Faced God || 08/31/2002 15:33 Comments || Top||

#2  They won't be happy with a latter-day Tiglath Pileser...
Posted by: Fred || 09/01/2002 6:07 Comments || Top||


Europe
Swedes Say Sven the Terrorist Planned U.S. Embassy Attack
A Swedish man of Tunisian origin, arrested on suspicion he was about to hijack a plane, was planning to crash the aircraft into a U.S. embassy in Europe. The man was arrested on Thursday when a gun was found in his luggage as he boarded a flight to Britain from a small airport west of Stockholm. Police were looking for four more men, including an explosives expert, who worked with him on the plan. ``We know for sure that the plan was to crash the plane into a U.S. embassy in Europe,'' a military intelligence source told Reuters.
What an original idea...
The 29-year-old suspect had been moved to a high security prison and was expected to be charged on Monday. Police said they were investigating the man's background and looking for any possible links to militant groups. Swedish tabloid newspaper Expressen said the man became a devout Muslim in the last few years, regularly visiting a mosque in Stockholm. The paper quoted his friends as saying he often spoke of fighting for Islam but was not a member of any organization.
So we not only have to worry about al-Qaeda (aka Fath e-Islam), but also about assorted amateurs and nutcases who want to be Islamic heroes "'cuz it's neat"...
Passengers on the plane flown by the Irish budget airline Ryanair included people traveling to an Islamic conference in the English city of Birmingham. Those heading to the conference had been questioned but were not suspects, police said.
Wonder if the conference agenda will contain a discussion of why it's not nice to hijack planes full of screaming Islamic conference delegates and crash them into buildings?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 08/31/2002 07:48 am || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


''No, I didn't!'' sez Sven
A man arrested at a Swedish airport after a gun was found in his carryon luggage was not planning a hijacking, his mouthpiece lawyer said Saturday. The director of the national security police, meanwhile, denied a report that the suspect was planning to crash the aircraft into a U.S. embassy in Europe and that they were looking for four men connected to the plan. ``It's false information. ... I deny it absolutely,'' security police director Margareta Linderoth told The Associated Press.
"I know nothing! NOTHING! Hogan, tell him...!"
The 29-year-old suspect, identified by the defense attorney as Kerim Chatty, a Muslim. Defense attorney Nils Uggla said his client can explain why he carried a gun in a toilet-articles bag and that Chatty regrets causing trouble for the 20 people booked on the same flight to Britain who also were detained for questioning and later released. ``He denies that this has anything at all to do with terrorism or airplane hijacking,'' Uggla told The Associated Press by telephone. ``He is deeply sorry that he caused trouble for the others who were traveling.''
Usually, gun + airplane = hijacking. Hard to think of an explanation that doesn't include that equation...
Police said the suspect had been convicted of theft and assault.
Does that mean he beat somebody up and stole the gun?
The Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet reported on Saturday that the suspect had attended flight school in Conway, S.C. The paper quoted Jim Trautman, an official at the North American Institute of Aviation, as saying the suspect had studied at the school. ``Unfortunately I cannot see whether he finally received a diploma or not,'' Trautman was quoted as saying.
But then, he wouldn't need one, would he, if he didn't intend to land...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 08/31/2002 07:48 am || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Russ central bank right on top o' them terrorists, yup...
Pravda, in a slighly incoherent article (and it's not just the translation), attempts to describe the Russian Central Bank's hotlist of terror-related organizations and accounts.
Central Bank officials are listening spellbound to UN officials. Yet, it deems that the UN believes that Chechen guerrillas are anything but terrorists. That is why there is no Russian firm or a Chechen mob on the list of people and organizations that back up terrorism. However, there are 21 Spaniards on it, one Philippine, the New People’s Party (Philippines), and 74 members of the Taliban movement. It is very curious that the list does not mention either Osama bin Laden or his Al-Qaeda. Central Bank’s friends from New York might not like that.

Furthermore, it turns out that Russian bank laws do not allow to say no to a client, if he or she wishes to open an account in Sberbank, for instance. Both Osama bin Laden and Charles Manson will be welcome. It just so happens that Russian banks cannot freeze suspicious person’s accounts. Therefore, the official list of the Central Bank is virtually a fake.
Even Pravda admits that this isn't some sort of Russian perfidy, but mere Soviet-style ineptitude. A hundred years from now, when the War on Terror is in the same category as the memory of the Maine, little things like this will be long forgotten. For now, my eyes are tired from all that rolling.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 08/31/2002 08:08 am || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front
Johny Jihad sings...
John Walker Lindh's lawyers say he is telling federal agents everything he knows, and he wants Americans to forgive him for joining the Taliban military.
No. Have him pay his debt to society, then we'll talk about it...
The United States would be interested in Lindh's knowledge of other fighters he met as well as places he had been in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Before his military training in Afghanistan, he spent time in a pro-Taliban border region of Pakistan. Lindh attorneys Tony West and George Harris, in interviews last week, would not describe the information their client is providing, and government officials refused to comment.
Usually it's "who, what, when, where"...
Lindh, 21, is undergoing debriefings with several government agencies as part of a plea agreement. He would receive a maximum 20-year prison term if officials are satisfied with his cooperation and the judge approves the deal at an Oct. 4 sentencing proceeding. Multiple agencies are attending the debriefings, West said.
Probably not that much to be learned. Johnny was just cannon fodder, and apparently not even very good at that...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 08/31/2002 08:00 pm || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Didn't the plea agreement, include a trip to Mecca, down the road? When Johnny Jihad bows to US civility instead of the black stone, that is when he can be trusted, a little.
Posted by: Allah the Dog Faced God || 08/31/2002 20:38 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
''Vote fundo, 'cuz we're not secular...''
President Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), Sindh and leader of Jamaat-e-Islami, Asadullah Bhutto Advocate Friday called upon masses to vote MMA ''in order to bring religious elements into power by rejecting secular elements''.
Yeah, buddy! That's zackly what Pakland needs...
Speaking at a mosque during Juma prayers, he said Pakistan was obtained in the name of Islam and to provide people of subcontinent a welfare Islamic state, where they could live peacefully in accordance with Islamic teachings.
Yup. Gonna start in on it any time now...
Rejecting Turkish model of Islam, he said following the way of Turkish people who brought Islamic elements into power, Pakistanis will reject secular elements and express their confidence on religious parties' alliance.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 08/31/2002 07:55 am || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:


Treason charges withdrawn against fundos...
The Government of Balochistan has withdrawn the politically motivated treason charges against several leaders of the Pak-Afghan Defence Council as the government failed to substantiate the charges because of lack of evidence.
Wonder how much that cost 'em?
The attorneys representing the Balochistan Government submitted an application in the Anti Terrorism Court (ATC) informing the court that the government had withdrawn the treason charges against several leaders of the religious parties. These leaders were accused of delivering fiery speeches against military dictator General Pervez Musharraf and the United States attack on Afghanistan and allegedly instigated the people for an agitation against the government during the US air strikes on Afghanistan culminating in removal of the Taliban Government. The leaders who were facing these charges included Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, a former Senator and MNA, Maulana Noor Mohammad and Maulana Abdul Ghani.
"You can't indict us for incitement to riot. If you do, we'll pull this town down around your ears!"
It may be mentioned here that the court had earlier exonerated several other leaders of religious parties because of the lack of evidence against them. In one judgment the court recommended that a Sub Inspector of Police who was the investigation officer in a similar case should be tried for submitting the case to the court without any substantiating evidence.
Bet that one really cost 'em a bundle!
Although the government had registered treason cases against several dozen political workers and leaders, so far the court has convicted only two activists of Hezb-ut-Tahrir for distributing pamphlets against military ruler General Pervez Musharraf.
That's because the Hezb is small potatoes in those parts, and they had to indict somebody.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 08/31/2002 05:08 pm || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Gang rape victim fears revenge
Hours before the verdict in a high-profile gang rape trial in which 14 men face the death penalty, the victim said she had been threatened with revenge if they were convicted. Thirty-year-old Mukhtaran Mai told Reuters rival tribesmen had threatened to kill members of her family if their relatives were convicted in Saturday's ruling and appealed to the government for a safer place to live. "They have told us that if their four people are sentenced to death, they would kill eight of our men," she said. "Not only my family, but also those who supported us are being threatened with dire consequences."
In a civilized country, the relatives of those convicted would put bags over their heads, refuse to appear in public, and apologize profusely to the victim for barbarism of their relatives. In Pakland, they intimidate and threaten dire revenge.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 08/31/2002 06:52 pm || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Meerwala gang rapists to get longer necks...
A Pakistani court on Sunday sentenced six men to death for the gang rape of a woman on the orders of a traditional village jury. Defense lawyer Mohammad Yaqub told Reuters that eight other men were acquitted in the trial before a special anti-terrorism court in the Punjab provincial town of Dera Ghazi Khan. Mukhtaran Mai, the 30-year old victim, was not present when the court announced the decision amid heavy security.
Probably afraid one of her neighbors would rape her or kill her...
Yaqub said four men were sentenced to death for committing the rape and two others for serving on the village jury that authorized the crime. The remaining eight have been acquitted. "We will appeal," he added.
"The bitch was askin' for it. Y'shoulda seen the way she was dressed! An' my clients wudn't even there. It was somebody else. Y'ask me, it was her own fam'ly did it to her, then blamed my clients..."
Yaqub named the four sentenced to death for the rape as brothers Allah Ditta and Abdul Khaliq, Fayyaz Hussain and Ghulam Farid. The two jurors were Faiz Bakhsh and Ramzan Bichar.
Good thing. Their necks are way too short...
All the eight acquitted had also served on the jury.
"All we did was watch! What's wrong with that?"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 08/31/2002 05:25 pm || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Middle East
Hamas Leader Nabbed In Ramallah
The Israeli occupation forces abducted Hassan Yousef, a leading member of Hamas at his hide-out Saturday in the West Bank town of Ramallah. Israeli soldiers rounded up and blindfolded men in the center of Ramallah after storming a house in the town of El Bireh near this West Bank city. Yousef was taken away along with another blindfolded man whose identity was not known. The Israeli occupation army said it could not immediately comment because the operation was ongoing. Yousef is the leader of Hamas' political wing in the West Bank and has long been wanted by Israel.
Doesn't Hamas have any non-leading members? There sure are a lot of 'em...
“Israel is playing with fire and the continuation of arrests, assassinations and aggression against our people and against our leaders will not stop the resistance,” said Abdel Aziz Rantisi, a Hamas leader in Gaza, upon hearing the news of Yousef's abduction, AFP added. “We warn the occupation against any attempt on the life of Sheik Yousef and all the others arrested.”
"Harm one hair on their little beturbanned heads, and we'll... ummm... Nope. Did that one, too... Ummm... We'll do something awful. Again."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 08/31/2002 07:48 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Palestinian Group Campaign to Free Barghouti at Earth Summit
More than a thousand people allied to the anti-globalization Palestinian Support Committee (PSC) Friday met in Johannesburg to launch a campaign to free Marwan Barghouti from prison in Israel. "We are looking for the support of the South African people to hold Israel accountable for its crimes against the Palestinian people," his wife Fadwa told the chanting, singing crowd.
Yeah. South Africa is prob'ly the place to do it, because, ummm...
Banners like "Globalize the Intifada against Imperialism" and "Stop the Holocaust of the Palestinians" were plastered around the packed Johannesburg city hall.
Sounds like they're building up to nearly as much credibility as they had at Durban...
"Marwan Barghouti is a symbol of the Palestinian people," his lawyer Khader Shikrat said.
We think so, too...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 08/31/2002 07:48 am || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Yehiyeh sez knock off with the bombings...
The Palestinian Authority security chief has called for an end to suicide bombings against Israel, describing them as "murders for no reason". Interior Minister Abdel Razak Yehiyeh said he has told the leaders of Palestinian groups, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, to stop the bombings. "Suicide attacks are contrary to the Palestinian tradition, against international law and harm the Palestinian people," the retired general told the Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot.
I thought suicide attacks were the Paleostinian tradition?
"Children were exploited for these attacks," Yehiyeh said. Several of the bombers have been teenagers.
"So do it for The Children™..."
Palestinian intellectuals have also called for a halt to the bombings. But polls show that a majority of Palestinians support attacks on Israelis, as a way of settling scores for Israeli military strikes against them.
That's 'cuz revenge is a central tenet of Islam.

We touched on this last night, and Charles Johnson had still more to say on the subject — he's not impressed. But I'll go against the flow here, and say that Yehiyeh seems to be the only Paleo with the brainpower to realize that the fundos are the biggest obstacle to ever attaining a state. Yasser appointed the guy as a figurehead, primarily, I think, because Yehiyeh's even older than Yasser. He was supposed to be malleable, but he's actually been trying to make some progress toward establishing order. His problem is that he has the title without the machinery of control, so there's no real way to enforce his authority.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 08/31/2002 07:48 am || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Re: Revenge, and Its Alternatives: The only people fool enough to make good on the Christian ideal of reconciliation and forgiveness seem to be the Nicaraguans, whose lives become nothing but increasingly desperate as the years progress. Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain, whether he be Bill Gates or Colin Powell. Maybe the United States no longer has the resources to make things right for the poor-- but alas, not only don't we make the effort to work towards sustainable development, we don't even seem to know how to make a decent public show of respect for the suffering of others. Instead, we support putting a group of people under indefinite lockdown, and then criticize them for moral turpitude when they start blowing themselves and their enemies up. Sure, it makes sense that destroying the houses of suicide bombers might counteract the efforts of those handing cash to the families. However, chiming in with the constant public refrain of "Islam is no good" / "Revenge is an important part of Judaism" on top of the strong military measures taken in the Palestinian areas is simply playing into the hands of those who are calling for holy war on both sides. Neighborliness and charity are also an important part of Islam ... and some of these Islamic teachings would bear repeating. Except reminding people about Islam's teachings on neighborliness wouldn't be politically expedient, or enable the vultures of war to put cash in their pockets, now would it. Keep up the good fight, Fred. In some cultures, age gets respect, and there's still such a thing as moral authority in the cause of kindness. Maybe Mr. Yehiyeh's statements can help others take a step in the right direction.
Posted by: salmon-swim-upstream-2 || 08/31/2002 16:04 Comments || Top||

#2  (Unedited ranting above posted with heartfelt frustration that even the smallest gesture in the direction of peace must always be always rejected.)
Posted by: salmon-swim-upstream-2 || 08/31/2002 16:19 Comments || Top||

#3  SSU2: What is the nature of this peace that you expound? If it is based on mutual respect of sovereign states, then pray tell which sovereign states are to be making peace in the Occupied Territories? If it is a peace within the same nation (which is the situation that holds today without a sovereign PA entity, internationally recognized), the who is the responsible party representing the Palestinian interests. Trying to address Fred's underlying point here would be wise on a rhetorical basis.
Skipping the ad hominem catty remarks at the end would be also wise.
Posted by: Tom Roberts || 09/01/2002 12:55 Comments || Top||


Hamas controller - or somebody - a goner in Tubas...
At least one Palestinian resistance activist was killed and other civilians were injured Saturday afternoon when Israeli apache helicopter gunship attacked a passenger car at a village of Tubas in the northern West Bank. Palestinian sources said two Israeli apache helicopters fired hell-fire missiles at a car in which Anwar Daraghmeh, a local Hamas resistance activist, was traveling, killing him and reducing the car to charred, twisted metal. Daraghmeh was incinerated in the bombing and mutilated beyond recognition.
We think of it as an "assisted suicide bombing"...
Several people who were standing nearby were also injured by flying shrapnel.

A different version from Ha'aretz:
At least five people, including two children, were killed Saturday in an IDF airstrike 20 kilometers south of the West Bank city of Jenin. Jihad Sauafta, a 27-year-old activist from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, was seriously injured. Witnesses said the Apache helicopters struck outside Tubas in the afternoon, obliterating a vehicle and three of its occupants. Another missile struck a nearby house, killing a nine-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl and wounding seven other people.

One of those killed in the car was identified as Rafat Daraghmeh, a member of the Al-Aqsa Brigades sought by Israel. The two others were teenagers.
I'm confused. Were Jihad and Rafat sharing a ride? Or were these two separate strikes? Or was Jihad one of the people standing around who were injured? Does that mean you can't blow a car up in Paleostine without hitting a terrorist? And was Rafat an al-Aqsa goon moonlighting as a Hamas thug, or a Hamas snuffy moonlighting as an al-Aqsa gunny?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 08/31/2002 08:28 pm || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Southeast Asia
Gunmen Kill 3 People in Papua
Unidentified gunmen shot and killed three people, including two Americans, and injured 14 others in an attack Saturday near the world's largest gold mine — a U.S.-owned operation — in Indonesia's Papua province, police said. The victims were traveling in a convoy of cars when they were ambushed on the road between the town of Timika and the Grasberg mine operated by PT Freeport Indonesia, said Papua police chief Brig. Gen. I Made Pastika. Two of the dead and seven of the injured were Americans. The third victim was an Indonesian. A press release by National Police Headquarters identified the dead as Ted Burcon, Rickey Spear and Bambang Riwanto. Nine of the injured were also foreign nationals. Maj. Gen. Mahidin Simbolon, the regional military chief, said the dead foreigners were teachers working at a school at the mine.
Teachers are pretty dangerous, y'know. They go telling people things and pretty soon people are arguing with their betters...
Papua, 2,300 miles east of Jakarta, is home to a small guerrilla group — known as the Free Papua Movement — which has kept up a low-level insurgency against Indonesian rule for almost four decades. Foreigners have never been targeted by the rebels, although several foreign visitors have been kidnapped in the past. Pastika said police officers were still investigating the motives for the attack. He said there was ``a possibility'' separatist rebels were behind the killings.
But it sounds more like local crooks than rebels or terrorists...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 08/31/2002 07:47 am || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:



Who's in the News
18[untagged]

Bookmark
E-Mail Me

The Classics
The O Club
Rantburg Store
The Bloids
The Never-ending Story
Thugburg
Gulf War I
The Way We Were
Bio

Merry-Go-Blog











On Sale now!


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.
Click here for more information

Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Sat 2002-08-31
  ''Vote fundo, 'cuz we're not secular...''
Fri 2002-08-30
  Paks nab 12 Harkat gunnies in Peshawar...
Thu 2002-08-29
  Secret Army claims responsibility for attacks...
Wed 2002-08-28
  'Big Aslanbek' is a deader...
Tue 2002-08-27
  Israel arrests PFLP chiefs
Mon 2002-08-26
  Syria, Soddies warn against war with Iraq...
Sun 2002-08-25
  Georgia sends troops into Pankisi Gorge...
Sat 2002-08-24
  Uday sez Jund al-Islam is an Iranian creation...
Fri 2002-08-23
  Paleogunnies iced trying to swarm Gaza town
Thu 2002-08-22
  Abu Sayyaf beheads two Jehovah's Witnesses...
Wed 2002-08-21
  Italians arrest four in plot to blow basilica...
Tue 2002-08-20
  IDF withdraws from Bethlehem...
Mon 2002-08-19
  Abu Nidal titzup
Sun 2002-08-18
  Festivities resume in Ain el-Hilweh...
Sat 2002-08-17
  German coppers raid Arab charity group


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.
18.118.30.253
Help keep the Burg running! Paypal:
(0)    (0)    (0)    (0)    (0)