KABUL - A mortar exploded close to the US air base in Bagram, north of the capital, Kabul, on Thursday and killed one Afghan civilian and wounded at least two others, a police official said. Gen. Abdul Rahman Sayedkhail, chief of Parwan province, about 60 kilometers (40 miles) north of Kabul, said the mortar landed about 1 kilometer (0.60 miles) from the main gate of the Bagram base and destroyed a truck delivering food to US military personnel there.
There were no US casualties, but one Afghan national was killed and at least two wounded, Sayedkhail said. Police detained two Afghan males at the scene of the explosion for questioning, he added.
The Bagram base is the largest US military facility in Afghanistan, where militants loyal to the toppled Taliban government have launched a stepped up campaign of violence targeting coalition and Afghan forces.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/06/2006 08:51 ||
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the day when cheap practical systems to shoot down these peky morters couln't come sooner really. What happened in the Green Zone in Bagdad didnt they use/set up a modified Phalanx close in ship defensive gatling gun to blast the incoming rounds from the sky, any one know if it worked or did it just cause problems raining shells down on the city, seemed like a good solution at the time till a laser weapon is practical to use but that shouldnt be more then a decade away from the clips on the net we've seen of incoming arty rounds getting vaporized by the THEL.
Taliban guerrillas shot dead an Afghan intelligence official on Wednesday, the second senior security officer to be killed in 24 hours. The provincial intelligence official, Abdul Hakim, was gunned down as he was walking to his office in Ghazni province, southwest of the capital, the provincial police chief said. One of the gunmen was captured as he tried to flee on a motorbike, said the police chief, Abdur Rahman Sarjang, who said the attackers were Taliban.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/06/2006 00:00 ||
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prediction: by the powers vested to all the Great Clairvoyants, I see the previous comment disapearing before 12:30 13:30. ZULU.
The son of warlord Charles Taylor who was hiding out in Trinidad and Tobago before being held in the United States last week may be connected to the Al Qaeda network. The Daily Express understands that the Liberian Human Rights and Refugee Welfare Organisation based in the US has notified the US Justice Department through a letter to hold Charles 'Chuckie' Taylor Jr for more investigation, unrelated to the passport fraud for which he has been arrested and detained in Miami.
Taylor Jr was held at the Miami International Airport on Thursday night with a fraudulent US passport he had obtained from the US Embassy in Trinidad. He had lied about his father's identity in obtaining the passport. He had been hiding out in Trinidad for the last three years after sneaking into the country from Virginia.
The LIHRRWO has informed the United States government it has information from Monrovia that Chuckie, a US citizen, had close connections with Arabs suspected to be Al Qaeda members and who were in diamond deals with his father, Charles Taylor, who is now before a war crimes court in Sierra Leone. Soon after the 9/11 terror attacks, Taylor Jr had been seen giving out Osama Bin Laden shirts in the United States and had been heard singing the wanted terrorist's praises.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/06/2006 01:46 ||
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Ahhhh, it's a Kofi & Kojo father and son thing. How nice they could all work together for the betterment of mankind. XL Long on my T-Shirt please Jr. Important to make sure it fits snuggly over my pistol range silhouette.
Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) captured the sixth Majlish-e-Shura member of the outlawed Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) Khaled Saifullah at a bordering village of Shibganj upazila in Chapainawabganj last night. Lt Col Lutfar Rahman, commanding officer (CO) of BDR 6 Rifles Battalion, acknowledged the arrest, reports our staff correspondent in Rajshahi. With the latest arrest, six out of seven members of the JMB top decision-making tier have been put behind bars. Salahuddin is still at large with a Tk 10 lakh bounty on his head.
A BDR patrol team of Telkupi border outpost (BOP) led by Havildar Yakub arrested Saifullah at a tea stall, 500 yards off the BOP around 12:30am when he was having tea. The outpost is about one and a half kilometres away from the Indian border. BDR members were quizzing the top terror at their Chapainawabganj headquarters before Rapid Action Battalion (Rab)-5 took him in its custody around 2:00am today.
BDR sources said the government sent photographs of the two absconding Shura members to the border areas on March 15 and alerted the border guards. A source seeing resemblance with the photograph informed the nearby outpost guards, who immediately raided the area and trapped him. Saifullah first did not admit his identity but eventually confessed that he was the JMB Shura member. He went to the locality on March 31 and was staying at different mosques and madrasas, a BDR source said. Saifullah lived in the area on donation, the source added. Saifullah claimed he did not have any intention to cross the border.
PROFILE
Name: Md Faruk Hossain alias Khaled Saifullah
Father: Nurul Islam, a freedom fighter, who was killed by Pakistani occupation forces in 1971.
Permanent address: Goalata village in Kaukhali upazila in Pirojpur.
Occupation: Teacher of Aysha Siddique Salafiya Islamia Girls' Madrasa in Chhoto Gurgola in Dinajpur.
Links unfolded: JMB members during interrogation said their chief Abdur Rahman and Khaled Saifullah trained them up how to make and detonate bombs. Investigators believe the JMB supremo and Saifullah learned bomb making in Afghanistan when they visited the Taliban-ruled country. The investigators have an authentic piece of information that Saifullah was a leader of outlawed Harkatul Jihad al Islami (HuJi) in Bangladesh before he joined the JMB.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/06/2006 09:46 ||
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Cagliari, 6 April (AKI) - Italian interior minister Giuseppe Pisanu said on Thursday that security forces prevented two terrorist attacks against the church of San Petronio in Bologna and Milan's underground rail system. Pisanu said seven people were involved in the plot and that three were expelled from the country, two were arrested, one is under police surveillance and another is on the run. "Now I can say it: there was a terror project against our country and the control and prevention action of our police was able to foil it," Pisanu said on the sidelines of a rally in Cagliari of the leading cabinet party, Forza Italia, ahead of a general election over the weekend.
"The operation was successfully carried out. There was a terrorism project which was quickly discovered, also thanks to the precious cooperation of allies," Pisanu said. Pisanu did not give any further details on the plot.
"I can say no more"
"Our prevention system, based on the relentless control of the territory and suspected milieus, has once again proven to be quite efficient."
Additional: Mr Pisanu said one of the targets was the church of San Petronio, in Bologna. The church has a painting of the Prophet Muhammad in hell, which has been criticised by Italian Muslims in the past.
The Italian Corriere della Sera newspaper reported that the suspects had planned to carry out attacks before the elections. According to the AFP news agency, Moroccan police arrested nine people in March who were "planning terrorist acts in Paris and Bologna".
Posted by: Steve ||
04/06/2006 08:20 ||
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The church has a painting of the Prophet Muhammad in hell, which has been criticised by Italian Muslims in the past.
Obviously a very high priority target. Are prints available?
#2
Mohammed inHell
As the link states, it's not the first time Mohammed worshippers have tried to blow up the church.
Posted by: ed ||
04/06/2006 9:29 Comments ||
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"three were expelled from the country"
You've got to be kidding me. What is this, like a "Better luck next time" sendoff. Send them to Trinidad Colorado, give them a sex change, then send them back.
Islamic militants in Europe pose a direct threat to U.S. national security, more than 4-1/2 years after Europe-based plotters planned much of the September 11 attacks, senior U.S. officials said on Wednesday.
While small in number, pockets of Islamic extremists exist across Europe and have generated militants such as convicted shoe-bomber Richard Reid, September 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui, and those behind bombings in London and Madrid, said Daniel Fried, assistant secretary of State for European affairs.
"It is now well known that the terrorist cell that conducted the 9/11 attacks did much of its planning from a base in Europe," said Henry Crumpton, the State Departments counterterrorism coordinator who spoke at the Senate foreign relations committee alongside Fried.
"Five years later, and despite many counterterrorism successes, violent Islamic extremism in Europe continues to pose a threat to the national security of the United States and our allies," Crumpton said.
He said some Europe-based Muslim militants were directly affiliated with Osama bin Laden s al Qaeda network and associated groups such as Abu Musab al Zarqawis followers in Iraq or northern Africas Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat.
Fried said one to two percent of western European Muslims were involved in extremist activity. Of those, he said "only a small fraction has the potential to cross the threshold into actual terrorism. But a handful of extremists can carry out a devastating terrorist attack."
Some 15 to 20 million Muslims live in western Europe, where they are the fastest growing and largest religious minority.
Fried said European Muslims struggles with unemployment, discrimination and integration had created fertile ground for extremist exploitation. Militants also took advantage of broad free speech laws in some European states to spread their ideologies, he said.
"Add to this a deeply negative perception and a distorted perception of U.S. foreign policy among Western European Muslim communities, and relative freedom of movement across the Atlantic, and you have a particularly dangerous mix," he said.
Citizens of most European countries do not need a visa to travel to the United States, although they must have a fingerprint scan and digital photograph taken by an immigration officer as they enter the country.
Fried said widespread opposition to U.S. and Western policies in the Middle East, including support for Israel and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, had helped increase the allure of Islamic extremism among alienated European Muslims.
"We and our European allies are vigilant concerning the potential consequences of the insurgency in Iraq on European Muslim populations, but to date there have been only a handful of European-residing Muslims who have gone to become foreign fighters," he added.
Among the most dramatic examples of this was Belgian Muriel Degauque, a 38-year-old convert to Islam who blew herself up last November in a suicide attack on the outskirts of Baghdad.
Crumpton and Fried said European states understood the gravity of the threat from local Islamic militants, and said overall counterterrorism cooperation was strong.
"But despite this shared perception of the threat, there is disagreement over the most effective means to counter the threat. Some European countries continue to argue that terrorism is merely -- or mainly -- a criminal problem," Crumpton said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/06/2006 01:53 ||
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A bomb has ripped through offices of Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) on the outskirts of Istanbul, injuring two people, a local party official said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the explosion happened against the background of a week of street clashes between police and Kurdish protesters in which 16 people have died. Much of the demonstrators' anger over high unemployment, poverty and Ankara's refusal to grant more autonomy to the mainly Kurdish region has been targeted against the government, and AKP offices have been damaged in the latest protests.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/06/2006 00:00 ||
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An Iraqi-born U.S. citizen suspected of being a foreign intelligence agent was employed by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to rule on asylum applications, including those from unfriendly Middle Eastern nations, according to documents obtained from Congress by The Washington Times. Michael J. Maxwell, the former head of the Office of Security and Investigations at USCIS, is expected to testify about the Iraqi case and other breakdowns at the agency to a House subcommittee today. Mr. Maxwell will tell legislators that the immigration system is being used by enemy governments to place agents in the United States.
Well, isn't that special
The suspected agent, whose name has not been released, judged 180 asylum applications while at USCIS, the agency that also rules on green cards, citizenship and employment authorization. A database check during Mr. Maxwell's investigation turned up national-security questions about nearly two dozen of those cases.
Mr. Maxwell will also tell the panel about criminal accusations pending against USCIS workers and that top USCIS officials have deceived Congress and obstructed the duties of his office, the agency's internal affairs division.
"The immigration system as a whole is so broken that our adversaries can game it," Mr. Maxwell told The Times when asked about the documents this week. "I can assure you they're using it against us; they can with impunity." His testimony comes as the Senate debates whether to enact a guest-worker program that would allow current illegal aliens and future foreign workers a new path to citizenship.
An opponent of a guest-worker program, Rep. Ed Royce, chairman of the House International Relations subcommittee on terrorism and nonproliferation, which is holding the hearing, said USCIS is "deeply flawed" and focuses too much on processing applications and not enough on security, according to his prepared statement. The House immigration-enforcement bill passed in December included an amendment by Mr. Royce, California Republican, that puts law enforcement at the top of USCIS' priorities.
Emilio Gonzalez, the agency's new director, told reporters last month that he has made national security the top priority. "The minute I walked through these doors here, I let it be known -- under my watch, it's all about security," he said. Mr. Gonzalez said the lack of access to databases for some adjudicators -- another subject Mr. Maxwell is expected to testify about -- hasn't hurt the agency because other agencies can do those checks and share information.
USCIS officials said they will wait to see Mr. Maxwell's testimony to respond specifically, but Angelica Alfonso-Royals, a USCIS spokeswoman, said, "We take any allegations of potential misconduct seriously and are investigating them fully." Mr. Maxwell now works as an independent consultant on security matters, and a client is Numbers USA, which lobbies for stricter immigration controls and against a guest-worker program. He said this week that the Iraq case was not an isolated case. "We know the asylum process is in shambles. We know fraud is rampant," he said, adding that documents show top officials know this and refuse to do anything about it.
In the case of the suspected agent, whose name was blacked out in the documents The Times obtained, Mr. Maxwell said there were many red flags. "There are indicators throughout this entire case that I saw, professionals within the FBI and the intelligence community saw, that all pointed one way -- we were dealing with an individual who was a member of a foreign intelligence agency that had been working within CIS," Mr. Maxwell said. "The danger was that he was granting asylum to anybody that he wanted to, with impunity, at a time of his choosing. Who was he letting into this country?"
The man was in demand at USCIS because of his language skills. He was able to do interviews without the need for a translator. At the time, that seemed to be a big benefit to the speed of the process, but in retrospect, Mr. Maxwell said, it posed a security risk. Mr. Maxwell said they first became suspicious of the man when, while on a yearlong assignment to the Defense Department in Iraq, he walked outside the Green Zone in Baghdad and disappeared. According to documents, authorities first thought he had been taken hostage but concluded he had left of his own accord.
Mr. Maxwell began an investigation that found that the man had been hired by USCIS even though negative "national security information" in his background check caused other federal agencies to pass on him. A national security polygraph showed repeated deception on his part, and in interviews with Mr. Maxwell, he denied having traveled to Iran, Syria and Jordan while he worked for USCIS, even though electronic databases showed he had made the trips.
And you didn't think this would have been a good time to slap the cuffs on him?
The man also made "persistent requests" that Mr. Maxwell help him achieve secret or top-secret clearance so he could go back to work for the Defense Department. Mr. Maxwell said that request was weird because Defense would have had to do its own background check anyway. The man has since left USCIS and the United States so Mr. Maxwell closed his investigation. But Mr. Maxwell said that despite his findings, USCIS doesn't even have the ability to go back and see whether any of the 180 cases the former employee approved should be revoked.
"With no internal audit function at CIS, we don't know who he let into this country," Mr. Maxwell said.
Excuse me, I need to go outside and SCREAM!
Posted by: Steve ||
04/06/2006 14:55 ||
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GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (AP) -- Authorities captured a former air traffic controller suspected of planting homemade bombs at an aviation company's office in Tennessee and the Colorado homes of four of its employees and a Federal Aviation Administration worker. No one was injured by any of the explosions.
Robert Burke, 54, had been wanted on a federal arrest warrant in the March 24 explosions at three houses in Grand Junction. Law enforcement officers were able to disarmed the bombs found at the two other homes. Burke was arrested late Wednesday in Provo, Utah, and was scheduled in federal court later Thursday in Salt Lake City. Grand Junction Police spokeswoman Linda Bowman said a tip led police and federal officers to Burke.
Burke was an early suspect in the bomb attacks. He had been fired by Serco, a United Kingdom-based company that operates the air traffic control tower at Walker Field Airport in Grand Junction.
A foreign company running air traffic control? Does Congress know about this?
The first bomb, in February, exploded at a Serco office in Murfreesboro, Tenn.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/06/2006 14:37 ||
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Giuliani testifies in Moussaoui trial
Thu Apr 6, 2006 12:36 PM ET
ALEXANDRIA, Virginia (Reuters) - Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani described watching desperate people jump from the burning World Trade Center in emotional testimony to a jury that will determine if September 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui should die.
Jurors and spectators, including relatives of the September 11 victims, also watched a video of two planes hitting the trade center and then about five minutes of footage of people jumping from it. Many spectators gasped and dabbed at tears while watching the video.
"I saw several people, I can't remember how many, jumping," Giuliani said as he described his actions that day. "There were two people right near each other. It appeared to me they were holding hands.
"Of the many memories, that's one that comes to me every day."
Last year, Moussaoui, an admitted al Qaeda member and the only person charged in the United States with the September 11 attacks, pleaded guilty to six counts of conspiracy. Three of the charges carry the death penalty.
On Monday, the 12-person jury found Moussaoui was eligible for the death penalty. The jurors agreed with the government argument that Moussaoui's lies when he was arrested three weeks before the attacks led to the deaths of nearly 3,000 people on September 11.
In this final phase of the sentencing trial, jurors will decide if Moussaoui should be sentenced to death or life in prison.
This phase will focus more on emotions than the legal arguments of the initial stage of the proceedings. The government is expected to produce dozens of witnesses, including family members of people who died in the hijackings and people who were injured in the attacks, to talk about how they were affected by the hijackings.
Giuliani, who won high praise for his handling of the September 11 crisis, was the first major witness to do so. He described where he was that day, what he saw and what he felt.
"By the time the second plane hit, we knew for sure it was a terrorist attack," he said.
Calling September 11, 2001, "the darkest day in American history," federal prosecutor Robert Spencer told the jurors they needed to sentence Moussaoui to death for his part in the disaster.
"Now it's time for you to hear the voices," he said. "In this part of the trial you will hear the voices of the victims."
But Gerald Zerkin, one of Moussaoui's court-appointed lawyers, urged jurors to keep an open mind and listen to evidence that the defendant had a mental illness that caused him to be involved in the conspiracy.
He called Moussaoui a "wannabe al Qaeda suicide pilot who could not fly and did not have a crew."
The government is expected to bring scale models of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center into the courtroom as part of the dramatic effect when they present evidence from victims and witnesses of the attacks.
GUANTANAMO BAY US NAVAL BASE, Cuba - A Canadian teenager charged with killing a US Army medic in Afghanistan told a Guantanamo tribunal on Wednesday he had been unfairly punished with solitary confinement and would no longer participate in the hearing. Omar Khadr, a 19-year-old accused by the US military of being trained by al Qaeda, addressed the presiding officer softly at his pretrial hearing at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Omar, of the world famous Kanadian Khadr Killer Klan
I say with my respect to you and everybody else here that I am boycotting these procedures until I (am) treated humanely and fair, the Toronto native said. One of his military lawyers, Lt. Col. Colby Vokey, said Khadr had been moved to solitary confinement for no reason on March 30, making it difficult to prepare a defense. Vokey shouted and slapped the table during a heated exchange with presiding officer, Marine Col. Robert Chester, who recessed the hearing and asked to see Vokey in private.
"Vokey, I think you've been watching too many episodes of Boston Legal. Straighten up, or you'll be defending penguins on Ice Station Zebra."
The hearing resumed later under protest from defense attorneys. They said it was unethical for them to continue against their clients will. Chester said he would take up the issue later in the week.
Khadr is charged with conspiring to commit war crimes and with murdering US Army Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer with a grenade during a firefight at a suspected al Qaeda compound in Afghanistan in 2002. A spokesman for the prison camp said in a written statement that neither Khadr nor any other Guantanamo detainees were held in solitary confinement. He said Khadr had been moved from a medium-security camp, where prisoners live in groups, to a maximum-security building where they live in individual cells but can still communicate with one another.
He's got a private room and he's bitchin' about it?
The spokesman, Cmdr. Robert Durand, said the move was routine for those in pretrial status and largely for the protection of the detainee.
The testy exchange came during a daylong hearing where defense attorneys complained repeatedly about rules they said were unclear, unfair and not based on any legal framework. It began when Vokey questioned who had authority to grant Khadrs request for a Canadian lawyer to join the defense team. Chester said he would decide if he had that authority once Vokey made the request in writing. Theres no precedent here, Vokey fumed. I dont know what rule to look to. I dont know what law to look to.
That's the whole *point*, Vokey. These scumbags have the entire Western system of jurisprudence tied up in knots and chasing its own tail while the Sons of Allan continue their plottings and slaughter in the name of all that's *holy*.
The US military says Khadrs father, Ahmed Said Khadr, an al Qaeda financier and close friend of Osama bin Laden, moved his family between Canada, Pakistan and Afghanistan and sent his son to al Qaeda training camps to learn how to use guns, grenades and explosives. The elder Khadr was killed in a shootout with Pakistani security forces in 2003. Khadr was 15 when he was captured. His lawyers believe that trying him for crimes allegedly committed as a juvenile violates international law. Khadr would face life in prison if convicted.
Plus, he's half a orphan, so show some mercy already...
Ten of the 490 Guantanamo detainees have been charged with war crimes. Khadr is one of four scheduled for pretrial hearings this week. The Supreme Court heard a challenge to the legitimacy of the tribunals last month and is expected to rule by July.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/06/2006 08:55 ||
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Yah know.. That Ice Station Zebra comment -- If we kept them at the South Pole instead of a tropical paradise they might be a bit better behaved...
Solitary outside could be interesting.
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/06/2006 9:39 Comments ||
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Trade him to Fidel for a dozen political prisoners languishing in his prisons and a first round draft choice of a designated pitcher for MLB. That way he can have dinner with El Jefe, Danny Glover and Harry Belefonte and we can get some coverage of real detention experiences on the island.
#5
"defense attorneys.. said it was unethical for them to continue against their clients will."
WTF am i missing something? Our client doesn't wan't to be tried for murder so don't. Isn't that what the're saying. Sheeez this legalese makes my head hurt.
KARACHI, April 6 (Reuters) - A prominent Pakistani Shi'ite Muslim cleric survived an assassination attempt on Thursday when his car was hit by a remote-controlled bomb in the restive southern city of Karachi, police said. They said that cleric Allama Hassan Turabi was unhurt in the attack but one of his guards and a passerby were wounded.
The bomb, concealed in a cart, exploded as soon as Turabi's car crossed a bridge in the eastern district of the sprawling city, said Karachi police chief Niaz Siddiqui. "I think it was a targeted attack, and we are investigating," Siddiqui told Reuters.
Sectarian violence is not uncommon in Pakistan, where more than 100 people have been killed in tit-for-tat attacks by militants from majority Sunni and minority Shi'ite Muslim sects in the past year. Most of the victims have been Shi'ite Muslims, who account for about 15 percent of a Pakistan's predominantly Sunni population of 150 million.
Backed by helicopter gunships, Pakistani security forces today killed at least five militants in the restive tribal region bordering Afghanistan after an overnight rocket attack on their camp left four soldiers dead.
Five militants were killed and 15 others surrendered when security forces launched an operation after the rocket attack on their camp in the Shawaal area of North Waziristan tribal agency left four soldiers dead and several others injured, the military said.
The security forces used helicopter gunships to hit vehicles of the attackers who were trying to flee after firing rockets, Army spokesman Maj Gen Shaukat Sultan told the state-run PTV.
In a separate attack, nine rockets were fired on a camp of security forces in Datta Khel area, some 12 kilometres from Miran Shah, the centre of North Waziristan, injuring two soldiers, Sultan said.
Ground forces were also sent to the areas used by the militants to fire on the security forces' camps, reports reaching here said.
Situation has been tense in North Waziristan since the security forces launched an operation against al-Qaeda and Taliban suspects on March one. The military says that some 150 militants have been killed since the launch of that operation.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/06/2006 01:51 ||
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Pakistani security forces and Pakistani opposition fighters battled for a second day yesterday near the Afghan border, leaving four soldiers and 16 fighters dead.
Another 19 militants were captured in the fighting in the North Waziristan tribal region, military spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan said.
Eight militants were killed on Tuesday night after troops retaliated to a rocket attack by the fighters on a military base, and the eight others died in the ensuing fighting with security forces yesterday, he said.
The fighting that follows a spree of bloody clashes between pro-Taleban tribesmen and Pakistani troops in recent weeks erupted after a rocket attack late Tuesday on a military base in Mana, a village about 50 km west of the main town of Miranshah, that left at least two soldiers dead. Two more soldiers were killed in fighting yesterday.
Helicopter gunships backed ground troops in yesterdays fighting that had ended by late afternoon, Sultan said. He refused to identify the militants who surrendered or give their nationalities, adding that troops have the bodies of eight of those who were killed in the clashes yesterday.
The latest clashes came as Pakistans Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz visited the United States and US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Richard Boucher made his first visit to Pakistan.
Asked to comment on a perception that Pakistan often launches crackdowns against militants when a senior US official is visiting here or a Pakistani leader travels to the United States, Sultan said: Did we ask them to attack (the troops) last night?
The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Boucher told Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf that Washington wanted a lasting strategic relationship with Islamabad.
Musharraf briefed Boucher on Pakistans economic growth and said its expanding energy needs would be met through a variety of sources including nuclear power, the statement said.
Pakistan responded to last months US civilian nuclear deal with India by demanding equal treatment.
The official statement did not say whether Musharraf raised the issue with Boucher.
However, Boucher told a news conference later that the India-US nuclear deal came up during discussions with Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri. We are not oblivious to the effects of what we are doing. We dont do similar things that we do with Pakistan and India, he said. The question is, are we meeting the needs of Pakistan, its aspirations for economic growth and education assistance, helping toward building a secure society?
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/06/2006 01:50 ||
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LAHORE: The Punjab home secretary ordered the release of two activists of banned group Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP). Qari Allah Ditta and Naeem Commando of the SSP were being held in Faisalabad Jail under the Anti-Terrorist Act for 90 days. Both had filed a request to the home secretary to be released.
The home secretary ordered the detainees' release and directed them to deposit surety bonds to the Jhang district police officer. He also ordered the transfer of all men detained during a protest on February 14 from Mianwali Jail to Kot Lakhpat Jail, Lahore. Detention orders against the men, held by the Home Department under the Maintenance of Public Order, were withdrawn.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/06/2006 00:00 ||
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The Darakhshan police have registered a case against former Balochistan CM Akhtar Mengal and others for kidnapping three personnel of an intelligence agency. In an FIR registered with the Darakhshan police station, the Balochistan National Party (BNP) president has also been charged with interference in official duty, unlawful detention and torture.
On Wednesday, Mengal and his guards reportedly intercepted four law-enforcement personnel. They took three of them to the Mengal residence off Khayaban-e-Shamsheer. In the meantime, the police surrounded the house and recovered the three. Late Wednesday night, Akhtar Mengal handed over three of his guards and three firearms to the police, said TPO Clifton ASP Imran Minhas.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/06/2006 00:00 ||
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LUCKNOW: Indian police have arrested six men, including an Indian cleric, over triple bombings that killed more than 20 people in the holy Hindu city of Varanasi last month, an official said on Wednesday. Police suspected the six belonged to a Bangladesh-based Islamic militant outfit and were holding them on charges of murder and conspiracy, said Uttar Pradesh Home Secretary SK Agarwal. In a late-night swoop (Tuesday), police arrested six men who are part of a module that took part in the blasts, he confirmed.
Police arrested the six in twin raids in Lucknow and its outskirts, Agarwal said, adding that the explosive material RDX, grenades and an assault rifle were also seized. Police sources confirmed that an Indian cleric, Waliullah, was among those arrested. They accused him of acting as the local commander of the Bangladesh-based Islamist militant group Harkatul Jihad-al Islami, (an offshoot of Jaish-e-Mohammed which is fighting New Delhis rule in Indian-held Kashmir), and as a conduit for three Bangladeshis who carried out the Varanasi blasts.
HuJI is an organization in its own right. It's the real al-Qaeda affiliate in Bangla. JMB's just a home-grown Taliban.
Waliullah is the mastermind who got his contacts in Bangladesh to send three militants to carry out the Varanasi blasts, said senior police officer SK Bhagat, while addressing a press conference. The cleric, from a rural mosque in Uttar Pradesh state where Varanasi is located, provided the bombers with shelter ahead of the blasts and carried out reconnaissance of targets in Varanasi, including an historic temple, police said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/06/2006 00:00 ||
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MIRANSHAH: Sixteen militants were killed and 19 arrested after security forces retaliated to two deadly attacks at two sites in North Waziristan on Wednesday, military spokesman said. Four troops were killed and eight injured in the attacks, Maj Gen Shaukat Sultan, the very model of a modern major general Inter Services Public Relations director general, told Daily Times.
A purported spokesman for pro-Taliban local militants in North Waziristan, Tariq Jameel, confirmed attacks on the security forces but denied any loss of militants. He said the late Tuesday night attacks were revenge against the killing of two militants in Mir Ali town on Monday. The Wednesday losses on militants side were the second heaviest since March 24 when the security forces clashed with pro-Taliban tribal militants in Dattakhel area and killed 20 of them. The army spokesman said that around 200 pro-Taliban fighters had been reported dead in clashes with security forces since the Saidgai operation on March 1.
On Wednesday, militants first attacked a security check-post in Dattakhel, an area with difficult mountain terrain which is 30 kilometres west of Miranshah, while another check-post was attacked in Mana in the of heavily forested Shawal region, some 70 kilometres west of Miranshah. Three soldiers were killed in the Mana attack whereas a trooper was killed when security forces launched counter-attack in the morning, the military spokesman said.
The army used ground troops, heavy guns, artillery and gunship helicopters to comb the Mana area where the security forces took six bodies of the killed militants in custody from a compound. A military official, speaking on condition of anonymity in Peshawar, said that huge caches of weapons were also seized from two compounds the security forces searched. It was unclear whether foreign militants were among the killed. I cannot say that foreign militants were among the dead, the military spokesman said. The two places are far from Miranshah and it was not known whether civilians were caught in the crossfire.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/06/2006 00:00 ||
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Determined Manhunt Leads to Major Catch: Iraqi Terrorist Leader Wanted for Murders, Kidnappings, Assassination Attempts and Intimidation Iraqi terrorist leader Muhammed Hila Hammad Ubaydi, aka Abu Ayman, was captured and arrested by Iraqi Forces in the Al Mahmudiyah neighborhood in southern Baghdad March 7. Investigators held notice of this capture until now due to DNA testing, which has confirmed this is Abu Ayman. Aymans capture was the result of a determined manhunt conducted by Iraqi intelligence professionals and several intelligence agencies within the Coalition.
Until his capture, Abu Ayman, the former aide to the Chief of Staff of Intelligence during the Saddam Hussein regime, was the leader of the Secret Islamic Army in the Northern Babil Province. Abu Ayman has strong ties to terror leader Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, still considered the head of Al-Qaeda in Iraq. Abu Ayman is the prime suspect in the kidnapping of Italian journalist Guiliana Sgrena and for assassination attempts on Iraqi Government and Iraqi Security Forces officials. Abu Ayman is also the prime suspect in the kidnapping and killing of several hostages in Iraq and for committing some of the most lethal IED attacks on Coalition and Iraqi Forces and on Iraqi citizens since the fall of the regime.
Iraqi and Coalition Forces consider Abu Aymans capture significant in their pursuit to lay to rest the terror cells that have caused death and destruction in Iraq. Officials believe Abu Aymans capture will not only disrupt some of these attacks, and that his capture will undoubtedly save lives, but that he will also provide valuable information leading to the capture of other terrorists he has worked with in the past.
Abu Aymans lieutenant Abu Qatada, a Syrian born terrorist who was wanted for multiple IED attacks, the assassinations of two Iraqi government council members, and the murders of several truck drivers in order to use their trucks in vehicle borne IED attacks, was captured by Iraqi and Coalition Forces on Dec. 27 during a raid on his house where Abu Qatada was found hiding in a nearby canal. In the months following his capture Abu Qatada has provided valuable information on the Abu Ayman terror network.
The Iraqi Central Investigating Court in Baghdad had issued an arrest warrant for Abu Ayman on Oct. 17, citing his violation of Iraqi Penal Code 194 -- committing terrorist acts.
#2
I'm sure Guiliana Sgrena is really saddened by this news.
Posted by: ed ||
04/06/2006 9:36 Comments ||
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#3
Guiliana is probably going to bave Abu's offspring, after planting a few IEDs.
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/06/2006 9:45 Comments ||
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Interesting. They waited over a month before announcing. IIRC, wasn't there a blurb a few weeks back about the capture of Z-man himself? Maybe they used the same DNA lab?
Baghdad, 6 April (AKI) - The key suspect in the kidnapping of Italian journalist Guiliana Sgrena has been captured, the U.S. military said on Thursday. Mohammed Hila Hammad al-Ubaydi, a former senior intelligence official under Saddam Hussein with close ties to the al-Qaeda leader in Iraq Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was arrested on 7 March, the statement said. Sgrena was freed last year but an Italian intelligence officer escorting her to freedom was shot and killed by U.S. forces at a checkpoint near Baghdad airport. Al-Ubaydi was sought for questioning in several assassination attempts the statement added..
The military said Ubaydi was the former aide to the intelligence chief of staff under Saddam Hussein, and now heads a group it identified as the Secret Islamic Army in northern Babel province. Ubaydi, also known as Abu Ayman, was captured a month ago, but the news had not been announced until DNA testing could verify his identity, the military said.
Plus it gave us time to suck out his brains
The Iraqi Central Investigating Court in Baghdad issued an arrest warrant for Ubaydi on October 17 last year, accusing him of committing terrorist acts. As well as his involvement in the abduction of Giuliana Sgrena, Ubaydi is also suspected of kidnapping and killing several hostages in Iraq and is believed to have carried out attacks on military forces and citizens. Authorities said he had been the target of an intense manhunt by Iraqi and other intelligence agencies and was picked up in the Al-Mahmudiya neighborhood of southern Baghdad.
Italian freelance journalist Giuliana Sgrena was kidnapped in Baghdad on February 4, 2005, and was freed a month later after her release was negotiated by Italian agent Nicola Calipari. He was escorting her to the Baghdad airport when he was shot to death by U.S. troops at a checkpoint. Sgrena was wounded in the shoulder. The US dismissed the shooting was an accident, and no disciplinary action was taken against the soldiers involved. However, the Italians disputed the conclusion.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/06/2006 08:17 ||
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A video posted yesterday on the Internet in the name of an extremist group claimed to show Iraqi insurgents dragging the burning body of a U.S. pilot on the ground after the crash of an Apache helicopter.
Parts of the video were blurry, and the face of the man was not shown. His clothes were tattered, but he appeared to be wearing military fatigues.
The U.S. military condemned the posting and said that although reports of a Web site video "suggest that terrorists removed part of a body from the crash site, the authenticity of the video cannot be confirmed."
The U.S. military said an AH-64D Apache Longbow crashed about 5:30 p.m. Saturday because of what it suspected was hostile fire west of Youssifiyah, about 10 miles southwest of Baghdad, while conducting a combat air patrol.
The video has a date stamp of Sunday, April 2, and runs from 4:03 to 4:08 p.m. The time stamp shows the minutes and seconds do not run sequentially and the scenes appear disjointed, suggesting the tape was altered.
"We are outraged that anyone would create and publish such a despicable video for public exposure," U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Withington said.
On Sunday, the military said the pilots were "presumed dead" and that recovery efforts were under way, indicating they had not fully secured the site or retrieved the bodies. The military later identified the dead pilots as Capt. Timothy J. Moshier, 25, of Albany, N.Y., and Chief Warrant Officer 3 Michael L. Hartwick, of Orrick, Mo.
The video was posted by a group calling itself the Shura Council of Mujahedeen. The group claimed its military wing had shot down the aircraft.
Statements on Islamist Web sites said the council was organized in January to consolidate al Qaeda in Iraq and other insurgent groups. The move was seen as a bid by insurgents to lower the profile of al Qaeda leader Abu Musab Zarqawi, a Jordanian, whose mass attacks against Shi'ite civilians have tarnished the image of the insurgents among many Iraqis.
Meanwhile, Saddam Hussein was cross-examined for the first time in his six-month-old trial yesterday, saying he approved death sentences against Shi'ites in the 1980s because he thought the evidence had proved they were involved in an assassination attempt against him.
Saddam, standing alone as the sole defendant in the courtroom, dodged some questions from prosecutors over his role in the crackdown, giving long speeches calling the court illegitimate. He accused the current Shi'ite-led Interior Ministry of killing and torturing thousands of Iraqis and bickered with Chief Judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman.
On Tuesday, prosecutors indicted Saddam on separate charges of genocide, accusing him of trying to exterminate Kurds in a 1980s campaign that killed an estimated 100,000 people. The charges will be addressed in a separate trial.
In the current trial, Saddam and seven former members of his regime are charged in a crackdown against Shi'ites launched after the 1982 assassination attempt in the town of Dujail.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/06/2006 01:47 ||
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#1
Same "play" as in Somalia only a decade later. Makes one want to make the entire country into a parking lot.
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/06/2006 9:50 Comments ||
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#2
I would hope this moves the Shura Council of Mujahedeen way, way up on our list...
BAGHDAD: Saddam Hussein returned to court on Wednesday to face genocide charges by immediately accusing the country's Interior Ministry of killing and torturing thousands of Iraqis, remarks aimed at inflaming sectarian tensions. "It's the side that kills thousands in the street and tortures them, " he said, criticising the Shia-run ministry that Sunni Arabs have accused of running death squads against them. Saddam was the only defendant in the chamber.
After chief judge Raouf Abdel Rahman dismissed Saddam's comments that it was a trial under occupation, one of his lawyers pointed across the courtroom to an American. Abdel Rahman threatened to arrest her for 24 hours and then cut off the sound system when Saddam started to recite poetry.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/06/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Funny, I don't recall the outrage from the Sunni community for the continuous slaugher of innocents at markets, workplaces, funerals, weddings, soccer matches, and other everyday events by foreign nutcases and home-grown extremists drawn from or sheltered by Iraqi Sunni towns and neighborhoods over the last two years. Suddenly even Saddam, one of the great killers of modern history, is quotable for his touching concern about innocent Iraqi life. As many have noted, when Shi'a are slaughtered it's an "insurgency," but when a comparative handful of Sunni dies it's "civil war" (and described in tones far more ominous than you'll find used for your typical terrorist outrage, for which clinical neutrality is the accepted mode of western media).
The U.S. military on Wednesday called a video posted on the Internet purportedly showing the dragging of a U.S. flier's remains from a downed copter's wreckage "despicable."
Referring to the video, dated April 2, the military said Wednesday it could not confirm its authenticity. "We are outraged that anyone would create and publish such a despicable video for public exposure," military spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Withington said in a statement. "The terrorists continue to demonstrate their immoral disregard for human dignity and life."
The U.S. military reported Sunday that an Army AH-64D Apache Longbow helicopter went down, likely from enemy fire, west of Yousifiah on Saturday evening while conducting a combat air patrol. The video shows what appears to be a helicopter ablaze -- and later with no flames -- and insurgents dragging what appears to be "part of" a burning body away from the wreckage. On Wednesday, the military reaffirmed that it had removed soldiers' remains. "The soldiers' remains were recovered following aircraft-recovery operations at the crash site," a military statement said Sunday.
#2
Advice to the military; quit "crying in your beer", over the 'despicable' nature of the enemy; and get down in the 'trenches' and show them whats horrifying!! Must I be censored on this site in suggesting how to recompense?! Geesh!!
#6
We have crimminals wearing civilian clothing slithering around amongst civilian populations. They publically broadcast corpse mutilation in attempt to humilate their enemy. Tell me again why that after we capture these people they deserve to be treated under the Geneva Convention protocols.?.
#9
I like the idea of a moab. It would work on so many levels.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
04/06/2006 11:11 Comments ||
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#10
Ya know, when you stand back and assess this mess, it's very clear no progress and no real objectives have been met there. There is no way to rationally deal with Muslims. The only real objective should be to eliminate them. Permanently. Everywhere. What do we want in this shithole? The oil? It will still be there in 50 years or so when the radiation levels drop. Let's get our people out of there and start taking care of business.
#11
SOP35, perhaps it's best to think of Iraq as a kind of cultural recon by fire. We had to know if they were truly interested in becoming civilized.
Afghanistan has answered in the negative; I think the Iraqis are still mulling it over.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
04/06/2006 11:33 Comments ||
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#12
we have to get serious with the 'wreckege party' they always hold afterwoods. Note to US miltary/ Next time a chopper goes down locate the wreckege fast, wait for the festival to start and the corpse burning then fcking flatten it with anti personel cluster munitions or napalm. / I dont give a flying fck if kids are hoping on the wreckege either ,even if thier in wheel chairs rolling over the corpse! I for one am sick of these propagnda tapes and the way we just sit back and comment on how awful it was without actually taking any action to stop it happening again. I bet you could kill and maim at leat 300 Jihadis and their inbred familys that dance on our corpses and wreckage. Tough sht for them! they shoulda engaged thier brain and not acted like the little Koranimals they are. I honestly woudn't mind if we sent an unmanned chopper laced with nasty toxins and anthrax and ditch it in a jihadi hotspot and wait for the wreckege fest to turn into a nasty mess of disease for those who choose to act like animals.
#13
perhaps it's best to think of Iraq as a kind of cultural recon by fire. We had to know if they were truly interested in becoming civilized.
Hear! Hear! RC!
Qassam missile from Gaza sets factory on fire at Kibbutz Zikkim south of Ashkelon. The direct hit Thursday left 2 victims in shock. Wednesday, 7 missiles exploded on the Israeli side of the border. Two landed near Sderot.
After three landed south of Ashkelon, Mekorot evacuated in chlorine plant. No casualties or damage were reported. Earlier, a Qassam landed harmlessly in an open area between Netiv Haasara and Kibbutz Yad Mordechai.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/06/2006 08:49 ||
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#1
Wow. They actually HIT something after firing HOW MANY?
#3
I hope Israel makes a raid and levels the area where these little ditties came from. The Paleos need to realize that there are serious consequences to actions like this. So far, only the occasional Hellfire missile. ANY missile landing in Israel should be considered an act of war.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/06/2006 17:10 Comments ||
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#4
And the death by a thousand cuts continues unopposed and unabated...
A Saudi al Qaeda operative captured ten months ago is in an Israeli jail. Saudis want him handed over. Sources in Riyadh report the Saudis seek custody of Abdul Rahman Al-Atwi, 36. If the handover takes place, it will be the first time Israel has ever passed an Islamic terrorist to Saudi Arabia, a country which has no diplomatic relations with the Jewish state. DEBKAfiles counter terror sources reveal how the episode developed - up to the point Wednesday, April 5, when Saudi foreign minister Prince Saudi al-Faisal told a news conference in Riyadh that he had asked the UN and Red Cross to obtain his release.
Saudi sources report the al Qaeda operative went on a hunger strike two weeks ago. He was placed in Ramleh prison hospital and is being force-fed. After apprehending him at the Allenby Bridge crossing last year, Israeli security services questioned Al-Atwi repeatedly to find out if he was a lone wolf or a member of a band of Saudi al Qaeda operatives, some of whom may have made it to the West Bank and Israel. Israel allowed American and Egyptian agents access to the prisoner for questioning.
The information emerging from interrogations was that Al-Atwi took the ferry from Saudi Arabia to Egypt and went straight to Cairo, where he rented an apartment in the upper middle class Al-Muhandiseen neighborhood. He appears to have been assigned to carry out an attack in Cairo. He was to await al Qaeda contact-men in the Egyptian capital for further instructions. For some reason, the plan was ditched and he was told to get out.
Egyptian security searchers reached the apartment shortly after his departure. There, they found his cell phone number. A phone call established that he had crossed the Suez Canal at Ismailiya and reached Sinai. The al Qaeda operative eluded an Egyptian security unit detailed to detain him. From Sharm el Sheikh he took a ferry boat to Jordan and disembarked at Aqaba. There, too, he slipped through the fingers of Jordanian security. It is believed that al Qaeda men on the spot secreted him north to the Allenby Bridge crossing, where he was finally captured by Israeli security before he carried out his presumed mission of a terrorist strike against Israel.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/06/2006 08:28 ||
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#1
Saudi Arabia should not get their citizen-terrorist back until they sign a real peace treaty and concommitant trade agreements with Israel, and revoke the law making it illegal for Jews and Israelis to live and work in Saudi Arabia. If the man dies an Israeli prisoner in the meantime, the Saudi princelings can take full responsibility for their choice.
#3
The royal knickers must be in a right royal knot to-day.
One of their Own, deviant and dangerous though he may be, dwindling away in Israeli durance vile. Bet he's from one of the best and most powerfullest tribes.
I hope the Israelis hold him for a good long while, and let him send a note to his mom once a month.
The Shin Bet security service on Thursday released Khaled Abu Arafa, the Palestinian Minister for Jerusalem Affairs, a few hours after they detained him as he made his way from Jerusalem to Azzariyeh, close to the eastern part of the city. Border Policemen in jeeps appeared to have been waiting for Abu Arafa, Hamas officials said, and stopped his car as it headed toward Azzariyeh.
Abu Arafa, an independent in the Hamas-led government, was apparently en route to the office of his Fatah predecessor Ziad Abu Ziad for a handover ceremony. His bodyguard was also detained. "They stopped the car and asked the minister to get out and when he refused they forced him by pointing the rifle in his face," a Hamas source said.
Israeli security sources confirmed the arrest, saying Abu Arafa, a resident of the East Jerusalem village of Abu Dis, was detained for trying to enter the Palestinian territories with his Israeli ID card. He was released a few hours later. Israelis are banned from entering the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Ahmed Jalajel, a photographer for the Arabic Al-Quds daily, was in the car with the minister when he was taken into custody. "They asked us for ID, they said 'get out.' He [Abu Arafa] said 'I am not getting out.' They opened the car and pushed him out," Jalajel told The Associated Press. "They asked him to sit down on the ground, and then they checked the IDs. They asked him to get into their jeep. He refused, then they pushed him into the jeep," Jalajel said, adding that he tried to take a picture but the security forces broke his camera.
This is the first time Israel has arrested a minister in the Hamas-led government, sworn in last week after winning a landslide victory in January's parliamentary elections. Abu Arafa, a Jerusalem resident born in 1961, has been arrested by Israel several times in the past.
Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, has assumed security control over the Gaza Strip's border crossings. Al Jazeera said on Wednesday that Abbas issued a presidential decree putting the General Administration for Crossings and Borders department under his responsibility. The decree stipulates that the department must enjoy an independent financial, commercial and security status and be affiliated to the Palestinian presidency.
That's assuming they ever see any money again, of course...
The Islamist resistance group, Hamas, which ousted Abbas' long-dominant Fatah faction in January elections on a platform of fighting corruption and Israel, squealed like stuck little piggies decried the move as a violation of power-sharing agreements. Officials close to Abbas said he had been under pressure from the European Union, which threatened to withdraw its monitors from the key Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt in response to Hamas's political rise. Citing security concerns, Israel has also repeatedly closed the Karni commercial crossing - a lifeline for Palestinians in Gaza, from which Israel withdrew last year after 38 years of occupation. Israel continues to control major crossings in the West Bank, another territory captured in the 1967 Middle East war and where Palestinians seek statehood.
I guess if you start a war you should be prepared to either win it or lose territory.
The Hamas government said Abbas's announcement ran counter to understandings whereby control of borders would remain in the hands of the Palestinian government. "Any attempt to reduce the authorities of the government will harm its performance and its ability to carry out its duties," said cabinet spokesman Ghazi Hamad.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/06/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Isn't this more about baksheesh on crossing points
TEN al-Qa'ida-affiliated terrorists have infiltrated the Gaza Strip in recent weeks to lay the infrastructure for strikes against Israel, the Ha'aretz newspaper reported yesterday.
Israeli officials say the Gaza Strip has been open to large-scale smuggling of weapons and terrorists since Israel's withdrawal last September.
The entry of militants aligned to global jihad factions is of concern to many Palestinians because any new conflict may drag in the local population.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas warned several weeks ago of an al-Qa'ida presence in Gaza.
The attitude of Hamas towards the new development is unclear, although the Islamic group has maintained a ceasefire with Israel for the past year.
The al-Qa'ida operatives, mostly Egyptian citizens, reportedly include men trained in Lebanon and Afghanistan in sophisticated explosive devices and large-scale attacks.
Israel announced last month the arrest of two alleged al-Qa'ida operatives on the West Bank - local Palestinians said to have been recruited in Jordan by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a leader of the insurgency in Iraq.
An Israeli army source told Ha'aretz yesterday: "The focus of global Islamic terror on our region has already become a distinct phenomenon - we're not talking about gut feelings."
Two peripheral strikes on Israeli-held territory in recent months have been attributed to al-Qa'ida. One was a rocket launched at an Israeli town from across the Lebanese border and the other a rocket fired from Jordan that struck the airport at Eilat in the south. There were no casualties in either case.
The chairman of the outgoing Knesset foreign affairs and defence committee, Yuval Steinitz, told Israel Radio yesterday the Israeli army might have to go back into the Gaza Strip to destroy weapons workshops said to have been set up there.
"It's still in an initial phase," he said, "but it's worrisome."
Israeli forces have stepped up reaction to the almost daily firing of rockets into Israel by artillery shelling close to populated Palestinian areas and firing missiles at a helicopter landing pad in Gaza City used by Mr Abbas.
One Palestinian was killed and eight wounded, including a mother and her baby, by Israeli artillery fired on Tuesday at Bait Lahia in the northern strip.
Until now, the Israeli artillery attacks on Palestinian areas were intended mainly as a deterrent. In recent days, however, Israeli military officers have indicated they will embark on a more aggressive strategy in view of the use of longer-range rockets, which threaten the coastal city of Ashkelon.
An army spokesman said the artillery shells that caused the casualties in Bait Lahiya had been fired at a Palestinian launch site.
"The terror organisations fire from civilian areas so the responsibility falls on them," he said. "The army regrets any innocent casualties but the Palestinians know where the rockets are being fired from and they know we will react."
#1
Could be al Qaeda has decided that the Great Satan is too tough on them so they have gone to plan B.
Focus on the Little Satan while they lick their wounds and recruit among the Hamas and endless brigades of martyrs. Who knows, maybe the Great Satan will go back to sleep.
#3
"The terror organisations fire from civilian areas so the responsibility falls on them," he said. "The army regrets any innocent casualties but the Palestinians know where the rockets are being fired from and they know we will react." Yes, every dead prairie dog, honey bee, and cactus in the empty desert where our artillery lands will be on the heads of the Palestinians.
#5
although the Islamic group has maintained a ceasefire with Israel for the past year.
This $#!^ just drives me crazy. Are all those rockets launching themselves? People have to stop letting this abrains get away with disclaimers about "wadn't us, it was two other fellers altogether". This is the exact same BS that Arafart was spewing. You're the government, you bought it, you own it.
The new Hamas-led government is broke and missed the April 1 monthly pay date for tens of thousands of Palestinian public workers, Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said Wednesday. It was the Islamic militants' first admission they will have difficulty running the West Bank and Gaza without massive foreign aid.
Haniyeh offered no solutions to the cash crunch, pledging only to do his best to make up for tens of millions of dollars in aid being withheld by international donors and appealing to the Arab world to send more donations. The Palestinian Authority is the largest employer in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, providing salaries for 140,000 people that sustain about one-third of the Palestinians. Haniyeh said it was unclear how the government will meet its payroll. "The Palestinian Finance Ministry has received an entirely empty treasury in addition to the debt of the government in general," Haniyeh told the first meeting of his Cabinet. "We are going to do our utmost as a government to pay the salaries of the Palestinian Authority employees despite the cash crisis that we are facing."
Finance Minister Omar Abdel Razek said he is waiting for $80 million from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. "If they pay, and I hope they will, we will be able to pay salaries by the middle of the month," he told The Associated Press.
A collapse in the Palestinian Authority would devastate an economy where 44 percent of the population lives under the poverty line of about $2 a day and nearly one-quarter of the work force is unemployed, according to the World Bank. In a symbolic step, Haniyeh said Cabinet members would not be paid until the financial crisis is solved. "We are not going to receive our salaries until everyone from the Palestinian Authority is paid," he said.
Haniyeh's Cabinet, sworn into office just a week ago, needs to find ways to make up for foreign aid that Western donors are threatening to withhold, largely because of the Hamas' refusal to recognize Israel and renounce violence. In the past, Palestinians received about $1 billion a year in foreign aid. Israel also froze the transfer of tens of millions of dollars in tax revenues it collects on behalf of the Palestinians since shortly after Hamas' January election victory. The United States and Canada already announced they are severing ties with the new government, and the European Union is to decide on its aid program next week. EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana told the European Parliament on Wednesday that "talking about business as usual simply isn't possible" until Hamas renounces violence and recognizes Israel.
Hamas leaders have rejected calls to moderate and until recently claimed they would be able to cover any shortfall with help from Arab and Muslim countries. However, Haniyeh conceded Wednesday that Arab pledges are insufficient, and his ministers soon would embark on a tour of the Arab world to drum up more support. The Arab League last week resolved to send the Palestinians about $55 million a month, but Arab nations have largely failed to honor such commitments in the past. Israel has welcomed Western efforts to continue humanitarian aid to the Palestinians, as long as the money does not reach Hamas, which it considers a terrorist group. The United States and EU also classify Hamas as terrorists.
Wednesday's Cabinet meeting was held via videoconference, with simultaneous sessions taking place in Gaza and the West Bank because Israel does not permit Hamas ministers to travel between the two territories through Israel. The Palestinian legislature also meets this way. The Cabinet voted to freeze decisions made by the more moderate Fatah-controlled Cabinet just before it left office, including transferring some powers to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and promoting Fatah functionaries, Palestinian officials said.
Hamas has softened its statements since taking power last week but stopped short of meeting the international community's demands. In the latest mixed message, Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar wrote to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Tuesday that the new Hamas government believes its struggle against Israel's military occupation is just, but it wants to live side-by-side and in peace with its neighbors. Zahar's letter also referred to Israel's "illegal colonial policies," which he said "will ultimately diminish any hopes for the achievement of settlement and peace based on a two-state solution." Diplomats said the reference to a two-state solution by Hamas, which calls for Israel's destruction, could be a sign it is moderating. However, Zahar denied that he in any way recognized Israel's right to exist or a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The English translation of Zahar's letter to Annan, including the reference to a possible two-state solution, was sent to the AP by the Palestinian Observer Mission to the United Nations. Haniyeh also sent mixed signals on contacts with Israel. He said Hamas has "no problem to contact the Israelis to discuss issues related to our people's daily lives." But he ruled out political negotiations.
Paleos at Brink of Default (Rantburg Financial Times) Apr 6: Paleostinian Prime Minister and Hamas Big Ismail Haniyeh admitted today that the Paleo state is about to go belly-up unless malleable governments in Europe and Arabia pony up more cash for the sinking enterprise. It was the latest in a series of admissions and moves by the terrorist group to generate cash to continue terrorist operations against Israel, and incidentally to buy off enough of the Paleo civil service to prevent civil war, should one actually be noticed in the Gaza Strip.
Haniyeh offered no new solution to the cash crunch other than calling on gullible Y'urppeons and brother Arabs to fork over the dough. " We are going to do our utmost as a government to extort the dhimmis and our Arab brothers, though the cash crisis we're facing is one that even the U.N. can't fix," he told the first meeting off his War Council, referring to the $335 million USD passed onto the Paleos by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East in 2005.
Despite aid estimated by the World Bank at $1.1 billion dollars in 2005, and an economy that generates about $660 per capita income for its 3.8 million people, nearly half of the Paleos survive on less than $2 a day, though various Islamic groups can still afford guns and ammunition. In a symbolic step, Haniyeh and his War Council will not take their state salaries until the civil servants are paid, relying in the meantime on overseas revenue and the usual extortion and money laundering activities at home.
Hamas has begun to get a clue that its mission statement calling for the destruction of the Jooos has been both long on rhetoric and short on delivery, and has upset even the more prissy elements of the international community. Trying to cut it both ways, Paleo Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar (not related to the notorious Mahmoud the Weasel) informed U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan Tuesday that the Hamas government would put its struggle against the evil Zionists on hold if someone would just fork over the boodle. Zahar, not wanting to die at the hands of his own people, reiterated diaphoretically that in no way did this amount to a recognition of the Zionist entity.
#1
Hamas' cronies and fellow travellers from Tehran to Jo'burg are pressing the 'Arab world' to give more dough, whilst trying to lay a guilt trip on the 'West'. We'll see who coughs up the money first.
#7
Perhaps they should think about getting a dayjob? You know, start making a living through honest work... Or otherwise emigrate en masse to France to get welfare benefit? This is a very complex issue.
#11
The only way the squeeze play works is if you have the will to see it through and are prepared to accept the ramifications. In this situation, if brought to fruition, the term stick to your guns will take on a quite literal meaning.
#12
You don't see too many national economy's where the major product is "international begging" make it in today's world. Although the PA appears to be trying to become a pioneer in the effort...
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
04/06/2006 13:17 Comments ||
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#15
Too bad they looted everything the Israelis left behind when they pulled out. Those greenhouses might actually have generated some income. Problem with a rent-a-mob economy is that after awhile, your act gets old and it gets harder to find rubes willing to pay to watch you seethe.
TEHRAN: Iran has successfully test-fired its third new missile in week during war games in the Gulf, Iran's Arabic language satellite television Al-Alam reported on Wednesday. "Today we have successfully tested a new air-to-sea-and-ground missile capable of being fired from planes and helicopters, which can evade anti-missile missiles," war games spokesman Rear Admiral Mohammad Ebrahim Dehqani said. "The missile, which is labelled Nour (light in Arabic), has a tremendous destructive ability and has an antenna in its warhead which gets activated near the target," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/06/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
oo... sounds scary.... ooh ooh ooh..
Even has an antenna ... scary..
#2
Exciting war games with brand new missiles and torpedoes going every which way. I wonder how much useful intelligence a fellow might pick up just lurking around. Not that gentlemen would ever stoop to spying, mind you.
#3
I'm somewhat concerned about this capability; the suppressed conclusion out of the Pentagon concerning the downing of one of our Stealth Fighters by the Serbs during that war was rumored to be Line Of Sight+Night Vision+ Delayed Tracking Activation by that missile! Unless our ships can turn on a dime, or Aegis is 'all seeing' with our Awacs; I can relax!
#4
Taken collectively it likely is minor how many super-weapons Iran says it has - the Mullahs and MadMoud are willing, fanatical, and desperate enuff to risk geopol confrontation between the Cold War powers, war and invasion of their own country, to include PC MSM-verified anti-American "People's War". Will say again that Iran's ultimate aces are the anti-American Americans pols already within the NPE, and PC "Amer Hiroshimas", i.e. terror attacks which in reality are disguised decapitation strikes against Dubya and the GOP-NPE, and which in all likelihood is what the Clinton-led Dems truly want and are inducing. THe DEms surviving any GOP-caused/blamed new 9-11's/AMer Hiroshimas = Saving America + world from GOP-caused/blmaed nuclear "brinkmanship", just as America unilater "volunteering" to give up its sovereignty, Govt. freedoms and endowments to OWG and a [Russia-China dominated]coalition of world states = America being militarily forced to by same, by the "world community". The Lefties are RINOS-CINOS and agenda-less for a reason, people -remember, the Left > Dubya is both Adolf Bushitler whom needs to be stopped iff not wiped out, as well as an unruly, little brat, know-it-all ideo half-brother to Marx, Stalin, and Mao, in dire need of "proper" guidance from his Regulation-, Welfarism-, Centralism, Hyper-Govt. Empire and Holocaust-happy, etal. Commie-Socialist Mother.
#5
"conclusion out of the Pentagon concerning the downing of one of our Stealth Fighters by the Serbs." Your right! The generals really should come clean and publish their conclusion in the newspapers, that way other enemies can use the same method to shoot down other stealth aircraft. Are you that stupid or just naive?
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/06/2006 10:01 Comments ||
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#8
Um.. I hate to break it to you, but the stealth aircraft was downed because of our own stupidity. The asshats in the Clinton chain of command were just SURE that the serbs wouldn't fire at our planes from "safe area". The F-117 was flying how it shouldn't, doing what it shouldn't in an area that it really shouldn't have. (ie, flying medium altiude, with lights on, with radar on)
Radar tracking stations in Sibera could have picked it up.
#9
Something I forgot to add ... flying OVER a radar site. Stealth is not invisable. Fly BETWEEN radar and you won't get seen, fly over it ... well ... BOOM for starters.
#10
And the Serbs were using a standard Soviet air defense technique, tracking with radar in one location with hardwire guidance relayed to the shooters in another, presumably unexpected location. Same thing Saddam tried in the later years of the No-Fly zones.
#11
no no the airdefense the serb had was actually a modified set of Soviet gear - recently the Guy in charge of the group that shot down the F-117 told the whole story and its fasinating stuff, they actually modified there systems (cant remeber how) and were a very professional group. Its worth googling up on. Interestingly when the 117 went down there was actually a mig (cant remeber which type) within a few miles and it never knew the 117 was there at all. Yes spies in NATO and stupid flightpaths didnt help one bit but it was not a lucky shot, it was a skilled piece of air defense.
#12
I still call bullcrap Shep, especially a story from the enemy. I work with many air force pukes and several of them were with that air squad during the Clinton years. We did so much political stupid shit, JUST like we did in vietnam that it is a miracle more aircraft were not shot down. The f-117 is not designed to be prevented from being seen, just reduce the signature return. It flys between radar sites at low altitude to keep from being detected and it can't have its radar on.
The one that was shot down did everything that you AREN'T supposed to do to keep being seen (kinda like the Monty python skit on how not to be seen). The civilians in the pentegon and the yes men air farce pukes wanted it to be seen to show the Serbs "See, we could have killed you, but we didn't" (also see bombing of open field in Panama invasion). The Serbs replied back "We don't care, and we will shoot down your plane now."
A lot of lower level air force guys are extreamly disgusted on how stupid the Kosovo campaign was. If we tried that crap against Russia or China, we would have had nearly 30-40% loss rate.
One more example of not letting the real warriors do their job and some civie moron take charge to make a political point. Also another reason never to let the Clintons or the Democrats back in office.
#13
well i agree with you that clintons bunch did make a hell of a meal outa it and it shoulda been fought very diferantly. But to dismiss the guy as being a liar isn't really fair on him. Its an official fact he was in chrage of the unit and they did some very clever tricks with it to bring down the 117. The guy isn't the enemy anymore - he just has his side of the story to tell and a very interesting story it is too. Ok we definatly fcked up very big time on the flight paths thing ,using the same one over and over but you can't take what they did as all our own fault. Sure we made mistakes and those mistakes combined with a very compitant air defence unit cost us a f-117. Those guys in that missle unit were not dummys and had had done alot of prior research into knocking down any stealth jets that might attack that for them payed off when they did take one down. Mind you i'm not saying there amazing because to shoot one plane down does not give you a capability to do it, shoot 3 or 4 and yes you have that capabilty but one does not prove much at all. The radar they used was mobile to and was moved about every 3 hours i think he said, always hiding in heavily forested areas. the Serb airdefence unit that shot it down also didnt lose any of it vehicles or equipment during the conflict either which to me is somewhat bad on our part.
#14
ShepUK, strategypage did a whole article on it which provided additional data. Essentially what happened was this, the F117 flew the same ingress and egress route over to the target, REPEATEDLY, it then took off at time while it was being watched by observers who relayed the info back to the Serb battery commander who himself by now had crossed the equivalent of over 100,000 km of land back and forth just trying to avoid the bombings. When the stealth finally came over (this being in broad friggin daylight) they didn't bother to use the radar still, they used optical guidance to make final corrections to the target. Top it off range to target was 13km (in broad friggin daylight no less). Stupid schmucks at the ops planning deserve the blame for this one.
#15
yeah agreed we made some big mistakes on route planning but Zoltan still did a good job, even at the end of article the last words were 'never underestimate your opponent' ,we did just that and Zoltans boys . I'm honestly not to sure about the being in broad daylight bit though. thats something i'm gonna look into but im sure you'll find that no 117 ops were ever flown in daytime back then and thats why the grey scheme has now been tested recently on the 117 so it can go daylight hunting. I don't wanna argue over this though lol, i just think our side fcked up and thier side wernt the dummies many of us thought they were at that time.
#17
Oh I'll agree with the planning fark up wholeheartedly, but you'll also note the major rethink that has caused at virtually all levels of ops. The particular article we're addressing seems to be focused on the ballistic missiles Iran has been testing, Iran's been also making noises about how they could be used against both the USN and shipping in and around the Gulf. Thats a valid concern because they may decide that attacking civilians will force us to withdraw. Not necessarily true that we will.
#18
Well I ain't rich, and I ain't socialist.
Why don't you let me know where you are and I'll come down and kick you in the balls and we'll call it even?
#19
Hitler and Stalin didn't listen to even one point of view, my dear Chomsky. They spoke only, and left it to others to do the listening. Please do learn your history before venturing to pontificate upon it, lest you continue to demonstrate that you aren't even so much as a pretty face. The Chomskys are not an attractive family, as we all know, although one of them was at least clever enough to fool the masses of pseudointellectuals into believing him clever.
#20
Off topic, a bit, but interesting aftermath between muzzies and the Serbs here, then scroll down to see a list, with photos of what happened in Serbia under UN
peacekeepers"--pretty sick, and not unlike the Buddhist statues in Afghanistan, except more pervasive. Don't think we ever should have been there, but Bill had to cover up his bjs with Monica.
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.
Taliban guerrillas shot dead an Afghan intelligence official on Wednesday, the second senior security officer to be killed in 24 hours. The provincial intelligence official, Abdul Hakim, was gunned down as he was walking to his office in Ghazni province, southwest of the capital, the provincial police chief said. One of the gunmen was captured as he tried to flee on a motorbike, said the police chief, Abdur Rahman Sarjang, who said the attackers were Taliban.
The son of warlord Charles Taylor who was hiding out in Trinidad and Tobago before being held in the United States last week may be connected to the Al Qaeda network. The Daily Express understands that the Liberian Human Rights and Refugee Welfare Organisation based in the US has notified the US Justice Department through a letter to hold Charles 'Chuckie' Taylor Jr for more investigation, unrelated to the passport fraud for which he has been arrested and detained in Miami.
Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) captured the sixth Majlish-e-Shura member of the outlawed Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) Khaled Saifullah at a bordering village of Shibganj upazila in Chapainawabganj last night. Lt Col Lutfar Rahman, commanding officer (CO) of BDR 6 Rifles Battalion, acknowledged the arrest, reports our staff correspondent in Rajshahi. With the latest arrest, six out of seven members of the JMB top decision-making tier have been put behind bars. Salahuddin is still at large with a Tk 10 lakh bounty on his head.
A bomb has ripped through offices of Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) on the outskirts of Istanbul, injuring two people, a local party official said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the explosion happened against the background of a week of street clashes between police and Kurdish protesters in which 16 people have died. Much of the demonstrators' anger over high unemployment, poverty and Ankara's refusal to grant more autonomy to the mainly Kurdish region has been targeted against the government, and AKP offices have been damaged in the latest protests.
An Iraqi-born U.S. citizen suspected of being a foreign intelligence agent was employed by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to rule on asylum applications, including those from unfriendly Middle Eastern nations, according to documents obtained from Congress by The Washington Times. Michael J. Maxwell, the former head of the Office of Security and Investigations at USCIS, is expected to testify about the Iraqi case and other breakdowns at the agency to a House subcommittee today. Mr. Maxwell will tell legislators that the immigration system is being used by enemy governments to place agents in the United States. 
GUANTANAMO BAY US NAVAL BASE, Cuba - A Canadian teenager charged with killing a US Army medic in Afghanistan told a Guantanamo tribunal on Wednesday he had been unfairly punished with solitary confinement and would no longer participate in the hearing. Omar Khadr, a 19-year-old accused by the US military of being trained by al Qaeda, addressed the presiding officer softly at his pretrial hearing at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
LAHORE: The Punjab home secretary ordered the release of two activists of banned group Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP). Qari Allah Ditta and Naeem Commando of the SSP were being held in Faisalabad Jail under the Anti-Terrorist Act for 90 days. Both had filed a request to the home secretary to be released.
The Darakhshan police have registered a case against former Balochistan CM Akhtar Mengal and others for kidnapping three personnel of an intelligence agency. In an FIR registered with the Darakhshan police station, the Balochistan National Party (BNP) president has also been charged with interference in official duty, unlawful detention and torture. 
MIRANSHAH: Sixteen militants were killed and 19 arrested after security forces retaliated to two deadly attacks at two sites in 
Iraqi terrorist leader 
Until his capture, Abu Ayman, the former aide to the Chief of Staff of Intelligence during the Saddam Hussein regime, was the leader of the Secret Islamic Army in the Northern Babil Province. Abu Ayman has strong ties to terror leader Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, still considered the head of Al-Qaeda in Iraq. Abu Ayman is the prime suspect in the kidnapping of Italian journalist Guiliana Sgrena and for assassination attempts on Iraqi Government and Iraqi Security Forces officials. Abu Ayman is also the prime suspect in the kidnapping and killing of several hostages in Iraq and for committing some of the most lethal IED attacks on Coalition and Iraqi Forces and on Iraqi citizens since the fall of the regime. 
Baghdad, 6 April (AKI) - The key suspect in the kidnapping of Italian journalist Guiliana Sgrena has been captured, the U.S. military said on Thursday. Mohammed Hila Hammad al-Ubaydi, a former senior intelligence official under Saddam Hussein with close ties to the al-Qaeda leader in Iraq Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was arrested on 7 March, the statement said. Sgrena was freed last year but an Italian intelligence officer escorting her to freedom was shot and killed by U.S. forces at a checkpoint near Baghdad airport. Al-Ubaydi was sought for questioning in several assassination attempts the statement added..
BAGHDAD: Saddam Hussein returned to court on Wednesday to face genocide charges by immediately accusing the country's Interior Ministry of killing and torturing thousands of Iraqis, remarks aimed at inflaming sectarian tensions. "It's the side that kills thousands in the street and tortures them, " he said, criticising the Shia-run ministry that Sunni Arabs have accused of running death squads against them. Saddam was the only defendant in the chamber. 
Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, has assumed security control over the Gaza Strip's border crossings. Al Jazeera said on Wednesday that Abbas issued a presidential decree putting the General Administration for Crossings and Borders department under his responsibility. The decree stipulates that the department must enjoy an independent financial, commercial and security status and be affiliated to the Palestinian presidency.
The new Hamas-led government is broke and missed the April 1 monthly pay date for tens of thousands of Palestinian public workers, Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said Wednesday. It was the Islamic militants' first admission they will have difficulty running the West Bank and Gaza without massive foreign aid.
TEHRAN: Iran has successfully test-fired its third new missile in week during war games in the Gulf, Iran's Arabic language satellite television Al-Alam reported on Wednesday. "Today we have successfully tested a new air-to-sea-and-ground missile capable of being fired from planes and helicopters, which can evade anti-missile missiles," war games spokesman Rear Admiral Mohammad Ebrahim Dehqani said. "The missile, which is labelled Nour (light in Arabic), has a tremendous destructive ability and has an antenna in its warhead which gets activated near the target," he added.
