For the last ten years, development of "smart dust" has moved right along. "Smart Dust" is basically very miniaturized electronic devices. This is similar to stuff like RFID, smart cards, EZ Pass and those rice grain size tracking devices you can have injected into your pets. But Smart Dust takes this all to a new level by being small enough to be disguised as dirt, the kind you can pick up in your shoes or clothing. Each bit of Smart Dust can be given a unique serial number that, when hit with an "interrogation signal" from troops on the ground, or aircraft overhead, is broadcast back. Some forms of Smart Dust are believed to be in use in Iraq and Afghanistan. It's also believed that Smart Dust played a role in the recent death of al Qaeda leader Abu Musab al Zarqawi. In this case, if someone were able to sprinkle some Smart Dust on Zarqawi's clothing, it would have been a simple matter to track him with great precision. Iraqis have already heard of this stuff, but regard it more as "magic dust." Iraqis have a tendency to exaggerate American capabilities, especially when it comes to technology. But U.S. troops have learned to use this exaggerated reputation to their advantage, threatening Iraqis with magical capabilities that don't exist. That often works, just like smart dust.
Posted by: Mike ||
06/11/2006 13:52 ||
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#1
If smart dust was used, it would mean a US informant got close enough to the Z-Man to sprinkle his clothes. Actually, I thought smart dust would be radioactive dust sprinkled on Soviet cars and clothing to track soviet agents' movements. That DOES exist and was used by the FBI during the last years of the Cold War.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
06/11/2006 14:32 Comments ||
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#2
If the Z-Man had just used more Lemon Pledge and a good vacuum cleaner, all this unpleasantry could have been avoided?
#8
occupied by unknown women of questionable origin.
At least one of the women in the house was a wife of Zarqawi who had been collecting info on the Coalition and Iraqi forces ... not clear how she got it.
#11
#7: Wow! Fairy dust!
Damn, beat me to it, I have "Tinkerbell" firmly in mind sprinkling Osama with a bit of tracking dust and zipping away as the bombs zero in.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/11/2006 17:58 Comments ||
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#13
...Even if this isn't true, the AlQueers have GOT to be soiling themselves right now reading this. They have relied on the eternal dust itself to hide them - and now it may be betraying them. Clarke's Law strikes again.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
06/11/2006 19:03 Comments ||
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#14
Y'all gettin' the same Google ad on the right sidebar as me?
The goal of the Smart Dust project is to build a self-contained, millimeter-scale sensing and communication platform for a massively distributed sensor network. This device will be around the size of a grain of sand and will contain sensors, computational ability, bi-directional wireless communications, and a power supply, while being inexpensive enough to deploy by the hundreds. The science and engineering goal of the project is to build a complete, complex system in a tiny volume using state-of-the art technologies (as opposed to futuristic technologies), which will require evolutionary and revolutionary advances in integration, miniaturization, and energy management. We forsee many applications for this technology:
#3
The premise of this article is ridiculous. Afghanistan has indigenously been run by tribes (militias) since dirt. The notion of a strong central government is culturally divisive.
Posted by: Captain America ||
06/11/2006 22:33 Comments ||
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KANDAHAR (AIP): Two Taliban were killed and six other arrested in joint operations carried out by coalition forces and Afghan National Army in Zabul province on Saturday, officials said. Gen. Rahmatullah Raufi, Commander of 205 Corps of ANA, while giving details to Afghan Islamic Press said, Coalition forces and ANA carried out joint operations against Taliban in Shahjowi district of Zabul province and killed two Taliban and arrested other three with arms and ammunitions. Three Taliban were also arrested in an operation carried out in Nobahar district of Zabul province.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/11/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
It's a quagmire...and we are losing...and we need to pull out!!!! NOW!!!!
Posted by: John Murtha, COL USMC (Ret) ||
06/11/2006 7:31 Comments ||
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#2
Oh, plez, Murtha, be our leader
Posted by: Captain America ||
06/11/2006 7:47 Comments ||
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KABUL (AIP): Taliban extremists burned a school in the Khas Uruzgan District, Uruzgan Province on June 3, says a press release issued by coalition forces on Saturday. The Wardag Kat Primary School located within Wardag Village was set on fire by several identified Taliban extremists under the cover of darkness, resulting in extensive damage to the roof and the interior of the building. Enemy extremists sporadically fired small arms fire into the village as well as a nearby village across the valley, while the school was burning that night. Residents of Wardag Village did not report any injuries to Afghan or Coalition forces.
This despicable act is further proof of the enemys blatant disregard for innocent Afghan children and civilians, said a Combined Joint Task Force 76 spokesperson. Taliban extremists have been implicated or have claimed responsibility for damaging more than 45 schools, assassinating teachers and intimidating school aged children in the past year. These Taliban extremists are attempting to deprive education to innocent Afghan children and derail the future of Afghanistan, the spokesperson said. Afghan Security Forces, together with Coalition forces, will not rest until those responsible for this criminal act are brought to justice.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/11/2006 00:00 ||
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The security of Baidoa, the capital town of Bay region in southwest Somalia is heavily tightened; with government troops were patrolling the streets around the key government residences in the town on Saturday. The move came after Somali interim president Abdulahi Yusuf issued a degree in which it is described that the president using his power in the federal constitution has imposed a curfew from 9:00 pm to 5:00am before the dawn local time (EAT). The curfew will go into effect from tonight and it continues till the government assures the security in the town.
It is the second curfew imposed on Baidoa since the transitional federal government based in the town, which is 240km southwest of the capital Somalia Mogadishu, where Islamic gunmen wrested the control of the city from the alliance of warlords after 15 years of gun-rule. The government degree contained of five articles including:
To form immediately the administration of Baidoa.
All militias and their weapons in the town should be listed in the designed training camps in and outside of Baidoa.
To deploy the government troops in Baidoa airstrip and also to take the control of all the checkpoints to collect taxes and then put in the treasure of Baidoa administration.
To set up defense positions inside the town to check the armed militia and other weapon smugglers.
To be alert the government militia in Baidoa and deploy in camps where they can rapidly react.
Also in the degree it has been mentioned that he/she who violate the order might face a fine, for instance anyone who breaches it may receive 1-3 months arrest and a fine of cash between 1,500,000 and 3,000,000 Somali Shillings worthy it $110 to $220.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/11/2006 00:00 ||
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One Russian soldier was killed and another injured when their patrol vehicle hit a roadside bomb in Chechnya, Interfax news agency said Saturday. Another soldier was injured in a bomb explosion in the same region, the agency said. Seperatly, Russian authorities said they have arrested three individuals in Chechnya. One of the detainees is close to Chechen separatist leader Shamil Basayev. They did not disclose the detainee's identity.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/11/2006 00:00 ||
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THREE Muslims said to have committed suicide in a Guantanamo Bay prison would not have violated Islam by taking their own lives and must have been killed by their US captors, the Taliban said today.
"We can't accept that they have committed suicide," a purported spokesman for the Islamist Taliban movement in Afghanistan, Mohammad Hanif, said. "No Muslim, no mujahid (holy warrior), can commit suicide. It's banned under Islamic Sharia law," said Hanif, who is often in contact with the media from a secret location.
You're right. They didn't commit suicide. They were so horny for their 72 raisins that they decided to commit self-jihad.
The Guantanamo Bay commander said the "war on terror" suspects - a Yemeni and two Saudis - were found dead in their cells yesterday and had hanged themselves with clothes and bed sheets.
Hanif said there a clear difference between committing suicide and carrying out suicide attacks against "infidels". "Those carrying out suicide attacks are targeting infidels," he said, distinguishing this from suicide just to "relieve oneself from suffering".
"The trio, three Arabs, the US says have committed suicide - it is not true. They've been killed by their captors," Hanif said. "A mujahid is committed to struggle to the last moment of his life."
There are some 460 prisoners at the military-run prison in Guantanamo, including about 100 Afghans. Many were captured in Afghanistan after a US-led coalition attacked in November 2001 to overthrow the Taliban regime for sheltering Al-Qaeda. The Afghan Government has been pushing for their freedom and a few dozen have already returned home.
They want to hang themselves in a Kabul prison, it's no skin off my fore.
Three Guantanamo Bay detainees hanged themselves with nooses made of sheets and clothes, the commander of the detention center said Saturday. They were the first reported deaths among the hundreds of men held at the base in Cuba some of them for up to 4 1/2 years and without charge. Two men from Saudi Arabia and one from Yemen were found "unresponsive and not breathing in their cells" early Saturday, according to a statement from the Miami-based U.S. Southern Command, which has jurisdiction over the prison. Attempts were made to revive the prisoners, but they failed.
"They hung themselves with fabricated nooses made out of clothes and bed sheets," Navy Rear Adm. Harry Harris told reporters in a conference call from the U.S. base in southeastern Cuba. Pentagon officials said the three men were in Camp 1, the highest maximum security prison at Guantanamo, and that none of them had tried to commit suicide before. That camp was also the location where two detainees tried to commit suicide in mid-May, when a riot broke out at the facility. The two men, who took overdoses of an anti-anxiety medication they hoarded, were found and received medical treatment and were recovering.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/11/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Missing Zarkboy, were ya? Well, you're back with him now. Hope y'all enjoy those raisins! Eat quick though, 'cause you'll be having a lot more company soon!
Posted by: mac ||
06/11/2006 1:42 Comments ||
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#2
Man, it's horrible when lover's triangles go bad....
#4
A lot of Japanese took this way out when it dawned on them they weren't going to win either circa 1945. Guess they couldn't stand the wait for their Walkman's or PSPs.
DERA BUGTI (Online): Unidentified miscreants fired at least 19 rockets at the FC check post in District Kohlu and Dera Bugti while railway track was blown up in the vicinity of Hernai Sanari here Friday. As per details, some unknown miscreants fired at least 19 rockets at the FC check post in Sangsela, Loti Pir, and Kohlu Wad, which luckily missed the target and landed out side the premises of the check posts. The FC retaliated immediately. However no loss of life and property was reported.
Meanwhile, in series of damaging bridges, unknown saboteurs blew up Railway Bridge, which suspended the railway traffic in the locality of Sanari near Harnai. However, FC jawan defused the land mine near the bridge.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/11/2006 00:00 ||
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Pakistan Army helicopters bombed a militants hideout in a village in North Waziristan in a pre-dawn raid on Saturday, killing up to 20 militants. The air strike occurred at around 3:30am in Darbalooki village, Dattakhel tehsil, some 35 kilometres west of Miranshah. Four helicopters were used in the attack. The bodies of the insurgents could not be found. The killed militants were not identified, and there were conflicting reports about whether they were local or foreigners. A tribal source told Daily Times the helicopters used in the raid were American.
The security forces have conducted similar bombing raids in the past in Sadghy, Mir Ali, Masaki, Hisori and Anhar to flush out militants. A press release from Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) said the strike was in response to a series of attacks on military convoys in the past few days, and the militants had been using the compound as a base for the attacks. Local Taliban spokesman Abdullah Farhad called reporters on the telephone from an undisclosed location confirming the air raid. He said 18 militants were killed in the attack and they were all locals. All of them have been buried, he said, adding that five militants were injured.
Asked how they would respond to the raid, Farhad said: We are already retaliating. He said that the pro-Taliban militants in the area had been surprised by the military action as they expected the appointment of the new NWFP governor to mean a scale back of military operations in the tribal areas and more emphasis on dialogue.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/11/2006 00:00 ||
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In case you thought only Baluchis did this sort of thing ...
GUWAHATI - Suspected separatist guerrillas in Indias northeastern state of Assam triggered four explosions, blowing up oil and gas pipelines, hours after a market-place bomb killed five people, police said on Saturday.
The militants blew up a pipeline carrying crude oil from a drilling site in the states Duliajan area, and a gas pipeline in the town of Digboi, 400 km (250 miles) east of Guwahati, the states main city. They also hurled a grenade at a house of a local politician, hurting six people, including two children, officers said.
Police blamed the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), the most powerful rebel group among the northeasts many insurgencies, for the market bombing and for a series of grenade attacks on Thursday that wounded at least 20 people. No group has claimed responsibility for the explosions.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/11/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
The transformation of the UFLA to an organization that supports the illegal immigration of millions of muslim Bangladeshi immigrants into the Indian north-east is quite interesting.
Assamese will be a minority in their own territory and any redisual separatist goals the UFLA still has will be impossible.
Guess the ISI money talks..
Posted by: john ||
06/11/2006 8:32 Comments ||
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Local nationalist militants blew up three state-owned gas pipelines in Southwestern Pakistani province of Baluchistan, suspending gas supply to the provincial capital and badly damaging the pipeline on Saturday, officials said. Militants used time-bombs to blow up the pipelines in Dasht and Loti areas of the province, said Abdul Samad Lasi, a local government officer while talking to newsmen. He said repair work has been started on the pipelines, adding that the gas supply is expected to be restored within 24 hours. A local outlawed militant group, Baluch Liberation Army (BLA), claimed responsibility for the attacks.
At least five Iraqis were killed and a British soldier wounded when a firefight broke out between Mehdi militia gunmen and British troops in the southern town of Amara, police have reported. "Five people were killed, including one woman and 15 were wounded," said Lieutenant Ali Aziz of the Amara police, adding that the gunmen were members of the Mehdi militia of firebrand Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
British military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Richard Eaton confirmed there was a clash but declined to speculate on the identity of the attackers or the number of casualties. "There were a series of firefights where multinational troops were engaged from a variety of places," he said, adding that they began at 3:00 am (2300 GMT Saturday) and lasted over an hour.
"There was quite sustained gunfire, RPG and small arms fire," he said referring to rocket propelled grenades. "It is probable that some terrorists were killed."
One British soldier was wounded and a Warrior armored vehicle became stuck in a ditch and had to be recovered, he said. Amara police reported a British vehicle in flames.
Eaton added that the situation was still confused and it is not clear if it was a single incident that mushroomed as gunmen joined the fray or if there was a substantial force already in place waiting for the patrol.
Amara, just north of Basra, is the scene of heavy militia activity where British soldiers regularly come under attack.
Al-Qaida in Iraq vowed today to carry out "major attacks," insisting in a Web statement that it was still powerful after the death of leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The statement did not name a successor to al-Zarqawi, who was killed by a U.S. airstrike Wednesday. But it said the group's leadership "renews its allegiance" to Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden "will see things that will bring joy to his heart," it said, vowing "to prepare major attacks that will shake the enemy like an earthquake and rattle them out of sleep."
The authenticity of the statement could not be independently confirmed. It was posted on an Islamic militant Web forum where the group has posted statements in the past. Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, told "Fox News Sunday" he expected the statement from al-Qaida in Iraq because "they're hurt badly." He said there had been a "steady drumbeat" of operations against al-Zarqawi's network since the leader's hideout was bombed. "It's expected but I think we'll be prepared for it," Casey said of the threat. "But again, you can't stop terrorist attacks completely."
The statement was issued in the name of al-Qaida in Iraq but was put out by the Mujahedeen Shura Council, an umbrella organization of five insurgent groups that al-Zarqawi helped create. The statement said al-Qaida in Iraq's leadership met after al-Zarqawi's death and "agreed to continue jihad (holy war) and not be affected by his martyrdom."
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Posted by: Fred ||
06/11/2006 14:44 ||
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#1
Perhaps they'll 'start' blowing up Iraqi civilians who walk past parked cars or beheading bus passengers. I suppose the ferosity of their threats is supposed to scare us into putting our heads in the sand like the European ostrich.
#6
They can't be serious yet. The lions of islam haven't gone into "seething" mode yet. That's the stage before they throw acid in little girls' faces, or execute high scool students.
Fears of an imminent offensive by the U.S. troops massed around the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi intensified Saturday, with residents pouring out of the city to escape what they describe as a mounting humanitarian crisis. The image pieced together from interviews with tribal leaders and fleeing families in recent weeks is one of a desperate population of 400,000 people trapped in the crossfire between insurgents and U.S. forces. Food and medical supplies are running low, prices for gas have soared because of shortages and municipal services have ground to a stop.
U.S. and Iraqi forces had cordoned off the city by Saturday, residents and Iraqi officials said. Airstrikes on several residential areas picked up, and troops took to the streets with loudspeakers to warn civilians of a fierce impending attack, Ramadi police Capt. Tahseen Dulaimi said. U.S. military officials refused to confirm or deny reports that a Ramadi offensive was underway.
Thousands of families remain trapped in the city, those who have fled say. Many can't afford to leave or lack transportation, whereas other families have decided to wait for their children to finish final examinations at school before escaping. "The situation is catastrophic. No services, no electricity, no water," said Sheik Fassal Gaood, the former governor of Al Anbar province, whose capital is Ramadi. "People in Ramadi are caught between two plagues: the vicious, armed insurgents and the American and Iraqi troops."
Residents have been particularly unnerved by the recent arrival of 1,500 U.S. troops sent to reinforce the forces already stationed at the city. Street battles between troops and insurgents have been raging for months, but the troops' deployment left residents bracing for a mass offensive to take the town back from insurgents. "It is becoming hell up there," said Mohammed Fahdawi, a 42-year-old contractor who packed up his four children and fled to Baghdad two weeks ago. "It is unbelievable: The Americans seem to have brought all of their troops to Ramadi."
The fearful city is haunted by memories of the battles that raged in nearby Fallouja in 2004. Determined to purge that city of insurgents, U.S. Marine and Army units lined up to the north and pushed south through the heart of Fallouja. They cleared one neighborhood after another in intense, constant street fighting. By the time the sweep was over, the town was largely destroyed.
Military officials have insisted that the deployment of the additional troops did not presage a Fallouja-style offensive. "Moving this force will allow tribal leaders and government officials to go about the very difficult task of taking back their towns from the criminal elements," said Army Maj. J. Todd Breasseale, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad.
#2
"Fears of an imminent offensive by the U.S. troops massed around the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi intensified Saturday, with residents pouring out of the city to escape what they describe as a mounting humanitarian crisis."
That's the intro. It's an "insurgent" stronghold, Megan and Louise. Your words. It will eventually be cleaned out, just like the others. Thanks to the support shown to the "insurgents", they hang out there. Cause => Effect. Grab the handrail and hang on.
#3
"other families have decided to wait for their children to finish final examinations at school before escaping."
Wow! Those schools must really be tough and the exams must really be important!! In the U.S. we let the kids out because the air conditioning can't keep it cool enough inside.
#4
"As chieftains, we have been helpless," said Sheik Ali Abed Alaa, a tribal leader in Al Anbar. "The most we can do is condemn and denounce, but who is there to listen to us?"
not much of a Chief then, are you, asshat? Falluja, the sequel, and you get the possession of all rubble left behind. When you allow AQ and foreign fighters to own your town, you have no claim to sovereignty
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/11/2006 12:47 Comments ||
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#5
One gets the feeling the battle is the "final exam".
#7
Article: Thousands of families remain trapped in the city, those who have fled say. Many can't afford to leave or lack transportation, whereas other families have decided to wait for their children to finish final examinations at school before escaping. "The situation is catastrophic. No services, no electricity, no water," said Sheik Fassal Gaood, the former governor of Al Anbar province, whose capital is Ramadi.
It can't be that catastrophic if they're not leaving. Catastrophic is - if they don't leave, they'll be killed. These guys are such drama queens.
#8
I suspect that this will be a thorough door-to-door prior to permanently garrisoning a major Iraqi unit there.
Then they will set up using the (old style) Mexican method of having two policemen and two soldiers on every block. The soldiers protect the street and the police spend the whole day going from door-to-door talking with residents of that block, until they know everybody there like family.
Any stranger who even walks down the sidewalk has a minimum of four sets of eyes on him. Really puts a crimp in troublemaking.
#9
LA Slimes thinks the Iraqi and U.S. of A. Troops are bad guys causing this all to happen. Like the Paleos the LAT have no concept of cause and effect.
#10
Thousands of families remain trapped in the city, those who have fled say. Many can't afford to leave or lack transportation... Hell, it sounds like New Orleans in hurricane season.
#13
The fearful city is haunted by memories of the battles that raged in nearby Fallouja in 2004. Determined to purge that city of insurgents, U.S. Marine and Army units lined up to the north and pushed south through the heart of Fallouja. They cleared one neighborhood after another in intense, constant street fighting. By the time the sweep was over, the town was largely destroyed.
As it should be. The second battle of Falluja was meant to serve as an exmple - of what happens when a community capitulates to the Islamofascist hard boyz. "If you lie down with dogs, expect to get fleas."
The officials in Ramadi are crying and whining - and will end up picking through the PEACEFUL ruins of their provincial capital - probably wishing that they had been more aggressive in expelling the bad guys before the shit hit the fan. Their city is ruins - all because the city leaders figured that the safest course was to allow the bad guys to have free reign in their city.
Well - bad idea. Now, Ramadi gets to be this years "poster city" to demonstrate to the other urban centers of Iraq what happens to cities that harbor major concentrations of bad guys.
Somewhere out there is the "likely 2007 poster city" that should be paying attention - and making its calculations about the wisdom of giving safe haven to the insurgents.
Eventually - after enough cities get rubbled - the bad guys may find the welcome mats disappearing as they approach new havens.
Wiping out a violent insurgeny is never pretty and antiseptic. It's brutal. The only other consderation here is that the insurgents are so extremist that "peace" under their regime isn't much better than outright warfare - so, bitter as the "medicine" is, the patient is going to endure it, and eventually pull through.
I certainly hope that the US and Irai military forces are painstakingly establishing a VERY effective cordon around this city - to ensure that once the end game is played out, there is nowhere for the cockroaches to escape to. I suspect that coalition forces must be getting pretty good at this sort of operation.
A gunbattle erupted as British soldiers responded to a fire in a vegetable market in southern Iraq on Sunday, leaving two people dead and a 7-year-old boy injured, police said.
Gunmen started the fire around 7 a.m. in south Amarah, 180 miles southeast of Baghdad, to lure in coalition forces, Police Capt. Hussein Karim said. The shooting erupted between the gunmen and British soldiers who responded.
In northern Baghdad, a roadside bomb struck an Iraqi police car near a mosque, killing one officer and wounding three others. Drive-by gunmen nearby fired on a civilian car in a separate incident, killing the driver.
Police in west Baghdad said they found the body of a security guard who worked for the Health Ministry. The man appeared to have been shot in the head after being tortured.
#3
I'm more struck by the sheer insanity of the Arab and, especially, the European public, who give terrorist atrocities a moral pass and save their revulsion for American and Allied troops who risk their own lives to protect the civilians. The Islamofascists have their ignorance, zealotry, brainwashing, and xenophobia as a partial explanation. Europeans, who have been saved by America from first Nazi totalitarianism and then Communist totalitarianism and think of themselves as humanists, have no excuse for their pretense that the violence would just go away if America returned to passivity.
#4
who give terrorist atrocities a moral pass and save their revulsion for American and Allied troops
I'm sure that getting their asses kicked twice (WW 1-WW 2) has much to do with the resentment against Americans.
Problem is that they don't seem to realize that we were there not to conquer, but to free, that seems to puzzle the hell out of the Europeons. They just don't get it, that their being free saves us a huge amount of trouble in the future, so it's for OUR benefit that they are able to defend themselves, and not come whining to us again, and again, and again.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/11/2006 17:54 Comments ||
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#5
I think it's because they only ever have gone to war to conquer or fight against being conquered, Redneck Jim. Kind of like a bully, however reformed, they can't conceive of any other reason for violence.
The US military has intensified its offensive against al-Qaida in Iraq, staging 38 more raids based on information uncovered during the hunt that led to the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in an air strike.
The fresh raids came as al-Qaida issued urgent appeals for money and volunteers to fight American forces, after al-Zarqawi's death left it without a clearly recognised leader. The al-Qaida appeals suggested al-Zarqawi's network may be feeling the heat from the US raids, which have extended beyond Hibhib to include a series of locations in and around Baghdad.
In a video news conference relayed from Baghdad to the Pentagon, spokesman Major General William Caldwell displayed a suicide belt, explosives and Iraqi army uniforms uncovered in 17 raids conducted in the immediate aftermath of al-Zarqawi's death. The raids targeted people whom the US had been monitoring in the build-up to the strike, which was delayed until al-Zarqawi had been pinpointed because they were giving "indicators at different points in time as to where Zarqawi might be," he said.
In the next two days another 38 raids were conducted, some directly related to information obtained in the earlier raids, General Caldwell said.
Two official statements posted on the website used by al-Qaida urged Muslims to volunteer to fight in Iraq, saying al-Zarqawi's death should remind them of their "duty" to fight infidels. "Iraq is the front line of defence for Islam and Muslims. So, don't miss this opportunity to join the Mujahidin and the martyrs," said one signed by Abdullah Rasheed al-Baghdadi, who succeeded al-Zarqawi earlier this year as head of the Mujahidin Shura Council, the umbrella group that includes al-Qaida.
"This is a compulsory duty for all Muslims in these days," it said. Another statement in the name of Hamil al-Rashash (Holder of the Rifle) was desperate. "Help, help! Support, support!" it said. "Assistance, assistance! Where is your money? And where are your men? Wake up before it gets too late and before all the curses of Earth and heaven fall upon you."
The military has portrayed the strike against al-Zarqawi as the culmination of weeks of intelligence gathering from multiple sources, including an al-Qaida informant. General Caldwell said it was unlikely anyone would receive the $33 million reward offered for al-Zarqawi. After action pics show the remnants of one of the bomb casings. Very thin metal, making the JDAMs concussion bombs. Z's insides had probably been turned into jelly.
#1
Seems the apologists, admirers, and talking-head "experts" should take a look at al-Baghdadi's pleas. He sounds a bit desperate - making them sound exceptionally stupid.
#3
A lot of the outcome will depend on what kind of "leader" Zarqawi was. If he promoted the best in the organization, then the network could reform itself fairly quickly. If he was conducting purges of anyone who he found remotely threatening and was surrounding himself with yes men and dullards, then the network may recover slowly or never at all.
#4
My thoughts are along the lines of calculating how many IED's, how mny kidnappings, how many other violent attacks will NOT be carried out in the coming week - because the perps were pre-empted - how many coalition and Irqui Army and police forces will not becme casualties.
Any success that yields intel that thwarts a significant number of future attacks ultimately produces a cascade of pre-emption. The more good guys AREN'T whacked, the more there are to chase down the miscreants.
The best defense is indeed a good offense. Hunt the bastards down here they live.
What we need are more "honey pot" fake jihdi websites, encouraging all jihadi recruits to "report for duty" at some isolated location - which we can then obliterate.
#5
Keep after it. Don't let up on these jihad turds. Stress the fact we are winning keep pounding it home. Our Warriors are winning and are winners. Jihadis are losers and failures.
#9
17 raids, but how many dead? We don't need more prisoners and seizing supplies is a temporary paliative. We need to be killing Zarq's friends, just as we killed him.
#13
More Prisoners mean more dead Jihadis. Got to keep a few alive to root out the others. There are still plenty of "insurgents" terroists to be dealt with. AQ in Iraq is not the only terrorists group.
#15
#10 my thougts exactly,
"Poor Zarq is dead
Poor Zarq is dead
He's lookin' oh so peaceful and serene and serene)
He's all laid out to rest
With his hands acrost his chest
His fingernails have never been so clean
He loved the birds of the forest
And the beasts of the fields
He loved the mice and the vermin in the barn
And he treated the rats like equals (which was right)
Poor Zarq is dead
Poor Zarq is dead
His friends are weepin' wail for miles around
The daisies in the dell
Will give out a different smell
Because poor Zarq is underneath the ground
Poor Zarqis dead
A candle lights his head
He's lookin' oh so purty and so nice
He looks like he's asleep
It's a shame that he won't keep
But it's summer and we're runnin' out a' ice"
Posted by: bruce ||
06/11/2006 18:51 Comments ||
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Long but very important; it's one of the first stories we've seen that tells the Marine side of events. This is a big push-back to the MSM lede the past month.
A sergeant who led a squad of Marines during the incident in Haditha, Iraq, that left as many as 24 civilians dead said his unit did not intentionally target any civilians, followed military rules of engagement and never tried to cover up the shootings, his lawyer said. Bang! End of story.
Staff Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich, 26, told his attorney that several civilians were killed Nov. 19 when his squad went after insurgents who were firing at them from inside a house. The Marine said there was no vengeful massacre, but he described a house-to-house hunt that went tragically awry in the middle of a chaotic battlefield. "It will forever be his position that everything they did that day was following their rules of engagement and to protect the lives of Marines," said Neal A. Puckett, who represents Wuterich for the ongoing investigations into the incident. "He's really upset that people believe that he and his Marines are even capable of intentionally killing innocent civilians."
Wuterich's detailed version of what happened in the Haditha neighborhood is the first public account from a Marine who was on the ground when the shootings occurred. As the leader of 1st Squad, 3rd Platoon, Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, Wuterich was in the convoy of Humvees that was hit by a roadside bomb. He entered the shithole hovel house from which the Marines believed enemy fire was originating and made the initial radio reports to his company headquarters about what was going on, Puckett said.
Wuterich's version contradicts that of the lying Arabs Iraqis, who described a massacre of men, women and children after a bomb killed a Marine. Haditha residents have said that innocent civilians were executed, that some begged for their lives before being shot and that children and ponies! were killed indiscriminately.
Two attorneys for other Marines involved in the incident said Wuterich's account is consistent with those they had heard from their clients.
Kevin B. McDermott, who is representing Capt. Lucas M. McConnell, the Kilo Company commander, said Wuterich and other Marines informed McConnell on the day of the incident that at least 15 civilians were killed by "a mixture of small-arms fire and shrapnel as result of grenades" after the Marines responded to an attack from a house.
McConnell was relieved of his command in April for "failure to investigate," according to McDermott. But the lawyer said McConnell told him that he reported the high number of civilian deaths to the 3rd Battalion executive officer that afternoon and that within a few days the battalion's intelligence chief gave a PowerPoint presentation to Marine commanders.
Gary Myers, a civilian attorney for a Marine who was with Wuterich that day, said the Marines followed standard operating procedures when they "cleared" the houses, using fragmentation grenades and gunshots to respond to an immediate threat. "I can confirm that that version of events is consistent with our position on this case," Myers said. "What this case comes down to is: What were the rules of engagement, and were they followed?"
On Nov. 19, Wuterich's squad left its headquarters at Firm Base Sparta in Haditha at 7 a.m. on a daily mission to drop off Iraqi army troops at a nearby checkpoint. "It was like any other day, we just had to watch out for IEDs and any other activity that looked suspicious," said Marine Cpl. James Crossan, 21, in an interview from his home in North Bend, Wash. He was riding in the four-Humvee convoy as it turned left onto Chestnut Road, heading west at 7:15 a.m.
Shortly after the turn, a bomb buried in the road ripped through the last Humvee. The blast instantly killed the driver, Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas, 20. Crossan, who was in the front passenger seat, remembered hearing someone yell, "Get some morphine." Then he passed out.
Wuterich, driving the third Humvee in the line, immediately stopped the convoy and got out, Puckett said. A corporal with the unit leaned over to Wuterich and said he saw the shots coming from a specific house, and after a discussion with the platoon leader, they decided to clear the house, according to Wuterich's account. "There's a threat, and they went to eliminate the threat," Puckett said.
A four-man team of Marines, including Wuterich, kicked in the door and found a series of empty rooms, noticing quickly that there was one room with a closed door and people rustling behind it, Puckett said. They then kicked in that door, tossed a fragmentation grenade into the room, and one Marine fired a series of "clearing rounds" through the dust and smoke, killing several people, Puckett said. The Marine who fired the rounds -- Puckett said it was not Wuterich -- had experience clearing numerous shithole hovels houses on a deployment in Fallujah, where Marines had open season on Jihadis aggressive rules of engagement.
Although it was almost immediately apparent to the Marines that the people dead in the room were men, women and children -- most likely civilians -- they also noticed a back door ajar and believed that insurgents had slipped through to a house nearby, Puckett said. The Marines stealthily moved to the second house, kicking in the door, killing one man inside and then using a frag grenade and more gunfire to clear another room full of people, he said.
"When I was in Iraq, the Anbar-wide ROEs [rules of engagement] did not say we had the authority to knock down any door, throw in a hand grenade and kill everyone." Still, he said, if someone in the houses in Haditha was shooting at them, the Marines' response may have been within procedure. "If they felt they took fire from that house, then that may be authorized." DUH!
A Marine who served near Haditha in November said it was not unusual for Marines to respond to attacks "running and gunning" and that it was standard to spray rooms with gunfire when threatened. "It may be a bad tactic, but it works," he said. "It keeps you alive."
After going through the houses, Wuterich moved a small group of Marines to the roof of a nearby building to watch the area, Puckett said. At one point, they saw a man in all-black clothing running from one of the houses they had searched. The Marines killed him, Puckett said. Note to self: If in Iraq, do NOT wear black.
They then noticed another man in all black scurrying between two houses across the street. When they went to investigate, the Marines found a courtyard filled with women and children and asked where the man was, Puckett said. When the civilians pointed to a third house, the Marines attempted to enter and found a man with an AK-47 inside, flanked by three other men; the first Marine to enter tried to fire his weapon, but it jammed, Puckett said. The Marines then killed those four men. Enjoy the raisins!
The unit stayed at the scene for hours, helping to collect bodies as photos were taken. Wuterich, who remains on duty in California, where he lives with his wife and two young daughters, told Puckett that for months no one questioned his actions. End of story. They were in combat in the worst shithole in Iraq and were unwilling to risk un-necessary casualties and followed the RoE. The problem is with the MSM who has been hoping, even praying for a new My Lai. Sorry guys. Ain't. Gonna. Happen. See ya!
#2
Unfortunately, despite the airing of the facts, the loonies won't let this go.
Posted by: Captain America ||
06/11/2006 8:08 Comments ||
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#3
I was reading our version of the cat-litter box liner today. The media wire service stories do a great dis-service to our marines and soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan--it is more than annoying. The mainstream media aid and abet the enemy--but then I'm preaching to the choir here--just had to rant some.
The New York Times has lost all credibility. The idea that it is the nation's Newspaper of Record is risible.
The WaPo may sense an opportunity to eclipse the NYT as the national newspaper. I've noticed for a while that their editorial page is still lefty, but not Kos-like. Now is their reporting catching up? Go for it.
#8
Great info. We have to make damn certain that neither Wuterich or McConnell takes the fall on this. Any troop under fire has the right to do any damn thing to protect himelf and his buddies lives. Period. If anyone thinks that's not the case, then get your dumb ass out there, right up front , and we'll see how you handle it. As long as these asswipes hide among women and children, these civilians will suffer mightily and needlesly die.
#12
I don't think that's likely to happen, badanov. After all, it's only journalistic ethics to chase down a lead and turn it into a story. At best, they'll see themselves as having gone to press slightly prematurely.
Iraqi police in Kirkuk said on Saturday that its forces arrested two terrorist networks in north and south of the city. A police source said an Iraqi force accompanied by a multi-national force arrested seven suspects belonging to "Mujahideen Shura Council" during a raid in Kirkuk. The source added the suspects could have connection to a sniper who is responsible for the killing of many people in the city. Multi-National force have put out a reward of USD 2500 for anyone who give information on the sniper.
The source also added Iraqi police forces arrested five other suspects allegedly from the Ansar Al-Islam group, among them a woman. The arrest occurred during a raid inspection south of Kirkuk, source said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/11/2006 00:00 ||
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The U.S. military pressed its offensive against al-Qaida in Iraq on Friday, staging an additional 39 raids based mostly on information uncovered during the hunt that led to the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in a U.S. airstrike. The raids came as al-Qaida issued urgent appeals for money and volunteers to fight U.S. forces, a day after the news of al-Zarqawi's death left the organization without a clearly identifiable leader.
The al-Qaida appeals suggested al-Zarqawi's network may be feeling heat from the U.S. raids, which have extended beyond Hibhib to include locations in and around Baghdad. In a video news conference relayed from Baghdad to the Pentagon, spokesman Maj. Gen William Caldwell displayed a suicide belt, explosives and Iraqi army uniforms uncovered in 17 raids conducted in the immediate aftermath of al-Zarqawi's death. The raids targeted people the U.S. had been monitoring in the buildup to the strike, which was delayed until al-Zarqawi had been pinpointed because they were giving "indicators at different points in time as to where Zarqawi might be," he said. An additional 39 raids were conducted Friday, some of them directly related to information obtained in the earlier raids, Caldwell said. Caldwell said one targeted individual, whom he did not identify, was killed in the latest raids and at least 25 were captured.
Two official statements posted on the Web site used by al-Qaida in Iraq urged Muslims to volunteer to fight in Iraq, saying al-Zarqawi's death should remind them of their "duty" to fight infidels. "Iraq is the front line of defense for Islam and Muslims. So, don't miss this opportunity to join the Mujahedeen and the martyrs," said one signed by Abdullah Rasheed al-Baghdadi, who succeeded al-Zarqawi this year as head of the Mujahedeen Shura Council, the umbrella group that includes al-Qaida in Iraq. "This is a compulsory duty for all Muslims in these days," it said.
Another statement in the name of Hamil al-Rashash (Holder of the Rifle) struck a more desperate note. "Help, help! Support, support!" it said addressing the Islamic ummah, or community. "Assistance, assistance! Where is your money? And where are your men? There is no excuse for you. America won't benefit you. History won't be merciful to you. Wake up before it gets too late and before all the curses of Earth and heaven fall upon you."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/11/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Another statement in the name of Hamil al-Rashash (Holder of the Rifle) struck a more desperate note. "Help, help! Support, support!" it said addressing the Islamic ummah, or community. "Assistance, assistance! Where is your money? And where are your men?
This reminds me of the last scene in Duck Soup with Groucho (as Rufus Firefly) saying "Send reinforcements! And if you can't send reinforcements, send two more women!"
#3
Send mullahs, guns and money
The shit has hit the fan
Hey AlQ guys, lighten up. When I'm worried about something I ask myself, "What's the worst that can happen?" OK, for you maybe that's not such a good idea, since the worst that can happen involves a couple of angry Kurdish guys with blowtorches, but you see where I'm going. And remember: after you're dead, the New York Times will print long articles about how you weren't really important after all. So try to keep things in perspective, and remember, statistically speaking it's unlikely that the guy next to you is the one who ratted out Zarkman. Although he certainly had the opportunity and the motive.
Posted by: Matt ||
06/11/2006 8:22 Comments ||
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Insurgents signaled the fight is still on after Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's death, posting an Internet video Saturday showing the beheading of three alleged Shiite death squad members in revenge for killing Sunnis. The video as grisly as any the al-Qaida in Iraq leader issued was clearly designed to quash hopes that the Sunni-dominated insurgency might change tactics by ending attacks on Shiite civilians and institutions, especially the police.
Fellow Sunni insurgent groups sent condolences for al-Zarqawi in Internet messages Saturday and warned Sunnis not to cooperate with the Iraqi government, an apparent call for unity three days after U.S. forces killed the terror leader in a targeted airstrike. The condolence statements came from the al-Qaida-linked Ansar al-Sunnah the group that posted the beheading video on a militant Web site and the head of the Mujahedeen Shura Council, an umbrella organization of five insurgent groups, including al-Qaida in Iraq, that al-Zarqawi helped found last year.
"Iraq is the front defense line for Islam and Muslims, so don't fail to follow the path of the mujahedeen (holy warriors), the caravan of martyrs and the faithful," said Abdullah bin Rashid al-Baghdadi, the Shura Council's head. He vowed: "As for you the slaves of the cross (coalition forces), the grandsons of Ibn al-Alqami (Shiites), and every infidel of the Sunnis, we can't wait to sever your necks with our swords."
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
06/11/2006 00:00 ||
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An Iraqi man who was one of the first people on the scene after an airstrike that led to the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi told Associated Press Television News that he saw American troops beating a man who had a beard like the al-Qaida leader. The witness said he saw the man lying on the ground, badly wounded but still alive. He said U.S. troops arriving on the scene wrapped the man's head in an Arab robe and began beating him.
Then his lips fell off.
His account cannot be independently verified.
Won't be, either. Certainly doesn't jibe with the other accounts we've seen...
Perhaps they were trying CPR as he bled out? That could surely look like a beating to an ignorant passerby...or to a canary paid by the other side to spread disinformation.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/11/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Did he say why Zarkboy wasn't wearing the sucide vest he promised to wear when US troops were around?
#12
I doubt any civilain was allowed within 1000 Yards of the site and anyone trying to get there would have been detained and questioned very vigorously. But stuff like this makes no sense to a "journalist"
#13
I wish this were true, and I wish I was there doing it.
Posted by: Captain America ||
06/11/2006 8:09 Comments ||
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#14
The overpressure would eventually kill him anyway. However, you'd have to understand what overpressure was and that is another example of the mind dead MSM. Feelings more important than facts.
#16
My understanding is that this was a remote farmhouse in the middle of an orchard of some kind. If this guy got there before the Iraqi police, I'd be inclined to haul him off to Gitmo for some long, long discussions. And no, I don't care whether the Zman was finally terminated by 1,000 lbs of explosives or a beating with the debris. Sharia sanctions stoning for bad behavior anyway.
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/11/2006 13:37 Comments ||
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#21
Speaking of AP shenanigans, our local fishwrap published an AP article about "500 deaths" in Afghanistan in the last month. Nowhere in the article does it explain that 400+ of those were Taliban. Lying by omission is still lying.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
06/11/2006 16:13 Comments ||
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#22
They can always, always find an unnamed Arab to say anything outrageous. A society ruled by fantastic, loony rumor-mongering.
#25
Even the Leftperts this weekend had to admit that Zark would at minima been severely wounded iff not blown to smithereenies/atomized, wid the latter more realistic given the substandard house that appears to had been the target - read, MORE BOOM-BOOM THAN SAFE BRICK.
Personally, I think it's wonderful that he survived the blast, to die in pain. Only think better would have been a lingering death by sepsis.
From a sucking chest wound ...
Master terrorist Abu Musab Zarqawi mumbled a few words as he lay mortally wounded on a stretcher amid the rubble of his bombed-out meeting place, made a feeble attempt to get up and then died surrounded by U.S. Army soldiers.
"Rosebud!"
The military gave this updated account yesterday of the final moments of Osama bin Laden's anointed "Prince of al Qaeda in Iraq" after first reporting that Zarqawi died instantly from the blunt force of two 500-pound bombs.
Instantly would have been okay, but shortly thereafter, in pain, is much better...
The twin blasts at 6:15 p.m. Wednesday destroyed the house near Baqouba, Iraq, northeast of Baghdad, where the Sunni Muslim was meeting to plan more of the suicide bombings that have killed hundreds of innocent Iraqis, mostly Shi'ites, in an attempt to spark a civil war. Killed Wednesday, in addition to Zarqawi, were his spiritual leader, Sheik Abdel Rahman, who unwittingly led trackers to the safe house, and four others, including three women. The military has not identified the four.
No children? No puppies? No kittens? No baby ducks? Not even a fluffy bunny or two?
Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, briefing Pentagon reporters via a teleconference from Baghdad, said there is no indication Zarqawi was shot or harmed by Iraqi police or by U.S. soldiers. Zarqawi may have escaped instant death because he was outside the building or in a concrete-protected area that did not take a direct hit.
"Curly-toed slippers, don't fail me Aaaaaiiiiieee!"
Gen. Caldwell gave this account: "Zarqawi in fact did survive the air strike. ... The first people on the scene were the Iraqi police. They had found him and put him into some kind of gurney stretcher kind of thing, and then American -- coalition -- forces arrived immediately thereafter on site. They immediately went to the person in the stretcher, were able to start to identify him by some distinguishing marks on his body. They had some kind of visual facial recognition. ... Zarqawi attempted to sort of turn away off the stretcher. Everybody resecured him back onto the stretcher, but he died almost immediately thereafter from the wounds he had received from the air strike. ... He mumbled a little something, but it was indistinguishable and it was very short." Troops moved Zarqawi's body to a morgue, where his face was cleansed of blood so it could be photographed and the picture presented to the public as proof that the second-most-wanted man in the world, next to bin Laden, was dead.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/11/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Types of Injuries from primary injuries, blast effects from overpressure.
Severe respiratory insufficiency cause by a blast effect.
Immediate death. Death from an explosion can be instantaneous and result from massive pulmonary hemorrhage accompanied by rapid suffocation. Other causes of immediate death from an explosion include pulmonary air embolism,
Because of the blast wave and its damage, the patient dies in spite of immediate and high-quality care. EMTs and paramedics should consider death in any victim of an explosion under the following conditions:
Primary blast injuries. Primary blast injuries result from the blast wave created by high-order explosions will depend on several factors, including
1) Peak pressure of the initial blast wave.
2) Duration of overpressurization.
3) Medium in which the explosion occurs. (water, atmosphere)
4) Distance from the source of the explosion.
Primary blast injuries commonly affect the ear, respiratory system, and gastrointestinal system. The brain and cardiovascular system may also be affected (Table 1). In the ear, the eardrum typically ruptures, especially when the overpressure exceeds 5 psi. With extremely high overpressures, the eardrum may be destroyed and the ossicles (bony structures) can be dislocated or fractured. At lower pressures, the eardrum may bleed without rupture. Signs and symptoms of eardrum rupture include pain, loss of hearing, and tinnitus. Blood may be present in the ear canal.
The respiratory system can sustain significant injury typically as a result of supersonic pressure caused by the blast wave. Overpressurization at 40 psi will cause pulmonary injury such as pneumothorax, air embolism, interstitial emphysema, pneuomediastinum, and subcutaneous emphysema (Figure 3). Pulmonary contusion is most common and generally found on the side of the body that was closest to the explosion. A patient who survives the initial explosion may develop "blast lung" immediately, but signs and symptoms can be delayed up to 48 hours after the event.
Blast injury to the gastrointestinal tract should be suspected in anyone exposed to an explosion with signs and symptoms that include abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, hematemesis, rectal pain, testicular pain, unexplained hypovolemia, and any finding suggesting an acute abdomen.11,12 The colon is the most common site of hemorrhage and perforation. The perforated bowel may be immediately evident or may perforate after a delay of up to 48 hours. Solid organ laceration and testicular rupture are also seen with primary blast injury, but are less frequent and often associated with large blast loads.
Primary blast injury can cause concussion or traumatic brain injury, although this finding is difficult to differentiate from a concussion because of impact with another object.
Myocardial contusion accompanied by signs of dysrhythmia or hypotension may develop.
#4
I said it a few days ago,
"You live by the Bomb, You die by the Bomb"
Good riddance.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/11/2006 10:57 Comments ||
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#5
"Killed Wednesday, in addition to Zarqawi, were his spiritual leader, Sheik Abdel Rahman, who unwittingly led trackers to the safe house, and four others, including three women. "
Jordan detained four mainstream Islamist deputies for allegedly voicing sympathy for the slain al Qaeda leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, officials said on Sunday.
The four deputies were questioned by the prosecutor general and detained over statements they gave in support of Jordanian militant Zarqawi, killed on Wednesday in a joint U.S.-Iraqi operation helped by tip-offs from Jordanian intelligence.
"They were held for questioning by the prosecutor general and detained," government spokesperson Nasser Joudeh told Reuters without elaborating.
One of the deputies, Mohammed Abu Faris, had attended prayers for Zarqawi's soul during Friday prayers in the militant's birthplace in the industrial city of Zarqa, 25 km (16 miles) northeast of Amman, and called him a "martyr," witnesses said.
The three other deputies in custody had visited his family in Zarqa and offered their condolences.
Zarqawi's family received hundreds of wellwishers who flocked to a tent set up near their home in the working class city to pay their respects.
Born Ahmed Fadhil al-Khalayleh to a notable family that is part of the biggest tribe in Jordan, Zarqawi grew up in the dusty streets of Zarqa, where unemployment is high and Islamic militancy widespread.
Jailed by Jordanian authorities for several years in the early 1990s, Zarqawi went on to fight U.S. forces in Iraq, where Osama bin Laden named him the "prince" of al Qaeda in Iraq.
"These deputies should have parliamentary immunity and this shows how much the authorities have regard for democracy," Zaki Bani Rusheid, the head of the Islamic Action Front (IAF), the largest political bloc in the 110-member parliament whom the four deputies are members.
Jordan brands Zarqawi as a terrorist and says he is the mastermind behind the triple hotel bombings that killed 60 civilians last November.
An Islamic Jihad terrorist died around noon Sunday following an explosion in his house, apparently a "work accident." Islamic Jihad blamed Israel for the death, but Palestinian Authority (PA) firefighters said that the blast originated in his house.
In the IDF aerial strike on a rocket launching gang in northern Gaza, the death toll rose to two. Other terrorists were injured.
#3
Probably cooking up explosives on a gas stove with a wooden spoon, again. God forbid, the jihadis might have to use the evil Zionist super secret technology they call an "electric hotplate". With haram features like thermostats and magnetic stir rods.
#4
I always got a kick out of those cute little magnetic stirring rods. My lab partner, though... he kept blowing things up by accident -- I think that's why he ended up getting a PhD in chemistry. ;-)
Hamas militants in Gaza seriously wounded an Israeli in a rocket attack and an Israeli helicopter airstrike killed two Hamas militants in the northern Gaza Strip as violence escalated on Sunday. The Israeli was hit as he walked near a school in the town of Sderot, close to the Gaza border, a hospital official said.
Hours later, an Israeli helicopter gunship fired a missile at Hamas militants in the northern Gaza Strip, killing two and wounding three, Palestinian medics said. The Israeli military said it launched the strike after the militants fired a rocket at Israel.
The killing of the Hamas militants was the first by Israel since the ruling Islamist group ended a 16-month truce on Friday after seven Palestinians were killed in a Gaza beach attack that Hamas blamed on the Jewish state.
NABLUS, West Bank (Reuters) - Palestinian gunmen on Sunday released a U.S. student they had seized hours earlier as he was on a sightseeing visit to the conflict-battered city of Nablus in the occupied West Bank. Benjamin Bright-Fishbein, an undergraduate student of Brown University, was freed into the hands of Palestinian security forces who then handed him over to the Israelis outside Nablus, a militant stronghold during a Palestinian uprising.
Looking drawn after the ordeal, Bright-Fishbein told Reuters that his lone visit to Nablus had been "a mistake, a big mistake."
Ya think?
The militants got Bright-Fishbein to make a videotaped statement in which he said he would be killed if Israel did not release Palestinian prisoners. The faction of al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades that grabbed him had said he was an Israeli.
Bright-Fishbein recounted how he had been abducted by a gunman called Ahmed who bumped into him in a coffee shop where the student, who speaks Arabic, had been smoking a water pipe. "He (Ahmed) had a pistol, a grenade and a machinegun. I didn't want to be in his company, but it seemed I didn't have any choice at that point," Bright-Fishbein said.
What on earth was he doing there in the first place?
For the videotaped statement, Bright-Fishbein was dressed in the skullcap of a religious Jew. Looking into the camera he said "If the prisoners are not released, they will execute me."
Reports that a hostage had been seized sparked a frantic manhunt by Israeli troops and Palestinian security forces to try to track down the kidnappers. "In the end, I got the impression that they were in over their heads and they were going crazy talking on the phone. They clearly had no idea what they were doing. They were not organized," he said.
Sounds like the Paleos all right.
Gunmen have frequently seized foreigners in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to press for jobs or to make political demands. Hostages have usually been released unharmed after a few hours.
Bright-Fishbein said that he visited Nablus by himself because he had heard it was an interesting place, but could find nobody else to come with him after finishing a study semester in Jerusalem.
"Benny, are you nuts? Come to Tel-Aviv, the girls are plenty there!"
"But I hear Nablus is an interesting place."
"So's hell, but you don't want to visit there either. Come to Tel Aviv!"
"Umm, you guys go ahead, I'll catch up with you later."
Palestinian security sources said an investigation had begun into who carried out the kidnapping.
We wait with baited breath as to the outcome ...
Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades are part of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement, but they are splintered into numerous groups that often have little coordination with each other.
Love the Reuters understatement.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/11/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Those nice Paleo boyz couldn't help themselves 'cos they're all splintered an' all. No chance that this is part of a coordinated state-sponsored attack on a sovereign nation, or even the proper duty of a believing Muslim.
The PA security forces subsequently handed the American over to the Israel Defense Forces. Defense officials believe once the militants discovered the person was indeed an American citizen, they took steps to end the matter quickly.
"Apparently, the kidnappers did not want to end up like Zarqawi," a defense official said.
#6
Fishbein, who spent time in Cairo and is currently studying at Jerusalem's Hebrew University, went to Nablus as a tourist, Roagbe said. Fishbein wears a traditional Jewish skullcap, but does not speak Hebrew, he added..
Strange sort of American Jew. Studying at a Hebrew university but doesn't speak Hewbrew. Does speak Arabic. Spends time in Egypt. Strange mix. Strange story.
Decided to visit a rat's nest at war? What's he studying?
#8
Going to Cairo doesn't imply the young man spoke Arabic -- he could have signed up with a tour that had English-speaking guides. He is clearly, however, nearly terminally stupid. As has been said before, being Jewish doesn't guarantee you're smart. I've Jewish friends who tacked a visit to Cairo and a Nile cruise onto their visit to Israel, back in the 1980s before things got crazy; I don't think they'd be so foolish as to do such a thing now.
Palestinian Preventative Security Forces in Gaza on Saturday called on Hamas to stop the "crazy war" against it hours after one of its officers was killed in Gaza. A statement by the force said, a number of armed Hamas militants in a white Mitsubishi tried to kidnap Bassem Qutb, a 40 year old major in the Preventative Security Force. When he successfully resisted they shot him in the head and chest.
The Preventative Force said they call on rational Hamas members to stop this "crazy war" as Israeli fire targeting Palestinians by way of air, land, and sea is indiscriminate. The statement warned, the force has practiced self-control after the abduction of two of its members on their way to Friday prayer, firing missiles at the forces' general headquarters, a campaign meant to turn Palestinians against the force, and the killing of Bassem Qutb in cold blood. If this tolerance is misunderstood by Hamas as weakness, the statement continued, then Hamas is wrong. It warned, the force will take an unwavering stand against Hamas at any costs.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/11/2006 00:00 ||
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Israeli army announced Saturday that two rockets were launched from northern Gaza strip and exploded in southern Israeli areas. A military spokesman did not report any causalities and it did not specify the name of the Israeli area. On the other hand, the source admitted that a number of 15 rockets were launched from the Gaza strip in retaliation to the Israeli naval attack on Gaza which killed seven Palestinians.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/11/2006 00:00 ||
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Following the explosion Friday that killed seven Palestinian civilians on a Gaza beach, Defense Minister Amir Peretz ordered the suspension of all artillery fire pending the completion of an investigation into the cause of the blast. The order remains in effect.
A Palestinian was injured on Saturday after a bomb exploded in Al-Shabora refugee camp in Rafah city south of the Gaza strip. Palestinian medical sources stated that the Palestinian was severely injured and was transferred to a hospital in Rafah city.
Meanwhile, another Palestinian died Saturday from injuries sustained in the fights between Palestinian General Security members and the newly-established force of the Hamas-led interior ministry on May 25th.
A local person working for the government was killed by unidentified gunmen in Thai southern province of Narathiwat on Sunday, local police said.
A military source told Xinhua that the Muslim man in his 20s who worked as a government informant was killed by suspected Islamic insurgents outside a mosque in the town of Narathiwat.
Local police identified the victim as Anuwat Dormare, who worked for the regional military command. He was dead at the scene after an unknown number of gunmen driving motorcycles shot to him.
Three days ago, police in southern Yala province clashed with an group of armed militants, the Police said, adding that the ten minutes gunfire exchange killed an important militant.
At least 1,200 people have been killed since unrest broke out in January 2004 in the mainly Muslim provinces along Thailand's border with Malaysia. The violence was blamed on a complex web of Islamic separatists, local corruption and organized crime.
A top Tamil rebel commander and three other guerrillas were killed in a mine blast in northwestern Sri Lanka Saturday as surging violence threatens to drag the island nation back to full-scale civil war. Pro-rebel Web site TamilNet reported that Lt Col Mahenthi was killed by an anti-personnel mine activated by government military in a rebel-held region of Mannar district 220 kilometers (135 miles) north of the capital, Colombo. Military spokesman Brig Prasad Samarasinghe denied army involvement saying that the soldiers do not enter rebel-controlled areas in accordance with a 2002 cease-fire agreement. Mahenthi was the second high profile rebel to be killed since May.
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An 80-year-old resident of Orumieh, Ayvaz Sayadi, was wounded by the suppressive forces of the mullahs regime in the uprising by the people of that city last week. He later died in hospital.
The Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) has taken written assurances from Mr. Sayadis family not to publicize his death and limit attendance at his funeral to only close relatives.
Raids on peoples homes by the regimes suppressive forces continue in Orumieh and other cities in Irans Azeri provinces.
The regimes brutal MOIS agents severely torture the detainees to extract false confessions that they had been seduced and directed by foreigners.
The Iranian Resistance urgently calls on all human rights organizations to condemn the medieval mullahs regime and take urgent measures to save the lives of those arrested.
Lebanon said on Saturday it had arrested a man who was a key mastermind in a car bombing that killed a senior official of a violent Palestinian militant group and who has links to Israeli intelligence.
Israel has dismissed accusations from the militant group Islamic Jihad that it was behind the May 26 attack which killed senior official Mahmoud Majzoub and his brother Nidal, also a member of Islamic Jihad, in the southern city of Sidon.
"Military intelligence was able to arrest one of the key people involved in the bombing that led to the martyrdom of the Majzoub brothers," the army said in a statement. "Documents and equipment linked with the crime were seized with him, and he has links to the intelligence of the Israeli enemy." A senior security official told Reuters the suspect's links with Israel were "100 percent" confirmed but declined to elaborate. There was no comment from Israeli officials.
Two days after the explosion, rockets fired from southern Lebanon into northern Israel wounded an Israel Defense Forces soldier, prompting Israel to launch air strikes against Syrian-backed Palestinian and Lebanese guerrillas. Islamic Jihad denied it had claimed responsibility for the rocket attack into northern Israel although it had earlier vowed revenge for the Majzoub killings.
DAMASCUS - Syrian authorities have arrested at least 14 Islamists in connection with a foiled terror plot in Damascus earlier this month, a rights group said on Saturday. Syrian authorities on Friday arrested more than 14 young Islamists from the village of Erbein, suspected of links to the operation aimed at targeting radio and television stations on June 2, said Ammar Al Qorabi, president of the National Organization for Human Rights in Syria. In his statement, Qorabi asked authorities to act according to the law.
That'll happen. In Syria. Yup.
A second rights group, the Syrian Human Rights Organization, said the authorities had arrested around a dozen people from Erbein and taken them to an unknown destination. It also asked Syrian authorities to be responsible and not resort to methods which would violate human rights as it attempts to protect the security of its citizens.
"Please don't kill them!"
Syria said it had foiled a terror operation in Damascus after security forces killed four militants and captured four others holding out in buildings next to state radio and television. The clashes, which took place close to Umayyad Square in the heart of the Syrian capital, were the first near a public building in Damascus since a standoff between the authorities and the banned Muslim Brotherhood in the 1980s.
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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.
KANDAHAR (AIP): Two Taliban were killed and six other arrested in joint operations carried out by coalition forces and Afghan National Army in Zabul province on Saturday, officials said. Gen. Rahmatullah Raufi, Commander of 205 Corps of ANA, while giving details to Afghan Islamic Press said, Coalition forces and ANA carried out joint operations against Taliban in Shahjowi district of Zabul province and killed two Taliban and arrested other three with arms and ammunitions. Three Taliban were also arrested in an operation carried out in Nobahar district of Zabul province.
KABUL (AIP): Taliban extremists burned a school in the Khas Uruzgan District, Uruzgan Province on June 3, says a press release issued by coalition forces on Saturday. The Wardag Kat Primary School located within Wardag Village was set on fire by several identified Taliban extremists under the cover of darkness, resulting in extensive damage to the roof and the interior of the building. Enemy extremists sporadically fired small arms fire into the village as well as a nearby village across the valley, while the school was burning that night. Residents of Wardag Village did not report any injuries to Afghan or Coalition forces.
The security of 
One Russian soldier was killed and another injured when their patrol vehicle hit a roadside bomb in Chechnya, Interfax news agency said Saturday. Another soldier was injured in a bomb explosion in the same region, the agency said. Seperatly, Russian authorities said they have arrested three individuals in Chechnya. One of the detainees is close to Chechen separatist leader Shamil Basayev. They did not disclose the detainee's identity.
Three Guantanamo Bay detainees hanged themselves with nooses made of sheets and clothes, the commander of the detention center said Saturday. They were the first reported deaths among the hundreds of men held at the base in Cuba some of them for up to 4 1/2 years and without charge. Two men from Saudi Arabia and one from Yemen were found "unresponsive and not breathing in their cells" early Saturday, according to a statement from the Miami-based U.S. Southern Command, which has jurisdiction over the prison. Attempts were made to revive the prisoners, but they failed. 
Pakistan Army helicopters bombed a militants hideout in a village in North Waziristan in a pre-dawn raid on Saturday, killing up to 20 militants. The air strike occurred at around 3:30am in Darbalooki village, Dattakhel tehsil, some 35 kilometres west of Miranshah. Four helicopters were used in the attack. The bodies of the insurgents could not be found. The killed militants were not identified, and there were conflicting reports about whether they were local or foreigners. A tribal source told Daily Times the helicopters used in the raid were American. 
The US military has intensified its offensive against al-Qaida in Iraq, staging 38 more raids based on information uncovered during the hunt that led to the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in an air strike.
Iraqi police in Kirkuk said on Saturday that its forces arrested two terrorist networks in north and south of the city. A police source said an Iraqi force accompanied by a multi-national force arrested seven suspects belonging to "
The U.S. military pressed its offensive against al-Qaida in Iraq on Friday, staging an additional 39 raids based mostly on information uncovered during the hunt that led to the death of 
Insurgents signaled the fight is still on after 
An Iraqi man who was one of the first people on the scene after an airstrike that led to the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi told Associated Press Television News that he saw American troops beating a man who had a beard like the al-Qaida leader. The witness said he saw the man lying on the ground, badly wounded but still alive. He said U.S. troops arriving on the scene wrapped the man's head in an Arab robe and began beating him. 
Master terrorist 
NABLUS, West Bank (Reuters) - Palestinian gunmen on Sunday released a U.S. student they had seized hours earlier as he was on a sightseeing visit to the conflict-battered city of Nablus in the occupied West Bank. Benjamin Bright-Fishbein, an undergraduate student of Brown University, was freed into the hands of Palestinian security forces who then handed him over to the Israelis outside Nablus, a militant stronghold during a Palestinian uprising.
Palestinian Preventative Security Forces in Gaza on Saturday called on Hamas to stop the "crazy war" against it hours after one of its officers was killed in Gaza. A statement by the force said, a number of armed Hamas militants in a white Mitsubishi tried to kidnap Bassem Qutb, a 40 year old major in the Preventative Security Force. When he successfully resisted they shot him in the head and chest.
Israeli army announced Saturday that two rockets were launched from northern Gaza strip and exploded in southern Israeli areas. A military spokesman did not report any causalities and it did not specify the name of the Israeli area. On the other hand, the source admitted that a number of 15 rockets were launched from the Gaza strip in retaliation to the Israeli naval attack on Gaza which killed seven Palestinians.
A Palestinian was injured on Saturday after a bomb exploded in Al-Shabora refugee camp in Rafah city south of the Gaza strip. Palestinian medical sources stated that the Palestinian was severely injured and was transferred to a hospital in Rafah city.
A top Tamil rebel commander and three other guerrillas were killed in a mine blast in northwestern Sri Lanka Saturday as surging violence threatens to drag the island nation back to full-scale civil war. Pro-rebel Web site TamilNet reported that Lt Col Mahenthi was killed by an anti-personnel mine activated by government military in a rebel-held region of Mannar district 220 kilometers (135 miles) north of the capital, Colombo. Military spokesman Brig Prasad Samarasinghe denied army involvement saying that the soldiers do not enter rebel-controlled areas in accordance with a 2002 cease-fire agreement. Mahenthi was the second high profile rebel to be killed since May.
Lebanon said on Saturday it had arrested a man who was a key mastermind in a car bombing that killed a senior official of a violent Palestinian militant group and who has links to Israeli intelligence.
DAMASCUS - Syrian authorities have arrested at least 14 Islamists in connection with a foiled terror plot in Damascus earlier this month, a rights group said on Saturday. Syrian authorities on Friday arrested more than 14 young Islamists from the village of Erbein, suspected of links to the operation aimed at targeting radio and television stations on June 2, said Ammar Al Qorabi, president of the National Organization for Human Rights in Syria. In his statement, Qorabi asked authorities to act according to the law.
